Narrative

Narrative is defines as, “a chain of events in a cause and effect relationship occurring in time.” For my A2 Media Studies coursework my group and I created a music video based on a song by The Jane Bradfords. The narrative of our music video reflects the genre of music that it is in, alternative, opening up with an abstract view of seemly random lights and faces. This gives the audience a very restricted narration and only offers minimal information regarding the plot of the music video. However, as the video continues the narrative becomes less restricted, opening the audience to the plot between the two characters and the story that the music video is portraying.
This abstract video at the beginning was shot with the characters interacting with the camera, for example, smiling and laughing while looking at the camera, holding it and passing it back and forth between the two characters. This was to create the “home movie” effect to set up the running narrative for the video, comparing memory to reality.
Throughout our music video, we maintain awareness of Barthes’ codes, which are woven into any narrative.
We decided to create this abstract look during the editing process to symbolise how memories are very different from reality, as the colours are always brighter in our minds than in reality, which is especially the case for these characters as the video continues.
Opening the music video up to this abstract video play to Barthes’s first code, The Hermeneutic code. This creates a sense of mystery as the audience does not know fully what they are seeing, however the effect of the blurred lights dulls down after a few seconds be enter into Barthes’ second code by introducing the audience to the two characters, this is referred to as Semantic code.
After the opening scenes, we begin to give the audience some subjective character identification, allowing them access to what these two characters see and do, such as the male character avoiding talking to the female character and ignoring her when playing his games console. Allowing this subjective character identification lays the foundation for what will develop in the plot later in the music video. In showing this we have gone against Tzvetan Todorov’s theory of narrative, as without stating the equilibrium be have shown a disruption of the equilibrium by the male lead acting this way towards the female lead.
This subjective character identification is further explored as the music video goes on, as the audience see the two main characters fight and the private moments of the male character after this confrontation. This confrontation in the doorway of the females characters house allow for us to build tension and this plays towards the Proairetic code. This refers to any other action or event that indicates something else is going to happen, and which hence gets the audience guessing as to what will happen next. We also use objective character identification by projecting the characters memories on the wall behind him, adding to the flow of the narrative and gives the audience further explanation on what the character is thinking. This is known as a recognition that there has been a disruption, in the theory of narrative. Also, this is another example of Barthes’s narrative theory, as this scene of the memories being projected onto the wall allow for the semantic meanings to become broader and allows for a deeper set of meanings. This is known as the Symbolic code.
Next we show the character writing a letter to the loved one, and in the theory of narrative is known as an attempt to repair the disruption. We then use modular narrative to reflect on our story. Anachronic narrative was used to show the flashbacks of what the male character has went through during the story and we reverse these to symbolise that the male character wants to go back to the way things where.
The music video ends with the female character reading the letter that was left for her, but she throws it away and reaches for the box of her possessions. This goes against Tzvetan Todorov’s theory of narrative as this is not a reinstatement of the equilibrium. For this last scene by using Enigma code, i feel we added to the overall narrative, as we don’t answer the question that the audience will have on their mind, whether the couple got back together or not.
We end the music video with a projection of the memory of our characters and how they interacted with each other, this typically would have been at the beginning of the video as it states the equilibrium however we felt it provided a powerful tool to show the contrast between then and now.
There where some major narrative decisions made during the pre production stage such as deciding to tell the story from the point of view of two relatively young characters. We made this decision as we found during our research that The Jane Bradfords main listener ship was teens to mid-twentys, therefore we decided in the thoughts that the audience may relate better to younger characters. We also decided before shooting not to feature a band in it. Typically in music videos, they would have both a story to the music video but also cut away to the band playing the song as if live, however we felt that we had a big story to tell and just over four minutes to tell it and so if we where to include it we felt it would have taken away from the main story we where trying to tell and take away from the overall narrative of the music video.
Ultimately, the narrative for our A2 piece was the common story of love and loss, however, we have a running narrative of the contrast between memory and reality which is clearly defined at the end of our music video.

How has consumer behaviour and audience response transformed by online media, in relation to the past?

Looking back 15 years, there where three main places the average consumer accessed their media. Television, physical CD and newspapers. 15 Years later, in 2010, there is only one place to go to access all of these mediums and that’s the personal computer.

Consumers behavior in recent times would have been every hard to predict just a few years ago as they have been transformed by such breathtaking technologies as the Internet.

Two industries that have been greatly affected by this transformation in audience behavior are the television and music industries. Both of these have been faced by the drop in the use of traditional forms of purchasing and accessing their content and the trouble of online piracy that comes hand in hand with all forms of online media.

The change in how media is consumed has affected all industries, spending on 'traditional' media such as newspapers and magazines have dropped almost 20% in the last six months. This is in contrast to the report that came out, indicating that hours spent consuming digital media increased even more, from 6 hours 14 minutes to 7 hours 28 minutes. This gives a slight indication to how audiences are changing the ways in which they used to enjoy their media, and the print industry is no different to the key industries that I have highlighted above, Music and Television.

