Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Directors Cut A2 Music Video- Sandi Thom Punk Rocker Script

Emily: We used two overlaying shots, one of Indya in the background to introduce the star in a long shot with grungy font added over the top to portray the title of the song and to give it a grungy effect.

Luke: We went against convention by using a blur and we used natural framing through the use of an archway in the background. We used a medium shot of her singing into camera and ken burnsed it into a close up to show her singing.

Emily: We used another blur to fade in between the shots due to the slow rhythm, Indya is right of frame. We also made this shot use motion in the way Indya is swinging in the hammock, and the hammock also brought bright colors into the shot to add to the punk genre.

Luke: We then used a right of frame shot of Indya singing into camera. We used a natural background to connote Indya's natural beauty. We also made Indya wear white clothing as it created the effect of purity.

Emily: This shot ends with an overlaying fade of the next shot which is a pull focus where the focus starts on the hedge whilst an all-black effect is overlaid. Then the camera focus goes onto our star.

Luke: The next shot enters with another blur. The shot itself is a close up of a guitar, it over cranks and Ken Burns.

Emily: We then used a flying cam over the guitar with the guitar in centre frame.

Luke: The next shot is under cranking of the motorway. The saturation has been upped for the lyric “Not everybody drove a car” and then the next shot is a flip footage from the other side of the motorway, just to break up the two shots.

Emily: The next shot pans from left to right, it’s a wide shot which shows our star in the middle but she is not looking into camera, we used this with the sepia tone to adhere to the idea of the memories within the video.

Luke: The next shot is a low angle shot. Robbie comes in from the right, gives the impression of power as the camera is adjusted below along with the posh car.

Emily: The scene then cuts to create continuity editing of Robbie walking straight across the front of the camera in front of the car. It gives a perspective of the size of the car and shows of Robbie’s suit connoting wealth.

Luke: The next shot then cuts to a close up, over the shoulder shot of Robbie on the phone, it gives the idea of technology and the idea of technology taking over.

Emily: We then cut to a shot of Indya in punky makeup with dark lipstick, we also used dark ambiotic lighting to connote the idea of the punk genre. This is a medium close up of Indya and shows her also putting in her headphones to link with the previous shot and to link with technology.

Luke: We then used found footage of a punk on a motorbike to give the idea of nostalgia and we also used an overlay of a matrix style coding to link to technology.

Emily: We then used a found shot of people from the 80s in the background, we used green screen and lumar key over the top in order to create a green screen effect. We under cranked the shot and placed newspapers over the face to create the idea of the media taking over.

Luke: This then fades to 70s found footage of hippies to show the clothing and the time period, whilst this occurred, we under played Indya in the background putting in her headphones again. It gave the impression of a full circle of continuous shots.

Emily: We then used pull focus again to Indya’s face in a medium centre frame shot. She wears the leather jacket again to create a punky impression. We also used a slight low angle to create the impression of her having power.

Luke: We then used a tracking shot of Indya singing into camera, with all the extras walking behind her, this creates power as it shows Indya is in control, this adheres to Propp’s fairy-tale narrative as the extras appear to be helpers, making her comfortable in herself. We also applied a flower vignette mask over the top to break convention, it added a feminine touch and linked to the lyric flowers.

Emily: The scene then cuts to a low angle shot, left of frame, medium close up of Indya singing into camera, we used boats in the background to connote the idea of a journey and Indya finding herself.

Luke: We then used a scene with people reading magazines, we used two quick cut close up shots of different punk magazines and then a close up over the shoulder shot of Indya reading a magazine, it was done to create the impression of the media having control over us. We are influenced by what we read in the magazines.

Emily: We then used a quick, under cranked shot of leaves going across a bird table, it was done to create the impression of ignorance, and how the natural setting meant that you were less inclined to be influenced by what you read in the media, this is because it isn’t everywhere in rural settings.

Luke: This next shot is Indya in front of a flag of Great Britain, it’s a medium close up, centre frame of her singing into camera.

Emily: We then used the idea of memories to create nostalgia, we used a front cover close up of the photo album, and then we used someone flicking through the pages, we then used a close up of a nostalgic group photo which then came to life with a slight blur, this created the impression of memories.

Luke: We then used a paper clip close up, low in saturation and a continuous shot of the paper clip going through the ear.

Emily: The next shot is a close up of a door knocker, we used continuity editing to the next shot with the door being open, there is a slight close up of the letter, and it then goes to the letter being passed across.

Luke: The next shot is a close up of Indya, it goes into another vignette mask, there is then a cut and a change of location of a low angle shot of Indya in a man-made frame of a church.

Emily: We then used a medium close up of Indya singing into camera, we used a natural background along with her bright orange clothing, it created the impression of her being a bright and happy character.

Luke: We then used a close up, slight high angle looking down on Indya, it gave the impression of her being fragile and delicate, and we also upped the saturation on the shot to make it brighter.

Emily: We then used three close up shots of records, two of these were under cranked, and I added a sepia tone over this, it created the impression of nostalgia and linked to the idea of records being part of the punk era, and they are not used anymore.

Luke: We used an under cranked shot of the motorway filmed at a high angle to give a full view of the motorway, we also added mist over the top to create the impression of history. This shot was kept at full motion.

Emily: We then used a close up shot of Indya’s boots, we used a bright background to have happy connotations, and we also used the boots tapping to link to the song, this is because it matched the beat.

Luke: We then used lots of under cranked shots of a football match, we also made these handheld to give the impression that we were actually there, and we also added a sepia tone over the top to give the impression of it being a memory. We also used a slight low angle shot of the football crowd, we made this spontaneous, we made this look as though they were having fun, and it also made the shot look much more natural.

Emily: We then cut back to the boot tapping on the beat with the bright background to create happy connotations.

Luke: We then used a Ken Burnsed shot, starting in a medium shot and going into a medium close up, we used Indya looking through an abandoned building window, it created the impression of memories and a time that has gone by. It created the impression of her yearning for the past.

Emily: We then used a medium shot, low angle of Indya singing in the sunlight, the coloring in the sunlight was similar to the colour of her t-shirt and it created synergy. It gave the impression of Indya becoming happy with herself and the time that she is in, we also centre framed it to show Indya as the most prominent character.

Luke: We then used a close up of Indya singing with darker makeup on at a low angle, once again it made Indya more powerful and gave the impression of the Punk Era, we also used the dark tree to give a rustic appearance and we used a centre frame shot.

Emily: We then used a wide shot of Indya framed right and we used lots of flowers, there was also a slight pull focus which made Indya really prominent, the flowers adhered to the idea of femininity and made a link between the punk era and now through the dark makeup and bright colours.

Luke: We then used quick cuts of four of our performance shots with a sepia tone, it finished off the idea of memories and made the whole music video appear as a flashback, it also showed Indya’s development throughout the music video.

Emily: Finally we used a shot of Indya in a medium close up, left of frame, it was Indya wearing dark makeup as we threw balloons over the top of her, and the balloons had bright colours and gave the impression of freedom.

Luke: Within our video we adhered to Barthes, we used two indexical signs, the idea of flowers and the safety pins, the flowers gave the impression of flowers and femininity whilst the safety pin linked to the idea of the punk era, we also used the rural setting in our video to enhance how feminine Indya is. We also used the cultural idea of feminism. Everyone follows Indya and she is allowed to make up her own mind. We also adhered to Vladimir Propp, with the idea of a villain, on a metaphorical level, society is the villain. The modern day stops her from being who she wants to be, we also used extras with this, the extras help Indya to realise that she can be happy with who she is.

Emily: We also used Todorov, our music video starts in disequilibrium and Indya isn’t happy with the punk era and doesn’t know whether she can be in it, society is stopping her, this ends in equilibrium when Indya accepts who she is thanks to the help of her friends and memories. We also used Strauss binary opposition, we used the idea of the punk era contrasted with the modern era and we also used society’s perception of good and bad: being a good girl and a rebel are contrasted. In accordance to Bordwell and Thompson, our narrative follows Indya wanting to be a punk, however she can’t and she is yearning for a time gone by. In accordance with Cameron’s four types of narrative, we used the idea of flashbacks in our video to create the idea of nostalgia and memories.

Evaluating through a director's cut. 

I feel like the production of the director's cut was very difficult for me, I found I would fall into laughter whenever trying to record my thoughts. I really had to suppress this and I was very aware that this was a nervous laugh. Another difficulty of the directors cut was that our thoughts often surpassed the shot length as there was a lot of thought behind each shot in terms of framing or shot connotations for instance. I think this director cut really pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and try to keep deadly serious when recording. I was very self conscious and this has been a learning curve for me; i am delighted I completed it and feel more ready for tasks like this at University.