Main Task: Final Music Video

This is the final version of my music video after I have made all the editing choices and changes I needed to. The video is roughly four minutes long and I am the only actor throughout.

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

PC/iMac: I used a PC at home and an iMac in lesson for almost all the stages of my project. Editing was mainly completed on the iMac due to it having Adobe editing software which I do not have available to use on my PC at home, mainly Adobe  Premiere Pro video editing software.

Camcorder: For recording my video I used a Panasonic HDC-SD90 camcorder booked out from college which allowed me to record in a very high quality and achieve the best look possible and the easiest quality to work with when constructing my final video.

Camera: When taking my photographs for my ancillary tasks I used my personal digital camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3, which is 14.1 megapixels. This camera provided me with very high quality images which, similar to the camcorder, made editing that much easier in the long run.

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For my whole project the feedback from both my audience and lecturer was a huge help in improving my product. My original plan (evident in my pitch) was to shoot a music video for the instumental song 'Rain' by YouTube musician Rob Scallon, but this plan ran in to a lot dead ends the main of which was my music video not actually working as an effective music video. So upon recieving this feedback I decided to completely rethink the entire product, starting with the song choice. I decided choosing a song by my favourite artist, Frank Turner, was a good idea and would allow for an effective video as all of his songs tell a story of somekind.

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

My main product and my ancillary texts as a combination I believe to be rather effective in that they all convey the same or a similar message to the audience about the artist and his identity.

The poster image allows the audience to grasp the indie genre the artist is representing just by the similarity to other indie texts in that rather than showing simply a logo and album artwork, it shows the artist in another setting which relates to the title of the album/single as I have done here by having my artist surrounded by bushes to relate to 'Photosynthesis'.

My main product could have been better in working in tandem with the ancillary tasks as it was shot inside rather than outside like the other tasks. This was however due to a change in weather on the day  of the shoot which was obviously out of my control, so this meant that I needed to shoot inside on the same day to meet my deadline.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?

The editing of my product challenges that of typical music videos in that there is little use of proper transitions between clips and it seems very 'bitty'. I was aiming to achieve a rather amatuer look from the offset to show a rather raw form of music video similar to Frank Turner's 'Try This At Home' in which the camera positioning is still in the entirety of the video and simply jump cuts to and from different actors in the video lipsycing to the song. This was my main area of inspiration and I decided to follow the idea of a still camera and jump cuts to invoke a repsonse in my audience that music videos don't always need to be big budget productions with some form of backstory.

The lighting in the entiretly of the video is natural sunlight through an off-camera window and a single small spotlight just above the spot in which the entirety of the video was filmed, this simple lighting was used to again challenge the high budget music videos of our time and stray from the main stream. 

Ancillary task - Poster

This is the final poster advert for my artist to advertise the release of the album. I kept the editing roughly the same to my digipak to show continuity and the look of this was achieved by cropping my image and increasing the saturation to 70% more than it the original image.

The bright colours of this poster reflect the song in my music video and it's somewhat cheerful tone about not wanting to grow or have your views dismissed or silenced.

Ancillary task - digipak

This is the Front Cover of my digipak and the effect of it was achieved by increasing the saturation of the photograph to my personal taste and what I thought I would buy if I saw it in a music shop.

 These are the two inside covers of my digipak and for the pair of them I decided to stray from the normal colour scheme of the front and back covers to something a tad strange and creative to reflect the image of my artist that I was aiming to achieve.

 The back cover of my digipak was achieved very similarly to the front in that I increased the saturation on photoshop to achieve a more crisp and bright looking photograph in which the colour of the leaves really contrasted that of the acoustic guitar.

Technical Elements of Storyboards

A storyboard is a frame by frame visual representation of the action which will happen on screen, this will include shot type, location/setting, actors, props/vehicles and the angle of the shot on the specific frame.
They must also include if actors or vehicles need to move in a frame and the direction which they need to move, if the camera moves in the frame to add motion and the direction. The description should include the time of day/lighting that will be used for different shots and if there are any special effects e.g gunfire, explosions and CGI that will need to be noted

Poster Deconstrutions

Music Video Deconstructions

Country:UK

Language:English 

Release Date:26 March 2012

Runtime:4m 07s

Mise- En- Scene

·                      Setting/s: home of 2 characters, top of a large truck, interior of an American muscle car

·                     Costumes: Women wearing matching black and red outfits, man wearing black tie and trousers with red shirt

·                     Expression: mainly serious faces, ocassional anger, smiles at the conclusion

·                     Make Up: Not applicable as this video is an animation

·                      Props: Vehicles, wallets, keys, instruments

·                     Camera Angles, Movements & Shot Types

·                     Close ups of characters faces to display emotions

·                       Tracking shot of muscle car with male character inside

·                     Extreme close up of girl’s face to show her grief

·                     Over the shoulder shot is used to display the empty half of the bed next to the girl

Sound 

·         The song is very electronic sounding with keyboard and drums

Editing

·                     Jump cuts- used to go from character’s face to car’s fuel gauge

·                     Most transitions are fades to white then fades from white

‘The Driver’ By Savlonic

Country:UK

Language:English 

Release Date:30 July 2009

Runtime: 04m 19s

Mise- En- Scene

·                      Setting/s: houses of Frank Turner's fans

·                     Costumes: casual dress (checked shirt and jeans)

·                     Expression: mainly smiling and laughing, otherwise singing

·                     Make Up: Not applicable 

·                      Props: guitar

·                     Camera Angles, Movements & Shot Types

·               mainly focuses on Frank's face at a medium close up
·               Camera tilts upward in transition shot 

Sound 

·         The song is acoustic sounding, mainly guitar

Editing

·                     Jump cuts- jumps between locations for 24 shows, singing looking fluent throughout

·                     many clips edited together to reflect the nature of the video

'The Road' By Frank Turner

Country:USA

Language:English 

Release Date:29 January 2014

Runtime: 03m 47s

Mise- En- Scene

·                      Setting/s: Exterior: Bridge, fields, roads Interior: plainly decorated shack

·                     Costumes: casual dress on all actors, blindfold used in end scenes

·                     Expression: mainly smiling and laughing, otherwise singing

·                     Make Up: Natural make-up used on all actors

·                      Props: guitars, feathers, car, bucket, vinyl records, banners, stuffed animals, bandages

Camera Angles, Movements & Shot Types

·                      extensive use of medium shot and close up on actors

·                      Camera mostly follows actors

Sound 

·         The song is acoustic sounding, mainly guitar

Editing

·                     Jump cuts- jumps between locations for 10 world records

·                     many clips edited together, recorded at different times/locations

'Ain't It Fun' By Paramore

Pitch Feedback

From the feedback I have recieved it seems changing my initial idea of an instrumental track is the best route for my music video and will make it overall an easier product to film and edit together.

Pitch

Introduction Question

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following options:

A Poster for the band

A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD Package)

a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD Package)

I have chosen this task as I feel because I enjoy filming and music it would be a task I could really sink my teeth in to.
Another reason for choosing this is that I am currently recording my own album/EP, so it would provide me with skills to help make videos for my own songs effectively and professionally.