Changes in Light of Third Audience Feedback

As the only thing we were advised to do was to edit the rest of our footage to the same standard, we're going to do our best to make sure that our final cut is liked as much as our second. We can make sure that we're keeping up to our good standards by regularly showing our updates to the class and seeing what insights they have to offer.

Third Audience Feedback

Luckily, all the feedback we got for our second cut was completely positive and we didn't get any sort of criticism. The only thing we were advised to do was make sure we edited the rest of our footage to as good a standard as we've edited the rest.

Final Magazine Advert

We've finally got the final Magazine Advert ready:

Editing the Magazine Advert

We used Fotoflexer to edit the picture we used. We cropped the image to make the picture into the typical size of a magazine advert, and put a golden effect on it to represent the girls happiness when she's free and alone with nature.

We chose the fonts for the words Daughter and The Wild Youth EP as they look hand drawn and also feminine, representing the girls femininity and also her creativity. We chose the font for the words In Stores 04.02.13 as it also looks hand written, giving the advert a more personal feel and therefore making it more likely for audiences to relate to our main character.

We chose a logo for Communion Records with a green background instead of white because the green reflects the nature she's standing in.

Creating the Magazine Advert

We used this original image to elaborate off:

We originally took this photo in this particular field because you can't see any housing or roads from it, completely surrounding the girl by nature. This represents her wish to be free, and also represents her as innocent and natural, like her surroundings.

We chose to take this picture on an overcast day to represent her life via pathetic fallacy. 

Final Magazine Advert Idea Pros

We chose to use this because:

It is very similar to our digipak cover, which helps with recognition by audiences. 

The logo at the bottom will show the Communion Records logo, as this is what the original The Wild Youth EP was released on. We were going to put the logo at the bottom right to conform the natural line of sight, as the bottom right is the last thing audiences see and therefore remember better. We decided against this because it looked very odd compared to the rest of the advert, which looks quite symmetrical.

We will use the fonts we've used because they're the same as on the digipak and this also helps with recognition, as well as representing the girl's femininity and creativity. 

Final Magazine Advert Idea

We chose to use this idea to elaborate on:

Magazine Advert Planning

We sat together as a group and drew out some ideas for our Magazine Advert. We'll choose which one to elaborate on later.

Magazine Advert Ideas

We came up with a couple of drafts for our magazine advert:

Final Digipak

I feel as if we've worked together successfully to create this final digipak, and we've put it together onto a digipak template to show what it would look like if it was made.

Creating Spine and Inside of Digipak

Original images:

When we edited the original images, we used the same effect on Instagram as we did for the front and back covers - for continuity.

For the spine, we used Fotoflexer again so that we could use the same font. We created this:

Decided Inside and Spine of Digipak

We've decided on this draft to elaborate off for the inside and spine of our digipak

We've decided on this because once made properly, we think that it will look really good. We chose the model montage as seen in the product because it's one of the things that reflects her creativity and dreams of growing up, as she's surrounding herself with pictures of older women. For the spine we're going to use the same font as on the front of the digipak so the whole thing won't look clustered, but neat.

Inside and Spine of Digipaks planning

Together as a group we've come up with more ideas for the Digipak. These are drafts for what could potentially be the inside and spine. 

Final Digipak Front and Back Covers

We took these pictures of my sister in a field near my house, and we chose it because it links in with nature a lot. This association makes the girl out to be natural and free, and she looks happy in her surroundings, showing her happiness comes from being free. We used a golden effect on the image to give it a warmer feel, which also contributes to the idea of happiness. 

We chose the font used for the word Daughter as it looks childlike, linking in to the main character. The flowers on the U also express her femininity. The feminine childlike feel represents the girl as vulnerable, reflecting her character in the video well.

The font used for the EP title and song titles was used because each letter is very different and creative, also reflecting on the girl's character. 

We've yet to upload the images for the inside of our digipak

Creating the Digipak

For our Digipak, we took the original images before using Instagram to make them more defined and put on a golden glow effect to make the images seem happier and warmer.

...

