Saturday, 25 December 2010
Friday, 24 December 2010
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Evaluation Task One: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Music Video Still Shots:
1) This is a medium-shot, which pans across some flowers with sparklers amongst them. I think this shot is really effective as it allows the audience to see more of the image rather than a simple still shot. This creates a prolonged attentiveness, which is connected to the idea of a dream.
2) Demonstrates lip-syncing in perfect time with the music, which makes the video look very professional and skilled in terms of the editing/ ambi editing skills.
3) Here is a Close Up Shot of the main subject. This is an example of the Indie-Genre as the make up and backdrop are unique and based around individuality. This is again connected with how the audience recognises our artist as alternative.
4) This is like a photographic shot as there is no movement. This shot shows the dream theme, as the mise-en-scene is unusual. We incorporated this shot to show the skill of ambi-editing that we have developed during this process.
5) This shot demonstrates the lighting used in our music video. There were police cars on the road, and I saw the effect it had though the stain glass window, I thought it fitted perfectly with our dreamlike idea so I filmed it. I really like this shot because it is very atmospheric.
6) This shot is a close up of a couple of objects in a bedroom, which are very colourful, which matches the vibrancy of previous scenes in our music video.
7) This is an Extreme Close-Up of the subjects’ lips. This is an inspired idea from the ‘Rocky horror Picture Show’ and to the make up used in the music video ‘You Came Out’ by We Have Band, an alternative band. This further reinforces the music video, as it is an unconventional method of approach to conveying lyrics.
8) This is a shot of a flaming bat, which follows the enchanting theme of the music video. Also it is a connecting symbol of the bands logo and name- Bat for Lashes.
9) This is close-up shot of a chandelier that is in the same bedroom as all the other unusual, colourful objects in the previous and following shots in the music video. This shot shows how the colourful and unusual objects we chose to include in our music video creates a mystical atmosphere.
Real Music Video Still Shots
1) This is a medium shot of Rihanna. There are lots of bright colours, which convey the songs pop genre. The colours and flowers are pretty which also shows Rihanna’s girly style, which is similar to some of the shots that we used in our music video.
2) This is a long shot of Lady Gaga and Beyonce dancing in their video ‘Telephone’. Both women are wearing very skimpy clothes, which suggest that the record company is using body image as a selling point.
3) This shot highlights intertextuality due to Gwen Stefani and the mise-en-scene representing an Alice in Wonderland setting. The strangeness of this conveys the electro-pop genre.
4) The colours and the symmetry of this shot show that the music is quite serious. The colourlessness and the symmetry creates a weird atmosphere which correlates with the music as it is quite alternative.
5) This shot of Taio Cruz in front of half naked women convey the RnB influenced pop genre and connotate the promise of sex. This shot shows just what we didn’t want to include which is women being used as sexual objects to sell the music/product.
6) This shot is quite similar to a shot we have in our music video of sparklers next to some flowers. This shot is visually beautiful, with the colours and the way its been lit. This portrays the artist’s femininity, and personal style.
7) This is a medium close up of Lady Gaga; this shot shows the artist’s alternative pop genre. The shot shows the artists creativity as it shows her wearing cigarette sunglasses. This again shows the artists distinctiveness, which I believe we have done for our music video with the different mise-en-scene within it.
8) This demonstrates great lighting skills as it lights all subjects well but with some shadowing which creates a supernatural and moody atmosphere. This is eerie effect is established throughout the video using lighting.
9) This shot is lit very well as it creates an unnaturally beautiful scene. This shot has a similar atmosphere to shots in our music video as it quite magical and dreamlike. The mise-en-scene is very interesting and stunning to look at, which makes the video more attractive to watch.
1) This is a medium-shot, which pans across some flowers with sparklers amongst them. I think this shot is really effective as it allows the audience to see more of the image rather than a simple still shot. This creates a prolonged attentiveness, which is connected to the idea of a dream.
