Final Music Video

Below is my finished music video to the song 'Strange Times' by The Black Keys.

Final Digi-Pak

This is my final digi-pak and advertisement for my digi-pak.

(This is the front and back cover and one of the inside panels)

 

(This is CD disc and two inside panels)

  (This is my advertisement, promoting the new album)

Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


For the first evaluation question, I have taken 9 screen shots from my music video that I feel use, develop and challenge the conventions of music videos.

I would place my music video in the Indie/Rock genre.

Below are the main conventions of Rock/Indie music videos.

Rock music video conventions

- Usually dark/deep colours

- Displays the band performing on stage

- Usually no narrative

- Uneasy camera movements

- Handheld shots

- Usually no special effects

Indie music video conventions

- Show artist/band throughout

- Some special effects

- Usually calm setting but changes when beat kicks in

- May be black and white

- Shows band performing

- Sometimes have a narrative

Below are my 9 frames that I picked out from my music video.

Frame One.

In the first frame, it features the song title and name of the band. This appears at the beginning of the song and at the end of the song for several seconds, so the audience have recognition of it. Featuring the song titile and name of the band is very conventional for all genre of music videos.

Frame Two.

In the second frame, it shows the band performing together. I wanted it to look like they are performing live on stage. This uses the conventions of both a rock and indie music video as most of this genre's music videos have the band performing on stage whilst using different lighting and this is what I adopted when filming my video. It gives more of a professional feel to it rather then band practise. 

Frame Three.

In the third frame, it shows the colour scheme that I used throughout my video, this being red, white and black. It also shows the special effects that I created, my inspiration came from a band called The White Stripes with their music video 'Seven Nation Army'. The conventions of a rock/indie music video often does not have alot of special effects, therefore I feel I have developed these conventions as well as challenging them at the same time. If you look at the music video by The White Stripes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY you will see that they use a special effect throughout the entire video, where as I have used the special effects at certain intervals during my video, as well as having shots of the band performing on stage and close-ups of the band without any special effects. Whilst filming my video, I used a green screen so in editing I could create the effects that I wanted. I feel that I have developed on the convention of special effects by repeating the effect to create something new and different.

Frame Four.

In the fourth frame, it shows a extreme close-up of the singer of the band. I wanted it to look like the singer was performing on a white studio background and that there was no distractions for the eye, just a clear shot of the singer so all focus was on him. I feel that this frame shows the use of the singer performing which uses the conventions of rock/indie music videos. 

Frame Five.

In the fifth frame, it shows a close up of a guitar, this being a typical convention of a music video, especially a rock/indie music video as it displays the instruments being played by the band members. There is no special effect on this, apart from putting a black background onto the green screen so it looked like the singer was performing on stage, keeping the continuity between the band performing and just the singer, so it looked like I had zoomed in. It also shows the singer playing the guitar to the rhythm of the song so it looks professional and links the sound the viewer hears to what they can see. 

Frame Six.

In the sixth frame, it shows a split screen which gets maximised more as the beat changes, however the image gets smaller. It starts off with a four way split screen and then the spilt screens get smaller as more appear creating a repitition effect. In a way I have used one of the conventions of an indie music video that its usually a calm setting but changes as the beat kicks in. With all my shots, I tried to match the movements with the rhythm of the song, so as the beat develops throughout the song so would my video. 

Frame Seven.

In the seventh frame, it shows a two way spilt screen. In each screen, it shows something different; one being a close-up shot of the singer playing the guitar, and the other being the other band member playing the drums. They are also playing in time with the music, which creates more of a professional look and makes the video flow well. Again, I am using the conventions of rock/indie music videos as there are mainly displays of the band performing with no narrative, however I have then developed this by having a two way spilt screen showing the band performing instead of having no special effects and sticking to the conventions of the media.

Frame Eight.

In the eighth frame, it shows the special effects that I created. It also shows the continuous colour scheme, red, white and black, this a typical convention to rock/indie videos as they keep the same colours throughout however the conventions are usually dark deep colours, where as I have used the contrast of bright red against white and black. My use of special effects again develop and challenge the conventional idea that rock/indie music videos do not  use a lot of special effects. The use of the repeated traingle plays on your mind and keeps your eye focused waiting for something else to appear. I feel I challenge the conventions by having the band performing whilst having several different effects happening at the same time. 

Frame Nine.

In the final frame, it shows a four way spilt screen. Two frames having the main singer, and the other having the drummer, this appears at the last few seconds of the video, I think it is effective at the end as it just shows the band members looking straight at you not singing or playing instruments. I used spilt screens a few times throughout my video as it gives the viewer several different things to look at in one frame at the same time. 

Overall, I feel that my video is inbetween the conventions of the rock/indie genre, it develops on special effects as well as challenging them as they are created in a establised and repeated way, the effect was so repeated effects play on your mind as you are watching it, there is always one thing appearing after the other and then thats repeated again. The continuous colour scheme of red, white and black twist the conventions as there is a contrast of bright red against the black and white. My music video does not have a narrative, which is a typical convention of a rock/indie video, the use of the close-up shots of the instruements and band members is another typical convention of that genre. The outfits the band members are wearing are very casual and suit the type of song and genre, they attract the audience by wearing everyday clothes like t-shirts, jeans etc. 

I feel that my music video is very unique and even though it does use some conventions of the rock/indie genre it does also develop and challenge at the same time. 

Evaluation - Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

For question 2 of the evaluation, I decided to create another video of my music video with my ancillary products included with a voice over of why I feel that they keep parity.

Below is my answer to Question 2.

Below is my script of my voice over that was included in the above video.

Script for voice over

(Beginning)

Hello, I'm Karen Le and this is the video that I created to the song 'Strange Times' by The Black Keys. The Black Keys are an American Blue/Rock music duo, they are quite well known in the UK and to date have sold over 1.7 million records.

'Strange Times' is the first single from The Black Keys' album Attack and Release.

When I chose this song for my music video, I knew I didn't want to include a narrative; this is also sticking to the conventions that the majority of Indie/Rock music videos do not have a narrative. One of my inspirations for creating a video like this was a music duo called The White Stripes with their song 'Seven Nation Army'. They used a continuous colour scheme with special effects throughout the whole video. 
  
( Inset of clip from The White Stripes video 'Seven Nation Army') 

I feel I adopted this technique, using a simple colour scheme of red, white and black. I originally filmed by video on a green screen, so I could edit and create styles to add to my video. The idea was for my video to feel like something was always going on, that your eye had something to always focus on. I feel I accomplished this by using repetition of the shapes reappearing one after the other while having the band also performing in the background. When the band was performing, I wanted the look to come across as if they were performing live on stage. I also wanted the overall look to be special effects, which meant challenging and developing on the conventional ways of an Indie/Rock music video.

(Digi-Pak)

When creating my ancillary products to accompany my video, I felt that I needed to continue the same effect used within my video and keep parity between the three products. I knew to do this, I had to keep the simple colour scheme of red, white and black and include shapes somewhere in my product. I began by researching and experimenting in Adobe Photoshop. After creating simple triangle shapes, I repeated this effect throughout the six panels of my digi-pak. I included a film reel where I used images from my music video to keep effect and show similarity between the video and digi-pak. 

(Magazine Advert)

For the magazine advert, I decided to use the same images that I created whilst designing my digi-pak. The same colour scheme and visual images allowed the products to keep a continuous parity showing impact and effectiveness. I also kept similarity by using the same font styles throughout the digi-pak and magazine advert. I then played around with the positioning of the album cover, text and film reels, then included typical conventions I had noticed throughout conventional magazine advertisements, such as the inclusion of release dates, band websites and reviews from media institutions. 

Overall, my music video and supporting two ancillary products, the digi-pak and magazine advert, I feel show clear strong links to each other by showing a continuous colour scheme, visual style and images that all the products contain. I feel that I achieved the look that I was hoping to create throughout all three products, and that each product keeps parity throughout, creating an overall effective style, which would promote the band successfully. 

