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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

story board.

In today's lesson we are starting to storyboard our initial idea.

Page 1:





Page 2:




Page 3:





Page 4:

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.

Postcard.

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.

• 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
  

Our Group

This Is Our Group Photo, Our Team (:

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.

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.