Q1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

SCRIPT
HAFSAH
1. There is a relationship with the music and visuals – the clips cut to the beat of the guitar
There is a particular moment of illustration in our music video where the lyrics of our chosen track and the visuals in our music video correspond with each other.  The words “bigmouth” and “strikes again” are used in our video to help exemplify the meaning of our chosen themes of childhood and isolation. However throughout the rest of music video, the lyrics and the visuals of our music video do not bear a resemblance with each other and so there is a disjuncture. In which we have disregarded most of the lyrical content of the song and generated our own new meaning to the track in order to establish our chosen themes of childhood and awkwardness with the use of abstract visuals.
2. Live performance - authenticity, lip-synching
3. Shaky camerawork – make it dynamic   
The use of shaky camerawork to film different movement and angle shots throughout the performance helps create a dynamic feel towards the audience as it seems as if the viewer is following the performer’s movements thus building a connection with the audience and creating a sense of intimacy for the viewer thus developing a relationship between fan and artist. In relation to Andrew Goodwin’s theory that although the use of many CU shots is shown through the shaky camerawork, her face isn’t being shown to the audience as she is hiding her identity through the mask, therefore we are challenging the conventions of real media products. This is because women are usually portrayed for their looks and image whereas in our music video the viewers have to pay more attention on her talents of singing and the visuals around her which are being used to create her own dream world.
4. Jump cut – inspired by the title sequence of Ameile

5. Mise-en-scene – background – inspired by Ameile, seventies look, developed idea from ameile, bright colours
We had chosen a large sheet containing bright colours of red, yellow and orange for our background as part of our mise-en-scene. This is illustrative as it connotes a seventies look and assembles a comparable representation to the title sequence of Ameile which we were inspired by where the use bright and audacious colours are used to help construct the idea of a young girl who is so alone and feels isolated from society that she creates a world of her own with the use of toys.
6. Costumes – suit – morrisey – awkwardness, oversized suit and the feeling of unease in one’s skin
The suit used for the performance was chosen in comparison to Morrissey. We didn’t copy his exact look but we created a similar representation of the oversized look and feeling of awkwardness and unease of our performer from a range of materials (Richard Dyer).
ESTELLE
8. Our performer dresses in a masculine way, wearing a man’s suit. We wanted her to be ambiguous in sex, make the audience believe she is a male, or at least make them question the performer’s sex. As in the music video she dresses both in a masculine and feminine way, we can bring in Judith Butler’s Gender trouble: gender is not natural, it is learned and performed (as our actress does in the music video). Gender is no longer seen in the terms of fixed identities i.e. male = masculine, female = feminine.
9. our performer touches the camera screen, acknowledging its existence, and breaking the illusion to the audience that the performance is real, happening right at that second, reaffirming the boundary between them and she – the fourth wall. However as the music video carries on, the illusion reappears, the incident forgotten and the fourth wall, as the performer stares into the camera, is yet again broken.
10. The genre of the music is indie rock, but the actress dresses in a sort of gypsy way, with a dress and a scarf lying over her hair. She looks like a fortune teller. This would probably not be expected in a music video by an indie rock band, as the iconography associated with indie rock are instruments, skinny black jeans, waistcoats and Pete Doherty-style indie hats – overall, modern and city-style looks. By using the gypsy costume, we’ve challenged indie rock conventions. Really what we wanted to do was show that music genres are as bendable as genders.
11. We reversed the shot where the actress spins in her dress because we didn’t want to repeat ourselves – we’d already used shots like those, and we were thinking about how music videos need to keep the audience’s attentions engaged.
12. The stop motions link in with our themes – childhood and isolation – as they encourage the audience to enter the child’s mind. The usually inanimate objects come alive, connoting to the child’s dream-world, their imagination. This particular character was isolated as a child, so their fantasy worlds were even more important to them than to regular children. The character seeks friendship and reassurance from the lifeless toys.
13. In Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, Alice, a seven year old child, plays chess, and we were inspired to use chess pieces in the music video to create a persona for our character. Chess pieces usually connote intelligence and play, and we wanted both these attributes linked with our character.
14. One of the uses of music videos is to promote the artist’s image, and producers are very keen to get lots of close-ups of them, to make the audience feel an intimate connection with them. Our performer however is wearing a mask, which challenges these conventions. The performer is not using their face to create a star image for themselves; they are not using their face to promote their music or themselves. The close-ups and xcu’s, which are meant to help the audience connect with them, instead do the opposite – they alienate the audience from the performer. The mask is a very impersonal object, its purpose to shield the wearer from people’s gaze. In the video the mask also has a certain sinister aspect to it. The only things we see are the performer’s eyes. Many literary people have used eyes as a connection to the soul etc. so it could be said that the audience does not connect with the artist’s image, but with their soul, or their “real selves”.
Although this challenges conventions, the mask could actually become a symbol associated with the band, become an iconography. It could become a simulacrum – people could walk down the streets and see a mask, and instantly associate it with the music video and the band.
REBECCA
7. Ambiguous gender
8. Gender bending – Judith butler
9. Touching camera with fingers – breaking the illusion of reality and performance
10. Dress and scarf symbolic of childhood, feminine
11. Reversed dress shot
12. Stop motion – entering the childs mind, dreamworld
13. Chess pieces – inspired by alice in wonderland
14. Close up of face – relate Andrew Goodwin
15. Breaking fourth wall
16. Creating a connection with the audience – stuart hall
17. Body language – awkward and uncomfortable
18. Letters illustrating lyrics – inspired by ameile
19. Canted/tilted angled shots – performers state of mind
20. On beat on with music various extreme close upshots of masked face – instead of making the audience feel intimate with the performer, the mask alienates them from them as they cannot see the performer’s face.
also the masking of the performer’s face challenges as we are not selling our product by her image.
21. The ending shot is the continuation of the beginning shot, giving the sense of an ending, matching the music.

