FINISHED

I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED, it has been a long but interesting journey and teachers have been very supportive thanks I hope all this hard work pays off with a good grade

Blogging complete

I have finally finished blogging, it was a great experience and i have learnt many new things. Thank you to all the teachers for all your help especially Micky and Trevor they've been great.

Comparing AS-A2

I feel that the products i made last year were good however i feel this year my skills have developed and  have improved, i was now able to use final cut more easily as i was aware of the edits and the process as i went along. My blogging has also got an extreme amount of detail, where i have also used a variety of ICT skills to portray this. My blogs go through all the research and planning stages of making my music video and how i went about doing it. I have put a lot of effort into my posts and hope that i achieve a very good grade in the end, reflecting the time and effort i put in.

Final progress review blog

My A2 blog compared to my AS blog has an extreme amount of detail and is a lot more visual. I used many more different forms of ICT such as slide shows. My blog goes through all my research, planning and production stages of both creating a music video and ancillary work. I feel that my blogs show the stages clearly and effectively as i have clearly stated what i did. I have about 100 individual blog posts which i tried to make as interesting as possible. I would change my filming blogs as they don't reflect on everything we did. I would of also liked to have recorded the screen whilst editing the music video.

QUESTION 4.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK.

When we went to the cinemas to watch the music videos, our video had a very positive reaction in the audience. i think this because our song was a popular song - fairly recent too. But also because there was a slight competitive vibe because there was another group that had the same song as us. 

Potential changes and improvements would be that we should have been more organised with the people we had because most of them was VERY unreliable (N),  we had to get masses of work done in such a short amount of time which really did stress us out, however as a group we did work well.

Improvements would be that we should have stuck to our original plans, because we had to change a lot of things around because we either didn't get the right shots or someone or something was missing or something went wrong. We had also taken SOOO such footage that we didn't even use. 

i have learnt that popular songs engage people into a video more, than a song no one knows because people are not familiar with the artist or the music.

I have also learnt people expected a lot from us because the original was excellent so we had to live up to that expectation and also because another group had the same song so the pressure was on! But because of the good reaction it was a sigh of relief, even though we could have broken and used more conventions to better our video we did our best!

QUESTION 3.

FILMING AT SOUTHBANK

SOUTHBANK

STORYBOARD

&AGAIN

&AGAIN

&AGAIN..

&Again...

Ideas to use in our video

equipment

equipment but also research for the weather on the day

filming in the dark

filming

baloons for the party scene

on the day of the party scene

before filing

different aspects / scemes from our music video

GREEN SCREEN PICTURES

QUESTION 2.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT ( VIDEO) AND YOUR ANCILLARY TEXTS? (DIGIPAK & ADVERTISMENT)

I think that my ancillary work and my video fairly well together. In our music video we had a variety of backgrounds which goes well with our "space" theme because we mostly filmed in the dark and we had bright effective colours in the dark too.

this is my digipak cover , this compliments the filming we have done in the dark and the colours of the water in Granary

The audience will have a clear understanding of the connection between my digipak and my video because of my star and the way theme is set out and the colours and ect.

i think the audience maybe attracted to my digipak because it is colourful and eyecatching .

My ancillary work is fairly okay, however i do honestly think i could haver done way better.

my full outside digipak

avdertisement

inside of my digipak

QUESTION ONE

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

On the way to the cinema i was very nervous about watching my music video on the big screen. I traveled with Ipek and was talking to other group members whilst on my journey and it seemed a lot of people were feeling the same way.

One of the main reasons for feeling nervous is the fact that another group was doing the same song as us which meant both music video's will always be compared with each other. However, i was really excited to see the music video especially on a big cinema screen and to just get everyone's overall view and what they thought.

After everyone had finished their music video's we had the opportunity to watch them in cinema. This was a great way to see how the audience would react after seeing the music video. Below is a video which shows some of the feedback we got after viewing it in the cinema. 

We were given back a lot of positive feedback which made me feel proud of the music video. We also got back some helpful constructive criticism which was interesting coming from different people.

