What I would like to finish with

The process of blogging and the creation of both the thriller and the music video has been involving a lot of effort, problems, creativity but last but not least a lot of fun and an experience for life. When considering the creation of the music video we were faced with a lot of problems such as the absence of a group member for the whole month of production and therefore more work was put into our hands.

This in my case help me to engage with the subject much more then what I did at AS and therefore also help to develop my skills in almost every part of the process, from research and planning to the editing and making corrections on the finished product. We were also faced with last minute changes in the cast list and also the cast not being able to play the instruments and the list goes on of problems that we faced, which had to be solve on the spot knowing that the time is short and crucial. But what I then feel is that I can look back from the first day of AS and look at what I achieved during these two years and it reminds me that I have a lot to be proud of.

Feedback on Director's Commentary

Im Not Like Anybody else

Teodora and Nina

Excellent and considerate understanding of the technologies used in production of the video, for example FCP and After Effects. There are evident links between creative decision making and use of technology on both productions of the video using professional digital cameras (e.g. green screen and bridging gaps between scrapyard and studio based shots) and in the post production editing process – in discussion of match of action. This is sustained and thorough and accurate in discussion of the branded themes of the MV. The commentary shows a discrete awareness of the use of new media technology and uses discriminating examples really well, particularly to selection and construction of narrative and intertextual references to the ‘Bond’ movies. Excellent command of terminology and well presented – understands and discusses convergence really well.

Outstanding Effort and Excellent commentary, well done.

Video commentary on the production and post production

Evaulation task 4

The concept of our music video was to show the aspect of regeneration, recycling of the media market and products and to maintain the quality within music products instead of quantity products.  Therefore we used the junkyard as a part of our location for both the performance and the narrative by the use of a green screen in the media studio. This technology became crucial to our final product combining studio and location shots.

Pre production, media technologies used in research and planning

In the research and planning process we used different media technologies that enabled us to work creatively with different ideas that we had for our media products. We used the internet in most cases and especially in terms of researching similar artists and their products. Youtube were also used for the purpose of researching as it is used as an online broadcast agency and enabled us to look at different genres of music video. But Youtube also helped us to look at parts from different movies such as Storm breaker that was a big influence to our music video in terms of using the junkyard, Link: Storm breaker

Our ideas and the planning process were then posted upon eblogger, another media technology used that enables any person that is a user to upload opinions and information on a regular basis. In the use of eblogger we were also able to take advandtage of technology convergence by using our phones to upload both posts and pictures upon our blog.

As we found a basic structure and ideas that we wanted to be included in our music video we decided to do an animatic filming the storyboard, which can be defined by being a preliminary version in which animated pictures are used instead of live participants and real objects.

Media technologies used in the digipak and poster creating process

Several pictures of the band members were used in the poster put together as one picture using different techniques such as layering in Photoshop. Layering helped us to create a montage that helped to create one image out of several images. In the creation of the CD we used some of the stills from the junkyard to create the theme of recycling and with these pictures we used different effects such as the burn effect and saturation levels. This helped us to create a darker feeling but also to match the colors of the digipak so it would be more appealing to our target audience.

Photoshop is defined as an editing software that are able to crop, resize and correct colors on pictures this is also what we did but did also putt emphasis on the layers. Layers are images overlaid on top of one another that creates a greater control for us as the user to create a professional looking result. The use of Photoshop this year has taught me new creative ways and the use of fonts really interested my by for example creating a band logo that could not be replicated but small changes had to be made to make it one of a kind, by for eg. using the smudge tool.

Feedback on Evaluation Task Three Audience Feedback

I like the Prezi - you do need to spellcheck the presentation! I feel that you have done well with collecting audience feedback. I feel that you clearly understand audeince theory, but I would like to see this more closely linked to what you found out with your audience - thsiis crucial. You can also make links to real media examples. Finally you do need in evaluation to address the question set more closely, in terms of oppositional and negotiated readings. You also have lots of opportunity to argue that the audience recieved your dominant preferred reading.
Excellent effort - please re draft your entry on this question.
Well done

Evaluation task 3 - Audience feedback

Evaluation task 3 on Prezi

Feedback

This is an excellent evaluation. I am really impressed by your presentation and the content. the application of theory is superb. you combine links to actual media examples with your a own work and are clearly in control of what the question is asking you to do. I would suggest one slide extra at the end which might suggest how the campaign is consistent branding of the star image. Excellent effort.

Evaluation task 2 - how effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Feedback

Excellent evaluation of task.  Well done.  My only comment for further development of your answer is to use a few hyperlinks which will develop your understanding of the links between the music campaign you have designed and real media products.

Well presented work.

Evaluation task 1 – poster

The third media product that we produced was our promotion poster for the band here we used conventions such as an album tile, band name, the best seller song, Facebook and twitter logo and the record company’s website and logo.  These helps the audience to identify what kind of product this is and also gives the audience a clear view of what is trying to be promoted. By using a Facebook and twitter logo it allows the audience to know where they can interact with the product and other people that find interest in the product or band.

What we also chose to use was a QR code which is becoming popular since this enables people with specific phones to scan this and to look closer into the promotion, this also creates a connection between how media nowadays can be consumed and making it handier for people on the go where ever they may be.

We also choose to show the synergy between the movie and the music video on the poster and therefore we put the name of the film  “The Agent” on the promotional poster. This will help people to recognize the product made by the band but also a way to promote the movie.

Evaluation task 1 – digipak

The digipak becomes important when talking about conventions and the star image of the band and is often what will help a consumer to buy the CD. Our front cover follows some conventions and expectations from the consumer by having the album name, name of the band and being a normal size album. Since we are not using a picture of the band as our front cover it can be argued that it is the creative element that is being sold to the audience by the use of clear text, used throughout, this element can been seen as both subversive and adhering to the conventions depending to what media products its compared to. We also used the recycling sign and the mood colors to symbolize what the band is representing and the opinions they have. Also the recycling signs bring forward the idea of recycling and regeneration which emphasis the star image once again and what the band is all about, this is of course also connected to the album name “Retaking the music”.

The back cover is also imitating different conventions such as the use of a barcode, record company name and logo, copyright, and the track list where these songs are also a way to represent the star image of the band. By adhering to these conventions the audience is pleased since they will unconsciously know what they are looking at and see this as a digipak. 

We also continued on the representation of the recycling and regeneration by having a picture of the actual scrap yard as the back cover and we can also see a sign in the corner “car and metal recycling”. We are also using throughout the digipak a darker color shade to get the feeling of used material, that dark and rusty sense that you can get from metal. To understand the idea of our digipak better here is a link to the two different PowerPoint I did on digipak research and development and see what we were influenced by and what conventions that we looked at: Research into digipack and Futher research into digipaks

Evaluation task 1 – Narrative, Lyrics and editing structure

In the narrative theme we choose to go with the influence from the British James Bond movies that represent quality and perfection in what he does, which is what we were trying to portray on the male hero in the narrative. This was also influence by the movie “storm breaker” that was shot in a scrap yard using the elements of the set to reinsure the use of the location and the tension of what is happening. Therefore we also had a victim and used the conventions such a gag, ripped clothes and high angle shots to see the vulnerability of the woman to pleasure the audience with what they expect. By using James Bond and Storm breaker as our main conventions this could be applied to one of Goodwin’s key features arguing that “There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music video or to films or TV texts” the use of old text or known text can help an audience to spark some kind of recognition and interest in the product also argued by Steve archer is that intertextuality will increase the audience engagement with the product.

Comparison between stormbreaker,and James Bond to our product

What is further more argued by Steve Archer that the narrative is rarely complete and often just shows parts of the product leaving the audience longing for more, quoting: “often music videos will cut between narrative and performance of the song by the band… But it is the lip-sync close-up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of music video, as if to assure that the band can really kick it” and it is also this that is argued to be the way to reach out to the audience. Below we can see an example of this that we used in our video

The lyrics of the song “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” states that the man doesn’t want to be conformed, plain and simple, but wanted to go against the dominant ideology of society which especially applies to today’s high pace of production also applicable to the music industry. By using this we tried to create a similar star image for our band by portraying them as demanding quality and different products to be brought to the market and seeing the importance of albums and not singles’. This would be applicable to what Goodwin argues to be one of the key features that “there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visual, with the visual either, illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics”. Since lyrics helps to establish a general feeling and mood were for example key lines such as the chorus we often choose to show the singer in a close-up shown in the picture above to get a the message through to the audience.

We choose to SUBVERT the editing of the music video, though it was cut according to the beat, lip-sync or the lyrics but we did not cut as for a normal music video, but instead the music video was a promotional tool for a movie therefore changing the order of the shots. On the day we had high ratio shooting and together with both narrative and performance we took over 140 shots, this is in many cases normal for big companies since shooting days are expensive and should be as productive as possible. So the shots were then divided in to bigger part of narrative since it was important to create a story, promoting the movie, therefore using up to 30 seconds of just narrative structure. This is not common as in a normal music video almost every other shot is suppose to be going from performance to narrative. But for us it was important to introduce the movie to the audience so that the music video could be used as a promotional tool.
Here is a similar type of music video that is also promoting a movie, in this case transformers they also are using the same way of editing, long scenes of narrative ; Link: Similar promtional music video

Evaluation task 1 – In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before starting the production of our music video we had to research other media products Link: Digipak covers by similar artist  and develop it into our own ideas, either to adhering to a convention or if we wanted to go against it and the two specific element that is needed to make a music video is the performance and the narrative which could be connected to the song or not. But there are more specific conventions that will relate to the media product, Keith Negus argues that there are 13 common generic conventions of popular music some of them listed below.

• The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumptions
• The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)
• A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement

So to create our Pop video we will need a star image of the artist and a approximately 3 minutes long video, the use of many different camera angles: close-ups establishing shots etcetera. We will have to construct a narrative story, in our case the use of conventions seen in the movie stormbreaker (Link: Stormbreaker) but also connected to features of James Bond. A performance element must also be included often seeing the whole band with the focus on the singer, it will also include the construction of a mise en scene that will fit together with the track that in our case for example having suits and metro sexual hairstyles going back to the representation and conventions often seen in British James Bond movies. 

screen grabs from our music video

These conventions can then either be used or subverted to make the audience interested in the media product. We could either choose to give the audience the expected like cutting according to lip-sync and a regular cutting back and forth of performance and narrative shots. But we could also give the audience the unexpected by subverting the conventions, this is also what we did by instead of cutting back and forth between narrative and performance we decided to create a more film like narrative by having longer periods of narrative to introduce the audience to the actual movie and the synergy between the two products. We ensured this synergy by the use of green screen so that the narrative and performance were taking place on the same location this was later done in after affects. 

an example how a green screen can be set up

The finished digipak and poster

Below we can see the finished result of our poster; it includes all the band members used in the music video. From the beginning it was all four different pictures with the green screen in the background but by using Photoshop we were able take away the green screen and put all the different photos/band members into the same picture and making the look of it realistic as well. Then we used some influences used in the poster by “the verve” showed in the earlier blog posts.

We can also see the finished result of out digi-pak which ended up looking a lot like we planned and we used the original plan of the regeneration and recycling idea. We can also see that the template under the CD is a bin with the mainstream music people in the sense that we are recycling them then the CD is shown as the lid.

Editing finished

Today after finishing the grouping of the narrative between the performance shots the cuts was sorted out and put into specific order and a tidier, straight line. When this was finished the music video was translated from proxy files into HD to really bring out the colors but also since this will make the video look so much more professional and bright.

When this was done we were introduced to the after affects program and our teacher taught us the basic and what we needed to do. So first of all the most important thing was to cover the green screen with the shots that were taken for this purpose in the scrap yard, and there was a lot of small details that had to be considered. But on the other hand the work with the after affects was really awarding since this gave a bigger insight of how the final result was actually going to look. We did some final touches such as putting some visual after affects such as gun flashes to make the shooting scenes more realistic. But we also worked on the affect of when shooting the car, the glass of the car was shot by an air gun but then we added some affects such as falling glass and bullet holes that we can see on the side of the car.

above you can see a screen recording of when we used the after affects and what we did. And below some pictures of the visual effects that were describe above.

I know that both me and Teodora have struggled and we had times were we thought we would never finished our the end result wouldn’t be as good as we predicted when planning the video, but today after starting the after affects we were really pleased and we also know that we worked hard to get the result that we manage to reach with our video.

I personally feel that this year has been a lot more pressure and struggle then when doing the thriller because I had a hard time with hearing the beat and cutting to the music, but even though I’m proud because I never gave up and I gave my best shot. The making of the music video was so much fun even though at times it was really stressful but I know that both me and Teodora are very pleased with the end result and I also know that personally I have developed my skills so much further compared to what I was working with before this project.

Hers is our final result, enjoy!

Digipak development

Today during the lesson, after we completed the music video, we started to put more time into our poster and digipak and we started to write down what was needed to be done and what things that we should do together.For our digipak, you can see breif/planning draft below, we are almost finished with the front page and the only thing we need to do is to put a promotion sticker like “#1 top seller” or similar to promote the cd and the band.

front cover, inside left, inside right

Then for the inside right we need to fade the picture so we can see the place where the cd is suppose to be and also uses so burn effect or similar that we used in Photoshop on the front cover to get that old rough texture and color.
The inside left is almost also finished but the colors needs to be adjusted as well, also from the audience feedback we realized that we had to make the concept about recycling the faces/mainstream people even more. So we decided to either use recycling arrows that are faded on the picture or round recycling arrows around the bin depending upon what would look best.

How we use the burn effect in photoshop

For the back there is much that has to be done and first of all we have to get a screen grab from the performance in the video in HD that we will use for the back. After that we will use the same kind of burn affect and get the right contrast and color of the picture. When this is finished we will put a bar code, the copyright logo and institutions name at the bottom of the back cover possibly also their logo. When this is done the only thing that is needed to be done is to put all the songs and so far we feel like we want them centred using the same colour and font as we did on the front cover.
So within a few days I think we will be finished with the digipak if everything goes as planned.

Back cover brief draft of our idea

Developing of poster

Today we looked at some final ideas for the poster and we decided that we wanted to use a picture of just the singer and then have all of the written information below the photo similar to the poster below of “the verve – urban hymns” poster. So as you can see on our brief plan below we want to include the band name “infernal”, the album name “I’m not like everybody else”, new album out on 11/11 2011 and then include “available at HMV, ITunes and palaphone.co.uk (institution webpage).

These different things are used in the poster to promote the selling of the album but to also make the poster look as realistic as possible. We also decided to go with the same font and color on the text that we used for the digipak and to also to use color burn affect on the poster as well

Here is our planning/breif idea of the poster

Editing part 2

After developing out first rough draft of the performance together with the narrative we made some distingue changes after having a group discussion. Me and Teodora felt that we had to give the narrative, the movie more time in the song but to do this we thought that the song was a bit too long and repetitive. So the first thing we did was to cut of 30 seconds of the songs since we recognized that this would make the end result so much better. After we had shorten the song we decided to group up the movie clips and make them more of a sequence, using the same type of skills as we did when editing our thriller, think about continuity and specific angles not breaking the 360 degree rule and so on. By grouping the movie narrative together we thought that this would make this would be a better way for us to market the movie since this is what this music video is all about, synergy between the products. The song “I’m not like everybody else” is a typical sixties song and could be referred to an action movie such as James Bond and since Bond and the Kinks are classified as typical English we thought that this was an important element to our music video. 

So after putting all the narrative in to big groupings and the band in between so creating;
narrative scene shots and angles – band – narrative scene with different shots/angles – band etc. This would help the audience to get a better grip of what is happening but we are also then able to create tension within the audience and a reaction to the thing going on then actually looking at the performance of the band.

As we can for example see in the video below this is a soundtrack for the movie “breaking dawn” and we can also see that for example in between 1.22-1.28 we can see different shots and angles of the movie narrative, methods we have used when creating our music video.

Editing part 1

During the last week we have been working on finishing our music video in the editing suite and there has been a lot of dedication and work involved. I and Teodora have been working on the editing outside and during lesson time and we are nearly finished. After finishing out first draft of the performance we started to pick the shots we wanted for the narrative and which shots that would look good and match well with the performance. And today we finished the first draft of the music video also including the narrative though there is a lot of clean up and things to look over before converting it into HD and to be absolutely finished.

Since me and Teodora don’t really get along very well with the editing and the program used we have been struggling and therefore been a bit slower than many other group, but this also means that we are very precise. I also feel that I have developed personally and I’m now much more efficient with using the program and my skills and my knowledge have really improved in the process. 

Picture of the final cut program

Feedback

There are very good posts which reflect upon the shooting and process of constructing your product. There is evident decision making and revision from early ideas of the CD digipak and these are modified accordingly. Do check your posts from spelling errors - particularly the last one! An excellent blog which incorporates audience feedback and a theoretical understanding of the music industry. Well Done.

Audience feedback digipak

Today i asked our targeted audience some question about our digipak since the one posted on the blog is only our first draft made from Photoshop. I gave the people a picture of the photo of the whole digipak and then asked these questions to each person. Of course me and the group knew briefly what we needed to change but it was good to get an outer perspective about or work and we could discus some of the ideas and feedback given to us. Here is some of the answers that were given to me when giving out the questioner:

1. What do you think about the whole concept, is it easy to understand about recycling the mainstream music and artists and to represent the mod culture?
"The bin and recycling did make me realise that the album was about recycling and regeneration and that you were not promoting other popular artist, but since I’m not a media student I don’t really know much about the meaning of mainstream"

2. What do you think about the colour scheme?
The pictures are different in brightness which feels a bit disturbing and I think you should go with the brownish, rusty feeling

3.What do you feel is missing in the digipak, compared to other CD’s and digipak’s and what would you change?
I think you should do like a close-up on the lead singer having the band out of focus playing in the background or something similar. But it should still represent the scrap yard and broken things in the background.

4.Other comments
"I really like the representation of mod culture by the colours used on the front cover"

Shoot day , Scrap yard shooting

Since i was absent from the shooting at the scrap yard i was more involved in the planning process to make be able to get the finished shots which in the end looked great. But when my group came to the scrap yard the first thing they had to identify what place they would use for the kidnapping and were Teodora would be bound and gagged, the perfect place then turned out to be a scraped bus where Teodora was lying and waiting for Merlin’s rescue. As usual they started with wide shoots of all the different action and also dolly shoots following Merlin as he was crossing the scrap yard. The conditions were not the best and both Merlin had troubles with the cold but even though the shots turned out great. The filming continued and POV shots were done from Teodora’s point of view for example seeing Merlin rescue her etc. As Teodora was rescued Merlin was acting as a bodyguard that would do anything for her, not being “like everybody else”. After this Teodora and the team had some problems in coming up with specific shoots for the ending of the narrative but since it was promoting a film the shoots could be from different part of the movie and not a connected narrative.
Since our group has faced so many different kinds of problems I was very happy with the result that they were able to bring back from the scrap yard and is up to me and the group to now make the narrative and the performance to work and look professional.

in the picture you can see a mix of pictures taken by the team on the day of the shoot and we can the Merlin with a gun going around looking for Teodora which we can see lying bound and gagged on the bus. There is also a picture of matt the kidnapper going around in the scrap yard

Started editing

Today our group started the editing and we started by synching all the songs together with the sound but only choose to do the performance clips first since this will make the process much more time efficient. After synching the music with the clips we put them all at the clips at the beginning of the song and after that we started to cut using final cut pro. While going along with the song we marked the beats of the drums to make the editing more flowing which worked really well and we did a third of the song though it was hard work. We learnt how to use the razor toll (press R) then back to arrow (press A) this would ensure that no cuts were moved out of synch to the music but instead they were just dragged along. After we will finish the editing of the performance we will start using the narrative action which is still in process of being logged and marked as good or band shoots. But overall we have made allot of progress on our editing and the finish product is in progress though there is a long way to go.

A picture of the final cut pro toll used to edit but doesn't show our project.

Why developing a digipak

By developing a digipak it will help to sell the bands brand image to the audience as a promotion toll. But the digipak will also be a physical product that also reflects on art work and might be important for fans choosing not to download the track but instead have the physical product. We as a group have discussed the distribution and promotion of the digipak and since “infernal” is not a mainstream band their revenues is not as big therefore relaying on less expensive promotion then for example TV adverts. An example of a less expensive way of promotion would be online advertising and using websites such as Facebook and MySpace to reach the possible target audience and therefore also promote their CD. The majority of sales would be through online sales from example the intuitions webpage and maybe some in minor CD stores.

