So it’s finally finished, and after all the problems we had and our rush of getting it filmed and edited in time has really paid off and I am much more proud with our work than I originally thought I would be! I did struggle with this project and it was a real challenge and step up from AS, here are some of the highlights of what I have learnt, what I would do different and what I enjoyed:
-In AS I was in a group of 4 but I have found that working in a group of 2 for this project includes much more work than I originally thought. I knew that we would have more work but I didn’t realise it would affect our performance as much as it did. In a group of 4, there was always someone to work with and their specialities could be split into main roles to get the best results, with two of you, you would both want to have a go at each thing which would mean other aspects such as the website would be neglected which affect our timing for filming and editing.
-A very strict plan is very necessary as we found in summer when part of a group of 3. We filmed all we needed in one day for our original music video which we were very proud of but once uploaded onto Vegas Movie we realised it needed a lot of work and the shots filmed outside meant that a lot of the scenery, such as the trees moved when we cut shots together and looked very unprofessional. Another problem was that we hadn’t got a complete storyboard which meant we were not always happy with the shots we had filmed and it got very confusing where shots were meant to be in the song and what else we needed to film. This was a very valuable lesson learnt which meant me Kris made sure we were 100% happy with our second song choice and we had a very detailed storyboard with back-up shots filmed in case another shot didn’t work once we came to post-production.
-Character choice was a difficult decision to make because we found it difficult to have our original cast to be free when we needed to film which meant a lot of time was wasted. We therefore made the decision of me and Kris to be in the video which as previously mentioned wasn’t ideal because we had to have help from my brother to film some shots we were both in.
-If I was to do something different, I would have planned one day of filming with the shots filmed in order with keeping the continuity which I think would have been a lot less confusing than how we filmed, in stages. I would have also researched more into what Flash was able to do because the problems we had with the poor quality of images meant we had a lot less time to do other filming, editing or working on the ancillary texts. The animation was also rushed due to the problems we had and therefore is not up to scratch and messy, if I had the time I would have spent longer on getting it as perfect as possible!
-I enjoyed the bigger challenge this project created. If I am honest, I thought a music video would be a lot easier than it looks but I was proved very wrong! I loved being taught new techniques on Flash, playing around with animation and I liked playing around with the cuts of shots in time to the beat of the song, which I also found quite difficult but it allowed me to be creative and develop my editing skills!
Overall I think this project has been a success, it really came together in the last week and I am proud of how the final music video and ancillary texts look!
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Evaluation Question 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
The following are new pieces of media equipment we used during filming:
-A Sony Handycam digital video camera
-A tripod
-My iPod
The digital video camera included a touch screen and was in an easy to hold size which is a new technology improvement from older video cameras. It produced a good quality image and enabled night vision during the shots when lighting was limited after 4pm.
We used my iPod when filming Kris miming to the song, he hid the wires under his jumper and tucked his hair over one of his ears in which he had in a headphone so he could listen to the song and keep in time with the lyrics and beat. IPods now include very small, almost disguisable headphones which were perfect so as not to be seen on film. I also sung along with the iPod myself when certain shots would show up the headphones.
The following are new media technologies we used to edit our music video:
-Vegas Movie 9.0 (FIND OUT)
-Macromedia – Flash
-iTunes
Vegas Movie 9.0 is the newest update of the software programme and therefore included more options when editing. We used a range of editing techniques such as; fading, colour, speeding up shots/using slow motion, merging two shots together, cropping the screen and enabling stop-motion to be cut in time to the song. We also used Vegas Movie to mute any audio picked up on the camera when filming and were also able to add in our music videos song.
Flash did cause us many problems with Vegas Movie allowing the Flash file types to play in the editing software programme but it did give us some good results even though we couldn’t use it for other shots we wanted to include animated. We used Flash to draw on the lyrics on the floor in which our feet walked over and the text would disappear as our feet walked past them. We used a timeline on the programme to work out where each letter needed to be in each second of shot and we used a technique which is where you add a ‘layer’ to the timeline so the image of our feet would play with the lyrics in the other layer playing over the top.
We used the popular digital media player software, iTunes, in which you can buy songs to store in a personal collection of music, videos, podcasts etc on the computer. We brought our music videos song and put it onto a memory stick and brought it into school to put into our music video on Vegas Movie. We were then able to place the shots we had filmed in time with the lyrics and work out exactly where cuts needed to be in time to the beat.
The following are new media technologies we used to promote our music video for audience feedback and for our 2 ancillary texts:
-Facebook
-Photoshop for the album cover
-Wix for the website - http://www.wix.com/
Facebook, the popular global social networking website where you can upload videos onto your own profile where friends or people you chose to be on your profile can view the video and comment on it. This was a great way to find out our audience feedback, it was also good because not just media students were watching which gave us a wide range of comments from the target audience who watch music videos on a regular basis and how they compare our video to real music videos.
Blogging is also a new media technology in itself and I am using the website Blogger. Blogging is becoming a fast way of sharing information accessible at anytime and can be seen as keeping an ‘online diary’.
-Research!
To gather research into this project I used the following sources:
-Internet search engines
I typed in words such as “montage editing” to find out definitions and I also searched media related figures such as John Fiske to find out a bit of background information on them, I often came across Wikipedia which gave good results but is unreliable due to being edited by unknown persons who could give false information, so I found it best to look out for ‘Official websites’. I particularly did this when researching into the band Empire of the Sun and their song we had chosen for our music video. I also found the lyrics to the song on the first website I looked at!
-Online archive of articles
The research I gathered on media magazine can be found online on the official website which includes all articles able to be read via the computer. This is becoming increasingly popular to do so; an example includes articles from historical books which may be hard to come across. This new media technology of ‘online reading’ allows people to find articles efficiently and all in one place with suggestions of articles of interest to the reader.
-YouTube
I found all of the music videos mentioned in my blog on YouTube available to watch straight away. This new technology of video sharing across the world has dramatically grown in popularity due to the access of being able to watch pretty much anything, whether you want to learn how to knit or want to watch a cat singing. I was able to find the old Pop-Up Video VH1 programme that is unlikely to be accessible other than on the internet which gave useful historical data in to music videos. This new technology could again be useful for me and Kris to promote our own music video and gain an even wider data of audience feedback.
