Final Music Video (Crystal Poison)

Shown below is the final version of my music video 'Crystal Poison' - by Alison :

Digi-pack

I have completed my digi-pack for my artist 'Alison'.

I have used a variety of programs in order to produce this digi-pack. (Picassa & photo shop also ive used photo shop elements).
As you can see this is the template which will be placed into the DVD case.

Shown below are some screen shots from the editing stage of my digi-pack:

Shown below is my final digi-pack:

Digi-pack advertisement / poster

Shown below is my final digi-pack poster / advert:

I believe that this advert looks better, compared with the other first draft poster as the first draft titles were not visible due to the colour of the background / font. So therefore I changed the font / colour of the font but decided to use the same photo as this is a very effective photo and I believe it draws people in and also shows Alisons style of music / persona very well. Also I believe that this magazine advert / poster will mean that more digi-packs will be sold for Alison.

Evaluation Tasks

The font that is bold and italic are the questions / evaluation tasks, the other font is what i have done for each question

As soon as the videos are online, a link will be posted for you to paste yours onto your blog. You are then asked to post the video onto Face book or another site you use for social networking, along with these questions:

In what ways does my video remind you of other music videos?
What do you think are the strengths of my music video?
What do you think are the weaknesses?

As I do not have face book or myspace etc, ive decided to add these questions to the comment section on youtube on my music video.


Shown below is a screen shot to show what I mean:



You may add any other questions you wish to add and you may use whatever tactics seem appropriate to get 'hits' for your video on Vimeo and to get more feedback!

For the video to gain more 'hits' I have placed some more varied tags on my music video

Here is a screen shot to show my 'tags' :

Here are the 4 main question I am going to answer in four separate posts: 

1. In what ways does your media product 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 new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation: Task 1 (Part 1)

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

Here is my 9 frame grid :

Each image (1-9) is described in full below

1) A shot that shows a link between lyrics and/or music and visuals

This photo shows the strong link between the lyrics and the visuals. During my music video there is no lip-syncing as the visuals strongly represent the lyrics so therefore I believe that there was no need to lip-sync in my music video. This photo represents the lyrics : 'Some flowers they die or they bloom' and this shot also represents the 'crystal poison' lyrics. ( Alison has the poison within so therefore can change black and white into colour) 

2) A shot that typifies the way a record company would want their artist to be represented



This shot represents how a record company would want Alison to be shown to the audience, as it shows her visual style and also the way in which she performs, so therefore this image shows how a record company would want Alison represented to the audience.

3) A shot that illustrates how your video uses music genre



This shot strongly reflects Alison's music style / genre. The dark imagery shows that her music is mystical yet stylistic, also it shows that her music genre is classical and different. This is mainly due to the costume that Alison is wearing in this shot, which reflects her style of music genre.

4) A shot that shows an intertextual reference



This shot reflects the same style as in the start of the music video by Bjork called 'Batcholete'. Shown below is a screen shot from the Bjork video which is reflected within this shot in my music video:



5) A shot that demonstrates your use of camera



This shot shows how I have used a close up shot, and have framed it so that the bronze cup is in the centre of the screen. So this shot shows how I have used my camera and camera work knowledge to ensure that everything is within the shot and framed in the centre.

6) A shot that demonstrates your use of lighting



In this shot you can see how ive used the natural lighting in order to capture the light flowing through the gaps in the trees, and also it lights up Alisons hand well so that it is visible when she is touching the tree trunk. Throughout my music video I have used all natural lighting as I believe that it gives it a unique look and adds to Alisons visual style.

7. a shot that demonstrates your use of mise-en-scene



This shot strongly represents how ive kept mise-en-scene in mind during the film shoot of my music video. In this shot you can see the location and visual style of my artist 'Alison' which is reflected through what she is wearing. The location in this shot is at the start of the music video and straight away shows the audience that this music video is set in a woodland area, and this also reflects strongly what type of music / style Alison is portraying within this music video and her actual music tracks.

8/9) Two shots which you feel demonstrate something which shows you have watched other music videos



These 2 shots show how ive tried to incorporate some visual styles seen in some other music videos. One of the main videos which I realized my music video looks like is the start of Bjorks music video for her song 'Bachelorette'. The black and white jittery / stock footage style used within Bjorks video, is very much like the effect i have used within some scenes of my music vide, especially the blurred effect just before Alison touches the green leaves, this scene strongly reflects the same style used within Bjorks music video.

Here is a comparison shot between Bjorks music video and my own:

Digi-pack comparison

I have found a digi-pack that I can compare to my own digi-pack. I found the digi-pack on the website: 'Play.com'.

Shown below is a screen shot from the website (showing the digi-pack for the band 'Cold Play' and their album 'Viva La Vida'.

Here is my digi-pack :

As you can see the front cover image of my digi-pack is very simplistic, yet still represents the style of Alison's music very effectively towards the audience.

Here is Cold Plays album / digi-pac (Front cover) :

As you can see Cold Plays album cover is also very simplistic yet shows the style of the band very well. This reflects the same style used within my digi-pac cover, or-though mine is an image and Cold Plays is text, they are still very similar in ways of the way they have been edited, which is very simply but still reflects the bands style of music.

Digi-pack poster comparison

Here is my poster for my digi-pack 'Crystal Poison' by Alison:

I have used a very simple image of Alison but have made it look more gritty / sharp by editing it on the picassa software and also photo shop. I have placed some titles over the top of the poster which are : the title of the album, when it is released, whom it is by and also the name of the artist.

This is a poster for the digi-pack by stereophonics:

For this magazine advert you can see that the artists / band are shown as the main image (much like my poster). Also it is very simplistic in style yet represents the band very well to the audience. The editing is much more explicit compared with mine but as I said before it all relates well to the bands style and music, which is what the poster is made for.

Evaluation: Task 1 (Part 2)

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

Other music videos (9 frame grid)

1) A shot that shows a link between lyrics and/or music and visuals

Gorillaz - 19-2000 (Soul Child Remix)

This screen grab shows how in the gorillaz music video the sound effects link in with both the music and whats happening within the video itself. When the character starts the ignition on the car the sound effect of a car engine kicks in and then so does the music as if it is the cars radio taht is playing the song (19-2000) so this scene in the music video shows the clear link between the music and visuals within this music video.

2) A shot that typifies the way a record company would want their artist to be represented

Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars

This screen shot shows how the record company have shown their band / artist of towards the audience. The record company have clearly used close ups of the artist / band member in order to add a mysterious theme to them, and to not show too much of the band off. This video was one of Snow Patrols 1st music videos so maybe the record company decided to do this to show that they are a new and up coming band. This screen shot shows very well how a typical record company would want their artist to be represnted / shown towards the audience.

3) A shot that illustrates how the music video uses music genre

Newton Faulkner - Dream Catch Me

This screen shot shows clearly that this song is of course an acoustic and laid back genre of music. this is shown by the type of instrument being played and also the fact that the musician (Newton) Looks very laid in this shot which also adds to the genre / theme of the music / song.

4) A shot that shows an intertextual reference

Faithless - Tarantula

In this shot you can seee the conection between this video and Snow Patrols - Chasing Cars music video, due to the laying down of the character. But this video was produced before chasing cars so in fact it is snow patrol that has copied this shot from the video 'Tarantula by faithless'. The shot that they referenced to is the close up of faithless singing and also the close up of the main singer in Snow Patrol singing. This conection is called an intertextual reference and can be seen in many other music videos not just these two.

5) A shot that demonstrates the use of camera within the video

Kasabian - Fire

In this shot you can see a foot path and the road. On the foot path is one of the singers from the band whom is walking along the street (towards the camera). The VW camper van is also moving towards the camera, as these two are moving towards the camera the camera is on a slow zoom outwards, which gives it a slight movement feel and makes it seem as if the objects (person and car) are moving a lot slower than what they are or faster (depending on the zoom). In this shot it seems as if they are moving slowly and to the music. The camera work works very well in this scene and compliments the song well.

6) A shot that demonstrates the use of lighting within the video

Prodigy - Breathe

In this shot you can see that the character is lit up by a back ground and for ground light. The lighting in this shot makes the scene seem more errie and adds to the theme of the music. Also during the full music video is a pulsing flashing light which goes in time with the beat of the music, so it works very well within the scenes and adds to the beat / music very well.

7) A shot that demonstrates the use of mise-en-scene within the video

Killers - SpaceMan

In this shot you can see how the band has decided to show mise-en-scene to the full, by showing every one in costume. The costume, lighting, and location all relate 100% to the song which is spaceman. All the cotumes, location, and lighting has been thought about and mise-en-scene has been shown throughout the whole music video as well as just this scene, but the main focus is in the costume used which is as i said 100% related to the name of the song and lyricks used within the song itself.

8/9) Two shots which you feel demonstrate something which shows the video looks like another music video

1) Pet Shop Boys - Love Etc

2) 3 Daft Monkeys - Big Brother

These two shots show two diffrent music videos but as you can see they link with each other very closely. The two shots are from the following videos: 1) Pet shop boys - Love etc and 2) 3 Daft Monkeys - Big Brother. Both videos have been created and edited in the exact same way or though they have diffrent animations and are also diffrent in tempo / tune they are still very similar when looking at the effects used within them and the way they are put together.

Evaluation: Task 2

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

For this task I will be reading a script whereby I will explain how I created my music video and also how my other media products (poster & digi-pack) relate to the different parts in my music video. Also I will explain the image in which I wanted to put across to the audience.

Here is the script for my Directors commentary:

Hello im kirk , producer of this music video called 'Crystal Poison'.

I first recorded the song for the project, for this stage of production I used 2 zoom mics and created a 2 mic set up in order to record both the piano sound and also Alison singing the song.

I then went out on location with Alison to film the footage for my music video, for this I used two locations which were Babraham and Burwell. I decided to film in these locations as they were best suited for the song and artists style.

After the filming stage of production was complete I soon set to work on the editing stage of production. I used Sony Vegas to edit the footage and to add the effects. The most visually interesting effect in my mind was the colour change effect where Alison touches the flowers and trees. This effect reflects how the poison inside Alison is allowing her to change black and white objects into colour, which allows the audience to see that the poison is not bad and is in fact good.

For the colour effect I used simple stop motion to create a sequence of different photos which when put together created a sort video sequence. I edited each photo individually which was time consuming but was very effective when completed and created the effect that I wanted for the video.

Once the project was completed I created a digi-pack in order to create an album for Alison. I decided to use a simple image which reflects my music video which is simplistic yet stylish. The chosen image for my digi-pack reflects on many aspects of both my music video and Alison as a musician. For example her music is very simple yet has meaning behind it, and this is very true of this image which I have chosen for my digi-pack.

For the promotion of my digi-pack ive decided to produce this poster. The image on the poster is once again representing how Alison is in touch with nature and reflects the images used within my music video overall.

Overall for my music video I tried to express Alisons music towards the audience in a visual way instead of a performance or lip-syncing way. I decided to do it this way as it strongly reflects Alisons persona and the ay in which she composers her music.

-END-

(I will use this script only as an outline during the recording of my directors commentary & will make sure I only read the main points from it)

Shown below is my music video 'Crystal Poison' with added directors commentary:

Evaluation: Task 3

Feedback on productions

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1) Rough cut feedback from teachers, family, & artist

I received feedback from a range of people; overall I have received feedback from 5-6 people on my rough cut version of my music video.

Shown below are the comments I received and also whom said them:

Paula ( Mother ) : "I love the way you have made it look all weird, by making Alison jump / jitter from one point to another, very good!"

Paul (Father) : "Really good music and the effects reflect the lyrics well, overall very impressive video & song!"

Lee (brother / on-set photographer) : "I really like this video! I dunno what it is about it, but I felt everything just worked well together and made a brilliant video!"

Pete (Teacher) : "Wow, This video reminds me of Bjorks music video by Michel Gondry! The footage used in your music video is almost exactly the same as Bjorks music video 'Bachelorette'!. Very good video only needs a few adjustments here and there!"

Nick (Teacher) : "The fades work well within the video and add to the old fashioned look of the video, overall a good music video, I would suggest adding a few more colours and some effects to bring it out a bit more, but overall very good music video"

Alison (The Artist) : “I think this music video captures the spiritual meaning of my song and your editing sets the atmosphere. I like the use of effects and colour. Also the recording of the song is very clear and loud enough to hear”

After looking back over the feedback I received I set to work on ironing out the errors within the rough cut, and also set to work on editing the footage that people said needed re-editing.

Here is a brief description of what I done to the rough cut of Crystal Poison :

(Including screen grabs of the editing process i went through for each stage described)

- I re-editited the contrast on some clips such as the tree, stop-motion shot which makes the tree and Alisons hands more visible within the shot.

- I added a dream world / glowing effect to the cup (hill) scene and also to the woods scenes, which I believe brings out the whole atmosphere and adds to the spiritual nature of the song & surroundings.

- I adjusted the sound levels on some clips within the sequence as some parts were louder than others.

- I also added a glowing effect to the sky in some clips, for instance the tree touching scene has a glowing / sparkle effect in the sky which gives it a sun shine type look which once again adds to the mystical magical theme of the music and nature surrounding the location in the woods.

- Finally I adjusted the ending of the rough cut and also the music track so that they fade together and also I’ve adjusted the audio track because it did in fact end to abruptly on the first rough cut so I faded it out sooner to avoid the abrupt ending to the track.

2) Junction feedback on music video rough cut

I recieved feedback on my music video rough cut from the staff at the Junction.

The three people that gave me feedback were:

Simon Bates (Junction co-ordinator)

Rob Tinkler ( Books live music and comedy events) (Worked in the industry: 25+ years)

Pete Edwards (Organises club nights/DJs etc at Junction) (Worked in the industry: 15+ years)

The feedback I recieved about my music video rough cut were very positive, here is a brief outline of the feedback I recieved from each person:

Simon Bates: "I like the style of this music video, it reminds me of this guys prodution company in Cambridge called 'Cats & Dogs Productions or something, Very good work and you have obviously worked hard on this, and I can also see that your very technical and good at editing, that is very noticable within this music video, overall very good work!"

Simon later on spoke to me in detail about the Cats and Dogs production company and informed me that Tom (media teacher) knew of the guy who runs it etc and told me to ask Tom for further details about his work etc. (Which I will do later this year / start of next year to showcase my work etc)

Rob Tinkler: "I like this, its a great video, it reminds me of a dream like story, and has a strong story behind it, yeah, very good, like the music track also kind of errie feeling to it which is also within the video aswell"

Pete Edwards: "I love the style of this music video, Great range of effects used within the video, I like how it all blends together and makes a good story line. The music fizzled out for me and it turned into a short film almost which is good and reminded me of some short films ive seen in Cambridge at the film festival etc.. you could enter this into short film compititions in Cambridge, because it works as a short film and music video, overall very good work done here on this music video!"

(Due to the high praise I got from the junction I decided not to change anything with the music video and keep it as it was for the final cut version of 'Crystal Poison')

3) Feedback on the digi-pack / poster (Rough Version)

I recieved a range of feedback relating to my digi-pack, here is what was said:

Nick Potamitus (Tutor / teacher) : "I think the image needs improvement, and also there is not much colour on the digi-pack maybe add some more colour in to it, but apart from that its good"

Paula Kemp (Mother) : " I like the image on the front it works well and represnts alis music , also I like what ali is wearing in the picture it all works well with it"

Paul Kemp (Father) : "Its maybe a bit too simplistic for me and needs more infomation on the back about the songs and her etc but overall very good so far!"

Lee Kemp (Brother) : "Very good, I like how its simple it reflects alis style and fasion, very good Id buy it!"

Alison (Artist) : I like this it works well alongside my music style, Maybe change the front cover image slightly make it a bit darker, but overall its very good, I like it!"


Shown below is the rough version of my digi pack :

After looking back over my feedback I made the following changes to my digi-pack:

1) I changed the lay out of the template to make it easier to view as a dvd cover

2) I added information about whats inside the digi pack

3) I added the track listnings to the inside of the digi-pack

4) I decided to add some leaf / branch type brush effects in the background on the digi-pack to relate to Alisons style even more so

5) I decided to brighten up the darker bits on my digi-pack but did not colour any of it in, as I believed that it would ruin the style of what Alisons music is and is best represented with darker colours.

Here is my completed Digi-pack:

I also had a range of feedback on my poster / advert:

Nick Potamitus (Tutor / Teacher): "I dont really like the style of it, its too simple and the image needs brininging out more, make it look more professional by adjusting the image contrast or lighting!"

James (Media Student): "I like the image and the editing relates well to the artists style!"


Paula Kemp (Mother) : "I like the image but the editing ruins the photo, keep it more natural as Alison looks good enough already without the editing!"

Paul Kemp (Father) : "Yeah its a good poster, but it needs more information about what your promoting for sale, but yeah, its a good poster so far.."

Lee Kemp (Brother) : "I really like the editing but you could of chosen a better photo of Alison as it doesnt show her style off very well towards people etc but its good overall"


Shown below is the rough version of my poster / advert:





Based on the feedback I recieved I made the following changes to my poster:

1) I changed the font position and made it more visable (easier to read) I dont this by chaning the font size and colour
2) I decided to keep the same image but this time I did not edit it in the same cartoonistic way
3) I made sure that there was some colour on it and decided to change the grey / black and white to colour as it brings out Alisons visual style alot more to the audience
4) I increased the contrast levels in order to give the image a slightly more professional look and to also relate to Alisons song Crystal Poison.

Here is my completed poster / advertisment :

4) Feedback on finished product (youtube video)

Unfortunately i have not received any feedback / comments on my finished music video, but on the other hand it has received over 50 views which is quite impressive. If i was to have more time I would of asked people to comment on my video and also to leave feedback for it, but unfortunately due to time constraints I did not receive any feedback on my finished video. (youtube) 

Here is a screen grab which shows the feedback questions I placed on youtube and also the views my music video received (57 views): 

Evaluation: Task 4

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

Shown below is an image of me at my workstation where I spent most of my time working on the production of my music video, digi-pack, and poster (also any other media work such as the blog posts etc)

During the production stages of my music video project I used a variety of equipment (some of which is not shown in the photo).

Shown below is a list of equipment and software I used during the production stage of my music video and also why I used them and what for:

Equipment

1) Sony HD SR1 camera ( For shooting the footage for the music video)

2) Tripod (for HD camera) ( To ensure that the footage filmed is steady and no movement is seen - such as shaky hand movement as seen in free hand shoots etc)

3) Fine pix SLR (Camera) (Used for the stop-motion parts of my music video)

4) Props (such as dresses, flowers, etc) (Used to suit Alisons style of music / dress sense and also to suit the song 'Crystal Poison')

5) Sony Vaio PC (Used to edit the footage on and also used for internet research, blog etc)

6) USB Cable (To import footage from camera fast as possible)

7) SD card from Fine pix camera (Used to import footage from that camera fast as possible)

8) 2x zoom mics (Used for recording Alisons song 'Crystal Poison')

9) Mouse / keyboard (used to control the computer mainly for editing and internet based study)

10) Printer (Used for the printing of the important documents for the filming shoot - storyboards, prop list, shot list etc, also used for printing of legal sheets such as the press release form etc)

Software

1) Picassa 4 (Used for editing the photos, mainly for the stop motion parts of my music video)

2) Adobe photoshop (Used for editing photos, and digi-pack / poster)

3) Microsoft word 2009 (Used for producing the importanat documents / shooting scedules etc)

4) Sony Vegas pro 9 (Used for editing the main music video project / footage)

5) Mix Craft 4 (Used for the production of the soundtrack / editing the piano track produced by Alison)

6) Paint (Used for cropping images for blog etc)

7) Photo shop (Mac) (Used for the editing of my digi-pack and poster

Internet / Websites

I have used a variety of internet websites such as blogger, youtube and google. Shown below are some screen shots of each website I have used and why.

Youtube

I have used youtube for both research and also to upload my rough cuts. By research I mean i have watched other music videos and tutorials on youtube in oreder to either inspire me (music videos) or to learn tips from (tutorial videos). Other videos inwhich ive seen on youtube are things such as: Movie clips, sound recording tips, how to gain acess to better software, and also other student made music videos.

Blogger

I have used blogger in order to recieve information on what needs updating / doing to my blog from the main teachers blog pages. (where my media tutors uploaded questions for us to answer on our own personal blogs). My blog was personal to me as it was for my own individual music video project. I used blogger to upload blog posts to my own blog page. I generally posted about 3-4 posts a day if not more or maybe less (dependant on work load etc).

BBC Weather site

I have used this website in order to view what the weather was going to be like for when I wanted to shoot. I mainly looked at the website when I was planning my shooting schedule as to avoid the wet weather when planning to go out and film, but of course the weather can change and I found that I lost a few days due to wet weather but because of careful planning I stil managed to get things together and caught up with the shooting scedule and got my video complete.

Google

I bacialy used google for my main search page when looking for helpful resources. Such as: youtube, blogger, and the BBC weather site. Other sites I found include: (DA.font.com, and also Longroadmedia website where I found a collection of student music videos, Also I used MSN to email my chosen artist - Alison)