Ben Evaluation

Technology Evaluation
by: benkaye

Evaluation Question 3 Script

I am going to talk about how we acted upon the feedback we received from our peer reviews to improve our video.

Our peer reviews suggested that we should include more of chloe. We acted upon this by taking another nights filming, in which we focused on getting a lot of narrative footage to convey to the audience that chloe and tom (our star persona).

As another comment we received was to include more narrative, we included a lot of this footage in our video in a logical order. Not only did this reduce the amount of lip-syncing (another peer review suggestion) but it also made our video a lot more interesting to watch as we now have a story of a relationship, a common convention of pop and rock music videos.   As our rough cut was almost entirely lip-syncing with mainly mid and long shots, when filming our narrative we tried to include a greater variety of shot types and angles. An example of this is the low angle long shot of chloe holding reading a letter, followed by an over the shoulder close up of the letter. We hope that by increasing the variety of shot types and angles our video is less repetitive and should keep the audiences attention. We also spent a lot of time experimenting with cross fading our cuts rather than just using jump cuts, to make the narrative an important part of the video rather than just to fill time.



I filmed this script being read in one take. It is going to be used as part interview and part voice over including clips of our music video, as a medium of communicating the feedback received and how we used this feedback to improve our video, with brief explanations of how this was achieved.
   

Planning for evaluation task 3

What have you learned from audience feed back?

for this task we need to create a directors commentary, which includes clips from the music video, and ancillary tasks as well as vox pop presentations of audience feedback. we have recieved feedback through vox pops of our rough cut, and peer reviews. we have acted on our peer reviews and rough cut feedback. in our next lesson (5/12/12) we will record a vox pop of our own evaluation and reviewing the changes we have made throughout the production process.

Comments we have recieved:

include more of chloe

more narrative

different shot types and angles

not as much lip-syncing

T2-09 Music Magazine Advert

This is our final magazine advert. We are very happy with it and we have shown above the original photo on the right.
We first of all used the clone stamp tool to remove some of the graffiti and textures that we did not want in the image. We did this to smooth out the image and make it more appropriate for use. When we were out photographing we stumbled upon this graffiti and knew that we wanted to use it, we therefore took numerous photos of it before choosing one to use.
We then merged two photos together to bring the graffiti man to life, we used a photo of Tom who is the star in our music video. 

Bonus content ideas for the Digipak

As this is a special release album it would be a great idea to include certain 'bonus features' in the digipak. Such as:

>posters of the band

>Live tracks and perhaps featurettes of the tracks

>free entry into competitions (for, personal gig, memorabilia, tour tickets e.t.c.)

Ideas for track listing on the Digipak

>Live like we're dying (Title track)
>Standing in time
>The end where I begin (Script song)
>The wake up call
>Lift me up
>Save me
>We cry (Script song)
>A little heart to heart
>Paper heart
>Time and again

we also thought as the digipak is a 'special release' album we should include some 'bonus' tracks:

>The man who can't be moved (Script song)
>If you ever come back (Script song)

Peer reviews

on the 5th of November we received feedback from the rest of our class. this gave us an opportunity to further improve our music video and get advice from external sources that were on our level. we found that most people thought we needed more footage in different locations with a wider variety of angles, to this end we organised another evening of filming. another point was that people couldn't 'see' the star persona, which was the focus of the new filming. other than that our lip syncing was, apparently, quite effective, the camera control was good and the mise-en-scene was relevant and material was appropriate.

Our Final Music Video

This is our final music video! We are very pleased with it overall and we feel we have improved it a lot since our rough cut.

Task Two

Due to our original filming difficulties which resulted in us losing a days filming, we have had to spend all our group time editing so far and have not had much of a chance to discuss the digipack. However we do have a large number of photo's we have taken for the digipack, we just need to select which of them will fit best with our other products and star persona.

On the other hand, our magazine advert created on photoshop went well, and I gained a lot of skills and knowledge regarding photoshop, having never used the programme before. Our magazine advert contains elements suggestive of the pop genre. I think we should replicate this in the digipack which  should combine our products effectively, hopefully resulting in the overall product appearing professional and well planned.

Task 5

OKGo Artists Analysis

I have researched the band OKGo, and watched five of their music videos.

OKGo have an interesting star persona, in the sense that their videos manage to include the band in almost every shot, yet they are never the centre of attention. In effect, the bands star persona is focused on their artistic creativeness outside of music, resulting in very technical, interesting to watch and original music videos.

As OKGo's videos are very technical, it is no surprise that they display many applications of Goodwin's theory. Editing to the beat is used to great effect in their video for 'End Love'.

In this screenshot editing to the beat is being combined with excellent use of micro elements such as mise en scene, resulting in the video being very interesting to watch. There use of editing to the beat may also help their audience connect the impressive video to the song, helping them to sell their music.




I believe the bands target audience is teenagers and young adults. I believe this because there music is almost less important than their videos in terms of what makes them stand out from the crowd as a band. Therefore OKGo are much more likely to appeal to a younger audience with a greater interest in modern technology person than someone over fifty, for example. They are attempting to appeal to an almost unique target audience within the music industry. By producing very creative and technical music videos, the band are very appealing to people with an alternative taste in music and an appreciation for technology, media, filming or editing.

In contrast to OKGo our target audience for our music video is most definitely more mass market, as pop music is very popular and successful pop artists are always being played on the chart shows of music video channels such as MTV Hits. We are attempting to target this audience by adhering to many of the stereotypes of the pop music video. An example of this is that we are making great use of cutting between different scenes of the singer performing. Bellow is an example of this format being used in Adele's music video for Rolling In The Deep, a successful pop song.

Task One

The Script's music fits the pop genre. While we are in the early stages of editing, we have already managed to cut between a variety of scenes and camera angles showing the singer singing. This is stereotypical of a pop video, as a lot of scenes allows for a lot of cuts, which keeps the video interesting for the audience. The slowed down and then reversed shot of the clock smashing technique isn't found in many pop videos, with the aim of being different enough to keep the audience interested, without looking out of place in a pop video.

In order to have some variation on just cutting between performance shots, Due to the title of the song 'Live Like We're Dying' we decided to include some narrative footage emphasising time. The relationship between lyrics and visuals in our video is for the most part amplified. The best example of this is where the lyrics are "Live like we're dying', we cut to a slowed down then rewinded shot of a clock smashing. The purpose of this is to support the meaning of the lyrics, but placing an emphasis on time.

When considering the relationship between the music and visuals, at this stage of the editing process the only notable editing technique we have included is editing to the beat through out the first verse and chorus. This is a technique we intend to implement throughout the video, as is often the case in the Pop genre.

Our singer is the main focus of the video, with many close ups of him singing. In all of the shots of him singing, he is the main and perhaps even sole focus within the scene. This should fulfil any artist presence based demand of the record label and promote brand awareness. However it is worth considering filming some more exiting shots of the singer, perhaps incorporating some camera movement, which should help to improve the flow of our music video.

An example of notions of looking in our video is the scene where the singer is sitting in front of a graffiti covered wall. This setting is very contradicting to the singers clothing, which will hopefully engage the audience by leaving the contrast unexplained, thereby urging them to form their own opinion of his star persona.

Task Four

Thanks to digital television, there are many different music channels available. These cover a wide variety of genres and artists. For example Kerrang plays mostly rock and metal music videos, and the various MTV channels cover pop, rap, alternative, rock and many more genres. I believe the Script are most likely to be played on MTV Rocks. The channel would play The Script during one of their less heavy, more pop influenced rock playlists. 


An example of a Channel that definitely would not play The Script is Scuzz. Scuzz is a channel aimed at fans of metal music, and does promotions such as giving away free guitars in competitions aimed at metal fans. As The Script are a pop/rock artist playing there music would never be considered at Scuzz, as they are not the the type of artist its viewers want to listen to.


When considering internet channels that may exhibit The Script's music video, it is very relevant that the majority of music videos watched online are on YouTube. On YouTube, The Scripts music videos with the most views are distributed through Vevo. 

Our Music Video would be played on both the same television and internet channels as mentioned above, and if the release of the video has adequate promotion and is successful, it could be played on the MTV Hits channel, which frequently plays programmes such as 'UK Top 20'.  

  

Task Three

For this task i decided to use Prezi to present my research and ideas on the subject of artists use of social media. Having not used Prezi before this was challenging at first, but during the course of making my presentation I feel I gained a good understanding of what Prezi is and how to use it. Bellow is the link to my presentation.

<div class="prezi-player"><style type="text/css" media="screen">.prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }</style><object id="prezi__utpxeh4xk4f" name="prezi__utpxeh4xk4f" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="550" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowFullScreenInteractive" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="wmode" value="direct"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"/><param name="flashvars" value="prezi_id=_utpxeh4xk4f&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;autoplay=no&amp;autohide_ctrls=0"/><embed id="preziEmbed__utpxeh4xk4f" name="preziEmbed__utpxeh4xk4f" src="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowFullScreenInteractive="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="550" height="400" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="prezi_id=_utpxeh4xk4f&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;autoplay=no&amp;autohide_ctrls=0"></embed></object><div class="prezi-player-links"><p><a title="Ways In Which 'The Script' Use Social Media" href="http://prezi.com/_utpxeh4xk4f/ways-in-which-the-script-use-social-media/">Ways In Which 'The Script' Use Social Media</a> on <a href="http://prezi.com">Prezi</a></p></div></div>

Music Video Comparison

Wham! - Club Tropicana (1983)                                             Chris Brown - Don't Wake Me Up (2012)

I am going to compare the way in which music videos have changed over time, using the music video for 'Club Tropicana' by Wham! (released in 1983) and Chris Brown's video 'Don't Wake Me Up' (released in 2012). Both artists represent the pop genre.

The most obvious differences between the two videos is the singers costumes and the special effects. In the Club Tropicana video the singer is wearing what appears to be underwear, thus showing a lot of skin. In contrast Chris Brown is either wearing a T-Shirt, jeans and trainers or a denim jacket. It can be inferred that the purpose of the costume in the Wham! video is to make female viewers attracted to the singer, with the aim of increasing sales. The purpose of Chris Brown's costume is to establish him as a style icon, by wearing clothes that could be worn day-to-day. This should help to sell the music by appearing attractive to females and fashionable to males.

The technical developments in Chris Brown's video are vast. While there are some special effects in Club Tropicana (the most obvious being that almost every cut is faded) the average viewer not analyzing the video is unlikely to notice any. In contrast Chris Brown's video is very futuristic. In the scene where Chris Brown and a girl are walking on clouds it can be assumed that it was shot using a green screen and that the thin clouds / mist blowing where they are walking were added during editing. This is an excellent example of technological developments in music video production as it looks as though all of Club Tropicana was shot on location. However the green screen was first invented in the 1930's.

From these two videos it can be assumed that over the period of 20 years the way n which music videos are used to sell music has changed dramatically. It seems the focus has changed from the artist singing the song to a more fast paced (faster cuts) exiting video. This is probably due to the fact that with so much media available to the consumer the consumer has a much shorter attention span. For example when watching a music video on You-Tube there are many recommended videos to the side that you can watch with one click if you get bored of the video you are watching. This is also another example of how technological developments have influenced music video production.

As both songs could be danced to, it is notable that there is no actual dancing in Club Tropicana, where as Chris Brown is shown dancing in what appears to be a dessert while the sun sets. This is evidence that the way music videos are used to sell music is partially based on the audience wanting to imitate what they see and perhaps even idolise the artist. This medium of marketing is further supported by other forms of media such as magazines.

Overall it is clear that over 20 years technology and the way in which society views artists/celebraties has dramatically altered the way in which music videos are used to sell music.

Photos from film shoot

tutorial video on how to create a Time lapse

this will help in the creation of our own time lapse sequences for our music video to ensure we are prepared for the editing section of our project.

Health and Safety awareness of Our Filming

In our video we are going to smash up a clock, we have thought about the risks of this and we are going to do it in a controlled environment taking precautions so both the group and others around are kept out of danger.
We are also filming near the river so will also have to consider safety here as well. This is why we have checked the weather conditions which are meant to be sunny for the day of filming reducing the risk.

Planning for Filming lesson

In this lesson we are planning for filming, above is the weather forecast for the day we are filming so we can adjust what we are filming to the weather. Below is a picture of us beginning our ideas for our locations, shot types and narrative.

The scripts 'image'

we will style our singers image on the scripts image, as it fits well with the song and gives a strong base from which to build the rest of out stars persona for the ancillary products.

example of a time-lapse

This as an example of the sort of time lapse we would like to use for our music video. However we would have one person stand still for the duration of the time lapse, creating the effect that time is moving fast, which ties in with the title and lyrics of the song 'Live Like We're Dying'.