Note to Moderater

I have blogged my entire journey to creating my music video and ancillary tasks
in total I have 67 posts, 54 of which are research and planning posts. I have attempted to make it clear which posts were group posts as we worked together on some tasks. Thank you.

Question 1 Evaluation

 Directors Cut Script

Olivia

The opening to the music video is a title sequence featuring our stars name and the name of the song.

Jess

We have a title sequence which introduces the video in a minor amount of detail. It displays the name of the artist, ‘Frankie’ in a font which is also use on a prop throughout the music video, and also on our promotional package consists of this font too which brings synergy throughout the products.

Olivia

After the title sequence the next shot is of a countryside location featuring my star image Frankie twirling around merrily creating a representation of happiness. Todorov can be applied to this clip as it shows there is equilibrium at the beginning of my narrative.

Jess

The video is performance and narrative that I have produced, which beings with a long shot of the female model Frankie in my first countryside location. She is independent and twirling around being comfortable within her environment. Showing her as an independent woman creates a modern representation of women to the audience and creates a relationship with them.
The opening shot adheres to conventions as I layered onto the top of this shot a low angle of some trees which portrays the country genre by the symbolic signifier of the countryside. I changed the opacity of the shots so they both subtly show through. This shot portrayed that the music video would challenge conventions as it was a country genre song, and most music videos are filmed in urban areas

Jess

The following shot is a close up of Frankie singing into camera with confidence which adheres to the conventions of Goodwin. She is again located within the countryside which is a reoccurring location throughout the entire music video, which is a main element of how the synergy is built up. She sings into camera which shows Goodwin’s theory is applied and makes her come across as a strong character building synergetic personalisation with the audience. She has a huge smile across her face which connotes that she is happy in the time. This shows a sense of equilibrium relating to Todorov’s theory. Another convention fully adhered to was that the lyrics also match the visuals throughout many sections of the music video for example “Gotta love this field” which ties into the location as I situated Frankie in a countryside field.

Olivia

The next shot is a close up of our star image singing into camera [meeting Goodwin’s conventions] whilst smiling, I used a close up early in the music video in order to introduce to star image immediately as I aiming to launch a star. Having my star image smiling into camera gives the representation that she is happy, however towards the end of the shot you see  glimpse of Frankie looking down showing that she may not be as happy as she seems possibly showing the beginning of disequilibrium from Todorov’s theory.

Jess

The next shot is of a beautiful orange blossoming flower which links to the lyrics “Under blossom clouds though it’s late July” which again shows that Goodwin’s theory has been applied and conventions met.

Olivia

Over the lyric ‘blossom clouds’ i have an extreme close up of some vibrant flowers to match the lyrics, the bright colours of the flowers also match the happy tone of the song.

Olivia

The next shot blurs in with a transition to gently break up the shot of the flowers. This show features Frankie and Myles crossing paths in a wide angle shot.

Jess

The shot then cuts to an extreme long shot of Frankie walking through the woods, when our male model Myles walks past her and looks at her. This ties into Laura Mulvey’s theory in how women look good for the camera.

Jess

It then cuts back to the blossoming flower which is something I spent a long time producing. It is a layer up of two different flower shots with an adaption to the opacity, and it’s over cranked too which makes the flower look like its growing. This flower has connotations of a love that is blossoming between her. Also the flower was an iconical aspect of the music video that I used it in the promotional package.

Olivia

The next shot is a medium shot in one of my main repeating locations of a field, the use of this field gives iconic sing of a country song. I used ken burns to zoom out meaning the shot ends as a long shot. I also added a vignette mask over the top of this clip to warm the colours and make the clip look more summery.

Jess

The shot of Frankie in the countryside field has a Ken Burns which zooms out revealing the mise en scene of the shot. It shows the bright blue sky of the shot and the greens and browns of the countryside, all portrayed through the natural lighting making her stand out more. She is centre frame which makes the proxemics appealing and makes her the centre of attention, relating to Goodwin again.

Olivia

In this next shot there’s an image of a magazine featuring Myles on the front cover. Representations created through this shot are that Myles is successful and famous. As he poses in the image on the front cover this can be related to Dyers theory that a star is not a person but an image.

Jess

The shot was very creative, and actually tells a huge part of the narrative of the song. I created a shot here in the music video that consists of many different stages and skills. After shooting the footage, I took a shot of the male model Myles where he was stood individually against the wall. I took a freeze frame of the shot and took that image into Adobe Elements and produced a magazine of him on the front cover with the title “City Boy vs Country Girl” This use of cross media convergence developed the genre conventions within the music video.

Jess

Dyer’s theory can be applied here, as he said celebrities and stars are manufactures to have specific representations. Also during this there is a Ken Burns into Myles’ face on the magazine, and when it zooms out the shot changes to the moving image I took the freeze frame from so it appears the image comes to life and he walks out of camera.

Olivia

This shot zooms in from a close up to and extreme close up using Ken Burns, the image then flashes as though a camera took a picture making the picture come to life, Myles is shown to be walking away from the camera, this goes against Dyers theory as Myles does not pose for the camera but rather walks away.

Olivia

This shot goes from a country location to an image of Frankie and Myles sat on a bench not looking at one another but smiling, this image is meant to foreshadow the future as the image flashes on and off very quickly, it blurs back to the image of the countryside.

Jess

The following pan of the countryside, is an ongoing theme throughout the music video. Cutting into the pan is a shot of Frankie and Myles sat on a bench giggling together. This ties into Todorov’s theory of equilibrium. It then cuts back to the pan of the countryside which has sun rays showing through on it, making the lighting bright and quirky. It makes the shot glow and successfully indicates joy.

Olivia

The next shot in under cranked and moves very fast which represents how quickly things in Frankies life is changing relating to finding Myles, This relates to propps theory of character roles and gives Myles the role of the hero.

Jess

This next shot was also a match to the lyrics, where I positioned a hand held camera in a car, and drove through the countryside to the lyric “Through the countryside” It brought a “selected view of reality” to the music video, which is quoted by Raynor.

Olivia

This medium shot of Frankie singing into camera smiling matching the happy lyrics which relates to Goodwins theory on lyrics matching the visuals. The saturation of this shot was warmed up to keep the continuity of the previous shots in this location.

Jess

The shot in the repeating countryside location. In many of our other shots I actually captured the beautiful sun spots and glimmers however in this one I couldn’t capture it, so I decided to apply an effect on to it which maintained the synergy as we edited it which worked well. She also turns away from the camera in this shot and looks out into the vast countryside field. This is to the lyric “All the things that matter I forget a lot” which hints at the narrative that her true love for the countryside is often forgotten due to her city boy and therefore disequilibrium is established.

Olivia

This shot is cut very fast and this matches the music again relating to Goodwin as he also suggest the music and visuals should match.

Jess

There is a low angle shot of a city building which has short cuts to the beat and also a layer of bright clouds over the top matching the lyrics “I get so caught up in the city cloud”.

Olivia

This shot features Myles walking in an urban area, it is also layered with a clip of clouds which i turned the opacity down on to ensure Myles is visible, once again this matches Goodwins theory on visuals and lyrics matching as the lyric here is ‘city clouds’

Jess

As the cloud layer persists, when the building shot changes to a shot of Myles walking through the tall buildings. This ties to the narrative that she is caught up in city love.

Jess

Cutting then to a low angle shot from behind Frankie as she is feeding the ducks. A cut into this shot show Frankie and Myles walking past each other but not speaking, despite her turning and looking back.

Olivia

Heather feeding this ducks in this long shot clip is yet another iconic sign of country as ducks represent the countryside

 Jess

This is all to the lyric ‘But this place is my first love’ which shows she’ll always love the countryside.

Olivia

This clip of Frankie looking upset whilst flicking through a photo album, this is truly showing the disequilibrium in this story as when she throws the photo album down the camera zooms in to show a picture of Frankie and an ex boyfriend, as Frankie is upset the ex featured in the photo appears to be the villain according to propps character roles.

Jess

When Frankie throws the book down it is on time with the beat and there is a close up of the photo album using a hand held camera and a Ken Burns zooms into the photo of Frankie.

Jess

Using continuity there is a pan of her walking from the bed to her dresser where she opens up her macbook this intertextuality develops conventions and as McDougall said we are in an ‘online age’

Olivia

This medium close of Frankie singing into camera in a repeated location contains light spots in order to help keep continuity throughout the shots of the music video, there is a Ken Burns used here to zoom in.

Olivia

The next few clips are a montage of different types of people holding up a sign saying ‘lost and found’ to match the lyrics, the use of different types of people, e.g young, old, couples, groups shows that almost anyone can relate to this music video in some way.

Jess

These shots included our star images and the typography on the sign was the same as used in out promotional packages creating synergy through our products.

Olivia

This clip shows Frankie’s laptop with Myles’s social media on the screen, showing Frankie is interested in him, the use of a modern laptop is an iconic sign for a modern world, showing that Frankie is a modern woman.

Jess

This brings a huge element of intertextuality to the music video and it also ponders on the topic of how are our age and generation relies on social media.

Olivia

This next shot shows Frankie running toward a bus stop and is cut to show her running away from the camera then it cuts to a shot of her running toward the camera this enabled me to show a good use of continuity editing. Frankie running to a bus stop is giving a representation that she is ready to move on with her life.

Jess

These shots matched the lyrics ‘guess I need to run’ as she is running and ‘take me to bus’ which shows the lyrics and the visuals match as she runs to a bus timetable which supports Goodwin’s theory. In this shot there is also a large bin which is major negative on the mise – en – scene.

Olivia

This next clip shows Frankie singing into camera, the clip starts as a close up and I used Ken Burns to zoom out to a medium long shot.

Jess

An active audience would follow the lyric ‘but don’t let me go’ because she ran to the bus earlier but she changed her mind and an active audience would spot this. At the end of this shot she looks down at the floor looking sad showing she’s disappointed in herself for considering leaving the countryside.

Olivia

This clip again shows Frankie singing into camera with a Ken Burns used to zoom out, in this clip Frankie has her arms wrapped around herself to match the lyric ‘hold me tight’ once again following Goodwin’s theory on visuals and lyrics matching.

Jess

On these shots of her in this location we added a subtle black vignette which frames Frankie as the main object rather than the bright location.

Olivia

The following clips also contain good continuity editing of Frankie running into a house, the fact she is running is meant to represent how quickly her life is moving as a young person, i have used the same light spots in these shots once again to create even more continuity.

Jess

All of these shots were to the lyrics ‘of course I’ll stay’ which tells the audience that she’s battling her thoughts as a villain which shows Propp’s theory is applied.

Olivia

This shot shows a medium close up of Frankie smiling and singing into camera this starts to give the representation that equilibrium is being re-established relating to Todorov’s theory.

Olivia

This shot is a low angle shot this type of shot represents power, giving Frankie power gives her a representation of a modern woman and that she is taking control of her life once more to continue with the narrative of our music video.

Jess

This shot holds many messages we have a long shot of Frankie who is twirling in the countryside being herself and being happy. Whilst there is also a shot layered on top of her and Myles playing in the woods with leaves, the two layers portray that Frankie is in the same place suggesting that twirling in the woods with Myles is what her inner self wants.

Olivia

This is another medium close up shot of Frankie singing into camera again it is important to include plenty of shots like these as I am attempting to launch a new star which is conventional.

Olivia

This shot of a modern phone with a text message on is another indexical sign for a modern world and a modern woman, perfectly representing Frankie.

Jess

This shot shows intertextuality and a Ken Burns zooms into this shot.

Jess

This next shot is a pan, portraying the beautiful location and then Frankie who is singing into camera.

Olivia

The shot pictures Frankie looking happier than she has ever looked with the wide smile and passion in the way she sing, she is once again twirling around.

Jess

There is a long shot of Frankie twirling around looking happy relating that she has made her decision however it remains a mystery to the audience showing that there is an enigma.

Olivia

This shot features confetti flying towards the camera from Frankies direction of the camera the use of party poppers is an indexical sign for celebrations, giving the representations that Frankie now has something to celebrate and is happy once more, confirming the idea that the equilibrium of the narrative has returned as Todorov suggests

Jess
The party poppers may also connote a big decision has been made.

Olivia

Once again this shot is a low angle shot showing Frankie has power featuring this shot after the return of representation that equilibrium had returned was important as it shows that Frankie has gained control as she smiles in this shot whilst singing into camera

Olivia

In this shot Frankie walks confidently whilst the camera pans with her, this confidence shows that Frankie is comfortable in herself and over the past of her previously featured ex the villain according to Propp’s theory on character roles.

Jess

This shot is a conventional shot of Frankie walking towards the camera on a path, the camera pans as she moves.

Olivia
In this low angle medium shot Frankie sings into camera with a great deal of passion more than previously shown in shots this is to represent her new found happiness.

Jess

This shot shows her grabbing the air and pulling down to match the lyric ‘nothing will brng us down.

Olivia

In the beginning of this shot Frankie throws leaves in the direction of the camera, this is an attempt to represent the original loss of the equilibrium in the story line, however the shot is then reversed and the leaves return to Frankies hands showing how although the equilibrium was lost for a while but it has now returned.

 Jess

We over cranked the shot of Frankie throwing leaves into the camera which is then reversed and edited straight after which plays on the countryside theme

Olivia

This shot is a long shot of Myles walking down the same road which Frankie was shown walking down a few seconds earlier, he walks with a modern swanky walking giving representations of his success.

Jess

As this was the same path Frankie walks down the audience will assume they are going to meet. Continuity meets the two together.

Olivia

This final shot of Frankie and Myles finally meeting bring many representations, first it proves Todorovs as it is clear the equilibrium of the narrative has returned, It also supports Propp’s theory of character roles and confirms that Myles is the hero of this story.

Digipak Advert

My digpak advert was conventional to exisiting media products in order to ensure that is was clear that this was a digipak advert.

I adhered to the convention tohave my stars name clear, centred and at the top of he page, I have previously seen this on the existing media on a Kings of Leon digiak advert.

Another convention I have adhered to is the convention of having the name also large and clear on the digipak advert which was also on the existibng media product of the Kings of Leon digipak.

It is convenional to feature where the album will be available to the public, which I have ensured by including iTunes, Spotify and tubidy.

I have also adhered to conventions by including the title of the album on the advert, which is also featured on the digipak, in identical font.

Question 2 Evaluation

This screen capture from my music video links in with the digipak and digipak advert as I have mentioned due to the location being the same. This is also a high key sunny shot and I tried to use this lighting effect on the ancillary products. I believe this successfully highlighted her sunny, positive character and star image.

This screen capture from my music video shows the same costume as featured on the front of my digipak advert, this again creates synergy between the two.

  This is also a centre frame medium long shot and it is clear there is effective synergy between this shot and the advert.

This font is used as the main font of Frankie's name and album name therefore creating synergy, the only difference being the use of red font in my music video. I think this was the right decision to make as the red stands out and it also connotes love.

This is once again a location that links with the digipak features on a back pane of the digipak which is also featured in the music video as shown by this screen capture.

This image relates strongly with digipak advert as it the same location and costume as featured in this image of Frankie singing into camera.

Question 3 Evaluation

Evaluation question 3   from oliviamedia

Question 4 Evaluation

How did you used media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stage?



Research and Planning 

I used the most amount of technologies during the research and planning part of creating a music video.



The biggest use of technology I used was through the use of blogger as I posted my entire journey on here, all other technologies I used would end up on my blog as a way to present my work. Using blogger was a great way to record all my research and use this information to create a plan for filming.












One of the most important websites I used during my research was Youtube as this allowed me to watch music videos and analyse them to gain idea for planning and creating my own music video.

Another website which was very important to me during the research and planning phase was my stars website for me this was Ellie Goulding, I had to use her website to get a feel for the singer of the song I was using this enabled me to gain inspiration for my own star image but not directly copy Ellie Goulding.

Other technologies I used during the research and planning phase include; prezi, slideshare, bubble.us and slidely. I would use these websites as an alternative method to present my work,  I found slidely's really useful for identifying a clear target audience. Bubble.us was very useful to an analyse a digipak or digipak advert.

Other than websites I used a camera in order to take principle photography the camera I used was a lumix.
















Construction



During the actual construction of my music video I did not use a great deal of technologies as I was busy editing the music video on Final Cut Pro X and creating the ancillary tasks along with props on Adobe Elements 11.


This is a good example of skills I gained during the construction stage of creating my music video. I layered two different film clips on top off each other and played around with the opacity until you could clearly see my star image but also see the other clip which was of trees to add a more country tone.

This image is yet another example of layering two clips together and changing the opacity this shot is also over cranked in order to slow it down, this improved my skills in Final Cut.

This shot is an example of skills I have not only developed in Final Cut but also in Adobe Elements 11. I used Adobe to create this prop for my music video it is a magazine featuring Myles my male star image. I also used Final Cut in this clip to add a flash and make the image of Myles come to life once again improving my skills on Final Cut.

In this shot I felt it necessary to add a light effect in order to keep continuity with previous shots in my music video. I achieved this by adding an effect called 'Bokeh' on top of the original film clip.

For this shot I wanted it to cut quickly in time to the beat of the song and allow for cutting on the beat in order to achieve this I added an effect called quick flash/spin.

I wanted to warm this shot up in order to give it a more summery feel, I also felt it necessary to add a vignette mask in my music video to show that I had acquired this skill. I found this the perfect chance to show this off, I added a subtle vignette mask over the top of this clip which allowed for it to be much warmer than it originally was.

Another important skill I acquired while creating my music video was using Ken Burns. Ken Burns allows you to zoom in or out of a shot which I used several times during my music video. In order to achieve this the green box signifies where the shot will begin and the red box shows where the shot will finish.

In order to create a montage in my music video I had to cut clips very fast one after another, I also had to be careful to make sure I cut the clips on the beat so the music and visuals matched.

Evaluation


Question 1-


For question 1 of my evaluation my partner, Jess and I were required to evaluate our music video using theorists which were applicable. In order to complete this post I wrote a script and used Final Cut Pro X once more to edit a voiceover over the top of the music video.

The first step of adding a voiceover in was roughly timing how long I would need to speech over a film clip for. After I had a rough estimate of how long I would need to speech about a clip for I could add a freeze frame for the appropriate length of time, as pictured above.

I would then open QuickTime Player and record the script section by section, recording it bit by bit allowed for a better quality sound and an easier way to ensure the freeze frame I had added earlier were the exact right length.

I made sure all the clips of voice recordings were well organised by putting them in a folder in the order they would need inserting into my music video, therefore speeding up the process.

Once the voice recordings were all in order I imported them to Final Cut Pro X so I could add them onto the timeline of the video with the corresponding freeze-frames.

Once I had added in the voice recordings with the correct film clip I could export the clip and put it on youtube.

Question 2 -  

For question 2 of my evaluations I was required to explore how I have used synergy to create cross media convergence between all 3 of my media products, I did this by using a thinglink of my digipak and explaining how each different product related to the different highlighted spot on the digipak. I chose to use a thinglink as I could specifically pick out points of the digipak i wanted to talk about and relate them to the appropriate piece of work, either my music video or digipak advert.

Question 3 - 

Question 3 required me to explain how the target audience research I had done throughout the preproduction and production had influenced my creativity, then finally analyse what my final TA research had told me. In order to answer this question I created a powerpoint explaining how I went about the target audience research and then the results of this research and what adaptations this led to me making to my music video. After i had finished creating the power point on TA research I uploaded it to slideshare and was then able to embed this on my blog.

Final Music Video

Final Digipak

This is the final digipak created as an ancillary task of my A2 production. This digipak has synergy with my music video through the use of the bright orange flower. The orange flower draws your attention to this digipak as it is so bright and also sticks very well with the theme of country which is the genre of my song.

Final Digipak Advert

Final alterations have been made to my digipak advert which include details of where to find my star images new album can be found. I believe adding a line to separate the advert out a little also improved the design of it.

Draft Digipak Advert

This is a draft version of Digipak Advert, the white font stands out beautifully against the green background. The background has great synergy with out music video as the image was shot on the same location

Group Post: Digipak Advert draft

We have been trying out a variety of different layouts for the front pane of the digipak, and we asked a couple of people what their opinions were of these and which ones they preferred. We asked people aged between 17-18, and most of which agreed that they were both just as good as each other. This means that we have much scope between which one we chose, and either way it will appeal to our intended audience.

Group Post: Digipak draft

This is our first rough cut of our front pane on the digipak, and we are experimenting with different fonts, sizes and colours in which will create synergy across the digipak and magazine advert, and the video also.

Group Post Editing: Using Final Cut

My partner Jess created this excellent post on editing our music video, now our final version is finished we have used more features on Final Cut Pro X. Such as adding transitions in order to soften the cuts between clips and make the video flow together.

We have completed a rough cut of our video, where we have put the majority of our shots on to the timeline. This initially it showed us where we might need some more shots, and it brought out any issues we may need to resolve.
We have got shots for every lyric apart from one where we have had a few weather and planning issues, as we need a clear shot of clouds and we haven't had a day recently that's been correct.

On a few of our shots we have decided to play around with the opacity of two shots overlapping, meaning that they appear at the same time yet merged together. Here we have created a unique shot where our female model is twirling around in the countryside, with a shot of trees over the top.

We used the opacity tool to do this on the Inspector part of Final Cut Pro X.

Another aspect we have used to do a little editing so far, is Ken Burns. On two occasions we have used Ken Burns, one to zoom more into our female model, and one to zoom out. This gives our music video a range of different shots and zooms also.
We need to do a little more shooting in order to do some tracking, and then our music video will hopefully consist of everything we need, which we will arrange for a day soon.

Rough Cut Music Video

Final TA Research Conclusions

To conduct my final part of my target audience research I sent a message to friends and family who agreed to help me with TA research and attached was the questions I asked them and the link to my music video so they could watch it. After the people I asked these questions to responded I screens hotted their responses to evaluate them.

Question 1 - Did the performance shots enable you to identify the star image?

All the TA group I asked agreed that the shots I used easily established who the star image of my music video was. I believe I achieved this by ensuring almost all the shots were of my star image and at the beginning of the video I included close ups of her singing into camera which is very conventional when launching a new star image.

Question 2 - Were there enough close ups of the main star image?

I believe I included plenty of close ups of my star image and my target audience appeared to agree with this. It was important that the audience got to know the star image as she is a new star and establishing her as an artist is very important.

Question 3 - Did you understand the narrative?

My target audience group all understood the narrative of my music video, I achieved this by creating a story which fitted well with the lyrics and the final results meant that my star image had a clear story which an audience could easily identify.

Question 4 - What did you think about the star image representations?

Most my target audience understood the representations of lonely girl falling in love I tried to create with my star image very well. This shows I used signs and signifiers effectively to create representations as my audience could understand the story behind the star image.

Question 5 - Was the editing clear to see? e.g cuts and transitions

My target audience seemed to believe I included cuts effectively to show the narrative and performance aspects of the video. However some also believed I could have made better use of transitions, this tells me in future I should use more obvious transitions as long as they still look effective.

Question 6 - Did you like any of the locations or costumes?

The most popular location used in my music video was the countryside locations however a minority of people also liked the shots in the bedroom containing the 4 poster lace bed. The costumes my star image wore were equally popular, this shows I established well what the preferences of my target audience would be and managed to meet these.

Question 7 - Would this music video interest you in any of her other music?

All of my target audience group would be interested in seeing more music from my star image. This shows I have well targeted my audience as they enjoyed this music video.