Evaluation - Ella Trainor

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Maisie Linnane - Question 4

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

During the research stage the Internet was the most vital tool. We used ‘Google’ to search for things that we needed to know. The most popular websites we visited was ‘You Tube’ and ‘Wikipedia’, although there were many others as well.

Wikipedia was used to find out things like the characteristics of our genre and information on the artist of the song ‘Lenka’. We used ‘You Tube’ to research techniques and to watch other videos of the same/similar genre; this helped us to get ideas for our own music video. All of the information we needed was easy to find we made everything much more simple during this stage.

Throughout all stages of our coursework we used blogger to track our progress on our group blog. (www.fantasyandliesproductions.blogspot.com)

For everything we done, we wrote a post about it. It showed our work from beginning to end. Tasks that we performed together we would add a label for all our names, however if it was something we had done individually we would only add the label of our name to show the reader who was responsible for what parts of the project. We would also use labels to show what our post was about and make it easier to find certain posts, for example, if we were writing about Photoshop, we would add the label ‘Photoshop’, this would mean that we could click on that label and see all posts relating to using Photoshop.

We used Adobe Photoshop to edit our still photos. These included all the images used in the video for stop motion, and the images used for the digipak and magazine advert. We used this program to perform a variety of tasks such as, removing the date from images, cutting parts of the image out to put on a different background (mostly just a plain white background for a cleaner more professional appearance.) Problems we faced when using Photoshop were that it would sometimes take a long time to edit just a small amount of an image, for example when we were cutting the date out of an image, we may do a small bit but it would not look good so we would have to start again. I done the majority or the editing within Photoshop, by spending a lot of time of Photoshop I was able to perform tasks quicker.

We used Final Cut Express to edit our music video. I have used this before which made the whole thing much easier as we already had good knowledge of the program. We managed to get through the whole production with very few problems within the program. Also, we had very little knowledge of lip-syncing, we had performed a short preliminary task to practice lip-syncing in Final Cut before starting the task, which did help us. As expected, after using the program for a while we got much better at lining up the lip-syncing with the music and I was very happy with out results. We would have liked to be able to perform more complex edits and use more professional filters, however as the software we had was only the express version it did not allow us to show our ideas and skills to the fullest and I would have much preferred to work on a full version of editing software, for example, Final Cut Pro. I still believe that we worked very well with what we had and produced a video of a high standard.

We used my dad’s camera, which was a Nikon P300. I was extremely pleased with the results. We used this alongside a standard tripod. The quality of the video and images were very good. This defiantly had a big contribution to the overall outcome of our work. Many of our shots were using the tripod, however we varied this with handheld shots. We also varied the angles to help portray the story of the song. The camera worked well under all circumstances, for example the inside shots, outside shots, close up and long shots. The only problems we had were that we ran out of battery on most of our filming, however it was towards the end of the day. This was because we tried to take a lot more footage than we would actually need to ensure we could produce the highest quality video, we did not want to miss anything that could have benefited our work. As the majority of our filming was done in a park, this meant that the battery for the camera could not be recharged, as we had no energy source. In hindsight, I would have ensured we had a spare battery or set up a way to recharge the camera (by having a car charger etc.) Although it was a problem we made sure it did not affect our filming, we planned extra time to film incase any problems were to occur, this meant we had plenty of time, so we managed to get all the footage we needed. Another problem we faced was the amount of memory space, we had plenty of memory cards, however they each contained limited space, this meant we had to constantly swap memory cards around, this wasted time and could be organised much better in the future.

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Group Meeting - Subject:Filming Locations

We have had a group meeting, during which we discussed all filming locations for our music video. Here is our filmed meeting. 

(INSERT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Album Cover Drafts

This is the sketches for our first & second draft for our album cover.

Problems with Digipack

We have had some difficulties with our digipack because once we thought we had completed it and went to insert it into the template, it was the wrong size and we had to start over.

Maisie Linnane - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

During the pre-production of our music video we created our target demographic. This is who we came up with:

"Alice; she is 19 years old & lives in Brentwood. She enjoys watching TV channels such as E4 & Sky Living. In relation to music channels, she watches Viva, 4music, Mtv, The Box & Smash Hits. Her favourite genre of music is Pop/Indie & Indie/Rock.