The music industry has been seeing some very dramatic changes over the past number of years. Just as the cassette defeated the LP, the CD defeated the cassette, now mp3 is king and this has lead to a number of changes within the industry. With the introduction of paid downloads, consumers no longer have to buy a full album if they were only interested in two or three songs. This new freedom for consumers has dramatically changed the music sales landscape.

During our AS course, we got to meet one of the founders of a local record label. Andrew Ferris is the co-founder of Small Town America. Small Town America (STA) is an independent record label based in London and Derry. He had some very interesting figures on how he has seen first had the changes in consumer behavior. “STA Income 2006-07 - Physical 92% Digital 8%

Income 2007-08 - Physical 76% vs. 24%

Income 2008-09 - Physical 66% vs. 34%”

These figures are by no means unique as Andrew explained how this was an industry norm.

This year for making our music video, we met front man Deci Gallen from the band The Jane Bradford’s and he had some interesting points on how he has seen his own audience behavior change. He explains how, “ Few or no bands today will consider solely releasing on digital or physical CD, it is important to cover both bases.”

With the ever increasing figures of digital download fast approaching taking over physical sales of CDs, bands must conform to the consumers response to the online media and the new methods of doing things in this digital age.

In November 2005, the record for the best-selling digital single in the United States was held by Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl", which has sold over one million downloads, making it the first song to achieve platinum download status. Not even 5 years later and now bands are solely releasing their tracks for digital distribution, cutting out physical copies all together.

The music industry has seen another change in the behavior of their audience, piracy is now worse than it has been at any other time in the music industry. With reports such as, “Around the world in 2006, an estimated five billion songs, equating to 38,000 years in music were swapped on peer-to-peer websites, while 509 million were purchased online.”

Piracy has cause a massive crisis in all industries. In our discussions with Deci Gallen, we gain a greater insight to how this particular impact of online media affects the artists, “The Jane Bradford’s album was available to illegally download before it went on release which was unfortunate as we’re struggling financially to put out the record. Its very hard not to feel like people are stealing from you as there is no guarantee that you’ll make back the money you put into producing it.”

The consumption of media is always changing, and even in recent months we can see massive changes in the way in which people are consuming their media, in particular their music.

People are now less concerned with “owning their music” and more so access to it. Music streaming is now becoming more and more popular. Consumers will pay a monthly subscription fee, which allows them unlimited plays to a massive online library. Sites such as Last.fm, we7 and Spotify are at the forefront of these music-streaming sites. A new term has been born, calling the services that these sites offer a, “freemium,” service. This basically describes anyone’s access to these sites, but in order to avoid adds or limited plays, they have the option to pay for the subscription fee.

These services are what are known as, “in the cloud,” technologies. This refers to the content having no fixed point, such as on a hard drive, allowing consumers to be able to access it form any computer with a working Internet connection. I feel that in the future there will be a greater push for this, allowing the audience access to their content from anywhere.

The second industry that has changed dramatically due to the way in which consumers have transformed the way, in which they consume their media, is television.

Historically, when television broadcast the show that you wanted to watch, the viewer had to organize themselves around the specific time the program is being shown live, or be lucky enough to catch it on repeat.

However, in just a couple of years, the television industry has changed dramatically to how audiences have transformed how they consume the traditional media product.

Traditionally television the only way in which people could see the programs that they enjoy, now the stream of content is coming from more and more sources everyday.

Audiences are now turning turning towards the internet to watch their favorite television programs. Sites such as BBC iPlayer, Sky Player and ITV Player have been introduced allowing large media institutions a new means of distributing their content and the customer an ever more popular method of consuming the content.

The way in which the power is now in the consumers hands, their ability to choose when and where they watch their content, has been described brilliantly by (INSERT JOURNALIST HERE), “it's not a lecture anymore, it's a conversation.” I feel this depicts how the past looks in relation to the television industry in the past, how there was only one way to watch your content and that was to huddle around one TV in your house and fight over the remote, where as now, any laptop, most modern game consoles and even now portable media players are able to access this content where ever they please, now its a conversation, where the audience has a say which is an amazing transformation from just a few years ago.

Large media institutions are now beginning to hear the message and see how their audience has evolved in the digital age and therefore they must transform themselves in order to keep this new audience.

BBC iPlayer has an estimated 5.2 million regular viewers of the site. This gives an indication to how popular online streaming is becoming and what a massive potential audience it is. With networks such as MTV teaming up with Gorilliz in broadcasting a date of their live show, not only across their 68 channels, but also streaming it simultaneously online. This is similar to how even YouTube, arguably one of the original sites to offer streaming video, has been changing. Not only does Youtube now have deals with some international broadcasters, such as its deal with Channel 4, but has just recently began offering streaming of live Indian Premier League cricket. Two examples of how large institution are adapting themselves to fit their audiences behavior.

The music industry is not alone in its trouble with internet piracy. P2p sharing is very high, using software such as BitTorrent and LimeWire, consumers are able to download their favorite shows for free, hours after its been originally aired. This has lead to more and more media producers to, in order to combat their trend in illegal downloading, to offer their content for free on the internet with the possibility for a 45 second ad at the beginning of the video. This not only combats the illegal downloading of content but also allows for ad revenue as well as people to view the content in high quality, just as it was originally aired.

Based on the points raised, i feel that consumer behavior has changed so dramatically in such a shot period of time, and this change would not have been possible without online media. I feel that if businesses which to remain profitable and successful, they will have to adapt to the changing demands of their audience. This massive change has given the power to the consumers and allowed them to be in more control of their media and content than ever before.

What difference has the Internet made to media production and consumption?

Over the years, we can greater see the impact of the Internet and technologies on the media and in particular, media production and consumption.

For my A2 project, I created a music video featuring a local band, The Jane Bradford’s, while working closely with them we learned a lot about how the Internet has affected how the produce their music.

Deci Gallen, the front man for the band, made it very clear to our group if the Internet was not what it was today, he would not have been able to make the album that they had. One of the point he raised was, “Releasing the Jane Bradfords debut album wouldn’t have been financially viable about ten years ago,” he went on to say that, “Advances in computers and software mean that it is now totally possible, and indeed acceptable, to produce an album or single at home.”

This last point is something that is becoming ever more popular option. Artists and Musicians are now producing their media at home due to technology becoming cheaper. An example of this is Deci worked out, “It cost £1000 for this (mixing) but had I needed to record instruments instead of doing it in my home studio it would’ve cost closer to £5000.”

A band can now record a single on software such as GarageBand, mix it and then publish to the Internet on such websites as My Space or online stores such as iTunes.

A major impact of the Internet on production is that no longer are artists and bands limited to the talent and facilities in the local area as Deco Gallen found, “The beauty of the digital world is that I was able to outsource this (the record) to a guy called Carl Saff in Chicago. A man that I will probably never meet played a vital roll in the record’s release.” This is in massive contrast to how things where done just a few years ago, thanks to the Internet.

During our AS course, we got to meet the co-founder, Andrew Ferris, of Small Town America (STA). Small Town America is an independent record label based in London. One of the more interesting aspects of STA and what stands them out in comparison to the big four is that in many ways they carry D.I.Y. ethics in their work and as all institutions in this modern industry they must embrace technology like the Internet if they want to survive, an example of this is what co founder of the label, said to our class in our exchange, “For every stumbling block you imagine there is a free solution already on the Internet.”

Andrew Ferris produced figures which show how the Internet has been effecting sales of Small Town America and so how it is effecting consumption,

“Income 2006-07: Physical 92% Digital 8%

Income 2007-2008 Physical 76% vs. 24%

Income 2008-2009 Physical 66% vs. 34%”

The growth in the Internet has effected production drastically, as the public move from physical purchase to digital download. This has effected production in a number of ways, Deco Gallen speaks on behalf of the Jane Bradfords, “The big difference with modern music is that you can finish a track and have it available online for millions to hear that same day.”

Deci wasn’t naive to the fact that that Internet not only has a wealth of advantages but recognizes that it has its drawbacks. “The Jane Bradford’s album was available to illegally download before it went on release which was unfortunate as we’re struggling financially to put out the record. Its very hard not to feel like people are stealing from you as there is no guarantee that you’ll make back the money you out in producing it.” This is a major problem, piracy, not just in the music industry but spanning across the whole of the media world. Deci referred to this battle between the advantages of developing technologies such as the Internet and the disadvantages such as piracy, “The major downside of the technological advantages and the Internet is that despite offering you a larger audience and larger market, it also takes away a large amount of your revenue by piracy. It feels like being handed a sword going into a fist fight and then realizing the other guy has a sword as well - in other words with every new opportunity there is a downside that levels the playing field.”

Consumption has changed not just in music but also in a number of media institutions, such as television. With more homes than ever having high speed broadband at their disposal it has in recent years become more popular to stream media, especially video online.

Evolving from sites like YouTube, organizations such as the BBC are now streaming high quality content on their own sites, such as BBC player. People are now no longer limited to consuming the shows and programs when there are first aired, they now can control what they watch, when they want to watch them. This has inspired the term “On-Demand”. This has caused a massive change on the traditional way in which we consumed television.

It is not just television that has been changed by the Internet, in terms of how it’s been consumed. Why drive to the local video shop when you can log on to innovative sites such as Netfilx, stream and download your favorite and most recent movies. Instead of people having to wait in line at the cinema, sites like this can stream high quality video over the Internet and right into the home of movie lovers everywhere.

I believe that the Internet has changed production and consumption of Media forever and on the most part I feel for the better. The barrier between Artist and consumer has been reduced, bringing these to groups closer than they have ever been. Although there are problems with this new, powerful tool, I feel they are outweighed by its ability to help small artists penetrate large media intuitions and well as allow consumers to easier consume the media that they love.

Rewrote to include Consumption.

Digital Economy Bill

The Digital Economy Bill was drafted in order to "ensure a world-class digital future following the Digital Britain White Paper, published on 16 June 2009, setting out the Government's ambition to secure the UK's position as one of the world's leading digital knowledge economies and take forward a new, more active industrial policy to maximize the benefits from the digital revolution".

In your opinion, and in light of the recent media backlash, how has the original philosophy behind the Bill changed and why do you think this is?

Copyright, the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same. This word “Copyright,” is what this Digital Economy Bill basically boils down to.

