Evaluation question 3

After showing my video to some people some of the feedback i received was:
www

"Good editing at the start" 

A few people said the same comment and i was pleased to here this because during post production i struggled with the beginning of my music video. Whilst editing i would often ask for feedback on the changes i made, and although the feedback was never negative i wasn't satisfied with the mediocre reactions. My aim was to surprise the audience with my ability to be different with the tools i was given.

"The fast motion was very effective"

In editing the fast motion was a skill i learnt away from class and i remembered it when trying to figure out how i could start from the beginning but show the end. The fats motion was purely experimental but turned out to be very effective.

"The ending was nice"

The video started with the ending clip, so throughout my editing process i had to constantly remember i had to edit the video to lead up to the mysterious ending. Putting the ending first takes away the expectation of a bad ending and focuses more on how Marina (Alicia) has that outcome. The surprise was then the main video and how well i created a story.

"There is a clear story"

Some feedback i received very early in post production was that my story wasn't coming together. The lack of specific scenes made it hard to show a story that never existed  the concept of the story was that she imagined most of it and whilst proving difficult to show that the story wasn't all true, i had to also think about the audience and how they would see it. Overall i managed to use tools to show the difference between real life and her imagination.

"Nice rewind effect"

In my own research of the artist Alicia Keys i noticed that this was common behaviour of her own, so to show how true we were to our artist i replicated her work. Again this was a skill i learnt out of class so it took me a few tries before actually getting to use it well. What proved difficult was reversing different clips and speeding them up because i then had to pt them in order backwards. There were a few times i changed the order of the scenes so i had to constantly go back and re order the clips that were meant to go backwards.

"Slow motion was effective"

The clip that i put a slow motion effect on was considered 'extra footage'. This is when we had a few extra scenes that could be used anywhere in the video to fill any gaps. This scene was synced with the words "he doesn't know what he's doing to me". This was deliberate to show he affects her so much her mind is spinning out of control. 

"Camera angles were good"

Using good camera angles was apart of the criteria for our music video, it was always considered when shooting a scene. We often had once scene shot in different angles so that we had a variety. For example in Sainsbury's we shot the same thing more than once from different angles so that it we could show a variety of shots in one scene. 

"Lip-syncing was edited good to the song"

Lip-syncing was practised when we did our earlier task for Britney Spears' music video  so it was familiar ground in post production. However there were times she said background comments that we had to tell Marina to mime also. Marina did a good job in mouthing very clear words so it made it easier to edit to the song.

"Its different to what is expected"

Our genre has a specific way to show their music videos, you would get the odd video that was outside of the stereotype and i wanted to be one of those odd videos. This is because its easier to be remembered when you create something different. Also we wanted a realistic video. We obviously did not have as many recourses as a professional would so we had to work with what we had; this is what inspired me to want a different video as trying to imitate something so good can only result in comparison. Sometimes comparing is good but more times it isn't. Having something different means the judgment is on what they can see rather than using outside examples.

"The dream was very clear because of the edit used"

Whilst pitching the idea of a dream i was faced with the question how could you make that clear, i didn't have the answer at the time but later i stumbled upon the a area in Final Cut called 'Video Effects'. In this area there was various effects  that could be placed on top of clips to make them appear different. I looked through and found a few but the best fit was the effect called Dream. Like the name suggests it made the  scene appear as a dream. 

"Special effects were well used"

There was quite a few options and i wanted to show my use of the tools on Final Cut. I wasn't happy with the cuts between the video, i felt like it was such a jump between each one and this was especially bad as the song flowed smoothly. The special effects helped me to transition between each scene as smoothly as the song was.

EBI

"Change font for ‘a few days ago’"

This comment is very much appreciated but the simplicity of the font helps not make the video seem more than it is. I have to think about everyone in my audience and a simple text is easy for everyone to both understand and appreciate.

"The sound at the start was lower"

The sound at the beginning did not seem as loud when editing my video, i thought that increased volume was a result of the headphone volume so i left it as it was. Of all the feedback i was given during editing, this was not one of them so i was not aware of the problem.

"Unsteady at times"

At the beginning of our filming we did not use a tripod, we weren't concentrating on all of the criteria for our video but as soon as we were aware that it was a problem we re filmed a majority. However, due to problems with one of our main characters we were not able to re film some scenes. 

