Monday, 9 January 2012
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Evaluation- Jodie Clark
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video has certain conventions of other music videos we've researched, yet also includes some developed ideas, opposing to them. Some videos we have explored under the same genre of pop/rock are; Pink's 'So What', Kelly Clarkson's 'Because of You' and Katy Perry's 'Hot N Cold'. Seeing as our chosen track was another by Katy Perry, we looked in more depth into her videos. We firstly noticed that the majority of her videos were narrative based- with the storylines linking to relationships. As the lyrics to our track 'Time's Up' refer to a break up between a couple, we decided to base our narrative along those lines. Alongside this, we noticed how in all of the videos, the artists lip sync the lyrics of their songs. For example, in the video of 'Hot N Cold' Katy Perry uses direct address while singing- so singing towards the camera (audience). This is something we knew we had to include to stress the emotions set in our lyrics. From analysing the lyrics, we found that the emotion of the song is quite angry and upsetting- by using direct address would portray these feelings across better.
When looking at the mise-en-scene of other videos, they all link together in some ways; the exaggeration of make-up and costume- mirroring the pop/rock genre of American music videos. As a group, we didn't want to copy exactly what other videos have done; so by challenging this, we went for a more casual look to suit the narrative and make it look more realistic. An example in our video is our costume choice of a white vest top and leggings with small plain shoes- this casual look made the narrative more believable than say if we chose colourful, bright clothes that would stand out too much and not link with the story. We did however include another outfit, a green dress with silver high heels. This linked in with our narrative, having her drinking at the bar and 'dressed to impress' as such. This change in costume keeps the audiences' attention. Again the same with make-up, in some of Pink's videos her make-up is very bold and eye-catching, opposing to this we decided to stick to a suttle look of just a fine amount of make-up (only to cover any imperfections and easier to replicate if need be).
Locations were a bit trickier to develop, seeing as most of the videos we looked at were filmed outdoors, in the warm weather. For us being in England in the autumn/winter season, the chances of warm weather is extremely low, so we managed to cope with filming on the dry, decent weather we had. It's surprising how the alteration in weather can tweak aspects of a video- for us, we found this changed our ideas as we went along, having to work around the weather. An example being the costume; wearing thin and revealing clothes would not be appropriate in cold weather- and not comfortable to film. We considered locations carefully by seeing which were more reliable to use- yet still thinking about the conventions of a pop/rock. In Pink's video 'So What', there were a few scenes in a bar which we thought we would replicate. We found it linked well with our theme and even some of the lyrics, e.g. "We squeezed the fruit, til there was no more juice left" have underlying meanings of drinking. For the location to fit in with our narrative, as a group we decided to base it around the idea of 'drowning your sorrows', in this case, the girl having left her partner and drinking to forget about her worries. Other locations & settings we used were fields, a home lounge, and outside of the home- by a wall and in the middle of a road. We took inspiration from Kelly Clarkson's video 'Because of You', having used most of these locations in her video. We noticed how the majority of her video is set in the home. From looking at this, we took segments of which to consider using and developing from in our video. The scenes in and around the home gave a sense of reality to the narrative and video in general, as Kelly Clarkson's does. We wanted to portray the girl leaving her home as part of our narrative so the video 'Because of You' gave us great help and inspiration. All the videos we looked into and researched gave us great help when creating ideas.
When looking at the mise-en-scene of other videos, they all link together in some ways; the exaggeration of make-up and costume- mirroring the pop/rock genre of American music videos. As a group, we didn't want to copy exactly what other videos have done; so by challenging this, we went for a more casual look to suit the narrative and make it look more realistic. An example in our video is our costume choice of a white vest top and leggings with small plain shoes- this casual look made the narrative more believable than say if we chose colourful, bright clothes that would stand out too much and not link with the story. We did however include another outfit, a green dress with silver high heels. This linked in with our narrative, having her drinking at the bar and 'dressed to impress' as such. This change in costume keeps the audiences' attention. Again the same with make-up, in some of Pink's videos her make-up is very bold and eye-catching, opposing to this we decided to stick to a suttle look of just a fine amount of make-up (only to cover any imperfections and easier to replicate if need be).
Locations were a bit trickier to develop, seeing as most of the videos we looked at were filmed outdoors, in the warm weather. For us being in England in the autumn/winter season, the chances of warm weather is extremely low, so we managed to cope with filming on the dry, decent weather we had. It's surprising how the alteration in weather can tweak aspects of a video- for us, we found this changed our ideas as we went along, having to work around the weather. An example being the costume; wearing thin and revealing clothes would not be appropriate in cold weather- and not comfortable to film. We considered locations carefully by seeing which were more reliable to use- yet still thinking about the conventions of a pop/rock. In Pink's video 'So What', there were a few scenes in a bar which we thought we would replicate. We found it linked well with our theme and even some of the lyrics, e.g. "We squeezed the fruit, til there was no more juice left" have underlying meanings of drinking. For the location to fit in with our narrative, as a group we decided to base it around the idea of 'drowning your sorrows', in this case, the girl having left her partner and drinking to forget about her worries. Other locations & settings we used were fields, a home lounge, and outside of the home- by a wall and in the middle of a road. We took inspiration from Kelly Clarkson's video 'Because of You', having used most of these locations in her video. We noticed how the majority of her video is set in the home. From looking at this, we took segments of which to consider using and developing from in our video. The scenes in and around the home gave a sense of reality to the narrative and video in general, as Kelly Clarkson's does. We wanted to portray the girl leaving her home as part of our narrative so the video 'Because of You' gave us great help and inspiration. All the videos we looked into and researched gave us great help when creating ideas.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
The Magazine advert, digipak and of course the music video, we found linked quite well together. From researching into other types of digipaks and magazine adverts we knew what aspects to include and how to link it to our video. The first thing we had to think about was 'what stands out in our video?'. As it was highly based around the theme of a break up in a relationship, we wanted a way to portray this on both ancillary tasks. We agreed on using an image of the main star in the production as the main focus of both- this way they would all have this in common. To choose a suitable image we did a small photoshoot; mainly to see what we found worked best and which poses we liked. We chose two images overall which we found linked best to the theme we were going for. One of which was her looking away from the camera with an upset expression. This suited the mood of the video and expressing the emotions clearly to the viewer. The second image, we used only on the digipak, was the girl sitting down with a serious facial expression. This image out of the two portrays a mild anger which we were originally going for, yet you sense a sexual undertone from her body language and how revealing her costume is. From using photoshop, we manipulated the image and made it more prominent and bold. The first image is slightly paler with darker shades, which works with the negative tones in her face. The other image however is more prominent almost exaggerating the power she still has even though she is upset. We chose purple as our main colour theme, being a colour which represents independence and jealousy. A combination of the energy & anger of red, with and the sadness and depth of blue. This colour is most suitable for our ancillary tasks. Both ancillary tasks look very much alike, with the same purple coloured background and white font and text. The magazine advert is very much the same as the front cover of the digipak- apart from some additional information. The ancillary tasks are very much alike and stand out for reasons which replicate aspects of the main product we did.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback is something me and the rest of my group care deeply about, as the audience is one of the most important things- as it's all based around them, even in the professional industry. One of the main questions we wanted them to answer was simply 'Did you understand the narrative?'. In the making of this music video we came across many challenges that we solved in different ways. An example being the narrative, which originally contained a male role- as this did not work out as we had planned, we altered it so it was only the female lead role and one other extra. We wanted to be sure that the storyline came across clearly and the audience understood what was happening. We have had many mixed views about our main product, the majority were very positive comments. Obviously as a group, and as the people who were behind it all, we noticed little elements that could have been improved to make it more effective, which some people did in fact bring up; one point being the close-up shots were just that little bit too close and maybe should have been a mid/ close up shot instead.
Not only being part of the group, but as the lead role/ character, obviously I am more likely to criticise myself as an actress, as anyone else would, feeling a little insecure with how I looked for example. The lip-syncing in some parts I found looked slightly off, but as we had discussed before, due to the poor conversion from the final cut software to quicktime, it was out of sync in places. We did tell our audience this before hand, so they knew it was not our filming mistake.
Of course, we got a great deal of positive comments which were greatly received. It made us feel good how our hard efforts had paid off. Getting this feedback not only tells us what we can improve on, but tells us what the viewers liked about it and if we were to do it again- what elements to leave as they are. You learn what interests the audience from their feedback and ways in which to keep their attention and keep them entertained; by using various techniques and in our case, a good narrative to follow.
The Magazine advert, digipak and of course the music video, we found linked quite well together. From researching into other types of digipaks and magazine adverts we knew what aspects to include and how to link it to our video. The first thing we had to think about was 'what stands out in our video?'. As it was highly based around the theme of a break up in a relationship, we wanted a way to portray this on both ancillary tasks. We agreed on using an image of the main star in the production as the main focus of both- this way they would all have this in common. To choose a suitable image we did a small photoshoot; mainly to see what we found worked best and which poses we liked. We chose two images overall which we found linked best to the theme we were going for. One of which was her looking away from the camera with an upset expression. This suited the mood of the video and expressing the emotions clearly to the viewer. The second image, we used only on the digipak, was the girl sitting down with a serious facial expression. This image out of the two portrays a mild anger which we were originally going for, yet you sense a sexual undertone from her body language and how revealing her costume is. From using photoshop, we manipulated the image and made it more prominent and bold. The first image is slightly paler with darker shades, which works with the negative tones in her face. The other image however is more prominent almost exaggerating the power she still has even though she is upset. We chose purple as our main colour theme, being a colour which represents independence and jealousy. A combination of the energy & anger of red, with and the sadness and depth of blue. This colour is most suitable for our ancillary tasks. Both ancillary tasks look very much alike, with the same purple coloured background and white font and text. The magazine advert is very much the same as the front cover of the digipak- apart from some additional information. The ancillary tasks are very much alike and stand out for reasons which replicate aspects of the main product we did.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback is something me and the rest of my group care deeply about, as the audience is one of the most important things- as it's all based around them, even in the professional industry. One of the main questions we wanted them to answer was simply 'Did you understand the narrative?'. In the making of this music video we came across many challenges that we solved in different ways. An example being the narrative, which originally contained a male role- as this did not work out as we had planned, we altered it so it was only the female lead role and one other extra. We wanted to be sure that the storyline came across clearly and the audience understood what was happening. We have had many mixed views about our main product, the majority were very positive comments. Obviously as a group, and as the people who were behind it all, we noticed little elements that could have been improved to make it more effective, which some people did in fact bring up; one point being the close-up shots were just that little bit too close and maybe should have been a mid/ close up shot instead.
