GROUP 19 - Music Video 2009/10

Evaluation

2009-12-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

2009-12-14T03:01:00.000-08:00

Emily's Evaluation

2009-12-11T05:11:00.000-08:00

1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We chose to develop an indie song called ‘Heart Skipped a Beat’ by The XX. When planning our music video we had to take into account what conventions indie music videos follows, some of these were things such as how they usually contain the whole band and are a mix of narrative and performance based like ‘Do You Wanna’ by The Kooks. Most indie videos include musical instruments, even if it’s just an acoustic guitar, we chose not to as it wouldn’t fit the entirely narrative theme. Because the genre is individual the music videos are usually quite stylistic an example of this is ‘Golden Touch’ by Razorlight. The costumes the artists wear are casual and simple, which is why we went for a simplistic approach. For example the costumes that the vocalists wore, the male was in a shirt, jeans and a hat, which is similar to the costume worn by the band members of My Bloody Valentine in the video ‘Realise’. The female was in a simple beige dress with a floral design. Locations of indie music videos vary – they are generally quite abstract or have a relevant setting, which is why we chose to set ours in an abandoned barn. This barn was very unique as it was covered in graffiti, which we thought strengthened our mise en scene as we carried this theme on throughout all our products making it quite iconic. We did a lot of research when producing the magazine advert and digipak, we looked at other bands products so we could identify what we needed to include, therefore included such information such as the rating, reviews, release date and record label. When choosing which record label to use we thought about how well know The XX are and as they aren’t a very big band we decided we would research what their record label is, which is ‘Young Turks’.

2.) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

To compliment our product we produced a magazine advert and digipak. All of these have the same visual motif, which binds them together to make them a strong product.

After looking at other bands magazine adverts and digipaks we identified what information supported the genre and decided we didn’t need things such as an image of the artist on the magazine advert or screen-grabs on the back of the digipak as we thought it gave too much away about a low profile band. Our music video was unique because of the warm filter we put on it and the graffiti for advertising purposes, we thought that we should use the same effect in the ancillary tasks.

We also took the font into account when producing the ancillary tasks, as there was an ongoing theme we thought it would be beneficial if we used the same font in the magazine advert and digipak, however it looked a bit too mechanical on the digipak so we changed the track list to a curvy font, this prevented the font from contrasting to the background. We experimented with different ideas for the digipak, using different images, colour palettes and the general layout, after looking them all it was obvious our strongest in terms of visual links with our main product. I believe that our main product and ancillary tasks are visually strong and also support the genre.

3.) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Feedback from class members, teachers and friends has helped us develop our whole product.

When we first chose the song we had to present a pitch to our class members convincing them we had a strong image of our video, after presenting our pitch we got all positive feedback, which meant we were able to start planning straight away.

We then made our roughcut version, which we showed our class members. We received positive feedback and points how we could improve. The positive points were how we successfully made the video fit the genre through a striking location which created a strong mise en scene. We seemed to attract the audience by having the artists singing all of the lyrics and various people said the visuals made the song seem a little more interesting as it is quite plain.

The things that would improve our video was adding a filter to the whole video to make it more visually striking, cut the ghosting effect down as it was repetitive, the first verse was out of synch and the vocalist was too far away and that we needed to include more shots to keep the audience interested. We took all of this into account and decided to re-shoot the first verse, this was a little inconvenient as we couldn’t get back to the barn but found somewhere, which was similar and was able to synch it properly. We cut up a lot of our footage, increasing the pace slightly and so it wasn’t repetitive during the instrumental. The one thing we felt changed our video completely was the filter we used; it took it to a new level and made the setting a character in itself. The audience feedback showed that the visuals are so important and if they’re not strong, the audience will lose interest.

We also received feedback for our ancillary tasks, various people said that the image we chose was very visually striking but needed to put a filter that matched our music video to make it link. When we put the filter on there was an instant leap in how effective the whole product was and our teachers agrees. The way we placed the information on the products projected more attention to the image implying the location was important. We got some advice to change the font in our track listing as the one we had used looked too mechanical, which contrasted the song, so we changed the font and size which benefited the product.

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

The production of the whole product highly depended on media technologies. We used media technologies when creating every part of the project.

We used a website called Blogger to note down all of our research, planning and to upload our final products to. Blogger is very useful as you can access other groups for inspiration and you can post blogs on their pages with feedback and groups were able to do the same for us.

When editing the video we used Final Cut, this enabled us to cut and edit our shots, put various effects like the ghosting effect in and to lip synch it. We also used the colour correction tool to add our filter. Final Cut let us experiment with our footage, especially when we received our feedback as we were able to add different effects, crop the frame and change the speed of the footage.

When making the ancillary tasks we didn’t have the same tool to create the filter which was on our video because we used Photoshop. We used other various tools to create the same effect, for example the colour selection tool. We also experimented with techniques so we could produce the best possible product.

Even the usage of the internet was crucial in the developing process as we used it for all our research and contacting the band.

Overall we thought our product turned out to be effective as we had hoped, we worked well together to produce a strong visual image that complimented the indie genre.

Final Evaluation

2009-12-11T04:33:00.000-08:00

We chose the song "The XX - Heart skipped a beat". We felt that this song had an indie feel to it, so we took this and used it throughout our project.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video has an indie style to it. We showed this by the clothes the actors wore, the location of our music video and some of the footage we shot.

The costumes our actors wore to represent this indie feel and genre were as followed; the male actor wore a hat, nerd glasses casual shirt, bracelets, jeans, a studded belt and plimsolles. The female actor wore a head band, casual dress, leather jacket, and flat casual shoes.

The location of where we shot our music video was at an abandoned barn. Inside, it had an empty feel to it. The walls were covered in graffiti which made it unique.The barn also had large empty window frames in which we made the most of by shooting footage with the actors sitting in them .

The footage we shot represented an indie feel. E.g. At the end of our music video we had the two actors lying outside on the grass. This created a feel of freedom and open space.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?
We designed a magazine advert and digipak for our music video. We used the same style for both projects; so as they are individual products, by us using the same style throughout they come together and look like they belong and fit together as one project.

Our magazine advert is a shot of in side the barn which is the location where we shot our music video. We added a dim effect to the picture which makes it look more professional. We added everything that was relevant and needed on the magazine advert i.e. the bands name, the song title, the release date of the song, where customers can purchase the song, a comment and star review from someone well known, and record logo.

On the outside cover of our digipak we used a graffiti styled background for. Again, we included all relevant and needed information including; the bands name, song title, age rating logo, DVD logo, record logo, barcode, a list of tracks that are on the CD album, and a brief description of what the didpak includes. The inside cover of our digipak had the same graffiti styled background as the outside cover, this is so it flowed through and fitted together.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Our peers feedback helped us develop our project throughout different stages. We got a lot of positive feedback but also some negative feedback. We took all of our feedback into consideration and made changes to our music video.

When we recieved feedback about our rough cut, we changed and added a lot of footage. We even decided to re-film the first verse of the song. This was because the original footage we had filmed for the first verse was filmed from far away and you could not see lip syncing and it was quite boring for the audience to watch. From our rough cut feedback we also changed the end of our music video to make the ending more clear. Also, throughout the music video we added more footage and added different effects to make it a lot more interesting to watch.

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The new media technologies we used were blogger, final cut, and adobe photoshop. We used blogger throughout the whole of our project; research, planning and valuation stages. We used final cut and adobe photoshop to create our music video, magazine advert ,and digipak. Our whole project was heavily dependent on these new media technologies.

We used blogger to upload all of our progress on all of our tasks. Blogger also helped us to communicate with our teacher and other class members to gain feedback on our project so far.

We used final cut to practice and test effects during the planning of our music video. After we had shot our footage for our music video, we used final cut to put together and edit our footage, which created our music video. Using final cut we were able to cut out unneccessary and any unwanted footage, enabling us to put together the footage we needed to create our music video. Final cut also enabled us to add filters and effects to our footage which enabled us to create the style we required.

