Evaluation Question 4

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

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

WE have done much reearch into other music videos and have tried to make it realistic, we have used camera techniques that are used in real media products and we have used professional programmes which allow us to make a final product that resembles ones in the media market today.

our prodcust was made in 4 amin stages, these include, planning, research, construction and evalutaion.

The reseach stage was conducted mainly by the interent, we used websites to find music videos and we evaluated them. One major part of this stage was using Youtube., this website has become enormosly popular over the past few years and allows peoplt to share videos worldwide. We have been experiecing techolicial diffuculties and therefore have not yet been able to upload our video, however this was ou intention as it is a brilliant way of getting feedback.

The Planning stage was also made up of some research so that we could be inspired by previous videos, we felt it was very important to watch the orirgional video of 'when the sun goes down' so that we could relate to the storyline and understand how the director felt about this song, we also researched into the meaning of the song so that not only could we interpret it in our own way, we could also interpret it in other peoples views. The planning is essential for the success of the video so that we can plan the storyline according to the song and also fit the vidoe to the lyrics. To us it was essential that we planned the locations of our filming because we were looking for specific areas that were 'run down' and gloomy.

Contsruction is obviously the most important part of the project. It was a long progess and we experienced many technological difficulites along the way which we manages to overcome. we were fortunate enough to have the use of Adobe Elements 3.0 and so our consrtiction was a success.

Evaluation is essential for the success of a video as is feedback, it was very important that throughout the construction we took on board critism so that we were able to improve nay parts that views did not like or did not understand. Not only for the construction but also for our experience it was important to evaulate our product so that next time we are able to make an even more successful video that will appeal even more so to viewers.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audeince feedback i have learned that people are overall very impressed with the product that we have produced.

The digipack has been a great success, it was mentioned that it fits very will and would not be seen as out of place in the media industry.

the video has had great feedback, it is enjoyed very much by viewers and the cmaera techniques have been appreciated, such as having shaky clips. However some people felt that it could be improved further by adjusting the lighting even more in some clips.

The advertisement has also been successful and has been said to give great description and the colours work very well together.

Overall we are very pleased with our feedback.

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary tasks?

Our combination works very well.

we have used similar or the same clips and photos and so it links well and makes the video memorable.

we have had very good feedback from both and therefore are very pleased.

For our video we have used the same techniques throughout to keep it consistant.

Our media video and ancillary tasks are very well combined in my opinion. We have tried to keep the same theme between the two, including the colour theme (lighting), clothing, area (location), same person, same props as in the video.

Our reason for doing this was so that it would be easy to link the video with the ancillary tasks and that both would be connected and be memorable to the audience.

Our CD digipack featured a photograph of the main character, she was wearing the same clothes as during the majority of the music video , the photograph is of her standing in an alleyway with graffiti on the wall, the alleyway is the one that we used during our video that the main character walked through at the very end the video to show ther on her way to heaven.

Evaluation Question 1

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

As already mentioned we were given a choice of projects that we were allowed to do, we soon decided that we wished to pursue the music video option.

first we conducted our research which helped us decide which type to of genre to pursue and specifically which song.

after doing research we both decided that a music video to a rock/indie song would suit us the best an we decided that it would be one from recent years so that we could appeal to teenagers and young adults.

A fast song is what we decided on, we both had an idea of the sort of thing we wanted to make and luckily we both had the same idea. Our research has been simular and we first throught we may make out video to the song 'what became of the likely lads' by the Libertines as we are both big fans of the band, song and mostly the video. As we did more research we came across a song we were both familiar with and felt we could connect with the lyrics, this was 'when the sun goes down' by the Arctic Monkeys.

We have challenged real media conventions by using suitable camera angles and techniques such as panning shots and close ups.

we have also used professional looking locations and suitable clothing throughout the video. We have also used techniques such a shaky camera filming that have been done in video like this one to give a rushed, sense of panic feel to correspond with the nature of the song and it's lyrics.

My Advertisment

This is our final adverstiment, we are really pleased with this, i think it looks extremely proffessional and gives much needed details.

Ideas for my Advertisement

For our Advertisment we decided to use the photograph that features on the front cover of our CD, this is so that if we use reptition it will make it memorable. we have used the version of the photograph that we edited, only we have edited it further by fading the edges out and adding a black space at the bottom to add text. we are using the text that we experimented with earlier to make our front cover so that again we are using repetition.







This is the original plan for our advertisement.




This is a rough drawn version of the layout of what we intend our advertisement to look like, after researching other advertisements and posters we have decided this looks very realistic and professional.
The photograph at the top will be in colour and the rest of the poster we intend to be in black, this is so that the photograph stands out and so will the white writing on the balck background.
we will use a range of different fonts to make it more interesting and to draw the audience in.

At the botton of the page we have decided that we will use well known logos, such as the Brits logo and HMV this is so that it looks professional and if it is linked with big, popular organsiations like this people are more likely to be intereseted in the product as they will assume it is of high quality like products produced by such companies.

CD Advertisment Research

Final Digipack

Ideas for back of CD

Ideas for CD photo

Ideas for Inlay

Ideas for CD Cover

Back of CD cover Research

This is my favourite CD back form what i have found during my research. i think that the colours are perfect and stand out brilliantly, my favourite past is the black rectangle in which the song names are written in, it stands out very well and is easy to read.

I like this Back cover because of the way the list of songs and the photograph are places together. i like the idea of having a photograph on the back cover because it makes it more interesting.

I hate this back cover. it is SO boring and dull. the colour is bright but boring. the song names do not stand out and it generally doesn't draw me towards the CD at all.

CD Inlay Research

this disk is the Arctic Monkeys, it is plain and features AM on it, which obviously stands for their band mane,this makes their name memorable.

This one is by N-Dubz, who are a hip hop/ RnB genre. it features the three people in the group and their name and album name. it is very successful.

Here is one by Oasis. this shows a completely different style as they have chosen to feature the songs on the CD to be listed on the actual CD itself, I like this idea.

Front of CD Research

I have looked at digipacks as a whole, now i am going to focus on the front and back of CD cases.

Being the most important part of the digipack because it is the first thing that a person will see I will do the most research into this.

These are some examples that i have found of front covers on the internet.

This one by The Kooks uses light very effectively. it is simple yet you are drawn to it. the name of the album is written in neon lights a nice effect with a clear purpose.

This one by Beyonce is a different genre of music to most of my research, i think that it uses brighter colours to fit it with the nature of the music, she is shown wearing diamonds and is looking very prerogative, this is a typical style for RnB genre digipacks. Her name and album name is shown discreetly in the corner as the attention is wanted to be drawn to the photograph itself.

Razorlight are a well know band. they have gone for simple black and white, it shows the band members, who are well known faces and may draw people to the CD. the band name is very clear and bold. it is simple. they do not feature the name of the album however which is unusual.

This is one of the Arctic Monkeys albums, the photos are bright on a dull background which allows them to really stand out. the album name and band name is written effectively in a writing style that suits the style and fits in with the photograph, it looks very computerised.

This is another cover by Arctic Monkeys, it is a very famous one of theirs, simple yet effective, it shows the lead singer, he is smoking. he looks relaxed which gives an insight into the nature of the music and the colours are kept very plain also outlining this.

the digipack has no mane featured however the band name stands out with a bright background and a contrasting back for the font and it is used in the style that is specific to the Arctic Monkeys so it makes it memorable.

Front Cover Research

Digipack

When Digipacks were first introduced when CD's were invented, they were made of cardboard, however today we used plastic to make them so that they are stronger and more professional.

A digipack is the packaging of a CD,.

it includes the front page of the case; the cover.

which will normally have to artists name on and the name of their single or album.

the inside page of the case.

which may have information about the artist on or a photograph of them.

the actual CD and the space behind it.

This normally features the artists logo or again a photograph of them or what/who their song is about. The same photo or logo is usually used for the CD and the space that it covers, but can be seen when the CD is removed.

The back of the CD case.

Most of the time will feature a photograph again but is sometimes left plain, this is were the artist will include a list of their songs and normally the details of their record label and sometimes also their artists website.

the front and back of a CD case are extremely important, they need to be intriguing and eye catching so that the viewer is drawn to the CD if they have not yet had a chance to heat the music. the style of the CD digipack normally depend on the artist and their genre so I am going to research into some different digipacks.

The digipack below is very plain and simple. it sticks to the same colour theme throughtout and alothough it seems quite boring, it is still eye catching to a certain extent because the colour is so bold.
This is a photograph that i found on the internet, it is obvioulsy made to appeal to a yoing age group but it is very good in the way that the colours are bright and fun and therfore the sort of person that it is for would be expected to be drawn to it.

This is a 4 panel digipack, like the one that we will be producing, it has a front back and two pages inside.

This Digipack follows a similar theme to the one that I have described, this is more of the sort of thing that Jessica and I wish to produce.

the photos are eye catching and the colours are bold, yet correspond the the genre of music therefore it attracts the right people without actually listening to the music.

One interesting thing is that the photographs are all of the same thing and seem to be from the same photo shoot, this is something that we will bear in mind as we start to design our own digipack.

This digipack is a 6 panel digipack, which is not actually what we will be making.

This digipack is from an album by Oasis, this is more of the genre of music we are following.

the colour, style and photos are kept simple, but they are effective, the band is very well know and liked so they do not have to make their digipack stand out quite as much because people will be searching for the CD. the digipack follows a similar style to the one that i mentioned, you can see the songs featured on the CD clearly listed on the back page.

Final Video

This is out final video.

Since the rough cut, as already mentioned we have added some transitions and changed some clips round.

we are extremely pleased with the quality and professionalism of the transitions, we have chosen the perfect on for each clip to blend into the next. We haven't used transitions for every clip change as we didn't not want to make the video too modern and computerised, we were going for a more relaxed feel with the shaky camera, like most rock music videos are.

Some clips have been added to different parts of the video to correspond with the music lyrics. such as, 'her eyes are staring at the ground', this is the part when I look down at the ground in a sad, bored way.

We are both very pleased with the final outcome. We will now show it to others and gain some feedback.

Rough cut video

This video is our rough cut, we have spent a long time assembling it however we are going to make a few changes to it to make our final video.

this video lacks in transitions from one clip to another so we plan to introduce some in to our final video. Also for our final cut we are going to change some parts around so that the video clip and the song lyrics are corresponding, and try to make transitions of clp changes happen with the beat of the music.

However overall we are both very pleased with this video, we feel that it has a very proffessional look and the storyline is believable and interesting, however still easy to understand.

Our video is very sudden and fast paced, like the ones that we have researched and we have purposely used the camera in a shaky way to highlight the madness of the situation and to fit in with the song when it goes very fast.

Filming second day

We have filmed our second day at Ingress Park ad mentioned earlier in my blog.

this is where we have filmed scenes of the girls death and her being taken to heaven.

This loaction is also where the shots of drinking vodka have been filmed.

By this stage in our filming we have decided to change many parts of our video, the stroyline has been slightly altered throughout, from her being a prostitute to a person that once had a good life and now it is not so good. we have added in many scenes and thought of many different idea to include as we have progressed, for example flashback to her previous life, which we will use in black and white to give an old style effect. we have also added a scene which we will later film of the girl all dressed for a night out, only she looks a mess, with her hair and makeup scruffy, indicating she has already been out and it hadn't turned out too well. we thought that we would use a feather boa to to emphasise the fact that her life is out of control and so is she. they have used a feather boa in the video on the man that is made out to be her sick partner and it works really well with the contrast of the gloomy streets and dark, baggy clothes.

Story board

As you can can see from the storyboard below out video has a clear storyline, we have decided to use one after doing our research, we found that the types of videos that we had looked at didn't really have storylines, they just followed a situation for a long period of time, outlinin the important parts.
As we have no experience in making music videos we decided to follow a storyline so that the viewer remains interested in the video throughout.

Screen shots of first day filming

These screen shots are from our first day filming, they are from both Dartford park and Tree Estate, we intend to use these clips in our final video.

Cast

To keep the video easy to understand, Jessica and I have decided to only feature the two of us in our video.

Main actress.

Tiffany.

Plays the part of the main girl, who's life gets progressivly worse until she takes her own life.

Other Actress.

Jessica

Plays the part of Tiffany's friend who once lived a normal life with who, however in the end realises how unhappy her friend is and aids her to commit suicide.

Tiffany will wear clothes that make her look like she is poor and doesn't have much to do. for example, a tracksuit and trainers.

in the flashbacks to her life previously she will be wearing nice clothes and look generally as though she makes an effort.

Jessica will wear a coat and a hoodie, this is because she needs to disuse herself from anybody who may see her because she delivers dangerous goods to her friend.

Location

We have decided on some main locations for our filming.

Dartford park - where we came across a wall of graffiti, this fitted perfectly with the theme of a 'rough life' and area.

A Londis shop - where we will show her entering the shop and buying a packet of crips with little money because she is bored.

Ingress Park in Greenhithe - this is right next to the River Thames, this is where we will show the scenes of the ending of her life, it is a very dramatic place, with quiet fields and a fierce flowing river, perfect place to film her suicide. Although for this reason the area is suitable it is actually a very nice area and full of beautiful, old fashioned buildings, we have decided to use one of these buildings in our video to show the contrast between the appearance of her and where she is.

Permission Letter

This is the letter that we have written to 'Arctic monkeys' to ask for permission to use their song 'When The Sun Goes Down'.

I have not yet had a reply however we are permitted to use it reguardless.