Sarah's Evaluation Question 1

Media Eval1 Videos reference in Scribd. The Saturdays' 'Up' (Unable to embed) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf2vwAp2XVU

Sarah's Evaluation Question 2

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Liana's Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1

Liana's Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 4

Sarah's Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our video is a mixture of many different video styles, mainly illustration with some features of disjunction. This in it's self breaks conventions of videos which normally extensively stick to the features of just one of these styles. Our video also included a small amount of performance, with our solo artist lip syncing and playing the main audible instrument in the song. In our case this instrument was a guitar. An example similar to ours is Miles Kane's Rearrange video as we see him alone playing the guitar, although a guitar is obviously not the only instrument. This  idea of performance is one used greatly across the music industry and not just within the indie genre.

Two vital standard conventions of all music videos are multiple locations and a variety of shots. This is something we did not do. Our reasoning for this was because the steady movement and lack of quick cutting would fit with the tempo of the song. This could have left the overall product looking almost boring however due to the movement and action we included I feel the low number of shots and cuts was not an issue.

My digipak generally broke conventions. For example many albums included an artist photo, whether on the cover or within the case. I was unable to do this and have substituted this convention for object photos, as The Vaccines did. I also broke the convention of having the artist name on the front cover. This could possibly mean that the audience is put off as most buy an album depending on who the artist is and in this case they would be completely unaware of who the album is by. One popular convention of the indie genre, most famously done by Vampire Weekend, it did meet was to have a very centred image with a large border as the front cover, with any text in a simple, bold font. This is a very recognisable and impacting style for a cover.

Evaluation Question Technologies

Question 1 - scribd document
Question 2 - photoshop article
Question 3 (joint) - prezi of our feedback
Question 4 (joint) - video of our technologies with a voice over

We are possibly thinking about uploading all our questions onto a joint wix website to include another technology for our evaluations.

Liana's Evaluation Question 1 Draft

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

Our music video used the device of instruments, in our case we used a guitar, that coincided with the song played by our artist, a convention which is usually used in music videos of the same genre. It connects the visuals with the audio more and makes the artist seem more talented, as they can also play their own music rather than just singing it. The video also focuses mainly on the artist, with some extra characters included, an aspect which is usually seen in 'indie' music videos, as they are more likely to focus on the performance, such as Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man.

Our video was mainly an illustration video, as some of our visuals coincided with our song. However, most illustration music video focus on the lyrics throughout the entire song, creating a storyline that links in with the audio, whereas our video only includes some links to the song, meaning it isn't completely a illustration video, as it also includes unrelated visuals.

The style for both our video and my digipak were very similar and kept in with the stereotypical indie look. Although our artist had a slightly more original style than the stereotypical look, as he included some of his own style, such as his skull t-shirt. Sarah wore stereotypical indie clothes which helped to promote the genre of music through my digipak, something which real media products also promote, for example R&B covers usually include some form of black and white effect, as well as the stereotypical R&B style, an element which is linked to the R&B genre.

My digipak could challenge the conventions of a real media product because it does not include any images of our artist, an aspect which is usually used for CD's and digipaks. I did not include any images of the artist as from my feedback and my own opinion, I believe the images of Sarah which I used worked better than lots of images of the artist would have.

Overall, I feel that my media products where quite similar to real media products because they included elements that are included in nearly all indie music videos, such as the artist lip syncing and playing the guitar. I think that my digipak and magazine advert weren't as similar to real media products as I used no photos of our artist, whereas nearly all media products, not just from the indie genre, include some images of wither the artist or the band.

Liana's Evaluation Question 2 Draft

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

I think that the combination of both the main product and my ancillary texts is quite effective as I tried to keep a similar theme throughout, making the two link together well. In our music video the location throughout was a field and therefore I took all of my digipak pictures in a field to keep a similar location, I also included images of the sky which was featured in our music video when our artist was lying down and looking upwards. I believe that this would make my ancillary texts and main product work effectively together because the target audience would be able to link the video with the digipak, therefore they would be more likely to recognise either element and the artist who it was for. Although I originally wanted my magazine advert to keep in with the location of a field, I decided against it as I thought it would become too monotonous. Therefore, I kept a similar theme in the fact that I used an image of nature, but one of the sun rising over the sea, to symbolise the beginning of our artists career starting with his first album.

Both the video and ancillary texts are simplistic which meant that the information on my ancillary texts would be easily accessed and for the video the visuals would match the pace of the song. I think that the fact that everything was simplistic may have been a little boring, but it looked effective as everything tied in well with one another and made the combination of the two elements quite unique. I didn't use images of the artist on my ancillary tasks, instead using an image of an extra character from the video, who the artist dances with, for my digipak. In my opinion this worked well with the video, as it made more of a story between the two characters, as that character was singled out from the three extra female characters, giving the impression that she is the more important one. I think that it also makes the digipak a little different, as most digipaks would include an image of the artist somewhere, usually on the front cover, whereas mine doesn't. However, this could be considered as confusing, as the target audience wouldn't realise that it was a product from the artist as there are no visual elements that link the product to him, besides his name.