We used adobe photoshop to create our magazine advert and digipak. With adobe photoshop, we were able to style the texts, add pictures, and add effects. Again, this enabled us to create the style in which we wanted.

Final Evaluation

2009-12-10T17:22:00.000-08:00

We have developed a media product that consists of a music video for an indie song titled heart skipped a beat by the ‘XX’, a digipak and a promotional magazine advert. The product is successful for numerous reasons. It conforms to some of the typical conventions in its genre while challenging various aspects in order to be unique. Furthermore consistency is shown through a subsequent visual motif in both the music video and the ancillary texts.

1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

One of the highlights of our music video is that they is a balance between the use of typical indie conventions and the use of unconventional elements. We utilized only the generic conventions of indie music videos so that the audience can recognize its genre. For instance the way the artists are represented in our music video.

In our music video the male artist wears a green checked shirt, plain straight jeans and white plimsolls. These clothes are similar to the ones shown in the second picture, worn by the lead singer of kings of Leon in their music video ‘Charmer’. We added a purple hat and glasses that complement the indie style furthermore the purple hat and glasses make the costume look more unique in comparison to other indie costumes.

The female artist wore a dress with flowered patterns and a leather jacket. The dress is similar to the one worn by the lead singer and backup dancers of the Florence and the Machine in their music video ‘Rabbit heart’. The leather jacket she wore suits the style of the video while completing the dress.

We were generally pleased with the costumes because they represented the artists in a simple yet fashionable way while maintaining the indie style. On the other hand we also wanted to challenge the generic conventions of an indie video. We utilized the mise en scene and the absence of props such as music instruments to do this.

Usually indie bands have their music videos shot in inhabited locations that the audience is familiar to. In contrast we decided to use a deserted barn which was part of the unique selling point of the video. Not only did the barn give us a unique mise en scene but the graffiti art painted all over the inside gave us a visual motif for the full media product. Furthermore the characters were able to interact with the mise en scene in the scenes were they write on the graffiti walls. This reminds the target audience that the mise en scene and the graffiti theme are just as important as the characters. The barn was very spacious, so we could get several shots of the barn that we edited in final cut. Each transition from one section of the barn to the other suited the slow pace of music. The barn complemented the artists, because its sheer size created a sense of emptiness that brings more emphasis on the artists because they are the only people in the isolated barn.

Musical instruments are common props in indie music videos. Although they were several instrumental sections in the song, we chose not to use instruments in the video. Mainly because our music video is a bit more abstract than most indie music videos. Indie videos usually use instruments during a performance or live footage scenes within the music video. Due to the fact that our music video was abstract we acknowledged the fact that our video will not follow all typical conventions of indie music videos. So we ignored music instruments and decided to use a ghosting effect. We applied the ghosting effect because it was unique and visually pleasing and also suited the pace of the instrumental sections of the music.

Overall we were pleased with what we had achieved. Although the music video was constrained to the basic conventions of the indie genre we were able to make it look more abstract. This creates a sense equilibrium between the typical conventions that make it easy for the audience to recognize the genre and the abstract aspects that make the video unique.

2.) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In addition to the music video we designed a digipak and a magazine advert. All of these have the same visual motif that binds them all together to them one product.

Firstly we designed the magazine advert. We were generally pleased with the outcome of the magazine advert it was simple yet showed the target audience a lot about the product. The magazine contains graffiti drawings shown as the main focus. The graffiti drawings relate to the full product because they are consistently shown and also showcase the mise en scene. We also added a colour correction filter to the magazine advert. The filter makes the magazine advert look more visually appealing and is similar to the one we added in the music video thus showing consistency in the visually motif. To make the advert look official we added quotes from reviews and ratings on it. This persuades the audience to buy the product. The quotes from reviews were written in a simple thin mechanic font. We chose this font because of its simplicity and because it matched the overall look of the magazine. We also added a release date and a title in the same font. However the title has a bigger font size and is bolder so that it could draw the audience’s eyes to it.

Next we designed a digipak in the same visual motif as the rest of the product. However achieving the consistent motif was challenging. We had to do several drafts of the digipak in order to get the best possible results. Each draft had its own strength and weakness, but the major flaw in them was the lack of strong visual links to video. Fortunately we improved on this in the final draft. The final draft incorporated the graffiti art and the colour correction filter that were in the magazine advert. In contrast to the magazine advert the digipak had the artists shown on the front. Most album covers have all the band members shown on the front; however we decided to have one artist on the front and one artist on the back. This challenges typical conventions and also shows the target audience that the artists are unique in an experimental way, because they try new things that are not conventionally done.

Overall we were pleased with the digipak and magazine advert because we were able to archive a subsequent motif that matches the music video. Furthermore our product has an artistic style which is represented through the graffiti; the artistic graffiti can be used as part of the unique selling point of the product. This combination of a visual motif and artistic flare demonstrates consistency in the product thus making it effect because audience could tell that the digipak, magazine cover and music video are all part of the same product.

3.) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Before making the final music video we drafted it so that we could get feedback from the audience. The feedback was generally positive and we also received some constructive criticism that highlighted a few flaws in the music video. We responded to all of our peers and their feed, by improving the areas they highlighted, for example the quote shown below from one of our peers.

Group S1-23 Feedback

S1-23 - We think the location is very unique and interesting, a wider variety of shots would keep the audiences interest. The editing so far seems slightly repeatitive, maybe chop the shots up a bit more to the beat and include more close ups. The lip syncing was well done.

Genre characteristics - Low beat Indie - It fits the song well, the two characters appear close yet not close enough and overall the footage fits the romantic feel. The mise en scene attracts the social category that The XX tend to appeal to, along with the costumes.

This group responded positively to the video however they highlighted a few minor flaws that were in the video. In the rough cut we had a very limited set of camera shots and discarded a lot of footage that we could have used. Furthermore the ghosting was applied in too many scenes thus making the effect repetitive. As a solution we simply added a wide variety of camera shots ranging from establishing shots, close ups, mid shot and more. Each camera shot was chosen for a specific reason. For instance the establishing shot was used to show the mise en scene while close ups were used to show the artists so that we could meet the demands of the record label. In addition to this we deleted some of the scenes with the ghosting effect, so that the ghosting effect is only applied in the instrumental sections.

We had other minor flaws highlighted by our teacher such as the difficulty in seeing the lip-syncing in the first section of the video. We tried to find different solutions such as zooming into the artist’s face so that we could see him miming the song, however zooming worsened the video quality making it look pixelated. The only possible solution was to re-shoot the sections of the video were the lip-syncing was hard to see. Our teacher also highlighted another flaw in the music video. Usually in music videos the artists are introduced very early in the video in order to meet the demands of the record label. In the draft version of the music video the artists were not introduced early enough. So as a solution we used some clips of the artists that we had discarded placed in the early parts the video.

Despite the flaws in the video, the audience were still overall pleased with the rough cut. The audience were mainly captivated by the ghosting effect and the scenes were the artists write the title of the song on a wall, because they show relationship between the music and visuals. The audience also responded positively to our pitch, they were particularly impressed by the location we had chosen for our mise en scene.

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

The construction of the media product was heavily dependent on the use of new media technologies. We used new media technologies for almost every aspect of the development from, planning, researching and evaluation.

One of the most important tool we used wise blogger. Blogger allowed the group to communicate to its audience and get feedback from the audience. We wrote numerous blogs regarding each stage of the development of the product. Blogging soon became essential in planning and research because we could keep digital records that we could track back to.

For video editing we used Final cut. Final cut equipped us with tools we needed to lip sync the video correctly, apply visual effects such as the ghosting effect and the colour correction and arrange the order of the clips. Final cut was also effective because we could experiment with a variety of video editing techniques to make the video more visually pleasing.

Another application we used was Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop was mainly used for creating the digipak and the magazine advert. In Photoshop we were able to stylize the text for the digipak and put a colour correction filter similar to the one in the music video and experiment with a variety of techniques.

Using new media technologies helped us learn new things in different software. It also made us proficient in video editing and image editing.

Overall we were pleased with the outcome of our product, we were able to improve on all aspects that needed to be improved during the drafting stages and combine ideas while thinking as a group. We also got blog of the week that motivated us to even to work harder and try out more things within the group.

Feedback for Gerald on Evaluation

2009-12-09T03:53:00.001-08:00

Gerald - also read the feedback I gave Emily and Shaun as it also applies to you. You also need to give more in-depth responses to the questions and make it clear which question you are answering, number your responses.
You need to talk more about the choices you made throughout, why you made those particular choices and how successful the outcome was.
The final version of your response to the evaluation questions must be on the blog by Friday 11th December.

Feedback for Emily on Evaluation

2009-12-09T03:43:00.000-08:00

Emily - a lot of what I said to Shaun also applies to you so please read his feedback post and implement the changes I suggested.
You need to make it clear that you are answering the questions one by one.
Start by outlining the conventions of an indie music video, cite some of the examples you looked at and then discuss your own use of those conventions, illustrated by examples. You could benefit from discussing in a bit more detail the conventions of your ancillary texts and which ones you used and any you challenged or developed.
Also you say didn't when I think you meant did in the following section
"After looking at other bands magazine adverts and digipaks there was some information we didn’t need to include"
You need to fix that because it doesn't make sense as it stands.
You need to flesh out your responses to the question on feedback and use of new media technology.

Feedback for Shaun on Evaluation

2009-12-09T03:25:00.000-08:00

Your responses are very good, put the question numbers by your responses to make it clear which answer is to which question. In the first question ditch the first line and get on with answering the question. Talk about the choices you made about your engagement with the conventions of indie music videos. Also talk about how you engaged with the form of music videos, obviously it's very different from the narrative video forms you have worked on before. Also talk in detail about specific conventions you used and give examples from your texts. Talk about the video, the magazine ad and the digipak.
Question 2 on the combination of products you talk about the theme of graffiti, call this a visual motif that binds the three products together. Also talk about the representation of the artist in all three products, do they work in combination to communicate something specific about the artist.
Talk about some more specific examples of using the internet for looking at examples of other videos from that genre, research into target audience etc.
Also you haven't answered the question about feedback. Mention all of the points at which you got feedback, pitch, rough cut, final cut, digipak and magazine ad draft and final versions etc. Also talk about peer feedback and using the class as a sample group of your target audience.
Give specific examples of feedback you received (use quotes or screengrabs if you wish), state what you learnt from the feedback and how you responded to it.
You MUST make these improvements to your evaluation.

Final Evaluation

2009-12-07T02:56:00.000-08:00

Media Evaluation

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

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

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

1. We made sure our product remained within the boundaries of its genre, but we worked hard to make sure that our music video was unique, while producing a piece of work which conforms to typical music video conventions. We created a current, appealing product which is an effective collaboration of a music video and ancillary texts with a consistent motif in all three of our final products, which really finished our piece off to a professional standard.

We chose to use the indie song ‘Heart Skipped a Beat’ by the unsigned act ‘the XX’, because we felt that as a group, it is our preferred genre of music and the one that we all know the most about, so things like costumes and location would be easier, and for genres like ‘Hip-Hop’ and ‘Pop music’, the music videos tend to be a lot more glamorous and try to show of the artists wealth and fame, which is not easily achievable by a group of A Level students with no budget to work from. When researching other music videos from the indie genre, we found that indie music videos are often a mix between narrative and performance and they often have some form of instrumental performance, even if it is very basic, for example playing an acoustic guitar and we also noticed that one of the most typical, recurring conventions is watching 'a day in the life of' either the lead vocalist or the band members and another we also notcied that indie music videos are often a mix between narrative and performance. As this is such a prominent convention, we decided to do something more unique so that it stands out more then existing music videos currently on the market. We dressed our actors in simple, yet fashionable and current clothing. The male vocalist (Gerald) wore a green check shirt, twisted navy denim jeans, a studded belt, a purple hat, “nerd glasses”, colourful bracelets and white plimsolls. Travis McCoy from the band the ‘Gym Class Heroes’ was our main inspiration for Gerald’s costume, and we tried to dress Gerald using clothes we already all had, meaning we didn’t have to spend any of our small budget that we had raised ourselves on clothes. Our female vocalist was styled wearing a brown mid-length dress with floral detailing and simple frills with a brown leather jacket and brown dolly shoes. For her outfit we were inspired by the outfit worn by Florence from the band ‘Florence and the Machine’ in her music video ‘Rabbit Heart’. We made sure that our outfits were kept to a minimum, because, unlike a lot of other genres, the main focus of the music video is the song itself, and not the artists wardrobe choices, so we stayed true to this, but still made sure they looked fashionable so that the youth of today feel like they can relate to them.

Even though we followed the typical indie dress stereotype, we wanted our music video to be unique and stand out from the other music videos on the shelves and to do this we utilized the mise en scene. Our location played a major role in this, because unlike the typical indie music videos, which is generally a day in the life of the main vocalist, we chose to set our piece in an abandoned barn in Foxton. Emily and myself knew about the barn already and knew that it would be the perfect location to shoot our video in. The barn has great character, and being a site which a lot of graffiti fanatics use to show off there work, graffiti became a large part of our overall product, being a main feature in all three of our products. The two vocalists we able to interact with the mise en scene on location, for example them spraying graffiti on the walls, hanging on window frames, holding the used spray cans, etc. We made sure to use the location to our full advantage, and in the end basically made the barn a main character in our music video.

In terms of gaining feedback, we made a rough cut of our music video, and showed to an audience of our peers and teachers, and were told what worked, what needed improving and elements we could to get our music video up to a respectable standard.

2. As well as creating the music video, in addition we designed and created and magazine and a digipak.
After looking at other bands magazine adverts and digipaks, we learnt the necessary information and logos that were true to the genre. To make our three products all work together in unison, we had to make sure we had strong visual motif between the three products, and this is where the barn and it’s graffiti played a vital role and works as a visual motif that binds the three products together. In all three of the products, the graffiti is present, and we also applied a green colour correction filter on all three of the products so that we have a matching colour scheme throughout our media project giving a better visual link so that they slot together better as a unique product and the motif that is created gives the target audience more of an indication that it is all one product. To do this, we drafted the magazine advert and the digipak a few times, but as strong as they all were individually, they didn’t link well enough to the music video when put together. Fortunately we learnt from this and used stills from the barn to make effective and visually stimulating finished products.

Even though we only made our artists the main features of two out of the three products, the barn and it's graffiti is almost a character in itself and is strong enough visually to make a good magazine advert, but still works with the main music video and the digipak as one complete product.

3. When we first showed our pitch to our audience, generally, the feedback we received was positive and they seemed to like our ideas and thought that our location and mise en scene was well suited to our song and it's genre. The feedback we received for our rough cut was generally positive, but there were some aspects of improvement that were pointed out to us.

'S1-23 - We think the location is very unique and interesting, a wider variety of shots would keep the audiences interest. The editing so far seems slightly repetitive, maybe chop the shots up a bit more to the beat and include more close ups. The lip syncing was well done. Genre characteristics - Low beat Indie - It fits the song well, the two characters appear close yet not close enough and overall the footage fits the romantic feel. The mise en scene attracts the social category that The XX tend to appeal to, along with the costumes.'

I feel that we tackled the problems presented to us effectively. We cut up our shots to make them more interesting and less repetitive and included some shots of Gerald in the introduction so that our video met the demands of the record label. Another area of improvement that was pointed out to us, was that at some points in our music video the lip-syncing was hard to see and that our piece was too performance based, and there needed to be more of a narrative and that we needed an earlier introduction to the vocalists to meet the demands of the record label. To solve these problems we went through our disregarded footage and found bits that could give the piece more a story line, we interspersed some shots of Gerald into the introductory cut aways of the location and to sort out the lip-syncing, we had to do a re-shoot, but unfortunately we had to do this off location and with a different, which makes the video a little less fluid, but the lip-syncing is clear and easy to see. The audience praised us on our ghosting effect and how it fit well with the song and the narrative of the piece.

4. When constructing our media product, we relied heavily on new media technologies. New media technologies played part in almost every element of development for a piece. We used it for everything, from sorting what and when we were going to do things and writing how we did thing on ‘blogger.com’, we used 'google.com' and 'youtube.com' to research our target audience and what they are interested in seeing and researching existing music videos from the indie genre on the market, constructing and editing our video on ‘Final Cut Express’, designing our magazine advert and digipak on ‘Abode Photoshop’ and we were able to get in contact with ‘the XX’ on ‘Myspace.com.

‘Blogger.com’ allowed us to keep tracks of where we are in the design and construction process, we were able to see what other groups have done for inspiration, we were able to keep an eye on deadlines, we are able to access our work from college and at home and it allowed an outside eye to see us progress as a group and create our media product. It also was our way of storing and presenting our planning, research, evaluations and final products.

Final Cut was the perfect video editing software for us and allowed us to experimant wit our footage. It is easy to use and equipped us with the appropriate tools we needed to be able to cut up and edit our shots, lip-sync our video, use colour correction and add our unique ghosting effect. We used Photoshop to create our magazine ad and our digipak. Photoshop allowed us to add a similar correction filter to the one we have use in Final Cut. We also stylized the text to fit well with our overall media product.
Overall I am very pleased with what we have been able to put together an effective piece of work which I am proud to put my name on and I feel that we have all made a vast improvement from the media products we made last year.

Shaun Kaba

Analysis

2009-12-06T14:15:00.001-08:00

Our media product is based around the song ‘Heart Skipped a Beat’ by The XX which is a duet in the indie genre. I believe that our product uses and challenges forms and conventions of real media products to make it stronger. When planning our music video we had to take into account what conventions indie music videos followed, which is why we went for a simplistic approach. For example the costumes that the vocalists wore, the male was in a shirt, jeans and a hat which is similar to the costume worn by the band members of My Bloody Valentine in the video ‘Realise’. The female was in a simple beige dress with a floral design. Locations of indie music videos vary – they are generally quite abstract or have a relevant setting, which is why we chose to set ours in an abandoned barn. This barn was very unique as it was covered in graffiti which we thought strengthened our mise en scene as we carried this theme on throughout all our products making it quite iconic. We did a lot of research when producing the magazine advert and digipak, we looked at other bands products so we could identify what we needed to include, therefore included such information such as the rating, reviews, release date and record label. When choosing which record label to use we thought about how well know The XX are and as they aren’t a very big band we decided we would research what their record label is, which is ‘Young Turks’.

Our main product and ancillary tasks follow a strict theme. Our music video was unique because of the warm filter we put on it and the graffiti, for advertising purposes we thought that we should use the same effect in the ancillary tasks. It took a while to match the colours with the colour correction tool on Photoshop, but once we did there was an instant atmosphere being presented and we got positive comments about the whole product. After looking at other bands magazine adverts and digipaks there was some information we didn’t need to include, such as an image of the artist on the magazine advert or screen-grabs on the back of the digipak as we thought it gave too much away about a low profile band. We also took the font into account when producing the ancillary tasks, as there was an ongoing theme we thought it would be beneficial if we used the same font in the magazine advert and digipak, however it looked a bit too mechanical on the digipak so we changed the track list to a curvy font, this prevented the font from contrasting to the background. We experimented with different ideas for the digipak, using different images, colour palettes and the general layout, after looking them all it was obvious our strongest in terms of visual links with our main product. I believe that our main product and ancillary tasks are visually strong and also support the genre.

Feedback from class members, teachers and friends has helped us develop our whole product. After presenting our pitch we got all positive feedback which meant we were able to start planning straight away. We then made our roughcut version, which we received positive feedback and points which could be improved. The positive points were how we successfully made the video fit the genre, the location was a good choice and we had a strong mise en scene. The things that would improve our video was adding a filter too the whole video to make it more visually striking, cut the ghosting effect down as it was repetitive, the first verse was out of synch and the vocalist was too far away and that we needed to include more shots to keep the audience interested. We took all of this into account and decided to re-shoot the first verse, this was a little inconvenient as we couldn’t get back to the barn but found somewhere which was similar and was able to synch it properly. We cut up a lot of our footage, increasing the pace slightly and so it wasn’t repetitive during the instrumental. The one thing we felt changed our video completely was the filter we used; it took it to a new level and made the setting a character in itself. The audience feedback showed that the visuals are so important and if they’re not strong, the audience will lose interest.

The production of the whole product highly depended on media technologies. We used a website called Blogger to note down all of our research, planning and to upload our final products to. Blogger is very useful as you can access other groups for inspiration and you can post blogs on their pages with feedback and groups were able to do the same for us. When editing the video we used Final Cut, this enabled us to cut and edit our shots, put various effects like the ghosting effect in and to lip synch it. We also used the colour correction tool to add our filter, when making the ancillary tasks we didn’t have the same tool because we used Photoshop. We were able to add text and colour selection to match the music video. The internet was the most useful technology, as we did all our research on The XX using it, contacted the band and researched indie music videos on Youtube.

Evaluation draft

2009-12-06T07:04:00.000-08:00

Our media product is successful for numerous reasons. It conforms to some of the typical conventions in its genre while challenging various aspects in order to be unique. It is an effective combination of a music video and ancillary texts with a consistent motif is shown in both products.

We created a music video for an indie song titled heart skipped a beat by the’ XX’. Indie music videos have typical conventions that our video conforms to. For instance the costumes are usually simple and sometimes have patterns. In our music video the male character wears a green checked shirt, plain straight jeans, while plain plimsolls and a purple with glasses. These clothes are similar to the ones worn by the lead singer of kings of Leon in their music video ‘Charmer’. The female character wore a dress with flowered patterns and a leather jacket. The dress is similar to the one worn by the lead singer and backup dancers of the Florence and the Machine in their music video ‘Rabbit heart’. However we wanted our music video to be unique and challenge some of the typical conventions of the indie genre. We utilized the mise en scene to do this. Usually indie bands have their music videos shot in a location inhabited. In contrast we decided to use a deserted barn. Not only did the barn give us a different mise en scene but the graffiti art painted all over the inside gave us a visual theme for the full media product. Furthermore the characters were able to interact with the mise en scene in the scenes were they write on the graffiti walls. This reminds the target audience that the mise en scene and the graffiti theme are just as important as the characters.

Before making the final music video we drafted so that we could get feedback from the audience. The feedback was generally positive and we also received some constructive criticism that highlighted a few flaws in the video. One of the major flaws was that some of the lip-syncing was of beat and some of it was hard to see. As a solution we re-shot the sections of the video were the lip-syncing was hard to see. Another flaw was that some of the clips were put in the wrong order. To meet the demands of the record label we need a clip that introduces the characters in the beginning of the video and we also need a strong ending. As a solution we simple re-arranged the clips. Overall the audience responded positively to the video despite a few flaws. The audience we mostly impressed by the ghosting effect that we applied. The ghosting effect matched the pace of the instrumental sections of the song, therefore making it relevant in the video and visually pleasing for the audience.

In addition to the music video we designed a digipak and a magazine advert. In order for the digipak and magazine advert to be effective it needed strong visual links to the music video. To do this we applied a colour correction filter on both the music video and the digipak so that they could have the same colour schemes. After that we used the same graffiti art that was in the music video on the digipak. This strong visual link creates a motif in the full media product; this means the target audience can tell that the digipak is part of the same product. However we had to do several drafts in order to achieve this result. The two drafts we made did not have visual links that were strong enough and they almost a completely different visual style to the music video. Fortunately we improved on this in the final draft.

The construction of the media product was heavily dependent on new media technologies. We used new media technologies for almost every aspect of the development from, planning researching and evaluation. One of the most important tool we used wise blogger. It allowed the group to communicate to its audience, write about its plans and write about the research we made. For video editing we used Final cut. Final cut equipped us with tools we need to lip sync the video correctly, apply visual effects such as the ghosting effect and the colour correction and arrange the order of the clips. Another application we used was Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop was mainly used for creating the digipak and the magazine advert. In Photoshop we were able to stylize the text for the digipak and put a colour correction filter similar to the one in the music video.

Overall we were pleased with the outcome of our product, we were able to improve on all aspects that needed to be improved during the drafting stages and combine ideas while thinking as a group.

DVD Extra

2009-12-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

What should your commentary include:

Outline of the brief
Research Undertaken

Conventions Genre Goodwin
Challenge
OR
Develop 2a) Use of NMT in
OR R&P
Use
3. Pitch & Feedback
4. Challenges of a shoot
5. Rough cut feedback & changes made in response to feedback ( illustrate with before with before & afters)
6. Final cut analysis - use Goodwin
7. Research & planning conducted into ancillary tasks
8. Conventions of ancillary products - used, developed or challenged
9. How effective is the combination of all 3 products
10. How successful was the whole project in meeting the brief

Final Magazine Ad, DVD Cover & DVD Inside

2009-11-27T06:02:00.001-08:00

Bonus Features for Digipak

2009-11-26T18:50:00.001-08:00

Dvd cover for digipak - Draft

2009-11-26T16:54:00.000-08:00

Shaun The Director!

2009-11-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

Shaun is our fabulous director!
He holds the group together :)
And contributes in every compartment.

Emailing the band!

2009-11-24T07:41:00.001-08:00

This is a screen grab of an email we sent to The XX via myspace, we hope they reply but we thought it would be best to seek permission.
It was really easy to find their myspace because it was the only profile under 'the xx' in music.
We made the email quite informal so we didn't seem demanding but explained it was a music video for our a level course, as you can see from the screen grab.

BLOG OF THE WEEK :)

2009-11-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

We were awarded 'blog of the week' we were very pleased with this as we have worked hard to get our blog to good standard and the hard work has paid off :)

Ongoing task/homework

2009-11-20T04:49:00.000-08:00

To be completed by Friday 27th November

Write up peer feedback on your assigned music video, use Goodwin's framework of 'how to analyse a music video' - make sure you comment on all of his points.

Also analyse the video in terms of camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene - correctly identify the shot types and editing techniques etc and analyse their effectiveness. Also discuss the selection of mise-en-scene and its effectiveness in detail.

Use stills from the video to illustrate your feedback/analysis

Remember to be constructive, academic and respectful throughout your analysis.

(analyse group 20)

Detailed plan for digipak/magazine

2009-11-20T04:28:00.000-08:00

For our digipak and magazine ad we are going to take on location stills of the mise en scene and the characters. We will take various shot types in order to experiment with them on photoshop. Firstly we will do several drafts of both the digipak and magazine ad. This will allow us to get the best possible out come.

We have chosen to use Young Turks as our record label because they are the official record label for The XX. We thought not to use a well known record label because the The XX are quite a newly formed band so using a not well known label would suit it more.

We had a look at their myspace and band page

This is a screen grab from their myspace page, it looked like it hadn't been updated in a while as the background was out of date and it was generally simple.
However their website is more advanced

The website has links to 'the xx shop', tour dates, their myspace, contacts and videos and pictures. Compared to their myspace the website was modern with the links and the video playing like a wallpaper.

We have a list of items to put in the special features such as

Posters
Live Footage
Promo Videos
Photographs
Documentary on band tours, behind the scenes of music video making, photo shoots etc
A piece of card with details about their website and myspace, saying viewers can find the tour dates, band merchandise and additional pictures and contact information.

We think the digipak should have two discs, one which is the singles from 2005 to date and then another one including the special features. There will also be a booklet which includes the posters and photographs, with band information and record label information and then also band comments (thanks etc).

Digipak Draft

2009-11-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

Magazine Advert

2009-11-17T08:08:00.000-08:00

This is our magazine advert, the picture was from one of the one's Emily took when she went to the barn for a safety check before the date we did our filming. We didn't want to have the artist in the magazine advert as they're quite an unknown band so people wouldn't recognize them if they were on it, this photograph was perfect as it was framed well with the black around it and we had actually used the bicycle tire in one of our shots.

On our magazine advert we made sure we included:

Band name
Digipak name
Release date
Where you can purchase it
Band website
Record label
Reviews

Homework

2009-11-17T07:07:00.001-08:00

I have chosen this picture as a contender for the the CD cover for several reasons. Firstly the establishing shot captures all of the important details needed such as a frame of both artist and the mise en scene is also shown. Not only does this picture show, both artists, it shows them in an interesting pose the captures the interest of the target audience. The picture also has the same visual style as the music. This could be used as the consisty visual style or motif of the whole album. The picture also displays the mise en scene. Unlike most CD covers were the mise enscene is usually used as a a dull background that the audience never focuses on, in this picture the mise en scene, is just as important as the artist. Furthermore the pose of the artistists resting on the pillar adds more value to the mise en scene.

Idea for digipak or magazine ad

2009-11-17T06:42:00.000-08:00

I think that this image would be good to use on the digipak or magazine ad. The song is quite slow and relaxed and this image represents this. I also like the setting and how the lighting is in the capture of the video as it's dark in the barn with the light shining through. This image also does not give a lot away to the audience either which is good.

Picture from music video for digipak

2009-11-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

I would use this this picture for the digipak if we had to use one from the video. I chose this because it is the only one when they're together where they don't look too staged and it's framed nicely.
The music is quite simplistic and easy-listening, slightly indie so the photo reflects this as the couple are overlooking an empty field. The costume they're wearing also supports the indie image, selling the band as indie.
The music can appeal to anyone from young adult to middle age so having a simple, natural image supports the audience it targets.
I also like this because it doesn't show their faces which is a nice touch as it doesn't give too much away.

Digipak

2009-11-16T04:11:00.000-08:00

This is a digipak for the solo artist; Shakira. This digipak has an outer card cover and then a hard plastic case inside which you pull out. The cardboard cover has a picture of the artist on the front, the artists name in big text down the side, the album name, and it says "limited edition".

DVD

2009-11-16T04:09:00.000-08:00

Reviewing a magazine ad & DVD/digipak

2009-11-16T03:44:00.000-08:00

Magazine ad:
Grab Attention

Image
Reviews of product - music press - newspapers - celebs

Advertise

Band name
Release date
Where to purchase
Website - official - myspace - twitter
Label

DVD/digipak:
Special edition

Collector's item
Adds value - sell at higher price

Extra features

Band members bane - label info
Promo vids
Bonus tracks
Photographs
Institutional info
Behind the scenes - making of the featurette - artist name - album name - image/motif of artist
Live footage
Tour info
Rating

Magazine Ad Analysis

2009-11-16T03:33:00.000-08:00

This is a promotional Magazine advert for Jamie.T. It features all the basic conventions of magazine covers such as

The name of the Artists
The name of the Album
The release date
Website and Myspace addresses
Reviews and ratings of the album
Record Label
Pictures of the band members

The name of the band is shown in big bold colourful text in order to attract the target audience. The bright colours show that the target audiences are mainly teenagers. The background is dark which makes all of the colourful text and pictures standout. Your attention is drawn to the circular image then to the band name. The style in which the images are edited could represent the style of the band.

Re-Shoot

2009-11-13T05:08:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday 11th November we recorded some more footage as our first verse was not in sync because the male actor did not know the lyrics well enough.
Unfortunately we couldn't go to the old barn and our female actress had an injury, we therefore decided to do it in the woods at college, we didn't want it to be obvious that it was in a different location so we looked at where the barn was, and there was a couple of trees nest to it, so we recorded it with the actor in a tree, singing to the camera. This also fits with our direct gaze that we used throughout the whole video.

We put a filter on the footage to set the location and to make it look warmer and darker.
We like the filter because it makes the footage clearer and reflects the dark atmosphere of what the singers are feeling.

Music Video - Final

2009-11-13T05:04:00.000-08:00

This is our final video, we are very pleased with how it turned out. We're a bit disappointed that we had to replace the first verse with Gerald in the tree. The pace of the editing seems to work well.
Our actors did really well, they managed to stay in character the whole time, sung the song good enough so we could sync it easily. Without that our music video wouldn't be as good as it is now.

Demands of record label

2009-11-11T11:25:00.000-08:00

Demands of record label

In order to meet the demands of the record label the artists are show numerous times throughout the video. In the first section of the song the actors are introduced along with the other stills of the location. We chose to have the singers to be quickly introduced in the beginning of the video because they are not a well known band. So the quick introduction would make the audience more patient.

We also have several shots of the singers, ranging from close ups, mid shots and long shots. Each shot is used to present the singers in certain way in order to please the record label. For example the close up of the singer in the beginning introduces the audience to who the singers are. The mid shots show the singers’ full body. This then shows off their costumes thus having a bigger appeal to the target audience since the dressing suits the genre characteristics. Finally the Long shots focus on both the location and the singers. Although the long shots show both the location and the singers, the singers still standout because of the colours of their costumes. This shows that the singers are more important than the actual mise en scene.

Notions of Looking

2009-11-11T11:23:00.000-08:00

Notions Of Looking

Throughout the video there is notion of looking mainly presented as direct gaze. Most of the time when the actors are lip syncing they look directly at the camera. This direct gaze means the actors are communicating with audience because they would feel as if the actors are looking directly at them.

They are a few other scenes when the actors look at each. These scenes are shown in relation with the lyrics. This makes the characters more believable showing how the characters relate to each other. They are also three other scenes when the actors are shown looking into the distance through a window. The most significant of these three is the one that is shown end, when both actors are shown together. This scene interesting because throughout the video it was mainly the actors who looked at the audience to grab their attention, however in this last scene they are show looking away from the audience and instead the audience would be looking at them.

They are other aspects of Notions of Looking such as objectification of women and voyeurism that we avoid, because they do not suit the genre characteristics and the style of the video.

Lyrics and Visuals

2009-11-11T11:22:00.001-08:00

Lyrics & Visuals

In our music video the video echoes the lyrics because of the scenes we show. For instance they is also a scene were both actors are shown singing the lyric ‘sometimes I still need you’, while they are separated by a pillar. This relates to the lyrics because it represents the division between the two actors and also emotionally communicates with the target audience.

We also have a scene were both actors write the title of the song ‘Heart skipped a beat’, on a graffiti wall. This echoes the name of the song while meeting the demands of record labels because it is selling the song.

Music and Visuals

2009-11-11T11:18:00.000-08:00

Music & Visuals

We wanted the music and visuals to relate in order to communicate with our audience. This meant that we had to apply several techniques such as cutting to beat, having the pace of the video match the music and matching the lyrics with the visuals.

In the first section of the video they are numerous still images of the location. Each transition from one image to the other matches the changes in the beat while maintaining a constant pace that also matches music.

Furthermore we applied a ghosting effect and speeded it up. Overall the ghosting effect was successful and matched the pace of the instrumental sound. The ghosting effect mainly works well with instrumental sound because they are both abstract. This means the audience will be able to relate to what they see and hear.

The actors are believable, mainly because of the costumes. The costumes match the genre of the music and work well with the video.

Overall most of the video is complimentary to the music, which is what we aimed to achieve however they are a few bits of the video that contradict music.

Digipak - Experimental

2009-11-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

The first image is the front cover of the digipak, when you open up the digipak, the second image will be the next one you see with a booklet about the band on with details about internet fan pages, facebook, myspace etc and their website, the middle is the third image which is a bit about the band and thank you's from the band, and then the forth image which is the last part you see when you open the digipak - this is the CD. The last image is the back of the digipak.

Ruth made the black and white photo and put the text on that, we wanted something different in the digipack so it wasn't all 'in your face'

Music video inspirations.

2009-11-10T12:13:00.000-08:00

This song is a duet featuring Seether and Amy Lee.
It's a rock song, so to fit the genre it generally has to have quite dark, gloomy connotations, but the video does contain elements which we adapted to our music video.
For example the shots of the male and female singing separately during the verse. Establishing shots at the beginning and throughout the music video. It also contains old, unused and broken things which is similar to ours.
These are some stills from the music video. As you can see, like our music video, there are establishing shots, footage of the vocalists together and also apart.
I really like this music video and think even though ours is a different genre they seem to have a similar style.

Ruth - Female Actress

2009-11-10T12:03:00.001-08:00

This is the female actor in costume.

Gerald - Male actor

2009-11-09T11:07:00.001-08:00

This is the male actor in costume.

Goodwins Theory

2009-11-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

Goodwin's Theory!

Music & Visuals:

Complimentary
Contradicting

Lyrics & Visuals

Amplification

Notions of looking:

Voyeurism - looking at people looking at others
Direct gaze
Objectification of women

Demands of record label:

Representation of artist

Intertextual references:

Referencing something else

Genre characteristics

Reflective Analysis - During editing

2009-11-09T10:08:00.000-08:00

How successful were you at achieving the video you wanted to make?
When we heard the song, we knew that we wanted it to be about a female and male, telling a story about their broken relationship, I think we did this well by the amount of shots we had of flashbacks and them alone showing their depression and upset. We also gave the right image as the characters came across as quite innocent and not intimidating.

What worked well/not work well on your shoot?
Work well:

The time of day was good and the weather was great as it was nice and bright with no wind which meant we were able to shoot outside and use the sun as lighting in the barn.
We got all the shots (and more) that we wanted, they were all framed well and took different shots of the same part so we were able to cut to them in the editing process.
The place where we shot was safe and no one else was there and it was right next to the train station so we got there within 20 minutes.
We had all the props we needed, and with a little help from all the group our actors had the perfect outfits.

Not work well:

Our biggest problem was that our camera ran out of battery half way through filming, we didn't have a spare battery or any other time we could shoot the amount we needed to do so Shaun and Ruth went into Foxton to find someone that would let us charge it in their house, luckily a kind man let them do it.
We got lots of shots of Gerald, but not so much of Ruth which shows in the music video as most of the cut-aways are of Gerald.
We spent so long filming - we missed the train home and had to wait an hour for the next train.

Our shoot generally went really well, we got everything we needed and our video is starting to look really good.

Which elements of your finished video are successful in your opinion?
We haven't finished our video yet, but so far I think the shots around the barn were really good because they allowed us to have a video that didn't just consist of the artist. I really liked the part where they are spray-painting 'Heart skipped a beat' on the wall and we edited Ruth and Gerald making it much more pleasing to look at. I also think that we managed to get the lip syncing done very well.

If you could do it again what elements of your video would you change?
I would want more shots of Ruth, because there were far too little of her which was hard when we had time to fill. I'd also want some more action shots of both the characters doing more general things around the barn such as walking around, sitting on their own, looking out the doors in a more casual sense. The male vocals is sometimes out of sync with the music, I would re-shoot that until we got it perfect because it doesn't look as good as it could. There should also be some more close up shots of the actors with some direct gaze - we did have a mix of both but it was hard to tell as they're so far away.

Using your class feedback, analyze your video using Goodwin's theory
Artist representation:
We had a few close-ups on the artist and then some abstract shots which apparently meets the demands of the record label. However, we need to have some more shots on just the artist to sell them a bit more.
Lyrics & Visuals:
The graffiti on the wall where the artists write 'Heart Skipped A Beat' was liked and fit the theme of the music video and worked well with the lyrics. And because there aren't many lyrics, having the artists sing all of them kept it more interesting but when there aren't lyrics we need other visuals to keep the audience interested.
Music & Visuals:
The track didn't offer much in visual diversity but the amount to lip syncing helped link the music to the visuals and the ghosting effect was successful, but there needs to be more of a storyline to the video.
Intertextuality:
There aren't any obvious intertextual references, but reminded the viewer of a video by a band called 'Longview' called 'Further' which was shot in a derelict building.
Genre characteristics:
Low beat Indie - It fits the song well, the two characters appear close yet not close enough and overall the footage fits the romantic feel. The mise en scene attracts the social category that The XX tend to appeal to, along with the costumes.

Editing the song

2009-11-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

After shooting we had about 20 minutes of footage - and most of it was serious, not accidental or messing around. However when we put it with the music, the track seemed far too long and repetitive so we got permission to cut a minute or so off the track.
Whilst editing I cut the end part off the track and pasted it onto our original ending because I thought the ending sounded too forced and really liked the sound of the ending, we were then able to add some extra shots at the end - I feel this was a much more successful ending.

Editing the music video

2009-11-09T09:18:00.000-08:00

After a class activity we realized that the pace of the shots had to reflect the beat of the song, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be in time with the main drum beat - but beats that occur at different times.
We use 'Final Cut Express' to edit the music video - we can upload the footage and the track to the program so we could lip sync it and process the music video as one whole thing with the original song. This also enabled us to edit our shots in time with the music.
At the beginning we put a few stills in to set the scene and introduce the theme, these were quite short and in time with the music.

We then cut to the male singer where we had 3 different angles to keep the viewer watching and to advertise the artist.

We added a ghosting effect into the instrumental part, we thought that this would contrast the rest of the video and that it would go well with how the music sounded.

We also had a varied range of different shots that were more interesting to look at which keeps
the viewer watching and adds more depth to the video.

The editing generally went well - we had enough footage that we could experiment with different shots and fill in spaced where we needed extra shots.
Shots that were held for too long we added stills or shots of the artist in, but on the bit where they are doing the graffiti on the wall we sped it up, reversed it, zoomed in, it was far more interesting.
We are going to use a session on Wednesday between 5-8 to get all our final editing done.

Permission

2009-11-04T03:30:00.000-08:00

With the location we had decided to film in, we didn't come across any problems with breaking any copyright laws or needing to get permission from owners, for example if we wanted to film in the Grand Arcade in Cambridge, we would have had to get permission from the personnel in team in the shopping centre, or if we had wanted to film in a shop or an eatery, we would have had to get permission from the owners or a member of staff.
For the barn we filmed in, we were unable to track down the owner of, and because it is abandoned in the condition it was in, we went ahead with filming, assuming there is no owner, and that anyone can use it.

Evaluation of Filming

2009-11-03T14:28:00.001-08:00

When it came down to filming, we were very fortunate with the weather, as we managed to catch one of the few last days of summer, which meant we were able to take shots with our actors laying on the grass without getting wet, sitting on the sofas outdoors, we had good daylight lighting and the camera was in no danger of getting wet in the rain.
We were also lucky enough to have the barn to ourselves and not have any distractions or obstacles from other people.
However, there were some downsides to filming in an isolated, old barn;
The lighting inside the barn was not as we had desired, but we worked with the light we had, and used torches to help lighten there faces and white paper to try and bounce light around the farm.
We also ran out of battery half way through filming, and with no means to electricity, we had no way of charging the camera. To overcome this problem, myself and Ruth had to make our way to the closest house, which was approximately half a mile to a mile away, in the hope that they would be kind enough to charge it for us. Thankfully, after hearing and understanding our story, the man who lived in the house let us charge the camera for half an hour, which meant we could finish our filming.

Costume

2009-11-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

In terms of costume for our music video, it was important to keep the performers looking very simple, just in fashionable, casual daywear.
It was also important to make sure our artists had two different outfits, one set for the present and one for the flashback, so it is easier to distinguish between the time zones.

Geralds Costumes:

Present:

To fit the genre of the of the music, we dressed him in Indie. He wore;

Colourful funky
hat with tassels,

Nerd glasses,

Plad shirt,

Studded belt,

blue jeans and plain plimsols.

Flashback:

We had him wear a different funky hat from the one in the present, nerd glasses and

Grey Nike jumper

blue jeans and plain plimsols.

We chose to dress him like this so that you can see that it was at a different time because of the wardrobe change, but he is still dressed in the same style

Ruth's Costumes:

Present:

Much like Gerald, we have Ruth dress Indie to tie in with the genre. We had her wear:

a brown head band,

a brown stylish, stylish,
yet formal brown summery dress

and some brown pumps.

Flashback:

For the flashbacks, to keep the costume changes quick and simple, all that she did was put a

brown leather jacket and

a scarf

over her original costume, for simplicity, but to make it easy to differenciate between the present and the flashbacks.

Group Feedback

2009-11-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

After reading the feedback from other members of our class we have decided to do some more filming on the 11-11-09 on location and capture some more narrative pieces, rather then lip syncing and try to give our piece more of a story line.
We are in the process of coming up with some more story line based episodes, which tie in well with the footage we have already captured, and have gone through our remaining unused footage and found shots we can use to fill in the gaps.

Peer feedback

2009-11-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

Artist representation: There are some close ups of both the artists this being the male and female, however more could have been included to show star image instead of some of the shots which were used this being abstract shot, as they were too long. It clearly shows the artists in a way which would meet the demands of the record label.
There should be a wider variety of shots and more which just focus on the main artists individually. The location was abstract starting in fields then ending up in some barn, suggesting that something has changed.

Peer Feedback - group 21

2009-11-03T07:32:00.000-08:00

Lyrics and visuals

We like the way that the artists write the title of the song and the band name seemingly at different times by separately spray painting a wall, its interesting and fits in with the video theme. Both artists sing all of the lyrics which doesn't make it all singing because there aren't many lyrics in the song, making the video more interesting.

When lyrics aren't used there is visuals to keep the audience entertained. However, there is too much of the ghosting all at once (not enough variety of scenes).

Peer Feedback - Music and Visuals

2009-11-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

We thought that the track didn't offer that much in visual diversity however, the amount of lip syncing which helped link the song to the video we found very impressive. Also i thoroughly enjoyed the sequence of ghosting. It went well with the track and showed good editing skills.
Overall i think there could be more of an obvious story. But we thought that it were great.

Teacher Rough Cut Feedback

2009-11-03T07:08:00.000-08:00

Feedback on Intertextuality:

There aren't any obvious intertextual references, although it does remind me a little of a video by a band called Longview

This video is also filmed in a derelict building and although the genre is different it does have a similar feel to it. What is successful about this video is the combination of performance and cutaways. Have a look at it and see what you can learn from it to improve your video further.

General Feedback:
The introduction is much improved and I really like the effective use of cutaways, you could try adding some filters to make your images even more visually striking. Some shots are held too long, remember that a music video has a very different pace to a narrative. Overall the mise-en-scene is very strong but I would encourage you to have more shots of the performers, particularly close-ups, in order to establish a stronger artist representation. Remember that the point of a music video is to 'sell' the artist and in order to do this we must be able to see them.

Great work so far, keep going.

Peer Feedback

2009-11-03T06:55:00.000-08:00

S1-23 - We think the location is very unique and interesting, a wider variety of shots would keep the audiences interest. The editing so far seems slightly repeatitive, maybe chop the shots up abit more to the beat and include more close ups. The lip syncing was well done.

Genre characteristics - Low beat Indie - It fits the song well, the two characters appear close yet not close enough and overall the footage fits the romantic feel. The mise en scene attracts the social category that The XX tend to appeal to, along with the costumes.

Rough Cut

2009-11-02T04:21:00.000-08:00

Moodboard

2009-10-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

Prop Lists

2009-10-12T04:03:00.000-07:00

Shaun's List

Shirt (s)

Indie Hat

Bracelets

Scarf (s)

Torch (s)

Candle (s)

Blanket

Nerd Glasses

Ruth's List

Jumper

Nerd Glasses

Bracelets

Dress

Head Band

Torches/Light/Candles etc.

Leather Jacket

Scarf

Gerald's List

Scarf

Plimsols

Top

Jeans

Lights/Candles/Torches

Emily's List

Guitar

Indie Hat

Torches/ Candles/Lights

Music Video Director - Anthony Dickenson

2009-10-09T05:27:00.000-07:00

Anthony Dickenson has directed one of 'The xx' music videos. His style is quite artistic and hs a very distinct style.

These are a few examples of his style.

He seems to stage the artist in a black background - the artist is made to look abstract in the centre of the frame

There is a lot of flashing, multi-coloured lights. The colour palette remains the same all-throughout the video.

He has worked with major artists e.g. Enter Shikari

Teacher Feedback on Pitch and Blog

2009-10-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

Your pitch accurately communicated your ideas and made it clear that the narrative of your video was visually linked to your proposed location of the derelict barn, this also justified your location choice.
There was an excellent consideration of Goodwin in your pitch and the fact you had researched previous student music videos was very good too.
It is important that you get permission to use the barn, it must belong to someone!
If you intend to use images 'on location' for your magazine ad and digipak then you need to book out a digital stills camera for your shoot days to ensure there is continuity in the images.
Your blog is looking good. You need to add some additional content, such as your Goodwin and Auteur presentations from the first few weeks (these are on slideshare.net search under S1-Auteur or S1-Goodwin to find them). You also need a sketch of your magazine ad and digipak ideas. At the moment there is no indication as to your initial ideas, this needs to be addressed.
You also have a few posts with titles such as 'images for mise en scene' that need to be completed and fleshed out.
Take a look at blog of the week for some inspiration.

Test Footage

2009-10-05T04:18:00.000-07:00

We changed the opacity and adjusted the speeds to try and create a ghostly feel to allow the viewer to see that the actors are feeling lost and confused within themselves.

We used the original footage and added a blur filter called bloom, this makes the footage look more ghostly which is the effect that we want to create in our music video.

Song Structure

2009-10-05T03:58:00.000-07:00

0-6 secs - instrumental intoduction
7-23 secs - guitar/ main riff
23-38 secs - male vocals
39-55 secs - female vocals
56-58 secs - male vocals
58-1.00 secs/mins - female vocals
1.00-1.09 mins - female/male vocals alternating - 'sometimes I still need you'
1.09 -1.25 mins - instrumental - solo
1.25

Story Board Analysis

2009-10-05T03:02:00.000-07:00

- Long distance establishing shot of barn.
- Mid-shot of both characters together at a window with their backs to the camera so no faces are being shown.
- Mid-shot of graffiti on a wall inside the barn saying "heart skipped a beat".
- Close up shot of the boy grabbing an empty can of beer and crushing it slightly.
- Mid-shot of girl sitting on sofa outside.
- Establishing shot of boy sitting inside the barn against a wall with a can of beer in his hand.
- Long shot of outside the barn where the boy is in one window and the girl in the other.
- Flashback of boy and girl together.
- Mid-shot of boy miming the lyrics inside the barn.
- Mid-shot of girl miming the lyrics inside the barn.
- Close-up of boys face whilst miming.
- Close-up of girls face whilst miming.

Photographs of the barn in Foxton

2009-09-30T03:29:00.000-07:00

This is the empty barn in Foxton, it is easily accessible as it is right next to the train station.

We should be able to contact the owner of it to ask permission before we shoot, there have obviously been parties and teenagers there but it would be safer and more professional.

As you can see on the bottom photo, the doorways which have no door or ledge is where we will do one of the flashback shots. The barn was so attractive because of how isolated it looked and all the artistic graffiti made it really unique.

Health and safety:
There are obviously a few issues concerning the safety of the barn the ground floor is safe, nothing fallen or broken objects on the floor, but on the first floor the floorboards obviously aren't as strong as there used to be and there might be some weak points, I will take a trip to the barn before we shoot to get some photographs of where we would shoot, shot angles and check the lighting. And I will also see if there are any places we should avoid.
We don't know how long is hasn't been in use for, but it has definitely been unused for over 17 years.

Pitch

2009-09-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

Sketch of Magazine Ad

2009-09-28T04:18:00.002-07:00

Digipak

2009-09-28T04:18:00.001-07:00

Research from http://www.mediaheaven.co.uk/digipak.htm

A digipak is a CD or DvD cover/case. It is mostly made from thick card and is shatterproof to allow graphic display. The digipack packaging is also versatile, which you can have up to 8 or more panels. A good digipak increases the value of the product. Furthermore, digipaks have dimensions 139.5mm x 6mmx 125.5mm for a cd case.

Ideas for digipak:

This is how we would want our digipak to open, however the disk will be in the middle and a band information pack with details on online fan sites, merchandise, tours and links.

The front case will be the graffiti wall from the barn with the male on the far left looking to the opposite side of the case and 'The XX' will be in the

bottom corner.

When you open the digipak you will see the album in the middle following the same style as the front cover only it will be the female on the far right looking in the opposite direction to imply that they are looking at each other.

Information about who produced the digipak and oth

er mentions will be on the right flap and the booklet will be on the left. The backgro

und will all be the graffiti, to create an artistic individual feel.

Project Outline

2009-09-28T04:17:00.002-07:00

Deadlines

2009-09-28T04:17:00.001-07:00

* Music Video Shooting Deadline: Monday 19th October 9am
* Music Video Rough Cut Deadline: Last lesson of week ending 23rd October
* Music Video Final Deadline: Last lesson of week ending 13th November
* Ancillary Products Deadline: Last lesson of week ending 27th November
* Evaluative Writing Interim Deadline: 9am to Moodle Monday 7th December
* Evaluative Writing Final Deadline: 9am to Moodle Monday 14th December

Lyrics to 'Heart Skipped a Beat'

2009-09-28T04:16:00.002-07:00

Opening:
Establishing shots around the barn
1) looking out the window at the railway
2) low shot looking up at the sofa with the woman on, you can only see her arms and legs
3)close up on girls hand on sofa - tapping to the beat
4)close ups on detail around the barn to show the emptiness and loneliness

iNSTRUMENTAL

(male singing)
Please don't say we're done
When I'm not finished
I could give you so much
Make you feel, like never before
Welcome, they said welcome to the floor

Female singing
It's been a while
And you've found someone better
But I've been waiting too long to give this up
The more I see, I understand
But sometimes, I still need you

Male and female
Sometimes, I still need you

INSTRUMENTAL

Female singing
I was struggling to get in
Left waiting outside your door
I was sure
You'd give me more

male singing
No need to come to me
When I can make it all the way to you
You made it clear
You weren't near
Near enough for me

INSTRUMENTAL

Male and female singing
Heart skipped a beat
And when I caught it you were out of reach
But I'm sure, I'm sure
You've heard if before

Images To Illustrate the Mise en Scene

2009-09-28T04:16:00.001-07:00

Initial Ideas for 3 Songs

2009-09-28T03:12:00.000-07:00

For our A2 Media Music Video Project, the three songs we ave felt as a group we enjoyed and could relate to the most were;
- Track 7: 'Truth or Dare' by the 'Pink Spiders'
-Track 8: 'Heart Skipped A Beat' by 'The xx'
-Track 9: 'About Time' by 'Cassie'

Our Initial Ideas for the 3 songs are;
Track 7:
Imagine an abandoned old barn/ house/ warehouse, absolutely plastered in graffiti. A make shift band stage would be built at one end with lots of people, drunk or a little worse for ware dancing ad going crazy all covered in sweat. Cut away shots of a boy (lead vocalist) with a girl (one at the crowd of dancers staring at the lead vocalist).

Track 8:
Again playing with the idea of having the abandoned barn, imagine a boy and girl there, that were once obviously together, shown there alone and missing there other halves. This is shown through ghosting cut aways of when they are remembering the happy times they shared in the barn.

Track 9:
Picture a girl alone in a dance studio, in a black cat suit, dancing in the mirror, imagining the guy who she likes is there with her in the studio in the mirror but when she looks around he is no longer there.