Final Cut

This is the final music video of Lukas Graham's, '7 years'. I am so pleased with how it progressed and improved overtime, and hope people enjoy the story and can understand the meaning behind it.

Ancillary Task- Poster

This is my finished promotion poster for the song and music video of Lukas Graham's '7 years'. I have added the review, the release date, which is the largest of texts at the top because its one of the most important things on the poster. There is also a twitter name to follow and a hashtag for the social media audience to get involved. 

Overall I am very happy with my poster, i like how i have kept it simple, but just wish the image was a little more defined so its easier to see that i have layered 7 of the images together and that it would be easier to see that the car is further away. 

Ancillary Task- Digi-pak

This is my front cover of my album for Lukas Graham, I wanted to keep it simple by using a photograph. The photo is of the old man and boy looking at each other because they are looking at the past and the future as the same person. I kept the sunset theme as i thought the colours were rich and really nice. On my poster I also had a sunset so thought I should keep the theme running, along side the theme of a thin dotted boarder, just to add a frame to the image. I also used the same font and colour, to stand out from the dark shadows and wanted the theme to run throughout. 

My back cover is very similar to the front, i used the same photograph but put a grey box over the top, i was stuck with what to do for the back cover and using another photo wouldn't blend in, so you can just see the edges of the photo. I also used the same font and colour, but this its alittle darker. I added a barcode and the legal information to make it look even more life like, and then there is also s Warner Bro logo because that is the company who own/ publish Lukas Graham's songs. Once again i put a simple border around the outside. 

Question 1- In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 This is my answer to question 1 of the evaluation, its a prezi, click the link to have a look.


https://prezi.com/66dp4c8tdgpy/in-what-way-does-your-media-product-use-develop-or-challeng/

Question 2-How effective is your combination of your main task and ancillary tasks?

This is my answer to question 2, 'How effective is your combination of your main task and ancillary tasks?'
I decided to create a powerpoint, and uploaded it to Youtube.
https://youtu.be/V-vVqQCwqvo

Question 3- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

This is a video of me talking over my evaluation question number 3 about the feedback i received from the audience , its an audio over a video of my youtube channel showing the progress i have made over time to make my coursework music video better. 

Question 4: How did you use your media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

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

During the the making of my music video, I used a wide variety of media technologies right from the research of music videos all the way to my evaluation questions. 

First of all the main platform I used was 'Blogger' an internet website where you blog your progress,  I used this a lot for recording and planning my ideas to construct my coursework. It was very helpful because I could show the progress I made and how I developed my work overtime into the final product. Its easily organised in categories and also a simple way track my A2 work. But has a few disadvantages as it is limited in terms of actions you can take so hinders the work you can produce, it also takes a long time to upload videos and you can't put Microsoft Word, Powerpoint or Excel on it, and finding an alternative was a problem sometimes. Overall its a helpful software in tracking and showing the progression of my A2 work.  

Youtube was also a helpful website during the production of my A2 music video, I used it to research music videos for the planning of it. It was also used for tutorials on how to use softwares such as Premier Pro and Photoshop, where I didn't have much knowledge about these since at AS i only used very basic skills. It was a easy website to use, I could screenshot work and upload videos from it onto my blog to show my ideas. I also used it as a platform for people to access my videos,  and receive feedback from them, it was also a way to access them myself to then upload onto Blogger. It has a few disadvantages of being very slow during the upload of my videos but was very helpful to find music videos that could help me to research ideas.
Adobe Premier Pro is an editing software where I used it to put my videos, in particular my music video together. I briefly experimented with it at AS, using the very basic tools to put together a piece of work, but this year the skills I learnt and transferred were a lot more advanced for me enabling for a better outcome of my video. If you compare my AS to A2, you can instantly see a difference in editing and skills, the growth, personally has been big. I previously used the software last year so was briefly familiar with the tools and how it operated in which I could use to my advantage but still had a lot of things to learnt due to the simplicity of the editing from last year. I was able to spend more time working on the actual video rather than how things worked.  But did face problems of certain aspects being very complicated to use and difficult to get the hang of, this made it quite time consuming. But overall was a very professional programme to use with a wide spectrum of tools to use creating a better product.
The camera I used to shoot my video was my own, a Canon EOS 1100D digital SLR camera, it was easy to have my own as I know how it works and could use it when ever I wanted, this was particularly helpful since I had to film on multiple occasions adding to my video. This camera quality wasn't the most professional but I could improve it by editing and once it was uploaded to Youtube. I could manually focus in and out of different things whether they were in the foreground or back, it was also very good at capturing the sunset at different angles giving my music video more emotion. It was also used  to take the photo for my film poster. The quality was really good, especially of the photographs but it was difficult to take the camera everywhere, as it is quite big and bulky.
Adobe Photoshop was used to edit and create my film poster and album cover. I already knew a few of the tools through using it in my art, but used Youtube a lot to support me in learning new skills to make my poster and cd cover better. It made my work look professional and has lots of tools to experiment with, but some of the effects can be difficult to use and get the hang of, which can be time consuming. I didn't use Photoshop at AS but through editing photos in my art lessons i learnt the simple skills but had to learn a lot more this year at A2.
I also used Prezi for one of my evaluation questions and planning towards my final video ideas. Its good because you can customise it and it has different ways to present your work, you can also include photos and videos to link to the information. But can be time consuming if you haven't used it before.
Google was also a large part of my research, construction and planning process as I researched videos and information about the work to add to my process of the creation of my music video. I also used it to research music video posters and album covers to get inspiration for my Ancillary tasks, on the other hand it doesn't also bring up what you wanted or relevant work, so you have to look through them finding what you need. 

Evaluation Questions plan:

Question 1: 

This is the plan to my answer to question 1, of 'in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge from and conventions of real media products. I will answer this by using Prezi.

Question 2:

Powerpoint:

Introduction to advertisements of music videos

research into existing album covers

research into professional posters

Digipack

(image)

Poster

(image)

Feedback

Question 3: 

This question i plan to do an audio over the screen of my Mac so you can see what I'm doing as i explain it. The question is 'What have you learnt from your audience feedback'?

Plan:
-Introduce my video, what its about, who my target audience are etc
-Start by talking about my first rough cut of my music video, the feedback received
-Then how i started to improve it, what i added to make it better (inside the house, less shots of children)
-Then again, how i had to add to it (added photos, black and white contrast- more context to it)
Finally what feedback i received at the end of my video.

Question 4:

Essay:

Blogger
Youtube
Premier Pro
Camera
Photoshop
Prezi
Google

Feedback of Final Cut!

My video was shown in class and my peers gave me feedback on what they liked about my video and what could be improve/ what wasn't so good. Getting this feedback was very helpful as it enabled me to know how i could improve and what the people within my age bracket liked about the video. They gave me a grade out of 40, 32 and above being in the highest band for the top grade, this was also helpful as it gave me a rough idea of the grade i will hopefully get from the examiners.
I received a score out of 40 for each person and a rough average of about 36.
Here are the feedback sheets i received:

Evaluation Questions

• In what ways do your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?
• How did you use your media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 

All Characters- after filming

Old Man- Maurice Green, age 69

My first character and main person in this video is the old man- my uncle. He is portrayed as a lonely man missing his wife, this happens a lot real life, after a person loses a loved one, they can go 'into hiding' and become very depressed and independent, trapping out the outside world. My uncle is 70 next year and fit the role perfectly, he is oldish and looks it. This man will be remembering his childhood with his wife, who is either dead or alive, of which the audience decide on.

Wife- Pam Green, age 68

The character which is a key part in my video but doesn't feature personally in it very much. Both pam and Maurice are husband and wife so i could use this to advantage. Using photos of them growing up and their home with links between them. Pam plays the wife of the lonely man, who he sees at the end, the bench represents a link between the 2, its either where they meet, or where he remembers her after she passed away.

Boy- Tom Cugnoni, age 11

Tom is one of the children who plays the man when he was young and the relationship between the boy and girl. He is a very helpful boy, i just told the 2 children to mess around and play naturally, and that is exactly what i done. Sometimes the best footage is of them not knowing when i was filming. 

Girl- Harriet Prior, age 11

Harriet and Tom are best of friends so for them to play together was very easy, Harriet is very confident so was willing to do whatever i wanted her to. She plays the girl of the wife when they were young. 

The photographs i used in my video

Here are a few photos i used in my music video they are of Pam and Maurice (the couple in my video) of them growing up together. In my video i put them in chronicle order to give context and a story of growing up old. They aren't in order in this blog post. 

Filming Review

First Filming Day
After filming my first day i was pleased with all my shots, it was sunny so i was able to use this to my advantage, and the lighting was really nice, complimenting the story line. The actors turned up on time although we did have to rush certain parts because Tom the boy had to leave. I was really happy with what i had got done that day.
Second Filming Day
I had to quickly go up the farm and shoot my uncle holding the photo of the 2 children ( which would have been him and his wife when they were young). The weather was different to before, as the sun was not shining, this was bit of a shame, but i just needed to get it done.

Third Day of Filming
After putting my footage together from shooting, i received feedback on how to improve it, this included filming more. So back went to the farm and i added another character (the old lady), filming inside the house, where he looks at old photographs and multiple things link to their relationship/marriage. It also throws in the question of is she dead or alive? The weather again was sunny and i went around 3 o'clock giving me time to film inside and then outside so the sun would be setting but it wasn't too dark.

4th and Filming Shooting 
After i thought my video was finished, some people said their was something missing for it to be a real tear-jerker, they really liked it but felt one last thing could be added to it. So i asked my aunt and uncle who both feature in the video for old photos of them growing up together. i then montaged them together and put them in my video. This was just taking photos of photos, i didn't need any actors, but used a SLR camera, the same one i used to film my video.

Adding MORE to my Video

To add more context to my video, I will ask my aunt and uncle (who are in the video) for photos of them growing up, then take photos of that and montage it together, them edit it into my video. I will hopefully edit it order of age, or a rough guess so it looks like its in a timeline. I got my inspiration from the film 'UP', from the montage of Carl and Ellie (the 2 characters who were in love) Its a short video of the 2 growing up together.

Music Videos that connect to the audience

These music videos connect to the audience in one way or another, they play with the emotions which  makes the audience want to watch the video, this is the most important part. These videos have given me inspiration in what kind of shots to use, certain shots can make a situation sadder.

'Macklemore and Ryan Lewis- Same Love feat. Mary Lambert'
Is a video about 2 gay me growing up together and facing the stigmas around homosexuals together. Obviously this isn't the same to my video but does feature some similarities of the love between the couples and them growing up together. Some of the shots i used were similar to  this.

'Justin Bieber - Love Yourself'
This video connects to the audience because you feel sorry for the guy as the girl thinks to highly of herself, ignoring her relationship with him so in the end he leaves. Usually the audience sympathises for the girl but this time its the guy, going against conventional music videos.

Video Meaning

My video has quite a deep meaning to it, originally i wanted it to just be a video of a man who remembers his childhood but over time it progressed to get better and better and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
Here i have explained the different elements that feature in my video and have meanings behind them, that may not be recognised through just watching the video.

Sunsets:
My video opens with the few shots of sunsets, this portrays that the man is coming towards the end of his life like a sunset is near the end of the day, this is a subtle point to the audience as i didnt want to go straight into the shots of the old man.

The Bench:
As you can see throughout my video the bench appears a few times, the first time at the start of the video where the man sits on it, this is where he starts to remember his childhood by looking at the old photograph. At the end of the film the man then walks over to it to see his wife sitting this bench links him to her, whether she is alive or dead, the audience can decide that. The bench is a symbol of a link and love between the couple, as he sits on it to remember his childhood with his wife and then going back to it to see her. When he walks outside towards the end of the video, the colour changes from black and white to colour, this is because when he is outside he feels closer to his wife, and he knows he will see her either mentally or physically.

Inside the house and editing the colour:
When the old man is in the house looking at old photos and the things he does indicates he is missing his wife, the reason why it is black and white is because he is alone and they are not together. His life is dull and depressing when he is not with her. The edit on  the children playing outside is a lot duller than when they are older, this is because i wanted it to look like old footage but didn't want it in black and white because then it would blend into when the man is inside alone and obviously the footage is different.

The Unknown:
The audience can decide for themselves if they think she is dead or alive, whether he goes to the bench because that is the place he remembers her best or just the place they meet up. Its where he remembers their childhood together and growing up, and staying together for a very long time.

Target Audience

Target Audience- Music 

My target audience for my video and chosen song are little different. The song i chose to use my my music video is '7 Years' by Lukas Graham, this is aimed at younger generations, for the ages 14-26. This is because its a current mainstream song in the charts at the moment played on the radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 and Kiss, that are listened to daily. Originally i didn't want to do a current mainstream song because of the expectations of people and what they would think. I asked 20 people of all ages most were 18 year olds but some were 11 years old and some where 40+ majority of them had heard the song apart from 2 who were older than 40. The younger generations are more likely to purchase this song by cd, ITunes, online etc, this means they are my target audience.

Target Audience- Video

The target audience for my video is aimed more at older people because it reminds them of being young and remembering their childhood. This song has been heard by lots of ages and the video can also aim to them. My video has aimed at younger generations linking to the audience of the song but also it is aimed older people who will watch it and remember being young. Elderly people can also relate to the story of feeling alone after the loss of a loved one, the video is aimed at people who are of similar age to my two older actors.

Adding more to my video

Through my feedback I decided to film more to add to my video, after receiving my pointers on how to make the video better, i agreed with what was said and wanted to improve it as best i could. So the Tuesday i received the feedback that afternoon and evening around 3-5 i filmed other parts to my video. I got home from school at 3 and left as soon as possible as it was a sunny day and needed to film inside the farm house at my aunt and uncles place which gave me time to also film outside when the sun was low but still light enough to shoot.
Firstly we went inside the house looking for old photos of my aunt and uncle (who are in the video) when they were young, and other items that linked a couple in particular them together. I used their one of their wedding photos and photos of them as they were getting older. One shot i used my uncle looking at a photo of my aunt when she was young in a frame. I wanted to film him looking at his wedding ring but my uncle didn't have one. I filmed my aunts slippers next to my uncle but kind of set back so i gave the audience as suspicion that she was alive, but was she? I then filmed their shoes together and a chair where my aunt used to sit with a sewing kit. Then i filmed my uncle sitting on the sofa and looking to an empty seat.
I then filmed him walking outside, to the bench where he sat at the start of the video, and my aunt sat on the bench, i think when i edit it together that will be my last shot.

A Practise Cut and Feedback

This is one of my rough cuts, I got some feedback on it on how to improve it. I felt as i watched it the shots of the children playing were quit long winded and they were quite similar throughout.
After showing my teacher and my class my video, of which i thought was very close to be finished, I received a lot of feedback to improve my final cut and i have quite a few changes to make before my deadline which is in a few days, this is a sheet of the feedback i received, i will work on from this feedback to improve my video. I was told to take out the lip syncing of the 2 children and add another part in as the shots of Tom and Harriet are a little repetitive. It was suggested that i add the old man in his house looking at old photos or memorabilia of the young couple growing up and at the end do they audience think she is dead or alive.

My rough cut still has some changes to be made to it, I need to change the colouring of the children, so you can tell it is a memory. Then i also need to add some shots in to it to establish the different time periods and so people understand what the storyline is.
I received feedback from various people on how i can improve my work, i didn't tell them anything about it so i could see if they understood the video without background information.

Philip age 17: "There are a variety of shots, good lighting and focus, however i didn't really understand the link between the man and the kids".

Kate age 49: "You need to put something in between the old man and the start of the children, so people know what the story is about, as you can't always tell people before they watch it, especially the examiner".

Clothing my actors ended up wearing

This is the outfit my uncle wore, i didn't want him to wear anything special, he ended up wearing a tweed flat cap, red scarf and navy jumper and dark trousers. 

 Here are a few shots of both the children and what they wore for my video, Other wore greens and browns, Harriet the little girl wore a skirt and Tom the boy for browny trousers.

These are some examples of what children wore in the 50's:

Adding another Character

I thought that because i used 2 children in the video, i thought i should have some sort of link to the girl. The video is based around the old man remembering his childhood but at the end of my video, it was a bit of a spare of the moment thing but i thought i could add at the end the lady who was the girl now grown up and sits on the bench of the bench with the man, as they are now married, and together or still just best of friends. This shot isn't for very long, about 2 seconds and within that they both look at each other.

Audience Research

I done my audience research in a small group of people, as i felt we could help each other out with the questions and ideas. We asked a few people what they thought were on a couple of questions to do with my work and music videos in general. Over a period of time I have complied an edited together version of videos from my audience research.
The questions were:
1. Which of the following media products do you regularly consume over an average week?
2. Is there a difference between the music you listen to and the music videos you watch?
3. What do you consider to be the definition of as music video?
4. Who do you consider to be the target audiences of each of the following media products?
5. Which of the following ways of promoting music video release attracts you most to streaming it or watching the music video on YouTube/music video channel?
6. What music videos can you think of that you would put into a category of excellent in the way that they use creativity?
7. What do you think to our idea for our music video/question?

StoryBoard

1. Shots of the old man sitting on the bench
2. Doing/looking at something to remember his childhood by
3. A flashback to 2 children playing, messing around, this will be for the majority of the video
4. Finally at the end either a cut back to the man, or just a fading shot of the 2 children playing.

Prop List and Clothing

Prop List
I need both my young actors, Harriet and Tom.
I also need my uncle who is playing the old man.
I need to bring my Camera- SLR Canon, Tripod and an empty memory card.
Yogi the dog is also going to be in parts of the video, he will be playing with the children.

Clothing
Tom and Harriet are supposed to be from the 50's so clothing is important to distinguish between the time periods.
Tom: A checked shirt, a browny jumper, dark coloured trouser, wellington boots.
Harriet: Tweed coat, skirt and tights and wellington boots, hair in plaits.
Both are hopefully going to wear neutral colours so they don't look too bright.
Uncle Maurice: Normal clothes, flat cap, jumper, scarf.
It doesnt matter so much what old man wears because thats set in present time, so we don't need to disguise between time periods.

Rough Cut!!

This is the rough cut of my video, i put the shots together and slowed down some parts for example, from 100% to 60%. I need to get some feedback on it so far, I'm thinking of putting the children parts in either black and white or decrease the saturation so you can tell its supposed to be set earlier on in the mans life. Also you can't really tell he is remembering parts of his childhood so i had the idea, of having a photo them editing it to black and white, then i will re-film a small part of it, at the start where he is sitting on the bench, and then gets the photo out, this will stimulate his memory, it will then switch to the 2 children playing. Im really pleased with the editing and filming so far, but it still had some tweaking to be made.
Here are some photos for shooting yesterday!

Photos from the 50's

As i am using a old looking photograph in my video, i need to research into what photos looked like from the 50's.

I created a collage of photos i found on the internet of children from the 50's:

 This is my example of a photo from the 50's, i took it not long ago, a few days before when i shoot my video and then edited it to black and white to make it look old. I don't know if it will be too dark in my video, if not i can edit it to make it look lighter, and so you can see the photo better, I edited the photo in photoshop. 

AFTER FILMING:

 This is what the photograph looked like in the video, as i edited the clip to increase the contrast as it was part of my current time the photo came out a little light of the right of the photo, but you can still see the image clearly. 

Research into Music Video promotion posters

These are some example of promotion posters, some are based on the actual video and others have links, or some are just the band logo like the Arctic Monkeys poster.

This Katy Perry poster is based a lot around the song and video, where as some don't give much away about the video. This poster has an old-fashioned circus style, its made to look hand drawn, using lots of colour but not so its overpowering. i really like this poster style, as its quit art-based. The creme background allows the greens and blues of the leaves to stand out and the animals emerge from them. Katy is dressed like a jungle survivor, the song title has a tiger pattern in it, linking it to the sound a tiger makes which is also the song name.

The Alesso poster, is quite simple in comparison to others, the photograph of the eye is very advanced. The colours have been decreased so its quite monochrome, this adds drama to the photo, meaning this could link somehow to the video. Its got a black border only around the top and bottom, this sometimes appears in films so maybe the video is a short story or has some background to it. The writing is white and bold to stand out from the darkness of the eye.

Madonnas Vogue poster, is very dramatic, the dark background and white foreground, like a light hitting her face, draws the attention initially to her. The name of the song is very big, her name is alot smaller, she expects everyone to know who she is so her name is less important, especially since she is on the cover. Once again the poster is back and white, putting it in a time were colour film was unavailable, but this is purposely like this, based on Vogue a long standing fashion magazine, or has a definition of a prevailing fashion or style at a particular time, which is what the video is based on.

Taylor swifts song is the most recent out of all posters, she released a handful of posters advertising each character in her video, all where famous women and they were released daily, creating suspicion and excitement amongst her fans. Once again the colour scheme is black and white which red blood, linking to the name of the song, it also features a line from the song, and the date of the release.

The lady Gaga and Beyonce song and video Telephone, links also the the poster, during her video they drive off in a truck, which is the one featuring in the poster. The colours are all similar, the natural colours of the road, sky and surroundings. Then the yellow and pink car colours are also used in the song title which is bold and part of it features an old telephone dial.

Filming!

I am hoping to film on the 18th of February, it took alot of time to arrange a date where everyone was free but its finally happening! I need to create a prop list and set out what i need to do when i am shooting.
The weather is supposed to be sunny and its arranged to be done from 3 onwards when the sun starts to lower and the lighting is a lot nicer.

The importance of music videos

Click the link to watch a video on music videos:
https://vimeo.com/47925628

Growing up in the 50's

As my uncle who will be playing the old man in my music video was born in the 50's, i done some research about what it was like growing up in England in the 1950's.
I found an article on the Express website and it gives an insight into being a child 60+ years ago.
Here are snip-its from the article i felt captured the imagination:

Written by Paul Feeney in 2009:

'Despite the difficulties of day-to-day living people had great pride in and loyalty to their country and seemed to share a common purpose in life. Families stayed together through the hard times and everybody knew their neighbours and had a sense of belonging. They would routinely leave their street door on the latch and hang a key on a piece of string behind the letterbox when they were out for their children to come and go as they pleased.

'You probably didn’t get your first black and white television set until the late ­Fifties. After all, only three million British households had one by 1954, with numbers increasing to almost 13million by 1964.'

'But it didn’t matter if you had no television because you could play in the streets without the fear of traffic or the obstruction of parked cars. Buses and bicycles were the most popular modes of transport. In 1950 there were just under two million cars in Britain, with only 14 per cent of households owning one. The most ­popular models in the Fifties included the Ford Prefect 100E and the Austin A35 saloon.'

'Many of us who grew up then have memories of houses that were draughty in winter with curtains hung behind the street door to reduce the flow of cold air and frost that formed overnight on the inside of bedroom windows.'

'Outside, the larger urban areas suffered with dense, yellowish smogs – known as pea-soupers – caused by fog combining with coalfire emissions. In 1952 a particularly thick smog shrouded London and caused the deaths of an estimated 12,000 people.'

'However, life was certainly not all doom and gloom. You grew up in a much safer environment than we can ever imagine these days. Children were able to enjoy the freedom of outdoor life. They played lots of rough-and-tumble games, got dirty and fell out of trees. The purple stains of iodine were always evident on the grazed knees of boys in short trousers.'

'There was no such thing as health and safety or children’s rights. We were taught discipline at home and at school and ­corporal punishment was freely administered for bad behaviour.'

'There was no mugging of old ladies and people felt that it was safe to walk the streets. There was very little vandalism and no graffiti. Telephone boxes were fully glazed and each contained a set of local telephone directories and a pay-box full of pennies.'

'Youngsters respected and feared people in authority such as policemen, teachers, and park keepers, knowing that they would get a clip around the ear if they were caught misbehaving. Home life was much different from today. Everyone seemed to have a gramophone, an upright piano and a valve radio in their front room and there were ticking clocks all around the house.'