alistair Free Evaluation

Media studies music video Evaluation by Alistair Free Group P.05

 

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

 

Our music video is different to most other music videos because it only has one main focus throughout the video which is just the male solo artist which if we were filming for real would have been the original artist M.Craft, but we used a member from our group instead to play the part which was Jonny.

I think our music video both challenges and sticks to the conventions of a music video, firstly our chosen song just has one lead male singer throughout so we could only really have one main focus through the whole video so when filming we used a variety of close-ups, mid-shots and low angle shots to sell the artist. This is also one of Goodwin’s points of analysis. Also the song is in the indie genre, very down beat and bit miserable so we have tried to keep that feel through use of shots and locations, close-up shots were used to show the artists emotion and isolation. We also did research into a stereotypical indie style of clothes so that we could meet conventions of groups such as the kooks and male solo artists such as James Blunt and James Morrison.

            When developing ideas for our music video we researched into artist such as James Blunt, James Morrison and Jack Johnson to see what the stereotypical type of video was for them and to see how videos for these artists were different to female’s solo artists and a selection of bands. We looked at videos such as Goodbye my lover by James Blunt and please don’t stop the rain by James Morrison. A particular them that we wanted to get across was the theme of being alone and isolated we wanted to create this by filming a time-lapse. We did this by filming at normal speed and then slowing it down in the editing process. We research into the way this was done by looking at a variety of time lapse videos on YouTube, and we found a video by Coldplay-Yellow where Chris Martin is by himself walking along a beach. This was a useful video to analyses because it had the theme of loneliness and isolation as well as being a time-lapse throughout.

Another convention from Goodwin’s points of analysis of a music video is that it is meant to have more than one costume change, this is so that you keep the audience interested and so that it doesn’t have the same feel throughout the video. We have challenged this by just sticking to one outfit for the whole video. We decided to do this because we felt that the feel the song gives you it wouldn’t really be appropriate to have a costume change, i think this went fine in the end and it isn’t a problem for our video. Also from looking at different themes of music videos the only ones that have lots of costume changes are more upbeat songs for example in Cheryl Cole’s video ‘fight for this lover’ she has something like 7 costume changes. This is because the director is trying really hard to sell the artist because girls want to be like her and guys will want to look at the video, this all means more sales for the artist.

            I feel our final product meets the convention of a music video for the area that we were working on as it is similar to artist such as James Blunt and James Morrison because they are almost always by themselves in there videos which brings across there feelings more and gives the audience a different feel.

 

 

 

 

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

 

            When we were doing research into our ancilliary product we decided to do a photo shoot so we could get a section of high quality image to put on our DVD cover and our advert. We then edited these images on Photoshop so that we could get similar affects to other products such as James Blunt back to bedlam album.

I feel that the combination of our main product with our ancilliary product don’t really fit together very well because the digipack looks very rushed apart from the front cover and it doesn’t look very professional because of the way the images have been put over each other on the back cover. However it does have lots of references back to our music video so the two products could be related together. Then our music video advert also doesn’t really fit in with our video and also doesn’t look very professional, however I do feel it stands out quite a lot and will draw someone’s attention to it which is good because once someone becomes interested and realises what you are selling that’s when you will sell a product. Also on both the digipack and advert we are selling the artist by having them as the main focus so this is a convention and a need for a product. Also from having an image of the artist on both the digipack and advert relates the together to make a package.

When researching into DVD covers and adverts we looked at artists such as James blunt and James Morrison to see what there adverts looked like the main theme was that they would sell the artist by having a big image of the artist taking up most of the space and not having to much negative space. We had most inspiration from James Blunts back to bedlam album where there is a blue background and then a silhouette of the artist’s face we found that this was quite affective and we tried to get this across in our advert.

 

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

 

When we first started our project we had to pitch to the class about ideas for a music video this was useful because it gave the class time to reflect on our ideas for a video, but then it also gave the class time to tell us possible extra things to incorporate into the video. This was useful because it let us develop our idea and think of new things as well.

 Our audience feedback was very useful because it showed us what everybody really thought about our product so far, it also let people reflect on what they liked and disliked. The comments that people left where then posted onto our group blog so that we could remember what people had said and then we could refer back to it when needed.

Some of the main things that were brought up reputably about our rough cut were that we need to get our lip sinking more in sink. Also people had said that the video was very slow and boring at some points and that we were going slower than the song itself. These were very useful comments because without them we might not have changed them.

Andrea also left a post on our blog of a past music video created by a group, this was useful because it was a similar idea to what we wanted to do so we could see what problems that group had with there filming and we could see where they could have improved there video. These also helped us when we were thinking about ideas and also gave us something to work towards and hopefully make better. 

