Note to moderator

I have blogged my journey from start to finish, I have shown how certain products have influenced my creativity and how my ideas have developed over time.
I have tried to make it clear which of my posts are group posts and which are individual, as for some tasks we worked equally as a group.

In total I have 90 posts. 83 of these posts are research and planning including drafts and additional promotional merchandise.

I hope you enjoy my blog. Thank you.

Question 1 Evaluation Script and Directors cut.

 Shane
Hannah
Lisa

Shane Throughout our A2 course, whilst creating our music video, we came across a range of conventions of which we could use, develop and challenge.

The song begins with a medium close up of one band member playing guitar, the video then cuts.  Here we tried to link the lyrics and visual together – when the song says ‘’alarm clock rings’’ we showed a shot of the lead singer in bed, with an alarm clock ringing next to him. This follows convention as it clearly links together lyrics and visuals.

Hannah  As the camera pans down towards the clock the video cuts to a wide shots of the band performing together, by the side of the street. This is a very bright daytime shot and we used colour correction to bring down the exposure.

We chose to use singing into camera all the way through our music video. It can first seen in a medium close up of the lead singer. This convention is a good way to connect to the audience as it is as if you are looking directly towards them. For this shot ‘’I’m going out of my mind’’ we added a blur around Liam’s head, this symbolised how he was feeling.  The video then cuts to a wide shot of Courtney walking down the street towards Chris with the band in the background this happens as the song says ‘’until she walks in’’.  We slow-mowed this clip as it shows that you are focusing directly onto Courtney, it also makes you realise that this girl it ‘Emily’. 

Lisa  The video soon says ‘’when I look in her eyes’’ it then cuts to a close up of the female actors face, again linking lyrics and visuals. We added a ‘ken burns’ to this so that the camera zooms slightly and slowly into the face.

The video then cuts on the beat to bring in the chorus. We chose to cut on the beat to follow convention however, we decided to mainly do this during the chorus as we though it fit better since the music became more upbeat. For the first chorus we used a series of fast shots, this consisted of a range of medium close ups and wide shots. We think this was successful because it fits well with the genre and speed of the song.

Shane  During this first chorus we mainly used performance shots, this is because this part of the song especially is from the bands point of view. We used short clips of the female actor to strengthen the narrative. We think this was successful because without these short clips the narrative would not be as clear. We have also used walking into camera, again following convention. We think this works well as it makes you feel that you are a part of the video, and you are walking with them. We used a dissolve as transition from the shot of the couple walking towards the camera then away from the camera. This gives the impression that time has passed. We used a dissolve for this part of the song as we felt it was calmer than the rest of the song which is faster paced.

 Hannah  We used cuts to go to the next shot as the song continued to be upbeat. During the next verse the lyrics say ‘and I’m on a short lead’ we tried to link together lyrics a visuals by getting Courtney to pull on a band members guitar strap. This shot was at night therefore we used car headlights to create a glow a mysterious atmosphere. One problem we came across, when filming, it was not possible for us all to meet up before 4 o’clock therefore when it came to filming it was very dark – we overcame this problem by using car headlines, this was very effective as it was as though the band were performing in a spotlight. We also added colour correction to make this shot a touch lighter as it was too dark, this made it harder to see the location.

Lisa  During this verse, for the line ‘you don’t even know my name’ we used a short close up shot of Liam’s face in the tunnel, we feel that this was a good way to show that the singer was sad and that he felt alone therefore, overall we thought this was really effective.  We then cut to a 2 second wide shot of one band member playing guitar in the tunnel, this was a really interesting shot, the silhouette could connote sadness or loneliness - something the band members may feel when they are not with Courtney or ‘Emily’ as the song suggests.

Shane  When the song says ‘I must be invisible’ we connected lyrics and visuals by making Courtney walk straight past one band member, ignoring them – this makes you feel sorry for the band member and almost make Courtney look like the villain – this is where we used Vladimir Propp.

Hannah  The song then cuts to a two second wide shot back in the tunnel, this is a short build up to the chorus. As the song cuts to the chorus a low angle shot of the band appears, we edited this so that as they jump they jump on the beat. This is followed by a series of low angle and wide shots of the band, these shots are very upbeat, the band are very energetic, our target said that the performance shots were ‘exciting’ this proved that we were successful.

The band continued to sing into camera for this part of the song, this is really effective as it is a good way for them to portray their emotions to the audience.

Lisa  From high angle shot of the drummer, the video then dissolves to a shot-reverse-shot of the couple in an argument. The location in which this takes place is where they were walking previously in the song, but this time the location does not connote romance instead it shows distress and sadness. This is a very harsh scene as it shows an argument between the couple and that it ends with violence.  We chose for the girl to push the boy first, this was challenging stereo-types as usually the man is the more dominant in the relationship but we tried to twist this and show the girl as stronger therefore creating a representation of a modern day woman. We chose to slow-mo the girl pushing her boyfriend as this emphasises her movement, we wanted the audience to realise that the girl pushes the boy first. We colour corrected this scene to make the grey colours stand out more, this is because this scene is sad and we wanted the colours to emphasise this.

Shane  Throughout the whole song, Chris does not sing to Courtney at all – we chose to challenge this convention and I think it worked well overall as the narrative is still clear, this shows that the main singer does not have to be the one to sing directly to the girl all the time.  

When the video cuts to the next shot, the band in these shots look sad, this is because we tried to make what had just happened link with the band and show how all their emotions are linked. This is all done in a wide shot.

Hannah  Next the video cuts to a high angle close up shot of one band member playing a solo. We colour corrected this so that it is brighter and there is not too much exposure making it unclear. In the next cut we used the ken burns tool to zoom into the band member’s guitar, this gives an extreme close up of him playing. It then cuts to another high angle shot of the same band member, this gives an all round view of him playing, giving a range of angles and views, this worked well for the solo, as it was effective and shows off his skills. We are still continuing to use performance shots here meaning we are still adhering to the convention. This high angle shot moves round revealing the other band members playing therefore it goes from a medium shot to a wide shot of the band.

 Lisa The video then cuts to the whole band playing, this is shown in a wide shot. This is only shown briefly, before it cuts to the tunnel. This again is another performance shot, like before we see a silhouette, I do not think that seeing a similar shot again is boring, therefore disagreeing with Steve Neale’s theory on repetition. We next see a series of cut as the camera dollies towards the exit, this again cuts between the silhouette of the band member and this, until it goes back to the band all playing together.

Shane  The next cut one band member finishing the solo as the camera pans up and round to reveal the others members it quickly cuts again to the whole band. The camera then dollies inwards towards the lead singer, at the same time he sings, the wide shot becomes a medium close up - we colour corrected this shot and added a mask around the lead singer so that we only corrected him, we needed to do this as his face was too over exposed whereas the colour for the location was okay.

Hannah  As the song then says ‘’such a pretty face’’ the video cuts to a short medium close up of the female actor smiling – this is a cute shot that shows that the band members are attracted to her – it also links lyrics and visuals together.

The couple seem to have made up after their argument, we do not see this happen therefore this relates to Bordwell and Thompson, because the audience do not see what happened to them during the time the band were playing.

Lisa  The video then cuts back to the chorus. During these cuts we showed a close up of one band member singing the lyric ‘next to me’ we chose to using him here as you can see the power in his face and how much this girl means to him. I think that the range of shots after this are good as they blend well together and do not cut too fast.

We used a handheld camera for some of these shots, this shows their movement and energy.

Shane  After these fast cuts we then chose to use a fade, this brings back the romance portrayed from the couple as the audience assumes they are back together again. We used a fade to bring in the low angle shot of the couple, the camera pans as they walk past a park gate and then dissolves to bring back the band. I like this series of shot because as the camera pans across the gate and dissolves, the shot of the drummer appears as the camera continues to pan, adding a calm effect.

Hannah  Towards the end of the video we realise that no band members end up being with ‘Emily’ this makes you feel sorry for them as throughout the video you think they are the heroes of which you expect the girl to go to, when in reality her boyfriend may be the hero as he wins her back.

Lisa  We see this sadness portrayed from the lead singer when he says ‘I was barking… up the wrong tree anyway’ this was shot in the tunnel location therefore it is very dark, this emphasises the sad feeling, and makes you feel sorry for this member.

Shane  The video then cuts between multiple shots, one of the lead singer in the dark tunnel then to the couple, who seem to be talking. We colour corrected this shot of the couple to make it so the couple were slightly brighter, making them easier to see.

Hannah  The couple contrast with the lead singer, as the couple look happy but the singer looks sad. Again, making you feel sorry for the singer but happy for the couple.

Lisa  In the end, we realise that the band member definitely do not get to be with ‘Emily’ and the couple make up, this is shown through them hugging. The boyfriend holds out his arms and the girl steps forward first to hug him, we chose to point the camera towards the girls face as it was her emotions we wanted to capture at the end.

Evaluation Question 2.

How effecive is the combination of your main product and acillary tasks?

After we had created our music video, when it came to developing our ancillary products we ensured that all of our products had synergy and linked well with each other. We matched colours, fonts and images to ensure there was a clear link between our work and we also took stills from our music video to see if they would fit with our designs and/or layout for each ancillary product.

Firstly, we created the advert. We experimented with a range of photographs for this until we felt that the right one fit. We chose this picture as we thought it looked like an advert you would see in real life. It is eye catch and and gives the band a kind 'look' - which is what we were looking for. We did not feel that the other pictures stood out as much as this one does therefore I am happy with this choice. The instruments that each band member is holding in the picture are the same as the ones they used in the video, linking them together.

 

The location in which this photo was taken we did not use in the music video, this is because it was too small and inpracticle to film in. Although it was good to take photographs in due to the kind lighting.

 

When choosing the fonts for the rest of the advert we chose not to use fonts that were too opposite. For example, we would not have used Blackadder and Calibri together because they are so different. We used fonts that we thought looked and worked well together.

 

I think the easiest part about making this advert was choosing the font styles, especially for the title. We found the font for the title relatively quickly and knew straight away that it was what we were looking for - it has a slight urban look, the boldness of it stands out perfectly, making it dramatic which is also emphasised by the picture.

We used the same font for the cover of the Digipak that we have used for our advert therefore emphasising synergy. We have also used similar fonts throughout the pack to strengthen the link between the two.

 

For our colours we decided to keep them relatively similar. E.g. with blacks, dark greys, dark blue and dark greens. This emphasised the synergy between the two and strengthened the link. We took the brown from the roof, (using Photoshop) and made this the main colour for the 'Debut Album Plus Live Performances' - by doing this we are linking together the pictures and the words.

 

 

For our Digipak, we used similar colours from our advert and video to enhance synergy between our products. For example, we used greys, blues, blacks, oranges and greens.

 

We created more synergy by using pictures taken directly from our music video for example, the picture of the rhythm guitarist within the montage of pictures, the photograph taken from through the gate and shot of the lead singer in the tunnel are all stills taken from our actual video.

 

To make the picture better quality and to create cohesion between our Digipak, video and advert we colour corrected certain areas, we enhanced the saturation making the colours more vibrant. We linked visuals and pictures by doing this. We emphasised synergy further by featuring the band and the two actors, this is something the audience will notice immediately.

We took the brown from the roof shown on the advert, this creates synergy between the advert and Digipak.

On one side of our Digipak we listed names of songs that are on the CD, we also on another side wrote the lyrics from a section of the song, we chose the lyrics we thought were most gripping but did not reveal too much.

 

On both our Digipak and advert we included the logo, in which we made to advertise our made up company, Sasha Sounds, the logo creates a cohesion between the two products and shows the audience that they were made by the same company.

The photo we used behind the lyrics is from behind the scenes, this was taken as the band we setting up their equipment. Our band will recognise this shot as it is cohesive with the music video. The pictures is an action shot, I think this is good as it differs from your normal picture where the band would be posing.
The photograph we used behind the tour dates is a wide shot, the darkness of the image adds a sense of mystery and the colours create synergy.

We chose to use this picture to go behind the CD. We felt that this image portrayed the more romantic side of the song. The two actors are from the video, therefore enhansing synergy and creating a cohersion between our products.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation media 3 from Lisa_heseltine98

This final TA research has enabled me to consider the changes I would make in the future. It has informed me about mise en scene, editing and shot types. I am incredibly interested in the art dept of the film industry and feel that with greater artistic interpretation, the MV would have fulfilled more of my TA's needs. Following this research I would want to create a visualisation wall and conduct greater principle photography.

Some also noticed the lighting was at times too dark and this has also influenced further projects. However, upon reflection there was little we could do as we don not have a full lighting rig for filming in our college. This is something that i may need to invest in myself or seek to borrow.


 Throughout the project, TA research was vital and valuable. Qualitative focus group research conducted in November informed my planning and creativity. I found that: "17 year old female: Likes the night shots and how we used the car headlights as lights to make the band glow, they thought these were some of the most effective shots. 16 year old male: Likes the cuts back to the group this helps to develop the narrative. This person also liked the beginning where one band member is laid in bed. He liked how the band member pressed the alarm clock to turn it off because it linked together lyrics and visuals. This comment was made by another student in the group, along with the night shots being affective as well."


 There were also some criticisms, feedback suggested that the Mv would benefit from shorter ASL of performance shots. I therefore worked on the timeline to blade shots and to intersperse them with other performance shots from different locations. Without this TA research, I would not have known this and therefore it enabled me to develop my creativity and meet my TA's needs more fully.

Question 4 Evaluation.

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

For both AS and A2 we used a range of technologies. The main program I used was blogger, I used this throughout the course of AS and A2 to document my process. Blogger from the beginning was always easy to use, the only thing I found difficult was at the beginning of AS when I had to get into a routine of blogging almost everyday.

During the construction stages we filmed each other, this was so we knew what to do when it came to film for our actual video. At first the filming felt quite surreal, as it was exciting but difficult at the same time. We learnt different camera movements to help us with our filming, such as Panning and Tracking. To introduce us to Final Cut Pro X we used the videos we took of each other and practised putting them onto the timeline, whilst doing this we learnt a whole range of new techniques for example, how to cut, add markers, under/over cranking and colour correction. This was very different to what we had to do at AS as before we were only using Photoshop, which I do not believe is as hard as Final Cut Pro X.

During the research stages I looked into what makes a good music video, I looked at websites by Paramore and You Me At Six. Doing this research helped me gain an understanding of what works e.g. colours, fonts and pictures.

I also watched videos from popular pop punk bands, I used YouTube to watch music videos by You Me At Six, Paramore, Marianas Trench and Beyoncé, this helped me know what different angles compliment particular genres and what colour correction to use that would look good with a Pop Punk theme.

These pictures are from behind the scenes, they show how we filmed part of the video and show how we made sure the two actors were happy with what we had filmed as well as we were.

To help with the Creation of the advert I researched Pop punk and Pop Rock magazines. These helped most with deciding colours and deciding where to take particular colours from e.g. from a band members trousers or like on our actual advert, we used the roof from where the band were performing.

I researched Digipaks in the same way in which I researched adverts, except I research more genres such as pop. I found researching the Digipaks quite interesting as I had never taken much notice of them before, I did not realise how much information they held.

To present all my information I used slide share, Prezi and PowerPoint. I prefer to use these programs to present my research this is because it makes it easier to look at, its interesting and I can show it in a creative way - enjoyed adding pictures to my slides to make them more exciting.
I took photographs from various locations of which I wanted to use in my music video. From the locations I visited, they were all used in the video.

For the planning stage, I used my Blog continuously throughout. I used my Blog to show my journey, if you scroll down through my Blog it shows how I chose particular pictures and how I came to creating the final music video, ancillary products and extra 'tour date' poster.

I used word to write up the lyrics to the song, this made it easier to annotate, it also helped when it came to linking lyrics and visuals together, as it was right in-front of us.
I used cameras throughout the planning stage as they were vital - the camera's we used were Panasonic TZ62, I used a memory card reader and external hard drive to keep the videos and pictures taken.

When developing the evaluation we used different techniques to present my answers.
For question 1 I took a video of my screen, (using quick time) my group and I spoke over a screen recording showing the process of what we did. This is a good way to portray an answer as you can physically show the audience what you did, it helps you to explain yourself. I found this technique difficult as once we had spoken our script, we then had to put it with our music video, this required us to continuously cut and add stills into our video which took a long time, once we had done this we then realised that our video was out of sync with the music, we music have added a still but accidentally moved our video a touch to the right, this was easily overcome by finding where the video began to be out of sync and then begin to move it back to where it should be. Because Final Cut Pro X is such a large program we have to use an external hard drive to help run it on a mac.

For question 2 I wrote up my answer onto Blogger and added screenshots to backup what I say. The screen shots make this answer look more intriguing.
For question 3 I used PowerPoint, this is my favourite way to present work as it is exciting to look at and does not get boring - I like to add lots of pictures when creating these as it makes the slides more interesting rather than just plain writing. I embedded this PowerPoint so that you are able to play it from my blog, this is easier than having just the link.




Final Digipak.

Final advert for our ancillary task.

Final extra advert for our ancillary task.

I decided to create an extra advert for our ancillary task. I felt that this was a good idea as I wanted it to be like a real pro-mo package.
A tour date poster is something that, from my research, I have found all artists do when they have an upcoming tour - regardless of their genre of music.

Drafts for our ancillary.

http://slide.ly/view/5e46712f6662bf7ca4d0cd8161a0419f

Planning: Digipak drafts - Group Post!

Planning: Making T-shirts - Group Post!

Research: T-shirts by You, Me At Six.

Planning: Adding a title slide and end credits.

Planning: Logo for our company - Sasha Sounds.

Planning: So far on our music video.

Planning: What I have done today.

Today we have been working on colour correction for our music video. We have decided to give each shot a 'cool' look as this emphasised and added to the grungy effect. The 'cool' effect brings out the greens and blues in the shots, I think this is perfect as most of our shots are outside.                 

On top of the 'cool' effect that we have added I have then used the 'colour adjustment' and adjusted the exposure and saturation, this means that the colours can be changed to fit the location and to make the shot look normal, therefore some shots aren't too over exposed and they fit well and flow with the rest of the video.                                                              

On some shots there were certain areas that we either too bright, too dark, or some bits in the shot looked out of place because of the 'cool' effect therefore I added a 'mask' this allowed me to pick out certain areas that I wanted to change the colour of, I could then choose to adjust either the inside or outside of the mask. This was a very useful tool and I used it in a range of places in our video.

Planning: Digipak 3

Planning digipak 2

Planning: Digipak.

Planning: Third Draft.

Planning: Second draft.

Planning: Advert 1st daft.

  

This is the image we have used for the Advert. Before photoshopping this, the car in the background was visible, it is an orange car and the registration was very noticeable. We decided to photoshop the car out so that the band look as they are stood in the light. I think it looks more professional like this.