Plumtree

Lucy,
There is lots of detail in this post - you now need to add how these areas relate to the videos you have analysed and how you need to consider these points in your own work.

Real Media Artefact analysis- Digipaks

For the analysis of real media artefacts from the Indie genre, I decided to choose 3 different artists so I could gain a greater understanding of the entire genre as well as the sub-genre of 'Indie-folk'. My first artist, Halsey, is considered to be a part of the Indie genre, yet is under the smaller and more niche section of 'Electro-Indie'. This means that her music is very different from my chosen artist, Dermot Kennedy, and so will be a good comparison to analyse. My 2nd artist is Troye Sivan
who is also in the Indie genre, my 3rd artist falls under the Indie-folk genre and so will be good as they are very similar to my chosen artist and will aid my decisions to create products that will fit the genre well.

By analysing these three real media products I have improved by understanding for the conventions in digipaks and what makes them successful. I have also realised the importance of aiming your products towards your target audience through the design of your products and so will keep this in mind throughout the planning and construction stages of my coursework. 

Plumtree

Lucy - useful to have looked at the prelim task as long as you remember to use what you have learnt from it in your full project.
You now need to publish your video analysis and how this has helped you with your own ideas.

Prelim Task and Evaluation

Our preliminary task was to recreate the first minute of an already existing music video. We chose the song Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus as the music video is set in a school and so would be easier for us to recreate during lesson time. The purpose of the task was to learn how to use the equipment we would be using in our main task and to have something to use as a comparison to our final music video to show how we have developed our skills since beginning the coursework. After completing our preliminary task we were asked to answer the following questions to evaluate what we have learnt from the task. Below is our finished preliminary task and the evaluation questions.





What is the importance of research and planning?

Throughout our main task you will always find yourself needing to look back at your original plans, they are your starting point and give you a sense of direction. It is at the research stage when you establish how many actors you will need, what locations you need to scout, what props you need to organize. The planning is where you storyboard and look at shots and angles; later you will be able to look at the story board to know where to position your actors, props and camera to get each shot perfectly mirroring the original. Planning is also important as you need to organize shooting schedules and check availability of locations.

What technologies did you use?

The camera that we uses was the Sony HDV 1080i and it allowed us to shoot our footage in HD. It was easy to use and we could review our footage very easily in the screen. There was a good zoom/reverse zoom feature that was useful when filming some shots in the video. It was also very easy to get the footage off the camera and onto our computer for editing. The editing software that we used was Final Cut Pro. It was easy to use, we could view our clips and choose which ones we wanted. I could clip shots and arrange them in order very easily. Adding visual effects and audio fade in/fade out was also very easy and overall our editing process did not take long.

What difficulties did you encounter?

One of the biggest difficulties that we encountered was that some of our shots were filmed in HD and some were not; we were never aware of when we were and weren’t filming in the same definition. This meant that our video lacked consistency and continuity. Another problem was that we struggled with was how to mount the camera onto the tripod securely, it wobbled and left shots looking unprofessional. We decided to film all shots free-hand, this unfortunately left some shots a bit shaky- especially in our panning shots of the band and we chose to re-shoot many of the scenes. Another difficulty that we had was in the editing process when I couldn’t import some of the footage and use the ‘log and capture’ section on Final Cut Pro. I manage to resolve the issue with a bit of trial-and-error and by playing around with the format settings and we were able to get all of our footage onto the computer.

How successful was your music video?

I think that our music video was fairly successful. We were able to shoot the first minute of Teenage Dirtbag almost perfectly mirroring the first minute of the original video. I think that we could have been more successful if we had done more planning for our shooting. We could have also created a more professional looking final product if we had done more tutorials in the equipment we were using and the editing software we used.

What have you learned?

I have learnt how important planning is before beginning a task. I now realize the importance of  time management and how useful a shooting schedule would be. Another important thing that I have learnt is that a lot of research into your target audience is necessary for you to be able to create a product that will be popular with your audience. When shooting our preliminary video I have learnt that it s necessary to use actors who are reliable and readily available for shooting and later re-shoots of scenes if needed. Going into my main task I now know the importance of research and planning and how I must always keep a focus on my target audience when making decisions regarding the outcome of my final product.

Copyright Permission Letter

Before beginning the research and planning section of our A2 coursework. I had to email the artist whose song I want to use for copyright permission. I had to be clear in my request that it was not going to be shown to a wider audience and that it was being used for educational purposes. I went onto the artists website and there was a direct email to the artist that I could use. Below is what I wrote in the email I sent to my chosen artist requesting permission:

Dear Dermot Kennedy,

I am an A-level student and I am writing to request your permission to use your song ‘After Rain’. 

With your permission, this task would be used in my current A-level Media Studies project, which involves creating a music video to one of our favourite popular music tracks, as well as producing an album and a magazine advert for the artist.

If I were to receive your permission, this track would only be used in an educational context and be viewed by my media class, my teacher and the OCR exam board moderator. It would not be released to a large audience for consumption. 

You as the artist would of course be fully recognised throughout pre-production and the final video itself. A copyright notice with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required, please send full details.

I look forward to hearing from you, 

Regards

Lucy De Cort

Edgbarrow School 



Progress Report