Evaluation Tasks - Harrison Twinn

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



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

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?



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

Second set of notes for Evaluation

Re-filmed band performance
-Audience said: "Background doesn't fit well"
The first ideas for the location were not effective, so we changed lighting, shot variety and setting during re-filming.
- "Put in more fast paced shots"
The editing is now more fast paced, using cuts between lyric lines to fit the pace of the music
-"Use more close ups for shot variation"
Close ups were added of band members (plus use of canted angles), we think this also help create a star persona

Digipak - Lost Feeling

Magazine Advert - Lost Feeling

Track List

- Unicorn Ridicule
- Stay At Home
- Lost Feeling
- Brown Bag
- Teenage Anxiety
- Spaceman
- Cobra Wildfire
- Here Comes the Calvary
- Upload Complete
- Fingerprints
- Undeniable Fear
- + = - (Plus Equals Minus)
- What Happened Yesterday?

Album Names

- 9:20
- One Night Only
- Decisions Decisions
- Teenage Solitude
- Blue Fire
- Lagoon
- Cobra Wildfire
- Lost Feeling
- The Night's Still Young
- Limitless
- Nonsense Is Necessary
- Cynical Ridicule
- Unicorn Ridicule

Magazine Advert Influences

We had a look at Florence and the Machines advert for the album "Lungs" and Kings of Leon's "Only by the Night" . These gave us ideas how to compose all of our information for our own magazine advert.

- Text is central

- Use of just ONE main image

- Not too cluttered 

- Picture of artist 

- Band name at the top

Final Cut - Feedback From Class

1) Use Of Conventions

- Shows the band's ability with instruments
- It went well with the theme of the song
- Camerawork and editing both push convention
- General rock video, urban setting theme throughout
- Great setting background, use of camerawork and typical band-work
- Band Performance
- Fits well with Indie genre - has home-made feel in a positive way through, very indie videos have that sort of feel.

2) Presentation Of Artist/Performance

- Enthusiastic performance in band scenes
- The group seemed like a proper band which worked well with the genre
- Looked professional
- Very realistic performance, good facial expressions and body language - interesting
- Presented well, again presented as Indie - like the dark garden and lighting - reminiscent of concert
- Lead singer is really good, shows great emotion, acts really well while keeping lip-syncing perfect.
- I think it does well to push other artists
- Artists (Harrison's) really good performance! Bryn's great!

3) Quality of Lip-Syncing

- Well synced, and it was a good idea to use the other clips so that it didn't become boring
- Perfect
- Very good lip-sync
- Excellent - lots of lip-syncing, all enthusiastic
- Expressive
- Good lip-syncing, in time

4) Use Of Camerawork/Editing/Mise-en-Scene

- Lots of different camera angles, well edited, mise-en-scene fits the genre
- Very good use of editing, effects and transitions
- Effective camera shots (close-ups, long shots, side shots, spinning shots), typical costume for rock video (black and white clothing)
- Split-screen works well, different camera angles and constant short changes to keep us engaged
- Cutting between scenes is used very effectively, different effects, slow motion
- Great mise-en-scene setting and costume is perfect
- Love love love the camerawork and editing - the editing at the start with Bryn is really good as well as the split-screens

5) Overall Effectiveness

- Engages with target audience
- A really fun and entertaining video
- Engaging and interesting to watch
- Story-line and fast editing keep people engaged
- Really good video, lots of variety and keeping audiences interest.

Ideas For Branding The Digipak/Magazine Ad

Font Styles



The following bands in this picture have been branded on the fonts that their band names have been given. This could be one idea for branding the digipak, and possibly some aspects of the magazine advertisement. If we were to use this, we would have to put One Night Only's band name in a font that would reflect on the theme in our music video - which is havoc and having the time of your life. For example, we might want to use a scribbly kind of font or maybe something from the 'stencil' font, such as how Green Day have done it (but not exactly in the way they have done).

Band Logos

These two band logo examples feature, Nirvana's and The Offspring's own logos. These logos are branded so that it could create a memorable motif for the band themselves. For example, the yellow smiley face with crosses for eyes belongs to Nirvana's band, not only because it is their brand, but also because people will know it is Nirvana just by looking at it. If we were to use a logo, we would probably use an object that is reflective of our music video, such as the mask the main character wears in the narrative.



Evaluation Of Final Cut

Did it meet your expectations?

The song we chose (Stay At Home by One Night Only) presented us with an upbeat tempo and lively sounds throughout. From this, we wanted to use the idea of a main character causing havoc around town. This could also be said for the band members who would be doing the same during their band performance. For us, we think that we have achieved this narrative successfully and have used it to a great effect within the video. The planning in shooting this narrative did have it's difficulties, such as setting up the tripod and camera on a hill so that it wouldn't like a canted angle. But we say that the time taken in making it was worthwhile.

The performance was quite a surprise that turned out for the best for us. On our first shooting day, we performed in an open-garage location with three of the four group members involved on the day. After looking over the shots and reading the feedback from our Rough Cut, we then thought that we needed to re-film the performance with different roles and a different location. This time, we filmed in a back garden (Harrison's garden specifically), which we thought was a better location because of how chaotic it looked - this was the kind of location we wanted to show the havoc the band members were in (hence why we used the open garage location in the first place). And because of the time we were shooting at, it became dark outside which gave us an opportunity to experiment with the lighting. Looking back, if we shot in daylight, it wouldn't have been as effective. However, these changes have been shaped to our liking, and we expected the second band shooting to be the most improved shots in our video.

Overall, we all think that we have achieved the visions that we have captured for the video, and we have used these ideas to a great effect that we are sure others would like. There were some people in the group that had different tastes to what this song had to offer, but we were not deterred from the creation of this music video. In fact, without these various likes and dislikes of certain genres, the music video might not have been like it is now - variety played an important part in our final cut.

Final Cut

Tracklist Cover (And Booklet) Ideas

As for other content that we might put in our digipak, we could possibly make a small booklet for the lyrics of the songs such as this from Enter Shikari's 'A Flash Flood Of Colour' Album. This could be separate from the tracklist on the back of the digipak. This idea is useful for giving the consumers the lyrics to the song.

On the tracklist of Kid Cudi's album 'Dat Kid From Cleveland', the image shown of the artist is also used on the album cover, but the difference is that the tracklist shows his whole body rather than just the head. We wouldn't want to use the zooming in on the one body part, but instead, we would probably use the idea of using the same imagery for both the album and tracklist cover. For example, if our album cover were to have the main character sitting down whilst the alternate character breaks away from him and walks away, our tracklist might have the same image but shown differently. The doppelganger could be walking past a window where the main character is sitting at, or he could be walking under a lampost whilst leaving images of himself behind.

Big Sloan's 'Vampire Juice' also has imagery as well as the tracklist for their cover. The wine glass would probably show the vampire juice actually being served to someone as a casual drink. If we used this idea, we could use the main character's mask as the imagery on our tracklist cover, to show that it has an important role in our music video.

Album Cover Ideas

Many Of Horror (EP) - Biffy Clyro

On Biffy Clyro's EP Cover, 'Many Of Horror', the two people colliding with each other headfirst turn into ghostly figures as they rise up into the air. We wouldn't want to do it like this, but if we were to consider the ideas of this cover, he could probably use the ideas of the ghostly figures. But instead of this, we might want to treat them as the split-personality between the main character and his doppelganger in our music video. We could make the cover so that the main character is seated on the sofa in the far left of the photo, and then have the doppelganger standing up from the seat in a trasnparent form, walking away from the main character who is still seated.

 

 

 

 

World Record (EP) - Lower Than Atlantis



This EP Cover by Lower Than Atlantis, 'World Record', shows the hands of someone who seems unsuccessful, holding rolled cigarettes, spare pennies and a guitar pick. But if we were to take ideas from this cover, the idea wouldn't be so mobid. Instead, we could probably make on of the hands the main character's hand, and the other hand the doppelganger's hand. The main character could hold his hand at his side with stretched fingers, whereas the doppelganger could do the same but holding his mask. This way we could see the hands of two of the same people, but with one significant difference. 

 

Woman To Woman - Keyshia Cole



 

In Keyshia Cole's Album Cover, 'Woman To Woman', we can see that she is taking off a mask, but one that seems to be an old face of herself. She seems to take it off as if she became a new person. If we took some ideas from this cover, we could use the idea of the mask, but with a twist. Instead of the main character taking off the mask of his doppelganger, the doppelganger could be taking off the mask of the main character instead, as a twist. So the doppelganger will wear his mask whilst holding the face of the main character, as if the extraordinary wears many mask, such as an ordinary person.



Comparing And Contrasting - Harrison Twinn

Club Foot - Kasabian

In 'Club Foot' by Kasabian, the video shows the band members and possibly other characters rebelling around a rural area. Whilst it's not the same kind of havoc we did in our music video, the performance and non-linear structure are striking similar. We used dark areas like they have, but we shot our performance at nighttime rather than in dark rooms in daylight.



Similarities

- Uses dark scenery
- Characters causing havoc, as well as the band members
- Showing capabilities with instruments
- Urban areas
- Non-linear (to an extent)

Differences

- Monochromatic/Greyscale filters
- Chaotic locations
- Ridiculous costumes

Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys

This music video by the Arctic Monkeys is very dedicated to the voilence that is shown. We didn't use this kind of havoc; rather we used a more hooligan approach to the havoc. The band isn't shown in the video and it heavily relies on the acting of the extras and characters. This video may be showing the dual personality of people through the use of a possible dual personality like we did in our video, but their approach is more conflicting.



Similarities

- Characters causing havoc
- Non-linear (to an extent)
- Urban areas
- Dual personality? (Ordinary people vs. Clowns/Normality vs. Variety)?

Differences

- Doesn't show band members
- Done only in the day
- Violence

Response To Feedback

Changing Location

At the stage of planning, we had a few locations in mind (most of them we were not able to film in) and we were limited to a small number of options, one of them being an open-garage performance. This might not have been successful because of the positioning of the camera, but from the response of the location, it could also be because of how it didn't fit with the clips we had.
To resolve this, we will take some of our current performance footage out and replace them with footage from a different location. Our location will be [Harrison's] back garden at night, and we are hoping to use a lot of lighting to show the band in a chaotic way. This location will probably be most used at the bridge or the last chorus of the song because of continuity/chronology. For additional filming around this specific location, we will most likely be filming outside the house but peering through the large living room window. This could be either for performance or for improvisation for band members (e.g. raving, running around crazy).

Adding More Transitions

We agree that most of our video consists of cuts, but we are planning to add more split-screens and more visual effects so that it could make it more dynamic. There is one part in the rough cut which we didn't have time to do, which was the make a split-screen so that the 'other' person on one side of the screen pushes the other side offscreen. From what we know, it is quite difficult to achieve this transition, and we were more focused on filling the gaps at the time.

Lip-Syncing/Instrument Issues

This was during pressure when we had a short period of time to make the rough cut deadline, and because our clips kept needing to be rendered whenever we put a new performance clip in or whenever we make changes to the clip. This reduced the time we had left before the deadline.
We agree that our use of instruments in the video wasn't very convincing, and for the next time we film, we will make things easier for ourselves so that we are seen with them more realistically (e.g. using a guitar pick rather than the palm of the hand, using a better prop as a microphone etc) Also, we have made sure that everyone in the group is making the shooting day, so our original roles will return to normal, even though we have to film other things so that the audience will know how the changes had been made.

Other Problems We Faced

On the day we shooted the performance at the open-garage area, we had one person in our group who couldn't make the shooting day, and because there were three instruments to play when we only had three people left in our group, the camera had to be on a tripod at all times and we had no opportunities to use handheld shots or to use our speeded soundtrack so that we could've made footage of the performance with a slow-motion transition whilst keeping the lip-syncing in time with the lyrics.

Rough Cut Feedback

1. Have the shot material appropriate for a music video?

• Yes, footage relates to song.
• Yes the setting is relevant.
• Yes, follows a lot of indie videos- 'causes mischief.'

2. Has attention been paid to mise-en-scene?

• Yes, good use of costume but not as much on location.
• Yes, the use of masks are good, and the clothing is appropriate and relevant.
• Like the idea of masks. Location could be created.

3. Is there controlled use of the camera?

• Yes with how framed well.
• Yes, the camera is controlled and professional.
• Yes.

4. Is there a variety of shot types and angles?

• Yes they have lots.
• Yes  there is a variety of shots which hold our interest.
• Yes, good variety in this respect.

5. Is the editing effective at constructing a linear or non-linear meaning?

• Yes as there's a story line that is cut up.
• Yes there is a clear story line following the main character.
• Yes, is easy to follow 'story'- goes well with lyrics at times.

6. Is there appropriate use of transitions and other effects?

• Yes with the layering.
• Not many transitions but good use of other effects, eg ghosts.
• Yes, like him sitting in house and one leaving.

7. Does the pace of the editing work well with the pace of the song?

• Yes though cut most of it.
• Yes because it is quick speed and the song is upbeat.
• Yes, fast paced.

8. If there is lip synching, is it effective?

• There were parts which it didn't match up.
• Yes mostly all lip synching is in time.
• Yes, instrument playing doesn't look entirely convincing though.

9. Is the video effective a communicating a star persona?

• Yes- revolves around one person.
• Yes because they dressed like they are in a band.
• Yes.

10. Do you think they need to re-film anything or film anything else? If so, what?

• If to re-film we think the clips with the band, as the background doesn't fit well.
• Put in more fast paced shots, maybe close up to give it more variation and hold our interest.
• There is a lot of variety which is good, some scenes are a bit boring though. Think that video needs a 'quirk'- something to add an edge.

Rough Cut

Speeding The Soundtrack

Above is a screen-grab of the song that we are doing for the music video, but edited so that it is speeded up slightly. We wanted to do this so that we can succeed in making the slow-motion transitions for the performance when we return the song back to its normal tempo. I have increased the tempo to a suitable and performable number of 18 (from the base number of 120 to 138). This should be enough speed to achieve the shots we want for when we edit them with the rest of the narrative in the music video.

Here, I have exported the speeded version of the song to my iTunes Library so that we can play the song with no unnecessary complications during the time when we will be shooting for the band performance.

Instruments/Props

Standard Drum Kit

There are a few solo parts for the drum kit to come in, and we are planning to have different angles and shots that show this instrument at those points, such as the intro and the start of the second verse.

Electric Guitar

Because the soundtrack includes a guitar that is not acoustic, the electric guitar is the better prop to use for this song. And because of our limited roles, the vocalist might be the one to have this prop.

Keyboard

This might not be necessary, but there were a few points where there were organ-like sounds in the soundtrack along with the drum kit and guitar. Again, this might not be needed.

Microphone (with stand)

This is very much needed for the performance. This will obviously be for the vocalist, and maybe some backing singers if wanted. It'll be one of the props along with the other instruments that will make the performance seem realistic.

Influential Styles For Performance - Other Artists

Best Of You - Foo Fighters



For our performance, we wanted to include some footage of it in-between points that show the narrative cohesively. In the Foo Fighters 'Best Of You', the narrative is made of imagery and symbols whilst the performance is used to make the narrative seem dynamic and meaningful. Most of the video is focused on the performance, but the imagery gives it more depth. This is what we want to use in our music video, but only in a way that makes the performance run smoothly with the narrative. The Foo Fighters perform in an open area, which is what we also want to do so that there is more space for us to get practical ideas for how we would go about doing it.

Many Of Horror (When We Collide) - Biffy Clyro



Like the Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro use their performance in time with the song to make the video more dynamic, especially when the song comes to a crescendo near the end. They also use the idea of performing in an open area, but they also made the area very dark in contrast to 'Best Of You'. 'Many Of Horror' uses abnormal visuals to make the vocalist and the surroundings seem more manic than they were at the start of the video. Because our video tries to show the good/bad sides of going out/staying indoors, we may want to use these kinds of visuals to show the contrast in those things. The slow-motion transitions during the performance could also be a good continuity method to use when the song is amplified or toned down.