Final Message To the Examiner

Hello,
Throughout the course there has been moments of highs and lows, but what we can all agree on is that we feel we have achieved much more than we first thought.Overall we have all enjoyed the course and have learnt many different skills. We are all particularly proud of the way our music video turned out and hopefull you will see the reasons why.
We hope you enjoy reading through our blog and through all our individual posts.
Thanks,
Tom, Jake and Jack

Our Final Music Video

Untitled from Jake Boswell on Vimeo.

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

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

Evaluation Question 1 on Prezi

Question 2. How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

Evaluation Question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I also gathered feedback from my teachers from blogger. I also had feedback from my friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Question 2. How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

For the music video we wanted to follow a simple performance video theme. We looked closely at the video "Hey Scenesters" by The Cribs. We liked this video as it was very simple and bland but not boring. I also took ideas from the music video for the post-hardcore band Asking Alexandria and their song "The Final Episode". I liked this as it was in a very simple setting in a warehouse.

However, for my Digipak and Poster I wanted to create a more bright and colourful feel. This was because I did a lot of research into Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup" and the album cover he made for The Velvet Underground.

 I also wanted to create some irony with the song Banquet. By featuring a tin of Spam on the front cover and back because it is a small amount of low cost, un-classy food.

I linked the music video and Digipak together by using some stills which I took at the recording of the video as a background to the Digipak.

Evaluation Question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I used used various ways to gather audience feedback.

I got comments from my teacher, classmates and friends. I got these from comments on my blog and facebook. We also did a video premier in my form during mentor time.

We handed out a questionnaire for the class to fill in. I consisted of several questions, first asking their age and gender. Then their personal music genre preferences and then questions about our music video. Unfortunately the age range was only between 14-16, this means that only the 16 year olds were in our target audience. Also, most of the participants in the questionnaire were female.

Here are several replies to questions we asked:

What did you think of the setting of our music video?

"it suits the music" 14, female
"looks good, quite professional" 15, female
"great. Good on a studio looking setting" 15, male

Do you think the setting and the arrangement of the equipment looks realistic?
"Yes, it looks like a real performance" 15, male
"It does look realistic as it looks like a real band practice" 16, female

What bands does this music video remind you of?
"Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian" 14, male
"Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys" 15, male
"Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian" 15, male

Would you choose to watch our music video? Why?
"I would, however it does get a bit repetitive, could change something about it" 16, female
"yes, looks good and sounds good" 15, female
"yes, it is the type of music video that I watch sometimes" 14, female

How could we improve our video?
"the camera skill so that it would flow better and more consistently" 14, female
"camera is a bit wobbly at times-it could be a bit more professional. It could be a bit more exciting" 14, female

Could you expect to see our video on a music channel? If so, what channel?
"Yes, 4music" 14, male
"Yes, Viva" 15, male
"Yes, Scuzz" 14, female

Does our video look professional?
"sort of, the cameras could have been a bit steadier" 14, female
"Yes" 14, male

What features of our video did you like best?
"The changing camera angles" 15, male
"the filming" 16, female
"all of it, looked good" 15, female

What would you give our video out of 10?
"8" 15, female
"8 1/2" 14, female
"8" 14, male

Evaluation 4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used lots of different types of technology in various different catagories of use. Here is a list of all the things I used:
-Macbook Pro
-Motorola Defy Android mobile phone
-iPod Touch
-Apple iMac
-iMovie
-Adobe Photoshop
-FinalCut Pro
-iDVD
-Facebook
-Twitter
-Tubechop
-Youtube
-Vimeo
-Soundcloud
-Animoto
-JVC Evario Camcorder
-Sony Cybershot Camera
-Nikon DSLR Camera

Here is how I used them:

Macbook Pro- The Macbook was my main piece of technology that I used throughout our project. I used it mainly for the editing of the animoto, draft and final video. I also installed photoshop onto it and used this for designing and creating my digipak and poster. It was also useful as I could carry it round everywhere with me so I could always access the blog and the music video.

Motorola Defy- I linked up my email accounts and Twitter and Facebook feeds to my phone so I was always in touch with the rest of my group and could always check blog posts on the go.

iPod Touch- I also had my email accounts linked up to my iPod so I could check things on the move.

Apple iMac- I used an Apple iMac for editing the music video.

iMovie- I used this for all the editing for the video and animatic. I like iMovie as it is relatively easy to use and can produce good quality edits.

Adobe Photoshop- I used this for creating my digipak and poster. I did encounter some problems with it, as I wanted to add a painted effect to my digipak but Photoshop closed everytime I tried to add this.

Final Cut- I used this to publish my video.

iDVD- I used this to burn the movie to DVD and create a DVD menu.

Facebook- I used Facebook to keep in touch with the rest of my group and get audience feedback.

Twitter- We used Twitter to promote our band and we gathered a small amount of followers.

Tubechop- I used Tubechop in the research and planning stage to analyse music videos.

Youtube- We used Youtube to watch current videos and we tried to upload our video to it, however it had the audio track removed because of copywright.

Vimeo- We used Vimeo to upload our music videos and animoto.

Soundcloud- I used Soundcloud to explore other artists in our genre.

Animoto- we used Animoto to produce our pitch.

JVC Evario Camcorder- We used this to film our music video.

Sony Cybershot Camcorder- I used this to take photographs for my digipak.

Nikon DSLR Camera- We used this to take band photos and I also used it to take photos for my digipak.

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

For our music video we wanted to follow current media conventions for music videos. We decided on doing Banquet by the band Bloc Party which are an alternative rock band. We therefore decided to do a performance video as this is typical for rock genres.

To make it follow traditional rock music video conventions we used close ups, extreme close ups,  full band shots, panning and fast cuts between shots. We also used lipsyncing which is a very important part of performance videos.

Originally, when beginning the research and planning section of our coursework, we weren't sure of what music genre and video catagory we were going to use. After researching different genres as a group, we dicided to go for alternative rock. We researched the video styles, album styles and clothing styles that alternative rock bands would use/wear. We looked at bands such as: Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Bloc Party, Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs, The Raconteurs, Little Comets and The Killers. After a long time of choosing artists we eventually decided that we were going to do the song Banquet by Bloc Party. We also decided that we were going to do a performance video.

We also looked into the way that Bloc Party and other similar bands dress and styled our performers into the way they dress. We also marked stage positions for the performers to stand so we could make Lo! look like a real band.

We then looked into music videos by Bloc Party, mainly the 'Banquet' video as this included some performance and lipsyncing. I looked closely at the Bloc Party album, 'A Weekend in the City' as I wanted to use a similar effect in my digipak. I used this for inspiration as I used a blurred image of the drummer behind where the CD would go.

I also did a lot of research into Andy Warhol's 'Campell's Soup' and the album cover he made with The Velvet Underground. I liked the pop-art idea and wanted to try and re-create that. I also looked into the Oasis boxset album 'Definitely, Maybe' as this was a collection of Oasis tracks but they came in a boxset made like a cigarette case. This was typical of Oasis as this is the image that Oasis has put out through the years and people associate them with cigarettes and alcohol. I therefore used a tin of spam as the front and back of my digipak. This is because Spam is a worldwide known brand and is grooved into society and is a generic brand. Whereas Lo! are not well known and generic so I used the Spam to make the Digipak ironic.

Final Music Video

Below is our final submitted version of our music video, we all feel that it has hugely improved from our first draft. What contributed to this to the group as a whole being a lot more organised when it came to filming. An experienced lead singer (Max) who has been in other media projects added to the better, more professional video as a whole. Finally another key difference from the draft is that we all participated in the editing of the final video. When we edited the draft video, it was mostly edited by Jake which has not been the case for the final version. Overall myself and and everyone else in the group feel that we have produced a video that we are all proud of.

Untitled from Jake Boswell on Vimeo.
Feel free to post some feedback on our final video!

Final Digipak and Poster

Music Video-Adaptations

For our final version of our music video we are changing several parts/ways in which we are doing it.

-We now have a frontman as well as the rest of the original band from the draft which will help us to include more lyric based shots which will help to make the video more interesting.

-Due to the lighting issues that we had in the draft-(it was too dark!)- we have acquired two floodlights, which we are going to place in different places during filming. This will brighten the shots and we can also use them to create different effects.

-We are also adapting the costumes of some of the band, in an attempt to make the band fit into the genre better.

-We also now have the lyrics of each section of storyboard wrote down which will help us to get through filming a lot quicker.

-We are going to film the drumming shots from an angle rather than head on due to head on shots looking too boring!

-For the montage at the beginning of the video we are going to take some shots to be able to make that quicker.

Digipak- Final Idea

For my Digipak I have been looking at various ways in which to adapt it.

I have been researching Andy Warhol's 'Campell's Soup'.  I am going to put a painted effect on my cover and track listing to create the Andy Warhol effect. I am doing this as it has been done before for 'The Velvet Underground and Nico'. I want to use irony as 'Lo!' is not a typical grooved very well known band/ style, unlike Andy Warhol's artwork which is known all across the world. 

My album cover and track listing will consist of the front and back view of a tin of 'Spam'. This is following on from the Andy Warhol pop-art look. I have also been inspired by the 'Oasis' singles 'Definitely Maybe' album. 

The box is meant to resemble a cigarette box, however it contains several CD's from 'Oasis'.

Lo!- Banquet- First Draft

Mock Up digipak

Analysis of Digipaks- Red Hot Chili Peppers- By The Way

This is the album cover of the Red Hot Chili Peppers album, "By The Way". The album cover consists of a background of an open area with a woman in the foreground in a negative image effect. The band name is listed down either side of the cover.

The back of the CD features the band walking through a field in an old fashioned colour. It also features the track listing down the right hand side.

The inside of the case has an alternate album cover. It also has the disc with the album name on it written in a handwriting style font.

The inside of the digipak has several pages which have the lyrics to the songs on them. This is very common in album digipaks. The left hand page has another shot of the band walking through a field, similarly to the back of the album.

Analysis of Digipaks- Avenged Sevenfold- Nightmare

This is the front cover of Avenged Sevenfold's album "Nightmare". The front shows a girl sleeping, with   Death in the background and a gravestone. The background is meant to show what's going on inside her dream. On the gravestone it has the word foREVer, which is a reference to their drummer who died just before the release of the album.

The back of the album continues with the nightmare theme with the dark skies and background.

Inside the CD case there is the booklet for the album and a merchandise leaflet. The CD has a pattern made out of bones on.

Behind the CD is a picture of the band together as a memory of the drummer.

Inside the digipak the artwork continues to play with the "Nightmare" theme.

All of the pictures inside the digipak are in dark colours. The picture on the right shows the band sat around a table but as skeletons. The picture on the left shows the band-members sat in a bar. In all of the shots the background is the main focus of the pictures.

Analysis of Digipaks- Kaiser Chiefs- Employment

The front cover of the Kaiser Chief's alum "Employment" is very simple. It has an old fashioned book style to it. The band name and album name are printed plainly and boldly to stand out and are surrounded by a yellow box to make the writing stand out better.

The back of the album is also very simple. Again it has a very old fashioned style, however, it is made to look like a picture frame with the track listing in the middle.

The inside of the digipak however is more interesting. The Disk is made to look like a roulette wheel as the inside of the digipak seems to be playing with gambling/game themes.

In another part of the digipak the gambling/game theme is continued. On the post-it notes on the snakes and ladders board there are names of producers who produced certain songs on the album.  On the other side there is a page dedicated just to 'thank you's' from the band to people that have helped them.

Album Back mock up