Music Video Evaluation Writing
1. In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Throughout our video we attempted to fit the lyrics to the visuals of the song. To start we downloaded the lyrics and then made points as to the possible ideas to fit with them. In our final video we used the concept of miming or lip synching to math the singer with the lyrics, also some of the stop-motion that was in the stop-motion notebook read ‘so much to tell you…to fill you in’, this directly imitated the lyrics creating a connection. In this particular parts the words have denotations of cute and girly, therefore these also create a connection with the visuals, the music and the overall genre and representation of the band. Other connections include the lyrics such as ‘I met you at a party’, fit in with the party scenes. This shows there is a ‘link between lyrics and visuals’ as quoted by Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992)
The above representations show the character as innocent, girly and sweet. Other ways this can be seen it through the girly, childish doodles and the scratchy effects on the video creating a vintage feel. Also the sepia tone makes the whole feel of the video calm and soft. This is unique and exploits the bands USP.
The genre of the band and this song in particular is very out there Indie pop. The video incorporates some typical conventions of this genre, such as the girl singing to a blank wall is popular for this genre. Although, the genre has been challenged by giving the video a slight narrative, almost turning it into a story or a diary of the girls day. Also visual Indie pop conventions are expressed through the miss-en-scene: vintage style dress, mirror (old style frame), plain room with hard and clear flooring.
There are some inter-textual reference to our video that represent comparisons to other videos, some of which are a completely different genres and some are also indie pop. This shows how we have enhanced our video the use of other typical genre conventions. Kate Nash is also an Indie pop singer and therefore some features of her video can be seen as similar to features of our video. For example Kate Nash ‘Foundations’ video (25/5/07) had a very vintage theme, her costume (old style dress) is similar to the look we attempted achieving. It incorporates also stop-motion in the form of socks dancing on the floor, showing a connection to our stop-motion tights scene. Overall the whole miss-en-scene is similar to what we tried achieving in our music video. Some videos from different genres that have inter-textual references to our video include ‘Sigar Ross - Hoppipola. This video has a very effective scratchy/ sepia effect, same as the one we have used. There are also some black edges like the ones we used in our lip synching scenes. In both the videos this is very effective and gives the impression it has been shot through an old camera lens, adding to the vintage feel in our particular video.
Throughout filming we used both a digital camera for the stop-motion scene and a camera for the main film. Mostly the camera is a mid-shot or close up angled at the singer rested on a tripod. Although during a party scene it is hand held, creating an edgey feel and showing a connection between music and visuals.
The lighting slightly alters throughout. The curtains opening and closing represent time of day. Also the sunset feel gives almost a romantic feel, showing again a connection to the lyrics, and fits in well with the genre. This also shows some variation. We darkened the stairs when shooting to show night and in the party scene, adding to an effective miss-en-scene. We got the perfect lighting when shooting against a blank wall so that it wasn’t too dark or light, also avoiding exposure of shadows. Other factors also created an effective video such as the miss-en-scene, the field was empty therefore representing loneliness and searching, connecting visuals to lyrics.
We can see through the shots used that we have used typical music video conventions through watching other videos. For example Will Young ‘You and I’ shows a singer singing at the camera against a blank background. Also Lady Gaga ‘Just Dance’ (17/6/08) shows a hand held party scene, just like our video. Katy Perry (who is in the same genre of our video) also uses a shot of the singer singing into a mirror, this is a clever shot that successfully captures emotion.
Our Digipack design is also similar to others, Christina Aguilera’s ‘Come on Over’ shows a face as a main focus on a plain background and Beyonce ‘B-day’ has a similar swirly pattern to the one we used around the edge. J-lo also has 3 bonus disks with a darkened/ softened face image on a neutral background. Showing it’s a popular way to display female artists. Our advert shows typical conventions e.g large band name, ‘Coming Soon’ and natural, neutral images that match the image of the band. It also shows the date of release and a review.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Both the digipack and the poster have the same colours, orange rustic, showing they connect. They both also use the same band name ‘Au Revoir Simone’ taken from the official website and therefore uses the style of the official band, this shows that we are trying to create an overall package that has the same feel that the band themselves have created. This works well as the bands image incorporates successfully with the genre style. This also shows a connection between the ancillary tasks. The colours are also good for the band because they are calm and natural. As well as the colours there are other visual links between the two tasks including images of the actress's face, whereby on both she is holding a calm, simple pose. As the actress is the girl we used in the music video and not the actual band, it shows a connection between visuals and ancillary texts. Both the digipack and the poster use swirly/flower images that where taken from the Au Revoir Simone official website. The link between the two therefore show strong connections, yet also denotes a sly connection between the official band and the way they are shown or perceived, very girly. We also used some music notes onto our poster which represents the passion for music. Overall with both the tasks we where trying to achieve a calm and peaceful diary like video of the girls day. Through the ancillary texts we have used very girly themes with neutral colours, this both shows they connect and represent the girl In the innocent yet elegant way we wanted her to be portrayed.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Feedback from our class on our roughcut was mostly negative as the roughcut was not great. Some of the things commonly commented on included: lack of scene variation, repetition of scenes and unprofessional laughing and smiling. There was also comments on it jumping from light to dark dramatically and a point that there was room for more performance. Although some of the positive feedback included speeding up of the street scenes as it successfully fitted with the music, although again this was repeated.
We took this all into context and changed some of the final to make it appeal better to the audience, including: complete change of actress and scenes, shot types and incorporation of stop motion, lighting and complete improvement of miss-en-scene. This was successful and our final-cut feedback was much more positive, 'The idea is good, I really like when Hannah walks towards the trees and the camera turns, also when the effect of when shes dancing by the trees', this was one of the comments received from Facebook. As we had connections with the band, the bands representative left this comment ' looks great!'. Through the production process we had many comments from our teacher advising us. When we first starting adding effects to the piece we received some constructive feedback from our teacher who discussed the old style effect. We where told that putting the effect across the whole of the piece would not look very creative, also when we did this we discovered many of the scenes (especially with the singer on a blank canvas) became almost orange. As a result and as advised we reduced the sepia tones on many of the scenes and reduced/ increased the scratchy effect where needed. Through experimentation we also discovered that adding the scratchy effect twice helped increased the creation of the old style image. Also through teacher feedback we where encouraged to change some of the dancing scenes as they where a bit slow and lacked variation. Through experimenting with this we found the ‘Stop-Motion’ effect on Final Cut and used this to double the girls image, or overlay the image making it appear there was more then one actress spinning.
Our class feedback for the final cut left the following comments:
Blog- very visual, lots of writing, good explanations, all fits together, good evidence of research.
Ancillary texts- Good ideas, good colours, tie in very well together, not too much information, possibility for more images.
Video- Good effects (especially old style), clubbing random, good lip synching, good idea and animation.
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used many online sites to help with the production, planning and research and development. We used 'Youtube' as a way of researching into other music videos, this was an extremely useful source of ideas and helped us research other songs by the band. 'Blogger' was a way of documenting our development so far and research we had done on other videos, also as a way of uploading our video and other tasks.This we regularly updated to make it as successful as possible. The social networking sites 'Facebook' and 'Myspace' as a source of contacting the band, this was our only source of communication and we regularly checked to see if we had any feedback from the band and used it as a way of gaining permission and gaining feedback for our video. Final Cut was used in the production of the video. We used it to piece together our video and then add effects: such as Sepia, Old Scratchy Style (which had to be downloaded from the internet) and a stop motion effect that is available. This was used in both our roughcut and final cut. We also used it to speed up/ slow down parts of our movie such as the dancing scenes, therefore it is a very useful application to use as helped successfully create the video. Other applications we used was Photoshop, this was used to create both the digipack and the magazine article, both of which used images dragged from the music video and downloaded from the internet, in particular the Au Revoir Simone website. We also downloaded the font for the didgipak from ‘www.dafont.com’ which was ‘Hannahs messy handwriting’ and worked very well with the effect we where going for as it was swirly yet childish. We also used the internet to download the old style effect used across the majority of the video.
