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

Firstly the passion in the video was portrayed because it had to be if we were going to do the song justice. Our digipack was able to express the passion from the video due to the front cover being a picture of the band performing in the video. This photograph exerts passion through the band members playing with such focus. The lead guitarist, left of the guitar, is a prime example of what we were trying to put across to our target audience as his head was down, looking at his guitar but you can see enough of his facial expression to notice that he is really tying hard to get the best out of himself in his performance.

Our target audience is 14 to 25 year olds, which means we had to make sure that all the tasks we did, were aimed at this target audience. To do this we put effects on all three tasks that we felt would appeal to the consumer. In our video we changed the brightness and contrast and added a red tint. In our digipak the lure is the image of the guitar, which has been edited to stand out amongst a black and white background, in which it does. The effects where meant to add a sharp edge to our products which would make them stand out from other products.

Across all three platforms there are clear signs of the genre of music. The rock genre can be seen in our work through the frequent use of the guitar. Our video shows a performance and therefore the instruments can be clearly seen, especially the guitar. The front of the digipak has a large image of our lead singers guitar, the magazine advert has been made so that the image of the guitar seen on it is yet again the focus of attention.

The fonts were also another feature that had to be kept consistent especially through the magazine advert and digipak. The font used on previous Foo Fighters albums was added after audience feedback onto the magazine advert. After short consideration we changed the font on the digipak to be the same as the font on the magazine advert as both products go hand in hand with one another and shouldn’t be clashing.

In research I found that many bands had a strong link between their video and digipaks. This research meant that we had to make sure we had a clear link between our video and digipak. The music video for many bands is seen as an advertising tool and the digipak must use the advertising power from the video to sell as many records as possible. I feel that as a group we did managed to keep all three products within the traits of the genre. The link of the performance, colour effect and guitar has helped to keep all three products similar in aesthetic value. The aim was to always keep links between all three products so the advert can be linked to the video and the video linked with the digipak.

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

Evaluation 1 from Jake Clements on Vimeo.

Script:

In our music video we chose to film without a tripod, leaving us with handheld shots throughout the video. The advantage we saw from filming handheld was it allowed us to move freely amongst the band and get into angles you simply can’t whilst using a tripod. In our research we saw that this was common amongst other rock videos.

Shots of the bass pedal were once again another trait of the genre of music that could be shown through the video. Bass pedal shots are also common in many music videos for our genre but they are normally filmed from the side. The difference between how we filmed it and how it is usually filmed is we removed the front of the drum so we could put the camera inside the bass drum to get the effect of the bass pedal hitting the camera. This shot was different from anything we saw in our research and the immediate feedback from it was everyone who watched the video found this feature most impressing.

Many music videos are used to showcase the musical skills of the artist and ours is no different. We were very lucky that the band we chose were all talented musicians who knew exactly what they were playing. This meant we had even more freedom whilst filming. As they knew what chords to play and as they were always playing when the camera was rolling we could move around the band with the guarantee that they where playing the right part of the song. This ensured none of the footage was out of sync with the song.

The drum kit is a recognized symbol of contemporary rock music and in our video we decided to film the drum kit and the drummer in more creative ways. In our research we saw many shots were either face on with the drummer or to the side. One shot we chose to do was a point of view shot of the drummer playing the drums. This meant placing the camera in front of the drummers face and following the drumsticks as he played. Although this was time consuming, the end product was worth it, as it is a different angled shot that we could have never performed on the other three band member’s as their instruments wouldn’t have shown up well.

The passion shown in the music video is one feature that can grab the audience’s attention. Our chosen genre is known for its passion, normally in live performances at gigs. However, as our video was a performance it was very important we showed the passion amongst the band, whether this be the drummer head banging, extreme close ups of the instruments, the lead singer closing his eyes to show his passion or the fast paced editing. The song increased in tempo as it progressed which is common in rock songs and this was why we had to show the emotion and tempo increasing in the video.

In this genre the end of the song is either at a high tempo or a low tempo, and in this case it’s a low tempo that sees the song out. The change in light is there to show there is less energy in this part of the song. The lead singer also holds the microphone at the end, another feature of rock videos we found in our research. By keeping to the forms and conventions we saw in our research, we managed to create a music video that can be instantly linked to the genre of rock music.

Designs for the Digipak

At the moment we are editing our video, so it makes sense that we should start planning our ancillary task of creating a digipak. We are going to follow the idea of taking a picture of a motorway at night during rush hour with the shutter speed vastly reduced so the headlights create long lines. This is an effect we think will look very good as an album cover plus it is quick and easy for us to do.

Editing

We have decided after watching the footage we got from our fifth day of filming that we enough enough to edit and have started to do so. We have edited in all of our lessons and in our free periods. During lessons we only leave two people in charge of editing with the rest of the group checking on their progress and offering their ideas. Working in a group of four allows us to do this with the main advantage being that we can work on our ancillary tasks at the same time. So far we have edited about half of our video without transitions and effects and i am confident if we continue with this work rate we can have a rough edit for this weekend. Currently group member Jacob has taken it upon himself to edit the most which is great as the video has consistency throughout. However i feel that some of the workload isn't being passed around evenly due to group member Alex being ill for a few days during editing although i feel he will make up for this in the final weeks of our coursework.

Ineedmedia.co.uk

This is a website i found while researching our digipak. It gives us measurements we could use when creating our digipak. The link to this website is below:

Ineedmedia.co.uk

Digipak Research

This is one of the digipak's that group member Tom has got and he has kindly brought it in so that we could all gather what a digipak was and look to create our own one with enough time to spare.

Tom Foreman's Page

Fifth Day of Filming

Yesterday we undertook our fifth day of filming once again it was at the Red Lion Pub in Gravesend. I felt this time we were more prepared as we had the plan sheets to use so we could make sure we got the shots we wanted and i felt that we succeeded in this. With me, Tom and Jacob filming the same band as last time i felt we had got all the remaining shots we needed which only leaves the editing to do to complete our video. Although we completed filming later than i had hoped we have still got a few weeks before our deadline to get our editing and ancillary tasks complete. Here are some of the pictures Tom took during filming.

The picture above is a shot of me filming a side shot of the band playing.

This is a picture of the band performing and its the same angle where we had taken some shots on the video camera.

This is a picture of group member Jacob filming our drummer Matt for the opening sequence.

The is a picture of when we first arrived and i was telling our drummer what we wanted him to do.

This is an over shoulder shot of our drummer during filming.