Evaluation

Q1.  In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We wanted our video to be more abstract and unconventional, so we decided to include more abstract shots, specifically these ones of water and ink. Since our song is an indie rap song, I think it fits nicely as it goes against the grain of standard rap videos, fitting with our specific subgenre.

We felt that if our video was completely abstract we would lose the attention of potential viewers, so we included a large selection of shots featuring our star. As he lipsyncs to the song, it fits with the lyrics. Some of the shots featuring him performing directly to camera and others as if he does not know the camera is there, creating a voyeuristic effect.

We also featured shots of other people dancing, since the song has a slight dancey feel to it. However, we abstracted these shots slightly, by altering their speed and occasionally reversing them, again going against the grain of standard music videos.

 We included an abstract shot of an egg splatting into a jar, first in slow motion and reversed, and then at full speed, with an earthquake effect added in Final Cut. The impact was timed to coincide with the first beat of the chorus, creating a strong and interesting visual effect

At a point in the song the lyrics go “I take a pull and wonder why the Beatles break up” in reference to smoking cannabis. We fitted our video to the lyrics by having our performer mime taking a pull of a joint.

We once again referenced the notion of looking and voyeurism by featuring an extended series of shots where Emily is looking at the camera through a variety of coloured filters.

We added product placement (Nike trainers) as part of the demands of our record label.

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
 I believe that our abstract, arty music video goes well with our ancillary products, which both feature a similar arty style. Colour is an important feature throughout our video, both in the ink shots and in the lighting of our performer, and this sense of colour is carried through into our ancillary products, with our digipack featuring different panels each featuring a cartoon-style character (the front cover of which is a cartoonised version of our star) and each has a specific colour background, which features very strongly. Our advert is also the front cover of our digipack, but with added information such as release date, reviews, where you can buy the product, and a link to our star's twitter page.

Q3.  What have you learned from your audience feedback?

(Make sure annotations are turned on)

Q4.How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Blogger: Blogger was a very helpful tool throughout the different stages of our music video. At first, we used it as a sort of ideas scrapbook, showcasing music videos and star personas that interested us, allowing us to go back and gain more ideas from each reference. Following on from that, we used it to plan the general ideas for our shoot, followed by more specific and practical details such as when, where and what we would need to film. Throughout this process, we continued to blog influences as they came to us. Finally we used it as a tool to post feedback for our rough cut, allowing us to closely focus on areas that we needed to improve.

Final Cut: Final Cut was probably the most important tool in the creation of the music video, as without it we would have had no way to edit our footage (except possibly on a more basic program such as iMovie, which would have been much less successful). We made use of a multitude of effects, such as the ability to fade between shots, colour correction which we used to drastically change the colours of certain shots for an abstract effect, as well as for more simply making the colours of our less abstract shots really stand out, and key frames, which we used to move some of our static shots around the screen, making them more exciting and not look awkward in comparison to shots where the camera is moving.

Photoshop: We used Photoshop in a slightly different way to most groups, choosing to draw in our digipack and magazine advert from scratch, rather than editing an existing photo. We used the standard paintbrush tool to draw out our characters, and then added a noise layer over the top, set to a low opacity and on multiply, to add a grainy, lo-fi feel to our ancillary products.

EVALUATION

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question 4

 Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

BloggerThis was a very effective and useful technology to use at it helped us as a group to track the process of all our work. This meant we could keep referring back to our research if we ever needed help with a certain task or if you'd forgotten something important to do with your music video. Also, if, as a group we found some really interesting videos on YouTube or pictures on Google, which influenced us greatly, we wouldn't have to waste time trying to find them again as they would be posted on our blog. Blogger also helped us develop our ideas for our final music video and brainstorm new ideas which would help when making our video. Also, I find that using blogger helps you see how you have improved, which is very important; learn from your mistakes. Using blogger at home worked very well also, as if you came up with some really good ideas, you could just post it on your groups blog so these ideas could  be shared with the rest of your group without fail. 

Photoshop 
When creating our ancillary products, as a group, we used Photoshop quite a lot. It made it a lot easier to create the certain look we were going for to interest our target audience. It helped us create the 'cartoon-look' we were going for with our digipak. Here i learnt how to hand draw your own images and use different effects, such as 'grain' to make them look very professional. As a group, we experimented a lot when it came to using Photoshop. I certainly picked up some new skills which i can defiantly use in the future.  We wanted our magazine cover and digipak to come across very quirky, fun and original; like our music video. Photoshop helped us achieve our goal here. In my opinion, the final results were very effective and our star persona was presented exactly how we wanted. 

Youtube
YouTube was great when it came to research. We found many amazing videos which influenced us greatly. Without these videos our music video wouldn't have half the techniques and interesting ideas. Also, YouTube was useful as it taught us a lot about how lighting can be used effectively, which is very important when making a music video. I learnt a couple new skills when using YouTube. For example I learnt how to add annotations a video. This was very important as it helped me a lot when it came to completing my evaluation. YouTube also helped us when it came to Photoshop. As Photoshop isn't that easy to use, just by watching tutorials on YouTube we quickly picked up useful techniques to use on Photoshop. 

CONCLUSION 


Conclusion Q4
by: emilyrosemaryx

Copyright info

What rights does a copyright owner have?

A copyright owner has both economic and moral rights. Economic rights cover acts that only the copyright owner can do or authorise. These include the right to copy the work, distribute copies of it, rent or lend it, perform or show it, communicate it to the public (including making it available online) or adapt it (e.g. making it into a play).

Moral rights include the right to be identified as the author, the right not to have a work that they did not create falsely attributed to them and the right to object to the derogatory treatment of the work. Moral rights are rights authors retain in their works irrespective of who owns the economic rights - they can be waived, but not licensed or assigned. 

Who owns copyright?

As a general rule, the owner of the copyright is the person who created it, i.e. the author. An author could be the writer, the composer, the artist, the producer or the publisher or another creator depending on the type of work.

One important exception to this is when an employee creates a work in the course of their employment in which case the copyright owner will be the employer.

Evaluation

 Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Goodwin's points are a collection of elements that most music videos include. These are:

Voyeurism - reference to the notion of looking, pleasure in looking and being unseen.

Genre Characteristics - specific features that relate to the genre of music (for example rock music will feature the band performing, dance music will feature elaborate dance sequences).

Lyrics & Visuals - the visuals will relate to the lyrics either directly (by taking a literal interpretation of what the singer is saying) or abstractly (linking to the mood or feelings expressed in the lyrics without following them exactly).

Music & Visuals - the visuals will relate to the music, by showing specific instruments being played, matching events to the beat, or linking with the themes, moods and ideas of the music.

Demands of Record Label - the record label will obviously want to make money, so they will have their own agenda for things they want to include in a music video, for example selling the artist, product placement, advertising.

Intertextuality - reference to other texts (films, books, TV shows).

Shot of Josh brushing his shoulder.

We used a zoomed in shot of josh brushing his shoulder when the lyrics say 'great stuff'. By doing this it fits well with the beat and persues a movement which is used by other rap artists and it supposed to represent the action of wiping dirt of a shoulder. It fits with goodwins point music and visuals.



Shot of Josh using his hands and actions to fit the lyrics.

 

We used a shot of josh imitating the lyrics with his hand signs, the lyrics say 'O2'. by doing this we are making an effect where the audience may watch and pick it up, therefore next time they hear this song, they may find themselves doing the hand signs. This fits with goodwins point lyrics and visuals.


Shot of the Ink effect we included.

By using this ink effect its creating an abstract and unique style, we wanted to make our video have different effects and include random objects such as the egg that was also used during our music video.

In one of goodwins points it says Intertextuality - reference to other texts.

In our music video right at the end our star walks of the set and we shoot a close up of him walking with popular branded shoes on (Nike), by having the logo of nike visible in our music video, we are also advertising their brand. which benifits them.



Question 4

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/14029959/army-dudes

Joe Keady's Evaluation

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Goodwin's Six Points

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

We started of the beginning of our music video with a ink in water shot which looks great, and goes with the music. But this instantly challenges the generic conventions found within the rap genre. But our group felt we could mix it up with not just artist singing/movement. But with some well structured cleverly made/edited whacky clips we will challenge it.

The feedback we got for this type of shot was positive. With the coloured filters over the lights making it look more "professional" and give it a "studio type" feel. These quotes were from viewers

Josh does the 02 with his fingers. 02 is said within the lyrics of the song. The audience picked up on Goodwins points of : "There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, 

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). The need for close ups for the record label  If this were a professional video maybe the shot above could potentially become a trademark thing to do. And the audience would identify and know the celebrity in other videos if the same trademark is carried out.

The lyrics within the song are 'great white' and we wanted show something in relation to the lyrics. So what we have done is a quick simple stop motion. Combining around 20 different shot's to make the shark progressively scarier. This is unconventional of the genre but something we wanted to do. Challenging the conventions. In Goodwins points this would be "There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals" (which is illustrative) 

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. There are many shots of Emily throughout the product. This shot above especially has "voyeuristic treatment of the female body" as we have slowed the footage right down when she is dancing for a cool look.

I think  these two images above are a convention stated by Goodwin. One being" Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

"I feel in many rap videos you get the artist doing varoius moves or poses, whether they are trademark or not. There does seem to be a lot of them.

Use of filters over studio lights help give a studio like feel. Not using just one light level or colour, but a variety.

There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc). This is clearly portrayed here with the big Nike tick. Nick is hugely known across the world for their classic logo, and us using their brand in our video is only further enhancing the brand identity.

This main image used is actually Josh and his girlfriend. But the image was reconstructed using paintbrush for a cartoon effect. I think this is abstract and connotes parts of are video.

The digi pack cover has 3 characters who have been made up on paintbrush, every image uses the noise layer for effect.






Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?



Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?


Myself and someone else in my group have annotated this video via Youtube. Make sure annotations are enabled before watching.

Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Technologies we used from start to finish:

- HD Video cameras
- Macs
- Photoshop
- Youtube- Final Cut
- Blogger.com
- Digital Camera 
-Iphoto

I'm going to talk about 3 specific technologies we used.

Blogger: Blogger was one of the main tools in which we used. Blogger is a site where you can blog ideas in a simplistic nice layout. We done the majority of the posts on the blog as a group, and some independently  Blogger was used from initial planning stages, till where i am now (evaluation) Firstly we used it for research tasks such as, rap genre research, influences, and then ideas of what we wanted to do. Continuing on to designs of story boards, location research, actor problems and so on. We felt that blogger was very helpful for planning because when you post things in chronological order, you see your ideas progress and develop. Furthermore we placed our rough cut on the blog so other groups could view it. This was a good move as we gained valuable feedback from other peoples opinions. Making the video better because of this. Knowing other people like it, and see conventions which are popular within it before the final product was key. Other post done with blogger was copying right issues, blog updates, editing, and more. The site doesn't just allow words on it's blog. But as iv'e talked about you can embed Youtube videos, videos, power point etc. As well as pictures and documents. This is good as we can use a variety of different media conversions to illustrate a point.

Final Cut:Without final cut our final product would have been very poor, as other editing software is much more simplistic and doesn't offer much. We uploaded all the footage onto final cut, and instantly put things roughly where we wanted it. Knowing bits which we didn't need and the ones we did. A use of final cut tools was when we got a flickering effect of Emily dancing. This was done by splitting up the footage into fine bits. With the black gaps actually being no footage, but for milliseconds. This effect was really cool and put something different into the video. Also we tried being abstract within the video, with the ink in water. But we went one more and in post production using FC we used colour correction to change the colour of the whole image to a pink and yellow image which worked well. Also other still shots of Josh rapping we used FC to move the frame around making the  shot more dynamic and flow. This looked the video look much more professional in my opinion. 

Youtube:

Youtube is a world known site, allowing people to upload videos of their interests to a place where others can view. Additional features are commenting on the video, liking the video,and subscribing to the page. The amount of times the video has been viewed is also recorded and shown. We posted our rough cut onto Youtube which iv'e mentioned allowing feedback. Making it assessable for people to watch from home or from college. So this gave the feedback process a wider outlook. We also posted our final video on Youtube, once again to receive feedback via it. To use for evaluation and vox pops tasks. The last point about Youtube is that iv'e used it in part of my evaluation  Using different media forms throughout. Question 3 has used annotations to answer what our audience feedback was. 

IGNORE CANT REMOVE.


Playgoz Movie
by: keady123
This was made to show how well 3 technologies worked in combination to each other.

Copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept. It protects the physical expression of ideas. As soon as an idea is given physical form, e.g. music, a web page, a piece of writing, a photograph and a film, it is protected by copyright. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work. There is no need for registration or to claim copyright in some way, protection is automatic at the point of creation. Both published and unpublished works are protected by copyright. Copyrights are said to be territorial, which means that they do not extend beyond the territory of a specific state unless that state is a party to an international agreement.

Copyright is usually owned by the creator of the work, for example, the composer, author, artist photographer and many more. 

Copyright refers to laws that regulate the use of the work of a creator, such as an artist of author. This includes copying:

-distributing, 

-altering 

-displaying creative, 

-literary and other types of work. 

Unless otherwise stated in a contract, the author of creator of a work retains the copyright. 

Copyright law grants to copyright holders certain exclusive rights in relation to their works. They have the right to: copy a work, issue copies to the public, perform show or play it, make adaptations or translations. They also have the right to prevent: 

• others communicating a work to the public by electronic transmission, e.g. broadcasting it or putting it on a website.
• others making available to the public a recording of a performance by electronic transmission, e.g. putting it on a website

 Infringing the rights of copyright holders may be a criminal offence and/or cause them to sue for damages.

Social networking sites

Social networking is an online service or site that focuses on facilitating the building of social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. Social networking services consist of representation of each user, their social links, and a variety of additional services. 

Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. 

Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. 

Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. 

Good points about Social networking:

• Easy access and easy to use, the target audience for our track stereotypically uses it daily.
• Artists can get in contact with and be contacted by fans in regards to their work.
• Advertisement of products on the social network is hugely successful.

Bad points about social networking:

• There is the possibility of a lot of negative attention surrounding a product.
• Information that was not meant to be seen by an audience can be leaked onto the social network and spread quickly as the security of the website isn't first rate.
• As it is so widely used, it needs constant attention as some fans may feel ignored if they try to get in contact with an artist. 

Digipack and Magazine Advert

Digipack

Magazine Advert

Some music video conventions

• Cutting on the beat
• Close up of the artist's face to show identification and through advertising
• Instruments shown through a performance.
• Narrative. Tends to be linear but in a performance.
• Parallel editing- Editing between different scenes/spaces.
• Strong relationships between music and image. Pace of editing reflects song, movements of artist/dances, movement of camera.

These are conventions for a basic obvious music video, however like ourselves other conventions may apply, as we have created an abstract music video.

Lighting lesson

There are 3 main types of lighting used in music videos, they are minimalistic, naturalistic and stylised.

Stylised lighting can be bright and unrealistic looking, this is perfect for the artist if you want to have a bright lighting on the stars face and a dimmed background.

Naturalistic lighting is lighting that is used for a natural effect, such as using certain filters to give a natural look such as, sunrise, dm daylight, or evening look.

Minimalistic lighting is when you use as little lighting as possible and just using the natural light that your aready in.

Homework for Wednesday 28th November

You need to have an attempt at two of the evaluation questions by next week. I apologise for not going through this in lesson today but any start you can make with this will benefit you. The FINAL DEADLINE FOR EVALUATION IS 14TH DECEMBER so the sooner you start the better. I would like to see something significant from you next week for FOR QUESTIONS 1 AND 4 ONLY. See text in red below for extra guidance with this homework.

Word Count should be approximately 400-500 words per question (excluding question 3 which is in video form)

G324 Evaluation Tasks.

 

Below are the 4 questions you need to answer for your coursework Evaluation. The task for Question 3 should be done in your group. The other tasks are individual. When you have completed the tasks post all 4 onto the same post and tag it with YOUR NAME.

 Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Task: Select 10 stills/ images from your Music Video and the 2 ancillary tasks (you cannot annotate ancillary tasks just yet obviously). Annotate each one of them in Photoshop or Powerpoint to indicate which conventions you have used at which point. Explain which conventions you followed/challenged and how/why? Use Goodwin's 6 points as a guide here.   

 Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Task: Create a Prezi which makes clear links between your 3 products.

 Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Task: Create a director’s commentary which includes clips from the music video and ancillary tasks, as well as vox-pop presentations of audience feedback.

 Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Task: Create a video presentation which discusses the technologies you used at each stage of the project. This video needs to be different from the Director’s commentary in terms of its presentation and content ie. Presented as a ‘How to use…’/ Teaching (in character?) style of video that could then be used as a future teaching aid. For homework for wednesday, you need to write the script for this and try to collect relevant screen grab images. Choose 3 technologies that you used and explain how you used them or you can 

Digipack influences

This is the gorillaz digipack cover, i think that the way its just a simple plain white background makes the pictures stand out really clearly and draws your attention straight to the characters.
On our digipack we wanted to include a cartoon effect, not quite like the gorillaz images though.

Star Persona

Our star persona is Josh.

Josh fits the image very well, his style and looks blend well with the genre that our music video is based on.
In people's opinions of a hiphop artists image and style, the majority think of a typical wealthy and stereotyical male, such as a male with stylish expencive branded clothing, shiny bling, show off cars and alot of girls.

Our music video doesnt back up this stereotypical image of a hiphop artist, instead as a group we went for an abstract approach and included various random effects, such as ink and eggs, on the other hand we did include shots of Josh singing the lyrics but he was stood alone so the publics eye is just on him and his style.

Editing Our Music Video - DRAFT

Possible CD designs

In this blog post we're going to look at possible designs for our digi pack.

The Gatefold CD.

Our digi pack is going to be four sided and will consist of photo's of our star that are advertising his style and promoting his album. we could have either pictures that were taken from filming or pictures we have used of josh on our blog already. We as a group will make sure that the colour's and images all match and blend well together. Our aim is to make it look as professional as possible and to attract consumers to our product.

Star Persona

1.       What is your finalised star persona? Include a photograph of your star that best communicates their persona. Discuss what ideas/ideologies they communicate (materialism, rebellion, innocence, the cultural “ideal”, alternative to the “ideal” etc.). How do they communicate these ideas? How is their persona expressed visually? (costume, hair, makeup, bogy language, lighting, framing etc) How is it expressed through lyrics, genre?


Our star persona in our music video is Josh. Below are a couple photographs of him: 

As our original actor could not be in our music due to an accident which resulted to a broken leg, we had to re-think who we could use that would fit well into our music video. As a group we decided to use Josh. We want our star persona to be 'cool' and 'hip' however we want to move away from the stereotypical 'ganster' which is used in most rap videos; we wanted to think outside the box. We've not used violence and drugs which is used in most rap videos also. 

To achieve this, we want our star persona to be well groomed, stylish branded clothes and confident care free body language. We took this all into consideration and i think we achieved our goal. 
Even though we would of preferred to use a black guy as this would of fit into our genre better, we only had a few days to sort a new actor, and it was quiet hard finding another black person who could do it, so josh was our plan B. 

The lighting used in our music video also emphasizes our star persona. We have used a variety of different bright colors to highlight the atmosphere for our music video; 'cool' and 'swag'

Comments about feedback

Overall we were very pleased with the feedback we got from the other groups about our music video. From the feedback, we now know what we need to improve on, for example, we were told that we should add more lip singing in towards the end of the music video; this is very true and we will work on this next time we film. Also we were told to improve on some shots as they came across shakey.

Filming Part 2

On the  week back from half-term, 5th November commencing we knew we had to re-film some of the music video to fill the content of our video. We once again used the same space as last time. This was a sound proof drama studio. We blocked out all natural lights again and used the effects of artificial light. Doing this gives the feel of being in a music studio. Josh had learned the lyrics  of by heart this time round, so when recording he flowed much better with the lyrics, and looked much more genuine. Additionally this was useful for editing. Not solo relying on lip syncing as a technique in post filming. He raps it so well we don't deem it  necessary. In the first session of filming we had Josh rapping fine, but the lighting set up was the same in all of a long duration shot. The camera height and angel was the same throughout. Taking this into consideration on the second time we wanted to make the video more dynamic. We done this by josh rapping the entire song 3 times. But at different angels and heights. Also every song we would but colored filters over the studio light we used to create a nice affect. Last thing we did was the mise-en-scene. Josh changing t-shirts in the different run troughs.

This a similar kind of set up we used when filming. Using a big tall light, reflectors, blacked out background. But in addition to these we put colored filters over the lights to liven up the frame when shooting.

Our star Josh Oosterhuis

Lil wayne



Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. (born September 27, 1982), better known by his stage name Lil Wayne is an American rapper. He is portrayed as a rebellious character, this is because of his image, with the tattoo's, and with his gold and platinum diamond studded crowns on his teeth, these are what the audience think when watching his music video's or interiews etc.
Even though he is not the best looking star, because of his charm and probably the amount of money he has the ladies love him, in our video the star (Josh) is using his own charm to attract the opposite sex, for instance when he is wiping his shoulder in our rough cut musi video its showing how he knows he's powerful.

Rough Cut Feedback

Feedback from other groups

Marking Criteria

Social Networking and Star Persona

Social networking is an important tool for getting your music out to potential listeners. To show how important a tool it can be, we have taken some screenshots of the social networks of Kanye West, a successful rapper similar to our star persona.

Twitter

Kanye West's Twitter features his musings on day to day life, as well as a link to his official website. As you can see, with almost 9,000,000 followers he has been quite successful on this front.

Facebook

A quick search on Facebook reveals no official Kanye West page, but hundreds of unofficial, fan-made pages, ranging from thousands of likes to hundreds of thousands of likes.

Official Website

Kanye West's official website goes for quite a minimalist theme, featuring no information about the artist other than featuring a collection of his newest songs and videos to stream, along with links to buy the tracks, and invitations to share on Facebook and Twitter.

Last.fm

Kanye West's Last.fm page shows an impressive amount of 'scrobbles' - effectively a play count - and listeners. The profile also features photos and a biography of West, allowing us an insight into his persona.