Evaluation

Firstly I would like to begin by saying how disappointed I am with the way my video and blog turned out. I made several huge errors in the process of the task and like to think I have learnt from them. Unfortunately I changed my ideas several times and managed my time very poorly leading to unfinished and poorly produced work. Over the course of the evaluation I will look to identify the reasons for this and pin point what I would do differently where I to undertake the task again.

The ancillary texts I selected were the poster advertisement for the album and the digipak, the reason I chose to do these rather than a website design was because I had created posters and advertisements in previous tasks and I had no familiarity with website design.
From studying narrative theories, Kate Domaille (2001) suggests that there are only 8narrative types which can be applied to different genres.
However, I wanted to keep my music video quite subtle but effective due to the song being emotive and romantic.
I attempted to construct an animated style video as I did not believe the actors I had at my disposal, nor the locations considered were of a high enough standard to pull off what I originally wanted.
Eventually I hastily filmed a shot of the sky to go over (connoting with the lyrics) an acoustic performance of mime by an actor on location in his living room. Using mis-en-scene such as a television and furniture aided in giving this impression. In addition to props such as guitar, and clothing which would be conventionally expected in this genre.
As well as the mime performance I wrote a script for my actor. He was instrucetd to walk across the camera before sitting and uttering the words "I'm Geoff Lamp and this is d'yer wanna be a spaceman' - this intended meaning showing that the already established of Kempton are using post-modern self reflexivity and humour in a pastiche of a youtube video which would be expected of an amaetur musician.
Dance routines are also popular in pop music videos but it depends on the mood of the song, as my song is fairly slow and passionate I felt that a dance routine would be irrelevant.
Costume, hair and makeup are also very important in pop music videos as it shows off the performer’s style and character – and again I did not feel at all comfortable with instructing or directing my actors as to what would be suitable.
I wanted my digipak to relate to my video by being simple but effective. I chose a simple design theme which ran throughout. The ‘night sky/space’ theme connoting to the song lyrics and track title.
In addition all fonts were consistent throughout, hopefully leading to a connotation of those fonts with the album and track for the audience.
With regards to improvement – there are many things I would have done differently in all aspects of my tasks.
I felt very uncomfortable with using actors/actresses and mis-en-scene to create the correct imagery. I now realise this takes huge planning and time management – I would use a system of trial and error and begin filming much earlier. I would recommend anyone to have alternative scripts and ideas and experiment greatly early on before settling upon an idea.
When it came to using the editing suite during the editing process, I didn’t feel confident at all. I had used an editing suite once at the beginning of the A2 year and I had very little experience. The first thing I learnt on Adobe Premier was how to upload footage by plugging the camera into the computer; I then had to rename each individual clip by double clicking on the text. I experimented with video effects such as hue and saturation when blending in two differing shots. This effect works to a degree, however with a better understanding of the tool I believe a greater video could have been created.
Throughout the production of my advanced portfolio I did use new media technologies to help research and construct my products. I believe the use of these new technologies which were foreign to me before this coursework piece helped me further my skills and therefore make my work a lot better than its previous level.
Firstly I looked at many music video on YouTube and actual music video channels on the TV to try and find similarities and conventions which I could incorporate or deliberately ignore with regards to my piece. Next, I began to research the history of music videos and how they first originated and I used the internet to find this information which was a great aid as it broadens my idea of music videos and advancing my knowledge of them.
Next I began to analyse the lyrics of my chosen track and see how I could interpret each lyric into the music video in addition to showing the true meaning behind the story of the song for my audience as this was a key aim.
I again used the internet in some parts of the lyrical interpretation which was finding a website on Google, named www.songmeanings.net - which shows other peoples perspectives on what certain lyrics meant as I attempted to find a wide range of opinions.