Beginning My Evaluation

I have began my Media Studies evaluation where I will look at my Music Video, CD Digipak and Music Magazine Advertisement. I will evaluate my research and planning, construction and feedback on all three of these tasks.

I have planned to do question 1 as a blog post where I will talk about the three tasks and use images from my video and existing videos to support my evaluation along with videos and other types of media where possible.

For question two I will produce as a prezzi presentation. I will also keep this media rich and try to keep the text to a minimum by only including key points.

I have decided that a movie will be suitable for questions 3 & 4. I should find this simple as I have used Final Cup Express a lot recently. I will include images of my video, CD Digipak and music magazine advertisement and may even include video in these.

Completing My Music Magazine Advertisement

This is what I have chosen as my final Music Magazine Advertisement. I have used a selection of images of my cast to create a collage effect. I have used a range of different effects on the images by using Adobe Photoshop Elements and I also used tools such as the rubber, opacity tool and text tool. I think that this advertisement is simple but it portrays a message which is suitable to The Script and its audience based on the genre of the band and their music.

Final Session of Filming

I have now completed filming and have all of the footage which I need in order to complete my music video. I re-filmed the CCTV image shots and these now look much better instead of my first attempt at these. I have used a wider range of camera shots for these as well so it is less repetitive.

Creating A Music Magazine Advertisement

This is a screenshot of me adding an effect to an image of one of my cast. I selected the 'crosshatch' filter which gives a 'grain' effect in a crosshatch pattern. I then altered the levels of each of the options on the right until the image looked how I wanted it too. I then added this to my Music Magazine Advertisement, and also did this for a number of other images and used a range of effects on these.
I also used the rubber tool to soften the edges on some of the images and this allowed them to blend into the other images.

I also used the effect 'convert to black and white', I did this because I felt this worked extremely well on the brick wall as shown above. I felt this gave the image more meaning from the location.

Planning To Film

I aim to arrange to film within the next week. I will need to gather all the needed equipment eg: Clamp Tripod, Camera and Normal Tripod. I will also need to find out when my female cast member has the time to do this filming. I will be re-filming my CCTV image shot which is the reason why I need the clamp tripod. I am going to film this shot in different locations which will hopefully have more meaning, I also want to film a canted angle shot of my female cast member walking away from the camera and then the same of myself. I may also film an extreme close-up shot of the feet of two cast members, this could be done easily with great effect by placing the camera on the ground without the tripod.

Altering Some Shots

Today I decided to experiment with a section of my video which I wasn't sure about. The section is about 15 seconds in length, and is the final two line of lyrics from verse one. I replaced a selection of shots of the train station and a train with different types of shots of the same location. For example I removed a zoom shot of the train and replaced this with a shot of the train which I modified the speed of so that it was better suited to the music.

Continuity Within My Video

Today I have watched by music video through several times to check there are no gaps and all the shots go together. By doing this I spotted parts with poor continuity due to the way I have placed some shots from inside the car. I have now corrected these mistakes and also have been able to recognise areas which need changing/altering or re-filming. I will now begin to arrange filming sessions with my cast.

Fine-Tuning My Video

I have now completed my music video in terms of the layout of shots and the order of editing. When looking back through my video I have noticed that there is some colour correction to made to shots such as the scrabble letters because these were taken as pictures so the light levels differ. The framing of these shots also needs to be adjusted so they are all in line of the screen and aren't moving from letter to letter. I have also noticed that the shots I have filmed using the Clamp Tripod, may need to be filmed again because they are used a lot and getting this shot from different angles and in different locations should keep the audience more interested. I also think by re-filming this I could choose a location with more meaning rather than the current location, however I am still to decide on this and will think carefully about this.

Reversing A Shot

I have used the reverse shot effect in my production because I wanted this shot to give an impression that the male wants to go back in time. I think this shot works well with the lyrics "we're standing on a tiny ledge before this goes over the edge" as its repeating a small part of the video but backwards to what it was originally shown.

Mise En Scene Of My Music Video

I have tried to make my music video look very similar to existing videos from The Script and I have done this by using as many outside locations and camera shots when possible. I did this because, by using more outside locations it allows me to show the audience that the video is set in an urban environment where as if my video was located only inside this would be harder for me to portray. Another reason for doing this is that existing videos from The Script are mainly located outside and set in places such as city/town centres , train stations and parks/recreational areas.