Evaluation Questions

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

Our music video is conventional to our genre. The RnB genre is usually uses soft tones and effects to help tell a story within the song. Most music videos are focused a lot the artist(s) and have a lot of lip syncing.

A video that we used to help us when planning our music video is the pixie lott broken arrow music video. Although it is not an rnb song and she is a pop artist, the song is slow and it uses conventions that are often used in RnB videos.

Our digipak is also conventional for our music genre. Most of the covers are close or mid shots of the artist. Most female artists covers/ digipaks are aimed for a wide audience, so they will appeal to males and females. The attract the males by the clothes that they wear in a lot of the photos, but at the same time still attract the females as they realate to them.

In this image it shows the 'innocence' of the artist but also similarily the image realtes to the album, which in this is 'through the rain'. Our digipak is similar to this cover(the tree)and realtes to the music video that filmed.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?

The products all work well together. They all have a similar theme running throughout them which is the autumn theme. Most of the music video was filmed outside so when we decided to take the photos for the digipak we thought it would be a good idea to take them in similar loactions so that the related. We thought this would attract the audience a lot more as if the saw the music video and then saw the digipak they would know that they are for the same artist and if they like one they are more than likely gonig to like the other. Also, the magazine cover used a image that was also taken outisde. The fonts on both pieces are simple. We did this so that they would both stand out but at the same time most of the attention is drawn towards the artist rather than the text.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The feedback we recieved from other students was positive. Although we had not editied or finished filming for the rough cut, people could see where our video was going and gave us some useful tips. They liked the overall idea we ahd for the video, such as; the dancers, effects and couple.  As we had not finished filming we did not have lip syncing so it was difficult for them to say a lot. The teachers feedback was similar. She told us that it would be more effective once we had all the footage and the lip syncing would really help it all come together as well as having more than one location for the 'singer'. Andrea also told us about the graphic match and although we hadn't realised, we had two similar clips which when placed together did not fit very well and made the video look jumpy. WE used a graphic match to fix this and placed a black background behind one of the clips. Amar's feedback was very useful as he helped us towards the end of editing when we were unsure of what else we would need to do to the video to give it an 'edge'. He told us that overall the video worked well but to make it stand out to the audience and to keep them interested we should vary the shot durations as most of them were similar lenghts. Amar told us that having a few longer and shorter clips in with the others it will keep teh auidence interested. Amar showed us some other  transitions that we could use in our music video to take it look more like a flashback or memory.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, palnning and evaluting stages?

We have used blogger.com  since the beginning as we have planned all of our work on here so that we can be marked, access it from computer and so that we can see how the group is getting on if we missed a lesson. I think it's a good as it is simple and easy to use. The only problem is privacy, other groups can look at your work and you can look at theres, which can be helpful but at the same time you feel like they could copy some of your ideas.
Final cut, is a good application to use when editing as we found it relitavly easy to use but founf it frustrrating when we had to render so often as we had different footage from an iphone and also the video camera.  The programme we struggled teh most with was photoshop. The only person with experience in our group was Aimee and on the last lesson to edit she was sick so we had to try and do it without her. We found this extremly difficult and did not manage to finish it. I did not like this programme as there are a lot of different effects etc and it is hard to know which onesto use. If I had used some of my time to get to know the software a little better i think that it would not ahve been so difficult for me to use.

Magazine Advert

Evaluation commentary video

Our evaluation consists of individual written evaluations and a group video commentary.  This is our video commentery:

Evaluation questions

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

 Both our video, magazine and digipak,  meet the conventional ideas. For example the the video has black and white in, which is well known to be used in R&B love songs like Beyonce. Also the lyrics match the visuals, for example when be Beyonce sings the lyrics of 'reading magazines', we use the visuals to interpret this; shown below. During editing we incorporated the use of differently coloured filters over the shots, to show the flashbacks, which was from our feedback from Amar. We noticed in most R&B media products the colours and vibrancy of music videos is often manipulated to create a certain mood. For instance in 'Halo' by Beyonce, the colour balance is turned to more of a white colour, to show a pure looking filter, this is what we wanted to aim for. Over the dancing scenes it was more omnimus tones, and reds so it felt more intence however, over the flashback scenes we placed a warmer tint, to imply happiness and romance.

 

Furthermore the digipak has a typical and conventional artist picture, which develops and shows the artist to promote themselves.  The colour of the picture is a lot sepia also, this gives the photo tones of warms, even though the photos are outside. However although the picture is of the artist, the clothes she is wearing go against convention because most female artists try and appeal to a male audience, so show as much flesh as possible, for example Cheryl Cole; shown below. I think in a lot of new media products there’s been an increase in the use of CGI and special effects, most likely to create a more exciting and entertaining video and is a common convention used, for example in the black eyed peas video, dirty bit. We kept away from anything that made our story look unnatural, mainly because it wouldn’t have fitted in with our type of video, as it is meant to resemble a real life relationship and therefore should be relatable and also because we didn’t have that much access to any of those types of technologies, apart from green screens, however they didn't appeal to us.

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

The products all correspond together well, and all have a running theme of warmth and autumn/winter. This included the Front cover of the album and the back and the magazine advert, using leaves and the outdoors to portray this. For the music video, we also used the same scenes so the front cover and magazine cover all interlinked together. Because our target audience is women i think this was a good idea, so our ideas were all in one place, and we could see, and the target audience can see what we wanted to achieve. The design of the front cover of the album cover and the magazine advert were simple. We wanted the image to be powerful but simple, just the artist so it was clear cut, but however to have a complex text. I thought the consistency of the fonts was effective as it helps create the brand for the brand and keeps it recognisableThe design for the text was downloaded from the internet, and made the covers look expensive and classy. Overall the 3 main products portray the artist as classy, and sophisticated, which is what i wanted out of the artist. This was done through not showing flesh as much as other R&B artists like Jlo, or cheryl cole. And we used a running theme throughout so the ideas wern't messy.

3.) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The feedback we received from the class was mixed because we had not had a chance to film everything that we wanted to due to some difficulties with filming, such as the location, and the dancers being ill. The feedback we received was that people liked the theme e.g the use of the dancer and the location, but as it had not been developed  any further they could not say much about the editing, or lip syncing as it had not been put in yet. Our teacher, similar to the class, thought that the theme and what we had filmed was appropriate to our song and genre. Amar told us that as all of the duration of the shots were similar, which was consistent for the audience to veiw, but he advised us to insert a few short clips to make it more interesting and to make the video less predictable. We took this advice and did so. We did this in the music video, when Alex and Gabi are sitting up, we ended up doing a front on shot, then a side shot then a over head shot, all whilest they went to lie down toegther, this made the video less predicyable i think, and this was all from Amars feedback. He also said that he liked the effect we had applied to the clips to make it seem like the artist was having flashbacks, which wasn't the main idea i had thought of, but after a short thought, this became a running theme through our music video.

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

while designing and making our music video, we have been using 'www.blogger.com' to show what we as individuals have done, and what ideas we had a group. This i think is a simple and realistic place to put all our ideas. However the only problem with using this way of putting out data on, is that other groups doing the same stages we are can see what we are doing, and this is an off put because of the thought that they might be gathering ideas from our blog. Another technology we used during the construction was final cut express, I found this quite easy to use, and it helped us to put our video in order, and cut it down to size. This was probably one of the most easiest parts of the whole project however it took a lot of time. We had slight problems with filming also due to forgetting the camera, and mix ups with who was meant to be taking it when. This caused problems when it came to filming because we had to film on an iphone 4. This is why in the music video, the dancing parts are more pixilated than the others that are filmed on HD cameras. If we had not of had the techonology to film anything at this filming session, then we wouldn't of had the footage of the dancing, which could have been disartserous. Photoshop was another technololgy that we used to create our final magazine advert and Digipak. As a group, and as individuals we all found using this hard. I found it quite hard because of the confusion on how many buttons there are! And what does what. I think this limited our creativity on both the Digipak and the magazine advert, due to the fact we couldn't really do what we wanted, because we didn't know how to.  

  

Evaluation Feedback for all

Here is some generic feedback on the evaluations.

Please read it and decide which is relevant for you, make the appropriate changes and resubmit your evaluation questions to the blog by Wednesday 15th Dec

Question One - Start by outlining the conventions of a music video of your genre, cite some of the examples you looked at (use screen grabs) and then discuss your own use of those conventions, illustrated by examples. You could benefit from discussing in a bit more detail the conventions of your ancillary texts and which ones you used and any you challenged or developed. Make it clear that you know what the conventions are and then discuss each one in turn.

Talk about the choices you made about your engagement with the conventions of your genre. Talk about how you engaged with the form of music videos, obviously it's very different from the narrative video forms you have worked on before. Also talk in detail about specific conventions you used and give examples from your texts. Talk about the video, the magazine ad and the digipak.

Question Two - on the combination of products you talk about the font and the colour design but I want you to talk more about the decision making process and how well you think these three products work as a package. Also talk about the representation of the artist in all three products, do they work in combination to communicate something specific about the artist.

Question Three - Mention all of the points at which you got feedback, pitch, rough cut, final cut, digipak and magazine ad draft and final versions etc. Also talk about peer feedback and using the class as a sample group of your target audience. In addition, talk about the feedback you received from me. Give specific examples in quotes and discuss how you responded to them individually.

Question Four - You need to flesh out this response. How did the technology limit you but also consider how it enabled you to be creative.

Evaluation Questions

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


- I think that our media products use the conventions of real media products of the R&B genre. For our music video we started off researching R&B music videos and what the conventions were they included. For example most i researched had a reference between the visuals and the lyrics. Therefore we used this stereotypical convention in our music video as we thought this would work well with the narrative. On the line 'I read all of the magazines, whilst waiting around' we showed the artist lying down reading her magazine. Another convention is the use of couples and how they are exhibited. As our song is about love we've used clips as flashbacks from the artists memories of loving memories. For example the couple sitting and cuddling, or having a conversation and smiling. Beyonce often uses these in her music videos. Another feature we have used is black and white, which is often used in R&B videos, along with slow motion to signify a different time, whether it be the future or the present.
Our digipak is conventional, I believe, as I kept it simple and used a continuous theme throughout the music video, digipak and magazine advert. That way you could see they were all linked. I kept the colours simple on both the digipak and magazine advert as i wanted the artist to stand out foremost. I also chose the images, especially on the digipak, as they are thoughtful images, which allow the viewer to experience the feeling the artist is depicting. The fonts are also simple, yet keeping the romantic theme. All the photos I chose were from the same locations we used in the music video. Therefore they all are interlinked by the autumn theme and the colours.
I did challenge some conventions, in that for women to sell to men they are stereotypically more sexier dressed, however I wanted women to be able to emote with the artist as well.






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


- I think that the combination between the music video and ancillary texts, being the digipak and magazine advert, works well. There is the running theme of autumn/winter throughout. The clothes the artist is wearing and the brown/yellow colours of the leaves and trees portray this. The theme is also kept very natural, with the outdoor scenes of nature, and also the way Gabi is styled. I think they work together in showing how the artist is as a person, at least one aspect anyway. They give a sense of calm and tranquility I think, and can allow you to think quite deeply, as the artist is doing in the photographs, and in the video.








What have you learnt from your audience feedback?


- When we first made our pitch for this song our feedback was positive from both Andrea and the class. They thought our idea sounded good , which was promising as the class (our peers) would be the people that would be the target audience for an R&B song. It was just whether our pitch was achievable or not. At the rough cut deadline we unfortunately didn't have any footage to show as we had had many problems with footage due to unfortunate circumstances with dancers being ill and timing issues with collecting cameras. Therefore our only next feedback was at final cut where we also received feedback from Amar.
We got told me needed to include more lip syncing elements in our music video, as this would advertise the artist further. Our transitions were good, however we were told we should improve them, to make a more distinguished change between showing the present and the past, as flashbacks. Amar said to keep the audience interested we would have to change our shot durations, as at that time ours were very similar. Therefore we took this feedback on board and added a range of long and short clips into our video. It also got picked out that the story had a running theme of present and past, which we hadn't initially thought of, but had coincidentally worked well.





