Monday 5 December 2011

Goodbye!

Now that I have reached the end of the road after all the hard work and struggles I faced, I thank you for taking the time to view my blog and i hope you enjoyed my music video along with the ancillary tasks we have created and the rest of this project. Thankyou for your time,

Regards Hemal

Evaluation Question 4

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


The images below are the logos of sites and software i thought was important when constructing my project.
Moodboard of programs we used










We used Prezi to create interactive presentations during this project, including the evaluation question 2. These presentations were really creative and visually better than the normal slide presentations as in a touch of a button the transition willo move automatically on  the path u direct it to.


Photoshop was one of the two main programs we used. We edited all our ancillary tasks using this software with its advance software which enables us to edit our pictures, change fonts and create backgrounds with ease.


Google was a key website used mainly for the research stages of my project as it made easier to research artists record labels and webistes with ease due to it being the best search engine.Also I got band images from this website such as Linkin Park performances.


Youtube is a credential for out project as we upload and share our final cut of our music video on this. We uploaded our music video and then put it onto our blog after by embedding the code. Also it made it easier to post on social netwroking sites like facebook

Facebook helped us to gain feedback on our rough cut of our music video which was uploaded on youtube and then shared on facebook. It is easy to comment on and great for feedback.


Final cut is the most important software of our project as it allowed us to export our footage we recoreded and actually make and edit our music video. All effects like the crossfades and sepia were all done on final cut which helped us give the narrative a more of a memory feel to it..






As well as these websites and programs, we also used a variety of technological equipment during this project.
Apple Mac


We used an Apple Mac to edit our video and images as the macs have the software final cut express on it also we used it to edit our pictues through adobe photoshop on this. Mac's made screen grabs easy with their commands which helped save time on research and planning. Also it was easy to export footage and pictures on to. It does take a little getting use to as there is no right click on the mouse .
Tripod


This helped us because the first part of our footage was shaky so we used the tripod to keep our footage still. also because there was two of us, sometimes we had to record ourselves like the directors commentry.

Sony HD camera


This is the camera we used to film our whole video. It is good as it recorded really clearly and took great pictures. Also it was imple to export the pictures and footage to computer.

Dolly


We hardly used the dolly. We only used it on the second part of our performance in one scene as the carpet was rough so it made the camera look shaky.

Reflector


We used a light reflector for some of our shots to contrast and improve lighting. This helped us control lighting to suit our needs. An example of this is the close up of the lead singer, you can see the light being reflected on him as shown above.



Sunday 4 December 2011

Evaluation Question 3 (Final cut of the music video)

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Both David and I have used videos to record the feedback of our music video and our ancillery tasks. We done this so we could pick out key points from our feedback and responses to our work so that they dont become bias and there will be no influence on our behalves and rather straight from the audience. We have catorgorised our video into three different one's; The final cut, the magaizine advert and the digipack. We also took it in turns to interview each member.

Feedback for the Final Cut of the our music video


The question we asked was "What do you think about our music video?". Our first response from a sixth form student is that "I really like it, i think it's got a really good story". This shows we have captured the conventions of our narrative as she was able to understand what was going on. Also it "The narratice was really good because it shows the relationshop between the couple and the breakdown of the relationship" shows that not only has she underrstood our narrtive, but she has acknowledged that the breakdown of the relationship. This was due to our narrative being "really well structured". Thus showing the target audience understands the story behind the song.

One of the best parts of our music video, reffered by another student at sixth form, was when i was "playing the piano in the studio". This shows the audience accepts the pianoist as much as the leadsinger even though he is shoadowed by the lead singer in the performance. A critiscism was that that I the lead singer, "was just moving my hands" rather than playing the keyboard. This is something we would change if we had more footage or more time to develop and perfect. I was glad to see that the audience accepted and acknowledged the narrative being in speia as a "flashback" which was exactly the effect we were tyrying to do. When asking what the student would changed he replied with "No because it shows that it is a flashback and that hes singing about his feelings". Thus showing we have obtained the narrative's story.

The last student says there is a "good performance aswell so the artist could get loads of facial recognition". This shows we have a balance of performance and narrative as we intercutted our fragmented narritve within a performance and there is a good balance. He also mentions "there is no rapid movement in the shots or editing which goes with the song". This was done on purpose to show emotion to such a powerful song and if it was sped up then it would look more of a pop or R n B genre and would not have gone well with the tempo of the song.

