4)How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

3)What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

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

Final Music Video

16/03/15

Aaron and Hayley, today morning, finished off editing the music video by adding various transitions. They experimented with adding filters to the performance part as it was a bit dull however when doing this they felt that the overall performance being in colour does not work well at all. This is due to the lighting being odd making the hues on the clips look tacky and unprofessional. Therefore, the idea of having the performance in colour and narrative in monochrome was changed to having the whole music video be in monochrome.

This is our final Music Video:

After screening and presenting our final music video, the feedbacks we got were fairly positive. Everyone in our class felt that by doing a reshoot on the performance really made our music video, as a whole, look stronger and more professional. Although Jess is not conventional in illustrating the stereotypical pop star look her performance really stood out making our video not be entirely conventional but still illustrating the pop genre.

Performance Shoot with Jess

12/03/15

Today Megan, Aaron and I stayed behind to do the performance shoot with Jess. I think the shoot today worked really well as we got lots of various shots from different camera angles of Jess singing which looked amazing. Her performance was superb as she was actually singing along to the song amplifying her emotions to connote the lyrics. In some sections of the song she was forgetting the lyrics, however when editing we will not include these errors. She also brought along various dresses of the colours: white to connote peace and elegance, red to connote danger and love and dark navy to connote the idea of darkness. I liked how from the beginning to the middle Jess's style and outfit is subtle until the end ,where the music picks up more beat and gets aggressive, having a dark style. We kept the source of light, white studio lights, being the same and used the fan however didn't use the prop of a micro-phone as it meant that Jess would be limited to showing her emotions through body language. 

As our music video has to be handed in on Monday, Aaron will take a macbook home and will start constructing our final music video using the footage we got today.

Re-casting of Isabel Beau

11/03/15

Due to the performance being carried out by our actress, Alex, was not to the high standard which everyone was expecting to see in the music video, we decided to re-cast.Alex's 

From the constructive criticism feedback we got from our music video we have decided to have Jess, who is a singer and performer, act as our artist. By having Jess play Isabel's role I feel the performance will look much more stronger and natural due to it being realistic as she will sing and perform as if it is her songs.

Although this is the third time we are changing our actress for the role of Isabel Beau, our digi-packs and poster will still remain the same of them being of poppy. 

                               

Third Screening of Music video

11/03/15
After adding the new shots we took last night, replacing all the performance scenes, we constructed our music video to be ready to screen to the classroom. This is going to be the last screen in which we can get feedbacks on and a chance to do any refinements as the deadline is next week.

The feedback we got from the class was that our music video is really strong in the sense that the narrative is really beautiful and the narrative scenes are filmed gorgeously, however the performance scenes are not working well and is letting our entire video down. The performance, everyone felt, looked really fake and tacky due to the lighting, cinematography and costume of the artist. The performance of Aleks singing doesn't look realistic either which brings down the quality of this music video.

After having a discussion with Sinead, Shaun and our group we have decided upon the idea of doing another final re-shoot where this time we will use another actress to play the role of Isabel Beau. 

Reshoot on Alex's Performance

10/03/15

As Alex's performance was not right from the shoot Hayley and I did at Danson park, the group and I decided to do a re-shoot however this time making it seem like alive performance in the drama room using low key lighting. The Danson park shoot, we feel, didn't look right due to the scenery being out of place from the narrative and gallery shots. Also the costume she had on didn't quite illustrate the pop genre vibe however I feel that her hair being out and the wind blowing it onto her face created a great impact; connoted the sense of annoyance and aggressiveness reflecting upon her emotions and lyrics.

When doing our re-shoot in the drama room, we set up white studio lights so that the lighting is different from the lighting used in the ballet scenes. Alex's costume here was of Hayley's prom dress and her make-up was light to give that elegant natural beauty vibe. As Hayley and I liked the idea of Alex's hair blowing, we used a fan in some of the shots to create the build up of tension which is heard through the fast pace music towards the end. A prop of a micro-phone was also used to give the sense of the performance being sung live. When filming we used two cameras in which one was purely tripod based getting wide angles from each side and the other being hand-held getting the close-ups and mid-shots. We also used a crane to give a great impact to the part in the song where there is a high-pitch.

I think that some of the shots we got today were really good. Especially the ones where Alex was leaning on the wall as it gave that voyeuristic image of her which most pop music videos to to grab male attention as well female.

Danson Park Performance Re-shoot

06/03/15

Today Hayley and I went to film the out door scene of Alex singing while Megan and Aaron were editing indoors. The footage we got, I felt, was pretty good due to it being filmed in different angles and being filmed in a park with open space. In some of the scenes the sun was shinning and beaming towards Alex's face which I felt went really well along with the song as it connotes that she has overcome the battlefield of love; the scene being greenery and of open space contributed to this. We tried using the crane when filming however it was difficult to deal with so we just decided to film free handed.

Now looking through all the shots, all we need to do is now film the final scenes of Grace and Alex being together and just construct everything in chronological order reflecting our storyboards. After having all the editing done and finished our music video will be completed and handed over for the teachers to mark.

Ballet Reshoot

02/03/15

Today we shot Graces ballet dancing scenes in another drama room using the drama lighting so that we get a mixture of ballet scenes for different settings. I think the shoot went pretty well as the angles in which we filmed from and the lighting we used really gave that performance vibe. Also experimenting with different techniques and cinematography positions conveyed the professional filming side in our clips. My favourite part was when we filmed grace dancing in a circular motion following the camera as it created tension in which the song builds up in the song. I think when we add these shots in our edits it will fill in the missing gaps in our music video making it more structured and interesting.

                

                  

Plan For Next Shoot

27/02/15

As we are coming towards the end of our music video and only have to reshoot Grace's ballet dancing and outdoor shoot of Alex solo singing we made a quick plan on when we will carry out these shoots.

• On Monday 2nd February we will film Grace's dancing in the drama hall. When filming this scene we will use tripod based wide and long shots as well as handheld which will be done by Aaron.
• On Wednesday, we will film Alex at Danson Park performing her solo performance of her lip-syncing the song. Me and Hayley will carry out this shoot while Aaron and Megan are editing the music video. This is so that we are all using our time wisely and so that everything gets done quicker giving us time to review our music video and make any small changes if needed. 

Narrative Reshoot

23/02/15

Today Megan and Aaron reshot the narrative part of our music video with Grace; some being indoor shots and some being outdoor. I looked through some of the clips and they looked really good in that some of the shots taken where what we originally imagined and put in our storyboard. Our intentions from here will be including some of these shots in our final edits being shown at fast pace creating tension towards the audience.

 

 

Editing Yesterday's Shoot

16/02/15

As a group we went through the footage in which Megan, Hayley and I had filmed of Alex. We began selecting the best clips and started to in cooperate it in our music video edit on Final Cut Pro. By including the shots of the solo singing, in our edits, made the whole sequence look much better as the narrative ties in with the solo scenes.

Solo Performance shoot

12/02/15

We started filming all the solo performance of the singing again as we have now changed our artist. In the shoot we did today, Hayley and Megan are in charge of the cameras and setting the lighting up while i was in charge of her hair and make-up, costume and playing the song battlefield over and over again. 

             

We filmed this solo performance by setting up two cameras and taking a long shot of the whole song being performed. We did lots of retakes by changing the camera angle, panning and the zooming of the camera in each retake we did. Also the lip stick, costume and accessories were also changed in each retake so that we have lots of different variety of footage.

                       
                                

The shoot went really well as the lip sync Alex was doing went in sync with the song along with her facial expressions (visuals) which were expressing the song lyrics. The lighting was also equal making the clips we had taken look really good. The different camera angles we got really helped in getting a variety of shots which can be incorporated in our music video. By having a range of shots it makes the visuals of our music video pacey and interesting.

New Artist- Alex

11/02/15
We have now selected a new girl to act out the role of Isabel Beau. Alex will be our new Isabel Beau. We have come upon a decision of using her as she has the Pop star artist icon look and her performance from the test shoot tells us that she will be more than capable in acting and miming the song. Her facial expression and body language, when miming to Battlefield, is just what we were looking for in the performance. The re-shoot for the Pop start singing part will take place tomorrow after school in the gallery where we will style up Alex, set up the lights and camera and film her acting and singing to Battlefield.

Selecting new artist

11/02/15
After reviewing the shots Aaron and I had taken yesterday, we have come to conclusion of possibly having to re-cast for Isabel beau. This is simply because we feel that Poppy expresses the pop artist look perfectly however her performance doesn't quite match the song in which we are all imagining it to be. By her finding the lyrics difficult to memorize and express made the visuals not be in sync and flow with the music and lyrics, reflecting back to Goodwin's theory of music videos.
  We currently have another girl, Alex from year 12, who we are ding test shoots with right now to see if she suits the role. Here is the test shoot of Alex miming to Battlefield.

Poppy's singing reshoot

10/02/15

After school today Aaron and I went into the gallery and started getting the set ready, lighting and camera set up, so that we can do a reshoot of Poppy miming to the Battlefield song being Isabel Beau. We had to do a reshoot due to the incident before of the camera lens having a pale yellow filter. In today's shoot I, being the stylist, focused widely on the make-up and accessories making Poppy look like an actual pop star. The shoot went pretty well in the sense that the mise-en-scene element was fitting well and to what we imagined. When shooting this time round Aaron and I had decided to use two camera's when filming Poppy miming so that we get a range of shots in different angles; our initial idea was to use three cameras however due to the third not being available we stuck to using two.
Here are some of the shots we took:

Although everything went to plan I still think the scenes don't look good. It's not to do with the camera, lighting, costume or setting but i feel as if the performance is not as strong as we imagined and want it to be. Battlefield is a very emotional, aggressive at times, and affectionate song in which I don't think any of these adjectives are being expressed through the performance. Aaron and I discussed about this and decided to wait till tomorrow's lesson in which we will review over the footage taken and decide whether we need to re-cast or re-shoot talking to the whole group and Shaun.

Editing

04/02/15
We all went through the footage we got yesterday. I think the shots that we took looked really good and went along with our narrative well. Even the clip we took of from the iPhone of the  car scene looked pretty good. We began selecting the best shots cropping them to its right part and placing them in our music video edit to its right places. Our editing sequence of the music video has started to construct in a very positive way of it being exactly what we planned it to be like. I am pleased with the shots we have taken and the whole piece in which we are constructing.  

                               

Filming

03/02/15

We all went to Megan's house to film the arguing scenes of the parents and car scenes. We took the tripod and DSLR d1200 with the 50mm lens so that the pull focus can be shown beautifully to create the sense on tension being there. 

When filming the argument scenes, it was difficult for the parents to argue as they are not the argumentative type but once they started to get into the role i think they're performance was looking really good. I think the roles suited the parents really well as the dad is quite tall and butch representing the stereo typical view of the male dominating over the female that is innocent and vulnerable. Once we had filmed the argument scenes, we began to set up for the car scenes out side. However here we encountered a problem as the SD card that was given to us was only 8mp which was not enough space to film the car scenes inside. Here we overcame this problem by using an iPhone 5s which we knew for a fact has a good camera.

I think the shoot we did today went pretty well as we filmed on time and everything was organised of what we will film where and of who. We will now wait till Wednesday's Media lesson in which we will all as a group go through the scenes we captured today.

Plan for next shoot

30/01/15
We have all agreed to do a shoot on 03/02/15 at 4pm which is a Tuesday, in which we will be filming the narrative section focusing on the parents arguing and car scenes. Here we will be filming Grace and her parents. The scenes will be mainly of the parents arguing in the house down stairs in which we will capture in different shot angles and of the parents picking grace up from her ballet classes. When filming Grace we will have to make sure that the outfit she wears is the same as the ones we shot her in when filming her coming out her ballet classes.

Editing

28/01/15

Megan and Hayley began to go through the shots me and Aaron took on monday. They started editing the scenes we took by going through them and deleting the rubbish ones. They cut some of the clips so that the out of focus scenes were deleted. They began to add the clips to the sequence, on Final Cut Pro, making sure it went along with the music. Some of the scenes in which Grace was dancing quite aggressively went really well with the chorus as its really upbeat creating the emotional tension.

Later on today Megan and Aaron stayed behind for lunch doing some more edits of the ballet scene. Here they started to play around with the mid shots and the feet and cutting from the two to create tension. The first chorus of the song was of the ballet dancing as there the chorus is really upbeat and pace working along really well withe dance movements  and the cuts of the shots being short and pacey. Along with the original idea of having the narrative, including ballet scenes, be in black and white this was done on Fianl Cut Pro.
This is a part of the section in which was edited of the ballet scenes:

Looking at the shots in a bigger screen they look pretty good. Theres only a few changes which we need to do, which we will take in to consideration when we reshoot. The changes are when filming using a D1200 Canon DSLR, having the setting clear and all blacked out and using the Drama Spotlights.

From watching our music video, i think we have done extremely well in that we have boosted our confidence into knowing that if we just work harder we can reach our target of producing and have created a high standard music video. At the start of the filming of our music video, i think we all lost our confidence in being able to film some good scenes but from doing rough shoots and then re-shoots i feel that we are learning from our mistakes and developing rapidly.

Filming Dance Performance

27/01/15

Aaron and I started filming the ballet dance scenes of Grace today. The shoot didn't start off too good as the dance room we originally wanted was occupied so we had to use another drama room. In the room we shot in there were no spotlights which meant we had to use a studio lamp, which was not professional however it didn't look too bad. I think the shots we filmed were actually pretty good, obviously we will have to do a reshoot, but for the time being its right as it gives us a little more of an idea of what we are aiming for and what we need to improve in our music video. I think the dance performance was really professional and the costume being white looked amazing against the darkness around Grace; it showed the idea of negative spacing. The camera we used, D500 50mm, was not too good as it made the shots look grainy, so next time we will use the D1200 to give that clean look. The next time we shoot we will film more of the narrative side when filming the dance scenes so that it goes according to our storyboard and makes more sense when put into our final music video.

 

Experimenting 1200 DSLR Canon Camera

26/01/15

Today as we had nothing planned, due to both our actresses being busy, we decided to play around with different camera lens and filming using DOF( depth of field). Depth of field "is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image." This is what makes the scenes captured more interesting due to the idea of shallow focus and having one object be the main subject. The lens that really amplifies the shallow focus is the 50mm lens on a 1200 DSLR Canon. This is why we have decided to use the 50mm lens when filming the dance as it will give a greater impact of focusing on certain areas making the audience focus on those areas.

Here we had a play around with the 50mm lens experimenting with the different pull focus and how to move the camera along, keeping the subject in focus, while the subject is moving.

I think this lens works really great as it gives that professional look due tot he pull focus. Using this when filming the dance scenes will really work well and look slick.

For inspiration, when filming the dance sequence, we looked at the music video from Whiplash which was shown towards the end. The pace of the cuts being fast and from different angles and camera shots is what makes this performance in the music video interesting. This is what we will try to persue when filming the dance scene.

Feedback on Second Screening

These are the feedback sheets we received from our class mates based on our second screening. The feedback was not really positive as there was not much footage that we had. There was far little shots that we took shown and more of the animatics still left which made everyone feel confused. The shots were not strong enough in the fact that in the hand-held parts the camera was very rigid and shaky making it look unprofessional. Also in the solo parts of Poppy the shots were not in sync with the song as the lip-syncing was off and the performance looked way too staged making it unrealistic.

 

 
 I think by screening our second cut and receiving these feedback's have really been an eye opener as it has given us the shock of us falling behind and not working hard enough in creating this music video. We really need to buckle ourselves up and start filming more shots, thinking of doing lots of reshoot and really planning what we actually want to film.

Second Screening

21/01/15

Today the group and i screened our latest shoots put together constructing a rough cut of our music video. We had shown all the shots we have filmed so far and edited them so that it fits into our music video. When constructing this second screen we were all well aware that there were not enough shots taken, most of the shots need to be re-taken and we need to focus on the micro-elements.                                       

                  

In order for us to create a high standard music video, we need to start making more time for shooting lots of different scenes and re-shooting them. Therefore we elaborated on our production log by marking in more days in which we will be filming. There also has to be more focus on other filming areas rather than just Poppy's solo singing which is why we have started to plan filming in different locations such as the school drama room.

Edit Music Video

14/01/15

Today, Hayley began editing the shots we took yesterday of the narrative side and started replacing them with the illustrated frames on the animatics. She made the music video pace by creating lots of short cuts of the scenes. By having lots of different cuts makes it more engaging for the audience. For the cuts to be flowing smoothly, different transitions were added.