Monday, 14 March 2011
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Evaluation..
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages?
Below is a video of myself talking through the scenes of my music video, explaining the effects I used and how/why I believed them to be effective...
Aside from the explenation in the video above, the programmes used in order to construct my video made it look so much more professional than it would be without them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k0XCGGCXho
Below is another video of myself explaining what my video is essentially about and why I feel it to be an effective music video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F3Nq0nwfU0
And finally, my last video simply consists of the technology I used to create my video and all ancillary tasks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be1EU4j81M8
Aside from the explenation in the video above, the programmes used in order to construct my video made it look so much more professional than it would be without them.
- Progammes I used:
- Photoshop CS3 - Photoshop allowed me to full edit my ancillary tasks. Without the use of photoshop, I would not have been able to complete my tasks to a high standard.
- Final Cut Pro - Without FCP my music video would simply not exist. FCP allowed me to cut, edit and add effects onto my original footage, thus making it more effective. FCP helped me make my project look tidy and professional.
- Toast - Toast was the programme that allowed me to change the video's format into MOV files. Without Toast, it would have made life a lot harder by not being able to easily change the video format.
- Screenflow - Screenflow was only used at the end of my coursework. I used it in order to film the 'construction stages' of my music video. It is responsible for all of the video I posted on the blog (minus my actual video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k0XCGGCXho
Below is another video of myself explaining what my video is essentially about and why I feel it to be an effective music video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F3Nq0nwfU0
And finally, my last video simply consists of the technology I used to create my video and all ancillary tasks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be1EU4j81M8
Evaluation..
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
After completing my music video and my ancillary tasks, it was time to get it reviewed and examined by separate audiences.
The first audience were my class mates, as they obviously in my class and they share similar music taste and are all roughly the same age as me.
In order to carry out the results, I had to create a questionnaire which I had done previously on my blog. I printed out several questionnaires and went round the class rooms at the registration time and asked if they could fill them in. Out of the one hundred I printed out, I received eighty-seven back. From these results, I devised a bar chart on their feedback:
After completing my music video and my ancillary tasks, it was time to get it reviewed and examined by separate audiences.
The first audience were my class mates, as they obviously in my class and they share similar music taste and are all roughly the same age as me.
In order to carry out the results, I had to create a questionnaire which I had done previously on my blog. I printed out several questionnaires and went round the class rooms at the registration time and asked if they could fill them in. Out of the one hundred I printed out, I received eighty-seven back. From these results, I devised a bar chart on their feedback:
- The audience feedback from my class mates was most positive, the bar chart below proves this:
- However, different audiences have different results depending on mainly their age. Which brings me onto my next audience, which were a class of 13yr olds. Their results (below) show a much more childish approach to my video, however they enjoyed the ancillary tasks. I believe the problem with the music video was that they don't understand how complex it is to create a music video.
- I handed my last printed questionnaires around the staff room, and from the forty five I handed out, I received forty two, from which the results were mostly positive as you can see below:
You can tell from these results that my music video and my ancillary tasks were was well received. The weakest task was the Special Thanks page, this could possibly because the photograph I used may have been to similar to the ones I had use on my previous tasks.
Seperately, here are my results for my music video.
Seperately, here are my results for my music video.
As you can see from the above graph, my results did not go below 85 on the scoring chart, which I am very happy about.
Friday, 11 March 2011
Evaluation..
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
My main product is an acoustic music video composed by Joshua Radin, I have followed the codes and conventions of similar music videos in order to make this video look as realistic as I possibly could. The genre of my video is acoustic as I have previously stated, therefore the ancillary tasks have to follow the same mellow and relaxing format. The artist's name for my magazine advert is Ernest, I picked the name Ernest simply because I found it to be a very simple, individual name. There are many artists in the world with their band/solo artist name as their own name, an example of this could be James Blunt, or Jack Johnson two very respected acoustic artists.