Overall, I believe that the combination of my ancillary tasks and video worked effectively together as they were all quite striking in the sense that they were so simplistic, as it is not something that would be expected in the music industry. I also think that the effectiveness of the two pieces was emphasised by only having the artist shown in the music video and not on my ancillary tasks because my digipak and magazine advert would create interest in the song for my target audience, but they wouldn't know what the artist looked like and would consequently be interested to find out so they would watch the video.

Evaluation Question 3 Draft

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Pitch Feedback

'We like the factor that the audience are both male and female as we expect that it would be difficult to please both. However we think you should consider making the age range wider. We like the idea of vintage and muted colours.'


'I liked the images, but there wasn't much there to get an idea of what you're trying to do. You said "incredibly indie", but as much as others like to say otherwise that's actually a broad selection of clothes and styles. I think you should probably try and be a bit more accurate with what their style is, but other than that it was okay'


'From all your photos you can tell your style completely and you obviously have a very specific idea about the artist- which is definately going to make things easier in the long run! The muted colours and 'vintage' look fit perfectly with the stereotypically indie ideas and i think the whole thing will fit with the chosen genre seemlessly. thought about widening the age range a bit though? (this is possibly the only slight fault I could find..)'


'I like the layout of your pitch! It's easy to view. All of your ideas fit together really well, and the name of your artist is cool too :)'

From the feedback we received at the beginning of our planning it was apparent that our idea and genre for the music video was well liked, especially the idea of including a vintage aspect to the video either through the artist or the location. Most of the criticism was for our target audience, we were advised to widen the age range as to gain more interest in our video, a factor which we did change.


Music Video Draft

'I think that the quality of the footage is really good, more effective when the background is more blurred, such as the footage around 1:40, which looks really professional, especially with the slight hand held camera. The effects of the colours look really effective, I think you should incorporate more of that so that theres a continuity maybe. I think that constructive criticismwise, you should try and match up the lip syncing a bit tighter, also, the slight jump cuts between similar shots could maybe be more continuous or change the location? I think that the video has a really good raw quality, and after tightening it up abit, would look brill.'


'Firstly, I think that the artost fits the song a lot more when he's just wearing the shirt and tie- The hooide looks a little bit too scruffy! I also like the pink/green effects as it make sit look interesting- however I do agree with maybe changing the artist as Sam just doesn't fit with the genre so much. I like the shots that he walks across without the camera panning too much- ot makes it look very professional, and him looking into the camera quite a lot really works. As long as the editing is maybe a bit more fluent and flowing this is reeeeeeally good!'


'It was nice, but the camerawork was wobbly and there seemed to be too many long shots for the most part - they also seemed too long, and that by trying to make it all a continuous piece of action it makes it seem too... off. All the action taking place in the same place adds to that feel, and with that being the only surreal aspect to the video (besides the colour shifts) it just seems out of place. The colour shifts also don't seem very appropriate. It was nice though, I thought.'

Overall the feedback we received in the comments was really positive, as people liked our idea and the effects we used in the video. The way the artist acts in the video was also praised, although it was suggested that we change the artist which we did. The blurred backgrounds were also thought to look professional as were the shots were the artist walks along without the camera panning a lot, except the footage was wobbly and there was thought to be too many long shots, which we tried to counteract in our final video by using a different tripod and include more close ups. Another piece of advise we received was that our editing needs to be more fluent and tighter, something that was a problem because of the way we filmed our shots, but we managed to avoid repeating this in our final video by filming everything in chronological order.

Digipak Draft

'I like the continuous font used, it's clear and bold. There's a lot of colour used which I like a lot, but as I think of 'Peaceful People' I think of a softer more pastel coloured scheme. I like the landscape type shots used. Is there an image you're using on the disc tray part? Maybe just annotate that if you haven't already. Looks really good! :)' - Liana's draft

'I like the similar images used on the inside of the digipak, it looks neat and obviously symmetrical with a change of detail that would attract attention. The block font looks good, maybe on the very back at the bottom of the track list, have some small print so it looks more 'real'? Just an idea :)' - Sarah's draft

'I think it's alright, wondering why the disk tray is completely empty though, and what the panels next to it actually are is eluding me.' - Sarah's draft

The feedback I (Liana) received for my digipak draft I was really pleased with, as my idea was well received. The font was easy and clear to read and continuous throughout the whole digipak, an aspect that was liked by our target audience. For my colour scheme it was suggested that I use more softer colours to coincide with the idea of peace, so I tried to incorporate this in my magazine advert by using the image of the sun rising. For the disk tray, I decided to use the same image of the sky as I did for my track list, as I thought the continuity of the image would look good.

Sarah:
To begin with the feedback was very positive commending my layout and typography, which was the main focus of my digipak. I liked the suggestion of including small print to create a more genuine look and added this on my final draft. The next comment I received was more negative suggesting that the digipak was extremely unclear. In the final I did take this into consideration and simplified my inside pages, making the content far clearer. 


Final Music Video
Class Feedback
Here are some points that were consistently given to us in our feedback:

• simple storyline fits the song well
• the location looks good and works well
• the artist was a good choice as he compliments the song
• the visuals (mainly the props) were interesting
• slightly shaky camera in some places
• the artist does look awkward in some shots
• the artists style fits the genre well
• the ending works well
• good lip syncing/better lip syncing needed in some parts
• the shot of the clouds looks good
• good use of shots/some shots were too long
• the walking shots work but can be slightly jumpy

Some other feedback we received were: the bus the in background is distracting, the female characters were introduced well and created a narrative, the plot was slightly strange, the lighting was really good for the mood of the song, the pacing never changes to match the song, there is no continuity in the narrative and the static shots shouldn't have been used. Our video was also marked out of ten and our scores were as follows: 2 gave us 8 out of 10, 8 people gave us 7 out of 10, 4 people scored us 6 out of 10 and one person gave us a 5 out of 10.

Peer Feedback

I put our final draft on Tumblr. but received little feedback, mostly likely due to my lack of popularity. My next move was to share the video on Facebook. The two comments it received were quite positive. There were two main concern they flagged up; firstly was the issue with lip-syncing, something that Liana and I also thought was a problem, and secondly they both suggested that Joe looked a bit 'clueless', an obvious visual issue. We now know that for lip syncing the artist must create clearer mouth movements, which will increase the effectiveness and realism of the artist lip syncing.

Evaluation Question 4 Draft

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

• Canon 500DSLR camera - construction stage: we used this to film all of our video, both the draft and the actual work, as well as taking pictures of our artist and other elements that were important in our planning stage i.e. location.
• TP30 Miranda Titan tripod - construction stage: we used this to film our actual video, as the tripod we used for the draft didn't fit the camera we were using to film and therefore made the footage for our draft wobbly.
• Tripod (school) - construction stage: we used this to film our draft music video, but as it made our footage wobbly we didn't use it for our final video.
• MacBook Pro - construction, research, planning stage: Sarah's MacBook was very useful as it allowed the two of use to do research into our genre of music together, as well as the planning of our video. We also used iMovie on the Mac to edit our music video, meaning it was an important part of our construction stage.
• iMovie - construction stage: we decided to use iMovie to edit our video, as it was more convenient because we could work out of school and it is also considered to give better results as it is easier to use than other editing software.
• scribd - research and planning stage: Scribd was mainly used to present research about our target audience and music genres and to show our shot list. Using Scribd meant that all the information was shown clearly.
• youtube - research and planning stage: Youtube allowed us to embed music videos that we liked and consequently help us to decide on our genre of music. It also let us decide what elements from other videos that we could include in our own video.
• Photoshop - construction stage: This was used to create the draft and final versions of our digipaks and magazine adverts, as well as editing the still images of our actor and the sky used in our video.
• iPhone 4 - construction and planning stage: Sarah's phone was mainly used to take images of props and locations whilst we were outside filming our video, as the camera on her phone is better than mine, meaning we have clearer images.
• iPhone 3GS - planning stage: My phone was used to blog off when we had any new ideas or problems as it allowed us to post on the go.
• blogger - construction, research, planning and evaluation stage: This is where all our changes, ideas, research, planning, draft pieces, final pieces and evaluation of our work was uploaded to. It also let us give feedback to other media students and receive our own feedback for peers.
• scanner - planning and evaluation stage: A scanner was used to upload our storyboard and Sarah's evaluation notes of our draft video, as it was quicker than typing up all the points and meant that our storyboard was on our blog twice, as the images and in the video which showed how our video would pan out.
• tumblr - research, planning and evaluation stage: Tumblr was very useful to gain images which fitted in with our genre and also gave use an idea of how we would like our artist to look. We also used tumblr to gain feedback for our video.
• tubechop - research stage: We tubechoped clips of music videos we liked to emphasise which points in a certain video we would liked or were thinking of including to our own video.
• slideshare - evaluation stage: This is one of the technologies that were used for the evaluation questions.
• animoto - research and planning stage: This was useful to show all the images and text that were revelant to our music genre and helped us to plan what we wanted to include in our video.
• Safari - construction, research, planning and evaluation stage: This gave us access to everything we needed to create our entire project.
• Facebook - evaluation stage: We posted our video onto facebook to gain feedback for our evaluation from people in our target audience.
• Twitter - research and planning: Twitter let us gain interest in our artist and feedback about whether our artist had the right sort of look and personality.
• Prezi - evaluation stage: This is one of the technologies that were used for the evaluation questions.

Sarah's Draft Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
My main product and ancillary texts can not be combined, as they unfortunately share no obvious link. Nether the less I feel that they still work well against each other. The shared simplicity of the three products is their greatest tie. I feel using minimalistic colours and images, helped to reflect the minimal features and slow tempo of our video. 

I had originally planned to use artist photos within the pages of my digipak, which would have made a useful connection as the audience could then recognise the artist. However I was unable to do this at the time of production and instead used object photos. I feel though these perhaps worked better as they allowed me to demonstrate more creative elements and skills in my work. Also these two images provided a shared type of location to my main product, as all three were 'shot' outside in fields.

My two ancillary texts are extremely effective together, as I designed them to be. The choice to put the digipak's front cover image on the advert was right as it provided a clear link between the two ancillaries and it meant if the audience saw the advert they would then recognise the album. I also used Helvetica across both products, another feature that would hopefully be memorable for an audience. Another graphological feature I continually used in both was the colour scheme. The background for the inside pages of my digipak and adverts used the same colour cream. Similarly for the text I carried on using the black on each product.

The Vaccines' first album, 'What Did You Expect From The Vaccines', presented it's products in the same way. The album cover image was the main image on the advert, much like mine, creating a clear link between the product and it's advertisement. Also like my ancillary products the font usage was continuously, creating another recognisable link for the audience.

However the video for their first single, 'Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra), has no link at all. This extremely fast performance video purely features the band, who are often distorted. The location is almost fun fair like with rows of small incandescent bulbs creating a dark visual, even this is extremely opposite to the digipak photo, which is extremely well lit. Although there are no obvious connections the three products work well. 

Editing For The Final Video

After editing the footage we had taken the first time around, we realised that we needed to film the last couple of scenes again as we weren't happy with the quality of them, because we were rushing to film everything before we lost the daylight and to get rid of a stranger who had come over to us. Thankfully Sarah managed to film the shots that we needed yesterday afternoon, meaning that we could edit the last bits today. The shots were aligned really well with our previous footage, something we weren't sure if we could achieve easily and the weather was also very similar to our previous filming, meaning that the film didn't look too different from the rest of the video. Once we had finished editing we showed our finished product to Mrs Hammond, who helped us to improve our video by pointing out bits where the shots jumped quite noticeably, but however, this left us with 4 seconds missing once we had finished again. To counteract this, we had to slow down some of the footage where we thought Joe was maybe walking too fast compared to the rest of the video and that way we managed to gain back enough time for the video to be synchronized with the audio. We also edited the still image of Joe a bit, to help the focus remain more on Joe's face rather than other aspects around him.

Overall, our editing went smoothly and both of us are very happy with our finished product as we feel it is much better than our draft version, through our filming and editing alike.

Final Video Draft

This is our completed final draft. Liana and myself are happy with how our video has turned out and although we have a few more cuts than we had planned we think it works well.

The quality of the video severely dropped after uploading it from iMovie onto a disk. I had hoped the quality would be much better on Youtube, especially in HD, but I think it still seems a little blurry. On iMovie the footage is incredibly crisp so I'm not too sure what's going on! However, if need be we can always burn the video onto a DVD in different settings to make the image more clearer and better quality.

Editing the Still

For the 3rd last shot we had storyboarded an ariel photograph of our artist. In our draft, though the photo was portrait instead of landscape the picture worked really well. The one I took of Joe was unfortunately not as effect, but using photoshop we altered it to sharpen the image and get rid of other elements in the photo that could have been a distraction from the artist and decided it would work in the video.

Finalising!

Yesterday I finished filming the last few shots. Unfortunately my timing was off and I missed the party 'cannons', thankfully we had the smaller silver ones and they worked just as well! I added these new sections into our iMovie project. I then focused on correcting the lip-syncing and during our media lesson Liana and I removed any jumps and made sure all our footage was correct and long enough.

Props for Today

These are the props that we have purchased for the last bits of filming that I'm going to be doing today. We have two of the larger party popper things incase one doesn't actually work like before. I would ideally like to use these as they'll obviously make more of an impact with a larger amount of confetti. As a final backup though we have a packet of normal party popers, the same style that we used in our draft, so if the 'cannons' don't work again Joe can hold a few of those, as more will be more impresive.

Slight Adjustment

Due to the BTEC pantomime Joe is busy this afternoon and we have rescheduled the filming for tomorrow instead. Hopefully we'll be able to film everything to our satisfaction, especially as I have printed screen shots to allow us to precisely line Joe up to where he was before. We'll then have Thursday evening and Friday to finish off the editting and hand our final in for the deadline!

Editing Progress

We have now edited all the footage we recorded last wednesday. Everything fits together well, the lip syncing and the guitar playing have improved greatly from our draft and we're extremely happy with it. The main issues are from around scene 24 were Oliver is walking backwards, especially when he lies down and the party popper scene. We plan to re-film these after school tomorrow, allowing us time to edit everything together and get everything correct for the deadline of Friday. We're going to buy at least two of the 'party cannons' so that we can try the first before filming so we know how it works, and we'll also get a back up of just normal party poppers if they don't work again.

Final Shot Problems

This is a compilation of all the attempts at letting of the 'party cannon' Joe had. As you can see it just didn't happen and then a stranger came and broke it so it would never happen. We have some good shots of him about to pull it which may allow us to edit something confetti looking onto the footage, which we will look into. If this isn't possible we will re-film this small section, which hopefully won't be too hard and this time will have back ups if the prop fails again!

Costume Changes

The last word I had on Oliver's costume was that he was going to wear a checked shirt, skinny jeans, a plain jacket (or coat) and boots or brogues. We kept quite closely to this but having met Joe on multiple occasions and been impressed with his own style we allowed him to pick his own clothes from these guide lines. As it reflects the relaxed attitude of the song and the rest of the visuals we were happy with Joe's decision to wear a motif t-shirt, also it went with his other clothes much more and allowed a more subtle look. As Dr. Martens are such an iconic shoe and have a huge connection with rock and indie bands their addition into our video will greatly improve the over all impression Oliver makes on the target audience. The monotone colour scheme reflects not only the slow, almost 'depressed' song but also the dark location. By adding accesories such as hats new focal points are created, making the look a litte bit different. Also that style of hat is really popular and fashionable right now!

Liana played the waitress again and we kept to our ideal outfit of very plain clothing. She wore white trousers and a grey cardigan, which I felt was close to that of a waitress and it mad her look a bit and drab and miserable.
I wore what I had suggested after our draft. I felt a balck lace dress would be much more relevant and fashionable and it works well against Joe's outfit, but to inject some colour and femininity I accesorised with a purple bow.
Our 'flower' girl was originally supposed to wear a tweed jacket and a scarf but we had decided that we'd like her to wear a coat like Oliver is. She infact had a yellow duffle coat, though the wrong colour is a slight reference to Submarine. Much like Dr. Martens a duffle coat is an extremely iconic item and I think it fits well with the indie look.

Filming Complete

As Liana said we got all our filming done on Wednesday (16th November). We filmed in consecutive order, as we had planned, which has been a huge improvement and extremely beneficial during editing. 

These two location shots show the 'cafe' scene. As you can see we have kept the main props the same. however to create a better mise en scene we introduced props such as a checked table clothe, cutlery and condiments to give the traditional cafe look. We altered the food choice from badly made porridge to an improvised full English breakfast, using the fillings from 'brunch' sandwiches. I feel this works much better as it's more obviously breakfast and its the traditional meal in the style of cafe we have recreated.

Also pictured is the equipment we used to record. We made use of my Canon DSLR's high definition video recorder for the draft and this final recording. However due to the problems with shaky footage in our draft, regardless of the fact we used a tripod, we found a much more sufficient tripod which correct fitted the attachment on my camera and provided us with a lot more features to help with filming. 

Two other main props we altered we the rose and the party poppers. We changed the colour of the rose from white to a dark shade of pink. I feel the colour injection will make a much greater impact when the footage is together as a lot of the features are quite monotone. The final scene is to had Oliver sit up and let of a party popper, I had thought we would be using a larger one but as we couldn't find one for the draft we just used 4 regular ones. For the final however we found a party shop in Lutterworth that had a party 'cannon', exactly what we had been looking for originally. This however was faulty. 

Editing

Thankfully all the filming went well yesterday, as Hayley was dropped off with the rest of our props and we managed to talk to Joe about times and places. We managed to film all the shots except for the very last one as the party cannon we bought was faulty and broke when Joe tried to pull it. We also filmed all the shots before the sky became too dark, which means that all our shots are clearer. We decided that we'd try and edited the footage we have first before filming again, to see if we need to re film any parts of our video, or shoot any extra parts. Hopefully we should begin our editing today and find that we are happy with our footage from yesterday.

Filming Today

It's looking quite grey and misty at the minute but according to iPhone's hourly weather forecast it'll brighten up at around 10, I sincerely hope this is true!

One of our cast is convieniently 'ill' today and isn't willing to be in for 2 hours to film but hopefully another friend can step in and help us with the role. With Hayley being away our main line of communication with Joe is down, as he seems to avoid technology, but this shouldn't pose too much of a problem we'll just have to wait in places we hope he'll be!

Photo Editing

Having selected a photograph of a Beetle at the Stanford Hall VW show, which I thought was appropriate as a 'vintage' image, I knew I would need to edit the background so the Beetle is the only subject and focus in the picture. The people in the photograph make it look extremely messy and even after cropping it to the square size of the bottom picture they were still visible. 

To combat this and improve the photograph I used Photoshop Elements' Clone Stamp Tool. This allows you to select an area of the image that has the correct texture and paint it onto your designated area. I recreated the stone path so that that part was continuous and then decided to make all of the top of the photo grass so that the car looked as though it was part in front of an empty field. When I was happy the grass looked realistic and natural I put a filter over the image to get a retro look, which can be seen in the digipak.

Further Cover Research

The Arctic Monkeys' digipak for their most recent album is extremely simplistic, because of this it has come quite iconic. However it only features their album name, another controversial feature that has famed the album. As another affiliate of Alex Turner the band's cover is extremely relevant to our artist.

Shooting Development

Having communicated with our new artist actor Joe we have planned to film our final draft on Wednesday afternoon. We haven't recieved our draft feedback yet but we plan to film the final in the same location in Lutterworth as we did before, as it's convient and it's the type of outside location we want. Last time we filmed everything in just under three hours. We had to wait for props and we also had problems because it was the first time we'd ever filmed anything this long and our actor had some problems getting the rythme and lyrics right. Now we've experienced these problems we can avoid them in the future and hopefully reduce the amount of time we wasted. This is vital as now it's more wintery sunset is even earlier. The wether for Wednesday is looking promising at the minute!

Final Actor Change

We are finally happy with our choice for the artist. Having our original choice drop out on us and our back up not quite working in our video, was not ideal. However we have spoken to a friend in drama about the perfect replacement. I know I said this after our first change but it's true this time. Joe is actually 18, he's actually indie, he's attractive and he's a BTEC drama student so he'll be able act well and not look uncomfortable on camera. Also he can sing and play the guitar!

Final Magazine Advert

Final Digipak

Front Cover Photograph

I kept with the same image idea of my Kodak 177x Instamatic Camera centred in the page with the album title above it. Having only the album title on the cover is extremely unstereotypical, as buyers who may not be familiar with the artist won't know who it's by. However this worked well. A big influence for this choice was the Submarine album by Alex Turner which Piledriver Waltz originally came from. This cover doesn't feature Alex Turner's name and nor does the spine. 

Inside Photographs

The first image I chose for the inside pages was one of a vintage maroon Volkswagen Beetle. I took this photograph at the Stanford Hall annual VW show. I feel this image is closely relevant to the camera I have used as the cover image. Both vintage cameras and VWs are cult cool, meaning they are likely to appeal to an indie audience.

After removing the background making the Beetle the only focus of the image, I altered the colour of the photo with a filter to make it look as though it was taken on a film camera, like my Instamatic. This created a stronger link between the two images. I created this affect on  http://pixlr.com/o-matic/, a webpage based on the Pixlr-o-matic iPhone app.

The next image I chose was one I took last for my AS coursework. This photograph is extremely versatile and I feel works well against the Beetle and within the whole album. Using an image of a girl is a common convention. It also continues will the representation in our video of Oliver being a player.

I cropped the image to the same size I did the Beetle and then applied the same filter to give the retro, film camera appearance. This will mean the inside will match and look symmetrical, creating the most atheistically pleasing layout.

Although I had originally planned to use images of our artist in the inside of my digipak, after conducting research into many of the booklets and inside pages of albums of the same genre I found many don't actually include the artist. My prime example in The Vaccines' debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines. The whole booklet features one image per page of completely irrelevant themes and subjects. The symmetrical placement is another feature I admire and have incorporated in my digipak. The colouring of the pictures look as though they have also been taken on a film camera.

 

Final Digipak

This is my final draft of the digipak. I have kept with the same idea on the front and developed the inside pages to link to the era suggested by the camera.

Final Magazine Advert

This is my final draft for the album magazine advert. I have made some vital changes to make sure it looks as professional and realistic as possible.

First Draft Video Feedback

Some of the feedback we received from our media teachers was as follows:

• wobbly camerawork - this was due to our camera not fitting properly on the tripod we borrowed, so to counteract this we are using one of our own tripods.
• guitar playing - our artist didn't look real when he was playing the guitar, but we have changed our actor to someone else who can already play the guitar and will consequently be able to play it convincingly.
• closer shots - some of our shots were too far from our artist, such as our beginning and end shots, so we will move the shot closer to our actor to gain more detail. It will also mean that our shots are better framed, which was another problem we had.
• no zooming - our use of the zoom out in our video wasn't liked as it wasn't used very often so we will try to use it more or cut it out.
• awkward dancing - the dancing in the first draft was thought to look awkward, possibly because our actor didn't know what he was doing.
• costume change - it was suggested that when our artist changes his jacket that the second jacket should be obviously different from the first otherwise the action seems pointless.
• party poppers - although the idea was liked, the way we carried out the action needs to be changed to gain the full effect.
• lip syncing - the lip syncing of our actor wasn't very convincing as he didn't know the song and therefore found it hard to get the words and rhythm right.
• the waitress - the clothes that were worn by the actress didn't make it obvious that they were supposed to be a waitress, so next time we will only wear black and white clothes.

Ancillary Feedback

Digipak Draft
The draft of my digipak got 5 out of 10, which works out at a level 2. The idea is 'promising' with an effective front, back and left cover. All of the problems on the outside pages are purely that I've not included some elements, such as a barcode, the artist name and a record company logo. I also need to remove the track numbers. These elements can easily be added but I will have to do some research into, which record company I will use. On the inside pages there were a few problems with the images And frame I have used. The colours I have made the images are very dark which greatly contrasts will the camera I have used on the front cover. Being a camera from the 70s the images should reflect this retro camera. A suggestion I've been given is to use either of the iPhone apps Hipstamatic or Instagram to manipulate the colours, both of which I have.

Magazine Advert Draft
This got 9/10, which is a level 4. The main issue with this was the layout and how I was spacing the objects on the page. This can be easily combatted for my final piece by opening the grid on Photoshop to allow me to line up all the elements. Another issue was that, again, I haven't included a record company logo. When I have decided on a record company I can add this on to the page, conventionally they are placed at the bottom.

Digipak Draft Feedback

Moll commented on my draft digipak saying: 'I like the similar images used on the inside of the digipak, it looks neat and obviously symmetrical with a change of detail that would attract attention. The block font looks good, maybe on the very back at the bottom of the track list, have some small print so it looks more 'real'? Just an idea :)'


This feedback is very positive commending the my layout and typography, which was the main focus of my digipak. I think Moll's idea of adding small print to the back cover is really good as it will give  more genuine look to the cover. I will place this text alongside my chosen record company logo.

Other Covers

Both these album covers have the artists face hidden, or turned away from the camera, which is an element I included in my digipak. Although it doesn't show the artists face, you still have an idea about who the artist is and it creates an ambiguous feel to the cover and consequently, makes the whole product more interesting.

Peer Feedback For Digipak

'I like the continuous font used, it's clear and bold. There's a lot of colour used which I like a lot, but as I think of 'Peaceful People' I think of a softer more pastel coloured scheme. I like the landscape type shots used. Is there an image you're using on the disc tray part? Maybe just annotate that if you haven't already. Looks really good! :) '


The feedback I received for my digipak draft I was really pleased with, as my idea was well received. The font was easy and clear to read and continuous throughout the whole digipak, an aspect that was liked by our target audience. For my colour scheme it was suggested that I use more softer colours to coincide with the idea of peace, so I will try and incorporate pastel colours, probably on the inside of my digipak. For the disk tray, I haven't decided whether I will use an image or put my credits there, so this is something I will have to consider.

Record Company

Peer Feedback For Video

'I think that the quality of the footage is really good, more effective when the background is more blurred, such as the footage around 1:40, which looks really professional, especially with the slight hand held camera. The effects of the colours look really effective, I think you should incorporate more of that so that there's a continuity maybe. I think that constructive criticismwise, you should try and match up the lip syncing a bit tighter, also, the slight jump cuts between similar shots could maybe be more continuous or change the location? I think that the video has a really good raw quality, and after tightening it up a bit, would look brill.'


'Firstly, I think that the artist fits the song a lot more when he's just wearing the shirt and tie- The hoodie looks a little bit too scruffy! I also like the pink/green effects as it make sit look interesting- however I do agree with maybe changing the artist as Sam just doesn't fit with the genre so much. I like the shots that he walks across without the camera panning too much- it makes it look very professional, and him looking into the camera quite a lot really works. As long as the editing is maybe a bit more fluent and flowing this is reeeeeeally good!'

Overall the feedback we received in the comments was really positive, as people liked our idea and the effects we used in the video. The way the artist acts in the video was also praised, so we will keep that element when we re film. The blurred backgrounds were also thought to look professional as were the shots were the artist walks along without the camera panning a lot, so we will definitely consider these shots when we film our final video. We have been advised to change our artist and improve on the lip syncing - something which we were already considering, as the artist in the video was only a temporary. Another piece of advise we received was that our editing needs to be more fluent and tighter, something that was a problem because of the way we filmed our shots, which we have already thought about when editing our draft and have considered ways of which we can stop this for our final video. We will also set up our location earlier than we did before, so we won't have to wait for our props to be delivered and therefore will have more filming time, which is crucial because we won't have as much daylight as we did for our draft.

Filming Schedule

We're planning to get all our filming done during next week, leaving us an extra week between the filming and the deadline, in case we need to re film any parts of the video, or if our artists isn't available during next week.

Record Label

The record label I have decided to use for my digipak is Polydor Records which is a German company, but is located in the UK and its parent company is Universal Music Group. Some of the artists signed by Polydor are: Duffy, Snow Patrol, James Morrison, Weezer and Kate Nash.  I have decided to use this company because it has a variety of artists and I like the diversity. It is also a well known company containing well known artists, which would make our artist seem more professional if he is part of the company.

Draft Thoughts

The draft video for our music video didn't turn out as we had hoped it would, mainly due to lack of time. Here are some ideas that I think need to be addressed:

• The artist needs to be changed as the artist we used as a replacement, didn't work out very well as he didn't know the song, so found it hard to lip sync in time and didn't know how to play the guitar, which meant his playing didn't look very convincing.
• We need to have more filming for the beginning part where the artist walks, as we didn't have enough and therefore we had to try and make up the time with different clips.
• I think that the waitress needs to be the actual actor we wanted, but who wasn't available, because the clothes wearing in the draft didn't look right, consequently not portraying the character very well.
• We also had some problems with keeping the same shot, as we moved around a lot to always have the artist in the shot, so when we film we will keep the camera in the same place and sort out where the artist will walk so he is always in the shot.
• The tripod was also quite difficult to work with, so next time we will use a tripod of our own which is for still cameras rather than video cameras.
• The filming should also be done in sequence, so it is easier to understand where the artist should be and where we finished filming.
• The artist should not be able to move from the spot which we finished filming the shot, because otherwise it is difficult to have them standing in the exact same spot again.
• Finally, we should play the song whilst we are filming, which we did sometimes during the draft, as it helps everyone to know how long things last for and is useful for the artist when he lip syncs.

Digipak Feedback

For my digipak, I was told that I need to make some changes mostly on the artists name. I'm thinking of moving the name to the back of the digipak, and filling in the letters of the artist like I have on my album name, as well as removing the white box behind it. I'm also thinking of changing two of my images into better ones, or maybe photoshopping one and changing the other. I need to include more professional elements such as a record company logo and the credits.

For my advert I firstly need to use my own photo for the background. I will also change the colour of my stars to yellow rather than the green, and just have NME underneath rather than NME music magazine. The text at the bottom of the advert will be made smaller to look more professional.

Draft Problems

I can't deny that the draft of our video hasn't worked as well as we'd hoped, however I don't feel this means that our original idea won't work but just that we need to develop a better way of capturing our footage. Once we have done this I think that our idea will work as it will flow much better than our draft has and will look neater in general.
Here is an image of all my thoughts on the problems we have encountered in the production of the draft and everything I think is wrong. I have noted down all the corrections I think we need to make and everything we will need to take in to account to make the final draft perfect.

Piledriver Waltz Music Video Draft

This was our first draft for the video. We aren't 100% happy due to problems with our filming and therefore how we could edit it together, I will detail these issues in another post.

Draft Filming Completed

As we planned we began and completed filming for our draft on Monday afternoon (24th of October). 

This is an image of our 'cafe' setting, which I think worked quite well. Not all of our filming has worked as well as we would have hoped but we think there are plenty of ways we can improve the video without ruining the integrity of our idea.

Props

This morning we went out into Lutterworth town and aquired all the props we were missing for our filming today. Some of the props we had already brought with us, such as; tomato ketchup, a plate, a torch and a fake rose. We have made arrangements for the table and chair that we will need for our fake cafe to be brought  to us later on when we film. The props that we bought from the town are; Oats So Simple instant porridge, party poppers, and a white rose. In the end we decided to buy a white rose rather than using a fake rose as we thought it would look more professional overall. We also decided to use porridge instead of an English breakfast as it is easier, and looks more unappealing, which fits in the the lyrics of miserable food.

 

When preparing the breakfast meal we chose for the lyric 'You look like you've been for breakfast at the Heartbreak Hotel', we made it look as disgusting as possible to reflect it looking 'miserable'. We think this worked quite well as the congealed porridge just looks awful!

Shooting Plan and Location Update

We are going to begin our filming today from around 2 onwards. We aim to have filmed most, if not all, of our shots, which will gives us plenty of time to edit it well. The weather today is sunny but cloudy and there is also a strong wind, however this isn't a problem as we feel it creates a more natural setting and fits with the melancholy tempo of the song.

Not only have we changed our actor but our location too (again). We are still going to film it outside in a field but in Lutterworth rather than Narborough to allow more time due to the winter sun set time and because it is easier to access. All our actors will already be in Lutterworth and can stay to film. The field is a public footpath, which could pose a problem as passers by may get in the way however we will work around them and hope they will respect our work. There is a large dip in the field creating a shelter from the wind and obstructing the road.

Actor Adjustments

Due to clashing schedules and a lack of commitment we have had to change the actor playing our artist, Oliver Quad. We are using one of our backups, they also dress in the indie style and we feel he may actually be better as his style is less preppy and he is older, meaning he will look much more appropriate for our video. He is also an avid music fan and is much more outgoing so he will seem more natural on camera.

Music Video Development

Annoyingly due to a lack of communication on our artist's part and unavailable back ups we have been unable to film as we had planned during this week. Unfortunately this leaves us with only the afternoons of early next week to actually film. With it being october we are even more limited as it will become dark much earlier now, this will mean we have to be very focused and work very hard to get it all done before we lose daylight.

Panic! At The Disco Magazine Advert Analysis

Magazine Analysis 3

Pearl Jam Magazine Advert Analysis

Magazine Analysis 2

Magazine Advert Analysis - Laura Marling

This magazine advert is for Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim, but mainly for the single Cross Your Fingers/Crawled Out of the Sea. The image on the advert is not a photo like the other adverts I have analysed but an image of a man, whose body outline is devised by drawings of plants and leaves with a poppy flower as a heart. The image take up 3/4 of the page, consequently drawing the attention to it because of its size. The image fits in with the artists natural style, and country style music, the nature used in the image represents the artist. The layout of the advert is simple, with the image above the text.This puts the focus on the image as it is the first thing consumers would see. There are 3 colours in the advert, dark green, cream and orange. The cream is a subtle colour and therefore allows the dark green and orange to mediate with each other easily, as well as stand out. As the orange colour is brighter than the green, it stands out even more such as the heart. The typography used for the information at the bottom of the advert could be considered as posh, as the style is elegant. The same font is used for the artist name, which is bigger than the rest of the text, making it stand out more, but keeping in theme with the rest of the text. The song name is in a different font, letting people know that it isn't the album or the artist but the song.

Overall the advert looks simplistic but elegant, and I like the use of fonts because it stands out on the page and looks good. I think I will use a similar layout. because I like the simplicity of the design and think it looks professional, and will look aesthetically pleasing.

Magazine Advert Draft

Draft Magazine Advert

Coldplay Magazine Advert Analysis

Magazine Analysis