Evaluation- Question 1

Here is my prezi to present my answer to Question one of the evaluation;

Evaluation on Prezi

http://prezi.com/n8lro1tylj02/evaluation/

Evaluation- Question 2

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

For my ancillary tasks I tried to keep to a colour theme often seen in Alternative Rock videos as we had done so in our music video. Our video uses an on going colour theme of black and white with colour, and in the colour uses pink and blue to represent different genres in the music video such as on our bass guitar;



We also differentiate the males and females in our video by using colour when females are featured and black and white when the band of males are playing. On my digipak and advertisement however, there are not two genders so I did need to differentiate. Instead I used black and white (like in the video) with the colour red as this has proved to be a trend in alternative rock digipaks and advertisements, seen here;






Our video features a female character seen throughout, I thought it would fit together well to use a female on the advertisements and digipak too as this is again seen on alternative rock digipaks;




Similarly to the above album I thought it would be necessary to be ambiguous with the female as this would make the audience more intrigued to who she is or what she has to do with the band which would be shown in the music video.

Using two different photographs in the ancillary tasks also made them more interesting as they were not repetitive. The were both the same pair of lips too so that the audience can recognise the girl but are also interested by the different photographs.

I think the ancillary task photographs work well with the video because they feature the same girl and are both very ambiguous which reflects the nature of the band.

I think all 3 tasks together represent 'The Mags' in a rebellious way similar to that of Kings of Leon which we were hoping for. I think the ancillary tasks have a clear resemblance to the main task but also have differences such as use of colour, I think these differences makes the tasks versatile as they do not become repetitive.

Evaluation- Question 3

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback has helped throughout the entire course of A2 media studies. We began with audience feedback even before we started production of our music video. As a group we made a questionnaire asking questions about "Where do you watch your music videos?" so we knew where to begin researching and watching videos to relate to our audiences, we also asked age and gender of our audience so we knew our targets. As we knew colour would be featured heavily in our video we asked "What colours do you think fit the rock genre?", we also asked "What do you expect from an alternative rock genre music video?". We handed out the questionnaire's on paper and also asked a few people one on one. Here is a wordle of some of the most common words found in our feedback of what people expect in a rock video.

Our audience was narrowed down to mixed genre aged 15-21 which helped us plan our video to the interest of our audience. We also discovered that most of our target audience do not watch videos on television as much as on the Internet from blogs and YouTube. The audience feedback allowed us to use black and white in our video as 'black' was featured throughout the feedback. 'Red' was also featured which is also why I thought it would fit in with my ancillary task.

Our next source of audience feedback came from our treatment set in class where we explained to the other class members what our plans for our video were. The class also suggested some new ideas. We initially was planning a concert type performance video however a girl suggested we would not be able to get great footage if we involved that many people in our video and we also did not have access to a stage any larger than our schools. As a class everyone agreed that a band practise type of performance would be better suiting. We handed the class sheets afterwards and here is another wordle of their most commonly used words in their feedback;


After every draft we uploaded to YouTube we would ask friends and family to watch and ask for any suggestions as our video is very ambiguous and may be interpreted in different ways. Receiving different feedback was very pleasing because we did not want our video to be straight forward, some people thought the girl was a murderer but others thought it was his girlfriend having a breakdown after fighting with him. This showed us that audience feedback is needed as not everyone will understand our narratives as they have only seen the video once where as we have watched it many times.

As our editing began to come to an end we soon realised our ending was not sharp or edgy enough and became a bit tedious to watch. We asked our friend Abby as well as two teachers to watch over our video but because they all had different interpretations they all wanted different endings. We decided the ending should not be concluding because some people may be disappointed as the narrative is not what they would have assumed. This showed us that you need audience feedback throughout otherwise you may disappoint viewers.

After deciding to add in the painted words over me, we had finished and waited for our last audience feedback at our video screening. Here a close up of one of the sheet filled in by an anonymous audience member;


The audience were asked on paper;
1. What did you like about our music video?
2. What is your favourite part of our music video and why?

All our feedback was positive which was brilliant news and a relief. Most viewers understood our narrative also.

I believe audience feedback is a necessity to anyone producing a music video as without it the video may not appeal to anyone.

Evaluation- Question 4

Here is a group answer to Question 4 of our evaluation;

Final Video

Here's our final video now uploaded on YouTube, I am really happy with it and after hearing audience feedback, I am really overwhelmed that everyone has enjoyed watching our hard work;

Video Screenings and Audience Feedback

Last week in school, the media department held a screening for the year 12 and 13's film openings and music videos so we could receive audience feedback. We were asked to invite school friends, teachers and year 11 prospective Media Studies students were also invited. Sheets of paper were left for the audience to write feedback on to. They were asked;
1. What did you like about the music video?
2. What is your favourite part of the music video and why?

Once the viewing was over audience members were asked to visit a camera corner where they were interviewed by members of our group.
We asked the viewers about their interpretation of the narrative and our use of split screen. We received positive feedback and most people understood our narrative and use of split screens.

Here is a wordle composed to show the most frequently used words in our audience feedback;

Ending of Video

Here is some audience feedback about the ending of our video. When adding in the paint scene at the end we considered all of their pointers.

Video Ending Edit

Here is our edit with the paint scene added in, I think the video is a lot more effect now as it does not become repetitive which we were hoping for;

Video Ending

After watching our latest draft of our video (above) we realised we needed a very quick, sharp ending to round off the video so it did not become tedious to watch.

After gaining audience feedback (in the above post), we realised everyone had different interpretations of the relationship between the two characters.

Every person who watched the video wanted a different ending. After realising this we thought to not conclude our video very clearly as some people would be disappointed that their interpretation was not right.

We began to watch music videos to gain ideas for what we could film. We decided a narrative ending would be too much going on in the video too, so when we found Marina & the Diamonds' video for 'I am Not a Robot' we thought of a similar technique of her face paint;



Because we wanted something fast paced we decided to write lyrics from the song "shes always looking at me" on me, so that they appear when they are said in the song;


We wanted something a bit more extreme looking too so similar to Marina & the Diamonds' video we decided to rub off the paint;

Album Advertisement

Here is my first album advertisement using red, black and white similar to my album cover, I think this cover is too similar to the digipak as it is the same image used twice. This advertisement was inspired by The Vaccines album cover for their album 'What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?' Here is my second design, I prefer this because it is not repetitive and uses a similar colour theme to the digipak. However it is not the same image but is of the same subject which the audience may associate with 'The Mags'.

3 Way Split Screen Research

Due to our school's internet filtering we often find it hard to research Final Cut Express tips as they are often found on social networking forums which are nearly always blocked. So I googled '3 way split screen on final cut express' and I have found a results which are all internet forums. Here are a few solutions suggested by members of these forums;







I have also found this video, not entirely sure if its what we are looking for but we can give it a go whilst editing;

Uploading Filming from Saturday

Our filming on Saturday went to plan and is currently uploading onto the mac from our flip camera!

Melting Heart Ice Cubs

When trying to increase the speed of our ice hearts we found that on iMovie we could only increase the speed by 400% which meant the ice took 7 minutes to melt when the video was viewed. We decided to use Final Cut Express to increase the speed as on this program speed can be increased by 100,000%, we finally increased to speed to around 90,000% and here is our end result which I am very happy with. We forgot to mute the sound unfortunately so there is a funny sounding noise from the speed editing. We have muted the clip since inserting it in our video

We have also put the ice hearts into our full music video here, however we have noticed when uploading our video to YouTube it becomes out of time, we will research into this as soon as possible. We have also inserted opening credits at the beginning of our video. Here it is;

And finally here is a quick video filmed by Aimie while we were editing on Final Cut Express which shows a few issues we managed to solve. It is quite funny but also shows us editing;

Plans to film.. Again

Quick update to say that we are filming the last part of our music video this Saturday. It will be the split screen part where the couple are arguing and fighting similar to the Blink-182 video for 'Always' that I have previously posted.

Prezi for our ice hearts

For a different way of presenting our photo's we decided to make a prezi on our next part of filming;

Ice & Paper Mache on Prezi

Band Advertising

Here is the album advertisement in Front magazine for Ed Sheeran's new album;

He is an alternative singer/songwriter. His album is black and white themed with a use of colour, similar to previous album artworks. He uses a childlike font to create a personal feel to this album, as if this is his own work, similar to all alternative artists.



The album says 'out now' to indicate when is it available to purchase for the audience. Similarly, other advertisements have a date if the album is not yet released.



The record label logos are placed in the corner which is probably down to legal reasoning's.



The advert tell the audience where it is available for purchase, simply with the 'hmv.co.uk' logo as it is a widely recognisable company.



The artist himself is only illustrated which creates ambiguity and does not make the audience look up to him unlike pop advertisements where the star is heavily featured.



The advert also matches Ed Sheerans images which are often illustrated too, this reflects his often artistic image as an alternative singer.




Here is Foo Fighters advertisement for their greatest hits album which was featured in an old copy of NME;

This advert is a lot more informative compared to Ed Sheeran's as Foo Fighters are a much more established band.

The advert simply uses the widely known band logo of two F's. The image on the advert is the actual album artwork, this is used so that the reader remembers what the album looks like to help when purchasing.

The advert features label logo's in the corner similar to Ed Sheerans which is for legal reasons again.

Unlike Ed Sheeran's album this advert features a sentence with 'Includes Best of You, The Pretender, Times Like These and New Single Wheels'. This is used as the album is a greatest hits compilation but also because the band is so established most the audience will be aware of all four of the mentioned tracks.

The logo of Play.com is featured similar to Ed Sheeran's use of HMV.co.uk so that the reader knows where to purchase the album.

The Foo Fighters advertisement also features CD, CD/DVD, LP, Download, so that the reader is informed of the many ways the album is available for purchase. The album may have such a variety of purchases because the band are very established in comparison to Ed Sheeran.

The font resembles lightning bolts which are often used in rock music, such as in the logo of rock band AC/DC.

There is also use of a metal background which gives the feeling of rock also. A red circle is used on the FF logo, which is a colour often used in rock artwork as it is a colour of anger.

Splitscreen on iMovie

After watching the above music video on YouTube, I played with some of our footage on iMovie and managed to create a split screen horizontally which is very creepy with some of our footage.

Plans to Film Again

Here is the video for 'Always' by Blink-182, the entire video is split into three horizontally, the strips do not match up, this shows the mis-match lifestyle which is thought of in the alternative rock genre. We think we could film like this to create a similar feel if we film again with myself and Tom (who mimed the song in the performance).

Our Music Video So Far..

When watching The Wombats' video for 'Let's Dance to Joy Division' I noticed the editing technique which is used to build up the video. Shown in this video at 1.13-1.25 and 2.02-2.30


Recently we have been editing loads on iMovie. Molly managed to fit the stop motion parts of the video to fit with the music. I showed the group the video and they thought we could use that in our build up at the end of the video to make the video increase in timing to fit the song.

Here is our video up until now, each part which features a black space is where we are planning on inserting new footage.

My Digipak

Here is my finished digipak, I used the colours of red, white and black to keep to the reoccuring theme seen in alternative rock genre digipaks. I used the lips in a similar way to The Strokes' use of women on their album cover for 'Is This It'

Band Name

As well as being asked to think of song titles, we were asked to create a band name. A lot of Alternative Rock bands have names with simply 'The -'. We decided on 'The Mags' as it is a word used by the members of the group. Here are a few examples of bands with names beginning with 'The';

Song Titles

Before deciding our song titles we researched into some of the generic song names of our genre. In lesson we looked through some Kings of Leon albums and their track listings on my iPod.

This is the back cover for 'Only By The Night'. Most of the songs are one or two words except for 'I Want You' and 'Sex on Fire'. The same is for their previous albums.

To determine our own song titles for our Digipak we played a game suggested by Pete Fraser where each member of the group would write a word on a sheet and fold the paper over and move onto the next member to create a sentence. Our first song title created was 'The Crazy Crow Sleeps in the Magenta Theatre' and the second was 'The Idiosyncratic Bassoon Drowns the Magnificent Cactus!'. These song titles are very long unlike usual song titles. er Kings of Leon songs. We decided to take some of the words from these two titles to create shorter, one or two word titles. We came up with;

Mag
Geilz
To Somebody
Cactus
Holy Leggings
Idiosyncrasy
Proclamation
Autonomy
Damaged
Magnolia
She
Magnetism
Check It Out
Molly's Mullet
Femme

Here are a few of our notes we made in lesson to decide our song titles.

Blog Update

Internet at home has crashed! So I'm blogging now off of my Blackberry so that I have a post created which I can edit tomorrow in school.

Update for Miss Poulten
- Digipack nearly finished on Photoshop using red, white and black theme
- Edited as a group on Wednesday, Friday and Tuesday, will upload a scan of the group sheet once home Internet is back.
- We have discussed that we need intertextuality and voyeurism uses so we are going to film for hopefully the last time in a similar way to Blink 182's music video for 'Always' with split screen.

More Use of Red on Alternative Album Artwork

Extra Photographs from First Day of Filming

Use of Black & White with Colour on Album Covers

After looking at the album artwork in my iTunes and Spotify libraries I noticed an on going trend in alternative/rock/indie bands album covers. Many albums follow the same colour scheme as The Strokes' 'Is This It' album cover; a black and white photograph/illustration/design with red writing. Some differ slightly but most covers are very similar. I like this colour theme as I think it makes a busy picture look simple as there is no colour as well as bringing attention to the bands name as it is in red. Here are some examples I found;

The Killers - Sam's Town;
I really like the composition of this photograph as both the subjects of the woman and the goat are fully in the shot however they are not centred meaning that there is plenty of room for The Killers band logo as well as the album title written in caligraphy type writing. I think the caligraphy type writing has been used to give the album a personal effect, as though someone has actually written on the album cover. This handwritten writing works well against The Killers modern computer made logo as it contrasts, just like the red against the black and white. I like the american theme of the album cover and I think it links well to the real content of the album. The photograph could be seen as an actual still taken in 'Sam's Town'.

Kings of Leon - Only By The Night;
Here Kings of Leon have also used the BW&R (black, white and red) theme. But instead of red font they have opted for including red in the design along with red on a white background. I like this album cover, it reminds me of ink blots. There is also use of reflection as the image has been flipped and reversed colour. If I wanted to create a similar album cover I would be able to with use of computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop.

The Kooks - Inside In / Inside Out;
Similar to The Killers album, here The Kooks have taken a photograph with clever compositioning. Unlike The Killers the photograph does not seem to consider the band and album name as much. The photograph has a grainy effect, so it may be taken on black and white film. I really like the composition in this photograph through the use of the drummer in the photograph. I would quite like to attempt a photograph like this in my digipak as it has more to look at than just a band playing.

Echo & The Bunnymen - Don't Let It Get You Down;
This cover is not quite black and white but it still uses red font, in capitals, similar to The Kooks and Kings of Leon. I like the photograph here also as it is a little unfocused which makes the audience read the title before looking at the photograph. The photograph also looks like it was taken on a film camera.

The Smiths -The Queen Is Dead;
Again, The Smiths have taken a photograph and inserted their band and album name in bold red. The photograph looks like black and white film again. However I believe it may have been edited to give a dated, vintage look.

The Doors - Greatest Hits
In this album cover red has been added into the portrait of Jim Morrision to bring all attention towards him. The album cover aligns the title to the red line well to give the album cover structure. To create an image like this the portrait photograph would be put into black and white on a photo editing program and red would then be added on top. The 'Greatest Hits' follows a pattern by being all in plain capitals and the band includes their recognisable logo.

The Courteeners - St. Jude;
This album cover uses illustration instead of a photograph and have taken the composition into consideration with it. I think I prefer photographs to the illustration as I like realism. This is also only 3 block colours unlike photographs which include some grey.

Night Air - Jamie Woon & Limit to your Love - James Blake

I really like both of these videos. In particular the uses of focusing and lighting in both videos. Hopefully when we begin editing on Final Cut Pro 7 we can sharpen and soften our footage to create effects like these videos.

The Night Air video appears to have used a macro lense when shooting to focus the water droplets so well. I think the macro shots are what makes the video so great;

Digipak Analysis

Generic Conventions of a Digipak;

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This is the front and back of The Strokes' 'Is This It' album.

I have chose to analyse this album cover as it is the same genre as our music video. The lettering of the album is block capitals and in a round font, it is very straight forward and to the point. The writing is all in black or red against white backgrounds. I have seen this colour scheme several times on alternative rock album covers such as on Sam's Town by The Killers. I think the colour scheme is used because the red catches the eyes attention and the black and white then simplifies all images on the cover to relate to the often laid back genre.

The image on the album of the cover is a naked woman's bottom and hip with a leather glove placed in a suggestive manner. The photographer said "We did about 10 shots. There was no real inspiration, I was just trying to take a sexy picture".

TO BE FINISHED

Stop Motion for Final Film

Yesterday during filming we thought we would attempt a stop motion clip to represent the "she stole my karma" line in the song. We are using the bass guitar to show the obsession of the main character. We covered it in kisses to show that the character cherishes it. The shot is only 2 seconds long but all shots in the video will be very short. Our original plan was to have our video in black and white with the lipstick edited to red on Final Cut Pro 7 but I think I like the colours in this shot too much to convert them to black and white. I also think the pink works well on top of the very dark blue. The use of colour here can also represent the difference between the genders. Here is our edit of stop motion;

We also used stop motion with the newspaper and magazine cuttings of different men. I really like that we added the illustration of a monster. It was originally for comical reasons but I think it looks a bit scary now;

First Day of Filming

Today we completed the first part of our filming. The morning ran smoothly and we managed to improvise some new shot ideas when filming which we think will look better than our original ideas with finished editing. This part of filming was inspired by the Paramore video for The Only Exception where the lead singer is laying on a collection of love letters and cards to represent the videos theme of love. Our video has similar shots, however I have been filmed from the waist up as we not have dolly's for a smooth pan like in the video. Unlike the video we filmed from high and low angles as well as different distances.
To show our theme of obsession we decided to not cover the floor with love letters but with photographs of people, newspaper and magazine cuttings and illustrations from magazines. I really liked the illustrations being included in the shot because it may seem that my character is obsessed enough to have drawn them herself.

We opted for dark eye makeup and pale skin with blusher. This makeup looks very bold in colour but as we are planning on editing our video into black and white it will not be as

bold but will still be visible. I also wore a bodycon dress to look

feminine. We also filmed me putting on my make-up in front of the camera to look as though the camera is in the same place as a mirror. A lot of music videos include shots of girls putting on make-up so we plan to only feature it a few times and edit the timing so it is only brief and not repetitive. But the shots looked really effective once I had started the smokey eyes and was staring into the camera. The lighting made these shots look particularly clear as I was sat in front of a wide window at midday.

Digipak Research

Digipak's are CD or DVD packaging. Digipaks are usually made up of a book-style paperboard with one or more plastic trays able to hold a CD or DVD attached inside. Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies.
Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums.

Digipak's have been manufactured since early 2000.

They can have 4, 6 or 8 sides and can feature booklets, photographs and DVD's from the band.