Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

                                          

Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?

Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?

Question 1 - In what way does your music video use the conventions of real media texts?

Final Music Video

This is our final music video, I feel it went well as we used various editing, camerawork and lighting techniques in order to make the shots different and avoided repetition.

In terms of editing, I feel the video reversal worked well as the song had a 'to and fro' beat so the forward and backwards video effect worked well. I think that the superimposition shots worked well as they showed the relationship between the artists in the vague narrative by them being in the same place on camera but are actually in different locations. The time lapse of the clouds passing by worked well as it suited the slow pace of the song and the genre of indie pop. We used cuts that went to the beat of the song to make the visuals parallel to the audio, but also made some cuts that were off-beat in order to make it unique and more interesting for the audience. On the shots in which the female artist was on her own, we added a black and white filter effect in order to reflect her emotions. We feel this came through as we had a vague narrative but still wanted to tell a story with the video. We used keyframing to zoom into the artist's phone which then continued to play a video from that starting position, I think this went well as it is a more complex editing technique, this could have been improved by making the zoom more smooth. The shot where the male artist disappears from the frame I think worked well as it had a smooth transition to the female artist on her own and the image turning to black and white. This again showed the artists' relationship in a more effective way.

In terms of camerawork, I think that we used a variety of different and dynamic shots in order to make the video more interesting. For example, the use of the 'vlog' style footage when the artists are playing bowling works well as it shows what the artists are like and shows some of their personas to the audience. We used some extreme close-ups on the artist's mouth when she lip synchs so the audience focuses on the lyrics and to avoid using repetitive close-ups. We experimented with the composition of our shots, for example when we placed the artists at either side of the frame so only half of their faces were shot and it appears they are far apart. I think that the focus pull when the artist goes underwater in the bath works well as it could symbolise her vision as it goes blurry when in water and we feel it works well with the songs pace and overall feel. I think we used some interesting shots at the swings location, for example, we used a point of view shot from the male artist's perspective, looking at the female artist swinging on the swings beside him, we also used a point of view shot from the female artist's perspective when she looks down whilst she swings. I feel this works well as it is a similar style to other indie pop music videos.

In terms of lighting, I think the silhouette shots worked well as they give a clear outline of the artist and set the mood for the video in the fist shot, this lighting technique also worked well with the extreme close-up when the artist was lip synching. I think the blue tinted and wave projection lighting worked well as it fitted in with the lyrics of the song and reflects a calming mood to the video.

Overall, I think that our final video did well as it uses the conventions of music videos and of the indie pop genre, by using editing, camerawork and lighting in order to achieve this. If I were to improve from this, I would refine the editing in places, such as the zoom to the phone screen, I would also use more creative shots to add even more dynamics to the video.

Final Album Advertisement

This is our final album advertisement. We have included the following conventions:
artist name, album name, release date, reviews, singles included, social media, an image of the artist, image of the album cover.

I feel that this went well as we have followed conventions of professional album advertisements and used them to make ours as realistic as possible. I also feel this went well as we have used various Photoshop techniques in order to get to this result. For example, re-colouring the artist's eye on the polaroid photo by using the overlay tool, using brightness and contrast to match the polaroid photo to the overall photo of the artist. I also feel this worked well as we have used the same colour scheme as our digipack, therefore our products have synergy between them. I also feel we have integrated the social media icons into the advert well by changing the colour of them to the same as the rest of the poster and digipack.

I think that we have improved from our first draft of our advertisement as it is more interesting as we have made it different to usual advertisements by making it landscape. It also has a clean finish as we have not used a full-bleed photo so it does not appear to be crowded with the text and images.

Final Digipack

This is our final digipack product, I think that it went well as we have used synergy throughout with the same background texture and shade of blue, we have also linked the panels through the use of images as they all have an image of the artist or of a polaroid camera/polaroid prints. We made the front cover more complex as we used opacity settings to add a layer of water texture  which also means it links with the polaroid picture panel as it has an image of flowers in water.

We used digipack conventions in order to make ours more realistic, for example, we included the artist and album name and image of artist on the front cover, track list, record label logo, record label information and barcode on the back cover, and for the remaining panels, made sure we made synergy between them by using the same colour scheme and similar images.

I think this is an improvement from our first draft of our digipack as we have made it more complex, for example on the front cover, added a water texture layer on the main image, used the wood textured background, added a paint splat behind the bottom left panel photo to fill some negative space, changed the top right panel from just the glowing 'R' by continuing with the polaroid theme and showing the artist's various outfits that we also used in our music video in order for the artist's persona to show through to the audience.

Changes Post

Throughout the production of our music video, we made several changes due to circumstances. For example, on our first filming session we had aimed to film at the Sea Life Aquarium in London, however, as there was an event we were unaware about, we were not able to film at this time, therefore we filmed what we were able to. To get the aquarium shots, we filmed in a Pets at Home store in the aquarium section so that we would not need to replace these from our plan and they are shots we feel it links to our song.

 We also took out all of the shots which involved the skate park as we already had a large variety of locations and used some shots we created whilst we were at the other locations to fill the space in the timeline where the skate park shots would be. We took out the shots of the artist's reflection in a river as we could not find a nearby location and we filled it more shots from previous locations. Additionally, we removed the cinema location as we only had a couple of shots planned for that location and so would appear to be a bit random as we repeat our other locations several times.

We also made changes to our ancillary products. On our album advertisement, we changed the layout to landscape, which is more unconventional to real media text examples and we changed the image that was on our advertisement as we had repeated it twice in our digipack, on the CD design and on another panel. On our digipack, we added a textured background and changed the planned 'R' panel to something more complex and to fit in with the other panels by using the theme of polaroid films and images of the artist.

Music Video Second Draft

This is the second draft of our music video, the things we feel went well were our mise en scene, such as our locations, props, costumes and lighting. For example, we feel this shot of the silhouette went well as the artist's outline is clear and the darkness around her makes the lighting effect more dramatic.

We feel this shot went well in terms of the artist's costume as it is typical from the indie pop genre and suits the song. We also feel the location worked well in this shot as the park in the Autumn so gives the shot a moody feel to it.

We feel the bowling alley worked as a location in our video as it is a typical place to go for a date and the lighting of a bowling alley creates a moody effect as it is dark.

The coffee shop worked well as a location as we were able to easily film them both and then Robin by herself to show the separation of the two artists.

At the end of the video we decided to film the male artist walking away from Robin, we feel the location of this tunnel works for this shot as it is a long passage and so the male artist gets quite far away from Robin.

We also feel we used some good camerawork in different shots and that the use of dissolves and superimposition worked well. For example we feel this shot went well as we focused on the mise en scene around the mirror but also made sure the camera was not shown in the mirror and that it was clear to the audience that she is looking at the photo of her with the male artist.

The superimposition of the artists went well as they are roughly in the same position and the overlay clearly shows both of the artists lip synching to the same lyrics which creates the effect that although they are in the same place, they are separated.


To improve our video, we could change the reverse effect so that it fits in with the beats of the song in order for it be more smooth. On some of the really shaky shots we could use the warp stabiliser tool in order to smooth them out so that it has a cleaner finish.

Ancillary Shooting Schedule

Moodboard + Digipack + Advertisement Plan

This is a mood board I created on Pinterest in order to get ideas for our album cover. We are aiming that it will represent the indie pop genre and be consistent with colour scheme and be different with techniques such as light graffiti.

This is our plan for our digipack:

-Front cover - angled mid shot of artist with black background and blue text for simplicity
-Back cover - List of song names in similar/same font to front cover, same colour of blue for text images of polaroid pictures in a pile of artist
-CD design - Artist holding polaroid camera, centre of CD acting as lens, black and white photo with blue highlighted-Image Panel 1- Polaroid photo of bath with blue floating flowers and lyrics written across
-Image Panel 2 - Black and white photo of artist holding camera, camera is highlighted blue to create synergy between panels
-Image Panel 3 - Blue light graffiti of R logo with black background

These choices fit with our artist's brand as they are indie pop style photos and using a basic two-tone colour scheme is simple but also highlights parts of the images. This also fits out artist's brand as it includes lyrics from one of their songs on one of the panels, but in an indie pop way i.e. written on a polaroid photo.

This is our plan for our album advertisement:

- Black and white image, same as Image Panel 2 on digipack to create synergy between products

-Robin and Exposure fonts the same as on digipack

-Release date

-Rating

-Social media icons and username 

Post Production #7

In this session, we added the footage from the previous filming session in order to fill in the gaps we had. We feel this session went well as we were able to fill the rest of the song, however, one of our ideas was to make the shot of the clouds to time lapse so they would move really fast as we feel it would fit with our genre but we were not able to get it to work. For next time we edit, we will continue to experiment with ways to create this effect with the clouds, touch up any shots and experiment with effects.

Filming Session #10 (04/12/2016)

In this filming session, we went back to the Sutton Green park to film lip syncing for the ending and some shots we could use to fill some gaps we had left over from our previous editing session. We filmed the clouds for a while as we thought it would be a suitable effect for our genre to create a time lapse of them flying by. We felt this session went well as we came up with some more creative ideas that suit our indie pop genre to make the video visually interesting.

We also went to Pets at Home as a replacement location for the Sea Life Aquarium in London as we were not able to film there the first time we went and thought the aquarium section of the pet shop would be suitable as we filmed in one with a large tank that is similar to an aquarium tank in order to get the fish shots and the artists in front of a tank.

Post Production #6

In this session, we inserted footage from our previous filming session and focussed on more technical editing techniques. For example, we constructed the superimposition shot by using these shots:

To create the superimposition of these shots, we cut and aligned each clip to match the timing of the lyrics with the song. We then layered the clips on top of one another, then adjusted the opacity of both in order to get the best effect.

 Split screen shot:

To create the split screen with these shots, we cut and aligned them to the song and layer them, then double click on the first clip in the preview window to scale it and crop it to reveal the second clip which we repeated the prior step to get each clip evenly on either side of the screen to get the best result.

