Question 2 Planning

2.    How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary texts?

In this question I should include what the audience notices in my ancillary texts that is also shown in my product. I got one of my classmates to look at both of my ancillary texts and write what they noticed it them knowing what my music video is about as they've seen it before.

Question 1

Questions and formats

For each question, the format must be different when answered, also the formats used must be appropriate for the question so planning the formats is a good way to organise myself and I'll be able to answer them easier as I'll know how I want to present them.

Questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions to real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use new media technologies to construct and research, planning and evaluating stages?

Formats

1. Prezi
2. emaze
3. Video
4. Written on Blogger

Introducing the evaluation

Now that all the practical work is finished I have to complete the evaluation which includes 4 questions asking about whats been added to out products to make it similar to real media products.

Magazine Advert final

This is my final magazine advert...

Magazine Advertisement Idea

(Made with Emaze)

Final Digipak

This is my digipak to go along with my music video. Overall I'm happy with the outcome as it is bold and eye-catching but not overly complicated. I have matched Florence and the Machine's band name structure with the white line border around the edge on the digipak cover. I changed the font to match the theme of my product and the album name (Breath of Life). I decided to have the album name the same as the song I used for my music video to create the overall theme to the album and for the tracking list I chose nature/dream-like songs by Florence and the Machine so that it fits with the Alice in Wonderland subject matter.

Below is my final digipak...

audience feedback on Initial idea

After showing my first draft of my digipak to my classmates, I found out that although my photos in the dark were interesting and caught their eye, it came across more sinister than calm and dreamy. They liked the editing on the photos and how each one fitted nicely in each panel and where the writing was placed, so after my feedback I will keep some of the photos but change the dark outside ones to day-light outside and edit them to give the dreamy effect.

Inital Ideas (Digipak)

This is my initial idea for my digipak. As it is only a draft for my digipak it was done on Word after I get my audience feedback I will create my final digipak on the software Fireworks as it will make my final product look more aesthetically pleasing.

Album Cover Research

To give me more ideas on what to put on my digipak I have researched Florence and the Machine's album covers and what theme is gives off by just looking at the cover.

They mostly are very nature based, with flowers, leaves and 'floaty' garments to create a certain image.

Rather than using the Singer on the cover, I'll use 'Alice' as she is shown the most throughout my music video and as she is a key character I thought it would be a good idea to show off more close up's of her face.

The colours used are both tinted warm and cold depending on the mood that the artist is trying to create, weather its a sad song or light-hearted song.
I think I'll use blue's and purple tints to create that dream-like feel.

On the Digipak 'Florence and the Machine' is written in joined up writing which would be recognizable to an audience familiar with her work giving her a brand identity.

Audience Feedback on my Digipak

Audience feedback on my digipak by Hannabee on GoAnimate

Introducing Digipak

For my digipak, I firstly have to decide on what template I want to work from. Weather I want a 4 panel or a Maltese cross digipak.

 

I like the look of 4 panels as it is simple but it might not show the theme and genre of my music video as it is too plain. The Maltese is unique so it would fit my theme but I'd then have more pages to fill.

Audience Feedback on Final Product

Below is a video of some audience feedback, the audience has never seen the product before nor the stages of when it was being planned, filmed and edited.

Final Product

Below is the link to my music video...

Audience feedback on Editing

Final Editing

After watching my product over and over to see if anything needed touching up I realized that some shots went on for a while and I thought that the viewer would get bored after a while of looking at the same shot. (This is one of the reasons why none of my shots are repeated throughout the music video- no two are the same!)

I changed the extreme close up of Holly's lips slightly just so that there was more going on in the shot. I think it flows well and was told by my peers that it finished my music video of nicely.

Editing

More editing

I now have all my footage and lip-syncing in time with the music and lyrics, it feels as if its all coming together now and starting look like something from Florence and the Machine's music videos. For the effects and transitions I have decided to have bright lights changing one shot to another, fade in and fade out's. These transitions take the viewer in and out of the dream world Alice is experiencing.


My favorite effect so far would be near the beginning where Alice fades into the shot while the other characters around her are frozen. This represents Alice entering Wonderland and as you can see the video below she has her head down to show her being sleep (dreaming).

Editing Process

Now I've sorted my computer issue, I started my editing for my music video, first by putting all my footage in a timeline on Final Cut Pro. I then got a raw footage music video (No transitions or visual effects added) and the music wasn't in sync with the actor miming the lyrics.

issues with uploading

When I uploaded my footage to the computer mac it didn't import to Final Cut Pro properly, I tried uploading a few times and then I came to the conclusion that I need to leave the SD card in the computer so that I'm able to put all my footage in a timeline on Final Cut Pro and edit it.

Re-cap on filming process

Over the summer holidays I filmed my footage for my music video. In groups of 4, the class were given questions to read out and we all had to answer them...

Making of music video

Filming Process Day 5

I have now re-filmed two dance routines. One of them was fine in the first dance filming session so it didn't need redoing. My dance routines took the longest to complete due to the fact that no-one in my music video takes dance as a hobby and as I'm the only one interested in it, it took a while for my actors to understand and memorize the steps. This is part of the reason why they aren't very complex (the other reason being that they look cartoon-like which fits with my theme)
It took at least 5 hours to perfect my dance routines with George and Caroline (Hatter and Cat) but it was definally worth re-filming them because the weather was nicer and we were more focused because they now knew the routines.
Again people stopped to watch us while passing but it didn't affect us as much because the camera was facing the lake so the hikers walked behind the camera instead of in front.

Making of music video

Filming Process Day 4

I have now filmed the camera shots which include both Holly and Olivia together. I think this filming session was the best due to the fact that we didn't mess around much and got stuck into the task at hand, the weather was pleasant which put us in a good frame of mind and a bonus was that we all get along really well!
The only time when we did get distracted was when people stopped to stare at us while we were filming in the public walking locations which was frustrating because they kept getting in the shots.

Making of music video

Filming Diary day 3

Making my music video by sanandphil on GoAnimate

Creating a Set (continued)

There I am hammering in the pins to hold the lining paper in place, I made sure that I was putting them in the edge of the paper so that you cant see them clearly when I'm filming.

After I got the Lining paper on I noticed that some wood from the shed was still shown so I had to buy more paper to fit the gaps.

I then filled the gaps as best I could with my extra lining paper.

For the floor of the shed I thought that the lining paper would get dirty when shoes are touching it and I wanted to keep the floor clean so that the audience could see the effect of the pattern so I got some ply wood and started drawing out 12cm by 12cm squares over two pieces of wood.

I bought Crown black matte paint as it was both cheap and gives a good finish to any surface.

I then painted both boards to give the black and white squared effect.

Making of music video

Filming Diary day 2

Making of Music Video

This is the behind the scenes of making of my music video, it shows how I am directing my actors (including some mistakes) I wanted to film these to see where both I and the performers can improve to get the best results.

Filming Diary

Makeup and actors

Actors

Olivia as Alice

I chose Olivia to play Alice as she is innocent and young-looking.

 Holly as Florence (singer)

Because Holly does actually sing, and enjoys Florence and the Machine I thought she would be perfect to play the role of the singer.

Caroline as Cheshire Cat

Creating a set

For the black and white room, I will be using an old shed which the foundations and base of the shed have been pushed up by tree roots behind it. This is a good location to shoot some scenes in my music video as it gives an old and odd feel with the floor being uneven.

To start off by creating the set cleaned the shed out completely for any risks you would have in a shed, I then measured it out (length, height and width) to see how many black and white squares I could fit at 30cm each across and down.

Next I bought plain white lining paper and a tin of matt black paint then stuck the wallpaper in the shed and painted the squares on.

 I then started measuring out on the lining paper and cut it to stick on the walls of the shed with drawing pins.

Risk Assessment

Filming my music video will have risks so my risk assessment explains what could be a hazard and would I will do to prevent it from happening...

Props

Alice in Wonderland has lots of props so making a list would help me when gathering them all together. Props will also set the theme for my music video and will help the audience understand it.

Final Costumes

Alice's final outfit

Above is the full Alice costume that will be used in my music video although I am modeling it I will not be acting as Alice in the music video. This dress will be seen through most of the music video until, Alice's costume changes into more of a modern style and of a darker colour to show that Alice is a secretive person.

I have chosen for Alice to wear a more modern dress she leaves the tea party till the end of the music video to show a change in her character and to connect with a target audience (art rock music genre). It is a dark colour to represent Alice as secretive but short and flowing to show she is young and free.

Mad Hatter's final outfit

I want my Hatter to look respectable so he'll be wearing this waist coat. The dark colour will represent him as mysterious and fancy.

The flowery bow-tie again will show that the Hatter is fancy-looking but the odd colours will show that he is deranged.

My Hatter will look very brightly coloured wearing this shirt and some colours will clash giving him the unusual and freakish look.

I've bought some male business trousers that will be short for the actor to show that the Hatter is smart but odd looking. The trousers are plain and black to represent him as strange and mysterious and they are loose enough for the actor to be able to dance in them.

Singer's final costume

Out of these two black dresses I prefer the one on the right due to the fact that it looks more like a Florence Welch dress as it is transparent and more flowing than the one on the right so my singer will wear the left dress.

To go with the black flowing dress, I have decided to have the black high heels to the right, as they are fancy and match the dress. I like the light pink ones too but I thought even though they are feminine they aren't the type of shoes that Florence would wear, also having my singer wearing all black while in the woods would make her look more mysterious as a representation.

In the field scenes I have chosen for the singer to wear a lighter coloured dress which drapes loosely the represent her as free and the colour change will contrast nicely with both the other singers dress and the blue Alice in Wonderland dress which Alice will wear.

Out of these I have decided to use the white shoes to go with the pinky dress as it will make the outfit young-looking and also suit Florence's style.

Cheshire Cats final outfit

The Cheshire cats aren't featured in my music video much (only in the dancing scenes and one will be at the Hatters tea party scene) as they are only background characters making my video look as if there are more which is why I have chosen for them to wear plain black clothing and a mask, symbolizing them as cats.

Photographic story board

Here is my photographic storyboard (The people featured will not play the roles shown)

Storyboard

This is my storyboard for my music video. Doing this helps me to see what my product will roughly look like on  location before filming it, and to get a clear view of where I want my characters placed with each of the camera shots.