Once we had gathered all of the research that we needed, we
started the planning of our products. We did a lot of planning for our music
video which involved using a range of new technologies. First of all we created
a mood board for the genre of our song, using images from ‘Google images’ that
we printed off and stuck to one another. After this was finished we scanned it
onto the computer and uploaded it in a blog post. This gave us an indication of
the types of colours and styles to use in our products. After this, we looked
at the planning for our video, we created a ‘Powerpoint’ presentation of our
key research and some initial ideas. We then showed this to a group of
individuals who fell under our target audience to see whether our ideas
appealed to them. With the feedback that we gathered, we created a storyboard
of our initial ideas for shots- this was done by hand. However, we then made
the storyboard into an animatic. We did this by drawing each shot individually
on separate pieces of paper and using a flip cam took a picture of each one. We
then uploaded each picture onto ‘Final Cut Pro’ where we edited them in order
and added the audio of our song alongside it. Once this was completed, we
showed the animatic to a focus group and asked each person the same four
questions about what they had watched. I made this into a podcast by recording
the answers onto a flip cam and uploading the audio onto ‘imovie’ before
editing it in order.
Construction:
Evaluation:
I have used different electronic formats to show the
evaluations of our products. The first question was presented through a blog
post that consisted of text, still images and videos. The pictures and videos
were used through hyperlinks from ‘YouTube’ and ‘Google images’. For the second
question I decided to create a Prezi where I used text and still image to
present my work. A lot of the images were screen shots from our video that I saved
and added myself. For the third question, I created a ‘PowerPoint’ presentation
that used text and still images. Using a hyperlink I added the presentation
onto the blog before adding videos to back up the information. These videos
were ones that we made and uploaded to ‘YouTube’ ourselves. For this final
blog post, I have presented the information through again through text alongside still image and hyperlink videos.
Below is the animatic storyboard that we made as well as the audience feedback that we recieved after showing it to a group of individuals that are within our target audience.
Below is the rough cut and final version of our music video, the difference between the two videos has been changed due to audience feedback. We as a group believe that we have majorly benefitted from the feedback that we received and therefore our final product was better and more professional.
Genre:
The Genre of our music video is Alternative Rock, a genre that emerged from the independent underground in 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. Alternative Rock differs from mainstream Rock due to its general nonchalant, defiant attitude and other individual differences in each song. Some bands whose music falls under this genre include Green Day, The Black keys, Franz Ferdinand and more. Alternative Rock videos do have forms and conventions, like most genres, however the videos often differ from one another in order to show creativity. Below are some videos that can our music video can relate to and showing some of the forms and conventions of this genre that we followed.
______________________________________________________________________________ Music Videos relatable to ours:
Red Hot Chilli Peppers-Under The Bridge:
Much like ours, this video has a shot of the lead singer singing whilst walking down the road, being part of the narrative, as well as him standing still or with a band member, performing. We also do this in our video, with the lead singer walking down the road singing whilst reminiscing on his past. This is him being part of the narrative whilst still singing, showing how the lyrics relate to the characters life. Then, to show his role in and to promote the band, we also see him performing with the other members. However, our song is much slower than this one, therefore we have our main singer walking slower, and have the camera facing him front on to show the emotion in his face.
Left-shot of of our main singer walking down the road singing. Right-close up of the singer whilst performing.
Royal Blood- Little Monster:
This video relates to our one because there are many close ups of band members performing together. For example, in our video we have close ups and different shots of him and the other members performing. This video has no narrative but instead is many shots of the band performing, this works well with this song because it is an upbeat song meaning the editing could be faster and more shots could be experimented with and put together. However, our song once again is quite slow so we decided to have a narrative mixed with performance of the band because if we had a video of just the band performing, it would be quite boring. Also, the black and white filter gives a very Alternative Rock effect, We used a filter as well that gives the same effect.
Left-close up of the guitarist in the band.
Right-shot of the drummer.
Green Day-Wake me up when September ends:
This video, much like ours, has a narrative mixed with a performance from the band. The narrative of Green Day's song is similar to ours as it too puts a heavily important role of a girl and what impact she has on a guy, in our case the lead singer. The performance in the video on the left is a lot more glamorous than ours, this is partly because we had no budget and Green Day did but also, we wanted to give the indie effect of an upcoming band. However, our video and Green Day's both have the performance at the end of the song where each song livens up.
Left-long shot showing the couple together.
Right-shot of the band performing.