2) Demonstrates lip-syncing in perfect time with the music, which makes the video look very professional and skilled in terms of the editing/ ambi editing skills.
3) Here is a Close Up Shot of the main subject. This is an example of the Indie-Genre as the make up and backdrop are unique and based around individuality. This is again connected with how the audience recognises our artist as alternative.
4) This is like a photographic shot as there is no movement. This shot shows the dream theme, as the mise-en-scene is unusual. We incorporated this shot to show the skill of ambi-editing that we have developed during this process.
5) This shot demonstrates the lighting used in our music video. There were police cars on the road, and I saw the effect it had though the stain glass window, I thought it fitted perfectly with our dreamlike idea so I filmed it. I really like this shot because it is very atmospheric.
6) This shot is a close up of a couple of objects in a bedroom, which are very colourful, which matches the vibrancy of previous scenes in our music video.
7) This is an Extreme Close-Up of the subjects’ lips. This is an inspired idea from the ‘Rocky horror Picture Show’ and to the make up used in the music video ‘You Came Out’ by We Have Band, an alternative band. This further reinforces the music video, as it is an unconventional method of approach to conveying lyrics.
8) This is a shot of a flaming bat, which follows the enchanting theme of the music video. Also it is a connecting symbol of the bands logo and name- Bat for Lashes.
9) This is close-up shot of a chandelier that is in the same bedroom as all the other unusual, colourful objects in the previous and following shots in the music video. This shot shows how the colourful and unusual objects we chose to include in our music video creates a mystical atmosphere.
Real Music Video Still Shots
1) This is a medium shot of Rihanna. There are lots of bright colours, which convey the songs pop genre. The colours and flowers are pretty which also shows Rihanna’s girly style, which is similar to some of the shots that we used in our music video.
2) This is a long shot of Lady Gaga and Beyonce dancing in their video ‘Telephone’. Both women are wearing very skimpy clothes, which suggest that the record company is using body image as a selling point.
3) This shot highlights intertextuality due to Gwen Stefani and the mise-en-scene representing an Alice in Wonderland setting. The strangeness of this conveys the electro-pop genre.
4) The colours and the symmetry of this shot show that the music is quite serious. The colourlessness and the symmetry creates a weird atmosphere which correlates with the music as it is quite alternative.
5) This shot of Taio Cruz in front of half naked women convey the RnB influenced pop genre and connotate the promise of sex. This shot shows just what we didn’t want to include which is women being used as sexual objects to sell the music/product.
6) This shot is quite similar to a shot we have in our music video of sparklers next to some flowers. This shot is visually beautiful, with the colours and the way its been lit. This portrays the artist’s femininity, and personal style.
7) This is a medium close up of Lady Gaga; this shot shows the artist’s alternative pop genre. The shot shows the artists creativity as it shows her wearing cigarette sunglasses. This again shows the artists distinctiveness, which I believe we have done for our music video with the different mise-en-scene within it.
8) This demonstrates great lighting skills as it lights all subjects well but with some shadowing which creates a supernatural and moody atmosphere. This is eerie effect is established throughout the video using lighting.
9) This shot is lit very well as it creates an unnaturally beautiful scene. This shot has a similar atmosphere to shots in our music video as it quite magical and dreamlike. The mise-en-scene is very interesting and stunning to look at, which makes the video more attractive to watch.
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Evaluation Question Two; How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Video and Digipak Images
The first two images are from the digipak and the other two are from the music video. The first image links to the image below it from the video as they both include focus on the eyes. The still shot from the music video shows the whole face, but we tried to draw focus on the eyes by using large false eyelashes. The first image also links to the image next to it, which is also from the digipak; they match through the colour theme and the intensity of the colour in the eye. We decided to focus on the eye/eyelashes due to our band name ‘Bat for Lashes’.
We decided to focus on facial features to demonstrate that attractiveness does not need to be judged on body image. We wanted to sustain continuity with our products that is why we chose to focus on a few things such as eyes, lips and hair.
