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.