3. Brief Description of my Video! I made my video as a soundtrack from a film, I decided this as I wanted to make it different to others. So I recreated the film twilight using the 2 characters Edward and Bella to create there love story. I looked at videos like Leona Lewis’s song ‘I See You’ which features the film avatar in it. This gave me a few ideas on how to go about making a soundtrack and when to link in bits of the film etc. I tried to make the artist not look all dressed up as I wanted her to be a down to earth arist. So I didn’t but her in long dresses or anything like that I just made it nice and casual. And for the people who played Edward and Bella I chose a few of their costumes to look like Edward and Bella’s. But theirs was easy as I tried to make it look as life like as possible.
4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Question 1:
5. 1. My music video demonstrates the genre of the song as it’s a love song and the video is based on love as I use to people from a film to demonstrate that. Also my video links to all 3 of the music video categories: narrative, performance and abstract. As there is obvious a performing element, there is a link between the song and video as its all about love. And also the film links with abstract as I made it look like the song was made for the film but the film wasn’t made for the song therefore they wasn’t really anything to do with each other. 2. I twisted the song around a little, as it is actually about someone who is in love but the other person does not feel the same. But because I was using twilight I twisted it as they both love each other but its not safe to be together and one leaves the other. Which makes the video illustrative as the video helps convey the meaning of the song. 3. There is an obvious relationship between the visuals and the music as both of the stories link together. Another way in which I made them link is that I did part of the performance element in the same place as I filmed some of the ‘film.’ 4. I made sure I had a lot of close ups of the artist to make sure that the audience knew exactly who the singer was and could connect with her. And because I used film elements you could tell straight away who the artist was from the characters in the film. This will sell the artist and show people over and over again that its her. 5. In a lot of the performance element I had the artist looking straight into the camera so that the eyes was always connected and could make the audience feel like she was looking at them. 6. There is obvious reference to a film as mine is based on it. As it was meant to be seen as a soundtrack to the film twilight. Goodwins Theory elements:
6. I challenged the conventions as I made the actual real song meaning twist a little. As it wasn’t written for a film. But as I recorded it myself it looked as though it was made for the actual film used. This way I managed to get the film and the song to link. As most people know what twilight is and how the story happens so I just made the song link by changing its meaning. Challenges! I also challenged the conventions as I linked the video up to all the categories of video- Narrative, Abstract and Performance. I have an element of each one. This is challenging as usually videos are just in the one category.
7. Videoing Comparing! The obvious similarities that are made between these 2 videos is the fact that they are both made as soundtracks. I have also made sure that a lot of my camera work is close ups of the artist to show a connection between audience and artist. And to also sell the artist. Another comparison which I have also made is that her video is made to look as though she is in the same places as where the film is filmed and I have done that in mine. (Obviously I couldn’t use a green screen etc so I really did film it in the same place) This a screen shot taken from my video and one taken from the actual film. This is how close I managed to make the similarities. Even the hands are in the same place. I’m very proud of this shot and can’t believe myself of what comparison I have been able to create myself.
8. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Question 2:
9. For influences on my digi pack I used Pixie Lotts album cover as inspiration. As you can see her front cover is just plain and simple which is the same as how mine has been portrayed. She has just used her name as the title but I used an album name as well as a name. Pixie used a black and white black ground put herself in colour then put her name in white. I decided that this could be a good idea but I mixed it up a bit. I decided that I would put myself in black and white and put the words in colour. This I think made the name of the artist stand out. Pixies look also influenced me as she is very laid back in her picture. Also looking at something else instead of straight at the camera makes you focus more on her and wonder what it is she is looking at. So I decided that this is a really good feature and did the same thing on my front cover. Again the back of Pixies album is nice and simple. I took the idea of doing the numbers in a different colour to the name on the songs and laid it out very similar. Pixies obviously has more writing on than mine as hers is an official album. Both of the album backs connect as we’ve both upstaged the way we are stood. But not by too much because well I didn’t want mine to look to set up I wanted it too look a little more natural.
