Our Presentation

On Friday, in class everyone had to give a presentation on what they had done for their media work.
My partner and I worked on our presentation to produce a brief summary of our work that we showed to the class.

I am going to upload each slide and write our notes that we read out to class about our work, which is a brief summary of the evaluation questions we answered. Both my partner and I took it in turn to read each bullet point.



Slide 1



Slide 2

- It uses forms and conventions of real media texts because it focuses on the aritst as the main feature of the video as do a lot of music videos today.
- It also uses forms and conventions because in our video we have created a story that relates perfectly to the lyrics in our video. This is also a similar feature in a lot of videos.
- We feel we have slightly developed forms and conventions by combining both, one being the artist as the main feature, and the other being the story. We linked them together because we felt that teh song was quite descriptive and emotional, and therefore felt that it was important to highlight the artist, but also link it to the story.

Slide 3

- From our audience feedback we found that most people could see that the film must have been well planned and not rushed. Some people commented on how it must have been well planned due to the shots of the instruments, combined with the shots at the house and also the shots outisde, as we used a variety of shots and were determined to use the best one with no errors.
- Due to the delicateness and the mood that our song portrays, we decided that we would try and keep our editing as simlpe as possible, and again, from our audience feedback we were told our editing was good and well done, and it was really effective that it was kept minimal, and that it suited the song really well. The simple effects such as making a few scenes black and white were also said to be effective and suitable
- Unfortunately something was pointed out to us in our feedback that we did not notice at all. One of our shots wasn't framed all that well, and the framing showed that the top of the character's head was actually cut off a bit. We were disappointed that we hadn't noticed this before.
- From the previous mistake we were told about, another one was pointed out to use. One piece of feedback told us that one of the shots were quite shakey. We noticed this during the editing but it did not seem so bad to us at the time, and this scene was of great importance so had we not had included it we would have missed out something quite important. Again we were disappointed but felt it didnt effect the video too much, and it was lucky it was just one quick clip.
- Our target audience were teenage girls of around 14-16, because of the emotion and rawness of the video and a few teenage girls commented our video. They said that they felt they could really connect to the artist and the emotions in the song and that they totally related to the song completely. We were really pleased with this, as it meant that it connected to our audience the way we wanted it to.

Slide 4

For this slide I wrote my own part as I was discussing how effective my ancillary texts were combined with the finished products, this is what I wrote:
- During the planning process of trying to create a good image for my album cover to go with our video and song, I decided before we began filming to incorporate the guitar within the album cover as I knew it would be a feature in the film. A lot of Kate Nash's videos are based on her playing the guitar, also her album covers are quite random. I had originally planned to have the character peering around the corner of the guitar however when I took the picture it did not look right so I changed it to this.
- I believe that my advert and album cover is quite effective with the main product as I have used the guitar to show in the pictures as it did in the film and tried to represent the song in the album cover.

Slide 5

This is my partner's slide and this is what he wrote for his:
- Again I wanted to incorporate the guitar as I felt that it gave the image more of a focus. The image is based in a tree which is something I thought would be creative at the time and would make the artist stand out within the environment. I looked at an album cover of Kate Nash and it was her jumping in the air in the middle of a green field, it gave the impression of a relation to nature and kindess.
- I've tried to keep consistancy by using the guitar because it plays an important part within the music video and wanted it to be related to the album cover and the advert.

Slide 6

- To aid with our planning stage we used YouTube to research any current music videos for our song choice, however we found nothing. We then looked to find videos for similar song choices to attain a flavour of the different styles that have been used. We found it better to have not found anything because we know we do not have anything to base our ideas upon and everything is our own innovation.
- For the filming process of our project, we used a video camera to record our shots.
- We used Photoshop for the editing of our album cover picture and advert. Once we had the pictures we were able to manipulate how the image looked using the tools within the Photoshop, for example the colour contrasts and using a black and white effect.
- We also used iMovieHD which we used on the Mac for the editing process of our video. This programme allowed us to use numerous effects including changing clips from colour to black and white, slowing down clips, cutting out unnecessary shots, cutting down shots and actually putting the filming together with the song.

Slide 7



- We used Blogger to keep a record of our planning process and our filming process and every last thing we done, from mistakes we made and had to rectify to showing the pictures to give evidence of us working and also upload our drafted images of album covers etc. Blogger was our main feature for our planning and evaluation stages.
- We used the internet for our research and again as previously mentioned our planning and evaluation stages due to using Blogger. We used the internet to research Kate Nash and other videos that we thought might relate to our song. We also used this to research how Kate Nash represents herself in pictures to try and capture a way of how we wanted our character to portray the song we had chosen.
- And finally, we used PowerPoint for our presentation, creating a housestyle and trying to make it informative for a summary of our project.

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

My partner using the Mac to edit our film - using iMovieHD

Myself using the Mac and using ImovieHD

The first part of our production process was the research, using the computer and the internet we were able to look at current music videos (on youtube) and assesed their different styles, and finally helping us to narrow down our decisions. Once we had narrowed it down we looked for more in depth research to our song choice and looked at the artist and how they represented themselves. Furthermore we used the internet to download the lyrics and images of Kate Nash to compare her individual different styles.

The next technology we used was the video camera. This is how we recorded our entire footage and a still camera to take pictures for our album covers. These we relatively simple to use from our previous experience and there was no real challenge here.

Another piece of software I used was photoshop, again from previous experience it was easy to understand what I was doing and how I could manipulate my image.

iMovieHD was the software I used on the mac laptop. With this programme we were able to input effects such as black and white transitions, cutting clips, and easily syncing the instruments and vocals.

Blogger was how we kept planning and evaluating our work. This has allowed me to keep a diary of each thing I have done through my production portfolio.

PowerPoint was the final technology I used to create and present a presentation to my class. Answering these evaluation question in brief with brieft input on the slides and speaker notes to inform what was on the slide.

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

During the planning process we knew we had to keep a good house style and create everything with a lot of details repeating. For example we extremely keen to incorporate the guitar within our album covers as many images of Kate Nash, including her album cover picture has a guitar with her.
Furthermore her album cover seems quite random and I feel that my album cover suits that criteria, better suited than my origanl draft.
I feel that my advert is appealing and would stand our in a magazing like NME which would be where this kind of advert would be placed. Ive tried to include attactiveness to my advert with the stars and the brief but imformative texts.

Although I'm please with both my advert and album cover, looking back I think I would have tried to do more editing on photoshop, I know now that I could have been more risky in transforming the image, for example making it black and white and just some colour, possibly on the guitar.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our target audience was a typical teenage girl aged around 14-16. We chose this because it was stereotypical for girls of this age going through teenage love storys and having romance into their lives. There are areas of the song where you can see the emotion of the artist and this was continuing the trend to attact our audience, as if it were to appear that they are not going through it alone.

Our feedback from our target audience was that they could clearly relate to what was happening within the video and that we represented the emotion clearly and delicately, this was a huge boost for us as its good to know we did have the interest of our target audience. Other comments outlining that we must have planned it alot as the work load and effort is noticeably high. On another high note we were informed that the syncing of the video for the words and the instruments was impeccable, and it could not be faulted at all.

From the very start of the video editing process we agreed to keep things simple and not have to many special effects happening throughout. This paid off for us as we had comments regarding our precise editing and that we captured the mood well in the song. The simple effects that we did have such as black and white transitions were suitable to the pace and the structure of our video.

We did also get some constructive critism. This was that some of our shots were not frammed well. It appears that during one of the shots the top of the actress's head is cut out, this was not intentional and it was just something we missed when reviewing it. This was unfortunate and we did not have any footage to replace it, luckly it only occured once.
Another critism we had was that another shot was quick shakey, the camera could have been more steady. However, again, it was something that we slipped up on and would need to improve on reviewing shots in depth and looking at everything angle.

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

I feel that my media product uses conventions of real media texts. For example from the research stages we continuely based decisions around the current media texts, such as other music videos. From these decisions we were able to identify that we could focus on the artist or we could focus on a video that tells a story, related to the lyrics of the song. We decided to mix and match any use some of each and we then had the focus on the artist and a story being told at the same time. This is how we used conventions of real media texts. We did not want to challenge real media texts so much as we did not want to take the realism away from our product.
As we had the artist in quite a lot of focus, we also added a story to be told, of how a girl loves a boy so much and she wants him to know. The lyrics were well written by the orginal artist and gave us a lot of space to elabourate.
Most videos current around tell a story but not directly related to the singer, for example Nickleback - Photograph. A unique story is being told however it does no directly involve the singer, they are just the "story teller". We challenged real media conventions by using our artist to tell the story which is happening to them. I believe this was a good idea and we are proud with how we represented the song.

Music Video

For some reason I had a problem uploading the video to my blog, however I have created a youtube channel

And all of the videos I have worked on this year including the recent music video are uploaded.

www.youtube.com/chriscA2MEDIA

Advert for Album Cover

This is my advert for my album cover:


I kept the advert simple after looking though the NME magazine and studying the adverts to find that most of them are quite plain and not much in them. I'm pleased with how it turned out and feel that it was a good idea to keep it simple. If I were to publish this, it would be within NME as Kate Nash's previous album was represented here.

Album Cover

This is my album cover:

It is totally different from my originaly draft looking back however I am pleased with the outcome. I wanted a random image from the start which included the guitar so im happy with the shot. This was one of the first shots I took so I'm extremely lucky for it to come out like I wanted it, without any bluring or unnecessary objects in the shot, such as birds!

Although my parners album cover is completely different in style, we tried to include some similarities, such as the guitar and the house style of the text. I felt the text to my album cover had to be on the left due to the readability of it when I placed it onto the right side.

Finished!

Today we finally finished the editing of our video and we felt like we had reached a milestone, we are extremely happy with the end result and have burnt the video to disc.

Album cover and Advert pictures

Today we took our album cover pictures.
We took a trip to the town park where we had filmed our scenery shots and decided to take it in turns. My partner went first, she decided not to stick to her draft and decided to do something different, once she decided and was confident with her picture it was might turn. I too did not want to stick to my draft and wanted something more creative. My innovation took over and I started taking pictures of lots of different ideas, one that I thought was practical was of the actress and the guitar in a tree. It sounds weird but it just seemed so random it was perfect. I found the perfect tree and began to take pictures, and strangely I'm happy with how it turned out.

Editing the Album cover and Advert

After taking the pictures for my album cover my partner and I thought it would be best to edit them as soon as possible. With this in mind we went onto photoshop and began editing, I used only a few tools to create a different on my image. I sharpened it so it looked more define and improved the colour saturation. These difference as that visable but do make the image looked more precise.

However when my partner sat down to edit she was not happy with her pictures so we had to set more time to go out and take some more pictures for her album cover.

Began editing

Today we began to draw everything together and start editing. Once we brought everything together and took away the shots we did not like, we had to began the long, challenging task to get everything in sync. The most challenging was the guitar, whereas the vocal sync was faily easy because the clips had the song in the background from the filming, however when we filmed the guitar scenes, I was playing the guitar whilst listening to the track on an ipod through headphones. However after a lot of patiences we managed to hit the nail on the head.

Filmed Town park scenes... Again

We went out to film a second time after battling our failures and everything seemed to go as well as the first time so we were pleased a second time in a row with the shots we had filmed, with good weather and in the correct dress!

Filmed Scenes at Town Park

After checking the weather forecast we set out to the town park and filmed some crucial scenes. We both felt that the session went well and were pleased with the shots we had created. However later that day when we were checking everything we had so far, we noticed that the costumes were different from the town park scenes to the one of the actress at the house. This mean we had to reschedule to film the scenes at the town park with the same outfit as before. Something which seems so simple set us back a long way.

Evaluation Questions

Today we were given our evaluation questions, these are:

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

2) How effective is the combination of your media product and the ancillary tasks?

3) What have you learnt from audience feedback?

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

Shooting Some House Scenes

Today we filmed some scenes at my parners house. We agreed that the best thing to do was to film each line of the song in different locations and then pick out the best ones that we would use. From previous experience we know that you can never have enough shots and its possibly better to over film as you don't know what you could find when your editing.

Weather

We set out today to film some shots at the town park, but when we arrived the weather took a turn for the worst and haulted our filming with some rain showers. This was so agrivating and disappointing but it was not suitable to film, this taught us to watch the weather forecast more often!

Mirror and Instrument shot

As the drama studio was free today and we had our filming equipment to hand we decided to attempt to film a few shots. We tried to film as many different shots as we could within the space of time we had, using different angles and shot distances, however it was a lengthly process with the need to keep checking over each one, on top of that the light angles needed to be changed every so often to ensure that there were no shadows.

We thought it may have been a good idea to use a mirror, so we hunted around for one and upon finding one, we layed it on the floor and began to set up the shot, I got into position ready to play the guitar while my partner layed on the floor trying to get the camera out of the shot but with me in the shot. We film it but after reviewing it, it didn't seem to have the effect we wanted it to so we filmed over it.

Location Hunting

Today was the day to find a good location to do some filming. We thought for a while where we could go and we decided about a local place called "Gibberd Garden". It is supposed to be a beautiful area with great scenery, we thought this would be perfect.

During our filming time we took a trip down there, about 10 minutes drive away, only to find that it was closed for the winter.

We had to rethink our strategy and with time against us we thought we would create something with the best we had which was our local town park, it had some aspects which could be highlighted as looking quite nice.

Album cover design

Today would took an insight into planning our album covers. I decided I would like a random shot and that I want to include the actress and the guitar. I want to image to represent the randomness of Kate Nash's personality and include a good dress style. I not sure if i would like to stick with this album cover and im open minded and may use innovation on the day to capture a better image.

Plannning our story to the lyrics

Today we printed off the lyrics of the song and annotated each line to guide us into our filming stages.

The song is around 3 minutes long and the pace is quite slow, with this is mind there are alot of lyrics and it will take some time to get through them all, by doing this we felt that we would have a better chance of filling up the song with good quality filming and we would not be struggling to "fill in the gaps".

Further Research

We looked on the internet today for some pictures of Kate Nash and looked at how she represented herself. We studied her different poses and how she looks, did she look cocky or shy? We also looked at the clothes she wore and we impression these gave. From her songs such as Foundations, Mouthwash and Nicest thing, it can be said that she is quite down to earth.





After searching the internet would put together a page of pictures to annotate.

We took a lot from these pictures, mostly from our predictions that came to light. Pictures with her and guitar started giving us ideas for our Album covers and her dress sense and her attitude all seem quite random but down to earth. Most of her shops do not appear to have been air brushed, they are just stand alone natural poses that display her character as being happy and lively.

Planning Our Video

Today it was necessary for us to decide the final decisions for our video so that we could create our research in more depth.

Firstly we decided on our locations we were going to use.
- As the video will be based around a love story we thought it was be a good idea to have various places to shoot the video, in the outdoors and within two seperate houses, implying one is the boy's, and the other is the girl's. This would help create the emotion of separation between the characters and appear more distinct about what is happening within the story.
- Our second location would be the drama studio, as one of my previous A levels was drama, I was fairly certain we would have permission to use it. The plan was the seperate the instruments and have spotlights to add a delicate touch. There are only 2 instruments used within the song, guitar and the violin.

We then thought about about characters.
- We wanted to keep the story to the lyrics of the song and thought it would be best to have just one girl and one boy, anymore than this may disrupt the delicacy.

Next was our genre.
It did not take long to decide our genre was romance. With a story line of a girl crying out for the love of her soulmate and trying to get across her love for him.

We then discussed our camera shots.
We decided that a wide range of shots, from extreme close ups to panning shots would be relavant. We don't want to over complicate the video and take away what is already there, but we would like to include a variety to keep it visually attractive.

Finally we decided on our editing.
We concluded that we were going to limit our special effects and create lots of emotion from the slow pace of the song, and allow to meaning to take over. We want to make all the syncing perfect, with instruments and vocals.

Asking the Artist for Permission

This is evidence of us asking Kate Nash's permission to use her song for our video.

Kate Nash - Nicest Thing

Our main reason for choosing this song is that it tells a nice flowing story to which we had ideas of how to tell this story and keep a slow pace. We both knew that that its a love story and we could get people or even ourselves to act it out. We had the ideas of telling the story and also alot of close ups of the artist, making the video about them too.

Another advantage to this song was that there are currently no official music videos for it and so all of our work we new would come from our own ideas.

This is a brief snapshot of our 5 minute brainstorm talking about the effects of the video, black and white or colour contrast, also the locations and different camera shots we would like to use.

Reseach

We thought it would be good to research a simular song with the same genre so we could see how to produce our video and the findings proved that the video was very idolistic however there was the story line inbedded as well.

Planning Process - Next Step!

In todays lesson we were able to eliminate a number of different songs due to the research we conducted into the lyrics (crossings out on the diagram) however, after the research we found ourselves adding new songs and thus having more to choose from.


After adding these songs I had an idea but I wasn't sure if it would work, I asked Abbey to put "Nicest Thing" by kate nash on her ipod and as we started listening to it, we knew we had both decided to do it. We were happy to go with this song rather than all the others on the paper as we already had ideas pouring out of our heads.

A2 Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include music promotion video, together with two of the three options:

• A website homepage for the band
• An album cover
• A magazine advert

Summary of Planning Process so far...

In todays lesson we arranged our groups and Abbey & myself decided to go together as with think we can work well together and also have a lot of time available to put into the production.

We started off by creating a large spider diagram of different songs and artists we could think of that would make a good music video.

Some of the songs we thought about more than others were:

Nickleback - Photograph - we thought this could be a good song choice as the lyrics tell a story and we had the idea that we could possibly tell the story rather than having the video about the artist.

Busted - What i go to school for - we also thought this would be a good video to shoot and a fun story to tell, however because we both new and spoke about the original video, our ideas may not be able to differentiate from this, therefore we would just be recreating the same video rather than our own.

Be concluded that we would need to do more research to what lyrics a song has, this will help us decide also because we are planning to film a music video that relates the the lyrics. As we did not have any means of researching, i.e. no internet, we will continue this in our next lesson.