How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In order for me to create my final product I had to use a range of media technologies throughout the research and planning to the construction of my music video. The use of media technologies allowed me to analyse media texts as well as develop skills on software such as Final Cut and expand my knowledge on applications such as Photoshop.
The first piece of media technology I used was Blogger. I used Blogger as a site to upload and share all of the work I completed during the planning stage. This included analysing and uploading music videos, writing about target audience and media broadcast platforms. Furthermore I was able to upload my music video, digipak and digipak advert onto Blogger. Overall using Blogger as a media technology allowed me to easily process and condense large amounts of information.
The next piece of media technology I used was Google. Google is the most used search engine which processes 3.5 billion searches per day with 40,000 search queries every second. I used Google for research into the music industry, history of music videos and researching theories which apply to music videos. From here I was able to apply and challenge different aspects of theories, for example we applied star representation to our music video (Andrew Goodwin's theory) as it creates more audience interaction.
I used websites as media technology to create my final outcome. Pinterest was one website I used, this allowed me to gather a selection of images from Google to gain some ideas about a narrative based music video and what to include. The other website I used was "1001fonts.com", this was used to construct my digipak and digipak advert. It enabled me to view a range of different fonts with different styles and colours and place it on to photoshop ready to crop, and use the "magic wand tool" to create my digipak design.
In terms of creating the music video we used a tripod for most of the scenes we filmed for example our establishing shot which was the opening scene. Using the tripod meant we were able to get still shots and clear footage as the camera was not moving/shaking. To edit and construct the music video we used Mac computers. This was the best option as Mac's have modern up to date software and programmes such as Final Cut pro in comparison to programmes such as windows movie maker on other computers; which overall Final Cut has many more editing features. More media technology I used includes a digital camera. Using this camera meant that the footage was clear and in focus with high resolution, this would result in the editing being easier. I also used camera work as part of research and planning. This was due to us visiting Roundhouse and using different types of camera's and creating short productions with narratives. This enabled me to enhance my camera skills before making the music video. Whilst producing my music video I used a mobile phone as media technology, this allowed me to play the song whilst recording so that each shot could be accurately timed to fit in with each scene.
To make the digipak and digipak advert I used Photoshop. This programme allowed me to use a range of editing tools to edit the photos we took for the digipak and change the backgrounds of photos by using different layers in Photoshop. I also used Youtube during the research and planning stage to research categories of music videos and provide examples by sharing current music videos.
The last piece of media technology I used was Powerpoint and Prezi. Firstly I used Powerpoint as a way to complete a digital storyboard, the positives of this were that it was quicker and more efficient to design our storyboard and use online pictures to support our plan. On the other hand I used Prezi to create more visually appealing presentations during research and planning for the history of music videos, research into the music industry and music video conventions.
Overall, during the construction, research and planning using a wide range of media technology allowed me to effectively create the music video, digipak and digipak advert. It also allowed me to improve and enhance my technology skills whilst taking into consideration creative decision making.
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Tuesday, 25 April 2017
Evaluation question 3
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Before the production of our music video, we created a quick questionnaire on SurveyMonkey. One question we asked was what genre of music people liked. Most people said R&B over Pop, rock and other categories. Using this response we decided to stick with the R&B genre and use Chris Brown's "Don't Judge Me". People preferred R&B as it's about soul, neo-soul and music from the 90's, this shows how R&B is quite versatile.
The negative comments made to do with the genre of R&B was that this particular genre contains a lot of "flashy cars, jewellery and sex appeal". Taking this comment on board we decided to challenge the R&B genre by not including these conventions, furthermore by doing this we would be creating a music video that does not include the "Male Gaze" theory. This idea would positively represent the R&B genre.
A positive response we had was that to use Point of View in a music video was a good idea. This is because people believed that "POV concepts are new and unique to add to music videos as they're not typically portrayed, especially in R&B music videos."
These comments would change the way I work in the future in a positive way because most of the comments we're positive so for instance I would explore more concepts because audiences like new ideas and concepts. We would also include new concepts during the editing and producing of the music video, this would be done through transitions and effects. This is advantageous for the audience as it's a more entertaining form of music that the audience enjoy and would also benefit us by bringing in mass audiences. We could also recreate a modern music video for songs of the 80's/90's. Taking on these comments, the way I work in the future to create a music video would influence the way I would create a Digipak and advert.
Before the production of our music video, we created a quick questionnaire on SurveyMonkey. One question we asked was what genre of music people liked. Most people said R&B over Pop, rock and other categories. Using this response we decided to stick with the R&B genre and use Chris Brown's "Don't Judge Me". People preferred R&B as it's about soul, neo-soul and music from the 90's, this shows how R&B is quite versatile.
The negative comments made to do with the genre of R&B was that this particular genre contains a lot of "flashy cars, jewellery and sex appeal". Taking this comment on board we decided to challenge the R&B genre by not including these conventions, furthermore by doing this we would be creating a music video that does not include the "Male Gaze" theory. This idea would positively represent the R&B genre.A positive response we had was that to use Point of View in a music video was a good idea. This is because people believed that "POV concepts are new and unique to add to music videos as they're not typically portrayed, especially in R&B music videos."
These comments would change the way I work in the future in a positive way because most of the comments we're positive so for instance I would explore more concepts because audiences like new ideas and concepts. We would also include new concepts during the editing and producing of the music video, this would be done through transitions and effects. This is advantageous for the audience as it's a more entertaining form of music that the audience enjoy and would also benefit us by bringing in mass audiences. We could also recreate a modern music video for songs of the 80's/90's. Taking on these comments, the way I work in the future to create a music video would influence the way I would create a Digipak and advert.
Monday, 24 April 2017
Evaluation question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Brand identity is the visible elements of a brand, such as colour, design, logo type and name, that together distinguish and identify the brand in the consumer's mind. All of these elements appeal to the audience.
Having a brand identity was important to consider when I created the music video and ancillary texts. The reason for this is because the final product has to stand out and carry the same features as what the audience expect from specific genres. This would appeal to the audience as they are entertained by each element which builds up to produce the overall outcome and audience reactions.
We created a brand identity in our music video, digipak and advert by using features of what the audience would expect from an R&B genre. This included the colour scheme, for both our digipak and advert we used dark blue and black as the main colours. These colours represent the artist as being superior in the music industry. We also used white fonts on both the digipak and adverts this gives the album and advert a tranquil look. We used the same fonts on "1001fonts.com" and Photoshop. Furthermore a brand identity was created by using similar images on the digipak and advert, we did this in order to not create a huge contrast in the style of the digipak and advert. We took photos of the person in frame at different angles. The music video had a brand identity through the narrative it carried; the narrative being based on a relationship. All three products together create a stronger brand identity for the audience to engage with and inform the purpose. The digipak and advert will sell the song and album to the audience by using the visible features to portray the genre and reflect the artists style, this will establish the mood of the songs from the lyrics all within the album.
A difference between our main product and ancillary texts was that the music video contained transitions. We didn't use loads of transitions so instead we used 4 to 5 of the same transitions this was to keep it looking realistic. Also some of the transitions had a powerpoint effect so this was not relevant to our music video and would not of fitted in with some of the scenes. Some of the transitions we used included "Cross Dissolve" to start the music video, "Directional", "Bloom" and "flashback" which was used for our flashback scene. The use of these transitions in the music video added more entertaining visual elements to the music video.
Brand identity is the visible elements of a brand, such as colour, design, logo type and name, that together distinguish and identify the brand in the consumer's mind. All of these elements appeal to the audience.
Having a brand identity was important to consider when I created the music video and ancillary texts. The reason for this is because the final product has to stand out and carry the same features as what the audience expect from specific genres. This would appeal to the audience as they are entertained by each element which builds up to produce the overall outcome and audience reactions.
We created a brand identity in our music video, digipak and advert by using features of what the audience would expect from an R&B genre. This included the colour scheme, for both our digipak and advert we used dark blue and black as the main colours. These colours represent the artist as being superior in the music industry. We also used white fonts on both the digipak and adverts this gives the album and advert a tranquil look. We used the same fonts on "1001fonts.com" and Photoshop. Furthermore a brand identity was created by using similar images on the digipak and advert, we did this in order to not create a huge contrast in the style of the digipak and advert. We took photos of the person in frame at different angles. The music video had a brand identity through the narrative it carried; the narrative being based on a relationship. All three products together create a stronger brand identity for the audience to engage with and inform the purpose. The digipak and advert will sell the song and album to the audience by using the visible features to portray the genre and reflect the artists style, this will establish the mood of the songs from the lyrics all within the album.
