Finished Final Music Video

My group and I finished our final music video! We added the improvements given to us by the teacher and other effects that we thought would improve the video, here it is:

Final CD package

Here is how it looks on Photoshop:

Here is how the CD looks overall in physical form, after putting it all in a case:

The front cover

The back cover

The booklets front cover (same as the CD front cover)

The first 2 pages of the booklet

The second 2 pages of the booklet

The third 2 pages of the booklet

The back cover of the booklet (including a thank you message)

The CD itself

The first spine

The second spine

We hope that you like what we managed to create, thanks.

Final band website

Hi everyone, so my group and I have now finished our band website. Here is the link to the finished product:

https://firelightfalcons.wixsite.com/officialwebsite

Evaluation question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research/planning and evaluation stages?

Open publication - Free publishing

UPDATE: we used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit our whole music video. Using this programme allowed us to easily cut our clips and put them together to look how we wanted them too. It also allowed us to use various effects such as speeding up clips, reversing clips, and adding overlays to make our music video build up (like we wanted it to).

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

Here are the time frames for each section:

0.07 - 0.35 - Written audience feedback about our music video.
0.06 - 8.50 - Videos of people giving us audience feedback about our music video.

8.51 - 13.02 - My group and I discussing our audience feedback on our music video.

13.03 - 20.41 - Some more videos of people giving us audience feedback, but now on our CD package and band website.

20. 42 - 24.18 - My group and I discussing our audience feedback on our CD package and band website.

For this question, we decided to show you some of our audience feedback on our music video, band website and CD package, and then record ourselves feeding back on this feedback. 

We spoke about what people liked about our products, as well as what they thought we could have improved on and also how this fitted in with some theorist's etc.

Hope you enjoy...

Evaluation question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Here I have created an infographic using Visme.com to answer our second evaluation question ("How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?")

I have chosen to present my answer in this way, as I believe it allows me to organise how everything that we did was linked, and how we tried to make our Music video, Band website, and CD package as effective and as realistic as possible.

Created using Visme. An easy-to-use Infographic Maker.

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

Updates to our band website:

We have been making developments to our band website for a while, including doing things such as:

changing the backgrounds for most of the pages. We did this because we thought that there were too similar many tree shots, making it look a bit boring. We included some photos that we had taken away from the setting of the music video, while still keeping the nature theme that we are trying to keep within everything we are making.
We changed the font at the top of the page for 'Firelight Falcons' as previously it was quite a bulky font and did not fit very well with the theme that we were trying to keep.
On the 'ABOUT' page, we removed the singular shot of one of the band members and added a group photo and a slideshow underneath (including pictures of all the band members)

We also added another quote (portending that it was fro a magazine) to make it seem more realistic.
We added some buttons at the top of our pages, including 'Account' and 'Help' buttons as we noticed band websites have them in order to buy merchandise but also for obvious help reasons for new comers to the site.
On our 'HOME' and 'MUSIC' pages we added our final front cover to our album playlist.
We changed the 'SHOP' making it look more professional. We changed the lay out of the merchandise and prices, along with the font of the titles. We also added the album to the shop.
We added a 'GALLERY' page, including behind the scene shots of the band members.                                                                                                                                       
We created emails for all the addresses we made up so they actually worked. We then added these to the 'CONTACT' page.                                                                                                                                              
Finally, we added a slideshow on our HOMEPAGE of snapshots from our music video and added our final music video to the 'VIDEOS' page.

Here are some screenshots of our updates:

More pictures for CD booklet

Today my group and I decided to take photos of each of our band members in front of walls. The decided to do this is because when it came to trying to edit a brick wall behind each image previously,  it was taking too long to get it as accurate as we wanted.

However, the previous photos that we had taken still didn't go to waste, as we have used them for 'behind the scene photos' on our band website, and on our 'ABOUT' page. For one of the pages in the booklet, I edited a band photo in Photoshop, adding a brick wall  in the background, which we are using for the back page of our booklet.

The photos that we took today will be later colour corrected in Photoshop. We will do this so as they are darker, and therefore match the rest of the darker brick walls we have used, as well as the theme of our package.

Here are some of the single photos that we took:

Wall pictures from LauraKN

Taking band photos for our CD cover/back/booklet/website

At the end of last week, my group and I decided that we should organise a photo shoot of our band. We created a group chat on Facebook with ourselves and the people that we had asked to be in our band in to ask when the people in the band and asked when they were free to have some photos taken. As a group, we decided that we were going to do the photos in Monday's and Friday's break times.

On the Monday we focused on getting shots of the band for the front and back cover, while on Friday we focused more on the CD booklet and website photos. On Friday, to also make sure that we had gotten enough photos, we changed the shutter speed on the camera so as many photos could be taken in a short space of time. Alex wore the shirt that the main girl in our music video finds (thus showing an intertextual reference to our music video).

Here are some of the photos that we took on Monday:

Here are some of the photos we took on Friday:

Updated draft- Final music video

Today we updated our final music video again, taking into account some more feedback that we received from a teacher on our last draft. Here are the changes we made:

• During the part when the photo is in the sink, we added more fire overlays to make it look more dramatic so it builds up like the song itself does. We thought that by using more of these overlays, it could symbolise boy's and the girl's relationship drowning under pressure.
• Fixed the timing (the lip syncing was slightly out of sync) and we also adjusted the timings for the fast cuts to make it fit more with the music more, making it build up better.
• Changed the coat shot to footage of the main girl walking past. We did this as we thought it was more interesting (as the previous shot of just the coat seemed to drag on more, and we didn't want our video to become boring.
• We slowed down the holding hands shot, as the insert shot of Elsie broke the flow a bit.
• On the word 'stop' we added another black screen, as it fits the natural pause of the song and increases the drama of the video for what is going to happen next in the narrative.
• We changed some of the colour correction (with the sleepover having more of an orange tint while the narrative side having a blue tint). The clip that we corrected was when the girl got home from finding the boys shirt (as we found that the lighting was different). The footage needed a sharper tint of blue as it a bit grainy and we wanted to make the colour correction more evident.
• We changed the fade out at the end of the video as it stopped a bit abruptly and we wanted it to be smoother.
• We fixed the shot of Elsie clenching her hand again by cutting it to a correct moment, duplicating it and putting it in reverse (as it looked a bit anti - climatic and did not fit the song)

Here is the updated draft itself:

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Here is the feedback that we received from a teacher on our last draft:

Updated draft - Final music video

Hi everyone, today my group and I finished our final draft for our final music video. we took advice on board from our teacher and our audience feedback task and tried to make it a lot better than it originally was. 

Things we changed:

*we added fire overlays between some shots to make it more dramatic in places like when the girls are ripping up the photo of the other girls lover.
*fixed the timings more, because some things such as some part of the lip syncing were slightly out of sync.
*We changed some of the colour correction to make them match more, making the 2 different narratives more clear.
*The screen goes black after the lyrics "when will this stop" can be heard, as it makes it more dramatic for what is going to happen next within the narrative.
*We also changed the fade-out at the very end of the video as we thought that it stopped a bit awkwardly and didn't look as smooth as we wanted it to.
*We fixed the clip where Elsie was clenching her fist ass we thought that it looked a bit anti-climatic and didn't fit with how the video was becoming more energetic. To fix this we cut it shorter and used the revers tool).

Here is what the final draft looks like:

Audience feedback on our first music video draft

Here is the first draft itself:

Here is our audience feedback:

Another previous A2 music video analysis

More rough ideas for our band's CD cover and back

Hi everyone, today Elsie thought that it would be a good idea to add our band members to our CD's front cover (as it is quite common for artists to appear on the front of their albums, as it is a way to promote themselves). In a previous lesson, Tammy bought up the fact of how she liked it when she saw that bands were actually shown on the front cover of their albums. She said that she liked it when they were shown facing the front on the front cover, and then the back of them was shown on the back cover. Therefore, Elsie came up with a rough idea, where on our own CD, the band could be facing forward (although a lot of their faces wouldn't be shown, due to them not really being shown much in our music video). She then though that it would be a good idea to then show the band on the back cover, as if they were facing away. Elsie then went and drew a rough draft of this idea to see how it would look (and she thought that we could incorporate this into our CD by having the band looking upwards towards the falcon (one of our previous ideas we have talked about) on the front cover, and then the band looking at the track list on the back of the CD.

Here is the rough sketch that Elsie drew of this idea:

Sixth day of filming- Final music video

Today was our final day of filming for our final music video. We filmed from around 3:30pm to 5:30pm and remembered to book all the equipment we needed (DLSR) along with the props (black dress, white cardigan, picture of the boy and the small box which his photo was kept in).

