Blog Closed

My blog is now closed as I have completed all of this years work. I am happy with the standard with my research planning and construction and feel we have all worked well this year and our work is a true reflection of this.

Evaluation Question 4

Q4.How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This is the camera which we had access to use for our music video filming. The camera is the Canon Legria FS200, as it was a school camera the quality was not the best, but as we had no alternative we made the most of it. One good aspect of the camera was that it was very mobile as it is only a small camera and also it was very suitable for the job we needed to do. We got to grips with how the camera worked very quickly and developed our skills with it by using different techniques such as; zooming in and out, panning and a variation of different camera angles. Also the good thing about the camera was that after we had filmed a clip we could watch it back. This was because of the small screen attached to the side of the camera. Due to the fact we could watch it back it became easier to look at what had gone wrong in the clip so therefore we could shoot it again if we needed to. As well as the camera we also had to borrow a tripod from school, these were also quite temperamental and often broke while we were using them or we were given a broken one in the first place.

This is the software which we used to help us edit our music video. It is Adobe Premier Pro, it was a very good software to use and once we got to grips of how to use it, it then became very simple and effective to use. However to start with it is very hard to work because it is so detailed. Due to the fact that we used this software our music,very good and have the effects needed instead of just clip’s being shown after another clip. This software was good in the fact that the different techniques we used on there made the music video flow better.
Other technical websites we used were blogger and Youtube. These sites have been vital in research and planning. Blogger was used to post about our whole production. It was used as a diary to post about research and planning, construction and anything else which happened in our process to complete the project throughout the year. It was simple and easy to use, we even had apps on our phones to make it more convenient to blog. It had good features to allow us to embed presentations and videos when needed which were vital to show our ideas and research. Youtube was great to research, we used other music videos to gain inspiration and to compare to ours and our ideas. We also used it to gain advice as we made Youtube channel and gained feedback and advice from the public which really helped us to progress. Again it was simple and straightforward to use we were very pleased with how reliable and easy it was to upload a video and never had problem with either sites and they were both easily accessible.

We used the internet and predominately Google to help our research and development progress and helped us analyse similar products to ours, we used it in the construction process to construct our website and Digipak, Google has always been very reliable for us and helped us overall adapted our Blog. Google allowed to gain vital information we needed for our whole media piece quickly and efficiently this was either form research digipaks to gaining emails for production companies we may need to email. It made everything a lot more quicker and convenient for us when gaining any information we could not secure anywhere else but the internet.

We also used Prezi to present most of our ideas and presentations. This is a great website and software to use to present in a new interesting way, it allows things to be shown in a more abstract image. The way in which it works keeps the audience more engaged whilst presenting as it jumps from slide to slide in different ways and using different shapes and images. This is alot more fun to work with and to share information than a power point It was simple for us to make an account after our school registered on the website. Its clear intructions meant we got the hang of how it works very quickly. We then realised it had a great feature which allowed us to get the HTML so we could actually embed the presentation on our blog so that you want have to leave our blog whilst looking at it which made it convenient and an interesting feature on our blogs.

To create our website we used a website called Weebly. This website enabled us make a homepage and have tabs leading off of that to make our actual website look as good as possible. This website was easy to use and even easier to make ours website look professionally made. It had very advanced features that we were not to sure about, but the simple ones were all we needed to produce the website at the level of our standards.

To make our Digipak we used a program called Adobe Photoshop, this is a very good but technical program, with all of its functions and advanced options, at first it became slightly daunting. After a while of tweaking and trial and error we began to get used to the way in which it works. We used Youtube videos to guide us through how to use some of the settings this helped loads and allowed us to use some of the settings on Adobe that we before didn't even know how to operate. We began to get used to Photoshop and used its many options to our advantage when putting our Digipak together. We feel that the imagery and professional look we were after and we were pleased with how reliable and professional Adobe Photoshop turned out to be.

Evaluation Question 3

Q3.What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Firstly we made a questionnaire for people in our class and our families to complete, the questionnaire consisted of different questions ranging from ‘what is your favourite genre of music’ to ‘who is your favourite singer/musician’. This was good because it gave us some idea of what people liked and what would be good to incorporate into our music video.

Secondly of all we had several ideas in mind, that we wanted to do, we had to eliminate this down to one. To do this we had a class discussion on the different ideas. The class was asked which idea they thought sounded the best. Then we did a Q+A on the one they thought was better. They took it in turns to ask us different questions about our idea, E.G What does the drink represent? These questions were good because we could establish a good idea that people did like and what they thought would look good in a music video. It also allowed us to determine whether our idea was strong and what improvements we could possibly make to make the over all out come more attractive to the audience.

Thirdly we had a draft version created early on for our teacher to have a look at and advise us on anything that would make it better. From the advice we were given we changed and in some cases re- filmed a lot of the footage to make it as good as possible. The advice from our teacher was really good because he is the one who will provisionally mark our work, he gave us the idea to change to black and white in some of the clips to make it look rustic as if it were in the past.

Aswell s all of this we also used Youtube to receive feedback from the general public. Uploading our draft on to Youtube allowed everyone to view it and to comment their own thoughts and opinions. We were open to constructive criticism and took any comments and advice given on board. By allowing such a broad audience to view our work it really gave us an insite as to how well we were achieving our goal, by the standard and representation of the music video through others eyes. on the right is a print screen from a comment we received on YouTube a while ago from our draft. This really helped us and used the good comments as motivation and to know we were heading in the right direction.

Overall I believe the feedback we received from everyone was very valuable. It helped us to decide on our final idea and even more so when we had started the work when the advice allowed us to change things around and hopefully improve our grade overall. We developed what we feel a solid Idea and production from all of the feedback. We hope we took as much as we could on board and listened carefully to what everyone had to say when it came to improving and progressing.

Evaluation Question 2

Q2.How affective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary texts?

I believe that the combination of our main Production (Music Video) and our ancillary texts (website and DigiPak)have both been very effective and successful because they all have similarities and a relationship. Each of our media texts are linked together! For both the DigiPak and Website we have used screen shots from our main production (Music Video). In these screen shots we have included the characters from the music video,this is effective because as an audience, the ancillary texts offer more advertisement of the main product. Unlike the Music video, and even the website, a DigiPak can be read/seen, passed through other audiences, such as family and friends. The website also is very effective because it offers more information on the band/artist, for example new music coming out, tours, interviews or simply pictures of events and concerts. In the society we live in, when we like a media product we tend to want to know more about the background it came from. For example if someone hears the song they will want to watch the music video, and then from there they will be able to access the website of the band/artist and then from there they can order albums, singles and DigiPaks.

This is a screen grab of the inside panels of our DigiPak and the main screen of our website. They are similar because they follow a similar theme of have the same background with the wall. Also we have incorporated the same props, we have got the guitar which also features in our music video and so does the alcohol. This is effective because it links all our music video production and the ancillary tasks together.

We researched into other websites and digipaks to help us make ours, this was useful because it helped show us that most DigiPaks incorporate a common theme, whether it be colour theme (we used black and white in our video and for our DigiPak), or it could be Props, like what we have used. Due to us looking into similar products it enabled us to understand what is effective for these construction processes.

The common theme that can distinguish our products is the incorporation of the black and white colour scheme and also the props which we included, which all come together and link with the music video (main Production) and the DigiPak and Website (ancillary tasks).

 



Evaluation Question 1

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

Final Music Video

This is our completed music video, it has taken a lot of time and effort to create, however we do feel it has been a very enjoyable experience as a group and we have all learnt something from this exercise. The music video shows that not all relationships work out and that you need to move on when it doesn't this music video is about how one guy made a mistake with his girlfriend which meant he lost her for good, there are scenes when he is thinking back to how they used to be, and scenes of him on his own drinking to try and overcome this pain. This is the official music video for Ed Sheeran-Drunk by NeonCloud Productions.

Final Website

This is our completed music video, it has taken a lot of time and effort to create, however we do feel it has been a very enjoyable experience as a group and we have all learnt something from this exercise. The music video shows that not all relationships work out and that you need to move on when it doesn't this music video is about how one guy made a mistake with his girlfriend which meant he lost her for good, there are scenes when he is thinking back to how they used to be, and scenes of him on his own drinking to try and overcome this pain. This is the official music video for Ed Sheeran-Drunk by NeonCloud Productions.

http://neoncloudproductions.weebly.com/ This is the link to our website.  

 

DigiPak

This is our final version of our digipak. We have spent allot of time research and analysing into other digipaks, to help to recognise features that we may need to include. Some of these for example are; bar code, writing on the spine, lyrics and most importantly a reoccurring theme. Which we have chosen as the iconic wall in our video and the black and white imagery. We used the black and white imagery in our film to represent the past. We feel this looked a more professional look for our Digipak as it kept every scene and picture looking very similar and could easily be identified together. We kept the guitar and the alcohol the centre of attention making them to spot under the CD in the middle of the pack, this is because we thought they are the most important and symbolic props throughout the whole video, this was separating the boy and girl on the album which symbolises what happens in the song and music video we produced. We feel this is a reflection of our music video and we are pleased with the final outcome.

Website Research - The process of their Construction

Websites have many functions and can be used in various fashions; a website can be a personal website, a commercial website, a government website or a nonprofit organization website. Websites can be the work of an individual, a business or other organization, and are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose. Any website can contain a hyperlink to any other website, so the distinction between individual sites, as perceived by the user, can be blurred.

Websites are written in, or dynamically converted to, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and are accessed using a software interface classified as a user agent. Web pages can be viewed or otherwise accessed from a range of computer-based and Internet-enabled devices of various sizes, including desktop computers, laptops, PDAs and cell phones.

A website is hosted on a computer system known as a web server, also called an HTTP server. These terms can also refer to the software that runs on these systems which retrieves and delivers the web pages in response to requests from the website's users.

Construction of a website

1)  Template Stage - An accepted template is the blueprint for building the website. The look and feel of the website is designed from this template. This is the first stage of the construction of a website.

2)   Build Stage - This part of the process may last a week or two, or a month or more depending on the complexity of the website. This is the stage where they start putting together features of the website after the template is made. This is the second stage of the construction of a website.

3)   Move-in-stage - The website programming is finished after the “Build” stage. So now the owners of the website can add more features to finish of the website, eg photos. This is the final stage of the construction of a website.

Digi-Pack Research - The process of their Construction

The CD DigiPak is a modern, stylish alternative to the standard CD duel Case. CD Digipaks are a custom printed card packaging that can hold one or more CDs which are held in place with plastic trays (CD flexi trays) which are glued into the digipak.

CD DigiPaks are especially popular in the music industry for CD albums as well as multiple CD disc sets. CD Digipaks give a product an expensive professional look and feel, especially when well-designed CD artwork is combined with clever use of specialist print.

Digipaks were originally only seen as limited edition or specialist CD products however improvements in CD production and CD packaging printing techniques has meant that this sleek CD packaging solution is now available at much lower quantities and at much lower prices.

Also CD Digipaks are made out of card stock (with recycled card options available). The most common CD Digipaks is the 4 panel Digipak which opens like a book. However 6 panel CD Dipipaks are also very popular, providing a larger canvas for CD artwork and text information about the CD, our production digi-pak is a 6 panelled one. 8 panel and even 10 panel CD Digipaks are also available.

Unlike CD duel Cases Digipak-style packaging is made from cardboard and as such can be considered less resistant to wear than CD duel cases. Disc Factory minimise this issue by applying a protective gloss or matt varnish to all CD Digipak packaging as standard, the matt lamination finish (a process in which we add a thin transparent plastic film to the surface of card packaging) as this extra plastic coating gives the CD Digipak even more rigidity, providing not only increased longevity, but also making the treated surfaces water resistant too. Matt Lamination also has the added benefit of giving the finished surface of the digipak a soft finish that is really smooth to the touch.

Disc Factory’s also offer DVD DigiPaks. These are constructed in exactly the same was as a CD DigiPak but whereas the CD DigiPak has the dimensions of a standard CD case the DVD DigiPak is a similar size to a normal amaray style DVD case.

Analysing Music Videos - Lightning Bolt

This is a music video by Jake Bugg he has a style of music we all enjoy and is similar to our chosen genre as it is acoustic. He is 18 years old so is the same age as our target audience. The music video consists of fast shots to keep with the music, it has old effects on it making it seem like a traditional film made a while ago giving it a very antique image. He narrates through the song as it refers back to him singing but also him walking through the streets as the story is being told. This is what we plan on doing as Adam tells the story of Dom's relationship situation. The shots are very random and switch constantly in time with the beat around different places, although it does keep a reoccurring theme of this, vintage feel with keeps the video interesting a fun to watch. Especially as it is not just focused on the singer which can be boring for the audience, we will use this technique when filming.

Analysing Music Video - Bastille

This is a Bastille song called Flaws; it is of an alternative genre, something similar to our choice. I have chosen to analyse this music video as it is very different to many others I have previously done. It doesn't follow a specific story line and is a very quirky piece. Although what it does do is follow the pace of the music with its actions, as the music is slow, so is everything happening in the video. We see the main character sing along many times throughout the video but not the whole way, this has become a usual feature in music videos and something we would like to incorporate. The song its self is revolving relationship as is ours, we see him in arcades and enjoying times with girls who have masks on this relates to his lyrics, "flaws". We are going to use the idea of seeing the relationship in happy times and reverting back to our lyrics and title "drunk" as we see a constant occurrence of alcohol throughout the music video. Throughout the rest of the video there are many random parts of action which is enjoyable to watch, the main character and singer taking centre stage, which we also will try to replicate in our own piece.

Conventions of a Music Video - Pop

Pop – The Wanted – Glad you came
§  Party atmosphere
§  Sun, beach, holidays, boat -fun
§  Flirting
§  Shades, bikinis
§  Quick paced shots from clip to clip
§  Typical summer pop song
§  Jeans and t shirts, not smart clothing
§  Abroad

This song and video are an example of a typical summer/holiday pop anthem, which is instantly shown by the shooting being in a foreign country on a beach and around a pool. The video shows the band and others having fun, mucking around and is not too serious which is a stereotype of pop as it is meant to be fun and upbeat. The party atmosphere throughout the video also represents this. The clothes worn support the stereotype with bikinis which obviously would be worn on holidays and also jeans and t shirts rather than suits that may be worn in RnB videos to again represent the relaxed, fun atmosphere. The quick paced shots show there is a lot going on and a lot of action which is stereotypical of a pop video.

Party atmosphere








A shot of the whole band








Having fun on boat/ expensive








Sea and sun scene



Analysing Digi-Pak

This is an example of a digipak from a Rhianna album. It has reoccurring theme to it as the front and back and inside are all in black and white and have similar taken images. This makes the digi-pak flow and look overall more professional. After doing plenty of research we have realised that keep a constant theme is important as the audience can then relate you everything together without thinking about it. It lets them establish and recognize you through imagery. This is something important which we think will be vital and important for us to include in to ours.

Conventions of a music video - RnB

Though music video's can be incredibly varied, there are conventions that are evident across the genre. The conventions of a music video consist of; mise en scene, this is everything that is visable on screen in the video, also editing, this is the editing of the music video so what cuts are used, also camera work, this is camera shots such as close ups and also camera movement such as crain shots, also lighting, this is what lighting is used to add empathy on something in the video, also sound, this is mainly the song and finally props and costumes.

The conventions often depend on the genre of the music/music video. So for example if the music video is RnB then this Genre has typical conventions.


RnB – Jason Derulo – It Girl
§  Flash car
§  Suit – dapper
§  Chain
§  Dancing – typical
§  Glamorous woman, man, lifestyle
§  Beach scene in back
§  Big, expensive house
§  Sunny
§  Black and white clothing, vests, leather jacket
§  Sunglasses
§  Well kept hair, make up
§  Love story

These are all typical features of an RnB music video, with glamorous people, scenes and expensive items such as the house and car. Pools and beaches are often used in RnB musice videos and although they aren't used a lot in this video there is the beach balcony view and beach in the background of shots, this shows that they are in an expensive location. The cross chain Jason Derulo wears is a typical example of the knid of 'bling' used in RnB videos. His clothing is also typical of an RnB video.

Provocative


 

 

Leather Jacket, Bling

Balcony Scene