Monday, 14 December 2009
Commentary feedback
the fact that you have a group member missing will effect their individual ideas on the video, but the points were shared pretty equally between the two. There was a point where you had too many layers of audio, and other times when the points weren't conveyed to understanding. Apart from this you answer each question to a good extent and didn't dwell on points too long. Including a clip from Lilly Allen's video was a good exmaple of showing you intertextuality.
Group 43
Video quality poor - not your fault.
there is a part of the footage at the end which is un-rendered
at the start of the video there
there is a part of the footage at the end which is un-rendered
at the start of the video there
feedback from 44
It was good but onething that got our minds was when you said on the digipack that you used a black/white effect on the dvd cover, you actually inverted the picture from cambridge rather then grey scaled it which Pia says.
Your little Lily Allen part was very good as it allowed us to see what you meant.
Nice Work.
Your little Lily Allen part was very good as it allowed us to see what you meant.
Nice Work.
Feedback on Commentary from Group 45
We liked the way that your shots faded into each other instead of jumping from one to another, this made it look like one shot instead of many individual shots which was effective. We also thought that using a clip of the Lily Allen video was a nice touch, this was effective because it enabled us to visualise what you were talking about. Using the question over a snippet of your music video was a good idea because we knew what you were going to be talking about and what to expect.
Well done :)
Well done :)
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Evaluation.
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My music video challenges conventions of real media products as it follows the important Goodwin’s Points, for analysis my video includes genre characteristics. This is by using the stereotype of the genre “Indie” and following their rule of mainly performance and narrative. My video includes a story of the person’s life and how they go about their day, through their eyes. Unfortunately this then does not feature any lip-syncing and lyrics to music, but we do cover music to video as the video is very like the pace and type of music. I also don’t include voyeurism in the video as I didn’t want the audience to know what they looked like, so they can relate their lives more to the person, although it doesn’t have voyeurism it gives an insight into the artist’s life and that would appeal to fans. The video also contains Mise-En-Scene, for example, location, which is held mainly in Cambridge and a hometown this is realistic and believable, there isn’t anything fake, as we wanted to create a really believable world. Our video meets the demands of the record label by having the song playing, but that is about it as we don’t feature the artist and have resemble to the artist, it’s just a day in the life. I feel that our video is very like ‘All Falls Down – Kanye West and ‘LDN’ – Lily Allen, they both have the camera following them or looking through their eyes. This are the most interesting ones that are like ours, we tried to have them look a lot similar just change the Mise-En-Scene and song and stuff.
I also designed the whole of the Digi-Pack, this includes the picture of Cambridge, where we filmed our video, and therefore this is a good example of continuity as I have kept the picture of something people can recognise easily, to the video, also I kept both the DVD Advert and DVD Cover/Back the same image as people would be able to know what it is without even reading it and to make the band noticeable. The image was inverted to negative to give it an even more “Indie” and catchy look to it. The Digi-Pack also was very clear and helped with the marketing and publishing of the band; I feel it gave off the right look and image. My Music Video also has a voice over commentary to it, which was done professionally and featured everything that would be needed. I feel this challenges a real media product, as it is exactly what it is like in a real one. The artist is shown from the images to be a “normal”, mundane person just walking around her/his local town and waking up like anyone else would, for example, the audience gets to see what they eat fro breakfast and putting on their shoes.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I feel that the main project and ancillary texts are really effective, as we have in both things kept the Genre, INDIE, in the foreground. In the Digi-Pack I used the same type of writing as the band and other Indie bands have used, also the same picture, witch is like the video and other Indie bands as they all use the same picture or text on each different item. The DVD back and front are both of Cambridge streets, where we filmed on, and they have both been distorted slightly as to make them stand out and also to show that life isn’t straightforward. They both have the same font on each and have the same negative filter over the top to give even more of a weird and unusual feel, but at the same time recognisable look. The Digi-Pack and video link also very well as they both feature the streets of Cambridge and they both are Indie ‘like’. The magazine and advert both have the email, what’s on the DVD, record company and age consent. The advert promotes the DVD very well as it looks bold, so catches the audience’s eye. It also has where you can buy it and age consent so they know how accessible it is and for what people. It’s also very clear and understandable. The Advert does not have the artist on, but it attracts the audience by being bold and still in the Indie catchment, and it’s also the right image for the right age range and the right genre and like the video, so they will be interested in what the video looks like.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I feel the feedback we were given was very helpful, but on the other hand not so. There was some really positive feedback, for example, they said how the rough cut of our video was a little confusing, in terms of the type of filter we used, so we decided to get rid of the filter and have it normal and mundane, like a real person’s life, to keep the continuity flowing well. On the other hand there was some negative feedback like they didn’t like the video and it needs a lot of improving, but this still helped us we looked over it and made it a little more interesting with extra footage and sharper editing. They helped a lot with the Digi-Pack as it gave me personally a lot more confidence and I felt that I did a really good job. The feedback said that the Digi-Pack is clear, understandable, catchy and includes all that is needed, apart from a few spelling eras it is really good. There was also a lot of feedback on the original idea that we had and that was also very positive and they felt that they understood the idea and were very intrigued to see how it turned out. So therefore we did not think about changing anything as we thought it was going to be great and so did the feedback. In the end we changed the idea and the audience didn’t like it as much but we had some good feedback like it needs more footage and the filters over the top make me feel ill! So we changed that and made it simple and we also filmed more footage. The feedback was from other groups in the class but they were also our target audience, if we had to pick one.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In my music video I used Final Cut to edit the video, this helped me as it is really good at editing and makes it really easy to do so, also I felt very comfortable with it and using it. In the process I have learnt new techniques like fastening up the editing process by using shortcuts, also how to change the speed of the footage to create a different feel, how to use different filters and what they change, mould and create. This was really fun and I enjoyed doing it.
I also used the Internet to research other videos (www.youtube.com), Digi-Pack material (www.google.com/images), the blog to help plan ideas and create and do plans (www.bogger.com) (www.longroadmusicvideo.blogspot.com). These helped as I could create new, better, more challenging, exciting, talk about and compare ideas.
I used Photoshop to create the Digi-Pack, this was really fun and interesting, as I was learning while I was creating. I have a basic knowledge in Photoshop so I felt quite confident in the subject. I learnt new things in Photoshop, for example, how to invert and image and how to stretch and distort an image. I have advanced from As to A2 because I know a lot more editing techniques and filming techniques. The pre-him task helped me as I learnt loads of techniques and stuff that would help me to improve. I learnt how to edit in lots of different ways. Also how to link the footage to the song.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My music video challenges conventions of real media products as it follows the important Goodwin’s Points, for analysis my video includes genre characteristics. This is by using the stereotype of the genre “Indie” and following their rule of mainly performance and narrative. My video includes a story of the person’s life and how they go about their day, through their eyes. Unfortunately this then does not feature any lip-syncing and lyrics to music, but we do cover music to video as the video is very like the pace and type of music. I also don’t include voyeurism in the video as I didn’t want the audience to know what they looked like, so they can relate their lives more to the person, although it doesn’t have voyeurism it gives an insight into the artist’s life and that would appeal to fans. The video also contains Mise-En-Scene, for example, location, which is held mainly in Cambridge and a hometown this is realistic and believable, there isn’t anything fake, as we wanted to create a really believable world. Our video meets the demands of the record label by having the song playing, but that is about it as we don’t feature the artist and have resemble to the artist, it’s just a day in the life. I feel that our video is very like ‘All Falls Down – Kanye West and ‘LDN’ – Lily Allen, they both have the camera following them or looking through their eyes. This are the most interesting ones that are like ours, we tried to have them look a lot similar just change the Mise-En-Scene and song and stuff.
I also designed the whole of the Digi-Pack, this includes the picture of Cambridge, where we filmed our video, and therefore this is a good example of continuity as I have kept the picture of something people can recognise easily, to the video, also I kept both the DVD Advert and DVD Cover/Back the same image as people would be able to know what it is without even reading it and to make the band noticeable. The image was inverted to negative to give it an even more “Indie” and catchy look to it. The Digi-Pack also was very clear and helped with the marketing and publishing of the band; I feel it gave off the right look and image. My Music Video also has a voice over commentary to it, which was done professionally and featured everything that would be needed. I feel this challenges a real media product, as it is exactly what it is like in a real one. The artist is shown from the images to be a “normal”, mundane person just walking around her/his local town and waking up like anyone else would, for example, the audience gets to see what they eat fro breakfast and putting on their shoes.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I feel that the main project and ancillary texts are really effective, as we have in both things kept the Genre, INDIE, in the foreground. In the Digi-Pack I used the same type of writing as the band and other Indie bands have used, also the same picture, witch is like the video and other Indie bands as they all use the same picture or text on each different item. The DVD back and front are both of Cambridge streets, where we filmed on, and they have both been distorted slightly as to make them stand out and also to show that life isn’t straightforward. They both have the same font on each and have the same negative filter over the top to give even more of a weird and unusual feel, but at the same time recognisable look. The Digi-Pack and video link also very well as they both feature the streets of Cambridge and they both are Indie ‘like’. The magazine and advert both have the email, what’s on the DVD, record company and age consent. The advert promotes the DVD very well as it looks bold, so catches the audience’s eye. It also has where you can buy it and age consent so they know how accessible it is and for what people. It’s also very clear and understandable. The Advert does not have the artist on, but it attracts the audience by being bold and still in the Indie catchment, and it’s also the right image for the right age range and the right genre and like the video, so they will be interested in what the video looks like.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I feel the feedback we were given was very helpful, but on the other hand not so. There was some really positive feedback, for example, they said how the rough cut of our video was a little confusing, in terms of the type of filter we used, so we decided to get rid of the filter and have it normal and mundane, like a real person’s life, to keep the continuity flowing well. On the other hand there was some negative feedback like they didn’t like the video and it needs a lot of improving, but this still helped us we looked over it and made it a little more interesting with extra footage and sharper editing. They helped a lot with the Digi-Pack as it gave me personally a lot more confidence and I felt that I did a really good job. The feedback said that the Digi-Pack is clear, understandable, catchy and includes all that is needed, apart from a few spelling eras it is really good. There was also a lot of feedback on the original idea that we had and that was also very positive and they felt that they understood the idea and were very intrigued to see how it turned out. So therefore we did not think about changing anything as we thought it was going to be great and so did the feedback. In the end we changed the idea and the audience didn’t like it as much but we had some good feedback like it needs more footage and the filters over the top make me feel ill! So we changed that and made it simple and we also filmed more footage. The feedback was from other groups in the class but they were also our target audience, if we had to pick one.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In my music video I used Final Cut to edit the video, this helped me as it is really good at editing and makes it really easy to do so, also I felt very comfortable with it and using it. In the process I have learnt new techniques like fastening up the editing process by using shortcuts, also how to change the speed of the footage to create a different feel, how to use different filters and what they change, mould and create. This was really fun and I enjoyed doing it.
I also used the Internet to research other videos (www.youtube.com), Digi-Pack material (www.google.com/images), the blog to help plan ideas and create and do plans (www.bogger.com) (www.longroadmusicvideo.blogspot.com). These helped as I could create new, better, more challenging, exciting, talk about and compare ideas.
I used Photoshop to create the Digi-Pack, this was really fun and interesting, as I was learning while I was creating. I have a basic knowledge in Photoshop so I felt quite confident in the subject. I learnt new things in Photoshop, for example, how to invert and image and how to stretch and distort an image. I have advanced from As to A2 because I know a lot more editing techniques and filming techniques. The pre-him task helped me as I learnt loads of techniques and stuff that would help me to improve. I learnt how to edit in lots of different ways. Also how to link the footage to the song.
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Evaluation.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video challenges may conventions of real music videos, This is what makes it fit its genre style of Indie/Alternative as Alternative videos can be abstract or differents and challenge the generic music video, Whilst Indie videos many consist of a documentry type video following the bands everyday life, or life on the road on tour.
The video we produced doesn't contain the artist so does not have lip syncing, neither does it meet the demands of the record label. It does show some Voyeurism as you are let into this persons head and life seeing everything through their eyes the way they would.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?
Our music video & digipack do not link directly to one and other but there is some continuity, and certainly in our digipack. Both the DVD cover and advert use the same image of a street, Just not the same ones in our digipack as our video although they were both from cambridge. We had decided from the start that we would we would use the same image to create continuity throughout our digipack, we also used the same font style in both, This was so our tagert audience would recognise this when they saw it and this would make it easier for them to find in a shop or online.
From our feedback we have been notified of some problems with spelling in our digipack with the words 'Avaliable' and 'Wembley' and given the chance we would change these, apart from that our digipack includes the correct information for what they are.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
The feedback we have recieved from other groups has been helpful to us when planning and creating our video and digipack, from this we have known what was missing from our blog and thoughts on what we had produced so far. Whilst making our video we posted a roughcut onto our blog and from the feedback we recieved we found out that the effects we had used on it seemed confusing and made some people feel dizzy and so we removed these.
The feedback we recieved once the video was completed was around what we had been expecting and thinking ourselves or already knew about as we already knew that lots of goodwins points were missing, with basics like lip syncing and a main character or artist missing made our video abstract whilst still fitting its genre. They all also gave mixed feedback some said that the storyline idea was clear showing their daily life, possibly in the artists eyes, whereas others said there was no particular storyline
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Whilst researching and planning for our music video we used our blog and used google images and youtube alot to back up our ideas we had put on the blog with similar images to what we had in our heads and links to videos we liked and wanted to incorperate in our videos, for example when we first started on our ideas for 'The Hush Sound - A Dark Congregation' we had the same idea in our head when we listened to it of Lily allens video LDN where everythings half happy and colourful and half dull and mundayne, we linked our blog to the video and to some print screens to go on the blog. We used google to get existing images of things for our mise-en-scene like objects and settings, and later on used it to get existing posters and DVD/CD covers of from artists when planning and designing our digipack.
We made our music video using some software called 'Final Cut' which allowed us to capture our footage off of the video cameras and onto the computer and from this we were able to put our music on it alongside the video and cut up the footage acording to the track and to the points we wanted to. It also allowed us to put effects on we later took of and make transitions from one clip to another.
When making moodboards, cropping down or re-scaling images and creating our digipack we used Adobe Photoshop, which let us again use many effects and do lots of different things with our images, we could also move each layer seperatly without anchoring them down although we could do this at the end by flattening the image.
The main blog also helped us with knowing deadlines and what are blog and products should include.
Our music video challenges may conventions of real music videos, This is what makes it fit its genre style of Indie/Alternative as Alternative videos can be abstract or differents and challenge the generic music video, Whilst Indie videos many consist of a documentry type video following the bands everyday life, or life on the road on tour.
The video we produced doesn't contain the artist so does not have lip syncing, neither does it meet the demands of the record label. It does show some Voyeurism as you are let into this persons head and life seeing everything through their eyes the way they would.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?
Our music video & digipack do not link directly to one and other but there is some continuity, and certainly in our digipack. Both the DVD cover and advert use the same image of a street, Just not the same ones in our digipack as our video although they were both from cambridge. We had decided from the start that we would we would use the same image to create continuity throughout our digipack, we also used the same font style in both, This was so our tagert audience would recognise this when they saw it and this would make it easier for them to find in a shop or online.
From our feedback we have been notified of some problems with spelling in our digipack with the words 'Avaliable' and 'Wembley' and given the chance we would change these, apart from that our digipack includes the correct information for what they are.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
The feedback we have recieved from other groups has been helpful to us when planning and creating our video and digipack, from this we have known what was missing from our blog and thoughts on what we had produced so far. Whilst making our video we posted a roughcut onto our blog and from the feedback we recieved we found out that the effects we had used on it seemed confusing and made some people feel dizzy and so we removed these.
The feedback we recieved once the video was completed was around what we had been expecting and thinking ourselves or already knew about as we already knew that lots of goodwins points were missing, with basics like lip syncing and a main character or artist missing made our video abstract whilst still fitting its genre. They all also gave mixed feedback some said that the storyline idea was clear showing their daily life, possibly in the artists eyes, whereas others said there was no particular storyline
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Whilst researching and planning for our music video we used our blog and used google images and youtube alot to back up our ideas we had put on the blog with similar images to what we had in our heads and links to videos we liked and wanted to incorperate in our videos, for example when we first started on our ideas for 'The Hush Sound - A Dark Congregation' we had the same idea in our head when we listened to it of Lily allens video LDN where everythings half happy and colourful and half dull and mundayne, we linked our blog to the video and to some print screens to go on the blog. We used google to get existing images of things for our mise-en-scene like objects and settings, and later on used it to get existing posters and DVD/CD covers of from artists when planning and designing our digipack.
We made our music video using some software called 'Final Cut' which allowed us to capture our footage off of the video cameras and onto the computer and from this we were able to put our music on it alongside the video and cut up the footage acording to the track and to the points we wanted to. It also allowed us to put effects on we later took of and make transitions from one clip to another.
