Evaluation Question 4

Q4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?


On doing my music video for the second time, I had a second chance to take advantage of the tools provided by the software, Serif Movie Maker. As well as using the basic tools that I used last time, such as simply cutting and trimming shots with the occasional fade, I took some time to experiment with different effects. This included using the 'Greyscale' tool, and then also using effects such as 'Brightness and Contrast' to really create an intense atmosphere through some scenes. Another tool I used more than I did last time is the crossfade which I used to fade into black, or to fade into each shot. Using these tools helped to boost the storyline and visually it helped the audience to follow this storyline.



This time round, I did not make any changes to my ancillary tasks, so the technologies I used, and learnt to use remain the same within 'Macromedia Dreamweaver' and 'Adobe InDesign'.


























During the research stages, using Blogger has been vital to my development, I have used it to record every stage of this coursework. The images I have taken and uploaded are all of my own images (other than those displayed in the visual mindmap) that I took using my own cameras. The technology necessary to upload some of these images included a scanner, which I used to upload the hand written aspects such as the mindmap and the annotations.

Evaluation Question 3

Q3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Following the creation of my new video I posted it onto YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnNwOfly8M8), in the hope of recieving some freedback from an audience. After posting it on the website I got only three comments and as I was pushed for time, I decided to post it onto social networking site Facebook, where the video recieved a mixture of reviews ranging from the very goodd to people almost picking on every aspect that made up the storyline.

From this I have been able to take away which parts were successful and which parts were not. From the feedback more people really liked the effect of the black and white scenes in the video and the emphasis on the flashbacks that it made. The also liked the musical interludes and the stillness of these shots in them, and how some of these fit perfectly with the music. They also liked the relevance of the narrative was to the content itself and how it takes you through a journey.

Things that the audience thought that did not go so well were things such as the man being engulfed by the reflection (which I had actually intended on as the man was supposedly reflecting on his memories), they thought that this did not work so well as you could hardly see his face in the window. Another aspect that was critisised was the pubs scenes, particularly the scene where the couple are walking out from the pub, they felt that this did not work and fit in with the video.

After recieving this feedback I have had some time to think about what I would improve on if I redid this particular video and song. I would definitely cut the scenes containing the pub, and perhaps something more classy/ respectable to match with the rest of the video. I would also make the scenes with the man in the window more prominent in their meaning and relevance to the video, perhaps by doing something as simple as editing them into black and white, for example. On the other hand, if I had to completely redo this task (again) I would definitely chose a shorter song as it didn't occur to me how long this song was and how much effort it would be to fill up all of the time with the appropriate footage.

Evaluation Question 2

Q2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

For each task it was important for there to be some sort of link, drawing them together. However, after creating my new video it was difficult to identify an obvious link to the band members as shown in the previous video. There is still clearly a link between both anicillary tasks whereby the images and details, such as the band name link. Howvever, there is not such an obvious one, other than the reference in the band name in the details. Upon reflection, it would have been nice to have involved the original band members as they played such a huge part in the last video.

Evaluation Question 1

1)In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge media forms and conventions?

Before starting the creation and planning of each task; I did thorough research into things that were of a similar genre it what my initial ideas were based on. Starting with the re-creation of my music video I looked at two other music videos, of the same genre (acoustic) and videos of the same length as the song I had chosen, so that I could grasp some ideas of what content I could include. Both of the songs I chose ‘Hey there Delilah’ by the Plain White T’s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ5f3VspUUQ) and ‘The Only Exception’ by Paramore (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7J_IWUhls) contain easy flowing storylines that match the lyrics of the song, as most videos of this genre would do, conventionally. When it came to choosing some of the technicalities of the new music video it was important to film them so that the audience could easily follow what the video was showing, to do this I used many wide angle shots to show the location and to allow the audience to interpret where the characters are and also a few extreme close ups to focus on the content in one particular shot. Compared to my last video, I feel as though the research I have done this time is a lot more relevant and has therefore boosted the quality of my video overall.

In planning for the DVD cover, I looked at the cover for the Foo Fighters’ Everywhere but Home’ tour, which quickly made it obvious to me the conventions necessary for a successful DVD cover. This included things such as the conventional tagline at the bottom of the back of the DVD where all the credits are displayed. It also shows reviews on the DVD of people/reviewers who had obviously been to see the show, drawing in a wide audience. Another vital convention I had to include is the blurb at the back of the DVD where there is a brief description of its contents.

Editing and Experimenting

Editing started very well, and I found it easy to match the lyrics to the content that I had filmed. However, it quickly became obvious how long the song I had chosen was, initially I didn't think that 4 minutes was a long video, however after having to edit one, my opinion has changed, toward the end of the video I found it hard to fit all of my footage into the alloted time I had set in the story board, and in trying to make this work and fit, I had to move some things around, but I think this has worked for the best and will look better when it comes to the finished product.

Something that I enjoyed the most in my editing was experimenting with different effects on footage. I started playing around with the greyscale tool, and using it to make it seem as though some of the shots were in the past, which will help to make the story clearer. The screenshots below show an example of this, before the tool was used, and after:


















Another effect I used was the cross fade, I used this on only a couple of my shots, and this screenshot shows one method of using it. This tool allowed me to intertwine my shots as they fade into eachother, creating a nice merging of shots, looking more interesting:





When editing my video I really enjoyed using these effects, as on my last video, I used very few- almost none. Using them has opened up a whole new method of displaying a message, altering an audience members interpretation of what they are viewing.

Filming

The days filming went very well and smoothly with a few exceptions. Overall I think that all of the shots I have taken work very well and have come out as expected and I have plenty to work with when it comes to editing, which I am very excited about. Everything ran smoothly apart from, the pub I needed to use for filming refused us as they are a chain, so filming and photography is not permitted on their premisis. Following this we had to go to a pub further down the road, but I think that the footage here probably worked better as there was a lot more light on the inside. Another frustration that I had was that the weather was not as perfect as I had hoped, so the shots where the couple are running in the field do not seem as spectacular and as happy as I intended. I think that if these shots do not fit in well with the rest of the video I will have to re-shoot them or think of something different to use. Filming with the instruments was interesting as it was important to get the timings right and the note sequence accurate to the song so that it looks more professional, I was fortunate enough to have someone close to me who had the sheet music for this song and could easily play it for me. Now that this is done I am now going to start editing.

Letter of Permission

To use the music for the video, I have to ask the appropriate record label. Paolo Nutini is signed to Atlantic Records. To ask for their permission to use the song I had to send an email, the following screenshot shows this email as evidence: