Video Final Edit

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Digipak Final Draft

Outside

Inside

Advert Final Draft

Evaluation

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

I think that I have used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products as I have used some obvious conventions but I have also gone deeper into this and used some lesser known conventions. The main conventions of my music video are the: quick cutting and cutting on the beat.

I have also used conventions that have been mentioned by Dyer. One of these is: Rebellion and going against society. I do this by showing the individuals of the band playing their instruments outside which goes against what society would class as “normal”.

Another convention that is mentioned by Dyer that I used is the continued consumption of the star.

I use this by having lots of shots of the whole band and even more of the vocalist which therefore gives the audience lots of consumption of the lead vocalist in the band and the whole band as a group and they are all the main stars of the video.

 

I have also used a convention that was said by Goodwin. This convention that I have used shows a relationship between the lyrics and visuals (with visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics) this is done by the visuals of my video illustrating the song meaning and what the song is about.  For example, I think this song is a summary of what the band is all about. As their band name (Shinedown) suggests, sometimes you shine, and sometimes you are down, and you don't know how to get throught it, but you do. Some of the most important lines in the sond are: "I found a way to steal the sun from the sky. Long live that day that I decided to fly from the inside." As when you "steal the sun from the sky", you are being yourself, you have your own thoughts, actions, and words and they are coming straight from your heart and soul and you are no one else but you. I think that the lyrics "I am focused on what I am after. The key to the next open chapter" are relatable to what I have also said above as it is all about being yourself and doing what you want to do and focusing on what it is you yourself want to say and do and have your own choices in life and not other peoples as it is your own life and no one elses as you are focused on what you want from yourself in the future and not what other people want for you.

This is shown in the way that I show individuals of the band playing their instruments outside and wearing whatever they want show the rebellion and going against what is classed as “normal” by society as shown in the images above. And when I show the band playing together there is a complete contrast by showing the band wearing similar clothing with the same colour top and bottoms on which show a uniform and also show the band playing inside which both show the band meeting the requirements of what society would want as shown in the image below.

 

The main conventions I have used in my ancillary texts are things such as: Name of the band, album name, track listing, a credit block, a barcode, website links and company logos as shown below.

Included within these items on my ancillary texts I have thought about many different things that I could do with them about their positioning and colouring etc. For example, I made the constructive decision to put the band name above the album name on the front of the Digipak as it will then get the audience familiar with the band before they become familiar with the actual album. I also made the constructive decision to put the track listing on the back of the Digipak in the centre instead of the left hand side. To help me make a decision on this I asked a variety of friends and family which they preferred and the majority of people I asked thought it would look better in the centre and they thought this because it made the text easier to read and it made the Digipak look a bit fuller as the right hand side of the back looked bare and empty when the track listing was on the left of the back.

Another constructive decision I made about my ancillary texts was on my magazine advertisement. The decision I made was to have the “rock horns”

instead of the stars in the ratings like the popular magazines would do as this image relates and relays to the genre of the music and the audience more than what a star would do. I also made a constructive decision to use ratings from TV programmes and magazines within the genre of the music as the ratings from “Kerrang” and “Scuzz” relate to the audience more than a rating from popular magazines such as “NME”, “Uncut” and other magazines such as these.

 

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

With my ancillary texts and my music video, there are similarities between the three. The reason for this is because having some similarities between the three will make the audience of the texts and video familiar with not just one of the three but all of them at once. An example of where I have used a similarity between my video and my ancillary texts is the use of the forest.

In my video I used the forest when recording the individuals of the band to represent the rebellion and going against what society would want and class as normal and I have also used the forest as the continuous image on the Digipak which goes from the front cover to the back cover with the track listing. This forest is also used as the background image of the whole page for the magazine advert. I have used the images of the forest repeatedly as this creates the similarities between the video and the two ancillary texts which then therefore familiarises the audience with all three items and not just one. Another use of similarities between my ancillary two texts is the use of the album cover. With this I have used the exact front album cover from my Digipak to then use on my magazine advert which also makes the audience familiar with the album at the same time as the advert.

Also within tow of my products, (the Digipak and the music video) I have created another similarity and some cohesiveness between the two. I have done this by using the same guitar and bass that have been used in the video in the inside of the Digipak as well.

I have done this as it will familiarise the audience with both products when looking at either of them.

The question "How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?" can be related to what Dyer has said. Dyer said that: "The incoherence of the star image that audiences continually strive to 'complete' or to 'make sence of' of the image. this is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products." these two relate with my products as I have used the star image in all three products to create an effective combination between them. the star image I have created in my three priducts is one of a band. I have pushed this star image through my three products as my video shows only the band and the members of the band without a narrative and other people in it to then further show the audience the band and star image. I have also used the star image of the band on my Digipak as they are on the front cover of the Digipak which then gives the audience an instant knowlage of the star image and the band. I have also used the image of the front of the DIgipak in my advert to familiarise the audience with the the star image and the band as this will give them further consumption of the star image that has been created in all three products by the band. From what Dyer has said I have achieved "the incoherence of the star image that audiences continually strive to 'complete' or to 'make sence of' of the image" I have done this with a continued consumption of the star through the three products I have created.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Positive Digipak feedback:
Good quality images, Good fonts, good use of the cohesive forest, good continuity.

Negative Digipak feedback:
Could be a six panel Digipak and not just 4, could get some matching costumes/clothing for the front image, could have some writing on the inside.

Positive Advert feedback:
Nice and focused, good use of the CD cover, writing stands out, use of the "rock horns" or "devil horns" instead of stars for the rating is a good idea to fit with the genre, "Out Now" stands out

Negative Advert feedback:
"Out Now" is distracting

Positive Music Video feedback:
Good use of close ups, video matches the genre, good use of lots of different shots, in perfect sync with the music, good shadows when performing inside, Guitars link with the Digipak (Cohesive)

Negative Music Video feedback:
Could have recorded the band in the woods together, drummers clothes don't match the genre when performing on his own.


Analysis of the Digipak feedback:
With the possitive feedback I have been given about my Digipak, I can take this away and use similar ideas and conventions for any future projects and tasks I may have.
But with the negative feedback I have been given, I can now use this to be able to improve on all the things that other people do not like. For example, with my Digipak i could have mad it into a six panel Digipak and not just 4 so that then i could get more image of the band and the band image arounf the album to help connect the audience with the band themselves and their music. I could also have got some matching costumes/clothing for the members of the band for the front image so that they all match within the exact clothes or style in which they wear so that they look more like a band and have the same views, likes and dislike in music and the music scene. Finally, within my Digipak I could have put some writing on the inside of it so that it din't look so empty and bare. This could include things such as a booklet, leaflet or some information from or about the band.

Analysis of the Advert feedback:
With the possitive feedback I have been given about my advert, I can take this away and use similar ideas and conventions for any future projects and tasks I may have.
But with the negative feedback I have been given, I can now use this to be able to improve on all the things that other people do not like. For example, on my advert, the "Out Now" is distracting to some people. With this, I could have made it a bit smaller or a bit less bold so that it is no so much in the audiences faces. But with this point that has been made about the "Out Now" being distracting, some people liked it and some people didn't so it was a bit of a mix and match of likes and dislikes so if were to do this again I would put out a survey to the main audience with some questions that they could answer to help me design parts of it so that it fits in with what the audience wants.

Analysis of the Music Video feedback:
With the possitive feedback I have been given about my music video, I can take this away and use similar ideas and conventions for any future projects and tasks I may have.
But with the negative feedback I have been given, I can now use this to be able to improve on all the things that other people do not like. For example, with my music video, some one said that it would have been good to have recorded the band in the woods together to then put that in with them performing inside. This would then give more of a veriety of the scenery and locations within the video to keep it a bit more interesting and different to see the band performing in both different locations. I was also told that the drummers clothes don't match the genre when performing on his own. If I were to do this again, I would have given the drummer some different clothes which would match the genre of the music that people would expect band mempers and people involved with this genre of music to wear as this would give the band and the music genre more of an image that is relatable to the audience as it would match with the sort of thing that they would wear.

With all this feedback I have gathered from various different places, I have learnt that even after my improvements I have made from my first draft, things can still not be perfect to everybody's taste. There will always be something that someone will not like and not everything can be exactly perfect. There will always be something that someone will not like and there's nothing you can do about that as if you make it to their tastes then someone else will not like the changes that the other person will have done.
For example, the way in which one person said that the "out now" on the advert stood out and someone else said it was distracting shows this as if I make it smaller and less distracting then the person who said they liked it, will not like it any more. I have also learnt that in future projects i will have to manage my time a bit better to be able to get all the shots I want in time for the deadline so I can use them and not have to use the bare minimum. This is because I didn't manage my time well enough to be able to get the drummer outside on his own where I wanted him to be filmed so therefore I had to do the best with what I had at the time and record him in a studio rather than outside like I got everyone else individually. 

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

As part of my research, my class were put into groups with other people within our class and were given a short clip of a song that we had never heard before and we had to create a short music video to go with this song that included everyone within the group to lip sync along to the song. Everyone in the group also had to do part of the camera work equally which challenged us all to come up with our own ideas for different camera shots, camera angles and camera movements. This also came up in the editing stage when we all had to contribute to the editing of the video. What this preliminary task taught me was that I can do a lot more and a lot better work than what I originally thought I could which then made me try lots of new and different things in my final music video within the camera work and editing.

With choosing my song to create a video for, it was very difficult as I had a lot of things to consider before I could defiantly say I could and would use that track. For example, some of the things I had to consider in my choice of song for the video included things like: being able to play the song as a band and individually. This was relatively easy to do as the performers I got to feature in my video have all been playing their instruments for a number of years so we were all remarkably skilled to be able to play most songs on our instruments and as a band. With the vocalist I just needed to find a male performer who fitted the role of a rock vocalist and was willing to be extravagant and not get easily embarrassed from their performance and just get on with performing at their best. And with luck of having friends that were willing I managed to get someone who fitted the part as I wanted. Another thing that I needed to consider for my song choice was that the performers were easily accessible to get to if I needed to film or re-film parts of the video. This was not a challenge as all the performers in my video are all from the same college as me and we are all friends anyway so we were able to work together well without arguing about decisions and they just got on with what I wanted to do for my video. One more thing that I needed to consider within my song choice was that it didn’t already have a music video to it that had already been made. This was a challenge as most songs that have something good to them that makes and has made other people to make a music video to them will already be used. It was a challenge to find a song that didn’t already have a music video to it that I enjoyed and had a good idea to make one for it. But in the end I found a song from a band that I really enjoy listening to and went through and listened to every single one of their songs that didn’t already have a video to it and I came across the song “Fly From The Inside” and while I was listening to it, I thought up some really good ideas that I liked and I decided that it would be the perfect song for me to create a music video for as I enjoy listening to the track and had lots of ideas for the video to the track as soon as I started listening to it.

During the construction stages of my project with making my video, editing my video and creating my Digipak and advert there wasn’t much media technology that I hadn’t already used in previous times of making media products as I have already used the Cannon 550D Premier Pro is AS Level Media and with Adobe Fireworks I am already proficient with working with that programme due to my skills developed in my ICT AS and A2 course.

But there was also a new media technology programme that was new to me that used was Photoshop. This was new to me as I once tried it before and I really didn’t like anything about it so I never used it again and began to use Fireworks instead but with certain things on my Digipak and Advert that I wanted to do, I could not or did not know how to do these things in Fireworks so I had to learn how to do them in Photoshop which made me a bit more useful with the software and maybe it will allow me to use my new developed skills in this software in future tasks.

During the editing of my construction stage, I undertook a huge challaenge with the way in which I edited my project and put it all together. With my editing, i firstly filmed everything that i needed and wanted to put into my video as shown with the pictures below.

 

 

Once I had filmed everything, I then put it all the shots onto Premiere Pro and syniced them up so that i didn't have to keep finding the bits that I wanted as I went through it, and then I cut to the beat and at the points I wanted it to cut on and then cut in exactly the same places on every single other shots I had so that then I didn't the sync mixed up and out and by the stage I go to when putting it all together, it looked like the image below.

 

Once this was all together on my project, I had the single track at the bottom on the audio and dragged the parts from the shots that I wanted in order onto the video track 1 and because they were all cut at the same points and in order, then I could not get them all mixed up and muddled in the process of putting them all together to make the video. So by the end of the editing stage, it looked like this with only one video and one audio track.

With editing my video in this way, it made it easier for me to edit and change it for my second draft as all I had to do was click and drag the different shots to where I wanted them rather then having to go through all the different shots and re-sync the shots to make it all work together. So with my second draft, all I had to do was choose the shots I didn't want anymore for video track one and then moved them back into their position in their original shot and choose a different one to replace it. By cutting all the different video tracks and shots at the same place, it also made it easier for me to add in the extra shots that I filmed for my second draft as all I had to do was sync them to the song and then cut in the same place as every other shot and video track on the project.

Also during my construction, there was another piece of media technology that was new to me that I used and that was a new and different camera. This camera was a Sony EX1R. There were two different reasons i decided to use this camera in my construction and these were that when I wanted to film, the Cannon 550D was already booked out by another media student so i was limited to a different choice of camera but that turned out well for me as for my second reason I thought it would be a good idea for me to use a new and different camera at this stage to be able to further develop my camera skills as then I will be able to use more than one camera so that my camera skills were more varied and not limmited to the use of one certain camera.

 

 



During the evaluation stage of my project I there also wasn’t much media technology I hadn’t already used in previous tasks in A2 or AS. For example, with my “xtranormal” video for my answer to question 2, I had already used “xtranormal” at some point during my AS Media. So I was already capable of using this technology as I had already used it before in AS and I knew everything I needed to know about it.