Evaluation question 4

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

I drew a spider style diagram, which showed all the technologies i used throughout the four stages.
I scanned these in and have upload them for you to see. (Scanning is not on there but is as a new technology i used)

The technologies helped to create the ancillary task and final music video, and record on my blog. There were some issues with some of the things i used.
- the first issue i had was familiarising myself with some of the software programs.
programs such as Serif Page Plus i had no experience in using. I have always used Adobe Photoshop in the past for any editing/production tasks. It took a while but i managed to work my way around using the different parts of the software program.
- the second issue i had was using online software such as slideshare. Again this was a software i have never used, but the information and guidance on the website (http://www.slideshare.com/) was useful and easy t understand so i was able to successfully use it.
- I also wasn't completely familiarised with the software on the Macs we used. I have previously used all the programs we used for the project but haven't full understanding of them.
- another issue i personally came across, was my card reader, which had inconveniently broken. I tried it with a number of different computers yet received no response. I went to the art department in school because i knew they had a printer/scanner which read cards from the device itself. From there i went to copy and print/upload images and documents.
- we also had problems with the camera, running out of battery and sometimes finding it hard to attatch the tripod.


I think they were the few difficulties i had with the technologies used, but i managed to work around them and get to understand the way they worked.

I found it very useful that certain technologies used automatically, or gave the option to, format information into common formats of documents. This meant that when it came to upload onto the blog there was minimal difficulties with which format the items being uploaded where in. This saved time, and uncomplicated everything.

the technologies also enabled us to easiliy, or with little problems, put together our final pieces. The video came together smoothly because the mac software was user friendly and uncomplicated, and the ancillary task where completed - after seperate planning - in a matter of hours. The simplistic software ment we could play around with effects and make small changes easily.


If i were to create this project again, I would allow more time for the understanding of software such as Page Serif Plus, but ultimatly would use a software im familiar with ie. photoshop.
I think i would also be more prepared for problems with the technology used, for example, some of the cameras we used ran out of battery and we didnt always have the means to recharge them. I would also make sure that the technologies such as the camera, were of better visual quality. (of course with the availible funds!)

Some of these issues where out of our control, ie. the camera quality, but we still made best use of them and managed to work around them .

Our Music Video & What have you learned from your audience feedback? (question3)

This is our final music video. We we both happy with the end product.



after handing out our audience questionnaires and collecting them in we were able to see if our product was successful or not.

Here are 3 of the questionnaires we received back:

Using the comments from our questionnaire we found a number of things with our music video.
One of the first questions we asked was 'did you like the video?' - to which a large number of replies where 'yes'. That was a positive start, clearly we did something right.
A lot of people said that the black and white in contrast to the colour shots worked really well with the music genre. They thought that the idea of using black and white for past and colour for present was very fitting for the song and style of music.
We also received quite a few comments that the visuals matched nicely with the audio. Whether this was the timings or the idea behind the visuals wasn't clear, which is something we would have to make clear if we were to do this again.

Both me and Yasmin thought that the visuals matched the genre/style of music because the song was about a relationships, meaning, and memories, which i think we portrayed well in our video. The whole narrative explained what the song was about, and played out to be a convincing narrative style music video.

Some feedback we received said they didn't like some of the quick cuts we used in editing but some said that they found the editing affective, when also put with the transitions at different points in the song. We think that the editing worked fine, and that any other transitions may have taken from the piece.

The camera angels were complimented, where a few people had said they liked the high angle shot in the bedroom, and the long shots and medium shots of the couple in the park. Some people said that the black and white effect complimented the angels and depths of shots. I personally liked all of the shots, except for 1 which i wasn't sure on; the angel of shot 6 seemed to work with the rest of the piece, but i think it may have worked better had it of been horizontal, like the others. However, the tilted shot did create interest and break up the standard horizontal shots, which i think was a good idea.

We felt that since a number of replies to 'did you like the video' was 'yes', meant that those who had replies yes had been interested the whole way through. This was good because it means that our music video cleared followed a narrative that the audience wanted to follow through to the end.

I think if we were to change any aspects of the video, from the feedback given, it might possibly be some of the editing, maybe softer throughout (using transitions) and possibly, with the opportunity, use a better quality camera, however the ones we used where the schools cameras and clearly were not professional ones.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation question 2

View more presentations from graceshiach.

Evaluation Question 1

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



Earlier in the media course I am studying, we looked at Andrew Goodwin’s principles he created with relation to music videos.

With the piece my partner and I have created we have followed and challenged his principles.

His first principle was that there is a relation between the music and the visuals: the editing may match the pace of music. This is one of the principles we have followed. We felt for our music changing the pace of editing would take from the piece, and it wouldn’t feel ‘right’ when watching.

- We used quick editing between slow paced shots, common of the genre of music, and as the song continued and developed the shots became longer, slowing down the quick paced editing. Music videos are conventionally edited with fast paced switches between shots but we stuck to the pace and feel of the song. See video for examples of transitions in the beginning and quick cuts with lengthier shots.





We also matched the visuals to the theme and feel of the song. Using abstract and extreme shots and content wouldn’t have made for a good final media piece. We didn’t want to subtract from the music by focusing attention on something unrelated and weird, which is also why we chose to use a narrative style video. A concept-based video wouldn’t fit with genre, feel and overall effect of the music, being peaceful and relaxed, but would clash by creating confusion. A performance-based music video could have worked, but we see more performance-based videos in different genres of music such as rock, hip-hop and pop which left us with the narrative based video, which is what we discussed, would work best anyway. Its common for narrative based videos to accompany the genre of music we could, being acoustic/soft pop. Choosing a narrative based video fitted with Goodwin's second principle: a particular music genre may have a particular style of music video and iconography.



Goodwin’s next principle was based on voyeurism. We didn’t take this too literally, but used the idea of black and white for past times and colour for present date in our music video. The idea of voyeurism and looking back in time, recalling and reliving the memories is what we wanted to achieve with the black and white in contrast to the colour shots. (See video for examples)



Another of his principles was that: there is a demand on the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist/group. We challenged this, as we chose not to have someone impersonating our artist and stuck to simple images to represent what she was all about, with regards to the digipack and poster. With our music video again we had no lip-syncing or anyone pretending to be our artist. However we did conform to this principle in a different ways. We did use a number of close ups of the girl in the video, to show her emotions, and relation to the song and lyrics. (See video) We used the same girl throughout the ancillary task products, not to replace our artists face, but to symbolise what we felt our artist believed in, stood for and be something she would be able to relate to her music.

This also helped us begin to create star image and iconography with her music and the other products. The artist may develop their own star iconography, both in and out of their videos, which, in time, becomes part of their star image was the next of good wins principles. The use of the same girl, similar locations for shooting the video, and the locations used in the ancillary task images has helped to bring this continuous feel and build an image related to the music – a natural, earthy and honest feel to all products relates to her honest lyrics and relaxing, simple music.



When it came to developing a visual style and brand identity we did this using the repetition of the style of images and colours, the themes and the fonts. The music video, visually, linked to the music which, in turn, all linked to the ancillary products where natural, simple, earthy styles where used, with the choice of colours and softer fonts, the simple layouts and the spacey layouts of the digipack and advert, where it wasn’t all cramped and gathered. Just simple, relaxed, almost relieving layout conjoined with the honest, natural colours and the choice of font helped create our brand identity. This all links through to the artist, hopefully supporting a strong base the style and identity was built on.

When it came to the ancillary tasks, we used common conventions of the products found in the real music industry.

Our advert had: the artist as the focal point (even being just her name), the digipack cover displayed and the information as to where to find it. Our digipack in the whole was based on the artist for the fans as it is in the real music industry. The use of similar colours and repeated images building the star image and visual style is very much following the conventions of real media products. The font face was the same throughout the products, the colour palate was limited and used in the same manner throughout the products and the idea behind how it was related to the music and artist herself was clear – the natural honesty of her, her lyrics and her style was something fundamental of the products we created. We felt it was important to keep to the point of the music being truthful and honest, and this needed to come across to the audience in all the products we created.

The final principle of Goodwin's theory was the reference to intertextuallity which we challenged. Why should any of the products for our artist have reference to other media texts. The simplistic design and identity behind our artist means that referencing other music or streams of media would just contradict by adding confusion and distraction. The only intertextuallity was self promotion, with the advert promoting the CD.

Our final Advert

This is our finalised advert for Deborah Cade's 'Nothing the same'.

We have successfully stuck to our original plans of design; colour, layout, text positioning and image used.

The back ground image is, as you can see, slightly grainy. We edited the image using software called 'Serif Page Plus' to soften it. We also altered the brightness, lightening the image to help the cover of the digipack stand out. The writing is also clearer helping the audience get the information they need.

The colours are how we had planned, with natural tones throughout. The soft greys, baby blues, greens and brown all fall within our chosen colour pallet.

We purposely chose to have the digipack cover on the left hand side as the image is similar to the advert image, however the girl is facing the other direction. We thought that this would have a nice effect and keep the veiwers eyes from the edges of the advert.

I think our advert is successful because it comes together nicely. Everything looks as if it should be where it is. Its clear and concise and works for the music, artist and brand identity.

Ideas for our advert

Again with the advert, we wanted to keeep a natural feel to it, yet be able to relate to a wide audience. This is what we drew out first.

(the missing words on the bottom of the photo is 'earthy')

The layout is simple, yet effective. All the relevent information needed is on the advert, being release date, artist, title of CD and the label logo, and the brand identity is clear.

The limited colour pallet will work well on the advert because the background image is one whole image. The text on top will be in black and cover of the digipack will be outlined, we think in black.

The layout itself, is easy to read, understand and interpret. The writing will be clear and the image of the girl on the right will lead the veiwers eyes up and around the advert.

Our final Digipack

Ideas for our digipack

We wanted to keep our digipack simple, organic and in theme with the tone of music. We have gone for a very earthy colour scheme of natural browns greens and pale yellows.

We will be using this template to design our digipack. It is in the style of a more traditional CD case, rather than the other style of digipack. (reference to previous post)

We want a continuous theme of nature with trees and fields. We will also continue this in our video. We want the audience to be able to relate to the digipak in a similar way as they do to the music.

As you can see we will use our chosen font throughout the digipack. This will be to ensure, not only continuity across the products, but help build towards our brand identity. The colours chosen are also part of our brand identity and will also represent the natural, earthy, honest appeal of our artist and products.

We have chosen to keep the outer sides of the digipack quite simple; not to complicated as this may not appeal to our target audience. The layout is simple with an image, few parts of text and the industry information on the back.

The inside of the digipack is where the artists information will be, the CD and the track list. We have also included the music label logo so the audience is clear as to who the artist is signed to. Why we have included this is because some consumers of music will stay loyal to a certain label, mainly because they like the majority of artist signed by that label. This may be because some labels specailise in certain genres of music.

Again the layout of the inside of the digipack is simple. We think simple is effect within the genre of music, with regards to design, because it tells the audience simply what they have purchased, and what to expect.

Location of Shooting

[From top left down to bottom left]

-staircase from direct veiw for walking up stairs shot
-staircase from birdseye view for dancing shot
-lounge for majority of indoor shots
-room for the shot of her packing things

[From top right to bottom right]

-Bedroom for bedroom shots
-driveway for shot involving car
- window used in bedroom
-bathroom for shots using the door

Costumes, Actress and Actor

These are our two actors. Martha and Aaron. We used them because they are friends of ours and we knew they had chemistry. We thought this would add a sense of realism to the video if they we really comfortable with each other. When they were free was also useful, them having the same free periods meant we could meet up and go through everything.

We wanted all the costumes to fit with the song. Casual, laid back, simple yet effective.

With Aaron we kept to jeans and a range of different tops and with Martha, a mix match between tights, shorts and different tops.

I think all the costumes were effective in achieving a realistic feel.

These are our costumes:

Shooting: location and doing

When choosing our location we wanted to bring a sense of realism to the video. We therefore decided to use everyday environments to portray the normality of the situation brought about by the lyrics and tune of the song.
We wanted to relate the locations used to the song, so that they could represent the lyrics and the emotions evoked by the music.

The ideas for locations to be used were:
- park or field (for scenes of the dog walk together)
- house (for the memory scenes and scenes in present)
- bridge at local river (for scenes from memories)

All of these will be openly available as the house is one of our own, (lounge and bedroom scenes) and the local river is a close distance from house, and the field is opposite the house.
Because both me and my partner drive, transport to and from locations for actors and ourselves will be easy.

When it came to filming we found that some of the locations we had chosen were not always fit for the tripod. Some of the shots inside, were too much of a squeeze for the tripod so had to film hand held. This didn't affect the footage or the final product and was not a major issue.

We had fun filming, and at times too much fun, but here are some images of us using the camera and tripod.

Planning for music video: Final storyboards

After drawing our draft storyboards we finalised the timings, transitions, effects and order of shots. We also decided we did not need some shots, which are crossed through. We decided with the timing of the song some shots worked better longer which lead us to remove the shots we did.

They have been drawn out better, and are neater and clearer, making it easier for us to follow. This made filming a lot easier as to the smoothness of being organised. This enable us to know what shot was at which angle, with what action, and for how long.

It also meant when it came to editing the footage together, we had clear and concise storyboards to refer back to to ensure our music video was to the best quality.

These are our final storyboards.

We came across some issues when drawing our storyboards. We found it was very necessary to have the correct timings, because we wouldn't have known how long to film each shot for, and it was also important that the effects where clear, especially when editing. We also had to take into account the locations in which we were filming to ensure we were able to actually comfortably film each shot, and this also helped us decided at what angle each shot would be most effective at given the room at the location available.

With the draft storyboards we found that a lot of scribbling and crossing out/correcting was made, which meant that the final storyboards had to be organised well.

It was also VERY time consuming, especially having a song that was quite long, and the amount of different shots we wanted to incorporate.

Planning for music video: Storyboard drafts

Before we began filming we needed to ensure we had our storyboards to follow.
This would mean we were more organised and could achieve better results from being organised.
Theses are our draft storyboards. A brief outline of the shots in sequence of how they would appear in our music video.
They do not have accurate timings, transitions and are not drawn with much detail. We used these as a basis to the final draft of storyboards we did.

Ideas for our music video

Looking at the lyrics, we made basic notes on the ideas the song and lyric gave us.

We took quite a few of the ideas we got from looking at the lyrics and listening to the song and put them into our music video.

[added at a later date]

I think the most effective we used was the idea of colour contrast to show time gaps. The black and white brings a sadness to the shot even though it represents happier times because of the contrast between the colour shots. Not only was this one of our favourite features, but from the audience feedback questionaires we recieved, the audience liked the use of it too.





Different Types of Music Video

There are 3 types of music video.
- Concept based
- Narrative based
- Performance based

Concept based music video usually have no relation to the music. They can oftend be very random and irrelevent to lyrics or the music. Good examples of concept based videos are 'Here we go again' by OK GO and 'Declare independance' by Bjork.


Bjork





Ok Go





Narrative based music videos have a storyline. The video usually follows the storyline it is based on with a relation to the lyrics or the pace or beat of the music. Immagery and symbolism is commonly used. Good examples are 'Just the way you are' by Bruno Mars and 'Forget you' by Ce-Lo Green.


Bruno Mars





Ce-Lo Green





Performance based videos are commonly very in sync with the band performing their music and the video is a way of showcasing their taletent. Good examples are 'Notion' by Kings Of Leon and 'The Hardest Button To Button' by The white Stripes.


King of Leon




The White Stripes






Our music video will be very much narrative based, following the story of a relationship, very much like the song.

Andrew Goodwins Theory

- there is a relation between the music and the visuals: the editing may match the pace of music.

- a particular music genre may have a particular style of music video and iconography. (such as live performance video with rock genre)

- there is a demand on the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist/group.

- the artist may develop their own star iconography, both in and out of their videos, which, in time, becomes part of their star image. (eg Lady Gaga)

- there is likely to be a refernce to voyerisum, particularly in the treatment of woman, but also in terms of systems of looking (mirrors, or screens with screens)

- there are likely to be intertexual references, either to other music videos or film or tv text.

Research Planning: Choosen Artist and Song Lyrics

Artist: Deborah Cade
Song: Nothing The Same

I guess that I will not have picked up the telephone just now,
if id on known that was how, you were going to sound.
its been a while we both know, we both know,
that words have been said,
but the movies all wrapped in my head,
play the bad memories down.
do you remember the nights that you laid in my bed,
can you recall all the promised desire you fed, me
and did it mean a thing.

(chorus)

'cause baby i tried, to let you get rid of me this time
to believe all the tears that I've cried, well how can it be
and what with the twisted view, lovers like me and you
I wont ever admit our love to be true but my hopes are never ending
i guess the world will start turning again
nothing will be the same again, nothing will be the same again.

haunted by dreams that, I'm afraid to forget,
i guess you were right that i cared, more than i care to admit,
its not the first time it wont be the last when i saw you you held me and its happened so fast and in spite of the odds we said we both somehow thought it could last
don't be surprised if i cry when you drive down my road for the last time, don't feel the blame if i lie when you ask out a new woman, you wish it would rain and baby i feel it coming

(Chorus)

[end of song]

Research Planning: Artist for music video

The artists we considered were
- 18 (http://www.unsigned.com/18) [song we liked was: keep on fighting]
Acoustic/rock/pop from Canada.
18's music was very slow, very laid back, and calming, with a slightly upbeat guitar. No immediate ideas came to mind when listening so we looked on for others.

- Dean Ford (http://www.unsigned.com/deanford) [song we liked was: dreams without doors]
pop/acoustic/rock from US
Dean's music was more upbeat, yet quite simple. The lyircs where sometimes not very clear, however the pace of music was slightly faster than other music we listened to meaning we could have played around with editing a bit more. I personally really liked this perticular song the most.

- Deborah Cade (http://www.unsigned.com/deborahcade) [song we liked was: nothing the same]
Pop/acoustic from Us
Deborahs music varies in tempo and pace, and the lyrics hold many more connotations than the lyrics from the other artists songs. quite a few ideas popped into our heads after listening to the first minute or so.
- Rebecca Watkins (http://www.unsigned.com/rebeccawatkins)

After discussing our ideas and preferences, my partner, Yasmin Purdue and I decided that Deborah Cade was the best artist for us.
Listening to her song 'Nothing The Same' loads of ideas popped into our heads. We loved the lyrics and the tune, and thought we could really make something successful to compliment her great music.
We contacted Deborah via myspace music, where she also exhibited her music. This was the email we sent her:

We still await a reply from her.