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


-  To start off we used ''www.blogger.com'' to write down our initial ideas, so we could work further into them, and look back if needed. I liked using this as it gave you a chance to see things you had done before and to see how they had developed further on. The only downside I believe is that quite often people can look through other groups work, and not necessarily just be inspired, but to copy elements or that groups work. To edit our music video we used ''FinalCut''. This is a very useful programme when producing a music video, as it allows you to not only see the footage, but cut sections out, and add different transitions. This proved very useful for us as transitions and effect were a crucial part to showing our time difference in the video. Finally ''Photoshop'' was the programme I had used to produce my Digipak and Magazine advert. I personally don't mind  using these programmes, however I know the others in my group found this difficult. I find it allows you to be creative with the amount of effects you can use. Even though i made both the magazine advert and digipak look simple, the colouration effects and manipulation on photoshop weren't so simple. However I do think it is a useful programme.

Evaluation questions-Gabi

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- Our final music video uses many of the conventions of a music video of that genre. The genre of the song 'Slow Love' by Beyonce is R&B. R&B music videos often feature the following generic features: use of black and white, use of soft lighting, scenes in slow motion, dance scenes, couples, effects on the clips (vignette effect for example) and a narrative. Our music video uses all of these features, therefore making it a very conventional R&B music video.For example, our music video uses the feature of a narrative as we tried to create the story of a girl (Gabi-the artist singing in the video) thinking about her relationship with her boyfriend. To do this, we inserted clips of the couple together, and to clarify that the clips were her flashbacks, we applied the vignette effect to the clips, as this effect is often used to illustrate memories from the past.
- A digipak cover generically advertises the artist, as the aim of a digipak is to promote the artist as much as possible. Therefore, our digipak conforms to the generic features, as both the front and back covers are large pictures of the artist. I think that the trach listings on the back cover are quite realistic, as after each track title there is a time, indicating how long the track is. I got this idea from analysing other students work, as I saw a digipak which did this. Other generic features of the digipak include the font used, as similar fonts are often used for posters/ digipaks for female artists of the same genre, for example this poster of Cheryl Cole:


- Although we did not get to fully finish our magazine poster to the standard we would have liked, we started designing a poster so look like a generic magazine cover. We tried to do this by using a plain bold font for the title, which was positioned at the top of the page This is generic of most magazines. We decided to call the magazine 'artist' to show that it is a magazine directly related to music. Also the picture of the artist takes up almost all of the page, which is also common. Our poster, if completed, would be very generic.

2)How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?
Many of the scenes from the music video were filmed outside, and incorporated the natural settings, for example the clip of Gabi and Alex throwing leaves at each other. Therefore, we used this to create a theme for the overall advertising promotional campaign. For the photo shoot for the images for the digipak and the poster we tried to incorporate the surroundings as we had in the video, for example we took pictures of Gabi throwing leaves in the air, as she had done in the music video. We also used the same angle as the shot of Gabi and Alex throwing leaves, the birds eye view. This picture can be found on the back cover of the digipak. We used the same theme in all of the images used (including the spine of the digipak). For the digipak images, I applied a texturised effect and altered the colour, to accentuate the natural theme, and making it look slightly old fashioned, which is similar to the appearance of the music video.

3)What have you learned from your audience feedback?
-Roughcut feedback: When the class saw our roughcut, we had not been editing for very long and had not had a chance to film everyhting that we wanted to due to some difficulties with filming. The feedback we recieved was that people liked the theme e.g the use of the dancer, but as it was not very developed they could not really say much about the editing, or lip syncing as it had not been put in yet.
-Teacher feedback: Our teacher, similar to the class, thought that the theme and what we had filmed was appropriate to our song and genre.
-Amar's feedback: Amar told us that as all of the shot lengths were similar, the audience could get bored, or the video could seem repetitive, so he advised us to insert a few short clips to make it more interesting and come as a shoch to the audience, which we did. He also said that he liked the effect we had applied to the clips to make it seem like the artist was having flashbacks.

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
-During all stages of creating the music video, the digipak and the poster, we used the blog to keep a record of the development, including any problems or successes.
-We used final cut to edit the footage together, and because we had all used it before, it was easy to do the basic things, but when it came to applying effects, we had to experiment with the clips before we could produce the look we wanted. However, when making the digipak and the poster, I found it much harder because we had to use photoshop, which is a programme I have not used much in the past so I did not know how to do some of the things. Also, Aimee was not there in the lesson we made the poster in, and she is the only person in our group who had used it a  lot before.

Examples of RnB digipaks

Most contemorary RnB artsists have narrative songs. The narrative of the songs usually correspond to the album and the other songs on the album. RnB artistis usually focus their album and digipak covers on themselves. They are usually very simple and use soft tones and effects.

These are some examples of RnB covers. They show that the images are usually manipulated in some way (effects) and usually have close or mid shots focused mainly on the artist.

Moodboard

This is a moodboard showing a printscreens of the final music video, pictures taken whilst filming and also pictures we used for inspiration.

Screen grabs for the magazine adverts

This is a digipak cover from the artist Beyonce who sings the song 'Slow Love' which is the song that we made the music video for.
The cover is effective as it is simple but the colours and 'diamonds' stand out. As it is a close-up the focal point of this is Beyonce, we want a similar effect for our magazine as RnB songs are usually focused on the artist.



This is an idea for digipak. As we filmed a lot of the music video outside, we thought it would be a good nice to take pictures outside and in some of the places we filmed. This is a cover for one of Mariah Carey's albums. I thought this was a good example as the cover is also simple but effective by the tones used.

We want to keep our digipak as simple as we can so that its fits into the RnB conventions.

Digipak

We were successful with digipak and are happy with the outcome of it. We started the digipak and spent more time on it than we did with the magazine cover. The digipak is finished and we manipulated the image and added text onto it. As the computer(photoshop) did not have the font we wanted to use, we dowloaded it off a font website so we were able to use it on the digipak.

Magazine Cover

Unfortunately we did not finish the cover for our magazine. We were unable to manipulate the image and did not add enough text onto it as we spent too much time on the digipak and did not have enough time to do the magazine cover. We had difficulties when we were trying to create the cover in photoshop, and as we did not have much experience at using the software we found it hard to edit the cover within a short and restricted time limit/period. If we had more time we would have wanted to change the image and add an effect onto it, we would also like to add more text onto so that it looked more like a magazine cover.

Final Magazine Cover

Final Digipak

Final Music Video- Slow Love by Beyonce

Ideas for photoshoot

As we are making a digipak and a poster advert, we had to take new pictures which we thought would be appropriate. As the song 'slow love' is slow and romantic, we decided to take peaceful pictures of the 'artist' (Gabi) outside, posing next to pretty trees etc. Also, this is appropriate for us, as in our music video there are many scenes outside, for example the scene in the leaves.

For the digipak Aimee thought of a good idea for the front and back cover. She suggested that on the front cover we could have a picture of Gabi biking towards the camera, and on the bakc a picture of her biking away from the camera. We all agreed that this would be a good idea as the pictures would work well together, also providing a theme for the digipak. Then we thought about effects we could apply to the digipak pictures. We thought that a black and white effect could be good, or perhaps desaturation of the colour. This would make it look subtle and professional. A swirly feminine font would fit in with this theme.

For the Poster we thought we should continue the outdoors theme. Therefore, we took lots of pictures of Gabi standing near trees, sitting in trees, and sitting on logs. A similar effect could be applied to the poster image.

I think that the digipak and the poster together coule create a good advertising campagn for the 'slow love' music video, as the music video has similar settings and effects.

Fonts

This font is good as it could be memorable.

 This font is good, but could be confusing for the reader to understand what it is. Although because the picture we are choosing might be simple, i think this would stand out a lot.

This is a nice and simple font, however this type of font is used a lot.

This font is like the one above - simple. However it is bold, so it will be seen better.

These fonts are ideas for our digipak and our advert. We will use both fonts on both areas of the merchandise, this is because we would want to keep a running theme and tone throughout the album. Also so it can be well reconised.

screen grabs for the magazine advert and digipak.

 

 This is a screen grab of a photo from Google. This could possibly be used for the digipak, this is because we use similar features in our music video such as leaves, and being outside.

This photo is the 'real' front cover for the single 'Slow love'. This is the song that we chose to do for our basic for a music video. Although we have many ideas, this could show what the artist wants to acheive for the tone of the front cover. We could also do something similar for our digipak.

















These are also some photographs that we took for our digipak and magazine advert.

Analysis of real magazine poster

This is a magazine advert for cherly Cole's single 'fight for this love'.
-This image is very centred on the artist, presenting her in a 'sexy' way as she is wearing clothes that show off her figure. This conforms with the demands of the record label, as it promotes the artist. It is also very voyeuristic, as it invites the audience to look at her legs. As she is standing against a white background, there is nothing to take the attention of the audience away from Cheryl.

-The two fonts used reflect the genre of the song, and create an image of the artiste. The very large bold pink 'Cheryl Cole' create a 'girly' image of her, whilst making her seem quite modern and urban due to the font used. The different font used for 'fight for this love' is a curly font, which represents her as feminine and girly, appealing to teenage girls as an audience.

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Anaysis of student Digipak

 

This Katy Perrys single album for the song 'Firework'. This is a simplistic album cover that shows the artist to its full potential. This album cover i think shows Katy off by using the white back ground and her minimulistic make up and hair style. This may be because she wants to promote herself as a person, rather than just the song. I think this may be a point because it has been qouted that it meant to so much to her. 

This is a video of her quoting this. I think the impact she wanted from the album cover is to surprise her audience, that she can be sensitive and has a more deeper meaning which could not maybe be seen in previous album covers.

Student digipak analysis

Analysis of student digipak:
Design- The black and white design of this digipak creates the theme of a gothic romance, and makes the digipak appear very serious.

Audience- This would not appeal to children, as the colours are dark and the font is quite sophisticated, therefore we can assume that the target audience for this digipak is adults.

Text- The fonts used are suited to the theme, however, some of the writing is difficult to read. Also, it would look more professional if all of the fonts were the same, as this uses two different fonts. Another change could be to make the font larger on the back, which would make it much easier to read, and would make it stand out more.

Selling the artist/ images- This digipak features pictures of the artist in order to promote them. However, I do not think that the pictures look very professional, as they are not strategically placed. A more effective method might have been to fade the edges to make them blend in with the background, or to enlarge a picture. The picture on the left (the back cover) looks very out of place.

Bonus material- The bonus material that is printed on the back looks realistic because it includes the duration times next to each song.

Extra editing time

Our original final deadline for editing was the end of the lesson on Friday the 12th November. However, the dedline has been extended to the end of the lesson on Tuesday the 16th November, as many of the teachers felt that not many people would be finished in time. This is very benificial for our group, as we were very worried about not finisheing the video in time for the original deadline. Fortunately, we only have one chorus to finish now (about 25 seconds) so the last lesson of editing shouldn't be a rush.

Editing techniques- graphic match

Whilst watching our music video over, we noticed that we had inlcluded a graphic match, as in the clip the dancer (Jade) was lying down and looking into the camera, then on the consecutive clip, Gabi is lying in almost the exact same way.  However, the shot of Gabi was more zoomed out, so in order to make it an actual graphic match we zoomed in on the image of Gabi, so that it was a closer match to the shot of Jade. However, once we had zoomed in on the shot of Gabi, the clip was no longer wie screen, as the previous clip had been, so in order to make it wide screen we used the 'black colour matt' tool on the top and bottom of the clip.  Now both clips are wide screen, mid shots, of the character laying down looking into the camera.
Here is an example of a graphic match:

Feedback from Amar

Today we received feedback from Amar, who has experience in the music video business. He commented on the following features of our music video:

-The shot durations- He noticed that many of the shot durations were of similar length, only a few seconds long. Although he thought this worked well, he thought that it became a bit repetitive and predictable, so suggested that we included some much shorter shots randomly.

-Transitions- Amar felt the same way about the transitions as he did about the shot duration; he thought they were good and effective, but thought we should not use them in the section with the shorter clips, to surprise the viewer, and maintain their interest.

-Flashbacks effect- In many of the shots of Gabi and Alex, and the dancing clips, we have used an effect called 'vignette' which created a blur around the edges of the frame. This was used with the intention of creating a 'flashback' effect, to build a narrative of a girl (Gabi) looking back and thinking about her relationship with her boyfriend (Alex). Amar realised this and thought that it worked well, and was clear that they were flashbacks, and suggested that we continue using the effect throughout the video.

-Lighting- In many of our shots we have adjusted the colour in order to make it brighter, as on some occasions when filming, the lighting made it difficult to see. However, we also adjusted the lighting/ colour in some clips because we thought that it looked really good, and suited the flashback theme.

Lyric Analysis

Slow Love Lyrics

[Verse 1:]
i read all of the magazines
while waiting around
you said you couldn't wait to see me
but you got stuck in town
so turn off the phone
now we're finally alone
and some moments at the end of the day
feel your touch and it's the sweetest
your kisses are my weakness
i never want them to go away

Chourus:
i wanna feel you in my heart (heart)
as i look into your eyes (eyes)
no need to get busy so lets take our time
and make slow love slow love
and every minute that we have (have)
it goes too fast
wanna show you how to rock it
so this feelin last and
make slow love slow love
slow love slow love slow love all night

Verse 2:
it is just a few little things
that you gotta know
a girl will give you all of her heart
when it's happening slow
i need a little laughter
and love will follow after
lets take this chance to steal away
your kisses are delicious
and no one is gonna miss us
tonight i really want you to stay

Chourus:
i wanna feel you in my heart (heart)
as i look into your eyes (eyes)
no need to get busy so lets take our time
and make slow love slow love
and every minute that we have (have)
it goes too fast
wanna show you how to rock it
so this feelin last and
make slow love slow love
slow love slow love slow love all night

i read all of the magazines: For this line we are going to have a shot of Gabi reading a magazine.
now we're finally alone: In this part of the music video we will have a shot of the 'couple' together.
as i look into your eyes (eyes): We want to have a close/mid shot of eyes for this part to show the visuals and lyrics.

For the rest of the song different duration shots and effects. This will keep the audience interested and also it will create the 'dream/memory' effect we want to portray.

Other examples of music videos

This is an example of the kinds of effects we want to use in our music video. It makes the music video seem more natural. Also this music video tells a love story between two people using shots of different locations and settings. In our music video we want create this. We have different locations with the 'couple'.


We want to make some of the music video to look like a dream or memory. In this music video they have created this through the use of transitions. We want to use transitions in our music video as we think they work well. This is a good example to use when creating ours as we can use this to help us when choosing transitions to use and knowing where to place them.


This music video has also made it look like a dream but this has been created through different effects, such as; black and white. This is also a good example to use as we can use it to help us know what effects to use and how to make it look effective and 'dreamy'.

Student Music Video Analysis

Here is a really successful example of students work from the past:



I think that this music video is successful because of the continuity throughout the whole video, as the theme is clear from the beginning. Although our music is of a different genre, and our music video has a completely different pace etc, this element of continuity and obvious theme should be used in ours, as it makes the music video smoother and seem more professional.

In terms of Goodwins points:
-Music and visuals- The up beat pace and rock genre is reflected in the visuals.
-Visuals ans lyrics- There is not a literal interpretation of the lyrics to the visuals, but the video consists of a performance from the artist, so the lyrics are used in the video.
-voyeurism- There are not any sexual images of the female or male body, however, there are close up shots of the artists mouth and eyes, which is directing the viewers attention to certain parts of the body.
-Generic features- Rock songs often have performance scenes in them, so this does conform to the generic rock song.
-selling the artist- this video has many closy up shots and displays the artist in a 'cool' way.

Target audience

A slow, romantic song like 'Slow Love' is most likely to be more popular with girls than boys, teenage girls in particular. As our music video shares many of the generic features of other similar slow R&B songs, our main target audience will also be teenage girls/ young adult women. I think that the music video, if released, could be quite successful because the artists name and reputation. Also, as our music video is something that they would expect from a slow love song by Beyonce, it would attract her regular fans.

Before the release of the music video, a poster could be made to promote it and sell the artist, much like the one we made preciously in lesson. The genre would have to be clearly displayed, so that the audience know what to expect. A poster design that would be suitable would be a large image of the artist, with soft colours and lighting, perhaps in black and white, with the song name and release date clearly displayed. The location where the picture is taken is also important, and a setting such as a beach or an empty pretty scene, or even a plane background would be suitable. Here is a link to an example of what a promotion picture for this song could look like:
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:MsjeKYHQrf7BzM:http://i718.photobucket.com/albums/ww185/worldisbar/Beyonce_Halo.jpg&t=1

Transitions

The mood of our music video should be smooth and relaxing, which can be achieved with soft lighting and slow editing. Another factor that could contribute to the overall smoothness of the video is transitions between clips, such as making them fade into each other etc. This subtle change would make the flow of the music video appear more professional, and make the relationship between the music and the visuals stronger. Here is an example of the types of transitions I hope we will be able to use in out music video:




When watching this video carefully, you can see that it uses transitions such as fading from black and fading clips into each other. I think this is very effective as something that you probably would not notice straight away when watching it, but it does make the video flow smoothly.