-DVD extras
This is also becoming well known to feature in the purchases of films and music CDs and also on music director’s videos themselves. I was able to watch the DVD extras of Michael Gondry who directed music videos such as; Daft Punk – Around the World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4 and The Foo Fighters – Everlong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyvvCuIHrJw The DVD extras included ‘behind the scenes’ of a few of the music videos and interviews with directors about how they interpret the songs and their ideas and creative techniques.
-Planning !
The following techniques were used throughout the planning stages of the music video:
-Digital cameras/camera phones
Myself and Kris often came across locations we thought would be suitable for shots in our music video in which we would be able to take a picture of and then go back and plan the shots with the image of the location in front of us. This helped to see which scenes would follow well together through the transitions and which shots could be filmed where. The new technology of camera phones creates photographic memories/reminders/images in a second and is a reliable source to always have with you whenever you come across something you want to take a picture of.
-Tutorials
From my AS project I learnt a valuable lesson of going through tutorials on new software I hadn’t used before which I used in A2. The tutorials taught us all the basics we needed to be efficient with time and allowed us to be independent with our work and experiment more because we had a better knowledge of how the programmes Vegas Movie and Flash worked. Tutorials are a great new technology featured on computer programmes because it allows you to understand the programmes you are using in your own time and are always there whenever you need assistance.
-Scanning storyboards
With two people in the group, we both needed the same information and therefore scanning each other’s work allowed us to both have information we needed without both of us needing to be there. Scanning is a great new way of transferring text, especially hand written because with computer text, emails and social networking sites allow you to copy and paste to and from but with written, which is what our storyboard was, scanning is the only possible and quick way to copy a text.
-Evaluation!
The success of our music video would be determined by the importance of audience feedback. To gain the useful comments and views of viewers we used two very different ways to gain as much information as possible.
-The questionnaire
This was a useful way to gain structured answers from the people we asked on which topics we most wanted to know we had achieved successfully. These included:
-what the target audience thought of our music video, if it matched with their taste in the bands electronic music genre
-how well we “branded” the band positively and attracted new audience
-if the music video was professionally thought through to then appear on television music channels and if the people asked would be happy to view it
We could manipulate the questions to get the certain answers we wanted to hear and avoided closed questions which would not allow people to expand on their comments and views. The answers we received were very fair and honest and provided us good knowledge on how successful our video and branding of the band was. It was the best way of finding out peoples honest opinions and gave them an opportunity to feed back to us on how we could improve!
-Youtube/Facebook
Youtube was a useful way of gaining non-biased answers because our video could be viewed by people we didn’t necessarily know which would mean their comments would be totally honest which would help us really gain knowledge into how well we created this music video. However, Youtube often takes a while for views to go up and not everyone comments when watched or people often use it as "joke" which would make the comments unreliable. As mentioned before Facebook gained immediate feedback due to the popularity of the social networking site and it could be viewed straight away as soon as uploaded, but the comments could be biased because they are viewed by my friends, therefore all the comments are positive!!
This is the link to our music video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq4ju7auMPw
The following are new pieces of media equipment we used during filming:
-A Sony Handycam digital video camera
-A tripod
-My iPod
The digital video camera included a touch screen and was in an easy to hold size which is a new technology improvement from older video cameras. It produced a good quality image and enabled night vision during the shots when lighting was limited after 4pm.
We used my iPod when filming Kris miming to the song, he hid the wires under his jumper and tucked his hair over one of his ears in which he had in a headphone so he could listen to the song and keep in time with the lyrics and beat. IPods now include very small, almost disguisable headphones which were perfect so as not to be seen on film. I also sung along with the iPod myself when certain shots would show up the headphones.
The following are new media technologies we used to edit our music video:
-Vegas Movie 9.0 (FIND OUT)
-Macromedia – Flash
-iTunes
Vegas Movie 9.0 is the newest update of the software programme and therefore included more options when editing. We used a range of editing techniques such as; fading, colour, speeding up shots/using slow motion, merging two shots together, cropping the screen and enabling stop-motion to be cut in time to the song. We also used Vegas Movie to mute any audio picked up on the camera when filming and were also able to add in our music videos song.
Flash did cause us many problems with Vegas Movie allowing the Flash file types to play in the editing software programme but it did give us some good results even though we couldn’t use it for other shots we wanted to include animated. We used Flash to draw on the lyrics on the floor in which our feet walked over and the text would disappear as our feet walked past them. We used a timeline on the programme to work out where each letter needed to be in each second of shot and we used a technique which is where you add a ‘layer’ to the timeline so the image of our feet would play with the lyrics in the other layer playing over the top.
We used the popular digital media player software, iTunes, in which you can buy songs to store in a personal collection of music, videos, podcasts etc on the computer. We brought our music videos song and put it onto a memory stick and brought it into school to put into our music video on Vegas Movie. We were then able to place the shots we had filmed in time with the lyrics and work out exactly where cuts needed to be in time to the beat.
The following are new media technologies we used to promote our music video for audience feedback and for our 2 ancillary texts:
-Photoshop for the album cover
-Wix for the website - http://www.wix.com/
Facebook, the popular global social networking website where you can upload videos onto your own profile where friends or people you chose to be on your profile can view the video and comment on it. This was a great way to find out our audience feedback, it was also good because not just media students were watching which gave us a wide range of comments from the target audience who watch music videos on a regular basis and how they compare our video to real music videos. Blogging is also a new media technology in itself and I am using the website Blogger. Blogging is becoming a fast way of sharing information accessible at anytime and can be seen as keeping an ‘online diary’.
-Research!
To gather research into this project I used the following sources:
-Internet search engines
I typed in words such as “montage editing” to find out definitions and I also searched media related figures such as John Fiske to find out a bit of background information on them, I often came across Wikipedia which gave good results but is unreliable due to being edited by unknown persons who could give false information, so I found it best to look out for ‘Official websites’. I particularly did this when researching into the band Empire of the Sun and their song we had chosen for our music video. I also found the lyrics to the song on the first website I looked at!
-Online archive of articles
The research I gathered on media magazine can be found online on the official website which includes all articles able to be read via the computer. This is becoming increasingly popular to do so; an example includes articles from historical books which may be hard to come across. This new media technology of ‘online reading’ allows people to find articles efficiently and all in one place with suggestions of articles of interest to the reader.
-YouTube
I found all of the music videos mentioned in my blog on YouTube available to watch straight away. This new technology of video sharing across the world has dramatically grown in popularity due to the access of being able to watch pretty much anything, whether you want to learn how to knit or want to watch a cat singing. I was able to find the old Pop-Up Video VH1 programme that is unlikely to be accessible other than on the internet which gave useful historical data in to music videos. This new technology could again be useful for me and Kris to promote our own music video and gain an even wider data of audience feedback.
-DVD extras
This is also becoming well known to feature in the purchases of films and music CDs and also on music director’s videos themselves. I was able to watch the DVD extras of Michael Gondry who directed music videos such as; Daft Punk – Around the World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4 and The Foo Fighters – Everlong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyvvCuIHrJw The DVD extras included ‘behind the scenes’ of a few of the music videos and interviews with directors about how they interpret the songs and their ideas and creative techniques.
-Planning !
The following techniques were used throughout the planning stages of the music video:
-Digital cameras/camera phones
Myself and Kris often came across locations we thought would be suitable for shots in our music video in which we would be able to take a picture of and then go back and plan the shots with the image of the location in front of us. This helped to see which scenes would follow well together through the transitions and which shots could be filmed where. The new technology of camera phones creates photographic memories/reminders/images in a second and is a reliable source to always have with you whenever you come across something you want to take a picture of.
-Tutorials
From my AS project I learnt a valuable lesson of going through tutorials on new software I hadn’t used before which I used in A2. The tutorials taught us all the basics we needed to be efficient with time and allowed us to be independent with our work and experiment more because we had a better knowledge of how the programmes Vegas Movie and Flash worked. Tutorials are a great new technology featured on computer programmes because it allows you to understand the programmes you are using in your own time and are always there whenever you need assistance.
-Scanning storyboards
With two people in the group, we both needed the same information and therefore scanning each other’s work allowed us to both have information we needed without both of us needing to be there. Scanning is a great new way of transferring text, especially hand written because with computer text, emails and social networking sites allow you to copy and paste to and from but with written, which is what our storyboard was, scanning is the only possible and quick way to copy a text.
-Evaluation!
The success of our music video would be determined by the importance of audience feedback. To gain the useful comments and views of viewers we used two very different ways to gain as much information as possible.
-The questionnaire
This was a useful way to gain structured answers from the people we asked on which topics we most wanted to know we had achieved successfully. These included:
-what the target audience thought of our music video, if it matched with their taste in the bands electronic music genre
-how well we “branded” the band positively and attracted new audience
-if the music video was professionally thought through to then appear on television music channels and if the people asked would be happy to view it
We could manipulate the questions to get the certain answers we wanted to hear and avoided closed questions which would not allow people to expand on their comments and views. The answers we received were very fair and honest and provided us good knowledge on how successful our video and branding of the band was. It was the best way of finding out peoples honest opinions and gave them an opportunity to feed back to us on how we could improve!
-Youtube/Facebook
Youtube was a useful way of gaining non-biased answers because our video could be viewed by people we didn’t necessarily know which would mean their comments would be totally honest which would help us really gain knowledge into how well we created this music video. However, Youtube often takes a while for views to go up and not everyone comments when watched or people often use it as "joke" which would make the comments unreliable. As mentioned before Facebook gained immediate feedback due to the popularity of the social networking site and it could be viewed straight away as soon as uploaded, but the comments could be biased because they are viewed by my friends, therefore all the comments are positive!!
This is the link to our music video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq4ju7auMPw
Evaluating our music video through audience feedback provided the best way of finding out how successful we were with the project. It was able to attract the target audience and a wide variety of views, whereas using, for example, teacher feedback would not possibly give the best views on how successful we branded the band because it would be one persons view and they may not know the band!
Evaluation Question 3
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback played an important role in the construction and producing our final product. We used a variety of ways to present our work to a wide audience to get the best possible feedback on what may need improving and if we produced a good music video they would be happy to watch again and again.
-Early drafts of our music video
We showed our music video at different stages in the production to see if we were heading in the right direction concerning images, colouring, animation and the feel for the song matched with the video footage. This method definitely helped when we were using Flash for animation; we chose to show our animation to people who were very familiar and experienced with Flash and also our teacher to get useful feedback on how it looked. The comments we received were good but all said that there was something missing and we needed something “wow” to make our music video stand out and look visually exciting. Along with the problems we experienced with the quality of our animation, a friend who knew a lot about Flash helped me to produce the scene with the watch, were the lyrics and the image of the next scene appeared on the watch face.
-Target audience
Our target audience is fans of electronic music which is the genre of music Empire of the Sun produce. We therefore showed our friends who often listen to electronic music our music video to see what they think of it and if it appeals to them and their taste in music. I made a small questionnaire to get an idea of the feedback we have been receiving on our work, I asked those who are fans of the band, fans of electronic music and just music fans to get a wide range of comments. Below are some of the results from some of the questions asked:
I asked 10 people in my questionnaire if they liked electronic music to see if the people who liked that genre of music had positive corresponding answers for other questions about the storyline and branding matching the style of music, I have put the results into a pie chart:I asked 10 people if they had heard of Empire of the Sun to see if we had branded the band well enough to attract possibly new consumers: 
Those who answered yes felt that our music video added mystery to what the band is about and attracted them to watch more with the visually attractive camera movements and transitions, they said they were interested the hear more of the band’s music.
Those who said no felt that the music video was too slow paced and didn’t match up with the short, sharp lyrics of singing and they wished that there was more visually exciting animation to make it more memorable.
For the 6 people who had heard of Empire of the Sun, I asked if they felt our music video portrayed the band in a positive light and it suited their style/brand of products:
Those who said yes felt that we portrayed the style of song and lyrics really well by matching images to song lyrics which added more detail and a memorable storyline; they especially liked the stop-motion drawings which made the band’s style stand out more.
Those who said no felt that the song was too “cute” for the style of the band which is very bold and dramatic which our music video didn’t come across as.
I asked 10 people if they would expect to see a music video similar to this to feature on music channels on television:
Those who said yes, they would expect to see this music video, their answers consisted of:
-the interesting and professional looking transitions
-the colour quality
-the unique and eye-catching animation
Those who said no, they would not expect to see this music, their answers consisted of:
-not enough special effects
-the fact that there are no images of the band playing/performing
I asked 10 people if they would be happy to see this played on music channels:
The majority of people said they would be happy to see this played because it isn’t boring and they notice something different each time they watch it which is good for the repeatability factor!
The comments we received from this short questionnaire gave me a good idea on whether we created a good product and made me see other ideas I hadn’t thought of which would have probably made the music video look a little more professional, for example, the band playing live or on stage, if I was to go back in time to the start of making the music video, I would want to include those shots of the band performing. We could have played around with special lighting effects and camera angles on instruments. However, overall the comments were positive and I am pleased with the positive comments on how we branded the band and that most people would be happy to see our music video played on music channels!
-Facebook
To get an even wider range of audience feedback from people who aren’t media studies students and people whose comments will not be biased because they might be friends with me and Kris we used Facebook, a social networking site to upload of music video and allow people to comment on what they think of it. Below are some examples of the comments we received on our work:
Audience feedback played an important role in the construction and producing our final product. We used a variety of ways to present our work to a wide audience to get the best possible feedback on what may need improving and if we produced a good music video they would be happy to watch again and again.
-Early drafts of our music video
We showed our music video at different stages in the production to see if we were heading in the right direction concerning images, colouring, animation and the feel for the song matched with the video footage. This method definitely helped when we were using Flash for animation; we chose to show our animation to people who were very familiar and experienced with Flash and also our teacher to get useful feedback on how it looked. The comments we received were good but all said that there was something missing and we needed something “wow” to make our music video stand out and look visually exciting. Along with the problems we experienced with the quality of our animation, a friend who knew a lot about Flash helped me to produce the scene with the watch, were the lyrics and the image of the next scene appeared on the watch face.
-Target audience
Our target audience is fans of electronic music which is the genre of music Empire of the Sun produce. We therefore showed our friends who often listen to electronic music our music video to see what they think of it and if it appeals to them and their taste in music. I made a small questionnaire to get an idea of the feedback we have been receiving on our work, I asked those who are fans of the band, fans of electronic music and just music fans to get a wide range of comments. Below are some of the results from some of the questions asked:
I asked 10 people in my questionnaire if they liked electronic music to see if the people who liked that genre of music had positive corresponding answers for other questions about the storyline and branding matching the style of music, I have put the results into a pie chart:
I asked 10 people if they felt our music video persuaded them to listen more to Empire of the Sun or electronic music:
Those who answered yes felt that our music video added mystery to what the band is about and attracted them to watch more with the visually attractive camera movements and transitions, they said they were interested the hear more of the band’s music.
Those who said no felt that the music video was too slow paced and didn’t match up with the short, sharp lyrics of singing and they wished that there was more visually exciting animation to make it more memorable.
For the 6 people who had heard of Empire of the Sun, I asked if they felt our music video portrayed the band in a positive light and it suited their style/brand of products:
Those who said yes felt that we portrayed the style of song and lyrics really well by matching images to song lyrics which added more detail and a memorable storyline; they especially liked the stop-motion drawings which made the band’s style stand out more.
Those who said no felt that the song was too “cute” for the style of the band which is very bold and dramatic which our music video didn’t come across as.
I asked 10 people if they would expect to see a music video similar to this to feature on music channels on television:
Those who said yes, they would expect to see this music video, their answers consisted of:
-the interesting and professional looking transitions
-the colour quality
-the unique and eye-catching animation
Those who said no, they would not expect to see this music, their answers consisted of:
-not enough special effects
-the fact that there are no images of the band playing/performing
I asked 10 people if they would be happy to see this played on music channels:
The majority of people said they would be happy to see this played because it isn’t boring and they notice something different each time they watch it which is good for the repeatability factor!
The comments we received from this short questionnaire gave me a good idea on whether we created a good product and made me see other ideas I hadn’t thought of which would have probably made the music video look a little more professional, for example, the band playing live or on stage, if I was to go back in time to the start of making the music video, I would want to include those shots of the band performing. We could have played around with special lighting effects and camera angles on instruments. However, overall the comments were positive and I am pleased with the positive comments on how we branded the band and that most people would be happy to see our music video played on music channels!
To get an even wider range of audience feedback from people who aren’t media studies students and people whose comments will not be biased because they might be friends with me and Kris we used Facebook, a social networking site to upload of music video and allow people to comment on what they think of it. Below are some examples of the comments we received on our work: 
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Along with our music video, we needed to produce two ancillary texts; a website and an album cover.
LOGOS AND BRANDING!
A logo or a continuous theme to an artist or their work can appear more professional and stand out against other work to consumers. An artist can be recognised by a logo and it immediately identifies their brand, who they are, what they are about and what to expect.
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.” Our own brand featured in our music video, website and album cover are as follows in terms of the AMA:
-Name
The name of our band is “Empire of the Sun” and we immediately thought, although predictable, to feature the sun. Our website and album cover both use the same picture of a sun which is animated on the website and the background of both ancillary texts features sun rays. It immediately identifies the band by just seeing the image and tells the viewer or consumer what they are about. If you see this image of the sun featured with this band, you will automatically judge their work to be “happy” and “light-hearted” with bright colouring and a peaceful feel of the music and band. Our music video also features bright sun rays shining on to the “grain of voice” (lead vocalist; Kris) which can also determine the mood of the music you can expect.
-Sign/symbol
The signs and symbols you would expect the band to feature with include the image of the sun as previously mentioned and the images of the drawn people (me and Kris) on a hill. Both the ancillary texts and the music video feature these signs and symbols you would associate to the band. The band needs to be different to other artists and become known as a “product” (COMODIFICATION) for their unique use of colours, symbols and design that make them who they are for fans to relate to and to attract their target audience of the type of work they produce. The use of the drawings of me and Kris are in particular reference to the unique style of the band which can be seen as unusual, “wacky” and daring in their dress sense, style of music, personalities and the storylines in their music videos. The drawings are not what you would expect from “professional” artists and can be seen as daring in the fact that they could come across as unprofessional, similar to what their style of dress sense could make them seem.
-Design
We have kept the same background design for both ancillary texts because it stands out with the bright colours and you can easily match the design of the background with the style of the band and the single “Walking on a Dream” with the clouds and unrealistic surrounding colours and environment. We have also used the same font and font colour in both ancillary texts and the music video to establish the band and create a brand for themselves for their fans and target audience by delivering the same well known and popular image they establish through their work. Research has shown that standardising a logo design and colour scheme is vital, if the colour or design of a product is slightly different, consumers will not buy it. The font consists of a hand-written look about it, keeping with the “care free” and relaxed music produced by the band. We have also used an unusual choice of colour, purple, to keep with the bands theme as “unique” and to stand out against other artists work that often use black, bold logo designs which means not all can be indentified to which artist as quickly as our design does. The font also gives off a meaning to it, it suggests the band has a story to tell (hand-written like in a diary) which adds mystery and attention to their work, hopefully gaining popularity as consumers research more in to them.
The real band separates itself from other artists with the eye-catching image of the crown above the bands name, almost suggesting they are the "King" or "leader" of music.
The simplicity and continuity of our ancillary texts has meant our band can be established straight away and help with the importance of targeting the right audience. The symbol of the sun and the images of the drawn people mean that in the split second of browsing the shelves in music stores or researching on the internet to find the “official” band’s website, can catch fans or the target audience’s eyes and immediately produce an image or brand they will from then on be associated with.
THE WEBSITE!
We used a site called Wix; http://www.wix.com/ which allows you to create your own website. We did a bit of research in to “official websites” of bands to get an idea of what you would expect to see have feature of different links to other pages. This is the official website of Empire of the Sun: http://www.walkingonadream.com/ which also features a symbol of a sun on the enter page. The websites included such links to pages as; about, media, tour dates, gallery, store, forum such as a comment page.
On our own website we have included the links to the pages;
-About us
We have included some information about the band which could be of interest to viewers who want to find out their style of music, information on other work they have done, their inspiration or general information on the band members.
-Walking on a Dream
This page is to promote the bands new single and music video. It features pictures of “behind the scenes” of filming the music video and the music video itself. The synergy of the website, album cover, the radio and music channel television programmes (working together) will help to promote the new single by using the same eye-catching and familiar images to promote the bands product.
-Tour dates
This will be of particular interest to dedicated fans and new consumers who might be interested in the music and work the band produces. Again, it promotes the fact that the band has new work out, the single, and they want to please their target audience by giving something back to them for listening and buying their work by putting on a big live tour.
-Contact us
This page is dedicated for viewers who want to express their feelings about Empire of the Sun. Not only is it a way for the band to find out feedback and comments on the work they have produced and if they are pleasing their audience but also for viewers who are fans of the band to meet other fans and feel “united” and as a “group” in support of Empire of the Sun and are able to spread the word between themselves of the good work the band produces and personally help promote the new single.
Along with our music video, we needed to produce two ancillary texts; a website and an album cover.
LOGOS AND BRANDING!
A logo or a continuous theme to an artist or their work can appear more professional and stand out against other work to consumers. An artist can be recognised by a logo and it immediately identifies their brand, who they are, what they are about and what to expect.
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.” Our own brand featured in our music video, website and album cover are as follows in terms of the AMA:
-Name
The name of our band is “Empire of the Sun” and we immediately thought, although predictable, to feature the sun. Our website and album cover both use the same picture of a sun which is animated on the website and the background of both ancillary texts features sun rays. It immediately identifies the band by just seeing the image and tells the viewer or consumer what they are about. If you see this image of the sun featured with this band, you will automatically judge their work to be “happy” and “light-hearted” with bright colouring and a peaceful feel of the music and band. Our music video also features bright sun rays shining on to the “grain of voice” (lead vocalist; Kris) which can also determine the mood of the music you can expect.
-Sign/symbol
The signs and symbols you would expect the band to feature with include the image of the sun as previously mentioned and the images of the drawn people (me and Kris) on a hill. Both the ancillary texts and the music video feature these signs and symbols you would associate to the band. The band needs to be different to other artists and become known as a “product” (COMODIFICATION) for their unique use of colours, symbols and design that make them who they are for fans to relate to and to attract their target audience of the type of work they produce. The use of the drawings of me and Kris are in particular reference to the unique style of the band which can be seen as unusual, “wacky” and daring in their dress sense, style of music, personalities and the storylines in their music videos. The drawings are not what you would expect from “professional” artists and can be seen as daring in the fact that they could come across as unprofessional, similar to what their style of dress sense could make them seem.
-Design
We have kept the same background design for both ancillary texts because it stands out with the bright colours and you can easily match the design of the background with the style of the band and the single “Walking on a Dream” with the clouds and unrealistic surrounding colours and environment. We have also used the same font and font colour in both ancillary texts and the music video to establish the band and create a brand for themselves for their fans and target audience by delivering the same well known and popular image they establish through their work. Research has shown that standardising a logo design and colour scheme is vital, if the colour or design of a product is slightly different, consumers will not buy it. The font consists of a hand-written look about it, keeping with the “care free” and relaxed music produced by the band. We have also used an unusual choice of colour, purple, to keep with the bands theme as “unique” and to stand out against other artists work that often use black, bold logo designs which means not all can be indentified to which artist as quickly as our design does. The font also gives off a meaning to it, it suggests the band has a story to tell (hand-written like in a diary) which adds mystery and attention to their work, hopefully gaining popularity as consumers research more in to them.
The real band separates itself from other artists with the eye-catching image of the crown above the bands name, almost suggesting they are the "King" or "leader" of music.
The simplicity and continuity of our ancillary texts has meant our band can be established straight away and help with the importance of targeting the right audience. The symbol of the sun and the images of the drawn people mean that in the split second of browsing the shelves in music stores or researching on the internet to find the “official” band’s website, can catch fans or the target audience’s eyes and immediately produce an image or brand they will from then on be associated with.
THE WEBSITE!
We used a site called Wix; http://www.wix.com/ which allows you to create your own website. We did a bit of research in to “official websites” of bands to get an idea of what you would expect to see have feature of different links to other pages. This is the official website of Empire of the Sun: http://www.walkingonadream.com/ which also features a symbol of a sun on the enter page. The websites included such links to pages as; about, media, tour dates, gallery, store, forum such as a comment page.
On our own website we have included the links to the pages;
-About us
We have included some information about the band which could be of interest to viewers who want to find out their style of music, information on other work they have done, their inspiration or general information on the band members.
-Walking on a Dream
This page is to promote the bands new single and music video. It features pictures of “behind the scenes” of filming the music video and the music video itself. The synergy of the website, album cover, the radio and music channel television programmes (working together) will help to promote the new single by using the same eye-catching and familiar images to promote the bands product.
-Tour dates
This will be of particular interest to dedicated fans and new consumers who might be interested in the music and work the band produces. Again, it promotes the fact that the band has new work out, the single, and they want to please their target audience by giving something back to them for listening and buying their work by putting on a big live tour.
-Contact us
This page is dedicated for viewers who want to express their feelings about Empire of the Sun. Not only is it a way for the band to find out feedback and comments on the work they have produced and if they are pleasing their audience but also for viewers who are fans of the band to meet other fans and feel “united” and as a “group” in support of Empire of the Sun and are able to spread the word between themselves of the good work the band produces and personally help promote the new single.
This is the link to our website: www.wix.com/KristianLutz/Walking-on-a-Dream
THE ALBUM COVER!
I used Photoshop to enhance the background image of the mountains so it would stand out more against other artists album covers and to also add other images from the music video, such as the images of the drawings of me and Kris running. We also thought it would seem more realistic to include stickers on the album cover featuring such comments as the product being a CD/DVD digi-pack and promoting the official bands website for consumers to find out more information on them and their work.
Overall I am very happy with the production and outcome of our ancillary texts, they both promote the new single which is an important factor in gaining profit and extra revenue streams from attracting a bigger audience through the branding of unusual designs and colours to make the artists stand out to be a big and exciting band! I found it enjoyable to produce both ancillary texts, it felt like we were ending our hard work on the music video by promoting it for real!
THE ALBUM COVER!
I used Photoshop to enhance the background image of the mountains so it would stand out more against other artists album covers and to also add other images from the music video, such as the images of the drawings of me and Kris running. We also thought it would seem more realistic to include stickers on the album cover featuring such comments as the product being a CD/DVD digi-pack and promoting the official bands website for consumers to find out more information on them and their work.
Overall I am very happy with the production and outcome of our ancillary texts, they both promote the new single which is an important factor in gaining profit and extra revenue streams from attracting a bigger audience through the branding of unusual designs and colours to make the artists stand out to be a big and exciting band! I found it enjoyable to produce both ancillary texts, it felt like we were ending our hard work on the music video by promoting it for real!
Monday, 7 December 2009
Evaluation Question 1
How does your video use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real music videos?
Looking back to the earlier post on the forms and conventions of music videos I have been able to refer back and forth between the post and my group’s music video and see how “real” the video is compared to professional artists’ real music videos:
-They feature the artist ‘performing’ the song either ‘live’ or ‘miming’.
Our music includes Kris, the front man of the “band” in our music video, singing the song and describing the dream throughout the music video. We haven’t made our music video to be performed live because it’s not that type of song and it needs visual shots to bring the song and meaning to life instead of just singing on stage.
-They often feature some kind of loose storyline and explore a concept based on the lyrics or mood of the song.
Our music video features a loose storyline and a concept of a dream, this was the feeling we got from the title of the song; “Walking on a Dream” and the general calm, peaceful mood of the song. We don’t purposely make it out to be a dream in as much sense as filming someone dreaming but we have made it slightly unique in the camera angles and moving images and editing to give the general feeling of it being a dream.
-Some music videos can be completely abstract with visual images ‘unconnected’ to the artist or the lyrics; these music videos are called Disjuncture Videos.
Our music video is not completely made up of abstract visual images but we have included some animation of lyrics and stop-motion of drawings and writing lyrics to break up the video and help with the repeatability factor of music videos, people may have not noticed something in the video until they watch it a few times.
-They usually feature the name of the song and artist at the start/end of the video.
Our music video features the name of the song on the front page of the scrapbook image and also appears at the beginning of the music video at the bottom of the screen to also introduce the band.
-They rely heavily on montage editing, with different types of footage juxtaposed (side by side images).
Our music video features a lot of transitions and apart from one, no still shots to stress the continuing theory of the song, walking on a dream. We therefore use lots of cuts between transitions to Kris singing the lyrics (explaining the dream) to then what happens in the dream. We haven’t used any edits or shots side by side on screen playing at the same time due to the feel of our music video to be completely moving with transitions and the scrapbook taking you through each new scene, a continuous movement. In terms of post production, we haven’t really relied heavily on effects or editing transitions due to the slow pace of the song which includes continuous moving shots which makes the song interesting in itself.
-They usually include speed; fast cuts, jump cuts, moving cameras etc in time to the beat. A fast-paced song will have a fast video.
Our music video cuts in time to the beat and the music lyrics but is generally quite a slow song. We have used fast editing for the sharp, fast beats and also slow motion in a particular part of the song that has a very slow beat compared to the rest of the song.
-Edits usually reflect the songs structure, for example, verse-verse-chorus-guitar solo. When the song goes into the chorus, the images will cut to a different scene.
Our music video cuts to new scenes when it’s the chorus or a new verse to express the change in lyrics and beat. The chorus often features the same shots in our music video, again to help with the repeatability factor because the shots have always changed in some way, whether it’s different lyrics of the song sung or in a new location.
-As long as the music video looks good, the video will work.
I think our choice in unique camera movements is what makes ours stand out and look good and the stop-motion also makes our more visually interesting.
In comparison to real music videos, ours features some of the forms and conventions you would expect to see, especially the obvious ones such as the title of the song and artist and the shots changing in time with the beat. We use close-ups of the “grain of voice” (– Roland Barthes), the singer, the most important person in the band to emphasise this. Most music videos will include this, such as Beyoncé’s Single Ladies music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyHVQT8aIBM which features three dancers doing the exact same routine but Beyoncé is singled out as the most important by being in the middle of the dancers and the music video featuring shots zooming in to show a close-up of her. Technically, this video does not include many of the forms and conventions of music videos listed above, but it looks very good and it’s different from other music videos. It is filmed with white walls and flooring with just the three women dancing, but the choreography and it’s visually effective lighting flashing in time to the beat and dance moves makes it a good music video and it definitely works with the repeatability factor, no matter how many times its played, you pick up new dance moves and notice different things, such as on the third viewing of this video I only then noticed Beyoncé wears the robotic hand throughout the whole video.
Close-up-"grain of voice"
Another interesting music video to analyse and by far one of my faveourties is Coldplay’s Strawberry Swing music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYtk1Z0UUuE which is completely made up of abstract visual images of drawings unrelated to the song. Ours is slightly similar with using drawings I have done but include the faces of the artists such as Coldplay including the singers face on the drawing of the man and mine and Kris’ faces on the stick men featured in our music video.
Our music video includes the majority of the forms and conventions listed above and when watching real music videos I can always find certain conventions in both the real music video and our own!
Looking back to the earlier post on the forms and conventions of music videos I have been able to refer back and forth between the post and my group’s music video and see how “real” the video is compared to professional artists’ real music videos:
-They feature the artist ‘performing’ the song either ‘live’ or ‘miming’.
Our music includes Kris, the front man of the “band” in our music video, singing the song and describing the dream throughout the music video. We haven’t made our music video to be performed live because it’s not that type of song and it needs visual shots to bring the song and meaning to life instead of just singing on stage.
-They often feature some kind of loose storyline and explore a concept based on the lyrics or mood of the song.
Our music video features a loose storyline and a concept of a dream, this was the feeling we got from the title of the song; “Walking on a Dream” and the general calm, peaceful mood of the song. We don’t purposely make it out to be a dream in as much sense as filming someone dreaming but we have made it slightly unique in the camera angles and moving images and editing to give the general feeling of it being a dream.
-Some music videos can be completely abstract with visual images ‘unconnected’ to the artist or the lyrics; these music videos are called Disjuncture Videos.
Our music video is not completely made up of abstract visual images but we have included some animation of lyrics and stop-motion of drawings and writing lyrics to break up the video and help with the repeatability factor of music videos, people may have not noticed something in the video until they watch it a few times.
-They usually feature the name of the song and artist at the start/end of the video.
Our music video features the name of the song on the front page of the scrapbook image and also appears at the beginning of the music video at the bottom of the screen to also introduce the band.
-They rely heavily on montage editing, with different types of footage juxtaposed (side by side images).
Our music video features a lot of transitions and apart from one, no still shots to stress the continuing theory of the song, walking on a dream. We therefore use lots of cuts between transitions to Kris singing the lyrics (explaining the dream) to then what happens in the dream. We haven’t used any edits or shots side by side on screen playing at the same time due to the feel of our music video to be completely moving with transitions and the scrapbook taking you through each new scene, a continuous movement. In terms of post production, we haven’t really relied heavily on effects or editing transitions due to the slow pace of the song which includes continuous moving shots which makes the song interesting in itself.
-They usually include speed; fast cuts, jump cuts, moving cameras etc in time to the beat. A fast-paced song will have a fast video.
Our music video cuts in time to the beat and the music lyrics but is generally quite a slow song. We have used fast editing for the sharp, fast beats and also slow motion in a particular part of the song that has a very slow beat compared to the rest of the song.
-Edits usually reflect the songs structure, for example, verse-verse-chorus-guitar solo. When the song goes into the chorus, the images will cut to a different scene.
Our music video cuts to new scenes when it’s the chorus or a new verse to express the change in lyrics and beat. The chorus often features the same shots in our music video, again to help with the repeatability factor because the shots have always changed in some way, whether it’s different lyrics of the song sung or in a new location.
-As long as the music video looks good, the video will work.
I think our choice in unique camera movements is what makes ours stand out and look good and the stop-motion also makes our more visually interesting.
In comparison to real music videos, ours features some of the forms and conventions you would expect to see, especially the obvious ones such as the title of the song and artist and the shots changing in time with the beat. We use close-ups of the “grain of voice” (– Roland Barthes), the singer, the most important person in the band to emphasise this. Most music videos will include this, such as Beyoncé’s Single Ladies music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyHVQT8aIBM which features three dancers doing the exact same routine but Beyoncé is singled out as the most important by being in the middle of the dancers and the music video featuring shots zooming in to show a close-up of her. Technically, this video does not include many of the forms and conventions of music videos listed above, but it looks very good and it’s different from other music videos. It is filmed with white walls and flooring with just the three women dancing, but the choreography and it’s visually effective lighting flashing in time to the beat and dance moves makes it a good music video and it definitely works with the repeatability factor, no matter how many times its played, you pick up new dance moves and notice different things, such as on the third viewing of this video I only then noticed Beyoncé wears the robotic hand throughout the whole video.
Close-up-"grain of voice"
Another interesting music video to analyse and by far one of my faveourties is Coldplay’s Strawberry Swing music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYtk1Z0UUuE which is completely made up of abstract visual images of drawings unrelated to the song. Ours is slightly similar with using drawings I have done but include the faces of the artists such as Coldplay including the singers face on the drawing of the man and mine and Kris’ faces on the stick men featured in our music video.
Our music video includes the majority of the forms and conventions listed above and when watching real music videos I can always find certain conventions in both the real music video and our own!
Friday, 4 December 2009
Success on Flash!
Finally we have had success with Flash and our music video has really taken shape now! We had some great help from a former student who taught me how to use Flash properly and why we were experiencing problems, I have learnt some useful information about Flash:
-It is best used for drawing animation (like the software paint) because the image does not lose quality like the filming shots we were editing on Flash.
-I learnt how to match the size of the clip, the quality and timing of the shots with Vegas Movie which meant when it would be played in Vegas Movie, it wouldn’t lose quality.
-I learnt which file types were best for transferring Flash files to Vegas Movie, the one I used was QuickTime.
-I also learnt how to include a shot of the next scene in the one before it. The shot I used was where Kris raised his arm to the camera, a point of view shot looking at his watch, I included the picture of the next scene on the watch with the lyrics flashing up on screen and creating a technically good edit transition into the next shot. With patience and a great friend with good advice and knowledge on Flash, I was able to create a great animated shot which would give our music video more of the “wow” factor ... we hope!!
-It is best used for drawing animation (like the software paint) because the image does not lose quality like the filming shots we were editing on Flash.
-I learnt how to match the size of the clip, the quality and timing of the shots with Vegas Movie which meant when it would be played in Vegas Movie, it wouldn’t lose quality.
-I learnt which file types were best for transferring Flash files to Vegas Movie, the one I used was QuickTime.
-I also learnt how to include a shot of the next scene in the one before it. The shot I used was where Kris raised his arm to the camera, a point of view shot looking at his watch, I included the picture of the next scene on the watch with the lyrics flashing up on screen and creating a technically good edit transition into the next shot. With patience and a great friend with good advice and knowledge on Flash, I was able to create a great animated shot which would give our music video more of the “wow” factor ... we hope!!
Although this scene looks so much better quality wise, I would have to be critical in the fact that the letters do look unprofessional that in one frame of the shot, the letters are misplaced and appear over Kris’ leg when they should actually look like they are written on the floor. If I had the chance, I would change this but unfortunately it took a lot of work and time from the help received by the former student, Tom who came in to help me and we used his Apple Mac laptop to produce the best quality of image and I therefore cannot change this video myself without his laptop.
The following scene is the transition from this walking shot to showing the next scene in the watch face:
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Post-production
We are still having problems in how to include Flash into Vegas Movie but so far the rest of the editing has gone very well, we still have a few more shots of Kris miming to the camera and right now I am working on the colour of the images to create the impression of a dream and we therefore need bright, vivid “unreal” colours.
The sunlight behind the trees stands out a lot more when I have changed the image colours.
I had to play around with brightness and contrast on the image of us on the bridge with the traffic in the distance so our sillhouettes could be seen clearly due to poor lighting when we filmed this scene. This particular scene is to feature in the music gap after the first chorus, it has a lot slower tempo with no lyrics compared to the rest of the song. In the rest of the song there is continuous movement on screen and this shot suits the music gap because its one of the only still shots that feature in the music video where me and Kris stay in the same spot.
Some the shots are faded in to each other to create that impression of a dream, confusing and a blurred image as the story moves on and also to create that peaceful, deep sleep sense of feeling. When the scrapbook pages are turned, we also faded the drawings/shots in to the page turning so you can’t see a blank page and it looks like the drawing/shot is actually in the scrapbook.
The filming I did of the stop-motion drawings have changed slightly once transferred on to Vegas Movie. I filmed the scrapbook with no surroundings of the floor so you could just see the pages but when they are played on Vegas Movie you can actually see the floor, therefore we have used an editing software feature called Event Pan/Crop in which you can adjust the image to crop the floor edges off the screen and just see the pages.
The sunlight behind the trees stands out a lot more when I have changed the image colours.
I had to play around with brightness and contrast on the image of us on the bridge with the traffic in the distance so our sillhouettes could be seen clearly due to poor lighting when we filmed this scene. This particular scene is to feature in the music gap after the first chorus, it has a lot slower tempo with no lyrics compared to the rest of the song. In the rest of the song there is continuous movement on screen and this shot suits the music gap because its one of the only still shots that feature in the music video where me and Kris stay in the same spot.
Some the shots are faded in to each other to create that impression of a dream, confusing and a blurred image as the story moves on and also to create that peaceful, deep sleep sense of feeling. When the scrapbook pages are turned, we also faded the drawings/shots in to the page turning so you can’t see a blank page and it looks like the drawing/shot is actually in the scrapbook.
The filming I did of the stop-motion drawings have changed slightly once transferred on to Vegas Movie. I filmed the scrapbook with no surroundings of the floor so you could just see the pages but when they are played on Vegas Movie you can actually see the floor, therefore we have used an editing software feature called Event Pan/Crop in which you can adjust the image to crop the floor edges off the screen and just see the pages.
The dotted line around the edge of the scrapbook on the second image shows what I have cropped off the image; the floor by moving the frame.
We have included slow-motion and speeded up shots for certain effects we want to create in the music video:
This is the final shot in the music video of me and Kris, Where the music starts to fade, we have slowed the part where Kris does a side kick to enhance the ending.
Another noticable change in music is the bridge of the song before the final chorus where the music completely changes with long music notes instead of hearing the short snappy lyrics during the rest of the song and a quieter, slower beat, we have also slowed this scene down where me and Kris are jumping from a wall and this is also another still shot.
The photo of the hand going to cover the screen follows on from the slow motion of me and Kris jumping from the wall but this particular bit is sped up when the beat of the song picks up for the final chorus. It is difficult to see due to the lack of quality of the second image but this particular scene of Kris jumping from behind the hill is played to the fastest part of the song following on from the first image and this is also sped up in time to the beat as a build up to the ending on of the song.
We now have our shots matching up with the music lyrics and the editing software (Vegas Movie) allows us to separate the shots, audio and the song in to separate sections, so for the audio captured on the filming we have done, we can mute all of it and the song will play over the shots instead.
We now have our shots matching up with the music lyrics and the editing software (Vegas Movie) allows us to separate the shots, audio and the song in to separate sections, so for the audio captured on the filming we have done, we can mute all of it and the song will play over the shots instead.
The first row on the bottom screen is our footage, the next row highlighted in grey is the muted audio and the row below is the music.
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