EVALUATION TASK 4: HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

THE DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY




Heres the link..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwTyrm0i_B4


I decided to create a comparison sheet in terms of the different digital technology I used across the two years as well as in the construction of my Advanced portfolio pieces to accompany the commentary.


AS Foundation Production

Research and Planning:
• Internet: used this to research initial ideas, in terms of costume, props, hair and make-up.
• YouTube: looked up and researched other opening sequences of thriller films to help give inspiration in terms of the colour palette, the score and the style.
• Blog: this was used to try and get us to store all our research materials and order them in an orderly fashion, so everything flows in a chronological order.
• Digital Camera: I initially used the camera to take pictures of possible locations in order to help find the perfect setting for our opening sequence.
• Photoshop: when we were starting up we used Photoshop to help create a logo and a letterhead, this was to help us feel as if we were creating this real business.

A2 Advanced Production
Research and Planning:
• Internet: used the internet to again research initial ideas in terms of costumer etc. but also to research star image, we did more independent research to find out the star image we wished to create.
• YouTube: this again was used to research multiple pop videos, ones that were similar and contrasting in order to help us get a real understanding of what we wanted ours to look like. Also, once more set on the track choice – we were able to look at already ‘home-made’ videos to the same track.
• Blog: used to upload our initial research material in order for it to be continually logged, also this year we have made a lot more use of the blogs – we frequently are adding and altering posts, giving it a slightly more relaxed approach so it is a continual log of our progress.
• Digital Camera: when looking for potential performers, we went round and took pictures of people we thought would suit the role so we had a back log when it came to making a final decision.


AS Foundation Production
Construction:
• Digital Camera: used to take pictures continually on the shoot day in order to help us with our evaluation.
• Sony 170 Camera: we used this camera to film the opening sequence of our thriller.
• Final Cut Pro: this was the software we used to cut and edit our opening sequence together, once it was cut on the timeline we used to create credits along with a score. For our thriller, we didn’t use any after effects as it was not needed for the effect we were looking to create.

A2 Advanced Production
Construction:
• Digital Camera: again we used a camera to take photos of our shoot day to help with our evaluation. But also, we used it to take promotional pictures from our shoot day, such as for our poster as well as our CD cover.
• Sony 170: we used this camera to film our storyboards in order for us to make a rough cut of them together – as we knew that this camera was not as high quality as the cameras that were available for us to shoot our pop promos with.
• JVC Camera: we used this to film our pop promo, this camera is a lot more technically advanced than the one we used in AS, it creates a much better depth of field along with a much strong quality, making the pop promo look more authentic.
• Final Cut Pro: again this is the program we used to edit. Initially, we begun using this software to do a rough cut of our storyboard, this was to make it easier for when it came to cutting together the actual footage from the shoot day, as we would be wary of where we wanted each shot to be placed etc. Then eventually, we used this software to cut and edit together the footage to create our pop video.
• AfterEffects: we used this for the editing of the blue screen along with the moving backgrounds; this program is defiantly more advanced than Final Cut Pro and defiantly challenged us.
• Photoshop: we used this to design and create the front and back of our CD cover along with the bands promotional poster.

AS Foundation Production
Evaluation:
• YouTube: once the opening sequence was created, we uploaded it onto YouTube and then we were able to gather audience feedback – we are able to view comments, audience views and where the video was being most played in the world etc. This enabled us to make comparisons and help to evaluate our work.
• Blog: throughout we used this to upload our progress, therefore, we were able to look back on our experience that had been uploaded onto our blog, which helped us to answer the 7 evaluative questions we were asked.

A2 Advanced Production
Evaluation:
• YouTube: again we have used to view audience feedback etc, however, we have not used this as well as last year because we didn’t push for audience feedback that much on YouTube, therefore there has not been too much to help us with.
• Blog: as we used our blog so much more this year, and had a much more relaxed approach – seeing it as more of a diary, it enabled us to look back on our work over both this year and last year and see what we have improved on along with what we could have done differently.
• Internet: we used the internet and found a website called surveymonkey. This was brilliant as it was an easy way of creating questionnaires online and has made it easier to identify and collect the responses. Also, it has allowed us to send via email etc, generating more people to give us audience feedback.

We were directed to a couple of presentations on YouTube by Michael Wesch a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University: These helped me establish some key evaluative points.

The first video was 'The Machine is Changing Us' on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09gR6VPVrpw

Following on from watching this, there were a number of important points that were worth considering in terms of evalutive points, such as:

• There are 20% of people on the web - what about the other 80%?
• 2 billion people online
• The web holds the next revolution - anyone can upload and use the web globally at any one time.
• 18 million people read blogs
• The web is 'The great leveller' - everyone has equal access, equal voice and equal potential.
• Wikipedia has become the most important information source in the world, more than 62 million people use it around the world, anyone can edit the information - people power.
• The web was and still is a challenge to authority.
• The web is used to express, to comment, to discuss and to receive ideas.
• The internet is the infrastructure whereas the web are the links.
• 6th August 1991 - the first website went online
• The web opened up information to anyone who had access to a computer.
• One view is that the internet is for sharing and collaboration, where it is promoting creative freedom. Whereas, another view is how do we pay the mortgage - is it just profit driven?
• 90% of downloads on the web are not paid for.
• YouTube is viewed more than a billion times a day.
  

Some key terminology of Web 2.0 :

• NETOCRACY: the idea that the web is controlled by no-one
• ARCHITECTURE OF PARTICIPATION: the idea that web-pages are built to encourage the audience to get involved in creating their own 'spaces'.
• USER GENERATED CONTENT: the idea that the audience controls the content and how it is displayed e.g. Wikipedia
• INFORMATION RICH: the idea that pages and sites are all full of images, sounds, connections and uses. For example, quality is not as good as established institutional material, YouTube has low production values, poor pixilation and poor sound quality. Whereas Flickr has high quality photographic images.
• INFORMATION CLOUD: this is a criticism of Web 2.0, it ts the idea that no one is controlling or filtering information, so the user becomes lost or confused or misinformed.
• MASH-UP: the idea that the audience can personalise it or be creative, e.g. CassetteBoy vs. Alan Sugar
• FOLKSONOMY: Web 2.0 is based around useable, searchable and navigatable windows or 'tags'.

A summary of the main issues and criteria by which we can analyse the arguments surrounding new media technologies and Web 2.0 applications:

• There is an increased PROLIFERATION of user generated content - there is a constant expansion
• There is a degeneration in the production QUALITY of content.
• There is a massive emphasis on audience INTERACTIVITY.
• CONVERGENCE technology is taken for granted and is multiple.
• INSTITUTIONAL CONVERGENCE is threatened.
• A new NETOCRACY is provided to audiences.

EVALUATION TASK 3:WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

For this part of our evaluation tasks, we created a survey online using Web 2.0 technology: Surveymonkey.com in order to gain audience feedback, this was so we could find out information more in depth in different parts of our pop video, for example, ‘What kind of mood do you think the video had?’ We asked a range of people between the ages of 12-47, however, due to our circumstances, being at a boarding school, the majority of our sample was between the ages of 16-18. Moreover, this is the target audience we were trying to aim for. So this was beneficial as we could find out more in depth information about how the audience were receiving our pop video. Here are some of the results we collected and how we interpreted them:

• 40% of people we asked thought the style of song ‘Bruises’ was a pop style – this is pretty much what we hoped, it is not a big pop act but it defiantly had some pop aspects to it.

• 15% of the people thought it was under the category of ‘Other’ – stating that it has a Folk and Country feel.

• The remaining 25% thought it was in the ‘Alternative’ category. To be honest I think the song has quite a unique feel – so it is understandable people believed it would fit into this category.

• 87% of the people we surveyed told us that our pop video was entertaining. From these 87% - it was noted that 70% of these believed the ‘boat scene’ was the most entertaining, with the performance section in the woods falling after that. (Katz and Blumner)

• 67% thought that the ‘bike scene’ was the aspect that people most disliked – to be honest I am quite surprised about this as we think that this element was quite ‘fun and quirky’, I believed it was a definite aspect that the audience would like as it fitted with their star image, e.g. the whole idea of autumnal, rustic feel. (Katz and Blumner)

• 100% of the people asked said that the video had a very happy and upbeat mood. As, most people gave a reason for this answer – and the general trend was because of the lead singers smile and her upbeat dance moves. This is a clear example of Audience Identification; this is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular media text, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle. The lead singer, is continually smiling and looking directly into the camera, therefore, making the audience feel connected to the band, allowing them to empathise and may even feel it directly expressed their demographics. (Katz and Blumner)

• 84% of the audience said they would watch the video again after seeing it. Therefore, it is clearly a preferred reading in the eyes of Stuart Hall – they are then responding in the way that we wanted to when we created it.

• 41% of the people we asked said they would not go out and buy the CD after watching the video – a common reason for this was ‘I don’t actually like nor listen to this style of music’. Stuart Hall - Oppositional Reading

• 48% said they would not want to see the band live, again many people stated that the reason for this was the same as above. Also, another common comment was that they did not feel the band would be that great in concert. Personally I am not sure how to quite take these comments, as this is the bands image and style – but I guess this is open to interpretation. This is an example of audience foreknowledge, this is the definite information (rather than the vague expectations) which an audience brings to a media product, therefore this is the feeling they personally got from the video – how do they really know they will not enjoy the concert?

• After looking at our poster, 55% of the people asked said they would watch the concert based just on the poster alone. A few people commented saying ‘It is easy to identify the type of music from the poster’. This is very beneficial as it means that our poster has very much clearly representing the band and their star image. This is a clear example of audience engagement, as some people seem to be instantly attracted to the band without even knowing who are what they are, but it meets their expectations, therefore, they are immediately engaged to the product and would go and see the concert without even seeing or knowing the band. Although, this was probably due to the bright fonts and texts we used in a way of grabbing attention and making the audience engage with the product. Preferred Reading - Stuart Hall

• Of the 48% of the people who said they would see the band live, about 64% said they would buy the bands merchandise if available – with the majority of these being either a hoodies or posters.

