Album back cover

cd cover

my evaluaion presentation is not very good quality!! grrrrr

Gina Evaluation

Year 13 Media Production Task

VIDEO!

we think we have finally finished our music video, just waiting for it to go on youtube! but its taking ages...

Website!!!!

This is our website the write up is in the evaluation...

Evaluation

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

I think that we managed to use, develop and even change some of the forms and conventions of our band for MuteMath. For instance we had to change some of the stereotypical mise en scene, for instance the costume and the props. We had to change the costume, as we didn't have any suits which the would be similar to what the band wares therefore we had to change to a modern take on it, jeans with a casual shirt, with converse trainers so it was a grunge style. We also had to change the key prop, which is MuteMaths retro style microphone, as we couldn't get one due to the cost of one and our college didn't own one. We made it as a narrative and performance video, which contrasts to the original one which was only a narrative film. We kept to the lyrics of the song to give us ideas, which then gave us a great narrative.

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

We have used similar images throughout the products to link them together as this would be done in reality. We used the same black and white format for our photos and for the album cover. This represents the spotlight in the video and a spotlight in general. The website is more white than black as it doesn't just involve the spotlight idea on it but other videos and things that the actual band have been up to, for instance the New york news, but we kept our band photos on it to keep with the spotlight them.

1. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The main feedback we received was for the design of our website and other design features such as the Album covers and our blog. We did this by having polls on our blog so it would be easy for people to vote on our designs. We got a couple of people to look at the first rough cut of the video. They said that it looked good, but that the editing of the video could of been sharper with the lip sinking. They said that the website looks good and professional, but seemed a little bit over crowded. The Album cover also looked good as it was also done with Photoshop like the website. To gain more audience feedback we will also put our finished video on to YouTube. We eventually managed to gain some feedback as we finished the film, they said that the editing was fast and kept with the pace of the music, but the actual narritve was a bit hard to follow until the end.

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

We used many different types of software, mainly Photoshop and adobe Premiere and also the blog, with lesser use of paint and Dreamweaver. We also use media hardware such as a digital camera, recordable camera and a tripod. We had many problems with the software as it would sometimes not work or we were unable to manipulate the software and use it to our full advantage. We used the software continuously during the project. With the blog we have been able to record our progress, by posting messages, adding pictures and also being able to upload videos. We used premiere to edit our film, the same as last year. We used some of the built in special affects to create our video and our backstage video. I used Photoshop to edit images and created our website design using it. At first, I found it hard to use as we were not told how to use by anyone, but I eventually got used to it.

We also managed to finally finish the video,but we cut it very fine to the deadline due to all the tecnological problems and casting issues. We used many affects which we didn't use last year. For example zooming into parts of the filming and the solorised affect which fitted into the theme of the song.

Website

Gina and I have been trying to create our website for the band MuteMath. We have been using dream weaver, but we were having difficulties designing the actual website with that particular programme. We stopped using dream weaver as it was difficult to enter text, change layout of the pictures and the general layout its self as we used a table format. We then decided to change to photo shop, as it was a lot easier to change layout and to add special features which we found difficult in dream weaver, we also thought that dream weaver would be better to use if we were implementing the design into an actual website.

Changes and plan

We have had to change the story board slightly in order to get the video finished in time. Although the ideas that we originally had were great, and would probably work better in the video, we just do not have the people, time or resources to shoot what we need to. There-fore we hope that the changes work in well with the rest of the narrative of the video.
The plan for the rest of the week is to film the final scenes later on today. This can be done during our period five lesson and obviously after school. Between the three of us we have plenty of frees to be doing the final editing, and finishing off the CD cover and website. We are aiming to finish the latter tomorrow morning as all that needs adding to them are pictures but as always, something is bound to go wrong which may delay us, but fingers crossed that everything will go to plan.
We are also writing our evaluations separately, and will then film each other for our evaluation and backstage video.
This will all be done by this Friday, we have no choice so again, fingers crossed that everything goes to plan and nothing holds us up or messes us about any more. :)

DVD Cover ideas

Some ideas for the DVD cover is a complete black background with a spotlight on it, with a picture from the video and our makeshift font, with information on the back.
Another idea is to have the pictures from our website idea and to have them on the front of the cover, again with the information on the back.

stuff still to do

We still have to add many clips as we are still filming, so as soon as we have the clips we adding it as we go. We still have to finish of the website home page for the band and the evaluation questions which will also need to be filmed and edited, which is going to take time to complete.

Change of cast

We have had to re-shoot some of the video due to the change of the cast. Originally we had Piers as the geek in the early days of filming, but it has now changed to Lewis, a member of our media class. We also needed a drummer, our original one, Joelly is no longer able too, so I have had to replace her as the drummer. Gina is a guitarist and Charlotte is mostly behind the camera doing most of the filming. We still put in equal input about the direction of the video to see what is the better idea or the better shot. Luckily, both Adams are still able to film. We are continuing filming tonight and hopefully finishing the band shots.

Website pictures

These are the pictures we are going to use on the website. They include pictures of te band, the video, performance shots and even some pictures that 'fans' have taken themselves. This is so the 'fans' and audience feel part of the band.

Backstage video editing cont.

I have made a few adjustments to the backstage video, for instance, croping the clips and inserting it into random places with the spotlight song in the background. We will have the evaluations after the backstage footage.

This is part of our editing, this shot is during the first band performance, when the geek meets the band.
This is part of the process of editing including some of the transitions we are going to be using.
Also it shows how much we have dont towards the editing so far. Some of these pictures are going to be used on our website which is going to be the final peice with our coursework. With this we are also doing a backstage video that will be part of our evaluation, also we are going to include some written text to go with it this is so we can explain most of the points that we miss out while speaking as we are going to do it sponteously (no script.) We did a backstage video for last years production piece which we may put on the blog as en example of our work. We choose to do a backstage video because when we did it last year, me and charlotte did the backstage video while filming and then did three intense days of editing.

Editing

Today we started editing we also started the backstage footage as well as our main video. We still need to do more filming to fill in the gaps in the video, so we will be busy and hopefully get it all done by the deadline.

This is a picture of the backstage editing, with part of the resorce video, on the left, and the actual video its self on the right. I also inserted title slides in the the video like so:

HAHAHAHAHA - Filming day 4

This is meant to be part of some filming that we did the other day. When watching it back we realised that Adam (lead singer) did this cheeky litle smile that kind of summed up the whole video and it was right at the end! should be able to put it up tomorrow or at least a picture of it:)

30 seconds to mars videos

I have choosen to put these videos on the blog because, firstly there just really good videos the settings are amazing! If we had a limitless budet i wouldn' have minded filming somewhere like china! Also the shots used during the video are amazing. For example the second video is filmed in and around ice and ice burgs, to show the isolated surroundings it uses establishing shots that show the whole surroundings. This makes the band look tiny in comparison. This idea also fits in with the lyrics of the song.
I really like the beginning of the video shot in China. The High angle shot of the army before the song starts is a great use of framing that makes them look quite threatening but at the same time quite prestigous...

30 seconds to mars the kill

30 seconds to mars