Here is what we filmed: 

• We re-shot the girl opening the box with a picture of the boy in it. We decided to do this again as we found it difficult to match the lighting with other shots when we were editing. We found that the reason for this was that the original shot was recorded at Elsie's house in natural lighting, while the shots following it were shot at Tammy's house, where the lighting was more artificial.
• We re-shot the shot of me throwing the picture picture of the boy, as in editing, we found that the original shot was quite blurry and the paper didn't fit well within the frame. The shot was also too fast, meaning that it was pretty unnoticeable that it was paper that was being thrown (the picture of the boy). To fix this problem we filmed a variety of shots ranging from a close- up of my hand before throwing the picture, as well as a long shot of when it was flying in the air.
• Finally, we re-shot the close-up of Tammy's mid shot for the beginning of the music video (when shots of all 3 girls are shown). We decided to re-shoot this, as when comparing it to the shots of myself and Elsie, we found that the lighting was different (the shots of Elsie and I had a much darker background while our faces were lit up). However, Tammy's original shot was too light for our liking. To fix this problem, we made sure that we got rid of some of the lamp lighting that we used in the room so as it did not interfere with how bright the shot was overall. We also re-positioned the torch which Tammy was holding (trying it in a variety of places and angles to see where it would look best). 

Here are some screenshots of what we filmed:

Sixth day of filming- Shooting schedule

Here is a shooting schedule for our sixth day of filming. Here we have listed what we need, what time we will be filming and what shots we want to film etc.

Behind the scenes & Outtakes- Final music video

So we decided that it would be fun to make a quick vlog which included some behind the scenes and outtakes from filming our final music video (days 1-5)

Here it is:

Fith day of filming- Final music video

Today we filmed again at Tammy's house from around 4:00pm - 6:00pm. Again, we remembered to bring all of the props and costumes that we needed (black dress with white cardigan, bag and flannel shirt), along with the equipment (DLSR camera and tripod).

What we filmed:

• We decided to film the shot of Elsie running up the stairs again, as in editing we noticed that she had forgotten to carry the shirt and bag (which would cause problems with the continuity within our narrative).
•  The shots of Elsie punching the wall is also something which we decided to film again, as the previous ones that we had filmed did not look like a smooth action (like we wanted them to look)..
• A long shot of Elsie sliding down the wall.
• An extreme close-up of Elsie clenching her hair in frustration.
• A close-up of Elsie clenching my fist.
• A close up of Elsie's teary eyes (we used mascara here, and decided to smear it down her face to make it look as if she had been crying.
• A long shot and an over the shoulder shot of Elsie throwing clothes in anger.
• We then decided to shoot a stop motion footage that we had planned to match to the lyrics 'Ugly is the'. For this, I drew a silhouette of a girl holding an umbrella with the rain pouring down (while each rain drop will appear in each frame, to make it look as if it is raining on her).
• Finally, we decided to film the lip syncing part for Tammy and I again. We wanted to do this as in editing we found that when it came up to linking up to the music, it looked as if we were both saying different things for the line 'Who is your lover?'
• A shot of Elsie turning the torch on (which will be used for the instrumental at the beginning of the music video, before the singing starts). 

Here are some screenshots of what we did today:

Fourth day of filming- Final music video

So, today was the fourth day that we have used to film for our final A2 music video. On this day, we filmed from around 4.00pm-5.00pm due to inconvenience, and made sure that we had booked all of the equipment that we needed (DLSR and tripod) as well as all of the props (flannel shirt and black dress with a white cardigan).

• First, we re-filmed the mid shot of the girl's coat which match to the lyrics 'Leaves her coat'. We did this again as when editing, we realised that the shot we'd previously done had the main girl played by me walking past (when the shot is meant to be shown when the girl has already long gone and is in the wood) . Therefore, as using the previous shot wouldn't have made any sense, we decided to film another shot of the coat, but without getting the girl in the frame.
• We then filmed the long shots of the main girl rushing up the stairs and going back to her bedroom. 
• We also filmed a close-up of the main girl dropping the bag on her bed...
• And a mid shot of her on the bed with the shirt, and then one of her lying down on the bed.
• We then filmed the shots that fit with the instrumental parts of the song. This consisted of the shots where the main girl breaks down with worry and stress as she does not know where her lover is. Shots we filmed included a close-up of the girl hitting the wall and leaving a hole in it, a long shot of the girl throwing the shirt and a pillow, and a mid shot of her looking sad and frustrated.
• Finally, we filmed a close up of Tammy and I holding hands for the lyrics 'to the sound of love' (making it look as if one of the hands is a boy's, so as it fits with the narrative of the girl and her lover).