Not only being part of the group, but as the lead role/ character, obviously I am more likely to criticise myself as an actress, as anyone else would, feeling a little insecure with how I looked for example. The lip-syncing in some parts I found looked slightly off, but as we had discussed before, due to the poor conversion from the final cut software to quicktime, it was out of sync in places. We did tell our audience this before hand, so they knew it was not our filming mistake.
Of course, we got a great deal of positive comments which were greatly received. It made us feel good how our hard efforts had paid off. Getting this feedback not only tells us what we can improve on, but tells us what the viewers liked about it and if we were to do it again- what elements to leave as they are. You learn what interests the audience from their feedback and ways in which to keep their attention and keep them entertained; by using various techniques and in our case, a good narrative to follow.
How far did you use media technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Technology played a great part in the making of the main product and ancillary tasks.
For the research and planning we used YouTube to watch other music videos, taking inspiration from them and looking into videos of the Pop/ rock genre. We also looking at websites such as Wikipedia, to research into background information on Katy Perry (the singer of the track we selected). www.blogger.com is the blogging site we used to store all of our work on as a group- creating new posts as we went along. We had access to the school computers and obviously our personal computers for any work we did at home.
For the construction of the video itself, we used a high quality film camera to film the music video itself. With access to the mac computers which had the Final Cut software installed- this we used to edit our video. We then uploaded the video onto Youtube and finally onto our blog. We took many photos using a digital camera to add to our work too. Photoshop was used to edit our ancillary tasks, the magazine advert and digipak. This section contained the most media technology.
For the evaluation, we created a commentry, which was made again using the film camera, edited on final cut, and uploaded onto the blog.
We used all the media facilities available throughout our project, relying deeply on the equipment.
Friday, 16 December 2011
Evaluation- Chloe Roche
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We looked at many artists videos and styles that were of a similar genre as our track artist, such as Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson and pink. These are all female artists so we could clearly see the types of components used in their style and genders music videos. This helped us gain a better understanding of the conventions used for the pop-rock genre. We also looked at our track artist Katy Perry's music videos to see if she had her own personal style or features that were purely her own. This helped us to better understand the artists style so we could mimic some conventions to give our product more elements that reflected the artist, but to still involve other conventions used in the pop-rock genre to give an overview of the elements of this genre.
Some examples of the conventions we used were the jump cuts in our editing. Jump cuts like this are used in many of Kelly Clarkson's videos such as 'My Life Would Suck Without You'. The costume our actress wore in the video is of a similar style and is more on trend. This is one of the features we picked up on in our research so we decided to incorporate this into the video to stick to the conventions. However in some videos we viewed, we noticed that those with a themed narrative would sometimes be set in a different time period and this would reflect on the clothing style such as in Katy Perry's 'Thinking of You' video. However as the majority of videos we watched used up to date clothing we decided to go with this feature as it was easier to produce the style. An example of were we took inspiration from real media products with the outfits is in Pink's 'So What' were the artist is wearing a simple tank top and trousers. We decided to incorporate this into our video with Jodie wearing a white tank top and jeggings as this was a cheap and simple design but still kept with the style used in the music videos of the pop-rock genre. We also noticed that many artists had more-out-there costumes such as in Pink's 'So What' and Katy Perry's 'California Gurls'. We were unable to create outlandish outfits like those used in these videos as we didn't have the expertise or budget to do so, we decided on the basic and easy design used in videos such as Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream'. Another thing we picked up on with costume design in many of these videos and especially Katy Perry's videos were that the outfits were revealing. This was unsuitable for our actress Jodie so we decided to design the outfits so that they weren't too revealing but still of the same kind of style to keep with the conventions.
The make-up in many videos was very basic unless they artist was wearing a crazy outfit. So as we decided our character would be wearing basic clothing, we decided to keep the make-up simple too to keep with the conventions of usual pop-rock genre music videos. As the make-up was simple it was easy to replicate if we needed to re-shoot anything or if we filmed on different days but it was the same sequence.
We noticed that pop-rock genre videos were mainly narrative based so we used this convention and included it in our video. We also noticed that there was a lot of direct narrative in many of the videos and as this was a main feature we included this throughout our music video to keep with the convention.
