Evaluation Question 4

When planning my A2 Music Video I used blogger to upload and present my research, this was very useful as all my research was conducted on the Internet. Google also played a massive part in my research as I mostly looked at the background history of different artists/bands, Posters, Albums and Recordings, as this was vital to create a professional soundtrack of my original song. To do this I went onto YouTube and looked at different music videos by different pop/rock bands within my band's genre, Busted and McFly were the main bands which influenced my music and writing as they are both British formed and both bands sing about different experiences in their lives. Whilst researching different narratives to influence the story behind my music video I also looked at the artist’s advertisements/posters to help generate a theme for my print artefacts. With that in mind I also looked at different Music Shops online which plays a massive part in an artists career, I looked on iTunes at the 3 specific artists I used to base my music video and print artefacts on and had a look at the music charts to see which albums had been most successful, with that I then compared each cover and picked key features to use on my poster and cover. I also took to social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter to look at the artist’s fan pages to see what pictures they upload to help promote certain songs and albums, whilst I was on the pages I also had a look at the fans to see how I could generate my target audience. After deciding what narrative I would use for my music video I needed to create a storyboard for the shots used in the video. Again I looked on Google to see what storyboard templates were available online which could be useful when drawing my scenes + adding dialogue, Google was also useful for searching for risk assessment templates to use whilst filming to check for health and safety hazards.

Whilst filming the music video i used my Canon EOS 500D DSLR to film the narrative and performance footage, however in the performance of the song i used multiple cameras to film different angles at the same time as the performance, I mounted a GoPro to the top of the guitar and bass headstock to get a shot of the musician strumming the bass and guitar with a view down the neck of the instrument. in order to make sure the camera angles were stable i used a tripod which was placed on a dolly for moving shots to try and keep the footage as stable as possible. In my music video lighting was one of the most difficult yet important features of my music video, for this i used a lighting desk provided by the school where the performance was filmed to give the performance more of a live effect which contrasts well between the narrative and performance. whilst recording the song in the hall sound was an issue as the drum kit was very loud so we couldn't hear the song well, in order for the musicians to hear the song we turned the free standing speakers towards the band to allow them to hear the song loud enough to sync too. as this song is an original written by my band t5, to record the song i spent many months recording and editing the song on Cubase pro 7 which is an audio production recording software which music technicians use to record their portfolio for music technology. i spent many months making sure the balance and quality was of high standard and sounds like a professional recording. as you can see in the video there are many tracks which have been edited accordingly to sound warmer than the raw samples, once it was finished i then exported the song and uploaded it to premiere pro where i could then edit the video. in the music video costume was very relaxed during the performance however played a key role in the narrative. as i mentioned before the performance and band costume is very natural and modern to relate to the target audience, however in the narrative the male character is wearing a suit to show how sophisticated the character is and how professional the character is towards the audience. the female love interests are both wearing white skits/dresses to connote purity to relate to a “heavenly sight” as he is dreaming about the girl of his dreams - his guardian angel. in the music video props are also used drastically in the video to help add more realism, props were mainly used to help promote and advertise the artist seen in the music video by using the band logo in different ways in the music video. In the video i used a lot of music technology to create an authentic music video. i used 2 guitars, one bass guitar, a drum kit, two amps and two microphones with added stands. the main use of the instruments is to create a purpose for the performance to make it look like a live performance. 

During Post Production, i used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the music video in which i was able to import the music via my SD Card which was inserted into the side of my Mac. Whilst editing i added transitions which corresponded to the storyboard i drew in pre-production (when planning the music video). I was then able to add short and long cuts to the editing process which made it easier to work out which clips were in time with the song. As it is an original song written, recorded and produced by myself, i spent many weeks and months recording the song which is The Last Dance. I recorded the song at in the Sixth Form recording studio, i recorded all the audio files onto Cubase Pro 8 which is a professional music production software. Once the song was completed and produced i then imported it into Premiere Pro and synced it to the video to make the mouth movements of the singer stay in time with the song. Once that was done i started to work on the Print Artefacts. Due to the fact the band recently did a performance in front of a live audience i thought it would look better to get a natural pose for the poster and album cover. I took my Canon EOS 500D DSLR camera and got my friends to take many shots of us performing. These pictures became the basis of the Poster and Album Sleeve. To edit the poster and album sleeve i used Adobe Photoshop. The text used on the poster and album sleeve was downloaded from Dafont.com which is an online downloadable resorce for Photoshop fonts. All the songs listed on the back of the cover are real original songs which i have written myself about personal issues in my life. I thought i could use these topics to make the album more sentimental towards the audience to allow them to relate to some of the songs. 

In the Evaluation i used Premiere Pro again to edit the video as it is a very reliable system. To record the voice overs i used a Focusrite 2i2 Audio Interface which comes with a Condenser Microphone at studio quality to create the voice over for the videos. I also recorded the voice over into cubase and read from a script to make sure i didn't miss anything out. All the other video files including some Music Video examples came direct from YouTube using Det.Url which is a URL Video Downloader. 

Evaluation Question 3

Script for Question 3 

i received feedback from my classmates on what i could improve to receive top marks for my A2 Advanced Portfolio.With this information i then labeled each advice as pointers in which i developed one step at a time. due to the fact my classmates have never heard the song or the band as it is a new original song/pop band called T5 they could only give feedback on what they see on the page, where as if i was to create a poster representing a particular artist this would create a comparison which i the opposite of what i aimed to achieve. With my print products i aimed to make it as authentic and original as possible. To see if my products look like a real product for a pop/rock band i posted the images of the poster and cd cover onto social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter which also helped me to create a wider range of feedback from readers outside of the media classroom. The feedback i received was better than i expected as i was receiving comments such as “When is the album going to be released” and “looks great, when can i buy the album”. One of the main comments i received which helped dramatically with my media product is “where and when can i buy this album?” at the time i only uploaded a version of the poster without a shop logo and price on the advert so with each piece of feedback i then went on to re-editing the poster to help achieve the best results possible by using the comments to decide what i could do next. In regards to my music video i uploaded the video to Facebook, youtube and uploaded the songs to Soundcloud. This may be my own original band however this band is a real group in which we have been writing a demo album. This came really useful with the album cover as all the songs on the back of the cd cover are real songs written by myself (Ben Woodward), with that in mind i then progressed to Soundcloud where i then uploaded the other demos to the website to generate a wider audience. The main aim of the print artefact and the music video is to try and advertise/brand the artist in the music video. again, with that in mind i created a Facebook page where the band can receive likes and can upload information for the readers to notify them of any events where the band will be performing. i also used youtube as many artists in the industry have been discovered on the video website such as Justin Bieber, The Vamps, Twenty Two One, All Time Low and many more. with that in mind i uploaded the video to youtube to try and again generate a wider audience to help get the bands name heard and to try and get listeners. The main feedback i received were on making slight adjustments to each product to try and receive higher marks to make the music video and print product realistic and modern for the listener/reader.

Evaluation Question 2

Script for Question 2

Both my main product and ancillary texts are very effective as both use similar features, this was done to allow the audience to instantly recognise the bands CD cover and poster. Before designing my Magazine poster i got someone to take pictures of the band performing at a recent concert to give the poster a more genuine look from a pop/rock band. once this was done, i uploaded the pictures to photoshop and used the same effects as the CD Cover using Greyscale and Threshold to create a pop arty effect as seen on green days 21st century breakdown cd cover. The band seen in the pictures are wearing natural modern clothing to relate to the target audience, the clothing in the poster/cover is very similar to the video as the lead singer is again wearing a checked shirt, the bassist is wearing white and the drummer is wearing a brown jumper as seen in the video. In terms of advertisement, on the poster we can see the band logo which is seen multiple times in the music video. also on the poster we can see the price of the album and where the album is available. I used iTunes as my main company to sell the album as apple is know not only for its devices but its also big on music, iTunes is one of biggest online music websites in the world coinciding with Amazon Music and Spotify. The Text on the poster is a bold and gritty text which contrasts well with the colours on the poster which allows the audience/reader to engage well with the details on the poster. I found the font on a website called Da.Font which is an online database full of tons of fonts for software such as photoshop and premiere pro. After conducting some research into Pop and Rock albums, i found that most bands create an inner booklet to help promote the members in the band. with my research i created a booklet in photoshop, using the un-used pictures taken from the bands recent performance, as well i added quotes from some of the songs on the album to create reference to the top 5 songs on the album, When you turn through the pages, towards the end of the booklet the listener will come across a lyrics section where the lyrics of each song is presented in a neat and tidy order, Albums such as A Present for Everyone and Linkin Parks Hybrid Theory album have helped influence this decision.

Video Production feedback

The VEVO logo and use of cinematic bars gives a professional look as if it is a real media product.  The opening shot faded in the band log and then exposed the image to transform into the opening scene.  This is an effective dramatic opening using a transition to engage the target audience.  A range of shots and use of the focus allows a variety of shots and shot distances to be employed.  The music is recorded using Cubase Pro 7 music production software and is the candidates original recording that he has mixed down himself.  He is the lead singer in the video.  The narrative is clear and editing and use of techniques dramatises this further by adding transitions and motion effects to indicate dream sequences.  The performance demonstrates and excellent awareness of the codes and conventions of a performance video. Lighting has been used effectively including a lighting rig which had to be sequenced and designed so that the programme followed the band. Thus meant actors had to follow their marks, and the candidate had to demonstrate excellent skill in direction. The narrative is clear and well planned, overcoming issues with changing actors through use of familiar mise-en-scene. Continuity in clear with the point of danger linking with the awakening from the dream.  Lots of detail and excellent ambition.  Accuracy in the edit, particularly of the performance and recording of the audio.  The band’s logo creates synergy across products and the narrative. 38/40

Evaluation Question 1

Script for Question 1

Hello, My name is Ben Woodward and I am the Director/Producer of my A2 Music Video. The Song that I have used for my Music Video is titled The Last Dance, which was written by myself and my band T5. The song is about trying to find love and happiness when everything seems broken.

In regards to the Music Video, many bands have influenced the narrative of the song; the main bands which influenced my narrative are the likes of Busted, McFly and Lawson. McFly’s - The Heart Never Lies mostly influenced the idea of the narrative by using a performance of the band in a remote location with a narrative which tells the story just by looking at the acting and scenery. The idea of filming the music video in a school hall was influenced by Bowling for Soups – High school Never Ends music video where the band are performing on a stage with dominant lighting and wearing appropriate attire for the occasion.

In order to sell the Artist in the Music Video I researched different Print Artefacts by similar bands and artists in the music industry, which are big in countries around the world. The top 3 which appealed the most to me were Green Day with 21^st Century Breakdown, Busted with Present for everyone and McFly with Radioactive. Each album sleeve which I saw has influenced my Print artefact in more ways than one. The style of my poster/album cover was influenced by Green Days 21^st Century Breakdown album cover using the pop art texture and bright colours. I incorporated this feature in my album cover and cd sleeve using Photoshop where I made the band image grey then editing with the threshold to create a gritty black image. Busted influenced my Print artefacts by making the band pose during a performance to get the best image possible, with that image I then re-sized the image to makes sure each member is equally visible on the cover, I then added a blue and green filter over the top of it to develop a contrast between the bold black colour to make it look more positive. McFly also influenced my print artefact with the use of their album Radioactive; this influenced my print artefact by placing the band title/logo in the centre of the cover and placing the different band members in different areas of the cover. The Logo of the band T5 was designed again using Photoshop, but with audience feedback they found the image too look like TV instead of the roman numeral for 5 so to display a clear title I created a text layer at the bottom of the logo in a thin black text reading T5, then on the ‘T’ I placed the album title in the centre in a different colour compared to the band name to display a contrast in colours.

When planning my music video I needed to find ways of promoting the artist/band in the video in ways other than the performance. I did this by using different instruments and props in the video. For instance, in the first verse of the narrative we can see the main character Thomas pick up an acoustic guitar. On the guitar is an engraved ‘V’, which is the Roman numeral for 5, this is also the form of the band logo, which the audience will be able to see a number of times in the video. This was done by drawing the design onto an acoustic guitar then chiselling the outline out, after that was done I then filled in the groves with black paint as seen on another guitar in this video. Again in the video during the performance we can see the lead singers guitar, which is a white Squier Stratocaster. On the scratch plate of the guitar we can also see a white ‘V’, which again helps to promote the artist, as the ‘V’ is another formation of the bands logo. Finally at the end of the video we can see a focus shot of the bands guitar picks which have the bands full logo on each pick, this really helps to promote the artist as the audience can look at the logo and instantly think of the artist. This was also done at the start of the music video as we could briefly see the band logo in full before the song title appears.

After watching many music videos such as Busted’s - Sleeping with the light on, Green Days - American Idiot and Mcfly’s – That Girl I noticed each video used Cinemascope Bars at the top and bottom of their videos to give it more of a cinematic look, with this I incorporated this into my media product as this is common in music videos. When filming the music video ‘Performance’ of the band, I used a number of shots including a close-up, corner stage shots, medium shots, extreme-close ups and many more. The shots of the singers face was influenced by Slipknots – Before I Forget video where the identity of the singers remain a mystery to the audience because the band wears face masks and jump suits. Other shots of the instruments were influenced by Blink-182’s – First Date music video where the drum kit is seen in the centre of the screen during a drum solo with low angles and high angles on the singers.

When editing the music video I used colour correction to demonstrate a contrasting section between each scene, for instance during the second verse we can see the male character walking down a footpath whilst looking at a girl. In this scene I used a dark/dull colour filter to connote sadness and depression but when the scene changes when he’s thinking about the girl, the colour of the filter brightens up where we can see the green grass in more depth. Also, later on in the video when the girl fades away, the contrast slowly starts to dip back to the dull colour seen at the second verse but doesn’t go too grey as she is still in his mind and he wants her to stay, she’s still the light in his life.  (COMPARE SHOTS BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND FINAL)

When looking at the music videos during my research I found VEVO was one of the most reliable music channels on YouTube and on the World Wide Web. With this I incorporated the VEVO logo into my music video by placing it in the bottom right of the music video on the cinemascope bar lines. This helps to not only promote the artist but also promotes VEVO as a channel/company.