The document provides an evaluation of the planning and production process for a music video project. Some key points: - The initial song choice was changed mid-production, requiring changes to the planned animation style and story. This caused issues throughout production and evaluation. - Experiments during planning were not very useful, with the exception of some animation practice. More effective experimentation could have improved the planning process. - Storyboarding provided a good visual plan but lacked explanations, which may have caused confusion for others viewing it. - Changing the song halfway through required reworking many elements of the planned conventions, characteristics, and structure that had been outlined earlier. - More focus on understanding the ultimate song choice from

1. Evaluation
Andrew Downes

2. Production Process
Evaluation

3. Research
• My product research was good in the way that the first one was a music video for at the speed of light by Iron Maiden
which was all animated and it is still one of my favourite music videos because of the animation when I first saw it I was
just going to completely rip it off and do the exact same thing. The down side of this was that I completely left that song
as it was my first choice of song and then I went for a different one which was much more light hearted as it didn’t fit my
animation well and the only thing that I could take from it at that point is that they used animation this could have been
made better by choosing a light hearted song in the first place and also go for a different style of animation this would
have given me an idea of what my project would be like at the end of the rotation. However it was good because it gave
some ground rules like you have to do animation as that is what I want to do for my FMP so I took it as a chance to
practice up a bit before the actual FMP. The green screen tutorial was useful as I had never used a green screen before
and I didn’t know what programs I could use to edit out the background I should say that I misunderstood this and
decided to use after effects to edit out the background thinking ultra key would be there it wasn’t and instead I used
keylight instead and it took ages to export which I said in the production reflection then I asked the teachers and they said
to use Premiere and it was twice as easy as I actually found the ultra key in Premiere this was bad as I only found out near
the end that I should have been using Premiere so it was a bit of a waste of time to change this I should have been
looking back regularly to make sure that I was getting it right the first time and that would have just made it so I had more
time to add effects to it at the end and also give me more time to complete some of the paper work and maybe even get
a start on the FMP stuff at the end though it was good as I generally knew what I was doing when I found the right
programme. As for the last piece of product research was completely useless really when it comes down to the actual
creation of my project as I never ended up using a vortex I did create one but I though that it would have looked
completely out of place in the way that it looked and as I needed a real person to fall through it rather than just having an
animation fall through it so it is fair to say when it came down to it I had very little control over the vortex I could have
improved this with more time to come up with a different idea on how to create the vortex this would have meant that
the video might have lasted till the end of the song and also would make the transitions between real life and game
would be a little bit easier rather than just having immediate transitions as it doesn’t make much sense at all.

4. Research part 2
• All of the conventions, genre characteristics and my chosen approach are all a bit skewed
as I was going to use a completely different song from a completely different genre as I
went from metal to light hearted dubstep so there is quite a big jump between the two
genres and so yeah when I said that the genre uses a band and instruments to show off
what they can do with dubstep it is usually just one person with a mix board in front of
them maybe at a party or something where as with the rock and metal genre they are
usually at gigs and on stages and stuff of that sort also with dubstep they are usually more
connected to dancing and uplifting tones rather than either sadness or rage from metal
and as for dubstep the artists don’t really try to one up each other so they don’t do to
many crazy stunts also they usually don’t do much and have screen display above them
either a video or an animation. As for the chosen approach it is much more normal to see
an animation to go with dubstep. So yeah that whole entire part of my research was wrong
and it would have been better if I could have chosen the right song the first time around
then I wouldn’t have to actually explain it in my evaluation this would have given me more
time and it also might have helped out my organization and timing if I got this right in the
first place which I really needed. The last piece of research is slightly wrong as well as I was
also still doing a rock/ metal song and so my explanations are off but the actual target
audience has pretty much remained the same it is not too much of a blow that this part
was wrong and the rest was pretty much 100% correct and it only would have slowed me
down even more than I already was if I went back to work on all these things that went
wrong because I changed my song part way through the production I mean it wouldn’t
have changed my project too much if at all so I don’t know whether it would have
improved my actual project.

5. Planning
• The strengths of my planning was that it gave me some strong guidelines such as there will
definitely be some animation it will be a linear story line I also found a music video for an
animation based on games which was an iron maiden music video which is what originally I
was going to do but then my animation turned out a little bit too light hearted for it I also
decided at this point hat I was going to use the green screen and use some filming but I
didn’t know how to use the green screen and I wasn’t great with Premiere or After effects
this helped by giving me some outlines which in the end that same idea was used but I had
to alter it in the slightest way which leads me to my weakness with this which was the fact
that I had to change the song mid way through my production my final artist info thing was
completely wrong as I ended up with a dubstep song by boss fight called milky ways and it
sounds as if it should be in a videogame I could have improved this by actually thinking
ahead of time about what my animation would look like instead of just finding a song that I
liked and then trying to incorporate into my music video this wouldn’t have done much to
my project in the end except for the fact at how I spent a little bit of time trying to find a
different song for my project. The strength of my experiments is that I did them I guess but
apart from that there was only one alright one which was the animation which I really
liked. The first experiment was rubbish as all it was, was a song with some gaps some
sound effects played through them and then I decided that I should add some images so I
decided to try and edit to the beat which I didn’t think went too well this could only have
been improved by doing something completely different so not wasting time and actually
testing my skills. The second experiment as I said was alright but only because I actually
had an idea of what I was going to do as all it was animation which I thought I was fairly
strong at but apparently not oh yeah and I also added the old music to the experiment so it
was metal playing in the background of metal pretty much so it didn’t work at all.

