Evaluation Question Four

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

Technologies we used... Final Cut Express Adobe Photoshop CS4 Adobe InDesign CS4 Blogger 21.5" screen iMac Apple Computer Canon Powershot G9 Canon EOS 450D

We used Final Cut Express to edit our music video; below are some examples of the techniques we used.

The first two images show how we changed the 'Brightness and Contrast' levels to add vibrancy and enhance the dramatic shadows, adding to the impact and urban mise en scene of the video.

The above and below screen grabs show how we desaturated some footage to convey that they are memories/flashbacks, rather than things happening in the present. We realised needed to differentiate between the past and present in a more obvious way after recieving some early feedback, and we decided this was the most effective way of doing it.

The above image shows how we used Final Cut Express to create overlays. Overlays are made by placing two pieces of footage over eachother on separate timelines, and using the toggle button and bars to adjust the transparency of the two pieces of footage. Without this effect we would not have been able to create the reflective and regretful atmosphere we have achieved. By overlaying footage of the ex girlfriend with footage of the main actor venting his anger, we achieve exactly what we wanted with the overlays.
Cross dissolves, as well as looking aesthetically pleasing, match the slower pace of the music at the beginning. When the track kicks in, and the beat increases, we stopped using cross dissolves and used fast, choppy cuts and flashes of footage. Cross dissolves are placed between cuts by dragging and dropping the transition onto the timeline; the width/length of the cross dissolve can be adjusted to give different effects.

Programs we used..

Blogger - the blogging website used to post my coursework .

Adobe Photoshop - Photo editing program; we used this to create our Digipak album artwork, as it gives you lots of freedom and choice in editing. Layers can be created on Photoshop, so several different images, effects and text can be placed or removed from the image easily. Photoshop is also a professional standard piece of software, and so by using it, we give our products a professional look. Without Photoshop, we would have found it difficult to achieve such quality within our Digipak artwork.

Adobe InDesign - Desktop publishing program. We used this to create the Digipak magazine advertisement, as on this software you can ensure elements of the publication are straight, centered or positioned exactly by using the grid/guildlines. This adds to the professional look of our advertisement. We also used this software to show what our actual Digipak would look like laid out before it is folded to make the CD case.

Final Cut Express - Apple's professional editing software. We used this software to edit our entire music video. We found it very easy to learn to use, and made effective use of the transitions, techniques, and effects available. Without this software we may not have been able to achieve effects such as overlays as easily or to such a professional standard.

Cameras - To film we used a Canon Powershot G9

This captures film in High Definition and so was perfect for capturing the instense lighting and colours we wanted.

We also used a Canon EOS 450D to photograph the inside of the tunnel.

This professional DSLR camera ensured that our photographs were of a high standard for use in our Digipak artwork. Thinking ahead about things like this ensured that later on, when we came to create our Digipak, we had as set of quality images to use, and therefore we did not have to return to the location to take more photographs.

Evaluation Question Three

We obtained some feedback from our peers, and at the same time target audience, by posting a link to our video on social networking site Facebook. I print screened the feedback we got, which is entirely positive! This made us very happy, as we've worked hard, and to receive such a reaction was great. 9/10 of the people who have commented on our video are between the ages of 17 and 26, our target audience

The overwhelming positive feedback makes us very happy! We worked extremely hard on this video and the ancillary tasks, and for everyone to have such a high opinion of it is really great. People really noticed the links we made between the 3 platforms, such as through mise en scene, lighting, colours and effects. We put a lot of thought and effort into the lighting, and composition of each shot, and so for people to notice and appreciate this means our efforts were worth the time. Initial feedback (which can be read here) suggested the editing was not matched to the pace of the song; our interviewees told us that 'tension is built by the editing' and that it matches the beat of the track - we have listen to the criticism and overcome the problem to achieve and even better outcome.

The people we interview all fell into our target audience, as they are all aged between 17 and 18; our target audience is 17-25. This means that we have achieved what we set out to do; members of our target audience that we asked loved our video, and commented on the urban 'look' of it. They also understood the narrative, which pleased us as initial feedback suggested the narrative was not clear. From our interviews, we can see we have successfully created credible media products, as members of our target audience said it looks 'professional'.

Evaluation Question Two

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

Our main product was a music video, and our ancillary tasks, which had to be produced to an equally high standard as the main task, were Digipak album artwork, and a magazine advertisement for the Digipak.

The 3 tasks had to create a brand to promote the artist, and the most effective way of doing this is by creating a recognisable and coherent house style throughout the products, as it is the products which are used to promote the music and capture the target audience.

Our target audience is described in this blog.

In short, our target audience is male and female teens and young adults aged between 17 and 25, and are fans of drum and bass/urban/rock/alternative music.

Our brand is effective because there is a cogent, professional, stylish and unique house style throughout the 3 products. The colours we have used in our products are vibrant and dramatic; black is predominant, and strong reds, yellows blues and greens feature. We paid close attention to the lighting, as we wanted to create intense colours and shadows so our video looks professional and of a high quality. The colours are attention-grabbing, captivating our target audience. We also applied a strong contrast in post-production to add intensity and quality to the footage. Smoking is prominent in our music video, and also features slightly on the magazine advertisement - it reveals his uncomfortable and nervous state of mind, as smoking is often done to the relax a person. Smoking, although harmful, is popular among young people, and is often associated with looking 'cool' - many members of our target audience can relate to this.

The photographs we used for the Digipak artwork were taken during the filming process in Leake Street tunnel in Waterloo. Using the same location for the video and the Digipak helps promote a recognisable brand and style for the products. The graffitied walls feature in both the video and Digipak - graffiti links to the urban atmosphere of our products. Also, a use of the artists face throughout the 3 products helps the target audience recognise and connect with the artist, increasing album sales. The below images show artists, including our chosen artist Plan B, whose albums show the use of the artists image in the artwork.

Throughout my research, we have looked at existing media products from the genres our identified target audience would be fans of, such as urban, rock, indie and rap. The music videos we looked at, such as these ones and those by director Anthony Mandler for Rihanna gave us lots of inspiration for angles, effects such as overlays, and colours. Music videos from the genres specified above tended to feature dramatic lighting and shadows, and either intense colours, or a grey/blue tint, expressing the genre of music.

The narrative of our video is not specific; the narrative is only hinted at. This is conventional of most existing music videos. A story is only vague, and the most important parts are included. Usually, in music videos, the lyrics are amplified through the narrative - the story line is based upon an interpretation and adds layers of meaning to the existing lyrics. We used our own interpretation of the lyrics to think up our own storyline, which we believe would appeal to the teen/young adult target audience, about love lost/heartbreak and the emotions you go through, as almost every young person can relate to this. Being able to empathise with the artist creates a connection between fan and musician, increasing sales of their music and even concert tickets.

The fonts in our Digipak, Magazine advert and title to music video are all quite simple, yet effective. We used the same fonts throughout all the products to ensure a recognisable link between them. The fonts used are subtle, but this creates a professional and conventional look for our products, as fonts used in similar existing products are usually simple, as explained and shown in this earlier blog.

Evaluation Question One

Conventions of existing music videos:

Andrew Goodwin writes that 'music videos approach narrative form in a different angle to novels and films'. Reasons for the different narrative structures are:

• Music videos are built around songs and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures - This is evident in our music video, as the video is mostly narrative, but only hints at the storyline - it is not explained in exact detail, as this would be boring for the audience.
• Music videos use singer both as a narrator and as a character
• The singer often looks directly at the camera

We have also applied both these last conventions in our video.
The visualisation of a song may go beyond the original meaning. Sometimes the video provides a visual pleasure that encourages repeated viewing which therefore promotes the music.
'Amplification – occurs when videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning' - This is evident in our music video; we took the lyrics and interpreted our own meaning, and created a narrative around this.

Our opening shot is very striking. It also disorientates the viewer, as the blood from his nose appears to be defying gravity. We filmed the actor standing upright, and turned the camera on the tripod to achieve the unusual aspect to this shot as we wanted a shot that was instantly engaging to the audience. We got the idea of using blood from Rihanna’s music video for Russian Roulette, as it is shocking when it appears; we wanted a similar impact. The blood itself represents violence – you assume he has been fighting – and he appears to be lying down, hurt physically, and emotionally, which you can see from his sombre expression. There is also no movement in the shot, implying he is exhausted both physically and mentally. The audience immediately sympathises with the actor. This also creates a sense of intrigue, as the viewer wonders what will happen next. The close up nature of this shot reveals his emotions, and the dark lighting, paired with an increase in contrast added during the editing process, creates a dramatic shot. We used car head lamps to help light this shot, adding to the urban nature of the video. The hoodie our actor is wearing adds to the urban feel of our video, as hooded tops are a typical item of clothing worn by urban and alternative music fans; this therefore appeals to our target audience, as they can identify with the artist. This is a long shot, featuring cutaways, and throughout the shot the blood on his face slowly reverses into his nose. We did this to match the opening lyrics ‘When the blood dries in my veins’, and to add a twist to the narrative of the video. The slow pace of this shot, paired with the 'fade in and out' transitions placed between shots, matches the opening part of the track, which is sad and gentle, but hopeful, and builds up as the track progresses.

