Tuesday 10 May 2011

Magazine cover research



I had researched magazines of different genres to get ideas of fonts and ideas for my CD and posters, specifically looking at the rock ones.

Saturday 23 April 2011

Logo Attempt


I really like this logo as it gives and effect that someone has written or painted it themselves like lyrics which links to the music promo. However there were problems with it, when I made it on paint and then copied and pasted it onto the CD cover or CD itself there would always be a white background on the texts no matter how much I tried to cut around them on paint so because of this problem I decided to stick with the continuation of black and red in the century gothic text on PhotoDraw. This logo could however possibly be used on the advertisement.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Firstly I referred back to my questionnaire results when thinking of ideas for my video and for my ancillary tasks, I made sure I asked questions that related to the final video.
One of the most important questions I asked was whether they preferred a narrative based music video or performance based, or both combined. The overall results were both combined but I ended up choosing to make a narrative based video, which was the second best result. I chose this because the quality would be not that fantastic if I had acting scenes because of money contrainsts with equipment.
When asked what genre of music was their favourite the most popular result was rock music which then made me decide that a rock song would be best sutied and I would be able to create a good video, furthermore Paramore were one of the most popular artists when I asked the question of what band was their favourite, which even more made me decide that to use their song would be good.

I got help from the teacher, my group partner and the actors in the video for different ideas so that I could create the best video possible. I had their feedback on ideas and then I took into account any of their ideas, particularly when filming in the woods, the two actors helped me find the perfect locations and helped me create the best shot and angle it and we replayed it back when filming and decided whether it was good or not.

When I first uploaded the video onto youtube I encountered a problem because the audio from when it was filmed was still playing in the background, such as the actors talking and the noises of the wind and birds. Obvious feedback from my teacher and me myself I had to edit out all of them sounds so all that the viewer could hear would be the song itself. I did this and it was much better and it is called 'The Final Video 2'

 These are some of the comments off of the video itself that I got people to do for me:





All of them have told me that the video is generally good, however things such as the same setting throughout and the costume of the main character could be things to improve on, however due to time constraints and working around the actors it was too difficult to film big chunks of the video over again. However the positives are the editing that I did to the video and furthermore the way that the lyrics matched the video storyline which is something I really aimed to do.

For the ancillary tasks the feedback was generally positive, I got feedback that I should include shots from the video on the front cover of the CD and the advertisements because then it links the two tasks together. I was told they were good because they stuck to all the things that are typically on CDs and posters and featured all the right attributes. Furthermore the colour scheme was praised because it is the same on all the tasks and it matches that genre of music.

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

Lyrics:

The lyrics match the visuals to an extent. One of the lyrics is how the girl is 'travelling endlessly' and in the video that is what she is doing walking round the woods what looks like in circles in all these different places. The lyrics are about going somewhere on your own and walking, wanting to escape which is what she is doing in the video she is alone. One of the lyrics is 'The ones we trusted the most pushed us away' which I have interpreted in the video because there is a black and white shot, indicating a time change into the past, and the two friends are arguing. This displays how she has fallen out with her friends and perhaps a reason as to why she ran away.
I matched the lyric 'I'm just one of those ghosts travelling endlessly' with the character writing them down on the page because it represents how she feels and as if it is a diary. Therefore I have linked the song with visuals. This matches typical forms and conventions of music videos because in Andrew Goodwins theory of pop promos he talks about the fact there is a relationship between visuals and lyrics which I believe I have achieved.
Furthermore it also matches the 'Hey Ya' video I researched because in that the lyrics match the visuals to an extent and then in 'Aint No Other Man' the other video I researched the lyrics do not particularly match therefore my video is challenging a real media product.

Music:

In my pop promo the music and visuals do not completely match. For example there is no instrument playing in the video nor is there miming or dancing. There is no miming because it is very difficult getting the timing right between the actual singing and the miming. The song is a slow ballad so there would not particularly be any dancing and you could argue that the scenery matches the sad slow song because the setting is in the woods where it is dark and spooky, for example the tunnel is haunting and the song itself is.
As my video does not really match music and visuals it is challenging the forms and conventions of real media products. I did not think having her playing a guitar or another instrument was necessary because it was all about escaping from where she lives with nothing. Andrew Goodwin said that like the lyrics and visuals, the music and visuals also link to each other which indicates how I have challenged this because only some of the setting matches the music. In both 'Hey Ya' and ' Aint No Other Man' the videos I analysed, the music matches the visuals because there is dancing, miming and instrument playing in both therefore again my video is challenging these real media products which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing here.

Genre:

The genre of the song is a slow rock ballad and the video is set in the woods. My pop promo matches Andrew Goodwin's theory of pop promos here because he says that in music videos for ballads there is a storyline. I have created a storyline because the girl has ran away from home and feels lonely and has flashbacks of bad memories with a friend. This is similar to a Paramore song 'The only exception' which I analysed as part of my research. In that there is also a storyline in which the girl realises that love can exist. I have taken my idea from Paramore's other slow ballad because I think it was good to have a storyline otherwise the video would be very boring as the person would just have to sit there miming or playing an instrument because they would not be able to dance or move fast because of the genre of music. Here therefore my video is similar to the forms and conventions of real media products.

Camerawork:

In Andrew Goodwin's theory he says that there is close ups of the main singer because that is basically what these videos are selling. I have done this because the actor is one of only two characters and the storyline focuses on her. Throughout she is in all the shots so if this video was released then she would be the main focus and the viewers would remember her. As said in Goodwin's theory it creates an intimacy because we, the viewers, can see how lonely she is and how she is feeling better than anyone else. Furthermore there is a flow of images because she stays in the woods throughout and it looks like she is just walking to the next part. The only parts that cut away are the flashback when her and her friend argue and the bit with the words on the paper in the water to display how she feels.
In my video I use all different kinds of shots, medium shots, long shots and closeups. There is shots that include the scenery in the background and shots where the camera has been tilted upwards to see the argument between the friends and there are some still shots of the character standing in a field. In camerawork I have developed forms and conventions of real media products and used them in my own way therefore my video is similar to them but stands on it own.

Editing:

When editing my video I have just made all the shots flow well together and added some effects. I have made the flashback black and white. This is similar to real media products because when there is a flash back or forward the audience will automatically know because the visuals are different to usual. The second edit was the ghosting effect when she is running and then I made it blurry on another shot when she runs. Both of these were done to reflect the mood, this is also something done by real media products as thunder or rain will be added in to reflect the characters mood. I made is blurry and ghost-like because in her mind she is confused and lonely.
My video matches Goodwin's theory because he says that female artists such as Dido and Adele who sing songs like 'Misguided Ghosts', usually love ballads, have a slow pace in their music videos that establish mood. Despite Paramore typically being a rock song in terms of the song I have used it is more like an Adele or Dido song and I think my editing and its pace does match the mood and can appeal to wide audience because it is more about the song and lyrics than the visuals or fashion. Here therefore my pop promo matches the conventions and forms of existing media products.

Intertextuality:

In my pop promo I have not used intertextuality. I may have thought of some ideas from Paramore's video 'The only exception' but there is not direct references or much similarity. I have not included intertextuality because I did not think it was necessary as this song is about the lyrics and music rather than using other people's ideas. Another factor is money, as big music video productions have lots of money they can afford
to reference movies and TV and other pop promos through their sets or costumes. I have therefore challenged forms and conventions of real media products because I have not included intertextuality.
Goodwin in his theory says 'very frequently there is intertextual references' which indicates that it happens alot but I have not done this therefore again displaying how I have challenged the conventions of media products.

Ancillary Tasks:

In my ancillary tasks I have very much so stuck to the forms and conventions of real media products. In my research I looked at another album cover by Paramore and one by Avril Lavigne both of which are similar genres. They use dark colours and both have an image of the band. This is typical of rock music genre CD covers. I have included the colours black and red and an image from the music video itself, something that the ones I researched did not do but this is not massively challenging the forms of real media products. The back cover includes the titles of all the songs and a barcode and another image, all typical of existing album covers. I have put the bands name and all the information on the front of the CD too something that is necessary and was on all of the CDs I had researched.
Furthermore in the poster research I learnt that you put all of the tour dates, the name of the band and a picture of the band. This is also something I stuck to and again used the same colours as the CD cover and CD itself. I also learnt in the research of products that it is good to have continuity in all your different products so that they can all be related to the one artist instead of everything being in different colours and fonts and looking messy.
Overall in my ancillary tasks I have stuck to the forms and conventions of real media products.

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

The song we used 'Misguided Ghosts' is by a band Paramore and their music is typically rock/punk. This song is more of a slow, acoustic track still with rock elements.
For the video I filmed in the woods because I knew it would be spacious and quite dark. I decided to film there because I interpreted the song as if the girl is lost and lonely and she is wandering trying to figure things out. The woods and other haunting places are typical of a rock video. Some of the video is also in black and white and I have used other effects such as 'ghosting' to add a haunted and lost feeling to the characters emotions.

The CD pack as part of the ancillary task I believe combines effectively with the video itself.



As you can see here I have used a shot from the video itself as the album cover therefore it makes it relatable and seem as if it is all part of one advertising campaign like most artists do. I have then used a photograph that we took ourselves as part of the planning as the back cover because it gives a spooky and dark effect. Furthermore I have used black white and red colouring for all the font and Century Gothic. I have chosen those colours because that is what typically relates to rock music, if you look at Kerrang! magazine they predominately use black and white. I have chosen century gothic font because of the way it is shaped and it looks like someone's handwriting too, which in the video we have the actor write some of the lyrics on a piece of paper again linking the ancillary with the main product.



The CD itself links to the main product - the music video. This is because I have used the shot of the main actor walking into the tunnel from the video. I believe using shots from the video for the ancillary tasks makes the whole product look better because there are continuing themes rather than the group/singer wearing different outfits in completely different places that have little to do with the song itself. Furthermore I have again continued with the colours black and red again for the same reasons as the CD cover and for continuity so each ancillary task is not different and everything flows well.



I have used century gothic and red and black for the poster so again there is continuity. For the poster I have used three different shots from the music video to avoid repition of the CD and CD cover. I have used two with the actor in and one with words written on paper floating on the water because with these words it should attract fans as this song may relate to how they feel so if they saw that they would want to buy it. This ancillary task is linked to the main product, the music video because I have again used shots from the video in the advertisement

Wednesday 13 April 2011

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

Research:

I created slides on Microsoft PowerPoint and had an issue with being able to put them onto my blog therefore to do this I had to sign up to ‘slideshare.net’. It is a simple and useful website to use, all I had to do once signed up was click on the upload button as displayed above, and then select the two slides I created; one was on textual analysis of music videos and then the second on controversial music videos as shown below. All were a part of the research and using this website was a much more interesting and different way to present my work than have it all in paragraphs, a slide show is easier to read and work also.



One of the more advanced things to do on the powerpoint was create hyperlinks that link to the actual video, I could have put the video itself up but it would have been to small and not have worked when uploaded onto slideshare. All you have to do is highlight the words you want hyperlinked, press insert and then hyperlink once you have done this you simply type in the address of the video.



Planning:

In the planning stages of the project all I had to do was send an email to the managers of Paramore asking permission to use their song and upload some videos onto blogger so that they can be viewed easily.

Preparation:

Something new, and a media technology that I used in the project was a program called 'Comic Life' on which you can create storyboards and comic strips. This was useful because I was able to display how I wanted the video to look or at least my ideas that I can refer back to.



On it I could chose from the different layouts instead I created my own, and then inserted all the images and text to create a proper storyboard.

Production:

I used a professional camera borrowed from Photography class in school to take pictures of different scenery of where to film. Another piece of hardware is the camera and tripod used to film the video, I was able to have the camera in all different heights and positions to get the types of shots that I wanted and it remained steady because of the tripod.

To then edit the video I used 'Adobe Premiere Elements' a video editing software. I was able to contort and edit the video using all the different effects and here it shows how I changed one of the scenes to black and white:



It simply drags across to the selected scene and changes. Another I used on one of the last scenes in which the girl runs through the trees was a 'ghosting' effect.
This was effective because it makes her looks confused as when she runs there is a trail of herself behind her and I think matches well to this genre as it is spooky and haunting like what is typically linked to rock music or slow ballads.


Finally I used an 'old film' look on the last scene because it makes it look authentic and it was the closing scene of the whole video, almost like the credits but instead it is her closing her eyes. I thought it blended well and indicates that it is the end of the video.


To add the audio I had to put the song onto a memory stick and upload it onto a computer then I was able to transfer it onto 'Premiere Elements'. The small audio button is selected like below and then once the audio appears, here it is titled '10 Misguided Ghosts' and then simply right click and 'Insert to Timeline' or drag it down and then it becomes a part of the video and can be edited itself to fit next to the parts of the video best suited, for example when the girl writes the lyrics onto the paper I have the audio basically matching it.



Final Video:

I had to set up an account on youtube and then upload my video via that so that it could be uploaded onto my blog or linked from my blog. It is quite simple, all I had to do was click on upload then find the file with the video in and let it upload.


Youtube is the best format to present the videos because it is good quality in picture and sound and is easy to access and use.


Ancillary Tasks:

For all of the ancillary tasks I used Microsoft Photodraw V2 because it had the best facilities to create the things I wanted.
To make the CD I had to cut out a circle in the image below.




Then you get a CD shape like this so when printed would look like a CD, then after this you erase a small circle in the centre of it to get a middle hole of the CD. This was the best way to make it look real and authentic which I think my final CD did once the text was on too.


The Final Video

http://youtu.be/E_8MGvo2v9A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_8MGvo2v9A&feature=channel_video_title