Finished Film

EVALUATION - Question 4 (Presentation includes table)

EVALUATION - Question 3 (Recorded myself talking)

EVALUATION - Question 2 (Presentation includes annotations and table)

EVALUATION - Question 1 (Directors Commentary)

EVALUATION - Question 1 (Prezi)

FILMING AND EDITING - first filming. Problems and solutions?

I was really excited about my first filming but it did not go well! The weather was really bad and thus the lighting was not as attractive on that particular day but I had to do some filming so I decided to shoot in my iPhone. Another problem was that I could not film at Alexandra palace due to fireworks.

I still somehow managed to get few shots. But when I uploaded my iPhone videos on the school computer the quality was very very bad thus I had to redo my filming. Overall, my first filming did not go as I intended it to but I learnt a lot from it. From next time, I always made sure that whichever location I will be filming at was a safe and available place to work at and also that I do my weather research before hand for every filming!
Moreover, I took these situations in a positive way because although it delayed my filming but it also gave me more time to work on my blog and do more planning and research for my music video therefore I was happy for that.

FILMING AND EDITING- Reviewing my footage

At first, I was not pleased with the quality of shots because I had to do the filming in my phone due to bad lighting which did not turn out very well.

However, again I booked equipments and redid the filming. This time I was happy with the quality of my shots but after getting feedback from my teacher I realised that I did not have enough shots therefore I again had to book equipments in order to have variety of shots. The biggest worry I had was for the lip syncing as my artist had to learn the lyrics of the song to give a realistic performance and the sound of the song had to be loud enough so when I will be editing all the shots the lip syncing can match exactly with the song. Moreover, to have more variety I filmed my artist lip syncing the whole song 4 times at 4 different locations. I was very happy and satisfied with this. I know that I do not have a large amount of performance but that is due to how my narrative and generic conventions of the song is thus I wanted to maintain all that in order to match with the style of the track.

FILMING AND EDITING- what is challenging? Where are your skills growing the most?

From my first filming experience the most challenging thing is not to rely on the weather to be changed. Quick decision making is vital to decide what else we can film instead of filming a scene which is outside so that is one of the most important skills which can be challenging.
Another challenging factor is to have lack of variety of shots. After my first filming when I uploaded my shots, along with bad quality I also lacked the variety of differnt shots so keeping that in mind is very important. Finally, the artist has to learn the lyrics of the song and the sound of the song when filming should be loud in order for the editing to become easy which can be challenging for the artist.

I began to grow my skills by learning the importance of various shots and how to take them due to the practice which we had done before on 'Hit Me Baby'. That helped me in many ways and gave me the confidence when I had to do my real filming.

I also began to learn more about 'Final Cut Express' and how it's used for music videos. The mount of effort I put due to the fast and short cuts between various shots. Also I learnt how to match the original songs through lipsync tutorial which we had recently therefore all this helped me largely on various skills and now if I get a chance to make another music video then I would be very happy, more prepared and more confident to do it.

My Response on teachers comments

MUSIC VIDEO - I have had many feedbacks from my teacher. Which is not always negative but also positive feedback on the changes I made and some of my own ideas of how I presented them in different ways. Overall, my teacher liked the variety of shots I have produced and have stick with my plan in order to film at the locations which I wanted and following the narrative which I had made. Along the way, he suggested to change some of the shots and take them on a different location.

The left palate shows the previous shots and the right palate shows the redone shots at a different location after the feedback. I tried to follow as much of my teacher's feedback as I can because it was vital for me to produce the best I can and following my teacher's feedback was the most important way to do this in order to create the best I can. Furthermore,  during the per assessment I was suggested to add in some extra effects to make the whole music video look more interesting and eye-catching for the audience therefore I had to redo my tightly edited parts and fit in some effects. I had to do this very carefully because I also had to keep in mind the amount of time of my whole music video production along with the scenes which were most important according to the narrative of my video.

Here, I have used rectangle iris and page peel to make the video more than just shots. These effects will help make the whole video look much more interesting for the audience.

CD NET - My teacher also liked my overall CD net but suggested me too add in things along the way.

For example, the first picture does not include extra features such as information about my video therefore, my teacher suggested to include that to make it look more professional. I did some further research and looked at different tracks page from music albums and they all contained their won website hence I also added a website to make it look more authentic and show that there is more to this whole music production along with the CD and the music video.

ADVERT POSTER - For my advert poster, I was given more feedback on my font for title and artist name text which I have changed a lot. Evidence for this is shown previously on the fonts page and advert poster page.

BLOG WORK - Blogger work contains a huge chunk of the marks and this will also decide my overall grade therefore I have tried my best to put in as much as I can on the blog to show evidence for my work and analysis the different stages I went through during my research and how I finished all the tasks given to me regarding the CD Net and the Advert poster. I have also shown how I have done my editing during the main of my music video and also how I lip-synced it. Furthermore, I have also explained my use of photoshop. from my teacher, we were given a list of all the tasks and information which we need to put on the blog which explains all my work and how I did it. Overall, all the feedback which I received from my teacher helped me a lot in every stage in terms of improving my work and also learning how all the tasks are done sufficiently.

DIGIPAK - Feedbacks from Teacher

3rd/10/14

Feedback on production blog

What went well:

• Evidence of reflection on 'Hit Me Baby' 
• The pop video timeline completed 

Even better if: 

• Complete auteur theory analysis 
• More work needed on 'Hit Me Baby' video (editing) 

24th/10/14

Feedback on music promo

What went well:

• The first 10-15 seconds of edit to the music looks very effective 

Even better if:

• Closeup of the artist and lipsync needs more cutting 
• The editing must match with the fast drum beats
• Must maintain pace of editing 1:40-1:48

Production blog feedback

What went well:

• Nikita has been wordy on her storyboard 
• Identifying locations 
• Has completed shot sheet
• Booked equipments with Mrs.Excell 

Even better if:

• Risk assessment needs to be completed 

My response:

I will get the risk assessment and the filming done during the half term so I get plenty of time to do my editing when I am back after the half term. 

11th/12/14

Feedback on Music promo work

What went well:

• Good initial shots - edited to the music 
• Lots of extra useable footage already 

Even better if:

• More performance footage and close ups 

16th/02/15

Advert

• Change the background and put something which relates to your genre 
• Leave space for digipak to put on

Front Cover 

• Peer assessment - Natalie and elisia adviced me to change the name size of the artist because it was bigger and bolder than the album title therefore to promote my album more I had to change the name size in order for the title to appear bigger and clear.

Tracks Page

• Add more about what else will go on the tracks cover e.g. Videos 

This feedback from my teacher and my classmates has been very helpful in terms of me to understand how to improve my digipak and make it look professional.

23rd/02/15

What went well:

• Front cover background matching with the genre 
• CD cover looks very nice and again matching with the genre 

Even better if:

• On the tracks page, add more details on your video showing its a digipak rather than just a CD
• Make the artist more closer on the front cover to establish his brand image
• Add the insert on lyric book to make it more authentic 

26th/02/15

What went well:

•  There's good use of text on the cover, much better than the previous version. Looks more like an album cover.
• Good to see that changes have been made from the previous oral feedback by adding the video details on the tracks pages to make it look more like digipak rather than just a CD. 
• Also good to see the insert imported on the lyric book cover to make it look more professional - the insert being light and see-through black effect adds more impact on it rather than it being completely black. 

Even better if:

• His image could be more bigger (close-up) to get more focus on the artist himself

This is a picture of my teachers feedback on my digipak to show as evidence.

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  The second picture is feedback on my blogger work and evaluation question 1. I have made the changes mentioned and improved my work.

FILMING AND EDITING - Overview of Everything

Music Video
How I came up with a narrative?
Run boy run's original album name is called 'Golden Age' and this inspired me to come up with my narrative. I have studied so much about the history of golden age in English literature that I decided to name my album 'Golden Age' and use the story and ideas from Greek poets like Theocritus and Hesiod, the idea of golden age being a place where people do not have to work or stress about anything and can spend the time fleetlessly surrounded by the beauty of nature.
In my narrative, I focussed on paranoia because such people are in seek of peace and a relaxed and stress free life thus I linked this with the golden age and to reinforce this idea I have used urban and natural locations.

Digipak
I kept all the conventions in mind when making my digipak and from the feedback of my target audience, peer assessment and my teacher I have made many improvements therefore overall I am satisfied with my digipak and also it's net as I have included all the main elements in all pages such as artist image on the front cover, lyric book, CD, tracks page and I have tried to link all this to the genre and narrative of my music video.

Advert
I did the same with my advert on knowing all the conventions and worked on the audience feedback thus I kept my advert improving every time and added all the conventions I could to make it look authentic and interesting. Moreover, I really enjoy working and creating things on photoshop which is why I tried and tested many different ideas and was being innovative when making my advert.

Top 5 Original Images

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

These are the top 5 images of my artist which I took and from these I will be selecting the best ones for my digipak and advert.
I will be using the 3rd picture for my advert because its very symbolic and has deep connotations to it. The shadow reinforces his 2 faced mental health- one being normal but other being very ill and paranoid. Also, he is not looking in the camera which helps to attract the audiences sympathy for him and his health thus creating his brand image.
for my digipak, I have decided to use the 5th picture, again this one does not have direct mode of address in order to gain audience's sympathy.

DIGIPAK- Reflection on advert

1. What was the task? 
The task was to create an advert poster for my music album. I had to keep in mind all the advert conventions in order to gain high marks and make my work seem authentic and professional!

2. What process did you go through to complete the task?
The whole task was to be completed on photoshop. I am glad I did my research on what an advert poster is and how it looks like. Below are some examples of my favourite ones.


3. What did you learn from the experience?
I really enjoyed doing this task as it was to be done on photoshop and I always love to work with photoshop because I take too many pictures everyday and edit them therefore having a task such as this was fun! Although, I had to research about various things such as all the elements that go into an advert e.g. Type of font for all the text, images of my artist and album, record label, reviews and, special features. Still it was a fun task and I enjoyed doing it.

DIGIPAK - Advert Poster

This was my first advert poster. I wanted the background to be very dark and something which matches with my genre therefore I choose dark woods but the quality of that background was very bad so I planned to change it. The artist picture was a screenshot from the video which again did not come very clearly and was blurry so I planned to take more images of my artist from my camera and uploaded new pictures which I used (down below) on my new advert poster. The font and colour of the title was gold/yellow and font was Stencil to give it a rural and victorian look which matches with the narrative and genre of my video. However, the title colour was not matching with the overall look of my advert so I changed it again. Moreover, I put a red colour for the date because I wanted to add in more colour and not just keep everything very dark and colourless.







Looking at my first advert, I decided to change the background to a dark colour therefore I choose grey/black which also matches with the clothing of my artist. I changed the font colour for every text and made it white so it does not look too busy but simple which can be very easy and clear to read for the audience. I used a picture of the artist taken from my camera which is much better than the screenshot as its very clear and the quality is very good compared to the last picture. I also chose this picture because its direct mode of address but the expressions do not look too attractive or eye catching for the audience therefore I decided to use another picture of my artist.





I changed the picture of my artist because the previous picture did not really had the correct expressions as I wanted from my artist therefore I choose this new picture in which he is not looking at the audience. This enhances his mental health being paranoid. Also, in this picture his eyes gets covered and we can see a reflection of his shadow on his hoody which reinforces the split personality which he has in the video (being normal and also paranoid), it may also reinforce the dichotomy he wants of being at rural location and more closer to nature rather than being at a busy place like an urban city. Thus, this picture helps to express much more about his personality as well as matching with the genre and the narrative of my music video. Ive put green background here to enhance the colour of nature and the story behind 'Golden Age' and this also helps to add in different colours along with being a contrast with his clothing colour.




I went back to the same background as before to give it a more dark and sinister look as I think this looks more better than the green background and this was also suggested by the feedback from focus-group and also from my teacher therefore I went back to the black/grey background. Due to the change of background colour i also had to change the font colour. I then decided to keep the same font colour for every text and to keep it nice and simple I went with white as this gives a contrast to the overall dark look and also makes my advert poster look neat and tidy and much more organised.

Here I changed the font of my artist's name because when I was researching I looked at many different CD album covers and posters and in there they all had different fonts for the title and the name of the artist therefore I changed the font for his name to give it a more authentic look. Overall, I am very satisfied with my advert poster as I have tried my best to make it look professional in every way. The picture of my artist is nice and clear and it works in a symbolic way to convey the genre and narrative of my music video. The fonts also reflect the 'Golden Age' genre as they provide a victorian look and the name of the artist has a contemporary look which shows that he is being introduced to the modern audiences. This is further expanded by showing that it is available on iTunes because nowadays everyone relies on technology especially for music and videos.  The production company 'Universal' shows that it is for everyone worldwide as most of their products are therefore anyone can see it.   Moreover, I have used OK magazine and their comment to attract my audiences because just like the OK magazine, my video targets every adult (18plus) because anyone can be going through being a paranoid therefore its mainly for people who are weak and depressed and want to find enlightenment in something where they eventually will find their hope and peace. The 5 stars help to encourage my audience to buy this product. And the bar scanner providing a copyright on this product for safely reasons which enhances its authenticity. Therefore, overall I have included everything to make my advert poster look professional and I am very happy with its final look!