Construction of Evaluation Website

To present my evaluation answers I decided to create a website separate from this blog. I decided to host it on Tumblr as I'm already familiar with this particular site so it won't take me long to work out the design I want to use. I had a particular theme in mind so I searched for it - Tumblr users can code their own themes and share them with other users online. Once I found the theme I wanted, I used the code to make my own page look like it. I then worked out the links section so that I had each individual page ready for each of my questions when they are ready to be uploaded in their particular formats. 

Choosing the theme

Adding the theme to my blog

Beginning of Evaluation Questions

Today, we began to look at the evaluation questions to conclude this project. The questions are:

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
• What have you learned from your audience feedback?
• How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I will begin to answer these in a Word document format and then look at a range of different formats to present my answers in. 

Final Digipak

Final Advert

This is my final advert.

Album Cover

This is the image I will use as the front of my artist's album. It will be used on both ancillary texts.

Final Video

This is the final version of my music video. YouTube has lowered the quality of it, meaning that it doesn't look as clean cut as is. Despite this, I am happy with my finished product.
I believe I've gotten my concept (independence) across to the audience and used my idea of static throughout, showing that I stuck to the ideas I conjured up in the planning process. To get extra feedback on how successful this was, I will ask people who have been following this journey to view my finished product and tell me their thoughts.

Rough Cut 3

My third rough cut will make up two minutes of my finished video, possibly with slight revisions. I've added footage from the sparkler shoot and looked a different types of effects to enhance my editing techniques. To start, I looked at the editing effects FinalCut has to offer. The two I've focused more on are 'Bad TV' and 'Projector'. 'Bad TV' has the static type of effect I've been looking for, meaning I've used it quite a bit during the editing process. 'Projector' has been used on the shot of the trees by the pond as it's an alternative to using the same effect over again but still looks quite good and still distorts the scene.

'Bad TV' effect

Using 'Projector'

Creating of Digipak

In the creation of my digipak, I decided to test different techniques and try a range of different programs to see which would look best on my product. I looked at part of it within PicsArt, an image editing app downloadable to mobile phones. I've used it before during other projects and for personal use so I already have knowledge on using it. A big part of my music video is static as a symbol for change and I knew from the planning of this production that I would use it somewhere on the digipak.  I used an original image of my artist and added the static as an overlay, challenging the opacity of that image. I then took it over to VSCOCam, another editing app, to look at the colouring and overall polished look of the image. I quite like how this turned out because it relates to the music video concept clearly and I think it's a successful edit. With some processing, I think I would possibly make this one of the inside covers of my digipak because it continues the artist identity and looks cool. I enjoyed exploring parts of my product via mobile apps because they're useful pieces of software and it really helps in the sense that these apps are the type of things my generation use on a daily basis so we have more of a practice using them. This means that images will more than likely look good because of experiences with the particular app. I also enjoyed using them because it expands on how I'm trying to incorporate a number of different media devices and techniques into the finished product.

Advert Draft

I drafted my print advert, which is part of the package we must create for our artist. I used a picture of the original artist (credit to Eric Mooney) but used it with my own artist's name, as I don't have a picture already that could be used for this task with my actor. I followed the conventions of adverts created for female artists and I think it went well. It's quite basic - I didn't add the record label logo yet, but this will obviously be on my final piece. This gave me a chance to look at different fonts and experiment to see which will look better. I like the ones used for my artist's name and song name but I think I'll change the ones I used for the information towards the bottom of the advert. It came out looking quite pixelated and I'm not sure that it fits the sound of the artist. I will revise this in the production of my own advert.

Props & Costume Planning

I created a Padlet board for all of the planning of costumes and props in the production of my music video. The stills from the Halloween shoot shows everyone's costumes whilst the projection testing shows my techniques used and planning of using the projector. For my third shooting location, I need to use sparklers. I got this idea from similar music videos and decided it would fit my concept and the rest of my video scenes. The sparklers were ordered online and arrived a few days prior to the planned shoot. Before shooting, we tested them to see which would look better as there were three varieties and made sure they all work.

Created with Padlet

Audience Theory

Rough Cut 2

I began working on my second rough cut from the beginning of the song. I also looked at a range of transitions to see if any of them will look good.

I uploaded my second rough cut on November 28th.

Mediation Theory

Shooting Schedule

I created another shooting schedule to bring in my third location of the park. Changes have been made between this and my storyboard, accounting for how some shots will come from shoots outside of what I have planned. Again, I don't have a great amount of shots planned in comparison to other music videos I've viewed but I think this could be reflective of the dream pop sub-genre. I plan to make an amount of these clips slow motion which will accompany for the seeming lack of shots. I also plan to add shots of static alone in between some shots which will add to the shot count. Also, when filming I will film shots extra to the ones planned which means that if in the editing process I decide to switch around some shots, I'll have more to fit in and make the video the best it could be.

EDIT: Looking at this after finishing the editing process of my music video, I think it's clear that my final product followed this schedule to an extent. I did deviate from it at times but mostly all of the shots I planned to add in my music video from the storyboard were used in the final product.

Advertisement Draft - Fonts

As part of draft work for my print advertisement, I looked at a lot of different fonts that I could possibly use. All were downloaded from dafont which was a really good way to find and download fonts easily. I tested a variety of different styles to see how they would look:

Storyboard

Here are my initial storyboards for my adaptation of 'Hurricane'. As you can see, I've drawn out a basic plan to the video I aim to create. There aren't many shots in comparison to some music videos but I believe it is representative of the dream pop genre. Several of the shots have been marked with 'slowmo' to show that I intend to make these shots slow motion to add to the real media conventions. I also labelled the party scenes with 'F' which stands for filter, as I want to use a filter to show these scenes are part of the diegesis I am setting, and not reality but simulacra (Baudrillard). Shots have been noted by which call sheet they are related to [CS1 being the house party, CS2 the studio] but as it can be seen, some have no corresponding call sheet. This is because I aim to get these shots outside of schedule as they are mostly standalone nature shots. The shots I've drawn out here are subject to change as this is early in the planning process.

Advert Draft - Existing Adverts

Before actually drafting my advertisement, I decided to look at more existing print adverts. Since my research, I've chosen a song and in turn a particular artist, meaning there will be artists more like the ones I conducted my earlier research on. So, this will help me to adapt my advertisement to a more specific type of genre, notably female solo artists.

Call Sheet 3

This is the call sheet for my final location, Rossmere Park:

Genre Theory

Peer Feedback

After editing our first rough cuts, we (as a class) watched each other's work and gave feedback on what we had edited so far. I found this particularly helpful because it gave us an idea of what the audience think and acts as further audience research as people give their opinion on your work. I chose the more frequent responses to write in as my three strengths and two improvements. From all of the feedback together, I decided to definitely film more footage for my video. This will be planned fully once I talk to my actor and find a time that's convenient for her. 

Collection of Footage

After filming on October 31st and November 10th, I went through all of the collected footage and put the shots I plan to use/experiment with into files. From this, I started editing my first rough cut, paying particular attention to lip sync and colouring. I plan to add another shoot, probably in a park area, so that I have more footage and my video will flow easier.  

Digipak Draft 2

Rough Cut 1

This rough cut features some of the shots I filmed in the studio. Obviously, they wouldn't be one after the other in the actual video but I decided to test how some of them looked synced to the song but without any editing on them. I also added some of the Halloween footage. Although I'm not entirely sure if I'll use it during my final piece, I decided to add some of it towards the end and have a look at the colours. I want the party scenes to go against the studio scenes in that they will be brighter but I also want to incorporate some of the same colours, mainly blue. This is the result: 


I'm happy with the colours in the scene beginning at 0:31 but would like to work more with the footage and FinalCut to make the film look better. I haven't worked at changing the colouring of film before so I think I need to have a more in depth look at which effect I want my video to give.

Test Footage - Time Lapse

I decided to attempt creating a time lapse that I could possibly use for my projection. I filmed primarily the sky for a short while to see if this would have a nice effect.  I did this with a tree in the frame to see if this would look good. Looking at the footage, I think it's probably easier to do a time lapse with a building or something else that won't be moved against the sky. This is because it will make the overall effect look smoother. Despite this, I'm glad I decided to try this and will film some similar footage to possibly use for my projection or even as a frame for my music video.

Testing the Projection

I wanted to practice using the projector before my actual shooting began. I collected a range of both videos and images to look at to see what will be best to use. All of them related to the song and to the meaning of the video I aim to create. The pictures aren't in the best quality as the camera wasn't stabilised on a tripod but I took some for reference. I really like how this turned out - I wasn't sure if my ideas would work but this test shoot proved that it's possible for my music video to turn out exactly the way I want it to. 

These images depict the testing of the New York videos which relates to the lyrics and which I aim to use in my final product. I like how they looked projected onto Jess. The videos used are actually time lapses and I now have an idea to make Jess do something in front of the screen. I could put this is slow motion; this should have a nice effect as the timings of the lapse and her moving will blend together.

Choosing the Actors

Call Sheet 2

This is the second of my call sheets for the section filmed in the studio:

Call Sheet 1

This is the call sheet for the first of my locations, the Halloween party:

Projection Materials

Here, I grouped together the types of videos and images I may need for the music video:

Created with Padlet

Treatment Sheet

Initial Ideas

Initial ideas for my music video 'Hurricane'. I decided to present it on lino.it because I think it's a great website for displaying mind maps, my preferred method for this task. It's very interactive and more convenient than drawing by hand.

Request for Permission

Before the planning and construction of my music video to ‘Hurricane’ by Halsey, I have to request permission from the copyright owner of this track to be sure that I can use it. The track is part of the Room 93 EP which was released through Astralwerks, a record label parented by Universal Music Group. They are known to release music of an electronica style. I have somewhat of the upper hand in this situation - I know the artist. Real name Ashley Frangipane, I became acquainted with Halsey over the internet some time ago. As I have her phone number, I decided I would message her to ask for her permission to use her song seen as though she's arguably the rightful owner of the song:

As the record label is also important in this situation, I also sent them an email asking if I had permission to use this song for pure educational purposes. Their contact page on the official website shows the opportunity to type your email directly:

Message to Halsey

Email to Astralwerks

Reasons for song change

Part of the way into the planning of my music video, I decided to change the track and most of the concept. I felt that what I'd planned wasn't showing the best of my ability, partly because it was a relatively short song. Whilst I think a sufficient amount of effort went into my work, I wasn't fully happy with my decisions. 
I considered that this could potentially be a bad idea - we have a schedule for when this project should be complete and I could fall behind - but all in all, I realised it wouldn't be too difficult. Some of my work such as the audience research and test footage would still apply to my changes, and it wouldn't be too difficult to rectify some other elements of the planning journey. 
I'm happy with my final decision to change from the song I first chose. I've left the planning of my initial song choice on this blog to show the work I put into it, although part of this will be adapted to fit my new track. I feel that the new song and concept for the music video will be more successful than my past choice could have been and hope this will show in the final product.

Photo Shoot Concept

To get the images for my digipak and advert, I will conduct a photoshoot with Demi. It would make sense to do some of the photo shoot at Seaton Carew - it could be an on-going theme and still fit in with the beach aesthetic of the video. From this I would definitely get the image that'll sit behind the CD. As I've decided to use pictures of the artist, I will take some here to use as options for the left cover and cover inside of the digipak. If I use my advertisement to promote the single, I could also take my advertisement picture from this particular photoshoot. 

I will also aim to take some images in the studio at sixth form because it will have a different effect to a natural setting and look more professional.

Choosing the actors

I put together a presentation explaining how and why I chose the actors that I did for this project:

Digipak Draft

Before the creation of my digipak, I decided to research the ones released in the past by Best Coast seen as though I'm basing my project on their music. I then used a template of a six paned digipak as I will be creating my own, and labelled it according to what I will be aiming to include on my own. This will help me when it comes to producing my own digipak because I'll have an idea of what I want to include which will make the whole process easier and faster.

Recce Shots / Test Footage

On October 15th I took a quick trip to Seaton Carew beach, one of my locations for my music video. I took some recce shots and shot some basic test footage to get an idea of the place I'm filming in and which exact places to use. I tried a few techniques also so that I had an idea of what they would look like. I did this without my model because some of my shots will be just of the location itself. Though basic and in lower quality than the actual video would be, I found this helpful because it gives me a visual aid and helps me to begin to piece together what the overall video will look like. All footage was shot from an iPhone 6 and was handheld, hence the shaky movement. Note: the actual video will be using a high quality digital camera and a tripod.

I uploaded a selection of different videos I took. It isn't very long as I only had a very short time there, and I aim to take more footage prior to the beginning of production (with the actors). In this particular instance, I didn't have much time to take footage as it was a spur of the moment situation. For this reason, I shot them from the wall across the promenade. I actual video will be filmed much closer to the sea, on the sand. However, some shots will be taken at a distance so this helps still. 

The first shot is a general establishing shot of the sea front. In my music video, I don't want any of the wind turbines or industrial areas in the background. I feel that it would ruin the aesthetic of the overall video. This means that I will aim to keep my music video in a central position of the beach to avoid any chances of this. I like this because it's quite simple yet still looks nice. I also filmed a tilt from the sand up into the sky. I really like tilts because they can give a nice effect to a piece of film. I will be using one in my music video so I thought I would test it out. I think it went quite well, but later production will be done with a tripod so it will be more controlled and have a smoother overall movement. 

Next, I messed with zooming and focusing. I want to play with the different types of focusing in my music video because I think it will look interesting. Obviously, my phone restricts me from using advanced zooming techniques but I managed to slightly use it. I like the outcome which is good because the higher quality camera will work a lot better than this, meaning it will look a lot better in my final piece. I also tried a panning shot. Again, it would be much smoother in a higher stage of production with the use of extra equipment. I also got the wind turbines and industrial works at the end of this shot. In order to avoid this, if I used it in my final video I would either make it a shorter pan or start more from the left.

These are some quick pictures I took of the beach to establish where I will be filming my music video. As it's a public place, I won't need permission to film there and will try to minimise affecting the public in any way. I'm trying to stay central to the beach because I don't want any of the surrounding areas including the section with wind turbines and steel works to ruin the overall look of my video. I want to use a filter for my video so it will essentially look faded and quite pale. I think this has a nice aesthetic to it and will make my music video look nicer than if the colours were bolder because I feel they would clash with each other. 

Personal Skills Audit

 

Call Sheets

My music video has been planned, so now I have to get out and film it. I will need to decide when and where to film it.  For this, I will create call sheets. These will help me to keep organised and know exactly what I will need for each particular location and day. Some of the dates may be subject to change: the days may not work in terms of my actor's availability when we get around to it but right now, they work perfectly fine for the both of us.

NOTE: sheets will be edited with equipment and any additional actors at a later date once this is decided.

Audience Profile

To go with this, I've added an example of Jackie's playlist hosted on Grooveshark. It gives off a generally indie vibe with a mixture of pop. It also keeps a little bit of her classic rock influences. Around half of it is by female artists which is significant because it shows how she is inspired by female artists:

Audience Research Survey Analysis

After carrying out my audience research survey, I analysed the results to gain an in depth view on what the participants thought.

 

Audience Research Survey

To find out more about the assumed target audience and to get more information on what's expected from my music video, I created an audience research survey to find out what the general audience would like. I sent it out on social media platforms such as Twitter to ensure I get answers from a range of different people, as well as sending it out to friends and family.

Treatment Sheet

Before the construction of my music video, I had to bring all of my ideas together to begin to plan it. To do this, I created a treatment sheet:

 

Initial Ideas

Initial Lyric Breakdown

Before fully deciding the content and themes of my music video, I broke down the lyrics to This Lonely Morning to look at the timings of lyrics so that I can consider certain shots. I also looked into the meaning of some of the lyrics to create ideas about what the video could visualise.
It's not a very long song at 2:42 minutes but I believe I can still make a good music video within this time.

Digipak Analysis

Song Choice

My chosen song is Hurricane by Halsey. An upcoming artist, Halsey's music is best broadly described as alternative or possibly dream pop and has been compared to artists such as Lorde and Lana Del Rey. Released in 2014 from the Room 93 EP, Hurricane is a fresh song. It has an aura of contemporary modernity which is broadcast through how it sounds almost delirious - a term that could be used to describe the youth of this generation through intoxication. That being said, the track also presents ideas of psychedelia through the echoed vocals and mentioning of drugs. At a time of 3:42, I believe Hurricane gives me the resources to create a successful music video using ideas of independence and youth which explodes through the lyrics.

Request for Permission

Before the planning and construction of my music video to ‘This Lonely Morning’ by Best Coast, I have to request permission from the copyright owner of this track to be sure that I can use it. This particular song comes from their EP Fade Away, released on singer Bethany Cosentino’s label Jewel City in partnership with Kobalt Label Services, a provider that allows artists and/or right owners to retain ownership of their work in return for a share of the revenues.

To request permission, I emailed Kobalt Label Services/Kobalt Music Group as there was no contact information for Jewel City alone, and I sent a tweet to Bethany Cosentino as the label owner and musician.

Email Permission Request



Permission tweet to Bethany Cosentino