Final Music Video

Final Ancillary Tasks

Ancillary Task - CD

Front  

Back 

Lyrcis Booklet (One Page Example)

CD Tray (Back of CD Case )

CD

Ancillary Task - Poster



Evaluation: Question Four

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

I used a lot of different new technologies throughout this task in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages. Throughtout the task my group and I specfically made use of social networking websites such as Facebook as this allowed us to create a group conversation where we could all contribute ideas about the project, plan filming sessions and discuss any problems that we were having. Also, we made use of our smart phones to keep in contact with each other so that we could easily contact each other if we needed to meet up at school to edit on the VEM machines, organise a last minute filming session or ask each other for help.

Pre-Production (Research & Planning)
Knowing that I was undergoing the task of producing a music video, I decided to research into the different music videos that followed the same style and genre that my song choice, Red by Daniel Merriweather, followed. I also researched into the other different music videos that Daniel Merriweather had produced to see what conventions he used so that I could follow them. I used YouTube to view other music videos by Daniel Merriweather and have listed one below (Daniel Merriweather - Change):

My group and I also created storyboards in order to plan for the music video that we were going to produce. This helped as it allowed us to have something to relate to if we couldn't remember what we were going to film. Also, we were able to write down the different shots that we were going to use whether it being a close-up with a pan or a long shot with a track. When undergoing research for the rest of this project I used internet websites such as Google in order to find images of previous albums and posters. This enabled me to understand the common conventions which have been used so that I could incorporate them into my own.

Production (Construction)
Throughout the production stage of this project, my group and I consistently used new technologies. This included using digital cameras to take images for our ancillary tasks, using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign to create the products, using Sony video cameras to film our footage and using Adobe Premier Pro to edit the footage that we had gained.

When creating my ancillary tasks I was able to use the skills that I had previously learnt from previous tasks in the course. These previous tasks included the creation of a music magazine and school magazine. However, I did encounter a problem whilst making my CD for my digipak as I wasn't sure how to wrap the text around a circle. Due to facing this problem I was able to use my own initiative and use the internet website, YouTube, to find an online tutorial. I have included the video tutorial that I used below:

When editing the footage that we had gained, my group and I needed to use Adobe Premier Pro. We needed to convert our footage so that it was compatible to use on the software that was needed. In order to do this, my group and I had to convert our footage into a WMA format by using PMB software. I learnt a lot of new skills by using Adobe Premier Pro such as how to add video transitions to the music video such as cross fades and dip to whites.  

Post-Production (Evaluation)
To get a good evaluation of my products I made sure that I left a lot of opportunities. After having the priviledge of showcasing our music video at the creative arts evening at our school we got members of the audience to film what they thought about our music video.  We set the Sony Handycam up on a tripod in order to let the audience film their comments. My group and I also filmed a video log evaluation of our music video using the camera on Tatendas' laptop. Although the camera didn't have the same high quality as the Sony Handycam I believe that the fact we used a camera to film our evaluation was beneficial.

Evaluation: Question Three

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Ancillary Tasks
In order to make sure that my work was appealing for my target audience, I made sure that I gained a lot of audience feedback. I did this by showing my peers as I was going through the development stage of my product and finding out what they thought about. This allowed me to understand what they did and didn't like and allowed them to suggest improvements. From doing this I have learnt how important audience feedback is as they may not have the same preferences as I do therefore making them dislike the style of the product. By gaining audience feedback I am able to understand the different tastes that people have and incorporate them into my product as my product needs to reach a large audience.

I decided to create an image in Wordle using some of the words that we gained through our audience feedback, the image can be seen below:

Music Video

My group and I made sure that we gained a lot of audience feedback in order to carry on developing our product. We were able to show peers in our class and ask whether they thought the style that we were using was a good idea and whether a particular piece of footage worked well or not. In one case, we showed a member of our class a piece of footage which tracked across a location, they suggested that we tried the same shot by using a pan instead as they thought that it may look better. We used their feedback and shot the same shot again using a pan instead of a track and believe that this does work better. This has made my group and I understand how important audience feedback is as previously we had not noticed that the shot didn't fit in well with the rest of our video but because an audience member noticed we were able to change it in time for the deadline.

My group and I also had the priviledge of showcasing our music video to a large audience for a creative arts evening at our school. Once our video had been shown we were able to film some feedback from members of the audience. This was beneficial as they said what they did and didn't like about our product therefore enabling us to make changes before the deadline. I have made a wordle of some of the feedback that we gained and inserted an image of it below:

Due to the fact that my group and I had completed our music video, I decided to put it on my Facebook account. I have taken full advantage of the new technologies that are available to me by doing this as some of my friends have left comments about the video that my group and I have produced. Below are print screen examples of the comments that I have received:

Evaluation: Question Two

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

As part of this project my group and I had to create a music video. We then had to individually create two ancillary tasks, I chose to create a poster and an album cover. My group and I designed a style sheet so that we could follow the same font styles and sizes as each other. For example, we all made sure that we used the font 'Lucida Handwriting' for the name, Daniel Merriweather, across each of our ancillary tasks so that you could see that they were linked.

My group and I also made sure that we used the colours red, black and white as our house style colours as these were the colours that are mainly used in our music video. Our music video is called 'Red' therefore meaning that we should use the colour red to emphasise this. Also, the theme of red represents the idea of love which is what the narrative in our music video is about. By using red in both the main and ancillary tasks the audience can clearly see that they are linked. We have incorporated the colours red, black and white into our music video in many different ways, particularly through the lighting. We have scenes in our music video where our artist, Peter, is in a white light and other scenes where he is in a red light.

Evaluation: Question One

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

Ancillary Task - CD

Due to the research that I used for this product I was able to understand the conventions of real media products. By doing this, I was able to use them in my own product, the CD. It is evident that my product consists of forms and conventions of real media products through the pictures that I have included below:

Real Media Product               

My Product

The first image is the real media product which is one of which I have looked at whilst undergoing my research. The second image is my product which clearly shows that I have used forms and conventions of real media products. I have used a close-up shot of my artist, Peter, in order to gain the attention of the target audience. However, this could have been gained more if I had made my artist look at the camera as though he was sharing eye contact with the audience. I have also followed the conventions of real media products as I have included the name of the artist and the name of the album. However, the real media product on the left uses the same font style for both the artist name and album title, however, I have challenged this convention by using two different font styles in order to make my product unique.

Ancillary Task - Poster

Following the research that I took in order to produce my own product, a poster, I was able to understand the common conventions used. Below is an example of one of the real media products that I researched and my product:

Real Media Product                                                My Product

Above on the left is one of the real media products that I used in order to gain ideas from for my own product. The real media product helped me to understand the common conventions which were used in these sorts of products therefore enabling me to incorporate them into my own product. I have used the idea of having the name of the artist/band at the top of the product as this is the most important piece of information on the product as it makes the audience aware of the artist/band that is being advertised. However, I have chosen to challenge the convention used in the real media product, the location image rather than an artist/band shot, as I believe that this suits my product. I have also decided to not include quotes in my poster as I have mainly focused on the release date, the hit single and the different ways of finding out about the product through social website such as Facebook and Twitter.

Main Task - Music Video

When beginning the main task of this project, the music video, I researched into the different types of music videos which were available on YouTube. This helped me to understand the common conventions that were typically being used. I mainly researched the other music videos that had been created by Daniel Merriweather as he seems to have a specific style that he uses when creating his music videos which is what we wanted to incorporate into our video. My group and I also researched music videos that we liked so that we could use ideas from their videos to use in our own. Below are the music videos for Ed Sheeran - A Team and Jay Sean - Stay:

Ed Sheeran - A Team

When watching this music video, my group and I liked the idea of using black and white as it helps to portray the emotions of the actors within the video as they are feeling sad and dull which is represented through the colours of black and white. We also liked the idea of using a time lapse as this shows the passing of time. Also, it shows the actors loneliness and isolation as they are sitting by themselves.

Jay Sean - Stay 

When watching this music video, my group and I liked the idea of incorporating flash backs as this helps the audience to understand the past of the characters in the production. We also liked the idea of making the past footage black and white as this seems to be a common convention in music videos when footage from the past is being used.

Behind The Scenes

Below are behind the scenes videos that my group and I have created:

Below is the link to the video from the day that Peter and I were with friends so made use of the time and took some footage together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UESNnFXH2Gc&feature=youtu.be

Below is the video from that day that my group and I went up to the O2 Arena in Greenwich. This behind the scenes shows the journey that we had.

Below is the video from then day that we went to the O2 Arena. We were unable to shoot here due to the wet weather conditions.

Below is the link to the video from the day that we filmed at Franks Park. This footage was taken before my group and I did our final piece of shooting for our music video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXFpQ9NOcdw&feature=youtu.be

Merchandise - Final

Below is the completed version of the piece of merchandise that we created, the tshirt:

I believe that we used our research well to create this piece of merchandise as we have made it simplistic which seems to be a common convention. Also, record companies would need to make simple pieces of merchandise so that they were not spending too much money on them. By creating this piece of merchandise the record company would only need to buy plain white tshirts and get the words 'Daniel Merriweather' and 'Red' as well as the image printed on them cheaply. They can then sell this piece of merchandise for more money than it cost to produce therefore allowing them to make a profit.

Creative Arts Evening

On Tuesday the 20th March, the creative department at our school held a creative arts evening which allowed Sixth Form students to showcase the work that they had produced. The evening consisted of work from subjects including Dance, Drama, Fine Art, Photography, Textiles and Media. The music videos/film trailers produced by the Media students enabled us to see the work that we had created on a larger screen. Also, the evening allowed us to hear and see the changes that we needed to make to our projects as we were given audience feedback. Some of the audience members left feedback on our music video of which I have made a wordle of some of the words that they said below:

Current Music Video

On Tuesday the 20th of March our school is hosting a creative arts evening where the work produced by students in the creative arts department is shown to an audience, this means that my group and I will have to get our music video finished in time for the evening. Below I have included a link to the finished product ready to be showcased on the 20th of March:

It is beneficial for my group to try and finish our music video to the best of our ability in order for us to gain audience feedback. This is beneficial as it allows us to understand the points of views from both media students and non-media students. Also, we should be able to gain feedback as to whether our audience understood the narrative of our music video, the common conventions that we have included and if they understand the genre of the music.

Application of Media Theories

When researching the different types of media theories which can be related to music videos I found one called Andrew Goodwin's theory. I found a slide show of the theory which is listed below:

http://www.slideshare.net/guestc6d43a4a/andrew-goodwins-theory


Goodwin stated that the 5 key aspects that the audience should look out for are:
- thought beats (seeing the sound)
- narrative and performance
- the star image
- relation of visuals to song
- technical aspects of the music video

My group and I have incorporated these 5 aspects into our music video in several ways. We have incorporated each of the 5 key aspects of Goodwin's theory of which explanations can be seen below:

Thought beats:
We have incorporated thought beats in our video by changing the shots to the beat of the music. This is evident in the scene where myself and Peter are walking in the woods.

Narrative and Performance:
We have made sure that we have included a narrative in our performance as the lyrics enabled us to do this. Quotes from the lyrics include 'and we don't know how you're spending all of your days' of which we used this as a piece of narrative to show the audience the idea of loneliness that the character is feeling.

Star Image:
We have included the 'Star Image' in our music video too as we have made sure that our video not only shows a narrative but shows shots of our lead singer, Peter (the 'Star'), singing in a studio.

Relation of Visuals to Song:
We have also incorporated the relation of visuals to song by including images such as the image of me and Peter together and the image where I am setting alight a picture of me and Raja. This helps to show the audience what I am feeling.

Technical Aspects:
We have included the technical aspect of the music video by using different camera angles, different shots such as pans and tracks, finding the appropriate mise-en-scene such as a realistic cafe and editing the shots using transitions such as cross fades.

Ancillary Task Changes

From previously designing and producing the products for my ancillary tasks I decided to show my teachers and peers to gain feedback from an audience. This was beneficial as they told me what they thought was working well and what wasn't working well. From gaining this feedback, I have decided to change the house style of my product. I chose to do this because my target audience said that they didn't like the house style as it didn't make my products stand out well. I have included print screens below of the changes that I have made to my ancillary tasks:

Poster:

CD Tray and Back of CD Case:

Back of Booklet:

Example of Lyrics in Booklet:

 

CD Design:



Using My Own Initiative

Today I used my own initiative as I wanted to create the track list to go around the disc that I am creating for my ancillary task. Due to the fact that I did not know how to do this I made use of the new technologies available to me and searched for an online tutorial on YouTube. Below is the YouTube tutorial I used to learn how to wrap text around a circle in Photoshop:

By following this online tutorial I was able to make my CD with the list of tracks going around it. Below is an image of the finished CD:



I thought that it would be a good idea to wrap the tracks around the circle of the CD as I have noticed that quite a few album CDs have used this. This proves that I have used research in order to come up with ideas for the development of my ancillary tasks.

Ancillary Task Development

From creating basic designs of the ancillary tasks that I wanted to create, I have now selected what sort of design I am going to be using. I made my decision by gaining feedback from my target audience as this is very important throughout this project. Upon reaching a decision I have now decided to carry on developing as the deadline for this project is approaching. Below is the development of my digipak of which I have used a template to help me:

I wanted my magazine advertisement to go well with my digipak so I have created one with a similar sort of style so that the audience can resemble the colours I have used to my product:

My two products are yet to be completed but I do believe that I will get these tasks completed in time as long as I manage my time equally with the editing of the music video and the development of the ancillary tasks.



Filming - Colyers Lane

Today my group and I decided to use our double lesson to go to a bakery in Colyers Lane, Northumberland Heath. We decided to do this as we thought that it would be wise to use our lesson time appropriately. We needed to use this time as we needed to reshoot the bakery scenes which we had previously shot due to a change in the lead singer. Today we successfully gained all the shots that we needed by using various pieces of equipment such as a tripod and a tracking system. The mise-en-scene of these shots helps to set the scene for our narrative perfectly and we are very happy with the outcome. Below are some images that were taken:

We have now uploaded the footage that we gained from our filming session onto Adobe Premier Pro CS3 and are going to replace it with the previous footage that we have taken. This is beneficial as we can now carry on moving in the right direction to complete this project in time for the deadline.

Merchandise - Basic Design

My group and I typed 'plain tshirt design' into Google in order to find a template of a tshirt for us to use in order to create our piece of merchandise. Below is an image of the template that we are going to be using:

From having a template, my group and I were able to develop our ideas and start producing our piece of merchandise by using Photoshop. Below is an image of the basic design that we have created for our tshirt:

We have chosen to use a simple design as this was a common convention that my group and I noticed whilst researching previous tshirts that had been produced by other artists such as Ed Sheeran and Jay Sean.

Ancillary Tasks - Basic Designs

Today I started creating basic versions of the paper drafts that I had created for my ancillary task onto Adobe Photoshop CS3. I have included print screens of what I have created below, firstly you will be able to see the digipak then it will be followed by the matching magazine advertisement. 

 

I still need to create a draft magazine advertisement for the image above but I do feel as though I am keeping on track with my work. I also feel that I am taking into consideration the opinion of my target audience as I have created these in basic designs on Adobe Photoshop CS3 so that I can ask my target audience for feedback therefore allowing me to change what they don't think works well.

Merchandise - Research

Today I went through all the tasks that I had been set and made sure that I had met them all. I did this by making a to do list then ticking off which work I had and hadn't done. I thought this would be beneficial as it was able to show me if I was on track with the project or if I was behind. Whilst doing this I noticed that my group and I hadn't produced any merchandise to go with our product. From realising this I notified my group of which we then researched into the different types of merchandise that we could make such as mugs, tshirts and keyrings. My group and I have decided to make a tshirt as part of our merchandise of which some of the research that we have done can be seen below:

My group and I will create a simplistic tshirt in the style of these ones. We are thinking of creating a tshirt with the words 'Daniel Merriweather' and 'Red' on them as this is the name of the song that we have chosen to create a music video for.

Images

Today I started playing around with the images that had taken of our lead singer, Peter, a couple of weeks ago. Below is an original copy of one of the images that we had taken.

 I have edited this picture by changing the background to white and cropping it. I did this by using the tools in Adobe Photoshop CS3. Below is an edited version of the image above.

I think that I am going to use this image for the digipak that I have to create for my ancillary task. I believe that this shot will be the most appropriate as our lead singer, Peter, is maintaining eye contact with the audience which will make them feel more involved. Also, it follows the common conventions that previous artist shots that we have researched follow such as eye contact with the audience and a medium shot.

Composition

My group and I decided to start placing some of our footage onto Adobe Premier Pro CS3 today so that we had an idea of how it would look. We chose to do this so that we could see how much more footage we needed and to see whether the footage that has been taken goes well with our chosen song, Red by Daniel Merriweather. I have included images below of my group and I working on the new footage that we have taken on the video editing machines:

Footage

Today, my group and I decided to upload all of the footage that we had done during the Christmas holidays. We were previously unable to do this as we didn't have time to upload the footage on the first day back. Due to this, we had to wait until all of the cameras that we had used to shoot out footage were free again so that we could upload it onto the video editing machines.

Filming - The O2

On Friday the 23rd of December, my group and I decided to go up to the O2 in Greenwich to film. We chose to use this place as we had a specific shot that we wanted to create. We wanted to create the shot where someone was remained still for a certain amount of time so that we could speed up everyone around them by using Adobe Premier Pro CS3. We thought that this would be an effective shot as it can show the passing of time.