Evaluative Commentary - FINAL

Evaluative Commentary

R: We are group U1-47 and chose Kyle Rapps 'Hard Knock Children" to produce three products: a music video for the song, a digipak for the album and a magazine advert for the products.

Q1

L: After researching into similar music videos with the same genre we found that lots of video had a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. For example the line "If I had to go to a bank.." we showed the artist at Lloyd's TSB bank door. The audience would instantly recognise this as a bank and understand the link we were trying to show. From the research we found this relationship was common in rap videos and that the audience would be expecting this to happen throughout the video.

S: Music and visual relationships were very important in similar videos as well and we felt it necessary to fit the shot changes of our video to a beat or sound effect in the music. This added a great amount of fluidity to the video and constantly engages the audience.

C: Also in our research we found that the urban locations were regularly used in rap and hip-hop videos. We made sure that we chose suitable locations that the audience would recognise to be urban and from the genre. With this in mind we used street corners, a basketball court, a skate park and a deserted car park and we felt it communicated the genre well.

Q2

L: The reason why our products are so strong and work so well together is because we used a constant theme between all of them. The colours of the basketball which were red, white and blue were very strong and vivid therefore we used them to make the products stand out. We also used the iconic basketball and red basketball jersey as another theme to help link further link the products together.

R: The concept we were trying to communicate came from the song name 'Hard Knock Children'. The concept was school and what 'hard knock' children do after school. For example: hang out by the basketball court, skate spark or just hanging around the streets.

C:  We tried to create an image of someone who is laid back, cool and dislikes any form of social control (e.g. school) like most rappers.

S: Most males from the age of 13-18 (teenagers) dislike school and like hip hop/ rap music. So this is our choice of target audience. The image of the artist, the song, and the three products will definitely attract attention from teenage males because Kyle Rapps is the kind of person they aspire to be, because he's cool.

Q3

L: We feel that our initial pitch hasn't changed that much when looking at our final products. However the changes that we did make were down to the feedback we received from peers and teachers.

R: Our initial pitch was to shoot at typical urban areas where school boys hang out. we were going to film some shots with the artist walking and rapping towards the camera which our peers liked the idea of. We were told by our peers to make sure we added enough cut-aways to make our video more engaging and not too boring. We hadn't thought so much about this so it was a very helpful comment. The audience also approved of our themes of basketball and locations but they felt it might be appropriate to find a new, different urban location to add an extra dimension to the video.

C: After taking on board all feedback at the pitch we filmed our product and created a rough cut of all the footage. This then led to more feedback from peers and teachers. Many thought that it was very much like they imagined it to be from the pitch we did, however we did receive some constructive criticism to work on. They felt that the second artist's performance was not as convincing or as well lip synced as the first artists performance. There were also comments about the locations we used and they felt that another one was important to add variety to the video. Finally it was brought up that we could use more cutaways to break up the lip syncing in the song. We took this all on board and made sure that in our second shoot we adhered to the feedback we received.

S: Before we uploaded the product we had one final lot of feedback. It was suggested to add effects and colour filters to the shots to create a more professional piece of work and to make it look less like footage just put together with a track over the top.

R: We defiantly feel tat the feedback received throughout the project improved our video greatly. It allowed our idea to progress into a quality video that suited the genre and target audience well. We have to remember that some of the feedback was coming directly from our target audience so it was vital to take it into consideration.

Q4

L: One of the most important parts to the success of our products was the research and planning we did. The Internet allowed us to gather all the information from professional products we needed to create our own. We used a wide variety of media technologies throughout the creation of our music video. For example: The HD camera we used for filming was simple to work with and provided us with excellent picture quality.

S: We used a tripod for the video camera to make sure the shots were steady - if we had not done, we might have risked the music video looking poor and unprofessional.

R: Final Cut was the program we used to bring all of our footage together and to edit each shot into place. The program allowed us to edit with mili-seconds of the lyrics, and it was easy to swap and change shots if we wanted. We worked in layers with out shots, so that each synced piece of footage ran under each other simultaneously, meaning we could choose which piece of footage worked best for a certain part of the song.

C: We were also able to add colour filters and colour corrector to create a greater urban effect. Which was recommended by feedback we collected, and it definitely did enhance our product.

S: We used Photoshop to create our ancillary products which was software we were all pretty unfamiliar with. The effects we discovered and used were 3D effects to the objects and we brightened up the colours in our photos to create a more clear image. The photos instantly became more appealing and noticeable.

R: Blogger was very important throughout our project as it allowed the whole group to constantly update and plan the work ahead. We could conduct research, post it on the blog, and everyone else in the group could read it and use this research to help with the construction of ideas.

C: I don't think the technology ever got in the way of our creativity. Because even though we were uploading everything through word document-style blog posts, if we wanted to draw something, we could just use the still camera's to take a picture of the drawing, and then upload it onto the computer.

Time Evaluation (REECE)

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
After analysing professional products from similar artists to ours, it became clear what type of product/video we were going to have to generate. Most videos were very visual and had a lot of significant objects and images which related to the lyrics. With this in mind, it seems like we have created a very good product for the genre we were given. In the video the artist makes references to many things in the lyrics and we definitely managed to portray this visually.
We used Goodwins Theory to try to produce a very effective music video. One of the points in the theory is to establish a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics - which we already have done because this was a convention of the genre music video also. We did manage to create a relationship between the visuals and music as well. We created a well paced video with the shot duration working with the beat of the music to make sure it was fluid and engaging. The video didn't become boring or repetitive because we used a variety of shots and continuously changed the shots with different locations. I feel the audience would've been expecting the shots to change on the beat of the song, and it could've looked strange and out of place if the shots didn't change regularly with the song. I feel the mise-en-scene did suit our genre well (rap/old school hip-hop). For costume we used basketball tees, flat caps, baggy tracksuit bottoms and hoodies which we felt the audience would associate with our genre and so they would understand where the artist is from. Obviously the location and props helped with this portrayal. The urban locations such as a skate park, basketball court, alleyways and deserted car parks we felt would add a great feel to what we were trying to show the audience and defiantly developed the conventions of old school American hip hop and rap.
Lastly, after research into similar products, it seemed that the artists had to put in real emotion when rapping the song and it would need a lot of close up shots to show this to the audience. We did show this convention throughout our video as we felt that it would enhance our product and the audience would recognise this as a rap video because of it.

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The three products we have created definitely combine to become a great set of products to advertise and promote the artist we chose. We felt that we should use and ongoing theme throughout our products and we felt it suitable to choose the theme of basketball - which we felt would be the most iconic choice. I think that because it is such a big game out in America and we wanted to show that the artist was perhaps living in an urban part of the USA, it was a very wise choice to use basketball. The song is also about the lives of children and I feel that many young children enjoy basketball as a hobby in the US. The basketball we used in the video had very strong colours (red, blue, white) and therefore it was also another great reason to use the ball with our products. 
The basketball was used for our magazine advert and I felt it was a great iconic object to use to communicate the colours relating to the artist we were promoting. I think after the audience had seen the advert, they would instantly recognise the digipak or music video to be Kyle Rapp's video because of the strong colours and image (this could obviously work the other way around too). The basketball was also used throughout all our products which should stimulate some links between products produced. The digipak we created used separate photos from a private photo shoot, however we did try to create the same mise-en-scene from parts of the music video. We used a shot from the basketball court with the artist in costume, however we decided it was not necessary to show the face of the artist. The iconic location, colours and ball should be recognised from other products that it was this artist's product. We also did extensive research into similar cover's of artists and we did find that not many had a close up of a face of an artist or even references to the artist. The back cover we felt needed to be something different and I think that it really looks effective - using the iconic costume and props from the video really meant that there was no need for any other references to the artist.

