Final Video and Rejected Footage

This is the link to our final video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOOA25LIucg

A couple of the shots we rejected are shown directly after our video. There were many other shots that we cut out and decided not to use however we could not get hold of them when trying to get them together at the end. Here are the ones we managed to save...

This shot was initially going to be used as a filler shot through one of the instrumental sessions. We chose not to include it as we hadn't realised until editing our video you could not actually see the guitar very clearly at all. The shot was supposed to give another rustic feel to the video and carry on exploring the theme of freedom. Although the lighting works well and the nature incorporated from the lake looks beautiful - this shot would look better as a still photograph rather than a clip from the video.

This shot was supposed to be a further shot establishing the theme of love and lust. The idea of the shot was for the girl to be walking behind the lead singer (Kris) without him being aware. He then hears something and captures a glimpse of the girl, however he is too slow to catch her before she disappears. Not enough time or focus was given on this shot and this is why we chose not to include it. It became too unclear as to what was going on and at first seems quite hard to actually see that Kris is sat in the shot (he camouflages with the tree).

Evaluation

In order to evaluate my final media production, I aim to answer each of the four following questions with the use of Microsoft Powerpoint, please click on a question for the link to the Powerpoint document...

1. In what ways does your video 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 learned from your audience feedback?

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of all your products?

Shooting Diaries

Tuesday 18th January:

Unfortunately due to poor weather conditions we couldn't go to our set location to shoot today, however we managed to find a similar setting near to college and decided to get our base shots done here. We found that as it was our first time filming, we couldn't get us much done as we'd anticipated and decided to carry on the next week. For today's session I was in charge of the camera as all other members of my group were involved as actors. I found it difficult at first to get used to using the equipment but once a few shots had been done, it quickly became very simple. I filmed many of the group shots and single shots of the boys walking through the forest.

Tuesday 25th January:

We decided that we may as well stick to the same location as before to shoot today so that there was not a noticeable change in the scenery.We focused on individual shots of the band members to use as fillers throughout the instrumental parts of the song. To incorporate a range of shots we differentiated between long, short and mid-length shots. As not all the boys were involved in the filming at the same time this week, we took it in turns to shoot. A problem we found was the uneveness of the ground due to it being outdoors. We soon overcame this though by leveling out the tripod till we got it to a steady height. Today I filmed many more of the single shots and we also found a bridge which I filmed some shots of the boys using.

I'd say we're roughly half way through our filming schedule.

Tuesday 1st February:

Due to bad organisation today had to be persponed as one of my group members had forgotten to book a camera! We will carry on filming again next week, when I will ensure a camera is definitely booked!

Tuesday 8th February:

Today we focused on doing the shots of the girl, which became considerably difficult as we came to realise some of our ideas were too farfetched. We overcame this by thinking of new shots we could include that were simple but would look very good. An example of this was by making the girl disapear when one of the band members walked up behind her. I filmed this particular shot and achieved this by pausing the camera when the band member reached her and making the girl get out of the shot and then carried on filming. Towards the end of the shoot, the weather turned and it became too dark for us to carry on. The rest of my group have decided to finish of the filming this Friday.

Friday 11th February:

My group finished off filming today, but unfortunately I had to work so couldn't attend the session. All filming should be done and ready to edit now!

*****

Tuesday 22nd February:

Unfortunately some of our footage was lost, so today we had to retake some of the shots taken from the 4th February. As the girl who we had used could not attend this day I had to step in and play the role. This was a problem as we obviously didn't look alike, however we overcame this by adapting the shots so I was more out of focus and used long shots rather than close ups. I did a small amount of other filming today so we had numerous amounts of shots of the boys on there own we could use as fillers throughout our video.

Fingers crossed all is done now!

Feedback On Digipack and Advert

In order to gain feedback on my Digipack and Advert, I created a group on Facebook called 'A2 Media Studies Feedback' and uploaded pictures of both for people to comment on.

Here is what was said...

Livi Lourens: I've never actually heard of Mumford & Sons, but think the advert looks really cool and works well with the digipack!

Jason Gander: Im a big fan of Mumford & Sons and I think that this really reflects everything the band are about from the colour scheme to the picture... I think it's really good.

Ben Clarke: Maybe keeping the 3 men walking on the right hand side and the text on the left would of been a good idea, but its also good as a change as its not repeating the Digipack cover. Good choice for style of writing, very affective advert.

Jessica Blackman: I really like this advert, gives all the information needed. The colours in this really suit the bands style!

Louisa Seltzer: This also works well with the band's image, especially the font used in the text. However I think the contrast has been slightly over done in the picture. Sorry!

Livi Lourens: I like the way the same picture is used in both to give an image to both the digipack and the advert!

Jason Gander: Even though the colours used are quite subtle I think this is very eye catching. Id definitely buy it.

Ben Clarke: Clear and concise. Even if you have never heard of Mumford & Sons (like me) you can tell what it is due to the easily recognisable layout on the back.

Jessica Blackman: Very clear to be able to read, I really like the fact that the style has followed through to the advert too. This makes the audience know that the advert and digipack are related and about the same thing. I really like the composition of the band on the front cover, something I would think Mumford and Sons would actually do. Great job!

Louisa Seltzer: Love the sepia tones, they work really well here. The picture is also very effective and pretty much sums up the general image of Mumford and Sons.

I am very pleased with the positive feedback I was given and hope to gain similar feedback on my completed music video.

My Final Advert

I decided to base my digipack advert on a similar theme to that used on the digipack so it could be easily recognised and associated back to the band. I copied the same color theme before, only adapting it to make the wording stand out more to attract a readers eye.

I also chose to use the same image used on the outside of my digipack so that it would give one image that reminded fans of the band rather than numerous images. I did, however, edit the image differently encorperating a 'posterized' theme to give the advert a comic edge which is known as something Mumford & Sons often do.

I included aspects from other adverts such as release dates, quotes from magazines and the bands website.

I made sure the languge used was simple, but effective and I think this worked well to portray the image I was trying to present. By encorperating a quote that used taboo language, I think it showed relax in attitude, but also was realistic in what would be said by the quoter.

My Digipack

This is my completed outside for my digipack. I have chosen to use a photo picturing the three members of the band walking away from the camera towards the forest in the distance. A rustic colour scheme using browns, creams and khaki greens were used as these are the typical colours associated with Mumford & Sons.

I decided to follow the theme used on the front onto the back as I realised this commonly occurred when researching into existing digipacks. I also used the same font for the masthead as I did for the track-list. This again seemed to be a popular occurrence in existing digipacks and also gives a sense of familiarity.

All three of the digipacks I analysed didn't number the tracks when listing them on the back of their digipacks. I did not like this as I think that they should have been numbered to make it clearer for the consumer to identify the track they are looking for when playing the disk. I therefore decided to number mine.

I placed the barcode in the bottom right corner to make it easy for a manufacturer to find. Alongside this I included details of the record company.

This is the inside of my digipack. I chose to use a picture that fits with the theme of a woodland area that was shown on the front cover.

The picture was kept the same as it was when originally taken as I felt that the dark shadowing captured was very effective for what I was trying to portray.

I chose to encorperate an award that had been won by the album as well as nominated awards to show the success of the album. I also included quotes from popular newspapers showing feedback from other media sources, and a message from the band thanking it's fans. I chose to do this because they are all common, positive features found on a digipack and they encourage people to buy it.

The making of my digipack...

The photo that was chosen originated as the photo below....

I was not happy with the way this photo was captured and the light exposure so I edited this using Adobe Photoshop.

I then wanted the image to just be a proportion of the screen so went on to edit the photo further by extending the grass and forest area using the clone stamp and brush tool on Adobe Photoshop. The picture below shows a part of the editing process.

This is how it ended up looking...

I then decided to mirror the image the other way so the band were featured on my front cover instead of at the back.

I then decided on a basic sans serif font. Although it seemed pretty basic, it followed the stereotype of font that Mumford & Sons would use.

I chose to use calming, basic colours that also stood out from the background to make sure it was easy for a consumer to read.

I also made sure for legal reasons there were copyright details printed on my digipack.

Digipack

What is a digipack?

