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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To make a good and effective magazine advert for our chosen song's album to promote it we made a practice magazine advert so that we could decide on what we would like to really have for the real thing. This was more of a trial and error thing which enabled us to test our creativity and learn how not to over complicate things for the real thing. We also did research on other magazine adverts for albums and did some analysis' of Digipaks which gave us an idea of what is expected to be visually appealing for someone who would be purchasing an album in general. We needed to make sure that we had an idea that would make people look into at it and want to buy it. I used Photoshop to make this practice magazine advert which is what we will use to make our real one. It made it easier for me to add the pastel background and change the opacity of the picture in the middle by using this piece of software. We wanted to keep the information simple and just put the name of the singer and album at the top in a larger font then underneath the picture we picked there is the description of this being a debut album and some of the songs. I added an over lay of colour over the writing to make it pop and I lined it to the centre. In the bottom left corner I put a parental advisory as there are some songs on this album which are not suitable for all. In the bottom right corner there are some websites for the singer and record label. Post by Katja
In order to have a clear understanding of what elements of mise-en-scene we have used in our music video have conformed to the typical styles used in our song genre we will be going over what we have chosen to do. There are many things we have taken into consideration regarding our music video, from lighting to costume. Lighting and Colour Scheme:For our music video, we will be using dark lighting for the majority as it will coincide with our song choice. Darkness also connotes death which will also be an apparent theme in our music video. From looking at our blog research on music videos anyone could tell that most artists of the alternative genre, in general, use dark lighting. It will be easier for us to show the contrast between good and evil/ life and death by using dark and bright lighting. By doing this it will help us create a clear narrative whilst editing. For our colour scheme we will be using pastel pinks, purples and blues as it goes with the artist's album colours and we have noticed that another artist in this genre use this sort of colour scheme. The pink colours are quite feminine but the other pastel shades have that hazy dream like feel which is what we want to present. The haziness of the colours will not only go with the theme of the artist’s album, but also show that we are trying to present faded memories. The femininity is purely because this music video revolves around women. Costume:There will be two different costumes for our main actress, Chloe, as we want to bridge the difference in how she is throughout the video. When the video shows that she is in her happy memories, she will be wearing a white shirt and jeans. White has connotations of peace and purity which is what we will be trying to show. In the other half of the video where she is her haunted self, she will be wearing a black shirt to signify death and pain. Black and white are binary opposites which will be good elements to incorporate into our music video. A lot of alternative music videos use the typical white shirt and black jeans look as this sort of outfit tends to represent what a typical teen would wear in a simplistic manner. For one of the scenes in our music video there will be a change in costume as they will be partying and reflecting teenage youth. They will be wearing heels and dark clothing. From researching music videos of our we can tell that many use teenagers and the themes of the video tend to reflect teenage rebellion as well as the joy of being a teen. We all felt more drawn to using this kind of concept in our music video. Location:In our blog we have done a location report as to where we will be shooting our video. We chose to use forests as it is very enigmatic as well as interesting to viewers as many think of it as the unknown because of what could be buried or done there. Streets are typically used in music videos for dark themes as well young clubbing scenes- we choose this as we want to evoke both ideas. Homes are something that is associated with peace and well being and we wanted to use this surrounding in our scenes of happiness as well as sadness to juxtapose what is going on. Alcohol is typically associated with teenage youth and will be of vital importance to our music video as it gives the answer to our progressing enigma. Alcohol is used in many artist's videos such as our artist's video- Halsey. Heart necklaces are seen to be what often is used to bridge a friendship and that is what we intend to do in our video. This prop will not be as relevant but just a small touch that we thought would be original to our genre. We will be using a camera and some printed photos as props to show how close the friendship in the video was. Post by Katja
In order to have an understanding of what our narrative is for our music video we sat down and wrote out a narrative. After this I drew up a story board and briefly wrote up in pencil what was what.