Q4.) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

-Web 2.0

The way that people use media technologies is changing. Before the media was incredibly inaccessible, for example music video content was expensive and difficult to produce, with few ways to distribute it relying primarily on music television channels, and music television programmes such as Top of the Pops, there was also few ways for the audience to interact and leave feedback about music videos they liked apart from writing to music magazines and newspapers, and it was very difficult for the public to release their own content as producing their own material required funds and expensive hardware or music industry connections, that simply wasn't available to them. Fast-forward to today, a range of technologies are available to the people, making content cheap and easy to produce, distribution simple, and feedback easy to give. This has given the public the option to become the producer, or for the public to become closer to the producer, making the gap between producer and consumer smaller. For example with the introduction of cheap video camera's / webcam's that can upload to the internet in high definition, normal people can create high quality content to rival videos produced by the media industry without in-depth knowledge of media. Sharing their videos on websites such as; Youtube.com, Vimeo.com, Dailymotion.com etc. These websites have comment sections in which the audience can leave feedback, communicating directly to the producer, websites like youtube.com with the help of social networking sites such as facebook.com, twitter.com, tumblr.com, and blogger.com has given music videos created independently by bands the chance go to viral, generating millions of views, garnering the attention of big record companies.  There are now free softwares which can be used to create music videos; for example editions of Photoshop now being available to download free for use. 
Collin and Murroni (1996) state that the criteria that define new media are; information that is viewed on a screen: mobile phone screen, television, or computer screen, they can offer images, sounds, and text, and allow some form of interaction.

-Research Stage

We set up a group account on Blogger.com, in which to post research and document the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages, which allowed us to present our work in a way that is engaging and creative.

 (A screencap of our media blog on Blogger.com)

-Music Video Research

When researching for our music video we used a variety of websites. While thinking of our concept, our first idea was to centre on the lead singer of the song we chose Morrissey, originally we aimed to mimic his persona so we researched various images of him (using tumblr.com where there is a large fanbase dedicated to the Smiths) and watched music videos and interviews to get an idea of his persona (on youtube.com) , and gather what his audience thought through the comments. Last.Fm was also helpful in finding out audience opinion on songs and music videos.

(fan images and Smiths quotes on tumblr.com the image in screencap shows morrissey's personality as antisocial, and fan comments on the song and video 'Big Mouth Strikes Again' on Last.FM)

(An interview with Morrissey in which he acts unresponsive and awkward. on Youtube.com)

-Audience Research

When researching audience I went back to youtube comments, and the various fanblogs on tumblr.com, and found that the majority of the people tumblr.com who enjoyed the Smiths were between the ages of 16 and 21, and could relate to them on a personal level. Who related the lyrics, quoting them as if they referenced their own real life situations.

(Smiths fans posting quotes which they relate to on tumblr.com)

Location Research

Deciding upon a location was tricky, as originally we did not want to use a location situated within the college, as supervision could not always be guaranteed, meaning it was not always possible to film there out of ours especially if other students had decided to book whatever area we wanted. We googled areas suitable for filming asking advice of family and friends but ultimately ended up filming within the classroom. 

Hardware and Software

We used different types of hardware; including digital cameras by Panasonic to capture both still images and videos, and a canon camera owned by Estelle in which we could use more readily when not on college grounds. With the memory card for the camera the photos and videos stored on the camera was portable. We learned how to use the cameras quickly. We filmed our music video on primarily these two cameras. We used iMac's for the editing of our music video, due to the wide range of software available on the college iMac's, such as adobe Photoshop, adobe After-Effects  and Final Cut Pro. Adobe aftereffects allowed us to experiment with various tones and contrasts to add mood to our music video in the editing process, finding something aesthetically pleasing. Final Cut Pro allowed us to edit our footage professionally, we could edit the footage to the beat of the song making sure it all flowed well together, that it was all in sync for a clean polished looking product. When using Final Cut Pro, never using it before, it was very difficult, but the group took turns to learn. Skills progressed gradually, and I feel somewhat more confident however I do not feel I am sufficient in using it.

Stopmotion

We filmed stop-motion with children's toys, in our music video, as we thought it would portray the carefree idea of childhood we were going for. We watched music videos that included stop motion on youtube. We used a Panasonic and Canon camera for filming the stop motion in our videos. Transfering them over to a laptop, or putting them into final cut pro and manipulating them so they became stopmotion animation.

(examples of music videos looked at. CSS- Alala, and Aphex Twin - On. both with a similar childlike idea of stop motion visuals.) 

Digipak Research

When it came to the digipak research and production we used Google to look at examples of digipaks to gain knowledge about the task we were about to partake in and to develop and understanding how we would construct one. We then to look at past album art for our chosen song artist the Smiths, we hoped to draw inspiration from them. In the end we decided do as they did using a film still that had a slight relation to our music video. We used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop in the creation  of our digipak, both are professional tools in which to add typography, and edit photographs with a wide variety of effects. We could experiment with various colourways to suit our liking. We ended up with a heavily contrasted black and white Digipak. 

Evaluation

For the Evaluation Question 1; we all did a commentary over our music video. We used digital cameras to film ourselves, and then edited out the video and kept the audio in final cut pro, so it was commentary over the music video that we produced. Once completed we exported the music video so that we could access it, in question 3 and 4 I used Blogger to post my evaluation questions. I used Blogger because I was using an Ipad to write the evaluation due to not having computer access. I would of used some kind of online presentation software, for example Prezi or Slideshare however this was not possible as neither are compatible with the Ipad , I searched for software similar to that of Prezi and Slideshare  however they were expensive, so instead I used previous screencaps from websites of I had collected and copied videos as examples onto Blogger which is free and compatible with the Ipad. 

