Main Task

Hello Examiner and welcome to my blog. This past year has been amazing as I have learnt so many different skills that i hope you will see in my final production below.  For ease of navigation I have also included a labels system to the side of my blog.

Below is my final music video for the artist Daughter to their song "Smother".

Thank you!

Ancillary Text 1 - DVD COVER

The first of my ancillary texts is complete. I really like how it's turned out and I think it goes well with both my Website and Music Video.

Below is my DVD cover

I also did an analyse of it below

Admittedly not as eye catching a DVD covers from pop or mainstream bands, I think it works with the subtly of the band Daughter and would attract fans of the band and also perhaps people who are interested in indie/folk bands.   

Ancillary Text 2 - Website Homepage

For my second ancillary text I created a website for the band Daughter (link -http://zoeelizabeth1997.wix.com/daughtermusic )

I've also included a powerpoint showing my own analysis of the homepage

Ancillary-Text-2

EVALUATION Q.1

In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For this question I did a sort of director's commentary using examples that I reference when speaking -

EVALUATION Q2

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

For this question I decided to do a vlog whilst referencing a survey I had made for audience research.

EVALUATION Q.3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
To answer this response I asked some viewers of my video what they thought about it and then filmed my response in a vlog.

The questions I asked-

What genre did you think the video was?

Who is the target audience?

Is there anything you would change?

What was the part that stood out the most?

EVALUATION Q.4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
For this question I created a PowerPoint to explore the technologies I used

Media Evaluation q4

A2 Evaluation Question Ideas

When I have completed my Main Task along with my ancillary texts, I will then be going on to answer the 4 Evaluation which you can see below ;

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

These need to answered in depth in order to communicate how much I've thought about the pre-production, production and post-production of my music video, DVD cover and website. They also need to be answered in different creative ways.

For the 1st question I thought I would do a directors commentary as this would enable me to highlight specific forms and conventions developed, challenge or used within my video. However I think I need to extend upon this to show why and from where I found conventions. I could do this by adding clips of existing real media productions to further illustrate my points. I found a really good example of a student who has done a similar thing to what I would do-https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YXkQZkaNFmM - the effective use of the ribbon to illustrate his thought process was a really interesting idea I think I could develop.

In the 2nd question it's important to show synergy between my three products. I think the most effective way to do this would be audience feedback with surveys and videos uploaded onto powerpoint or Prezi in order to show my thoughts and also my target audience's responses on the effectiveness. I found an example where they have used PowToon, a website I think would be interesting and effective to use.

I think the use of the cartoons is fun to watch and effective in illustrating their points, however I would like to add more audience feedback and analysis. 

The 3rd question I would like to do film the audiences reactions to my music video, similar to many YouTube series such as the channel TheFineBros -https://www.youtube.com/user/TheFineBros- as I think this would be showing first hand audience research that I could perhaps do a vlog that has me reacting to their feedback, directly answering the question. 

The 4th question I think could be effectively answered by an interactive mindmap show my development through three stages of production and the technologies used. Maybe an interview situation could be effective as well as it would enable me to go into detail about the technologies I used.

Artist Permission

As I have chosen a different artist I again needed to ask permission to use the song. Using the same method of Facebook I directly messaged Daughter.

 

Audience Response to Chosen Track

In order to get some audience feedback of what people would expect in the video when they listened to the track, I played a few people of my target audience age the song that I have chosen for my music video. No-one had heard the song previous to me playing it to them.

Below are the answers-

Response 1 Response 2 Response 3 Response 4

 What I found was that most seemed to focus heavily on the post-production stage- colour treatment etc.- which is what I expected as I think my chosen track does have a sad tone perhaps prompting the responses that said dark tones or black and white. What I was interested by was the first response as she had no idea of my idea's for the video and yet she suggested some scenes which I had featured such as a "girl running" which suggests I'm hitting what my target audience would expect.

Below are the responses

Changes

Previously I was considering using artists such as James Blake and Tom Odell. However having not been happy with how my music video fits to both songs I had chosen, I decided to look for a different song. I have finally chosen the Indie-Folk band Daughter, using their song Smother. Having heard this song years ago I always felt it was quite subtly powerful and quite a thought-provoking emotional song. I have chosen this song because I think it fits well to the tone and shots that I have filmed. 

Here's the song below.

This change in song meant that I had change my previous thoughts for my website and DVD cover. 

I chose to have hands almost reaching laid on top of flowers to create and eerie effect. Using white paper to create a plain background, I placed a vase in the middle whilst my hands model knelt to give the effect that the hands were resting on the flowers. This also meant that I could take the photo from above. I then edited the photo in Instagram to black and white as I thought this would look more poignant. Then in paint I added the text which is a similar colour to my website design. Below is my image that I will use on the front of my website homepage and for the front cover of my DVD.

I think it's quite effective and fits with the mood of the song. I really like the filter I used as its more of a purple grey which creates a more vintage feel. 

My Logo

In a previous post I talked about the importance of a eye-catching logo. Having finalised my artist as the band Daughter. Using the website Silk I created an background in the colour purple which links to my website colour. I also used paint to add 2 hexagon shapes and the letter D to symbolise my artists name. 

I liked how its turned out especially the colour to create an interesting and fun logo.  

DVD Cover Idea

For my second ancillary text I have chosen to do a  DVD cover for the release of my music video. Of course I think there needs to be correlation between my video and my cover, for example I am using  my male character for the cover. I want to project the image of my female character onto him, but having the male looking to his feet. 

I created this image below to show a simple representaiton of what I want it to look like

The background will most likely be black so I need my male character to wear a white t-shirt and the writing will be white, but I think this should be a really effective image. 

I need to now decide on the image of the girl to be reflected. Below are some of the options-

I like the images where the girl is turned away so it represents how she has turned away from the relationship, however I also like the top right image as it makes the girl seem helpless but in my DVD the boy also seems helpless as he is unable to save her. 

Using Outside Locations Effectively

What I have been struggling with at the moment is in my post-production. My outside locations lack an atmosphere that I want in my production. Too bright and out I place I really need to think about changing the colours without turning it black and white or even grey. Looking for inspiration, I found Tom Odell's I Know video.

Visually this video is stunning. The use of lens flares and cool colour treatment make this video subtly powerful. I really like the idea of muting all the colours, letting the scenery make the impact.

I also like the jumpy editing style. Cutting from moving to still or slow motion shots creates a jolted video, that I think is really effective. It also shows you don't necessarily need a fast music video for a fast paced song.

Logo's

Logo's are an important part of branding your artist. Logo's like the ones below define the artist and make them instantly recognisable to the consumer. In order to unite both my DVD cover and my website I want to create a logo for the artist James Blake.

Most logo's I've found where quite simple with either no or a single burst of colour, like the Rolling Stones top left logo. Most also incorporate the letter of the artist is represents (for example the bottom right logo represents Rihanna). This shows that most logo's have a specific relevance to the artist. 

Idea's for my own logo-

I  am really interested in keeping the logo simple and the colour scheme minimalist. I also want to play around with different designs of the letter 'J'.

What to do next?-

I'm going to draw up some designs and play around with different symbols and letters in order to create a professional looking design for both my website and DVD cover.

Costume Research

Below is my research into my character costumes. Some images came from research into similar bands and other are just generic searches on google.

Costume Research

Props

Although I do not use many props in my music video to create this effect below I used a basic fibre optic Christmas tree. It was a spur of the moment bit of filming but I really like how it turned out.
Below is some examples of shots I filmed.

To create the first to shots in the sequence above, I got my main female character to lie flat on her back whilst I held the Christmas tree over. This created a really nice effect as the tree changed colour over her.

To create the shot to the right, I zoomed right in on the actual tree whilst it changed colour to make this bright effect. I really liked this, but would like to try speeding up to create a dazzling effect on the audience.

Inside Locations

Although most of my scenes occur outside, I have two main inside locations. Firstly is the grand Poundon House in Oxfordshire. I chose this location as it's an easy accessibility for me and my actors, also they have an amazing winding staircase that I wanted to feature in my piece. I use the staircase as a sort of metaphor as I overlay two shots of a spinning staircase that create quite a jarring effect.

The second inside location is just a standard bathroom like the one shown below. I used this location to film my scenes where my female character is submerged by water. I chose just to have a white bath tub as it does not distract from the main focus which is my female character. 

Website Analysis

Below is some websites from artists similar to mine and also some things that I have decided I want to feature on my own website. 

Website Analysis

Possible Change of Artist

At the beginning of this process I was set upon James Blake's Limit to Your Love, however whilst searching for other tracks by Blake, using Soundcloud I stumbled upon London based artist Solarris. His remix of Blake's Retrograde really captured me, as I loved the more upbeat spin he'd put on it. Matching his music to parts of my music video I'd already edited, I loved the result. It fits well to the movement of my shots as the beat never seems to end in this remix. I have contacted Solarris and have asked permission to use his track. Hopefully I will receive an answer soon!

Time Management

The chart below it what I used to keep me on track with my timings. 

This was an important tool for planning my filming dates, editing and just generally gave me  a structure to work with so that I could complete my coursework in good time. This meant that I had enough time to edit my shots and complete my ancillary texts as well to a good standard so that I wasn't rushing. 

Ancillary Texts #2

For my second ancillary text I have chosen to do a DVD cover for the release of my music video. In order to gain more understanding of the general conventions of a DVD cover I decided to look at some examples. 

Above is my annotated DVD cover for the Best of Bowie. I really like the style of this cover and will probably model mine to something similar. I especially like the mix of different images of Bowie's face as it shows his identity through the years. I might want to try something similar with my two main characters as it creates a kind of confusion, an effect reiterated in my video, also my music video focuses on my characters faces constantly, meaning I would be able to successfully link my DVD cover and my music video. 

Stop Motion Opening

During my pre-production stage I had decided to definitely use my female character on a swing as my opening seconds. However now having started to edit my piece, I don't like this idea as I feel it looks unnatural within my video. Struggling for idea's I started to look at stop motion or time lapses. Stop motion is a technique that enables objects or people to appear to move on their own. 

Here's a great example- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOMFod_Qnhg

My new thoughts for the opening of my video as to have a single rose with a simple backdrop of either the outside locations of my shots or a plain block coloured background, that decays. To do this I will need to take a photo of the rose in the same position for the number of days it takes to die. I feel the idea of decay fits to my concept as it symbolises the death of their relationship; a factor I want to enhance by using a rose for the flower.

Stop Motion is an incredibly hard thing to do right and for it to look good. I think the key is making sure I keep the flower in the same position and my distance from the flower the same. Lighting I think might look really interesting at different times of the day. For example in the video, a similar idea to mine with the flowers, the different lighting really enhances the decay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Oai5XtJmk

In an earlier post I talked about having a powerful symbol, and I think I want to make the rose a symbol for the both the girls fragility and the decay of the relationship.