Sunday, 13 October 2013

Retrospective Blog Post - AS to A2

Well, so far I feel like i've done a lot more research into my chosen field (music videos) and I have also analysed in more detail and deconstructed other artists music videos. 

In relation to Question 1a, I have stepped up a lot in terms of technology for my rough music video, as I was able to use a Canon camera which was amazing quality and gave me the option to use the depth of field settings, as with my AS piece, I only had a normal quality digital camera, which wasn't great at all. The camera that I used for my AS piece wasn't made solely for videoing, that was just an extra that you could use, which was obviously why the quality wasn't great. I did have it set on the highest possible HD setting, however it still didn't work as well I needed it to, yet I was able to produce a film out of it. As I knew that I needed a better quality camera for my A2 piece, I was able to borrow a Canon HD camera, which has depth of field settings and manual zoom, enabling me to have more control when filming. As I had someone else filming me whilst I acted in the music video, they were also able to learn how to use it well and how to use the depth of field settings, which has put me at an advantage for the future as I now know that if I ever need help filming again, my camera operator knows how to use top quality cameras.

During my rough trial, I have been able to improve the sound MASSIVELY because I didn't need to use a camera microphone, I was just able to add the sound in during post-production, which was great as there was no disappointment with the sound issues. I had a lot of problems during my AS piece during the post-production part of the film, however from experience, I was able to improve my editing and technological skills during my rough music video.

For my A2 piece, I have also included a lot more research as I created a rough music video, which I didn't do for my AS piece, I just filmed straight away. I did however, create a film which I thought could be my final piece, however after feedback I changed parts of it, so I was able to get a feel of filming, however not as good as I have this time. With the skills that I developed during my AS piece, I have been able to create a rough version of my music video as I knew how to use depth of field settings from research during AS, which helped a lot during my rough music video. As I had never produced/edited a music video before, it was extremely beneficial that I had the summer to film my rough music video, as I was able to take my time to plan it out, using storyboards it allowed me to gather a better insight into the planning stages of a music video and it also enabled me to gather extra footage for my final piece, as I will be using the singing parts of my rough music video within my final piece.  
In terms of Question 1b, I have done a lot more research this year in terms of audience, genre and narrative, as I have been able to deconstruct individual music videos and artists to branch out my research, giving me a wide range of knowledge, enabling me to plan out my final piece in great detail as a result. I have also been able to use theories during my research, as we didn't study these in AS, but they've helped add to my research in A2. The theories that we have learnt have allowed me add a theoretical element into my work, which has given the music videos a structure, due to Todorov's theory with the three stages, which links to a lot of my videos that I have analyed. It also links to my video, as there will be three stages: Equillibrium (implicit - we don't see the previous equillibrium), Disequillibrium (the argument and when Jess runs away), New Equillibrium (also implict - this could be the family moving on without her, or Jess going back into the family, however the video will end before the audience have a chance to know). This is showing a basic structure to the genre that is normally shown within the pop/rock genre that I am researching. Roland Barthes is also brought into this, as there is a clear Enigma as the audience are left puzzled and they have to fill in the blanks to what happens next, which is very interesting. Propp is also brought into this because Jess is portrayed as the hero as she is the main character in the video, however she is an anti-hero as she is presented in a negative light. This however, is solely based on Propp's theory.

For my AS piece, I did do some research into the type of target audience that would be viewing my film, before I started to plan it, however that was just done on the internet. I also did a few interviews with some of my characters during my evaluation, asking them who they thought the target audience would be. For my A2 piece, I have extended this research hugely, as I have produced a survey on survey monkey, which has given me a great insight into how my audience would think as I picked a random sample and sent them my rough video through email and gathered their feedback. Their findings are presented on previous blog posts.

I will be continuing to extend my planning research within this project, as I going to complete the suggested list of planning materials and hopefully extend that further with more material, which will be a massive step up from AS.

Overall, I feel like my skills have developed a huge amount, which has been extremely beneficial in order to create a sophisticated final piece, linking well with the research that I have carried out. 

1 comment:

  1. This is good in terms of the level of detail you've gone into. The main thing now is to revisit the retrospective posts every few weeks as you continue the production (I would aim to do at least two more entries like this before the end of term: aim for mid-November and mid-December) with a view to considering particular skills you've used and particular concepts which appear to be relevant. But this is certainly a very good review of your progress and I'm pleased to see you applying theory.

    ReplyDelete