Exam Work

Section A

Digital Technology

- During my A2 piece, I have become much more familiar with iMovie, as I have a years more experience since my AS piece and I have now learnt that you can create freeze-frames, which I had to do to combat an issue of shakiness, I now know that you can digitally change footage in terms of cropping a frame to produce a close up. I am not much more familiar with the stabilisation setting and I have been using it a lot more due to the nature of the footage that I have had to film because when we were filming in the woods during the summer, my camera women had to walk backwards and unfortunately, whilst we created a steadicam using the tripod on the bottom of the camera, the shots were still extremely wobbly and unsteady. So by getting to know the software a lot more, I have been able to do a lot more and get around a lot more obstacles that have occurred. 

- As well as getting to grips more with the software, I have also been able to use my wider knowledge to slicken up my editing techniques and I have learnt how to edit more to the beat of the background music to ensure that the flow of the video is not jarring for the audience as that can break the conventions of the music videos that I researched. 

Creativity

- I have been a lot more experimental during my A2 year in terms of using a wide variety of different shots instead of just hoping that I would have enough footage to work with during post-production. I am now filming each scene that I shoot in LS, MS, CU and sometimes from different angles, so like the phone scene I filmed from in front of the mother and behind the mother:

This enables the footage and scene to become more inventive and exciting, as there are a range of different shots and angles used. 

- I have also produced a lot more rough cuts during my A2 piece, which has shown skills of creativity as I have included new pieces of footage within the different rough cuts, or slickened up the editing to make it tighter, thus making changes constantly to try and make it the best piece that I can create. 

- During my AS final piece, I had to re-shoot one of my scenes and I was extremely wary of doing so as I felt like it wouldn't go to plan; however after I completed this, I realised that it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and during my AS piece, I have filmed more than has been needed to ensure that the video meets the needs of the audience, in terms of adding in the extra phone scene to make it clear to the audience why the actress wasn't answering her phone.

Research and Planning

- My research and planning has stepped up dramatically since AS, as I have had to complete much more extensive and in depth research to ensure that my final piece and ancillary tasks show direct links to the research that I have produced. Throughout this project, I have also conducted research as I have gone so that I can ensure that my pieces are the best they possibly can be. During this exercise, I have had to research numerous different things such as the size of a digipak, watch music videos over and over again and even during filming to ensure that my actresses knew what I expected from them. This worked extremely well as I didn't have any problems during filming in terms of how my actresses acted, as they did exactly as I wanted. 

- Although during AS I gathered together some audience feedback, I can't even explain how much more I have conducted during A2. I have gathered feedback on almost everything, including the colour that my album should be, to feedback on the very final rough cut. This shows that after experience, you realise how important audience feedback is and how much it can influence your decisions. All of the decisions that I have made during A2 have been as a result of audience feedback because I really wanted to make sure that my decisions met the needs of my target audience. 

Post Production

- Post production has been a long process as I have had to film extra pieces of footage, create a large variety of different cuts; however during my AS piece I think I only created a few rough cuts over the whole project an didn't gather much feedback on it during the post-production stages. I learnt from this mistake during A2 and have now realised how much audience feedback can influence decisions during post-production.

- I had an issue with continuity during post-production because I realised that during the phone scene I had left some pictures up that weren't up during the bedroom scenes with stephanie, so I had to keep re-shooting the phone scene once I realised that there was an issue:

As you can see from the above images, the calendar in the shot in 'slightly' different; however I haven't taken a CU or a straight on shot of it during the phone scene, which makes it hard for the audience to realise that there is a continuity error there. 

As you can see, I had to film the above scene numerous times because I left the images up during one of the shoots and when Stephanie's shots were being shot, the pictures had been taken down:

Conventions of Real Media Text:

- I have managed to use a lot of conventions from real media texts, which I display using this blog post, Comparisons, as I have shown how I have adapted real media texts to fit into my own final piece throughout the research that I have conducted. 

Audience Feedback Email

I have finished off editing my most recent rough cut and I have now sent out an email to another target audience, to gather some different feedback to try and improve my music video even further. This is the email that I have sent out:

As you can see, I am also trying to gather some audience feedback on my digipak, to ensure that both products are up to a high standard before moving onto my advert.

This is my most recent rough cut: Rough Cut

Any feedback would be much appreciated and I will keep you updated on the feedback that I receive. 

Recent Digipak Progress

After drawing up my initial designs, I have now typed out all of my lyrics and added them into my photoshop digipak design. I am so pleased with how they have turned out and they show my research so well. Here is what I have made so far:

Each one of these pages fits in so well with my research because they link up in different ways:

Above, I have explained using the powerpoint slides, how my two main artists that I researched have influenced my digipak and it shows how I have used my research effectively to produce my digipak. 

Filming The Phone Scene

I have filmed the phone scene, which I have started to edit into the middle part of the song and this is working extremely well. I have started to combine it together with footage of Stephanie and it is really creating a great structure for the narrative, which is allowing the audience to gather a better understanding of what is happening and why the mum is oblivious to Stephanie at the end, because she thinks she is being ignored; however Stephanie's phone is on silent under her desk. 

I have to film this section numerous times due to some continuity issues that I was having. Firstly, I realised that the calendar on the way was gone because it was last years calendar, so I had to use my mum's which was thankfully very similar and doesn't stand out as a huge issue. I have also changed the ornaments on my desk; however when I was filming Stephanie's part, you didn't see the ornaments in shot which didn't make a difference to the fact they have changed. Then the part that made me shoot the whole thing again, was that I had left my photo's up on the wall behind the door which weren't there when I filmed Stephanie's part. When I watched my rough cut back to check out the continuity, I realised and had to take them down and re-shoot. So, this has been a learning process in terms of continuity errors, as I haven't really had to go back and re-shoot any footage before, so this will be extremely handy to bare in mind in the future when filming scenes. 

It was extremely hard to film the MS of the phone on the floor under the desk because the tripod was too bulky to have on the floor to try and get a close-up because there wasn't much room between my bed and my desk. So I just the handheld technique and when I uploaded the footage into iMovie it was extremely shaky; however I used the stabilisation tool and it worked really well. Here is a comparison: Comparison

When I filmed the CU it was even harder and the stabilisation tool didn't even sort the shakiness out, so I used a freeze frame instead, which captured the CU like a photograph and it works really well. 

Now, my next steps are:

- To finish off my rough cut of this version and then gather audience feedback with the phone scene added
- Gather feedback on my digipak once I have added all of the lyrics into it and the credits
- Start the magazine advert

Things are going well so far, so I will upload my recent rough cut either later tonight or tomorrow to show you the phone scene and how my piece has progressed with tighter editing and a few more tweaks. 

Digipak Progress

I have produced all of my lyric pages now, so I just need to make the credit pages and the last few pages to finish off the digipak and I will be finished that part, so that I can start the magazine advert.

These are my lyric pages so far, I just need to add in the lyrics once I get them typed out:

 

I will take screen shots of my credit pages as I begin to make them and I will also show you a finished version of my lyric pages.

Editing Progress

This afternoon I have done a lot of editing on my final piece and I have included most of the feedback which I have been given; however parts of the feedback isn't necessary anymore as I feel like the slickened up and tighter editing has made a difference to the whole piece. 

Parts of the footage which I had included of the woods was extremely shaky and I hadn't really noticed it until it was point out to me. I didn't realise, but there is a setting on iMovie which can improve the stabilisation of a clip massively, by changing a certain slider in the programme. I did however find a separate clip for a particularly shaky part and it looks much better, which you will be able to see in my most recent rough cut - Recent Rough Cut

I have used the clip that I am not using anymore as a comparison device to show you how the stabilisation setting has made a difference to the shakiness of the clips: Shakiness Comparisons

The clip that I am using instead of the previous piece of footage which is terribly shaky, is slightly out of focus which isn't a massive problem; however I have noticed it. This is what I mean: 

The first screenshot that I have shown above dips in and out of focus; however it doesn't last for long, making me think that it isn't too much of an issue, however I will speak to my teacher tomorrow to get his opinion on the clip. It is, however much better than the previous shaky clip. 

Over the next week like I mentioned in my previous blog post, I will be filming the phone scene which I have posted storyboards for and this will be shown in the middle section of the song where the lyrics sing, "this is nothing to be proud of". I had feedback on this part and it was suggested that what I have included at the moment was too slow and not pacey enough for the more upbeat change to the song, so to make this better I think the phone scene will fit well with this part. This is my rough cut so far: Most Recent Rough Cut

Like I mentioned previously, I will keep you up to date with how I get on filming the phone scene. 

Storyboard For Phone Scene

I have planned out the phone scene which I am planning to film over the next week using storyboard's and at the end when I show the CU of the phone, I can't decide whether to have the mother ringing the phone as she is sat on the bed and show it ringing on silent underneath the desk, so that the audience know that it's there, yet the mother doesn't, acting as a piece of narrative which will draw the audience in, allowing them to empathise with the mother. I also have the idea of just showing the phones missed calls as I show the CU of the phone, or just show that the phone is there with a blank screen, which I think will be the best option and the most realistic.

I may also have the mother cuddling a pillow which belongs to her daughter, to give her a reason for being in her bedroom. This could act as a really good piece of narrative within the storyline, allowing the audience to understand why the mother seems to be 'shutting her daughter out' at the end. According to the mother, her daughter is just ignoring her phone calls.

Here is what I am planning:

I am planning to film this scene over the next week and will keep you updated with rough footage.

Digipack

Recently, I have been progressing well with my digipack and I have got the album cover made and nearly four inside pages finished which I am extremely pleased with. During the process of making the back page of the album cover, I was findnig it hard to show the names of the songs clearly against the background image, so I decided to draw out a black box, change the opacity of it to blend in more with the background image and I then placed the white song titles onto it. Once I had done this, I rubbed out the visible outline of the black boxm to make it look like nothing was there, just showing the words much clearer. This is what I achieved:

 

 

Obviously the image quality of the above images aren't the best because they have just been screen-shot; however they look much better on the photoshop document. As you can see, the words show up much clearer than they did before:



 

This was what I had produced previously and as you can see, the lyrics are no where near as clear as they are now that I have added the black box behind them. I have also adjusted the image colour and settings on the front cover, which is shown in the first picture above on the current version, by warming up the colours to give it more definition and it to blend it more with the colour of the background.

 

These are my inside booklets so far (they're double pages):

 

Solid Plans For Digipak and Album

After gathering my audience feedback on my album cover, I have chosen to go with the colour version as the majority of the people that I asked went for colour, rather than black and white, which I will reflect within my final product.

In terms of the digipak, I am going with a mixture between Gabrielle and Taylor's booklets (Taylor's Digipak and Gabrielle's Booklet) as Taylor uses mainly one image spread across both pages which links to both songs and Gabrielle has a few songs to page, with a nature like background, which links to some of music videos and then has a black box over the top with the opacity turned down to show the background coming through and then the lyrics are placed on top of the box. In terms fo the text, Taylor varies the text of the song title and then the lyrics, depending on what the style of song is; however Gabrielle uses the same text for both and this is the same text as she uses for the title of her album on her front cover.

After conducting a range of research, these are the artists that i've chosen to focuses mainly on and I am varying my digipak accordingly to reflect my research in my choices.

I am going to change the font type of the title of the song and also the lyrics of the song, which will also link together with my image behind the lyrics - this is from Taylor's influence. In terms of Gabrielle's influence, I will have the nature shot with the black box over the top; however instead of just using the same font, I may vary it accordingly and I might just put one song per page instead of a few. I also might put a few more songs to a page and vary the text.

This is what I am working on at the moment:

Action Plan

I have put together an action plan to help myself plan out what I will be doing for the next 6 weeks. 

Every Thursday I am going to spend an hour-an hour and a half doing exam work, such as answering mock questions, answering evaluation questions, reflecting from AS to A2 etc. and post my answers on my blog.

In terms of the digipak and the magazine advert, I am well underway with the digipak and the mock up's that I have completed so far are extremely detailed and I just need to add to them and make some more pages for it to be complete. Up until January 31st, I will work on my digipak during lesson time, as I need to use photoshop and on the weekend of February 2nd, I will show a detailed comparison of the digipak which I have produced and how it compares to my research and also link it with my research that I conducted during AS, showing links for the exam. 

After this, up until February 14th, I will work on my magazine advert during lesson time, as I feel that this won't take as long as my digipak. 

In terms of my music video, I will continue adding to my editing in my own time outside of lessons and I am also planning to film some more footage to make the 'phone scene' more apparent, so that the Mother enters the teenagers room and sits on her bed in despair, wondering where she is and the camera shows that her phone is actually underneath her desk, yet the Mother doesn't know that and just thinks that she is ignoring her phone calls. I would film Stephanie realising that she hasn't got her phone at some point; however I am unable to as Stephanie has other commitments and is unable to film anymore. Although I can't film all of the parts that I wanted to, I will storyboard those to give you a clearer idea of what I had planned.

On reflection, the digipak will work best in colour as the audience feedback which I gathered swayed much more towards colour rather than black and white and by having the album cover in colour, it will link extremely well with the music video as the parts where the artist is singing is in colour, so there will be a clear link between the two.

Now, it is just a case on carrying out my action plan and completing what I have planned out above. I will keep you updated on my progress. 

Feedback for Rough Cut

I have received one piece of feedback from the email that I send out yesterday with the link of my rough cut attached:

Although this feedback is brief, it is extremely positive and shows that what I have produced meets the needs of part of my target audience which is a great sign, showing that I am going in the right direction with my editing.

I am not waiting for some more feedback regarding my rough cut and I will keep you posted with what else I receive. 

Today's Rough Cut

I have just finished off editing my rough cut which I said that I would post today. I think this rough cut is a high-end rough cut, meaning that hopefully my audience feedback will be positive and that there won't be much more to chance for my final piece.

I have taken on board the various feedback that I have been given, such as not holding certain shots for too long, showing the best pieces of footage in the woods (unfortunately I had to miss out the whisky part as I haven't included much footage as there is limited time for that scene; however I still feel it works well), I have varied the shots that I have used throughout, used some cross-faes, got rid of the zoom in the bus part and also used the singer as a counter-point to narrative.

When the actress is in the woods, I have used the singer as a contradiction, so that the audience realise that the teenager in the woods who is seen to be having a bad time, is clearly in a bad way due to the black and white effect, as the singer is shown in colour and there is a bright background, emphasising the teenagers unhappiness. I feel that this works extremely well.

Also, when the actress is shown to walk under the bridge, "trust in me" is played which suggests that she is finally realising that she needs to reflect on her actions of running away from home and I feel like this part of the narrative is a turning point, as if she enters the unexpected at the other side of the bridge because when she comes out the other side, the sun is shining and her face is lit up by the light, suggesting that she has had some form of realisation. After this happens, she goes into the woods to reflect and realises that she needs to go home to try and make things better; however when she returns home, things don't go as planned.  

Overall, I think that the music video has worked extremely well and I feel like everything has gone to plan like I wanted. In terms of the narrative, the audience are left with an enigma at the end which I think is really effective as it is not what they expect and it leaves them wanting more, wondering what will happen next, linking to Barthes' narrative theory. 

Let me know what you think of the rough cut - feedback is extremely helpful:

Rough Cut

I have also sent out my video to a sample of my target audience to receive their thoughts too, which will be extremely helpful:

Christmas Holidays

For the Christmas holidays, I had some suggestions that I should re-shoot the dark parts of the footage which I filmed in the woods to try and improve the quality of it; however my actress hasn't been able to film due to personal circumstances and thus as a result I have been able to re-shoot that piece.

Overall, I do have enough footage which I now need to play around with and put together another rough cut with the audience's feedback included, so the black and white and also the narrative and singing parts included.

I will post a rough cut of what I have so far later today.