Our Director's Commentary

Analysis of Evaluation

U1-44

Throughout this evaluation, the individual goes into alot of detail in each section to help the readers understand how they went about making their music video and how they came up with their ideas etc. As well as talking about their video, i like how they have spoken about their ancillary texts because they are just as important to this project as the video so it always helps to know how they found making ancillary texts and if they think they were as good or better than the video itself. as well as this, they speak about what inspired them to come up with their ideas and also when they were filming, the different techniques they used which is important to know for a reader. I like the way the also conclude everything in the end paragraph which is good because it shows they understood the whole concept of what a good evaluation is all about.

SCRIPT IDEAS

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

• Discuss what we researched and how this helped us to develop our video - we looked at lots of Neyo's videos and other RnB music videos such as Jason Derulo, Beyonce etc, famous artists, with famous videos with similar narratives.
• What are the codes and conventions of real music products and how did we include them in our product? - we used a romantic narrative, slow pace, singing to the camera, lots of two shots of the couple together in romantic scenes or locations.
• Did we stick to/use any of Good-wins Theory points? Yes we used links between music and visuals and lyrics and visuals, demand of the record label and voyeurism.
• Discuss ways in which we used genre conventions to make our product look more professional, and make the genre obvious - using things like dance moves, close ups of singing towards the camera, and effects and filters are all conventions of RNB genre.

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

• Did all three products work well as an overall package? The ancillary texts linked well due to the idea of the hat, although the music video doesn't link as clearly.
• What concept were we trying to show?  - we was trying to emphasize the fact that the artist was in a day dream of imagining a relationship with someone he saw walking by.
• Do they attract the target audience? our video is targeted to all ages as its a certified PG due to the classification and guidelines of the bbfc, and there fore all our content is acceptable for all ages and our video uses a romantic feel, and narrative therefore attracting any age and any gender.

what have you learnt from your feedback?

• feedback on initial pitch- Our initial pitch didn't seem to attract a lot of positive feedback at first, because the idea we had in mind for the video lacked creativity and originality, so we felt we needed to make a change based on our feedback. We created a whole new pitch which had a real sense of originality to it to respond to the feedback.
• Feedback on rough cut - Our rough cut lacked enough clips and there was not enough pace between the cuts to give it a music video feel, we learnt from this and went out and recorded even more clips to add in for our final cut and also added clips on top of longer clips to allow more cuts.
• Feedback on final cut - After finishing our final product a lot of the feedback which noted the flaws of our product was about how they didn't really understand the quick reverse clips in the middle of the video. If we could improve these clips now, we would add either a clip of a clock running in fast reverse or a text box with the date/time running quick reverse.

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

• What ways did we use these products - We used photoshop to construct our digipak/magazine ad and used Final Cut to edit our music video to a high quality. We used blogger to write up our evidence and keep up-to-date with progress. 
• How did they help you create a successful product -
• What ways did/didn't the technologies help you be creative - 

Ideas for filming the script

We have decided instead of writing out a massive script with blocks of writing, we have written out the four questions we had to answer for our evaluation so that for each of the questions, we can make little notes underneath saying what we need to talk about and that way everyone can get involved and have an opinion so the audience can hear different views we may have. Also it looks  bit more professional expanding on short notes you have made rather than the whole group passing round bits of paper to read from because not only can the audience not see your face and emotion which is key, they also may find it hard to hear you properly if you are hiding behind a camera.  

Evaluation

1)     I think our media product is a typical music video, as we have used a lot of the usual conventions throughout such as using lip synching, different locations and also a few different characters to hep portray the story. Our video is a typical RnB video, as it involved a girl somewhere along the line, which I why whenever you see the artist alone, he looks depressed. However, our video does challenge some of the conventions because in most  RnB videos there are a lot of individual shots of the artist whereas in our video there are not many because of the fact he is with the girl.

We tried to make sure that we covered as many of Goodwin’s theories as possible to try to meet as many conventions as possible. For example, we tried hard to link the visual to the lyrics of the song because otherwise the video would make no sense and nothing would link together. We tried to look at some other videos from the past to try to gain an understanding of what made their product so good and how we as a group could aspire to do better. Of course, we focused mainly on videos that were similar to our song which helped us gain ideas of what would work well and how we would achieve their ideas.

2)     In my view the work we did on our ancillary texts was good in some stages but a bit average in others. However, I think that our main product links well with the ancillary texts because we made sure that on the main product and ancillary texts the artist was the main focus so everyone knew who the artist was and what he looked like. On the magazine advert we got a nice photo of the artist, made it the background so that we could work everything else around that. For example, for all three products we tried to make sure that we had a recurring theme which was that the artist was wearing a hat. I think we achieved this well, as having a theme can help to link all the products you have worked on nicely. Saying that, some areas were much stronger than others. Our digipak was really good because not only did we make it look good with different effects and nice fonts, we made sure that the key information was on there and was clear to see.  Although we had good information on the magazine advert, it looked a little boring, as there was not a great deal of variation, which was disappointing because that would have helped to link all the products even better.

  

3)     Audience feedback from classmates and teachers was brilliant because it helped us identify where our weaknesses were in all products but also the strengths. For example, after the rough cut we had a lot of feedback from teachers about how to improve the video. This was great, as it meant we could go away as a group and always be busy improving instead of making no changes and having a shabby final piece. The good thing was that the strengths of the video were expressed – this gave our group a confidence boost and meant that if we worked on making improvements on the stronger bits, the video would look 10 times better.

Without audience feedback as a group it is a bit of a guessing game to see where improvements need to be made, which is why it is always a massive help to have other people’s views and possibly gain more marks, something we all want. Without feedback we would not have known that the video would look better in black and white, as it would help link nicely with the lyrics and pace of the song.

4)     Throughout the whole project we as a group have used a range of different technologies to help produce all three of the products. For example, for the ancillary texts we used up a lot of time on Photoshop, as it helped us gain an idea of what would look good in regards to a variety of themes, fonts and also the layout of the pictures and writing alongside each other. As well as this, without a final cut we would not have been able to produce the video because we could not have added all the great effects. Without effects the video would have been boring and lacked any real punch. Without a final cut issues such as turning our video into black and white or adding fades would not have been possible and that is why it was so important for the whole task.  

Also things such as the cameras we used were crucial because if the pictures were of a poor   quality it would have looked very amateurish and not have portrayed a really professional look.  The HD cameras were brilliant not only for still shots but also handheld also because the image was still so clear. Another key matter was Blogger because that helped us see what we had achieved but also what was still left to do. The great thing was you could also gain ideas from looking at blogs from groups in the past, which was a massive help. Without the use of any of this technology none of the products would have been possible, which shows why modern technology is so important in media.

Will Conlon  

  

     

Directors Commentary

A directors commentary is after a music video is filmed or any type of film, the director or directors go over all the different steps of their video and say how they roginally came up with the idea and how it ended up being useful for their final video. it is good to do this for the audience but also for yourself as a group or individual because it can give you a chance to see what did look good but also where you can improve.
There are many different formats of presenting directors commentary but the main one is usually to present it using another video. It is set out like a mini interview but sometimes the director will use rhetorical questions and then answer themselves and explain in detail why they chose a certain effect over another one for example.

Magazine cover

Digipak Idea

For the back of our DVD case, we will attempt a montage collection of photos in the style of polaroid camera photos. This makes it look like the DVD has had photos attached to it and gives it a stylish feel.

In order to pull off this style we will use the AutoShape tools of Photoshop, we will make white rectangles in the shape of a polaroid photo. We will then put photos on the layers above the white rectangles to give it the look of photo prints on the DVD cover, this will give off a really nice effect we feel as it seems professionalized.

Polaroid print template

Digipak

On the front cover of our Digipak we have a large photo of the artist (Christian) with a 'poster edge' effect on it, and on the front cover we will include things like the name of the artist and the song, as well as the album name we will also include things like the classification. We have also included a basic font that has become very effective for the overall front cover and makes it easy for the audience to read and understand.

On the back of our digipak we will include a number of small images that will be positions around the page to form some sort of appealing pattern. This will bring more attention to the digipak. A number of quotes and song lyrics will also be added in our digipak, these will be positioned beside the different images located around the Digipak.  We have also added some reviews and star ratings, so that the viewers are more likely to be interested in buying as it would have good reliable reviews from reliable sources. From looking at other professional Digipaks, we found that the back generally includes barcodes, classification ages, and also a little about the producers etc, but in very small print at the bottom of the back cover.

22nd November 2011 - Progress

During this lesson we continued to work on our magazine ad, adding the "OUT NOW" banner and other typical features of a magazine ad, such as a review quote along with it's source to encourage the magazine readers to give the artist a listen. We also added the release date for the album and the name of the album below the information for the new single.

To give the artist more recognition we have put a picture of him on the front cover. However, we are looking to change this picture for the next lesson to suit the typical portrait of Ne-Yo (wearing a trilby hat for example).

Next lesson we plan to finish our magazine ad by adding a few small details and having a new picture added.

Digipak ideas

When thinking about our digipak, we thought about the front, the back, and the 3 sections of the inside.
We thought about having the front a long shot of the artist wearing the hat, looking to one side. we then decided to use the inside sections as pictures of the artist putting on the hat in different ways, and the back using either a black background with the shot of a hat, or a similar photo to the one below, however we may use this idea as one of the inside shots.

IDEAS FOR OUR MAGAZINE ADVERT

This is our idea of how we want our magazine ad to come out.

Final Edit Of Our Music Video

This is the final edit of our music video that we have been working on. We have made a lot of changes to our video. Examples would be that we have made most of our video into black and white so it looks more of a dream, it is a lot loner than it was before and also the shots we have used are a lot better quality.

Feedback from rough cut

After Andrea and Amar looked at our rough cut video, they gave us some feedback.

• They told us that we should change our black and white parts of our video to colour and change the colour parts to black and white so that maybe that would make it look more dream like. 

• We also need to add in some more shots of the artist (Christian) so it also adds as part of Goodwins theory, and also some close ups of the other characters (Saffy) so that it almost introduces them, and shows off expressions more clearly, and emotions between them. 

• We need to add some short clips of the artist singing so it will make it look more like a music video, and more professional. 

• We also need to cut up the existing shots that we have and make them shorter, and also muddle them up a bit so it shows a variety of locations and it doesn't look boring when the shots carry on for too long.

• We need to change the split screen to two separate shots, and then use the split screen at the end, so there's a shot of him texting, then a shot of her texting, then the split screen showing them both texting, 

FEEDBACK FROM ROUGH CUT

Goodwin's theory-
Lyrics and visuals- you and me together- two people together
Music and visuals- nothing really, apart from the speed of the song is quite slow and goes with the visuals.
Voyuerism- shots of the people walking
Genre characteristics- love scenes, girl and boy, dancing, romance.
Intertestuality- nothing


Editing-
Not enough cuts, shots are too long, good use of split screen, the black and white is effective.


Mis en scene- very good locations with romantic feel, lighting in resturant is very good with dark reddish light which looks romantic, good use of props, candles and drinks set a good scene, but cant see what is on the phone.


Camerawork- good variety of shots close ups with phone and split screens lots of mid shots of couples, lots of facial shots to show expressions, steady camera, need more different shots and more shots in general as its too short.

ROUGH CUT

Idea's for our music video

This video is an example of how we want to make our video similar by changing from black and white to high contrast colour, however this video has a lot of changes where as we only want black and white at the beginning and end of our video. 

Neyo-Sexy Love Analysis- Goodwins theory

Following Goodwins thoery, during music videos there is meant to be a clear link between lyrics and visuals, and in the case of this video 'sexy love', Neyo makes it clear the lyrics are about a female, there are constant shots of the actor and the female in intimate situations, which is usually when hes singing the lines 'sexy love' or   'just one touch' and other lines such as 'making love to you' there are lots of links between lyrics and visuals and also links between music and visuals, as the beat of the song gets faster the shot transitions get quicker, and because of the genre of the song being RnB there's also areas of dancing in the video which are also a link with the music and pace/tone of the music. As well as these another point of Goodwin's theory is the voyeurism of a woman's body, and in the video the woman is wearing revealing clothing and with the use of mirrors and other elements it makes it apparent that voyeurism is being used. The demand of the record label comes from the use of close ups of the artist and in the video there are mainly close ups of the artist singing into the camera or singing towards the female, although alot of the shots have the female actress in, its mainly concentrating on him and her body, not as much of her face, in comparison to the amount of close ups of Neyo. When watching the video it was hard to find any obvious intertextual reference. 

Re-filming.

19th October, re-filming.

After uploading our footage on the 18th, we realised we had to re-shoot a lot of our film, so we decided to go back to our locations and re-shoot, unfortunately what we hoped would work in our boat scene was unsuccesful, so we re-visited 'Bella italia' and asked for permission to film in their premises, thankfully they agreed and me managed to film what was needed, although we still have some more to do. We found that it was alot easier to film as there was not as many people in the restaurant, and also the staff gave us a candle and drinks so we could get the 'romantic meal' look we wanted, which we had problems with in the boat on our previous filming day.

We also managed to get a lot more shots of our first location at the 'bar' and we decided to shoot each shot about 3 or 4 times so we had more variety and could make it look as good as possible. We did this because if we were to only take the shots once, they may not come out as we wanted so we did it a number of times to make sure we were happy with how it looked and that it wold fit in well with the final video. 

17th October Filming.

On our first day of filming, we met at Cineworld to start our first few locations, some members of the group were late which lead to incontinence when wanting to film in 'Bella italia' as it started getting busy, however we tried to film quickly, but efficiently, we got the shots we needed and moved onto our next location, but in the rush of it all we forgot a few shots. 

Shots of the boat

When moving onto our next location, we had to go to a nearby park where we had a 'romantic walk' shot, which worked fine as the weather was good and it was quiet. Our next location was a boat in Wicken Fen, which we believed to be a lot bigger then it actually was, therefore we was restricted for space, but we tried to carry on filming. When we went back to college we uploaded our footage and found we was not happy with the outcome, so decided to make another filming day.