Evaluation: Question FOUR

 In the music industry, it would be impossibly to avoid new media technologies during the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages. This is because media is universally huge in all of our lives, and effects all of us in different ways every single day. When it comes to music, from the very beginning of writing the song, to releasing a music video and seeing the album on sale in the high street, none of that would’ve been possible without various platforms of media technology giving a helping hand to producing and completing music and video production and concluding promotional devices. Of course, as a Media A2 Level student, all that was part of the plan was researching into making the music video, the actual production and making of the music video, creating the album art and poster advertisement and receiving feedback through a questionnaire.

Through the RESEARCH process, I used lots of areas of media technology. Firstly, whilst I was picking what song to actually do, I looked through my iTunes library for any of my favourite songs that I thought would be appropriate for creating a music video to, and also one that would be accessible to contact the manager to receive permission to use. Once I chose ‘Keeping On Without You’ by This Providence and got permission to use it from the General Manager, Josh Terry from A-Squared Management. I then looked into the band in detail on Wikipedia to find out more about what they label their genre of music as, and any information that would necessarily help me through planning. Then I went to YouTube and searched for the original music video to that particular song. I watched it through many times, making notes about certain areas of the music video such as camera shots, representation, mise en scene, editing, etc… This way, I could discover what I needed to do for my own music video that would be suitable for that type of music and to represent the band well. I also used a website called Last.fm and looked at their specific tool, called Similar Artists, and researched into high similarity artists and bands to This Providence and saw what their music videos featured, so I knew during planning I would be on the right track. Once I had all my research done, it was time to move onto the next aspect.

It was now onto the PLANNING process. Since all the research was completed, I had lots of inspiration and ideas spinning around in my head, so it was about getting them out there and drafted and seeing which one would work best. Firstly, I had to present a pitch of two ideas to the class, and receive feedback from everyone in the class and my media teachers, and see which one would be the better. Once I knew what particular idea I would be going with, it was time to create various research tasks to gain a complete set of plans to take forward with me through production. Firstly, I had to create a Storyboard. A Storyboard consists of parallel squares among a big piece of paper, in these squares you sketch out exactly how the plot of the music video is going to go, every shot, every scene, everything, draw exactly what you envision. Then underneath each box, you put a small description of the type of camera shot or movement, and what piece of sound in the song this will be going to. My Storyboard changed quite drastically once I realised the time constraints and how I had to be realistic with the equipment, weather, and casting arrangements. Then it was time to create a Timeline, which was a set timed order of the music video, without any sketches, just the time of the video and the particular shot and it’s duration. A Location Plan had to then be made. Since I live in Lincolnshire, we are completely surrounded in fields, forests, lakes, beaches and just beautiful natural landscape so it was definitely a must to make the most of the surroundings around me. After thinking about what sort of landscape locations are generally used in other music videos, I realised a forest, meadow or road would be perfect. Living in a village called Woodhall Spa, there are so many picturesque places around, so I decided I would use a cycle path to represent ‘walking down memory lane’, and forest scenes to create the divide between past and present. It was then important to think about Costume and Props. Since I wanted my music video to have quite a warm and charming atmosphere to it, and since also I was representing youth, relationships and fashion in particular, the costume was very important to get right. I used to be an art student at AS Level, and I remember although hating Jack Wills, really enjoying JW Photography during fashion photoshoots, and I definitely wanted to recreate this as I felt it depicted youth and fashion in a real positive light. But obviously, with it being winter when I was filming, outside, it was important to make the clothes suitable, as some of the times we were filming it was -2°C! So I decided that anything warm with bold prints would be perfect, for example, leopard print coats, tartan knitwear, union jack jumpers, etc… At first, my choice of props was meant to be fairy lights, blankets and cushions, along with band equipment, but this soon changed when I realised that some people couldn’t be filmed on certain days, and with the weather raining or snowing on me most of the time, I couldn’t set up some of the decorations effectively and so this didn’t work out, and I avoided any extra props entirely. Casting is very, very important, and so this needed to be thought through and decided carefully. In the beginning, I was going to have a band performance, so I picked 4 males to represent This Providence; I picked musicians so that when miming the song it would look natural and effortless, but this plan didn’t go ahead as they were busy during filming days. So I went with Rob Corrin who would be miming the lyrics as the lead singer/front man of the band. He is a very talented musician so I felt he would look natural miming the song and still put passion into getting the message across. I also needed friendship shots, this was quite easy as I just used myself and my friends, because since we have all been best friends for years, I felt it would look natural and really show friendship in a positive and fun light. Finally, a Shooting Script had to be made, this was a plan of what will be filmed, when, how many quantity of shots, and who will be casted.

After everything was planned, it was now onto the CONSTRUCTION of the music video. The most important area of construction is obviously equipment. For making my music video, I used a SONY CX100E HandyCam 3.0. These are great camera as not only do the shots come out clear and crisp, but it can create smooth hand held shots too which I envisioned to include. I also used a TRIPOD, this was to attach the camera onto to create still and sweeping shots for the most part of my music video. I experimented with an ORBIT DOLLY, but I felt it still produced quite bumpy shots that weren’t completely smooth in terms of timing (as it is moved by hand, it would be moved at different paces), so I decided to put the camera on the parcel shelf in the boot of a car, and have the car drive off whilst filming whatever was happening behind it, I used this effect during the cycling scenes and also when Rob is running and miming down the path. I also experimented with a STAGE LIGHT BEAM, but I since my shots were filmed during the day, it didn’t produce a natural autumnal feel, so I decided just to use natural light to accentuate the colours of nature. In terms of camera shots and movements, I followed a guideline of what I picked up from my research tasks when I looked at what other music videos of the same genre and even the original music video in question use, and took inspiration from this. However, I did find that most of the shots used by professionals in the music video production industry are kept quite simple in order for the audience to have a clear narrative and relate to easily. Although, I made sure I created and featured a varied amount of shots and movements and didn’t become repetitive in my approach. I used ESTABLISHING SHOT, LONG SHOT, MID SHOT, TWO SHOT, CLOSE-UP SHOT, POINT OF VIEW SHOT, EXTREME CLOSE UP, TRACKING SHOT, CRAB SHOT, TILT SHOT, ZOOM SHOT, CRANE SHOT and PANNING SHOT.

After I created my music video and got all the footage I wanted and needed, it was time to import the film onto the computer. I used an iMac as my computer as not only does it have lots of programmes that aren’t available on a typical windows computer, but it is great for video/photo and editing software. I imported all of my clips with MPEG STREAMCLIP, and exported them to DV. I then opened up a program called FINAL CUT PRO, where I imported all of the converted DV shots and began the editing process. Firstly, import the track you are using into the timeline then select which clips you want to insert (following the storyboard), use the cut tool to trim down the bits you don’t want, and do this until your film is complete. However, there are lots of effects I used to improve the appearance and flow of the music video. I used CROSS FADE effects which give an overlapping fade into each shot without a definite cut between the two. I also used COLOUR CORRECTOR, which can change the hue and concentrate on accentuating one specific colour. I chose a red/orange because I wanted to highlight the autumnal feel through my music video. And you could also change the brightness, contrast, tones, shadows, etc, to bring a lighter effect to each shot. I also added an artificial LENS FLARE, to several shots where the sun is prominent, and this brought a sparkle and colour depth to some of the shots. Once I felt all was edited and looking professional, I then exported it to QUICKTIME, so it could be played on a final professional video program.

Once the music video was completed, it was then onto PRINT PRODUCTION ANCILLARY TEXTS. This consists of producing an advertisement for a magazine that would promote the album, and a full album sleeve. For this I first had to think of an initial idea for what to do, whilst still remaining to stick with the combination of matching the album art with the poster with the music video and still being relevant to that style of music. So after looking at similar artists’ album art, I knew I had to present the band title in a block black colour, but still have a fun and vibrant background. I was thinking of certain ideas I could present on an album and I wanted to do something very original and creative. I remember looking at a website called Dear Photograph, and really loving how it represents memories and how it distinguishes the past and present. I also used the GENIUS BAR on iTunes, which shows similar artists and their album art, and most similar artists have some element of photography and polaroids, so therefore, I re-created this idea, by taking stills from my music video, opening them in ADOBE PHOTOSHOP, applying a polaroid effect frame around them, and then printing them off. I then went to the location of where the still was filmed, lined them up in place, and took another picture. Since this was for the inner folds of the sleeve where the lyrics and song titles are presented, once the images were took, I imported them to my computer at home, and went on a website called Picnik. The site is closing in April but it means that they’ve made all the premium features for free, so I edited and applied effects to the images such as changing the contrast and exposure, and added effects such as VIGNETTE (which adds a black faded border to the image), and CROSS PROCESS (which adds a vintage, rustic effect to the image).  I then used a program called MACROMEDIA FIREWORKS. I also went onto a website called DaFont, where I downloaded tonnes of fonts that I thought were appropriate for titles and lyrics. After narrowing down my choice to Simply Gorgeous, Learning Curve, RIOT!, Rainyhearts, Birth Of A Hero and Sweetie Pie, on Macromedia Fireworks I than began writing out the track name and lyrics among the picture. I then also used ADOBE PHOTOSHOP, to add a brush effect of leaves among the photo as an autumnal decoration. For the front and back cover of my album art, I decided I wanted to create a Banksy sort of artwork, changing it from very urban/street to pure and natural. I was really inspired by The Girl With The Red Balloon, and so I took some pictures of Daisy (the main girl in my music video) with her arms stretched out in a field, then Rob (the main boy in my music video) with his arm slightly stretch out but clenching his fist as though he is holding something. I then edited in a red heart shaped balloon on string on ADOBE PHOTOSHOP to act as though Daisy is letting the balloon go (letting love go) and Rob holding onto the balloon (holding onto love). Then I had to create a poster for a magazine promotional advertisement, after looking at several different page spreads for Alternative Rock bands, I knew what was needed of me to create a perfect advertisement. Not a lot of detail was detail, just the band name, album title, any links to other media such as their website, facebook or myspace, critic ratings, the release date of the album and perhaps any tour dates. I kept to the same colour scheme as my album art and music video to match up and create a collection of artwork. I created fake critic reports from Rock magazine companies such as KERRANG!, SCUZZ and NME as this shows to the audience and costumer that it is professional and worth hearing.

Lastly, comes the EVALUATION stage. I created QUESTIONNAIRES to give to a group of 200 16-18 year olds during an assembly where they were watching my music video. When I received the results, I used MICROSOFT WORD and MICROSOFT POWERPOINT to present my results and create pie-charts, this way my results are easy to read and simple to receive a majority vote appearance. I also presented every step of my research, planning, construction and evaluation on WORDPRESS. This way all of my coursework for the whole of the year is all in one place, seperated into categories and organised through tags for easy and accessible viewing.