She typically reads fashion magazines, for example, Vogue, Elle and Look; she also has a Rolling Stones monthly subscription from the US, as she is extremely passionate about music. She also reads the film magazine, Empire.

Alice pursues lots of hobbies when she is not studying, for instance, spending time with friends & listening to music on her iPod or on radio stations, XFM, Capital FM & Radio 1. She also likes playing guitar, writing songs, and horse riding, jogging & going to festivals such as Virgin Festival & Reading Festival.

Her two favourite films are Juno & Twilight. Ellie Goulding is her best-loved artist & You Me At Six are her favourite band.

Shopping centers Alice goes to consist of Lakeside, Bluewater, Westfield & the West End. Her most commonly visited shops are Topshop, Urban Outfitters, River Island, Selfridges, All Saints & New Look, there are also many boutiques and vintage shops in London that she buys lots of her clothes from."

We thought that the artist that is quite similar to the one in our video was Ellie Goulding. Therefore our target market is very similar. Her target demographic is young females, aging from 13-24. This is who we were also trying to appeal to.

After looking at videos by Ellie Goulding we came up with a few ideas that we would like to use within our work. For example much of her work is set outdoors which again give the naturalistic look. She used lip-syncing throughout the majority of her videos, and although some of them showed a narrative they were mostly concept driven and performance based. We thought that by using some of the themes that Ellie Goulding used within her work we would be able to ensure that we would appeal to our target audience, as they were similar to hers. However we did not want our work to be compared to Ellie Goulding’s, as we wanted our work to be original.

There was variations within her videos, some were very simplistic, and some had quite a lot going on with CGI. Although I liked the look of her more complex videos, I preferred the more natural look for my music video and it would very much suit our chosen song more. This is why we chose Valentines Park, Ilford, in particular as the size of the park means that there are many areas of the park that look completely different, we thought that it was a very good location as it looks as if we had used various locations when really it was all in one place.

We also added a picture of ‘Alice’, therefore we wanted to costumes in the video to be things that she would choose to wear, and this will help her to relate to the artist. We chose outfits that were a bit quirky. We had her wearing a big fur coat with a short dress and holding an umbrella when wearing shorts, crop top and wooly hat. She was also walking bare foot around a bench. We wanted these outfits to be a bit different but we didn’t want them to take the attention away from what else was going on in the frame.

The theme of love and relationships, which runs through, our work is one that young people can relate to. That is why we chose to focus on this theme, as we wanted to use it to our advantage so that we could get the audience’s attention. We wanted the viewer to be able to sympathise with the artist. For example, if a young boy was the main artist of the video and he was talking about his relationships and our target audience was young females, they would not have been able to relate to how he was feeling or what he was going through.  Therefore, as the artist in in the same gender/age group as the target audience, it makes it much easier for them to understand the message that was put out by the video. 

By using certain camera shots, it helped the audience to understand how the artist was feeling which would help them connect with her. For example, we used high angle shots to show that she was feeling upset and confused.

The feedback we received on our final music video, digipak and magazine advert was very positive, which we were extremely pleased with.

Once we had nearly finished our music video we posted a draft on ‘YouTube’ for our peers and family to watch. This received very good feedback, and although we did get a few points of constructive criticism, we used this to make the final piece better.

The most common points  we received were:
   
   The first shot was good as it looked simple and pure 

•       The lighting in all of our shots were very good

•       They don't like the angle looking down on her as they think it looks as though she is below the viewer. 

•       They think that we have understood the idea of the music well.

•       They like the settings and think they match the genre of our song

•       They think that it fits all the codes and conventions of the artist. 

•       Some lip syncing was off

•       Good effects, enjoyed it

•       Less of the squirrel shot

•       Stop motion was really good

•       Really liked the stop motion & the split screen. The locations were good & fitted well with the song

•       Favourite part was the 'I Want My Money Back' bit (split screens)

•       Do more relating visuals to lyrics

•       Really good ideas, loved the beginning shot

•       Fantastic, have managed to capture a constant atmosphere so far through the film & cover, keep it up with rest of the editing

•       Excellent camera work, covers need developing & advert magazine needed, play with fonts.

•       The different locations and costumes show how much work has gone into it

•       Although the split screen isn’t perfect they thought it looked very good

•       It makes them want to watch the full completed version

•       Lighting is very natural looking

•       Some shots were too long, of performer just singing.

We discussed all of the comments we received and were very pleased for the overall positive feedback. However, we took the negative feedback and made sure we corrected our video, as we wanted to make sure that it looked professional and was at the highest possible standard.

The feedback we got from the final digipak were:

•       It matched the genre of music very well

•       It meets the needs of the audience

•       Recognisable if it was amongst other CD’s in a shop

•       Unique to others they have seen

•       Has a professional look to it

•       Simple, but in a positive way as it gives all the information which is needed and still manages to look good

•       The effects of the images is good, as it keeps to the animated feel to the digipak however shows the artist.

•       The font matches the style of music and video well

The feedback from the magazine advert we received was:

•       Professional looking

•       Matches the branding of the digipak

•       Compliments the whole product

•       Would stand out if flicking through a magazine

•       Shows the personality of the artist through the images

•       Helps the audience to get familiar with the artist after looking at the advert very briefly

•       Having the album on the advert will help the audience find it quicker when looking for it on a shelf

•       Having the high star rating helps it to look professional 

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Maisie Linnane - Question 2

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

We have used a few different branding elements that we have carried through our music video, digipak and magazine advert.

We have carried the theme of nature throughout, by having the video set in a park for the majority of the shots. This is shown within our digipak as we use images of the artist standing in the trees. Also on the magazine advert you can see the background of the five images are leaves, which again represents nature.

We have also used the theme of love throughout, by using hearts that symbolize love, we made sure these were present amongst our video, we used heart shaped sticky notes placed in a heart shape, along with two heart shaped balloons. This theme was carried through to out digipak, as the text that was used has many heart shapes within it.  Also the inside image of the digipak is a cartoon heart, this is so the theme was carried through out.

We have also carried through a happy mood throughout as we show her having fun playing hide and seek in a park. Although the storyline of the song is about how she is confused in a relationship and letting go of her feelings, we didn’t want the mood of the song to be sad. This is why, towards the end of the video she was happy to let go of her emotions, which allowed us to use happy emotions throughout the video and portray our artist in a positive way. This is also shown within the magazine advert, as the images we have used of the artist show her pulling funny faces.

The whole video, digipak and advert show how it is aimed at girls by the use of flowers, pink colours and hearts.  We show this in our digipak and magazine advert by using pink fonts, pink border, purple filter and different animated hearts and flowers. Throughout the video, the ‘girly’ look is also shown through costume and setting, by using floral patterns in her clothing it shows the nature theme as well as aiming to a female market.

Our digipak and magazine advert shows elements from meal media products as we used a barcode on the back and some small print, which is almost always found on the back of CD’S. We also placed some reviews on our magazine advert and an image of the album. Also on the magazine advert we put logo’s of retailers that would sell our album and logo of the record label and the artist’s website.

Through all the research I have done into read digipak’s and magazine advert I have found that they generally show an image of the artist. This is why we decided to conform to this convention.

I do think that although our digipak and magazine advert are unique to any others we have seen within real media products, we were defiantly influenced by the use of cartoon and animation. We liked the idea of using cartoons as we thought that it matched the style and genre of the song. 

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Maisie Linnane - Question 1

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

I will be analysing my music video using Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’’ six point theory. This includes;

1.     Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics.

2.     There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

3.     There is a relationship between music and visuals

4.     The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work

5.     The is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body

6.     There is often intertexual reference

Andrew Goodwin thinks that all of these are typical conventions of music videos.

I have researched real media products within the same genre as my music video. This has shown me that Andrew Goodwin’s theory is correct as most music videos conform to more than one of his six points.

When looking through other music videos of the same genre it is clear that many of them do follow at least one of Andrew Goodwin’s six points.

An example of a video that follows the first of Andrew Goodwin’s six-point analysis is 50 Cent – Candy Shop. Hip-Hop songs usually include expensive cars, clothes and houses, along with heavy jewellery and alcohol and women portrayed sexually. Most of these elements are visited more that once in this video.

