For my advanced portfolio I created a music video, for which I also produced a magazine 'Album Single' advert and a Digi-Pak. I would not say that my music video particuarly challenges or goes against the normal conventions of a real music video. My storyline is a 'typicla' boy meets girl music video, following it's narrative to a T with a little added humour. However, the only thing I would specifically say to be deviating from the conventions would be that instead of a single boy and girl, I used four boys to symbolise 'the band' in my case 'The Mystery Jets'. I thought this would be less 'cheesey' that just a boy and a girl, and adds the humour. I also did not show them singing, (miming) along to the lyrics of the song, as in previous A level students videos, I thought this made the video look more low standard. Instead I just had them act out as naturally as I could, catching on film as much fun as I could. I did direct parts, however, mostly I they did their own thing with all of us throwing in ideas to how to follow the storyline in a 'fun' looking way. I like to think that this is portrayed well in the video on a whole. It's natural and has a really cheeky feel about it which I think is helped massivley by the 'home video' approach. The effect could potentially be viewed as going against the conventions of a real music video, as I usually percieve a music video to be fresh and crisp, where as mine, I wanted to be deemed professional, however for the fun elemtent I wanted I decided on it looking like a friend filming a day out. With the crackly vintage effect I think this has work well, and is deviating ever so slightly away from the expected. I used the lyrics to completely conform to the conventions of a real music video, as after questioning peers, it became apparent that this is what they want to see within a music video.
The ancillary tasks I have completed along to go with the video I think also use the conventions of a real product rather than go against them. However In my own way. The magazine advert shows two doors side by side, with a vintage grainy effect put through it. However after the image to begin with only being a portrait photo of one door, after changing it in to two using Photoshop. It feels like I created my own convention slightly rather than conforming. My Digi-Pak also is personal as they are people I know and are very special to me which is more than just a pop band on the front of any other Digi-Pak. However that is ovbiously not why it doesn't keep to the conventions. I feel it deviates because, aswell as taking just a 'band' photo with lyrics written and scanned over the top, I have used the girl within my video, within the photoshoot. I feel this is making it more than just a band phoitoshoot and more of 'the video' photoshoot. The single was for that song, so i wanted the pictures to signify this, so in many ways promoting it. The photos are very staged, however they play along with the conventions and narrrative within my video.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The ancillary texts for the coursework, were too create a magazine advertisement promoting the single featuring in the music video, and a digi-pak album in which the 'single' would be.
When creating the magazine advert, i wanted it to stay in connection to the song I was using in my music video and the 'theme' it was going to be. I knew from the beginning I wanted the video to look somewhat old and worn (vintage), so i chose this style to run throughout the ancillarys. The magazine advert consists of two doors and the song is called 'TWO DOORS DOWN' I thought this was in perfect keeping, rather than using the actors in my video for a third time. An advertisement is almost like a teaser, so using the actors would have been like giving away the unveil of a new song and video. For the digi-pak, is this is something that is normally released and seen after the video is viewed, I thought I would use the actors as models and have it in keeping with the words and the way they have acted within the video. The way it is all in clear connection with eachother, I feel brings it toegether really well as a whole, and gives me a great sense of achievment. It is effective because it then feels like a whole package, rather than a makeshift of differnt images and then a random video with nothing to connect it's meaning.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I have learned a great deal from recieving audience feedback. Wther it be within research, or after they had watched my own video. It gives you a great insite to what you have done really successfully, and parts where maybe more thjought could have been put it. This was really helpful in parts such as my ancillarys, after asking audience feedback, after making notes and following them up, I found it was helping me to constantly improve to make it the best it could be, such as; including a barcode into my digi-pak and adding the rating stars onto my magazine advert. It was also heart warming to recieve audience feedback on all the finished products. However without audience feedback throughout, I would probably never have learned that; indie music is preferred within a music video, it is more enjoyable to watch a storyline unfold than to see the song live or just sang in a room, that photos and dance routines are not massively pleasing etc. I have learned that I would most likely not feel so proud of my own video and it's proudcts and it's own conventions without the help of audience feedback throughout.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The ancillary tasks landed me using 'Adobe Photoshop' which to me was like visiting an old friend. After studyiong photography I was exciting to putting my knowledge towards my digi-pak images such as taking into consideration the lighting, composition and rule of thirds. Even though I was already confident in using photoshop, I still found myself learning new things such as; which tools did what, and I was more outgoing to just use different things I hadn't tried before. Such as my magazine advertisement, I used a 'clone tool' and made a clone of the door, and made a portrait image of one door into a landscape of two doors. This was a highlight of achievement for me.
The construction of my video, introduced me to using a video camera, which was totally new and a definite challenge. Challenge accepted and I came to do two overall days of filming, each with a different camera, and a different set of people, just a couple of the difficulties that proved to try and stand in my way. However the extra pratice of a day of filming already done, the second day I felt alot more at ease and confident, and ended up only using footage from that day. The actual making of my video came through the use of an 'APPLE MAC' it was created within 'iDVD' which at first was an incredibly daunting porspect to me. I opened it up, uploaded the files and instantly felt like a lost puppy. Calming down slightly I began to try and fimiliarise with the settings and played around with a few of my clips, not long before falling completely into it. I used an age effect, speeding up, a reverse and even slow motion. I have learnt numourous new things throughout all the aspets of making my music video, and the daunting prospect of new technology doesn't seem to frighten me as much as it did before this project.
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