Finished Music Video

Social media feedback on magazine cover

Evaluation of music video

Today we made a mind map of the possible cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene we could have used within our music video. 

Blue Circles- Represent the aspects that we managed to include within our video.

Orange Circles- Represent that we developed this.

Red Circles- Represent how we challenged this.

From doing this we saw that we have used everything we put down, which shows that we have effectively achieved our aims of including a variety of camera shots and editing techniques, as well as including all the props stereotypical to our genre. In using all of these techniques it will make our music video more appealing to our target audience and will subsequently help to encode our genre well. In addition we have developed various techniques and have not challenged anything within our mind map. However our use of the rubix cube theme throughout the video is challenging the typical props used and themes of a rock genre e.g skating and rebelling. 

Re-editing of music video

  

Today we got feedback on our music video so far and had the issues with it addressed. The main issue at the moment is the letter boxing, where the size and shapes of the clips we have put together are not all the same. This therefore makes it look unprofessional and will need to be corrected so that the music video is appealing to audiences. As well as this our clips need to be matched up to the lyrics more so that our lip syncing is correctly in time. 

The main aspect we want to improve on is how the visuals on the screen change, to match with the beat. For example when a drum comes in we would like to show our band member playing the drum in time to it, to make our music video more effective and catchy to our target audience. 

Music video

CD cover

Possible pictures for our album cover

On our album cover for the CD we want to include images of some of the equipment we used, however we need our images to be shown on a Matt black background (so it didn't appear in a white box on the CD)! So I took the images we wanted and using word document I was able to use tools to get rid of any background, leaving just the image itself and then I placed each on to a black background and screenshot them (ready for use in Adobe Photoshop).

Plan for editing in music video

Through looking at similar products from a rock genre, I found that in Avril Lavigne's "Smile" music video, she changed from low key black and white editing, to colour throughout. We decided to use this concept within our music video, by starting it in black and white then changing to colour with the introduction of the rubix cube, due to the theme of a game.

In addition the location of parts of the video are very basic and plan, with just a white back ground. We decided to develop this through the use of our location in the drama studio. By doing this the main attention is on the artist and the music of the song.

Magazine advertisement idea

Drawing of my magazine advertisement idea:

For my magazine advertisement idea I took inspiration from looking at previous artists advertisements of their album, as well as the layout within the magazine. I have put the bands name at the top of the advertisement, in the biggest letters so that it stands out to audiences. Furthermore the majority of the space is took up with the artists image which will appear at the front of the album. This is because as it is a new artist, we want to advertise her as well as the band, so she is a popular image within the music industry. In addition the audience will recognise the album within shops as they know what it looks like. Moreover along the bottom there will be reviews out of five, in addition to the release date, record label and production company. 

Practicing editing still photos

For this I took still photos in various locations and shot types, so we have a range of ideas for what camera angles to use within our music video, to make it more exciting for audiences to watch more than once. On final cut express I then edited each one in different styles and colour themes so that there is a range of ideas to consider for editing that can be used on different parts of our music video. I have tried to stick with a red or black theme so that it goes with our rock genre, therefore audiences will be able to recognise this and decode our video. However I have also used one or two in a paint/blur style, in very colourful colours to represent our artist being in what she describes as a 'game', along with the colours representing the rubix cube.

My first attempt using Adobe Photoshop CS5 to edit album covers

Adobe photoshop cs5 from Madeleine Fox

Practice editing on Adobe

Editing for our music video

One type of editing that looks effective on our music video is the use of still pictures. We took 12 different stills of our artist holding the guitar at different angles, all in the position of clock hands. We then lined them up along our timeline in the right order and made the speed faster for each individual one. This way when played the still shots would look like a moving image/timelapse of the guitar representing a clock going round. This additionally looks successful as it matches the lyrics of our song through "Don't wanna waste my time on you again", and still keeps the rock feel to the music video.

A few things I've learnt along the way

Working on my Media Studies coursework, I have learnt various things:

1. I have learnt to blog properly - I can use plenty of external applications such as Scribd... and submit them into our group blog easily. Having the capability to do so, I feel has enabled me to broaden my knowledge on computing and given me a diverse understanding of marketing on the internet.
2. I have also been able to further my ability when it comes to editing - although having been able to edit successfully last year when producing my opening sequence to a thriller film, I feel that this year I have increased my ability to edit via the use of filters and transitions.
3. Using the camera this year, I have been able to lengthen my skill when handling it, as I now know multiple camera shots - some even more interesting then last year! For example using a tilt is something I have found intriguing.   
4. This year I have also learnt more about the audience and their desires for the video by asking them directly.  For example the responses from my Survey Monkey questionnaire and our Twitter/ Facebook accounts. Using audience feedback like this, I expect our music video to be better than if we were to just do it in our own style, as it has been analysed more and adjusted with not just our opinions but varied opinions.  

Overall there are plenty of new things I have learnt this year and there will probably be some more to come as well; learning new things will only help my progress and make my coursework a better project, as it'll benefit from these improvements.

Storyboard changes and progress

We decided to make a video discussing our storyboard changes and why we have decided to remove clips or edit our storyboard. Additionally we explained what more we were going to do and how we were going to film certain clips.

Technical Difficulties

lip syncing practise

We were given two clips, one of a woman lip syncing and the other was the music that went with it. We then tried to match up the lyrics with the video and get both in place. Additionally this was good as it gave us practice for making our own music video and allowed us to see how to line up both clips with each other using markers.

Editing photos for music video

These photos have been edited on Pixlr with an overlap. I have done this so they can possibly be used within our music video.

Within our song there is a repeated line saying "I am not your game", which is an ideal place to have one or both photos pop up. The top picture is overlapped with Pacman, the most famous arcade game for over 30 years. In addition to the second picture, which is an overlap of colourful circles, which looks like the connect-four game, but even further links to our frequent use of an Rubix Cube. These pictures, when matched to the lyrics of the song will be effective as the audience can easily decode the meaning of the song, as the visuals have a clear link to the lines the artist is singing. In addition it will also make our music video better visually, as throughout the first half of the storyboard the visuals will be in black and white until further on in to the song where these pictures will be places. The change in colour will signify the artist becoming more independent, in which the lyrics imply that she is standing up for herself, compared to the first half of the song, which will represent her in a depressed/angry mood, connoted through the dark lighting.

 

Our Editing Schedule

Having used both powtoon.com and wistia.com I was able to create this video.

Our Animatic

This is our animatic for our music video, we have completed it so we have a visual copy of our storyboard at hand to view and is a excellent way to keep with the timings of the lyrics, in which the visuals need to match up with. It also enables us to ensure our storyboarding matches the lyrics and the shots we intend to use are decent.