The End.

I have learnt so much more about editing and film-making since making the Preliminary task. There have been many difficulties which I didn't think would cause such a problem, including organizing enough actors, and technical problems.
As the editor, I have been in charge of the majority of the post-production areas in the music video. One of the most important parts to think about was the lip syncing, which proved to be more difficult than I initially thought. When we were filming on location, we played the track and had our actor singing along to it, but when it came to editing the individual clip in time

with the song on Premier Pro, it was harder to find the exact point to match the lyrics with what our actor was singing, because these clips had to be matched in time to the song. This taught me to be more precise, and even though getting the lip syncing right to one part of the song took a long time, it made the final product look more professional. However, there were also parts where getting the lip syncing on point was more difficult, and it was almost impossible to get the clip in time with the music. This was a let down, but I still think that in the final product, these aspects don't affect it as a whole.

Editing the Dream Scene- using effects on Premier Pro

Time management and organisation has been an integral part of this process. We did this by making a filming schedule for the days we wanted to film, and then I made a Facebook page to tell our extras when and where they would be needed. This helped me stay on track with what we had filmed, and what still needed to be done. Although I did these things to keep myself organised, getting enough people as extras to help us film became one of the most difficult parts of the whole process, as there were days when no one turned up. The main thing I learnt from this is that people can be unreliable, and that when in these situations, you have to use your initiative rather than wasting more time.

My initial storyboard has changed dramatically in comparison to the final video. I realized this when editing the clips together, as we had too much footage. This came as a bit of a shock after all the trouble to get everyone available to film. I therefore had to cut out a number of clips and be ruthless in doing this, because otherwise it wouldn't fit. I also had to make sure the narrative still made sense, so I had to cut out enough clips for it to be in time with the music, but to make sure the story was still there, and that it made sense. We were able to understand this from audience feedback, who said that they understood what was going on.

Our initial storyboard- one of the opening scenes

I have used this particular storyboard frame as an example of how our music video changed. It was this scene that had too many clips in the final video, so the way I edited it made the video different to our initial storyboard. This was another thing I learnt, because I hadn't realized how much I may have to stray away from the storyboard- even though this was something I anticipated. I also had to use my creativity, because during the post-production, I didn't have something to go off to know in what exact order to put the clips. On a positive note, it allowed me to experiment with the footage we had to see what would make it look as good as possible.
In my AS coursework, I didn't quite comprehend the importance of audience feedback in media studies. However, this year it has been incredibly important as our music video has a strong, yet complicated narrative, so we had to know if it made sense to our audience or not. Since our narrative didn't quite adhere to the typical Indie Rock genre, we needed to see if people liked our idea and if it made sense to them.

-Janet

Evaluation Question 4

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

-Janet

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from audience feedback?

-Janet

Evaluation Question 2

How did you use new media technologies in the 

construction and research, planning and evaluation 

stages?

Construction:

When constructing my music video, I decided to use Adobe Premier Pro, rather than iMovie, of which I was more familiar with, because I felt that iMovie was a lot simpler, and it wouldn't allow me to experiment with other post-production effects and transitions. Although I hadn't used Premier Pro before, I was able to practice editing with it for the preliminary task of creating a 1 minute copy of an already existing music video. This gave me the confidence to use this software when editing my clips together. These clips were filmed on my Sony HD AVCHD camcorder, as it meant that we didn't have to borrow equipment from school, or have to wait for other people to finish using it, so we could start filming promptly. 


For my ancillary texts, I manipulated the initial images using Adobe Photoshop, as this is a programme I am already familiar with after using it last year for my AS foundation portfolio last year. The construction of the magazine was similar to that of the creation of my music magazine, and I could transfer the skills I learnt to make a poster.

The second main piece of equipment was a tripod, which allowed us to film panning shots very smoothly, as well as the shots filmed in the middle of the music video, with the shot reverse shot of the protagonist and the girl in the red dress. 

Research:

The main way I researched for this project was through Web 2.0, which gave me easy access to websites showing other professionally made music videos. By watching countless music videos on YouTube, I was able to note the genres and the specific codes and conventions found within them. I was able to use Andrew Goodwin's theory to spot the narrative, use of star image, and editing on the thought beats, to be able to understand how these things can differ between each genre. For example, rock music is generally of a faster tempo, therefore the thought beats will be much quicker than that of a slow pop song. 

The video that gave me the most inspiration, narrative-wise, was "Rain" by Mika:

Even though it's a pop song, I was able to see how to apply Andrew Goodwin's theory. The setting for this music video and my music video are similar because they are both completely filmed outdoors, but the main difference here is that "Rain" is filmed at night. Initially, I wanted the dream sequence to be filmed at night, but we came to the conclusion that it would be too difficult to film it clearly, even with the use of lighting. This research was a vital part for us to learn and understand what we could or couldn't do, because of our limited time and budget. However, we were able to take ideas from this professionally made video, and place them into ours.

After researching genres and other music videos through YouTube, I then utilized Web 2.0 to get some audience feedback. Surveymonkey was easy to create a quick survey, asking my audience what sort of music they listen to, and how they use the internet to listen to music. I asked whether they watched many music videos on YouTube, to which the majority said either "Yes" or "sometimes", which allowed me to see where would be the best place to advertise my final product. Everyone used Facebook, which means I can put my final music video on both YouTube and Facebook, so I know that my primary audience will definitely be able to watch it. 

Planning and Evaluation:

The majority of my planning has been uploaded onto this blog through many different visually appealing ways such as powerpoints on Slideshare and Prezi, and images on Photobucket. These have been useful to the planning process for me, because my information is much more organized in this form. It is through the easy use of Web 2.0 that I have been able to access these websites to plan not only this project, but also my project during my AS media studies coursework. Web 2.0 has been incredibly beneficial to me throughout my media journey, and has been vital during the research, planning and construction phases of this particular project, and these techniques have been applied in my evaluation as well.

-Janet

Evaluation Question 1

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

What are forms and conventions?

In Andrew Goodwin's theory, the forms (or codes) and conventions of a music video are used for different reasons which include:

• Star Image- you can see who the band/singer is
• Narrative and performance- the storyline that goes with the music video which will either amplify or illustrate the lyrics
• Thought beats- cutting to the beat of the music so depending on the genre, it will either be quite quick or quite slow
• Technical aspects of music video- they hold the music video together through camera angles, movement, mise-en-scene, and editing.

A mind map on how I used, developed and challenged the codes and conventions using bubbl.us...

"It's Time" by Imagine Dragons...

-Janet

Institutions

These are my final products pictured next to each other. I have laid it out like this so it is easier to see how they all link together, and to show that they belong to the same artist and are part of the same product. When looking my final products, I have been thinking about which Institutions may publish or host the video, digipak and poster. As seen in the ancillary products, I would want them to be produced by the same institutions as Imagine Dragons. This is because I was following the conventions by using a production company who produced music within my genre.

The music video is more simple, as I have used YouTube as a platform to upload it. As YouTube is free and easy to access, it is a well-used option for many musicians and artists to share their work to a mass or niche audience. Furthermore, TV channels such as MTV often have music channels, in which the audience can watch popular music videos on their TV. With different genres, it means that channels like MTV can have a number of different sub-channels, in which they can show specific music videos for different genres. An example of this is MTV Rocks. 

For my ancillary tasks, I would probably approach retailers such as HMV to sell the digipak, as the genre I have chosen is becoming increasingly popular, and HMV sells a variety of different genres in both its stores and online. From my research in the AS course into the music magazine industry, I would go to places such as HMV, to sell the magazine to music lovers, but I would also go to Supermarkets, including Sainsbury's, as I know they sell magazines of all types. This would be a good way for my artist to get recognition, because it means that a variety of different people would be able to have access to the magazine with my poster in it. 

In terms of a magazine who would publish my poster, and advertise the digipak, I would approach those in the rock genre, including Kerrang!, Mojo, or Q Magazine. Out of the three, I think my poster would suit the style of Kerrang! and Mojo the most, so I think these would be the two magazines at the top of my list. Mojo is for a variety of genres, as many of the front covers range from artists such as David Bowie, to the Arctic Monkeys, whereas Kerrang! is mainly just for the rock genre. However, Kerrang! is "the world's biggest weekly selling rock magazine", so it seems to make sense to sell it to them, as it would therefore mean advertising the poster and digipak to a bigger audience.

Overall, I am really pleased with the outcome of all three of my products, and looking back through my posts, I can see how much progress I have made. Even comparing my preliminary task to my final product shows how my editing skills have developed in this time, and I can now call myself a media consumer, and a media producer. 


-Janet

Primary & Secondary Audience Feedback

I showed my music video to my mum for some secondary audience feedback, as she isn't in my target audience age range. I felt this would be important to get a different point of view on my music video and to see what people of different age groups thought of it. This was a good way to see a different outlook on my final music video, but I understand that this opinion may be biased, as I interviewed someone in my close family. 



Below I have uploaded a video of our audience watching the video, with their reactions to see what they liked and disliked. This was a really good way for us to see what their expectations were, and how they may have been subverted throughout the narratve of our music video. Even though we filmed females from our target audience, it was equally as important to have some feedback, as the rock genre tends to be male dominated. By filming girls our age, we were able to see that they also have an interest in this genre, and it shows that we have followed our initial goal by not stereotyping who our music video was for. 



-Janet