Scart 12 & the Blur“Spiracle”

Out of FocusROUGH TRADE RECORDS

Director: Tara Costello

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

real media products?real media products?

My media product to some extent conforms to the

hegemonic values of a music video through it’s use

of matching editing and pace.

However, it also challenges the conventions by:

- Having very little miming, - Having very little miming, and no clear storyline.and no clear storyline.

I wanted to completely ditch this perception of experimental music being ‘weird’ and I wanted to subvert the conventions of music videos. I feel I have successfully done this. I created a very ‘filmic’ piece, which is quite common in the music industry now.

My actress did not wish to mime and I did not want a performance based video. Once I heard the lyric “When I was a child..” I decided I wanted to incorporate child footage, and a narrative was born out of this.

Looking very cinematic, considering it’s Looking very cinematic, considering it’s genre (experimental) is usually considered genre (experimental) is usually considered

very low-budget.very low-budget.

It’s use of time lapse photography.It’s use of time lapse photography.

Time-lapse photography is a technique where each frame is captured at a rate much slower than it will be played back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving

faster (lapsing).

Throughout the video, there is several, brief sequences where this occurs.

Two sequences of Hannah:

Two of traffic, one being out of focus:

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I believe my advertising campaign as a whole successfully works. I tried to make it as intriguing as possible. It is consistent and the motifs present in the video are also present throughout the digipack.

There is also a strong blue theme.

Front cover: I used a frame from one of the time lapses to attract the audience. Something familiar from the video.

Back: I used a shot of Hannah with a television. This is an early idea I never used. This is a similar shot, keeping the audience engaged.

Inside: I used a shot of a piano with a blue tone as the song is very piano driven.

Album posterI wanted to keep the poster as simple as

possible. My aim was something simple, yet memorable.

I used this photograph as it is one of my favourite shots from the music video.

The shot in my music video is not as clear this one. Again, keeping the audience

engaged with something familiar I felt this was a good technique.

Together, the video, the poster and the CD cover work together quite well. Each

advertises the artist. There is a strong, consistent theme running throughout.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When making my music video I was worried people would not appreciate it. I was reluctant to have a clear narrative and plot. I wanted to create something really abstract. Throughout the editing process I received feedback along the way and learnt that people did not want to watch something they did not understand. I had so many different ideas and so many new things I wanted to try. I thought I could condense them all into a three minute music video. I had to conform slightly and produce something an audience would understand and love. The song alone is a very acquired taste and may be a lot to take in. I learnt that every video needs some sort of narrative. I was not comfortable at first and was very reluctant to create a 'story'. I am now happy with the final product.

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

Research: NMT did not play a huge part but I regularly used youtube to watch and analyze music videos that I could not access via television music channels. I briefly looked at Soap & Skin’s website to read lyrics in order to trigger ideas.

Planning: I used blogger to document all planning, changes or general thoughts/comments.

Evaluation: When collecting audience feedback I used

youtube, but mainly facebook. This allowed me

to access a diverse collection of opinions ranging from friends,

colleagues, relatives and teachers.