After we completed our music video to what we felt was the best it could be we asked a group of friends who hadn't seen the video before to gain netural feedback as to what we could improve in the future about our piece. This gave us a new insight into the music video as it was hard for us to spot things about the video that could be improved as we had edited it. We left it untill the music video was completed so the audience could see the final finished piece and also so we could take the feedback into consideration for the future. The feedback was generally positive, the audience commented inparticular on the continuity and particular scenes. The things they seemed to think stood out most were the unique writing of lyrics using various materials, this was different to the video as it is not expected in a music video and they felt this was a good feature. Also the other alternative feature we used which the audience seemed to like was the split screen, created through taking two different shots and layering them together. This made it appear as though the main character was two different people in one shot and the audience thought this was the best bit generally about the whole piece. From the feedback from the audience we have learned that we overall created a good music video however it could have been better if we had focused more on the split screen and writing the lyrics as the overall main concept as this is a unique feature within the music video and works particulary well with the type of pop song and storyline within our piece.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Question 2
"How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Consider how the video, magazine advert and CD case compliment each other- have you used a similar design, style or aesthetic across all 3. Also how does the advert and to some extent the CD cover help to sell the product. You could analyse representations or marketing strategies here."
Many themes, colours and ideas have been emulated from the music video and it's concept and translated onto the CD case and magazine advertisement. We used the idea for the "bad girl, good girl" and decided to build upon this concept throughout the entirety of our promotional package. One stylistic aspect of the promotional package was the star persona and the outfits and contrast of personalities she displays in the music video, and this is evident in the CD case design of the two characters stood by each other. It seemed that the central theme should run throughout our project and that the star persona presented on the CD case should be very clear and similar to that of the music video, to promote it as a "first album" of sorts. This would come across to the target audience as a simplistic and easily identified artist, especially since the music video matched that of the rest of the promotional package.
To continue, it was obvious to the group, whilst the song "Perfect Day - Hoku" in the music video is a very bouncy and energetic pop song, and the fact that the music video focusses on the direct change between the character's personalities (which is represented in their appearance), that a slightly different twist on the magazine advertisement would be interesting to promote the CD. The large image of the "good girl" appears to be rather aesthetically pleasing, with the use of colour and the fashion-induced characteristics of the individual.
All in all it was pretty obvious to the group that whilst the CD required a simplistic appearance to introduce the artist, the advert would require something a little more complex to balance it out. This is why we decided to use such an in depth focus upon the younger, female audience and it's associations with more colourful, "happier" imagery.
Consider how the video, magazine advert and CD case compliment each other- have you used a similar design, style or aesthetic across all 3. Also how does the advert and to some extent the CD cover help to sell the product. You could analyse representations or marketing strategies here."
Many themes, colours and ideas have been emulated from the music video and it's concept and translated onto the CD case and magazine advertisement. We used the idea for the "bad girl, good girl" and decided to build upon this concept throughout the entirety of our promotional package. One stylistic aspect of the promotional package was the star persona and the outfits and contrast of personalities she displays in the music video, and this is evident in the CD case design of the two characters stood by each other. It seemed that the central theme should run throughout our project and that the star persona presented on the CD case should be very clear and similar to that of the music video, to promote it as a "first album" of sorts. This would come across to the target audience as a simplistic and easily identified artist, especially since the music video matched that of the rest of the promotional package.
To continue, it was obvious to the group, whilst the song "Perfect Day - Hoku" in the music video is a very bouncy and energetic pop song, and the fact that the music video focusses on the direct change between the character's personalities (which is represented in their appearance), that a slightly different twist on the magazine advertisement would be interesting to promote the CD. The large image of the "good girl" appears to be rather aesthetically pleasing, with the use of colour and the fashion-induced characteristics of the individual.
All in all it was pretty obvious to the group that whilst the CD required a simplistic appearance to introduce the artist, the advert would require something a little more complex to balance it out. This is why we decided to use such an in depth focus upon the younger, female audience and it's associations with more colourful, "happier" imagery.
How did you use media technologies in the construction,research,planning and evaluation stage
Through out each stage of our media Music Video we have used a variety of techniques and camera work. We began by using the normal computers and carrying out research on music videoas, deciding on the genre of music we would use. Using sites such as http://www.youtube.com/, then form there we took out the college cameras, and used alot of different angles to create intresting looks.
We began by deciding on locations we would use for our music video, so took out our own camera and a college camera to take Location shots, which when we looked back on helped us decide on which location looked best on screen. This helped us in deciding which location looked best which lighting looked good and angles too.
Once we had our footage on the tape. We used on the Mac computers Final cut pro, where we could log and capture the footage we had, deciding when to cut it. Once on the final cut pro, we could put our footage in order on the timeline, and we added our soundtrack, where we inserted it via an ipod onto the timeline.
We did a variety of editing techniques one of the hardest for us was the split screen which features twice in our film. When we first did the split screen we did it outside, where the lighting did not match and the camera had moved. so we dedided we should film inside so the lighting wouldnt change. So we changed the scene to inside the toliets which would be effective for our storyline. We had to layer the images on top of each other, and crop the image on top to revel the underneath image.
To help move the video along we used on the Bus stop scene where it shows both the good and bad girl, that we would use the slide effect to help it flow. The final scene of the sky and the leaves we used a fade effect, to tell the audience the video was comming to an end, plus it added a nice effect.
For the C.D cover and advertisment, we used Amys DSLR camera, which from myself,sophie and danielle was new to use, and we soon got a hang of how to use the zoom effect and the different lighting you could have and effects we could put on them. The camera gave our a photo's a more proffesional look than the sreen grabs we had done.
When we came to uploading the images onto the apple macs we used a software called Photoshop where, we had to crop images and layer them ontop of backgrounds, and add texts and download packages from the interent to gain the certain font we wanted.
We began by deciding on locations we would use for our music video, so took out our own camera and a college camera to take Location shots, which when we looked back on helped us decide on which location looked best on screen. This helped us in deciding which location looked best which lighting looked good and angles too.
Once we had our footage on the tape. We used on the Mac computers Final cut pro, where we could log and capture the footage we had, deciding when to cut it. Once on the final cut pro, we could put our footage in order on the timeline, and we added our soundtrack, where we inserted it via an ipod onto the timeline.
We did a variety of editing techniques one of the hardest for us was the split screen which features twice in our film. When we first did the split screen we did it outside, where the lighting did not match and the camera had moved. so we dedided we should film inside so the lighting wouldnt change. So we changed the scene to inside the toliets which would be effective for our storyline. We had to layer the images on top of each other, and crop the image on top to revel the underneath image.
To help move the video along we used on the Bus stop scene where it shows both the good and bad girl, that we would use the slide effect to help it flow. The final scene of the sky and the leaves we used a fade effect, to tell the audience the video was comming to an end, plus it added a nice effect.
For the C.D cover and advertisment, we used Amys DSLR camera, which from myself,sophie and danielle was new to use, and we soon got a hang of how to use the zoom effect and the different lighting you could have and effects we could put on them. The camera gave our a photo's a more proffesional look than the sreen grabs we had done.
When we came to uploading the images onto the apple macs we used a software called Photoshop where, we had to crop images and layer them ontop of backgrounds, and add texts and download packages from the interent to gain the certain font we wanted.
Here are some images of Danielle and myself with the SLR camera,Final Cut pro software and the Camera and tripod we used for filming.
Blog Evaluation Question 1
Question: 1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our media product we firstly reasearched videos from the pop
related genre that our chosen song 'Perfect Day' by Hoku originated
from such as 'You Belong With Me' by Taylor Swift and '4eva' by The Veronicas.
While both videos inspired us to have a strong woman lead role ,
for our video we chose to use our own original idea of having
both a 'good' girl and a 'bad' girl perspective of how both of their perfect days would be.
Because of this in our video we decided to use a stereotypical
mis en scene for our characters, such as a leather jacket, boots
and smoking a cigarette for the 'bad' girl character, with the 'good' girl
wearing a pretty floral dress with neat hair and perfect makeup.
For the characters 'perfect days' we decided to have them both in
similar situations, such as both getting ready,
waiting for a bus, talking to a boy and messing around in a park.
However we put our own unique twist on these settings by having
both of the girls doing different things while in these scenarios,
for example whilst walking past an homeless person the 'good girl' gives them
money and food, whilst the 'bad' girl runs off with the change, showing the
audience the contrasting personalities which make our video unique.
