How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Here I have produced a short camtasia clip which shows you some of the techniques and processes that I went through in order to produce my music video and also my AS coursework piece. Firstly the software Final Cut Pro has allowed me to produce both coursework pieces with relative ease however I feel that you can see an obvious difference in quality between the two. The 'RGB balance' tool has been a predominant effect used in both my projects and what I love about it is the fact that it is so easy and simple to do but produces a massive difference in the aesthetic appeal of the footage -in my opinion this programme made me feel much more intune with the professional music industry as it is a software program which is often used with major labels and companies, so to have something that unique and effective at our fingertips was a real joy.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
To answer part of this question I have produced a digipak which presents different forms of media products and software such as Photoshop and Indesign which I used in the construction of my digipak and poster advert.
So therefore I feel that my music video has had a powerful impact upon my target audience but also connected with specific people who I did not intend to focus upon in my market area. The most significant point that I have taken away from my audience feedback is that even though putting a lot of artistic effects onto my footage took a very long time and was quite frustrating at times, in the end it seems to have been worth it as many different people commented on this aspect of my video. However I was quite surprised to receive such positive feedback about my music video, especially from young individuals as I thought when producing this video that there could be a risk of it not appealing to a younger audience, whilst it being shown against much more vibrant and energetic music videos.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
With the general design of my digipak and poster advert I wanted to convey the delicate and feminine nature of my music video, therefore that is why I have incorporated many dull tones to suggest the sombre tone of the album and kept the layout of the information and aesthetic material to a minimal configuration. I felt that my research into other solo artist digipaks helped me gain a better understanding of what is visually striking and interesting and what does not seem to work, in my opinion. There were two main digipaks that stood out for me in design and also concept - firstly was one of Michael Buble's first albums which immediately intriguied me through the close up photograph of the male singer as the front cover, this gave the album a much more raw and stripped back appeal with the simplistic font style and the muted tones of blue and grey. The rest of the digipak as expected follows this general pattern with a few more photographs merged into the font, but I really like is the flawlass balance between images and text. The fact that the leaflet is not crammed full of information and uninspiring photographs means that the viewer can really focus upon the artistic appeal that is trying to be portrayed and also this provides connotations of sophistication and elegance - characteristics that are reflected within the artist. The second digipak that stood out for me was a recent release by Lana Del Rey. The striking initial image of this digipak immediately captures your attention and the unusual background of the image creates a predominant urban appeal. The fact that the artist is looking directly into the camera reflects the minimalistic design of the digipak and reinforces the unusual nature of the artist herself. What I love with this digipak is that it incorporates vibrant hints of colour which create visual interest and provide connotations of youth and energy, but it does not over use colour and therefore drown out the rest of the visual material.
From looking at both these digipaks I realised that I did not have to over complicate my digipak and advert design, if I simply focussed upon the essential factors and got them to a good enough standard then my work will have a professional and crisp appeal towards the public. Therefore that is why I have only incorporated a single photograph, the title and the artist's name into the design of my front cover because this seems to be the norm for modern day digipaks - it is simple yet effective. For this front page I have experimented with many different effects from the software program Photoshop, and this particular effect is called 'Bass Relief' which accentuates the dark tones within the image and provides a stronger visual contrast against the white background. The reason why I chose this image is because the unusual positioning of the artist emphasises the delicate and feminine nature of the album whilst creating a mysterious and elusive appeal towards the album. The rural setting of the photograph isolates the solo artist and creates intrigue - such as 'Where is she?' and 'What is she doing there?' whilst also providing a visual contrast against the youthful appeal of the artist against the muted and sombre environment that she is in. The font style I feel seems to personalise the album as it represents a common hand writing style, therefore this gives all of my ancillary texts a much more relaxed visual statement and yet again reflects the essence of the album.
However from looking into the album booklets of Lana Del Rey and Jessie J I realised that even though their albums consist of simple ideas they still incorporated visual photographs of the artists into the composition of the album digipak to firstly showcase the artist in a positive light but also enforce the youthful appeal of their albums and even though my album goes against the norms of society I still wanted it to appeal to a more youthful audience. Therefore that is why I have dedicated an entire page of my digipak for simple photographs that display different aspects of my music video - this I feel reinforces the contrast between the exciting, urban environment of London against the quite nature of the countryside - which is what my video is all about. The plain black background highliughts the photographs and gives them a more 'punchy' and striking visual impact.I feel that the rest of my digipak follows the generic conventions of a modern day music video digipak - with it consisting of a lyric page which I managed to incorporate a brick wall effect background to try and reintroduce the urban aspect of my video concept, a back page consisting of the other songs of the album but I kept this quite muted and basic in design with a black background that is consistent with the other black photograph page earlier in the digipak.
The main inspiration fro my digipak design is from another Adele album - '21'. The simplicity and design of the digipak exudes femininity and elegance which I have attempted to recreate in my own digipak through the soft tonal colours which I have used to accentuate certain aspects of its design. The font style that I have used I feel is the closest to representing the feminine appeal of Adele as an artist whilst still being innovative and visually interesting, however one aspect that I have altered is highlighting the first letters of the title 'TBR' as I feel this will make the album have a strong youthful appeal and also allows the title to 'roll off the tongue' more easily. The song that I chose to do for my music video is from Adele's first album '19' in which the song holds quite a lot of hidden meanings and emotions that are portrayed through the lyrics of the song, so therefore I have tried to incorporate these negative and sombre emotions into the design of my advert and digipak - for example by keeping its composition quite minimalist.
Photoshop has allowed me to creatively alter many of my photographs that I have used in the design of my digipak and advert. I found that the colour alteration tool was a massive benefit for me as it easily allowed me to alter the mood and perceptive abilities of the image through a simple colour hue being added to the background of the image. Another effect that I commonly used was called 'Bad Film' which allowed me to add a 'scratchy' sequence on top of my footage to give its aesthetic appeal a much more aged and withered visual appearance, which is consistent with the theme of my music video. However from my first draft of my digipak I realised that I did not want to use a Photoshop effect on every single photograph as I felt that some images worked simply on their own without any interference from me. I am very pleased with my digipak and also my advert as I feel it is a strong addition towards my music video with its simple, yet visually effective design. I have constantly made various links between my video and my digipak through the incorporation of screenshots but also the same use of tonal colours and visual effects which helps unify all my project material together
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
With my music video what I have attempted to acheive is an omage to modern day music video's however making a few alterations that I feel make my video stand out from the rest. There are many iconic conventions that I feel my music video consists of - such as fast pace cutting sequences, a lead singer and an interwoven storyline. I wanted my video to have an 'Adele-like' appeal, therefore I tried to create unique and delicate shots, have faint visual effects incoporated into the composition of the footage and try to emphasise and merge my footage around the soft, fragile lyrics. The constant cutting in my video I felt was a crucial aspect to its overall visual impact. With my first attmept at editing my music video shots were far too long and boring for the viewer, this is because I wanted to create a gentle nature to my video but this however did not work out. Therefore on my second attempt I cut the footage to the beat during the changing instrumental section at the beginning and this instantly altered the aesthetic appeal of my video, whilst making it much more modern-day mainstream. However one way in which I have tried to challenge conventions is through the cuts inbetween each shot - from my general research at the start of my project I realised that most videos consisted of a sharp, crisp cut to the next shot, but what I wanted to do is to exaggerate these transitions and make them much more intergrated into the creative design of my video. Therefore I experimented with certain dissolve effects in Final Cut Pro and one cut which I absolutely love and think is very unique is one that I acutally created by accident.
The two shots seem to overlap each other and create this unusual fade out effect, which I think makes a boring, average cut and turns it into a strong focal point and area of visual interest. Another way that I feel my music video challenges the general conventions of modern day music videos is the fact that I chose an Adele song. Her music is so unique and intricate that it is completely separate from other artists and therefore her music video's reflect this. One way that I was able to make sure that my video consisted of the authenticity that I wanted was by looking into many different Adele music video's with which the one that made the strongest impact upon me was the video for the hugely popular song 'Someone Like You'. This video is so simple that it is brilliant, the use of a single shot throughout the entire footage instantly separates it from other mainstream videos and entices the viewer to watch it again and again. What I have attempted to do in my video is portray the footage but in an artistic perspective, therefore I have used many visual effects - the most common being RGB balance which alters the colour composition of the shot. I feel that trying to portray my video in an artistic way makes it more visually interesting and stand out because it seems to be more personal and unique then a boring, generic video.
A major influence upon my music video is a recent release from Christina Perri - 'A Thousand Years' in which we mainly see her singing into the camera with a simple background of faint candles and dark lighting. This for me emphasised the fact that my video does not need to have exciting effects or vivid bursts of colour to make it interesting - it just needs to connect with the audience, especially as my song choice is quite sombre and emotional. This video also reminded me that my video is a way to enhance the artist and highlight her singing ability, whereas today I feel music videos are simple produced to create speculation about an artist. The music indsutry has become too focussed upon trying to acheive top of the charts and global albums sales, whereas Adele and other artists like this I feel are trying to bring back what music is really about - and that is what I am trying to acheive with my video.
I feel that my blog also follows the generic conventions of many other blogs on the internet as I have clearly shown my progression throughout the enitre project. I began with my research into a wide variety of music videos and have looked at specific video's that relate to the genre of music that my video relates to. Then the rest of my blog has been focused upon the construction of my product (looking into more openings, experimentation on Final cut pro, shooting my film footage and editing my film to create my final product). Overall My blog is very similar to other blogs as it involves text and factual information however it is broken up with other media such as films from youtube and pictures from the internet and photos which I had taken myself.
Within the first general sequence of my video I had an issue with the beginning minute of the footage because as the shots were not cut to the natural beat of the song this therefore created some discrepancy of the shots making the video seem slightly awkward. Therefore I have gone back and created a new sequence and have now fully cut the first section to the beat and I feel this has given my video a much more professional appeal and by doing this it has created an area of interest because the beat is not constant therefore there are some shots that are longer than otherwise - and this irregular cutting constantly maintains the viewer's attention whilst making the footage seem more aesthetically pleasing.
I have now applied the next sequence of footage into my music video - which mainly consists of urban, London footage. I was easily able to merge this well into the rest of my video however what I have attempted to do is create a vivid contrast between the two environments that my video is set in - the urban metropolitan cityscape of London which I am portraying in a vibrant and exciting manner by emphasising the certain tones of colour such as the redness of a London bus. Whereas in contrast I want to make the countryside seem less appealing and more solemn with using heavy shadowing and darker tones of colour to suggest her mannerisms within each environment (the city is interesting and full of life whereas the rural location is more isolated and depressive). I have tried to achieve this visual difference by using the RGB balance control on Final Cut Pro and altered the colour percentages within each frame therefore effecting the colour composition of my footage. This I feel has made a positive impact upon my video as it has created a strong visual segmentation between the two different aspects of the video whilst still allowing me to maintain the delicate nature of the footage.
Here I have produced a short camtasia clip which shows you some of the techniques and processes that I went through in order to produce my music video and also my AS coursework piece. Firstly the software Final Cut Pro has allowed me to produce both coursework pieces with relative ease however I feel that you can see an obvious difference in quality between the two. The 'RGB balance' tool has been a predominant effect used in both my projects and what I love about it is the fact that it is so easy and simple to do but produces a massive difference in the aesthetic appeal of the footage - in my opinion this programme made me feel much more intune with the professional music industry as it is a software program which is often used with major labels and companies, so to have something that unique and effective at our fingertips was a real joy.
