Commentary

Commentary Planning

Ideas:

• We plan to use screen within a screen for our commentary. This will enable us to communicate to the audience the specific conventions of our music video to help them relate more. 

•  We will have the relavant clips that we are talking about as the main picture in the background and then footage of us answering the questions in the corner of the screen. Using our own footage of ourselves will make it more personal as we will be directly addressing our answers to the audience as well as showing our product.

Script

Ada: 1. In what ways does your media product use , develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Text with Voice Over)

Charlotte:  The camera work we used had direct address which was effective because like other pop videos it made a connection with the audience. In our music video this helped portray the emotion to make the audience feel more emotionally connected to our artist and understand how the artist felt. We also framed the artist all the way through our music video with a range of shots which mainly included close ups which is another convention that we used and developed through our music video. The emotion that the lyrics portrayed was definitely shown across our music video by the way that our artist performed.  In parts of our music video we had direct scenes which did exactly what the lyrics said, for example "I tried crossing out your words", for these lyrics we had our artist ripping up a piece of paper that said "I'm Sorry".

Lucy: Our music video mostly follows Goodwin's Analysis so we see that it uses the conventions of a real music video, we used the stereotypical performance you would expect to see in this sort of video, the stereotypical genre characteristics and also the narrative clips telling parts of the story so we see we've also shown a relationship between the music and visuals.

Jade: While editing we have made sure to cut the shots on the beat of the song as we realised pop music is intended to encourage dancing. We have made sure the editing clearly shows a link between the lyrics and the visuals to help show off the typical relationship portrayed in pop videos. An example of this would be where we have cut back to past experiences of the couple, walking in the park and the scene where they are arguing. We have also used shot transitions between some shots where we thought it was needed. We choose to use more of a noticeable form of editing at the end of the video, where there is the overlays of clips all present on screen at the same time which works effectively to bring the clips to a fade and clearly show the end of the video on a more professional level.

Ada: For the mise en scene we filmed the artist's performance repeatedly in different outfits so we could cut between them, adding a further dimension to our video, this helps to create the feeling of movement and keeps our video from looking like one long continuous shot.  We used some props in our video, for example a mobile phone, we did this to add a realistic touch to the characters, which lets the audience identify better with the artist. We also used props such as a cardboard box when the male character was leaving to add some realism to the scene.

Lucy: 2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?


Jade: Our main product would not be successful without the backing of a digipack and magazine poster as this is what attracts the consumer. To do this we made sure we chose an appropriate name for the album which sounded professional to the way we wanted to portray our artist. We choose to use the colours pink and black as these worked complementary with each other and also seemed to fit well with the track names we used, which portray themes of love, heartbreak and upbeat dance songs. I believe we have created appropriate imagery to conform with our music video and think we have shown realistic qualities.


Charlotte: The shots throughout our main product and ancillary texts were consistent.   We used close ups and direct address in our music video and to fit with our pop genre. This helped to engage and create a connection to our audience. For our digipack we also framed our artist by using a close up which works well along side our music video as it not only keeps a common theme but again connects with the audience and fits in with the conventions of the genre. For our magazine poster we thought it would be more appropriate to use a similar picture but of the whole of the artist rather than just a close up. This worked effectively alongside the other products because it was more of a casual, fun side to our artist which contrasts well with our other products and shows that our artist can be versatile.


Ada: Our product fits well with the ancillary products we created to distribute with it, the digipack cover is influenced by our music video but not directly linked as this is not the title track of the album and we wanted the album to be more reflective of the artist than the song. Our magazine advert ties in well with our digipack and when presented together they look as if they are are meant to be a set.


Lucy: As a package they are effective due to the fact they work together and successfully show what we wanted, which is a promotion and video. The video turned out better than we could hope and we have successfully promoted with our digipack and magazine cover and the fact both show the stereotypical conventions e.g the picture of the artist on the digipack and magazine cover is something you would tend to see on albums and magazines for artists like Lady GaGa and also the mostly performance based video showing close ups of the artist, means when looking at the digipack cover you can be reminded of the close up of the artist in the video.


Charlotte: 3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?



Lucy: Audience feedback has showed us that we made quite a successful video, following most stereotypical conventions you would find in a professional video of our pop genre.

Charlotte: The feedback that we got through our project was constructive and helped us develop on our product. We took everything that was mentioned into consideration and I think that this helped improve our music video as it was "outside" help. This therefore was effective because it was from an audience's point of view and it is the audience attention who we aimed to capture so their opinion was important throughout.

Jade: The feedback we received for our rough cut suggested we should add more cuts of various shots of the artist and also add more close ups to show breaks from other shots. As we took this on board we think we have made a great improvement from our rough cut to our final video. We as well recieved comments that we have framed the artist well to maintain the audiences attention and they commented on our strong performance from the artist. We learnt that one of our strong points was our editing and the way we have cut clips on the beat as well as using shot transitions where appropirate. Although we have reveieved many good comments we also got some feedback that would help make our video even better such as adding a filter on some shots, for example the shot which we filmed in the green room, as this shot doesn't fit as well as we would have liked.
 
Ada: The feedback we recived allowed us to look at our work from a fresh viewpoint and highlighted areas that we could improve aswell as identifing our strengths witch we could play to, the feedback indicated that we should include more cuts to keep our video from stagnating and looking asif one continuos shot, we were also told that filters were needed to be added to our video to make it look more clean cut and proffesionaly shot.



Jade: 4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Ada: During the course of our project we have used a varity of different technoligies to create our final products, the video was created with the use of HD camcorders, and a DVW (Digital Video Workstation) in our case Final Cut Pro on the Apple Mac. The other half of our final product, the Ancillary project, was shot with a still camera and then edited in Photoshop CS3 a high end proffesional photo editing package. we also used the still camera to take photos of some of our planning and used these images in our group blog on blogger.com.


Charlotte: The whole way through our project we have constantly used blogger to blog our thoughts, ideas, plans, research and now evaluation. The blogs have helped because they are always there to look back on with all our ideas. In our planning and research ideas we used Google to gain the information that we needed. For the music video its self we use HD Camcorders to film our footage and then Final Cut to edit our music video together. The HD cameras were effective because it made our footage look more professional. For our ancillary tasks we used Photoshop to produce our digipak and poster.

Lucy: Nearly every aspect of this project has enabled us to use some form of technology, Blogger gave us the opportunity to get our idea's, research, planning and evalutions out in the open and extend upon them whenever we wished and I found it very beneficial to the project through all the stages due to the fact we all have access to the same thing wherever we may be. Further research was also done via Youtube and Google as the internet is now possibly one of the most informative resources we have. We found relevant artist's video's and this helped us to see stereotypically what we should include within ours.  In regards to our music video, editing and filming was made easier with the use of the HD camera, giving us better quality footage to work with in the construction stage and also the use of Final Cut, a very good editing program which after a while we got the hang of and it was quite easy to work with.

Jade: From the very beginning we used blogger to view last years media groups work so we knew what the coursework entailed. We then progressed in our reserach by using Youtube to view professional music videos, which allowed us to analyse them using Goodwin's analysis and help us gain a better understanding of the characteristics we would need to include. It is clear our video would not be as successful without the help of Final Cut express as this is what we used to put our finished video together and construct our own creative work with professional influences being present.

Evaluation Questions

Our product fits into the pop-music category, which has a large well defined base of common charecteristics and conventions, we had to decide weaather to convene to these forms and conventions or challenge them, we decided as the song is highly mainstream, that we should stick closly to the norm and not make anything to experimental. we wanted our video to look as close to the videos that are seen everyday playing on music channels as our artist is embeded deep within that target market.

• camera work 

We used many close ups of the artists face and medium shots when we were including her dancing this is common throughout pop videos and is prevalent in other videos by our artist. one downside to this is that the video looks fairly static and as if its going nowhere, we tried to combat this by including a storyline including a lover which we cut back to repeatedly during the performance, this was supposed to create two linear attractions keeping the audience engaged, by not letting them watch the same shot for to long.

• mise en scene 

We filmed the artist's performance repeatedly in different outfits so we could cut between them, adding a further dimension to our video, this helps to create the feeling of movement and keeps our video from looking like one long continuous shot.  We used some props in our  video for example a mobile phone, we did this to add a human touch to the characters,which lets the audience identify better with the artist. We also used props such as a cardboard box when the male character was leaving to add some realism to the scene.

• editing

Our shots are all centered on the artists face framing her, this centralises her to the video aswell as keeping all the attention focused on her, this was achived in part through our camerawork, though was mostly done in the editing processby croping the video around our artist and moving her to the center of the shot.

• sound 

the sound in our video was the track being played, we chose to include no other sounds or sound effects, as we felt it would make our project sound and feel less professional,

2

Our product fits well with the ancillary products we created to distribute with it, the digipack cover is influnced by our music video but not directly as this is not the title track of the album and we wanted the album to be more reflective of the artist than the song. Our magazine advert ties in well with our digipack and when presented together they look asif they are are meant to be a set.

Evaluation Questions

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

The genre of our music video is Pop. Throughout our music video we have used several conventions that you would see in real music videos. This was shown throughout:

• Camera Work 

We used direct address which was effective because like other pop videos it made a connection with the audience. In our music video this helped portray the emotion to make the audience feel more emotionally connected to our artist. We also framed the artist all the way through our music video with a range of shots which mainly included close ups which is another convention that we used and developed through our music video.

• Editing

Along side our performances of the artist we also cut to a few scenes which help tell the narrative. We had the artist and the boy she was singing about together, sometimes happy and sometimes arguing and I think this worked well as we still developed on the conventions of the music video as well as making sure that the narrative was shown throughout.

• Sound

The emotion that the lyrics portrayed was definitely shown across our music video by the way that our artist performed. I think that direct address helped portray these emotions because the audience could clearly see how the artist felt. In parts of our music video we had direct scenes which did exactly what the lyrics said, for example "I tried crossing out your words", for these lyrics we had our artist ripping up a piece of paper that said "I'm Sorry". Therefore we used the lyrics and developed them within our music video.

• Mise-en-scene

I think that the locations that we included were amplifying the conventions of the pop genre. We used quite casual, subtle location which I think worked well with the lyrics. As well as this the costume, props etc. were also casual and every day like as we thought that this would fit well.



2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

I think that there is a distinctive theme throughout our media products. The shots throughout our main product and ancillary texts were consistent. We used close ups and direct address in our music video and to fit with our pop genre. This helped to engage and create a connection to our audience. For our digipack we also framed our artist by using a close up which works well along side our music video as it not only keeps a common theme but again connects with the audience and fits in with the conventions of the genre. For our magazine poster we thought it would be more appropriate to use a similar picture but of the whole of the artist rather than just a close up. This worked effectively alongside the other products because it was more of a casual, fun side to our artist which contrasts well with our other products and shows that our artist can be versatile.




3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The feedback that we got through our project was constructive and helped us develop on our product. We took everything that was mentioned into consideration and I think that this helped improve our music video as it was "outside" help. This therefore was effective because it was from an audience's point of view and it is the audience attention who we aimed to capture so their opinion was important throughout.



4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

The whole way through our project we have constantly used blogger to blog our thoughts, ideas, plans, research and now evaluation. The blogs have helped because they are always there to look back on with all our ideas. In our planning and research ideas we used Google to gain the information that we needed. For the music video its self we use HD Camcorders to film our footage and then Final Cut to edit our music video together. The HD cameras were effective because it made our footage look more professional. For our ancillary tasks we used Photoshop to produce our digipak and poster.

Evaluation Questions

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
Our music video mostly follows Goodwins Analysis so we see that it uses the conventions of a real music video, we used the stereotypical performance you would expect to see in this sort of video, the stereotypical genre characteristics and also the narrative clips telling parts of the story so we see we've also shown a relationship between the music and visuals. We included many shots of the artist as we had alot of performance shots with close ups, which is to promote the artist, something seen in many video's. By following Goodwins Analysis we pretty much use the forms and conventions of a real music video, we felt that challenging it wouldn't work

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
As a package they are effective due to the fact they work together and successfully show what we wanted, which is a promotion and video. The video turned out better than we could hope and we have successfully promoted with our digipack and magazine cover and the fact both show the stereotypical conventions e.g the picture of the artist on the digipack and magazine cover is something you would tend to see on albums and magazines for artists like Lady GaGa and also the mostly performance based video showing close ups of the artist, means when looking at the digipack cover you can be reminded of the close up of the artist in the video.


What have you learnt from audience feedback?
 Audience feedback has showed us that we made quite a successful video, following most stereotypical conventions you would find in this sort of video and also Goodwins Analysis


How did you use new media technology in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
Nearly every aspect of this project has enabled us to use some form of technology, Blogger gave us the opportunity to get our idea's, research, planning and evalutions out in the open and extend upon them whenever we wished and I found it very beneficial to the project through all the stages due to the fact we all have access to the same thing wherever we may be. Further research was also done via Youtube and Google as the internet is now possibly one of the most informative resources we have. We found relevant artist's video's and this helped us to see stereotypically what we should include within ours.  In regards to our music video, editing and filming was made easier with the use of the HD camera, giving us better quality footage to work with in the construction stage and also the use of Final Cut, a very good editing program which after a while we got the hang of and it was quite easy to work with.

Evaluation Questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video is considered to be of the pop genre, I believe we have used the typical elements included in professional music videos to create a realistic video that can reflect real media products. For example, we have made sure to frame the artist so direct address to the audience is present, this being the artist miming towards the camera. We have also emphasised this further by including many close up shots of the artists to clearly show the singer is engaged with the audience through obvious eye contact.

Alongside this we have also developed a narrative to be used alongside the performance aspect, which was an element mostly used in real products. As a group we decided that adding clips of the narrative though out the video instead of in a block would work best to create a visual contrast between the narrative and performance and also show clear breaks as one verse ends and a new one begins.

I think that we have successfully used a variety of shot types within our video so we are sure not to keep repeating shots and making the video lack audience appeal. While completing the filming stages we made sure to record enough footage to cover different shot types that included both long, medium and close ups. This is an important element of real media products to help maintain the audiences attention and add further dimensions to the visuals on screen. We then cut the shots on the beat of the song as we realised pop music is intended to encourage dancing or it uses dance-oriented beats or rhythms as well as maintain interest.

While editing we made sure that the lyrics of the song showed a relation with the visuals. An example of this would be where we have cut back to past experiences of the couple, walking in the park and the scene where they are arguing while the lyrics are describing the relationship the couple had.

Furthermore, we have used shot transitions between some shots where we thought it was needed to show a break from past to present time. This showed a more of a subtle but noticeable change from one clip in the narrative to a new scene without a jump being present. We finally choose to use more of a noticeable form of editing at the end of the video, where there is the overlays of clips all present on screen at the same time which works effectively to bring the clips to a fade and clearly show the end of the video which could develop conventions of professional videos usually just end with a fade unlike where he have created a unique summary of all the clips in the video.

Observing the sound in our video, I notice that the music also shows a link with the visuals, so it is prominent that we have used this convention of true music videos. As an example, where the music has more of a faster pace at the chorus we have used more shots with faster cuts on the beats to show an association with the music, this is as well present for when the pace of the song is slower as we have used longer shot durations to conform with the music.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
Our main product would not be successful without the backing of a digipak and magazine poster as this is what attracts the consumer. To do this we made sure we chose an appropriate name for the album which sounded professional to the way we wanted to portray our artist. This was then emphasised by artist pictures, this being a close up of the artist on the front of the album and also a medium shot of the artist on the back of the album which we used again on the poster to show continuity. From research into professional album covers we noticed that this was the typical type of photos used by professional music artists with the same audience we wanted to attract.

We choose to use the colours pink and black as these worked complementary with each other with the pink being feminine and allowing females to relate making it eye catching if it was on sale in a shop. We also chose track names to conform with the name of our song 'Second Time Around' and decided the album would reflect themes of love, heartbreak and upbeat dance songs. As well as making sure we kept the colours the same for the tasks, we made sure to use the same font type and record label picture as this is what is needed to give a professional finish to our work.

Overall, I believe that the combination of the digipak, magazine poster and music video all relate nicely and would look appropriate as a set. The imagery we have imagery we have created reflects themes of our music video which makes it even more believable.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Looking back at our rough cut, the feedback we received suggested that we should add more cuts of various shots of the artist so that the video has more interesting qualities to maintain attention. There was also a comment about adding more close up shots of the artist to show breaks from other shots and show the video is engaging with the audience. As we took this into account, I think we have made a great improvement from our rough cut to our final video.

For our final video we received comments that we have framed the artist well to maintain the audiences attention and they commented on our strong performance from the artist. We learnt that one of our strong points was our editing, especially the way we have cut clips on the beat so the music fits well with the visuals. We also used shot transitions where appropriate and a split screen, which both received positive feedback.

Although we have received many positive comments for our video, we also got some constructive feedback that we could use to improve our video further. These featured comments such as adding a filter on some shots, to complement the lighting effects. The shot that we filmed in the green room could as well be improved as the green wall in the background doesn’t fit as well as we would have liked.

Overall we found that most people agreed that our video shows realistic characteristics of the pop genre and we are pleased that the narrative is something others can relate too.

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research and planning and evaluation stages?

From the beginning of our project we used blogger to view last years media groups blogs so we knew what the coursework entailed. We then progressed in our research stages by producing blog posts with our own research to ensure we had a good idea of what we wanted our video to include and made sure we were prepared when it came to the important part of filming. It is clear that without this planning our video would not have been as successful as it is.

To progress in our research we used Youtube to view professional music videos, which allowed us to analyse them using Goodwin's analysis and help us gain a better understanding of the characteristics we would need to include in our own video. This alongside previous student videos allowed us to make sure our planning was thorough enough to use in further stages of our project.

When it came to filming we used a HD video camera, which gave us excellent shooting qualities. Being able to watch the footage as we shot it was useful as we got to see what was working well and what wasn’t. We made sure to use the camera to its full advantage and shot many shots multiple times to ensure we had the best quality footage to use in our video and enough footage to cover the whole length of the song, which made the construction stages much easier for ourselves.

It is clear our video would not be as successful without the help of Final Cut express as this is what we used to put our finished video together while constructing our own creative work with professional influences. While using Final Cut, I also learnt new skills such as lip-syncing all of our footage to our song. I also learnt how to use split screen, which was an effective element in our video.

Finally, we used Photoshop to create our ancillary tasks. This was a new programme to me and I managed to develop skills, such as cutting around the artists photo and placing it on the digipak and magazine poster. I also found that changing the photo colour to black and white helped to make the products even more realistic. I found the programme gave our products a professional look, which we wouldn’t have been able to achieve without it.