Many of the locations in the music videos we watched were in America and it was clear to see this as there were features of American society. Obviously we couldn't use these kind of settings as we live in England and we didn't have the budget or time to fly out to the US and film there. Many of the locations were in warm places too, so we couldn't copy this either as we only had a small time frame in autumn so the weather was colder and wetter at times. To keep continuity we had to be careful where we filmed and keep an eye on the conditions to keep it consistent if we went back to film in some locations that were outside. The use of the club/pub we used is a type of location used in Pinks 'So What' video. The shots of inside and around the house are types of locations used in many of Katy Perry's videos such as in 'TGIF' (although a slightly different context), 'Thinking of You', and in Pink's 'Family Portrait' so again this was linking to real media products and is keeping with the conventions. We had to use locations that were free for us to use such as our houses and stag meadow as we didn't have the budget. This didn't cause an issue as the locations that were available to us still fitted with the conventional ones.
We used lighting that was already available to us, such as the natural lighting of the sun with the shots that were outside and we used the disco lights in the pub/club and those available in the house. We didn't have access to other lighting apart from a small laser light that we used. Again not having access to other sources of lighting didn't form an issue as the lighting we had available still kept with conventions of the music videos we had watched.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
I think that our ancillary tasks of a digipak and magazine advert link very well to our main product of the music video as we have used Jodie, who featured as the main character/artist in our video, as the image/ photograph on the digipak and mag ad. This would clearly show that they are related as it is the same person. We have also used one of the outfits that are used in the video so this again relates and shows clearly that these products are in relation with each other. We have also used the same sort of colour schemes on the ancillary products as we have in the music video. These elements effectively show that our music video, mag ad and digipak are a combination for the same product.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We showed our rough edit of the first 30 seconds of our video to some of our peers to get feedback on what we could improve and what they liked about it. We found that they really liked the jump cuts we used in the editing. We were told that the suitcase scenes were a little hard to understand and they didn't see where they really fit in with the narrative. They noticed the lip-syncing was slightly off too. To rectify these problems we explained the suitcase shots in more detail throughout the narrative to make it clearer, we also made some shots black and white to show that these were in the past and clearly showed they were flashbacks. We learnt to be more careful whilst putting in shots for the lip-syncing scenes.
After taking this feedback we then went on to finish the music video and showed it to more people. We got a lot of positive feedback such as they found it easy to understand the narrative and they could clearly see how the woman was sick of her husband and angry that he went out so she left him. We were happy with this as we had to change some of the narrative so it didn't include any shots of the husband as our actor didn't turn up for filming. They again really liked the jump cuts which kept it interesting. These jump cuts fitted with conventions. Many commented on how good Jodie was at acting so we were glad we had picked her to do it. The most positive feedback we got was that many people thought it looked like a pop-rock music video, we were very pleased with this as this was the style we were going for, so it shows we included enough conventions for it to be easy to see it was of the pop-rock genre. We got feedback on how we could have improved it such as some suggested we could have used more locations or ones that we more interesting. It was also suggested we could have had more interesting costumes, we would have been keen to have included more exciting costumes but as we didn't have the budget it was simpler for us to use products we already had. Again we were told the lip-syncing was off in some places but this was due to a problem with the quicktime converter as on final cut the lip-syncing was fine. We tried to change the settings whilst converting the video to fix the problem, however this didn't work completely, we only managed to improve it slightly so it wasn't quite as obvious it was off sync.
How far did you use media technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluating stages?
In the construction, research, planning and evaluation we used a wide range of media technologies. Computers and laptops were used as a main station for all of our work along with apple macs. We used blogs to put up all the research and work we have done. This was easier than using paper as it would have included a lot of paperwork. As blogs are a media technology it fitted with the subject so were more suitable.
In the research stages we used 'youtube' to look at other music videos of our pop-rock genre to observe what kinds of conventions are used. We also used it to research auteur's videos etc. and for our evaluation. We also used 'youtube' to put up our videos to share on the internet. We used 'google' and other search engines to research digipaks, mag ads, the pop-rock genre and the track artist among other things. The majority of our research not involving actual videos was found by using 'google'. We also used 'google images' to research pictures to include on our blogs to make them look more interesting.
We used 'email' and social networking sites such as 'facebook' to communicate with each other and share information we had found. We also used it to send out questionnaires to get feedback on our video.We used word to create questionnaires to hand out to people to fill in and to write up shot lists and guides of the work we needed to do. We used printers to print out the questionnaires and information we needed whilst out filming such as a guide of what we needed to say on the evaluation video and revised shot lists. Scanners were used to put hand written work onto the blogs such as the original shot list and the questionnaires people filled in. This was a simple way of showing the work we had done instead of typing it all up. Cameras were used for taking pictures such as locations, costume ideas and possible actors to include on our blogs for the research stages. Photographs were also taken for use on our mag ad and digipak. Cameras were obviously used to film the shots for our music video and evaluation video. Final cut on the macs was used to edit our shots together for the music video and evaluation video. It was also used for our test shots. Photoshop was used to manipulate the photographs taken for including on the magazine advert and digipak. These were also designed on photoshop. So we used a wide range of media technologies in all areas of our work.
We looked at many artists videos and styles that were of a similar genre as our track artist, such as Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson and pink. These are all female artists so we could clearly see the types of components used in their style and genders music videos. This helped us gain a better understanding of the conventions used for the pop-rock genre. We also looked at our track artist Katy Perry's music videos to see if she had her own personal style or features that were purely her own. This helped us to better understand the artists style so we could mimic some conventions to give our product more elements that reflected the artist, but to still involve other conventions used in the pop-rock genre to give an overview of the elements of this genre.
Some examples of the conventions we used were the jump cuts in our editing. Jump cuts like this are used in many of Kelly Clarkson's videos such as 'My Life Would Suck Without You'. The costume our actress wore in the video is of a similar style and is more on trend. This is one of the features we picked up on in our research so we decided to incorporate this into the video to stick to the conventions. However in some videos we viewed, we noticed that those with a themed narrative would sometimes be set in a different time period and this would reflect on the clothing style such as in Katy Perry's 'Thinking of You' video. However as the majority of videos we watched used up to date clothing we decided to go with this feature as it was easier to produce the style. An example of were we took inspiration from real media products with the outfits is in Pink's 'So What' were the artist is wearing a simple tank top and trousers. We decided to incorporate this into our video with Jodie wearing a white tank top and jeggings as this was a cheap and simple design but still kept with the style used in the music videos of the pop-rock genre. We also noticed that many artists had more-out-there costumes such as in Pink's 'So What' and Katy Perry's 'California Gurls'. We were unable to create outlandish outfits like those used in these videos as we didn't have the expertise or budget to do so, we decided on the basic and easy design used in videos such as Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream'. Another thing we picked up on with costume design in many of these videos and especially Katy Perry's videos were that the outfits were revealing. This was unsuitable for our actress Jodie so we decided to design the outfits so that they weren't too revealing but still of the same kind of style to keep with the conventions.
The make-up in many videos was very basic unless they artist was wearing a crazy outfit. So as we decided our character would be wearing basic clothing, we decided to keep the make-up simple too to keep with the conventions of usual pop-rock genre music videos. As the make-up was simple it was easy to replicate if we needed to re-shoot anything or if we filmed on different days but it was the same sequence.
We noticed that pop-rock genre videos were mainly narrative based so we used this convention and included it in our video. We also noticed that there was a lot of direct narrative in many of the videos and as this was a main feature we included this throughout our music video to keep with the convention.
Many of the locations in the music videos we watched were in America and it was clear to see this as there were features of American society. Obviously we couldn't use these kind of settings as we live in England and we didn't have the budget or time to fly out to the US and film there. Many of the locations were in warm places too, so we couldn't copy this either as we only had a small time frame in autumn so the weather was colder and wetter at times. To keep continuity we had to be careful where we filmed and keep an eye on the conditions to keep it consistent if we went back to film in some locations that were outside. The use of the club/pub we used is a type of location used in Pinks 'So What' video. The shots of inside and around the house are types of locations used in many of Katy Perry's videos such as in 'TGIF' (although a slightly different context), 'Thinking of You', and in Pink's 'Family Portrait' so again this was linking to real media products and is keeping with the conventions. We had to use locations that were free for us to use such as our houses and stag meadow as we didn't have the budget. This didn't cause an issue as the locations that were available to us still fitted with the conventional ones.
We used lighting that was already available to us, such as the natural lighting of the sun with the shots that were outside and we used the disco lights in the pub/club and those available in the house. We didn't have access to other lighting apart from a small laser light that we used. Again not having access to other sources of lighting didn't form an issue as the lighting we had available still kept with conventions of the music videos we had watched.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
I think that our ancillary tasks of a digipak and magazine advert link very well to our main product of the music video as we have used Jodie, who featured as the main character/artist in our video, as the image/ photograph on the digipak and mag ad. This would clearly show that they are related as it is the same person. We have also used one of the outfits that are used in the video so this again relates and shows clearly that these products are in relation with each other. We have also used the same sort of colour schemes on the ancillary products as we have in the music video. These elements effectively show that our music video, mag ad and digipak are a combination for the same product.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We showed our rough edit of the first 30 seconds of our video to some of our peers to get feedback on what we could improve and what they liked about it. We found that they really liked the jump cuts we used in the editing. We were told that the suitcase scenes were a little hard to understand and they didn't see where they really fit in with the narrative. They noticed the lip-syncing was slightly off too. To rectify these problems we explained the suitcase shots in more detail throughout the narrative to make it clearer, we also made some shots black and white to show that these were in the past and clearly showed they were flashbacks. We learnt to be more careful whilst putting in shots for the lip-syncing scenes.
After taking this feedback we then went on to finish the music video and showed it to more people. We got a lot of positive feedback such as they found it easy to understand the narrative and they could clearly see how the woman was sick of her husband and angry that he went out so she left him. We were happy with this as we had to change some of the narrative so it didn't include any shots of the husband as our actor didn't turn up for filming. They again really liked the jump cuts which kept it interesting. These jump cuts fitted with conventions. Many commented on how good Jodie was at acting so we were glad we had picked her to do it. The most positive feedback we got was that many people thought it looked like a pop-rock music video, we were very pleased with this as this was the style we were going for, so it shows we included enough conventions for it to be easy to see it was of the pop-rock genre. We got feedback on how we could have improved it such as some suggested we could have used more locations or ones that we more interesting. It was also suggested we could have had more interesting costumes, we would have been keen to have included more exciting costumes but as we didn't have the budget it was simpler for us to use products we already had. Again we were told the lip-syncing was off in some places but this was due to a problem with the quicktime converter as on final cut the lip-syncing was fine. We tried to change the settings whilst converting the video to fix the problem, however this didn't work completely, we only managed to improve it slightly so it wasn't quite as obvious it was off sync.
How far did you use media technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluating stages?
In the construction, research, planning and evaluation we used a wide range of media technologies. Computers and laptops were used as a main station for all of our work along with apple macs. We used blogs to put up all the research and work we have done. This was easier than using paper as it would have included a lot of paperwork. As blogs are a media technology it fitted with the subject so were more suitable.
In the research stages we used 'youtube' to look at other music videos of our pop-rock genre to observe what kinds of conventions are used. We also used it to research auteur's videos etc. and for our evaluation. We also used 'youtube' to put up our videos to share on the internet. We used 'google' and other search engines to research digipaks, mag ads, the pop-rock genre and the track artist among other things. The majority of our research not involving actual videos was found by using 'google'. We also used 'google images' to research pictures to include on our blogs to make them look more interesting.
We used 'email' and social networking sites such as 'facebook' to communicate with each other and share information we had found. We also used it to send out questionnaires to get feedback on our video.We used word to create questionnaires to hand out to people to fill in and to write up shot lists and guides of the work we needed to do. We used printers to print out the questionnaires and information we needed whilst out filming such as a guide of what we needed to say on the evaluation video and revised shot lists. Scanners were used to put hand written work onto the blogs such as the original shot list and the questionnaires people filled in. This was a simple way of showing the work we had done instead of typing it all up. Cameras were used for taking pictures such as locations, costume ideas and possible actors to include on our blogs for the research stages. Photographs were also taken for use on our mag ad and digipak. Cameras were obviously used to film the shots for our music video and evaluation video. Final cut on the macs was used to edit our shots together for the music video and evaluation video. It was also used for our test shots. Photoshop was used to manipulate the photographs taken for including on the magazine advert and digipak. These were also designed on photoshop. So we used a wide range of media technologies in all areas of our work.
Mollie White's Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- We have three main sections to our video: narrative (including flashback), performance and close-up of artist performance. This was a major thing that we recognised in nearly every single pop rock music video we looked at. Having set out to capture this meanwhile we did have difficulty in only using one type of each because unfortunatly we didn't exactally film enough of each footage. We therefore had to add extra shots which although fitting with the idea of being one of the four were of different location, this is certainly the case when considering the closeup performance scenes.
- Jodie is shown lip syncing throughout nearly the entirety of the video that is not flashback actually flashback narrative. This is something that became especially apparent in Kelly Clarkson's videos.
- We used several close-up shots, especially when it came to filming the close-up narrative. These close-up shots acted as direct address. The only issue being with this is that when we filmed it we allowed for a few mistakes within the lip syncing so when it came to editing we didn’t have close-up shots for when we wanted them. An issue that made this even more difficult was finding that we could not rewind the tape and watch what we had filmed (so that we could actually check it).
- The editing was kept reassembly fast paced and there was constant reference between flashback narrative and narrative in general. This added to creating a story of a break up that actually made sense (even without the husband being involved).
- When it came to transitions between shots most of them are clear cut but we did slightly move away from the conventions to use some slower transmissions. The slower transitions do meanwhile work in the sense that they make some of cuts between images slower and easier for the audience to engage with. This although a slight break with conventions is not an unheard of thing in pop rock video’s, Maroon 5 for example use such transitions between present day narrative and flashback in “Won’t Go Home Without You”.
- Our video is a break up with the “Wife” walking out on her husband. The problem is that originally we were going to have a very clear narrative of a woman have a drunk husband who she leaves. In this original background we were going to show the husband. Unfortunately having chosen an unreliable actor to be in our film to play the “husband” he didn’t show up when we were supposed to be filming. We therefore decided to improvise and the role of the “husband” became an assumed role. The “wife” being the one to walk out on the husband and to get drunk to get over the break up, resolving at the end to get on with her life. The narrative that we came up with because the actor didn’t show up may not have be as clear and effective as with the actor included but when editing we formed into something that has clarity to what is happening.
- We avoided using literal connections between song lyrics and what is happening in the video. We did though have Jodie wave in the performance section which fitted with the words “waving you goodbye”. This one literal occurrence does work with the theme of the song meanwhile because it is slightly amusing and breaks the song up slightly, this action probably leans towards some of the dance moves in Katy Perry’s videos.
- We did have to break away from the conventions of the pop rock video when it came to the age of the actors involved. In most pop rock video’s they emulate a similar age to the artist, Katy Perry is in her twenties which means that we should have used twenty year olds. We unfortunately do not know twenty year olds so we used mature looking eighteen year olds. If we look at Jodie as the artist meanwhile then she is the same age (or there about) of the other cast members.
- Other breaks with conventions involved the fact that we had a non existent budget compared to Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson who would spend thousands on their videos. This difference has feed into lots of different parts of our video including: costume, lighting, location, actors and filming equipment in general.
- We tried to use different conventions to separate out the different elements of our video. We had two main outfits to do this, one was a white tank top and jeggins, the other was a dress. We then alternated the tank top and jeggins with two different coats. The costumes again were not in line with the conventions of a pop rock music video because of the budget, we didn’t have the money to spend on extremely expensive and more elaborate costumes so we were forced to use clothes we already had. I think the clothes have worked in line with our storyline though, we want the person in the film to be average (in the sense of wealth), and we wanted the focus to be resolutely on the idea of a break up of a young married couple.
- We were able to stick to the conventions because of the amount of research that we had already concluded in making. We looked in great detail at videos from the artists: Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry etc.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Personally I believe that they match up pretty well. We were in the position of having a song which was sung by pop singer (Katy Perry) and yet the song had more pop rock vibes we therefore tried to fit as many conventions into the ancillary tasks as possible:
- One of the ways in which we carried this out was with the colour palette choice; we used a combination of dark purple, dark pinky purple and white. Not having too many colours involved worked well because it kept the images uniform and not too elaborate. If we had used lots of different colours or even shades of colour it the finished piece would have been too elaborate. The colours also work in the sense of our conventions in the way that: The dark purple has more of a rock connotation which then subtles down the brightness of the pink we used which is a colour more associated in rock. Bringing all the colours together gives a great authentic effect.
- When it came to the sort of font/text I used I added the Rosewood to fit in with the quirkiness of Katy Perry and the pop genre. When it came to the Stencil font it made it more rock because it had a much harsher line to it.
Feedback was extremely important when considering the development of our music video, especially in the early stages. The feedback from our rough cut gave us a lot to think about and was one of the reasons we changed the flashbacks to black and white (which really helped the flow of our narrative). Feedback at this stage also influenced our readdressing of lip syncing because people had noticed that it was out of sync- we then were able to change this and make sure that when we edited we were much more careful (of course this didn’t matter as the QuickTime conversion meant it was put out of sync anyway).
Then we had questionnaires that looked at our finished product and this helped us get the perspective of other audience members. All in all the feedback has been very positive. One of the most important things with the audience research was that they understood the narrative. People also really liked the jump cuts we used and felt that they were a good decision. One thing that I think everyone was really happy with was Jodie's acting which really did work well.
They did also have some constructive points about how we could improve the video. The amount of fading we put on some scenes made them quite difficult to see. Another issue they raised was of course the lip syncing error but unfortunately this was seemingly out of our hands. Another point raised was that possibly we could have used more exaggerated costumes or location but this, again, came back to budget.
4.How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
stages?
RESEARCH/ PLANNING
- We used YouTube to watch music videos for other artists that shared our genre of pop rock.
- We also used other internet sites such as katyperry.com, and Wikipedia to research Katy Perry who is our artist.
- We used blogger to preserve our research and development.
- To complete all of this we used computers at school and laptops.
CONSTUCTION
- We used final cut to edit our video this was completed on a Mac computer.
- We uploaded the video onto YouTube.
- We used Photoshop to edit our ancillary texts. We took photographs for this on a digital camera.
- We used a film camera to film the music video.
EVALUATION
- We will hopefully film our evaluation. We will then edit it on final cut and upload it onto YouTube. All of which will be completed on a Mac computer.
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Thursday, 15 December 2011
Points we wish to make in commentary
We have decided on several points that we wished to make and have thus divided them between us. This lists acts merely as a guideline and we will try and make it so that each of us elaborates on the lines. This is what we will say:
Jade
1) One of the obvious ways in which our video goes against the conventions of a music video is the differences in budget. Where as our budget was non existent artist such as Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson spend thousands if not millions on their videos. The fact that we didn’t have a budget affected most of the video.
2) When it came to lighting we didn’t have the money to hire any lighting equipment. The conventions dictated that we had bright lighting. We did try our best in the sense that we filmed in well lit rooms or outside during the day.
3) How did Jade feel about acting?
4) Transitions in the video were generally jump, this fitted with the fast passed transitions of the music videos we were looking at. We did add in some other slower transitions meanwhile. These transitions made some of the major jumps a little easier to register when it came to the audience, these transitions really work and are not unheard of in pop rock videos.
5) We used the internet on laptops and computers to research. We especially used Youtube to watch music videos.
6) The text on the ancillary pieces was also all the same which kept this idea of uniformity. The text is also big and bold which fits with the pop theme. The writing is quite angular to fit in with the rock side of our genre.
7) Jodie’s expression in the video is harsh and this adds to make it rock as well as pop.
Jodie
1) We did have issue when trying to keep to these four obvious sections. The main problem was that we hadn’t filmed enough correct performance. The main issue was that we filmed the close-up narrative a little too close – we should have re-filmed. Having also cut the narrative that included the husband because the actor didn’t turn up we had less narrative to work with. We were therefore forced to use the extra footage that we had filmed (in case of this occurrence).
2) We did have extra lighting in the club. We were allowed to use the clubs disco lights, this gave great effect and created an efficient theme and mood to the location scenes in the club – you therefore knew where they were in comparison to other scenes.
3) How did Jodie feel with the acting?
4) Our narratives theme very much about a break up, and the women walking out in protest of the man staying out and not caring to tell her without a note. Break ups and difficult relationships make up literally every music video. We had to change the story slightly because Matthew who was going to play the husband dropped out at the last minute.
5) When it came to this commentary and the evaluation in general we will be editing on final cut and we used the internet to watch other commentaries.
6) The colours on the ancillary a dark pink/purple works with the genre because it isn’t bright so that it fits just pop, but it is still pink so it has the pop element, the dark tones add to the rock side of the genre.
Mollie
1) Before editing we had already decided that we wanted to splice together portions of narrative, flashback narrative, performance and close-up performance. This was something that was included in literally every pop rock music video we watched (accept Avril Lavigne’s).
2) To fit in with the conventions of a pop rock music video the main issue was having the cast all similar to the age of the artist. In this case Jodie was filling the role of the artist, at eighteen we chose a nineteen year old and a seventeen year old to act alongside her. Although in the end we only used the seventeen year old we still had the notion of no big age gaps.
3) I think we actually prefer not including the husband. The narrative is much more simplistic than the over complicated narrative we planned before hand. I think the man could have been bought in slightly though to break up the narrative from focusing entirely on Jodie, although Jodie really is a good actor.
4) We used final cut to edit our video together. We then converted the edited video into QuickTime. We then uploaded on to you tube. This was all completed on a Mac computer.
5) We edited the ancillary tasks using Photoshop.
6) The ancillary task fits because we have the same image of Jodie as the artist the whole way through. We also used the same image on both the digipak and the magazine advert this meant it all flowed.
Chloe
1) Some of the extra footage worked, like the shot of the disco ball and the performances around the club that linked into the narrative. Others didn’t work as well, the shot of the sun being a little random, the bridge and reflection in river also being a little slow for the general theme of the narrative.
2) Jodie was chosen as our main actress because of her skills at acting. She is an ex drama student. We were really happy with how she acted in the video; it really was one of the things that made our video good. Jade meanwhile played the bar staff person and she was only there as an extra but she was also an ex drama student and you could see this in the way that she was competent with the small amount of action involved in the role.
3) We used lots of different shots, especially close-ups. The close-ups are surely another convention because so much of the video focuses on the artist lip syncing that you need to see the person’s mouth. One of our favourite shots was the one through the glass that really worked.
4) The audience response was really important in the early stages. The audience in seeing the rough cut gave us really useful feedback, such as liking the jump cuts, thinking the close-up performance we slightly off on the lip syncing meant we could change it to make it better, plus it made us more careful when trying to get the lip syncing spot on. The audience response didn’t understand some of the suitcase scene so we had to explain it within the narrative. We changed the colour to black on white on the flashback to make it more intelligible.
What we want to do with our music video commentary
From our research we have decided to go with the idea of showing all four members of our group in separate location shots. We will then divide the information between the four members of our group. We will then work it together through editing. We will add clips from our music videos that we will then talk over.
We also feel that having to address the four questions we will simply show the questions, written on a black screen. This will then enhance the idea that we are simply answering the questions.
One of our key issues is that we do not simply read off paper, this would make the commentary look extremely unprofessional. Instead we will film each line separately and the lines will act merely as prompts to elaborate on.
When it comes to locations for filming the commentary we will try to use empty backgrounds that make the focus on the individual talking this will hopefully make the whole thing look more professional. The locations will also have to be in a quiet place where we will not pick up other noise on the camera. We will also use different angles of shot to add more intrigue.
The questions we have to answer are:
1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
The questions we have to answer are:
1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
2.How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3.What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4.How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
3.What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4.How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
To answer this question we will pull together the evaluations that we have all nearly completed. We will briefly use the most important points that we agree on. We are constantly aware that the maximum time we have for our commentary is four minutes and this is a great restraint when it comes to the details we wish to include.
Music Video Commentary Research
We watched several commentaries in research of our own commentary. These two videos we felt were the most useful:
"SO GOODBYE" MUSIC VIDEO COMMENTARY
"SO GOODBYE" MUSIC VIDEO COMMENTARY
At the beginning of the video the two main actors, and directors are shown sitting in a room with a piano in the background. This setting shows that the people making the music video have a lot of money because of the actual piano - it emulates richness.
The commentators are shown to be all together throughout the video. This works in the sense that they are very much coming up with things on the spot and talking to each other about it. The only problem with this set up is that they didn’t go into that much detail because they only had time to discuss one or two things.
We really like the way that they played the music video and then had the square box in the screen showing them talking. The only problem with this in comparison to what we have to create is that we have to answer specific questions which means playing our over four minute video would make keeping on track when answering all four questions very difficult.
THE DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY
This isn’t technically a music video commentary in the sense that it doesn’t specifically look at one video instead it is a commentary of music videos in general. The video does meanwhile show the effect of having everyone separated, with their own specific locations and talking about their own specific subject. This effect we really liked, it made the video more interesting and engaging, with the constant swopping in of different people making the dialogue disjointed so that you only get brief snippets- this really works.
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