6. Planning part 2
• My very first mistake was made within the first line saying that I would do the acting for my
project also the other thing that I was doing at this point was going to try and be a replica
of the music video for at the speed of light by Iron maiden which is what originally gave me
the idea but mid way through the production I had to change song which meant my idea
changed as well also a time went on I realized I was not going to get everything on that list
completed so I also had to change my ideas towards the end as well this could have been
made better by understanding my song of choice and not just doing what I wanted to do if I
did this I wouldn’t have had to have changed my music or my idea at all also it would have
saved me some time when it came down to production as I spent quite a lot of time trying
to find a new song that would fit the rest of the music video and animation. The pre
production however was good because it gave me quite a lot of ideas for what the story
line would be and if you have a long list of ideas it is easy to cut some of them to save some
time when it comes down to the production this helped because I could see quite clearly
where I could take out big chunks of the story and still make it work however though when
it came down to the production I still wasn’t happy with the end product this was probably
one of the reasons why I didn’t like it because I knew how much I had cut out and if only I
had some more time then I might have done a decent job of it. The structural breakdown
was completely wrong because yet again I had to change my song half way through the
production the two songs are completely different one is dubstep the other is metal the
tempos are different the notes are different everything is different I could have made this
better by sticking with the original song and changing my idea or just changing this whole
entire project from the start which would have been impossible as I am struggling with my
timing anyway this would have made it better as it could have potentially saved some time
when it came down to the production of my music video.

7. Planning part 3
• The storyboarding was good because it gave me a relaxed visualisation of what
my project could have looked like this helped me in the end even though it was
probably one of the most time consuming things I have done for this project
however it was a bit rubbish in the way that I didn’t add an adequate
explanation underneath each one so people might just understand it because it
is very linear but if it wasn’t only a few people would be able to understand it I
could have fixed this by giving a proper explanation underneath each and every
one of the pictures but this wouldn’t really have helped me because I already
knew exactly what I was doing and it would only have wasted more time which I
didn’t have. Shot list was also good as it gave me some ideas as how I was going
to structure it this helped in the end by showing me what I had to do to try and
make the music video work. It was also bad however as I didn’t involve much
movement wise when it came down to it all of it was filmed on a tripod in
different areas around a green screen so there was nothing really to special
about it and I could have fixed this by giving some sort of movement directions
throughout the shot list the group information was fairly useless as there were
only two people involved In the production Julian and myself so I just had to do
that and then explain where I was going to do filming and whether I was allowed
to film there and then just saying whether or not I could get the crew over to
these places and in the end I didn’t even use my home for filming and so it was
even easier to just say it wasn’t useful at all to the project.

8. Time Management
• My time management was alright at the start with the planning research and
proposal it was when I was nearing the end with my pre-production and my
production is where I needed to manage my time much better I didn’t complete my
project on time I finished my project in the last week of the rotation and I am doing
the evaluation in my own time with additional time I could have done a lot more such
as instead of having to create my own background in Photoshop with very limited
time I could have actually have filmed a room to then put in the background which
would have been much simpler than I thought it would be I would just have to use a
few masks which are actually quite difficult to use also when it came down to filming I
probably should have spent more time on that as seems as that I believe is the bit
that really dragged the project down with both my acting and fact at how I should
probably have taken many more shots just to cover more ground to see if there was
anything that looked better than my original plan I pretty much would have spent
more time on everything including the animation because in the Mario one I wanted
to add more of a background and as for the link one I need to do some more work on
that just in its entirety. In other words yes I could probably make this much better if I
just put more time into it and as for the pre-production it only took longer because I
didn’t think that parts of it weren’t useful such as the shot list and the story board
and also the group information but those all took up time but in the end everything
would have turned out better if only I just had a bit more time.

9. Technical Qualities - camera
The camera work is good because on both
pieces it is steady and well mine might be a bit
difficult to film as I had to film to make it look
like I was filming in different directions in most
of the scenes in my one I also wasn’t the one
filming Julian did that as I am no good with a
camera and so I couldn’t really film anything
well and changing the Iso and that sort of thing
I have already forgotten and as for the other
video it looks as if they have done the exact
same thing but just did the editing much better
than I could.

10. Technical Qualities – editing/post
My editing was weird and off as seem as I tried to
do something new with most of the scenes which
makes it look a lot like a student film I also used a
lot of effects such as masks colour changes ball
effects detect edges and other sorts of things.
Also it doesn’t change for the better. As for the
real music video it looks as if it is much more
simple and also has a lot of different effects such
as triangular shapes colour changes effects and
maybe there are some inverted colour effects.

