Evaluation Viet

Media Evaluation

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

Our media product conveys the main conventions of real media products of the same genre. We researched into magazine adverts, DVD covers and other music videos using the internet and the ‘YouTube’ website in particular to form an understanding of our track genre which was ‘Indie’ and discovered the main conventions that they portrayed. We particularly focused and looked at Paolo Nutini video ‘Candy’ and Daniel Powter’s ‘Bad Day,’ because they both engaged us and had a good vibe and atmosphere about them.





We noticed that the main conventions of these videos were that they narrated a story, had cuts to the artist singing alone and had a woman of attraction in it. These were the main conventions of indie music videos and we planned to re create this in our own media product and by mixing the strongest points of each video would help us in creating an overall high quality finish. In ‘Bad Day’ there were multiple split screens which each screen having a different story line to the track and in ‘Candy’ there were close ups of the artists in a rural background, we felt that this enabled a strong representation of the artist to be created in the ancillary products whilst still engaging the audience to the music video. Therefore in our final music video, we have included a story line, cuts to the artist singing alone, split screens with different story lines and close ups of the artist singing which has followed the general conventions but also developed them by a mixture of the two videos that we focused on.

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

Overall the combination of our main product and ancillary texts are very effective in creating a consistent image of the artist. Through having constant close ups of the artist singing in the video whilst wearing indie props created a visual image of the artist that ran throughout the work, this was replicated on the DVD cover and the magazine advert. The visual image is a casual, down to earth guy, an image that has intertextual references to Jack Johnson and Paolo Nutini, artists that are already well established in the field.




We analyzed two current magazine adverts that we felt were effective in promoting themselves. We used a Jay-Z advert and a Friendly Fires advert, two very contrasting adverts visually yet but both effective in promoting their respective album. We noticed that these magazines had essential conventions to promote themselves and their album. Friendly Fires had quite a conventional magazine advert, having a striking background and images of the band. Where as Jay-Z is not initially bold and striking but because of this, it tells the reader that he does not need to promote himself with an image or a striking background because he is so well established, almost making it more effective than the Friendly Fires advert. Therefore in our magazine advert we have incorporated a subtle image that doesn’t solely focuses on the artist because of the background and is therefore not too overpowering similar to the Jay-Z advert. We believe that in doing this, this will be more effective than a whole page on just the artist.



The DVD cover consisted of all the essentials, the bar code, the rating, title and the DVD symbol. It carried on with the indie representation of the artist that we have tried to develop throughout the work but with developed this further. We changed the colour scheme so that the customers would be instantly attracted to it and buy it.



Therefore overall, taking into account all three products, it is very effective in continually maintaining an indie presentation of the artist that makes him easily recognizable and distinguishable which helps the audience/customers buy his work.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Our audience feedback has been essential in developing our main media and ancillary products. In gaining feedback we were able to build on our initial idea and develop it so it would be more effective in presenting the vital conventions that we wanted to portray. We were able to gain valuable feedback throughout the production of the video. Initially the peer feedback to our rough cut was pleasing, but problems were pointed out. We had numerous blank video that needed filling in, from that we knew that because we used actors that were not part of the group we had to work to there time constraints which hindered the production of our video. We did however discover that the main conventions we wanted to portray were effective as peer feedback noticed and complimented the split screens, cuts to the artist singing, lyrics and visual and woman storyline. Our peer feedback from group Q1-11 was ‘Other feedback: We think that the shots containing the male character, he should either play the guitar or look like he is playing the guitar’ so we incorporated this on the next shooting task, which when viewed later on fitted in with the genre of the song. Other feedback was that we had footage that was repetitive, so we knew that when we used our last filming slot we had to cut to scenery so our video did not become boring and drag on. Peer feedback did notice the strong relationship between lyrics and visual though, which we were very pleased because this was one of our main conventions we wanted to portray.

Therefore we have learnt that audience feedback was a major part in the completion of our product, throughout each stage of creation feedback allowed us to develop and expand on our idea. In particular, through class feedback, it was as if we had a sample target audience who we wanted to appeal to and this helped us the most.


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

New media technologies were apparent throughout all stages of the media product. The internet was vital in research and planning, we viewed numerous indie videos on ‘YouTube’ to gain an overall understanding of the genre and its conventions, we used ‘BBC’ to check weather forecast to plan when we would film and used ‘Google’ to evaluate our ancillary products to other products already established. The internet was a key factor in the production of the product because without we would of not been able to gain a good understanding of the main conventions and been able to plan it.
‘Final Cut’ was the editing program we used to create our overall video, tricky at first, we had to learn how to split screen shots and make them move by adding in key frames. It is a very user friendly program which made it easy for us to play around with filters and create the image we wanted to. After finding a video filter we liked, we were able to apply this to all shots very easily and efficiently which made our shot look more professional without being time consuming. Editing the speed of certain shots allowed us to create a slow tempo which complimented the beat of the song and video transitions made our video flow throughout.
‘Final Cut’ was essential in creating a slow tempo, which also added to the nice, down to earth representation of the artist.
‘Photoshop CS3’ was how we created our DVD cover and Digipak. At first, layers were confusing but after figuring out the initially complicated layout, everything was very easy and quick to use. On the DVD cover, we changed the colour of the picture so it would stand out and attract more customers whilst still maintaining the cool vibe of the artist. We also added a filter to the font ‘Impact’ to make it clearer and bolder. The magazine advert we mixed two images together applying a mask to one and then added a gradient so it would look smooth. There are many capabilities in ‘Photoshop’ that had us spoilt for choice.
Overall new media technologies were crucial in the completion of our product. Through using the internet, ‘Final Cut’ and ‘Photoshop’ we created and maintained an image of the artist that is instantly noticeable and effective.

Digipak and Magazine Advert

Evaulation by Ashlea

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During the planning and research stages, we decided we wanted to produce a very conventional product, as we were greatly inspired by other products of an indie/acoustic genre and thought that by including typical conventions, our product would be more successful and appealing to an audience.

The convention of using photos as a representation of how time has changed is used in many other media products of this genre, e.g. the music videos ‘Dream catch me’, by Newton Faulkner and ‘Bad day’ by Daniel Powter. By including numerous shots of him playing the main instrument of the song, him wearing indie clothing and close ups of the artists face and guitar, not only were we able to create a stronger identification of the artist, this helps communicate the genre of our product to the spectator.
This mise-en-scene can be compared to many real media products such as the Jack Johnson Album cover e.g. the guitar and natural environment setting, which like our product, focuses on simplicity. In our music video, we also included frequent cutaways to scenery and outdoor settings which helped us create a more picturesque side to it and execute the same laidback feel. Many indie/acoustic videos use cutaways for the same purpose, and Jason Mraz’s music video to ‘I’m Yours’ is a key example.
We were inspired by the costume style of the band The Kooks as in most of their videos they dress quite quirky and have a clear indie style. As they are a young, well-known popular band we decided our artist would have a similar style, for example he wears a loose checkered shirt, and the Kooks’ signature clothing item of their videos; skinny jeans. As this is quite a modern, stylish fashion amongst young people, we thought this would strongly appeal to our target audience; teenagers and young adults, with an interest in this music genre. The artist is also wearing a festival wristband, which would be recognisable amongst many young people who are into indie music, which gives an audience stronger identification of the artist, his style and the music genre.
Our product is mostly very conventional to professional ones, however I didn’t notice many split screens in videos of this genre, instead, they are mostly used with up tempo or mainstream tracks e.g. the music video to Daniel Powter’s ‘Bad day’. However we used these anyway as the use of split screens are a great asset to our video as many shots such as the pub scene help narrate the storyline, comparing past with present.
When looking at the camerawork of the video ‘Dream Catch Me’, we specifically liked the frequent use of slow panning shots as we thought these would work well with the slow tempo and would enhance the solemn mood of our song e.g. when the artist plays the song’s instrumental part.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
We wanted to produce ancillary tasks which would effectively help an audience identify the indie/acoustic genre of our product. Our ancillary texts have a strong relationship between each other and our main product as they include similar visual characteristics e.g. colours used, filters etc. The same dark, colourless effect was used in both music video and ancillary tasks in order to create continuity and for a spectator to identify a more obvious relationship between them. We used frames from our music video as central images of our ancillary tasks, as we thought shots of the artist in the field, were particularly strong and conveyed the meaning of the song well. Through using similar mise-en-scene of both ancillary tasks, this distinguished characteristics and a stronger visual representation of the artist, music and genre, as a spectator buying the product will be able to see the same clothing worn by the artist, and editing of the image e.g. dark filters etc.
The digipak and magazine advert had to look a little more stylized than the music video and needed to be more eye-catching and attention-grabbing as it was a still image and motionless. We tried to achieve this by still keeping the similar colour scheme to the video, but adding yellow on top of darker backgrounds which added a lot more emphasis to the text of both magazine advert and digipak cover. We stylized the image on the digipak cover a lot more, putting a more obvious, dynamic filter over it which looks more striking and professional.
Another strength of these three components is they all show voyeuristic treatment of the artist, keeping in tone with the song and its melody, and show how the artist is unaware the audience are listening to his thoughts and feelings. I think the back of the digipak is very effective, as it’s a voyeuristic image of the artist of the artist from behind has a blurred, unfocused effect over it, complementing the cheerless, melancholy mood of the song very well. We took inspiration from the album cover ‘Hold back my heart’ by Michael Johns as it had a similar message to our chosen song, used similar neutralised shades to our video, and the focus is voyeuristic image of the artist playing his instrument. From the picture below, it’s clear to see we took inspiration from the yellowy, ‘rusted looking’ font used.
Referring to Goodwin’s points, voyeuristic treatment and objectification of mainly women are generic conventions of media products, however in the case of our product; the artist is the person being objectified. For example, from the magazine advert, the image has been cut only showing a sector of his body without his face, which shows a more objectified impression of him to the audience as this is the only part of him they are invited to look at. However we manipulated the image in this way mainly to show the equal importance of the guitar and the artist, as the relaxed hand positions on the guitar, artist’s casual clothing, and tattered guitar strongly contribute to quite an unglamorous, laidback, indie feel.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
When presenting our pitch to our class, we were given feedback on strengths and weaknesses of our planning and how we could expand on our ideas. We took all of our feedback into consideration and it was recorded on our blog, enabling us to track progress. Our roughcut was given a lot of our feedback on how it included strong lyrics and visuals e.g. group Q1- 12 added – ‘Complementary lyrics and visuals for example when the singer sings about a girl near the cigarette machine you see a girl near a cigarette machine’ which we were happy about as we really tried to demonstrate Goodwin’s point of relationship between lyrics and visuals in our planning stages. As expected, we received a lot of feedback commenting on the gaps that we needed to fill of our roughcut, as we had a considerable amount of gaps without footage. This was due to our poor time-keeping skills at the beginning as we took too long during the planning and researching stages, deciding on how we wanted our product to look, instead of actually filming it! This was a weakness that we soon overcame, as we realised in order for us to make the best of our video, we had to finish shooting the footage we needed quickly in order for us to save as much time as possible for the editing process; which we knew would be the most time-consuming aspect of the project (due to the editing techniques effects we planned to use). One piece of feedback commented on how our star image was ‘too strong’ which at first, we didn’t know was possible, but this was because there were virtually no shots of anything other than the artist, and we would need varied mise-en-scene in order for the shots not to loose their impact, look tiresome or repetitive. We knew that we had to fill these gaps with footage of features other than the artist, however the feedback received suggested to us that we use cutaways to nature and scenery, which although would remove some shot ideas of our storyboard, would help us produce a more creative, uplifting final video. Because of this, we were thankful for the feedback, as although we wanted the audience to follow the characters journey and story step-by-step, the use of cutaways not only strengthens the shots of the artist by making them less repetitive, but adds a more eye-pleasing, sentimental atmosphere to the video and perfectly complements the mellow tone of song. We found the feedback very constructive and helpful, especially as we got a different viewpoint from outside our group. As our classmates met some of the criteria of our target audience e.g. the age range, this was very useful and indicative to how our video would be portrayed by an audience, and has helped us make the best that we could of it.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During the planning and researching stages, having access to the internet became extremely helpful and internet sites such as Youtube, enabled us to watch many music videos from different artists, giving us inspiration for our own video. Not only could we access other music videos, we uploaded our own work onto it, which allows us easy free, access to watch both our roughcut and our final video. Search engines such as Google, helped us find out information for our research and we looked at many different digipaks and magazine adverts, in order to get an idea of what style, layout, and font ideas we could use. Without easy-to-access technologies such as these two websites, our research and planning stages would have been a lot harder and impractical. When creating our ancillary tasks, we also looked at internet sites such as ‘play.com’, using the top 25 music DVDs to see how different images of media products had been manipulated.
Using Final Cut was quite challenging at first, as we struggled with some aspects of editing which we had never practised before. For example, creating split screens, which we found difficult, as making the main feature of a shot stay central frame whilst playing alongside another shot took a lot of experimenting with. However we soon overcame these difficulties and after practice, it became very straightforward.

To create our ancillary tasks, we used Photoshop, which we found was a very user friendly software and although there were many different features and tools to it, everything seemed pretty straightforward to use. The only slight difficulty we faced was with the layers, which was frustrating at first as we couldn’t get some ideas to work, however after becoming more familiar with the software, it became a lot more easy-to-use. I think we’ve created quite strong, effective ancillary tasks, and using Photoshop made it a lot more enjoyable and seem less like a task, as it was easy to get absorbed in how creative it allowed us to be.

LAURA EVALUATION

Our media product uses conventions of an 'indie' video, in a number of ways. It was our intitial idea to make it a conventional video, as we wanted to follow the success of a typical 'indie' video. There us a use of lyrics relationship to visual throughout the video. We tried to portray the lyrics by showing them visualy, for example, the lyrics "our paths never seem to converge", we used a split screen, one screen the male artist is walking away from the camera at day time and then in the opposite screen the female he is singing about walking towards the camera at night time.
There was a strong music and visual relationship, there is a guitar being played in the music, and in the video the artist is playing the guitar. The music is very relaxed and slow paced, the video also has a very slow pace to it, the artist moves very slowly and gently, this compliments the music well.
In terms of the demands of the record label - representation of the artist, the artist is shown in a very simplistic way, the use of camer work helped to portray this, particularly by using close up shots of the artist, again going along the idea of typical conventions. This may all be appealing to the female audience in terms of appearance.

The combination of our main product and ancillary texts is quite effective. The ancillary texts were produced by choosing simplistic shots from the video, as the whole image of the artist is very simple and down to earth, these had to promote this image. To improve the ancillary texts we could take a photo shoot to use unique images for them instead of from the video, still creating the same mis - en - scene, to promote the artist.
We used visual motifs, including the guitar. When creating the ancillary texts we created the images carefully thinking about colour and spacing and manipulating the images to create something to fit with our ideas but at the same time make it look different, rather than just using a plain screen grab from the video. There is a strong artist representation in all three products in our promo package.

I feel that the audience feedback was a great help towards producing the products.
Feedback througout the process helped us to see what other people thought and any improvements suggested could then be made.
We also had feedback from our teacher - Andrea, which really helped when we came across problems.
When producing our roughcut, the feedback we recieved for it was reallt constructive and was a massive impact on perfecting our final video.
The feedback also encouraged us to re-shoot some of our video to improve it in ways suggested in feedback.

We used media technologies throughout the project. We carried out a lot of research to begin with using mainly the internet. The use of the internet was particullary usefull when researching for the ancillary tasks, we used sites such as 'play.com' and looked at top 25 music DVD's to get ideas of how images had been manipulated. The two programmes we used in the construction stages were 'final cut' and 'photoshop', without these programmes we would not of been able to produce the products to the high quality at which was achievable with the use of these programmes.
I found these programmes quite straight forward to use, although sometimes did find them challgenging to understand, but once explained they were very straight forward.

Overall, i feel the production of the video and ancillary tasks were a success, although challenges were faced in the process, and we had to re-think ideas along the way, we still managed to complete the tasks and were satisfied with them. All the technology we were able to use was a great advantage in making high quality products, and were generaly easy to use. I thought we would have trouble making the lip-synching work, but suprisingly we achieved this first time everytime.

Script of commentary

Ashlea : We chose our track from eleven choices and we had to pitch for the song we would most like to use. Our pitch focused mainly on location and where we would shoot it, and we were given feedback on how we could expand of our ideas, so the feedback encouraged us to plan in more detail, and think how it would come together as a whole. For example think of who would act in it, and what time of day we would shoot it. We took a lot of inspiration from paolo nutini videos, particually the clothing we wears and the out of doors location we thought would look good and effective in our video. And having a guitar as the main feature of the video was a convention we saw in most videos of this genre and we thought it would look quite fitting withour video. What we particually liked about the video Candy,was the feel and atmosphere it created through its use of editing and camerawork, for example it included a lot of slow panning shots and close ups of the artist's face which we thought would fit in well with our video and our chosen song.

Laura: When doing our research and planning, we surprisingly came across Daniel Powter’s video, bad day which was extremely similar to our idea using frequent use of split screens, similar camera shots and prop ideas. This was an early visual representation of some of our ideas.

Viet: We had a strong relationship between lyrics and visual, when the lyrics say ‘the paths never seem to converge’ there is a split screen, one screen of the artist walking away from the camera at day time, and the opposite screen the female he’s singing about walking towards the camera at night time.

Laura: We found final cut a really user-friendly software, we had a few difficulties such as using split screens as we found it difficult putting some of the shots together for example we wanted the artist central of the frames which looked strange with the duration of the other frames when we put them side by side.

Laura: Without Photoshop we wouldn’t have been able to achieve the high quality product that we did at first we struggled with some of the features of the software, for example the layers.

Viet: In conclusion we felt that our overall project went very well. We came across difficulties that hindered our progress but we managed to portray the main conventions of the indie genre, we had difficulties with the software, time keeping skills, but in the end, we got what we wanted to.

evaluative commentary

Magazine advert

Conventions of Magazine Ads and Digipak

Conventions of digipaks

Digipaks are collectors items fans can purchase containing items such as posters, bonus tracks and limited edition content. They also often contain behind the scenes and a 'making of' feature. The digipaks are slightly more expensive however fans can own more than just an album. The digipaks can give fans more information on the band, they sometimes contain small documentaries of the bands rise to fame. This way the fans can get to know the band more personally.

There are also more common conventions. Demands require the record labels logo on the digipak also ratings and running time are included.

Conventions of magazine Ad's

The magazine ad is mainly to promote the artist and song. It is to be as eye catching as possible with striking images and wording. It has to attract as much attention as possible. It contains the song title or album title, the artist name, release date, where it will be available on release and the bands website. The main feature of a magazine ad is the image used. It needs to attract attention while containing as much intertextual reference to the band as it can.

Some bands use celebrities ratings to promote themselves, this way the public will be more likely to read the ratings instead of glance over them.

Suede-Lost in tv digipak

The digipak Suede created for there album Lost in tv doesnt follow many visual coventions for digipaks. It contains a large image and the bands title with a list of songs. It does however contain, an exclusive new track, band commentary and a small film by a band member. This does follow convention. It is a large album containing 19 songs, this may be why there arent as many extra features contained in other digipaks.

The artist is represented in a dark way. The image is a strong distorted close up of a microphone. The image on the back is also a distorted picture showing the instruments. The intention of a digipak is to bring the fans closer to the band however the images used make the band seem uninterested.

It may appeal to the audience as it contains special content and never before seen footage. The fans may be interested in seeing the band in an enviroment other then performing.

Milwaukee At Last- Rufus Wainwright magazine ad

This magazine ad follows convention for most magazine ads. It contains the record labels logo, artist website, release date and where the album and digipak will be available on release. Instead of a eye catching image the font of the album name is used to attract attention. It is bold and covers half the ad, with a different color for every letter. This is very striking and attracts attention after a glance. There is also an image of the artist.

Possible

I think this could be a good contender for our magazine advert or the digipack as it is a clear shot of the artist himself, from a shot of the actual music video.
This gives it a strong visual link to the video, and at the same time promoting the artist himself.
This image gives a good representation of genre, the outfit the artist is wearing is a typical 'indie' look, and the guitar he is holding gives a representation of the style of music the audience can expect.
This image could apeal to many audiences, the female audience if they find the artist attractive, along with indie music fans.
Overall i think the simplicity of the image and the idea it givees to the audience would make this image a good contender for the advertisement or digipack.

Possible frames for central image of digipack

In my opinion this would be a good contender for the central image of a digipak, as although it is quite simplistic, and by having just an instrument is a very common idea for this genre, I think it has more attention to detail as we were fortunate enough to find quite a tattered guitar, which adds quite a laidback, unglamourous, indie feel. I also think it would be a good image, as it is easy to see the artist is sat down in a field, which again creates a very relaxed atmosphere, showing the spectator the tone of the video, and the music. I think that it follows the conventions of other music videos of this genre as many are also quite simplistic, and usually include the artist with an instrument, without having really striking and bright, eye-catching mise-en-scene e.g. a big stage performance. I believe this image would attract an audience as it looks quite natural and tranquil and clearly represents the soft indie style of the artist and his music e.g through the loose shirt and relaxed hand positions on the guitar.

FINAL VERSION

Background research-David ford

David ford was born in Dartmore in kent on 16th may 1978. His first big break in indie music came with his indie rock group Easyworld. They released one album then dismembered in 2004.

David Ford then branched into being a solo artist known for the emotion he puts into his songs.
He started playing solo concerts almost straight away after his band split up, fan favourite State of the Union was his biggest known song at the time.

He toured america supporting acts such as KT tunstall untill his debut was released in america in 2006. Then after supporting Suzanne Vega on her UK tour, he released his 2nd solo album 'Songs for the road' in august 2007, he toured extensively to promote his album throughout the UK in october 2007 and toured the US in may 2008. His new album entitled 'Let the bad times roll' is to be released early 2010.

Initial ideas for the song

The song is an acoustic based song, most videos for songs of this type feature the artist playing. Oasis- Wonderwall is a song based on the acoustic guitar, it features the artist playing the guitar and is also edited into black and white. We could edit parts of our song to be in black and white as i think it adds emotion to the artist playing.








This would mean our video would be a performance, we could make our story a narrative and keep it a performance. We could do this by following the lyrics of the song to make a story, and have actors play out the story maybe with the male character playing the song.

We could also use split screen affects, other music videos that use this affect use it to display two stories at one time, in sugar water-Cibo Matto stories of two girls are played out on either side of the screen.




The location of our video, if done in a split screen could be broken into urban and rural landscapes, we could have a story taking place in each landscape. The woman in the song could be having a normal day in the city as the man plays the song in a more rural area, landscapes like this could be used in our video.




Using these techniques would add to the emotion of the video. Most of the techniques are steriotypical of the song type however some may challenge the normal conventions.

Auter presentation

Q1 Auteur Presentation - Anton Corbijn

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Group response to peer feedback

We are satisfied with the feedback received from our peers. Taking into account the stage we are at with our filming and editing it is understandable the constructive criticism we received. We feel that it is essential for us to create a shooting plan that will allow us to fulfill the potential of our initial idea. As we have the majority of the song completed and planned to shoot tomorow, it will allow us plenty of time to edit and perfect our music video which will hopefully conclude with a high quality finish.

Teacher Rough Cut Feedback

General Feedback:
There are significant gaps in your rough cut, these must be filled with high quality footage. I would advise you to reflect on the feedback you've received and plan carefully what footage you need to get in order to fill these gaps. You definitely need more cutaways.

Feedback on Representation of Artist:
The selection of your mise-en-scene is strong, your choice of costume and filters is very strong.
Your star image is almost too strong because there are no other visuals other than your artist, this is why cutaways are so important. It almost strengthens the shots of the artist if you use effective cutaways.

This has the potential to be very good, but it is essential that you plan the next stage of your filming carefully. Keep up the good work.

Peer feedback

Q1-11: Intertextuality
- Very similar to a song by the weepies called the world spins madly on. In this video there is a male and female character. This video is similar to that because of the shots and characters and the genre portrayed
- It is also similar to a film called Babel due to the shots due to the multiple storylines.
- Another film would be love actually, due to the multiple storylines again and the romantic aspect.



Other feedback: We think that the shots containing the male character, he should either play the guitar or look like he is playing the guitar.

Peer Feedback

Q1-12 - Lyrics and Visuals

- The lead singer sings the lyrics directly into the camera encouraging the audience to relate to him and his emotions.
- Complementary lyrics and visuals for example when the singer sings about a girl near the cigarette machine you see a girl near a cigarette machine

Peer Feedback

Music and Visuals(Mr A Winter and Mr T Halkyard)

The music has quite a slow tempo and the footage used and the way it has been edited compliments this well and really enhances the mood of the song. The use of the guitar in the music video also allows the viewer to see the instrument played in the song which is commonly used to give the performance aspect of the video. The singing mostly has been edited so that the lip syncing works well. this is also the case with the guitar playing where, mostly, the guitar plucking has been used well to compliment the music being played.

Q1 08 Feedback

Genre Characteristics

The music genre that was used in this music video was indie, so we feel in terms of costume and props and location it did represent the indie style. However, we feel as in a lot of indie videos there is always a strong narrative reflecting the lyrics of the song and in this video we felt the narrative wasn't obvious enough - so maybe more shots of the girl and boy together would help. The lyrics did relate to the video and there was good shots used to help make this obvious.

Naomi, Sian and Marianne.

ROUGHCUT

Goodwin's theory

Q1-10 Goodwin Analysis

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Planning

Daniel Powter 'Bad day'

When researching other videos that used split screen techniques, we found the music video 'Bad day' (2005) by Daniel Powter and directed by Marc Webb, which suprised us as it uses a lot of mise-en-scene ideas, camera shots and editing techniques which resemble those of our final video. In my opinion these similarities have a lot to do with the style and tone of the music, as both are soft instrumental songs narrating a storyline, and therefore these elements help execute the same laidback feel.

Similar mise en scene ideas of characters looking in a mirror surrounded with photos, getting ready and a three way split screen

A shot from the character's window of them panning down to the other person of the relationship, emphasising the distance between them.

Both videos use a lot of close ups of the songs main instrument.

Split screens show separation of couple, sleeping in different beds, and walking different paths.

We found these panning shots suprisingly very similar, as both show the artist in the main location of the song, playing there instruments from a behind angle.

As the song ends, both shots show couple coming together at the end, by one appearing into the frame and end with the couple just looking at each other.

Magazine Advert Research

Magazine Advert Initial Ideas and Current Research

We analyzed two current magazine adverts that we felt were effective in promoting themselves. We used a Jay-Z advert and a Friendly Fires advert, two very contrasting adverts visually but both effective in promoting their respective album. We noticed that these magazines had essential conventions to promote themselves and their album. Friendly Fires had quite a conventional magazine advert, having a striking background and images of the band. Where as Jay-Z is not initially bold and striking but because of this, it tells the reader that he does not need to promote himself with an image or striking background because he is so well established. Almost making it more effective than the Friendly Fires advert. The crucial

Digipak

CD COVER

Our CD cover will mainly focus on the visual style of David Ford that we will try try to create in the music video, it will be a close up of his face with indie generics in the background. It will again have intertextual references to Jack Johnson.

Examples of David Fords other album covers and an example of Jack Johnsons:













An example of a cd cover that we have created is :

Teacher Feedback on Pitch and Blog

Your pitch document on the blog looks very good but the content is a little vague, as a result your pitch was unconvincing, you need to outline clearly what is going to be happening for each line of the song. The work you are doing on storyboarding and putting together a timeline will assist with determining and communicating a more fixed idea of your video.
You need to publish the posts that you currently have in draft as they fill in a lot of the gaps that your blog appears to have. You must also label your posts with the names of the people who contributed to the post, it is essential that you do this consistently. Currently there are other vital components missing from your blog, including your Goodwin presentations and your Auteur presentations. These must be embedded and contextualised i.e. explain what the task was. I would also recommend that you embed other music videos both real and student videos, which influence you or are similar stylistically to your ideas.
You also need to do some research into digipaks and magazine ads, discuss the conventions of these two forms, and make your own ideas for these two products very clear. The current sketch you have mocked-up is not clearly labeled as your own work.
As we discussed this morning it is essential that your storyboard illustrates your concrete ideas as your pitch is rather vague, only then will I confirm you have this track.
Keep up the good work.

Costumes

Artist

Woman

Animatic

Making our animatic was a very helpfull process, it gave us the opportunity to analyse our idea for the music video. It helped us fit the video in perfectly with the music itself. When we added the music against our storyboard on final cut we realised that we had to change the length of some of the shots that was different to our original plan. Our first shot is of moving clouds, we original planned for this to be a short opening to the beginning of the video where there is an instrumental, but when we added the music against it we realised it would have to be longer than we first anticipated. Likewise we discovered that some shots would have to be a lot shorter than we thought they could be, as our music video is going to be a narrative video. The majority of the video is of the artist singing the lyrics aswell as the narrative going on at the same time, it helped us work out timing for the individual shots.

Final Track Choice

Our chosen track choice is - DAVID FORD 'A LONG TIME AGO'

Track Choices And Initial Ideas 3

Track 3- Killer - Boy Kill Boy




















For our third initial idea, for a video called 'Boy kill boy' by Killer, we thought the most successful way to record a video for this song was to include typical conventions of an indie/rock band, and use the idea of recording a band performance.
Ideally it would be nice to film a band performance with a live audience, but thinking realistically we would film a band performance without an audience.

Track Choices And Intitial Ideas 2

Track 06 - The Hush Sound




For our second idea, a video for the song 'Sweet tangerine' by band The Hush sound, we decided to include some typical conventions of an alternative/ indie rock video, however usually videos of this genre focus of stage performance which we decided wouldn't be as effective for this particular song, alternatively we decided to focus on a storyline of a separated couple, with the singer showing his heartbreak using lyrics relating to mise-en-scene (such as 'scruffy' costume of boy, and well-kept appearance of the girl) Editing (such as split screens showing the constrast of both girl and boy) etc. The opening lyrics 'Rain outside window' will show him in his bedroom as he wakes up and has flashbacks of him drunklenly knocking on the door at girl and shouting the lyrics at her, and in the morning finding texts of what he sent her.
We may also use the technique of flashbacks of the couple looking happy together, e.g at a park together, and use point of view shots, from his perspective looking and remembering her. Other possible elements we could use in our video are techniques such as split screen, showing them both looking into mirror, he looks depressed and messy haired and scruffy and she looks pretty, happy and well, showing another man coming into the split screen of the girl with the lyrics 'You're all his and I'm all yours, like it or not'

Other media products we used to inspire this idea included music videos from Panic! At the Disco, Newton Faulkner, Jack Johnson and The Kooks. The screen shots below were taken from the music video from the Kooks 'She moves in her own way' which include some of the visual charecteristics we wanted to demonstrate in our project, as costume e.g straw hats, scruffy clothing which help create a relaxed/ laid-back feel, stereotypical of indie/alternative rock band videos)



Another video that inspired this second idea was the music video 'Next in line' by Meese, as this was also an alternative rock indie band which included split screens and looked very effective in helping the singer narrate the lyrics of songs storyline better to the viewer.

Track Choices and Initial Ideas 1

Track 11 - David Ford - A Long Time Ago

Stories/Narrative

Our initial ideas are that, it would be set in the countryside where the artist would sing alone in golden fields singing towards the camera on a picturesque day whilst there are cuts to the man and woman in the city. The song is about a man and a woman who used to be a couple but then broke up, now the man still has feelings for her and waits for her at her house just to see her. 'Clouds on the moon,It was a hollywood sky, I sat on the wall, 'til your parents drove by.' In our video we would film a man waiting at the womans house trying to recover what they had 'a long time ago' looking up at the skies above whilst the clouds go by for only the woman to be getting on with her life totally oblivious to the man. At the end of our video the man and woman's paths would finally 'converge' , in which the tone and pace also goes into slow motion in which it would end on that as the last lyrics are 'It was all such a long time ago.Now was it though?'

Location

We have chosen the countryside/rural area for the artist and the city scenario for the man and woman. Through this contrast, the audience will be more engaged to the video.

Stories/Narrative
Our initial ideas are that, it would be set in the countryside where the artist would sing alone in golden fields singing towards the camera on a picturesque day whilst there are cuts to the man and woman in the city. The song is about a man and a woman who used to be a couple but then broke up, now the man still has feelings for her and waits for her at her house just to see her. 'Clouds on the moon,It was a hollywood sky, I sat on the wall, 'til your parents drove by.' In our video we would film a man waiting at the woman's house trying to recover what they had 'a long time ago' looking up at the skies above whilst the clouds go by for only the woman to be getting on with her life totally oblivious to the man. At the end of our video the man and woman's paths would finally 'converge' , in which the tone and pace also goes into slow motion in which it would end on that as the last lyrics are 'It was all such a long time ago.Now was it though?'

Situation

Our main concept for our music video is to produce two screens in our video, one is of the artist singing in a rural area with nothing surrounding him whilst a couple are in there own storyline playing out the lyrics of the song. The main goal is to produce a flowing smooth video with high quality transitions. We would also try to add our own touch to the video by adding intelligent clips that accompany the instrumentals of the song, a video signature that we have discovered in the opening of David Ford - Go to Hell.


Look and Feel - Costumes/Props
The style of the video would be quite indie/country where the costumes would correlate with conventions of the indie genre. We have chosen to use Paolo Nutini as inspiration for our music video, his style and genre highly correlates with our chosen song, therefore we have decided to dress our chosen actor in a chequered shirt, jeans, trainers and a hat, a very casual look.
Goodwin's Theory
To meet the needs of the record label, there would be constant close ups of the artist singing towards the camera on a split screen. This would create a visual image of David Ford that can run throughout his work, this could then be replicated on his cover for the music video and magazine advert. The visual image is a casual, down to earth guy, an image that has intertextual references to Jack Johnson and Paolo Nutini, artists that are already well established in the field.

Overall, the concept that we have created is realistic in what can be achieved in the time that we have been allocated, through having simplistic foundations, it will lay the basis for an overall high quality video. A video that will focus and concentrate on portraying the conventions of our genre, producing a visual image of David Ford that can be distinctively identified throughout all his future work and also have our own touch that will make our video stand out in comparison to other videos of the Indie genre.