Q4-NICOLAS RODRIGUEZ

Q3- NICOLAS RODRIGUEZ

Q2 NICOLAS RODRIGUEZ

Q1 NICOLAS RODRIGUEZ

My music video is categorised under the genre of pop. The purpose to why I say this is because there are certain conventions associated in my production which are usually allied with a typical pop music video. To begin with most pop videos have their artist dressed up in fashionable, stylish and mainstream clothes, for instance, in my music video we can see that the artist is wearing a denim jacket which is very typical for a female teenager to be wearing in this period of time, examples of others that do this are Rihanna and Taylor Swift. 

Another aspect that is associated with the common conventions of the pop genre is how I have portrayed the artist. Her mood and facial expressions are vital to get correct if you want to follow the codes and conventions of a pop video. We tried to portray our artist as ‘happy’, ‘enjoying and content with life’. I showed this specifically when shooting our artist run around the field with the smoke grenade. This shot allows the audience to interpret our artist as being free and certainly appreciating life. When creating a music video, no matter what genre they each have to follow conventions. For example, the use of cutting on the beat to create further effect is commonly used by editors to allow the audience to keep track with the music and the tempo of the song. The camera work in music videos usually follow the same pattern of including many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotion.

Close up

Medium close up

Long shot

When creating my music video, I found it easier to stick to the pop conventions of the music video because challenging these conventions proved to be hard, as trying to be different meant risking drifting into another genre, which I did not want. The production of the music video was inspired by Rihanna’s song ‘We Found Love’ which is set on a field. So I decided to replicate this in Richmond Park, where I could find fields of empty space to shoot. It was important to shoot when we was alone as I didn’t want to film anyone irrelevant that shouldn’t of been in the film, so using the correct camera angles like the bird eye view shot I had in my video proved to be effective as it isolated the world of the music video and the surroundings of the artist too.

Birds eye shot

        Similarity of Field setting

Moreover, the use of editing was imperative as presented in certain parts of my video, for example right before the chorus instigated there was a drum solo which introduced the chorus, I decided to connect together a number of shots to cut on the beat which supplemented to the excitement and flow of the video. In the video I did not use any SFX as I wanted to leave it natural to capture the essence of the environment and the artist.

Conventions from other genres like Hip Hop and Indie never really came into my mind when producing my music video as I wanted to strictly follow the conventions of Pop. Most Indie music videos use dark locations and most of the time the band is shown throughout. One aspect where I would say I copied from this genre is the use of black and white clothing, on some shots of my music video the artist is seen to be wearing a black and white jumper but other than that nothing else relates directly to the Indie genre. On the other hand Hip Hop videos usually try to represent the lives of the rich, by using settings like big houses and props of expensive cars which my music video did not represent.

Black and White clothing

Hip Hop representation 

Finally, in the current day hair and makeup is used to commutate the artist feeling, views and express a message; it plays a major role in pop music videos. But I used the concept that was used 10 years ago. The make-up and hair wasn’t as extreme as you see in current pop artist like Lady Gaga but it was more but the make-up and hair was used to compliment the natural and pretty ambience of the artist.

Extreme make up and hair-do.

Natural make up.

                                                                 

In conclusion, when using, developing or challenging the conventions of a certain type of genre it is important to have a clear visual image in how you want to do this. For myself, when producing my video I didn’t want to risk losing the ethnicity of what creates a Pop music video. 

In conclusion, when using, developing or challenging the conventions of a certain type of genre it is important to have a clear visual image in how you want to do this. For myself, when producing my video I didn’t want to risk losing the authenticity of what creates a Pop music video. 

Evaluation Question 4 Pierce Kavanagh

Evaluation Question 4




For my music video "Fire" I used a DSLR Cannon EOS 650D Camera to shoot the raw footage. The reason i decided to use this particular model is because i have had experience on these cameras before when i was shooting my thriller opening "Days Of Darkness". Therefore i knew that this camera was capable of  capturing high quality footage for my music video and allowed me to use the different skill i have learnt from filming my Thriller opening and implement them skills when shooting the music video. Even though i had experience on these cameras before i still gained new skills with the camera this year, i learnt how to use a grid on the screen of the camera to position the actor / actress of the music video and not to always have the artist facing the camera in the centre of the screen. Secondly i also learnt how to adjust the exposure of the camera, this helped especially when i was filming later on in the day and in places where the lighting was very dim.I felt that the video quality was so good from the DSLR camera that for the magazine advert and digipak i used stills from the music video as i felt that i had some really nice shots that would make a really appealing digipak and magazine advert, it also helped to create synergy with all 3 of my products. 

After i had filmed the raw footage using the DSLR Camera, i had to edit all the footage together. I did this using the IMac and a software called Final Cut Pro. I Felt final cut pro was the right software to use over alternatives as it gave me much more advanced tools to enable me to create the best final music video i felt i could. Using Final cut pro i was able to firstly cut the raw footage down using the blade tool, this enabled me to only get the best of the footage that i captured and allowed me to cut out any errors that were in the footage. 

Once i had the best clips to use for the music video i compiled them in chronological order so what was on screen matched the audio. In order to make the final product flow continuously i added some transitions to some of the cuts. An example of a transition i used was a fade, which fades out the current clip on screen onto the next allowing the video to flow even more and make it look more professional. However i did not want to over use the transition as i felt that over using them makes it seem excessive and unprofessional and that they should only be used a few times throughout the whole music video. Also i used editing on the beat twice in the music video, editing on the beat in my opinion is an advanced editing technique and takes a lot of time to master, all depending on the beat of which you are editing the clips on. For my music video there were two sections throughout the video leading into the chorus which had a very fast drumbeat. I used editing on the beat so it would make the pace of the music video pick up for the chorus. To edit on the beat i closely looked at the audio and marked where i could see that a drumbeat was being played, i could see this if there was a spike in the audio, this allowed me to create an effective editing on the beat and personally i think it came out very well and made my video look very professional.          




One of the most important part of editing in regards to my music 
video is the lip syncing, in order for a music video to be successful it has to have good lip syncing, lip syncing that is slightly off looks very unprofessional and takes away from the immersion of the music video. In order to get the lip syncing right i played the track every time i recorded raw footage, that way i could see in the audio clip of the raw footage where the song starts and ends, then i had to match the mp3 file of the track to the raw footage and that would result in successful lip syncing, sometimes i would have to tweak it a bit more, maybe by trimming the clip a little but overall i feel the lip syncing turned out very well. 






When Creating the digipak and the magazine advert i used stills from the music video as there were a lot of good shots that i wanted to use. The main image that i wanted to use and the one that i felt was the best quality was the image when the artist is holding the flare, this image and the theme of smoke is something we used throughout the digipak, the front cover of the digipak is the picture of the artist lying down and the smoke image is behind it. For the inside cover we used the main shot of the artist holding the flare as i felt this was one of the best shots in the entire music video , and using this shot as a recurring theme throughout the digipak , music video and magazine advert allows synergy to be created through the 3 products. To make the digipak i firstly selected the stills that i wanted to use from the music video and i used the software Photoshop to edit the pictures and make sure that the pictures were the right proportion to fit the digipak, as i had never used Photoshop before i  found it a challenge to edit the stills at first but after a few practices i was able to edit the stills to a high standard. For the images i sharpened some of them to make them stand out more which is a tool i discovered in Photoshop.

 I have never created a digipak before so in order to get the right dimensions for the digipak i looked on google to find a template in which i can use to make the final product. After i found the template i then use the programme InDesign to fit each of the edited images on the template, After i had decided what images i wanted were, i had to decide what font would match and blend with the pictures and the theme of the digipak the best. I chose to go with a white , bold and simple font. The reason i chose this font is because the white stands out with the red flare smoke and allows the digipak to pop out and if it was on the shelf it would appeal and attract consumers. 

For the magazine advert i used the same programmes and techniques, in order to create synergy again i used the flare shots of the artist so that all the products would all relate to each other. Again with the magazine advert i used stills from the music video and used similar font to the digipak as it stands out and fits the theme of the music video.



When Researching i used the internet in a variety of different ways, the main search engine that i used was Google, the reason i used Google was because i felt it was the most reliable search engine to use and give the best information to me. I used Google images to research various artists digipaks and magazine adverts that i could gain inspiration from to put into my digipak and magazine advert. i found digipaks by artists such as Rihanna inspiring to use and helped me to get ideas for my digipak. 


As i was doin the pop genre i looked on Youtube for various pop artists and music videos, again to help give us inspiration for my music video, pop artists i looked at were artists such as Taylor Swift who is a major pop artists and helped us to look at what conventions are in a pop video and how i could implement them into my music video.

I also looked on Google and used slideshar.net to research further the conventions of pop music videos so i knew exactly what i needed to put into my video to categorise it under the pop genre. This really helped to educate me on the different conventions and allowed me to effectively implement them into my music video.




In Order to find the unsigned artist and the track that i wanted to use for my music video i went on Soundcloud to try and find a track that i felt i could do a good music video on and one that was catchy and that the consumer would enjoy. I wanted to look for a song with a recurring theme and one that would allow me to make a music video successfully rather than a song that has no theme or narrative. In the end from searching for "Unsigned artists" in Soundcloud i found Willemijn Mays account in which her song "Fire" really caught my attention as it was a really catchy song and i felt it had a good recurring theme of being positive and having a good time that it would enable me to be very creative in making my music video. I decided that the song "Fire" would be the song that i wanted to use inmy usic video, i contacted the artist via the messaging service on Soundcloud, i gained a quick response from her and gained her approval to use the song in my music video, she wanted to be involved and wanted to make sure we sent her the final production of our music video. 

I made use of social networking sites in my research as i firstly researched the artist we chose on facebook and twitter so i could gain a greater insight on her life and how she performs as an artist, i also found that she had a personal website in which gave me greater detail into Willemijn May which was interesting to look at and allowed me to understand the artist a lot more. 



I have Recorded and presented my planning and research through my Blog on Blogger, for example another part of my research was the audience feedback, this allowed me to ask the audience what they thought of my final production and what could be done to improve the video, this proved to be very helpful to the final production and allowed me to make final tweaks to the product.


 To Construct my research i did not only restrict myself to just typing on my blog, i used various different tools that were available to me such as Youtube and creating an audience feedback video, i used Prezi to construct a interactive presentation to show my research onw hich i found made some of my research a lot more interesting and accessible to read, i also created powerpoints and uploaded them to slideshare.net which enabled me to implement them into my blog and again made for a more creative way to present my research. 



Ways in which i have used New Media technologies is for the audience feedback on my final production i used the handheld Flip camera, the reason i choes the Flip camera is because it enabled me to record High Definition footage quickly and easily, also a key feature of the Flip camera is the fact it has a USB port on the side which enabled me to be able to connect it to the IMac and easily take the footage i recorded and put it into Final Cut Pro to edit. 





I Planned my music video in various different ways and made use of various new technologies. Firstly in order to get a sense of the structure of my music video and how i wanted it to look i made a story board, which later developed into an anamatic, of which i filmed with a Flip camera and i edited the footage via Final Cut Pro, i put the music in the background to give a sense of what a shot would look like with the music in the background. After i completed this i then uploaded it to Youtube so i could present it in my Blog. I felt creating an anamatic helped a lot as it guided me on what i needed to do and what shots i should get when filming, of course i didnt stick completely to it as along the way other thing inspired me for my music video but it definitely was  a great guide to start off the production of the music video with. 



Planning the Digipak and the magazine advert for the planning i researched various existing magazine adverts and looked at how we could implement some conventions from the existing magazine adverts into my magazine advert. This definitely benefited the overall production of my magazine advert and gave me a lot of inspiration on my final magazine advert. 

For the digipak i used Google images to look up various digipaks that already exist to help me get some inspiration for my digipak, there were various examples that helped me gain some inspiration such as Rihannas digipak which the colour scheme is similar to my digipak.



For my evaluation question 1 i made a power point to present it. The reason i used a powerpoint is because i didnt just want to restrict myself to the Blog and wanted to find more creative ways to evaluate. I uploaded the power point to slideshare.net which allowed me to implement the slideshow easily into my Blog by embedding it. 

For my Evaluation question 2 i used Prezi which is another different use of technologies. Through my Prezi i embedded my audience feedback video from youtube and screen grabbed images from my digipak and magazine advert so i could present stills to backup the information that i have used.  i also screen grabbed examples of existing digipaks from Google in order to show and compare my digipak to ones that gave me inspiration. I felt this was a good and creative way to present my evaluation as it is interactive and shows more use of new technologies. 

Evaluation Question 3 Pierce Kavanagh

Evaluation Question 2 Pierce Kavanagh

Evaluation Question 1 Pierce Kavanagh

EVALUATION: QUESTION 4 - FELIPA VICERA-ESTAVILLO

EVALUATION: QUESTION 3 - FELIPA VICERA-ESTAVILLO

Overall I believe gaining audience feedback is a very important aspect to achieving a good product as they are the people you are aiming to attract your products to. I found that gathering audience feedback throughout the process of making out products very effective, as they were not only able to tell us what they liked about our production, but they were also able to show us what we could improve on to make our product look to the best of its ability. Receiving a second opinion from the audience helps develop our ideas and make improvements to our music video, digipak and magazine advert to please our target audience.

EVALUATION: QUESTION 2 - FELIPA VICERA-ESTAVILLO

EVALUATION: QUESTION 1 - FELIPA VICERA-ESTAVILLO

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

What is the genre of your media product?

Genre - "Types" or "formats and formulas" (Williams, 2003), enabling text to fit into certain category

The genre of our music video is pop. Like many pop artists today, the artist of our song, Willemijn May, is a young, talented, singer/songwriter and the song we picked to create a video is up-beat, catchy and lively. This reflected in our music video as we tried to make it fun and relevant to attract a teenage audience.

Conventions music videos in general

Conventions of music videos include:

• Costume
• Live performance
• Voyeuristic treatment of the female body
• Connection between lyrics and visuals
• Close ups of artist(s)
• Dancing
• Shots of instruments
• A narrative
• Editing on the beat
• Exotic setting

Conventions of Pop videos

Pop music theorists Andrew Goodwin claims that a good music video is:
"a clip that responds to the pleasure of music, and in which that music is made visual either in new ways or in ways that accentuate existing visual associations."

Conventions of pop videos include:

Artists costume are usually trendy, stylish and in the current and latest fashion


Artists actions are happy, lively and fun


The colour pallet is normally bright and bold


The lyrics are often reflected through the visuals. Lyrics tend to be about love, partying and is mainly associated with teenagers


Dance plays a big role in pop videos to maintain the fun in the video

Artists are often sensual and sometimes dress provocative to attract the audience

Hair and make-up is also kept up to date to the latest 'looks'


Conventions we used in our production



Music videos with similar conventions:

FINAL DIGIPAK