Contents Page

1. Advanced Portfolio Initial Ideas & Audience Feedback
2. Advanced Portfolio Chosen Brief
3. Main Task Deconstruction 1
4. Main Task Deconstruction 2
5. Main Task Deconstruction 3
6. Mood Board
7. Genre Research
8. Moving Image Planning
9. Audience Research
10. Pitch & Write Up of Audience Feedback
11. Ancillary Task Deconstruction 1/1
12. Ancillary Task Deconstruction 1/2
13. Ancillary Task Deconstruction 1/3
14. Ancillary Task Deconstruction 2/1
15. Ancillary Task Deconstruction 2/2
16. Ancillary Task Deconstruction 2/3
17. Ancillary Flat Plan - Advertisement
18. Equipment List
19. Filming Consent Form
20. Music Permission
21. Call Sheet
22. Crew List
23. Music Choice
24. Cast List
25. Rough Logo
26. Final Logo
27. Institution Research
28. Genre Research
29. Filming Consent
30. Storyboards
31. Shot List
32. Filming Update 1
33. Call Sheet 1
34. Call Sheet 2
35. Location Recce
36. Filming Update 2
37. Call Sheet 3
38. Location Recce 2
39. Filming Update 3
40. Call Sheet 4
41. Plan of Action
42. Rough Cut and Audience Feedback
43. Filming Update 4
44. Filming Update 5
45. Location Recce 4
46. Location Recce 5
47. Filming Update 6
48. Location Recce 6
49. Filming Update 7
50. Location Recce 7
51. Location Recce 8
52. Ancillary Task - Digipack
53. Ancillary Task - Advertisement
54. Music Video
55. Video Survey
56. Evaluation Question One
57. Evaluation Question Two
58. Evaluation Question Three
59. Evaluation Question Four

Evaluation Question Four

Here's is the link to the mind-map I created using Bubbl.us, stating what has been used both years.

Over the past year, I feel my skills with the technologies I have used have improved since AS. Last year, I used simpler software such as paint to create flat plans and the ancillary tasks, whereas this year I have used Sony Vegas Pro, Prezi, Bubbl, SurveyMonkey and Photoshop. Compared to last year where I conducted much more audience research for my magazine, this year it was simpler as it was a much wider target audience and therefore it would have been harder to focus on one age/sex/class. Although I used blogger last year, this year I have created much more in depth posts and updated it regularly with filming updates, ancillary task work and production diaries in general. Some websites were familiar to me from As such as Prezi and SurveyMonkey, but this year I have used Bubbl and software like Sony Vegas Pro to help me improve the quality of my work. Because I had it downloaded on my laptop, I was able to work from home and not rely on college time to work on the music video, therefore allowing me more time to improve each detail about it. I used a Nikon Camera this year as opposed to Canon as it gave me better detail for my videos and was more familiar to my partner and myself, allowing us to get the correct lighting and angles that we planned for. This year, I used Macbook laptops more often which allowed me to get familiar with it's controls, settings and software- this aided me greatly as it had more software than the college computers and helped me access the resources I needed.

Evaluation Question Three

My partner and I made a survey aimed towards teenagers, our target audience, as we felt their opinions would reflect the video best and make it clear whether it had been successful or not in reaching our target audience. We showed this to eight people all within the age-range of our target-audience and of various sexes and social backgrounds.

“Excellent pacing”, “Looked very natural”, “It is reflecting the lyrics of people having fun”, “They are very similar, creating a sense of structure and professionalism”.

Overall, the feedback we have received was largely positive with very little criticism to the actual video. However, some people did say that they felt some shots, such as the dancing ones, the office ones and when one of the actors is coming home from work could have been shortened down and potentially slowed the pace of the video down too much. Similarly, some people noted that a few shots seemed blurry, such as when one of our actors was on a bridge, and this could take away from the experience by not having a good sense of verisimilitude. Likewise, it was noticed that the wine-glasses weren't the same and an improvement would be to use the same one to add a sense of continuity to the footage and make it clearer how the wine glasses connect the scenes. It was a collective agreement from all answers that while the ancillary tasks were drastically different to the music video (“Compared to the song, it seems a lot calmer.”), it worked and appeared very professional with obvious connections (“Simple but effective,” “It links to Rachael (the actor), so it works well!”).

The responses from this show that the audience is active within their viewing of the video, but overall having a dominant reading as they follow and understand the story and messages of the video with a clear understanding of the narrative. It's unclear which sex said what as it was anonymous and their sex wasn't called into question, but I feel this is irrelevant as not only was the video aimed towards a target audience of teenagers in general regardless of their sex, all the feedback has been positive. This could be because no gender was portrayed in a negative light and as such there was none who felt discriminated against.

Evaluation Question Two

Evaluation Question One

This is a recording of my Director's Commentary.

Transcript:

For my video, I used Youtube to present it as it's easy to access for the wide public, while also giving viewers the option to comment or “like” it, giving me an idea of what is successful and not successful within the video.
I used Blogger to present my ancillary texts as this is where all of my development evidence is, while also being the most common place for members of my class to look at when looking at my work. Because you can leave comments on posts, this was the ideal place as I could receive feedback on my work.

The video follows some genre conventions such as having a title at the start in a bold font (such as 'Blank Space' by Taylor Swift), having one person within the video lip-syncing to the song (such as 'Bang Bang' by multiple artists), using related objects likes sparklers (such as 'Still Into You' by Paramore), the actors seem happy, enjoyable and content with life (such as 'Teenage Dream' by Katy Perry), bright colours are used during studio shots (such as 'Your Lips Are Moving' by Meghan Trainor). 

I challenged conventions by not telling the narrative in chronological order- I chose to do this as I felt that the happier and more upbeat scenes would fit better in the chorus, and as such I made them flashbacks so the verses didn't one-up the chorus. This contrasts with others, such as 'Millionaires' by the Script, where a story is told throughout the entire video while remaining in chronological order. I feel this ended up being very successful as it made the chorus much more happy and optimistic compared to the slowed down and slightly dull verses, making the footage flow well with the song.

With the ancillary texts, I mainly stuck to forms and conventions of general pop advertisements and CD covers- I done this by looking at other examples, such as Rihanna and Gwen Stefani, and deconstructing them. I chose to follow conventions with this as it would make it a better fit for my target audience of teenagers aged 13-18, while also making it more recognisable as a pop CD and advertisement for a pop CD. Conventions I followed with this includes things such as having the main texts bold and large to make the viewer's attention focus straight on that, having as minimal images and text on as possible to avoid clutter and make the message clear, including an image of the CD on the poster so the viewer is clear what to look for, using contrasting colours for the background and font so they were clear and easy to read, including an image of the main singer on the front of both the CD and advertisement and also the back to add a sense of continuity to the CD and adding borders around the preview on the advertisement and on the inside of the CD to follow the house-style of black and white with borders.

Video Survey

Music Video

Location Recce

Location Recce

Filming Update 7

Today we shot both Rachael singing in the studio and the head-shots of all of the actors. For the studio, we set up two lights both side of Rachael and used a tripod to keep a steady balance. We filmed this twice with different sized shots so we had two different options of which to use. By having Rachael lip-syncing, it makes the video seem more professional and follows conventions as most music videos, especially pop ones, has at least one person singing.

For the head shots, we had the actors stand against plain white walls and took close-ups. We chose to do this because it introduced the characters & locations straight away to the viewer. We didn't use a tripod during these as we felt it would give a good sense of continuity with the rest of the video to have it hand-held, as well as allowing the viewer to know what to expect for the rest of the video.

Location Recce P&M in woods

Location Recce P&M silly string

Location Recce

Filming Update 6

This time we filmed Rachael acting as if she was the person behind the camera when Paige and I were in the forest. We only done it for this area as we presume the audience will also know that it is suggested Rachael is also filming the silly string. We done it this way as Rachael was unavailable for filming the previous time and we felt it would have looked as if she was remembering something where she wasn't there for which made no sense with a lack of continuity.

Again with this we used two small lights, however we held these by hand as we were filming in a different area of the woods where there was nowhere to place the lights. This meant we had to keep a steady hand which I feel we were successful in. We had to overcome the problem of the camera dying after just one shot, so we filmed the other shots on our phone- this turned out to be even better as the phone cameras did not give Rachael red-eye like the camera itself.

Filming Update 5

With this scene, Bethany filmed Paige and I in the woods and on a path next to a field. We chose these locations due to both the lighting that was available and to reflect the conventions of other pop music videos. We used sparklers and silly string to represent a childish and fun side, playing on the lyrics of 'Ain't it fun', while also connotating to childhood where children would play with such things. These also follow conventions as other pop videos, such as Still Into You, use objects like sparklers.

We used two small lights when filming in the woods and placed them against two trees opposite eachother to lighten both Paige and I, however in the scene where we are using silly string we were standing under a street-light and using only one other light to brighten any part of the face that was greatly shadowed. Because it was night time and we only had small lights, we couldn't brighten every detail when in the woods but I feel this is fine due to the sparklers being the main object of attention in this scene.

