Music Video- Final Cut

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

YouTube/ Band Websites- YouTube was used highly in the research stages as it allowed me to analyse previous music videos. The analysis of music videos was very important in the early stages as it allowed me to review the codes and conventions of other music videos of the artists genre. Band websites were used in a similar but also helped for the planning of the digipacks and posters as i could see what other artists digipacks and posters looked like and included.

Prezi/Slideshare- Prezi and Slideshare were used in the research and planning stages as it allowed me to develop my ideas into a clear format. They also helped to be a location of which I could store my research. 

Photoshop/ Final Cut Pro- These two programmes were used in the construction stages of my video, digipack and posters. Final Cut was used in the construction of my video and helped to create the effects that I wanted to be featured. This includes the jittering text, 'color' correction and desaturation of the clips. It also allowed me to slow some clips down that were either not the correct length or that needed to be slowed down for effect.  Photoshop was used for the creation of the digipack and poster. Photoshop helped for this stage as it allowed me to erase areas of images that I did not want and also allowed me to add filters to the images.

Blog- my blog was used in the evaluation stages by helped me evaluate the production stages of the video, digipack and poster as I made them. It also helped to document the production of these.

Evaulation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback helped greatly in the early stages of the development of my video. One of the key bits of feedback I got from showing my animatic was that the original performance element began to become predictable and boring around half way through the video. I was told that adding another performance element around ½ or 2/3 of the way through the song would help to prevent the forest performance becoming boring.

During the animatic stages I was also told that some of my shots were too long and needed to be cut down. This helped to make the video flow a lot more as the shots fit more with the music rather than the lyrics, which was how I had originally planned the video.

Something I learned from audience feedback was that it helps you to make the correct decision. I discovered this when I created an audience feedback sheet asking for a vote on the two drawn digipacks I had created. After receiving the feedback it was clear that more people wanted the more ‘natural’ looking digipack than the one that would be primarily shot inside. This taught me that my decision was not always the best as the digipack that I preferred did not receive any votes from my feedback with most people suggesting that the ‘natural’ one tied in more with my music video.

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

Iconography-

The iconography I picked for my artist and video features coherently throughout my music video, digipack and posters. The text features a hard-edged font called ‘Diamond D’ which I picked as I felt it represented the image I wanted to put across of my artist. The font represents my artist as it keeps in with the indie-rock genre that she fits with. It also gives the impression that she is ‘tough’ and strong willed.

I have also created a simple symbol for my artist, which can be used in place of the artist name on products such as digipack covers and posters.

Nature/forest-

The theme of nature is included in both my music video and digipack. When I listened to the song I knew that the video’s main location had to be outside in a forest. Although I did not use the same location for the digipack shoot I still wanted to do most of the shoot outside so that it had a connection with the music video. This was effective as it still kept with the overall ‘natural’ theme of the music video but still allowed it to be distant enough to still be the cover for the digipack which included songs which do not have the same ‘natural’ feel.

Record Label-

Deciding upon a record label for my artist was important because I had to pick the record label that was correct for the genre of artist I have created. To decide upon a label suitable for my artist I looked at artists similar to mine and decided which was most appropriate to my artist. The company I picked was Universal Island Def Jam of which the artist Florence + the Machine is signed to.

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

My music video uses conventions from real media products. To make sure my video kept to the conventions of other music videos of the genre I did research into those videos. I used this analysis to help me when developing the original storyboard. When developing my music video storyboard I would use the conventions discovered through my analysis to make sure that it fitted in with the genre. The conventions that I found through the analysis included close-ups of the artist, use of mirrors and the use of more natural locations.

The use of close-ups and mirrors also relates to Andrew Goodwin’s codes and conventions of a music video. One of Andrew Goodwin’s conventions includes the notion of looking. This could be anything from; television screens, mirrors, people looking at each other or at the audience. In my video I have used the artist looking into the mirror and also looking at the audience. Another of Andrew Goodwin’s conventions include record companies demands for exposure of the artist through the use of close ups. I have also used that for this reason.

My video also relates to the connection between lyrics, music and visuals. Some examples of when I use a relation between music and visuals appear around 2 minutes into the song. At this point in the song the word hunters is repeated in an almost chant like manner. Every time the word is repeated there will be a different shot of either the artist singing or running from the other ‘character’. An instance where I use a relation between lyrics and visuals is around 1:50 into the video. At this point the lyrics “starts so soft and sweet, and turns them to hunters” shows the two ‘lovers’ embracing before cutting to another shot of the artist running on the next line of “hunters”. This relates to the warning of “be careful of the curse, that falls on young lovers”.

First Showing + Feedback

Today we had the first showing of our music videos and received feedback from the rest of the group.

One of the biggest bits of feedback I received was to add another element nearer the beginning that would balance out the day-time and dark elements already in the video. 

I have not yet decided if this new element will be filmed on location or in my garage again but I have had an idea to have the artist filming herself sing into the camera in a hand-held style.

Editing: Narrative Element

This is a selection of shots that are included as the narrative element in my video.

These shots were filmed on the 17th and 18th of February along with the forest performance elements.

Upon editing these clips I found that many of them were not the length that I had originally planned for them to be in my storyboard and animatic. A way I have got around this is by using more shots from the two performance elements and also slowed the speed of some shots down.

Throughout the video I have added two filters to every shot.

One filter that I have added to the video is a desaturation filter. I did this to remove some of the colours within the video to make it more grey and look as though it was filmed on a 'grey day'. When you put the filter on the video the video appears as black and white but I did not want to remove all colour from the video. On this particular shot I changed the 'amount' from 100 to 44. I have changed the amount of each shot to between 40 and 50.

The other filter that I added to the video is the 'Color Corrector 3-way'. This gives you the option to change the 'Blacks', 'Mids' and 'Whites' in the video to another colour. I wanted to give my video a blue tint which would also help to make it seem like a 'grey day'. I only moved the circles slightly towards the blue/turquoise part of the colour wheel as anything more would have made the video overly blue. I changed the 'Blacks', 'Mids' and 'Whites' for every shot.

For the final shot I wanted to extend the shot into a dissolve but did not want to cut into the shot itself and have the shot dissolve before I wanted it to. To get around this I took a snapshot of the final frame of that shot and added it to the timeline. I then added the dissolve transition to that image.