• 72% of the people agreed with the bands star image that we had tried to create, saying that terms like youthfulness, originality and creativity are terms they would use to describe the bands star image. However, 8% of the people asked believed that the band had an anti-authoritarian attitude, something that we very much had no intentions in creating, but everybody is entitled to their own opinion. This again is a type of foreknowledge that the sample population have brought to the media product, it’s quite interesting that this kind of star image would be associated with our band; however, I can understand where they are coming from, as it would be expected of the norm of a young band. Preferred/Negotiated/Oppositional Readings - Stuart Hall

LINKS TO OUR SURVEY USED IN OUR FOCUS GROUP:

Part 1

Click here to take survey

Part 2

Click here to take survey

Task 3

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THEORY THAT HELPED US CONSTRUCT OUR QUESTIONNAIRE AND EVALUATE OUR FEEDBACK FROM THE FOCUS GROUP

KEY AREAS:

- Surveillance
- Correlation
- Entertainment

One of the porpoises of our questionnaire is to work our:• AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT This describes how an audience interacts with a media text. Different people react in different ways to the same text (Stuart Hall)
• AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS These are the advance ideas an audience may have about a text. This particularly applies to genre pieces. Don't forget that producers often play with or deliberately shatter audience expectations.
• AUDIENCE FOREKNOWLEDGE This is the definite information (rather than the vague expectations) which an audience brings to a media product.
•
• AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION This is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular media text, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle.
• Diversion-
• Personal Relationships-
• Personal Identity-


• AUDIENCE PLACEMENT This is the range of strategies media producers use to directly target a particular audience and make them feel that the media text is specially 'for them'.
• Think what strategies you used to target your audience?
• The conventions of a pop promo: Concept, performance, Symbolic Material, Mise, Narrative, Representation of character.

• AUDIENCE RESEARCH Measuring an audience is very important to all media institutions. Research is done at all stages of production of a media text, and, once produced, audience will be continually monitored.
• His and views on youtube, Media Blog, Facebook, Fan site, Sales of merchandise,
• We want to pin point whether our audience uses our text as a form of surveillance to escape the everyday problems.
• How entertaining id your video for its audience? Colour, Edit pace etc.
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• Surveillance
• Correlation
• Entertainment
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• Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, eg) substituting soap operas for family life
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
• Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains
• Since then, the list of Uses and Gratifications has been extended, particularly as new media forms have come along (eg video games, the internet)
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Stuart Hall:

• A preferred reading
• An aberrant reading
• A negotiated reading

Defining your sample group: age, ranges. Gender, ethnic backgrounds, financial power……

All people who answer questionnaire or take part in a Focus group are called Respondents.

Two types of questions you can use:

CLOSED QUESTIONS
Example:
12. On a scale to 1-10 how effective is this video?
a) 1-3
b) 3-6
c) 6-8
d) 8-10

12. Do you find any band members attractive?
a) Girl
b) Boy

13. Does how they dress appeal to you?
a) Yes
b) No

14.Does the video/ poster make you want to see them live?a) Yes
b) No


OPEN QUESTIONS
Example:


1. What music video has had the most impact on you and why?

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2. Did you like the music video because you like the song?

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EVALUATION TASK 2: HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

MAIN PRODUCT

MAIN PRODUCT

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ADDITIONAL MARKETING PRODUCTS, DIGIPACK ARTWORK AND MAGAZINE ADVERT POSTER

Below is the artwork of our front cover and pack cover of our digipack. We felt that the colour pallete and the style very much suit the style of the band and their band image.

In addition, the CD cover also is soemwhat of a continuation of the pop promo - they link together, the image below is a wide shot of the performance aspect of the pop video. It is clearly demonstrated that both images are very similar, both having a autumnal, rustic, organic effect. These are key elements to the bands image.

We also created 2 inside images for our digipak which would act as a 'pull - out' for our album. This included the lyrics of the song 'Bruises' along with the credits for the making of the album.

Our poster promotes both our bands first promotional track along with their tour dates. We have kept the style of the poster the same as the organic feel that the pop video creates reinforcing the social themes attached the bands star image. Both members of 'Faulkes' are looking straight towards the camera, they are giving direct address creating a gaze of territorial kinship (Winship) with the target audience. Without doubt, we have continued to incorporate this organic, autumnal feel.

This is our Faulkes poster:



We wanted to create a music poster which really represented our band and so we decided it was vital to use a photograph of the band as their star image is an important factor of their star appeal. They have a youthful sexual magnetism that is very appealing to their specific audience, so we felt it vital to show their clear identity.
On the other hand Some bands such as the Kooks, who are mainly about their sound and not their image rarely use photographs and tend to depict a more 70's music festival poster, where the artistry was want made them interesting and unusual. This image below also shows how they are a band and it is the band that is a product and each individual is equal and as significant as the other. This adds a mystery about their star image and individual identity and so keep the audience engaged and wanting more.




Although we could have done this with our poster as the Faulks have a great artistic vibe about them, we felt that their were other ways to add the artistic element and keep the star image visible.
We then looked at fonts that we could use to identify our band. Every band and artist has a font of text that is intently recognizable as their logo to their image. 'The Ting Tings" are a good example of this:




They use the same fond for all of their albums, posters and merchandise. Their font in particular is effective because it reflects the conventions of their music videos. For example they use bright almost florescent contrasting colours and like their video everything is very simple and minimal.
This concept really appeals to use and so we tried to come up with a font that reflected imagery in our video. Like 'The Ting Tings' we wanted to use a simple yet recognizable font but that was elegant yet edgy.

With this poster we also wanted to included as much information about concert dates as we possibly could as they are an up and coming band.

