This is our final evaluation for our A2 media project.We all answered one question each.
Gina - Question 1 Elise - Question 2 Fatma - Question 3 ​Katja - Question 4 Post by Elise, Gina, Katja and Fatma
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Before starting on the main design for our digi pak we decided to first create a practice version of what we wanted to do. We decided that the first thing we would do for this task was to create a couple of sketches of some of the ideas that we had, and different colours we could use. Then we would take the shots we needed when we were filming, and apply them to the practice copy of the digi pak. Sketches:This was the sketch before we added colour to it. This would be the back of the CD cover, where it tells you what songs are featured on this album. This one of the ideas we had where we would have the main character of the music video, looking into the forest. This is the same sketch but with different colouring added to them. The reason for the pink and the blue colouring is because the artist that we are using, uses these colours in her digi paks, and so we decided to use this in regards to our artist, Halsey. We didn't create anymore sketches as this was just to give us some idea of what we wanted to do and if the colours we wanted to use, worked well with our ideas, and the shots we needed in order to create the practice, and main digi pak. Pictures:This is the shot we decided to use for the front of the digi pak, as katja is the singer in our music video, and one of the main characters. We decided that she should be looking straight into the camera, as though she is looking right at the audience, as this creates a link between the audience and the artist/character. This is the shot that was decided to the back cover of our digi pak, as it shows the main character of our music video looking at the bridge beyond the tree. We decided that this was a better location than the forest, as our music video is about how she feels guilty for the death of her friend, and this is the place where her friend died, so therefore holds more meaning than the forest. For the practice digi pak, we decided that these were the types of colours we were going to use for the actual CD disk. Practice Digi Pak:As you can see this is the back and front of the digi pak. We decided for the front to have the background in the Halsey colours, and to just have in plain white font "HALSEY", and "BADLANDS", which is the name of her album. For the back cover, we decided not to editing the colouring on this shot, as we like how it is a night time shot but is not actually dark in the shot, and it creates a nice affect. For our CD disk we just decided to have colours on it but more dulled out, as we didn't want everything to be overcrowded. Post By Elise
This is the pictures from our storyboard put together into a short video so we can get sort of an idea of hopefully what our final product might look like and what shots we should decide to use to make our music video as successful as we can. Post by Elise
Feedback: After presenting our pitch we spoke as a class and discussed some feedback from other class members. This helped us a lot as we are able to know what we need to work on and what was our strong points. In order for us to gain an understanding of what we even needed to accomplish we needed to listen to our class members. Positive: Costume choice- The choice of using black and white to juxtapose each other and show the contrast between happiness/life and sadness/death. It also helps with showing the difference in our narrative. What we need to work on:
Post by Katja, Elise, Gina and Fatma
Before we start any filming, we have to launch an investigation into the risks of filming in each location, and how we will overcome them. We also have to ensure that everyone, the actors and crew, are as safe and as comfortable as they can be. We did a risk assessment for the Forest, Bridge and House. Forest: Bridge/Street:House:Post by Elise
When we had decided on a song, we had to ask permission from Halsey to use her song. We messaged her on Twitter using our production group twitter account. This is a screenshot showing evidence of us doing this. Post by Elise
The video on the left is the professional, official music video for Birdy's song, "Wings", and the video on the right is a music video for the same song, but was done by past student for A level. The topic of the two music videos are completely different from each other, but when watching one and then the other, you can notice similarities between the two. For example, Birdy's video has the character walking slowly and then flashbacks will appear and flash across the screen really fast in time with he beat. The past student has taken this and applied it to her video but has altered it to fit her music video better. The A2 past students work is really well done and if you didn't know that it was an amateur video you could believe it is the actual music video for Birdy's song. In some ways I think that this one is better than the professional, as the storyline for this is very emotional but not overly dramatic, and all the micro-elements, (camera, sound, editing and miss-en-scene), really create a link between the character and the audience, and make you feel all the emotions that the character is feeling at that time. Where as the professional music video has a bit of a random storyline about a party that happened the night before and is a flashback. There is a wide range of different camera shots and angles in both these music videos, and are also really good quality. There are a lot of close-ups of the main characters faces, when they are acting and singing, and this helps the audience to see the emotions that they are feeling. The mise-en-scene in both these music videos is also one of the really good points that I came across. In the professional video the costumes are really unique and keep the audience interested, and while the locations that they are in isn't many, only a big house and garden with a bonfire, it is still really interesting and effective. In the amateur video, even though the costumes are just everyday normal clothes, there are many locations, such as the forest, a field with lots of flowers in, a cemetery, and a house. This lighting is also really effective, as it reflects the feeling of the little girl fondly remember her father, with shades of soft yellow, pinks and gold, like sunset colours, when in the flashback of when her dad is dying, the lighting and colours a very muted and darkish, foreshadowing whats about to happen. The music is sync very well in both the music videos and doesn't look like both the singers are singing the songs exactly when they are supposed to. The editing is on point and really makes the video fit together in all the right places, and nothing ever looks out of place in both the videos. Post by Elise
Our target audience age category is 16-24. We have split this into two so we can analyse the different age category. The avatars above are to represent 20-24 year olds. The stereotypes for 20-something year olds are "inexperienced adults in university, who party and drink a lot, do stupid things, and get into trouble, and they are more concerned with relationships than getting far in life", this is what I found from google this age group. This is the other age group we have chosen for our target audience, 16-20 year olds. These are high school students that are probably just finishing school and moving on to colleges, sixth form or university. The stereotypes of this age group are that they are all "lazy" and "up to no good". Also that they are all addicted to social media and their phones. Both these age groups are in the demographic E column as this is where students are put, and our target audience is mostly aimed at students. Because of the studying, students are more likely to put in their earphones and listen to music, than people who aren't students. From researching, we have found that the people who mostly listen to Halsey are in fact female, so our music video will probably appeal to more girls then it will to boys. This is also why we have chose a 17 year old female actress to perform as the character in our music video. Post by Elise and Fatma
