Final Post...

This is my final post, I have really enjoyed this media studies course and I hope you enjoy my work!

[This blog is now closed]

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

We decided to answer this evaluation question using a different media platform/technology as the question is all about how we have used different media technologies in all the different stages of our production process.

We recorded a voice over on our Flip camera, of all four of us talking about the different technologies we used and how they were a benefit or a hindrance to us in our production process.

Here is the video we made with the voice over on it...

We simply edited the voice over onto our music video (muted) to reinforce the answers we are giving and then we also added in some picture in picture images to give a visual of what we are talking about.

Evaluation Question 3; What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Here is my Word document with my answer to evaluation question three;

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2; How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Here is my answer to evaluation question two on a Powerpoint Presentation;
Evaluation Question 2

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

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

As this Prezi does not seem to work on certain computers, I decided to print screen each part of the Prezi and put it in a Powerpoint presentation as well, just in case the Prezi does not work on the computer that the examinor/moderater is using (please excuse the wrong question number on the first slide, it should say Evaluation Question One);

Copy of Prezi

Video Screening and Audience Feedback...

Last week we organised a screening of all the AS and A2 media productions in our school hall. We invited the whole of the sixth form, any year 11 students that were thinking of taking media A Level next year and any teachers that wanted to watch the year 12s film openings and our music videos.

I presented our group's music video and simply said that the video was created with the intention of the narrative following the lyrics whilst still maintaining a performance element that is common in Alternative Rock music videos.

Lots of people turned up to watch the music videos and we asked each member of the audience them to write down some feedback on sheets that we had printed with two questions on them.

1) Please give details about what you like about our music video...

and

2) What is your favourite part of our music video and why?

Here are some examples of people's written responses to our music video for She by The Mags...

We also set up a camera corner in the room next door to the hall where the videos were played so that we could ask the audience to sit down in front of the flip cameras and answer a few questions about our music video.

FINAL DRAFT!!

After the initial edit of the 'painted words' footage at the end of the video, we decided it was a bit too long and not fast-paced enough to be in keeping with the conventions of an Alternative Rock music video. So we edited it again and made it much more fast-paced and exciting by adding in very short clips of other shots in between, so that the audience feels slightly disorientated.

We also changed a few things throughout the video. For example, the second time the audience sees the split screen of the feet walking past, they were reversed, but we were told this is not effective as it makes it seem as though our editing skills were not capable of anything better than simply reversing old footage.

Although I really liked the reversed walking shots because I thought it represented the deterioration of the couple's relationship we changed it so that the two parts of the screen were swapped over instead of simply reversing it.

I am so proud to finally put our finished promotional music video on my blog because I am very happy with how it turned out. So here is our very last, final, completely finished version of She by The Mags. Enjoy!

Audience Feedback Video

Here is a clip of just some of the responses Abby, Dominique and Oyinda had after watching our latest draft of the music video.

We took all of these comments on board when deciding how to fill the ten second gap at the end of the video.

Video Ending...

So after watching the latest edit of our music video, we realised that it was essential for us to fill in the last ten second gap with something quite bold and dramatic in order to create a climax of all the built up tension from earlier clips.

We got lots of people to watch our video and tell us what they thought the ending should be and what their interpretation of the couple's relationship was.

This is the edit we showed everyone (without an ending);



Everyone seemed to have different readings of the relationship between the two characters in our video; some thought they had simply been in a relationship that went wrong, others thought she was an obsessive ex girlfriend and one person thought they had been in a relationship but the girl could not handle being pushed away by the boy's music career.

Someone suggested filming some shots of her and him stood in a spotlight and flicking between the two, until it is just her in the spotlight at the end and the spotlight flickers off. I liked this idea but it still was not dramatic enough for our ending.

We started to watch some existing music videos that we liked and eventually came across an idea that we really liked that did not involve too much narrative concept that would turn our music video into more of a film. We came across this video for Marina and the Diamonds 'I am not a robot';



Someone had already suggested painting some of the lyrics onto the girl in our video and this Marina and the Diamonds video helped us to decide how to carry out this idea. We painted "Always looking at me" onto Charlotte's shoulders and filmed each word appearing and then filmed her frantically rubbing the words off.

Here is the first draft of the new ending with the words painted onto Charlotte. This is simplt our first attempt at editing these shots together and we will probably end up changing it slightly.

Draft 6 - Lots Of Split Screen...

Here is the latest draft of our music video for 'She' by The Mags. We've added in lots of short clips to see how they work within the whole video and we may change some of them but the bulk of the video is done now! Here is draft number six; We have added in some split screen parts of the band members playing their instruments as well and we have also decided to edit the split screen opening again, this time in Final Cut Express as it is much better quality and easier to get each part of the screen equal.

Ice Technique...

Ages ago we were all watching some different music videos on YouTube together and came across a very interesting technique that we could very easily recreate for our own music video. The start of the video we were watching (Traktor - Wretch 32) showed a water forming into 32 on a black surface and we thought it looked very effective so we decided to film heart shaped blocks of ice as they melted and then reverse and speed up the footage to make it look as though the hearts were forming out of nothing.

This Prezi shows the process of creating the heart shaped ice holders;

Ice & Paper Mache on Prezi

After this we made the ice hearts, set them up on Charlotte's roof on a sunny day and (with the aid of a hair dryer) filmed the ice hearts melting. However, when we tried to speed it up on iMovie it was still 7 minutes long at the fastest possible speed, so we dragged the footage across to Final Cut Express and we were then able to speed up the footage to the right speed. Here is a video of us editing the ice hearts melting!;

here is our final product!;

I think this will look really effective in our music video if we edit it correctly to the right part of the music.

Draft 5 - Horizontal Split Screen...

After messing around on Final Cut Express looking for better ways to create a split screen effect than on iMovie, we discovered how to create a horizontally split screen quite easily, by using the motion tabs, etc. Once we knew how to do this we were able to create the effect we had wanted initially which was inspired by this Blink 182 video for their song Always; Here is our fifth draft of our music video with the extra split screens added into it. I really love the way it looks and I think the slow pace of this particular part of our music video helps to build up tension in our audience with the narrative side of the video;

Voyeurism...

As part of our music video we wanted to make sure that we fulfilled all the criteria and conformed to the conventions of the Alternative Rock genre. One way that we wanted to do this was to have an element of voyeurism within the video where the musician looks at themselves in the video. We learnt about this technique on one of our trips to RichMix in a talk by Pete Fraser about promotional music videos. A classic example of this type of voyeurism can be seen in Nat King Cole's video for Frim Fram Sauce, where he looks at himself performing on a screen; Here is how we attempted the idea of voyeurism in our own music video;

Credits...

When watching our music video for 'She' by The Mags we realised that we had not yet added the credits that a normal music video would have if you were to watch it on a music channel on TV. Here is the latest draft of our music video including the new credits at the start (with the conventional band/track name, record label name, etc.) and also with added close up clips of Tom's mouth lip-syncing to the track;

Split Screen...

For a long time we have been trying to figure out how to create a split screen effect on iMovie and Final Cut Express and have not had much luck with it, but after researching into techniques on YouTube, we found some tutorial videos that we were able to watch, understand and then copy. Here are examples of what we were able to achieve after learning how to create a split screen on iMovie; We also did a split screen opening that we have wanted to do ever since we began the post production process and this is what it looks like within the video itself;

Teenage Cancer Trust Gig...

Last night I went to the Royal Albert Hall to see Biffy Clyro as part of a fundraising event that is going on each night of this week to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

It was interesting to see Biffy Clyro in such a different setting as the Royal Albert Hall is very different to the type of venue they usually play. The lighting of the show was incredible and I wish I had a standing ticket because it was less atmospheric being so far away from the stage. However, there were advantages to where I was seated because it meant I could really appreciate the lighting, set up of the stage/equipment and the positions of the band members.

This would be really helpful if we were to film any more performance footage because I have gained an understanding of how stages are set up in the real music industry.

Album Advertisement...

Here is my first attempt at creating an album advertisement for our CD Digipak. Obviously I wanted to create something that had synergy with the album cover so for my first attempt I chose to use the image from the front cover of the CD Digipak and then simply add all the conventional pieces of information that you would find on an album advertisement.



However, I do want to have a go and designing my other idea to see which I prefer but at the moment I really like the simplicity of my first design.

The only thing that I am considering changing on it is to add some tour dates onto the advert, as I have realised that most alternative rock bands include this information on their album advertisements. This is probably due to the fact that not many people buy music on CD anymore so the bands make most of their money by selling gig tickets. (This is reflected by the fact that HMV is currently in fears of closing down).

Possible Album Advertisement Designs...

Here are two very rough sketches of my initial advert ideas;

Another Article...

I also found this interesting article written by Mark Sweney in the Media Guardian that was published on the 28th February 2011 about Product Placement in British television.

Although this does not have much relevance in terms of our music video, it is still important for me to recognise these things for the exam, as this is a significant change in the British Television Industry.

As the TV industry needs to find it's revenue somewhere, it seemed inevitable for this day to come where "broadcasters have the green light to charge brands to appear in top-rating shows."

I think this is probably a good thing for British TV as we have seen the example of the US and Australia where "product placement has grown to account for about 5% of the TV advertising market." and "the UKs audience are already used to product placement in foreign imports".

However, not only could this produce problems within the viewers because of it ruining the realistic aspect of programmes but it might not even work as "shows are shot so far in advance that product placement deals will not be a consideration for months if not a year or more, with only "low millions" in actual revenue expected in 2011".

Media Guardian...

I try to read the Media Guardian every week in order to maintain a fresh understanding of contemporary media issues. By doing this, I have read about some interesting topics that tie in with my A2 Advanced Portfolio work.



A few weeks ago I came across a very interesting article entitled 'Music's Leap Of Faith' written by Alexandra Topping. This article appeared in the Media Guardian on the 31st January 2011 and discusses some of the issues that the music industry are facing in terms of the "transition of power from music's old guard to it's digital avant garde."



The article talks about how the music industry is struggling to make the move from a recorded to a digital music industry and that the transition has been "painfully slow". One example of this is Spotify. Alexandra Topping states that "Spotify is only now edging towards a US launch, following a rumoured deal with Sony, after more than one stalled attempt."

This article particularly interested me after recently hearing the news that HMV is veering towards closing down all their stores due to a lack of interest in people buying music in a shop. So it seems as though everyone prefers buying their music online (or illegally downloading it for free!). However, this article states that "it is not clear that the digital future is strong enough to support the global rock'n'roll machine as it used to be."

This is quite a worrying concept as the music industry seems to be gradually reducing it's size when the industry is not even sure if they can uphold this new digital era; "Worryingly for the industry, the growth in the digital market - once hailed as it's saviour - appears to be stuttering."