10. As you can see both of the adverts are very similar as they both represent the band/artist which its for. The killers has the same pattern and logo as used on their album. This shows that its for that particular album before people actually read it. Same as mine I have used the same image and text as what is on my album. This shows a major link between advertisement about album. Both advertisements are very specific on what has been written on them as there needed to be a less writing as possible. This is so the audience don’t get bored reading it and always keep interested. So short and sweet is the best way. Mine contains a little more writing as I included magazine reviews and also because mine is a digi pack and needed to be explained that its a special addition pack.
11. I think that throughout my ancillary tasks and my video I have managed to keep a very clear identity brand. Its all about being natural and being the person you are. To show that the artist is all about being herself. There’s no need to do a video or photo shoot in some amazing outfits with hair and make up perfectly done. Its all about having fun and being the person that you was born to be. I think that everything decision which I have made throughout doing these tasks reflects on exactly how I wanted to portray my artist.
12. What have you learned from your audience feedback? Question 3:
13. From the beginning of creating my music video I made sure that I listened to what people was saying when I asked them about how they think my video should look. I came up with the idea of doing a music video soundtrack and using my favourite film as an inspiration. I spoke to my mum about this and she gave me so many ideas of locations etc. She thought that my idea was great and was very different to what others have thought of doing now and in the past. So this is when I knew that it was the perfect one to choose. I think that the people that mostly thought that my idea was good was the people who enjoyed the real film. Because I knew some people who disliked the film so wasn’t too interested in the video. But I still decided to go on with my idea as that is always going to happen even with real music videos which are to support a film. Like the video for My Heart Will Go On by Celine Deon is a video of the film Titanic, although it is a very well known film their will still be people out there who dislike the film so will have no interest in the music video. In fact the person which I got to play Bella has never actually seen the film. Although she is not a fan and does not want to see it she was very happy to be in it. This shows that many people all though they may not like it may actually take the time to have a little look at it. Feedback!
14. Once we had all finished making out music videos we decided to put together an event. This was so that all our families, friends and teachers could have a nice night to come and watch our videos. This gave us the chance to get feedback from a lot more people than just the 4 of us in the class. Again because I decided to go with a completely different approach for my video I think that my feedback wasn’t as good as what the others were. This is because my video is really only for a certain target audience. Same as what Leona Lewis’s video for the film Avatar. This gave me a bit of a disadvantage as a lot of the audience preferred videos which wasn’t a soundtrack for a film. The lowest marks I got was for things like costume. But the problem is, is that I couldn’t dress the costumes up to much as it would look like a film that is meant to be in this era. Also if they had looked closely they would of scene that in most scenes the cloths which they was wearing was actually clothing which was picked out by me. For example I made the characters both wear school uniform in the school scene. This was because it was meant to be a British version of the film. But I completely understand the audiences feedback. Another section which I was marked just under the highest on was editing techniques. This I didn’t really understand as I did a lot of editing. For example I had to some how make my main character sparkle without changing the surrounding areas. Also (the audience would know this) I actually filmed the performance element with the performer singing the normal version of the song which is a lot faster that the acoustic version which I actually used. This took a lot of editing to get the lip syncing perfect and this I managed to do. This took hours to do and I think if the audience knew I did this then their marks would of been a little higher than they was.
15. Feedback Scores! What rating would you give the use of props? 13 people gave me 2/5, 15 people gave me 3/5, 6 people gave me 4/5 and 1 person gave me 5/5. This shows that my score was half way over all. This I am happy with as I didn’t use a lot of props. What rating would you give for use of lighting? 3 people gave me 2/5, 17 people gave me 3/5, 11 people gave me 4/5 and 3 people gave me 5/5. This again shows that I was marked half way over all. To an extent I agree with this as I didn’t challenge myself with lighting. Although in one scene the lighting was perfect and I was really proud of this. Is the style of the video clear to you as an audience? 32 people said yes that the video was clear and 2 people said no. This proves that the story which I wanted to portray came out exactly as I wanted it to. Does the style of the music match the style of the video? Every single person said yes that the style matched the video. This proves that I couldn’t change anything to portray the theme in both the video and the song. What rating would you give the video for it being realistic and looking professional? 2 people gave me 1/5, 3 people gave me 2/5, 13 people gave me 3/5, 10 people gave me 4/5 and 4 people gave me 5/5. This shows that again I was given on average half marks out of 5. This I can’t really agree with as I think I made it look as realistic as I could. What rating would you give for the video? 1 person gave me 3/10, 1 person gave me 4/10, 2 people gave me 5/10, 8 people gave me 6/10, 12 people gave me 7/10, 7 people gave me 8/10 and 9 people gave me 3/10. This shows that people rated me over half for my whole video. This I really appreciate because of all the hard work which I have put into this. What do you thing the videos theme/over all idea was? 26 people was right about what the theme was and 8 people was wrong. This proves that the idea which I wanted the audience to see was very clear to most of the audience. What rating would you give the students camera work? 10 people gave me 3/5, 20 people gave me 4/5, 4 people gave me 4/5 and 1 person gave me 5/5. This shows that over half the people who scored me voted my camera work at the high end of the marks. This I am extremely happy with. What rating would you give the students editing skills? 2 people gave me 2/5, 9 people gave me 3/5, 14 people gave me 4/5 and 4 people gave me 5/5. This proves that people appreciated my editing work. I put a lot of work into this. What rating would you give the control of costumes? 3 people gave me 3/5, 6 people gave me 2/5, 17 people gave me 3/5, 6 people gave me 4/5 and 4 people 5/5. This score shows that I was given over half. This I kind of agree with as I could of took more consideration into what they was wearing.
16. Words which was used to describe my video! Cute! Effective! Good! Moving! Simple! Flat! Love! Average! Love Torn! Longing! Passionate! Dramatic! Tense! Romantic! Slow! Compelling! Unique! Relevant! Happy! Dull! Local! Relaxing! Personal! Serious! Sad! Reflective! Enjoyable! Eye Catching! Interesting! Smooth! Spacing! Drama! Engaging! Film Like! Down To Earth! Appropriate! Exciting! Most of the words used to describe my video are very positive. Some are quite negative though things like dull. But I stick to thinking on the positive side as 32 out of the 37 words are positive. This makes me feel a lot better about some of the low marks I got in other questions. As this question gave the audience a change to write how they would describe my video. And now I know that a lot of people enjoyed watching the video. Although I had a lot of disappointment with some of my scores I still got really good feedback on my video overall. Which I am very happy with as I put in a lot of time for my video and its nice to have people appreciate all the work that has been put into it.
17. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Question 4:
18. Blogger! Blogger was the most important programme which I used. It was like a diary. Documenting every single step which I made. No matter how small the step was it would still be written on my blog. It really helped as I knew exactly where about I was in my work and what I needed to do to get to the next step. I knew exactly what pieces of work I was missing as I put everything on there. I recorded in exactly what I was doing, when, where, who helped, what I did. Every single move I made I documented. When I started out using blogger I wasn’t very confident. I had never used it before and was scared in case I couldn’t figure out how to. I thought it was silly that I had to type up every move which I made. But when I started getting into it I began to realise that it is the best idea to do. This is because I knew exactly were I was at throughout my whole course and I was never lost or stuck in what to do next because I had deadlines, and had written what I needed to do next etc. I don’t think I would of been as successful in this unit without blogger.
19. Power Point! Before this course I had obviously already used power point before. This came as a very big advantage as I am really good at using it. I know about all the animation and how to use them. I know all the tools. It is a natural thing to use for me as I have always used it in previous subjects like IT and also the previous year of media. This image is of some work which I did using power point. I did a lot of my drafting for the ancillary tasks on here as it was easier to control things and move them around. This helped me a lot as I could always change my ideas around if I thought of something else. Work which I used power point for was bits like when I did a full slideshow of all the different characters from twilight and found a lot of information on them to use in it. Other things like my draft designs for my CD Digi pack and my advert. This came in very handy. Power point is so easy to use so it was always there to go back on when I needed to create something longer to upload to my blog.
20. Muzu! Another programme which I feel was important in the process of making my music video was the website www.muzu.tv this is because from the beginning of this unit I have been using it. This is because in school we are not allowed to use youtube or any other video website. So this one I could use through my lessons. I used it in some of my first lessons to support the Goodwins theory. I used this website also to look at professional music videos which have been made by real artists. This was so that I got a feel of how real music videos look and work. I looked at videos which were relevant to what type of video I was doing. For example Celine Dions My Heart Will Go On as this is a soundtrack for the film Titantic and also Grenade by Bruno Mars as this was the song I chose. I found this to be very helpful. Without Muzu I would of had to completely a lot of my research and planning at home instead of been able to do work within my lessons because other video sites are band in my school.
21. Slideshare! Slideshare is a programme which I didn’t necessarily need to use a lot as it was just to transfer my power point presentations on to it so that I was able to upload them to onto to my blog. This came in really handy as it wasn’t possible to be able to upload slideshows on to my blog without it. And this wouldn’t of been very good if I wasn’t able to because slideshows was a very important programme to use for adding in as much information as possible. Image above is of how the power point looks once it has been uploaded onto blogger after being processed through slideshare. Image below is of how the slideshare website looks.
22. Photoshop! Photoshop is a programme which I also used. This is a programme where you can edit the way a photograph looks to the way you want. This is where I created my final advert and my final Digi pack. I have previously used photoshop so I knew exactly what I was doing and what tools are what etc. I only started using this software when I started media. I used this to create my magazine front cover, contents page and article. Once I got used to how photoshop works it was relatively easy to control. Below there is 2 photographs of the same thing. I used photoshop to change the colour balance to make the photo black and white. This was to create a completely different effect. Also the other 2 images are screen shots of my final advertisement and my final Digi pack cover. These are both created and edited using the photoshop software. Using this helped me create the exact effect for my ancillary tasks which I wanted.
23. Premier Pro! Premier Pro is the video editing software which I used to create my music video. At first I was really confused on how I could use it but after a day of testing out all the different features I managed to get the hang of using it. I had a taster of using this software last year when me and the media group recreated the Robert Palmer video Addicted to Love. I’m glad that we had that day otherwise we would of had to start from scratched and be completely lost in starting to create out own. This is where you capture the sections of filming to begin editing. In this section you will also find all the special effects of the software including transitions and audio effect. This is were you begin to lay the video down. You begin to edit your video here added and removing all the cuts you want. This is also were the song will eventually be placed too. This is a bigger image to show what is going on. This is just a section after being edited. I can still change it if I want to though by selecting different tools. This is where your sections of video will be played when you press the play button. This gives you a small incite on what is being processed when your adding different sections on to it.
24. I think that if I wasn’t able to use software materials like this or websites that I have done, then I would no where near of been able to end up with a video like this. I have completely enjoyed this full experience. I have always been into things like video cameras, photography, etc and especially music. So to get the chance to combine all the areas of my hobbies was an amazing experience. I have learnt so much about music video theory all through these websites and programmes which I have fortunately been able to use. I’m really happy with my overall outcome as my final product has been completed to a standard that I think I could honestly say is my best. I am proud of what I have managed to achieve over this last year. The information and the things which I have learnt is life changing and I will never forget it. The way to use a camera, what camera angles can make a particular scene look more interesting. The world of film is extraordinary and I cannot believe how much I really have learnt. The whole process, although its been a very long one was completely worth is while. I am glad I was able to finish my product in time and I am very happy with the feedback I received from an audience. Also my ancillary tasks came along exactly how I imagined them to look. Overall I think I have managed to design and create my ancillary tasks and video to a professional standard and I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. It has opened my mind to the technology and work which goes into making just a couple minute long video. I have now learned to appreciate the media more.