After this we used Fotoflexer to add text to our digipak. We'll explain why we chose the particular fonts in the next blog post.

Final digipak idea

As a group we have decided to use an image of drawn, flying birds for both inside covers of the Digipak. This is linked in with the video as there is a theme of birds and we also see the girl creating them throughout, either by drawing, painting, modelling or imagining. The simply drawn birds represent youth, the title of the song in our music video, and the childlike theme suggests vulnerability in the main character. 

Decisions and Group Work

We sat around a table as a group when we created the digipaks so that we could easily contribute ideas. We're currently weighing the pros and cons of each idea so we can build off the best one.

As we worked we asked the opinions of other groups' members to see which idea was most commonly liked.

Digipak drafts

Me and my group have come up with different ideas for our digipak as a group, and we're currently looking at them all to see which idea we like the most and can build on.

created by: Arthur. 

Arthur liked the idea of having an image from two different perspectives for the front and back covers of our digipaks to resemble situations seen from different perspectives.

created by: Fran

I liked the idea of using birds on the digipak to represent freedom (referring to the girl's creativity and freedom at the end of the video) and her shadow showing the doll too, to represent how the doll's a figment of her imagination.

created by: Tom

Tom wanted to use an image of the band on the front of the digipak for recognition purposes, but he wanted to change the font usually used by the band as it added a personalised edge from our group.

created by: Fran

I tried to recreate the shadow idea but with a mirror, so it was more clear what was the girl's imagination and real life. Birds can be seen in the mirror but yet not in reality.

created by: Fran

I elaborated on Arthur's idea because I really liked it. I thought it would be a good idea to have things in the girl's imagination shown on the front, such as the doll and the birds, yet to have the real image from the back to show the make believe aspect

Second Cut of Final Product

This is the second cut of our music video. We're going to get some more audience feedback and then we're going to use this to help us get the best results for our final cut.

Changes in light of 2nd Audience Feedback

We have discussed the idea of putting a blur effect on the monster as suggested, but have decide against it, as it would distort continuity. We have, however, decided that we'll do our best to avoid the scene looking "cheesy" and "tacky" by not showing the face of the monster at all, but only seeing hair dangling over it.

Although we didn't intend to create a power divide between the parents, we have agreed with our fellow classmates that there does appear to be one We're not going to re-film, though, as we feel the power divide adds even more to the idea of unbalance in the family.

We disagree with the classmate who said that the mother looks happy in the argument scene, so we're not going to re-film this either.

Second Audience Feedback

A few weeks ago we showed our music videos to the rest of the class. We showed our first cut, and we gained some relevant feedback:

• The is part of the product which has no footage at the moment, which we intend to fill with a monster emerging from a cupboard symbolising the young girls fears. We were told that this would be hard to make without looking "cheesy" and therefore we should add an effect to it, like a blur effect to make it look more scary and not like just a person in a mask.
• We were also told that in the argument scene, the fact that the mother is lower down than the father suggests that we are attempting to have a power divide with the male being more dominant, however, we had no intention of making a power split. 
• We received the more criticism on the argument scene too, that the mother seems too happy.

We're going to discuss the feedback we received as a group and see if we're going to make changes based on the feedback we've been given.

First Cut

This is the first cut of our music video. We haven't got all of the footage yet so there a big gaps, but we're aiming to get it all filmed and edited soon.

Editing

We're working together as a group to edit all the footage that we have now. We have enough time in lesson to put together a second cut with some missing footage, but not with all of the footage, because we don't want to rush the editing and as a result have it not look as good as we'd hoped.

The second cut will be put on the blogs as soon as we've completed it.

Filming

Due to inconvenience during the holidays, we've only just managed to get all the shots we need for our music video. They've been uploaded and are currently being edited.

We filmed different shots at different times of day to give the impression that the story is happening over time, instead of in just one day. We felt this would make the video more emotional as it shows the girl going through a long struggle with her family problems.

Here are some screenshots of the footage we filmed:

Confirmation!

I emailed Daughter's manager to check it was okay to use their song in my music video, and this is the response!

 

 

 

Me: Hello!

