Mustafa and Reshma Evaluation.

Brad Sucks Finished Edit...

Final Magazine Ad & Digipak

Evaluation - Mustafa Duzel

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

We used the Internet for our research. We I looked into artists of the same genre, and we tried to find what type of clothes they wear, their editing style, and their choice of actors. I specifically looked at artists like ‘Calvin Harris’ and ‘Late of the Pier’. I looked for typical conventions of the Electro-pop/Indie genre, I found the 'band in a room' convention being used a lot, and I wanted to bring this to the next level with the use of clever editing. I planned the ‘Band in a Room’ to be a band with only one member playing all the instruments of a Indie band: Guitar, Drums, Bass etc. Another editing style that I wanted to use was ‘Stop-Motion’ when I fought of this idea I instantly remembered the music video ‘Strawberry Swing’ by Coldplay, the fast frame rate really made the stop motion look fluid, unfortunately with iMovie when found we could only increase the frame rate to 30fps so we didn’t use it for the whole video like Coldplay.

We also researched into the costumes that a Indie pop artist would wear, we found that they all wanted to hold a unique look, by doing this they all had ‘Iconographic’ costumes, Calvin Harris used Sunglasses, Late of the Pier used checked shirts and we wanted to capture this look.  I brought in a ‘Russian Hat’ that I would wear all throughout the video, and even in the Digipak and Magazine advert. By doing this we didn’t really subvert from the genre in anyway, we wanted to make our video instantly recognisable. However when we got some audience feedback they agreed in everything we planned to do, but they expected ‘Dancing Girls’ in the video. This we instantly disagreed with, we saw dancing girls as more of a R&B convention.

I was chosen as the actor as we believed that I met some of the generic conventions of this genre. I wore checked shirts, skinny jeans and a Russian Hat. We needed an actor with a serious look, we also asked our audience for some feedback on what type of style our artist needed, they said ‘funky, serious, skinny jeans, boots and dirty’ the dirty idea was discarded as we found it strays away to far from the generic conventions of our genre, but everything else was taken into account.

We also asked our audience what type of locations they would expect from this type of video, they said that they expected a giant white room, much like The White Stripes 'Little Room' music video and maybe even a street corner. We decided to use the white room idea and we developed the street corner idea into an urban skate park scene as it fit better with the generic conventions of the genre.

With the ancillary task we decided to use washed out colours, which added a serious tone to the picture. We also used black and white effectively because we wanted the cover to be instantly recognisable to people who are interested in the Indie-pop genre, it also isolated our actor because we tried to make the audience focus solely on the artist.

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

As I said before we tried to add this serious mystic around our artist in order to make him more appealing and interesting to the mainstream media. One of the techniques we used was iconography, the use if the big Russian hat was used throughout on purpose so that piece of clothing became part of the artist, so it became obvious that like Calvin Harris we had to use our iconographic clothing on our cover and magazine advert.

In regards to the digipak, it offers a lot more than the digital version of the song. Even though the digital version does have the ability to be downloaded right away, through research we found that people still love to buy the Digipaks because it can be collected and resold.  The Digipak also offers more exclusive content like posters. CDs can also hold more memory so the quality of the song is a lot better when compared to the digital version of the song.

The way in which we would expect people to come across our music video is though the QR codes that are on our magazine adverts. Most mobile phones today have the ability to process the QR code and take them to a specific website, ours being the music video itself. 

What have you leaned from your audience feedback?

The first time we got audience feedback was when we had just decided what song to use and we let them listen to it with no video, we asked them what genre they thought it was, what type of artist they expected, and what type of locations they would expect in the video. We used nearly all the information they gave to us, but some suggestions were just impossible, one of the audience members recommended a roof top scene with the band, since we didn’t have access to a green screen or an actual rooftop that was ruled out dude to technical reasons.

We also got feedback from the audience when we completed the first edit and final edit. After we showed them the first edit they recommended we slow down some of the jump cuts because it doesn’t give the viewer enough time to focus on what’s going on, even if there is no narrative in the music video.

To do with the artist I was going to wear my Nike trainers to the shoot, however the audience recommended converses as it fit into the generic conventions of the genre better.

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

For the most part we used the Internet, simply because of the videos, images and forums we could access. When we were researching into costumes we found out all the generic conventions of our particular genre, this enabled use to pick and chose which type of artist we wanted.

We also used music forums to ask if people still preferred Digipaks over digital downloads, this helped immensely during our production process. We also put polls on our blog next to our first edit asking whether or not ‘the pace of the song fit the editing’ we also asked if they ‘feel shots used were repetitive’ and even if the ‘costumes and locations are appropriate to the genre?’ this really helped us in are second edit to reshoot anything we were not happy with and re-edit certain parts that had some problems.

We also found our song on Jamendo, which was a copyright free music website. I downloaded the song onto my phone, iPod and computer in order to learn the song for the shoot. On the shoot itself, the cameraman would play the song though his phone so I could hear it and lip sync and because the phone was close to the camera we were able to sync up my lips to the mp.4 file easily. 

Editing...

Editing was harder then i expected, that doesn't mean that i didn't enjoy it. The process was slow and took countless hours, but it was all worth it in the end, it has given me a lot of editing experience and has boosted my confidence with different editing software tenfold. Even though we all hated the song after a week of editing, we still worked on, it's just the same lyric over and over again will drive anyone insane!

Overall i am thankful for this experience and i would do it again (If i had to) even though i applied to university to study Film (Screenwriting) i am glad i have at least some understanding of the editing process and i am proud of our final piece.

RE-SHOOT

We decided to re-shoot our maraca scene, we did this because the first time we did it the maracas were out of the shot and it just didn't look right so we decided to use the good parts and add close ups of the maracas to clearly show to the audience he is holding a maraca, because our fast shots we got some audience feedback and they said that it was to fast and our audience couldn't focus in time so we slowed down some of the shots.

EVERY THING I HAVE IS GREY! but which i best eyh?

Started editing !

Finally we have started editing, I wasn't in school last week because i was ill so i didn't get to chose what shots/effects would be appropriate for the music video. Today i checked the blog to see what they decided and i am in full agreement. I started editing the REAL video and so far so good thanks to the storyboard we created and shots we filmed the editing isn't that hard, at the moment.

Hope it stays that way :)

Music Video Part 1 - Ruff Cut

Friday 10th December

, During the lesson today we discussed when we would film our remaining footage. We have come up with the idea of using a time lapse effect within our music video thus we have decided to film at Brick Lane which should be quite busy. We will film on Monday morning (9am-11am) as this time is convenient for all group members. During this time we also plan to shoot in a park in an attempt to recreate some editing techniques we previously tried out (the fast cuts of our actor).

Album/Magazine cover ideas.

After our magazine cover analysis i found that magazine covers usually follow the same pattern, Artists of the same genre will stick to a specific formula. An artist such as Weller who seems to be making a solo "Come back" album wouldn't follow the same formula as Manic street preachers.

Wellers magazine cover has him standing on stage, very natural look not posed or acted, it's just him playing on stag

e. Which makes sense as the product he is advertising is a "Double feature" CD/DVD of Weller playing live on stage. The use of the stage lights pointing down on him, showing his audience that he is now a serious solo artist and is no longer with "The Jam". It effectively shows he is no longer sharing the spotlight with his ex-band members.

Most magazine cover nowadays have a digital download link for the album (iTunes) this album does not. The album also has a documentary about Paul Weller, this is great for the super fan. It also gives other people extra incentive to buy the album, not download it.

What we have taken from looking at this magazine cover;

Our artist is also a solo artist and we have found that it is important to advertise this.

Shots of the artist in the spotlight alone in there natural state is an effective ways in doing so.

Finally i also found that we should use intertextuality on our album cover and or magazine cover, Because we have quiet a serious artist who has a cold and serious stare i decided to mix this up with quite a serious and emotionless actor: Dexter

Friday 26th - The shoot

Tyrone capturing a shot of the changing traffic lights whilst Mustafa is holding the tree branches out of sight (left),

On Friday, as scheduled, we re-shot the Skate Park scene and shot the White Room scene. When shooting the skate park scene again, things went pretty much according to plan. We did not manage to get shots of skaters though because the skate park was deserted. One problem that we did have to deal with was the sun, the sun was very bright so we tried to block it out with an umberella, this didn't work so we went away and shoot something else and when the sun went down we re-shoot it. However, when setting up the White Room with the instruments and cameras, we decided the room wasn't as we'd expected. The marks on the walls showed up on the camera and the lights didn't help in making the room look clean white. All the same, we managed to find an instant alternative. The Great Hall which has a white wall, this was available although we had to wait for a while. We then transported all of our props and filming equipment and set up the location. During the setting up of location we found extra stage lighting which we decided to set up, although this did cause some problems as at some angles it left a shadow, we then tried turning some of the lights down and finally got the lighting how we wanted it. We decided to set up a camera which had all the instruments in shoot, and another camera which was used to get angled shoots and close up shots. If we was filming for a real music I realise that we would probably do the establishing shoots first where his playing all the instruments , we would then keep one instrument in shoot and take the others out, this would mean only one instrument was in shoot at a time.

Todays Progress

Today we completed our shooting schedules, and have decided on the following dates to film:

We are re-shooting the Skate Park shots on Friday the 26th November from 11-1pm

We have also discussed filming the scenes in the White Room on the same day (from 1.30 - 4pm). However, this is yet to be confirmed as we could not reach Miss Cervi who is responsible for the Performing Arts room. As she was unavailable, we, as a group constructed a memo which we will leave in her pigeon hole (and Mr Holders for musical instruments). Here is a print screen image of the actual memo. We are anticipating a response by Wednesday.

We have discussed the props we will need for the shoot. This includes two lights for the white room (to try and overcome the issue of the room not being clean white) and two cameras to enable us to get shots from various angles. If our proposal is accepted, our singer Mustafa will wear different costumes for both locations. We will also borrow a drum kit, microphone and stand, guitar and guitar base for this scene.

For our second attempt of shooting, we require a spray paint to paint 'Brad Sucks'.

The Sky Divers Production Team

Image construction.

COSTUME AND STAR CONSTRUCTION.

I was able to find a pair of lovely converses from a friend at college and he was willing to lend it to me while we shot our video.

On the same day i went to my local Topman and found a pair of skinny jeans, when we got some feedback from the other media group they identified our character as young ,w

hite and a typical Topman customer. So i am trying to make it my goal to become a generic "Topman shopping student???"

Ms.Pollard also lent us some beads to wear and we are also hoping to get a t shrit similar to this so it will match the beads.

Example

During today's lesson we went out locally to get some footage using the ideas we have. As we have planned to have a park as one location, we used to park in front of the 6th form to create some effects. We then edited it to create the fast cuts. We thought it was good and suited the song in terms of genre, particularly the end of the song where the pace picks up. We may use this effect, but to improve it we will cut it more carefully according to the rhythm.

Locations

This is our first Location Mile End Skate Park(pictured right), where we have already ready filmed parts of our music video. The reason why we choose this as one of our locations is because it fits with the genre which we are song is part, and this is what we know our target audience expects to see.

This is a potential location for our music video, we want to use this room because of the plain walls so we can use it for a nice clean backdrop but after seeing the room today, the room isn't as clean as we first thought, but the room does offer a lot of closed space to bring in instruments such as a nice big drum kit for the opening scene.

We also plan on using an open roof top to record some shoots.

Storyboard part 1

Here are some images of our storyboard. We have not yet completed it but these are some of the ideas we have had for the beginning of the music video.

Filming - Wednesday 27th Oct

As scheduled, today, we met up at Mile End Skate Park at 12pm. We filmed a variety of shots of Mustafa from different angles and distances.. We were fortunate to find artists painting graffiti so we decided to film them (with consent) to use to cut to within the video. We also filmed a couple of skaters who were happy to participate. Tyrone handled the camera.

Research

After playing this audio track to the other A2 Media Class, these are the types of videos they pictured the song would suit:
They imagined the main actor style as a relatively funky guy - dressed in skinny jeans, tucked into his boots (perhaps military style). He is white with lenghthy hair, with a scruffy or 'dirty' appearance. He has a serious look about him.
In regard to location, they visualised the following:
-Street corners
-Dancing girls in a completely white room
-They also envisioned that the actor is singing to an audience on stage.
-Some imagined the song being released from a band playing in a room.

The other class also said that there should be different types of shots such as a camera tied to a bike and the actor lip syncing, and the artist standing on a bridge while the cars go by behind them. They said the video should look arty, should have quick cuts and should have an abstract narrative.
As a group, we had already imagined the main character as the other class have described: scruffy, funky, stubbly etc but as a group we have elaborated more on this characters description by discussing age, colour of clothing and more. These varied opinions from the others have inspired us and provided guidance. Yet we do not completely agree with all their suggestions such as those about dancing girls. Our group discussions revealed that we all pictured the video consisting of one character from end to finish and if there was to be more characters involved, it would not be dancing girls. Being a slow paced song, it would not suit dance performances like fast dance songs or R&B songs would (their typical iconography consists of girls, often dancing).


As a result of this feedback, we decided to discard the following locations: band on a rooftop, or singer taking a walk down the canal.

Location Scouting - Mustafa

Second lake:







Path way: