Evaluation...

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our music video we chose the Indie genre. The codes and conventions within a music video of the 'Indie' genre consists of a band, and a basic storyline to fit the lyrics.
The band is a key element of the conventions within this genre, as most if not all Indie bands are more than two people.
Our band follows this as FUDGE consists four members.
Our band, also follows the conventions of the Indie stereotype; skinny jeans, long hair etc.
Our video does not tend to challenege the conventions of the genre .



How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of the music video and the digipacks is very effective because in the music video there is footage of two of the members 'having a laugh' and mucking about this is also shown on the CD cover as it is of them pulling funny faces in the a photo booth. In The music video it also has shots of the whole band in a bedroom, in the CD pack there will be a picture of them as a band. The pictures will reflect their personality as individuals and as a band. teh album cover is a great way for the audience to get to know tha band as well.



What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I have learned that less is sometimes better. Our music video is very simple and when we showed it to our film studies class they loved the simplicity of it as it gives them the chance to really watch and understand it more. The band members are young aswell so they felt like they were relating more with them, whilst they were sitting in the pub and laughing with eachother. they also seemed to want to see more footage of the band together and of them singing so we made sure we put that in there to.


How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used final cut pro and imovie with the construction part of our project. We used imovie when we first started the development section of it. We did put it on final cut pro but it didnt offer anything we wanted to put it in our video so we decided to move it back onto imovie to keep the simplicity. We also think thought that imovie suited the theme of the music video. whilst using imovie we experimented with the lighting, the sound and also played around with different effects. we also had to use itunes to find our song and the right version of it. I also used photoshop to make my digipack.

DONE AND DUSTED!!!!

The music video is now done!!!
We have finally finished the music video, which is a total relief.
I think it confides to the codes and conventions of a Indie music video, it is very simple so i think that might hold us back grade wise as we haven't used fancy effects to make it extravagant. It is now time to start to re-do my digi-pack.

Action Plan for the next three weeks

Week 1. Finish off the editing

Week 2. Re-do my Digi-Pack

Week 3. Do the poster

I have decide to spend a week on each one just so that im spending enough time on each one, which means that they will be done quicker. My digi-pack is what i keep getting stuck on as I dont really have any ideas of what I want to do for it. I want to carry on the theme of simplicity but its just what to put on it. hmmmmmmm...

We have added in some more clips to the music video as there were a few gaps. There are still a couple more gaps to fill but we cant decide on what to put there. We have looked through the footage we have left and it just seems that the rest doesn't fit in so we are going to have to move things around abit and see if we can fill the gaps up lke that and put some more footage in, even if it means shooting some more of it.

The first cd cover

This is my C.D cover but as you can see it is not yet done and there are a few mistakes on it, there is a picture of another band on there and i have put Mystery jets on there and not Fudge. This is just the first copy of it.

A decision...simplicity is Key!!!!

We have to decided not to put our music video on Final Cut Pro as we wanted a simplier feel to it and Final Cut wasn't needed for that. This means that we will have it done much sooner as we wont have to spend time uploading it on there and then playing around with it as the people in our 1st crit lesson thought it was much better and more effective making simplistic. I think it conveys the code and conventions of the Indie genre being simple.

1st Crit lesson..

After showing our music video in a crit lesson, everyone said they loved the simplicity of it and that if we put split screens in it would ruin the style of it. When we done this there were still some gaps that needed filling so it was interesting to see what they thought we should put there. Some people also said that what made it so effective is the fact that it confides to all of the code and conventions of an indie music video. They also liked the narrative of it as they never thought thats what we would have done. We got comments on the actors and how it seemed so relaxed which made it lookmore realistic.



We came away from that crit lesson happy with the feedback we had recieved and had more ideas of what we could put in the gaps we had left over. we was glad that our audience got it and felt that they could relate to it more.

The Digi Pack...

For my digi pack I have gone for the look of old.
With the song being about young love, i decided to make the whole album about looking into the past so all the songs about it and the front cover is a vinyl. It is the bare minimal because i wanted to go with simple as that was the theme of the music video and i believe it would be the theme for all there music videos.

I am having trouble with my digi packs, it wont let me save it on photoshop so everything i am doing for that now has to be hand done until it is fixed. I have alot of ideas of what i want to do it's just getting it on paper or on photoshop. I have been looking at Mystery Jets C.D covers and i have notcied that they are simple but effective so thats what i want to do with mine.

digi packs...

I have started on the digi packs now, so the band seems more real. it's taking some time because i can never get the band ltogether to take pictures of the so at the moment i have had to use pictures off google, i am hoping to get them all togther this week to take the pictures.

final cut pro..

THE ROUGH CUT IS DONE!!!! The rough cut is finally done now, so this means that we can now put it on final cut pro, which to me is where the fun starts. We had a bit of trouble when we uploaded it to there though because we done as one big shot, so we had to go through it all again and cut it up which wasted alot of time, never the less we have done it all now and we have moved on from it. We have started with the split screens which are soo hard, it's so much fussing around btu ti makes the music video look better so we have to grin and bear it.

The editing...

The editing is going really well, everything seems to be well. The syncing is not as hard as what i thought it would be; it's difficult but bareable. We keep changing our minds of how we want it to look so it's not really folowing the storyboards but i think it's better. the rough cut is nearly finished which means that we re near to putting it on final cut pro. I'm looking forward to that because it then means that we can play around with the lighting and do some split screens, just make it look more exciting, give it something different.

Filming at Harry's...

Filming at harrys went much better than the first time, we got some really good shots of the each band member and some of the whole band. My favourite shot is of when me and harry are singing to eachother and it goes well with the storyline and look sarcastic in a way because the whole thing is looking back on their time together so i think it ties in nicely. The lighting looks muych better now it's not as dark on the bands faces and but could be lighter but that can be fixed on final cut pro.

Catch up!!!

Ok so now we have done the filming of the couple shots. We got some really nice shots filming in Danson Park with the frost on the leaves and the grass it was very romantic so it woked really well. Looking back on it, it doesn't seem acted it looks very relaxed and natural which was great because it makes it seem so much more real. All that needs doing now is the shots of the band which are being filmed tomorrow night at Harry's house so we should (if all goes to plan) have a rough copy of the music video by Friday.

I like this picture of marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhole and I was thinking of having something like this for the album cover, of all their faces.

Action plan for this week

We have decided that I will be the girl in the band now as Gemma didn't know the words and felt uncomfortable onscreen. We have changed the storyboard slightly also and have had it as; it is the ex couple having flash backs of their relationship. It will be filmed like home videos, so alot of hand held cameras and shots of just heads and shoulders.
Tonight we are filming the couple scenes which will be me and harry. We want to get scenes shots of us at the pub, at home just playing about and then eventually get some shots of us with our friends. Obviously the shots with our friends will have to wait until we can get the band together when every one is free.

Today I am dedicating my free time to catching up on some blogging as I have abandoned it for a while .