Stuff on Digipak

Our digipak will contain two disks:
Disk one:
 Album songs-done
 Lyrics book-done
 Magazine Advert-done
Disk two:
 Bigmouth strikes again music video-done
 Director’s commentary
 Bloopers (clips that didn’t make it in the final music video)-done
 Behind the scenes-done
 Interviews-done
 Photos
 Live performances-done
 T-shirt logo that you can print and iron on your shirt
 Short film to showcase creativity-done

Our Music Video

Q3.) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audiences will interpret texts differently. A meaning of a text will not just have one meaning as many different people will have their own different interpretations of texts. Stuart Hall states that the meaning of a particular text is not essentially in the text itself suggesting that when analysing a text it is almost impossible to identity its one true ‘meaning’ as many different people who approach the text will make different interpretations of it. Hall believes the technical and symbolic codes that have been constructed and we as an audience see are the same however the producers of that media text have intended their own meanings and we as the consumer will make our own interpretations of that text. This type of audience response will vary from social factors such as our education, background and experiences. Hall states that there are three main types of readings of texts of how audiences view them. The first is preferred reading which is when the encoded meaning of the text made by the producers is intended, the audience is more likely to accept and share the text’s ideology.  The second is negotiated reading which is where people’s social position and beliefs is outside the target audience; this type of audience is more likely to question the representations being encoded in a text. And the third is oppositional which is where the attitudes and values of these audiences are completely different and can’t accept the intended meaning.
 Conducting audience feedback was extremely beneficial for us throughout the production and post-production stages as it allowed us to gain feedback from our target audience and question them about what they like about our music video, what they didn’t like and why? We gained many different views from many different people within our target audience. The two key props which helped make the idea of ‘gender bending’ successful was the mask and the suit. This was because many people questioned the gender of our performer as they were unable to tell because of the fact that we had decided to hide our performer’s identity so that we could explore and show our audiences the meaning behind this, which was in fact to portray our chosen themes of childhood, isolation and awkwardness. Many also favoured the quality of the editing and the stop motion. They enjoyed watching the stop motion; they found the clashing colours, patterns and textures made it more creative and more visually interesting to watch. The continuity of each of the shots flowed well with the beat of the song which helped bring the out the live performance of the video. 
However, we received negative feedback which included comments from our target audience such as many where not too keen on the idea of the shaky hand held camera work as they felt at times it was overwhelming. This was a surprise to us as we felt that the shaky hand held camera work created a lively and more engaging atmosphere and should have made the audience feel more part of the singer’s performance. Also, people thought that our video could have been improved by instead of making it a conceptual music video we could have added a narrative instead as some were slightly confused with what was happening in our video.
Overall, I feel that the process of gaining audience feedback has help us understood what our audiences have thought of our music video, what they liked and didn’t liked which is very beneficial for us as we now know what we could have done to help improve and better our music video. 

