Evaluation Questions

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

Construction and research:
this stage required a surprisingly large amount of technology to be used because we needed to go o the internet and find possible locations that we could use, finding the location was difficult because we had to not find ones that are suitable for filming but that we could get to with our cast. The process would have taken a lot longer if we hadn't had the internet because anywhere that we where considering using we could look at on google maps and check that we would actually be able to get there. we also hade to use technology in this stage when we where taking the photos for the location scouting and through using our phones we where able to upload them straight to blogger and then when we where back at school we where able arrange them on PowerPoint and plan out each shot in what order we wanted to do them and I think this made our idea flow a lot better and improved the overall result of the music video.

Planning:
The planning stage used less technology than the research stage but still used a it we planned where we where going to go and what we where going to do for locations on PowerPoint and even talking to our cast we used Facebook messenger to make sure that everybody was in the right place at the right time. We also used technology in this stage by making a checklist for what we needed to bring and what our restraints where for the filming we did this on our phones so that we would have them with us when we where filming and to make sure that we fitted in with them as much as we could.

Evaluating:
We used technology in our evaluating stage by uploading our video to YouTube and then sending it to people by email and messenger to get them to give our reviews for our audience feedback. we also used PowerPoint to answer one of the questions. since we split up some of the tasks between our group we also used email to make sure that everyone in the group had what they needed. We also used Facebook messenger and a group chat to help answer the questions and get advice from other people in the group so that the answers we gave where the best that they could be.

2.How effective is the combination of your main product(video) and your ancillary text (CD cover)?

 I made the ablum cover using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, using illustrator to vectorise my drawing for a smooth-cut professional finish.think that the album cover works very well also with eh video and the song because the faceless girl shows the emotionlessness that we have from the girl in the video in the classroom and shows the universe summing up the endless possibilities that we see when she is with the boy in the video.I think the video and the cd cover are very effective for the song the title of the song swell as a lot of the lyrics are about being on another planet and I think that we convey this well with the video because the story plays out that the girl is bored in a lesson and daydreaming about being with this boy and I think that fits well with the story. I also think that it is very effective that we used a girl rather than the convention of a boy as well as not trying to make it physically another planet but interpreting it to be anther place and I think that makes the video a lot deeper and hides meaning into the song. I think that the video itself is effective as well in summing up how the average student feels and shows how the girl our main character wants to be free and enjoy her childhood rather than being bored.

the cd cover also works well with the title of the song because it shows the girl is in a different place. The album cover works well with a particular scene in the video swell ands that is the powder paint scene there is a lot of colour in that scene and they disappear through the pain into the water and i think the girls face on the cd cover shows something similar the thought of disappearing into the colour 

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Perhaps the greatest thing we have learnt from our audience feedback is what sort of things in a music video actually appeal to people. It appeared that not everyone really liked Blink 182 but would still be engaged in the clip if it were entertaining and met their expectations of what a typical media product should be. When exhibiting the final preliminary to the public we immediately gathered some audience feedback. By showing the clip to our entire class we asked some questions after the screening. They said that the lighting effects between the cold, isolated feeling in the classroom in contrast with the warm, soft colours of the love montage was particularly effective. They also said that certain subtleties such as the blink logo, warping effects and transitions made the outcome that little more professional. It is these sort of editing effects that ultimately make the difference from raw footage to the final cut. However, our teacher Mr Cole, said some things could be improved upon such as the use of pull focus and extreme blurring. Whilst producing the clip we did experiment with a little blurring but the camera we used was not able to facilitate such blurring qualities which meant we could only use the "selective focusing and tracking" within editing programs such as premiere pro. We also realized that we could have used music syncing to ensure that the beat of the music actually coincided with the footage. This was something we were unable to do because the song completely varies in beat throughout the song making it almost impossible to match the sequence with the audio. However, it seemed that our audience did not pick up on this very minor fact and still enjoyed the final outcome. In the clip we were also required to include a shot no shorter than 4 seconds as well as one shot that lasts at least 35 seconds. We have achieved the first but the 35 second shot was extremely difficult to incorporate within the clip as it did not really fit with the timings of the song. However we did try and attempt to include a shot that lasts roughly 14 seconds near the beginning of the extract.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluating stage?

Construction and research:
this stage required a surprisingly large amount of technology to be used because we needed to go o the internet and find possible locations that we could use, finding the location was difficult because we had to not find ones that are suitable for filming but that we could get to with our cast. The process would have taken a lot longer if we hadn't had the internet because anywhere that we where considering using we could look at on google maps and check that we would actually be able to get there. we also had to use technology in this stage when we where taking the photos for the location scouting and through using our phones we where able to upload them straight to blogger and then when we where back at school we where able arrange them on PowerPoint and plan out each shot in what order we wanted to do them and I think this made our idea flow a lot better and improved the overall result of the music video.

Planning:
The planning stage used less technology than the research stage but still used a it we planned where we where going to go and what we where going to do for locations on PowerPoint and even talking to our cast we used Facebook messenger to make sure that everybody was in the right place at the right time. We also used technology in this stage by making a checklist for what we needed to bring and what our restraints where for the filming we did this on our phones so that we would have them with us when we where filming and to make sure that we fitted in with them as much as we could.

Evaluating:
We used technology in our evaluating stage by uploading our video to YouTube and then sending it to people by email and messenger to get them to give our reviews for our audience feedback. we also used PowerPoint to answer one of the questions. since we split up some of the tasks between our group we also used email to make sure that everyone in the group had what they needed. We also used Facebook messenger and a group chat to help answer the questions and get advice from other people in the group so that the answers we gave where the best that they could be.

Read More

Final Cut For Preliminary Task

This is a link to the final cut of our preliminary task.

Read More

Final Cast And Roles

The final cast that we have chosen is Zoë and Tom. We didn't audition tom on video as we where planning to use Charlie but at the last minute he decided that he didn't want to do it so we had to audition tom quickly and he was actually the best male audition that we had which turned out to be very fortunate. We have chosen these two because tom had a very good audition and so did Zoë, although we auditioned Zoë for the role with another girl that we where originally considering she was happy to do the part with a boy which was our final idea. The thing that we liked most about the audition these two gave was that they both put in art of commitment and really showed a passion in the way that they answered their lines, even in an audition zoe was playing the part of being in love with Laura the other person we where auditing with her which was perfect for the role. and tom also put a lot of commitment and passion into his performance.

Read More

Shooting Schedule

29th june 2016: This is the first day of our filming mainly because it is a Wednesday. We have the day off for an inset day at the school and we thought this would be a brilliant opportunity to do some filing because we want to do some shots in the city and as I said earlier we won't be able to film at the weekends at it is to busy so we are going to get up early and go up the city to do some of the filming where we won't have lots of people possibly ruining the shots. We are also if we ave time going to do the shots in the forest on the same day as they are also near the city. This will be with our two actors so we need to make sure that they are free not hat day and they we have some way of getting to the locations.

4th July 2016: This is the second day that we are going to film and this is going to be at school filing the shots in the class room we decided to do this on this day because out actor for this scene is free and we will have a few hours free to film which should give out loads of time to film what we need. Another benefit of doing it at school is that we will be able to use other people at the school to be background actors for the scene.

9th July 2016: This is a Saturday and we are going to film the band shots we are using this because the band is busy a lot and this is one for the only days that they are all free and are able to make it for our filming. Another reason we are using this day is because the weather should be good and if we decide to do some shots outside then we don't want it to be raining.

Read More

Final Location Plan

These are the final locations that we decided to use. In the end we decided to use nearly all the locations that we scouted apart from the local park as we felt there would be too many shots of them in a forest setting and not enough urban ones. We have also had an idea to get more shots from around the city even though we haven't scouted them in places such as  the shopping centre or the royal arcade which have some opportunities for some really good shots and getting the actors to do some different things, however mainly it will be then spending time with each other . we thought the locations would be good because they are slightly different than where a couple would go on an date and that again fits in with the song well as they are supposed to be a bit different.

Read More

Casting Auditions

These are the casting auditions for our music video. From this we are going to pick who we would like to have in our video. straight away there were a few people that we know we didn't want to use and a few we would really like to use so it shouldn't be to hard to create a short list. We are also going to split them up although we auditioned them in pairs we are going to mix them up to get the best possible cast.

Read More

Final Plot Ideas

Our final plot idea is nearly the same as the last idea we came up with. The idea is that a girl is in a classroom falling asleep which then cuts to her with a boy basically just spending tie together walking about sitting together. We re going to cut in shots of a band playing the song as well. one of the main shots in the video is of the couple jumping into a river through powder paint. We wanted to use this because it symbolises the rebellious attitude of the song. the end of the song we are going to have the girl waking up in the class room but its empty and the whole video just happened in her head.

This song fits in well with our conditions which where one shot of 30 seconds and no shot longer that 4 seconds. The song has a long introduction of 42 seconds which provides us with an brilliant opportunity to fit in the long 30 second shot and the rest of the song is quite fast paced which will let us have short shots to fit in with the 4 second condition. The main stimulus that we had was the song itself the lyrics are quite clear and easy to understand which provided us with an idea to work off that idea being somewhere else on another planet.

