COMPLETED EVALUATION

THIS IS MY FINAL COMPLETED EVALUATION FOR MY G324 MEDIA STUDIES PROJECT.

http://issuu.com/danieljackson2/docs/evaluation_22.pptx_7ecc12d7b4603c/1

Research Into Similar Products - (Beyoncé Album Advert)

Beyoncé's Mrs Carter Tour began in April 2013 in Serbia and went on for many months.

The Mrs Carter Tour Advert was in basically every magazine and newspaper worldwide announcing the tour and new album of the international star.

The gold and black contrasts together to create a bold, extravagant illustration and the regal style of the image conveys the message that she is the queen of the stage, and a queen of pop.

Although the image of Beyoncé is quite over the top and bejewelled... The font is quite straightforward and easy to read.
The indirect address intrigues the reader and makes them want to find out more about the tour and upcoming album.

I think this tour advert found in OK magazine in December 2012 (after it was announced, with added dates) is a very good example of an effective album advert.

Drafting and Planning - Influence for Album Cover (DigiPak) - Dalí

Another thing that inspired me to set out my album cover this way was surrealist artist Salvador Dali's 'In Voluptas Mors' (Pleasure Within Death)

This image reminded me a lot of my front image and I used this as influence of moving my pieces around in a way to make it look like something else.

I didn't want my album cover to look similar to this completely, as it's not exactly the style I was looking for, but when I saw what I had created it reminded me of this,m so I enhanced certain bits lighter and darker.








(original)













(2014 recreation)













(Tattoo design)

Organsiation - Influence for DigiPak (Drafting and Planning)

The original image I wanted to use for my Digipak was the 'broken glass heart' (below) that I found on Tumblr.

I liked this image as all of the songs on Sam Smith's album are about love and I wanted to convey the idea that a heart was easy to break, so portraying this through the use of broken glass in the shape of a heart would be effective.

When changing the effects of my original image on Microsoft Word, I noticed that the image in Black and White looked very effective and fit with all my other house style in my video, Digipak and magazine advert. 

The artistic effects you can change on there inspired me to create my own 'broken glass heart' and I did this by marking out the shape of the heart and then filling it in with broken pieces.

Drafting and Planning - Influence for DigiPak

During my research, I looked into the fonts used in the 1960s for posters, adverts etc. and these fonts were very popular and inspired me to add a more retro feel to my production.
Here is an example of the thing I saw:

Seeing this got me thinking about adding words into my image of a heart, in a hidden way. I have always liked the idea of hidden words and hidden meaning and this was a great opportunity for me to include it. I tried to keep the image of the broken glass heart relevant but by changing the shapes of the broken glass into letters spelling out 'Love Yourself' in the heart.

Here is an image of the heart I created which will now definitely be the standard for my digiPak album cover for my regeneration of Sam Smith's album 'Empty Words'

This is what I created:

Drafting and Planning - Proposed Final Version of Music Video

This is a screenshot from MoviePlus showing the timeline of my music video in its entirety. All of the imported media including soundtrack, original footage and original photographs are in the pane on the right of the page, the timeline at the bottom shows the video track in the centre with the additional overlaying text captions, the photographs (from Flipagram influence) and also the soundtrack underneath.

I think MoviePlus is quite an easy program to use particularly as importing and cropping video bites is quite easy. Some challenges I overcame included that once a video is edited it can move around due to the saving pattern. When the file saves, the videos seem to compress somehow nd move away from their original alignment according to the specific time and section of song but hopefully this will be rectified when marking.
Also, MoviePlus is good as you can alter one part of video for another and add the same effects over the top such as cross-fade etc.

Organisation - codes and conventions of music videos

Conventions of Music Videos

Camera Shots:

Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.

Camera Movement:

The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.

Mise-en-scene:

This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video or any other media text. Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something. An example is, ‘Mad’ by Neyo. The mise-en scene involves him walking down a road alone, being in an isolated room. This reflects the isolation from his lover. Also, the props include hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song. Similarly, the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white; this connotes the angry and depressed mood. This is just one example of the mise en scene used to give an idea of how mise-en-scene works.

Neyo - Mad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAYuOc7_TKg&feature=fvst

  

Editing:

Jump cuts are the predominant editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.

Other main conventions consist of:

Lighting:

Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist/s in an enhanced look. 