This information was very effective for my evaluation because it was a range of views that are from our target audience. Due to the fact that there was more positive comments than negative ones, this showed that i was successful in trying to please my audience.

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Digipak

In A2 we created these Digipaks for our music video to Alicia Keys You Don't Know My Name. We created them on the photoshop software and it was very difficult to understand at first but after getting familiar with the tools it became easier. 

My Digipak had themes of black and white to match the mood of her music. Although her music is quite emotional there is a natural and real feel to her music, which is why I selected the colours to highlight. The flowers are highlighted because she is a natural artist and I have tried to replicate that In my work.

Digipak

In our A2 music video task we finished our filming and moved forward to creating the template for our Digipak.  A Digipak is a style of packaging often used for CD singles or special edition CD albums. Here is what a Digipak looks like:

When looking at the examples given to us in class i saw a variety of colours and straight i could tell the different paces of the song, the colours created a scheme for me to go by when looking at them. The brighter and more colourful ones were up beat songs wheres as the darker coloured Digipak tended to be slower paced songs. Another thing i noticed was that nearly all of the packs i looked at had a leaflet inside and they would each differ from the last. The individual styled Digipaks made me feel as though they put more effort into their own one, to make it fit the artists taste and music style. Not all the digipaks had images of people on them sometimes it was just writing and different symbols, this agin relates to them being individualised (each artist has their trade mark symbol that people associate with their music). Here is another example of Digipak:

Breakdown sheet

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number:

Date:                                                                                               Time:

Setting: Outisde                                                                               Location: Starbucks

Crew members and roles:  

Myself and Luke; we in turns are director  

Cast members: 

Main girl (Jhene) 2 friends

Extras: 

People at the shop 

Wardrobe: 

Jeans with a plain t-shirts, jackets and flat shoes for the two friends
Jeans with a jumper, boots and a big jacket for jhene

Make-up: 

Barely noticeable on all girls however light very natural looking make up.

Props: 

Coffe cups 

Special effects: 

Black and white, slow motion 

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them: 

During this shot we have to pan the camera around to show the conversation between the girls and their reactions to what is going on. This is difficult because once the camera is being held by myself or Luke, it shakes and we need the camera to show a smooth pan as they converse. How we plan to overcome this is by placing the camera in the middle on something that is moves in a circular motion, whilst propping it up so it is able to view the girls as they speak.

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number:

Date:                                                                                               Time:

Setting: Oustide                                                                               Location: Garden/Park

Crew members and roles:

Myself and Luke 

Cast members:

Main girl (Jhene) and her ex lover 

Extras:

Her ex lover 

Wardrobe:

Jhene -Very dressy (a dress or skirt, with bright colours in outfit)

Ex Lover - Dark colours ( black t-shirt, black trousers, black shoes, with a snug fit)

Make-up:

everything done ( mascara, eyeshadow, foundation, etc)

Props: 

none

Special effects:

slow motion 

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them:

In this scene they have to show themselves in love and that can be hard to portray on to camera, especially because the actors don't have that relationship off camera. How we can overcome this issue is by doing the scene of camera a couple times, so that they become comfortable.

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number:

Date:                                                                                               Time:

Setting: Inside                                                                                  Location: Her bedroom 

Crew members and roles:

Myself and Luke; we in turns are director and 

Cast members: 

Main girl (Jhene)

Extras:

none  

Wardrobe:

Tracksuit bottoms and a baggy top

Make-up:

absolutely no make up at all  

Props:
make up on desk and tissue 

Special effects:
black and white 

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them:
In this scene of the music video the actress on screen is crying and is distressed about her breakup, without being able to speak she has to be able to play this role convincingly. Its hard to be able to portray these emotions and the way we plan to overcome this issue is by having the actress look at a significant amount of scenes where these emotions are portrayed and have her copy them.

Animatic

In class we have managed to create am animatic for our music video to Jhene Aiko's Comfort Inn Ending. Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1w_-C7I0ys

Our classmates watched our animatics and gave us feedback on what they thought of it:

Feedback:

www (what went well)

• It told a clear story 
• The pictures matched the song
• We used a good amount of pictures to tell the story 
• It was easy to understand
• The scenes were realistic 

ebi (what went well)

• Try to match the pictures pace to the song
• Draw darker lines on the pictures because some were unclear

Music Video Pitch

In class we created a Presentation to talk about our ideas for for the music video, for each slide we recived feedback that we will take into consideration when filming our music video.