Friday, 25 March 2016
Thursday, 24 March 2016
EVALUATION QUESTION 1 SECTION 1
Evaluation Question - 1
Section - 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products?
When researching, planning and constructing my final media products, I was constantly thinking about codes and conventions that my media products follow and what my media products challenge. In this section I will concentrate on my music video and in section 2, I will focus on my digipak and album advert.
In terms of my music video it use's theories from music video theorists such as Andrew Goodwin, Joan Lynch and Jon Gow. To start with, Andrew Goodwin was very interested in the visual language and imagery that was associated with the music video. Through studying hundreds of music videos within all genres he came up with 7 typical codes and conventions. Out of these 7, my music video only has one to be true which is 'There is a relationship between the music and visuals'. This features quite heavily in my music video. Although there is an underlaying narrative that runs through my music video the focus of it is the beautifully constructed shots. Which leads the music to have a relationship with the visuals because the music video is edited together in order to reflect the tempo of the song. This is something that I worked very hard and was one of the biggest negatives that I got from group feedback within in my early drafts.
Joan Lynch stated that their are only 3 basic video structures, Performance, Narrative and Concept. I think that my music video use's this theory but also develops on the theory also. As said above my music video does have an underlaying narrative but it is very much a hybrid with a concept structure as well. This is because it could also be described as a series of snowboarding that has no
narrative.
The last theorists, Jon Gow, identified 6 central genres of music videos of which are defined in terms of their relationship to the display of the performance. Again my music video only features one of the 6 central genres that Gow had came up with. This being an 'anti-performance piece which videos do not contain performance of the song'.
In order to evaluate to what extent my music video use's, develops and challenges codes and conventions, I first need to know what codes and conventions that are associated with music videos. There are lot of codes and conventions of music videos and one is the tempo of the music driving the pace of the editing. This is completely true when it comes to my music video. The upbeat nature of my song powers the editing, this also matches with the idea that snowboarding is quite an upbeat sport which ideally matches the song and the editing speed. A lot of shots are quick quirky cuts in order to keep up with the pace of the song and keep the excitement of the music video up. Music videos also tend to follow particular codes and conventions of their genre, Drum and Bass songs tend to have a party/rave vibe which to a degree I have tried to recreate with quick editing techniques. They also tend to include extreme sports in their music video. An example of this is Rudimental's music video for Waitin' all night. Which has a main theme of BMX riding which is considered an extreme sport. Another convention of Drum and Bass songs tends to feature a lot of alcohol consumption, the use of cigarettes and drug abuse which is present within Modestep's Sunlight. Again to a degree I have involved some alcohol consumption although I have challenged this because I have used a Drum and Bass song but still not used all the conventions like alcohol and drug abuse.
Although there are many Drum and Bass genre codes and conventions, the genre still hasn't been around for that long, also many Drum and Bass songs don't have music videos. This is because a lot of D&B songs are remix's of other songs and also because D&B songs are completely made electronically it means that anyone can make one. Because of this, when it comes down to the music video I am fortunate enough to be able to experiment with my filmmaking without challenging conventions.
Unlike many music videos the main part of my music video wasn't based around the narrative. A lot of popular new songs evolve around the narrative and also have a distinct link between the lyrics and the visuals (Goodwin). Although this is very nice and gives a clear understanding of what is happening in the music video which is then reinforced by the lyrics I didn't want to aim fro something like that. This is why I firstly choose a song with very little lyrics in them, with the beat and the tune being the main focus. With that I composed a music video that matched visually with the song but was more about showing a generally theme of happiness, fun and generally snowboarding. I felt by showing this, my music video would flow better and would look less constructed and have more of a natural flow.
Friday, 4 March 2016
FOCUS GROUP
Focus Group
All in all I got a lot of good feedback from my focus group that I conducted. A lot of the feedback was positive with only a few areas to improve on. They said that overall they liked the Album advert, Digipak and Music Video but some of the text didn't quite link up so I have gone back and changed that to the same font that I used for my album and digipak.
This is the original one that had the bland text that my focus group said they didn't like as it didn't matched and below it the text that I changed it to. I'm glad this was pointed out because I didn't notice this and now it creates more continuity across my promotional package. Friday, 12 February 2016
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT - OVERLAYING VIDEOS
Skills Development
While researching music videos and watching many music videos to gain some ideas and inspirations I came across this really cool effect in which they had overlaid to videos to create a double exposure effect. I really liked this and decided that I wanted to incorporate this into my music video. As I had never done this before I took to YouTube in order to find a tutorial on how to do it. There I found a really helpful tutorial video and from there I used two shots of a friend filling the van, and decided that they would look really cool.
ALBUM ADVERT CONSTRUCTION
This is a construction timeline of my album advert cover, it shows a run through as to what went into the album to create the final product.
Friday, 22 January 2016
DIGIPAK FLATPLAN
This is going to be the layout of my print product, I found this template on the internet to use and I choose it because I wanted a 6 panel digipak which this template is, I also wanted the disk in the middle of to panels. I also liked it because it had front and back labelled which made it easier to navigate around.
DIGIPAK ANALYSIS
Digipak Analysis
For my Digipak analysis I choose to analyse David Guetta One Love, Gorillaz Demon Days and Rihanna Loud. I choose these for a variety of reasons, some being that their audio and genres is similar to the genre and target audience of my music video but also because I like the digipak and because it is visually what I aspire to create.
David Guetta - One Love
David Guetta is arguably one of the biggest EDM/House producers of our time, and is very well known within the music industry. His style of music is quite chill and laid back but in the same way very unique and individual and I feel that this has really been represented in is digipak. The text that is positioned on the CD for example has been placed on in a painted scribble effect which connotes a lack of effort or care.
The front image of David Guetta is in black and white which gives of a passive/chill vibe that can also be interrupted through the sunglasses that he is wearing, and also the casual, informal t'shirt that he is wearing.
For a digipak this has quite a substantial amount of text, which I am not to keen on however the way the text has been laid out has very effective. A lot of the text is song titles and names however this digipak is a two disc special so that would explain the amount of songs that have been included.
The CD is brightly coloured and stands out, the colours match the rest of the digipak and the overall theme shows a clear flow throughout the digipak.
Gorillaz - Demon Days
The Gorillaz are a completely virtual band created in the the late 90's, the band consists of four completely animated band members that feature in all of the music videos. As seen below the four animated characters appear in the digipak and are the main focus of the digipak.
The digipak is very simplistic with no text with the CD sitting in the middle with the characters surrounding it.
The digipak complies with the overall themes that the Gorillaz have about them, they are very mysterious and represent their band virtuality rather than using real people. This is very unique and differentiates their band from the UK music scene. It gives their band a sense of individuality which is represented through their layout. With no text, list of songs or lyrics it leaves the audience to appreciate the animation and read it as they see.
It represents the band identity and the pictures of the characters are evenly placed showing the importance of each member.
Rhianna - Loud
Rhianna's album 'Loud' is quite different to the genre of music that I have chosen to do for my music video however I chose this because of the layout and the pictures of the digipak. I like the the photo on the back and how the photo expands over the three panels, it really emphasis the photo and makes the audience focus on the photo.
Friday, 11 December 2015
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK FOR MY SECOND EDIT
This is the feedback that I received from my second edit (video above) a lot of the comments are positive and offer constructive feedback in order to improve my music video. Again a lot of my peers believe that my music video needs to be quicker in order to match the quick tempo of my song. Again I will keep this in mind and speed up shots in order to match the visuals to the sound.
A2 MUSIC VIDEO FIRST EDIT
This is my first edit for my music video, I am very proud of how well the video came together, I like the video visually and really like the shots that make up the video. However, after gaining some feedback from peers I believe that the sound doesn't match the visuals and that the shots need to be more fast paced and jump quicker in order to match the song. After hearing this feedback I will make a lot of changes to it and release a second edit.
MUSIC VIDEO CONSTRUCTION
Music Video Construction
This is the start of my music video construction, I have placed all of my clips into my timeline in a rough order in which I think they look good. However they will most likely but changed around, repositioned and changed in length. They also need to be colour balanced and colour matched. This is just the first stage of my editing process.
FOOTAGE REVIEW
Footage Review
In total, I had over 500 videos and images that I had to review when arriving back from my week away filming. A majority of this was time lapse photos that needed to be pasted together to create many of the time lapses that will feature in my music video.
When I got back and started reviewing my footage I decided that it would be easier to review it if I split the footage up into DSLR and GoPro / Action Camera footage. As seen below.
I found the DSLR footage to be more reliable than the GoPro / Action Camera, I feel this is because with a DSLR I can construct the shots more and a live view and playback on the side of the mountain, whereas with the action cameras, I wasn't aware how the shot looked as their is no live view and also no live playback. I found that I was taking risks with the action cameras. However, with a lot of background with them I had a good idea as to how they were going to come out.
One of my biggest problems that I faced with the action cameras was that they do not preform well in low light conditions, as you can see below a lot of the videos look quite dull and dark. This wasn't a huge problem as I just adjusted the colour balance in Final Cut Pro X, but what it did mean was that it just took longer to get the footage to visually match the DSLR colour.
Friday, 16 October 2015
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
Production Schedule
Breakdown
The production as said before will be broken down into three parts and mashed together for the final piece. Chapter 1 will be the journey to France which will be on the 12th. I will then by filming everything in France from the 13th to the 20th and then finally I will be filming the journey back on the 21st.
In regards to editing, I will be editing chapter 1 while out in France because then if there isn't enough footage I can work something out in France. I'm doing this because if not I won't be able to reshoot once back in the UK. Chapter 2 and 3 will most likely be edited back in the UK, however, giving an opportunity I will edit whilst out there.
MEDIA MOODBOARD
This is a moodboard of photos that generally sum up the style of my music video and will be the aim that I will be striving to achieve. The style is generally a chill vibe that is quite picturesque.
MUSIC VIDEO SONG CHOICE
This is my chosen song for my music video. This song works perfectly for my idea of my music video, because the song is slow and chill. It has a smooth flow throughout the duration which works with my idea for a documentary styled, narrative music video. In which 9 friends have a road trip to the French Valleys for a snowboarding/skiing holiday.
CONFIRMATION DETAILS
Confirmation Details
Below are two confirmation emails for details of our trip. One is for Norwich Car Hire where we hired our van from. The other one is for the EuroTunnel which we will use to cross the English channel. These are used to show pre-planning for our trip. For privacy reasons, some details of the confirmation emails has been blurred out.
Norwich Car Hire Confirmation.
EuroTunnel Confirmation
JOURNEY MAP
The Journey
This is a map of the journey we will be taking on our way to France, the estimated journey time is around 12hours but this does not incorporate breaks, stoppages, road works, traffic etc. It also doesn't take into consideration for delays with the EuroTunnel.
Friday, 2 October 2015
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