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.

Final Product

After finishing our editing which was running smoothly, we decided to export our final copy. However once exporting it the video seems to be shaky and this makes it look bad, but I hope you enjoy our final project. 

Editing

Editing - Day 1 

We decided to use the IMac's IMovie programme to edit as it helped us out last year. We started of by putting everything we recorded on to the system, we then started to fiddle with the shots, to see what looks good. We then put the song up so it gives us a to frame to work on, we then noticed that the song we chose was too long and we have a limit on the video so we had to fade it out.

Editing - Day2

We have made good progress as we already know how to use the Imovie software relatively well. We organised the clips well and we have now put the song over it, so all is well. Soon we would be on concentrating on the ancillary texts. 

So far the technology is proving to be very helpful, but it is a pity we are only able to edit at school because we have no access to an Imac. 

Editing - Day 3 

This could arguable the worst experience I have had in my had in my life so far... We have come into our media lesson to add the finishing touches to our project but instead we find out our video is missing.

Myself and Lynette were panicking and worried about our whole project having gone to waste. Deon was so calm about the whole situation and he insisted we should start the whole project again, luckily I had the rough copy on my USB, so me and Lynette went ahead used the rough copy as a guide line.

We managed to re due the video, but we have now noticed another problem. When the video is shown on full screen it is always shaky but when show on the editing screen it is smooth.

     

Cast, Costumes and Location

My group and I have decided to have one main character. The team and I decided to have me as the main character, reason being is that we wanted someone who would be dedicated and willing to put in 110%. I thought I would be the right person for this because at the end this course it would be my group and I being graded and we did not really want anyone destroying our chances in getting a good grade. Another reason I was chosen to be the main character is no one really wanted to step up to the plate, and we needed the character to be a young man and I fitted the criteria and the character we imagined.

A lot had to be changed for me to actually get the right look my group and I wanted, the way I dressed had to be altered in to more of a 'Thuggish' look from looking sophisticated and smart. It was not really hard to get the Urban 'Thuggish' look, a 'puffa' jacket, jeans and trainers worked well. The reason we went for the Urban 'Thuggish' look is it allows us to give an interpretation of the song and its album title 'Urban Hymns', the look goes well with the society we are trying to portray through out the song.

The Location we decided to choose in the end was Camden, reason being is that it fits in well with the whole concept of Urban. The area is well known for its 'strange' and extraordinary look and we believed this was the right place to shoot. It allowed us to look at society in a different way, we felt that people were able to feel free and not be judged on their appearance or on the way they acted, this allowed us to feel comfortable when we were filming whiles people stood around and admired.

Filming

Day 1

My group and I started off shooting in a classroom. We decided to use our school as the location because we believed it would go well with the mis en scene we were trying to capture, we tried to go for the whole education mis en scene. We did not plan this for this for this day at all so you could imagine how unorganised it was, we did not have the cast planned and the story board was not done. After watching what we just shot we decided to scrap the whole idea and start again once we were properly organised.

Day2 Camden scene 

Myself and Lynette went to shoot the urban scenes in Camden on the high street. We did take a couple of shots even without a tripod, that was one of the things I hope we could change because we now have scenes that really shake and we may have to go back and re shoot. One thing we could of improved on this day was actually sorting out equipment, not having a tripod this slow us down a bit and made the whole filming experience a negative. One thing I also believed we could of changed is actually having the group together, I believe it would of made things easier, however the reason for the group not being together was reasonable so we can not really stick the blame on an individual.   

Day3 House scene 

We decided to have a drug scene at my house, which we believed would go well with the whole urban theme. We managed to use our creative side and produce makeshift drugs, this was a bit of salt, coconut bar, cling film and we used a couple paracetamol tablets. It allowed the group and I to make the drugs look real we really fooled a lot of people, it gives the audience some scene of verisimilitude.

Day4 Chapel scene 

This was wicked idea by Lynette. We were able to shoot in the schools chapel which was really good because the way the chapel was set out made it look like a church. Deon managed to move things around if it did not suit our imagination.  

Day 5 

We decided to shoot a scene where the main character is selling drugs in school to his classmates. This scene was done during lunch break so that it looks more realistic and some sense of verisimilitude was captured. We chose to film this in the sixth form block as it shows the main character is balancing school and illegal behaviour. We did not really have many problems, the conditions were alright because we were indoors and the people who helped us out were professional enough to act normal and not be silly. I actually did this whole scene as a POV, I have to admit I did not believe it would have looked as good as it did.

Day 6 Drama Room 

Lynette always had the idea that we should do the Lip syncing parts in the drama room where we would be able to have the room dark and turn on the middle light which would only shine on the main character. I think this day has been the best day of filming so far, having to learn the words and put our acting skills into play.

Filming Schedule

Storyboard - Final Copy

Our storyboard did take its time to come together because ideas kept on coming, that shows how much we wanted to put in to the project. I believe this is one of the improvements from last year when doing our foundation project; this year's project looks up to scratch even on paper. Lynette Carty was able to use her artistic skills to capture the vision in Myself and Deon's head.

Digipak/CD Covers Research

A CD cover/Digipak is the CD packaging, these digipaks usually have 4 to 8 panels and these are printed pictures on card. Fans look at the artist's CD cover before they decide whether the CD is worth the money. The appearance really counts in this case, the cover could really say a lot about the music that is on the actually CD. 

A good example of a Album cover that compliments the songs and the actually album name is Eminem's Curtain Call. 

 

This album concentrates on the music and his dedication for music, the panels make the audience have thoughts on how hard a artist works to write music they like. The name of the album 'Curtain Call' makes you believe there is a performance, the roses on the floor suggest that the artist has preformed really well.  

Album Cover Annotated

Equipment needed

Camera 

The school gave Myself and the group a camera to use to capture our video, the camera was what you would call old fashioned and not new in technology. At first this was a negative thing to the group and I but I managed to turn things around and ask my father for a favour. My father allowed us to use his camera throughout and it was very helpful as it was a new Samsung HD camera.

Tripod

We need a tripod for still, smooth shots, this is essential in many music videos as too much disruption may lead to poor quality filming. If a tripod is not given to us we have to use objects that would allow little or no movement.

Computer & Softwares

It is essential we use the Imac when it comes to editing as it has Imovies which allows us to edit our music video. The Imac is also a reliable computer as it has everything we need on it like Photoshop, this would be handy when we start on our ancillary text.

Questionnaire

We passed around our questionnaire to people who attended our sixth form and the teachers were also willing to take part. We managed to get a lot from this and it also helped us map out our ideas. It was really good we chose to do it in our school because our target audience are in that stage in education. 16+ is our target audience and all of our questionnaires were given to people from this category.

This Image shows us that the majority of those who filled out my group and I's questionnaire were females, this could simply be because of my charm or the females seemed interested in our project.

This chart shows the age group of those who helped fill out the questionnaire, our results were that 16 to 19 year olds are our target audience. You could see that there are people at the age of 35 + who we have to make our music video attract.

This chart is showing us that people prefer to see a narrative based music video. Hopefully we are able to pull this off and please the audience.

This is the results of "Do you think band members should be included in music videos and why?", the results show most people would like to see the band members in music videos.

This chart shows the results of what our potential audience listen to in their spare time, most people seem to be interested in RnB.

Possible Locations

Whiles thinking about The Verve's album 'Urban Hymns' I also thought about the areas of where we may shoot . The album name gave it away for me 'Urban Hymns', we definitely had to go for an urban looking area, and that is exactly what my group members and I tried to get. The meaning of urban is the characteristics of a city or town, usually a culturally diverse area. So that's when a thought came to mind, what could be more urban than Camden in North London, this area is seen to be real urban and has a lot of features that would go excellent with our ideas. Another place I thought would be good to use is the back one way streets of brick lane, filled with its artistic nature I believed it could also work well. 

The Verve 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'

My group members and I sat down and went through a list of music artist and bands to see what song to use for our music video; we had a range of ideas from RnB to Folk music. We believed that others from out media class may go for the usually mainstream kind of music, so we decided to do something different, something nobody would expect we could pull off.

We decided to go for The Verve's 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' which was released in 1997, which would of made me about 4 years old. As you can imagine the song could not have stayed in my head for this long, it is because of the shear quality of the song people still remember it up to this day. The song title 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' really caught my eye because it relates to the good and bad times in life, well that was our understanding of the title. 

The Verve formed in 1989, band members Richard Ashcroft (lead vocalist), Nick McCabe (Guitarist), Simon Jones (Bass Guitarist) and Peter Salisbury (Drummer). They were later joined by Simon Tong (Guitarist and keyboard player). The bands commercial breakthrough was in 1997 with their album 'Urban Hymns' which features our chosen song 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' which became a world wide hit. The album was one of the best selling albums in the UK Chart history. The group would be well known to those who live in the UK because the band are from Wigan and the labels are also well known, Virgin being one of them. 

The genre of our chosen song is alternative rock, this genre really goes well with our thoughts on what we are going to do in the music video. The genre is important as it would allow my group and I to tell some sort of story in the music video. The song choice has limited us from doing some things that are seen in most music videos such as fast edits, fast movements and anything that seems fun and exciting really. This has not really affected us because a lot can be done with our chosen song.  

Annotated Lyrics

My group members and I sat down and looked over the lyrics of our chosen song 'Bitter Sweet Symphony'. You can see in the image below that we have quite a few ideas, we all had input in what we would like to be added. The Lyrics really go well with our idea of the video telling a story about changes and good and bad times, it really relates to the troubles our society suffered in August 2011. The London riots 2011 I would say helped the group and I with some ideas, for example the lyrics say 'I can't change' we related this to the Broadwater farm  riots that happened years back, no change happened from that which makes people believe that the London Riots 2011 was a copy cat act. 

The group and I believe that the lyrics would allow us to experiment with a lot things; in fact it has allowed us to think outside the box and relate them with recent things that have happened in the world. All in all us annotating the notes made our lives so easy so when it comes to shooting it would be a breeze. Our ideas are still coming so things are always being added to the sheet.