Evaluation Questions: 4: How did you use new technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Without the use of new technologies this project would have not been possible. Nearly every single piece of work has been created on computers or on-line. 


Throughout our research stages, the internet was used a considerable amount. Existing products were seen on websites such as YouTube and Vimeo, specifically Bruno Mars' previous work. However, it was not just music videos that were researched, CDs, posters and leaflets were all easily accessible on the internet. The lyrics for 'Marry You' were also found on the internet, something that aided in the location planning and filming, when the actor would go over his lines. As a group, to make communication outside of school more accessible we all signed up to "Dropbox" so that we could share our files on-line and access them from any computer that we was at, this website also enabled us to make notes on each others work and enhance our project as a whole.

Again, throughout both the research and planning stages Microsoft Office was used regulary, both our pitches were created on Power Point, with the handy note pages on each slide so we could give a professional and slick presentation. However, all was not produced on computers! All of our drafts were completed by hand and then scanned onto a computer so they would always be there to refer too for future reference. 


For me, my mobile phone became a handy camera as I often didn't have a digital one around. Many of the pictures within this blog have been taken by a camera phone. This form of technology also allowed to group to be in constant communication if any of us came up with new ideas or were about to film.
All of our ancillary tasks were completed on Abobe Photoshop, Illustrator CS3 and InDesign. These programmes consisted of both the simple tools required and also those that would enhance our work and push it up to a professional standard.

Social networking also played an important part within the completing of my blog. Whilst using my camera phone to take pictures of my products, I uploaded them to Facebook to then download them onto my computer, a quick and handy way that enabled me to complete my blog. Not forgetting possibly the most important thing; my blog. In previous years all of my tasks and evaluations have been made into portfolios, however all is different with the majority of my work being accessible on the internet, including the music video.

New technologies that our group used was the video camera, camera and the VEM machine. Without any of these three elements our video would have been non existent. After we had completed the filming we would transfer our footage to the VEM machine then using Premiere Pro, something that the group had only previously encountered. Video 'timeline' were created to complete a successful and full video and then added to the original Bruno Mars song.

As mentioned earlier, the evaluation stages of this project was completely different to what we have been previously used too. Blogging regularly became a habit for us as we could easily update our peers and teachers as to what we were achieving. Alongside these blogs there was also constant feedback coming back from both peers and teachers, something that enabled us to better our work, something that was not always possible on paper. 

New technologies have been the soul of our production, these technologies have been weaved into the research, construction, planning and evaluation of this project. As a group we have all encountered many of the programmes that we used and could use them seamlessly, however we all learnt how to use Premier Pro, to me, the most important bit of technology that was used. However, it must always be taken into account that none of this would have been possible without any of these new technologies.

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

Throughout my four years of media I have always been aware of how important audience feedback was. However, it has become increasingly apparent that audience feedback is absolutely vital within a project as large as this. As the designer of a project, it is hard to critique your own work and with such a great deal of time and effort going into this project it is hard to see the faults, therefore, audience feedback has never been more necessary. 


Throughout the early months of this project receiving feedback was important as it helped us change faults that were minor to repair. However, it was when we thought our video was completed that the big blows came. At a creative arts evening held by the school, all of our work was displayed and feedback then received. It was on this night that we were made aware of details that were not accurate within the video. For example, lip-syncing, lack of shots, quality and other minor details. As a group, we watched the audience as they watched our video so that we could get a small insight as to what they were thinking with their facial expressions and body language, it was during this when we realised there were errors within our video. During this feedback I also realised that they were not totally dismissing the video just giving constructive criticism that would help us, not hinder us. 


It has become apparent to me and my group that after continuous editing, day after day our judgement had become clouded as to the standard and quality of our video. However, this feedback, although harsh and critical was valuable as we were told exactly what was wrong, from unbiased views and this aided us in re-filming sections and being able to better our grades. 


This project has really made me realise that audience feedback is one of the most important things when constructing a project and feedback should never be put on the back burner, as it is critical in achieving a better grade.

Evaluation Questions: 2: How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary tasks?

In all honesty, I struggled at combining both my main and ancillary tasks. As our music video was a group effort there were many different ideas as to how the video was filmed, costumes used and the body language that was needed for the video to be represented in the right way and for this to then continue on into our individual ancillary tasks. However, as our video progressed and ideas were proved or disproved we each found that combining the two tasks to show continuity was easier than expected.

As the video is a romantic one, I felt that the genre of romance needed to be portrayed in my ancillary tasks. Love is a key feature within the video and pictures were needed to represent this. During these photo shoots the actors wanted to achieve a realistic chemistry that wouldn't look awkward or staged, something that was achieved. This chemistry is also portrayed extremely well with the use of the mise-en-scene within the video.

The target audience; 14 - 25 year olds were always at the forefront of the groups mind. With this in mind, both the ancillary and main tasks needed to have their similarities as it would be the same group of people looking at the two sections. This has been shown with the consistency throughout the video and ancillary tasks. The use of costumes have been an important feature within both of these as the costumes are the same within both the video and ancillary tasks. Establishing this by the use of the costumes shows that the combination of both the video and ancillary tasks are one together.

Gaze theory plays an important part within the combination of the main and ancillary tasks. The majority of Mars' audience are female, however a small minority are male. It is often seen within Mars' videos that there is an attractive woman within the video, and of course Mars' himself, showing that gaze theory is prominent. As a group, we used gaze theory in both our main and ancillary tasks to combine them even further. Both of the actors are young and attractive, thus both male and female audiences have something to aspire too; females, a lovely man who will sweep them off their feet and males who aspire to be the man who can get any woman he wants. Within my ancillary tasks pictures of both the male and female have been used, again weaving gaze theory throughout both tasks with both the tasks them complimenting each other. 

The combination of both my main and ancillary tasks were extremely effective. With the use of the same locations and costumes within my main and ancillary tasks as well as the prominent use of gaze theory it is clear that both tasks are linked with each other, something I am very proud of. 

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

Bruno Mars' music videos normally consist of two male characters; a male and a female due to the majority of his songs being romantic. 'Just the way you are', 'The lazy song' and 'It will rain' all have a female companion, however one song does not; 'Grenade'. At first, as a group we wanted to subvert what Bruno Mars' usual does by just having one sole performer, acting as Mars, however we decided that this would not be as effective as we would hope due to the narrative becoming to strained. 'Marry You' does not have a music video, therefore no guidance could be taken from it, something that acted in the groups favour as the video was 100%, completely original. 

However, as a group we thoroughly researched Bruno Mars' existing media products so that we could enhance our personal ideas. Many of Mars' videos are filmed in outside locations, although in considerably depressing areas due to the majority of his songs being about heartbreak. Yet, interestingly enough 'Marry You' completely subverts all of Mars' previous work as it is about happy-go-lucky, young and impulsive love. Therefore, we decided that we would use the idea of filming in outside locations, but make them bright and extremely spacious with the perfect place being on our doorstop; Abbey Ruins. However, to counteract the happiness that is between the couple in the outside locations we used a home to show the struggles faced between the couple as the actress is planning the wedding with the help of her family, this is where the conflict comes in, giving the narrative even more depth. I believe that this challenges Mars' existing media products as there is two sides to the story; conflict and happiness, whereas usually in Mars' videos it is mostly conflict. 

Another aspect of Mars' existing media products that we used to our advantage was Mars' body language throughout his videos. During most of his videos he is sitting or standing and singing directly to the camera, an element that was included in our video. Mars' movements were mimicked throughout our interpretation of the video, purely so there could be a link between ours and his videos.  

Although the lyrics of the song are very simplistic, we wanted our video to have depth to it, something that is often found within music videos as they have multi-layered story lines. A prime example of this is FUN with their video 'We are young' alongside many of Mars' very own videos there is a great deal of depth within the narrative. 

The editing of the video also conforms to the required conventions of a music video and especially to existing media products. As a group we decided that it was better to try and limit the amount of transitions used within the final edit so that it wouldn't dazzle the audience or make them grow tired of the video itself. The amount of locations used within the video also conform the the usual requirements of a music video. However, throughout my research I have noticed that using a limited amount of locations has become increasingly popular, again 'We are young' uses only one location as well as Bruno Mars' 'The lazy song', something that in hindsight I would have perhaps liked to have done. 

Although our music video does generally conform to a Bruno Mars' video, we did however, challenge his existing media products by using several locations instead of just the one, and also created conflict within the video. However, I believe that the song in itself, although simplistic, was hard to create the right kind of video, as we needed to decide as to whether or not we would subvert or conform to the normal techniques that Bruno Mars' uses. 

Final products!

After a long process mine and my groups final pieces are finished!

Below are the final video and my ancillary tasks!

Here is a small flyer to advertise upcoming gigs - the image used has been edited and can also be seen on my main poster. Again, the house colours and font has been used to show the continuity between my tasks. 

Here my main poster can be seen. Although it could be considered very simplistic I believe that this works and sets of the the CD case, due to that being full of detail. The picture from the flyer has been used within this poster, with the house font also being used. 

This is the final CD case: including; insert, CD and backing tray. I feel that there is a great deal of continuity within these three ancillary tasks that I have completed, as well as the continuity being seen throughout the groups individual works.   


Here is our groups final video, a personal achievement for all of us.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0xSVCOuntc&feature=player_embedded#!

Filming (again!)

After we collected all of our feedback, we decided that our best bet was to re-film certain aspects of the video, whilst using different camera angles to add a variation within the video,  the quality of the video and to use more equipment whilst filming to better the overall effect. 

During our re-film we concentrated on the sections that we thought were particularly bad. We got more shots of the actor singing so that the lip-syncing could be improved, as well as shots of the couple together to show a great deal more romance within the video to reinforce the genre of the song. 

Ancillary Part Two - Update!

Progress has been made within my digi-pak. I decided to choose the alternative style of producing my CD insert, something I believe has turned out well. 

The back of my insert - As you can see it is very similar to a film poster due to Steel Tongs being used at the bottom. Bruno Mars is bold along with Doowops & Hooligans (the name of the album). However, I believe that it is the image that confirms, that although it looks like a film poster, it is not. 

My actual CD. As you can see it is very simplistic, something that I aimed for as the insert itself is very complex. The repetition of 'Bruno Mars' really stands out and is a continuous theme throughout.

As you can see this is the other side of my fold out insert. Certain sections of the  insert are upside down, however when folded correctly all the images are where they should be. The background of the insert is the repetition of 'Bruno Mars' - again continuing the theme.

Again, the same image but with the alternative view. 

As you can see on this side of the insert (see above) film reels have been used on the top, middle and bottom. This movie theme continues on from using Steel Tongs on the poster side of my insert. I believe that this ancillary task has worked well, especially with using the conventions of a generic film poster. The elements of the film poster will be used on my second ancillary task. 

Peer Feedback!

After the creative arts evening we wanted to gain further feedback to get an even broader idea on how we could make our video better.


Here is 6th Form, Media student, Daisy Russell giving us valuable feedback.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w2-nLz9B7y0

Further feedback was given to us by younger members of the school.

The student commented on:

• the quality of the transitions used
• the quality camera shots
• the emotion within the video and its relation to the song

however, the student also pointed out some things that could have been improved:

• the picture quality (something that we will make every effort to re-do)

Aside from the one bad point, our group believe that this feedback is good and are also very pleased with the fact that the student clearly understood the narrative and that it was for young teenagers. 

Creative arts evening & feedback!

Earlier this evening we held a creative arts evening where teachers, pupils, family and friends came together and watched our videos, among other things. 

