Evaluation of another groups directors commentary

T2-42

We feel that their directors commentary could have appeared more professional by using more cuts to edit out mistakes made in the speech, and perhaps use more special effects.

We think it was good that they used clips of their video in their commentary however we think that they could have used more and maybe explained them in more detail.

We think that it's good that they covered all the questions however they could have answered in more detail and maybe made the product longer.

Q1-08 

We think that this is a really good, professional directors commentary, we think this because they have spoken in detail about their products.  They have also included lots of their work as examples, and other images to back up their ideas.  We also like how they used black white whilst talking, this made the commentary easier to understand and therefore the images stood out more.   

However, we thought that the commentary was a bit too long, and viewers might loose interest towards the end, but they did include many effects and visuals which would keep the audience interested. 

What we did today 08/12/11

Today we finished our directors commentary and uploaded it to the blog.

We also analysed two other groups music videos from the long road music video youtube account and wrote them up on the blog.

We checked through all out blog posts to check that everything was up to date, posted and that each post was tagged correctly.

Directors Commentary - Blog Version

This is our final director's commentary which will go on our digi-pack. 

Analysis of another group's video

Music Video Analysis: R1-16 


When we were watching this music video we thought that the locations they used were really good and we really liked the London shots, this shows good effort.  There was also a good variety of shots which made the music video more interesting.  Their costume changes were good and fitted well with the genre.


However, we think that the lip-syncing could have been better and also there wasn't much of a narrative and what there was didn't really make sense.  Some shot durations were too long which could to the audience getting uninterested.  


Overall we feel that they made good effort but the narrative and editing could have been a bit better.  

Analysis of another group's music videos

Music video for

KEKE J FINAL CUT R115

Watching this music video, we saw a good range of techniques that fitted the genre really well.

As part of the mise-en-scene the costume was stereo-typical of that genre, as was the location and lighting.  There was a lot of good shot variation which made the music video more interesting to watch.  Also the shots between the narrative and the lip syncing was well balanced and told a good story relevant to the genre.  

As part of Goodwin's Points, the video fitted the lyrics and the music because of the editing techniques they used such as fades and dissolves which really fit with the lyrics.  They also related to goodwin's points by using intertextuality with the mobile phone because this was quite a big part to the narrative.  

We also thought that the continuity was very good and it was obvious that they spent a good amount of time on filming and editing the music video, and thought it through well so it fitted the genre well.

    

Things we could have improved on

We realised that there are certain aspects of our group work that could have been done better:

• We didn't stick to our storyboard whilst creating the music video this was because we had a lack of willing participants to be in our music video, we also had many time constraints due to some group members being absent. 
• We didn't stick to our shot list whilst creating the music video although we did manage to get the majority of the shots some were left out due to the lack of willing participants to act.
• We didn't communicate very well as a group this could show in some of our work as it didn't come out as well as we would have liked.
• The script for our directors commentary did not give everyone equal standing in how they portrayed their own evaluation and how much each person was given to say.
• Because of time given to record, we couldn't include the acting scenes as we didn't have enough footage and the actors were not always available in our filming time due to other commitments.

What we did on 01/12/11

On thursday we filmed our directors commentary. It went okay and out timing was good and we managed to get it all done in our time slot with time to spare.
We also uploaded the footage on this day.

What we did today 07/12/11

Today we finished the editing of our directors commentary. We didn't get as much done as we'd hoped because of time issues, and also because on Monday's lesson the editing didn't go to plan. Also, because there was only three group members it was harder to get as many ideas and make it better.

What We Did Today - 1/12/2011

Today we practiced for, and filmed our directors commentary in the media studio. We also uploaded our footage onto final cut.

Holly's Evaluation

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

Our media product uses, develops and challenges different forms and conventions of real media products in a variety of different ways.  Before we started planning the media product, we had to do some research, because our genre was R&B/Pop, and was a typical boyband song, we looked at a variety of different artists such as JLS (themselves) and how they present themselves, Take That and Westlife.  We looked at the type of clothing they wear, we looked at some of their videos, in which we looked at the micro and macro elements, and we thought about how they had encorporated Goodwin's Points.  Our song choice was that of a typcical boyband song, in which we tried to make the music video and ancillary tasks look as professional as possible, in a way that would appeal to our audience (young teenage girls, maybe older women).  Throughout the music video we have tried to encorporate Goodwin's Points, which are; links between lyrics and music, links between lyrics and visuals, genre characteristics, intertextual reference, notions of looking, performance, narrative and concept based and finally demands from the record label.  I think that we have attempted for our media product to encorporate at least most of the points.  However, I think that some of Goodwins Points could have been done to a better standard, for example genre characteristics, we have tried to make the music video look cheesy and typical and be sterotypical, and I think that the locations and shot types work well, however I do think that the boys could have looked more like a boyband so they could have each had their own colour or worn matching t-shirts.  I also think that our media product uses Goodwin's Point of performance, narrative and concept based well, because our music video is performed, even though we don't really have a narrative, the performance makes up for it and we found that alot of boyband videos don't have a particular narrative to them.