Location Recce

Filming Update 4

Today I filmed Paige at my house for the scene where she comes home from work, chills out then notices a glass (which would then flashback to Rachael's house). With this scene, I didn't have to use any artificial lighting except in the hallway due to natural lighting coming through the windows. I felt this was a massive benefit as it adds a better sense of verisimilitude, and some of the lighting was very complimentary and smoothed the skin, reflecting well against the pale surroundings.

I used various shots and angles in this scene, filming each shot multiple times in differing angles so that we had multiple choices on the shots we would end up using. I feel this was a good decision as it seems more professional and reflects real life music videos as they often cut between shots instead of using one long one.

We had decided to use a wine glass to represent the memory of Rachael's as it was a reoccurring factor that we both had in our houses, and was very realistic as most houses have them. For Paige relaxing, we decided to have her come in, make a hot drink and sit down as this would suggest that she had been working hard all day, similar to how Rachael was working in her scene.

Rough Cut and Audience Feedback

This is a rough version of our music video which has all the editing and filming we have been able to produce as of now. Due to not having access to equipment or actors, it's been unable to be completed which much footage missing, such as Paige coming home from work. Due to this, the audience finds it hard to understand the story line behind it as it's incomplete and much of the story itself is missing from the video. The black parts in the video is where we have planned scenes the fill that space. The black empty spaces are where the scenes that haven't been filmed will be placed- all of them are planned out, such as at the beginning having head-shots of each actor, but we still need to film this.

When screening the video to our class, we received feedback that pointed out the positives and constructive criticism. The feedback has been condensed into a list of positives and negatives:

Positives

• Good camera work with a wide variety of angles, movement and depth of field
• The music matched the feel of the video
• The clips were funny and so they matched the upbeat song
• Product placement
• The contrast between the party and work scenes flow well
• Good transitions
• Scenes aren't too long
• The zoom on Rachael is visually pleasing

Improvements

• The scenes could fit the music better
• When the music slows down, we could maybe slow down the footage to reflect it
• Potentially having someone singing/lip-syncing and more dancing
• Shorten down the escalator scene
• Some really shaky scenes may need to be re-shot
• Sync some movements with the song
• The first scene seems out of focus
• Change the swipe transition
• Increase the lighting during interior shots while editing as it's under-exposed
• The walking shot at the end is a long single shots, and could be broken up with jump cuts, but this may not work.

Call Sheet 4

Filming Update 3

With this update, we filmed Paige, Rachael and I in a house (Rachael's) dancing and playing games, overall chilling out and having fun like teenagers do. We decided this fit the song better than a big party due to the song itself not being a party song and felt it would look out of place with scenes that reflect an atmosphere like that. Filming on location was a better option than a set or in a studio as it adds to the verisimilitude.

We used ambient lighting within the house to add verisimilitude to the scene as we wanted to be able to keep it as realistic as possible. However, if the lighting stands out drastically within the video itself, we can edit it with colour curves within Sony Vegas Pro to make it match and fit in with the other filmed scenes to add a better sense of continuity.

Ancillary Flat Plan - Advertisement

For our magazine advertisement, we have largely followed conventions of other musicians' advertisement when advertising either their single or cd. The band logo is placed in the top left due to it being out of the centre focus butn also noticeable due to the audience reading from left to right and then top to bottom.
We have chosen to place the release date of the album in the top right corner as it is also not on focus, however the font size will be larger so the viewer will still notice it if they wish to look for it. Also, we have chosen to have the song list below the main image due to that getting the most attention and being the most important to the viewer as they would wish to know exactly what is on the product they would be purchasing.
The image will cover the entire poster, getting the most attention other than the list of songs- this will stand out and be how our viewer will notice our advertisement and how it will be recognisable. Finally, we left some space at the bottom to talk about who was involved in the production of the album/single, the copyrights and any other legal neccesities.

Location Recce 2

Call Sheet 3

Filming Update 2

We have filmed a scene where me, Rachael and Paige are meeting again in the city and walking into a restaurant. This is to be for our final chorus or end of the song. Within this scene, we had the three of us walk down streets, into the Gate and into a restaurant, having Bethany follow us with a camera from multiple angles- this appeared to be a positive thing to do as she went in front of us on the escalators and as such now has a high angle shot of us three.

Within this scene, we didn't use any props at all due to this being shots of us walking and talking. However, the lighting carries a high sense of verisimilitude due to the outside having ambient lighting from shops/street lights and ambient light within the Gate. We made sure when filming to use various shots and angles such as high angles, tracking shots and full-body shots.

Plan of Action

This is my plan of action on what I will be doing for the next month. It mainly consists of filming some more and editing, but it also includes the actual making of my ancillary tasks. Because the music video will be getting feedback at the end and the ancillary tasks don't, I've made sure there is enough time before the deadline to get feedback for them before I hand it in. This way, I can make any final adjustments.