Both our ancillary tasks and video were displayed, sadly, however, we had mixed reviews. Throughout the majority of the feedback it was decided that the narrative was exceptionally clear, thus being easy and understandable to watch. In terms of narrative, what we had done was achieved as the audience clearly understood that when the couple were together everything was fine and their relationship was wonderful, however, when apart there was obvious problems. Other positives of the video were that the mise-en-scene matched the song well (happy-go-lucky and carefree, represented with open spaces etc) as well as the obvious chemistry between the actors, again showing a good representation of the song. 

As mentioned, we did have some negative feedback. Year 8 and 9 media students were given the opportunity to watch our video and were also given feedback sheets. The majority of people commented on the lip-syncing being out and could have been worked better. Shots were also deemed out of focus, with people then becoming slightly bored and not wishing to watch the video - an upsetting thought - The majority of the feedback also commented on how the shots were too simplistic and again, boring. 

Although disheartening for the group, once again we came together and worked through the video picking out individual points which could be made better. Filming here come!  

Final edit - Hurrah!

The final edit of our video has been completed! As a group we are overly excited at the finished product and feel very proud of our achievements. 


However, all is not finished! As a group we will now ask our peers/teachers as well as people who do not have an objective view on this task due to them being outside of school, for feedback so that we can continue to improve our final product. 


Looking forward to receiving the feedback! 

More ancillary!

Personally I feel as though I am lacking in my ancillary tasks, something I am in the process of changing. I decided that it was a silly idea to start both tasks and try to complete them simultaneously, thus I have stopped working on ancillary task one to complete the more demanding task two. 

Normally, a CD insert is a booklet (see above) however, to me, this has become dated and tired. I decided that a new, more contemporary look was needed, to match the mise-en-scene of the album and genre. Whilst looking across CDs I found the soundtrack to 'Alien Autopsy'. The insert to the CD was a single piece of paper which was folded continuously to fit the size of a CD case. When unfolded it was a poster on one side with the song titles. However, it must be taken into account that this CD is a soundtrack for film - NOT a normal music album. 

The poster of Alien Autopsy on the back of the CD insert. 

Although my CD insert is for an album, I do wish to take on the conventions of this insert so that my digi-pak is individual. 


Progress will be made!

Editing, editing and more editing!

Just a quick note!

Over the past few weeks our group has been working tirelessly on the VEM so to complete our editing and hopefully the final edition of our video!  

Nick working hard!

Ancillary Part Two - Drafts.

For the second part of my ancillary I drafted up ideas using the folding technique that I previously mentioned in my part two research.

The poster side of my ancillary. The font Nueva st, the font that was chosen by our group to be the house font can be seen here - 'Bruno Mars' and 'Doowops and Hooligans'. Both of these fonts will have a drop shadow added to make it bolder and brighter and more attractive to the eye. It can be seen that yellow has been used - the house colour - and will be a consistent feature throughout all of my ancillary tasks. At the bottom of the page credits have been added using 'Steel tongs' an attribute normally seen within a film poster, but is being subverted as it will be used on a music poster. 

The back for my poster - as you can see it has been separated into six different sections, with each being folded to make it into a little booklet. Again, another movie convention can be seen here with movie reels being used in the top, middle and bottom, with pictures and writing being located within each section. 

The CD cover. 'Bruno Mars' has been repeated over the cover to reinforce the singers name. This technique is also seen on the back of the poster as it will be repeated in the same way but the opacity changed. 

The back cover for the CD case. This backing tray, is very simplistic, however I feel that this simplicity will be balanced out by the detail that has gone into the back of the poster. An image will be placed on the left hand side with the opacity being changed, so to relate to the back of the poster with the repetition of 'Bruno Mars'.

Hopefully, the overall effect of this task when made will compliment the video. 

Ancillary Task Two Research!

For my second ancillary task a digi-pak must be created, it must include a CD, insert and a back tray. My research for this consisted of looking at published CDs. 

Brandy - Album 

 Alanis Morissette - Album 

These two very different albums with very different genres each show how different a CD can look. For example, the CD insert from Morissette's album is plain and somewhat boring, the simple white background with black text shows that the album could be considered slow, moving and perhaps depressing. Whereas, contrastingly, the insert from Brandy's album has an image of her, an image which is also using gaze theory to attract both male and female audiences. Although both have white backgrounds, the font is different within both and Brandy's album has contrasting images in the background. 


However, both of these styles are not fitting of the genre that I have chosen. 

Ancillary Task - Part two!

Not forgetting our ancillary tasks I decided that I better begin with my second - a digi-pak. For this I am going to design and make a CD, including the CD itself, insert and back page. 

For this more pictures have been taken. In the video there is a section where it is designed so they look as though are in a photo booth (see previous half term blog) So using this idea pictures have been taken and then edited so it portrays a realistic photo booth.

This image will be used within my digi-pak. 

Extra Filming!

Whilst editing, the three of us, me, Priya and Nick thought about how we could show the youthful side of the marriage within the video and to also show the progression from engagement and planning to then the actual wedding day! 

As a car driver, our group always had a car on hand, something that have us the inspiration for the extra filming that we undertook. A typical tradition of a wedding day is when the bride and groom drive off in a car with banners, balloons, ribbons and cans attached. Seen here in the recent Royal Wedding:

Sadly, I do not own a vintage car! Therefore we used my C1 - the mise-en-scene of which represents the fact that the couple are young and on a budget!

Whilst filming a tripod was used to get various shots of the car in motion - only from behind and the side (whilst driving) to show the sign. Confetti was also used to back up the importance of the wedding theme.

Editing.

Whilst working on our individual ancillary tasks as a group we begun the editing of our video and have each discovered that Premiere Pro is a very hard programme to use! However, simple techniques (possibly the most important?!) have been mastered within this software - importing footage, editing the actual picture such as the brightness, cutting, changing footage around have been found to be extremely useful in the day to day editing. 

The timeline of the video still has several gaps, something that is to be expected, however, hopefully with an hour or so each day working on the editing software the video will start to take shape. 

However, a fly in the ointment is that another group uses the VEM machine that we use - something that has delayed the editing process, however both groups have compromised and we each have our set days for editing.

Ancillary Task - Pictures for poster!

For this ancillary task I had to take new photos and using my previous research of Bruno Mars' personal pictures I took my own using certain characteristics of Bruno Mars. 

Similarly, a collage of pictures was created using our groups actor. As you can see certain poses have been mimicked to portray the actor correctly. Nearly all of the backgrounds are plain, again similar to the images of Bruno Mars, however as a group we decided to give our own touch to the image and placed the actor outside and in front of a colourful shed, a representation of the fun and spontaneity within the song. 

A favourite image of mine was taken and edited within Photoshop. A black fade used around the image - a trait that I would hope to continue throughout the rest of my ancillary tasks.

Poster Research - Part Two!

I am hoping to achieve a poster that will advertise an upcoming gig for Bruno Mars. However, very rarely does Bruno Mars market his shows in this way, due to the majority of it being on-line, yet there are a select few that Bruno Mars has produced for his tours. 

It can be seen that Bruno Mars sticks to his house colours for his promotional packages - yellow and cream. These colours are continuous throughout his CD. 

It also appears that posters which have been altered to look cartoon like are popular as a theme. The Flaming Lips also use this effect. 

And also the 'Distillers' 

Although these two posters are not of the same genre that Bruno Mars is, it is interesting to take into account how the effect of using cartoons has been used throughout many genres. 

Ancillary Task - Poster Research

For my ancillary tasks I was asked to create two elements that would be included within a promotional package. I have decided that one of my tasks will be a promotional poster - something that could perhaps be used to advertise an upcoming gig or the album release. 


To really understand the type of images that would be required for the poster, I collected images of Bruno Mars from Google so that I could study his pose/body language and then use elements of this in the photos that I would take.

The four images that have been studied here, aside from one (the top left) show a young and modern man, with each pose rather similar and also standing against a wall - a factor that I like and will use for my own pictures.

Photography!

For our group to get a definitive answer in respect to the choice of locations we went and done a test run. We put our two actors within the outside location in a variation of spaces to see as to whether or not they would look right on film. Here are some still shots: 

As you can see the pictures have been taken in both daylight and near darkness as the lyrics mention "it's a beautiful night". The location of the river, I believe suit this well as it overlooks the river along with the houses being lit up at night, something that can be a romantic connotation. 

Logo's

LOGO'S:

As part of our ancillary tasks a logo was required to give the professionalism that would make our production as a whole stand out. To begin with, when we was using the 'Glee' version we had created two 'Glee' logos.

Our two Glee logos.

However, as the Bruno Mars version of the song is being used more logos were required. As a group we decided on making logo's for both 'Bruno Mars' and 'Marry You'. To gain inspiration for this we took to looking at Bruno Mars' own album covers.

The connotations of this album cover imply a very meaningful aspect to Bruno Mars. As a simplistic album cover it references his difficult journey he has made throughout his music career. Only three colours have been used for this cover; yellow, white and black. A simplistic feature my group was keen to consider so that our interpretation of the album cover would relate to the original. The font that has been used is Nueva STD Cond - chosen from the style guide.

The stages of our logo design can be seen progressing here:

Plain background, similar to Bruno Mars' original  cover except it is white. An animated image has been used to represent the ideology of the video. Wedding rings = Marry You.

Similar to the first - although the red is to harsh and does not symbolise marriage as the colour red signifies jealousy.

The outer glow used on this seem appropriate as marriage is normally portrayed by bliss etc.

SEE ABOVE

Simplistic black and white with a touch  of glitter in the background to add  the feeling of youth.

The effects used on this logo are too heavy - not appropriate for the  video concept

Colour Schemes!

From previous research it has become increasingly noticeable that Bruno Mars' promotional packages all stick to the same 'house' colours - Yellow and cream. 


To design our logo's we have to have our house colours. As a group we each suggested two colours;


Nick: Black and white
Priya: Gold and white
Me: Red and white


It can be seen in my 'logo's' blog that we created a logo using each of these colour groups and also used our imagination as to how and what one will look the most professional, thus black and white was chosen. 

Priya's Revelation!

VALENTINES DAY!


 Our group had a touch of 'writers block', however, this was soon counteracted by a phone call from Priya who had just watched Avril Lavigne's 'Girlfriend'. Throughout this video a 'filler' has been used, using a photo booth as the location. This filler was used when there was no lyrics and during the chorus.


As a group we have decided to go ahead with this plan and create a home made photo booth with photos appearing to have been taking. To reinforce the genre of the song and the theme of romance the actors will do what is normally considered of couple - laugh, kiss, smile, pulling faces etc. 

These images clearly depict the romance between the two characters, something that we hope our photo booth will help create for the purpose of our video.

Filming.

The first section of our filming took place in Abbey Ruins. As it is a wide open space we believed it would be a prime location to begin filming. The majority of the location gives the appearance of a park, however further down among the photos the 'ruin's' have been captured with the actors being directed. I believe that this particular setting fits the mise-en-scene requires of the video as the grand old stairs along with the picturesque scenery behind helps to create the ambience needed for the video.

Image showing an alternative location with Abbey Ruins. 

The setting of this next shot I believe to be very romantic and extremely fitting of the genre. The lyrics of the song talk of a 'chapel' for them to get married in. Obviously, this is not a chapel but the archway gives the idea of an outdoor themed wedding. Therefore imagine the two actors, another actor being the priest and guests huddled round, something that to me, suggests a wedding.