Welcome Post

Hi my name is Christmel Ylagan and this is my A2 Media Studies Blog. On this blog I will be making a promotional package for a new artist/band, In turn I will be producing a music video which will clearly show the artist/band however this process will be recorded so that you will be able to see the progress we make as we start to do our research, planning, constructing and evaluating of our A2 portfolio. In addition, this blog will be of a much better standard then last years because since then I have acquired more experience and methods of which to use for my blog and further creations.

Brief

This here is a summary of my A2 Media Studies, the points below show all of the things which I have to do. In other words everything below shows the majority of what you'll be seeing on my blogs such as the build up of the music promo video, the planning for it and its research and development.

Your task is to produce:

¡  A music ‘promo’ video

¡  Up to 5 minutes

¡  Either working on your own or in a group of up to four members

You also need to produce:

¡  A ‘digipak’ (Six panels) for its release on CD

¡  A magazine advertisement for the digipak

 In addition to your ‘promo’ video you will have to produce:

¡  A critical evaluation

Production Team

In total there are 2 people in my production team including myself, the other person is Laura Felstch. I believe that she will work well being part of my production team because we both have similar taste in music. Both of us like all music however we largely prefer music that consist of very nice beats. In addition Laura is in my production team because in my opinion Laura's strengths are in her editing as well as filming. On the other hand I feel I am better at directing but I do think that I am less professional at filming. In terms of editing I think we are both equal and so when it comes to editing we may share the responsibility. As a result my production team only consist of me and Laura with the added addition of us already working with each other for last years project.

Abba - Mama Mia Practical Exercise

This exercise was completed with very little time as well as with only a small amount of planning and help. The good thing is, we were able to shoot enough clips very well that you can clearly see we are attempting to replicate "Abba's" music video however I believe that it could have been better if the lip syncing as well as the whole co-ordination of the team was more in time and in beat to the song. In addition the clip with the guitar in focus should have been angled a bit more as it would appear more like it did in Abba's music video. On the good side, the section where the chorus plays is where most of the editing is good and where the shots compliment the editing. Sadly after that section I believe that the editing could have been changed a bit because the lip syncing isn't in sync with the audio. However the only real problem we had and cold have executed better with more time was remembering and rehearsing the music's lyrics and dance but as a whole it was a very good outcome considering the time we did it in and the resources we had to do so.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart Lip Sync Exercise

Evaluation

Our Don't go breaking my heart video was filmed using a camera, tripod and a dolly. We shot in total 5 whole shots in 5 different angles, the angles were straight, low angle, angle facing male singer, angle facing female singer and a dolly shot.  To make our video seem more realistic we decided that our lip syncing should be carried out by singing out loud, this would help us as it would help to sync our mouths with the song.

The clips were then edited using the layers method whereby we firstly placed all the clips in sync of the song and then cut pieces of each layer to show the clips that we desired to be shown. This was done through the use of the razor tool which allowed me to delete sections of the clips in detail.

This is what the layers looked like before editing.

This is what the layers looked like after editing.

Mistakes:
I had bad continuation due to different actions between each whole takes so as a result the Lip Sync video wasn't as smooth as it could have been. In addition I feel that I lacked some energy during the filming so I believe it didn't help the video that well. Finally I don't think that my editing was very smooth in some cases the clips I used didn't do too well in matching actions between clips, also when I was lip syncing I think that my mouth lacked expression so the lip syncing in the video wasn't believable.

What I learned and could apply to my final production:
I learned that the focus of making music videos is continuation, as a result I learned that I need to take note of my original actions and should keep it consistent if I am attempting to match the actions on clips when editing. Moreover I also learned that I need to take it slow when editing and analyse which clips and angles are best for each section of the song as this will help to create flow and structure within the video. Finally the last thing I learned is that when and if I am going to be shown in a music video I have to have confidence so that the videos quality does not decrease and so that the audience will be kept intrigued.

Album Art Exercise

This exercise took place so that we could practise using photoshop and find out how we could replicate an album cover. In this case we replicated Michael Jacksons BAD cover whereby we used a range of tools, such as the quick selection tool, magic eraser and the text tool. In addition we also messed around with the opacity of each layers so that we could achieve an outcome that looked a lot more blended and professional. It was honestly very easy to do but it isn't as good as Michael Jackson's album itself. In total, due to my experience with this exercise I am confident and now have a better understanding of the skills and techniques we will need to use in order to make our own Digipak and advert. 

History of the Music Video

In this post I will be explaining the birth of music videos as well as what life was before they existed and this will all be shown in the power point  that I have created below using the presentation device PowToon.