Blog 20-Evaluation and feedback of video

This is part of my evaluation- "how did you use media tecnogoglys in the contruction and research, planning and evaluation stages of all your products?" https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-FFyp54UcmuJwQeHzstJ0Gcm3_VFOsWCowSln6-UK_4/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLjO5ZYD This is "how effective is the the combintation of your main product and ancillary texts?" https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8TgZIuZbo36YTg5MGFjMjgtMzdmNC00OWFmLWI0YmItMjVlOGIwMDFhNGM5&hl=en&authkey=CI_Hx6QN This is my powerpoint on "In what ways does your video use, develop or challange forms and conventions of the real media products?". https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B8TgZIuZbo36YzljYjU0NzYtZWY5YS00ZDRkLWJhZmYtOWIxZWU2MzkxODA0&hl=en&authkey=CLnApeYE

I gave out these questionnaires for people too fill out after watching our music video. They are people i don't know personally therefore none of the comments/feedback are bias and are honest.

Music video comments:

Digipak and advert comments:

Above, is the inside of my digipak along with the comments/feedback i got off facebook.

Above, is my front and back cover of my digipak and the comments/feedback i got off facebook.

Above, is my advert and the comments/feedback i got off facebook.

Underneath is my own comments on the feedback we got back for the digipak, advert and finished music video.

The techniques i used to get feedback consisit of that of putting our final music video up onto my Facebook page so that all my friends could see it. They could then comment on it and discuss things about it. I also put on facebook as images, my final digipak cover, its back cover and the inside layout. Again, my friends could see these and comment of them if they wanted to. This technique was repeated with my final advert desgin. On all the facebook feedbacks (music video and images of digipaks/advert) i wrote that my friends should comment about the over all desgins/story, the images i used, the shots, the editing techniques, colours, mise-en-scene, if they thought that it linked up well to Lady Gaga (her style, her other music videos etc) and if they could make negitive and positive comments. Our final music video, we also uploaded onto YouTube so that anyone in the world could comment about what they thought of it. I made questionaires to give out to people i saw at college. The questions were all about my final music video and what they thought about it. I gave each of them the questionaire after they watched the video on YouTube. They weren't people i knew around college. I choose to do this as then the feedback would be honest and there would be no bias. I believe that the feedback i got would be an accurate reflection on lady gaga's target audience. Everyone i asked (questionaires) were girls between the ages of 16-18 who were at college at the time. These ages reflect the target audience demographic ages that i researched before. The face book and Youtube feedback would probably be accurate as the audience had a choose of whether to watch the video or look at the advert/digipak desgins or not. Therefore, people who like lady gaga and her music would have probably looked at it more than the people who have no interest in media and lady gaga. Therefore the people who commented would know whether or not our video linked in well with the song and also in the style of lady gaga or not. Over all, i am very pleased with all the feedback we got, i feel that most of it was positive and we got a lot of it therefore making more varitey of comments and feedback that we could annaysis and use to make things better.

Changes that i would make if i could do it again-

1. I would not be the main actress in the video because i felt that it was hard to direct the shots and be the actress at the same time. I feel that i could have made some of the shots better and filmed it better if i was the camera-man. But i couldn't film some of the shots because i was the actress in them.

2. I would have spent more time thinking about the song choice. We were only given one lesson to decide of the song we wanted to make a music video for which i think wasn't enough time. Now, i listen to songs and think that we could have made a better video if we had done another song.

3. I would have thought off the costumes and makeup a little bit more. I think that we should have made up some costumes, for example, accesoring them more and makin them really "avant-guard" and fashionable, also more unique and sexy.

4. I think we should have planned our time better at the start of filming. We did have a shooting schedule but i think that the day before filming we should have written down shot by shot what we wanted to do and had a meeting before each filming session before we got stuck into it. I think that we did a lot more filming sessions that anyone else in our class (around 5) whereas many groups only did around 1 or 2 filming sessions which made their music video's much simplyer which maybe we should have thought about before hand.

