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Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4 - Text

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

Construction stage

-Throughout the construction stage of creating the media products many different media technologies were used to aid the build up of all three media products. The most dominant of course being iMovie. iMovie allowed us to create the complete main product with this specific software enabling us to edit our raw footage and enhance these clips as well as change the speed, opacity and layering of the clips. Especially for the kaleidoscope effect, comparing the program's built-in kaleidoscope-creating effects in final cut Express helped us to utilise both editing softwares. However, by using iMovie to edit and create the kaleidoscope effect meant that this software offered the better suited effect for us as it allowed us to use our own footage which was more suited for our music video.

research stage

-For the research into creating the main product we were required to explore existing media texts and professional music videos. To do this we used the video sharing website YouTube which allowed us to view many different media texts to find inspiration and influences for our own music video. Other means of finding existing media products was through music channels such as MTV and Viva as well as radio stations websites which also allow you to view and share artists professional music videos. After finding these influences we were able to use Blogspot.co.uk to share these and document what we were inspired by in order to keep a note of videos we would be able to reference in the future. 

planning stage

-to plan my media products i used different media technologies. google. blogger. mac blogs.
-As you can see I have labelled all blog posts which I have created for inspiration purposes under the label 'Inspiration.' Throughout the planning stages this media technology was helpful as it allowed easy access to a filtered page of existing media content which i was able to refer back to for influences for my own media product.

evaluation stage

-In my evaluation many different media technologies were used in this process in order to bring together the planning research and of course the construction of the different questions i was required to answer. 

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3 - Text

what did people like?

it is clear that the most well received aspect of the video was the sunrise and silhouette effect as the majority of the audience feedback from this question mentioned this effect and how interesting it was to see something different and unique. Also, from looking at the audience feedback it is evident that the laid-back, natural shots which show the element of happiness and contentedness were very 
well received by the audience. 

What could've improved?
-Some aspects which the audience thought could be improved were the
variety of shots. Although in technicality there were a variety of 
shots such as an establishing, side, low angle, handheld, panning and dutch
tilt ect. Perhaps the audience felt that a variety of locations to visually
indicate a change in the framing of the shots could have been more effective.
If we were to recreate this music video or create another we would definitely
take this on board and incorporate more locations and make this evident in the 
music video.

Relate to genre.
From what we can gather from the audience feedback the music video does
successfully conform to the indie rock genre and strongly relates to the genre
It is perhaps due to the use of existing media texts and the ability
to refer back to them that we were able to create a professional music video
which related to the genre successfully in the eyes of our audience.

no narrative
-The lack of narrative was received well and agreed with. This dominated reading from the audience has therefore given us the confirmation that it was the right choice to keep narrative to a minimum in order to enhance the creative
aspect of the video in terms of shot type and visual content in correspondence to the song itself. We have learnt that not every music video needs to have a narrative to be well received by the audience.

Emotions
again the element of happiness and contentedness received a dominant reading from the decoders of our music video. This also conformed to the indie rock genre as it created a liberating feeling throughout the music video. As encoders this dominant reading from the audience has proved that the emotions evoked form the music video were of happiness which we learnt from our audience feedbk

existing media prods.
From the feedback it is evident that the audnce did agree that the music video conformed to the conventions of existing media products. It is also interesting to note that the similarities in which the audience compared our own media product to was another haik music video. This is interesting as it is clear that the music video again, complies with the indie rock genre.

fitting for genre
the playful and upbeat aspect to the video was one of the main reasons for the music video successfully fitting the indie rock genre of the song. Overall what we learnt from the audience feedback was the most well received aspects of our own media product what we could have improved and how well our media product really conformed to the conventions of the indie rock genre. 

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1 - Text

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

-Our music video uses real media texts to gain inspiration and ideas for themes and effects. Looking at existing media texts such as crystal fighters we were able to see a fitting effect for our own music video.

-The music video develops real media products from looking at the original music video. Although we were to create something completely different to the original, we took the laid-back atmosphere and rather serene setting from the original which we wanted to recreate in our own way for our music video. In the Haim music video the laid back atmosphere is created through the dimmed lighting, slow motion shot and perhaps even the costumes of the artists. Differently, we decided to create this relaxed atmosphere using a naturistic background running through the entire music video which hinted at the calmness of the music video. We also wanted to add a more upbeat layer to the music video which followed other existing texts such as 'One Day'

-We challenged the forms of existing media texts by creating a media product without a definitive narrative. We wanted to do this from the outset as this allowed us to be creative with the shots and the structure of the music video. From looking at existing media products such as Tom odell's 'Another Love' there is evidently a clear narritive of the male character searching for the missing female. It is clear that the variations of shots in music videos with narratives are possibly decreased for this reason. Therefore, the creative decision to produce a music video without a narrative was made in order to experiment and be creative with the shots types in the music video.

Although 'Another Love' represents the way in which we challenged existing media texts, it could also be considered that we conformed to some texts as there are equally as many media products which display a lack of narritve in music videos.

- Some music videos also do not have clear cut narratives such as Foxes 'Let Go For Tonight'

-Running theme throughout (nature) Similar perhaps to Katy Perry 'California Girls' Beach/Summer theme.

- Conform to lip-syncing convention.

Audience Feedback

This audience feedback video gives us an idea of the general thoughts and the reception of the audience. From this, we can see a general view of likes and dislikes from the video and can therefore pick up on our most successful shots and elements of the video and perhaps things which might be improved. 

Evaluation Questions

Now that the music videos are completed its time to start thinking about the evaluations questions and getting these completed. Although we have thought about these questions throughout the production of the music video, it is much easier now to think about and answer the questions having experienced and researched everything thoroughly to have the final outcome to refer to.

Here are some initial notes for the evaliation questions.

 

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?- Challenge conventions, no narrative. Different to most music vids e.g Tom Odell 'Another Love,

    - Some music videos also do not have clear cut narratives such as Foxes 'Let Go For Tonight'

    -Running theme throughout (nature) Similar perhaps to Katy Perry 'California Girls' Beach/Summer theme.

    - Conform to lip-syncing convention.

• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?-stick to a theme of nature throughout.

    - House style of font and colour scheme

    - Combined, able to see the clear link between the main product and ancillary texts again colour scheme, text and theme of nature.

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?
  -The lack of narrative was received well and agreed with. This dominated reading from the audience has therefore given us the confirmation that it was the right choice to keep narritive to a minimum.

    -The music video in combination and working together with the song, worked successfully together.

    - Could have improved on things such as variety of location.

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

   -iMovie editing, blogger documenting, youtube sharing and research, camera for shots, final cut ideas and inspiration for kaleidoscope comparing effects of creating kaleidoscope on imovie and final cut - imovie offered the better suited effect for us as it allowed us to use our own footage which was more suited for our music video. 

FINAL Music Video

Filming

With one week left until the deadline we wanted to just re-film and perfect the shots we were not entirely happy with and felt could be improved. So this morning we all filmed lip syncing shots with the help of our fellow media students to help us relax in the frames more. 
Overall, we're happy with the footage we managed to get as it captures a more relaxed atmosphere and is more fitting for our music genre. 

FINAL DIGIPAK FINAL DIGIPAK

FINAL MAGAZINE ADVERT

Checklist:

-Image ( of the artist or a recognisable logo) [Leaf]

-Logo [Leaf]

-Release Date [Already available]

-Artist and Single Name > The largest text should be the artist name, the second largest will be the name of the album/single. [IDACOR - EXPRESSION]

-Record Label [UDOLPHO RECORDS]

-Website of Band and Record Label [OFFICIALIDACORMUSIC - UDOLPHORECORDS]

I've kept a kind of house style throughout the digipak and magazine advert keeping the background black, text in pastel colours, leaf as the band logo and have featured an image of the kaleidoscope and one of the band members layered over. 

Magazine Advert Photo

I decided to make the Magazine advert for captivating than the digipak as the purpose of the advert is to draw in potential buyers for the album. By incorporating a screenshot from the music video ingot he magazine advert shows another element to the advert as well as keeping the continuity of the theme of nature in the media products. 

I've also made the recognisable logo of the band the image on the leaf which is found on the front cover of the digipak. The logo is simple, easy to remember and of course conforms to the element of nature in the bands products. 

Music Video Snippet

A small snippet of the music video, which includes more lip syncing - something which our music video lacked a little. Now we have a generally equal balance between performance and narrative shots.

Filming Schedule

Today we had a group discussion after rewatching what we have of our music video. The majority of us thought that the new lip syncing clips we filmed over half term could be a great deal better and have ultimately decided to film on wednesday to reshoot these shots. Of course it won't take as long as it did before as we now know exactly which lyrics we need for the music video and know what shots we want. We have also kept some shots which worked well with our music video so we're keeping the filming to what we absolutely need.

The overall verdict for the existing footage was that it was just incredibly sombre and definitely lacked some personality and character to it. After seeing ourselves on screen we now know what not to do. 

Hopefully the footage we capture on wednesday will be successful and we're hoping editing will not take up too much time now we know exactly what we're doing for each section. 

Vlog | So Far

• What's left of music videos
• Digipak Update (continuity throughout the group)
• Changes I'll make to my digipak

Media Showcase Shot

Screenshot from our music video for the media showcase poster.

Goffman's Theory

 Advertising is a significant agent of socialization in modern industrialized societies, and is used as a tool to maintain certain social constructions, such as gender. Men and women are depicted as differing in attitudes, behavior, and social statuses. These differences are what separate the sexes into different genders. Gender advertisements give the viewers a glimpse into a world laden with socially defined and constructed gender relations, displays, and roles. These images are crafted to mimic real life and many mistake the concepts of fantasy and reality in regards to advertising. Erving Goffman would call it “Commercial Realism,when advertisers try to present the advertising world in ways which it could be real. Goffman argues that advertisements do not look strange to us, when they should. Advertisements take something that exists already in the world and they change it, forming a distorted reflection. “They emphasize some things and de-emphasize others,” it is a hyper ritualization of the world, and we recognize, and even relate with some of the images.

Magazine Advert Research

Conventions of a magazine advert:
-Image ( of the artist or a recognisable logo)
-Logo
-Release Date
-Artist and Single Name > The largest text should be the artist name, the second largest will be the name of the album/single.
-Record Label
-Website of Band and Record Label

Examples of magazine adverts:

Green Day - This magazine advert is informative and conforms to the rock genre of the band (looking at the slightly haunting font used and the darks colours black and red). It features the main singer of the band and the text tells us the name of the band and the name of the album. This magazine advert is especially informative as it gives details of the new single as well as the album. A consistent style is kept throughout with the use of black and red. 

This is appealing as it is simple yet informative. The necessary information is included (release date, title, artist name, links) and all are in a theme of blue and white. The large image of the artist also advertises the 'look' of the artist herself as well as showcasing her visuals as well as audio. The photo also conforms tot he artist video style as it takes on a vintage feel to it as many of her videos do. 

Vlog | Lip Sync Filming

Today we managed to get out back to school during half term nd do our final bit of filming! All we had left were a few black frames to fill with lip syncing and it was successful! Played around with a few shots experimenting with frames and placement in frames as well as getting some ideas about editing as well. Hopefully it all looks ok in the music video and it is just what we needed to fill in the blank spaces!

• Lip syncing (what lines we have sorted)
• Camera shots explained

Vlog | Filming

• new filming

Digipak Template

In finding out the requirements for the digipak, i also found out that the image on the side of the CD must take the shape of the actual CD as if it were the real CD. So here is a digipak template to make things easier for me to create. I find that the four frame design is enough to advertise the album which also allows me to keep to the theme of simplicity.

Digipak Update

Clarifications: Everyone in the group uses THE SAME SONG TITLE

Everyone in the group uses THE SAME BAND NAME

However, as an individual, you use a DIFFERENT ALBUM TITLE and have DIFFERENT 11 TRACK TITLES ON YOUR DIGIPAK.

For your magazine adverts, therefore, YOU WILL ALL USE THE SAME BAND NAME but have  A DIFFERENT ALBUM TITLE.

_____________________________________________________________________________

So clearly, some changes will have to be made to my  'final digipak.'  

1) Decide on a band name as a group.

2) Change 'Falling' for copyright reasons.

3) Change my record company as it is an existing one. (must be made up).

Luckily, i will be able to keep the images and the theme of my digipak the same as our digipaks should be individual from one another.

FINAL DIGIPAK

Here are the final four frames of my digipak. Ive used two of my own photos for the inside of the digipak and the front and back cover were both edited on Picmonkey.com online photo editor. 

Ive kept the style of the front and back cover consistent with the black background and pastel yellow/green/blue coloured text with the font 'Mossy.' I also included a barcode to make it more realistic and professional as well as an indie rock record label 'Black Crow Records.'

 The two images inside the digipak also keep to a similar style of nature which I've tried to stick to in order to emphasise the element of nature from our song and music video.

Digipak Images

Here are two of my own images which I will include for the two frames inside the digipak. I think both successfully portray the element of nature which we have continually referenced and illustrated throughout the music video and ancillary tasks. 

I also edited the two images using Picmonkey - an online editing software to make small changes to the lighting, colour and saturation so that the images do not contrast so much to the black front and back covers of the digipak. I felt that because the front and back covers were so dark, the inside frames should match the pastel coloured text with brighter colours.

Digipak Tracklist

1. Conviction

2. The Reason To Be

3. Your Name Will Live Forever

4. I Want Freedom

5. Expression

6. Suits All Cases

7. Fool 

8. Bravely Into The Future

9. Nature Abhors

10. Change

11. Hate Our Allies

Using the idea from the album cover task, i used a random quotations page and picked out the words i liked which i thought could pass as song titles! So here is the track list which makes the digipak nearly completely done! I just need to more images/graphics to compete the remaining two frames.

Digipak Album Cover Ideas

Option 1

Option 2

The leaves are representative of the nature element we have greatly reference throughout our music video. I decided to make this a large part of the album cover to emphasise this ethereal atmosphere. The two different leaves illustrate a very different kind of feel to the album cover. 

The first has a rather haunting look to it, however I am particularly drawn to the way the twigs are interwoven into the title. 

The second is more simplistic which is what I initially wanted for the album cover. Again, the leaf signifies the nature element to the video.

I have chosen to keep the leaf/twig white to illustrate a strong contrast between the black background. I have also kept the text colours the same for both possible options as I like the pastel colours in contrast to the black.

Update Vlog - Video | Ancillary Tasks

• Planning and editing music video
• Digipak ideas and planning
• Magazine advert idea

Chorus - Kaleidoscope

Our chorus shot which is used throughout the song.
Though it took us a while to finally achieve this effect we are happy with this and have used this multiple times throughout the music video.
This kaleidoscope was created using existing footage from our filing at Grovelands. We layered over the same clip 4 times, each time changing the rotation and opacity to create the kaleidoscope effect. Though it was a time consuming task, we're very happy with the outcome as it has built up a greater amount of the music video than we had initially anticipated.

Indie Rock CD Covers

Wolf Parade - Expo 86

This Wolf Parade CD cover inspires me as the nature in the background used together with the young boys, shows an element of freedom and naivety. Nature plays a large role in our music video in creating an ethereal atmosphere to our music video and a sense of tranquility. The sheer simplicity in this is also appealing.  

The XX - Coexist

Indie pop band The XX have many album and cd covers like this. The X cut out to reveal an image of things such as sand, ocean, light etc. I think this concept is interesting as it conforms to a simplistic cover but is equally as appealing as the Wolf Parade cover. The images in the 'X' stand out again the black or white background and this one in particular stands out to me as it shows colour contrasting to the muted background. 

Tanner Walle - Shelf Life

I am particularly captivated by this as it portrays an element of hidden identity or completely reveals the artist as if he were an open book. The close up portrait of him with the text layered over is interesting as it seems as if he is hidden but the low opacity of the title allows him to still be seen and noticed. 

It would be interesting to try different elements of these cd covers for my own cd, taking the element of nature from Wolf Parade, the concept perhaps from The XX and perhaps the editing features from Tanner Walle and combining them. 

I do know that I would create a simplistic cover for a greater affect of capturing 'buyers.' I think that much busier covers are less aesthetically pleasing and i would focus on a simpler one to put more emphasis on the name of the band and the title of the song. 

Digipak Research

• Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. 
• The standard size of a digipak is 139mm x 6mm x 125.5mm for a standard digipak.
• The front of the digipak will have some aspect of what the artist represents and their predominant genre. It will show a theme and message as well as the artists 'image.'
• All aspects of the digipak, brand image and music videos are interwoven together. It is the promotional aspect to the artist and their music.

For my own digipak I will include either 2 or 4 panels. With 2 panels the true simplicity of what i initially wanted to create is able to come out whereas with 4 panels i am able to provide more information and perhaps paint a better image of the 'image' and 'message' of the band. 

I particularly like lighter and brighter backgrounds and am experimenting with the opacity of the title over an image. Here I used a random image from a filming day and layered 'Falling' over to visualise how it might look with less opacity and blend modes.

I like this font called 'Quentin Caps' but it might be a little too Chicago perhaps?

Costume and Continuity

Before heading out on our second filming day we had a conversation about whether our costumes should stay the same for the purposes of continuity or whether we should change them. I made the point that music videos are very different to the AS films as these music videos allow more artistic license maybe? Also, the fact that many videos have costume changes at each different scene setting. Here are a few examples to back up my point.

-3 costume changes



-4 costume changes



-4 costume changes