Music video evaluation (ciaran)
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products
We looked very closely at the lyrics of are song and choose to try and tell a story. We tried to involve them when filming and think in of ideas and certain line work well around the story idea, such as the line “it was late at night I meet you at a party”. For this line we put in a party scene where the main character is pushing thought the crowd. Andrew Goodwin talks about this in his book (‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’1992) he says that this is one of the six point to analysing a music video. The video is soft and simple very arty and individual. We felt that this is what the record company would like to portray the bands style of music. The camera, lighting and Mise-en scene backs up the idea that the band is not a mainstream band. There’s a mix of digital photo’s and video footage. The lighting was fresh and open and free a lot like the style of music. We wanted a vintage style for the video so we used a vintage dress and bedroom we also put an old style scratchy effect on the footage to emphasize this point. In the video we use a lot of istopmotion, which we got, from Kate Nash’s fountains. Where two socks fly across the room by themselves. We also looked at Kate Nash’s sweetest things video, which is where we got the idea for the girly cute handwritings and drawings. Will Young’s you and I video had him standing I front of a white wall singing to the camera which is were we got the idea of Hannah singing with the white wall I believe that are album cover is like beyonce’s B-Day. Where her face is the whole of the front cover. We used magazine advert conventions such as “coming soon” and reviews. It also showed her face on the magazine.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For our magazine we got images like the music notes and swirls off Google images. We also found images from the music video and mixed them all together using Photoshop to blend them into one. We then used the font off the bands page, which we have used through out This Project. We Think It’s Very Successful And Elegant, And Goes Well With The Song. We downloaded a new font to use on our digipack, as nothing PhotoShop offered was what we wanted. We wanted a very cute, handwritten text, to make each digipack look like the artist has personally written it on. We feel this adds a much more personal feel to the digipack, which fits in with the theme of our video. The font we decided to use in the end was called 'Hannah's Messy Handwriting'.
Our real video, the magazine ad and the album cover were very effective together we got across the cute and girly ideas because in all forms of the task we had cute handwriting and we had little sweet cartoon picture in both the video and the album cover. As well as that we also had the singer in all of our tasks.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We got a lot of class feedback on the video blog and ancillary. Such as for are video people said that they liked the stopmation and cartoons. For the blog people said that there were good amounts of posted and picture. we learn a lot from are feedback our teacher gave as feedback on both the blog and on our video. He said the video was basic with a lack of shot types. We also got feedback on our rough-cut from the class such as poor lighting, un professional acting, and poor locations we took this in to account and changed much of are video. Such as the locations and actress. We then got a much more positive feedback on our real video which seemed to be much better. People liked the locations and shot types. Our teacher like the effect that we used on are final video but said that the colour that we used (a dark sepia colour) and told us that maybe we should take this off from the outdoor footage. We took his advice and I feel that the video now looks better.. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used many different types of new technologies in our task. Such as websites where we used facebook to get feedback, we used myspace to contact the band, youtube for research, and we put are video on vimeo for the best quality. We also used final cut for the editing and Photoshop for the magazine and album cover, we used a digital camera and also a video camera for our final video.
We looked very closely at the lyrics of are song and choose to try and tell a story. We tried to involve them when filming and think in of ideas and certain line work well around the story idea, such as the line “it was late at night I meet you at a party”. For this line we put in a party scene where the main character is pushing thought the crowd. Andrew Goodwin talks about this in his book (‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’1992) he says that this is one of the six point to analysing a music video. The video is soft and simple very arty and individual. We felt that this is what the record company would like to portray the bands style of music. The camera, lighting and Mise-en scene backs up the idea that the band is not a mainstream band. There’s a mix of digital photo’s and video footage. The lighting was fresh and open and free a lot like the style of music. We wanted a vintage style for the video so we used a vintage dress and bedroom we also put an old style scratchy effect on the footage to emphasize this point. In the video we use a lot of istopmotion, which we got, from Kate Nash’s fountains. Where two socks fly across the room by themselves. We also looked at Kate Nash’s sweetest things video, which is where we got the idea for the girly cute handwritings and drawings. Will Young’s you and I video had him standing I front of a white wall singing to the camera which is were we got the idea of Hannah singing with the white wall I believe that are album cover is like beyonce’s B-Day. Where her face is the whole of the front cover. We used magazine advert conventions such as “coming soon” and reviews. It also showed her face on the magazine.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For our magazine we got images like the music notes and swirls off Google images. We also found images from the music video and mixed them all together using Photoshop to blend them into one. We then used the font off the bands page, which we have used through out This Project. We Think It’s Very Successful And Elegant, And Goes Well With The Song. We downloaded a new font to use on our digipack, as nothing PhotoShop offered was what we wanted. We wanted a very cute, handwritten text, to make each digipack look like the artist has personally written it on. We feel this adds a much more personal feel to the digipack, which fits in with the theme of our video. The font we decided to use in the end was called 'Hannah's Messy Handwriting'.
Our real video, the magazine ad and the album cover were very effective together we got across the cute and girly ideas because in all forms of the task we had cute handwriting and we had little sweet cartoon picture in both the video and the album cover. As well as that we also had the singer in all of our tasks.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We got a lot of class feedback on the video blog and ancillary. Such as for are video people said that they liked the stopmation and cartoons. For the blog people said that there were good amounts of posted and picture. we learn a lot from are feedback our teacher gave as feedback on both the blog and on our video. He said the video was basic with a lack of shot types. We also got feedback on our rough-cut from the class such as poor lighting, un professional acting, and poor locations we took this in to account and changed much of are video. Such as the locations and actress. We then got a much more positive feedback on our real video which seemed to be much better. People liked the locations and shot types. Our teacher like the effect that we used on are final video but said that the colour that we used (a dark sepia colour) and told us that maybe we should take this off from the outdoor footage. We took his advice and I feel that the video now looks better.. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used many different types of new technologies in our task. Such as websites where we used facebook to get feedback, we used myspace to contact the band, youtube for research, and we put are video on vimeo for the best quality. We also used final cut for the editing and Photoshop for the magazine and album cover, we used a digital camera and also a video camera for our final video.
Emma Grayland - Music Video Evaluation.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In our final piece, we have created links between the lyrics and the video. From the beginning, we knew we wanted a cute, girly theme to match the theme of the song, with lots of hand-drawn animation and doodles. Where we have used these, they are relevant to the song. Also, we have included scenes that are relevant to the lyrics at the time; for example, we included party scenes during the section of the song that was talking about going to a party.
We have used a variety of camera shots and angles, and also included a lot of still images taken on a digital camera, and compiled them together to produce a stop-motion effect. This is similar to a few music videos that we have seen and improved the development of our video as it made it more interesting to watch. Most of the lighting in our video is natural; at one point, we positioned our main character in front of a sunset and filmed from behind her. Our lighting is varied due to the nature of natural lighting, and we think this adds to the believability of our video as it is meant to be almost like a diary of the girl’s day. We also used some artificial lighting when filming indoors.
Mise-en-scene was a very important part of our video – for example, it was important that the viewer could see the notebook that the girl was holding. The notebook played an important part in the storyline and featured in some of our stop-motion.
Shots in our music video clearly demonstrate our research into other existing music videos. Kate Nash’s ‘Foundations’ video was where we gained a lot of our inspiration, as we were keen on a similar vintage style, and also liked the small amount of animation in it. It also used a couple of examples of stop-motion which we were very keen to use.
Although not an official music video, we also really liked an animation made for Kate Nash’s ‘The Nicest Thing’. It was very cute and girly and used the idea of hand-drawn animation and doodles, which we were very keen to use.
We also really liked an example of previous student’s work, which was made in 2008 by group R1-17 and based on the song, ‘I Don’t Want To See You’. This particular example used a similar vintage style, and also used the same idea of a ‘projector-effect’, with a frame creating a circle of video, sepia toning, scratches and an old film effect.
A convention of music videos is that the genre might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camerawork and editing styles. I think our music video links to this convention as our vintage theme throughout links with the lyrics of the song, and all aspects of the development process reflect the same theme and genre.
Our camerawork has a strong impact on the meaning behind the video – the movement, angles and shot distances are all used as a representation of the band, which is another convention of music videos.
Our digipack design matches the theme of our video, and uses the same template as many others that we researched – it folds over twice to allow room for two CD’s. We also used our research to design a realistic pack that would not look out of place on a supermarket shelf.
Our magazine advert uses conventions of real magazine adverts, as it uses many overlayed images to create depth and texture, but fits in to the theme of our song and band. It has a strong visual link to our digipack and many aspects are similar to create a brand image. It also uses text, which is a common trait of real magazine adverts.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our main product and ancillary texts are strongly linked and this makes the combination of the two effective. They are both very visual and contain the same themes, which show consistency throughout. Both show attention to detail. One of the advantages of creating our own ancillary texts is that it gave us the opportunity to develop the brand image that is featured in our music video. Our ancillary texts have a continuous theme throughout and similar fonts are used on both. This consistency can be considered as a method of building a band identity and would boost the publicity for the band, making their work instantly recognisable. The digipack is relatively simplistic, whereas the magazine features a little more detail to prevent people getting bored of looking at them. This simplistic approach links to the theme of the music and could be seen as a trademark approach for the band.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We used no footage from our roughcut in our final piece, due to our roughcut being filmed quickly and not very well, and being put together in a short space of time. We had mixed feedback but it mainly said that we used good editing technique, and the theme was fitting to the song. However, we needed more shot and scene variety, and also more performance shots. There was too much variation in the lighting between shots, and our video cut a bit short due to lack of footage. We needed to gain more footage, use more locations, and tidy the video up all round.
As a result of this feedback, we changed pretty much everything about the video and started again from scratch, which was much more successful. One of the final adjustments we made was on the old film effect that we applied to our video, this led to the whole video having a sepia tone and a ‘scratchy’ effect over the top. At some points, we gained feedback that said the sepia toning was too strong, and was working against some of our natural lighting in our video. To sort this, we decided to continue using the old film effect to ensure consistency, but toned down the sepia so in certain places, it was barely visible. This was a lot more successful and we were pleased with the result.
Feedback that we gained from Facebook stated that “idea is good (animation type like) I really like when Hannah is walking towards the trees and the camera turns also when the effects of when she's dancing by the trees are great” and also that “loved the sepia effect in your video it gives it a kind of old film look and it goes really well and also the stop motion parts are really good”.
Feedback from our peers stated that our blog contained sufficient posts and evidence of research, and all fitted together visually with sufficient detail and photographs. However, we should have had a post on general ideas for the digipack, and could have had more colour and images as some of our posts were text only. The feedback mainly said that the animation and lip-synching were strong points, and people liked the effects on the video. However, we could have used a wider variety of effects and a wider variety of still images. Feedback for our digipack said that our track listings were good with a good overall design which linked strongly to the video, but we should have used more images of our main character. And finally, the feedback for our magazine advert said that the overall design was good and links strongly to the digipack, but some aspects were a little hard to read.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used Blogger to regularly update our online blog, with new information, examples and research. This was an effective method and an advantage of media technologies as it meant our blog could be easily edited, added to and was accessible to everyone. In the research stage, we used Youtube to research other videos, both official and also previous students’ work. We also used Myspace to research and contact the band. In the planning stages, we used Photoshop to compile mood boards and also to begin drafts for the poster/postcard etc. In the construction stages, we used Final Cut Express to put together both our roughcut and our final video, and Photoshop for our digipack and poster. We took images for these off both Facebook and Myspace. Our final piece was put on our blog using Vimeo. We also used a camcorder and Final Cut Express to create our evaluation video, in which we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our video and explain the ideas behind some of the scenes. Modern media technologies definitely benefited our group and video as a whole, and has led to a professional-looking and effective video that we are all very pleased with.
In our final piece, we have created links between the lyrics and the video. From the beginning, we knew we wanted a cute, girly theme to match the theme of the song, with lots of hand-drawn animation and doodles. Where we have used these, they are relevant to the song. Also, we have included scenes that are relevant to the lyrics at the time; for example, we included party scenes during the section of the song that was talking about going to a party.
We have used a variety of camera shots and angles, and also included a lot of still images taken on a digital camera, and compiled them together to produce a stop-motion effect. This is similar to a few music videos that we have seen and improved the development of our video as it made it more interesting to watch. Most of the lighting in our video is natural; at one point, we positioned our main character in front of a sunset and filmed from behind her. Our lighting is varied due to the nature of natural lighting, and we think this adds to the believability of our video as it is meant to be almost like a diary of the girl’s day. We also used some artificial lighting when filming indoors.
Mise-en-scene was a very important part of our video – for example, it was important that the viewer could see the notebook that the girl was holding. The notebook played an important part in the storyline and featured in some of our stop-motion.
Shots in our music video clearly demonstrate our research into other existing music videos. Kate Nash’s ‘Foundations’ video was where we gained a lot of our inspiration, as we were keen on a similar vintage style, and also liked the small amount of animation in it. It also used a couple of examples of stop-motion which we were very keen to use.
Although not an official music video, we also really liked an animation made for Kate Nash’s ‘The Nicest Thing’. It was very cute and girly and used the idea of hand-drawn animation and doodles, which we were very keen to use.
We also really liked an example of previous student’s work, which was made in 2008 by group R1-17 and based on the song, ‘I Don’t Want To See You’. This particular example used a similar vintage style, and also used the same idea of a ‘projector-effect’, with a frame creating a circle of video, sepia toning, scratches and an old film effect.
A convention of music videos is that the genre might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camerawork and editing styles. I think our music video links to this convention as our vintage theme throughout links with the lyrics of the song, and all aspects of the development process reflect the same theme and genre.
Our camerawork has a strong impact on the meaning behind the video – the movement, angles and shot distances are all used as a representation of the band, which is another convention of music videos.
Our digipack design matches the theme of our video, and uses the same template as many others that we researched – it folds over twice to allow room for two CD’s. We also used our research to design a realistic pack that would not look out of place on a supermarket shelf.
Our magazine advert uses conventions of real magazine adverts, as it uses many overlayed images to create depth and texture, but fits in to the theme of our song and band. It has a strong visual link to our digipack and many aspects are similar to create a brand image. It also uses text, which is a common trait of real magazine adverts.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our main product and ancillary texts are strongly linked and this makes the combination of the two effective. They are both very visual and contain the same themes, which show consistency throughout. Both show attention to detail. One of the advantages of creating our own ancillary texts is that it gave us the opportunity to develop the brand image that is featured in our music video. Our ancillary texts have a continuous theme throughout and similar fonts are used on both. This consistency can be considered as a method of building a band identity and would boost the publicity for the band, making their work instantly recognisable. The digipack is relatively simplistic, whereas the magazine features a little more detail to prevent people getting bored of looking at them. This simplistic approach links to the theme of the music and could be seen as a trademark approach for the band.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We used no footage from our roughcut in our final piece, due to our roughcut being filmed quickly and not very well, and being put together in a short space of time. We had mixed feedback but it mainly said that we used good editing technique, and the theme was fitting to the song. However, we needed more shot and scene variety, and also more performance shots. There was too much variation in the lighting between shots, and our video cut a bit short due to lack of footage. We needed to gain more footage, use more locations, and tidy the video up all round.
