Evaluation 4

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

Blogger - We use this to show the progression of our work. It also helps up keep up to date with what we were doing both individually and as a group. Blogger is also the theory side of our work as this is where we note everything we do with our construction and research and our planning and evaluation stages. 


Camera and Tripod - These were the same as what we used last year, therefore we were able to use them correctly to do the vital part of filming our music video in various locations of our choice. We took any different shots in able to find the 'perfect' on. This included camera angles and shot types. 


Youtube - We mainly used youtube for our research stages, where it gave us a good insight of what genre of the video we wanted to do and also the genre of music we wanted. However we also used youtube to upload our audience interviews, animatics and our digipack analysis. 


Itunes - This was used so that we could import our music onto our video.


Final Cut Express - This was a vital technology of our project this year as final cut express was the programme in which we actually made our music video on. This is where we did all of the editing such as choosing and cutting shots, and adding different effects to shots. 


Surveymonkey.com - This was used to create the survey which we which gave us different responses to what our audience are interested in with a music video. All of the questions used were to do with the genre which we had chosen. The responses gave us a clear idea of which video genre was most popular with our chosen audience. 


Timeglider - We used this to create a timeline of 'the history of music video's' 


Facebook - This helped us to communicate with each other out of school hours. We posted many pictures on here so that we could work on our magazine advert and digipack. We also posted our survey on here to get responses from our friends and family. 


Photoshop - This was used to create our magazine advert and digipack. To begin with we found it quite confusing to use, however we managed to grasp it quickly. This programme gave use great effects which we planned to use originally. 




Mac- The mac was the main main piece of technology that enabled us to create our music video as it held near enough all of the other technologies on it such as final cut express, the programme we used to make it.


Imovie - This is where we created our audience feedback videos. It was different to the one we used last year, however we got to grips with it quickly and from our final videos on Imovie, we uploaded them to YouTube. 


Powerpoint - We used this right at the beginning of our task as this is where we created a powerpoint with our ideas of what we were going to create, and what music we chose. We presented these to the class in order to receive some feedback on what they thought would work and what they thought wouldn't.


Dafont.com - This was used to create the font for our title of both the band and the album title. We found it a really good website as their were many different fonts you could chose from on there. 


Safari - We used this to collect images and ideas for our blog and our initial product itself.

Evaluation 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation 2

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

Our main product was based around our choice of genre in both music and video. I believe that with our main product this is very effective as the story of the song is about a break up and trying to move on. The artist is fairly individual and her choice of music is country/soft rock. with our video we tried to show this individuality through mise en scene as well as the general story from the narrative genre. The costumes we used were everyday clothes however for the female we tried to make her look more indie, yet simple with jeans, comfortable shoes and a top. The tops which she wore tended to link in with each scene showing her feeling and emotions at that moment in time. I also noticed that near enough all country artists sing about love, whether it be a new love or a break up. This aided our video into being effective as it followed almost a 'rule' that country artist follow. Overall i do believe that our main product was very effective as each shot filmed fitted in with our genre each time, it told a story, and the conventions of our country/soft rock genre were shown 
clearly.



Our original ancillary products:

Magazine Advertisment     Inside cover



Inside CD cover                       Back Cover

Front cover

We decided that these images did not represent our artist, album or music in the correct way and therefore changed them to the following.

When we came to create our ancillary products, we knew that they had to link in well with our music video. With this in mind we chose colours, text sizes and fonts, images, and layouts very carefully. For our magazine advertisement we kept it fairly simple yet effective in the sense that the image says it all about our genre of music. The girl is sat in the middle of a long, never ending road which represents a journey. The girl is sitting on an Amp whilst playing a guitar, and this gives the impression to the audience that our music is relaxing, yet somewhat a type of music you would chose to listen to by yourself, linking in with our idea of a break up. The album title 'The Odyssey',meaning journey, has been placed along the road to show text image cohesion, and to give an insight to the audience of what type of music they will be buying. 

