Media Evaluation

Here is my spoken evaluation of my music video. It is a 4-minute video of me summarizing the production and filming, the style and genre of the video, how it relates or challenges Media conventions, how it associates with my digipac and what Media technologies I used during the entire planning and production stages. I have done this to show my wide ranging usage of media technology, but since it's quite short I have my full written evaluation below.

Firstly: ways that my music video uses and develops Media Conventions. I researched a lot into what key features a performance/narrative music video should look like; especially the core Rock genre and it's sub-genres (such as Alternative, Nu, Hard, Metal and my band's Prog Rock). I watched many videos on the internet while trying to identify what Mise-en-scene, lighting, costumes, props, sound, camera angles, edits and shots they all incorporated and how they displayed it all to the audience. From my previous research on Goodwin's Theory I know that every music video will contain some or all of those, while also representing the genre of the music. For example a heavy metal band following Media Conventions would be in all black with flames, spikes and dark imagery. I also chose not to do an artistic-style video, which would contain nothing of a performance or narrative video but be something unique altogether and break many media conventions.

My music video is a pure performance video meaning it has no narrative, just the band playing on stage. Therefore the main conventional feature I have stuck to is never breaking the 180 degree rule: only filming the band from the front as if you were an audience member, and never going round 180 degrees behind them, and filming their backs to the camera. This convention is important because it makes the camera transitions smoother, like many music videos the band are only seen at the front (obviously the most important side) and the (empty) school hall is never seen in the video.

My video mainly focuses on the lead singer, with the most screen-time showing him while he sings and plays the guitar. This is conventional to music videos since they are primarily used as a marketing tool and the better looking the lead singer is the more fans would want to see him/her perform. The camera regularly focuses on their face and mouth as they sing the words, especially during important lyric parts (for example during my video where the music stops to hear the words 'It's a precious point', I extreme-zoom in so it focuses entirely on the mouth and microphone).

Therefore, people are able to recognize this as a conventional-standard video since it follows the match-on-action as the lyrics and music is timed with the artists playing. I also focus on an individual band member when they are playing, such as during times where the Bass player begins strumming up and down his instrument so the camera cuts quickly between the singer and him, to show this action. The same is for the drummer, such as the beginning of the video when he starts playing the camera cuts to mid-view of him as he hits the drum and cymbals. I keep to conventions by using many mid and close-up shots, whilst limiting my use of long-shots since you can't see the action as clearly. I prefer to focus on the band members individually so audiences can get a good look at each one as they perform, and so my video associates more with how a professional video looks and appeals to it's audience.

Another conventional editing format I used was the use of filters and video effects. Throughout the whole video I have tweaked the lighting slightly (from those lighting rigs the band used) so it stands out more and have altered the brightness in sections to when I want the band member more brightly lit. I have also used a video effect which makes the foreground transparent- allowing you to see two shots at once. I think this works quite well and have use it twice, displaying the bass and guitar players at once as they both strike a note on their instrument. However this effect could be a challenge to normal media conventions, since I have never seen it used in a music video but while I was experimenting on effects I found this worked well. This was daring but my audience feedback for this particular effect was positive, with people telling me they liked it so I decided to keep it and put it in twice so it's not just a one-off thing.

While my music video looks very professional and effective, I believe my ancillary tasks such as the digipac aren't as good looking.

Firstly I believe that my poster does combine well with the music video, since my entire design is of a screenshot directly from the music video as an action shot that advertises a live performance of the band. I have seen this done before and it is an effective method of drawing somebody's attention to the poster- any fans would recognize the artist and want to find out more about the venue, and anyone else could look at this and see that that band looks exciting and go watch them. I kept to my own Media Convention when creating the poster by using the same font style that I had used on my digipac, so that the two connect with one another and people can recognize the band from that associated type-face. I have tried to use the rule of thirds for this poster, with the attention drawn to the far right 1/3 of the poster where Tony is. The rest of the space (empty Looking space) has the bright green light, which I believe works effectively and links back to that Prog rock feel.

My digipac however doesn't connect as much to my music video. For this I used a gradient colour of black and red for the backgrounds, with each CD case having the gradient end in different corners. However the colour combination of red and black doesn't fit with the video which contains colours of green and orange from the lighting rigs. On one page I have created the Lime Shark logo pictured on their website www.limeshark.com/ which adds to the professional feeling that you have an official Cd digipac album from the band. I also have included screenshots from my music video on one page: my motivation for this was from my digipac research, where in two of the album booklets I had there were photographs from the live shows of the band. In the same kind of format, I have added screenshots from my music video. If this was a real album I could insert photos taken directly at a concert but instead these screenshots will do instead as 'bonus content' for the audience to look at.

Throughout the entire research, planning and production stages of my music video and ancillary tasks I have used many different media technologies to assist me. During my initial research and information stage the internet was a very useful source of intelligence. I used different sites to look more deeply into the history of the music video and key terms such as Goodwin's theory of music videos and Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory. I also used it to brush up on my knowledge of camera shots, edits and angles, as well as getting ideas from watching as many different genres and varieties of music videos as possible, so I could use them for inspiration and get a good idea of what typical Media Conventions are in similar music videos.

Websites such as YouTube and Google Videos were a great help for this, since nearly all music artists have their own channel where you can watch all their music videos, a very useful means for me to get a view on how Rock music is portrayed. Other software I used during the creation of my digipac and poster was Adobe Photoshop. I have used previous art software programs such as PaintShop Pro 7 so understanding Photoshop didn't take long and I quickly got to grips with how it worked, so I could begin on my digipac. Its wide range of tools, colours, effects and imaging meant that I had a lot of freedom of what to put onto my blank digipac template. Using the layer system where each component has it's own layer so you can edit it without changing anything else on the page, which I used to put everything in it's places to give me the final designs for my digipac and poster.

For my music video, I used a high-definition camera on a tripod to film the band (a Panasonic HVX200). I filmed around an hour and 40 minutes of film, which I then uploaded to the Mac computer onto the program Final Cut Pro, a very professional editing software system which many TV companies are know to use. The program places all of your filming parts (from whenever you press the record button) individually on the left-hand side, so you can look through all the film and find the pieces you want. For your music videos, we were told to film the performance at least 4 times from different perspectives. My filming involved filming the band from a longshot, the singer from 2 mid and up-close shots, the drummer from 2 mid shots, the bassist from mid and close-up angles, the drummer and bassist from a high-angle and then filming the entire performance wile doing some elaborators crane shots past each band member with me moving the camera.

Once I uploaded all the footage on the computer, I had to use one of the shots as the 'base layer', the footage on the bottom line which the screen would always cut back too if there was nothing above it. I used a stationary close-up shot of the lead singer for this, and then put every other shots above it so they would be shown, with regular cuts back to this base layer. I found out that the editing takes a very long time to do, since you have to select the portion of footage you want, cut and move it into place and then sync it with the music since they are properly miming instruments and singing. If I had any narrative clips the length of time editing would be less, since these shots wouldn't need to be properly placed to be in sync with the music. Once every shot was in place, I used filters and effects to improve quality and make it more interesting to view. Overall, Final Cut Pro is complicated and was daunting to use for the first time, but as soon as I had got the hang of the interface the editing went quickly and I could browse through the software, expanding my understanding of the technology and seeing how I could improve my video at the same time.

During this evaluation stage I have used my knowledge of Final Cut Pro and the the Mac computer to create a short spoken evaluation video, added onto this written evaluation. The 4 minute-long video comprises of my actual music video, with me speaking over the top using the Mac's built-in speaker/recorder with the audio added on Final Cut Pro. This shows that I haven't just written an evaluation, but also used my knowledge of media technologies to make this work less text and more visual and audio based.

From my audience feedback, I have understood that I have an effective, professional-looking video but slightly weaker ancillary tasks. My family and friends have seen the video, and have given very positive feedback. They regard it as 'well put together', with a wide variety of camera angles and shots. A comment on the beat pleased me: 'It is clear that you have listened to the beat and adjusted the amount of cuts to the speed of the music' so I know that I have edited it correctly like a conventional music video, where the cuts are in time with the musical beat. However, while regarding it as a good performance video, they did mention the absence of any narrative clips which 'spoil an otherwise high-quality music video'. This is important user feedback which I can use, so that I understand that while a pure performance video is good, it is also very common and your audience like it when you give that extra effort with a joint performance-narrative video which can relate and reach their emotions.

For my digipac, people felt that they were rushed and I could have spent longer on refining the colouring, style and overall design of the digipac. They liked how I had designed the Lime Shark logo myself, and it's addition 'shows how you are linking this work directly back to the band'. However, they did identify that I had used my previous digipac research as influence for the pictures I included, displaying how my audience can compare this digipac to existing ones so they can see the similarities and difference and see how effectively it is to real products. My poster design received more positive feedback, with people saying how 'the captured photo looks like it's during a live concert' and again I have clearly looked at similar rock posters for ideas on what to create.

Overall, my user feedback has been very useful in identifying which areas of my work are high-quality and which aren't and could do with further improvement. Using these I can gradually change my work so that it perfectly matches their requirements and appeals to my target audience.

Final Poster- and audience feedback.

Here is my finished poster/magazine advertisment. The purpose of it is to advertise the band at a current or upcoming live venue (for example the Engine Shed at Lincoln), meaning the poster can be placed in local newspapers and magazines; with details about the ticket prices and times, and also can be placed as a wall poster around Lincoln and the Engine Shed to simply advertise their upcoming performance.

It is a simple poster, and follows old rock conventions (such as the ACDC, Led Zeppelin and John Lennon liver performance posters below) of a photo taken during the show and used as an advertisment for further live venues. I have kept with the same font style as my digipac, so fans can associate the two together and the band will eventually become identified with this font, and it nicely fits the progressive rock theme of a distopian future or fractured society where leaders manipulate the people below them (which is the theme of the song).

I have tried to use the rule of thirds for this poster, with the attention drawn to the far right 1/3 of the poster where Tony is. The rest of the space (empty Looking space) has the bright green light, which I believe works effectivly and links back to that Prog rock feel.

Audience feedback

John:
I like how you have kept to the same font so then you can recognise this with your digipac. The lighting in the background is very effective and gives you sense that this is a photo taken straight from a live show.

Faye:

I get the feeling you've looked at other rock artists for inspiration, and have thought about what this poster is going to be used for such as advertising in and around a concert hall.

Mark:

Since there isn't much details about the ticket prices, admission or timings for the show I assume this poster will be one used at the venue itself, so people see it and then inquire within. It could also be a commemorative poster which you can buy soon after the show, to remember your time there.

Poster design- in the making

For my poster I decided to make one which advertises the band at a live venue. This would involve using a screenshot/photo from my video and putting it on the poster, as a way of showing the band performing live (such as the ACDC poster I anaylsed).



Firstly, I created an A4 sheet on Photoshop and gave it a completly black background. I then added the text at the bottom 'Lime Shark- Live at the Engine Shed Lincoln'. This text acts as very simple information to the audience so that they can see that the band will be performing at their local venue soon, and so can find out more at the Engine Shed.





















Now for the main image, I got these screenshots from my video and have to decide which one I will use. It was the choice between a longshot of the entire band or a low-angle close-up of the lead singer and guitarist. Once again I have taken inspiration from the ACDC poster and used the bottom image, which shows Tony singing with the bright green light in the background, among the looking space after Tony's body. It was difficult to choose between this and the one showing Tony pointing, but I wanted the green light since I thought this would be most effective as it effectivly fills the empty space on the page. I also like how the brightness of the light makes it into a diamod shape, with light going to the top and bottom of the screen.

Once I had chosen the image, it was simply a matter of pasting it onto my A4 page and scaling it so it fitted properly.

Initial designs for Posters

Firstly, I have drawn three rough sketches for my poster designs. I have used influences such as other artist's posters, which have given me some ideas of what looks effective, eye-catching and what best advertises the band. I have also drawn three different designs: one which is logo/image which is affixed with the band, one which is a photo of one member, and advertises a live performance and the last which is a staged photo that shows the band on stage (like a screenshot from my music video).

This design is just of a shark with the band name curved across it. Since the band's name is Lime Shark I believe that a shark best represents them. A fully drawn and rendered grey and blue shark on a poster would catch someone's attention easily, and also could act as the band's chosen 'image' (a picture or font style that is associated only with that band, like ACDC's lightning bolt in their name or Meat Loaf's motorcycles riders in his album covers).

This design is a live performance advertisement, which shows a photo taken of one band member (for this I have used the lead singer/guitarist). I have yet to decide weather I should include his head, or just do a shot from the neck down so the center of the poster focuses on the guitar. Below the image is the band name and information such as date and location for the upcoming live performance. A poster like this would go around the concert/venue location, to advertise the fact that this band are coming soon.

This final design is like a fan poster of the band, but instead of having a photograph of just the members, I chose to have them on stage holding/playing their instruments. To create this poster I can simply use a screenshot from my music video and improve it on Photoshop.

Research into other artist's posters

As well as a digipac, we also have to create a poster which advertises the band. Firstly, I have researched into other band's posters and album tour posters, to obtain a feel and style of what they do. One website which was very useful for me was http://www.panicposters.com/, a site which sells hundreds of different genres of music posters which you can browse and view.

This is a 30 Seconds To Mars poster, a very simple poster of just the band. They are of a similar music genre and appearance to Lime Shark.

A poster advertising the release date of the Artic Monkeys Brainstorm single. I am inspired and like the use of two different styles of font, and the simplicity of the entire design, including the dates and information included at the bottom.

A poster advertising an ACDC live tour, it consists of just a screenshot of one member and the band's famous recognisable logo. I have included this in my research becuase I think this is a possible design for my poster, since I can take a screenshot from my music video and turn it into something similar to this, using the band's font and emblem which I have already created on Photoshop.

I like the design of this Audioslave poster, displaying each band member's instruments such as the guitar, voice, bass and the drumsticks. The black and white colour keeps it very simple and the little fire inside the O adds to the overall effect of a rock poster.

This Pink Floyd poster of their album Dark Side of the Moon is ver plain and basic, however if you didn't recognise it then there is no information or text to help you know what it is for. Pink Floyd is the same genre (Prog Rock) as Lime Shark but they use a lot imagery and pictures to convey their meaning, so that is something that I could also use to display my band's song.

Final Digipac and audience feedback

This is my final digipac design. I have shown it to friends and family to obtain their feedback, so that I know where I could improve it next time. Audience Feedback

John: The use of different colours on a gradient works quite well, and it appears you have thought about how to style it since only dark colours are included. I like logo and screenshots, but you could have worked longer on tweaking them so that they look more professional and like a real digipac.

Faye:

The design doesn't seem to link with the mood of the song; apart from the photos which you have included. However I like the simplicity of it because you haven't bombarded you audience with too much text and information.

Mark:

I like how the gradient gets redder further inwards, and it's bold enough to stand out and catch somebody's attention. Adding the lyrics is also a good feature because then it means that people can see what they are saying or even sing along with the song.

Digipac Construction

Here are some screen grabs of my digipac, in each stage of construction. I learnt to use Adobe Photoshop CS5 during the making, and have experimented a lot with all the functions such as colours, effects, gradients, filters and layers. I have downloaded a digipac template off the internet (link: http://www.duplication.ca/printspecs/digipak.htm ) and have chosen a simple fold-out template, with a front, back and inside perts which I can now put my design onto.

I started with the text; inserting the front cover text, back cover information and on the inside the song lyrics. I decided to use a font which is similar with the band's logo and text, so to keep with the same style and genre that they use.

I then drew the LS emblem, using photoshop to create a basic shape and then fill it with different colours to see what works well with my digipac. I want it to be as accurate as possible, so that it fits well with the band's other albums.

I then rendered the emblem and used a gradient of dark red and black to make it more stylish and effective. This shows how I have experimented with colours to see what will suit my final design.

I have now inserted the emblems into my digipac, and am trying to decide what colour to use and where to put it.

Now I have filled each box with a gradient colour of deep/dark red and black, with a noise filter on them which slightly blurs the colours where they meet and change. However, as you can see my text isn't visable anymore, since it is black on a black background.

I have decided to change the text colour to white; since it is the only text which really stands out on a balck background, and this information such as lyrics and track listings are vital features which people should'nt have difficulty reading. However, I have left the front title text black, since I believe it is more effective in this style.

I have now added some screenshots from my music video of the band performing. I have taken this idea from my analysis of other digpiacs, since they also have lots of images of the band; either performing live or photoshoot pictures. It features one picture of the entire band, and then three individual ones of each band member.

Media Diary Post

In this last week before half-term, I am going to finish off my final digipac design and poster design, which are nearing completion. I am also going to start my eveluation, which will involve me recording myself talking and analysing my music video; a video commentary describing how well it went, why I have added the shots and what purpose does it serve in the video. I also have to film someone else's reaction to the video, so they can give me positive and negative feedback so that there is less written and more visual and audio work.

Digipac Drawings

Here are my three digipac initial designs.

The first one has the band name, album name and band logo on the front and follows a very simple layout, like many 1980's album rock covers (such as ACDC). This digipac uses imagery such as a politician's speaker box dominating over the city, imposing it's rules and laws over the people. The back of the case is a photo of all the musician's equipment and instruments lined up on the stage, with their shark logo in the background. Other pictures and imagery used to show the Government/Establishment are the American Democratic donkey and Republican elephant, as well as the British Liberal Democrats Dove. On the second foldout there will be photos of the band members lined up, with some information below each one.





















On this digipac I've gone for using some of the band's logos combined with images which fill the entirety of each square. The front cover has Lime Shark in big lettering, with the song name just underneath. The back cover is very simple, with the LS circular logo in red filling the page and a black background. The other covers are images of a dystopia- a future city which has been destroyed by a corrupted government, with images of crumbling buildings and black skies. The song Power of Heights is a warning about how people in positions of power can manipulate the masses and get what they want.

This last digipac again uses a mixture of photographs and images to convey a message and the meaning of the song. The front cover is the same as the others, with the back case showing the band members. Inside, again there is a photo of the instruments and more band information and details; such as their origins, the meaning behind their songs and a listing of the lyrics. Finally, theire is another images of two hands shaking, with money being passed between them as a gesture/bribe, to show people that with government politicians comes corruption, and their misuse of power over eveyrone else.

Media Diary Post

Over the last couple of weeks I have been busy editing together my Music Video. I am going to make two: a pure peformance video and a performance narrative video, which will have scenes relating to the lyrics throughout the video.
Meanwhile I have finsihed drawing 3 drafts for my Digipac covers and will upload them shortly.

Here a couple of pictures of me editing the video on Final Cut Pro on the Apple Mac-

Music Video Storyboard

For the production of our music video, we have to sketch a storyboard to give a brief layout of what the video will look like. The most important feature is not the drawings themselves but the description, since I need to include as many camera shots, angles, compositions and any camera movements from one cut to another.

Media Diary Post

Last night I did my filming of the performance part of my music video. I met the band at 3pm and we set all the equipment up on the school's hall stage. However we hit quite a few problems which we managed to eventually solve: we kept setting the school fire alarm off because of the smoke machine (which we were going to use since it makes the lighting more effective) so eventually I forgot about using it and did without. Also, the PA speaker system wasn't loud enough for the band to hear (since all the speakers were facing inwards to the hall, away from the stage) so we had to get a small monitor linked to my iPod and play the music full blast to them from behind.

Despite the problems I got about 50 minutes of filming done with many camera shots and angles that I can use to put together a full performance video. The band also helpfully gave me some good ideas for the narrative part of my video, so I can start working on that while I edit this work together.

Meanwhile, I have started drafting digipac Cd covers for the song, which I will upload to the blog and can develop them from there.

Media Diary Post

I have now finalised a time for my filming and so I can get that work done with the band shortly. I have also added my own photos and explanations of digipac music albums, as part of our research and eventual creation of our own digipacs for our music videos. I am now going to draft up 3 digipacs on paper, so I can experiment with any of ideas and get the designs sorted.

Digipac Examples-3

This Pendulum's album In Silico, with the digipac cd case it comes with. It comes in the conventional plastic see-through case, but insiead of just a front cover, it has this fold-out double sided leaflet. On one side there is the band information, song listings and lyrics, while on the other there is this large image of an alien spaceship, which fits with the theme of the album of extra-terresterial visits.

This third type of Digipac again shows how you can get the same results (displaying all relevant information and additional photographs/images) but with a different layout and style.