This close up of the artist reveals his emotions – he is clearly anguished and in despair. Close ups also encourage a relationship and identification with the artist, allowing intimacy between the artist and audience, as well as ensuring 'star status' is achieved, promoting sales of the artists music. The dramatic lighting emphasises the shadows, making this shot powerful; the dark shadows around his eyes particularly highlight his suffering. He is also smoking, and the smoke coming from his mouth adds an aesthetically pleasing element to the shot, as well as being something

typical of an urban/hip hip/alternative music video. Rihanna’s video for Wait Your Turn features the artist smoking, as does Plan B’s video for Stay Too Long. Our actor is looking straight into the camera, directly involving the viewer; they can clearly read his emotions and therefore indentify with the artist. This helps with audience engagement, and attachment to the artist and music. His short hair adds to the rap/urban artist look we gave the actor, as cropped hair is common in this genre of music.

We decided to follow convention and include shots of our actor singing the lyrics to the camera. This is evident in almost every music video in existence. We filmed in the tunnel in Waterloo, and included graffiti in the misé-en-scene to link to the urban/alternative genre of music. We used a fish-eye lens for this section of filming, as we wanted some unusual effects in our video, to add a unique aspect and ‘wow’ the audience. Use of a fish-eye lens is also evident in Chase and Status and Plan B’s video for the song Pieces – this inspired our fish-eye footage. Experimenting with the fish-eye also meant we got some interesting footage we did not plan to get, but ended up using, such as out-of-focus car headlights. We asked our actor to sing the lyrics passionately, and gesture with his hands the way hip hop/urban artists generally do, to apply convention to our video.

These shots are overlays. We filmed these shots in Hackney, East London, a rougher part of London, and coincidently, where our artist Plan B is from. The first image is a medium shot of the actor under a street lamp, to add to the urban feel we want in our video, and to match the genre of music. The street lamp creates vivid and unusual lighting, and creates shadows on his face, giving him a haunted look, which we really liked. The second image is a long shot under the same street lamp, from a different angle; we overlaid a shot of the ex-couple kissing to show his is what he is remembering. In the first overlay, he is looking upwards, standing still, suggesting he is reflecting on past memories of the girl he loved and lost. The overlay of out of focus car headlights, which we filmed by standing on a traffic island in the middle of Hackney Road, adds to the urban genre of video we have created, and makes the shot more visually interesting. It also links to our use of overlays to convey memories and flashbacks. Filming at night is effective because it adds to the intensity of lighting in almost all of our footage, and conveys the artist’s torment, as he is wandering the city late at night, unable to sleep.

This is a flashback/memory of the artist. He is remembering sitting with the girl he loved in a kebab shop, eating chips, like a normal couple would do. Further shots show them laughing, kissing and talking. We only showed short cuts to hint at a narrative, as we did not want to spend a long time explaining a story as this could bore our audience. We initially kept the colours of this shot as vivid as they were when we filmed it, keeping the naturally bright lighting from the kebab shop. However, it was difficult to distinguish between these shots and other shots of our actor on his own in the kebab shop, reflecting, so we reduced the saturation levels on editing program Final Cut Express, and added a slight vignette to the shot. This instantly heightened the clarity of our narrative, and makes it obvious that these shots were flashbacks.

These two shots are from the flashbacks the artist has to kissing his ex-girlfriend. We lit the scene with red fairy lights, and a red lampshade, to cast a red/pink tinge over the footage. This red lighting conveys the passion, love and intensity of their relationship before it ended. We used close ups of faces, and other shots from this footage show hands on necks, fingers entwined, and the couple looking into each others eyes, to illustrate the intimacy of the couple. We wanted a clear contrast between this cosy, close, intimate environment, and the other footage shot in the tunnel and derelict room, which show anger, despair, regret and loneliness; we did this mostly through lighting. We also employed lots of hand-held camera movement in these scenes, and high and low angles, as we wanted to convey the movement and infatuation between the couple. This added some contrast to a lot of the other footage, which is usually level with the actors. Filming hand-held without a tripod gives a more natural look to the filming, as if the camera is moving with the couple, involving the viewer. The camera movement also links to the pace of the music, as by the time we use this footage, there is a lot more movement in the actors and camera to match the increased beat and pace of the song. We used out-of-focus footage of the couple kissing, as we were inspired by Glassjaw’s video for Ape Dos Mil, where they use a similar effect for intimate footage of a couple. We used the same location to film our actor's aggressive reaction to losing his girlfriend and seeing her with another man. The intense red light conveys his anger. The camera wildly follows him as he lashes out; and the cuts are lightening fast to fit the pace of the music.

The front cover of our Digipak was created using Photoshop. The main photograph is taken under a street lamp, linking to the urban genre of the music. The shadows created by the street lamp are dramatic, and make the cover particularly eye-catching. The background of the cover is a photograph I took in Leake St tunnel, of graffiti on the walls - graffiti links to the gritty, urban style we wanted in our video. We chose a fish-eye photo to overlay with the main image as this ties in with the fish-eye shots used in our music video, and therefore helps create a brand which our target audience can recognise. The image of the actor also links to a shot in the music video, emphasising the 'brand'. The font we used is subtle, yet effective, as it is quite small and a thin font, but we think that larger, bold fonts can look tacky and unprofessional. The font we chose is the same font used in our Digipak magazine advertisement, as this adds to the brand we are creating. We believe the vivd cover and overall design of our digipak will grab our target audiences attention instantly if it was on a shelf in a record store.

This was part of our inspiration - the artwork for the Deftones album 'Saturday Night Wrist' which uses overlays and vibrant colours. Plan B's debut album also features the artist on the cover, like we have done. This can be viewed in this blog.

This is our back cover, and the inside left sleeve image. The photograph worked for the back cover because the ground area provided space for a tracklisting, and it didnt have quite enough impact to be used as a front cover image. We followed conventions of CD covers and added a barcode, record label logo, and website information. On the sleeve image, we applied convention and included sleeve notes typical of an existing album. The tunnel is a location from the video, appearing on both images, and the graffiti in both links to the genre of the music video, adding to the impact of the 'brand' on the target audience. The font we used for the designs was the same font used on part of our Digipak magazine advertisement, helping to create a coherent house style across our three products, ensuring our brand is impactful.

Magazine advertisements are conventionally... BOLD and eye-catching Easy to understand Include a picture/photograph/painting linked to artist/brand Include relase date information Include logos from record stores/sitesInclude quotes from reviews of the music

Our magazine advertisement features the same photograph from the front of the Digipak; this helps emphasise our brand, and therefore its more recognisable with our target audience. The image features overlays, like our video and Digipak artwork, helping to maintain a cogent house style, which the target audience will recognise, promoting the artist effectively, meaning more profit will be made. We observed the conventions of existing magazine Digipak adverts, and saw that as well as record label logos, the logo of a record store such as HMV or Play.com has their logo placed on the advert, so potential buyers see where it is available, increasing profit for the record store owners. We also included quotes from reviews of the album, as this is something often done in adverts; many potential buyers from the target audience will trust and respect the comments from critics in music magazines, e-zines and newspapers, and so adding these to the advert increases sales.

Final Digipak Art Work!

I placed the designs for our Digipak into Adobe Indesign, as we needed to see how they would be laid out as an actual Digpak plan. To the left is our design for the CD disc.

Front Cover

Inside left sleeveInside right sleeve
CD disc design

Inside CD tray

The CD disc design is very dark, and when placed over the sleeve image, does not look obvious. Therefore, we mocked up on Photoshop what the actual CD might look like in a plastic case, making the CD design look obviously different from the image behind it.

Back Cover

Final Cut!

Rough Cut & Feedback

The feedback we received for the rough cut of our video was generally positive. The people we showed our video to - members of our target audience: male and female teens and young adult fans of urban, dance and rock music, - really enjoyed it, and mentioned in particular the lighting and shot composition added something special to our video.

Our teacher's criticism was that the pace of the video could be increased in some places; we have decided to add some quicker cuts to match the beat of the track. Also, she said the narrative is not obvious enough, and so we have decided to add some shots we didn't think we'd need; intimate moments between the ex-couple to use as flashbacks. Also, more close ups are needed to enhance audience connection with the artist, as this is convention of music videos.

We had also left a piece of footage at the end of the video which we forgot to remove during the editing process; this is why the video is 6.23 minutes rather than the 3.16 of the track.