Zoom in and play photo into the video:

To create this effect, we took a photo of the artists before we filmed the clip so the effect would look as though the photo and video run smoothly as they would be in the same positions and the lighting would be the same. We then filmed an over the shoulder shot of the female artist looking at the photo which will edit into the clip. To edit this together we first used the over the shoulder shot clip and inserted a keyframe at the beginning and at the end, for scale and rotation at effect control. We then adjusted the rotation and scale so the clip would zoom in and angle the photo horizontally in order for the photo to align with the video clip that would follow.


Disappearing artist:

To  create this effect we filmed the artists standing next to each other and, after a short while, the male artist moves out of the frame and the female artist remains still. This is so that when the male artist moves out of frame is cut out, the transition is smooth and gives the effect he is just disappearing. We also added a black and white filter to the section when the artist is left on her own, to fit with the rest of the clips when she is alone. To make the transition smooth, we added a cross dissolve so the male artist would decreasingly fade out and the black and white effect would slowly increase.


We feel this editing session went well as we used more technical effects to make the video unique and visually interesting. However, there were some gaps so we need to film more footage and continue to experiment with technical effects and camera shots and angles.

Filming Session #9 (28/11/2016)

In this session, we went back to Sutton High Street to film the coffee shop shots, lip syncing shots for superimposition and split-screen, our ending shot of the artists walking in different directions and some shots we thought would work well such as the artists standing together and then in post make the male artist fade out to leave the female artist on her own.

For this shot, we set the camera on a fig rig and placed in on a chair in order to get a stable shot without a tripod as we were not allowed to use one at this location, so we used our initiative to get as steady of a shot as possible.

This shot will be used as part of our split-screen of the artists lip syncing at different locations. We have decided to film one side during the day and the other in the evening so they are contrasting.

These shots were taken for our superimposition shot in our video. We ensured the artists sat in similar places in order to get the greatest impact from when we edited them together in post.

This is the final shot of our video when the artists walk in opposite directions. Our original location for this shot was a park, however, we feel we had a lot of shots in a park location and that this long passage would work well. This footage will be unique as it is quite a long take, although occurring at the end of the video, long takes are not typically used in music videos.

These are shots we took in order to then create the effect the male artist fades out and leaves the female artist in shot. To achieve this we kept the camera in the same position and after the male artist was in frame for a few seconds, they moved aside with the female artist staying in the same position so that it appeared that she male would fade out with him next to her but would appear as one continuous shot. This shot is unique as it involves removing an artist from the music video at that moment in time which is different as most music videos which feature the artist(s) are shown on camera at all times , whereas ours goes against that.

We shot these extreme close ups of the artists eyes in order to create a 'speedy eyes' effect when we would speed up the clip so the eyes would move faster. These shots are unique as this effect is not typically seen in an indie pop music video and if the artist(s) is/are on camera, they are usually not shot at such a close distance.

Post Production #5

In this editing session, we added some footage from our previous filming session and used the best clips that would fit in with our sequence. We added some footage from our first filming session in London as we had not incorporated as much as we could, we also added some more reverse effect and inserted a black and white filter to the footage of the artist on her own to some of this footage. We feel this session went well as we came up with some creative and different ways to make our footage unique and work well with the song.

Filming Session #8 (24/11/2016)

In this filming session, we went back to the park to get some more creative shots of the artist on her own. We feel this session went well as we came up with some creative shots to use for our final piece. For our next filming session, we plan to continue to use various creative shots and make sure the camera is steady.

This is a 360-degree shot of the artist using the camera and a hand-held rig to try and keep the movement as smooth as possible. The result was a little shaky but is still effective as it is a different shot to others in our video. This shot is unique as it is not often seen during a music video and is likely to only occur once, therefore adds diversity to the overall effect of the video.

This is an over-the-shoulder shot of the artist looking at a photo of her and the ex-boyfriend when they went bowling. This shot will be used for a zoom-in effect where the picture will be zoomed in on and a clip will play from the image.

This is a close up of the artist with half of their face in the frame. This shot will be used for a speedy-eyes effect where we will speed up the clip so their eyes look as though they are moving faster than they actually are.

This is a tight profile shot of the artist's lip-syncing to the song. We feel this shot went well as it is different to our other shots and feel the framing has worked well.

Post Production #4

In this editing session, we placed on the mobile footage of the bowling from when we went to London the second time. We also added more reversal effect to this footage to fit in with the rest of what we had done prior. This session went well as we stuck to the animatic and added more effects. To improve for next time we should experiment with more effects and cut to off beats of the song to make it more interesting.

To create this reverse effect:

1) Import footage and place in timeline

2) Use the razor tool to cut where you want the reverse effect to start and end

3) Delete footage that follows on from the end of where you decided when the reverse effect ends

4) Duplicate the clip you have decided to reverse and place after

5) Right click on the middle section of your sequence and click on "Speed/Duration"

6) From here, tick the "Reverse Speed" box the "OK"

7) From the start of the clip you have reversed, drag backwards towards the first clip, they will both appear in the preview window with where they start, match the numbers so when the clip reverses, it is aligned with the forward clip.

8) Do the same with the other end of the reverse clip and drag it forward towards the start of the  last clip and match the start and end, like previously.

Completed reverse effect: