JP: Candidate 6241 Navigation

Music Video

Evaluation Question 1
Evaluation Question 2
Evaluation Question 3
Evaluation Question 4

Printwork
Animatic
Brighton Footage
Technical Analysis

Music Video Analysis

TF: Candidate 6157

Music Video

Evaluation Question 1
Evaluation Question 2
Evaluation Question 3
Evaluation Question 4

Print Work
Animatic
Brighton Footage
Technical Analysis

Music Video Analysis 1
Music Video Analysis 2
Music Video Analysis 3

JP: Evaluation Questions

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

BW: Candidate 6280 Navigation

Evaluation Q1
Evaluation Q2
Evaluation Q3
Evaluation Q4

Print-work

Animatic

Brighton footage

Technical Analysis

Music Video Analysis

Group: Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Below is our group's response to question three of the evaluation. It is best viewed in full screen.

TF: Evaluation Question Four

TF: Evaluation Question Two

TF: Evaluation Question One

BW: Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

SURVEY QS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg6gg7yVPw4

http://prezi.com/mkelczxtqai5/moodboard/?kw=view-mkelczxtqai5&rc=ref-13593014

http://twgsbmedia12a2group2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/group-pitch-for-greenlight.html

http://twgsbmedia12a2group2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/group-storyboard.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA_FodOZ5pE

BW: Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages

Our whole production is displayed using multimedia platforms. We used blogger.com as a collaborative e-portfolio in our group throughout the planning, construction and evaluation. Blogger.com was the central hub of or whole production, for example, during the planning stage we were required to analyse the conventions of different music videos from our chosen genre, as well as study the numerous techniques used to create a music video. We would then post our analyses on the blog so that we could refer back to them for inspiration and reminders on conventions. During the construction stage of the video we used the blog to frequently update filming and editing progress as well as to schedule our next filming dates. In the evaluation stages the blog has been used to post responses to the questions.

Showing how we used blogger throughout our production

An example of one of the music video analyses

Our use of blogger.com is an example of web 2.0 because as a group we are the ones contributing to the website, and we are also closely interacting with the media. Blogger.com enabled us to comment on each other's work and it provided a central location for our group to refer back to previous work. We distributed our media work by posting it on YouTube and 'sharing' the link on social networking sites such as Facebook. A further example of our group's use of web 2.0 was how we used surveymonkey.com to distribute a questionnaire for audience research. We found surveymonkey.com very useful because it is easy to use for respondents, and by simply being on the internet, opens up a much wider audience for our questionnaire.

Our questionnaire on surveymonkey.com

In order to plan our pieces we use YouTube to watch music videos and analyse the main characteristics and conventions featured in the video. We use these videos to gain a greater understanding into how videos are made and also to learn the conventions of our chosen genre. The videos we analyse also helped to inspire us, for example, our video's concept is inspired from Coldplay's music video for 'Paradise' which features an elephant running through London and returning to the wild. We constructed an animatic by filming off our storyboard, which we edited using Adobe Premier Elements 9.0. Storyboarding proved useful because it provided a simple guideline of shots we wanted to film, and also provided a slight indication of the amount of time that a shot we would take. We used SlideRocket to present our pitch which can be seen here. SlideRocket was also used for my response to question one shown here.

Our music video on YouTube

When shooting we used a Canon 550D camera which made us able to film in much better quality. However part of our video required reaction shots which were difficult to film with only one camera. To resolve this we rented out one of the school's cameras so that we could have two cameras filming at once, and also so that one person could focus on filming people's reactions. The reaction shots were filmed in handicam and the other shots were mostly filmed using the tripod. We used ambient lighting and applied continuity shooting. Another problem that we overcame was that at times the Canon camera would stop recording saying that 'filming has been stopped automatically'. We solved this by lowering the frame rate from 25fps to 24 fps and also by deleting some unnecessary footage. After this, that message never appeared again.

Adobe Premier Elements 9.0

To edit the video we used Adobe Premier Elements 9.0 which was helpful because one is able to zoom in and out on the timeline in order to cut as precisely as possible for the cuts to match the beat, and also to help us synchronise the performance shots with the lyrics of the song. Adobe Premier Elements was also helpful because it enabled us to enter visual effects such as split-screen for our performance shots, as well as enter many different transitions such as cross-dissolve, dip-to-white, and others. For the final shot we used Photoshop CS3 to create a black background with a circle cut out in the middle. The black background had to be made on a transparent background so we could see the shot, and saved as a PNG file because Adobe Premier wouldn't accept any other file type. The PNG file was inserted into Premier on top of the last shot and we then used motion-key framing in order to shrink the file, so that the last shoot showed a black circle closing in on the centre of the screen, just like the end of the Looney Tunes cartoons. However a problem did occurred because the edges of the PNG file also shrank, so we had to use Photoshop again to make two more plain black pictures, and put them back into the Premier. So now the two extra black backgrounds disguised the shrinking edges of the original file. The titles were added using the text tool.

Adobe Photoshop CS3

At the beginning of the video there is a split-screen shot of the London Eye and the big-wheel at Brighton. Both wheels are shown spinning very quickly as the titles appear. To make this happen we used the time-stretch feature in Premier. A problem that occurred with this, and that is visible in the video, is that the two wheels rotate at different speeds when we originally intended for them to spin at an equal pace. However, we ultimately had no control over this since the London Eye turns much slower than the Brighton wheel. Our video was not meant to be special effects heavy so it didn't include many complex transitions and visuals, but we did use the transition called 'cross-dissolve'. We used this transition to connote a change in time. We used this transition for when the crocodile changed location to show that some time has passed and that he has successfully made his way around the different locations.

The titles shot showing the two wheels

BW: Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Group: Print-work

Digipak:

 Advertisements:

JP: Evaluation Question 4

Or you could view the presentation here: http://prezi.com/ytvtsowlq_i_/q4/?auth_key=7555b44484a691a50654a5ff4d92901925856b82&kw=view-ytvtsowlq_i_&rc=ref-13593014

JP: Evaluation Question 1

When considering the key features of a music video, Andrew Goodwin, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) identified a number of conventions that can be applied to music videos.

Firstly he stated that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. Our video for 'Escapee' by Architecture in Helsinki would be categorised as being in the indie pop genre. It is conventional in that the band members are all wearing stereotypical indie costumes and the video is very quirky and unusual, however being unusual has become usual for indie pop videos. This refers to Goodwin's second paradox, as he said that bands beciome extraordinary and ordinary simultaneously. The different camera techniques and actions performed by the band could be seen as conveying positive emotions and a happy atmosphere surrounding the video and song.

The performance shown by the artist is very conventional of indie bands, with their instruments being included in the video and their style of playing these instruments reinforce their indie pop genre. The fast cutting rate accentuates the positive feel of the video further, by making it upbeat to match the music. Iconography is evident throughout, very conventional of indie pop bands, who attempt to create an image for their band that makes it unique. The use of the visual motif of the crocodile is evident throughout our video and printwork, so we created a band image for Architecture In Helsinki that has a theme of the crocodile running through all ancillary texts as well as the main product, which shows a sense of continuity in our work.

The video employs an artistic/creative approach to conventions in that it exaggerates certain aspects of the song, including colour correction throughout the video to make the performance shots seems darker and colder, much like the advert, however the crocodile narrative shots have been edited to make the saturation much higher, creating a happy, colourful look to the video. This creates more of a sense of continuity with the ancillary texts, as all of our works relate to the music video in more than one way. We also decided to include reaction shots of members of the public breaking the fourth wall, as we believed it created an effect that the shot was in fact POV, as the members of the public look straight at the crocodile.

Goodwin discussed the relationship between lyrics and visuals. In relation to ‘Escapee’ it is clear that there is a moderate relation between the lyrics and visuals, however quite a lot of the lyrics are amplified in the music video, such as ‘taking me for a ride’ which is reflected in the crocodile running around or travelling in vehicles. Another example is the very first lyric of "this escapee was never gonna stay", which is played just after the crocodile's escape from the cage.

 He also considered the relationship between music and visuals to be an important convention. This can be applied to our video, as when the music is more fast paced, the cutting rate increases, but when the music slows, the shots are shown for longer, making the scene seem more relaxed in juxtaposition to the rest of the video, and this is mainly evident in the shot where the crocodile slows down and looks over the lake in Haysden park. The song has a fast cutting rate for most of the song, which is reflected in the video, so camera movement such as handicam and the action of running as a visual motif makes the video very upbeat and fun.

            Goodwin made reference to the notion of looking, however the crocodile or band do not ever really refer to this notion of looking, as there is no use of mirrors or anything like that. It could be referenced in the use of splitscreen, as the audience’s vision is split between the band and the crocodile, making them look twice to notice the band more. Importantly he discussed the voyeurism seen in most conventional video, referring to the lingering of the camera on the subject. With reference to music videos, prevalence is a huge part of voyeurism, and the fact that the camera lingers on the crocodile throughout the video and many different camera angles are used shows that the camera is trying to get as many looks at the crocodile as possible. The use of close ups and framing of the artist construes them as extraordinary for relating themselves to the crocodile.

           Music videos are a postmodern form, which implies that they often borrow and rework ideas from other texts and forms. ‘Escapee’ reworks the idea conveyed in videos like ‘Paradise’ by Coldplay and ‘The Bad Touch’ by The Bloodhound Gang through pastiche, in using an animal costume to make the music video seem much more humorous. However, there is not really any other conclusion that could be drawn in relation to the video having any similarities with other music videos. In terms of ideologies, we attempted to create an underlying message in our video that freedom is no longer present in our pluralistic society, and that despite how we are told that we are free, we are just living a monotonic life, and this is shown by the way in which the crocodile travels around on public transport and seems to be blending in just like anyone despite the fact that he is a crocodile, which shows how he is merely the same as anyone else when it comes to freedom. This is a dominant ideology as many people believe that freedom is a myth, and it is widely accepted that everyone should have a right to freedom.

JP: Evaluation Question 2

Group: Final Music Video

Below is an embedded link of our final production. We exported it in an MPEG file and then uploaded it to YouTube so that we can share the link amongst our peers and through social networking sites easily, to collect audience feedback.

Group: Audience survey questions

These are the questions we will be asking people as part of our audience feedback research. We will collect the results using the website 'surveymonkey.com'.

1. Are you male or female?

2. What age group do you fit into?

3. Did you understand the narrative of the video? If not, what were you unsure about?

4. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most suitable) how appropriate did you think the narrative was for the song and indie-pop genre?

5. Please rate these features of our video in order of effectiveness/suitability?
Performance shots        Locations          Lighting           Costume        Cutting rate
  
6. Do you think there is a clear link between the video and the print-work?

7. What did you think were the strengths of the video?

8. What did you think were the weaknesses of the video?

9. What improvements would you suggest for this video?

10. Any other comments?