Final production diary

Today I have completed everything which is needed for my A2 coursework - I have finally completed my music video, digipak and magazine advert as well as my evaluation questions. After spending many hours creating the planning and drafting tasks I have finally completed all the needed tasks! I can confidently say I can use Adobe Indesign as well as Premiere, prezi, youtube, voki and vimeo. For me personally the biggest achievement was creating my music video, throughout the process I was faced with several issues, such as my footage being lost and having bad footage but after overcoming all the issues I created a music video which I am proud off and want to show people - I am also impressed by the way I motivated myself to complete all the tasks to get the grade I wanted.

The thing I most enjoyed about the project was watching and hearing peoples responses to my music video, some who understand the concept and other who needed to watch it again to understand the narrative! However the overall response was positive and everyone was very complimentary about my music video which made me extremely proud. Claudia Dyer my artist was the main person I wanted to thank from this experience as without her excellent performance skills I wouldn’t of created or completed this task.

Evaluation Question 4

This is my final evluation of Question 4 which I have presented in a prezi format - this is a viusal interactive method of suggesting the developed question which I have spoke about.

Draft Question 4

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

In order to create the tasks needed, technology was vital in order of producing these. At the start of the year we was required to create a blog website – www.blogger.com, I was already familiar with this site due to the AS media studies course. The blog is used to post all of our work which we produce for the course, from the planning stages to drafting, research and evaluations. To ensure our blog is kept multi modal I included a variety of different software’s, therefore I included different functions of prezis, post videos, scribd documents and voki. I did also include PowerPoint’s and word documents within my blog posts but I found websites such as prezi were much more interactive and amusing to use, due to the factor it allows you to lay out your work in abstract and unique ways which appears more interesting.

As a blog is meant to be a discussion of the development of your work, when I felt I had produced a piece of excellent work or made a big improvement I would make a production diary post, this was just me writing some words about these improvements, although it may not appear as attractive as the other forms of media I felt it got right to the point about what I had developed and addresses the examiner so he understands what my thoughts are based on the work.

Using the internet for my work was essential, this allowed me to research into my task to develop my knowledge of the music industry and what is required from a music video through the audiences view. The search engine Google allowed me to access a large amount of information; this required me looking into artists, genre, narrative and audiences opinions. Without this I wouldn’t of been able to research similar products of music videos, existing Digipaks and album magazine adverts. It was also essential that I contacted artists/record labels for permission to use their song title - therefore the internet really came in hand when constructing my tasks.

Developing, to shoot my music video I was required to use a Cannon SLR 600D, the aim of this was to have a high quality music video which appears professional due to the camera which I decided to use. Developing from AS I changed the settings on the camera which allowed me to the use the manual setting in comparison to the automatic, this showed a developed in my skills through the use of technology. Due to the change in locations the settings had to be edited to fit the scenery, due to this some scenes were filmed inside, in a studio and outside and therefore each scene would appear different due to the camera settings, therefore I changed the settings to ISO which captured the scenes in same high quality and still increased the visibility of the artist Claudia. Also, I used a prime aperture lens of 1.8mm in these conditions as it is more suitable to lower levels of light. To create added effect when making my music video I increased the lighting on the software - Adobe Premiere to gain an increased visual effects. The shutter speed was 1/50 alongside with the ISO setting on 200-600 so that I avoided having a grainy footage but gave me a more HD look, the advantage of using digital cameras rather than a film camera is that you can spontaneously make decisions straight after taking an image or footage by renewing it.

In terms of constructing my music video I used the software Adobe Premier to edit and put together the footage filmed. Although this was my first time using this software I got to know how it works very well, although some editing took practice and meant I had to watch tutorials online to gain the knowledge to put it together correctly. At first it seemed like a difficult challenge, although due to the use of software it provided a range of functions and effects which can be used during the editing process which made it much easier and quicker to complete.

Highlighting on my ancillary tasks I created my magazine advert and digipak on Adobe Indesign, this software was a lot easier to use as I was already familiar with the tools and features which are featured within the software. Once creating the magazine advert I was able to drag the same fonts and images to my digipak to keep the same house style throughout, it also meant I could create it a lot quicker and easier. Using these software’s has become beneficial to me as I have been able to work with professional software which industry’s above me use.

Evaluation Final

Questions 1,2 and 3 of my evaluation I have chosen to display in a magazine format on Indeisgn -

Evaluation - drafting

DigiPack Final

Audience Feedback

 

Here is eviedence that I have put my survey monkey link onto my facebook page to gain further research of my music video, magazine advert and digipack. By putting the link onto my facebook page I am allowing people of my similar age and interests to comment on my video as they are my stereotypical audience. 

Audience Feedback

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/L33JCS9

Here is the link to my online survey, here is where I was able to gain specific audience feedback baised on questions which I have choosen myself. I asked a range of questions, from their age to their opinion of my work itself. On some questions I gave the audience a chance to add their own comment on my video to get a wider knowledge of what they felt worked well and what didnt. As I asked the age and gender of the audience answering my questions it ensured I was able to look speicificly at the age and gender who I was targetting - 12+ females. I have also published my link onto my facebook and twitter page to get a wide range of responses.

DigiPack

These are the completed versions of my digipack, although the back page to my digipack I am yet to complete. I have stuck to using the same image for my front cover of my digipack as I believe it is important to keep a consistent house style throughout my work, and I want it to be easily noticeable that my magazine advert is linked with my digipack.

Magazine Advert

Here is my final product to my advertisment campaign of a magazine advert. After making several improvments to my product from the first draft I have finally completed the product. From the first draft I have edited my pain image in 'Indesign' to change the settings of the image to valenica which has gave the image a more 'quirky' edge to appeal wider to my audience. I also found a better more enjoyable font after starting with a simple arial, this has improved the overal look of my magazine advert as it has given it a better appeal rate.

Draft 3

Here is my final draft before I submit my final product, from the last draft I have made massive changes and improvements to my work to ensure an excellent outcome. Developing from my final product I have filled the video with enough footage for the song to be the full 4 minutes long. As well as completing the video from the 2.45 seconds that I had done before I have made improvements to the first half of my video, by this I have added in the piano scene in which I was advised to do by my fellow class mates and I made some shots quicker as I felt they went on for too long which may of led to my audience loosing interest. Commenting on the second half of my video in which I have finally completed, I have used a wide range of shots to create the emotive effect that I was looking for. I also included a range of outfit choices and locations to create great visuals to my song to link with the lyrical analysis of my video.

Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Gaining audience feedback is essential to the success off a music video, it enables the director to gain positive and negative feedback to help improve and highlight the best parts. It's important that when gaining audience feedback you get it from the similar audience viewers who would stereotypically watch your video in an ordinary scenario, for example. My audience is ranged from females aged 15-30 who enjoy the idea of love, therefore asking this specific audience range was essential to benefiting my music video as an outcome. The biggest target audience who I was aiming at was teenage girls, girls who have experienced heartbreak and enjoy the idea of make up and beauty, from social classes C-B who are still most likely to be in full time education still. I believe younger members of my target audience would seek a lack of understanding behind the concept of the visuals itself but be fascinated by the lyrics behind the song. It could be developed that my video could have an appeal rate to boys due to the appearance of the model which would engage a male audience into watching the video itself, however, being unlikely that they would understand or engage into the concept behind the video. As the song is of a pop genre, deriving from 'popular' the artist is without questioning is going to have a mainstream of success and popularity. Suggesting that my audience is mainstream, they would keep on top of the charts and the latest songs and keeping up with the latest trends.

Discussing the above I needed to get feedback from my audience based on the various stages of production planning to the final ancillary product of my music video. Giving them a chance to comment on the positives and negatives helping me to make improvements which are needed. In my opinion, feedback on your products is the most crucial stage throughout your process as without any feedback, you have no idea whether your product is fulfilling its purpose.

I throughout the collection process of gaining feedback would be difficult but due to the heavy use of social media websites and online questionnaires, such as, www.surveymonkey.com it was so much easier for me to get the attention of my audience choice. The first method I addressed in getting audience feedback was through social media websites such as twitter and facebook, this meant me only having to post the blog address to my video and people could click the direct link to comment on my music video, allowing them to answer questions chose by me but also an added box for them to add their own comments further to my own. Furthermore, I used the website of survey monkey to gain more in-depth research of the views of my audience which enabled me to address more leading questions. By this I asked questions at the start about their audience and gender, this meant when I went to look back on my feedback I was able to go straight to the answers based on females aged 12+ to read their feedback as that was the most important to my research.

Throughout the whole process of producing my music video, magazine advert and digipak I was able to ask questions from my fellow class mates about their opinions based on improvements and positive comments which meant I was constantly updating my A2 work to be the best it could be. However, at some points the feedback wasn’t necessary as people would pick up on details which didn’t need improving. Concluding, in all this was an effective research method.

Once all research was gained, based on the data from social media websites and www.surveymonkey.com I made various improvements, by this it was commented that I should reference to the candle scene more throughout my video as they felt this was a good camera shot which told a story of its own. It was also commented on that the beginning scene was hard at times to discuss what the narrative was, however, this comment was hard to play upon as I had already completed all of my filming and it would of been difficult and time consuming to re-film this scene of my video. However, I did add references to the piano and close ups to try and discuss the storyline of my video.

Draft 2 of Music Video

This is my the completed draft of the first 1.44 seconds of my music video, however, there is shots which needed to be added within some spaces of the video. These shots will include my artist playing the piano to visualise the lyrical meaning of the song. I got several second opinions on the video and all comments were extemely postivite however, the comment on adding a piano scene sounded extremeley sucsessful with my class mates.

Draft of Music Video

draft 1 from Haydon Media on Vimeo.

Here is the first half to my music video which I have put together through a viarety of shots, angles, and costume changes. This is to display the change and improvments which will be made in completing my final product.

Question 2

‘How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?’

When I began creating my media products of my music video, I created a Digipak and a magazine advert in regards to advertising my music video. By this I ensured keeping the same fonts, colours and house style. This is to ensure it can be easily recognised by any audience as all 3 products, music video, digipak and magazine advert.

The purpose of a music video is to entertain and sometimes inform, and allow your audience choice to be a part of the visual and lyrical meaning of the song. To entertain your audience it is important to incorporate a range of shots, locations and costumes to develop a story line throughout, this was conveyed throughout my video. From the shots starting as close ups, developing to shots on the piano and mid shots of her pain.  The frequent eye contact with the audience and artist creates a sense of connection and involvment, through the songs slow motion and meaningful lyrics the artist feels emotionaly attached to the artist through her upset which is perseved. This attempted to invite the audience to maintain focus throughout. The fact my videos narrative is based on two developed storylines it suggested that my video became more appealing to a wider audience, as the effective storyline throughout the start of my video based on Claudia applying makeup getting ready for a night out appealed to a male audience as well as a female due to the attractinvess of the model this increased the effectivness of my overal product as it appealed to a wider audience. The end part of my video is likley to be more appealing to the female gender due to the connection they are able to gain a connection with the artist, showing heartbreak and pain, able to keep the audience entertained by the dramatic change in personality.

The main purpose of a magazine advert is to promote and market the album, this is extremely important when adressing a target audience who wouldnt normally buy or listen to that genre of music. This will increase my overall appeal rate and audience reference of how many copies my album will sell and the fan base of the album and any future album which may be realeased. I beleive it is important to keep a consistent house style throughout your magazine advert and digipak, by this throughout my magazine advert I used a dramatic image which you see frequently throughout the main music video, I used a colour scheme of white and red as I felt these colours fitted in with the idea of love and powerless which the song discusess. The colour red connotates and suggestes meanings of love and pain, this is why i choose to highlight powerful words within my front cover to suggest what was important. The use of quotes from developed magazines gave the overall feel more professional as it devleoped that big brands where involved with my magazine and discussed that a wider range of audiences could get involed in my magazine as its been suggested to have postive feedback from brands such as NME and Q magazine. The main image is very dramatic and engadging , she comes across very glamorous with big hair and bold eyes with a range of make up to increase the attractivness of the model.

The purpose of a digipak can be a collectors item or purley just a CD pack. However I beleive this is extremely important on the basis of whether the album sells or not, I wanted my digipak to appeal to my audience but also to a wider audience range who enjoy pop music, in which I tryed to encourage them to listen to my music through the use of powerful images and bold fonts to express powerfullness within my work. I used the same fonts as I did in my magazine advert to ensure it is esaily noticable and recongised by my audience, meaning that it will stand out against other music brands who dont keep consistensy in their work. The main font in which I used was 'DK Lemon Yellow Sun' I got this font from an online website called defont which allowed me to view a wider range of fonts rather than the typical fonts on indesign. I used a backdrap on my digipack opening page of the candles which i used my video, this showed reference that i have linked my main product to my anxiallary tasks, this also worked well as it made the overall apperance of my digipak more appealing.

Question 1

‘In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?’

My music video follows conventions of real life media products through the sense of theorists and the methods they use to engage their audience, such as the theorist, Andrew Goodwin who explores that there’s a clear link between lyrics and visuals. The song is about love and heartbreak, hence being called ‘the power of love’. The lyrics tend to be repeated throughout the song especially the lyrics of ‘cleaning my soul’ and ‘a force from above’ which are expressed through the artist showing emotive tones as these lyrics play. Regarding the pace of the song, it stays fairly similar throughout my video, being slow, allowing the viewer to connect with the singer and create the emotional attachment with the lyrics have. The main chorus is kept to same pace of the song as in most parts this is of my artist singing, this is shown at about 2.05 of the song.

