Final music video - Honey I'm Good

This is the final version of our music video for the song 'Honey, I'm Good'. This version has taken into account the feedback we received and has a faster editing pace than our original version. I also added some background sound to the beginning, and flash effects to the selfies that appear on screen. Our first copy, without these additions, is shown below the final copy.


Honey, I'm good (second copy) from Emily Friend on Vimeo.




Final music video from Emily Friend on Vimeo.

Ancillary tasks

Magazine advert:

The design for the magazine advert was originally intended to be the inside left of the digipak design. However, we then decided to go for a more simple design for the inside, and converted this image into the advertisement. The photos are from the same shoot as the album cover, which would link the two together and let audiences make the connection. The idea of the photo reel came from the characters going in a photo booth, something which may have been an extra section in the music video as it fits with the narrative and the characters are interacting in the same way - the girl is being over the top and irritating the boy. We added the album title and artist name in the same font as the digipak, plus some star ratings to make it look more realistic. Finally, as advertisements need release date information, we added 'out now'.

The development for the advert began with a draft version I did on PowerPoint (left). The images had a darker background than desired (below), so I used the image effects on PowerPoint to brighten them to remove the creases. However this made the actors too bright. We then edited the image on Photoshop, and used the dodge tool to brighten the background, but avoiding the actors so they stayed the right brightness.

We then cropped four other images, choosing different ones to those I used in my draft version as we felt they linked to our main product better. These, too, needed to have the background removed, then we aligned them on the photo reel. Once these photos had been positioned we found it difficult to position the text we needed in the space left. We decided to make it easier by separating each word or pair of words into separate text boxes that could be moved around freely. This meant we could re-size individual words and move them in closer proximity than a single text box would allow. We altered the angle that the star ratings appear at to give a slightly three-dimensional appearance. This version (below) we decided was too crowded. We then decided to simplify it, making the text larger and reducing the number of words, resulting in the final version at the top.

Draft version 2:

Digipak:

Final version:

First version:

For the front cover we chose a photo which would give an impression that the album is both fun and serious - a mix between the happy facial expression and the dark colours of the clothes and background. We added the artist's name and album title in large but simple font to make it look professional. This simple design is typical of pop albums, which we tried to stay true to. We made the title much bigger than the name as, assuming this was for a new artist, people may be more familiar with the song than with the artist themselves, and it would be more recognisable. The original design was very simple, with just the image of Harry and the text. To make it more visually appealing we used a digital drawing tablet to add some 'doodles' to the design. The 'sketch' style of drawing makes it seem more informal, which gives it a more fun, young, happy look, compared to the plainness of the original, which we thought would appeal better to our target audience. 

For the back cover we used a photo of Harry from the back, as if you turn over the CD and actually see the other side of him. We used the same dark background, and simple white font to make it look minimalistic and professional. We also added the record label, copyright information and barcode to make it look more realistic, and used the drawing tablet again to add the details.

For the disc itself, we used photo of both Harry and Jazz. We decided to use one of both of them as it links the title song of the album to the music video, and continues the story. For people who may have already seen the video, it will be familiar, and for those who haven't it will start to show the relationship between the two characters by their facial expressions. We included the track list and record label, as well as the copyright information around the edge, which is a convention of CD's.

For the inside left of the album, we decided to use a photo which would try to capture the aesthetic of the artist and the album. We decided to use a photo which didn't contain any of our actors, and put a filter over it to give it the look we wanted. In our original design, we also filled the empty space with a 'thank you' message from the artist to their fans, in the same font as the front cover. We then decided that the typed text looked out of place, and used the drawing tablet to create a signature for the artist, which makes it seem more personal. The original image is shown below - we altered the colouring on Photoshop to match the lighting in the inside right photo and cropped it to the correct size.

Another contender for the inside left was the photo below. I liked the brighter colours, but this was too blurry to use.

For the inside right of the album, we used a photo of the artist performing, which helps add to the pop feeling of the album. The lens flare in the photo adds to the idea that the band are more famous, as it could be a camera flash, or a stage light on a tour performance. 

We made two versions of the spine, one for the external spine of the album, and one for the internal spine. We used the same font again for continuity, and used photos facing in opposite directions for the inside and outside, so that even when the CD is stacked, people can related it to the music video.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Here is a video which demonstrates where in my project I have used, developed or challenged conventions, with examples of real music videos which do the same:

Conventions from Emily Friend on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaulation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 4

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

Media technologies from Emily Friend on Vimeo.

Blogger: I used this website in the planning stages of my production. It was very useful as it is so customisable - I was able to pick colour schemes and themes that matched how I wanted my final product to look, creating a kind of 'brand'. Also, it allows users to embed different kinds of media into their posts, which meant I was able to present my research in planning in more interesting ways, such as Prezis and video clips and well as images. Furthermore, I was able to store photos in draft posts so I could access them at home as well as at school.

Vimeo: I used this website to upload all the videos I made, from research and planning to evaluation and the final product. I had to work around the 500MB per week limit on free users, so had to make sure that if I wanted to upload multiple videos in a week, that the file sizes were suitably small enough that I would be able to upload them all in one week.

SurveyMonkey: This is the website I used to conduct my audience research. It was a good choice because of the ability to customise the types of questions you want to ask. If you want the audience to choose from a specific range of answers, you can list multiple choice options. You can also get them to rate their opinions on a scale, and if you require longer answers, you can add text boxes for respondents to comment in. This was a benefit to both us and the respondents as it did not take long to take the questionnaire, and we could receive the results instantly, and have them summarised in diagrams or graphs, which made them easy to interpret. This meant we could get a good response from our target audience, so we could take their opinion into account when creating our video.

Prezi: This website allowed me a more visually interesting way to present my findings, whether it be my own planning or secondary research. It has  more sophisticated transitions and layouts than PowerPoint. Also, it could easily be embedded into my blogger posts to add to my blog.

PowerPoint: Most of my blog posts were created on this programme. It allowed me to add text and images onto the slides, change the format and colour schemes to match my blog, and could easily be saved as a JPG file and uploaded onto my blog. I used it to annotate the graphs from my audience research, and present my findings in more creative ways than a block of text. 

Photoshop: I used this software when creating the ancillary tasks. I used it to crop the images we had taken, then used the 'dodge' tool to brighten the background and not the actors, to remove the creases from the backdrop. I could also use the 'burn' tool to darken the actors to make them stand out more. We then added text, and used the paintbrush to doodle on the image to make it more interesting. 

Video camera: We used a small handheld camcorder to film our main task. This was perfect as we had to film in a lot of different locations, most of which did not have a lot of space. The camera was easily portable and still produced an HD image.

DSLR: We also used a still camera to take the photos we used in our ancillary tasks. This meant we could have high quality images, and adjust the focus to they were sharp. We could clearly see the difference between the photos taken on our phones compared to the camera.

Tripod: This was vital for taking steady shots. We used one for both our main task and the ancillary tasks to make sure the shots didn't move or come out blurry. It was particularly useful in our main task for getting more unusual shots where it was have been difficult to stand with a camera, for example on the back of a sofa against a wall, above the actors head. We could also have several camera set up at the same time if we wanted to, such as when we filmed the band shots, to make filming time more efficient.

Lights: When we filmed the band shots we borrowed some lights from the photography studio. This allowed us to light the room so that it appeared quite dark, but we could still see the actors, and make it appear more like a stage performance. Also, as we were filming in a drama room, we could use the spotlights on the ceiling to add to this effect.

Messaging: We were able to communicate by text or via Facebook messenger, so that the message could be received instantly. This was very beneficial as the people involved all carry their phone with them everywhere, and would have notifications appear from Facebook. This meant we could get a quick reply and plan easily.

YouTube: This website was useful in the research stages, as it allowed me to watch existing music videos and spot codes and conventions which could be applied to my own work. 

Corel VideoStudioX7: The editing software I used to create my final music video is Corel VideoStudioX7. This software had all the features I needed to create my production. I could cut down the length of shots, mute them and overlay the song we had chosen. It allowed me to alter the duration of clips so that cuts matched the beat of the song, and I could match them up to the song so that it appeared that the actors were singing. Corel offers the option to add text, something which was more useful in evaluation videos than the actual product, as well as different transitions. There are also filters and effects which can be applied to clips. For example, I had to use the cropping effect to remove something from the background of one of the shots. Finally, the video can be rendered and uploaded onto Vimeo, then embedded onto my blog.

Audience feedback

We asked for some audience feedback for our work, in order to see what we had done well and what could be improved. We asked some A Level Media students for some feedback, as well as a student who does  not study media, in order to get the opinion of a 'real' audience member.

This is the feedback from the media students:

This is the feedback from the student who does not study media:

We then asked for some feedback on our ancillary tasks. This is what the media students said:

And this is the feedback from the student who does not study media:

We then asked for some professional audience feedback. This is what our previous media studies teacher said:

He also identified the intended audience for our media product, and thought it was appropriate based on the actors being of the same age as the target audience, with representation of both males and females. Some strengths included the cutting between the different part of the narrative, and the plot twist at the end of the video. To improve, he suggested that the editing pace should be faster by reducing the shot lengths, and that there should be some more close-up shots used. For the ratings at the end e gave 5/6 for both being technically convincing and the product being successful.