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

For this final question I will talk about how equipment, software and websites have helped me throughout my course. This can be split into three separate groups, for which I will be focussing on the different sections of my course; Planning and Research, Construction, and the Evaluation.

Equipment:

The equipment that I used throughout the course was provided to me by the JCG Media department and part myself. This consisted of a Canon 7D camera, various pieces of equipment to go with the camera, computers (Macs) at college, and the use of my own Windows based laptop which I used at home for some of my coursework.
    Camera and Equipment:
        To show the equipment that I used during my course I have put together this short video explaining everything available to me and how it works:

    Computers:
        At college, I was provided with a Mac so that I could access the internet and various programs to assist me with my coursework as it is all going to be constructed online so that It is available anywhere I go as long as I have an internet connection. At home I used my laptop to allow me to work on my coursework when away from the classroom. (I upgraded the RAM in my laptop from 2GB to 4GB so that video editing and heavy duty program usage was easier to deal with and allowed me to get on with my work more efficiently)

Software:

The software that I used during my course consisted mainly of video editing software and image editing software. Programs that I used on the mac included Photoshop, InDesign and Final Cut Pro. At home on my own computer I could use Photoshop and Indesign, however as Final Cut Pro is only supported on MacOS, I found a program called Sony Vegas Pro which is essentially the Windows equivalent. My Construction post shows how I used these programs within the second video that I posted here.
Without the use of this software I would not have been able to create any of the work that I have done to anywhere near the standard that I have been able to. Photoshop allows editing down to even a single pixel and has a lot more flexibility than most other image editing programs available. Sony Vegas was a great tool for video editing, with a very simple user interface that was easy to negotiate, with any special effects added via a single drag and drop.

Websites:

Now this may not be quite such an obvious section to include, but for me the use of websites throughout the course has been tremendous. A lot of what I have done relies heavily on various websites including, blogger, youtube, screenr, and to some extent the JCGMedia website, as well as a little help from facebook in the final stages of publishing my music video to the web.

Script:
"Hello, in this video I will be showing you the websites that I have used throughout my course which have aided me in creating a fairly interactive blog, and allowing me to link between different websites so that I can show all of the work that I have done.

First up is Screenr. This is a one-click solution if you want to make a short screenflow. This is what I am using now and as you can see and hear it creates a high quality video which you can upload within minutes.

Next we have the JCGMedia website. This is the main link between home and college. Here I can find almost everything that we have studied in class, and probably more if I look hard enough. It has been one of my most valuable resources.

Facebook was not such a useful tool in this, however it came into its own when I asked my friends and some others to watch the video and then take the survey. There are no comments under the video as there is a link to the survey straight from youtube.

Here is where I uploaded my music video and then linked other pages to it. As you can see I have a couple of comments, however the majority of my feedback came from surveymonkey.com

Survey monkey is another free online tool which allows you to create a survey of as many questions you want, and pretty much any way to respond. Once you are happy that enough people have taken the survey you can collect the response and represent them graphically, as I have done on my blog.

Blogger is the site that has brought everything I have done together. I can easily link or embed videos, upload pictures, and write essays in as many posts as I like. This is where all of my coursework is being kept, so I can access it anywhere as long as I have an internet connection. A great feature about blogger is that it allows you to have a personalised domain, so it is a lot easier to link your friends and family to it."

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Earlier in my blog I published a post which included the feedback that I received after posting my video on youtube and creating a survey to go with it. once people had seen the video I asked if they could complete the survey to let me know what they thought of it.
The large majority of people that I asked were of my own age (so from 17 to about 20) with a couple of exceptions. The main idea of using a survey to gain feedback was so that there was less of a personal pressure when answering the questions. What I mean by this is that people are generally nicer to your face than they may be when they are just filling in a form about something you have done.
Almost 80% of the people interviewed did enjoy watching the music video, whilst almost 85% of them thought that the video did fit the genre, with only two responses who thought that the video did not suit its proposed genre.
The choice of actor was more controversial however, with just over half the replies agreeing that the choice of actor fitted the music video. The rest were either not convinced or did not agree that there was an appropriate choice of actor.
The last multiple choice question I began to get a little suspicious of as throughout the survey it seems that two of the people taking the survey were not taking it seriously and filled in either no on every question, and 1 in the 1 to 10 option. If they were being genuine, the average rating of my music video compared with a professional video would be 6.6, excluding these two results would be 7.3, which I am contented with considering this is my first music video.

So what have I learned?
From my feedback I have found that for my first music video I think I gained a good idea of what it is all about. Gaining a result of 7.3 out of 10 when compared to a proffesional music video has made me very happy. Here is a screen grab of the youtube comments that I have recieved:

From these comments I have learned some things about shooting the Acoustic/Alternative genre. I have found that you don't need to use a tripod for every shot you take, and that a lot of the time it can be better not to use a tripod. Of course it is still sensible to set the camera on a tripod where sensible and not to go too far as the camera work will just look messy and annoying to watch after a while.
Another big thing that I have taken from both my feedback and the course is that when people say a music video, you will go out and shoot somebody singing along to a song in various locations etc, and yes it will be ok and be fit for purpose. But if you watch professional videos you will find that a lot of the time there is not so much singing as you might first think, and in some cases there is no singing whatsoever. Of course this relies heavily on genre, but more often than not, a good music video has a lot of fill shots which create the majority of the narrative of the video.

Evaluation 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

For this question I will be taking screen grabs and video and talking about them using a voiceover video. I will be considering the camerawork of my video, the digipak designs, the special effects, editing and cutting, as well as the ancillary tasks that I completed.

Video Ancillary and Final Video:

Digipaks and Posters:

Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Screengrab 9 images regarding the six aspects:
1. Actor choice and her relevance to the music video
2. Locations and their similarity with other music videos of the same genre
3. Props used, if any
4. Costumes
5. As many Goodwin theories as possible
6. Choice of lighting and mise-en-scene

Screengrabs:
1. Props: I used only a few props for my music video (shown in pictures 1 and 4). These consisted of a piano, some headphones and a microphone stand. These were only simple props and easily accessible, but add a lot to the video, enhancing its 'believability'. The playing of the piano also comes under one of Andrew Goodwin's theories, 'There is a relationship between the music and the visuals'. The fact that we see the actor playing the piano at the same time that we hear it playing satisfies this theory. This brings focus on the music and should, in theory, let the listener become more involved with the music, rather than sitting watching a few clips put together to some background music. It creates more of a link between what has been videoed and the music that is being listened to.

2. Screen grab 2 is part location, part costumes. It shows the actor down on the beachside, so where she might like to hang out in her spare time, equating to the possible kind of lifestyle she likes to lead. And the sunglasses and coat with scarf are a typical costume for this genre, which I discussed in an earlier post.

3. The opening location, in fact this is my own living room where I have a piano. I found that when we had the main light on it produced a nice sort of lens flare around the actors head, which gave a really nice effect in my opinion (especially when coupled with the shallow depth of field I used).

4. This is another location I used. It is the recording studio at Beaulieu Convent School. They kindly let me go down there one lunchtime to let me do some filming for my music video. Because it is an actual recording studio they already had a microphone stand and instruments set up in the room, allowing for appropriate mise-en-scene.

5. AS opposed to being a fill shot, as we saw in picture 2, this is part of the chorus where we have a close up whilst the actor is walking forwards. The use of a close up allowed for a shallow depth of field, so anything in the backround is blurred, bringing all of the focus onto the artist, and so keeping to Goodwin's theory of the demands of the record label to have as many close ups of the artist as possible/is apprpriate.

6. This is at another of the locations at which I chose to shoot the music video. It is in the woods, which is typical for any acoustic video, being out, close to nature. It reinforces this 'typical lifestyle' that I am trying to portray throughout the video. The easiest way I can explain it is to say that you generally wouldn't see an acoustic music video at night on backstreets of a city or in a bus station (unless of course there is some kind of intertectual reference to it). You are much more likely to see an acoustic video on the beach, in the woods, in a park, around a campfire etc...

7. This picture shows another of the costumes that I chose to use. We can see welly boots (which turn up a surprising amount!), an overcoat with a scarf (the same scarf as we saw earlier on in the video), and jeans (a fairly typical item of clothing for this genre). This picture is also the introduction of the final location of where I shot my video. It is a long pier, which is a little out of the way so is not normally very busy, allowing for some creative and meaningful  to be

8. I chose this shot maily because of the absence of any other person along such a long pier. This should make the video more personal as a lot of people would notice this and realise that even when nobody else is there, the artist will still sing the words to the person they are meant for and again fulfils Goodwin's theory regarding the demands of the Record Company, and a slight bit of intertextual reference.

9. I think this screengrab shows the biggest relationship between my video and Andrew Goodwin's theories. It is a close up of the artist, which record labels want so that people can easily recognise the artist when they see them in a different context. The reasoning for having the camera head on and her looking right into the lens is to create the effect to the audience, that she is singing directly to them (or they know that there is somebody specific being sung to), which is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, another of Goodwin's theories.

Video Feedback

In this post I will be putting screen grabs of the responses that I got from people who watched my video. These are split into five questions, the last of which was voluntary to answer, being laid out in a text format. I will write down a couple of the responses that I received from this question. (Please click on the pictures to enlarge them for easier viewing).

Question 5 responses:
1. The second section, the cut scenes were too quick. e.g. from singer to sun in the trees - this is very nit picky however. Very good job!

2. Really enjoyed this, thought it was well thought out, fitted with the music... going to watch again, now.

3. For an ametuar video, it is brilliant. Looks like a lot of fun to do - doubt I could do any better to be fair, keep up the good work!

Construction

For my construction post I will be making a couple of videos to show different aspects about how I actually made my  music video and ancillary tasks. To do this I will be using Screenr to record my screen whilt I talk over the top.

The first video will talk about the different shots that I used, why I used them and the results that I am hoping that they will have to the audience:

Script for this video:

     "For my music video I decided against using a tripod for many of the shots. I found that a little bit of unsteadiness can add to the feeling a music video gives the audience, so most of my camerawork is handheld with a shallow depth of field and manual focus.

As you can see in the clip I have chosen here it is not all just shots of the actor singing along to the song, I shot some footage of the sun glaring through some overhead trees as I walked up a hill, which I thought went nicely with the genre.

Also here we see two different shot distances, at first it is a medium shot, and after a small interlude we get a close up. The majority of the shots in my music video are close ups because I was conscious of Goodwin’s theory about how record labels like lots of close ups of the artist in music videos.

At the beginning of the video we see her playing the piano along with the music in short cuts as the chords change between lines. I liked this transition between shots and combined with the shallow depth of field I think gave a nice effect and makes the music of the song that much more apparent for anyone watching the video.

Right from the beginning of the video I have included a fill shot, and throughout the video we see many more of these fill shots. I have found that in a lot of videos that I’ve watched you don’t see the artist actually singing all the time, but in fact there are a surprising number of shots which consist of just mucking around, like out takes if you will. This method really appealed to me, so I took a lot of footage just walking around and sitting down chatting, having fun so I could get some smiles and laughter between shots. I think this method allows the viewer to relate more easily to the video that they are watching."

This next video talks about my ancillary tasks, and particulartly the programs that I used to complete them:

Script for this video:

I this video I will be talking about how I have put together both my final music video, and each of my ancillary tasks. First up we have adobe Photoshop. This is where I designed the posters and images to go into the digipaks. Photoshop is the main program for editing your images before you export them to use them in other programs…

Next up we have Adobe in design. This is a neat and fairly simple program which calls upon basic editing techniques and a basic idea of what you want your final outcome to look like. This is where the digipaks were made…

Lastly we have a program called Sony Vegas Pro 12. This is high spec video editing software made by sony. It is essentially the Windows Equivalent to the widely known Mac based software, Final Cut Pro. Here I have opened up my final music video and will go over just a couple of the basic editing features of the program.

Ancillary Tasks

This post includes the final Digipak and Poster that I have made to go alongside my final music video. These were made on Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop, as were the rest of the designs that I have made.

1. Digipak:

2. Poster:

Final Video

Here is my final video which I have uploaded to youtube. I will shortly be making another post which looks at where I could have improved the video, any changes I could make and generally what people thought of the video, in respect to other professional music videos that have been made by actual recording companies.

Storyboard and Animatic:

So that I can get an idea of the final product I have drawn screen grabs of the shots that I would like to include in my music video. Rather than listing them shot 1, 2, 3 etc... and drawing them in order repeatedly. I have made an Animatic using them. This will mean that shots can be reused easily if they are to be reused in the final video and means that I can add some kind of animation to each of them using a video version.

Here are the screen grabs that I have drawn to represent the different shots that will be included in my music video:

Here is the Animatic, it is not supposed to be a perfect 'still' construction of my video, but is supposed to give me a good idea of the final outcome, and perhaps give me some more ideas of fill shots or extra shots when constructing the final video.

Time Management: iCal

This post consists of screen grabs that I have taken of iCal on a college Mac computer. It shows what I will be doing and when throughout the coursework section of my course: