Sunday 1 January 2012

Evaluation -Part three- Combination of main product and ancillary texts

Evaluation part two- Conventions of media product

Evaluation -Part one- Summary of the brief

The brief we were working towards was brief number one, a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options. 

  • A website home page for the band x
Originally my research from the summer of 2011 I had found three different artists, from whom I chose to use 'The Jackie Boyz'. I created a pitch based on their style and what I thought would work well with their representation. I found the 'Jackie Boyz' on www.unsigned.com after hours of searching, I tried my best to find a mix of genres and decided to create a video and ancillary product for a Rn'B themed song. 

However after hearing Sam's pitch, about Balloon Ride Fantasy, and the song, Monocle City, I realised there would be a lot more potential in terms of narrative and editing. The initial ideas I had for "She's not perfect" by the JackieBoyz was very cliché and typical, where a girl would be insecure and bullied. Sam had a plot revolving around irony and heartbreak, not what is conventionally expected. I am glad I chose Sam's artist and song by the end of the pre-production and production and post-production stages. 

Sunday 25 December 2011

Production weekly reflection- week 12

This past week myself and Sam aimed and focused on finishing the music video and completing the majority of the digipak and magazine advert. This was the final week of the production stage where we needed to edit the final shots and complete the final designs. As usual Sam focused on creating the digipak and I made the final edits to our final music video


We both made the decision of reviewing each others progress, Sam pointed out the lip syncing was off at some points, which I agreed with but unfortunately time to film had run out and there was no way of re-shooting the parts where it wasn't in sync. The style of the video I was trying to create was a "dizzy effect". I felt this would be appropriate because it represents the feeling of being in and losing love. Sam and others who gave feedback immediately saw this representation when they reviewed the editing progress I had made. 


I had a look at Sam's progress with the digipak and magazine advert and suggested that he should change the pictures where the typography is, this was because it was difficult to read and hard to see both the picture and the text. So sam replaced the graffiti wall with screen shots of him looking out to the clear blue and green horizon in the forest to make the written text a lot clearer. 


I made the final few cuts and changes before sharing the video and exporting it to upload to youtube. There was a shot of Talha where he says "I love you", I allowed the shot to continue on for a second to show the empty space next to him, this was to represent as if he was saying "I love you" into an empty space and it wasn't being reciprocated by anyone. This of course was foreshadowing what happens later with in the video, the next shot after Talha was the imagery of Sam looking into the distance, I decided to flip this shot as there was a consistency of an empty space to the left hand side, to break this, I put Sam on the left.


This week my aim is to completely finish the music video for the deadline and help Sam complete the digipak and Magazine advert. This is our final week of production. 

Monday 12 December 2011

Production - final digipak design



We made all the final changes in the digipak, the text is now easier to read against the plain background and there is clear connection between the Music video, digipak and magazine advert. We added our own record company label to the magazine advert and digipak to give it an authentic feel, along with a production name/logo at the end of the video to enforce a professional undertone to the whole project.

Production weekly reflection- week 11

This week I am confident in my editing as I now have all the footage I needed to use to piece together in a chronological order. It was a lot easier to edit as I understood where certain shots would fit best. Unfortunately I was unable to remain true to the original shooting script plans, this was due to a few miscalculation in timing. Although the changes in shots and plans worked well for the video, for example; we initally planned to edit to the word on the lyric "how do you feel when your babies are naked and cold", but later along in the video. I felt as though the pace was slowing down a little too much, so I added in another point where I edited to the sylabol. Doing this was extremely difficult and it had to be timed well, once I accomplished doing so, the rest of the video felt a lot faster.

This past week on Thursday the 24th of November I also completed shooting the intrumental shots with Rajiv's guitarist who kindly allowed me to film with him, allowing me to fill the empty gaps with in my work. Sam has been editing the digipak and magazine advert together parallel to myself editing the footage together, we had a consoltation during this week and he reviewed my progress as I reviewed his.

Working with this method allows us both to work efficiently as well as on schedual, provding an opportunity for both of our opinions to take part but still give us both freedom to edit in our own styles. Where I lack in photoshop skills, Same takes over and my knowledge of Final Cut Pro is useful as Sam is less experienced in using the software.

I suggested he switch the images of the graffiti wall and the clear blue sky shots, making it a lot easier to read the text, to which Sam agreed but didn't change just as of yet. Sam watched the two minutes of the video I have so far and stated that it was coming along well, he did not suggest any improvements but encouraged me to continue working in the style I have. At the moment I have a collection of two minutes worth of music video, by the end of this next week I will hopefully have three and a half minutes worth.

Production- Feedback analysis

From the feedback I have understood that the range and style of shots is appropriate and I do not need to change my technique whilst filming. This is a relief as now I can focus on editing rather than worry about filming time as I already know what I need to do. However the lip syncing was criticised to which I will now modify the timing to make the words match Sam's lip movement. I feel as though the shots from Roxy Avenue of Sam in front of the brick wall should be re-shot, however we are short on time and need to complete the first target two minutes of our final music video.

As I have been working on the music video editing and Sam has been focusing on the digipak and magazine advert. The feedback is further accountable for myself than it is for Sam. I have taken careful note on what I need to improve on. For example I am now aware that "the narrative could be clearer in terms of whether if the artist is a part of the narrative of separate", as a candidate pointed out that Sam being involved in the shot with Soraya and Talha (the two actors in the narrative) was not clear. This was mainly due to the fact that there was not enough footage edited into the time line. Although to make it clearer I took out the continuity shot and forwarded it so that you can hardly see Sam in the background, but he is still subtly there. This little 'fun fact' would be incorporated into the bonus features included in the digipak.

Overall there was a lot of positive feedback and many people responded well to the colours and grading of the mise-en-scene. There was a suggestion to add more angles, but as already planned this will be added in later on in the video once I edit all the shots of Sam in front of the graffiti wall.

The only piece of filming remaining is of Sam in London city, on the Westminster walk way near Waterloo and the shots of himself in front of the Graffiti wall in New Cross. Once this has been filmed all the shots will be complete and I can edit chronologically rather than in the broken style I have currently been working in. I have been editing to the beat and according to the class feedback this is working well in the favour of 'Monocle City' by Balloon Ride Fantasy.