Hello
Enjoy our work
Goodbye
X
Enjoy our work
Goodbye
X
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Evaluation Question 1 - Jack & James
For our Evaluation Question 1, we have decided to set up a website using the Templates made available on wix.com.
We are going to set up a narrative between a reviewer from NME Magazine, called Brian Priest- he is reviewing our Final Product and is discussing how our video cannot be successful as it does not follow the typical conventions used in a music video.
We are then going to write up a response from the point of view of the band, stating the successful aspects of our video, the conventions we have challenged- and finally the conventions that we have used.
The review can be found here
Under the banner of "REVIEWS"
We are going to set up a narrative between a reviewer from NME Magazine, called Brian Priest- he is reviewing our Final Product and is discussing how our video cannot be successful as it does not follow the typical conventions used in a music video.
We are then going to write up a response from the point of view of the band, stating the successful aspects of our video, the conventions we have challenged- and finally the conventions that we have used.
The review can be found here
Under the banner of "REVIEWS"
Friday, February 24, 2012
Evaluation Question 2 Final - James
How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Evaluation Question 2 - Jack
Evaluation Question 2; How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For this Question, i am going to produce it on Photoshop- including pictures of my Digi pack and Screenshots from the video, i will then have text surrounding the images explaining the combination of the main product and ancillary texts, i will also talk about how effective my Digi Pack at reflecting the Genre of the song, and about our difficulties in implementing
I feel that my main product and my ancillary texts differ slightly. My ancillary text, i believe is very reflective of the Genre we chose. The band we chose to base our video around is "Top loader" who are an alternative rock band, and i think my DiGi pack looks like something they would produce.
My DiGi pack follows the typical conventions that you would expect from an Alternative Rock album, i carried our research and my conclusions were that the "Black and White" effect was used quite frequently- and so i decided to use this.
Another convention for my DiGi pack that helped make it an effective reflection of the genre is the simplicity of the front cover design. after conducting research i discovered that lots of bands in the alternative rock Genre such as Kasabian, The Kooks, Razorlight, Friendly Fires all have album art that is simplistic- yet effective.
Our video, however is very different. Our object for the video was comedy- and this theme was kept throughout. The comedy theme was achieved successfully with the randomness of the clips, this- however, meant that we could not achieve an effective combination with the ancillary texts.
Even though the video was random, we still feel that it appeals to our target audience.
For this Question, i am going to produce it on Photoshop- including pictures of my Digi pack and Screenshots from the video, i will then have text surrounding the images explaining the combination of the main product and ancillary texts, i will also talk about how effective my Digi Pack at reflecting the Genre of the song, and about our difficulties in implementing
I feel that my main product and my ancillary texts differ slightly. My ancillary text, i believe is very reflective of the Genre we chose. The band we chose to base our video around is "Top loader" who are an alternative rock band, and i think my DiGi pack looks like something they would produce.
My DiGi pack follows the typical conventions that you would expect from an Alternative Rock album, i carried our research and my conclusions were that the "Black and White" effect was used quite frequently- and so i decided to use this.
Another convention for my DiGi pack that helped make it an effective reflection of the genre is the simplicity of the front cover design. after conducting research i discovered that lots of bands in the alternative rock Genre such as Kasabian, The Kooks, Razorlight, Friendly Fires all have album art that is simplistic- yet effective.
Our video, however is very different. Our object for the video was comedy- and this theme was kept throughout. The comedy theme was achieved successfully with the randomness of the clips, this- however, meant that we could not achieve an effective combination with the ancillary texts.
Even though the video was random, we still feel that it appeals to our target audience.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Evaluation Question 3 Final - Jack & James
Friday, December 9, 2011
Evaluation Question 4 - DRAFT
Evaluation Question 4 Draft
In this final evaluation question, we will look at the various different types of technologies we have used throughout the duration of this project, and how these have impacted upon our work. We have used various technologies from Facebook to Sony Vegas to allow us to complete the work. Although we have had to overcome certain issues with certain technologies, we have found alternative ways to allow us to complete the project on time.
For our draft, we have just wrote about each of the peices of Software that we have used, but for our final draft we are going to create a video, with a voiceover exaplaining the why we used what we did.