 The front cover of our digipack shows a journey through life along a never path that could lead to either somewhere, or nowhere. The colourful, bright yellow leaves scattered across the path tells the audience the country style genre that our music is about. The artist is on the front cover, which after doing some research I discovered was a key part in a country album as it shows a sense of emotion and makes the album in general more personal.The female artist transitions throughout the cover to show her growing and getting stronger as she moves further along the path. It also shows a sense of glamour as the beginning shot of her sitting down, she is wearing casual everyday home clothes, moving later on to a glamorous bright red dress. The cover also shows the emotion of the album through the artists facial expressions. It shows thought and meaning which reflects on the  variations of personal songs on the album. The font of both the album name and band name differ from one another, however have the faded similarity which we chose to portray the idea of old memories fading away. The fonts are also jet black, we did this to make them stand out and make them memorable to the audience, as after doing much research, I discovered the bold titles are important in any artists album as it sells their music. The curly font shows the feminine side of the album and depicts women as the target audience.

 The back cover of our digipack again uses the same font as the magazine advertisement and the album title 'The Odyssey' has also been place along the side. This type of font, we believed looked very feminine and personal as it almost looks handwritten. We used swirls in just one corner, this was to show that our target audience is females, and the swirls represented 'love' to link in with the idea that swirls and fireworks are how you feel when you are in love. They are also jet black, however stand out well linking with the stand out red dress. For the main image we decided we wanted to do something a different, this led to us choosing to have a black and white background with just one dominant colour showing, in this case it was her bright red dress which stood out the most. We believe this is effective as it draws the audiences attention to the image. We also used a red dress as it is associated with 'love' therefore it links in with our genre. The titles of each song are written after a maple leaf. This was chosen to show a connection with the Front cover and the fallen leaves from the tree. 

The inside of our digipack, behind the CD, we chose to have a heart made out of hands. This was purely because we believed it would have an impact on the reader as they took the CD out of the case. It could also have a meaning to the audience, making them remember the good times they have shared with loved ones. Again, we have have put main focus on the heart shaped hands. We have also emphasised the fallen leaves to link in with the front and back cover.

For the inside of the digipack we chose to have scatted photographs of artist to show her dedication to music, hence the guitar in each photo. The images also resemble the message of the album 'Journey'. This is shown in many of the pictures such as the top sky photos which show the clouds getting darker and more dull. The pictures a framed in white to make them look like polaroid pictures. This gives the impression of memories that either want to be kept or not, depending on how the audience decodes it. the expressions of each picture reflect on the music the album produces, as there are mellow, happy and heartbreaking songs such as 'Just a taste'. This image is simplistic and contrasts the rest of our album of bright autumn colours.

Overall, I believe that after recreating our ancillary products we have made a stronger between them and the music. We have managed to portray the genre more efficiently to the audience and made it easier for them to decode each product. Our ancillary products have also been made more personal. We have shown the use of more technologies such as the green screen and photoshop. The colours were made more vibrant, yet had contrasting fronts to imply the difference in songs and the uniqueness of the artist. These differences gave our ancillary products a brand identity, which after receiving audience feedback, we found that we didn't have. We took on board what our audience wanted and we have now achieved this successful change.

Evaluation 1

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


I have used Prezi to create this part of my evaluation.

Evaluation 1 on Prezi

What music videos from conventions of real media products helped influence each of these shots.

                                                  

 These shots were influenced by rihanna's 'Disturbia' video as she overlaps different shots on top of eachother like we have.

This shot where a silhouette is used was influenced by Kelly Clarkson's 'Mr know it all' video as her band are stood playing their instruments as silhouettes.

Music Video's that share the same genre

Taylor Swift - white horse

Swift also shares the same record label as our music video 'Big Machine Records'

The video is a love story that has gone wrong and is based on a Narrative video genre and the genre of county for the music.

Kelly Clarkson - Mr know it all

Clarkson's video song is also about a relationship that has gone wrong. It doesn't use a narrative as it is more performance based. However it is a Country genre and it uses many techniques that we plan to use in our music video.

Katy Perry - Thinking of you

Perry's video is based on a narrative which has a twist and it hasn't gone wrong in the sense of a break up but due to a call of duty. The genre is more pop, however the beginning can be linked to country due to its soft mellow sounds. 

Case studies of iconic directors of music video

Mark Romanek

The three time Grammy award winning and american director Mark Romanek has excelled many times with the music video's which he has created. His most iconic and moving video was a cover of the song 'Hurt' performed by Johnny Cash. This was Cash's final music video. With this in mind, Romanek created what seemed to be a fairly simple video that had a lot of personal meaning to it. The video was up for an outstanding 6 nominations in the 2002 MTV music Video awards and won Best Cinematography. In 2004, after directing Jay-Z's '99 problems' Romanek won Best Direction, just one of the 4 wins in which the video succeeded in. Overall Romanek has won 19 MTV Music Awards.

Spike Jonze

The american director and producer has created some of the best music videos around, still to this day. In 2008, he directed Kayne West's hit song 'Flashing lights'. His most recent work was 'Otis' a song by Jay Z and Kanye West.The video is simple yet aspiring at the same time because of its simplicity. Most of Jonze's video end suddenly, this could be seen as his trademark. He began directing all sorts of music videos in 1992 to the present day. The music videos included artist such as R.E.M to Daft Punk. This shows how Spike Jonze is versatile and can create all different types of music videos. 

Goodwin's Rules

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
(e.g. stage performance in rock video, dance routine in hip hop).

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (the words are interpreted visually either through a narrative, or figuratively through signs and symbols)

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (the editing of the visuals is closely linked to the rhythms of the music)

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, mirrors) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos).

Genre Research

Taylor Swift is the main artist that we have looked at for our music video. This is because her music suits our artist well as they are very similar with a pop/country feel to it. Taylor Swift has used a narrative genre for all of her music videos. We plan to make our video a narrative also, therefore she is one of the best suited artist for our genre. Her song 'You Belong With Me' is a song that i believe fits our research well. This is because it is almost a love story about not getting the person you want, which is very similar to what  we plan to do. The only difference with Swift's video's is that they tend to finish with a happy ending. Her audience are young girls, usually in their teens. Her music is about reaching out for something you desire and going for it. We plan to use a fairly similar audience, as we believe females tend to be more emotional than males. I say this because we want our audience to be able to relate to our video, finish watching it and think 'wow'.



                                          Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me

Star Study

Rachel Hawker and the Remedies

My group and I have chosen Rachel Hawker and the Remedies as the unsigned artist that we plan to make our music video on.

They describe their music as Pop/Rock/Soul. However, her voice reminds our group of country singer Taylor Swift. The band consists of 4 members, Rachel being the vocalist. They are based in Brighton, but travel a lot to busk in towns all over the country. The song we have chosen is called 'Just a Taste' from their 4 song album 'Dirty Little Secrets'. 

Johnny Cash - Hurt

The 2002 song Hurt by Johnny Cash was a cover that had been previously release by Nine inch Nails in 1994. This was Johnny Cash's final release before his death. It was directed by Mark Romanek. 


The video contains images of Cash's life from his early to late years. There are many images throughout the video that shows how his life had gone downhill. For example 'The House of Cash', a museum that was dedicated on Johnny Cash and his music, had a 'Closed To The Public' sign on the door. Inside the museum you see images of an empty place and a shattered record. This implies that  his career is over. Cash Died months after filming this video.




The Video's genre is Personal, this is because the images are personal to Cash and the setting of the video was in his house of 30 years. It also contains a framed photo of Johnny Cash and his second wife 'June' also a country singer, and the woman that Cash fell in love with. You don't usually see home photos in music videos, this is a reason why it is a personal music video. 


Cash has several reference's to religion throughout the video. This represents faith, however all of the references link to Jesus and his later life, for example 'The last Supper', Cash is sat at a table by himself surrounded by food usually eaten at occasions. There's also an image of Jesus carrying the cross. this could represent Cash giving up and facing the fact that it is all over.




At the end of the video you see Johnny Cash close the piano, this signifies the 'end'. Cash never released a video after this. However I personally believe he went out on a high, as this video is emotional and personal. It tells the audience his truthful feelings and how if he had the chance to change some of his previous actions he would. The video has a meaning and for a last one, I think it's brilliant. 


Johnny Cash
Hurt

A2 Music Video

Music Video Analysis


Name of Track: Calm Down
Artist/director: Canterbury/Scott Peters
Genre: Indie


The first line 'This room is colder now', is repeated throughout the song and is also reflected on the video by the lighting used. Dull blues are used to represent this and the setting of the video also reflects on the lyrics of the song as an abandoned warehouse is where it has been filmed. Bright bursts of colour are used when the band is playing together and towards the end of the video, almost to bring it to an end and deliver a more positive ending that will make the audience think 'wow'.


Different shot types were used throughout the video to set the atmosphere. Shot 1 is one of the first shots used and it sets the scene as an establishing shot. It also sets the mood and atmosphere as quite isolated. Shot 2 is a close up of singer and guitarist Mike Sparks. The close up shows he is not wearing any type of make up and has plugs in his ears. This type of costume tells the audience that the band are not bothered by appearance or looks but solely on their music and its impact on their audience. Their choice of costume also indicates a sense of an indie genre. Shots 3 and 4 mirror each other. Shot 3 is a mid shot of Mike Sparks and Shot 4 is a mid shot of lead singer and bassist Luke Prebble. In both shots the artists are standing in the same position, whilst sharing lines from the song. a single spotlight is also aimed at the artists which makes them a dominant part of the video and song itself. Shot 5 is a close up of Guitarist James Pipe playing. A high angle close up has been used here from the end of the guitar. It has been used to show the music expertise each band member has. Shot 6 is a wide shot of Canterbury playing is a light filled room. It is a low angle shot which shows the dominance of the band as a whole. Shot 7 is another interesting shot taken from behind drummer and director Scott Peter. From this angle you can see James Pipe also as both members play. This shot is also slowed down slightly as the music speeds up for the chorus.Slow motion is used here to reflect on the line 'you move to slow, for me to hope'. Again linking the lyrics and video together. Shot 8 is a side shot of both singers and the chorus begins again. This shot appears almost to be filmed with a handheld camera as is moves about a lot. It has also been sped up to bring the video to a close. Shot 8 is a long shot of Canterbury standing together. This introduces the band as a four piece to their audiences. Finally Shot 10 is the final shot of the video. As the music is fading out you see the not suddenly finish but the band finish playing completely.


The visuals of the video, links in a lot with both the lyrics and the music. The setting, lighting, shots and speed of the video is affected purely on the lyrics and music played. This is a positive aspect of any music video as it make the song and video more memorable for the audience. It also enables you to remember the lyrics and and the song itself. There are many inter textual reference's throughout as the video plays on what has been said or heard in the song.


This music video is mainly performance-based as the band are performing constantly throughout the video. The video itself does not entirely reflect its concept of a break up and moving on, however the band have used different shot types and the performance side of things to emphasise this.


The production of this video is very low budgeted, this is because Canterbury are not a main steam or a very known band. The drummer Scott Peters directed this video, making it more personal to the band however this could also be that they were unable to afford a more qualified, skilled director. The camera also used in this Video does not give the best quality of picture, however linking in with the genre of Indie, the band may not have wanted a 'perfectly filmed' video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFUZ29Qqm1s       Video


http://www.lyricshall.com/lyrics/Canterbury/Calm+Down/      Lyrics

Costume

The main Costume we used in our opening sequence for The Escaped was Catherines Costume which was an old fashioned victorian night gown. We used this because it is not something people would typically wear and it also linked in with the setting of a mental hospital. the other costume we used was the Nurses costume which was a black skirt and a white cardigan. although it isn's a proper nurses outfit, the audience were able to understand and determine that she worked for the mental hospital and was out looking for Catherine.