Post by Katja
Performance: Janet Jackson- Dammn BabyPerformance music videos are typically centred around the artist. At the start of music video production, most music videos were performance based. Not many are purely performance anymore as more artist like to have some sort of narrative. For example, our group would preferably like to have narrative mixed with performance. The genre 'Rock' tends to mainly use performance now and often commonly used in pop, however artist such as Janet Jackson used it in her music video for 'Dammn Baby'. Performance music videos mainly contain:
Here is a shot of Janet actually performing the dance to her song whilst lip syncing which gives a audience an insight to what her stages are like. Whilst she performing you can see she is on a random white set which is also seen in some typical performance music videos. In the music video she is actually wearing a costume that reflects her image and what she tends to wear in music videos. She tends to wear the black leather outfits which is what she also wears in her song with Michael Jackson 'Scream'. In performance music videos the artist's personality is what is brought out typically by the clothing as it is their professional image. There are some mid to close up shots of her singing the song which is what is typically found in performance videos in order to get up close and personal with the artist. It also allows the use of the notion of gaze which attracts people in video. Narrative: Carrie Underwood- Before He CheatsNarrative music videos tend to tell a story which coincide with the lyrics, for example: boy/girl cheats on partner. Now, in our generation, a lot of artist tend to make narrative music videos to get the meaning of their lyrics across to the audience. Artists such as Carrie Underwood used a narrative music video to show that she caught her boyfriend cheating on her with another woman in her music video 'Before He Cheats'. Narrative music videos mainly contain:
Concept: Thirty Seconds To Mars- Up In The AirConcept music videos tend to be based around an idea the artist has bad even though it may not seem like it has any relation to the lyrics. Concept videos are usually unusual to the eye.They tend to keep the audience entertained when executed well. There are often items involved of symbolic meaning and use of montages. The shots can be fast paced and involve lighting that sets the mood of the music video. The lyrics can also be contradicted by the shots and objects used to keep things interesting. In the music video 'Up In The Air' by Thirty Seconds to Mars there is the use of random objects with the slight mix of them performing singular as if they wont work together. It is clear that this was a concept video and that the random shots were used to show the artists thoughts are literally up in the air. Concept music videos mainly contain:
What type of video would ours fit under?After researching the different types of videos, as a group we feel that we are all drawn to the idea of having a narrative as well as performance as we want to tell out story as well as have the singer singing the song for effect. We would also like to reflect our artist lyrics in a story which is what is used in a narrative by many artists in the industry. Post by Katja
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
New Americana is a song by Halsey which is about a new generation that is rebelling in society b being themselves. The music video shows a dystopian universe with the artist. There are quite a few editing techniques used in this such as:
Straight away in the introduction of the music video there has been some form of editing which is quite advanced in a simplistic way. The filming has been either filmed on an old style camcorder as the film is quite choppy and has the play sign in the top left hand corner. The reason that it seems like this effect has been edited in is because the filters don't seem natural and seem more like they have been edited in whilst there is a drone shot which is more advanced. After this it cuts to black but keeps that choppy and static effect. The music hasn't cut in yet so these shot have added a sense of enigma. At this stage of the video the audience would expect the titles to pop up, however they don't. The scene jump cuts to a wide-shot of a girl lying on the floor. The titles fade in very quickly so you have to slow the video down to even see all of it. It relates to the way the matrix films edit their opening credits in their films. The colours even change which stand out against the dull filters in the video. The dull filters create that sense of depression. The name of the artist comes up in pink and stands out against the film. This already shows the fact that the artist is rebelling against the society shown in this video. Again, the video jump cuts to a shot of a jungle with blue filters edited in and the titles edited over in a yellow colour. This again links to the idea of a rebellion and foreshadowing. The music is edited in at this stage and it shows the artist in a upper mid shot of her that pans around her. Post by Katja
In order to gain an understanding of what we would need to execute in our music video in order to make our video to seem less of an amateur standard and more professional we will need to analyse two videos of professional and the other being amateur. I will be doing an analysis of a professional video and an amateur video by Kendrick Lamar - 'Swimming Pools' Professional:Premise of the video: The video goes over artist's troubles with alcohol, loss of family members as well as partying. The video goes from him drowning in mid air to bottles of drink smashing on the floor. The video shows shots of him alone with liquor as well as old family photos. The theme of this video is that alcohol is a killer and that it can kill at the same time as emotionally make you feel better. The music video opens to a close-up shot zooming out to a long shot of the artist floating in mid air, surrounded by darkness. It's as if he's drowning in the pressure of keeping things together. He's wearing a red suit which stands out to the viewer as the colour red is an alarming colour and connotes danger. This could suggest that he is the danger or drowning in some form of danger. The suit seems rather professional and the audience can already see that this is a professional video from the depth of field in the camera when it is close up on him. Even the use of effects when he is floating has been executed well which shows that this is no amateur music video. The use of the binary opposites red and black makes the artist the focal point of the video and that he will be the main point of the video. After he is shown to be drowning there is a mid-shot of a girl wearing some revealing clothing whilst dancing. She doesn't have a lot of relevance to this, however it could suggest that sex and alcohol are his demons as she is presented in a sexual manner. She's also presented in a slight grey scale filter which presents her in more of a darker and negative tone. The quality and idea of using this shot comes across as slightly more amateur than the shot which was presented prior. The editing isn't as advanced in this shot either. A mid-shot, which comes across as a point of view shot, shows the artist sat alone on a chair with a bottle of liquor on the floor. There are dark brown tones in the scene and the steadiness of the camera shows that this has been filmed professionally. However, the jump cut to the old photograph is not done very smoothly and the wide shot is unsteady. The quality of the shot, also, doesn't seem that good. The introduction of what is trying to be presented in this music has been done well as we are already able to tell that this song about how he is battling not repeating the cycle of his grandfather dying of alcoholism. The old photo has been placed with a bottle of alcohol next to it. It shows that there is a large relevance in the idea of alcohol. The tones and filtering changes when it gets to the shot of the artist walking in a bathroom. The change of filtering shows the professional factor in this music video. There is a shot that shows the artist against a wall whilst rapping and looking off into the distance. The shot zooms into him but still shows the old photo with the bottle of alcohol showing the clear narrative in this. The room he's in doesn't seem very professional but his outfit and props do seem quite well made out. There is also a shot of people partying in a club with a red light surrounding them. The lighting could either suggest the passion felt in the club as red does represent passion but also danger. Towards the end of the video there's a shot craning around the artist who is surrounded by a ring of light. He seems a lot happier whilst he is being filmed. It seems like he's come out of his depression and has found some form of clarity. The use of the props present the professional factor to this. Amateur work:This is the same song by the same artist but this music video has been done by some amateur past students. I have done a full in depth analysis of micro-elements in a prior post for this music video. Comparison of shots: I will be doing some comparison shots from both music videos to see which ones were more professional. On the left, the professional music video opens to titles whereas the amateur one opens to a shot of a young man looking into a mirror. The opening titles are a lot more professional as its an official introduction to the song.
The quality of both music videos are good and the standard of editing is very good. Even though the student's work would have had less money when it came to the actual production , the quality of editing and ideas when it came to the narrative was very good. The camera quality isn't as good but it still is of a professional standard. Post by Katja
What is a target audience? A target audience is a certain group of people that are aimed at in the process of what is produced In order to gain an understanding of what target audience we will be going towards we will be aiming to present our music video to we will doing different forms of research such as a Questionnaire and Video interview. We will be going over different social groups as well as brief demographics of what our target audience of age 16-24 will want in general and what we should know that they find typically/visually appealing. We will be pairing up our brief evaluations with avatars so that we have more of an understanding as to what we’re really looking at. We have chosen our target audience to be age 16-24 which we can all relate with as we are all of age 17-18. How we chose our target audience:
What are demographics? Statistics relating to the percentage of something and certain groups within it. There are certain classifications that are used in order to find a target audience. Social classification is used in choosing an audience and by researching what we are drawn to most. Post by Katja
In order to understand what we will need to execute well in our music video we all will be doing research and analysing past students music videos. The music video i will be analysing is 'Swimming Pools' by 'Kendrick Lamar' and i will be doing a brief analysis then going over the micro-elements: Camera, Mise-en-scene, Sound and Editing. The music video follows a young man who walks around the city whilst smoking and drinking as if he is physically telling the story of the lyrics presented. This young man is presented as the singer as well as the actor who is battling his demons whilst walking around. The music video is in black and white which adds to the theme of battling demons.
Brief analysis and Sound:The song is called 'Swimming Pools (Drank)' which is a Hip Hop track by 'Kendrick Lamar'. The song goes over the artists social life, family, alcoholism and the peer pressure which accompanies it amongst his friends. He goes over his grandfathers death due to alcohol and why he begun to drink himself. The music video which was made by these students reflects this meaning of the song and shows how drinking makes you feel more alive at the same time as killing you. The video has some clever edit which are made to go in sync with the beat of the song. Mise-en-scene: |
Post by Katja |
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