Dear examiner, this is the end of my blog and my final post.
I hope you enjoy!
Monday, 25 March 2013
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Evaluation- Question 4
How did you use new media tech in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Below shows my video response to the question, it is a recording of my computer screen and a voice over demonstrating the different media technologies I used within the project.
The use of more technolgies does make you think does it make you more or less creative within the subject?
Personally I don't think it makes a difference because ideas come from the mind and are generated through brainstorming. Technology is just a tool we know we have to use. This being the second year has potentially made me less creative but in a positive way. Now we know how all the technology works and how far we can stretch it. Where as in the AS year we were still learning how to use all the technology as we thought of our ideas. Potentially ideas could have been too adventurous for the technology we have access too, but now we know what we can do.
Below shows my video response to the question, it is a recording of my computer screen and a voice over demonstrating the different media technologies I used within the project.
The use of more technolgies does make you think does it make you more or less creative within the subject?
Personally I don't think it makes a difference because ideas come from the mind and are generated through brainstorming. Technology is just a tool we know we have to use. This being the second year has potentially made me less creative but in a positive way. Now we know how all the technology works and how far we can stretch it. Where as in the AS year we were still learning how to use all the technology as we thought of our ideas. Potentially ideas could have been too adventurous for the technology we have access too, but now we know what we can do.
Evaluation- Question 3
Below shows my video response to the question.
It was filmed in two parts due to storage space but it is to be watched as one whole piece.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Evaluation- Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For the project we had to create a combination of 3 elements to make up a promotional package for our artist. These included a music video, magazine advert and four panels of an album cover.
The idea was to create a brand identity that makes it clear to the audience that the video, album cover and magazine advert were all from the same artist.
I think that my work as a package is successful because it is clear that they all have come from the same artist. I made this clear by using the same style of photographs within my album cover and on the magazine advert- the locations were the same to make this obvious. Colours used were also similar and very natural, with earthy greens, yellows and browns. I also tried to use similar fonts on my album cover and on the magazine advert to make it recognisable for someone who has seen all 3 parts of my work.
This gives a clear identity to her as an artist because everything matches clearly because of the photographs being in the same locations and clothes, fonts and colours also being the same. Below shows a screen shot of the front cover of the album and the magazine advert as evidence of the factors I have just discussed.
I think as a combination all 3 pieces work well together as they seem to flow from one to the other easily due to their similarities in appearence. I think they are recognisable to be from the pop/indie genre. Close of shots during the music video and on the photographs for the album cover and magazine cover reflect conventions a pop genre. Apart from that and the style of the song it reflects more of an Indie theme. Earthy colour schemes, elaborate flowing fonts and emphasis on environmental locations on each of the 3 products demonstrates more of an Indie feel.
Although I feel my work is recognisable as a package, it does hold some weaknesses too. The photographs used on the album cover and magazine advert aren't exactly the same, they are just from the same shoot so the artist is wearing the same costume. In some exisitng artists work they will use exactly the same photograph to make their work as easily recognisable as possible.
For all three pieces of my work I also used different fonts. Although I don't think that this is too much of a weakness to my project as people are going to notice the photographs more rather than the fonts as they are smaller, less significant parts of my album cover and magazine advert.
Exisitng media products from some artists show a similar train of techniques within their work to make it all match up together. An example of this can be seen with Rihanna's work for her single 'Only Girl.'
The album cover and cover for the single (shown above) each match the music video shown in the screen shot below with the same colour scheme of bright reds and feminie pink tones.
For the project we had to create a combination of 3 elements to make up a promotional package for our artist. These included a music video, magazine advert and four panels of an album cover.
The idea was to create a brand identity that makes it clear to the audience that the video, album cover and magazine advert were all from the same artist.
I think that my work as a package is successful because it is clear that they all have come from the same artist. I made this clear by using the same style of photographs within my album cover and on the magazine advert- the locations were the same to make this obvious. Colours used were also similar and very natural, with earthy greens, yellows and browns. I also tried to use similar fonts on my album cover and on the magazine advert to make it recognisable for someone who has seen all 3 parts of my work.
This gives a clear identity to her as an artist because everything matches clearly because of the photographs being in the same locations and clothes, fonts and colours also being the same. Below shows a screen shot of the front cover of the album and the magazine advert as evidence of the factors I have just discussed.
I think as a combination all 3 pieces work well together as they seem to flow from one to the other easily due to their similarities in appearence. I think they are recognisable to be from the pop/indie genre. Close of shots during the music video and on the photographs for the album cover and magazine cover reflect conventions a pop genre. Apart from that and the style of the song it reflects more of an Indie theme. Earthy colour schemes, elaborate flowing fonts and emphasis on environmental locations on each of the 3 products demonstrates more of an Indie feel.
Although I feel my work is recognisable as a package, it does hold some weaknesses too. The photographs used on the album cover and magazine advert aren't exactly the same, they are just from the same shoot so the artist is wearing the same costume. In some exisitng artists work they will use exactly the same photograph to make their work as easily recognisable as possible.
For all three pieces of my work I also used different fonts. Although I don't think that this is too much of a weakness to my project as people are going to notice the photographs more rather than the fonts as they are smaller, less significant parts of my album cover and magazine advert.
Exisitng media products from some artists show a similar train of techniques within their work to make it all match up together. An example of this can be seen with Rihanna's work for her single 'Only Girl.'
The album cover and cover for the single (shown above) each match the music video shown in the screen shot below with the same colour scheme of bright reds and feminie pink tones.
The same font is also used in the main album cover and in the cover for the single, making the two appear as a pair. Rihanna's bright red hair is made very apparent by using close up shots of her in the video and also on the photograph for the album cover. This makes it recognisable to people who have seen one of the two elements.
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Evaluation- Question 1
Question 1:
'In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media?'
My media product (a music video) falls under the genre of Pop/Indie. The original video for the song and other past work from the artist reflects more of an Indie feel, but the song itself is slightly more in the pop genre.
Conventions of a pop music video can include:
-Close of shots of the artisit
-Most of the camera time to be spend on the artist
-Elements of perfomace and a narrative
-Camera shots to encourage the audience to look at the artisit in a sexualised way
-Bright colours
-Backing dancers or singers
-Lots of different locations
-Elements of humour
Below shows some examples of this in exisiting media products:
I also went against normal conventions of an Indie music video by including lots of noticeable costume changes as well as locations changes. The themes were very different. I included shots indoors wearing jeans and a neutral jumper, shots indoor wearing a sparkly dress and shots outdoors wearing a big coat. I did this to add an interesting element to the video so it didn't appear repetitive. Also so that it matched themes of a pop video- where there is lots going on and locations and costumes change a lot.
'In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media?'
My media product (a music video) falls under the genre of Pop/Indie. The original video for the song and other past work from the artist reflects more of an Indie feel, but the song itself is slightly more in the pop genre.
Conventions of a pop music video can include:
-Close of shots of the artisit
-Most of the camera time to be spend on the artist
-Elements of perfomace and a narrative
-Camera shots to encourage the audience to look at the artisit in a sexualised way
-Bright colours
-Backing dancers or singers
-Lots of different locations
-Elements of humour
Below shows some examples of this in exisiting media products:
Beyonce- 'Run the world' shows her dancing with backing dancers and performing.
Katy Perry- 'Last Friday night' shows elements of bright colours and a performace/narrative video.
Convetions of an indie music video are a little different, they can include:
-Green/natural colours
-Shots of nature and landscapes
-Guitar or other accoustic instruments
-Shots of the artist
-A happy and jolly feel
-A mixture of narrative and performance elements
Below shows some examples of this in exisiting media products:
Ben Howard- 'Keep your head up' shows natural colours and shots of nature
Newton Faulkner- 'Clouds' shows elements of performance involving an accoustic guitar
Within my music video I have used the conventions mainly from an Indie style music video, with influences from pop because of the close up shots of the artist.
My music video uses lots of shots of nature and wildlife either on it's own or as a change of scenery in the video as a background for the artisit. This reflects conventions of exisiting Indie music video's as shown above in Ben Howard and Newton Faulkner's music videos. An example of this in my music video can be seen below in a screenshot from the start of the video.
There are more examples from my music video which show a direct relationship between the conventions of my video and exisiting videos of the same genre.
I find that the weather can be a popular convention in an Indie music video. Weather is a really obvious factor when you start watching a music video to help you determine what kind of mood the artist in the video is in. The weather in an Indie music video is normally quite sunny to show a happy mood, but this isn't always the case. In my music video it is filmed in snow most of the time, mainly to reflect a sombre mood from the girl who is longing to have her boyfriend back. There are also some shots of a sunset to add variation.
The weather seems to be an influential part of any music video, below shows a screen shot of the weather in my video.
A convention that is common in both pop and indie music videos is close up shots of the artist through out the video. This helps to promote them as an artist to make it clear who is the main singer when the video is sometimes full of other actors or dancers. In a pop video it is sometimes done to portray a woman in a sexual way, this is called voyeurism.
Within my music video I used close up shots of my artist just to make it clear who the main character of the video was so that people focus more on her. My video is also quite an emotional video, close up shots of her show this more successfully.
My video also does challenge normal conventions of pop and indie videos. Firstly, I added a starry effect using Final Cut Pro to add a magical look to the video. Normally Indie music videos are quite basic in the way they stick to shots of landscapes and the artist singing or playing an instrument.
I find that the weather can be a popular convention in an Indie music video. Weather is a really obvious factor when you start watching a music video to help you determine what kind of mood the artist in the video is in. The weather in an Indie music video is normally quite sunny to show a happy mood, but this isn't always the case. In my music video it is filmed in snow most of the time, mainly to reflect a sombre mood from the girl who is longing to have her boyfriend back. There are also some shots of a sunset to add variation.
The weather seems to be an influential part of any music video, below shows a screen shot of the weather in my video.
A convention that is common in both pop and indie music videos is close up shots of the artist through out the video. This helps to promote them as an artist to make it clear who is the main singer when the video is sometimes full of other actors or dancers. In a pop video it is sometimes done to portray a woman in a sexual way, this is called voyeurism.
Within my music video I used close up shots of my artist just to make it clear who the main character of the video was so that people focus more on her. My video is also quite an emotional video, close up shots of her show this more successfully.
My video also does challenge normal conventions of pop and indie videos. Firstly, I added a starry effect using Final Cut Pro to add a magical look to the video. Normally Indie music videos are quite basic in the way they stick to shots of landscapes and the artist singing or playing an instrument.
I also went against normal conventions of an Indie music video by including lots of noticeable costume changes as well as locations changes. The themes were very different. I included shots indoors wearing jeans and a neutral jumper, shots indoor wearing a sparkly dress and shots outdoors wearing a big coat. I did this to add an interesting element to the video so it didn't appear repetitive. Also so that it matched themes of a pop video- where there is lots going on and locations and costumes change a lot.
Construction- Magazine
Please click to enlarge the picture....
Monday, 25 February 2013
How I made the digipak
I then decided after discussions with my group that the snow shoots would make a better front album cover because they reflect scenes from the video more and reflect the genre of pop and indie well.
For the back cover of the album cover I used a photograph from our first day of filming in the studio. When I took the photograph I purposely made the camera take the photo out of focus so that the lights became noticeably blurred as well as the artist. I like this technique, it adds a magical feel to the image. I also changed the colour balance of the album cover in Photoshop, this is shown in the screen shot below. I wanted to give it a hint of green to reflect the natural, indie style of song.
I then added the song listing to the back cover to match the conventions of existing album covers sold today. This is shown in the screen shot below, i chose a font that is quite soft and girly to match the delicate nature of the song. I also added the bar code and company logo so that the cover again reflects conventions of existing albums and is a believable product to be sold.
The next step to making the album was to make the two inside covers for where the CD itself actually goes. I wanted to keep these quite simple and to match the existing back and front covers. For the first panel I used a photograph taken on the day of outside snow filming. It is a photograph of the couples hands held together with the snow in the background. I used this photograph because it matches scenes from the music video and hopefully people will recognise this. I wanted to keep it plain and simple so I didn't edit the photo in anyway apart from cropping it down to the right size for inside the album cover. (Shown below in a Photoshop screenshot.)
The front cover needed minimal editing to the photograph, all I did for it was to crop the photograph down slightly (shown below in Photoshop) to make it closer to the artist as in general pop artists have very close up photographs of just their face for their album covers. I then also added the title and artist name in a girly font in a natural colour (green/brown) to match the indie theme of the song.
For the back cover of the album cover I used a photograph from our first day of filming in the studio. When I took the photograph I purposely made the camera take the photo out of focus so that the lights became noticeably blurred as well as the artist. I like this technique, it adds a magical feel to the image. I also changed the colour balance of the album cover in Photoshop, this is shown in the screen shot below. I wanted to give it a hint of green to reflect the natural, indie style of song.
I then added the song listing to the back cover to match the conventions of existing album covers sold today. This is shown in the screen shot below, i chose a font that is quite soft and girly to match the delicate nature of the song. I also added the bar code and company logo so that the cover again reflects conventions of existing albums and is a believable product to be sold.
The next step to making the album was to make the two inside covers for where the CD itself actually goes. I wanted to keep these quite simple and to match the existing back and front covers. For the first panel I used a photograph taken on the day of outside snow filming. It is a photograph of the couples hands held together with the snow in the background. I used this photograph because it matches scenes from the music video and hopefully people will recognise this. I wanted to keep it plain and simple so I didn't edit the photo in anyway apart from cropping it down to the right size for inside the album cover. (Shown below in a Photoshop screenshot.)
For the second inside cover I chose to match it to the back cover so that each inlay matched the outside cover. I used another photograph from the inside filming day, this time one of just the lights. For this photograph i used the same technique when I took it so that it gives the same blurred, mystical look. I also edited the colour balance again to the same subtle green tint to reflect the Indie style of the song.
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Back cover
I then experimented with the back cover of my album cover. I wanted to keep it quite simple with just the track listing, a barcode, small logo and photograph. From the start i wanted to use a photograph that had the fairy lights from the indoor filming day so I could blur the image on photoshop and make it look magical to reflect the theme in the video.
Below shows some of the photographs I took for the back cover on our day of filming. I purposely made the camera out of focus when taking them to make them blurry and mystical.
I then edited the colours of the image to either black and white or deep purple using photoshop. I then added the track listing of the album in the same yellow colour as the album cover.
First draft
I used photoshop to edit my first front cover of my album, I felt the photo didn't need too much doing to it as I wanted it to look quite natural and simple.
I started off by cropping the photograph to keep only the important bits of the image and get rid of the background so it focused more on just the artist. This is shown in the screenshot below.
I then used the editing software to increase the saturation of the photograph along with the brightness to lighten the image and make the artist look more vibrant, this is shown below in a screen shot.
I chose the text to be in a light colour to match the natural look of the cover and didn't add anything else to keep the album cover looking simple but original. Below shows the finished piece.
I started off by cropping the photograph to keep only the important bits of the image and get rid of the background so it focused more on just the artist. This is shown in the screenshot below.
I then used the editing software to increase the saturation of the photograph along with the brightness to lighten the image and make the artist look more vibrant, this is shown below in a screen shot.
I chose the text to be in a light colour to match the natural look of the cover and didn't add anything else to keep the album cover looking simple but original. Below shows the finished piece.
Saturday, 23 February 2013
Test photos
My music video comes under the genre of a pop song. From comparing album covers in past research of existing pop artists I found that conventions include minimal text and a large close up photograph of the artist.
So I used the filming time to take lots of photographs in our different locations to edit into an album cover. Below shows a few examples of my photographs before editing.
So I used the filming time to take lots of photographs in our different locations to edit into an album cover. Below shows a few examples of my photographs before editing.
Friday, 22 February 2013
Logo Designs
A logo and information about the copyright of a song are important and necessary to be featured on an album cover. For my album cover I am going to include a logo i make myself. I want to keep it quite simple, in plain black so that it looks proffesional. I'm going to include the initials of everybody in the group as a starting point.
Below shows some initial designs....
Below shows some initial designs....
Thursday, 21 February 2013
Digipak drafting
A digipak is an important part of an artists work. It is given as a whole promotional package to the audience: Music video, Album cover with inside and back panels and a magazine advert.
Within my digipak I want to create products that all look like that come from the same artist, by using similar colour schemes, fonts and photographs. This will make sure that my digipak looks professional and reflects conventions of existing pop artists digipaks such as having logos, colours that reflect the mood of the music and a barcode.
Below shows a few sketches of first ideas for my album.....
Front and back cover:
Inside covers:
Within my digipak I want to create products that all look like that come from the same artist, by using similar colour schemes, fonts and photographs. This will make sure that my digipak looks professional and reflects conventions of existing pop artists digipaks such as having logos, colours that reflect the mood of the music and a barcode.
Below shows a few sketches of first ideas for my album.....
Front and back cover:
Questionnaire feedback
I designed a short questionnaire shown below to ask people from my target audience. This is girls aged between 15-20. I have directed the questions to be quite simple and not use many media terms so that anyone will be able to answer it and it will give me and immediate look into whether my video was success or not.
Below shows a photograph of my questionnaire....
Below shows a photograph of my questionnaire....
I distributed my questionnaire to 12 girls from within the age range of 15 and 20 using the social networking site Facebook. I used Facebook because it is a quick, easy way to distributed information and it also allows you to post the video link using YouTube easily. Here are the results to each question:
1. How would you rate my video from 1-10?
1 person rated it a 6
4 people rated it a 7
6 people rated it a 8
1 person rated it a 9
2. Do you think the costumes used were appropriate for the video?
11 people said yes they were
1 person said no they were not
3. How would you rate the lighting through out the video?
3 people said 8
4 people said 9
5 people said 10
4. Did the video maintain your interest?
11 people said yes
1 person said no
5. Would you believe that this could be the real video for this song?
10 people said yes
2 people said no
6. Did you enjoy watching it?
9 people said yes
3 people said no
All in all the feedback from this questionnaire was quite positive. It shows me that the majority of people enjoyed watching my video and only 1:5 thought it wasn't believeable as an actual music video. It maintained a lot of peoples interest and mise-ene-scene characteristics such as lighting and costume were reviewed as good.
Monday, 18 February 2013
Feedback from my Mum
Below shows video feedback from my Mum about my final cut of my music video. This is my secondary feedback because my Mum is not necessarily my specific target audience because she don't necessarily have a keen interest in consuming media like music videos but she would have an interest in this style of music because of the original by Elton John.
Feedback from AS class
I decided to gather feedback from a media class in the year below as some of the people would be the target audience for the video (young girls 15+ who would watch a video with a romantic narrative.) These people will be my primary feedback as they are the main people that my video is targeted towards. The feedback is useful and relevant to me as it is directed towards my specific target audience.
For the people in the group who would not watch this video out of choice and not be my target audience their feedback is also useful because they will have a knowledge of media work and terms to give me more specific and professional feedback.
The main points that the group made about my work were:
-It was repetitive in parts
-Match on action is good
-The end of the video would be better if it went from blurry to focused sooner
-Like the end shot and sparkly technique
-Liked the different locations especially the fairy light inside scene
-The video is simple and effective
Evidence of my feedback....
For the people in the group who would not watch this video out of choice and not be my target audience their feedback is also useful because they will have a knowledge of media work and terms to give me more specific and professional feedback.
The main points that the group made about my work were:
-It was repetitive in parts
-Match on action is good
-The end of the video would be better if it went from blurry to focused sooner
-Like the end shot and sparkly technique
-Liked the different locations especially the fairy light inside scene
-The video is simple and effective
Evidence of my feedback....
Monday, 4 February 2013
Changes to the video
After a talk with our teacher she gave us the advice that our video didn't flow as professionally as we wanted it to. We thought it would look better to edit the video so that the different shots cut to the next shot in the middle of a lyric instead of after a line of song so that it flows better.
We decided that more of a variation of shots so that we could cut the video more quickly would make the video look more professional. So we went out and filmed some more landscape scenery to add to the variation of shots in between our character singing. The sunsets, lakes and fields that we filmed fit the romantic and natural look of the video.
We also decided to add a video effect of sparkles to the video that we gathered from Youtube. We then added the effect over the top of parts of the video and lowered the opacity so that it looked less harsh and fitted in naturally with the video. We added this effect to add to the magical and romantic look of the video and give it that extra something.
We decided that more of a variation of shots so that we could cut the video more quickly would make the video look more professional. So we went out and filmed some more landscape scenery to add to the variation of shots in between our character singing. The sunsets, lakes and fields that we filmed fit the romantic and natural look of the video.
We also decided to add a video effect of sparkles to the video that we gathered from Youtube. We then added the effect over the top of parts of the video and lowered the opacity so that it looked less harsh and fitted in naturally with the video. We added this effect to add to the magical and romantic look of the video and give it that extra something.
Saturday, 2 February 2013
Feedback from AS Class
After
editing our video further and receiving feedback from our A2 class we decided
to show our nearly completed music video to an AS Media Class, to gain feedback
on it at this stage in the editing.
Their
feedback was -
Storyline - Like the narrative of the couple
Liked all the transitions - Good use of match
on action pretty solid
Background sound was still on in one of the
clips
They
rated our video overall at 8/10.
This feedback was all very
positive and other than the comment on the background sound, which we can
easily fix, we received no other negative feedback or suggestions. This proved
to us that our music video performed well within its target audience. As well
show to us that it had impressed other media students, and hopefully of good
quality.
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Feedback from the class
I asked the class to watch my rough cut individually and make notes on paper to see what they thought of it. This is what they said:
- Good use of camera shots
- Camera unsteady at some points in the snow
- Nice story line
- Like the piano parts, it fits the theme of the song
- Sing when she walks in where there are no lyrics?
- Good variety of shots and props- lights etc
- Needs more of a variety of shots
- Good use of miss-en-scene
- Good lip sync- edit of sound to the lip movement
- Engaging video
- Cute video for a love song
- Good use of the black and white effect
- Snow is a nice touch to the video
- Good use of cuts
- Great narrative storyline
- Good use of camera shots
- Camera unsteady at some points in the snow
- Nice story line
- Like the piano parts, it fits the theme of the song
- Sing when she walks in where there are no lyrics?
- Good variety of shots and props- lights etc
- Needs more of a variety of shots
- Good use of miss-en-scene
- Good lip sync- edit of sound to the lip movement
- Engaging video
- Cute video for a love song
- Good use of the black and white effect
- Snow is a nice touch to the video
- Good use of cuts
- Great narrative storyline
Saturday, 26 January 2013
Rough cut
Above shows our first edit of our music video. This was put together using our own ideas of the layout and timings. It is now important to gather as much feedback as possible from our target audience, teacher and other people who are not our specific target audience to make improvements to the video.
Friday, 25 January 2013
Editing diary
With all the filming done it is time to put it all together in a first draft of the video (rough cut.) We are using the editing program Final Cut Pro to put our video together as it is the most successful and professional editing we have at college.
We filmed a large amount of different shots for the video so it has given us a lot of leeway in what shots we use for each part of the video. For the start of the video we concentrated more on the shots of the girl on her own to set the story of her as a main character. Then, as the video progresses we have used different shots of the girl merged in with outside shots of the couple in the snow to bring them into the story of the girl's life. The video doesn't have a very detailed story line but we have used facial expressions within the video to tell of the girls jealously of the couples relationship.
Using Final Cut Pro we wanted to achieve a video with a smooth run from shot to shot so it looks professional. It is important during this stage of editing to match the song to the exact same part where the lip's move on the clip. We make sure this happened by matching the lip to the music and playing it back to make sure it is done perfectly in time.
We filmed a large amount of different shots for the video so it has given us a lot of leeway in what shots we use for each part of the video. For the start of the video we concentrated more on the shots of the girl on her own to set the story of her as a main character. Then, as the video progresses we have used different shots of the girl merged in with outside shots of the couple in the snow to bring them into the story of the girl's life. The video doesn't have a very detailed story line but we have used facial expressions within the video to tell of the girls jealously of the couples relationship.
Using Final Cut Pro we wanted to achieve a video with a smooth run from shot to shot so it looks professional. It is important during this stage of editing to match the song to the exact same part where the lip's move on the clip. We make sure this happened by matching the lip to the music and playing it back to make sure it is done perfectly in time.
Filming photographs
Below shows evidence of our 3rd day of filming including filming, looking back on our work and make up.
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