Weekly Log - 12th December

In todays lesson, we all (Louise, Bijal and Stephanie) contributed to finishing evaluation task 4 -  we added pictures of ourselves from the process of filming and evaluated them. This meant that we finally completed the whole blog, so our teacher reviewed it and came to the conclusion that we had successfully FINISHED!

Evaluation 4

Throughout the process of research, planning, constructing and evaluation stages we used various different media technologies in order to help us create our music video.


We had to start with research and planning:

We used the internet to research for our music video, we looked at other videos to see what conventions pop videos had, this helped us as it gave us ideas for what we needed to put in our music video.
This allowed us to be creative as we could each research the different ideas that we had for the music video and then discuss our separate ideas and combine them.

We also used the internet to plan our music video once we had ideas for music video. We had to research where we wanted to film our video, the internet helped us as it gave us quick access to different website of places where we could film. We could then contact the places in various ways, either emailing or calling them.

To document our entire process of making our music video, we had to make a blog - the blog contains everything we have done separately and in a group from the beginning of the project. 
We all add to the blog, and because it is on the internet, we can all access it from home, this contributes to the final product as we can quickly and easily refer back to the work we have previously done.








Once we had done this we moved onto the production stages of the process. We used different technologies here too:

We used the camera's and tripod in order to film our music video, this contributed to our final product as it helped us film the shots we needed.

Whilst filming in our drama studio the technician gave us a wire which allowed us to use Bijal's iPod from the studio floor when he was up in the technician's room. By doing this is gave us control of the sound, it helped us as we can quickly and easily forward/rewind the song to where we wanted it. This especially helped the actors when it came to lip syncing as they could sing along with the exact song. It also helped us as it made sure the lip syncing was tighter as they sang along to the song.

This is a shot of Evie filming and Louise helping her, we all took turns when filming, as all of us were participating in the video therefore we all filmed. We had to continuously check that the lighting effects that we wanted, came across on the camera. Sometimes we had to turn down the lighting as the actors faces were too bright on the screen. 










After this we had to edit our music video, for this we needed to use the computer again:

 For the editing process of the music video we used iMovie HD, we used this because last year we also used this product and we all knew our way around it, we had the choice of using iMovie HD and iMovie.
Using iMovie allowed us to play around with different cuts and effects to see what looked best and the most professional. We could creatively change around the shots that we had to fit to the song. We didn't stick to the original plan, but since we knew how to use the product it was easy to do.

By making sure we could all use this product it meant that we could come in separately and work on the final music video in order to meet our deadline but overall Louise did the majority of the editing through out the process of making our music video, but she still included all the groups thoughts and ideas. 












Finally the evaluation stages of process:


The final evaluation stages consisted of four different evaluation tasks, for this we we used several different technologies - 

Firstly we used Youtube allowed us to post our media product for everyone to see, in the evaluation tasks we needed to annotate our video and show the conventions we used. 

Pages allowed us to complete evaluation 2, we had to annotate the ancillary task. It was easier to use pages than word and word has restrictions on where we could place certain things, therefore pages was more appropriate to us.

In Evaluation 3 we had to film others and their thoughts on our final music video. For this we used a camera and a tripod, uploaded to youtube and then posted it on our blog. By doing this we could review our music video from not only our point of view, but from others.
















Finally for this last evaluation we used the blog and a camera to take pictures of the processes we have been doing along the way. 

Weekly Log : Friday 9th Dec

Louise:
During fridays lessons Bijal, Stephanie and I finished off task 1 and 2 and also task. We then filmed ourself evaluating the feedback we received from our class mates. It took a few attempts as we kept messing up the script but we eventually managed to complete it. Unfortunately Evie couldn't attend the lesson as she is ill, but she wrote out her own evaluation of the audience feedback. We've planned for mondays lesson to completely finish evaluation task 4 and then we will have completely finished all the evaluation tasks.

Stephanie:

At the beginning of the lesson we looked over the magazine adverts, Bijal suggested that we add the small image of the front of the CD cover to the corner like in the other advert to help advertise. When i first added it I thought it look crowded at the bottom so I moved the star ratings a little bit higher. 

This is the final advert we have decided to use:

Whilst I was doing this Bijal carried on with Task 1 and Louise carried on with Task 3, Bijal then finished what I had started on Task 2. Once we were all finished we had to film ourselves for the second part of task 3 - we had to talk about what we found out, how far we agree and what we would change. Before we started this we thought we should write a script so we didn't get confused on what the other members of the group had said or forgotten to mention anything. It didn't take to long to finish this off, so we uploaded it to youtube and then onto our blog. Now these tasks have been done we just have to start and finish Evaluation Task 4.

Bijal:

In today's lesson we were trying to complete all the evaluation tasks before the deadline which was monday. I focused on finishing evaluation 1, and evaluation 2 while Stephanie worked on finalising everything needed for the ancillary task and Louise worked on completing evaluation 3. By working on things separately it made sure that we got more done as a group as we have a deadline to meet. Once again, we all put input on all the of group tasks to make sure that it was a group effort. Even though Evie is unfortunately unable to attend school, she made sure that she communicated her ideas into the group work.

Final Digi-pak and Magazine Advert

Magazine Advert

Outside of the CD Digi-pak

Inside of the Digi-pak

Evaluation Activity 2

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

The combination of our main product and ancillary tasks are very effective - this is because they both compliment each other very well. They all follow the same themes throughout, whether this is colour, or characters, you can see that they are all connected in some way.

They connect with each other as images from the main product are used in the ancillary task, for example the image on the front of our digi-pack is of the main character who is seen throughout our main product, strongly combining the main product and the ancillary task. The back of the digi-pak shows an image of the rolling stones logo, not only does this relate to Mick Jagger, but we also made a backdrop of this for our main product and this image is shown frequently within the music video. The inside left of the digi-pak is also of our main character, and the in side right shows a combination of the peace signs we used as backdrops in our music video. 

The magazine advert, also used our main character to connect the ancillary task to the main product. On the advert it shows a small picture of the digi-pak as a form of promotion. 

This screenshot from the final music video, shows how the music video and ancillary task are connected, the rolling stones flag is shown in the background and then again used in the CD Digi-pak. The colour themes of red, black and white are also shown in this screenshot connecting the three products together.

The screenshot shows our main character in the music video, we also used his face in both our magazine advert and our CD Digi-pak instantly combining the three products together. By using his face in all three it creates a recognisable image for the audience as they can see his face in three product and connect them together. 

Planning for final day of filming

Before the final day of  filming i planned out every shot we needed to do for the Covent garden sequence. I used this method before when planning the Christina sequence and it work really well as the filming session was structured and done quickly and professionally.

Here are the the sheets i used for the planning with the song lyrics and shot types...

Monday 5th December

Bijal was well enough to attend this lesson thankfully as we really needed to start the group evaluation tasks. Evie unfortunately was still ill but we left space in each task to include her input. For this lesson Stephanie started doing evaluation task 2 which entailed explaining how effective the main product and and ancillary task are and if they work well together. bijal started evaluation task 1; she had to find out what do media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media forms so she started annotating the video and got related examples. I finished off evaluation task 3 and evaluated it on the blog.