Finnesh products

Feedback on director's commentary

Excellent  considerate understanding of the technologies used in production of the video, for example in terms of set design quality and the use of FCP to create effective set design and mise en scene – the kiss represents the electric feel.

There are evident links between creative decision making and use of technology on both productions of the video using professional digital cameras and in the post production editing process – in discussion of match of action, lip syncing and graphic matching’.  This is sustained and thorough and accurate in discussion of the branded themes of an electric feel for example in discussion of the beat of the song and pacing of the cuts used in the editing process.  

The commentary shows a discrete awareness of the use of new media technology and uses discriminating examples really well, particularly to selection and construction of narrative, editing techniques, such as FCP Tools – such as glow in colour process.   Excellent command of terminology and understands and discusses convergence really well – this is impressive knowledge at times.

There is sustained justified decision making links between the technologies used the product and audience reception in terms of the creativity that the group used.  Recognises the need to account for errors in the post production stage and the importance of convergent technologies.  Well evaluated.

This is a well considered documentary

Feedback on Director's Commentary

Evaluation Task 4

New Media Technolagy Pre-production

In the pre-production of our music video we used new media technology to assist in our prperation of produceing our media texts.

Internet reaserch

I used the internet in differnt ways manely to research the media products we were going to produce but also record my findings on blogger. I used google, a search enigne to browes the entire internet acording to the critria i used to search. I used the google image serch to look at poster, digipack, costume and any orther mise en sceane for our video. Thease finding in my rearch can seen see in all of our media prdocucts. The more significant rearch is all recorded on my blog. This help to see the evolution of my meida texts aswell gives a refernce allowing to review on the progress I have made.

Youtube, is the largest video sharing website in the world. As well as promsumer uploads my users, artists ussually post there videos on the site. This allowed me to study the differnt types of music video whether driven by visual effects, narrative or performance in a range of genres.

We also based our name of our band in haitian as Lanmou meens love. We discovered this my useing google translate.

Photoshop

We used photoshop CS5 to edit and design our bands digipack and poster. photoshop is a advansed photo editing software. This allowe us to adjust emiages colour tone, threshold, size and use colour boost tools. Photoshop also ment we could create, merge and blend layers together. We used thease features throughout the process of produceing both the poster and the digipack.

Animatic

We shot each frame of our storey board on a digital sony camera. This allowed us allowed us to then edit it on final cut pro to make and animatic. This allowed us to see how the video would look and feel of it. It also ment we could show and explain are ideas in a more detail. We up loaded the shots onto final cut where we could cut the shots together as we would in the real editing of the final footage.

Feedback on Evaluation Task 3: Audience Feedback

I feel that this is a sound set of entries on your audience feedback, which you have attempted to refkect upon and evaluate.  You do need to identify which audience comments fit with your view on the advantages and disadvantages of the MV that you recognised.  I see that you have blogged Hall' reception Theory which you need to apply to your own audience feedback and then finally you need to address set address.

Reception Theory

Stuart Hall argued that the researchers should direct there attention towards analysis of that social and political contextv in which content is produced (encodeing) awell as the consumption of media content.

Hall accepts some elements of semiology on two grounds.

First, communicators(encoders) choose to encode messages. Ie media messages are given a preferred reading, or what might now be called a spin. Secondly recivers(decoders) do not have to recieve thease messages ie oppositinal readings based on there own experiance and outlook in life in general.

Hall has developed a new approach of reception analysis. A central feature of this approach is its focus on how varius types of audienjce members make sencse of spefic forms of content. He argues that texts create a message  which can be read in differnt ways. Ie a preferd or alterbat interpretations.

Focus group reserch

Here is a link to a video on focus groups in refrence to advertiseing. We looked at this to see what sort of questions we should adopt in order to get as much out of the focus group as possible.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG1HeOsEskA



This is a video of the focus group which we filmed on my phone. After showing the group our video and giveing out hand outs showing the poster and the digipak designs.

Thease are questions we could asked our group and my evauation of there responce.

What is your opinion of the bands style?
We recieved a positive response to this as the audience saw the bands style as being alternative and indie rock. This is what we whanted there style to be. So this was very sucseeful.

What  did you like about the video?
The majority of the group seemed to faver the the danceing aspect compared to the narative and performance. I think this is due to the quickly cut movement and colours combination. Also the after effects had  mixed reviews, this seemes it may come down to personal taste.

What don't you like about the video?
There was critism of our lead singer lip syncing to the words of the song. I this this was simply due to that he did not lern the words carefully enough. There was also critisism to the to the attarctivness of the band on whevere they wetre good lookin enough but this was debated through the group on whever it adds to there style and charcter. This is what we wanted as we did not want to casta gerneruically good looking band, playing generic music. This supports are more alternative artist as opposed to a more mainstream one.

What elements do you think we could improve in the Campaign?
The poster and digipack was not as well recived as we would of liked. The main ctrisism was on the poster butr agin seeing as this very much is personal prefrence it was debated though the group. If we had to redesign our poster and digipak we would make it much more simple and streamline.

Was the Narrative clear in the Music Video, if not why?
The group wanted more shots and explination of the narrative. Unfortnatly on the day we didnt get all the shots we wanted to get meening the narrative is not aswell construted as we would have liked.Meaning the group did not fully understand what was happening.

Did you pick up any messages or hidden meanings?
The only message that we wished to convay was that the kiss symbolised the change in video. Most of the audience got this meaning, understanding it well.

Would you buy this album?
The marity said they would have to see more of there song to fully commite to buying the full album. This is understandable seeing as people ussually dont buy a full album for one song. But it does meen that the video and camiagne was a sucsee in promoteing the band and its awareness.

Could you see this band at a major festival (Reading), and why?
People aggred that they could easilly see this band at   music festival. This is postive as we have tryed to develope a band that would apeal to festuival goers.

Does the Star image suit the band's style?
The group seemed to agree that the star image was not too forced like it may be seen in more mainstream pop culture. This is what we tryed to do as it is very in line to the genre.

Would this video appeal  your friends?
The group seemed to think trhat this video would appeal to there friends. This is a good thing as the band can rely on thre fans word of mouth spreading there popularity.

Youtube feedback

This is some reviews left on Youtube. Most of the reviews are positive whilst XEmeraldXGreenX does offer some consectutive critiism concerning shots as well as more linking towards the couple and the kiss.

Feedback

I feel your presentation is sound and communicates some effective points about your Mv and the ancilliary tasks. I do feel that you would benefit from revising your presentation after re-reading the notes that I went through in class would help you develop your evaluation for examples on the marketing mix and branding of your star image (refer to Dyer) I would also like you to consider with more purpose how effective the products work together and where they would be placed. There is plenty of opportunity for you to compare your products/ campaign to real media products and campaigns.

task 2

Feedback

There is a proficient knowledge and understanding of media conventions used.  I feel that you could add more analysis and evaluation of the music video stills.  The evaluation of the CD digipak is very good.  I also like the way in which the work is presented and your attempts to incorporate academic argument which is really thought through.  Try to add one more post which addresses the question set.  Action these points and please make the necessary additional to the task.

Codes and conventions powerpoint

We used codes and conventions in our coursework in order for the audience to decode or reconize the media text. McMahon and Quinn provided understanding and classifcation of codes. Technical codes are an example of this charatorgorization. We exprexed the importance of the two centaral charachertrs be feautring lots of close ups. Thease enable the audience to understand or see that thease characheters are more signifixcant as auidence- charachter relationship is developed.

Codes are like a language, which when shared operate by means of conventions. The love storey in our video shows that we did keep to thaese conventions as girl meets boy is one of the most conventional narartives. If this was a gay realtionship for istance this woukld be breaking conventions as it would be going against the normal.

The neon rave part of our video breaks conventions and codes as the party almost goes into a fantasy world world. It breaks conventions as it goes against what you would be expecting in a video of just a normal house party which was shown through costume, performance and lighting.

Feedback

Excellent presentations posted, lots of effort to achieve this.  It is clear how the product has been constructed and the decisions made.  I like the way in which you have recognised the conventions of the CD digipak and have worked with these in mind.  I would have liked a few more comments on the design and constructed meaning and how this would have appealed to the intended audience.  Well Done.  Can you embed the presentations rather than use links?

Evaluation of poster and digipack

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcuvPz7iPH4JZGZwM3EzanRfNjk4ZmM3ejk1Z2s&hl=en_US

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AcuvPz7iPH4JZGZwM3EzanRfNzI5ZndnYjVnazQ&hl=en_US

Feedback

I like the Cd digipak and the product design which fits well with your music video shoot.  You are clearly in command of the process of construction, evident by using screengrabs. I also like the slideshow you produce through Google documents - very informative and understanding of CD conventions.  This could have been embedded in the post, rather than using a url link, it would improve the presentation on the blog.
Your evaluation of the digipak is very concise - you do not appear to have followed the advice that was given on how to evaluate this product, which has led to some descriptive work.  Can you please re-edit these posts as soon as possible

Digipak draft update

Ian added more colour to the design, it is still uncompleted but the theame is finnished. All that is left is replaceing the band members.

Digipack draft

This is a draft of the digipack. This will not be the final one as we are currently replaceing the cast. I t converges well with the poster to keep a reconasiable style and theame which the audience can connect to.

This was make on adobe photoshop by coping images from the internet. This is a picture of the back panel. And screen shots of the bar code and production company emblem so that the digipaki can fit the conventions set by the industry.





Lanmou poster draft

The Poster is a draft of what our poster will look like it will not be the final one as the cast has not yet been finalalized thanks to people agrreing to do the shoot but recantly pulling out for varius reasons. We hope to finalize the cast tomorrow as our shoot is at the end of next week.

Account of Shoot Day.

My groups shoot day was on the 18^th of November 2011. During the shoot day we had to set up the schools production studio, then film the music video and then clean up for the next production team that were coming the next day.

After school on the 17^th we set up as much of the set as we could in order to save time on our shoot day. We stayed on after at school to about 9 o’clock. In our set we initially placed a raised floor for the bases of the living room which we were trying to create. We wanted it raised so that we could use lighting effects around the side of the room for when the electric feel comes. We then put up the walls using large bits of ply wood and clamps. We decided in preproduction that we wanted our room to have some more shape so we produced an arc window. This made the room seem more believable and added character. We then wallpapered the wall; this was probably the most tedious part of the preparation as it did take some time. We then laid the carpet on the floor. This created the basic living room. We worked efficiently in order to create what we had previous wanted. The preparation we made that evening became very valuable the next day when we could quickly start filming, only having to arrange the furniture, the band and any additional lighting that was necessary.

Once we had finished setting up, we went to the dance studio to get the dancers who were starring in our video ready. They rehearsed a 30-second dance that they were all happy with and we made sure that this fitted the theme of our video and once we were all pleased with it, we got them ready with their costumes and make-up. We then went to find our other cast members and got them ready too. We got our band set up and asked them to play through the song a few times, mainly so they could get used to their instruments but also so they could be comfortable playing with each other and to tire them out a little so they looked more natural when we started shooting. We got our two main characters in costume and painted our main girl with UV paint so she could satisfactorily signify the ‘Electric Girl’, standing out from the rest of the cast. We started shooting just about on schedule which was a positive thing as it showed everything had gone as planned.

We started shooting at about 10 o’clock. We all had a go at being on the camera, directing and doing the playback, swapping around at certain intervals so we could all have a say in the different roles working towards our piece. We started off shooting the party scene, which we used for setting the scene and introducing our audience to the party. This allowed us to get shots of our two main characters in the normal situation of the party and we could therefore introduce the connection using the editing and post-production. Due to the fact that we had previously worked out which shots we wanted, we had organization on the day. This also gave us a chance to shoot any ideas we thought about on the day once we had got the definite shots, leading to more experimental shots we were key in the final product.

Admittedly, we encountered some pressure of time as the dancers were only available until lunch; therefore we had to get all of this section of the video done before then. We also had to get a lot of the party section done before lunch too as the dancers were a big part of our narrative and it would have looked empty without them. So this is another reason why we got shots of the party first and once we had finished this we could get everything ready to shoot the dancers in the dark with the UV paint theme. This included painting the dancers completely in UV and making sure the rest of our cast had at least some of the paint too so everything looked in place. We had previously ordered UV jewelry as well as UV contact lenses which were worn by our male protagonist. This paint made the party look more interesting and therefore showed this change in the song due to the change of set, make up and costume.  This created the juxtaposition we had hoped for between the first and second section of our video.

We knew we would have no problems with the UV paint as luckily we had previously tested the paint out on all of our cast members the day before for health and safety issues – making sure there were no allergic reactions. This also gave us a chance to make sure it fitted the scene and looked exactly how we wanted it. Therefore, this let us be perfectionists about the costumes in our music video, and it turned out exactly how we wanted it on the day.

So to start shooting our second part of our video we started with shots of the dancers. We got them on set and tried out different shots we wanted. We could all have a bit to say about what we wanted due to the fact we had a screen on set which we had attached a lead from the camera to the screen. Therefore, whatever was happening on the camera could be seen by the rest of the group on the big screen. This gave us a good idea of how the final product would look as not all of us could crowd round the camera at once. The lighting was very key in this part of the video. We had switched on lights around the side of our set and we had included a couple of extra lights which spun around as well as projections of patterns on the walls. The most important light however was the UV light which highlighted the paint on our dancers making the shot look very nice. After doing a couple of shots we decided the lights on the side were too much for the shot and so we turned them off and find a much better outcome. Once we knew that the lighting was right, we then played around with the aperture of the camera in order to lighten the image and bring out the features of our dancers as well as the UV paint. We started off with a wide shot of all the dancers and followed this with a close up of each dancer and a couple of experimental shots, letting the camera slide throughout the dancers as they performed their routine. 

After this, all that was left was to shoot the performance element. We did the first half of the narrative and found it to be very successful, getting shots of each band member and in good time too. We then did the ‘electric feel’ half, where again we changed the lighting and tried more experimental and interesting shots to depict the excitement and the juxtaposition during the video. After we had all the shots we had planned and hoped for of the band, we then had a chance to film any other shots we wanted of the party as we realized it would be a positive thing having as many shots as possible as we did not want to come short when it came to editing.