Upon first hearing about the bill and listening to some of the main developers of this bill, such as Stephan Timms and Peter Mandelson, there are some very good points being made when it comes to the current state that the British and global entertainment industries epically in the current sate of the economy.

The original philosophy of this controversial bill was to try and catapult Briton into being on of the digital leaders of the world as well as creating digital businesses of the 21st century, all while trying to turn around the trend in an industry that is ever becoming, less and less profitable as broadband gets faster, hard-drives get smaller and the sense of guilt for illegally attaining music, film or games is becoming non existent.

One of the reasons I feel for such a drastic and controversial bill could be because of the economy and the recent disastrous recession that has crashed through all industries and businesses. Briton has a creative sector, providing jobs for more than 1.8 million people in the UK. With unemployment booming and illegal file sharing persisting, it could be said that this bill has been introduced to try and bring much more money back into the economy. This could be seen as quite a fair feeling for Map’s such as Mandelson and Timms and is easily justifiable, however there are some aspects to this bill that seem to try to go beyond putting a stop to file sharing.

If this bill was to pass, this would allow any future secretary of state sweeping powers to take action against any user who is accused of illegal file sharing, with out any proof, possibly disconnection, al this with out setting foot in court, giving it the nickname, “The copyright protection and punishment bill”. This seems to not only be a skewed version of the original philosophy of the bill, but in also many ways a breach of democracy.

Another reason why I feel that this bill is not a step forward for the economy into the 21st century and the digital age, is that it seems that people like Mandelson are trying to keep Briton in the, “Analogue Age”. MP’s are doing this by trying to protect the particular outdated business models used in music and film. I feel that only so much should be done for this over paid, over priced industry.

It was Darwin who said, “Survival of the fittest,” this attitude should be taken towards business, businesses who can not adapt to their surroundings, as in piracy and an ever online demand for content, should not be allowed to go on. Businesses such as Spotify and Last.fm, offering music for free, on demand and also making a profit at the end of the year, should be what businesses in these industries should be striving towards. These kinds of businesses that revolve around what the customer wants are a step forward for the digital economy however if this bill was to allow outdated businesses to continue, it would further delay Britons potential to be a beacon to the rest of the world on how businesses are to handle this new digital age.

There are two main aspects to this bill which I feel go completely against its original philosophy. One aspect is the unprecedented power that it would give to ministers over the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. This part of the bill, known as clause 17, would allow parts of the act to be changed, without having to be presented in the House of Lords. This could potentially lead to the monitoring of users data where no illegal activity of any nature is taking place. This is a massive breach of privacy and gives the government a window into the home of almost every household in the UK.

The second main reason why i feel that this bill has alliterative motives, that separate to the philosophy of the original bill is mainly to do with the far from realistic target to implement the more drastic measures of this bill if piracy does not fall by 70%. As mentioned before, one of these more drastic measures in the bill is the ability for anyone to be punished for illegal file sharing without evidence and without a court hearing and this i feel will be violently abused by big media businesses. Studies have shown that illegal downloads have become 150 times more profitable for businesses than legal sales and once broken down this bill seems to become less about protecting copyright and more about punishing the avid music listener.

On average, every case that alleged file sharers pay out is around €450. Of this money, 80% goes to the anti-piracy outfits, in this case the government, and therefore 20% to the copyright holders. This works out as for a €0.60 illegal download would end up giving these big music companies €90 per infringement. This is one of the reasons why i feel the music industry is especially happy with this new bill as well as the government who can make €360 per offense without having to provide evidence that the accused is guilty.

Based on the points raised i feel that this bill has completely transformed from the philosophy of trying to put Briton ahead of the rest of the world in terms of its digital economy, to a bill that could cripple its digital growth and potentially damage its growth.

Inspiration

It is great to be back in media studies for another year of blog posting, filming and banter.

Here are a few music videos that i feel may inspire our final piece when coming to film.

The Makings of an Introduction

Over the years the music industry has changed. Changed so much that the whole model that the industry previously lived by has been transformed into an entirely new structure. The main reason, i feel, for this change is the development of technology and how this has been implemented and how this has effected people, artists, audiences, customers and institutions.

The main development, that i feel, has changed all facets of the music industry, is the internet and specifically web 2.0. The phrase web 2.0 is used in describing the new attitude towards operating and existing on the net, allowing anyone to create material and distribute is in a new found democratic environment, the internet.

This new found environment brings wealths of advantages to audiences, consumers and artists. However, with these advantages comes major problems that are facing the industry, such as piracy, copyrighting difficulties and illegal downloads. 

As frontman for local indie unsigned band The Jane Bradfords, Decky Gallen said, 

“The major downside of the technological advances and the internet is that despite offering you a larger audience and larger market, it also takes away a large amount of your revenue by piracy.  It feels like being handed a sword going into a fist fight and then realizing the other guy has a sword as well – in other words with every new opportunity there is a downside that levels the playing field.”

Due to this level playing field and democratic atmosphere the traditional patterns of interaction between institutions and it's audience has changed dramatically. The audience is vastly different to the wide eyed consumer of yesteryear, idling a band from afar. The modern audience is much more hungrier for information and more importantly, content.

The audience must now feel in contact with the band and their music. To create this connection, institutions must converge over all the media resources at their finger tips, ranging from having a profile on MySpace for the band for the audience to comment to a video diary of the band touring on YouTube. It is this connection between the music and the audience is the new found method that institutions are using to, 

“Get the tenner from your pocket,” 

as put by one of the co founders of local independent record label Small Town America.

CD Baby Site Review

"CD Baby is a little online record store that sells albums by independent musicians."

CD Baby is a free resource used by STA in order for them to sell and distribute music online.

This allowed a small record label to introduce themselves to one of the largest market of consumers of music in the world.

"Cool thing: in a regular record deal or distribution deal, musicians only make $1-$2 per album, if they ever get paid by their label. When selling through CD Baby, musicians make $6-$12 per album, and get paid weekly."

STA's policy is that artists should get paid fairly for what they produce, a policy shared with CD Baby. This resource has allowed the band and the label, not only a much larger market than what they would have had before but also, a much larger revenue stream as they are getting much more money every time an artist on STA sells an album using this site.

With facts like,

"5,410,892 CDs sold online to customers

• $110,070,509 paid directly to the artists"

We can see the opportunities that this site has allowed for STA and as a free resource, its value is phenomenal.

Institutions and Audiences

Class Notes 7th May '09

“Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate understanding of contemporary institutional processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange/exhibition at a local, national or international level as well as British audiences’ reception and consumption.”

We have decided to study the record label Smalltown America. (http://www.smalltownamerica.co.uk/)

Smalltown America is an independent record label based in London.

Smalltown America has in many ways carries D.I.Y. ethics towards all aspects of their industry.

Some examples that we discussed in class were of the band “ The Young Playthings.”

Examples of how in which STA and The Young Playthings used “D.I.Y. ethics” can be seen from within their first single.

The “Love U Like That” single was made by cutting and sticking an ad that they placed in the newspaper, which tied in with the name of the single. This was an example of how STA are using added value and a personal approach in order to gain an emotional connection between the artist and the audience, in oder for them to have the mindset that they are not just purchasing a piece of music, but a piece of art.

The use of the advertisement can be seen as a viral approach in order to publicise the band.

Viral marketing is a form of marketing in which news of a product or service is passed from person to person rather as a virus is transmitted. The media message may be passed on simply by word of mouth or more popularly/ effectively by internet or as in the case of STA and The Young Playthings, an ad in the news paper.

Of this particular single, 50 copies where sold, it took £76 to make compared to a gross profit of £200.

The next single “She’s A Rebel”  was also given the same kind of treatment with much added value going into the CD with it’s interesting parcel / present display.

In the case of this single, 120 where sold (more than doubling the previous single) with the cost of producing increasing to £154 and a massive jump in gross profit to £480.

The third and final single, called “Fit for Me” had an interesting addition to the single. In this case each CD sold was given a free temporary tattoo. This was used as a very good, very original marketing tool. Another example of how they added value and an example of another viral campaign.

This single saw their numbers ever increasing with 150 copies sold, a production cost of £246 and a gross profit of £600.

This final single brought the total net profits to £806, however this does not include the exposure that all the single releases, gigs and press that The Young Playthings received.

Next they went on to produce the D.I.Y album. With the revenue generated from the first three singles they set their recording budget at £800. They spent £150 on mastering the tracks, mastering is a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master); the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). £150 for artwork, which includes an hour to turn the images into CD artwork.

£496.15 for 500 CD’s, including a 4 page booklet inside the common jewel case. £100 on promo mail outs, making sure that their music was heard by the right people. 300 where sent to shops at £6.15, generating £1845. 100 sold online at £10, generating £1000

Approximately the total costs of this process was £1500 and the total profit was £1000.

The process ended with a full album “Who Invented Love?” which allowed The Young Playthings to go on a full UK Summer Tour playing in big name concerts and artists. With a sales expectancy of 1200 and a profit base of 6000 with which The Young Playthings will use to record and market the 2nd album.

Marketing was a very large process of the success of The Young Playthings and STA as a whole.

STA made sure that their songs, sent out using the promotional mail outs, on the radio by the right people and on stations where the potential audience of the band would listen to. They also made sure to display posters at places that the band would be expected to play and where their expected audience was to be. T-shirts and other merchandise was given out to fans of the band, this was to give the bad a larger audience and encourage word of mouth advertising.

STA encourage the idea of “being bespoke.” This is, the encouragement of being original and individual to all the other music and products out there. The fact that STA is an independent record label allows them to be different and much more engaging. 

An example of how STA was helping their artist’s to being bespoke is with a band called Oppenheimer.

In an Oppenheimer album, STA created a CD that which was designed in such a way that the listener had to rip it open in oder to get at the CD inside. This subliminally gave the message of a present inside the packaging as we have seen before with The Young Playthings previous single but also came with another advantage. As the cover was so beautifully done, had crafted with amazing art, the customer was forces to buy two of the same album. One in order for them to listen to but also one in which that they could keep as a collectors item. This simple design and originality allowed a relatively unknown band such as Oppenheimer to boost sales dramatically compared to how they could have fared with a simple CD jewel case.

Remembering that STA have a keen eye on D.I.Y. they believe that there are many free solutions on the internet to a lot of the problems that may arise.

One site in particular that we will be looking in to more is “CD Baby.”

CD Baby allowed a small record label with little money to spare, free US sales and distribution. This allowed STA a chance to enter into one of the largest music markets on the planet.

Another site that we discussed is Myspace. It is a social networking site that has become very focused on networking between bands, artists and DJ’s. This is breaking down the barrier between themselves and the audience allowing for a much better connection. This connection is the new found power in order to “get the tenner out of your pocket” i.e. to generate sales.

This site allows the public to see what they are doing using their blog, listen to some of their music e.g. their new single, back catalogue, remixes all by using the online player built into the site. It allows them to see the bands schedule with the upcoming gigs menu, see pictures of the artist and past gigs, embedded videos of the gigs or music videos.

Arguably the best feature with this site in breaking down the barrier is the comments option. This allows the audience to leave a comment on the page of the artist that they may read and reply to.

However this site in resent years faces much spam due to this feature, it again is a free resource that STA encourages their artists to use.

An example of how this kind of social network marketing can benefit bands comes from another STA band, “And So I Watch You From Afar”. This allowed a relatively unknown local band to fill a massive venue like Mandela Hall and gain a massive group of hardcore fans, all from a free resource such as Myspace.

Evaluation of Preliminary Exercise

For part of our course work we where asked to do a preliminary exercise showing continuity.

Continuity task involves filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse and shot and the 180 degree rule.

I feel that when i first heard the task i felt that it would have been very easy and that no problems would arise, it was only until we started serious planning for the exercise that my group and i ran into difficulties.

Firstly we had to do some research on how we should approach the exercise, this involved creating a story board. To do this we used a piece of free software online “Comic Life” that allowed us to drag and drop images of the locations we where thinking about using into a story board template. I could start to see the group dynamic being formed with myself beginning to take charge of the group and trying to move us forward as fast as we could work in order to start filming as soon as we could which in hindsight was probably not a good idea and a possible better final piece could have been made with more preparation in the post production part of the preliminary exercise.

After finding our location and drawing out our story board, we started to think about possible characters in our exercise, however we where limited to whoever had a free period during our class time which we hit walls with when we appointed Oisin and Niall as our actors.

With our dialogue, we produced a rough guide in which the actors could edit to whatever they feel comfortable with. This was definitely the wrong way to go about this. This causes confusion and the actors waste time thinking of what they are going to say which increases the time in which we are filming.

When it came to the first day of filming, things seemed to be going well. The scene was set right, all the actors where there and we had all the cameras and tripods that we needed. The filming proceeded to go very well, or so we thought, until we got back to the class room to upload the footage to our macs, for this we used iMovie 08.

We noticed that some of the clips did not sync with the rest of the filming after we edited it down. We went back to the raw footage to realize that we did not film enough takes of the same scene. This meant that we had to do a second day of filming.

When the second day of filming came about we ran into problems again, this time with the actors. Once of the actors, Niall, that we used for the previous video would not be able to get out of class for when we had the time to do the filming, this meant that we had to find a new actor to play the Niall's role, which also meant that the entire video that we shot from the first day of filming could not be used, except the shots with just Oisin’s character. Excepting this we found our new actor to feature in our video, David.

Trying not to waste too much time of our second day’s filming we got straight to work with the filming, making sure to get the shots but also to get a number to takes in order to pick the best one back in the classroom when it came to editing it together.

When the filming process was over we came back again to the classroom to begin the editing process, as we did before. My group and i where fairly happy with the piece after we edited it together, however when we asked our teacher to tell us his thoughts he pointed out some of the thing we where over looking.

In this piece we over looked some vital pieces that are essential in the final piece such as sound, continuity and the 180 degree rule. The had a lot of shots where the actors where mumbling and covering their mouths when they where talking, we noticed this when we where filming but we didn't realize how much this effected the sound when we played the sound through the camera’s playback feature, this would involve us as a group being stricter with the actors in order to keep them doing the right thing and not to fall into these mistakes in future filming.
Also we got a bit carried away with our camera angles which confused the audience, when we where trying to film a simple piece while keeping the 180 degree rule.
Continuity was also a thing that we would need to keep a tight hold of in the next day filming and make sure that the characters are sitting in the exact same position from shot to shot and that all props such as the books in front of Oisin would have to be in the same spot from shot to shot.

On the final day of filming we felt fully prepared for the task at hand. The main problem that arose on this day of filming was the camera equipment. The cameras where not charged for fully and so when it came to filming we where limited to placing the camera near plugs. Luckily we only needed a few shots so this did not cause us a great deal of difficulty. We came back to the class room and edited the final piece that you can see at the end of this blog post.

There are some things that i would consider keeping in mind when it come to the actual coursework.

