Kings for the Weekend - Missing Andy

Kings for the Weekend - Missing Andy from Harry Higgins on Vimeo.

Question 3

3. For this question I am going to use Moovely to show all the different ways that I used my target audience to get information from them in the planning process and also in the evaluation to find out their thoughts.

Before I started my production work, I took different paths to ensure that I knew what my audience wanted and what they expected. I took part in different Vox Pops, Focus Groups and I also did a poll on Facebook to see what people on social media sites expected. People said things like they wanted to see fast, engaging shots to keep them wanting to watch more. Knowing this kind of information gave me a starting point to what I needed to create to make a piece of entertainment for the audience. I spent a lot of my free time putting questions together for my focus groups and vox pops to ensure that I got all the possible pieces of information I could get out of my audience at the time.

I put the presented vox pops and focus groups videos on things like YouTube and my blog to present it and see people’s opinions on my audience research and what they thought on it. Unfortunately, I got no responses from this.

Question 4

4. For this question I am going to use PowToon. I have decided this because it's a fun way of showing all the admins information about my products and my research on the back ground information.

To make sure I had the correct copyright permissions for using the song, I contacted Missing Andy and double checked with them that I could use it. After a couple of days I was told that I could. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks after uploading the final product onto YouTube, it was reported for Copyright and was taken off. After double checking that the song was unsigned, I am still yet to figure at a resolution.

Before doing this song, I took a lot of research into the band to find out about them and how they liked to portray their songs. I then brainstormed the lyrics of the song to find out myself what I thought about it. I then found that Missing Andy had already made a music video on Kings for the Weekend. After watching the video, I had to completely change my idea as it was very similar to the song. So I went back to the drawing board and came up with the idea of the rich and poor idea with the split screen effects. This shown how no matter what life style you had, your life could still be bad in some places but you just have to appreciate it.

I think the biggest learning curve for me whilst doing this project was how to use final cut and how to use the visual effects and more importantly, the split screen effect.

Putting my material online will make more people see it, resulting in my work being broadcasted and my audience becoming bigger which would result in more money for Prestige Worldwide.

Question 1

1. For question one I will be using a directors commentary as this question is the biggest of them all and I feel that a directors commentary (DC) will be the best way to present this.
The task for our year 13 advanced production was to create a music promotion pack for our chosen artist. This included making a music video and two ancillaries. We had the choice of doing either a website, magazine advert or a CD digipak. I chose to do a magazine advert and a CD digipak. The music video is to give the audience one view on how they can see what the song is about. A lot of things are reflected from the media such as television, music promo’s, newspapers etc. For example, if a celebrity starts wearing a specific brand of clothing, then the media might choose to make the public think that that’s the new way to dress. It’s the same thing with the music, we make people think we want them to think of the song. The magazine advert is there to advertise something of the band. For example, it might be a gig for their new single or the song itself. The digipak is a limited edition pack of the single and information on the band. For example, a band gallery, band information and upcoming gig dates.

Below is an example of a magazine cover done by a previous media student:
(EXAMPLES WILL BE PUT ON AT LATER DATE DUE TO ADMINISTRATOR BLOCKING ON SCHOOL COMPUTERS)
Below is an example of a digipak made from a previous media student:

These examples gave me an example of what I would need to target towards. I personally criticised what I disagreed with so I didn't make the same mistake for when I got onto my project and then used the good parts as a starting point to my products.

The different sorts of conventions for a magazine advert are minimal amounts of writing to keep the audience engaged but still informed, a big visual of the group of single cover to catch the audiences eye and even dates of their upcoming concerts or release dates.

Depending on the genre(e.g. Indie, rock, pop, R’n’B etc), there are different sorts of expectations for a music promotion video. Although, generally, a music promo demands quick shots to keep you interested in the video. Transitions between the shots such as ‘fade to black’ or ‘swipe’, typically found on programs such as iMovie, look unprofessional when used on music promos. Normally you would just use quick straight cuts. This can be argued, but the audience like when the narrative connects to what the song is about. The other side of the argument that there is no narrative to the song so instead, you would use a video which is pure performance. A typical audience for music promos likes to see quick camera work with a range of shots such as close ups, mid shots and long shots. There isn’t usually much that needs to go into technically for the editing. To create a successful a professional video, you just need to commit a lot of time to the editing as making sure the shots cut to the beat and that the narrative connects with the song.

