Mitchell Hall A2 Media Studies
Monday 2 March 2015
Final Music Video
Here is my finished production.
Aliennation's "How You Remind Me" ||| By Mitchell Hall & Kyle Whitton
Tuesday 3 February 2015
Evaluation Question 4
"How did you use technologies in the construction and research/planning and evaluation stages?"
Technology
was vital to the creation of my music video in terms of planning, production,
editing and distribution. In each stage of the product cycle I used many key
pieces of technology.
The key piece
of hardware, which I used, was the apple mac. The mac had all the key programs
needed for research/planning, production, editing and distribution. The macs
run faster than regular computers and had a large storage space meaning that it could store each edit and the final edit of my music video.
The
standard browser for the mac was safari. Although Safari was capable of doing
the job I needed it for, I often chose to use Google chrome instead as it ran
much faster and so made it quicker to access websites and download files etc. A
problem with using the schools macs is that they had many privacy features
meaning that lots of the content that I needed for secondary research was blocked. This made it harder to research my chosen genre of Rock
due to the fact that many of that music genres videos contain either explicit language or explicit
scenes. Through these I often used Google itself in order to search for images
or for information/examples regarding my production. This was key especially in
the planning stages.
In order
to keep all of my files in the one place I used blogger, this was good as I
could post work from multiple programs such as word/PowerPoint as well as
images. This made it easier to keep track of my files and also gave me a
backup incase any were deleted off of the mac by accident. Also,
due to technological convergence I was capable of accessing Blogger on many
different sources of hardware meaning that I was able to access and add to my work at
anytime due to the app on my phone.
I used
Microsoft word in order to type out any scripted writing that I needed to do
such as my evaluation of existing music videos/ music posters. This programme
was good as its extremely easy to use and once I had finished typing I could
easily copy the text into a blogger post. I used Microsoft word when making my
storyboard, instead of drawing each picture one by one I decided to use
photofunia and convert pictures into a drawn effect so that they gave a more
accurate representation of what I wanted to see in the shot. This made the
storyboard quicker to create as well as being much more presentable.
As well
as word I used Microsoft PowerPoint and also Prezi in order to make
presentations for purposes of focus groups. PowerPoint was much easier to use
as it was simpler and I’d used it for years before the course. Prezi on the other
hand was harder to use but it made the PowerPoint much more interesting to
audiences so I used a mixture of both. In order to post PowerPoint’s onto my
blog I had to first convert them by using the site ScribD. ScribD was important
as it meant that I could continue to keep my work all in my blog. It was easier
to post Prezi’s onto my blog as I could just embed them.
In order
to record my focus group I used the AppleMac programme photo booth, photo booth
was helpful as it meant that I could record my focus group without then having
to upload it from a camera onto the mac’s which could potentially take a while.
Once I had recorded my focus group it was extremely simple for me to export the
file onto YouTube and Vimeo.
YouTube
is extremely popular and so allowed for my focus group to reach a large
audience, however, due to copy right issues over example songs that were played
through my focus group I had to use Vimeo as they were more lenient. I used YouTube
in order to distribute my music video following the editing stages. Sites such
as YouTube and Vimeo allowed for David Gauntlet’s Web 2.0 theory as audiences
could independently access my music video online.
In order to overcome the copyright issues I
used Twitter in order to contact the band Nickel Back in order to ask for
permission to use their song. Furthermore I used twitter in order to publicize
my music video once it was on YouTube by posting the link to it, As well as
using twitter for this I used other social media such as Facebook in order to
post the video to larger audiences. Using Facebook and twitter allowed for me
to get feedback on my video and to easily reply to feedback in order to ask
what I could improve if I was to create other videos in the future.
As well
as using Facebook and twitter to distribute my music video, I also used them to
distribute my survey, which I created using Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey was a
great way of making a survey due to the fact that it was free and easy to post
on social media as well as print. The site was easy to use and furthermore the
results were instantly transformed into graphs, which made analyzing the
results very simple.
Once all
of the research and planning had been conducted and analyzed I was ready to
start production. For the filming of my music video I used a Canon 600D camera
that was excellent due to the fact that it gave an extremely clear image but
also I could blur images if I wanted to add any effect prior to editing. I
could do this by generally blurring the images or by drawing the focus onto one
character/object. Furthermore the camera could adjust the ISO level meaning
that I was able to keep a consistent level of lighting over shots. This was
especially important during the outside shots of park scene and café scene.
Finally the camera had a high-quality 18-55mm lens, which meant that close-up
shots or any other shots, which required zoom were high quality and high
resolution which was vital to the quality of my production. Proliferation of
hardware and content has allowed for hardware such as Camera’s to become so
developed with better quality images and options for the user.
After
gathering all of my shots I was ready to edit, I edited my work on the Mac’s
most superior editing software, which was Final Cut Pro X. This was far more
developed and professional than my alternative of IMovie as it had more precise
cutting as well as much better editing effects such as transitions and filters.
Examples of filters that I used are the ‘Dream’ filter and the ‘Desert Glare’
filter.
These
filters allowed for the reception theory, an example of this from the use of
the ‘desert glare’ filter is that it was used to connote anger due to the red
colours, but audiences may feel that it denotes love. The precision and
professionalism of final cut pro x allowed me to make my production look
equally as professional and this had a positive effect on my audiences. A strength of final cut is that it saves work
automatically and this was important due to the fact that following 2 hours
work the mac I was working on froze meaning that I was capable of turning it
off without losing my work and so my schedule wasn’t delayed by having to redo
the work.
In order
to create my digipak I used Microsoft Open Office, Microsoft Open Office
allowed me to edit my digipak photo’s in order to give them the desired
coloration and filters. For example I used a greyscale filter in order to keep
with the dark tones of the digipak and also used a dark blue vignette in order
to keep with the color scheme presented on the front cover, which had
desaturated colors and lighting. This gives continuity throughout my digipak.
Due to this I decided to continue with the use of the vignettes filter on my
poster. This gave my band a greater identity, as the color scheme will begin to
be related to them. Once I had created
all of my images I then used Open Office to compile them onto a digipak
template so it would be ready to print.
In order
to apply my digipak and poster to real techniques of advertising I decided to
create example images of where my product could be advertised using a bus stop
poster and an album cover on the iTunes store. This allowed me to see a
practical example of how my product and poster would look while in use. Having
my product on iTunes would connote strong synergy due to the fact that anyone
who purchases the album would earn iTunes money, and iTunes is used by a mass
audience so more people would be likely to by the bands album
While
answering evaluation questions I used IMovie in order to record my vocal track
and in order to compile the video along with the images, I chose to use this
instead of final cut due to it not needing to be as accurately edited as my
music video, as well as this it was much quicker and simpler to use for this
task.
Overall, I feel that technology has really
enhanced my production which has led to high production values overall. Which
in turn leads to a better audience experience and a more professional media
product.
Sunday 1 February 2015
Friday 30 January 2015
Thursday 18 December 2014
Poster & Digipak in use
This is what my poster was originally going to look like prior to increasing the synergy between this and my digipak, The poster's effective as the important information such as band name and album title will be in line with the eyesight of passers by; therefore, this makes it a good way of advertising as it has the potential to be seen by a large audience each day.
Here is the what the digipak would look like in use on iTunes. The digipak would be under new releases as well as being in the rock genre category of iTunes. Being in the new releases category is important as it's at the top of the page and so people will be more likely to see it, also by being on iTunes it has the possibility if being seen by millions of people each day.
Saturday 13 December 2014
Finished Poster and Analysis
I decided to keep my poster quite simple as I didn't want to overwhelm the audience; This being due to the fact that my primary research showed that they were more favourable towards a clearer text rather than an overcrowded text.
I believe that it was important to use a picture of the lead singer on the poster due to the fact that he would be at the front of the band and so would be the most recognisable, this would mean that without reading the text audiences would still know what band was being advertised. As well as this, using the lead singer leads to the opportunity of Uses & Gratifications theory as audiences would be able to build personal relationships, or identify with, the lead vocalist as it's a more personal shot than which you would see in the performance shots of the music video.
Also, I thought that it was vitally important to put that it was the bands debut album as well as the release date of the album due to the fact that other possible audiences may try listening to the band due to the fact that they hadn't previously heard of them. Furthermore, if audiences frequently see the poster, then the release date will be stuck in their head meaning they will be more likely to think of the date as an important one, as they have been frequently reminded of it.
I've continued with the cosmic space theme on the poster, I have subtly included a black and dark blue vignette over the edges which will connote the feeling of the night sky. This builds iconography through the bands digipak and poster and therefore will increase the recognizability of the band in the eyes of the audience. This effect is further build upon by the use of a cosmic sky faded over the central image, the conflicting colours reflects many aspects of the genre as it shows both the red (connoting anger) and light blue (connoting happiness) fighting against each other which represents many songs of the genre.
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