Appendix 2: A2 Media Studies Portfolio Evaluation

Drafting Stages

At the start of the course, me and my fellow colleague Luke decided to work together on this project as we share similar music tastes and had a direction on how to make the music video appealing. We fired ideas at each other that can relate to what is currently affecting teenage life and why there is such an outcry from the younger generations at the moment, especially the working classes. We decided on the song Morning Glory by Oasis as this song gives a feel of working class culture as seen in the music video of the official song. Seen on the Blogger website I created a blog to place my work on and gain easy accessibility to view it. I also created a poll so that I could recieve feedback from various audiences. The poll that we added highlights that the niche audience of the song which were relatively male with 80% of the people being male and 20% female. There was also majority vote that 50% of the people that came across my blog voted ‘Rock’ as their favourite genre of music. My demographic prediction was correct as our music video target audience and the majority vote was the 16-20 age option. Furthermore for the general social spectrum that the video was to be initially aimed at were working-class people who were also the majority vote of the poll on my blog which was 77% of the audience.

Our first drawn up plan was about a character portrayed by our close friend (Simon Slade) who lived the life of a stereotypical working-class teenager obsessed with drug and alcohol abuse that follows his monotonous daily life of a polarised rebellious teenager. We had completed the storyboard and shots that we applied to the music video that fit the theme of the video perfectly. These are illustrated in the mock-up animatic that is on my blog to convey the path and purpose of the video. During pre-production we gathered props such as empty beer bottles and bags of flour substituting cocaine to add to the mise-en-scene of the video which we decided to be my bedroom.

When it came to the first day of shooting I had my guitar which is an essential prop relating to the genre of a Brit-Pop video. My role in the music video was the guitarist of the band who had produced the song. I would appear candidly in the video similar to (1) see below) as the cutaway of the band and the narrative would adjacently progress side-by-side but not overlap. Regarding camera work, Luke and me would both share the role as cameraman and he would also be the drummer of the band again candidly appearing in the background but visibly in motion of the song for the audience to recognise.

(1)

 The opening shot of our first drafted music video was a medium close up high shot of the protagonist (Simon) clearly suffering from insomnia in his sleep. The camera slowly zooms in on his to convey the emotion of the character. This is a gradual zoom that corresponds to volume of the song introducing itself. The camera then cuts away to the clock on the wall beating in time with the drums of the track to create anticipation and suspense for the audience. The following shot is an establishing shot to illustrate the background and scenery of a stereotypical teenager’s room. Not until the protagonist exits the room with a 45 degree right pan that we see the guitarist candidly in performance with a slow gradual zoom to show the guitarist playing. In order to create continuity, the camera was placed in the bathroom with the protagonist still in motion of leaving the bedroom. The shot applied was a medium-long shot so we can gather what the protagonist is wearing but also develop more understanding of the mise-en-scene. The next shot is the protagonist looking into the camera which is meant to be the mirror creating a worms-eye close up of him. We can tell this as the mirror in the following shot (the over the shoulder shot) is exposed to the audience clearly highlighting the protagonist looking deep into himself in the mirror, possibly conveying the thoughts of his the previous night due to the emotionless expression on his face expressing guilt or remorse of ones actions. Still in his sleepy state the constant rubbing of the eyes creates the illusion that the character is exhausted of his upbeat life. The five-second shot that is next is a side angle of the protagonist washing his face as a solution to cure the hangover but the shot afterwards really captures the emotion of the character. Me and Luke gained inspiration for this shot at 1:03 from Alfred Hitchcock’s technique of the dolly zoom slowly zooming out creating a sense of vertigo but also conveying the current perspective of the protagonist in his current state of feeling. The wiping of the towel on his face is to try and cleanse this remorse but the audience now know that he is clearly disturbed as it is already expressed. We also perfectly timed this with the lyrics of “all the world will see” as they already clearly have an idea that there is a secret behind the protagonist’s actions, as he looks straight down the lense of the camera. The shot is prolonged in order to emphasise the effect of the shot also. At the start of the new verse, the shot also changes with a jump cut which is necessary as the shot it is still in the house but back in the bedroom. It is a low angled shot that focuses on the sun blazing into the room highlighting the power of the sun over the protagonist and how he deals with that dilemma in his condition.

With the shots we had me and Luke decided to draft this on Windows Movie Maker first just to test the quality of the shots, picture and to test if everything fitted coherently. We placed the track on the program and fitted the shots around it. After completing this we then placed the 1:11 video on our blogs to show our first draft in which we was going to develop and polish to a great extent. We also filmed the solo of the song as we thought this was the easiest part to film. It is a low angle shot to connote dominance of the guitarist and also follows iconically the hands of the guitarist during the performance to clearly highlight the solo being played; we also put this as a separate video on our blogs.

After revising over the shots and narrative of the video, me and Luke decided to scrap the initial idea of using Simon as the main protagonist and have me as the guitarist of the band/protagonist in the music video. We both thought the mise-en-scene was unimaginable and boring as so with the clothes worn and the props used in the draft so we decided again to fire ideas at each other regarding the recession, teenage working-class life and urbanisation. As we are both from Hull and from working-class backgrounds, we hinted that the mise-en-scene of the music video should be at Hull’s abandoned fishing docks famous for its mass fishing import and exports since the 17^th century and large employment of Hull’s population. Recognising that the building ‘Lordline’ was the beating heart of administration in Hull’s docks we decided that the majority of filming should take place in that building as since the 1970’s it has become gritty, derelict and neglected but remaining its sensational character. We had to first gain permission from the authorities guarding the derelict building which was granted that we stayed in safe areas of it and only a set amount of time was aloud. We re-revised what props would be used in the video and which clothes should be worn from the protagonist (me). As the song was written by Oasis, I decided to wear an Oasis shirt with the famous RAF symbol on it to create an intertextual reference in the video. This with a black velvet jacket with the colour black emphasised frequently in the video and a guitar to illustrate performance. Another point was that I had long hair that is common amongst rock music.

The Video and Use of Editing

For shooting we also insisted that we should use a High definition camcorder so that we could emphasise the glum, oppressive atmosphere of the mise-en-scene. The first shot that we used for our music video is a point of view shot from the protagonist’s perspective clearly switching a light on inside the building; already with the colour and saturation in use the audience get a feeling of an oppressive, cold and lonely surrounding. As the switch is pressed the contrast of the video become black and white adding to the atmosphere and retro feel of the video. This then fades to small rapid establishing shots of the area where the mise-en-scene is. The first shot of the building during the establishing shot we see that it has been neglected and abused with graffiti and vandalism at 0:15 seconds in conveying the feeling of hurt and anger of the working-class youth at this current time. This then fades to another part of the area that is also has been neglected and boarded up. As the mise-en-scene is baron and lonely, the shot after this we first see the protagonist (me) in the video in which we edited the opacity of the shot in order to create a ghostly figure roaming the dock. We also played the same shot over the original but have the protagonist walking towards to camera to emphasise more the ghostly presence of the protagonist. It is low angled and focuses on the long path ahead in order to create isolation. The following cutaway shot we see that the protagonist is playing in time and correctly with the song highlighting that the music is diagetic in the video as the protagonist is playing it. It has an essence of blurriness to create the ghostly feeling of the protagonist/guitarist in performance, which various over layers of the same shot are used in order for this to occur. We timed the protagonist walking away from the extreme close-up perfectly because as just as he leaves the shot the master shot of the ‘Lordline’ building is introduced. The low angled shot defines the video and is iconic towards fans of the band. It is used twice in the music video, as it is the main and most important shot of the whole video. It conveys the buildings power, dominance but the audience must philosophically look behind the damage of the building to see its character and history.