Digipak evaluation

Our finished digipak with four panels that is shown below we can see that we are representing the scrap yard by having pictures from the actual shoot and also using the recycling sings on the front cover to emphasis even more that the bands concept is all about regeneration. To then connect this to the music industry we choose to show that we want the band to go against the mainstream and connected this to the “The natural ideology of creativity” that Keith Negus argues is all about being natural and producing quality. Therefore we used a bin and filed it with known artist/bands that represents the mainstream according to us, all about quantity not quality adhering to the “The synthetic ideology of creativity” of Keith Negus. This ideology by Keith Negus I would argue explains our idea and the brand image of the band very well. We have been very straight forward in what element we are using for example recycling signs, scrap yard pictures and a bin and are therefore easier to be interpreted by the audience.

our first actual draft of the digipak without any barcodes etc which is something that is going to be developed with time

We were influence by the album made by the “six pistols” in the beginning but our front cover idea changes during the process, not using our original idea because of problems with the colour schema. But more than that we didn’t take any specific ideas from any other existing band just being influenced on fonts and colours.
In the making of the digipak we started by doing the product by hand using pen and paper to assure that the colour scheme would be appropriate and to know exactly where to place the different pictures and element included in the CD cover.

After this we as a group agreed on the plan and we then gave each other one panel each to prepare, we then gave feedback on the panels and it was a continuous process of accepting or rejecting ideas. We all used Photoshop when doing the digipak and also pictures from Google when using different artist and bands in for example the inside picture.

Shoot day , Scrap yard preparation

Since we have had so much problems and complications for the scrap yard shooting we ended up with just being two media teachers and Teodora and Merlin as the cast members. It was now important to be well prepared so that we would get the shots that we wanted and assured that all props were taken to the scrap yard.

Before driving to “Aldershot" Scrap Yard it was assured that everyone had their costume on and the makeup that was needed for the day before we left the school around eleven a clock. The weather was also a factor that influences the shooting since it was foggy and cold outside which made the process harder but the end result on the camera looked good and the mist couldn’t stop us. Overall the process of planning and preparation went well.
Below is a picture taken from the actual scrap yard

Progress on our digi-pak

During the week we have been working on our digi-pak and we can't really finish until we've done our shot on the 20th since we are using pictures from the scrap yard. The first picture below is the picture that is going to be inside the CD beside were the CD is suppose to be

We also looked into what the other songs on the CD was going to be called and this is what we came up with that we also though fitted into the mod style but also the concept of recycling etc.

1.I’m not like everybody else
2. Long Story
3. Go home
4. Stop Moving Around
5. Leaving me alone
6. Beautiful Day
7. Taking Risks
8. All day
9. Love Lies
10. Not your business
11. Left with nothing
12. Stop Moaning

This is a picture of the unfinished front cover of our digi-pak to show the recycling concept but we also use the mod colours red, blue and white to give a good representation of the band and its culture.

In the end of this week we will have finished our first real draft for digi-pak but the process is constantly ongoing and the work always have to be fully thought through and match with the concept of the band and the music video and the hardest part is to find the correct colour scheme.

Change in concept

In preparation for our second media shoot happening on Sunday the 20th we had big problems with getting people to turn up since this wasn’t compulsory. So after allot of problems we thought that the best way of dealing with the situation was to use the cast that was able to come and this caused us to have a change in our narrative. 

We then came up with the idea of the male character suppose to be “not like everybody else” towards his girlfriend since had a male and a female character.  So we decided that we going to do a music video related towards a movie, a music video that has parts of the movie to promote both the band and the movie. We also came to the conclusion that this would work really well since this would also create a synergy between the two products and a good way of promotion. So the final story for the shot in the scrap yard would be, a girl has been kidnapped by a man for money and the younger man tries to saves her. Since the song is classical British and we were aiming towards a British action film we still thought the concept would fit well even thought the changes, still using the recycling concept.

This might also help the band to generate a bigger targeted audience since it will be know from the movie and might get an audience that normally wouldn’t by the CD but will now associate it with the movie.

Here is a clip from a movie called “stormbreaker” which we were quite inspired by