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SLY

Question 4 Audience feedback.

I have shown my work to peers and the response has been mostly positive, the only improvements mentioned is that in some of the shots you can see the table and the animators hand, I personally liked those shots as it gave a DIY indie feel but I am now in the process of changing these. I have also uploaded my video to Youtube so that I can get some critical feedback from a wider audience, I am also working on promoting my video a lot more and i will post the link to the Youtube clip on other websites like Facebook and Myspace.

Evaluation question 3

During the Evaluation stages I have used the blog site blogger as I am using now to upload everything I have done. I have also used the website youtube so that I can get feedback on my music video, I have not yet received any comments about my music video but I shall update my blog as soon as I have.

Evaluation Question 3

For my ancillary task I used the programme Photoshop this was also a new programme to me that I did not know how to use but after completing a front cover inside cover and an advert for my ancillary task I believe I can now use the programme quite easily. Photoshop allowed me to use a vast range of effects on my ancillary task like I used the cut tool to get rid of all the faces. I also used the smudge tool to smooth the edges of the cut to make it seem seamless.I also used the website Dafont to get the fonts for my ancillary task.

Evaluation question 3

Another programme I used during the postproduction stages is the audio editing software Cubase 5; this allowed me to shorten my song more accurately than any mac software I had access to could have. Cubase allowed me to cut the track on specific beats and also allowed me to view the waveforms of the song in greater detail. Using this programme meant that I could get the music video finished by the deadline. I also used the internet and more specifically the website Youtube so I could get audience feedback.

Evaluation Question 3

During the research and planning stages I mainly used the Internet to find out more about my artist and artist like them. In the Postproduction stages I used a lot of new technologies I had not used before like final cut. Final cut allowed me to get more creative uses out of effects that I had not heard of like one effect I used made the live footage look jittery like the animated stuff, I then added the sharpen effect to make the live footage look a little bit like animation. The last shot of my music video is a long shot with both band members standing there I then layered a shot of Ano and the bear standing next to each other over the top of that shot using opacity.

Evaluation question 3, How did you use media technologies in the research and planning, contruction and evaluation stages?

For the main animation I took still images of the hand draw pictures, for this I used a 10 mega pixel camera, I chose to use a camera because it meant that the distance the shot was taken from was different every time giving the film an indie style feel. I chose to use digital camera instead of film camera because it gives a higher quality of picture but at the same time gives a DIY feel I wanted to portray in my video. For the Band footage I used a film camera, because I need it to be live action, I also used a fig rig for some of the footage but i decided not to use the footage as it didn't fit my style, the fig rig allowed me to move around the performers with ease without the camera moving in an unwanted manner.

Evaluation question 2.

After teachers reviewed my Ancillary task they thought that it needed something more than just green and yellow lines. So after much thought I decided to organize a small crowed of people to stand around and look up to the camera, the people I got were teenagers so this linked with my audience; the problem was that they were not in costume so I decided to black out the bodies and cut the faces of them out. This meant that it also had this no identity feel that I also wanted to portray in my video, as the character of Ano in the video doesn’t really have an identity, his name is just a shortened version of Anorexic guy, so he doesn't have a proper name.

Evaluation question 2.

I went with the same design for the inside cover but I decided to put the two band members in it but without the faces, I decided to do this faceless idea because the song deals with growing up and because my band is for a mid to late teen art crowed, I chose the faceless idea to represent identity and the finding of it. Behind one of the faces I put some trees this means that it links to my music video because of the natural feel of it. Behind the other face I put the word “real?” this is also to link it with this psychedelic folk style and also I put it in as homage to Andrew VanWyngarden.

Evaluation question 2.

My idea for the ancillary task was to make it look as simple as possible without too many objects making it look over crowded. I took inspiration from albums like ‘Down in Albion, by The Babyshambles and ‘Be Brave, by the strange boys. So tat first my album cover was just green and yellow lines with what looked like hand written titles and track listings, I liked this DIY style because it makes the album look more mellow and give it a hippy feel.

how effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks

My ancillary task does in some ways link with my music video but I did not really see the need for a link, as with most real album/DVDs there is no real connection; this is obvious with the Greenday album International superhits and CKYs album Infiltarte.Destroy.Rebuild. Both of these albums have a DVD with them and do not link to the video.

in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

My music video doesn't always follow conventions. It differs from most music videos because of the hand made animation, this is completely different from most music videos including ones in the same genre as mine. Another way my video is different from other music videos is because it uses an easy to follow yet surreal narrative. I also chose to have two different styles between the Animation and live footage, because the song is all about growing up. The song implies the singer is growing up through the song, so i decided that the live action scenes should have a fun feel about them whilst the animation has a more gritty dark side to it. I thought this worked well and the peer feedback i got backed this up.

in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

I believe my music video met a lot of conventions like using band footage effectively. I used band footage to still keep some elements of the Neo psychedelic genre along with other mainstream genres. I decided to link my animation with my live footage by using sharpen on the clips with the band in it. I think this was very good but I could have also made it a little bit more like the animation by adding another effect that makes the footage a bit jittery this would give the indie home made feel that the animation has. I wanted my band to be not so much aspirational but also i didn't want them to seem relatable; i wanted them to be a mixture of the two so they are looked up to but also not un-approachable.

in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

My music video although differing from most mainstream videos, I did think carefully about my target audience before I went out to film and animate. I thought about how they would expect my band to dress and after looking at bands like The Grizzly Bears and the Animal Collective I saw that they wore checked lumberjack style shirts and tightish jeans with messy hair. I also wanted to have homage to the original band MGMT and have two front men instead of a whole band. I also wanted to incorporate the original style of hippy into it by having one front man with long hair like in the neo folk psychadelic rock band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In most music videos the main attraction is the artist. I researched many styles and artists and found that even in space rock artists like MGMT they are a main part in the video. I also looked at other genres that have influenced my artist like folk musicians and found ties, so I managed to link psychedelic space rock with neo folk. This means that I had a lot more influences in my final piece, like the use of animation, I played upon this idea after seeing it in a music video for the song White water hymnal.

Influences.

The influences for our video have been mainly from the band Fleet Foxes with their video for white water hymnal. But there have been some un suspected influences like the flat scene has been influenced by bands like The Libertines as i wanted to give the video a bit of a dark gritty London feel, aswell as a relaxed Californian feel.

Snow footage.

Although the snow footage has made my music video a lot stronger. There have been problems though because the snow has melted all of the footage cannot be re-captured, but we have managed to get just enough footage to complete the video.

Peer feedback

The main feedback I got when i did my peer feedback was that I had to get it finished, apart from that most of the comments were positive although quite a few people thought the idea was too big. By this they meant that the stop motion could have been a sub storyline in the whole music video, although most people liked the indie style of the animation by it being blurred and seeing little bits of hands in some shots. The feedback was also very positive about the animation. I personally believe the animation is the best part of the music video as it gives the home made feel that my genre of music gives off.

More Ideas.

My animation came out a bit short so I thought up the idea of making the film a bit (more)surreal so the character now jumps into space where he fly's around for a bit and ends up sitting on the moon looking down at the Earth.
We managed to create a space background by getting a big sheet of black paper and using chalk to give the effect that there are stars and using blue, yellow and green pastels to use for the sun and Earth.
After this was made I made a cut out Ano because a sheet of asotate was too shiny and it was showing up when i took pictures; so i resolved this by just cutting Ano out.

Filming and animation.

The Snow has meant that we can have band footage that is completely different to the main animated story line. I thought that this was a really good thing as it means it ties in with the song where we go through a journey through someones life from being young to growing old as seen in the lyrics "We can crush some plants to paint my walls" and "Now i can scare the children off my lawn". These two extremes I believe will make my music video a lot better.

More animation.

I have managed to finally get all of the animation finished with a huge tweak to the story line. The character Ano now walks through the city until he finds a cheap dirty motel where he get in a lift and finds a room to sleep. This has taken roughly about 4 hours to do as me and the artist have had to spend most of the day drawing and coloring the background.
I have also managed to cut the song down to exactly three minutes meaning that a lot less animation is needed to be done; vital for the fast approaching deadline.