Directors Commentary - Blog Version

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

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.

Sam Brown's Evaluation

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

Our media product's are all for the song "Strange" by JLS. The first product is our music video for the song, the second is a Digipack cover and the last being a magazine advertisement. We kept all of our products consistent and kept them conventional to the pop music genre.

Our first product, the music video, definately conforms to the conventions of real media products. We made thisconform to conventions because we wanted it to be aimed at the target audiece of the product which is young female's between the ages of 12-18. The video conforms to conventions by using a rane of shot types, such as Close-ups, long shots, pans and zooms, as well as more, to allow the audience to see the band both individually and all together as a group. This also conforms to the record label's needs as they want the audience to be able to recognise each individual member of the band. The music video also uses locations that would be traditionally found in a pop/boy band song, such as the hall and field locations that we used. We kept both of the locations in throughout the video in order to keep a nice variety throughout and to not allow the audience to get bored of any one location. We also used conventional costumes by simply wearing hoodies and all wearing distinct different colours. This way each band member wold have their own distinct look whilst still confroming to the conventions of the genre. We also used editing techniques similar to those in the genre, such as using black and white filters and using cross fades.

Our Digipack Cover, conformed to conventions also. This has been done by making it similar to our music video. To make it similar to our video we used the same location for the cover as we did in the video, namely the forest location. We also wore the exact same costumes for the cover photo as we did in the video. We used a graident to change from colour on the front to black and white on the back, with the transition being on the spine. We thought that since we used black and white in our video it would be appropriate to use it hear as well. We took screen shots of our music video and put them in a column on the back cover of the digipack, this was partly done to show a clear relation of the video to the digipack, since the main cover picture was not taken from the video. We tried to make the text as plain as possible so that it was easy for the user to read and as this also conformed to conventions. With the exception of the word "Strange" which was done in a different font in order to make it stand out on the cover. Although this also matched conventions as we had seen iot done before. All in all we tried to make the digipack cover look as conventional as possible and I think that we succeeded in doing so.

I think that our magazine advert did not conform to the conventions of pop and boy band style music videos. I think this mainly because the whole poster is in black and white, whereas they are usually portrayed with nice vibrant colours, to make it stand out on the page. The advert also used text that I don't think would usually be found on a pop advert aimed at female teens. Such as the line "With exclusive content from the lads." I don't think that this line would be found on a conventional advertisement as it does not relate to how young teenage females would communicate with eachother and so alienates them. The bordering used on the image does not match anything we used in our video and so does not relate very well there either. however I do think that the quote and rating do match conventions and that they along with the price and Amazon labels were done well.

Overall I think that we did well to match the conventions of the pop and boy band genres with the only exception being our magazine advertisement.

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

I think that the combination of our ancillary texts and main products was done very well.

The combination of the music video and the digipack cover was done well, I think this because we used simialar effects in both. They both used combinations of black and white filters with colour. On the digipack cover this was done with a gradient spreading across the front and back cover. On the video this was done by overlapping both black and white and colour clips. They both also use the same locations and costumes for the boy band. The digipack cover also uses screen shots directly from the video as images on the back cover. I think that the digipack cover depicts the video well.

I think that the combination of the music video and the magazine advert was decent but could have been better. The use of a screenshot of the end of our music video was a good idea and worked well in relating the two articles. The two items could have been better related although this could be partly because of the choice to leave the image as the primary focus of the image instead of adding in lotes of little details around it.
For example there is not much text on the advertisement. I think that keeping the magazine advert plain when the digipack cover was full of information was a poor choice and I would change it if I were to do this task again. Overall I think that the magazine advert could have related a lot better to the music video but that given the time we had to create it a good job was done in making all three items relate to each other as well as still relating to the pop genre.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

the audience did not give much negative feedback. The audience commented that our lip synching was the definately done well. I did, however, learn that we should have used more locations. I think that the use of two locations was good to inspire a use of a variety of locations but i agree that one more location would have worked in our video, and was originally planned. However due to time constraints we could not get all of the locations and shots that we wanted. The audience also said that we all acted as a boy band very well. The audience did state that our costumes were not "boy band" enough which is partly true. It would have been better if we had all worn similar brnaded clothing as this would have conformed to conventions better. The audience did state that we did not show the use of a narrative well enough. This comment is pointless however as we did not use a narrative in our video.

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

Media technologies were used in all of our products via:

• photoshop: This was used to create our ancillary tasks. The use of photshop was vital in order to create both of these products as we used tools that only an IMP of that stature can supply such as gradients and selection tools as well as layering and masking our products.
• Final Cut: This was definately needed in order to edit our music video. The tools of this software are very good and without them our music video would not have looked half as good. The use of the filters, transitions, cuts, audio and video manipulation, as well as others, all together led to the creation of our product.
• Handheld HD digital camera/ Tripod: These were needed in order to get still high quality shots for our video. Without them our video would not have been as high of a quality or as well shot and executed.
• Handheld still shots cameras: These were needed in order to take the pictures for our ancillary tasks.

In our research and planning stages we took into account the use of all of these technologies and how we could implement them to the best of our abilities to create a high quality product. We knew that we would be using photoshop and final cut so we all made sure that we had experience in using those programs to edit beforehand.

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.

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

What We Did Today - 14/11/2011

Today we completed the editing process. We added another split screen so just one didn't look random as well as desaturating some of the clips to add anther dimension to our video. We edited minor issues as well to make the video look more refined and professional.

Rough Cut Footage

What we Did Today - 9th November

Today we finished editing the whole of the sequence in final cut. This included all the changes that Amar suggested. Next lesson (Monday) we need to colour correct our video and we will be finished the editing process.

Amar's Feedback

Amar gave us some great feedback about our video. He gave us a detailed but concise list of things that would help us improve our video.

Content he liked:

• The performances
• The un-seriousness towards the end
• Location choices
• Splitscreen
• Transition choices
• "Cheesy" in a good way

Improvements suggested:

• Use more cross disolves in the verses to give the chorus more punch
• Add more of the forest location to keep it in the video
• Condense the timeline
• Use another split screen so just one doesn't look random
• Take off breaking glass effect

Todays Tasks: 9/11/2011

Today we need to finish the editing process. We have 50 seconds of the song left to finish, as well as adding colour corrections and filters.
Should we not finish (although we probably will) we have tonight's open evening to finish editing. Monday we will commence writing our evaluations and our digipak.

What We Did Today - 7th November

Today we spent the whole lesson editing. We have managed to work through just over a minute of the song and have nearly finished. We have done some research into creating a glass smashing effect and if we have enough time will add it in towards the end of editing. We also did research into and managed to implement a split screen effect into the video.

Attempt to Contact the Artist

Being an avid fan of twitter, i thought that twitter would be the best way to try to contact JLS. So I messaged the boys via Twitter..

I will update the blog if i get a response.