Evaluation 4

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

Research

During the research part of our task we used blogger to upload our work on to. From this we had a series of task to complete ranging from things such as storyboards and shotlists to help us further in the task when planning. The work we carried out for our research helped guide us to create a narrative for our movie. We carried out this research so it helped give us the information and building blocks we needed to carry out the task as everything we carried out in the research and planning linked to the concepts we would need when creating our own movie. An example of this is the Britney spears task that we carried out which gave us a practise and an idea on how to film our own piece through the different angles we used and how we could incorporate them into our own piece of work.

The research section of the coursework was in my opinion that bit I found one of the easiest but as time went on it got a lot more difficult and complex as the ideas we had were at some point going to be put into action and if they were not good enough then we just had to deal with it.  YouTube and Google were prominent when it came to the research section of our coursework as when we were researching similar artists and other information about our own chosen artist etc. the web was the best place as I could find out information about our chosen artist and gather an in depth knowledge of what is expected of our artist. YouTube was another one we used which enabled us to watch videos from our chosen artist and see what different generic conventions are used and then we could take this away with us to use in our music video. It wasn’t about making a music video that is completely original as this would end up with a bad result, the key to success for this task was to take ideas from previous years student videos and ideas from famous videos. Reinventing the wheel wasn’t something that appealed to me as I am not very imaginative.

Planning

A key program that was useful when we were planning the task was Photoshop, as this helped create two of the most important features of our coursework the ‘digipak’ and ‘magazine advert’. This was most effective to use as it had the specific tools needed to help create these documents to a good standard. This program seemed to work more effectively compared to the other program we used briefly which was ‘Paint’. Photoshop provided us with a more accurate and more professional looking digipak and magazine compared to ‘Paint’ as it did not offer as many editing tools. This allowed me to create a better quality piece of work than first thought as compared to other programs it enabled to give it a more attracting look compared to being really basic.  Websites were also very useful in regards to out planning as things such as ‘slide share’ let us view vital information for our task such as information on digipaks and lip syncing etc., helped have an impact on our task.

Construction                                                      

This was the most important section of our task in terms of having a good quality music video. This was made up of many sections in our task as the research and planning had a vital role to play in how the video was constructed. As we were not very organised in these parts of the task, it was unfortunately quite disorganised for many parts. This was because the raw footage initially shot for our final product was not filmed correctly as the camera was very shaky and some sections were not filmed. This therefore meant we had to re film out footage to make sure it matched roughly our plan for the video. This led on to further problems when constructing the footage as our initial actor could not reshoot the footage therefore we had to use another actor instead to fill the role and shoot. We then produced better quality footage which we filmed on a Panasonic HD camera, and a tripod to keep the shots steady.  This produced much better quality footage than before as the shots were steady and overall the quality of the acting was much better and the new actor was more professional and compliant. This footage then allowed us to upload the scenes onto the computer on a format where we could edit what we had shot using IMovie.

This moved onto another piece of media equipment we used which was the ‘IMac’ where we uploaded our video footage to edit on. This was an effective computer to let us edit on as the ‘IMacs’ include the programme ‘IMovie’ which was the programme we used to edit the footage. This meant we could make our music video look more professional as the school provided us with this high standard equipment to use. I think this was the best programme we could have used to edit our forage as it had a number of different functions and tools that enabled us to adapt the video, as well as being in my opinion easier to use than Final Cut express.

Evaluation

In my evaluation I experimented with a range of different programs such as final cut express and iMovie to looks at ways of filming my own commentary and filming myself evaluating my media product. Furthermore, I attempted to create a Prezi to evaluate my media product as it seemed to be a easy program to use, as I had previously used it in a piece of media coursework last year. In addition to this the only product I ended up actually using for my evaluation was ‘Blogger’.  This was split up into 2 accounts and individual blog and a group blog. These accounts were made so that the public could see, which enabled my teacher to view my posts and see if all the necessary work set was being completed. As there were 2 of us within the group, the group blog was less work to do as it was split between both of us. Blogger was what I used to all my evaluation posts but other programs could have been used to make it more effective such as doing a voice over on iMovie or  a Prezi.

 

Evaulation 3

Evaluation Question 3 –

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We received constructive criticism to help improve certain aspects of our music video that needed changing. This was given by both our peers in our class as well as our teacher which gave us feedback on how we could develop our piece even further. From this feedback we revived both positive and negative criticism, which was good in the sense of we knew what worked well with our piece and how we could make it better. This constructive criticism therefore allowed us to adapt our music video based on the feedback we were given on the negative areas of our video.

Rough Cut 1

Within our first rough cut for our music video we instantly knew it would not necessarily reflect the outcome of our end music video, as certain parts were missing in this rough cut as well as the order if the clip did not match our storyline. We uploaded this first rough cut onto YouTube, which enabled us to receive feedback on what needed to be done. As this was our first rough cut there was a wide variety of feedback given back to us, as this being our first attempt, there was evidently many mistakes that needed to be amended within our piece of work. This therefore meant that the feedback given to us from this rough cut was mostly negative due to the fact that it was our first draft and no improvement had been made yet. In a conclusion of our feedback for this rough cut, the general feedback involved the filming of some of the clips we included on the rough cut were very unsteady which made the clip look very unprofessional as well as the storyline was very unclear as there was 2 sides of the characters life displayed within the music video and was not clear to the audience. To improve this we darkened the clips by putting a black and white effect on the clips of his past life and kept the clips of him in his present life in colour. This enabled the viewers to distinguish between the 2 sides of the character and make the storyline clearer. These effects made the clip look much more effective due to correcting the feedback we got on board.

As mentioned before one of the main areas in this rough cut that was evidently poor was some of the clips we included on the piece. This was because as the camera was shaking, but as we filmed some of the scenes more than once in our footage we were able to swap the footage over with parts were the camera was actually steady. As we had already shot the footage, we could not change some parts of the clip as we could not re-film them. We overcame these problems by using different footage to replace the unsteady filming which slightly changed the storyline but still flowed well with the piece.

Rough Cut 2

Compared to rough cut well the feedback given was mostly positive in comparison to the negative criticism from rough cut 1. We asked a range of different people to give us feedback for this rough cut including the same people as rough cut 1 as well as different people, which meant that we could get much more effective feedback by getting a range of opinions. This helped us to see if the feedback that they initially gave us was improved to the quality they were expecting to see as well as giving us further advice for improvements. The overall conclusion showed that they thought we took the constructive criticism on board and adapted to music video based on their feedback.

When our peers reviewed out music video in this rough cut the evident improvement that needed to be changed in a majority of the clips was the ‘lip syncing’. This is because we had the lip syncing in time at the start of the music video but near the end and middle there was some clips that were out of time in the lip sync. This meant that we had to cut and add clips to let us get most of the lip syncing in time, which meant we had to focus on the timings, as when cutting and adding clips, meant it could effect the lip sync in other parts of the video. This was a feature that significantly improved our piece of work as correcting most of these lip syncs gave the piece more of a narrative and made it look more professional. This in comparison to the first rough cut had a noticeable improvement as the clip flowed better as the clips were in order and the lip syncing matched thought the majority of the piece. One aspect in which our feedback provided positive criticism was how the lyrics and visuals of the video matched and his use of the transitions we used within our work.

Rough Cut 3

Within rough cut 3 the lip syncing was out so this was a major correction that we had to make. We also changed the colour off the sky at the beginning of our music video to a colourless effect to create a dark and sad atmosphere. In our last rough cut after watching it quite a few times we thought that it was ready to be submitted as the final however we asked several people to view the last rough cut and after hearing positive feedback for our slow-motion effect we used, which we included to try and add a variety of different effects in order to access the higher marks, we found that we over used the slow motion effect to the extent that the clip looked pixilated and a little blurry to the viewer.

This was corrected very easily however it then caused further problems to the lip syncing from that point onwards which took us more time to correct but after we checked with our teachers and peers that it was the best that it could be, whether there was consistency and constant transitions to keep the clips flowing and that it was all in order ready for our final cut of the video.

Conclusion

The feedback from each rough cut allowed us to change our video in order to fit the audiences views of which we hoped would result in our music video to be professional and would be liked by many different groups and genres. This had a major impact on our final video as listening to people’s feedbacks and criticism resulted in us making changes that would enable us to access the higher marks. The more rough cuts we created, the less development we did on each one as we were able to correct all of our corrections bar one before rough cut three and this meant that rough cut three was an easier task to fulfil as we worked hard in the previous cuts to ensure there were no further errors that would potentially restrict the mark we received for our music video.

Evaluation 2

Evaluation question 2

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

For our ancillary tasks we had to make an individual digipak, group digipak, individual magazine advert and a group magazine advert. All of these products link together as my digipak contains an image which is seen within our final product and is seen below. The image was perfect for my digipak as it is landscape and the actor fits the sort of thing I want for my digipak. All of these different tasks link together as they all contain an image that is seen in my final music video. I wanted to use the same image and near enough the same image as I believed it would it would have an effect on the audience so that they remember the video and what’s it about.

In order to link main product with our two ancillary products, we used a consistent alternative rock theme and we did this by using similar images on the digipak and magazine advertisement and then when the audience view the music video they will notice the consistency there as well. Throughout the production of our magazine advert we did make a few changes to it as we thought that we needed to improve it and ensure it’s the best it can be. We made a few changes to the font as we believed it would improve the overall look of the advert and from audience feedback we received we were told the font was too bold and didn’t fit the genre correctly which resulted in me having to change the font to fit the alternative rock genre.

Also, our magazine poster has a picture of our actor dressed in casual wear which has clearly been thought out to ensure we didn’t portray him as homeless. This show the difference between how he used to dress when he wasn’t homeless and the way he dresses now he is homeless. It shows the lack of hygiene, food, money etc. Also, we make sure the costumes we used could easily be seen to be different so that people knew whether it was past tense and present tense. There is use of frequent shots of our actors face (close up) and in our ancillary tasks you see a pictures of his face. We decided to use this as we believed the close up shows his true emotions and anxiety he feels on a daily basis due to the fact he is scared living on the streets at night.

In order to link main product with our two ancillary products, we used a consistent alternative rock theme and we did this by using similar images on the digipak and magazine advertisement and then when the audience view the music video they will notice the consistency there as well. Throughout the production of our magazine advert we did make a few changes to it as we thought that we needed to improve it and ensure it’s the best it can be. Moreover, the changes we made to it were the font as the feedback we got was that the font was too bold and didn’t fit the genre effectively which resulted in me having to change the font to fit the alternative rock genre.

Evaluation 1

Evaluation question 1 - In what way does your media product use does, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The main areas that help challenge form of conventions and real media texts are areas such as the settings and props used as well as what the characters are wearing. These areas are the main focal features that you would expect to have some sort of relevance to the genre of the music video. Some examples that would reflect the ‘alternative rock genre’ would be bright clothing with either a type of 80’s theme, and things such as ripped clothing for the characters and quite rustic settings, These would be considered quite cool forms of clothing in the 80’s and 90’s are mostly associated with this genre, Props such as guitars could also be associated with this genre as this type of music features a lot of guitar playing. When choosing our genre we were initially unable to decide which genre to pick, as we were thinking about what settings we could use and how hard to lip syncing would be for a specific genre. During our research and planning we looked at various artists, such as James Blunt and ‘The Verve’ which then we decided to use the song ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’. This was an effective choice for us as the song was quite slow pace and therefore it would be easier for our character to lip sync the lyrics of the song.This linked back to our music video as we also were able to lip sync as effctive as we could sue to it bieng a slow paced song.

Camera –

While analyzing the Bitter Sweet symphony song we noticed that there was an array of close ups used on the characters. This was also shown to be reflected in many alternative rock music videos, therefore we tried fitting these real media conventions into our own media products to reflect that we understood the genre. For this we used close ups on our characters face from various different angles to express the different emotions shown on his face. We also used some unsettled shots by moving the camera slightly on the characters face as this is another generic convention used in alternative rock

Clothing:

When deciding what costumes we were going to use for our characters and how it would fit the scenes and storyline of our music video, we were very apprehensive on what to use, as if we used clothing that was not related to our genre then it would be more evident to the audience as it would stand out, because they would not expect that clothing the be associated with music video. Examples of this is that you would not expect to see people dressed in suits in hip hop or rap videos as you would expect them to were more urban clothing like jeans and jackets etc. This would also reflect to the examiner we did not think about the generic conventions associated with alternative rock which would lower our mark. Going of from this we then used specific clothing for the different scenes in our music video, such as him wearing a suit in scenes where the character was working within the flashback, presenting him as more of a professional person. Alternatively we used quite roughed up and oversized clothing in the homeless scenes, to connote to the audience that the clothes had been given to him as a donation and get across he can’t afford his own clothes.

Setting:

The settings of our music video were also a crucial element of our video as this was needed to project to the audience what was going on and fit the genre. For this we split our settings into 2 areas; one an office and the other outdoors to connote to the audience his 2 different lives from past to present. We used our establishing shot to show the outdoors area and show tat the character was homeless, as the surrounding were in quite a rough and beat down area. This was effective for our scene and character as being homeless meant the atmosphere perfectly fit with the narrative. 

Final magazine

This is the final magazine advert that i created. The idea was inspired by Incorporated everyone's ideas from the group as well as mine to produce this idea based on the original ideas we already had. 

The font on our magazine advert is effective as it links in with the theme of our music video, and challenged the genre of our music video as the picture reflects quite an Indie rock atmosphere. 

This image although not took from one of out shots, links really well with the atmosphere of the genre and is catching to the eye, This image therefore draws in our target audience as the picture makes the audience want to see more, and therefore is effective at advertising our music video. This image is also quite open ended so it gives the audience a sense of suspicion of what the music video will sound like and include,

I have also included key information on this advert such as the social media platforms that the music video is linked to as well as the available on iTunes logo. I have also included the record label the music video is signed to and the bar code the give it a professional edge. The font we had used on the previous magazine adverts were seen to be too big therefore we decreased the font size and changed it to a different font which gave the magazine advert more of a balanced look.

Magazine 2

Here is my second attempt at creating a magazine advert for out music video which included basic elements such as my first advert. From this i have added the Facebook and twitter logos to the advert to make people aware that they can read about the song on social media websites. I also included the writing 'album out now' to get cross to viewers that they can purchase the music in the present.

magazine 1

Here is my first attempt at creating a magazine advertisement for the 'Verve' Bitter Sweet Symphony' music video we created.I have included elements such as the 'available on iTunes' icon as by looking at other magazine adverts i have seen them include symbols such as these to make people aware where they can purchase the songs and albums.from. By looking a this magazine advert it looks rather basic and does not stand out ,much to viewers which i will try to correct with my other designs.