Interviews - Asking colleagues about my music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kthC5xFlAaU&feature=channel_video_title

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSMq4SCBCt8&feature=relmfu

Programmes used in the making of my Project

Final Cut Pro
Adobe Photoshop
After Effects
Screen Grabber
Blogger
Translator
Toast
Google
Wikipedia
iPhoto
iTunes

My final piece is now up on Youtube for all to see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9bmXaPziNM

AT THIS ADDRESS ^^^^^^

Screen Grabs - Why i did what i did.

I screen grabbed these shots of a mac at school but they wouldn't upload straight onto my blogger so i ended up having to screenshot them again on my desktop at home. Which is why it looks like a Mac screen and a Windows Desktop screen at the same time. I will list some of the programmes here to give you some insight of what i used and how i used it. 

After Effects: An Apple Mac Programme that i used whilst editing some of my clips. 

This is the converting programme i used so i was able to make my file small enough to put on youtube. The programme was simply called 'Converter'.

This is AfterEffects loading up and my folder in the background with all my files and saved work in.

My finished Poster! I used black and white for this because i wanted to give the band a novice sort of theme as they aren't particularly popular in real life. My poster is advertising my album and not my 'Single' from my main task, however the crocodile still features and it reads 'Featuring Stupidly Happy' just above the crocodile's head giving the main image meaning and so people understand why the crocodile is there.

This is my album cover, i used flowers as they are colourful and they suit the band's style and mood of music. I chose the album name to be 'Little Town in Sheffield' as this was an abstract sort of name and i thought i could make it sound like they were loyal to their home ground and they didn't leave their safe creche much. Also an album name like this would promote the fact that the band aren't particularly big, but they have big intentions. There is small colourful writing at the top of the cd case 'The Award Winning Album' i thought this would be a good finishing touch as it could be any award but it still looks good and its in sync with the colour code on the rest of the album case. 

This is 'Final Cut Pro', a programme that i used for editting my main music video task. This programme may look complicated but it is infact very simple to use. You simply drop your desired files into the timeline bar and start your editing. You can use all different types of tools and effects. The tools you may use are located on the bottom right of the screen grab, these tools include a razor blade for chopping up video files to make them smaller and easier to use. The effects are located in more or less the same place as where you keep all you files, in the big box top left. The effects vary greatly, from page peels and cross dissolves to split up scenes, too lighting and sound effects for making you video appear smoother and better shot. There were two seperate viewing windows, one for viewing your whole timeline, and the other for simply viewing individual clips when you are deciding what to put where. 

The screen grab above shows my video converter again. It also shows my 16GB pendrive that i had to use to make the transportation of all of my files possible.

This is my folder on my school computer, you can see on this small screen grab just how many files that i used and saved. Most of these files however are video clips from my original filming, there are around 40-50 different clips.

The back cover of my CD case. It may appear as if i used a very arbitrary assortment of different words. However i did think about it carefully. Each song name was there for a reason, 'Old Mine' gives the CD the effect i was talking about before, it all being very local and just a small town thing. However i thought i could also liven the Album up with track names such as Bananarama and Beige, these being names that give alot of food for thought. As you can see with the main image on the back cover i thought i might aswell follow the same theme as the front cover, it would be stupid not too, this is just an extreme close up of some flowers that i thought look beautiful and colourful. 

After Effects. A programme i used for editing in Cartoony sort of bits too my final piece. I thought i could also make it look a little bit like a scrab book by adding in what looked like sellotape and also making it look like i had hurredly cut the images out with a pair of scissors. The beauty of this effect was that the clips were all obviously still moving so it looked like a sort of magical book page. 

This (above) is another shot of Final Cut Pro where there is a small box in the middle that says 'Rendering', unfortunately this was one of the more annoying things about my media coursework, every time i added in a file and started editing it, it needed to be rendered, which, depending on the size of the file, could sometime even take up to 10 minutes as i was also on a very slow PC.

Last but not least, a screen grab of The effects on final cut Pro.

Planning

I originally had an idea that i could have my friend dancing in the crocodile suit in the middle of the busiest street in Jersey 'King Street', due to a few complications though this could not happen. In hindsight its probably a good thing aswell as people would just get in the way of the shot, it just wouldn't have worked.

This is a small story board showing my idea of the revolving door right at the end of my video outside the swimming pool when the Crocodile sees the water he truly loves. 

A story board showing my idea to have the Crocodile driving in his car. 

This shows the real technicality of the work i was doing right down to the seconds i had to fit my clips in and where i was going to put what.

There were some ideas i had that i never used, such as going to the Zoo, we weren't allowed in.. I thought this was utterly ridiculous at the time (and still do) as it was for an important school project. 

As you can see here are some of my ideas, i was going to go to the gym with the crocodile and have him running on a treadmill but there are strict policies at the gym about having  safe equipment, again we weren't allowed. 

Here are my Story Boards with some illustrations showing how i planned my media task and showing what shots i wanted to use at what point in the video. It also shows my desired locations and destinations for my filming. Some of the things planned on my story board i never actually did due to complications. 

PROBLEMS that i faced along my epic media journey of 2010 and 2011

Jersey's local zoo Durrell didn't let us in to film which ruined a very large party of my idea.

I faced numerous problems with uploading onto my school computer due to a problem with Toast which was the uploading programme that we all had to use.

The weather was often very poor in the winter so filming itself was actually a bit of an issue.

There was a part of my filming that i had planned but could not carry out because there was a group of young boys jumping and throwing themselves in front of the camera too purposefully prevent me from being able to record. This all happened outside the AquaSplash which is one of Jersey's local swimming pools. Alot of people's parents send their kids there because they have literally nothing else to do with them whilst they start some early Sunday Afternoon drinking sessions, idiots.

Here are some screen shots of the programmes i used and some shots of my final pieces

Evaluation

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

My music video challenges the conventions of real media products and existing videos by the fact that it is nearly all narrative. Most music videos have multiple band shots and a lot of lip syncing whereas I thought it would be more useful if I used a mainly narrative approach to my music video as it is someone carrying out their daily activities dressed up as a crocodile. However my music video also follows the conventions of real media products by the fact that there is a main character, decent film shots, continuity editing an easily identifiable story line. Both of my ancillary tasks follow the conventions of real media products by having one main image and a clear, bold masthead.


My Album Case challenges the conventions of real media products by the fact that it has a fairly little amount of information, all i have used for the cover is about seven words and and the big beautiful main image.

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

For my Ancillary tasks I believe there is a more effective combination between the poster and the music vid than the cd album case and the music vid. For the album case I have used a colourful picture of some flowers whereas for the magazine advert I have used a picture of the crocodile so it obviously links in better with the video itself. In a sense there is a great combination between by ancillary tasks and my main video because i believe the imagery and setting of my work all evokes the same theme, which would be pastoral country side kind of images for the most part. It also very obviously portrays the 'Fun' theme.

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have learnt a great deal from my audience feedback, I have found out what specific people like what music and how many people like each genre. I have also learnt that I could have spent more time on planning my editing so I could have got my shots in a better order. Some of my friends said that my editing looked like it may have been slightly rushed and that I could have taken more time in deciding what I was 
going to do with each shot and what meaning it would serve.


I have also learnt from my audience feedback that i could have used a guitar aswell as a vocalist and a drummer in my music video main task. After showing people my poster many were curious as to why it was in black and white, but their questions were quickly answered and i am happy that i used this technique as i have said before i believe it helps with showing the true nature of my band. XTC. 




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




I used many different media programme's from photo uploaders to editting photos and videos. I greatly enjoyed developing and homing my skills at editing my music video as i can use these skills in later life for making compilations of various activities. I used a programme called Toast for uploading my video footage, this is the only programme that i actually had a distinct problem with as it was cutting out small bits of my footage so i had to re-shoot a couple of things which made continuity difficult. For my media project last year i used iMovie, this year however i used Final Cut Pro, i have now realised that final cut is simply a far more advanced programme where you are capable of many different effects suck as cartoon images and text to follow things around on screen. My favourite part of this assignment was definitely once i got editing. As i was putting all my footage together and lip syncing on final cut i realised that the project had all been totally worth it and i have also discovered an underlying love for media. I have used a video camera for a few interviews whilst evaluating my final piece and ancillary tasks, i am yet to upload the videos but this is because they are currently in the wrong format. 

Planning my tasks

I organized myself well and decided to get my filming done very early so I had maximum time to edit my music video and so I wouldn’t be pushed for time close to the deadline. I enjoyed planning my task in the form of story boards. I was worried at first that I may not be able to find a dependable person to rely on for my filming but sure enough a friend helped me out and I could get going.

While planning my filming I decided that I would use many different shots and that I would film far more footage than I needed so I would have a lot to choose from. To film my main footage I used a camera that I borrowed from school after leaving a £5 deposit. I used my dad’s high quality tri-pod for steady shots and easy camera movement without making my footage look tacky and un organized.

I filmed my music video in the winter so it was hard to find any kind of decent weather which was irritating as my music video has a happy theme and the weather almost always helps to evoke the mood of the piece.

I asked my friend josh to answer a few questions about my video which I will upload in video form later on in my blog.

My teacher suggested that for the editing we should use a programme called ‘Final Cut Pro’ which was great and it helped me to be able to edit with ease, I could also use lip syncing techniques to give my video a really professional look. For my ancillary tasks I decided that I would use Photoshop on the Apple Mac because if I used this it would enable me to be able to chop and change my original photos to make them look brighter, higher quality, and just generally different.    

Planning The Main Task

In the planning of my main task i designed story boards so i could plan out the different shots i was going to use and so i could get some idea of what would go where and how long my clips and video would have to be so it could all fit together nicely. I felt that my planning stage went well and that it helped me in understanding some of the computer programmes for both Windows and Apple Mac. I completed two story boards for my first idea, but these became useless as i then went on to change my idea to a completely different subject and song.

I started out by filling out a story board (by hand) for my new idea, a normal guy waking up and starting to prepare for a normal day, but then suddenly being overcome by a happy sort of sensation. I believe that the crocodile suit that features for most of my video resembles the mans happiness and joy.

I had a lot of fun shooting my video as me and my friend got many funny looks and comments regarding the strange and colourful crocodile suit as we walked through a sometimes very busy town on a Saturday afternoon.

Target Audience Questionnaire Results

For my target audience i handed out questionnaires so i could get some real and accurate results that would benefit me in finding out a few extra things for the making of my music video. 

I handed out a questionnaire to a class of year 10 students at my school. Around 15 of them actually bothered to fill out my questionnaire and so here are my results in the form of a pie chart. 

Filming

For my filming i had to find a friend that would commit many hours of their own time into filming all the different shots. For this i used Connor-Jay Hughes as i knew he would be loyal and I could depend upon his assistance. Many of the ideas i had would take courage and confidence on his behalf and his help ended up being priceless, my filming process wouldn't have been the same without him. Thank you Connor.