Evaluation: Question 3

WATCH FOUR VIDEOS BELOW BEFORE PROCEEDING SLIDES 24-28!

WATCH IN 720p HD for best quality playback!

Evaluation: Question 4

Ancillary texts in the media

In these images below I have inserted my main ancillary texts into various media products in order to demonstrate their appropriateness and appeal. These include the IPhone and IPad, Spotify, ITunes and the official charts company website. I have purposely inserted my artist into the country album charts instead of the main album chart, I have done this to demonstrate that country music isn't very mainstream in the UK and it usually doesn't make the top five in the main chart. But usually, singles from the album are very successful in the singles chart which then prompt the album to enter the main album chart. I have also inserted my promotion poster into Q magazine, to get a feel of how it would appear.

Second Draft: Promotion Poster

After receiving feedback for the first draft of my magazine poster, I realised that it looked too busy and the text was out of place. So I decided to start from scratch and create a very simplistic poster that used the same image as the front cover of my artist's album. I was inspired by a poster I found online of Gabrielle Aplin's English Rain. I also decided to add some reviews of the album (the five stars) from various music magazines as this demonstrates convergence and synergy within the industry. While I am pleased with this, I noticed later on that it more resembles a flyer than a poster. So while it is suitable as a flyer design, it does not match the conventions of a promotion poster. I will take these changes to heart and create another poster design.

My Digipak in real life

I decided to make a 3D interpretation of what my digipak would look like if it was a physical CD. I printed off the template for it and and folded it, this has really helped me imagine my digipak as a real CD, validating its effectiveness.

Third Draft: Music Video

After completing my second draft of my music video, I decided to proof-read it by watching it from start to finish and making notes on any obvious mistakes in timing and cuts. After making the notes, I went back onto Final Cut Pro X and made the adjustments accordingly, I ticked them off one by one on the list. For my next and (possibly) final draft I intend to show my video to my target audience as well as my teachers to receive more feedback on how to improve it. Lastly, I intend to experiment with effects to give the video more of a tone and mood.

Second Draft: Music Video

This is the second draft of my music video, or in other words the first completed draft. This draft has no gaps in it as I incorporated the footage from all four of my filming sessions, including the most recent ones, to create the video. I have taken my teacher's feedback into account aswell and made those adjustments accordingly. I am very pleased with this draft and I aim to receive more feedback in order to improve it even more.

Feedback on first draft of music video

Proficient/Excellent:

• Holding a shot steady, where appropriate; minimal, basic, proficient, excellent
• Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate; minimal/basic/proficient/excellent
• Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate; minimal/basic/proficient/excellent
• Shooting material appropriate for task set;  minimal/basic/proficient/excellent
• Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;  minimal/basic/proficient/excellent
• Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer; minimal/basic/proficient/excellent
• Using varied shot transitions, captions, and other effects selectively and appropriately; minimal/basic/proficient/excellent
• Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task; minimal/basic/proficient/excellent

Comments:

• Your product has lots of potential, it reflects your genre very well
• I love your performance elements, locations and costume choice
• You have some very good cinematography in the video and the location is fantastic
• You have some good hand held camera but need a little less of it
• We have discussed the areas you need to change. Your product is very well thought out and put together and could be excellent with the changes discussed made

Filming Diary: Session 4

After reviewing the footage I got in the previous filming session, I decided that my actress was no longer required for filming due to the sheer amount of footage I had captured. I still needed to get some shots of the fireplace and me playing guitar so I filmed these by myself on Monday evening.

I lowered the tripod so it was level with the fire and filmed a few shots for constant use in my music video. I also turned off all the lights in the room while filming so it embossed a more sinister and dark tone. With this same set up I re filmed some shots of lighting a candle due to the shakiness of the footage I had filmed beforehand in November.

The last bit of filming I did was of me playing guitar. My genre is country so I felt it appropriate to incorporate a musical instrument into my music video. I wanted the fire to be the backdrop of the shot so I sat in front of the fire with the camera in front of me, zoomed in on the guitar, focused the camera on the guitar and flipped around the viewing screen so I could see if I was in frame or not. For these shots, I also turned on the lights to avoid the footage appearing grainy.