______________________________________________________________________________ Conventions of music videos in general:
Through my research i have found many different conventions of music videos in general. Goodwin's theory, explained many conventions that fall under the majority of music videos today. However, I have found other conventions of what tends to be involved in music videos. Below are 7 key conventions of music videos with examples of how we followed these conventions.
1- There is a relationship between the visuals and lyrics We based our whole narrative around the lyrics, however, the lyrics do not give a clear story but give suggestions for what may have happened, allowing us to be creative with constructing the narrative. Our narrative follows the main singer story; reminiscing on the good times with his girlfriend who he has just broken up with. We analysed the lyrics and thought that the song was about a break up due to lines such as: "So what did they tell you that made you run?" "But you don't need me" "What did you mean when you said enough?" 2- There is a relationship between the visuals and music Being a slow song, meant that we had a lot of slow shots connected through transitions to complement the tempo of the song. If we were to use fast editing and short shots it would contradict the music, this would be more suitable for an upbeat rock song.Also, we included lip synching, and guitar and drum playing to the beat so it looked like the actors were playing the actual song. 3- There is a different style for each genre, as a genre changes so does the characteristics within the video Our video followed the conventions of our genre. This genre often involves a performance from the band alongside or instead of a narrative. Ours was a mix of both narrative and performance and followed the Alternative Rock style of both, with the narrative relating to the lyrics with an indie edge to it and for the performance side, close ups and emphasis on the band members. 4- Voyeurism takes place(tends to be towards women) Voyeurism towards women does not take place in our video because it would work in opposition to the lyrics and music in the song. However, the role of women and the impact that they have on men is explored through our video. 5- There is a demand for close ups of the vocalist/main artist We use a few of close ups of the lead singer in our video, as well as shots primarily on other band members as well. We kept in mind that this is a major convention of music videos as it makes the artist or band recognisable. To make sure that it wasn't boring, we ensured that we used different shots, experimenting with different angles. 6- There is a narrative and/or performance from the band or artist We used both a narrative and band performance for different reasons. Firstly, we wanted the lyrics to relate to the video at the same time as promoting band. Also, our song is quite slow and if we had purely performance or narrative I believe that the audience would get bored. Finally, using a narrative and performance based video we were able to use, experiment and develop our media skills. 7- There is a range of different media techniques explored(cinematography, editing etc.) In order to keep our music video interesting and entertaining we chose to use a variety of cinematography and post production techniques. Some of the techniques that we used are below:
On the left is the shot of our main singer leaning on a tree singing, with the camera panning around him.
The right picture shows a transitional effect that we added in post production of our video.
The left picture shows a shot of a guitar becoming focused, shown on the right.
On the right is an over the shoulder shot of the main artist looking at a photo.
On the right is a print screen of a mid transition going from the singer ripping up the photo and dropping it into the pond to him walking down a path.
______________________________________________________________________________ Borrowing and Subverting conventions from Genres:
Alternative Rock songs vary very much, they can go from being like any old rock video to just downright outrageous. For example, some videos for Alternative Rock videos have no relevance to their songs in order to be different to all others. Audiences tend to either think the videos are amazing or they are left speechless and not in a good way. Below are some examples of Alternative Rock videos that differ from all others.
The Black Keys-Lonely Boy:
This video is nothing but a random man dancing and lip synching to the bands song, there is no sign of the band or a narrative. Many crazy videos like this one fall under the Alternative Rock genre. Even though it does include lip synching and dancing that relates to the music and lyrics, as well as being quite entertaining, there is a lack of media skills involved, which is why we did not make a video like this one.
Franz Ferdinand- Take me out:
This is another very unique video, one that is basically a performance from the band surrounded by what can only be explained as madness. This video is full of chaos and its hard to say what is going on, yet the audience feels to watch on. This video works well in time with the music however, and it is also quite an entertaining video. However, there is not much cinematography skills explored, but instead a lot of post production, where a lot of money would have been involved, which is why we did not make a video like this one.
As a group, we chose to stay clear of videos such as these mainly because it is hard to make videos like this entertaining to the audience as well as it showing a lack of media skills. Also, we believed that our narrative fitted well with the music and lyrics. As well as subverting the convention of being extremely different, we also borrowed conventions from another genre. Our general narrative arguably would fall more suitably under the pop genre where the story is about a girl and a boy, in our case focusing on their break up. However, we didn't want to divert too much from the Alternative Rock genre or the lyrics so unlike typical Pop videos, there is a lack of a happy ending and sense of realism.
______________________________________________________________________________ The Digipak:
When designing our digipak, we had to keep in mind what general and specifically Alternative Rock examples consisted of. Digipaks tend to consist or a front cover, back cover, an inside cover, a CD slot and additional pages inside such as lyric booklets or extra small pictures. We managed to incorporate all of these into our own digipak. It is arguably the front and back covers that are most important for a digipak and a lot can be told from these and it is these that encourage people to buy the albums, therefore I have found an example of an Alternative Rock front and back cover below and how ours relates to them.
Arctic Monkeys- Whatever people say I am that's what I'm not: On the left are the front and back cover to an Arctic Monkeys album. The covers are relatable to ours in many ways, and I believe that this album is a great example of an Alternative Rock album. For example, like ours the album is in black and white, giving an alternative effect to it. This album choose to use a filter for the front as well as the back colour to ensure they compliment each other instead of contrasting which we chose to do as well. However, the front and back cover pictures are almost identical, apart from how the artist is singing, whereas ours consists of our lead singer on the front, and a picture of all of the band on the back. We chose to do this to advertise the band as a whole whilst still putting focus on the lead singer. Excluding the pictures used for the covers, our front and back cover is very identifiable with the Arctic Monkeys one. Firstly, the front cover consists of a simple photo with the Arctic Monkeys logo on it,where as ours is the same, plus the name of the album as well. Secondly, the back cover includes a lot of the same characteristics as the one on the left, such as the tracklist, barcode, production company and website addresses that have additional information. These are things that are generally on the back of most albums so we made sure that we incorporated them whilst still giving and Alternative Rock feel to it, which I feel we did successfully.
______________________________________________________________________________ The Magazine Advert:
Much like our digipak, when desigining our magazine advert we had to keep in mind what the conventions of magazine adverts for Alternative Rock albums consisted of. On the right is the perfect example of what we believed needed to be included and therefore used in our own advert. First of all the bands name is clear and stands out at the top of the page to initially promote the band itself. Also, the name of the album which is why the advert is there stands out secondly with a big picture of the front cover of this album so that audiences know what to look out for. The name of some of the singles are also on the album so if a reader is familiar with them then they are likely to give the rest of the album a listen. The very important information that is the release date is also on the page so that people know exactly when they can purchase the album. Like on ours, there is also additional website links at the bottom as well as production companies. However, this advert does not include reviews of the album which we have, and believe to be very persuasive in adverts.
How did you use new technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research was an essential part of making this music video. We had to research the genre of music which we wanted to make a music video from, research of magazine adverts in order to make our own and also extensive research into digpaks to create our own. The internet played an important role in me gathering research and within that I used I predominantly used two different search engines in all my research. All school based research which I did during lessons, I used 'Safari' on Appel Mac Computers and when I did further research at home I used 'Google' on my Microsoft Window Computer. With both search engines I was able to access various websites which provided me with all sorts of information which I was seeking at the time. Using the internet allowed me to access vast amounts of information on digipak's, music videos and magazine adverts. I used the Internet to also find lots of images that are featured in my blog. I used google to search for a lot of information and resources and it provided me with a of useful information during the production of my media product. It lead me to indie rock bands such as 'Arctic Monkeys', 'The Killers' and our chosen band 'Dinner and a Suit'.
When it came to presenting any research and work I have done research on I used a range of platforms from Powerpoint Presentations which I uploaded using slide share, or Prezi which is a fun and innovative way of presenting ideas. I also used one of the most common forms of detailing my work which was using the Blog. Powerpoint is something which I felt I was very aware of and found it easy to use as I have been using it since year 7 to make class presentations and research projects. With Prezi I was only introduced to it last year and I found it challenging at first due to the variety of animations and and designs, but Prezi is different to Powerpoint as I find it is more interactive for audiences.
I used Powerpoint to answer Evaluation Question 2, but also in the early music video research stage. I made a powerpoint presentation on Nicki Minaj's music video to Anaconda, whilst I also used Prezi to analyse Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj's 'Bang Bang' video. I feel that having a variety in the form of presentation of information is better than a plain blog post as the information if accessed in different ways and it is more interactive.
To gain audience feedback we used flip cameras as a means to record data from our focus group on certain aspect of our media product. This played an important role when were planning our music video. we should them an animatic video of what we hoped our music video would look like. As they watched the video we used the flip cam to record their answers to the questions. Our animatic is comprised of a series of images from our storyboard film on a white background with the music playing in the background, the picture would change in accordance with the music video. We edited the animatic video on iMovie putting all the images and sound together to create this moving storyboard. The idea of an animatic is to show them what we intend our final video to look like. We recorded all our audience feedback wether it was statements or quotes with regards to all our media products in our portfolio.
I personally used social media to follow Dinner and a Suit to see what they are like as a band, subscribing to their 'Youtube Channel' and liking their 'Facebook Page'. With the help of social media and the accessibility that artists have to it and being able to connect with fans, I was able to gain an insight on how they promote their music/albums. As a group however we used Facebook as a means of communicating our thoughts and ideas in a group chat. In our conversations we were able to come together outside of lesson time and come together to pick our song and unsigned artist to which we would make our music video for. Planning Construction
For the construction of our music video we used the Canon EOS 650D camera to give a high quality edge to our filming. We used this camera to not only film our music video but also take still shots to be used for the construction of our digipak and magazine advert. In order to use the camera effectively we had to ensure that we checked the white balance and exposure setting on the camera whenever the lighting changed or if we moved set locations. This mean that when we editing the film it would look cohesive and of high quality and not out of focus. Whenever we filmed from new location or different angle at a different time of day where the brightness was not the same we had to change the exposer and white balance settings on the camera to suit each shot. To edit I use Final Cut Pro on a Mac desktop. We used different transition and effects this software provided us to help create atmosphere in our video making it more realistic adding realism to the video. The main transition used was called ‘cross dissolve’. We only used two effects in the whole of video and these were ‘matched lighting’ and ‘desert glare’. The reason we chose to match the colour of one shot to another was because the difference between them was too poignant and looked odd. The second effect was included because it highlighted a particular pivotal scene within the narrative of our video.When we made the digipak and magazine advert we used photoshop and powerpoint to crop the images and add filters to make them look and resemble actual digipaks and magazine adverts.
Evaluation
Once our final music video was edited and complete we uploaded it onto youtube and got our friends, fellow classmates and family to look at the video and asked them for their feedback. The comments allowed us to see what aspect of our music video were successful in the eyes of the audience and public. The video is easily accessible to anyone and anyone can leave comments. With all my evaluation questions I used different forms of technologies to present my ideas in a creative and diverse way making it interactive. For my first evaluation question I posted a blog text which included images as an aide to answer the question. For my second evaluation question I used powerpoint. In using powerpoint it allowed to vary the form of presentation instead of a blog post. I was ale to present my answer by breaking it down and using different slides under headings which I believe helped to answer the question itself. My third evaluation was another blog post much rather like first question. Finally my las evaluation question is also a blog post. However within this blog post I have used a range of different formats, including a prezi embedded into the post but it also includes a range of images in aiding to present my answer.
Once we had gathered all of the research that we needed, we
started the planning of our products. We did a lot of planning for our music
video which involved using a range of new technologies. First of all we created
a mood board for the genre of our song, using images from ‘Google images’ that
we printed off and stuck to one another. After this was finished we scanned it
onto the computer and uploaded it in a blog post. This gave us an indication of
the types of colours and styles to use in our products. After this, we looked
at the planning for our video, we created a ‘Powerpoint’ presentation of our
key research and some initial ideas. We then showed this to a group of
individuals who fell under our target audience to see whether our ideas
appealed to them. With the feedback that we gathered, we created a storyboard
of our initial ideas for shots- this was done by hand. However, we then made
the storyboard into an animatic. We did this by drawing each shot individually
on separate pieces of paper and using a flip cam took a picture of each one. We
then uploaded each picture onto ‘Final Cut Pro’ where we edited them in order
and added the audio of our song alongside it. Once this was completed, we
showed the animatic to a focus group and asked each person the same four
questions about what they had watched. I made this into a podcast by recording
the answers onto a flip cam and uploading the audio onto ‘imovie’ before
editing it in order.
I have used different electronic formats to show the
evaluations of our products. The first question was presented through a blog
post that consisted of text, still images and videos. The pictures and videos
were used through hyperlinks from ‘YouTube’ and ‘Google images’. For the second
question I decided to create a Prezi where I used text and still image to
present my work. A lot of the images were screen shots from our video that I saved
and added myself. For the third question, I created a ‘PowerPoint’ presentation
that used text and still images. Using a hyperlink I added the presentation
onto the blog before adding videos to back up the information. These videos
were ones that we made and uploaded to ‘YouTube’ ourselves. For this final
blog post, I have presented the information through again through text alongside still image and hyperlink videos.
