Evaluation Question 4

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

Well well well, we thought we learnt it all at AS. Boy were we wrong.

At th beginning of the year, to refresh our minds, we started with the blog header. This was just a fun tinker and nothing hard as we had all used photoshop the year before in our magazine. Although the main piece of our task did not use this particular programme, we were reunited for the ancillery tasks - the digipak and the magazine advertisement.

Final cut...what a gem. What would we have done without Final cut? Fail most probably... This programme allowed us to cut, piece and edit our various different takes and put them together as one professional video. The cuts were simple, the adding them in was easy and the editing...well we let Alex have his fun there. With James' and my ideas to help, we came out with a pretty good video, even if i do say so myself. Without this programme, we would not have had the time, patience or equipment to make such a successful video. The filming would have taken much longer, as we would not have been able to piece various shots together later, but we would have had to film each bit as we wanted as we went along. We could also not have rectified the lighting and would have had to have used it how it was to begin with.

The editing was by far the longest process as we were still learning and we went along. For example, the colour correction we learnt pretty late on in the process.

Of course, like every teenager, we could not servive without the internet.
Safari and Mozilla Firefox allowed us to do much research. We could look up current videos on YOUTUBE to help us develop ideas for song, mise-en-scene, how to film and more and obviously keep you up to date right here on BLOGGER. We also gained feedback through sites such as facebook and uploaded our videos onto here via VIMEO. Without the internet, our research would have been far less thorough, our feedback more limited and we would have had to record our work in some other way...like on paper. YUCK!

Here comes the really hard working tools. The Sony DCR-HC62. To those who don't know,(shame on you) this is a video camera. The video camera which helped us created our baby. As it is compact, it was ideal for us to use for our performance. We could easily transport it and carry it around on stage. This suited us well as our whole footage was shot by hand. The only problems with this camera was that as it is outdated, the quality of our footage was not as strong as perhaps it could have been with a brand new camera. It was also difficult to reproduce as it was on a tape as opposed to a memory card, so transfer to the computer was in real time and tranfer was impossible without editing. But it still did the job.



The obvious piece of equpiment we used was the apple mac. These are the best media based computers around. We were lucky to have access to these computers as they are extremely expensive along with the programmes on them and they are not avaliable to a lot of students. Final cut is only avaliable on apple macs, so had we had a different computer, the quality of our video could have been far worse and not as professional as it has turned out to be. It also supplied to grab tool which let us take grabs as we went along to help document our progress.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learnt from audience feedback?



Our audience feedback has been essential throughout our production of the music video. From the rough cut to the final cut, other people's views have strongly helped us in improving our work. We screened our rough cut in front of our media class, which consists of peers which also happen to be out target audience, and asked them to each provide feedback for us, both positive and negative fitting with their views. This allowed us to assess what was good and what was bad, letting us alter those which were issues.
Although most of the feedback we received was of a positive nature, there were also some hinters for how we were to make our video better, or even to professional quality. Our main criticisms were those of syncing, focus of the camera, a larger number of cuts towards the climax of the video and the issue of no real ending. Some mentioned that our camera movement was unstable, although this was intentional as a static camera ould not have fit with the style of music and high energy of the song.

We also showed other people within our target audience the video and asked them for further feedback. This was on our final cut. Here is what they had to say.

Audience Feedback from Sarah Chamberlain on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 1

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

After hours of filming, cutting, pasting, perfecting and ripping our hair out, our video, poster and digipak is finally finished. We received a boat load of comments telling us how amazing and professional our product looked so it looks like we pulled it off. But how did we do it?

Conventions and forms: There is no way to make this sound professional, so bluntly, we watched and learned.

As we have grown up around channels such as the hits and MTV, we are constantly surrounded with the current products within the music video field. We see them everyday and gradually, even without realising, we have learnt the basic conventions of any music video. So naturally, we would take some influence from this. We also had to analyse current music videos, which taught us any further conventions we needed to achieve the quality we wanted. The main things we realised that we needed were lighting, perfect lip syncing, accurate editing, enhancing camera movement, iconographic mise-en-scene and lots and i mean LOTS of close ups.

Have we managed to carry this off?

