A2 Media

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

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?    

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

'In what ways does my music video use, challenge or develop forms or conventions of real media products.'             1) Narrative or Artist Performance? - At the beginning of the project we had a choice to include narrative or artist performance in our video. Though my idea has changed a lot I have always been definite that the video would have a narrative with some sort of storyline. My first idea to have a ballerina and boxer had a lot more of an in depth storyline than the final video, however it still has a narrative behind it. I would say over recent years music videos have moved away from artist performance and more towards a combination of the two but this tends to vary depending on genre or whether it's an artist or band. Solo artists tend to star in their videos while bands rarely do or just have the lead member. Though this is the case for the genre of music, a lot of Rudimental's music video do just have a narrative because...

This is the front and back cover for the CD to accompany my music video. I feel I have definitely captured the style of the artist and it fits well with their previous artwork. I have kept with a simple colour scheme, grey and green. The font is the same as used in the music video and on the poster, linking all three pieces of media. The black and white background also fits with the grayscale effect used in the music video. Having this basic style on the front cover makes the logo stand out clearly; this is so important because the logo is strongly linked to the band. The whole idea behind the design of the album is simple but effective, the idea that the album is instantly recognised. Also the fact that Rudimental don't use their individual identity for publicity instead focus on the music; this cover is supposed to be stripped back from fancy artistry and used focused on the music.

I felt that filming at butterfly studios went really well. Josie was a natural in front of the camera, I couldn't have asked for a better acting seeing as she was quite nervous and unsure of what she should be doing. I managed to get a range of shots and the studio was really good with all the proper lights and extra props we experimented with a little.

  From the rough cut where I just had the footage of the two actors, I took out the pieces of footage I felt were the weakest and not essential for the story. I cut the lip syncing footage up to put throughout the video. I felt the clips didn't blend well and the cut looked blunt so I added the fade in and out effects, the dissolve and layered the footage.

After receiving my questionnaire feedback I decided to look into hiring a studio which I could use to recreate a recording studio. I heard of butterfly studios through a friend and decided to research into it. It is just the other side of Norwich which is convenient and offered a reasonable rate to hire the space. After exchanging a few emails with the studio manager I booked the studio. I hope to film on Thursday with my actor.

After publishing my rough cut I made a short questionnaire to get some constructive criticism to use to make changes before submitting my final cut.  I got really good feedback from my questionnaire about my rough cut. There was mostly 3s and 4s for how well people understood the narrative. I was quite happy with this because the video isn't suppose to show the whole narrative but it's aim is to introduce the characters. My target audience felt that the video strongly fitted with the song, with most people voted a 4 or 5. I'm really happy with this and it means I have been able to recreate the emotion of the song in the video. Most people said they liked the way I cross cut between the two characters and the variation of shots. The general consensus was there was something missing from the video, a couple of people suggested a third element of artist performance that could link the singer to the audience; I really liked this idea and decided to look into it further. ...

Filming went really well, John and Harry acted naturally in front of the camera and I was able to get many shots from lots of different angles. I was worried because we were filming outside and it was starting to rain but it held off so I didn't have to reschedule. First I filmed the shots of Harry and John playing football together, tackling each other and a penalty shoot out. Then I filmed the shots of Harry on his own sitting and playing with the football and leaning against the tree.

Filming went really well on Saturday, I filmed late morning and the light was good which improved the quality of the footage. I wasn't under any time constraint so I was able to experiment with my shots and angles. First I filmed the shots of Ruth, Chris and Freddie together playing on the park and woods around it. I many used my handheld camera so I could get lots of close shots of what was happening and move around quickly to vary my angles. When I filmed Ruth on her own I focused a lot more on getting some arty shots and the effect of the shots an angle. I tried to capture lots of empty space in the shots to try an introduc e the idea of loneliness and an a bsence of her family.

I've chosen to use Powerless by Rudimental as the song for my music video. This has been one of my potential choices from when I first changed my idea. I wasn't really sure whether it would fit or not but after I put it with my footage to see how they went together, I thought they fitted really well. I've divided the song into sections of the choruses and verses so that I can match my footage accordingly. The music video to this already contains a strong narrative as do many of Rudimental's videos.

      As Rudimental tend to stylise their logo for the album. I started with the black and white original generic logo and then edited it in Photoshop. I chose the green colour because I feel it shows growth and life; with the album being about family and the tittle of the album is home. I decided to go with the black inside because it makes the writing clear and stand out against the green. This logo will connect the poster and album together because it's personalised to the album. 

18th February - Park with Ruth, Freddie and Chris. 25th February - Garden with John and Harry. 28th February - Boxing Ring with Lane and Hannah.

This is Ruth, Freddie and Chris. I asked these to film because I wanted it to look like a young family and I was positive they would be willing to help out. I am hoping that their connection to each other will come through on camera. This is John and Harry they are brothers and have kindly agreed to be in the music video. As with the family I want there connection as brothers to come through in the footage. There's is a big age gap in there and I would like the influence of the older brother to be obvious when I film, so he comes across as a role model. Josie acted as Becky Hill the featured singer on the song. The setting was a recording studio were Josie lip synced the song, with the recording microphone and stand I managed to get as a prop.

This is where I intend to film the scenes of Ruth, Chris and Freddie in the park. The sort of shots I plan to film are ones of them with Freddie playing on the slide and swings and then some shots of Ruth on her own showing that Freddie and Chris are missing from her life.

The song I have chosen is by Rudimental off their album home released in 2013. Rudimental are a British drum and bass band. The album features artists like John Newman, Emeli Sande and Becky Hill. The album has a mix of a chilled RnB vibe and drum and bass. This is the album cover for home and there latest album 'we the generation' released in 2015. The album covers are of a similar style they don't use a clear photo of the band instead they prefer a more artistic cover. This is good because I don't have to worry about having a photo of an artist but I can be more creative with my album cover.   I've noticed that on all the work they have their logo in the same design and font but altered slightly to make it unique. I would like to try this and then use that on the album cover and poster which will link the to together nicely. The album covers are both very colourful so they stand out. They are different in that the tittle of the album is clear in the...

  Each group gave a two minute pitch about our idea for a music video and song choice to the class. For feedback most people said they liked the idea of the girl dancing in the boxing ring because it's different and unusual concept. Having this for the full song length would be too repetitive so the idea of bringing in another element with more of a story is a good idea. They suggested something which linked more with the song, because I hadn't decided on song they said this idea needed a lot of development. Now I'm going to focus on this second element with more story and filming at the boxing ring so I can start editing that footage.

The target audience for my product is young adults/teenagers, this is because the genre I'm looking at is typically aimed at this audience so I think it would be sensible to stay with the same audience. Music videos are mostly viewed on sites like you tube which is mainly used by a young audience. Having a main character of this age means the audience will find it easier to relate and engage with the video and being set in the modern time means the video is in a comfortable setting for the viewer. The video is suppose to engage the audience by causing an emotional response empathised by the music.   

This is a rough storyboard for the revised idea. These are some of the key scenes for my video. The wide angle shot of the boxing ring with the ballerina and some other shots of the dancer as well there. I will also try a time lapse at the boxing ring as well. Other scenes are the family at the park, job interview and first boyfriend.

These are the song choices I have thought of for the revised narrative of the music video. 

For the front of my album cover I was thinking of using this idea of shoe tossing, where people tie the shoe laces of their shoes together and throw them over a telephone line, trees or fences. This is a tradition in many American States and is done for many different reasons; for example it is done as a sport, to show someone has died or to show the completion of a stage in that persones life. For the cover I was going to use ballet shoes and have one smaller shoe for the young girl and then the bigger one to represent the other girl.  Also included on the front will be the album title and artist name.  'In some neighborhoods, shoes tied together and hanging from power lines or tree branches signify that someone has died. The shoes belong to the dead person. The reason they are hanging, legend has it, is that when the dead person's spirit returns, it will walk that high above the ground, that much closer to heaven.' My plan for the rest of the pannels is for them to...

One of the props I have bought is a mirror this is for a scene where the character stands a in front of the mirror and uses a lipstick to circle all her flaws. This is a very important part of the video as it shows how she see herself and how much she critics herself. This mask is for the shots in the dressing room. In the story she is auditioning for the main part in a musical and the scene in the dressing room is her imagination as she sees herself getting the part. It represents her dream of being a successful ballerina; the fact it is a mask as well shows she uses it to hide behind. Other props I would like to use is a poster of swan lake Russian Ballet or of a famous ballerina. This is to go up in her room and use as a transition shot between her room and the ballet studio. I also plan to have her reading a few magazines to show the influence of media on her.