We decided to have a running colour theme on the digipak to reinforce continuity, we chose the red colour as we were inspired by a shot from our music video where I am surrounded by fairy lights and candles. We decided to do this as we wanted all our products to have a similar theme so that our target market is able to recognise products that were ours.
Evaluation q2
Evaluation q2 Images
Here are some images taken from the music video and digipak. The colours used are bright and similar throughout; we decided to do this to establish continuity. We wanted the audience to feel an intimate connection, which is why we chose to have close ups of artist’s mouth singing, which also shows off the tongue piercing. Due to the tongue piercing being established in the music video, when the viewer sees the image where the tongue is again exposed on the digipak they will know that the two products are linked.
As you can see they all focus on the mouth and tongue, and show off the subjects piercings. The first image shows the subjects facial expression that portrays an air of cheekiness and the piercing relates to the indie/ alternative genre. This is because piercings aren’t seen often in mainstream music and are less socially acceptable making it relevant to our chosen niche market of individual/alternative music.
The first two images are from the digipak and the other two are from the music video. The first image links to the image below it from the video as they both include focus on the eyes. The still shot from the music video shows the whole face, but we tried to draw focus on the eyes by using large false eyelashes. The first image also links to the image next to it, which is also from the digipak; they match through the colour theme and the intensity of the colour in the eye. We decided to focus on the eye/eyelashes due to our band name ‘Bat for Lashes’.
We decided to focus on facial features to demonstrate that attractiveness does not need to be judged on body image. We wanted to sustain continuity with our products that is why we chose to focus on a few things such as eyes, lips and hair.
We decided to have a running colour theme on the digipak to reinforce continuity, we chose the red colour as we were inspired by a shot from our music video where I am surrounded by fairy lights and candles. We decided to do this as we wanted all our products to have a similar theme so that our target market is able to recognise products that were ours.
Evaluation q2
Evaluation q2 Images
Here are some images taken from the music video and digipak. The colours used are bright and similar throughout; we decided to do this to establish continuity. We wanted the audience to feel an intimate connection, which is why we chose to have close ups of artist’s mouth singing, which also shows off the tongue piercing. Due to the tongue piercing being established in the music video, when the viewer sees the image where the tongue is again exposed on the digipak they will know that the two products are linked.
As you can see they all focus on the mouth and tongue, and show off the subjects piercings. The first image shows the subjects facial expression that portrays an air of cheekiness and the piercing relates to the indie/ alternative genre. This is because piercings aren’t seen often in mainstream music and are less socially acceptable making it relevant to our chosen niche market of individual/alternative music.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Evaluation Question Three: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I received and noted down feedback from people within my target audience about our rough cut, also during a few of our lessons we all watched each others music videos and gave each other feedback, with this I then created the above word cloud. I used a word cloud as I thought it was an interesting and effective way of formatting my feedback. The first cloud consists of a lot of constructive criticism, with words like ‘change shots’ and ‘change cuts’. This prompted Cleo and I to analyse and reflect upon our rough cut to discuss what changes we could make to our music video to improve it. Without this feedback, the music video may not have made such substantial progress and be as effective as it has turned out.
Through this feedback we reflected and realised that we needed to change some shots, including some from the beginning of the music video where there was some erratic shots of the subject that didn’t make sense. In order to improve this, we changed the footage to images that were a lot visually and technically stronger in creating our music video.
Some people within our target audience said that some of the footage was too dark. So to improve this, we changed the lighting in the video in order to brighten it up making the subject clear to see. This worked very well and added to the overall look of the music video.
The second word cloud I made is full of positive comments from people within our target audience about the final master of our music video. After Cleo and I used the constructive criticisms and feedback about our rough cut and made the all the required changes, the feedback received for the final product were very positive.
To prevent any of the dark shadows being as prominent, we chose to use bold colours and lighting. Comments which were common were about how well lip-synced our footage was edited. Cleo and I were both really proud of this because this was an aspect that we found a bit challenging and at times quite tedious. So receiving such positive feedback about it was very reassuring and great to hear.
