music video evaluation

Evaluation

1.We were set the task of coming up with three media products as part of a promotional package. This included a digi pak, magazine advert and a music video all produced by our self. We chose the track, Much Against Everyone’s Advice by the band Soulwax when we started our music video, magazine advert and digi pack we looked into our song genre which is indie/rock, we looked at convention's of the genre and Goodwin's analysis of music videos, (lyrics and visual,music and visuals,notion of looking demand of record label and genre characteristics) we found that music video for this genre have strong conventions and we used this in the planning and production of our music video and decided the conventions we wanted to challenge and the conventions we were going to use. The way we challenged them was to only have three people in the band whereas most bands of the genre have at least 4 members we did this because we didn't we didn't want to cramp the shots with to many people and it makes ou music video different to other of the genre. our video is a performance style video which is typical of the rock\indie genre we also used the mise-en scene of the genre buy all the band members being dressed in indie style clothing, We found that in other music videos of our genre that there was a strong link between lyrics and visuals we took this in to consideration and decided to have the name of the song (which is also the chorus) be spelt out on the screen, also with music and visuals we had a location changes on the beat of the song we used these conventions because we want the audience to know what the genre is. our digi pack and magazine advert have very bright colours and also have all the band members included in a location that was in our music video. before we started our magazine advert and digi pack we looked at already existing digi packs for example blur to see what other artists were promoting there album and band we also looked at NME magazine to look at the adverts for new music which gave us a lot of ideas of we wanted our magazine advert to look like and how to represent the artist in the best way possible, we sketched out ideas and chose the one that we thought would look and work best. when we looked at existing music videos of our genre we found out that nearly all of them were in the daytime we also wanted our video 2 be in the day this caused problems as we only had on day to film and it got dark at about five at that time of the year but we did manage to complete all our footage. we found that the function of a digi pack were ait is a Collectors Item and it would have extra's such as Interviews with Band/ Behind the Scenes on Tour/ Documentaries

'Making of' Featurette, Live Performance (video and audio) B-sides/ Covers/ Rare songs
Greatest Hits we then looked at the conversions which were Song/ Album title, Artist's Name, Visual links to video - intertextuality, reviews - newspaper/music press/celebrities/DJsTracklistings, Ratings,record Label Logo ,Running Time, Band Members - Pictures,Personal Notes we included all these in our digi pack, We then looked at the function of a magazine advert we found it was to promote the artist ,sell the song. We found it must include release date, artist name, where you can buy it, record label, website song and album title, visual link to video reviews from newspaper, music press, celebrities we used all of these conventions in our magazine advert.

from this image you can see the indie style clothes were used to keep to the conventions of our genre we kept the mise-en scene the same throughout our music video, magazine advert and digi pack.

2.the combination of our main product,magazine advert and digi pack worked very well as we created a strong link between all the products, we created this link by having the members of the band on all the products we made and on the magazine advert and the digi pack the band members are colors were as the background is black and white it directs shows who is in the band and shows there importance , we did this to create artistic representation and brand awareness to meet the demands of the record label which is very important of promotion of music products. we used the same mise-en scene throughout, for example the same clothes were worn and the same location was used in our digi pack and magazine advert we did this to create a theme for our products so our target audience would connect with the band. we used the same font throughout our magazine advert and digi pack to give a more professional look and to keep the link. with use Photoshop we made our images for the digi pack and our magazine advert black and white then selected the bench our t shirts and made them colour we did this as its fits in with our genre and that it creates synergy throughout our magazine advert and digi pack we also use the same colour scheme for the same reason. as a whole there is a clear theme that runs throughout all our products. when we storyboarded for a music video we took into consideration the magazine advert and digi pack and how we could film things that were possible to replicate or have similarities to what we wanted to do for our magazine advert and digi pack this again was an effort to make sure that all our video and promotional package would work well together and to make sure there was a link that would go through our products.

The top image is from our digipack front cover and the bottom image is from our magazine advert you can clearly see that we have used the same font and colors we did this to create brand awareness which is crucial so the products relates 2 the target audience and for promotional reasons. we also used simaler colors in our music video. also as you can see from the picture we used similar photos in the same locations this location was also in are music video we decided on using the same location fro all three when we storyboarded and made a careful decision about were we wanted this location to be as it needs to fit are genre so we looked at existing videos and found a location that was similar to what they used.

3.All the way through our music video project we have received feedback for everything we have completed, this was very use full as it helped us to think what we could improve about our products and have a different opinion of what we should do rather that what we thought we should do for example when we first stated our product we had to create a pitch and in this pitch we had to present to our audience what our initial ideas were the feedback we got from this was that our main idea of having lots of different frames was going to look very busy and would take a lot of intense story boarding to look good we took this into consideration and we decided to use text in different frames and not footage so it wouldn't look to busy and be confusing to the audience. our next feedback was for our rough cut, we had time issues with our rough cut so we already had taken into consideration some of the feedback before we got it for example we hadn't got all our footage in sync with the audio but we did get feedback about needing some more close ups in our music video. We solved this by doing some extra filming we filmed our lead singer in three different locations singing the whole song, we had the song and the lyrics to make lip syncing more accurate. after we got this footage we added to our existing footage. also because we used an online blog for our planning anyone could comment ion any bit of work we had completed another way that we received feedback for our promotional package was from the online video sharing site youtube were again anyone could comment.

This is a screen grab of our music video uploaded to youtube, online resources were a crucial part in the development of our music video, magazine advert and digi pack it gave us the chance to get wide range of feedback from a number of people also gave a place to record all the planning and production stages of our products.

4.cameras were an obvious necessity for our project and we were lucky enough to have these recourse's also we used apple macs with all the appropriate programmes we need to edit footage/pictures with this was crucial for the production for are music video magazine advert and digi pack. For all our planning we used an online blog to record all our ideas and feedback was also posted directly on to the blog and this is also were we received are feedback . before we started our project we looked at existing products and videos, we looked at Michele Jackson's dirty Diana video and created a power point showing how Goodwin's theories and how they were used in the video and for our digi pack we looked at the bands blur's digipack which gave a number of ideas of what we wanted to do and what our genre of music conventions for this were. We looked at our band (soulwax) website and this is were we got the idea of using different frames as the website has eight different section with something different in each bit this was one of are main ideas for are music video . we then e-mailed the band soulwax and asked their permission to film a new music video using their pre-existing track (much against everyones advice) they then e-mailed us back four days later giving us their permission to re shoot the video and use there track much against everyones advice. after this we planned using the blog to record our planning and filmed our footage.using all our ideas from our planning we created a storyboard and a shot by shot timeline we did this so when it came to shooting day it would be easier and quicker to film all the footage we needed we edited our footage using finale cut, finale cut is very simple to use and helped create to moving letters in frames and the cuts between shots that makes our music video interesting it also has a lot of tools for tweaking your footage for example fades, filters and double frame animation these were key to the development of our product. even though finale cut is simple to use it is very time consuming, which created time issues for deadlines but we put extra time in and completed everything. we used photoshop for our digi pack and our magazine advert. photoshop made it possible for us to have our image in black and white but keep bits we wanted in colour in colour also has numerous text editing tools to make the product more professional this also highlighted the band members which was good for artist representation it showed all the members which therefore promotes the band. There were some problems with the cameras, on our shooting day it had rained very heavily all night and most of the morning which left puddles in our filming location the sun reflected of the water and made everything we filmed to bright so we had to film when it had dried which caused time issues with filming.

This is a screenshot from our online blog that we used in the planning, research and construction stages of our task, this was also useful for feedback as anyone that looked at our blog could leave us a comment.

Alex winter

2040 words

Digi pack

Magazine Advert

I think that this image would be a good image for our digi pack because it shows the whole band in one of the best locations we used to film in for our music video and all of us are in casual positions, tom is on the right side of me and alex but he is leaning forwards which makes him seem slightly more important than me and alex, this is good because he is the lead singer and is slightly more important.

Soulwax - Much Against Everyone's Advice FINAL VERSION

Images

I think this would be a good image to use as both a magazine advert and as part of the digipak. I think this because it shows the main singer, me, who represents the band aswell as the name of the band behind him. I think it is a strong image that tells the audience about this band and the main member.

This image would be good to use as it has all the band members in the shot also the location of this image is one of the locations we filmed in for are music video so this would create a link between the two, another reason we should use this image is because tom is centred in the frame giving him a dominant positions and showing his importance ans the lead singer of the band where as me and Keeley are on either side. we are in casual positions this is good because are song is very casual genre. the picture also has instruments in so you can tell the picture is of a band.

Digipak

Function:

• Collector's Item
• Interviews with Band/ Behind the Scenes on Tour/ Documentaries
• 'Making of' Featurette
• Live Performance (video and audio)
• B-sides/ Covers/ Rare songs
• Greatest Hits

Conventions:

• Song/ Album title
• Artist's Name
• Visual links to video - intertextuality
• Reviews - newspaper/music press/celebrities/DJs
• Tracklistings
• Ratings
• Record Label Logo
• Running Time
• Band Members - Pictures
• Personal Notes
  

Magazine Advert

magazine ad:

• to promote the artist

• sell the song

• eye catching - visually striking

must include:

• song and album title

• visual link to video

• reviews - newspaper - music press - celebrities

condense information content:

• release date

• artist name

• where you can buy it

• record label

• website

Media evaluation of filming and editing

Our filming day was fairly successful we managed to film in all of our locations once it had stopped raining and before it got dark, we needed to get it all film in the daytime so that it was consistent. The rain had left the ground very wet which caused some problems with glare on the camera later in the day. Following our storyboard we knew what we needed to film and where but we couldn’t use all the location we intended because there were more people around than we hadn’t originally anticipated but we managed to find suitable locations to replace these. We also lost some of our most important footage of close-ups on the lead singer singing, either by filming over it or by accidently not filming properly. To film the letters for the separate frames idea, I bought some electrical tape to create each letter because we could take it down afterwards, so we wouldn’t be vandalising anything by marking more permanent marks also because the tape was easy to use and was bold so effective on camera. The editing has been going well and not so well, due to many changes we’ve needed to make so that our work is seamless and effective as a music video. Our main idea has worked well so far(the idea to use lots of frames at the same time), it has been fairly easy to create and re size the different frames for all of our letters and to fit them all on screen as well as moving them at the correct times and directions.

Evaluation of Filming and Editing

We came across few problems or issues throughout our allocated filming time which was partly down to well planned and organised scheduling but also to good fortune. We were lucky in that we had to pick a date to film without being assured of the correct weather but it worked it out ok for us and for the footage.
We were also able to film in our desired locations without having to change for unexpected reasons.
However, a problem we did face was the fact that we were trying to film in a daylight mise en scene and as we were filming in autumn there were less daylight hours for us to film in but we tackled this by scheduling our shooting time to accomodate the problem.

We have now completed all the filming we needed to do and planned to do so we are now fully focussed on the editing of the footage and the compiling of the music video.

Response to Feedback

Intertextuality
we agree that we took a lot of inspiration from current videos of are genre. we used performance and the use of instruments as seen in real professional work. The comment made about many bands using three members is also true and it does make our video seem more realistic.

Lyrics and Visuals
we appreciate that performanc ebased music videos do often not have a huge relationship between lyrics and visuals but it is a technique we tried to implement. this however may not have come across as we chose not to show the whole video as a rough cut. had they seen the whole video they would have seen that some actual lyrics are displayed on the screen throughout the video.

Music and Visuals
Again, with the choice to end the rough cut footage half way through the actual song we realised this wouldn't give the true impression of our whole work so we agree that the current ending is not good enough.
We tried to insert the worded visuals well and we spent time making this the case and are glad that has been accredited.
we are still in the process of fitting our footage into the most appropriate places to create the best effect and putting the heavier guitar footage with the heavier guitar passages in the song is a main focus.

Genre Characteristics
We studied our genre and the general characteristics of music videos inside of it. Dark clothing was one of our focusses to follow conventions aswwell as instruments, live performance, relating to the band and of course transitioning between shots in time with the music.

Peer Feedback

Group 8 - intertextuality

Being a rock music it was stereotypical to have guitars and a band in the video, which could have been inspired from a lot of other rock videos (not sure which particular one). A lot of rock bands are in a three such as busted and the jonas brothers... So it had a lot of inspiration from current rock videos.

Group 10:

General feedback
a well constructed video, variety of effective shot types and camera angles, and strong links between music and visuals

Lyrics and visuals
Not a strong connecton between the two, however as the video is a performance, the genre doesnt usually connect lyrics and visuals

Teacher Rough Cut Feedback

Feedback on representation of the artist:
Your video has a strong visual style, there are also good examples of framing but there are not enough shot types. There are a number of long shots, these need to be punctuated with close-ups. You need to incorporate close-ups very early on to visually establish your artist straight away.
The inclusion of more shot variety will address the other problem in your video which is that is needs to be more dynamic, there isn't enough movement in it.
Your video has a clear star image, you do look like a band, therefore the selection of mise-en-scene is very strong.

General feedback:
The selection of material is appropriate and i really like the strong use of colour and contrast in your video. The juxtaposition of a rock band outside a museum really works.
I really like the mise-en-scene of the letters but I don't think they work currently. It isn't clear to the viewer how they relate to the song. Therefore I would like to suggest a section at the beginning of the video which shows all the letters together so the viewer understands what they say and how they relate to the song/artist.

Peer Feedback

Q1-12 - Genre Characteristics
-The use of instruments and performance within the video is generic of this style of music.
-Showing all members of the band promotes their image.
-We liked the contrast between the setting and the 'grungey' style of the band and their music.
-The colouring and costumes were quite conventional as it is typical within this genre for the band to wear dark clothing.
-The variety of shot types allowed the audience to relate to the band as a whole aswell as each member individually (through the use of close-ups).
-Further the use of different frames by using the same framing style but for action aswell as lettering.
-We like the way that the shots have been edited in time with the music.

Q1-11 - Music and visuals
- The visuals fit well with the song with its upbeat tempo.
- We were unsure whether the song ended there or not but if not then it ended very abruptly
- The merging of the shots went well with the music and this made the visuals more empowering.
- We think that you could improve the music and visuals relationship by making the guitar shots fit with major guitar sounds.