Evaluation question 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During the creation of our project we used various different pieces of technologies. We also experimented with different methods and pieces of equipment in order to create the shots that we wanted during the creation of the video itself.

In terms of the research to our video we mainly used websites such as YouTube. This is where we researched lots of existing music videos so that we could look at the typical conventions and things you would expect to see. This was extremely useful as we applied these codes and conventions to our own video so that it looked to be a more realistic video. We heavily utilised internet search engines such as Google as well to research videos, digipaks and different artists. This was essential in creating our artist and deciding what we wanted our video to be like. We also used Blogger to convey our findings from our research and our ideas for our artist and video.

When we were planning our video we used Final Cut Pro to make an animatic of our storyboards. We started by planning every single shot with our storyboards, then edited it all together on Final Cut to the song. This showed our ideas for our video and also allowed us to use technology in a different way to aid our planning. It also gave us more of an idea of how we were going to make our actual video and allowed for some feedback from our class and teachers. This actually turned out to be very useful for us as many people had feedback for our video which really helped us. We were unsure at that point exactly how we were going to make the video and this was evident throughout the animatic. The feedback from our classmates and teachers helped us get a clearer picture of what it was that we wanted to do with our video.


In terms of the creation of my digipak, I used Photoshop to create all 6 panels individually before placing them all onto one template. I used pictures that we all went out and took of our artist in various different settings, many of which we would go on to film at when it came to making our video. I also used Photoshop to create my magazine advert, which advertised my artists' album and digipak using a picture of the artist, links to his social media, places where you can buy the album and even a picture of the album front cover to let potential buyers know what they should look for.



When filming the actual video, we decided to use Ghanshyam's camera as we felt the quality and focus was better on his than the school ones. We used a Canon SX710 HS to film the entire music video and we were very happy with the quality of the shots we got from this camera.In addition to this we used a dolly, tripod and shoulder mount to help us with our shots.



To edit together all the shots that we took for our video, we used Final Cut Pro on the Macs at school. This is a software that we have become accustomed to over the last 2 years as it is the software we have used on all of our past projects. Although we had just one main editor, we all came up with suggestions and feedback of what the edit could look like.

Evaluation question 3- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evaluation question 2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation question 2 from james Covill

Evaluation question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our music video both conforms and challenges to the codes and conventions of music videos in general and hip hop music videos. The typical conventions of music videos include a number of close ups of the artist. This is to let the audience know who they are listening to. It also suits the demands of record labels. In addition to this, the editing of most videos is in sync with the beat and pace of the music. For example, fast paced music usually warrants quicker cuts and shorter shots.

Conventions of hip-hop music videos include lots of portrayal of wealth. Our video showed that by making the artist wear designer clothes. These clothes are a significant portrayal of the artists' wealth and highlights his journey from "rags to riches".





Power is also a key feature of hip hop videos and in our video we showed this by using low angle shots of our artist to make him look more dominant and more powerful than the audience. As the hip hop genre is quite dominated by male artists, the use of low angle shots makes them look more powerful. Also, shots of King J looking over at the city from a high angle represents his journey to the top and suggests he is now one of the most powerful people in the country as he is almost looking down at the place he grew up in.


In addition to this, party or club scenes are very conventional. We also incorporated one of these scenes into our video. We recreated a party scene in our video by using party lights and a smoke machine with some extras. However, as a way to slightly challenge this convention we made it so that the main artist King J was clearly not enjoying it, with everyone else around him enjoying themselves.

We would say that we have successfully conformed to the typical codes and conventions of music videos in general and also hip hop videos. However, we also set out to challenge the codes and conventions by making a whole sub narrative of King J being unhappy and attempting to escape from his past life instead of solely focusing on the successful career he has built and the expensive lifestyle he now has. 

Improvements made to digipak

In between the creation of our music video I have made significant improvements to my digipak and magazine advert. One real positive was that all the pictures that we took were usable which meant we didn't have to go out again and take some more. I feel I have made a considerable amount of progress on my first draft which looked like this:

For example, I coloured the background of the CD panels, coloured the spines, created two of my own spines and got rid of a lot of text to make it simpler to read and understand.