Some of the things that people liked about the music video was the projected footage we used. The also like the use of location such as the nigh shots we did in Kings Cross especially because of the colorful water fountains. Many people asked where this location was as they now wish to go visit it. Another great positive feedback we got was the editing of the music video as people mentions it went well with the beat of the song. I think this is one of the hings that i am most proud of as i spent time putting in quick cuts when the beat got faster or adding a transition such as a fade when the beast got slower and went into the chorus.

From both a female and male audience said that they thought our artists did a very good job and suited the role well. They said he looked good and was very enthusiastic which i can agree with as i filmed some of he shots. 

Some of the constructive criticism that we got back was to include a more variety of shots. I think that a good way o improve the video is to include more camera movements as the camera was still for most of the shots. 

From the feedback i have learnt that i should be happy the final video as people said that the editing was really good and went well with the beat of the song. It's also important to to include a wide range of different shots of our artist which i think we could have got more of like and extreme close up. Plus to keep the music video interesting movement of the camera goes well so it is best not to use a tri-pod when filming. The locations used make a great difference within a music video and i think that the ones we chose went well with our story.

Evaluation - Question 3

Evaluation - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?



Using Photoshop


Using Final Cut Pro

EVALUATION- Question 4

EVALUATION: Question 4: What have you learned from your audience feedback.

When traveling to our locations we were nervous in how our video would of came out and also the fact that another group was doing our song. We were all over ally excited in watching each others footage in the cinema and the thoughts they had once we finished watching everyones.
Once we had finished the video it was then time to go watch it in the cinema, where we shared our talents with the rest of all the media sets. Once our video came on show the audience were very surprised and liked the way in which we edited most scenes. Although many people liked it, we were given constructive criticism on what they thought we could have improved on.

Due to not feeling very positive about the video once people gave their opinions it made me look at our video in a different perspective where I was able to see the positive aspects as well as the aspects which I could have improved on. The feedback we were given was mostly positive, a lot of people who we asked liked the types of edits and cuts we did in the video as they liked the way in which it went with the beat of the song making them excited in what was going to happen next. However most thought that we could have used more shot types in the video and made the artist clearer.

When looking back the advice given was useful as I was able to see the video again but this time looking at the errors and also parts which I could have added more scenes and edits to.

The comments were very positive a lot of the audience when recording them after the cinema thought that it was a great video and that they would recommend it for other people of the similar age to watch it. As there was another group who did the same song as my group it was challenging to see the different types of shots and similar ideas they used. When recording the feedback most people thought that the role of our artist suited the song well as he was shown to be energetic.

Overall i am proud in the way the music video came out as all the hard work which was put in paid of, getting feedback also made me see the video in a more positive way especially cause our target audience got the message and also liked it.

Before we done our video i posted the song of our artist and posted it on facebook, this enabled me to get feedback from my target audience to see what they thought of it and what they expected to see. When getting the responses from different people we see that males tend not to enjoy the song as much. Most ideas that were put forward were useful and linked into our idea well. Boys tend to dislike the song which defeats the whole purpose of it being aimed at them.

Most ideas were similar to our thoughts as people thought that close ups, fast edits and including party scenes and object/ images which represent the word beautiful and wonderful. 

Looking back at the ideas and responses i got i saw that most of what people liked was incorporated in our video such as flowers and the main idea of our artist having fun enjoying life.

I had then went back to the people who gave their ideas and showed them the video. Overall they were impressed and would recommend it to people 

Planning- Evaluation Question 3&4 draft

Evaluation - Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

I feel that there is a clear link between both my ancillary work and my music video as the theme i went for on my ancillary work had a space theme which we see clearly in the music video. 
Also as well, the images i chose to use of the artist are similar to the style of shots we used in our music video. The identity i have created in Montell hasn't changed within the ancillary products to the music video.

Some of the shots used in our music video involved our artist with a projection with the space theme. This shot is used repeatedly in the chorus therefore, the audience can make a clear link from between the space theme used on the cover with the space footage used in the music video.

Moreover, the inside panel of my digipak has a quote "Is you're looking for the stars keep looking at me hard." This is a line taken from the chorus of the song so the audience will also be able to make the link because the song 'Wonderful' is the first single our artist Montell has released.

The images that i decided to use also followed the star image we were going for in our music video. We didn't want to make our artist get mistaken for a rapper or have stereotypical rapper look. Instead we kept him looking quite simple and almost vulnerable through the music video and also within the images i used on my ancillary work.

Images from music video

Finally, i do think that the target audience (females 16-21) will be attracted to my main and ancillary work. I do think that they are successful because of the variety of shots we used on our artist. Including a variety of shots allows the audience to see the artist from different angles. Having a male artist will firstly attract a large female audience rather than a male audience. I also included different angles of Montell on my ancillary work. Furthermore, the music video shows a really fun and enjoyable side of being young which would attract a young audience. The background i used on my ancillary work also make it eye-catching and stand out if it was seen in a shop on a shelf. This will make it more noticeable for people to recognise it and pick it up.

In the video's above i asked two questions which were, 1)Do you see a link between the music video and the ancillary work? and 2)Would you buy the album if you saw it? I asked both a female and male audience aged 17-18 so i was able to get feedback from my primary (females) and secondary (males) audience.

One of the main links that everyone saw was the background i used for my ancillary work. The space theme was a clear link as we had footages of our artist with a space background on a few of our projected parts of the music video. Another clear link was the artist himself and using an image of him on the ancillary work, this makes it easier for the audience to recognise who the album belongs to and for the magazine advertisement who it is that is being advertised. Moreover, i got feedback about how the ancillary work is linked to my genre and fits in well, this made it more attractive tot he audience.

From all my feedback i got a positive reaction on whether the audience would be attracted with my ancillary work. One of these was the images of artist as people thought they looked really good. Another thing was that the background and chosen colours make it stand out so will catch the 

audiences reation. They also said that it looked good because of the layout chosen making it look very presentable.

EVALUATION: Question 3

EVALUATION: Question 3 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

There were many forms of media technologies that I used to help the construction, research and planning of all products I had made in the end.

Blogger was a form of technology, which I had used throughout the stages of constructing and planning my ancillary products. Blogger was a form of technology that enabled me to write about the experiences and stages I planned on doing where I was then able to go back and look upon to see what I wrote about and what it was that inspired my choices. There were many blogging tasks, I participated in, and research was one of them. When researching I had to make sure I blogged about it, this was because when creating the product I would need to go back and see what it was that influenced my choices doing this saved time as all I needed to do was go over the written task and add this information to the stage which I was at. Blogger was also used as a plan/ storyboard where I was able to go back and check the plans, which I had made. Doing this I was able to save time, as I didn’t waste time planning as I had the information I needed already posted on the blog. Looking at the locations of where we wanted to shoot the video it was important to blog about, this was so that the teachers were able to keep up to date with the work we were doing. Throughout the production of the ancillary work and the making of the video it was essential I blogged the progress I was making so I could reflect upon it and see the aspect’s which worked and those that didn’t and why it didn’t.  

The Internet was another form of media I used to help the construction and research when planning for the end product. I had used the Internet to gather a variety of images that linked to the genre of our chosen choice and also the aspects they are interested in. YouTube was what I used the most; this was where I looked at a variety of videos to generate some ideas of what kinds of editing and camerawork most of them tend to use. You tube was a major help as I was able to look at videos linked to my genre and the types of edits and camera work they used. I also used online presentations, which I created these included, beeclup, prezi, kizola, and photobucket. All these were online presentations I created helping me present my work instead of it just being written form.

USING CAMTASIA

Using Photoshop 

USING FCP VIDEO

FINAL CUT

                   

On final cut we were able to use many edits and cut down scenes which were too long adding effects like slow motion etc. Final cut was the form of technology we had used when making the music video. Once we had filmed footage from the green screen, final cut was the software we used to remove the green background using effects such as Chroma keying where we color picked the color ‘green’ which we didn’t want.

I had also used final cut to create the animatic for our music video this was then later on put in our pitch to show the audience as well as our teachers a brief idea of how we expect our video to turn out. Creating this was important as it gave us an idea of the ideas which we put forward and was used as a back up for us to go back and look over if we had forgotten any ideas.

FCP ANIMATIC

EVALUATION: Question 2

 Evaluation 2:How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)
I feel that the finished music video and the digipak have many visual links between them, as when people look at it they will be able to clearly identify who the artist is which is the main purpose of both the advertisement and the digipak.

This is important as when people go to buy the album they need to recognize whom the artist is, in order for them to buy the CD. I have used a close up of the main artist on the front of the CD and also the advertisement, this is so that people can recognize the artist and remember who he is. I have also used aspects that link to the video, which consist of the same image, I made sure that the way in which the artist looked matched the way he is represented in the video not making drastic changes such as making him the stereotypical image of a boy looking ‘hood’.

The audience will be able to recognise the linked products as they are shown to be clear. The image, which has been used on both, the advertisement and the digipak are shown to be the same where one is in color and the other is in black and white. Straight away the visual links are made as the artists has been used on both (close ups). I overall think that the ancillary texts used are successful as they meet the conventions of all ancillary products in the music industry. The ancillary texts, which I have used, are clear and also eye catching and appealing to the audience.

I feel that the target audience will be attracted to them as it follows the similar conventions to other albums they like and that they are appealed to for example Chris brown, Cello green etc.

The artist also wears casual clothing in the video and this has clearly been illustrated on the digipak and advertisement. In the music video the artist is wearing a casual jumper, which has been repeatedly used in the based track the visual link is continued on both the advertisement and digipak.

The artist in the video repeats his facial expressions smiling looking like he is having fun. However on both the digipak and the advertisement I went for a subtler look where the artist has a cheeky grin on his face.

On the inside of the digipak I chose to use the illustration of the angel, which is used in the video. The angel was used as a symbol to represent the lyrics in the song and represent something beautiful/ wonderful according to the lyrics. Putting this image on the cd base as well as using it as the main image on the inside the audience will be able to make the visual link between them both, understanding why it has been used.

The colors in our video were not set. They were mostly based on a variety of colors were bright linking to our audience well. For the album cover I decided to make the colors simple and base it on a black and white theme not making it too complicated but simple and easy for the product to be identified.

The overall visual links, which I made with, the final products were successful as when researching the audience were clearly able to identify who the album belonged to. This was in particular result to the close ups which I had used on the album cover, which were key links to the video that clearly illustrate the artists face, this was clear and the main focus on the front cover. The colors used on the front are also used as visual links to show more about the artist and not just the fun guy he is but also serious in a good way, the colors used on the front portrays this well.

Once creating the digipak I went round asking people what they thought of the product and if it linked with the video. Before it was created I printed of a laminated version and went round asking people. Most people whom I had asked thought that the product linked well and matched the conventions of original products with the similar genre.

Doing this i was also able to see how the final product would look like and any additional amendments i needed to make  once receiving the feedback from the audience.

                        

Evaluation - Question 1

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



 Digipaks are created to help advertise and promote a music genre. It is also a hard copy form that a fan can buy and have feeling more connected with the artist. For my ancillary work i researched on similar artists with a similar genre to mine. One of the digipak's that i analysed and influenced me was Tinie Tempah's 'Disc-Overy'. This followed a similar theme and look i was going for which was the space background.

The layout of my album cover was influenced by Tinchy Stryder's 'Star In The Hood' album cover. This consisted of a close up shot of the artist in the center with the artists name and album name in the bottom center  I also used a clear font making it easy to read and kept the artists name bigger than the album name meeting similar conventions to my genre.

Magazine advertisements are to help sell albums created by an artist. I researched similar artists magazine advertisements to mine that also had a similar genre. With this i felt my magazine advertisement fit in with the conventions other advertisements follow. By researching i realised that many of these advertisements used one image that was the album cover however i did not want to this as felt i would have been to repetitive. Plan B's magazine advertisement gave me a good idea on the information i should include however i felt there was a lot of empty spaces so i decided to do mine in A5.

Evaluation question 2 draft

Evaluation Question 1 draft

EVALUATION: Question 1

Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Andrew Goodwin’s theory is based on 5 key fetchers, which include the narrative, relations of visuals to the song, seeing the sound and the star image. Initially we planned on using illustration whereby the lyrics of the song being told in the video matched the story. Our video was supposed to be based on young people having fun and enjoying life, as well as the artist liking someone. However through research and discussion we then changed it to amplification where the lyrics matched the aspects we used in the video for example for changed people and representing wonderful objects we used emos and flowers. The base track was essential in our music video as with this we were able to add the clips according to the beat of the music jumping from scene to scene, where we see our performer from the water scene to the projector scenes.

In addition Goodwin explains that the audience should ignore the narrative, as it is important in the role of advertising in any music video. According to Goodwin all songs have a clear narrative. This is linked to our video, as the audience is able to watch the video and make up a clear story as they go along. Goodwin overall concludes that narrative and performance are key, and tend to link together in order for the video to be more interesting and appeal to a wider audience. I feel I have done this by using a variety of camera work linking the action taken place with the lyrics of the words allowing the audience to generate a meaning/ story from this.

The star image of our artist was represented clearly; this was an important aspect of Goodwin’s theory as the star image/ artists help the production process when there songs are out. Without an artist / star image it could effect the way people see them. Through my music video I have clearly represented the way the star is portrayed, so that the audience know clearly who it is.

The visualization of a song could go further than its original purpose therefore this leads to the three types of relationship between songs and videos, which are illustration, amplification and disjuncture. Throughout my music video the audience will be able to see illustration whereby the artist illustrates what is being represented.

The song is about growing up from a child to an adult. This music video often uses dance moves in order to illustrate the mood of the song well. Using the dance moves to illustrate the song helps allow the audience to remember the song as the dance moves used in this are very entertaining making it apply to the audience.

Tulisa ‘young’, Rita Ora ‘how to party’ Angel ‘Go in go hard’ and also Rhianna ‘ We found love’ these were the videos which I looked at that were based on our genre and had the aspects which we wanted to include in our video. Most of these videos had the edits as well as the camera work which we wanted. Most of the edits used in these music videos were fast and caught our attention quick. We thought doing this on our video would also make it appealing to our audience as it appealed to us. When watching all these videos I found out that there were many visual aspects used which appealed to me such as in Rhianna she is shown to use a burning cigarette to go with the beat as well as the edits used in the video. The song in which we chose was also up beat and we thought would be a good idea if we also used an idea like this.

The editing technique of growing flowers and moving traffics was inspired by Rhianna we found love.

We didn’t really challenge the conventions of the genre of our video as we kept it simple our character wasn’t what you expected such as being represented as ghetto (dressed) but was seen to be ordinary dressed in casual cloths.

Looking at our artist we clearly see that there is no main prop however the clothing was used as an idea to illustrate a lot about the artist it self the genre was also represented in this way. Angel is shown to wear casual clothing such as tracksuits hats and trainers; this was relevant as this made our artist stand out from other music genres such as indie or Rock. We therefore made sure that our artist stuck to the casual look with an ordinary jumper and trainers clothing which you would expect our audience to wear and be aware off.

The casual look was inspired by many artists linked with our artists such as Rhianna, Dappy, Rita Ora and many more who also stick to the causal clothing matching the conventions they use.

The artwork is essential for any media product as it is important that when a artist goes and buys a product they feel they are getting there moneys worth it is therefore important for the product to look good as well as sound good. When researching a wide range of CD covers I was most influenced by Ceelo green and Chris Browns cover. The genre was simple and I didn’t want to over complicate things on the front cover, it was therefore important for me to keep it simple and not to complicated.

The close up of both these albums influenced me most; looking at the genre of the artists linked to ours I found out that most of the front covers were mostly based on a big close up. On the front of my album I based it on one main image of the artist with simple bold text of the artists name followed by the name of the album. I added an effect on the image, which was influenced by who the album was aimed at. As the target audience was aimed at females I thought that the ridged effect would have a great impact and make the artist look serious and more attractive. The colors were focused on 3, it was important I didn’t make it to complicated as I didn’t want all the attention based on the colors but wanted the audience to focus on the CD. It was also important I used a close up of the artist, as the audience needs to recognize the artist who they are purchasing, which on the original album isn’t clear.

The back of the album was influenced by Chris browns.  The back of the album attracted me a lot , I thought the use of the image on the back made the album complete and said a lot about the genre of music and not made it too boring.  I again decided to keep to the same colors, which I used on the front. From the original album we see how dull and boring it is where we cant really see the artist at the front as the font takes most space. I therefore wanted to make something different and more eye-catching for the audience.

FRONT

BACKThis was also followed by an advertisement for the CD making people aware of the album coming out this was just as eye catching as the CD.

Advertisement for CD