Creative camera use + Rejected footage

Creative camera use:

In our video we used several different techniques and effects to enhance the effect of it. In the very first shot of the video we used a time lapse shot. This involved leaving the camera to shoot the sky for a lengthy period of time. We then sped this up at the editing stage and this gave the effect of the fast moving clouds and day turning to night.

We also used camera blends showing the transition of different characters in the same background. It was a simple effect to add but really shows the story of the video well with each character walking along the same path searching for the women. Here are some screenshots showing the shots where this happened:

We decided to limit the special effects we used as we felt that too much may have taken the video away from the folk genre and Mumford's previous videos that are simplistic and very traditional.

Rejected Footage:

We added rejected footage onto our uploaded youtube video. One shot we decided not to use is of Ben playing a guitar looking over the river. We placed the camera behind him but when it came to the editing stage we realised you could not see that he was playing the guitar and also that the shot was a bit too dark. Here is the shot:



Another shot we rejected is with the main actor Kris and the female actor. She is meant to walk behind him and when he turns to look she is just disappearing out of shot. However, due to on set communication and the structure of the shot we decided not to use this. Firstly, the actor turns around too late and we didn't think it looked real enough. The way Kris was at the bottom of the shot against the tree also meant he wasn't easy to notice and some viewers may miss him which would take away the point of the shot.

Evaluation

In what ways does your video use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwzuiViP9r_0MTY4OGQ1NWUtMDE5OC00MmNlLWE4YmEtNTc1NjhmYmE5MDU2&hl=en_GB&authkey=CJ2XnrcP

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

When developing my promopack, my main aim was so that they could be linked to each other with their styles and themes and also that it looked like a professionally made package. As my video idea was based around a gloomy forest setting with the female 'awakening' the band members, I used this dark and slightly mysterious style for my promopack.

Here are my final digipack and advert versions:





Looking at these I really think they work together and that the audience would make a link between the two if they were viewed separately. Both use dark colour schemes of black, brown and grey which is the main aspect people will make connections between the two. I also made some of the fonts the same or similar such as the the album title "The Awakening" on both the advert and digipack to add more continuity which the audience would hopefully realise. The images I have used are all similar in ways as well which gives more character to the promopack and this theme is something that the audience would be able to see in the video to re-iterate this point. The images are all of non-urban locations featuring trees, rivers, grass etc and gives the audience a look into the bands personality and backgrounds as the images could be seen to mean something to them.




This promopack clearly ties in very well together with the album keeping its focus on the house/shop front that the band appear in. The back cover shows an image of a window clearly related to the image on the front because of the colour and style of windows. The advert is simple and shows the front cover but also provides the vital information alongside it with all the conventions of an advert. This is different to my advert as mine doesn't feature the digipack on the advert but focuses more on flowing on with the same themes and styles as the digipack. One particular I notice is how the fonts of the Mumford promopack are all similar and use the same traditional style of type. This is something I could have done and is certainly an important aspect that I have ignored because it does affect the coherency of the package and how they work together.



Again, this package makes it easy for the audience to connect the two as the advert uses the direct album cover but extends it to add more information around the product and band such as tour dates and the tracks featured on the album. The audience viewing the advert will immediately link it with the album due to the identical appearance. This is different to my advert but despite this I still think mine is effective as there is many aspects that link them and fans might appreciate the little variation that my promopack offers.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? (takes a couple of minutes to load correctly)

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwzuiViP9r_0OTFkODlmNWUtNDI3Yy00YzA2LTg5OGEtODg5OWM2OTlkZDRk&authkey=CN6D25kE&hl=en_GB

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of all your products?

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwzuiViP9r_0ZjY3YjAzNTctMzAxYS00NDZiLThlYjUtZTFhODI2NTM4ZTQ1&hl=en_GB&authkey=CPCXlf0H

Final Video

Shooting scripts/Storyboards

These are the storyboards myself and my group made when planning the shots we would use throughout our music video. We had all agreed on the narrative and the storyboards would help us structure our filming and give us a clear outline. However, we would only use it as a plan - shots can look very different than on paper and with the unknown location there is sure to be changes to some aspects of the video or individual shots. When planning we decided that we would keep cinematography and the setting simple as this is similar to Mumford and the indie/folk genre. This involved the camera movements used and also the transitions, although the latter wouldn't need to be thought about until the editing stage.

Here is the call sheet our group made in case of an emergency or if any members needed to contact each other:

Completed Advert

This is my advert that would be part of the promopack to accompany my digipack. I feel the theme of the advert compliments the digipack well, and also the video that we created. The dark atmosphere of the poster has strong links to the video and digipack which is important as the audience can view the three as a package which increases its effectiveness as a product. For the band's name I chose to use a white on black style as this emphasises the text and will stand out to anyone viewing the advert. I tried to limit the text on the advert as too much can lose the audience's attention. Advert's are there to be viewed quickly and people will want to gather all the information they can from it, too much text can distract and damage the effectiveness on it. I included the name of the album, which is vital, and placed it in a position where it is easily seen. I also increased the font size for the album title to put more emphasise on this and make it stand out. Stating the special contents of the product was also needed as the audience need to be influenced to buy it and being informed of extra exclusive content will do this, which is something that was evident in my research of adverts before I produced my own. Another aspect of adverts I gathered in my research were media opinions and ratings and I included this in my advert. This is another feature that influences the audience as they want to know how good the album is before they spend money on it. I added images of the band members to the advert as Indie music fans like to know bands more personally and the images let them see the band and relate to them. At the bottom of the ad there is information and companies related to the product. The 'play.com' logo shows where the album can be purchased and the 'Island' logo represents Mumford's record label who would have produced the product. The address for the official site of Mumford & Sons is also included as it shows fans where they can go for more information on the band or product, such as tour dates and more merchandise.

Feedback:

Adverts

I've looked at examples of adverts used by artists to promote their albums to gather ideas in the different styles that can be used and in what way the advert is effective in appealing to the intended audience.



This advert is for a band called The Vines, they are an alternative rock band so this similar and relevant to Mumford and Sons. It is a very creative advert with the graphics playing on the bands name as there are vine leaves that twist around the page. Using this style means the audience can link this to the band which could create a hype around the band if they are easily recognised by this graphic trademark. This is all on a white background that emphasises these colours and the text is black which again makes this easily viewable to the audience and immediately informs them of what and who the advert is about. The advert also provides extra information around the product such as release date, what it includes and how fans can purchase it. These are conventions of adverts and would be expected to be found on any advert promoting an album. The advert is very unique which will appeal to the target audience as individuality is the main trait of indie music and the advert provides that. It also features bonus content which gives an extra incentive for fans to purchase this album.



The second advert I looked at is one for 'Only By the Night' by Kings of Leon. The main image used for the advert is the official album cover. This means the audience can immediately relate the product to the advert when they see it in stores or online as their appearance is identical, which should aid the sales of the product. The image is quite mystical and edgy with the stare of the band members and transformation of their heads. This conveys the theme of the music and that the tracks could be quite aggressive and meaningful which is an effect that may be intended for audience appeal. Again the advert features all the main conventions with release date and there is also the logo for 'play.com' which may have been a paid spot for them to advertise. The advert may appeal to the target audience because of the abstract main image which suits the indie/rock genre's fan base. The fact that the four band members also appear in the advert means fans can relate to them and it makes the band more personable.

Shooting Diaries

We planned our first day of filming for the 18th of January, where we were hoping that the majority of our shots could be captured. We had to make a late change of location for this due to the original setting becoming unavailable. However, the alternative location we found didn't hinder us and still allowed us to create the video we wanted to. In this filming session we realised the task was much larger than first thought, and that the amount of different shots we needed would mean that several more sessions of filmings would have to be planned. One of the main issues we faced to begin with was the lighting and keeping this accurate. Due to our forest location, the lighting of each shot differed and this required us to change the lighting settings such as the exposure, as we wanted the video to use low key lighting throughout. All four. members of our group were needed in the video so the roles of each of us changed each shot. However, for most of this session I was in shot as a character of the video as all three of the 'band members' had to shoot our individual shots. I also had a main role in directing shots for the ones I did not feature in and this required organisation on my part to ensure each shot was structured how we wanted to give the required effect

Our second session of filming was on the 9th February, and a members of the group brought in guitars as we wanted to base the shoot around the band shots that would be included in the video. This was tricky for the group as it took some time for us to get used to acting, miming and playing the instruments. For this period of filming I was usually on the camera due to not having a main acting role and had to make sure all aspects of the shot were correct and suited the video. I was behind the camera for most shots featuring band members playing the guitar individually. One problem we faced in this session was the effects of the weather. Rain had made the ground uneven and I needed to adjust the tripod to ensure that our shots were level. We also had to be careful as there was a lot of standing water so the equipment needed to be handled appropriately.

We planned our third session to be the final stage of filming where we would get the shots involving the sole female character in the video. We also wanted to get any shots that had been missed in the first two sessions so that we were fully prepared to be editing the video in the following week. I took the role of director for this as I wasnt needed in many shots and took control with the placing of actors in each shot, how it would be captured (type of shot/camera movement) and informed them on when each shot was beginning.

A fourth date of filming was needed after some technical issues leaving us with lost footage from previous sessions. With the aid of our storyboards it was easy to estabilish which shots we needed but it did mean we had lost time for editing the video. A major issue we faced was again with the lighting. We were filming much earlier in the day than we had before and we found it too bright compared to our already captured footage and that it did not fit in with the gloomy atmosphere we wanted to convey in the video. However, this problem was overcome by adjusting the brightness settings to make the forest appear much darker than it was in reality. We had to continuously do this for each shot as the lighting would vary for each different location we used in the forest. As this session only involved three of our group, we had to adapt our roles for each shot depending on who featured in it. The others in this session were the main male character and the sole female character and as they required several shots together, I had to shoot and direct from my position behind the character. I used several panning shots which required precise movement with the tripod. I also shot a scene that involved giving an effect that a character was disappearing. For this I needed to shoot and pause at the exact right moment while also directing the characters on when to move and when to stay still.