5. I am personally very pleased with my digipak and the advert so i dont think that i would change much about them if i could. If anything, i probably would have spent more time editing the images i used in photo-shop to make them look more airbrushed therefore more proffesional. For my inside digipak (left hand side) some feedback mentioned that the hand looked "wierd" as it was cut off. Looking back on that now, i would change that and make it beldn in more.

6. I think, as a group, we should have equaled out the amount of work we had to do, such as, call sheet, story boarding, editing, filming etc. I feel that i did a lot of the work load and even had to do a filming session by myself, with me being the actor, director, camera worker at all the same time which was really hard. I also made the story board by myself which took a lot of time. I am not blaming the group i was in and the people in it atall because i do feel that i was the leader and offering to do most of the work when the time came to it which was probably too amitious of me.

Blog 19-Finished video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-uVUYucLt0

This is the link to our music video which we have put on YouTube.

Blog 18-Creative camera use and editing

I have made screen grabs of shots in our final music video that i feel we have edited well and also used creative camera use in. Of course our video contains a lot more shots than just the ones i have shown below but i have chosen the ones i feel best show off our learnt techniques of how to use the camera and editing skills.

This is a long shot of the main character standing in a kitchen. The shot is a still and the camera was straight on. The camera was mounted on the tripod, we securely attached it and that it was level. There are a series of 5 still images while the introduction music is playing. They are all the same length of time and they shoot from one to the other quickly. As the girl, in each shot, i moved to a different part of the room/different places in the shot so that the composition looked good in all the shots and also the make it seem like the girl was there for a long time, thinking to herself in different positions. We had to change the colouring on these type of shots however as there wasn't enough light in the shot so we changed the gamma colouring which made the stills lighter.

For this shot we used the technique of hand-held camera. This is because the tripod was too big to fit between the stairs we wanted to shoot and the wall behind us. The tripod also didn't go to a short enough length for us to film what we wanted to film. The shot is a mid-shot of the girl walking up the stairs. We panned the camera up a little bit and then to left as to follow the legs walking. The camera movement also reflects the way the stairs move up and to the side (to the left) as well. The camera was moved in time with the walking speed. I think that the person who filmed this shot did well as we were very constricted space wise and having to hold the camera and pan smoothly isn't that easy but i feel that this shot looks professional and as if it was on a tripod (smooth and steady). To steady the camera as much as possible, the camera was supported on the legs of the camera worker while she was sitting down. We wanted to really focus on the legs and feet so we kept the stairs empty of clutter or objects and we made sure that the legs/feet were mostly central of the shot at all times.

This shot was made so that the lyrics came in at the same time as the girl pressed the CD player. The camera was mounted on the tripod securley and then we panned it to the right, down the arm to the hand...the hand to the CD player. This showed who was pressing the CD player. The lyrics came on when the shot was on a still of the finger pressing the play button on the CD player.

I like the composition of this shot. The girl is positioned at the left hand side filling that side of the shot. We then made the girl (myself) hold the mirror on the other side so that balance was created. The natural light illuminates the shot through the background window/curtain. We had the camera mounted on the tripod so make the shot level. We wanted to show the girl putting on her makeup and getting ready for the day. Everything looks okay and that it going to be an okay day but then we see that everything changes and later on, we see the makeup smudged on her face from her crying. I also really like the shot composition as the colours all balance each other out and the makeup is the main bold colours therefore the eye is drawn towards the girl which is what we wanted. We wanted some reflection to be in the mirror, which we have also created by tilting the mirror slightly towards the camera. This gives the image depth.

From the shot before, we made an extreme close-up shot of the lips and the girl putting on makeup. We thought that this shot would show off the unique and bold colours that the makeup is (like lady gaga's style). This was hard to do as it kept on going out of focus but in the end we got it right by using the manual focus on the camera. This shot is good as it's different to the other's before it and shows contrast.

This is one of my favourite shots

because of the camera technique we used and what leads on from it. We centered the picture of the main girl and boy actors. We choose to focus on a picture of them together so that the audience realise that the boy is going to be part of the concept of the music video and that the girl and boy are meant to be associated in with each other. For this shot, the camera was mounted on a tripod so that we could get the zoom really steady and level. We then zoomed in slowly towards to couple's faces. This shot then faded into a shot of the boy by himself in black and white which we did as to show the past. From the picture to the real-life shot of him, it not only looks good while fading in but also shows that he is actually going to be in the video. The shot of the picture is a mid-shot made into a close-up by the zooming. The shot of the boy is a mid-shot.

We then moved onto a shot where the main girl comes into the shot before so it recreates the picture and its frame in the last shot sort of. The connection is made that they are a couple fully now. They look at the camera for a while and then turn to face each other a few seconds in to the shot. We made them look into the camera as to represent that they were looking into a picture camera and were having their photograph taken. For the turning heads, we had to get the director to count throughout the shot and on one of the seconds, the actors would know that they had to turn to face each other. This made the shot look more professional as they boy and girl turned at exactly the same time. We kept the shot in black and white to show that the audience is looking at a flash back of the past of them being a couple together. The camera was mounted on a tripod to make the shot easier to manage and less shaky as we wanted to shot to look like a photograph which wouldn't have any movement/shakiness to it. The shot is a mid-shot.

We wanted to make a connection and link from the girl being inside to the next few shots being outside. To make this possible we thought that it would be a good idea to make the girl walk out of the front door of the house and then fade into the forest to show her movement from the house to the forest location. I really like this shot and editing as we kept the girl central so that she fitted in perfectly to the road in the forest which was also central in the shot. The camera also represents her point of view as if she was holding the camera and showing where she was now. The camera was then mounted onto a tripod during the forest establishing shot as we wanted to zoom in and make it steady. This made it look like the girl was walking along the strip of road in the forest that you can see in the image attached to this text (above). It was like she was holding the camera and walking down the road to where the shot ends.

This shot is a visually pleasing shot of reflections in the water/lake in the forest. I love this shot as it slightly pans to the left very slowly in the flow to the water. It's different as it doesn't show the real setting but just the reflection of it in the water which is obviously upside down and a little bit quirky which is lady gaga esq. We wanted to include some scenery shots as well as portrait shots which include people and actors so make a contrast and change, but we still wanted to keep the shots different and unique, such as reflections and tilted angles.

This shot was hand held as we wanted to make it a slight low angled shot. This is where the camera was lower to he ground instead of being level with the actor. This gave the effect of the actor looking down upon the camera instead of straight on to it. We kept the girl central to the shot as to focus on her. The scenery behind her is dull and the branches are "spindly" so it gives the whole shot a dark and sad atmosphere to it which links into the actress as she is crying. The costume is a red lacey under ware corset to link into lady gaga and her sexy and unique style/appearance. This shot is a mid-shot.

The next few shots are like the beginning 5 series of images. We used the same technique as those (different positions and quick snap shots). The location for these shots was in the performing arts studio at college therefore we used a nice black background. Light was coming through from behind the black curtain at the bottom of the shot so we decided to try and make it look a little bit more illuminating and interesting by changing the brightness of the shot and other sorts of filters on the lights. We came across this, which made the light tinted blue and spread out more. We thought that this looked really good as gave all the shots light and made it more interesting to look at. Especially against the black background. It also gave the effect of professional lighting which we would have loved to have used but couldn't get hold of. Lady gaga, in her videos, uses a lot of professional lighting effects so this links into these few shots.

For this shot, we had the girl (myself) stand in different areas of the shot for a period of time and then when editing, used a timelapse effect on it. This is where we speeded up the shot so that the movements were quicker and she moves quicker to each position. This gave a really good effect over all as it looked like she was standing there fore a long time and time just "flew" by as she was thinking about her "lost" love. These shots were all long shots and the camera was mounted on a tripod and not moved so that the girl was the only one that moved and the camera focused on the same place of the forest.

We shot this by using hand-held camera and she wanted to follow the girl walking down smoothly as possible. This is called a tracking shot. We did try it with a tripod attatched to the camera but we found that the legs got stuck in the ground and by using the camera hand-held we could move more freely and follow the girl better. We edited this shot into three sections. The first were a colour version of her walking down dragging her arm across the fence beside her. Then that faded into the same shot but we made it black and white and then the third section went back to the colour version. The concept behind this was to show that she still does the same things that she used to do in the past (when she was with her love/the boy). She still goes back there to reminisce the past. I really like the editing we managed to do on this shot, it looks really effective and interesting. The shot was a long mid shot of the girl walking down while the camera followed behind her.

This is mid-long shot of the girl throwing leaves up in the air. The camera was attached to the tripod securely as we didnt want any shake or movement with the camera as there was a lot of movement going on in the shot anyway through the throwing of the leaves. We slowed down this shot so that the leaves fell slowly which gives the shot a more sad feeling to it as its slow paced. We kept the back ground plain and the colours link into the leaves. The dull colours of the background and the leaves show a more depressing atmosphere and also the contrast of this to the outfit that the girl is wearing is good as it sets her apart and makes her more clear to see.

This is long shot of the girl miming to the lyrics of the song "brown eyes". We wanted it to look like a stage setting so that she was performing. The girl (myself) always had eye contact with the camera to intensify the lyrics and also give the effect that she is talking to the audience and incorpriting/engaging them into the song as well. We then zoomed in to face and tilted the camera upwards to focus on the face.

This shot pans upwards while the shot is on a canted angle. Its shot by a hand-held camera and is of the scenery surrounding one of our locations. We choose it because if shows the reflection on the water at the bottom of the screen and then moves up towards the light of the sky.

These shots were made using a timelapse effect. We shot the girl holding her head and moving around franticly to show that she was upset. Then when editing, we speeded all the shots up to make it look even more frantic and quick to show what her head was like at the time (all over the place). We did try and use a hand-held camera and move the camera around as well at the same time but we found that everytime we did it, it went out of focus and ended up looking messy. So we decided to use the timelapse effect to get across the atmosphere we wanted. This is mid-long shot of the girl and we placed her slightly off center to make the composition of the shots more interesting.

These two still images show the boy and the girl main characters in sepreate images to show that they are not together anymore. We placed them in quick still image shots next to each other (alternating) 4 times (twice each) quickly to go with the beat and lyrics of the music at that moment in time. How the girl is in colour and the boy in black and white shows that the black and white image is the past and shows that the boy is not "around" anymore which we find out why later on in the music video.

This shot was near the beginning of the music video so we thought we could put it in again but reverse it (make it go backwards) as if she is walking in the door instead of out of it. This shows that it is coming to the end of the song as well.

This is shot by a hand-held camera because we wanted it look purposly look a little bit shaky as if she (the girl) was reading the letter and getting upset/crying over it. We have filmed it so that the audience can read it or atleast certain words of it. We wanted the audience to be able to read it because this climax's the music video and makes the audience understand why the boy "left" her (killed himself). We have placed the letter underneath the camera as if the camera is working/representing the eye of the girl reading the letter. It moves like an eye would when reading the letter by use panning the camera across the words and tilting it down towards the next line etc.

For this shot the girl falls down onto the bed. The camera was mounted onto the tripod because we wanted a high angle shot in which we could not reach that high up if we were holding the camera. We used a high angled shot as to show that she was "down" and upset...that the girl felt like she was "nothing" without her love/the boy.

Personally, i feel that this is one of the best and my faveourite shot of the whole music video. The song is links into "walking away" in the lyrics so we wanted to incorprite this into our music video and the actions somehow. We used a tripod in this shot and didnt move it atall and we wanted both the couple walking away and her by helf to blend in well and look like he had just "dissapeared" out of the shot. We made the first part (boy and girl) black and white as to show the past and then we faded into th same shot but with the boy not there so that the girl was just walking alone (in colour to show present time). We then fading out the scene in time with the music fading out so that the audience realise its the end of the music video. I love how we blended/faded the two shots in togeher and how well they go with eachother and tell a story all by itself...(boy and girl as a couple walking down the road together...then the boy disappears and is no longer there so the girl is walking by herself) These two shots together basically represent what our music video is about and i think makes a really nice ending and connects up everything from the previous shots well.

Blog 17-Rejected footage

This shot was going to be used as a shot to carry on from a fade in from a shot of the boy character sitting in the same place, to represent that he had gone and the shot was look like the boy had disappeared into thin air. However when editing and looking at the story line of our video we decided that we didn't want the audience to think that the boy had "disappeared" until near the end of our music video and know the reason why he wasn't with the main girl character anymore. So we decided that the image of the boy sitting in this location (same as the image to the left) would move onto a shot where the girl came into the shot so show that they are a couple. I think this is a better idea as then the audience realise who the boy is in relation to the girl.

We decided not too use this black and white shot of the boy and girl as we felt that it was not necessary to add it in. We had all the shots that we wanted of the "past" that meant something to the video and felt that the acting wasn't that great either, we wanted to show a romantic connection somehow so thought a kiss between the two of the actors would be good but it just looked a bit too "forced".

This is one of our "out-take" shots you could call it. We didn't realise the camera was on record while having "fun" behind the scenes!

This shot we didn't use because the colours in it were too dull and there wasn't anything interesting too look at in the shot. Lady gaga is renown for her outrageous and bold appearance which comes through in all of her music videos whether its on her or in her locations. This shot doesn't convey this at all so we didn't want to use it.

For these type of shots we thought that the reflections would look really good and interesting on the water from the darkness of the branches. The colour contrast looks good but the water just seems to blend in too much and the camera (as it was hand held because we couldn't get close enough with the tripod) was shaky. We did think that maybe the shakiness of the camera and the colours in the shot would make the shot look quite uncomfortable and depressing to link in with our video but it didn't really.

This shot just turned out to look a bit messy and "too much" when looking back at it on the computer screen. We thought that this shot may convey the emotion of "agitated" and/or "frustrated" and/or "upset" due to the over lapping branches. We panned across the branches and zoomed in but the shot just looks really messy and in the end, doesn't really represent any emotion that we wanted it too.

We had quite a lot of rejected footage of the girl miming along to the lyrics of the song. We decided that the best way to get the miming good and use a range of different lyrics and different times in the music video was, for me (actress) to sing along to the whole song in one position (e.g standing) and then sing it all again in another position (.e.g sitting down) and so on. This worked really well when editing as we had such a variety of shots and all the lyrics if we needed them. However, we had a lot of footage of the miming that we didn't need in the end but we thought it was better to have more miming lyrics than not enough.

On the right, this was a slightly low angled shot as we wanted to show that lady gaga was in control of the dance she was going to do and show her powerful character. The middle screen grab shows a long shot of some dance moves and the image of the left shows the floor dance sequence we tried out but that didn't work as i (actress) fell on the floor. The dance movements didn't really work out correctly. We decided not too use these shots as the dance didn't fit in with the timing of the lyrics or beats of the music so we re-thought out the dance moves and did it in time with the music and used those shots instead.

This shot is of the girl lying down on the floor with the camera at the same level as the girl (on the floor) and then the camera movement goes into a pan down the girls body. This idea came from the "the male gaze" theory. We had learnt about it in other media lessons and its where the camera acts as the human eye/point of view of a male's perspective. It has the feelings attached to it as being "sexy" and like girls are just sex objects. We wanted to include this as lady gaga uses a lot of sexual annotations and movements in her videos but we didn't want to get too "sexual" in our music video as the song was meant to be about true love and quite innocent atmosphere to it through the beat and the lyrics. However we decided not to put it in our final version of the music video as we thought that the wooden floor ruined it a little and also when the camera finally got down to the girls feet, the black background has ended so there was a door which didn't look very professional.

This is a single shot of a series of different positions that the girl did in this location. It was going to be used as a time lapse so we would speed it up a lot. However the lighting wasn't very good and the sun was shining straight at the front of me (the actress) therefore there is no definition in the top of me and its too much contrast from that to the black leggings and red top underneath/bottom half, also to the background. Either the sun was shining too much or we had set the white balance incorrectly. Also, at the end of these series of shots, we wanted to zoom in on the girls face but the zoom was not smooth and in the end, didn't end up focusing on the girls face at all probably due to lack of communication between the director and the actor which we then learnt from for the future filming.

We didn't use this scenery shot because of the lighting conditions. The sky was a too white and bright and there was nothing special about this shot. This shot also carried on into panning to the left. However, there was a car moving on the road behind the trees with the camera speed and it was obvious to the eye and we thought it ruined the shot a lot.

This shot was meant to represent a clock ticking away time. This was tried to be shown through the action of the arms moving at different angles in sharp straight up and down movements to represent the two hands on a clock. However, the action didn't work out so well and i don't think it ended up looking anything like a clock hands moving (my fault as i was the girl!).

These two screen grab shots are of one of our timelapse shots. We decided to use a blue door as the background to the girl as it was a good contrast of colour against her outfit, hair and also the red bricks to either side of it. I think that these shots are compositionally good as the door really frame the girl well. However, there is section on the right hand side that made the shot look unprofessional. Also, we had filmed another timelapse effect shot with a background being a dull grey and looking at both different locations/backgrounds in contrast to each other, we found that the grey background added to the emotion of the song and the actions that they girl was doing (crying, sadness etc). The blue background seemed to cheer everything up a bit too much and could contrast the effect we wanted to achieve.

Compositionlly i think these shots are really good. I like the colours used and the way that i, being the girl in the shots, have used the bars as props and to frame my face. However, the location isn't something that lady gaga would have chosen in one of her music videos and seems a bit "grotty", "rusty" and "dirty" looking. These shot don't fit in with our story line and its not something that would link into the work of lady gaga at all.

This was one of our first filming sessions we ever did and also one of the first ever shots we filmed. Although we did use this type of shot in our music video, this particular shot i was walking up the stairs too fast and there was a shadow on the wall behind the legs that distracted from the walking therefore we didn't use this take.

This was a shot following on from a shot we used in our music video (pressing the play button on the music player). The reason why we didn't use this shot was because we felt like we didn't really need it there. There was no relevance to the song and as the lyrics had just started, we felt we needed a more impacting shot than this one. Also, the camera pans to the left but it's not in a straight line.

For the audience to see the letter and it's text well, we thought that it would be a good idea to hold the letter up in the center of the shot. However, when looking back, you can see the hand and arm of the person holding in and there is too much going on in the background (for example, the tripod!!). We found a much better way to show off the letter in a different shot that not only is much clearer but also relates to the emotions through the purposely shakey camera use.

As it's clear to see my the screen grab of this shot, it was out of focus. Therefore we didn't want to use it as it would ruin our idea and not make the makeup stand out which we wanted it too, as to link into lady gaga's style and apperance.

After the shot above, this shot comes after it and the camera zooms out from an extreme-close up of the lips to this screen grab shot. Although a perfectly good shoot from zooming out. We wanted to focus to be on the makeup and not neccesarly the girl. Therefore we decided that a zooming in shot towards putting on the make-up would be better suited for this idea and we used that in our final music video.

This is an added bit onto a shot we actually used in our final music video. It shows the girl clearly walking out of the front door and to the left and then she dissapears out of shot. We shot this shot as we wanted her to walk out of the house via the front door and then the shot fade into the forest location to represent her changing location and moving somewhere else during the storyline. When editing, we realised quickly that we didn't need this added bit on where the walks fully out of the door and goes out of shot and it worked better when we cut the shot half way through and faded it into the forest shot. Also, we didn't really want any of the houses behind to be seen in this shot as it wasn't important to the story line and also the fade idea wouldnt have worked so well with her going to the left of the shot.

These shots were meant to be the beginning to a dance but we found that they didn't look right when editing it all together and the location just didn't fit in with the others. Also the camera was on a slight tilt with made some of the background lines on the wall seem wonky. Altough, the middle screen grab i do like the position of myself (the actress) as i think it is a very "lady gaga"-like pose. However i think it would have looked more effective if it was on a very plain background. The screen grab to the right is of the actress walking towards the camera with strong eye contact. Again, this is something that lady gaga does in her music videos but when editing the final video together, it didn't fit anywhere and we had more interesting and compositional better effective shots to put in.