Final cut!

This is the final cut of our music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoKgnXQ-sD4&list=UUZnI-eqGh_KYs1vOLVOc80Q&index=2&feature=plcp

Evaluation 4!

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

I used new media technologies throughout the whole process of our video making. Primarily for research. I found new media technologies incredibly helpful because the information needed was literally there with just a click and the internet. We didn't need to go searching around numerous libraries trying to find the information we required on music from the past and the generic conventions that were vital to make a particular genre.

The research I did, not only included basic knowledge, but also the very detailed specific information I needed to help with creating or re-creating a certain look for our project. One example is the work of Adele. We had to really investigate the patter her work follows and the links from one piece of work to another. None of this would be anywhere near as accessible if we didn't have the technology we have now.

Adding to the computers and internet the different softwear we have now is so helpful and trying to make the videos, as we have done would be near enough impossible. It would take considerably longer than it took us to get the effects and accuracy when cutting the shots and placing them together. The particular softwear we used is Adobe Premiere Pro. This combined with the computers is incredible. It's easy enough to have grand ideas, but the new media technology is 100% nescassary for us to make the ideas real.

The most important part is the camera. Without the developed cameras we have now, it would be almost impossible to get the footage like we have. Now that such small, handheld cameras are available we can not only get shots in different places but in different angles too. If we had old style cameras that weren't as far on it would be so much harder to get the clear image that we've achieved in these shots. The quality would be really poor.

We also used a lot of new media technology when photoshopping the photographs. We completely transformed the images to make them less amature amd more like the work of a professional music artist trying to sell their work. This was a vital step in acheiving the look we have wanted for our digipak.We used another piece of softwear for this stage, again it was Adobe but this time we used Adobe Photoshop.

Here is the process we went through editing one of the photographs taken of Chloe as I have mentioned previously in my blog:

To start, select the image you want and select the tab at the top of the page, labelled 'layers' and in this list there's an option to put a black and white layer over the top, select that. This is how the image looks after this first step. There are many different options in this section, and lots of different effects you can put on with the layer tab.

This image shows the process of adding a neon glow to the image, we found this while experimenting with all of the effects. To start with we selected 'Filter', then 'Artistic' and then 'Neon Glow'. At this point the picture opens in a new window and the black and white filter dissapears. In this case, the photo went back to it's original appearance until we had selected the effect we wanted. This time that was 'Neon Glow'

This is how the image looks after the effect has been added. On the right side of the screen there are some controls so that we can decide how much we want the picture to glow and how strong it is. We can decide what colour we want the glow to be and how clear the picture is. We pretty much left it as it was with the ready set amounts. We did experiment but this seemed to be enough.

After the effect was added this is the finished product. We are going to edit parts of it to make it look more like the front cover of a CD.

This is the next stage, for starters we cut the image down to the size of the Album cover. This also solved another little problem we had; when we put the glow onto the picture it made Chloe's arm/sleeve look a little strange, so when we trimmed the image it cut that problem off. We still need to add little bits to the image to make it like a front cover; such as the album title, artist name etc.

Here are the results of our experimenting with the title and artist name etc. We have tried two different names, both of which are in different fonts. One is 'Treasure' and the other is 'Outback'. We also put another layer over and made the image a bit more sepia than just plain black and white.

Finally, we used new media technology very much to get feedback on all of our work. Our video, poster and digipak. We used multiple websites and social networking sites, such as; Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. To post our work and get feedback from the viewers.

The feedback we got was mainly positive. The only negative comment we received was about the overacting of our main performer. One quote was "from the acting, you expect a big Celine Dion ballad to come out, but the song is really soft. They don't match" - this point is fair, it's true and we know about it. So we know to look out for all of these aspects in future projects. Here are some screengrabs of our feedback:

Evaluation 3!

"What have you learned from your audience feedback?"

From the feedback we have been given, we have learned that people primarily look at the performer. Of course they are the main focus and the first thing that catches the audience's attention. But I noticed how little the viewer concentrates on the other aspects such as; mise-en-scene, camerawork and editing etc. Because I have a keen interest in film making I take notice of every detail and also look at more of the details in music videos. But I just assumed that other people took more notice too.

The main comment we got was about Chloe's over acting. We knew about this and noticed it a lot from spending so much time trying to sync it and get it right but I didn't think other people would pick up on it as much, having said that, if they see less of the other apsects then they will of course notice when the performer goes wrong. So it is very important to get a person that it just right; not too confident but has enough confidence to do everything that is required of them to make the video work. Sadly we had someone that was a little over confident.

I also learnt that very little information is needed for the narrative to be clear. We have very little clues as to what has happened in the past of Chloe's character, just a few shots of poppies and Chloe crying at a statue and still everyone that has seen it realises straight away that we are trying to get across she has lost her boyfriend to the conflict in Afganistan.

So the audience's opinion is very important. Not only for helping to edit final bits of the current video, but in helping each of us to know what to look for in future projects. To look out for every single detail because someone will notice everything.

Evaluation 2!

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

 The combination of our main product and our ancillary text is very effective. We have done very similar to our inspirational artist, Adele, and not only made our digipak the same tone and theme as our poster. And of course, the video. We have very minimal colours in our music video and the colours that are included are rare and diluted. This point is emphasised with all of our black and white shots. Adele's trademark almost, is that she always weaes black or is surrounded by black and her work either has all of the colours drained from them or she uses very neutral, earthy colours.

We have lots of images that are very similar to shots we have used in our video. For example, several shots are included of Chloes feet, walking around the pond, also just before she falls to her knees infront of the war memorial. We chose to use one of the shots in our digipak as it was something a bit different to just having head shots of her in black and white. They would get boring if the were all the same. So we used her feet. The image however is still in black and white, to continue with the theme of colourless imagery.

We have also included a variation of angles showing Chloe's face up close to make her somber mood more clear, in both the digipak and music video. This factor has also helped with the effect because if we had the video as it is, but then made a our promotional material really brightly coloured with Chloe smiling and appearing happy, then it wouldn't connect at all and it would be very unclead that they were in fact together.

Here are some examples of our work and Adele's work, showing the similarities and that we managed to cheive the effect we wanted - inspired by Adele.

Here the simliarities are very clear. Not only have we got the same colour pallet with the black and white filters. But we also made sure to get a photoghraph that in which Chloe looked very deep in thought. Not only for the continuing theme of our video but also because that's what Adele does. So we managed to get both in with just one picture. Adding to this we also chose to put the artist's name in white, contrasting with the darkness of the black background. But have the album name in a colour. This is the same technique that Adele has chosen to use. We used a different colour to Adele of course, and decided to use a deep red colour to reflect the poppies in our video.

Evaluation 1!

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

The conventions our music video are pretty typical for the genre. As we were doing an Adele song we used her for our inspiration - making a lot of the conventions in our video similar to hers. There's nothing partucularly different or out of the ordinary in our product. It has quite a simple, basic narrative, no special effects were used - much like the work of Adele.

We didn't add man special effects to our music video because we felt it relied more on the narrative and acting of our main character (Chloe) than the effects used. However we did add some colour filters and made some shots black and white. This seems to be an effect that Adele likes to use in her own videos. We slowed some down to make the shot a little more dramatic but apart from that the only editing required was the synching and making sure the narrative was clear, that the shots were all in order.

The camerawork we used also isn't anything unusual. We included lots of medium close ups on Chloe to convey the full emotion that she's feeling, and some long shots to show the locatation fully and to make it clear how alone she is to the audience by shooting everything in relatively desserted places. This also allowed us to get the full mise-en-scene of the locations in. For example, up at the Wind farm (the image above), it was a very dark, dismal day and it was really windy. All adding to the effect. This again isn't anything out of the ordinary. Although it wouldn't be used in a typical Pop video, shots like these and mise-en-scene like this is only included in videos like ours that a more dramatic and narrative based than some of the more simple genres.

When making this video we also decided not to include any diagetic sound and only have the focus track heard. Some pre-existing musci videos include some sound in the video that isn't on the track, but fits in with the video. For example; if there's a conversation and something needs to be heard which is nescassary for the narrative to be understood. Then perhaps a couple of words can he heard - or maybe a laugh. We chose not to do this.

The mise-en-scene throughout our video is very dark and dismal. It wouldn't have the same effect if we had shot it on a really sunny day, on the beach. It jsut wouldn't fit. So we chose to use locations that are much more rural and believable as places she would go when she's upset or wants to be alone. Again, this isn't different. it's a lot like the work of Adele. She usually wears dark clothing, generally black - as Chloe has done - and is in quite secluded places in her videos. Adele has used places that are known for being very overcrowded and busy but filmed when the places are desserted. Either by having these certain places such as; the bridge by the Thames or other main tourist attraction points of London, closed briefly, or filming very very early in the morning. In this video ou see a panning shot around her and there isn't a sole there apart from Adele herself; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0&ob=av2e. Which has the same effect as in ours - it shows how alone she is.

The narrative of our video is a little different. We have got a connection with romance in the video, which is what most songs and videos are about these days. But instead of just loosing love we decided to make it a little more dramatic and make is suggestive that the boyfriend had died, fighting in a war. This is so relatable at the moment for so many people. Whether they know someone fighting, someone that has died or are fighting themselves. It would make the song very sentimental to a person. There is already the music by The Army Wives which is for the men fighting but we didn't want to do a video like theres, we wanted to make the video more narrative based than their mixture of photo montages and performance shots.

So our video doesn't particularly develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music videos. But we have used lots of existing effects an conventions in our product.

The same applies for our promotional work. None of it particularly challenges the usual conventions. We again used Adele's work as inspiration for this, but much more heavily than in our video. For our poster and album cover especially.

 

Poster number 2!

To go with our new digipak images we have also made a new poster, this was quite simle to make - like our first attempt - but it's a lot more bold and proffesional looking. 

Youtube Feedback!

We put our final cut of the music video on youtube and got two really good comments. The main faults are things that we know about but can't change. We spent a really long time trying to sync the video but because of Chloe not knowing the lyrics and overacting we can't. We did consider re-shooting the clips that weren't great but we can't because Chloe has dyed her hair bright yellow and although some artists do that and have different looks in different shots, we didn't feel it would look right with her looking the same all the way through exept for these few shots. Unfortunately we will have to leave these faults as they are.