Question 4-Jack Simpson

What have you learned from audience feedback?

Audience Feedback Part 1


Audience Feedback Part 2

Our audience feedback was really great.I think this is because our video had a very dynamic feel to it, which was thanks to our dancers and graffiti artist combined with the editing. Our audience appreciated the diverse shots and themes. The fast paced style of editing with varying mid shots, close ups, low angle,high angle and jump cuts kept the video from getting stale or dragging on. I think that was one of the aims we set out with when we got inspiration from Madonna and Run DMC's videos so I'm happy our we reached that aim.

Our main complaint came from the fact that the shots with the DJ were badly lit.This is a fair comment that I agree with.In my opinion it didnt transition well with the rest of the shots because of this.Throughout our video there is a theme of vibrancy and bright colour which is amplified by the Graffiti and dancing. This is in stark contrast to the shots of the DJ in the club which featured drab brown backgrounds in a dark setting. One thing to take from this is that planning is crucial, if you want to achieve perfect shots.We thought using the lighting kit was enough but obviously it wasn't,looking back on that day filming, we rushed those shots too much.

Vimeo Statistics

Embed Statistics

December Statistics

January Statistics

Overall Statistics

As you'd expect our video got the most views in mid January. I think 273 overall plays is a good amount considering the video is private.What I also found interesting was that it was embedded on Facebook and gained 37 plays just by being posted on the social networking site. I think it makes you realise the importance of promotion through the internet and social networking sites.

Evaluation Q. 4

What have you learned from audience feedback?

Most of our feedback said that our video was different than the others, we used different techniques, for example at the slow motion moment in the music the flashing images we used, and a fast pace editing to the beat rather than just concentrating on the lip syncing and do everything around it. 

We've also been told that the narrative was quite strong, even though there were different themes in the video - the boy doing graffiti, street dancer in front of the graffiti, the belly dancer, girls dancing in the club, and the dj. 
Seems like a lot for one video, but everyone said that it worked. 

When we asked what we could improve, most of the people said that there was not enough light in the dj box and it's been a little bit too dark.
We used the light on the camera and the extra lighting kit, so I was surprised at how dark the final clip turned out to be. If I was doing it again, I would probably make sure I have even more light equipment with me, although I think that the DJ in the club is usually in the dark, with a little bit of the disco/flashing lights. 



 We have learned that creating a clear visual link between the main and ancillary product so the audience will recognize the product and the genre is important. Also we could have used more camera shots and if I was to create a music video with the dancers again, I'd use a dolly to take more shots of the dancers from the low angle. 




I am very pleased with the feedback we received.







These are the statistics from the vimeo, showing how many times our video has been viewed by people. As we can see our video had ups and downs, but only in January it has been shown 273 times which is a lot. We can tell that the video was liked by the audience. 

 

These are the statistics from December, showing that the video been watched quite a few times as well. 

Question 4

4). What have you learned from your audience feedback?

These are the amount of times our video has been viewed on Vimeo statistics.

As we can see in the feedback video people have made positive comments about our pop video. This shows that the aspects people mention such as editing camera work and mise en scene are powerful and attractive. This has taught me that in my future videos i will keep similar editing, camerawork and mise en scene techniques to show consistence in improvements of skills.

One of my teachers gave me personal feedback on our video about the climax point towards the end. As he said "... Towards the end there was a part where the drum roll was at a fast pace and acceding to a climax point. At that point i was expecting a big sharp cut or some sort of camerawork to emphasize the climax.."

I have learned that at a point of climax i should create a big impact to show the initiative of the climax. By keeping it simple after the climax it made the audience lose hope in terms of expecting a big bang rather than a simple shot after a climax point.

Another aspect some of my friends mentioned was about the lack of lighting in the DJ'ing sequence.
Even though we have use two sets of lighting kits it has only lit up a small amount due to the club being very dark. However i have learned that shooting film in dark locations require more than one lighting kit.

One of my fathers friend who also does media in Turkey criticized the lack of camerawork in the video. He said " Using more handlheld camera shots rather than with tripod would make the video more dynamic and music video alike. The camera work should of been abstract at the parts where the dancers were dancing such as, turning around the dancer from a low angle."
These comments taught me how to improve skills such as camerawork and lighting in future videos. As the technicians mentioned more than 5 times that in a dark location even with the lighting kit it will be difficult to get footage. However i wanted to challenge myself and use 2 sets of lighting kits and record in a dark club.
I also need to improve my camera skills and be creative in terms of applying to the convention but also being interesting and abstract.

Analysis of a digipak that relate to your genre

This is Fatboy Slims digipak cover, who is a big beat artist. This digipak relates to our genre as Chemical Brothers genre was also big beat and also relatable to other genres eg electronic music, breakbeat hardcore/techno. The font type of the artists name is relatable to the genre and audience as it got a funky/techno type feel it is also quiet a large size which makes it stand out. There is mixed imagery on the front cover there is an image of an overweight boy which makes it unusual and different. Usually digipaks of this genre do not have the artists image but it has a differnet image that attracts the main audience.

Evaluation. Q. 3

3.  How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages?

 

While filming we used  JVC GY-HM100E Camera, memory cards, tripod, lighting kit that we've put on the top of the camera plus extra lighting kit which enabled us to film in the dark areas in the club, also in the Old Vic tunnels. 

Here's a little video clip I made to explain how we used the camera. 

For all the editing we used Mac Computers and Final Cut Pro - the professional movie editing programmer which enabled us to create our video. 

And another video of me explaining how we markers to help us with lip synching and editing our video to the beat.

These are the markers in Final Cut Pro that we used to help us to edit our video to the beat and cut from the base tracks that were unnecessary.

  

Here's a screenshot of the razor tool that enabled us to cut the clips in Final Cut Pro. We used it to cut the clip into pieces and put extra effects between the cut. Also the razor tool helped us to create the fast pace edit.

I used INTERNET for my research, mainly Youtube to find videos, ideas and inspirations, also to analyze the video we've choose. 

 

  

 Also we used Blogger to keep up with all the things that we did so far and the Vimeo where our video was uploaded by the college stuff for us to be watched and used whenever we want to.

For the digipack and the advert I used Adobe Photoshop Elements. 4.0 which is one of the best programmers to be used for this kind of graphic designs. 

We used Final Cut Pro to put together a digital story board for our music cideo. We done this by using pictures of what we felt each scene of our video would look like then we uploaded our shots into final cut pro, where we put a base track of the Chemical Brothers Galvanize song, which we got from the internet.

By producing a digital story board we provide everyone with a rough idea on what our video was going to be like. 

Question 3-Jack Simpson

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

Hardware

27 inch Imac Intel Core 2 Duo

The Imac was the centre of our work. Because of the unique OSX operating system, the computer is the industry standard for professional programs.In our case we used it for Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and Quark express in conjuction with our HDD's which we stored all our work on.

JVC GY-HM100 Pro HD

We used the JVC GY-HM100 video camera to capture all of our shots for the music video. A state of the art piece of equipment, it was really a pleasure to use.It felt very easy and basic to get to grips with. At the same time,due to its features and abilities it clearly had more depth to its options, that I feel we didn't exploit.That being said we didnt need to play around with lots of different settings to get good quality film,which I think was great. We used 16GB SD cards to record our footage on which was a must because the quality and size of the footage.These were inserted into the dual SD card slots on the cameras base.

Software

Stacked clips along with markers and bass track

Clips and markers together

Razor Tool

All of our footage filmed with the JVC Pro HD was edited in Final Cut Pro. We were accustomed to the basics of the program like stacking clips etc but we also utilized techniques like the marker and razor tools.Markers were key in editing our video to the beat, without them our video would definitely not have had the same impact. The key to how to use markers was in the name,they were literally used to mark parts of the track and match them to our video clips,as you can see in the screen shots above.

The razor tool was also key in our editing.It helped us to precisely cut up longer clips into smaller sections,which we could then place in the right areas.We used this in combination with the markers to create really smooth sequences that played to the beat very well.

Editing photos in Photoshop

Positioning the edited photos in relation to the panels

Adding text in Quark

I used Photoshop elements 4.0 and QuarkXPress to make my ancillary products. Photoshop was used mainly to manipulate existing photos and screenshots. For example I cut out parts of a photo using the Polygonal Lasso Tool.Then I arranged them using the select tool.That was how I created the two inside panels.

Cutting an area out in Photoshop

Quark Xpress was used mainly for creating and manipulating the text on my digipak and advertisement. Quark handles fonts and text much better than photoshop which is why I used Quark. for this.The combination of the two programs worked really well.

Websites

The above websites were key to our research,development of work and for archiving our steps towards making our music video and ancillary products.Blogger was the backbone of this, we all posted our research and planning here. Youtube was invaluable as it helped us to find influences and examples of music videos. Vimeo offered a unique High Definition quality that Youtube didn't, which is why it was used to host our video.It also offered password protection for our videos.

Question 3

Question 3.) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages?

Final Cut Pro was a superior software on imac's. This software is a industry standard professional software which enables us to edit videos including rich features in terms of cutting, effects tool and many more.

Blogger is a fundamental aspect of online media that enables us to share our work talk about them comment on other peoples work and many more. It was vital in order for us develop our online media skills and also establish our work to public.

We used video streaming websites such as YouTube to search for music videos that relate to our pop video in terms of genre and theme. It helped us find music videos that we can get influence by and also analyze for our benefits.

We used video cameras to record the footage for the pop video. We also used still cameras to take photos of the procedure of recording for evidence of self work. It is also beneficial to take photos in the filming procedure

 

   

 These are screen shots of markers in Final Cut Pro. We use these red markers in order to create a beating point which helps us to edit to the beat and cut from different base tracks.

 

     We use the razor tool to cut video clips on Final Cut Pro. It helps us to divide the video clip in two pieces and allows us to flexibly work on a particular video clip and add effects between the cut. The razor tool for my case was really crucial since i needed to cut even a millisecond of footage that made the final product as i wanted. Towards the end of our video we see an abundance of fast cuts between the belly dancer and break dancer. In order to cut to the fast beat, i had to use the razor tool to cut appropriate seconds of footage to create the fast pace edit.

 Photoshop was vital in order to create our ancillary text which was our advertisement and digipak. I personally used Adobe Photoshop cs4.  Here i have screen shots of a procedure i have done to create an effect on my ancillary text. First step is i used the brush tool and set it on 3pixels and selected a smooth brush. I have chosen the colour white.

Then i drew wriggled lines and gave it branches.

Then i used the rubber tool to sharpen the edges of the brush tool and make it spiky.

After the pattern was done i went on filters, blur and Gaussian blur and set it on 1.3 pixels. This gave it a glowing effect and suited my desire.