Audience Feedback

Here is a audience feedback video featuring three people from our target audience; Young adults 18-24. I asked this audience:

• Is there clear creativity in this CD cover?
• The colours you see, pink and blue,, do you think they are conventional to a Dance-pop genre? Why?
• How do they make you feel?
• Would you buy it?

With all the feedback we received from asking specific questions, we will take and develop to create a better  digi-pack to suit the needs of my target audience. 

First Draft of Ancillary Task

I have used Slideshare. net to present the first draft of my ancillary task.

changes in my plan

Talent Release Forms

Below are all the Talent Release forms of which were signed by the actors and participants that will take part within our music video. We had to get their consent so then we have permission to feature them within the video.

Here is the original talent release form that was distributed to each individual:


Here are the signed forms:

Peer Assessment

Here is a peer evaluation for my planning section on my blog.

Photoshoot

We created a Photo shoot schedule in order to plan and organise our time efficiently. By dividing the components and planning it, we are able to clearly see what we will need for each shoot; we possible wouldn't of remembered what we would have needed without planning and scheduling.

Location permission

CD designs

Explaining these ideas:

• We had many ideas for the CD cover and the above picture shows some of them. The front cover will have the artists face (Close-up of the face and then cropped to half of the face) and then a brick wall background to bring a sense of urban, city life feel that the feeling of frustration brings. However, it also contrasts the artists calm and bright appearance within the music video and advert. The album title is the song title, which is conventionally to most artists and also the font is jaggard and scratchy to convey the sense of frustration (concept). 

• The spine is bright yellow, with he text 'Not giving in' and the artists name. This represents crime tape and the connotations surrounding that, such as crime and also linking to the police integration room in the music video. Also, the back cover incorporates the hitting of the punchbag, and we would have the song names shaped to make it look like its apart of the bag. Another back cover would be the illustration of the artist in the field, using a fast shutter speed (15-20). This would express the feeling of freedom this location gives, compared to the other locations. 

• Where the CD is placed in the cover, a clock would be used to represent the interrogation room scene, and the waiting that causes frustration and stress. It link with our theme of not giving in and the waiting that surrounds that. 

• This idea goes against conventions of dance pop CD covers, however, the idea behind it is because our music video contains so much emotion and stress because of our concept and we felt this represented the feelings well. The eyes are often said to be 'the gateway to the soul', because they are expressive and many emotions can be seen through them. This made us think about having the artists eye, and turning up the contrast to make the iris stand out-still keeping to the bright colours of the sub-genre. Also, we thought about replacing the iris with the field from the music video, or blending two locations together to create a juxtaposition between the feelings of calm and manic. 

Advert designs

How to create this advert?:

This advert will be created using Photoshop. It will consist of 8 layers. Each of the layers as follows:

• Background layer ( Fence)
• Layer 1 ( Main actor- Scott Wells)
• Layer 2 ( Interrogation character)
• Layer 3 ( Work character)
• Layer 4 ( Dancer 1)
• Layer 5 (Dancer 2)
• Layer 6 ( Punch bag and fist ( Opacity to be lowered))
• Layer 7 (black background to the writing)
• Layer 8 ( Text layer "NOT GIVING IN SINGLE OUT JULY 2013")

This design shows the conventions used in other dance pop adverts. Having the artists within the advert and also having a mid shot of them is a convention as it draws the attention to the artists and tells the audience their important and its their album/single. Also the colouring is important as the bright vibrant purple links with the upbeat tempo and energetic atmosphere, but contrasts the situations (the situations are represented by the actors in black and white, they connote the concept of the song-frustration of not giving in). The artist is in the same clothing he was in for the video because it was colourful and made him stand out and be noticed. The song name is bold and big to make it stand out, with the release date at the bottom. We would also include the logos for the production company, and other logos to promote companies involves with the production and publication of the advert. We would also have the name of the artist 'Rudimental' or 'Scott Wells', this would be bigger than the names of the song title, and also be in a different font because that is the convention-this is done to make the artists seem important and emphasis their status.  

List of Props, Costumes, Make-up and Equipment

Shooting Schedule

We created a shooting schedule and then uploaded it using slide share. Producing a shooting schedule allows me me to organise my time effectively and also break down the elements, such as costumes, props, equipment;some of these elements I wouldn't of thought of without the schedule. It also makes me realise ethe things we need to organise for certain scenes ,that we haven't yet such as actors or equipment booking.

Track permission letter

This is an email we sent out to the contact the record label, in order to request the permission to use their track. Its important to do this so that we don't breach any copyright or legal issues that surround the song. We have to make it clear also, we are not using the song for any profitable reasons but for the purpose of our Media coursework.

Location shots

First location:

The first location we would use for the field scenes would be at Primrose Hill in London, on the northern side of Regents Park. We chose this location because of the city skyline, which we wanted in our shots to show the contrast between stressful situations ( In the city) and the calm, stress-free atmosphere in the field, in a more striking and dominating way. This location would be the performance area for the artist, and the location would create an interesting Mise-en-scene that would differentiate the artists from the other characters.













Second Location:
The second location would be the drama room at Glenthorne High School, this is because it local and easy to access. Also, the room can be completely blacked out and use spotlights effectively, which is also set up in the room. This room will be used for the interrogation scenes and also the dance scenes as well. The spotlight will create a dramatic and tense atmosphere within the scenes, creating the feeling of frustration and vulnerability  relating to our concept.

Third Location: 
This location is someones home gym, there is a punching bag located in their background. This would be used for the gym scene, in order to get shots of the violent and frustrated behaviours from this character. The enclosed feeling works really well to show how things get on top of the character and situations surround him.

Fourth Location:
The office, this location has a glass window, which we wanted from our initial ideas, however it does not have a skyline view from the office. It has enough room in order for the character to pace, by using this location we hope that the audience will sympathise with the working class character; the worries and stress that comes with this type of locations within today's society.

Storyboards

Storyboards:
We photographed ourselves working on our storyboards. 
As a group we created storyboards on the different locations we have decided upon, giving an initial view of the type of shots we would use, such as we have noticed we would use a lot of close-ups, which is conventional to our genre. However, although we use a few close-ups we still experiment with a range of shot types ranging from long shots and bird eye views. We also found that the storyboards allowed us to visualize what the video would look like and also what the types of camera movements we would use; this changed our initial ideas of what we wanted as we never wanted dramatic camera movement at first but now we do.

Storyboards images/Animatic:
We created an animatic in order to get a sense of the timing and placement within the song we would put the shots. Also, when doing the storyboards we focused on the location shots instead of the song with it, making it easy enough to slot different shots from various locations into one video-having the range of shots allows better experimentation and planning o the types of shots and shot types needed.

Concept

Costume:
In our music video we want to fit the conventions of Dance-pop, we will do this with the main artists. The main artist will wear typical costumes such as brightly coloured clothing, trainers and shirt. However, we want the rest of the characters clothing to fit the situation/concept rather than the genre.

• Gym: The clothing will include shorts and a vest, to fit the gym environment.
• Office: A tousled, messy suit to show his lack of commitment, tiredness or stress cause by the environment and the situation he has been placed in.
• Interrogation room: This character in this situation will be a female, so that the video is not male bias, and also to give a sense of variety/generalisation. The female will wear casual, smart clothes such as, chinos, shirt which is creased and unbuttoned at the top to show shes been there a long time and also to show it may be hot; under pressure.

Effects:
We felt our video could use some effects in order to slow down and speed up certain shots. Slowing down shots within each situation emphasises the feeling of stress, frustration as the audience can watch the expression on the characters face and empathise with them. Slowing down certain clips will also help sync the music to the shots, making it easier to cut on the beat.

Teacher Assessment

Image annotation

These three GIF's show the types of clothing I would like for my main artist in my Dance Pop music video. These pieces of clothing would only be for the artists not the other characters in the video as the conventionally dress differently in order to make the artist stand out and individualise themselves. 


These clothes show the conventions of costumes in dance pop, as they convey casual and edgy styles. Most dance pop artist's have a individual 'look' that makes them unique but some characteristics can be seen in most of them. For example tight jeans/trousers that are colorful, which could symbolize happiness and energy-reflected in the genre of music. The bright colours also make them standout in comparison to the other characters and background which is typically of a dark nature; this can be seen to really work well in the Olly Murs screen shot as the pink jeans contrast well with the pavement, creating a playful and energetic atmosphere.

Also, the clothing is normally very stylized , as if they were of to a party. They would wear accessories such as bracelets and hats, which is what we incorporated into our own  costume ideas. I felt that the accessories allowed the artist to create their own identity, although not all the artists did this. These items also give character to the artists, making them seem edgy or confident. Furthermore the items could identify the artists to the audience, such as when you see the Olly Murs hat, they instantly know its a song by that artist.

Trainers are convention to the Dance Pop genre because they connote energy and dancing which this sub genre is about. The trainers represent dancing and are usually worn in the dance sequences as they are easy to move around in and are instantly associated to that sub genre.

Lyric annotation

Song details

We have chosen the song 'Not giving in' By Rudimental; the song fits well with our genre dance pop. This song meets the criteria we were given as the artist is British and the song does not have a music video currently. Our initial ideas for the music video was of a field and having lots of extreme close-ups of the artists face, high key lighting and some sort of dance sequence because the music was up-beat and energetic, however this was contrasted with the slow paced beginning which we felt may need longer shots
.

Photoshop Tutorial 2

Photoshop Tutorial

Creating a CD cover:

• Press new, create a custom canvas and change the sizes to height:12 cm, width: 25 cm. Make sure the pixel is on 300 and no less. 
• Firstly we started by taking photos for our CD cover and back. We decided to use close-ups of the face as this is a convention for dance pop CD covers, shown in earlier post. This is so we are shown the emotions and face of the artists that is usually well known.
• We used the ruler button on the left hand side task bar, which produced a ruler around the perimeter of the canvas, we then dragged the ruler from the left to 12 cm's in,then the next 14 cm's in.
• We then picked a background from Google images, we chose a blue neon swirl background as it was bright and is a convention of dance pop. When we imported in, we decided we wanted to cut the image and rotate it in order to create the wave effect, so that it related to the album name 'Making Waves'. In order to use the back and picture, we used the magic wand to select the background of the photo on layer one. Then we put the blue background in layer 2.
• We made sure the album name and artists name was different in colour, size and font. This is conventional to most CD covers,this is so the artists name stands out and also because some artists may have a conventional font or style they have,  Such as Florence and the machine.

• The back cover included two pictures taken side on of the artist; we put these on two different layers and also applied the magic wand on them. We also used a rubber to erase the missed areas around the face which the magic wand didn't pick up. 
• The song names on the back are placed between the two faces so that they stand out and are also white for the same reason. White could also show nature and purity, which could be related to making waves as that is associated to nature and the sea. We also used the name of the album for one of the songs on the back as usually the CD is named after one of the most popular songs on the album.
• If we had more time we would have imported a barcode on the back cover, a spine and a record label picture on the back. 

Technical Tutorials

Green screen:
Below is a video we filmed as a whole class and then edited in our groups. This is an example of green screen and the first of practices with the technique. Green screen is the effect used in order to create a digitally generated background in the post-production phase of editing.



Setting up the green screen tips/what I learned:
-Make sure the green sheet has no creases or shadows as this will cause a negative effect on the final product. This needs to happen in order to create a professional and consistent video.
-The placement of lighting in the space will even our the colouring and balance it.
-I learned how to set up and dismantle the green screen.
-Using multiple camera in one shooting to create a diverse and simple way to get different shots.
-Lighting is crucial to the effectiveness of green screen in later phases of editing.

Final Cut steps:
-Upload and drag the footage as normal to the tracks(leave the first track free for your background). Sync up the footage and music with the marker 'M'.
-In the top left hand corner box, click on tab 'effects'.
-Click on the little arrow next to 'Key'.
-Drag the effect 'Chroma key' to the track you want.
-Import the certain background you want, drag it to the first track.
-Click the little green key on the far left of the track, making it turn grey. Do NOT do this for the track you are working on.
-Double click on the track or until to the clip plays on the left screen. Click on 'Chroma key'.
-Click on the pepet and click on the green part of the clip on the right screen.
-Click on the pepet and press 'Shift' again if you want the quality better and more refined.
-Use the sliders on the left screen in order to get your desired affect.
-Now do this for all the clips.
-Once there all done, Render.

Evaluation of our practice:
-Overall I think our video could have been improved and edited better.
-This could have been done by ironing our the green screen in order so it didn't have creases and folds which caused difficulties in our editing and use of Chroma key in our video.
-Make sure the green screen fills the frame.
-Minimize the amount someone walks in front of the camera.

Roles

Roles:

Director: 
All share
Filming:
All share
Editing: 
All share
Storyboard: 
All plan and annotate
Location:
Rachele
Finding a suitable location that fits the genre of Dance Pop. Getting permission from whoever owns the location. 
Costume: 
Scott
finding and providing suitable costumes for the actors and genre of music. 
Make-up:
Fiona
gathering the right make-up; colours. 
Props:
Rachele
finding props for the music video. Getting permission to use props or buying them. 
Lighting:
Fiona
bringing appropriate lighting to fit the mood of the song. 
Music: 
Scott
bringing along music and a music player to the location and also providing the digital copy for the music video edit. 
Actors: 
Rachele and Scott
Special effects: 
Rachele

Initial Ideas

This is a spider diagram I produced with Mapmyself.com; this program allowed me to create and map my initial ideas for my 'Dance Pop' music video. Whilst creating this spider diagram I based my ideas on the conventions of my sub-genre, such as unconventional locations- to develop this convention I tried to think of unconventional locations that I had seen in some music videos that I had analysed in my research, an example of this is Jessie J's 'Lazerlight' which used a green screen. I also looked at artists within the sub-genre in order to get a feel of the sort of artist I would like to use, which I think would be similar to Rihanna and Jessie J; preferably a female artist.

Peer Assessment

This is a peer assessment done by a person in my class. 

Results from my survey into Disco Pop

Media Results (1)

Audience Research-Survey into Disco Pop

I created a survey to gather information about my target audience and what they expected and wanted in a Disco Pop music video and advertisement. I used Google Docs in order to create this survey and then emailed it to people in my year group and to teachers in order to get a range of age groups within my sample. I asked about age and gender in order to get an overall insight into the target audiences gender and age and then using that information and applying it to my own adverts/CD covers and music videos in order for it to appeal to my target audience.

I asked questions about the location used and the mise-en-scene they expect and want to see within a Disco Pop music video and advert, such as, would they audience prefer to see a music video with high key lighting and bright, bold colours or a low key lighting video with dull bland colours.

Advertisement research into pop

Record label research

Research into dance pop (conventions)

make a gif

Research into Dance Pop (Analysis of 3 CD covers)

Research into Dance pop (5 analysed music videos)

Moodboard on chosen genre

I created a mood board in order to map out conventions of the dance Pop genre. I found that within
this sub genre a lot of bright/ vibrant colours are used in order to make the artists stand out and also to create an energetic atmosphere. This atmosphere reflects the genre as dance sequences are conventional and support each other to make them more effective. Furthermore, there are a lot of spotlights and high key lighting used to convey drama and fun, and also reflect on the dance/club scene; which normally has multi-coloured spotlights.

I also found that the costumes used are extravagant and individual to the artists, such as Lady GaGa and   Nicki Minaj, who perform in abstract, unconventional clothing. These costumes intrigue the audience and keeps them entertained, but also identify the artists; the clothing style becomes associated to the artists.

Theories 3

Theories 2

carol vernallis on Prezi

Theories 1

Low budget Ideas

Using these two low budget music videos below, I have compiled a list of low budget ideas, which I could use for my own production and editing on my music video. I have learned practical and valuable tips from viewing these videos. 

• Being energetic and happy in your video, this makes it more professional. It also makes the video more entertaining even when the artists aren't singing or playing instruments; it keeps the video upbeat. This is seen in both 'A-ha' and 'just got payed'.
• Using both close-ups and mid-shots for people singing, to put emphasis on that person; this mainly done in 'A-ha'. Also, using long shot is very effective with bands.
• Pace of editing should match the pace of the music.
• Mise-en-scene: The props/costumes/locations, should be appropriate for the music video genre, such as in 'A-ha' the costume is dark which reflects the dark mood of the song. 
•  Using effects, such as in 'A-ha' they used fade in ad they also changed the contrast in some shots. This had a positive effect as it suited the music and created a dark and tense atmosphere.  
• Having the appropriate lighting for your genre. 'Just got payed' had key key lighting which was appropriate for their boy band pop video as it kept the mood light and fun. 

Conventions of a music video

Analysis of Rock Video 3-'Kill lies' By Reform the Resistance

The first shot is of a close-up of a wooden box, the camera is moving and the screen flickers. The box is decrepit and old looking, and is set in a low key lit room, this creates a dark and tense mood and the audience is confused, It also produces an isolated and cold feel. We then fade into an extreme closeup of someones face, the person remains anonymous as his face is obscured by the shot, the shot flickers again. Leaving the audience feeling confused and asking who is he? and why is he here?

We are then shown shots portraying a person sitting at a table in a dark room, they appear to be motionless. As the shots fade into the next the camera turns upside down, and the shot is out of focus and slightly distorted. The shots are languidly moving from the previous to the next, allowing the pace of the shot to keep to the pace of the music;a slow monotone hum gradually getting louder. The pace of editing quickens as a woman's legs appear in the shot, she is holding a folder...the audience question her importance due to the suit dress and high black heels; also her poster and long strides suggest she is powerful and has control. This is reinforced when we cut to a close-up of the person in the chair with his hand tied up; powerless.

The shots become clearer and we are able to identify the table from the first shot and associate it with the situation between these people. We fade into a extreme close-up of the woman's whispering into the mans ear, "It's time to stop the lies" this relates to the title of the song 'Kill lies' suggesting he is the focus of the video. Her lips are blood red suggesting violence and power and, also she comes across as intimidating.

The music suddenly quickens and increases in volume as we cut to a close-up of the man's dirty face, uncovering the mans face and showing who he is. Also, due to the close-up the audience assumes his important. He starts shouting the lyrics in a violent manure, showing his angry with her. The camera quickly cuts, and continually cuts to various shot types showing the band playing their instruments. Additionally the camera cuts to close ups of each bands members face as they scream 'lie' in a dramatic way, this increases the tense and slightly volatile atmosphere.

The man is in a mid close-up shot sitting still, then cuts for half a second to him thrashing in his seat,then cutting  back to him still again. This could connote he feels trapped in his body and angry at the woman but is stopping him self from reacting in a violent way. There are also a lot of close-ups from a low angle of a guitar being played; showing dominance of the person playing as the audience are below him. Also, there are a lot of extreme close-ups within this sequence, making the footage seem intimidating towards the audience.

Analysis of Rock Video 2-' 21 Guns' by Green Day

21 Guns’

View more presentations or Upload your own.

Analysis of Rock Video 1- 'Just' By Radiohead

'Just' By Radiohead on Prezi

Analysis of pop video- 'Wide awake' By Katy Perry

 Annotations on video

Analysis of a Pop video 2 'We are Young' By Fun

Analysis of Pop video 1- 'Chasing the sun' By The Wanted

Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• A website homepage for the band;
• A digipak for the album release;
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak 

In the sun remake

As a class we re-made the music video to 'In the sun' by She and Him.

Original:



Re-made version:



What I did whist filming that helped editing?
1. Firstly filming the scenes in chronological order helped whilst editing as it made it easier to organised which shot goes where, thus saving time.
2. Next, I played music while filming the shot to help the performers keep in sync with the music; lip syncing and dancing; this makes syncing the footage to the music in the editing stage, and also make it look more realistic.
3. Always film the whole scene instead of sections, that when editing you can cut some of the footage down; it’s always better to have more, so that it can be cut down instead of less, in which case the shot may not be able to be used.
4. Lastly, many of the shot were filmed multiple times so we could use the most professional looking one when it came to editing.

What I did whist filming that made it harder to edit?
1. While filming some of the shots, communication in the group was low and this cause some problems, such as, some of the shot not being filmed at all, taking too much time to film and the shot not being filmed correctly; this hindered the editing because it made it harder to put the shots in order correctly and also made it look less professional.
2. The location, mainly the library was very cramped and limited the dancing we could do and also the shot types. This made the film look less professional.
3. Some of the lip syncing was not in time with the music and was not exaggerated enough; this made it hard to sync the music to the shot.
4. Because some of the shot were not filmed, I had to re-use some of the previous shots.

WWW:
• I was able to get all the shots in the correct order, even with the difficulty of missing shots and incorrect shot types. I was also able to sync in well with the music.
• The filming equipment, such as, the fig-rig and tripod were used correctly and efficiently to produce steady shots.
• The dancing and lip syncing was in time majority of the time.
• We used the same shot types and length from the original music video to a good standard.

EBI:
• Although the film was created to a good standard compared to the original video, there were some shots missing and incorrectly shot.
• The lip syncing could have been more exaggerated; this would have made it easier to sync the shot to the music.
• Communication could have been better within the group; this could have made the filming run smoother and faster.

Lip Sync Task (You Took My Heart-Pepper and Piano)

Lip Sync Task

Three things I need to improve:

1. The singing sometimes doesn't sync to the music, to improve this i would make sure the singer performs the whole song in each location and also make sure the singer knows the song well and the lyrics.
2. When filming, too much time was taken to create interesting angles and short types, when it should have been dedicated to filming the the singer singing. Also, only part of the song was recorded and to improve this would be record the whole song.
3. The third point is that the singer doesn't move his mouth much when singer. To improve this the performer should exaggerate his or hers mouth when singing.

One thing Im pleased with:

1. the filter effects worked really well, especially the replicating of the frame.