My first ancillary task was my music magazine advert. I tried to make it look as professional as I could, I researched several magazine adverts, including Green Day's new album premire in NME magazine. I found out the advert needed to be bright, colourful and appealing to my target audience. Therefore I have inserted the artist's name in the centre of the advert, making it easily recognisable to the audience that Ernest is the name of the artist. The background used was actually a photograph I took in Brighton, on the beach. I thought this photograph was perfect for my background, as it was very bright, colourful and entailed an old boat that I thought set the scene of an acoustic artist. I have also included texts such as 'Empire rates this five star' as this is the sort of review you would find on a succesful album, hence the reason why I have used it in my advert.
In comparison to other acousitc artist's adverts, I found mine to be very unique as I could not find any other music advert that had original photography as the background, traditionally, an advert for an ablum would be the album's front cover and possibly some reviews, however I felt that my advert needed to be different in order to attract a wider audience.
My second ancillary task was he front cover of the CD. This was also taken on the beach of Brighton and captures the same essence of my music advert (tranquil, bright and colourful) it features a piece of rusty machinery, and the album is titiled 'Working Progress' which highlights the rusty machinery and the idea that the album is a steady start to something brilliant.
My third ancillary task was the back of the CD, similar to the front cover, the back needed to follow the same codes and conventions of the front cover, to keep it looking professional. The back cover again was taken on Brighton beach, this time of an old boat, that I edited in photoshop, desaturating the colour, flipping the original photo around so it looked more retro. I had to make sure the song titles were easily readable, therefore I had to make the background quite plain, so I merged two colours from the sky together to make a dull white, making the text easy to read.
Finally, my fourth task was the 'Special Thanks' page. This page simply consisted of myself creating names of people who helped film, and create the album. The picture behind it was taken on a beach in Brighton, of two people walking side by side, symbolising the peacefulness of the song, and the album artwork. The white font colouring complimented the blue sky background, making it appealing to the audiences.
My main product is an acoustic music video composed by Joshua Radin, I have followed the codes and conventions of similar music videos in order to make this video look as realistic as I possibly could. The genre of my video is acoustic as I have previously stated, therefore the ancillary tasks have to follow the same mellow and relaxing format. The artist's name for my magazine advert is Ernest, I picked the name Ernest simply because I found it to be a very simple, individual name. There are many artists in the world with their band/solo artist name as their own name, an example of this could be James Blunt, or Jack Johnson two very respected acoustic artists.
My first ancillary task was my music magazine advert. I tried to make it look as professional as I could, I researched several magazine adverts, including Green Day's new album premire in NME magazine. I found out the advert needed to be bright, colourful and appealing to my target audience. Therefore I have inserted the artist's name in the centre of the advert, making it easily recognisable to the audience that Ernest is the name of the artist. The background used was actually a photograph I took in Brighton, on the beach. I thought this photograph was perfect for my background, as it was very bright, colourful and entailed an old boat that I thought set the scene of an acoustic artist. I have also included texts such as 'Empire rates this five star' as this is the sort of review you would find on a succesful album, hence the reason why I have used it in my advert.
In comparison to other acousitc artist's adverts, I found mine to be very unique as I could not find any other music advert that had original photography as the background, traditionally, an advert for an ablum would be the album's front cover and possibly some reviews, however I felt that my advert needed to be different in order to attract a wider audience.
My second ancillary task was he front cover of the CD. This was also taken on the beach of Brighton and captures the same essence of my music advert (tranquil, bright and colourful) it features a piece of rusty machinery, and the album is titiled 'Working Progress' which highlights the rusty machinery and the idea that the album is a steady start to something brilliant.
My third ancillary task was the back of the CD, similar to the front cover, the back needed to follow the same codes and conventions of the front cover, to keep it looking professional. The back cover again was taken on Brighton beach, this time of an old boat, that I edited in photoshop, desaturating the colour, flipping the original photo around so it looked more retro. I had to make sure the song titles were easily readable, therefore I had to make the background quite plain, so I merged two colours from the sky together to make a dull white, making the text easy to read.
