MEDIA EVALUATION
The song that I chose to do is ‘Impossible’, the original by
Shontelle. There were four types of music video that I could have done at the
start of the project which were abstract, narrative, performance or animated.
At the beginning I chose to do abstract. It wouldn’t just be abstract however
as I would mix it with narrative and performance. I feel the three types of
videos go well with the song I chose. The performance in my video is when the
actor is showing their emotions shown in the song towards the camera. Although
I had chosen abstract type of video there is more narrative in the video as it
is a story about one person who is showing her feelings and emotions post break
up from her most recent relationship. At the end there is a close up of her
throwing a picture of her ex-boyfriend into flames. However when she is singing
the lyrics to the camera you can see the emotions in her face to show the
importance of the situation.
Before I began shooting and getting ideas for filming I had
to look into Shontelle’s album that includes ‘Impossible’. This helped me a lot
as I realised that the songs all had the same sort of emotion about them in the
manor that many of them are at the same pace and are reasonably slow. The
cinematography in and video but especially in my chosen song as it is very
important to show the codes of conventions. Usually in my project when there is
a performance being shown I have done a long
shot to show all of the actions that the performer is showing, this
sometimes being with arm movements for example but not major movements. When
the video is narrative I will often show a close up of the actors face. This is
so the audience can see the emotion shown. I have made sure that when there is
a close up shown that the lyrics which go with that shot are emotional and
heart felt. My intention is to attempt to make the audience feel sorry for the
actress. I picked the song very carefully in planning. I felt that I had to
produce a video that the lyrics could convey codes and conventions through
visual imagery. I feel in my music video I did that reasonably well as you can
tell and understand how the actor is feeling most of the time.
Also due to the song being rather emotional and slow it was
an obvious choice as to the transitions that I used for my music video. I had
discussed it with other people and we all agreed that I included slow, cuts for
example dissolves and fades to black to allow the video to flow in a nice
fashion.
Also in the mise en scene the costumes were very important to convey the codes and conventions. It is vital that the actress in my video is not wearing light clothes as this may give off the expression that the video is positive and happy. This is why I have gone for the darker clothes on the actress as this is what went best with the theme and genre of the song. The costume and location of the music video is very much dependant on the song.
The location of my video is mainly shot at the actress’ home as if they are upset and down they may not want to be anywhere else. There is a point where the location is outside down an alleyway and I believe this is appropriate as at this specific place you would be very lonely and it may be a time to think about things that are going on. When I shoot down the alleyway it is scenes of the actress performing and doing a narrative as she is telling a story and walking towards the camera whilst showing emotions in her movements.
Also in the mise en scene the costumes were very important to convey the codes and conventions. It is vital that the actress in my video is not wearing light clothes as this may give off the expression that the video is positive and happy. This is why I have gone for the darker clothes on the actress as this is what went best with the theme and genre of the song. The costume and location of the music video is very much dependant on the song.
The location of my video is mainly shot at the actress’ home as if they are upset and down they may not want to be anywhere else. There is a point where the location is outside down an alleyway and I believe this is appropriate as at this specific place you would be very lonely and it may be a time to think about things that are going on. When I shoot down the alleyway it is scenes of the actress performing and doing a narrative as she is telling a story and walking towards the camera whilst showing emotions in her movements.
QUESTION 2: How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?
I would say that the combination of the main video and the ancillary texts are very similar. This is due to that the qualities and the aspects that match with the two. The two ancillary texts that I have produced are a CD digipak to show the design of the CD case and I have also produced a music magazine advert. Both of the ancillary texts attempt to send off the same message as the music video as I have used dull and dark colours for them. For example on the magazine advert I have used a gradient tool to make a good effect on the colours, red and black. As you can see below the colour and theme of the advert sends off a message to the audience, a message in which they could probably figure out what genre of music I am doing and what the mood of the song is.
I would say that the combination of the main video and the ancillary texts are very similar. This is due to that the qualities and the aspects that match with the two. The two ancillary texts that I have produced are a CD digipak to show the design of the CD case and I have also produced a music magazine advert. Both of the ancillary texts attempt to send off the same message as the music video as I have used dull and dark colours for them. For example on the magazine advert I have used a gradient tool to make a good effect on the colours, red and black. As you can see below the colour and theme of the advert sends off a message to the audience, a message in which they could probably figure out what genre of music I am doing and what the mood of the song is.
I would say that my ancillary texts have improved over time
as I have researched into existing digipak’s and also existing music magazine
adverts. The research helped me a lot as I could see which ones were successful
and which ones were not. I believe that it is very important to have a good
magazine advert. This is due to the fact that the audience will gain an
impression of the music video from the advert. If the advert is good and
appeals to the audience then they will probably want to view the music video. I
used Photoshop to design both the digipak and the magazine advert. It was a
very useful source as I could add many different effects to both of the
ancillary texts. For my digipak I have to completely different pictures on
either CD. I decided that on one CD I should have an image of the actress so it
is the first thing that the audience see when they look inside of the CD case. On the other CD I have chosen to
take an image of a fire, this being down to the flame that is featured in my
video. This is another good example of a way in which my ancillary texts link and
combine with my main video as both of the images on the CD cover are seen in
the video.
When it came to actually creating my digipak I had to first think about the front cover. In my opinion it is important to have the actress/ artist on the front of the CD case. This is because it will be the first thing that the audience will see when they pick up the CD. The quality of the case will send off a direct message as to how much quality is in the song and the music video. I took various pictures of my mum, this is so I had a wide range to choose from when designing the front cover. I always had her posing in the middle of the camera and the shot I chose was usually a mid-shot. This is what I went for in the end. I felt this was the correct choice as it fills a good proportion of the cover. This is because I will place the image in the centre. I felt that this was the best place for it as I tried it out on the left and the right but it looked best in the middle.
When choosing the fonts I went onto Dafont.com. I found this sight very useful in finding all sorts of different fonts that could be possibilities for my ancillary texts. Whichever one I had chosen it was important that stayed consistent and didn’t differ too much between my magazine advert and my digipak. I had to try and be creative with the other parts to my template of my digipak. This would mean a few more images as well as the 2 discs and the front cover I would have an image of the artist on the back of the CD case and then I left another one to add on the songs list for the album, which is very important on a CD case.
When it came to actually creating my digipak I had to first think about the front cover. In my opinion it is important to have the actress/ artist on the front of the CD case. This is because it will be the first thing that the audience will see when they pick up the CD. The quality of the case will send off a direct message as to how much quality is in the song and the music video. I took various pictures of my mum, this is so I had a wide range to choose from when designing the front cover. I always had her posing in the middle of the camera and the shot I chose was usually a mid-shot. This is what I went for in the end. I felt this was the correct choice as it fills a good proportion of the cover. This is because I will place the image in the centre. I felt that this was the best place for it as I tried it out on the left and the right but it looked best in the middle.
When choosing the fonts I went onto Dafont.com. I found this sight very useful in finding all sorts of different fonts that could be possibilities for my ancillary texts. Whichever one I had chosen it was important that stayed consistent and didn’t differ too much between my magazine advert and my digipak. I had to try and be creative with the other parts to my template of my digipak. This would mean a few more images as well as the 2 discs and the front cover I would have an image of the artist on the back of the CD case and then I left another one to add on the songs list for the album, which is very important on a CD case.
For my magazine advert, my main target was to get it to be
simple, but on the other hand very affective to the audience. It had to stand
out and be noticed for it to be successfully seen and taken seriously. For the
advert I have gone for a similar approach as my digipak and I have put a full
picture of the artist on in the middle as they will stand out and be very
noticeable. Also on the magazine advert is the name of the song in a big font
which stands out. And also the name of the artist underneath which is also
important to be able to give the public an understanding. I thought that I
would link the two ancillary texts together in the fashion that I would include
a picture of my CD cover in my music magazine advert. As you can see I have
taken this tip from the Wretch 32 album. I feel this is necessary so people can
actually see what they would be buying if they wanted to purchase the CD cover.
This is also a conventional feature of a magazine advert. I still thought that
the advert could be made more professional. I got comments saying it needed to
communicate with the audience more and be more professional. I looked through
more magazine adverts to help me on my way such as the two below.
The two adverts both have a release date for a new album.
This is important as it is a vital piece of information for the audience. They
need to know when they are able to buy the product. I have decided to take the
idea from the ‘Kasabian’ album and provide a star rating and a quote from NME.
I believe this looks very professional and creates the realism of the album.
The quote I have used is “Excellent
Exciting Emotional” This is an example of alliteration and this is a
brilliant technique to use at when the audience see it they will be drawn and
will hopefully want to know more about the video. As you can see with the Wretch
32 magazine advert in the bottom right hand corner there is a list of many
places where you can purchase the album from. This is a great use of ad ons and
was used very well for when I made my magazine advert. The companies vary from
online to shops. I feel this is important as it is good to let people to know
that you can get it online without having to leave the house, it is that
simple.
I think if I had added anything else on to the advert it would have made it too crammed and it would have looked scruffy. At this stage it looks professional in the way it is laid out for example. Below is the finished copy.
I think if I had added anything else on to the advert it would have made it too crammed and it would have looked scruffy. At this stage it looks professional in the way it is laid out for example. Below is the finished copy.
Question 3!!
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I have produced a go animate clip of my audience feedback to show what a general feedback that came back to me. I believe that the feedback helped me a lot in making the music video as I received pre/ during and post feedback. I received during and pre so I could change anything that needed changing early on rather than very late in the production.
The feedback I received before creating the video was via a poll on my blog. I believe this was a simple way to find out what type of music people enjoyed listening to. I found that most people liked pop/ R’n’B and that is what inspired me to choosing this type of song. goanimate
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I have produced a go animate clip of my audience feedback to show what a general feedback that came back to me. I believe that the feedback helped me a lot in making the music video as I received pre/ during and post feedback. I received during and pre so I could change anything that needed changing early on rather than very late in the production.
The feedback I received before creating the video was via a poll on my blog. I believe this was a simple way to find out what type of music people enjoyed listening to. I found that most people liked pop/ R’n’B and that is what inspired me to choosing this type of song. goanimate
Question 4!!
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The first piece of technology that I did was the blogger. I created a blog and this was to post all of the research and planning of the song up to show details we have collected on the chosen song. Blogger really helped me to organise my work as it was in a really easy and accessible place to be able to find it which was always helpful. I also used an online site called YouTube which was easy to access, I used YouTube to link to my blogger as I began to watch other existing music videos in order to gain ideas for my own video. I posted up videos that I liked and wanted to try and re-create to produce my own.
At the early stages in the making of the final product I thought that it would be a good idea to get some audience research to get some ideas of what types and genres of music people liked and enjoyed. I did this by creating a poll on blogger. I wanted to get a broad range and a large range of people to answer the questions so I asked the girls and boys at college and then I asked my some people above the age of 40 to give me feedback. This would be good as I would be able to get a wider idea of what the public liked to hear. I found that the most popular music genre was R’n’B and pop. The song I am doing is pop and therefore knew that my song choice would be a good one.
In order to create my music video I used the program Adobe Premiere CS6. This is a very clever and complicated program. I had a little help from the technician at the start of my editing and he showed me the basics of it but once I got used to it, it turned out to be very effective in my production. I had to upload up all of the footage I had shot and then watch it to see what I needed to keep and what I needed to get rid of, and then edit it together which did not prove easy at all. When editing together I had to make sure that all of the music and lyrics was in sync to the movement on the artists’ lips. This took a lot of time to get it to nearly perfect but I just about got there. I had previously used this editing program in years ten and eleven so I was aware of the kind of effects that could be used. These effects were under the ‘transitions’ area and included things such as: dip to black, fade out, and many different forms of dissolve. You could also use the tool of changing the speed of the clip or shot, and also change the duration of the shot, for example, cut some off the end of a certain shot because it is running over into another shot.
To film all of my footage I used a tape camcorder which was extremely reliable and there was always one to use.
I used an Olympus camera to take the photos for both of my ancillary texts. The reason I did this was because it was waterproof so could be used for every weather condition for any cautions for when I was filming outside. The camera was very reliable and took high quality pictures. Once I had taken the pictures I had to upload them onto a college computer and edit them into how I wanted them to be on a program called Photoshop CS5. The program had everything that I needed in order to make my pictures look the best they could. I had a fair bit of experience on this program as I used it in years ten and eleven and also last year when we were creating our college magazines. This should work to my advantage in the production of the ancillary texts.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The first piece of technology that I did was the blogger. I created a blog and this was to post all of the research and planning of the song up to show details we have collected on the chosen song. Blogger really helped me to organise my work as it was in a really easy and accessible place to be able to find it which was always helpful. I also used an online site called YouTube which was easy to access, I used YouTube to link to my blogger as I began to watch other existing music videos in order to gain ideas for my own video. I posted up videos that I liked and wanted to try and re-create to produce my own.
At the early stages in the making of the final product I thought that it would be a good idea to get some audience research to get some ideas of what types and genres of music people liked and enjoyed. I did this by creating a poll on blogger. I wanted to get a broad range and a large range of people to answer the questions so I asked the girls and boys at college and then I asked my some people above the age of 40 to give me feedback. This would be good as I would be able to get a wider idea of what the public liked to hear. I found that the most popular music genre was R’n’B and pop. The song I am doing is pop and therefore knew that my song choice would be a good one.
In order to create my music video I used the program Adobe Premiere CS6. This is a very clever and complicated program. I had a little help from the technician at the start of my editing and he showed me the basics of it but once I got used to it, it turned out to be very effective in my production. I had to upload up all of the footage I had shot and then watch it to see what I needed to keep and what I needed to get rid of, and then edit it together which did not prove easy at all. When editing together I had to make sure that all of the music and lyrics was in sync to the movement on the artists’ lips. This took a lot of time to get it to nearly perfect but I just about got there. I had previously used this editing program in years ten and eleven so I was aware of the kind of effects that could be used. These effects were under the ‘transitions’ area and included things such as: dip to black, fade out, and many different forms of dissolve. You could also use the tool of changing the speed of the clip or shot, and also change the duration of the shot, for example, cut some off the end of a certain shot because it is running over into another shot.
To film all of my footage I used a tape camcorder which was extremely reliable and there was always one to use.
I used an Olympus camera to take the photos for both of my ancillary texts. The reason I did this was because it was waterproof so could be used for every weather condition for any cautions for when I was filming outside. The camera was very reliable and took high quality pictures. Once I had taken the pictures I had to upload them onto a college computer and edit them into how I wanted them to be on a program called Photoshop CS5. The program had everything that I needed in order to make my pictures look the best they could. I had a fair bit of experience on this program as I used it in years ten and eleven and also last year when we were creating our college magazines. This should work to my advantage in the production of the ancillary texts.
Overall I feel happy with my final product in which I have
spent a long time working on. I feel that the media text has a nice fluency to
it and it succeeds in sending out the emotional message I was attempting to
convey. I believe that the audience feedback helped me a lot to improve the
video and the ancillary texts. I would much rather people be honest with my
work because then I can make positive changes. If people just say that they are
good because they don’t want to let you down then that will have a negative
effect as in this case it would be hard for me to make any alterations to make
the final products any better.