To help us decide who are target audience would be, we decided we were going to gather a wide range of results from different forms of primary research. First we gave a questionnaire to a number of people from the age categories of 16-24, 25-39, and 40+. This questionnaire is more of a generalised questionnaire about types of music videos and whether they like the genre we have chosen, instead of another questionnaire we are going to do specifically about Halsey, and her music/music videos. Questionnaire Results:Post by Elise and Gina
In order to get an idea what what we want to achieve, each of us are going to analyse a music video that was created by past A-level students. I am going to analyse this music video by a past students that I found on YouTube. This was created by a student named Dorothea S Sterian, and she has used the song "Wings" by the Birdy. CameraThe camera work that is presented in this music video is really good, and includes many different shots and angles that make the whole thing look more perfessional and not at all amateur. This is the first shot of the music video. This shows a mid shot of a girl in a dress walking through long grass. the camera is focused on the grass in front, while the girl is slightly blurred out. This is called the depth of field, where the object behind or in front is in focus while everything else is out of focus and slightly blurred. This could be so you have a clear of image of the kind of scenery she's in, and she will be in focus later on. There are also a lot of close-ups of the the character who is lip syncing to the song. This shows the rule of thirds, as the persons face is in the centre of the shot, and this means that the audiences focus is fixed on her and nothing else. She is also looking directly into the camera, almost as if she is looking at the audience. Goodwin said this is used to create a link between the character and audience. There are also lots of close-ups of a little girl, but she is not looking into the camera, she is always gazing in to space where we can't see, giving us the sense that she is thinking deeply. The singer is telling us her story when looking into the camera, whereas the girl is in the story, and it is more like a film, where the characters don't look into the camera. The close-ups also are used to show us the emotions the character is going through. This makes use start to feel for the characters. This is a mid shot of the little girl. As this is at the beginning of the music video, we do not see who the little girl is or who is with her. You can see that in the far background there is a grave stone, and then you can guess that the stone she is standing infant of is also a grave stone, but because this is the start of the video we do not know who has passed away and she is visiting. When the vocals cut in this is the shot that starts. It is an over the shoulder shot, where we can see the back of the little girls head, but also the surrounding in front of her. In the video she is walking down a path through a forest towards a gate. When the shot cuts to show the front of her, there is a person who is out of focus behind her, and this is probably the person who was with her at the graveyard. This is the next shot that is show after she's walked through the gate. This is a wide shot, and this is used to show the audience the whole location. This is also being shown as this is a vital part of the narrative, as this is the location that most of the music video is set in. This is one of the most emotional shots of the music video, as this is supposed to represent the dad dying, but not in a morbid way. It just simply shows a close-up of his arm hanging off the bed. The arm is in focus while the bed behind is unfocused but then it quickly changes so that the whole shot is unfocused, this could be to show that he has passed away. Mise-en-sceneFor this section I will be looking at the mine-en-scene that Dorothea has use din her music video. One of the main elements of mine-en-scene that i noticed in this was the use of lightening and props. This is a good example of how lighting and props were used really well. This is the shot used just before the dad is about to pass away. You can notice how the lighting is quite dark, and this is used to foreshadow what is about to happen. Also the door is half closed, and the dad looks up and sees his daughter and fully closes the door. The door closing was a good way to signify his life ending, as when the door next opens it is to show the shot of his arm hanging off the bed, when he has passed away. There are a total of around four locations in this music video. The field the singer is in, the cemetery, the little girls house, and the forest. Most of the locations are brightly lit in sort of sunset colours, apart from the house, where all the shot are dimly lit. This is to show that the house holds bad memories as it is where her dad died, and the brightly lit places are where the good memories are of her father. A forest would usually have connotations of being creepy and disturbing, but when watching this music video, none of these connotations come to mind, and simply becomes instead a place of fond memories and happiness. This appeals to the audience as the Dorothea has created a countertype where the forest is a nice place to be. The field that the singer is in is a beautiful place with lots of flowers, and this makes the audience feel that this is a place of remembrance for her father. This glass jars appears multiple times in the video. It first appears when the little girls digs it up, and starts reading the letter that is inside. In the flashbacks that her shown, it turns out to be a letter from her dad that he had put in the jar and buried it with her earlier on before he died, and she only reads it after he has died. SoundWhen watching the music video can you easily believe that the girl is actually singing the song as the lyrics and her miming them are so in sync. There is also a relation between the music and the visuals, for example when the lyrics say "They made me think of you", the little girl looks up into the sky thoughtfully, like she is remembering someone. EditingThe editing is extremely good in this music video, as everything fits in and nothing looks out of place, or out of time. The first bit of editing at the beginning of the music video, when the music starts is really effective and automatically draws the audience's attention. It is a series of shots that are sped up, and then rewinded, and then played forwards again, while its all editing to fit really well together with he beat the music's intro. The shots will also change on a beat, and this shows a really good skill of editing. She has obviously used non-linear/fragmented editing, as she has used clips from different days but not all in order, as the video changes from present day to flashbacks and back to present day again. When the music amplifies at the bridge of the song, and just after the father has passed away, all the previous images of the little girl flash quickly across the screen, and this is to show the audience exactly what has happened without all the cutting to the singer and the little girl in the present day. This also works with the beat of the song, because as the music amplifies so does the images, and it is very effective. Post by Elise
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May 2017
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