Please click on the image above to view the youtube comments.

After publishing our first music video draft to youtube, we started to receive a few constructive comments. Elements that seemed to work well and factors that need to be improved were discussed in a few of the comments and therefore this will help us in the production process of our video. We were critically assessed on the work we had completed so far and so, the work we go on to do next will be dramatically improved; ensuring our next draft will be a lot better than the first. In total we had three separate Youtube moments, all of which we will take into consideration when taking our media product further into production.

From this, I leant just how important it is to gather feedback from your audience. They are the people your products aimed at and therefore it is most definitely important to gather information about their opinions, as this is what really matters. By taking on this feedback, we will be able to make the necessary changes and create a product that really appeals to our target audience. The targets we have taken from this feedback task is:

• Refilm the performer section of the music video, as in laces it is clear he is unsure of the word and therefore almost mumbles.
• The pace of edit also needs to be improved on in places. At points there seems to be a slow, met boring edit to beat and this quickly become unappealing to the viewer.
• Overall, add more content. Perhaps a wider range of narrative shots, this will make the video as a whole more appealing to watch. With the use of more footage, the video will appear more substantial and so the viewer will immediately be much more inclined to enjoy watching the product.

https://youtu.be/oq33YMzLSiA

Above is a video of our draft 1, we uploaded this to YouTube in order to gain some feedback which we can use to help improve our music video. This is simply a very rough idea of how we would like our music video to look and therefore you can clearly see where there are shots missing and areas that definitely need to be improved. We can also see from this that a large portion of our narrative is missing and therefore this will be added in our next draft.

From this task, we hope to gain a large portion of critical feedback so we can improve our music video. We will use all the feedback we receive to change our music video to make it a lot more visually appealing.

Our performance shoot took place in our school’s black photography studio, on the 7th of October. We set up three cameras and made sure to film a simple portraiture shoot from different angles. Moreover, we ensured that we had a range of close ups, mid shots and long shots. Here we were able to really experiment with a variety of angles and therefore this resulted in us achieving a lot of footage. Furthermore, we also decided to incorporate a few different techniques to make the footage a little more appealing to watch. These including things like tilts, pans, zooms and unfocusing/ re-focusing the camera lens. We believe these simple skills will allow the footage to become much more visually interesting for the audience.

Despite how well the shoot went (as we maintained the footage we were hoping for), there were a few incidents that did not go quite according to plan. This caused some disruption in our filming and therefore a little time was wasted. Firstly, one of our cameras ran out of battery and so we had to go back to the media department to grab another one. Another camera had a slight red tint to it, which we did not know how to adjust. However, despite this we realised this could easily be fixed in the editing stage of our product.  Also, our actor didn’t know a few of the words leading to some of the footage being unusable.

Targets:

• Ensure all the cameras are charged.
• Set up equipment in advance, so if anything goes wrong (for example the red tint) we have enough time to properly sort it.
• Establish whether or not all the lyrics have been learnt before shooting.

Please click on the full image to view the whole production meeting agenda document.

We had to complete the above document for this task. This included things like the shoot title, date of shoot, outline of performance/narrative, who would be featuring, costume/ makeup and the props. For this, we ensured that everything was infact planned in advance. This made sure that we were organised and knew exactly what was happening before filming day. Moreover, we also listed who was responsible for each item, displaying a clear outline of what was needed and who was in charge of bringing it.

This task helped us to be a lot more prepared and organised during filming. It also allowed us to handle our time a lot more efficiently and effectively, this ensured that we did not waste any of our time while shooting. Furthermore, we were able to film a lot more footage and therefore we dealt with our time in a much more appropriate manner.

Please click on the image above to view the full shot list.

We had to complete a shot list for this task, in order to have a clear outline of suggested shots for our performance shoot. Moreover, we decided to look at Shawn Mendes’ music video for ‘Treat you better’, as we felt the music genre was fairly similar to our chosen song and therefore believed that the shots used would be appropriate for our video. We compiled the above shot list, consisting of 6 different camera angles/ shots. Furthermore, we felt these particular shots would work best for our performance shoot and therefore this is the reason why we incorporated them into our shot list.