Problems experienced with editing

Today I did some extra editing, outside of lesson time, as the deadline is soon. I was worried that the music video would not be finished in time. The main problem that I found was the constant need to render the clips, almost everytime a clip is moved/ altered. This makes tasks such as matching the lipsyncing with the audio very difficult and time consuming. In all lessons we have left before the deadline, editing will be the main priority.

Editing

In todays lesson we uploaded all of the footage taken at Gabi's house. We have a lot of footage; couple, lip  syncing etc. So we do not think that we will need to film any more. We are currently editing the footage. We have had a few difficulties with editing this lesson as we want to use filters and effects but the lighting is different on some of the clips so it is harder as we cant apply the exact same filter or they will look different. This means that we will have to apply different filters to each clip which will take a longer than apllying the same effect to all.

Location Report

These are some images from google maps showing the locations that we used.


This is a map of Cambridge and the balloon is the location of Gabi's house. This is where we filmed the lip syncing and most of the shots of her alone. This location was a good location because Gabi's room has a 'girly decor' which works well with the song and lyrics. It was an easy place for us to get there as it is in the centre of Cambridge.


This is a map of Royston. We travelled to Royston to use a dance studio. This is where we filmed the dancer. It was a good location as we were able to get the train straight to Royston and then only had a short walk to the dance studio which did not waste any time. Also Lauren was able to book the dance studio for us in advance so we only had to travel there as we had the dancer ready to be filmed.


This is a map of Long Road Sixth Form College. This is were all of the footage of Gabi and Alex was filmed. This was the best location for us to film at as we used our lessons to film and did not need to travel or leave the site. Also Alex is a student at the college so it was a lot easier for him to be filmed.

Mood Board

This is a mood board that I created to show some of the shots that we  are intending to have in our final music video. It also shows the styles we are looking for, for example; the ballet dancers and the lighting. It also shows the happy and romantic relationship we want the couple in our music video to portray.

Filming and Casting difficulties

Unfortunately we did not put up signs asking for actors to be filmed in our music video and the people we were supposed to be using were not available on the day we had the camera booked and the other day we took the video camera the dance studio was unavailable so we were unable to film. Due to this we only had one actor who was the dancer. On the day of filming due to a lack of communication throughout the group, none of the group members picked  up the camera. When it came to filming we needed to film something as it was the only day we were able to use the dance studio and the only day the dancer was able to dance for us. Due to this we decided to use my Iphone to film the footage for the music video. Luckily the camera is High Definition and was compatible with the college Apple Mac computers, so we were able to upload the footage and use it in the software. The only problem with some of the footage captured is that although it is HD it does not look as good as some of the footage filmed on the college video cameras, this could be because of the lighting of the quality of the phones camera.
Before half term we had used both of our over nights and needed more footage as we did not have much, in the spare of the moment we asked a friend if he would mind us filming him in a scene with Gabi. We managed to get a lot of shot varieties of Gabi and Alex acting as a couple. We filmed them outside, some of the shots included were; Leaning on trees, walking in a field, playing in leaves etc.
As most of the footage in our music video was with Gabi and Alex and we were not able to find other actors to sue at such notice we asked Alex to help us and act again. He was able to help us during the college day as he had a free period when we were planning to film. We filmed at college in other locations and different angles, so that we had more of a variety and more to choose from when editing the music video and putting it together.
After half term we were able to have two more over-night video camera loans as we did not have much footage. On the first over night I went to Gabi's house and filmed her lip syncing. We got a variety of shots. We filmed her on a bed, sitting by the window and by walls. We did this as most R and B music videos are centered around the artist or the main characters in the story they are trying to tell. As we did not have any lip syncing in the music video already we took lots of shots so we have enough to choose from so that it is not too repetitive.


Filming Gabi lip sync at her house.


Gabi and Alex moving leaves, preparing for filming.


Lauren in the tree filming the high angle shots.

Filming so far...

We just filmed a few more scenes in the college ground of Gabi and Alex. The shots were of the two of them in the leaves, messing around. This is good for our music video because it gives more depth to the characters, so the audience can connect to them. The filming went well, although i had to climb a tree, this is a safe and health risk, but one i was willing to take for my group to get a birdseye shot for our music video. This is a new shot for our video, and will create a new dynamic look and feel for our video. However we didn't get to do any filming of gabi lip sinking. This is because the song coulnd't be downloaded onto sade's phone. but we will be filming again tonight. This will be on Gabis like i said before.

Filming times and Locations

We are currently still filming a few more shots of lipsinking with Gabi and Alex still. We need this to expand on our music video, and make it more interesting. We will be filming in the college due to locations being to far to go. We are also filming tonight at Gabi's house, for the bed scene; lip sinking. This complete our music viedeo and 'pad it out', and lengthen the shot duration, plus give depth.

rough cut

Editing Techniques - Find examples of similar editing styles or transitions that you plan to use.

Editing Techinques -

Beyonce - 'If i were a Boy';
This is what i think our transitions should be like, they are long duration shots mixed in with short duration shots of the artist and the actors. This sells the artist and the music being played. Furthermore the transitions are cut to one shot to another. This allows us to put more into the time space allowed.

Star Analysis - You should each have analysed a star and how their videos sell them to the target audience, you can look at several videos or videos that span their career.

                          Beyonce Knowles 

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles born September 4, 1981, often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American Pop/R&B singer, songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child. Beyoncé rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time.


 This is a time line of Beyonces career so far; 

• 1997–2001: Destiny's Child era
• 2000–04: Solo career development and Dangerously in Love
• 2004–05: Destiny Fulfilled and group disbandment
• 2006–07: B'Day
• 2008–10: I Am... Sasha Fierce and Grammy Award record
• 2010-present: Fourth studio album 

According to Beyonce her image is for stage purposes she said "I like to dress sexy and I carry myself like a lady," but she has said that the way she dresses on stage is "absolutely for the stage".


This is Beyonces first music video. As you can tell her 'Image' Has dramatically changed, due to trying to keep up with trends. The video although her first solo video, is in keeping with her 'fierce' image. The short duration shots give the video an edgy look that i think Beyonce is aiming for.





(This is not the original music video for 'Crazy in love' due to not having a embedded code for the original.)
















This video of 'Crazy in love'. The video is promoting Beyonce as an solo artist. This is why i think the set and the props are at a minimal. The close ups of Beyonce show that its trying to promote her as a artist.

Analysis of past students work - analyse using the marking criteria and/or Goodwin’s points.

We looked at this old long road media music video. The first thing we noticed is that the actors were very 'Over the top' with there expressions, perhaps if they did this again they would need to maybe use different actors, that know what they are doing, to make this video have a more sophisticated edge. Also the actors seemed very aware of the camera. We couldn't decide if this was done deliberately or it was unintentionally, either way we would have changed this to make sure the video had a more professional look.

On the other hand the location did work very well with the song, giving the feeling of Christmas and warmth from the fire. The visuals matched the lyrics and music. This helped the video to flow smoothly, and run from scene to scene. Also the props that were used were very typical of the time the song was set, Christmas time. Props such as tinsel, poppers, Santa hats etc.

The shots in the music video, was limited but had a interesting contrast. The first shot was of one of the actors knocking on the door, with the sound effect also. This then introduced the song, and the next shot of the door opening, and another actor greeting the other people, as the door opens the music starts. This is a nice introduction to the song because its as though your invited to the party, as a viewer.

Over all this video is very mediocre, it's entertaining, but technically, poor.



This is the original copy of 'Last christmas'. In this video its very similar the students/teachers interpretation. The story line is very similar, friends having fun, being together, a lot of hugging, and laughing. I think this is because they want a warm tone to their video even though it's based on a ski resort which is usually very cold. These are the lyrics for the song;



[CHORUS:]
Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away
This year
To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

[CHORUS:]

Once bitten and twice shy
I keep my distance
But you still catch my eye
Tell me baby
Do you recognize me?
Well
It's been a year
It doesn't surprise me
I wrapped it up and sent it
With a note saying "I love you"
I meant it
Now I know what a fool I've been
But if you kissed me now
I know you'd fool me again

[CHORUS]

A crowded room
Friends with tired eyes
I'm hiding from you
And your soul of ice
My god I thought you were
Someone to rely on
Me?
I guess I was a shoulder to cry on

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man under cover but you tore me apart
Now I've found a real love you'll never fool me again

[CHORUS x2]

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man under cover buy you tore him apart
Maybe next year I'll give it to someone
I'll give it to someone special.

The song in total is about some giving their heart to some one special for Christmas. I think the visuals match the lyrics, because it doesn't just have to be lovers, but can be friends giving there heart to other friends for Christmas. Both of the videos have the 'Homely' and warm tone/feel to them. They both have a yellow glow to them, and i think this is on purpose. However i think the first video by the teachers is can be seen as an armature work, you can tell by the quality of the shots. Furthermore the original is filmed in a more extravagant location, the video was made near Zermatt, in the resort town of Saas-Fee: in Switzerland. This location is shown of by the long shots of the ski resort, that starts the music video off, like the one in the teachers with the knocking on the door. Whereas the teachers one is filmed in what seems to be a house, most probably one of their own, for expense reasons.

Beyonce

During the hiatus of Destiny's Child, Knowles released her debut solo album Dangerously in Love (2003), which spawned the number one hits "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy" and became one of the most successful albums of that year, earning her a then record-tying five Grammy Awards. Following the group's disbandment in 2005, Knowles released B'Day in 2006. It debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and included the hits "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable" and "Beautiful Liar". Her third solo album I Am... Sasha Fierce, released in November 2008, included the anthemic "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". The album and its singles earned her six Grammy Awards, breaking the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night. Knowles is one of the most honored artists by the Grammys, and third among female artists, with 16 awards—13 as a solo artist and three as a member of Destiny's Child.

Filming issues.

Since we have started our task's we have had some filming issues. The first being how to sinc the actors and the filming space. Because we are using dancers in our music video, it has been hard to co-ordinate this to the limit time we have to film in the dance studio.

Also because our group live in different areas, it has been hard to make sure we can all make filming deadlines, also due to outside responsibilities.

Goodwin's points analysis of other videos of the same genre (R&B)

Mariah Carey- We belong together


Goodwin thought of the following ways in which to analyse a misic video:
-music videos demonstrate generic characteristics
-relationship between visuals and lyrics
-demands of the record label to sell the artist
-relationship between visuals and music
-Voyeuristic treatment of the female body
-Intertextual references to films, TV or other music videos

Does the music vedeo demonstrate generic characteristics?
This music video displays the following generic features of a slow R&B music video:
-Soft lighting
-Close-ups of the artist lipsyncing
-Glamouras/ luxurious background/ setting
-A narrative about love/ a couple

Is there a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics?
As the lyrics create a story of a couple who 'belong together' the visuals are closely related to the lyrics as the video clearly displays the story of Mariah, who is about to get married to someone she does not love, running away on her wedding day with the man she belongs with.

Does the video sell the artist?
I would personally say that this music video prioritises it's aim to sell the artist, as there are a lot of glamourous  beauty shots of Mariah with the wind in her hair, wearing revealing 'sexy' outfits etc.

Is there a relationship between the visuals and the music?
The song is a slow R&B song, and I think that it is clearly reflected in the visuals as the shot durations and transfers go to the music and are of an appropriate pace.

Is there voyeuristic treatment of the female body?
This video contains many voyeuristic scenes, such as a scene where Mariah Carey is in the shower. Also, the outfits she is wearing often reveal her legs and breasts.

Are there any intertextual references?

The results to our questionnaire.

Here are a few of the questionnaire results. 


Q) How do you find new music?
A) On websites like Youtube, Top 40 UK.

Q) How do you download your music?
A) Through limewire.

