Making the Prezi

While prezi may look simple, fun and easy to use, it was actually a remarkably frustrating process. The actual making of the prezi is easy to do but there were problems when saving. Sometimes the project would delete everything on screen if you imported anything and then tried to move it, a problem is that it would then autosave and so everything is gone. This happened to me twice which was a major setback as i got past the first two tasks both times. After learning my lesson i finally made the entire document by saving a copy of the prezi before i ever made a single change. This was incredibly annoying but i'm happy with what i've made and hope it does well.

FINAL EVALUATION

FINAL EVALUATION on Prezi

Here is my entire evaluation done as a prezi document

N.B. Unfortunately i wasn't able to upload the final video onto the prezi as i had used up the maximum amount of spaced given to free members.

EVALUATION SO FAR

I've decided to do my entire evaluation on prezi. I've nearly finished the prezi and will easily have it done by sunday.

Entire project

TASK 1

TASK 2

TASK 3

TASK 4

TASKS

While it may look like i'm not keeping up with my evaluation, i have actually decided to do the entire evaluation as a Prezi document. Here are some screen shots of where i am so far

Entire view

Task 1

Task 2 (so far)

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Part 3

Click for annotations :)

N.B. Had Difficultly finding promotional posters to compare with online, will try elsewhere

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ? Part 2

1. a shot that shows a link between lyrics and/or music and visuals

This is a shot from the music video Sticks and Stones by Jamie T. It's a first person perspective shot throwing a cup at a drunk Jamie T. 

The lyrics Before this shot are "With the boys across the platform shouting 'Light Weight Prick!' ". The shot pretty much shows exactly what the lyrics are saying where Jamie T is the Light weight and your perspective is the boys shouting at him.

2. a shot that typifies the way a record company would want their artist to be represented

This is a shot from the music video New Shoes by Paolo Nutini. In this shot our protagonist (Paolo) is surrounded by friends at a house party with a girl kissing him on the cheek. This makes the artist look popular and loved as this is his party.

3. a shot that illustrates how your video uses music genre

This is a shot from the music video Harder than you think by Public enemy. The genre of the video is old school hip hop. This shot shows one of the singers wearing baggy clothes a massive clock on a chain, cap turned sideways and over the top chunky sunglasses. This is basically the perfect epitomy of old school hip hop.

4. a shot that shows an intertextual reference

This is a shot from the music video for Justice by DVNO. Throughout the video the lyrics to the song are displayed using old company animatics. This shot shows the most recognizable logo which is the 20th century fox logo but in the video it shows the lyrics "Even More".

5. a shot that demonstrates your use of camera

This is a shot from the music video for Angels by Robbie Williams. This is a really spectacular camera shot. Its a large scale sweeping shot, probably shot from a helicopter, of Robbie walking through a massive field. It's an amazing shot and really fits the video.

6. a shot that demonstrates your use of lighting

This is a shot from the music video I Got a Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas. It shows women dancing to the song under UV light with Glow paint on the hands. The lighting is great as it really gives off a hectic party/club atmosphere which really fits the whole feel of the video.

7. a shot that demonstrates your use of mise-en-scene

This is a shot from the music video Smooth Criminal by Alien Ant Farm. The Mise on scene here is excellent, it pictures the band playing in the middle of a boxing ring surrounded by a large crowd having an outdoor garden party. Lots of things are going on in this shot, people dancing, band playing, everyone just seems to be having a good time.

 8/9. Two shots which you feel demonstrate something which shows you have watched other music videos

The first shot is from the music video Take on Me by Reel Big Fish. It shows the band strutting down a hallway playing the song energetically as they go along. This is used in quite a few other videos, it gives the video a feel of hyperactivity and energy. Most of the verses are filmed using this shot.

The second shot is from the music video Grounds for Divorce by Elbow. It shows the band playing in a bar as a live performance. This is used in lots of other videos normally the band walks in and starts playing as everyone starts to like the song more and more. it works well because it gives the situation a more realistic feel.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Part 1

1. a shot that shows a link between lyrics and/or music and visuals

This shot of Tom happens in the second verse of the song where the line "If the devil offers no then i will say". The shot is queued in on the word devil. This is to say that Tom is meant to represent evil and sadness as he is refusing the man his loan/application.

