Media evalutation - A2 Music Video

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Media Evaluation – ‘Dan Bull’ Music Video By George Turner

Transcript of Media evalutation - A2 Music Video

Page 1: Media evalutation - A2 Music Video

Media Evaluation – ‘Dan Bull’ Music VideoBy George Turner

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

When I chose to make a music video I knew the song that I wanted to use from the start, this allowed me to focus more in depth about what genre the song is and what conventions are used within that genre. I started by looking at the genre ‘Rap’ as a broad starting point for my research, this is evident in the blog post: 23rd June 2015 “Chosen Brief-Music Video – Genre”. Within this post I talk about the stereotypical features of rap music. I found that my chosen artist actually was apart of a new music genre hybrid that challenge the common conventions of: “drugs, money and sex”. This hybridisation of commercial rap and nerd rap allowed for unique visual conventions to be combined because of the expectations from a wider ranged audience. To help me combat this challenge of appealing to so many people I researched into a variety music videos, one music video that I found really inspired me was ‘Youtube Rewind’ 2015 (blogpost – 23 rd June 2015 “Music Video Style Choice”). This video really captured the postmodern idea of ‘remixing’ because this is a main dynamic of the culture both on YouTube and the internet. This was a great inspiration for me because the video offered a variety of scenes which offered lots of micro-narratives, which were all connected by one singular camera motion. Although that in my music video I didn’t completely follow this I did include many ‘integrated’ transitions, which gave the illusion of a singular camera motion at points. In addition to this I also added the whole idea of ‘Micro-Narratives’ to my music video by having the character perform movements that linked to the lyrics. This music video often relies on intertexual references within the visuals to keep the viewer picking apart the video and the satisfaction of recognising certain iconic signs. This was another feature that I included within my music video because I used the references in the lyrics by the artist such as “I’m a human Yoda” as a platform to include certain visual aspects like a lightsaber. However the central theme throughout my music video is still the performer, this is because I wanted to have a mainly performance based structure intertwined with the micro-narrative; is it’s self is another hybridisation of conventions within my music video.

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

The following shots show how my research into the conventions of real media products influenced my music video. The shots used in my music video reflect those of commercial rap because often within the rap genre the camera is placed as a mid shot to a close up to really make the experience intense for the viewer and it further helps centralise the artist. In addition to this the music video “ No Love” by Eminem helped me learn about the hybridisation of performance and narrative structures towards the video and further informing me of a circular narrative. My product used a circular narrative by having my character start and end the same way, which helped the audience close the narrative and feel satisfied with an ending. Furtther research into narrative structure is evident in a blogpost 11th September 2015 – “PUP – Guilt Trip [Narrative Structure]” along with others with a similar title.

Some of the Mes en Scene and VFX in my took the convention of ‘fire’ within my music video. This is because rappers are often associated with fire due to the connotations of good lyrics. In addition to this is shows the idea of the lyrics making an impact, or a difference within society. The fire VFX are one of the select aspects I have in colour within the video because I felt that is would further support the idea of making an impact visually. The fire further supports the lyric: “If you prefer to lack a burn then stand further back” which is said at the same time that this fire is on screen. This convention of the lyrics being supported by visuals is common in not just rap but most music videos.

My product applied the convention of a dark black background, which is also shown in the music video “No Love”. This harsh black background symbolises the power of the rapper because the background does nothing except help the viewer focus on the subject. This is further supported by the fact that my character is the only person in the entire music video even in the shots where there are two people. The reason behind this is I wanted to make the video express the oppression of ‘Nerds’ within our society, which is further supported by the film noir style of my product. This again links in with the message behind Eminem’s music video because his song focuses on bullying, however his is much more upfront about the meaning than mine.

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

The black and white in my video is inspired directly from my film noir research from AS and A2. This is referenced in my blog 7-21st July 2015, which is when I went into detail looking at the film noir movement and chiaroscuro. I loved the connotations that the shadows created and I briefly looked at German Expressionism; I experimented with taking photos in the same style with symbolic symbols like the crow. I wanted to learn about the suppressed German citizens and how this related to my theme of Nerds being suppressed within a modern society, not by a government but by each other. Furthermore the bold use of angles in Film Noir reflect those in a music video and allowed me to experiment with the angles. I used low angles towards the second half of the music video to create a sense of power being given to the character because he is now being listened to through the power of the lyrics. I also used smoke in some of my shots to add the sense of mystery and depth that is often seen within film noir. Another convention I followed is the idea of an alienated protagonist because of only having one person playing everyone in the music video it denoted that suppression of loneliness and alienation from the outside world.I used the shadows to create the depth and shapes within the frame, this was very important to keeping the shot visually interesting. Due to the lack of props in the shot or objects in the location I had to rely on lighting to create shapes in the shot. By using film noir in my music video it allowed me to experiment with lighting and it helped me understand how to make use of light to improve my shot. Furthermore I reshot a lot of scenes to improve the depth, and was always adding lights to create different effects. I think that by paying more attention to lighting it allowed my music video to follow the conventions of film noir a lot closer, which overall added more strength to my shot. (20 January 2016 – “Lighting tests”)

A FilmNoir image

My own image I used to practice Film Noir lighting and to understand German Expressionism.

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

Within the music video the I took a postmodern approach to constructing my media product. This meant that I used previous real media products to create my work so I wanted my music video to be self aware of that fact. One way that most performance music video videos are postmodern is that they break the fourth wall. However I wanted to take this common convention within western music and combine it with the camera interaction that is seen within K-Pop. This is because the audience interaction with a K-Pop music video is a lot more personal compared to western music, therefore in my research I looked how they interacted with the camera to try and get a more personal connection to the viewer. This is because the platform that this will be shown on is the artists personal YouTube channel. YouTube is a very personal platform because you follow your creator and watch them grow, this means that people are more likely to enjoy this personal style compared to if the product was shown on television. One common convention in K-Pop was the seamless transitions that make it seem like one continuous video, this was very similar to ‘YouTube Rewind’. These transitions involved hitting the camera, which again added to that personal at aesthetic of my product and this also kept the transitions smooth. The smooth transitions denotes that they have been thought about. I was constantly thinking about my audience while creating my product, which helped me pick and choose the conventions I wanted.

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

In the construction of my music video I wanted to have intertexual references towards other media products that relate to mine. This was because the platform that I want to upload the music video to would be online therefore I wanted to relate to the internet culture of remixing. I got the idea while watching Ferguson’s video about remixing (30 September 2015 – ‘Everything’s a Remix’) which I learnt about how texts copy each other and build upon each other. I really liked this idea so I though that would be how I would construct my media product. Furthermore the hip hop rap genre is often remixing tracks and referencing other media.

Within the soundtrack for the lyrics often referenced other texts or products, one specific lyric I used was the line: “colder than Trebor mints” which influenced the visual image of the mints with the character in the “O”. The movement of the mints towards the screen parodies old televisions adverts with the slight canted angle. Another interesting intertexual reference would be the goat scream at 00:41, this is because originally I used the classic Wilhelm scream from just about every film. However then I though that I would take the popular internet goat scream that has been widely remixed across the internet. I thought that seeing as my platform was the internet it would be more appropriate to use the goat scream. The army jacket I wear is a reference to a my previous AS media film opening because it is the same jacket that is used for the army character.

Another reference that I used in my music video was the ‘Mirror Effect’ at 2:12, which was a reference to grim rap music. This is because when I was making my work I was still researching into other sub genres that have formed within rap, one of them was ‘grim’. Within these music videos they often use basic VFX because the budget is low so they often use the mirror effect, I thought that I would use this because it connotes the idea of reflection that my character would be doing by himself. Moreover it links in to Youtuber rappers having a low budget, which links directly to my artist. This helped the visuals link with the song because I made it appear on the lyric: “digital illusion”.The low angles were mainly formed because of the music video ‘Berzerk’ by Eminem, because I found that these angles made the artist look giant, which connoted a large ego. This is something that links with any musician because every musician must have some kind of ego to want people to listen to them, however this was interesting because it contrasts the stereotypical nerd that my artist is meant to be and that’s why I had to include it.

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

Within my ancillary task I have challenged, used and developed a variety of conventions. I looked at a large amount of different album covers from a wide range of genres both within rap and music, this is because I wanted to gain inspiration from a wide range of artwork hoping to try and create something fairly new. However I already knew the design I wanted and that followed the typical conventions of including a portrait photograph of the artist. Although I followed this very common convention I did alternate and challenge it because I used the character in my music video and covered the face of them, which prevented them from actually being seen. Overall this made the character more a symbol of the album/artist instead of being a portrait of the artist himself. I got the idea from the album cover by ‘Joywave’ and the album cover ‘Cherry Bomb’ (Friday 18th September 2015 – “Album cover research”). The character on the Cherry Bomb cover was a strong inspiration for the balaclava because it creates an interesting character for the audience to interact with. I developed the convention of colours within album covers because I wanted to get that modern look, which involved the bland use of greys and blacks but I also wanted to use contrasting punchy colours. This involved using the them both effectively and blending the two techniques using ‘selective colour’. I further used the idea of pastiche within my typography in order to intertexualise the text from the battlefield games within my album, originally I was not going to do this by my idea developed through my research and experimentation. The next two slides show how I developed these ideas and how I took inspiration from different aspects of cover, especially the battlefield 3 cover.

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The chart shows how I developed my work with inspiration from the Battlefield 3 cover.

I used the conventions like the ‘typography’ of the work “Battlefield and the colours such as the orange. I did this by originally parodying it but this would break copyright laws If used without permission. Therefore used what I learnt from this experimentation and translated it in the poster and the album cover to provide the synergy.

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The chart shows how I developed my work with inspiration from the Battlefield 3 cover.

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

Within my didgipak I have challenged the conventions of real media texts. I achieved this my creating my own design that was fluently incorprated throughout the whole product, which further included the video itself. This constant use of synergy made the digipak and video have an underlying tone and theme within the visual elements. This is important for the artist to be easily recognised, this helps advertise the songs.

Usually the digipak is made with a centralised theme depending on the genre of music, however with this album cover for DanBull I wanted to challenge this and build it in a more post modern way. I wanted to combine and remix other designs in order to create something new but recognisable. The repetitive design with only one person on it relates to the idea of suppression of nerds and links to the loneliness present in the video. By having the these ideas present throughout it helps people engage to the whole product instead of just the video, which relates to the purpose of a professional digipak. This is because when I looked at other promotional material such as digipaks and physical copies of albums they all shared the same characteristics and visual elements and information. This is one reason why I am very satisfied that I have made a professional level product.

Within my digipak I have developed the colours in my product, again in a postmodern structure. I developed the oranges by firstly parodying the Battlefield 3 poster, this is because I wanted to experiment with the selective oranges to help address the issue of my image being to dark. I got this from my feedback from my focus groups within school and online. I developed the text by creating a similar styled typography to the battlefield 3 poster an cover.

Within my digipak I have developed the colours in my product, again in a postmodern structure. I developed the oranges by firstly parodying the Battlefield 3 poster, this is because I wanted to

experiment with the selective oranges to help address the issue of my image being to dark. I got this from my feedback from my focus groups within school and online. I developed the text by creating a

similar styled typography to the battlefield 3 poster an cover. I further developed this by angling the text slightly to to show

dominance, I further used the ‘light lines’ (the orange line) from the battlefield poster to create orange that will brighten the cover. Finally I used a blue brush in order brighten the blues therefore this makes

the cover more eye-catching. This will attract new viewers for the album and allow the loyal audience to recognise it easily.

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

The poster challenges the convetions of most posters because it relys on the iconography of the logo, typography and textures to attract the loyal fans. However the use of these feature will further attract new viewers as well. The poster more tries to sell the album and the iconic symbol of DanBull rather than the artist himself, this is defying convention because the majority of posters focus on the artist just as much as the album. However mine purely focuses on the album. The constant references to other media such as ‘Battlefield’ makes my media defy the convention of only promoting your product, but my poster uses other products to add depth to my poster making it more than superficial and eye-catching, I think that this will be something that my target audience will respond well to. The constant use of the orange and blue contrasts the colours in my music video, which are mainly black and white this would defy convention because usually the colours would reflect what's in the music video not what the music video is about. I preferred this way of working because it allowed my overall theme to be pushed further and for each of the separate products to have it’s own semiotic weight. I also developed the convention of bold text and colours to catch an audiences attention, I also used the idea of a grey and orange pattern that will also subconsciously attracted peoples attention and makes them more likely to retain the information. I also used the conventions of the release date and tagline to make the album more memorable.

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How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary task?

The underlying theme of oppression, war and nerd culture within my digipak and promotional video’s narrative is seen throughout. This is shown in the minimalistic colours only on certain objects that either provide an action or they bring the character joy, this is scene within my poster and album cover as well. The use of film noir within both products creates the synergy between them, this synergy is supported by the same actor being used throughout both the main and the ancillary task. Furthermore this continuity is created further by the repetitive use of the actor in the digipak, these same images were integrated into the poster. Another way in which I have integrated the the underlying themes is used the same text in both my final media product and the ancillary task. This was to help the promotion campaign be easily recognisable to the current audience and the new audience. In addition to this I used similar shots such as close ups and mid shots both within the photography for my final digipak and the final video. This is because the constant use of close ups connotes that idea of oppression throughout the product and it further strengthens the relationship between the audience and artist.

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How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary task?

The synergy of my product is further presented through the use of Film Noir throughout the video and the digipak, this was because I wanted to the narrative to flow well between the two products to create one unified package to promote the music. The use of an orange boarder for the poster is the only time this synergy could be argued to be broken however the reason behind this the fact that it serves a different purpose to the other products. In my research I noticed that the posters usually incorporated bolder text and brighter colours to capture new listeners, I decided to incorporate this into my design for the poster. I took the colours I used in my album cover and enhanced them to make them brighter and used that same orange to create a vibrant boarder, which brightened the poster to make it more eye-catching.

I further decided to integrate my poster into the end of the video. This is so that the combination of both the promotional video and the poster helps sell the

album, plus it makes the poster more regognisable to an audience who have seen the video, which makes

the album more prone to sharing by word of mouth. The same title is also used in all three producers, this

is located at the end of the video. Finally I also used “the digital illusion” lyric as a promotional slogan for

the album. This offered links to the actual soundtrack as well as the video.

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How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary task?The synergy between all three media products was created through the use of the same tone, photos and typography. The interaction between these visual elements created a co-operative unit in which the combination of individual contributions created the single and greater message for the audience. For example the use of the mask throughout the product links them all together. This synergism allowed the messages of suppression and bullying to be tackle through all my media products, which offers a higher level of depth and interaction with an audience. This is because the new technologies for an audience in the 21st century allow the user to interact with the product in many different forms of media , this directly links to the areas of entertainment that the audience choose to interact with. The outlet of my media is important to creating larger profits off a singular product and managing to meet audiences expectations of a product having a range of merchandise and advertisements that make it easily accessible across a wide range of platforms. This is why I in all my products all include the same character to create a symbol across all platforms that’s iconic for the album. I further used black backgrounds for all three products to set them in the same location, this adds another layer of synergy.

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What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

I used my audience feedback within my research to begin with, this is so that I could gain a greater understanding of my audiences demographics, platforms and preferences.

I began my survey with the question of age, this is because I wanted to understand what level of content I could incorporate in order not to offend or scare my audience. This means that the age range of this survey did of decreased the amount of violence within the music video because the majority of responses were from younger teens/children that is why I included such a low age at the start of the survey. Although the 13-17 category was one of the largest my survey also showed the wide range of my audience on the web, this made catering to them all very difficult. This is because I wanted to have violence in my music video because it matched the theme of the song but it couldn’t be too far fetched from what is deemed ‘safe’ in the eyes of censorship. This is what informed my stylistic approach to the violence; by having white ‘unrealistic cartoonish’ blood it would keep both audiences satisfied without being to gruesome. This feedback also confirmed that most of the people within my age bracket would get the references like ‘StarWars’ because it also appeals to the majority of people because of it’s cultural impact on our society, they wouldn’t even to have had to of seen StarWars to know what the lightersaber is or what it represents within nerd culture.

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What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The next basic question I covered that offered an interesting response was “What is your gender”. I had to ask this to gain a greater understanding of my audiences demographic, furthermore it would help me within my research and planning decide what type of narrative to have. This is because more typical tradition action narratives suit the males needs of explosions and fights, which compared to females is very basic because they prefer to have a mystery surrounding their narrative or a puzzle, something that has to be worked out. This means that I would have to considering offering more than just violence and action to grip my audience I would further have to look into offering a meta meaning behind my narrative and offer something further to be explored in order to cater to my audiences needs.

However the platform that I used may of attracted a less accurate representation of my audience. This is important to consider because by advertising the survey on social media it makes it open to anyone to answer.

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What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

This next question showed me how how important the music video is to making the song a success because over half the responses do watch the video while listening to the music video. I felt that this was important to find out and my curiosity got the better if me to see how effective the promotional side of the video is. This further informed me of how different members of my artist’s audience respond to the videos especially the live action videos. I also wanted to find out how critical these survey responses were in the terms of how valid they were in their understanding or love of music videos either from Dan Bull or in general. This is because as people become more used to a certain style of music video they start picking up on the conventions and expect to see them with certain genres of music, this would link in to my audience theory in the sense that I wouldn't want to leave them dissatisfied if they expect a certain convention or visual aspect to be included within a music video or more specifically in Dan’s music video. I loved the way that my survey was gaining such a wide range of responses and opinions because it offers more avenues and critical perspectives to explore.

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What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The next question I asked was to do with looking at what genres people were interested in within modern culture. This is because me being a filmmaker I didn't have much understanding of what people were mainly into within a modern music culture, this was one of the risks I took when deciding on this brief. This question helped me understand what music people liked and would prefer compared to the other options, this would then allow me to research these genres and find out the conventions I could use from other genres and incorporate them into my music video, this would create a hybridisation of conventions to attract new viewers from other genres to Dan Bull’s work. The wide range of perspectives on these genres offered a large range of conventions that I could use from different music videos. This was probably a result of the wide range of ages within my audience feedback. This further helped me outline the themes and concerns within mainstream music and decide whether or not to use, address or challenge them. For example the notion of bullying in modern culture is relatable through music and is often a topic that is shown within music. Rap is also often expressive about suppression from a higher power, this feedback allowed me to focus on how pop music and rock portrayed that so when I alternate some conventions I can understand which ones are essential to keeping my audiences understanding.

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What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

These questions are specific towards the audience, which requires an actual typed response. I felt that this was necessary because I wanted to gain a greater understanding of what people expect from their music videos and what videos have really made an impact on the viewer. Furthermore these videos that they selective will offer further research for me to look at in order to get more ideas for my music video. By identifying what is important to the viewer and what has made an impact on them I can try and incorporate or try and recreate that connection to the music that the audience felt to the other product, which would make them understand the meta meaning behind the video. This would also provide an emotional connection between the viewer and the song because they would recognise the conventions, and people love things that they understand easily because it makes them feel clever. This meta meaning would also provide that ‘puzzle’ meaning that the female core audience would spend time figuring out, this provides a higher level of interaction between the audience and media product.

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What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The last question I asked was “Where do you watch music videos?” I asked this to gain a greater understanding of which platforms my music video will be presented on, this is because it effects how the video will look and which conventions will be incorporated and be the most effective towards the audience. It will also effect the formatting of the video within post production because of the resolution differences and lastly it will effect the censorship claims within the product. I found that the majority of my audience is based on YouTube, which is a fairly personal platform and this is the reason I made the video very personal between the viewer and the character, I also made sure that the formatting was MP4 so that the video was in good quality but was easy to upload to the sight because otherwise I could be waiting for hours for the video to upload. Most artists on the platform release their music videos on their ‘Vevo’ channel, these channels dominate most of the YouTube music market because of their wide range of artists and videos. Having to make a music video to compete with a those high level products required a lot of research into the expectations and common conventions of music videos. Youtube is also a platform that has changed the way media is produced, the site allows any ordinary person to become not just a consumer but also a producer. This is because they can upload and download content independently without a production company, this has given way to a rise in internet culture widely based off the idea of remixing, which through the construction of my music video I wanted to reference.

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What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

I also used my audience feedback to see how much people enjoyed the music video once it was released. I got extremely positive feedback from all the surveys, tweets, comments and messages. Although I had loads of people to please including the audience and the artist I feel that I have successfully created a professional music video. My criticisms throughout helped make the final screening of my product very enjoyable because some of the people had helped improve it and some were experiencing it for the first time. In relation to doing this project again I would defiantly look into having the actual artist perform the music video, as I think fans would prefer it and I would work on the video being less superficial and maybe having more of a conventional narrative so it’s easier for the average viewer to follow and understand.

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Did you use new media technologies effectively in the process of creating your music video and ancillary task?

The equipment within my production had a wide range depending on the location. To start with I used a modern DSLR, more specifically Canon 650d. I used this camera because it can record in 1080p full HD and allowed me to record in 25fps, which is close to professional standard. Furthermore I used my camera for both the ancillary and the music video because this DLSR also has great photography features as well as video, this combined with my already good knowledge of the camera helped me try knew techniques and achieve the effects I was looking for confidently and efficiently. Although I used this camera in AS I did develop how I used the manual settings to achieve different tones and colours. I also used a wide range of camera stabilising equipment such as: tripod, glide cam and X-grip. The tripod and X-grip were both pieces of equipment that I was familiar with from AS, however I did develop how I used these equipment by using the tripod and X-grip for different techniques and experimental angles. However the glide cam was a first for me, this meant that I had to do research into the product before buying it or using it and it did prove challenging at times as seen in the vlog. Most of the time I used the tripod because it gave a ‘vlogger’ feel, which relates to the platform that the music video would be shown on. However I did also use a variety techniques such as hand held, which I felt gave it a much more gritty feel, which relates to the genre of music.

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Did you use new media technologies effectively in the process of creating your music video and ancillary task?

Other equipment included lighting. I developed from my AS media product by using more lighting techniques because of my inspiration and research into film noir. I further developed within the creation of this music video because I increased the lighting within my own reshoots because I kept wanting to add more depth to my image. When I was indoors or close to power I was using my industrial lights to light the scenes, or I used my photography lights. I then developed these techniques by using my theatre lights on top of this to create some really harsh shadows and contrasting lines that both helped create shape, depth and tone. My cinematography in this media product developed significantly from AS because I understood more about the different effects of lighting and translated that into this project, I further used other products and short films I was making at the time to help inform and experiment with lighting for this music video. I further used reflectors when outdoors mainly because I wanted to be able to direct the sun onto my subject to distinguish them from the background. I learnt this while making my short advert for the school, this is because I had to conduct interviews very quickly, this did not allow time for lights so I had to use reflectors. I used them to create harsh light using the sliver and warmer light using the gold, in addition I used the white as a dimmer as seen in the vlog.

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Did you use new media technologies effectively in the process of creating your music video and ancillary task?

Another new media technologies that I have utilised in the creation of my product is the ‘vlog’. This meant that I was actually documenting the creation of the music video, which helped me evaluate what I was doing throughout and also meant that I actually had some additional media that the audience could look at to understand more about the product. I mainly used my phone camera on my iphone, which although was not the best quality it was was good enough for the audience to interact with, I know this because I have had people direct message me about how interesting and helpful the vlog was. This meant that the audience does like this extra bit of media that is there to be interacted with on top of the music vide itself, this is because it provides additional knowledge about their favorite artist and the creation of their product. This also helped as a promotion for my youtube channel as well Dan’s, this allows me to network something that is really useful within web 2.0.

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Did you use new media technologies effectively in the process of creating your music video and ancillary task?

Within the creation of my ancillary task I primarily used Photoshop. This industry standard tool allowed me to work in detail within pixels, this was due to me using a high resolution camera but also because of the power of the program. Furthermore Photoshop offered me a wide range of design tools like brushes that allowed me to create logos and patterns for the album and easily transfer these between files. This ease allowed me to use my creations fluidly throughout my predict, which helped provide a clear cohesive narrative and provided synergy. Furthermore the typography features allowed me to design and tweak my own fonts in order to create some new and eye-catching, and helped me provide a professional level product.

Another program I used was Premiere Pro cs6, this is another industry standard product that I used to edit my music video. Within AS I used final cut pro 7, this was another huge risk I took in order to get the result I was looking for. This is because within my editing I knew that to get the music video to have a singular theme it would be best to be able to easily transfer elements from my digipak to my video. This meant that I had to learn how to use this program in a short space of time but in the end it worked out very well because it helped me work between all the adobe sweet seamlessly. For example I could drag and drop my VFX in straight from after effects into premiere after constructing them, which avoided me having to export and import like on final cut pro. This overall saved me time and allowed me to use more advanced software for my visual effects.

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Did you use new media technologies effectively in the process of creating your music video and ancillary task?

Within the creation of my media product I had to use tutorials in order to perfect certain effects such as the light saber. This is because although I knew roughly how to do it there were certain techniques that allowed me to make the effect look as professional as it did. Youtube was a key tool in helping me develop in teaching myself how to use certain programs, this is because the wide range of tutorials covers all the problems that people come across while using these different programs. This tutorial helped me learnt how to smooth up my editing while key framing, which overall helped my understadning of these new technologies.

Understanding the adobe sweat allowed me to easily transfer files between each program, this is again something I learnt from youtube. I think that by utilising youtube to broaden my knowledge of the different programs and problems when editing and film it made me more prepared and allowed me to develop more confidently within my process.

I further put these skills I learnt to practice under timed conditions before I filmed my music video. For example I made a shortfilm and an advert for the school, both of these products had to be turned over in a short period of time. This helped me learn how to problem solve quickly and learn the editing software a lot faster, although this created more work for me it allowed me to make my music video better.

Page 27: Media evalutation - A2 Music Video

Did you use new media technologies effectively in the process of creating your music video and ancillary task?

Social media and the internet presented an important role in both the production and research of my final products, for example I used YouTube to look for new music videos to inspire and research my work this is because it is a multi networked platform which allows both normal people and professionals to upload to the same place. This meant that my research was not just of mainstream media but of other more alternated versions either parodying or doing their own thing. Furthermore YouTube allowed me to discover music video from other countries such as K-Pop music videos, which gave ideas on camera interaction. I used YouTube to find my artist’s song and it is where he is based on the web so the site played a key role in my product especially as it is where it was finally uploaded.

As for the other social media platforms like: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter I used them to connect with Dan Bulls audience and stay in contact with Dan himself. This helped me have constant feedback for my work from his very critical fan base, which gave me vital feedback from his core fans. I also used these sites to promote the video upon release using my album cover and poster along side that. These helped get the video seen and enjoyed by new fans as well as the current ones. Lastly I used them to get audience feedback via my survey I created online that was easily accessible to my audience via any online device.

Page 28: Media evalutation - A2 Music Video

Did you use new media technologies effectively in the process of creating your music video and ancillary task?

Within the planning stages of my music video I used new media technologies to create an animatic from my storyboard, I achieved this by using Adobe Premiere Pro to cut together screenshots from my storyboard and matching it to the pacing of the song. This allowed me to see what shots would work in the timeframe I had and which ones would be to long. A lot of my initial cutting of scenes happened at this stage because I soon realised that time wise it would not be possible to achieve everything I wanted in that time frame. This animatic overall helped me improve my videos pacing and understand how quick the pace of the editing would have to be to get my idea to work. This also helped solidify shots and angles that would work and helped me plan what I wanted within the Mise en Scene in terms of props and location. This further helped me in editing because it helped me easily see the narrative pre built for me.

Blogger helped me organise and post everything that I was doing during my production process from researching to post production, it helped me keep control of all my crazy ideas and helped make sure that I followed the process fully without skipping sections. This is where I made lists of things to do and items I had to buy in the form of budget lists, and it kept it all in one place for me or anyone else to access easily. I further kept a video blog to help make sure that I was documenting everything that I was doing.

An examples of animatic to real video

Page 29: Media evalutation - A2 Music Video

Did you use new media technologies effectively in the process of creating your music video and ancillary task?

Within the production I feel that I have used all the new media technologies I can effectively to create a professional looking video and digipak. I used a range and wide variety of technologies such as lights, computers and cameras to achieve this and I think that it is this successful combination of media technologies that has really helped make my product look professional. Furthermore the software I used allowed me to expand my ideas an improve them easily when my audience had an improvements, I feel that by using this feed back with the combination of new technologies is what also made this project such a success. For example the stages that my media product went through to get to this stage is amazing, because it has changed so much though the process but still reflects the vision form the storyboard.

Page 30: Media evalutation - A2 Music Video

Did you use new media technologies effectively in the process of creating your music video and ancillary task?

W Now that my media product has been created I have high aspirations within media and film making for both this music video and my career. This is because my music video is actually being used as a professional media product, this project is genially all professional, all the promotion and visuals are being used to promote this artist who again is a real famous artist. This is why I am pleased with how well it has turned out considering this is the first time I have ever made a music video. I took on this project mainly because I wanted to push myself because I know that most filmmakers started making other products such as music videos and adverts. Therefore I thought it was important to make sure that I am adaptable within the industry and make sure that I can translate what I have learnt into my fimmaking or other projects in the future. I think that as a director I have developed really quickly because of this music video and the other various projects I embarked on to learn more about the process, therefore I am excited to see where this takes me and hopefully embark on reaching my goal of directing a feature film.