My music video also conforms to this point as typical characteristics of pop videos are that they are colourful, and as we shot outside that brings a lot of colour to the mise-en-scene, as well as costumes. We also use many close-ups of the artist. Another characteristic of pop videos is that they are fun and lighthearted. I think the fun side of our video is shown when the audience can see her running around a park playing hide and seek. Many pop videos also have a narrative, although our video is concept driven in many parts along with performance, there is defiantly an underlying narrative of a relationship.

The second point ‘there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals’ is used amongst all genres of music. Here is an example taken from Rihanna – Umberella. She is holding an umberella as she sings the words ‘umberella’.

My music video has many parts that show a very literal relationship between lyrics and visuals. The first example of this is when the lyric is ‘Stop’ and our artist holds hands up into a stop position. Another example is when the lyrics are ‘or else my heart is going to pop’ and a heart shape is build around her using stop motion and heart shaped sticky notes followed by a heart shaped balloon that pops. The last example that shows a link between the visuals and lyrics is at the end when the lyrics are ‘I want my money back’ and the artist is holding a piece of paper that says ‘I want my money back’ and the paper is passed through split screens.

Andrew Goodwin’s third point in his six-point theory is that is a relationship between music and visuals. An example of this that I found during research was Jay Z – 99 Problems. The whole way through this song shows many cuts, and the majority are in time with the music however at 5 seconds into the song there is a bit where there is a very fast beat and the edits shows this.

My video has examples of this, during the split screen at the end of the video, the stop motion on the bench and also the paper image stop motion as we thought that they all looked much better when in time with the beat of the music rather than the. The majority of all other shots were edited in time with the music as it portrayed a much more professional end media product.

The forth point is that the record label may demand many close ups of the artist and that the artist may develop and motif which will reoccur amongst their work.

I have watched many music videos by Ellie Goulding, as her music is a very similar style/genre to our chosen song.  A theme that I have noticed amongst many of her videos is an element of animation.  There are also many close-ups that help the audience to relate to the artist.

I have many close ups in my music video. I think they help to show the artists personality as a lot of information is given through their facial expressions. 

There is not a motif within my music video as there is only one video, and for a artist to develop a motif it has to show a continuous theme that runs through much of their work, which we was unable to do as we only made one music video. However as we completed an artist profile we realized that a motif she was likely to have would be to have videos or music with a very naturalistic feel to them. For example, we used the park to show this.

My video has a mix of different narrative formats and structures, as it contains some performance as the artist is singing the song. It also contains some conceptual material as some parts have a double meaning (For example, when the artist lets go of the balloon at the end of the video, she is letting go of all her feelings and her relationship which she has been dealing with throughout the song).  However the whole video has a narrative as it is telling the story of her relationship and how she feels about it.

Typical conventional music video techniques are followed through out my music video.  The camera work contains many close up, mid shots and long shots. It does also use some high angle shots to show how the artist is feeling; by having the audience looking down on her, it lets them know that she is feeling sad and not in control of her emotions. The editing is very slow pace and matches with the music, which is typical of this genre. Also the mise-en-scene shows very natural surrounding and indie costumes, which are both, very popular amongst this genre of music. The lighting is very bright but natural; this again is common in pop videos as the mood is always quite happy therefore dark lighting would not match the tone of the video.

We were very much influenced by other music videos of a similar genre but we took time to come up with different ideas that were different to what we had seen. We watched videos by artist such as Ellie Goulding as we think she was the most similar to our style of music/video however we watched videos from Jessie J, Katy Perry and Pixie Lott. We also watched different variations of stop motion videos, as we loved the idea of having stop motion in our video, as it would work well the ideas we had and the style/genre of the song. We wanted to show the conventions of music videos of that genre but did not want it to be the same as something that has already been made. We wanted our video to be unique to us and be something that we could be proud of producing from the research all the way through to post production, and I believe we have achieved this. 

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Georgia Surridge Evaluation Question 4

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


Overall productions

Common websites used for the research & planning of our coursework were Google, Wikipedia & YouTube. These websites were commonly visited as they provided lots of detailed information, which was necessary for our research & planning. For example, Wikipedia was very helpful during the research stages, when we needed to find out characteristics of music videos, music genres & information of artists & albums. As Wikipedia is set out in a clear way it was easy to find the necessary information. You Tube was also very handy. We used this when we researched videos for inspiration & when analysing typical conventions of music videos. Again, this was easy to use as information is labelled & set out clearly, & the videos we needed were easy to find.

Blogger is where we display the work we do in a neat & labelled way so it is easy to find. As we used blogger for our coursework last year, we already had a basic grasp of how to use the website, so it was easy to upload posts & label them into certain categories. We also commonly embedded pictures & videos to the posts, so we needed to know where we could find the embed link on YouTube videos etc. Here are some screen grabs of how blogger has been useful throughout this process:

Video, Magazine & Digipak Production

During the production of our media coursework, we needed a camera & a tripod throughout. We used the tripod provided by the school; they were high quality & easy to use. We also had the option of using a school camera; however we decided to use our own as it allowed us to use it whenever we needed it, rather than needing to rent it out, which led to the possibility of it not being available. The camera we used was also of a higher quality to the school cameras & had more features. A problem we did face however was the lack of memory card space we had. Luckily, I had a lot of spare memory cards to use, but they had little space which meant we constantly needed to swap memory cards to make sure they had enough space. In the end, we ended using approximately 5 different memory cards, so it was often difficult to keep track of what footage was on what memory card & if it had already been imported to the computers. Despite this difficulty, we managed to overcome it by organising the memory sticks & uploading all footage to the computers as quickly as possible so no footage was forgotten or lost. Another issue with the camera was that it ran out of battery quickly. This made it difficult when we were out filming as it would often run out of charge whilst in the middle of filming. This was an irritating occurrence which was not easily overcome, we constantly had to make sure we only kept the camera on at necessary times & shot footage that we had planned & definitely needed. Despite these difficulties, we still managed to film all the shots we wanted, as well as spontaneous shots that we thought looked effective. A final problem that occurred regularely was the time & date being shown on photographs we had taken for stop motion, digipak & the magazine advert. This meant we continually had to use Photoshop to remove the time & date which was time consuming as we didnt want it to affect the quality of the photographs. However, we put in extra time to complete this task & the pictures still looked effective. Here are some photographs of this process;

This is the camera we used during filming: 

Editing Facilities

Programmes we used during the production stages included Photoshop & Final Cut. Photoshop was used continually whilst creating our dikipak, as it was needed to edit pictures & create albums covers, back covers etc. As I already had the basic skills to use Photoshop, I managed to grasp the different features of the programme quite easily; however I did struggle with the more technical aspects. I feel this struggle was overcome once I had completed the digipak as I felt more confident using different tools in the programme due to having so much practice. Another programme used throughout was Final Cut. We used this in our preliminary task where we practiced lip syncing & then made it into a short video. This was a useful task as it allowed us to practice getting lip syncing in time with the music & showed us how quickly cuts have to be made to make the video look interesting. We also had an editing preliminary task where we had to use markers to fit the beat of the music & make the uploaded photos cut to the beat of the music. Again, this was helpful as it allowed us to practice using markers & editing to the time of the beat. As we had used Final Cut in our coursework last year, I already had the basic knowledge of how to use the programme, for example, adding effects & transitions etc. However, this year we needed a high level of skills as we did more technical things in our music video. For example, when we split the screen into four shots & had our performer pass paper through each of these screens. This was quite difficult as we had to line up the different frames perfectly & in time so the paper passed smoothly across the screen.

Here is a screen grab of the editing process of this shot:

The schools equipment did slightly inhibit our ideas as we had some quite ambitious ideas about how we would like to edit our music video. For example, we wanted to put a filter on some of our clips to make them have a cartoon style, however, Final Cut would not allow us to carry this out. Despite this, we still managed to do several technical things with our video such as four split screens, which has been shown in a screen grab above. I believe Photoshop was a useful programme & fulfilled our needs during production. For example, when using stop motion in our film we had to remove the date out of the pictures we had taken. We did this by using the clone tool. It was a long, technical process which needed to be precise to make it look affective. 

Photoshop also slightly inhibited our ideas as we would of liked to do more technical things with our dikipack & magazine advert, but had to simplify our ideas. I believe that despite these difficulties we still managed to produce realistic media products.

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