Thursday 5 May 2011

Media Evaluation Question 4

Question: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? (Final Cut Express, Livetype, Youtube, Slideshare, Garageband, Adobe Photoshop Elements, camera and equipment, etc)

Whilst piecing together my music video, I used various pieces of equipment and software to create my product. These technologies ranged from audio recording equipment to special effects software. In stages, I will explain specifically what technologies I used and where they were needed in the production of my music video.

Research : Now for research, the main source I used for this was the video sharing site Youtube. This was so that I could find previous music videos of the artist and finding the key elements within them. This then helped me to draw ideas and I suppose inspiration into my own video.

The site was also ideal for looking at comments other viewers/users had left, giving their own opinions on the videos. This also helped as it told me what the target audience liked and disliked in Madcon's music videos. Giving me ideas on what and not what to include in the video.




Planning and Construction : For planning and construction, I first began by drafting rough ideas into mind maps. This helped me make decisions on what I wanted to do or wanted to have in the video. I found that mind maps help with this as it allows you to right your ideas onto paper, making them seem clearer to understand, thus making it easier for you to think whether they'd work or not.

After the mind mapping planning stage was over with me having an idea to work with, I began the construction or 'practical' stage of my production. This is where the majority of the media technologies that I used came into play. First of all I had to obtain footage to work with so getting a camera and tripod was first on my list. Secondly after the footage had been shot and imported into the iMac, using Final Cut Express to edit the footage was the next stage, Now this took up the majority of my time whilst in the construction stage as editing is a lenghty process, below are some screenshots of my final cut project with footage edited down.


After the footage was edited, adding titles was the next step, now for this I used the text effect on Final Cut rather than using Livetype. I have had previous experience with Livetype in AS, however i felt that because the text in this video was going to be appearing more frequently, I wanted to use a program/technology that i was more familair with. Once the titles were in, I exported the project to a quicktime movie and placed it into an iDVD project, in that project I placed both ancillary tasks and also the Director's Commentary of the video.

Evaluation : For my evaluation, the first question took form of a Director's Commentary which can be found on the DVD, the commentary itself proving to be more difficult than first thought. The second and third questions were answered through an online presentation software called 'Prezi'. Being new to Prezi allowed me to learn the basics and I will hopefully be able to incorporate more of my work with this technology. The fourth of course I am answering here.

Overall I feel that the media technologies that I have used over the past months have given me an understanding on how the filming and editing processing works, although there is still lots to learn, I feel that with the information I now know, I hope to go on and create more media products in the near future.

Media Evaluation Question 3

Media Evaluation Question 2

Media Evaluation Question 1

I have answered Question 1 through the use of a directors commentary, this commentary can be found on my dvd, also containing the music video and two ancillary taks.

The Music Video

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Editing

The editing has now been completed to a standard which I am happy with. I have shown my peers and teachers the video, both have given me positive feedback and also have given me ideas to include to enhance the video. I have taken these ideas on board and have added them where I can to the production.

I've found the editing to be the most enjoyable part out of producing the video, I like having the footage readily avaliable and being able to cut it to sounds or in this case, to be able to cut the footage to the beat of the music.

However I did encounter some problems along the way, media files were sometimes offline, requiring me to re-connect them to enable playback. Another problem I encountered was when I tried removing clips that I had placed in the timeline, it shifted all of the clips after the selected to the left, making almost every clip out of beat. However this was easily fixed when I was taught how to lock certain tracks and to cut out clips without affecting the others surrounding it.

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Filming Stage 2

Now that I have footage imported and edited to the song, I can now plan to film the 2nd stage of my music video. This section of filming will take place in the school Drama Hall. I have spoken to the head of drama at our school and have been given the go ahead, giving me 3 hours tomorrow in the location to film. This time limit is ideal as I am going to use the first hour to set up equipment and the other two to film. An update will follow in due course, notifying how the filming has gone.

24/03/11 UPDATE : I have just got back from filming the 2nd stage of my production and I have to say that it was stressful. It wasnt so much the filming that was the problem, it was the planning and moving the equipment from place to place. However the first hour gave me more than enough time to eventually set everything so that I could commence filming. I'l update the post as soon as the footage has been imported into Final Cut Express. Please find below images of the 'set up' that I used in the Drama Hall.

27/03/11 UPDATE : The footage obtained has now been successfuly imported into Final Cut Express. Now the editing process has begun, The next post will be once editing has been completed.






Tuesday 15 March 2011

Commence Filming

Tonight I am going to begin my first batch of filming. This is going to include shots of the roads at night, giving me footage to begin work on. An update will follow in this post once I have uploaded and imported the footage into final cut express.

14/03/11 UPDATE : Last night was a success, I have now imported the footage into Final Cut and have now begun editing. If required to do so, I may go out on another road trip to gain some more footage however I feel that it would be unnecessary. Next on the list is to film in the Drama Hall. I shall update the post once I have filmed and have uploaded the footage into Final Cut.

15/03/11 UPDATE : The footage that I filmed has now been successfully imported into Final Cut Express. This now means that the editing stage is commencing and also the second stage of filming is also getting nearer to beginning.

Thursday 10 March 2011

Casting Problems

I have recently been talking to Inferno and they have decided not to take part in the music video because of upcoming exams and the time it will take to film may interrupt their revision schedules. Although this is not practical for myself, I can understand their reasons to why they are unable to appear in the video.

So because of this change, I had to rethink and now have created a back up plan. This plan consists of the video being shot in two locations. The first location will stay as the drama hall, featuring one character with various glowing items e.g glow sticks, face paints etc. The second location that I have chosen is filming driving down the road at night, watching how the night has an orange coloured 'glow' to it.

Having two locations will break up the music video, giving me more to work with thus making for a better music video.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Task Checklist

Below is the checklist that I have been following, it will be updated when the next task(s) are completed.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Stage Layout

Now that both Ancillary tasks have been completed, I have designed a stage layout which can be seen below, the layout is giving myself and others a rough idea on how I plan to use the space avaliable.



- The green space surrounding the dancers is indicating the area which they will be using for their routine.

- The 'UV' cell is indicating where the light source will be placed and the direction in which the light is travelling.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Casting

Now that I have found a suitable location to film, next on my list of things to do is to work out who is going to star in the music video. Because of the nature of the song and also the video being more performance based, I have sourced a dance group in school called 'Inferno'.

Inferno are a dance group consisting of 7 girls. In 2009 they were victorious in a local talent competition known as 'The K Factor', the K Factor showcases talented students, all of which attend Kettering Buccleuch Academy.

UPDATE : I have had conformation from Inferno saying that they can star in the music video which is good news. Now I need to meet with the group and discuss the plans for filming the video.

Monday 7 February 2011

Location Planning

Now that both ancillary tasks have been completed, I have found a suitable location to film my music video, this location being our school drama hall. I have chosen the drama hall because of space avaliable, the existing lighting rig and also the way in which the drama hall is suited to use 'black outs'.

Below are some images of the Drama hall, showing the advantages and possible disadvantages when filming there.

- Audience View














- Performer's View











- The mirror which could cause problems, however sugar paper may solve this.










- Students work which can be covered with sugar paper when filming.













- The exisitng lighting rig.













- The steps which could be a potential health hazard.

Friday 4 February 2011

Music Magazine - The Advertisement

Now that the digipack design has been completed, I have begun work on a magazine advertisement for my artist's album using pages. When designing this advertisement, I wanted the design from the digipack to be linked with the ad. Below is the magazine ad that I have designed.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Music Magazine - Chosen

The magazine that I have chosen for my artist is ‘Q’. After looking through several other magazines, the reasoning behind this decision is that Q is popular in the UK and it does not deal with specific genres, giving it a wider target audience. In previous posts I have gone into depth about Q and what the magazine features which reassures me when thinking that my artist will be most suited to this particular magazine rather than one which deals with specific styles and genres of music.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

CD Digipack - The Prototype

After looking into Madcon's existing album covers and seeing the layouts which they use, I have made a prototype digipack with a template provided. All of the pictures used on the digipack have been taken by myself when experimenting with little to no lighting and a separate light source. Below are pictures of the template that I used and the prototype digipack.

Monday 31 January 2011

CD Digipack - Existing Covers

Now thanks to previous research on digipacks, I am looking into my artist's previous CD covers. Madcon have released four official albums, all of which contain original songs. Below are the images of the existing covers found on my artist's albums.






- It's All A Madcon - 2004
















- So Dark The Con Of Man - 2007















- an inCONvenient truth - 2008
















- Contraband - 2010

Saturday 29 January 2011

Friday 28 January 2011

Expectations Of A Music Video

Madcon

Genre

Madcon's genre is a retro-urban mix with various influences which span throughout different genres. Because of these different styles, Madcon's music videos vary each time, making them unpredictable. This allows me to be 'experimental' when it comes to planning and filming my music video.


Promotional Videos Already Made

Madcon have made many videos in the past, all being unique in their own way. Visual effects such as 'green screening' can be seen in their videos when they are placed in certain backdrops. Also the use of costumes play an important role in Madcon's videos as they are usually seen wearing eccentric and sometimes extravagant pieces of clothing.


Target Audience

Madcon's target audience varies between all ages. In Norway, where Madcon was founded, they have a strong following and are now truly being recognised in Europe. Madcon performing in the interval of the Eurovision song contest 2010 has propelled them into recognition by various labels, audiences and artists alike.

Below is the music video to Madcon's song 'Glow', performed at the Eurovision song contest 2010, this is the song that I have chosen to use in my music video.


Thursday 27 January 2011

Artist Research - Madcon

Madcon are a Norwegian duo consisting of Tshawe Baqwa and Yosef Wolde-Mariam. Madcon's musical style is a retro-urban mix with influences from funk, soul and hip hop (with additional elements and vibes from reggae, Latin and African in the finished product). Yosef and Tshawe blend singing and rapping in a unique and harmonious way.

Live in concert, Madcon delivers an energetic musical showcase with a full band on stage. The experience is unique for the European music scene, best described as Outkast meets The Roots meets Black Eyed Peas meets Gnarls Barkley.

Madcon quickly established themselves in the Nordic music industry as 'everybody's favourite rappers', and they created a remarkable hype supporting for various international superstars like Destiny's Child, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys etc. Madcon supported the last European tour with the legendary Ganstarr.

Madcon released their first single 'God Forgive Me' in 2000 (virgin records) but their first commercial breakthrough was with long time collaborators. Paperboys with the hit single 'Barcelona' in 2002 (Bonnier Amigo). In 2004, Madcon released their first official album titled 'Its All A Madcon' which won them a Norwegian Grammy and several other awards.

In 2005 Madcon became TV-personalities on the Nordic music channel The Voice, while growing with their music in the studio. The show “The Voice of Madcon” became a huge success for both Madcon and the network, showcasing the behind the scenes life of Norway’s favorite rap stars.

In late 2007 Tshawe was invited to join the hugely popular "Dancing With The Stars" TV-show in Norway, and against all odds he won. When the media hype was at its biggest, Madcon released their brand new single Beggin’ (a cover version of an old Frankie Valli classic), and it immediately became a smash hit. Beggin’ became the first urban track in Norway to make it all the way to the top of the sales and radio charts. Their second album "So Dark The Con Of Man" was released December 2007, and sold gold in 3 hours, and platinum in 3 days.

The single Beggin’ worked its way to 7 x platinum status in Norway, becoming one of the biggest hits of all time in the Norwegian charts, and the impact was strong enough to make waves through Europe.

Interest for this fresh and exciting talent from the Nordic territory was gathering in Europe, and after several negotiations Madcon's label (Bonnier Amigo) signed a licensing agreement with SonyBMG for Europe. Beggin’ was released in Germany, France, The UK, Austria, Russia, Greece, Poland, Italy to name a few countries, and the single quickly became a smash hit on the European radio and sales charts.

Wednesday 26 January 2011

SONG CHANGE

After contemplating many ideas that I had for my previous song choice, I have decided to change my song. I know that this decision is not at all practical however I felt that I could not reach my full potential with my previous choice. I have chosen this song because I feel that I could expirement and also learn when it came to filming.

The song that I have now chosen is Glow by Madcon

Friday 14 January 2011

Filming Checklist

Below is my filming checklist, filming will not commence until everything on this list has been completed.

LOCATIONS -2/7

CASTING - 0/1

PROPS - 3/6


EQUIPMENT - 3/3

Casting

When looking at the casting for my music video, I only require one actor for filming. So when looking at possible candidates, I did have the idea of playing the part myself as this will result in less confusion and would reduce filming time drastically. However I am still going to look for particular actors as they may be more suited to play the part, and also this would give me experience when going through the casting and interviewing process.

Thursday 6 January 2011

Location Planning

Storyboarding has been completed so I now need to move onto Location planning. I currently have 7 main locations however this may change if necessary. The locations that I have decided on have been photographed and can be seen below with their advantages and also disadvantages.

School Corridor

Advantages
- Easy Access
- Various doorways (different angles)
- Spacious

Disadvantages
-Students
- School hours are inpractical due to lessons








School Classroom

Advantages
- Easy access
- Mise en Scene (actual classroom)
- Avaliable to students

Disadvantages
- Only avaliable in school hours
- Lessons
- Students







INCOMPLETE