Q4

Q3.) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Since we are using a Smiths song, our target audience would be similar to that of The Smiths’ – they would have similar tastes in media.
These people all like The Smiths, especially Chris, who happens to be my older brother and who idolizes Johnny Marr. He can definitely be called a fan, as he has formed an emotional attachment with the music he listens to and with the artist (Matthew Hills).
The demographic of our target audience illustrated in the picture is similar in some aspects and varies in others. They are all working-class young people (male and female) between the ages of 18 – 21, but their ethnicity is diverse, from Irish and British to Sri Lankan, French, Black African, Indian and Welsh and because of this their experiences would differ. The way we are really choosing our audience is by following the view of post-modernism.
Post-modernists have said that old meta-narratives (gender, sexuality, ethnicity, feminism and Marxism etc...) do not apply as much to modern day society anymore, as people define themselves now more through the media they consume – the music, books and films they use are part of their self-identities. Of course postmodernism exaggerates the degree of social change – the media does influence people but it is not the only thing, and it ignores the fact that some people can’t access the internet or TV. However, the media a person consumes can tell us something about them as an individual.
Stuart Hall said that there may be a difference in what the producers want us to think about the texts and what we actually think. This depends on our experiences, educations and backgrounds, and what our occupations are. The denotations (surface meanings – mise-en-scène, sound) and connotations (symbolic codes – intertexuality (John Stewart)) that make the representations in the text are the same, but the way audiences perceive them are not. Stuart hall calls this the margin of understanding, and his reception theory puts the emphasis on the audience – as soon as we consume media i.e. read a book, watch a film, listen to music, meaning is made, and the meaning differs according to the person’s values, opinions and experiences, so people with similar belief systems will draw similar meanings from the texts.
The encoding/decoding model talks of “moments”; the moment of encoding: the creation of the text, when the producers (us) decide what forms, structures, codes and conventions are used to construct a text with an intended meaning; the moment of the text: when the text begins to exist symbolically, as it is published or broadcast (or when we posted it on YouTube) – the focus of semiotics; the moment of decoding: when an individual with a set of values, attitudes and experiences encounters the text. This is regarded as more of the moment of “creation” than the first stage.
Hall talked about the preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings when it comes to how audiences read texts.
The preferred reading is when the audience reads encoded meaning of the text as the producers intended them to read it, and the audience shares and accepts the text’s ideology. This is related to Gramsci’s term cultural hegemony, or the dominant ideology of the ruling class that emphasises the fairness and inevitability of capitalism and meritocracy.
There were some people who had nothing but praise for our music video; however, I think they were just shy in giving us their honest opinions.
Some people may accept most of the ideology but challenge some aspects of the text – they may be outside of the target audience and may be more active in questioning the representations – and this is the negotiated reading.
The people whose comments were a mixture of praise and criticisms were inside our target audience, and their negative reviews were about specific things we did purposefully, for example, Kareen, though she liked the concept, the colours and the textures, criticised the lack of a storyline. Our music video was conceptual; there was no narrative to follow.
If the values and beliefs of the individual defer greatly or are in opposition to the target audience then they are unlikely to accept much of encoded meanings within the text, and this makes it an oppositional reading.
There was a comment made by a friend of Hafsah’s – who was outside of our target audience – who made it clear that she did not like our music video, or the song either.

Q4

Q.3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The way in which audiences interpret, use and respond to text is different to how they used to; there is no one audience response. The audience is capable of creating their own meaning from the text. Instead of corresponding to the hypodermic model theory where audiences are injected with the product message and accept its direct meaning, they are now seen to be less passive, decoding texts differently and producing their own personal interpretations. It is also important to take into account the audience’s own background, as their experiences can influence how they consume a product. An audience response can differ through background, personal experiences, and education. Stuart Hall in his research stated that texts were encoded by the people who produced them (with their own meanings influenced by their background, experiences and education) but once the reader of that text had decoded the content of the text, applying their own meanings, the original meanings intended by the producer may change. The cultural theorist Stuart Hall calls this the ‘Margin of Understanding,’ He also states that there are different types of ways audience can read text ‘Audience Positioning;

• Preferred readings: This is where the audience decode the text as closely to the meaning the producer intended. Often their cultural and social experiences are similar to that of the producer, and they have experiences similar to those suggested in the text.
• Negotiated readings: This where the audience negotiates with themselves to allow themselves to accept the way the text is portrayed. The audience may disagree with some of the elements of the text and agree with others
• Oppositional readings: This is where the audience finds themselves with a conflicting view of the text in the question, due to their beliefs, and experiences. 

These perspectives allow us to understand that text has different meaning to different people. Allowing us to challenge theories, like the 'hypodermic needle'; that sees all audiences as unreceptive viewers of a text, and that they all view text in the same way when injected with information.

Our target audience was based the ages of 16-21. All of different ethnicities, but primarily lower middle-class, or working class backgrounds. 

For our music video the target audience research was valuable in telling us what we had done well in terms of music video production and what didn't go so well. After showing the music video to our target audience the feedback we received was; that the way we portrayed gender ambiguity successfully. As the 'gender bending' was either apparent (as they noticed the character switching between a man's suit, and a young girl's dress) or they found the main character's gender undistinguishable not being able to tell the difference what the character's gender was. However since members of the chosen target audience contained people who knew the actress in the music video, she was recognised as female by her facial piercings, however she was not distinguished by the majority. The gender ambiguity was confused by the audience for gender confusion. We aimed for the gender ambiguity of the character to serve as a means to stop the audience from focusing on the character's gender, not promoting sexism, or for people to look at the character for sexual gratification  (ie. male gaze) as most women are judged for their looks, regardless of their artistic merit, for this reason purely we didn't want the character's physical aesthetics to distract from the visuals behind them, or the song they were singing to.  