Q) What genre of music are you into?
A)R&B

Q) Do you watch music videos?
A) erm, sometime when i watch them on youtube or on music channels.

Q) Do you buy CD's?
A) Not really, when i was younger i did, but now downloading and mp3 players are a lot more useful.

Q) Do you own an MP3 player?
A) Yes i take it everywhere.

Q) Do you go to live gigs?
A) Not really, i prefer parties.

Q) Have you ever paid for a live concert?
A) Yes, i think seeing the artist play your favourite songs is amazing! Like Rihanna!

Q) When you watch music videos, does it sway your verdict of the song? For example if you like it or not?
A) Not really, but i wouldn't watch it on a music video channel if it was boring.

From most of the questionnaires this is the result. This shows that most people like interesting music videos, and look on you tube and websites to find new music. This gives us an indication that looking on you tube would be a good place to start, to advertise our music video, and to look on the most viewed videos to get inspiration for our music video.

Goodwin's points for other videos by Beyonce

Beyonce- Broken hearted girl



Goodwin thought of the following ways in which to analyse a misic video:
-music videos demonstrate generic characteristics
-relationship between visuals and lyrics
-demands of the record label to sell the artist
-relationship between visuals and music
-Voyeuristic treatment of the female body
-Intertextual references to films, TV or other music videos

Does it demonstrate generic characteristics?
Beyonce's music video to 'Broken hearted girl' displays many of the generic features of a slow R&B music video, because it has very soft lighting, it has a narrative about love, it involves a good looking man and it is very voyeuristic.

Is there a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics?
The song is about a relationship, hence the title 'broken hearted girl', and in the video there is a narrative about a couple, so the visuals are influenced by the lyrics, even if the visuals are not exactly what the lyrics are saying.

Does it sell the artist?
Beyonce is the artist, and the video has lots of close up shots of her face, sometimes as she is lip syncing. There are also shots to show off her figure, as she is walking on the beach.


Is there a relationship between the music and the visuals?
There is a relationship because it is a slow song, and this is reflected by the visuals in the following ways:
-The use of slow motion (e.g. when she is walking on the beach)
-The use of fading transitions between shots
-The use of black and white effect
-The correlation between the pace and the shot duration

Is there voyeuristic treatment of the female body?
As mentioned, there are shots of a silhouette of Beyonce's body walking on the beach, this is very voyeuristic because the viewer is unable to see her face or any detail, but is invited to look at her body shape.

Are there any intertextual references?
As the main location of this video is the beach, I thought about intertextual references to other beach scenes. Lots of romantic films and music videos have beach scenec because beaches are seen to be romantic.
Here is the beach scene from 'From here to eternity' which may have influenced many videos/ films, 'Broken hearted girl' inparticular as there is a scene of a couple kissing on the sand in the video, which is very similar to this:

This is some of the example questions  for our questionnaire. This is so we can colleect data on our target audience.

Lyrics for R&B song

We had to write lyrics for a particular song genre. The genre for the song we wrote was R and B, generically lyrics of this genre include love stories or are about relationships and break-ups.


Shit Romance
I thought you were the one for me
My first love, I had all i thought i'd ever need
But it turns out i wasn't the one for you
Now you're gone, what am i to do?
What did she have that you never saw in me?
What about our beautiful baby?
I thought we were going to last for eternity
That's why i gave you my virginity


9 months of pregnancy and 11 stitches
How could you leave me for those other bitches
Now I'm sitting here in your T-shirt
Probably the one you wore when you shagged that dirt!


Unfortunately, we did not understand what were supposed to do for the task, so we wrote the lyrics for a generic R&B song, instead of writing what we should expect to see in the video. 

Beyonces Myspace page - Target audience.

This picture from Beyonces profile shows that she is a charity follower.

This is what the Charity is about, and this shows the Beyonce cares about where she lives and the people who live there. This shows that she is just a average person thrown into a media frenzie. I think this would generate a lot of wide spread fans, through her support for this charity.

Beyonces fans are very dedecated. And support her through her Albums and singles. Alot of her fans are female, who desire and aspire to be like her. Looking through her fan base on myspace we came to the conclusion that her fans are mostly young women and girls. Alot of the comments on her myspace were to praise her hard work and determantion on her songs, however little comments were negetive. They also commented on her acting skills and musical genius when it came to music videos. This gave us the indecation that our music video idea fitted the convention of a Beyonce 'Typical fan', and that the style we have chosen is on the right track for her fan base.

promotional poster

 

As a practice task and to improve our photoshop skills, we created a promotional poster to advertise an artist and their new single. We were also supposed to convey a genre of the music in the poster, so we chose the genre of pop. We used photoshop to edit the image of Gabi, filling the background  with bright colours, which we thought would appeal to the taregt audience, which is teenagers and young adults. We chose to use flower shapes, and a bold font, which together have a slightly 'old school' effect. The picture we chose focused around the artist, which is generic of pop, and it is quite an 'in your face' picture, which will add personality and stand out.

Permission Letter to Artist.

This is a print screen of our letter for permission to create a music video to the track 'Slow love' by Beyonce Knowles. We hope to receive a letter of confirmation that she agrees to this. We will post this onto the blog once we have receieved this.

Auteur

As a class we looked at the distinctive styles of different film directors, and thought about the contrasting styles of music video directors. The music video director our group concentrated on was Spike Jonze. Here are some of the things we noticed about his work:
-The use of slow motion effect in lots of his videos
-A relaxed pace
-Long introductions to the songs
-The visuals match the music, althoug the visuas are random and unexpected
-Voyeuristic, as the viewer is invited to look at things they would not usually see
-Relationship between lyrics and visuals (only in some of his videos)
-The use of panning/ tracking shots (one of his videos is all one shot)
-Use of light to show change of tone
-Dance routines (only in a few of the ones we looked at)
-2 music videos are for the same artist, and continue on from one another, forming a narrative
-us of black and white
Here are some examples of his work: