When reviewing our music video we found that in a certain scene there was a continuity error with the actors. When we had filmed the shots of the people who the actress had killed we used a female actress, however this contrasted with the use of the three males in the tea party scene, as it was these actors that were supposed to be the victims. In order to solve this error we looked into our test footage and found that the actor we had used in the tea party scene was our actor for our test footage. We then took two shots from this footage, one of the male actor alone lying on the ground and the second of the main female actress hovering over him. We lengthened the clips in order for them to change to the beat so that it matched in with the other shots used in this particular scene. Through doing this we allowed our video to become overall more effective as the storyline throughout was now all related and made sense rather than including a random female. Another error that we found within our video was throughout the first chorus. When filming the male actor running there was a slight uneasy camera movement which shook side to side. This was overcome through cutting the footage in the place where the camera starts to move and inserting another shot of the actor running. Through doing this the scene improved vastly as one of the marking criteria points was steady hand shots and the shot became far more stable. The final error in which we found was that a scene which we had placed towards the end of the video in the final chorus looked out of place in comparison to the rest of the video. In the scene we had fast paced edited so that the actress was moving quickly however from the clips we had chosen the male actors from the tea party scene were in the background talking to one another. We decided that we wanted to keep the fast pace editing as it made the video look overall more effective and unrealistic so decided the best option would be to take different shots of the female actress in her different locations throughout the video, as through this scene being towards the end it would be like a recap of what she has done showing even further her unstable mind. We chose various shots of the actress in her main destinations such as on the gravel, walking down the stairs and behind the fence, to make the shots seem even more unrealistic we also reversed some of them so that the actress's head looked disjointed. By doing this we showed our understanding of our video's genre clearly as we edited clips in order to make them make the audience feel uneasy but also through using clips with previous destinations we showed that we understand the storyline of our video and the underlying theme of that she is no longer afraid to show all of her colors and be who she is.
The recognition of these mistakes in our video allowed us to be seen as working at a professional standard as we were recognizing mistakes in which were lowering our videos standard and altering them so that the video was to its highest ability.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Ancillary Task Feedback
The feedback in which we received based upon our ancillary task was mostly positive. There was various comments upon our use of integration and illustration and that it was well suited with the genre and how it all linked into the theme also the shooting material and the effectiveness of having the actress appear vicious with the contradiction of the pink girly colors. Comments were also made upon the awareness we had of the fonts and the use of two different styles and how we managed to ensure they were used throughout and were also included on the advert so that the two could be identified as being related. The negative feedback in which we received came from the framing of the shots as it was felt we could have used a variety of lengths and closeups in order to allow them to be more effective, as although we had used medium shots and a meat shot of the actress's face it was felt an extreme close up of the actress's eyes would have added more mystery to the actress as the eyes are the most intense feature on the female face.
I am overall pleased with the comments in which we received as we had taken into great consideration the different features which are found upon digipaks and ensured every minor detail was correct, again referring to the texts style and fonts. It is through the comments that we can see we have been successful in the production of our digipak and although it was felt different shots for the images could have been used we wished to show the actress in her different forms but together, almost like a preview into what was to come, hence the medium shots so that the emotions on her face were clear but that you could also see that she was in casual clothing.
I am overall pleased with the comments in which we received as we had taken into great consideration the different features which are found upon digipaks and ensured every minor detail was correct, again referring to the texts style and fonts. It is through the comments that we can see we have been successful in the production of our digipak and although it was felt different shots for the images could have been used we wished to show the actress in her different forms but together, almost like a preview into what was to come, hence the medium shots so that the emotions on her face were clear but that you could also see that she was in casual clothing.
Ancillary Feedback From Peers
During yesterdays lesson we got split up into our groups and were asked to analyse another groups digipak and advert by giving them 2 strengths that we believed made the work look of a professional standard and then 2 areas that they could improve on to get them into the higher level boundary. Jak and Jordan where the group to mark our ancillary tasks however we have only just completed the advert today so the comments they gave us where only regarding the digipak.
The first point they believed was a strength was the consistent brand identity shown throughout each piece of the digipak which showed we had thought about what elements to include to make an impression on viewers and hopefully sell the record we are trying to promote. The second positive point was that our digipak linked to the genre of music well, we decided to use the colour schemes and images to show the two sides to our character when she is portrayed behind the pink background she is just a normal human being however when she is behind the original leopard print that is her "cannibal" side reflecting through her angry facial expressions and quite wild and confident attitude, the reason we chose the leopard print is because we know Kesha always creates this over the top and bright and colourful as her genre is dance music every video is in your face so we wanted parts of the digipak to show that but also because she is a cannibal which is an animal we thought animal print would be the best reflection to use. The final strength they gave us was that we had a good colour choice the reason we chose both of the colours is you can see the writing clearly over the top and also see our model without it being a distraction.
The points they gave us to improve our digipak where; adding the company logo onto one of the sleeves rather than just small on the spine, the reason we put it there is because we thought it would be clear for everyone to see when looking at the digipak and looking at each part it would be noticeable as the text is white on a black background. We included the copyright information inside one of the sections however we did think putting the company logo next to that would have looked out of place and decided to just put it large on the cd itself instead. The second improvement they gave us was to use a variety of photos from the pink reflection as the model's pose is quite similar but the reason we chose both of these photos is because the photo shoot we constructed many of the outcomes where blurred due to faults with the camera so we only had limited options to choose from. But also even though she is stood in the same way her facial expressions are completely different as we wanted to show her looking quite shy and angelic so viewers would wonder how can she be a cannibal she just looks like any other teenage girl, by adding the photos to the digipak it does start to make viewers create a story about what's going to happen and also link it in with the music video itself.
Our peers also had to answer the question how effective is the brand identity? their responses where that the leopard print pattern was consistent throughout the whole digipak because we believed if we only included it on a few and changed the whole prospect of the other pieces then the digipak wouldn't link together at all. They then went onto say that our main character is clearly shown and because she is the main element of our music video we believed putting her in 4 out of the 6 sections was enough as the other 2 included the cd and the track list. By having her on so many of the sides it also promotes the music video more as she is the main character and the pattern is used throughout the music video which makes a direct link. They finally said that our font is related for the style of music we are working in. Previously Sophie downloaded a range of fonts so we could create a mood board of research however we only chose 2 to use, for the song title and track list we used "werewolf" font because it looked like claw marks through each letter and because cannibals would be feisty the link was again there. We then used the "katy berry" font for the artist's name as it was clear but also had a unique touch with the flicks coming from each letter which gave the digipak a girly element to contrast with the drama filled storyline.
Overall I believe the feedback given from my peers was of a high and positive standard and to an extent I agree with it, when I noticed what they wrote about adding the company logo to other places except just the spine because it wasn't clearly noticeable I immediately agreed with what they were saying and added it to the track list side and it was of a medium size and because it was white on the leopard print background it stood out instantly and overall this comment was helpful as I understood where they were coming from and it's improved our digipak for the better and also now links into the brand identity and promoting the single and the digipak. However the other comment about creating more of a variety of images using the pink background as both images are completely different the other similarity is that she is standing in the same way however this may not have been clear to our peers as both images are upside down so you can't clearly see the detail. So I believe leaving the photos how they are will be ok.
The targets that I am going to set myself for the end of the week is to fully complete our advert and analyse step by step instructions about how I made it on my blog, change the end scene of our music video to something more successful as that specific part looks rushed and not thought out. Finally if I have time go through the digipak and advert again and create some screen grabs to analyse on my blog so the examiner can see clearly what steps I went through to get the complete outcome.
The first point they believed was a strength was the consistent brand identity shown throughout each piece of the digipak which showed we had thought about what elements to include to make an impression on viewers and hopefully sell the record we are trying to promote. The second positive point was that our digipak linked to the genre of music well, we decided to use the colour schemes and images to show the two sides to our character when she is portrayed behind the pink background she is just a normal human being however when she is behind the original leopard print that is her "cannibal" side reflecting through her angry facial expressions and quite wild and confident attitude, the reason we chose the leopard print is because we know Kesha always creates this over the top and bright and colourful as her genre is dance music every video is in your face so we wanted parts of the digipak to show that but also because she is a cannibal which is an animal we thought animal print would be the best reflection to use. The final strength they gave us was that we had a good colour choice the reason we chose both of the colours is you can see the writing clearly over the top and also see our model without it being a distraction.
The points they gave us to improve our digipak where; adding the company logo onto one of the sleeves rather than just small on the spine, the reason we put it there is because we thought it would be clear for everyone to see when looking at the digipak and looking at each part it would be noticeable as the text is white on a black background. We included the copyright information inside one of the sections however we did think putting the company logo next to that would have looked out of place and decided to just put it large on the cd itself instead. The second improvement they gave us was to use a variety of photos from the pink reflection as the model's pose is quite similar but the reason we chose both of these photos is because the photo shoot we constructed many of the outcomes where blurred due to faults with the camera so we only had limited options to choose from. But also even though she is stood in the same way her facial expressions are completely different as we wanted to show her looking quite shy and angelic so viewers would wonder how can she be a cannibal she just looks like any other teenage girl, by adding the photos to the digipak it does start to make viewers create a story about what's going to happen and also link it in with the music video itself.
Our peers also had to answer the question how effective is the brand identity? their responses where that the leopard print pattern was consistent throughout the whole digipak because we believed if we only included it on a few and changed the whole prospect of the other pieces then the digipak wouldn't link together at all. They then went onto say that our main character is clearly shown and because she is the main element of our music video we believed putting her in 4 out of the 6 sections was enough as the other 2 included the cd and the track list. By having her on so many of the sides it also promotes the music video more as she is the main character and the pattern is used throughout the music video which makes a direct link. They finally said that our font is related for the style of music we are working in. Previously Sophie downloaded a range of fonts so we could create a mood board of research however we only chose 2 to use, for the song title and track list we used "werewolf" font because it looked like claw marks through each letter and because cannibals would be feisty the link was again there. We then used the "katy berry" font for the artist's name as it was clear but also had a unique touch with the flicks coming from each letter which gave the digipak a girly element to contrast with the drama filled storyline.
Overall I believe the feedback given from my peers was of a high and positive standard and to an extent I agree with it, when I noticed what they wrote about adding the company logo to other places except just the spine because it wasn't clearly noticeable I immediately agreed with what they were saying and added it to the track list side and it was of a medium size and because it was white on the leopard print background it stood out instantly and overall this comment was helpful as I understood where they were coming from and it's improved our digipak for the better and also now links into the brand identity and promoting the single and the digipak. However the other comment about creating more of a variety of images using the pink background as both images are completely different the other similarity is that she is standing in the same way however this may not have been clear to our peers as both images are upside down so you can't clearly see the detail. So I believe leaving the photos how they are will be ok.
The targets that I am going to set myself for the end of the week is to fully complete our advert and analyse step by step instructions about how I made it on my blog, change the end scene of our music video to something more successful as that specific part looks rushed and not thought out. Finally if I have time go through the digipak and advert again and create some screen grabs to analyse on my blog so the examiner can see clearly what steps I went through to get the complete outcome.
Marking Criteria Analysis
Marketing Criteria
- shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to the mise en scene
- editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects
- recording and editing sound with images appropriately
For the first point I believe there are parts in our video where the camera control is slightly juddered due to the rocky surface the tripod was resting on but also the fact that there are so many quick cuts in the song the main character was moving around quiet quickly without indicating to me that she would be doing it which meant I had to zoom in and out quite a lot to create a variety of shots to make the video look a lot more appealing and interesting to watch. However apart from the beginning scenes the rest of the video is very focused and clear. The part of the video when Emily says "you better run" is the only place where I believe the framing could have been altered a small amount so that she was directly in the centre of the shot rather than lower down as you can't see her costume clearly and there is too much background however it's too late to re film now it's just points we could think about for next time.
The shots that are mainly seen throughout our video are medium/long shots to show full length body shots of each actor and also length of the whole scene we were working in. Also meat shots (close ups) of our main character's face as these are the most common shots used in most music videos. They do range from medium to long to close up quite a lot due to the large amount of cuts during the song you can't see which is which but you can tell they are different so as a group we used our skills to the best of our ability.