In regards to researching into existing urban artists such as Gabriela Aplin, I discovered that the music type has a clear pattern to the style of lyric and visuals. I therefore decided that I wanted to incorporate these conventions into my own video, by which having a flow throughout my video, changing from lyrical singing to the narrative of her doing her makeup and dancing. Similar to the music video by Christian Aguilar. Narrative based music videos contain majority of the footage attempting to tell the story through moving images in which match the lyrics, this is extremely important as it explains the meaning of the song. I challenged this in my video as I didn't explore a real meaning in my video but gave the audience a chance to interpret the video as they persevered the story line to tell. I felt this was an engaging method which gave a sense of attachment to the artist from the audience.

To make a video look professional, realistic and interesting the focus on camera, editing and mise-en-scene is extremely important. Effective planning is important for this to come out right, as I learnt after having to film one scene 3 times due to camera angles not being of a high enough standard. You can have the best camera around but if the camera angles and shots are well planned and developed they won’t look right, in the process of filming I considered different angles, levels and distances this ensured a wide range of shots to make my video look different. I realized the most effective shots for the type of video I was planning was close up shots, this is because, close up shots create a sense of emotion and connection, which is what the lyrics and tone of my song is about. When editing my footage, I realized how important it was to put the place the footage to where the right beat to the song was, for example, when saying 'the power of love' my artist would look into the camera to create emphasise on the 'power' of 'love' so that the video flowed with the visuals. Throughout the whole video there is a slow motion pace, giving the audience time to take in the artists movements. Mise-en-scene is based on the appearance of the video, through the makeup, costuming and props of the artist this is essential as it gives the video a realistic look. The first 2 minutes of my video is based upon my artist applying makeup, formulating an attractive look for both women and male viewers. Claudia, my model holds a very unique appearance which would appeal to my audience due to her big curly hair, dark tanned skin and big bright eyes. The use of props, piano, letter and a dovey are used to express meaning throughout my video, all 3 sources linking to the meaning of pain and heartache. My model changes 3 times during the duration of the video, when she is getting ready she is in her dressing gown, as I wanted this scene to be relatable to other typical teenage girls. Moving on to the dancing scenes of my video, my artist is dressed in a black dress, to establish her feminine self which develops into seeing the artist in baggy clothing, with no makeup and very pale grey skin. This is to highlight the emotional chapter which she has gone through throughout the video.

When creating a successful music video it is extremely important to have a performer, as I realised from watching artists such as Rihanna and Ed Sheeran who both focus on having a confident performer expressing the lyrics of the video through movement. I needed someone to perform in my video who is able to show this form of confidence and passion in my video to express the meaning behind the lyrics, I ended up choosing Claudia who has studied photography. I felt because she had studied photography that she would have a good understanding of different angles and in using the camera. This ended up being extremely successful for me as the shots which I produced where extremely photogenic which created a professional visual appearance to my video.

Overall, I believe that throughout my video I have used, developed and challenged all conventions of real life music videos due to the camera angles, having an artist who is a successful performer, a clear link between the lyrics and the visuals and excellent mise-en-scene to work with the concept of the video.

Production Diary - 12/2/15

Location Reece

Actor release form

It is important when you do a product as such that you have proof that your actor agrees to being filmed through voicing, poses, actions, appearances and pictures. So this is evidence that my model, Claudia Dyer accepts to the following and agrees for it to be shown to other people.

Problems ive faced

The reliance on technology is high during this year’s task, as I have realised after being faced with the several amounts of technical issues throughout the task. My first shot came out with fuzzy and crackling footage which meant I had to re-film, after re-filming my footage got lost which meant filming for a 3rd time. This is why it's essential that you allow yourself enough time to complete this project as many errors can occur that you need to fix.

Syling and costume

Artist costume and styling

I will explore several close up shots within the first scene of my video, so here the styling of my artist will demonstrate an importance over the costuming. The makeup scene will incorporate signs of femininity and the ‘Madonna’ theory as she applies her sophisticated make up so very gently and beautifully. The extreme close ups of the makeup and slow panning across her face are used to display the movement of my artist, Claudia and her emotions. Due to the situation of her getting ready, her hair will be in the process of getting ready by this she will have her hair down to suggest the process I am trying to convey.

 My next scene is heavily based on the costuming of my artist, it’s important that I keep my target audience in mind when deciding upon the costuming as it has to appeal to my audience of teenagers. However, due to the situation in which the scene is in, my artist will be dressed to convey a very emotional character in which highlights this through her dress sense of baggy clothing, scruffy hair and messy make up. Although this may question the norms of a teenage girl it conveys a meaningful story which I believe will keep my audience involved. I have been inspired by this outfit choicing by the music video of Ed sheeran - The A Team where in which the character displays the same message that I want to create.