When making moodboards, cropping down or re-scaling images and creating our digipack we used Adobe Photoshop, which let us again use many effects and do lots of different things with our images, we could also move each layer seperatly without anchoring them down although we could do this at the end by flattening the image.
The main blog also helped us with knowing deadlines and what are blog and products should include.
Monday, 7 December 2009
Evaluation
Here is my evalution for the Music video task.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our media product which was a music video, we tried to use the conventions from a real music video of the Indie Genre but at the same time challenge the forms and conventions. we decided to keep it random, like other Indie music videos but also challenge other video's in general by not having the popular choice of a story/narrative. Our group identified what the lyrics were and we filmed a documentary type film of everyday life, for example eating breakfast, so the audience can make up there own mind of what the lyrics mean to them so a narrative type film did not distort what the song meant, if we had filmed a funeral scene, the audience may have associated the song with a loved one who had passed. But by filming a random blank documentary type video, they can associate the lyrics “Save me, I am swallowed by the guilt of this You're gone, sleeping in the dust We will not let time erase us” to anything that the audience wanted to relate them too as it could mean a lot of different things depending on a situation someone is in. We chose to film with a hand held camera to give it a more realistic point of view as it would be shown from looking out of the main persons eye in the video, basically what they were seeing. In the mise-en-scene we didn't use one of Goodwins points - music and visuals, such as lip syncing, which we couldn't as we were filming from someone's point of view, it would be quite difficult to do. We also did not have a relationship between music and visuals as such, for example we didn't have people breathing cold air as the lyrics “our breath rose in the cold” This was because we wanted the audience to make up there own mind about what the lyrics meant. Another one of Goodwins point's 'Promoting the artist' was another hard thing to include in our music video as our group wanted to promote the music as a whole rather than one artist or a group, in a way we did promote the style of the music by being documented and this is identified on our Digi pack. There is a lot of voyeurism in our music video, as we are filming from the main characters point of view, we are able to look out of their eye and the whole audience is in disguise because of this, we are watching the character eating breakfast and when they enter a busy city centre we are able to watch everyone else go about their normal day behind these eyes, and in disguise as the main character in the music video. This is different to other types of voyeurism for example in R&B music videos they use voyeurism a lot in a sexual way towards men and women, the audience gets pleasure out of looking at these people in the music video without being there themselves, they are behind closed doors and in the privacy of there own home if you like. Lily Allens video 'LDN', there are two videos for this, one where she is biking through the streets of London, and another where she is walking though the streets but everything negative gets changed into something positive. For our original idea we were going to try and follow this idea, but unfortunately I wasn't there for this part of the filming therefore Holly and Pia had to think on there feet and decided to film through town, which kind of fit the other type of “LDN” video. I re-searched a video i new that fit our type of filming which was “All falls down” by Kanye West, this is also filmed from his point of view and through his eyes. Our video is like this for example, locking up bike and eating breakfast etc. Although in Kanye west's video they still are promoting the Artist (Kanye West) by editing the video and making it look like when Kanye looked in the mirror it showed his reflection, this was too difficult for us to do whilst making it look professional so we left it out, otherwise we would have been able to include lyrics and visuals. The video is effective because it is not distracting the audience from the lyrics and music. I suppose our video attracts our target it audience by the video being 'random' if we included a lot of 'bling' jewellery i don't think the target it audience would of continued to listen or watch the video. Our location was not very conventional which is a good thing i think, it's different and we used the City centre of Cambridge which i think has a good variety of buildings all in one location, you have the old college type buildings for example 'Lloyds TSB' bank, which is included in our video, and opposite this building we have a new modern type building where 'Boots' is located. This gives us a good variety of architecture without having to change location. A more Conventional location for this particular genre would be maybe inside a club whilst the artists are performing.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The ancillary texts meaning digipack and the music video are quite effective. The DVD cover and magazine advert are the same style and picture so the buyer will be able to identify the two together which makes it easy to identify the music and band due to the continuity of the images used. Seeing as we didn't have a main character in the video, we chose not to put one on the DVD cover and the magazine advert so the audience wouldn't be confused because in our video the artist is not sold or promoted, therefore the audience would not be able to identify who the person or people were on the front if we chose to show one or 3 people on them. We did however choose to have a picture of a normal street on the front of the DVD cover and Magazine advert to elaborate on the documentary type video. This would be effective as it's the same type image being shown as there is in the video, this is something the audience can identify together. Our magazine advert contains a 'NME' which stands for national music express which is a popular music magazine, people that buy this magazine and enjoy this type of genre can relate to this music group and it may interest them even more. It also contains the music groups website so people would be able to re search the music group in their own time if they would like to know more about them. We have an 'Indie Uprising' logo which people who like the Indie genre of music can recognise and know it's an official Indie genre music group and that they have been recognised so that's a sort of guarantee that they must be good, otherwise 'Indie Uprising' would not be helping to promote them. We have a quote on the front of the magazine advert to show that other people are enjoying the music and are encouraging you to buy it. The advert also promotes the DVD, although it doesn't have a date it states that it is now available to download and on DVD. Also shown on the Magazine advert we had the 'HMV' logo which is a very popular music shop telling the audience where the DVD is available to buy. The DVD cover has all of these aspects, but also shows a 'dvd' sign stating it's a dvd and a bar code obviously, so it is able to be bought, this gives it a realistic effect. All three products represents the genre successfully, through the images the music used.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
For our original edited music video, we had an effect which distorted the faces of people in the video it was quite bright and quick, with our class feedback we learnt that this confused the audience and they didn't enjoy watching the video. Our group removed this effect to make it more pleasurable for the audience to watch. Our target audience for our music video was 15 plus, this was to make sure that they were capable of understanding the lyrics. It was good getting feedback from a range of students so that we got feedback from people that have different interests in music and genre not just an indie audience this would make it bias so we wouldn't get an open honest opinion. This video would more likely be played on a Indie music channel, for example MTV has now been divided up into different channels by what genre the music is, for example MTV base is for more R&B and hip hop music. We also learnt from our original pitch feedback that maybe we could of included more footage of a main artist or character, this was so we would be able to promote the artist more, it was difficult to do this seeing as we didn't have any close up and facial footage of anyone. But this also leads to a type of mysterious sense, and the audience could be left puzzled wanting to see more of the groups music videos to find out who she or he is.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
For our re search and planning we used the internet on the mac computers which was very helpful for us to research similar music videos to our idea we used websites such a 'You Tube' (www.youtube.com) And 'Google Images' (www.images.google.com) We also used a website called blogger (www.blogger.com) which allowed us to update any of our plans and ideas and it allowed our media group to view and give feedback on work we had been doing. For our actual filming we used a camera from college and we then uploaded our filming on a programme for final cut, this programme allowed us to add the audio from our song and put it together with the video, we were able to cut the video and stretch it to match what bit of audio we want it to match up with, we also were able to add text or different types of effects to our video. Since last year, there has been much improvements since the preliminary task music video, we have edited in debt, using the cut tool on final cut, cutting in particular places of the filming to match specific bit of music. Where we want the video to fit the beat we were able to cut using the 'razor blade' and give it a more choppy effect instead of fading each section we wanted in. I was able to transfer the music video into a Quicktime format and change the quality of the video making it into high or low quality. This was to upload it onto the blog (www.blogger.com) and youtube (www.youtube.com). Obviously we had more time in this task than the preliminary task from last year and we new we were going to be marked on it so we made a lot more effort on final cut. I also advanced my use of technology by learning to use the time remapping tool, speeding up our video at the chorus (in the rough cut) and slowing it down during the verses. Last year during the preliminary task last year we didn't really focus on these tools in the final video, we were mainly experimenting so we could use them in this years task. Photo shop was a very good programme to use for the Digipack (DVD cover and Magazine advert), we were able to print screen a picture from our video, and use this image for both the dvd cover and magazine advert, we were also able to save pictures we used as our logos for example the 'NME' and 'HMV' logo and drag them into place where we wanted them. We also were able to write our own text on the image, giving it the realistic effect, writing the name of the band and the title of there album, also writing the track list on the back view, and a bonus view for whoever is going to buy this and watch it, therefore they would feel they got something extra for their money, making it more appealing. We also were able to use effects such as the 'negative' effect for the DVD and magazine advert. These new technologies were helpful to maintain our genre with ordinary pictures that we used and filming that we filmed.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our media product which was a music video, we tried to use the conventions from a real music video of the Indie Genre but at the same time challenge the forms and conventions. we decided to keep it random, like other Indie music videos but also challenge other video's in general by not having the popular choice of a story/narrative. Our group identified what the lyrics were and we filmed a documentary type film of everyday life, for example eating breakfast, so the audience can make up there own mind of what the lyrics mean to them so a narrative type film did not distort what the song meant, if we had filmed a funeral scene, the audience may have associated the song with a loved one who had passed. But by filming a random blank documentary type video, they can associate the lyrics “Save me, I am swallowed by the guilt of this You're gone, sleeping in the dust We will not let time erase us” to anything that the audience wanted to relate them too as it could mean a lot of different things depending on a situation someone is in. We chose to film with a hand held camera to give it a more realistic point of view as it would be shown from looking out of the main persons eye in the video, basically what they were seeing. In the mise-en-scene we didn't use one of Goodwins points - music and visuals, such as lip syncing, which we couldn't as we were filming from someone's point of view, it would be quite difficult to do. We also did not have a relationship between music and visuals as such, for example we didn't have people breathing cold air as the lyrics “our breath rose in the cold” This was because we wanted the audience to make up there own mind about what the lyrics meant. Another one of Goodwins point's 'Promoting the artist' was another hard thing to include in our music video as our group wanted to promote the music as a whole rather than one artist or a group, in a way we did promote the style of the music by being documented and this is identified on our Digi pack. There is a lot of voyeurism in our music video, as we are filming from the main characters point of view, we are able to look out of their eye and the whole audience is in disguise because of this, we are watching the character eating breakfast and when they enter a busy city centre we are able to watch everyone else go about their normal day behind these eyes, and in disguise as the main character in the music video. This is different to other types of voyeurism for example in R&B music videos they use voyeurism a lot in a sexual way towards men and women, the audience gets pleasure out of looking at these people in the music video without being there themselves, they are behind closed doors and in the privacy of there own home if you like. Lily Allens video 'LDN', there are two videos for this, one where she is biking through the streets of London, and another where she is walking though the streets but everything negative gets changed into something positive. For our original idea we were going to try and follow this idea, but unfortunately I wasn't there for this part of the filming therefore Holly and Pia had to think on there feet and decided to film through town, which kind of fit the other type of “LDN” video. I re-searched a video i new that fit our type of filming which was “All falls down” by Kanye West, this is also filmed from his point of view and through his eyes. Our video is like this for example, locking up bike and eating breakfast etc. Although in Kanye west's video they still are promoting the Artist (Kanye West) by editing the video and making it look like when Kanye looked in the mirror it showed his reflection, this was too difficult for us to do whilst making it look professional so we left it out, otherwise we would have been able to include lyrics and visuals. The video is effective because it is not distracting the audience from the lyrics and music. I suppose our video attracts our target it audience by the video being 'random' if we included a lot of 'bling' jewellery i don't think the target it audience would of continued to listen or watch the video. Our location was not very conventional which is a good thing i think, it's different and we used the City centre of Cambridge which i think has a good variety of buildings all in one location, you have the old college type buildings for example 'Lloyds TSB' bank, which is included in our video, and opposite this building we have a new modern type building where 'Boots' is located. This gives us a good variety of architecture without having to change location. A more Conventional location for this particular genre would be maybe inside a club whilst the artists are performing.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The ancillary texts meaning digipack and the music video are quite effective. The DVD cover and magazine advert are the same style and picture so the buyer will be able to identify the two together which makes it easy to identify the music and band due to the continuity of the images used. Seeing as we didn't have a main character in the video, we chose not to put one on the DVD cover and the magazine advert so the audience wouldn't be confused because in our video the artist is not sold or promoted, therefore the audience would not be able to identify who the person or people were on the front if we chose to show one or 3 people on them. We did however choose to have a picture of a normal street on the front of the DVD cover and Magazine advert to elaborate on the documentary type video. This would be effective as it's the same type image being shown as there is in the video, this is something the audience can identify together. Our magazine advert contains a 'NME' which stands for national music express which is a popular music magazine, people that buy this magazine and enjoy this type of genre can relate to this music group and it may interest them even more. It also contains the music groups website so people would be able to re search the music group in their own time if they would like to know more about them. We have an 'Indie Uprising' logo which people who like the Indie genre of music can recognise and know it's an official Indie genre music group and that they have been recognised so that's a sort of guarantee that they must be good, otherwise 'Indie Uprising' would not be helping to promote them. We have a quote on the front of the magazine advert to show that other people are enjoying the music and are encouraging you to buy it. The advert also promotes the DVD, although it doesn't have a date it states that it is now available to download and on DVD. Also shown on the Magazine advert we had the 'HMV' logo which is a very popular music shop telling the audience where the DVD is available to buy. The DVD cover has all of these aspects, but also shows a 'dvd' sign stating it's a dvd and a bar code obviously, so it is able to be bought, this gives it a realistic effect. All three products represents the genre successfully, through the images the music used.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
For our original edited music video, we had an effect which distorted the faces of people in the video it was quite bright and quick, with our class feedback we learnt that this confused the audience and they didn't enjoy watching the video. Our group removed this effect to make it more pleasurable for the audience to watch. Our target audience for our music video was 15 plus, this was to make sure that they were capable of understanding the lyrics. It was good getting feedback from a range of students so that we got feedback from people that have different interests in music and genre not just an indie audience this would make it bias so we wouldn't get an open honest opinion. This video would more likely be played on a Indie music channel, for example MTV has now been divided up into different channels by what genre the music is, for example MTV base is for more R&B and hip hop music. We also learnt from our original pitch feedback that maybe we could of included more footage of a main artist or character, this was so we would be able to promote the artist more, it was difficult to do this seeing as we didn't have any close up and facial footage of anyone. But this also leads to a type of mysterious sense, and the audience could be left puzzled wanting to see more of the groups music videos to find out who she or he is.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
For our re search and planning we used the internet on the mac computers which was very helpful for us to research similar music videos to our idea we used websites such a 'You Tube' (www.youtube.com) And 'Google Images' (www.images.google.com) We also used a website called blogger (www.blogger.com) which allowed us to update any of our plans and ideas and it allowed our media group to view and give feedback on work we had been doing. For our actual filming we used a camera from college and we then uploaded our filming on a programme for final cut, this programme allowed us to add the audio from our song and put it together with the video, we were able to cut the video and stretch it to match what bit of audio we want it to match up with, we also were able to add text or different types of effects to our video. Since last year, there has been much improvements since the preliminary task music video, we have edited in debt, using the cut tool on final cut, cutting in particular places of the filming to match specific bit of music. Where we want the video to fit the beat we were able to cut using the 'razor blade' and give it a more choppy effect instead of fading each section we wanted in. I was able to transfer the music video into a Quicktime format and change the quality of the video making it into high or low quality. This was to upload it onto the blog (www.blogger.com) and youtube (www.youtube.com). Obviously we had more time in this task than the preliminary task from last year and we new we were going to be marked on it so we made a lot more effort on final cut. I also advanced my use of technology by learning to use the time remapping tool, speeding up our video at the chorus (in the rough cut) and slowing it down during the verses. Last year during the preliminary task last year we didn't really focus on these tools in the final video, we were mainly experimenting so we could use them in this years task. Photo shop was a very good programme to use for the Digipack (DVD cover and Magazine advert), we were able to print screen a picture from our video, and use this image for both the dvd cover and magazine advert, we were also able to save pictures we used as our logos for example the 'NME' and 'HMV' logo and drag them into place where we wanted them. We also were able to write our own text on the image, giving it the realistic effect, writing the name of the band and the title of there album, also writing the track list on the back view, and a bonus view for whoever is going to buy this and watch it, therefore they would feel they got something extra for their money, making it more appealing. We also were able to use effects such as the 'negative' effect for the DVD and magazine advert. These new technologies were helpful to maintain our genre with ordinary pictures that we used and filming that we filmed.
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Video for evaluation.
Me and pia filmed the video for our evalution in room d109, we only had roughly about 30 minutes to film as i had a hospital apointment, so we were a bit rushed but we managed to film something for each question, we tried to keep our video casual but still professional but as i put earlier we only had 30 minutes to film. We aimed to give detailed answers and include what we have written in our written evaluation.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Commentary over video ideas...
We plan to have a casual, talking to camera type of commentary.
We are going to use clips of inspiration and clips from our video to help explain our point.
We also intend not to cover it all in great detail and just to briefly mention the important points.
It would be nice to do it in the street as it would relate very well to the video.
We're not going to script it a great lot and just let it come out fresh. (chatty)