Here's the directors commentary for our video, enjoy, try to ignore the echo!!!
Friday, 16 December 2011
Evaluation question 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages
The process of creating our media product has required us to use many different types of technology. Although at the beginning of the process there were members of the group who were very efficient with certain types of technology, through the filming and editing process, all of us have learnt new skills relating to these various technologies.
Through the planning period of our project, we frequently used Blogger, or Blogspot, in order to update teachers and examiners of our current progress. We used the 'embed' feature on Youtube in order to share videos we analysed or used as inspiration to our own video.
It was through exploring the various songs in the rock genre that our group discovered the song, Muse-Feeling Good.Blogger has also been used throughout the entire production process, updating our own individual blogs whenever we went out to film a shot, a well as continually sharing pictures and short videos showing our group when working.
As well as using the internet to research and update others of our progress, we also used sites such as Prezi and scribd, in order to create presentations of our research, and for different pieces of work.
We also used various websites which use pregrenerated fonts in any sentence you type. These particular websites were very helpful in the design of our digipak, and the poster for the album.
The internet has helped us massively in the production, for if something exists, then it is more than likely it can be found somewhere.
After we had chosen our song, we used HD video recorders to film preliminary shots for our video, that were basically practice filming sessions for our group, trying out new shots that we wanted to use in the actual video. The HD recorders were also used in the actual filming of the video, so we would always have a camera on hand to film pieces that we could use in the final edit.
I also own an a Digital SLR, which allowed us to take very high quality photos for the digipak, while also using it to film in HD, which meant that after borrowing one HD camera from the school, we would always have access to at least 2 cameras, with the capability to film high quality shots. The DSLR also allowed us to use the focus on the lense to perform focus pulls, adding interesting depth of field to all scenes shot with the camera.
After we had assembled footage, we used Final Cut Express to edit all of our clips together. With the extended use of different transitions and video filters, we eventually created the final edit of our music video.
Final Cut Express is among the top when it comes to video editing, and is used by professional film makers very commonly. The opportunity to use this piece of software is a privilege, as although it allows us to cut out parts we do not want, as well as putting footage together, it also includes plenty of special effects and video transitions that can be very complicated to use and is not as simple as it look. I have learnt a lot about final cut, such as the use of markers, which you can use to mark where the lyric begin, in my case. Using Final Cut, we were able to complete our music video in just under 3 months, which is a great achievement, when the amount of footage we have is taken into consideration.
One great thing about final cut is that even if there are shots that are not fantastic, you can add a colour gradient, a filter or special transitions in order to improve the aesthetic look of it.
In order to create and edit our digipak and advert, we used Adobe Photoshop CS5, the latest version of the leading photo editor. The process of creating the digipak consisted of researching other digipaks, both professional and amateur.
I researched different text effects that can be created in photoshop, learnt how to use some of these effects, and then adjusted them to fit to our own song and genre style, before we even began t create the digipak. We also took plenty of pictures of our lead singer and the main character, as we wanted to use them both in the digipak. These pictures were manipulated, and if we did not like the way they looked, we would try something different in order to gain the effect and look we desired.
Eventually, we managed to create 4 panels that we think look very good, with the extensive help of Photoshop.
To sum up, throughout the process, we have used many different forms of technology in order to plan and create our music video and similar products. I feel that I have learnt many new skills during the process, from learning how to perform certain shots, to how to create a neon lighting effect in Adobe Photoshop.
The use of web 2.0 sites, such as Youtube during the planning and research stages was absolutely vital, and in today's age of technology, I doubt that we would have been able to plan to the degree that we did. Through using Youtube, Wikipedia and Blogger, we were able to learn and understand the conventions in Genres, the conventions of videos within the genres, and of the different types of music video.
Through the planning period of our project, we frequently used Blogger, or Blogspot, in order to update teachers and examiners of our current progress. We used the 'embed' feature on Youtube in order to share videos we analysed or used as inspiration to our own video.
It was through exploring the various songs in the rock genre that our group discovered the song, Muse-Feeling Good.Blogger has also been used throughout the entire production process, updating our own individual blogs whenever we went out to film a shot, a well as continually sharing pictures and short videos showing our group when working.
As well as using the internet to research and update others of our progress, we also used sites such as Prezi and scribd, in order to create presentations of our research, and for different pieces of work.
We also used various websites which use pregrenerated fonts in any sentence you type. These particular websites were very helpful in the design of our digipak, and the poster for the album.
The internet has helped us massively in the production, for if something exists, then it is more than likely it can be found somewhere.
After we had chosen our song, we used HD video recorders to film preliminary shots for our video, that were basically practice filming sessions for our group, trying out new shots that we wanted to use in the actual video. The HD recorders were also used in the actual filming of the video, so we would always have a camera on hand to film pieces that we could use in the final edit.
I also own an a Digital SLR, which allowed us to take very high quality photos for the digipak, while also using it to film in HD, which meant that after borrowing one HD camera from the school, we would always have access to at least 2 cameras, with the capability to film high quality shots. The DSLR also allowed us to use the focus on the lense to perform focus pulls, adding interesting depth of field to all scenes shot with the camera.
After we had assembled footage, we used Final Cut Express to edit all of our clips together. With the extended use of different transitions and video filters, we eventually created the final edit of our music video.
Final Cut Express is among the top when it comes to video editing, and is used by professional film makers very commonly. The opportunity to use this piece of software is a privilege, as although it allows us to cut out parts we do not want, as well as putting footage together, it also includes plenty of special effects and video transitions that can be very complicated to use and is not as simple as it look. I have learnt a lot about final cut, such as the use of markers, which you can use to mark where the lyric begin, in my case. Using Final Cut, we were able to complete our music video in just under 3 months, which is a great achievement, when the amount of footage we have is taken into consideration.
One great thing about final cut is that even if there are shots that are not fantastic, you can add a colour gradient, a filter or special transitions in order to improve the aesthetic look of it.
In order to create and edit our digipak and advert, we used Adobe Photoshop CS5, the latest version of the leading photo editor. The process of creating the digipak consisted of researching other digipaks, both professional and amateur.
I researched different text effects that can be created in photoshop, learnt how to use some of these effects, and then adjusted them to fit to our own song and genre style, before we even began t create the digipak. We also took plenty of pictures of our lead singer and the main character, as we wanted to use them both in the digipak. These pictures were manipulated, and if we did not like the way they looked, we would try something different in order to gain the effect and look we desired.
Eventually, we managed to create 4 panels that we think look very good, with the extensive help of Photoshop.
To sum up, throughout the process, we have used many different forms of technology in order to plan and create our music video and similar products. I feel that I have learnt many new skills during the process, from learning how to perform certain shots, to how to create a neon lighting effect in Adobe Photoshop.
Evaluation question 3-What have you learned from your audience feedback
Our focus group consisted of 4 different people, and through asking them various questions, we were able to receive very good feedback from our own peers.
According to the group, we have used special effects very well. 3/4 of the group said that we had used them enough, and that we had not overdone it with various visual effects. This has helped us massively as there are parts in the video that look like we had used them too much, such as the use of the chroma key feature multiple times.
According to the group, we have used special effects very well. 3/4 of the group said that we had used them enough, and that we had not overdone it with various visual effects. This has helped us massively as there are parts in the video that look like we had used them too much, such as the use of the chroma key feature multiple times.
This is an example of the chroma key shot. We also received a very positive comment about this particular shot, as it is the only shot in the video where our character has a performance role, 'singing' the lyrics "Feeling Good" as an elevator door opens on him. I am personally very pleased that we have received good feedback about this shot, as we spent a lot of time actually trying to achieve it to the standards required by the industry.
We did, however, receive some negative feedback regarding the use of visual effects. One member of the focus group stated that one shot (or sequence of shots) was over edited. As any criticism of our video is good, we had to take this into consideration, unfortunately, the member did not specifically tell us what clip this was, so we cannot be sure what part may look like this.
Another piece of negative feedback was a short section of the video when our main character speaks to somebody on the phone. During this clip, we can hear diegetic sound, as well as the song. The comment regarded whom the character was saying "I love you" to. The comment basically told us that perhaps the video would have made slightly more sense at this point if we had made it clear whom was on the other end of the phone, perhaps his mother or wife.
We generally received positive comments on the music video, and all members agreed that with the mixture of performance, narrative, and various special effect used, the video itself looked very professional. This is great feedback, as we were aiming for our video to have such an effect on the target audience.
Our digipak, however, received mainly negative feedback. This was largely due to the fact that the 4 panels do not specifically match up, and they do not follow a specific house style. This makes perfect sense, as the front cover of the digipak is very different from the rest, a it is set on a black background, with very bright lettering, whilst the rest of the digipak generally has brighter colours.
When asked if each member of the group would purchase our album, based on the digipak alone, we recieved a mixed response; 2 said yes, 2 said no. The 2 people who would buy the album cited the bright text and interesting song titles as the main reasons they would purchase it.
The 2 negative responses was that the digipak itself was not coherant with itself (did not match up) and therefore it looked odd. The other response was that the genre of music was not one that the member would listen to, which is an unavoidable reason, as not everybody is going to like the genre we have chosen.
When asked whether they believe we had catered to the general conventions of the genre, and whether or not the video appeals to them through signifiers, we received very positive responses. The general consensus was that the video catered very well to conventions of the rock/alternative rock genre, and even the digipak offered some appeal to them as individuals and as an audience.
This feedback has helped shape the way that I view our products, as I can view them with an even better critical view now. The negative feedback has allowed me to either affirm or dismiss my own doubts about the video and digipak, which means that I can evaluate all of our products better now than before.
Please view the focus group below for our actual feedback.
Post Production Focus Group
Here is our focus group, we have just shown the groups our video, and we receive feedback, enjoy.
Evaluation question 2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
In our overall package (Music Video, Poster and Digipak) we have used brick walls as a backdrop quite commonly. We have established this backdrop as our housestyle, and we believe it works well as it contrasts with the lyrics in the song.
The poster does not keep in line with our previously established house style, however I feel that it does actually represen the urban grittiness that we were aiming for in the brick wall style, as neon lights are commonly seen outside of bars and clubs, therefore the neon could have dual representation, of brightness and colour, as well as an urban meaning.
Because of this theme of urbanisation, there are actually a lot of natural and urban shots in our main video. However, there is a large difference in the portrayal of both settings. The urban scenes feature our main character looking neat and tidy. We have done thi a we are trying to emphasize a large difference between nature and urban areas, as in all f the naturistic scenes our character looks dishevelled and untidy.
The reason for this was to attempt to make our major themes in the overall product easily visible, and I believe this has been done quite well. The poster has a very dark background, which can easily be identifiable as a depressive colour, although the neon lights and the white writing could represent both how society is very superficial (as the writing does look fake), or that there is always optimism.
The digipak uses a lot of dark colours, which once again may represent the depressive feelings we have tried to associate with urban scenes, which is also seen in the music video as in a large majority of the urban scenes our character comes across as depressed.
The digipak and our advert also have some similarities, and are therefore related. The white font is used throughout the two ancillary texts, and so are the darker colours, once again giving connotations of
depression.
The poster and digipak initially had used the same neon lighting effect on the front pane, which provided a clear relation. However, we decided to change this neon to a large, bold white text, to which I added a lens flare to the corner of one of the letters, which could imply there is something bright about the characters story.
The poster does not keep in line with our previously established house style, however I feel that it does actually represen the urban grittiness that we were aiming for in the brick wall style, as neon lights are commonly seen outside of bars and clubs, therefore the neon could have dual representation, of brightness and colour, as well as an urban meaning.
Because of this theme of urbanisation, there are actually a lot of natural and urban shots in our main video. However, there is a large difference in the portrayal of both settings. The urban scenes feature our main character looking neat and tidy. We have done thi a we are trying to emphasize a large difference between nature and urban areas, as in all f the naturistic scenes our character looks dishevelled and untidy.