At the beginning of the video we had both the characters next to
each other in the bathroom getting ready using a split scene, setting
the audience up and giving them an idea of how the video is going
to be shown. We also used a variety of stop motion shots to write 'perfect day'
in different materials, such as plastecine, sand and twigs and leaves
when the chorus was on, for that extra interesting edge and to make it
different from all other videos produced.
Here is one of the stop motion shots of perfect day we used in our video.
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our media product we firstly reasearched videos from the pop
related genre that our chosen song 'Perfect Day' by Hoku originated
from such as 'You Belong With Me' by Taylor Swift and '4eva' by The Veronicas.
While both videos inspired us to have a strong woman lead role ,
for our video we chose to use our own original idea of having
both a 'good' girl and a 'bad' girl perspective of how both of their perfect days would be.
Because of this in our video we decided to use a stereotypical
mis en scene for our characters, such as a leather jacket, boots
and smoking a cigarette for the 'bad' girl character, with the 'good' girl
wearing a pretty floral dress with neat hair and perfect makeup.
For the characters 'perfect days' we decided to have them both in
similar situations, such as both getting ready,
waiting for a bus, talking to a boy and messing around in a park.
However we put our own unique twist on these settings by having
both of the girls doing different things while in these scenarios,
for example whilst walking past an homeless person the 'good girl' gives them
money and food, whilst the 'bad' girl runs off with the change, showing the
audience the contrasting personalities which make our video unique.
At the beginning of the video we had both the characters next to
each other in the bathroom getting ready using a split scene, setting
the audience up and giving them an idea of how the video is going
to be shown. We also used a variety of stop motion shots to write 'perfect day'
in different materials, such as plastecine, sand and twigs and leaves
when the chorus was on, for that extra interesting edge and to make it
different from all other videos produced.
Here is one of the stop motion shots of perfect day we used in our video.
Final Cd Cover
Our Cd cover was inspired by the "Only by the Night" Kings of Leon album cover. We chose to adapt this rather than using just the face of the singer to using various shots to make the artwork more interesting and appropriate for our particular song and genre. Here is our final artwork. We created these by arranging to photograph Charlotte with a DSLR Camera as we agreed that this would provide better quality overall rather than screencapping from the video and also it gave us more options. 
This image was created through layering on image on top of the other to give the impression that two girls were originally in the shot, we also chose this text as we thought it was the best suited as it wasnt too complicated and was also bold and strong. We decided to use the wall as a consistent background in our photos as we felt it looked simple, and fitted in with the outfits and image created for our cd cover.
Again this image was created through layering to create a different perpective of the photograph. We also included song names from Hoku's album so the titles were genuine and didnt sound silly and made up.
For the insides of the cd cover we decided firstly to design our CD cover as a card one with a slot for the CD these types of CD cases are becoming more popular and the group also felt it gave us more scope to create an inside. We decided to continue with the "good/bad girl" photos to keep relevant to the front and back and choose three shots of Charlotte in each costume in different poses. As we thought our cover needed something more we then decided to include specific lyrics which we felt fitted with each personality with the images.
This image was created through layering on image on top of the other to give the impression that two girls were originally in the shot, we also chose this text as we thought it was the best suited as it wasnt too complicated and was also bold and strong. We decided to use the wall as a consistent background in our photos as we felt it looked simple, and fitted in with the outfits and image created for our cd cover.
Again this image was created through layering to create a different perpective of the photograph. We also included song names from Hoku's album so the titles were genuine and didnt sound silly and made up.
For the insides of the cd cover we decided firstly to design our CD cover as a card one with a slot for the CD these types of CD cases are becoming more popular and the group also felt it gave us more scope to create an inside. We decided to continue with the "good/bad girl" photos to keep relevant to the front and back and choose three shots of Charlotte in each costume in different poses. As we thought our cover needed something more we then decided to include specific lyrics which we felt fitted with each personality with the images.
C.d Cover Photo's
For our c.d cover we took a variety of photo's and had a selection to choose from, here are some of the photos of the 'good girl' 'bad girl' that we narrowed it down to but did not use.
Charlotte as the 'Good Girl' and 'Bad Girl' persona
We did not use some of these pictures because of lighting arrangements, as they did not match the lighting of the other pictures we used for the covers, and also composition , as in some of the shots Charlotte was either too far left or too far right to be used properly.
Final Magazine Advert
We carried out a range of research looking into different magazine adverts. there were some which were landscape and other horizontal, but we found a feature in Kerrang magazine which stood out to us. Which had a large photo of the artist in the back ground and writing infront, to promote the albumn. So we took inspiration from it and made our own version. We added in reviews on both sides because we felt it would give it a more proffesional look, and would appear more realistic, and may stand out from others.
Here is our final Advertisment.
Directors Commentary
We decided since we finished our music video on time, to do a Directors commentary, where we would tell the audience what and why we did things in the music video, why we had pefect day appearing & why we had charlotte dressed in certain ways. Making the audience feel more involved. Also so they can gain a better understanding of the video and the concept behind it.
we let them in on the Idea behind the video, which shots were difficult and how we achieved some of them. And reasons behind certain locations, why we picked them due to the mis en scene we were going for.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Editing screen grabs.
Here are some screen grabs from our music video, of just some of the editing techniques we used. We use split screen, where we cropped one image on top of the other. we also used still shots, on the Perfect day where we got one letter appearing after another. The bus stop scene, we used a slide effect, to keep up with the pace of the music.
Monday, 7 December 2009
timeline - Editing
Now that we have finished editing, we have a completed time line, there are a slection of bigger and shorter edits, which all fit well with the music, here is a screen grab of our timeline.
Through out the music video the song says " Perfect day" which we decided a good idea would be to write perfect day in all different ways, using the editing style of stills, where you only record for 3 seconds and then write the next letter so they appear one after another, here is a screen grab of the writing in the sand.
through out our music video we used a series of different shots, which would capture the audiences attention, and which we felt would be different to other music video's around here are some of thoose shots, taken from our time line.
Through out the music video the song says " Perfect day" which we decided a good idea would be to write perfect day in all different ways, using the editing style of stills, where you only record for 3 seconds and then write the next letter so they appear one after another, here is a screen grab of the writing in the sand. Behind the scenes - Making C.D cover
We decided, for our c.d cover to do a split screen, where it would show both the good girl and the bad girl. Giving the audience a sense of what to expect on the music video, also it will promote the singer. Last friday we took the photos to use for the c.d cover, here are some photo's of our group.
Using Amys SLR camera, would give the cover a more professonal feel to it, where as the screen grab cover we made in class, looked good but not proffesonal. we used a black wall behind Charlotte, to make the split screen more effective, so we wouldnt have to change lighting and colours, instead we could simply crop the images together.
Cd Cover Template
We have decided to use an alternative template for our CD cover rather than the more traditional one. The template we are using has a slot for the CD and Booklet inside meaning there is more scope for us to create images within the inside of our album cover.
We hope for the cd case to be similar to this one where the case focuses on two graphics inside and the Cd and Booklet slots in clearly behind them. This gives us more chance to focus on our graphics inside and also recently this has become a more popular, modern way for new cd release cases.
We hope for the cd case to be similar to this one where the case focuses on two graphics inside and the Cd and Booklet slots in clearly behind them. This gives us more chance to focus on our graphics inside and also recently this has become a more popular, modern way for new cd release cases.
CD cover
For our cover we firstly decided to have it influenced by the Kings Of Leon album 'Only By Night' cover, as we thought that it tied in very well with the two personas Charlotte plays in our video. For our cover we firstly of all went out with Charlotte and we took different pictures of her at different angles, in different poses and in the different outfits to show our videos idea.
After we aquired our shots we uploaded them onto the computer and started editing them with photoshop. We chose pictures that we thought were best suited for our cover and then started merging them together, using the pictures of both the bad and good girl combined and seperate for the different covers, as explained in the previous blog post. We then used brightness and contrast to give the picture a sharper and more funkier edge.
We decided to have our cover as an album rather than just a single, to give the cover a more realistic touch. We then got the track list from the internet and added it onto the back cover, using a font that we downloaded from the site dafont.com.
After we aquired our shots we uploaded them onto the computer and started editing them with photoshop. We chose pictures that we thought were best suited for our cover and then started merging them together, using the pictures of both the bad and good girl combined and seperate for the different covers, as explained in the previous blog post. We then used brightness and contrast to give the picture a sharper and more funkier edge.
We decided to have our cover as an album rather than just a single, to give the cover a more realistic touch. We then got the track list from the internet and added it onto the back cover, using a font that we downloaded from the site dafont.com.
Idea for CD cover
We were asked to complete the task of producing a CD cover as a promotional package for the music video. After much research, the group concluded that we would integrate the concept of "good girl" and "bad girl" from the music video plot into the CD cover, and that including a copy of both girls together would compliment the project.
The inspiration is coming from a contrast between both personas (as played by Charlotte) and so to effectively present this in a CD cover, use of photoshop and merging two photographs together will be necessary. Moreover, the group decided that the font we should use should emulate a sort of handwritten, or calligraphy form in order to amplify the traditional pop sound of the song involved in the music video (Perfect Day - Hoku). We are currently testing out particular fonts to fit the feel of the song and the plot that goes with it.
Additionally, as this CD cover is being treated as a first release (for the sake of our project), the group decided that the image should be particularly simplistic or straight forward, as to get the star persona and music type across. This will be explored during the editing stages.
The inspiration is coming from a contrast between both personas (as played by Charlotte) and so to effectively present this in a CD cover, use of photoshop and merging two photographs together will be necessary. Moreover, the group decided that the font we should use should emulate a sort of handwritten, or calligraphy form in order to amplify the traditional pop sound of the song involved in the music video (Perfect Day - Hoku). We are currently testing out particular fonts to fit the feel of the song and the plot that goes with it.
Additionally, as this CD cover is being treated as a first release (for the sake of our project), the group decided that the image should be particularly simplistic or straight forward, as to get the star persona and music type across. This will be explored during the editing stages.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
screen grabs
we have used through out the video, all different shots, to keep the audience watching the video, here are a few examples of some of the shots we have used.
theese images show the contrast in characters from the outfits they are wearing and the expression she has on her face.
Monday, 30 November 2009
C.D. cover & Article
We completed our music video last Friday the 28th of November, so now were working on completing our other tasks of a c.d cover and an advertisment in a magazine to promote our band which is called Hoku!, as you can see from our previous post we have done some background research on c.d covers and all the different ones you can get, whether it have images of the artists, of a photo of scenery, we decided since Charlotte the perfomer in our music video is in it through out, she looks like the singer to the audience,
so it would only be right for her to be on the front of the C.D cover, and the storyline to be on it, so we were thinking to do half a face good girl and half a face bad girl alot like the Kings of Leon C.D cover which we all agreed stood out the most, we wouldn't use all the idea simply use the half a face, we are now deciding on the back of the c.d cover, as we have only got one song. do we make up other songs, or do we carry on the photo to the back cover. The next post will show the research we carried out on the back of C.D covers
Whilst were completing the C.D cover we will be comming up with ideas for the article, that will capture people's attention and make them want to buy the C.D and that promote the band. using images and Charlotte as the performer.
Here are some idea's of different lay outs we could use for our magazine article. Either we use a large image and write across it, or we use more text and lots of smaller images, either way i feel images will be needed, as when your reading your attention gets pulled to thoose articles with images, and not to much to thoose which are just text.
Here are some further idea's that we found in Kerrang magazine, that we have scanned in, theese are the adverts we gained the most from, about what to write and what kind of image to use.
Kerrang Advertisments
Final Idea's
When we were making our own Magazine advertisments, we had a choice of 2 this one and our final one, we decided on the other one becuase it looked more proffesional, even though we did like this one, we felt a verticle one would stand out more and the other photo, where Charlottes face is alot closer to the camera captures your attention alot more than this one.
The NME, advert we had on the other one looked more proffesional on the other one, and the albumn cover stood out alot more. We agreed on the other one as a group.
Cd Front Cover Research
We have been researching an idea for our cd cover promoting the song "Perfect Day" which we have created a video for. Our intention is to use a photograph of the girl that acted in our video, as the artist.
Here are examples of some front covers from our research. Ideally we would like to use the idea of these covers where the lead singer is the main focus of attention which creates a star personna to the viewer.
Although we have decided to use the overall concept of this album cover where the main image of the singer has been distorted into sections making the image different and creating different conceptions of the cover. This makes it more interesting and unique. The idea of this cd cover would work well however we plan to keep the image simple by just using the face of the singer and not including other animal faces edited into the photo.
The text on this second cover has influenced our decision to use a simple text within our cd cover as it doesnt take too much detail away from the main image, is easy to read and stands out.
Costumes
For our music the idea of the good girl bad girl, we decided on the costumes, and how they would contrast, which would fit in with the mis-en-scene of the video. The bad girl would be wearing a biker leather jacket, mainly black clothing and the good girl would be wearing a floral dres, with high heels, the contrast will be shown on screen.
Also towards the end of the video, we decided to add a new scene where both good and bad girl will walk past a homeless person, and show there different reactions, which will emphasise there personalities. and portray to the audience more about our story line. so the good girl will stop and give the homeless person money & food. where as the bad girl will take the money which they are begging for. For this scene we had to use costumes. so we wore what we thought would represent a homeless person and tried to create a good mis-en-scene around the person.
Also towards the end of the video, we decided to add a new scene where both good and bad girl will walk past a homeless person, and show there different reactions, which will emphasise there personalities. and portray to the audience more about our story line. so the good girl will stop and give the homeless person money & food. where as the bad girl will take the money which they are begging for. For this scene we had to use costumes. so we wore what we thought would represent a homeless person and tried to create a good mis-en-scene around the person.
Here are some shots we took of Charlotte wearing both of the outfits.
Good girl
Bad Girl
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
shots
Through out our music video, we have used a variety of shots, as using the same shot would not hold the audiences attention, so we use a variety of mid-shots, long shots, close ups and even extreme close ups on charlottes eye, each shot is different from the next and therefore will capture the audiences attention and hold it. when we have used close ups, we have added them altogether with a fast editing speed.
We have done this becuase at the beginning of our song it starts out with a slower tempo and as it gets faster towards the end our cuts and editing becomes faster to pick up with the tempo of the song. But we feel that the longer shots at the beginning of the video are needed, as it helps to explain the story line, and what is happening withing the shot needs to be shown to the audience.
Today sir helped us with our split screen shot, as we have attempted a couple before but we have done them outside, even though we did the shots one after another the lighting had changed in thoose seconds, making the shots out of sync and the camera also had moved, which made the shot useless and we couldnt slot it together with the one below. So when we came to editing the split screen again, we had it perfectly and used an effect called ........
we only have minor peices of editing left to do now, its simply making sure each shot fits in with the peice of music and that each makes sense, with the previous shot.
We have done this becuase at the beginning of our song it starts out with a slower tempo and as it gets faster towards the end our cuts and editing becomes faster to pick up with the tempo of the song. But we feel that the longer shots at the beginning of the video are needed, as it helps to explain the story line, and what is happening withing the shot needs to be shown to the audience.
Today sir helped us with our split screen shot, as we have attempted a couple before but we have done them outside, even though we did the shots one after another the lighting had changed in thoose seconds, making the shots out of sync and the camera also had moved, which made the shot useless and we couldnt slot it together with the one below. So when we came to editing the split screen again, we had it perfectly and used an effect called ........
we only have minor peices of editing left to do now, its simply making sure each shot fits in with the peice of music and that each makes sense, with the previous shot.
Editing continued...
The group has decided that to enhance the music video's presentation, the use of effects would be significant, and also to manipulate the shots to make it appear as if both characters, the bad girl and the good girl, are in the same shot. This is what occurs at the end, to educate the viewer about the concept of "bad" and "good" being in everyone, and that these two characters seen throughout the music video, are merely two sides to the same person. However, this only reveals itself at the end, as the video comes together (as a sort of play on words). However, there is one shot at the very beginning of the music video, of the "two" characters in the mirror, and this is a mere understanding given to the viewer as to the fact that they are supposed to be identified as two separate beings.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Changes to our original idea
We have decided to change our original idea of having a performance element fitted within the story of our music video as we felt that the storyline shots were strong enough on there own and looked more professional and realistic. This means our video will focus only on the "good girl, bad girl" storyline.
Our song choice allows us not to use a singer and this decision makes our video more simpler and means we can focus on creating stronger shots of the story to use throughout the work.
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