Evaluation Question 4

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

Throughout the process of this project, I have used a large range of media technologies in all stages efficiently and successfully. As there are a large range of different ways to use technology now more than ever, it has become easier to make producing work a lot more innovative and more creative. Firstly, one of the first technologies I used was Blogger. Blogger is an interactive blogging website where users can sign up to have a blog and post a number of different things. They can upload pictures, videos, embed youtube videos and add text like I am now. I have used blogger in a number of ways like, for example, embedding youtube videos for some of my blog posts. When I analysed a music video on youtube I was able to embed it onto my blog so that I could emphasise my argument more clearly.

YouTube has also played a large part into the completion of my advanced portfolio as I have been able to use Youtube in a number of ways. Youtube allows users to upload videos in which other users can watch, rate, add a comment or embed it onto their own website. I have used youtube to watch videos in the research stage of our project to research different music videos, for example, I have researched a large range of indie music videos including videos from Mumford and Sons and James Blunt.

Youtube also allowed me to annotate on videos I have already uploaded, here is an example of this:

The equipment I used to film the music video was also another technology I embraced during this project. In order to film the footage, I used a video camera with a memory card which I then plugged into the computer to upload the footage. As well as a video camera, I also used a tripod, figrig and still camera. A tripod is used to stabalise the camera and can be moved to change the angle of the shot. A figrig works in a similar way but it is more often used when filming something moving.

Here is a demonstration of how I used the video camera on a tripod whilst filming my music video:

In order to edit the footage I have filmed I used a software programme called 'Final Cut' - another technology which is simple to use and creates a professional product. Final cut has a range of features, it allows text to be put on top of a clip and can be moved about according to the individual. Final cut also allows a user to edit footage, like for example slowing it down or shortening a clip too. Photoshop was used for the ancillary task in this project - it is also a technology fairly simple to use and understand and it too has a large range of features. You can create a number of layers on photoshop and therefore adding more edits to an image if that is what the user wants, one of the edits I used was called 'fade away' in which I selected a bit of the image to be slightly faded whilst the other part of the image was not faded therefore making it more prominent to those viewing it.

In order to present my work I used a range of technologies for this, including prezi, sliderocket, slideshare and mapmyself. Below is a video of how I have used a few of the technologies mentioned above in my own work and how it has contributed to the completion of my project.

Digipack Final Draft

Music Video Final Draft

Evaluation: Question 3

"What have you learned from your audience feedback?"


Music Video Feedback  

 Ancillary Task Feedback

As well as feedback on our music video, we also received feedback for our ancillary task in which we asked a few people to answer some questions we had created whilst filming their response. The questions we asked were designed to see if our ancillary task meets conventions of our genre and if they believe they could guess the genre just by looking at the advertisement and digipack. We found that all of the audience giving feedback noticed that our genre was Folk-rock - this was made possible through sticking to conventions of that genre in order to make it recognisable to the audience.

Evaluation: Question 2

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

Evaluation: Question 1

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

As the tasks initially began, I was asked to research and carry out an investigation into finding out the conventions different music video's hold and how important the conventions are in correspondence to the music video's overall success. The first task was to decide which genre of music I would prefer to use - and I then opted for Folk Rock as this interested me the most and I believed this would be the best genre of music to use. Once our group all decided this was our genre we then began some further research specifically only for folk rock in order to find out the most we possibly could before planning our own music video.

We then used the internet and found websites with links to pictures, videos and album and advert covers so we could have an idea of what conventions we would then adhere to in order to make the music video a success. As a group we had all found that in folk rock music videos there was a strong convention of the artist playing an instrument - and this would often be a guitar which we have also used in our own digipack and music video. As a group we then decided that these conventions were imperative for success so we did abide by these most of the time - this would allow the planning of finding locations and purchasing costumes to be a lot easier if we are aware of the main conventions of our genre. We have looked at many different real media products to see what we could compare - and in particular if the conventions were adhered to as much as possible.

Album Cover






The album cover is most definitely one of the most important parts of the entire digipack - it is the first initial cover the target audience will see so therefore must be very carefully planned and considered before making out own cd album cover. The first main comparison between our cd cover image and the actual James Blunt album cover is that they have both included still shots of the artist to easily recognise them when looking at the CD cover. The font and font size is also another thing which can be compared - in both CD covers the font is bold so therefore stands out and it is also a lot larger than the ordinary text in other parts of the advertisement.

It was also important to make sure that the background image was of good quality and serve the purpose it should have. The background image in the real media text can only be described as calm, wishful and suits the conventions in the main advertisement. This is also prominent in our own album cover which also had an image of mountains.

Advertisement

The first image in the GIF file displays our own advertisement cover and how it compares with an advert cover from Mumford and Sons. It was important to adhere to the conventions, so we began with the simple ones which were some form of text with the artist's name and also the album cover - as well as the logo of the record label and when the album is going to be released. One of the main similarities which our advert has in comparison to the Mumford and Sons advertisement is that they both have the artists prominent in the cover as well as the artist's name in large writing so this is the first thing the target audience can notice when reading the advertisement. 

Our own advertisement has also used a mid shot of the main artist and this has been compared to with the Mumford and Sons advertisement - even though they are a band of four all artists are in a mid shot positioned in the advert cover. The font and size of font was also important to take into consideration when designing and creating the advertisement - we had to make sure that it fits in with our genre so it does not confuse the target audience when they see the advertisement. The font on both advertisements for the album name and artist name are very similar as they are both bold and prominent in the cover to easily be recognised by the target audience. 

Little Bird Music Video Second Draft

After the feedback we received from our peer assessment of our first draft, we went ahead with creating a second draft in the hope of eliminating the problems we had in the first draft. One of the main comments we received in what we could have improved on is the performance of James in the long shot of himself walking and lip singing - his lip singing was not prominent enough and the audience could not see what part of the lyrics he was singing as it was not clear enough. So, we have re-shot this part of the scene in the suburban area, as well as add a completely new location too.

First Draft

Digipack cover and Magazine cover Feedback

CD cover Design

This is the initial CD cover design hand drawn as part of the digipack which we will be creating. The album name is called 'Switch' and as part of the conventions of a CD cover it should be included on the front of the cover, as well as the artist or bands name. A long shot of the artist is also on the front page of the cover, and on the back, there is an extreme close up of half of the artist's face as this is also a common convention in folk rock CD covers. It will also include a track list as well as a bar code and a blue background. The other images on the CD cover are to represent what the artist is like - and in particular - a close up of the paper made bird is on one of the pages to illustrate the song we have chosen 'Little Bird'. 

Advert Design

This is a hand drawn design of what our advertisement design could look like. It is important to promote the artist as much as possible and as a group we have included a long shot of the artist as well as the main instrument he uses. The paper birds have also been included because they are a main focus in the song we are using for our music video.

Photoshoot Plan

Photo Shoot Plan

This is a photo-shoot plan which will help our group to organise when and where we will be capturing the photos which we will need for our CD cover and advertisement images.This is an important part of the process as we need to plan when we are all available to complete these tasks for our music video as part of the digipack.

Shooting Schedule

As part of our planning, I created a shooting schedule which we should abide by in order to keep organised as a group and to complete filming by the initial dates shown. What isn't  included is the times if and when we have to re-shoot some of our shots, which we of course do not know when and what shots it will be. 

Shooting Schedule

List of Props, Costumes, Make-up and Equipment

Prop and Costume List

This is list of all of the props, costumes, make up and equipment our group will be using throughout the duration of filming the music video. It is important to plan this part of the planning stage because it can be a good idea to know what will be needed so that organisation stays to a maximum.

Locations

Although we believed at first it would be a good idea to show the artist performing in a conservatory with patio doors, we wanted to develop the idea of freedom by using other locations which we initially did not plan about. In order to improve our concept, we decided to use locations which are easily recognisable by the audience so they can easily identify with it. Many of the shots in our music video are going to be filmed and based in central London, using locations like Brick Lane, Hungerford Bridge, The Queens Park and other picturesque parks in London. 

Brick Lane

The Queens Park

Hungerford Bridge

Location Permission Letters

This is a short email which I sent to the Head of the Drama Department in order to seek permission to use one of the drama rooms for our music video. It was important to email Mr Walsh because we wanted to also know the dates and times which were suitable for both him and us - so I included into the email what dates and times we were expecting to film in one of the drama rooms.

In order to shoot some of the parts of the music video on the streets, we had to seek permission from the local Sutton council to ask if we were allowed to do this. We were then emailed a form to fill in explaining the details of when we intend to shoot our music video and what street in Sutton we would like to use.

Track Permission Letter

This is the track permission letter which we had to send in order to receive permission to use the music video.We sent the email to Atlantic Records as they are Ed Sheeran's recording label

Image Annotation

This is a GIF created by our group to represent the type of image we would like to portray from our Artist to the viewers of the music video through the make up, costumes, locations and props. It is important to take into consideration of all of these things because we want to create an image of our main artist which fits with the Folk rock genre we have decided to use. As the artist is singing an Ed Sheeran song, it is important to remember that Ed Sheeran usually creates low-mid budget videos and usually performs in costumes which are 'everyday indie type clothes' like the ones shown in the GIF (chinos, waistcoats, hoodies, shirts, blazers and jeans). 

Talent Release Form

This is a talent release form which the artist had to sign so they understand the terms and conditions of the production of our music video and that they give their full permission to use themselves in our music video as self promotion. It was an important part of the process of creating a music video as there could be problems and implications if the right permission wasn't given from the artist performing.

Storyboards

This is a short video of myself drawing out the storyboards as part of our planning for our music video.

This is an animatic, which my group created to give a better insight of what the music video is going to look like when it has been filmed and edited. To make the animatic, we first took pictures of each individual shot in the storyboard which we put in the correct shooting order before taking the pictures. We then used the software to make the animatic with effectively by cutting down each shot as to how much it is going to be shown for in the actual music video - we then included the track to see how the shots matched up with the music.

Concept

Song Details

The final song our group has chosen is Ed Sheeran 'Little Bird'. The main reasons why we chose this song was due to the artist Ed Sheeran who is a successful folk/indie rock artist from the United Kingdom. The song is quite long and of average tempo - so we must take into consideration the length of shots when filming the  music video for this song. As we cannot used extremely fast paced editing - which would only be successful in a dance type music video - we must make up for this by making sure the cinematography and mise-en-scene are perfect in every shot. Many of Ed Sheeran's songs have a strong narrative and concept as many of his songs contain deep meanings and metaphors - in order to create an emotive concept we  must take into consideration the meaning of the lyrics before shooting any material for our music video. 

This is a short clip which our group filmed our mind map of some initial ideas of things we could include in our music video. We took into consideration the majority of the time the conventions of a folk rock music video and therefore based our ideas on conventions of our selected genre.

Lyrics Annotation

Photoshop Practice

In order to complete our digipack, as a group we used photoshop to develop our skills and create a practice version of our digipack. We created this practice CD cover to develop our skills in photo shop as well as to have an idea what the final version is going to look like. There are a number of conventions of a CD cover which we had to consider and include in our cover - these included things like the album name, a photo of the artist, the record label's logo, track list and barcode.

We had to practice our skills of photoshop before creating a practice CD cover, we learnt a number of things in the process and this screen o matic shows different things we developed our understanding of:

I started off by opening a picture on photoshop in order to edit it. As it is the background and the layer is locked I had to duplicate the layer by clicking on 'Layer' on the top of the page and then 'duplicate layer' you can then re name the layer to the editing which you will do, so I chose 'blur'. I chose to add a blur to my image to increase the intensity of it, in order to do this I clicked on the duplicate layer and then clicked on 'filter', 'blur' and then 'motion blur'. I was then able to edit the amount of blur the image had. I then played around with the different effects photoshop had, each time creating a duplicate layer if necessary. I was also able to re-size the image as well as tilting it.

Green Screen Practice

As a whole class we were set a task to film an entire rock music video in Green Screen to practice for our final music videos as individual groups. It was extremely important to practice this technique just in case we were going to use it in our final piece. There were certain stages in the process of setting up the green screen and during the green screen shoot that we had to take into consideration, these were:

• We had to first decide on which music video we was going to use for the practice green screen, we chose to do a rock music video as learning the words in such a short amount of time was much easier and more convenient. 
• Once we decided on the song, as a class we had to choose the roles of each person in the group to everyone had a part to play in the green screen practice. Three cameras were used filming the sequence and there was a drummer and lead singer. The rest of the group helped out by doing different things to set up and clear up after.
• The large green fabric which is used as part of the green screen had to be set up properly, this meant that is had to lay on the floor will no creases in to prevent different shades of green appearing on the green screen.
• One this had been set up, the correct lighting had to be put in place to keep the different shades of green to a minimum as this would affect the end result. Three lights were used, one on each side and the other tilting down onto the set. 
• There were three different cameras - one on a tripod with no movement directly in front of the lead singer, one of a long shot of the drummer behind the lead singer and one tracking camera tracking the movements of both the lead singer and the drummer.
• We then had to use final cut express to put all three clips together and to put them in time with each other so we could cut between the clips to make a music video. 
• We were able to add a layer by selecting a still image from the internet to use as the background which we then saved and added as a layer in final cut, we then had to eliminate all the green from the background of the clips so that the background could be behind the clips.

Initial Ideas

These are my group's initial ideas which we began writing to find out an ideas which we had in the first stages of our planning. One of the first things we considered was which genre we would like to use - so we wrote down as many genre's as we could think of then we decided which we thought our favourite genre would be and which we thought would be most successful. We came to a final decision and decided that our genre would be 'Folk Rock'. After making a final decision on what genre to have, we then had to think about possible songs from that genre that we could use. The brief states that we must have an artist or band from the United Kingdom and must not already have a music video released - some of our possible songs already had music videos and some didn't. 

Once my group planned what genre we was going to have we then went into more depth about our initial ideas for our music video. One of the main things we covered was  Props, costumes and locations. Our main props what we have considered are musical instruments like the Banjo and guitar - these are very popular musical instruments in Folk Rock music videos as this was one of the conventions which was identified in the research stage. Our initial ideals for costumes was also an important part of our planning, as I analysed and researched different music videos from the Folk Rock genre I was able to be aware of common costumes within this genre. As well as this, in my survey in which I asked over 20 people different things about the genre Folk Rock - the results found that most people would like to see waistcoats and chinos in Folk Rock music videos. 

Roles

As a group we had to delegate different roles to each person in order to distribute the tasks in the planning and creating of the music video correctly. Shaun will be in charge of the mise-en-scene in our music video, as well as organising the props which we will all need and to research the lyrics of the song we will choose. James is in charge of all of the casting which will need to be completed as well as the lighting which we might require in our music video. I will be in charge of emailing and contacting the relevant people about different locations we intend on using, I will also be in charge of the costumes and make up - making sure that each character in the music video has access to the correct costume and make up at all times.

We also have roles which we all have and will be taking an equal turn in completing, these are things like editing, filming and acting.

Audience Research 2 : Analysis of results

Audience Research

This is a folk rock survey which I sent to a range of people to develop my understanding of what the audience think of music videos. As the majority of the people who completed the survey where from a specific demographic range there is not a particularly high range of age groups which where surveyed. However, most of the people we surveyed were from the age range of which our music video is going to be targeted at - so it was important to understand what they already knew about folk rock and whether or not they like that particular genre of music. This survey was also sent to teachers in the school, all being in the 24+ category, this will create a better understanding of the differences of age groups and what genre they prefer as well as other factors like artists, bands etc. 

Advertisement Research

This music magazine advertisement for Biffy Clyro has used a varied number of mise-en-scene and cinematography techniques to fully promote the Album or Song being advertised. The title of the artist is positioned in large text in capital letters in the middle part of the top of the advertisement - this is evidently used to let the audience know immediately what artist the advertisement is promoting. In the long shot, there are three different men pictured in the advertisement - all representing three different extreme actions. This idea could possibly symbolise the intense nature of the album, and the constant feeling of thrill when listening to it. The fire in the middle of the advertisement acts as depiction of what the record label thinks Rock / Indie Rock is all about - dark, mysterious lyrics. The standard text underneath the picture illustrates to the audience when the album or song is coming and and also the website of the artist - this is a common convention of a music magazine advertisement as they want to promote the artist as much as possible to allowing additional information to be looked at on an external website is a good way to publicise the album release.

At the top of the magazine music advertisement for this album release for 'Opeth' the price of the CD is shown as well as when it is available for the public to purchase. This is a common convention for most music magazine advertisements as they will want the audience to know exactly when the album is out so they are ready to purchase it either electronically or on the HMV website. This music video has been specifically designed for HMV - they have full rights of this album and artist and they may perhaps be the only one stocking this album. As well as a long shot of all the band members in the background of the advertisement, there is also a small box containing the CD cover of the album. This is also a common convention in most music magazine advertisements because it will allow the audience to know exactly what the album looks like so when they come across it in stores they can easily recognise it and purchase it. 

The advertisement also includes a short paragraph explaining the release of the album - therefore promoting is as much as possible. HMV allow their customers to purchase this album in three different ways (which is clearly marked on the right hand side of the advertisement). The audience can either 'pop into their shop, have a free UK delivery at hmv.com or download the album and hmv.com' - the idea of allowing the customers to access the album in many different ways suits their needs as a customer, they are able to purchase it online if they do not have time to go into a shop and purchase it themselves.

A dark and treacherous atmosphere which is created through other Indie Rock music advertisements, is also present in this advert for a band called 'The Horrors'. It may become clear to the audience that the title of the band and the album name is printed directly on top of the image of the band, in large white writing. This is a convention of music magazine advertisements as the title must always be striking and bold to stand out as much as possible to catch the eye of a potential consumer of the album. Another common convention is also represented in this advert, a long shot of all band members is shown so that the audience can easily recognise the band if they are looking for them on another source. As well as this, the album release date is another thing which is striking and promoting to the audience - it is in large text to fully emphasise the date of which customers can purchase the album, this is important to any band or artist because they want as much coverage of their new album as they possibly can.

Record Labels