Evaluation Question 4

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

At the research and planning stage of this project, I used technologies such as Blogger, YouTube and Wikipedia, to gather details and stay organised in preparation for the construction of my music video. I used blogger to organise and save all my work in one place making it easy to find when necessary. YouTube was used in order for me to view both official and student music videos in order to analyse gain inspiration for our music video. I also used YouTube to study other music videos in our genre and others by our chosen artist to help create a clear picture of what should be included in our music video when we got to the construction stage. Another technology used was Wikipedia and the artists specific website, this was to build up a profile and history of our chosen artist so that we could apply elements to our music video such as choosing the correct actor to fit the role and deciding on the final narrative.

During the construction stage of our music video, I used a variety of technologies to film and then edit our music video to the highest standard. The first piece of technology I used was a Cannon HD camera which was used to film all but one of the shots for our music video. I used this technology as it produced a clear and precise image meaning our music video looked professional and up to the standards of a real media product.  We also used an iPhone to film one of the shorter clips featured in our music video because as part of our feedback we were asked to film the old man lip syncing. We used this technology as it was much simpler to film this ten second clip on a phone as they are small and easily portable but still produce the same quality shot as the camera.

Once we had filmed all the footage for our music video we moved on to editing it to produce the final product. In the editing stage we used technologies such as an Apple Mac with programmes including IMovie and ITunes. We used iTunes and YouTube converter in order to get our chosen song from YouTube on to the mac for us to place over the footage we had filmed so we could accurately match up the lip-syncing carried out by our artist. After we had the song on the mac we used IMovie to edit our video, by cutting and cropping clips, adding transitions and effects and stabilising any shaky shots to produce a clear and professional music video. We used iMovie to select the best sections of filming from clips, order them in a way that told a story that linked to the lyrics of our chosen song and edit them by adding transitions and effects, such as making the images black and white, to ensure they have an impact on audiences.

For the magazine and digipak made for our music video, we used technologies including PowerPoint. We used PowerPoint for our digipak to crop and position images on a digipak template to create drafts before receiving feedback with which we improved our digipak until it linked appropriately to our music video and would stand out to audiences. Similarly we again used PowerPoint to produce our magazine advert as it allowed us to rotate and overlap corners of images to create a collage effect of all the picture of our couple at different ages in order for it to link with our music video.


Finally in the evaluation stages of this project I used Blogger, Prezi and PowerPoint to present my evaluation questions in multiple ways. I used PowerPoint for my evaluation question on audience feedback  as it allowed me to analyse each question per slide from my questionnaire meaning I can clearly present the feedback. I used prezi for two of my evaluation questions as it is a simple program to use and lets me customize prezi's and move text boxes around to make paragraphs fit and follow one another properly.


The technologies I used throughout the research planning and evaluation of this project all worked really well for me and I had no major issues with any of them. I had experience with each of these technologies and therefore knew how they worked so was able to avoid any problems that could have effected the task.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Final Music Video

Final Digipak

Final Magazine Advert

Plan for mgazine Advert

My idea for our magazine advert involves using the pictures that we see in the flash forward section of our music video and placing them together in a large wooden frame acting as a border round the edge of the advert. I have also added an image of the artist playing the piano as well as a park image from the music video in order to show the other elements/ settings in the music video. Unlike the music video, these images will be in colour in order to ensure it stands out to audiences. The font on my magazine advert is simple and white in colour to be sure that it stands out on the different backgrounds it’s placed against. I think my design would work well with our music video as incorporated images fro the video to help show the narrative and. Also it link to the title as I shows a couple a different as and therefore we are seeing them grow old together throughout the magazine advert.

Plan for Digipak

 

 



The images on this post shows the plan I created for the digipak for our music video. Oringinally I designed a rough draft drawn out in pencil and when I was happy with this I used real life images to create a photographic version. The overall theme of my Digipak is the love and growth of the couple as they grow old together.  Some of the images used in  my digipak such as the hands are not ones that appear in our music video but they do still make sense and fit with our music video narrative.

 

 

The front cover of my Digipak design is simple yet effective with a black background white text and a young couples holding hands. The use of the black background allows the audience to focus on the image and the text which have a strong link that continues through the rest of the Digipak. I chose to use white writing on the black background in order to make it stand out to audiences as the colours are contrasting. It also help to emphasize the image of the young hands holding each other, which I used at the start of my Digipak as a starting point from which we will see them grow old throughout the Digipak before ending with them still holding hands but as an old couple.

 

 

The last page in my Digipak it almost identical to the front page as there is still a black background, white font and pair of hands but this time the hands are aged. Similarly to the first page, I used the black and white for background and font in order to make the Digipak stand out as well to highlight the image which will show that the hands, although the same as the ones on the front of the Digipak, have grown old together, linking to the title of our song. Both the front and the back page of my Digipak are similar in design to create the effect that as you open up the Digipak you're traveling through their life before ending the story the same way you stared after time having past.

 

The inside page in my Digipak shows the couple from our music video from behind holding hands, this is to symbolise that the audience are about to follow them through their story of growing old together. This image will cover the whole page in order to immerse the audience into our Digipak and feel as if they are part of the story and the journey that the couple go through.

 

 

The left page of my Digipak shows a close up shot of the male actor/artist smiling this by itself does not make much sense but can be used to show the joy on his face and to create the idea that he is welcoming the audience into the Digipak and allowing them to grow old with him. The far right picture in my Digipak then shows a close-up of the girl smiling this again shows the joy on her face. The position of this page and image shows that the couple are sharing their journey as they are either side of the Digipak letting us travel through the centre to see journey.

 

The centre image in my Digipak is an image of our couple at the park, I used this image to have a visual link to our music video and to show that couple having fun and being very much in love. The colours used in this image will be very bright to connote the happiness within the video and narrative. I chose this image as the centre picture as it a neutral background and it shows the couples true love for each other in a natural situation which connotes a relaxed happy feeling for the audience.

Initial Ideas

In order to gather some initial idea for our music video we printed off the lyrics to the song and read through them to see what ideas came to mind. The image above shows the initial ideas we had for the narrative of our music video when we first viewed the lyrics. Making a note of our initial means that when we come to deciding on the narrative, we already have a basic structure to work with and grow from.

 

 The following images are examples of things that we will include in our music video and basic images that can help to give a visual to our initial ideas for our music video.

 

Inspiration from Real Media Texts

Throughout the planning process of this task we took inspiration from many places such as films and other music videos whilst also using our own ideas to create the perfect narrative and look for our music video. One particular music video we took inspiration from was Jamie Lawson "I wasn't expecting that". The narrative for this music video follows a couple in reverse from old age back to when they were childhood sweethearts before returning to them when they are older and the women is dying. The video shows the couple through the ages and at different milestones of their relationship such as marriage and having children. We took inspiration from this video as we liked the idea of showing how our couple aged and what they go through within their lifetime. that concept then inspired us to do the photograph sequence where we see images of our couple at different stages in their life as we felt if we create a greater impact on the audience of our music video.

Research into chosen Artist

Information gathered from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Odell

 

 

Below is a screenshot of the artists website, there is not much useful information on this website, but it does allow you to view music videos by the and to see any gigs or tour that he might be playing in the future.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research into chosen Genre

In order to have a better understanding of our music genre we carried out some research into the history of Indie Pop as well as the generic conventions included in this genre. Below is a moodboard of generic conventions found in or related to Indie Pop.

This research will help with our own music video as we know what we need to include to make it suitable for our genre and audience. Also it will give us inspiration and idea for our own music video and its narrative and visual presentation.

 

For our music video, we have chosen the song Grow Old With Me by Tom Odell, other Indie Pop vidoes of his include:







 Other artists who are of the Indie Pop genre include:

                                                     

                                                      

 

Lyric Analysis

Lyric Analysis- Craig David: 7 Days


Lyrical analysis is the break down of song lyrics to reveals their true meaning and the message the artist is trying to get across to audience.  Lyrical analysis is important as the lyrics of a song are one of the main elements that help to inspire and structure the content of the music video. The lyrics of a song can help to tell the story/ narrative that is often found in their music videos. It is important that the lyrics of a song are analysed so that they are sure to relate to or contradict the video ( one of Goodwin's 7 codes and conventions) rather than having no relevance as that will not appeal to target audiences.

The image to the left is an lyrical analysis that I have carried out from which I read the lyrics and used then to create an initial idea for a music video for the specific song. This task will help me when creating our own music video as is has taught me how important the lyrics are when creating a music video, how lyrics can be interpreted differently by other people and that no every line has to be literal within the narrative.

After reading the lyrics to this song I created an initial music video with the first verse consisting of a man walking through a subway in New York where he is accidently bumped into by a woman who is rushing to work; they then end up chatting and swap numbers. For the next verse I imagined the man at home with a friend who is asking him all the questions about the girls he has met and he is giving the responses. For the chorus I pictured a montage of the man and woman doing all the things mentioned within the chorus such as going for a drink and chilling.

The concept that I created is in some ways quite similar to the original video although there are some obvious differences to the original video. The music video I imagined after reading the lyrics involved a continuous story where as the original shows him repeating the same day again and again until he gets it right. However, the basic story line for both the videos are quite alike in the fact that he does meet a woman in the street and has the conversation with his friend although not in the same circumstances or settings both of these sections of narrative where included in the original and my initial ideas for the music video. However the chorus for the song is different in the original video compared to my ideas as it focus more on the one evening of them going out and then going back to his, whereas I pictured it as a montage over multiple.

Lip Syncing – what it is and its importance

Lip syncing is the process of accurately matching the music/recorded song to the singing in the music video. Songs are recorded separately to the music video meaning the editing teams have to sync the artists lip movements to the exact timing of the song it order to make it look realistic and professional. It is important that lip-syncing occurs and is carried out precisely as its one of the main elements found in a music video and therefore if not synced 100% it can make the video and artist look unprofessional.

In order to get a better understanding and some experience of lip syncing, we created a lip sync example containing a short section of a song from the same genre that we have chose for our own music video. We carried out this task so that we could work out the best ways to achieve the best lip sync within our music video without making it to hard for ourselves when in the editing stages.

Brief analysis of ....

Brief analysis of a Digipak

A digipak is part of the packaging made for CD's.  They can  come in a 6 panel or 4 panel structure and are used to stand out and promote the single/ artist to target audiences. Digipaks usually consist images from the music video or related to the song/ music video as well as large clear text displaying the artists name and the single/album title. Digipaks often use bright or bold colours within their designs to ensure that they stand out against others and to specific target audiences.

The colour red, which has connotations of love , is used a lot within this digipak suggesting that songs within the album will about/ related to love. It is also a bright colour that stands out and links with the title of the album as it is a colour that could be described as "LOUD". The images used for the digipak focus specifically on the artist showing her importance. The pink roses on the CD's link to the roses in the image used across the digipak, this then relates to the idea love shown in this digipak as rose are often bought and rcieved as a sign of love and passion.

In contrast to the meaining of the title, the font used on this digipak is less dramatic and does not stand out from the background. This suggests that the look and face of the artist is of more improtance rather that the name of the album.


Brief analysis of a Magazine Advert


 Magazine adverts are used to promote the artist and single. They advertise the single buy using an image related to the song of artist with their name and the song title along with its release date and the record label logo. Magazine adverts are created  to promote the single before and once it has been released to ensure that target audiences have knowledge of it and therefore will go out and buy plan to when it is released therefore creating large record sales for the artist. Font colours are usually a contrast to the colours used in the background and images in order for it to stand out to audiences The image in the David Gilmour poster show multiple birds flying from a cage, this links with the title of the album as the birds are flying out of the cage and therefore rattling the lock. The white font is a contrast to the dark colours that appear in the image, this is so that the artists name and album title stand out to audiences suggesting that information is more important than the image used. Similar to the David Gilmour magazine advert, the stereophonics advert also used a contrasting font colour again to make stand out to audiences. However an image of the band has been used on this magazine advert allowing the bands image to be promoted as well as the album.

The purpose of magazine adverts and digipaks

The purpose of a Digipak is to Promote the single and artist when the single is on sale in stores. Digipaks are created to make the single unique to the artist and to ensure that it stands out to target audience against other digipak that it is sold next to. Digipaks are made up of different panels which contain images of the artist or objects related to the single, the artists name along with the single title, a list of the tracks on the album and the record label logo.




The purpose of a magazine advert is again to promote the single and artist as well as

. The release date for the single
. The record label who produced the song
. Where the song can be bought ( ITunes, HMV, Spotify)
. What resource the song is being sold in e.g. CD, Vinyl, Digital.
. Website for the artist/ record company

Magazine adverts are often simple with an image covering the page and the name of the artist/band in large font either on the top or bottom of the page.

The purpose of a music video

The purpose of a music video is to promote the single of album as well as the artist. Music videos are used to promote the branding and image of an artist as well as the genre of the single in order to make it appealing to the target audience. For example bands such as Lawson put their name or logo on the drums in order to advertise the artist. Music videos are also produced in order to tell the story and create a narrative from the lyrics making the song memorable and giving it meaning.

An example of a music video that contains a strong narrative the links to the lyrics in order to give them meaning is Taylor Swift, You Belong With Me.

What makes a good student music video?

A good student music video should have the highest standards of each area involved in making a music video such as contents and construction. a good student music video should include a variety of elements from the different areas such as narrative and editing.  A good student music video includes a strong narrative that relates to or tells a story from the lyrics, the narrative has to give the song meaning and therefore make it appeal to target audiences. Student music videos need to ensure that the video matches the genre of the song and that they appeal to the correct target audience for the songs genre. As well as narrative, sections of live performance  and thematic and symbolic concepts should be involved to make sure a student music video is good.

In terms of construction, a controlled use of the camera with a detailed attention to framing and a mixture of shot sizes and types should also be included to make a good top mark student music video. Editing of the music video should use a selection of effects and shot transitions appropriate to the music video, the song and their genres. Editing should be used to help the narrative flow smoothly and create a meaning that is apparent to the audience. All construction techniques and elements should be high quality and professional such as the stability of the camera and the clarity of the sound and recording.

An example of a good student music video is as below: