Ancillary Tasks

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

My music video and ancillary tasks are very much a deliberate look at the same theme. All three have war imagery combined with subversive anti-commercial content and mode of display. I feel my combination of ancillary and main task is especially effective in terms of my target audience and genre. All fit into audience likes and desires in products. The appearance of bucking the trend may well be appealing to the band's following. The band often use stories as lyrics rather than introspective lyrics often found in music. This story led ethos means creating a world within the listeners head. I feel my products help to achieve this.

The encroaching dark at the bottom of my magazine advert gives a hint towards the darker feel of the video. The Russian theme can be found in the lyrics the font of the album cover and advert. Red is another prominent factor, it has obvious connotations of blood and violence. It can be found as the background of my album and of the set. I think the strong red and grim imagery will make the album striking on the shelves of a music store. My entire colour scheme of all three pieces in essentially red, yellow and black, grey and white. No greens or blue or vibrant colours are used. This helps to achieve the sombre atmosphere around my pieces. My magazine advert is one of the stop motion frames from my video so has a very strong link. The grain is a reoccurring motif, essential for the band to remain in the forefront of the viewers mind by heavily associating them with a symbol. I thought the grain symbol appropriate as it is in the lyrics and fits in with the band's other work which include many pastoral themes. Another motif i would've liked to have universal across the products is barbed wire. I think it looks very effective on the album cover and could've easily been incorporated into the advert. Real barbed wire would've made an sinister and effective prop for my video. Military symbols were however used, in my advert the soldier, my album cover barbed wire and my video there are numerous references including: soldiers, drums and skulls. All three pieces have a old feel to them, this adds interest as well as unity. It fits well with the theme and the band's ethos of being interested in history. The pieces also feel 'rustic' clinical modern sharp lines and metal surfaces are far removed from my products. I also used the same two fonts in advert and album cover. The Russian title font, which i thought was striking. I imagine it is an image rarely seen in magazines and therefore be memorable. I also used a 'olde worlde' font for the smaller pieces of text. I think my album over is fairly
minimal which would also stand out against other covers.

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

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

i didn't make the story readable enough, the lyrics and pictures dont state clearly enough the Russian part.



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mise en scene
set
props
didnt get tedious
stop motion went down well
pins
head out of grain
creative
'obscure'
flames
red lighting
relevant but not typical
steady and flowing
lyrics and content match well
symbolism
interesting gripping
different time effort
powerful
storyline

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repetitive
drags on a bit
drums not in synch
shakey
what is with the peanuts
"not much of an obvious story line but parts of the video matched the lyrics"
'couldnt see soldiers in one shot'

Of the 20 odd evaluation sheets i had about 17 were level 4 and 3 were level 3. Most found it on the whole effective, though many found the end of the video failed to keep the audiences attention. Many said the ideas were imaginative and a good sense of mise en scene.

Feedback i received from a friends as i edited resulted in several changes in my piece, bit he didn't like were pointed out and addressed. For example continuity errors such as the head having red in it mouth before what shouldve been a shot of the initial dribble.

Do you accept the comments of your audience or would you want to challenge them?

I would challenge those commenting on the pace, mainly as they are not my target audience. My piece is not a standard piece for the music industry as a whole. It is very much niche and aimed at an audience who are interested in more arty conceptual pieces. I would challenge those who said the story didnt make sense as there isn't really a story just images that i felt related to the feel and message of the song. My piece conforms to the work of the decemberists.

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

conforms to 'indie' but against video 'norm' no band shots not particularly related to lyrics, stop motion, budget, however there is a linear normal narrative, no people, pace, art, conforms to hazards of love visualised-an album long music video for the decemberists. The video uses a slow pace and also doesn't include any real people, drawn animation, stop animation dominate the video, however hands are used in conjunction with a model set, much like in my video. Though in mine they are real hands doing real things kind of 'diagetic' if i can use that word. Where as in the hazards of love they act as trees. It terms of the band's musical genre the video conforms to an indie/folk look.

Me and a friends facebook discussion abnout my work

do you think it is worth re doing the drum shot at a nicer angle and with slightly more realistic playing?

Harry O'Callaghan: yeah, maybe a shot similar to the one you had and an HD close up of the tips hitting the skin
btw i love the bit when the head comes out of the grains i also when you make it go all red like 2/3 in i think you should keep it for the lighter shots?

Jack Sauverin: yeaboy that is the best shot. have you noticed where it flicks to a pic of my bro in the same pose as the head?

Harry O'Callaghan: HAHA! no?! defo searching it for that now :P

Jack Sauverin: the red shots thougharent post producion it was using a red light so i would mean redoingthe shot and some cant redone as it was a one off thing, like burning shit or the blood and it is the last frame of the head coming from grain stop motin sequence

Harry O'Callaghan: AH I SAW IT. its awesome.
you could add that red in post though?

Jack Sauverin: yea i could but not in shitty movie maker. and i dont want to re make the whole thing in another program but i could take the clips i wanted red and redify them in a program save tem and then put them into my moviemaker file.
Harry O'Callaghan: could export the whole finished thing then jsut select where you wanted red. i think you can do that in the school whats it called. i cant remember.

Jack Sauverin: really i thought it might not be able to do that ad it would be saved as a continuous clip rather than scenes. but i suppose i can cut it up it might just be tricky. i could also reshoot some of the slightly out of focus shots and a few where you can see my shadow
another thing movie maker wouldnt let me do is put any effects on the pictures so they are all too bright. and i couldnt be arsed to photoshop everysingle one. ug i thought i was finished but i realised i have loads more to do. but i actually find it fun so i dont mind

Two working progress cuts of my media.