Lighting

We lit our video using the on-stage lighting. We sharpened the lightening slightly in the editing but not too much as we wanted to keep its raw edge and allow the viewer to feel as though they were there. The stage constisted of many lights, both overhead and down the sides of the stage. This lit up the front of the stage and illuminated our performers. It also caused shadows to fall naturally, and added a dark yet crisp look that could not be artificially created to its extent. This we found to look quite professional as real music performances are lit this way and are sharpened in editing.

The lighting also worked well with our venue and song. The venue was quite dark and looked very giggish with its dark walls and slightly tatty look. This was what we were looking for and we did not want to ruin it with too much lighting. Also, as the song is of a rock genre, in a hgihly lit room, it would look odd so again we thought the lighting we chose was suitable. Overall we found the lighting to fit well with the conventions of the current market as performances of gigs usually are dark and shadowy to add a more rock style effect.

Lip syncing

Okay...so when it comes to lip syncing we may have cheated a little. But if its for a good cause why not?

As our song was written by a friend of mine, we were able to get the fellow himself to star in our video. This would be the lovely Jon <<<. As he quite obviously knew the song, he sang for us while we filmed, so we knew our music would fit with his lip movement. However, obviously we did not use the sound from the actual filming as there was talking and a lot of drum noise in the background, and we had to make it fit with the soundtrack. Claps for Alex with his success with this. Down to the T.

Editing

Our editing was done so much better than I could have ever expected. The amount of cuts is huge and the pace of the editing fits perfectly with the music. As its a fast paced song, the cuts occur every second or so, so the amount of editing that was done took a very long time. A lot of time and a lot of patience. I think we all ended up hating the song.The editing is all done with cuts. The lighting was improved and the song added in. This we wanted to be as professional as possible so we watched music videos over and over. We learnt that the cuts have to be sharp and in appropriate places as opposed to here there and everywhere. We also discovered that the speed of the music determines whether the transition should be cross dissolves or cuts. The focus of the camera had to be relevant to what was on screen, as there is an automatic relation made in the audiences mind and a MASSIVE amount of close ups were needed. We did, however, need to show our band together and in various shots, but close ups of the lead singers face and the various instruments were vital. We developed the idea of quick cuts to add speed, but tried to make them clean and fit well with the music to enable a professional look. This let us add our own edge as well as using the normal conventions of a music video.

Camera Movement

Mmm camera movement...my favourite bit. I must admit while filming I found this very fun. I liked running round with the camera and getting in on the action. But obviously my enjoyment was not the reason why we did it. No, camera movement is essential in a performance. To make out video seem more real and have more energy, we decided that our camera should move opposed to being static. A static camera we felt would lower the intensity of the performance and not show the song's liveliness. I mean C'mon, its called License to Dance.

The camera movements that were included in our video fit with the pace of the music. Although it changed speed, beign quicker in places to another, there were no pointless movements involved. We filmed the guitar from one end to the other to emphasise that the guitar was the focus for example, and moved the camera to add a lift to the performance. As our performers were moving, we felt the camera should move too. In the current market, gig performances always have a hand held camera filming them as this adds to the performance. No one wants to sit at home and watch the music as if it were being played by statues. The energy adds atmosphere and we wanted the audience to feel the hype you would at a gig where no one stands still. In gig performances, there are sometimes shots of the crowd, but due to money, time and lack of friends transport, we could not arrange this.

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene is one of the most important parts of the arrangement of the shoot. You can not change it afterwards and it needs to be perfect to present what you want to be presented. We wanted our video to show the rock genre of the song so we hired out a gig venue with lighting and speakers to amplify out song. We needed the right instruments, so asked our performers to bring them to the shoot. We also asked them to dress in dark or dull coloured clothes. This was all except for the lead singer who we thought needed to stand out a little so asked him to add a splash of colour, hence the green shirt. We wanted them to be alike to the band the Kaiser Chiefs, who have similar clothing styles but are completely different. This we feel we managed to acheive as the boys all wore constrasting outfits, but could easily fit well together. We feel this fits well to the industry, as the song isn't hard rock so we didn't want them to look 'grundge', yet it wasn't electronica so we wanted to find some mid ground. We think as there aren't any bands which exactly fit this genre of music that we had found the look that they would have in the industry.

Close ups

Closer. No, Closer...CLOSER!! < familiar words from the filming day. As filming had been done more than once before to a, lets be honest, pretty shoddy standard, this time we wanted to get it just right. We discovered that the closest shots we had from the previous attempts were medium close ups and that in real media productions, you could pratically taste the guitar strings. So armed with our camera, we made our final and much more suitable attempt. After hours of footage, a song we could no longer bear and everyones personal space invaded, we had reels and reels of footage that showed close ups of EVERYTHING. This we found to be far more useful and indeed usable than all the other footage we had so far. Although various other distance shots were used, close ups were the main. We needed these as we wanted the audience to feel, as we were, close to the band. In the current market, most shots of a band are close ups of the instruments and the lead singer. We felt we achieved the expectations of a professional music video from most points of view, yet mainly the close ups.

MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT

We feel that our magazine advertisement would easily fit into the current market. This is as it adheres to the conventions of the real poster, on the right. Neither show the band, yet represent it with an image or an icon and the name of the artist and the album is clear to see. They both have star ratings and comments from those who would recommend it printed within the advert. Logos have been included on the left bottom corner and other informantion is included. They both have an edgy and different feel to them which we feel to be essential in the professional world.

DIGIPAK

These covers are both very plain. As we had a band and we didn't have to include them on the cover, we wanted to keep it simple. This is why it simply states the band and the album name, just like the real one. We also kept a basic colour scheme as is in the other. Although ours is simple, it is a little more busy than the other, yet we like it as it reflects the energy of the video.

Evaluation Question 2

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

Animated Photo Generator

Final Cut

Final Cut from Sarah Chamberlain on Vimeo.

Final Magazine Advertisement

Final Digipak

Feedback

As a class we viewed each others videos and wrote feedback for each group. Our feedback was mainly positive but there were a few improvements to be made. Here was our feedback:

Music and instruments are in time
short frames?
quicker cuts?
overall-good

Music and filming fit well

good timings

quicker cuts?

ending needs finishing

thought it was good :)

Location looks really good - suits the song/theme

close ups of guitar good

different angles are effective

in some places more cuts could be used

camera is a bit wobbly in some bits

Good sync to lyrics

the drums are good and the guitars

good use of camera all around

camera wobbly in some areas

mise-en-scene good

fits genre of song

Looked real, in sync

suits the song

great fast cuts

the cuts to the instruments work well keeping up the fast tempo

ends well

the editing is great

Good opening

not sure about 1.44

really nicely edited

3.00 guitar solo should be more obvious

better ending needed

Good start of filming before guitars

guitar solo slightly out of time

like close-ups of singer

like camera movements when its handheld

shots of drummer above look wicked

its all really exciting

so well timed

SO GOOD

Start good in time with music

singing at start a bit out of sync

close ups are good

setting suits song

its so good!

Good quick cut before he starts singing

good close ups when singing

good close ups of instruments

good shots of whole band

excellent camera movement

Handheld camera is I think a bit too shakey at the beginning

the miming is bang on time :)

The close up when he is singing is very good

the handheld camera makes i very personal

can be a bit repetitive of guitar close ups

think the editing could be tighter at the end as it gets faster

love the angles of singers face

Digipak

As one of our ancillary tasks, we need to create a digipak. We have to decide on what kind of look we want it to have, what to put on it, how it should fit together and also, who should be involved in making it.
To help us decide on these factors, we need to do a bit of research.
A digipak includes the front cover of a CD case. This usually consists of an image of a random object, instrument, person or animal. Solo singers are also shown on their albums, however, rarely is a band. This is due to the band being avaliable at different times and also as bands usually have a particular logo to represent them. For example, avenged sevenfold have the death bat, and metallica have a particular font of which their name is always written.

In the album cover below from the Kaiser Chiefs, the band has not been used. A simple snake skin background has been used with a tab that has the name of the band and album on it. The edges are tatty and it made to look like an old box lid. It says in small font 'a box of tricks' From this I would used the idea of a basic cover. I like that the cover simply says who it is by and what it is called. I don't think I would use the box idea but I would perhaps encorperate some ideas of my own.

In the cover below, again the band has not been used. However, unlike the one above, it is not just simply words. This time an icon has been used. The butterfly is a bright image which can represent the brightness and energy of the band. It also presents some sort of innocence, perhaps suggesting that it is not has hard as some forms of rock music. I like the idea of the butterfly but I don't think I would use it within our song. This is due to our band being all guys and this adding a slightly feminine feel to it.

Band shots

Originally, we had preferred the idea of using the band on the front cover. This would just make it that bit more personal to us. While we were at our venue doing the filming, we took the time to take some photos. However, our band had a lot of trouble standing still and there were hardly any photos of them that aren't blurred.

For this reason, we decided not to use them on the front cover.

Filming

We booked the Red Lion in Gravesend for a five hour slot. We booked it from 3pm-8pm, however, not every band member could make the whole time alloted due to work and family arrangements. This restricted our options. After contemplation we decided to film the whole band shots and close ups of Jon first, as he had to leave at 6, and then the individual shots of the other members of the band when he had left. This worked quite well.


The only problem with this venue is that we had to provide our own instruments. This didn't cause too much hassle until we realised that Tom had forgotten one of the supports of the drums from his kit. After a lot of running around and thinking of make-shift stands, he realised he didn't even hit that drum so it wouldn't make much difference. A part from these hiccups, it all ran rather smoothly.


Every one of us did some filming, and when the others weren't, we were helping direct. The boys were very cooperative and did as we asked, making the whole process a lot easier and less time consuming. Each of us put in our own input and help each other out so overall I think everyone was pleased with the footage.

Band Names

As the band we put together are not an actual band, and the song is not done by a famous artist, we had to come up with our own band name. This took a lot of time to do as it was hard to find a fitting name. These are the names we came up with:

The Riot
Revolt
Revolution
Rampage
Rage
Destruction
Disturbance
Deranged

The Band

We struggled to get a band together. James knew a band that could perform a song of theirs for us but they could only get to places around London and our venue was in Gravesend. This meant we had to get think of another option. We managed to get the actual singer of the song we have chosen and I managed to get together another three of my friends to do drums, bass and guitar. Luckily they were willing and put the effort in to learn the song in advance.
The people in our band are:

Jon
Our lead singer

Mikey
Our Guitarist

Jack

Our Bassist
Tom
Our Drummer

Rough Cut

Rough Cut from Sarah Chamberlain on Vimeo.

Chosen location

We original tried filming at both the studio and the cheap hall but decided neither was right for our video. So we rented out the Red Lion for a five hour slot and decided that it was perfect. It fit our genre of music and looked more like a band performance than anywhere else.

Cover Ideas

For our ancillery tasks we have to create a digipak and a magazine advertisement. For this we needed to come up with various things which we could put on the cover. Our ideas were:

Using the bands driving licenses and putting them together to make a square. The part that says 'driving license' would be changed to 'dancing license'.

Another is to get a model to wear a t-shirt saying 'license to dance' with them dancing. We haven't decided whether to have the whole model or just their torso so it is easier to read.

We also could use a silhouette of a dancer in negative or black and white with a bright colored writing over the image.

We also had the idea of using a crowd at a gig as it would show the mayhem and fun which we wanted to portray.

Cover Ideas - Licenses

For our album front cover, we had many ideas. Our favorites were either having the band, or as the song is licence to dance, using some form of licence. As part of this idea, we thought about taking each band member's driving licence and putting them together like a square. We discovered that the drummer of the band had no passed his test so only had a provisional, but we decided that this may have a nice effect.
Before we got the pictures of the band, I decided to take an example licence from the internet and see how easy it would be to change it from a 'driving licence' to a 'dancing licence'. This is how I did it.

First I pasted the original picture from google.

I then zoomed in and selected the 'NC' from 'licence'.

I then copied it and placed it within the word 'driving'.

After this I cut out the 'I' and moved the 'D' over and replaced the background with a patch of pink that was around the writing. I think drew a rough outline of where the 'A' needed to be.

I then found the closest matching font and pipetted the colour from the 'D'. I then placed the 'A' in the space.

I zoomed back out and this was my finished product.

Overall, it wasn't too hard to make but I will have to try doing this with a provisional which may not be as easy.

Animatic

Here is the animatic in all it's glory.

Animatic from Sarah Chamberlain on Vimeo.