Evaluative Commentary of our Music Video

Directors commentary script

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms + conventions of real media products?

Livvy:         The genre of the song we chose was folk rock/ indie, which gave us a wide range of possibilities for our music video, as the conventions were very open. The main convention was it could be artistic and very creative, but also we had to avoid mixing it with the genre conventions of pop music. We decided to emphasis the main convention by our main character in the narrative being a mime, which is a very profound and skilful art form.

Rachel:    Our music video is controversial to many conventions of real media products as usually there is a link present within the video to the lyrics of the song. Although some actions of the mime are featured in the lyrics, for example the mime making a heart shape with his hands to the lyrics ‘loving somebody doesn’t make them love you”, the plot of a mime love story is totally unrelated to the song. This gives a unique twist to our music video that perversely conforms to conventional music video requirements of selling the artist and attracting viewers.

Maura:     By shooting a lot of our footage in a natural environment like the park scene we also followed the other conventions of a folk rock video as many include natural instruments or just singing so the setting goes well with what the music is about such as in Bon Iver’s video Holocene where it is set in a very natural outdoors setting.

Rachel:     Our music video uses the conventions of other music videos by using footage of the artist throughout quite a lot of the video and shows them singing to the camera so that it is clear who the artist is to the audience. A lot of these shots are close ups so that we could comply to the demands of the record label which are to sell the artist as a product and to ensure the audience knows who the are. We also used notions of looking (voyeurism) as the mime is looking longingly at the girl within the video as he is trying to get her attention, which is similar to other music videos.

Maura:     Although I think to improve we could have used more props for example a guitar as they are usually included in folk rock videos and I think it would have made it even clearer what genre it came from.


Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Livvy:         Our music video and ancillary products (a magazine advert and a digipak) have a very strong link, even though we didn't directly use images from our music video. We thought that it would be better if we used a strong theme that linked the two products with subtle reference to the music video, as if it is a complete package. We chose the theme of circus advertisements, but not modern times advertisement, but older, almost Victorian style. In the planning phase we found a film called "Les Enfants du Paradis" which we found had a really nice feel to it and this made us choose this style.

Rachel:     The aim of this style is to make the audience feel as if by getting the digipack they are being admitted to the weird and wonderful world of Jack Johnson the artist and would get access to exclusive behind the scenes action such as on the video set and tour, which we have included as two of the special features of the digipack. All three products work together to create a slightly eccentric view of the artist that encourages them to want to find out more by buying the products.

Rachel:    The unique and unusual theme of mime artistry promotes the artist as he is shown to stand out from other conventional artists that may conform to regular music video ideas.

Maura:     We could have however done a lot more with this and added more to our DVD by creating and inside design which used the juggling balls in more focus which I believe would have worked well in the place where the DVD itself would go as the shape of both would fit together. But overall I feel that we were able to create three products that when seen next to one another it would be clear that they were all related to the same video.


Q3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Livvy:         The feedback we got from our audience was in general positive, they said our lip-syncing was of a high standard, which has taught me that the method of putting markers on our music track, to mark when the beginning of versus and choruses, worked well. Although they said our music video was to narrative heavy, so it would have been useful if we had filmed more scenes of the artist singing.
They also enjoyed our use of multiple locations because they found it made the video more varied and interesting, thus making it more watch-able.


Rachel:     The feedback from the rough cut showed us that we needed more close ups on the artist as we hadn’t got and it wouldn’t sell the artist enough but the lack of close ups until the end did make the ending where the two mimes meet very powerful. Our final cut feedback showed us that although we had increased the number of close ups there was still not enough so in future products we need to include more.

Maura:     I think we have developed our video a lot from when our rough cut had feedback as one of the main points for that was to change the tone of the video and we done this by using filters so the whole mood of the video is changed. They also said that they did not see enough of the performer so we added some shots of him so that it would break up all the scenes of the mime.




Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages?

Maura:     Throughout the process I have learnt how to use many different types of technology and been able to develop skills on those I have used before. The first thing I used when in the planning and research stage was ‘blogger.com’ this is where all my research and planning would be displayed. To research into music videos I used youtube.com which was able to give me so many music videos and ideas as to what kind of thing is usually included in different music videos.

Rachel:    Final cut was used a lot during the production of our music video and it helped a lot to create the old style atmosphere of the video because of the wide range of effects it has on offer such as the noise filter and colour corrector we used to make it look dark and grainy and in the style of old mime films. Photoshop was useful for creating the digipack as it allowed us to edit the circus poster and ticket we found to show the information we wanted to include.

Livvy:        In the construction of our music video we used HD handheld cameras, which were easy to use and gave use the opportunity to film close up shots without the camera feeling overpowering over artist and mime.
Having a blog was also very useful to us in the research and planning stage, and the evaluation stage, because it meant all our work was online so we could look at home, or in college, or blog articles where ever we were, if we suddenly found inspiration or found a good location etc. Using a blog also meant our work was neatly stored, and made it easier to link all our products together as we could get inspiration for work we'd previously done for the Music Video.

Timed Assessment of Evaluation Questions

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


The genre of the song we chose was folk rock/ indie, which gave us a wide range of possibilities for our music video, as the conventions were very open. The main convention was it could be artistic  and very creative, but also we had to avoid mixing it with the genre conventions of pop music. We decided to emphasis the main convention by our main character in the narrative being a mime, which is a very profound and skillful art form. The use of the mime also spurred on further ideas for the ancillary products, which were also supposed to be creative and artistic, and also linked to our music video. We decided to emphasis the mime aspect of our music video and use the theme of the circus style posters. So, we made our magazine advert in the style of a Victorian circus advertisement with all the necessary information to sell our product.
We also used a lot of amplified lyrics and visuals to emphasis what our artist was singing about, to make it more understandable. The lyrics had a general narrative that showed us a failed love story, where a man spends a lot of time chasing after a girl, doing all the things she wants him to do, and being the person she wants him to be, and then not showing him any affection or interest. Our narrative amplifies this by showing a mime, chasing after a "normal" girl, and her completely ignoring him. Using the mime for this, instead of a normal person or using the artist, makes the video far more interesting for the viewer, because it makes it more unique and different. 
One convention we could have used was that most folk rock songs used guitars, or showed the artist playing a guitar whilst singing, which makes the audience make a clearer link to what the genre is, as to attract the target audience. We could have also used nature to our advantage, because through watching other musics videos from this genre, we noted that most used forests or open farmland or fenland as their backdrop, and we only used this in half of our song. Our local area would have provided us an array of different natural locations, although then again, using half our set as a built up town area, and then switching to the natural side could have worked to our advantage as it meant it showed a clear distinction between the first part of the narrative, where the mime is chasing after this "normal" girl, and the second part, where the mime and the artist come together, and the artist solves the mimes problem. 






2. How effective is your combination of you main products and ancillary texts?


Our music video and ancillary products, (a magazine advert and a digipak) have a very strong link, even though we didn't directly use images from our music video. We thought that it would be better if we used a strong theme that linked the two products with subtle reference to the music video, as if it is a complete package. We chose the theme of circus advertisements, but not modern times advertisement, but older, almost Victorian style. In the planning phase we found a film called "Les Enfants du Paradis" which we found had a really nice feel to it and this made us choose this style.I think that all our products work together as a nice little package and compliment each-other, due to this theme. If we had thought a little less out of the box, I don't think our products would have worked so well. One part of the image of the mime I really liked was the fact that mimes were were originally supposed to teach moral lessons and it links to our narrative in our music video.
Although we could have produced the ancillary texts a bit better, if we had used our time wisely, they would have been more effective. and also if we had emphasized a bit further or improved the use of the vignette and colour correction in our music video, they would have looked even more connected. 


3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?


The feedback we got from our audience was in general positive, they said our lip-syncing was of a high standard, which has taught me that the method of putting markers on our music track, to mark when the beginning of versus and choruses, worked well. Although they said our music video was to narrative heavy, so it would have been useful if we'd have filmed more scenes of the artist singing.
They also enjoyed our use of multiple locations because they found it made the video more varied and interesting, thus making it more watch-able.
I have also learnt that the audience likes it when the lyrics and visuals are strongly linked as it makes what the artist is saying more interesting and understandable.
From our Rough Cut, we had some feedback that told us our music video looked too bright and realistic and if we wanted the theme of the mime to work, we had to do something about it. So we went through final cut and darkened all the shots so that it had a slightly more moody feel to it, and also added a filter called a vignette and another one called noise, as to make it feel like its old footage. The mix of the old looking footage, and the modern clothing of the artist and girl, made the mime stand out in the shots more, because after adding these filters, the mime looked like he was black and white, in a colourful world, making him look odd and out of place. 
On thing we learnt but couldn't change, was it was repeated several times to us that we needed to film more close up shots, or at least more varying shots, to make the music video more technically difficult, and to make the music video in general more interesting, because as I mentioned before, the audience like the varying locations, and if we had varying shot, it would have been even better.
 Without the audience feedback, I don't think we would have noticed and our music video wouldn't be as good. 
Also the feedback we got from our teacher was that she really liked the circus theme because it could be used across several different products, such as CDs and full size posters, so our choice of theme was very good, like the use of the cowboy hat used in a line of Madonna products, which successfully linked them all together.


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


In the construction of our music video we used HD hand-held cameras, which were easy to use and gave use the opportunity to film close up shots without the camera feeling overpowering over artist and mime.
When we were putting all our shots together we used Final Cut, which enabled us to stack our short up like a staircase, in different tracks, which made it easier to find good shots for a particular scene. Also we were able to lock our lip-syncing track, so that it wasn't accidentally moved, and we were able to make sure it stayed in sync with the music. Final Cut was also useful because it had lots of filters and colour correction, which meant we were able to adjust our footage, so it doesn't feel raw, and we also used a Vignette filter, to give our footage an older, worn feel.
Also we used photo-shop in the construction of our ancillary texts. This meant we were able to layer images and texts onto our products. We found two useful images of an old style poster and a ticket to the circus, and we were able to strip them down, to the basic outline using various different tools, such as a colour matcher, which meant we could find the exact colour that was already on the poster, and use it to paint over the original text, and a smudger tool, which meant we were able to blend colours together, so that it looked smoother. We also used an artistic paint brush filter to give the images on the posters a feel of being painted, like the old style circus posters. Although one thing that caused us alot of problems was not knowing this technology as well as we should, because it meant when things went wrong we were unable to sort them out quickly, and when finding the right filters and tools, it took longer, which meant we had less time to complete our tasks, and meant they were of a  lower standard, for example, if we had know how to cut a picture of a person out without having to precisely draw around the outline, we wouldn't have lost so much time. 
Having a blog was also very useful to us in the research and planning stage, and the evaluation stage, because it meant all our work was online so we could look at home, or in college, or blog articles where ever we were, if we suddenly found inspiration or found a good location etc. Using a blog also meant our work was neatly stored, and made it easier to link all our products together as we could get inspiration for work we'd previously done for the Music Video, such as the post about "Les Enfants du Paradis", inspiring us to use old circus posters as inspiration for our magazine advert and digipak.

Evaluation of music video

1.

It is clear by looking at the conventions of Folk Rock that our products fit in well with the genre. Firstly my having the artist in normal clothes for example jeans and a t-shirt it shows the audience that he is just a normal man that likes to get his points across through music. This is very common in the genre for example Frank Turner who is another Folk Rock artist is usually seen wearing similar types of clothing in his videos. By shooting a lot of our footage in a natural environment like the park scene we also followed the conventions of a folk rock video as many include natural instruments or just singing so the setting goes well with what the music is about such as in Bon Iver’s video Holocene where it is set in a very natural outdoors setting. Although I think to improve we could have used more props for example a guitar as they are usually included in folk rock videos and I think it would have made it even clearer what genre it came from. When looking at Goodwin’s points it is also clear we have met some of these while making our music video.

 Throughout the music video we have shown a lot of the artist both on his own and with the mime character which would meet the demands of the record label as they may want the audience to see that the artist can have a relationship with someone different and help them through bad times which is a good image to have. We have also made sure that the lyrics and visuals go well together and especially at the end of the song when the mime is taken to his new love as the lyrics state “No I can’t always be waiting waiting on you, I can’t always be playing playing your fool, fool”. This link is very clear through the shots we have got using reaction shots of both mimes brings the audience into the scene and it marks the end of the story which has been playing out throughout the video.

While editing we were also able to make the video look more like a folk rock video. By using final cut we added effects and filters on every scene to make it have more dull colouring as this is a key feature when watching other folk rock artists.

 We have also added an extra layer to our video by including the mime throughout. When looking up the history of the mime we began to take ideas from where it came from and what it represented. We have used both the ‘sad clown’ and the ‘happy clown’ two of the possible five types of mime there is. The love story within our music video goes with the generic mime plays where love plays a big role.

2.

When looking at all our products together it is clear there is a strong link between them all. Firstly we have carried the idea of the mime across to both our magazine advert and DVD case which helps the audience relate the music video to both these products. We felt that by taking the mime from the music video and making that as well as the artist the main focus of all the products we could then develop other ideas to expand on which we were able to do. We decided on a circus theme and because the colours and filters we used in our video made it look like an old film we could go with an old style circus theme. By collecting knowledge from the internet on what kind of things were included in circus posters we found some images that we really felt we could edit to make them fit with our ideas. The mime as the main concept brings all our products together as juggling is often connected with the circus and therefore if we were to make any more products we could use this theme. It also allowed us to come up with some ideas on what extra features we could have on our DVD so we used the circus theme to come up with a circus tour which was included on our DVD. We could have however done a lot more with this and added more to our DVD by creating and inside design which used the juggling balls in more focus which I believe would have worked well in the place where the DVD itself would go as the shape of both would fit together. But overall I feel that we were able to create three products that when seen next to one another it would be clear that they were all related to the same video.

3.

The feedback we received was very helpful as it gave us not only positive feedback on the video but what could have been improved. The feedback shows we made good links between our lyrics and visuals and because of this the story we have used is easily worked out when watching the video. The feedback also commented on our locations and they said that because we changed locations a lot the audience did not grow bored and it therefore kept them interested. This was one of our main goals and if we hadn’t have filmed in so many different locations it would have affected the way we edited as there wouldn’t have been as much choice when it came to shots. They also said that the mime was a good idea and it kept them interested throughout. The feedback also stated that there could have been more shots of the artists lip syncing. This was helpful to know so that if done again we would add in more shots of the artist so the audience feel like they see them enough and we really sell them to the viewers. I think we have developed our video a lot from when our rough cut had feedback as one of the main points for that was to change the tone of the video and we done this by using filters so the whole mood of the video is changed. They also said that they did not see enough of the performer so we added some shots of him so that it would break up all the scenes of the mime.

4.

Throughout the process I have learnt how to use many different types of technology and been able to develop skills on those I have used before. The first thing I used when in the planning and research stage was ‘blogger.com’ this is where all my research and planning would be displayed. To research into music videos I used youtube.com which was able to give me so many music videos and ideas as to what kind of thing is usually included in different music videos. The blog we made shows the stages we went through to get our final idea which is great because it means when looking back we can see the stages we went through. At this stage we also used cameras to take pictures of where we were thinking about filming which meant that we could have a clear image in our mind before moving off to start shooting our video. In the planning stage I was able to use Photoshop which enabled me to get used to where many things were and how to use it on a basic level although it was only to make a mood board it gave me some knowledge that I would be using later to make the other products.

The filming stage of the project can be seen as one of the most important and by using the HD camera we were able to get the best out of it. I felt that I already knew how to use the camera which was a benefit as this meant we could start filming right away. We got the best quality shots which then made our music video look even more professional.

The editing stage I believe is the most important and the different technology that can be used makes the process even more exciting. Using final cut at first was a little confusing but after getting used to the program we started layering our clips on and then lip syncing. Lip syncing was a vital part of the editing stage and if it was not done right with precision then the whole video would not have looked at good quality. The effects we added when in final cut meant that the rendering time for our video was over 2 hours which then meant we could not watch the footage in full before it had to be uploaded on the blog. Although I think in the end the video came out well it could have been a little more improved by just going back through one more time and re adjusting the filters.

When using Photoshop this time I was able to use in more depth. When making the DVD cover and advert I was able to work out how most the tools worked and by using them I took an image and completely transformed what it looked like originally and then was able to add in our own images to the template so that our ideas could come to life. Although I did look on font websites we decide that the best one we felt fitted with our ideas was one of the ones on Photoshop so by using that we made our products really have the circus theme. 

Evaluation Questions

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

Our music video uses the conventions of other music videos by using footage of the artist throughout quite alot of the video and shows them singing to the camera so that it is clear who the artist is to the audience. Alot of these shots are close ups so that we could comply to the demands of the record label which are to sell the artist as a product and to ensure the audience knows who the are. We also used notions of looking (voyeurism) as the mime is looking longingly at the girl within the video as he is trying to get her attention which is similar to other music videos within the folk rock genre. A particular example in our video of this which uses lyrics and visuals is where the mime makes a heart shape with his hands around the girl as she walks away down the street as the lyrics say ''loving somebody doesn't make them love you.'' We also used music and visuals by cutting the clips on the beat as it is a reasonably upbeat song so the video is interesting and looks proffesional to the audience. We also edited the footage to look old and grainy like it has come from a mime film and this is also similar to other folk rock artist videos such as those by Bon Iver that have quirky parts to them. We also challenged the conventions of real folk rock music videos by using a mime as the main character in our video as this is very unusual and hasnt been used before.

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

For our poster and digipack we went for a circus theme in a very old style to keep within the mime theme but to have a variation. To do this we used an old circus poster and edited it to show images of the mime doing different actions such as juggling that he had done within the video so that there was some intertextual references. On the poster we also used an image of the artist as the center point so that the eye would be drawn to this first and the audience would recognise that they are the artist which is the most important thing and is one of the demands of the record label. For the digipack we used an old circus ticket so that it felt to the audience as if by getting the digipack they are being admitted to the weird and wonderflu world of Jack Johnson the artist and would get access to exclusive behind the scenes action such as on the video set and tour.which we have included as two of the special features of the digipack. All three products work together to create a slightly eccentric view of the artist but the whole old circus and mime theme is intrieguing to the audience and encourages them to want to find out more by buying the products.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From the initial pitch we learnt that the unusual idea of a mime was very popular as it would allow us to be creative with effects during the editing stage using old dark and sepia tones and making it look grainy and jumpy with a noise filter. It also showed we could be creative with the filming as the mime could be doing several different actions such as juggling and pretending they were behind glass. It also showed us to focus on the hands of the mime as this is an important feature. The feedback from  the rough cut showed us that we needed more close ups on the artist as we hadnt got and it wouldnt sell the artist enough but the lack of close ups until the end did make the ending where the two mimes meet very powerful. Our final cut feedback showed us that although we had increased the number of close ups there was still not enough so in future products we need to include more.

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

Final cut was used alot during the production of our music video and it helped alot to create the old style atmosphere of the video because of the wide range of effects it has on offer such as the noise filter and colour corrector we used to make it look dark and grainy and in the style of old mime films. Photoshop was useful for creating the digipack as it allowed us to edit the circus poster and ticket we found to show the information we wanted to include. It also helped in the planning stages so that we could create a moodboard with all our possible ideas related to the mime and circus theme. Blogger was useful throughout the project to allow us to write our thoughts about how the different stages in the process were going. The HD video cameras were useful for the production of the music video as it allowed us to produce high quality professional footage. Stills cameras were useful for getting shots of us working on location and for use on the digipack and poster.

Timed Evaluation

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

Our music video is controversial to many conventions of real media products. Usually there is a link present within the video to the lyrics of the song. Although some actions of the mime are featured in the lyrics, the plot of a mime love story is totally unrelated to the song. This gives a unique twist to our music video that perversely conforms to conventional music video requirements of selling the artist and attracting veiwers.
I feel we develop the idea of a music video being more of a miniature film, a trend that has recently become more well-known and recently appeared in videos for artists such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry where the central artist is involved with characters with a whole story.


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

our products combined interest the viewer, promote our artist and relate to each other in a way that communicate to the consumer our idea. The theme that is used in all products is Victorian poster art. As our mime character is inspired from the very old art form of street and circus performance, the idea for out magazine advert and digipak is a poster for a Victorian style carnival. I feel this is effective in interesting the viewer as it is unique and unusual, not unlike our central mime character. It is this unique feature that also promotes the artist as he is shown to stand out from other conventional artists that may conform to regular music video ideas.


3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Primarily, I have learnt that originality is never ignored. I also have learnt that colour, texture and feel play a large part in the overall opinion of an audience. Our rough cut was lacking the grainy feel of Victorian artistry, which is our main theme. This impacted on the viewer as the footage was bright and neutral which contrasted greatly with our idea.


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

As many ideas start out, ours began with pen, paper and a cup of tea. However, the use of a blog as a type of portfolio was used to update ideas, clearly view research and track planning stages. We used Final Cut Express to edit our video and took full use of colour correction and filters in order to achieve a more appropriate feel in our video as opposed to a sunny afternoon, as we aimed to achieve the style of an old, grainy film.
Again, the idea for our magazine advert and digipak started on paper and a quick browse of google images, however, they were both constructed using the program Photoshop. This software was used to construct and edit images. We also use colour overlays, filters and burning and smudging tools to achieve the effect of an aged poster.
The blog was very useful again in that every process was accessible and clearly displayed in order to evaluate.

Directors Commentary

A directors commentary is something where the director of a piece of media describes the background to their product and explains why they included particular features ie why a prop is significant to the storyline or what they believe a particular actor they chose to play a character brings to the role. they may also explain why scenes within the product are important to the product. It may be presented as a voiceover over the product or as a separate video or piece of writing.

Director's Commentaries

com·men·tar·y  (kmn-tr)

n. pl. com·men·tar·ies

1. A series of explanations or interpretations.

2. An expository treatise or series of annotations; an exegesis. Often used in the plural.

3. An apt explanation or illustration: a scandal that is a sad commentary on national politics.

4. A personal narrative; a memoir. Often used in the plural.

A director's commentary is an audio file, sometimes accompanied by interjections of video of the commentator,  that can be evaluative summary of the production, screen action and thoughts and opinions of actors, producers or directors.

directors commentary info

the directors commentary is used to add extra information that would otherwise not be know and it can also add entertainment to the viewer.

there are two types of commentarys the first being partial or scene-specific this only covers part of the film and sometimes they are recored without the speaker seeing the film so genral points may be made. the other type is called feature length which i recorded in one session. the speaker gives their comments on what is happening in real time on the screen.

a commentary track normally includes a commentary from the films director, cast and sometimes the writers. in some commentarys the chartacters get into character and perform their commentary in that way.

magazine advert

Digipak

This is our final digipak cover

Feedback for group R2-23, Couldn't post a comment on thier blog for some reason!

Feedback from R2-22

I really liked your music video, originally the idea sort of confused me, but now i can see the finished product, I'm really starting to love it!

I liked the amplification of the lyrics with the use of cards, i didn't realise before that the lyrics even mentioned cards, and this amplification, makes the lyrics more catchy.

I also like the reference to "Bunny Chow" in relation to the use of the rabbit costume, I don't know the story myself but it was a nice reference to use. Made the story oddly credible.

The filming of this project was very well done indeed. You had fairly ranged shots, from longshots of the bunny climbing out of the skip, to the close up of the skateboard as he is riding it. I also liked the way you put that in time with the guitar strums.

The only thing I have to pick at with this video, is that at some points the lipsincing seems to be slightly off, and also the enthusiam of the artist, but then again, it is difficult to sing infront of a camera, in the knowledge that it will be on the internet shortly.

Directors Commentary

Directors Commentaries are a standard part of most films and releases today. It all started in December 1984 with an audio commentary on the original King Kong film in a special collection, called the Criterion Collection. The commentary was voiced over by film historian Ronald Haver, here is a quote of what he said:

“Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Ronald Haver, and I'm here to do something which we feel is rather unique. I'm going to take you on a lecture tour of King Kong as you watch the film. The laserdisc technology offers us this opportunity and we feel it's rather unique — the ability to switch back and forth between the soundtrack and this lecture track...”

The actual definition of an audio commentary, or a directors commentary, is an extra audio track containing single or multiple speakers which can be played over the sound track of a film or other release, where the speakers give in depth details of what is happening at any given moment, so the audience can furthur understand the technicalities and background information in the release. Directors commentaries can be very formal to incredibly light hearted, depending on the character of the person speaking and the type of release it is. Even video games are using audio commentaries today.

Digipack Front cover idea

we would like to use a similar idea to the poster for our digipack front cover by continuing the circus theme and use several images of the mime doing actions such as juggling and pretending they are behind invisible glass in the style of the picture below. The image inside the hot air balloon wound be of the artist to ensure we are in-keeping with the needs of the record label to sell the artist however we may not use the hot air balloon within our image.

 An idea we had for the cd case area was a very close up picture of a juggling ball as it is circular and fits with the mime theme and also it is the correct shape to be a cd.

Idea for digipak and Magazine ad!

Theme : Mime/ Circus

Basically for our magazine ad and digipak we want to emphasis the use of the mime in our music video. In other words for our magazine ad, we would like to create an old style circus poster, which we think will be interesting and eye-catching as well as linking to the video.  Here is an image of what sort of style of circus poster we want to create.

