Evaluation Q4

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

Blogger was a good source of research for the group and I it allowed us to watch past music videos and examine the way in which their whole product came together. It allowed us to see what we could do to stand out from the rest and produce a unique product. Looking at other blogs made the group and I notice no one had done The Verve's 'Bittersweet Symphony'.

We also used Apple Imac to help us out with our final A2 Media project, we used the Macs during the editing stages of our music video. Imovie is a software that is on the Imacs that allows you to put clips together and add transitions to make a smooth video. We did have problems with Imovie as things went missing, at one point we lost our whole project and we had to start the whole thing again. Another problem we had was with uploading things on to YouTube at times as well.  

Photoshop and Pixlr helped me a lot when I was assigned a job as the ancillary texts producer, I had no experience in using these softwares but it was alright when used. Photoshop and Pixlr offers a range different styles which allows your original picture look enhanced and much better. At the end of this we showed other students our pictures and they seemed to love it.

Another technology I used was my mobile phone (Iphone), it allows you to work on the go with apps like Blogger. The Iphone allowed me to capture the pictures for our digipak and poster, it also allowed us to capture what we did day to day throughout our whole project.

Google played a good part in our planning stages, the search engine gave the group and I a range of ideas and helped us with our us with our digipak ideas. It also allowed me to get pictures for this evaluation question.

To actually film clips I managed to persuade my father to let me use his HD ready digital camera, it made us capture some quality shots which we believe Alfred Hitchcock would be proud of.

Evaluation q3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of music videos

I used Google  to research the general conventions of any (genre) music videos, I noticed that most videos main conventions included:

Fast paced edits for fast tempo music and slow paced edits for slow music
The mise-en-scene the genre of the song
Lip syncing
A lot of close up shots of the band or the solo artist

Conventions of music videos in general that we used/did not use in our music video and why?

We used most the points stated above in our video. We were not going to use Close up shots of the artists at the start of our project but it was essential we did because the group and I wanted our audience to see the mood the artists were expressing as well as using close ups for lip syncing  Also the band member s in every music video we watched are the unique selling point for the record label so be shown at close up is so important.

The lyrics of the song matched what was being shown in the video at certain points.

This is the part match the song really well as the lyrics says 'no change, I can't change' and the point of view shot shows Myself selling drugs to someone in school. The two link because it shows the main character is still getting up to no good.

We managed to make the edits go in time with the pace of the music in certain shots but at times it wasn't possible, but with patient and the right help we were able to make things happen.

The group would agree with me when I say we used the mise-en-scene made the mood of the song and the genre stand out even more. It made our music video more appealing, I also believe it made the audience feel more in tuned with the video. The main part of our music video was shot in Camden town where it is known for its urban culture, busy streets and the different ethic groups. This links to the narrative scenes of the video in which the actor is selling drugs but he wants to make a change but is stuck because he is a slave to money for the rest of his life ands that’s the quickest and only way he knows how to make money for a living. I was made to wear casual clothing which consisted of jeans, black puffer jacket and trainers, which we believed would symbolise a 'hoodlum'.

Lip syncing 

A convention we uphold was lip syncing I believed we used well was lip syncing we managed to get this down to a perfect standard, we believe lip syncing is used in a lot of music videos of the same genre as ours because it gives the audience an emotional feeling to the song. 

Conventions of music genres in music videos

Lynette my group member managed to conducted research into the conventions of different music video genres e.g. rock, pop, rnb etc and found that different genres have different codes and conventions which allow the genre to be recognised and attract/appeal to their target audience.

Here are some examples:

Pop genre
Bright colours
Creative settings
Close ups of the artist/s
Targeting young audiences
Upbeat music
Dance routine being performed by artist/s

Rock genre

Extreme close ups
Close ups
Dark settings
Simple settings
Equipments (drums, guitars etc)
Never happy
Performance based

Hip hop/Rnb genre

Sexualized half naked women
Close ups and long shots of material items and money
Simple settings (house or club)
Artist surrounded by their entourage
Expensive items
Alcohol

Mise-en-scene

Differences- Compared to the original video, our music video tries to challenge the generic conventions of the rock genre because there’s usually never a narrative, it’s mainly performance based, but in our video it was a mix of performance and narrative


Similarities- In the Verves videos Richard Ashcroft the bands leader, is always first to appear in the video and then towards the end the other band members appear. In our video we did the same by having our lead singer appear first and then the other band member Deon appear afterwards.

The Verve's Urban Hymns Album cover Vs Our album cover

Their album is generally about life and the about lifes confusing and dangerous expeiences. The album cover may not seem like anything big, but with the media skills I have developed throughout the years of doing it has allowed me look in to pictures more and has made me noticed the real meaning behind this album cover.

The album to me connotes a sence of freedom, sitting on the green so relaxed and comfortable shows they are freeing themselves from society.

Our album cover shows more of the urban mis en scene, it is well known area and I believed it would attract an audiences eye. The famous Camden lock sign was once in this shot but I managed to edit 'The Verve' and stick it in front, it adds in with the whole urban atmosphere we tried to achieve. I believe our album not only linked the look of Camden with the album name 'Urban Hymns' but it also shows a straight road and a road which turns into a another destination. You could connote this as a cross road, someone is looking at the straight road to trouble but if he takes the left it would change their life around.

I believe we did challenge the conventions slightly, most rock music videos we came across have white band members but we changed this and made both members in the band black even though the every member in The Verve are white. We also went against the stereotype that most rock artist white, me being the main character and black.

  


 

Poster

The poster like the digipak was made on Pixlr and Photoshop, at first I found it difficult to use Photoshop but after a few a tries my skills came into play and it helped me produce this poster.

Digipak

This our digipak our final product, I managed to edit the pictures on Pixlr. The web site allowed me to add bright colours and dark patches which really makes the digipak stand out.

Audience Feedback for The Final Copy

The video we managed to upload on YouTube is the 'shaky' copy and it is not what we would like to be seen but we are having trouble uploading a couple which is not shaky at all.

This is the video Deon managed to upload on to YouTube: http://youtu.be/HnCpRkL_Zlw

I managed to record the video on my phone and this was the smooth version, I showed teachers and peers this version.



Feedback from Mrs Gunter 

. She believed the that the snapshots of Camden were excellent 

. Lip syncing of a high quality 

. Liked the head/face shots flashing up 

. Liked the story told - dealing with religion and drugs 

Feedback from Mrs Folan 

"I think you have used the urban misenscene really well, it goes with the theme your trying to give out. All in all this video I really good" 

She then went on to say "Richard you look like a real popstar in this" 

Advice given: 

Mrs Folan then got us to think doing a split screen, she believes it would show the examiners that we had some technical skill.

Feedback from Marios D (Media student)

Marios believed we captured aspects of an urban area, he liked the way we got shots of Camden Lock to show some diversity. 

Constructive criticisms 

Marios believed we should add transitions so our music video runs smoothly, he believed our video was lagging time to time.