Evaluation of Project.

Developing and changing forms and conventions.

When filming our video, i believe our inspiration mostly developed from watching other Lily Allen videos, for example LDN. Lily always uses major contrasting in her videos whether it be by editing or costume. One element in particular we decided to use within our video was Lily's bright costume and darker background or setting. Here are photos of some of the similar shots/angles that I have developed from real media products.

I think my media video product has the accurate likeness to that of Lily Allen videos that already exist because we have tried to keep the original themes that Lily tends to stick to in her videos, for example in LDN, there is reference to drugs and urban city life. The photos above are a comparison between a still shot from my media product and one of a real media product, you can see that i have tried to take inspiration from some of the angles and shots in real media products and put them into my product. I hope that we have created a video that is of likeness to the real video products i have researched and that it is believable.

One major inspiration i have taken from Lily's videos is how she seems to be an omniscient character within her video world. Unless she is in a scene with other people/characters, she sings to the camera as if no one is there watching her. This is what we have tried to create in otr video. Our intention was to have our actress seem as if she acting out her everyday life routine while singing about something close to her heart, as if talking about an experience.

To get the sense of reality in our video, as we had previously seen in research, many artists within our chosen genre mime to the camera, as if singing. This is what we did in our video because we wanted it to look as realistic as possible and have a strong likeness to other music videos within this genre.

Regarding to the locations of our video, we looked at numerous options. As seen in other Lily Allen media products, they are mostly set in a city environment. At the beginning of our planning, we wanted to film in London however, due to transportation of media equipment, this was not possible. So we then decided to film in Newhaven, which at the time had plenty of brick wall space and empty streets which were easier to film on.

In our video, we wanted to do something different, so we decided to create a scene where there are two more character which are more important to the story than our main actress. By doing this, we have also made a link to the name of the song 'EVERYONE'S AT IT.' So far through our video there had only been one main noticeable character and it made a bigger statement to have the affects of the theme on more than one person.

Connections between Promo Pack and Main product.

While working on my Promo Pack and my music video, i always wanted to make an obvious and direct link between them. I think i have achieved this by
I have tried hard to make sure that there is an obvious link between my video and my Promo pack, i think i have achieved this by using the same costume and capturing my images on location where we were filming at the time.

Above are two pictures taken on set. The first is a still image from our main product and the second is an image i have used as my advert. Both were taken at the same place and therefore it is creating a strong link between my video and my advert promotional work.

The main link between my video and my promo pack was that i kept my actress, my costume, make up and hair the same. Also by keeping the same theme running through each product establishes a greater link.

I think i have targeted my audience accordingly. I have just the conventions of indie/pop music videos by using colourful costume, the actress singing to the camera and by use of minimal effects. My favourite part of my project has been editing the footage on the Mac Laptop, i feel i have learnt new skills and gained so much experience in terms of using the camera correcting and learning about its different settings.

If i could have changed anything within this project, i would change my digi pack. I believe the quality could have been improved dramatically if i had more experience with Photoshop, however, now after having some experiments with this software, i may be able to do a better job in the future.

Working with the Camera, Final Video, Unused Footage and Editing.

Working with the Camera.

Settings.
For this project, we worked with DV Cameras ( Digital Video Cameras.) Before we could start to film, I needed to make sure all the settings were ready.

-X M 2 Video Camera
-Check at least 1 battery was inthe case.
-To turn on, move switch forward to CAMERA.
- Put bottom switch into P (Programme)
- Menu Button
- Manual
- S1/50 (Shutter Speed)
- F2.8 (Aperture)
- 18db

Mounting the Camera.
When filming, we tried to use the tripod as much as possible becuase it gave us steady footage whereas if we had handheld the camera, there would have been shaking and movement. To look as professional as possible, we decided to use the tripod throughout.

Camera Control.
Looking back over my video, i would change the amount of zooming we used when filimg. I believe this is one part of the video that brings it down.

Final Video.



Unused Footage.

When filming our music video, we recorded scenes a number of times, testing out different angles, lighting or where charaters should be placed. However, most of the time, there is footage that does not look right and therefore it is not used in the final edit. In this section, i am going to discuss why two bits of footage did not get used.


Scene 4 - Kitchen - Second Verse

In this scene, Kelsey is sat on a kitchen work top while I work around her cleaning , acting as if i did not notice Kelsey was even there. This shot was not used becuase the aperture was too high. You were not able to see Kelsey's face clearly enough and even though she was not the main focus of this scene, you were not able to see her mouth clear enough to make out the lyrics.

Brick Wall Shots

This shot would have been used for the end chorus. At first we like this location becuase it gave the camera the Rule of Thirds. However, after filming the scene here, we did not like how the black strips were uneven in size and this through off the shot as we could not move to camera to different angles without the strips making a dramactic, unneeded difference. So instead, we found a brick wall which was plain.

Editing with Final Cut Pro.

To edit our final cut, we used Final Cut Pro, as we did to create our Animatics. After making the animatic, i felt more confortable using the tools and creating effects.
To begin editing, i followed these simple steps:

1) I connected my camera to the USB drive on the Apple Mac and open Final Cut Pro

2) Clicked on 'LOG AND CAPTURE' whicch copied the footage onto the computer. However, on a number of occasions, the log and capture froze, so we pressed 'Esc' and started from where it had left off. Once the parts of footage had been through this process, it would appear at the top left of the sreen in numbers from 1, upwards.

3) Once all the footage had been captured, I then dragged each of the clips onto the timeline below making sure i had selected one of the following timelines, v1,v2 or v3. Eg video 1.

4) I then chose which footage i wanted to keep in my final edit and deleted the rest of it off of the timeline. However, if i did need this footage again, i could simply just get it from the top left box.


5) I then used the 'cutting' tool (razor, 6th tool) to cut the clips into each of the different scenes.

6) Using the 'selective' tool (arrow, 1st tool) i moved the different cenes into a basic order according to my storyboard and animatic.

7) To upload a my song, i selected A1 (audio 1) on the timeline. I selected 'File' and 'Import' and browsed my files and selected my song which uploaded on the timeline immediatly.

Once i had set up the basics, i was able to focus on getting the miming in sync with the lyrics and cut more complicated edits.

- I used the cutting tool to make clips shorter.
- I used the selecting tool to move the clips into sync.
- To copy clips, I selected them, 'edit' and then 'copy.' I then used to pin on the timeline to select where i was going to place the clip, pressed 'edit' and 'paste' and it appeared on the timeline.
-To slow down a clip, i hold down 'COMMAND' and 'J.' A drop list appears with 100%. I then chose to drop the % by 10 each time until i found the correct speed.
-If I needed a small clip from a large section of footage, i would bring it up on the 'view box' (middle box) and then press 'I' when i wanted to start copying and click 'O' when i wanted it to stop. I would then drag that clip into the far right box and drop in 'Overlay.' It would then show on my timeline.

Adverts

As another part of my Promo Pack, i need to include an advert, which will advertise my digi pack. To get some inspiration, i am going to analyse two pop artists adverts.

Two analysis of Pop artist adverts.

For my first advert, I have chosen Katy Perry, as I also used her previously in my Digi Pack research. Straight away I can notice that Katy is dressed in the same costume as her album cover and is on the same set. This instantly creates a link between each and lets the audience see clearly that they are part of the same sector. They have used the same type of font in the ice-cream,strawberry colours, which is light and feminine. However, instead of her laying down on a pull out bed, there is a paddling pool which matches the colour of the sky on the set. There is a picture to the right of Katy of the album cover, used to inform the audience about what the advert is promoting. Beneath that is some text describing the album. The text colour is white which dramatically stands out from the darker background.

My second advert that i am going to analyse is Lily Allen's The Fear. This is a good source of research for my advert as I am using Lily Allen's song for my production.

The first thing i notice is that this advert is landscape. So this advert would be most likely suited for a poster and not a magazine.

This advert is very simple but creates a dramatic effect by being in black and white. For a pop music artist, using black and white is rare unless they are wanting to make a bigger impact or branch out to other genres.
The information on this advert is interesting because it does not only mention 'Lily Allen' and the song title, but also advertises her album name and her websites. It tells the reader that if you visit one of her 3 websites, you can listen or download her songs and watch her videos.

Lily's costumes is very simplistic but her hair style creates a bold statement. Her dress also is black and white so it continues the classy theme.

3 Flat Plans

As my first digi pack idea was a brick theme, i decided my first advert should link. I used the brick background to keep the urban element. The font i used was made to look like a ransom note, i would have this look like it was stenciled onto the wall. I used the white boarder around the lettering because it made it stand out from the severe red background. The text beneath is in black and a different font so that the attention does not stray from the title. To the far left of the advert, i would have an image of the artist dressed in the same costume as on the digipack front cover. The information to the right informs the audience what artist it is, what song I am promoting and also has a picture of the CD cover itself. If i were to change anything on this advert, i would use a bolder font for 'Includes no1 hit.'

Again this advert has the same information as my first idea. I have made my background blue because its a neutral colour and has connotations of a sunny day and i want to create a contrast from my characters costume to the set behind. I used the same type font for my title and made the lettering bigger so that they would stand out the most. My artist is to the right side of the advert now but i left room on the right side of her in case any additional information need to be added. I used white stripped rectangles to write the other texts on again to make then stand out without making them too dominating. I slanted two of the texts because i wanted the advert to look a bit edgy and unique. I also added an a date of release to this advert which informs the audience just a little more without overloading them with information.

This is my last advert idea. I wanted this to link back to my third digi pack so i used the inner left panel image in my advert to increase the connection to between the two. I used the bright pink background and kept the different sections in grey with a thin white boarder just to emphasize each part. For the artists name, i used the same font which stands out well from the dark grey background. Beneath that, i used the image of the CD cover, and in bold black font beneath that, 'Everyone's At It.' Slightly above that, in think, black font 'Includes no1 hit.' However, i believe this could have been made a lot clearer by using a different, more noticeable font. To the left of the main section, there is half of the artists face, i believe now looking back on it that i should not have do not this as it make the middle section look to cluttered. I also in the top left section, i have added the date.

Final Advert

This is my final and finished advert. To make this i used Photoshop. I decided to base my final idea on my initial flat plan, the brick theme, this also links perfectly to my digi pack. I used the same font from Dafont.com and colour to highlight my artists name and song title. I used a picture of Kelsey from the same group of photos i took for my digi pack. I changed the text from 'included no1 hit' to 'plus exclusive new video!' because i was already promoting the song by having an image of the CD cover and i need to promote the video as well. To make this stand out, i wrote the text in block capitals and in bold,white font. Beneath that i included a star rating from a well known pop/indie/rock magazine. This is immediately appealing to a certain audience, mine being teenage pop/ indie fans. If i had to change anything about my advert, i would perhaps use a more clear image of Kelsey, one in which she is standing. Another change would be the space at the top of the advert. I did not want to make the font any bigger as it would have looked out of place but i could have cropped the entire image so it does not look like i did not know what to include there.

Feedback

As i read through my feedback from Facebook, i noticed that i had a lot of compliments about my composition. My reviewers also like how the theme of the picture related to the song and how the white font stands out from the background well.