Our audience also really liked the bat motif and the fact that this particular shot closed the video with a fade out; they thought it was visually really strong as well as being appropriate to the band and genre. The most essential comments were about the genre of the band. People from our target audience said that they believed we had achieved an ‘alternative’ ‘indie’ and ‘unique’ music video through our footage, effects and use of ‘exquisite’ colour and objects like the dinosaurs, dolls, lips and fire.
On the whole, we received many more positive comments about the final master than the rough cut; this was good because the initial ‘negative’ comments are what helped us develop our music video. The final master is what was most important to get positive feedback for, and the fact that it did and it received a lot of positive comments, showed just how important the initial comments about the rough cut were in developing our music video so it reached a much higher standard. So getting feedback at the different stages of our music video process was really useful and helpful to us.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Evaluation Question Four: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
Logos
Here is a mood-board I made of showing some examples of the new media technologies we used in the construction, planning, research and evaluation stages of the music video. New Media Technologies have influenced our project in a variety of ways, and had they not been so advanced, Cleo and I wouldn’t have been able to create the music video we wanted and made.
Cleo and I were a bit rusty with using Final Cut as it was a while since we last used it for our AS project. When we first opened Final Cut Pro, it seemed we were bombarded with lots of unfamiliar of drop down boxes, applications, toolbars and buttons, which was a bit intimidating. So firstly we had to get to grips with the program, and we had a lesson where we went over the basics of using the program, which we both found very useful. We also found some Final Cut tutorials on YouTube, which provided us with a better understanding of how to use the software.
Here is an example of a really helpful tutorial program that we used:
After playing around with the software to get used to it and its different features, we eventually began to understand how it worked and we became more confident using it. Final Cut Pro was the base for creating our music video; we used it to edit the footage together, add effects and link the music to the video, focusing on lip-synching and ambi-editing. Without Final Cut Pro I don’t think we would have been able to achieve what we wanted for our music video. I think that Final Cut Pro is an excellent piece of software, which enabled us to be as creative as we wanted and produce a high standard visual product with a low very low budget. The fact that many large budget movies have used this program also show how advanced it is and a lot can be achieved from it.
At college we used Mac’s in class, prior to the making of the music video I had used Mac’s in my own time as my family computer is a Mac, but I have never used it for anything complex like making a music video. Using the Mac’s meant we were able to use Final Cut Express which was really good as without this we would not have been able to include any special effects at all. This would have meant that the shots of the subjects lips- the main focus of our music video would not have been so flamboyant and neither would the shots of me with the candles around my head, as we changed the lighting and contrasts in these shots to make them more stunning.
The idea of us not being able to have these shots makes me believe that we would have made an unsuccessful music video, which would look unattractive, and unprofessional.
When our music video was finished using Final Cut Express with the Mac’s. The next step was our promotion for the product and the band, which without the Internet I don’t think we would have been able to do so well. This is because we would not have been able to present our music video on different social networking sites such as Facebook, of which I personally have a page. So when Cleo and I put up our music video on the site we both encouraged friends and family to watch it and leave comments, so without technological advances, we would not have been able to do this.
Additionally, Cleo and I would not have been able to upload our video onto Vimeo or YouTube without these advances, and any other methods of exhibition would have been very pricey. Also without HD cameras we would not have been able to have the crisp appearing footage because we would be using the standard DV cameras meaning our video would not be of the high quality it is. Below is an image of HD vs. SD and as you can see, the difference is very clear, and had we used SD in our music video, it would have caused considerably negative results.
This is a screen shot of our music video on YouTube, which proves how important the Internet was for us, as without it we wouldn’t have been able to receive over two hundred views or any feedback.
Here is a screen shot of my blog, which is where all of my work is available to see:
The blog holds all of my work on it, from the initial analysis of music videos to the final master, and without the Internet and Internet based programs such as YouTube and Scribd; this would not have been possible. All in all, I have learnt that we have been very lucky to have such advances in New Media Technologies available to us. I take for granted the use of the Internet every day, but through this project I have realised what a vital role it plays in the world, let alone its role in making this project. With the use of the Mac's and practical aspects like using the HD cameras, we have been able to create the music video we aimed to achieve. Through using a variety of New Media Technologies I now have gained a better understanding of how great an influence New Media Technologies have had upon the outcome of this project.
Here is a mood-board I made of showing some examples of the new media technologies we used in the construction, planning, research and evaluation stages of the music video. New Media Technologies have influenced our project in a variety of ways, and had they not been so advanced, Cleo and I wouldn’t have been able to create the music video we wanted and made.
Cleo and I were a bit rusty with using Final Cut as it was a while since we last used it for our AS project. When we first opened Final Cut Pro, it seemed we were bombarded with lots of unfamiliar of drop down boxes, applications, toolbars and buttons, which was a bit intimidating. So firstly we had to get to grips with the program, and we had a lesson where we went over the basics of using the program, which we both found very useful. We also found some Final Cut tutorials on YouTube, which provided us with a better understanding of how to use the software.
Here is an example of a really helpful tutorial program that we used:
After playing around with the software to get used to it and its different features, we eventually began to understand how it worked and we became more confident using it. Final Cut Pro was the base for creating our music video; we used it to edit the footage together, add effects and link the music to the video, focusing on lip-synching and ambi-editing. Without Final Cut Pro I don’t think we would have been able to achieve what we wanted for our music video. I think that Final Cut Pro is an excellent piece of software, which enabled us to be as creative as we wanted and produce a high standard visual product with a low very low budget. The fact that many large budget movies have used this program also show how advanced it is and a lot can be achieved from it.
At college we used Mac’s in class, prior to the making of the music video I had used Mac’s in my own time as my family computer is a Mac, but I have never used it for anything complex like making a music video. Using the Mac’s meant we were able to use Final Cut Express which was really good as without this we would not have been able to include any special effects at all. This would have meant that the shots of the subjects lips- the main focus of our music video would not have been so flamboyant and neither would the shots of me with the candles around my head, as we changed the lighting and contrasts in these shots to make them more stunning.
The idea of us not being able to have these shots makes me believe that we would have made an unsuccessful music video, which would look unattractive, and unprofessional.
When our music video was finished using Final Cut Express with the Mac’s. The next step was our promotion for the product and the band, which without the Internet I don’t think we would have been able to do so well. This is because we would not have been able to present our music video on different social networking sites such as Facebook, of which I personally have a page. So when Cleo and I put up our music video on the site we both encouraged friends and family to watch it and leave comments, so without technological advances, we would not have been able to do this.
Additionally, Cleo and I would not have been able to upload our video onto Vimeo or YouTube without these advances, and any other methods of exhibition would have been very pricey. Also without HD cameras we would not have been able to have the crisp appearing footage because we would be using the standard DV cameras meaning our video would not be of the high quality it is. Below is an image of HD vs. SD and as you can see, the difference is very clear, and had we used SD in our music video, it would have caused considerably negative results.
This is a screen shot of our music video on YouTube, which proves how important the Internet was for us, as without it we wouldn’t have been able to receive over two hundred views or any feedback.
Here is a screen shot of my blog, which is where all of my work is available to see:
The blog holds all of my work on it, from the initial analysis of music videos to the final master, and without the Internet and Internet based programs such as YouTube and Scribd; this would not have been possible. All in all, I have learnt that we have been very lucky to have such advances in New Media Technologies available to us. I take for granted the use of the Internet every day, but through this project I have realised what a vital role it plays in the world, let alone its role in making this project. With the use of the Mac's and practical aspects like using the HD cameras, we have been able to create the music video we aimed to achieve. Through using a variety of New Media Technologies I now have gained a better understanding of how great an influence New Media Technologies have had upon the outcome of this project.
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