Our music video was based upon the opening scene of Amelie directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet which is very contrasted and saturated to create a retro, home-movie kind of look. We tried to make our film look retro too, aiming for a 70's feel with a 70's style background, heavy contrast and saturation.  The quality of the video being of lower quality; also makes it look somewhat old fashioned. The feedback we received on this was that 'the grainy effect (heavy contrast) makes it seem vintage' and 'The quality of the video not being full HD adds a certain feel of vintage filming.' thus achieving our goal. 

Some of our target audience did not understand that our music video was in fact conceptual claiming that it had a 'lack of story' and that they found the music video disjointed 'incoherent' this shows that certain audiences respond better to music videos with a narrative, and an easier to follow storyline. Due to the fact our music video was performance and conceptual based it did not follow a story line. 

In regards to the filming our target audience found that the hand held camera made for a shaky viewing experience, stating: 'just use a tripod' , 'kind of makes me feel a bit ill' , 'interesting apart from the shaky camera movements.' and  'at times it would be a bit overwhelming seeing the camera physically move around a lot and the amount of zooming was a little much too.' Our intention with the hand held camera movements and the zooming was to show the character's state of mind that the character felt disconnected from the outside world, that her state of mind was nervous, and awkward. We also felt the fast paced handheld camera movements and zooming added variety in comparison to using a static camera, and went well with the speed of the song but due to received feedback, a more static camera would of been preferred by the audience. 

The stop motion and editing was perceived well, people saying the visuals and editing were 'very creative in the terms of especially in terms of editing', 'good use of editing in terms of stop motion' however no-one seemed to notice the theme of childhood. One person confusing the stop motion Russian dolls for representing 'identity confusion' rather than being simple child play things. However this may of been because we obscured the singers face with a mask, which could of confused the audience as they assumed the mask to be representative of identity confusion, in reference to the gender ambiguity of the character. However we obscured the performer's face in order to take away from her appearance, to have her taken more seriously as an artist and to show she is living in a fantasy world while playing with her toys, the mask serves as a piece of dressing up clothes.

We also showed the music video to people outside of our target audience. some of those people stated that they did not like the song and 'preferred R&B' and did not understand the concept of the music video, and some did not enjoy the song either. This may be because R&B videos are often narrative or performance based rather than conceptual. 

Audience feedback has been a reliable way for us to figure out what we could of done better if we had the chance to create a music video again, and helped us recognise that different types of audiences read texts differently and that the original intended interpretation of the music video will change, depending on the viewers background, and experiences. 

Q2.) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

1. Critically discuss all parts of your digipak (front/back cover, inside pages etc) and how they relate to each other
• The digipak images all work well together as a whole.
the front and back cover have simple lettering, the font used “eras medium itc”. The composition of the front cover is simple in terms that there is a clear focus to the image – the child. The back cover is even more simplistic and bare, with only a man playing a violin framed and angled slightly. The facial expressions of both persons are similar – thoughtful and in concentration.
• Six slides all related in terms of how they represent our band (it’s pretty much the same thing as I’ve said in the 3rd question – artistic, intelligent etc..)
2. Compare yours to real life life examples – demonstrate how you used and developed conventions/ideas from existing examples (album cover and magazine advert)
• The band name and album name were used – conventional
• Magazine advert has release date – conventional
• Intertexuality? Album cover related to our music video in terms of themes – childhood, awkwardness. The cross-dressing characters. Mag ad related to our album cover, same image – conventional (lana del rey, calvin haris, etc..)
3. How did your decisions relate to your potential target audience?
• Simplistic lettering “eras medium itc” – no elaborate font, meaning un-superficial. Unconcerned about looks, more focus on music. Links with the independent record label, which cares more about music than fame/money. Targeting audiences with same/similar ideals.
• Black and white digipak – connotes elegiac themes, but also elegance, old films/cinema. Assume audience to be cultured or interested in these subjects and research about them.
• The composition of the images themselves are strong, colours would distract audience gaze from it. Targeting audience with interests in film/photography/art who would appreciate the images.
• The objects/words in the images – possible for target audience to recognize them, or be interested enough to research on them. Again assume audience to be attracted to film, photography, art, and also literature (novels and poems). (taking this from Morrissey who assumed his audience to be well-read and “intelligent”)
4. Apply some of the theories used to analyse music videos
• The album cover and mag ad does not feature our performer – not using her to promote album or star image. (Andrew Goodwin) using various artistic (?) images to create a representation of ourselves as a different sort of band, not a mainstream one.

Photos of the group. (Hafsah, Estelle, and Becca)

Magazine Advert ...?

i used the CD cover for the magazine add as i thought it best to follow the conventions of real media products and show a relationship between the magazine advert and the digipak - the image is the same, and there is hardly any lettering. the lettering itself is simple and unpretentious, which reflects on the artists themselves.

Six Slides of Digipak

 

 

(i don't know how to rotate this image...)

i asked vishal for feedback on the six slides i'd done previously, and he liked most of them - the hand with the writing on it, the book...- but he said to maybe put  an outline around the word "Resume" on the CD cover, and i had put writing on the picture with the statue, but there was way too much going on, the image looks better on its own, so instead i placed the writing on the photo of the man with the violin. i also changed the colour of all the writing from white to a light grey. the white i thought was too sharp and bright, and the grey was more subtle and fit well with the overall feel of the six slides.

CD - Lyrics book?

the picture is my own - it's of water, in the bathroom sink.
anyway since we're going for interesting photos for the digipak, i thought this photo would be appropriate for the lyrics book that's part of the CD contents.

Digipak Drafts - DVD Contents

Bigmouth Strikes Again - Music Video



Behind The Scenes - Filming Days

Behind The Scenes - Editing Days

Bloopers

Short Film (to showcase the band's creativity - i used stills from the work we did last year, since it looks like a film our band would create)

Live Performances (these are stills of videos i took when i went to an Emilie Autumn concert)

Interviews

• Behind the scenes – editing days: videos that show how we edited the music video
• Behind the scenes – filming days: how we went about filming the music video; entertainment for the fans.
• Bigmouth strikes again music video
• Bloopers: again for the enjoyment of the audience, funny scenes etc
• Interviews: our thoughts and ideas, information about ourselves, explanations about the music video and band name and album name and songs etc
• Live performances: might make the fans want to see us live and experience it for themselves
• Short film: showcase our creativity, strengthen the “myths” surrounding us (roland barthes) and our band, our representation that we are elegant, sensitive, intelligent etc
• Lyrics book: help the fans not miss anything and understand all that we are saying
• Director’s commentary: explanations, back stories of some of the shots, something for the audience, more information
• Photos: for the fans again, photos of each and all band members. Star image and a way for audiences to connect with artists (emotional attachment). Artists are like gods in a way, images depicting them are treasured and idealised, the artists become icons.
• T-shirt logos/images of album cover and band that you can print out and iron on your shirt or any fabric: something for the fans

Comments on Music Video on FB and YT

Digipak Photographs Explanations

The Smiths got their name because Morrissey said he chose it because it was the most ordinary name and it was time the ordinary folks to rise. Also, Rebecca told me there was a band named "James". With all of this, I thought Jane would be a good name, and it reminded of Jane Eyre, and how the characters in the book said Jane was a plain girl.
The album name I got from a poem by Dorothy Parker. Her poem was called "Résumé" which is French for "summary". The poem goes as follows:
"Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live."
The poem is about suicide, and I thought it was appropriate because the narrator of the poem seems to fell detached and isolated from their environment, and so does our performer. "Résumé" is also a good album name to describe the album itself, as the album could be a "summary" of the performer/band's life.

