Blog 20 - Evaluation and Feedback of the video

In terms of planning and organising this project, I was reasonably successful in keeping up to date with the work and the deadlines, although it tailed off towards the end. I would suggest in hindsight, if I were to do the project again, I would have chosen to film much earlier in the time given, this would have given me much more time to edit. Although there were several drawbacks that ment filming would have been incredibly difficualt given the image we as a group were trying to capture.

The image I wanted to present, and agreed as a group we decided it would be best to create a happy and mind lifting video so we could represent the genre of reggae respectfully. This required several key elements. Weather played a massive part to our filming, because most of it was to be filmed outside. So we decided the film would go much better with sunny weather that would cary a bright, uplifting mood instead of cloudy, dark and mellow weather that would reflect a bad image and a totaly different meaning to the song. I think I have connected well to the work of the artist Bedouin Soundclash. After some music video reaseach of simular artists within the same genre of Raggae/Dub I realised that the key element from each video was happiness and mood uplifting, I presented some of these ideas to the group of what we could use in the video of our own. 'Walking song' and 'journey' were just a couple that stuck out above others.

Looking upon the project as a whole, I have achieved most of what I originally set out and planned to do, I successfully captured a music video, learning skills in class prior to filming, and putting them to test, after several takes I came up with the shot I wanted. Once I had all the footage, I imported it all onto Final Cut Express where I edited it. Taking out the shots that I did not want, cutting the shots all together, adding the music track to the sequence, removing the audio from the origional film, and syncing the film and track together. In addition to this, I felt that I represented the artist's music and the genre to great effect. Despite this, our initial idea after some discussion with the group was to get an eyeline shot of the actor playing the song on his ipod, and then a close up of the screen showing the song being played, hence the headphones being present in all the shots.

The most enjoyable part of the project was the filming in the great outdoors. As a group we all had several ideas that we could wait to share with each other. There were always new ideas, or a new way of filming the shots we wanted. Filming involved some great humour, but alongside this we learnt ways of the camera we did not know before, different techniques and positioning of the camera helped come up with the shots we wanted. Personal triumphs would include the filming and these techniques used such as time lapse and focus pulls. In addition to this, my main personal triumph was mastering the basics of editing on final cut express, here are a few things I have learnt: how to cut, move, speed up and slow down footage, include filters, reverse footage and add audio to a clip.

There were a couple of things that did not go according to plan such as filming on assigned dates. This was mainly down to weather, and although we cannot blame it solely on that, there were a few absences of group members too. This is not a major problem as we had plenty of other dates where we could film on, although sometimes it felt like a waste of a filming day when there was such beautiful weather.

If I were to do the project again, I would, as mentioned before, film earlier in the time given for this project to be completed. Furthermore, I would probably have chosen a different song to film to, something more upbeat and lyrical. This would have sprouted many more ideas and given us an insight to more camera techniques as well as editing techniques too. I am not in regret of the song we agreed on as a group, it would just be interesting to see what other music videos and format we could have produced if we had chosen a different song.

The Evaluation continues in this powerpoint: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3B5dCDxJnLdOTc3NzlhMTAtMGI2Zi00Mzc1LTlkZjctMTEwY2Y0NThjN2Jl&hl=en

If there is no preview, or no download available, here are some screenshots of the powerpoint:

The text reads :

• Here are two screen shots of bedouin soundclash’s official video. each screenshot shows stills of a different time lapse one at the beginning of the music video, and one towards the end.
• as a group we have captured a length of film of the sun going down, in the editing, we increased the speed in which this footage would be played so you can see the sun setting within a few seconds.

The text reads:

• here are some more screen shots of the official music video and my video.
• the key points in these screen shots, although they don’t look at all simIlar, are time lapses.
• the official video has been sped up so the cars are rushing past and are only visible for a split second, the same techniques have been used in my music video and have been taken from this real media product.

The text reads:

• Here is a real media product on the left of the page, the image relates to the song and also the single front cover. The image fills out the whole of the page with the text around the image.
• on the right hand side of the page, the advert is of my album digipack which provides information to the target audience. In addition to this the image on the front relates to the album digipack.

The text reads:

• my digipack of bedouin soundclash is reasonably coherent, the picture defines the night in the song title, although does not relate to the music video. The silhouette on the front of the digipack is of george the actor in the video, which shows correlation between the two.
• in comparison to madonna’s digipack there are several differences, as well as similarities. The image fits the whole of the front and back, the images do not appear boxy, and involves colour co-ordination throughout. differences are apparent, there is a lack of small print on my digipack. Furthermore, there is fewer boxes on madonna’s digipack, which gives it more character.

The text reads:

• i have used facebook to get feedback from my media products, in this case, it was the advert, digipack interior and exterior.
• i have received some decent feedback from 2 out of the 8 people selected.
• It is a reasonable reflection of the artist’s target audience. Zoe goes on to say that the album contents layout does not suit the genre, it perhaps needs to be aligned centrally rather than to one side.

The text reads:

• towards the end of the feedback, joe goes on to say that maybe a slightly steadier capture would have been better, although this was the style we wanted to use, in reflection of the genre, it may have been slightly too much. Every step and sway is supposed to be in sync with the music, this has been done well although different target audiences see differently. Joe’s comment is valued, and if I were to film it again, I would perhaps experiment with using a dolly to create a steadier shot.
• Most of the feedback appears to be positive.

The text reads:

• Here are a few logos of the media technologies i have used throughout this coursework.
• Although i had a basic ground knowledge of photoshop that i have learnt though photography, It is always fun and educational to try different techniques within the programme. There is always more than one way to do things, experimenting with these methods is not only useful to create the effect you want, but it enhances your knowledge of the programme. The advert, digipack exterior and digipack interior went through this process.
• In design was were i started to create my digipack and advert, i started by drawing the size of the digipack and then the general outline of the digipack shape. Then, filling in the required information for the target audience, i could add the colour and photo’s from photoshop.
• I learned the most from Final cut express throughout this project. At the beginning of the project i was taught the basics of the programme and how to cut, move and simply speed up/slow down the footage. This was interesting and i certainly put these skills i had learnt to the test whilst editing my own footage. I originally tested my newly learned skills on a copy of an existing video which we filmed and edited as a class.
• using final cut express i was able to bring my creative ideas together. After importing, logging and capturing all my footage onto the programme and saved onto the hard drive, i was able to cut any unwanted footage out, and place together all the footage i wanted in order and in a sequence that was in sync with the song.
• Blogger has enabled me to upload all my work onto the internet, in a safe environment who i trust all my details with.

Blog 19 - Finished video

Our finished video is here.

Blog 18 - Creative camera use

The final video is here.

From 1.06 - 1.10 I have filmed a time lapse, which has been done by recording the footage normally on a tripod, and then later in editing, I have sped up the film so it appears the cars are going extremely fast.

From 1.11 - 1.14 I have filmed a pan shot. Using a tripod, I have rotated the camera around, from right to left, where george is walking, I am following him with the camera.

From 1.40 - 1.45 I have used a camera technique within this clip, called a pull shot. Where I am focusing on one thing in the foreground, then focusing the camera on the background, where george appears.

From 2.52 - 3.08 I have again created a time lapse of the sun setting.

Blog 17 - Rejected Footage

Our rejected footage is here.

From 0.11 - 1.09 the footage was not used because at 0.22 a flare kicks in which is fine for a few seconds, but extends for almost a whole minute of the recording time, which is too much. So I decided that, even if sped up, there was no way we could edit the flare out.

From 1.14 - 1.38 the footage was disband because the shot was inconsistent. Most of the other footage we have captured, we have used a medium to close up of George the actor, where this piece of filming has been filmed slightly too far away, and the shot is further away and therefore more of George's body is in the shot than required. The shot is more long than medium to short.

From 1.39 - 2.12 the footage was absent from our final music video due to the fact that the mise-en-scene did not fit in with the rest of the film. The clothing and headphones were a large contributing factor of this, they seemed out of place.

From 2.54 - 3.15 the footage was not included due to the fact that George was looking directly at the camera for a short period of time. We decided as a group we did not want to include the camera in a way that it was obvious that we were filming. The camera had no representation of someone watching him, it was just focusing on what journey George was going on.

From 3.16 - 3.32 the footage is decent at a hight angle shot, but unfortunately the footage is too unsteady to speed up and therefore too slow to include in our video.

From 5-23 - 5-47 the footage was reasonable until a car went past, and the towards the end when he makes a turn under the bridge the light goes, and does not fit in well with the film.

From 6.19 - 6.50 the footage is too jerky, it does not fit in with the other footage we have, and although I can change the colour filter, I would never be able to get it to a perfect colour.

From 6.58 - 7.37 the footage is not useable because there is dust present on the capture lens which causes this effect.

From 7.44 - 8.31 the footage is again too unsteady because of the ground I was walking along to produce the low angle shot.

Blog 16 - Advert

Firstly, I will be analysing two already existing adverts.

(Flobots Advert) The advert, although does not have particularly eye catching colours, the first line of text is large and eyecatching, this happens to be the name of the artist/band. The image is relevent to the song, it is simple and eyecatching. There is some additional information on the avert about the single, for those that are interested in the flyer.

(Pendulum Advert) This advert is for an album rather than a single, it has a simular picture on the advert to the album cover itself, so people will recognise it. The text is also large and eyecatching, with the same font from the previous album.

Secondly, I will evaluate my own advert layouts and comment on the design.

This first advert design is slightly over complicated, it has a fair amount of rrom of the picture, but the information to the side is some what small and perhaps does not stand out enough for an audience to read. The advert does however have a decent amount of information for those that are interesed in the band or album. The advert will have to be exceptionally big to read from a long distance or the target audience will have to move closer to get the required information from the flyer.

This advert type is portrate. The space for the picture is ample for an eye catch from the target audience. The text although at the bottom of the page, is ledgeable and has enough length and width to hold the right amount of information without squishing it in.

This third and final advert layout experiment has a landscape approach. This sort of layout is attractive and stands out. Unfortunately for the image that the digipack has, this space will not be used very effectively as the image is not wide enough. The text is large and does not have much room for small print.

Final Advert for Bedouin Soundclash

Feedback:

The feedback is of the digipack as well as the advert.

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages&tid=1862169549390

Blog 15 - Digipack

Promo Pack A promo pack is a variation of a Press Kit which is commonly used to inform the media of an artist the difference between the two is that a promo pack is used for booking shows, searching for record deals, publishing deals, organising a management and legal team and gaining airtime on the radio and television.

The contents of a typical promo pack:

•The artist's biography

•A photo of the artist/band

•A fact sheet

•Write-Ups and/or press releases

•A demo tape (3-5 of their best songs)

•A song list

•A lyric sheet

It would also include all copyright and contact information. Video and Digipack It is important for the music video and the digipack to link in some way as it then helps the audience to see they are both promoting the same thing. Similarities could include such things as having George on the front cover of the DVD case as he is the has the main actor part in the video. Clothes could also be a main aspect as the outfit he wears in the video he could also be wearing on the front cover. Backgrounds are another useful link, for example a lot of our video is filmed in the countryside or high street, so a shot from either would reflect on the video directly. This shows a comparison and a link from the music video to the front cover of my digipack.

Here are some Flat plans of 3 digipack ideas that have been scanned:

Interior:

This is a simple and well structured interior with a reasonably large picture of the band, including a space for the album contents. Over the plastic DVD holder, there is the name of the band in large text with the album hit single and the song we are doing in addition.

This flat plan interior has a large scale picture, which is a good idea as it saves boxes and fills in the whole empty area. In the bottom left there is the album hit single of which we are doing the music video for. It is simple, large enough to easily read, and does not over complicate the interior of the DVD case, it also does not get in the way of the photo, it will however be laid on top of the photo.

This is a similar interior design, but I have used a different font for the bands name. The font is the actual official font that the band use for their name print. There is a bigger space for the album contents than the first digipack interior, although a smaller space for the picture of the band.

Exterior:

This exterior design has it's advantages and disadvantages. The main eye catching feature of the front is the band name. Just below the band name in slightly smaller font is the album hit single, so the target audience will recognise this as being a popular song. In addition to this, the spine too has the name of the song. There is a small picture of the band on the back, lower quarter, this, in hindsight would look much better bigger, maybe even migrate it to the front of the DVD digipack. The album contents is creative, but is perhaps more of a hinder than anything, so rotating that would be more effective.

This interior design is simple yet effective, the font of the band name is the same font as the band use on the album, so this will show correlation between to two, the target audience will recognise this. The picture space is boxy, and after evaluating it, I would get rid of the box and include a general space where an image can be placed. The album contents is easier to read this way up, as the audience will not have to tilt the DVD digipack case to read it.

Just by looking at this digipack design I can tell that space was not used effectively. There is far too much empty space, and this could be filled with colour or even a photo. The album contents is almost squished into the upper quarter of the rear of the case design. The logos and certificates, although important, take up too much room of the digipack, they are of too larger scale.

Finished product:

This is the interior of the final digipack DVD case, it is similar to the front but not the same photo. Both the interior and the exterior of the DVD case cover the subject of the song, 'When the night feels my song'. For the exterior of the DVD case, I have included the album songs, with the artist name and the song we are filming to on the front cover of the promo pack.

Feedback:

Some of the feedback includes the advert.

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages&tid=1862169549390

Blog 14 - Shooting Diaries

Some of the filming we as a group have done hasbeen successful and some not so successful. Most of the shots we have done are filmed atleast twice, so we can chop and edit the footage that we thing suits the video best. We have included some experiments, i.e. we had initial ideas of what we wanted to film, and we came up with a few other ideas on the spot. I came up with a few of these ideas, although we openenly discussed these with the group and manipulated them slightly. We will look at these additional ideas more thouroughly as a group when we edit them on a bigger screen.

Problems include filming at the end of winter and beggining of spring, the weather is not predictable. Some days the sun will be out, and some days will be rainy. Due to the fact that the majority of our filming is taking place outdoors, there is only so many times we can perfect the indoor period of the music video.