As a result of this feedback, we changed pretty much everything about the video and started again from scratch, which was much more successful. One of the final adjustments we made was on the old film effect that we applied to our video, this led to the whole video having a sepia tone and a ‘scratchy’ effect over the top. At some points, we gained feedback that said the sepia toning was too strong, and was working against some of our natural lighting in our video. To sort this, we decided to continue using the old film effect to ensure consistency, but toned down the sepia so in certain places, it was barely visible. This was a lot more successful and we were pleased with the result.
Feedback that we gained from Facebook stated that “idea is good (animation type like) I really like when Hannah is walking towards the trees and the camera turns also when the effects of when she's dancing by the trees are great” and also that “loved the sepia effect in your video it gives it a kind of old film look and it goes really well and also the stop motion parts are really good”.
Feedback from our peers stated that our blog contained sufficient posts and evidence of research, and all fitted together visually with sufficient detail and photographs. However, we should have had a post on general ideas for the digipack, and could have had more colour and images as some of our posts were text only. The feedback mainly said that the animation and lip-synching were strong points, and people liked the effects on the video. However, we could have used a wider variety of effects and a wider variety of still images. Feedback for our digipack said that our track listings were good with a good overall design which linked strongly to the video, but we should have used more images of our main character. And finally, the feedback for our magazine advert said that the overall design was good and links strongly to the digipack, but some aspects were a little hard to read.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used Blogger to regularly update our online blog, with new information, examples and research. This was an effective method and an advantage of media technologies as it meant our blog could be easily edited, added to and was accessible to everyone. In the research stage, we used Youtube to research other videos, both official and also previous students’ work. We also used Myspace to research and contact the band. In the planning stages, we used Photoshop to compile mood boards and also to begin drafts for the poster/postcard etc. In the construction stages, we used Final Cut Express to put together both our roughcut and our final video, and Photoshop for our digipack and poster. We took images for these off both Facebook and Myspace. Our final piece was put on our blog using Vimeo. We also used a camcorder and Final Cut Express to create our evaluation video, in which we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our video and explain the ideas behind some of the scenes. Modern media technologies definitely benefited our group and video as a whole, and has led to a professional-looking and effective video that we are all very pleased with.
Hannah Rose - Evaluation
Music Video Evaluation
Hannah Rose
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We have created a few links between the lyrics and the visuals, not only are our visuals girly and delicate like the song itself but we have actually written out the lyrics at some points in the video using the stop motion technique. Another point later in the song she mentions a party a couple of times so their are brief party scenes when the music builds up.
I believe we have captured some very 'beautiful' shots with different camera angles, for example the sunset and sun beams gleaming through the tree branches. These were very precise and carefully captured, in contrast to the party scenes which were hand held as we wanted more of a spontanieus and 'wild' look to it, we also thought this would give our music video variation and keep the watchers interested. We got this idea looking at professional music videos as they used a bit of both. The stop motion was also an idea we got from watching some top music videos, we really looked at Kate Nash, 'The Nicest Thing' and 'Foundations'. Her music videos have a soft vintage feel to them which we wanted to create and she used a lot of cute stop motion effects, for example moving around socks and tooth brushes, we took this idea and made it our own.
We thought a lot about the lighting in our shots especially in the morning, night and party scenes, as we didn't want a shot out of place and our video to be jumping from light to dark to light again. We kept it smooth and getting darker slowly like it was a diary of her day. We really like the lighting with the sunset, especially when it created a silhouette as she danced in the trees, again this is all very elegant and girly linking it with our song type.
We have used a few bits for Misi-en-scene, for example the vintage dress and heels, and the girly vintage book she carries everywhere. We even thought about the bredroom, we wanted it simple yet cute, which could represent the song. The landscape senery also had to be very beautiful.
We have a few similarities between our digi-pack covers and professional album covers, for example most are kept very simple which we have done and include images which relate to the band and the style of music they create. Like most bands we have put a picture of the singer on the front cover and basic details like the band name etc. We have also included a bar code, the track listings and quotes.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
The digi pack and the music video link together very subtly we have a picture on the front cover of the girl in the video and on the back we have an image of the stick man figures which were in the video. We have put swirls on the digi-pack and kept it very simple and elegant using neutral colours. Cream is a colour which is used in both the digi-pack and video, her cardigan, dress, and wall which she sings against is a cream colour and so is the digi-pack background. So to link them we used very simple ways of doing so, however i think it is quite effective.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We got a lot of feedback on our rough cut saying lots of clips were repeated, there was bad lip syncing, the actress kept giggling and the lighting was poor etc. however this didn't matter as we were not planning to use any of that footage in our final piece. We had a sudden deadline sprung on us so we went to town and filmed anything we could, none contained what we had planned so we re-did it after. This got us much more positive feedback, we are also a lot more happy with it as it was much more what we wanted, and how we originally planned.
An example of our latest feedback is, 'The idea is good (animation) I really like Hannah walking through the trees and the camera turning, and the dancing scenes near the trees are great' We also got a response from the bands manager after mailing them on Myspace showing them our final piece, Looks great, i'll pass it onto the band'
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used a few pages on the internet to help plan, and research our work, for example we used Blogger to record our planning and progress, it was almost a diary/ scrap book showing ideas, comments and what we had done. We used Google and Youtube to research and get ideas, Facebook to get feedback on our work, Myspace to research the band and get in contact with them And Vimeo to upload videos on as this has a higher quality than youtube. All these websites really helped us in some way of another.
We used a few programs too to edit and create our final piece and the ancillary texts. We used photoshop too create pictures, digi-pack and magazines and to create our frame for the lip syncing scenes. Final cut to do all the editing on and I-stop-motion to create the animations where she writes in her book. All were very useful and we couldn't of done our project without them.
Hannah Rose
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We have created a few links between the lyrics and the visuals, not only are our visuals girly and delicate like the song itself but we have actually written out the lyrics at some points in the video using the stop motion technique. Another point later in the song she mentions a party a couple of times so their are brief party scenes when the music builds up.
I believe we have captured some very 'beautiful' shots with different camera angles, for example the sunset and sun beams gleaming through the tree branches. These were very precise and carefully captured, in contrast to the party scenes which were hand held as we wanted more of a spontanieus and 'wild' look to it, we also thought this would give our music video variation and keep the watchers interested. We got this idea looking at professional music videos as they used a bit of both. The stop motion was also an idea we got from watching some top music videos, we really looked at Kate Nash, 'The Nicest Thing' and 'Foundations'. Her music videos have a soft vintage feel to them which we wanted to create and she used a lot of cute stop motion effects, for example moving around socks and tooth brushes, we took this idea and made it our own.
We thought a lot about the lighting in our shots especially in the morning, night and party scenes, as we didn't want a shot out of place and our video to be jumping from light to dark to light again. We kept it smooth and getting darker slowly like it was a diary of her day. We really like the lighting with the sunset, especially when it created a silhouette as she danced in the trees, again this is all very elegant and girly linking it with our song type.
We have used a few bits for Misi-en-scene, for example the vintage dress and heels, and the girly vintage book she carries everywhere. We even thought about the bredroom, we wanted it simple yet cute, which could represent the song. The landscape senery also had to be very beautiful.
We have a few similarities between our digi-pack covers and professional album covers, for example most are kept very simple which we have done and include images which relate to the band and the style of music they create. Like most bands we have put a picture of the singer on the front cover and basic details like the band name etc. We have also included a bar code, the track listings and quotes.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
The digi pack and the music video link together very subtly we have a picture on the front cover of the girl in the video and on the back we have an image of the stick man figures which were in the video. We have put swirls on the digi-pack and kept it very simple and elegant using neutral colours. Cream is a colour which is used in both the digi-pack and video, her cardigan, dress, and wall which she sings against is a cream colour and so is the digi-pack background. So to link them we used very simple ways of doing so, however i think it is quite effective.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We got a lot of feedback on our rough cut saying lots of clips were repeated, there was bad lip syncing, the actress kept giggling and the lighting was poor etc. however this didn't matter as we were not planning to use any of that footage in our final piece. We had a sudden deadline sprung on us so we went to town and filmed anything we could, none contained what we had planned so we re-did it after. This got us much more positive feedback, we are also a lot more happy with it as it was much more what we wanted, and how we originally planned.
