Blog Closed

I have completed my video, digipak, website and evaluation questions so therefore my blog is closed.

Evaluation question one : In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?

This is my nine frame picture I have created to show the different elements of my music video. I have drawn inspiration from lots of different music videos in order to create my own and to keep with the conventions. I have drawn influence from these and developed my own ideas. 

Titles
After looking at different titles for the start of music videos I decided not to include them in my own. Music videos, unlike films do not desire a title and therefore I decided against it. Not every music video includes titles anyway so it is not a necessity.


Representation  

For the representation of the video I have chosen this frame for my nine frame picture. However I have included various images below which reinforce what I am trying to present throughout the music video, which is emotion. My emotion throughout the various clips is upbeat (happy). This ties in with the lyrics of the song.

 The journey it goes through, throughout the music video is a representation of the journey I have been on during life. Having fun and just enjoying myself.





 Costumes and props

The costume for my music video was pretty basic as I wanted to keep in with the genre of my piece i.e.. natural. Obviously for certain aspects I had to adapt my clothing, for example in the water, but majority of my piece was purposely not focused heavily on my clothing. 

I used props to further identify my genre. For example the guitar was used in the forest scenes. This was something I had not originally intended on including, however after researching into my genre I felt it would be appropriate to reinforce some of the conventions. Additionally I used the surroundings in the forest as a prop. I used the large log to walk over. What started out as a simplistic movement became much more interesting after I editing. As I was able to this movement up.

An example of a music video in this genre that uses a guitar as a key feature is James Bay - Let it Go. I feel this is a good way to identify the genre without having to spend too much (just a guitar and person in any location).

Relationship between lyrics and video

My whole video is central to the lyrics. My initial idea for the video came from the lyrics of this video. As the lyrics repeatedly suggest 'girls just wanna have fun' I used this to construct my piece. I include a montage of my life. From as young as two all the way up to my life as present. I used various different editing techniques to portray this. Such as speed and fades. I deliberately did not include my life stages in a chronological order as I felt that it would be too similar to what other artists had done before i.e. Ed Sheeran. 
Furthermore I also replicate some of the actions mentioned in the lyrics in my video. For example ' I wanna be the one to dance in the sun' - I include footage of me dancing as a child and nowadays to show a correlation. It also reinforces me having fun as a child and also now. 
Where there is no lyrics in some bits (with only a fast tempo) I use a continuous video of me as a toddler, instead of including other footage as well. This was due to feedback, as it was suggested that it looked messy with the chops and changes during that consecutive melody. 

My main influence for my video and lyrics correlation came from artist Ed Sheeran. In his music video 'Photograph' he includes footage of his life stages, in a chronological order. Although Ed Sheeran gave me much inspiration for my video I felt it was appropriate to include some elements from his video but add my own suggestions, as I feel a process of similarity and differences is what makes a piece great.

Narrative/Story and how the opening sets it up

The opening of my video is slightly ambiguous regarding the narrative of my story, I think this is because my video doesn't actually have a strict narrative that it follows, due to the montage and cuts of different videos. However at the beginning of my video I have the image of an aeroplane landing.  Which could suggest that I am on a journey or about to start a journey which could symbolise the journey of my life. 

This is reinforced by the change in music as it breaks up the aeroplane section with the videos of me... which then starts to uncover the journey I have travelled on throughout my life. 

A music video in which I got this aeroplane footage idea from was 'Second hand heart' a duet from Ben Haenow and Kelly Clarkson. In this a journey is shown on the back of a moving vehicle. Not only does it portray Ben actually on a journey, through the footage of the scenery and vehicle but the video throughout shows how he uses various modes of transport to reach a girl and how he has literally been on his own journey to get there. 

Technical aspects: Camera work and editing

When it came to editing my video I spent a majority of time on this. Regarding the footage of me as a child, filming was out of my control. Therefore I wanted to put my stamp on the videos through editing. For example it is apparent in my video that I speed sections up. The reason I have done this is because it either goes with the music, i.e. the dramatic transition from the aeroplane to the funny faces, (the faces sped up fit with the music). Or I have speeded bits up because it would have gone on too long without being sped up for example my tricks in the water. 
Another aspect of editing was when I took the footage of me jumping into the water (above and below water level). This was edited to look as if it was one consecutive shot. 

I was also advised to use pictures as well of videos to make my video stand out, during editing I put three images after one another, to give the effect that I was moving solidly in the water with the turtles. I also incorporated fades in my video so that is gave the continuity effect also. 

At the end of my music video I purposely edited my footage so that it would continue when the music has finished, this was because I wanted to include some dialogue, as I feel it makes the piece more realistic and more life like. 

Genre and how the product suggests it

So that my video portrayed the typical conventions of my genre I did some research. This being Folk and Blues and Rock. I found that these conventions were

•  A person with a guitar (usually the artist/band)
• A narrative which involves scenes of a natural setting 
• Close up shots of the artist (who are commonly shown singing the song)
• Clothing worn by the people in the video are often basic and natural 

For my own piece I use almost all of these conventions. I am in the piece holding a guitar, and at some points I sing the song in the piece. Additionally I use images of a natural setting such as a forest, the water and the images shown from the window of the aeroplane. However I do not follow a narrative, as discussed earlier. I use close ups such as me swimming up to the camera in the water and I also use basic clothing in my baby footage and also present day footage. 
I wanted to include the conventions of the genre to display my video, yet I also wanted to use my own additions to put my stamp on the piece. For example using transitions such as the pictures and including my baby videos. Additionally the overall montage does not fit into the narrative of this genre so therefore I challenge this. 

An artist that epitomises this genre in their own videos is Tom Odell in his video 'Another Love'. In his video he is captured wearing basic clothing, typical of the genre. Additionally he is situated in a house, which as you can see is a natural setting.

Characters/star image

The main character in my piece is me, I feel through my choice of basic clothing and image I portray the genre and therefore did not want to go against this by wearing something extravagant. In my genre it is typical of the artist to be shown in videos such as this hence why I am. I have given myself the name of Fiona Acconi as a stage name and therefore it is featured on all my construction pieces. I.e Album, Digipak and website excetra. As I am in all the shots it helps the audience recognise the storyline or the concept of the video which is that I am the child growing up and having fun throughout. 

In some of my footage I take handheld shots by hold the camera myself and spinning round in a circle, with the sole purpose of the video to be focused around me. I used Calvin Harris music video of 'I need your love' as an influence for this. In my video the background looses focus and becomes blurred whereas I remain clear and therefore distinctive. 


Setting/location


The setting and location of my video changes throughout, this is to show the moving journey. However it is predominantly centred around a forest setting. The reason I wanted a main focal point for my images to circular around is because this setting is what was suggested during the genre research . 

I took inspiration from Ben Howards video 'Old Pine' to show a natural setting. In Ben Howard's video he uses the out door setting, which reinforces the folk genre and fits in well with his music. The natural setting is aesthetically pleasing and also costs nothing to use. 

Evaluation question two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation question three: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 

After completion of my music video I then showed it to two groups of students and my media teacher I realised there were some improvements I could make to ensure my video was fluid and smoother in its transitions. I took suggestions from both my teacher and students and then re-edited my video so that my final video included these suggestions.

The majority of comments can be seen in the video above. I made a point of asking students that were not in my friendship group as I wanted to ensure I received honest feedback. Students stated ' Your transitions could be smoother'', 'The lip syncing is slightly off' and 'I think all bits of the video should be sped up not just bits'. I used this as constructive criticism to recreate and re-edit bits of my video. One comment made by my teacher was that it was 'for the dramatic changes in my music I should keep with one video to make the piece more fluid'.

I did receive positive feedback which also reassured me that my video was good. 

Once I had re-edited my video and made the improvements. I not only felt it looked a lot better visually and flowed but my teacher also said how the changes made it a lot better. 

Evaluation question four: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used a variety of different media technologies for the research and planning, construction and the evaluation stages for my A2 media piece. 

Research and Planning 
During the research and planning stage I used many different technologies to achieve my media production. I started off the process with Blogger, a website I was already familiar with at AS Level. I used Blogger to track the progress I had made from the begging of the course to the end. It shows the development of my work in terms of research and planning, construction and the evaluation questions. 

The internet was the most useful aspect in the research and planning stage. I used the internet to access sites such as YouTube, which was very influential for my music video. YouTube enabled me to find different variations of my chosen song. This was important for me as I had a choice of what genre I could work with - for example Cindi Lauper's pop genre or George Ezra's acoustic version with a genre of Folk and Blues rock. This was very important as genre makes up the style of music video you create. I decided to go with George Ezra's song as it was an alternative to the original. 
Knowing my genre and artist, YouTube enabled me to access other music videos in my chosen genre. This allowed me to incorporate the same conventions typical of my genre. 

YouTube is also used by many A level student to upload their videos. This was useful during my research and planning stage as it allowed me to see other students work and what to include to make my own stand out from the rest. 

I also used social media such as Facebook to gather feedback on my song. I had two versions of my song 'Girls Just Want To Have Fun' and was unaware which song to chose. The feedback from Facebook was all in favour of the George Ezra version.  Additionally I used Facebook to get in contact with my chosen artist, this was to ask permission to use the song to avoid copyright. 

Prezzi was another piece of software I used for my research and planning. This was used to portray my creation for my music video. I used this software as an alternative to make  my Blogger more exciting. 

I also looked into websites to see how they were constructed and how to layout my own and what to include.  In Particular I used James Morrisons Website for the layout of my Website. I particularly liked that his Website could be looked at by scrolling downwards rather than seeing page after page individually by clicking on tabs. I also used other Artists such as Ben Howard for influence of my website. 
In addition, for my own website, I also researched two different websites that I could create it on ' Weebly' and 'Wix'. This was important as I wanted to see which website gave me the flexibility and enough of features to design a website that was individual to my needs whilst remaining professional and at a good standard. 

I had to research into digipaks so that I could create my own. I did this by using google to find what to include in my own digipak but also to find out what other artists had included in their own digipaks and what was original and personal to them. 

Album Covers was another element I had to research. I looked at my artists Album Cover to make sure my cover would fit in with his image. I noticed that his included images of him. I also analysed another Album Cover of 50 cent. I got images of his Album (front and back) from Google images. The reason I analysed this was so that I could see the codes and conventions of an Album Cover. 

Fireworks was another programme I used to edit and cut pictures for Blogger. Blogger is a unique website that does not always allow you to copy and paste images, I used fireworks to scale down images. This allowed me to include exactly what I wanted onto my Blogger having edited images on Firework. 

Construction 

For the construction my camera was probably the most used part. I used my I Phone to film my piece opposed to the schools cameras as I found the quality better and it was a more reliable source. I also used an under water camera (Fujifilm FinePix XP50) to film my under water shots. I feel this was a good addition to my piece as its something different. 


I used Movie maker to edit and put together my music video. This was one of the main media technologies used in my construction for my A2 Media Studies Production. I was familiar with Movie Maker as I used it for the editing of my AS piece. I used Movie Maker throughout the whole of my video to import music, edit all of my clips and for transitions. I had tried to use Adobe Premier pro previously, but found it very complex and unreliable as it kept crashing on me.  

YouTube was also used during construction. I used this to upload my video and receive feedback for my video and to include in my evaluation questions. 

Evaluation 

During the evaluation stage I used Movie Maker to piece together my feedback footage. This was done for the evaluation question. In this process I included clips of people talking about my piece and also images of others. I also asked teachers as well as students to get a variety of responses. 

Again I used my I Phone to record this footage as I was familiar with the process of uploading them onto the computer. And as stated before I prefer the quality. Additionally I used my phone to take pictures of the technologies I used in the process. This was to include in my evaluation questions to back up my statements.

I also used the school emailing system to keep my teacher up to date with my work outside of my lessons. 

Blogger was also an important element in my evaluation stage. I used Blogger to look back at my posts throughout the year to see what technology I had used for the creation of my music video. Additionally Blogger is used to post my evaluation questions so that the examiner can see them. This means it plays a very important role in terms of technology.