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Wednesday 25 March 2015

Q4 Media Evaluation


Question 3. Evaluation


Q2 Media Evaluation


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

 I think that the effectiveness of the music video in combination with the digi-pak and poster work well together. The theme is consistent between them and furthermore they both represent the artist and her genre well.

I think the music video is effective in the way that it clearly explores the narrative and also presents a strong performance. In comparison with the digi-pak and poster which I feel also complies to the genre pop and its stereo-typical conformities such as the use of the colour pink and also the feminine typography, which would appeal to its female target audience. The portrayl of the artist on the digi-pak and also poster presents her in a voyeuristic way, therefore compliant with Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory which means our artist is also appealing to the male audience, however in contrast due to having to change the artist in our music video I feel she is not presented in the same way as many of the camera shots focus solely on the artists face. If I was able to re-create the music video I would incorporate a variety of shots that would perhaps conform to Mulvey’s theory as this was I would gain a mass audience of both genders.
 The music video, digi-pak and poster combine effectively together as I feel they both present the youth and naivety of our artist. This is effective as in the music video we have portrayed a young girl in order to play Isabel Beau during her younger years and also a fairly young performer in order to play her when she was older. This goes in hand with the ancillary texts as although it is a different performer on these she still portrays that ideal of youthfulness due to her age. This also evident by the imagery of the rose which connotes youth and beauty also femininity and in addition to this the colour pink, again highlighting our artists youth and feminine nature.


In conclusion I think that both the ancillary texts and the music video are an effective combination as they are both a portrayal of the same representation, which is a young female artist who is perhaps just starting out. They both consistently address their target audiences and appeal to them. However if I was able to re-create them I would have liked to have kept the performer consistent throughout.


 

Q1 Media Evaluation

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Final Digi-Pak and Poster and Lyric Book




Monday 23 March 2015

Feedback on Final Music Video

After showing the final finished music video to people outside of my media class I recieved various feedback. The most common being that although the preformer Jess does not conventionally for the comformities of a stereotypical pop star, this is one of the reasons that the audience liked it, because she wasn't what they was expecting to see and they enjoyed watching her preformance. 

Moreover many also agreed that her preformance got stronger and more enjoyable as the song goes on, this goes with what we wanted her preformance to come across. She is getting stronger as the song goes on. 

Monday 16 March 2015

Editing

Today me and Aaron continued editing the music video, inserting the new shots of Jess preforming the song and editing them. We decided to change the theme of our music video, to have it in all black and white as I personally feel this looked better. In addition we have also combined the clips of Grace dancing along with Jess singing, changing the opacity so the two shots combine to give us our ending to the song. The music video now ends with the shots of both Jess and Grace fading out and the audience is left with a blacked out image of grace sitting down on the floor.

Friday 13 March 2015

RE-CAST

From the feedback we received we decided that we needed to change our artist. Therefore we now have Jess playing Isabel Beau as she is a singer and also a performer therefore we feel and others who viewed our music video feel we will get a better more realistic performance out of her. 

However we will be keeping the images of Poppy for our digi-pack. Last night we also did a re-shoot with Jess and got loads of footage that we are going to incorporate into our music video. 

Feedback from music video





















From the feedback we got after presenting our music video we have decided to change our artist once more to Jess, who is a singer and therefore will be able to preform the emotions we need for the song. Also as she is actually going to sing and preform the song the breathing throughout the performance will be accurate.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Editing and RE-SHOOT

After spending time yesterday and also this morning editing together the footage I have found that some of the performance by Alex is not working therefore we are planning on doing a re-shoot tonight. We are going to change the location of her performance to the drama hall, which is the location where the dance scenes were preformed. This I feel will tie in with the feel and also theme of the music video, relating to the idea of the ballet and the  classy and elegant aspect that goes with it. I would like Alex to preform in a dark room with spotlights on her in a long formal dress, singing into a microphone solely centring the cameras on her, shooting a range of wide shots,mid shots,extreme close-ups and circling her with the camera so we have a 360 degree shot of her. I also want to focus on her performance itself maki9ng sure the right emotions are being presented and also the movement of the artist.

Taking inspiration from Adele's performance of 'Someone Like You' this is the look I want to create in our music video, to create a elegant setting.



 


Friday 6 March 2015

Outside Filming with Alex

Me and Laxmi went to Danson park with Alex and filmed some scenes of her roaming the park whilst preforming the lyrics. We used a crane in order to get a high angle shot, this will be incorporated in the music video, when the song picks up and becomes more aggressive. We also have some low angle shots in order to show how our artist has overcome this disempowerment and is now superior. In addition to this we also got some shots of Alex preforming on a park bench and also whilst walking through some old trees, this we felt represented the idea clearly of it being alike a battlefield, where everything is changing and dying almost, relating to the idea that everything around her i.e. her surroundings have also been affected by this pain she has suffered.



Filming

Today me, Megan, Laxmi and Aaron stayed behind and filmed some more of the dance scenes preformed by Grace. We shot these scenes in the drama studio, this time ensuring that as Grace danced we tracked her movements with the camera following her in a circular motion. This enables us to get a 360 degree view of Grace's dancing. It also adds more effect to the music video as it is almost as if the audience are following Graces themselves as she preforms around the room. We were able to get some shots of Grace starting out therefore these may be incorporated into the beginning of our music video, the introduction.

Monday 2 March 2015

Shooting the Dancing Scene

We have also arranged a second shoot in order to get more shots of Grace dancing as some of the previous shots we got of Grace she tends to go out of the frame. We are happy with the previous shots we got and have incorporated many of them into our music sequence.

the second shoots will take place on the 2nd March. We will shoot the dance scenes back in the drama hall using various different cameras this time, one of which being hand held. 
Furthermore from feedback we received we decided that we need to also film more of a ending that is coherent to the narrative of the music video.

Filming Narrative

We also got some more footage of the narrative we previously filmed of Grace. This time shooting her from different angles. In particular getting a shot of Grace on the stairs looking down on her parents argument which is present in the music video. These shots will be converted into black & white along with the rest of the narrative. This is to emphasise the story behind the music video of the artists childhood. 



Monday 23 February 2015

Re-casting

After carrying out a series of test shots, we think we have found someone who is suitable for the role, is able to learn the lines and also has really good facial expressions which fit the lyrics of the song. Although this will effect what our music video looks like it will not effect our digi-pak. 

We also did a first shoot with our new singer Alex and we found that the shots we got come out really well and also flow well due her knowing the lyrics and us being able to film the song through from different angels all the way through. 




Wednesday 11 February 2015

Possible Re-casting

After a shoot we did yesterday and looking back over some of the shots we got and we have decided that we may possibly have to re-cast as Poppy who we are currently working with, is not working with the way we want our artist in the music video to look. We are currently doing some test shots of a possible candidate, and so far some of the shots we have got her facial expressions work well with the lyrics. Furthermore Poppy was unable to learn the lyrics, therefore when it come to shooting her scenes, we were having to film in stages so it didn't flow. 

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Filming

03/02/15

Me, Laxmi, Megan and Aaron went to Megan's house in order to shoot the scene of the parents arguing and also the scene where Grace gets into the car and the inside the car for the duration of the car journey home. In order to shoot this sequence we used a DSLR camera however the memory on the camera ran out towards filming the end scenes, therefore we decided to experiment filming the inside the car scenes with a iPhone 5s and from reviewing all the footage we got yesterday, it looks really good and usable in our music video. 

Monday 2 February 2015

Plan another shoot

We have arranged to shoot on Tuesday 3rd Feb, where we are going to re-shoot the narrative and also the car scenes, we again are using Grace and her parents in order to shoot the parents arguing in the car, which relates to the narrative. After reviewing some of the edited footage we have found that we have got some really good shots, from the filming of Grace preforming the ballet routine and have managed to create some really good footage. We have also converted this footage into black and white in order to fit in with out initial plan and story board.

Wednesday 28 January 2015

Editing

Me and Megan sat down and reviewed the footage shot on monday, we cut down all the clips making sure they didn't jolt of go out of focus and shot, we then created some sequences and then started matching the clips up with the music, carefully placing the most aggressive performance from Grace along the chorus as it is more upbeat and emotional. From these shots we have got some good takes and our music video is coming together well. 

Research into Filming Dance Scenes

When looking into other music videos using the same dance technique, we looked at the camera angels and the way the camera follows the dancers. One in particular is Sia -Elastic Heart with Shia LaBeouf, where the camera circulates around them, instead of waiting for them to move. This creates a more serious tone to the music video. Some of the ideas we have taken from this music video involving the movement of the camera and also the angles of which the dancers are filmed at also the amount of cuts to add pace to the music video. We have decided that when our chorus comes into our music video the number of cuts should increase, the add a fast pace atmosphere in order to match the music being sung.



shots of dance scenes

Aaron and Laxmi did some filming after school of the dance scenes last night using Grace, in the drama hall I was unable to attend due to other commitments outside of school. However from the footage I have viewed we have got some good shots using the 50mm camera lens, however some of the feedback I got from Aaron was that the camera used was the wrong one therefore the light coming into the camera was not as good as it could have been and furthermore the room we originally wanted to use was unavailable therefore we had to use another room which was smaller therefore it limited how much we could fit of Grace into the frame. Therefore we are going to re-shoot this time using a bigger room and the right camera, also this time Grace will be wearing proper satin ballet shoes. 

Monday 26 January 2015

Camera Used When Filming

Using a 1200 DSLR in order to film our music video as we are able to control how much light goes into the camera, however when filming the dance scenes we are going to use a 50mm lens in order to highlight the depth of field which we feel will give us a better feel to our music video we also plan on using a go pro to film the dance scenes also, using the depth of field when filming her dancing we plan on have focus on one of her feet where as the other is slightly blurred out, alike in a scene from the film whiplash where the character is playing on the drums and only one of his hands are in focus. 



We also had a go at using this technique and the 50mm lens ourselves, so we had a knowledge of how to use it before filming the dance scenes with Grace, also to see what it looked like when we changed the different angles from where we shot at. 

Wednesday 21 January 2015

Scheduling

We have also created another schedule for when we are next going to shoot and also who were going to film and where. 





Feedback on second screening

We screened our second version of what we have filmed and edited so far, we are aware that we did not have many shots and we are also aware that some of the sections where poppy sings don't match up with the song. We have decided that in preperation for our next shoot we need some more shots and also we need to make schedules where we are all free and furthermore stick to these. We also need to take the animatics out. 











Wednesday 14 January 2015

Editing Music Video

Today I went over the shots that were taken on the shoot yesterday and cut them down, placing them in time with the animatics. I have tried to narrow these shots down so they are quick cuts to add pace to our music video and also make it more interesting to the audience. The scenes I have worked on are the bedroom scene and the scene were Grace (our younger actor) is leaving dance practice and is waiting to be picked up. I have also used transitions in order for some of the cuts to flow smoothly into the next shot. 


Feedback on Blog so far

This is feedback from Sean on how my blog is looking so far. From the feedback I received I found that I should upload the feedback forms on the first cut we showed to the class. However some of the positive feedback I received was that my blog is very up to date and furthermore my planning for the music video is very organised. Therefore we have a good idea of what is left to be shot and when we are going to do this. 

Monday 12 January 2015

Music Video Shoot

Thursday 8th January 2015, we re-shot some of the scenes we previously recorded, this time changing the location to the gallery.  This worked better as we took on some of the feedback we received from our previous showing of the music video. We changed the colour of Poppy's top from white to black therefore it contrasts and stands out of the plain whet background. Which looked a lot better this time as we was able to use a solid white wall instead of a white screen. 

However when looking at the shots we got, once uploaded onto the macs, we found that the camera we used had been set on the wrong setting therefore our shots come out with a orange tinge to them, however we are looking into fixing these in post production editing the white balance. 

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Organising shoots

Today we as a group discussed and also made a visual plan of when we are all free in order to use when making plans for further shoots, we have also organised a diary of what days we plan to meet up with poppy and also our younger actor grace, in order to shoot scenes at our set  locations. 
We have also colour coded the dairy Callander in order to show which days we will be shooting Poppy's scenes and also graces.