I'm taking media for A-Level, and this year's project is to create a music video. I just wanted to check if it would be alright to use "Youth" by Daughter as my project's music. It won't be used for anything other than being sent to the examination board to get my final grade :-)

 Thanks so much for your time.

 Cesca

 

Matt: no problem Cesca

Best

 

Me: Thank you so much!

 Cesca

 

Acting

We as a group thought of a few people we could use for our product. At first we were going to ask somebody our age who studies drama to be in it to make the story more effective with good acting, but we decided we'd like to use somebody younger to make them seem more innocent and youthful. We thought of a few people who could possibly fit the part, but we chose to use my sister as the main actress as she has had acting lessons in the past and is very good for her age. 

 To make filming a lot more convenient, we used my parents to act as the parents because we knew it would be a struggle finding two adults who weren't actors comfortable enough with each other to play the parts, and we thought that as a family, everybody would be much more comfortable around each other which would ensure better acting. 

Girl's Make-up and Hair

We have decided to keep the girl's makeup to a minimum throughout almost the entire product. This is because we want to represent her as youthful and innocent, rather than older, which is what she'd look like if she wore heavy makeup.

We have also decided to keep the girl's hair simple for the same reason, and only want her hair either down or in a ponytail throughout almost the entire product.

The only times we will see the girl with her hair and makeup any different is in the montage scene, where she applies lipstick and puts her hair up into a bun. This is because in this scene it shows the girl wants to be more mature and sophisticated, and we want to represent this through hair and makeup as it will come across a lot more clearly than other aspects.

Composition

Although we haven't yet planned any particular scenes around this decision, we have chosen as a group to have a quite unbalanced composition when it comes to actors in the shot. This will represent the unbalance in the characters' lives.

I have thought about which scenes we could use an unbalanced composition in and I am going to pitch them to Tom and Arthur to see if they agree with my ideas.

One particular shot we could use an unbalanced composition in is when we see the parents arguing in the kitchen. An unbalanced composition here would help portray how unbalanced they are as people, and help represent how their daughter sees them, too.

Another shot with unbalanced composition could be the second shot of the girl and her imaginary friend having a tea party, after the first shot where the composition could be well organised. This would show how unbalanced the emotion of the scene becomes when the mother makes an entrance.

Space

We've also decided as a group to use space as a way of representing how our main character feels. We have decided to use more space in shots when the girl is feeling free and happy, yet less space when she feels trapped within her own sadness created by her parents.

We have planned camera placement revolving around space for this effect in a lot of the scenes, but the most effective will probably be the tea party scene. When we first see the girl and her imaginary friend in this scene, it will be a long shot, creating lots of space to show she's happy and does not feel at all trapped. She will continue to be happy and have a lot of space in the shot when her mother enters, as she is happy to see her, yet when her mother doesn't react and instead shows an uncaring face towards the girl the space in the shot will get lesser by cutting to a mid-shot or close up of the girl, to show her unhappiness.

Lighting

We as a group have decided to fit the lighting in the product to the girl's emotions. When the lighting is dark or dim, it is when the girl is feeling unhappy. For example, it is going to be a dark hallway in which she crouches when she watches her parents argue. The lighting will get slightly brighter and warmer when she retreats to her room to make a paper bird.

The next shot will be when the girl sees her paper birds transform into real birds in a field, where the scene will be shot in bright daylight. This will represent her happiness and how much better she feels alone and away from the metaphorical darkness in her life.

Set Design

For the house, we have to make sure that nothing can be seen that would completely contradict the messages in our video, such as a lot of happy family photos in the background. Not only would this show that the family are close rather than distant as portrayed in the product, they'd also show me, a character who doesn't even appear in the product, plus we want our lead role to be seen as an only child to make her seem more lonely.

In the bedroom scenes we're going to remove most of the toys in my sister's room, to make it seem like she isn't bought many luxuries by her parents, contributing to the idea of a distant family life. In shot where we can see the wall behind her, we're going to keep up a photo montage that we already have in place in my house. It's a montage that consists of lots of pictures cut from magazines, so it will help emphasise the girl's creativity.

In the girl's parents' room, I'm going to remove homely things from their bedside tables such as a miniature teddy, because the more empty their room is, the more it can represent their empty characters when it comes to emotion.

Lyrics Meaning

We sat together as a group and went through the lyrics of our chosen song. We put our ideas together to come up with this interpretation of the lyrics:

Shadows settle on the place, that you left
Our minds are troubled by the emptiness

- Someone's gone, dead, but it's hard to believe that they're gone.

And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones
'Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs

- Breathing easily, no burden, but barely breathing, or breathing with difficulty, meaning they're burdened and it's hard to do something so simple as breathing.

Setting fire to our insides for fun
Collecting names of the lovers that went wrong
The lovers that went wrong

- Trying to deal with the pain by drinking or getting high, and trying to find comfort with people that you've already had relationships with, trying to reconcile with them.

We are the reckless
We are the wild youth
Chasing visions of our futures
One day we'll reveal the truth
That one will die before he gets there

- Life as the youth, having fun, breaking rules, etc, while trying to be mature, and trying to get there, but obviously someone hasn't made it to adulthood, they've died.

And if you're still bleeding, you're the lucky ones
'Cause most of our feelings, they are dead and they are gone

- Felling pain, bleeding, but because of this person's death, they've gone hard, they've lost their ability to feel things.

We're setting fire to our insides for fun
Collecting pictures from the flood that wrecked our home
It was a flood that wrecked this

- Something big, something that couldn't have been stopped. Our home, our place of rest, It was personal.

And you caused it
And you caused it
And you caused it

- blaming somone, obviously, the person that killed or caused the death of the friend or boyfriend, or blaming the other youths for being so immature, or even herself or her friends for it. Or blaming the person that died, they're fault for making her be like this.

Well I've lost it all, I'm just a silouhette
A lifeless face that you'll soon forget
My eyes ae damp from the words you left
Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest
Ringing in my head, when you broke my chest

- She's no longer who she used to be, just a shell. Just another face lost in the crowd to the person that killed her (boy)friend. When they said something in accordance to the death, it completely shattered her, her chest or heart broken.

And if you're in love, then you are the lucky one
'Cause most of us are bitter over someone

- Self explanatory, if you can love, you're lucky, she can't as she's still distraught over the person she lost.

Setting fire to our insides for fun
To distract our hearts from ever missing them
But I'm forever missing him

- Trying to forget the pain, or at least, putting it off for awhile through drinking or drugs, but she'll never let him go, she'll never forget him, she'll always mis him.


And you caused it
And you caused it
And you caused it


- It's all your fault. You caused this pain, his death, you made this happen.

Risk Assessment

I've written up a risk assessment sheet and got it signed by my teacher.

Roles

As a group, we've established different roles for each of us.

All the planning for filming will be decided as a group, but I'll be doing the majority of the filming at home because my family are the actors and some of the filming is at night time, so it's a lot easier for me to shoot the planned shots rather than waiting for a time outside of college where all of the group and all of the actors are free.

The shot script will be written up by Arthur and Tom after we've decided everything that is needed to be done.

I'll be taking the pictures for the storyboards for the same reason as with the filming, but the boys will help me put it together as an actual storyboard.

We'll edit our product together so we can all contribute creative ideas and make sure our product conforms to something our whole group likes and thinks is best. 

We haven't decided on roles for the magazine advert, digipak or any of the other things that need to be done yet, so we'll update roles at a later date.

Props

I made the list of props we are going to use into an Xtranormal presentation, along with descriptions on why we're going to use them.
A2 Media
by: chezziepopz

Setting

Settings in Order of Appearance

Hallway

The girl crouches in the hallway as she watches her parents argue. We chose this part of the house to film her watching as it's quite dark, which represents the mood, and also seems quite secretive, which is what she's being as she watches her parents.

Kitchen

We chose the kitchen for the argument scene because in most houses the kitchen is a room that is very family orientated, as opposed to a more private room like a bedroom. Their argument taking place in a family orientated rooms shows corruption within the family and also shows their aggression, as they're not trying to hide anything by arguing in private.

Girl's Bedroom

The girl's bedroom is the first shot where we are going to see our main character looking happy, which shows that she can only be happy when she's shut herself away from things such as her parents' arguing, which is why we chose the bedroom as the setting for all of the house scenes where she actually looks happy. 

Field

The field is the first scene where we see the girl's imagination come to life, as this is where the paper birds transform into real ones. We decided to do this in a field because it has a vast amount of space, portraying the freedom she feels (also represented by the birds) when she's by herself, and it also represents her vast imagination.

Parents' Bedroom

We first see the parents' bedroom when the girl runs to her parents for comfort. They're arguing when she runs in, and the fact they're arguing in here too represent the fact they're really argumentative. We also chose this setting as it made it more obvious the girl was running to her parents for comfort before they send her away, creating emotion.

Road

We chose the road outside of the house to make it more obvious she is running away from home when we see the tracking shot of the girl running. We also chose this location because the street lights make it more obvious that it's raining, which is a symbol of the girl's current emotions. 

Woods

We also chose the woods to reflect the girl's emotions, when she gets lost in the woods it represents how lost the girl is in her own life. They're dark, too, which represent the darker side to her life. 

Costume

There are three main characters in my product, and two minor characters. The lead role is a young a girl with a vivid imagination, and her argumentative parents are also viewed at points. Minor characters involve a toy monkey and a doll who are real people in the imagination of the young girl. I'm going to research some costumes that will make my characters really fit to the conventions I want them to portray.

Girl Lead

I need my main role to have four different outfits, pajamas for night time and four outfits for four different days, to portray a length of time in the girl's life. The night time shots are quite a negative point in my girl's life, so she'll be wearing a black top to imply a negativity. I also want her in pink pajama bottoms to show a femininity and also a vulnerability, as pink is often linked to young girls. I also want the bottoms to be stripy to represent a creativity, which my character is with her imagination. For outside shots my character will be wearing slippers with teddies on, as this will also portray a vulnerability through childishness.

The next two outfits are two large shirts worn with black leggings. The black leggings portray a negative side to the girl's life yet again, and the large shirts suggest that they are hand-me-downs. This implies that her parents just give her old clothes and don't care enough to buy her clothes that fit. One shirt is blue which suggests loyalty in the girl's character and the other is red, which portrays danger.

One of the dresses the girl wears has a black under layer covered by pink and black patterned chiffon. The black again portrays the negativity in her life, whilst the pink again suggests femininity along with the dress. The pattern implies that the girl's life is chaotic and haphazard, and definitely not normal. It also shows her creative side. Black dolly shoes are worn with these to add to the negative theme.

The girl's last dress is white and floral. White stereotypically represents innocence, whilst the flowers show naturalness and femininity in her character.

The doll wears denim jeans, a pink top, pink shoes and pink ribbons in her hair. These are worn to make the actress look as much like the doll as possible to help the audience to understand her character and that she's a figment of the girl's imagination. The connotation of her blue jeans is loyalty, which is a trait in the doll. The pink again reflects femininity and helps link the girl and doll together character wise as they both wear pink in their outfits.

The mother has three outfits. The first two are black leggings accompanied by red tops. The connotations of these colours are negativity and danger, reflecting the mother's character.

The last outfit is a dressing gown, and is worn simply to show that the events in this part of the video are occurring at night time. The homeliness of the dressing gowns worn by the girl's parents are contradicted by their constant arguing, which highlights the juxtaposition between sadness and happiness in the music video.

Apart from the dressing gown, the father is only seen in a black top and later a black leather jacket. Not only does it repeat the negative theme but it brings out the fact the father is a dark character and helps the audience familiarise him as a possibly evil figure.

Our last character is only seen briefly, and he's a monster coming out of the girl's wardrobe. We don't want the actor to be seen as human like so when we see him he'll be completely black and his face will be covered. We only see him starting to come out of the wardrobe before the girl runs away so we'll only see an arm, hand and head, so we've chosen these clothes for the actor to wear. 

We've chosen the colour black because it represents evil, which makes the monster seem more intimidating.