From Preliminary to Now

Since creating my Prelim task at the beginning of the course My skills have advanced a lot and I have learnt so much, during every part of the process. But like most projects we still had our problems, finding actors, technical difficulties e.t.c however I think we overcame these well.

As the person responsible for filming, I was in charge of setting up the shot and making sure that when filming, the things in shot were framed well. This wasn't new to me as being a photography student I spend most of the time looking at things and framing them, however as most of our film is set outside and in a forest, it was more challenging finding different ways and interesting ways to frame it.

For example in this shot from the dream sequence it is part of a continuous sequence and when filming i mades rue that i got the two trees either side of him because it makes a bit of a frame inside the picture. Then when filming behind him you still have the trees next to him only further away.
When filming I made sure that when I was filming the singing parts, my actor being the singer was really moving his mouth. I did this because it made it easier to lip synch the video to music in the post production stage. This was difficult enough as it was, but by making my actor over emphasise his movements it was easier. As this was one of the most important aspects to get right, this took us the longest to get right. When filming we played the music so that our actor knew how fast to sing which made it easier when synching. However during the post-production stage it was a lot harder to get the lip synching perfect and to make the lips to the words exactly. However there are a few moments where it was impossible to get it exactly in time. I don't think this hindered the overall product as it still looks quite professional.

When we were creating our storyboard we had quite a clear idea of how we wanted it to look and the overall effect. However over time this changed dramatically. Once we had filmed all the footage we had planned we went to put it in the video but we discovered that for where we had planned to put clips they didn't fit and that we had too much footage. So in order to fit it all, we had to cut some of the clips and ended up changing some of the order of the clips, but not too much so it didn't make sense. We understood from our audience feedback that the narrative still made sense and that they understood what was going on.
This wasn't a problem that we had anticipated so doing this has made me more flexible in my ideas and  has made me trust in my own abilities because at the part that was different to our storyboard we were having to wing it slightly and edit it without any help.

During my AS coursework I didn't really comprehend how useful and essential audience feedback is, but now I can see that it is an essential part of the process. Having audience feedback was so important when creating a music video with a narrative because they were accepting that the narrative made sense and especially with ours, as it was quite a complex narrative, we needed to make sure that it definitely made sense. Luckily all our audience feedback was positive and they said it made sense.

Evaluation- Q4

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

Through each part of the process I have ben using apple products. I used an apple mac to access the internet, the packages in which I made my products and for keeping up to date with my blog. When filming the video I used my ipod to play the music. This was incredibly important especially when filming the singing part of the video as it kept our singer in time with the track. I also used my ipod to film people's reaction to our video to get some vital audience feedback. Apple have been creating products for years and constantly amaze everyone with the technology they are coming up with.



Also throughout every stage I have used youtube at some point. At the start I used it to look for ideas for my own music video, to see what was already out there and what was popular. Then once i had my own idea and i was putting it together i was looking at videos on youtube to compare to my own to see any similarities or differences. Then towards the end i used to put my video on my blog and to put my evaluation on. Youtube has been evolving for years and has become more and more popular as a video sharing platform. It is now easier than ever to go online and watch whatever you want, from funny cat videos to the latest music video.


Next I have used blogger. This has basically been an online diary. I have used it to account everything I have done, the reasons that I have done it and what that has created. Before media studies I had never even heard of blogger, let alone used it, and now i know my way around so much better. Blogs allow people to express their creativity, write about something they love or are passionate about about and share it with the whole world.




Again Facebook is one that I have used repetitively throughout making my video and ancillary tasks. To start with I  create surveys about rock music of which i placed on Facebook. Whever I made some decisions i placed them on Facebook to see what other people think. Once I had created the video i placed the video on Facebook, as another way to gain audience feedback and to see what other people think. I then did the same  thing with my poster and my digipak as a way of gaining feedback.

Construction

When creating the music video, I used Adobe Premiere Pro. I used this rather than iMovie, because there is more you can do with and it will look better using Premiere. There are more effects you can use and make it look more professional. This was the first time that I had ever used this program and to start off with it was a pain to use because i didn't know how to use it and the procedure you have to go to when you go on it. However once i had learnt how to use the more simple effects like cutting clips and adding transitions it was a lot easier. We used a Sony HD AVCHD Camcorder which Janet already had, so it meant that we didn't have to borrow it from the school.




Finally for the my ancillary tasks I used Adobe photoshop. I have used photoshop in the past, for my AS coursework and for other subjects such as photography, so using this was a lot easier than premiere. Constructing my poster was very similar to the construction of my magazine for my AS portfolio, so I was able to fulfil this part of the course quicker.

The other main piece of equipment we used was a tripod. Luckily I had my own tripod, of which we used, because then we didn't need to rely on borrowing one from the school. A tripod was very useful for keeping the camera still and also making movements like panning really smooth

Evaluation- Q3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the process of planning and creating my music video audience feedback has been a vital part of it. All the way through we have made sure that our audience are liking what we are doing. When conceiving our idea we pitched it to a group of 17-19 year olds male and female and all the feedback was positive. They did pick up on the complexity of the idea which we had already taken into consideration. However they thought it was a really exciting prospect and that it was really ambitious.

When in the construction stage we were constantly getting people to watch and comment on our video. Each time it was different people and every time it was positive. Every so often we asked people outside of our intended audience to view and their comments were incredibly positive as well. Although a lot of the time these were my peers and they had some knowledge of the media and what works well and what you need to create a good product

Then when it was completely finished we had lots of other people view including people who don't do media and didn't know what made a good video. Again the whole way through, the comments and feedback were positive. 

I mainly gained my feedback from face to face conversations however with my ancillary tasks i stuck an image of my poster on the wall of the media room and asked people to comment. 

One of my viewers in particular liked the video so much that after watching the video she said that we could create a couple of series music videos and she would watch them.

Evaluation- Q2

How effective is the combination of all three products?

Evaluation-Q1

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

Andrew Goodwins theory of codes and conventions consist of 4 things:

• Thought beats- Editing the video so that the clips change on the beat.
• The use of Narrative and performance during the video. Creating a narrative that can Aplify, illustrate or disjuncture the lyrics of the song.
• Creating a star image. This means that the whole video is based around the singer and is aimed at promoting the singer.
• Using technical codes. These consist of editing techniques, camera shots types of sounds and how the video generally holds together. 

The general definition of a convention is something that is recognized by an audience and is accepted.

video feedback

We managed to film some of our viewers whilst watching our music video and their reactions. Unfortunately only the female gender is covered with these reactions, but this was due to time constraints. This audience feedback is very important because it shows what people think of our video and what they think is good and bad. One things that someone mentions is the lip syncing at one point. We had one clip where it was in sync at the beginning but not at the end and vice versa and after a while we realised that we weren't going to be able to get the whole clip in sync.#

FINAL MUSIC VIDEO!

So we finally finished our music video and exported it. Here it is.

Digipak

Here is what I have created for my digipak:

The version on the left is the actual version with Nat's Face being the front cover and the trees being on the inside. I have then flipped it so that it is easier to see the images of the trees.

My front cover is very similar to my poster only Nat is looking at the camera rather than looking away. In a way I have adhered and subverted this convention. By nearly having it the same I have adhered to this convention but by not having it exactly the same I have subverted it.

The image on the back is taken from my actual video and has the track listings on. I have kept to conventions of cd backings by having the barcode, the record label and the web address on it. This web address lets the listeners access more of the bands information and music and it is another way for them to access them. I have included 14 tracks and I have used the songs I have because these are the songs on the original cd.

For the inside of my digipak I have decided to use one image and then flip it so that it is the same image, only symmetrical. At first the image wasn't this dark but by changing some of the vibrance and brightness settings I have made it look darker so it looks more creepy. I wanted to do this because our music video has an element of creepy and mysterious in it and i wanted this to come across in the Digipak. By using one image I have subverted this convention because there are aren't many digipak that only use one image.