The Costume

We decided to have a white t-shirt,watch and glass to contrast the black background

Blog Evaluation-Question 4

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

Throughout the duration of creating our media products, we used many media technologies in the construction of our projects. Firstly, we researched possible songs to create a music video to. To do this we used http://www.youtube.com/ and http://www.google.co.uk/. This helped us analyse and consider different creations of music videos within our minds. We then put the possibilities to a vote taking in the the ideas of how we would create the video. Calvin Harris was chosen as the group already had certain ideas they would like to carry out as the piece of music was upbeat and expeditious.

After the planning process, we went on a reccy taking images of locations on our camera. This helped us create an idea of positive and efficient places to film. During the filming process, we only had three people within the group so this meant we had to delegate the roles which meant Osman preforming and then myself and Ahmed taking turns using the camera.

During filming, we used a series of camera shots and angles as we wanted to use various shots within our film. We found that we could film all the footage on a tripod, as we needed to film in difficult positions, therefor having to holding the camera ourselves. Also, when going to film on the bus, we realised that the bus would be moving, this would make it difficult to film. However, our teach advised us to use a rig to film as it would create a very interesting effect in our video and we could enhance and add effects during the editing process. We found that this worked and many people commented on how good it was when completed. In addition to this, the scene, in which many people also liked was the low angle used when filming the legs of people walking through the door. This was quite easy to film as we placed the camera on a tripod in a corner where no-one could see it then pressed record when students came in and out the the doors for their lunch break. Many people thought this was efficient.

After filming we then used a usb cable to log and capture our footage on Final Cut Pro where we would edit and complete our video. When we looked at our bin within Final Cut Pro, this made us realise that we would need more footage as when we captured the footage, the quality was not very good and made us rethink the whole process as we would have to go out and re-shoot some scenes again. Also, the lip syncing that we had record was not very efficient as Osman did not know the lyrics that well. This meant that Osman had to rehearse and get the lyrics right for next time. The second time we filmed the lip syncing we decided to film this on a green screen as we did not have enough time to set and prep the theatre. Later on in the process we found it hard to make it look like the one we had done naturally in the theatre using the lighting system as we now had to add different effects to make it look realistic. In the end we managed to this as we added effects, such as;cross dissolves, flashes,glows and light rays. Also, whilst we are within the effects department, during the music video, we increased the pace of the footage many times to correspond to the upbeat tempo of the song. Also, the cuts of the scenes within the timeline had to be very short and pacy as we wanted it to link to the beats within the music. We also, used many transitions within our music video to link present scenes to their previous scenes smoothly and to do this we used cross dissolves and fades in and out.

After completing our music video, we created a directors commentary to show some of the effects that we we used. This gives you a direct audio from the directors of the music video.

This an image of the equipment that we used.

Tripod, Video Camera, Rig and Camera used to take images of locations.

This is an image of our group holding the equiptment that we used.

Blog Evaluation-Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This is a video of our peer assessment. After completing our music video, we gathered some of our peers together and asked them if they would assess our work and give us feedback of what they thought was good and what we could of done better. We filmed them watching the whole film and then asked them questions at the end of it.

When we asked our audience if we could better our media product they told us that the time in which we had to complete the music video was used efficiently, however they did criticise the product and say that the story did repeat itself within the timeline. Although, many peers did like the way in which we matched the footage taken, to the tempo of the song and the effects used were creative. They also liked the way in which we used Osman as the only character, as this is where they understood the theme and concept of the music video. They also spotted that during Osman lip syncing, the green screen was sneaking its way through on the back background and onto Osman's head. Overall,the feedback we received was quite overwhelming as we thought it would be a lot more negative.

After taking in the positive and slightly negative feedback, we held a group discussion and came to the conclusion that we did not have enough time to change everything as our deadline was looming. We sorted the green screen out the best we could as we had to adjust the chomer key.

We learnt that we should of asked for feedback during the middle of the task as we could have had more of an insight of what other people think and how we could of made our product more effective and to the audiences needs.

Blog Evaluation-Question 2

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

Our main product and ancillary texts all display continuity as the same mis en scen has been used throughout the planning of each of there products. As the colours; white and black were essential to the theme we were trying to portray. During the completion of our ancillary texts we misplaced the work whilst transferring the texts to our blog. This was a set back as we panicked at the time left towards the deadline.However, in the end we managed to re-create most of the previously done texts. During the process, we decided to use screen grabs which allowed us to keep the continuity of the music video and apply it to our digi pack.

We think the CD cover and the magazine advert help sell the product enormously as the context of the actual texts both correspond to the music video as the same colours and same character is used.

In addition to this,we also think that the magazine cover and digi pack also represent a mysterious and techno element to the music video and this will make the audience want to buy it. Also, the CD cover and magazine advert does not recommend an age barrier to buy the product leaving the purchasing to a wider audience not a niche market.

We, as a group feel that the relation and the effectiveness of all three products has a very clear and strong combination of correlation.

Blog Evaluation-Question 1

In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product was inspired by many music videos as in the post production we researched many videos and hand picked certain conventions. The theme of our video was being alone. Many artists focus on the theme; being alone and often describe themselves being alone in different situations;for example love,work. However, the song we chose lyrically focuses on being alone in life.

When planning our video, we looked at many videos which the artists were alone in, however at the end of the song they reunited with a friend/lover/family member;this is typical of a music video as the artists always leave the audience with a happy ending. On the other hand, we wanted to break away from these conventions and create a different ending which the audience would not expect. We wanted Osman to still be alone when the song ended, despite looking at his watch throughout the video, making the audience think that he is waiting for someone eles.

Also, the mis en scen, that we chose for our production, was very important to the the theme that we were trying to portray as white and black are two very contrasting colours, as they are cold and have a sense of loneliness and confusion. We took this idea from many videos we watched through YouTube.


These images are screen grabs from two very popular songs of their genre. Chris Brown"I can transform you" and Kylie Minogue "All I see". These are two songs in which we researched and inspired us to use the two colours white and black as they stand out and make the video very exciting as you can use many effects,like we did within our music video. As we did not have their standard and quality of lighting,sound and costume we had to make do with creative ideas and effects which Finale Cut Pro enabled us with. We used the effects to enhance the quality of our film and make it realistic.

In addition to this the costume that we used was all white, as Osman wore a white t-shirt, white watch and white glasses. The glasses that Osman wore within our music video were inspired By Kanye West. As Kanye West wore a pair of white glasses within his video and they became iconic.

To conclude, our main production was inspired by many music videos of the same genre. Although, we created new ideas, which our fellow peers think are very initiative and different.

Devastated

Today we had to apply our print based texts onto a USB. When we did this we lost our work and could not be able to retrieve it. We were devastated with three days to go. We are beginning again and luckily we saved majority of the images and fonts and symbols, however some of it was deleted and now we are trying our best to re-create our ancillary texts within such short time.

Ancillary Texts

When we had completed our main media product we were very pleased however we had to think about completing our print based extracts on Photoshop. We had 1 week and a half and to be honest we were running short of time. we needed to plan and create.

In today's lesson, we decided that we would stick to our original theme and colour scheme within our CD cover and magazine advert. We searched the Internet to attain ideas. There were many images on google of adverts and digi-packs, however we wanted ours to grab the audiences attention;this is when the blog came to our attention as the screen grab that we had recently analysed and applied to our blog of Osman doubled, looked to the group as a brilliant cover of the digi pack as it showed us the theme we were trying to represent;a confused, lonely character who is stuck in a parallel universe as the black background represents a never ending black hole.

Peers passing passing commented that it looked very good and creative as they understood the concept. As a group we wanted to create a series of four panels which would want the audience to buy it as it reflected the nature of the song. Secondly, on the list of to-do was to apply the text. The text on Photoshop did not grab our attention,therefor we began to research different font styles. We came across a website, called; http://www.dafont.com/, we found that this website enabled us to use the correct font which corresponded to our music and style of genre. However, we had a problem downloading the text that we wanted as we wanted to apply the artists name and the song name. We took time figuring our different ways to do this but none of them seemed to work. We then transferred the font the Paint by print screening the page and erased the excess material which we did not need leaving just the font that we did need.We then applied this Photoshop in the top left hand corner of the image above. This was our 1st panel completed of our digi pack . Our next panel was also a screen grab which we used in order to compliment the 1st one . this had no font/text on it as it was just an image of Osman looking bewilded in the distance. The 3rd panel was an image of Osman with a black background however we did not just want the image we wanted the lyrics of the song inserted on top of Osman's white t-shirt in black font to contrast with the white costume. The fourth panel was the last panel which would be the back of the CD cover. This had to be typical of any CD cover as we had to apply certain conventions of CD back covers for example it had to contain a bar code and copyright details.

We also included within our back cover the other songs by Calvin Harris that would have featured within this CD.

Now that was completed we had to focus on our magazine, for our magazine advert we had to create ideas which would be different from our CD cover. We then research the original Calvin Harris to get some ideas. We found this image which as a group stood out to us.

We decide to use this image as a template and create our own based around our own colour theme balck and white. The reason why this stood out, is because the head of Calvin Harris has his techno glasses on and within our music video Osman also wears his own techno white glasses. This then helped us visulise the final product of our magazine advert.