Final Video

Evaluation Question Four

Q4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? During my A2 course, I have used a variety of media technologies to present my research and planning, evaluation and construction. When finding out about the coursework we had first researched into the different media theorists and the codes and conventions of a music video as well as the specific genre. We had done this be looking at references to music videos such as Britney's - Toxic, Pharcyde's - Drop and other video's of our choice and explained the codes and conventions of the video, the genre, the different themes they have incorporated in their video and the type such as a narrative, performance or concept.

We had analysed the video's and then embedded our analysis and the video onto my blog. Along with the research and planning we have created a Vox Plox which shows me and my group asking different member's in our school questions about music video's and what they thought. We had used an analogue camcorder and then uploaded the footage onto Adobe Premier Pro and edited the footage using Tricaster. We had then uploaded the finished and edited video onto the popular video streaming site YouTube which then enabled us to get an embedded code for me to post on the blog. We then looked into unsigned artists or bands that we thought we wanted to use and took note of the name, song track we liked and the website to show to our peers and teachers. When we finally chose two or three artists that we had liked we had presented this to our class for them to critique the song or say what they liked about the song. We had used the website http://www.unsigned.com/ to preview the songs. We had used a presentation to show the different artists, their songs and the lyrics and we had uploaded our presentation to Slide Share - a website where you can upload your Powerpoint presentation to allow you to put your presentation online and then we used this to upload this onto our blogs to show the analysis of the lyrics. When we had finally chose Diva Eve as our unsigned performer and her track "Wrong Song" we had planned what the video would look like by planning the different scenes, locations, performers and props we need for the video.

During the planning stages we had used a digital camera to take photo's of the locations we have considers, photos of the performer and photo's for the ancillary tasks. After deciding the different shots and picking our performer we had used an analogue camcorder and a tripod to record our original footage at the different locations. We had had used the footage we had taped and imported it into the desktop publishing video editing programme Adobe Premier Pro. Through using Adobe Premier Pro, we we able to edit the different footage, crop and cut footage we didn't need or want. We had used the Razor tool to do this and then we were able to edit the different footage's and match them together. We had used a variety of editing transitions such as Wipe, Fade, Slide and Jump cuts in order to create an original professional piece of work.

After we had the video with the transitions we had added the green screen footage and placed it in between the video where we felt it suited well with the video and finally uploaded the audio track and matched the lip syncing green screen footage with the lyrics in the song and then added still images into the video. When we had edited the different the green screen footage, the still images, location footage and the audio track together and added the editing the transitions matched it all together. When looking at the different editing transitions we had used the clockwise wipe, fade, jump cut and push transition to create a comical effect and then used a text tool in order to create funny sayings such as "Why Am I Wasting My Time With This Loser?"and either placed the saying on the still images, speech bubbles in the footage or the plain background with the green screen footage. The Green screen footage was used to create a professional look which is used in music video's with a plain background or an image behind the performer or scene. After we had edited our whole video and got feedback and then made the amendments we had rendered our video as it was finished and uploaded the final video onto YouTube and got the embedded code and uploaded it onto my blog.

When uploading the video we had took into account that we were publicly broadcasting our finished product. When writing my evaluation, I had used all the information and uploaded all of this onto my blog to show my reflection of the different tasks, products and plans I have produced. I had then proceeded to show my work through screen shots by using Paint and uploading these images onto my blog and then explaining what I have done by analysing the screen shots. I had then explained through my analysis on how successful I was in meeting my targets and aims.

Evaluation Question 3

3) What have you learnt from your audience feeback? When having our feedback we found it very useful and helped us produced an original music video along with producing it to a high standard. From the feedback we have learnt that we did match the codes and conventions of a music video by having a narrative and performance based but we hve subverted the narrative by making our video comedic. Our camera angles such as the close up, mid shot, full body shot have been successful in conveying our narrative and with our mise en scene and props that helped us with or narrative along with our locations. From the review evening, which was held for our audience to view our music video, we received some positive and negative feedback. From our presentation evening the audience said our video :

• Needed clearer narrative


• More still images and shots


• More footage of narraive scenes


• More visual slapstick


• More lip syncing - more green screen footage


• More angles for the office shots

Overall the audience also said what worked well and this was:

• The still images


• Different locations we had used for the video


• Funy Narrative


• Use Of Performer


• No Camera Shake


• Variety of Editing Techniques


• Authentic lip syncing

Evaluation Question 2

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

When completing my ancillary task's, I had to create a a4 advert for a magazine, a front cover and back cover for a CD and an inlay card. Before creating all of these I had looked at other references such as albums that are related to pop or quirky, I had looked in music magazines to look for adverts and to see what the main codes and conventions are for the poster. I had looked at The Saturday's. The album shows the group against a plain background and wearing bright colours to attract their target audience using colours. The cover show the name of the group/ artist and the album name with a main image of them. When looking at the cover the artist's name is in a bright colour which is lighted up and the name of the album is written on the newspaper which can be clearly read. The main image of the girl's also show them wearing bright shoes that match the colour of their seats and also link in with the bright colours associated with pop.

The back cover is a plain background with the typography linked with the front cover and the back cover is simple. On the bottom we can also see the institutional information at the bottom along with the bar code. We can also see the logo for the record company and the websites. By looking at the codes and conventions we were able to adhere to them as well as making them our own by changing where we place them for example our bar code is at the top of our back cover. When looking at our ancillary tasks we have kept our brand identity as we used the typography and font colour consistent as well as the images. For our ancillary tasks we had used bright colours to attract our target audience and catch people's eyes. We had subverted using pastel colours like traditional images. By subverting the codes and conventions we have made the ancillary tasks original. We have have also made it have visually appealing aesthetics so that people would take a look at it and buy it. When looking at the back cover, we have kept the typography and colour consistent. We have also stuck to conventions by keeping a main image of the artist on the back cover. We have also stuck to conventions by keeping the institutional information and having a bar code. We have also taken into account what sides the track lists and what sides to put it on we have gone for the right hand side without numbers. We have also added the artists' name to make it stand out and making it bold so it can stand out. We have also kept the colour consistent once again by using hot pink, light blue and black. We have also made sure that by conforming to conventions of a back cover we needed to make it our own and original and we felt that e have done this. By looking at The Saturday's album we see they have kept their back cover simplistic and we have done this as well. They had linked their typography on the front cover and the back like ours and just kept the basics of a back cover such as the institutional information, including websites and logo's along with the bar code. Overall I have felt that our ancillary text's are creative and original.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

Our music video is of a quirky pop genre and our music video is mixture of performance and narrative based which conforms to conventions associated with pop music. Lily Allen’s “Smile” video also shows this by her narrative being comedic and then her performing her track as the narrative plays. Lily Allen shows her engaging with the audience as she sings towards the camera and then looks at the camera therefore the viewer feels as if she is looking at them. With the use of close up shots of Lily we see face and her miming her song. Pop music videos also tend to have performance based with a mixture of narratives to tie in with the lyrics just like our video. Our narrative explores our performer waking up and just having a bad day with her computer freezing, waking up late for work, tripping over, spilling drinks all over her and her breaking up with her boyfriend.

Although our video does have a narrative it also subverts conventions as the narrative is supposed to be funny for viewers rather than be a dramatic narrative with a happy ending whereas our video doesn’t do that. Our narrative shows her having a bad day and the ending is the flashbacks of her bad day. For the performance side of our video we have asked our performer to mime the lyrics to the song by using green screen and we have used a mid shot of our performer and we have decided to place her on a plain background in the music video with some words of the lyrics by her. Normally in conventional music videos the performer mimes the song and there is a variety of shots showing this whereas our green screen is just a mid shot of our performer. We also had to make sure when looking back at our green screen footage that it matched the beat our track and she is lip syncing the words clearly and match it then to the track in the background.

Finished Ancillary Tasks

This is the finished ancillary tasks. As you an see we have kept the same colours and typography to ensure brand identity for our performer and keep the bright colours associated with pop. We have changed the photo for the front cover and photoshopped it of the album as we felt a close up would be better to catch the audience's attention. We have completed the A4 poster which includes the codes and conventions of an A4 poster which is featured in a magazine such as the name of the artist, the album name, the date of track release, the track name, an image and institutional information. For the back cover we have decided to use a photoshopped image that matches the colours of the album and we have added the codes and conventions of a back cover on an album. We have created an inlay card as well which contains the thank you's and photos of the performer photoshopped as we have once again kept the typography and colour scheme the same.

Unfinished Ancillary Tasks

This is advert for our artist and this is what our advert would look like if it were to be in an A4 music magazine. It is not finished yet as I have to add institutional information such as websites and the record company. This is the back cover of our album and I have to add more instituional information as well as move text around. We have decided to change from a red and green theme as it did not fit in with the pop genre and the colours associated with pop. This is the final edit for our front cover of the album. This is completed and we have chosen the sky blue colour and hot pink to tie in with the pop music as well as link in the colours with her outfit.

Peer Assessment

We have had different groups to view our video and they have come up with these points to help us with our video.

* What works well

• Clear narrative
• No camera shake
• Authentic performance
• Variety of editing techniques used
• Good choice of performer
• Editing is clear
• Steady shots

Even better if:

• Lipsyncing shold be clearer
• Speech bubbles need to be placed properly
• Merge performer better with background
• Performer needs to add more emotions

Maroon 5 - Tracking an artist

Maroon 5 is an American rock band from L.A. - California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album in 1997. They reformed, with guitarist James Valentine, and pursued a new direction as Maroon 5. The first track they debuted was "This Love" and was written by front man Adam Levine.



The music video for "This Love" was directed by Sophie Muller. The video combines performance footage from the band in a courtyard and scenes of Adam Levine parting ways with a woman. The music video for "This Love" also features Levine and his then-girlfriend, model Kelly McKee, in a few intimate scenes. The video used creative camera angles, thereby causing upset or harm. The top picture is the uncensored version of the video showing the intimate scenes between Adam Levine and his girlfriend. The bottom picture is the censored version where you see the computer generated flowers that cover up the scene for the viewers and conservative markets.

The next video is "She Will Be Loved". Once again the video is directed by Sophie Muller.Maroon 5's She will be loved is a mixture of narrative and performance based.
The video is about Adam Levine - The main singer; who is having an affair with his girlfriends mother. The genre of the track is pop rock and the video was released in July 2004. The mise en scene of the video focuses on the narrative and tells the story of the main singer and the woman he is in love with. The video is in colour but some shots are in black and white to show he is reminiscing and to show the past.




A different video with Maroon 5 can be seen through "Wake Up Call" the track was leaked in May 2007 and the video does contain narrative and performance scenes like the rest of thier videos but this video is set as if it was a trailer for a movie. The video shows Adam Levine girlfriend in the video asking for his forgiveness as she has cheated on him. As he walks in on her cheating on him with another man he shoots the other man and then the rest of the video is Adam and his girlfriend trying to cover up the murder and running around town. In the end, the entire band is captured and in the last scene of the video, Adam is given the electric chair.

Editing Screen Shots

This is one of the first shots of our music video and this is one of the shots for the morning scene. For the first scene we have decided to place the Tricaster footage on top of our narrative scene to show her looking back at her day as well as lip syncing the lyrics that match our narrative scene. For our Tricatser we have used a mid shot of our performer and for the narrative scenes we have used a variety of shots but this screen shot shows where our performer is throwing her thong behind her as it ties in with part of the lyrics.

After the bedroom scene we show the scene where she is waiting for the train and is late for work. We have also used the mid shot of our performer from the Tricaster footage.

This is the ending of our music video. We have used a midshot of our performer to show her body as well as her facial expressions. The typography is in a fancy type font as it links in with the font on her album and poster.

Back Cover Screenshots

We have chosen the image and font for the back cover of our album. We felt that the red and green colours did not appeal to the pop audience and from feedback the audience had felt that the red and green felt as if the album was about Christmas and could not tell the genre by looking at the back cover. We have then decided to choose different colours and put them against a black and white background to see what colours stand out more. We have decided to use a lilac colour as it linked in with the pop colour and we felt that it appealed to the female audience more as it is more of a feminine colour. We have chosen a sky blue and hot pink colour as we felt that this would stand out more and related back to the pop colours. The pink and blue also represent the feminine and masculine colours and both colours stand out on a black and white background. Lastly we have chosen a green to tie in with the album name "The Forbidden Fruit" as it linked in with the forbidden fruit being an apple.

Back Cover Screenshot

So far we have been making the back cover of our album and we have decided to play around with colours that stand out and appeal to the pop audience. The album cover is still a working progress and we still need to add now is the logo for the record company. We have chosen to go with a red and green colour scheme to link in with the album name "The Forbidden Fruit" which was an apple so the red and green tie in perfectly with this.

Fonts

We have made examples of the different fonts we like and we have chosen to pick the font - Freehand591 BT.



Right now we are just making our album cover and posters.

Editing

Since we have all our footage and the scenes from Tricaster so we have done some editing and matched it together with the song. We have just played around with the shots for now and we have looked at the different variates of transitions to match our video. We have also created different album covers and posters and played around with different fonts, colours and images.

Running Commentary

After the weather conditions we have filmed the office shots, bedroom shots and more Central London shots. We have now started to edit and filmed the Tricaster shots where our performer had lip synced our song.