Friday, 1 May 2015
Tuesday, 21 April 2015
Evaluation 1 -
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products?
We have chosen to do a promotion package for the release of an album, including a music promo video, a digipak for the albums release and a magazine advertisement for the digipak. We developed and challenged other real media products to produce a music video of our own and advertisements of our own. This involved research into other music videos and promo's.
Research
In order to create our music video we needed to research into other music video's before we started our project to know what conventions we needed to include in order for it to be realistic and for it to attract our audience. We also needed to look at what our target audience are interested in today to be able to attract them to our music video once it is released. Luckily every person within our group is within the aimed target audience bracket so it is easy for us to know what we'd like to see and what would attract us. We noticed that artist music videos were based on either them performing, other people dancing/performing, or based on a narrative.
After researching music videos, we came across ones that were based on a narrative which made us like the idea of basing ours on a narrative. The video's we mainly looked at are listed below -
- Latch - Disclosure Ft. Sam Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ASUImTedo
- I'm Not The Only One - Sam Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCkpzqqog4k
- Chandelier - Sia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM
- Elastic Heart - Sia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWZGAExj-es
- Maps - Maroon 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj6fHiF8Osg
After looking at these videos it made our decision more certain that we wanted to base our video on a narrative. We had many idea's when creating a narrative for our video but we realised overall we wanted it to be based on every day life, so we didn't want anyone miming any of the song as it would break the illusion of the real life image we aimed to create. Also, after finding the video 'Latch' we then decided that it would be the song we used as we thought we would portray our narrative best with this song. We also looked at videos made by students from previous years collectively as a group and wrote down what we thought were the strengths and weaknesses within the videos to make sure we avoided the weaknesses and included what we thought were the strengths. We wanted footage which was clear and understandable when pursuing our narrative. We also wanted to make sure our video was unique so for example, when we used our scene in the train station we knew that we hadn't seen that anywhere before. All of the videos we watched were all aimed at the same target audience as we wanted ours to be aimed at. This helped give us an idea on how we would set out our video. When it comes to the target audience luckily as a group we all came under the same category so with ourselves being our own target audience we were able to plan the outfits the actors would wear and the age of the actors in order to attract and relate to our audience. We believed that it was important that our actors were in the same age range as our audience in order for it to be as relatable as we wanted it
Conventions
When researching the music videos we took our time to pick out conventions used that we must include in our video. In order to create a music video based on a narrative, we chose to follow the linear styled narrative which meant our video started from the beginning, through to the middle and then to the end as a pose to basing it on a fragmented narrative which doesn't follow the beginning, middle, end structure.Camera Angles and Transitions -
When researching the music video's we also took our time to look at how the camera angles differed. Camera angles play a massive part in pursuing idea's in music videos for example; creating excitement, suspense, drawing attention to certain characters etc. So in order for us to show the themes and ideas we wanted to create through our narrative, it was important we used many within our video. When watching the video for "Latch" (our chosen song) we noticed a lot of close up shots and mid shots of the main characters to show their expression to enhance the narrative of the music video. It is important that close up's are used in narrative music videos to allow the actors facial expression to tell the story and also give the audience a sense of intimacy and a feel for what the actors are feeling otherwise the story may not be clear with the lack of emotion shown. As a group we took this on board when filming our footage for the video and made sure we used plenty of close up and mid shots to pursue our narrative. Also within these shots we have used transitions (Cross dissolve, cross blur, wipe left, fade to black, speed of the clip, reversing the clip etc.) . Any transition that is added to the video footage, changes it instantly. For example; by changing the speed of a clip gives a whole different vibe. When the clip is slowed down, it increases the intensity, intimacy and build up of tension in the clip its self and for the audience when watching it. It also allows the audience to relate and instantly feel involved and lured in to the narrative. We have mainly slowed down the parts where the actors make a connection, like when they make eye contact, or when they walk past each other and brush shoulders. We believed this would give a sense of reality and highlight the intense moments in our video.
Mis-En-Scene -
It was important we considered every aspect of mis-en-scene in order for our video to relate to our audience in every possible way. The first thing we decided was costume. As we want to create an everyday life relatable video we thought it would be best to have our actors dressed in everyday casual clothing. The male actor would wear a coat, t-shirt, jeans, trainers etc. and the female actor would wear a coat, casual top, jeans/leggings, dolly shoes or boots etc. In order for our video to relate to our audience it was vital that they were wearing clothes within the latest fashion and what every other female/male teenager would wear (14+).
The next thing we decided on was the location. It was very easy to decide on what locations we were going to be using within our video as we are basing it on every day life. The main location we wanted to use was a train station. We liked that we had never seen a music video based in a train station before so we thought it would be a great location to use, also it was a great place for our actors to lose each other which worked well with the storyline we wanted to pursue. The other locations we used were just the street, an entry and our local park. These locations are very suitable for our everyday casual life theme as our narrative is about how the boy is constantly got the girl on his mind and they keep passing by each other without realising or a split second after each other or he just see's her in his imagination.
We didn't use many props in our video as it is based on everyday life. The male actor just had headphones and a mobile phone. The headphones were used on the male actor as we wanted to create the effect that the song we are using was at first playing through his headphones and then as soon as he puts them on the song plays at full volume which is when us as an audience also hear it at full volume. The headphones we used are 'Beats' which are very popular with our target audience therefore they can relate. The use of the mobile was for the music. We have a shot of the phone with the title of the song showing that it is playing, adding to the effect that the song is playing through the actors headphones. This is very relatable to our audience as a mobile phone is a necessity now a days so it is very realistic that someone would be walking around playing music off their phone.
Mis-En-Scene -
It was important we considered every aspect of mis-en-scene in order for our video to relate to our audience in every possible way. The first thing we decided was costume. As we want to create an everyday life relatable video we thought it would be best to have our actors dressed in everyday casual clothing. The male actor would wear a coat, t-shirt, jeans, trainers etc. and the female actor would wear a coat, casual top, jeans/leggings, dolly shoes or boots etc. In order for our video to relate to our audience it was vital that they were wearing clothes within the latest fashion and what every other female/male teenager would wear (14+).
The next thing we decided on was the location. It was very easy to decide on what locations we were going to be using within our video as we are basing it on every day life. The main location we wanted to use was a train station. We liked that we had never seen a music video based in a train station before so we thought it would be a great location to use, also it was a great place for our actors to lose each other which worked well with the storyline we wanted to pursue. The other locations we used were just the street, an entry and our local park. These locations are very suitable for our everyday casual life theme as our narrative is about how the boy is constantly got the girl on his mind and they keep passing by each other without realising or a split second after each other or he just see's her in his imagination.
We didn't use many props in our video as it is based on everyday life. The male actor just had headphones and a mobile phone. The headphones were used on the male actor as we wanted to create the effect that the song we are using was at first playing through his headphones and then as soon as he puts them on the song plays at full volume which is when us as an audience also hear it at full volume. The headphones we used are 'Beats' which are very popular with our target audience therefore they can relate. The use of the mobile was for the music. We have a shot of the phone with the title of the song showing that it is playing, adding to the effect that the song is playing through the actors headphones. This is very relatable to our audience as a mobile phone is a necessity now a days so it is very realistic that someone would be walking around playing music off their phone.
Monday, 20 April 2015
Evaluation 2 -
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Click Here to View Slide Share Presentation
Friday, 17 April 2015
Thursday, 16 April 2015
Evaluation 4 -
How did you use media technologies in the construction, planning and evaluation stages?
Below is a list of applications and technologies we used to create our music video;
- Youtube
- Video Camera
- Digital Camera
- iMovie
- iTunes
- Garage Band
- Photoshop
- Da font
Once we had picked our brief as a group and decided on the promotion package for a music video, we all gathered round and used youtube to look at past A Level music videos and current music videos in the professional industry to get an idea on what we had to do and what we'd like our music video to be like. Whilst researching we found it most useful watching previous A Level music videos as we were able to list what we thought were the positives and what we thought were the negatives so in the end we knew what we wanted to include and what we wanted to make sure we didn't include. Also after watching a few professional music video's we realised we liked the ones based on a Narrative and thought that it would be the best if we done the same as we liked the idea of it having a story line for our target audience to relate to.
Video Camera
First of all to create our video we filmed our footage on a Video Camera (Canon Legria). As filming was one of my roles within the group I was quite wary as I hadn't used a video camera to as much as an extent as this. I was able to practice by filming draft footage before we began to film our music video which allowed me to get used to working with it. One thing I did wrong when practising was holding the camera the wrong way. As I was focusing on fitting the actor in I turned the camera so the shot was portrait therefore when watching the footage back on the Apple Mac I became aware that I wouldn't be able to use any footage if I filmed this way as it wouldn't work on screen. The biggest challenge for me was trying to keep my my hand steady as I was walking with the camera. I found that after a few practice runs I was able to sustain a steadier hand than usual and was ready to film the footage for our music video.
Digital Camera
After we finished filming for our music videos we took the opportunity to individually take pictures in one of the set locations for our digipak and Magazine Advertisement. I used a range of different angles for mine personally. One of my images consisted of the two actors standing back to back but I only took a picture of their shoes. Another image consisted of a wide/long shot of one of the actors leaning back on a wall in facing one way and my last image was of my other actor leaning on the same wall facing the other way so that when my digipak is put together it will be like they are looking at each other but on separate sides of the digipak. As I had used a digital camera many times before I did not find it difficult to use unlike the video camera.
Digital Camera
After we finished filming for our music videos we took the opportunity to individually take pictures in one of the set locations for our digipak and Magazine Advertisement. I used a range of different angles for mine personally. One of my images consisted of the two actors standing back to back but I only took a picture of their shoes. Another image consisted of a wide/long shot of one of the actors leaning back on a wall in facing one way and my last image was of my other actor leaning on the same wall facing the other way so that when my digipak is put together it will be like they are looking at each other but on separate sides of the digipak. As I had used a digital camera many times before I did not find it difficult to use unlike the video camera.
After we filmed all footage for the music video we then had to transfer the footage onto the apple macs and then onto iMovie. iMovie was our main application to edit our footage and as I had never used iMovie before at first I was worried but once I learnt how to navigate my way around the application I became more comfortable using it.
Another one of my roles within the group was to edit the footage I had filmed. I uploaded the footage onto iMovie and began to place the footage in order structure based on the narrative we created. I was able to take out the background noise out of the footage we had taken so that there was no distortion in sound over the music that we were using. I inserted a range of transitions in between the clips when the scene changed to give it a professional slick dynamic throughough for example; cross dissolve, cross blur, fade to black, cross zoom etc. I was also able to edit the speed of clips which was really helpful when it came to a point in the narrative I wanted to focus on to make the video look better. For example, when the male character looks up and see's the women character for the first time I thought it would be more effective if that was slowed down! And again when they knock shoulders in the street. I also used it to speed up clips like when I film a full rotation of the actors faces and reverse it at a faster speed to suit both the music and the narrative.
Garage Band
We downloaded the song we are using "Latch" off iTunes ready to place it into garage band. We made the effective decision to edit the song to make it suit our footage and also cut out bits of the track that we didn't need as it was a 4 minute and 30 second song and that was longer than what we wanted. I simply split the track and deleted parts of the track that weren't needed which was the easy part. The hard part was having to match the separated parts of the song to the specific beats which was challenging. Eventually I was able to match it up accurately to the specific beat allowing the track to flow through with no distortion, or unwanted pauses or obvious changes. It did take me a while to get it right and I probably did it the hard way but having not used Garage Band before I wasn't fully aware of the tools and their uses so I just navigated my own way around the application and did it my own way.
Photoshop and Dafont
Using the images I had taken for my Digipak using the digital camera, I opened them up in Photoshop ready to fit them onto a canvas size of 11 by 10 inches. This is the allocated canvas size stated on the Digipak template. I had taken my images using a background that I wanted to keep so they didn't really need much editing.
I just simply resized them to fit the canvas and got to work on the conventions that I needed to include. Before we started the project we had already created a production logo so I made the background transparent on that and added it on each page of my Digipak. With the Iogo being black it was quite hard to see on the background so I added a white circle around it for a professional look and so it stood out.
Next I went online to 'DaFont' to get different texts to suit my Digipak images. I used 'steriodifelic' in the distorted section to create the text for my band name. I then used 'blacklisted' also in the distorted section for every other bit of text used on my Digipak. I knew that the texts had to be different for my band name as I seen this on many other style models and also because if I stayed with the same text throughout it would of been abit boring. I differed my text from black and white keeping a consistent colour scheme. I was able to change the colour of the text quickly and effectively by using the paint bucket tool located on the left hand side of the photo shop application. Following researched style models I knew I had to add the bar code and small print. I created my small print by using the text tool also located on the left hand side of the Photoshop application. I researched the small print on different digipaks in order to know what to include within it. I then positioned it to where I'd like it to be giving it an over all professional look. Next I downloaded a barcode to include on the back of my Digipak also as this was a vital convention and my Digipak would not be realistic if this wasn't included.
I posted my finished digipak covers to Facebook to get some audience feedback. It is very important to get audience feedback as you are able to see from others point of view whether you have attracted your aimed target audience and what they would like to be different and what they think you can improve on. Overall my audience feed back has been pretty positive but there is always room for improvement. A couple of people have said to maybe not have the production logo on 3 pages which I agreed with so I have just kept it on the back page. A few people have also said about the album name on the front cover being a bit too close to the edge so to maybe move it slightly over. I have also made this change. Over all I am very pleased with the audience feedback and very pleased with my digipak. 
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