Evaluation

After having an enjoyable Easter holidays break, myself Elle and Emma decided to meet up in school before we went back and to do our evaluation together. We discussed the possible ways in how to portray our evaluation from a PowerPoint, scribd upload or simply to just type it onto our blogs. However, we wanted to be more creative and so we decided to sit in front of our MAC and film ourselves having a discussion answering questions 1,3 and 4 and decided to record the whole evaluation, except for question 2, which is a personal opinion on our own digi packs. Most of our answers although pre arranged/planned were from our own opinions, which made the discussion seem more real and interesting as all three of us were having in depth convosations about our media production.






Also, after completing our evaluation, we decided to sit down and watch our music video just to see it and we came up with the idea of doing a voice over narrative to some of the clips and explaining why we chose them and how they are portrayed. We muted the song down when we were talking and this gave it a really good effect as we weren't talking over the whole video so you can still here the music playing. This wasn't compulsory towards the evaluation but we thought it just gave a little more explanation as to why we used certain shots that we did and also shows that myself and my group are being creative.

Summary of Editing Changes

Opening Credits - changed ikea shot - changed lip synching - new opening [x] - l.o.v.e to the beat [x] - changed clip behind the broken arrow - unreversed the arrow - edited to the beat (bits in ikea) [x] - Added the water umbrella "ooh" shot - made alex+elle appear on the split screen when the word "love" is sung - alex+elle brighter contrast - happy times, elle on own - darker Here is a summary of the most siginificant changes to our music video which as a group we have made over the last week. the "[x]" means I have blogged about it and as youc an see, some of the changes I still need to blog.

Changing the opening

At the start of the film we as a group decided to replaced the bit where Elle touches her top area of her body when adjusting her dress as we felt that this was very inappropriate for an innocent pop music promo. We decided replaced it with a clip of Elle in Ally Pally running up to a telescope and looking into this. We think that this starts off as an establishing shot to set the scene that she's in Ally Pally, alone and broken up with Alex. It also can act as if she is looking down the telescope into the music video as it goes straight into the stop motion of L.O.V.E. At first we thought that this looked a bit weird as the cross dissolve transition that I was putting between these two clips were not working, but other members of our media group convinced us that it looked a lot better than it did before so I kept it.

Opening credits research

In order for our music video to look more professional, we were told that we need to have the song title and artist to come up at the beginning and perhaps the end of the song as well. I was watching MTV the other day when I saw the video "Pack up" by "Eliza Doolittle" come up. I like the plain simple font used with the black writing and I also particularly liked the pink banner that the credits were written across. I particularly liked the banner as its pink and girl and this reflects my groups chosen genre of "pop" and it being a female artist of Pixie Lott, I think the colour pink indicates this well to our audience. However, on the IMovie tools, the only colour you can achieve for a banner type effect is white, and this doesn't really fit with our music video, especially because our video is all in black and white, I thought a bit of colour would help but we unfortunately can't achieve this. So, instead we have just gone with a plain simple aerial font and written the following: Line one - Broken Arrow Line two - Pixie Mix Line three - Pixie Mix EP EP stands for extended play, which makes it not quite a CD, but not quite an album either, it falls in betwee both these brackets. So, the CD in the shop would have our single "Broken Arrow" plus maybe three or four ore tracks alongside this. Seeing as myself and the three other members of my group have all included around twelve songs on our Digi-Pack covers, so this would count as the full album and would be considered as "Pixie Mix LP" (long play). So, to avoid confusion, we as a group have added "Pixie Mix EP" to our opening credits to mean the single and so that it will avoid any confusion over our album covers.

Draft four

Here is draft four of our music video. It is very similar to our original first draft. Other than the fact at the beginning we have added opening credits in the bottom right hand corner stating "Pixie Mix - Broken Arrow" with a line separating the two to make it clear that it's the name of the song and the artist who its sung by. We did this to introduce it and to make it look more like a music video rather then just a series of clips along with a piece of music.

Draft three

Here is a draft version of my music video, but as a group we removed all evidence of the black and white editing and experimented with the contrast whilst the clips were all in colour. As a group, we decided to click "revert to original" on each clip as this way the clips were all of a similar contrast and made the music video flow better. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I like the music video better in black and white or colour...

Editing Techniques

This is a video of a song called "Together" by a group named Herve. The reason why I have uploaded this to my blog is simply because of the editing used in this video. Regardless of the genre of the song, I simply love this video as because of how creative it is. The fact that the whole music video was based simple on images which had been photo shopped in order to create the images to "move" in their own way. Now that we are moving on to final cut pro to produce out final editing, I thought this video may help, only in perfecting ours top motion, not the whole music video as we have moving images and not just still photographs like this video.

Evaluation

Once I have completed the final finishing touches to my editing of my music video, I will have to answer the following 4 questions successfully: 1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products 2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? 3) What have you learned from your audience feedback? 4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Rather than just creating a powerpoint and uploading it to scribed, myself and my group want to answer these questions in a more creative way in order to gain as many marks as possible on our creativity skills. I was looking for examples of evalautions which have already been uploaded to YouTube in order to give me an idea as to how to answer these questions successfully. Here is one which I particualrly liked and I felt they answered the questions correctly and precisely:

Digi pack - Final version

Here is my completed Digi-Pack, finally! after editing the photos on picaza and paint, I was fianlly able to produce the Four sided Digi pack that is promoting my album - Pixie Mix Broken Arrow.

[anaylsis to be blogged]

my first attempt

Here is my first draft/attempt on my music advertisement. It's not exactly how I had produced my plan, but when I "got in the zone" this was how it was finally produced.

I decided to use a black background with white writing simply because from previous research I had under taken a lot of music advertisements use this technique and it seems to appear successful and also because my music video to Broken Arrow is all in black and white so this corresponds with this idea well.

I used a print screen from the actual music video itself as the main image on the advertisement. The reason I used this one was because I had already edited it for when I use it in my digi-pack so it saved me time. I blurred the background by using tools on "picaza" and was able to have my own take on what the Stereo Phonics did for their album advertisement by using a black and white background but having their photo in colour, I have made sure that Elle stands out in a similar way.

For any writing on this poster I used a font from the website http://www.fontspace.com/category/cute,girly which I downloaded as I think it a similar font to which Pixie uses for her own albums, but I made it unique to me. the writing which I included on the main image was a quote along the top saying "available to buy/download from 11/05/11". I made sure this was in bold and written across the top of the photo as the release date of an album is one of the most important conventions so the customers can know when it is available for them to listen to.

In the bottom left hand corner I included this image of Elle which is (I think) the image I will be using for the front cover of my digi-pack. I included it small when writing "including the debut single - broken arrow" this way if someone has already brought the single before the album has come out, they will be able to relate to this image.

I also included most of the other conventions such as star ratings and quotes form magazines, one being a sort of "slip line" saying that the music on Pixie Mixes new album enables your mood to change instantly. I though this added a unique touch to my advertisement as not many album advertisements include slip lines, but I think there great and will encourage more people to buy it.

This is only a first draft and so i may make more changes, but I'm very pleased as to how it has turned out first time!!

My own album advertisement

Here is a very rough outline that I have drawn to give me an idea as to what my advertisement will look like actually on paper and not just as an idea in my head.

I have included the "pixie mix" logo which is in a "hand written/girly" font, 2 print screens Of Elle from the music video itself and then other conventions such as ratings/comments from magazines and critics, the release date, the name of the album etc.

I will make my magazine advert in either paint, photo shop or picaza in order to construct it correctly and make it look the best it possibly can!

album advertisement analysis

In last weeks lesson we were focusing on album advertisements that already existed today to give us further research as to when it comes down to designing our own.

We annotate 3 different album advertisements; The killers, Stereo phonics and Nirvana. All of these are different from my genre of "pop" but I thought this gave me a good idea that not every album advertisement matches the genre of the music.

For example, Stereo phonics are alternative/indie music yet there advertisement for their album is really unique. It includes a dull grey background of the seaside with the band sitting at a "cafe" table in the sea itself, yet they are all in colour. I like the iconography to this as to me, it implies that they the band themselves like to think that their different from all the other boy groups out there and so that's why I think they may have chosen to put themselves in colour to show that they "stand out from the crowd" and are different. This is the impact that I would like my advertisement to have on people when they first look at it.

This analysis and research has really helped me to know what I want to achieve in my own music advertisement now! Something unique, eye catching but something that doesn't go too outside of my genre of "pop".

Conventions of a music advertisement

When a new album is advertised in a magazine, there are always certain conventions which are included in order to make it recognisable to the readers of the magazine and so they know it's an advertisement for a new album. Here is a brief list as to whats usually included:

- Most magazine adverts for new albums nearly all the time have some form of review on them. Wether this be "*****" or a comment such as "this album is simply unmissable". By doing this it makes the reader of the magazine more influenced into buying it.

- The release date of an album is one of the most vital pieces of information that needs to be included on a magazine advert. By including the release date the readers will then know when the album is available to buy and this will then enable the artist to then make as many sales as possible.

- The Advertisement itself usually features a similar image of the artist/band from the actual album cover itself, this way the listener of the music can relate to the image on the poster and when buying the actual album.

-Any extras that aren't essential but sometimes occur are things such as the album record label, possible tour dates and also a web address/my space of the band/artist too.

- There will definitely be a description of some sort as to where you can buy the album from - this could either be an online website or a music store such as HMV.

-some albums have added extras such as a "slogan" that's fits in with the overall theme of their album.

- Finally some have exclusive offers/downloads which can be made available to the buyer of the album.

After researching this, there is a lot more that can be included on an advertisement for an album than I thought and I will be taking these points into great consideration when it comes to designing my own one.

Further Digi-Pack Research

My "putting together" of my digi pack is taking rather longer than I thought, but I want to get it looking to the best quality it can and in order to do this, I need to edit the photos the best I can. My Sister was recently in a photo shoot and her friend who is studying graphic design at uni editing some of the photos and the contrast on them came out looking fantastic! This is the similar contrast I want to achieve on my photos of Elle as it will really make her stand out and the audience will get her attention on this album cover straight away.

Digi pack ideas...

I downloaded "paint pro plus" and was able to expand on my editing skills. The first photo I uplaoded is a balck and white shot of Elle. I changed the focus usign the "spot" tool. I hand drew (quite badly) a red pouted kiss shape and then in a swirly text I wrote "Pixie Mix - Broken Arrow". This was in a small black font so it was visible, but Elle was still the main focus.

The second photo is my favourite. It's shot of Elle standing against the big gate with a beautiful house in the background. I used the "spot" tool once again and this time I changed the focus so that Elle stood out much more then the background. I think this looks really effective and will make a great album cover. I hand drew "pixie mix" with the airbrush tool and used black as this stood out against the background. I used a baby pink and did "hearts" for the dots on the eyes as this gave it the little girly edge that Pixi lott would have. I then used a swirly font and wrote broken arrow in a smaller font.

The last photo I uploaded it the same as the first one but this times it's in colour. I then used the airbrush tool and hand drew pixie mixx as I did on the second photo.

These are all very basic ideas but I hope to put my final piece together over the weekend!

Digi pack attempt...

This is very VERY basic, but having not used photo shop before, I am struggling a lot! I uploaded a pohot of Elle which was a print screen from our music video. I then converted it to black and white, adjusted the contrasted and also added the album name and artist in a girly font. This is just a rough idea and over the weekend once I have got to grips with photshop I will look fowards to being able to producing all 4 sides to my digipack!

More music video research...

Only now is it that I realise there are already a lot of music videos that exist today which are all filmed and edited then produced in black and white. I think it is becoming more popular as it gives the video an overall more "professional" look and makes the video stand out from any others that have already been produced.

This following song "Wile out - Ms Dynamite ft Dj zinc is just one of these example. I like the video in black and white and how the beat has been edited in time with the clip transitions. Also, I really like the shots of Ms Dynamite when she is walking down the stairs with the graffiti on the walls. This would also be another idea which I could use for my digi-pack cover.

[video to be uploaded]

Here are a few print screens to show what I am talking about...

Further music video research...

I was watching the music channels over the weekend and I noticed another video that was in black and white and used similar shot types and conventions that we have in ours. this video "Breathe slow - Alesha Dixon" is also a song about love, like "Broken Arrow - Pixie Lott" and so similar slow pans, close ups of her face and smooth transitions are used to fit the mood of the song. I also really like the contrasts used in some of the clips as it is really soft and makes Alesha stand out from the background.

[Youtube wont let me uplaod any videos to my blog - but will put this video on asap!]

Here are some print screen to give you an idea, until the video get's uploaded!

draft 2

After making some final tweaks to our music video in last week's lessons, we have now uploaded to YouTube a second draft. We included more clips of Elle sitting against the brick wall (which myself and Elle had re filmed) and also put in another pan shot from the sky, down towards Elle resting against a gate. We also added in the reversed clips of Elle and Alex towards the end of the song to make the narrative of our song fit the lyrics more.

[wont let me uplaod video from Youtube - will upload asap!]

Here are some print screens until Youtube let's me upload the video...

editing

In today's lesson our whole group was in so myself and Elle were finally able to show the rest of our group what we had completed in the lesson they had missed. They really liked what we had done and they were also able to come up with some new ideas.

Where we have inserted the "stop motion" clip into our music video where the cupid emotion is firing an arrow, Emma said to use the Imovie tool of "picture within a picture" and so that underneath the stop motion we could put a clip of Elle and Alex so the two clips blend into one. We tried it and it looks good, but we still don't know whether we are going to include it in our final version.

Also looking at the music video, Elle who had come to the media room in her free periods the other day had made some further changes that I hadn't yet seen. She had added some clips of herself and Alex towards the end of the music video to give the video more narrative as we have already got a lot of performance clips of Elle singing. When the clips had been added, she "reversed" them to add to the whole "flashback" idea so it looked like they were looking back on the memories. She also ended the music video with 2 happy clips as the piano music that ends the song is quite happy, so she put in a clip of Alex giving her a "piggy back" and ending with a kiss by a tree with a pan up to the sky and then fading to black. I really like the changes that Elle made and I'm hoping now that all we need to do is finishes touches!