Evaluation Question 4

Research

Our group carried out primary and secondary research in order to understand the conventions of our genre before we could start posting on our blog or planning our music video. The research stage involved getting questionnaire results in order to show us our target audience in terms of gender, age etc. This was an important task as this helped us to attempt to develop a narrative as we chose to use characters that are a similar age to some of our audience members as well as those who looked the part for the role as well. Leading on form this, we started to investigate into our chosen genre (Indie-Pop) more in terms of generic conventions seen within indie music videos and media products such as magazine advert and digipak. All of our research can be found on our blog along with our questionnaire results and other additional research required before we start planning for our music video. The main use of digital technologies at this stage was computers and mobile devices where we could access the internet in order to do our market research etc. This was very helpful to us when researching into our ancillary tasks as we were able to access the internet wherever we desired making the research task very accessible to us.

Planning

The planning stage involved developing a narrative for our music video which we took inspiration form an existing film (Charlie St. Cloud). After having a basic plan for our narrative, it was time for us to start developing a storyboard and shot list in order to show how our music video is going to run. The storyboard was designed to display the main scenes that will feature in our music video and the key plot points involved. Creating a shot list is another important stage in the planning process as this will be required when filming as it details the different camera angles, locations etc. from start to finish. This is a more in depth plan of how to music video will run however, the storyboard is a visual representation of this. Casting and location scouting were the final stages to our planning, this involved holding small auditions for the different roles in which we found our characters that would feature in our music video. Before deciding upon our locations we had to do some location scouting to find where would be the best places to film that will be suitable for our genre and easily accessible for filming. Before we started filming, we practised lip syncing and this is a vital skill that we needed to be able to apply to our own music video and once we had experienced what it was like, we were ready to film. In the planning stage of the course, we started to use more of a variety of different digital technologies in order to design and plan out our music video in terms of actors, locations, props, lighting, costume etc. and layout and color scheme when it came to planning our magazine advert and digipak. We  used the internet very often at this stage to research into generic conventions of our genre and music videos therefore, we were able to use computers and mobile phones especially when using our phones to use google maps in order to visit locations that we could film (location scouting) this assisted us during this stage. Furthermore, the planning stage also involved using digital technologies such as TV where we re watched a film Charlie St. Cloud which we wanted our narrative to be based upon as we felt that the visuals in this film linked to the lyrics of our chosen song "Slip" which is one of the elements of Goodwin's theory which basically stated what should be included in a music video in order for it to be successful.

Construction

Possibly the most important process of all is the construction stage where we actually started to film our music video. This is where we used our research and planning stages to assist us when we were out filming, we would bring along our shot list to our different locations to remind ourselves of the types of shots that we would need to film. Once we had our footage, we had to install our clips onto the mac in preparation for the editing stage. We had previously practiced editing a lip syncing task in order to prepare us for our actual music video which came in handy when we were editing our footage as this skill was required in order to get the visuals in sync with the lyrics. Our shot list also assisted us with this as we had ensured that every chorus would start with a performance shot to break up the different locations used within our video. After having footage on photographs taken whilst we were our filming we were able to start creating our magazine advert and digipak as we required photographs of our locations and actors in order to start designing these products. We used a combination of our research from online on conventions of our genre and the actual photographs we had taken and started to design the media products on Microsoft Word. The main use of digital technologies involved in this stage was a mobile phone where we recorded all of our footage. The purpose of filming on this device was because it was easily accessible which allowed us to be more creative as we were able to just pull our phones out of our pocket swipe across once and start filming. Another mobile phone was used for playing the song which helped our actor to lip sync in time wiht the music which made it easier when it came to editing as everything was perfectly in sync due to playing the song out loud whilst filming to make it easier for our actor. Secondly, we used the computers and iMacs, when it came to editing. The iMac had to editing software installed therefore, this is where we put all of our footage together. Having said this, we used the other computers in order to upload our footage and download the song which would be laid over our completed music video,this would then be saved on a memory stick where it would then be converted onto the iMac.

Evaluation

This is the stage where we reflect back on the media products that we designed and see if they are what we had planned them to look like in the planning stage. This mainly involves using programs such as Prezi and blogger to present our evaluation of our finished media products and weather our research shows within the design. We have ensured that all of our media products link together by using similar images on our magazine advert and digipak but also the pictures used are from scenes in our music video (Location 2, Southend). Due to the evaluation stage using mainly online software/programs the only digital technologies used within this stage was the computer as this is where all of the content required to complete the evaluation tasks was located making this stage very simple in terms of use of digital technology. Moreover, the iMacs were also used as we were required to evaluate our music video and in order to watch our video we logged onto the iMac to see what editing techniques etc that were used so that we can talk about these points in our evaluation.

Problems with filming & solutions to problems

The main problem that we had with filming was storage space as we decided to film on a phone camera as it involved a simple process of transferring our clips to the iMac and was a practical device to use for filming as it was small and light weight as well as good quality. Originally, we thought that this would be a good idea to film on a phone however, we soon encountered storage problems which we dealt with along the line as we would download the footage on a memory stick at the end of every filming session in order to free up space on the phone again for when we next film.

Another factor that impacted our filming schedule heavily was the weather due to rain making it difficult for us to film in some conditions. Occasionally, this set our schedule back a bit however, after that we realised that we need to be more productive in our future filming sessions meaning that we got more footage as we made the most of my time.

Programmes used:

Word

Blogger

Email

Internet

YouTube

Prezi

IMovie

This was the main software that was used in order to edit of music video, we used this software in the construction stage of creating our music video. This was also briefly used within the planning stage in order to complete a lip syncing task in preparation for our editing our actual music video. We were able to use this software without encountering many problems however, there was some editing techniques that we researched online how to do, which we weren’t able to apply to our music video possibly due to using different version of iMovie to the tutorial. Other than this, we didn’t face any many issue in the editing stage of the construction process when using this software.