Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For this project we were given the task of
creating a new rock music video inspired by modern rock bands, included in this
task was to create a magazine advert with a new digipak promoting our new band
and the chosen song. This digi-pak needed to include images from the days of
shooting and images of some shots of the band members. The main purpose of
these three main elements was to promote our chosen band from the website
unsigned.com, where inspiring bands and solo singers can post up any of their
songs for the music industries to listen to and could potentially sign up. When
decided to create the final digi-pak we look for inspiring examples from other
rock bands to see what each of their included and how they were all successful,
each of the digi paks that we researched into included information about the
release date, ratings from listeners and quotes from the music industry. I feel
that these are some of the main features which bring in listeners as it is
something which aspires to any audience viewers. One of the main features on a
digipak is that it promotes some new songs which haven’t had a music video
created for it yet by the band themselves, which will help in the long run for
new songs being promoted later on in the year and would bring in more spectators.
The main feature of the digipak is also to represent a new bands genre and what
style of music they will be producing for new fans to start listening in to,
and to introduce them into the new themes of the upcoming band. A magazine
cover introducing the band into the music industry is something which needs to
contain more visual images and metaphors, this is due to the fact of that this
is where the band itself will be promoted by the look of the solo singer or the
band members for viewers to look at, this image will either include something
remotely related to the band or something from their new produced music video
for promotion. The main purpose of a magazine advert is to build name
recognition. This is mainly put in so that viewers can begin to find out more
in the band and what they are all about and what they can bring to the music
industry. A magazine advert may also be used to promote event which the certain
band or singer will be performing at or being included in. This advertiser’s goal
is to let as many people know about this certain event. Themes may also be used
within the magazine advert for viewers to recognise and visualise what the band
are about and their main flair. I feel that the main music video is the most
important and significant for the bands promotion, as in some ways this is the
first time viewers will hear the new track and will help to bring the song to
the listener’s attention. After decided what song we shall be using from the
unsigned.com website, as a group we got stuck into writing out our storyboard
and what ideas we felt would work the best with this style of song. There are a
number of features required within a music promo which could help it to become
successful and poignant to the music industry and would help well with
promotion. When looking through a variety of music video from different genres
I could see a large difference in each of them when looking into camera angles
and different style of elements involved within the video. For example when
looking into pop music videos there tends to be a significant amount of
lighting with more close ups being shown of the artist, also I feel that this
style of music video appeals to all age ranges which can help to boost
promotional strategies later on during the bands musical duration. Whereas when
looking into Hip-hip style music videos they tend to contain more specific
features such as that it only tends to contain the main featured artist with no
specific storyline to it. When viewing some of these style of videos I could
see that there were other features artists such as 50 cent , T-pain and many
others, this has mainly been done to attract all type of people to view the
video as this is an area which all people can relate to. However when looking
into rock music video conventions we noticed a drastic change in what was
involved, only dark and deep colours tend to be used during these videos as
sometimes this can help relate back to the main the storyline being discussed
within the song. The most appealing fact about rock music videos is that there
always tend to have a larger amount of band shots either in an isolated
location or for example a stage, I feel that this is one of the more
stereotypical items to have within the video and most noticeable element involved.
Some rock music videos tend to contain weird/eerie storylines to their videos,
this is due to the fact of that this is because this is the type of videos the
bands like to produce or have produced earlier on in their career. The main
reason that this is done is also because this can help to promote their new
songs and music videos as it is something which is memorable and unforgettable
to their fans and viewers. When moving onto camera shots, rock music videos
only tend to contain uneasy camera movements which help to give it a more
personal feel and look to the video, as if someone themselves was recording the
footage themselves. Some other styles of videos may include, long shots, mid
shots, close ups, extreme close ups to add emphasis on each of the band members
or solo singer or of their lips to show the continuity of lip-singing. Camera
Movement is something which can help to represent a variety of points within a
music videos, a wide range of styles can be included such as pans, dolly track
shots, crane shots and tilts. Each one of these camera movements have been done
to either follow the band members, singers or dancers within the music video.
This is done to help to capture each of these characters facial expressions or
actions being performed within the material. Editing is something which is
crucial to the final music video product, as this determines the effects and
applications being placed into the video to whether it becoming a successful or
unsuccessful music video. Editing can take up to a month to a year to edit
depending on the duration of the video and the content involved with it,
decisions are made by the director and the producers of the music video to what
definitions they feel would make the video popular. Jump cuts are the most common
edit to be used, as this can be used from a shot of the band to jump quickly to
a shot of the location in question. Reaction shots are used quiet frequently as
this can be used well during a comical and a negative style video with the
narrative as it can help to express the relationship between two or more
characters. The pace of the editing always tends to be in sync with the pace of
the song to make it seems more natural and as if the situation happening in the
music video was happening currently. Mise en scene is something which is
associates with the intertextuality link of the music video, therefore meaning
that it all relies on the representation of the characters within the
shot/scene. Mise en scene can also refer to the arrangement of performers and
props on stage or in the scene. An example is Neyo’s “ Mad”. The main focus
is of him walking down the street alone, to then him being in an isolated room.
This reflects back to him being isolated by his lover. The main props involved
with this music video is dark hats and clothes which helps to represent a
darkened mood, similarly the lighting is kept very dark by them only using
black and white shades. Sound involved within a music video can differ from
time to time, for example in some music videos most of the time the sound is
coming from the vocal side of music with the backing instruments however
sometimes music videos can be made into short films eg Michael Jacksons
“Thriller” and Fall out boys “Dance Dance”. The backtrack for the music video is
usually pre-recorded for the bands or solo singer to lip-sync to for it to seem
natural and even looking like it is live. However some music videos are live
from either a concert or a gig that the band had performed at and showing the
live footage from that certain song. When looking into music videos more
thoroughly, mainly the only people involved are the band members themselves
with actors on the side either this being a comedy, tragedy or romance style
video. In some cases, some bands do bring in some celebrities to be shown in
the music videos to either make to video more successful by bringing in more
viewers or even to add a more urban effect to the video. For example in Fall
Out Boys music video for “Thanks for the Memories” Kim Kardashian was brought
into it, this music video was created a few years ago which could have maybe in
a way made her more popular and successful, another example is in Katy Perry’s
video “ Last Friday Night”, where the YouTube star Rebecca Black was introduced
into the video, around the making of this video Rebecca’s career of producing a
song had just started. When deciding as a group what type of genre we were
wanting to look into, we had to consider a few items, these were what would our
mise-en scene, editing and shots skills be like to ensure that our music video
would be portrayed as a rock genre to the audience. When looking into
mise-en-scene, rock music videos tend In rock music video terms mise-en-scene
is often simplified, with sets being a stage with bright lights and even smoke
machines. Band members often either wear plain casual clothes (jeans, vests
e.g. Kings of Leon - 'Sex on Fire') or more elaborate outfits like glamrags
(Steel Panther - 'Death to all but Metal'). Examples of posture and gesture
would be things like when a singer screams into the microphone and either
pulling it close or leaning into it, or a musician playing a guitar might arch
their back and lean the head forward. Make up used in certain genres of rock
music video (Death metal, emo metal, goth rock) is often very black, using very
dark eyeliner and often very pale foundation to give a stark contrast. Editing
is something which is critical when creating the final product, due to the
often fast paced nature of rock music videos, editing is mainly done in the
form of straight cuts in time to the rhythm. Fade ins and Fade outs are often
used at the beginning and ends of more atmospheric videos but for the most part
these are not used. Other styles of cuts like wipes are rarely used in the
context of rock music video. I felt that when creating our final rock music
video, as a group we wanted to include a variety of shots to explain to emotion
and feeling at that certain point of the footage. In general music videos use a
wide variety of different camera shots in them to create an effective piece of
media text. In rock videos many of these shots are used to emphasise the
importance of the band and 'musicianship'. Shots with this effect are mainly
close ups and extreme close ups that are used to emphasis a particular band
members emotion, whereas long shots are often used for full on band shots.
Camera movement in rock music videos is often
used to a higher extent in music videos that tell a story with actors rather
than band performance videos. Often in band performance videos there is a very
large variety of shot types but sometimes lacking in actual camera movement
like tracking shots. For example the video for Enter Shikari's 'Johnny Sniper'.
However in contrast to this a video like The Pigeon Detective's 'I Found Out'
there is a lot of tracking and dolly shots in order to keep up with the fast
pace of the parcour runners, that coincidently have nothing to do in relation
to the actual song.Another strong example of a music video with lots of camera
movement that tells a story without using the actual band; Paramour’s 'Brick By
Boring Brick' however the singer Hayley Williams is in a lot of the shots. The
video also uses a lot of computer generated images (CGI).
When decided as a group that we wanted to produce
a music video based on the rock genre, we wanted to start looking online for
inspirational videos which we could start taking small ideas from such as shots
and editing techniques which could help to make our video a lot stronger and
powerful for the viewing audience.
This screenshot was taken from a high angle as we
wanted the beginning of the video to contain a still shot of our main location.
For the beginning shot, we took inspiration from
this still image which contains the location of the rock music video and a high
angled shot, which helped to include all of the band members and their viewing
audience
We took inspiration for this shot from this
certain music video and this was a shot that we were wanting to use and use
rather frequently during our production of the music video, even though this
image of the guitar was rather blurred it was still visible for the viewers to
recognise.
This next shot was taken from a side angle to get
the footage of the main singer within the band grabbing the microphone; I feel
that this shot is something that is used rather frequently during rock music
videos, and was something that we would want to include as it helps to relate
back to the “stereotypical” view of music videos. This shot was something which
captured the main vocalist facial expressions and apprehended the location in
some ways with the strength of the lighting. This shot was also well put as
this is something to show the main singer lip-syncing along to the song, and
also helped to make it look more natural and convincing.
This is the
inspiring shot for this certain part of the music video, this was taken from
the Green Day music video “Wake me up when September ends”. Even though this
music video portrays the emotion of tragedy and despair, it included some
strong establishing shots which we wanted to include within our music video.
This shot was not taken at an angle by showing their power towards each other;
it was still showing enough detail with the characters facial expressions and
their location.
However when
looking through a range of videos, we came across an image from another Green
day Video, to which it included the
close up shot of the main singer lip-syncing, even though this shot is
not specific to the one that we created it is still something which can help us
inspire later on during the process.
We took inspiration
for the shot above from the music video by muse “starlight”. Even though this
shot was no specific to this certain one, it still contained to spacing
arrangement that we were wanting achieve within our final music video. I feel though that the colouring and effect
on this image is a lot stronger and less gritty which helped to show the
location and costume within the footage.
From the last shot,
we then decided to have a quick edit jump to the shot above. This was done to
help to show the transition between the narrative and the performance within
the footage. I feel that a wide range of
rock music video included this style of editing which could be completed
through the use of IMovie. This shot only lasted for a few seconds which then
helped to move onto the next shot.
This screen-shot
has been taken from the rock music video Hollywood Hore by Papa Roach. Even though the colouring of this screen shot
is rather dark and dull the strong lighting effect worked out perfectly by
illuminating the band members. As we had natural lighting for this shot, there
was no lighting equipment needed.
We took inspiration
for this shot from the Green Day video” 21 guns”, which as you can see contains
the same style shot as the one above that we had filmed, even though this style
of shot was used in a performance style, we decided that this shot should be
used in a narrative style as
we would be
able to include as large amount of aspects of characterisation.
We decided that as
a group to include a two shot as this helps to establish the relationship
between the two characters on scene. The positioning of the two characters and
the way the camera moves can help to portray the characters emotions and the
editing speed.
Inspirational videos
•
Bowling for soup
•
Blink 182
Greenday- boulevard
of broken dreams
•
Wheatus- Teenage Dirtbag Baby
When decided on our final storyboard, as a group we wanted to establish what theme/emotion we would to include within our music video. We all came to an agreement of that we would want a comical style video as this is something which everyone within the group can get involved with by playing one of the characters. When looking for inspiration we cam across the well known song " Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus, this video included characters which we were wanting to base our characters on such as having a typical popular girl ( see above), a geek and jock characters in american high school. The main area we were wanting to look into was the costumes and props used within the video as this was something which came across as being powerful and rather noticable. However the only item which we did not seem to be as keen on is having the band members in separate shots, as this is something which we will not be including as we are wanting all of the band members to be included in every shot. The main storyline is something which we shall be looking into more detail and taking some inspirational shots from this music video.
Bowling for soup
As a group we decided that we wanted to create a
music video which included a variety of characters with each having different
personalities meaning that as a group we would have to create a range of
outfits for the characters even this being as simple or complex as we could
possibly make them depending on their style of character. As our final music
video would include comical characters we would props and costume all to stand
out and be well recognised by the public by serotyping the outfits to the
appointing characters on screen. I and
another group member (Becky) decided to take on challenge of getting all of the
costumes together.
When we had some spare time we would go onto
YouTube and look at how different people have filmed and edited their music videos.
We gathered many different ideas from this which was helpful because to set the
mood of the video we could put a filter over the footage that we could use
throughout the video. When the depressing, sad part of the song is playing the
filter could be a dark, almost misty filter. This would give an effect of cold
and alone. (similar to the Twilight movie). When the song picks up and it
becomes happy and upbeat we could change the filter to a brighter effect. Our
final piece managed to challenge some of the conventions of the Rock genre. A
good example of this is some of the editing techniques used. Typically in the
Rock/Pop genre, the editing that is used is fairly simple and there are very
few visual effects, prefering to focus more on the shots themselves, or the
narrative that is being presented to the viewer. For example when researching
into rock music videos which contain a more amusing storyline we could see that
a range of dream shots had been used within the video as it helps to
show/portray the characters emotions and even the characters "
thinking" moments which then leads into the next establishing shots.
As you can see here in one of the first begining
of the music video, we decided to use the effect of slow motion as this was
something which a wide range of rock music videos use to help to establish the
location and the facial expressions of the other characters within the shot.
After seeing the final outcome of this certain shot we decided to use slow
motion a little more as this was something which looks effective and fits in
well with the beat of the track for example, another time of using this
technique is when the young male in the shot picks up a vase and throws it.
