Filmed evaluation, Shamaan

Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our class friends watched our video without out us in the room and wrote feedback sheets telling us truthfully what we think. 

Over all the feedback was good. 

Most of the people who wrote on the sheets said that our overall performance was either suitable or professional. They gave us Level 3-4 and said that our music video held their attention. The only negative feedback we had were the ones that my group and I were worrying about. They said the lip syncing on the singing could of been better, however they were impressed with the lip syncing of the rapping scenes as the song gets fast paced and hard to follow. Another criticism was that the guitar wasnt convincing enough and to say that the instrumental was mainly using guitars it would of worked in our favour to have more close ups of the guitar. 

Although we still had some criticisms over all I think it went well. Peoples favourite part was either the hospital scene, Ashley rapping or the fight scene. I think the music video was successful in that we caught peoples attention, we had a vary of shot types and we had performance and narrative. However looking at the feedback sheets We now realise that we should have edited and shot more shots so that we had a selection to choose from. We should have also maybe chose an actor that could actually play the guitar so we could of got more close ups. 

Reflective Evaluation Question One

We took inspiration from the A-team video, which is the original version of our song.
In one of the shots from the a team video, the artist is seen interacting and as the only person to show kindness towards the girl, we tried to re create the interaction between the artist and the girl but in a different way, was our artists show a look of dissapointment in her as she walks past. However we think this was a subtle yet affective way of including our artists in the narrative whilst not confusing our audience.
We used the black and white affect in our video when the main drama of our narrative happened. We thought this was more affective than the A team version as during our research and planning we found that a lot of audiences found the black and white effect boring and that the video should not be in black and white all the way through. Therefore we decided to only add the black and white affect to the most dramatic parts of our music video, e.g. when the girl is getting beat up. This added much more drama and feeling to our music video whilst the bright contrasting colours during the beginning of the video kept the audiences attention.
The camera we used enabled us to go in and out of focus whilst filming, we tested a couple of these shots and thought it worked well, we also got this idea from the a team video, i think it gave the audience a chance to empaphise with the character, as the change in focus could show that the young girl is confused and vunerable, as if her whole life is a blur to her now.

Reflective Evaluation - Question 1

One of our main concerns during our filming and planning, was how we were going to make the genre of our music video clear to the audience. The song and artist we chose to make our music video from are in the indie genre. We made this clear to the audience through our mise en scene, locations and costumes.

The costumes of our artists were very casual and laid back, rather than glamorous and label focused. We asked the artists to keep the clothes casual so it was still clear to the audience that this was an Indie music video rather than Pop or Rap. We took inspiration from the original artist Ed Sheeran's clothing.

 The graffiti wall was used more as a theme throughout our project, rather than being used as just one background, this was effective in connecting our digipak, website, videos and photos all together. The graffiti wall gives an urban look to our music video, it also creates an inner-city feeling, which will hopefully attract our target audience; working class teenagers.

Camilla Smith's Question Four Evaluation

What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Feedback Sheet One:

This feedback is of our final video therefore we were not able to change the elements which they believed did not work well for instance improving the guitar playing. The people who gave us this feedback were anoymous however we are aware that they are around the ages of 17 and 18. I agree with them saying that the actor playing Ed Sheeran was not as convincing as we hoped in terms of playing during the instrumental however I believe that some of the rapping areas appeared proffessional as the lip syncing was accurate therefore I slightly disagree that these people believe that our movie looked more like a 'short film'.


Feedback Sheet Two:

Once again I disagree that the whole of our music video appeared unproffessional since we had convincing locations and good shots of the rapper lip syncing infront of the graffiti wall. I understand that near the end of our video the rappers connection with the audience is not as strong as at the beginning therefore I agree that the lip synching and eye contact for those shots could have been improved. As the people who watched our film did not like the artist it was hard to sell the song to them through our music video since they are already aware that they do not like his style of Indie music.

Feedback Sheet Three:

To my surprise this group did not find any problems with the lip-syncing or instrumental playing even though I thought that this was our weakess area in some parts of the film. They enjoyed the different locations we used which I think was important to include as it helped portray a realistic narrative of the Girl. I thought that our use of costume suited the style of our artist and Indie genre which the audience agreed with. The lighting appears to be a problem in our film as it 'didn't fit the mood' which looking back at now I would consider our use of lighting more effectively.

Feedback Sheet Four:

The audience here considered the narrative to be weaker than they hoped as they wanted the murder of the Girl to be more violent however we did not want to show brutal violence since our target audience was around the ages of 15-16. This feedback was positive, making our group feel more confident about our video on the other hand we are still aware that areas of our film can still be improved.

Improvements:

If we could change any areas in our music video I would alter our use of lighting and have an actor who was able to play the guitar since this would appear more convincing to our audience. Some of the feedback sheets above highlight that we should have used a variety of shots, this is something that I would consider however I do think that we had a range of shots in the narrative, extra effects and smooth transitions therefore I would improve the shots of Ed Sheeran's performance as we could have used more close up and angled shots.

Questionnaire:

Since our feedback was given back in the form of a questionnaire it makes the audience less likely to write down their intial reaction to the piece or their opinions. Also it makes the different groups feedback similar as they have to discuss the same areas of our music video. On the other hand, it gave the audience a chance to look more constructively into our piece in terms of analysing the lip-synching and how successfully it portrayed our artist, this feedback helps us more aware of how our film worked well or could have been improved.

A2 Advanced portfolio: Refelctive Evaluation - Question two.

We followed the conventions of our Indie/Grime genre by using urban mis-en-scene, for example, using graffiti walls as our main theme and backgrounds from the website to the CD digipak and also the video its self.

CD and digipak

We used the graffiti wall to introduce the Genre, for example if somebody where to be looking through a music shop we wanted them to able able to recognise the theme of the CD cover, website and Music video and also to be able to understand the genre through the use of pictures. 

As you can tell from the images above our theme throughout the project is graffiti. Me and my group believe it is artistic and urban and the urban enviroment really adds to the affect and meaning  of the song.

We also  used authentic props like old guitars and urban studio rooms to create the effect of being grimey and urban which follows the conventions of both of our Genres (Grime and Indie)

 we think that the theme we have which is authentic yet modern (musical instruments and Graffiti) really targets our target audience. We know that Ed sheeran has pictures with either guitars or infront of urban areas.

We think that we followed the conventions of our genre well and tried our best to portray our artist convincingly.

Question One : Reflective Evaluation

We tried to make our Music video orginal, creative but also follow the conventions of our genre and the themes that Ed Sheeran typically uses in his music videos.

This is Ed Sheerans video for the original song 'ATeam'

We used some of the ideas from the video for example the bluring of the girls face to conate confusion and danger and vulnerablity

We decided to use the same effect as it helps with the story line, by blurring the girls face it shows that something isnt right and it foreshadows that something is going to happen.

We also used the black and white effect aswell

Ed Sheeran uses the black and white effect in his music videos when speaking about controversial issues. I also think he highlights the fact that he works with a lot of black artists and likes the idea of using black and white to portray how simple the world can be.

We decided to use black and white to dramatise the fight scene and make it more elaborate.
We didnt use the black and white effect for all of the video, only the bits where the young girl is getting beaten up. We think that by doing this we have developed the conventions of Ed Sheerans videos and made it more creative.

We also followed some of Ed Sheerans other videos, for example 'You need me'

By watching the video you will be able to compare it to our video

Once again we used the black and white effect and we also tried to incourparate the frienship of the two artists like Ed Sheeran does in his video.

We tried to show a relationship between the singer and rapper like what Ed Sheeran does with his co-artists in his video. By doing this we were also able to incorparate the Singer and Rapper into the narrative of the story.

We had the girl walk past to include the singer and rapper in the narrative.

This is something that Ed Sheeran does, he's generally not in the video but if he is he isnt the main character but shows his face so people know it is his video.

Ed Sheeran Featuring in his music video

How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Texts?

Our Final Digipak Design:



Front and Back Cover

Inside CD Cover

The lyrics inspired our design for the Digipak as we wanted to portray the urban atmosphere which we believed was developed from the lyrics in the verses. Therefore we decided to have the graffiti background as the dominating factor throughout the Digipak as this artwork is associated with the urban style. Also we used the graffiti walls in the background of some shots of the rapper while he was rapping the verses in the music video, this helps reinforce the inner-city vibe as well as linking both media texts. Below is an image from our music video supporting this effect:

Throughout we use different graffiti walls as it adds visual variety for our audience, however it still relates with the Digipak as the graffiti style is the same. As well the colours are visually appealing to the audience, enticing them to watch.

By our actors wearing a naturalistic costume throughout it maintained the "relaxed" style of the Indie genre, therefore conforming to the Indie music conventions. 

This image is of the actor who was playing the role of Ed Sheeran, here his costume supports and continues this informal appearance from the CD cover as the jacket and hat is a typical piece of clothing which is used by Indie artists.

Above is Ed Sheeran who is wearing the similar clothing to our actor as well as being located in a similar location due to the use of graffiti. Therefore this emphasises how we have supported the Indie conventions in terms of costume and location as well as sticking to the styles of Ed Sheeran.

Our Final Website Design:

Here the main image still supports the Indie convention of the naturalistic costume as well as representing the urban style which is also portrayed in the other two media texts

The typewriter text used intially came from Ed Sheeran's '+' album as from my research this was a key font style which he used throughout. Therefore by using the same text on the disc in the Digipak it helps us link these two media devices together. The colours orange, white and black are also significant as these are the colours that our fans relate Ed Sheeran with, this helped us continue the theme from the disc in the Digipak to our website page.

 The lyrics theme is continued from our Digipak design into our website page as from my research into Ed Sheeran's own CD cover style I discovered that in the booklet available the lyrics were a key element throughout. Therefore by linking the two different media texts it means that the audience is able to relate to both as well as connecting with an existing feature of Ed Sheeran.

As we placed an image of the CD cover onto our website it helps us promote our artist to a wider audience, enabling us to try and sell the product as well as revealing the similar urban style in both media texts.

The website connects with our music video as we created the illusion that we placed our video onto the page by screen grabbing a shot from our film and placing into a youtube video template. Therefore making our music video more accessible to his fans and to a wider target audience.

All these media texts are related either in terms of style, promotion or technique however even though they have similar qualities they all have different aims. For instance the website is used in order to widen and connect with Ed Sheeran's fan base as well as promoting his other products while the Digipak is designed to appeal to his target audience.

Ed Sheeran's Website Page:



Ed Sheeran's website page helps promotes the artist's music, image and materials as shown in the screen grab above since the information to purchase or access any of his products is easy to access. Through this free advertisement his fan base will increase either by them watching his youtube video or deciding to become a Twitter follower due to these links being noticable to his audience.

The layout is simple and easy to understand therefore conforming to the other Indie artist's website pages. Also the colours black, white and orange are used supporting the reason to why we chose these colours as they are associated with our artist.

Since it is important that the audience has a more intimate relationship with the artist we decided to placed a tweet section on our page, similar to the one on Ed Sheeran's website, as this allows the audience to communicate with him easily.

Our website page and Ed Sheeran's have similar qualities such as we both promote our music video and our Digipak making it more accessible for our target audience's to purchase. Additionally the font text is that same as this feature was key in both his CD cover and on his website, making it a noticeable style of Ed Sheeran's.

Although our website is more colourful and busier than Ed Sheeran's we still kept the simple outline by not cluttering the page with too many features or pictures as we wanted to portray how his music is significant to the page, this was shown by the background consisting of the 'Little Lady' lyrics creating a connection between the website and his songs.

Ed Sheeran's Digipak Album '+':

Front Cover

Back cover

Inside CD cover

The cover of the '+' album sells Ed Sheeran's image as well as him creating an intimate relationship with his audience as he is "staring" at them. Our Digipak front cover sells both Mikill Pane and Ed Sheeran as they both artists appear on the front cover however we try to promote the style of the music as well as their image due to us using the graffiti background.

The back cover is plain and simple connecting with other Indie artists this helps sell his style. Although our back cover continues to promote the urban style as well as both the artists image by them appearing on the back, Ed Sheeran's album used the colours black, white and orange to sell his image making him more recognisable to his audience.

The inside cover portrays Ed Sheeran as being a "relaxed" artist since there is not a large amount of colour or design. We chose to use the orange, black and white colour theme on the disc side of our Digipak as we wanted to make Ed Sheeran's recognisable image connect with his music. The handwriting we used to write the lyrics on the disc was inspired by the typewriter font which Ed Sheeran uses in this album, therefore linking these products together.

Evaluation Question One: Comparison Between 'Old Pine' by Ben Howard and Our Music Video

'Old Pine' by Ben Howard, offical video.

Ben Howard is an artist from the same Indie genre as Ed Sheeran, therefore in this post I will be analysising how our music video has similar or challenging traits to the 'Old Pine' music video.

Once again the main similarity between both videos are the effects used as in the 'Old Pine' the blurred technique is used in some shots. Below are two images highlighting the similarity between the two different videos and how this technique formed certain atmospheres:

Here the effect was used to create a smooth transition into the next shot, also it emphasised the change in pace as in this shot the song changes from performance to instrumental.

Here we used the blurred technique as the lyrics say 'fade out tonight', therefore linking the lyrics with the shot. Also it created a distancing effect with the audience, portraying the Girl's sense of loneliness and helplessness. I believe that the blurred technique helped us have good continuity throughout our film as it flowed into the next shot quickly and discretely.

Throughout the 'Old Pine' music video effects were adding in terms of creating different lighting for instance red and green flashes are used to add more colour into the film, engaging the audience and forming a nature environment. We used this technique when the rapper is singing as it helped bring out the colours in the graffiti wall, this  creates a more interesting shot as from the flashes of colour it forms a more appealing shot.

Both videos create an intimate relationship between the audience and the artists due to the use of eye contact into the camera. This is represented in the images below:

During Ben Howard's music video the mid shot and long shot is mainly used in the performance scenes however the image above highlights how both films use a range of shots in order to keep their audience interested. By Ben Howard singing into the camera here with a close up shot it allows his fans to feel a stronger connection with him. 

Throughout our performance we have a variety of shots, such as side profile, close ups and mid shots, this keeps the audience intrigued since it gives them a different perspective of the artist. This image is a close up of the rapper, creating a more personal relationship with his fans which is also reinforced with him having eye contact with the audience. 

Both videos conformed to the conventions of costume in the Indie genre as the artists wore a naturalistic costume which consisted of basic trousers (jeans) and plain jacket as it is important to make the artists suit the look of being "relaxed".

The mise en scenes in the 'Old Pine' music video consisted of natural locations, linking with the lyrics and creating the narrative base of the film. Although our film used contrasting man-made locations it was appropriate for our video since they appeared in the lyrics. Therefore both music videos gained inspiration from their lyrics in order to make a realistic film, emphasising the importance of the lyrics in terms of narrative, mise en scene and props.

  

Although Ben Howard's video does not have instrumental props within his video we still believe that it was important to show Ed Sheeran playing the guitar in our film as his fans known him for his talent of both singing and playing. Since Ed Sheeran's music video the 'A Team' he has included more performance in his other films for instance 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' emphasising how his fans have encouraged the amount of performance shown in certain shots. Therefore we have challenged the conventions of performance in our music video when comparing it to 'Old Pine' as we included guitar playing while Ben Howard only lip syncs throughout.

Due to both music videos having contrasting styles in terms of being urban or rural it shows how the Indie genre is adaptable to what the artist wants to portray. For example Ed Sheeran wanted to relate with the views of society while Ben Howard wanted to express the beauty of nature. Therefore although both artists want to represent different areas in their music/video it is important to mention that they both explore the world around them, conforming to the convention of relating to an audiences experience either in certain environments or situations.

Evaluation Question One: Comparison Between 'A Team' Music Video and Our Music Video

'A Team' offical music video

This video influenced our music video in terms of narrative, effects and costume. By comparing our music video, which is the remix of this song, we are able to show similar shots and techniques. For instance both videos have certain shots which become blurry as it helps the transitions between shots and highlights to the audience that something is wrong in the narrative:

'A Team' offical music video

'Little Lady ft Mikill Pane', our music video



Another effect that inspired us in certain shots was applying a black and white colouring as this formed a more tense and serious atmosphere which supported the narrative. Below are two screen grabs from the 'A Team' and our music video as this highlights the similarities between the two:

'A Team' offical music video

Here this image emphasises how the black and white effect is used throughout the whole of the music video as the effect has no specific significance in this shot.

'Little Lady ft Mikill Pane', our music video

This shot from our video is in black and white as the narrative has become serious, therefore forming a sad atmosphere.

Therefore although we use similar effects in order to portray a connection between both their narratives and videos, we have developed this convention as we only use them in certain shots to create a certain atmosphere or a smooth transition.

The mise en scene in both videos are similar as they are both urban and related to the audience, supporting the Indie genre and typical conventions that are artist uses. For example we used a hospital at the beginning of our film, this is an environment which the audience can relate to as many people have experienced this location. The 'A Team' video had shots on the streets, creating a natural and realistic environment, making the audience believe the Girl's situation of being homeless and desperate.

As our song is a remix version of the original 'A Team' by Ed Sheeran track it meant that the narrative is similar due to the lyrics, for instance the chorus in both songs are the same. On the other hand the lyrics from our song track portrayed the narrative more specfically, making it easier to picture the storyline for our video.

Our music video developed the amount of performance as in the original video Ed Sheeran does not appear performing however he does appear once throughout the whole film, he is portrayed as the understanding "hero". Therefore we decided to show more performance as he is know by his fans by his being a talented musician as well as singer. Since other music videos from the same Indie genre have a higher level of performance we decided to develop this convention and include more shots with the artists emphasising their talents and allowing them to build a stronger connection with the audience due to the artists singing to the camera.

Additionally we interwove the artists with the narrative which is similar to what the 'A Team' music video did with Ed Sheeran as we wanted to show a link between the performance and narrative, this was revealed by using a shot reverse shot as we showed the artists' reaction to the Girl's situation highlighting their sympathy towards her. In the 'A Team' video Ed Sheeran also uses this technique as he sits with the Girl talking to her and giving her money in order to help her.

Extension

As we had faults with the Camera we ended up applying for an extension.

We had difficulties with: 

-Cameras 

-Actors

-Destination 

As all of these things held us back from filming when wanted to and as a consequence of this we ran out of time and wasn't able to meet the deadline. Although we now have an extension it is still hard for us to film everything as the members in our group all have different time tables and therefore not all of us can be there for the filming. 

We have also had problems with the actors and the weather as it recently snowed. All of these things, although we have a extension have made it very difficult for us, throughout this process, to film. 

This is a photo of the previous actor Adam with our rapper Ashley.

We had to change actors as Adam wasn't very reliable or confident enough to sing in public, which sometimes showed on the camera.

The new actor jake, although he is punctual and able to film when we are it helped. He is very confident and does anything that we ask of him

Although he is confident however he hasn't had any experience with a guitar and it was obvious on the camera.

We really wanted a lot of close ups of the Guitar as it was one of the key features in our genre and we wanted to meet the conventions of indie music videos. 

But when we got close ups of the guitar it was very apparent that he wasn't actually playing it. 

We tried to get different angles so that it didn't look too bad so we got the angle above. 

You can still tell that he isn't confident on the guitar but it was very important to us to include a shot of it in our video. 

Editing

Due to the weather conditions we wasn't able to film our final scene at the river as the lake was completely frozen and due to this the camera was too cold and wouldn't let us film on it.

As you can imagine this was unfortunate and we had to make do with the footage we had so far to create an ending that was still emotional with continuity. 

Jake our Singer singing the final bit of the chorus 

We wanted out final scene to be the 'pimp' to throw the body in the river and have a shot of him reflecting on the girl and then we would have flash backs of her life story and how she ended up in such a bad place. But as we couldn't film at the river we had to include some of the shots of Jake that we had to put more footage in to fill the time. 

The pimp putting the body in the boot.  

We then decided that the last scene would be the pimp putting the body in the boot of the car to show continuity along side the song. 

Car fading out into the distance 

After this, we decided to have the car fade out into the distance and then a flash back of the girl throughout the video. We thought that by just having the car fading out it would imply the death of the young girl without it being too explicit. 

Flash back shots 

Flash back shots

Flash back shots 

Flash back shots 

As there were not footage for the video up until the end of the song and there wasn't enough time to go out and film other shots of the girl throughout time, we was stuck using some of the footage that we already had. Although the ending is still quite effective it isn't ideal and would of been better if we either went to get the shots of the 'pimp' earlier or if we went and got more of the girl to show her life before this story.