Sound:

Sound is mainly the vocals or the song but in some cases such as Michael Jackson – Thriller, the producers can make the music video into a short film.

Props:

These are a vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people.

Costume:

This goes with the scenes in the song and reflects the genre. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the viewers will dress because they use some of the celebrities as role models

Colour:

Colours tend to set the mood of the song through creating an atmosphere. For example, dark colours are used more in rock songs such as Kings of Leon and bright colours are seen to be used more in hip hop and pop videos.

Music Conventions in Pop videos

•

Bright and colourful

•

Close ups to show the cheerful and upbeat emotions

•

Extreme close ups – these tend to show the purity and innocence in the personality of the artists

•

Aims at the teenage audience

•

Very upbeat

Examples:

•

Britney Spears http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brYTO6JHMHs

•

Madonna        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWTDR6ztcnQ

•

Christina Aguilera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2U0Ivkn2Ds

Organisation - Analysis of Final Stages

I have looked into many similar album covers and disc
designs for my CD and have found that Sam Smith's
'In The Lonely Hour' album is the most similar to what
I wanted to create.

The 'In The Lonely Hour' album will be renamed 
'Empty Words' in my project and the album cover 
will be an image of a broken heart made of glass 
(see blog post from 07/12/2014) and the inside of the tray, 
the CD disc itself and also the back of the booklet will look 
similar and be symbiotic to Sam Smith's personality 
and the rest of the album.

It is important that the DigiPak as an ancillary product 
conveys the same message that the video does, as although 
it is only one track from the album, it will incorporate many
of the same themes and feelings that Sam has in his real 
album, and also that I have developed in my creation.

My magazine advert research has included Marina and 
the Diamonds, Florence and the Machine, Muse, Justin 
Timberlake and other artists with similar dark typography 
and format. The format I want to take can be seen on blog 
post from (09/02/2015) and after redevelopment of typography 
and layout, it will practically be the same and the house 
style and symbiosis between DigiPak, magazine advert, 
and video - also relating to Sam Smith himself.

Research into Similar Products - Marina & The Diamonds Album Advert

Drafting and Planning - My Ancillary Prodcuts

Drafting and Planning - My Album Advert (Ancillary Product 1)

This is my album advert created using PhotoPlus. I followed a previous template I had made in order to position everything correctly,

The only differences I would make in the future is to try and use more adventurous fonts as the 'Brand New Album' and '21 March' to bring across the 'synchronous-ness' of the album, the album advert and the entire project. 

So far, I think this is a fabulous creation, particularly as I had been given permission to use the name 'Sam Smith' so I incorporated an online image of his autograph and even the font used on his official website to add a stronger relationship from reality, to my album advert and entire project.

Organisation (Drafting) - Album Advert Template

This is the template I created in order to know the conventions of album adverts. Magazines NME, Rolling Stone, even generic newspapers such as the Sun or Daily Mail contain album adverts celebrating the release of a new artist's album.
These are some examples I have looked into over the past few months and on the blog post below you can see I have incorporated what I have researched into a draft magazine album advert of my own.

I will use my template to help construct my magazine advert using PagePlus and upload it, with each element of the proposed format within it.

Target Audience Organisation - Photo Examples (of me) for Album Advert

I want my album advert to convey a style similar to Sam Smith which I can illustrate myself. Some photos that sprang to mind was from these.

Via the use of social network, I carried out research into some photos and asked for 'likes' and 'constructive comments' if they thought it would look good advertising a new Sam Smith album... Results of these will follow but here are the photograph examples.

My accounts @danjacko1 - Instagram          Daniel Jackson - Facebook

RESEARCH & ORGANISATION -- Deadline 13th February 2015

I need to film a new ending of my video as the ending I had previously shot didn't match the story I was trying to convey. I will try to depict a new start, illustrated by a panning shot of the floor up to the sky (either daytime or night time) as the song fades out.

I have also been drafting my ancillary products, my DigiPak is still in drafting mode and I have started thinking about camera angles and costume and editing for my album advert.

I will use black and white on my album cover, and I have already chosen to depict broken glass on BROKEN GLASS HEART and will give a sense that
1) his heart is broken and can be broken easily like glass.
2) but also, vulnerable and hopeless as the heart is whole, but with cracks.
This is relative to me, and I feel it will give a more aesthetically pleasing, but unusual style to the album, matching the house style, album title, personality of artist, music video, song titles and, song 'Leave Your Lover'.

Organisation - My Footage (Analysis of Work In Progress & Proof)

In the following week I will use all of the footage I have used, and edit it using the programme MoviePlus (Serif) in order to create my final Music Video and focus on my ancillary tasks. So far, I have imported my footage from my camera using my SD Card and put them into MoviePlus.

I muted each video and added the soundtrack of 'Leave Your Lover - Sam Smith' over the top. The establishing shot at the beginning is the panning shot of the city and this cuts to the scene of me and a friend walking through the city and I tried to mimic a scene where the camera pans up in front of the town hall, which I am quite impressed with.

In the following week I will to add the scene of me lipsyncing and add this into the final piece, and possible film an ending - as this is vital to the 'journey' of the scene. Further blog posts will show the journey of how I made the video and the process of using MoviePlus.

Drafting and Planning (My Video) Footage - Work in Progress

This is my work in progress.
More of my videos need to be uploaded in order to complete the music video, but so far it is easy to see the day-by-day journey of the characters. As starring and directing some of the video myself, it is clear to see that the particular camera angles, (canted, aerial, high angle, panning, and zoom) have been useful in creating a new perspective for the genre of music video.

I feel the track I have chosen, 'Sam Smith - Leave Your Lover' is very fitting to this music video as the journey of a single character with friends, and trying to have fun where he goes - is highlighted here.

The dull location of Birmingham, on a cold winter's afternoon was perfect setting for my video and videoing from the top of the library was a good idea to get different aspects of the city. The snapshots along the way are inspired by the App - Flipagram. The sequence of photos linked together by music, add a person touch and are a very visual way of showing a journey & the sequence of short photos I chose does this well.

To go, I have to upload the video of me Lipsyncing to the track, to add to my video, to add a personal, lonely feel and direct to the audience.

Drafting and Planning - Video Footage - City Scene - 4/1/2015

This video is hopefully going to be the end of the video, or feature in the centre of the video. Where I am shown 'alone' on the top of a building (the Birmingham Central Library) filmed by my friends, and then it spans a video of the whole city. The video brings a more intimate slant to the video which is something I think the audience can relate to.

Drafting and Planning - Footage taken on iPhone and (Research into Reasons Why)

After uploading these videos to my computer, I decided to relay the track of Sam Smith's Leave Your Lover over the top to see if the style of the video matched the emotion of the song and it does perfectly.
I tried it at different points of the song and it fits and the message of the video still remains. One thing I would change however is the quality of the footage. My camera link to my computer wasn't very strong and I feel that if it was possible, creating videos on my phone (like these 2 below) may be slightly better quality and are much easier to upload.


I looked into the style of Ellie Goulding's video 'How Long Will I love You?' and she shoots the WHOLE video on her Nokia Lumia and this creates a more personal experience with the video.

I thought this is a good influence to take for my video, as I do not have access to professional equipment, creating a more personal video (despite the quality) could create a more effective video, and still carry on the message of the original video and lyrics, but with my take on it.

Drafting and Planning - Still Footage - Filming Session 4/1/2015

Right now it is snowing; if I could be out there filming, I would be...

These are some stills from my filming session on 4th January! My aim for the day was to film the city scenes, similar to the ones in Sam Smith's 'Leave Your Lover' video. So far there are some similarities between the videos and that is what I was going for, since planning the whole video.
The photograph at the bottom is a still from my lip-syncing video (which was very challenging but fun to film) and that will be uploaded separately ready for editing next week.

Filming with two separate cameras has been very difficult but I have tried to show different angles, such as canted angles and aerial shots and high and low angle shots. The personal shots 'selfies' bring a more personal view to the video & this is what I wanted to go fro since analysing Ellie Goulding's 'How Long Will I love You' video.

Organisation - New Filming Timetable

I have decided that now the Christmas holidays are over and I still have a lot to film, I am going to dedicate the time left before due date mostly to filming and uploading the rest of the raw footage. I will hopefully have enough time to film all that I need, but with some alterations to my storyboard and my video will still be good; and will carry the message of the lyrics through with it.

As my previous blog post shows, the videos I have taken on my camera are not good quality and will not look as good, although phone quality is not perfect. But I will make the best of what I've got to ensure that this is a good video, and sticks pretty much to the ideas I had originally on choosing this brief.