What went well: 

We were able to film everything we had planned on the shooting schedule and did a range of different shot types/angles to make it more interesting for our audience to watch. 

To improve:

We feel like we probably should have made sure that we had cleared everything that was in the shots (to make it more professional).

 Also, we feel like we also need to improve the match on action shot of when I punch the wall, as it did not look like a swift enough movement when we came to editing it. We will do this by not changing the camera angle too much when we re-do the shot.

Here are some screenshots of what we filmed on this day:

Thanks for reading.

Fourth filming schedule- Final music video

Hi everyone, here is the filming schedule for our fourth day of filming. There is everything that we want to film on it, so we can tick it off when we have finished the shot.

Here it is:

Updating our social media accounts

After yesterday's filming, Today my group and I decided that we should make sure that we keep our band's social media accounts active (like how real bands would keep fans updated). 

On Twitter, Elsie added a screenshot of some filming that we did on day 2 and I posted some photos that I had took behind the scenes 

Furthermore, Elsie then started to post on our band's Instagram using photos from each filming day.

Here is how it looks:

Third day of filming- Final music video

Hi everyone, so today my group and I thought that we should update you all on our filming and what we did with regards to it today. Today, we filmed shots including the 2 friends 'ripping' and 'drowning' the photo of the main girl's 'lover', the girl leaving the note and finally, all of the outside shots using the equipment we had booked (DLSR camera, tripod and shoulder mount). Because we were mainly filming outside we all made sure that we were wearing suitable footwear, warm clothing and reminded each other on what props or clothes we needed to bring over a group chat we have on Facebook.

 The shots that we filmed in order consisted of:

• A close-up of the tap running
• A high shot of the boy's picture in the sink
• A close-up of the picture being ripped by of the girl's friends
• A shot of the picture being thrown (which we had to do a couple of times to make sure that it was in shot. We also had to do this with a new photo that hadn't been wet, so as we were able to get it in the shot without it being too fast).
• Close-up of the girl opening the box which she keeps the photo of her lover in
• Extreme close-up of the girl's (Elsie's) eyes which fit to the lyrics 'I'm stunned'. Here we wanted the girl's eyes to look angry, so we took a fairly long shot to make sure that we can pick out the best part when we are editing it.
• Extreme close-up of the main girl's mouth lip syncing to the lyrics 'people marching to the drums, everybody's having fun to the sound of love', which we did to make sure that we still had some conventions of a music video (making sure that it didn't entirely drift off into something which looked more like a short film etc).
• A long shot which we filmed outside of the girl walking away from her home, as well as a mid shot of her turning around and looking back at her house.
• Long shots of the girl walking to a bench (outdoors). We then used a shoulder mount to film a shot of the camera craning around her while she was sitting on the bench.
• A long shot and a mid/close-up of the girl looking around the woods for her lover
• Long shot of his shirt hanging on a tree
• A low shot of the trees
• A mid shot/close-up of a globe spinning (we ended up using a different one than the one that we talked about in our props blog due to not having the access to it at this particular time).
• Long shot of the view from the window
• Ranges of different close-ups of Elsie playing the guitar
• A close-up of me marching from three different angles. (This filts with the lyrics 'People marching to the drums, everybody's having fun'. We did this to try and follow a convention of music videos with the visuals matching the lyric

Here are some screenshots of the filming that we did today:

What went well:

 We filmed everything that we had planned on the filming schedule. 

Also, with regards to the weather, we were lucky as it was forecast to rain but it didn't so we did not have to worry about lighting or finding a way to stay dry.

What could have been improved:

We needed to make sure we remembered all of the props as we had to use a different flannel shirt and globe. 

Furthermore, we had to think about how to throw the picture of the boy as we soon realised it was too light and damp to throw with force (after 'drowning' it). However, we did fix this problem quickly by crumbling a dry version up and using that.

Previous A2 music video analysis

Updating the music on our band website

Hi everyone, today we decided that it is probably a good idea to name our band's album 'Transylvania', named after the band's single that we are creating a music video for. Today, we also realised that to make our CD more realistic, we would have to add other songs on to it. Therefore, Elsie went and did some research and found the website www.purple-planet.com/ which allows you to use music from other students school projects (so all credit goes to them).

While updating the music on our band website, we added the rough draft of our album cover (however, this will change once we've finished it).

This is what the latest updates look on our band website:

Here is our album, along with the different songs that we are adding on our album.

Music page part 1

Music page part 2

We hope that you liked our updates, thanks a lot for reading...