Evaluation.

Before we began filming for this video, it was decided we would simply film feet walking through woods as a direct link to Alice walking through Wonderland. However, half way through filming I had the idea of making it almost a 'chase', as if someone or 'Alice' is being chased by the media; quite a political topic in society today. I think this links conveniently with the research we conducted on both Alice in Wonderland and the work of Banksy. We wanted the idea that perhaps we do not know the real 'Alice' from Wonderland, linking to the picture of Dorothy from Wizard of Oz and the Policeman by Banksy. Keeping this idea in mind, we did our best to make some of the shots look voyeuristic.

The sequence of shots begins with a 'rabbit hole' effect, surrounded by Ivy - hence the name 'Poison I.V.', which fades into a close-up shot of the back of a big red symbolic bow, tied in the back of the characters hair (played by me). Throughout the video the shots vary, including close-ups, mid-shots and long-shots. When the music changes and we hear the dubstep beat we contrast the previous close and mid-shots with quite an extreme long panning shot of the character running, quite fast, through woods. This, I believe, is where the audience will recognise this is not as innocent as some of the previous shots such as picking flowers might suggest.

After this shot comes a canted angled shot, beginning with the feet and then moves up to reveal the rest of the character. This angle was put in place to give a obscured and slightly disorientated view of the character, subtly suggesting there is perhaps a lot about the character the audience do not know. Following this comes a shot of the character bending and going under a thick tree branch, seemingly unaware of the prying camera behind her. The camera almost turns into the leaves so the character goes out of sight, leaving quite an uneasy and voyeuristic approach to the shot.

There are a couple of panning shots that carry on panning even when the character is out of sight, giving again a sense of uneasiness, as if the character is being watched. There is one panning shot of trees and a lake that doesn't feature the character, suggesting the camera is looking for her.

After this comes a sequence of still famous paparazzi shots, which I believe adds a vintage effect which we were inspired by originally from the mood board we created and is also a relation the overall theme of the video. The ending shot, consisting of the red bow the character was originally wearing being caught on a tree, questions what the characters / cameras (media) motives are and leaves an ending quite open to interpretation.

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

Although the song we used does is not within the rock category, we still incorporated some of conventions associated with the rock genre as I feel it complements the raw and edgy sound of dubstep. Having been inspired by our mood board, the video was put into the 'old movie' vintage effect, shown in The Rasmus video, the Blink 182 video and the Hawthorne Heights CD cover mentioned previously in my research. We also took the fading effect between shots from the Blink 182 video. I feel that our video can be compared alongside videos like 'In the Shadows' by The Rasmus as it tests the conventions of external themes and brings in a sense of mystery.

Looking back at the research I conducted into existing media products, I feel that our themes are similar to the themes brought forward by Fightstar in their CD cover. Instead of keeping it obvious and rather basic, they have used artistic, thought-provoking imagery which I feel our product does. Our CD cover not only relates to Alice and Wonderland but also suggests deeper meaning, implied with the gas mask and the handcuffs. Our video is perhaps not in keeping with the gas mask idea, but is similar in that it again raises existing controversial themes within society today. Using this suggestive technique implies the intended demographic for the product; sophisticated individuals who take music seriously.

In terms of challenging and developing existing media products, I feel that generally the use of a controversial and surreal theme suggests a challenge in conventions, developing and altering the fabrications associated with Alice in Wonderland.

The portrayal of 'Alice' was a subject we were debating on all the way through the planning and into the editing suite. We wanted the video to be surreal, the feeling that we get we listening to dubstep, and we needed the character in the movie to fit this. We left the characters situation open to interpretation; why is this character ('Alice') running from the media? Leaving the questions: Is she an innocent person being harassed? Or has she got something to hide? This idea is carried through in our C.D cover where 'Alice' is wearing a mask and the idea that unless you turn to the back of the cover, one would not know the true reason her hands are behind her back. Our C.D cover is perhaps a direct relation to Alice from Alice in Wonderland and to Banksy's work. However, we simply used the red bow to represent 'Alice' in the video and the watch to represent the theme of time and we used some of the ideas and topics raised by Bansky being showcased in his work.

Audience Feedback:
- Interesting use of the camera, some shots are creepy.
- Video needed the photo sequence in the middle to break the shots up.
- Like the old movie effect, gives an edgy look to the video.
- Slightly hard to understand the theme but once told, it was easier to follow.
- Didn't have a clue what the video was about until the photos came up.
- Love the backdrop of the woods, sets the scene nicely.

Considering the audience feedback, If I were to create this product again, what would I do differently?

Overall, I am pleased with the digipack as a whole. I feel the vintage and surreal look is carried throughout the C.D cover, the poster and the video. However, if i was to shoot this video again I would allocate more of a time slot to the filming, perhaps experimenting with some more unusual shots. I feel that a downward turning shot would of been appropriate to recreate the idea of Alice falling down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland, however, due to limited equipment it was difficult to film shots like this. I would also have the character wearing perhaps a more vintage outfit such as a dress to tie in with the old movie themes but due to planning on just filming the feet to begin with then changing our minds once down in the woods, it seemed appropriate to just film myself in what I was wearing at the time. I think the use of music to the video is good, spending such as long time in the editing suite trying to match the shots to the music. To conclude, I feel the ideas behind the video have been thought out and we have been inspired by the best parts of our research, however if we would have allowed ourselves more time I feel the video could of displayed these ideas better. ♣

Poison I.V. Music Video

Magazine Advert.

Here is our magazine advert, part of our promotional package. We didnt want to add too many images, we felt the writing could speak for itself. I drew the ivy up the side of the poster onto a sheet of A4 and then we scanned it into the computer, using computersised fonts to do the rest. We put the picture in negative, which has given it quite vintage look, which was influenced by the look we got from our moodboard. We included a not so well known quote from the original Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol - "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't...what it is it wouldnt be, and what it wouldnt be, it would. You see?" - adding, I feel, quite an unusual, and thought provoking feature to the advert, perhaps suggesting what the music video will be about.

CD cover.

Here is the front, inside and middle of our CD digipack. The front has a sketched picture of out interpretation of Alice wearing a gas mask with her hands behind her back. We have our band name which is 'Hypnos' and out album title 'Euphoria' on the front cover. Inside is a playing card and our song titles (which includes our track which we are using for our music video, which we named 'Poison I.V.') and on the back is 'Alice' with her hands in handcuffs.

This began as an entire sketch, however, we felt it may give a better effect if we scanned it onto the computer and combined it with computerised images (the hearts, spades etc.), fonts and editing effects. Also, having taken inspiration from Hawthorne Heights 'The Silence in Black and White' cd cover I mentioned previously in my blog, the blurred edges around each side give a vintage, aged effect. We wanted our Alice to tie in with research we have done, and perhaps bring forward some political issues raised by artists such as Banksy.

Mood Board for Music Video.

By creating this mood board, we have allowed ourselves an insight to the bigger picture of our music video. We wanted to take some themes we listed in our ideas, both obvious and not so obvious, and put them all together. As evident in the pictures, our mood board consists of ideas that we have gathered from our research: the mask is the idea that we cannot trust strangers as well as the idea that Alice from Alice in Wonderland is not the character society believes she is behind her mask of innocence. We have also incorporated some original pictures from the book by Lewis Carol which adds quite a retro and original feature. We have mixed a floral print with chequered prints which highlights the quite random feel we want to create within our video. The mood board, overall, represents the idea that we want to combine a range of different and sometimes contrasting features to create the intended surrealist outcome.

By using pictures from the original book (1800's), Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland (2010), we have gained inspiration for one of our main shots within our music video. We plan to have Alice walking through the woods as the running thread throughout the video, however we are going to treat it as if it is a 'journey through time'. We will change her clothing and perhaps even alter the look of the camera shots with the use of editing such as black and white or sepia tint to create a sense of what era she is in. By the end of the video, her shoes will be scruffy and tired-looking as if she hasnt stopped walking. Most of the video we feel is going to be open to interpretation, we want it to be open-ended and not have everything explained, as I feel this allows more creativity to be used.

Analysis of Magazine advert Warpaint - 'The Fool'.

Warpaint is an experimental all-girl art rock group from Los Angeles formed in 2004 and I feel the magazine advert for their album 'The Fool' represents what they are about. The main feature of the advert is a large photo of the four girls. The outfits they are wearing represent quite an alternative almost 'shabby-chic' look and the fact that none of them are smiling suggests the band are serious about the music they make. As opposed to the High Violet advert, the writing is basic and fairly minimal, with no consistent use of colour or structure. Depsite the album not conforming to what themes and ideas we intend to incorporate into our magazine advert, it does represent exactly what the band is about. By featuring the large photo of the girls we can see that the band perhaps wants their audience to recognise the band consists of girls, maybe being an attempt to prove that girls can produce rock music, challenging the stereotyped rock bands such as Guns 'n' Roses and Metallica, which mainly feature male members. In relation to our promotional package, I feel that by using an existing theme (Alice in Wonderland) we have portrayed the surrealist vibe that comes with dubstep music. By twisting some of Alice In Wonderland's themes, we have intended to imply the rock genre, somewhat rebelling against the famous ideas and associations with Alice In Wonderland.

Analysis of Magazine advert 'The National High Violet'.

The National is a rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1999 and looking at one of their adverts for their album 'High Violet' I can recognise similar ideas we would like to produce within our magazine advert. Firstly, there are no photos of the band. I feel this puts emphasis on the music, suggesting the bands interests are in promoting their work, rather than themselves. The only picture is that of their album cover, enabling a potential buyer to recognise it when looking for their CD. The CD cover is of a very simplistic design, as is the advert. The background is black, which highlights the white and violet writing, which there seems to be a lot of. The fact most of advert is made up of writing suggests a serious audience, keen to find out about the album and the bands latest work, rather than an advert that perhaps the pop band Busted would have produced, which would most likely feature a large emphasis on graphology and their band name, with minimal information about the actual album.

The typography of the High Violet album is in capital letters, however in quite a formal and plain font, allowing the message to be clear and seen as significant. There are also some quotations supporting The National's work, written in an italic font which perhaps, although mainly for a grammatical purpose, contrasts the plain font and suggests the fans recognise the creativity The National incorporate within their music.

Update on digipack and poster.

Having sketched out our digipack we realise we like the sketched look but feel it would look best if we scanned it onto the computer, and by using a photo editor, incorporate the preffered areas we have drawn with manipulated pictures from the computer. We have come to the same conclusion for the poster. I have sketched Ivy leaves down one side of the paper and incorporated the symbols from a playing card to match the digipack so far and we intend to scan this on the computer and combine it with writing (perhaps a quote from Alice in Wonderland?) wrote using a computer font.

Ideas for promotional package

Feautres may include:-

- Alice in a Gas mask.
- Alice holding a weapon.
- White Rabbits pocket watch.
- 'Drink me' bottle.
- Playing cards.
- Small door.
- The idea of confined spaces.
- Chequered floor.
- The Rabbit hole.
- Tea party.
- Woods.
- The idea of another world and the fact it is a learning curve for Alice, similar to that to Dorothy in Wizard of Oz.
- The idea that Wonderland and Alice's experience in Wonderland is a test of character and the imagination and also the question of whether Wonderland in a figment of Alice's imagination. Is it really Alice that is the crazy one?


Characters:-

- Alice and her jounrey through wonderland.
- White Rabbit and his emphasise on time.
- The Mad Hatter and the idea that like Alice, he is not what he seems.
- The Caterpillar and his fantasies.
- Tweedle dum and Tweedle Dee and the idea there is two sides to a personality.
- Chesire Cat, the figure of guidance - nuisance to Alice's journey?

Banksy - Police officer inspects Dorothy.

This picture of a police officer inspecting Dorothys basket is easy to relate to our planned interpreation of Alice. The Wizard of Oz is another famous fantasy tale, that seems so farfetched from reality. This brings us to our first point; it shows a mix of seemingly innocent fantasy being combined with a more brutal figure of the real world, that usually deals with the seedy underbelly of society. The fact that he is inspecting her basket, implies the idea of a lack of trust, even in the most unexpected of people. This blends in with our ideas of how we want to inspect and take apart the themes from Alice in Wonderland to uncover the true forms behind the symbolism.

From our point of view this image is either portraying the police officer as mistakingly innterogative towards a misdirected persona, or that he is rightfully suspicious of Dorothy, implying she is scheming and vindictive in the same way as we want our alternate version of Alice to be.

Banksy - 'Gas mask girl'

I feel this picture relates quite a lot to how we want our portrayal of Alice to be. Banksy has a way of twisting things to make quite a statemtent; I am unsure of what this picture is actually suggesting, however, we feel it is highlighting the idea of government repression and living in a society that is poisened by authority. We feel this is a good starting point as to how we want our Alice to be viewed; we feel the gas mask contradicts Alice's innocence, and the fact we are unable to see her face adds to the sense of mystery and idea that we do not know the real Alice.

Research - Alice in Wonderland

In terms of costume, Alice is typically shown wearing a pale blue dress, a pristine white pinafore and a large black bow in her long, blonde hair. She is he seen as a figure of innocence throughout all the different adaptations of Alice in Wonderland, however, having discussed it, we plan to exploit this vulnerbale image and twist it into something quite surreal, to an almost malicious, scheming Alice.

"The tale plays with logic in ways that have given the story lasting popularity"
"It is considered to be one of the best examples of literary nonsense"

In our promotional package, we want the themes to be obvious and we want to capture some of the 'nonsense', however, we feel that our mark needs to be on it; we need it to be original and somewhat relevant to the dub step/ rock genre.

Although we do not intend to copy the characters and themes from Alice in Wonderland, we feel we need to capture the essence of it through our own input. An example to look at would be that of the recent film 'Malice in Wonderland', which is inspired by the original Alice in Wonderland. They have adopted the personalities of the various original characters, yet put them in different forms; for example, the White Rabbit is a man and the Queen of Hearts is a strip club owner.

Chase & Status CD cover analysis.

I feel this album cover sums up quite a lot about Chase and Status, the dubstep duo. Its got quite a classic feel to it, with the black and white photo of two children kissing. I can imagine it being a CD that would of perhaps come about in the 1960's/1970's. The yellow block capitaling is nothing fancy, it just tells the listener who the album is by, without ruining the photo behind. Dubstep is not the most well-known genre, it can be quite surreal and random, and this album cover I believe really reflects this. Chase and Status, in the world of dubstep are somewhat a legend so they don't need to use lots of appealing imagery on their albums; this album cover speaks for itself.

Final plan for this term.

7 weeks (this term)
Digipack and Poster finished:-

Week 1
Thursday 6th Jan - Thursday 13th Jan

All the research (for overall theme)completed.

Research must include:

- Dub step (CD covers etc.).
- Research into Banksy and his art (to develop the visual aspects of surrealism for the designs of our digipack and poster).
- Research into appropriate characters and themes from Alice in Wonderland.

As well as this, the digipack ideas and plan written down on blog, ready to begin the rough draft.

Week 2
Thursday 13th Jan - Thursday 20th Jan

Begin rough draft of digipack.
- Sketch ideas.
- Draw it out roughly and scan it up.
- Gather any ideas (maybe in a mood board).

Week 3
Thursday 20th Jan - Thursday 27th Jan

Finish rough design of digipack and critically evaluate it, describing how we may move forward with it.

Also, begin final design of digipack.

Week 4 to 6
Thursday 27th Jan - Thursday 17th Feb

Create the final design for digipack and scan it onto blog.

Week 7
Thursday 17th Feb - Thursday 24th feb

Poster finished (this will be heavily based on the digipack, and most of its imagery will be therefore be extracted from it)and then scanned onto blog along with a brief analysis including the progress made and what we intend to carry through into our music video, which will begin being planned in the new term.