2. a shot that typifies the way a record company would want their artist to be represented

This shot typifies the band as it has them all playing their instruments and performing the song. This gives the video a feel of authenticity and puts forth a confirmation that they write their own songs. This gives the band an authentic feel when you see them.

3. a shot that illustrates how your video uses music genre

This shot illustrates the way the video uses genre as it shows an acoustic guitar being played with a sepia filter over the top. The song is fairly country/rock the band calls it's music neo-psychedelic rock but this song sounds more country-like and the sepia filter along with the instruments being played gives off that feel

4. a shot that shows an intertextual reference

This shot shows the band setting up for busking. This shot reminded me of the music video of badly drawn boy busking for his video of All Possibilities. In the video Badly Drawn boy is seen busking live and seems to be the only video that does this, although in our video we didn't actually busk this shot makes it seem as though we did.

5. a shot that demonstrates your use of camera

This shot really epitomises our use of camera. It really nicely frames the banker and the man arguing over something and a motion effect was put on this clip so it zooms in slowly. This gave the shot a very cinematic feel and makes it obvious that this part is about the story.

6. a shot that demonstrates your use of lighting

We filmed this shot on the Grand Arcade car park roof which we were later kicked off of but we luckily managed to get some really good shots, such as this one. The composition of the sky with the city makes this a really nice shot as Rob is almost surrounded by the light of the sky which really benefits this shot a lot.

7. a shot that demonstrates your use of mise-en-scene

Unfortunately our film used almost no Mese on Scene at all as most the shots are just us playing the guitar and only the shot in the bank has the most interesting props but it's hard to see most of it so i chose this shot. While brief it shows the buskers setting up at another location. All three of the buskers are seen in the shot, they are taking their guitars out of their cases. The cases appear to be the only props really but its a nice little addition to see.

8/9. Two shots which you feel demonstrate something which shows you have watched other music videos

The problem is our video doesn't borrow any features that a specific to certain videos but an obvious feature which is seen in other music videos is a shot of the band performing. The first shot shows a whole band performance throughout the video they are seen in different locations but this was framed quite well. This kind of shot is seen in most video where the band is seen performing the song, such as in the music video for Henrietta where the band is seen performing in the streets as seen below

The second shot show the singer playing and singing the song on his own which is a classic shot found in many music videos, as it's normally what the fans want to see. This happens a lot in the music video for Letters from the sky by Civil Twilight. The singer is seen on his own at the beginning and at other parts of the video as seen below

What i would change (Video)

When looking at the video on it's own it easy to see that some changes need to be made but then looking at other peoples videos you realise that more could've been done.

First of all, more takes should've been done of the run-throughs as i kept making stupid faces throughout the video, mostly due to the weather and my acting. Linking on with the acting in the run throughs the acting in the story parts need to be improved as well. Toms performance is fine but to be perfectly frank mine really isn't, on a number of occasions i've had Nick laugh at the reaction shot. This isn't me getting mad at Nick because if someone is finding it funny it means that i wasn't doing a good enough job and should probably work on emoting in a more meaningful way.

In terms of the shots there needs to be more moving shots, the swooping shots of Rob are easily my favourite so far and it's a shame we didn't get more as it really could've improved the entire video. There needed to be more story shots as the story was a part of the video we worked quite hard on and it was a shame to see that the narrative isn't obvious.

If these changes were added it could've been really quite spectacular. I will be posting Feedback from various sources soon along with my own objective feedback.

Research

As it turns out the music video i found to compare mine with was actually a fan made video. Apparently an official music video has not yet been made for "Mansion in the Sky".

Comparing ours to the original

ORIGINAL


OURS

I put up the original music video up awhile ago and when looking into the origin of the video, i find it is hard to tell whether it is the official video made for the song or whether it was made by someone else.

Putting the origin of the video aside i'll be making comparisons between our video and the "official" video.

Cinematography

The original uses videos of people square dancing to accompany the music. This works well at the beginning but soon gets stale and leaves the audience wondering if the next shot will be different and more interesting, which is something you never want your audience to feel. I am proud to say i think in terms of camera angling and position, that our video is better as it keeps up the pace and is more visually interesting.

Content

In the original it seems to be all based around the audience watching a dance routine. The square dancing is fun to watch as some of the moves performed seem intricate and impressive. This is all that happens though, dancing from beginning to end, which is a shame really because it is a fun dance to watch but they just shouldn't of had just that for the video. Once again i am confident in saying that ours has more visually interesting content. There is a vague story in the second verse, a wider range of scenery, singing and just a generally a larger range of activities taking place.

Verdict

Looking at the two videos with an entirely objective view it seems that our video seems to have more going for it, there are parts of the other video i do like such as the dancing and the gritty film reel effect but those aren't enough to make a video worth watching all the way through

I will be looking into whether the other video is official or fan-made

FINAL VIDEO

This is our final finished music video, i'll be posting changes i'd like to make soon but for now enjoy watching the video :D

If i had more time (digipack & poster)

Its very hard to decide what i'd change for my digipack & poster because i'm happy with the way it us. If i had to make some changes they would be

• Fill in black panel with photograph
• Add more cd's to go in extra panels
• Work on tweaking the effects on the photographs to make them look more professional
• Add more reviews on the poster
• Extend the description on the inside cover of the digipack
• Put more information on the actual cd

I would like to make these changes but in the end they wouldn't improve the quality of the digipack by a massive amount.

DIGIPACK and POSTER

This is my finished final digipack

FRONT

INSIDE

I used images taken on our shoot day when we were on the grafton roof and pictures taken in town when i was trying to scout out locations. The Digipack is a fold out which opens up into 4 panels. These do not contain extra discs but have some nice photography on them. On the inside cover the cd is meant to be on the third panel but i pul it on the fourth panel so it was possible to see the photography underneath. When put together the cd will sit in the third panel and the fourth panel will be left black. All pictures had contrast applied to them but only the pictures on the inside had the Sepia look on them. I did this using a photo-filter called "Warming filter" and played with the parameters to suit my needs.

POSTER

The poster was made using an image used on the digipack (Guitar shot) and was scaled to an A4 size. I also applied a black and white effect with contrast to give it an oldy gritty feel. I also included reviews and testimonies from famous music magazines such as Klash and Kerrang.

Overall i really like my digipack and poster and think it links well into my music video.

DIGIPACK WORK so far

Today i've been been working on the digipack for our CD. It's going along really well so far and it's all coming together i've used photos taken in town  and photos taken on Grafton car park roof. At the moment I'm putting together all the copyright information and other little additions but i seem to be getting close to finishing with a good product. I haven't started the poster yet but will be starting soon.

Shots filmed

We didn't manage to film some of the shots planned mainly because we forgot to at the time but when looking through the footage it seems to not really matter and also we filmed a few other which weren't planned for

• Walking shot of me singing song
• Final cutaway of me as a busker covering up the camera
• CUs of all band members (cutaway)

Photos from second shoot day in town

We filmed the last shots needed to finish our video on tuesday. These included a runthrough from each band member seperately filmed with three different angles. We also did another walking shot and much more random talking to be used for cutaways. We managed to get everything filmed by 12:40 and so was able to get back to long in time to return the camera and tripod. Below are some pictures taken by tom of us filming the extra shots

Overall i think the filming went well and we'll easily have enough footage to finish the music video.

Changes needed

When looking through my rough cut the main changes needed to be made are

• Having a larger variety of shots
• Including more story shots to help the audience understand more
• More CUs of band members
• Add shots of solo being played by one of the band members
• Colour correction is needed to give an oldy feel
• Editing needs to be sharper and more concise
• Last verse needs have more energy

Rough cut video

Here is our rough cut video for Mansion In the Sky

MAX, TOM B & ALEX - 'MANSION IN THE SKY' ROUGH CUT from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Word Processed Time management and Shots needed

Afternoon so far...

We had a talk with Steve and Nick about our video so far. They both seem to say the same thing, we need a greater variety of camera angles and more shots of the bank story. We also got other students in the class to watch it through and give constructive criticism . They other little tweaks which improved the feel of the shots we have, Tom H suggested centering some of the shots and cutting out some empty space off some shots. Angelica also mentioned that we shouldn't use the bench shot at the beginning which improved the intro.

We made a plan for next week which we drew and is shown below

The As and Bs refer to grouped camera shots in which we'd like to do as shown below

So far things seem to be coming along nicely :D

Today so far...

This morning we successfully have got a very rough version of the entire song. During the edit we decided that we'd do one more run through on the cycle bridge and film more cutaways as there arent enough. We'll be making a list of these shots needed this afternoon. Some of the shots we have aren't quite varied as we'd like so when we do our new run throughs we'll be shooting from multiple angles.

Feedback from Digipack!

I haven't actually done my full Digipack so was only given feedback from the front cover of my Digipack which i planned to be a draft but seeing as it was received rather well i might well use it as my finished front cover for my Digipack. 

The Feedback

As i arrived late i wasn't able to receive much feedback o my digipack but what i got seemed to be only positive "The composition is brilliant, when i look at it my eyes follow from the bike, out to the rest of the picture." I'm really happy with this comment as i took many pictures in town and the picture in which he/she is referring to was one of my favourites which i put on the back. Another comment mentioned the typography used "The text actually looks like writing already on the wall." I worked quite hard to make that effect work and I'm glad it came across well. Last comment was simply "pretty sweet. like the pics" which is good in itself.

Changes

It seems like that instead of changing what i've already done, i should simply add to it as people didn't seem to have a problem with it as it is. I need to write a track-list as the digipack shown was intended to be the single version but i'll still to the style of writing on the wall. I also still need to add a barcode on the back but apart from that the digipack development seems to be going along nicely

Editing so far...

Today from 9 till 1220 we edited our footage for our music video. It seems it be coming along really well and we have already reached the solo which only leaves the last verse to do. Colour correction and other tweaks still need to be made but we have made a decent amount of progress today indefinitely.

Editing

Today we will be editing most of the footage for our music video. We were told by Steve yesterday to do two more run-throughs (one on the cycle bridge and another walking shot of which we did only one of on friday). We will be arranging these times around our performers (myself, Liam and Rob) on a day which most suits them but we can easily have these shots filmed by friday at the very latest.

N.B. It doesn't seem like we need those cutaways deperately so far but we'll have to see throughout the edit

Today's filming

Today was a mix of stress and relief.

In the morning i was playing the mad hatter in christina's music video, but because of people being ill or transport or whatever, we didn't start filming till about 12 when everyone was a little fed up and cold. I hope the footage turned out well for their group though. I also played as an extra in Yas's video.

I got to Coleridge at 1:30 in the end where we managed to grab Liam as an extra performer to go with me and Rob. We also brought Sven for cinematography as the pieces i've seen him film are impressive. We started walking towards town and due to the weather everyone was losing their morale and the performance had to look convincing so we managed to find a staircase to a park where we filmed a couple of run-throughs in different costume and a close up on the singer (me). We then decided to go to the train station to do some filming there. I didn't get a chance to look at the footage but i hope it's good because it turned out to be a spectacular set with the sun setting as people came in and out of taxis. In the end only Tom turned up and had made the sign for the protest. As i said yesterday though this was not integral and due to time constraints we didn't end up filming the protest and just did lots of run-throughs in different set ups. One in particular which i though was good was a walking shot, front on of the singer wearing the same shirt as from the bank meeting lip synching the song.

Overall today went better than expected we are still minus a few cutaways but those can be filmed at long road on monday.

CHANGE OF BLOG

I recently decided to change my blog to make it look more appealing, now to me the header at the top looks poo-brown to me but i've been told that it's red so i'll have to take their word on it.

ENJOY!

Photos from Rob's group video

I wont actually get a chance to transfer the photos i took from the shoot onto anyone in Rob's group laptop so i'm just gonna put the photos up here.

I actually took more than 4 photos but my camera sometimes decides to randomly put things out of focus when the photos are transferred onto the computer just to piss me off

so these were the ones in focus.

Tomorrow!

Today we filmed the bank scene so tomorrow is the scenes filmed in town. In the morning i'll be helping Rob's group in their Alice and Wonderland style music video, playing the Mad Hatter. After doing so i'll be meeting Tom and Alex in Coleridge to get cameras and leave for town. Alex said he'd be making the sign for friday so hopefully that'll be brought for tomorrow. If Alex wasn't able to make the sign we'll simply have to do without the protestor. To be honest when watching our rough footage shot in long road, while it was shabby and you could see the camera sometimes, i found it amazing that different shots with lip synch could actually make a good music video. This has lead me to consider bringing in several changes of clothes for myself in which i can be wearing at different "pitches" in town (a pitch is where a busker plays). I was quite apprehensive towards this idea at the beginning as i was determined to have a storyline present but from watching other peoples rough footage i found that a storyline really isn't necessary at all. This doesn't mean the man with the sign's story is gone but it isn't integral to the quality of the video.

