Ancillary Tasks

 This was my initial idea to copy an image of the protagonist and edit the picture but use this focal image as the CD Cover.  I was going to use this image because it had the image of the bars which i tried to us a motif within the music video. It also captured the protagonist with an indifferent look on his face, which also eptimosed the underlying narrative of a demonic and crazed man. I decided that like the footage the image would also be in black and white reflecting the ‘prodigy’s’ influence and general device.

After more research i realised that there wasnt any singles or CD covers that used a face as the dominant feature of advertising a song. I deliberated, and ultimately decided that i shouldnt used this image, even if i wanted my single to look different i realised i had to still follow the conventions of  ‘The Prodigy’

 

I didnt feel that this CD Cover truly captured an feeling of the band Prodigy. I thought because the actual  theme of the music video followed an abstract theme i thought that maybe the CD cover should also be a bit convoluted. However still i didnt feel that the text and images didnt really match or work well together. As much of the work was an experiment i wanted to capture an image that i could define and have meaning to.

 This became the making of a more purposeful idea that also linked the title. I wanted to make the image more surreal and in no time i ended up developing my final product which was…

 The problem with this was that the title was too faint and i had response from another student and my teacher that this needs to stand out more  and shouldnt blend in with the background of the spider. In addition i created a new logo for the band by using a font and style similar to the layout of their website.

   Final

On a superficial level because the title is ‘Firestarter’ this could evoke an image of matches however although this image juxtaposes the lyrics of the song, yet I believe that my image is still justified as it also would be memorable for the audience

CD RELEASE ADVERT.

 

  Through analysing various CD covers and single releases I have found that the images were almost identical. Thus my reasoning for a similar look of my two ancillary tasks. Whilst observing TV adverts promoting new singles and scanning newspapers and the internet I found that CD covers and single releases looked extremely similar. This could be due to the fact that they are promoting a single or album and want the audience to be able to identify the album or CD cover when going into the shop and purchasing it.  When trying to find evidence of this similarity, it became difficult to capture two images of the same album or single cover and show a before and after shot: capturing both the coming soon advertisements and the actual cover. My analysis of this would suggest that when making an ‘out soon’ advert there are only a few technical devices added to promote the CD and can easily be dissembled once the release of the cover is advertised.

Evaluation

Firestarter evaluation

Rough Cut video and evaluation

Rough Cut of the Prodigy music video Firestarter

 

 Whilst editing this footage I was in the mind of creating a music video that is quite abstract but has the consistency of the main protagonist whom the audience simply adopt a voyeuristic positioning

            At times I made sure that shots were edited according to the music and matched the beat of the song. However I interjected long and short shots which adds to the dynamic of the video and created a variety of shots.

Whilst I feel that the overall nature of the music video generally targets the abstract nature of the music video, the range of creative techniques are limited to only jump cuts, cross fades and quick straight cuts. This diminishes the full potential of the music video, but omitting the footage of any sort of tone, other than one which is dull and quite confusing. When reviewing the rough cut, the range of scenes used look to be quite limited and constrained however this is not the case for the footage that our group had filmed. There are also points whereby the footage going black, this should poor editing and use of creative devices that are able to fill this gap.

I also decided to end my music video at 2.44 but introducing a fade on the music, this doesn’t follow the conventions the music video as it is quick paced throughout so I feel that this editing technique did not work to my advantage. So when I recreate my final music video I will rethink the fading of the video to more of a quick and shorter ending- almost as if it doesn’t finish completely. A cliff hanger is something that would fit the more the genre of the video.

My aim for the final cut of the music video is to create:

• Range of scenes used
• More complex variety of shots
• Extended use of transitions
• Introduce the elements of black and white, mixed with the theme of chiaroscuro
• Diverse range of speed

Emmerdale Presentation

Emmerdale

Initial Firestarter Mind map

Collective, in class effort devised by the Team

Sophie Carter then developed this idea into more of a detailed sketch about inital idea of the music video

Website class analysis

 Here are our wesite design that we constructed in class.

Design for a common denominator. We expect certain things when we browse websites, as they have commonplace conventions.e.g.

• position of logos (most major websites have their logos in the top left hand corner of the page like Amazon, Ebay, Microsoft.
• ‘Contact us’ appears on every page
• search box is on the top right corner. Searches only generally occur on larger sites however.

There are many aspect that unproffessional websites use in order to create boring and haphazards ways in order to navigate around the site:

• busy, distracting backgrounds that make any copy hard to read
• default grey colour
• text that is too small to read, in bold/italic/underlined
• text that is underlined but not a link
• default blue links
• advertising that is classed as ‘junk’
• complex navigation

Whilst browsing various website there viewer tend to look out for key feature that entice the reader to continue on the website:

• text that is big enough to read but not too big
• navigation buttons easy to read with an index or a map
• link colours co-ordinate with page colours
• pages downloaded quickly
• no animated graphics

Prodigy Website analysis

http://www.theprodigy.com/index.php

This is the prodigy firestarter single cover.