Finally, my fourth task was the 'Special Thanks' page. This page simply consisted of myself creating names of people who helped film, and create the album. The picture behind it was taken on a beach in Brighton, of two people walking side by side, symbolising the peacefulness of the song, and the album artwork. The white font colouring complimented the blue sky background, making it appealing to the audiences.
Evaluation..
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My inspiration for creating this music video, came from the simplicity and effectivness of several acoustic artists performing in their own music videos. I had to research several music videos in order to find a song and video that I found appealing and do-able and most of all, entertaining for the audience.
Because I live in Jersey, I am surrounded by various fields and countryside backgrounds, therefore I felt it to be appropriate that I chose a song that was quite mellow and relaxed, as it would make it ideal for filming and there are several good locations to film a relaxed acoustic song. After several weeks of choosing what song to create my music video too, I stumbled across the American Folk/Acousitc solo artist Joshua Radin, who I have been a huge fan of for a very long time. The title of his song 'Brand New Day' immiediatly appealed to me, as I had an idea of what my video was going to consist of before I had even started filming.
I used some of his ideas in order to make my music video seem and look as professional as I possibly could. One of these examples was the constant use of different camera angles, emphasizing the emotion within the song, brought out by the use of different camera angles. I watched the music video for Brand New Day at least thirty times in order to truly capture the esscence of the meaning behind the music video. I found that each shot in his video held a different reason as to why he chose to do that shot, it was to highlight many important ideas, whether it be highlighting a sense of location, expression on a character's face, what as going on in the background, focusing on certain props, close-ups on the guitar and him singing the song itself.
All of these small editing techniques and camera angles added up to create a truly brilliant music video and this was the main reason for me to chose this video, as I found it very appealing with a wide target audience, it was simple yet effective to film, I already had a very good idea of the locations I would be filming in and I enjoyed the actual song, which meant I wouldn't get bored of it, or give up on it half way through the filming process.
I encountered some problems whilst filming this music video, one of which being a friend of mine running over the newly bough tri-pod with a 500lb tractor, this set back one day of filming as the tri-pod got demolished in the process. One of the main problems, apart from the tractor, was the weather. In order for my video to look professional, it had to look as if I had filmed it all on one day, however this is almost impossible to do, therefore I had to film on days where it was not raining, and the weather was suitable to the mood and genre of the music video I originally chose. Luckily I was able to film almost all of my footage within a week where the weather was quite continous, although there was a few weeks where we encountered snow, which really set back the filmiong process.
I feel as though I have followed the traditional codes and conventions of similar media texts, as my research proves this. Looking at several music videos helped me to decidde what genre I would eventually choose to film.
My inspiration for creating this music video, came from the simplicity and effectivness of several acoustic artists performing in their own music videos. I had to research several music videos in order to find a song and video that I found appealing and do-able and most of all, entertaining for the audience.
Because I live in Jersey, I am surrounded by various fields and countryside backgrounds, therefore I felt it to be appropriate that I chose a song that was quite mellow and relaxed, as it would make it ideal for filming and there are several good locations to film a relaxed acoustic song. After several weeks of choosing what song to create my music video too, I stumbled across the American Folk/Acousitc solo artist Joshua Radin, who I have been a huge fan of for a very long time. The title of his song 'Brand New Day' immiediatly appealed to me, as I had an idea of what my video was going to consist of before I had even started filming.
I used some of his ideas in order to make my music video seem and look as professional as I possibly could. One of these examples was the constant use of different camera angles, emphasizing the emotion within the song, brought out by the use of different camera angles. I watched the music video for Brand New Day at least thirty times in order to truly capture the esscence of the meaning behind the music video. I found that each shot in his video held a different reason as to why he chose to do that shot, it was to highlight many important ideas, whether it be highlighting a sense of location, expression on a character's face, what as going on in the background, focusing on certain props, close-ups on the guitar and him singing the song itself.
All of these small editing techniques and camera angles added up to create a truly brilliant music video and this was the main reason for me to chose this video, as I found it very appealing with a wide target audience, it was simple yet effective to film, I already had a very good idea of the locations I would be filming in and I enjoyed the actual song, which meant I wouldn't get bored of it, or give up on it half way through the filming process.
I encountered some problems whilst filming this music video, one of which being a friend of mine running over the newly bough tri-pod with a 500lb tractor, this set back one day of filming as the tri-pod got demolished in the process. One of the main problems, apart from the tractor, was the weather. In order for my video to look professional, it had to look as if I had filmed it all on one day, however this is almost impossible to do, therefore I had to film on days where it was not raining, and the weather was suitable to the mood and genre of the music video I originally chose. Luckily I was able to film almost all of my footage within a week where the weather was quite continous, although there was a few weeks where we encountered snow, which really set back the filmiong process.
I feel as though I have followed the traditional codes and conventions of similar media texts, as my research proves this. Looking at several music videos helped me to decidde what genre I would eventually choose to film.
Final Edits...
I have come to the end of my music video, and I am now editing the lighting, background/contrast of my music video. I am using the programme 'MagicBullet' to do this, as MB allowed me to give the video a more crisp and warm feeling to it.
I feel as though MagicBullet has enabled me to give my video that final professional touch it lacked previously, and now I am confident that my music video is ready to be handed in. The way in whcih I have used MB shows the progression of bad things happening in my music video. As time progresses, the background gets bluer and colder, if you watch closely, it starts of very bright and warm, and ends coldly and depressing.
I feel as though MagicBullet has enabled me to give my video that final professional touch it lacked previously, and now I am confident that my music video is ready to be handed in. The way in whcih I have used MB shows the progression of bad things happening in my music video. As time progresses, the background gets bluer and colder, if you watch closely, it starts of very bright and warm, and ends coldly and depressing.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Change to the beginning..
I had a slight change of plan for the beginning of my video. I basically felt that the beginning of my video needed more of an introduction, therefore I filmed why I had to film in the garden, (because my car broke down) and this was the only reason I would film in such a strange location.
I also felt that I needed a more interesting and amusing start to my video, and by introducing the element of the car breaking down I felt this added a new sense of location to the video.
I also felt that I needed a more interesting and amusing start to my video, and by introducing the element of the car breaking down I felt this added a new sense of location to the video.
Friday, 4 February 2011
Friday, 28 January 2011
Updates..
Tomorrow I am going to the Hospital to re-film the part where I am injured in the kitchen, as I found that filming in a hospital would be more appropriate as the location matches the scene.
For this, I will firstly need to ask permission to film in the hospital, then I will need to find a suitable loaction within the hospital to film. I have crutches to emphasize the severity of my condition and what I essentially plan to do is as follows:
For this, I will firstly need to ask permission to film in the hospital, then I will need to find a suitable loaction within the hospital to film. I have crutches to emphasize the severity of my condition and what I essentially plan to do is as follows:
- Film myself close up, then slowly zooming out to show I am in fact in a hospital
- (Close up of Hospital sign?)
- Myself limping out of the Hospital into a car
- Get driven away
- End up back at my house
- Walk to the garden
- And continue the scene where it left off before I filmed at the hospital
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Friday, 21 January 2011
Finished Tasks..
These are my finished ancillary tasks:
Below is my finished CD cover. My aim for this cover was to keep it as simple as possible, as the song is quite mellow and calm. I used Photoshop CS4 to edit this photo that I took in Brighton, I hightened the stauration and editited out a boat that was previously there so it looked as if it was very tranquil and away from society.
I tried to follow the codes and conventions of popular CD covers by entailing the artist's name and the album title. The piece of machinerey in the middle of the picture emphasizes how the album name 'Working Progress' is relevant to the picture. I felt this to be necessary as I wanted a relationship between the title and the picture, as opposed to a pointless title.
My back cover for my CD follows the traditional values of the front cover, in that the beach scenery is still featured. I felt I should keep the style of calm and somewhat 'individual' theme continuing throughout the CD. The back cover features a similar style to the front, taken at the same location and using similar effects. I made sure that the back cover had a vast amount of white space so that the black text would stand out.
For my actual CD I studied many CD's cds' and found out many popular CD's use their main image as their CD image, possibly because it is easy to establish what CD it is from. I slightly edited the CD so that the album name was centered as opposed to be allinged to the right, as if it was, it may have been cut off in the process.
My special thanks page is the last of my CD ancillary tasks, it is featured in the inner pages of my CD case. It simply contains the thankyous to the people that helped make the CD. Obviously all of the names and comments on this page are fake, I simply wanted the thankyous section to look as if it had been proffesionallu made, and because I filmed and designed of of my content, I could not mention my name in the thankyous.
The final part of my ancillary tasks was my magazine advert. I thought this advert was produced and designed to the best of my ability, as the picture used in it resembles the scenery of my previous photos, I believed that I should continue the tranquil/acoustic style of my music video so that it is reflected on my advert poster. I hope I have achieved this as I edited the photograph that I have used to make it seem professional and appealing to my target audience.Thursday, 20 January 2011
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Making The Thank Yous..
These are all of the files that I have used in my project. All of these files were PDF files and then I turned them into JPG files so that they can be viewed in the right pixelation after completion.
The screen shot below is a screen shot of my uncompleted 'Special Thanks' part of my CD. It entails the thank yous and mentionings of the people that helped create and devise my music video and design the CD. To make this section look and seem as professional as I could, I wrote of all the thank yous and tried to make them sound as cheesy and realistic as possible. I did some research into the thank yous on certain CD's and found that the majority of them name literally all of the people that helped with the production, even the people that made the coffee.
The background was a picture taken by myself and simply edited in photoshop.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Yet another change in plan..
For the final scene for my video, instead of filming in a kitchen, I have decided to film myself on a gurney being fixed up, and bandaged, back ready so I can run back into my garden.
Friday, 7 January 2011
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Editing My Ancillary Tasks (CD)
I began editing my CD project at the start of November 2010 with the idea of my music video already in mind, I thought I would start designing my CD. I new the CD had to resemble the song of my choice, therefore the genre of the song would tie in with the design of the CD, which was quite relaxed, happy and brightly coloured. Therefore the photograph of an old boat positioned on Brighton Beach was perfect.
I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to design my CD project.
PRINT SCREEN HERE
With tools such as ...... and ......... It helped me to brighten, darken or basically re shape the colour of the photograph to suit my needs. Finding a suitable font was quite simple, I needed a font that stood out and brought life to the image, but I also needed something quite mellow and smooth. The font I eventually chose I think brgins out both of these attributes, and I am satisfied with the result.
Hue and saturation were in need of editing in my photograph, I needed the sky to really stand out, therefore I raised the saturation and the vibrancy to around 90% to maximise the brightness levels to make the image look outstanding.
The back of the CD cover followed the same process as the front cover, as well as the inner parts of the CD as Photoshop was the most appropriate programme to use.
Finishing The Ancillary Tasks..
Previously in the year I did some research into similar media texts regarding the use and design on the strucuture of CD cases and what makes them effective. Over the past couple of months I have been designing my own CD case consising of the front cover, the back cover, the inside of the CD and the CD itself. Because of the genre and name of my song, I felt it to be appropriate that I made the front cover of my CD very bright and eye catching, as it would stand out from the other CDs. I have used a photograph that I took of a rusty piece of machinery in Brighton and editited on the programme Adobe Photoshop CS4 to make it have a better impact on the audience and to simply add more or less colour or edit out any people or buildings I did not want in the shot.
The back of the CD cover is also taken in Brighton and is a picture of an old boat. I felt that this was similar to the front cover as both are on the same beach and both share an artistic flare which makes them both attractive to an audience.
The CD itself consists of the same image as the front cover, just enlarged so that the sky is clearly visible with the album name written across the top.
The inside..
The back of the CD cover is also taken in Brighton and is a picture of an old boat. I felt that this was similar to the front cover as both are on the same beach and both share an artistic flare which makes them both attractive to an audience.
The CD itself consists of the same image as the front cover, just enlarged so that the sky is clearly visible with the album name written across the top.
The inside..
Some Slight Adjustments..
I have come to finish my project now, however I have found that there are a few lighting issues that I needed to sort out.
Because I filmed on seperate days the weather and lighting have changed in certain shots, so to make my music video look realistic and professional I will need to adjust the lighting so that it looks like it was filmed on the same day.
To do this, I have simply put the footage I want changed into the programme AfterEffects and editing the hue, saturation and brightness of the clip and then copy and pasted it back into Final Cut Pro.
By doing this, my music video now looks cleaner and flows smoother than it did before.
Because I filmed on seperate days the weather and lighting have changed in certain shots, so to make my music video look realistic and professional I will need to adjust the lighting so that it looks like it was filmed on the same day.
To do this, I have simply put the footage I want changed into the programme AfterEffects and editing the hue, saturation and brightness of the clip and then copy and pasted it back into Final Cut Pro.
By doing this, my music video now looks cleaner and flows smoother than it did before.
Back To Work..
Now that I have returned from my Christmas Fetivities I need to finish my blogging. I have almost finished my music video, there is only editing left to do, I have all the nessescary shots and footage I need for the completion of my project.
I plan to strart my evaluation as soon as I finish my last pieces of editing on my video.
I plan to strart my evaluation as soon as I finish my last pieces of editing on my video.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
More Editing
I have come to almost complete my entire project now, however there are still a few touch ups that need to be added.
Such as the tractor scene, I found there was too much of a delay when the tractor comes back around, so I have changed the idea and video so that as the tractor drives past there is more focus on my facial expression and more focus on different camera angles of the tractor. For example a close up on the wheels and the drivers facial expression, a trailer with a tree in it may even be added to add comical effect.
I simply felt the shot was too boring and tedious, hence the reason for change.
Such as the tractor scene, I found there was too much of a delay when the tractor comes back around, so I have changed the idea and video so that as the tractor drives past there is more focus on my facial expression and more focus on different camera angles of the tractor. For example a close up on the wheels and the drivers facial expression, a trailer with a tree in it may even be added to add comical effect.
I simply felt the shot was too boring and tedious, hence the reason for change.
Preview Of My CD Front And Back Covers
Below are the previews of the front of my cd cover and the back of my cd cover. What I hoped to create in these covers was a sense of peacfulness and tranquility. Because the song is rather melow and all acoustic, I felt that a bright and joyful front cover was needed in order to compliment the song. The photograph I have taken was taken in Brighton on the Brighton Pier and the image I captured was a rusted piece of machinery. I felt this to be a good front cover as the album is called '..Working Progress' and the fact that the image I have used is rusted machinery means I am trying to fix it, however it is taking progress.
The song title also appeals to the front cover as it is entitled 'Brand New Day' and the front cover shows a sunny day with a clear blue sky, emphasizing the happines of the album.
The back of the cd cover is similar to the front as I felt that if I made the back cover very different to the front cover, it would not have the feeling of continuity and would not suit the song choice. The back cover consists of a photograph again taken in Brighton of an old boat on the beach. I felt this was a good choice for the back cover as it is subtle, calm again and beautiful to look at. The text is easily seen on the white/orange background as is the copyright details.
I had to edit this photograph to make it look more attractive and suitable for my CD cover.
This is the transformation
The song title also appeals to the front cover as it is entitled 'Brand New Day' and the front cover shows a sunny day with a clear blue sky, emphasizing the happines of the album.
The back of the cd cover is similar to the front as I felt that if I made the back cover very different to the front cover, it would not have the feeling of continuity and would not suit the song choice. The back cover consists of a photograph again taken in Brighton of an old boat on the beach. I felt this was a good choice for the back cover as it is subtle, calm again and beautiful to look at. The text is easily seen on the white/orange background as is the copyright details.
I had to edit this photograph to make it look more attractive and suitable for my CD cover.
This is the transformation
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