Sunday, 23 April 2017
Evaluation question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When creating our music video, digipak and digiapk advert I had to take into consideration the conventions of real media products.
When we filmed our music video we created it using a point of view perspective, this meant that there was only one main character in our music video, however the camera symbolised the other "female" character. Throughout the scenes in our music video the main character would directly look at the camera as if it was another person. Using the idea of the point of view perspective challenges the conventions of most music videos as the majority of music videos use two shots to represent two people in the frame of the video. So therefore the camera shot we decided to use was the over the shoulder shot to create point of view. In general using this camera shot meant that we could create more audience interaction in our music video.
A general camera shot convention I used was an establishing shot. I used this for the opening scene in which we see the train tracks for 20-30 seconds. This uses the conventions of real media products because in music videos having an establishing shot to present the opening sets the mood and tone of the song which influences the genre. For example if a music video shows an abandoned, derelict area/building it can foreshadow the music video's genre in the sense that you can tell it would be an R&B/Hip Hop genre. We also used a range of long shots and mid shots as part of camera conventions in music videos. We used these shots for our "flashback" scene. Furthermore we used tracking and still shots to show the movement of our main character. Based on these two shots the one we preferred was the still shots to record movement because our scenes were easier to capture whilst remaining in focus. Another convention of music videos we challenged was the use of close-up's to reveal and convey emotion. The reason why we didn't include many close-up's is because it did not entirely fit in with the scenes we were filming and conveying emotion can be done through the use of mid shots and long shots by the character's facial expressions and body language.
Using conventions of mise-en-scene, we filmed our music video in different locations. We filmed at Millennium Green which is an open space area, this was suitable for our establishing shot to get the whole subject in the frame. We also filmed at a shopping centre, this was for our "flashback" scene and when the characters go separate ways at the end. Again using this convention signifies the mood of the song and highlights the genre. For the editing of our music video we used the most common convention of music videos which was "cuts/jump cuts". Using this convention it allowed us to follow the traditional route of a music video, which is important because we understood and used the skills that an artist would represent in their music video.
Moreover, we followed the conventions of R&B music videos, this included doing our filming in urban locations and keeping it narrative based by showing our main character a lot. On the other hand we did challenge the conventions of R&B and Hip Hop music videos by not including stereotypical features surrounding this genre, such as clubs, smoking and alcohol/drugs. This was important because it showed how we could still maintain the genre and narrative by only getting rid of stereotypical elements.
Our digipak used conventions of typical digipaks because we used dark colours such as blue and black. This reflects the mood of the album and can also reflect the artists power in the music industry. Additionally our digipak and advert included mid close up's of our main character this shows high status and how they're seen as superior and the star image. The key conventions used in typical digipaks and adverts can reveal meanings behind songs in the album within the lyrics, so therefore I took this into consideration when creating the digipak and advert.
Therefore the conventions of existing and real media products is important to take into consideration when constructing the music video, digipak and advert as it keeps the product realistic and within the genre, this means the audience can infer and understand the song.
When creating our music video, digipak and digiapk advert I had to take into consideration the conventions of real media products.
When we filmed our music video we created it using a point of view perspective, this meant that there was only one main character in our music video, however the camera symbolised the other "female" character. Throughout the scenes in our music video the main character would directly look at the camera as if it was another person. Using the idea of the point of view perspective challenges the conventions of most music videos as the majority of music videos use two shots to represent two people in the frame of the video. So therefore the camera shot we decided to use was the over the shoulder shot to create point of view. In general using this camera shot meant that we could create more audience interaction in our music video.
A general camera shot convention I used was an establishing shot. I used this for the opening scene in which we see the train tracks for 20-30 seconds. This uses the conventions of real media products because in music videos having an establishing shot to present the opening sets the mood and tone of the song which influences the genre. For example if a music video shows an abandoned, derelict area/building it can foreshadow the music video's genre in the sense that you can tell it would be an R&B/Hip Hop genre. We also used a range of long shots and mid shots as part of camera conventions in music videos. We used these shots for our "flashback" scene. Furthermore we used tracking and still shots to show the movement of our main character. Based on these two shots the one we preferred was the still shots to record movement because our scenes were easier to capture whilst remaining in focus. Another convention of music videos we challenged was the use of close-up's to reveal and convey emotion. The reason why we didn't include many close-up's is because it did not entirely fit in with the scenes we were filming and conveying emotion can be done through the use of mid shots and long shots by the character's facial expressions and body language.
Using conventions of mise-en-scene, we filmed our music video in different locations. We filmed at Millennium Green which is an open space area, this was suitable for our establishing shot to get the whole subject in the frame. We also filmed at a shopping centre, this was for our "flashback" scene and when the characters go separate ways at the end. Again using this convention signifies the mood of the song and highlights the genre. For the editing of our music video we used the most common convention of music videos which was "cuts/jump cuts". Using this convention it allowed us to follow the traditional route of a music video, which is important because we understood and used the skills that an artist would represent in their music video.
Moreover, we followed the conventions of R&B music videos, this included doing our filming in urban locations and keeping it narrative based by showing our main character a lot. On the other hand we did challenge the conventions of R&B and Hip Hop music videos by not including stereotypical features surrounding this genre, such as clubs, smoking and alcohol/drugs. This was important because it showed how we could still maintain the genre and narrative by only getting rid of stereotypical elements.
Our digipak used conventions of typical digipaks because we used dark colours such as blue and black. This reflects the mood of the album and can also reflect the artists power in the music industry. Additionally our digipak and advert included mid close up's of our main character this shows high status and how they're seen as superior and the star image. The key conventions used in typical digipaks and adverts can reveal meanings behind songs in the album within the lyrics, so therefore I took this into consideration when creating the digipak and advert.
Therefore the conventions of existing and real media products is important to take into consideration when constructing the music video, digipak and advert as it keeps the product realistic and within the genre, this means the audience can infer and understand the song.
Saturday, 22 April 2017
Production of Digipak
This next image shows the inside booklet of the digipak. Again the black and blue background was found on google images. However we used Photoshop's font to type the lyrics of 4 songs and then typed a quote which explained the song briefly.
This third image shows the front cover. As with the digipak advert, we used 1001font.com to type the title name and album name. This was pasted onto Photoshop, we then used the magic wand tool to cut off the bits we didn't need as well as used the tool to cut around the main image of the artist along with the lasso tool. (same step for digipak back cover)
This last image shows the main CD of the Digipak. As with the rest of the digipak we got the background of Google images by typing in "black and blue backgrounds". The template of the CD came from Google, we used the magic wand tool to unfill the CD template and make it blank. Next we overlayed the blank template to the background. We then used a font on Photoshop to type the artist's name and album name. Then used the arc tool to stretch the words so they curve around the CD to make it look more visually appealing.
Friday, 21 April 2017
Production of Digipak Advert
The production of our Digipak advert was created on Photoshop. We created
the title of the artist and album name "Fortune" on "1001fonts.com". On this
website we were able to choose a font type "United Kingdom" and then choose
the colour. We chose the colour blue for the album name to match the background
as the background is black and blue. The choice of black and blue came from
the idea that it should match the digipak itself which is also black and blue. The colour white for the artist name stood out against the black part of the background. We changed the scale (size) of the font once we copied and pasted the font onto Photoshop. Enlarging the name of the artist emphasised who Chris Brown is so that the audience are automatically drawn to the advert.
We used the magic wand tool to deselect the bits of the font we didn't need. The magic wand tool enabled us to get rid of these parts whilst remaining neat so it didn't cut off any other parts. For the rest of the text on the page such as the album release date, review and artists website, we used a font that was already installed onto Photoshop. This saved time so we could type straight into a text box rather than use the magic wand tool to deselect everything. Each edit we did was placed into a new layer on Photoshop, so that every edit is done individually and easy to delete if we changed our minds. We also included the record label, social networking and where the album can be bought. This was done by finding the image of each element on "Google images" and pasting it into Photoshop.
the title of the artist and album name "Fortune" on "1001fonts.com". On this
website we were able to choose a font type "United Kingdom" and then choose
the colour. We chose the colour blue for the album name to match the background
as the background is black and blue. The choice of black and blue came from
the idea that it should match the digipak itself which is also black and blue. The colour white for the artist name stood out against the black part of the background. We changed the scale (size) of the font once we copied and pasted the font onto Photoshop. Enlarging the name of the artist emphasised who Chris Brown is so that the audience are automatically drawn to the advert.
