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

 We conformed to media conventions when we used the transitions this is conforming to conventions because other music videos use these transitions The angles and shot types we used is also conforming to media conventions because all music videos use these type of shots and angles such as low, mid angle, high angle and closeup shots. The locations we used is also conforming to conventions because we used iconic London which is also what a lot of other music videos use.

Our media product challenged the conventions of real media products because we didn’t use black and white for the flash back scenes. We also challenged conventions when we had a homeless scene because music videos do not normally show scenes like this but we conformed to conventions with the costumes we used when our model wore an outfit which fit this scene. We challenged conventions when we had a Flash scene at the beginning which was an intro for the music video on 4 music and not many music videos have this intro.

We looked at the forms and conventions by looking at and researching other music videos which helped us to not only see what we needed to include in our video like the breakup scene and the burning of the pictures scene both we felt were mandatory to the music video but also how we could adapt Set Fire To The Rain to make it our own version.

I feel that we have conformed to the forms and conventions in the music video but I also believe that we have challenged them as well by adding scenes which are different to music videos of this scene and with our intro scene to the music video.

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

I used different technologies in all of the stages which are research, development and post production.  In the planning stage I used a scanner so I could put my paper designs onto the computer, the internet was also the main technology i used in the planning stage to research music videos, lyrics, themes, fonts and all other elements to the video. I also used the internet to research images and lyrics. 

 I used several new technologies in the development phase, such as a video recording camera, video editing machine, premiere pro and InDesign. Most of these technologies were new to me so i had to learn how to use them quickly, the hardest one to learn was Premier Pro.

 In the evaluating stage I used a Sony handy cam video recorder to record evaluation pieces and a scanner to put information and drawings on the computer. Also during the evaluating stage the feedback from our peers and teachers was very helpful and the feedback gathered from the open arts evening helped us refine the music video into the final version.

The main technologies I used in all stages was the video camera, video editing machine, premier pro, the internet and Photoshop. The main areas where my skills in using new technologies that were developed the most was handling the camera, using all of the software but most Premier Pro and research using the internet. The technologies that i already had existing knowledge and skills of were Photoshop and Indesign but these developed especially Indesign when i produced my album booklet.

Evaluation Question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have learnt from my audience feedback that my ancillary tasks fit well with my music video. Also I have used good imagery that fit well with the theme of the music video and this portrays in the ancillary tasks. Our audience feedback was vital during production and we asked feedback from fellow students and our teachers who gave us valuable feedback on how we could improve our video.  Also i have learnt that we could have given more emphasis on the breakup scene and as that was a pivotal point in the music video we should have made it a more important element, which would hav emade it moire relatable to the audience.

Please view the video below to view the feedback that i gathered

Evaluation Question 2. How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?

I think the combination of my main task and my ancillary tasks is quite effective because they are consistent, I have used the same logo, image type and colours for my ancillary tasks and I feel that the mood in the ancillary tasks are also portrayed in the music video which is sombre at some points but there is also renewal which is why I used the lighter colours.

With these different moods and the combination of colours, imagery and text I feel that it is quite effective with the message I want to get to the audience whch is renewal. I also feel that the audience can relate to the music video because breakup and heartbreak is common so i felt that this waas a good message to convey to the audience. This is reception theory.

I used several thing continuously throughout my ancillary tasks, these are: the same colours, logo, font, theme and type of image. I felt that these were important points to use continuously because it was important to make it look like they were all part of the same advertisment package. Although I did use some individuality on some of the peices such as on the pull out poster I used an additional font to bring in the audiences attention to the poster and on the magazine advert i used special effects on the logo and image to make it pop out and draw attention to it.

T-shirt Design

For one of the ancillary tasks I decided to design a t-shirt for a concert tour. I used Photoshop, a

template and the Adele logo my group created. Here in the image below you can see there is a front and a back, the Adele logo adds to the consistency of the ancillary tasks.

Acillary task: album final product

Here is my album booklet, it consists of 12 pages including a front and back cover and the songs from the Adele 21 album. I used the same fonts as I did in my other ancillary tasks, I found the album booklet to be quite challenging because of the software I used which was Indesign, I had not used this software much before so the layout was unfamilliar to me. I used the logos from the recording company that records Adele's albums to make it more professional.

Final Video

Here is the finished final version of our music video Adele Set fire to the rain.

CD Album booklet

One of our Ancillary tasks is to produce an album booklet, which has to include the lyrics to our chosen video plus all of the other lyrics to the songs on the album. I have used different images as the background to each of the pages with the lyrics on top of each page. I used Adobe Indesign as my chosen software. I have learnt new skills in Adobe Indesign as to fitting all of the lyrics on to the page. Although i have had quite a big setback as at the beginning i didn't set the right sizes so when i printed the booklet it came out the wrong size so now i will have to go back and fit all of the pages onto the new sizes which will take some time.

This week...

This week during the easter holidays i have been going into school to finish the final edits on the music video and to complete my final ancillary task, which is the CD booklet. During this week I developed my skills in Premiere Pro, learning how to insert transintions into the music video and also being able to competently trim footage into smalller chunks of film and insert it into the video at the currect times so that it syncs with the music.

Open arts and Media evening

On the 20th March we had a sixth form media and arts evening where our videos were shown for the first time to an audience. We gathered feedback of our music video to view please wach the video below.

Magazine Advert Final Product

Here is the final version of my magazine advert. This is significantly developed from my drafts as you can see I have used special effects on the title and on the image and put the message on a sticky note, this is to make it more personal to the audience.

CD Final product

Here is my CD for my album I used the same fonts and sizes that i used in my other ancillary tasks to keep consistency.

Pull out poster final product

Here is my final pull out poster product, i have made many changes from my paper designs, such as the content, images and font. I used a third font, Imapct for the 'album out now' text, this is so it stands out.

Final Shoot

On Thursday 15th March we did the final shoot at my house, unfortunately Dean wasn't able to attend the shoot. We used the camera and the tripod to get different angles such as low shots, mid shots and high angle shots. We had Katharine in different places in the living room such as slouched in the chair in a fetal position and laying down on the couch. These positions were important to the scene as we were doing a sad sombre scene it was of Adele remembering the time she had with her boyfriend. The problems we had were that we had limited room as the living room is quite small so it was hard to manoeuvre the tripod around.

Watch the video below for a look behind the scenes

The breakup scene

On the 14th March me and dean filmed the breakup scene with Katharine, unfortunately Daisy couldn't make the shoot. The location was the woods near our school, this was a good location because it would make it seem in the music video that Adele is isolated and alone. Dean played the part of the boyfriend while i filmed the scene. We did several takes on this scene to film from different positions like the actual breakup where we did an angle reverse angle and a part where Katharine is chasing after dean after he breaks up with her and also her breakdown. We used just a camera for this because of the unsteady ground in the woods it wasn't suitable to use a tripod or dolly but for the shots we wanted the camera was just right.

Please view the video below to have a look behind the scenes.

Home shoot

On the 27th February school was closed because of a staff training day, we decided to take this oprtunity and film one of the scenes for our music video. We decided to shoot this scene at my house because we felt that it suited the mood and the atmosphere. We used several different shots; such as high, low and mid angle shots. The equipment we used was the camera, tripod, dolly and the tracking system which we used to do a backwards tracking shot outside my house. One of the problems we had was trying to assemble the tracking system but we overcame this problem by researching it on the internet.

Drafts and new imagery

After our feedback lesson our teacher told us that we needed to change our imagery, colours and logo for our ancillary tasks. Here are the new versions of the ancillary tasks and the photos that i have taken.

As you can see I have changed the colours and the type of photography to lighter colours and full body shots, I think this is a good combination because it makes the overall layout work and the red and the pale colour works.

Filming

On the 28th of January me and Dean went to film at Bluewater with our model Katharine but unfortunatley Daisy wasn't able to come that day. We used a handheld video camera because where we were filming it was all grass and stones so we were unable to use the dollly or tripod. Even thouhg we had use of limited equpiment we still did a range of different shots such as closeups, long range and with this we had the mobility to film from different angles.

We mostly filmed the narrative for the story of the video which included katharine and Dean (who plays her boyfriend) being together and then Katharine on her own looking back to what she had.

Here is a behind the scenes video

Feedback session

On the 25th January my group had a feedback session with our teacher in class about the video and ancillary tasks. The feedback that our teacher gave us about our ancillary was that we shouldn't use dark colours and head and shoulder shots because this would be too similar to the actual artist and although we should be trying to portray the same mood as Adele we need to our own style for the ancillary tasks, our teacher also said that we need to finalise our drafts.

For the video the feedback was that we needed more iconic shots of London and that we needed more of a narrative so the viewer could follow and know what is happening.

Here are some of the original shots i took.

Here is the first draft of the magazine advert.

This weeks shoot

This week Dean, daisy, myself and our model Katharine went up to London to re-shoot some scenes that needed improving and shoot some new scenes. We wanted to portray the Journey that Adele is taking to recover form her heartbreak so we shot quite a lot of scenes of our model either walking through London our travelling on the underground or on buses. Through this we have included a lot of an iconic London such as the London Underground, buses and other various parts of London.

The equipment we used was a camera, tripod and dolly. We did a range of shots such as long shots, mid shots and closeups. The scenes that we re shot was the scene where Adele was looking back on the time where she was on the streets and she first met her boyfriend.

Ancillary Tasks

Along with our music video we also have to produce media products relating to the music video. This is called our ancillary tasks, we had to choose two products to design and produce. I chose the magazine article advertising the music video and a CD cover.

This week our group started to decide on the font, colours and logo we would use. This was tricky because we had to get the right mood across to the audience, because our music video is very sombre and is about heartbreak we had to choose colours that would suit this, mainly black, grey with a little bit of white. We had already taken the photos for the ancillary tasks so now all we have to do is produce these tasks which we will do over the next few weeks.

We had several different ideas for our logos such as:

This is the final logo that we all decided on

This week...

This week has been a rather busy week for the group. On Tuesday the 1oth January we did some more filming in our second location unfortunately Daisy wasn't able attend the shoot but me and Dean . This location for the music video is supposed to look like a club, so we had to find a location like this that we had access to and so for this we chose our school's drama studio but we had to make it look like a club so we covered the windows and mirrors to make it look dark. We had a single spotlight which would be on Katherine and we were instructed by our teacher to not include the floor in filming but do it from the waist up so it gives the effect of a club.

The equipment we used was a video camera, the dolly and the tripod. We encountered quite a few problems when filming such as we had been given a camera with only a few minutes of battery left so we had to find a charger for it but we couldn't film properly because the charger lead was too short so we had to find an extension lead but then that kept getting in the way when we were filming so Dean had to stand behind me and move the lead out of the way as i was filming. We encountered these problems but we learned how to overcome such problems in the future.

The next day on Wednesday the 11th January we decided to edit the filming we had done the day before, there were a few good shots that we used but it was a group decision that we would need to filming for that location to get more shots that we need.