Evaluation by Charlotte Timm

This assignment consists of evaluating our media projects that we have created during the last few weeks. Those projects were a music video and two ancillary texts;one being a magazine advert of the band and the chosen track and the second being a Digipak of the music video and track.
To evaluate the music video we are using Goodwin's Music Video Analysis Theory factors.

First of all I should explain what our music video consisted of.Our chosen track "Lights & Music" was by a current Australian band named "Cut Copy". This band would probably be associated with the "Indie" genre as it consists of multiple members in the band and have a soft rock theme, however this band uses upbeat and electronic sounds to differentiate itself from other popular bands.
We chose this track as it had a "happy-go-lucky" feeling to it, and creates a friendly/humourous theme in our minds. This may have been our biggest influence to what our music video narrative would be.

Our narrative was a basic concept of a male individual getting ready for a night out, to have a good time. Throughout the story it demonstrates the character being intoxicated and demonstrates a stereotypical youth's habits. It is often seen in music video's to have a narrative following a particular character throught the song to unravel their mission/adventure/day or life.
However in this case, we had been previously watching popular music video's and had viewed one that stuck in mind. The famous British band "The Prodigy" had a chocking and explicit music video for their track "Smack My Bitch Up" not only did the track's name find to be offensive but so did the video's context.
What we liked about this video is that it followed a character through the whole video and unravel a story.
In our music video we failed to bring much performance, which would have probably been expected for a Indie type song. But including performance to our narrative proved to be hard to find relevance. Instead we used minimal characters but the one.However to captivate the audience we used the idea of looking through someone else's perspective. We did so by filming a large percentage of our footage at eye level as to represent the camera as the character's eyes. And of course we needed typical music video genre characteristics such as close up's of the main character;this also helped us to demonstrate the characters intoxicated state. We also demonstrated this by using medium long shots to show the characters body language and movement.

After completing the music video we had to create a magazine advert, so in effort to create a realistic magazine advert we looked at already existing magazine articles and advertisments and found that they used minimal visuals and less information then expected.
However we create our's by including an image of the band; to create recognition, it's name and a few of their track's names, a release date and areas to buy or download the album/tracks. Including where the tracks can be bought such as stores (Virgin,HMV,Amazon) or Itunes premotes stop to illegal downloading. We kept the advert simple,hopefully intersting enough to grab the reader's attention and encourage them to pursue more intrest to the band and it's music. Our second ancillary text was a Digipak, digipaks are a patented style of CD (compact disk) or DVD (digital video disk) packaging. Our Digipak was bright and vivid,captivating the audience. However it was only so because of the band's logo,which we chose to use. Not only is this logo used in posters but it is used in every item available for the public to purchase. Therefore we only felt it was aproppriate to use it to create a theme. We used the logo in the front cover and inside the Didgipak,to clearly demonstrate who this Digipak is by and what it is selling. We used the same colours used in the logo into stripes to list the tracks available in the Digipak. We also added the DVD logo to our product to make it more realistic and to inform what the Digipak consists of to a potential buyer.

After completing all of these products we had audience and peer to peer reviews. As expected this gave us an evaluating perspective to clarify what was good and bad. This was incredibly helpful as it emphasised our strengths and weaknesses of our project. For example, as expected our peer told us that we missed performance in the video and that our Digipak should have used darker writing to be more ledgable. This gave us the chance to correct what could be corrected.
Peer review was deffinatly the most important as the comments given were valid and precise.
Through out the whole making of our product we relied and searched for all our information on the Internet. We constantly blogged our progress,and meeting deadlines.Sites such as Youtube, to watch already existing video's and to load our own helped us. Wikipedia gave us information on the band and where they were from alos giving names which we used in our magazine advert.We also used Myspace to contact the band asking permission to use their track for our project, unfortunatly we had no reply. We has access to great programs such as AS Photoshop and Final Cut Express to edit and create our music video and ancillary texts.

Evaluation

The Genre of music we were working with was Electro Pop.Genre characteristics for electro pop include, Dance routine, Perfomance and lipsyncing.

Our Product’s were a music video, advert poster and a dig pack for the artist’s Cut Copy and specifically their song light and music. The song is of Electro pop genre with hints of Dance and Indie rock.

Our video is a narrative of the song. The story we tried to illustrate with the video was that of a band member performing the track under the influence of drugs and ‘tripping’ out on the streets. The main thought process that lead us to choose this scenario is that the genre characteristic highly associated with electro pop is the use and presence of party drugs. We took this into account and decided to go with it, as it would be something the audience would be familiar with.

The more common or conventional format for a band music video is one in which all the band members are presented and usually involves a choreographed dance routine. Therefore in comparison , our music video was different to the convention , as it focused on one character rather than a whole band. However we still incorporated most of the conventions of a band music video such as, lip-syncing and a performance.

The video is focused on one character , the character takes a pill and starts to trip out. Because the pill taking is right at the start of the music video it gives the viewer an idea of what the video is about as well as keep them engaged to see how events unfold as a result of the character taking the pill.

Our video was conventional in terms of the way approached the ideas of lip-syncing and having a performance. We used Goodwin’s analysis of music videos to research how other electro bands went about having a performance in their music video. One of music video in particular that caught our attention was the Music video of ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ By Prodigy. This video was the most similar video to what our pre production ideas where. This is because we intended to have the video mainly recorded by Point Of view shots and these are heavily used in the video smack my bitch. Particularly the opening scene of the smack my bitch up video is similar to ours as both videos start in a bathroom showing the character getting ready to go on a night out through point of view shots. Another point of Goodwin’s that we took on board was the notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body. In one scene we had our character walking past a shop that sells female underwear and him walking up close to the window to take a look and he starts to touch the window in a sexually suggestive way.

Our music video , poster and dig pack compliment each other a items of promotional use. We used each one to target a specific aspect of marketing. The video features very little presence of a band , this is was so that the song and narrative of the video where the main focus of the audience. The advertising poster on the other hand features a large picture of the band on it. This is because the poster as a media tool is more suitable to rely a more detailed representation of the band as interviews and comments from the band where on it in order for the audience to have a better understanding of the band. The DVD cover as a promotional tool was focused on selling the whole package and more importantly the band , as a brand. It therefore featured the cut copy logo as the sticking image on the design of the cover. This makes the DVD easily recognisable and easily associated with the band cut copy.

Audience feedback for the final product was positive. Through out the production we found that feedback was important in helping as achieve the final product that we did. After our first filming session we learnt from the feedback the main thing that was missing from our video was a performance and lip-syncing. We were going to include these in our final product anyway but the feedback emphasised the importance of having a performance and lip-syncing in our video.

We also learnt that the story/narrative of our video was clear and well understood by the audience as the audience saw the relation between the character taking the pill and tripping out with the visual effects we used such as the kaleidoscope effect which emphasised the character being under the influence.The psychedelic lights with the electronic bass line. This was the feedback we got based on Goodwin’s first point of analysis which is does the music video represent genre characteristics, ’Possible drug influence mixed with filter effects, kaleidoscope. Also drugs are connected with electronic music nowadays. Would expect more lip syncing for genre of music.’


However we also learnt some negatives from the feedback such as , not enough lip syncing. from this we have learnt that in order to create a very good product there should be a proportionally amount of a lip-syncing or performance to go with the narrative/story of the video.

Our video project was created with the use of programs and applications such as , Mozilla firefox, Final Cut, Photo booth and various internet based resources such as you tube, wikipedia, and blogger. These applications and software were very useful as they were used for most of the work that we did. Most of our research of videos and ideas was internet based mainly on the video sharing site you tube. this gave us an almost unlimited access to the media products we wanted to view. Watching music video’s on you tube enabled us to compare existing products to the video ideas that we had. Due to copy right concerns we had to contact the band in order to get their approval for us to use their song and create a music video for it, we where able to contact the my space through the social networking site My space. Without out the technology we had this would have been a very lengthy process to try and get hold of the band and would have hindered us from progressing to the pre production stage.

Chisanga P.

Ben Tomlinson Evaluation

Assignment Media Ancillary Task Ben Tomlinson

In this timed assignment i will be answering a series of controlled questions which we have been set. Questions include the explanation of our idea and development stages and as well as the incorporation of or audiences idea’s which helped us to create our music video to the best of our capability.


When analysisng a piece of media performance or video you need to take into account the idea of incorporating the idea’s developed in Andrew Goodwins Points. We decided to look at the set of points in the creation stages of this product as we believed that looking at the points of Goodwin as guidelines the final product would turn out to be technically correct. The first point ideas of genre characteristics and how they are demonstrated we feel have be shown to the audience quiet clearly. Goodwin’s points quite clearly underline certain foundations when analysing a pice of written work and follow a strict criteria, so these proved useful to look at. The points of analysis range from idea’s such as how the music video demonstrates specific genre characteristics, the relationship between the lyrics and visuals, the demands that the record label put in place to be met by the band and the use of inter-textual content in the video.

Our production uses narrative that tells a story of a young male’s night out in a busy town or area and the explicit things he gets up-to. Typically for our genre of music (Electro, Indie, Pop) the video consists of a strong output of stage or performance based visual’s so we took this idea and incorporated elements into our production, such as the lead character playing the drum and singing along to small sections like the chorus. Using the same techniques as modern music video directors it gives a professional look as well as the viewer being able to connect it to modern bands which follow the same genre criteria. We looked deeply into idea’s en scene and what is shown in each frame we have made the other micro elements follow the genre criteria. Typically Indie Pop bands have consistent techniques in which the viewer can relate to as being part of this genre. Camerawork played a consistent role through out as we need to incorporate a range of different shots as part of the genre characteristics these include close ups such as in our production the images of the face of the actor in his drunken state and when he is performing to the camera. We decided to incorporate a range of mid shots and medium shots to give the piece a sense of space and the idea that the character has been dropped into an unknown location.

I believe the incorporation of our media products with our ancillary task products give the overall look to our digipacks a very professional look for the promotion of the band. I believe our main product relates clearly to our music video production, but i believe with the addition of our ancillary products it gives the viewer the sense of the bands flare and artistic style and with the use of bright colours and bold text types it draws the buyer into purchasing the digipack as one complete and professional looking product. The use of a reoccurring image helps the viewers and buyers to recognise the band, such as the the multi coloured spiraling which is consistent on the front cover as well as inside the digipack and some usage on the magazine advert. The consistency of the colour, shape and theme really shows the representation of the band’s idea’s and creative flare.

Without the ancillary product material the digipack would be fairly vague and not outline the clear message that we are trying to entice buyers into purchasing this product. Tracks are often downloaded illegally so with the added extra’s which are included in the digipack it gives the buyer a little bit more than the illegal download with the added ancillary task products. Once the completion of the digi pack ancillary task’s we completed task’s such as peer to peer review which would give us clear idea’s in ways to develop our final products to the next level. The feedback given by our viewers proved helpful and interesting, by this i mean it was interesting to hear what people thought work well and not so well which gave us a clear idea of what parts to change and not to change. Most of our information on what worked and what didn’t work came from peer to peer reviewing, this is because it is easy to gain information from people who will probably be purchasing or listening to this band as it is aimed at the indie pop generation which tends to be the age group of our peer’s.

Audience feedback helped us gain real information quickly and seemed a reliable source when asking people what they believed worked and didn’t work, and most of the idea’s people came up with to try and develop our idea’s were sensible and constructive. These were all written and posted on our blog, facebook and you-tube accounts so we could gain the information quickly and put the constructive idea’s in our final pieces which we believed worked well.

Modern technology proved vital in the production of the complete package. In the first stages of this project we mainly focussed on information gaining and evidence work. Blogs were created and we were then able to post our feelings idea’s and pictures on the blog which would help us develop our idea’s also allowing us to go back and change our idea’s and keep the development stage rolling.

Google and other information gaining websites proved useful as it allowed us to check out the bands history an example of this is when producing the magazine advert we needed to gain information on the band members names and the background history of the band, so we were able to visit sites such as www.wikipedia.org to gain information from our main station “Google”. Social Networking sites as well helped the development process as in some cases we needed to ask the band specific question such as is it ok to use your name in some promotional material for our school project. The social networking websites were “Facebook” and “Myspace” and gave us in depth and relevant information for our band, all building up to a large case study which we would use for idea’s when creating our music video’s.

We are lucky enough in the media department to be a great resource as it has been developed with the latest technology and programs which editing suite’s and company’s use to this very day. Our main base station was our iMac which proved useful in creating our final production’s. The use of Final Cut Pro (FCP) gave use and easy and reasonably quick program in which we could chop up our footage and piece together the relevant parts. Ancillary product’s involves a static visual aspect and we created our DVD cover and Magazine advert on photoshop giving us a range of colours and backgrounds etc... in which to work of, this gave our final product a professional look. Once editing was completed we as a group set up you-tube accounts so that we could share our video with the media world so we could receive feedback on the whole project.

Footage was shot on hand held digital camera’s (not Hd), they had all the usual function’s zooming, black and white effects and was really the life line of the whole product. Most of the new technology used really did prove to us that a project like this could be completed. The software and camera’s we used really proved to us that even if we weren’t in a team small productions like our music video could be completed quite easily.

Overall our production and outcome of our project went really well, and as a group we feel we have put a lot of time and energy into it and are very pleased with the out come.

Final video Commentry

Audio Commentary

To complete our project we have been making an audio commentary of the whole package it involves discussing what we have done and achieved during the last few weeks. This includes commentary about our music video and our ancillary tasks; most of the commentary was describing how we completed our tasks and how they had a connection with one another. It is essential to have this completed correctly and up to standards as this is worth around 20 marks.

We decided to have all of us involved in the audio commentary, simply because we have created it as a visual commentary. For example: We all had discussion topics to individually evaluate, and the commentary ends with all members evaluating the project. Making the audio commentary a visual was easier then expected as it is basically a discussion topic, even if our environment which we had to film in was not visually attractive, it was a familiar area so it kept us at ease. However even so it was hard to not have unnecessary pauses during the middle of a description but we realized that was going to happen with or without practice. Editing filmed footage that can be used is tougher then we predicted as some material simply wasn't appropriate or good enough to use, however cutting some parts out meant that we didn't have a continuous flow in the video. Trying to make this task seriously was challenging, because most of us were not use to being filmed.But this was predictable and we just had to have a few trials in filming until we got good material.

Ancillary Product Evaluation from Group 38

The overall view from our group for this digipack is that it works well with the video. The magazine advert is quite a contrast from the DVD cover, but still entices the customer to find out more information on the artist. A band of similar genre would produce a magazine advert and DVD like this so they have the genre characteristics spot on.
Unfortunately you are not able to see the lettering on the DVD cover so it would of been more appealing if the writing was more bold. There is no information of the back of the DVD so you would not know what the artist was like unless you knew who they are.
All in all it's well pretty.
Good Job.

DVD INSIDE

Magazine Avdert of our Project

Here is our final part of the Auxiallry Task : DVD COVER

Digipack Template

We searched the web to see what kind of digipacks were available, we came across a few templates. Usually they come in different shape and sizes to fit the amount of CD's or DVD's required.

Digipacks

Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI Media, a resource,MeadWestvaco.Inc which acquired the original trademark holder, IMPAC Group, Inc., in 2000. MeadWestvaco licensed the name and designs to manufacturers around the world.
Here are a few digipacks available on the market either in stores or on the internet these were found on Amazon.

Peer Goodwin Feedback Thoughts

After looking at the comments we were given we feel that we had mostly positive feedback, a mixture of comments lead us to believe that we had almost made a success with our project even if we do feel we could have done more.
Peers understood some intertextual references we tried to represent Ie: drug taking with modern electronic music. Also with the stereotypical view of men seeing women as sexual objects. ( This was represented in two shots, one when the main character tries to reach out to two women, and once he is at a shop window.)
The criticism's given made perfect sense and we understood what they meant, such as not enough lip syncing.

Peer Goodwin Feedback

1. Does represent genre characteristics in the main character/artist as his movement flow with the beat of the song. The psychedelic lights with the electronic bass line. Possible drug influence mixed with filter effects, kaleidoscope. Also drugs are connected with electronic music nowadays. Would expect more lip syncing for genre of music.

2. 'Lights and music' - the kaleidoscope effect is the main connection with the lyrics and video. Filmed at night but in a lit street so we can see the character and is another connection.

3. Vaguely representing music within the video at 3.11 where the main character plays the drums but from the song you cannot tell if it is recorded from a real drum kit or is computer generated. Would of been more in connection with the song if he had used a keytar (keyboard/guitar) would also of added comical value.

4. Most of the screen time is made of the main character/artist so the audience are able to establish that he is the artist but there are not enough close ups/lip syncing. This might of been done on purpose to add effect to the state he is in.

5. At 2.29 the exploitation of women is clearly shown and then later emphasized in the shop window at 2.36. There is a mixed message about if he is wanted to be watched.

6. Does not seem that there are any intertextual references but that might be because we have not watched/review other videos of the same genre.

Introducing New Shots

Obviously after having shot extra footage we need to incorporate it into the existing video and being able to not disturb the flow of our video is extremely hard. Editing the shots has been mostly about shortening certain clips because it simply wont all fit in our track. We are also eliminating some of the weaker footage. The editing also means lengthening and shortening certain clips nto only for effect but also for time filling. What we feel we should have more of is more characters in the clip but that was hard to do in a group of three people, unlike most groups in our class who have four members .

Readjustements

After being told we needed more performance and lip syncing in our project we decided to try for a final time to adjust what needed to be done. So as the group meet outside of college in Cambridge city center, Ben brought a drum kit and some drum sticks to appear as if he was playing the drums. Unfortunately it happened to rain the day we wanted to shoot some footage so it may have looked odd the difference between the beginning of our film where the roads are dry, but this was obviously a factor that we couldn't really control.
Also we came up with another problem which was that none of us had the track to play out loud therefore we could hardly do any lip syncing as we didn't know what the lyrics were.
Both of them factors created less and less chance of getting effective shots.

Editing

Editing is currently at a standstill until we have done our final filming. So until then we have been watching and analysing other music videos similar to what we're trying to achieve. It's hard to feel content with an unfinished project but hopefully we can finish it, and make it the best it can be.
We need more footage,more shot differentiation, lip syncing and more characters. This means the extent of editing will be a lot wider than our rough cut.

We also have an editing session this week.

Filming

We have decided to film the rest of our music video this week, on Wednesday night. The main purpose of this filming is to reenact a performance which was the topic that appeared most from the feedback our teacher and peers gave.

Our filming location is the same as last time,same props will be used although we intend to have a drum set for our performance, if it is possible. However we have built high expectations for ourselfs and feel we need to meet our standards even if we have a very short limited time to finish our project. Wednesday night is going to be essentail for us to complete the project and hopefully will bring our piece of work together.

Recreating and Reinventing our Project

After looking at all the comments we were given we decided we need to drastically change/and improve our imagery for our project to be the best it can be. We have also been looking at previous and current media projects in different colleges. After doing so we realized we need to upstage ourselves, expand our shots types, props, characters, effects and general ideas.

We then started to watch other music videos by our chosen band to see what genre we can feed from and if we can get a clearer concept as to what we need to do. We watched one of their video's from the track "Hearts on Fire".
We would put the video of "Hearts on Fire" but the Youtube video prevents us from doing so because of the embedding issue we could not put their video on our blog.

Technical Improvement

One of our main constructive critisism was to incorperate a visual performace of the band or a single member playing or singing along to the backing track. We have then decided to incorperate a performace based section into our final edit, but we are not sure wether it should be the main character (Ben) signing or random passers by singing small pieces of the song. Random passers by being other members of this group such as Charlotte and Chisanga passing the main character in the street.

Teacher Comments

Our teacher expressed her concerns about the lack of performance, and seemed to encourage us to include some sort of lip syncing, either by other characters or our main character that we presently have in our video.
We were also told that we need more editing and re-creating to the footage. I.e: Layers, effects...

We fully understood that we would need a lot of improvement as this only a rough cut, the given comments gave us a clear image of what is right and what is wrong with our current project and what needs to be done.

Peer Comments

After taking a good look at all the comments that were given by our peers it became clear that we needed some form of performance to re-create a strong indie/electro vibe. Simple shots such as lip syncing could improve our videos standard. We understood that we needed variation of characters and more introductions to the characters we did have. Some comments were unclear and rather irrelevant such as the concept that our video was too public. According to our peers we also needed more props, such as alcohol.
We also had pointers that advised us to erase and get rid of the starting shots of the video, because our starting shots were carried out in the college grounds. Unlike our idea of doing this filming in a home we used the environment we had at the time.
So with that said we feel we most definitely need to emphasis and re-create a new fresh start to the music video.
However as a total outcome we had positive feedback through out the comments, the peers expressed their thoughts about our filming techniques and added effects. I.e: slow motion, blur,rewind...

Last Day for Rought Cut Project

Luckily for us, one member of our group has excellent editing skills and has a good knowledge of computing, so Ben took most of the task of editing our project, accepting our ideas that we felt we had to re-create without objection or criticism. So myself and Chisanga knew we had to give all the help we could, by updating our blog as we had forgotten to describe the pace of our music video project. Fortunately for us we knew we would meet the deadline of this project as we executed all our procedures on time and feel contempt with all the group's efforts that we're given, even of we had some few gaps between footages.

The Roughcut Filming Procedure.

After booking our camera and meeting on Sunday evening, we were slightly disappointed with the lack of people in town because of it being Uni Freshers we'd thought there would plenty of night life activity. However we then realised it came to an advantage to us because we didn't have the problem of having people protest in being in some shots of our film. Which can effect the pace of work we could do with our evening, we were willing to stay till we had what we wanted and luckily for us we managed to make most of the footage in an hour.

As for our location we chose the shopping area of town and the bus station, the bus station has plenty of lighting which helped us make the footage clear and reinforce the concept of night time. The shopping area gave us the chance to film in-doors, as we filmed some of our footage in the "Grand Arcade" we realised that this could be the end of the characters wild night.

Planning of Filming session out of College grounds

We have decided to book our camera for the weekend, as we need nighttime footage for our project. Plus as another bonus we get to spend as much time as we want to film our project, with no restrictions to where to go. We have decided we need to consider what areas to film at and what props we need. We think we should use most of Cambridge's hot spots where we can find a few people during nighttime, to be part of our ambient feel.
I.e: lighting, costumes, characters, and props.

For example we think that we need objects that people use on a day to day basis such as mobile phones,wallets and keys. So our main character needs to have these type of objects with him and to look at it. Because in some scenes the main character checks his phone so he can meet his friends on his night out.
For costumes we feel that we owe to the band to have some indie influenced outfits, however because it is a night out we want our characters to looked dressed up, i.e: nice shoes, smart jeans and smart jacket.

Because of our choice of night time filming, lighting is going to be one of the trickiest elements to the filiming. Not enough light can be very restricting, so we have come up with a very basic solution to this problem. We are going to strap a torche to the camera so it creates a spot light for when the character focuses in and out of people and objects (as our filming technique is point of view). Not only will this be practical but it will also give the effect we were wanting to our film sequence.

Our Chosen Track in the Media

I recently noticed that our chosen track was used in the televised advert by "DFS" through out the advert they use the catchy electronic sound to emphasis their modern furniture, and making the advert appealing to the younger age groups.
Also I was told by my group members that the recent video game "FIFA 09" uses this track in their menu section of the game when gamers get the chance to choose their characters, teams and matches.

Analysis of a relevant video

As we were practising some shots and loading them on our computer ( with our teacher looking at the practise footage to see our pace of work) the teacher offered us to watch a similar genre music video by the famous band "Prodigy" their song "Smack My Bitch Up".

We soon realised that the famous banned video; because of it's shocking and offensive imagery, was exactly what we felt we wanted our project to be. Which we were rather annoyed about because we wanted to find some originality in our project.
However some of the scenes of "Smack My Bitch Up" were too explicit for us to have even considered to re-create. We do not want to seem as if we are projecting the exact same video type. Saying all of this the basic idea was rather the same, but then again our track has a better "Happy Go Lucky" feeling therefore instead of representing someone getting intoxicated and being involved in violence, we want to show an individual having a great time with friends and a good eventful night.

Test Footage Day

Today we decided to do some test footage, we trialed out different techniques. And different locations the running sequence that we made was rather accurate to what we would have actually filmed in our actual video. The beginning footage was filmed successfully and our main character; being Ben, took well to get into character.
Even if we were restricted to stay in the college grounds we found it easy to find some quiet places to do some filming. We first used one of the quietest and less used toilets, reason being we needed a mirror. It also gave the opportunity for the main character to seem as if he is getting ready, therefore creating movement and routine filling the time line and a good introduction to the beginning of our video.
So far we haven't got much footage but it gives a basic idea of what we are hoping to achieve in the long run. We have also uploaded our test footage on to youtube.

Message To The Band

Here is evidence of us as a group trying to contact the band so we can use there band name in our blog without breaching there Copy Right agreement.

Test Footage Day

Today we have had our first opportunities to put our creative ideas into filming. Our first time to take our project into camera work.

We have also decided to add a few changes to our storyboard due to our previous storyboard's complexity and severe demand of certain environments. We realized these factors are too time consuming and unrealistic to achieve. Simple changes were to change the concept of waking in a bedroom, instead of relying on someone's home, we can now do some filming in College grounds. We also decided to add a few different elements and experiment on how to film our first few seconds of our project. For example our first scene is the main character waking and about to observe himself in the mirror so his morning routine will be shot as if the camera was the mirror.
To add to our effect of the main character seeing his reflection we are going to try to add a blur to the camera before the character splashes his face.This idea is not only functional but also practical because of the camera's position which will be next to a tap we do not want the equipment to get wet so we are going to cover the camera in a clear plastic bag. This will not only give the protection the equipment needs but could also give the blurred effect we are hoping to achieve.

Our new shot lists is:

- 1st shot : Medium close up staring into mirror getting ready
-2nd shot: medium close up. this is the shot of his reflection in the mirror
-3rd shot :Close up turning the door handle
-4th shot : low angle shot of character walking down the stairs
-5th shot : Point of view of character walking down the stairs
-6th shot: Medium shot character leaving building( block of flats)
-7th shot :Medium close up of girl whispering into characters ears when ''secrets that will held.....straight (lyrics).
-8th shot : long shot of character outside club ''all your friend shave gone away...... celebrate(Lyrics)
-9th shot : close up of phone with text on it when ..''holding hope for the one making you wait'' (lyrics).
-10th shot: medium close up. when ''holding hope for the one making you wait'' (Lyrics)
-11th shot: Long shot (from behind) when ''secrets that we held that day..straight(lyrics)
-12th shot : Medium shot (from front) : when ''everyone will be dismayed...who you want next'' (lyrics)
-13th shot: Close up: of face when ''fading with color you see my face'' (lyrics)
-14th shot: Medium long shot from behind character puts hood up
-15th shot : over shoulder : character looking at his watch
-16th shot: medium shot: character putting hands in pocket.
-17th shot: Over shoulder shot: character looking through phone with no new messages.

This is the shot list for the parts of the song that have lyrics in them. Therefore other shots will be added in between them.

Storyboard and Videotime line

Storyboard

In order to have a flow of creative ideas we have worked as a team to create a clear image of what we want to achieve, each member following a certain task ie: drawing and designing the storyboard, researching appropriate images to go in our moodboard and arranging and designing the video timeline.
However we need to consider more technologic matters for how we are going to shoot our video where we can shoot and who is going to be those shots. Today we need to figure what we want out of:
- Shot Types
- Camera Movement
- Effects
- Environment
- Props

MoodBoard

Instead of just having a storyboard with hand drawing pictures we decided to add actual images
to our ideas, this inhances our ideas and create understanding at what we aim to create.

Messy room.

Street






Extra characters during the journey to the party will be added to add more elements during the shots.









Front Door to entrance of the party.
(Lyrics are either going to start or finish as the mian character pushes the door open.)

Lyrics to our chosen song

Lyrics to Lights & Music :
This is why we won’t delay for your birthday
the secrets that we held that day will be kept straight
All your friends have gone away so let's celebrate
you're holding hope open for the one making you wait.

This is what you hoped to say on your birthday
the secrets that we held that day will be kept straight
Everyone will be dismayed if your promise breaks
but you'll be back again to say who you want next.

Lights and music
are on my mind
Be my baby
one more time.

Lights and music
are on my mind
Be my baby
one more time.

Fading with the colour you see in my face
cold and crystal you cant hide as your tears race
I'll be waiting by in time but your dream's away
you're holding hope open for the one making you wait.

Lights and music
are on my mind
Be my baby
one more time.

Lights and music
are on my mind
Be my baby
one more time.

Pitch Feedback

After introducing our pitch to members of our class, we got both positive and negative feedback. Our main issue was that our pitch seemed to not contain enough scenearios for the length of our track. We were told that we need a variety of activity and change of sceneario's to not bore our viewers. Because of the opportunities this track offers we need to focus on what we want to represent and how well we can do that. A second issue is that another group in our class has chosen the same track as us, this has proven to become competitive and made it more difficult for us to find original ideas, after hearing their pitch it became clear that we had very similar ideas. A nightlife concept is what we chose and what we shall persue even if the opposite group has chosen a same environment and scenaries.

Apart from those factors we had positive feedback of our image for the video and a general concept of idea. Further more we need to consider our techniques of shooting the video, our shots types, environment, props and characters whom shall be in our video.

Promotional Material

These are our two promotional pieces of material, one for the insert into a music magazine and the other which will be used as the bands DVD Cover.

This is our DVD Cover
.

This is Our Magazine advert.



These are unfinished and as a group gained some feedback in the way in which they connect to the audience. One of the main points taking into account that we wanted the promotional images to be simple and modern, we needed to incorperate some more band information example of this type of information is realease date of the bands album/dvd cover as well as myspace address etc for the viewers to get in contact or see unscence previews of the new track and pictures etc...

"Lights & Music" by Cut Copy

While researching for the bands music video of this track , we found that we couldnt embed the video to our blogs,as the video's embedding was diabbled by request (by the record label.)
So if you are interested in seeing the bands music video, there is the URL link above.

The video consists of the band members playing their instruments, with a colouful background of footages of themselfs, because the music video is showing the band perfoming the track, it has no story plot which should be linked by the lyrics. Instead the band has used modern technology and special effects to blur themselfes with the camera footages in the background, the camera shots include minor props, only the instruments. The video is vivid with bright colours, which is what spectators might expect with this genre of music.

Pitch Package: DVD cover/magazine advert

Seen as the band we have chosen is of the indie genre we need to represent them as a popular indie/electro band. These type of bands are often seen in magazines such as "NME", "Kerrang" and "Rolling Stone". Because of the bands lack of popularity, starting bands often use images of themselfs on CD and magazine covers, in order to have recognision qualities. A band doesn't only have magazines to advertise itself but can also use internet links such as one of the popular sites "Myspace". Myspace has the great ability to create fans for the artists, can also include links to the artist's merchandise such as clothes. The link also offers dates for concerts and album/single release's.

Pitch Package: Music Video

After a lot of contemplating the group has come to the drastic decision of pickign a complete different trakc, as we decided that a more upbeat song would offer more creative flow. The posibilities for our new chosen song are of a wide varitety, the song can be represented in a day to day life of a main character in his/her's average routine life, ie: walking through a park or walking down the street, just using simplicity at it's best avoiding to drift the attention away from the song.
Or we could drift to the "night life" vibe video, using the song as a party anthem, involving older teens experiencing different situations involving drugs/alcohol/sex and certain legal problems. The music video should include both male and females in these situations. A most ideal environement for this type of video is a club or house party,props such as neon lights,drinks and narcotics. However because of the "happy feeling" genre of the song we also wanna represent people having a good time no matter what the situation. A slight add of comedy to the video can make the audience relate to certain situations,ie: someone vomating or someone falling over because of their drunken state.

Track Choices and Initial Ideas

Today, our group is short of a member,this proved to put myself and Chisanga in a difficult position as today our task was to choose a music track for our future project. Without Ben we feel it is hard to choose a song, as hr may not be willing to work on our chosen song. However because of limited time we have had to pick a few tracks anyway.
In no particular preference we have chosen "Is Everyone Happy?" by Jane Weaver and "Tell me, tell me" by The Adored. Unfortunately Jane Weaver doesn't have any available lyrics to "Is Everyone Happy?" on the Internet. Without the lyrics we feel that we cannot but the song in a visual form.
The two chosen songs are in different genre categories, "Tell me,tell me" is an indie upbeat song which offers great potential for lip syncing and instrument playing, "Is Everyone Happy?" could be a mellower music video with a single character.

Goodwin's analysis of a music video

"Too many man" Boy Better know.


To start with this music video is from the UK charts and considered a popular grime/club song.
Like popular music of this genre it contains genre characteristics of women represeted as a sexual object,dancing in a minimum amount of clothing. All of the artists in the video are seen as powerful men with they're body language and dress sence such a s diamond chains. This is also enthasised with the amount of people in the club, representing a person's popularity. There is a constant running relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, as soon as the lyrics "Need some more girls in here" appear,the word girls shows women dancing to the music and beat. The artist all have solo rapping scenes, showing their "skills" at their individual rapping styles. The relationship between the music and visuals doesn't offer as much potential as it could however with heavy bass comes a blur to the music video.
Looking at the artists in the shot, you can tell the record label has wanted each of the rap artists to have a their own "moment" and close ups also all wearing merchandise clothing of the group.

Welcome!

This is group Q2 37 and we would like to welcome you to our music video blog where there will be regular posts and footage of our work for this year. Our group consists of Chisanga, Charlotte and Ben.

Welcome

Group 37