Final Music Video

Final Digipack Design

Final Ancillary Task

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

F

Stay With Me

Alli, Hannah, Sophie and James

Excellent considerate understanding of the technologies used in production of the video, for example in terms of set design quality and the use of FCP to create effective set design and mise en scene.

There are evident links between creative decision making and use of technology on both productions of the video using professional digital cameras and in the post production editing process – in discussion of match of action, lip syncing and graphic matching’. This is sustained and thorough and accurate in discussion of the branded themes of a broken relationship for example in discussion of the beat of the song and pacing of the cuts used in the editing process.

The commentary shows a discrete awareness of the use of new media technology and uses discriminating examples really well, particularly to selection and construction of narrative, editing techniques, such as FCP Tools. Excellent command of terminology and understands and discusses convergence really well.

There is sustained justified decision making links between the technologies used the product and audience reception in terms of the creativity that the group used.. Recognises the need to account for errors in the post production stage and the importance of converge technologies.

This is a well considered documentary – you may want to re-edit in terms of the presentation I think this is a provisional draft of the commentary.

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

The Use Of PhotoShop

Photoshop was a large part of the synergy of the promotion of our music video through creating a poster and CD digipak.

We used photoshop to create these media products.
The writing on the poster was done my using layers putting one on top of the other and adjusting the opacity so that you can see the red writing of the word 'Synergy' through the title of the Song.
'Out Now' is in black, keeping it bold but simple so people just see the same and that it is released. I chose the lead singers face as he is the one that is mainly seen, i have reduced the opacity so that his face stands out from the writing, so people see the name creating a brand image.

The digipak was created using lots of layers of different images and fonts. The broken mirror is a familiar image that we used to try and capture an element of the Music video in their CD Digipak. The font on the Digipack is consistent to help carry on the star image, it is a font that we downloaded especially for the band. We have a photo of them on the front to make there faces familiar creating and brand image and a familiarity about the band that will potentially become recognisable to a wider audience, instead of having logos that don't show their faces. I feel there faces on the front helps them promote their image to a wider audience.

I also used another website called www.pixlr.com which is a website very similar to Photoshop but slightly more basic, i used this due to the fact that I didn't have photoshop on my laptop. I used this for the posters as i wanted the posters to be bold and basic anyway so i didn't feel the need to use photoshop. It still uses layers, fonts, colour alterations and opacity changes just as photoshop, these are the only elements i needed so i felt the program was worth while.

   

Task 4: Media Technology in Pre-Production

New media technology was a significant process in our pre-production and planning of our music video. Before filming our music video I drew out a timeline of shots, to try and get an image of a sequence for a potential music video draft. We then drew out images to go with timeline and labelled them with the shot number, a description of the shot, information on lighting and set design and what lyric of the song it matches to. We then filmed the story board using Sony NX 5 to create a rough cut using Final Cut Pro of what we were expecting our music video to look like. This is showing us how media technologies have helped us prepare for our music videos as we were able to see mistakes before they occured. I saw what worked and what didn't and then managed to make these changes before our actual shoot day, this made me feel much better and more confident about my shoot day allowing me to go on to the set and direct the actors efficiently and accurately as i had a clear image of what was required in my mind.

Blogger has also been a large technological part of our pre production due to the fact that I have posted all of my ideas, and the stages to the process of making our music video on it so I can clearly see the stages that we have been through. We have posted all of our research in an organised fashion on the program allowing us to use the website as a scrap book of the process of our music video process.

We also used our smart iPhones to efficiently photograph work such as hand drawn sketches of the set to quickly upload to our blogs, this allowed us to post potential visual ideas to help create this scrapbook effect. We also quickly went round to take photos of the band members once again to create more of an image of the band in our mind to visualise the band as a group and start thinking about the final media product.

I also used my Mac webcam to take photos of work if we didn't have the leads belonging to the iPhones, this immediately got drawing on to our blogs easily too.

Another massively significant part of our pre-production which may seem obvious is the internet. We used google and youtube to try and research other artists, bands and music videos, we looked at star image, narrative, set design and lighting in order to give us inspiration for our own media creation. We used youtube to research 'Jar of hearts' and the aggressive physical fighting from the   'Love the way you Lie' video.

We also took proper photos of the band members in order for us to make our promotional campaign consisting of a poster and the bands CD digipak. We organised a photo shoot in the photography room and organised for the band to come in at the a certain time. We took group photos and individual head shots of each band member. We took them on a more professional camera compared to our Iphone camera, we then used photoshop to turn them into media products for promotion and edit the images to create the band style image. We used the lasso tool to cut images and paste them together to make each photo just how we wanted it, we used the blur took to blend the images in to the background and used deep blues, greys, reds, whites and blacks to create a theme for their image.

Feedback on Evaluation Task 3: Audience Feedback

Excellent posting of audience feedback.  I feel that you have begun to fully evaluate this - but needs developing in relation to the task set and reception theory.  You need  to reflect more fully on audience comments and ensure that you fully explore what is being said.  Do try in evaluation to take on board what was good about your video and what criticisms were offered by your audience.  You can also make links to real media products and please do consider oppositional and negotiated readings.

Task 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

'The decoders are not obliged to accept messages as sent but can and do resist ideological influence by applying variant or oppositional readings'. Our audience have accepted the messages that we have sent out to them as they have all had a similar experience when watching the video. however some people think she is trying to get away when really she too cant make up her mind but it is for the to decode however they would like to view it and take the encoded messages as they want to view them.

Different ages may have different view on our video, however i have only spoken to people who are within the age range of 16-24 as those are the people we feel we would like to watch our video, we want them to give there interpretations and opinions after decoding our music video as we want to see the different aspects that were give off. Some people saw the mirrors as rebellion of the band and some people saw them as the broken relationship, both which are accepted opinions from audience members that we have targeted 

They clearly understood the reasons for our broken mirrors and the narrative behind them, they gave us good opinions on the band, telling us that they would like to see them again and why, this allowed us to see  that our video had created a good star image and had promoted our band in the way we wanted it too.
'Stuart Hall emphasised the stages of transformation through which any media message passes on the way form its origins to its reception interpretation'
This shows that we have correctly shown elements in our video in order for the audience to understand the messages that we want to create. 

Examples Of focus Groups

A focus Group: is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.

Questions to ask our focus group

Questionnaire for music video.

1) Did you like the music video stay with me?

2) What did you understand for the concept of our music video?

3) What were your favourite elements involved in ‘stay with me’?

4) Did you think the narrative was effective? Explain why?

5) What did you think of the choice band members and costume selection?

6) Did you like the shots using mirrors? If so how were they effective?

7) Did the video satisfy your expectations?

8) Did you feel that you could relate to the Media product?

9) Did you find the band members good looking or the dancers attractive?

10) Would you watch this video again? If so, why? What attracts you to the video?

11) Would you listen to this band again? Why would you/wouldn’t you want to? What do you like/dislike about them?

12) What could you improve about this video?

Screen Grabs Of My YouTube Feedback

Feed back from other media students, commenting on our music video, showing opinions about concept, technology, shot choices and editing.

'Mirrors are great. I feel this is the best one. I love this video I think the quick editing it great and it is very visually satisfying'

People seem to like the mirrors as they resemble the broken format of the relationship and create cool effects of double or even tripple images per shot.

It helps to create the band image as well as the broken mirrors are also on the CD digipak.


'Mirrors look really effective and make the space seem bigger. Very proffessional look. Very well shot and cut. There is always something going! The dance is a nice story theme and fits in with the emotional lyrics.'
The Audience also really like the pace of the video as the cuts are quick and on beat creating speed and tension with the couple, also not revealing too much about the relationship showing more and more at the music video goes on. 


'the use of mirrors and camerawork makes it look very professional along with great casting and storyline'
People enjoy watching the narrative performance elements as it draws away from the band keeping the Music video full of pace, energy and dynamics. By changing images from the band to the dancers it keeps variation within the Music Video so that the audience don't get bored and don't lose focus on the music video. 


'I love the concept of using light bulbs in this video because it is not only effective to promote the band's image as indie,rock but also signifies the broken/love hate relationship between the two characters/dancers in the videos. Great video!' 
The on and off lighting effects has clearly been portrayed to the audience as an understanding of the on and off, push and pull relationship. This shows that our narrative has been clearly displayed to our audience.

Feedback

Excellent evaluation task, which is well presented and makes all the right points.  The only area's for development with your presentation are to inclide more links to real media like you have done with the Wanted and to add stronger address of the question set.  You can do this by thinking how the MV and ancilliary tasks worlk together as a campaign in terms of a brand image.  I also feel that stronger reference to the need for a star image and Dyer and well this works in your marketing mix.  Could the poster be improved for example?  It looks very different to the rest of the campaign.  Well done.

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

Task 2 eval

Feedback

Very good evaluation of the use of conventions in your promotional music campaign.  Very good use of image and text which is succinct and makes some really good points, backed by academic argument.

There are a couple of points about the presentation that needs to be developed:

1. Use a fuller range of media examples - that is linked ideas from your coursework to actual media production.

2. Provide a broader evaluation of where you have used, developed or challenged conventions.  This could take the form of an explanatory paragraph or two.

Task 1 - In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ?

Codes and conventions 'the familiar and predictable forms and techniques used by the media to communicate certain ideas or to convey a desired impression'


In a Music video the codes and conventions you would expect to see are:-
- Something that would last around 3 mins
- A star image
- A narrative
- A performance
- Audiences would expect it to be lip synced
- Audiences would expect to see cuts and edits

Codes and conventions of the digi pack are:-    
- list of songs
- Album Title
- Band name
- Photographs of band members
- Record Label logo
- A bar code

Code and conventions of a music poster:-              
- Name of Band and Album
- Release dates
- Tours dates
- Specially featured songs
- Music Genre
- Photo of band

A close up used to capture the
 emotion of the narrative

Our dancers with the set in shot

I had a narrative within our music video reinforcing the lyrics of the song. It enhanced the idea of pull and push relationships and the idea of loving and hating elements of one another. This was a dance performance consisting of a lot of physical lifts showing abuse that happens within relationships that is never seen as it is always kept 'behind closed doors'. The lyric 'never knew that i could be this way' allowed us to use the narrative to enhance how people make others act unlike themselves. In our example the boy being violent towards the girl resembles how she makes him feel and what she makes him do, it shows how someone brings out the worst is somebody else. By having a narrative we have met the expectations of the audience but not many boy bands have a passionate dance in there video which may slightly subvert the expectations of our 15-24 year old males and females. The narrative and performance was said by Steve Archer to be an addition to the bands performance. The dance in our video adds and extra aspect to the music video.

I got inspiration for the relationship shots from 'love the way you lie-Rihanna'
The shots of their faces when they are kissing and showing mixed emotions was what i found fascinating and eye catching for an audience.

Our set

I wanted to make our set individual trying to reflect the star image of Synergy. Having the dangling lights it create a darkness with a few brighter lights showing that in the narrative the  relationship has got happiness but it is cover up by the anger and upset that is masking their feelings. The smashed mirrors resemble the upset and uncertainty of the relationship, the sharp edges resemble the pain that the girl is going through physically and the boy mentally. I want the set to reflect the narrative so that there is a link between the band and the story that is being told. It helps resemble the band as it shows rebellion through the smashing of mirrors. Having a unique set would not conform to the audience expectations as they haven't seen it before, it isn't a well used design idea so it makes them think harder about the video and view it intently. Negus argues that a carefully constructed mise en scene is appropriate to the context and tone of the track.

A close up unfocused shot of one
guitar and one in the mirror
crossing over one another

The use of the mirrors and reflections 

I wanted to used the mirror so that we could collect jagged shots of the band to resemble the rebellion and rule breaking elements of the band. By zooming in and out on the mirror we were able to capture different band members as the mirrors rotated. Also by becoming in and out of focus it creates the unsteadiness culture of the band which also helps represent the stability of the narrative relationship. I used these ideas to once again continue linking the band performance to the narrative elements with in our music video.

I found the close up shots of instruments really fascinating in 'Lover Boy-You me at six'. They inspired me to create the same image for Synergy as by seeing their hands playing it allows the audience to see their talent and engage with that. 

I used close up shots to capture the mood of the band and their star image, Negus argues excessive filming around the star image help portray what they are about faster as they don't have long to show who they are and what they are about. By using close ups it allowed us to quickly show the instruments that the different band members are on which immediately begins to reveal the personality of the band allowing the audience to connect with the more easily. The lip sync, close up, and the miming of playing instruments that remain at the heart of the music videos was said by Steve Archer  to assure the audience that the band really can kick it. The lyrics within the song such as 'Stay with me' reinforces the message within the song. Goodwin identifies that there is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close-ups of the main artist/vocalist and develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which over time, becomes part of their star image.

This close up shot is similar to ones used by other band that are in the media today such as 'you me at six-underdog'. It helps create an image for the band and allows the audience to engage with them and get to know there faces faster which helps promote them as a whole.

Smoke and close up shots of the light bulbs gave us a link between the narrative emotions and the emotions of the band. The smoke gave an unclear effect to the relationship showing a lack of communication and understanding of each others feelings, the lights were like glimmers and hope and happiness that are clouded by the smokey misunderstanding In terms of narrative it gives a narrative enigma and draws the audience into investigating the smoke screen that lies in front of them.

I have stuck to the codes and conventions of the digi pack fairly well

There is a photo of the band, the band name, Album name, and the logo of virgin as well as the bar code.

I have also added on video elements such as the broken mirror to make a link between to song that is also the album title and the digi pack. I have conformed to the expectations of the audience as i have everything that is expected to be included, I haven't really subverted the codes and conventions of the digi pack, we have stuck mainly to what the audience know. I subvert more within the music video due to the broken mirrors and feminine narrative with in the video.

This poster is very simple, not containing much detail, simple containing basic information. I felt when making this by having the simplicity the information written on the poster will stick in peoples heads more. I did some posters with the whole band and this one just containing the lead singer as his face is the most recognisable. I decided that keeping the same colours scheme as the digi pack would help the familiarity of the band become fluid and distinctive. By having the writing in bold vibrant letters it allows audiences and fans to see that Synergy's album is out now, without too much information about tour dates and other extended elements. I felt that we could add tour dates into the digi pack meaning that the posters are advertising two in one.







I got inspiration for having small amounts of writing in bald print and having lack of colours so that the writing stands out from this Greenday poster

Casting

Feedback

Good production work this week, evident in your blog and powerpoint presentation.  The written entry needs to be broken into separate posts, otherwise it simply reads as a posted essay.  Try to incorporate more analysis in your posts and employ appropriate media language.  Well done nonetheless.

Account of Shoot Day 22.11.11

We began our shoot day by making sure everything was in place and ready for filming. We started by positioning our band so that they could all be seen for our first wide shot, we had to fit them into the gaps making sure that the hanging pieces of mirror were not covering there faces. The mirrors were spinning throughout the day which was really effective as there were a lot of reflections creating a distorted effect, how ever when filming we had to close the curtains around the camera to stop reflections of us being in the footage.

To solve this problem as well as shutting the curtains a bit, we had to duck. This was slightly inconvenient but the effects that the mirrors create were very much worth it. Our second shot was a close up of the lead singers face, we angled the mirror around him so that the other band members were reflected in the shot, this looked very effective as it allowed us to get lots of footage of the band however it did mean that the band had to work hard without any breaks as they were in almost every shot.

Our original idea was to shoot all the band members individually but when we saw that the mirrors reflected all of the band members we simply used that to our advantage and filmed the band members with others in the background mirrors, this has created a different image for our band as it is a unique way of filming and it has allowed us to film elements that would have taken a long time to produce in the editing suit. After filming the distorted sections of mirrors and band members I then took shots of the light bulbs, mirrors and LED going in and our of focus which I thought we could add to the beginning and end of the song when the music is at its calmest.

I also shot the band members walking on at the beginning of the song, putting their instruments on and preparing to play and also walking away from the set when they had finished playing. I thought that this would be a good idea to act as an introduction and ending for the music video.

The second part of filming was shooting the dancers, we began by filming them both in there blacks at a wide shot, we had to remove some of the mirrors and bulbs so that they had enough room to dance and it wasn't dangerous for them, we did have to give the dancers a bit of time to work in the space before filming and i also asked them to mark through it so that i could position the camera in the correct space so we didn't loose any of the key moments of dance. We then began doing close up and mid shots of their feet, so that when they fell to the ground we collected a good image, of a central point as a lot of the key passionate moments were there and we had a detail close up shot of them to use and also up above to we could catch the leaps and lifts accurately. After this we tried to follow their moves, trying to catch them in the mirrors as well to create a direct link with the band. The board we made for the dancer section we didn't end up using as the dangling mirror sections worked well enough. We then did a high angle shot as they did a lot of looking up to the ceiling so we could capture this. There was also a section where James held his hand over Sophie's chest as she pulsated up which we caught perfectly on camera which I am hopeful we will use.

After filming the dance in two costumes, both normal every day clothes and the dancing wear we when on to film more of them in their normal clothes, we captured a high angle shot of them lying down holding hands and another high angle shot of them putting their heads back on each others shoulders crying, which we wet as tissue to create tears to emphasise this we made mascara run down her face which looked really effective of camera as it reinforced how she was feeling.

When finishing with the high angle shots we went on to film elements of them kissing whilst crying, fighting aggressively filmed from both behind Sophie and behind James and another close up and mid shot of Sophie leaping into James's arms and them kissing passionately.

The only small inconveniences we had with moving the camera about so much was that we had to keep on focusing the shot otherwise they would look of a poor quality. Our shoot went better than I expected, I really felt comfortable whilst producing the footage. It helped that the boys hand learnt the music and lyrics to the song and the dancers had a dance prepare and were ready to listen to instructions. By the actors and band members being prepared it meant that we as a group could smoothly run through the shot without too much stopping for recapping any of the material. I felt every member look as if they were enjoying themselves and got really into the scenes which mad the video easier for us to shoot. Even though Sophie and James didn't have time to rehearse before that they really took direction well and made a massive effort to do everything as best they could. Over all i was extremely please and i really look forward to editing it.

Building the Set 21.11.11

In order to build our set we had to smash the plastic mirror and hang it from the ceiling, we also hung our Blue, Green and Clear light bulbs from the ceiling and put up the LED strip lights on stands at the back of the set. We then moved on to creating our boarding breaking more of the mirror and sticking it on to a jet black board with the use of double sided sticky tape.

We then set up the drums and mic stands, and had our guitars ready for our shoot on the following day.

After setting up the camera on the tripod, putting in the battery and memory card for film and getting the track ready to be played we were ready to begin filming our music video. 

Feedback

Excellent blog of CD digipak design and photoshoot.  Clearly accounts for production whilst considering the relationship between institution, the design of the text and audience.  Do try and fit any theory into your practice, for example on conventions and star image and the use of marketing for more academic argument.  One other area for development is to present your photo shoot in a more dynamic way, other than simply post images onto the blog.  Well done.

Evaluation Of Digipack

I found both of these very time consuming but also interesting as I enjoyed creating a star image for the band. We did a photo shoot of the band member but Oscar wasn’t there so we will have to meet with him another time and photo shop him in. After the photo shoot we used photo shop to edit the photos into a digipack and poster.

The digipack took quite a long time and lots of editing and drafts to get it right. Firstly Ally and I simply took photos of the band members on our phones and developed both and hand written and computerised draft. We then created the final which involved downloading the font off the Internet so that it was a unique style and different to other artists, we put their faces the front as they aren’t a very well known band to try and get band recognition instead of a simple or image as some established bands do. We also added a bar code onto the back, a list of songs and also the Virgin label. In the second draft we added smaller details such as more band information, background and knowledge as they are a new band to the market and we wanted fans to understand them and what they do and their past. We also added the song title on the spine to promote their most popular song.

When taking the photos I could see an element of one direction in their image, by their dress sense more than their music and example. I also think there music reminds me of second hand serenade but they are a less popular band than ‘you me at six’, I find that there isn’t that many bands musically very similar to ‘you me at six’ as they are fairly individual and unique which is a great part of there star image and star quality.

We used screen grabs to take images of what we were working on throughout the process so far, we have also used Photoshop and Pixlr.com to construct the actual digipack and the poster advertising the band and the fold out special edition poster that is contained inside the CD digipack. When making our digipack we were trying to construct a cool, chilled image for the band, we wanted them to seem very close and good friends so that the audience see them as more of a family than just a group of people. We wanted them to be ‘guys’ that boys could look up to, such as follow there fashion and image and also a group of guys that girls found attractive so that ‘synergy’ could be listened to by both a male and female audience between the ages of 14-25. By putting the poster of the boys inside we wanted there faces to be on there fans walls which would make there faces look more familiar to friends, also but putting there faces on the front they will hopefully become more recognisable which will create a fan base for them.

The ancillary tasks have really helped promote and market the band as there faces are everywhere, all over the posters promoting release dates, digipack and the fold out poster that comes inside the digipack. This will make them recognisable to there fan base extremely quickly. They are signed to virgin records which is a fairly big, well known company which shows that there music is developing and progressing, becoming more well known to a slightly wider audience. Due to this is means that their music can be sold and promoted on iTunes and also at supermarkets, and with their faces on the CD digipack people without realising notice their faces. I feel marketing is important for building customer relationships to make them trust or share and interest in what you are selling as well as creating product awareness. 
Without an effective marketing strategy you cannot expect people to be familiar with your media product you need something to get people talking and create and star image and brand awareness, marketing is the vehicle to do this. 

We have had good feedback from our audience girls say ‘They look cool and attractive’ and ‘they look like good mates like ‘The wanted’’. Boys have said ‘There image is pretty cool, I recon young guys could look up to them’. This feedback shows that our aims have worked well and the correct image is being put across to our target audience. The one thing that I would like to change about our band is that they look fairly young, if I could have guys that are between the ages of 21-25 that would be ideal but being at a college the boys are 16-18 which is a bit of a shame but we have worked with it and I think  they look good together. 
This has helped them create a star image 'a star is an image, not a real person that is constructed out of a range of materials, stars are also commodities (something you sell) produced and consumed on the strengths of their meanings' Richard Dyer.  Audiences strive to try and make sense of an artist such as Lady Gaga or Jessie J, this is achieved when audience continually watch and follow the artist consuming them and their material. The performance of an artist seems to promise a completion of the image but ultimately leaves them unsatisfied so that they go and watch the artist again. The image can be used to create social values that are dominant in positioning an audience. Our band star image is shown within the music video stay with me but they aren't fully revealed to keep the audience wanting more from them, wanting to see them live and wanting to download more of their songs.