Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

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

Radiohead as a band are controversial in themselves,and this is hugely reflected by previous artwork drawn by lead singer/ song writer Thom Yorke. Many of Yorke's pictures have been featured in album covers and their album contents. Some of Yorke's work became iconic images that are internationally recognised as representation of Radiohead. Drawings such as the 'minotaur' are well known symbolism of Radiohead.
Radiohead's album art, music video and music are very unique and creative as it pushes the boundaries and explores creativity and imagination that is otherwise left untouched. Radiohead's use of simple but extremely clever album art, in both present and previous years presents perfectly the controversial attitude and appearance they acquire.
Radiohead are renowned for their creative and somewhat strange music videos however they always meaning and stories that are told in sometimes disorientating but always effective ways. This is what we tried to accomplish in accordance with our music video and Digi pack and in consideration to previous magazine adverts and music videos by Radiohead I think our Digi pack, advert and music video illustrate Radiohead's style and attitude perfectly. Our Digi Pack is controversial as to the normal perception of music and it's artists but Radiohead are controversial and utterly none mainstream. In our music video we experimented with the camera to create distinctive and even awkward angles and shots, we tried to create something that is simple but different and had a story behind it that, as a viewer you can grasp as you watch the music video.


How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

There was alot of software needed in order to complete this project. Although I only briefly used Premier I was deeply involved in creating the Digi pack in Photoshop. I found photoshop hard to work around so i had to experiment with it until I found a few types of filters and distortion tools that I was happy with then I combined them all together to create the Digi pack.
The camera and tripod were a little complicated to start with but once you were familiar with them they made filming alot easier as the tripod helped make some very smooth pan shots and the camera was really effective off the tripod when we did shaky cam, it created the type of images we wanted perfectly.
In order to do research into the music genres, the band and into music videos we had to use social networking sites and fan websites to create discussion boards and gain valuable information straight from the fans about how they expect and want things to look like.


What have you learned from your audience feedback

To get as much audience feedback as possible we used focus groups, interviews, questionnaires, social networking sites and fan made websites with discussion boards to gather as much research as possible and to get a general idea of what people thought of our music video.

Digi Pack Research

By researching previous album cover artwork and magazine adverts for Radiohead I was able to recognise that all of Radiohead's previous album covers are seemingly random abstract objects or images that are morphed into images that are totally obscure and illustrate Radiohead as a band brilliantly in the sense that they are utterly unique and are creative in ways that many other bands are not, and because of this they have generated a huge following. Through using simple pictures and objects as the album covers and deforming them into something meaningful and clever Radiohead have created some of the most notorious album covers to date, but not always for good reason for example Radiohead's first album 'Pablo honey' was once dubbed one the worst album covers by Radiohead by The Guardian newspaper. Radiohead's album contents and lyrics are always hugely reflected in their album covers for example OK Computer (1997) and Kid A (2000) were about modern alienation and this was shown perfectly through Stanley Donwood's artwork. The songwriting on In Rainbows was more personal than that on Radiohead's other albums, with singer Thom Yorke describing most tracks as his versions of "seduction songs", because of this I tried to create an album cover and contents and a magazine advert that reflected Thom Yorke's idea of sensuality for In Rainbows and yet had similarities of previous album covers that represented Radiohead for the unique band they are.

Album Covers/ Album Art

As part of creating a digipack we will be creating an album cover to promote the new Radiohead album. In order to do this I had to research previous album covers and popular album art. This is also why I researched Radiohead symbols and corresponding images. In order to create an album cover that will appeal to Radiohead fans it is essential to gain as much knowledge about Radiohead's unusual taste in artwork as possibly.

Shooting Schedule

Production Plan

Production Plan

Scene 1 – John is waiting outside a room for somebody in a hospital, looking anxious. A consultant/doctor then comes out of a room and starts walking down the corridor with John. Subtitles say “well John, we just need to finish checking the test results. It could be serious, but try not to worry at this stage”.

Scene 2 – Cut to him walking out of hospital and looking out on to the streets. “Don’t get any big ideas”.
Cut to him travelling home in the car, stuck in traffic. He looks nervous. Cut to shot of the Traffic Lights moving out of focus. “They’re not gonna happen”.
John could sing 1st half of line.

Scene 3 – He arrives home, makes a drink, looks out of the window and sees a crow/animal.
He tries to distract himself (watching T.V, reading a book, pressing a stress ball) but can’t stop thinking about it.
Intercut him trying to distract himself with images of death (gravestone, birds flying away, foreshadowing shots of him lying down on the path and the gangster looking down at him.)

Scene 5 – he then leaves the room for an early night. Cut to him in bed, fidgeting and sweating vigorously (having nightmares). “You paint yourself white”.

Scene 6 – More quick cuts of death and flashbacks of doctor. “Fill up with noise”.

Scene 7 – Cut in to the dream. He is lying on the floor, and then the gangster picks him up and pushes him in front. “They’ll be something missing”.
John could sing the line.

Scene 8 – Cut back to him sat on the edge of his bed, still sweating and looking worried. He gets up and tiredly walks downstairs. He then sits by the table and reads a letter from the hospital from the day before telling him to come in to the hospital. He falls asleep. “Now that you’ve found it, it’s gone”.
Could sing line.

Scene 9 – Cut back to dream. He is now jogging away from the gangster down a long path. “Now that you feel it, you don’t”.
He rounds a corner and runs for a while, then turns around and the gangster is still following him. “You’ve gone off the rails”.

Scene 10 – He keeps running. Cut to images of death again, flashback of doctor and hospital. “So don’t get any big ideas”. Could sing part of the line.
Cut back to him on path rounding another corner, but the gangster continues to follow. “They’re not gonna happen”. He sings the line.

Scene 11 – He runs around another corner and then stops, breathes, and thinks about doing something to stop the gangster. “You’ll go to hell for what you’re dirty mind is thinking”.
Could sing part of the line before he turns around.
On the final word of the line he rounds the corner to see if the gangster is still chasing him but he is right there in front of him.

Scene 12 – He wakes up at the kitchen table and phone is ringing. He answers it and it is the doctor/consultant. Subtitle - “Hi John, this is Dr Smith, your test results have come out positive. Your all clear”. John looks incredibly relieved – “alright thanks, bye”.
He puts the phone down and sits there looking hopeful. He gets up and walks away.

Cut to him lying in bed, not fidgeting or sweating anymore.

*shoot sections on the path, death references and bits where he’s fidgeting in bed handheld.
*Shoot sections at hospital, bits in car, and when all the parts in his house on tripod.




Day 1 Shoot the sections at his house.
The bits at the hospital (exterior shot of him walking out and looking across the streets.
Shoot the interior car shots and traffic light shots.
Shoot any death images (graveyard, birds flying away, bloody knife, crow etc)

Day 2 Film all the path section (windy road near college)
Film the bits with the doctor on a college corridor that resembles a hospital corridor.

Radiohead symbols and images corresponding with the band

The Band

Radiohead an formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway. Radiohead became internationally famous in the 90's and were influential on the British rock and pop music.
Their work has also influenced other musicians in genres ranging from jazz to R&B.

Primary Research: Questionnaire

Through this questionnaire I was able to con notate and analyse the results. By doing this I was able to gain valuable insight into Radiohead's popularity and how well known the band is among all age groups and both genders.

According to my results only 60% of women knew who Radiohead were as appose to 80% of men knowing of the band, however 70% of the men that were asked this question were also aged 16 to 25 suggesting that Radiohead is much more popular and known to the younger generation. As only 10% of people aged 40+ knew who Radiohead were.

When asked the question What would you like to see in a music video? Overall 20% said Narrative, 20% said Perfomance, 50% said Both and 10% said other. This suggests that as a viewer people enjoy watching things that have a plot and meaning behind the images and lyrics whether it is a music videos, film or TV advert.

One of the open questions we asked were What do you expect to see in a Radiohead video? Here are a few the responses; -"Something totally unexpected and original"
-"An interesting video with a backbone and something to get your teeth into and actually have a meaning" -"A story with logic and told in a perverse or weird way but a story well told none the less".

Radiohead, Nude song

The Purpose of my Blog

As part of my A Level Media studies coursework I was placed into a group of four to film, edit, and create a promo music video for the band of our own choosing. We will also be creating a digipack cover for the album and a magazine advert for the digipack. I will post all my research in accordance with my work on my blog and keep my blog updated with my progression of my coursework as the year continues.
The song we have chosen to make a music video to is Nude by Radiohead.