The mise en scene was a section of the video we focused on quite a lot as outfits where put together depending on the location, our main character supported 4 outfits throughout the video and where all inspired from ideas we came across in the planning stage of the coursework. Each one showed off her figure in the best way possible however some may have been more revealing than others but we wanted to show the "sex appeal".
The second questions talks about the editing process of the video, this took us the longest to do as we needed to create a lot of cuts but also put it in a sequence which floated through correctly. Because we filmed the scenes exactly how we wanted each of them to look as final pieces not a lot of filters where added only to the leopard print costume scene as we thought by adding a shaking effect to the motion of her movement it would make her look more disjointed and freaky which links in with the character she is trying to portray so this worked well, however no other effects where added to our footage. The only other thing we changed after putting all the video into place was placed one clip on top of another and lowered the opacity which had a professional touch to the whole scenario.
The last question links only to the main character and I believe she is one of the only actress's in our class that lip synced perfectly throughout the whole video as some members of the class either were not in time or didn't concentrate on that element where as for us it was the main thing to focus on because if we wanted it to look like any other video Ke$ha had done before syncing her lips to the words was going to be the most important. However when we were filming the sound was really quiet as it was played through a phone so when importing each clip into Final Cut some changes had to be made in the way that they would have to be slowed down or sped up to keep in time with the original song, this was very hard as it kept moving clips along that came after the actual one we were working on at the time but the end result is exactly what we hoped for. The only thing I believe we would change next time is using more imaginative locations which would get us into the level 4 boundary.
- shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to the mise en scene
- editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects
- recording and editing sound with images appropriately
For the first point I believe there are parts in our video where the camera control is slightly juddered due to the rocky surface the tripod was resting on but also the fact that there are so many quick cuts in the song the main character was moving around quiet quickly without indicating to me that she would be doing it which meant I had to zoom in and out quite a lot to create a variety of shots to make the video look a lot more appealing and interesting to watch. However apart from the beginning scenes the rest of the video is very focused and clear. The part of the video when Emily says "you better run" is the only place where I believe the framing could have been altered a small amount so that she was directly in the centre of the shot rather than lower down as you can't see her costume clearly and there is too much background however it's too late to re film now it's just points we could think about for next time.
The shots that are mainly seen throughout our video are medium/long shots to show full length body shots of each actor and also length of the whole scene we were working in. Also meat shots (close ups) of our main character's face as these are the most common shots used in most music videos. They do range from medium to long to close up quite a lot due to the large amount of cuts during the song you can't see which is which but you can tell they are different so as a group we used our skills to the best of our ability.
The mise en scene was a section of the video we focused on quite a lot as outfits where put together depending on the location, our main character supported 4 outfits throughout the video and where all inspired from ideas we came across in the planning stage of the coursework. Each one showed off her figure in the best way possible however some may have been more revealing than others but we wanted to show the "sex appeal".
The second questions talks about the editing process of the video, this took us the longest to do as we needed to create a lot of cuts but also put it in a sequence which floated through correctly. Because we filmed the scenes exactly how we wanted each of them to look as final pieces not a lot of filters where added only to the leopard print costume scene as we thought by adding a shaking effect to the motion of her movement it would make her look more disjointed and freaky which links in with the character she is trying to portray so this worked well, however no other effects where added to our footage. The only other thing we changed after putting all the video into place was placed one clip on top of another and lowered the opacity which had a professional touch to the whole scenario.
The last question links only to the main character and I believe she is one of the only actress's in our class that lip synced perfectly throughout the whole video as some members of the class either were not in time or didn't concentrate on that element where as for us it was the main thing to focus on because if we wanted it to look like any other video Ke$ha had done before syncing her lips to the words was going to be the most important. However when we were filming the sound was really quiet as it was played through a phone so when importing each clip into Final Cut some changes had to be made in the way that they would have to be slowed down or sped up to keep in time with the original song, this was very hard as it kept moving clips along that came after the actual one we were working on at the time but the end result is exactly what we hoped for. The only thing I believe we would change next time is using more imaginative locations which would get us into the level 4 boundary.
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Finishing DigiPak and One on One
In today's lesson we managed to finish our digipak completely but the reason it took us all lesson is because a lot of elements where still missing. Firstly we added a phone bar code which means that any fans with a mobile phone can scan the bar code and get instantly transferred to either iTunes where they can purchase the single/album or the artist's own website where they can view news about her, images that have been taken by fans also all of her videos throughout her career. Yesterday we completed the front cover of our album using the text from the werewolf font we downloaded however today we decided that having the artist's name and the song title in different fonts would be a better option, so we used Katy Berry font for the artists name which looked bold but also looked reasonable similar to the original. When I was certain that the text now looked of a professional standard it was a part of our brand identity and we added the artist's name and the song title to one spine of the digipak and on the other featured our record label "rawr records" which we also spent the lesson creating a logo for which consisted of a paw print with two r's inside and the copyright logo, it's simple but it works really well. The final thing we did was write a short sentence about the copyright information and who was responsible for the album e.t.c.
Throughout the lesson our subject tutor was calling each group up one at a time to talk about what levels she believes we are working at individually and what she scored our music video overall and why. We were told that our video had been given 31 which was the level 3 boundary as we were not as imaginative as other groups in our class with the locations and some of the camera work at the beginning of the video was quite poor, although she told us this information we can't change or re film any parts from the beginning as the deadline was weeks ago however me and Sophie do believe that a small part from the end of the video looks like it's been added to just fill in the gap and has no relevance at all so just by taking that out it might make the video look a lot more in sync and flow better. She also told us we could get a good mark overall if we do well with our digipak and advert and also the evaluation questions which is why I am going to make a to do list to make sure we cover all the points. However now we have fully completed the digipak next job is to add the information onto the cd template before analysing it our blogs and then creating the advert.
Throughout the lesson our subject tutor was calling each group up one at a time to talk about what levels she believes we are working at individually and what she scored our music video overall and why. We were told that our video had been given 31 which was the level 3 boundary as we were not as imaginative as other groups in our class with the locations and some of the camera work at the beginning of the video was quite poor, although she told us this information we can't change or re film any parts from the beginning as the deadline was weeks ago however me and Sophie do believe that a small part from the end of the video looks like it's been added to just fill in the gap and has no relevance at all so just by taking that out it might make the video look a lot more in sync and flow better. She also told us we could get a good mark overall if we do well with our digipak and advert and also the evaluation questions which is why I am going to make a to do list to make sure we cover all the points. However now we have fully completed the digipak next job is to add the information onto the cd template before analysing it our blogs and then creating the advert.
Digipak Editing January
Before the holidays we put all of our pictures into each section of the digipak template so all that was left to do was be certain that they were all the same dimensions before adding any extra elements such as text because getting the images the correct size to fit in the allocated box took time as the spines also needed to be thought about, because if I want a high level grade extra finishing touches need to be added to make it look much more professional. So adding text (artist name, song title and record label) will add to the brand identity especially if I use the same text (werewolf). So in today's lesson my main goal was to make sure that all images where in the correct positions with correct space between each for the spines to make it look believable but also start adding elements which would instantly make the digipak stand out to our target audience, the artists name and the chosen song we have created the video for. The first thing I did was fill in spaces which needed to be coloured dark grey for our spines as some sections of the digipak wouldn't have linked otherwise however when I selected the box tool and then the fill tool nothing was happening until I realised the layer for the template was locked and when I unlocked I completed this part of the task relatively quickly. After putting everything perfectly into place there was some parts I thought could of looked better for example our front cover contained two halves of our main character's face and as a group we decided it would be better to only use one half so there would be more room for our text as we need to let the buyers know who this artist is and what the song is called so they can make there own impression and if we left the other half in the text would either be too small to see or overlapping our main character's face which would take the attraction away from her because she is supposed to be the main element throughout our digipak as she is the character that is used the most in our video, creating this links shows we have thought outside the box.
When the small changes where made I then added in the text to the digipak which consisted of the werewolf font which we downloaded previously to make sure it was available exactly when we needed it, we decided to use the same font throughout our digipak to create a brand identity so the Artists Name KESHA the Song Title CANNIBAL and each of the tracks from the album ANIMAL/CANNIBAL where shown in the werewolf font we also used the colour scheme of white because it's simplistic and professional but it's also the only colour we thought worked with our busy backgrounds in each section as we did try red to link into the "cannibal" theme however it looked slightly tacky and didn't represent our brand in the way we were hoping. Then added in a bar code to make the digipak look slightly more realistic which I re sized to fit in with the dimensions of the corner section where I placed it. Finally at the end of the lesson we just had time to come up with a name for our record company and because cannibal is seen as a vicious creature we thought "Rawr Records" had a positive ring to it and linked into our brand identity as it has some meaning to the song title however we decided to change the font to (Katy Berry) to ensure there was no mix up between the linked layout.
When the small changes where made I then added in the text to the digipak which consisted of the werewolf font which we downloaded previously to make sure it was available exactly when we needed it, we decided to use the same font throughout our digipak to create a brand identity so the Artists Name KESHA the Song Title CANNIBAL and each of the tracks from the album ANIMAL/CANNIBAL where shown in the werewolf font we also used the colour scheme of white because it's simplistic and professional but it's also the only colour we thought worked with our busy backgrounds in each section as we did try red to link into the "cannibal" theme however it looked slightly tacky and didn't represent our brand in the way we were hoping. Then added in a bar code to make the digipak look slightly more realistic which I re sized to fit in with the dimensions of the corner section where I placed it. Finally at the end of the lesson we just had time to come up with a name for our record company and because cannibal is seen as a vicious creature we thought "Rawr Records" had a positive ring to it and linked into our brand identity as it has some meaning to the song title however we decided to change the font to (Katy Berry) to ensure there was no mix up between the linked layout.
Digipak Editing
We handed our final cut of the music video in on Wednesday so the next thing our group needed to create was a digipak (cardboard cd package), we completed the photo shoot a month ago so all we needed to do was decide which images we were going to use and how we were going to set it out. Because we used pink and original coloured leopard print through the shoot we decided that one side of the package should be an original leopard print theme and the other side pink, this would mean that two photos from each section would be included either side with the original backgrounds in the middle, also because we used these patterns throughout our music video it linked in well and shows that we thought about how we could link in all of our products together because we hopefully will keep the theme running through the advert and any other promo marketing we create.
Because I rarely buy cd's anymore I was unsure about what a digipak looked like, however after I familiarised myself with the layout the plans came together quickly. After downloading a template me and Sophie attempted to put each image into each box however because we had taken some of the images portrait they would have to be cropped down to fit into the box perfectly, this was unexpected because we didn't realise that the set out would be all landscape so instead of cropping the full image down we just shrunk them and added another version of the background to the cover to make sure when we rubbed out the original image there was something behind it. This wasn't what we had hoped the digipak would look like but because we had a "plan b" it all came together. In our last lesson of Media before Christmas break we got every background section put into place and one image shrinked and positioned correctly but we know exactly what our objectives and aims are for when we return. I believe because our digipak includes elements from the music video it shows we have considered a variety of marketing prospects but also popularity of the video because if this was a real pop star scenario they want to make videos that sell and any extra creations will go on top of that and I hope if we stick to our plans the final outcome will be special.
Because I rarely buy cd's anymore I was unsure about what a digipak looked like, however after I familiarised myself with the layout the plans came together quickly. After downloading a template me and Sophie attempted to put each image into each box however because we had taken some of the images portrait they would have to be cropped down to fit into the box perfectly, this was unexpected because we didn't realise that the set out would be all landscape so instead of cropping the full image down we just shrunk them and added another version of the background to the cover to make sure when we rubbed out the original image there was something behind it. This wasn't what we had hoped the digipak would look like but because we had a "plan b" it all came together. In our last lesson of Media before Christmas break we got every background section put into place and one image shrinked and positioned correctly but we know exactly what our objectives and aims are for when we return. I believe because our digipak includes elements from the music video it shows we have considered a variety of marketing prospects but also popularity of the video because if this was a real pop star scenario they want to make videos that sell and any extra creations will go on top of that and I hope if we stick to our plans the final outcome will be special.
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