A digipak has the size and look of a CD or DVD jewel case but it is made of paper with a plastic tray glued to hold the disk. With a typical clear tray, a digipak has 4-panels for putting the artwork on. One advantage of digipak over jewel case is that it has better shock absorption than jewel case. When a jewel case is dropped it breaks. But a digipak will still be in one piece even if it is dropped.

A promopack is an umbrella term that is used when talking about the diffrent types of promotion used in selling an artist / bands CD or DVD. The promotion would be the how popular the adverts are, along with the posters & the CD / DVD itself. This includes all the TV coverage they receive. They must therefore all be linked in order to portray one image in every media representation. This means that one theme should coincide throughout them all.

Digipacks are a type of CD / DVD packaging made out of card or otherheavy paper materials. Digipacks often flip open just like a book, or they can sometimes have three parts - one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the disk kept in the center portion. In this type of digipack, the portion of the digipack that hold the disk will usually be made of plastic like a traditional jewel case. The plastic part is simply attached to the paper background. Pictures of the band or the general setting from their videos are normally a common theme throughout photos used.

Research into digipacks currently available...

In order for my digipack to follow common conventions of a digipack, I will analyse some existing ones that are available from artists similar to Mumford and Sons.

I will be looking at:

- Images used

- Font / Text used

- Where barcodes are located

- If details of a record label are shown

- Messages from the band / artist

- How the track lists are presented

- If websites are mentioned

Analysis of existing digipacks...

Paolo Nutini - Sunny SideUp

The digipack cover shows a portrait of the artist sat at a breakfast table eating fried eggs (referencing album title). The background introduces a colour theme which is then continued throughout the digipack of yellow, red and green stripes - all three colours are very eye-catching and make the digipack stand out on a shelf.

The masthead showing the artists name and album are in a cartoon font and is the same again throughout the digipack. It is presented in a white font which contrasts well against the colourful background.

The track-list is printed centrally on the back cover in asimilar cartoon, white font used for the masthead. It does not use numbers, just lists the track in order they play.

A small barcode is printed on the ride hand side ofthe back cover along with the artists website and record company details.

Paolo Nutini's genre normally falls into the pop/rock category and I believe that his digipack works well in presenting this too. The bright colours and cartoon pictures all give a pop appeal yet with a rock edge to it too.

James Morrison - Undiscovered

The front cover uses a mid shot of the artist against a subtle / calming background of clouds using grey, white and other very pale colours. This relates well to the genre of the artist being soul / pop and his songs being very relaxing and also the names of his tracks eg. 'Wonderful World'.

A similar subtle / calming background with the same colour scheme is used on the back cover presenting a running theme throughout the digipack.

The masthead is vertically shown on the front cover, in a multi-toned green font along with the digipack name below it. The colours work well with the shades of the artists face in the photograph and are also shaped well into the little space available on the cover. A sans serif, upper case font is used, which makes it more eye-catching.

The track-list is presented on the left hand side of the back cover in the same font used for the masthead. Again it is not numbered, however the tracks appear in the same order as they do on the disk.

A barcode is vertically placed on the back cover, to the right hand side of the small print containing James Morrison's fan site and record company details and label.

James Morrison would be considered as a soul, accoustic singer and I think this digipack works well in encorperating this image. The use of a photograph outside shows depth in soul and the use of colours throughout also shows this.

Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

The front cover uses a very eye-catching bright yellow background which immediately catches the customer's attention. An image is used of a tree with a man with a guitar reaching up to it. The image is extremely detailed in showing the leaves on the tree, however only uses the colour black which contrasts a lot from the vibrant background.

The back cover again uses the same bright yellow background with a continued theme of the tree coming down the right hand side now showing a thin trunk. Again, the image is very detailed but only uses the colour black.

The masthead is shown in the top right-hand corner on the front cover. It uses a very basic font with the artists name in black and the album title in white both contrasting from the yellow.

On the back cover the track-list is shown down the left hand side in the same font used for the masthead on the front cover. It is again in black. The tracks are unnumbered, however do, as before, appear in the same order they do on the disk.

Jack Johnson is seen as an accoustic, chilled singer. This is shown throughout the digipack by the 'chilled out' image used on the cover. The whole digipack is very relaxed and this is also noticed throughout his songs too.