Evaluation question 1

When were making our video, we did research and took some direct inspiration from other rock bands, such as the foo-fighters. This can be seen as early as our opening shot, which consisted of our members playing guitar and drums. We considered leaving it blank until the lyrics kicked in, where we could start off with our narrative. However as we ran out of time to do a proper narrative, we decided to just stick with the original idea of close up instrument. This is a common convention seen in many rock videos. The direct inspiration for our particular video is the pretender by the foo fighters. Look at the uncanny resemblance.  

This is seen commonly throughout music videos, but we're using a rock song, so I've used a rock example.

Another example would be the close up shots we used. All genre's, and when you think about it, all songs use this at least once. We were no exception, taking the opportunity to show off our lip syncing, much like the pretender video.

As the above this is an example of the foo fighters, this is an example of one of the many times lip syncing was used in pretender video.

However, we did go back and redo our poster. We aimed for the silhouette effect, and tried to make everything look all around better than the previous incarnation.

Though ours may be of lower quality, we followed a few conventions When we did it, we did some basic things such having the band pose, and a website to direct people to. However, ours was different in the fact that we had lower production and a QR code, which have faded out of popularity.

 However, overall we tried following as many conventions as we could, since being entirely original would be difficult to do with our experience and time-frame.


Thriller:
For our thriller, we had to follow certain conventions. We did research in various ways. We watched various classic thrillers such as psycho, the birds and North by northwest.

Evaluation question 2

Evaluation question 3

We took our audience feedback very seriously. We took some of the feedback and applied it to our rough cut and used it to try and improve it to the best of our abilities.

As this was the most diverse question, it was also the hardest to follow. We tried our hardest to cater to these criticisms, but some of them were outside our control, such as the song used, and complaints of where the filming took place, since we already had one picked and few places to readily film at that point respectively.  However, the correctable ones such as more shot varieties, we tried our hardest, re-filming when possible. 

After we made some corrections to our rough cut, and made our final piece, we asked people what they thought of the product. While we couldn't really go out and re-film, and a looming deadline, we considered a majority of  okay's to be preferable to a majority of bad's. However, if we follow the feedback, we may be able to get more goods, though I won't hold on to it.

These opinions were some of the most important ones for us. Unlike the 1st one, where that was high or low points reading suggestions between the lines, this was clear cut improvements. The ones we took note of  mostly are transitions, or the fact that they should be removed, and the fact that shorter edits and faster transitions came up twice, so we took that to heart and followed through on it. 

This is our final question, and the fact that we got this many maybes is a better out come than we expected,

Evaluation question 4

Here is the evaluation of the hard/software used at various points in our project. I will first go through the hardware, and then the software.


   Hardware: Planning

   During the planning phase, the hardware we most used were CAMERAS and MACS.

   Cameras
  The cameras were used to show our proof of work, and the evidence can be seen on this very blog.  We used 2 types of camera: A camera attached to the video camera we used, and an iPhone 5s camera. We used the video camera for our proof photo, and the iPhone camera was used for the advert photo. However this caused some minor hassle when we had to upload the photo off the iPhone.  However the quality of there iPhone camera was pretty good for a phone camera, and the video camera lived up to expectation.                                              An example of the video camera we used to both film, which will be talked about later, and what we used to take the photo to show proof of progress. it was a decent camera, though some photo's came out a bit dark. 

 This is an example of the type of iPhone we used to take photo's throughout our endeavor. The camera was surprisingly good for a phone.Then the progress was recorded on a mac. The Macs were overall decent, if a little prone to bouts of freezing. The main problem was a change in controls from the windows we were more accustom to. However overall the Macs were a decent speed, and when accustomed were relatively easy to use.

      Software:

  The only real software we used at this point was Blogger. blogger is an easy to use website, and though glitchy at times was overall a pretty solid to use website. However it can be annoying trying to link other websites onto it.                                                                                                                                                    

Hardware: Filming 

 The tripod was a reliable piece of equipment, although some parts were a bit stiff at points. Overall though, very good. The camera was an integral part of filming. However, as it was not a steady cam, unless we used a tripod the footage was ridiculously shaky, meaning we was limited our potential shots as anything out of tripod range would ed up with the aforementioned shakiness. However the footage taken by the camera was overall decent, if a little low in quality at points. The camera we used for this role is the same as the camera we used to take the progress photo shown above.We also the Mac's for editing. Same as above.

