#a2media

This is just a brief post to help navigate my blog for marking:

Planning and research

https://callumwaldockmedia.tumblr.com/tagged/planningandresearch

Pre-Production

https://callumwaldockmedia.tumblr.com/tagged/preproduction

Production

https://callumwaldockmedia.tumblr.com/tagged/production

Post Production

https://callumwaldockmedia.tumblr.com/tagged/postproduction

Evaluation

***Part of Evaluation question 3***

Despite analysing an earlier version in my evaluative pieces, I have since been able to improve upon some of the flaws that I believe the first draft had. This is the finished, updated version of the poster. 

Further explanation on this is given in evaluation question 3.

Final focus group - knowledge gained and reflection.

This focus group was largely reassuring to us, in that most of the comments did not criticize our decisions to too much of an extent!

Question 1 -  (rather ostentatiously asked):  “What did you like about the music video?” Immediately followed by Question 2 - “So, what could be improved upon?”

   A large amount of the praise for the video was due to some of the advanced editing that we were able to incorporate, specifically fade editing as the band appears in the shot next to Lola, then seemingly disappears a few moments later. Anthony commented that the editing could “portray a voice in (Lola’s) head”. This shows how we were able to expertly toy with the concept of the psyche of Lola and how gender corruption can leave some individuals feeling unstable or mentally strayed, to some extent.     People also talked about how the urban mis-en-scene of Stokes Croft was extremely effective, and given that we interviewed the girl that first suggested this location for shooting, we were very pleased to hear that we had recreated the image that she had in mind effectively. It is worth noting though, that whilst the location devices in the mis-en-scene, as well as the “70′s vibe” was very effective at creating a strong sense of image; one criticism we did receive was that we needed to better our “makeup skills”!  Whilst Zoe said this with a smile, we concluded that it was important as it must have slightly corrupted our continuity that we desired,  in reflection, you can see the mascara not properly making an impact with the eye, so at times the video did lose some of its feasibility.  A final issue we were made aware of was that, despite our attempts to stabilize some of our shots via the Warp-Stabilizer, a few of the shots still appeared quite “shaky”. If After effects tools were not sufficient to remedy this, in hindsight, we should have viewed shots on the camera at the scene of shooting and then re-shot. In colder areas, we could have used skin-tight gloves on the cameraman so that they could still make contact with the camera, but reduce shaking from the cold. An example is given below of the professional gloves with a conductive material, that I believe we should have invested in to fix this issue if we were to repeat this process. 

Question 3 - “What did you think of the narrative focus?”

The overall feedback here was very positive, and one of the stand-out comments that I took from this was “you have shown the personality of the band, whilst incorporating a narrative”. This comment was very helpful as it provided us reassurance that the inclusion of the band felt natural in the narrative, where it could easily have felt out-of-place. By extension, it demonstrated that we have successfully followed the part narrative part performance format in general which is an intricate format for a music video.

I decided to creatively take on the task of answering this question in the format of a magazine interview with ‘Director, Callum Waldock’ under the self-titled magazine “Media Excite Weekly” - with the article named: “Advanced Media Technology, feeder of arrogance or filmmakers commodity?”

Audience feedback has been hugely influential in the decisions that we have made, even on the basis of our ideas to the recent critical evaluation at the end of this project.

Focus group 1.0

Before we actually conducted any proper work into the script-writing or even storyboarding of our basic ideas we all came to the agreed realization that conducting a focus group out of a range of members who suited our target audience of ‘open-minded teenage middle-class teenage’ demographic so that we had second opinions on some of our basic ideas. This proved hugely helpful to us and it even literally influenced the setting of the location Stokes Croft entirely where we had not even considered this prior to taking the focus group. Specifically, within the focus group, when we mention how we are aiming for a ‘seedy’ set ‘artistic environment, Ann replies that Stokes Croft is “really artistic” and “less mainstream yer arty”. Upon further research, we realised that this example of audience suggestion was completely validated as it suited exactly the tone of this section of the narrative, that we intended to create. The below screenshot presents the shots that we were able to achieve, having followed Ann's advice:

The initial verbal response to our ideas also heavily reinforced our premise that a narrative and performance style production would be feasible for us a team. They all agreed that this would diversify the piece and bring higher spectator interest to the music video. It was also commented that ‘if you can link the two together - then it works’ and this comment heavily resonated with us as it led us to construct our idea of a band that is physically next to Lola but does not acknowledge her presence as a means of reflecting the metaphorical barrier that Lola has between herself and the acceptance she desired from greater society. The below screenshot presents how comments like this influenced some of the cross performance/ narrative intersections in the music video.

It is worth noting that whilst we did not receive any audience feedback in the form of criticism in our opening focus group (given that there was no content yet to criticise!) We did receive some ideas that we chose to deviate from entirely upon consideration as we knew that maintaining respect and by extension, not generating any negative emotive response in the music video was paramount when tackling personal identity issues. 

Also of note here in the first focus group was the mention from some people of the importance of followability in the music video - in that the idea could become so outlandish that people lose sight of what we are actually portraying. This was almost accentuated sometime later when it was suggested that we could delve into a comedic genre with this because it proved to us from the early days of production that we needed clear mis-en-scene and shots that showed a serious depiction of a video tackling gender identity properly without any feelings of belittlement being passed on from us. An example is given in the below still from the video of some of the carefully considered shots/mis-en-scene we established to create this thoughtful image.

Initial responses on YouTube

The above comment was taken from the music video from an unknown individual and we found it incredibly helpful to us as it confirmed to us that we had completed some of our intentions whilst also providing us with ways to improve on our production if we were to repeat the task. Even receiving any form of criticism regardless whether it was positive or negative was hugely helpful to us as it conforms to the idea of the web 2.0 world where we have students have the opportunity to be regarded like a professional media outlet. The comment did inform us that at times the flow of the video was partially disrupted as a result of the length of a few shots. We also noted this but decided to maintain the length of some shots (in allowing some to go on for longer amounts of time than others) as it created a stronger sense of rhythm in the shot types which as a result meant that a juxtaposing portrayal of the conflicted emotions in Lola was presented. This example presented to us that some people will differ in view from your team in some of your creative choices and sometimes it is acceptable to maintain your original intentions if you have reasoning to keep it.

Similarly to the previous comment, Finlay's comment here is overall very positive and further proves to us that we have succeeded in creating a good sense of ‘followability’. He does mention, however (as the previous comment also did) that there was a slight issue with the colour or perhaps lack of lighting in the final shots that we took in Weston. We were also aware of this and tried to correct it via the Three Way Colour Corrector in After Effects, but as mentioned, this left a slight unusual undertone to the colouring. Given the combined criticism to it, we should have considered reshooting some of these shots or spending more time in the editing stage trying to correct the colouring as it would have dramatically improved the films aesthetic. Finlay also mentions here about the ‘contrast in colour profiles’ which is a concept that we were actually unaware of until we read this comment. In hindsight and through research, I now understand the importance of maintaning some recurring colours across the entire video as opposed to constantly contrasting them as this maked the music video subliminally more coherent to a viewer. I make note of the issue he is presenting in the below screenshot as it presents the stark contrast in colour that feels unnecessary, to an extent.

Focus Group 2.0

I also provide Feedback on the second focus group in the form of a personal podcast on SoundCloud in which I discuss some of the choices that I made.

https://soundcloud.com/user-979126594/second-focus-group-podcast

Click the above link 

Transcript

.The second Focus group was probably the most important feedback we had because of the loose conversational style, which meant that we received a natural set of opinions on the choices we made and ultimately the product that we made. .There was a lot of positive comments suggesting that specifically one of our main highlights was that we emulated the sense of a metaphysical presence in Lola’s mind very well, this means that we explored the abstract feelings that gender confliction carries with it.   As well as this, we received a lot of flattery for the well-considered mis-en-scene especially for developing the “rock and roll aspect”. I would agree that the dramatic focus via the slider shots at extreme close up reflected the dramatic dependency that Lola had on alcohol as a substance. 

There were also some key areas that could have been improved.  (which is arguably more important feedback as it shows how we could better ourselves in the future).

.One comment that was critical for me was when Zoe mentioned that the mascara did not make proper contact with the eye. This led me to consider how breaking the believability of the narrative is extremely dangerous as it spoils the sense of audience inclusions in the world that you create as a media producer .We also received some comments mentioning shaking in the camera. This I feel was quite inevitable in the shooting circumstances given the freezing temperatures. However, in the future, I would consider purchasing some skin tight gloves so that shaking could be dramatically reduced.

We realised from the first shooting day that some shots we had planned on in the storyboard were either totally unfeasible or could be very much improved via a more creative new idea.     A notable example of this is our unscheduled use of a low-angle, time-lapse whilst Lola stands abandoned against a wall in one of the Stokes Croft shoots. Whilst the shot originally looked as he had hoped, the time-lapse was too short as it lasted only 4 seconds when sped up which did not create the desired effect. We concluded that the low-angle was hugely effective as it portrayed the expectations of the world looking up to what Lola should categorically be as a gender; as well as creating a stark and effective shadow in front of him as a figure, further metaphorically presenting the darkened and embarrassed state of existence he leads. However, we realised that the duration needs to be lengthened as we discovered that this type of shot is very time-consuming (given that you need to leave the subject in position for a minimum of 10 minutes to get measurable time-lapse to include in a music video). We, therefore, had to get Lola to remain perfectly still for this time period and then allowed the general public to go about their business whilst walking through the shot. This created an illusion of loneliness in Lola as other people moved past him whilst he remained still looking down which connotes an emotional depiction of weakness and defeat.  

Above is a still of part of the time-lapse portraying the low angle and the effectively positioned shadow against the graffiti stricken wall.

A logistical difficulty in the shooting generally was also attempting to shoot the band generally because we had to properly organise a time in which the entire crew and cast were available to shoot. We needed to set up the drum kit in various locations around Ned’s room which is physically demanding, as well as framing the band so that they could look subliminally present but not in Lola’s line of sight as this would break the continuity of Lola not acknowledging the band. We chose to make this decision as the lack of interaction between the band and Lola presents the disconnected and lonely nature of her/his character. The following shot ultimately was hard to achieve because of the framing, the band needed to surround Lola and be at contrasting height levels for it to look properly staged to an audience.