Final Music Video

Here is the final draft of our music video of the song 'Heathens' by Daze:

Final Digipak

This is my finished Digipak as part of the music video project. I have changed many fonts and had many different pictures to choose from but I believe this is the best design for our digipak. I have looked at the codes and conventions of a digipak, such as a barcode, having the track list on there and the name of the album I have done this after receiving multiple pieces of feedback on the first draft.



Final Poster

This is the final draft for my poster as part of the music video project. I have gone with a similar picture to the one I used in my digipak and I have maintained a black and purple theme which also carries over from my digipak. I feel as if these colours match the theme of our music video and the genre of music, which is quite edgy and urban. The black is to represent our artists mood which was quite dull and sad throughout the video. I have done this after taking on board the pieces of feedback I had previously received. 

 

Evaluation Question 1

“In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms conventions of real media products?”

Within the music video industry, there are a number of set codes and conventions that are followed or challenged and in our music video for the song ‘Heathens’ by DAZE, we believe we challenged the forms and conventions of real media products for the most part. However, we did in fact use some of the forms and conventions.

Prior to the shooting of our music video, we did some research to existing music videos within the genre, which is indie pop. We heavily researched the 1975, who is the inspiration of our artist. We gathered from existing music videos within this genre that black is the predominant colour used in the music videos. We then used this convention within our music video by having the main costume of our artist being fully black. This included black vans, black jeans, black bomber jacket, black hoodie and a black hat. We also followed the convention by including dark locations such as the dark room within the drama department. This room heavily featured in the video as it helped generate the mood and the tone of the video.

We also used some other conventions of existing media products in our music video. We included our artist in the majority of the shots throughout the video as this typically occurs not only in similar music videos, but in most videos, no matter what the genre. Another convention we used was lip syncing shots, this is a common feature of music videos and we used this throughout the video and most notably the first couple of lines and the last couple of lines were lip synced. We also learned from existing media products that the pace of editing in music videos is very fast and upbeat. Our group included pieces of parallel editing and as a result there were quick shots used because at times in the song, the beat was very fast paced.

However, we did in fact challenge some conventions of real media products. Firstly, typically the first line of the song is typically lip synced with a close up of the artist. We challenged this by using a medium long shot our artist and had him lip sync instead of using this shot. This was it being a stylistic choice as we wanted the video to not follow all of the codes and conventions. Another convention we did not follow was to not have a set narrative across the video. Most music videos have a clear narrative throughout the video but ours is not as clear. Our narrative, which is the artist being more comfortable in Camden compared to shy and unhappy at school, is subtler.

Evaluation Question 2

Below is a powerpoint i have made answering the second evaluation question which is - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

Evlauation Q2 by Jack Darkins on Scribd

Evaluation Question 3

Here is my answer for the third question in the evaluation task.

"What have you learned from audience feedback?"

Evaluation Question 4

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

Firstly, in the construction stage I used multiple pieces of media technology in the construction stage of my music video project. In order to effectively research other digipaks and album covers I used powerpoint in order to make a presentation on an existing media product from a band, the 1975,  whose theme turned out to be similar to the artist we as a group created. Powerpoint was an easy and effective application which allowed me to clearly analyse aspects of the band's album covers and posters, which enabled us to take inspiration and therefore interpret them into our own piece. In addition to this, in the construction stage I also used Youtube to research into music videos to get an understanding of some of the codes and conventions used in music videos. Some were the artist usually looks directly into the camera, some lip syncing takes place and it also shares with me the importance of good locations which match the theme and genre of the song.

Furthermore, we used blogger.com in order to document our progress during the planning stage of the project, as well as during the construction stage. This allowed us to refer back to specific breakthroughs we had made and allow us to refer back to them, such as uploading the storyboards, which then we used final cut pro to transform the storyboards into an animatic. This gave us a base knowledge of how to use final cut pro and we could use these developed skills in the post production stage.

Also, during the production stage we used a Cannon camera to shoot our music video and take the pictures used in the the digipak and poster. We all became more familiar with the camera throughout the project and it was very useful and effective as we could use the necessary affects, such as focusing. Along with the camera, we also used lights when shooting for our digipak and poster and this was to allow us to have the necessary lighting to fight in with the theme of our artist and ancillary texts.

Finally, in the evaluation stage we have used Soundcloud to document our thoughts on the project answering one of the evaluation questions. We found this method very easy to use as you can record your answer and upload with not much hassle.

Filming Day 7

On this day myself, Kaan and Kallum went to the drama room after school and re filmed some of the footage we required to after some feedback from our first draft of our music video. We filmed scenes using one big light and all the surrounding lights in the room turned off. This was so we can keep in theme within the genre our music video is. We used a camera, light and tripod. We also took pictures for our poster after we finished filming.

Filming Day 6

On this day myself, Kaan and Kallum went to Danson Park in order to film some more footage in preparation for our final draft of our music video. We filmed some close ups, medium shots and long shots and this was in response to our feedback from our classmates when we screened our first draft.

Poster First Draft

This is the first draft for my poster as part of my ancillary texts. I have received multiple pieces of feedback in order to improve it. Those pieces of feedback include; reducing the size of the font, including a header saying 'listen now' and changing the picture as it is not professional along with the quality of it. 



Digipak First Draft

This is the first draft for my digipak project. Since producing it I have received multiple pieces of feedback in order to improve it and make it more realistic. Firstly, I have been advised to add some panels as it is necessary when creating a digipak. Furthermore, I need to also include multiple things, such as small print on the back cover, the artist's name on the front cover and to add a second disc to accompany the album disc. 

First Draft

This is our first draft for the music video Heathens by DAZE. 

Filming Day 5

On Tuesday 13th, in preparation for the screening of the first draft.  myself and Kallum went to one of the drama rooms in school to try and film some more lip syncing shots of myself. Kallum took the role of cinematographer and I took the role of costume, props and location.

Filming Day 4

On Wednesday 7th March, myself, Kaan and Kallum went to Camden Town to film some shots of DAZE for our music video. I took the roles of being in the video, costume, props, location and part director, Kallum took the role of cinematographer and Kaan was also part director.

            

Feedback

Filming Day 3

On Wednesday 7th February, with Kaan unfortunately unable to attend, myself and Kallum went to film some more shots for our music video. We went to Danson Park and filmed a variety of shots around the park. We included long shots, medium shots, close ups and pans in the pieces of footage we got. We plan to film at Camden Town and a location under a bridge in Welling when we are together next. We took a camera and a tripod with us. My role on this filming day was to bring the costume, refer the scenes to our storyboard and i chose the location of Danson Park.

Filming Day 2

On Wednesday 24th January, myself, Kaan and Kallum filmed some shots around the school and i brought in my costume in which I plan to use in the music video. We filmed shots outside, inside the school in both my uniform and casual clothes.  

 

Props

Yesterday on the 22nd January, myself, Kaan and Kallum went to Bexleyheath to buy some props and items of clothing that we intend to use in our music video for the song Heathens by Daze. We bought a green bomber jacket and a black jumper. This is because this is the outfit Daze will be wearing for the majority of the music video.

Digipak Designing

This week, I continued to make progress with my digipak project. This is a result of myself, drawing what I aim for my digipak to look like and naming the title of the album 'Blackout'. I also came up with the list of songs that will feature on the back of the album. This is only a first design and may look different when I use photoshop to create it.

Filming Day 1

On January 17th myself, Kaan and Kallum started to film. We started to film the montage shots of our music video. We started by filming shots in an empty school corridor of Daze and then to contrast we filmed an empty corridor and we plan to fade the shots in with each other. In addition, to this we also filmed the atrium when it was empty as well as filming it busy. We aim to fade in these two shots together as well. We used a steady cam, a tripod and a camera.