Evaluation - How did you use new media technologies in the contruction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation
by: Raylott

Evaluation - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback? on Prezi

Evaluation - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? on Prezi

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

Question 1 Evaluation

View more presentations from Raylott.

Final Video

This is my final edit of the music video, I am pleased with the way that it has turned out and it is definitely an improvement on my original edit, I am very happy that I decided to refilm everything.

Digipak

This is my final digipak, all of the images are from the same shoot that I did for my magazine advert, the front cover uses exactly the same picture so that it is recognised. I have tried to make the top half all line up so that when it is opened up it will look like a panoramic image that includes the two lads standing at either end. The back cover includes the tracks on the album so that the listeners know what songs they are enjoying. Also on the inside covers it says where they can find out more information about the band if they're really interested in them. It finally says 'Special Thanks...' to certain people as this is a common convention for the album cover. I am very pleased with this final product as I think it looks professional and definitely looks better than my original digipak as that didn't include many of my photographs. 

Magazine Advert

This is my final magazine advert, I am happy with the way that it has come out. I think that the fonts look good as they're professional but not too cheap looking, I think that the colour scheme is effective as it goes with the autumnal theme that is also kept in the video. I used a photo of the band to keep up their star image and I also thought the pose they were doing went well with the indie/country genre. The magazine advert is also very informative, it includes when and where it can be bought from so that it is easy for the target audience to know where and when they can get their hands on the CD.  It matches my digipak pages so that it is recognisable for my target audience.

Re-filming & Re-editing

Filming
I attempted to film with lego but struggled as it became frustrating to get the kind of shots I wanted and it really did not go with my the song at all, therefore I gave up with this idea. However as I knew I didn't have long left, due to my poor time management at filming, I quickly made plans with friends to spend a whole day refilming my entire video. By doing badly the first time around it gave me the drive to want to do well.

This images show me refilming in the park. Before filming I planned out all of the shots that I needed for my new music video, this way I would make sure I had plenty of shots and maybe even too many. Also when it came to the day of filming it meant I could get all of my shots done quickly and I got good quality scenes to use for my final product. As my friends are not proffesional actors they were a little nervous to act infront of the camera, however they did the best job they could and I really enjoyed filming them. The weather did become a problem as it was raining therefore we had to stop a few times so that we didn't damage the equipment.

Another problem was that the autumnness of the park did not quite fit in with the theme sunshine, therefore I chose the name 'Changing Seasons' for the album name to make sure this autumnal look wasn't too out of place.

I also then found some other friends to play the guitar for me and pretend to be the band, I also used them for images for my album covers and magazine advert. If I had, had more time I would have picked some other people as only one of them looked really convincing, this is obviously my fault for not managing my time perfectly.

I definitely knew after this filming that I had filmed a lot more than last time and I had plenty of shots and images to work with for my final product.

Editing

When it came to editing I found it fairly easy as I knew what I was doing anyway, I just needed to edit in a lot more shots and make the video more fast paced. After putting in my track and finding all of the shots I need and placing them into an order, I then moved everything around to make the video a lot more interesting.

As I had used the green screen I had the option of changing the colours on the background to make it more interesting and upbeat.

This printscreen shows the colours all put together in an order, I put them with changing colours to the tracks beat. This makes it look good when the viewer is watching it. I chose these colours because they were autumnal like the theme in the narrative of my video and also in my magazine advert and digipak pages.

In the track, small guitar riffs are throughout the verses, I used this too my advantage by interesting close ups of the band playing guitar to the music, I made sure that I timed it perfectly with the riffs. This is shown in the printscreen where the white images are.

To do this and to do the multi-coloured screens in the chorus, I had to learn how to use the chroma key for the green screen. Once I had learnt it, it was simple to do on every green screen shot. I spent a long time changing the chroma key so that the picture looked sharp and professional.