After the comments on our blog we went out again and filmed a selection of abstract images such as leaves falling from the trees and a selection of water affects created by throwing stones in water. We then added these to our video and the responses were very positive.

 

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

 

At the start of our project we made an animatic storyboard which we then took pictures of and uploaded to final cut, we then edited it together so we could get a rough idea ourselves how our final product might look, we also did this so that we could show other people what we wanted to create. This was a good bit of research for us because every time we thought of a new idea we could draw a picture of it and put it on our storyboard this meant that when we went to go and film our final video we could look at out our storyboard and tick of the shoots as we went.

We also created a timeline against the song itself to show where we wanted to bring particular things in we posted this on our so we could show people what we were intending on doing and then hope for feedback on what people thought of it. This was useful for when we put our final video together because we could look at our timeline and remember to bring things in at particular times in the song.

We then used Google maps to find a location for filming which was very useful because you can get a 1^st person perspective. We used a basic video camera to film our final project we then uploaded it to final cut were we could edit it and add a selection of filters to it to create special effects. We also used Photoshop to create ideas for a digipack and an advert this was a useful program to use because you could create just anything you could want on the program, however the program was very had to use at some points. 

 

In conclusion I feel our project went quite well and we planned and researched well to prevent any unnecessary problems, however we did have a few complications when we were filming our project because one of our group members Danielle didn’t turn up at all during the filming process. This wasn’t too much of a problem because we had enough people to do the jobs that were needed. However it did mean that some props that she said she was going to bring never turned up so our video didn’t end up looking completely how we wanted it to. Also if someone else didn’t turn up as well then we wouldn’t off been able to do the filming process this would of put us very fare behind in the project and we wouldn’t of had a finished product in time.

Evaluation Video Pt1

Evaluation Video Pt2

Commentary

Evaluation

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

Our music video generally follows forms of conventions. An example of this is how we focused mainly of the artist, using a lot of close ups and mid shots, and at the same time sells the artist. This is shown in similar artists like James Blunt, where he is the main focus point in most of his videos including ‘Goodbye my lover’, which only shows him throughout the music video. This is also one of Goodwins points of analysis. At the same time it also challenges forms of convention.

The fact that this its quite a lonely isolated song meant that we had to make the artist look isolated and lonely, but whereas most music videos of this type of genre, which also have a lonely feel to the song isolate the character by making him or her look completely different to the other people, or making them act differently, or just not have any other people in it like James Blunts video, we decided to make the main character look isolated by speeding up everything else around him, like the time lapse traffic clips which we had people in as well as the traffic.

Another shot which work very effectively which has not been used much in this genre was when we filmed in the dark, on a field with the city lights and a busy road in the background, with the characters face lighted up. The reason why i feel that this worked quite well is because it did a good job at making the character look isolated and lonely.
The ancillary project magazine advert also in ways breaks the convention of this genre of music video. Although lonely songs magazine adverts do sometimes reflect the mood of the artist by using dull colours, we decided that we would make the magazine advert black and white, even know none of our music video is black and white, and we though that it may stand out from other adverts in a magazine. Coldplay also did a similar thing with the breaking of conventions, but with a picture of the band in black and white in a magazine advert, and The Beetles, which we researched into also did a black and white magazine advert, but with shadows.

We though kept to the conventions in the advert by used brighter bolder colours and fonts for more the more important information which needed to come across like for example the release date of the album which had a white box around the black text, making it stand out particularly more from the rest.
Goodwin’s points also helped us to keep more or less to the conventions of this genre of music video, and we tried to apply them throughout the video. We tried to use genre characteristics by filming in quite a relaxing chilled out place (punting on the river) which reflects the slow pace of the song, whiles at the same time he is on his own in a punt which you don’t see much as punts are usually full of a group of Frends. This helps reflects the loneliness of the song. A relationship between lyrics and visuals is also used throughout like for example at the end he is standing in the dark with traffic behind him saying the verse ‘I can see it all tonight’.

We also kept to the conventions of this genre of layer back music by using shadows of the artists face as one of our magazine advert ideas which we took inspiration from by a number of artists including ‘The Beetles’ and ‘The Doors’. We where originally going to use the idea of using shadows, but we decided that using a silhouette as a band logo in both our magazine advert and our digipack, which we got inspiration to do from James blunts magazine advert which also uses silhouettes, which we thought was a better idea.



What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Our first feedback which we received was by both people in our class, and our teacher when we had to pitch for our music video. In this presentation we explained parts of our blog, and presented our first initial idea which we had, which was relatively similar to our finished product. This feedback, that was explained in a blog of ours states that we needed to think more about the locations. We where also given by our peers examples of locations like a back alley which we used, and worked very well.
A teachers feedback was also posted on our blog when we where in our early stages of planning. This gave us a video of former students who had filmed a similar video on punts, which gave us examples of camera angles, and shots which we took inspiration from in some of our filming, and it also included that we needed to start coming up with ideas for our digipack and magazine advert.

Other audience feedback's which we have received at different stages in our project have also allowed us to improve parts which previously had not been noticed by any of our group members, like for example we had various feedback's on our rough cut from both our peers, and also our teacher saying that we needed more footage. An example of a feedback left on our blog is “The song seems to be based directly on the performer throughout, which makes some shots feel repetitive. More footage of surroundings or things relevant to your film other than the performer may make the film more interesting”. This feedback, as well as others said very similar things stated that more filming, possibly of abstract shots, so the next lesson, be took a camera out and filmed some abstract shots including leaves falling on the ground (which I previously researched into), and a pebble being thrown into a puddle. These shots drastically Improved our video when we finally finished it. This was shown in the feedback of our final video by our class in the quote “Enough variety of different shots to stop the video becoming boring”.

Our final video feedback also showed us that parts of our music video would be very effective if they where used as a background, or as a picture in our ancillary texts). On many occasions people stated that specific parts like for example the motorway time lapse, and the roundabout time lapse could be used, so we took the advise from our peers and used some of the strong shots in our digipack idea, which I think worked quite well.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Media technologies like for example Photoshop where a great help in the planning and the construction of our media project. We used Photoshop in the planning by creating a mood board on it, where we searched the Internet for pictures which particularly related to our media project at the time, and arranged these pictures in a nice looking layout. This mood board allowed us to explain our idea to our teacher with pictures so it could be visualised in the pitch which we did at the start of our project.
Photoshop also allowed us to create our ancillary projects, and particular tools, backgrounds, and filters which put on drastically improved our idea.

Another stage that Photoshop helped me was in the planning of the ancillary projects by allowing me add colour, text and pictures to a picture a sketched of a DVD colour. Tools like the magic tool, which let me put colour on, screen grabbing pictures off our video, and putting text on in different fonts and colours where a great help.

Final cut was another media technology which helped us in our project, but in the planning, construction and evaluation stages. It helped us in the planning by allowing us to create an animatic storyboard out of the pictures which we originally drew for our story board. Tools like fades, cuts and movements on the still photos allowed us to make the pictures more interesting whiles having the song in the background.

Final cut was most helpful for the construction of our music video. It allowed us to arrange our footage into a particular order, and then create the time lapse ghosting effects by copying one clip a number of times, and change the opacity, and the speed of each of the clips differently and also let us put filters over the whole clip.

Final cut also helped us in the evaluation by letting us create a video with a commentary explaining how our project went, and problems we encountered. Tools in final cut let us take parts of the video clip out and replace them with pictures from our blog, whiles keeping the audio clip intact, making it look like a professional commentary.

Other media technology which helped us with the planning for our music video include both email, and social networking sights like Myspace. We used both of these to contact the artist, asking him if he minded us making a music video for his song, and if he could mentor us by giving us criticism on our ideas and blogs. We used Myspace to look at current fan based groups for this artist and similar songs. We found that there was a lot of people both in fan groups, and who enjoyed this type of music.

Blogger.com which is an Internet based blogging site, where we showed our development of ideas was also a very helpful media technology. It allowed us to show each of the stages of development, the planning which went into the video, influential artists, and also let us show the videos that we filmed.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I personally think our main product and ancillary texts, including the magazine advert and digipack which our group made work well together because the colours were not too vibrant, which reflected on the dull colours of our video. Also the pictures on the back of the digipack allow the person viewing it to instantly recognise the video, and the band logo, of the side profile of the face also makes fans of the artist recognise him. The picture which we used of the river in black and white in the magazine advert is from quite a strong scene in the music video, and references to water, cities and boats in the song makes the picture work well, as it is the river cam running through the city of Cambridge.

Our initial idea for the digipack or the magazine advert was to take a picture of the lanterns on the punt which we planned to use, but one of our group members, who said they would bring the lanterns to the filming failed to turn up for the filming, so instead we took inspiration from similar artist like James Blunt, and use a silhouette with a strong image of ours, of the river in the background.

