What We Have Done So Far...

 We have already discussed how music is a creativity where the industry comes and draws millions out of an artists. The pop video is a important synergetic campaign of an artists song and is just one strand of it. In our A2 course we are going to look at pop videos and eventually create our own and the beginning of the new academic year. We have looked at how there are different elements of a music video this being; performance, narrative, thematic and symbolic. The concept of stars and stardom and how the term 'star' refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience. 

The first theorist that we looked at was Richard Dyer. Richard Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music. He rised the argument that 'a star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed out of a range of materials' and that 'stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings'. This is looking at the idea of finding a gap in the market and creating an artist to fill this gap. 

He also says that 'The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer'

Example of this could be Robbie Williams. He is the sort of character you can see yourself going and having a drink with but on stage he is 'untouchable'.

'Guy Next Door'                   'Untouchable'



I looked at Beyonce and her star image. She has two different images; a star image and a wife and mother image. 

If you look at these images you get very different aspects of Beyonce. While she is quite clearly a mother and looks as though she is a good mother figure and wife she is also an extremely attractive women who performs and delivers on stage.

The star image is mean to keep the audience interested in the star and who they are.

START OF A2...

 We have now started A2 and have been introduced to the music industry side of media studies. I cant believe that a year has passed and we are now onto our second year of media studies. I feel this is going to be an interesting area to work with this year. Music is a very subjective area as everyone has different music taste. 
The whole focus of A2 is looking at the music industry and music videos as well as looking at different theorist and how there concepts have relate to music artists. 

My personal music taste is quite wide. While I am open to most music and listen to a range of music types I find myself mostly listening to artists like;
'Benjamin Francis Leftwich'
'Bastile'
'Passenger' 
'Gabrielle Aplin'

Some people would say that this is a fairly 'Alternative' music taste. While I find myself listening mainly to that sort of music I am also a fan of 'Example' and have seen him many times live and recently went to ASAP Rocky who is a rapper.

I would say that much of my music taste is more 'organic' artists. The 'organic' artist theory and concept I will no dough be talking about a grate deal in my upcoming log posts. 

This is a the music video to one of my favourite songs at the moment. 'Let her go, by Passenger'. Although I myself would consider him as more of an unknown artist recently he has become more well known and the song has started to be played more on the radio. 

Audience Feed Back

To collect the information for our audience feedback, we asked a range of people to watch our thriller and answer some questions. We did this in order to see what people thought of our thriller and to see what we could have done better, what went wrong and what went right and also seeing if the audience understood what our thriller was about. Generally our thriller has had a lot of positive feedback. The audience that that it had a good story line and it was well acted.

Our intentions by using the quick editing and camera movements were to show the panic, urgency and  severity of her stress leading her to take the pill. The feedback from our audience showed that this was portrayed in a successful way. Everyone in the feedback guessed that our movie was a zombie movie which was an aspect that was key to get through in our sequence. We got some mixed feedback, lots being positive but also a fair bit being negative. The negative feedback was mainly people not being able to make the connection between the drug causing the zombie attack stating that we did not show the story line clearly enough. 

This goes back to our original idea being everyone walking round taking a pill. This was shown in the story boards. However we changed this idea as we felt it was too obvious and was spelling out the plot too much. We then went to the other extreme and did not make it clear enough in our actual production. When planning the sequence we were so involved in the story line that we knew the whole concept. It has not struck me until now that as a result of this it did not make me think that others would not know what was going on. We thought that by showing an extreme close up of the pill being put down on the shelf that people would have made the connection between this and the attack at the end. Although listening to this feedback and looking back the our video I can see how confusion could have been caused as it was all very quick, although we did this on purpose to portray the panic of the character. 

On the positive side of things the audience commented that the way we edited it to slowly evolve the plot intrigued the audience. Some did not understand why she was taking the pills. We gave the idea that she was under a stressful situation and in a mode of panic. We had to be careful what we did and did not give away otherwise there would be be point in the rest of the film. 

Overall, I am generally happy with the feedback that we collected. Even those which were negative as I am now able to learn from these and apply them to my next peace of work. Saying this I am also very pleased with those comments which were positive. The feedback was mostly positive indicating that the thriller successfully fulfilled our intensions for our target audience. 

Some Feedback Answers:

Jess Adam -

Q. What do you think the basic plot of this thriller is?
A. About a pill that makes you eat people.

Q. What are the key strengths of this thriller?
A. The shots and sounds linking with how she feels.

Q. How do you think it could be made more effective?
A. I think there could be more dialogue.


Tatiana Middleton -

Q. What do you think the basic plot of this thriller is?
A. Someone takes drugs and they either overdose or they are faulty drugs and eventually kills them.

Q. What are the key strengths of this thriller?
A. The music was a good choice especially in key moments where it stops and starts, it creates anticipation.

Q. How do you think it could be made more effective?
A. Perhaps if we saw the pill she took at the beginning otherwise it was very good.

Alexandra Werner -

Q. What do you think the basic plot of this thriller is?
A. Someone has taken a faulty drug and turned into a zombie.

Q. What are the key strengths of this thriller?
A. Loved the various angles and camera shots it kept me very engaged.

Q. How do you think it could be made more effective?
A. Some white noise in the background in parts.


Izzy Macleod -

Q. What do you think the basic plot of this thriller is?
A. Tablet to keep zombies from coming out.

Q. What are the key strengths of this thriller?
A. I liked the jumpy camera movements and how sudden the zombie attack was.

Q. How do you think it could be made more effective?
A. I thought at the girl was a drug addict at the beginning.

Evaluation Task 7:

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the product:

Looking back on the preliminary task there is a huge difference between it and our thriller. There is quite clearly a huge contrast in the camera work, mise en scene, editing and sound. By looking back on these preliminary tasks and comparing them to the work we have now done with our thrillers you can see how as individuals and groups we have progressed hugely. Our preliminary task was about someone being pressured into vandalising someones house while our thriller is about a zombie attack due to a complication in a trial drug. 

Firstly, the camera work is something that I personally feel shows a huge progression. The preliminary task shows very basic camera work such as; basic wide shots, close-up shots, over-the-shoulder shots. Although on the day we did experiment with a pan shot. This was about as advanced as we got. Although we only used very basic camera work this was very important to from a foundation in learning how to operate the camera. The camera work that we incorporated into our thriller was much more advanced than this. As a result of this it made the thriller more effective. Of course we incorporated basic shots like wide shots, close-ups, and over the shoulder shots but we also experimented with camera work that consisted of us shaking the camera and moving it around when following the main camera. This was done in the bathroom scene and we used in order to express the panic and shakiness of the main character. It was also used to create more of an effect and to cause the audience to feel less at ease. We used a lot of camera work in our thriller that would create panic and unease for the audience in order to make it more effective. We also incorporated whip shots, tracking shots and pan shots. We also experimented with shots slowly zooming into the main characters as well as following her actions. It is very clear that our camera work in our thriller is much more advanced as we had time to prepare and had also learnt a lot in the time between these tasks. We also had to think more about the shots we wanted to use for our thriller as it key that we create tension and anxiety through the piece. 

The screen grabs show a range of camera work. From the prelim you can see how there is a variety of over-the-shoulder and close-up. The screen grab from my thriller shows a part where we are following the main character and the camera is tracking round.

The mise en scene was used to create meaning in both tasks. In our preliminary task we were in the studio where there was a set built of the inside area of a house. This made it prefect for the context of our theme. In order to help create the mise en scene our actors also had hoodies and flat caps on. Although we did think about the mise en scene for our prelim it was much more basic then the mise en scene of our thriller. Again much more preparation and though went into our thriller. We had all the characters dress accordingly to what they were doing; this being smart and in an interview environment. We also had a pill bottle with pills in, this enabled communicating our concept to be very clear. We had a cold dark looking bathroom which helped create and build tension. We also had an interview room creating then environment we wanted. For the nose bleed and the cough up of the blood we had fake blood. All of these aspects added together helped create a successful environment and helped communicate our concept.

The editing in our prelim is much more basic then the editing in our thriller. When it came to editing our prelim it was our first time using Final Cut Pro. Therefore the editing techniques were very basic and are very jumpy. The editing of the different shots does not flow and is quite clearly cuts from one shot to the other. Although the editing on our prelim was not that effective and was very basic it was a very useful way into introducing us to Final Cut Pro and made it much easier for us when it came to editing our thriller. The editing process for our thriller has been much more time consuming and a much longer process. We have incorporated many different things and trialled many different techniques as well. As a group we have thought carefully about the editing and how it should be done in order to make it as effective as possible. We have created jumpy cuts following the main characters movement at the beginning to help express to panic and stress and also to cause the audience to be less at ease. We then slowed down the pace of the cut and made it more flowing after she had taken the drugs to help communicate that she is feeling calmer. The final part of the sequence has been a key part of the editing and allot of though and effort has gone into it in order to make it as effective as possible. The camera work and editing are key aspects that have lived along side each other that have been far more advanced in my thriller compared to the preliminary task. 

The screen grab shows how we have edited to cut from the girl passing the spray paint to the handover in our prelim task.

In our preliminary task the only sounds used at the natural sounds around and dialog. This I feel does not make it very effective. Although without this dialogue the point would not have been put across and people would not understand what it was about. The sound in our thriller is much more effective and has much more of a variety. We have used both dialogue and sound effects. We have heightened some sounds such as the running water of the tap, shouting and breathing. This has all added tension into our thriller. We have also added in some sound effects in order to make it more effective. We have used sounds such as scratching, drum sounds, eating sounds to make the ending more gory. These sounds that we have added have made such a difference to our sequence and has instantly heightened the tension and effect to the effect on the piece. Screams and shouts have also been added as the once recorded on the day were not realistic enough. All of these aspects have added to our thriller and made it hugely more effective than our prelim.

The difference in the organisation and preparation that went into the two tasks is substantial. While barely any preparation went into the preliminary task since it was purely as an introduction to using the camera and Final Cut Pro. On the other hand, weeks and months of preparation went into organising our thriller. We produced folders, story boards, cast lists, scripts, location research, 2nd and 3rd drafts, shooting schedules and many other things. Many changes went on throughout this process. This was very important in order for it all to go as planned and as smoothly as possible on the day and also to make sure you get a decent product at the end of it. The shooting schedule was a very important part of the day and the organisation of the group and the cast as well. There was a huge amount of organisation and preparation that went into our thriller but things still changed on the day. One part that we did not organise very well was the fact that we left the large part of the sequence until the end of the day and this was the area we needed to concentrate on the most. As we left it till the end of the day it cause this part of the sequence to be rushed as we were shooting in the conservatory and were running out of light. This was part of bad organisation and not thinking about this part of the day very well. We have managed to work around this in the editing. 

As a group I feel we have worked very well together and have split the responsibilities reasonably well. We have all be fairly organised through this and have each put in a lot of effort. Our groups for the prelim and thriller have been different but I feel that both groups for each task worked well together and everyone got on well. 

Evaluation task 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?



To show how we have used technologies in the process of constructing our product we have annotated it via You Tube. If the annotations do not appear click on the 'show annotations' tab.

Evalustion task 5:

Evaluation Tast 4:

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Films in the zombie genre films generally have quite a wide range audience. The main film that we looked at as research for our thriller was 28 days later. Looking at the viewings that this got, males took the largest target audience, males and females under 18 had the highest votes at 7.9. Generally the ratings decreased as the audiences got older yet although the votes did not change very much over the ages 18-44. The votes did drop considerably when it gets to aged 45 plus. 

We would hope to award our film a certificate of 15 although due to the film containing blood, violence and gore this may not be possible and the film then may have to take a certificate of 18. This would cut out a large element of our target audience as generally the young adult audience is what our thriller is aimed for. 

The mainstream films teens go and see these days are action films for boys and for girls would be a chick flick. Our thriller does not really fit into either of these although there would be some scenes of action. Therefore I feel that our film would appeal to those who feel slightly outside the mainstream and want to go and see something different. This being the target audence of the Alternatives. This kids are more into gaming, skating and possibly even emoes. They would be more open-minded and less likely to be influenced by their peers.
To the left you can see the media consumption for the alternative tribe; this shows that they are fairly catered for in the cinema. This is positive as they would come and see the film. 
I would think that before our film holds a female role that this would cause the film to appeal to a female audience. Therefor our first audience target would be for the female alternative tribe. 


Name: Jess 

Age: 17 

Tribe: 'Alternative'

Into: Zombie Thrillers, passionate about music and friends and surfing the net. Like to go and see films that not everyone is going to see; doesn't like to 'follow the crowd'

Our secondary primary audience would be much the same yet focus on a male audience. Yes, this would still incorporate the alternative tribe but it would also bring in the mainstream male population. As the gore and violence would attract the general male audience. This would range between the ages of 16 to approximately mid 40's. 



Name: Andy 

Age: 19

Tribe: Alternative/Emo

Into: Loves zombie and horror films. Work in an arcade store. Into heavy metal music and rock.



Secondary audience we would reach out to an older male, preferably mid 30/40s. I chose this as the secondary audience as generally zombie movies are enjoyed and watched by all. My first and second primary audience were under the young adult male and females alternative tribe bracket but others would also enjoy watching zombie movies. The IMBD chart shows the males ages 30s/40s are also a huge part of the mass zombie audience. 

The good thing about zombie movies is that generally they have a wide target audience ranging from 16 - mid 40s. This is shown in the chart taken from the IMBD website with the viewings from 28 days later, yet this applies to many other zombie genre movies.