Progress Log ~ 22nd January

Over the Christmas holidays, I managed to get a small amount of footage when I went to a family gathering which will be good to include in our music video. 

Progress Log ~ 21st January

At the weekend, I went down to Devon to see my cousin (who's wedding video footage features in our music video) as she has had a baby 2 weeks ago. I was able to take footage of the baby scans and of the baby sleeping which i think will be a nice piece of footage to use in our music video. 

Progress Log ~ 13th January

Today, I started the improvements on my digipak.

I manipulated a new photo on the front using Adobe Photoshop, I made the image black and white bar the guitar in order to be eye catching and selling him as an artist. I made the album name text smaller in order for his name to stand out and moved the design around. In order to keep a simpler colour scheme, I kept the font to just the coral and black so that the yellow guitar stood out.

 

Q4 Evaluation ~ How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Our research and planning was the first stage of this project. The main element that enabled us to carry out such a wide range of research which helped us gain inspiration and more knowledge for when we started our production process of filming and editing was the internet by using Google mainly.

·         Google – Research

·         Blogger – Research, uploading our work

·         DaFont – To create my logos

·         Mobile Phones – During filming for song, using social media, using editing apps for photos and filming with camera, group communication, quick research

·         Apple Macs – Editing stage

·         Digital Camera – My Nikon to film and take images

·         Final Cut Pro – To edit main piece

·         MoviePlus – opening text and quote  

·         Photoshop – Editing photos

·         Audio Recorder – To record our opening quote

·         Facebook – Group communication

·         Youtube – To upload our raw footage and drafts and questionnaires during research. 

Q3 ~ What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Will put it on facebook to get feedback

Use online surveys

Email it to people

Show to people

All from target audience

Questions:

1.)  What do you think is good about our music video?

2.)  What do you think could be improved?

3.)  What would you have done differently?

4.)  What message did you get from the music video?

5.)  Would this digipak draw your attention in a music shop?

6.)  Would you ever look at the artists webpage?

7.)  If so, what would you be looking for?

8.)  What do you like about this webpage? 

Q2 Evaluation ~ How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

·         Colour schemes

·         Autumn setting

·         Photos

·         Same mise en scene

·         Represent same type of person and music throughout

·         Audience put the two together.

·         Logo creates his brand

·         Brand name ~ Aloha Records. We came up with this ourselves looking into words that people link with Hawaii which is where Jack Johnson is from. This means that there is a discrete link between  his music and his lifestyle which is what he likes to have by promoting what he believes and promoting his own life experiences as an acoustic artist. 

·         The polaroid matches webpage. This gives off the vintage look that we are going for which represents the elements of acoustic sound. This also enhances the vintage look we went for in our music video by altering the colours in order to give a more vintage looking filter and soften the colours so that they weren’t so bold which is associated more with pop song music videos.

·         Same mise en scene that we used throughout ensuring that the 3 products are linked together and feel up to date.

·         The name of the album is ‘In Between Dreams’. He is looking away from the camera on the front making it look as though when he is with his guitar, he is in his own world and almost in a day-dream like state.  

·         I created a brand logo for the artist to be used across different media artefacts. The font is called ‘pacifico’ which makes us think of the sea and surfing which is a big part of Jack Johnson’s life. By using it on the website, it creates a brand for him as an artist.

·         Autumn leaves from website

·         Acoustic music – chilled and relaxed, raw

·         Lip syncing to sell him as an artist

·         Couples represented through activities that we associate with couples doing ie. Walks, photos together, holding hands, fireworks, wedding,

·         Rom coms are popular and this isn’t too cringe worthy for people to watch

·         Our intertextual link is from a popular British movie with big British actors.

·         Appeal to our target audience of teen and young adults that are female with the idea of love and romance.

·         No dance routine as it wasn’t appropriate for the genre of the song and does not fit the conventions of an acoustic music video. 

Q1 Evaluation ~ In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

·         Through our research that we carried out when beginning our project, we were able to map out the conventions of acoustic music videos which is the genre of the song that we chose.

·         We found that a lot of the music videos had a very basic narrative allowing their audience to make their own interpretations on what they think is going on in the music video and to what the message that is the artist is trying to put across. In our music video, we did just this. We put the couples together looking happy in scenes that people associate with couples and friendship such as firework displays, wedding, first dance, friends being together, sitting close to each other, holding hands, talking and laughing etc, ending in the artist being with someone in the end.  This narrative was not too in depth as we wanted the audience to make their own minds up as to what they thought was meant by ‘better together’ and who and how you can be. This allows us to show the feel that acoustic music has in that it is relaxing and the nature of the lyrics of this song are not too in depth so that too much thought is not having to be put into it.

·         We made links with the lyrics and the visuals so that when ‘better together’ was sung, there was a couple so that the audience get a hint as to what message we were trying to put across.

·         Due to the nature of the song being relaxed and easy listening, we decided to use soft cross fade transitions rather than jumping from one clip to another in order for it to fit the sound. This makes it easier for the audience to follow.

·         The idea of a music video is to sell the artist as you cannot see them when you listen to their song. In order to do this, we made sure we established him as an acoustic artist. As soon as the lyrics come in in the song, we can see him on the screen. The close ups we use also highlight his key features his face such as the colour of his hair and the nature of his face. The use of his guitar was essential for the selling of him as a singer songwriter. It helps the audience with the visuals matching the music in that they can hear the guitar and see him playing it as he sings with it.

·         We did not have a dance routine as it does not match the genre of the song as dance routines are commonly found in pop genre music videos. We did pay attention to the beat of the song and ensured that discrete details such as the pace that he walked, couples walked etc. matched the beat of the song. 

Feedback - 9th January

Today, I got feedback for my digipak: 

• Inside of the CD: manipulate text around. 
• Change the colours of the font.
• Change to a consistant font for the artist. 
• Check front image. 

Overall Mark: 5-6/10

What I need to do to improve: 

• Make the text from the inside of the digipak match the outside so that his brand/logo continues. 
• Chose a different image so that they do not look the same at the back and the front. 
• Dont use a long shot for the fron image as i need to sell him as an artist so possibly change it to a close up. 
• Stick to 2 colours in the colour scheme. 
• To show good ICT skills, use the text to curve around with the curve of the CD on the inside. 

My feedback for my website: 

• Awareness of conventions of layout and page design ~ Basic
• Awareness of the need for a variety of fonts and text sizes ~ Proficient 
• Approporiate use of language and register ~ Proficient
• Appropriate use of ICT ~ Basic
• Appropriate intergration of illustration and text ~ Proficient 
• Framing a shot using a variety of shot differences ~ Basic 
• Manipulating photographs as appropriate ~ Basic 

Overall Mark: 5-6/10 

What I need to do to improve: 

• Add more elements so that the page is not so sparse. 
• Look into the layout a little more. 
• Take out the images that were not my own.
• Make the text more visble making it easier to read. 
• Consider the size of the images that I am using. 

Additional Comments: 

• Must be all own original images 
• Lovely Colour scheme and clear tabs
• A bit sparse 
• The text in pink is a bit hard to read and too dense
• Look at the sizes of the images

Feedback ~ 8th January

This was the feedback we received for our main construction which is our music video:

Shooting materal appropriate to task ~ Excellence
Controlled use of camera where appropriate ~ Proficient: Some wobbly handheld shots in places. 
Attention to framing ~ Near Excellence
Variety of shot sizes ~ Near Excellence
Close Attention to mise en scene ~ Proficient 
Editing makes meaning clear ~ Near Excellence 
Selection of shot transition and other effects ~ Near Excellence 
Selection of captions ~ Proficient: Use red and white at the end to mirror the start. 
Recording and editing sound with images appropriately ~ Near Excellence: Lip syncing at the end is a little off. 

Overall Mark: 30/40

From this, we can see what changes we also need to consider when we go back to make the changes that we already knew needed to be made. 

They are as follows: 

• Make sure that the text all matches up and make the end credits match the quote's text from the beginning. 
• Solve the issue of the lip syncing at the end which is slightly out. 
• Bring in the clip from the beginning that is currently offline.
• Fill in the gaps that we have half way through the video.
• Complete the split screens at the end. 
• Bring in more variation on the ages with the clips that we captured over christmas. 
• When getting more footage, try to ensure that the camera is as steady as possible. 

Progress Log ~ 8th January

Today, I got the feedback for our music video. 
I also continued with my first draft of my evaluation taking screenshots from our current version of our music video and analysing my digipak.