One thing that i will learn to keep in mind is sound. We realized that sound is a very important aspect in a piece of video like this especially when it is in terms of continuity. The sound has to be clear and edited in at the right time n order to seem realistically placed and also in order not to confuse the audience watching the piece. Also for the next piece we may consider using external microphone in order to capture the audio better such as the dialogue as the microphones on the camera may not be up to power when trying to produce our next piece of work.

Another aspect of filming that i will have learnt from in the next piece is lighting. It is so important to get the lighting right from scene to scene. We noticed this when trying to edit scenes together from multiple days and we couldn't because it looked too different because of the difference in the weather and the lighting of the location from day to day. We may try and feature all the filming on one day or have an internal location so if any more filming has to be taken place it does not have to depend on the weather.

One more point that i have learnt from the entire filming process is in relation to the groups work as a whole and the allocation of tasks. I feel that in order for a video like this to be successful each member of the group has to be pulling his or her own weight. On this point the allocate of tasks is very important as i found that at some point during this exercise, all of the members of the group where working on a single aspect of the process, such as the story board, when we could have had only one person working on that while the others getting on with other work such as looking at locations or scripting the video. Learning from this will allow me to save time in the future and be possibly better organized and produce a better final piece.
Some of the thing i would have changed with my final piece would include such things as a better script as i found myself being distracted by the actors improvisations when i could have been focusing on the filming and keeping in line with the guidelines of the task. Another aspect that i would have changed is a long time spent on pre production as a whole as i felt that we may have rushed into the filming aspect of it under prepared which possibly explains why we had so many errors.

Over all i feel that our final piece has turned out quite strong and keeps in line with the task we were given at the beginning.

Spooks Analysis

From the extract that we have been shown there are some clear defining moments throughout that are used to represent the divides of social status and class.

We are launched straight into a scene where two characters are having an in depth discussion. During this conversation we can see the main type of shots coming through, this would include, two shots and over the shoulder shots. A point of view shot was also included to show exactly what the characters where discussing , he gun on the computer screen. These are frequently used during a two character conversation to connect the audience with two speakers. The angles used in this scene between the character are all on the same level, this was possibly used to reflect to the audience similar social standing and class. The movement in this scene is all very steady and continues to be quite steady through out the film when we return to this location. Editing in this piece was not very noticeable to the audience and flows quite well with the only shot to really draw that much attention to itself was the point of view shot on the screen that zoomed in to attract the audiences attention and show where the point of interest was at. The costumes used in this scene where very high class and posh with the gentleman in the scene having a suit on and the woman being feature in trousers with a matching top, this is possibly used to so the social status of the characters as suits are often tied in with successful upper class people. The props in this scene where definably a big feature in representation of social status as there where many expensive laptops used in the footage and also mobile phones. These expensive items give the audience the impression that these are people who are well off, even though they may not own the computers, they reflect a high social standing. The lighting in this scene was mainly coming from the bright computer screen, this may have been used to attract interest to what is on the computer screen as to make the audience more involved with the story line. Also the fact that it wasn’t particularly well light may reflect the kind of security and secret nature of the business that these two characters are apart of. The location used in this scene was quite effective in getting across the social status and class of these two particular characters and it was very fashionable and modern showing that these characters may be very high in social status. Also the fact that the scene was very clean in this particular location may show the audience that the character are of high class. The performance of the characters with in this scene also shown a high class about them with a slightly posh accent and their pronunciation and the use of long word and the absence of slang all made for a performance that shown the characters with a high social status. The sound in this scene was very minimal with faint ominous sound in the background as the scene came to a close, with the sound bridge coming from the next scene.

The camera shots of the next shot scene mostly consist of long shots, two shots and close ups of the characters on the phone. Similarly to the first scene, angles used in this scene are all on the same level, used to so similar social status and class. Movement in this scene is also quite smooth but slightly more fast paced that the first scene, possibly because it lasts a fraction of the time. There isn’t too much editing in this small scene but there is a text that appears upon entry to tell the audience exactly where the scene is taking place. Also, when the man on the phone walks out of the two shot we can see the man go out of focus with the deep focus of the shot. The costume in this piece is another give away on the social status of the characters with the UN special negotiator wearing a suit. Props in this scene are also a give away of social standing with both of the characters having a thin, up-to-date mobile phone, giving the impression to the audience that they are of high class. The location of the character is a big factor to the representation of social status in this scene as we see a very large and beautiful looking building and the fact that the character is staying at this place gives him a higher class than if it was a smaller, uglier looking building. As with the characters in the previous scene, the dialogue is fast and the characters very well spoken, with the pronunciation of the words being very clear showing that they come from a god back ground, giving them class, and also the banter between the characters would be seen as a higher class withe the joke about picking up a “Croissant.”

In the final scene of the film it initially starts with an areal shot of the area, this could be seen as the audience looking down on this particular area and the people who live here having a lesser social statues in comparison. The angles used throughout this scene are a definite use of showing the differences in the social status and classes between the character with the high angle shots when the man from the previous scene is talking to the woman or the teenager and the low angle shots when they are replying, this shows the man having a higher class than these other two characters. The movement through out each shot is noticeably more shaky than the previous two scenes. This could be also seen to represent a lesser class in this location compared to the previous two scenes that took place in more high class areas and could show this area being on edge and less stable than the previous upper class areas. The editing used in this is similar to what we have seen before through out the film but much more concentrated with the initial areal shot have the same text telling the audience exactly where the scene is taking place. There is also a lot of zooms to show reaction shots and points of interest through out the rest of the scene such as the reaction shot of the man seeing the weapon and also the zoom to the cars moving outside the house to attract the audiences attention. The sound used in this scene is vital in showing the social status of the character located in this area with the police siren in the back ground of the man walking up to the door of the house, showing that it is a bad neighborhood and this ties in with it having been represented as having a lower class. There is also a sound bridge over lapping from the man walking to the door and the shot inside the kitchen on the radio which features a news report. The costume of the characters also reflect their social status just as it did in the past scenes. The mother is wearing a jacket that doesn't match her uniform and this could reflect low class, also the son can be seen wearing much more urban clothes compared to the man in this scene which could also represent a less social status. The clothes and the presence of the skateboarder outside also reflects the class of the entire area with urban clothes and the hobby of skateboarding tends to reflect a lesser class. The props such as the cars in the area in comparison to the car that the man prom the previous scene arrives in and the men the characters end up running from also reflect social status with the car that the men are driving is much more expensive showing that they have a higher social status compared to the people in the area, including the woman and the boy. Also having a police car in the back ground also helps add a lesser class to the entire area that this is set in. The location also plays a big part in showing the audience the social status of the characters showing them living in an estate which could be seen as them having less of a social status. The area is very unclean with over flowing bins and sofas lying on the side of a street all lesson the social status of the characters living in this area and this increases when we are shown into the teenagers room with graffiti and many posters, this is a sharp contrast to the previous two scenes that all seem to have better lighting and a better area. The performance of the characters also give a distinct insight to the difference in class and social status with the man having a very authoritative voice compared to the teenagers quite voice and the mothers shaky voice.

All of these points listed above all add to the audiences perception of the characters social status and class and gives them the representation of different levels of class through out.

Sound

Diegetic Sound: This refers to the sound in video and film that is implied to be present by the actions of what is going on through out the footage in the film. This wold include the voices of the dialogue between characters, the sounds of the objects in the film and the music from sources such as instruments and radios etc.

Non-diegetic Sound: This is sound from a source that is not on screen or implied to be present through the actions on screen. This could range from music played over the video, commentary and dramatic sound effects.

Synchronous Sound: Synchronous sound in film refers to the sounds that are matched with what is being viewed in the footage, such as if the film showed the character watching a football match, the sounds of the football match, such as cheering, are projected.

Sound Effects: This refers to the use of sound to produce particular meanings in film, television and radio. Sound effects are very important in conveying meaning to the audience in a very quick and economical way, such as the sound of a car crashing, which instantly conveys a sense that something significant had happened.

Sound Motif: This refers to sound effects that are associated with something in the film, be it a character or a place etc. These are used to connect the audience emotionally with something such as the actions of a particular character. These are often used to shape the story but are sometimes hard to create and convey across to the audience.

Sound Bridge: Sound bridges are used in the entering of a new scene or the exiting of an old scene. They can occur at the point of entry of a new scene when the sound from the previous scene is carried over, before we hear the sound from the new scene. However, they can also occur just before the exit of an old scene, when the audience hears the sound from the next scene, before the footage appears on screen.

Voiceover: This is when the voice of someone, usually the main character, is played over footage where the character is not speaking. This can be used to give a summary of events of the thoughts of a character.
(this contains both voice over, non-diegetic sound and a tune)



Mode of Address: This is when one party is communicating with another, they will use different modes of address in different circumstances and with different purposes in mind, for example, when giving a speech to a large audience, the speaker will use a relatively formal language appropriate to a public event. This differs a private conversation between two people when a public mode of address would be inappropriate and a more intimate tone is adopted.

Sound Mixing: This refers to the process by which a number of sounds are combined to create a more more appropriate sound with a multitude of channels.

Sound Perspective: Sound perspective refers to the apparent distance of a sound, this is created through a number of techniques such as the volume of the sound, the balance with other sounds, the frequency range (high frequencies may be lost at a distance), and the amount of echo and reverberation.

Soundtrack: The is the part of a film text that carries sound - the recorded sound of action filmed as well as added items such as music, voiceovers and effects. It has an important role in the generation of meaning, i.e. certain sounds are conventionally understood to have particular connotations such as the sound to built up tension in horror films.
(this video is from a movie which has a brilliant soundtrack, although not British, it's Irish.)



Score: This is a term used to describe the music in film. However a film score differs to a film soundtrack as a score tends not to include the songs from inside the movie or film compared to a soundtrack, that does. These can be written especially for a piece of video, such as in Lost with the composer Michael Giacchino.

Incidental Music: This is the atmospheric (background) music that adds to the way the audience is feeling at this point in time in the film, such as fast, up beat music during a car chase.

Stings: In radio, a sting is a short piece of music between other content.

Ambient Sound: This is similar to incidental music and relates to the sound that would be in the background of the scene but would be more diagetic sounds that would be heard in the actual location and adds to the reality or the action of the footage and helps connect the audience with the piece of film.