Due to this task, we learnt just how important it is to have an idea of what type of shots we need before even filming our own video. This allowed us to be a lot more organised and therefore we did not waste time thinking of what shots were needed when we were actually shooting our own performer. This enabled us to use our time efficiently and effectively, ensuring that we managed our time and received as many shots as possible from this shoot. Consequently, this will allow us to experiment a lot more in the editing stage of our music video, as we will have a wide range of many different angles/ shots available.

Please click on the above image to view our risk assessment form in more detail.

For this task, we had to complete the above form. This assessed any possible hazards and therefore what we would have to do if we did actually encounter any of these. Moreover, this sheet also included our shoot location, the teachers signature and the signatures of all the members in our group.

From this, we learnt how important it is to make sure we plan ahead ensuring any near disasters are avoided in advance. This will result in time being used efficiently and therefore no time will be wasted in the filming stage of the production.

Please click on the image above to see our timeline in more detail.

Here, we had to construct a visual representation of how we imagine our music video will go. We included a running sequence of the basic version of our future music video, giving us a guide to what we need to film in order to achieve the video we picture. As seen in the above image, both the narrative and the performance are displayed and discussed in the timeline allowing us to have a basic guide to follow when we go to shoot our music video.

From this, we have learnt just how important it is to have some sort of structure to the sequence we are going to film. This will enable us to be much more organised and therefore we will be more likely to handle our time efficiently and effectively. Furthermore, by doing this we have been able to get all of our ideas in the open therefore helping us to decide if they are logically possible to carry out. Moreover, this has helped us to really focus on the smaller details like shots and angles, making sure we have thoroughly thought about everything before we begin to film.

Please click on the image above to view it in more detail.

Due to the fact that we need to eventually upload drafts and then the final version of our music video to Youtube, we had to make sure we received permission first. We went on to Joel Adam’s official website and found the ‘contact’ section. Here, (as you can see from the images above) we contacted Joel’s management asking if it was possible for us to use his work ‘Please Don’t Go’ in the production of our A2 media coursework.

Without taking part in this step, we would not be able to upload our music video due to copyright issues. Moreover, without permission our drafts would eventually be taken down and therefore this is most definitely a crucial part in the process of our music video.

We had to compile a board images for this task in order to display the star image for the performer in our future music video.  The star image suggests how the artist should look and come across to their audience. For our genre (indie pop) we believed that our performer should appear talented, present and yet ordinary. Due to this, we used pictures of artists like Troye Sivan, Shawn Mendes and Bruno Mars to put this idea across. Moreover the metanarrative that can be seen from this particular board shows that a performer from this genre is typically casually dressed and fairly laid back. They come across as the ‘boy next door’ making them relatable and ordinary, therefore meaning their target audience feel more connected to the performer they idolise.

This task has ensured that each of us know exactly what we are looking for when it comes to our artists star image. We can see from this the exact “look” we are searching for and therefore this will help us when creating the necessary image. This will in turn help us to connect with the conventions and repertoire of elements. Once again this means that we will be  able to  give the audience what they are looking for, entailing that they receive the pleasure we predict.

An essential part to making sure that the success of our music video is inevitable, we had to make sure that we really understood our target audience. We have to make ourselves aware of aspects like their interests, hobbies and just general personal information. In order to fully research our audience, we had to create a fake Facebook profile of the typical person we are planning to target our video at. Here we displayed the demographics that  symbolised both the target audience and our future music video.

By carrying out this task, we were able to really display the average member in our target audience. Moreover as well as being able to visually explain our audience, this also helped us to grasp a much better understanding ourselves. We were able to depict what conventions would appeal to the audience and therefore we can now focus on the repertoire of elements that will ensure our video succeeds. Furthermore, this will also entail that we are able to make sure our audience receives the ‘predicted pleasure’ we are hoping for.