laura-media-coursework

Media Presentation

Film of Media Presentation

Here is a link to all of my final products so that they can all be viewed together.

ALBUM FRONT COVER.

ALBUM BACK COVER.

MAGAZINE ADVERT.

MUSIC VIDEO.

I am pleased with the overall outcome of my music video and enjoyed filming it.

Setting

Finding the right venue for setting the old verus new filming was difficult, when filiming the shot of the feet and legs right at the beginning I couldnt use a room with carpet or laminate flooring as it wouldnt of worked and would of ruined the effect. Therefore I used a room in my friends house as she has old floor boards, old iron bed and a gold mirror, all of which was perfect for the 1920′s style filming, especially the scene in front of the fire place [clip].  

Mise-en-Scene

I carefully picked the mis-en-scene for both versions. For the older version, I made sure that it was always filmed in a place that looked relevant to the time period for example, the old floor boards and in front of old-style mirror I made sure there were things like a bottle of wine, old lamp and candles as a source of light – to create a dimly light “sexy” look as well as lipsticks and a silk scarf. For the modern version, the dressing table was littered hair straighters, hair dryers, ipods and a mobile phone. The modern day version was easier to film as I could use my own bathroom and the costumes were easier to put together whereas the older version had to be thought about alot more.

Production

 The opening of the video is the ‘perfect’ girl putting her fishnet stockings on and just her feet walking across the floor, you cannot see her face for the first few clips. I choose to do this because I thought it would be an interesting way of grabbing the audiences attention to start the video off as well as being a fitting way to start the clips of the two girls getting ready [clip1]. 

I decided to use more interesting camera angles for the ‘perfect’ girl and more boring ones for the ‘geek’ as if to reflect the characters, for example for the ‘perfect’ girl I used alot of close-ups and shots in the mirror while she was getting ready with low lighting to make it seem more ‘sexy’ [clip2] whereas with the ‘geek’ I used shots from above or straight on in board light to reflect her innocence, this being extremely effective when she looks straight into the camera after she puts on her skin-coloured stocking with the camera angle being from above [clip3].

I delibratly choose darker colours for the ‘perfect’ girl to emphaises her blonde hair and to make her seem more ‘sexy’ in the low lighting [clip4]. For the ‘geek’ I chose wolly jumpers, flowery skirts and a patterned cardigan in the modern day, both which made her look a bit clueless and innocent compared to the dark colours and fishnets the ‘perfect’ girl was wearing.

Editing

For the editing I picked a fading transaction so that it easily drifted fromm 1920′s to modern day which I feel worked well throughout linking the different times and scenes together, especially at the end where the modern day version of them holding hands fades into the 1920′s version. I choose to use a hand-held camera throughout the filming for the 1920′s version to reflect the filming of that time period – as in not always completely perfect whereas for the modern day a tripod to keep the camera as still as possible although this still proved difficult when outside due to in some places it being extremely windy while filming! 

It was difficult to find a time when everyone was available to film around other lessons and work and when the weather was good enough to be able to film. I feel that I could of made some improvements, although I chose to film in hand-held I think right at the beginning the transaction between the first two shots could have been done more smoothly. Looking back, I feel I could of done with some more filming of the man walking away from the ‘perfect’ girl to make the point more clear.

Using, developing and challenging conventions of media.

I feel that I challenged the the conventions of media forms. The song I choose – ‘The Beatles – I wanna hold your hand’ – is a ‘pop’ song, this genre of music tend to be focused on the band singing and either a simple story-line running along side it or the band members singing in different locations, for example Girls Aloud music videos [clip5] [clip6]. The original video is simply The Beatles singing the song which appears to be a concert [original video] which follows the conventions of a ‘pop’ video. I decided against using clips of a person or band singing along to the song as I wanted the video to run as a short-film. Although I based the idea of running the story as an old-style film on other music videos I watched – clips shown in 30/11/2009 blog entry – I feel that the idea to have the old and new running along side eachother is a new idea, I am aware that The Beatles have been listened to throughout generations since they started, I feel that my album art, advert and music video all modernize the music and attract the audience of ’the naughties’ I could of developed this idea further by instead of just running the story-lines along side eachother, having them following the same story-line but changing from old to new, for example have one of the girls walking out of the door from the inside in contempory style film and walking out the other side in 1920′s style film.

What I got from my audience feedback.

After hearing back from my audience I felt positive about my work. However, one person asked me if the music video had two different story-lines because of the difference in filming as opposed to one story-line along side eachother. This strengthened my feeling that I should of weaved the two time periods together more to make it more clear what I was trying to do.

Combienation of main product & ancillary texts.

Although my choice of music was an old one I feel that I modernized it well so that it attracts a new audience. I kept the pictures classy and simple to reflect the simple lyrics and tune of the song, by using the 1920′s style filming and using black and white on the front cover and then bright colours on the back cover I brought the old and the new together well. I used the themes of hands the whole way through, on the front and back cover of the album art and again on the advert; by being linked it is easy to see the relation between the two which is important in advertising as the advert needs to stick in the audiences mind so that they are then reminded of that when they see the product on the shelf. I ended my music video on a close up of the two ‘characters’ walking away holding hands, again linking it to the album art, advert as well as the name and lyrics to the song. Overall, I am pleased with how I related them all together.

Use of media techolodgy, construction, research and planning.

I a kodack video camera for filming my video, due to mainly using it just hand-held for the effect I wanted, I only used the tri-pod a few times during filming. I edited my film on Windows 7 Live Movie Maker, using simple transactions between clips so not to draw attention away from what was going on in the video and adding text at the beginning with the name of the band, song and record company so that it looks as if it is being played on a music channel. I drained colour from the 1920 style clips and added a ‘sepia’ tone to emphaise that it was meant to be of a different time period. For the advert and album art I used photoshop and fireworks (as explained in more detail in those particular blog entries) finding fonts off the internet to add to the effects I was looking for. Through this coursework I have learnt how to blog and record everything I did as I did it which encouraged me to plan in more detail and come out with a better end product.

I showed my coursework pieces my a-level class and handed out a review sheet for people to comment on heres some of the feedback I got-

“A good range of technique between the old and new filming, a good range of emotion and related well to song choice” – Josh Prior, Aged 18.

“The album cover and advert stood out and was different to what I expected of the song, however the writing on the advert needed to be a darker colour” – Tom Spare, Aged 18.

“I enjoyed watching it and liked the old and new but sometimes it was hard to tell that it was the same story” – Ruth Henson, Aged 17.

“There could of been a band or someone singing at some points to make it more interesting, it was still good though” – Aedan Kiernan, Aged 18.

“They all linked together well, you could tell the album cover and advert went together” – Luca Green, Aged 18.

“Creative but the story was confusing in the middle” – Nadia Abu Eldahab, Ages 17.

“Colourful, the writing on the advert was abit difficult to read from a distance though” – Amy Dowling, Aged 17.

“Balance betweenn a old style and the new style was interesting and worked well” – Jacob Alying-Ellis, Aged 18.

I finished my filming for my music video and completed editing it so it looks right all together. I used windows live movie maker to edit the clips. I decided to fade the clips into eachother as a way of tranactions as it was a simple idea and brought together the old and the new well. To distinguish the 1920′s version from the modern day version I added a ‘sepia tone’ to the 1920′s version and brightened the colours even more in the modern day version. In order to make the video look as if it is appearing on a music channel or television show I added text for approx 7 seconds of ‘The Beatles, I wanna hold your hand, Parlophone Records’. I had to cut alot of the clips i had filmed out as it was too long for the video, the clips i cut out were mainly the ones of the girls getting ready as after a while it seemed to get boring just watching the same sort of thing. the final draft – The Beatles – I wanna hold your hand.