Podcasts

Due to some problems uploading, we have only just managed to upload our finished 4 podcasts. The links are (hopefully) below!

Podcast 1 - 10th Nov

Podcast 2 - 17th Dec

Podcast 3 - 19th Jan

Podcast 4 - 28th Jan

The podcasts were recorded on Mitch's Macbook Pro, and eventually posted to Youtube.com in video format, due to time restraints and lack of alternatives.

The Finale

Overall I believe our film has been quite successful, despite the problems that we have suffered throughout. In terms of our original Production Schedule, we did not stick to many of the dates at all, and this left us severely behind, which has affected parts of our work. As we kept delaying filming, the overall quality of our film is not what it should be, however we still hope we can achieve good marks for our overall project.

Throughout the project I also didn't feel I made regular enough posts onto this blog, and that everything was rushed and put into the blog in January, which again meant I left everything to the last minute.

The high points of our production were probably the two Ancillary texts we produced, which we spent a lot of time and effort on, and hopefully will be suitably rewarded when it comes to marking them. We spent a lot of time experimenting with them, which has led to the finished articles, which I am proud of.

The editing for our video is also to a high standard, as the actual footage is not as good as it should have been, due to us rushing it. We have received a lot of positive feedback from viewers of our video, however the idea of posting it to Youtube was not as successful as we wished. We hoped to get some decent feedback for both negative and positive, as people in our class are likely to avoid being too negative in case they hurt our feelings, whereas people on the cruel world of Youtube are likely to be more honest, and harbor no bias, as they don't know us. To date, we have received 4,812 views of our video, 8 ratings and 1 comment.

Overall, despite at times our own laziness and lack of motivation, I am relatively happy with the finished standard of our project. If I were to repeat the project, I would definitely be more motivated and stick to the Production Schedule, so that we end up with having more time at the end of the project to make any changes that we need.

Thank you for reading,

Rob.

Evaluation

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

I believe our finished Media product conforms to most of the conventions we set out to do. From the research, it became evident that there were specific, recurring codes and conventions of each product, which we tried to incorporate into our finished products. For example, in research I found that with all of the Magazine Adverts I analysed contained contrasting colours between background and text, to make the text stand out more. This was also apparent in the images that were either used as the background, or in the central third of the advert. To keep with these conventions, we tried to formulate our Magazine advert in accordance, which I believe we have done successfully. The use of the brown banner contrasts with the yellow and red text for our magazine advert, which makes it stand out more.


For our Magazine Advert, we used logos for several Media institutions, namely HMV, iTunes and Play.com. The use of these real institutions is likely to make our Magazine advert more realistic, and show the audience where they will be able to purchase the track we have used for our video. For our DVD Cover we used symbols for other Media institution, such as Dolby Digital and Paramount Pictures. This use of institutions is again likely to make our Media product more effective, and realistic.

The advert is also dominated by a large background image, which seems to stare out at the viewer from all angles. This achieves a similar effect to the image of Gwen Stefani in the advert that I researched at first. The expression, position and style that we have in the background of the advert has erotic connotations, and objectifies the person in the picture (Mitch). This idea links to the “Male Gaze” theory of Laura Mulvey’s, however it turns it on its head, as it objectifies a male, and he is seen through a female viewpoint. This is also apparent at times in our actual video.

In terms of the video, it conforms to most of the codes and conventions that were obtained from research. In terms of Blumler and Katz “Uses and Gratifications” theory, whilst watching Weird Al’s “White ‘N’ Nerdy” I felt I was watching it for Diversion purposes, as there is very little room for relation with characters. We felt we had to replicate this in our video, and the lack of personality that is developed in characters means there is no room for personal relations between characters and audience, which means our video will be interpreted in the same way, therefore sharing conventions with other parody-style videos. Along with this, we looked very closely at Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos, and tried to follow it as best as we could. According to Goodwin’s theory, music videos should have a link between lyrics and visual content, which we did as the song is about undressing, and the main parts of the video reflect this. Although, it could also be said we did not conform to this convention, as we did not re-enact exactly what the lyrics say. Another of Goodwin’s aspects was the continual close-ups of the main singer, which is something that we did frequently throughout our video.

However, we did not totally follow Goodwin’s theory, as we did not conciously make any intertextual references in the duration of our video. For our DVD Cover, we took a step back from the more conventional music DVD covers, although we did try and follow some conventions that were evident from our research. Instead of having a blank inside to the DVD cover, or a pattern, we decided that we would use two different sets of pictures, both the front and back of two of the characters. The DVD cover, both inside and out, has an easily discernable genre, like other Music DVDs we researched. Because of this, the audience are likely to estimate what the content of the video is before they watch it, which will help us to draw in our Target Audience

Although we did try to make all aspects of our Media Product as realistic as possible, as we only had very limited funds and equipment, it proved very hard to make it look completely professional, which is probably the main reason that the DVD cover and the video itself don’t conform to all the conventions of other, real ones. In terms of sizes, our Magazine Advert is of the A4 size, and the DVD cover is the same size as a standard DVD, which help it to seem more realistic. The length of our music video is also standard, however it challenges the conventions of other standard music videos due to the fact that at the start of the video, other music can be heard, as opposed to either the song straight away, or background noise. The fact that we had to rush certain parts of our video is also particularly evident, and makes it seem more unrealistic and unprofessional, which works against us and doesn’t conform to normal conventions of the genre.

Our video also conforms to the music video theory of Steven Archer, who states “There needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos. It needs to market both the song and the band”. Our video agrees with this theory, as throughout we constantly switch between the events of the stripper (the narrative) and the singer/guitarist (the performance).

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

I believe that the combination of our Music Video and Print Products is particularly effective. Between the DVD cover and Magazine Advert, we decided to use a similar font and layout, which confirms the fact that the two are linked. They also share certain codes and conventions, such as the logo we created, the age rating, and the character in the image. Because we have used the image of a character that appears in our video, it confirms to the audience that the three are linked.

For our DVD Cover, we tried to make it as realistic as possible, which was helped by the research I had conducted into Music DVDs. Because of this research, we gained a greater understanding of the codes and conventions of real DVDs, which meant we could then incorporate this into our work. For our DVD cover, we took a photograph of one of the characters from our video, and used Photoshop to edit the picture. We decided our DVD would be more effective if we took a separate photograph for the covers, as opposed to a screenshot from our finished video. As many of the DVDs that we researched contained a series of images across the back cover that were taken from their videos, we decided we would use screenshots from our video for this purpose. This both makes our DVD cover feel more authentic, and also confirms to anybody who did not already know, that the DVD cover is for our video.

Both print products seem to be relatively successful at promoting our video, as all three share common links. If I were to repeat the process, I believe the opportunity to receive class feedback for our two print products would be particularly useful. It would be useful as it would enable us to receive feedback generally, but more specifically it would allow us to see how effective the audience feel the entire combination is.

Along with the clear links we tried to make between our three products, we also tried to use connotations, for a more subtle link. The main idea we express in our video is of stripping, and therefore nudity, which we also incorporate into our two print products. For our Magazine advert, we used a character with no shirt for the central image, which similarly has the connotation of nudity. For the DVD, we used pictures for the inside and outside, one with the character(s) fully clothed, and the other (for the reverse side) with the character(s) partially naked.

In terms of the “Uses and Gratifications” theory of Blumler and Katz, the way we have laid out our print products is likely to straight away suggest to the viewer that the content is likely to be amusing, and therefore they will already have an expectation of viewing our video for a Diversion purpose. This is what we originally set out to achieve.

The main problem that we encountered creating our two print products was that they were very time-consuming. Although we had some prior experience with Photoshop (including the promotional album cover I had designed) we were still experimenting with certain things. As we had to take new photos for the products, it proved to take a lot longer than it could have if we had just used screenshots from the music video. The editing stages proved to be most time-consuming out of every stage of production, as we were constantly experimenting and tinkering with certain aspects, such as use of colour and font. Although we seemed to rush our music video, we spent a lot of time and attention with the print products, and therefore this has meant we have produced them to a relatively high standard, which adds to their overall effectiveness, when combined with the video.

3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From the class feedback we received, it is particularly apparent that the main negative part of our video was the sections involving the bath. It was not originally planned for the bath to be included in the finished video, however due to time constraints, we had very little choice, as devoting more time to filming would have compromised the quality of other aspects of our work, such as the evaluation. We originally filmed the bath scene as we wished to experiment with time-lapse, and we thought the idea of having a continual flow of water coming from a seemingly small glass would be a really effective shot. However, as we decided against a music video with a “Conceptual Clip” style (relating back to Carlsson’s theory of music videos), we discarded the idea, and instead tried to make a video that had some sort of narrative structure.

The main positive feedback we received was that many people thought our video was amusing, which is originally what we set out to achieve. This means that, in accordance with the “Encoding/Decoding” theory of Stuart Hall, we have received mostly “Hegemonic Readings” or “Negotiated Readings” from our audience, as they have understood and accepted our messages. Many people also claimed that they would have liked to have seen more stripping in the video, however whether this is sarcasm, or whether they mean more characters stripping, is debatable. Either way, the fact that the audience wanted more stripping suggests that they did not particularly mind the objectification of a male character, as opposed to the more common objectification of females according to the “Male Gaze” theory of Laura Mulvey.

We received positive feedback from our audience about the editing of our video, and how everything was in time with the music. To edit the footage, we used iMovie software on a MacBook Pro. I believe the standard of our editing was particularly high, and it transformed some very average shots into a decent video overall. The element of editing we also received positive feedback for was the lip-synching between the singer and the lyrics. This was a very time-consuming process, but will hopefully earn us more marks for our video overall, and it also makes the video seem more professional, as the music videos that I looked at for research all had very good lip-synching.

As well as viewing the video in class, we posted our finished Music Video on the Internet video site Youtube.com. We intended for this to be another way for us to receive feedback on our video, however we have not really received particularly detailed comments about people’s opinion of our video. However, we have received currently 8 ratings for our video, and it currently has a 4.5 out of 5 star rating.

The fact that we seemed to get genuine amusement from our audience, would reinforce the idea that our video would be viewed for escapism. With the “Uses and Gratifications” theory, people seemed to view our video for Diversion purposes, as it has a very light-hearted tone and does not really focus around everyday life or aspects of it.

Although it was not stated in our feedback, I believe that one of the main negatives of our video was how rushed it was. If we had allocated ourselves more time to it we could probably have produced a more professional and better video. However, a combination of changing of ideas and circumstances, coupled with at times laziness, meant that our video felt very rushed in the end.

If we were given more time, I would definitely devote more time to filming the video. I also think it would be particularly helpful if we could receive feedback for our Magazine Advert and DVD Cover, and areas people feel we could improve them. This would enable us to create a more realistic package overall.

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

Throughout the project I have used a wide variety of different technologies. Regularly throughout the project, I have used the internet blogging site, blogger.com, to post my finished work.

During the research stage of the production, I used a wide variety of different technologies. To find some of the definitions and images, I used internet search engines such as Google. This linked me to other internet sites, which helped me to obtain information from a wide variety of different locations. For my research into Music DVD covers, I searched for “music DVD’s” on online shopping sites, such as hmv.com, or play.com. This was similar to the way I approached the research for album covers, and I obtained all images from websites online. To find magazine adverts, I looked in a combination of different places. I went to newsagents such as WHSmiths, to look at music magazines. I also looked online to try and find magazines and articles that I could use, that had been uploaded onto the internet. To collaborate all of my ideas for research together, I used Microsoft PowerPoint to create a presentation, which I then changed into a JPEG file and posted on the aforementioned blog.

For researching Media theories, we used a wide variety of different Media. We used Internet and class-handouts for research into well-known theories, such as Stuart Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding Model” and Blumler and Katz “Uses and Gratifications” theory. We also used a wide variety of books, which we obtained from our College library. This is how I found Emanuel Levy’s theory for Hollywood stars. Although the research he undertook did not specifically address music artists, the fact that in today’s society, musicians are portrayed in a similar light to film stars, through the fact that they can sell their respective product purely due to large fan bases, and on their name alone. I spent a lot of time also using websites to try and find appropriate theories that could be applied to our video, however it proved to be quite difficult. This is the main reason that I probably have not got as wide a variety of theories for my work that I would have liked.

Microsoft Word was also used a lot through all of the production process. Before any of the work was uploaded onto the blog, I entered it into Microsoft Word, so I would be able to save it and edit as I needed to. It also enabled me to use the spell-checking tool, to ensure my grammar and spelling is all accurate. For a lot of the planning, we used Microsoft Word, with a combination of Print Screening shots on a Mac, to use as pictures for costumes and props. Microsoft Word was also used to create our Production Schedule, and to draft the evaluation.

In terms of filming, we decided to use stills cameras as opposed to the conventional video cameras. We chose this, originally, so we could create shots using photography, such as the time-lapse of the bath. However, even though our idea changed, we decided to continue using stills cameras, which we believed to be better quality. We filmed the whole video using a Sony digital camera which we obtained from college.

For our two print products, we used two different types of camera for photography. For the photographs in the DVD Cover, we used the camera on my LG KM900 mobile phone, as it has similar quality to those we used previously. In terms of connectivity, we used Bluetooth software to transfer the photos from the phone onto the Macs, where it was then edited. For the Magazine Advert, we used a professional photography camera, which we obtained through one of the group member’s family. The photograph was then transferred onto the Mac for editing on Photoshop.

For editing, we used the iMovie software on a Macbook Pro. We decided against using other editing software such as Final Cut, as we felt more experienced using iMovie, as we had used it to edit films we have made previously, for other subjects. We also decided against the use of programmes such as After Effects, and instead focused on the content of our film, instead of the effects, to capture the audience’s attention.

Another type of media that we used for our video was Youtube.com, which is a well known website for posting videos online, providing they do not violate copyright, or terms and conditions. The fact that Youtube allows users to post their own videos relates to the “Make and Connect” theory of David Gauntlett, who believed that audiences were producers of media, as well as consumers. The fact that people can create their own videos, then have them posted online, for everyone to view, coincides with this theory.

For the evaluation of my product, I drafted everything on Microsoft Word. For screenshots, I took them from our Youtube video, and added them into the blog when appropriate.

The software that I found to be the hardest to use was probably the iMovie, for editing. As I have never really done editing before, I was unsure as to what to do, and so therefore I probably didn’t contribute to the process as much as I would have liked.

The video we have produced also seems to feel very rushed, and so if I were to repeat the course, I would spend less time experimenting with other software and processes and devote more time to filming. I would also experiment with different types of camera, as opposed to the one stills camera that we used throughout the filming process. Battery life on these cameras was also particularly frustrating, as several times when we intended to film, we were restricted by the short battery life of the cameras that we had. This could have been countered by either getting a charger, or ensuring the camera’s battery is full before starting, however as the camera did not belong to us this would have been particularly hard.

We also experimented with the use of podcasts, although we did not particularly focus on this. We made four of these podcasts using a Mac, and we recorded our ideas and thoughts at certain points in our project. The podcasts we have done are very short and do not really develop our work in as much depth as I would have liked, and if I were to repeat the project I would definitely consider doing more, in-depth podcasts, at regular intervals of our work.

Overall in the process of making our media product we have used a wide variety of different types of Media technologies, which has developed my skills in the subject, and also given me ideas on how various aspects of real Media industries work.

Magazine Advert

Planning the Magazine Advert

We decided to do a basic drawing for planning, which would help us to decide how we should lay our advert out. The net drawing should be displayed before

Making the Magazine Advert

To create the magazine advert we did a photoshoot with Mitch semi-naked in an attempt to create a professional looking model shot that we could use as the main focal point of our magazine advert. Again Macromedia Fireworks was used as the tool for the job and the sepia-style effect that we eventually settled on was created by experimentally adjusting the contrast, saturation, hue and brightness. The blur tool was also used softly on parts to accentuate certain features.

Original Unedited\Finished Edited

After the image had been agreed on, the advertising features were placed over the top. The common theme throughout our advert and DVD cover is the brown/yellow strip across the bottom of both products and also the font style and placing of the headings as seen below.

The Finished Magazine Advert



Advantages of Magazine Advert
I believe our finished Magazine Advert is of a very high quality, and it conforms to the codes and conventions that I found of adverts in my research. On the Advert we have included a large central image which is greyed out, contrasting background and font colours, information on when/where the video/track will be available and a listing of a website (which is fictional). I believe that the editing we have done on Photoshop has been done to a very high standard, and I am impressed with how good we have actually made the product.

In accordance with David Gauntlett's ideas about audience producing as well as consumin media, we have posted the image on online uploading site "photobucket.com". The site allows users to post their images online, to be viewed by the general public, which relates to the theory of Gauntlett, as the audience (general public) are allowed to post their media online.

It is clear from the advert for the audience to see the genre of our video, and so we are likely to recieve a "Hegemonic Reading" from the audience, when applied to Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding theory. The fact that the advert is very straightforward adds to this.

Disadvantages
I don't believe there are many disadvantages to our Media product, as it follows all the codes and conventions that were found in my research. It may have been useful however, if we had included a link to our finished video on the advert, as opposed to a fictional website that we have listed.

Another disadvantage could be the fact that we have only used one character on the image, as opposed to the three characters who are included in our video. As we don't include any pictures of the singer/guitarist characters, it could be seen (in accordance with Steven Archer's theory of music videos) that we are placing more of an emphasis on the character in the narrative to attract our audience, as opposed to the balance between narrative and performance that Archer argues.

Age Ratings

In my research if Music DVDs and album covers, I found one of the codes/conventions of the Cover Art to be an age rating, depending on the content of the video. Because of this, and the sort of content we will be including in our video, it is important that we look into age ratings and what warrants a specific rating, as it will help our DVD cover seem more realistic.

We used the BBFC Classification Guidelines so we could understand more about classifications, and what sort of age rating we would have to give our music video and why. We found a PDF document containing all we needed to know about age ratings, found on the British Board of Film Classifications' website.

Due to it's suggestive content and nudity, we would have to give it either a Parental Guidance or 12 certificate, and therefore an appropriate symbol will be included on our finished DVD cover and Magazine Advert.

Audience Feedback

The following is feedback we received in class, after a screening of our video.

1.
"Yes, it has the conventions of other music videos of similar genre."
"Yes."
"Parts did, although some parts did not really feel relevant to the rest of the video."
"Costume, characters, locations all seemed to fit in well"
"Similar to other videos I've seen in that genre"
"Yes but what was with the bath!?"
"I really liked it, the combination of expressions, body language and costume all fitted in with the genre of the video!"
"Yes it worked well"
"Yes, although the bath didn't fit in with the rest of the video?"
"At times."
"LOL"

2.
"Everything - camerawork, editing, costume, lighting etc fitted perfectly!"
"The stripping haha"
"I like how it kept switching between the stripping and the performing"
"Mitchell without a shirt :P"
"The editing was really good, and the film flowed very well"
"It was really funny and I loved it"
"Best. Video. Ever"
"The fact I didn't stop laughing all the way through it"

3.
"I don't think the bath was relevant"
"Wtf was with the bath guys??"
"I loved the video but I didn't get the bath part"
"The bath"
"Although the bath thing was well done, I didn't get it"
"The fact it ended"
"Didn't understand the bath"
"Too little stripping :P"
"I didn't quite understand the bath"

4.
"People our age"
"Teens"
"Females"
"Anybody"
"girls lol"
"Females aged between 16 and 30"
"Everyone"
"teenagers"
"teens"
"teen girls"

5.
"Get rid of the bath"
"More stripping!"
"Parts were abit repetetive"
"I'd change the bath bit"
"I think it would've been better without the bath"
"The screen sometimes had lines across it :S"
"I think the bath sections should be taken out."

6.
"LOL"
"Great video guys"
"made me laugh"
"MORE NUDITY!"
"Hilarious - well done guys"
"So funny!"

We also received some feedback for our video, when a link was posted on social networking site Facebook.com. The feedback is below:

"excellantiee....im sure they wll all love it at class...expect some stick from wearn those pink panties...lmao"

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"laugh my highly toned buttocks off. that was probably the longest 4 minutes and 24 seconds of my life. and the bath just looks like it's been rammed in there for no apparent reason (which it has...) n i like how you got me at the end doing my apology to the great british public but that is absolutely class even if it makes me cringe to even think about"

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"Genius!!!!!"

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"haha how amazing !!"

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"am i right to be majorly embarassed"

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"Haha that's well kwl. And where the he'll did u get those pants!? When I saw the link I thought it was going to be a guitar cover by u mitch ha sooo wrong"

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"that's legend man, charlotte will not be pleased tho lmao!"

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"Another classy performance from the mig mistro!"

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"You beauty migs, you beauty all I have too say x"

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"No I really wasn't expecting that haha ur full of surprises ;p"

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"im so horny right now"

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"I came back for a second watch"

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"Like Ryan, I was expectin a guitar cover from you lol !! Was NOT expectin tha lol x] well done guys, you had me laughin all th way through !! =)"

DVD Cover

Planning the DVD Cover

We decided to do a net drawing of our DVD Cover to plan the layout and how we would organize it, which is included below.

(Click to make image full size)

Making the DVD Cover

1. After taking multiple images we agreed on the best one to use for our design work. This is imported into a blank canvas. Using the magic wand tool as seen below, the image can be modified so that just a selection of the photo exists with the background removed. This allows the image to be layered on to another image and still look authentic.

2. The image had to be rotated because the angle it was photographed at was not the desired angle.

3. Step 1 and 2 was completed for both the front and back covers of the DVD insert and both images were pasted onto a net canvas of size 1600x1072 pixels as seen below. Auto colour level was first used on both images to accentuate their natural colours. I then adjusted the brightness and contrast of the images to give them an aesthetically pleasing and romanticised effect. The contrast was altered significantly while maintaining a relatively neutral brightness balance.

4. After altering the hue, noise was then added to the images to take some of the natural skin tone out of them. This gives the effect that the model is less flawed.

5. A pink background was then inserted by altering the canvas colour. Pink was chosen because it reflects the sexual and somewhat feminine-appealing mood of the work. By reducing the opacity also, the images blend into the background with greater flow and consistency, as can be seen below.

6. After this the rest was a breeze. Film related logos were found off the internet, ‘magic-wanded’ and inserted onto the back cover of the DVD. Print screens from our music video were used to make the short storyboard on the back and the billing block was made using the Universal 39 Condensed font to add an authentic look. An age rating courtesy of the BBFC was also added along with a barcode to accentuate the DVD covers authenticity.

The Finished Product

The following is the DVD Cover, and inner cover, for our Music Video that the group created.








Advantages of our DVD Cover
I believe that our DVD Cover has been completed to a very high standard, and I am impressed with the overall quality of it. In research, I looked into various codes and conventions that Music DVDs have, and I believe we have incorporated the most important of these into our finished DVD Cover, which adds to its' overall professionalism and realism.

The images that we have used for the DVD Cover was taken on a mobile phone camera, and I am impressed with the high quality of them. We decided against using photos of Joe Cocker, as the only feasable way we could get photos of him would be online, and this could result in us breaching copyright rules and regulations. I do feel however that our DVD Cover is more successful with the pictures we have used, as it promotes our video as opposed to the artist.

Disadvantages
I think the main disadvantage of our DVD Cover is the fact that it is quite plain on the front. However, the idea of having a pink background (whom many consider to be a "female" colour) with the image of a male is likely to draw more attention to anybody looking at our DVD Cover, and also suggests the connotations of the video. It also has female implifications, and if considered with Laura Mulvey's "Male Gaze" theory, could suggest that the character on the image be seen as having characteristics of a female, and therefore being objectified, which he is throughout the video.