Feedback for the Magazine Advert


This is the respoonse to what the audience thought about our magazine advert which is all summed up to be "realistic"

"I thought it looks very profesional, i like the simple apple like text" We were going for a simple yet effective magazine advert which our audience understood. The first student like "the red and the black fade" the best "creating more attention to the artist" which gives our band more facial recognition and caputures more views due to the contrast of colours. Also "the album out moday" with "the apple like text" worked well for us as it illustrated realism of the advert.

"The font's really good, it goes with the style of your magazine" The font we used is my riad which was an apple font making it look simple and professional which was one of the main areas the audience liked. They also said that "the pictures are really good and it goes with the target audience". When asked would you be able to iodentify our genre from the magazine advert the student said "yeah deifnatly, i can tell that its from a rock/metal genre" which means our magazine advert successfull as we have captured the conventions of our genre due to our audience identifying it through our advert.

The last student liked how we had our reviews from "a magazine which is specific to rock, rather than just general music like kerrang is specific to rock". This shows that our target market was noticed with our reviews from the established rock/metal magazines. Thus showing we have targetd our audience well.

Feedpack for our Digipack


This is a respone to what the audience liked about our digipack.

The first student liked the front cover and the "effect you had on both the artists face, it makes it look like they got tattoos all over there face " This shows that the audience like the effect we put on the images rather than just leaving it plain. Also the editing was done to make it look like they had "tattoos all over there face" to appeal to the conventions of metal and rock showing the understanding of generics of our music genre. He also like the back cover which was the lead singer's face faded out which was "mystefying". He thinks our tracklist is "the best ive seen" as we put it around the pentagram which we also had on the front cover.

The second student likes the font and the pentagram beacause of the "symbolism" identifying the genre of the album. Also he likes the fact we have parental adivsery as it shows "what kind of content will be in the album"

All theee students like the track listing on the back of the album as it was a creative way to put the tracks rather than having the tracks listed one below the other.

Directors Commentary of my Final Cut

Saturday 3 December 2011

Evaluation question 2


Evaluation Question 1

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

Bleow, I have made a 9 grid frame from my music video which represent different features of my video.


Shot 1 (Top, left) - This is an establishing shot which shows the lead singer and the pianoist behind him in the begining of the song as the camera pans up gradually getting to the lead singers face. As Blue Lucifer is a new band, this establishing shot works well as both members are shown in this shot. This genre of song is not a conventional rock band song so it shows diversity amongst the band that is why we chose to use an establishing shot also to illustrate the diversity of blue lucifer.

Shot 2 (Top, middle) - This shot is one of the first scenes of the narrative in the music video. This amplifies the lyrics  as there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. However as this is a slow Soul/Blues genre song, the relationship between visuals and lyrics is not that obvious rather than hip hop or rap music videos where the lyrics are literally illustrated in the video. As the lead singer sings "Don't underestimate the things I will do", is where the protagonist (the lead singer) shrugs his girlfriends hand away as she secretly was suppose to meet her ex boyfriend in the park .

Linkin Park performance
Shot 3 (Top, right) -  We used a close up of the artist to illustrate camera work and framing. The reason we used a close up and had the framing where we can also see the pianoist is because we can see the passion in the lead singers face as he closes his eyes and sings. At the same time we can see the pianoist concentrating on a song which genre he  is not familiar with showing diversity in both band members. This is also an intertextual reference to Linkin Park's cover of rolling in the deep aswell because they have the lead singer, with his eyes closed singing whilst the pianost in the background playing the keyboard.

Shot 4 (Middle, left) - Again this is an illustrative example between the link of lyrics and visuals. As the lead singer says  "The scars of your love" is when he sits on the bench looking at photograph of his girlfriend. This is all in the past as a memory hence why we put the sepia effect on the narrative scenes. The reason we used a photograph of the couple is because he is reminicing about how they use to be, "remind me of us", "keep me thinking we almost had it all". This all plays well with that narrative scene which again isnt a direct link with visual and lyrics but more of a metaphor.

Shot 5 (Middle, middle) - This shot illustrates how our music video uses music genre. However due to the song being a cover version which is picked from a whole different genre to the bands normal genre. This shows diversity within the band and creating a hybrid band like Linkin Park. This shot again amplifies the lyrics of the song which gives the music video more depth.

Shot 6 (Middle, right) - This shot is a much more obvious link with between lyrics and visuals as the lead singer says "ive heard one on you" which can be linked back the the scene where he literally hears information on his phone about his girlfriend. This is mainly used in the pop music genre as pop is mainly targeted to a younger genereation. This shot also illustrates the use of mise en scene as he has props that go with the lyrics (mobile phone). Also it shows  his loneliness and despair as he heard bad news whilst dropping his head. When he drops his head, that shows clearly it is bad news because if it was good news most people would be relieved in joy. Also the use of Sepia helps the telling
 of a story as it is a memory in a visual and artful way.

Shot 7 (Bottom, left) - As this was the preformance being inter cut between a fragmented narrative, this shot was used to show both band memnbers playing simutaniously. The use of the lead singers hand gestures show the passion of his singing which was inspired from Linkin Park's orignal performance of rolling in the deep. Also this is set in another location, this is due to lack of footage therefore we had to film in anothe location. The performance continuity was lost due to this however in most videos break the rules of continuity which vernallis argues, "this is a clear convention of music video editing".

Shot 8 (Bottom, middle) - Bluse Lucifer orignally was a three man band, however due to timetable clashes, the third band member was not able to spare time to help out in our video. As a result we changed it to a two man band, a lead singer and a pianoist. The music video mainly revolves around the leadsinger as he is the protagonist in the narrative aswell, whereas the pianoist is shadowed by the leadsinger. Therefore we put a closeup of the pianoist as he does play a big role in the two man band. This is to build up recognition of the pianoist aswell as the leadsinger.

Shot 9 (Bottom, right) - This close-up of the leadsinger demonstrates our use of lighting. Simarlarly to low-key lighting,  the light is focused on david and the background behind hims are thrown into shade. We did this by using a reflector rather than gfiller lights. This makes the lead singer stand out more and emphasises his lyrics and creates passion in his performance.


9 shots of other music videos
Shot 1 (Top, left) - This is from Papa Roach - Last Resort. This is an example of literal relationship of lyric and visual relationship. as he says "suffocation, no breathing", he holds his neck as if he is being choked. The visuals here really amplify the lyrics in that shot.

Shot 2 (Top, middle) - This shot is Mid shot of the lead singer and a longshot of the band and the audience. This shot is in the opening of the song which is illustrated as an establishing shot as you see the lead singer and the rest of the band in his shadow.  Also because it is a performance, you can see the audience.

Shot 3 (Top, right) - This shot is from a music video by Fort Minor - Remember the name. This is part of the narrative where he still lyp syncing throughout his verse. This shot is normally portrayed in hiphop videos as it looks like he is rapping and shaking hands with his friends. This shows their band is also hybrid like Linkin Park and it shows diversity as there music genre is normally rock.

Shot 4 (Middle, left) - This shot is another example of the relationship of lyrics and visuals. When he says "5 percent pleasure" he throws up his hand representing the 5 percent. This also amplifies the lyrics through the visuals of the music video.

Shot 5 (Middle, middle) - This shot is taken from Linkin Park - Rolling in the deep (cover)This shot is a low angle shot which make the lead singer look like he has more authority. This is a performance and the shot illustrates the music genre as he is singing with a pianoist. The genre that is being illustrated is blues / soul which is not their usual music genre. This shows they are a hybrid band and the developed skills of both the lead singer and pianoist.

Shot 6 (Middle, right) - This is a close up to illustrate his passion that goes into his song in his performance. This shows camera work and framing as the close up captures his emotion which amplifies the song as it is a sad song. It also creates awarness of the lead singer and advertises him as he puts his all into his performances.

Shot 7 (Bottom, left) - This is an example of intertexuality within music videos. Like Kings of leon, they have a performance of two band players, a lead singer and a pianoist. In kings of leon they have the drummer and the lead singer who also plays guitar.




Shot 8 (Bottom, middle) - This shot illustrates the band becoming hybrid and merging two genres into one to make a hyrbid genre overall. Jay-z a hip hop artist with Linkin Park a rock band perform together making a whole new genre. They both keep to there own genres but litrallye jus merge it into one.

Shot 9 (Bottom, right) - This shot illustrates the focus on the protagonist as this scene in the narrative has blurred out the rest of the people leaving her uneditted. This means she is focused on and the audience will give her much more attention. Also this is an example of a fragmented narrative as it is intercutted between performances of Linkin Park.