1. Media Evaluation part 1 In what ways does your music video use, develop or challenge forms and conventions?
2. After finding a song I thought would be appropriate and interesting to work with I looked back at my directors research and also the style of the artist. Looking at the work of Dave Meyers inspired me to use a bright and saturated colour palette. These bright colours made me think of a fantasy world or dream like state, which would fit the theme of my song perfectly. I then thought of the memorable opening credits of the film Juno and thought how unique they looked and the style would be interesting to work with. I then began looking out how to combine to two idea’s together.
4. The main aspect I really like about the Juno credits was the way the actress had been made to look like a drawing and stood out from the background. I did this to my actor by putting an out line around him to make him look like he had been cut out from a piece of paper. From Juno I liked the way the other parts of the scene, such as trees and leaves, again looked as though they had been cut out and placed on. I created this look by cutting out my tree images on photo shop and then getting them to come into the video on a different layer. Green, green grass and bright flowers
5. My music video has aspects of Goodwin’s theory. It has a narrative which I created from reading the lyrics. They are about being in his own special place, which I took to mean escaping from the reality of life. I showed this by using black and white footage showing the miserable reality, and then the big contrast of the bright citrus colours of the dream world. I decided to presented the themes of the song visually. Therefore there is an incredibly strong relationship between the visual and lyrics. At points there are even lyrics on screen which increases this relationship.
6. My video has a pure narrative as it has no lip synch what so ever or any live performance. I decided not to included this features into my video as I wanted to get across that these are the thoughts/ wishes in his head. I thought having lip synch or live performance would have brought the audience away from the narrative. I wanted my video to have a unique look to it. I thought having the contrast between the black and white footage and the animation would show that he had gone into a dream world, and has a strong contrast to the reality footage of his boring life. I think using animation was the best way of portraying a dream world as its so different to the usual footage.I wanted to make a fun video that stood out, my Video is postmodern as it is full of playfulness.
7. Media evaluation part 2 How effective is the combination of your music video and DVD Digipak and print advert?
8. The combination of the music video, DVD Digipak and print advert is very effective as they all complement each other. The music video is the best way of marketing and promoting the artist ‘Ben Drake’ as it is eye capturing and unique. Each product has the artists name on the cover. The print advert is a brilliant way of advertising the artist but also the Digipak. The Digipack includes the Video and also includes loads of information on the artist. It’s a cycle of advertising. The print advert and the Digipak have the same picture and title which makes it obvious its from the same artist. The pictures of a guitar which shows that he has an acoustic genre to the song. The beginning of the video has the same style as the cover from the other products, having black background. This dark background has leaves covering it which keeps the theme of nature which is the main part of the dream sequence in the music video. The leaves are in a clolour that fits with the guitars colour on the front cover. The Digipack booklet has pictures from the animation part of the video which shows they all interlink. Artist and animation interlinking with music video Big title of artist, guitar image and leaf’s Picture of artist with leafs
9. The black and white footage and the black background have the same theme The animation of the video goes with the theme of some of the photo’s in the booklet
10. Throughout the three pieces I have a constant use of back ground colours and writing style. I tried to get a good balance between his acoustic moody side, and his playful creative side. Through the three pieces I have promoted the artist by using images of a guitar which symbolises the style of his music. I promoted the artists name in huge letters across each of the products.
13. 90% thought it was aimed at teenagers Most people liked the animation the best
14. Some people wouldn’t change anything, while others would make slight adjustments 100% thought the video worked with the tempo
15. Everyone thought the video suited the style of the track 100% liked my music video
16. 100% thought the video was clear to understand The animation and narrative seemed to make the most impact.
17. Comments left The comments I've had back have been very positive, these are some of them: I think you've done a really good job here, especially putting a narrative into the video makes it more intriguing and the combination of animation and filming is great, well done! I thought the black and white film at the beginning helped to set the mood of the piece. The location that it was filmed in seemed just right. I liked to see some of the song words in different colours appearing too. Really impressed with both the idea behind it, the quality of the editing and Michael's acting :) I cannot think of a change I would make. I liked the spinning flowers, the trees sliding into place and the friendly creature appearing. The colours were wonderful. I really like how you've combined both plain filming and animation.
18. Collate feedback and reviews By looking back at the results of my questionnaire I can tell that teenagers and adults both enjoy the style of my video. I can also see that the majority liked the animation best about the video and made the most impact100% of the viewers thought the video suited the style of the track, was clear to understand and also liked my video. When talking to people about my digipak, booklet and advert I had very positive reviews. The majority of the people liked the style of all three and could tell they were all part of the same product. They also thought the imagery was good as it showed the style of the music whilst also having a quirkiness to it.They photo the advert, digipak cover and advert were clear in what they were advertising whilst also being appealing.
19. Media Evaluation part 4 How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
20. Research and planning I used loads of new media technology throughout the project. For my research and planning I used a blog to keep all my research organised and easy to view and present it. I used you tube to look at a range of music video to help inspire me. I used Jamendo, an music website for unsigned artists, to find a song that would be good to work with. Once coming up with the idea to make him look cartooned I watched tutorials on creative cow to learn how to create the Juno effect. I also looked at a Monty python website to get some inspiration for the movement of the animation I wanted to do.
21. construction The first part of my construction was taking photographs of all the objects I want in my animation such as the tree’s, cloud, flowers and fruit. I then cut them out using Adobe photo shop CS3. Later on in the project I then took a photography shoot for imagery of the artist.
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23. To key out the footage I used Adobe after effects on a apple mac. It keyed out the footage incredibly accurately and meant I could incorporate it with animation more accurately. I then transferred the footage onto final cut. Because the quality of the footage was so good I had to cut the footage into 30 second to transfer it as the memory couldn’t cope. I then imported all my images I'd cut out in Photoshop into final cut. I put the background of the video together and then added the green screen footage. The last thing I did was adding the layers of animation on top.
24. Overall, after looking at responses and listening to feedback I can tell the my music video was a success. I contacted friends over facebook and email to ask them to complete a questionnaire. All of my viewers enjoyed the video and found it easy to understand. They liked that its was unique but still had a strong narrative. From looking at feed back I can tell that the strongest part of my music video is the animation. I’m pleased with this as I intended the animation to be the most important part of making my video standout. When asking what people would change about the video the only comments I really got was to change some of the timings and make it a little smoother. I’m happy with these comments as I agree with them. I would have made these changes myself if I hadn’t have had the technical difficulties with the Mac I was working on. Because of these difficulties there are imperfections with my video. But i’m pleased with my video as I know that I couldn’t do anything more. I put in all my effort and did everything I could to make my video as appealing as possible.