Music video and ancillary tasks

                                                  http://laramariemurray.wix.com/isadora

Task 4- How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To conclude, by using a vast majority of complex digital technologies, I have used technological convergence to ensure that I have produced three products as a part of a successful campaign. Other then the technologies that we all used to produce the music video I personally spent a lot of time using the software photoshop. I was able to manipulate photographs from the photoshoot of the artist that I took using my 5d mark III camera by using the levels tool and contrast tool on photoshop. The ways in which I edited each image from the shoot I used the highlighter tool, also known as the 'magnifying tool' to highlight specific features on her face, like her eyes. I then used the 'burn tool' to make any features darker and created shadowed regions to make the image look more visual contrasting and involve the idea of form into my imagery. I also used photoshop to outline the digipak template and select images that I could drag on and use as the front cover and back cover of the digipak. It was a learning curve because I made at least 3 different digipak's and then asked people what could be improved, changed or added. I used images from the internet and made them my own by editing the 'contrast levels' and 'channel colours' to make the image unique and my own, I used this technique on an image of a rose which is linked and carried on throughout all three of our products for this campaign.

 Last draft:

Second draft:

First draft:

Task 4- How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Director's commentary:

Task 4- How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For this task as a group we all individually chose a particular section of technology that we would write about and then put together as a script. The section of technology that i wrote about was the offline process of editing and what particular tools we used and what this did to create and help our music video evolve into what it has become. We then chose to record this as 'director's comments' alongside our music video, letting the audience know the creative decisions of our technology. The music video was created through a participatory culture and through technological convergence.


The script:

GH:                 During the shoot, we used various technologies to film our video.  Before each shot we used an ipad that was linked to the surround sound system in the studio.

We held up the screen with the song time to the lens of the camera, until a beep came that signalled the beginning of the song. This therefore told us and the artist lip syncing that he had 4 seconds until the song began, and also made it easier for us in the edit to know where to place the visuals so that they matched the track.

We did the majority of the filming using a Sony FS100 camera and prior to each shot we took, we had to focus the lens and white balance the shot by zooming in on a white area, adjusting the colour and then zooming out and arranging our shot.   As we were filming, each member of our group would take a turn operating the camera, while the other three watched and directed from a TV that was placed out of the way of the set.

CH:                 Having the TV made our filming process much easier, as there would not have been enough time on the shoot day to re-watch our footage so it allowed us to see whether what we were filming worked and if the shots were going to be efficient enough to be used in the edit.

We used a second camera on our video shoot – a Canon 5D camera to film the set where Sasha was upside down.  This was a much better suited camera for this artistic cinematography that we wanted to achieve.   

As we had to be up-close and on the floor, using the FS100 would have been too bulky, and the lens was too close to the ground. By using a lighter camera, physically filming the shots became much easier and we were able to move the camera much more easily because it is so light.  This digital technology also enabled the quick transfer and uploading of footage to a mac computer.

GB:                 Finally, this was our most artistic shot and using a lens that easily focuses on the artists face our shots came out in a very high definition. The only con with using this camera was that we did not have time to link it up to the TV, and so we could not judge whether our shots were usable as we went along.   We then realised when we got to the edit that a lot of our footage was out of focus.

When filming our music video, we used an iPad for playback at the start of each shot. We did this so that when it came to editing, it would be much easier for us to be able to sync the clips to the audio that was already on the timeline, to make it look like our artist was actually singing the words.

We did this by using the arrow keys to slowly move along our footage,  and then we found the point at which the frequency was highest on the playback clip, then we knew to cut the video, using the blade tool at the point and then drag the clip back along the timeline in order for it to be correctly synced.

When we edited our video we used colour grading to help bring out our music video. We used a slight hint of pink to show that our artist is girly as this would relate to our target audience. This made the video look more edgy and appealing to the audience. As our song is very fast paced we decided to make our cuts fast. For example, in the UV set the cuts are rapid, this helps as it goes to the beat of the song and is interesting for the audience to watch.

LM:                  By having four different sets this allowed our artist to be seen in different perspectives. Which makes our artist relevant and can appeal to different types of people, which means our artist can branch out and not just stay with one group of people. We had to export our video into a MOV file, which means it can be seen in high quality, after exporting it we then uploaded it onto YouTube.

By having it on YouTube we can see who, when, where and why people are watching our music video. We can also see the age of our viewers which will enabled us to see if we successfully grabbed our target audience.

By using Adobe Premier Pro as the software to edit our music video we were able to complete the offline and online process of editing in a quick manner. In the offline process of editing we watched through all our clips to see which ones were effective and could be used in our final product. After sleeting these clips we put into a folder known as the ‘rushes’ folder. We then named each clip to help us identify the clip without having to watch each one over and over again, making the editing process faster and more manageable.  We used was the ‘razor’ tool to allow us to cut and shape our clips so that they could match with the pace and the tempo our chosen song.

After organising the clips we placed them onto the timeline by looking at the playback times and syncing the lip-sync of our artist up with the lyrics in the song, this made our video look more realistic and adhere to all of the ‘pop’ conventions in a music video.

Task 4- How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In class we discussed as a group all of the individual online technologies that we used in our A2 year. The most important technology that we used in our A2 was the sony FS100 film camera which allowed us to film the elements of the models moving in synchronisation to the song 'clap snap' and really capture the fun and girly hypothesis that we set out to create. We edited our music video in stages of offline and online editing on the software, adobe premier pro, which allowed us to match clips to the fast tempo beat of our chosen song. In the A2 year, I have expanded my horizons and started using new and more complex technologies to improve the quality of our chosen campaign. More of these technologies are listed on the 'digital technologies' diagram below.

As this task continues I will hopefully hone and develop my skills of using more complex technologies and will continue to present work and chosen elements of my campaign in more visually interesting and complex ways. Honing my skills has helped me create the other two ancillary tasks for this campaign and help combine themes to show that all three elements link in corresponding and effective ways to the artist of our music video.

Final website edit

http://laramariemurray.wix.com/isadora

This is the latest edit of our website towards our campaign. From looking at the feedback from our target audience we decided to make our website more user friendly and make it simple so that the artist image can stand out in a more modern website design.

This home page is a perfect example of how we have gone for a more modern graphic design approach whilst still incorporating the girly designs by using pink and sweetie hearts as the typeface for our artist. By using the same pink background for each page it links each page together and allows the viewer to read the information on the artist and other specific text features easy to read and see.

For the 'About' page we used links to link the artist to social media website like her twitter account which we made to promote the artist and her tour. We chose to use a different typeface for this heading because the home page needs to stand out more as it is the first page the viewer is introduced to, making a first impression vital for our artist. 

This is the gallery page for our website. We decided to use a 'honeycomb' and hexagon template to show the image because it makes it clear on which ones the viewer wants to see and it makes it visually interesting and different from the layout of the other pages because not everything should be exactly the same, otherwise it becomes boring for the viewer.

Final digipak edit

This is the final edit of our digipak. I made changes to the original edit because of feedback from our focus group video. I decided to simplify the artwork by making each side, mirror each other. I did this by using the same theme throughout the digipak because the feedback from other people suggested that there was too much going on and there were too many elements added to each photograph. I think that i used too many images on the digipak before so by using the reference to the roses on the cd and then using it on the inside cover. I think that this makes it look more artistic, rather than all about the artist, it shows her other interests. I didn't want the rose on the inside cover to just be a plain rose so i researched Egyptian poems on the internet and i picked this extract from a poem i chose. The poem expressed how strong and powerful love and war is, which i think compliments the stereotypes of what pop artists talk about in their music. This is the full poem:

The Wakening Trumpet 

Sacred waters with fatted reeds
rusting sands hold my Egypt
sun-planted palms against sky-blue
the salt marsh dries her ancient armor.


Scorpions on the granite sphinx
bloody altars with tarnishing bronze,
gold of gild, plumes upon Antony's helmet
finding the cause of Kings and Pharaohs
stretching like a sleeping cat -
a queen in Cleopatra
knows the heart of the scorching desert.


Over dunes came drumming legions
across a perfect child's stare
beyond the mirage of temples
beyond those angled pyramids. . ..


O Copper palm, tree of tree
by hot sea
crossing a thousand centuries -
an empire for your beads
and your bursting history !