Here are some more examples of past drafts for my digipak and some of the progress I have made:

Day and night theme

As our music video is called "Day n' Nite" we decided early on in the planning stage that we wanted to combines shots in daytime and night time. However, one part of the feedback for our final draft was that everytime the artist said "day n nite" in the song we could transition to a night shot. This was a slight issue as we hadn't filmed the scenes with this in mind so we would have had to re-film everything which wouldn't have been possible considering the lack of time we had at this point. Instead, we used some extra shots such as ones where King J is simply dancing or acting to the camera. We also included a lot of shots of him admiring the settings of the video as one common theme is his rise to the top and where he was "Born n Bred" which is the album name.

Final music video- Day N Nite

Feedback sheets for final edit

Production schedule for the re-filming of our music video

Tuesday 3rd January- 2 hour filming session during lesson (Thamesmead- hill shots)

Wednesday 18th January- 2-3 hour filming session after school (Greenwich- night shots)

Tuesday 24th January- 2 hour filming session during lesson (Welling- final shots)

These 3 dates were all the shoots we did after our first draft in order to improve our video. On all of these shoots we used our director's camera with no other equipment.

Production Log Entry 12

We have now finished the editing of our final music video. Ghanshyam edited the video during class whilst the rest of our group were there available for opinions and any other way Ghanshyam needed us to help. We are very happy with how it looks and the editing that Ghanshyam has done.

Final video feedback

Today in class we screened our final music video to our class. There will be slight tweaks in terms of the editing but this edit will be largely the final piece. The feedback was overly positive. Many people thought this edit was a lot better than the first edit.

One common theme in our feedback was good cinematography. A lot of the feedback said that the use of camera angles and different types of shots were effective.

Another positive were our settings. Many people thought the additional settings of Greenwich and the hill in Thamesmead were much more effective than some of the settings we had in the first draft.

One thing that a lot of people felt we could tweak and work on was some of the lip syncing with the lyrics. We noticed this ourselves just before we screened the edit to our class and will work on fixing that. Another improvement was some of the night time shots being grainy. This is purely because of the focus of the camera at night time, so to get around this we will look into colour correction in editing. Finally, the narrative of our video was slightly unclear to some people.

Overall, the improvements that people suggested are do-able and there were a lot of positives to take away from the screening.

Programs used during the creation of our project

These are the programs that we as a group used to aid us with the creation of our music video and digipaks. We used each one for different reasons and at different stages of our project. Blogger for example was used to document every stage of our project. YouTube was used as a means of researching into existing music videos and digipaks to aid us with the creation of our own. Dafont was used to download different fonts for our digipaks and the creation of our artist logo. Photoshop was used to put all of our photos from our photoshoot together and to create our digipak. Finally, Final Cut Pro was used to create the actual music video.
  

Production Log Entry 11

Today we filmed one final shot. This consisted of a close up of the girl that King J was shown looking at in the party scene. This girl represents the girl that King J wants and is a central character behind the romantic sub-plot of our music video. This shot was very simple and was simply a quick pan close up of her face. We done this during our media lesson and shot it so that there was a back drop of a brick wall so as to not confuse anyone.

Problems we encountered with this project

During the production of our music video we have encountered a few problems and setbacks. These have made the process more challenging, yet each team we have found solutions and ways to get around it.

One of our first problems was that some of the original shots were shaky and unsteady. This was especially apparent in scenes where the camera was following King J as he moved about. To fix this, we shot a lot of still shots with minimal movement of the camera. We also used dollys, tripods and tracks where possible, although a lot of our shots were handheld.

Another common problem throughout this project was scheduling times for filming and editing. As nearly all of our group work outside of school we had issues with finding time to film. To counteract this, we used most of our media lessons during school to go out and film what we needed, then come back and edit when it was possible to do so. In the future, a proper schedule and production log where we write down dates and times to film should be used.

We also struggled with the narrative of the video. A lot of people were confused with the narrative when we showed our first edit and it is something we have tried to work on. We originally wanted the video to show how King J has transitioned from a life of violence and gang troubles to money and fame. We originally included a scene with his former gang, however the feedback suggested that it was unclear that this was the gang and that the setting made it too much like a grime video. To get around this, we included a lot of shots of nice buildings and scenery and even shots on top of a hill overlooking the city. This particular setting suggested that King J felt on top of the world with his new found fame.

Production Log Entry 10

Over the last few weeks our group has re-filmed nearly the whole of our music video in order to meet the deadline of this week for the completion of the final edit. We have began to edit together the final product and are very close to completing it. Ghanshyam has been our editor and will complete the edit, with the rest of our group giving feedback and advice where needed. We feel confident that the shots we have re-filmed look better than the original ones did on our first draft and we feel the video as a whole looks a lot better.

Production Log Entry 9

Today our group finished re-filming our music video. We only had one shot left to do which was roughly a 20 second long take of the "hold the phone" section to our song. The reason why we had to re-film this bit was because we scrapped the gang scenes from our first draft. Also, in the first draft, the camera panned up slightly too early to show off the name of the shop that King J had just come out of. This was because I couldn't hear the song as it was busy and we were near a main road where lots of cars were going past. This meant I couldn't keep in time with the song and didn't know exactly when to start tilting the camera. The shot came out good in the end. We made Jacob stand in front of some garage doors of a set of nice looking flats so that it looked high end and showed off how far he has come since his days of being in a gang.

Production Log Entry 8

Today our group travelled to Greenwich in order to film some scenery shots and some shots of King J including the opening scene. We went after school because we wanted some scenes for our video to be at night because of the song title. We also chose to go to Greenwich because we wanted the shots to look nice and classy which Greenwich offers. After today we only have one or two more shots to re-do and then any other corrections that are suggested to us by our teachers or class mates will be considered. The shoot went very well and we got some good shots. The night time really suited our shots and there was a nice layer of fog which made the shots look even better. We filmed several shots in front of the University in Greenwich and then a few in front of the River Thames by the barrier.

Final digipak and magazine advert

Changes we have made to our video from feedback

Since we played our first draft to our class we have made a few considerable changes to the video as a whole. The costume of our artist has changed quite dramatically. Before, King J was predominantly wearing a tracksuit. However, our feedback stated that this costume made the video look a bit like it was from the grime genre. To resolve this we changed the costume so that King J was instead wearing designer clothes such as shirts and jeans with smart shoes. We have also changed some of the locations for our video. For the opening scene of our first draft we had it at some local garages. However, again our feedback said that the video looked too grime like so we changed these locations. The opening scenes will be re-filmed in Greenwich where there is nice scenery and quite prestigious looking buildings. We also filmed at a hill in Thamesmead which had a really nice view of the city around King J. It also showed him from quite high up in order to represent his journey to the top. This idea is also shown through his clothing which is quite rich and more expensive. This is a nice contrast especially in the scenes on the hill.

First Draft Music Video Feedback

These are the feedback sheets for our first draft of our music video. We have put all the feedback together and know what we need to do in order to improve our whole video.

Remaining shoots

The remaining shoots we will need to do to complete our music video include the re-filming of the gang scene. We are currently unsure over whether or not to keep this scene as well it looks a little out of place with our genre and narrative. We will definitely need to re-film it or film something else to replace it as the original shots are shaky and a bit out of focus, they are also framed poorly and don't suit the genre well. This scene which comes at the start and the chip shop scene are the most urgent call for re-shoots. We are happy to keep the party scene and some of the studio scene and now that we have some additional shots from "the hill" in Thamesmead we are happy to cut between these new shots and the studio shots. The reason why we are going to do this is because our feedback said that these shots went on for a bit too long and ended up in the video ending on a boring note.

Behind the scene shots and shoot location

These are some pictures from our latest shoot. Myself and Ghanshyam both took turns taking some shots with Ghanshyam's camera whilst Jacob acted as King J. Thomas gave support behind the camera to whoever was filming also. The setting was very suitable for our video and we feel like it will be a very good addition to give a bit more variety to our video as a whole.

Production Log Entry 7

Today we began re-shooting some of the scenes for our music video. We travelled to one of our locations for our photoshoot in Thamesmead to film these scenes. We filmed a variety of different shots of King J and shots of the scenery around where we filmed just for some additional shots to fill any gaps in our video. The shoot went very well in conclusion, we worked together to get some nice shots and were very happy with the location and the weather on the day.