Sony Vegas – Sony Vegas was the editing software we used to create our video, we imported the song using the function contained within the software. Sony Vegas also allowed us to import our footage, re-arrange and cut the footage to fit the song. Vegas is widely regarded as the easiest software package when it comes to editing video’s because of its simplicity, we also used Vegas to render our videos so that they were ready to be burnt to disc.
Mobile Phone – We used mobile phones for 2 reasons, the first reason was to contact each other to arrange filming schedules etc. This meant that we were organised when it came to filming and that we also kept to the deadlines. We also used our mobile phones to play the song to the person appearing in our video. Because of this, the person in the video was able to keep in time with the music, which helped when it came to our editing as we did not need to speed nor slow down the footage.
Blogger – Blogger formed a vital part of our coursework, as we used it for many things. The first reason why we used blogger was to keep all our research in one place. We made blog posts for songs that we felt were contenders for our final cut. All our other posts where kept on blogger, such as our Band and Audience profiles, Story boarding and mood boards etc. Blogger is very useful as it is compatible with many media formats; this meant we could use different types of creative technologies within it, such as YouTube Videos, Prezi/PowerPoint presentations and Animoto videos.
Twitter – Twitter is very useful for getting audience feedback, it is a social networking website that we set up for our band, the profile name for our band is @TISilence and we used twitter to advertise our video to followers. After we had completed our draft copy for the video, we put the link out on our Twitter page asking for constructive criticism, people gave us some feedback and we took their ideas into consideration when planning for our final piece. Without the Social Networking technology we would have found it a lot harder to gain feedback from our peers.
Internet – The internet was another vital tool for our coursework, we used the internet for research into conventions that are typical to our genre so that we knew how to go about our video. We also used the Internet (websites such as Facebook) to recruit people to take part in appearing in our video. The internet also played a key part in our song choice, as we used it to listen to songs before we chose them, and to see how they put together their video. Without the internet we would have found it very difficult to research into our song choices.
E-mail - James and I used E-mail regularly, in order to send and receive work from each other. It was useful as you could attach documents to the e-mails so that it was easy to check over each other’s work/ideas and give feedback. Without E-mail, it would be harder for us to work as a group as we live quite far from each other.
Sony Vaio Laptop – I used my Laptop in order to put together ideas that we would use in our final product, we used our computers to research into ideas, use creative technology to display our work using programmes such as Prezi, Animoto Etc. Without my laptop it would be more time consuming to complete work as I would have to use separate computers (one at school, one at home) but with my laptop I was able to work where ever I was.
YouTube – We used YouTube heavily during our research and planning stages, we watched various videos before we made the decision to go for “Dancing in the Moonlight” as our final song. Once we had our song, we looked into conventions that are genre specific to our song so that we could implement these ideas into our final product, for example- without YouTube research we would not have found that music videos from our Genre have a set theme.
Microsoft Word – Word was a useful tool when drafting posts to put onto the blog. Although Blogger is very good at creating posts, it lacks both a word count function and a spell check, so drafting posts on Word then copying and pasting them into blogger is the best way forward. Without using Microsoft Word there may have been spelling errors in our Blog Posts. Also sometimes Blogger does not save drafts, so it Is easier to save a draft on word just in case Blogger fails.
Animoto – Animoto is an online presentation creator in which you can use pictures and music as well as animation to make a video based presentation. We used this Software in order to create and present our pitch to the class. Without the use of Software like Animoto, our 25 word pitch could be slightly boring.
Flickr - During the planning process of the project we were instructed to go about and take pictures of the types of people we wanted to be in our video. This was to ensure that we were to get the right balance of people before we began filming. We chose to use the online photo sharing site, Flickr, because it allowed us to create a photo album so we could store our photos and embed them into our blog. This proved to be a much faster method of uploading, organising and enabled us to easily manipulate the photos into the correct arrangement- which improved the presentation of the blog.
Digital Camera - We used a Panasonic Lumix throughout our project to not only film the actual video, but also to take various pictures during the planning stage of our project, in addition to the pictures used for my digipak and advert. At the time of choosing the type of camera we were to use, we felt that the Panasonic was the best option because it shot in HD (resulting in good quality footage) however when we later found that the format it recorded in wasn’t compatible with Sony Vegas then we had to convert the footage which resulted in it loosing the High Definition. Another factor was because to film our video there would be a lot of moving about quickly to different locations which meant that the camera had to be extremely portable, and with the use of the tripod it resulting in some good shots.
Packard Bell OneTwo - The Packard Bell OneTwo computer was used at various stages throughout the entire project. The computer allowed me to perform various parts of the planning stage i.e. to research various digipaks and to analyse these. It also allowed me to update out blog on a regular basis. However one main feature it was used for was that it had Adobe Photoshop installed which allowed me to create my digiapk and magazine and including the photos I had taken. The computer also allowed me to store all of the footage we had recorded, and to convert it into the file compatible with Sony Vegas (on the Sony Vaio).
Video Converter Platinum - The video converter was an unexpected requirement in the later stages of the project. After filming the video, we had realised that Sony Vegas was not compatible with the file the Digital Camera records on (.MOV). So we had to find a free online video converting software which we downloaded to allow us to convert the footage into the compatible format (MP4). However during the conversion of the footage it lost some quality, however we are still extremely happy with the outcome of the music video, and don’t feel that it is too compromised by loss in quality of the film.
Memory Stick - The memory stick was also used throughout the whole project. During the early stages it was used to transfer research and analysis between home and school, in addition to this all of the photos taken for the digipak and advert. However its main purpose proved to be transferring the converted footage from the Packard Bell computer to the Sony Vegas to allow it to be edited into our film. One problem we did find was that half way through editing the film we realised that the memory stick was at full capacity (4gb full of recordings) so we had to use additional memory sticks in order to ensure that we got all of the film to the laptop so that it could be edited.
Vimeo - Our main intentions were to use the video sharing site YouTube, however when we uploaded our draft music video it was soon removed due to copyright issues. So we then changed and used Vimeo, where we have since had no issues. We used Vimeo to upload our music video to allow others to view it, so we could gather feedback. Using Vimeo allowed us to ‘share’ the video by either embedding it on Facebook or Blogger, and even link it onto Twitter. This allowed us to reach as many people as possible so we could gather opinions for our evaluation. To date our video has had over 550 views on this website, and we have had predominantly positive feedback from our audience.
Facebook - We used Facebook in a similar way to twitter. We used the social networking site to allow us to get as many different opinions as possible to allow us to better our final film. Facebook allows us to embed our music video from Vimeo so our friends can then view this and offer their opinions.
Photoshop - We used photoshop predominantly during the stage where we created our digipak and magazine advert. We have previous experience of using photoshop for the AS part of the media course, so this helped us when it came to using it a second time around, because we knew what capabilities and functions the software has to allow us to create a good piece of work. Using the functions it has, and the photos we had taken, and manipulated these so they were of the correct style. So we were able to put together a digipak and advert which in turn created the brand we were wanting for our band ‘The Innocent Silence’.
DVD - We only used a DVD at the very end of our project to allow us to hand a physical copy of the music video in. When we had rendered the footage, we then sent the file to movie maker to allow us to burn the video onto a DVD to make it playable on the computer and DVD players.
Movie Maker - Again, Movie Maker only came into the project at the very end. When we had rendered the music video we then transferred the file to Movie Maker to allow us to create a menu for the DVD and to burn the film so that it could then be handed in.
In this final evaluation question, we will look at the various different types of technologies we have used throughout the duration of this project, and how these have impacted upon our work. We have used various technologies from Facebook to Sony Vegas to allow us to complete the work. Although we have had to overcome certain issues with certain technologies, we have found alternative ways to allow us to complete the project on time.
For our draft, we have just wrote about each of the peices of Software that we have used, but for our final draft we are going to create a video, with a voiceover exaplaining the why we used what we did.
Sony Vegas – Sony Vegas was the editing software we used to create our video, we imported the song using the function contained within the software. Sony Vegas also allowed us to import our footage, re-arrange and cut the footage to fit the song. Vegas is widely regarded as the easiest software package when it comes to editing video’s because of its simplicity, we also used Vegas to render our videos so that they were ready to be burnt to disc.