These are two of the three magazine adverts which we made, and considered. As you can see, the blue one is similar to James Blunts, but we felt that it could not be easily related to our music video, and the colour one of the river was also a consideration, but we felt that our black and white one worked better, and followed influential artists like Coldplay and The Beetles


The pictures on the back of the digipack also complimented the video nicely not only by showing all the different scenes, lighting and effects that where used, but also gives an insight into the video, and shows how the artist is portrayed as being lonely by only showing pictures of the video with just him in. The picture of the leaves on the middle of the digipack also let the person viewing relate to the music video as it is one of the strongest clips which we used.

evaluation

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

Our media products from the start has deliberately aimed to conform to the conventions of a music video, magazine advert and a DVD cover in order to appeal to our target market. While planning we researched via YouTube, videos of solo male artists. This heavily influenced our video, resulting in it conforming to conventions used in the videos we looked at.

According to Goodwin the convention of a media video are: to identify the genre and represent the artist according to this, to present the video as a narrative performance or other (dependant on genre), to use micro elements to convey genre characteristics and sell the artist, to include the use of voyeurism keeping attention on the artist and to reference other media productions such as films.

The video itself follows convention by the main content of the video being a performance by the artist in various locations. Also the camera work focuses on framing the lead singer helping the viewer to engage with the artist.

The video includes a wide range of settings, something often done in professional videos. However by including an abstract shot in the range we slightly challenge genera conventions as stereotypically videos from the genera focuses on the artist in real settings. Our video focuses on the artist but the slow shot of leaves and a ripple in reverse gives an interesting variation not usually found in videos from the genera.

The music video advert continues to follow convention by relating to the music video by having a shot of the river Cam as the back drop for the advert. However the photo of the lead singer is an abstract shot influenced by James Blunt which continues the abstract theme; but this does not conform to conventions as the aim of the advert is to sell the artist, but with an unidentifiable photo this is not achieved and relies on the target market having seen the music video.

Including quotes such as “dragonfly is utterly mesmerizing. NME”, conforms to conventions of DVD adverts. These tag lines create hype for the video and give the public a professional’s opinion of the product. These techniques are consistently used in the media industry to improve sales figures.

The DVD cover also conforms to conventions. Initially we had intended to create a cover similar to this one by the Doors. But difficulties in Photoshop meant we could not create the desired effect so the cover was adapted to be a mild variation on the DVD advert. This conformed to conventions by making the link between the two ancillary products incredibly strong.

The information on the DVD is also conventional. It includes the artist and album name on the front, with track listings and bonus features mentioned on the back as well as copyright information, with a collage of images from the video on the 3rd side. This follows conventions by further selling the artist and having all the necessary information for a standard music DVD.

However due to the time limit given to create the product there was not time to include information on the spine. Nearly all DVD products created have information on the spine reducing the products conformity and marketing ability as while stacked the DVD will be unidentifiable.

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

In my opinion the 3 products look professional and individually fulfil their purpose with a good relationship between the 3. The production process has taken a prominent image from the video and developed it in an unconventional manner whilst still conforming to conventions. The image of the Cam is an unusual choice as it is not an image of the artist, but by having the silhouetted shot, similar to that of the one from James Blunt, "Back to Bedlam", it still manages to sell the artist. However this was not what we initialy planned to do. Originally we planned to use a shot of the lead singer on the punt surrounded by lanterns, however we had difficulties getting the lanterns and achieving the right camera angle, so we had to adapt our video to what we where able to achieve. This may not have been as good as what we had imagined but it was still an ok alternative.

We did create more than one DVD cover and advert; a few examples are to the left. But in the end we decided that although these do look good especially the red one, which is my favourite out of all the covers. As a group we had to discuss which cover to develop. We decided the top two don’t look professional and the Red one didn’t relate to our other products which would be a problem when trying to sell the DVD. So we decided to create a 4th version taking all the good points from the 3 and merging them together.


The video links well to the advert by including the same shot of the river Cam in both. This was a conscience decision as this was a prominent image from the video that was easily idenfitiable. However the advert is in black and white, which does make it easier to read than when it was in colour, but as the video has a stylized colour scheme, if I was doing this project again I would put the advert in the same colour scheme.

The video linked well to the DVD cover. Firstly the stylized colour scheme is continued in both. Also all the images used in the cover are taken from the music video, with the exception of the portrait of the lead singer which is taken from the advert. The DVD being 3 fold provides more room to show images of the singer but I feel we should have just shown the design for the front and back, as the 3rd side doesn’t fit in with the rest of the images.

The relation between the DVD cover and advert is also strong. With the same style of text being used in both products. Also the same image of the lead singer is used in both in a similar manor. The most obvious relation is that of the background in both the front of the DVD and advert (which is the use of the same image of the Cam) although one is in black and white, it makes the DVD easily identifiable from the advert.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Through out the creation of the product we have received feedback which has been useful and very influential in the creation of the final products.

When we initially pitched to create the video for this song we explained our initial idea. After this we received feedback on how we could make our idea of a video of the lead singer playing the guitar on the punt better. One comment was that we should use more that one setting as this would conform to conventions and prevent the music video from boring the viewer.

The feedback on the blog provided by Tom and Andrea was helpful in the planning process as it showed what we where missing and what we could do to benefit our products. For example “In order to enhance your blog further you need to embed your Auteur presentations”. This made sure we kept on top of the planning process and published everything we had done.

Also after completing the rough cut music video we received market feedback from the whole group on what they liked and what we could improve. This feedback was responsible for the abstract shots included in our video. As the audience mentioned that shots where too long and the video struggled to keep their interest as it was too slow and mundane. So we went out and filmed more footage to correct there problems. For example the falling leaf in slow motion and also the overlaying of the roundabout and Parkside crossroads shots. Without these shots our video would have seemed a lot longer and struggled to keep the viewers attention.

When we had completed our final video we also received feedback from the whole class again, not to make us realise what we could have done with the video but to help provide ideas and inspiration for the two ancillary products. If you look at our blog at http://05musicvideo09.blogspot.com/ you can see that before the feedback we had no intention of including the leaf shot in either product but afterwards it became a key shot to have. However communication difficulties meant that only the DVD included this shot, so if I was to do this project again I would try and include the leaf shot in both ancillery products.

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

Without new media technologies our project would have followed a very different path. Firstly there would have been no blog to help us visualise the planning process and bring all our ideas together.

Also while recording we used portable loud speakers to make sure that the song was sung in time and later when we came to the editing process we could mark up both audio tracks and easily line the two up, as long as the video clip was in sync with its audio track which on a few occasions it wasn’t.

As well as this we used digital cameras with SD cards to take a photo shoot which gave us images to use in both the advert and DVD. With out this we would have had to scan the images into the computer which would have been far too time consuming.

During the project we used YouTube to find and research videos by artists similar to ours or similar videos to what we hoped to create. For example we regularly looked up James Blunts’ and time lapses of sunsets and traffic. We hoped to include a time lapse of traffic and of a sunset in our video, however the camera we had didn’t have the ability to do this and we could only create a ghosting effect which we settled for but wasn’t what we really wanted as it didn’t flow as smoothly as a time lapse.

We were also dependant on the internet for gathering information on the artist. We used MySpace, an online social networking site, to contact the band to let them know what we where doing and give them the chance to have their input into the planning of the video and also find out what type of people listened to their music. As well as this we used bbc weather online to make sure the days we planned to film would be ok weather wise, although the information was not 100% reliable, it gave us a rough impression of what the weather was going to do and that it was ok to film. As well as this the group used Facebook to communicate with each other in-between lessons so that we could discuss ideas and when to put in extra work.

We also used the internet together with YouTube and Blogger.com to publish our work so we could receive wide feedback for our target market. This was helpful as we could develop the product to comply with what the market wanted.

The Evaluation Questions.

These are the questions that we are required to answer in our individual evaluations:

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

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

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

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

THe

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation.

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

Once we had decided on the song that we wanted, we had to discover the genre of the song and the artist. We chose "Dragonfly" by M.Craft. The genre of our artist would be a combination of indie and acoustic guitar music. We all found this quite difficult to pin point the exact genre. This was the song that we had a hard idea for. We researched other similar artists, mainly male, we came up with the likes of Jason Mraz, James Morrison.

Our music video portrayed our artist to be isolated and cut off from the rest of the world. This was the theme we wanted to create through out the video. We did this by focusing mostly all the shots on Jonny, who took on the roll of the artist, M. Craft. This fitted in well with the slow pace of the song as well. We used some time lapses through the video, as the pace of the song speeds up. This was to create an abstract visual effect and to keep our audiences fixed on the video. The only problem with "Dragonfly" is that as it is so slow it may become slightly boring.

We tried to incorporate as many of Goodwin’s Points in our music video as we possible could. For example, the relationship between the visuals and lyrics. There are many references to water that are through out the song, so it was only fitting that we used scenes of water in the video and the ancillary products. There are also references to the city, which we have linked it by having the center of Cambridge as our back drop.
We had the idea of filming on a punt. We had an advantage as we live in and around Cambridge, and punting is everywhere. Another convention of a music video of the indie, acoustic genre is to have a performance by the artist.

During the planning process, Ali decided to check the weather forecast for the weekend that we planned to film. A problem that we encountered after we had shot and analysed our footage was that we originally wanted the setting for the video as the city at dusk. However, some of the footage filmed, was done during the day. This didn't go to plan. However, when editing this footage, we used some effects to draw out some of the colour, giving the whole video an antique feel.

As we were analysing and editing the footage that was filmed over the weekend, we realised that to create a time lapse we needed faster flowing traffic. The footage that we had was filmed on a busy roundabout junction with traffic lights, and wasn't consistent enough. I opted to take the camera out for the night and get the footage that we needed. I went to a flyover and captured some footage of the A14. In order to produce a time lapse we needed fast footage so that when we speeded up the footage to created the time lapse, it would result in a more consistent effect.

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

Both our DVD digi-pack and magazine advert use a stylized image of a side on photo of Jonny's face. These images were created on Photoshop, one of the main programs we used in the process, changing the opacity of a normal image. The image of the side of the face doesn't completely relate to the video. However, it does portray the loneliness well, and it allows the audience to recognise the artist. We also took a still of the river Camb from our video and made it look stylized, for the magazine advert.

As a group, we decided that we should go for a 3-fold digi-pack design. The front of it being the stylised image of Jonny's side profile. The middle/back being where our audiences can find the contents of the DVD, the M.Craft website, and other DVD details. Inside the cover we created a collage of stills from the music video itself. Having this would allow our audience to conect the magazine advert to the digi-pack.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The initial feedback that we received from the class was quite positive. With peers saying that we used a good range of camera shots and types of angles. However, the feedback that we got from everyone when we showed our rough cut version of the video, was also positive but we realised from this that some of the shots in the video were far too long, and made our video laborious. A class member suggested that we should film simple things, such as leaves or trees, and then use the effects on Final Cut Express to make them abstract and stylized.

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

Final Cut Express and Photoshop were the main new media technologies that we used to construct our products. We had used these products before in other products. Final Cut was the program we used to edit our footage. Both programs are quite complex. To research similar artists, inspiration for our digi-pack and magazine advert we simple used the Internet. The inspiration for our magazine advert came from James Blunt's album cover for Back To Bedlam. We also looked at The Doors' albums, as well as the Beatles. The internet was also used to research time lapses. We found that Coldplay used a time lapse in their video for "Yellow". Jonny used his Myspace acount to contact M.Craft just to tell them that we were going to use their song for a media project. He didn't reply.

mock magazine advert ideas

These are two mock ideas for our magazine advert.

mock digi-packs

these are the final few designs that we chose to develop our final product from.

planning proccess

these are photos we took or edited to uses in the advert and digi-pack along with images from the video so we could develop our product but keep a relation to the video at the same time.

Dige pack cover

magazine advert

font

This is a possible font that we may use for either our advert or our digipack. We may not use this color scheme, but if we where to use one of the dark time lapse scenes like the motorway in the background, the contrast between the red and a back background may work well.

New image to consider

after receiving feedback on our video this image was repeatedly commented on as been a strong image so we are now going to try and include it in our advert or digi-pack.

Work in photo shop

This is an images similar to the one of James Blunt it is an interesting image but it doesn't really go with the rest of the video so we may not use it in our final product.

influences on digi-pack

the Beatles album uses shadows to show only half the face giving a minimal effect.

the photo of chef is an effect we would like to create as it similar to the James blunt image and might work well with the rest of the video.

The photo of the doors is something we may also like to create as our video merges two images which we have already done in our video, it also uses lighting to show only half of his face.

feedback of final video

• Time lapse went well and thought it fitted in well with video could be used for digipack as a background.
• Our extra footage that we filmed fitted in well with the video and gave the video more pace.
• The shots of Jonny worked well to show isolation so it fitted in with the fell of the song well.
• The leaves falling from the sky are a good image.
• Enough variety of different shots to stop the video becoming boring.
• The song showed Jonnys emotion and isolation well.
• Traffic might work well in the digipack as a background.
• The fades work well to make the singing look fluent.
• Shown as not being connected to the rest of the world.
  

possiable shot to be used in advert/dig pack

these shots are take from the video we each chose one we though would work well at selling the artist and continuing the theme of the video.

Kooks - inside the inside out

Album cover for the kooks, inside the inside out. A black and white photo of the band supposed to be 'jamming' or tuning their guitars. Represents the band in a laid back manor while still publishing the artists. it is a simple cover with the only writing being at the top center of the cover.

Analysis of magazine and for MIKA- The boy who knew too much

This advert has a small image of the artist, which shows that the artist is not the main focus in promoting the product however with the contrast of the black and white image against the bright colour background makes the image stand out. The main image is sort of random images of a child's dream, with the outside of the window being dark and scary with the purple monster outside the window as well, this also gives the advert a fantisy feel. The images also look as if they are from a child's book because they have a basic block type coloring in, with minimal shading, and bright colors.
The writing on this page includes a website, where fans, and people who want to know more about this picture and the artist can go, release date is stated with slightly bigger font, with the white contrasting against the black background. this is used to make the person looking at it look at these parts first, and to know more as they look more into it. The name of the artist is also bigger than any other writing, and in a completely different font, with shading.
The main picture having a boy in the middle reading a book reinforces the face that the pictures are of the boys fantasy world, and the pictures around the room show us what is going through his mind.
The production company is also shown on the advert at the bottom of the page, in very small writing and isn't made to stand out, but can be clearly seen if you look for it. It also states at the bottom of the advert that the CD and the Delux CD are available to download. This lets the person viewing it know that the album can be bought through online sites like Itunes.

Jennifer Lopez - The Reel Me.

The artist is represented as a single attractive female. she is represented through a black and white photo shoot which uses a light tonal range with a hint of silver. the mise-en-scene in the images is quite limited with the photos focusing on J-Lo her self, but the cloths she is wearing are stylish and expensive. In all the shots she is looking directly into the camera. The photos objectify J-Lo.
This product would apeal to the target market young teenagers to people in their early 20s and die hard fans. it would appeal to some males and females because of its objectification. it would also appeal to over because of its special features.

This is a screen grab to show the work done in final cut.

M.Craft - Dragonfly Final Video

This is our final video as a group we are happy with the video and pleased with our work so far.

Deadline

Our deadline for our music video is the end of today and we are on schedule for finishing on time. The editing is almost finished and there is only a few small pieces which need finishing, but we should be finish before the end of the lesson.

Photoshoot

We plan to do a photoshoot for our DVD cover of Jonny and hopefully have a closeup of his face in the middle of our cover, selling the artist and we want use photoshop to add different styles, colors, patterns and fonts in the picture possibly making it look a bit like James Blunts DVD cover.
We want to shoot it next lesson, hopefully after we finish our music video. We may also use some of these pictures, as well as some screen grabs in our digipack.

James Blunt album dvd cover

This is the album cover for James Blunts album back to bedlam. We like the colors that are used, the pattern, the abstract appeal and has a hippy effect which follows the way James blunt is because him and his music is very laid back.
We might use this album cover as inspiration and do a similar cover for our artist.

This video by James Morrison is a good example of a music video which uses a lot of abstract pictures but at the same time sells the artist, same as what we want to achieve.

Shots like the shadow moving on a building, done by speeding up a clip, shot throught out the day work very well.

Mock DVD cover

This is a Mock idea for the DVD cover. As you can see, i have tried to incorporate some screen grabs of the music video, the lyrics and some of my drawings which try and show my idea with. My drawing is of the main character walking down a path next to the river. I first drew this in pen, and then added colour to it using photoshop.

Time lapse

In the advert below for San Miguel's beer, they used a similar time lapse to what we wanted to use if we would have been able to.

As you can see, it has a lot of traffic scenes, and busy people going about very fast whiles this man is walking at normal speed in the middle.
This advert also uses quite a few cleaver camera techniques like using a very slow motor on some of the time lapse shots which make the camera look as if it is moving at normal speed whiles the people are going about very fast next to it.

abstract shots

Autumn
The video below shows some abstract shots of the autumn scenery. We are going to use shots like these as some abstract shots to fill gaps and make our rough cut more interesting. It is the perfect time to do shots like these as it is now autumn.



As you can see in this video most of the clips are slowed down. we can do a similar effect when on Final Cut with parts of our video by using tools to slow them down, the same way we sped up our test footage time lapse.

editing

our music video is nearly finished, we just need to adjust some of the shot transitions between shots and decide if we want to add an effect over throughout the hole video.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Zephyr Song

(video starts 58 seconds in)

This is an abstract video that uses vibrant colours and different effects such as mirroring images to create interesting effects. although our video wont be as psychedelic as this one it gives us an idea of some possible shots we could incled to liven up our video and keep the audience interested.

This is the kind of affect that we want to create in our video to seem like we are speeding up time

How our filming went

I think we managed to film a good selection of shot tips although maybe we should  off thought a bit more about filming something other than Jonny singing. Because once we had edited it together we realized that the video doesn't pick up any pace. We were also very lucky with the weather as it didn't rain at all. We were one member of our group short though however for the hole weekend that we were filming as Danielle decided not to turn up. This wasn't that much off a problem because we had enough people to do the job's that were need, but if someone else hadn't decided to turn up as well then we wouldn't of been able to film at all.

Extra filming that we need to do

I have read the feedback that we got given on our blog and thought that it was very useful to see what everyone thought of the rough cut.  we still need to film some different shot rather than just seeing one person throughout the hole video. So maybe next lesson or next week we will film some more footage around college and see how it fits in with our video. Also we need to make sure that we sink the music up better because some of it is out of sink at the moment. Then there is one bit at the start of the video where there is one shot behind the other because this doesn't look very professional and it also breaks the conventional of a normal music video. Our group will also be coming in on wednesday evening next week to do some final editing.

Rough cut

Feedback for rough cut below

Feedback Feedback

After reading the response we are quite pleased with people initial reactions and now know what we need to improve and add.

Also our response to some of the critizism such as, the lip sinking, will be sorted out in time for the final deadline, obviously. Now we are going to fine tune the editing and also go out and film some abstract shots that fit to the video, and add effects to them. For example leafs falling of trees and ink in water. In conjunction to our previous blog post from Tom.

Peer Feedback

The artist was shown all the way through the video with various different shots and angles and was portrayed quite well. The visuals fit this sort of music, with lots of close ups of just the artist playing the guitar and singing. The video sells the artist well, particularly the medium shot in darkness showing the artists face and the backdrop of city lights.

peer feedback

music and visuals
-the character perfect for the artist and genre.
-The length of the shots matched the tempo and mood of the music.
-often cuts on the beat.
-lip syncing was invariably out of time.
-I liked the way his head staying still the whole way though.

Peer Feedback Group 03

Lyrics and Visuals - The video fits the mellow tone of the song, with the main performer on his lonesome in what appears to be his own world, therefore helping the slow pace of the lyrics to fit with the visuals.
The lip syncing could be stronger at times, but the performer plays the role very well in others. The song seems to be based directly on the performer throughout, which makes some shots feel repetitive, more footage of surroundings or things relevant to your film other than the performer may make the film more interesting.

Genre Feedback

First off, good video.

You have fit the character profile well with Jonny playing the acoustic plus the location is very good and fits the conventions of the genre well. The pace of the video suits the genre, as its not stereotypically fast paced or exciting.

As a whole, we enjoyed your video, but some shots were a bit long.

house intro

This is the opening scenes to house, it is a good example of how to link abstract images and normal images.

One shot in particular which i think would go well with our music video is the one of the veins spreading across the screen as the are filled with colour. in our music video i think we could drop coloured ink into a body of water to create a similar effect, then edit the shot to go with the temp of the music.

Rough Cut Feedback - TAW

You have shot some excellent footage and your video is developing a consistent look. It suits the artist and the song. you need to finish tidying up the base layer of the video and lip syncing. The song is slow and that makes you task quite hard. At the moment you video is even slower than the song and so you nee to find techinques to make it feel like more is happening. You could overlay more shots. ANouther approach you might consider is shooting some more abstract images to cut in (water, light, windows, reflections, leave?)

Footage that we stil need to film

Further filming

Now that we have looked at our footage and have edited it we have noticed that alot of our shots are similar and the video doesn't pick up any pace so when we go out filming again we will be filming other bits of abstract scenery such as leafs, different lighting and other similar objects.

DVD cover ideas

These are some of the ideas that we want to look at when we are creating our dvd/cd cover. AS you can see we want to make a simple dvd cover with only the lead male singer on the cover, James Morrison's is ideal because he is in a city by himself which is the similar theme that we were trying to get across.

the beatles - revolver

Front















Back


This is an example of the design we hope to use for our DVD. It is not the standard shape but it is more interesting and has more room to include images of the artist, also there would be room to hold the DVD album sleeve and a bonus disk. Also this deign better suits our artist as it isn't the contemporary style but instead its more artistic.
Inside

Ne-yo - so sick of love songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JhNu2yZZhU

this is a link to Neyo's - So sick of love songs (it had to be a link as all the embeds had been disabled)

Through out the video it lays an atmospheric shot behind smaller shots of the artist, we could use this effect in parts of our music video to give a better visual impact, especial when the music builds.

Group 5 animatic

This is our Animatic. Ali and i both drew the pictures and edited them using Final Cut. The two pictures in the animatic of the skate ramp, which is about 1 minute 25 seconds through the clip, and the view of the cars above, which is about 1 minute 40 seconds through are suppose to represent the time lapses of cars and people walking by at a fast speed whiles the main person stands still.


Group 5 Animatic

This picture above shows a screen grab of our Final Cut animatic.

mock adver basic idea

This is just a simple idea of the layout. However, we plan 2 draw the colours out, and add more text. Telling the our customers what the DVD will contain, an that it is worth purchasing.

mock cover basic idea

this is a visual idea of how we could set up our DVD cover if we do not use a 3 fold album case, both images are from the video.

sample text

these are a few ideas for sample text that we could use in all the media products, we have also included possible colour schemes, we need your help in choosing which one to pick.

My idea for the DVD cover. Its a shot from the footage that we have. It's an alley.