The album cover picture is a still from the film "Huckleberry Finn" 1985, in which Patrick day plays Huck Finn. In this particular still Huck is being pursued and to avoid being caught  he disguises himself as a girl. Our performer in the music video also cross dressed, playing with gender, and bringing in Judith Butler's gender trouble: gender is no longer seen as fixed identities i.e. male = masculine, female = feminine. In this way our album cover is related to our music video.

The other pictures are all photographs I took at various times.

The photo of the book and the photographic film I took around three years ago one beautiful Sunday morning on a whim. It was all an accident that I noticed what I was seeing would make a good photo. The colour original looks really good, maybe even better than the black and white version, but all the images need to go well together, and I couldn't seem to get all the colours to work together.

The next image is that of some flowers. This is also a photo I took a number of years ago. It’s a photo of my gloved hand holding the little flowers at an angle. I didn’t really have a reason for taking a picture of it. I selected it for the Digipak because I was thinking of Morrissey – when asked why he was always holding flowers, Morrissey replied that flowers are beautiful and charming and they don’t hurt anyone.

This frame underneath is a photo belonging to “the little black jacket” project I saw when for  photography (the subject) we were taken to the Saatchi gallery. I don’t know if we were allowed to, but I took many pictures while looking around. This is only a section of the original image – I had to crop it to get only that photo. I don’t know who the man, but he looks sad and alone, playing the violin as if to comfort himself – the mood fits our themes.

Last year I went to France to meet my mother and brother, for the summer. My mother took me to “Le Musée de Rodin” and again I took many pictures. This is one of Rodin’s statues. I don’t know what it’s called because I forgot to take a picture of its name, but the statue’s body language is full of anguish and although our theme isn’t as intense, the photo and the statue go well with the other photographs.

The last photo is of my hand with writing on it. this photo I had to take while doing the digipak draft because I couldn’t find a fifth image that would look good with the other images, so I quickly decided to write something on my hand with a biro, because that thought had been on my mind all day that day. At first I was going to write one bold word on it, like “love” or something, like I had seen people do on the internet (and because it was 11pm and I was really really tired).  But then I thought it would be more interesting to cover my whole hand in writing – it looks better, and also I liked the thought of people wondering what is written on the hand and trying to read it, because humans are curious by nature and want to know everything. So I looked through my poem book and selected one by W. H. Auden named “Song: Stop all the clocks”, because it is about loss and I liked it. After I finished I realised not enough of my hand was covered in writing, so around the main poem by Auden I loosely wrote bits of the poem “The Walk” by Thomas Hardy. I then used my coat for the black background (I had to make-do with what I had) and took pictures of the written-on hand in various angles. It was difficult to make my hand look limp and natural, you can’t see it but my arm was all twisted as I had to bend and stoop to take the picture. Out of all the ones I took this was my favourite.

I turned the photos black and white because i didn't want the colours distracting the eye from the composition, and also "the memory of childhood" is something that seems part of our themes - the photos aren't sepia, as if if the person could remember strongly enoough they'd be able to get back their memories vividly in colour again, but they're black and white, all the colours drained out.

Names of the songs on the album

NAMES FOR SONGS:

Jane. - (name of band)
Mother Dearest. (Summons feelings of maternal longing)
Night Terror. (Children have them)
The Girl Who Ran Away. (Awkwardness, shyness, being scared)
T(ea) (British drink.. Um... British band... Identifying with british culture.)
Big Mouth Strikes Again. (Music video song)
Girl Afraid. (Smiths song.. Title could be equated to awkwardness.. Shyness.. Being scared. Etc)
To The Old House. ('Back to the Old House' smiths song)
Pick and Mix. (Sweets. Childlike. Nostalgic.)
Card House. (Reference to cards in music video and to the song 'happy house' by siouxsie and the banshees)
Unhappy Birthday (summons past memories of childhood birthdays. Also smiths song)

Digipak Draft

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