The reason for this was to attempt to make our major themes in the overall product easily visible, and I believe this has been done quite well. The poster has a very dark background, which can easily be identifiable as a depressive colour, although the neon lights and the white writing could represent both how society is very superficial (as the writing does look fake), or that there is always optimism.
The digipak uses a lot of dark colours, which once again may represent the depressive feelings we have tried to associate with urban scenes, which is also seen in the music video as in a large majority of the urban scenes our character comes across as depressed.
The digipak and our advert also have some similarities, and are therefore related. The white font is used throughout the two ancillary texts, and so are the darker colours, once again giving connotations of
depression.
The poster and digipak initially had used the same neon lighting effect on the front pane, which provided a clear relation. However, we decided to change this neon to a large, bold white text, to which I added a lens flare to the corner of one of the letters, which could imply there is something bright about the characters story.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Evaluation question one:In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
ia In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product, Muse-Feeling Good is classed under the alternative rock genre. This particular genre tends to focus on the artist's image, so therefore in a video it is usually performance based, and on any album artwork (digipaks) images of the artist or a motif/symbol that is attributed to them will be used. This is a convention we decided to keep, as it is very simple to do so. We also felt that the music video looked a lot better, and made more sense if we had a performance aspect to it.
We chose to use a mixture of light and dark colours within the video, which can be seen quite commonly throughout the alternative rock genre, although there seems to be a lot of darker colours used in the rock genre.
We followed one main convention in including a high speed montage of a 'room trashing'. This section of the video only lasts for about 10 seconds, and uses a lot of the same footage in short jump cuts. This is used very commonly. The speed of editing in this point of the video helps to build up the atmosphere, as the song reaches a climax, and our character is shown venting his fury. We feel this is a form of a graphic match, once again following a convention.
We decided that we would break convention here, and used a lot of bright colours throughout the video. We believe that these bright colours corresponded well with the song, as the imagery used in the lyrics give very positive pictures EG "Birds flying high" "Fish in the sea" "New life". Our video features a lot of close up shots, and there are quite a few canted shots as well. We make good use of our environment in our locations, such as using the doors of an elevator for a creative shot. We also included a lot of medium and long shots to add variety to the video.
In a lot of rock videos, lot of creative shots and special effects can be seen, therefore, experimenting with effects could be considered a convention of the genre.As the group and I like to try new shots, and be as creative as we can, we stuck to this convention and tried different visual effects to help enhance our video.
One such effect was reversing some footage, which made it look like my suit jacket was magically flying onto my body. A second effect involved the use of the chroma key feature, where we were able to grey out all colours except for one, such as a green or a blue.
Digipaks in the rock genre are often related to the video or artist is a direct way. We chose a dark background with a neon text effect as our house style, which is meant to be used as a signifier of fun and feeling goo (neon lights are commonly associated and used with clubs and bars).
The dark background relates directly to the plot of the video, as the character is supposedly feeling depressed, and darker colours are associated with these feelings. This could perhaps challenge the convention of digipaks in the rock genre as we do not feature any photos of the artist/band. We felt that photos of the band would not work well with the dark background and neon text aesthetically, and therefore we decided to leave them out.
Our advert uses the same style of a neon text over the dark backdrop. This both challenges and uses advert conventions. It uses the conventions as most combinations of digipak and advert will often use a similar house style, and will feature many elements that are the same (in this case we used the dark background and neon writing to create and maintain a house style throughout both of the products).
However once again we challenged the convention of using photos of the band in the video, as once again we did not think this would work very well aesthetically.
Please see our directors commentary below for in depth analysis of our music video.
Our media product, Muse-Feeling Good is classed under the alternative rock genre. This particular genre tends to focus on the artist's image, so therefore in a video it is usually performance based, and on any album artwork (digipaks) images of the artist or a motif/symbol that is attributed to them will be used. This is a convention we decided to keep, as it is very simple to do so. We also felt that the music video looked a lot better, and made more sense if we had a performance aspect to it.
We chose to use a mixture of light and dark colours within the video, which can be seen quite commonly throughout the alternative rock genre, although there seems to be a lot of darker colours used in the rock genre.
We followed one main convention in including a high speed montage of a 'room trashing'. This section of the video only lasts for about 10 seconds, and uses a lot of the same footage in short jump cuts. This is used very commonly. The speed of editing in this point of the video helps to build up the atmosphere, as the song reaches a climax, and our character is shown venting his fury. We feel this is a form of a graphic match, once again following a convention.
We decided that we would break convention here, and used a lot of bright colours throughout the video. We believe that these bright colours corresponded well with the song, as the imagery used in the lyrics give very positive pictures EG "Birds flying high" "Fish in the sea" "New life". Our video features a lot of close up shots, and there are quite a few canted shots as well. We make good use of our environment in our locations, such as using the doors of an elevator for a creative shot. We also included a lot of medium and long shots to add variety to the video.
In a lot of rock videos, lot of creative shots and special effects can be seen, therefore, experimenting with effects could be considered a convention of the genre.As the group and I like to try new shots, and be as creative as we can, we stuck to this convention and tried different visual effects to help enhance our video.
One such effect was reversing some footage, which made it look like my suit jacket was magically flying onto my body. A second effect involved the use of the chroma key feature, where we were able to grey out all colours except for one, such as a green or a blue.
Digipaks in the rock genre are often related to the video or artist is a direct way. We chose a dark background with a neon text effect as our house style, which is meant to be used as a signifier of fun and feeling goo (neon lights are commonly associated and used with clubs and bars).
The dark background relates directly to the plot of the video, as the character is supposedly feeling depressed, and darker colours are associated with these feelings. This could perhaps challenge the convention of digipaks in the rock genre as we do not feature any photos of the artist/band. We felt that photos of the band would not work well with the dark background and neon text aesthetically, and therefore we decided to leave them out.
Our advert uses the same style of a neon text over the dark backdrop. This both challenges and uses advert conventions. It uses the conventions as most combinations of digipak and advert will often use a similar house style, and will feature many elements that are the same (in this case we used the dark background and neon writing to create and maintain a house style throughout both of the products).
However once again we challenged the convention of using photos of the band in the video, as once again we did not think this would work very well aesthetically.
Please see our directors commentary below for in depth analysis of our music video.
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Sticking to the storyboards(ish)
At the start of our process, we lovingly created a long series of extremely creative storyboards, that outlined every shot in our video.
he initial plan was to have the main character standing on a roof, before he awakens in a smoky room, gets dressed, and goes on a long walk, on what looks like a happy and good day for him, however it is revealed the place he has been walking to is the rooftop, presumably to jump off.
We stuck to these story very vaguely, even though we always had them with us when filming. It is due to feedback given, change of ideas, and opportunities that ended with us changing most of the video, although we feel that the story worked out anyway.
he initial plan was to have the main character standing on a roof, before he awakens in a smoky room, gets dressed, and goes on a long walk, on what looks like a happy and good day for him, however it is revealed the place he has been walking to is the rooftop, presumably to jump off.
We stuck to these story very vaguely, even though we always had them with us when filming. It is due to feedback given, change of ideas, and opportunities that ended with us changing most of the video, although we feel that the story worked out anyway.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Directors commentary script
Introduction- Welcome to our Director’s commentary, we are Bradley, Ryan, Connor, Jacob.
In the opening sequence we immediately put the audience in the action by showing a clip of the apparent ending, this creates atmosphere, which is amplified by the mise-en-scene, with dark clouds and the urban setting.
This is immediately contradicted by transitioning with bright colours of the rising sun, followed by naturalistic shots involving the main character.
We continue the naturalistic shots placing the audience with the main character using lens flares and natural lighting to improve the realism as well as establish a setting. The initial lip-synching begins still including the main character and some aspects of a natural environment.
Jacob: The variety of lighting displayed on the shots with the contradictor shots to produce contrast and immerse the audience within the world, the chroma keyer was also relative to our digipacks and relating back to our advertising. The lens flares and ECU’S help to draw in the audience with the conceptual based elements.
Ryan: We first start to see the main character signing letters and conversing with a boss figure, we have done this to give the connotations of being fired from his job and a more natural progression when linking it with performance based shots. We also decided to use a variety of natural and abstract shots with varying location environments such as rivers changing into shots of London, we also included Jump cuts to progress the story quickly and yet keeping the audience immersed within the narrative.
Bradley: Here we decided to include a variety of colour effects on the shots to improve their power over the audience as well as fitting in the performance based shots to the song with the megaphone section being sung in an untraditional manner with shadows and blur effects to give a different style to the shots. However we continue to progress the main characters story still included within performance and making the music video slightly conceptual based, the high angled shots of the main character help to make him seem vulnerable, this combined with the singer being shown in an exciting way to showcase the singer such as a producer would.
Connor Part 2: The idea behind these shots was to increase the tension with the audience by increasing the speed and abstract style of the shots as the music video progresses towards the climax. These shots offer the audience with more entertainment and excitement with the reversed shot creating confusing followed by the 5-millisecond shots of scenery and walking to make them more interesting and creates interest in the storyline.
The colour effects are repeated with the sky made to stand out followed by the close-up with good framing and is different to all the shots produced before to help build up to the climax.
Ryan Part 2: We begin to include time-lapses to give the connotations of the world changing around the main character and giving the connotations of this frustrating him, this is a good early hint towards the following shots of the release of anger with shots lasting less than 1 second to show all of the action in a quick pace with an overlay of the shots to give the blue effect. This sequence of shots was a good genre signifier due the action, which is directed towards the rock genre however the abstract nature of the shots signify the indie genre.
Finishing of the music video returning to the beginning of the music video gives the audience more of a build up of tension and finding out the true reasons behind standing on the rooftop, with the colour transition of the same colour of the sun and faded effects to make the audience interested in the story without being bored.
Friday, 9 December 2011
Behind the scenes footage 1
In this video, we have compiled a selection of footage of our group out and about, filming for our video, the video is 5-10 minutes long, and covers roughly 2-3 weeks of filming sessions.
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Final Final Digipak
This our FINAL digipak, given a new face after receiving very helpful feedback.
As you can see, we still make use of the neon font, however we have established the neon text on dark background as our house style!
As you can see, we still make use of the neon font, however we have established the neon text on dark background as our house style!
Digipak analysis
Pane one: The first pane of our digipak is very simple in design. We used a very dark purple for the background, which was used to emphasise the colour of the text. The text itself is similar to the rest of our digipak, with the letters overlaying each other very slightly. There is also a faint lens flare over the letters.
When we designed the first pane of the digipak, we tried to keep the storyline of the video in mind. The dark background is used to suggest that the character is depressed, however it is juxtaposed with the brightness and suggested optimism of the bright font.
This first pane also keeps in with line with the advert, which uses a very similar style, which we believe to be easily recognisable.
Pane two: The second pane does not keep in touch with the style of the neon style font, however we chose to follow a different style. We have placed our lead singer in front of a brick wall, and by creating a work path in photoshop, wrote text following the outline of his head. The text is used to promote the product, as the is simple but very effective.
We believe it is important to put a face to the brand name 'Esum', and this keeps in touch with digipak conventions as more often than not, the artist will appear on their products.
Pane three: We used a photo that we took during the filming process as the backdrop for our CD case. The audience can create parralels between the music video itself and this pane, as this particular shot was used in the video.
Pane four: We decided to use the brick walls as a motif for our digipak. We found a stock photo that was the sharp corner of a brick wall, and then based 2 columns of writing on each side of the corner. Both sides of the brick wall vary in darkness, and we chose to colour the font corresponding to the shade of darkness (dark= white font, and vice versa). We believe this has created an interesting visual effect, and boosts the overall look of the pane.
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