We used the magic wand tool to deselect the bits of the font we didn't need. The magic wand tool enabled us to get rid of these parts whilst remaining neat so it didn't cut off any other parts. For the rest of the text on the page such as the album release date, review and artists website, we used a font that was already installed onto Photoshop. This saved time so we could type straight into a text box rather than use the magic wand tool to deselect everything. Each edit we did was placed into a new layer on Photoshop, so that every edit is done individually and easy to delete if we changed our minds. We also included the record label, social networking and where the album can be bought. This was done by finding the image of each element on "Google images" and pasting it into Photoshop.
Furthermore we also found the background of "Google", so used it as our advert background. Lastly our main image in centre was created by using the lasso tool and magic wand tool. We used the Lasso tool to cut around the original image. We then used the magic wand tool to make the image neater.
Overall to create the advert the two main applications we used were Photoshop and Google and narrowed it down by selecting the main tools and photos we were going to use.
Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Production of Music video
The basics of the production of our music video started with the genre of our music video being an R&B/ballad. From here we decided that the narrative would be based on a relationship; including happy memories in the form of flashbacks and then right at the end the characters depart from one another. We created the music video in the style of point of view (POV). The reason for this is because the audience can engage more with the narrative and relate to the video if they've had a relationship. Moreover it reflects the "artist" to convey emotion. The camera was the "female" character so this enables the feeling that the audience are directly engaged as the male character shown is directly facing the camera.
The application we used to create the music video was Final Cut Pro. At the start of the video we included the title of the song and the name of the artist, we did this using the "text" that's available on final cut. We used "Drifting" as our text choice as it opens up the music video and drifts straight on to and out of the establishing shot. Next the establishing shot is shown, this is a still shot at the tracks for a few seconds. This is followed by a transition "cross dissolve". We used transitions as a way to cut to the next scene so that it makes sense and doesn't show the character go from one location automatically to the next.
Then we overlayed a slow motion effect of 50% to the music video when the character is walking, this was used as a way to not only add visual effects but to also match the visuals to the lyrics. This is shown straight after the "directional" transition where the male is seen sitting, using his phone looking distressed and the lyrics state "You're hearing rumour about me". Then another transition is used to cut to the next scene in the shopping centre before the flashbacks.
To create the flashback scene we overlayed a camera recording effect. We did this by getting the effect of Youtube by searching "overlay camera effect" and used the "Snipping tool" to place the picture on to Photoshop. We then used Photoshop to crop the bits that we didn't need out and fill the empty space black to match the background. Then saved the photo, ready to export to Final Cut pro. On Final Cut we imported the image and placed it over all the flashback scenes. Additionally we used a "Sepia" effect to give it an archaic feel of memories rather than the common "black+white" effect. After the flashback scenes, we then use another slow motion effect to show the "characters" departing.
In terms of the audio and track. We muted the audio and dialogue from the original clips we filmed and overlayed them with the song. The song came from Youtube which was saved onto a USB so that we could import it onto Final Cut.
The application we used to create the music video was Final Cut Pro. At the start of the video we included the title of the song and the name of the artist, we did this using the "text" that's available on final cut. We used "Drifting" as our text choice as it opens up the music video and drifts straight on to and out of the establishing shot. Next the establishing shot is shown, this is a still shot at the tracks for a few seconds. This is followed by a transition "cross dissolve". We used transitions as a way to cut to the next scene so that it makes sense and doesn't show the character go from one location automatically to the next.
Then we overlayed a slow motion effect of 50% to the music video when the character is walking, this was used as a way to not only add visual effects but to also match the visuals to the lyrics. This is shown straight after the "directional" transition where the male is seen sitting, using his phone looking distressed and the lyrics state "You're hearing rumour about me". Then another transition is used to cut to the next scene in the shopping centre before the flashbacks.
To create the flashback scene we overlayed a camera recording effect. We did this by getting the effect of Youtube by searching "overlay camera effect" and used the "Snipping tool" to place the picture on to Photoshop. We then used Photoshop to crop the bits that we didn't need out and fill the empty space black to match the background. Then saved the photo, ready to export to Final Cut pro. On Final Cut we imported the image and placed it over all the flashback scenes. Additionally we used a "Sepia" effect to give it an archaic feel of memories rather than the common "black+white" effect. After the flashback scenes, we then use another slow motion effect to show the "characters" departing.In terms of the audio and track. We muted the audio and dialogue from the original clips we filmed and overlayed them with the song. The song came from Youtube which was saved onto a USB so that we could import it onto Final Cut.
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