Director's commentary for evaluation question 4.

Background Story Analysis for Turning Tables

Our video has both factors of performance and narrative as i have spoken about this in previous

posts and compered this to where my inspiration has come from . However the Narrative is

the Establishing point of the video. Its supposed to be three time lines cut together to tell a story

these three time lines are when she composed the peace playing the piano,were it shows her initial reaction after her experience of her releasing her emotions and putting them towards something constructive like making this song :

Another is the studio work were she is preforming her song and showing her

emotion as she powers through her performance fully fueled on this emotion and energy she brings out in her work :

And last but not least the flash backs she has during her performance to both happy and sad times of their relationship as she states there was both of these elements present in their relationship in the title "turning tables " .

Some bad memories caused by him .......

and some caused by her !

Therefore showing the Tables turning .

None the less there was happy times too .

All of these flashbacks and additives to the story makes it a little harder to comprehend than most videos but it is linear , it does have a beginning a middle and an end .
The beginning starts with her not singing yet and playing the piano then as the lyrics flue in she shows the viewer what she is talking about with illustrations of her flashbacks .In the beginning



there is mostly bad times as the lyrics are resentful .
" i wont rescue you to just desert me "
















Then it shows her him for what had done and blocking him out , as that was the last straw of the turning tables and now she is truly gone out of his life for good .

Having said that he still tries to chase after her and get her back ...

many times .

Towords the end she has started reminiscing the happy times to as we have figured when someone or something is gone and we cannot have it back , we only remember the good things

about it or them .

In the end the time lines show that they are all coming to a close too .

The in the performance timeline she stops singing and looks away ,

The pianist gets up from the piano .....

And in the final shot the use to be couple let go of each others hands.

BY MADALINA

Video Analysis

In this shot you can see the main actress in a longshot looking over a damaged unstable table looking into the light . Symbolizing her seeing clearly now as the table is a metaphor for the relationship as the title is turning tables.This shot is a studio shot where she sings about this damaged relationship and as she sees the table in this clear light , that is the way she sees the relationship and therefore is able to sing about it .The lighting is harsh and dramatic just like their relationship.She is placed in the darker side of the photo implying that she was in the dark about something but she is now looking towards the light. She is framed in the center of the shot to show this video is about her .I would call this an establishing shot because she is singing here in the studio and all the other locations are flashbacks to good and bad times that they have sheered together .Usually in videos the past are shown in black and white for example Beyonce's Listen .But in my video i have decided this is unnecessary as her memories are so

clear and vivid they are stronger and matter more than the present .The present actually has a colour saturation on it to show her present is color less and colder without him even though she is singing about being better off in the long run . There is no motion to the camera at this point to represent that still single moment in time were it was all still and the memories came flooding back .

This is a two shot of the two main characters arguing.The lighting is fairly natural as natural and the arguing in their relationship is recurring, indicating things are running hair true course.The lights in the room are off to symbolical that she was in the dark about something .And as he is keeping his hood up that shows that he is hiding something as well as him looking down expressing the body language of shame .His hand is extended in a nature of consolation , but hers is extended to black him out as she turns her face away and she cannot even look him in the eye , her other hand is placed on her head to imply pain , or make the pain is a reaction to what she has just been told .As part of the mise on scene behind her is a very happy and colorful Climpt painting suggesting behind her is a happy and colorful beginning of their relationship, and the towel symbolized the mess that their relationship is that needs cleaning up . The door is Open symbolizing his invitation to leave Along with her expression and ignorance towords his extended arms .

In this two shot she is taking control! She has thrown his cloths in his arms as carelessly as she is trowing him out shown by her body language of her pointing to the door witch is already open! Even though it was open before implying this she is now reinforcing it and will not take no for an answer! She is closer to the camera making her appear bigger , showing the audience who the strong one in the shot really is .Further into the distance he looks small powerless and guilty holding his cloths as he tried to explain himself, subverting the stereotype that men are big and strong just as she is subverting the stereotype that women are week .On the wall directly behind him there is a painting of other women representing that that is in his past and this may we the problem and reason why she is singing him back in that direction as she does not want him anymore .

In this two shot The roles have reverse .He is not closest to the camera and therefore looks bigger representing his strength over her as she is pinned to the wall. For the title is turning tables to instead of her being the strong one he is not dominant and she is week and venerable.This Shot does up hold the stereotype that men are strong and women are week ,But not for long before it cuts away to studio . Later on in the clip she regains her strength and pushes him off as the clip gets played for longer and the audience gets to see what happens next as she stands up for herself and regains her power , symbolization she will always get back up and she takes no non seance from him as she makes him disappears in the next shot .The light is on at the opposite end of the room , creating the effect that the light is not shed on hi violet matters yet , and the violence is not centered to represent that none knows about it and its not noticeable to anyone else . In the next studio shot she looks in that direction were it has happened and sings " i wont let you close enough to hurt me " implying that she will never let her guard down around him again because of the way she has been treated .

Here in this two shot they are out in the wilderness creating the illusion of possible danger.They are both resting on broken damaged trees, that represent their relationship that they were both dependent on.The fact that they are both on two different trees represents reparation and distances between them .They are both looking in different directions showing that moving forwards for them both it means moving in separate directions .Shortly after this he disappears from this two short making it an extreme long shot of her .

The dead leafs of the floor that the trees have shed represent all the tears that she has shed that have make her feelings for him dryer and lifeless than these leafs .The puddles help represent that .And the fact that he is wearing his hud up represent the storm that there relationship is about to take .In the background are two live trees standing tall and growing next to each other . The fact that its in the background says that that is how they use to be instead of the current dead trees they are on .

Here you can see a close up of her feet as she is walking away from him and away from the relationship.The rough carpet represents the rough journey she has had with him and the pattern is metaphoric for repeated situations. Her feet are beare to represent her venerability and her exposed feelings . The fact that she is wherein black down to her feet represents the fact that she is covered in negative feelings and possibly even regret . The broken peaces of dishes they broke in their previous fights represents them breaking up and their broken relationship. But in the background you can see a rug , nothing like the one she is walking on this one is colorful , yet still patterned but bright and cheerful , this representing their old patterns that were nice but they are behind her suggesting that those good days are far behind them .

In this shot the tables have turned yet again.In Many shots she has asked him to leave and thrown him out but this time he is walking out willingly with no thoughts of looking back . This long shot is taken at a long angel as the audience are still to presume is a bad guy as the song is about him in a negative light . Also this angel is suggesting that he was doing wrong by doing this .At the same time This can be looked at in a positive manor .

Because he is dressed in black , he could be representing all the bad memories and pain that was caused and him waling out could represent all of these bad things leaving her life for good and this would be a positive thing in this case .

At the same time he is leaving light and color behind him meaning that his roads ahead may not be too pleasant .

BY MADALINA

The ideas of Andrew Goodwin (1992)

Andrew Goodwin had six key characteristics of the music video and we are going to identify these within our music video of Adele - Turning Tables.

Here are those six key characteristics:
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
6. There is often intertextual reference

Here is how we feel we adhere to the six key characteristics:
1. Adele's songs whilst sounding similar are very hard to identify as a specific genre. But Adele herself classifies her music as Pop Soul - so that is how we have decided to handle the content of the video. To handle the activities of a pop music video - we stuck to strong eye focus on the camera in single shots where Maddie is singing on her own and a strong focus on activity and events taking place - the pop aspect occurs within the narrative aspect of the music video - lots of short shots interlinked with each other to create a dramatic sequence of events within the music video. Following Soul conventions - one word was focussed on - energy. Soul is all about the energy that is portrayed and that energy is a result of passion for the music and that's what we've tried to achieve by use of energetic movements in the studio shots and energy coming from the mouth movements whilst miming the song.

2. We have tried very hard to accomplish a connection between the lyrics and the visuals of this song. This is clearly evidenced in the three situations of the lyric "it's time to say goodbye" - on the "goodbye" - we have three different events of closing the other actor out of the singers life - a true "goodbye".
The first place this takes place is once the singer has thrown the clothes at the actor and kicked him out and he is storming out the front gate carrying (then throwing) his clothes away. It then happens later in the song when the door is slammed shut as he leaves and a third time during the lift scene when the lift doors close and there is a shaddow of Maddie singing over the door closure.

We also stick by this when there is a lyric near the start of the song that goes "All that I have is on the floor" - we think that the scene we used here is cleverly used by the fact she is walking on a broken plate on the floor - what she has on the floor is broken dreams, broken heart and her head is all over.

3. We have made every effort to match tone of music to the visuals on the screen as you watch it. Shots change at change of beat or lyrics sentence and we have made every effort to match the tempo of the music to that of the pace of the footage in front of you as you watch it. For example, when Maddie is playing the piano during the points of the song where there are no lyrics - this is done especially at the introducing 10 seconds of the song where it fades in and out of the piano and studio shot. We also attempted to match the beat near the end of the video when it fades between Maddie and the actor walking down the stairs of the statue.

4. As has been evidenced in previous posts - we have made every effort to adopt conventions of Adele and the types of shots she would usually be seen in. We have attempted to meet that convention without 'copying' the methods use in her other videos. This is done with the variety of shots we did in the studio. These vary from shots showing her full body and fatigue beside the table and close up of her face and upper chest - which is the same variety as used in Adele's other songs. The key demand which is clear from her other videos is her engagement with the piano which we have portrayed her being with the piano in this video.

5. We have made every effort to portray Maddie in Adele's methods which match Goodwin's fifth characteristic. This is done in the two methods demonstrated by Goodwin. We have tried to engage lots of eye contact from Maddie in this video - especially in the studio shots. But in the majority of shots involve a closer shot of either herself of both together - we have ensured there is either constant eye contact or a flow from no contact in to firm contact.
As Adele typically does - we have focussed on the aspects of the female body. Instead of firm close-ups of the neck upwards in the video, we have included the upper-body of Maddie and during the shots with Maddie and our actor being together, we have focussed on the chemistry and sexual relationship once shared in the couple and their past which is now exactly that, the past. From focussing on where the actors hands were placed i.e. on the hip/waste in the roof shots to the chemistry being shown during any kissing during the video - we have tried to seriously portray the female body in a voyeuristic manner.

6. For inter-textual reference, we have achieved this in a variety of methods. This is heavily evidenced in our task evaluation which can be found at http://loretomedia-c1-11-group4.blogspot.com/2011/12/1in-what-ways-does-your-media-product.html - we have taken strong inspiration from other music videos - speicifically that from Robbie Williams and Beyonce and of course, Adele's own videos.

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

The videos we have gotten most of our inspiration from is: Adele
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0&ob=av3e
Robbie Williams - Feel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc06ZOJCqIA&feature=fvst

and Beyonce - Listen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc1R1JMTMKQ

Adele is almost exclusively doing pop ballads for this type of songs and she preforms very
emotional songs. Therefore we thought bringing that emotion out would be a great feature and
aim for our music video . A more famous peice that she has gotten around to creating a video
for .This video is" someone like you ".In the video you can see Adele's lip synched performance of her song in a beautiful yet ill weathered location . this is very effective as you can directly see her expressions and her emotions clearly . Therefore we have decided we are going to use some lip synching in our video. Her video is also this effective because of the black and white effect applied to this video .We are going to use this in our video not only for the impact but to keep in house-style with Adele way of working . This house-style of hers is carried out through her album cover as well and we have decided to do that as well apart from the video element were we have decided to be a little bit more creative .

Even though Adele's video, 'someone like you' is a good video, we will try do a lot more various locations , we like the black and white effect however to fit together with the colour scenes we have gotten we have decided black and white is too much of an overpowering juxtaposition , so instead we will take that less colour feel she gives out and turn the effect into a saturated layer to compliment our video yet still look relevant to her work .Id like to think of the reduced saturation as the mixture of mixing the black and white effect of Adele's with our full blown color effect .I think its a nice bridge between the two .For example ;


+

=

With this bridge created i believe using black and white is acceptable as you can see the gradual change as black and white is only used towards the end and full color near the beginning with saturated in the middle almost like the video is loosing its color as time goes by .

Our inspiration for having many two shots rather than going Adele's way and only having one actor was from Beoncey's video for Listen .Her and the male lead appear trough out the video in
several shots in dark situations and locations .We were inspired by this but
we decided to do a more different and more interesting point of view .
Maybe like an over the shoulder shot that proved to be interesting in Robbie Williams's video for feel .

Those two scenes are responsible for the creation of this one .

The way Robbie Williams and Byonce's mixed performance and narrative and sows some emotional performances with effective flashbacks .This has inspired me to mix performance and narrative as I can clearly see that they do combine very well when it comes to pop ballads , especially when a song like Turning tables has such a strong complex and pictorial story-line .Just like the song Listen Adele's song has various bits where her voice is much stronger and emphasis as the emotion is getting across allot
cleared therefore we will also use her video inspiration for her statement making moments.


but instead i have decided to use more variety of shots such as a long shot along with the close ups.


What also inspired me by his video is a rotational movement in the camera along with some panning and tracking shots .Since the tile of my video is " Turning tables " i thought this same movement would be beneficial and relevant to my video exept that we will make it far more elaborate and longer swinging motions .

Two shots are also very common in Beoncey's and Robbie Williams's video .So the idea of using an extra actor to act out the narrative of the story line could work quite well in subtle however ways .However at the same time i will try not to capture the second characters face as not as obvius as in Robbie Williams's video as i believe its too much , because i believe it draw too much scene of importance to the other character and this is not about her its about his own
experience and spin on the situation and who he is is irrelevant . So I have decided to try to keep his face out as much as possible , keeping his hood on and over his shoulder shots are a must I
would like to leave the face placement to whoever the audience presume him to be as her fans may be able to relate to it a little bit better .

As far a challenging music video conventions i believe that most videos only use two time lines at the most to merge , we have however used three time lines merged together to create our video witch can get quite confusing but does not disturb the linear quality of our video .
Another feature that we have added if the full color at the beginning slowly reducing until near the end it fades to black and white bit then it is restored to full image quality in full color at the end to show the motion of cycle and yet again imply thee title of turning tables .

Production Progress Update - #4 - AS VS A2?

AS vs A2 - an interesting comparison.

In AS Production work, creating the final task was to a certain extent, easier than this task of creating a music video. The film introduction had lots of long scenes in it, with not many locations required to make the two minutes work. This A2 task is a complete different ball game! We have a total of 138 different pieces of video footage in a variety of locations. For the AS task, I can remember having a very small pallet to work from and it working fine - despite this big pallet, the task was still hard to fill it with footage that worked with the songs lyrics. Films have their own set of conventions, as do music videos. The two tasks are both of a very different media nature.

Filming in the AS task was steady and continuous. Filming for this A2 music video task was completely different - lots of short shots and movement in far more settings. We found the overall time taken to achieve the number of different shots required for the music video was far greater than that of the film introduction last year.

Even in the post-production/editing work - we were cautious about falling in to the film-trap by following the same style we had adopted last year in AS. The variety had to be far greater in the music video than in the film we had created last year.

The overall amount of work undertaken definitely seems to be a heck of a lot more for this task than the AS task. At the start of the task, we didn't quite adopt that understanding, which led to us having a slow start on what we should be doing and coming to agreements as a group. However, despite that delay in getting to grips with the demands of task, we pulled together in good time as a group and ultimately led to us working on schedule to the task and with the long amounts of extra time put in outside of the lessons, we have managed to complete the task. There were definitely moments of worry and hesitation as to whether we'd get to this stage in the time we did very early in the process of the task, but here we are with the task done and we're proud of the work we've accomplished.

Technology in creating the music video

Technology played a very big part in the creation of this music video - there was no cutting and gluing of film - that much I can tell you!

One of the big advantages we had was access to the filming studio that we have here in college. This facility we have been told has the same specifications as a BBC Training Studio - which we feel quite proud and very privileged to have access to. The studio contains three HD Camera's with green screen technology and state of the art computer equipment to back it up as can be seen from the piture below. This facility aided the creation of our black background shots of Maddie singing on her own and allowed us to provide the lighting we required with the various lighting equipment in the facility. The camera's also have monitors mounted on them which is for the autocue which allowed Maddie to refer to them in perfect sync with the music if she needed to and aided our video and the lip syncing we have aimed to perfect.

For filming which took place outside of the studio at our outside locations we used a handheld camcorder / digital camera to film our footage. This in itself presented us with some issues. The camera itself wasn't too good at filming in the dark/night despite using the light on the front of it. So we had to compromise by using a handheld LED torch strip (rectangular torch) to provide different strenghts of light depending on the shot we were going for. However for the most part, these cameras were great in providing the material we needed in natural light and weather conditions.

We found ourselves using a variety of equipment to aid the filming with the handheld camera. The primary piece used was the handheld camera jib - which you can see being demonstrated by the chap in the promotional picture below.

This allowed us to get shots which involved moment but also provided accuracy and was used in various shots, especially at night time. In the night shots where you can see the singer and the actor walking down the steps at the end and also when they're kissing and the camera goes from out of focus to in-focus on close-up - the jib proved to be a vital piece of equipment in providing accuracy during these shots.

We also used a small steadycam frame which is a rectangular frame which the camera screwed securely on to and allowed steady shots to be filmed. This was used mostly in the filming of the shots at Manchester Science Park of the lift and running up stairs scenes. It also proved useful in nightshots involving both singer and actor walking past each other along with a variety of other shots we have done.

We found ourselves carrying a tripod to mount the camera but only using it once. We found the accuracy of the jib and the handheld frame to be perfectly fine and they also provided more flexibility than the tripod could provide us. The one time we used the tripod was also with a tri-dolly (wheel mount) for filming the short clip where Maddie is entering the lift.

On to the software side of the production, we did the post-production work in Final Cut Pro on the dual-screen Mac editing suites we have here in College. Final Cut Pro proved invaluable to the creation of this video. Down to the editing, shot filters and attention to accuracy - it would have been very hard to create without it. Final Cut Pro is a general piece of editing software used by the industry and having the ability to use it in college was not something we took foregranted and used the software to it's maximum potential to achieve our music video.

In all, technology played a very big part in the creation of the music video, it's quite hard to image the filming world of the past where many hours were spent with long strands of film and manually piecing them together.

2.How effective is the combination of you main product and ancillary texts ?

As you can see here my Digital pack work is a developed idea after being inspired by Adele's cover 21.I have decided to use the same black and white effect with the touch of green but i have decided to up the contrast for more baldness and more appeal to the eye , and also i have decided to provide more imagery , i decided on a long shot instead of a close up as i thought this would me more effective in seeing the hole picture .I've decided to have her dead on center with

the writing para ancillary parallel to the piano key board to create a seance of balance between
the top and bottom half of the CD cover .This kind of production , effects and linear quality is

repeated trough out my products such as the poster and the inside and back covers . The wri

ting is always white to show and contrast well on the shadowing backgrounds .Unless the written information is something more important like Adele has the 21, in wit

ch case

it will be green .I have used the same font throughout my work similar to Adele's but with a bit more edge and I've also decided to highlight main features that are key such as the eyes in the poster in green together with the video i think they compliment each-other and show a correlation even though i have not used as much black and white effects in the video.Looking at my main and digital products i see some kind of house style may have developed .For the inside covers I have repeated the same image for a symmetrical look but also to imply that she used to find herself in the same situation over and over again which is why the lyrics on both sides are

different but the image isn't .

I think the Advert and the CD cover will help sales because of the composition of them and the appeal to the eye. subliminally implanting the idea that if the presentation is good the album itself must be just as thought out and carefully placed together.

The Video would also help as it gets the song out there enough for the world to hear it and it is well illustrate it it may better the quality of the song in the eyes of the public .After my theory about album attractiveness i have decided to do a little research and looked at two albums one of great composition and one of less consideration planning .

we have used the low key lighting to keep the focus on the star , and to get across her importance . We have also used minimum props to do just this also the only thing that we have

actually used is the piano .

But even this wasn't used on set but had been taken pictures of separately in different lighting and positions and edited in after we had taken picture of actress on a pair of steps in a studio with different effects and different types of lighting .Murged and cut together with images like this .

To make the posters and covers .as you can tell the lighting is similar , and if it doesn't match to a tee we can always use the burner tool on Photoshop to even everything out .The darkness can be a symbolism her relationship but the fact that she is standing out brighter because of this darkness suggests she has come out of this relationship a better person .

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We have found audience feedback to be quite important - it's this feedback which really makes our efforts feel worthwhile. We have taken the firm view throughout that whilst this task is of course about achieving a grade, it's also about our own passion for the song and what other people around us think.

We have asked four people for their genuine views on what they think about our video and in the most part, this feedback has been positive. With comments ranging from:
Weve tried to generally ask our audiance What did tey like about our video if anything ? and How they would improve it ? along with thait general oppinion .

Jack Britain 18 :that was very clever i loved the story the editing was epic aswell after spending 400 years infront of those editing computers i know how annoying they get :)

John age 19 :Interiors are well lit and shots composed imaginatively. Edited with an effective rhythm against the soundtrack. Night exteriors work best, though some of the handheld work could be smoother - one or two jerky pans. Gets story across visually well. NIce...

Mrs Morgan age 38 :what an emotionally packed video ! it really got me believing everything acted out in it and i really connected to it! I could never tell its a collage production , if i saw it on T V i wouldn't question its line of production being professional !!

Lauren age 17:"In some aspects, I prefer this type of video to some of Adele's own" and "Was Maddie actually singing this? You wouldn't know it was Adele with how well those lips are synced! Id make the camera less chaky but apart fom that perfect , my faivorite bit was the one where he gets wine ssplashed in his face ".

Laurie Almond 19 said : This is a perfect example of what a music cover video should be like. It almost effortlessly blends the key elements of Mise en scene together, creating a dynamic but also varied shot range. I especially like how the lighting is used at min 1.31, the streets lights glare boldly but further creat a smudged effect to the shot suggesting sadness, which enhances the emotions that the song intales. Overall this is a music video that truely constructs a more personal involvment for the audience.

Annish 18 : "great production , i cant think of any ways to improve it , the story line may confuse some people but it was brilliant, The point where he dissapears is sick "

Anne Masicks 52:Very innovative.... love it! no iprovements , couldant of done it better myself .I loved the bit where she walk abou at the end , very symbolic.I wouldant change
a thing about it tho.


we have also had some commets o nour video unexpectidly by total strangers .Statistics show that our video has bein watched outside
the uk more than in the UK.One Unknown stranger said "Stunningly good film with some great Manchester scenes, atmospheric lighting and everyday house shots. Created a feeling of passion and let down - loved it!''
Along with more .

Therefore we have decided this is the best form of feedback as if they do not know us or anything about us they are most lightly to be totaly honest , that is why we have decided to take theese feedbacks into more consideration that the ones from pepole we know .

(For moree http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U5Ozc_utYc&feature=bulletin)

But of course, we have learnt from this feedback in some of the mistakes made during the task and the construction of the video. The key point was that at times, especially the part involving the two cars driving away, the scene felt too long for a music video with not very much going on. This issue was one we had tried to face later in the editing stage. The scene was initially 10 seconds longer and we had made efforts to crop and speed up certain parts but there was still a view that it was too long in it's current form - almost like a film rather than music video scene - which is an issue we faced trying to stray away from the conventions of films we had adopted last year.

The problem with the audience feedback was that we had asked them to be completely honest on their views but we gauged the opinion that they were in the most part being nice and trying not to be negative about the video - which is a shame - we had even asked them to clarify and reassured them that we wanted true comments so we could learn and reflect on the mistakes we made but this failed to come out in the feedback.

We also asked for feedback on our print media - which was loved by all the individuals we asked to give us feck. They absolutely loved the CD cover material and the print material and one even asked Maddie - "wait, is that you? Wow, you really have done some great covers!" - which is another case where to us, we really do begin to feel proud of the work we have created.