Evaluation:

Creative process of Evaluation:

We first wrote all of our ideas out in rough in order to get inspiration from each other, then we created a main idea for each question so we had a plan that we could follow.

For Question 1 we included videos we recorded using Camtasia from youtube of the music videos we got inspiration from while creating our video. Then we created a script for all the things we wanted to say over our recorded footage. These were then recorded using quick time player on a laptop that we took into a quiet room to reduce the ambient noise given out due to our surroundings being a school it is very loud.













Due to use not having very much lesson time, we decided to record the screen before creating a script for the other questions as it is very time consuming. Therefore, we wrote down all of our ideas then wrote scripts once we knew what images we had to work with and what we had to include. Then we could record our voices at home as it was a more natural environment it doesn't song as rehearsed. We have also found it hard to find difference ways to answers each question, as we want to use as mean different media platforms as possible such as powtoon, youtube videos, screen recordings of our products, interviews, a questionnaire and voice recordings.

For Question 2 we decided to record all of ancillary texts on one screen which included our music video, poster and digipak. We showed all of the similarities, while recording the screen and moving the mouse when talking about particular things, then we are going to place a voice over explaining the processes we when through in creating them and why, An example of this is the front cover of our poster as it is the same as our digipak, we did this so they convey the same feel as it is very similar to our video with a black and white image with very little text also enabling it to be easily identifiable to consumers.

For Question 3 due to it being about audience feedback we have created a questionnaire in order for views to answer after watching our music video, we have decided to record their reactions and also answer a few questions about themselves to see where they fit within our target audience. We feel this is the best way to answer this question as it will show real emotions as our views will be feeling and therefore showing us through the way they answer our questions and their facial expressions.


Question 4 is about different media technologies we have used within the whole process of this project. We have used so many more then A2 as we have had to do a lot more research and create more products such as a digipak, therefore more programs have been used such as Indesign and Photoshop.

Evaluation Questions:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 

Software Limitations:

When creating our music video, we feel we came across many limitations in which we felt were out of our control to easily correct.

Most of these limitations were due to the lack of effective equipment and the availability of software. 

Examples of these were;

The camera quality: Due to being students we found the quality of our camera could have negatively impacted our music video and the effectiveness of our footage. We found that some shots were not as clear as we would have desired them to be. Another problem was sharing these cameras with other students which affected our time slot in which we could use these pieces of equipment. 

One massive problem we encountered due to the lack of software was to do with our plans to film slow motion shots of smashing bottles. We have explained this on another blog post. 

Actors- Although our actors were extremely cooperative and enthusiastic, due to being students themselves (one of them was also a full time boarder, who was not permitted to leave the school site) we found the time available to actually film was limited. Therefore, this left us with less choice in where and when we can film. This was the reason for the darker shots, which we had to edit and change the brightness of our footage. We have explained this in more detail here:


http://alicefreemankingsa2mediastudiesblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/using-final-cut-pro.html

Due to all of these limitations hopefully you can understand better why some shots are not as clear as others or as could as they could be. For example the photo below, which with a wider availability of equipment and software and/or a wider choice of willing actors able to commit to more time and locations, we could have improved some footage and areas of our music videos.

Our Finished Music Video:

Creative Process of our Music Video:

Stage 1- We firstly imported the song from Youtube so we could fit our footage to the exact time we wanted.

Stage 2- We placed a black strip under our chosen song so we could add as we went along without all of the footage moving if we deleted one part.

Stage 3- Due to us filming emma first, we only had her footage at the beginning, therefore we place it where we wanted it to go however, this was obviously going to change as we didn't know how our other footage was going to turn out. However, we tried to use our story boards as much as possible and found they were a useful guideline. 

Stage 4- We then filmed Tobi lip singing, most of this footage was good so we placed it all in to correct position in comparison to the song. 

Stage 5- We filmed both actors together, so we got all of the 'happy' shots and arguments. We placed these in the high and low tempo sections of the song which added to the appropriate emotions we wanted to convoy. 

Stage 6- After putting the main footage where we wanted it to go, we filled in the gaps with extra footage that had been taken throughout our filming.

Stage 7- We placed the black and white background on every shot single shot, then when over them all to see if they were all the same colour using 'colour match' and changed the brightness according. 

Stage 8- We then exported our finished video onto Youtube in order to put it on our blog

Music Video Title:

We have researched many music videos to see their titles for inspiration. When researching we hardly found any. We especially found none in our music genre. An example of one we found was Taylor Swift's, Bad Blood music video.

What we noticed is that it would not fit our genre of music as well as our actual music. For example, our music was very slow and emotional. 

The titles of Swift's music video was very effective, as it made the sequence seem like a action movie in which fitted her storyline. 

In using this concept in our video, it would take away focus and engagement in a emotion filled storyline and could distract and lose emotion, focus and sympathy from our viewers. 

Therefore we made a bold decision to not include a title in the hope to sustain attention and allow the viewers to fully understand and empathise with our characters. 

Why is that back page of our Digipak Grainy?

When taking pictures for our digipak we felt like we did not want another photo of our artist on the back, therefore we took a several pictures in different landscapes. We found this photograph from Harrow Viewpoint was extremely effective, however can appreciate  that it may come across grainy to some people. This again was due to the camera quality we were available too. However, also our location was to blame, as it was a viewpoint, at night no lighting was available. We decided to wait at the location till we found the natural light was appropriate however, this could be a cause to the slightly grainy appearance. 

However, we rather like this natural effect and feel it slightly matches some of the grainy footage present in our music video due to the lighting and camera problems we experienced when filming.  

Footage we are not using:

We have decided we are not using the Smashing Bottles in our music video, we feel like they haven't turned out the way we wanted them to look.

We used an Iphone 6 as advised by our teachers due to the fact buying new equipment would be too expensive, we thought the footage would come out clear, however exporting it onto a Mac we lost nearly all of the quality, it became all blurry and the slow motion was ineffective. We were going to redo the smashing bottle videos however, we thought it would be too time consuming and wouldn't change the quality as we didn't have different equipment to use anyway. We also tried filming it without the slow motion and creating this effect on final cut, however the footage was jolty.  

Using Final Cut Pro:

We are using final cut to create our music video, there are loads of possible ways to create a video on this program including different transformations and effects.

For all of our shots we are using a black and white effect, therefore we used match colour throughout our project to make sure everything was exactly the same. 

Due to some of our footage being very dark we had to brighten it using final cut. An example of this would be when tobi was walking up the hill. Doing this made our footage clearer due to a deeper contrast.






We didn't use transition within our music video, as we felt we they were included it made it look very unprofessional. Other music videos we have looked at didn't include them therefore we didn't feel it was necessary. Therefore our final product only includes jump cuts.

About the beginning of our Music Video:

We started our music video with shaky footage of emma to create the effect that she is drunk, we believe this works well with the music.

We believe it may have one of the impacts on our viewers.

1. Allowed the viewers to understand how much Emma has drunk, and how unstable she is.

2. Empathise with Emma, as the camera work makes the viewer feel like they are unstable and drunk themselves.

3. Fitted with the odd, slow musical introduction to the song.

4. Feels like we are following her.

5. Shows her as vulnerable, as she walks alone.

6. May encourage confusement and engagement into what is to come.

7. Shows a long shot of Emma, therefore revealed Emma's costume and her hand holding a bottle of alcohol.

Explanation of costumes:

We chose to do a post on explaining our actors costumes to show they wore the clothes for a reason and it wasn't just random.

Emma- In parts of our music video emma is wearing a green party dress, we wanted her to wear this as it is a very feminine and stereotypical teenage dress. We then decided for her not to wear her heels as it shows that she has been out for a long time and her feet are hurting. We made sure her face was heavily made up for a party to show she is hiding her emotions. We also wanted her to cry, therefore we got water and splashed it over her face in order to make her mascara smudge showing she has been crying. We also filmed her in normal clothes (a hoodie) when she gets home to show she has given up with the way she looks and this make her more vulnerable.



Tobi- For all of tobi's costumes we told him to wear what he wanted this was because we wanted a realistic image of a boy his age. His outfit choices were very simple to show a stereotypical teenage boy.

Photoshoot 2:

We needed to take more photos in order to complete our digipak as the photos we took on the first photo shoot were all very similar and the quality of the pictures when placed in Indesign were not at a high standard. Therefore, we took these pictures then used Photoshop to make them into black and white which has been explained on my blog already.

 

Final Digipak:

Social Media Pages We Created:

We created a twitter account first as it is a main source of social media most artists use to get in touch with existing and potential fans which was perfect for our artist. We thought as it is a key form of marketing for many artists nowadays that it would be good to see if we could create the same sort of effect. We have been "tweeting" regularly in order to create an interest with our target audience.

We also created a instagram account to show pictures of our artists development, through-out our course work we will be uploading pictures such as the album cover, pictures from the photo shoot, music video locations to get fans excited for the release. We believe this is how real artists inform fans about up coming things in their lives.

How We Made Our Digipak:

We used InDesign to create our digipak.  At first we found it very complicated to use and found it very frustrating. However, once we got the hang of it, it became second nature. We feel that InDesign gives a real professional look to the final product. We added pictures from google of social media logos, QR scan and barcode to make our digipak look like a real product.
We used cmd to make the pictures smaller but keep the ratio then just moved the arrows to crop the whole picture including the white lines around the edges.
Once we knew what font we wanted all we did was copy and paste it to assure it was the same size the whole way through our digipak.

Using Photoshop:

We used Photoshop to edit our photoshoot pictures as they were really dark but also because we wanted them in black and white. 

We found it very quick to get the right thing we wanted, all we did was adjust the brightness by making it brighter as well as playing with the contrast.  

Lastly, we transformed our picture to black and white to match the theme throughout our video, digipak and poster. 

We also used photoshop to create a signature for our artist. We did this by starting with a black background, then we played around with the different pens according to thickness until we found the one that looked natural.  

 

Final Poster:

Filming Limitations For Second Day of Filming:

Finding locations to film was very difficult as the locations we planned in our story board weren't available so we had to find other alternatives. For Example, we didn't plan for our artist to lip-sing outside, however we had no other alternative but we thing this went it our favour as we feel like it is very effective and goes with the theme of our song.

As our actor didn't know the song lyrics we had to print them off and hold them up next to the camera in order for him to see them and also look into the camera. At first we though this wouldn't work, however it became very effective as we placed the words on the floor for the actor to see them it created a very emotional effect on his acting as he was always looking at the ground. Also the lip singing was very hard to achieve as it is very difficult to do it exactly the same speed as the song, we tired to film as far away from the actors mouth as possible so it wasn't as clear if his mouth wasn't exactly on time.

Lighting was a big problem with filming today as we filmed in the evening and there was little natural light. We over came this by filming near buildings where lights were on inside and also by filming near flood lights to give a more natural effect rather then using our own lighting which looks art

Photoshoot For Digipak:

As our artist is male we have decided to just use him for our digipak instead of both of our actors.

As these pictures were taken in the evening they are very dark, we are going to brighten them and then use a black and white effect.

We had an idea of the sort of pictures we wanted to take before we started the photoshoot, we thought by doing this we could save time as we were very limited due to starting at around 4pm when it started to get dark. Due to us wanting to use a black and white effect we weren't too bothered about the darkness of the shots as this could be changed by editing using photoshop. 

This is how we got our final product.