It wallpaper is of a tiger print highlighting the red and orange colour running through it, which could also the denote the feriousness of a fire. The fire lends so much significance because it the song repeats this word and is encompassed by it. The background of the cover which i earlier called a wallpaper, gave me this idea to label it in such a way because there is a frame hanging on it.

The frame is golden which also could represent the goldish colour and nature of a fire yeh looks as though it is hanging on the background behind it. Within the frame there is a picture of some sort of lepricorn or begger. This individual character has clothing that resembles an oldern day look about him, similar to Charles Dickens period. The face of the character is dark and in smut. Within his or her hand there is a stick which looks like a wick to start a fire. This action and remains highly symbolic towards the title and lyrics of the song.

the fact that there is only one character could draw emphasis on the fact he/ she is The Firestarter, which could be metaphoric of the way in The prodigy think they are pace makers for the whole of the music industry… maybe?

 

 

 

CD cover analysis

These sheilds represent different locations, roles and positions within the United states of  America. This is iconic through the use of the Badled Eagle at the top of each badge. Many also have a figure centralised within the middle of the sheild highlighting a particular constituency symbol that is recognisable for many. Or  a symbol that represents an icon used to portray certain jobs, a sign which is generic to this trade.

This front cover create by Prodigy for their 2005 release album with the single ‘Firestarter’ mimcks the type of badge the American security or law enforcements use. This juxtaposed the Britishness of the Prodigy group with the American creative, front cover influence. Does this cover illustrate that Prodigy (on behave of the rest of the country) believe that America acts as though they are a law onto themselves? Is this point typified with the title ‘THEIR LAW.’

The colours are quite dull: of silver black and blue, which are colours that are quite formal. Inprinted in the middle is the repetitive motif that occurs in their music videos, picture and concerts which is the iconic  ‘Spider’.  Also at the bottom of the cover is a small symbol of the same motif.

This as a front cover i believe is quite plain and doesnt highlight their creative difference, which distinguishes them from other artists and bands. However quite subtly the Prodigy could be indicating that they would like to have as much dominance as American and influence their followers as much as the US does. The fact they are using a law maintaning sheild, this could indicate that would like for music supporters to follow them and listen to them.

This album is complied of 2 cd’s with singles ranging from:

CD one
1. Firestarter (Original Mix) (4:42)
2. Their Law (05 Edit) (5:36)
3. Breathe (5:36)
4. Out Of Space (5:02)
5. Smack My Bitch Up (5:43)
6. Poison (4:01)
7. Girls (4:12)
8. Voodoo People (05 Edit)(3:40)
9. Charly (Alley Cat Remix) (5:22)
10. No Good (Start the Dance) (6:19)
11. Spitfire (05 Version) (3:26)
12. Jericho (3:46)
13. Everybody in the Place (Fairground Remix) (5:09)
14. One Love (5:25)
15. Hotride (4:32)
16. Out Of Space(The Prodigy vs. Audio Buly’s Remix) (4:32)

CD two
1. Razor (4:00)
2. Back 2 Skool (5:02)
3. Voodoo People (Pendulum Remix) (5:07)
4. Under My Wheels (Remix) (3:14)
5. No Man Army (Edit) (4:10)
6. Molotov Bitch (Original Mix) (4:54)
7. Voodoo Beats (Original Mix) (3:54)
8. Out Of Space (Audio Bullys Remix) (4:56)
9. The Way It Is (Live Remix) (4:16)
10. We Are The Ruffest (Original Mix) (5:18)
11. Your Love (Original Mix) (6:02)
12. Spitfire (Live) (4:11)
13. Their Law (Live) (5:31)
14. Breathe (Live) (6:39)
15. Serial Thrilla (Live) (5:15)
16. Firestarter (Live) (5:21)

Feminist Powerpoints

We were instructed to all select a time period in which feminist view were influenced and then create a presentation about the time periods

Post Feminism

1960’s Women’s Liberation Movement

Location Props Actors and Research presentation

 Presentation 3

Feedback: Our group presented our third brief and our teacher thought:

Strengths

Technical language

Preciseness of location

Ominscient use of the location

theme contrast (innocent and demonic)

 Casting session

 Targets

where are the vital locations?

Risk assessment for each video

Continue to play on contrasts

Put levels of severity on risk assessment

He also suggested that for more research about locations and the typical genre of people that we require for our film, therefore we should visit Camden town. Visting the shops and unique looks that the people portray and promote.

We should also think about having understudies so we are not delayed during our shooting program