Change of plan

The plan for our music video had to be changed slightly. Originally we had decided to film a group of people, however we felt that with the time we had it would be more realistic to use one actor who is part of our group. By doing so it has meant that we have not had to rely on other people who may have their own commitments or may not have been available on the times that we needed to film.

Evaluation and Feedback of video

My evaluation will be focused around the following four questions:

• In what ways does your video 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 learned from your audience feedback?


• How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of all your products?

I have presented my response to the first question, In what ways does your video use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?, as a PowerPoint presentation:

I have uploaded a brief video of myself talking about question two 'How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?':

For question number three 'What have you learned from your audience feedback?' my group ran a focus group and published the finished video on Facebook to gain as much feedback as possible. We felt that the feedback we gained from the focus group was invaluable and if having to do the project again we would have a clear and concise idea on things which may need re-thinking or re-working. This is a video link to the group interview: First of all we showed our final music video to everyone in the focus group. We asked questions on the following subjects:

• Choice of location for our video - what was good? what was bad?


• The story line - what did you think it was about? did you like the idea?


• Costume - do you think it reflects our genre?


• Overall strengths of the music video?


• Overall improvements that could be made?

Feedback that can be taken from the focus group is that the text at the beginning of the story wasn't clear so the narrative became confusing. A suggestion on how to improve the music video was to include more people/ characters in the video, this might also improve the clarity of the narrative. For example filming a couple breaking up etc. One person commented that they enjoyed the wide range of shots, however it could have been more interesting if more effects were added during editing.

People also commented on the video we uploaded to Facebook. One person said that they liked the creative camera shots where we layered footage and increased the transparency to give the video a ghostly effect.

Another comment was that 'the lighting at about 2 and a bit minuets was a bit harsh - couldn't see much' because the footage was so bright it has effected the quality of our footage. Improvements that you could make to lighting would be to adjust the composition of the camera on set getting the right balance so it does not affect the final footage. Film in more shaded areas, highly exposed areas are likely to be bright on sunny days, by opting for a more shaded area this should help minimise this problem. Finally re-shoot the shot on a less bright day, during editing if the shot does not look quit right, make a note of the problem and re take the shot.

Other feedback was that the writing on the text at the start of the film was hard to see. The text explains that the girls relationship is over and therefore it is important for the progression of our narrative. If the text can not be clearly read that might mean that the story line has not been properly understood. One way that this could be improved would be to think of other ways to present the message for example finding a letter or an email, these might show up better on the video once filmed.

The last question 'How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of all your products?' relates the the software and equipment that I have used throughout this coursework task.

Almost every element of this coursework task has been IT based. My computer skills have vastly improved and I now confidently know how to use complex editing programs such as Final Cut Pro. and even my basic knowledge from AS of Adobe Photoshop, Google documents and Blogger have all majorly improved.

I had only used Final cut pro once or twice before and at first was extremely taken away with how complicated it was. However, our initial class task of copying an existing music video meant that we had a lot of practice with the program before having to use it for ourselves and became quite comfortable with it quite quickly. As we progressed through our editing lessons we picked up new editing techniques which allowed us to be creative with parts of our footage, for example we learnt how to layer two clips and increase the transparency which gave the effect of the same person walking in different directions but at the same time. If given more time this would be something i would defiantly like to look into further. Using Final cut pro we stored all the footage that we had filmed, by dragged the clips onto the time line it gave us a clearer picture of all of our footage we had. Using the razor tool we could chop long pieces of footage into parts, delete the rejected footage piece together the rest of the footage that created our final video.

The Digipack and Advert were both created using Photoshop. I learnt how to place photographs and edit the brightness and contrast of the images creating stronger bolder images. I learnt how to use the colour picking tool to select a colour from an image and drop that colour into a created box. This meant that the image had a natural coherent feel. After creating the documents we then had to save them as JPEG files.

Although I do have great experience from using Blogger last year, I have had to refresh my knowledge on how to upload videos and images and input URL's. When displaying work in a PowerPoint format, the PowerPoint has to be uploaded to Google Documents and transferred into a URL to embedded on your blog or retrievable through a link, these are all skills which I have had to re remind my self of from last year.

I have gained a lot of experience and knowledge in photography and also filming using a Canon XM2 camera and Mini DV tape to record our footage. We were taught how to use the cameras for example how to alter the white balance and exposure, and also taught about their many features such as zooms and how to adjust them accordingly to the shot you desire. I have also learnt how to use camera equipment to get the best shots, for example for the majority of our footage where possible we used a tripod, this was because we were confident in knowing that we would have the stillest, smoothest footage possible.

Finished Video

http://youtu.be/PiuBM3InauM This is the link to my groups music video Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap

Creative camera use

In this blog I have print screened particular moments in the final video where our group has used creative techniques which emphasise the characters drunk, delusional, confused state of mind.

In this part of the video (2mins 30secs) we set up a tripod and recorded a shot of the actor walking towards the camera. We cut the shot into sections and deleted parts of the actor walking which meant that as

the actor walked they jumped closer to the camera. We used the editing creatively to speed up the footage to match the pace of the song.

In this second part of the video (2mins 43secs) we recorded the actor walking away from the camera, using a tripod it enabled us to keep the positioning of the camera the same so that when the actor turned around and walked in the other direction the same type of shot would be filmed. By changing the transparency of the footage and layering the two different shots it gave the video a ghostly effect and enforced one of the themes in our narrative of a girl 'finding her self''.

Rejected Footage

Theses are a few examples of rejected footage: We found that this footage was too dark to use. It had rained the day before and the weather was extremely over cast. Because of the rain the day before it made the mud extremely slippery and water logged so filming the actors lines was near impossible. We re shot this footage on a sunnier day, the ground was a lot firmer and less slippery and also meant that the footage was brighter.

Our idea for this shot was to have a a time lapse of the stream, during editing we decided to reject the footage because there was not enough movement in the shot to make make a good quality time lapse. Also the footage was too dark amongst the rest of the footage in the video.

This was a tracking shot we attempted, we decided to reject the footage because the camera movements were too poor quality and out of focus. The rest of the footage that we filmed using a tripod was smooth and of a high quality, so by using a slow zoom we managed to create a similar effect of a tracking shot but with the quality of a tripod.

Advert

We created an advert to promote the Digipack, the advert size i have chosen is A5, i felt anything that anything smaller would be too small and would not be noticed. I have researched other Digipack to give me ideas for my own one, I looked at Digipacks that are the same genre as my chosen artist and also one from a different genre to give me a range of ideas.

The first advert is for Lady Hawkes single 'dusk till dawn' the advert is colourless and uses white and grey. I think the simplicity of the advert adds to its effectiveness, sometimes less can be more. Although there is a lot of white space on the advert, I think in this case it gives a minimalistic, professional look. The background colour looks slightly textured which makes the advert seem less empty than if they used a monotone background colour. The small image in the right hand corner is enough to make the advert seem as all writing and again compliments the minimalistic theme. The fonts used are bold, clear and easy to read. I like how the artists name has a different outlined font to the rest of the information, this exaggerates the most important information the artists name. Different letter sizing has also been used to highlight the most important information on the page, the artist, the singles name and 'OUT NOW'.

The second advert I looked at was Katy Perry one of the boys. Un-like to the first advert a photograph has been used as the background for the advert. This is something that I would like to apply to my advert as I think the image captures attention and imagination and also means there is not any empty white space on the page. The font used for 'Katy Perry' is the same font used on her album cover, I like this idea as it creates links between both the album and the advert. Again the advert includes all the important information in a bold, white text that is clear to read. The photo also has the singer on the front cover, I think this is effective as she is instantly recognisable so people will automatically associate the advert with the artist.

These are the flat plans that I created to help me with my final design:

The first flat plan I created is influenced by one of the already existing adverts that I analysed. I would keep the advert very minimalist, perhaps having a very neutral colour for the background and using the same black box around white writing text that i have used on the cover of my Digipack. I would ensure to include the artist and album name in the largest size font, followed by the release date and would also try to include a few reviews from newspapers which are going to encourage people to buy the album. I would also have a small image on the left hand side of the advert, perhaps the Digipack cover so people can see what the product looks like.

My next flat plan features a girl leaning against a tree, this idea has been influenced by the second advert that I analysed. I think having a photograph as the background for the advert is possibly better than having a colour as people are going to be more interested. I also think that by using similar pictures on the advert and Digipack clear links can be made with these and also the video. Again using the same fonts as used on the Digipack and including all the important information. This will be the final design for my advert.

The last flat plan for the advert shows more of the videos setting as well as the actor. I like the idea that the advert establishes the setting for the song. I tried different fonts on the last Digipack however I think that by using the same font you are further advertising the Digipack in the advert.

This is my final advert:

For my final advert I have used a photograph as the background image. The long shot also incorporates elements of the setting without detracting the focus being put upon the character. I have used the same text as on the front of the Digipack and positioned it at opposite slants. I have also included reviews of the album, information about the songs it features and which songs have accompanying videos. I have used a bold, large font for the release date as this is one of the most important pieces of information that needs to stand out.

The character is also wearing the same costume that is in the film and also in the Digipack images.

Evaluation of my Advert:

I was happy with the outcome of the advert. I think it reflected other adverts in the same genre as my artist (alternative rock) and all the important information was well highlighted. The image used reflected the Digipack and the final video well and it is clear to the audience exactly what is being advertised. Again to gain feedback from other people I changed the format of the documents in to JPEG's and uploaded them onto Facebook. I have again print screened a few of the comments that people had left.

One person commented that they liked the reviews from NME, by using a magazine that reflects the genre of our chosen artist the good review really works in the adverts favour.

Another person also said that the advert 'fits in well with the Digipack and video' keeping images and texts the same each part of the project is recognisable.

The majority of people have commented that they like the choice of the labeling font, that it is clear and easy to read. Also the positioning of the font is effective and interesting. However people have commented saying that the other black writing again is difficult to read in places, so perhaps keeping to something clearer or using boxes behind the writing would improve this problem.

Finally someone noted that they liked the characters sense of seriousness, the storyline behind the song is loneliness, desolation, trying to find yourself and a identity so the characters emotions in the photograph mirror this well.