Media Studies Evaluation

Media Studies Evaluation
1. Our project developed and used the forms and conventions of current media products in a number of ways. There were a number of camera angles that are often seen in contemporary music videos that we incorporated into our video. One of these was the extreme-close-up of the protagonist walking down a busy city street. This can be seen in many current music videos, and we used this on our own. Usually this technique would have been shown with the protagonist singing, or moving in line with each one of their head movements. We did not use either of these, simply kept a straight shot without moving.
Often music videos will include a lot of shots of the band playing their instruments. We decided not to use any shots of this kind as we felt it was simply inappropriate for the video and would add nothing to it. We did include shots of the artist singing, these are often seen in music videos.
Some music videos use shots involving the artist singing whilst moving. These are videos with artists such as Jamie T, Cage the Elephant and Maximo Park. All the shots of the artist singing are taken when she was stationary. In this way we challenged the conventions of music videos. We did not include this simply because we thought it would not offer any ingenuity to the video.
We used a lot of shots faded into each other in our video, another effect that I have not seen in many if any videos that I have viewed in my life. We did that towards the end of our video, and faded one, two and for a little bit three shots into one. This effect challenged the convention of not including this in a video. By including it we suggested that it can be used to create good effects. It has most likely been used in some professional videos, it is however a rare technique.
We developed the technique of changing colours on the video. We added in a sepia effect over the whole video because it seemed to fit the genre more with this effect included. Many videos have effects such as this; by including it we were simply developing it by changing digital effects to fit our video. We also changed the effects on some of the lights dotted around in certain places in our video, making them change shape and other such things. This is another effect that can be seen in other music videos.
Settings are another thing that we developed and challenged at the same time. We chose a very natural setting for our video with the majority of the shots being taken from a hill in a rural Cambridgeshire village. These shots showed a large variety of foliage and fitted in well with the acoustic genre. We also filmed some shots in Cambridge, on a busy central street, with the shots involving the animation from a pub in Cambridge. These are all shots likely to be used in other music videos. We developed the techniques by filming in these locations, but challenged them in the way that we filmed them. An extreme-long-shot of countryside is not something seen in very many videos, albeit some, but it is not an often used technique.
2. We have several products centred on our music video. The video itself, the digipack, which is a CD with a music video case, and a promotional poster. In order to sell these effectively we need to link the products, to show that they are part of the same promotional part of the industry, to drag attention to each thing in order to convince the consumer to buy not only one product, but the other one related to it.
The digipack and magazine advertisement are clearly linked. They incorporate the same background for each product. This shows the consumer that the products are from the same artist and may immediately make a link between the digipack and the magazine cover. This particular link will encourage the consumer to buy both products, thus creating a profit.
The pictures are both taken of sunny summer days in natural settings, in line with the genre of the video. This creates a happy feel for the video, again in line with the genre. The happy feel may help the consumer to enjoy the product, and thus associate that happiness with both products. This will in turn lead to a higher profit.
We tried to present a very clear image of the artist. We wanted to represent the genre, being folk/acoustic. Things associated with this and the song, such as daffodils, flowers, nature, guitars and femininity.
They both use a high amount of daffodils. This highlights the name of the album, drawing attention the feature video as well. This will make the consumer aware of what the main points of all products are. Again, this will hopefully make the viewer more willing to watch the video itself, thus chaining the digipack, magazine advert and the video. If effective this link will increase profits no all fronts.
The same font was used on the cover and digipack. This also creates a link between the two products. This, like the background, may make the consumer link to two things in their heads. The writing also creates a feeling for the genre of the video. This will let the consumer know what type of music they are buying.
We used the protagonist form the video on the digipack cover. This was of Olivia, who was pretending to be Charlene Soraia. This was effective; it showed a clear link from the video to the digipack cover. This will promote. Olivia as well as the video, creating an aura for both. Again, if this works as planned it will generate profit for the video.
3. We showed our rough cut video to our class and teacher. From this, we could get an idea of the best and worst points of our video. We received feedback from the class, and on our blog a list was made of all the things we needed to change. Everything in this section was taken from our blog.
We learned from this that we did not have enough locations in our video. At that point in time we only had shots of Olivia walking down streets as well as the natural setting. We had not used as much footage rom the natural setting or the animation footage. By conducting a feedback session we learnt what we needed. We then added in a lot more footage of the natural setting, as well as the animation part. Once we added this in it seemed to be adequate. Without conducting a feedback session we would have never realised this.
Another thing that we discovered we needed to fix was a lack of close-ups. We had one close of Olivia singing, and that was it. After this we included more of her singing and her walking down the street in Cambridge. We had not the greatest shot variety, albeit not the worst, but this comment made us look closely at what we needed to change in terms of this, and we were able to do this effectively.
We had one long introduction shot in the video, where Olivia walked up a path with trees on both sides. This we realised after reading some comments, went on too long and had little variation in terms of effects. We cut the shot and faded things over it, also changing the effects. This gave our opening sequence more ingenuity and variety. This can only make an effective music video.
We also learnt some things that we had done well. There did not seem to be any problems with our mise-en-scene. We received comments that our choice of costumes was very appropriate to the song, as Olivia was wearing a yellow dress. The lighting effects that we used in the natural setting were also deemed to be good by those who saw our video. Our settings were also thought to be appropriate with the song. Acoustic videos are often seen to be in nature as well as cities. The song was also called daffodils, thus nature was a good setting. The setting also added to the genre of love in the song.
We received good comments on our camerawork and editing. People said that our camerawork was steady and that there was nothing in it that made it look unprofessional. We also used a number of fades in our sequences, which we added to following feedback, but the ones we had were said to be effective. Viewers thought that the fades fitted in with the music and did not disrupt the flow of it.
4. In the construction of our media product we used the majority of technology used over the course of the entire thing. In the planning process we used cameras, lights and computers. We used cameras in order to take pictures of ideas for locations. We then put these pictures onto our blog and wrote about each one. In doing this we were able to analyse every possible location and deem which were the best for what we wanted to do. This allowed not just thinking of a location, but seeing what it looks like through the lens of a camera, and thus how it would look in a music video.
We also used lights used in theatre for our production. This gave us the opportunity to try out various effects involving different coloured lights. We found that this gave us the chance to see again how this would look through the lens of a camera, and thus in a film.
In our planning we used a filming camera as well. This, apart from obviously being a necessity, gave us the opportunity to do several things. Once at each location we could do shots again and again, seeing what different angles would do to each scene. This was best viewed through a camera. We shot things again and again, selecting many different angles, giving a large amount of footage to choose from, and thus, a better opportunity to make a good music video.
We had to use an editing program, Final Cut Express, in order to put together our footage. This program gave us the change to try out many different effects on our footage. We tried out different speeds, colours, fades and so on. Without this program all we would have been able to do is film it in a chronological order and hope that it would turn out well. Instead we could edit and re-edit our footage, using a huge variety of effects that helped us to create a really good music video.
Making both the digipack cover and magazine advert required using a photo editing program, Photoshop. This gave us the chance to try out many different kinds of effects on photos, combining some as well, in order to find a really good cover. We could play around with each individual image, as well as them all put together as a whole. This allowed us to create exactly what we wanted.
The final media technology used was the internet. This was the blog. The blog gave us a way to keep track of everything that we had done, and a place to put all our written work, in a place that was easy to store it all. This shows everything from all other media technologies.
These technologies basically allow amateur filmmaking to be done properly. Perhaps ten years ago, one would have to take a camcorder, film the entire thing in sequence and erase over parts which were deemed unsuitable. It is only possible to make these programs by the programs that are available, so these technologies have transformed amateur filmmaking. Without them this project would be much more difficult.

script of commentary

How does your music video,use, challenge or develop forms and conventions of real media products.

Olivia: In our music video we used lots of forms and conventions or real media products. In Camerawork we used a range of different shots, from close-ups of me standing and singing, and also landscapes of Orwell.
Rosie: During our editing stage we used lip-syncing throughout like a real music video would. Across the whole of our music video we put a sepia effect on to create the continuity, all the same across the whole of the video. We put a dazzle and glow effect across the first part of our music video to create a fairytale. We used istopmotion, which we felt was a challenge of the forms and conventions of real media products, however we did find an example of this in Kate Nash's video foundations.
Derek: The fades and transitions of our music video fitted well with the genre as it was slow paced like the music. the genre of our video was sort of an acoustic, folk, alternative, generally sort of happy feely type thing. We decided we wanted to make this represented in our settings, as obviously thats going to make an effective video. We decided to use Orwell, which is the village where all the outdoor stuff is. It's quite naturalistic and we thought it looked really good. We decided to use the pub as it fit in with the folk genre, it was quite dimly lit.
Olivia: the music that's actually in our video is quite slow paced so we decided to do the editing slow paced as well. We wanted to get a fairy like feel in there, and I think we did that quite well with the dazzle and glow filters. The lyrics amplified the visuals and they also illustrated the visualsan example of this is when Derek and I were lying on the grass and the line is actually lying on the sun-kissed grass.
Rosie: In the mise-en-scene of our video Oivia is seen wearing a yellow dress, this is to represent the daffodils. We also felt that we could challenge the forms and conventions as we used the locations of country and city, as we felt this was unusual, as they usually use one or the other.
Derek: Our magazine pack and digipack used forms and conventions of real media products, such as barcodes, logos and track listings.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Olivia: There is a very strong effect between both our music video and the ancillary text. They relate to the constant theme of daffodils, flowers, blue skies, countryside, nature and wildlife.
Rosie: there is a theme of fairytale throughout our music video and our ancillary task. During our music video we put fairylights up, we then also edited in a dazzle and glow effect. During the ancillary task we put a little edited version we put a little edited image of Olivia with a big daffodil.

Evaluation of First Day Filming

We were able to get a large amount of shots, all the ones we had planned to do as well as some that we thought of at the time, so this will give us even more footage to choose from. We were able to get all of our filming that required daylight done before it got dark, so there were no problems there. It was cloudy, this was not what we pictured when we thought of the ideas, but this was not something we could change. At Lucy's house we did all of the filming in the dark, with lots of lighting effects in the garden, which the group made look incredible. The only problem was thinking how to put things up and finding everything that we needed. Several facial expressions and other things involving the actors could have been better (mainly Derek :P) but we can work with what we have. However one shot had jolts in it so we will re-do that filming again today.

Artist Research - Charlene Soraia

Influences:the Beatles, David Bowie, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan are her main influences. She also claims to enjoy listening to King Cromson, Muse and Led Zeppelin. However ther is not a big rock theme to her music.
Main Songs: "daffodils", "bike", "pictures in my mind", "I don't believe you" and "hello again". According to a poll on "last fm" "daffodils" the song for our video is by far her most well-known song.
History:Charlene started playing guitar age 5. It is obvious she found this as her passion as she was playing open mike seesions at age 8, and was a regular at the open mic circuit at age ten. She taught herself to play the guitar, and attended the "Brit School of Performing Arts" despite not having a GCSE in music. This has won her some acclaim. At this school she stopped performing acoustic and joined a band called "Retrospect". She pursued her solo career in 2008.
notable career achievements: attended the "Brit School of performing arts" without having the minumum requirement of a GCSE in music. This shows that she must have been very skillful in playing a guitar. She sang alongside Jose Gonzalez, Stephanie Dozen and Julien Verlard, who she sang a duet with. she perform at the Glastonbury festival, as she won the "emerging talents competition, giving her a spot at the prestigious festival. Charlene released her new EP entitled Daffodils & Other Idylls in March and has topped the uk Folk Charts on iTunes and will continue to play various shows around London in support of the record.

Changed Ideas

We were supposed to get two shots of the sunrise and sunset, but camera arrangements made this impossible. Instead we will film one shot of sunrise and then play that in reverse for the sunset. Also, daffodils are out of season at this point in time, so it is going to be impossible to put these in the footage. Instead, Lucy has offered to go buy some flowers, preferably yellow ones before we film. there will not be a shot of someone taking a drag on a cigarette, as no one should be forced to smoke, and we feel that it would be inappropriate.

updated ideas

If the weather is not so good tomorrow we will have to adjust some of our ideas. We based on ideas on it being sunny as it seemed to go with the theme of the song. at the moment the weather is supposed to be cloudy for both days and this is something that we will have to work with. If it is at night it will not be such a problem, and this may be better for a lot of shots, however we need some variation. We will perhaps use this to create a more melancholy feel to some of the shots, where both characters are feeling distanced from one and other. It is not ideal for our video and will probably make it look less professional but it may create a light/dark contrast with yellow costumes.

Feedback on lighting effects

Yellow light: the main focus point of our video is daffodils, which are coloured yellow. so obviously it is important that we find a way to make this lighting effect work. This lighting effect creates a calming effect, which goes well with the song theme. It would be useful to use this in a pub scene if possible. It creates a sort of "glow" which would also make it useful when focusing on each character.
Grey: This does not portray a grey light on the individual, but more gives a spotlight effect. this would be useful when focusing on one character. Generally it can be used to foucs the viewer on one specific thing. things generally appear to shine more. when focusing on the couple this would be a good effect to use.
Red light: this can appear to be more pink than red. However it can also come out, as more like blood red. This can be used to portray feelings of lust and danger, depending on the expressions of the character. Red is often associated with both love and danger. This can give the character a very big shine on their face and thus should be either kept to a minimum or make sure the character is standing in such a way that this is not so obvious.
blue light: this shade of blue gives of a turqoise light. Like the yellow light this can be used to give off a calming effect. It may also be used to give off an eerie effect. this would be a good effect to use in certain shots, such as one with one person moving at a different speed to the rest of the characters.

Storyboard

end shot of holding hands
everything in street is in slow-motion
Liv and Derek walk down street
both walk towards door
cigarette stubbed out
Liv and Derek notice each other
shot of street with car lights effect
shot of someone getting rid of cigarette ash
sped-up shot of people walking on a street
pint glasses going down
shot of drag on cigarette
shot of car lights-streaks effect
shot of beer inb pint glasses going down
shot of beer in pint glasses going down
We see Liv go into the Alex
We see Derek go into the Alex

Lic catches glimpse of Derek
Liv walks down side-street

Liv walks past a bar and is felt shunned by it
Liv walks past a club and is shunned by it
Liv walks past a pub and feels shunned by it
Extreme-long-shot of dark busy city street
extreme-long-shot of sun going down
Liv and Derek holdind hand in a close-up
extreme-long-shot of Derek walking across a bridge
same shot as above
shot of Liv on her bycicle
shot of cigarette burning out
extreme long shot of Liv walking down dark road
shot of cigarrette being lit
shot of Liv on her bycicle
shot of Liv on her bycicle
over-shoulder-extreme-long-shot of Derek looking at landscape
point-of-view shot of street during the day
over-shoulder-extreme-long-shot of Liv looking across landcape at dawn
close-up of hands of almost touching through sunlight
close-up of light going through spokes of bycicle

shot of sunrise at dawn

Time line