Deconstruction and reconstruction of a media text

For this project I will be deconstructing and reconstructing a film trailer - 'Paranormal Activity 2' directed by Ted Williams 2010
 People Involved: Dan Troupe Andy Goodhand Beth Hirons Matthew Nolan(me) 

Camera - Matt
Director - Dan
Producer - Beth
editor - Andy
Cast - Andy and Beth





Tuesday - 2nd of October = filming surveillance shots

Wednesday - 3rd of October = filming major scenes after college with an empty atmosphere

meeting Dan in oak 35 at 12:50 and then later on with Andy and Beth at 2:50

Friday - 5th of October = beginning editing 

interviews on audience feedback of the media texts

 

 

 

The genre of my chosen song

The genre that my chosen music video falls into is the Alternative/Indie genre


Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt rock or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s. Although the term was most commonly associated in its commercial heyday with a loud, distorted guitar sound, its original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style, or simply the independent, D.I.Y. ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music. At times, "alternative" has been used as a catch-all description for music from underground rock artists that receives mainstream recognition, or for any music, whether rock or not, that is seen to be descended from punk rock
The name "alternative rock" essentially serves as an umbrella term for underground music that has emerged in the wake of punk rock since the mid-1980s.Throughout much of its history, alternative rock has been largely defined by its rejection of the commercialism of mainstream culture, although this could be contested ever since some of the major alternative artists have achieved mainstream success or co-opted with the major labels from the 1990s onwards (especially since the new millennium and beyond). Alternative bands during the 1980s generally played in small clubs, recorded for indie labels, and spread their popularity through word of mouth. As such, there is no set musical style for alternative rock as a whole, although The New York Times in 1989 asserted that the genre is "guitar music first of all, with guitars that blast out power chords, pick out chiming riffs, buzz with fuzz tone and squeal in feedback." Sounds range from the gloomy soundscapes of gothic rock to the jangling guitars of indie pop to the dirty guitars of grunge to the '60s/'70s revivalism of Britpop. More often than in other rock-styles since the mainstreaming of rock music during the 1970s, alternative rock lyrics tend to address topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, and environmentalism. This approach to lyrics developed as a reflection of the social and economic strains in the United States and United Kingdom of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include indie pop, jangle pop, C86, and lo-fi, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock.  
Indie rock, derived from "independent", describes the small and relatively low-budget labels on which it is released and the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Although distribution deals are often struck with major corporate companies, these labels and the bands they host have attempted to retain their autonomy, leaving them free to explore sounds, emotions and subjects of limited appeal to large, mainstream audiences. The influences and styles of the artists has been extremely diverse, including punk, psychedelic, rock and country. The terms alternative rock and indie rock were used interchangeably in the 1980s, but after many alternative bands followed Nirvana into the mainstream in the early 1990s it began to be used to distinguish those bands, working in a variety of styles, that did not pursue or achieve commercial success.

 

The conventions of Music videos

Camera Shots – Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This tends to create emphasis on the artist or subject that is the main focus in the video, locations and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist or the subject which is the main focus.

Camera movement – The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, tracking and crane shots

Mise-en-scene – This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video or any other media text. Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something. For example the themes of isolation within the song will be reflected through the use of empty rooms or streets or the main subject being alone in a situation.

Editing - Jump cuts and rhythmic editing are the predominant editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another and it will match the beat of the song. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.

Lighting – Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the main focus subject in an enhanced look.

Sound – Sound is mainly the vocals or the song but in some cases such as Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ the producers can turn the music video into a short film.

Props – There are vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people.

Costume - This goes with the scenes in the song and reflects the genre. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the viewers will dress because they use some of the celebrities as role models.

Colours – Colours tend to set the mood of the song through creating an atmosphere. For example, dark colours are used more in rock songs and bright colours are used more in hip hop songs, but of course these rules can be broken and are from time to time.

Information on chosen song choice

The chosen song for my music video is 'Moonlight Sonata Remix' this song was remixed from Ludwig Van Beethoven's classic 'Moonlight Sonata' and has been remixed by an artist named 'Solarfist'. This artist is not well known and I have only recently discovered him/her.
From what I gather on the DJ who remixed the song, they have a passion for music and like to introduce new and strange tunes to already made and famous songs.

The information I have on Ludwig Van Beethoven is different though as he is one of the world's most famous composers and pianist.German born, he composed and conducted many songs and symphonies as well as orchestras and was renowned at his time as being a brilliant musician. This did not degenerate even when Beethoven's hearing began to fade and even when he became completely deaf.
The Moonlight Sonata was composed in the summer of 1801 in Hungary, on an estate belonging to the Brunswick family. The composition was published in 1802 and was dedicated to Beethoven’s pupil and passion, 17 years old Countess Giulietta Gucciardi.
       The Sonata is one of the most popular piano sonatas from Beethoven’s creation. It is also named “The Moonlight Sonata” by poet Ludwig Rellstab who, in 1832, had this inspiration on a moon lit night on the banks of the Lucerna River. Some biographers make the connection between the unshared love the composer held for Giulietta Guicciardi and the sonorities of the first part. Even more so, this sonata was dedicated to Giulietta, the musical theme of the first part being borrowed from a German ballad as Wyzewa observed.

Influential media texts

I am going to use these three media texts to conduct feedback interviews in order to find out an audiences preferences, opinions and values.


First text - This is An old alternative song:
Second text - This is a related music video made by a previous Wyke student:

Third text - Another related music video professionally made within the last couple of years:

They will judge from one to ten on the following:

Editing 1......................10

Cinematography 1......................10

Lighting  1......................10

Mise-en-scene 1......................10

Key audience terms

Qualitative data - Qualitative data is extremely varied in nature. It includes virtually any information that can be captured that is not numerical in nature


Quantitative data - The term quantitative data is used to describe a type of information that can be counted or expressed numerically.

demographic data - Age, gender, location. This data reflects cold hard statistics that lack any emotional response.

psycho-graphic data - This is the data collected based upon personal preferences of the audience for example their favourite genre or form of music video.

Evaluation Essay

During the course of last year’s media studies I was able to develop and enhance my skills relating to the course and the tasks that needed to be completed. When I began the media course I had little experience using the image editing programme Photoshop which limited my knowledge of how to develop the images I captured. Also when I just began I struggled using my own imagination when putting together a project. Throughout the year though I started adapting to the work and realising what needed to be done, my Photoshop skills began to grow as I quickly learnt how to manipulate images and improving them in relation to the topic.

My first task of creating a magazine advert which advertised a perfume campaign showed how my amateur skills on programmes such as Photoshop and the basic understanding of an advertising campaign. Little research took place during the process of the preliminary task and I successfully completed the task. The overall outcome of the task, as well as the notes and comments I made in my blogger posts showing my changing and adapting ideas, showed strongly how I grew from knowing very little about programmes and imaginative ideas to becoming increasingly adapt to them. This project was mainly created so that students like I could familiarize with Photoshop.

After this task my official preliminary task began, this task was to create a college magazine front cover and a template of a contents page. This was new to me as the closest thing to this which I had created was the perfume campaign which was very different to this task. I had to use the new knowledge of Photoshop, which was still raw and developing at this point, and apply it to the task ahead. For this task I researched all kinds of magazine front covers but especially college magazines so that I could be inspired and I then analysed each feature on the front cover of these magazines so I knew what to include when I designed mine. After taking photographs of many students in different points of the college that I studied at I eventually came to the conclusion of taking what I knew, which was photography as I also studied it at GCSE and was studying it alongside media,  and my other courses. I decided to create a college magazine based around the topic of photography and for this I used a studio and then took photographs which were then edited in Photoshop later using tools such as ‘Black and white’ and ‘Saturation’ to create an alternative looking magazine front cover as not many featured a black and white front cover.

Researching and the progression for being naïve on a topic to understanding it was also a massive break through throughout last year’s course as I began the course and the project knowing very little on what I needed to accomplish in order to present a good piece of work. By searching the internet for useful material that I could analyse I was able to save examples of magazine front covers, contents pages and double page spreads   and then draw arrows and write about what is vital when creating a music magazine.

After the preliminary task I began to research and study for the main coursework project which was to produce a music magazine front cover, a contents page and a double page spread which would feature in a magazine of my own fictional design. This went underway almost immediately and I knew immediately I wanted to focus on the rock genre so I began to research other magazines that fell under this genre and also I focussed strongly on the features within these magazines and the subjects in order to get an accurate depiction of what may be included in this chosen style of magazine.  My Photoshop skills continually grew throughout this project as I learnt about layering images with different ones to create an overall new look for the image. Also, I learnt how to use tools such as the ‘eraser’ tool and the ‘spot healing brush’ tool which helped me eliminate imperfections within my images. The project was constantly monitored and recorded by me as I noted what I was doing with careful accuracy so I could later upload what I had done onto my blogger account, this allowed me to go back and evaluate my work later on in the project. When I completed my magazine front cover I began on the contents page and the double page spread which involved me researching more in depth on the magazines which was categorised in the same genre so I could read up on which features where included and also how interviews where presented and how they laid out their pages and the ratio between images and text. And my finished products where then uploaded onto blogger where I received feedback from my peers and teachers.

Final product

Finally when I was evaluating my work, after I had officially finished the front cover, contents page and double page spread, I had the ability to look back on every piece of work I had done on the project since getting the brief which I had previously uploaded onto my blogger account. Prior to studying the media course I had never used blogger as a professional or personal device so my knowledge on the internet device was limited at best but now it is very large scale.