For our digipak, we'd quite like to link the idea of the old style circus, on the front we'd like to create another circus style poster with an image of the artist of it, and on the back, we'd like to have it in the style of an old ticket to a circus with all the information of the digipak on it, such as a barcode, age rating, what is on the DVD etc. On the inside of the front cover, we'd like to puts some reviews and

 possibly the lyrics to the tracks, possibly on a scroll included in the digipak. The inside design will be a tea-stained colour with lots of references to circus stuff.  Heres an image of the ticket, similar to the one we wish to create for the back cover of our Digipak:

We will use images of the mime on the back cover.

Final Music Video

Where did mimes comes from?

Mime is considered one of the earliest mediums of self expression. After the spoken language was developed mime came a form of entertainment. The scenes they would perform in early times would teach moral lessons.


Mimes first originated in Greece and then Italy where they were formally know as Commedia dell'Arte. in the middle ages and 16th century it reached its peak in italy. It originated in the market place in the early 1500's. by wearing masks with exaggerated comical faces they drew attention to themselves so that their acrobatic skills were noticed. the characters they created became known as Zanni and when two of these performers joined up it became an established genre. The subject matter was always contemporary and by wearing masks they were able to ridicule all aspects of society. 


Another name used was dei maschere because the actors wore masks. there was originally five different mimes; the sad clown, the happy clown, the villain and two others. the actor would choose which character to specialise in and then play that character throughout the play. 


The mime in our music video takes on the role of the sad clown as he tries to get the attention of his love. The story line goes with the generic mime plays where love plays a big role. during the end of the music video it is clear that the mime character changes to become a happy clown as he meets with his mime love. although there it is a music video so therefore contains music and words the mime himself never talks which also goes well with the generic silent films mimes were often a part of. 

Magazine advert conventions

The conventions of a magazine advert are:

• Song/Album title
• Visual links to videos- Intertextuality
• Reviews (Newspaper, Music press, Celebrities/DJ's- Trend Setters)
• Condensed information on content
• Release date
• Artist name
• Where is it available to purchase (HMV,Amazon)
• Record label logo
• Website (official artist site, Myspace)

Techno editing

Filming

When filming, we took full use of digital HD handheld cameras supplied by the media department. We used varying camera shots including close ups, zooming, longshots and techniques such as tracking. Although, we found that in different locations the lighting severly varied, requiring extencive use of colour corrector in order to rectify a neutral colour pallet.
NB: the public are a nuisance. (as mentioned in a previous post)


Editing


When editing we used final cut express to compile all of our shots into a beautiful music video. It wasn't too much of a challenge to sync the artists vocals with the footage of our artist singing, although our artists mouth moved slightly abnormally, so sometimes it didn't look like our artist was singing the right words in comparison with the accent and tonality of the original artist.
We used many layers footage tracks in the compilation of our music video, as this allowed us to clearly view raw footage and edit accordingly.
The filters in final cut express were also very useful to us. We used a filter called "vignette" and also put a layer of light noise on it in order to achieve the effect of old style filming, to get the feel of an aged piece of tape that has been exposed to light, dust, and years of love. We also used colour corrector to even out the lighting and tonal differences, for the use of different locations and times of day.

Analysis Of Previous Student Music Videos

Group 12 2009
David ford-A long Time Ago

1. Genre Characteristics-

The genre of the video is folk rock, i believe this video presents the genre very well. The use of ordinary clothes such as a shirt and jeans with a hat is consistent with the style of clothing that artists within the genre wear.

The use of a park scene where the artist is on his own is also using another characteristic of the footage being in naturalistic environments and a sense of loneliness.

The colours of the real footage in the park has very bland colouring which is similar to many other folk rock music videos by the use of bold colours being limited as the footage is meant to look as natural as possible.

The use of a guitar is very popular in this genre and the group has used this in their video to emphasize the genre well.

2. Lyrics/visuals

The video makes use of lyrics and visuals well.

One example of this is when the artist sings ''it was a hollywood sky'' the word hollywood is spelt out in the sky of the animated scene.

The whole of the animated sections are narrative and the action corresponds to what the viewer is hearing which is a characteristic of folk rock videos.

Another example of the use of lyrics and visuals is where the lyrics say ''there's a girl by the cigarette machine'' and there is a girl standing in a bar by the cigarette machine.

3. Music/visuals

There is definitely a relationship between the music and visuals as the clips cut at the end of verses and the shots in the park towards the end of the video cut at the end of each bar of music.

4. Demands of the record label

The demands of the record label have clearly been taken into account during the making of this video as the artist is the main character within the sequence including the animated parts so that the audience is reminded who the artist is and so that it sticks in their mind. There is the use of allot of close up shots in the video to emphasise the artist particularly during the park footage.

5. Intertextual references

The music video is similar to that of the video for the magic roundabout fruit party as it uses animation of clay to describe the story.

Feedback from Amar and Andrea

Camerawork - All camerawork good, but need more close ups of artist and mime, and more shots in general of artist. We will possibly do some more filming in class, on site, so we can have these close ups. On the other hand, the lack of close up does make the end scene more powerful, but all the shots at the begining are very similarly framed, so there is need of some variation.

Editing - Possibly a change of tone, so that the music video doesn't look too "concrete" because most of the buildings are grey or beige. Our shots on mill pond are alot better because of the bright greens or the grass and trees, makes the colours seem alot bolder. More frequent shots of performance.

Concept - both really like the idea, and thought thats the ending was beautiful, but we need more close ups.

Feedback from rough cut video

Goodwins points:

• Visuals, lyrics all linked really well together
• The pace of the song fitted well with the camera work
• Lyrics and visuals 'waiting for you' shown well by mime waiting for the girl to take notice

Editing:

• All the cuts were on the beat and natural transitions and filming
• All the footage is filmed smoothly and the camera work was effective 
• Shot reverse shot
• Use more interesting filters and different shots

Mise-en-scene:

• Good costumes and makeup, and location
• Convincing man
• Utilizing natural light well

Creativity:

• Original, a very unique video
• The story link will keep the audience interested because they will never have seen any thing like this
• Good use with vocalist meeting up with the actors. Makes a good effect 
• Not boring!
• Overall very good :)

ROUGH CUT!

Jazzeh.

The Nextmen - Thinking Man's Session Q1-50



     1.Genre Characteristics
The genre of the song is rap. I believe this video very accurately presents and represents many conventions in the rap genre and culture.
The street setting of the 'gang' of boys directly exemplifies the environment in which gang culture and the genre of rap are set.
The clothing worn by all characters is highly associated with rap and hip/hop. They are all wearing casual sports clothes; shorts, jogging trousers, hoodies, basketball vests, ect. This ties in to another characteristic of rap, the association to sport and dance. This is also featured withi the video as in many shots, the group are playing basket ball and the main artist is performing modern hiphop dance and breakdance (1:28)
The saturated colours also flaunt the characteristics exemplified in this video. A key element to the gang culture associated to rap is the display of material possesions and clothing. By hightening the brightness of primary colours, it clearly emphasises the value of clothing in gang culture; a characteristic of the genre.


     2.  Lyrics/Visuals
As the primary directive of this video appears to be to sell the artist and emphasize gang culture, the need for lyrics to relate of visuals is minimal. However, in accordance with the bodily movements of rappers when they are rapping, some of the lyrics are 'acted out' with slight hand gestures. For example at (1:48) lyric: to write rhymes, the artist mimes writing on his hand. This is also a characteristic of many artists in the rap genre.


     3.  Music/Visuals
The editorial reactions to musical ornaments within the record are highly effective in this music video. The most interesting element of the editing of this video is the use of image 'shuffling', example: (0:11), when there is a disk scratching effect on the record. This creates the feel that the video and soundtrack are closely linked. I feel that this hightens the interest the veiwer has in the video as it gives a sense that the accompanying video is a necessity, or even that the music was written to the style of the video as opposed to the video being produced to support the music.  

     4. Needs of Record label
Clearly, due to use of branded clothing and centralisation of the artist, the needs of the record label were in high regard in the production of this video.
5.Voyeurism
6.Intertextuality

Editing - 18/10/11

Editing today was cool. BUT we didn't notice this guy in a hat walking into the center of the clip, looking at the camera, and walking off. This ruined one of our clips and we don't have a similar.

daymn.

Analysis of Lyrics to Jack Johnson's "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing"

Well I was sitting, waiting, wishing 
You believed in superstitions 
Then maybe you'd see the signs 
     The opening lines of the song set the theme of 'waiting, wishing'. We assume the 'you' is a reference to a lady (male singing) and the basic story is that she doesn't love him and is ignoring him. 'The signs' could be seen as a reference to his own actions. This gives the listener the idea that he has been dropping clues to her that he is not happy with the way he is being treated. 
     The rhyming pattern of the verses are the first two lines rhyming and the last not. It has a regular beat in 4/4 timing with a line to each bar, this is a usual layout for popular songs as it means that the song is easy to listen to and has a fluid motion as it is easy to predict due to the simple layout.

The Lord knows that this world is cruel 
I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool 
Learning lovin' somebody don't make them love you 
      These lines emphasize the desperate feeling of the last resort. It is clear that the singer has had enough and references 'The Lord'. A god is generally turned to in a time of need, further emphasizing the desperation of the singer to get attention from the lady.
      The use of 'fool' as a term referring to himself was an inspiration for the central character of the video being a mime as they are typically associated with foolery and clowning. This also makes the character laughable and lighthearted, which coincides with the light feel of the song.

Must I always be waiting, waiting on you 
Must I always be playing, playing your fool 
     The chorus has the feel of begging due to the use of 'must i always'. It is a direct plea to the lady but almost seems to speak to the listener. **
I sang your songs, I danced your dance 
I gave your friends all a chance 
     This part shows the effort the artist has put into this love of his. He seems to have tried his hardest to fit in to certain aspects of her life, even if they don't fit in with his own life.
But putting up with them 
Wasn't worth never having you 
      This show that he is feeling let down and angry because obviously after giving her friends a chance it turns out they are not pleasent to him, This will obviously hurt.

Maybe you've been through this before 
But it's my first time so please ignore 
The next few lines cause they're directed at you 
       This shows that he is naive to the chance that this love may not work, because he's never felt like this before, so it may just be an infatuation. This links to the part in our video when the mime sits down with the artist, who eventually shows him the mime girl whom he falls in love with.

I can't always be waiting, waiting on you 
I can't always be playing, playing your fool 
        **

I keep playing your part 
But it's not my scene 
Want this plot to twist 
I've had enough mystery 
Keep building it up 
Then shooting me down 
But I'm already down
       This part shows us that he's finally getting fed up and not losing interest exactly, but starting to realise that this may not go his way in the end. Also the link to "plot" and "scene" is very theatrical and links directly to the mime and also "Les  Enfants du Paradis" where the mime is on stage with the beautiful woman, whom the mime is madly in love with, and rejects him. breaking his heart.

Just wait a minute 
Just sitting, waiting 
Just wait a minute 
Just sitting, waiting 
     Another link to begging for attention "just wait a minute" makes it seem like he's asking the girl to stop and listen for once instead of ignoring all his moves.

Well, if I was in your position 
I'd put down all my ammunition 
I'd wonder why'd it taken me so long 
        This the final point in the song where he  realises that this is not right and loses his naivete. He realizes that this girl is not the person she though she is and as he says in the next verse, that she is "cruel" for playing him like this.

But Lord knows that I'm not you 
And if I was, I wouldn't be so cruel 
Cause waitin' on love aint so easy to do 

Must I always be waiting, waiting on you 
Must I always be playing, playing your fool 
       **

No, I can't I always be waiting, waiting on you 
I can't always be playing, playing your fool
      This is where he denounces himself from following this "cruel" girl about. This links to the point in our video where he holds hand with the mime girl, the person our mime should be in love with, someone who shares the same interests who has also been mucked about.

Artist Research

Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson is an american rock folk artist who was born on the 18th of may 1975. He grew up on the north shore of Hawaii where he took up the sport of surfing, following in the footsteps of his well known father Jeff Johnson. His career as a professional surfer took him to the surfing finals in Oahu where he became their youngest invitee ever. His surfing career was short lived however as he suffered a surfing accident the week after.




He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduated with a degree in film. This was where he developed his passion for music, and played rhythm guitar for the party band Soil. Johnson's influences include Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead, Otis Redding, G. Love and Special Sauce, Ben Harper, Sublime, The Beatles, Bob Marley, Neil Young, and A Tribe Called Quest.

Jack johnson released his debut album Brushfire Fairytales in 2001. He followed this up with five other albums:

• On and On (2003)
• In Between Dreams (2005) (includes the track Sitting, Waiting, Wishing.)
• Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George (2006)
• Sleep Through the Static (2008)
• To the Sea (2010)

On July 22, 2000, Johnson married his college sweetheart Kim. They have three children, two boys and a girl and live on the North Shore of the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

Inspiration

Les Enfants du Paradis

Les Enfants du Paradis or The Children of Paradise in cludes a mime being rejected in its plot. In detail, the mime is on stage and dancing for a "beautiful woman" and she end ups rejecting him completely. This film was made in 1945, in France, by Marcel Carne and writted by Jaques Prevert and is French with English subtitles. Apart from a good cup of tea one cold morning (the moment of Rachel's epiphany), this film inspired us as it has a wonderfully classic feel and is one of the first filmed appearances of a traditional french mime.

Keep, Grow, Change - music video intro task

Overall I feel that our music video intro went well but there are things that I would change and other things I wish to grow on.
Firstly in the research and planning stage it is clear from our blog that we did not do enough of this. Although we did look up the lyrics I would have liked to do more research into the artist and how he as a singer put himself across to other people because I think this would have helped us in the filming stag. I would also plan our video more even though we did have a rough idea as he how we would go about filming our intro we did not do a story board and prop list which would have been helpful.
The filming stage went well and I would keep the way we filmed in different locations all the way through the song so when it came to editing we could pick and choose what we could keep I would also keep the different shot types we used throughout. However I would now try and use more locations maybe use some outside to add a bit of variety to the video. We had a music problem so I would change the way we got the music; instead of using our own track I would Bluetooth the track from the computer to a phone so the editing and lip syncing would go together well.
We did not do an evaluation of our intro so I would definitely add this in the future as I thing it would show what we learnt throughout the process.
I learnt many skills throughout the project one was the lip syncing on the computer which was something new and will be very helpful in the next music video we do.   

folk rock genre

these are some videos from the folk rock genre by Bon Iver. This style of video is common in this genre. The lighting and colours through out the video are dark showing the emotions of the songs and the way in which the artist wanted to show his feelings through a video rather than just the music itself. 

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing original video

This is the video by Jack johnson of his song sitting, Waiting, Wishing. We looked at this at first to get a genral idea of the style of the song and then we have adapted the lyrics to come up with our own idea for a video.

Moodboard for 'Sitting, Waiting, Wishing'

Location Shotlists

 

Because we had so many different locations with different shot, which appear at varying times in the music video, we grouped the shots together in which location they appeared in, so our filming was more organized and ran smoothly.

Possible Magazine ad Photos

These are the pictures we took on a still camera while on the video shoot in Cambridge. They will be used in our digipak as images for our magazine advert and the other products.