At the end of the video I used a slow motion effect, to make the ending of the video look cute and romantic to match the theme of the song and narrative of the video. By this I changed to duration of the shot of the couple hugging which made it go slower than the original video.

Re-film Ideas

Re-film ideas on Prezi

Editing

When it came to editing my video, I straight away noticed that there was not enough footage for me to fill out the video and make it look realistic.

I started by picking out the main shots and putting them in the order of the narrative I had thought out for my video, however it has turned out as too much of a short story. Then I added in the chorus' that were sung on green screens, I needed to take away the green from the green screen so that I could change it too white or an interesting background. As I had never done this before I asked a friend in my class to assist me and I quickly learnt how to change the settings for the green screen shots. However I came across the problem of shadows that had been caused by the extra lighting I used when filming. This meant that I could only leave the backgroud of the chorus black, which looking a bit dull and boring, thus it did not match the song. I tried to make it look a little more interesting by spilt screening it so that there were four of Matt singing in the chorus to make it seem a bit more upbeat.

A lot of my shots became to long when I edited them because I had got enough to fill the time, I even had to use some slow motion when it wasn't needed. This made the video look tacky/cheesy and really was not what I wanted of my video; it did not look professional.

I have learnt now that when I come to refilming I must take more shots, even if it seems like I am taking too many, it would be better to have too many to edit than too little.

Filming - Main

Wednesday 4th October
Before filming I made sure that I had permission to film at the manor pub round the corner from me. Luckily hey said it was fine as the time I went to film the pub was empty making it a lot easier to film the shots quickly. Then we moved to the park nearby and filmed the rest there. I had made sure that I had planned out all the shots I needed in my video so that it was easier when it came to editing. A problem that I did have when filming was the time of year as it gets dark quickly at night so I had to keep to a time schedule or I wouldn't have finished all of the filming. My other issue was the weather as it kept raining which meant we had to keep stopping until the rain had calmed down. After filming I wasn't too sure I had enough shots but as we ran out of time I had to stick with what I had.

Filming - Chorus

Wednesday 4th October
Started filming the chorus of the song with a green screen in college. When starting I wasn't sure how comfortable Matt would be with lip syncing in front of a character. It first I think that he found it difficult to concentrate as it can be quite embarrassing, however Matt got into it well it the final shots look quite good. I made sure that whilst filming it I did a lot of shots and repeated it over and over so that I knew I'd have at least one decent shot to use. I think that the shots for the chorus turned out well as I had plenty of shots to use.

Draft Digipak

Overall I am not that happy with my final design for the digipak as I didn't plan it enough before hand and did not take enough photographs. This meant that I had to use stills from the filming that I did and they came out blurry and really didn't look too great. I love the front of the album as it looks a lot more professional whereas as the rest does not. From this I know that I need to make sure when filming I should take a lot more photos to involved in my digipak. 

Also when i edited the album cover it was originally from the same photo as my magazine advert, I used an online editing site called Picnik as well as photoshop. I was very happy with both my magazine cover and album cover but when it came to doing the other pages I became stuck as I wasn't sure of the effects I had used to make it look so professional, therefore it was difficult to try and match the other pages. From this I will make sure that next time I write down everything I use on both photoshop and picnik so that I know what to do if I leave something a bit longer or something accidentally gets deleted. 

Draft Magazine Advert

I am pleased with this draft of my magazine advert because the effects look cool and the fonts interesting. I think that it looks like a real magazine advert and I have asked friends and family who also think that it looks real. I would like to make it look a bit more summery, brighter and happier, whereas the at the minute it is a bit gloomy, therefore it would match the theme of the song and album a bit more. I may take more photos instead of using this photo as I need new photos for my digipak anyway, as the images on my draft were poor and desperately needed improving.

