Journal - Week 9

It's been a while since I have last posted a weekly journal; therefore within this post I will be providing up-to-date analysis on how my Music Video project is commencing.

What has been happening over the past few weeks?

• The editing has commenced in our Music Video
• Our Music Video has finally been completed; and now we have a completed Music Video
• I have completed my Digi-Pack
• I have begun creating my Music Video Poster
• I have looked into existing Music Posters; and provided detailed analysis and explanation

Editing commencing:

Since I have last posted a weekly journal, the editing within our Music Video has been spent a lot of time on. A lot of our Media lessons have solely been spent on editing on our video. Although we would've liked to of finished the editing in our Video much sooner than expected, we can now officially say we have finished.

Completion of our Music Video:

Yes we can officially say that our Music Video is completed! We successfully finished the editing of our music Video last Wednesday, and I must admit our video looks good which is what we aimed it to look like. My role within the Music Video project was: Director and as well as this my roles included being CameraMan and in charge of cinematography, and within these responsibilities I strongly feel I provided sufficient and successful contribution. 

Completed my Digi-Pack:

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on my Digi-Pack project; and I have also successfully finished this area of my Music Video coursework project. I have posted my finished Digi-Pack and it is now visible here right on my blog. I am happy overall with my Digi-Pack and not only do I personally feel it is realistic, it is of a professional standard which I am proud of.

Begun Creating my Music Video Poster:

After completing my Digi-Pack and Music Video, the next area of the coursework is to create a poster and the purpose of the poster is to promote the band/artist; and in my case it is to promote the band Dragonfly. I have begun creating the poster and I have posted so far how it is shaping up. I aim to finish my poster by the end of the week.

Looked into existing Music Video Posters:

I have looked into existing Music Video Posters and the two I have analysed into are Wretch 32's poster and Mariah Carey's. They are two completely different stylised posters; and I am aiming to create my poster to look similar in terms of the standard of these posters.

Starting my Music Video Poster

As part of the next area of my coursework, I am required to create a Music video poster which is needed to promote the artist, or in my case the band Dragonfly. I will be using Adobe Photoshop to create my poster.

I have just begun the creation of my Music Video poster. I will now be uploading what I have got so far; and in addition to this, what I will be adding and what I need to do in order to progress successfully.

As you can see above I have now inserted what I have done with my poster so far. I have an edited background main image; and some relevant text. The text font style which I have again is consistent with the text style I had featured in my Digi-Pack. The fact that I have chosen to remain consistent suggests that my band are iconic and prolific.

What else will I be adding?

• I will be adding information on the Record Label of our band 'Dragonfly'
• Where the single & album will be available to purchase from
• Further relevant text in regards to the band and the single and album
• An image of the front of the bands Digi-Pack which I've created.

Research into existing Music video Posters

For this blog post, I will now be looking into posters which look advertise and promote the band. The purpose of this is so that I gain a clear insight and clear idea of what is required, so that when it comes to my creation of my poster, I will be heavily aware of what I need to do and particularly what I am required to include.

Existing Posters:

Above is the first music Poster which I will be looking at. The poster above is of the London based artist Wretch 32, and his album Wretchrospective. This poster certainly stands out and this is due to the colour scheme and font type used within the poster.

What I like about this poster?

• The standard use of white, blue and black works well and these colours blend in well successfully.
• The background image represents what Wretch 32's music is about and what his image stands for.
• The text in the poster has that urban feel and vibe towards it, which again suggests the genre of Wretch 32's music

What does this poster include?

• The artists name
• The name of the album
• The artists record label
• Where the album is available to be purchased from
• An appropriate colour scheme
• Information about which artists feature on the album
• The release date of the album

The poster which I have provided above is of the artists Mariah Carey and her single which is entitled Thank God I Found you. This is a very basic poster in comparison to the first one which I posted. The idea of simplicity works well within this poster as the poster does what it needs to do, which is to solely promote the artist.

What I like about this poster?

• I like the colours in this poster. Although the colour of blue is dominant, the rainbow in the background adds a happy vibe, mood and atmosphere.
• The use of the background image works well as it is of the sky and the connotation which i receive, is that the sky s the limit and that Mariah Carey's single is on top.
• The font is rather cool within the poster as it looks basic; however it gels well with the atmosphere of the poster.
• The image of Mariah Carey is tenderly attractive; therefore this will attract a larger demographic of target audience

What does this poster include?

• A main image of the artist
• Relevant text about the single title
• The release date of the single
• The artists first name

My Final Finished Digi-Pack

I will now be uploading my completed DigiPack which I have spent a lot of time on over the past few weeks. I have saved my DigiPack as a JPEG file, so that it can be viewed as a high quality image.

Here above I have my completed DigiPack. The software program which I have used for the process of my coursework is Adobe Photoshop. Using Photoshop, was fairly useful as I managed to play around with different effect which was cool. Another website called 'Rollip' was also used in the process of making my DigiPack. Rollip is a good, creative and an interesting website which enables users to add effects to images.

The text within my DigiPack has been installed manually; and I extracted the font from a handy and useful website called 'Dafont'. The font has the exact characteristics in which I was particularly looking for; therefore this font style & my DigiPack link and combine well.

The front cover of my DigiPack features a suitable image which I took and I feel that this particular front image is the ideal image, mainly because it fits in well and it specifically stands out. In addition to this, the back cover of my DigiPack has a barcode, our record label logo and the necessary tracklist. Overall I feel that the back cover of my DigiPack is also great as the girls are looking ahead, even though they are positioned behind.

Overall, I am very happy with my DigiPack as it looks professional and fairly realistic which makes me feel good about my DigiPack. The font size and style look creative, the images look top notch and in general my DigiPack has been designed appropriately.

Feedback from the class

Last week as a class activity, we provided feedback on each other's music videos. This was known as the first screening. The music video which my group and I submitted was not our finished music video, but it was close enough to the final product. I will now be uploading the feedback sheets which we were presented with.

As you can see above, I have uploaded the two feedback sheets which were given. The feedback which we got given was mainly and dominantly positive but as always there is always room for improvement. I am now going to explain the feedback which we were given.

The Positive Feedback:

• The pace of editing was great
• The performance and look of the band members was good
• Cinematography worked successfully
• Camera movement was good 
• The documentary type footage looked terrific
• The car scenes looked great
• The colour of the music video was nice

The Negative Feedback:

• Some shots were too long; and therefore need cutting
• The lip syncing could be adjusted a bit better
• There are some gaps that run within the video
• A few tidy up cuts should be in place 

Progression with Digi-Pack

Over the past week, I have made significant progress with the Digi-Pack area of my coursework project. I have now selected and edited all of the images in which i will be using for my Digi-Pack. There is a total of six images and i feel that they are of relevance and suitability.

What's next?

• I will be adding text
• I will be adding a tracklist
• I will be adding a specific font

Journal - Week 8

The past week has been a very hectic week in terms of our Music Video project. The week before last we started filming in a local park; and fortunately we managed to shoot some good scenes; however upon arrival back to school the following day, we as a group noticed that the footage had become blurry, which we knew was not acceptable at all.

What else have we completed over the past week?

• Continued editing our Music Video
• Re-shot a lot of footage
• Continued with our Digi-Pack area of our coursework

Editing our Music Video:
We as a group have continued with the editing of our Music Video. Fortunately, the editing element of our Music Video is coming along successfully and we have finished editing and arranging the footage we already had stored and saved on Final Cut Pro. We did edit and implement the footage we shot in the park; but we all agreed that we cannot have blurry footage in our Music Video; therefore the scenes we shot, we will not implemented in our completed Music Video.

Reshooting footage:
Yesterday as a group we shot interior footage inside Joely's household; which we agreed that we will be using in our completed Music Video. Some of the scenes, I shot were of the girls entering, leaving the house, the band making tea; and some scenes in a car which worked out well. The next step with this footage is to edit it and cut certain shots that we feel will be needed to be used in our Music Video.

Continued with the Digi-Pack area of our coursework:
I personally have progressed with my Digi-Pack area of the coursework; and I have now added a front and back image on my Digi-Pack. In addition to this, I have added some cool, creative and interesting effects into some fo the images that I will be using, so my Digi-Pack is definitely coming along nicely.

What's next for our Music Video Project?

• Edit the footage in which we shot yesterday
• Continue with editing in general in preparation for screening in class next week
• Continue with my Digi-Pack, and to finish as much as possible.