Mobile Phone – We used mobile phones for 2 reasons, the first reason was to contact each other to arrange filming schedules etc. This meant that we were organised when it came to filming and that we also kept to the deadlines. We also used our mobile phones to play the song to the person appearing in our video. Because of this, the person in the video was able to keep in time with the music, which helped when it came to our editing as we did not need to speed nor slow down the footage.
Blogger – Blogger formed a vital part of our coursework, as we used it for many things. The first reason why we used blogger was to keep all our research in one place. We made blog posts for songs that we felt were contenders for our final cut. All our other posts where kept on blogger, such as our Band and Audience profiles, Story boarding and mood boards etc. Blogger is very useful as it is compatible with many media formats; this meant we could use different types of creative technologies within it, such as YouTube Videos, Prezi/PowerPoint presentations and Animoto videos.
Twitter – Twitter is very useful for getting audience feedback, it is a social networking website that we set up for our band, the profile name for our band is @TISilence and we used twitter to advertise our video to followers. After we had completed our draft copy for the video, we put the link out on our Twitter page asking for constructive criticism, people gave us some feedback and we took their ideas into consideration when planning for our final piece. Without the Social Networking technology we would have found it a lot harder to gain feedback from our peers.
Internet – The internet was another vital tool for our coursework, we used the internet for research into conventions that are typical to our genre so that we knew how to go about our video. We also used the Internet (websites such as Facebook) to recruit people to take part in appearing in our video. The internet also played a key part in our song choice, as we used it to listen to songs before we chose them, and to see how they put together their video. Without the internet we would have found it very difficult to research into our song choices.
E-mail - James and I used E-mail regularly, in order to send and receive work from each other. It was useful as you could attach documents to the e-mails so that it was easy to check over each other’s work/ideas and give feedback. Without E-mail, it would be harder for us to work as a group as we live quite far from each other.
Sony Vaio Laptop – I used my Laptop in order to put together ideas that we would use in our final product, we used our computers to research into ideas, use creative technology to display our work using programmes such as Prezi, Animoto Etc. Without my laptop it would be more time consuming to complete work as I would have to use separate computers (one at school, one at home) but with my laptop I was able to work where ever I was.
YouTube – We used YouTube heavily during our research and planning stages, we watched various videos before we made the decision to go for “Dancing in the Moonlight” as our final song. Once we had our song, we looked into conventions that are genre specific to our song so that we could implement these ideas into our final product, for example- without YouTube research we would not have found that music videos from our Genre have a set theme.
Microsoft Word – Word was a useful tool when drafting posts to put onto the blog. Although Blogger is very good at creating posts, it lacks both a word count function and a spell check, so drafting posts on Word then copying and pasting them into blogger is the best way forward. Without using Microsoft Word there may have been spelling errors in our Blog Posts. Also sometimes Blogger does not save drafts, so it Is easier to save a draft on word just in case Blogger fails.
Animoto – Animoto is an online presentation creator in which you can use pictures and music as well as animation to make a video based presentation. We used this Software in order to create and present our pitch to the class. Without the use of Software like Animoto, our 25 word pitch could be slightly boring.
Flickr - During the planning process of the project we were instructed to go about and take pictures of the types of people we wanted to be in our video. This was to ensure that we were to get the right balance of people before we began filming. We chose to use the online photo sharing site, Flickr, because it allowed us to create a photo album so we could store our photos and embed them into our blog. This proved to be a much faster method of uploading, organising and enabled us to easily manipulate the photos into the correct arrangement- which improved the presentation of the blog.
Digital Camera - We used a Panasonic Lumix throughout our project to not only film the actual video, but also to take various pictures during the planning stage of our project, in addition to the pictures used for my digipak and advert. At the time of choosing the type of camera we were to use, we felt that the Panasonic was the best option because it shot in HD (resulting in good quality footage) however when we later found that the format it recorded in wasn’t compatible with Sony Vegas then we had to convert the footage which resulted in it loosing the High Definition. Another factor was because to film our video there would be a lot of moving about quickly to different locations which meant that the camera had to be extremely portable, and with the use of the tripod it resulting in some good shots.
Packard Bell OneTwo - The Packard Bell OneTwo computer was used at various stages throughout the entire project. The computer allowed me to perform various parts of the planning stage i.e. to research various digipaks and to analyse these. It also allowed me to update out blog on a regular basis. However one main feature it was used for was that it had Adobe Photoshop installed which allowed me to create my digiapk and magazine and including the photos I had taken. The computer also allowed me to store all of the footage we had recorded, and to convert it into the file compatible with Sony Vegas (on the Sony Vaio).
Video Converter Platinum - The video converter was an unexpected requirement in the later stages of the project. After filming the video, we had realised that Sony Vegas was not compatible with the file the Digital Camera records on (.MOV). So we had to find a free online video converting software which we downloaded to allow us to convert the footage into the compatible format (MP4). However during the conversion of the footage it lost some quality, however we are still extremely happy with the outcome of the music video, and don’t feel that it is too compromised by loss in quality of the film.
Memory Stick - The memory stick was also used throughout the whole project. During the early stages it was used to transfer research and analysis between home and school, in addition to this all of the photos taken for the digipak and advert. However its main purpose proved to be transferring the converted footage from the Packard Bell computer to the Sony Vegas to allow it to be edited into our film. One problem we did find was that half way through editing the film we realised that the memory stick was at full capacity (4gb full of recordings) so we had to use additional memory sticks in order to ensure that we got all of the film to the laptop so that it could be edited.
Vimeo - Our main intentions were to use the video sharing site YouTube, however when we uploaded our draft music video it was soon removed due to copyright issues. So we then changed and used Vimeo, where we have since had no issues. We used Vimeo to upload our music video to allow others to view it, so we could gather feedback. Using Vimeo allowed us to ‘share’ the video by either embedding it on Facebook or Blogger, and even link it onto Twitter. This allowed us to reach as many people as possible so we could gather opinions for our evaluation. To date our video has had over 550 views on this website, and we have had predominantly positive feedback from our audience.
Facebook - We used Facebook in a similar way to twitter. We used the social networking site to allow us to get as many different opinions as possible to allow us to better our final film. Facebook allows us to embed our music video from Vimeo so our friends can then view this and offer their opinions.
Photoshop - We used photoshop predominantly during the stage where we created our digipak and magazine advert. We have previous experience of using photoshop for the AS part of the media course, so this helped us when it came to using it a second time around, because we knew what capabilities and functions the software has to allow us to create a good piece of work. Using the functions it has, and the photos we had taken, and manipulated these so they were of the correct style. So we were able to put together a digipak and advert which in turn created the brand we were wanting for our band ‘The Innocent Silence’.
DVD - We only used a DVD at the very end of our project to allow us to hand a physical copy of the music video in. When we had rendered the footage, we then sent the file to movie maker to allow us to burn the video onto a DVD to make it playable on the computer and DVD players.
Movie Maker - Again, Movie Maker only came into the project at the very end. When we had rendered the music video we then transferred the file to Movie Maker to allow us to create a menu for the DVD and to burn the film so that it could then be handed in.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Evaluation Question 3 - Draft
Above is a prezi we have created showing a sample of our feedback we have received either through social media e.g. Facebook & Twitter, or through word of mouth. It shows a variety of different opinions that we have gathered, both good and some constructive criticism. Overall what we have learned from the feedback we have received is that the majority of people like the video, and enjoy the 'randomness' about the film. However some people have explained their reasons for disliking the video, some of the reasons were; needed a wider variety of people in the video, and needed to think about our locations more. These are both aspects of the film we were worried about, however we found it difficult to ensure that people kept to their word that they were to be in our film. Prior to filming we agreed with certain people that they were to be in our film, however when it came to filming many of them decided to pull out, leaving us with little time to find the correct balance with the types of people in our video. This is something which Liam had highlighted to us when he contacted us.
In addition to this, we were also told that the lighting in certain parts of the film didn't quite work, and perhaps was too dark. This was something we weren't to aware about at the time of filming, and as we edited the film, we noticed that it was dark but was still ok. However the overall quality of the video was harmed when we rendered the film into a WMV file to make it playable on all formats. The video was filmed on a HD digital camera, however we then discovered that Sony Vegas wasn't compatible with the format in which it was filmed in, so we had to convert this into MP4 - where the quality was also harmed.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)