As the song is still during the pre-riff, the next shot the audience clearly the face of the protagonist in the video, the exposure of the white bright light onto the face of the character gives a sense of freshness within the ancient mise-en-scene with the upward tilt medium shot highlight that he is looking around the setting of the docks. This then fades to a medium shot of the protagonist because he is in performance so applying the guitar in the shot is necessary. The mood of the character is very downbeat and discontent which is conventional of stereotypical rock videos such as (2) see below). It pans slowly to the right then closes in with an overhanging close up with the technique of the dolly zoom, this was for a similar effect to our first draft video to create a sense of vertigo but this time not a shot of the protagonist but of the performance. We both slowed the clips down prior to the riff in order to create an impression on the video so that when the song kicks in, the real time motion of the shots will have an effect. At 0:37 in the video the extreme long shot focuses on the ship out in the sea. The horizon of the sea and the sky meet highlight the sense of monotonous of the sea, and the harshness of the sea represent the current youth situation for working class people. The framing of the shot is done so that the ship emphasises Hull’s docks and heritage. The protagonist in the shot that can be considered an over-the-shoulder shot is merely applied to highlight the crossover and link between the two. Again similar to the Oasis’ Songbird video the protagonist can be seen walking and venturing round the mise-en-scene so that the audience can grasp a more of a flavour of the surroundings. It is a still long shot with the protagonist walking into the distance. Same again during editing we slowed the shot down so that the emphasis is more on the shots during the opening chord riff.

(2)

Moreover as the riff is awaiting its way into the song, the long shot fades out slowly into black correspondent of the song. The chorded riff kicks in with a medium shot of the protagonist/guitarist in performance as the shots comes in on the E minor chord. In order to keep with the rhythm of the song the shot changes as the chord also does. This is with a low angled shot facing up at the guitarist. The guitarist is on the left hand side of the shot so that more of the Lordline building is exposed to the audience. This not only puts the limelight on the guitarist put also emphasises the dominance of the building. To keep with the continuity, me and Luke used slightly different angles and locations for the shot during this part of the song as it is one of the most effective parts of the track, it is medium shot but just from an altered angle. We also had a close-up of the guitarist to add to as part of the riff so that it is not monotonous. The clip afterwards is the same clip as the first shot of the riff but extended using the cut tool on Adobe Premiere Pro but also to exaggerate the fact that many cameras were in use during this shoot. Just before the lyrics enter the song the protagonist is walking with the guitar along side the building for 2 seconds with this still medium shot. It suddenly cuts away as the lyrics are introduced; the protagonist/guitarist is seen singing the lyrics establishing that he is the lead singer of the song also in a working-class area. He looks into the camera addressing the audience and zooms in slowly for effect. It eventually returns back to the scene of the docks with a fade in and a side angle that is still with the protagonist walking keeping with the continuity but walking into the building. It is similar to the previous shot as he walks into the shot highlighting movement. At 1.02 of the song there is a slight jump cut as the protagonist is already inside the building. It is a behind shot of the protagonist but illustrates the silhouette of the character as the light source is in front of him, he walks left out of the shot and the camera looks out of the window and onto the sea. It is slightly voyeuristic as the audience can see what he was looking at. We deliberately did this and took advantage of the light source coming through the window; the audience who will be fans of the band should be able to recognise the band member straight away.

The last shot of the last bit of the verse me and Luke stumbled across accidentally on Adobe Premiere Pro, we over layered the same shot of the guitarist on the stairs in performance three times and slowed two of the three shots down and cross dissolved every shot to create an effect of an old film similar to this (3) see below). It has an element of noise on the picture because of the lack of lighting and has that jittery, wobbly effect in order to create a ghostly haunting feel to the shot. At 1:44 of the song, as the song conveys a depressing feel about working class life this needed to be expressed in the video to denote to the audience. We used a low full shot of the protagonist but crouched down showing his vulnerability during the shot. Furthermore as seen frequently in the video, we over layered to shot three times and made the other two cuts transparent of the protagonist giving that ghostly feel again. To do this we filmed the shot three times from different angles then cut them so that they would fit perfectly.

 (3)

The following shot at 1:48 introduced with a cross dissolved fade in is an extreme high-angle of the character to re-enforce the gloomy atmosphere and weather to the audience, it doesn’t really illustrate and give away the mise-en-scene. It conveys that the sky is a glimmer of hope but it is way out of reach. Furthermore it highlights that the guitarist is in the limelight during this scene conventional of most music videos and gives a different sense of perspective for the audience. At 1:59, the guitarist really highlights his compassion with the guitar as he looks at it with a high full shot of him. The face of him cannot be seen because of the extremity of the high angled shot. It is edited so that it is slow motion so that it looks iconic and a well-known stance of the bands frontman. It slowly pans horizontally to the right and the slow motion applied purposely applied to the shot is to prolong the intensity of the moment between the guitarist and his guitar.

At 2:03, at long shot which can also be classes as a four shot is used in the video to highlight mine and Luke’s virtuosity towards editing the film. We took advantage of the forced perspective of the ally way so that it looks incredibly long and monotonous, a typical working-class area. In order to create several shots of the guitarist/singer in this shot of the same mise-en-scene we used the Matrox tool on Adobe Premier Pro so that four images of the character are seen. We left the camera running for a while whilst moving and playing in the several areas seen playing in, this was then edited by cutting the shots into pieces and putting them on one another and was then cropped via the Matrox tool. One of the shots is the singer in a chilled out position leaning against the wall connoting his relaxed approach towards the music but the other three address the audience by looking, singing and playing to the camera. Even though it only takes up 5 seconds of the song it was the longest to edit during editing because of the amount effects used, it can be classed as a money shot because of its importance but also shows our flair of editing.

The pre-solo part of the song that is introduced at 2:09 is shown with a 360 degree pan to the left of the character looking down the long alleyway; it gives a feel that the audience are with the protagonist at the mise-en-scene because of the constant tracking of him. Faintly behind this can be seen a UK flag that is similar to the one on the album cover highlighting and interlink between the two. There is also a slow zoom in to the guitar in motion to create an effect during this point; we did this by lowering the opacity of the jpg. image of the UK flag and the cut of the guitar in motion during editing so that this would be slightly noticeable but not cluttered with the main shot during this scene.

For the solo of the song beginning at 2:23, me and Luke decided that it should burst into colour to grab the attention of the audience with the bright vivid colours. The special effects we used for solo were many uses of the texterize effect in order to see two different angles of the shot on the screen but fitting coherently with the song so it does not become confusing. We wanted to blow away the audience so we applied rapid zoom ins of the guitar in order to make it hard hitting, the technique we used was fast cutting in order to do this. The are full shots that eventually become close-ups then medium shots and so forth but also keeping with the fast pace of the solo. We were inspired by the angled close up shot of the guitar from the Live Forever solo from Oasis’ Familiar to Millions Live at Wembley shown on my blog. Although the colours red, white and blue are visible during the solo, they are still a dull colour keeping with the dull house style of the video.

As this was a frequent technique in the video, we did a left 180 degree pan of the protagonist singing in motion so that we can see around him again every bit of information about his emotion whilst singing, this being a typical moody rock voice. Coming to the end of the verse, a long fade in is used to present to the audience the performance from the guitar as heard in the song. A high shot of the guitar is seen but then pulls back showing the mise-en-scene but then fades out and jump cuts to the docks as a new verse is sung in the song.

Me and Luke experimented with the principle of voyeurism in our video because of the desolate, lonely and abandoned mise-en-scene we thought this would make it relevant to the video but from the audience’s perspective. This was created with the extreme behind long shot of the protagonist roaming the ruins of the area which is also a tracking shot to convey the fact that we are following him in this scene. This is visible because of the wobbly camera effect that we did to show that the audience are following him.

At 3:10 in the video, we both liked the some of the shots should indeed be wobbly and hazy to give that retro ancient feel to the video so the long shot used of the Lordline building, similar to that of the master shot recently viewed in the video is wobbly. We both liked the idea that the birds on the top of the building fly off during this part again giving that sense of an element of hope or faith. We also experimented with the key lighting in the video and return back to the POV technique. At 3:34 the camera is facing the broken mirror representing the broken man inside of the character, the key lighting at the right hand side of the frame again gives out a sense of hope and freedom instead of metaphorically being trapped inside. We liked this shot as it represented in summary the moral of the video.

The Dutch angle seen at 4:02 could also be classed as an establishing shot as it gives more of a flavour of the surrounding mise-en-scene docks. It is desolate and gives a sense of scope because of the technique applied. The framing of the guitarist is at the right-hand side of the shot so that the surrounding can be conveyed. As noticed in song, a harmony of two singers is performed via Noel and Liam Gallagher so we filmed two shots of the guitarist/ singer singing and playing to the lyrics and cropped them on Premiere Pro to gain two shots of him in performance corresponding to the harmonies sung.

For the outro solo of the song, we used the cuts previously seen in the video to convey the chord progression of the guitar but then the outro solo is introduced. The outro solo consists of an extreme close-up shot of the guitar but then fades in further out to the guitar with a medium close-up of it to show that that the camera is progressing further away from the guitar. We had to make this part of the song interesting and appealing despite this been the instrumental of the song so we took original cuts used in other areas of the video and placed effects other them. At 4:30 we did exactly that and placed the shot backwards via the rewind tool on Abode Premiere Pro and slowed it down in order to dramatize the shot. This scene is used at 4:09 as well but then cuts away and re-joins the action.

This is then followed by the medium side shot of the protagonist looking up to something that the audience are unaware of but then the protagonist looks down the lense of the camera addressing the audience then camera slightly swishes upwards to the right and reveal what the protagonist was looking at, this being the Lordline sign on the building. As the low shot reveals the sign the height and framing of the shot highlights the buildings importance and dominance. It also returns to previous shot used in the video as the same piece of music is replayed so this would fit perfectly but also keep with the theme of the video such as the dolly zoom giving a sense of vertigo but as the song is ending it returns to shots seen in the solo as the guitar is fading out. Two three second shots are used similar to the solo so they do not get confused with the mise-en-scene and they are familiar with the ones seen in the solo already.

At the final stages of the song, me and Luke accidentally filmed a pan down shot of me (the protagonist) when trying to film something totally different. At 4:56 the audience see an out of focus shot of the protagonist inside the building, it is also a full shot but the audience are unaware of his emotion and action. We slowed the clip down on Premiere Pro to prolong the clip as the original clip was rapidly shot so the camera would blur and become out of focus. It gives this ghostly atmosphere as frequently used in the video and the pan down exposes the mise-en-scene that we wanted the audience to feel and engage with.

Furthermore after this shot, we used a zoom in of the t-shirt of the protagonist to highlight an intertextual reference of Oasis who are the original writers of the track Morning Glory. For this shot at 5:02 we cut the clip into two pieces and placed a cross dissolve over the middle of both parts with the first clip remaining black and white and the second clip without the black and white contrast so that it would burst into colour as soon as it zooms in creating a close-up of the logo. At the same time of this we used the title tool as first seen in the opening stages of the song to conclude the title of the song, album and band with colours connecting to the bands theme colours and font. This is conventionally used in almost all music videos produced especially with the placement and size of the titles that we applied. Moreover we used a POV shot from the protagonist but this time turning the switch off on the wall identically seen as the first shot of the video but simply turning the switch off to end the song as well. So far on my poll on my Blogger page, I have gained incredibly positive reviews with 100% in favour that audiences enjoyed the video.

Ancillary Texts and Technology Used

For the ancillary text I decided that I were going to produce and DigiPak and a website for the band for which I entitled ‘Magic Bus’ which is an intertextual reference to one our favourite The Who songs. I achieved this by using Adobe Photoshop and I used templates in order to do this, I templated Google chrome and pasted that so that I could apply the URL bar to make it realistic and I pasted a DigiPak template on Photoshop which I could work around.

I gained inspiration for the design of the logo on the DigiPak from the Pretty Green franchise endorsed by former Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher. The logo is very psychedelic in which Brit-Pop and psychedelic music has a connection between the two of them. It is quirky and it simply reads Magic Bus to illustrate the band name with the colours of red, white and blue relating the UK flag. As the majority of the logo is white, I used the binary opposite of black to use as the background and the main house style of the album. Not only is it black, it has a faded Union Jack in the background to highlight its significance to the British born band. Furthermore an element of Brit-Pop is about patriarchy so I thought this would be relevant to use. Furthermore below the logo the album name and word ‘Lordline’ is plainly used to highlight the bands simplicity illustrating that it isn’t too excessive. The shots used on the DigiPak are stills from the official video which were applied using the print screening method, pasting it onto Microsoft Powerpoint, saving it as a jpg. image and simply loading it up onto Adobe Photoshop. I produced as these worked well with the house style of the album. The back cover is a close-up shot of the lead singer/guitarist/ protagonist of video which is above the song listings as this is conventional of most popular/rock albums.

Moreover, to make the album realistic I applied several pieces of text usually found written in small font in order to copyright protect the music in which I placed on the back of the album. Other conventional devices I used on the back are the DVD and Compact CD logo to make it realistic of an actual DigiPak. Another device is the institution of the DigiPak which is Acquiesce Records which I created from scratch on adobe Photoshop. A brief album rating is also used on the back which is an intertextual reference to mine and Luke’s friend Mark Reeves who is currently producing a music magazine for AS Media Studies. The CD and DVD seen inside the DigiPak are actually jpg. images copied and pasted onto Adobe Photoshop but were placed over the DigiPak image so that it looks like it is inside the album. I decided that the disc cover should be the Magic Bus logo as it is perfectly round and would be suitable to place on a disc. For the album pamphlet, I had taken a still of Lordline from the video and overlayered a grunge texture to the picture to match the house style of the album. It simply faces the section of Lordline were writing can be found on the building. I altered the words on the building so that it would entitle Magic Bus but with the same font used as the building. I made it photo realistic by blurring the initial piece of writing then placing a font over that then re-blurring it slightly in order to fit the picture. The final cover on the sleeve is a long-shot of the back of the protagonist walking down the alleyway seen in the video. It is also a forced perspective shot as it emphasises the length of the alleyway conveying that a goal is in front of the protagonist.

For the website of the band we decided to keep the same contrast of the pictures used on the website a grunge black and white to maintain the interlink between the pictures and the video and also the same font that of the DigiPak. The photo used behind the test is the same mise-en scene that of the video in order to maintain the relevance of the theme used. Furthermore the picture is a medium-long shot of the guitarist/singer in front of a white neglected wall, as the photo could not fill the screen of the website properly I cut away some sections of the wall and patterned them around and smudged it in using the smudge tool on Adobe Photoshop to coherently fit in and emphasise the size of the running wall. The website features a search bar and bar running along the top of the page to give the audience a variety of choice on what to go on on the website. The template of the border is used from Google chrome, I had written in the URL the website of the band which I decided to be www.magicbus.com/home. After this I print screened the page, and pasted this onto Photoshop, altered the wording of the tab and saving this as a jpg. image. There is also a hyperlink at the right hand side of the website taking the audience straight to the music video that I produced, that being Morning Glory. It was important that the pictures should all contain the same mise-en-scene so it does not confuse the audience on the website, it is entitled Lordline the new album so it was vital that the pictures should be of the band member at Lordline. It was essential that I had also news boxes of upcoming events and breaking news so that the niche audience of the band keep coming back to the websites for constant updates. Other texts that I did were pictures of the album on the notorious music player ITunes. I did the same methods of print screening a template of ITunes and placing the album art that I had already produced on Photoshop over the area of were the album art should be. I also changed the lettering of the words below previously of another album so that it would correspond to the album. So far I have gained positive reviews for our album cover and website design with both in favour of a 100% liking.

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