Evaluation Q4.

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

For this evaluation question I have created this short animation to explain how I used new technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of my projects. I created this animation using xtranormal.com. 

Evaluation Q3.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?
ROUGH CUT COMMENTARY:

I found that the feedback I received from the rough cut was definitely the most useful out of all of the feedback I have collected in this process. I have created this commentary evaluating how I learnt and developed my media product from getting this audience feedback:

Track Listing Feedback:
After choosing what song I was going to do to carry out this project, I had to collect some audience feedback on their thoughts were on the track and what they would expect it to be like if used in a music video. I done this firstly by asking numerous people the following questions to get a feel for what their thoughts were on the genre of the song:

1. What is your favourite genre of music?

2. What do you think 'indie' people dress like?

3. What would you expect to see in an 'indie' music video?

4. Would you watch a music video which was just a band playing the song?

MAIN LOCATION

I did find this feedback useful to an extent but the most consistent bit of feedback was what the audience expected to see in a indie music video and what the characters should look like. In general, the responses that I got from the audience was that they think that the characters should be wearing 'hipster' styled clothing  which consisted of jeans, t shirts  beanie hats etc. This was useful for me when it came to production because this is an easy look to replicate and I found it easy to come up with the costumes that they were going to wear because my actors dressed liked that on a daily basis anyway. When it came to looking at how a indie music video would look they all seemed to have the same idea which was a simple location with instruments. There are many examples of places in my music video where I applied this audience feedback to my final product but the most obvious is the main location and props. The picture above shows the main location of the video and I think that this was mainly down to my audience feedback because I was originally planning to film my footage in a different location. I decided to change because I didn't think that the lighting was right in the first location and also it was quite busy and filled with lots of equipment  I think that this location was the best, most conventional choice. The costumes are also another obvious example of how I acted upon this audience research because the band is dressed in simple everyday clothes such as jeans and t shirts  However, there was a part of my feedback which I did not act upon. This was when some people suggested that there should be loads of instruments. I didn't act upon this because I found that using less instruments made the location more interesting because it made it look like it was an everyday band practice for the group. I do think that collecting this feedback was necessary for the whole production of my media product mainly because it was important for me to represent the indie genre in the right way because they have quite a strong fan base and nowadays there are a lot of 'hipster' styles about which receive a lot of negative feedback on how they represent themselves.

After collecting this feedback, I then went onto asking another group of people different questions, but this time they were about the actual song. These questions were:

1. Did you like the track?
2. What type of person would like this track?
3. Which age range would you typically associate with this song?
4. How would you picture the band/lead?
5. What sort of music video would you expect to accompany this track?
6. If performance, where and what type?
7. If narrative, what sort?

This feedback was probably the most useful out of the two. The most consistent thing that came up was that they thought that the song was happy and was aimed at teenagers and they all seemed to like the track in general. This was positive feedback because they were the aged target audience I was aiming for and they all seemed to enjoy it, even if they weren't huge indie music fans they enjoyed the feel good tempo to the song. One piece of feedback which I did not act upon from this feedback was that someone said that the song reminded them of a music video at a beach; I did not act upon this because I didn't think that a beach would be a realistic location for me to use although it would have been a good place that would have went well with the song. This feedback was very useful for me because I was able to see that the ideas that I had for my music video was basically the same as the audience I would be aiming my product at. This is beneficial because I know that I will be doing the right thing and by adding in extra little ideas it would make it more interesting (e.g. not just purely basing my video on performance but putting in the cutaway sections).

Digipak/Magazine Advert Feedback:
During the process of making my digipak and magazine advert for the promotion of my 'band' and their music video, I collected a small amount of feedback for the digipak to help me through this process. The feedback that I got was from both male and females aged 16-18 which is some of my target audience. This feedback was not as elaborate as the rest but I still found it substantially useful and significant. The most consistent criticism that kept coming up was that the section where the CD would go was too bright and the pattern was over powering to the rest of the images and colours. This is the first thing that I acted upon and I changed to opacity and brightness of the pattern to make it blend it more with the rest of the digipak. Straight away this seemed to work really well and then the digipak seemed to look a lot better. Because the majority of this feedback was the same, there wasn't really any that I didn't act upon apart from when one person said that the drawing were a bit too scruffy but. I didn't act upon this because that is how I wanted them too look in order for my products to fit in. Although I did not collect physical feedback for the magazine advert, during the process I did ask a couple of people what could be done to make it look better. The most said thing was that I should us the text that is on the back of the digipak to write the information for the magazine advert rather than just using the same text as the name of the band and the name of the album. It was useful for me to collect this feedback although I think that I could have managed to do the digipak and magazine advert without it because I wanted it to all be quite plain. However, I do think that the criticism about the CD was very useful.

Evaluation Q2.

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

I think that overall, the combination of my main product and ancillary texts (digipak and magazine advert) was very effective when put together. I have created this prezi to show what parts I think complimented eachother well: 

Evaluation Q1.

In what does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and 

conventions of real media products?

The kooks music video

MUSIC VIDEO:

Throughout my music video, I think that it uses and develops the conventions of an indie music video. The conventions of an indie music video that I have used in my video are generally just the instruments, a band, a simple location. But I think that throughout the video, these conventions all develop together building up to the finishing sequence (the musical instrumental). The most indie conventional part of my product are the natural footage parts which develop throughout the song; these are conventional to the genre because it has been used in many indie music videos before. The natural sections of the video are the cut away from the performance shots showing how the band acts with each-other when not doing a performance. For example, The Kook's song 'She Moves In Her Own Way'. I used this as an example because when I was carrying out production I considered this video a strong influence. To the right are two screen shots; the top one is a screenshot from my video that I chose to compare to the other which is from the kooks video. They both show the band sitting around chatting, I chose to use footage like this so it fit in with the indie genre more. I think that this is conventional because when you think of an indie band you think of them being 'organic'. Whereas typical boy bands are all manufactured and indie bands are not and normally live the lifestyle that they are showing in their music videos, songs etc. I also admired the home made look that it had but also the use of editing, performance and natural shots also intrigued me. This music video is strongly based on natural footage but it also includes some performance sections as well. However, they do not use the typical band set up of guitars, drums, microphones etc. An example of this used in an indie video it 'Always like this' performed by Bombay Bicycle Club which I also used as an influence during the research and planning of my production process. The way that I set up my instruments was also slightly influenced by this music video because I liked how they were all spaced apart. However, I did not have enough space to make it look excatly how I wanted. When it came to editing I also tried to do something much alike both of these examples video and I think that to an extent I was able to do this which could also be a reason why my music video is conventional to the indie/indie pop genre. I think that this is most shown in the finishing sequence of my video when all of the shots are edited to the beat of the guitar solo.  Although, I think that this music video will only be appealing to people who appreciate the indie genre and have watched quite a few videos like it before. This is because people who enjoy listening to pop for example, would be used to watching lots of bright colours and dance routines etc. which isn't shown in this music video and people who appreciate the indie genre would also appreciate the simplicity put into the music videos because they care more about listening to the music. Overall, my media product seems to use the conventions of real media products but they may not be such elaborate features as a real existing music video has. This could be because of many things but I mainly think that its because of the time frame we had. Luckily, because I chose such a lo-fi genre (a lo-fi genre is conventionally home grown and focus on life and music rather than being flashy like some other genres e.g. rap genres), I was able to create a home video looking product and it would still compliment the conventions of a real media product. If I was going to do this project again, I would definetely change some of the editing that I done. I would make the lighting and colour alot more nuetrual and would make them so yellow. I would also want to have more footage from the same production day. 

Bombay bicycle club music video

Andrew Goodwin Analysis:

1. There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics. 
I believe that in my music video, there is a strong relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. This is mainly shown in the section specifically on the chorus when it says 'this is the life, this is the life' and it shows the cut away, natural scenes of the band with their friends demonstrating that 'this is the life' that they live everyday. These type of clips occur throughout the whole video and some of them are just of the band in the same room they are performing in. This shows the off stage life they live as well with appear to be fun and laid back. Because the lyrics throughout are quite happy and cheerful the majority of the music video reflects this. I think the way this was done in my music video compliments the indie/indie pop music video conventions well and makes it seem to be more of a realistic video. I mainly think this because there are many other music videos that use these same techniques with developing the lyrics and the visuals together throughout and I used quite a few of them as my influences. I also think that this is conventional because of the ages of the actors that are in the product. They range from 17-19 and this is a main section of the target audience I have. This is conventional because the age used is appropriate and it will be more appealing to my target audience because they will think that it is treatable. This also emphasis' this is the life' that people should be living (a fun happy one).

2. There is a relationship between the music and visuals, with visual illustrating, amplifying, contradicting the lyrics.