11. Aesthetic Qualities
In all honesty I think that my work
doesn’t look great because of the
effects I have added also when it
comes down to the backgrounds
that is by far the worst bit of the
piece of work however though the
project was creative however
though I did take some inspiration
from a music video by iron maiden
which was where I got the idea
from at the start I like the
animation but as for the rest of
the rest of the project with the
filming and the effects in the
background I would have
improved the effects to go with
the filming the ultra key was
incredibly useful but yeah the
effects I would have changed.
I would have improved the piece by making the colours
more blue like rather than red I tried red in the start
because I wanted to get a sort of feeling that they are
either in hell or heaven which didn’t work I also would have
changed the inverted colouring that I used for the game
and then the vortex and that didn’t really work out either.

12. Audience Appeal
This appealed to my audience
because the age range would
mean that they are interested in
the mystery and the animation of
my projects. As for appealing to
the males all I can really think of
is in the animation because they
are cool. Upper middle class is
appealed to by the music and the
animation are the main bits that
would appeal to anyone in the
whole project. My project
appeals to the socially conscious
type B because of the animation
and the storyline of him just
being dragged away into a
different world of games.

13. Peer
Feedback

14. Feedback 1
• What did you like about the product?
• Music works well with the video
• Video has a simple story to it, which makes it easier to watch
• The different angles used in the intro were good
• Good detail with the video game
• What improvements could have been made to the product?
• The changes between games were weird, and didn't seem to
work to well
• The computer closing was weird since the person closing it
didn't care why the first guy disapeard

15. Feedback 2
• What did you like about the product?
• The virtual environment gives a sense of distorted reality , which is a nice
touch to tease the viewer into the game world which features later on.
• The introduction of the character inside the video game is timed perfectly
and accurately reflects the look of the real world character.
• The animation is smooth and evokes the feeling of genuine games while also
matching the style of song
• What improvements could have been made to the product?
• The red tint works for the shots however it is a little inconstant where it
doesn’t look like it’s applied on certain close ups of the laptop.
• A section of audio is quite obviously cut near the beginning, but the rest of
the track flows well.

16. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
• I like the concept and really felt like it belonged with the low bit style to the
song – most associated to video games – the theme of this music video.
• What improvements could have been made to the product?
• I feel like the green screening was a bit week and maybe even quite
pointless in the sense that it would’ve easier to actually shoot the
video in the corner of the room and it even if you were to still green
screen it, I would’ve advised using actual images – to save time on
drawing it – which takes from the whole look of the video.

17. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer feedback?
• I feel like the green screening was a bit week and maybe even quite pointless in the sense that it would’ve easier to actually
shoot the video in the corner of the room and it even if you were to still green screen it, I would’ve advised using actual images
– to save time on drawing it – which takes from the whole look of the video. I like the concept and really felt like it belonged
with the low bit style to the song – most associated to video games – the theme of this music video. The virtual environment
gives a sense of distorted reality , which is a nice touch to tease the viewer into the game world which features later on.
• The introduction of the character inside the video game is timed perfectly and accurately reflects the look of the real world
character.
• The animation is smooth and evokes the feeling of genuine games while also matching the style of song.
• The red tint works for the shots however it is a little inconstant where it doesn’t look like it’s applied on certain close ups of
the laptop.
• A section of audio is quite obviously cut near the beginning, but the rest of the track flows well.
• Music works well with the video
• Video has a simple story to it, which makes it easier to watch
• The different angles used in the intro were good
• Good detail with the video game
• The changes between games were weird, and didn't seem to work to well
• The computer closing was weird since the person closing it didn't care why the first guy
disapeard
• I completely agree with all of it however I have spotted a lot of other areas I was uncomfortable
with.

18. Peer Feedback Summary
I would have changed the green screen completely and done what peer feedback 3
said that I should have filmed in the corner of a room. The red tint works for the
shots however it is a little inconstant where it doesn’t look like it’s applied on
certain close ups of the laptop which is true because I didn’t and I think it would be
easy to apply the colours. A section of audio is quite obviously cut near the
beginning which I could easily fix by just mending the song however the timings
would have been off then and the end wouldn’t really synch up with the music.
The changes between games were weird, and didn't seem to work to well. This
could have been fixed by adding some bits in between like the vortex I was going
to add in and also maybe I could have used some of the falling filming I made and
used that but it was as bad as the crawling if not worse. The computer closing was
weird since the person closing it didn't care why the first guy disappeared. I could
have fixed this by taking that part out but then the timing would have been off
again and I would have to make some sort of filler for that part of the project.

19. Action Plan for future development
• Most of my project to me apart from the animation was horrible it all
could have used a lot more work on it such as the editing that I did
on the last day to the filming to the effects I had added. Also the
Backgrounds that I had made I didn’t like at all I should have just
filmed in a room and changed the lighting of it in post but yeah I
really enjoyed the animation to me that all turned out really well and
I would love to do more things like that as it is incredibly fun and I
don’t mind spending a lot of time on creating some fun pixel
animations. I also enjoyed the music side of it however I enjoyed it
even more in video games where I got to create my own music
soundtrack and sound effects and therest really wasn’t interesting at
all because I didn’t use half of the footage I had filmed and I didn’t
use the vortex I had created which might have made it better and
might have softened the link between the games and the vortex
world.