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

Text from video:

Evaluation Question 4 How Did You Use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2 How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

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

VIDEO

DIGIPAK/ADVERT 

Draft Evaluation Questions

Draft Evaluation Questions

Camera for Re-Shoot

I am also planning on borrowing a friends camera to ensure that I achieve a higher-quality shot.

I used a Canon 600D when shooting my first draft, but I found that the it was very difficult to achieve a good quality shot in lighting that is not normal. I have experimented with the Nikon D3100 to ensure that I will not come across the same problem.

Though, I have read reviews comparing the 600D to the D3100 as I was considering buying this camera over the 600D. But most reviews claim that the 600D is better for filming than the D3100.

Re-Shoot

Arranging the re-shoot has been very difficult as both the artists are free on different days/times. Originally I was planning on shooting last Sunday 24th November. But due to unforeseen circumstances the shoot had to be cancelled.
I have been trying to arrange a date where I can shoot the video with both artists but this has proven difficult as both are full-time students with part-time jobs that clash with each other.

I have arranged to shoot on the 29th of November. I will shoot with Ben from 9:40-12:30, then he needs to be back at school for a lesson. After this I will take both Ben and Chloe to the location at 1:25 and shoot until it gets dark. This only leaves me with around 3 hours before it gets dark and the lighting will change too much to keep the same lighting throughout the video.

As I only have a limited amount of time I have thoroughly ordered the shots to ensure that I am not wasting time on set:

Bens Shots

Chloe's Shots

Shots With Both

I will mark the shots with most importance as I can use some of the close-ups from my previous draft.

Plan for Re-shoot

I plan on re-shooting some shots that where I believe that the lighting looks too dark.

 These are mostly the shots that were facing the window bay as the natural daylight was much more stronger than the lighting that I had when shooting. I did not have access to white pop-up lights, but I will ensure that I have some during the re-shoot in order to achieve crisp shots.

I have created a table to show which shots I need to re-shoot with a description of the clip. Creating this table will aid me during the time that I have to re-shoot as I can refer to this to quickly find out the clips that I need to shoot.

Feedback on 1st Draft

• Re-shoot lip-syncing of first couple of lines as you can't tell that they are singing.
• Try different shots without lip-syncing, show expression through different types of shots.
• Make Chloe look/feel more comfortable.
• Include shots with ben/chloe looking up at each other to show more of a relationship between the characters, e.g. shots at 1.50, 1.59.
• Include more close ups
• Mise-en-scene works well.

Improvements on Digipak and Advert

Advert:

• Reduce the size of social network links to match website link size.
• Make the release date on a Monday - 9/12 16/12. 
• Re-draw some of the fonts on the background. Reduce some of the bigger fonts in order for the main title font to stand out more.

Digipak:

• Make legal information much smaller and spread across the bottom more evenly.
• Change or delete the other website links.
• Make the barcode vertical to allow more space for text.
• Reduce the size of the text on the inside left. Add more information about who The Native are and who played, produced and engineered the album.
• Add detail to the spine

Improvements on First Draft

After completing my first draft of my video, I have seen that I need to re-shoot some shots in order to complete my video to a high standard.

Lighting was a huge issue when shooting my video, after reviewing the footage, I have found that the shots that were not against the natural daylight from the window bay looked much more brighter and professional.

Lighter/Crisper Shots:

Darker, more saturated shots:

First Draft of Video

Review of Shooting Day

I think that the day was quite successful. Though I do not believe that I filmed every shot on the storyboard to a high quality.

One issue that kept arising was the lighting. I found it very difficult to ensure that the lighting was the same in each shot. This was mostly because the natural light coming from the window bay was much more brighter than I anticipated. I had to use many lights in order to achieve a crisp looking shot, this meant that the images looked more orange, which is a problem that I was trying to avoid. I think that if I was able to get white pop-up lights, rather than the lamps that I used this would not have made the shots look as discoloured.

I think that I should have planned the day more thoroughly, though I did believe that I had thought out every shot and how I planned on shooting these shots. I made a grid that I thought would make me more organised and productive during the day, but as I kept forgetting to mark which shots I had already filmed, this resulted in my organisation decreasing. Printing out the lyrics and annotating them was a very helpful element to have on the day. This helped me to quickly refer back to the lyrics so the artist knows what they needed to be singing.

Artist's Final Outfits

\

Shooting Day 1:00pm

I am currently waiting for Chloe to arrive, when she does I will start her hair and make-up. This will be kept to a minimum to reflect the natural theme of the acoustic video. 

I have linked my iPod with some speakers to play the song during the performance, hopefully this will make the artists feel more comfortable in front of the camera and help me during editing to find the location of the song in the shot. 

The natural light from the window bay is very strong as it is a clear and sunny day. This means that I will not need as much artificial lighting as I thought. 

Both batteries are charged and ready to shoot with and my SD card has been formatted to ensure that I have enough room on their to shoot all the shots I will need.

Shooting Day 11:00-12:00

I have added more props in the widow bay as I felt that it looked too bare. Though these won't be shown that often throughout the video, I feel that the use of interesting mise-en-scene may add more elements for the viewer to think about through the video.

I have finished annotating the lyrics with the shot numbers to ensure that I know when the artists should be singing in each shot. I have also completed many tables that have been categorised with the shot type and duration. This will help me to keep to schedule and not waste time on the shoot.

Shooting Day 10am

I have started setting up the room and I have laid out my storyboard and list of shot types. I have bought my laptop to ensure that if we run out of space on the memory card, i can quickly import the video's then carry on shooting. I managed to acquire another camera battery, this will help me to make the most of the time I have with Ben & Chloe. 

Timetable For Shooting Day

1st Drafts of Digipak and Advert

Construction of Digipack Draft 1

Initial Idea:
I chose to replicate the theme of my draft advert and use the same colour pallette and methods of illustration and collage effect on my cover.
I decided add a border and copy the method of 'flaws' in different fonts, I felt that this looked too busy and took the attention away from the name of the band.





I then decided to remove the fonts surrounding the central image to make it stand out a lot more. I found that the more minimalistic approach to the artwork is more effective and looks more professional. I ripped the edges of the border of the title text to adhere the handmade theme. By scanning this idea into the computer, it enabled me to transfer the title 'flaws' onto this cover. This continuity that I have carried into helps the audience to match the advert to the cover as the artwork is not the same on the advert.

1st DRAFT COVER:

As for the rest of the digipak, I thought that I would reinforce the collage-like approach by hand-drawing all the tracks that are on the album. By going against convention and listing all the tracks in an orderly way, I thought tried to present the tracks in an artistic fashion. This enabled me draw the numbers as well, after scanning my first draft of the tracklist in, I saw that the numbers in black made the tracklist less aesthetically pleasing and confusing. So I filled these numbers in with white on photoshop to define the difference between the tracks and their numbers.

1st DRAFT DIGIPAK:

Construction of Advert Draft 1

After having trouble being inspired during the creation of my initial ideas, I took the image that I have chosen to feature on my digipak and printed it out in different hues. I photocopied my sandy/brown coloured folder which on my desk and thought that it would suit the natural genre of the artist. I chose this as the primary background colour. I have previously research illustration and handwritten text for my digipak, I sketched some ideas of fonts that I could scan in and use on my digipak.

Rather than than using a more conventional technique of layering up different elements using a computer, e.g. photoshop, I decided that using the physical elements would help me to design a better cover as I can experiment with different medias and illustration. I also wanted to try a more 'handmade' and personal approach on the advert as it connects the audience to the artists/band.

I started sketching the title of the album (which is the name of the track I have chosen to produce a video for) in black fineliner. I was originally experimenting with different fonts, but I decided that this could work effectively as a background for the advert.

I then placed the image and my chosen sketch of the bands name onto the background. I decided to put this image in the center of the page as the background is very busy and I wanted the image to catch the eye first. 

I was very undecided about how to present the information on the lower bottom half of the page, I first experimented with filling up the space with the bands name, to contrast against the album name which needed to stand out. I decided against this it looked too busy and as it was two words in the title, it looked very confusing.

By photocopying the background images, I was able to experiment with different styles before deciding on a final design.
Information that I wanted to include on the poster was the release date of the album (11-12-13), website address and maybe the phrase 'the debut album', record label info or social network links.

My three experiments were not very different from each other, I felt that the phrase 'the debut album' did not fit and I wanted the release date to stand out more. 

I tried to carry the illustration onto the social network links and the record label logo, I feel that I did this in more detail, rather than quickly sketching the logos, it could look a lot more effective and it fills the empty space in the corners. Rather than drawing the logos, I could simply add the addresses text rather than the logo, this would also make this information less bold and show the importance of the album title.

Additions in Photoshop:

I quickly sketched the logos for the social networks Facebook and twitter, I also added the website of the band so interested readers that want to go and research the band can easily know where to find them online. I decided to 'sketch' these logos to keep with the handmade theme of the rest of the advert.

DRAFT 1

On my next draft, I think that I will try some different styles of fonts and remove some of the existing fonts that don't suit the style of the background.