(End)     

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For part of question 3 of the evaluation, I decided to film two of my fellow classmates discussing my music video.

Below is the clip of the interview

I also got audience feedback when our media studies class held a public screening inviting parents and friends, and different class years to evaluate our music videos. The audience were asked to fill out a small questionnaire containing 8 questions, they had to mark us on a scale of 1 to 4; 1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest. I then went through all the feedback and put the scores onto a graph. From the questionnaires, I had 42 people give me feedback on my music video.


Below are the graphs showing the audience feedback


Key - Scale 1-4 (4 being the highest, 1 being the lowest)
(I then converted the scores into percentages, as shown on the following graphs)

 

 This graph shows that out of 100%, 50% of the audience gave me a score of 3, 48% scored me 4, and 2% scored me 2 for the question 'How steady were the shots?'. 

This graph shows that out of 100%, 40% of the audience gave me a score of 3, 36% scored me 4, and the remaining 24% scored me 2 for the question 'How varied were the shots?'.

This graph shows that out of 100%, 50% of the audience gave me a score of 3, 31% scored me 2, 14% scored me 4 and 4.8% scored me a 1 for the question 'How varied were the shots?'.

This graph shows that out of 100%, 52.4% gave me a score of 3, 26.2% scored me 4, 19% scored me 2 and 2.4% scored me 1 for the question 'Was the choice of locations appropriate?'.

This graph shows that out of 100%, 62% gave me a score of 3, 29% scored me 4 and the remaining 9.6% scored me 2 for the question 'Was the lighting appropriate?'.

This graph shows that out of 100%, 60% gave me a score of 2, 21% scored me 3, 12% scored me 4 and the remaining 7% scored me 1 for the question 'How clear was the meaning?'.

This graph shows that out of 100%, 55% gave me a score of 4, 35.5% scored me 3 and the remaining 9.5% scored me 2 for the question 'Was there appropriate use of special effects?'.

This graph shows that out of 100%, 52.2% gave me a score of 3, 24% scored me 4, 19% scored me 2 and the remaining 4.8% scored me 1 for the question 'Was there appropriate editing of sound and image, did the film make sense?'.

Some comments given to me from the feedback were as follows:

- "Special effects work well with the filming and music."

- "Very White Stripes"

- "It took me back to the 70s - in a good way!"

- "Not really sure what message was meant to be."

- "The repeated diamond effect notif was very effective."

- "I really loved what they done with the editing it looked really professional but I didn't see a clear meaning or links with lyrics."

My response to feedback

From the above feedback, I feel that I received positive and good reviews. Overall, I received mostly 3s and 4s which I was really pleased with as the scores were out of 4 (4 being the highest). 

I was interested to see what other people thought of my music video, as it is quite unique and not really a conventional video. I wanted to see what the audience's views were and what they thought I could improve on. One of the comments I received was "Not really sure what message was meant to be", I was worried that they may not realise the look I was trying to create. When we held a public screening, we did not explain the style that we were hoping to create, therefore I feel if I was to brief the audience about my video before they watched it, they may have felt different about it. I didn't particularly have a meaning to it, I did not have a narrative which meant the music video did not connect to the lyrics. I was scored a lower score of 1 and 2 to the question "How clear is the meaning?", again I feel that this might be because not everyone knew we did not have to create a narrative. This might also show that my video is not to everyone's musical tastes. If I would of relayed the meaning and intentions first, and mentioned my inspiration then maybe the feedback would be different.

However I did receive a comment saying it was "Very White Stripes", I was very happy to see a comment like this, as my main inspiration for my music video was The White Stripes video 'Seven Nation Army'. Another comment I received was "The repeated diamond effect notif was very effective", I was happy with this comment, as the look I was going for was unconventional to other music videos, I wanted to create a repeated unique special effect. A few other comments I received was that I used to many special effects and no narrative, this was actually what I wanted to create, therefore I felt that this comment was because the audience was not briefed on the look and style of the video.

From analysing my feedback, overall I am very pleased with the comments. I received great scores for the use of my special effects, which I was very happy with. It is clear that in some areas I could of improved on, for example another comment was that there wasn't really a variety of locations, I feel that I could of used different locations more but the overall look I wanted was that the band were performing live on stage and to have the special effects shown throughout the majority of the video. 

I feel that I did create the look I was hoping for and I am pleased with the outcome, the audience feedback was very helpful and showed that there was some areas to improve, one of them being to try and relay the meaning more so it came across clear to the audience.

Evaluation - Question 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

While creating and researching my products, I used a variety of different media technologies to help me create the visual style I wanted to create.

The products I used were;

- Adobe Photoshop

- Adobe After Effects

- Premiere Pro

- Blogger

- Youtube

- Microsoft Word and Microsoft Powerpoint

- Internet (Google etc)

The following are screen shots of my slides featured in Microsoft Powerpoint for Question 
 4.

Adobe Photoshop

  (Click on the slide to view a bigger preview)

(This is an image of my construction of my Magazine Advert in Adobe Photoshop)

(This is an example of the triangle I created in Adobe Photoshop to use in my Music Video as a special effect)

 (This is a print screen of the construction of my CD in Adobe Photoshop)

Adobe After Effects

(Click on the slide to view a bigger preview)

 

(This is a print screen showing how to import a file into Adobe After Effects)

 (This is a print screen of the process of selecting the 'keylight 1.2' tool)

 (This print screen shows that once I have added the special effect, I have to select 'Transform' then use the 'positioning' and 'scale' tools)

 (This shows that once I have scaled the image/special effect it appears in the time line)

Premiere Pro

(Click on the slide to view a bigger preview) 

 (This is a print screen of my music video in Premiere Pro - Its shows the time line at the bottom and the clips on the left hand side)

(This print screen shows the construction of my music video, it shows the layering of the clips on top of each other to create the 'spilt screen' effect)

(This print screen shows my time line in Premiere Pro)

Blogger

(Click on the slide to view a bigger preview) 

(This print screen shows the 'dashboard' home page of your blog - it gives you the option to add and edit a post, view your blog etc)

 

(This shows what it looks like when you select 'New Post' - Its gives you different options like changing the font style and colour, uploading images and videos, embedding files, linking websites and changing the date of the post) 

(Once you are happy with your work, you click 'Publish Post' and it will direct you to another page where it will tell you it has uploaded successfully - it then gives you the option to edit or write a new post)

(This screen shot shows all your posts, the dates they were published and gives you the option to edit or view them)

Youtube

(Click on the slide to view a bigger preview) 

(This is a print screen of the tool bar once you have signed in to Youtube - It is easy to navigate)

(This shows the page that comes up once you select 'Upload')

(This is a print screen of my account of Youtube - It shows my 3 uploaded videos)

Other Technologies 

Construction of Digi-pak- Front and Back panels

When constructing my front panel, I tried various different effects to see what looked good and worked well together. I knew I wanted to keep the same colour scheme that was used within my music video, these were red, white, black, and grey. I will be using Adobe Photoshop to create my products.

Below are a series of different print screens taken from Photoshop during the construction of my Digi-pak. 

Going back to my digi-pak research and analysis, I wanted to create an effect like keane's 'Perfect Symmetry' album. I started out by creating a simple triangle shape using the line tool in photoshop. I then had to merge the visible layers to make the shape connect together.

I then had to measure out the correct positions on where my lines would go. I did this by using a rular to make sure the spaces were the same. I then used the line tool again to create boxes.

The above print screen shows me dividing the boxes into two, to create triangles. I had to repeat this for every box.

After completing that, I had to 'merge visible' to make sure all the lines met each other to create one over all shape so I could then colour each individual triangle.

Above shows the layers merged together to create one shape then I tried various different colours within the triangles to see what worked best.

I knew I wanted to keep the same colour scheme, red, white, black, and grey as in my video to keep similarity. I tried various different ways to see what was more eye-catching.

This was my final choice of colours etc. I found this pattern and order of colours worked well together.