Evaluation Question Four

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

Throughout planning to make my music video I researched many others mainly using YouTube, using the similar suggestions that the website makes based on my view history which helped me find music videos of similar genres to what I was researching.

Music channels also supply constant streams of music videos

that I was able to analyse to help me learn the conventions and iconic mise en scene of genres. The channels that are relevant to my bands style are Kerrang and Scuzz.

Another aspect that helped me get a more rounded understanding of bands and how they market their ‘package’ was their websites. I looked at these and related them to the ideas that they use in their music videos, reinforcing the main genre conventions and ideologies. Later this helped me produce my Digipak and advertisement as the visuals on the websites often link closely with their advertisements and CD covers.

In the planning stage of my music video I used photographs and sketches to make a storyboard using Cinemek storyboarding software. This software helped me create and put together my ideas according to how I could represent them easiest - using sketches and photos. In planning the rest of my music video I put together shot lists, mood boards, notes on lighting and floor plans. For this I used little technology other than Microsoft word.

The track for my music video was frequently performed live but had not been recorded. Luckily I already had some appropriate equipment and software for the job. Using various microphones and having many takes, we got what we thought was a good recording. I could only do this as easily as I did by choosing a local band that I knew. When filming my music video I used High Definition Cameras. Although these were much better quality than the ones I had used for my Thriller opening, the computers at school could not cope with the size of the files editing was made impossible. Therefore I had to convert the clips to standard definition for all of my footage for my music video, this took overnight. I had many issues with editing footage and I believe this was mainly due to my laptop being a bit knackered. It would not accept most video file formats (which are usually fine). I initially edited on my laptop for convenience but progress was too slow and frustrating so I began to edit on another computer I have at home. This limited my productivity in class and so I then took the video (in progress) to school where I then edited there. Editing on adobe premier pro was another challenge considering that I mainly used elements for my thriller. But I got used to the new layout in no time. Once edited, because I wanted to automate the soundtrack to fit the shots within the music video, I then took the video back home where I then imported it into Cubase 5 with a copy of the soundtrack which I edited accordingly, exported and then uploaded to YouTube. When I recorded the instruments and mixed the edit I compressed the track to get a more professional sound. After this I then automated the track alongside the video.

With the software that I had for editing I could play with ideas for transitions. This included adding fades and overlaying video clips at varying opacities. This creates more dynamic shots and add varying pace to the video. I took advantage of other editing techniques such as changing the levels and colours in the footage. I used black and white settings on some of the shots in my video also.

I wanted to use manual focus for one of the shots introducing the vocals in the video. To do this I had to use my own camera instead of the ones that I was provided with at school. This was still not ideal but it did work and I managed to get the effect that I wanted.

I have evaluated my work basing it on feedback from comments on YouTube and from questionnaire style messages about my video on Facebook (question 3) These are both effective methods which enable me to assess how well my video appealed to its au

dience. On YouTube my video has had nearly 200 views and the band has incorporated the music video onto both their YouTube channel (where it has had 166 more views) and their own website. This free distribution is one thing that is changing the media industry.

YouTube was a very interesting tool which helped me in my research of music videos. This is because YouTube allows you to see statistics about videos, data and information from which you can tell whether videos are popular, where they are viewed and how many times they have been viewed. In the picture here you can see the views and likes, but other statistics are available but hidden.

Final CD cover idea. :)
This is where my front and back cover came from. I saw this at school and thought that the angular lines and mechanical image looked perfect to connote an industrial and lifeless image.

Another Front cover idea

This idea Is of the end of a cargo container. This industrial image looks fantastic in black and white and I will test it as a cover using photoshop to put the bands name on the cargo container door. This connotes industrial security and separation. This links the cover to similar connotations to my other cover ideas.

Back cover idea?

This image I think connotes technology and the potential expanse (the big bang) that the cover represents. The black and white adds a lifeless sense of opposition, contrast and hene juxtaposition between the bands 'beliefs' and the culture of today and how issues such as the government are bringing controversy and disruption.

Looking at fonts for my digipak..

The font below is my favourite so far from what I have looked at for my bands digipak. The strong angular lines give a strong, intustrial and intense image, promoting the serious connotations of anger, war and detachment from emotion (helped along by the bands name).





This font below I liked the idea of but I think it could easily look quite tacky and too futuristic and technology orientated to be taken seriously.

(please click on the image of the text below, I lost internet while trying to post this work and the only form of save I had was a lucky last minute print screen)

be appropriate for my digipak if they do not prove to be too exentric/extrovert.

Ideas

This is another idea that I have had to convey imagery of technology and how it links to science - This screen 'fuzz' is supposedly because of the big bang which relates to evolution and the constant exprension and progression. This progression represents the constant human desire to constantly move on, to upgrade, to advance - The Upgrade.

The name of the album ‘version 1.0’ could represent the human desire for change, not wanting to stand still, constantly moving on to new forms. This is because ‘version 1.0’ suggests more versions are to come, such as ‘version 1.3’ or ‘version 2.0’ which also denotes that this is just the beginning. This reflects technology itself, the background being a TV, as the technology we have discovered so far may only be the first version, ‘version 1.0’, of what is soon to come. However, the static of the TV may represent a more sinister idea about technology, that we are blank, mindless, repetitive drones who are simply following technology. The static gives feelings of absence, which suggests that our personalities are absent and have been replaced by technology.

CD cover development ideas

This cover - Only Revolutions by Biffy Clyro is a very open picture with a low horizon - much like that of my picture below, doing this creates space and atmosphere. The ambiguity of the red and blue sheets in the wind add to the artistic element of this cover. The fire in the background also hints a more generic connotation of the Rock genre and how it is defined and refined from rebellion. I hope to achieve a similar effect with the development of this picture - one of my original ideas:

This cover below - Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers has a sense of augmented/messed up reality. This concept suggests a difference and an originality. This also represents a suggestion of the artists opinion being of surrealism and a world turned upside down - we therefore anticipate this in their music. This idea suits The Upgrades style and connotations within their lyrics (in B.N.R.F for example) with the addition of a political and industrial sense. I used this idea, developing my favorite original idea (because of its strong industrial links) to create the image below the Californication cover.

To make the image above, I used the clone stamp tool to remove the copied and inverted smaller rig to remove the complete symmetry of the image to remove the cheap sense of 'copy and paste' I then merged the background layers and then selected a strip in the middle which I then used the 'enhance' options to make the middle strip black and white - these colours suit the lifeless and industrial image fitting the name and style of music. The title I had as a separate layer so that I can experiment with font, placing and the title its self.