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

The combination of our main product and ancillary texts work well as a promotional package,they do his by encorporating many of the same features, such as the same font on both ancillary texts, this shows that the media product has good Housestyle and when people see one of the ancillary tasks, they will automatically think of our music video and JLS as a boyband.  The image that we have tried to encorporate is that they are a sterotypical boyband, with the longing looks on their faces and them looking into the distance.  We have tried to make all 3 look like a promotional package by using images from our music video and we have used a picture for our magazine advert (the 3 boys walking away) from the music video.  When we wre doing our digi-pak it took us a while to find a suitable picture that fitted the shape of the dvd cover, therefore after trying out different images from the video we took in some advice from Holly and Nick and took a picture of the band in the forest setting (remembering to have continuity - wearing same clothes) - this worked much better, and the image that I feel we have created from our 3 products is that they are a typical boyband.

3) What have you learnt from your audience feeback?

Our feedback from our initial pitch wasn't as good as we had planned, mainly because our group found it hard to come up with suitable, sensible ideas.  We decided we either did a really 'cheesy pop boyband video' or a 'spoof video', I wasn't keen on the idea of a 'spoof video', but the group agreed and we decided to go with the typical 'cheesy' boyband video.  I think that this idea worked well.  When we presented our initial pitch to the class, they wanted to know if we had any intertextual references, where our locations would be and how we were going to make it conventional.  Our feedback from our rogh cut was mainly good, and people enjoyed the video, however, we hadn't quite finished the video and we didn't have enough footage, we were told that we should film some more, and in a different location, to film some more of the actors part (which we ended up taking out as this proved to be a difficult subject as the actor and actress were never free when we were and we ended up not having enough time to shoot out of lesson), so we had to delete this and fill it with some other footage.  We were also told that we should put in some split screens and add filters and colour effects.  I'm pleased that we went and shot in different locations as this gave us more footage and shot types.  Our feedback from our final cut was very pleasing, it showed that our hard work had paid off because everyone seemed to enjoy it, they especially thought that our lip syncing was very good and thought that we used a good variety of camera shots.  I think that the music video came out much better than we had all expected.

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

Throughout our music video project we have used a variety of different technologies, we have used Final Cut, Photoshop and Blogger as well as the video camera and still camera.  We used Final Cut to produce the music video and we edited our music video on this as well.  Also on Final Cut we made our directors commentary and edited it.  We used Photoshop to create the two ancillary tasks, the magazine advert and digi pak, this proved to be one of the hardest new media technologies to use as not many of us had experience from it, but we all contributed with ideas but some of us were better than others at using it.  We used Blogger to record our research and planning stages as well as to upload the rough cut music video and final video as well as the 2 ancillary tasks and of course to show our evaluation.  We used the video camera to film all of our footage, and we used the stills cameras to take the photo for our digi pak, all of these new media technologies proved to be key in making sure we had a successful product.

What is a directors commentary? (Homework)

A Director's Commentary:

An audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a talk or comments by one or more people. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members, an example would be on a DVD where the director might talk about how he made the film.

There are several different types of commentary. The two main types simply define the length of the commentary rather than the type of content. They are:

• Partial or scene-specific, which only covers selected scenes of the film. Sometimes these are recorded without the speaker viewing the film and thus the commentator may make more general comments than pointing out specific details.
• Feature-length or screen-specific, which is recorded in one session: the speakers watch the movie from beginning to end and give their thoughts directly based on what is happening on-screen.

Typically a commentary track will include feature-length commentary from the film's director, cast members, or occasionally writers and producers.

Plan for the rest of term

Now that we are drawing to an end, and have finished the music video and ancillary tasks, we have to concentrate on other things such as the evaluation and our director's commentary.

The 4 Evaluation Questions are:

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 texts?

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

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

On Mondays lesson (28th) we will be answering these questions (above), on Wednesdays lesson (which is cancelled) we have to type up the times response onto the blog and prepare our script. And then on the Thursday which is the 1st December we will be filming the script in a time slot of 45 mins (in classroom D2 from 3:25 - 4:10).  Then on the monday (5th December) we will be editing, the wednesday of that week is the deadline for editing, and then on the thursday of that week we have time for some peer feedback. 
12th December onwards - time to finalise the blog.
16th December (Friday) - we get to watch everyones music video at the Picturehouse in Cambridge!

We have a short time to fit alot in, but it can and will be done!

What we have been up to in our lessons this week

In our 3 lessons this week and Thursdays last week (17th) we had to complete the two Ancillary Tasks we were given, which consisted of a Magazine Advert and a Digi-Pack.

We started with the Digi-Pack as we thought this would take the longest, we thought up some ideas but when we tested them out on the template they didn't turn out as well as we thought they would, one idea that the group liked was with a tree/leaves background but we needed to put the 3 boys on the front cover and we couldn't make the product look professional enough, so we decided to go out and shoot some still images, trying to keep with the same theme, we managed to do this and got some good pictures.  We used an outside shot near a tree with the boys all staggered, we flipped the image on Photoshop and they fitted on the front with the leaves and trees in the background and on the back image, this idea took us a while to come up with, but I think that it was worth taking still shots because the product looks much more professional than if we had cropped out the boys from a part in the video.

For our Magazine Advert, we had a little less trouble, as there was less space to fill and we already had the image from the video which we wanted to be on the front, which was of all 3 boys walking away from the camera.  The magazine advert took a shorter amount of time to complete but we still think that it was successful.

Both ancillary tasks were completed on Photoshop, some of the group had worked on it before and some hadn't, I had used it before but wasn't very confident on the program, but I still knew the basics which was what mattered most.

I think that in the time in which we were given we completed the ancillary tasks to a high standard.

Digi Pack - Ancillary

Here is our final Digi Pack cover, which was one of two ancillary tasks we had to complete, we looked at other artists digi packs for ideas such as Robbie Williams, and we have tried to make the product look as professional as possible.  We did this product on Photoshop which did prove to be slightly challenging as only some of the group were confident with using it, but we all contributed ideas and took into account feedback from our peers.  And we believe that the outcome is successful.

Magazine Advert - Ancillary

This is the first of our ancillary tasks completed, the magazine advert.  We have tried to make the final product as professional as possible by using quotes, rating it, including a price, and even adding a QR Code which is one of the newest technologies which is being used.  Some of us were more confident than others on Photoshop, but we all contributed various ideas and took into account any feedback which was given.

Shcedule For Next Few Weeks

23rdth Nov: Digi-pak editing

24th Nov: Digi-pak editing 

28th Nov: Timed response to the evaluation questions.

30th Nov: No lessson. Type responses onto the blog. 

1st Dec: Filming Presentation Script - D2 3.25-4.10

5th Dec: Editing director commentary

7th Dec: Editing (deadline)

8th Dec: Peer feedback of directors commentary

12th Dec: Finalizing blog.

Ideas For Digi-Pak

Images we are thinking about using for DVD Cover..

Image that we plan on using for the magazine advert

Analysing Student Digi-Paks

We are analysing a student digi-pak that used the running theme of a derelict area and graffiti.

The video featured showed a derelict area with two main artists graffitiing the area. The colour filters and the lighting combined creates a somewhat dire theme as well, dark and dreary.

The DVD cover features both actors in the video next to a grubby white background which is graffitied which matches the theme of the video. The inner cover of the dvd is similar, however it only shows the grubby-white graffiti background. The back cover also features the features of the DVD as well as the BFCC certification, barcode and DVD PAL logo. The spine of the cover was plain black with a plain white text.

The magazine advert had a thick black border on the top and bottom blended into a picture of the derelict area and grubby-white graffitied walls. This matches the visual theme running through the video and DVD cover. The text in the black background is white and the same text on the spine of the DVD, which shows good continuity. The magazine advert shows the general conventions of the adverts with a star-rating, where to purchase the DVD from and release date.

Response to feedback of final edit

The feedback that we received from the group was consistent in both the good and somewhat few negative points. We believe from our feedback that we have successfully created a good music video.

The negative feedback that we received (in some places we think irrelative) was fair. The main point being that our costumes were not "boyband" enough. If we had the chance to re-do our video we would definitely co-ordinate ourselves better so that we do have better style costumes. In response to the comments on explanation to narrative, we purposely created our video so there was no narrative. However, we could have created a narrative if we wanted to and if thats what our audience wanted to see then we could add a narrative next time.

Final Edit - Music Video - JLS Strange