An example of our latest feedback is, 'The idea is good (animation) I really like Hannah walking through the trees and the camera turning, and the dancing scenes near the trees are great' We also got a response from the bands manager after mailing them on Myspace showing them our final piece, Looks great, i'll pass it onto the band'
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used a few pages on the internet to help plan, and research our work, for example we used Blogger to record our planning and progress, it was almost a diary/ scrap book showing ideas, comments and what we had done. We used Google and Youtube to research and get ideas, Facebook to get feedback on our work, Myspace to research the band and get in contact with them And Vimeo to upload videos on as this has a higher quality than youtube. All these websites really helped us in some way of another.
We used a few programs too to edit and create our final piece and the ancillary texts. We used photoshop too create pictures, digi-pack and magazines and to create our frame for the lip syncing scenes. Final cut to do all the editing on and I-stop-motion to create the animations where she writes in her book. All were very useful and we couldn't of done our project without them.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Finished Digipack.
Here is our finished digipack. We are pleased with the result (:
Front:
Inside:
Front:
Inside:
Digipack Production.
Here are some screengrabs of us editing our digipack. We completed the whole thing using Photoshop and a variety of different techniques. We manipulated a lot of the images to make them more interesting and also increased their suitability for our particular project.
We downloaded a new font to use on our digipack as nothing PhotoShop offered was what we wanted. We wanted a very cute, handwritten text, to make each digipack look like it has been personally written on by the artist. We feel this adds a much more personal feel to the digipack, which fits in with the theme of our video. The font we decided to use in the end was called 'Hannah's Messy Handwriting'.
We downloaded a new font to use on our digipack as nothing PhotoShop offered was what we wanted. We wanted a very cute, handwritten text, to make each digipack look like it has been personally written on by the artist. We feel this adds a much more personal feel to the digipack, which fits in with the theme of our video. The font we decided to use in the end was called 'Hannah's Messy Handwriting'.
Magazine Changes
Screen Grab
This is us working on our music video / digipack magazine. We are using photoshop, to create this and added images from Google into our piece and changing it slightly to make it our own.
Here is some examples of some magazines advertising bands and song release's we love the swirls and elegance of the second one we will use the idea of overlaying loads of images but make it themed like our band and link it to our digipack.
Examples of Digipacks
Here are some examples of digipacks, we are going to make one for our video and band. We will use ideas from the examples but make it our own, and relate to our song and band image.
We Especially like the last one, as its delicate and simple, and we love the small print used.
We Especially like the last one, as its delicate and simple, and we love the small print used.
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
More On The Magazine
For Our Magazine We Got Images Like The Music Notes And Swirls Off Google Images. We Also Found Images From The Music Video And Mixed Them All Together Using Photoshop To Blend Them Into One. We Then Used The Font Off The Bands Page, Which We Have Used Through Out This Project. We Think Its Very Sucessful And Elegant, And Goes Well With The Song.
Monday, 23 November 2009
These are the real track listings on the album "The bird of music". We have added
"Where you go" the track we used in are projected.
"Where you go" the track we used in are projected.
Track listing
- "The Lucky One" - 4:30
- "Sad Song" - 4:07
- "Fallen Snow" - 3:45
- "I Couldn't Sleep" - 2:31
- "A Violent Yet Flammable World" - 5:01
- "Don't See the Sorrow" - 4:30
- "Dark Halls" - 3:26
- "Night Majestic" - 3:00
- "Stars" - 2:58
- "Lark" - 4:19
- "The Way to There" - 6:49
- "Where you go"- 3:27
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Contacting The Band
We Have Already Mailed Them Asking To Use Their Song.
And We Got A Response..
Now We Have Mailed Them Again Showing Our Final Video..
And We Got A Response..
Now We Have Mailed Them Again Showing Our Final Video..
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
GROUP 50 FINISHED MUSIC VIDEO
Q3-50 MUSIC VIDEO 2009 from SATMEDIASTUDIES on Vimeo.
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Editing
Stop motion
When editing the music video we discovered when we did the first part of the video (stop-motion girl getting out of bed), that when we had to change the speed we could not change the speed of all the photos at the same time. Therefor we had to go through each individual photo and change the speed form 100 to 2500 after each of the photos had been individually cropped. This turned out to be very time consuming but gave a very effective result. Towards the end of the music video and the last scene where the girl gets into bed, we decided not to crop the photos but change the speed from 100 to 400. This created the same speed and same effect but took less time, although was still time consuming.
Stop-motion blur
When editing some of the scenes such as the mid-shot of the girl dancing around the trees in front of the sun, and the long shot of the girl twirling in front of the trees. We experimented with several effects to create a unique look. In the end we discovered that the stop-motion blur was a really good effect to use and fitted in well with our other stop-motion scenes without being as time consuming. This effect took the girl and copied the film so it looked like two shadows of the girl. This goes particularly well on the scene with the girl dancing in front of the sun set as the twirling gets more dramatic in time with the music. We also had a shot that was very long with the girl sat in front of the tree and just smiling while playing with her book. This scene was a bit too long and became too boring. Therefore we decided to put an overlay in top of the twirling and reduce the transparency. We all thought this effect was good and took away the boring factor.
Party scenes
For the party scenes at the end of the video we cut the footage, then we went from different shot to different shot and cut in-between to shots of Hannah spinning and of her miming the words with the plain background. We the faded between each of the different shots so that they faded in and out, we really liked the result of this.
When editing the music video we discovered when we did the first part of the video (stop-motion girl getting out of bed), that when we had to change the speed we could not change the speed of all the photos at the same time. Therefor we had to go through each individual photo and change the speed form 100 to 2500 after each of the photos had been individually cropped. This turned out to be very time consuming but gave a very effective result. Towards the end of the music video and the last scene where the girl gets into bed, we decided not to crop the photos but change the speed from 100 to 400. This created the same speed and same effect but took less time, although was still time consuming.
Stop-motion blur
When editing some of the scenes such as the mid-shot of the girl dancing around the trees in front of the sun, and the long shot of the girl twirling in front of the trees. We experimented with several effects to create a unique look. In the end we discovered that the stop-motion blur was a really good effect to use and fitted in well with our other stop-motion scenes without being as time consuming. This effect took the girl and copied the film so it looked like two shadows of the girl. This goes particularly well on the scene with the girl dancing in front of the sun set as the twirling gets more dramatic in time with the music. We also had a shot that was very long with the girl sat in front of the tree and just smiling while playing with her book. This scene was a bit too long and became too boring. Therefore we decided to put an overlay in top of the twirling and reduce the transparency. We all thought this effect was good and took away the boring factor.
Party scenes
For the party scenes at the end of the video we cut the footage, then we went from different shot to different shot and cut in-between to shots of Hannah spinning and of her miming the words with the plain background. We the faded between each of the different shots so that they faded in and out, we really liked the result of this.
Filming party scene
We had loads of confusion as to when we could film the party scene as we where running out of time and needed a group of people to help us out. We ended up filming the party scene when we stayed behind on Tuesday 10th for an editing session. To do this we gathered some people from the media class's and went to the photography dark room. Then we switched on the back-light and shot us all dancing around. This shot is much more shaky and less quality then the other shots. This was the effect we where trying to achieve because we wanted the shot to fit in with the miss-en-scene and have the shaky camera work fitting in with the party. We also used a still and clear mid-shot for the part where the girl walks through the scene to create variation.
problems with filming...again
We where due to film on Sunday the 8th, but problems with our actress meant that yet again we where let down. Therefore we decided to again change the actress and use a member of our own group, Hannah, to ensure that we could get the filming done in time. It took a day to film from several different scenes, including Emma's bedroom/house and fields. In all we had both film and many photos for the different stop-motion scenes. We chose to film from different angles so we had choice because of the time scale we where working on, we knew we did not have time for error because we would not have enough time to re-film.
Other problems we had with filming included not having a suitable tripod. Therefore we had to move shelving around the house to achieve a steady shot. We had a small tripod that we used in the fields resulting in all the shots being from a low angel. Although not planned this worked out extremely successful as it had a great shot using the dazzle from the sunset.
Also as it took so long to do the stop-motion that it became too dark to do the street scenes and the station scene. We therefor decided to cut these bits out as we already had enough footage and didn't want the video to become too busy and random.
Other problems we had with filming included not having a suitable tripod. Therefore we had to move shelving around the house to achieve a steady shot. We had a small tripod that we used in the fields resulting in all the shots being from a low angel. Although not planned this worked out extremely successful as it had a great shot using the dazzle from the sunset.
Also as it took so long to do the stop-motion that it became too dark to do the street scenes and the station scene. We therefor decided to cut these bits out as we already had enough footage and didn't want the video to become too busy and random.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
stop mation notebook
Today we shot the scene for our stop-motion notebook. To do this we used a G-clamp attatched to the camera and the table. We then connected the computer and the camera to enable us to use the I-stop-motion on the Apple Mac. This made it easier to create an affective stop motion without the image jumping too much as we could see where the previous shot was. We then added the stop motion notebook to the track. The shots where first roughly 30 seconds long, so we decided to cut the stop-motion using Final Cut, we cut at the end of the sentence and the page turnover shots. Therefore we could slow down the appropraite shot to fit in with the words. We are pleased with the final result of the notebook and think it fits in well with the theme of our music video. Especially as we added small images one of a heart and the other was a small stick boy and girl with a heart in the centre.
Editing timetable
Due to our late final filming we have decided the only time we have left to edit will be in the week of the deadline. To ensure we have enough time to film we are going to stay later between 4.10 and 8 on Tuesday and then also possibly Wednesday break time if we are still behind with our editing. These extra sessions will be as well as our three weekly lessons. If we still have not completed our final music video by Monday 9th (deadline day) we plan to come in after 12.20 to finish our editing before the end of the day and the end of the deadline.
Monday, 2 November 2009
Stop Motion Examples
This is an example of stop motion that we will be using in our video.
We made this using the 'I stop motion' Programme on our school mac computer.
We will use it to create lyrics and cute little parts of music video.
We made this using the 'I stop motion' Programme on our school mac computer.
We will use it to create lyrics and cute little parts of music video.
problems with filming......yet again
We had planned to do the filming for out final cut music video in the half term holidays. However complications meant that the actress we was going to use could not make the date and we where left again without any appropriate footage 2 weeks before the deadline. We have now chosen to change the actress to use our other friend Ellie and will hopefully film later on in the week.
roughcut peer feedback
Our peers went round in groups to watch our videos and then leave comments on the following questions. This was the feedback that we had from the other members of the class:
1. What would you rate as strengths of the music video?
Effects of the music video are good, for example the speeding up of the town scenes. Also the concept of the idea fitted well with the theme of the song.
2. what do you think are the areas for improvement?
The editing needs to be more faster. There should also be more scene variety, it was also noted that there was un-professional giggling and smiling from singer and background extras. There is also the possibility for more performing.
3. what do you think the group should change?
There should be more shot types to improve the video. There was also a comment about the lighting of our video on how it almost instantly goes from light to dark, this was not intended. We where also advised to keep the length of the videos same as lyrics.
4. what has the group still got to do?
We should use more footage and locations and complete the end of the video as it was an unfinished copy of the rough cut and ends abruptly.
We have taken into consideration the comments and ideas given from the other groups and are likely to incorporate these ideas into our final cut.
1. What would you rate as strengths of the music video?
Effects of the music video are good, for example the speeding up of the town scenes. Also the concept of the idea fitted well with the theme of the song.
2. what do you think are the areas for improvement?
The editing needs to be more faster. There should also be more scene variety, it was also noted that there was un-professional giggling and smiling from singer and background extras. There is also the possibility for more performing.
3. what do you think the group should change?
There should be more shot types to improve the video. There was also a comment about the lighting of our video on how it almost instantly goes from light to dark, this was not intended. We where also advised to keep the length of the videos same as lyrics.
4. what has the group still got to do?
We should use more footage and locations and complete the end of the video as it was an unfinished copy of the rough cut and ends abruptly.
We have taken into consideration the comments and ideas given from the other groups and are likely to incorporate these ideas into our final cut.
Research.
This is an amazing video and a perfect example of stop-motion that is really well done. This video was part of a student's art and design project and therefore shows that you don't have to be a professional to create a really good piece. It took three months to plan, four days to film and used over six thousand post it notes.
This should be taken as evidence that the key to a good final piece is patience and planning.
This should be taken as evidence that the key to a good final piece is patience and planning.
Editing Screengrabs.
This is the screengrab of us editing our music video roughcut. We experimented with various effects to see whether we would be able to use any of them on our final video.
Here is an idea of the type of writing we would like to use for our stop motion part of the music video. We are going to use writing like this in random parts across the video and in the notebook stop motion scene and possibly also the mirror scene.
Review of Our Blog.
We have received feedback that our blog was not visual enough, so now our focus will be on including as many images and video's on our blog that we can to make it more interesting to look at.
The quantity and quality of our posts however is not an issue as we have sufficient posts so far.
The quantity and quality of our posts however is not an issue as we have sufficient posts so far.
Evaluation
Although our ideas where creative we did not have the time to make them successful. We had some debates to weather we would change the track if we had to chose again. Some members of the group believe it will be difficult to make a good music video to the track, whilst others believe that with more time and organisation we will be able to have a more appropriate and successful video. If we also had more time and video funds we would change our idea completely and possibly film on a beach instead. Through doing the rough cut we have discovered the difficulties such as how much the weather affects the quality of the video and the atmosphere. We also know that costume and miss-en-scene will need to be altered for our final cut to make it more appropriate for the lyrics and style of the track. For example the girl miming the track will need to wear vintage style clothes and the miss-en-scene we will have to attempt to make the brighter as the track is very bubbly and light-hearted, thi will go well with the rack.
We found it difficult to film in a public place (cambridge sreets) as when attempting to video people wlking past, members of the public became extremely intrigued by the video camera and stood to watch. Either this or they completely avoided the camera, this was the opposite to what we needed them to do. In the short notice we also found it hard for our actress to find the time to film so used an alternative performer. We attempted to acomplish a scene whereby leaves fell from trees where the girl was dancing but this was also made difficult as we couldnt have people shaking the trees to make the leaves fall in the shot. As we found it difficult to find time in all of our scheduels to film we also had to shoot the, walking into the party scene, through a dentist door in cambridge street.
For the rough cut it was also difficult to get appropriate props into cambridge, for example the bike.
We have not yet attempted the stop motion due to lack of time, although we have planned to fit this into our final cut and spend more time on that area of the video.
We found it difficult to film in a public place (cambridge sreets) as when attempting to video people wlking past, members of the public became extremely intrigued by the video camera and stood to watch. Either this or they completely avoided the camera, this was the opposite to what we needed them to do. In the short notice we also found it hard for our actress to find the time to film so used an alternative performer. We attempted to acomplish a scene whereby leaves fell from trees where the girl was dancing but this was also made difficult as we couldnt have people shaking the trees to make the leaves fall in the shot. As we found it difficult to find time in all of our scheduels to film we also had to shoot the, walking into the party scene, through a dentist door in cambridge street.
For the rough cut it was also difficult to get appropriate props into cambridge, for example the bike.
We have not yet attempted the stop motion due to lack of time, although we have planned to fit this into our final cut and spend more time on that area of the video.
Location Screengrabs.
These are some screen shots from Google maps that show our locations from an aerial view.
This one is of Emma's house, which is where we will be doing quite a lot of filming.We are planning to shoot the waking up scenes, the party scenes, and the going to bed scenes.
This shot is of the field that we are planning to use in our music video. It is secluded and quiet and lined by trees at the top, and this was exactly the sort of thing we were aiming for. We are only planning to film one scene here.
This shot is of Cambridge city centre, which is where we will also be doing a lot of the filming, and also reshooting some of the footage we got for the roughcut.
This one is of Emma's house, which is where we will be doing quite a lot of filming.We are planning to shoot the waking up scenes, the party scenes, and the going to bed scenes.
This shot is of the field that we are planning to use in our music video. It is secluded and quiet and lined by trees at the top, and this was exactly the sort of thing we were aiming for. We are only planning to film one scene here.
This shot is of Cambridge city centre, which is where we will also be doing a lot of the filming, and also reshooting some of the footage we got for the roughcut.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
crew list/ call sheet
we have also created a list of all of the crew members and performers needed. This also includes numbers so that we can contact any who is missing. This will make preporation and filming more easy.
location breakdown sheet
we have made a location breakdown sheet, this consists of location, shot number, shot type, action. Theres 10 shot numbers per page and ours consists of 2 pages. We have done this so that it is easier when filming. Also on each page we have listed the performers, props, vehicles and equipment for each location.
Monday, 19 October 2009
complications with filming
Due to close deadlines and time shortages we decided to film the rough cut, very roughly. To do this we filmed in one and a half hours and used the wrong actress due to complications with the chosen actress having time to film. We where then planning on filming in a weekend but found it difficult as all the team members wanted to be there for the filming but one was away on a university trip.
Further complications included the weather not fitting in well with the plans, also we wanted a bike and a dog but found both of these difficult to get hold of in the center of Cambridge. In the end we filmed a lot of random footage but found little of this appropriate or able to use. Also as we filmed during college hours it was difficult to find suitable miss-en-scene and costumes. Also due to not having a c.d player in school it was difficult to get the timing and words correct, this made it more difficult to match the miming with the track, we attempted recording the song onto a phone and playing it but this was fuzzy and quiet making it even more difficult.
Our finished product has turned out to be nothing like our planning and story boarding. Therefore we plan to spend more time working on our finished product over half term so we can use appropriate miss-en-scene and costumes. Therefore we are hoping that our finished product will be much better and fit in well with our storyboard.
Further complications included the weather not fitting in well with the plans, also we wanted a bike and a dog but found both of these difficult to get hold of in the center of Cambridge. In the end we filmed a lot of random footage but found little of this appropriate or able to use. Also as we filmed during college hours it was difficult to find suitable miss-en-scene and costumes. Also due to not having a c.d player in school it was difficult to get the timing and words correct, this made it more difficult to match the miming with the track, we attempted recording the song onto a phone and playing it but this was fuzzy and quiet making it even more difficult.
Our finished product has turned out to be nothing like our planning and story boarding. Therefore we plan to spend more time working on our finished product over half term so we can use appropriate miss-en-scene and costumes. Therefore we are hoping that our finished product will be much better and fit in well with our storyboard.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Locations
We have used a variety of different locations such as:
1. Emma's bedroom
2. Hallway in house (Emma's house)
3. Cambridge punts
4. Cambridge streets
5. A nice park/ field (Emma's House)
6. Market Square in Cambridge
7. View from top of Cambridge building
1. Emma's bedroom
2. Hallway in house (Emma's house)
3. Cambridge punts
4. Cambridge streets
5. A nice park/ field (Emma's House)
6. Market Square in Cambridge
7. View from top of Cambridge building
Final Ideas.
We have a pretty clear idea in our heads of what we are aiming for and this is portrayed in our storyboards.
Here is a final outline of our music video -
The first scene will be of the girl in bed during the morning, after she has just woken up. This will be as the music has just started to play.
By the time the lyrics start, she will be getting up and starting to get ready. While she is looking in the mirror, she will write some of the initial lyrics on the mirror in lipstick - we may or may not do this scene in stop-motion. During filming, we will experiment with both, and see which style looks better during the editing process.
The video will then change to an image of the girl sitting, reading a paper or magazine with a cup of tea. This will be shot from opposite the girl - but the next scene will be as if the camera is the girl's eyes, looking down on the table as if from her perspective. A notebook will be on the table also, and the lyrics playing at the time will be written in stop-motion on the pages of the book.
The next shot will be of the girl, from a front angle, riding a bike down a narrow street. We are hoping to use an old-style bike, preferably with a basket.
The shot will then switch to one of the girl riding the bike from a side-view.
Another shot which we may or may not use at this point would be one of the girl swirling in a country location with leaves falling around her. We may edit this shot in slow motion if we decide to use it.
We would then have a close up of the girl lip-synching to the lyrics, where a lot of the attention would be focused on her. It is crucial at this point that, during editing, we do a good job so the video looks professional and realistic. A major problem with some videos that affects the marks they achieve is errors during the editing process.
The next scene would use only animation and stop-motion. The lyrics would appear over the screen, maybe with some hand-drawn doodles.
The next shot would be one of the girl walking down a street
Here is a final outline of our music video -
The first scene will be of the girl in bed during the morning, after she has just woken up. This will be as the music has just started to play.
By the time the lyrics start, she will be getting up and starting to get ready. While she is looking in the mirror, she will write some of the initial lyrics on the mirror in lipstick - we may or may not do this scene in stop-motion. During filming, we will experiment with both, and see which style looks better during the editing process.
The video will then change to an image of the girl sitting, reading a paper or magazine with a cup of tea. This will be shot from opposite the girl - but the next scene will be as if the camera is the girl's eyes, looking down on the table as if from her perspective. A notebook will be on the table also, and the lyrics playing at the time will be written in stop-motion on the pages of the book.
The next shot will be of the girl, from a front angle, riding a bike down a narrow street. We are hoping to use an old-style bike, preferably with a basket.
The shot will then switch to one of the girl riding the bike from a side-view.
Another shot which we may or may not use at this point would be one of the girl swirling in a country location with leaves falling around her. We may edit this shot in slow motion if we decide to use it.
We would then have a close up of the girl lip-synching to the lyrics, where a lot of the attention would be focused on her. It is crucial at this point that, during editing, we do a good job so the video looks professional and realistic. A major problem with some videos that affects the marks they achieve is errors during the editing process.
The next scene would use only animation and stop-motion. The lyrics would appear over the screen, maybe with some hand-drawn doodles.
The next shot would be one of the girl walking down a street
Ed Lovelace
Ed Lovelace was previously a student at Long Road sixth form college who studied media studies for two years and gained a media A level. From this he went on to study media studies in Bournemouth University from 2003-2005 which is the only media center of excellence in the U.K. During this time he spent 3 months between the 2nd and 3rd years of uni to work in several different media production companies. Although most of this work was as a 'runner' which includes duties such as making coffee, Ed did not think that this is a good idea because unless you can get somebody to believe in you and see your work you may never get promoted and so may remain as a runner.
From this he has gone on to be the music video director of several music videos as seen below, for the production company 'Pulse Films', doing this in 2001 meant that Ed had very basic Imovie editing software to create his videos. One of the first videos that he produced was Gallows 'Abandon ship'. This only had a budget of £100 yet managed to win an M.T.V.2 award. From gaining this experience meant that Ed then moved on to bigger videos for bigger bands, For example he made the video 'In one ear', by Cage The Elephant which had a £40,000 budget. This gave him better experience. As he had already created one video for Cage the Elephant they had gained awareness of his production style and used him again for videos such as 'Aint no rest for the wicked'. Other music videos he created include 'Cutting pink with knifes' Laser Hannon.
Due to Eds lack of artistic skills he rarely produced a storyboard to show his ideas, instead 90% of his pitch was writing and he tended to use other techniques such as: refference films and stills.
He has also been working on low-medium budget feature films, such as 'Warewolves across america'. To do this Ed had the experience of following them around America and filming them perform in different peoples homes, where they would also slepe to cut costs. This is the start of his moviw career yet has also achieved 12 films from around the world for Myspace relaunch. Overall Ed Lovelace has managed to achieve a great deal since he left Long Road and keeps moving onto bigger and better things
From this he has gone on to be the music video director of several music videos as seen below, for the production company 'Pulse Films', doing this in 2001 meant that Ed had very basic Imovie editing software to create his videos. One of the first videos that he produced was Gallows 'Abandon ship'. This only had a budget of £100 yet managed to win an M.T.V.2 award. From gaining this experience meant that Ed then moved on to bigger videos for bigger bands, For example he made the video 'In one ear', by Cage The Elephant which had a £40,000 budget. This gave him better experience. As he had already created one video for Cage the Elephant they had gained awareness of his production style and used him again for videos such as 'Aint no rest for the wicked'. Other music videos he created include 'Cutting pink with knifes' Laser Hannon.
Due to Eds lack of artistic skills he rarely produced a storyboard to show his ideas, instead 90% of his pitch was writing and he tended to use other techniques such as: refference films and stills.
He has also been working on low-medium budget feature films, such as 'Warewolves across america'. To do this Ed had the experience of following them around America and filming them perform in different peoples homes, where they would also slepe to cut costs. This is the start of his moviw career yet has also achieved 12 films from around the world for Myspace relaunch. Overall Ed Lovelace has managed to achieve a great deal since he left Long Road and keeps moving onto bigger and better things
conflict with ideas
There was some conflict with our groups ideas as ciaran was not so keen on the girly vibe we created by the track and the mis-en-scene. As a result he wanted to chose a different track with a totally different video genre to suite his own style. In the end we decided as group to chose the first idea (au revoir simone) as our final idea as we thought the ideas fitted well with the track and could overall make it a sucessful video.
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
ED LOVELACE - TALK IN THE HALL - WEDNESDAY 7.10.09
Former Long Road Media student Ed Lovelace will be talking about his music videos and career path into the film industry.
Please remember to take notes on the talk and the videos discussed - In the next lesson you will be writing up the talk on your blogs and from YouTube adding the videos he will be showing in his presentation.
The'Ain't No Rest For The Wicked' - Cage The Elephant
'In One Ear' - Cage The Elephant
'Abandon Ship' - Gallows
'Laser Hannon' - Cutting Pink With Knives
Monday, 5 October 2009
story board.
In today's lesson we are starting to storyboard our initial idea.
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Thursday, 1 October 2009
DVD Cover Ideas
This is an experimental technique that we may use on our DVD cover. It is a picture of the actual lead singer of the band, Au Revoir Simone. She looks similar to the girl we are planning to use in our video.We have edited the original image in PhotoShop by using multiple techniques.
Equipment..
Equipment..
- Video Camera
- Tripod
- Dolly
- Strong lighting
- Digital SLR Camera
- Computer for editing
- CD player
- CD with track
Props List.
Props/ Mise-en-scene..
We are keen to make everything in our video as realistic as possible. This list will help the organisation and planning of our video.
We are keen to make everything in our video as realistic as possible. This list will help the organisation and planning of our video.
- Bike with basket
- Vintage dress
- Umbrella?
- Socks for stop-motion
- Lipstick for stop-motion
- Newspaper
- Cup of tea
- Bed
- Party outfits
- Mirror
- Notebook
- Extra characters
- Train
- Stairs
Copyright..
Here are some screen grabs of when we emailed the band, Au Revoir Simone, on Myspace to ask their permission to use their track.
Band Research
Au revoir simone Au Revoir Simone is an electronic indie pop band from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, formed in late 2003. There musical influences include David Bowie and the beeges. They like there music to be known as 'Melody laden Loveliness' and have previously been described by 'Q magazine' as 'innocent, hip and new'. Their music is made mainly using drum machines, keyboards and hand percussion.
They have already had some television recognition or example there song "the lucky one" was in the closing
The band members include :
Erika Forster
Annie Hart
Heather D'Angelo
They already have several albums, such as The Bird of Music, which holds 11 of there singles.
Timeline explained
Our time line has been broken up into 30 second slots and therefore we have a accurate time analysis of our music video. We have had lots of ideas for our time line. Most of them appear to be in the first 30 seconds, therefore we have put all of the ideas in the 30 second gap on the time line. Therefore we aim to film as many of these different ideas as possible and then chose the ones that work the best or the ones that fit in the best with the song. For example we have the idea of the girl getting out of bed and getting ready in her mirror with stop motion wording written across the mirror in lipstick and also the idea of the girl reading a newspaper and having a drink while doodling in her notebook. These scenes all fit in well with the first 30 seconds of the song, we may however alter some of these ideas to fit them further along in the song.
After this start to the time line the rest follows on with the girl walking through the town and doing various things such as entering a party at 2:00 minutes, this fits in with the lyrics of the song. We have aimed to base most of the song around the lyrics. Then to finish the time line goes back to where the girl started where she gets back into bed, therefor the video is a following of the girls day.
Monday, 28 September 2009
Music Video Storyboard Timeline.
During today's lesson we are completing a music video storyboard time line which is a professional practice designed to map out basic timings and ideas. Ours is shown below..
Lyrics.
These are the lyrics for our song. We were looking at these very closely so we can fit our ideas around them and involve them when filming so the finished video seems to be telling a story.
For example, the lines 'Now if I'm standing at a party waiting for the train', we are going to film at the train station in stop motion.
I see you out sometimes by coincidence
Been reading about you, I know where you've been
You don't know how much I liked you and I think of you
So much to tell you, to fill you in
Where you go
Is where I want to be
Wherever you go
Is where I want to be
I wonder if it's right to call you a friend
I remember your eyes, they made me way too late
Now if I'm standing at a party waiting for the train
I know you're out there, can't wait till we meet again
Where you go
Is where I want to be
Wherever you go
Is where I want to be
Where you go
Is where I want to be
Wherever you go
Is where I want you to lead me
To lead me
So much to tell you
I have to find you
It's time I see you
I wish we were alone
And it was late at night
I met you at a party
It was a crowded room
I couldn't hear you talking
You tried to hold my hand
And then you left without me
But don't you know that where you go
Is where I want to be.
For example, the lines 'Now if I'm standing at a party waiting for the train', we are going to film at the train station in stop motion.
I see you out sometimes by coincidence
Been reading about you, I know where you've been
You don't know how much I liked you and I think of you
So much to tell you, to fill you in
Where you go
Is where I want to be
Wherever you go
Is where I want to be
I wonder if it's right to call you a friend
I remember your eyes, they made me way too late
Now if I'm standing at a party waiting for the train
I know you're out there, can't wait till we meet again
Where you go
Is where I want to be
Wherever you go
Is where I want to be
Where you go
Is where I want to be
Wherever you go
Is where I want you to lead me
To lead me
So much to tell you
I have to find you
It's time I see you
I wish we were alone
And it was late at night
I met you at a party
It was a crowded room
I couldn't hear you talking
You tried to hold my hand
And then you left without me
But don't you know that where you go
Is where I want to be.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Mood Boards
Here I Have Found Images I Think Is Relevant For Our Project. We Will Use Some Of These Ideas Within Our Music Video.