I think that this is also shown in my music video, but not as much as the lyrics and the visuals. The main part where this is shown is at the beginning and the end of the video where it is showing the running footage of the 'car journey'. This is also shown in the kooks video in their instrumental opening sequence a lot like mine. This type of editing is also shown in the sections of the chorus when the guitar motif is being played where the pace of the editing is fixed to the guitar sounds. This is effective and conventionally because alot of mainly performance based music video use sharp editing to make it more interesting but it also gives a nice effect and compliments the instruments as well. Much alike the answer to question one, there is a relationship between the music and the visuals in the way that the band show what type of life the live which goes with the title of the song and the lyrics.

3. Record companys will want lots of 'star' close ups.

My music video consists of a few close ups of the 'star' (lead singer) of my band. Although this isn't really a convention of the indie genre I still think that the use of some close up gives the footage a bit of variation and makes it more interesting. I think that throughout my product it becomes apparent who the star is however, I didn't purposely create this. I used these close ups because I thought that it would make the video interesting and I recorded close up of all of the characters in the video. By not using many close ups of the 'star' I think that this has made my media product more alike existing media products from my genre of focus. In addition, there are some media products that have used close ups like the ones I have used. An example is the music video for the song Awkward performed by San Cisco which is a video that I have also used as an influence throughout this process. The pictures to the left (from the top down) shows a screen shot from my video and a screen shot from the 'Awkward' music video. These show the similarities between the types of close ups used on the stars in my video and other existing media products as well.

4. Voyeurism. Although my video doesn't use voyeurism in the way that a pop video would such as a Lady Gaga video (involving the star wearing minimal clothing and doing lots of provocative dance routines with different exaggerated costumes etc.), I think that it does use a but of voyeurism that is suitable for the genre it was made for. There are small sections in my video that show a love connection between the lead singer and the drummer. This is an appropriate type of voyeurism for this genre because their isn't an over the top, purposely made love connection between these two characters, it is a lot more natural and the love story doesn't develop throughout the song/video. I also think that this is a good type of voyeurism to use in an indie video because it shows an off stage intimacy which is interesting and fits well with the song 'this is the life' because it is showing the actual life that the characters are living.

There are also some other sections of my media product which reflects real media products that have been made. 

Firstly, as well as using close ups of the characters in the video, I also included a few close ups of the instruments in the video. This is often used in other music video but a specific example of this is again from the San Cisco music video (shown to the left). This is complimenting conventions of my genre because a lot of bands in this genre focus a lot on the actual music rather than focusing on things such as big gold chains, fast cars e.t.c which is what you would see in a hip  hop music video. Overall, I believe that my music video doesn't challenge anything that is in a normal music video because it does seem to be very conventional. Although I think that if I was going to do this project again, I would definitely try to add in some more footage and make the editing sharper a lot like the Bombay Bicycle Club video; this could also be make much more interesting by including a range of locations like the Kooks video.

DIGIPAK: 
Above is an image of my completed four panel digipak which I completed on photo shop. Firstly, I think that this front cover uses typical conventions of real media products and this is shown in the image below which is the front cover of the indie band Foals album Antidotes (example shown at the bottom of paragraph). When approaching the planning of my digipak, from the beginning I knew that I wanted to use this as a main influence. This is because I thought that the sketching used for the imagery and the font as well gave a good representation of indie digipaks as a whole. Many other bands have used this artistic approach such as Two Door Cinema Club who use artist's work to influence their digipaks. One way that I challenged the forms of real media product convention is my use of an actual image of the band. Many indie bands don't use any imagery of themselves and they always tend to use an abstract image (shown in the foals example) but most of the time they don't have anyone featuring in their album covers/digipaks.  I also think that the simplicity in this digipak also uses different forms of conventions of the indie genre especially the fonts used throughout the three panels. The actual CD design was just simply the pattern used in the mouths of the characters on the front cover made into the shape of a CD. I used this as the CD because I have seen this type of technique used in existing media products. Specifically, it was used in a Two Door Cinema Clubs album 'Tourist History'. They had a main theme to the whole digipak and the CD artwork was taken from a small section on the front cover (shown in example below). However, the pattern that I used was a lot more noticeable than this feature on their album but I thought that the mouth section would be the most appropriate to use for the CD  The back cover appears to be the most conventional section of the whole digipak. This is because alot like other media products it just consists of the track listing and the records details at the bottom. When it came to creating this section, I looked at the Two Door Cinema Club example again and based my ideas on that. However, after looking at other media products it became apparent that they also has thing such as bar code labels and 'compact disc' logos, so I added these on as well. Overall, I do think that my media product reflects the conventions of existing media products from the indie genre however, my product does appear to have a lot more detail than the examples I have used. If I was to do this again, I would try to use just one of the characters like it was done in the left pocket of my digipak because I think that this was effective. I would also try out stretching the image of the band so the whole thing went across all three of the main panels. This is because I think that this would be a lot more effective than the digipak I have created.  

MAGAZINE ADVERT: 

To the right is the magazine advert that I created to go with the finished digipak. As shown to the left, it is evident that a lot of artists use the same imagery from their album cover and use it for their magazine advert with a few things changes (e.g. size and brightness etc). This is also shown in my digipak because I have also used the same image but instead of it being the most dominant feature like it is on the album cover, it is at the bottom and cover with companies logos and some text as well. This is because when it comes to making a magazine advert, the information on it have to be more important than the imagery and you have to get the information across about the album. I think that the way I have done thisis very conventional because I have used the same picture from the digipak which doesn't stand out very much anyway but I have also put it to the bottom of the page so the the text and info is the most noticed thing. The picture to the right is the actual CD cover for the James Blunt album and I have posted this because it shows the differences that are normally made between a album cover and the magazine advert. The way that I have done mine does therefore seem to be conventional because the imagery hasn't changed much at all apart from the added information in different fonts. However, there is an aspect of actual magazine adverts which I didn't do in mine. This is the change of contrast and colour and as shown in the James Blunt example, the texture of the image has changed to make it look slightly different from the cd cover. But I think that the way that the same imagery used is good for my genre because it is not the most popular genre so when the audience is looking at the magazine advert, they will recognise the 'album' in the shops straight away. This is a technique that has been used by bands such as Two Door Cinema Club themselves.

Magazine Advert

Magazine Advert Process:

This is the magazine advert that I created after finishing my digipak. Like the process to make my digipak, I used photo shop to make the magazine cover. The first thing I done was create a new file to the size that I wanted it to be. Next, I transferred the image from the front cover of the digipak to the new file and move it to the bottom of the page. After this I used the '' tool to get there matching colour from the image to make the background. After creating a new layer, I started to work on the text. I wanted to use the same font for the name of the band and album like the digipak so I wrote out these things in the same font. However, I had to make them a lot bigger so it fit the size of the magazine advert. For the ratings and other text on the page, I wanted to find a different font to make it stand out from the rest of the advert. After trying out loads of different fonts, I chose to use.... this is because I think that it looks like a messy font which reflects a type of handwriting. Finally, I created another new layer and found promotion labels to add to the bottom of the advert. I chose the HMV and Fopp logos because they would be the most likely company's to promote the type of music my music video was made for. Overall, I think that the digipak process went well although I think that I could have made some of it more interesting and more like a real existing media product; even though it does fit in with the genre of music it is aimed at. Now looking at the magazine advert, I could have possibly used a more contrasting font of writing which would stand out from the rest of the image.

Finished Digipak

Digipak Process (3)

Today I decided to focus on the mouth areas of the front cover. The first thing I done was start to play around with trying to make an appropriate pattern. After finding the pattern I wanted to use on photoshop I used the magic wand tool to select the mouth areas. When using this tool, it didn't get exactly the area that I wanted but I then went to the fill part and after applying the patterned fill effect, I decided that it looked good being a bit 'messy'. (The fill section shown in the pictures below).

The next step I took was to transfer the main image onto a template of a four panel digipak. The first thing I done was download a digipak template off the internet and open it in photoshop. I chose to do a four panel digipak because I thought that it would be the most realistic one to use considering my time frame although I would have liked to make a booklet to go with the finished digipak contain lyrics and extra pictures. After transfering the front cover image to the template, I then created the CD section which was just the same pattern from the mouths made into a cd shape 





Tomorrow is my final editing session which is available for me to complete the digipak so I have made this plan of action to follow tomorrow to make sure it all gets done:

1. Fill in the whole digipak the appropriate colour (cream).

2. Write the track listing on the back (8 songs).

3. Add in all of the record company details and barcode etc.

4. Transfer the main characters drawn image onto the left cover and make

it cover the whole page.

5. Type out the lyrics to the song in my music video on the left cover over the image of the main singer.

Digipak Process (2)

Today I started to edit my image on photoshop. The first I dont was creating a new layer for the background colour. It took me a while to choose the colour for the background and I started off with a mint green colour but I then decided just to use a cream colour like the Foals album. After creating another new layer, I then selected a thin brush (size 4) and went around the only the outside of the image which had alreadt been uploaded to photoshop. I done this only to the outside because this is one of my favourite effects used on my influence album. Next, I selected the shadow burn tool and started to go around the shading of the traced images. I also used the highlighter burn tool as well to make some areas less dark than the ones used with shadow burn. After I had done this I then created a new layer and started to colour in the rest of the image with the same colour as the background, trying not to go over the sketched sections. Next I decided to focus on the eyes of the characters and this consisted of me highlighting the outside sections of their eyes with an offwhite colour (abit more white than the background colour) and colouring the pupils in a darker grey. I done this because I wanted the eyes of the image to stand out. The images below are the screen shots of my first day of making my digipak cover:

Digipak Process (1)

Today I began starting to make my digipak. The first thing I had to do was somehow transfer the photograph of the band into a drawing and then onto photoshop. I tried to this in many ways. Firstly, I started off by trying to connect a tablet to the mac computer and draw over the picture as a new layer in photoshop. However, this quickly became obvious that this wasn't going to work. So next I decided to just print off the image and trace it. I started off by tracing the whole image in a blue pencil because the blue pencil doesn't transfer when being scanned and after I done this succesfully, I then went over the image in either a pen or a pencil. I wanted to copy the image from the foals album so I did the outlines of the images in a darker pen whereas the odd shaded sections were done in pencil. Because I wanted it to look like the foals album cover as much as possible I had to add in all of shading and sketchy areas because this would have been difficult to add in on photoshop. I think that this was a could technique to use because when transfered onto photoshop the image looked how I wanted it to. Below are some photographs are my traced pictures:

After this was done I decided to focus on the mouth sections which I would have to either create and take a picture of some kind of pattern to go in the mouth sections of the characters. I think by using a bright and colour section of the mouth it will make the overall album cover contrast well. This is because I am wanting to have a really plain coloured background which will probably be a shade of grey/greeny colour. By having this sort of pattern it will stand out alot from the rest of the image. In order to get one of these images I took a few pictures of patterns I made to see if they would look good when transfered onto a computer. After doing this I decided that it would be a good idea to draw some form of pattern on photoshop so it would be much easier to add it into the smaller sections of the image. I chose thus image as an examples of pattern because I think that it is close to the type of thing I want to use for the mouths of my image.

Digipak Research (2)

Conventional Imagery:
Throughout the indie genre there does not appear to be many albums/digipaks that have images of the actual band on the front. They all appear to have some form of artwork of just a plain pattern. I think that this would be a good technique to use for my digipak because it will be a good way to make an easy, effective digipak which could then be made into a magazine advert on photo shop:


Text:
Most of the texts used on the album covers I have looked at all seemed to be the same type of thing: simple and scruffy. As I have chosen the Foals album antidotes as my main influence I decided to focus on the text that was on this album:






This is the original text from the album which I am using as my main influence for my digipak and magazine advert. It's taken from the foals album. I wanted to use a text very similar to this so I started my saving the images and searching for the text on www.findthefont.com I was unable to find this precise font so I then went onto a website called www.dafont.com and started look at lots of different text types:

FONT ONE:
 
This is the first font I considered using. I really like the simple, straight font of the actual writing that is complimented by the vines and floral pattern. This was my first choice of font but when I typed in the name of the album (shown above) I thought that it was way too much to put on a sketched front cover/magazine advert. I also thought after seeing this that it was too girly for the genre I am doing.
FONT TWO:

FONT THREE:



FONT FOUR:

Digipak Research (1)

digipak template

What is a digipak?
A digipak is the whole product which we would normally call a CD. it can either consist of 4 panels or 6 and it has all the elements to make a cd front cover and entire case. The style of digipaks range from genre to genre but they all normally have some form of advertisement to promote it. In most cases this is a magazine advert. Below I have analysed two digipaks in comparison to their magazine adverts to show the similarities and differences between them both:
EXAMPLE ONE:
Similarities:
-They consist of the same imagery
-They both have the same brightness/contrast/editing

Differences:
-The CD contains less information
-The magazine advert is larger in size
-The image on the m advert is small because of the information


EXAMPLE TWO:

 
Similarities:
-use the same image
-use the same fonts
- roughly the same size

Differences:
-magazine has lots of writing at the bottom and has the cord label and promotor logo at the bottom
-the tree is slightly smaller on the mag ad. 

It is clear that magazine adverts tend to be the same as the CD but just bigger and with a lot more information on it such as the release date of the album, where it will be sold and who the record company is. This seems to be a good technique to use because if someone sees the picture in a magazine they will immediately recognise it in a shop. 

MY DIGIPAK:

During production I took at few photographs for the digipak I will be making. Out of them all, I chose this one because I think it is a good shot of the band as a whole. However, to fit with the conventions on the indie genre, I will be creating a fine liner drawing of the outlines of this photgraphs and will be using it in photoshop to add in 'artwork' styled images. The main influence for my digipak is the album 'Antidotes' by the band English band Foals released on 24th March 2008. I decided to use this album cover for an influence because I like the simplicity of the images complimented by the small section of pattern. I think that this album cover represents the indie genre very well and it also a very well known album throughout indie music. I think that if I use this sort of technique it would be very beneficial because the audience I am aiming my products at will be able to recognise what genre it is. I also didn't want the digipak I was creating to be very complicated but at the same time I wanted it to be effective which would be a result of doing a digipak like this. Also, the program that I will be using to create my digipak will be photoshop which will enable me to be able to create a digpak like this well.


Even though I have completed a photoshop tutorial before, I wanted to be able to understand the program on a simpler level so when it comes to making my digipak image, I would be able to know what tools are where and which tools would be appropriate for me to use. Therefore, I watched a few photoshop tutorials on YouTube and I found that this one was the most educationally beneficial for me. The main things I learnt from this tutorial was how to create layers and build up an effective image. After watching this tutorial I then went on to explore videos that would show me how to create effects which would be used in the making of my digipak. I found this video the best:
From this video I learnt how to create an image which consists of artwork, images of people and text aswell. This is obviously beneficial because this is what a digipak consists of.

Final Product

Last Day of Editing

Today was my final day of editing and the main thing I tried to focus on was making the clips shorter and more jumpy and adding in more footage aswell. Firstly, I started editing the end sequence of the video because I hadn't done much to it yet. I added in a lot of different clips performance and natural, and began to divide them up into 2-3 seconds little clips. Next I added them to the correct places on the timeline. But after playing it back, I realised that I needed to add something more. I experimented with some of the clips already used in the video and came to the conclusion that it would look good with the 'car scene's added to compliment the pace of the music.

After this I started to focus on matching up all of the clips colours and brightness. However, on some clips I added abit more brightness because they were at different locations (I added much more brightness to the car clips because it made the sun stand out alot more).



Overall, I believe that the editing process today and all of the editing in general went well. Although if I had a longer amount of time there are a few things I would have changed. Firstly, I would have made alot smoother transitions from clip to clip to make the video run alot more nicely; but also I would have liked to experiment with more effects such as reversing shots and slowing them down because I think that this would have looked good in the verse sections of the song. Another thing I would have liked to have had was more close ups of the performers because I could have done more editing to shots like this and experiment more with the different colours. The main I think went the best when editing was the cutting up of the footage because I think that although it could have been done more smoothly, the clips ended up being the right amount of length for each beat of the song.

Editing Progress

This is the second version showing the progress on my music video. The main changes have been the opening sequence and the adding of more footage. This editing was done all after my last day of production:



I showed this video to more of my ideal target audience to get even more feedback to use for my final day of editing. I recorded the responses from 5 different people and the questions I asked were:
1. What do you think generally about the video?
2. Do you think it has improved in a positive way?
3. Did do you think could be done to improve it even further?
4. Did you find it engaging and interesting throughout the whole thing?
4. Did you enjoy watching it overall?

From this feedback, I have learnt that I need to make some of the clips used a bit more short to make the overall video more snappy and interesting. It would also help make the video be more engaging throughout the whole thing. It is also obvious that I need to make the editing (brightness and contrasts) much more consistent and I could even make the natural shot stand out more by making them a different colour to the performance (e.g. black and white) to make it appear to be more 'dreamy'. Overall, the feedback I received for this video seems positive and I will definitely find it useful for my last day of editing.

Plan of Action:

As tomorrow (16th November) is my final deadline I have made this plan of action in order to be fully organised when it comes to my last editing session tomorrow morning:

1. Finishing adding in the remaining footage 

2. Re-colour all of the clips 

3. Make them brighter and more contrasting to eachother

4. Cut some of the footage so they are more 'jumpy' 

5. Try adding in some more effects like reversing shots

Production Day 3

Today was my third and final production day. I decided to have one more production day because I really thought I needed more footage. I chose to do this shoot outside because it was a decent day and I thought it would be good to add some shots with nice sunlight in it. The first part of the shoot was the driving section when I was recording a car journey out of the window through fields and down the motorway. I chose to do this because I thought it would be effective to use in the guitar solos towards the end because I have been struggling to find enough footage to go in that section. I also thought it would be good to add some of this footage to the opening sequence aswell. This part of production went really well and run smoothly. It was just one long car journey from Swavesey to Long Road and there wasn't any mistakes made. Also because I recorded the majority of my journey, I gathered loads of footage so even though they were a few bumpy section this didn't really matter because there was enough to make up for it. I believe that this section of the music video could be quite powerful because of the sun shining (shown in the picture). I then went on to record abit more footage at college. This footage consists of the group of friends all individually singing the chorus of the song whilst walking towards me resulting in a close up of their face. This was quite successful however, when it came to editing it didn't seem to blend well with the rest of the music video. Overall, I think that this production day went well but this is only because the weather was luckily decent. If it wasn't the whole shoot would have gone wrong and I would have been able to record anymore footage. The only thing I could have changed about my shoot is that I could have used a tripod for some sections to stop it being so bouncy at times. Also, I think that my time management could have been alot better still because it got to a point again when I was rushing around trying to gather random bits of footage so I felt I had enough to make a full music video.

 

I have created another permissions sheet which was filled out by the supporting actors and the owner of the location that we use when recording. However, not all of the footage I recorded will be used in my editing but I made sure to get permissions. I chose this actors to be in some of my footage because at the time I didn't think that I had enough footage to complete the music video.

In the end I didn't end up using any of this footage because I felt that it didn't fit with the song and what the song was representing. Even though I think random bits can good look in indie music videos, these clips would have been a bit to random to add in at the last minute.

Opening Sequence

One of the main things that I have learnt from my feedback was that alot of the people who watched my music video thought that the opening sequence needed more to it. So when I went back to editing, that was the first thing I focused on. I have exported the opening sequence in order to show people how I have improved it and I am planning to get even more feedback from different people:

FEEDBACK!: (I just quickly wrote down their responses)
Questions asked:
1. After watching both the opening sequences do you think it has improved?
2. What do you think could be done to improve it?
3. Did you find it engaging and interesting?

Shaunagh Lee:
1. Yeah, it has definitely improved because more clips have been added to the beginning
2. I think that the colours need to match alot more and maybe make the clips a tiny bit longer instead of it keep jumping from one place to another.
3. I did for the first couple of seconds but I think that there could be more added to it because it should be alot my engaging than what it is now.

Ana D'escrivan-Nott:
1. Yeah it has improved quite alot compared to the last one
2. I think that it could be made alot more eyecatching
3. I personally don't think it's that interesting and I think it would be alot more effective if it was like a sunset of something because that what it sounds like at the beginning. It has improved though but I think it could be made alot more interesting.

James Piper:
1. It does look better and more interesting
2. Maybe edit the clips even more so they go to the beat excatly
3. yeah it was quite good could have more faster clips though

Plan Of Action

In result of looking at the feedback I have received from my music video, I have decided to do another shoot. As I am only needing one more night to record the rest of my footage, the date of the shoot will be Monday 12th October. I will be carrying this shoot out at the same location as before but I will also be recording in a more natural environment with the band. This is because I would like to collect alot more footage and there is only so much that can be done in that enclosed area. Also, if I have 'too much' footage I am less likely to have more issues when it comes to editing. From the editing process already, it has become obvious that using the natural shots give nice effects and fit in with the indie genre aswell. However, because one of my 'actors' is on holiday, this recording session will only consist of two of the characters, Kim and Jack. I am also going to try and record some more close up of the leas singer singing some of the song because I feel that I have got enough footage of that.

Carol Vernallis Analysis

Carol Vernallis created a theory on music videos and how they work. She then wrote a book 'The Kindest Cut-Functions and meaning of music video editing (2001)" which has been very influential throughout media education. 

Her theory concentrates on 4 key concepts that all relate to the way a music video is constructed:
1. Narrative
-The video is a visual response to the music
-There is not necessarily a balance between narrative and performance
-The narrative is not always complete – it may be a partial, fragmented narrative
-The structure of the video may appear disjointed
-Something drives the video forward, but often it is not the narrative. It could be the music, the performance, a mixture or some other element.
-There may not always be a clear resolution (closure) at the end
-The video may pose questions that it doesn’t actually answer-There may be a narrative or theme running through the video, but in a montage style
2. Editing
-Editing may match the musical phrases or the beat
-The video may break or disrupt many of the ‘rules’ of continuity editing – this is a clear convention
of music video editing.
-Editing may become ‘foregrounded – the edits may be really obvious, to draw attention to themselves as opposed to invisible, continuity editing

For example, you may see:
-Jump cuts
-Breaks of the 30 degree rule
-Breaks of the 180 degree rule
-Cutting against the movement
-Cutting within the lyrics
-Fancy edits or cuts
-Extreme jumps in time and space
-Extreme changes in pace
-Juxtaposed framesGraphic matches
-A style of editing that runs through the video and is distinctive to that video

You may not see:
-Smooth transitions
-Matches on action
-An even pace throughout.

3. Camera Movement and Framing
-When it comes to shot types, extremes are very common.
-The style of framing and movement may run through the video and is distinctive to that video
-The camera may move in time with the music
-The camera may move on the lyrics
-The master shot (or other establishing shots) is used frequently, as are close-ups

4. Diegesis
-The diegesis may be revealed quite slowly
-Actions are not necessarily completed – they may be disrupted or interrupted in someway
-Character or object movements may move to the music
-There may be gaps in the audience’s understanding of the diegesis – in time and space,music, performance and narrative
-Some frames may be more important than others
-There may be many repetitions
eg musical phrases, the beat, other musical elements, themes, lyrics, performance,images, colours, camera positions.

I have chosen 'Good Feeling' performed by American artist Flo Rida to deconstruct and analyse using the Vernallis theory:



1. Narrative: This specific music video has very effective narration. The name of the song is 'good feeling' and throughout the video, the life of the artist and his 'good feelings' are shown.

2.



3. The camera work in this music video is very well done. The beat of the music is continuously complimented by the actions of the people within the music video.

Rough Cut Appraisal

There are many things that I believe went well with my roughcut but I have also personally noticed alot of issues as well. I have wrote this rough cut appraisal to show all of the positives and negatives about my rough cut video and all of my opinions on how it went. I have done this so I can compare it to my audience feedback which will then hopefully help me create a succesful product in the end.

Positives:
- I believe that the clips which I have in my rough cut so far flow well together and create a good representation of what the band is like and how they act naturally.
- The colouring of the footage works well with the song. I dont this by using colour corrector and brightness and I think that it creates a much more 'indie' looking video.
- Some of the lipsynching has work very well and is in good time with the lyrics in the song.
- The lighting in the actual footage works well and gives the overall video a nice effect.
- The long shot performance footage looks good and is a good contrast to the close ups and natural acting shots.
- I think that the beginning bit work wells (when each character is introduced one at a time)
- I believe that the overall idea of the video is beginning to work well.

- The footage that I have got it a good repesentation of the influences that I have been using in the process of recording. e.g: Some of the shots that I have included in my video are similar to others shown in other indie music videos, specifically San Cisco's 'Awkward'.

Negatives:
- I think that so far, the music video does get a bit boring at some parts. To improve this I will need to add alot more performance and natural clips which will involve me doing another shoot.
-Although the clips flow well together, I do think that it is a bit boring having the whole video in the same location and it does get a but tedious. (there is only so much you can do in one location)
-The lipsynching at the beginning needs to be improved (it could be alot more in time).
-The beginning can be improved alot so it's not just focused on a room for 15ish seconds. Even though there is effects added in, it could still be more interesting. The start of the video has to be the part to grab the audiences attention and I want it to be as good as possible.
- Some of the clips in the video seem to be abit 'random' and I would like to change this by having clips from different locations.
- I think that the video would overall be alot more powerful if I had transitions and different effects. At the moment there isn't any really interesting noticable effects added.
- When each character is introduced at the beginning the timing could be more on point.
- The close up of the instruments could be done again but this time it could be made to look alot more natural (like it is shown in the performance shots).
- Some of the clips could be made brighter then the others so they stand out more instead of the whole video because the same brightness.
- Things could be made so they run alot more smoothly (not too much because this would be complimenting the genre of the song).
-More camera angles could be added aswell (of the performance etc.).

Overall, I think that for a roughcut it did go well but there are many things that I need to do to improve my video and make it an interesting 'indie' music video. There are many ways I could do this but I think the main focus needs to be getting more footage for the video.