3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I feel our initial pitch hasn't changed that much from our final product we created, however the changes we did implement were down the audience feedback we received.
At our pitch we did initially have the idea of filming the artist constantly walking and rapping, and the feedback of the audience was good for this idea - however they were concerned it would get repetitive and slightly boring. The response of adding cutaways throughout the music video (which is a convention used in most videos) was taken on board and we hadn't thought about it until then. This was very usual for the production stages of our product as we knew we had to make sure we filmed other shots with little or no lip syncing in it. The audience approved of our locations, costumes, props and general theme that ran through all our products and felt it would attract the target market we were aiming at (16 - 25 year old males). With this feedback taken into consideration we went ahead with our initial idea from the pitch.
After producing a rough cut, we then received more feedback from peers and teachers to get an idea of what we needed to add to make our video more appealing and professional. The audience were happy with our start, but felt that there was little rapping and walking that we talked about in our pitch and that the performance from the second artist was not great compared to the first artists performance and lip-syncing. Again many enjoyed the concept of the video and liked the mise-en-scene and editing we had done in the rough cut. One issue raised was that there was a lack of different scenes and locations - we did 2 main locations and used a few other ones once or twice. It was felt by some that there should be another good location to regularly use throughout the video. We took this on board on our next shoot and managed to get lots of shots in a deserted car park. Although the majority of our peers enjoyed our video and were engaged throughout, it was also criticised that there was a lack of cutaways from the performances. We had obviously felt that we'd done enough, however compared to more professional pieces we research, there was still a lot of cutaways we couldve added. We listened to the feedback again and shot more cutaway in our second shoot.
After the final product was nearly finished, we were given more feedback which was to add colour filters and colour correctors to our film to give the video a neat and professional look. We did this and it certainly did make the video look more like a video and less like lots of shots edited together.
Overall many liked the final cut of our video we produced. Our peers were happy that we had improved the second artist's perfomance, produced a lot more cutaways and edited the video to give it a better feel. Because some of the feedback was coming directly from the target market we were aiming at, it was definately worthwhile to listen to the comments and correct the parts they felt needed to be done. Without this great feedback our video would of definately not have been as good as was when we finally produced it all.

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Throughout all of the stages of creating our products we used media technologies. One of the most important parts of our production was the research we did to make sure our product was industry standard. The internet allowed us to search and find videos from the same genre and with the same theme as us, as well as mise-en-scene research and possible locations. Without this we wouldve been very unprepared for the planning and construction stages of our project.
When constructing the video we used a great variety of media technologies. The HD video camera we used for our filming was easy to use and provided us with excellent picture quality and attention to detail.  We used a tripod for the video camera to make sure the shots we produced were steady and level throughout - if we didnt use one then it couldve made the whole product look poor and unprofessional. We also used a dolly for some of the moving and rapping shots, however we definately felt that the picture quality was effected when we did this. Because of the uneven surfaces on the basketball courts, the shot was quite bumpy and blurred when we used the dolly. This meant that for the other walking and rapping shots, we chose to go handheld - obviously this was a dangerous choice but with a steady hand and good communication we managed to pull off a more effective shot.
Final Cut Express was the program we used to bring all our footage together and to edit each piece into place. The program allowed us to edit with mili-seconds of the lyrics, and it was easy to swap and change shots if we wanted. We worked in layers with out shots, so that each synced piece of footage ran under each other simultaneously, meaning we could choose which piece of footage worked best for a certain part of the song. This was really helpful and meant that editing was smoother and simpler than it couldve been if we didnt use this technique. We were also able to add colour filters and colour correct our footage to add a greater effect and look to our project - this was reccomended by feedback we collected and it definately did enhance our product.
We used photoshop to create our ancillary products and the program meant that we could add 3D effects to object and brighten up the colours in our photos to create a more vivid image. The photos instantly became more appealing and noticable, which was important for the magazine advertisment imparticular.
Blogger was very important throughout our project as it allowed the whole group to constantly update and plan the work ahead. We could conduct research, post it on the blog and everyone else in the group could read and use this research to help with the construction of ideas. It allowed communication between the group members, which resulted in a more efficent and effecitive construction and production of the products.

Directors Commentary Research

DEFINITION:
A Director's Commentary is a descriptive account from the director of a perfomance/ produced product as it happens or has taken place and an opportunity for them to look back and take into considerartion the glory of hindsite and see what has gone well, maybe not so well and possible improvements for future productions.



TWO TYPES:
Partial or scene-specific - which only covers selected scenes of the film. Sometimes these are recorded without the speaker viewing the film and thus the commentator may make more general comments than pointing out specific details.


Feature-length or screen-specific - which is recorded in one session: the speakers watch the movie from beginning to end and give their thoughts directly based on what is happening on-screen.

FORMATS:
Most audio commentary is used in films and movies, however they often are used with music video's too. There have also been some video games which have added bonus commentary to the game.

The commentary does not have to be done by the director - some have been done with cast members, writers and producers as well as critics, historians and fans. There have also been commentaries by actors in character - perhaps to make the commentary more entertaining and enjoyable.

EXAMPLES:


This Rise Against music video uses scene specific commentary by the director. We see the director being filmed and talking about the certain pieces of the video which he used to display the meaning of the song. We also see how the band filmed their part of the video from a different perpsective.



This is similar to the Rise Against commentary, however it uses a variety of people - director, artist and photographer. Although this isn't seen as a commentary, and is made by MTV, it still shows how all of these people came together using different ideas to create the PULP video.



This is an example of a feature lenght commentary, however it seems like the commentary is done to be slightly entertaining. The voices seem to match the quirky nature of the video and the band itself, and i feel that the way that it is produced makes the video alot more interesting and enjoyable to watch and listen to.

Digipak Final

Magazine Advert

Ancillary Products Theme/Concept

The brief given to us was to create a theme for all of our ancillary products, rather than using screen shots and cuts from our music video. After looking at Madonnas "Music" album, single and digipak, it became clear that we needed to create a strong theme from the video to use it as a more effective advertising campaign.
Our main idea before this was to use a screen grab of the first shot in our video, with Steve in the court with a basketball and the hoop in the background. We are now biasing our ideas on the theme of a basketball. We feel that this will be a strong, iconic object to use in all our products, and it could mean that whenever this object is seen, the audience will instantly think of Kyle Rapps.

We have a number of ideas for this theme for our Digipak Covers - these all involve a seperate photo shoot which we are going to complete next lesson.

Idea for back cover

1) We have an idea of just the basketball sitting in the middle of a court for our front cover. The colours will be emphasised with the editing on Photoshop, and we could possibly get a shot with sunlight creating a shadow on one side of the basketball - obviously this will be weather permitting. We plan to get a fairly close up shot of the ball, so we can write the name of the album on the side of the ball when editing it. Another idea is to get the hoop in the background - obviously the framing of the shot will need to be very low to create this effect. We will then take a frame of the iconic basketball and Clevland Cavilier basketball shirt on a hanger in the changing rooms for the back cover with all of the track listings around it.

Idea for Disc Cover

2) Our second idea is to have a shot of Steve waist up with his iconic basketball jersey and basketball under his arm or in his hand. We will then take exactly the same frame, but from behind him to use as the back cover for the digipak. Of course we will have to be very careful to make sure the frames are exactly the same, otherwise the cover will not look very effective and continuity would fall. We would then use a basketball to cover the disc in the Digipak as the ball is circular like the disc. This would add the iconic object into the design well.

Nike High Top Basketball Trainers

 

3) The final concept we have for the front cover is to take a shot of the back of some high top Nike trainers and a basketball next to the pair of shoes. We plan to either shoot this in the sports hall, to get a feel of the wooden flooring. Or we could possibly take a shot of them underneath a bench - rather like the idea used in concept 2. The only slight problem with this is that Steve didnt wear Nike trainers in the video - this could ruin the iconic object slightly.





For our Magazine Advert we are still going ahead with the idea of Steve on the basketball court, in costume, with the the iconic basketball and most likely the hoop in the background. We feel that the magazine ad needs to show the audiences more about the artist than the Digipak does. We want to engage the reader and for them to associate the basketball, jersey and court with the artist we are promoting. We also feel we can then write the information on the location background around him and this would look very effective.

Real CD Cover

Although this is a CD Cover, not a Digipak, as a group we will be able to take a lot of inspiration and ideas from this example. As you can see there is a theme of smoke in the product. The album is called "Rolling Papers" and therefore the smoke theme is in relation to the name. The green colour is used throghout the product which adds a great effect, and the fact that Wiz Khalifa's face is the only recognisable thing on the front cover, the audience will know (without looking at the title) that is is the artist.
The product is very simple and iconic and I think that our group can take away the idea of using simple ideas and iconic objects and themes running through the products.
We can see that the list of songs at the bottom are not seen to be as important as the logo of Wiz Khalifa. This is probably because the product is trying to promote the name and face of Wiz Khalifa, rather than the songs. Hopefully, the product will then make consumers recognise the artist more frequently - possibly leading to more purchases of future prodcuts.
Overall, this proffessional CD cover is very simple yet effective, and we should note that the visuals are more important usually than the information such as track listing's and production notes on the back cover.

Real Magazine Advert

This is a great example of a professional magazine advert which is of a more related genre to our genre of music. Obviously this theme is of glamour and uses a lot more colour than the student advert that I analysed. You can see because Cee Lo Green is a solo artist, they have used a close up of him to make the artist instantly recognisable when the advert is seen. This means that the title of the artist is less important, and consequently does not have to be at the top of the page. The bottom third of the page then tells us the information we need and it follows the conventions used in the student ad: 

1 -Artist   
2 -Title   
3 -Date  
4 -Reviews                         
5 -Website/Record Labels

You can see that the editing and colours used help this advert stand out from the page. They have used very strong, vibrant colours (perhaps to link with the genre of pop/soul/rap) with the writing and background, as well as using strong bright lighting in the phot to reflect of his jewellery. 

Again this is a very simple advert that is instantly effective and memorable. It is very useful to see how different genres are shown through the adverts and this real ad will definitely aid our designing and editing for our magazine ad and digipak.

Previous Student Magazine Advert

This Student Magazine Ad used the theme of Graffiti - which was also the theme for their Music Video and Digipak. Obviously the location is the most important part in this magazine advert - as it represents the music video done by the artist. It would be a good idea for us to use a location from our music video - creating a recurring theme throughout our products - so then the audiences who have seen one part of our product they will instantly recognise that it is a certain artist. It would have been easy for the magazine advert to have had graffiti font, instead of using a derelict building with graffiti in the background, however the neat and simple font works well. Using simple font will make sure the audience can quickly grab the artist and song name at first sight of the page. The fact that the shadows at the top of bottom of the page make the font stand out more is clever and also creates a more eerie feel to the location shown. Obviously the font colour of white was an easy choice as it stands out the audience can read it.
You notice that the title of the artist and song name are at the top, as this will be the first thing that the audience will read. The next most important piece of information on the advert is the date of release and where it can be brought from. Therefore it was important this was placed near the top, under the title so that it can be read easily. The more "unimportant" pieces of information have then been placed below, such as the reviews and record labels etc. These pieces of information will probably be read by the audiences who are interested in the band and want to find out more information to see if it's worth buying.
Overall, this is a perfect example of a simple but effective magazine advert. We could use the idea of a location from our video in the magazine advert, however because this is by a band it may not be as necessary to visually show the faces of the band. Because our song is done by one artist and is a different genre to this, it may be more sensible to show the audiences who "Kyle Rapps" is. We can definitely take some good ideas of how to position texts in the magazine ad though.

Magazine advert - Planning

• The name of the artist: Kyle Rapps

• The name of the album: Hard Knock Children

• The release date: Nov 20 2012

• Website address: mayhem-entertainment.com/kylerapps

• Myspace address: myspace.com/kylerappsmusic

• Reviews and ratings of album: "Outstanding new artist, old school style" - UK Hip Hop magazine. "4 stars" - AKRecords

• Record Label: Mayhem Entertainment 

• Possible pictures of the artist for magazine ad/digipak:

MUSIC VIDEO (FINAL)

KYLE RAPPS - HARD KNOCK CHILDREN

Ancillary Products

Our deadline for the two Ancillary Products (Digipak and Promotion Magazine Ad) is the last lesson of the week 25th November. This means we have little time to think about what theme we are going to base the products around, and then produce them. We have thought that we could definitely use screen grabs from the video we have created. There are very good shots from the basketball court with Steve and Reece and we think that it would be a nice idea to use basketball as the main theme to our products. Shots such as when Steve is on the step with a basketball or when they are both playing basketball, could be a very simple but clever shot to use as a front page of a digipak or a magazine ad. We have considered the possibility of doing a separate photo shoot for the products, however you will have to take into the considerations of the weather (if we want to film outside), finding the costumes we used in the filming and finding the right photo to use. We have a lot of strong shots in the video, therefore it would definitely be best to use the shots we have already gathered. Photo shop will allow us to edit the photo's to a professional level and this will mean we can create an urban look to our screen grabs.

Amar And Andria's Feedback

After editing further after our rough cut and adding more shots we filmed on Thursday, we then got feedback from Amar (who is a professional music video producer) and Andria (our media teacher). They were highly impressed with most of the lip-sycning - mainly the first part of the video - however they felt because Steve's great lipsyncing, the second artists part is slightly outshone. We were told to try and pick out the best lines from Reece's part to use and then use cutaway's for the parts of the verse that aren't as good. At the beginning Amar felt that there should be a short cutaway before Steve started rapping to make the beginning more involved and engaging - we will make sure we do add something in here.
We were given credit for the walking and rapping we used in the video - however it was felt that there was not enough of this. We will be looking through our footage to find more shots like this as they are seen to make the video look less simple. The pace of the editing was good, however they also felt that some of the shots needed to be tweaked to make sure the lip-syncing (especially in the third verse) was as good as it could be.
Finally we all thought that effects and filters could be added to make the video look more urban. Although we were praised for our use of costumes, props and locations to create and urban look, it was still felt that to make the piece more professional that filters and effects should be added. We have decided to add these in right at the end, when we have finished all of the editing of the shots.

Review of Filming/Re-Filming (3rd Nov)

After finding out that it was likely to rain after 4PM when we had rented out the camera, we had to make sure we had a back up plan to our action plan. We managed to get some good shots when the sun was heading down and the street lighting came on - with a close up by garages for the second artists part. We felt this was fairly urban and could be used in the video if the lip syncing was good enough. We also began to film perhaps "random" but needed footage such as cars passing by, locations we had used and signs - which we may need because we were lacking cutaways. It did begin to rain heavily after shooting some shots, so we then went to Cineworld down Hills Road and filmed a shot of the main artists in the arcade (this linked in with a line in the song) and then we went to the big multi story car park - in which we found an empty level.
We then decided to use this as a regular location in our video and myself and Steve delivered our verses in various forms - walking, sitting down and in a window reflection. We feel this variety of shots will enhance our video and mean that we will not be relying on the three locations we already had. We used this location to also film certain lines and parts of verses which we feel we did not successfully lip sync in our first shoot. The car park was extremely urban and we felt we had responed well to the ideas and critisim that was given to us by our peers.


Overall this second shoot was required and we feel when editing now, we have a great variety of shots to choose from and lots of cutaways we can add aswell to make our video more engaging.

 Example of editing we have done at the moment!

Feedback Reflection and Action Plan

After both positive feedback and some constructive criticism, we feel this peer review will definitely help us improve our music video greatly. Firstly due to the "excellent" lip syncing in the first section of the video, many felt that the second half needed to be improved or perhaps redone. We all feel that this is the case and we will be re-filming the second artists part of the song, to make sure the lip syncing is as good as the first artist. We were also slightly criticised for our use of plain shots such as mid shots. Therefore we will most likely have to film a greater variety of shots for both artists - for example using side shots, close ups and possibly zoom ins from the camera.
For the editing of our film, we were told to try and make the video seem more "urban'. It was suggested to use lighting or the editing software to saturate the video. We feel that we could possibly try to use the software to create a more visual edit - or perhaps film at night, maybe under street lights, to add a good effect.
Another idea raised was the use of shots without rapping, to break up all of the lip syncing shots. This will make the video more engaging and will create a more proffessional piece of work.
We are planning to film in next Thursdays lesson (3rd Nov) and then at night. We will then be filming a variety of shots on the basketball court - with both artists and then some street shots at dusk/night to create a more urban effect. We will be bringing a different costume for the street view and may have to take into account lighting when filming in the dark.
We feel there wasn't enough use of props. Therefore, when we next film we'll try to bring in more props that relate to our genre, eg: skateboard n' cigarettes etc 

ROUGH CUT

Rough Cut Review

We have now created our rough cut for our music video and after creating this we have then realised what needs to be added and what parts we could do again or make better. For example, the first two verses and the chorus's were all very strong with the lipsyncing however the last verse (which is the fastest rapping in the song) is not very well synced and it would be wise for us to film this again. There are also short parts throughout the song where we didn't finish off a verse or missed a lyric or two which we will also re film.
I and the group also feel that some of the mise-en-scene (especially the costume) is not up to scratch and does not fit with the mise-en-scene we are trying to portray. The artist I am performing as had poor costume and we feel it is needed that when we redo my verse that I wear more urban clothing than what I did. Doing this will definately strenghten our video, making it more believable and proffessional.
After reviewing our cut a couple of times, we felt that the video could become a bit boring with all lip sycing throughout. Despite the rapping being so realistic in each shots and having a range of locations, it became clear that we needed lots of different shots without rapping to add. For example we mentioned we could have the artist playing on an arcade which is talked about in one line etc. This should make the video more engaging for the audience and will probably fit into the conventions of proffessional music videos.
We will film for one night again after half term and we hope to make sure all of these things are shot so we can clean up the rough cut and make sure our video is a good as it can be. I think that if we then add effects within our edit the video will then come together and suit our proposed target audience perfectly.

16th October - Filming Day - Weather

Because our filming deadline is on Monday 17th we need to make sure that we will be able to film on Sunday. Thankfully the weather forecast says that the day should be dry which means we have no reason not to film all our footage during the day. We may also have to take into consideration that daylight is shorter than usual so we will probably have to finish filming before it starts getting dark, otherwise the visuals could be affected. As we have previously thought about, we may choose to film in the dark under street lit alleys or streets. If we do it, we may need to make sure the artist can always be seen clearly in the shots. With all this in mind, it seems like we will be able to get all our footage done during this day if everything goes to plan.

Review of Filming (Thursday 13th Oct)

We began filming our music video last lesson in one of our locations - the colleges basketball court. Steven and I brought all of the costume's and props we needed which were: basketball shirt, tracksuit bottoms, baggy shirts and a basketball. We then filmed our opening shot which is the basketball being scored in the hoop. We then filmed shot two of the artist rapping with the basketball in his hand with the court in the background. We also filmed a long stretch of the film with the artist walking and rapping the whole song. This is to make sure we have enough footage when we edit.
We found another location next to the basketball court on the step and we made the artist lip sync to the whole song yet again, so we can add parts of the shots to the video if needed. We felt it was a successful shoot, getting a lot of different shots in a short space of time, with very good lip syncing. We also added some shots of the artist and another character playing basketball which we feel we can add in the video to create a balance of rapping and other visual shots. The weather was fairly dull and gloomy meaning we will have to make sure if we re film some of the shots on the basketball court we do not film on a really bright day as it could damage our continuity of the video.
We feel ready to continue filming over this weekend, with the group meeting at 11am on Sunday 16th October at Parker Piece. We will be using all of the locations we have researched into in our previous blogs and will possibly find some other suitable locations along the way. We know exactly what shots we need to film as we have ticked off the ones completed in the storyboard. If the weather is bad - for example raining - we will probably still have to film as our deadline will be the coming Monday. We learnt alot from our filming on Thursday, the main thing is we will have to shoot lots of different angles with the artist rapping the whole song.