Read More

Lyrics of the song

"Another Girl, Another Planet"

 

[Blink-182]

I Always flirt with death
I could kill but I don't care about it
I can face your threats
Stand up tall and scream and shout about it

I think I'm on another world with you
I'm on another planet with you

You always get under my skin
I don't find it irritating
You always play to win
I don't need rehabilitating

Another girl, another planet
Another girl, another planet

Space travel's in my blood
And there ain't nothing I can do about it
Long journeys wear me out but
Oh god, you know we won't live without it

Another girl is loving you now
Another planet forever holding you down
Another planet

The tempo of the song as with most of the songs in the pop Punk genre is quite fast, upbeat and energetic. This dramatically affects how we plan to do our video because it has to fit in with the song. Because of this the requirement that we got that "no shot should be longer than 4 seconds" is actually quite beneficial and easy to accomplish. It is worth noting here that this condition did influence our song choice greatly. By having quick shots we are able to create the energetic feel of the song in the video and this is so important because  if the video is very slow and the song fast, then it wouldn't look right to watch and wouldn't look very good at all.The lyrics of the song also have a massive impact on the video because we want to have a good narrative so we need to plan a video that fits in with the lyrics of the song. The main part of the song is Another girl another planet as with the song title and so we need to plan the video to incorporate it some how we are planning to have an influence of some how the girl being in a different place to out main character suggesting the other planet. The genre of the song is pop/rock punk, with this normally the videos for these types of songs fit in with the punk type culture, This affects how the people in videos dress act and what they are doing and so this would influence how we plan the mise en scene of the video to try and follow the trend of videos in the same sort of genre.

Read More

Plot Ideas

original idea: The main basis of the plot will follow both a boy and girl with intermittent shots of the band playing throughout. In the initial scenes we will follow the boy in a school classroom. By using crab shots and also a tracking shot we will focus on the boy as a central focus amongst the other students. We could consider using a shallow focus here to blur out the background and highlight the boy as the central focus. The boy is seen at the desk slowly falling asleep where the scene is immediately cut to memories/dreams of the boy and girl together. We will most likely use a montage of shots to make their relationship feel more believable. Furthermore, throughout the music video we will use small (4 second) cuts of the band to give a certain context to the music and promote the song itself. Towards the end we will hear a sound bridge of a traditional school bell where we are brought back to the classroom at the beginning where the boy is seen alone, isolated within the classroom.

Current Idea (6/24/16) :
Our current idea is a little different as we have altered the plot and changed the protagonist from the boy to the girl. I think this will give more of an interest and reverse the gender stereotypes usually depicted within music videos today. We have also introduced effects such as powder paint and sparklers, thinking about using a long exposure and experiment with light throughout the clip. However, we are currently keeping with the idea of the school and the frequent shots of the band as I think this really works with the song's particular genre.
We have also thought about using fairly abandoned locations on set for the band to play in. I think this would look effective and really break up the confinement of spaces such as the school.

Read More

Casting Ideas

Before filming any of the film we decided to cast our actors as to decide who would be best suited for clip. When interviewing them we decided to ask them a range of questions based on our film including script and questions.

The casting of our music video was very important for us to get right because we felt the song requires a certain kind of person to make it look the best, so when we where auditioning people we need to make sure they wouldn't hold back and would be willing to have fun with the filming rather than feeling nervous or worried about doing it. It was also important for us to get two people that would be happy working together as if they didn't really like each other then the video wouldn't look as good.

Since the song is by a pop punk band we want to get people who look and act like they would fit in with that genre and culture, we can sort the costumes out so that they look right but if they act very reserved for example it won't look right and they would look out of place acting in the video. Since it is important for us to have good actors in this video we would ideally like to use people who have done acting before so we are looking to se drama students from our school because they would both have experience and they would be the right get that we are going for which is 17-18 years old.

We have already started thinking about people who we could use that fit all of our criteria and we have asked them if they would audition all but 2 said that they would which is useful as it will give us a choice rather than just 2 people saying y
es and us being forced to use them.

Read More

Location Details

Drew and ollie decided to scout some locations to do the filming in.

The first place we went to was the forest behind the local park to see if there was any places that we could either put in the band shots or have our couple be doing some sort of activity. It was very wet when we went and so we had to leave quickly and the areas that we where looking where quite wet this would be ideal for filming so hopefully it will be dry when we go to film there however if not e will have to find something else to do there or shoot somewhere else.

The second place we went to was the marshes in norwich this was a really good location as it had 3 different landscapes in it. it had open fields a dense forest with big dips in the landscape and the marshes themselves which where open fields and rivers. This has provided us with a lot that we could possibly do and so we would defiantly like to use that location.

 

The third location that we went to was the city itself and we decided that we would have some more urban shots there where a few locations there but we will decide finally on the day of filming as we need to check where there set too many people as this could possible ruin the shots, because of this we would like to go in the week so its quieter.

