Evaluation; Question Four

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

In this technological age, using new media technologies is vital when constructing, researching, planning and evaluating media products.
When constructing my own product I used a range of different technologies in order to research, plan, construct and evaluate my A2 Promo Video Coursework.

Research

Before constructing or even planning to make a music video; there was a considerable amount of research that needed to be done.
Firstly I researched some of my personal, favourite music videos on Youtube to get an idea of what elements go into a music video. Once I had an idea of what to include into a music video, the next step was to find and receive permission from an unsigned artist.

To do this I used Unsigned.com; which is a website dedicated to showcasing talented unsigned artists. On Unsigned.com is where I found Charly Houston.

I listened to the song on her profile page (caption above), instantly I really liked her easy listening style. To find out more about Charly, I looked on her Youtube channel, that is where I found her song 'Paper People.'

(Below: Charly's Youtube Page)

I then emailed Charly asking for her permission to use her song 'Paper People' for my Music Video coursework.

Once I received permission, I then researched further into my chosen artist to get a better insight into her music and to get an idea of what to include in the video.
I looked on her Soundcloud, Myspace and Facebook pages.

Audience Research

For my audience research, I created a survey using Survey Monkey, the website is highly accessible and user friendly; this made the creation of the survey very quick and easy to create.

Once all results were collected, I used the 'Analysis' feature on Survey Monkey, to further breakdown the results.
I then presented the data collected on Survey Monkey using Padlet.com. I embedded my 'wall' onto my blog, the 'wall' itself is interactive and allows you to be creative in how you use the feature.
(Below: my wall; which is featured on my blog)

Planning

When planning the music video I used google docs, which I downloaded from our media department's blog. I used google docs for the Risk Assessment and the Contingency Plan.

The treatment was uploaded to slideshare; which I then embedded in my blog.

The animatic was made using Windows Movie Maker, which is a basic editing program.
The rest of the planning were published as blog posts on my blog page.

Construction

When filming our video, I used a Canon HV20 camera, which records in High Definition.

(Picture below of filming in Hainault)

To edit the footage we used Final Cut Express. Final Cut Express is a professional editing software which allows you to edit many different medias.

I used Adobe Photoshop to make the magazine advert and the digipak. Photoshop has many sophisticated tools to enable you to create professional looking images. Once I got used to the program, it was very easy to use.

(Below: editing an image for he digipak)

Evaluation

For my first and second evaluation questions I used Slideshare which is a website that allows you to search and upload PowerPoint presentations, videos and word documents. Slideshare is very easy and straight forward to use, and is very popular.

I used Prezi for my third evaluation, I included screen grabs from Survey Monkey.

And for my forth evaluation question, and final blog post which you are reading now, I used Blogger.com - a website that I have blogged about the whole coursework process. Blogger is a diverse blog website that covers a range of topics; you can search, read and follow certain blogs as you wish and it's free. 

Evaluation; Question Three

Evaluation; Question Two

Evaluation; Question One

Review of Music Video

Evaluation
The dark colours and empty location are all conventions of the acoustic genre, as well as the use of instruments and lip syncing are typical conventions of most music videos.

The slow paced editing matches the slow pace of the song and adds to the sombre mood of the video. The dissolves are effective as they help to transition the video from one scene/location to the next. Generally, the video transitions help to bring out the mood of the song hence making the meaning of the video apparent to the viewer. 

In the video there is only one character: a young female. In the video the actor can appear fragile and vulnerable in some parts ( such as the forest scenes); but in the guitar and dance shots she seems strong and dominant. I wouldn't say that there is use of stereotypes in the video as the video is not about a statement on society or political views.    

I would imagine if the video was to be played on any music channels it would probably be on 4Music and Smash Hits! as they are music channels targeted at the younger viewers aged between 14- 24 years old; and perhaps MTV Rocks as they show alternative and acoustic music videos as well as rock videos. Due to the content of the video, I would say that the video would be able to be shown during the day as there is no offencive content.

Finished Music Promo Video

Here is the finished music promo video for 'Paper People'

Video Narrative: The narrative of the video is that the protagonist is looking for clarity on a present event, the protagonist has to over come self-conflict and doubt to find the answer which she is searching for.

The Finished Digipak

This is our finished digipak, which I edited using Photoshop.

After much debate, we changed the front cover of the digipak because the original photo was blurred and pixeluated. I think that the new front cover reflects the genre more and it is more stronger visually. It also looks like a real front cover of a CD/Digipak which is an added bonus. 

The Magazine Advert

Here is our finished advert; which I edited using Adobe Photoshop

Magazine Advert:The Design

Over the weekend I designed the poster for the music video.
Posters and digipaks are important as they help to promote the artist as well as reflect the genre and tone of the single/album. We're sticking to a black and white/saturated theme to reflect the sombre mood of the song. 

Before coming up with any ideas I looked at Charly's own album art work.
The letters of her name and single are in capitals, bold and she too uses black and white. 
I liked the boldness and wanted to keep with that idea.

So for our own poster we are going to have a photo of Ellie and big bold letters 'Paper People' to really grap the attention of the viewer/reader for the magazine advert.

New Storyboard

Because Ellie and I have changed our orginal idea so much, we've created another storyboard and animatic to illustrate our new ideas and what our msuci video will look like when it is complete.

Storyboard:

Updated Shot List

This is an updated version of our music video shot list.

Shot List

Scene 1 First Verse
Shots: Mixed shots of black and white piano shots, lip syncing and dance
Description: The piano shots are close-up shots focusing on the hands pressing down on the chords. The lipsyncing shots are midshots of the protagonist looking and singing into the mirror in the dance studio, the camera is positioned just behind the actor in order to capture the reflection on the mirror. The dance shots are mostly long shots of turns and other dance moves.

Scene 2
Shots: Hainault Forest and guitar shots
Description: Shots of Ellie walking through Hainault dissolving to shot of her sitting on a stool playing a guitar and singing 

Scene 3
Shots: Guitar and dance shots
Description: Shots of Ellie playing guitar and singing; and dance studio shots

Scene 4 Chorus
Shots: Black and white singing shots
Description:Close-up, black and white shots of Ellie singing the chorus against a white wall

Scene 5 Second Verse/ Hainault
Shots: Hainault Forest
Description: Shots taken in Hainault Forest of the protagonist walking through the trees, singing and an extreme close-up shot focusing on the actor's eyes.

Scene 6 Second verse
Shots: Guitar, Hainault and dance shots
Description: Mid-shots of guitar playing and singing; mid-shots of Ellie singing in Hainault and shots of the Hainault area; and dance studio shots

Scene 7 Pre-chorus and Chorus
Shots: Lipsyncing and dancing
Description: Mixed shots of singing (against a blank background, looking out of a window and guitar) and varied dance shots

Scene 8 Last Chorus/Ending
Shots: Mixed shots of singing and dance
Description: Mixed of lipsyncing shots from: Hainault, against a blank background and playing a guitar. Last shots are of Ellie dancing and lyric writing.

Editing 19/03/13

19/03/13

Today we finished off completing the corrections/feedback that our media teachers gave us and we have produced another draft of the video.
Next week we will show our media teacher, Mr Johnson, our video the cohopefully we have made all corrections needed.

Editing 18/03/13

18/03/13

Following up on what our teacher said; we got straight to working on those corrections.
We put another clip of Ellie, walking through Hainault, at the start of the video to establish that she is in the forest, and that the persona is looking back on a memory.

We also changed some of our guitar clips at the start of the video to show a variety of shots. 

Review of First Cut

Today on of our media teachers watched our first cut of the music video.
We got mostly good feedback; with the exception of  two corrections that need to be made.

The corrections were: to introduce the Hainault footage earlier on in the video and to change some of our clips.

First Cut of Video

Here's our first draft of the music video:



On Monday our video is going to be reviewed by a member of staff, and we will should hopefully be given back positive feedback.

Editing 14/03/13

14/03/13

Today I finished adding in the video transitions to make the video look better and more fluid. 

I also made some of the clips black and white; so that the black and white scenes reoccur throughout the video, this was one of the suggestions we were given by our media teacher(s). I made the shots of Ellie singing against a white wall black and white as they were the only shots that looked good desaturated as well as they occur more evenly through the video so it made sense to make them clips black and white.

Editing 13/03/13

13/03/13

After filming today, we went to the media rooms and edited the footage that we captured today.
We did take bits out of the video such as the notepad writing, the cards, the heart being drawn and any other shots that we felt that it wasn't needed and didn't fit in. We spaced out the dance clips as much as we could and filled up gaps with the footage that we took today.
Finally there are no more gaps!

We started to add in the video transitions, such as cross dissolves and fades to keep within the style and music genre, this helped to make the video more fluid and made it look much more professional.

Tomorrow we will look through the video and see if any more video transitions need to be made, then hopefully we can publish a first draft!
Next week one of media teachers said that she is going to look at our video and give us feedback, and any pointers on how to improve our video.

Filming 13/03/13

Today we filmed some extra footage for our music video in one of the Drama classes,
We also used a guitar from the Music Department for the scenes today.

An advantage when filming today in one of the drama classes is that there was a plain black back-drop, many props to choose from and we could play around with the lighting; which helped to draw the audience's attention to the actor/singer.
We also used different coloured lights, like red, which helped to add warmth to the scene.

When filming, Ellie sat on a stool and pretended that she was playing the acoustic guitar. We also shot footage of Ellie 'playing' and singing which looked quite good when watching the footage.

We did many takes and tried many different angles and positions so that we had enough footage when it comes to editing.
Overall I was very pleased of how the shots turned out and I feel that we got all the shots that we needed.

Extra Filming

Below is information of the extra dates we are filming and what we will be filming.

Date: 13/02/13
Scene(s): Playing guitar and some lip syncing
Location: Drama Department at Robert Clack Upper School
Equipment: Camera, tripod
Costume: Black leggings, black high-top trainers, cream, sequined jumper and stud earrings
Hair and Make-up: Hair straightened, make-up natural
Props: Guitar

Editing 11/03/12

11/03/13

Today I started to play around with the video transition effects to see what would fit in with out music video and style of music.
At the start of the video, when the shots are switching from singing, dance and piano I added some cross dissolve transitions which really helped to bring the video to life and capture the sombre tone we are looking to create.

Our media teachers watched our music video today and gave us some really good feedback on how to make the video better. They said that the dance and Hainault clips need to be spread throughout the video to make it more even and so that the clips tie-in well.

Our teachers said that the black and white shots of the piano bits were good and it was a shame that they weren't continued throughout. A suggestion that was made is that we could film some more piano bits and add guitar scenes, making it seem like Ellie is playing the instruments. This also would tie-in well with our music genre and give the video something a little more special.

Taking these suggestions on board, Ellie and I agreed to film some piano and guitar shots as well as re-film the notepad clips.
This does seem quite time-consuming, especially so late in the coursework process, but I think that the music video will benefit a lot from this and it shouldn't take so long to edit as the video is almost complete and we've become more accustomed with the editing program.

Editing 04/03/13 - 05/03/13

04/03/12 - 05/03/12

Through these past two days Ellie and I have looked over all the footage we have recorded so far and we've almost filled in the gaps in our music video, with the exception of one last gap.
We've edited in more of the dance footage towards the end of the video, and managed to fill in the first and second verse of the video which we were having difficulty with.

Looking over the notepad footage Ellie noticed that some of the lyrics were wrong, so later next week we are going to re-record that part.
Next week we also need to start adding transitions between the clips to make the video visually interesting and to make the video more fluid.

Next lesson our media teacher is going to watch what we've done so far; and hopefully give us feedback on how to improve the video.