Monday, 28 March 2011
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Director's Cut of You Could Be Happy
In this video, I explain what I personally found difficult in producing the music video and what I feel is successful.
Pitch
Matt - Initial idea - Our initial idea was to create a narrative music video which told the story of a couple whoes relationship failed due to the main actor being hit by a car. However we decided against this as we would find it hard to make the video a proffessional standard which would mimic the conventions found in the industry.
Hannah - Target audience - After resesrching into our target market we did primary research such as questionaires, focus groups and asked questions online which allowed us to find out that our target market was primarily an older audience with younger audiences not showing much interest in the genre of music. This is what made our group decide to change from a narrative to a concept video. This was due to older generations having more interest in this style of genre (alternative/indie). We also tried to incorporate intertextual references to further entice our targeted audiences. Our main concepts came from a combination of our primary research and they consisted of the use of an oak tree, a barn and a field with a horse.
Maizy - Inspiration - We got a lot of our inspiration from the musical group ''Hurts''. The ballet style outfits as well as the contempory dance moves fitted in well with our chosen genre and song. The Oscar winning movion picture ''Black Swan'' was the main inspiration behind our make up designs and final choices. This was because we wanted a bold image that not only represented our concepts but stood out on the camera and looks elegant.
Lauren - Final idea - For our final idea we finally decided to combine a concept video with a performance style. We selected and used several key elements for our music video which were the use of the barn, the oak tree and the field with the horse. We also incorporated a dance which was symbolic of the womens role in the relationship.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Storyboard
We decided to do a rough storyboard, so that on the day of filming we were prepared and ensured we captivated a range of shots and know a general aim to focus our ideas on.
Monday, 14 March 2011
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I used media technologies throughout all stages of the production of our media product. One of the most valuable media platforms was the internet. Without this I would not have been able to research and plan efficiently. It allowed me to explore media conventions for our particular genre through platforms such as YouTube. Also, it enabled me to gain lots of information about the industry, which would have been extremely difficult had it not been for the internet. Yahoo was another useful device for research as it allowed us to ask a large amount of people with minimal effort.
Another way the internet was extremely useful was through social networking sites. This allowed us to plan and share information effectively, meaning out of lesson times we were able to use our time more efficiently and made sure we all could contact each other at any point.
Since we used Apple Macs on our project last year, we were aware of how to use the software. However, for our ancillary tasks, editing photographs was a new experience. We used IPhoto to edit the photo for our album cover and website allowing us to edit with precision meaning thus ensuring the outcome we had longed for.
YouTube and Facebook were vital media platforms for the evaluation of our media product. It enabled us to gain a large amount of feedback (mentioned in my audience feedback post). This meant that we could see if we accessed our target market effectively. We found that the majority of comments were posted by consumers who fell under the expected demographic.
Audience Feedback
What have you learned from Audience Feedback?
Audience feedback has been an essential part in developing our media products. Without it we would not have been able to come up with our media idea, let alone obtain reviews. As soon as we had chosen our song, we used audience feedback to establish the age of our main target audience and their interpretations of the song. One of the most shocking findings from the audience feedback was the frequency of common themes that came from both the questionnaire and focus group. One of the common themes, such as a rainy day, was used in our actual product.
Another way we used audience feedback was after we had finished editing for the first time. We showed our music video to a small group of people to gain some feedback on which areas we could improve on. One of the most common bits of feedback was that our editing was paced slightly too slowly. Even though we used a slow song, they suggested we interject more short artistic shots. As well as that, they recommended we ensure the lip synchronisation was completely in time. Using this feedback, we increased the pace slightly and scrupulously analyzed the lip-syncing.
Feedback from one of the small group.
‘I thoroughly enjoyed watching the video. The theme was clearly evident throughout and the choice of the two locations successfully represented the emotional turmoil of the characters.
The open space suggested a longing for freedom, whilst the enclosed, gray, dance space gave the illusion of being trapped. The tethered horse used in the first frame suggested being trapped whilst the free horse running used later in the video symbolised the need to break free.
The choice of a dark, miserable, rainy day for filming also helps to symbolise the breakdown of the relationship as the raindrops, which symbolised tears shed.
I suggest that you could perhaps include a few additional close up artistic shots to reiterate and emphasise the symbols that you have already used.’
(Mrs K Moore)
After this, we fully uploaded our video onto YouTube. One of the ways we used the development in media technologies was by publishing our video on Facebook. This allowed us to gain lots of hits and some good feedback (both positive and negative).
Some of the feedback included how well the lip-syncing was, as some people actually mistook Ben for the singer. We also received favourable feedback on the more artistic shots. The more negative comments were ‘What was the horse for?’ and ‘Why was it in a barn?’ This showed us maybe our symbols were slightly too deep and we should have made them more explicit in the video. Next time, we would make the symbols clearer and less deep to ensure the younger target audience had a better understanding of the symbolism used in the video.
Our YouTube FeedBack:
Our YouTube FeedBack:
- always wanted to make amusic video for this song... and how to be dead... great work
- what a hunk of a guy that is! lol!!on a serious note! really good wud love to see it black and white think you wud get good contrasts - like the dancing and when it is close up! would have been good one a plain background that has no end or start!over all great editing, flow and pace is great!well done group! x
- My favourite bit is when the horse is running :)liked the dance although i'm not sure why it's in a barn? i'm sure there's a reason though, really good overall!Hopefully i've left a useful comment :)Our Facebook Feedback :Hannah FyfeYou Could Be Happy Music Video - A2 Mediawww.youtube.comOur main project for our media studies. End Project
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)