EVALUATIONS
ALONE TONIGHT - Lullabies & Alibis
isha shah a2 media g325
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For my music video I have developed a very good understanding of the codes and conventions of a real life music video relating to my genre. As pop punk is all about the vibrant and vivid lifestyle of being on tour and meeting new fans, I have demonstrated this clearly and precisely within my music video. With the cinematography work I have made sure that all of the footage is shot by myself and the camera is handheld which lends itself to a shaky tour diary style video. This gives us a close and personal insight to band life which you wouldn’t normally get to see anywhere else. Having the permission to attend a few dates on tour, I got all an AAA pass which allowed me to get all the shots I needed to please my audience. Alternating between various lenses such as the fish eye, high aperture and normal Canon lenses I was able to get a range of distinctive shot types as well as the depth of them. By using these different lenses I had represented the band in several different ways, as them being on tour performing and chilling out before. Already in place, the Mise-en-scene of a venue, with fans waiting outside and bright lights in a dark room were already it was set up for me as in each city they changed ever so slightly. This helped with my linear narrative as it showed the transformation from one place to another which follows the cyclitic journey of being on tour pushing forth the real representation of what band life is like for fans to see. I have chosen to repeat this linear narrative within my video twice to
show them a glimpse of a tour life and how it may be the same, each time it is repeated something new changes and adds to my music video making it more engaging for my target audience.
Along with the genre, the editing tied in well with this aspect as fast pace cuts, matching the beat of the drums and the strums of the guitar in perfect sync; I chose not to get the vocals lip synced as this would not go well with a tour diary video. However some parts looked synced due to the movement of the band members which were not entirely deliberate yet they suited the lyrics well, I thought to use this to my advantage by matching some shots up. It uses the convections of real life media products buy not lip syncing as no tour diary style video even show this, Because it give off a performance style video rather than a just one performance connecting with one song. This further enhances the message I am trying to get off, with these simple clips that I have chosen are there for a reason. For example, the mise-en-scene of the bands merchandise table has a sign which contains some taboo language. I have chosen to select this clip and add it to my video because it reflects a real life setup,
being a crucial prop for my audience to identify with as they may be familiar with the venue and like the fact that I have shown a trade sign in my video. It’s acceptable to my genre to have swearing and inappropriate signs, as this is a symbol for their genre, we can easily identity this without even hearing the song. Richard Dyer said that “A music video helps to define the image of a band/ artist and therefore whatever is in the video will reflect their desired persona.” (http:// www.drwaynedyer.com/blog/) Applying this to my video it can explain why I have chosen certain clips to be included. An example of this would be the shots of the band outside, mucking around with the skate board and each other. These clips are placed purposely to build up their lively characters and personalities which the audience desire to be like. These light-hearted banter clips portray their persona to be fun and down to earth people who can easily relate to my young audience as they would want to be approachable and friendly. Mainly targeted at my audience, I have portrayed them in this way because they will identify with them as they also act like that too, this is part of the uses of Gratification Theory as the use the media to their advantage. As my music video is something they can easily relate to, I have therefore conformed to the real conventions of a media product as I am absorbing my audience with
information they need. As it was not a live performance music video, I wanted each shot to be as wild and live as possible therefore a lot of the parts are not lip synced in order to show them play a full set of songs rather than just one. This can be shown in: Real Friends- Late Nights In My Car, The Story So Far – Roam/ Empty spaces and many Your Demise music videos. To give my video a real tour diary feel, I have made sure that I have used various shots for many different concerts to capture the ever changing atmospheres and daily occurrences which happened at each day, making each night unique for my audience to experience without getting bored. This challenges the basic conventions to the usual tour diary music video as they lack structure, with random clips chucked in all over the place. As mine has a very special trade mark ending, with the actual diegetic sound of the bands at the end taking a final tour photo finishes the video perfectly as you would finish a tour. I tried to make it as real life as possible, relating to my audiences and genre as everything to do with pop punk is raw and real, as I have shown this in my video I have conformed to the conventions of my genre with also adding my own unique twist. Deciding explicitly to have structure to my video with its linear narrative and not an episodic one, I have not conformed to typical
this idea then changed ever so slightly to my model looking out towards a city rather than actually being on a street. I have taken a close mid shot of the back of her placed at the bottom right with the main view of London’s Southbank. Conveying my theme of being alone in a busy city I have managed to conquer this, with the album using basic conventions of existing ones as well as adding my own touch on it. Conforming again to existing media products as I wanted to set a digpacks, I have followed a similar theme trade mark on these types of videos and actually give them a sense of what with the pop punk genre, if you look at any Real Friends album covers, you will is going on. find a simple basic theme I have covered. Going back to my research I had found Taking advice and inspiration for my own that there was not really any filters or product to fit in within the market. adjustments to the video which made it look artificial, I kept this element in mine with just colour correcting some scenes to make them stand out more than others, showing the double sided life the band leads. Further enhancing the meaning of my music video of how similar my audience can relate to the Having then altered and challenged some conventions as a lot of pop punk albums band, as being normal teenage guys. Each shot conveys special iconography are album artwork related. (The Story from the extreme close ups to the wide So Far – What You Don’t See) Choosing city shots, all come together to create a not to follow this, I have challenged the forms of real media products and adding journey that is lopped on repeat. my own twist and originality to my work showing it came from my own creative idea. I also then conformed to some layouts for a digipack by using my own photographs to my “Alone tonight” theme. Many pop punk bands do this and follow it throughout, using either the name of the album or band to create a similar theme presented within the pictures, it may not be so obvious as they like to hide it for their audience to decode, mine states a more open picture so that it is easier for Like with my music video my magazine advert and digipack closely them to interpret. The hidden mis-enscene of London at night with just a small linked in and followed similar shot of a girl looking out to it conveys a themes in which I explored within symbolic connotation to the band’s name, the construction of my music video. Starting off with my magazine poster, referencing that she is alone tonight, therefor making a link together conveying I originally set out to use a busy a real version of a digipack and magazine cityscape with a model silhouette poster. standing in the middle looking out towards the busy roads. However
I didn’t want to change the poster dramatically from the digipack, I have chosen to actually use the same image as a background to the poster instead, as this could be found in You Me At Six- Hold Me Down’s advert, as they have done the same, however making theirs more simple and basic to give off a relational feel, I have converted this in my own work. As suggested by Andrew Goodwin, all music videos have certain aspects which represent the genre as the main element of this would be the band or artist. In my case the band would need to relate to my audience and genre, already being young and attractive I have chosen an existing pop punk band to star in my music video making it as real to real life as possible. Them already looking the part as they are actually a band, conforms to their genre as well as presenting themselves by wearing typical clothing, which changes throughout the tour, keeping it casual with merchandise, jeans and a jacket I have successfully conformed to his theory as it highlights my genre.
With the record label usually demanding to have certain aspects of the artist shown a lot, the band which I used are currently unsigned and new which allows me to get any shots I need not just loads of close ups where the artist is seen to be sexually desirable. This worked in my favour as for a tour diary style music video, you wouldn’t really find a lot of these as they are mostly wide shots to show the mise-en-scene, as it promotes the key element in the music video. As with a lot of scenes containing Intertextual references with other bands and music that other fans would like and know of it creates a close link with them, sharing something in common, for example the band wearing other bands shirt is part of a synergy in which goes on in many other pop punk related genres. Overall I feel like my music video, digipack and also magazine poster have all been created with the knowledge of existing texts as well as adding my own ideas and input into them, creating them to be diverse and unique. I have followed many of the basic conventions but also, processed to change a few contracts to set my own trademark by using subtle signs and symbols to convey this message.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I think that the combination of my music video, magazine advert and digipack all linked in perfectly, providing a solid and strong package which is instantly recognisable for my genre and audience. Starting with my music video, its main purpose and role was to give my audience a true insight to what being on tour is like, capturing it all in one song. Doing this justice, I feel like I have covered all these topics which need to be addressed for them to understand it further. I’ve always wanted to make a live tour diary style music video and knew from the start that I would pull it off perfectly, yet I was not too sure on my other two print based texts which were a magazine poster and digipack. It was only later on, after making my music video were I got the inspiration from for the “Long way home” album title which then triggered a series of pictures in my head. To make absolute sure that this linked in with the style of live performance my music video took, I was going to set the pictures out to be photographed from the busy streets and view of London. Firstly with my magazine poster which constantly uses one model looking out to the busy city scape view, alone and small in such a pretty and large world. Another pun I could play around with was the band’s name, “Alone Tonight” provided another extra important part in the construction of this as the whole idea was being alone tonight, far from home, in an unknown place with the sense of mystery and adventure in the air, linking in with being on tour in unknown pretty cities alone, far from home. Once thought of the idea I was thrilled how well it worked in combination with my other products as it suited the brief perfectly. Following this with my digipack, I used the same image as the poster for a closer awareness that it was advertising an album and anther trademark which was easily recognisable. The main colour of midnight blue and white took over as it conveyed the whole dark and mysterious feel with their heavily based connotations linked with these themes. With the inside of my digipack, I used the same image twice, however one thing changed. I tried to get the same shot, as
on one side it had the girl just standing still, on the other it was gone, further presenting this whole lost alone, mysterious feel to it. Feeling ever so proud with this idea, it carried on to the back of the album where I just took a picture of the view on a hill so it gave a much wider and lost feel. This was perfect as the sky room allowed me to list the song titles in the middle, following a clean and finished path. Typography and the colour scheme are two main elements in which conventional link all texts together. As the band already has its trademark typography which is seen all over their social networking sites and set to be their logo, I had to use the same font to present their name when branding it all over the texts. Just a conventional and standard thing to do which easily relates all of them together as you would view them as one. With then adding an additional second typography which was slightly different and less bold, this helped more with the small print and tiny details which were scattered along the poster and digipack, again keeping these two fonts the same. Alongside this I had to keep
a basic colour theme going throughout as well. Sticking with the colour of my main pictures which were a deep blue and light blue, I choice this with the basic black and white, giving it a professional yet adventurous feel by adding elements of blue to some specific words, further enhancing this colour theme. There was no real colour theme with the music video as it was more of a live and vivid bright shock that showed a variety of colour, really blossoming the image to the viewer.
and the bands own online website which would be easily accessible for the public to reach. Moving on from this stage, my music video would be shown on music channels such as Kerrang! And Rocksound, as they focus on showing my genre of music. Due to knowing the fan base of the band well, I know that they will want a solid copy of the music, wither it being a CD or Vinyl which they will be willing to spend money on. Using this knowledge to my advantage, the poster in which I constructed will be placed in rock/ punk magazines for my audience to be aware of, for its release.
With the whole theme of traveling around the world, I have chosen to make up some of the songs which are featured in the album relatable to tat, such as Homesick, Dreaming of a Day Dream, Traffic Lights, Long Way Back, Far From Home, Busy Night Sky” as I wanted to really reinforce this theme throughout, giving the album a strong feel which shows within the magazine poster as well as the music video. I have chosen not to include the band in any pictures of them in the magazine poster or digipack just for the fact that I am portraying them as worldwide famous which follows the conventions of the pop punk genre, already looking at existing ones mine applies to their rules and follows it throughout, because of this it makes the music more important than the musicians when it comes to pop punk, it’s all about the sound than what they look like. Focusing more on real life photographs which capture their music more than anything. I have created a unifying theme that has branded all my products together as one with the one simple theme that is explained on each piece of text. The idea is solid and fits in well with every part of my coursework as just by first sight you can group them all as one. Further backing my point, I had asked a small sample of people in a few surveys if they saw the realness and close link which was shared between the three projects. The feedback I got was positive and confirmed already what I had seen that it all looked together, combining elements from one to another perfectly. In addition to my original digipack, I have also then created an alternative single cover, specially designed for the music video in which I created. Its brand new cover is made up from screen grabs within the music video, as it’s just a bonus disk, where my audience can have a solid copy of the music video to hear and watch, it acts as another part of the bands merch in which they can promote and sell themselves, using their own build-up of synergy.
Again with follow the basic conventions of the pop punk genre, it directly conforms and create its own sense of brand as being a pop punk album and music video being advertised here. If I were to make a promotion campaign then typical an album release show, followed by a little taster set in a few major cities around the UK would be ideal. As a lot of pop punk bands such as Roam, Neck Deep and Decade have already done this to release a new album, this simple campaign would generate their fan bases arousal for them to then go and buy their album. Usually in London, the band visit a small record shop to sign the release of their new album and also play a few songs from it as a taster. This is commonly used to promote the band as well as get more sales for the album and notice, with flyers made and event pages linked to social media websites such as Facebook so the audience can get interactive too, spreading the word of this new release. By first releasing a single from the album online weeks before the release date, this builds up an interest into the bands album and fuss which would be talked about all over twitter. It is common for bands to release a music video as well to get their audience hooked and involved with what they are doing as well as to entertain them in the waiting of the album release. Once the release date is set, it will be available to download digitally as well as a hard copy in stores, especially on vinyl through record shops
The success of my products would not be measured in the way most mainstream genres would, (amount earned) but would be measured within the reviews, ratings, downloads and fans own comments. As pop punk is very DIY as it relies heavily on word of mouth and their audiences to make their product successful. Of course with the amount of views the music video gets can be a great indicator of how success it was, the amounts of shares and also post of people talking about it to their friend’s measures how well my products are. Posting them on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, if people liked, shared or commented on them then that would be a clear sign to it being up-and-coming. Because of its non-mainstream style, this in its own provides it to be even more interesting and popular, as they have earned their way to be effective. If I were to show my media product to an open market then the reaction of it would be slightly different. Just because the genre is not conventional to the majority of the world actually works in my favour as they will enjoy it even more. Not seeing something so common, my video provides a sense of originality and fun to their eyes as it will also educate them a bit on the pop punk genre and life on tour. The open market will see this to be new and raw, as it won’t be for everyone, I feel confident that it will strike to be successful in its own way to them. Proof of knowing this comes from my peers who hadn’t even heard of the genre, but seem to love the music video and digipack, as it’s something new and exciting for them to enjoy. By taking into account of all of these elements I have successfully managed to create a brilliant, outstanding and unified piece of work that interlinks with each separate task for both my target audiences as well as a much wider mainstream crowd, pulling in a higher success rate.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Throughout many of my media drafts I have also conducted audience research task in order to improve each aspect as I go along. Having an easy relatable and young target audience of 14-28 year olds mixed in genders, my music video had a very large appeal rate within the rock genre, also then diving it directly to target the hardcore/ pop punk fans that would appeal to them specially. Already doing so much research on them to find out everything they want to see in a music video with the basic conventions, I have tried to incorporate these elements within my own final product further making my music video stand out and address them solidly. My first piece of audience research was finding out who exactly they are along with rich qualitative data such as their hobbies, age, gender, favourite genre, band, free time, food, and what they like best about music videos, to get a real insight into their mind. Firstly starting with this I had enough information to actually come up with a fresh new idea for a music video that they would love. Finding feedback that I could easily change into images, a mood board helped me picture everything together, inspiring me along the way in my planning of my music video. It was pictures of their hobbies, such as going to gigs, skating, photography and hanging around with friends as well as the vivid live pictures of bands playing shows to massive crowds helped me shape a picture of
questions as I needed to make them what I wanted my video to look like as clear as possible for everyone in the end, taking the ones I found to have a general understanding. of google and moulding them into It made me work even harder and my own, I found the mood board put more effort it as I was not only to be a very crucial and important trying to impress a small audience part of learning what they wanted but a much broader one with my included. As they had commented work and what I was trying to find. on how I had managed to capture their feelings and thoughts within a This idea was good to start with, few pictures. as I got more than fifty people to feedback on me, giving me lots of new and different advice, however a few problems occurred as some people didn’t take it seriously and messed around with the answers a lot as it was anonymous. This made a lot of my feedback unreliable and After this stage was closely not useful at all. The disadvantages analysed, I then moved on to were weighted more than the the more basic way of getting advantages as I wasn’t sure my information, which was a survey specific target audience replied, so a online for them to complete about lot of the things I received may have my first draft of my music video. not been relevant or would have Using Google surveys, this was worked within my genre. Because it easy to send the survey virally to is the internet and you can’t control a number of people with the use who looks at the survey, the sense of social networking sites such of anonymity was a major worry in as Twitter and Facebook so more who was actually taking my survey people could take part and help me seriously. with feedback. The advantages of using online media sites, were that it was easy, fast and accessible by a large amount of people who could complete it from all around the world, moving my sample size and generalisation to be more fair as not only people from the UK could access it but from all over Europe, America and the southern parts of the world. This then affected the way in which I would structure my
Moving on to another method of gathering research which was to have a focus group, to present my work in front of and then record this, asking them for their feedback on sheets of paper. Firstly instructing them all to give me an overall mark on my video, then separated the questions into sections of editing, music, cinematography and consistency along with an additional comment section for them to elaborate on. This appeared to be a more useful and clear, consistent way of finding out data as they were honest, and words were written down for me to further look back on. With my second music video draft they picked out some key points in which I could change, also taking into account of who my target audience was, they gave me more to improve on and how it would make my video even more desirable towards them. I went back on the recording, uploading it to my blog so it would always be there to remind myself of what I needed to improve and how I was going to do it. I felt really comfortable talking in front of the focus group as it was more of a conversational discussion than evaluating my music video, they all felt openly to give me constructive advice on how to improve my video which was taken in and applied to my product, making it even stronger than before.
Gathering feedback with my magazine poster and digipack, I used two different methods, one was giving 10 people sticky notes and asking them to write a short improvement on them then returning then back to me, and the other was recording them face on, asking a series of opened and closed questions about it. Again the sticky note idea proved to be the strongest as it was more detailed in what needed to be changed but also giving me some phrase and compliment on what they liked about it. Having a two side feedback note, this gave me more confidence that my digipack and magazine poster was likeable and also related to my music video easily identifying them as one bands work. With the live recording feedback, I managed to get some information out of them however it was very vague and short as they were probably on the spot and rushed to think about it.
they proved to know what they wanted to see the best and by listening to their views and opinions I was therefore directing my whole project on their basis of what they wanted as well as interpreting my own ideas. I found audience feedback to be the most useful aspect when planning my music video as they really did push forth my ideas and support them in many reasons; they helped me justify why I had certain elements in my music video and why they were there. Without feedback I wouldn’t have been able to improve or see minor flaws in which I could correct to make my music video solid. It’s just another set of eyes viewing your product as well as yours to spot extra ideas that I could add, further strengthen my music video, magazine poster and digipack.
A lot of my feedback was noted down online or written out so I could always have a hard copy to refer to throughout my construction. Heavily relying on critical and analytical feedback which was more informative, giving me guidelines on what needed to be improved and how I could go about doing this. My feedback varied from voice recordings, Feedback is crucial in the to online surveys, to discussions in class construction and planning to paper notes which gave me a variety of of anything, especially with a comments which I could interpret within music video, magazine poster my final work. Most of this information and digipack. As I attempted came from my target audience, as most to improve my media product of them were between the ages of 14-28; constantly, it was crucial that I I made sure of this by directly asking a was coming out with the best final group of people who I knew liked the pop product I could make, and with punk genre, as well as my classmates who the help of my peers and target had a rough understanding of this genre. audience this was possible. As I Maybe not even liking the genre they was making a product for them, still told me that they enjoyed watching
my music video as it educated them into what the conventions of pop punk is all about. Using social media, I already have a large number of followers who have the same or similar music taste to me so by asking a mass of them, I would also be collecting important data with their own opinion taken into account. As audiences are so large there would be more than one way of interpreting my text. This theory had been shown within my feedback as some interpreted it in a way I even didn’t think of, this maybe because they were not my target audience, however they were a more mass and mainstream audience, so It was interesting to see how they have viewed my project. They saw it as a simpler and enjoyment clip to watch rather than relating to the band and lifestyle I had attended. I had no problem with this as they commented on how glamorous a bands lifestyle looks like, which was another point I was trying to get across, they had managed to pick up on the passive parts of my music video as well. As everyone will have a different experiences and cultural background, their interpretations of what they are seeing will be hugely different from another. For example the kind of gigs they go to, they may go to a gig but the genre definitely defines it, as there’s could be more laid back and watching, rather than actually getting involved psychically. I could tell that my video had an effect on my audiences as some of them wanted to now go to a gig and experience what I had shown them within my music video which was exactly what I intended them to feel and do, replicating this experience it shows it’s success for making an impact on them.
The effectiveness of my feedback was very important in order for it to have an impact on my work. The feedback I got was all mostly usable and information which helped me adjust my work. For example one person told me to slow down the crowd surfers when they jumped in the air then speed it up again after they took a leap, by adjusting this slight edit, it made a massive difference and made my music video a little more special in its detail. A lot of overall comments were to colour correct which I managed to do easily, as the adjustments only took a few minutes to do on each clip. Some of the clips were played for too long and I needed to cut them down, with the help of my audience feedback I could easily adjust and change this at certain parts where I felt it was dragging out too long, this also gave me another set of eyes to point out little details that needed to be changed. These people understood the effects model as they were influenced and effected by it, not being passive but active, picking up on parts which I didn’t notice as much, with their active eyes they had helped me improve my video to make it even stronger. However some of the feedback given was not useful or helpful in any way. The online survey had a few comments about the shakiness’ of the camera and the fish eye lenses. I don’t think that everyone understood the true meaning of why I did and use certain things within my video. A few comments like these were not relevant but I did listen to them and analyse what they were trying to say, however only two people commented on them, therefor not making these aspect as important. A lot of feedback was then positive, as in particular hearing that the most liked element was the whole being at a gig feel. The comments told me that it looked so relatable and realistic as though they were actually at a gig which was one of my main goals to achieve. Looking back at all of my feedback I have acted upon most of them, especially the ones I feel are more noticeable and prominent. When more than two people commented upon an element I would take a good look at it to see how I could change it, as I was unable to fix all. Once I had applied the corrections to my video, I would then again re upload the footage and send out another questionnaire and ask my peers how they feel it looked now, repeating this process a few more times until I was firmly happy with my work. With my feedback I have not entirely taken it all dependently but also added my own independent view on what I think is best and what would work, after all it being my project I still wanted to have my own input and insight to what it should look like as well as the views of my target audience.
One of the main problems I found within my audience feedback was that a lot of it was too vague and not descriptive enough, this maybe because they thought that they had to say something and gave me a very generic answer which most people went along with, they were afraid to say any faults and kept with the compliments of my video which I didn’t find as useful. Some feedback was really important and helped me make an amazing final product however a lot of it was just boring and not very helpful at all. Being online it was also a way for people to hide and write some rude things as I had found maybe posting it on Facebook wasn’t a good idea as some people thought it was a joke and just put silly answers, this then made me self-doubt my work because of that one comment. However I needed to look at the overall picture as more than 90% of the comments were great and came from my target audiences so I knew that I had catered towards their needs. Altogether I had asked over 150 people for their feedback, not being a hugely large audience, I had still managed to get some constructive and reliable advice from them however if I were to do this again then I would make sure that this number was higher, giving me more opinions and feedback from a bigger quantity of close related audiences rather than random people, as I felt my direct audience knew more about what I was trying to construct rather than the mainstream crowd.
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In my planning and production stages, online media technologies had helped me to make my work look professional to display on my blog. The first main online website we used was blogger, which collected all our data and displayed it in a visual, timeline of our progress, keeping track on when we did each post and how many we had completed. The main online publications in which I used to present my work was slide share, Scribd, Issu, Slide Rokit, Voki and Prezzi. Previously being in contact with them from my AS work, I knew how they functioned to convert a boring piece of text to an outstanding finished piece of work you could be proud of. However over the year there had been improvements to these sites as Prezi got new layouts and Voki was introduced to me, as an online avatar talking directly to you. I found this new website useful when creating a fact file about my band, as I made each avatar a replica of the band member and made them give a little speech about themselves. A website like this just adds to the realism and hard work I have put into every single planning and research task to give me a real incite to what I am creating. For most of my researched, I had used word or power point, which are the most basic of software to just write out the more qualitative
data and presented them with a few pictures, it was sites such as Scribd and slide share which then converted them to be an online interaction, as it presented my work through an online slide by slide PowerPoint that had many zoom features to read specific aspects of my work. Prezzi was perfectly ideal for my planning work as a lot of the templates were mind maps and had all sorts of online directions which took you to another destination, this helped to show the thought process of
what my brain was trying to explain in one publication. With my evaluations, I could use any one of these formats to help express what I was trying to construct as you could embed videos as well as pictures and voice memos, by using a multimodal platform. Each one of these software’s are crucial in the process in which I have taken to finally make my music video, as they have expressed my journey through a number of
visual publications which are easy to follow and understand.
In the construction part of my project, the Canon 550D DSLR camera was most at use, as this is what I used to film the entirety of my music video. Provided by the school, we were privileged enough to use a very excellent camera which could capture the most professional looking work. Already having experiences with these camera’s from my AS course I knew exactly how to work and use them, but I still needed a little help with the video settings. This is where YouTube was most important, with its wide share of step by step tutorials I could learn anything I wanted to do on these cameras, as well with friend’s advice. The only other equipment I needed was a few other lenses, which were the wide zoom, aperture, fish eye and normal cannon lens. New to the fish eye lens I had seen previous music videos with it used and though that it was perfect to my genre as well as establishing the whole tour and not on tour divider. I planned to use this lens on top of the normal lenses to create a zoomed fish eye, where I would film the whole journey and non-performance with the band in this lenses then swap over with a variety of lenses the performance lived based ones with the aperture, and zoomed. This is because the aperture is high in quality and will capture
the lighting at the venues perfectly making them more vibrant and clear. The zoom would capture more fine and detailed shots, as If I was at a far distance, I could use this to get everything included. The lighting was pretty easy as being at a gig there is DJ which takes care of that, I wanted it to look as real as possible, with the stage lit up and the various flashing of different colour I learnt the many different angles I needed to be at, to get the band in the right focus. When it came to the actual settings of the camera, I firstly filmed on auto as I found this to be perfect, it was only until the second time shooting I found that it didn’t change its focus as often as I wanted it, this is where I changed the settings to manual, adjusting the focus each time it moved shot, as well as the shutter speed to 15/25 making it very fast and snappy with the IOS as low as it could go, 800 or 1600 without the grain. The aperture remained low as well at 4 and I sometimes moved this to 8 depending if I was inside the venue where it was dark or outside where it would be 16F. I had to play around with the settings before I actually found the right ones. The filming of it was pretty basic and easy as adjusting the ISO every now and then was needed, the shutter speed didn’t make much of a difference however so it was easier for me to film, and along the way I could adjust the focus to make sure each shot was clear and crisp.
Because I was also taking these pictures outside, I found a place which was well lit or had a good source of lights so I could use this for my advantage. Perfectly in Southbank it was lit up with Christmas lights and the reflection of building lights, which added to my advantage of getting the right shot. A lot of With the pictures I took at the gig and for the finishing photos were taken my dig pack/ magazine advert I had to edit at a straight on angel to get a them first by using a familiar software called perfect symmetry line. Photoshop. Using professional and industry This was then transferred to standard software’s help me to improve the InDesign where I chose the quality of my output work as already having different styles of layouts and knowledge about them, I can quickly and play around with them to easily apply them to my new pictures. With get all the writing in perfect Photoshop I firstly started by adjusting the line with each other, using curves of the photo, highlighting the darkness the combination of these as well as some parts to highlight the light. two software worked great The levels, brightness and vibrancy were also together as the skills were easy adjusted due to my knowledge I could do and transferable from one to this successfully, making my picture stand another, they played a big part in out. When actually taking pictures I had to my construction work mainly to make sure that I was getting enough light as give it an overall finish. they were all focused to be taken at night, as I had to turn down the shutter speed really Finally the last media software low so that it was 1/4. Or 1/18 depending on was adobe premiere pro CS6 the colour, it allowed me to capture a vibrant which was the main focus cityscape. As well with a high IOS of 1600 or of my music video as well as 3600, it helped contribute to the vivid colour; production diaries. I used this I didn’t want it to be granny however I could industry standard software to easily edit it out on Photoshop. Alerting the edit the whole of my music pictures with flash too, just to give me more video, at first unfamiliar with the of a variety of shots I could use in case one settings I was used to the basic didn’t work as well. cut and delete razor tool which was present in movie maker, but unfamiliar with the rest. It took me some time to get to grips with this but as the internet has so many good resource I turned t google and YouTube once again for tutorials and advice on how to do certain edits. Here it was crucial I learnt the basics which proved to be easy by unlinking a piece to delete the sound and just have the footage
for the music to play into. I learnt how to fade the music off as it ended with the picture fading into black and also adding the diegetic sound at the end which could be controlled by a different volume to the song. Overlaying was another key thing in my construction work to show the time had passed and progressed I could put two layers on top of each other but make the first layers opacity to 60% to see the underneath layer and also then play around with this.
After affects didn’t have much use to me as everything I wanted to do was already on premiere pro. With the colour correcting this was pretty simple as I had three main controls to correct along with the brightness and saturation, just adjusting them to make the colours more vivid and brighter for my feel. There were three main aspects to this; playing around with the shadows and highlights I changed every piece of footage individually to make them all perfect within themselves. I did not need to any filters or text to my music video as I felt it was perfect without it, showing the true conventions of a tour diary style music video. Each time I would adjust my video I would have to render it, making sure that everything was still in sync and in line with another.
Once all of my work was constructed and finished, I used the internet to upload them all to my blog adding labels and short descriptions to each post, displaying them in a chronological order to track my progress. All of these elements were crucial in the making of my music video and as well as the planning of it as each one benefited another in order to help create the most realist music video for my genre. As a lot of my work was published to such an open space, being on the internet, I had no control of who could see my blog and what they would think of my work. With this in mind my work was then made to be the best I could possibly make it, not only trying to impress my teachers but also a mass audiences. It was because of these media technology’s which made my work strong, also pushing me to work harder, I found that it was a great push and helped towards my final pieces being published. I can now say that I am proud and glad that we had to display all of our work on blogger for anyone to see.