EVALUATION TASK 1: IN WHAT WAYS DO YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTS USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

DIRECT ADDRESS

One convention which is pretty much always used in pop promos is the use of ‘Direct Address’, this ensures that the performer performs directly to the audience, it gives them a sense of involvement – the use of this convention is to build a relationship between the audience and the performer. The direct address is used to give the audience an emotional connection to the band, the video presents itself based more on the style of the band image rather than the connotation of the lyrics, which contain a serious underlying meaning. Therefore maintaining direct address is an inevitable part of the music video, especially ours as the audience has to feel a connection with the duo in order to build up this fan based relationship which should follow. Above is an example, of a commercial artist, Lady Gaga – she is looking evidently straight towards the camera this entices the audience in to build up a relationship with them. Below, is a clip from our pop video where our lead singer gives the audience direct address to create this relationship. Also, we have decided to film at eye level as this gives a feeling of comradeship between both the performer and the target audience as the mode of address is on same level as audiences. When she looks away – it teases the audiences as it draws them in wanting more, as the star image is something they cannot have, they are then excluded if the star looks away making the audience hungry for more, it encourages repeated consumption. Even videos which are from Electronic Shamen use this convention, for example, ‘The Prodigy’ with ‘Warriors Dance’ and ‘The Chemical Brothers’ with ‘The Salmon Dance’, even though they do not have an actual person in their video it is still important for a connection to be made between the audience and the song itself, so therefore the performer, in this case the ‘salmon’ looks and sings straight towards the camera, therefore giving direct address, which supports this relationship.

LIGHTING

Lighting is a key aspect of all music videos, often depending on the light used depends on the way in which the band and the song is portrayed to the audience. In our video we used high key lighting to connote a happy, peaceful environment.
We decided to use high key lighting as it juxtaposes the bitter sweet lyrics and the upbeat sound of the music, as this helps to portray more of the stars image rather than the song itself. By using this type of lighting on both our male and female stars, it promotes a positive image to our audience, which is what they are primarily based upon. In contrast, The Ting Tings are a two person band, with their song ‘We walk’ the video is very darkly lit using low key lighting. This may be because they are trying to portray a darker underlying tone and meaning to either their video or themselves as a TV Bard band.

PERFORMANCE CLIPS (SVEN CARLSSON: AUDIO VISUAL POETRY)

Throughout our pop video, a key aspect of our promo is the performance clips – like most music videos this is an inevitable aspect. The performance part of our video was a main element, although we wanted it to fit with the genre and style of the band, therefore, the performance shots were set up in this naturalistic environment. They are playing their instruments in the setting in which they feel most comfortable and which best suits their individual style. As Keith Negus categorized bands and artists, our duo come across as a more organic act, thus, these performance clips meet the needs of the band and their target audience.We decided Melena would not only sing but also play the keyboard. This was quite a key part which was ongoing throughout the video as we mixed both wide shots and close ups of her playing her instrument. Whereas, our male singer, William, played the base guitar – the colours of his guitar are quite rustic which are again to emphasize their organic, natural image. Also, we purposely chose to keep the amplifier in the shot, as it again connoted this rural feel and again highlighted this naturalistic environment and their normality as a band.

Not only did the performance aspect make an ongoing appearance in the pop promo, but we extended the use of performance into the CD cover. The back of our CD cover also used the image of the amplifier – we decided to use this as it clearly highlights who they are as a band and that they are primarily interested in their music rather than being just a commercialized group. Again, the colours used also draw attention to their organic style.

The performance aspect is a vital part in all pop videos, below is an image taken from one of ‘The Ting Tings’ music videos. As a group they are quite similar in terms of they are also made up of a male and female artist, however, they have very much been commercialized rather than being a TV Bard band which Faulkes are. Although, they too use this key aspect of performance clips, the image below is just of the female singer with her microphone but also throughout the video many clips are used of the drums and also the base guitar to try and reinforce this performance aspect. But for Faulkes, it is very vital to have performance as one of the main features as this is their style and this is what their target audience desires from them.

CONCEPT CLIPS (SVEN CARLSSON)

Our pop video consisted of two different concept aspects, one being the band riding on bicycles and the other being them out in a rowing boat. Both these features give a sense of getting and being set free – being a TV Bard band aimed at a more teenage, young adult audience the idea of freedom is inevitable and therefore, this clearly meets their audiences needs and makes them feel connected with the band as they seem to be like-minded.

Both these concept sections do not primarily fit with the lyrics, but again we made a conscious decision to make the pop video primarily based around their style and star image rather than the connotations of the lyrics. Also, both the above shots of the duo cycling and the below shot of them rowing demonstrates this sense of naturalist, rustic image that they wish to portray to their audience, which highlights their art school background. Due to them having this creative background these concept clips perfectly fit with their style and image, even though it does not connote the lyrics, it still works effectively.

Although, most pop videos have a balance of both performance and concept clips – the concepts are often very contrasting. For example, looking at Lady Gaga’s video of ‘Bad Romance’, it is extremely abstract and creative. Everything she does is very peculiar, for example, one of the concept parts was all these ‘alien creatures’ coming out of white body boxes, this just proves her wacky style. Although this is so contrasting to our bands video, it is likely that they may somewhat appeal to a similar audience, as they are both artistically creative and abstract – this could be what our target audience may like. However, our video has a more natural approach to creativeness in both the concept aspects of the video.