Hoping the shoot will go down well tomorrow and everything will be filmed so i can relax for the weekend :D

MANSION IN THE SKY TABS

Quite awhile ago when we started the project i decided to learn the chords for the song. This would give the final video more authenticity about it being a live performance.

Am G Am
Could you forget the awful things ive done
Am G Am
could you forget the awful things ive done
D Am
im sure i will become your favorite son
Am G Am
if you forgive the awful things ive done

Am G Am
sweet jesus could you take this pain away?
Am G Am
sweet jesus could you drag this shame away?
D Am
if the devil offers know that i will say.
Am G Am
"sweet jesus blood it washed my sins away."

Am G Am
so open up your big house in the sky
Am G Am
yes open up your big house in the sky.
D Am
but don't ask me what i've done cause i will lie.
Am G Am
just open up your big house in the sky,
Am G Am
open up your mansion in the sky.

Some f the lyrics i found don't actually sound clear in the song so the lyrics i wrote for tom previously still look good on camera, even if they aren't the correct lyrics.

Photos from todays footage

Today we filmed the bank scene for the second verse of the music video

These are the written lyrics i held up for Tom when he lip synched the final verse

These are other photos of us filming on set

I brought in two different shirts to wear to see which one went down best, in the end i decided to go for white shirt with a black tie and black jeans. I also had a choice of being scruffy or neat. In the end we decided looking neat was best. Here are the photos taken of different costume and whether it was scruffy or neat

NEAT BLUE SHIRT

SCRUFFY BLUE SHIRT

NEAT WHITE SHIRT (chosen)

SRUFFY WHITE SHIRT (worst choice)

Please excuse my lovely expression on the last photo, it was pretty early.

DIGIPACK (SINGLE VERSION)

This is what my digi-pack would look like if it were a single

Rough cut

L3 TEST FOOTAGE - MANSION IN THE SKY - MAX, ALEX & TOM B from cmdiploma on Vimeo.

Work done on Tuesday morning 9th Feb

Filmed rehearsals of Mansion in the sky

We started filming the rehearsals of mansion in the sky. We ran into a few problems. For one, when performing the song the performers (Myself and Rob) had difficulty getting the speed right. This required several takes to be shot and the last take still isn't perfect. In the afternoon we will be filming more test footage in and around the college.

Schedule

Monday: 10:50 - 12:20

creating digipak pictures using pictures taken from town
Tuesday: 10:50 - 12:20 full video run-through
01:05 - 04:10 find props, film practice, cutaways
Wednesday: Unavailable due to college activities
Thursday: 09:00 - 12:20 Film bank scene footage
Friday: 10:50 - 04:10 Editing and maybe more filming, depending on time

Deadlines for music video

2nd - 5th of Feb - Animatic week

This week we are going to be doing our animatics. This will be at least 30 - 40 seconds long and can be for any part of the song. Its purpose would be to give the band/manager an idea of what the video will look like. We will be trying to think of literally ever shot we could put in there so that it keeps up a pace and looks effective.

8th - 12th of Feb - Test footage week

This will involve making phone calls to get proper permission to film then once we have this we will drive over to all our locations and get as much footage as we can. We will experiment with different angles, static or moving and see how we will manage the suns position as this could very easily be a problem for us. We may then very roughly edit this together with the soundtrack and upload it to the blog.

15th - 19th of Feb

HALF TERM

22nd - 26th of Feb - Filming week

In this week we will be doing all our actual filming. We will take what we learn from our test footage and shoot everything. We will try to shoot more than what we've planned so that we can be sure we have enough footage.

1st - 5th of March - Rough cut week

This week will be focused on creating a rough cut. The deadline for this is friday the 5th. I am looking forward to this part as it is when we see all out work start to come together. Hopefully it will all go well and we won't have any problems with the amount of footage we get etc. We are tying to avoid this. Any time that we have free this week we will be spending on our digipaks as these are due in next week.

8th - 12th of March - Finished video week

Our final video has to be finished by the end of this week so we will be working hard to finish our edit. 11th of March is the deadline for our digipak.

15th - 19th of March - Evaluation week

In this week we will be doing a lot of evaluation tasks and looking back on our project.

Some rough storyboard set ups