This helped to put on the emphasism of the male and the prop in question.
This screen-grab here is one from the begining of
the music video, even though when editing it we didnt add in any more effects
to the footage we decided to adapt the colour/hue/saturatuon of the image as we
felt that the lighting was far to bright for this certain part of the video (
lyrics), to ensure that the mood was not conveyed incorrectly we made sure that
the lighting was made a little darker and the shadow around each of the band
members was stronger and bolder to emphasise the location and surroundings.
For this next transition there was a quick jump
from the last shot to this certain one above, this is helping to show the
contrast between the narrative and the performance shots, the quick jumps
between the shots also fits in well with the beat and the pace of the music too
allowing it to seem more natural and accurate to the peice of music being
played along to.
When gathering up research into rock music videos
we could notice that there was a layout of shots and editing techniques
involving both narrative and performance. As a group we felt that this was
rather important to use during the creation of our music video to ensure that
there was a balence between the two. To ensure that this happened successfully
when deconstructing the lyrics we broke up the two performance styles and
placed them into the storyboard and lyrics where we felt that they would be
nessicary. Within our final music video we wanted to relate back to the lyrics
being sung by the main vocalist making it more of a narrative peice. To ensure
that this happened sucessfully, we went through each of the lines within the
song and annotating on our own storyboard on what we felt would work the best
at this certain point of the song, even though our own ideas had to be shown
through this we still wanted to take some small parts of other music videos and
adapt them in our own way. From the title of the song " As Long As You
Know", we wanted to add in some major effects when editing the piece to
show each of the characters dream with the young female in question these
effects helped to show the narrative side of the music video. We ensured that
each of the characters within the shots had a dream scene with the young
female, these scenes included a sterotypical scene of each of the characters
personalities. For example:
This screen grab here is one taken seconds before
the second narrative scene with the young female, as a group we felt that we
should flick quickly between the two performance styles to give it a more
professional yet original outcome, this is showing the " geek style"
character looking out into the distance and dreaming about his date with the
young female, a dream video effect was used on this scene to show the contrast
between the two styles. The lyrics during this scene are " are you with me
it dosent make sense, go ahead and knock yourself out", we decided to link
the lyrics to the narrative and performance scenes by having some of the band
members either looking confused or reasoning about the relationship with the
female. The main performance shots with the promo contain all of the band
members in one main location which was " Tolethorpe Stage", we
decided to shoot most of these performance shots here as this was a location
which some rock music videos contain, somewhere which includes an open area or
a location which has some form of a stage.
A screen grab from the main location for the
performance parts of the promo.
Nearing the end of the music video we decided to
have some quick cuts from the performance to the narrative styles of the music
video as we wanted to include as many styles and forms of characters within
these last few shots to show all of the characters emotions and portray of the
main female character.
Key shots
First performance shot of the band together as a
group establishing each band member and what their main role is within the
group, the location is begining to expand by showing more of where they are and
why they are there.
I feel that as a group we covered a wide range of
illustration,amplification and intertextuality within our final promo as our
story line was something which could be expanded and developed on a lot more.
First of all illustration was something which was key when producing and
editing our final music video as we wanted to relate back sufficiently enough
to the lyrics as this was a 50/50 music video which included both performance
and narrative, to ensure that this was successful, as a group we made sure that
we included moments or scenes which are either relevant or even a match to the
lyrics to show the relationship and the feelings of each of the band members.
Amplification is another which we felt we should use, as this was something
which allowed both to use performance and narrative styles. Which meant that we
could all expand on our final scene ideas and the shots in which we were
wanting to use later on. By using amplification it also helped to show the
devlopment of each of our characters by allowing them to have more larger
individual scenes, which meant that as a group we could use more technical and
challenging shots and movements for the characters to use to show their
personality traits. I feel that
intertexuality is one of the main subjects that we decided to use , as this
helped us to stereotype each of our chosen characters and the actions we felt
that they should use. to reference them back to inspired music videos or traits
which have been used previously in films or even tv shows.
2. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancilliary texts ?
Apart from creating
a new music video for our chosen band and their genre, we were also given the
task of creating a digi-pak and a poster to advertise and promote the new band
from unsigned.com to the public about their new song and promo to go along with
this. The three products have their own induvidual postives which helps to
boost sales and promotion of new bands or singers on the market. Each of these
all contains a variety of different information such as dates of release and
even when the band may be touring. The digi-pak contains information on their
songs and even bonus tracks which have not yet been released yet into the
charts or somewhat even had a music video put with the track. A poster is
something which is used to promote new album artwork or tours coming which are
involving the band, however depending on what style of poster it is, it could
be advertising their new album being brought out later on during the year, a
good example of this is” Rolling Stones” magazine which usually involves an
image with all the band members or solo singer, some of the images shown on
these articles are rather explicit and could be portrayed as sexual or
voluptuous depending on the genre of the band. Also depending on the style of
the poster, the main aim of this promotional strategy is to attract readers so
by using bold and vibrant colours and writing this will also help to bring in
readers and viewers. The magazine
article about the specific band can even tend to contain more information about
the band and facts about each of them which can help to promote each individual
band member or singer. When looking thoroughly into music video promos, I could
see that a variety of effects are used throughout the video and information
about their new releases of digi paks. As a group we felt that we should create
a poster,digi-pak and music video promo which involves each piece the
information gathered together each found out by a member of the group.
Our poster
As you can see here, when creating our final
poster we wanted to try and gather inspiration from other posters such as Foo
Fighters and other rock bands. Even though the poster to the right does not
contain as much information as we hoped for it still had enough information
wihtin the colour arragment and defintion of the colour for us to start
designing our final poster idea. To ensure that our poster was sucessful enough
to promote the band, we decided that as a group that we should edit the image
taken mainly for the poster as the techniques which could be used to create a
new style of the picture to attract more viewers. We felt that the darker the
background the more the image in the middle of the poster would stand out and
increase the amount of promotion. We decided to use more cooler shade of
colours as this is something which we took inspiration from other rock band
posters as the shade of colours being used within the poster could well relate
back to the style of song beinging produced by the band. The main reason for
posters to be produced for the open public to view is for critics and other
music industries to comment and grade on, these can usually be found at the
bottom of the poster naming the music industry giving the rating and the number
of stars they feel the album should be given. This can be purley based on the
songs and the lyrics of the track. Before, these posters would purley would
have been up around towns and cities for the public walking past to view.
However nowadays these posters can be promoted by being put up online to by
purley shown on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and My Space
as this is something which anyone can view and comment on for others to review
on. I feel that the main pro's to this way of promoting products is that
everyone around the world can see this to which they can post their own views
on, to which could later on boost up promotion and the band itself. However I
feel that sometimes peoples reviews can push viewers away and can influence
other peoples views, I feel that there should be some way in which negative
comments can be placed somewhere else on the networking sites for only music
industries to view to ensure that no promotional straedgies will be decreased.
Our DigiPak
The digi-pak was something which was created
after the other two products, this was due to the fact of that as a group we
needed to gather up all of the images taken throughout the days of shooting and
edit them one by one to ensure that they all fitted in well enough to look
professional and eyecatching to the public. As when researching into Digi-paks
we could not find enough information as expected we decided to look more
throughly into images found online ( secondry resources) to which we gathered
up more information than before. When looking into different genres of
digipaks, we notcied a few keys facts. In which that the colours being used
related rather well back to the original track this either being an upbeat or
lower key song. As our song had a more upbeat style rock theme to it we felt
that we wanted to use a colour which stood out but did not give away the genre
of the album. Within every digipak which we viewed, nearly every one of them
contained images of the band either on the location of the shoot or images from
the studio. This technique helps to promote the band themselves and the music
video being put together for a variety of the songs. This is done by showing
the location of the music video which could help to promote the band as it
could be a music video would could appeal to any viewer at any age. DigiPaks
benfit the artist and their music as its promotional aspects of music industry
which helps to bring awarness to the artist/band and encouraging customers to
buy and listen to their music. The digi-pak also amplifies the artistic and
creative approach the band is taking throughout the music. All aspects of the
digi-pak, brand image and music video are all interwoven together. Throughout
the past few years digi paks have been advertised in a variety of ways from
just being sold in retail shops such as HMV and music shops, however by only
being sold in retail stores the promotional sales were not as successful as
they could be. To increase the number of sales digipaks started to appear on
websites such as itunes for the rest of the public to see and buy straight from
their computer. With this in mind the digi-pak itself can also be put along the
side of the song for viewers online to analysis it and review it for themselves
either on iTunes or on a networking site. To finish off our digi-pak we felt
that some illusion style images would look original and somewhat confusing for
viewers. We decided to do this due to the fact of that no other bands before
have ever used this effect on a digi pak and will help to bring in more
listeners enhancing the amount of product sales.
Coming to the final product, this part I feel
that this is the main part of the promotional strategies for the band as this
is something which can be viewed by anybody by watching it online or on
television being viewed on channels such as MTV, VIVA and Kerrang. Before the
development of the internet, any genre of music videos were only allowed to be
shown on television as this was the only way in which they could be viewed
meaning that members of the public who couldn’t access a television were unable
to watch the newest release from the band, therefore meaning that the amount of
video views would have decreased. However through the years the development of
internet technology has been rapidly improved meaning that music videos can be
viewed on mobile phones on the go meaning that an increase of videos being
viewed. Music videos can now be rated and commented on online on YouTube where
any member of the public can put their view on the page. As YouTube is an easy
and free of way searching for new releases of music videos, this is a way where
the band itself can up there amount of fans and followers by searching into
their older and newer tracks. When looking into what style of music video we
were wanting to produce in our group, we had to consider how as a group and
individually how we would promote our song with the finalised music video. As
each of us within the group had a Facebook account we could all post the
finalised video onto our page and gather up enough comments for each of us to
analyse and write about further on ahead within the course. One of the group
members even had a YouTube account meaning that we could post the music video
online too, to gather up more information in which we could use to later on
improve our video within the next few weeks to adapt to our viewer’s choice to
which could appeal to any age group. I
feel with us posting up the final music video everyone could visually see it
with the song taken from unsigned.com to which some people may have never heard
before. I feel that by advertising the
video online it could help to promote not only the band itself but the music
industry it is linked with and the digi-pak and even the images that go along
well with the band, increasing in profits and promotion.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Before creating our final project, we wanted to
gather up enough information before developing the idea to ensure that we had
audience feedback which was useful and we could use when creating our
storyboard involving the shot types and locations. When constructing our texts
we decided that the easiest and the most helpful was to gather up enough
information would be to create a small questionnaire where we could ask the
public questions which we felt would be easy to answer and would be able to
analyse. Each of us within the group came up with at least two questions to
place within the questionnaire which either involved a questions about
location, shots types and general information about the rock genre. Audience feedback is key in the media, as the
audience bring in the revenue and make a person’s work credible, it is also
what makes a music video popular or not, the more people that enjoy a film the
more the message of it gets spread. The aim of an editor/director/producer is
to please their audience. The audience is the reason for making a music video,
in some cases, however in short films it sometimes is not about the money and
number of people that would go and watch it but it is about expressing
themselves or may be just as a hobby rather than a business. Questionnaires were our preferred use to
gather up information as it does not put
much pressure on the audience therefore results are more likely to be accurate
and true, questionnaires can be designed by using closed questions with yes or
no answers or open where the audience can comment on what their opinion is.
Our
Questionnaire
QUESTIONS
TO ASK AUDIENCE MEMBERS
1.
What type of video
do you prefer eg. Amplification,
2. Do you prefer funny or serious videos? What is
your given reason for this answer, Tick one box.
Why?
Entertaining Serious
3. Bowl of the soup video ( 1985), what were your
first impressions after watching this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K38xNqZvBJI
4. Play a 30 seconds clip of what scars song, if you
had to guess what genre of band this is what would it be, and why?
5.
What mood/feeling
would you say that this song gives off? Tick one of the boxes
Emotional Cheerful Depressed Happy
6.
What do you not
like within a music video?
7. Describe the attire of a typical
Geek/thug/emo/jock/stoner character?
Geek-
Thug-
Emo-
Jock-
Stoner-
8.
Can you name some
of the stereotypes within a rock video.
9. How do you tend to watch music videos? Tick one
of the boxes
Online eg YouTube IPod Music channels Phone
Other
10. What is your favourite music video OF ALL
TIME!!!!!!!
By handing out this style of questionnaire we were able to get
together solid and tactful information from the public for us to include within
our final video by adding in small parts of the answers given back to us to
ensure that we draw in viewers to boost up the number of views on YouTube or
Facebook. Without
an audience, you don’t have a film so at one of the earliest stages in making
your film you need to establish an audience. Huge amount of research goes into
any potential new media product before it is actually made or marketed. The
audience feedback gained from this can create improvements for your film and
could be an indication of how successful your film may be. So audience feedback
holds great importance because…
• It can make or save you money – Gaining audience feedback
can gain you money because you take into account consumers opinion, therefore
you can attract a larger audience, getting a bigger box office. Also it could
save money as changes that you think will have to made don’t actually have to
according to audiences.
• You find out what the audience wants – While this is good
as it allows you to make improvements on what they say it is also a hard
process as many people will have many different opinions and views. But
selecting the majority of people’s opinions could make your film attract more
audience.
• You can tailor products to specific audiences – If you want
your film to appeal to one particular audience or pin point what parts which
demographic enjoys most then audience feedback is good. This is because you can
see what the target market likes most and play it up in the film or promotional
material.
• Improve any weaknesses – This is important because then you
know what parts of your film are not working and it will help improve your
product.
What types of feedback are there?
• Box office – This is the amount of money your film makes.
This is especially significant on opening weekend as its the industries first
impression of how successful the film will be. Also if its successful it can
act as extra publicity for films. Also if it is popular then word of mouth is
an extra promotion for your film. If your film isn’t successful then cinemas
may reduce screens and you may be left with a tarnished reputation.
• Critical reception and reviews – These say whether or not
your film is actually good and they can also be a very influential over
audiences.
• Questionnaires and surveys – These can happen during
production so you can continuously improve it throughout making the film. These
are given out at screenings (exit poll) and can then establish demographics for
your film.
• Focus groups – Focus groups can explore the whole of your
film as the questions are not limited and you can see the audiences expressions
and tone. Although it takes a long time and you cant do many people…therefore
looking at both questionnaire and focus groups could be good.
• Test audiences – this is when you show an audience your
film you can see their reactions and what parts they like and dislike. These
are usually done when you are nearly completed with the film and need to
establish audiences.
• Website tally – the amount of hits on your website could
determine how many people are interested in your film. Also by creating a viral
ad you can promote the website on it, getting more people to visit and find out
about the film.
• Forums – these are particularly good to look at when making
a film which already has some established content as fans reactions will be
strong and are more likely to go on online public forums. For example when book
adaptations announce the cast, fans of the book will have strong reactions.
• Social network sites – You can create a viral campaign
which gets shared through this. Also creating a page for your film will add
extra promotion for it. Also user content can play a part in creating buzz for
your film.
After
gathering up a suitable amount of answers from the public, we decided as a
group to discuss our findings and debate about how we would make our final
music video appealing to a wide variety of audience members. Below are our
findings to which I individually analysed.
Questions
1. What type of video do you prefer eg Amplification
When gathering the questionnaire back from the public, as a group we found something that did not seen to suprise us. The public did not seem to awnser this question or even attempt to complete this question, as a group we came together to see why this has happened. After a few discussion we could see that maybe this question was not set out in a the correct format for the audience to understand. The language that we included in this question may have been language which the public did not understand as it is terminology which only media students could understand or gather knowledge from. In anwnser to this question, I feel that next time if we were to create another questionnaire we should develope the question in a way which could break down each terminology word or saying for the public to understand.
2. Do you prefer funny or serious videos? What is your given reason for this answer, Tick one box.
When creating this questions, as a group we knew that this style of question would be a simple one which could be developed alot when creating our final music video. However when looking through some of the given reasons to their choice not many of the public developed on their reason which was not helpful towards myself and my media group/team. Most of the public said that they prefered funny videos, this could be due to the fact of that some of the most effective and mememboral music videos of all time this could be from their use of characters or even their storyline. From this answer we made the easy decision of creating a funny video as the public prefer this style of music video in comparison to serious videos as this could make the audience feel depressed and emotional.
3. Bowl of the soup video ( 1985), what were your first impressions after watching this video?
When researching rock music videos, we came across this certain video to which we felt contained everything that a music video should have, a good storyline and good use of shots. We felt as a group that at least one music video should be included in this questionnaire to show our use of intial research to the public and to our tutors. However after handing out these questionnaires we realised that not many of the public had a computer or youtube on their phones to view this music video, but when asking round the public most of them had seen this video before either by themselves or with others. When gathering all of the information together we realised that most of the public enjoyed this video due to the heavy beat and the use of different locations. This is a style of video which would have been rather successful in the 80's and still to this day is still a well known video by fans around the world
4. Play a 30 second clip of scars song. if you had to guess what genre of band this is what would it be , and why ?
We decided as a group to ask this question, as this would indicate to us what style of video this should be with the given genre that the public chose. When looking through the results we could see a pattern happening through the answers as each person we asked did not even get close to the genre of the band, we had a variey of answers from indie rock to pop. However there were some membres of the public who guessed it correctly which was "rock". The members of the public we asked gave similar answers to te genre as they felt that it had some aggresion to it but still contained some emotion to it with the lyrics sung. As a group we now know that within our music video we need to contain some trace of emotion either it being shown through the location, lighting or even characters.
5.What mood/feeling would you say that this song gives off? Tick one of the boxes
After gathering up the results from this question, we realised that most of the public put down that they felt that this was a more of an emotional and happy song, this could be due to the fact of that it contains lyrics about a love that one of the band members had. To ensure that we keep up the same emotions and feelings that ths song first gives off when being listened to, we shall be ensuring that the music video we create will have a storyline to it which gives off a textual yet a hard hitting storyline.
6. What do you not like within a music video?
This was a question that we felt was rather needed within the questionnaire, this is due to the fact of that we were wanting to find out what each member of the public felt was unessecary to have within a music video. This is to ensure that our music video attracts people from all ages and contains images that the public will like or find amusing and will want to watch again. When looking through each completed questionnaire we had a variety of awnsers from " men in heels" to even some saying that they do not really mind whats within in a video as long as it contained a amusing storyline with eye catching characters.
7. Describe the attire of a typical Geek/Thug/Emo/Jock/Stoner character ?
When looking through all of the questionnaires we could see a small pattern within the awnsers within the common clothing that would be seen on these characters. This could be due to the fact because of that some of these characters in question are regualy seen in rom-com films in a typical high school. We wanted to ask this certain question as we felt that if we gathered the publics view on this question then we would be able to ensure that we put these characters in the correct costume for the days of shooting this video.
8. Can you name some of the sterotypes within a rock video?
We want to include as many props and stereotypical items regualy seen in a rock music video to give the rock feel to the music video for the viewing public, when looking through the answers we could see that most of the public wrote down that they would like to be seeing amps and typical rock instruments. We have decided as a group after looking at where we shall be creating this video we will be unable to plug in an amp, however to ensure that we still have the stereotyped rock look to this video we shall be including an amp and typical rock instruments
9.How do you tend to watch music videos? Tick one of the boxes
This question was purely put into the questionnaire for the use of marketing and production of the song after creating the music video, after the development of YouTube throughout the years, this was the main box ticked by the public as this is one of the easier accesses to the newest and oldest music videos. This is somewhere where also other footage can be viewed by the public. Music from YouTube can also be downloaded onto smartphones and iPod which will also higher the amount of views on a music video online. Music channels was the box which was not ticked by any members of the public, this could be due to the fact of that when watching music videos on the tv there only tends to be older tracks played and newer tracks will not be posted on tv for a few weeks after the release date which could lower the amount of views of the music video. From this question we now know as a group that if we were to post a video into the industry we would use YouTube as something to post it onto.
10. What is your favourite music video of all time?
This was a question which was put into to see what kind of genre the certain music video was in and what style it is. After looking through the questionnaires we looked online to view the music videos chosen by the public to initially see what the video included and what made its so sccessful for it to be so likeable. After doing this we then made some minor changes to our storyboard to make sure that our music video contained items or images which would help to attract all different varieties of people who either love to listen to rock music or even pop.
1. What type of video do you prefer eg Amplification
When gathering the questionnaire back from the public, as a group we found something that did not seen to suprise us. The public did not seem to awnser this question or even attempt to complete this question, as a group we came together to see why this has happened. After a few discussion we could see that maybe this question was not set out in a the correct format for the audience to understand. The language that we included in this question may have been language which the public did not understand as it is terminology which only media students could understand or gather knowledge from. In anwnser to this question, I feel that next time if we were to create another questionnaire we should develope the question in a way which could break down each terminology word or saying for the public to understand.
2. Do you prefer funny or serious videos? What is your given reason for this answer, Tick one box.
When creating this questions, as a group we knew that this style of question would be a simple one which could be developed alot when creating our final music video. However when looking through some of the given reasons to their choice not many of the public developed on their reason which was not helpful towards myself and my media group/team. Most of the public said that they prefered funny videos, this could be due to the fact of that some of the most effective and mememboral music videos of all time this could be from their use of characters or even their storyline. From this answer we made the easy decision of creating a funny video as the public prefer this style of music video in comparison to serious videos as this could make the audience feel depressed and emotional.
3. Bowl of the soup video ( 1985), what were your first impressions after watching this video?
When researching rock music videos, we came across this certain video to which we felt contained everything that a music video should have, a good storyline and good use of shots. We felt as a group that at least one music video should be included in this questionnaire to show our use of intial research to the public and to our tutors. However after handing out these questionnaires we realised that not many of the public had a computer or youtube on their phones to view this music video, but when asking round the public most of them had seen this video before either by themselves or with others. When gathering all of the information together we realised that most of the public enjoyed this video due to the heavy beat and the use of different locations. This is a style of video which would have been rather successful in the 80's and still to this day is still a well known video by fans around the world
4. Play a 30 second clip of scars song. if you had to guess what genre of band this is what would it be , and why ?
We decided as a group to ask this question, as this would indicate to us what style of video this should be with the given genre that the public chose. When looking through the results we could see a pattern happening through the answers as each person we asked did not even get close to the genre of the band, we had a variey of answers from indie rock to pop. However there were some membres of the public who guessed it correctly which was "rock". The members of the public we asked gave similar answers to te genre as they felt that it had some aggresion to it but still contained some emotion to it with the lyrics sung. As a group we now know that within our music video we need to contain some trace of emotion either it being shown through the location, lighting or even characters.
5.What mood/feeling would you say that this song gives off? Tick one of the boxes
After gathering up the results from this question, we realised that most of the public put down that they felt that this was a more of an emotional and happy song, this could be due to the fact of that it contains lyrics about a love that one of the band members had. To ensure that we keep up the same emotions and feelings that ths song first gives off when being listened to, we shall be ensuring that the music video we create will have a storyline to it which gives off a textual yet a hard hitting storyline.
6. What do you not like within a music video?
This was a question that we felt was rather needed within the questionnaire, this is due to the fact of that we were wanting to find out what each member of the public felt was unessecary to have within a music video. This is to ensure that our music video attracts people from all ages and contains images that the public will like or find amusing and will want to watch again. When looking through each completed questionnaire we had a variety of awnsers from " men in heels" to even some saying that they do not really mind whats within in a video as long as it contained a amusing storyline with eye catching characters.
7. Describe the attire of a typical Geek/Thug/Emo/Jock/Stoner character ?
When looking through all of the questionnaires we could see a small pattern within the awnsers within the common clothing that would be seen on these characters. This could be due to the fact because of that some of these characters in question are regualy seen in rom-com films in a typical high school. We wanted to ask this certain question as we felt that if we gathered the publics view on this question then we would be able to ensure that we put these characters in the correct costume for the days of shooting this video.
8. Can you name some of the sterotypes within a rock video?
We want to include as many props and stereotypical items regualy seen in a rock music video to give the rock feel to the music video for the viewing public, when looking through the answers we could see that most of the public wrote down that they would like to be seeing amps and typical rock instruments. We have decided as a group after looking at where we shall be creating this video we will be unable to plug in an amp, however to ensure that we still have the stereotyped rock look to this video we shall be including an amp and typical rock instruments
9.How do you tend to watch music videos? Tick one of the boxes
This question was purely put into the questionnaire for the use of marketing and production of the song after creating the music video, after the development of YouTube throughout the years, this was the main box ticked by the public as this is one of the easier accesses to the newest and oldest music videos. This is somewhere where also other footage can be viewed by the public. Music from YouTube can also be downloaded onto smartphones and iPod which will also higher the amount of views on a music video online. Music channels was the box which was not ticked by any members of the public, this could be due to the fact of that when watching music videos on the tv there only tends to be older tracks played and newer tracks will not be posted on tv for a few weeks after the release date which could lower the amount of views of the music video. From this question we now know as a group that if we were to post a video into the industry we would use YouTube as something to post it onto.
10. What is your favourite music video of all time?
This was a question which was put into to see what kind of genre the certain music video was in and what style it is. After looking through the questionnaires we looked online to view the music videos chosen by the public to initially see what the video included and what made its so sccessful for it to be so likeable. After doing this we then made some minor changes to our storyboard to make sure that our music video contained items or images which would help to attract all different varieties of people who either love to listen to rock music or even pop.
We decided as a group to add our final video onto our Facebook page,
this was to gather up enough information from the public on their personal
opinions on our final cut. As you can see that there were a large amount of
"likes" on this post to which some comments were also added to. Every
comment was positive which helped to boost our confidence as a group and
individually. As you can see above, we got a large amount of “likes” on our
video meaning that a variety of people decided to view our video and put a
comment below it. One of main actors within the video Luke Doyle, commented on
the video below by stating “Great Job guys, editing is sweet wasn’t expecting
It to be this good”. After reading this comment as a group we felt rather
pleased with the outcome and the success of our video on Facebook. One factor
that we did notice was that people who myself and the other members of the
group were not friends with on Facebook even liked out video meaning that it
had been spread around Facebook throughout the evening boosting the promotion
of the song and the music video itself.
Throughout the weeks of editing our final product, the other group’s
members and I were constantly asking for advice and feedback from our tutors
and our peers in other group to improve our video by for example changing some
of the effects on iMovie to improve the slickness of the music video. However
sometimes we felt that some of the feedback we gathered back from others was
rather biased meaning that some of the feedback was rather similar and we could
not get enough information together to adapt our video. To ensure that we began
to get more critical information to learn and develop from, we decided as a
group to ask our media tutors who could give us more unbiased comments which we
could learn from and ensure that our video could be more effective. Our main
tutor Miss Scott told us what she felt worked well together and what not so
well, below are the comments given by her
•Good use of
shots
•Good use of
narrative and peformance
•There are
some major shakey shots
•If we were
to re-shoot there would need to be better framing
•Needed to
be better over-shoulder
•Good shot
transitions and sizes of shots
•Good props
used
•Need to
work on speed of shot transitions
•Good use of
syncing on Imovie
Comments below are from another media teacher Mr Collier
•180 degree
rule confusion ( breaking it with the final scene of boy opening door to
girlfriend, angle issue-different sides)
•Good use of
footage ( enjoys each part of it
During the process of creating our final storyboards and initial
ideas, blogger was a way where we could store all of our information and topics
for others and tutors to see. This is a website which allows us to place on
images of our development work and images from days of shooting to show the
expansion of our final project.
How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Unsigned.com is a website which has been used by
media students for a variety of years, as this contains songs by artists who
have not been signed up by a music company and to which songs have been posted
up on this website for viewers to listen to their tracks and give their views.
Music company’s/industries could then later on listen to the band and hopefully
take on later on in time. Bands from all over Europe place their songs onto
this website giving it a more vibrant feel to the website. As a group we
decided to use unsigned.com as before creating a music video we came to a
decision of that if we wanted to create a new and original style video then we
would have to find a song online which had never been heard of before by my
peers to ensure that there were no copyright issues. However when creating our
final video, we would still of found videos which would inspire us either on
our chosen location or video effects. Before decided what track we would want
to use, we had to decide as a group what genre of music we would prefer to use,
we had to choose a genre which inspire all of us and something which we would
all like to produce a project in. We came to a group decision of that we all
wanted to produce a final video on the rock genre as each of us individually
enjoy this genre of music and is a genre which we could use to show of our
editing and camera shots skills. When searching through the rock genre we came
across an unknown band called “Scar”.
After
finding this band online, we decided to find out some more information about
them and what style of songs the produce, when listening to some of their songs
one of them stood out for us the most. “As long As You Know”. This is a song
which was one of their very first releases and probably one of their least
viewed songs. We decided as a group to use this track as it was something which
took all of our fancy and we could create a solid and successful storyline to
it due to the somewhat cheesy and momererbale lyrics. As this song was from a
rock genre, we felt that this would also appeal to a wide age group and would
hopefully promote the song a lot more in the long run.
After researching into the band Scar, we noticed
that there was no Facebook or Twitter link to them meaning that the only
information we would be able to gather up about them is on the unsigned.com
website meaning that there were was only a limit to how much information we
could gather together. However as you can see from the top there were some
accessible contact details in which if we wanted to get in touch with the band
or management team itself, however with only a small amount of time to produce
this task we felt that we should use the information that we had found only and
take it from there by starting to produce storyboards and initial ideas.
To start finding
key inspirations for our final product, we started to search online (YouTube)
for videos which involve rock genre style videos, we started off be looking
into famous rock bands such as Greenday, Fall out boy and 30 seconds to mars. This
is due to the fact of that all of these bands include some style of either
location or visual effects which we felt we would like to include within our
final video. We decided to look into more thoroughly into the representation of
rock and the genre itself, the information below is the information gathered
together. The
music features four sounds that make up typical rock music. First, there's the
voice. The singer that is associated with rock music would be amplified, thus
making it loud and capable of capturing the audience. If that doesn't do it,
there are always the sounds of any rock band, the guitar and bass. Both these
stringed instruments are always (or almost always) electric and produce two
different sounds. The electric guitar in a rock band can be clean or distorted.
An electric guitar with a clean sound is usually featured in ska, alternative,
and even some punk. A guitar with distortion is usually heard in metal and hard
rock. The guitar is the best-known instrument when people think about rock
music. The bass is like the foundation of any rock band. It provides the simple
notes and usually follows the guitar. Finally, there are the drums. The drums
provide a raw, percussion sound that support whatever the guitar and bass are
playing. These are the sound elements that make up rock.
The vocal styles of rock have been influenced by the
vocals of the blues. The vocals possess a loud, moaning sound that can be
traced back to the blues and even gospel singing. The instruments, particularly
the guitar and bass, have a strong influence on not only the music, but also
the audience. When one sees a rock performance, they see and hear the
guitarists moving to the music with a certain passion that encourages the
audience to imitate them. Rock music produces a powerful and raw sound that
energizes the audience in a unique way.
Rock is a genre that has been integrated into society,
and is considered the universal genre. Rock can be traced back as far as 1955,
back when it was called rock ‘n’roll. What made rock so popular was its appeal
to white teenagers.
Key
bands that exemplify rock
Paramore is an American rock band
from Franklin,
Tennessee,
formed in 2004. The band currently consists of lead vocalist Hayley Williams,
bassist Jeremy
Davis,
and guitarist Taylor
York.
The group released its debut album All
We Know Is Falling in 2005, and its second album Riot! in
2007, which was certified Platinum in the
US and Ireland and Gold in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK. Brand
New Eyes,
Paramore's third album, was released in 2009 and is the band's second-highest
charting album to date, going platinum in Ireland and the UK, and gold in the
US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Paramore's 2013 self-titled
fourth album
debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in the United States. It was also the
No. 1 album in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil,
Argentina and Mexico
Green Day is an American punk rock band
formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie
Joe Armstrong,
bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt,
drummer Tré Cool and
guitarist and backing vocalist Jason
White,
who became a full member after playing in the band as a session and touring
guitarist for 13 years Cool replaced former drummer John Kiffmeyer in
1990, prior to the recording of the band's second studio album, Kerplunk
(1992).
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band
from Wilmette,
Illinois,
formed in 2001. The band consists of vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump,
bassist Pete
Wentz,
guitarist Joe Trohman, and
drummer Andy
Hurley.
The members originally played in local underground hardcore bands
before forming Fall Out Boy. With Pete Wentz as the band's primary lyricist and
Patrick Stump as the primary composer, Fall Out Boy broke out of the
underground music scene and reached mainstream success with their major label
album From Under the Cork Tree.
Released in 2005 as the follow-up to their 2003 debut Take This to Your Grave, the
album won several awards and achieved double platinum status
after selling more than 2.7 million albums in the United States, spawning top
ten singles "Sugar,
We're Goin Down"
and "Dance,
Dance".
For a short amount of time I decided to look onto
each of these bands websites to find out more detail into some of their photo
shoots for posters and dig-paks which we could take inspiration for when
creating our final designs on Photoshop.
This is a screen grab taken from the official
Fall out boy website, myself and my other group members really grew to like the
layout and style of this website and the colours that they chose to use were
ones which help to represent the genre of the band and the progression of the
bands success of the years. The back drop image really stood out when first
viewing the website as the boldness of the vibrant red helps to bring out the
texture of the image.
Technology
When deciding on what style of video we wanted to
produce, we had to then discuss on what camera we wanted to use and what
lighting we felt would look the most effective for our genre of video. When
starting off on cameras we felt that we needed a large variety of them to
gather up enough footage from different sides of the location to gather up
different angles of shots to show our terminology and knowledge on this skill.
One of the group members Becky decided to bring two of her canon cameras, for
us to take images from the day of shooting for our bloggers and for the use of
our posters and digi-pak. These images needed to be clear and well-focused to
have a good quality image. The canon cameras were easy to use and the images
taken from the day of shooting were easily able to be put onto a computer for
us to then edit on Photoshop and iMovie. The shooting cameras in which we used
were Sony Handycams; we decided to use at least three of these as they were all
light and easy to take round with us if we wanted to capture a quick natural
walk around shot. However the only problem we got into difficulty about was the
battery life of some of the main cameras, even though some of them were charged
up the night before some of them started to lose a large amount of battery
during the day meaning that we could not capture some of the main shots. To
ensure that we did not lose time worrying about the camera we decided to gather
up enough shots as we possibly could to guarantee that we had enough footage to
start editing during the weeks and if so we could go out and re film some of
the weaker scenes.
Throughout the weeks, I decided to start looking
into the most stereotypical style shots that rock music videos tend to contain.
This was due to the fact of that I wanted to use enough of these shots within
our storyboard and our final promo to show that we have thoroughly researched
into the genre and developed our knowledge on this.
As you can see here from the arrows directed to
the style of shot we wanted to use, we started off rather early in the process
of the music video as we wanted to be sure on what we wanted to do and ensure
that we had a well set our schedule for our day of shooting. I feel that after researching
into the genre carefully, I still had not gathered up enough shots to use.
However on the day of shooting myself and the other group members decided to
take some natural walking around shots as this was something which we had
noticed rather a lot during rock music videos. We decided to include more close
up shots of the lead singer lip syncing as this was another typical shot to be
used during the rock genre to captures the singer’s facial expressions. During
the main photo shoot of the band I decided to take on the challenge of taking
the images for the digi-pak, this was a task that I have never attempted
before. On the location I decided to take a large amount of the images from a
high angle and having the band looking up at the camera. I felt that this was a
necessary shot as I has seen photoshoots
involving rock bands within magazines such as rolling stones.
Lighting
The Altman 750 Watt
Ellipsoidal Spotlight is a compact, lightweight ellipsoidal reflector spotlight
with 6" front lens which produces a high intensity sharp, or soft edged
beam. Four adjustable integral stainless steel framing shutters provide beam shaping
ability and the pattern slot and holder provide the ability to project visual
images. Primarily designed for theatre and studio applications.This model has a
wide 55° field beam spread. It can provide a beam of 56 footcandles 31 feet in
diameter from 30 feet away.Its bulb socket is a 2-pin type. Models providing
different beam spreads, and models with built-in irises are available.
- This ellipsoidal is also useful
in displays, show windows, museums and nightclubs where precision
controlled accenting is desirable.
- The reflector has over 700 mirror
polished surfaces which optimize the optical system for greater light
output and a sharper, more controlled focus.
- Aluminum die-cast and sheet metal
construction.
- Replacement of bulb requires no
tools.
- Single focal length models are an
economical choice, when compared to zoom ellipsoidals.
This certain style of lighting will gbe used mainly during the
scenes on day 2 inside, this is because we felt that as this certain style of
lighting had a strong, powerful light it would be able to create a high
definition shadow around the actor within that certain area, giving it a more
rock style and feel to it. We are hoping to balence this certain light on a
plank of wood across a table to make the light relfect from the bottom of the
actos face creating a dark shade on his face.
The NSI Par 38 is
a low cost, versatile lighting fixture designed for diverse applications.
Intensities and beam spreads are a function of the bulb selected for use in the
fixture. One unit can serve multiple purposes simply by changing the bulb. With
an oval shaped beam, the Par 38 is ideal for use in concerts, nightclubs,
television and film remotes and architectural applications where maximum
flexibility is desired in a small, compact package.
The smaller size of the Par 38
offers maximum flexibility.
Baked black enamel finish
360° fixture rotation
Bulb replacement requires no
tools -- accepts flood or spot bulbs with E26 screw base, up to 150 watts.
We hired three of these style of lights as they are small and light
to carry around, we shall mainly be using these lights on day 1 to exhentuate
the main band members facial expressions and the lighting around them. As these
lights will mainly be used on day 1 of shooting , we shall be outside which
means that these will only be used specifically in the darker areas of the
chosen location.
The ULTRA extension cord
allows the user to reduce the weight carried on the head by disconnecting the
battery pack from the headband and carrying it in a pocket or connecting it to
the ULTRA harness
We felt that some extension cables shall be needed rather alot
during the shoooting days, as if we were further away from a location that
prefered and we needed a stronger light then this style of cable we come in
rather handy to still allow us to have the prefered lighting that we orginally
wanted without having to move lighting.
Editing
IMovie is a simple, easy to use video editing
program that comes free with the Apple operating system (it has no Windows PC
version). Despite its simplicity, iMovie offers many of the same features -
dropping clips on a time line, cropping them, adding transitions between clips,
etc. - as more advanced video editing programs like FinalCut Pro or Premiere.
After using imovie last year for a previous project, I felt that I had gained
enough confidence and knowledge to start off our new music video project.
However after placing on the footage to the mac, I began to get rather worried
about how myself and the other group members would cope with developing our
footage into a full, sucessful video. When creating our storyboard we included
what style of effects we were wanting to use, this was able to help us when we
were applying the new effects to the footage.
The screengrabs have been taken from IMOVIE
showing how we used this program to help us to produce a successful rock music
video.
Other
technologies used during production
To post up a range of information about the
development of the final product, I decided to use website where I could post
up information about the days of shooting and images which include actors being
used within the music video and for the public to view to look at the
development from the storyboards and the deconstruction of the lyrics. ITunes
is something which we decided as group not to use as we had already downloaded
the track from the online shop amazon, however at first this track was rather
difficult to find as it was from an unsigned band meaning that some of their
songs may have not been released online yet. If we were needing to re-do the
track by adding in some more effects to
the song then we would use logic-pro on one of the apple mac computers.
Exhibiting
material online
Join a
social network -Myspace and its ilk act as a one-stop band advert where you can
upload anything you want: photos, songs, video, text and more. As a group we
would limit ourselves to two or three social networks though, this is because
we would not want to spread ourselves too thinly. As there are four members of
the group, we would all be able to invite friends and peers to a group online
to look and even “like" our video and give us feedback to help us for
future references and for our final evaluation. After promoting our final
product on Facebook and other social networking sites, we gathered up a lot of positive
and encouraging comments from the public as they felt that the style of video
in which we chose was something which appealed to all age groups and to viewers
who maybe don’t tend to listen to the rock genre.
Get onto
Youtube-Content is
key, but good content is everything. These days there is no excuse for poor
quality. Even iPhones have amazing video features that should allow you to put
together an impressive HD live video. One member of my group could easily set
up a YouTube account in seconds for us to post up our new video by my band. We
can show a slideshow of our band photos and post a song from our latest CD. It
can be invaluable to become familiar with YouTube as an independent
artist. We shall use stock footage,
footage of political figures or current events, something artistic or
eye-catching – anything that represents the mood of our music or will
potentially get people talking, and more importantly, spreading our virus. We
can use relevant keywords to attract people to your video. Many bands have
gained thousands of new fans by simply posting a slideshow or video on YouTube.
-Get some
good photos -Top-notch imagery is crucial if you want to be noticed online.
We presented a uniform 'look' that fits
with our music. We decided to hire an aspiring photographers about who will be
willing to take press or live photos of our band for little or no money. Before
doing this we would planned out our outfits to ensure that our looks vibrant
and eye-catching to the public. We looked online for inspiration from other
bands who are in the rock genre, e.g. green day, fallout boy etc. We looked at
where they shot there album artwork and how they presented it e.g. font, colour
schemes and themes.
Technical
issues
This is one of the more major technical issues we
had during the day of shooting, as you can see the lighting from the back is
incredibly dark meaning that all of the band members faces have all been
blacked out, even though this effect could work to help to portray the emotion
of the song, however it is not showing all of the characters facial
expressions. When looking back through the rest of the footage this was a
technical error which happened a few times. If we were to re-do this task
again, I feel that we would probably install some more intense and powerful
lights giving it a more illuminated look around the band members.
One problem that the group encountered during
the week of editing was that the music/track did not really fit in well with
some of the shots taken, to which some of the background noise from the shooting
days was still being played in the background giving it a muffled noise. This
was a problem which myself and the other group members could not understand,
after a few attempts to adapt it things were beginning to get a lot worse. We
decided to ask for help from our tutor to see whether he could understand why
this was happening. We had later realised that the track in which we placed