MODE OF ADDRESS

Clearly, the mode of address is a very key element of most music videos. Our video portrays a clear, happy, upbeat style and mode of address. Although, this does not necessarily connote the lyrics of this particular song, as a band – they have this happy persona.

Throughout the piece, we have used autumnal rich colours which give the music video a soft, organic feel. There is a wind of change in public consciousness leaning towards a distrust of the synthetic nature of commodities, for example becoming and being more environmentally friendly – now even food companies are advertising more economic ways of packaging. Therefore, at present, this type of organic and natural environment is likely to appeal greatly to a wider audience as it is likely to fit these organic needs of the audience. The mode of address in our video shows an organic integrity that mirrors this public attitude, so appealing more to ‘trendies’. We have this alternative approach from the mass culture commercialized acts, and therefore, targeting and appealing to our specific target audience as it reflects their mind-set.
However, our video does also challenge some aspect of this convention. A common mode of address would be to have to female lead singer to be in the middle of the frame, if using the rule of thirds, as this is purposely design for the male gaze. Even, if the band is only a duo made of just a male and female then this convention is still used, for example, in the above still shot from one of ‘The Ting Tings’ pop videos – the male is not even in this shot, reinforcing this element of trying to appeal to the male gaze. By challenging this feature it reinforces this creative, artistic approach we have tried to create. Below is a still from our video, both singers are in the frame but Melena is to the right of the shot and in front of William, even though this challenges this convention, the shot still appeals to the male gaze as she is the one pulling in the focus even though she is not in the centre.

Moreover, the finalized product clearly demonstrates this organic image and style Faulkes are trying to create. Their positive and upbeat attitudes are evident throughout the piece which reinforces their band image.

USE OF SPFX

Special effects are a key feature that we have continually used throughout our video. For two out of the three different sections we used a blue screen, for the performance clips we had this artistic, textile piece in which one of our members of our group created which we used after affects to project it in the background. This created this natural, organic, arty environment we wished to create; it is a perfect mix with the autumn leaves covering the studio floor.
Whereas, the second use of blue screen was to create this sense of cycling, we shot them on bikes which were on frames so they were still, and used to blue screen and had a combination of pictures from a country lane to show them moving and cycling. It is quite clear that it is a fake scenario – but that was the idea. Also, by using a setting of the countryside again reinforces this organic, natural environment.

However, we did have some problems when it came to editing with the blue screen, as at times the image was slightly fuzzy due to the quality of the screen. But overall, it defiantly created the effect we wanted to.

Moreover, we also tried to challenge this stereotypical convention; we tried to create our own special effects, with our third concept section we wanted to create this scene where they were out rowing. Although, we could have used the blue screen again to create this, we decided to make these ourselves, again emphasizing this artistic environment, in which the target audience would greatly like. The whole approach to our special effects had this organic, natural setting – we wished to create this arty environment and it was defiantly highlighted throughout our pop video.

Task one

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FINAL PRODUCT

Unfortunately half of the screen is cut off so if you wish to view the whole thing then click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RAUrXGYFeQ&feature=PlayList&p=0C6D19B2C1DEE896&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=4

POST PRODUCTION AND EDITING

For our first few sessions of editing we began by taking the rushes, cutting them up and putting them into sub-clips. This was to make it easier in collecting the exact shots we wished to use, as they would all be titled and in separate bins which we had created. Once this was done we already had our filmed timeline in place, so we decided to just put the somewhat relevant clips in their correct position on the timeline. However, this proved more difficult than it sounds, as some of the shots we had drawn for our story board we had not actually filmed, so we just placed what we had down to give us a basic structure. Moreover, we found it very difficult to all cooperate at first, as there was a continuous battle to get on the mouse, so eventually we decided on just two people to move on with this, whilst the others got on with completing the background.


Once we had a basic structure down on the timeline, we actually realised that our initial idea of having a more narrative driven pop video was not actually working very well. Therefore, we decided to scrap this idea and start from the beginning, still keeping the same themes in place but now using a more of a montage effect. So we started to place things down on the timeline, however, myself and another member came to great difficulty in finding the actual beat. This was making it very difficult to cut in time – this was a great struggle that we defiantly had not over come quite yet but we are trying to get better. We wanted the pace of editing to be spot on and we wanted the right mode of address to be conveyed to the audience, so our slight technical problem was evidently becoming more and more difficult to over come.


We decided to just battle on and try and work through our problem, even though it was beginning to really get us down. So we continued to just getting the sequences down on the timeline in the correct order, however, we were somewhat just seeing where it took us rather than having an exact plan. We knew the general direction in which we wished to take our video, and how it was to be split up into three sections -it was just getting that perfect balance of these, and getting the pace of the editing in the correct position. Although, another problem that we were beginning to encounter was the lip sync, both our actors did not know their lyrics very well, this made it very difficult during these editing sessions, as shots we wished to use we couldn’t in the end because the singer was obviously singing the wrong lyrics, and this would jeopardise the overall look of the video. Therefore, getting the right shots with the singers singing the correct lyrics was becoming a very lengthy process, as were often having to cut in and out of more shots because of this factor. Nonetheless, it was making the video look all the much better as it was so much more precise.


Today, we have somewhat encountered a small problem, we seem to have overwritten our filmed and edited storyboards, and now we do not have them nor the original drawn out version. However, because we had very much moved on in our editing process and we actually realised we did not need them, nonetheless it would have been useful when it came to evaluating the product and reflect on what we did differently.


We have been spending a lot of our free time editing, just refining all the shots and making sure that the pace of editing is to the correct beat (which we are still continuously struggling with) and making sure it conveys to the audience what we wished to show, reinforcing this autumnal, organic aspect. We were coming up to the last few stages in this initial part of the process, as I think tomorrow we are going to start working in AfterEffects. Our pop video, without any of the blue screen shots are all placed down, so we just need to do this last part now.


Today, we started our editing session with an introduction into how to use the programme AfterEffects, undoubtedly this process was very complex and defiantly set us some great challenges. The first thing we did was initially went through all the shots in the video with the blue screen, we then had to export them individually into AfterEffects. This was all we managed in the first lesson, as this process was very time consuming and we had about 50 shots to consider.


Following our initial work, once they were all in AfterEffects, we went through each shot one by one and ‘Chromokeyed’ in the background. All of this was very tedious and time consuming but it was a repetitive process, and luckily myself and Lily just got on with it together, so it somewhat relieved a lot of pressure. Eventually, once our textile background was now in place, we began to put them on the timeline with markers, which enabled each background to move – as this was the effect we wished to create. Although, we noticed that some shots were travelling more than others, so we had to continuously make sure there was this balance. However, we did encounter an even bigger problem, many of our blue screen shots seemed fuzzy, this was inevitable as the blue screen we used was a thick, course material, so it was somewhat expected that it ended up looking slightly ‘fuzzy’, nonetheless there was very little we could do about it as this was a technical fault, that was pretty much impossible to completely overcome.


We now have sorted out the ‘bike scenes’, this process was slightly different. We uploaded all the pictures we had taken on a digital camera of a country road into AfterEffects, then we created a sequence with each shot lasting approximately one second – this created a montage effect.


We have now finished all the shots in AfterEffects and today we put it back into Final Cut Pro, once it was in there we decided to change some of the colours by using the enhance key, to make it look as authentic as possible.

PHOTOS OF THE SHOOT

A few photos from the shoot day

ACCOUNT OF SHOOT

At 4pm this afternoon, we were able to begin setting up in the studio in preparation for the following days shoot. By doing this it enabled us to go on tomorrow being ready to get going straight away. Also, we established that if we had not gone in tonight we would not be able to shoot very much tomorrow. As we soon realised that we had no where near enough leaves to cover the entire studio floor – as this was part of our set it would have set us greatly behind if we had not sorted out the minor problem this evening. Between two of us we went and collected another 12 black bags of leaves, even though this was a mad rush to get it all set up and ready by 6pm, we did achieve this. We spread the leaves across the floor and placed the tree trunks, amp and keyboard into position so we were able to get on shooting quickly in the morning.


We arrived at the studio about 9 o’clock in the morning. We wanted the day to be as relaxed as possible and for our performers to feel comfortable. However, I realised that I had left the storyboards athome, this was potentially a huge problem, but luckily we knew what a lot of the shots were to get going in the morning. Fortunately, my mother brought them into school so we had them for the afternoon. However, we had to get going regardless, so we begun the day by getting both our female and male singer ready, we wanted our look to be fairly of the norm and simple. Both our band members wore jeans and white tops; this look was simple yet really showed who they really were and their organic, natural approach to music etc. However, Melena wore some slightly kooky make-up, this was used to enhance her individuality and show that she is a bit unique in her style. Once the duo were all set and ready to go, we just put the music on repeat and let them both get into the mood and play around with what kind of choreography they felt comfortable doing. We wanted them both to feel relaxed as this would make the final piece look so much better.

Nearing 10 o’clock, we begun filming – we just did a few takes of the whole song, from start to finish in wide, as this would be the basis of our performance element of the video. However, once we got underway we realised that the positioning was not quite right, so we began to rearrange the performers in order to gain the best shot possible, placing William further the centre of the shot. Also, once the cameras began rolling Melena found it quite difficult to move and sing directly towards the camera, because we wanted this sequence to look extremely natural, it was very important that we got this in the end, and she did really up her game, but still at times she was very unaware of where the camera was positioned. As, we only had a day to shoot this we had to move on fast, as we all knew roughly what we wanted to be shot. Once we had filmed the wide shot of the performance section we moved onto close ups of the instruments. Again, this seemed to take a lot longer than it should have, as ‘William’ (Callum) cannot actually play base, in the wide it was not noticeable that he was not actually playing but in a close up it was very. Therefore, we had to spend a little time going through some of the basics, although this put us behind schedule a little; it enabled us to get the shots we needed. With Melena, it was fairly simple – we just wanted to shoot close ups of her singing really at this moment rather than on the keyboard. Although, we again encountered this problem of not looking directly into the camera, but we had to work with what we got.

We realised we were running on a very tight schedule, we still had more shots to film in this setting before we took a break for lunch. We hoped to break at 12.30, but that did not happen – we broke at 1pm, as we had to shoot the more ‘fun’ side to the duo, the shots of them messing around the leaves and Melena wandering up and down the tree trunks. Around this time, my group had a little argument, because one of the members of our group wanted to try out this new shot she had thought of, we were all willing to go along with it, however, it was not going as expected and this person would not give up until she got what she wanted, but this was being proven very difficult. Cutting, the story short we were just all trying to speed up the process, saying how it was necessary to move on as we needed to complete the filming in our time scale. Eventually, she did give in and we did move on – but as we were approaching our lunch break it was a bit of a mad rush to finish all these shot in time, it was impossible. In the end, we broke for lunch without quite finishing what we had anticipated. However, this made us all come together as a team during our break and realised that we had to just get on and not waste any time in the afternoon.

We came back for 2 o’clock, and we had set ourselves a task of getting these shots completed in fifteen minutes, all we wanted was shots of William sitting on the bench singing whilst Melena danced around him – although we wanted to experiment with angles we had to just get on with it and shoot what we could.

Around half past two, it was vital we moved on. The next set was ‘the bikes’. Both the bicycles were already set up on the platforms ready for us to begin shooting. We positioned them into the centre of the studio. We wanted to create a windy day scenario, so we had the fans blowing from a short distance away to make sure it was not over powering as some leaves were blowing across the shot. We decided to just get on with the following footage, for this set we mainly just needed to go through the whole song a few times of them singing, performing and ‘cycling’ and most importantly having fun. After a couple of takes, our female performer had a small accident and fell off the bike, thankfully she was completely fine and just laughed it off, although we were all quite worried it would knock her confidence and then not give us the performance we really needed from her. However, we took a quick break to boost up her energy and then continued with this set. Throughout this set it was easy for our group to take turns being on camera and be creative with the shot types as the set was quite simple etc.

After about an hour of this set, we realised we had to move on and move on quickly. Our final set was ‘the boat’; this meant we had to completely clear everything in the studio. We got everyone involved, ensuring all the leaves were swept up and put back into the black bags. Once everything was clear we were able to bring in the wooden waves and place the material along the studio back wall. All in all, this took about thirty minutes to set up and then we were ready to shoot the final concept part of our pop promo. By this time, everyone was beginning to get tired but we all picked ourselves up and tried to make the last hour as fun as possible. Our wooden waves were very large, so we grabbed a few friends to move them to help create the moving wave effect we wanted. Again, the shots we needed were mainly in wide of the duo just joking around and having a laugh, so again we were all able to take turns filming on the camera and on the playback, all being able to get involved was really good as we were able to get a feel of both being on camera and also just being involved in terms of creativity and getting our opinions and ideas across. The last hour of the shoot day was however very fun as we all knew it was drawing to a close shortly and we wanted to get the best out of the day. Both our performers were very relaxed by this time and were really able to go for it to finish off the day.

About half past five we finished, our time frame was up and we had completed our shoot day. We then had to clear out the studio, to allow the following group to set up.

As a whole, I felt our shoot day went extremely well. There was a very relaxed atmosphere throughout the day and it allowed everyone to feel comfortable and for us to really get all the shots we wanted. However, obviously there were some moments which were fairly tedious, either our group were having a disagreement in the shot types or the performers were lacking energy and we were just pushing on at them to really deliver. But all in all, I defiantly believe we have a wide variety of footage, and hopefully we can now edit the footage successfully in order for our pop promo to be of a high standard that we wish to achieve.

PREPING FOR THE SHOOT INCL. RUNNING ORDER

Preparation for the shoot:

Props:

• Casio White Keyboard
• Bass Guitar
• Amp
• Logs - tree stumps
• Leaves - enough to cover studio floor
• Roses
• Front of wooden rowing boat
• 2 bikes
• Wooden waves
• Fabric - blues and whites to make waves
• Pasasol
• Gold refelectors
• Face paints

Location - Studio

• Set 1 - Performance element. We want leaves to cover the studio floor and logs diagonally across. We want a naturalistic setting.
• Set 2 - Bikes. Again we want to keep the leaves covering studio floor with 2 bikes on a platform infront of a blue screen.
• Set 3 - Boat. We want to create this fake but real setting, using fake waves and a boat to make it look as if out on a sunny day. The waves being the width of the studio and the boat slightly bobbing up and down.

Here are a few logs of our promo preparation I have kept over a period of time:

Running order for the day:

9:00-10:00

Make -up and costume for Marlene and William

10:00 -11:30

SHOOT Performance concept both Marlene and William

11:30 -12:3

SHOOT Performance concepts Marlene

SET CHANGE AT LUNCH

1:15- 3:15

SHOOT Bike concept both Marlene and William

BREAK : SET CHANGE

4:00- 5:30

SHOOT Boat concept both Marlene and William

5:30- 6:00

DE RIG STUDIO SET

COMPLETE GET-OUT

We have had to take into consideration how long its going to take to shoot our story boards plus leave a little time on the end of each to experiment a little. We had also taken in to account how long each set change is going to be. One will definitely take us 45 minutes as we have to clear the leaves away and change the bike set for the boat set which will require a team of six to do. Seeing as there are only three of use we have hired a few other people to help with the set changes, the moving of the waves, and the lighting changes.
We also had to take into account the time table of both our performers and work out a system that would work around them.



I have now made a list of all the props that need to buy before the day of our shoot for example the roses. At the moment we are debating whether to buy the roses and then hang them so that they dry out or to buy them at a later date when they are read and softer. We are thinking that although the dried out color of the roses would give a more vintage and worn look we feel that a deeper and more lushes red would bring out the reds in the backdrop. So we have settled on buying the roses the night before the shoot and having a budget of £80.00 We have also decided it best to buy them from Tesco’s as they are £5.00 for 10 small roses and £8.00 for five medium size roses.


Now we have arranged all the set design elements for two concepts we have moved on to colleting the leaves and instruments for out performance layout. We have decided to start collecting now as we want to keep the leaves crisp and seeing as there are to be heavy showers up until our shoot date if we leave it any longer we may not have enough time to collect the amount of leaves we need and if we do they will most likely be wet. We feel that it is better to have to many leaves than to have to little as so we have colleted 15 black bag full that we are cretin will be more than enough.

We originally decided that we wanted a white or cream keyboard but we have since had trouble finding one the we can afford and so we have settled on using my old retro keyboard and to match my black acoustic guitar. I also felt to tie everything to get the leaves and the instruments my leather amplifier would be quit I nice tough and would add to our vintage, retro sort of style of the video.


Today we went onto the internet to hire bike stands for our shoot as we need to give the appearance that Marlene and William are riding bikes yet we are filming in a studio with a blue screen and so moving bike will not be doable. As a group we searched the Internet to find a compromise that would allow us to capture this effect and we did. We have now set a date for our shoot and have been able to inform the bike hirers when we will need the two stands and for how long.



As a group we now have a master folder in which we kept a log of all our lighting plans, set plans, costumes changes and prop lists in order to make our preparation for our shoot day as accurate as possible and as easy and quit as possible.

One set in particular requires a lot of time and careful consideration. This concept is the boat scene and the reason why it has take so much time is because we have had to create a boat and waves. We had to build these ourselves as we don’t have the money to go out and buy the kind of boat we want and we have not bean able to rent. In building the boat we began by building a simple frame out of wood and then to create the base instead of using wood as it was more complex we used modrock and then painted the boat a dark brown. In theriou this was not ideal and we wanted a real boat but we decided as we had the materials already that we should most probably try and see if we could create something that would work. Lucky we have and we are all very please with the outcome. Having achieved this we since felt very confident that our fake wooden wave will also be successful and after another weeks work we have now finished sawing out chipboard waves have began to paint them a variant of blues. Up against the boat they look great and we know that when we get the material for the backdrop everything will hopefully tie in nicely and will give the strange naturalistic and artistic style we are looking to achieve.

STORYBOARDING

Today, we began the process of getting our ideas down onto paper to help us with our shoot day as it will give us more of an idea on the day as to exactly what we wish to shoot. Since this is our first lesson, we each sat down alone and just started drawing out the different shots we felt we wanted, this was just to help get us into the right frame of mind and put us onto the right track. This way by doing this individually we could do whatever we wanted, as this was just our initial ideas. We each set ourselves the target to complete between ten and fifteen shots each so that next lesson we could begin with coming back and discussing our own ideas, and that way it will trigger and generate more innovative ideas and be more progressive next lesson.


We set off straight away today with a discussion of all our own ideas, as this helped with letting the whole group have a general direction as to where we all wanted to go. As one of our members of our group was away we split up again – each choosing one of the three different sections to our pop promo. I concentrated on the middle section, which was ‘the bikes’. In this, I just drew out a number of different shot types, ranging from mid to close ups of both the male and female singer. Also I drew close up shots, of different things to make the shots varied, e.g. a close up of the handle of the bicycle. Again, we set ourselves a goal of completing a certain amount of different shots; we each did between fifteen and twenty so we then had a good amount of shots to work with for our shoot day.


In the lesson today, we just began to make the finishing touches to our storyboards, going very them with a fine-liner and adding some colour to help give more of an idea as to what we want the shots to actually look like. Then we began to organise them into an order, the order in which at the moment we want our pop promo to look like. As this way we can immediately begin filming our storyboard in the correct order in tomorrow’s lesson.


Today, we filmed our storyboard to turn it into an animatic to transfer it onto a timeline in Final cut pro–this will show us a rough cut of. This will then be really useful when it comes to editing our final piece as it will help with getting the right shots in the right place as well as for the right amount of time. Although, it is likely many of the shots will change on the shoot day. Jay and I set up the camera JVC 1500E, we pinned each shot up and filmed each one for approximately 20 seconds.

Now we had our storyboards filmed, we began editing it. We have spent about two lessons on it, today and yesterday and we made a rough cut of the order and the shot lengths. As this, we felt would give us a clear vision to work with when it came to filming our finalised video. We used Final Cut Pro to edit our storyboard – we put all the clips down onto the timeline and then broke it up and made sure we put the right clip to the right piece of music. We used our timeline, which we had previously made to help us with this as we were then aware of when the three different sections were. As this was only a rough cut we did not do this too accurately as we were aware that after our filming day our shots were going to be very different so it was just an initial outline as to what we wanted our pop promo to look like.

TEXTILE COLLAGES FOR BACKDROP BLUESCREEN

Here are the three collages I created for our backdrop, which we will photograph, scan into photoshop and then transfer into After Effects in Final Cut Pro once we reach the post-production phase. I talked a little about what inspierd me with my group concerning our concept ideas. I have been hugly inflenced by Robert Rauschenberg.

Here are a few images of his work:







And here are photographs of my pieces: