Finishing!

Feedback on music video 2

Evaluation of music video

Feedback on music video

Reflecting on the process of creating the music video.

I have really enjoyed creating my own music video as it has taught me different skills and ways to approach creativity. It was hard at first as we had to come up with a concept for the music video and think of other ideas to make it stand out but the use of research into other types of music video helped us to come up with a concept which is familiar to everyone. I have also enjoyed watching other music videos from different genres and looking at the ways in which certain aspects are used to reflect on the type of genre it is. The creating of the artist was also exciting as we got to make our own artist and bring out our creative side. Even though the filming process was long and tiring we still managed to have fun filming and use our time wisely to get a lot of footage. The editing process was also enjoyable as we had fun watching the bloopers and working on trying to get the clips in the right order and in time with the lip syncing. The lip syncing in our video was done really well which i am proud of. One improvement which could of been made was to spend more time editing as we have now reached the deadline but overall i am happy with the outcome.

Final Music Video

04. Phoebe, Alex, Amina, Benjamin from 283goswell on Vimeo.

What needs to be done tomorrow.

As we all know it is the media coursework deadline and my group has nearly finished the editing of the music video so tomorrow we will add the last finishing touches which are:

• Add effects and filters which are necessary.
• Maybe add in text for the start of the video to highlight the artist who stars in the music video and the name of the song.
• Watch over the music video to see what needs improving and whether there are any glitches which need to be removed.
• Use the smooth tool to make one scene clear and smooth as it is quite shaky due to not having the fig rig.
• Slow down some of the footage to go in time with the song.

Progress review blog

I think my blogging progress since my last reflection has improved a good amount. Since my last reflection I've uploaded an additional 19 (20 with this blog post) blogs. I think my individual blogging  details research and planning very well, although it fails completely on construction due to my absence during production. I'm fairly happy with my blogging so far, as I feel like I've addressed the issues I mentioned last time with the quantity of my blogs.

I have 23 individual blog posts, which I think is a fair amount as it's nearly half of my blog posts. I think the next targets i should set are: 1. Keeping blogging quantity high and 2. Keeping blogging quality high. One area I think I could improve on is consistently blogging rather than blogging in bulks.

Question 3 - Notes and Ideas

Some notes and ideas I've thought of for answering evaluation question 3, are obviously to mention how and which technologies I used. I'll focus mainly on blogger and youtube. I will point to the animatic (Which I don't think has uploaded properly) and talk about how I used FCP to make it. Unfortunately I don't think I have pictures of the editing process but I think I can manage without them.

Planning compared to last year

Planning compared to last year was very similar. The only difference I noted was the slight increase of detail this year, in regards to costume, location, and props which were much more strongly considered. Generally however I approached planning in a very similar way to last year, only taking certain sections such as costume and location into more consideration.

What kinds of people watch music videos?

There are various types of people who watch music videos, as well as various reasons why they watch them. For the majority of people who watch music videos, many would be fans of the musician and would watch the music video to support the artist. Additionally music videos are obviously made after songs, and thus many people who watch them, may simply watch them because they like the song rather than like the artist. Additionally some people may enjoy the visual aspect of the music video despite not liking the song. This all accumulates into views and popularity.

 It's also more likely for viewers of music videos to be younger, as a majority of music videos are most likely online and younger people are more likely to be tech savvy due to being raised around technology. It's also more likely for younger people to be fans of popular artists, which can be supported by the fact that the second most popular music video on youtube is 'Justin Bieber - Baby' which has 936,117,346 as of 24/11/13. Justin Bieber's fans age demographic can be seen: 

It also seems to be more girls who watch music videos, which can be supported by the fact that the 10 most viewed music videos feature artists such as PSY, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga etc etc:

Justin Bieber's gender demographic

and Lady Gaga's:

Lady Gaga's gender demographic

 In conclusion we can assume heavily that girls aged 13-18 watch music videos.

Evaluation question 1 - Notes and ideas

A few notes and ideas I've thought of when coming to answer evaluation question 1are obviously links to music videos that influenced us, and videos we were looking at before picking 'AlunaGeorge - Attracting Flies', I was thinking of using a similar sort of structure as I've used within my earlier blog posts, implementing my own opinion as well as screenshots of the video I'm talking about.
I was also thinking of using a voiceover, in which I would discuss the video and how it may have influenced us. Screenshot comparisons between both our music videos and the music video discussed have been considered.

Editing Photos.

 

Reviewing my progress.

In my opinion i think my blogging has improved from the start of the blogging process. I have been updating the blog with posts quite frequently and have been using different technology to present my work. There could be a few improvements for example remember to do upload a post of something which was done in lesson today rather than leaving till last minute and also keeping up to date with blogging. I have got a fair amount of posts (individual work) and hope to do even more posts to create a journey through the whole process, so this can be identified well by the teachers as well as the examiners.

Reviewing a recent music video (Part 3)

 As mentioned earlier, the finale of the music video reviews starts here. I'll be comparing 'SZA - Ice Moon' and 'Justin Timberlake - TKO' and then finally relate it back to our own music video.

Editing: Editing between the two videos were very different. 'TKO' as mentioned before focuses mainly on slow-motion, or quick zoom ins, which can't really be seen with screen captures. while 'Ice Moon' focuses on amplification of scenes which can be seen with screen captures as well as fade ins:

Amplification

Fade in

More amplification

in comparison to our own video, we've looked into adding fade ins early within the video. Which makes our video (editing wise), less advanced than both 'TKO' and 'Ice Moon'.

Camera: The camera within both videos is constantly moving although 'TKO' usage of camera movement is much more noticeable. Compared to 'Ice Moon' which used mainly a lot of wide shots/very wide shots as well as nature shots, 'TKO' uses a much larger range of shots, such as close ups , wide shots, mid shots etc as seen here:

Mid shot

Close up

Another close up

In comparison to our own video, we've followed more in 'TKO' footsteps rather than 'Ice Moon' as our shots varied quite a bit.

MES: The mise en scene of the 'TKO' is much more sophisticated than 'Ice Moon' is, who respectively takes on a much more natural and raw theme, which is shown by the settings both videos take place in. 'TKO' is set in a house as well as outside, and the theme of a black and white contrast are strongly seen:

Lighting of the scene, is bright, and filled with all white

While another part of the video is much more darker, and dimly lit

In comparison 'Ice Moon' pretty much has one theme which is nature, or simplicity:

Forest

Water

The opening shot of the music video

The props used within both videos also reflect their respective themes with 'TKO' using homely props, or props seen everyday such as cars, pans, chairs etc. 'Ice Moon' uses props such as balloons, sweets and a picnic or stereotypical happy things. 

Picnic

Balloons

Car

Homely setting

In contrast our video hardly uses props, but makes frequent use of setting change. Filming took place in various locations as well as being inside and outside. Although our filming is finished, I think we could take inspiration from 'TKO' mainly in what ways we could edit.

Lighting between both videos were slightly different with 'Ice Moon' using natural lighting, and 'TKO' using bright natural lighting as well as making use of the lack of lighting frequently throughout the video. We mainly used natural lighting, although artificial lighting appears once in the video. In conclusion, the video I liked more was probably 'TKO' although, I thought 'Ice Moon' was also good, but I felt that the various camera shots and general theme of 'TKO' made th video more interesting.

Evaluation 1&2

 

Hopefully on Monday I will upload question 1&2 on camatasia or on blogger, I think that it will be easier for me to do it this way.  On the video I will be talking about what theories I used to create the video.

Costume.

 

Looking back..

Evaluation Q2 - Notes and ideas.

For this question i might do a video clip of me addressing this question or screenshot visual links between the products - links to work that have influenced me to create a similar digipak.

Creating a ancillary product

In lesson today we were practicing creating our ancillary product. I used Photoshop to create the front and back of the cd cover. This product will be similar to the one i will create for the artist in our music video.  

For the front cover i used a random image and added a blurred effect to it and then copied it to the blank cd cover template. Once i resized the image and fitted it to the square box i then went onto creating the artist name and choosing a suitable font.

On the back cover i used a light pink wallpaper. I then inserted the track list using white font to make it stand out against the pink background.

For my final ancillary product i will make sure i don't add an effect which doesn't make the artist look visible to the audience. I will also use colours which compliment the font as well as the positioning of the artist.

Evaluation Q3 & 4 - notes and ideas.

For this question i will screenshot final cut pro, camtasia, YouTube etc. and show how i have used these technology in the construction and research, planning, and evaluation stages. I will also screen shot or use camtasia to record the screen while i show you how i edited the music video on Final Cut pro. For question 4 i will create a short documentary about the trip to the cinema and get the audience to give me feedback on the music video as well as recording there reaction to the video.

Evaluation Q1 notes and ideas.

I am planning on embedding youtube videos which have inspired my group to take a similar approach for the narrative of the music video. I will be explaining the use of narrative and what theories we used to create the structure of the video. Another possible idea could be to record myself talking about the conventions of a music video and what main ideas were used in the making of the video. I could also screen shot scenes from music videos within the electro pop genre or videos from other genres which have inspired us to create a similar concept for our video.

Rough cut

Photos of Editing/Process of Editing

Here is a screenshot of the footages that we recorded on Final Cut Pro. We chose this software because it allows the user to create a coherent video by shortening and lengthening the videos. On the left hand side of the screen, the footage being seen is the original clip where Phoebe and I are having a casual conversation as a couple. On the right hand side, we see the videos/footages that are being edited. 

On this screenshot, we see all the footages we recorded on the days we went out filming. These were stored on two of the memory cards, A and B.

This is the toolbar of Final cut pro, these options allowed us to use the filter and transitions to the video. This helped us to create the narrative of the music video.

Rough cut feedback

 

 

Review of recent music videos (Part 2)

The next video I will be reviewing is 'Justin Timberlake - TKO'. Justin Timberlake is a very well known artist and performer and with this, the budget for his video is much more bigger than SZA's video 'Ice Moon'. This can also clearly be seen by how the video is much more like a short film than a music video. A few similarities I noticed were that in both music videos, the camera is constantly moving. However I noticed bigger differences in the sense that with 'Ice Moon' the lines between camera and editing is much more blurred, as 'TKO' uses slow motion and quick zoom ins, while 'Ice Moon' uses tinting and amplification.

Editing: Editing in 'TKO' focuses mainly on slow-motion, or quick zoom ins, which can't really be seen with screen captures. However one piece of editing which can be seen are the credits, the fonts of the video is fairly basic, but fit with the theme of minimalism Timberlake seemed to be going for. The colours and lighting of white and black were strong strongly contrasted within the video which will be seen more in the camera section.

Camera: The screenshots of the video are backwards in terms of chronological order, however this shouldn't interfere with the analysis of camera within the video. The camera shots in this music video in my opinion are much more varied in comparison to 'Ice Moon'. However for various screenshots I've captured the camera often was zooming or panning around the actors within the music video. 

The variation of camera shots in this video, in comparison to 'Ice Moon' are much more varied, the feature a number of different types of shots often starting with one type of shot, zooming in and then ending with another type of shot. The movement of the camera in my opinion create a much more interesting video because your attention is held for that much longer, than it would be in a normal still shot. 

MES: The MES of the video, comes off as much more of a short film than, 'Ice Moon' does. The video uses indoor and outdoor settings, and cuts between them constantly, which allows it to contrast between the lighting of both settings: which is very dark and very bright. The props used are more in line with the story the music video has presented, such as the car and the frying pan which relates back to the actual title of the song: 'TKO'.

• A contrast of different lighting and setting