Software: editing

Photoshop: We used photoshop to edit our magazine advert. However the transition between windows and macs was not smooth, and it took a while to get used to the difference  and it does show in our work. However it ran smoothly, and taught us how to use photoshop on a mac, though our lack of experience still shines through. 

Adobe premiere: This was the main tool we used for our editing. However as this was our first music video, and only have used it on 1 previous occasion we made several mistake, though we can consider this experience with relatively unused technology. 

As a summation, we used a lot of old yet familiar footage and used this as a chance to show how we've learned and improved over the last year, mainly in our editing and use of software.

             

Styles of music video

Narrative:
This kind of song tells a story, normally shown through the music video, with little focus on the singer or lip syncing. The lyrics are typically reflected in the song. A good example of this would be lady gaga's ''Bad Romance'', which follows hi-jinks of lady gaga's sexual slavery.

   Cinematic:
Cinematic videos can have no actual lip syncing from the singer and instead seek to convey a short movie. The best example for me would be lovey-dovey by Korean girl band T-ara. It is literally a short film, about the length of a tv episode.


Live:
  Live is exactly what it says on the tin. Filmed in front of a live studio audience.

Studio:
A studio music video is a singer recording themselves in a studio doing the singing.

Parody:
A parody video is a video that takes another song and makes fun of it, or makes fun out of it. A good example can be seen in weird al yankovitch.



 Animation:
  Animation videos are videos done in a animated style, unlike the aforementioned live action counterparts. A good example is dirty harry by the gorrilaz.

Constructing the advert

Constructing the advert

Constructing the advert was a long process that we found quite difficult. This was because we had very limited Photoshop skills, to fix this we needed to go back to it multiple times in order to get it to a reasonable standard and learn how to use Photoshop on the Macs. We think we've gotten better at using it, though we're still better on the PC's

To get inspiration for my magazine advert I looked at real adverts and the adverts from previous year groups. I saw that all of the adverts featured a qr code and a website, which mine did not so it looked unprofessional.
To make the advert better me and my group went and took some group photos for the main advert image, we then removed the background and placed the image onto a backdrop that matched the theme of the song. I then created a qr code and added a website to make it look like a REAL advert. However due to low production values, and an out of place background, (A road high shot), it still looks currently vastly subpar to an actual picture

Overall I feel that the magazine advert is okay. The band shot shows that the band doesn't take itself too seriously in contrast the background shows that the song covers a serious topic. There is an iTunes advertisement, QR code and a website link. If i were to do it again I would use a better font and maybe use a better band shot just to give it the "extra" bit of professionalism.

I would make the website a little smaller, as well as a change in font to be less obtrusive.

Audience research

We did a surveymonkey survey, getting people to look at our rough and final cut giving opinions on what they liked and what we should improve.

Editing the music video.

   

Editing the music video

Editing the music video was a long and tedious process. This was because we had to have so many cuts in order to fit the pacing of our song. This was okay it was just our lack of shots that made it difficult to stick to this fast pacing, because of this you do see some repeated shots in the finished products but we got away with it a little bit due to the repeated shots being mainly band room footage so it still looks natural.

Below is a photo of our chief editor doing the work.

When editing the video we had a play around with transitions and video effects to try and make our footage look a little more interesting, however when showing this to a small audience nobody liked the transitions and it looked as if it slowed down the pace of the editing whilst the some was very fast paced. We therefor decided that in our final piece we would have no video transitions or effects at all, this made our music video look a lot faster and more convincing as a music video.

Whilst editing our video we got a lot better at using the editing software which made the video look a lot smoother, this is because I learnt how to use all of the things that Adobe Premier Pro had to offer.
As a result we felt that the music video is very good and is the best product that I have made including last years thriller.

Overall I feel that our final product was very good, this is down to good shots and good editing. The music video would have been a lot better if we had more shot variation however this was not possible due to camera issues when filming and lack of time. If we had more time our final product could have been even better with a wide range of locations and more creativity, this had to be limited to to time and location constraints.

The video editing software that we used was Adobe Premier Pro as we were better as using it than final cut, and it's more practical as we had to hope our macs were free, whereas with the windows PC we could go on any free computer and continue.

Filming the music video

Filing the music video was a difficult and time consuming process. this was because it is hard to create a good music video that includes key conventions. We also had to overcome things such as weather and lighting difficulties as well as travelling to locations at a convenient time for everyone.

We also had to take in consideration how congested the place was as we didn't want random members of the public in our shots. Another difficulty was transporting the camera equipment, as we were travelling on crowded buses it became a nuisance to try and keep things such as the tripod out of peoples was.

   Though the equipment was good, both the camera and the tripod, we ended up needing some more footage, both for more variety and some of our previous shots were unusable. However, this lead to issues of it's own, Namely that the camera ran out of storage, and due to time constraints we had no more time to film. This can show in some points, since we have repeated band room footage. 

  On a less technical level, was the noise level. Due to the various noises of Dagenham, it made it sometimes difficult to lip synch, as it would be hard to hear the lyrics when they started and when they continued after pauses. However, even if the overall footage wasn't great, the lip synching came out pretty well.

Storyboard

These are the posts that make up our storyboard.

Creating the digipak

 For our digipak, we ended up inspired by this digipak from the Gorillas. This is because it is simple, yet effective, using a variety of bright colours to garner attention. Due to our lack of skill when it comes to editing, a simple yet effective edit was what we needed.

  We took the pictures we needed with an iPhone camera. After some brief editing, we ended up with our final product.

Music video final cut

 

Magazine Advert

This was our preliminary piece. Due to time and lack of research had it lacking in several features commonly seen on magazine adverts, such as QR codes, or any reviews.

Digipack

Music video: Rough cut

Music video rough cut, our preliminary video.

Styles of music video.

Magazine advert

  This was our preliminary, and as you can see, it came out quite rough. This was due to time and lack of technical knowledge.

 

This is one of our more final version.

Sexism in pop videos

 
 Laura Mulvey theories of sexism would apply here. Women here are sexualised as illustrated by the lyrics, which basically degrades them to sexual objects these women are sexualised by them running around in their underwear, or in an alternative video, naked. These women are bringing nothing to the song, not even a female singer, and are merely there as eye candy.

   However, even when a woman has a more prominent role, it still is sexual exploitation, as seen in Miley Cyrus's wrecking ball:



   Despite being the main singer, Miley is still sexualised by Goodwin's standards. This is most clearly seen by the fact for no particular reason, she is swinging around naked and licking a sledgehammer in a sexualised manner. This degrades her from singer to sexual object.

 

 

   This video is less sexist, due to the fact that is satire of the entertainment industry, where women are either supposed to be sexual or domesticated housewives,and the sexualization in the video is a parody of videos, especially of rap videos, which tend to objectify women in the manner portrayed.

Storyboard/Animatic

  This is the animatic we made of our video.

Blog 6: Andrew Goodwin Part 2

   Sometimes we don't always have context as to what's going on in a video. As seen in Will Young's leave right now. We don't have much context as to what's going on, however, in this video there is lots of amplification going on, with the Young trying to leave, but being unable to make himself. What's interesting about this, is character interaction. It is unclear whether we, as the viewer are viewing these events through some kind of avatar, or if we are merely a camera, and Will Young is singing to a camera. However, the way the others characters look at the area where the viewer should be creates conflicting views. Therefore, like in Goodwins film, this creates an illusion of screens, that either we are people on the other side of a screen looking in, or we are just voyeurs, looking in. The lyrics of this song are amplified by the video, of Will Young trying to leave. Also, this video doesn't just contain close ups, the video is a single shot looking continuously at Will Young, further pushing Godwins theory.

Costume and props

Character Name: Singer
Costume: A variety of clothes, including, casual wear such as Jeans and hoodie, and more formal gear, such as shirts and trousers.	Props: Guitar Microphone
Character Name: Guitarist 1
Costume: Formal wear,Shirt and formal trousers	Props: Guitar
Character Name:  Drummer
Costume: Formal wear, shirt trousers, possible tie.	Props: Drum kit, cymbals.

Props: Drums

No props

Album art

Band: Bowers-Tripp house.
Album name: An old and worried face

 This is the album art I made. I achieved the cartoonish look through a mix of the lighting and sharpness, as well as  editing on the ''bands'' name and ''album'' name, in this case Bower-Tripp house, and the album of ''an old and worried.''

Music video: mis-en-scene

Postmodern lesson 1

    The postmodernism condition was a book released, emphasising the change postmodernism would bring. Postmodernism, is relevant. in the fields of philosophy, art, politics, sociology.

  Traits within postmodernism are self awareness, reminding the viewer that, it is a film, as well as make itself very difficult to define.

Record labels

The industry today is covered by 4 major record labels, those being:

Sony music


   Warner bros.:


Emi (Owned by Virgin)


 And Universal: 



   Major independents
The major independents include;
Columbia-This is owned by Sony Music
Island-This is owned by Universal
Syco-This is owned by Sony Music
RCA-Owned by Sony Entertainment
Virgin-This is owned by Universal

Progress of filming and editing

    First of all we had a production meeting to discuss ideas for us to go and film, when, and where.

 
We planned to film our music video project over the christmas holiday. However due to various circumstance, with recurring themes. However, we have managed finally to get some filming done, however, we have not been able to get as diverse an area or as much filming as we would like. however, we have managed to find some symbolism within our shots, making the best of a bad situation.

    Our decisions were limited by time and locations, due to members of our team not having a lot of transportation outside of walking, and and a looming deadline assured that we had to take whatever footage we could grab, and worry about the quality of which later.

      On day 1 of filming we went over Hanault forest. however, due to our mistakes, instead of lip synching the full song, we only got about a minutes worth of footage per time. This means that although we got some decent footage whilst we was out, we had to go and get some more. This was fine as we had to go out and get some urban shots. There we got some shots of walking from different angles, to fit with the general theme of the song.

   To finish the first bout of filming, we went and got some shots of us in the band room, to imitate the look of people playing instruments. however, due to a minor mix up between shots,  two of the members swapped instruments, and due a filming taking place at a later date, there was a sudden change of clothing halfway through.

   Then we came to our first editing session. We were struggling to put together a coherent piece with accurate lip synching, so we had to go out and get more footage, especially of the band, since our current produce was disappointing with neither the lip synching or instrument playing being any good. However after we re-did the shots, it came out looking much better.

    We needed some more shots to amplify the feel of the music, so we went out to Valence park, and did some recording there, namely on the different pieces of equipment.  Some of this was removed from the final product for looking too out of place.

   Then came editing. As we edited, we came to several conclusions. As we edited, our band rooms, we had several problems with our footage. First of all, inconsistencies. The clothes of several of our band members changed clothes in between shots. We had to also redo our project, incorporate the new footage in with the old footage. As we edited we had two different projects. The rough, which is our testing to see how we could incorporate the different footage, and the proper project, which has refinements, as well as the final transitions.

Location sheet

Location Visit Sheet Programme Title: Seven days music video Client: Connor, Darren and Grant Writer: Seven days Producer: Grant Director: Darren Date: 11/11/14

Rough Sketch/Explanation of location and key points to note We want to film in some built up area to add pace to the scene and also a wide-open spaced area. Access to location via: We will use public transport in order to get to the location(s) that we want the film our video in. Name and number of location contact: As we are filming in a public place there is no need for a location contact.

Health and Safety Issues to note: ●      Always be careful when working on wet ground to avoid slipping. As we are in a public place there will be obstacles that we will need to avoid e.g. lamp posts and cars.

Potential Filming Problems: ●      Members of the public may cause a problem as we will have to avoid getting them in shot, which could be difficult especially in the built up locations that we were planning on filming.

Additional Notes: keep an eye on the weather forecast as we don’t want to risk damaging any camera equipment. Camera, Tripod and a monopod. Potentially a dolly