With this last bit of filming, I have officially completed it all. Now I can concentrate on editing my video with all the time I have left.

First Draft: Promotion Poster

Ancillary photographs 3

Here is a slideshare of all of the pictures I took during the third filming session. I intend to use some of these for my ancillary texts in the future (album cover etc). Please be aware that the quality has been reduced due to the sheer size of the files. But when I use them in the future, they will be in high quality.

Filming Diary: Session 3

Due to the incompetence of some of the footage I captured back in November, I deemed another filming session essential to improve my footage and overall video. Initally, me and my actress planned to film Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening, but due to a last minute change in plans, we were only able to film on the Saturday (8th of March). Because we only had roughly about 3-4 hours to film in four different locations, I decided to make a plan to ensure we got all the shots filmed that were required.

We picked Ellie up at 2pm and we got ready immediately, dressing her in the same costume as before. In the plan, I split my four locations in order so we went to Brantingham church first, then South cave cemetery, then the woods and finally back at my house. Planning out the day made the filming much more effective and on schedule.

The first location we went to was Brantingham church which was a five minute drive from my house. The weather was warm but also very hazy and misty which fitted the theme of my music video perfectly, it remained this way for the rest of the day. At the church, we took pictures for the ancillary texts and got a great amount of footage that is going to be used for the bridge section of my music video.

Next we went to the South Cave cemetery to take some more images for the ancillary texts. We went to this location in the previous session for filming and I think it fits the theme of my music video perfectly.

Next we went back into the woods to re-shoot a lot of the footage from the previous filming session. We had two locations within it, the trees and the field. A lot of the footage I got in the last filming session was unusable due to the shaky nature of it, so for the field shots I kept the camera on a tripod. For the walking section in the trees we found a flatter path in the woods to film on and I used the tripod as a steadicam. This proved incredibly successful as the footage ended up being incredibly smooth and professional. Also, despite it being a lot warmer than the previous filming session, the weather was very hasty and misty which created a great atmosphere in the footage.

We planned to film the fireplace and sparkler section at my house later on, but my actress had to leave unexpectedly so we decided we would film this small section after college on Monday the 10th of March. We also needed it to be dark outside for this footage, and by the time we finished the other filming, it was only 5pm so it wasn't dark enough.

I used the exact same equipment as before, the Canon 600d camera and the Velbon tripod, they worked very well. I also used the same technique for the actress's lip-syncing by bring both a copy of the lyrics and my IPhone so I could play the song on location so her timing was perfect.

Overall, this filming session was incredibly successful. I stuck to my written plan and we didn't go off schedule once. This demonstrates the importance of planning in advance for something important like a video shoot. After filming the shots by the fireplace tomorrow I will begin editing, I now have very high hopes for my music video.

New ideas for music video

During the course of editing the footage I captured on my first two filming sessions back in November, I've started to realise that some aspects of my music video are missing. I've noticed that the whole video takes place in one setting, and as this is abstract type of music video, the lack of settings only makes it harder to understand. In order to improve, I have added some more settings to film in for my music video.

One of these is in front of a fireplace to show the girl in mourning, this location will be very convenient as I have a marble fireplace in my house to use. The actions done in this scene will be the girl reading the letter and throwing it into the fire at the end, plus, some shots of her lip-syncing by it.

Here's an example of what the setting/scene will look like:

Another idea for a setting I have is at Brantingham Church. This location is also convenient as it is only a 2 minute drive from my house and the scenery fits the overall theme and style of my music video. I plan to film some shots of my actress walking across the land, aswell as some shots of her walking by the church. This will give my music video more variety.

Lastly, I have decided to introduce a new motif and symbol to my music video to give it even more depth, lightning. The use of pathetic fallacy (when the setting reflects the mood) is very important in my music video so I felt I needed to add more to give it more variety. I plan to use sparklers and film my actress out in my garden with them while its dark. This will create a feeling of distress and anger while also showing the essence of the character, carefree, innocent and naive.

Hopefully all of these ideas combined with the ideas I've already used will ensure my music video has more variety and depth, improving it greatly.