http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DvZKfyiew0
Overall i feel that our music video works well with our song choice and shows conventions of atypical music video by staring off with out a narrative and when we are shown the artist we begin to see the narrative and how they are involved in it.
45 seconds into the video we see the clear narrative of the guy cheating. The next shot is of me sitting on the gorund, i run my fingers through my hair and the next shot is of me doing the same but in a different position, this is subtle but works well in continiuty. Again, the edits are to the beat and they switch from different shots quickly, which makes you want to watch the music video agian to take it all in.
At 1:03 we see a shot of another artist singing and this shows that we are in the same position as each other. We have also experimented with shots as we see a mid shot of her singing and then a long shot of her looking into the distance which simply shows she is involved with the narrative. We put in another shot of the guy with the artist to show that the narrative is still continuing, it shows Lucy and Jacks relationship as well. The next shot is of me singing the next part of the song continuing on from Danielle, and the shot that follows this is of me and Jack which shows our relationship that we are all oblivious to what is going in the narrative but it's as if the artists are having flashbacks.
At 1:32 the chorus begins and the shots that follow are of the artists, there aren't any shots of them with the guy this shows the viewer that things are changing. The artists are singing to the camera which creates a connection withthem and their audience. Like they are telling them their story.
At 1:47 we see the band walk together showing unity, this is the first time we see them together even though we don't see their faces. At 1:52 we see Lucy spinning around a post which we have sped up to create a different effect, this is code for that things are changing in the narrative.
1:57 we see a series of short edits and it creates a good effect that is in-keeping with the iconic style of the video. Lucy and I look as if we are waiting for someone oblivious to the fact that it is the same guy we are waiting for. At 2:11 we see me sitting on Jacks lap singing to the camera whilst he is ignoring me and talking on the phone. The artist here is involved in the narrative and being the artist at exactly the same time, showing that she knows about his cheating.
We see an obvious shot at 2:21 when we are standing together facing the camera and the next shot is of Jack looking at the camera, this involves the audience as they are representing us on each shot.
At 2:23 we see Lucy and I talking, the audience may already know what is about to happen but we build up suspense as we show the progression of the conversation. At 2:28 we see a shot of the picture on the phone, now the narrative is in play again and we see my reactuion and how things are about to unfold.
A series of shots show the progression of the break ups, Lucy refuses to kiss him by turning her head away, Danielle and Jack loook unhappy in their shot and i take matters in to my own hands and confront him. We show this last shot in small frames to build up suspense and a small climax.
At 2:39 there is a shot of me singing to the camera with a slight smile showing that we have been triumphant. The following shots portray this too.
Our end shot is of the band walking together towards the camera and on the last music note opf the song we are seen wlaking out of the brightness together away from the camera showing our unity and that we are 'done' methaphorically and physically with the guy and in the music video.
Monday, 11 April 2011
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Typed Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product challenges the typical conventions of a music video as we have unusual edits, we mix fast edits then we proceed to watch longer edits. Carole Vernallis has her own theory on creating and editing music videos, she says it must be quick cuts and on the beat. We took this into consideration when editing and found that this worked very well. Other music videos usually have either not both. As the song we chose ‘Shark In The Water’ by the indie-pop artist V.V. Brown, the song is upbeat and has a clear rhythm to it. To incorporate the beats we edited our shots to them, the beginning of the video is without any lyrics so we focused on the beat and created edits on the beat. We then realised that this emphasised the rhythm of the song and as the clips are rapid the viewer is intrigued and has to pay attention to keep up.
I came across the artist ‘Example’s music video called ‘Kickstarts’, this is also an upbeat song but has more of a dominant beat to it than our chosen song. The edits are cut to the beat like ours and this makes the viewer aware that they are watching a text.
Music videos are usually based on concept, narrative or performance, ours is mainly narrative based as we felt that this would portray the meaning of the lyrics best as well as keeping the audiences attention. The music video ‘Kickstarts’ also like ours develops a narrative, this is a typical convention of a music video as the lyrics in songs usually have meaning to them so for the artist/band to show this, a narrative is developed and created in the music video.
Our music video switches from the narrative to the artist, however, we do show the artist involved in the narrative. I researched Goodwin’s theory that the video should convey a relationship between lyrics and visuals. I believe that this applies to our music video as the song written as if it’s telling a story and our narrative did stem from analysing the lyrics of ‘Shark In The Water’.
Another convention of Vernallis is not having a resolution at the end of the music video, we have gone against this convention and our resolution to the boy cheating on the three girls is that they all find out and that they leave him and all walk off together which is our end shot. We decided to be playful in our camera shots and try to incorporate many angles as possible as we didn’t want the video to look dull. We kept the conventions of extreme shots such as extreme long shot and extreme close-up. Which I think worked well as this gave the viewer a variety to remember and to look at so they would want to watch it again to take it all in.
We didn’t want to base our image our video on certain artists as we felt that this would influence us too much and would take away our own creative ideas. V.V. Brown is an artist that is iconic in style and therefore not wanting to be based on other artists. I feel that even though it is a girl band singing in the music video I believe that it appeals to male and females as people of both sexes may be able to relate to the narrative.
The song may not appeal to older males but maybe the fact that it is a girl band singing and appearing they may like even though we don’t appear to be prerogative whether that’s in clothing or positioning. We dressed differently as a band but we still looked like a band as we all wore a unique fashion forward item like our chosen artist, V.V. Brown, after some research on her style I decided to wear a fur grey hat like she has been photographed in, another band member would wear an eye-catching coat or a scarf. These items would attract the viewers attention but they were still understated that it wouldn’t detract your attention from the video. The style was also in keeping with the bohemian location of London. 2.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I have decided to market my band in the typical way in the sense of creating album artwork and using the internet to promote them. I based my album artwork around the chosen genre of the song which is indie-pop, I decided to use a black and white effect but not make it has harsh, I did this as I was using a bright yellow for the colour of my text. By doing so, this made the text dominant on the cover and is a code for that the bands success is about to increase due to this album. I also included the album name but whilst the font colour of this is the same as the band name it doesn’t take away from the main image.
The image I have used in the background is of the band but you are unable to see their faces, this challenges the conventions of a typical album cover as if the artist or band appear on the front cover, they usually are looking at the camera. The album cover followed the typical conventions with the band name being on the cover and the album name, so I decided to make a change somewhere as I wanted the cover to be different. So I chose a picture of the band facing away and there positions vary, instead of the lead singer being at the front she looks to be at the back lower down but this shows that she is showing them the direction. The other two singers are also important so they are standing up. The girl sitting down is code for that even though the band is becoming more successful she and the band will stay grounded and true to their roots, ironically and specifically the image is photographed next to a tree.
I have marketed the band CANUTE by creating a Facebook page specifically for them. As a user of many sites such as this I knew how to easily create one. I added images of the band and a little paragraph talking about the band which made the site more personal. I then posted release dates of the song and album in stores and online. This shows that I have understood the current market of downloading whether it being illegal or not. I wrote on the wall that their video will be out soon so therefore even if they have downloaded the song illegally they may like CANUTE and want to go and see them play live, I have also posted dates of gigs and concerts as well as competitions.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From the feedback I have been able to see the video from a different perspective which is helpful as the music video is our own hard work it was hard to critique it I have learnt that they liked the edits to the beat and that there should be more throughout, making this iconic to the music video and therefore iconic to CANUTE. The footage we had to show was short but from that we knew what we had to film. We found that we needed more variety of shots, such as a long shot and close-ups. As well as moving ones to break up the video a bit. We also found out that our lip-sync was off at times or our mouths didn’t look as if we were singing the song.
We took this constructive criticism on board and revisited London for some more filming and when we came back to edit we saw a massive improvement in style and lip-syncing. We were glad that the audience understood the narrative without us having to explain to them, which was our main concern. However the feedback reported that we had done this really well and that the edits complimented the narrative. We wasn’t able to take all of the feedback on board due to the time we had left to finish, if I were to begin my music video again I would start filming earlier on.
However, this year this was a problem due to the weather and unexpected amount of snow. Also due to all of us being at school we found it hard to find a time that all of us could meet at as well as it getting dark earlier in the evenings. Even though these factors hindered our progress I believe we have achieved a detailed video which is made up of many successful components. 4.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The technology of the imac computers helped tremendously throughout as we were able to blog our ideas and concepts as well our comments. This was helpful to my fellow group members as well as my teachers as they were able to see our progress and if they wanted to make a comment whether it be a positive encouragement or a helpful idea. I also frequently used networking sites such as Facebook as we were able to have private quick discussions as a group, whether it is on Facebook chat or an inbox. Unsurprisingly we all had Facebook and therefore were able to communicate effectively.
We were able to research other videos on Youtube and sent each other the links, this allowed us to create our own bullet points discussing the key ideologies, concept, codes and conventions, therefore we all had our own opinions and could merge them together to benefit our music video.
By using Final Cut Express we were able to see our music video come alive. It took a while for us to get to grips with all of the functions such as ‘rendering’ and cutting but we were soon away experimenting with our edits.
Our media product challenges the typical conventions of a music video as we have unusual edits, we mix fast edits then we proceed to watch longer edits. Carole Vernallis has her own theory on creating and editing music videos, she says it must be quick cuts and on the beat. We took this into consideration when editing and found that this worked very well. Other music videos usually have either not both. As the song we chose ‘Shark In The Water’ by the indie-pop artist V.V. Brown, the song is upbeat and has a clear rhythm to it. To incorporate the beats we edited our shots to them, the beginning of the video is without any lyrics so we focused on the beat and created edits on the beat. We then realised that this emphasised the rhythm of the song and as the clips are rapid the viewer is intrigued and has to pay attention to keep up.
I came across the artist ‘Example’s music video called ‘Kickstarts’, this is also an upbeat song but has more of a dominant beat to it than our chosen song. The edits are cut to the beat like ours and this makes the viewer aware that they are watching a text.
Music videos are usually based on concept, narrative or performance, ours is mainly narrative based as we felt that this would portray the meaning of the lyrics best as well as keeping the audiences attention. The music video ‘Kickstarts’ also like ours develops a narrative, this is a typical convention of a music video as the lyrics in songs usually have meaning to them so for the artist/band to show this, a narrative is developed and created in the music video.
Our music video switches from the narrative to the artist, however, we do show the artist involved in the narrative. I researched Goodwin’s theory that the video should convey a relationship between lyrics and visuals. I believe that this applies to our music video as the song written as if it’s telling a story and our narrative did stem from analysing the lyrics of ‘Shark In The Water’.
Another convention of Vernallis is not having a resolution at the end of the music video, we have gone against this convention and our resolution to the boy cheating on the three girls is that they all find out and that they leave him and all walk off together which is our end shot. We decided to be playful in our camera shots and try to incorporate many angles as possible as we didn’t want the video to look dull. We kept the conventions of extreme shots such as extreme long shot and extreme close-up. Which I think worked well as this gave the viewer a variety to remember and to look at so they would want to watch it again to take it all in.
We didn’t want to base our image our video on certain artists as we felt that this would influence us too much and would take away our own creative ideas. V.V. Brown is an artist that is iconic in style and therefore not wanting to be based on other artists. I feel that even though it is a girl band singing in the music video I believe that it appeals to male and females as people of both sexes may be able to relate to the narrative.
The song may not appeal to older males but maybe the fact that it is a girl band singing and appearing they may like even though we don’t appear to be prerogative whether that’s in clothing or positioning. We dressed differently as a band but we still looked like a band as we all wore a unique fashion forward item like our chosen artist, V.V. Brown, after some research on her style I decided to wear a fur grey hat like she has been photographed in, another band member would wear an eye-catching coat or a scarf. These items would attract the viewers attention but they were still understated that it wouldn’t detract your attention from the video. The style was also in keeping with the bohemian location of London. 2.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I have decided to market my band in the typical way in the sense of creating album artwork and using the internet to promote them. I based my album artwork around the chosen genre of the song which is indie-pop, I decided to use a black and white effect but not make it has harsh, I did this as I was using a bright yellow for the colour of my text. By doing so, this made the text dominant on the cover and is a code for that the bands success is about to increase due to this album. I also included the album name but whilst the font colour of this is the same as the band name it doesn’t take away from the main image.
The image I have used in the background is of the band but you are unable to see their faces, this challenges the conventions of a typical album cover as if the artist or band appear on the front cover, they usually are looking at the camera. The album cover followed the typical conventions with the band name being on the cover and the album name, so I decided to make a change somewhere as I wanted the cover to be different. So I chose a picture of the band facing away and there positions vary, instead of the lead singer being at the front she looks to be at the back lower down but this shows that she is showing them the direction. The other two singers are also important so they are standing up. The girl sitting down is code for that even though the band is becoming more successful she and the band will stay grounded and true to their roots, ironically and specifically the image is photographed next to a tree.
I have marketed the band CANUTE by creating a Facebook page specifically for them. As a user of many sites such as this I knew how to easily create one. I added images of the band and a little paragraph talking about the band which made the site more personal. I then posted release dates of the song and album in stores and online. This shows that I have understood the current market of downloading whether it being illegal or not. I wrote on the wall that their video will be out soon so therefore even if they have downloaded the song illegally they may like CANUTE and want to go and see them play live, I have also posted dates of gigs and concerts as well as competitions.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From the feedback I have been able to see the video from a different perspective which is helpful as the music video is our own hard work it was hard to critique it I have learnt that they liked the edits to the beat and that there should be more throughout, making this iconic to the music video and therefore iconic to CANUTE. The footage we had to show was short but from that we knew what we had to film. We found that we needed more variety of shots, such as a long shot and close-ups. As well as moving ones to break up the video a bit. We also found out that our lip-sync was off at times or our mouths didn’t look as if we were singing the song.
We took this constructive criticism on board and revisited London for some more filming and when we came back to edit we saw a massive improvement in style and lip-syncing. We were glad that the audience understood the narrative without us having to explain to them, which was our main concern. However the feedback reported that we had done this really well and that the edits complimented the narrative. We wasn’t able to take all of the feedback on board due to the time we had left to finish, if I were to begin my music video again I would start filming earlier on.
However, this year this was a problem due to the weather and unexpected amount of snow. Also due to all of us being at school we found it hard to find a time that all of us could meet at as well as it getting dark earlier in the evenings. Even though these factors hindered our progress I believe we have achieved a detailed video which is made up of many successful components. 4.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The technology of the imac computers helped tremendously throughout as we were able to blog our ideas and concepts as well our comments. This was helpful to my fellow group members as well as my teachers as they were able to see our progress and if they wanted to make a comment whether it be a positive encouragement or a helpful idea. I also frequently used networking sites such as Facebook as we were able to have private quick discussions as a group, whether it is on Facebook chat or an inbox. Unsurprisingly we all had Facebook and therefore were able to communicate effectively.
We were able to research other videos on Youtube and sent each other the links, this allowed us to create our own bullet points discussing the key ideologies, concept, codes and conventions, therefore we all had our own opinions and could merge them together to benefit our music video.
By using Final Cut Express we were able to see our music video come alive. It took a while for us to get to grips with all of the functions such as ‘rendering’ and cutting but we were soon away experimenting with our edits.
What I Have Learnt About Lip-Syncing
Lip-syncing was a fairly new concept for us, i thought it would be easy as we sing along to songs regularly. However, when you see yourself back on footage you realise that you are out of time and what you are mouthing is hard to understand. I found that in lip-syncing, bigger mouth movements make it clearer. I would sing along to the music as well which helped it to be in time with the song. Our practice attempts helped us see what wee needed to improve on and what we need to keep the same in order for a clear lip-sync.
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Reflective summary of working in a group, filming and editing
I feel we worked well in a group together as we were able to listen to each other and we were all able to advise each other and give a different perspective. However, as we marketed ourselves as a band we found it more time consuming to film as we had to rely on each other and discuss what day we could all film on. We had illnesses and bad weather so it was hard for us to film in one go. Filming the music video in London was great as it suited the song very well and looked great when we started editing. However, as London was quite far on the train and we had to take costume and equipment with us we had to be organised and if one person wasn't present we forced ourselves to still go ahead and film but this did delay the process of editing the music video as we had to then go to London again and film with that person.
We wasn't able to film much in January or February as the lighting and weather was bad. If we went to travel into London after school it would already be dark and this effects the lighting and the quality. The weather was also an issue as the first time we filmed the sky was overcast and the weather quite cold and windy. The other days we filmed it was quite sunny. We thought that this would be a problem in continuity in the edits, however we re-arranged the shots and edits and mixed the different shots up, surprisingly this worked well and made it look like the narrative wasn't happening over a few days but for quite a while.
We all filmed each other which made it fair as everyone got a go at the camera, this was a good thing as there was less arguments but some people were better at filming than others and when we got back in class and watched over our footage we realised that some bits were too shaky or filmed the wrong way, this was fustrating but there was nithing we could do about it so we just left that footage out.
We edited as group, this was stressful as we had to share the editing station with another group so we had limited access. I picked the editing up quite quickly and we all helped eachother. Whilst one person was on the editing station there was someone next to them giving advice and the others were working on the blogs and then we would swap over.
We chose a song that we felt suited quick edits and we then made this 'iconic' to our music video and we continued it throughout the video.
Overall i feel we worked well and helped each other whether it being getting to the station or learning the lyrics we were all supportive of one another and have ended up with a great music video which is a product of how hard we worked.
The Showcase
We had a showcase in class, where each group had to show their music video, most of them including ours were not finished but we decided to show them what we had as we wanted feedback before we carried on.
Having the showcase was very helpful as we all gave constructive criticsm and were able to see where we were going wrong or what our bests bits were. Our main concern was the class understanding what our narrative was and if they understood it. In our feedback everyone said they were able to understand the narrative and that they wanted to see more which we thought was very positive. They liked out edits to the beat as their attention was kept by this and that the edits complimented the narrative well.
A criticsm was that our lip syncing was out in parts and that we didn't have enough footage of one section of the song. With this, we returned to London and re-filmed and when we started editing agian we found that we had a lot more to work with and this benefitted our music video.
We wasn't able to take on all the feedback due to the short time we had left to finish. If i were to begin the music video again i would start filming and making decisions earlier on in the year so we would have enough time to fit everything in. However, due to the fact that we are all students we coukdn't get time off of school and when went to go to London after school it was already dark which would effect our filming.
Friday, 8 April 2011
Prelim Music Video
With our prelim i learnt how to use final cut express and this therefore helped us with our real music video. As we hadn't created a music video before and didn't know how to use the cameras we watched other music videos and based our filming around that. We then chose Sclub 7 as we all knew the lyrics and the dance, as we thought that the dance would add something to the shots and would help filming and editing.
We picked up the editing quite quickly but we soon realised that the lip syncing was out, so we then had to re-film and make sure we were better at lip-syncing. We also realised that our shots were pretty basic and wouldn't keep the audiences attention.
I learnt that we have to film more in the same shots and then cut it up to what we needed it to look like
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Chosen album covers
These are my chosen album covers as i feel that these suit the indie pop genre and style of the band. It looks professional and shows fluidity and the band is dominant in image and text.
The position of the band on the front cover shows is united, the singer crouching down is code for her leading the band into their future success. The band name CANUTE is in capitals to make a statement and the bright colour is to attract the customers attention. They are in natural settings which goes well with the indie style of the band. The album name is not in its conventional position of it being in the middle and straight, by it being slanted it portrays some of the bands character as it s quirky and not boring.
I have included 11 songs on the back cover, i felt that these would provide the customer with enough selection but not too many to overwhelm them. I have carried through the theme of Yellow writing as again it stands out against the background tone. I have also added a slight shadow to the text so it doesn't look flat, also the typical convention of a barcode i have put on there. I haven't added any extras as i wanted the album cover to be simple in style but still effective in attracting attention.
I feel that this album cover wouldn't look out of place in a music store but yet still stands on its own and without unecessary text or images.
back of album covers
These are my ideas for the back of my album covers i used the same font for both, this is the same font i have used for my album covers. I have made up song titles suiting to the feel and style of the band and of course have included the featured song 'Shark In The Water'.
I ahve also used the same yellow colour that i used on the front of the covers, which creates fluidity and a professional look.
I decided to add the bands name on the top album cover as i felt it lacked something as due to there being no central image.
Album Covers and Explanation
We went out on a photo shoot in a park as we liked the natural settings and it was a bright day. The setting also fitted in with the indie style of the band but not following typical conventions of location. The band isn't looking at the camera in any of the album covers, i wanted it to be this way as i thought it would be more striking and appealing to the customer. It is breaking away from typical conventions of the usual album cover, the ones i created with pictures from the web were like this in style as both of them were not looking at the camera and i feel that this worked well and added a mysterious element to the band.
I thought it was important that the band appeared on the album cover even though it is a typical convention of album covers because the customer is able to see that we are a band but they can't see our faces in the picture and this is unusual and maybe intrigues them to view the video and they are able to create their own opinion and view about the band without being forced into one.
In the first album cover i experimented with the levels of the positions the band was in, when other album covers do this they usually have a meaning to it, like the lead singer would be first and so on. However i designed it as the person sitting down is more dominant as it looks like they are leading the rest of the band.
I chose to design the second album cover without having an image and having a bright colour replacing it, as this seemed quite modern and the bright colour makes it quite striking. If i was in a music store and i walked past this album cover i would pick it up and look at it as it is unusual and breaks the typical conventions. The other album covers i have created have followed the conventions by having the band name and album name. However, this album cover has just the bands name in bold letters therefore makes it iconic and if the band were to bring out more albums, i would change the colours used but keep the same style in terms of text and font.
My third album cover is of the band but again without being able to see their faces, i like this idea as it is quite unique and hasn't been done recently. The position of the band are the same as each other with the legs crossed in the same directions and the hands in the same position.
The bands costume are different from each other but still are linked in some way as two people are wearing blue jeans and leggings and two people are wearing black shoes. The costume works well as though they are different they still are united in style.
I have decided to use the same striking font on all of the album covers, i experimented with the colours on the other album covers and i like how the colour looked and that it was an unconventional colour to use on an album cover. It worked well with the black and white background. With the third album cover i tampered with the colour of the background i didn't want it to be black and white, i wanted it to retain some colour but it not being too bright as this would clash with the colour of the font.
Friday, 1 April 2011
The band and album name - CANUTE
King Canute was the Danish King of England he is mostly known for his futile attempt to stop the tide from coming in. We chose him to be the band name as we felt that the word Canute is dominant and a strong word that we thought would be easier for people to remember and is different from other bands names such as 'The Wanted' and 'Girls Aloud'.
"Canute is famous for the tale of the incoming tide. According to legend, Canute’s courtiers flattered him into believing that his word was so powerful that even the tide would recede at his command. Canute is said to have taken this compliment literally and had his throne placed by the shore and vainly attempted to command the waves to recede until he almost drowned. An alternative version states that Canute was extremely wise and put on this practical demonstration to show his courtiers that he was not taken in by their flattery. The event is commemorated by a plaque at Bosham." (Ward's Book of Days)
Using this idea we were then able to come up with the album name, 'Playing With Tides' this works well with the band name as this is their first album we wanted to link the name and band together which shows that it is personal to them and that they have given it a lot of thought.
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