Evaluation Questions 3 and 4

Evaluation Questions 1 and 2

Focus group for final video

In order to gain some audience feedback on our final product, my group conducted a focus group with our peers. This was not so straight forward as we had to conduct this within a free period and we could not connect to the projector from the laptop in the octagon. I connected the aux cable to the computer however, so that the group had to watch the footage on a laptop but could still hear from the surrounding speakers.

The group sat down and we got the video up for them to watch. Once the video had finished, Beth, Eboni and I surveyed the group on a questionnaire that Eboni had created prior to the session. The response to the feedback was very good however, it was also very useful in terms of what we could do if we were to create the video again. The audience were very pleased with the way that we matched up the audio to the lip syncing of Tavonga during editing. We were very pleased with this comment as it was the most challenging and frustrating part of the editing process so it was good to know that it looked effective after so much work on it. The audience concluded that the video would look good with most other RnB songs and that the transitions were very effective. Our range of camera shots was also picked up and we had worked very hard to make sure that this range was included to help the audience understand the narrative of the video. Most said that the setting was very realistic and one member noticed that we had dropped the rose in the same place as the glass to show that contrasting events within the narrative and relationship had taken place in the same area. In terms of constructive criticism, the audience said that they would have preferred if the flashback was a little clearer by dressing Tavonga differently whilst some areas of the narrative could have done with some clearer scenes regarding the reason that the couple had split up.

On the whole however, we were very happy with the feedback and it was very helpful for us to use and deal with in the process.

Final Digipak (Ancillary task)

Final magazine advert (Ancillary task)

Final music video

Final video upload to YouTube

My group originally met the deadline of Friday 15th January to have complete the full construction including editing of our music video. We were however, unable to upload the video to YouTube due to faults within the software and its link to YouTube. This may have been due to the new upgraded version of Final Cut Pro X and this meant that the video would not publish and upload.

With some discussion from Miss and a software manager, we found the solution to the problem and had to click off our project and back onto it for the YouTube upload option to be available. Once we found this out, I was able to begin the upload but as the video was very long, this took a long time. We had to leave the video uploading during lessons and lunchtimes and I went back after school to see if it had worked. The video was still in the process at this point and so I left the Mac at the moment but by the time I returned the next day, the video had finally uploaded to YouTube so that I could post it to my blog.

Ancillary magazine advert draft 2

This is my second draft of the magazine advert that I will be creating for my ancillary task. I have chose to have Tavonga with more of a long shot to display his fashion to make him much more noticeable as he is pictured in the music video. I hope that an audience can make this link to make Tavonga a brand as well as an artist.

Editing session 6

This was our final editing session however, we had no timing constraints as we were staying after school and so Mrs Simpson was willing to let us stay until we had finished.

The last piece of editing that was required of us was to upload the footage of Tavonga's performance as well as various transitions that would piece the footage together in a professional way. We began by uploading who whole video of Tavonga's performance from Beth's phone and it was very helpful as we had the whole song to choose from. I started to insert the pieces of footage where the audio was during the chorus so that we could switch to performance every time this came. By doing this, the audience will be able to see how much the song and particularly the lyrics of the song mean so much to Tavonga during a tough time in the relationship. I applied this from Goodwin's theory of music videos which states that when the lyrics match up with the visuals on screen, the audience can unpick and understand the text much easier. The lyrics ''So Sick of love songs'' speak Tavonga's feelings about the relationship she is in and to help him portray this we used artificial head lighting from a car to spotlight him as he sings,

All of the other elements of the video were uploaded and in narrative order however, our last task was much more difficult and this was the syncing of the lyrics of the song to Tavonga's performance as he sings in too. In order to do this, Beth turned down the non diegetic audio of the song and turned up the volume of the diegetic sound so that we could all tell which part of the song Tavonga was up to. This was very challenging as we then had to turn up the diegetic audio and much this up with Tavonga's lips. Adjusting the volume each time helped us realised whether we need to extend certain clips or cut them in order for the voice to match up with the audio from Ne-Yo's song. This took fine concentration and was a very stressful task as we lengthened one clip, another area of the video wouldn't match up. After a while however, the performance was all in the correct places to be sung and performed by Tavonga on the chorus whilst his lip movement matched up with the audio and once it did, the video looked very professional and now, much more meaningful to the audience. His is dressed smartly throughout this to express that he hasn't lost his way since the relationship got tough and he is still maintaining his representation of a cool, calm, romantic character.

The final task of editing was to include transitions as otherwise the whole video would feature various jump cuts and would be very difficult for the audience to follow and workout. The 'cross dissolve' transition was very useful as this pieced together the clips to show how the action was changing from the perspective of Tavonga to Eboni after the argument scene. It helps to fade in and show how Tavonga is reacting which is very sadly whilst the fade out would focus on Eboni and begin to convey the way that she is trying not to be bothered about it and getting on with her life as she starts to text other people. I then filled in the backwards fade feature in an attempt to create a flashback effect for the audience to see the romance and joyful times that Tavonga and Eboni had before the argument. It portrays the feeling that Tavonga would not be hearing all of these love songs if the fall out never happened and they carried on with the way things were. I dragged this transition in before each scene of a flashback and these scenes
 were: the park bench, the park swings, the holding hands scene and the rose.

This saw the last of our editing complete and the video now looks very professional with a range of effects, transitions and enjoyable content. We watched the video through and together are very happy, we now just need to upload the video onto YouTube from the Macs so it can be evident on our blogs and so that we can be ready for Wednesday's lesson where we show it to the class.

Ancillary task digipak draft 2

This is my second draft on my proposed Digipak product. I have captioned the changes from my first draft and will use this draft more intently to create my final piece.

Editing session 5

This too was a short editing session however, we have now collected all of the footage that we need for the video with the help of Tavonga to film. In this session, we ensure that none of the footage would have exporting problems and all shots were filmed landscape as opposed to portrait which was the mistake that we made previously. The majority of the session was taken up by adjusting the length of many of the clips. I have filmed the whole performance of Tavonga in the car park and so we do not need to extend or drag out the narrative clips as we can fill in space with Tavonga performing the song so we are in a very good position. We frequently used the 'blade and crop' feature on Final Cut Pro X to cut the clips up to make sure that they matched up in time with the other shots that we had and to cut out any diegetic speech or noises that were made after we had the footage that we wanted. We were also cropping the scenes that we had re filmed at my house as they were now landscape and fitted in to the video. Most of this was the argument scene which shows the audience the first scenes of argument and trouble in the relationship. This is where the audience become involved and interested in the story of the video.

Editing session 4

Almost all of our footage had my collected by this point apart from one last filming session. We came back during a lunchtime to use the Macs and edit more of the clips that we had uploaded in the past few days. Again, we continued to order all of the footage in order to suit the narrative and as a group we discussed where it would be best to insert the performance footage from Tavonga which we had not collected yet. We decided upon this as were we unable to film the flashback scenes in the Christmas markets as they had closed and so we are replacing these scenes with flashbacks in different locations alongside a narrative performance.

The footage that we added in in this session was a time lapse at the beginning. The sun is out and the sky is blue in this wide shot to portray the positivity of the relation between the couple who the audience will soon be introduced to in the video. It shows how time is passing by and pathetic fallacy conveys the happiness that they share. This was only a short editing session and so with the time we had, the ordering of footage and time lapse was all we got round to but we are happy that we will meet Friday's deadline.

Filming session 4

In this session of filming, the group and I travelled to 2 different locations through the help of a peer to finish collecting the footage for our video. We firstly visited John Leigh Park to film the scenes where Tavonga and Eboni were in a flashback of the happy memories that they had as a couple. There was an obstacle at this point as the natural lighting that we had planned to use from the sun had gone down and so we improvised with artificial lighting from the flash lights on our phones. As Eboni was playing a part for the footage at this point, myself and Beth took the dominant roles of filming. I firstly filmed Tavonga and Eboni on the swings together in the park from a low angle for an audience to look up to and admire the love that they previously had for one another. The audience are then following a narrative rather than acting passive as they watch the video. At this point, Beth shone the flash light on the pair to create a spotlighting effect to cancel out the darkness.


At the same location, we filmed a similar piece where Tavonga and Eboni were hugging on a bench in the evening. Beth took over from me to film here and I used the flash light to provide clarity when the camera focused on the couple. Again, the low angle shot was used to create a sense of romance which I used from the feedback of our focus group. The audience said they preferred they prefer old romantic RnB videos as opposed to new ones about wealth and success and so we created a very romantic feeling with the activity of the couple and the rose which was used as a motif and symbol of love. In the same area of the park, I then assissted in filming another romantic scene where Tavonga and Eboni hold hands and walk to and away from the camera. We used the scene where they are walking away to show how the connection they have is beginning to fade as this is the story of the video.

Our second location of the night was a car park in Hale where we knew we could have a professional background for Tavonga to dance in front of. The brick wall background was perfect as we had a car to shine the headlines on as a form of spotlighting to assist the audiences aesthetic needs. The backdrop helped Tavonga to stand out and we filmed a wide shot so that we could include his range of dance moves and the whole performance. We played the song off a phone and Tavonga sung along whilst performing so that we could edit the clips between the narrative to vary the type of video with performance parts to. We will then match up his voice with the audio when editing by turning down the diegetic music and
overlapping it with the non diegetic audio of the song which is
 already uploaded onto the Macs.

Digipak Template

Before I create my Digipak, I need a template for each base and picture to be printed on and so I researched the conventions and found this template which is perfect for the CD case that I am going to create. From my drafts, I am aware of which images I want in each position however, I have not yet thought through how I want the spine to look. I must ensure to position the top images upside down so that when the template would be folded, the images will all look the correct way up. This is the 6 panel Digipak template that I will use for my ancillary task.

Editing session 3

For this session I was not available to edit due to other commitments however, it was only going to be a small session  and so I wasn't missing out on too much. In my absence, Beth and Eboni edited the scenes that were filmed in my house whilst ordering all the current footage that we had into a narrative, chronological sequence.

We had to make room for some performance footage which we decided upon as we had initially put the idea on the storyboard. This idea was to film a selfie video at the Christmas markets however, these had closed before the time that Tavonga was able to film. Instead we are tonight going to film this performance element in a car park to show Tavonga singing the song and dancing.

The footage that was filmed wrong (from a portrait perspective) was no longer going to be used however, we still filled this into the footage so that when we had the correct footage, we are able to see where it needs to go as the previous footage will still be there.

Talent Release

With Eboni and Tavonga choosing to take part in our filming footage, I ensure that we presented our permission and their agreement to do it on a talent release form. I created this sheet to make it clear the name of the people who took part and the dates that they did it in order to create a professional outlook on our filming. The names of the creators are on the sheet and some information as to where the footage will be used and what for. Tavonga and Eboni both agreed and signed the release as shown below.

Editing session 2

This was a very short editing session where we imported more filming footage onto the Apple Macs. I brought this in from the footage that I had filmed in our second filming session at my house. To continue the process I took the clips and put them onto a timeline to make the footage that we had chronological. The footage is now well sequence however, by doing this it was helpful to notice so alterations that we need to make. Firstly, the footage that I had filmed in slow motion from my phone did not appear in slow motion on the Macs and so we will use the slow motion feature that is already installed on Final Cut Pro X to ensure that the footage looks the correct tempo that we would like. I also noticed that a few shots from Eboni's iPad had been filmed in portrait which meant that the whole screen wasn't taken up by footage. To get around this, we will re-film these scenes at my house as it is no problem due to the fact that we know exactly which bits we need to film. We are soon meeting up with Tavonga for our fourth and fifth filming session so that we can edit all the footage and have the video totally filmed, edited and constructed for Friday.

Filming session 3

Today, we decided to re-film the scenes in my house where we had previous shot some of the footage from the wrong perspective. Using the iPad, a few of the clips had been uploaded from portrait which was not ideal as this would not fill up the whole screen once the footage was put onto the macs. We organised to meet Tavonga early and we all met up at my house to get this done. Eboni had all of the portrait facing footage on her phone and so we knew which scenes we needed to film to save us waiting around and being unsure on what to film.

We began with the shot taken from inside the cupboard of glasses which was very unique and shows another perspective of the action going on in the narrative. The shot was a still close up to focus of facial expressions of Eboni when she is around Tavonga as this is her partner within the video. This shot was filmed from alternatives angles to so the audience can feel the perspective of the location.

Next, we had to film some scenes where Tavonga and Eboni were arguing. I filmed this scene using the tripod so that I could shoot a slight pan shot to show the perspective of Tavonga whilst focusing on Eboni putting two glasses down onto the side. Throughout this shot we used the artificial lighting of kitchen lights which easily lit up both characters to focus on their actions. Props were used in form of the glasses that I bought and two were placed down on the side which symbolises the inner romance that they have as they are planning to have a drink together. Instead however, Eboni throws the glass on the floor as they argue however, this piece of footage was filmed correctly the first time around.

The final pieces of footage were filmed outside of the kitchen and into the hall area as Eboni storms out of the house, closely to be followed by Tavonga. The idea is that Eboni has cheated on him and they have had an argument. We therefore filmed a two shot as the pair are leaving the house and then a shot from each of their points of view. Beth used the stairs to get a raised view of Eboni running out of the house and then a separate shot was used of Tavonga running after her out of the house. The final shots were filmed outside from the other side of the door. This was done to show the footage from the outside as well as the inside from an alternative angle so that the footage will flow and ultimately match up during the video.

Magazine advert draft

This my first draft of my magazine advert and I have taken audience feedback into account whilst producing it. During our focus group, the audience were particularly fond of our choice of clothing for Tavonga. I therefore have drawn Tavonga is his smart/casual clothing with a range of colours in and attempt to bring out his lively personality. I can already however, point out failures from this draft as I have drawn Tavonga too small. Ideally I would prefer his head to be near the top of the page so that he is clearly the dominant image whilst I would like to cover as much blank white space as possible. This can be achieved easily when I edit the size of texts and images that I have used.

Contact with Tavonga

The filming schedule for our group has been heavily dependent on the availability of Tavonga is he is often booked up for time due to his studies and his music classes and auditions. It has therefore been key that we are able to film when he is free and so I took it upon myself to organise this. Here I am organising some week nights to film with Tavonga once he has finished in college and once me and my group have finished sixth form for the day. Tavonga told me that he was free on Tuesday and Wednesday and so we will film both times with him on these days to get his parts over and done with. As it has been hard to meet up with him, we have ensured that all filming where Tavonga isn't involved, we have completed. I have filmed time lapses from my bedroom and Beth has too, whilst Eboni is acting in the video and we have filmed the parts where she is alone so that we can edit this early without waiting for the footage that Tavonga features in. Once we film these last 2 days with Tavonga, we will have all of our footage in and then we are finally able to finish editing and upload the music video to YouTube for assessment and feedback.

Artist title font ideas

After picking a font for the album title, I have now researched my ideal fonts for the name of the artist. I searched for some popular RnB album covers and found that they commonly use block capitals for the name of the artist. This idea is to help the name stand out as this is one of the first things that an audience will look for in a shop. An example is R Kelly with his album for 'Double Up'. The text is printed in all block capitals and he has added his own sparkle light effect to make consistency as we can see him wearing lots of flashy jewellery and clothing on the key image. The size and colour of the text is easily recognisable and has lots of clarity to do it's job effectively. I would like to achieve the same outcome from the text that I will create on the album.


I have found some fonts that I like and have used Ne-Yo as an example. Each text is printed in block capitals and would look effective and easily noticeable on the front of my digipak. In terms of colour, I would choose when where I can make the text contrast with a background in order to make it as clear as possible. I will firstly choose the picture that I want for the background of the cover and then carefully select which of these texts I would like to print over the key image of Tavonga.

This is me researching the different fonts

                                           

Digipak cover font ideas

For my digipak, I have to make some font choices for particularly the front cover as the text will include the name of the artist as well as the name of the album. I want to have the name of the artist in block capitals in either black or white depending on the background. My progress has been made however, thinking about the text for the name of the album. I made the choice that I want to have the font looking as if it has been signed like an autograph as I believe that this can convey an idea of fame as people ask famous celebrities for autographs. To add to this idea, I would prefer if the text was gold so that I could add a sense of class to the artist as this is the representation that I have been trying to achieve since the first idea for the video. This is is the style of the font that is closest to my ideal text however, I may find some that are more appealing when I actually make the digipak on the macs. 

For reference, I found the idea for this font from the website dafont.com. If I decide that this is not actually the font that I like then I can easily change and choose from many more on this website and other websites.

Digipak draft 1

I have recently done my first draft for the Digipak that I will create. I have set out each side of the CD case and explained my choices for each one. Once I have taken all of the pictures, I can begin creating this on the Apple Macs with the help of photoshop and other useful apps. 

Exploration of image

As mentioned previously, I want to represent Tavonga as a very cool, powerful artist in all 3 pieces of text that I am creating. In the video, he is consistently dressed in smart casual clothing which symbolises class as well as quality in costume and so this needs to be shown in the Digipak and magazine advert too for consistency.

For the Digipak but particularly the magazine advert, it is important to think about the way that Tavonga is presented as I will be using him as the key image in both pieces. During my research of magazine covers, I came across a certain image of Tinie Tempah
which I would be keen to attempt to replicate with Tavonga for
either my Digipak or Magazine cover. I have a pair of sunglasses that Tavonga can use so that it is clear he is embracing modern fashion accessories whilst he has the same or similar clothing to those that he used in the music video. I also like the way that he looks away from the camera as Drake did in my previous post as it makes the artist seem in control and powerful as if the camera has been taken whilst he is doing what he does best; singing and performing. I do not want to show too much of Tavonga as I need room to include text of his name, the album that it is promoting as well as extra information such as dates and promotional information and so nothing more than a mid shot will be used. I may still choose to establish the setting around him as the lighting is very useful as it will create a spotlight effect.

Tinie Tempah is predominantly a Rapper in the music industry but   one of his sub genres is RnB and he has featured in these videos       before. It will therefore be legitimate to use him as inspiration for     my ancillary tasks. I have seen a similar pose from a pure RnB         artist Chris Brown anyway on his album cover for 'Fortune'. He too wears glasses and is facing away from the camera whilst looking     very smart and powerful at the same time. This conveys the idea       that he is successful within the industry and is happy to showcase     his talent and belief in himself that people will enjoy the music.

RnB Magazine advert research- Example 2

This is my second example of a magazine advert research which I am analysing for inspiration to create my own. I have looked at a second male RnB artist to see if he features any different ideas on the magazine cover. This is Drake

I personally prefer this magazine advert as it is not for the cover and so it is more useful for the advert that I will be creating. I firstly notice the key of image of Drake himself which I will be sure to include on my magazine advert with Tavonga. The audience are instantly attracted to this and notice it early which is vital to sell the advert and it's features. He is standing very confidently but not looking at the camera which portrays his class as if he is posing by looking elsewhere. This is a feature that I would also like to take into my own magazine advert to give Tavonga power and respect that he is so talented, he doesn't need to stare directly into the camera. Drake is wearing smart casual clothing however, I do not recognise the clothes from a video and so I would prefer to challenge this convention and dress Tavonga in similar clothes to what we show in the video so that he will be more recognisable in this type of video. The text is in block capitals and is clear in contrast to the background so which signifies his power and fame. His head however, covers some of this text which suggests that his image ins more important than his name which is a major key to his success. The name of his record label is also evident in the small print at the bottom however, the difference between this advert and mine is that mine will advertise the CD as opposed to a tour as Drake has done here. This advert has however, given me lots of inspiration to create my own magazine advert.

RnB Magazine advert research- Example 1

For my second ancillary task, I will be creating a magazine advert that features my artist Tavonga on the cover. I have recently researched some magazine adverts for current RnB artists to see what ideas are commonly featured on their magazines. I have firstly looked at Chris Brown, 

Here, Chris Brown features on the front of prestige magazine however, this is different to my advert as I won't need to name the magazine as the advert will be inside. I have noticed however, that Chris Brown maintains his smart and classy rapper as a music producer and artist. Besides the magazine title, his name is the second largest piece of text and it is printed in block capitals to express his importance and this is something that I would like to incorporate into my magazine advert. He is the key image on the page which I will also aim to achieve whilst his clothing is not something that he would wear in a video. I would like to challenge this convention however, so that Tavonga looks similar to dresses in my music video so that an audience will easily be able to recognise him through his appearance and clothing when reading the magazine. Chris Brown here wears accessories such as gloves and a flat cap. Tavonga is a younger artist and so I would like to focus on earlier ideas of fashion that relate to the RnB industry such as sunglasses and mayble a gold chain or a cap.

Ancillary task- Digipak research

Filming session 2

This sessions was planned to be filmed at a friends house however, we had to change this plan to due the lack of availability. Tavonga has been very busy with his music studies and we thought it would be unfair to make him wait until the house was available before we began filming with him. Instead, we changed the plan and filmed the scenes in my kitchen. Together, we filmed various scenes and I mainly took lead as director as it was my kitchen and so I knew the best areas to film and camera shots to get as this is my role within the group.

As Eboni, was acting in the video, myself and Beth tended to take charge of filming as seen here, We worked chronologically with the filming whilst achieving lots of different sorts of shots. Some shots were handheld as seen in this shot so that we could achieve, zooms however, without the control of the tripod, we filmed this several times to make sure that the footage looked steady. 

We were rushed slightly during the filming as people including Tavonga, need to be home and so we didn't ensure that every shot was perfect, we just filmed each scene various times to make sure that eventually we would get the correct one. After checking over the footage, all scenes look very professional and pleasing to our needs for the video. 

I then took over filming to capture some of the more obscure shots which we have used to challenge conventions of the typical camera shots used in RnB videos. I set up my camera and stood it up on the floor to achieve a ground shot. I used my phone for this scene so that I could take a slow motion video of a glass smashing on the floor whilst the phone stood up on its side to get the correct angle for filming. This camera was the second perspective of the scene as I had previously filmed the scene where it seems that Eboni is throwing a glass across the kitchen. She only threw the glass however, in the second scene which we captured however, we have made it look as if she throws it both time so that the video is in context and looks very real. Below I am performing the ground shot (right) and (left) is the outcome of what I was filming.

This session was very successful as we filmed more scenes which included both Tavonga and Eboni in argument in the main of our video. Our most original shot when we put the iPad in a cupboard so that we could see Eboni, reaching to get glasses out of the cupboard as she returns from work. This added variety to our shot types whilst we made use of the technology that we had in the use of slow motion video which will look very effective in the final piece. We will now only need 1/2 more filming sessions to capture all of the footage.