Presentation Video

Greg and Chloe - Presentation from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

Evaulation Interview

Greg and Chloe's Evaluation Interview from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

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

      Media technologies were used throughout the course of the whole product, but as mentioned earlier there was a learning curve when it came to using some of the technologies. The majority of the research and evaluation stages mainly required the use of word document for writing out and planning the different blog entries and responses to the questions, and to map out how everything would look. When it came to research the internet became the most useful tool, as through the use of the bands own website and Youtube, it allowed me to gather all the research I required to start work on my own look for the band whilst staying true to the bands own look and style. Youtube was the most effective website when it came to gathering research on other music videos, and as I mainly used the bands back catalogue of music videos, Youtube was the only website that has these music videos, so it proved very useful in that respect. Google images also became something that was highly useful when researching the digi pack and the magazine advert. This applied more to the magazine advert, as a lot of the research for the digi pack came from actually looking through real digi packs, to get ideas for design and how it should look, and what kind of style it should take shape. But Google images proved very effective when looking at magazine adverts as it had multiple different examples for each different style of genre, so we knew which direction to take the advert in terms of a look that fitted and suited the band, as well as fitting with the bands image. Although this research showed most magazine adverts have very similar layouts and designs, with the only real difference being the visuals present on the advert. Microsoft Publisher, was something that became useful in the planning stage of the advert, as before using Adobe Photoshop to create the final text products, we used publisher as a way of mapping out and planning what we wanted, in particular the advert, to look like. The digi pack wasn’t planned out on this software as at this point I was still coming up for a hand drawn idea for the digi pack before that idea was replaced with a all photo digi pack. In the actual creation stages, the only two software’s that were mainly used was Adobe Premier Pro and Photoshop, both of which came with a slight learning curve for me personally, as I had very little experience in both, as I didn’t use them that much in my AS project. However once this curve was passed, both played the most effective part of the project, as without them, the video and the texts wouldn’t be up to such a quality standard, and I became quite fluent and confident in my skills at using these software’s. This came from countless hours at both software’s, changing, adding, tampering and constantly modifying both the video and texts, constantly adding more details and reducing same parts, and as mentioned, make some major and minor changes. One final thing that played an important part was the camera I used, which once again came with a very slight learning curve as it was a new camera, so required me going over it and learning the different functions on it and how to operate it properly. I was also a lot more hands on with the operating of the camera, as in AS we used my then partners own camera, so he did the majority of the camera work. One thing that was a letdown in terms of the technology used to film was the multiple tripods we used. Besides one we borrowed from Mr Earl, which actual worked, the other two we used either broke or were too unstable and kept falling over. Which resulted in the majority of the band footage to be shot by hand or using objects stacked up to capture full band shots if we were without a camera operator for a certain reason.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Despite not receiving a whole lot of audience feedback, ones we did receive were generally positive. Many people believed it was an effective video and had the look and feel of a music video. One quote from my father, Ian Wilson, even said that it was “better than most of the ones on TV these days”. Feedback is difficult to report back on in the most part as despite receiving many hits, pretty much nobody left a comment about it, with most feedback occurring from word of mouth. One of the major feedbacks towards the video was that of the picture quality. Something that both my teacher Mr Earl, a friends of mine Charlotte Sullivan as well as a couple of other people pointed out about the video was that it looked slightly pixilated, which resulted in some segments of the video, in particular the band scenes, becoming very hard to make out. On Adobe Premier Pro the quality looked absolutely fine, but the difficulty was when converting it, it was difficult to try and find a format that converted it into a decent quality, this was mainly due to because the camera I used is an HD camera, so it automatically shoots footage in HD. Eventually after several different conversions, we found a format that worked well, and produced a decent standard quality video in terms of visual quality. Something else that helped improve the visuals was that we uploaded it to video website Vimeo, which is good at condensing down the format and making the quality even more improved. Something else that was benefitted from the audience feedback, was the pace of the video itself. Originally there was quite a slow pace to the cuts between each shot, with each one lasting 5 seconds or more at a time. But Mr Earl pointed out that it didn’t fit with the pace of the song, so instead when it came to filming more band shots, we filmed more than originally needed to, so we could produce a lot faster edits and reduced to each cut, in particular the band shots, making each one last 3 seconds at a time, sometimes a bit more and sometimes less. This resulted in the video being a lot better for it and it fit with the different genres of music associated with the band. Overall audience feedback was something that proved highly effective when creating the video, as without it the video wouldn’t be the same final product and it wouldn’t prove as effective.

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

1.       The video and the ancillary texts both fit together effectively. The colour scheme that was chosen for the band and its image was a red and black scheme, and it is theme we carried across all different aspects of the project. Before I even had the idea of the video, I had to come up with an image and a brand for the band, complete with a logo and colour scheme, and rather than create a new logo and given that I had permission for the band to use them in my project, I just used the bands old logo that they used to use. We then changed the colour on the logo, so it would fit with the red and black colour scheme that I chose to use. There were several reasons for choosing those two colours, with one of the reasons being to tie into with the horror connotations linked with the band. As mentioned before the band use a lot of references to horror and obscure B movies, so just like the video being heavily influenced by horror, I wanted to carry that across the whole project. Reds and blacks obviously being primary colours associated with horror, with the reds having connotations with blood and the blacks having connotations of night time, all typical conventions and themes linked to horror. Another reason was given that the band aren’t specific to a key genre, as they are influenced by so many, which comes across in their music, I thought red and black was suitable to fit with the varying genres, as they are both colours linked to rock, grunge, punk and metal music, all different genres that can be linked to the band. Originally I wanted some kind of skull and inverted cross symbol to go with the band given that they are typical iconography associated with the band themselves. However any ideas I created looked to serious to fit with the image of the band and decided to just leave that part out and just stick with the text I altered. The final thing I created for the branding was a production logo for our production team. The name I can up with was “Rory O Haras Suicide Productions” as it acts as a reference towards the band as it is taken from one of their song titles “I’ve Got Guest List To Rory O Haras Suicide”. The logo itself was something that Chloe created in the end, just a simple logo covered in red and with a slight fade affect put over it. Once again sticking to the typical scheme.The scheme of the ancillary texts, in particular the digi pack is something that is linked to the video. Both use similar themes, in that of colour scheme i.e. the red and blacks, and the affects used, which was a blurred and distorted affect. The affect served as a similar purpose for both products as a way of improving the quality of both the footage and the pictures used.  As both are from the same setting and place we used to film the band segments of the video, the affects disguised that the band were playing on a stage, whereas I just wanted them playing in black background area, just to make the video even more simple. The colour scheme is also used on the magazine advert as well, once again demonstrating that how they both texts and the product combine together.

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

1. Music videos in themselves are part of their own huge media empire, they can be anything from an advertising tool to a source of entertainment, with the premise that they are eye catching, remember able and really sell what the song (and sometimes the band) is all about. Which is why when it came to coming up with an idea for the music  video,  I wanted to create one which really captured the essence and nature of the band I was using, especially because it’s a band that’s a personal favourite of mine, so there was even more or personal incentive to do it justice . In order to do that I looked through all of Pulled Apart By Horses music videos to gain some ideas and quite a lot of my influence, for my very own.  The common theme with the band, and this was reflected in my research of their past music videos, is they use multiple references  to different horror movies, which is featured in things such as their song lyrics, song titles and of course their music videos. It was this aspect that I decided to use as a main focus, which in a way allowed me to play with my strengths, given that I worked on a horror film for my AS project, it was something that I had much experience and understanding of. The main movie that became a big influence for the video was “The Evil Dead” franchise, in particular the first two movies, “The Evil Dead” and “The Evil Dead 2”, because in these movies there is certain feature I wanted to use in my video, which was this supernatural force that is never shown on camera, with whenever this force being used in the film it was shown from a point of view shot, so the audience could see through the “vision” of this force but would never see it. This is what I used for my video, as the horror aspect, but to have a character being chased by it. I think this is something that challenges the usual codes and conventions of a music video as it is something that is so stripped back and simple, as it allowed us to use a horror aspect but without all the usual make up and costumes associated with horror, creating something that is imposing but simply done, and all it required was a simple effect over the footage to highlight that it was some kind of force that was chasing the character. The setting of the video is something I really wanted to be key with the video, because once again drawing back on influence from “The Evil Dead” and one of the bands past videos for single “Back To The F**k Yeah”, both were set in a very cliché woodland, one that is mainly compiled of trees without leaves, surrounded by fog and all the dead foliage on the ground. So the original premise was to have it set throughout a similar style woodland, however this proved to be too difficult and time restraining to do in the end, with the main issue being getting musical instruments to and from the woods, with the drum kit in particular being the main cause of issue as I don’t own one or knew anyone close enough that they would let me use it. Something else I had to factor in here was the fact that shooting took place from around October time to January, so if that had remained the location, weather would have most likely caused issues in terms of continuity mainly because that would have been winter time we filmed and snow fall and rain would have been a regular occurrence. The setting we ended up with in the end, in a way changed the forms and conventions of the video, especially from a horror point of view, as the setting of this whole suburban area, part woodland and building setting, is something that, although used as frequent horror settings, was changed in terms of the fact the video is set in broad daylight, obviously something that would be an intentional choice as the quality of the cameras we had at our disposal would have been really poor. But the broad daylight aspect of it gives  it a different take on the usual setting that a horror would take place. One aspect of the forms and conventions that the video does follow, is the fast paced editing used. Given that the band are a mix of bits of punk, hardcore, indie, grunge, classic rock and  many other similar styles of guitar driven music, the video required a fast paced edit in order to keep up with the speed of the song. Meaning that it required mainly short shots that constantly kept on jumping to the next one, with each one lasting roughly about 3 – 5 seconds, so there was this constant flow maintained, as if it was a very slow edit with lengthier shots, then it wouldn’t have the same drive or charisma, and wouldn’t fit with the style and genre (or in this case genres) of the band.  The overall point of the video was to make something that was to draw people in and make them want to watch it again, creating a sense of mysticism about the video, brought by the content of the video i.e. the unknown force. Something which has seemed missing in most recent music videos, rather than just being straight forward, we created something which adds a sense of mystery doubled with the fact it has an ending where it just abruptly ends, with no showing of what happened to the character and what was actually chasing him.

Media A2 Project - E=MC Hammer Video from Greg wilson on Vimeo.
So here is the video uploaded on Vimeo, this was supposed to make it look less pixilated however it doesnt seem to have worked, so we are experimenting with different formats on Premiere to see if we can come up with a better result.

Shake Off The Curse Digipack Page

So here is the missing page from my Digipack for song "Shake Off The Curse", completeing the digipack

Digipack Part 4

So here is the final batch of the digipack pages. One quick thing to note is that, there is a page missing here for title track "Shake Off The Curse", because it isn't finished yet, however it will be up by the end of the day and there may be some changes made to the digipack mainly the credits page but for now, it is finished.

Digipack Part 3

So here is the third batch of digipack pages 8 - 11, with the first one being the second filler page.

Digipack Part 2

So here is the second set of digipack pages, this is pages 4 - 7, page 7 is the first of two filler pages, which me and Chloe had to put in to fit with the rule that digipack's have to go in multiples of 4, so we had to craft these filler pages so the digipack fits together like the proper thing.

Digipack Part 1

So here is the first few Pages of the digipack, I'm uploading it in order of how it would be so here is the front voer and pages 1 - 3. A quick thing to mention, I wasn't able to find the lyrics for "E=MC Hammer" anywhere, so I had to listen to the track multiple times and write down what I thought they were, which was difficult given the singing style at times is so quick and screamed, not to mention how loud the music is at times.

Magazine Advert

Final Video!



So here it is, after months of work, here is the finished video! First off apologise for lack of blog posts these last few weeks,  Me and Chloe have just been so focused on getting this project finished that blogs have been the last thing on my mind. I’m going to do a bigger blog soon with more updates and what’s been going on. At the moment of writing this we have until tomorrow to have everything up on the blog, print and video (which is attached to this blog). At the moment we are finishing off the digipack which has only 2-3 pages left to go and then it’s done and the magazine is already finished because Chloe did it and I haven’t put it on my blog yet, I’ll do another one after this with the advert. So the video is finished after all this time, it only had to receive about a few minor changes and tweaks but now here is the finished video, I hope everyone thinks it’s good and please leave your comments. Watch this space for updates coming soon.







Full Video

Well here is a full version of the video, complete with all effects and changes prior to the last upload, not to mention it is actually complete. There is still a couple of things that need tweeking but for the most part it is pretty much the final thing.

Rough Cut!

Well here is a basic rough cut of the video so far! This isn't hte complete video, this is just the first 2 mins of the video. Due to so many problems and time restraints this is all me and Chloe could get done in time to reach this deadline. There is still a few issues with this cut that will be resolved eventually, even all the footage has been shot now, there is still a lot of it that needs to be converted before it can even be edited with, also there is some new footage that may have to be shot to give the chase scenes a faster edit to fit with the speed of the song. But all of that will be resolved in the comign weeks along with the print products, but for now enjoy what we have and as always leave comments

Personal Assessment and How I can Improve

Looking over everything and assessing my own work at Level 2 and 3, there is still a lot needed to do. First things first is I really need to pull my finger out and really start cracking the whip on filming, it really needs filming and I am determined to make sure it is all done and complete, because it is getting dangerously close to the deadline. I also need to spend as much time as possible, using free periods and staying back after school, to make sure it is all complete. Use all that time to just work hard on the print products and the editing as well, just make completely sure everything is fine tuned and up to scratch, make sure it looks how it should in all aspects of the project. Make sure that the video edit is complete, that all effects are in place and that they look good, that they aren’t just tacked on, that they look as best as possible. Also that everything flows in time and pace with the song the video is trying to promote, so it actually work at what it is trying to do and that it is something that grabs people’s attention and makes them want to watch it again. Something else that needs to be done is that I need to become more familiar with the software I’m using such as photoshop and the editing software, to make sure I completely know what I am doing as it will help to reach and finish everything best to my ability. So the key thing here is to just completely knuckle down and just apply any free time I have into making sure this project is not only complete but is also at least at a high Level 3 grade if not scrapping into the Level 4 grade. Odds are however I may not have it completely finished by the deadline and may have to go slightly past it, but I’m hoping that won’t happen, as I am completely dedicated to what I have to do and I am determined to make sure reached the realms of a Level 4 grade.

Updates

Time for some more updates people.  So time is slowly ticking away, we are now down to roughly less than four weeks to have the whole project done and as things aren’t exactly moving along as I would like them to, me and Chloe are getting things done. I suppose first thing to mention is filming. As you know I only have half of it done, with all scenes involving the band still needing to be filmed. I had finally managed to nab everybody together today (as of writing this) only to have this curse rear its ugly head to find the room I wanted to use and the only room that’s suits the video, is already booked out. But I have had words with my team and Mr Earl and the drama room we want to use is free Wednesday and Thursday of this week and I am determined to make sure it all gets filmed this week and hopefully the start of the editing because that really does require a lot of work.

As regards towards the editing goes, once the band scenes have been filmed, rendered and uploaded, that will become the new top priority and I will take any free time I have to working vigorously to make sure the video is complete. There is still that a lot that needs to finished in the editing which I will take you through. First, the footage that has already been shot needs going over again, as Mr Earl has brought to light a few issues that need sorting out. There is a slight pause at the beginning of the first two shots, which I will need a look at, the first one is deliberate, it acts as I kind of build up to the video which will all make sense once the track is embedded on the video, as for the second pause I will definitely cut that because that is meant to be the unknown force chasing the character in the video, so that needs to be constantly moving and chasing because it is meant to be a relentless force, similar to that off the Evil Dead films, which ties in with ideas taken from my research and the themes and influences of the band. As for these point of view shots of the force, I’m going to be applying so affects to them to give off the impression that it is some living and pursuing this character. For this I will possible use a red fill affect or a smoky effect similar to that used in the Evil Dead movies, when it is a point of view shot of the demonic force, or possibly a combination of the both, it all really depends on what will look the best, give the right impression and how far my editing skills can take me, as I’ve mentioned this is my first proper time in the editing seat so it’s still very new and foreign territory for me. The final thing to draw on for editing is the sense of pace from the video, again this is hard to comprehend without the track on the video, but all the shots and time frames are worked out from off my storyboard in which I painstakingly listened to the track over and over again when drawing out the story board to make sure it fit with the track and when it seemed relevant of appropriate to cut to the band and to know how much time I had altogether for the video so I could map out the so called plot of the video. There may be times where I have to speed up the video and maybe even go out and re film some segments but I really hope it doesn’t come to that. Again all I can do is wait till I’ve got the rest of my footage and the track.

Final couple of things to mention is the print side of the project. This is the side of the project that has had the post focus lately, due to problems with getting filming done, and is going pretty well. Both me and Chloe have been designing the magazine article and the cover, which you may remember I said I wanted to do a bigger magazine package to go along with the print portion of the project, so far it is just the cover as the extension on the magazine if I have more time I will work on something else. At the moment none of my designs have been scanned in or adapted onto photoshop with a lot of them been done on publisher because I don’t have photoshop and is another software that is foreign territory for me at the moment.  A lot of my items have been hand drawn as well, mainly the digipack so that will need uploading and will need fine tuning in photoshop, on the other hand me and Chloe will be taking loads of photos of our band (the band in our video acting as representation of Pulled apart By Horses) to serve as purpose for our print products such as the magazine, and we might just compromise loads of different photos to assemble a digipack, again this is still being decided. Chloe actually already has a really excellent magazine cover created by her up on her blog, using an actual photo of the real Pulled Apart By Horses and it just looks amazing, like it has belongs on the front cover of an issue of “Rolling Stones”. I will be uploading it to my blog just when I next get to see her because she isn’t in today.  So for the mean time print products will continued to be soldiered on with, in-between the filming and editing.

One final brief note, as I have mentioned in past blogs I have had issues with my laptop, which basically is what I do all my work on when I’m at home and is just my life most of the time. Anyway it got a lot worse over the holidays because I just woke up one day and the casing on it was coming off with loads of exposed wires and one side of the screen was nearly completely unscrewed and close to hanging off. So as of last Saturday (14^th January) it was sent away to be repaired along with the other issues hopefully and will be back in about 2 weeks. So until then all my work that is done on computer will be done at school, library or on my home’s main computer which will be very little as it is in a worse state then my laptop, it is incredibly slow and close to about 9 or 10 years old, so its quite a surprise it hasn’t died yet. I’m hoping this won’t affect my work flow too much but if it does, a lot of it will most likely be charted up to me not having my usual means of working.he beginning of the first two shots

Back in Action

So first day back at school, and its time to whip things into gear. So we have a total of 5 weeks now to get the project done, that includes a finished video and print products. Good news is though most of the print productsare done so it's just a case of getting them up on the blog. But as touched upon in my last blog it is all in different formats (publisher, word, hand drawn etc) so it may take a bit of time to get up what we have. Filming is the main issue on focus, the plan is to film first thing Monday morning and then get it all edited into place, so we can spend most of the attention on fine tuning, fixing and cleaning up the video, iron out any creases that are present within in it, so it looks it's best, that is what will take up most of the timing given that me and Chloe have very limited skills on using editing software, but hopefully that will be corrected whilst using up, picking up and adapting our skills with it as we go along. Obviously the other major part is finishing off the print products, a lot of what we have is just basic ideas and designs that will obviously need fleshing out more, especially because a lot of them are drawings by me, so they will either need bringing to life on photoshop or publisher, or will be scanned in and cleaned up, depending on if I think it can be pulled off with my level or drawing and art skill. So it's a busy few weeks a head but I'm feeling confident and refreshed from the break off, so hopefully everything will done with hopefully much less interruptions and distrubences like last term.

So it's been a while...

Sorry it’s been such a while since my last entry, I’ll explain what’s been going on since my last one. Basically I’ve been off these last two weeks for Christmas break and I’ve been rather busy obviously due to celebrating the holidays and seeing the family, as well as going to work and balancing other work for my other subjects, I’ve hardlys had time to upload much. Another factor is, and I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this in other posts, that my laptop is pretty much broken and has gotten worse lately. It can be really slow a lot of the time, has terrible lag, and is terrible for overheating, even after an hour it becomes red hot and starts to burn up.  Plus the fact that my internet connection is also pretty bad, so getting online can be a chore, which is why I do all my blog posts in school and lessons. But despite this I have been hard at work making good on what I promised. I’ve been written several blog posts on my laptop in word, and have been working on all the other practical aspects of the project, the magazine, the digi-pack, adverts etc. Now obviously I havn’t uploaded any, because a lot of them have been designed on word or publisher because I don’t have photoshop (or publisher, ones I did on there were in school before I left for the break or going to places that had computers with the software) so I’m not sure how to go about uploading them, plus a lot of it is drawings and sketches so I have been without a scanner to scan them in and upload them, so a lot of that will have to wait till I go back. I’ve also done some more and rewritten some of my research to bulk it up a bit more. A final thing I have been doing is organising the filming that needs to be finished for the video itself as when I go back I have around 5 and half weeks (maybe longer, not entirely sure) to film it, edit it  to what I already have and upload the finished product. So a lot to do and a long way to go, despite having already done quite a lot.  Anyway today and tomorrow is all I have left of my break, then I’m back into school on Thursday, between now and then, over these next two days I’m going to upload as much as I can from what I have been working on as these are the only two days I have basically had to myself, so I’m using it to upload what I can. All I have is work today and then once that is over it’ll be all uploads and work. So stay tuned.