Very Rough Edit - Sunshine

When I started to gather together my footage and edit it into my video, I quickly noticed that I was not going to have enough shots to make the video look proffesional. So I rushed my video and made it so simple and basic then uploaded to meet the deadline. I knew that with what I had I couldn't make the video that good, therefore I am not very happy with the way my rough edit turned out. I don't think that it reflects how well I can in media, I'm definitely looking forward to refilming my video and making it a lot better quality. [Video Link]

Magazine Mock-Up

This is a mock up of my magazine advert which matches the style of my digipak album cover. The silhouette of people will preferably be the two characters from the video laying in the grass. The lighting on this mock up is wrong as it is difficult to read the words at the top, for my real magazine advert I will make the comments at the top bigger so that they're visible. I also think that there are quite a lot of gaps in the poster so maybe adding daisies or other flowers around the edge will fill in the spaces. When making my digipak I will think of the way I have designed this magazine so that they're similar looking and recognisable together.

Costume Ideas

When it comes to my filming day of the main verses the characters will only need to wear one outfit as it is only set for one day. To go with the theme of the song I would like the characters to dress indie/country style but also casual so it would look like an everyday situation.
However the female character needs to be dressed in innocent girly types clothes so that it looks like she is doing nothing wrong to the male character. Perhaps something like this:

The male character needs to be dresssed in his everyday clothes, so jeans and t shirt.

As it is a cold day I think it would look better if the characters are wearing wintery coats, but ones that stick with their outfit so that they all look the same type of theme.

For the chorus the male character will need to wear a seperate set of clothes so that it doesn't look like they were filmed at the same time.

Magazine Advert Research

When looking at magazine adverts I have noticed that they all share similar features, like most things do. The things that they share are:

• the name of the band

• the name of the album they're releasing

• the date that the album is released

• any singles/tracks that people will recognise to help promote

• reviews from music videos giving a comment and star rating

• an image relating to the track or album as the background

These two magazine adverts prove the conventions of magazine adverts. They both represent the band or artist they're advertising and relate to the theme of the album that they're trying to promote. They all state the name of the band, the album name, the date of release for the album and a rating of the album itself. The Gwen Stefani advert uses a intricate gold font to make the album seem like it's royal to fit in with the image of Stefani with a crown and sitting on a thrown.

The XX poster has a strange background showing something empty and like nothing exists but broken things, like the bike. This represents the album and the theme of all the tracks.

 

On the Gwen Stefani advert branding is shown as the album cover is shown in the bottom corner. This keeps a theme throughout meaning that the cover will be recognised as from the same artist. I will consider this idea when it comes to producing my own magazine advert and digipak cover.

Shooting Schedule

Wednesday 5th October
Location: College with green screen
Time: During lessons
Actors: Matt Peall
Props: Green screen
Filming Matt singing the chorus of the song in front of a green screen.

Wednesday 5th October
Location: Manor Park, The Manor Pub, park
Time: 4pm - 6/6.30pm
Actors: Matt Peall & Emily-Rose Gent
Props: Phones, drinks at the pub
Filming the main narrative for my video and hopefully finishing it all before it gets too dark. I will also take photos of the characters together to use for another few shots during my video. Also I will need some shots for my digipak and magazine promotions.

Digipak Research

Digipaks are a style of CD, DVD and blu-ray packaging, they have a book style opening. They are usually used for a special addition CD, DVD and blu-rays. They cost more to make therefore companies can make more money from them. 

All digipaks will always include:

• a place for the CD/DVD/blu-ray 
• sometimes a bonus CD/DVD/blu-ray 
• for a DVD - synopsis of the film, for a CD - a track list on the back panel and lyrics/acknowledgements on the inside covers
• pictures that will relate to the DVD/CD so it can be recognized easily and more people are likely to buy it

.

This is a digipak for the special addition of the film 'Saving Private Ryan' it in is a 6 panel fold out digipak that folds up and can fit into a box. The foldout shows photos and shots from the film so that people that enjoy the film could relate to pictures on the digipak instead of having something completely unrelated. The digipak includes the DVD itself, some newer digipaks may include both a DVD and blu ray for customers that would want both to watch. In this particular digipak it includes a special features DVD as an added bonus for the audience. The back of the digipak will include a blurb/synopsis of the film and also film reviews so the audience can see what others think of the film. 

This is a digipak of a CD album it is almost the same as the DVD digipak but has a few different conventions. It includes the CD and sometimes a bonus CD. On the covers and panels it will include a list of tracks that are on the album(s) with track numbers so that the customer knows what they're listening to or what track they may want to skip too. Usually on the inside it includes the lyrics of some of the songs and sometimes acknowledgments from the band that want to thank anyone that helped them work on an album. The images on the digipak will always relate to the band or the style of the album that they have created. It could use images from a music video they have recently created, making sure that everything they're promoting fits in together so the audience will be able to recognise their music videos, albums and adverts as being by the same band. This will help them to promote and make more sales. 

Brainstorm

This is a simple brainstorm that helped me to think of everything that I wanted to put into my music videos and gave me a starting point to my planning.

Shot by Shot Analysis - 'Ed Sheeran - The A Team'

Shot number	Shot type	Shot length	Description	Edit to next shot
1	CU	6sec	Black women, looking down, hand over mouth, tears in eyes.	Straight
2	MS, T, a little ES	8sec	Moves down to show dead women’s body, then back up to show the black women, wiping away tears.	Straight
3	CU	7sec	Dead women’s face, lifeless, eyes wide open.	Tracking out with fade to blackout
4	ES, LS	5sec	The ‘dead’ women (the morning before) sleeping on a park bench, trees around her.	Straight
5	MS, LS	2sec	The back of the bench as she sits up and holds the waterproof duvet around her	Straight
6	MS	2sec	Sitting on the bench, making sure the cover is covering her, hood up.	Straight
7	Slight LA, MS	4sec	Stands up still holding cover around herself	Straight
8	LA, MCU	2sec	Walking through trees, holding onto the branches.	Straight
9	LA, MCU	2sec	Looking up at the trees.	Straight
10	MS	4sec	Shot from behind, her walking towards birds, waving her duvet so they fly away	Straight
11	LS	2sec	Walking up a hill, the park behind her, takes down her hood.	Straight
12	MS	1sec	Same	Straight
13	CU	3sec	Looking up towards the sky	Straight
14	LA	8sec	Back towards the camera, looking up at the sky, opens her arms at 180.	Straight
15	Tracking	2sec	Low to ground, tracking her feet as she walks on a city path.	Straight
16	Low shot, slightly LA	1sec	Camera on the ground, getting a shot of a wooden circle sculpture (looks like a halo)  above shoppers.	Straight
17	LA	6sec	See the woman’s head and the sculpture as she stands under it.	Straight
18	ES	2sec	Shot of city road, busy with shoppers, Christmas?	Straight
19	MS	3sec	Woman on sidewalk selling ‘The Big Issue’ still wrapped in duvet.	Straight
20	MS	3sec	Later: At night, still trying to sell the mag, hood up and duvet still around her.	Straight
21	MS	3sec	Her trying to get others attention to buy the mag. Others walking past in shot.	Straight
22	LS	5sec	Sitting down at a shop window ledge, duvet around her, got a guy’s attention for a mag (Ed Sheeran)	Straight
23	Slight LA, MS	5sec	Guy giving the woman some money for mag and he sits down next to her.	Straight
24	LS	2sec	Guy getting up and walking away after talking	Straight
25	LS	7sec	‘Angel Station’ and the woman stands under looking at flowers as passers go by.	Straight
26	LA	1sec	Sign ‘Improving the Angel’	Straight
27	MS	6sec	Walks up to camera, sad expression still trying to get peoples attention, the shot is blurred then focused as she gets nearer to the camera.	Straight
28	LS	5sec	Standing and leaning on some bars/barriers watching card go by, there’s an effect on the cars (fast forward)	Straight
29	LS	7sec	Her sitting on the pavement, effect still as people walk past (fast forward)	Straight
30	LS or ES	6sec	Same at another angle as people go by again, fast forward effect	Straight
31	MCU	13sec	Same, just a closer angle, sad expression, crying, runs hands through hair.	Straight
32	CU	13sec	Same, crying, holding her head up with her hand, looks like she’s thinking.	Straight
33	HA	4sec	Reflection in mirror. Getting ready, different clothes on, strappy top. Looks completely different.	Straight
34	MCU	3sec	Wiping her eyes of smudged makeup	Straight
35	MCU	4sec	Now hair up and putting on more makeup	Straight
36	CU	6sec	Her applying lipstick, puckered lips.	Straight
37	LS	2sec	In the dark outside, silhouette of what looks like the woman as car pulls up.	Straight
38	MS	8sec	Her looked more dressed up with a coat around her looking cold and scared. Cars lights light up her face and slowly walks in the cars direction	Straight
39	LS	6sec	Slowly and provocatively walks over to the car whilst taking her coat off.	Straight
40	MS	9sec	Leans into the car via window, interacts with unknown person and gets in the car.	Straight
41	LS	3sec	Getting in the chair	Straight
42	LS	1 sec	Back of the car, driving away	Straight
43	MS	5sec	Car driving out of shot, train behind in near distance	Straight
44	Slight LA, LS	3sec	Her and a man walking down a corridor, looks upmarket with marble floors	Straight
45	MS	2sec	Walking into a hotel room? Double bed.	Straight
46	MS	3sec	Woman to the right of the screen, tie is put round her neck to pull her closer to the male she is with then kisses him.	Straight
47	CU	5sec	Of mans chest, womans arms wrap around him as she pulls £20 notes from his shirt pocket.	Straight
48	CU/ECU/Tracking	3sec	Of the womans leg, worn outfishnet tights on, male hand runs up the leg in the shot.	Straight
49	CU	7sec	The awake woman and a male lying in a bed, he’s out of focus and all focus on her. She turns towards the camera, crying.	Straight
50	CU	4sec	Of hand and a £20 transferring it for pills/drugs and she grasps onto it.	Straight
51	MS	10sec	Of the back of the woman as she walks towards an apartment door, her hands shake and struggle as she tries to find the right key to open the door.	Straight
52	MS	4sec	Holding her arm out towards the camera with the drugs in her hand, she goes out of focus and drugs go into focus.	Straight
53	MS	4sec	Rushing to get her coat off as if she’s in a hurry	Straight
54	OTS	1sec	In a rush to light candles on the sink	Straight
55	LA, CU	2sec	Her face as she lights the candles, as if shes rushing.	Straight
56	OTS	2sec	Lighting candles, same shot as one before last	Straight
57	CU	1sec	Of legs with the candles in between as she brings her hands down to light something.	Straight
58	CU	2sec	her face concentrating on what shes doing.	Straight
59	BEV HA	2sec	Pouring the drug into her own hand, candle in the background.	Straight
60	MCU	4sec	Holding a tube with the substance in it and lights it	Straight
61	MCU then tracks	3secs	Sits up after she takes a drag, falls back and lies down	Straight
62	HA	4secs	Closed eyes as she falls, opens her mouth and eyes, head slightly turns, high on drugs.	Straight
63	LS, ES	15sec	Effect in the shot, rooftops with an image of the woman in the sky, looking like an angel.	Fade out

From the way that this music video is put together, I have learnt that you do not need much money and amazing actors to make a simple yet effective video. The editing is also simple but everything put together makes a moving video for the viewer to enjoy. I have also learnt that the structure of the story is also very important as it gives the viewer something to become engaged in and enjoy, they can become close to the character that is potrayed and enjoy the music video a lot more. Star image is particularly shown in this video as the artist, Ed Sheeran is not included, however he is already widely recognised by his voice therefore he doesn't necessarily need to be seen.