When shooting the video, basic things need to be considered such as the 180 degree rule and basic lighting so we can clearly see the shots. You also need to ensure that you keep continuity within the shots. For example, if you take a shot of someone with a door in the back ground, the door will either need to be open or shut in both shots if they cross cut. To ensure professional shots to keep them still, use a tripod so it saves a job in the editing process of stabilising the shots.

I decided to study the genre of indie rock. When creating the production I used all the possible conventions of the indie rock genre as I could such as a strong narrative to the song. The audience are able to make clear links from the song to the storyline. I also made one full shot of the character playing two different instruments to show also portray the storyline within the performance.

Now-a-days, the public live their lives around the media. The media reflect on how people dress, what they eat, what kind of products people use, what music they listen to and much more. With music promo’s, a lot of genres create their own ‘style’. Not only do the makers make people like the video and want them to watch it again and again, but the media almost hypnotises their audience into what they think is right. For example, especially in pop, a lot of the singers create their own brand of clothing to make people remember them more. Take artists such as Lady GaGa and Will-I-Am. People remember them not only by their voice, but by the way they dress. Artists such as Katy Perry and Cheryl Cole set the fashion so something that would be made to be ‘hipster’ would then become popular in the new fashion. The media make the public think what is right. A pop music promo’s conventions would include things such as:
* Artist will be portrayed as happy
* Lyrics will most likely be based around love/relationships/happiness
* Bands may try to relate to being at teenage years of age
* Pop music will always be quite up-tempo
This made me think more about my character himself and how he should act in each lifestyle. I have learnt that it is still important that the actor playing this character is committed to the role. This statement of the song being about happiness/love etc made me think about how it can be portrayed in a sad way which made me think about the idea of this character having two different styles and still ending up being unhappy no matter what life he had.

I used the Kaiser Chiefs as an inspiration to my music promo, using their idea of following the camera whilst singing (which is what I did for my performance). I had no influences from the split screen effect I put on my project. I got this idea when brain storming different ideas of how I can make it original. I used the video from The Scientist sang by Coldplay by having the camera right in the artist’s face in the performance. That’s exactly what I did with my video during the filming. I made sure that I had to do no stabilising in the process which saved me extra work in the editing process.

In my planning, I decided to use Final Cut used on the Macs at school. I decided this as it gives the professional effect you would expect on a music video. It is also very easy to make the split screen effect which you are unable to do on programs such as iMovie. I didn’t use any effects on the video itself as I tried to make it quite naturalistic to the song.

In the planning process, I had decided to only use narrative rather than narrative and performance. I tried to do this as I would rather my audience to concentrate on that as I tried to break conventions as the song is more of a performance typed song. After consulting with my teacher, I changed my mind and then decided to get both shots. However, I put the narrative twist on the performance too as I cropped two shots together to make one so it looks like the same character is playing two different instruments.

Question 2

2. In this question, I will be using Pezi. I decided to use this because this is more of a presentational question of my products so I thought it was a good way to show this.

Overall, I feel that my products work well together. I have put a split screen effect on my magazine cover to keep the split screen convention brought from the music promo video. It also shows the two characters in one shot like the promo too. I have made the magazine advert quite minimalistic so the audience will find it easy to read as they pass by.

The music promo would be put on social media sites and music video sites such as YouTube, iTunes and Hit40UK where all the ‘now’ charts are shown. The problem with sites such as YouTube is that for every video, you have to wait for an advert to be shown which can be very frustrating and off putting for the audience. Obviously, with iTunes, there comes a cost to it which, again, some members of the audience may find frustrating.

I like to say that my three pieces are similar to keep the same conventions so they can be linked to easily. In my magazine advert, I would like to think that I keep it simple so the audience don’t have much to look at.

Website Design

Missing Andy

Magazine Advert

How to use effective ICT for my evaluation?

- Make sure the form of ICT fits with the evaluation
-
Question 1:
- Animoto
- Extranormal

Question 2:
- Whiteboard animation
- Moovely

Technologies to use for evaluation:
Prezi
Screen-cast-omatic
Glogster
Padlet
Animoto
Go animate

Target Audience Feedback of end product