Read More

Format of video

Since our song is quite upbeat and energetic we decided that we wanted to have a mix of both narrative and live performance from a band. We decided it would be good to have a mix of the two because it breaks up the footage a bit and makes the video more interesting to watch. Another reason we decided to do a mix of both is because the whole point of a music video is to promote the band and the song to encourage a person to buy their music, and  an easy way to draw attention to the band and their music is to make the video interesting and enjoyable and by putting the band in the video so we decided on that basis. Although we are using live performance we want to have an emphasis on the narrative as well and aim to follow that with the footage we are planning every scene of the music video to make sure there is nothing that would contradict the narrative that we are trying to follow.The main reason behind using the live performance intermittently between shots of the narrative is to add a certain interest to the video and break out the time. I think it would feel a little dull focusing entirely on the storyline without some real background information or context in terms of where this music is actually coming from. We have to consider that this music video will be around five minutes long which is fairly long especially when deciding what shots to use and how the narrative will be structured. If one particular element is out of place within the scene, the entire narrative could be compromised. Therefore, we will dedicate as much time to editing as we do the filming side of the preliminary as to ensure that we keep consistency throughout our work and progress the creation of the end result. 

By using this structure (above) we can follow the basis of what makes a good video and narrative. The main emphasis here are the four different categories: Characters, Resolution, Conflict, and Quest. This is the framework that we will use whilst developing our preliminary task, focusing on the character relations  which is ideal as the song is between a boy and girl on "another planet". We will also plan out a certain conflict or barrier between the two, the quest will be the meeting of the two characters and the resolution/conclusion will end in with them becoming a relationship. However, we must be careful when planning out our plot idea and use appropriate steps such as mind maps, storylines as to keep the narrative relevant and focused on the task. 

Read More

Roles Within The Group

As a group we have assigned individual roles for each person within the group. This is done to make the organisation and process of the task significantly quicker and mirror more of the real processes involved in producing media today.
These are the roles each of us will carry out:

• Myself - Album artwork and Branding
• Drew Anderson- Editing
• Sophia Diaper - Blog posts and taking pictures
• Oliver Turner - Filming and editing

Filming:
This consists of taking the camera to our locations and deciding the scene and composition. It is this persons job to manage how the film will actually look like and what camera angles could be used. This person must think about the following camera techniques: Close-ups, Long shots, Aerial shots, crab shot, types of focusing (pull focus, shallow focus), and things like rule of thirds. This is critical to making a successful and well structured video. This person must also consider the timing of the music and how each shot should support what is being said in the lyrics of the song. If this is done incorrectly, there will be no rhythm to the music video and it would appear jumpy or out of place. The camera person should also think about the positioning of the camera and whether it should be used on a tripod or whether it should be hand-held.

 Editing:
This person's duty is to ensure that the end product and idea is met by applying visual effects to the video and manipulate it in a way that conforms to the song. Editing is usually the longest period of time between actually filming the video and the end result and distribution of the content. Effects could include: Image stabiliser, colour effects (saturation, exposure), speed/tempo, and animations. I think it would be really interesting to include some visual effects into our preliminary video as it will be an ideal time to explore with premiere pro and after effects a little more and ultimately see what will work with our song choice. I often find it most helpful to carry out some research through online tutorials on sites such as YouTube before attempting any form of editing. Also, as a group we have already had first hand experience with editing (I edited the entire film for my opening in AS) which means we are fairly familiar with these professional editing software packages. I have also learnt to back up files and keep a spare hard drive free for the footage as filming often requires large amounts of space and will need to be easily accessible. Files need to be named individually before editing and will need to grouped into one contained folder in a secure location otherwise premiere pro is unable to recognise the footage.

Blog posts and taking pictures:
This person must keep up to date with blog posts and taking pictures behind filming the music video. This is key to documenting our development and progress of the video and means we have visual evidence to support our work and the choices we made. It would also be good to film a "video diary" to better show the production process. This could easily be done and uploaded onto sites such as YouTube.

Album artwork and Branding:
This person is in charge of producing the branding of the music video and song. Examples include: a poster, CD album artwork and other merchandise proposals. I think this would be good to show as it will support the video itself, ultimately producing a more worthy and professional outcome. This could be done by using software such as Photoshop or Illustrator which make it much easier to visualise ideas and manipulate them later.

Read More

Song Choice

We have chosen to use Blink 182 "another girl another planet" for our preliminary task. As a group we collectively decided that this song best suited any form of music video with the idea of having both a boy and girl the two lead protagonists. Furthermore, we chose to use this because we thought that it would work best with the conditions that we have been given, as there is a conveniently long 42 second intro that would provide a great opportunity for the 30second long shot we need. Also,the lyrics are all about a girl and this gives a lot of freedom with what we can do and so we decided that this would be the best of our two to choose. Another reason that we chose to pick this song was when we discussed ideas that we could do for the two we had narrowed our list down to we where able to think of a lot more for the Blink 182 song but due to the lyrics and narrative of the "monsters and men song"it was harder to think of a suitable narrative that we could do so this ultimately influenced our choice greatly.

Read More