Note to the Moderator

My name is Phil Pound and this is my media blog. All of my work has been organised and set out using the labels on the right. Below this is our final music video which was created by myself and two other members in my group. Underneath the video is our website and digipack then followed by the evaluation. You will also find my production diaries I did during this task and as well as research and planning for the music video.
I hope you enjoy my blogg and thank you for taking the time to looking at it.

Music Video

This is our final music video, apart from a few minor changed for example voice syncing and some audience feedback it is completed.

Website

Digipack

Evaluation 4 Technologies

Throughout our coursework we used several different technologies. We were familiar with some of them as we use them on a day to day basis but other we were very new to and had to quickly learn how to use them. We feel that all the technologies we are going to list and talk about are all necessary in our coursework and without most of them it would of been a lot more difficult to do.
One of the most vital pieces of software we found was Adobe Premier Pro, without this we wouldn't of even been able to create a music video. All our footage was uploaded onto this software, with this we could then cut the bits we didn't need, move bits around so it went with the music, there is also a very wide choice of effects which we used e.g. black and white, fading etc. At the start we found it very difficult as it all seemed very complicated but within a few lessons everyone in the group felt confident when being asked to edit.

In order to make the career of our artist and company more realistic we decided to create a website using an internet site called Moonfruit. We tried several other website creators but felt they all looked quite tacky and unprofessional. In the end we found moonfruit which took a bit of getting used to but once we realised some of the things it could actually do we thought our website looked very professional. Some of the options which allowed us to do this were actual "submit" boxes, this made the website much more genuine and professional. It also allowed us to create a page in which people could properly sign up to and then login. As well as other features moonfruit had to offer we felt this was a good website creator which was vital for what we had to do.

Print screens of our website created on Moonfruit.





As well as a website to promote our artist we also used social networking sites the main one being Twitter. With this we could upload our video, tweet our fans and contact Ed Sheeran directly to try and get him to support our music video. We have managed to gain a few followers and has helped add a few more views to our video.

We created a QR Code which we were going to put on our website, social network, magazines etc. Our fans simply scan the bar code using their mobiles and then they are taken straight to our video.

In order to construct our music video and to take the photo's in which we used for our digipack, website, twitter etc we used two different types of camera's. For the actual filming for the music video we used an old Sony Handy Cam DCR-HC37 which obviously due to it being quite old didn't provide us with the clearest footage. For taking our pictures we used an Iphone 4 camera this provided us with very clear images, we tried filming with this because the quality is high definition but unfortunately wasn't compatible with Adobe Premier Pro.

YouTube was another vital piece that we needed during our course, every video we made was uploaded on youtube before it was put on our blogg. We also used it as research to find things for example how we would mount the camera to film first person (as shown in the video below)

Finally the last piece of technology we used was Blogger, everything that we done on the course was all uploaded onto blogger.com this included our video, digipack, research and production diaries. It hasn't been the first time we have used this so we found it very easy to upload things and publish posts.

Evaluation 3 Audience Feedback

What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

Our original research was done via survey monkey, we sent out emails to our peers and people included in the target market, this included questions about their preferences when it came to the type of video they expected, how they wanted the artist to be shown and the iconography they wanted within the video. The responses are shown with the explanation of what they all mean and how we used this feedback to create our music video.

From making this questionnaire, and the poor responses we received, we established that to create an effective questionnaire we had to create it using language and questions which anyone of any educational background could answer well and in a detailed way.

After the video was made:

We congregated a group of our peers to watch the video and gave out a questionnaire to retrieve their responses. The questionnaire is as shown...

We also interviewed two groups of media students to gain a more media savvy point of view. Group 1
 These media students thought that we had created a good, clear product which had a realistic and professional look. the only improvements they had was to include more locations in his day to make it look more realistic. We agreed with this feedback and originally we had planned to include more locations, however the time constraints of the song meant that we'd already had to speed up some parts of the video.
 These media students thought that we had created a very good video which had a storyline which was easy to understand and follow. They also felt that the video connected well with the genre and complimented the artist. They did however feel that the video didn't have a very professional look, this could have been influenced by the fact that they'd seen the music video being made but also because of the lack of technology we had at our disposal
 This audience feedback was conducted with a range of different ages from 12-18 which incorporated our target age group. They all enjoyed the video and followed the storyline throughout the video. They also thought that matt (our artist) was very believable and that he gave off a very professional vibe. They also thought that the video could have been on a music channel and was very similar to the original artist, which made it more believable. The improvements they gave were that the camera movements were too quick and it was sometimes hard to follow the direction of movement. i think this was because we had to speed up some shots so that we could fit the whole storyline in within the length of the song and in hindsight I think we should have either shortened the story or made the shots last longer so that when speeded up the camera didn't look as jerky

Evaluation 2 Ancillary Task

Evaluation question 2

Evaluation 1 Conventions

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

Digipack Presentation

Digipak Process: Hugo stark

This is a presentation to show you the stages which we took when creating our digipack.

QR Code

We decided to create a QR code which can be added everywhere and anywhere including things like adverts, websites, magazines and social networking sites. Once someone scans it, it takes them straight to our video.

This is our QR code please feel free to scan it and hope you enjoy our video.

Audience Feedback

When our video was completed we showed it to an audience who filled out our questionnaire once they had finished watching it. With the feedback we got we realised there were a couple of little bits we needed to change.  

Music Video

This is our final music video, apart from a few minor changed for example voice syncing and some audience feedback it is completed.

Evaluation Research

I researched some websites and tools that I can use on my evaluation to make it more interesting.
The first one I found was a website called MindMeister it is an online creator for mind maps and brainstorming.

http://www.mindmeister.com/

The next website I found was Mix book this allows you to upload photos and organise them in to well structed folders etc and then upload them online. Again there are templates you can use to start you off and once these have been made I could upload them onto my blogg.



http://www.mixbook.com/

The third website I found was called Prezentit, this is an online programme which allows you to make online presentations and then share them online, I could also use the embed code to put on my blogg.

http://www.prezentit.com/

Finally the fourth one I found was Animoto this website is used to turn videos and music into video slideshows. It could be a good way to present 1 of my evaluation questions.

http://animoto.com/

Song Timings

We worked out and wrote down timings for the song

Period 3:
We decided to roughly plan out the main storyline of the video and condense it into scenes, here is a rough draft:



We also discussed certain things to do with each scene, for example the flashback where he loses his wife, she was initially going to be a girlfriend but we decided that this might of been hard to film as the scene would be in silence, therefore we decided that if it was his wife, we could use a shot of her throwing her ring at him as a symbolic ending of the relationship.
The flashback of him losing his house was also initially supposed to be him bankrupt, but after toying with ideas of a gambling addiction (too hard to film as we are not 18 and would not be able to film in a casino), him handing over wads of cash (would be too repetitive) and him checking his bank balance (too boring, wouldn’t engage the audience) we decided that it would be much easier and would look more effective if he was to lose his house/ his ex wife has changed the locks and he sees her in the upstairs window with another man.

Twitter Account

We also created a twitter acount for our star "Hugo" we added a profile picture of our artist, we also sent several posts to some of the famous stars we are following one being Ed Sheeran with the hope of getting a retweet. We have only got a few followers at the moment but the account has only been up for a few hours.

Whilst I was creating the twitter page Sarah and Mike were working on the storyboards, Mike has done most of the drawings for it but Sarah also did a few of them to help him out. Once all the storyboards were created Sarah done a video recording of the storyboards in which is going to be edited and then added to the music we are going to be using. By doing this we get an idea if the story/clips goe with the music but we might also think of some more ideas when we actually see what it would look like as a storyboard . As well as this we also found one of the locations we are going to film, we have decided on using Parliament Hill Hampstead Heath, this has a huge field on a hill with a bench that overlooks London.

Website

We created a website for our artist on a website maker called moonfruit. We chose this site as it was different to others and we felt it had somne really good features that could make our website more unique and better than other peoples.

Bellow is a print screen of the home page, it has a few pictures of Hugo performing and also has the Atlantic Records logo. Unfortunately some of it had to be cropped but usually on the website it wouldn't be like that.

We also have other links to different pages on our site these include: rates in which displays venues, dates and prices of things, a contact page, a login page so in order to buy things and get more information you have to become a memeber, and a photo gallery.

http://hugomusic.moonfruit.com/

This is the link for our website



Music video and camera research

Due to the reason we weren't 100% sure with our idea we decided to try and look at some current music videos that had been shot in 1st person for some ideas and inspirtation. The video we found very useful for ideas was Cinnamon Chasers- Luv Deluxe.


After watching the video we decided that we are going to go into more detail about the story and use quicker cuts and graphic matches, different than what we were originally thinking. We also decided to pack the video with a bit more action than previously thought of, this would keep the audience more entertained and interested but it will make them watch it more as on the first or even second time there will still be things going on that they might not of originally seen.

When we decided most of it was going to be filmed in first person we had to try and find a way to hold the camera to make it look like it was being viewed out of the persons eyes. We found and tried some different ideas, one being straping it to the side of my head but it wasn't very stable and the camera kept falling off. Luckily we found a video someone had made on youtube which we decided to use.

This was a picture of us trying trying our own way of making a first person POV camera. Unfortunately it didn't work very well so we had to re think it.










We found this video which when we tried the idea out it worked really well.

Camera

When we were experimenting with different cameras these are the two which we thought were the best ones. When looking back at them we decided that the first one (backpack) was the best camera and the one we were going to use.

Production Diary 25

Day 25: 16/01/2012
This lesson I researched some websites and tools that I can use on my evaluation to make it more interesting. The first one I found was a website called MindMeister it is an online creator for mind maps and brainstorming.

http://www.mindmeister.com/

The next website I found was Mix book this allows you to upload photos and organise them in to well structed folders etc and then upload them online. Again there are templates you can use to start you off and once these have been made I could upload them onto my blogg.



http://www.mixbook.com/

The third website I found was called Prezentit, this is an online programme which allows you to make online presentations and then share them online, I could also use the embed code to put on my blogg.

http://www.prezentit.com/

Finally the fourth one I found was Animoto this website is used to turn videos and music into video slideshows. It could be a good way to present 1 of my evaluation questions.

http://animoto.com/

Production Diary 24

Day 24: 09/01/2012
Today Me, Mike and Sarah filmed our artist singing, we used a recording studio in Ursuline High School.We decided to use this place because there's only going to be odd shots of him singing in the music video, the whole thing won't be him singing. With this is mind we came to a group descision that the best place to film would be in a recording studio, it would also make it look professional. We filmed Matt (our artist) singing the whole song then when we get back to school we will decide what bits we want. We filmed several different angles and types of shots so we will hopefully have some good footbage we will be able to use.

This is one of the photos we took of Matt singing in the recording studio, we were very happy with the way it looked when we were filming it. Also there were some very good props we were able to use e.g. the microphone. As well as the props, around the room were loads of different lights we could angle and change the brightness to provide the effect we wanted.

Production Diary 23

Day 23: 04/01/2012
This lesson me and Sarah looked at all the things which were left to film, we wrote them all down and allocated dates in which they were going to be filmed. Whilst we were doing this Mike was researching and designing the Digi Pack.

Production Diary 22

Day 22: 17/12/2011
When we were experimenting with different cameras these are the two which we thought were the best ones. When looking back at them we decided that the first one (backpack) was the best camera and the one we were going to use.