Final Music Video

Untitled from nathan james on Vimeo.

Final Digipak - Ancillary Task

I am extremely pleased with the end result of Georgia's hard work on the Digipak; it paid off!
I think that it looks really interesting and fits the genre of the music particularly well. All of the photographs that we took for the piece look really good together; they work well as a collection.
I love the design of the CD, I think that it was a really clever imaginative idea to use that particular picture in that place. My only criticism is the picture on the back page- this is one that I personally do not feel is a strong or good enough photograph to be considered as being 'back cover material'. In this way, I do not feel that the Digipak could be considered an existing media product; but other than that one photograph, the product is excellent and I am inspired by the ideas that went into making it!

Final Magazine Advertisement - Ancillary Task

I am very pleased with the final magazine advertisement that we produced. It is somewhat different from how I imagined it would be, but there are some similarities in my vision and the end result.
I must say that it was a particularly challenging task trying to make sure that the advertisement looked 'just right', and in this way; effective. After all, it would need to be affective, as it is meant to intice people to purchase a copy of the album.
However dark the photographs are, I think that this adds to the effect that we were trying to create, and resultedly makes the whole product more effective in being eye-catching and attention-grabbing.
If I was to re-create the magazine advertisement, starting from scratch, I don't think that I would particularly change much about the planning, production or end result; as I feel that myself and Carli worked particularly well on the piece.

Final Part Of The Re-Filming Analysis - Wednesday 17th March

Due to the failure of the lights etc. whilst filming on Tuesday, we had to organise filming on the Wednesday in order to get all of our footage finished and tidied up. This was necessary if we were going to meet the deadline for getting the music video and coursework completed.

Firstly, me and Georgia had to go to Charlotte's house from school at around 12pm. While we were at her house, she finished getting ready for the filming and I did her make-up how we wanted it- the same as how it had been for the other filming sessions.

Nathan met us at Charlotte's house shortly after, as he had had to go back to his house to load his car up with all of the equipment and to get changed as he needed to be in some parts of the video, himself. We then we set off for the woods in New Ash Green and Carli met us there sometime later.

At around 2.30pm, after capturing all of the shots that we needed, and a few extra as back-up, we had to change location going to the barn in Hextable, to film shots for the other part of the video.

It took us a while to be able to set up the area and put petrol in the generator, after doing which, we were able to start again. The filming went to plan and we managed to get all of the filming done just before the video camera ran out of battery!

We finally finished filming for the day, and hopefully for the whole project, at around 6pm.

Third Part Of Re-Filming Analysis - Tuesday 16th March

Myself, Carli and Nathan decided that we wanted to get the last pieces of the filming at this location done. We planned that setting up the area and taking the shots we needed would roughly take about an hour and a half. We planned to start at 5pm. However, it took myself and Nathan ages to set up and then we got stuck in traffic, getting to my house to pick up some more equipment, at around 10 past 6.

While myself and Carli went to pick Charlotte up from her house, Nathan went back to the barn with the other equipment to finish setting up. We got stuck in traffic yet again, reaching the barn, and Nathan, finally at around 7 o'clock.

We had major technical faults during filming and ended up re-scheduling for Wednesday 17th March, as Charlotte was available almost all day for filming. One of the spotlights that we were using stopped working, so in order to get the light that we needed to film the material, we had to swap the lights over and then drive Nathan's car into the barn so that we could use the headlights to make the area bright enough. As this took quite a while- to get the car parked in exactly the correct place and at the correct angle to produce the shadows that we had created in the first and second sessions of filming at this location, the generator ran out of petrol, so all of the lights stopped working. Being in a derelict location, and with absolutely no light, we decided we could actually be considered in danger and so wanted to leave immediately. We packed all of the equipment into the cars as quickly as possible and discussed times that we would be able to film over the following couple of days. We agreed that Wednesday was easiest and that we would be able to film at both locations on this day; as we had a lot of time.

Roles In My Group

Who did what exactly?
NOTE: I did not do more work that some of the members of my group, however, on analysing our roles, I was able to write most of the things that I, myself, did, but could not remember exactly all of the work that other members did.

Bethany Rossiter

I was present for all of the days of filming and photography that the group did - as it was my friend outside of school that we were using, so I suppose I had to be, and also due to the fact that I have not many commitments outside of school that use a great deal of my time, as others in the group felt they did. I tried to give my opinions and ideas where I could, and stretched the small amount of creativity that I thought I had, in order to put ideas forward for the group's use. I had a small responsibility before each of the filming sessions to do Charlotte's make-up in order to gain the specific look that myself and Georgia had previously decided was appropriate to our genre and ideas. I also played a large role in deciding what Charlotte should wear in the filming and photographs, as it was mostly me and Nathan that were present, we had to choose the clothes and footwear that we would use. I filmed some of the footage used in the music video, despite Nathan doing most of this. I played a part in editing the length of 'Into Dust by Mazzy Star', the song that we have used for the video. I produced a number of sketches and was responsible for the fonts posters that my group used in deciding what fonts to use on the Magazine Advertisement and Digipak. I also formed a questionnaire so that my group would be able to get feedback on the video and Magazine Advertisement, and then later, put the results from these into graphs and tables etc. so that the information would be more easily accessible to my group.
I also played a large part in the design and production of the Magazine Advertisement, as Myself and Carli did this.

Nathan Moseby

I personally feel that as Nathan was responsible mainly for the music video editing, he played a main role in the group work. As he was the one in the group that had access to the equipment; we were using his cameras to complete the filming and photography, he was present on all of the days of filming and photography. He took the lead on the editing of the music video, despite all of our ideas and opinions being given throughout, he had the best understanding of the program, and I feel, personally, that he is the most creative, and in this way; able, to create a brilliant end result in terms of a music video. I think he did a great job with the editing and he was mainly responsible for the organising of the filming and photographing days, as others in the group tended not to make an effort in the organisation of this area of the project. As Nathan toom on majority of the 'big boys' work, the things that needed a large numbers of hours dedication, he let the other members of the group, including myself, take control of the smaller tasks, enabling us all to make a joint effort to get the project done and finished.

Georgia Drury

Georgia, despite not being able to make it to the majority of the filming or photography sessions due to work commitments, played a key role in the ideas behind the shots and photos that we used in the actual media product. As she knew that she was a busy person, Georgia decided that it was best to base most of the time that she spent on media coursework, completing the planning and ideas behind the Magazine Advertisement; for myself and Carli to complete. Georgia, with some but little direction, completed the whole Digipak by herself, as she thought that this was necessary in order to put in an equal amount of work as the others in the group- due to the fact that she was unable to make most of the days spent photographing and filming.
I think that she did an excellent job of this, completing the gruelling, and very time consuming task of the Digipak, almost entirely by herself, only stopping to ask our opinions when she seemed unsure of her work.

Carli Rowell

Carli was unable to make the majority of the sessions that my group used for filming and photography, due to other commitments. Of course this did not stop her playing a key role in the ideas and planning behind the production part of the ancillary tasks. She produced some truly great ideas in the form of sketches for the second set of photographs that we would need to use for the Digipak, as we did not like the first set. The only reason that I have chosen not to use Carli's sketches on my own collection of pieces of work as coursework, is because she mis-spelt the title of the song, and I did not personally want to include an error that large on my own collection of work as I felt it was worth the extra effort to create my own. Myself and Carli completed the Magazine Advertisement section of the coursework, as an ancillary task. During this small project, Carli was excellent when it came to putting ideas forward, and many of the suggestions that she made on producing the Magazine Advertisement are in the end result, and the reason that it looks as effective and great as it does.

How did I personally find working in a group to complete media coursework?

I found it extremely challenging to work with the members of my group, despite being friends beforehand, there were a great deal of arguments or upsets during the production of our coursework. Afterwards, we have analysed the situation that occured being due to the fact that there was a communication problem between the people in the group. For example, during filming or photographing days, both Myself and Nathan were aware that Carli and Georgia had work commitments that they could not escape. So, on deciding days to get the work done, we would ask if they were available to spend time on it and would find out that they were busy. As a result, we would do the work without the other two members of the group, and this ended up as an argument, as they were still implying that they would like to be informed on the filming and photographing sessions, despite not being able to make the date or time. I consider this a completely fair comment or request to make, however, at the time we were clearly not thinking about whether they needed to know or not, as they were busy, and we needed to get the work done. I thought that the coursework project was made more difficult by the fact that there wasn't a fair share of work being done and I have been extremely upset by the fact that some people are willing to take credit for others' hard work.
I personally feel that the coursework was also made more difficult by the lack of ideas being shared amongst the group due to lack of attendance on filming days, whether this be due to members of the group working, or taking time out at their own leisure.
In conclusion, working in a group is extremely difficult in my opinion, as working to suit four different peoples' schedules and tastes is almost impossible.
If I were to construct another music video in completing coursework, I would choose the group in which I work much more carefully, and attempt to make sure that there was a fair amount of work being completed by all of the members of the group, in order to make the whole group feel included.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is a very important part of the production and correction process in the coursework task.

Throughout the production of both the ancillary and main tasks, it was vital that we collected some kind of response from each other on how they felt about the work that we had done so far. Not only was it essential that we gained feedback in our group, however, but we also considered it very important to seek guidance from those working on their own projects around us, in our media studies class. In our class at school, we were able to help each other with parts of the project that we got stuck on, and were able to show each other things that we had learned throughout the production process, and we were able to make suggestions on how to improve each other's work. Sometimes the view of a person working outside of the project is more effective than one with an eye close to the work- as we cannot fully focus and think logically when it comes to the pressure of completing our own coursework.

A specific example of how constructive criticism can have a large and very important effect on a project can be presented through the feedback that we received from our media studies teacher regarding our inital idea. Out first idea of a song to produce a music video for was Michael Buble's 'Haven't Met You Yet'. This is a very bubbly, cheesy song, and being a song that was in the chart at the time, we all thought it would be easiest to make a music video for this song as we all had lots of fresh ideas, many of which were based on the actual music video for the song. We did not consider the need for originality and splendour in the music video; instead, focusing on what was easiest and most convenient. On presenting our initial idea to our media studies teacher, she was able to tell straight away that we had not completed the required planning process for the song, and was able to save us a great deal of time by telling us prior to beginning the creation of the music video, that our ideas would not work and would certainly not look good.

It was very important that we gained feedback close to the finishing of the production of our project, as it is much easier for an audience to pick up on mistakes and make usually helpful and inciteful suggestions when there is a finished product in front of them.

I did create a questionnaire, ready for my group to use, about halfway through the project, on almost completing the editing of the music video. However, unfortunately, there was not time for it to get completed. I have no doubts that it would have been very useful in making last-minute alterations to the music video though.

I used a simple but effective tally chart in order to be able to grasp an understanding of what type of font my peers thought would look best on the digipak and magazine advertisement, seperately. I thought that this would be helpful and interesting to know, and would be useful to myself and my group members when completing the production of our ancillary tasks. I also wanted to see if the chosen font for each was the same result, similar, or completely different. I was able to gain the desired information through the tally chart that I produced, and I was able to consult the results at various stages of the project.

There were various different areas that my group needed audience feedback for:

• Fonts used on both of the ancillary tasks - peers


• Initial idea and plan for a music video - teacher


• Production of the various different parts of the Digipak - teacher and peers


• Production of the Magazine Advertisement - teacher and peers


• Production of the music video, at various stages of the production process - teacher and peers


• Photographs used for the ancillary tasks - teacher and peers

In conclusion, I consider audience feedback to be a vital part of the production process as it is needed in both forms of constructive criticism; in order to improve the product, and praise; in order for us to understand exactly what is good or works well in the product, and what we should try our best not alter or change, when making other changes to the piece.