Final Products - done as a group

Music Video


Digipak

 
Magazine Advert

Final Magazine Advert - by Luke

Final Digipak - by James

Evaluation Question 4 - by Josh

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

 As a group we used a wide range of equipment and technology to complete our main task and ancillary tasks, ranging from physical equipment to computer software. Below are all the media technologies I and my group used in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of our coursework.

I have provided an audio voice-over for this question, which you can listen to by clicking on the video below:
 

CAMERAS + EQUIPMENT
 I will first start with what I consider to be the most important part of our construction: our camera, the SONY HDR-FX1:

 A semi-pro HD camera (one of the first available to the public back in 2005), this has been critical to making our video look professional throughout the production. It was especially crucial to us during scenes in which the camera had to move to keep up with the actors. Its 1080p capability provided us with crisp HD footage that showed off the moving shots very well. We were fortunate enough for Luke to be able to borrow one off his dad's work for our video. There were two downsides to this however: the camera was very expensive so we had to be extremely careful with it, but due to its size, it was also very awkward to carry around when travelling to and from our locations. We also used it to record our target audience videos.
 Without this camera we would have had access to one of our teacher's camera's, but these are designed mostly for picture taking rather than video. This would have undoubtedly produced good footage but I expect nowhere near the quality of the HDV.

 The other camera we used in the construction of our video was James's Panasonic HDC-SD10

 This was used entirely for recording our making-of video which was used to show our discussion on location as well as the locations used. Used for most of our filming days, it was not worth shooting some of the making-of footage on some days since it would be too difficult due to limited time. The compact and lightweight design meant it was very easy to carry around unlike the HDV and could simply be transported in a coat pocket. We are also planning to use either this or the HDV for one of our evaluation questions.

 The other two cameras we used in the construction stages of our video were the SONY A57 and the Nikon D200 (both owned by Luke - images below respectively). These had a very limited use (used only on Day 1 and at Deluxe 142 studios) as they were very awkward to carry around due to their bulky and heavy design, and we could use James's handicam for making-of video and as well as pictures. The pictures taken were however useful to us when recording what we had done for each day.

 Below are some of the photos we took with these cameras.

Another very important piece of equipment was Luke's dad's tripod - a Velbon Maxi 347GB -  which we used in almost every shot of our music video to provide a still standing shot. We were extremely happy with this as we could find no faults with it and helped us produce still shots that we stabilised well with no shaking. It was also very good for the panning shots as the movement was extremely smooth with no juddering or stiffness. Perhaps the only complaint if I was being very picky would be that it was quite cumbersome, and proved difficult to transport at times due to its size and weight, but this was a very small issue and rarely raised within the group. Without access to this we would have to purchase a tripod off the internet (much like what James did for our steadicam - see below).

A very tricky piece of equipment that caused us a fair amount of bother was our homemade Steadicam that was made from a tripod that James bought off Amazon. For the construction of this, click here to view the tutorial video, the video of James and Luke making it and the further construction in the DT lab. Despite the trouble it caused making it, our efforts proved to be very fruitful, as we used it on numerous occasions to shoot moving and running shots, such as in Southbank Skatepark and Soho Square to produce smooth shots where James or Luke needed to run to keep up with the actors. Without this, we would have found it very difficult to shoot running shots which were smooth, instead using just the camera which would no doubt suffer from the vibrations of the filmer's feet hitting the floor

SOFTWARE
 Another vitally important piece of technology for us as a group was Final Cut Express, the program we used entirely for editing our music video as well as other videos including target audience videos and the making-of video.

 We also used this program to include transitions such as fade-ins and fade-outs particularly at the end of our video for the 'blinking' effect. Without this we would have needed to use another piece of video-editing software such as Camtasia that one of classmates used, but this looked nowhere near as good Final Cut Express.

 One thing that was particularly annoying was the rendering which took a VERY long time to do. Thankfully, the footage from the HDV was already rendered before inputted into Final Cut. Despite this though, we still had to render some footage that we had edited, such as over-cranking or the music edits. 

 A very impressive piece of technology for me was Adobe After Effects.
 
The most notable use of this software was the CCTV footage Luke created to use in the security room where the masked men watched the DJ leave the recording studio.It was decided that Luke would create the CCTV footage as he has had the most experience with it, and as you can see, the resulting footage is very impressive and professional-looking.

 Without this we would have had to use another form of video manipulation but since Adobe After Effects was the only one available to us as well as being one of the best ones on the market we had no complaints in this department.



A familiar piece of software we used was Adobe Photoshop, which we used to create images such as the banner for the name of the song and artist (image right) as well as our all-important Ancillary Tasks (images below).

  This was a refreshing return to familiar technology as we had used Photoshop a lot in our past year of Media Studies. As you can see from our work, this is an extremely good piece of software that allows the user to create images from scratch as well as manipulate photographs. Without this, our work would have undoubtedly suffered greatly as there are few similar image editing software that is as good as Photoshop, and we would have had to use another program such as Microsoft Paint. The colour overlay of the text, the text effects and the cityscape background would be almost impossible to create in a program such as this and would look nowhere near as good as they have done from Photoshop.

The last piece of software used on computers was Camtasia Studio. This was used to record us creating the Ancillary Tasks for use in our blogs (videos below).

This was an extremely useful and constructive way of showing our working on our ancillary tasks; as the viewer, you can see exactly what we did to create the Digipak and the Magazine Advert. Without this, we would have to write a description of what we did accompanied by screen-grabs of the processes. This however would not provide an in-depth look into the construction phase and  with much less detail than seeing the whole construction as a video. It was also a useful tool to us when we wanted to change something in Photoshop, as the video could be used as a guide to what we needed to change and how.

OTHER

The browser we all used for research was Mozilla Firefox.

This was extremely important for us as we used it for researching into music videos, 'how-to' videos on Youtube, research into digipak covers and other uses the internet has to offer. Without this we would have had to use another browser such as Safari or Internet Explorer; whilst this would not cause many problems, we would not have the 'add-ons' required on Firefox to download music from Youtube for use in our blogs and for background music in our videos - E.g. Target Audience videos. For home blogging, we used Google Chrome for research.

The main source of producing our work online was through blogging on Blogger, where we posted all of our work (except James who used Wordpress as an alternative). We had used this in our AS Media Studies so this was a familiar technology to us that meant we could work easily on. I personally enjoyed using Blogger to post all my work on, as opposed to a physical folder, as I could easily access my work from anywhere, alter it if it needed changes and embed pictures, videos and other technologies such as Prezi (see below).

 Without this, we would need to use another blogging tool such as what James used (Wordpress). Luke also used Wordpress at the start of the year but switched back to Blogger after having got annoyed with it. After seeing my partners use Wordpress at the start of the year instead of Blogger, I was however unfazed by this as I was perfectly happy with Blogger and saw no reason to change. James and Luke had to get used to a wholly different piece of blogging technology and Luke eventually succumbed to this; the ease of use appeared much more difficult than Blogger and you could not embed technologies such as Prezi (which I have used several times instead of text and pictures to present my work.

 You may have noticed from past posts that I have used an online program called Prezi to present my work instead of text and pictures as a creative alternative. This includes the Filming Schedule, Feedback Sheets and my Evaluation Question 2. Despite being quite aggravating at times, Prezi was a very useful tool for creating work as a refreshing alternative to blogging. Without this I would have had to make do with Blogger or look for another was of presenting my work, but as my teacher liked this since it had been used in past student's work I saw no reason to make an alternative.

Evaluation Question 3 - done as a group

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In this question, Luke, James and I decided to answer Question 3 as a group with a video of all of us

Evaluation Question 2 - by Josh

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 

Evaluation Question 1 - by Josh

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When Luke, James and I got together as a group, we all decided we wanted to create a video that we would actually like, using music that appealed to use whilst creating something original and different from conventional music videos. This was when we decided upon using the song 'Finale' by Madeon. However, as you now know, we used a remix of this song since the original lacked a quick tempo for our idea of having a fast-paced chase scene as well as the song being too short for us to fit all our ideas in. This is when we chose Netsky's remix due to its length and the increase in tempo.
 We first started with research into existing music videos. 'Stan' by Eminem was the video our teacher chose for us to do, followed by my own choice of 'The City' by Madeon and 'Houdini' by Foster the People. I chose these two primarily because I enjoyed the videos and felt they were very good ones with interesting concepts as well as camera shots, the editing, narrative and performance. For more detail click on the links provided to see my analysis.

 

 As a group we all looked at dance/electronic genre music videos such as 'Sandstorm' by Darude, 'Chasin' by Sander Van Doorn, 'Toulouse' by Nicky Romero

 We wanted something rather iconic that singled out our video from others, such as a specific detail that would help our audience remember our video. Examples include Michael Jackson as a Zombie in his music video for 'Thriller', 'Weapon Of Choice' by Fatboy Slim

 'Here It Goes Again' by OK Go,

 
'The Scientist' by Coldplay,

 
'Islands' by The xx,

 
From synchronised treadmill dancing, a car crash in reverse and a video repeated over and over with ever so slight alterations make all of these videos very unique. The main thing that I believe people will remember from our video are the anonymous masks. These added a whole sense of mystery and a sinister feel to our video, as opposed to just having security guards without masks. Some of the shots and scenes in our video are also meant to intrigue the viewer, as well as make them think about the concepts and ideas, branching from the freerunning and parkour to how the viewer interprets the narrative and story of the video. 

 







 In addition to our research into existing music videos, we also looked at 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' by Andrew Goodwin. This detailed a number of key points that a music video should comprise of, which we all considered before creating our storyboard for our video. As the chase scene begins after the two masked men rise from their seats, the video shows a close up of the thief's face. This is due to there being a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist (pictures of close ups). 

 Research into the dance/electronic genre revealed that close ups are used regularly within videos, e.g. Calvin Harris in the video for 'Feel so Close'  and Example in 'Stay Awake' (images right and below).

This helps the audience recognise the artist as well as brand recognition. A good example of this is the House artist Deadmau5 (images below), who's iconic 'Mouse Head' give him a unique recognition across his genre. He always wears this for live performance and is also the key focus for his album covers.

 A difficult concept to have in our video was 'Star-image' and the iconography of the artist, since we did not have Madeon at hand to star in our video. However, we did incorporate some features of our chosen artist, such as how we chose a young-looking DJ for our video since Madeon is only 18, with casual clothing to replicate his performance costume.
 Despite having a video for his song 'The City', he does not feature within it, which is a fairly common theme within electronic/dance videos, e.g. Daft Punk had a whole album of music videos made up of 'manga' style videos without them featuring. When artists do appear in the videos it can sometimes be to illustrate a past life event, but even that is sometimes portrayed by another actor. An example of this is the video for 'Bounce' by Calvin Harris. Although Harris does appear in this, he acts as the DJ, much in the same way the DJ in our video does, as he is watching himself (the dream) whilst still doing some performance within the video.



 Another key feature within music videos is the link between the lyrics and the visuals. This however, was rather difficult for us to establish this due to the limited words within 'Finale'. This largely applies to a lot of electro/dance songs and music videos, since the emphasis on lyrics is less of a concern than the music. We did however place certain emphasis on the song title 'Finale', such as when the words 'brace yourself for the grand finale' are sung, what is seen in the video plays in with the meaning of 'Finale', as the audience will be wondering how the DJ will escape the two masked men, wondering if this is the end for him.

This occurs twice within the video, as the very quick cuts between the DJ escaping the studio and the two masked men getting up from their seats are repeated when the DJ and the masked men jump over the fence simultaneously. This directly plays in with the three actors leaping over the fence, where the over-cranking stops and the chase continues with no effects as the word 'finale' is heard. This however is not the case, as the long chase scene ensues, followed by the DJ being chased back to the studio, where the 'grand finale', as it were, is seen as the masked men close in on him and we see that it was all just a dream. This is where the plot twist occurs, with the two masked men appearing before the DJ, almost leaving a cliffhanger, something more for the audience to think about.
 

'Your last chance' also implies there is a certain threat within the video; as the DJ is trapped, these lyrics apply almost directly as it is 'his last chance' to hand over the disc. 'Go out fighting' also applies here, as a possible interpretation of the video could be that the DJ is fighting against 'the system' or the two masked men. This happens both when the DJ is leaving the studio and when he escapes the two masked men at the gate.

 A key aspect of our video includes the music driving the video, as with many videos, a fast-paced song with accompany a quick, high tempo video. This also includes matching the video cuts to the beat of the music, e.g. using quick cuts when the tempo is high and using longer ones when the music slows. This is seen at the start of the video until the chorus builds up, which is when the chase begins due to the high tempo and quick pace.

 This also comes down to actions within the video relating to the music, for example, the song starts when the DJ/thief presses REC on the soundboard, hence starting/recording the song and providing a clear link between the music and visuals. 

As the chorus dies down when the thief reaches the gate, the cuts are much slower than in the chorus as they are being driven by the music. This is also exemplified by the masked men slowing their speed greatly, knowing that the thief is cornered. The use of over-cranking is also heavily implied here, which slightly contrasts with the the tempo of the song gradually increasing. However, the cuts become much quicker as the drums kick in and the tempo rises right up, bearing resemblence to earlier in the video when the masked men leave the security room. The next shot is a rather long one, but does still retain a certain pace to it, as the viewer is kept up with the action in the long running shot with the actors. 

The notion of music driving the visuals is very important within all music video, as also evidenced in ours. We learnt about timing visuals with the music after watching the video for the song 'Language' by Porter Robinson. The piano notes in the song directly correlate with the light beams appearing, similar to our video with the cuts at the start being cued by the single piano notes. We used beat-dropping and changes in music to synchronize with what was being seen on screen, such as the two jump scenes (images below). Since the bass, drums and beats are a very important element of electronic/dance songs and their videos, we thought this would be vital for shaping our video around.

Despite the amount of long-duration shots, the audience are still meant to feel excited from the speed at which the actors run as well as the stunts including the jumps and freerunning. The sudden drop in pace as the song starts the outro drastically reduces the speed at which the cuts are made in the visuals. An interesting element to the ending of the video is an effect use in the video for 'Chasin' by Sander Van Doorn, involving cutting sections out of the middle of the footage to give the impression of time jumping. 

 The more observant viewer may see a hint that this is somewhat ethereal and un-lifelike, as the masked men go extremely close to the camera (the DJ), which is further emphasised by the slight over-cranking and fade out. The fade in/out is also used as a 'blinking effect' when the DJ falls back onto the sofa and begins to close his eyes again. These are synchronised with the piano chords played, thus being the last link between the music and visuals in the video.

 A somewhat simple element to our video is the clothing used by our actors in the video. We already knew we wanted the masked men in suits to give a formal look to them, but we had to consider what the DJ would wear, and after the rough cut, what the singer would wear. After some research and discussion, we decided upon a simple, casual dress code for the DJ; since he is at a recording creating his song, we thought it appropriate that he would be dressed in casual clothing. The same applied for the singer.

The masks the masked men wear are 'Anonymous' masks, as used in the video for 'Toulouse' as well as the film 'V for Vendetta'. Connotations of the masks lie with the 'Anonymous' group, who want a free media landscape and to escape the grip of the music industry. However, as seen in our video, the masked men play opposite to this, seeking to control the DJ and take away his music for the industry. As a form of control, the masks are also very important, seen in the video for 'Toulouse', wear the masks control people's actions. The masks also look somewhat sinister, with the arched eyebrows and the humanoid face that almost looks alien. This compliments the role of the masked men, who are made to seem evil and wanting control.

 Our location choices were critical in our shooting, as we wanted the environment to have an urban look to it (playing in with out album title: 'The City') but to also look good and  contrast at times, such as our shots in the parks and Soho Square. As we spent 8 days filming using many locations, our video is very varied with the settings whilst retaining a city/urban look to it, which is evidenced in 'Chasin':

'Toulouse' by Nicky Romero:

'The City' by Madeon

and 'Sandstorm' by Darude