Completed Music Video

Digipak Final Draft

Here is the completed version of our Digipak including: all four covers of the album along with the advertisement.



Evaluation task 4

These are the pieces of electronical equipment I used in order to produce my music video. The camera and tripod were both used in the filming process of the video, the tripod came in handy for shots that needed to be still rather than some of the free held shots taken of the video. While the computer I used to edit and develop the music video and updating my blog.

The online application 'Blogger' is something I've used to create a blog and store each stage of progress in my A2 media coursework. 1. To post any progress I had on my project I would go to 'New post' where I'd type or upload any updates 2. If I needed to add or remove anything from any post I created I'd simply go to 'Edit post' where I could then posts that I've already posted. 3. Then to view everything I've done for the project I went to 'View blog' where you can view all my work.

'Facebook' played a crucial role in the organisation of the filming process. 1. We set up an events page under the title 'Madness' so all our friends knew it was our media course work. 2. We made a discription of the filming, the date of the event and the location where we'd film it. 3. We recieved comments from certain people along with those who'd attend and those could for whatever reason were unable to be there for the filming.

The film editing application 'Vegas Movie Studio' is what we used to take the footage from our filming and edit it with the song to create our music video. 1.We'd take the files which our footage was saved to and put them into 'Vegas Movie Studio.' 2. From the corner screen we could view any part of the footage we inserted into the editing line to review progress. 3. Here we put each piece of footage into the appropriate areas, editing them together alongside the music, to end up with the completed music video.

'Photo shop' was the application I used in which we created our digipak, it enabled us to take still shots from our filming and edit these to create a front cover, back cover, CD holder cover and advertisement. 1. With this tool bar I was able to use certain tools to edit some properties of my digipack designs. 2. If I needed to alter the picture I'd go to 'file' and 'transform' and from there I could adjust the brightness, scale etc. 3. Here I could add more individual layers to the image which is how I achieved the blended image effect for most of my digipack designs.  

On 'Youtube' we posted our video in order to get some background feedback on what we'd done so far. 1. We named our video 'Work in Progress' as we had not yet completed the video but we still needed feedback. 2. We added in the description that this was an A2 media project and that we did not own any rights to the song and that it was reserved to the band 'Madness' and their record label. 3. We looked for any comments people had on the work so far to see what was good and what could be improved. (Unfortunately our video was removed on copyright grounds so I am unable to present a screen grab of our own 'Youtube' post)

Evaluation task 3

For my initial treatment the feedback I received from my teacher was positive and therefore for no changes needed to be made. For the first class viewing of what we had done so far in our music video people was mostly positive however there were certain elements of the video that some people believed needed improvement or variation which we attempted to modify. For the rough cuts of our digipack covers people said that they liked the design idea as it illustrated a link to the random effect we were trying to generate in our video. Though the first draft of our advertisement was not received positively by most and therefore had to go with something mostly different in terms of the design.

When our music video was first viewed by the class most of the rough feed-back they had given us was encouraging. When it came to the editing all class members commented on how good the lip-synchronisation was in terms of timing. They liked our use of mise-en-scene when it came to the props as it added to the humour we were trying to create in the video, one remarked that it, ‘matches the mood of song- a “fun” video.’ However there were elements people were unsure of such as the variety of shots used. Some thought that maybe a few more different shots could’ve been put in to add a better variety. Another issue was the screen size of the brass players in the river scene in contrast to the rest of the video, this caused a continuity issue but if we’d had more time we would have re-done this scene without a HD camera as it caused issues on Vegas movie studio. The last comment was about the artist singing the first verse as he approached the chemist stand. One class member thought this generated confusion but in the end there was little we could do at this stage to change that.

One of the only early drafts of our digpack that raised issues among the teacher and class members was the advertisement. The first attempt did not receive positive feedback as people felt it was not in keeping with theme that we were generating with our album covers. Some specifically told us that the advertisement had a certain ‘horror’ feel to it which was not our aim in the first place. Due to this we had to completely rethink the design, we kept the initial main image of the hand so that we could directly link it to our album, then we decided to take inspiration from the front cover of our album with the blended image design as it would keep the whole digipack in keeping with our ‘fun’ and random effect.

With all the finished texts people did start to notice improvements within the video as well as the digipack. With the music video people have said it does feel like a music video with the good use of lip synchronisation and the good use of shots. Unfortunately we were never able to alter the screen size of the river scenes which was the only major continuity issue within the editing, if we’d had more time we would’ve attempted to re-film it to correct this. For the advertisement the feedback it received was totally positive, comments such as it standing out like any advertisement should and it drawing people in was well received. For the digipack album itself people thought that the finished product was in keeping with our chosen genre and we were much credit for our creativity in designing it.

Evaluation task 2

Here are some powerpoint slides that demonstrate how our music video and our digipak go together.

Evaluation task 1

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

1. In this shot there is a very clear illustrative link between the lyrics and the visuals, the line in the verse says, 'box of balloons with a feather light touch' and here we show a bag of balloons with a 'featherlite' sign on it, clearly linking the lyrics to the visuals.

2. Here the artists are dressed conventionally to the Madness theme. In most Madness videos the artists are dressed in army boots so wacky costume in order to generate random effect, therefore our artists dressed the way a Madness record label would like them to be dressed.

3. The traditional genre of Ska has a certain jazzy element. In this shot we have artist imitating playing a trumpet and saxophone in order to convey the Ska genre.

4. Here we demonstrate influence from another text. The idea of the conga line was inspired by the 'House of Fun' by Madness which we thought would be in keeping with Ska theme.

5. In this shot we have the camera tilting downwards slowly, this reveals the dancing chemists to the audience which adds humourous effect and is in keeping with the overall tone of the video.

6. For the waving shot it was originally too dark which made it out place place in terms of lighting with the rest of the video, so we adjusted the brightness in order to make it more in keeping with the light scheme of the video.

7. The use of mise-en-scene in this shot is quite obvious. We have the artist dressed normally and the chemist in a white lab coat, from past shots the audience have a very clear idea to what is going on in this video

8. I believe that this shot shows that we watched other music videos because in this scene we had to make sure there were no continuity errors which from other music videos is a very important factor.

9. The act of the artist falling over is something that occurred in the original 'House of Fun' video by Madness which I believe demonstrates our research into the song itself and past techniques in order to create our own version.

1. In this shot of a music video we get a very obvious link between the lyrics and the visuals. Here the man is being told not accept presents from  Father Christmas and the lyrics go 'Father Christmas has got presents but I've gotta say no.' Again from this we have a clear connection between the lyrics and visuals.

2. In this shot we have the rapper 50 cent dressed in how a record label would want a Hip-Hop artist to look. We see him wearing a cap and a gold chain which are both conventions of the Hip-Hop genre. Therefore the artist is presented the way a Hip-Hop label would label would like him to be presented.

3. In this shot we see a Hip-Hop artist sitting beside an attractive women, attractive women being a convention of Hip-Hop, which is in keeping with the Hip-Hop genre.

4. In this shot the idea of the artist being in a spaceship is something that has been influenced by past music videos, the band Darkness with the music video 'I believe in a thing called Love' took place on a spaceship which shows the video in which this shot was taken from was influenced by past texts.

5. In this shot the camera is tracking backwards as the artist advances, this creates a fast pace of shots which is in keeping with the overall pace of the song.

6. In this scene of the music video the lighting of the artist is quite bright as the background scene in which he is playing is too dark. Hence the bright flash effect to highlight the artist from the surrounding dark environment.

7. The mise-en-scene of this video is in keeping with the overall theme of the music video, in this song the artists sing about exterrestials. So the back mise-en-scene being space gives the audience a very clear idea to what is going on in the video.

8. I believe that this shot shows a common piece of imagery within some music videos, the image of alcohol at a bar/club is something found in many Hip-Hop and Pop videos showing that these artists watch other videos.

9. Also in this shot the image of seeing the whole band in one place is something seen in most music videos when it comes of bands rather than single artists, again showing that directors who create these videos have looked at others.

Digipak back cover draft

Here is a draft of what our back cover of our digipak will look like.

Work in Progress

Here is what we have done so far for our music video in terms of filming, we showed it to the other members of our class and got feedback on it. One of the main criticisms that came back from the viewers was the lack of shot variety, our video being prodominently consisting of mid-shots. We will take this into consideration when finishing the rest of the filming.

Treatment

Song: House of Fun

Artist: Madness

Concept

The artist we are taking a song from is the band Madness, who have written and performed their own songs. For the single ‘House of Fun’ we are creating a music video, we’ll be designing a digipack along with an advert.

Narrative

This video is about a boy who turns sixteen and goes out to a chemist to buy some contraceptives but when he gets to the chemist stand he is too embarrassed to ask for them so he uses party item innuendo to ask for them. The first verse begins when the artist walks up to the stand and the main verse singing takes place within this chemist stand scene, though it does cut to other places to show the brass players and the full group dressed randomly to emphasise the party innuendo. Towards the end of the song we just see multiple shots of both random dancing from both verse scenes and more group scenes.

Locations

The main aim of this music video is to convey randomness and make the audience question what is going on. This is shown through strange locations of the brass players eg. Being waist high in the river and in recycle bins. Though most of the video will be performed by the side of the road at the chemist stand as most verses with be performed at this location.

Pace

The pace through the video is mainly a fast pace so transitions between shots, however the pace of transitions speed up towards the end of the video in order to emphasise the jumbled effect of the video, the video with end with a fade out of these mixed scenes.

Colour/Tone

The entire video will be in normal texture in order to convey the characters not fitting in with the normal environments.

The album cover and the magazine advert will be consistent with the blending of a close up of the actor’s face which will represent that theme of mental instability. The main cover will have other mini still shots merged into the close up to show again random effect.

The Artist/Style and Form

The look we want to go for with the performers will endorse themes such as cross-dressing, tiger costumes, army boots and other mixed outfits which would stick to conventions that Madness showed in their music videos.

In this video we will have elements that will resemble features from the Madness one, but with other aspects that makes our one more random, such as:

·         Fast transitions.

·         Natural locations, but also unconventional location such as brass players being waist high in the river.

·          Main character of the narrative dressed in more modern clothing.

The key image we want for the album front cover is a close up of one of the performers with mini images from different parts of the video blended in to the background. This will be unconventional from usual Madness front covers and be more in keeping with bands such as Dream Theatre but this style adds to the confusing effect that we are aiming to achieve.

Mise-en-scene

At the chemist scene of the narrative we make it clear from that he’s at the chemist by things such as the chemist sign on the table and the lab coats worn by the performers behind the stand.

Boots, dress, Tiger costumes: These generate a sort of fancy dress feel to the video, adding to the house of fun affect which corresponds with the party terminology said by the artist in the narrative.

Lighting: All shots within this video will have the same lighting although this may vary due to us filming at different times which may affect the amount of light within each shot. The objective of having normal lighting is to show these odd characters in quite normal locations giving the impression that they are out of place, emphasising the odd feel to this video.

Advert Ideas

Here is a draft of the advertisement in which we put forward a few ideas to possible improve and add more to the design.

In the end we decided to not go through with these changes as the reviews posted near the title we found were overloading the amount of text already on the advertisement, also we were thinking of creating a custom logo to put next to the Hmv logo but then decided that our advertisement would be fine with just one logo in order to not overload our advertisement with information.

Album advert design

Here is a draft for the advertisement of my album, although I have not gone with the convention of using the exact album front cover for the advert I have taken pieces from the digipak and put them into this to resemble the front cover as much as possible. Along with the hand being the same as that on the CD holder.

CD holder draft

For the CD holder on our digipack we decided to go with a checker board background with a hand to give the illusion of a hand holding the disk. This was achieved by taking a photo of a hand and putting it infront of a checker background. That way the CD holder keeps the theme of the digipack along with the hand to give it that strange look.

Audience Research

Here we interviewed some people to get some ideas on what an audience likes to see within music videos which helped us decide on what characteristics we were going to place in our music video.

Shooting schedule

Here is a shooting planner we created to film certain shots within our music video, this allowed us to be more organised in our filming.