Thursday, 28 January 2010

Evaluation-28/1/2010

Today I underwent the final part of my A2 Advanced Portfolio in terms of creating a music video and ancillary texts by having a live evaluation filmed in class. The purpose of this was to evaluate all the work I have done since the start of term in September 2009 and how I felt I "used, developed or challenged" the forms of real media products.
This included the creation of:
  • A music video
  • An album cover (front and back)
  • A DVD Digipak
  • A magazine advert.

I then had to discuss how effective I felt the combination was between my main product (the music video) and the ancillary texts. I also had to evaluate what I thought of my audience feedback after they had watched my music video and what I have learnt from that. I then had to comment on what new Media Technologies I have used during the creation of the above products. The new Media Technologies used in the planning and research stages were:

The new Media Technologies used in the consturction stages were:

  • Camcorder (to film my music video) along with DV Tapes to film the footage on
  • Camera (to take photos of the filming set)
  • Final Cut Pro (editing software which i edited all my footage on
  • Uploaded CD Track (for music video and editing purposes)
  • Photoshop (to construct the print artefacts e.g album cover, magazine advert)

The new Media Technologies used in the evaluation stages were:

  • Camcorder (to film the evaluation)
  • Blogger (to refer to the work I have done on my blog during the evaluation.

Overall I think that my evaluation went very well and I managed to get across all the main points that I wanted. After discussions with my teacher, it was confirmed I would be allowed to use my blog on screen to show how I have developed things such as my ancillary texts. I managed to stay quite calm whilst being filmed and think that I handled the situation well. The Evaluation stage is only a small addition to my overall grade but even so I am confident that I did well today.

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Audience Feedback

I recentlty recieved my audience feedback and I was relatively happy with my results. In general, all coments stated that my music video was deemed good to excellent. I am very happy with this. However, here are some critcisms I have picked out:


  • Lack of editorial creativity

  • Not enough variation of shot composition

  • Singing not in complete synchronisation

I accept these three criticisms. I will now state why I think these criticisms ocurred, and what I could have done differently.


EDITORIAL CREATIVITY:


I agree that in terms of editing, the maximum level of creativity was not established. This, in my opinion, is because of the song and band I chose. I feel that in creating an Oasis music video, there are certain formats it must follow such as having a performance or narrative music video and using a frontman such as Liam or Noel Gallagher. Looking back I think my music video would have been more succesful had i chosen a different song because I would have had more oppurtunities to create an abstract video that made sense with a paticular song.

SHOT COMPOSITION:

On some level I think this may be considered an accurate criticism, however I did think that in general I had included enough variation of shots. One thing looking back is that perhaps I could have included more shots from a high angle. But I do think that this was a fairly harsh criticism.

SINGING IN SYNCHRONISATION:

I think that this is a fair comment. The synchronizing period was an extremely time consuming process and one that I thought we generally did ok with. However I think to master it properly it requires hours in the editing suite that we unfortunately did not have. When the video was finished, my partner and I thought that the synchronizing we had done was of a good standard. However I think one can become too warped in one's work and fail to realise the errors in front of you. In hindsight, I wish that I asked a fellow student to review my music video and point out such errors in order to prevent this happening.








Ancillary Project-Album Cover

As part of my A2 Portfolio, I have been asked to create an album cover for the music album "The Masterplan." The song I used, "Half the World Away," is on the album The Masterplan. Here is my final proposal for the front of my album cover:



For the cover, I wanted a shot of our actor playing the guitar and having houses and the sight of an urban village in the background as this reflects the storyline I was aiming for in my music video. This is a frozen still image from some of the footage I have obtained during the filming of the music video. I wanted it in black and white as well as this shows a link between the music video where approximately a third of it is in black and white. I also felt it was important to have the official oasis logo which is seen on every album cover they have produced.



This is only the front cover. For my A2 portfolio I am also expected to create the back of the album cover. I also created this on photoshop. This is my final proposal for the back of my album cover:

For this I used an image which I took with a camera which I obtained whilst filming my music video. This is an actual photo of the poker scene set which is in my music video. I think that this would work well as it develops another link between the ancillary project and the music video and makes the back more authentic by linking in the music video from my song onto the album. I have also used and developed the typical codes and conventions of a CD Album by listing the songs downwards on the back. As is common amongst many albums, the length of the song is also there.

Ancillary Project-DVD Digipak cover

As part of the A2 Portfolio I have also been asked to create a DVD dikipak for my album. After much experimentation on Photoshop this is my final proposal for the DVD Cover:

For this we used an original photo of David that we took with a camera during the filming process of the music video and put it onto Photoshop. The fence was only small but we wanted it to go on the back of the digipak cover and make it look like the same image all the way around. To do this we took the size of the fence we had and pasted it 3 or 4 times next to it to the original image tomake it look like one big fence. Also, the image was made black and white as all our other images on the ancillary projects have been made in this way such as the album cover and the magazine advert. However we decided to highlight the colour of the guitar. During the black and white scenes in the music video, there was a shot of the guitar which we wanted to keep in colour to show that this object is the saving light in David's life. However during the editing process it was not possible to bring out the colour as it was placed in front of a wall with similar colours so it would not have worked. Therefore I was happy that we were able to include it in the digipak.




Saturday, 23 January 2010

Production Set Images

Here is a selection of the images I took whilst filming my music video. It gives a basic insight into the set and location of where we filmed.
Dave in full flow on the roof.
Experimenting with shots!
The main setting.


Dave singing on roof, me filming.



View from the garage roof-Urban shot




Living Room Scene


Poker Scene















Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Editing

The final stage of creating a music video is of course editing all of the footage. This process ended last week and it took us about 5 or 6 weeks to complete. The software I used for editing is called “Final Cut Pro.” The editing process began by uploading all of the footage that we had accumulated and putting it straight onto the computer and then adding the audio track of "Half the World Away." Adding the track bizarrely became our first problem, with the song proving somewhat difficult to get hold of. This was soon sorted but it was an unwelcome early setback. The task then was to watch through all the footage we had recorded and write down the time signature of the clips that we wanted to use, thus getting rid of the footage that was deemed unnecessary. We then named each clip so that it would be easier to identify them. To do all this we used the live capture feature to gather the parts of our footage that we wanted and then uploaded it on to the editing timeline. After this it was a case of arranging our selected clips in the order we wanted. First of all it was important that we synced up the performance parts of the music video so that when our actor was singing his lips were keeping in time with the audio track uploaded. This was a time consuming process, but one that had to be done. Once this was completed, it was a case of adding the narrative clips and cropping those down to produce the full production. At this stage of editing, the music video could effectively be passed off as acceptable. However, it is then about adding specific parts to your music video to make it fit the image you expect of it. For example, we then went on to add filters and video transitions. The majority of the parts of the music video that are seen in colour have been edited using the "Colour Corrector" filter. This was necessary because we wanted the colour scenes to indirectly resemble happiness in that part of David's life. However, it turned out they did not always reflect this prior to the colour corrector being added.
In the original storyboards, we did not see the poker and drugs scenes as being set in black and white. But after reflecting on our thoughts, to make them black and white. We did this by desaturating the entire colour from the clips and fiddling around with the levels of contrast and brightness. It was then that our second problem emerged. One of the clips set up for making the change from colour to black and white had a distinctive rise in sunlight compared to all the others. This was dealt with by again fiddling around with the contrast and brightness of the clip, but it proved difficult and took a lot of time to get it right.
After then receiving editorial advice we decided to add a filter which made the black and white clips look grainy with a sepia tint adding age. However, this part of the video is showing that the height of fame is actually a downfall thus trying to demonstrate a rough and tarnished appearance as opposed to age. Transitions such as dissolving fades were added at the beginning and end of the black and white sequence to attempt to display time and events changing to affect the mood of the character.
To ensure that it looked like the music video was appearing on a music channel such as MTV, text was added at the beginning and end of the video, stating the song name (Half the World Away) and the artist (Oasis). These are often known as credits. A problem occurred in finding the right font to fit the image and in my eyes this problem was never completely solved.
There were other problems which occurred during the editing and filming stages. For example, after the first days filming it was clear that the emotion we were seeking to appear in our music video was not coming across on screen. This involved filming certain shots again and getting our main actor to show more emotion on his face to demonstrate what the events occurring were doing to his life. As well as this, we faced further problems after the second days filming. Once we had edited our footage from that day, it became apparent that there were still minor problems that would require a final day of filming. Further footage was needed to show the childhood years of David’s life (e.g. the scenes in the park.) This was a setback again that was not welcome but I felt that we generally overcame our setbacks professionally and successfully.

Thursday, 14 January 2010

Ancillary Project-Magazine Advert

For our A2 Portfolio, we have been asked to create an advertisement for a magazie, promoting the release of a new album. In this case, that album is "The Masterplan," by Oasis. We have decided to stick to the format in terms of advertisements, so it may be similiar to certain adverts. The main information needed is the name of the band and the name of the album. Therefore these two pieces of information are at the top of the page and are in the biggest fonts. Also important is the price and this is in a slightly smaller font. The photo also dominates the majority of the page and is the same photo used for the cover for the album, so this links well in my opinion for promoting the album and familiarising the image amongst fans. It would show the familiar face of the would be artist to his fans flicking through a magazine. This is my final proposal for my magazine advertisement.







Monday, 11 January 2010

FIlming-Day Three

Our third day of filming took place on November 9th 2009. This day was very successful as Sam and I managed to complete all our required filming ready for the final pieces of editing. Our final day of filming took place in a public park near David’s house. We needed to film David having fun and playing with his mates, and generally being happy. After looking at what we had filmed we realised that the majority is made up of David’s poker scene where he is an adult rock star. Therefore, in order to stick to the original storyline, we required footage of David in his youth. Hiring the services of supporting artists Jack Taylor and Sam Cooper, we filmed David playing on the swings, playing football, and running down a big hill, coming to the conclusion that these are very childlike traits. Upon returning to the edit suite it was clear we had all our required footage, and all that was left to do was edit our final footage