Freya Catmur-Hill's Evaluation - Question Four

Question 4 – How did you use new media technologies in the research, planning and construction and evaluation?

Over the duration of this project we used a lot of technological equipment. At the early stages of production when planning our work we look a lot on YouTube to get ideas of existing media products and look at the conventions of our products genre. We also looked at past blogs created by students on the same course as us. This gave us in insight onto what we could achieve doing. We also could use ideas that we saw. For example in our video on the phrase ‘Your love pours down on me surround me like a waterfall’ we saw in Beyoncé’s video a shot of water pouring onto her and we used this idea.

In the production stage of our video we used two different types of camera, with this we also had to use a tripod. For shooting most of our video we used a Sanyo HD camera which was fairly easy to use but also had a white balance feature which helped make all the colours look realistic. Using the tripod was good for shooting at angles and keeping the camera still but I found it hard to do for example dolly shots without the footage looking very unprofessional. At one point in our video we wanted to shoot balloons going up into the sky, when we thought of the idea we didn’t think about anything going wrong. When it came to shooting it, we realised that shooting the sky was very hard as the light wasn’t correct. We tried using a day setting on the camera and made sure we used the white balance feature but still could not get it right. In the end we has to wait until  the sun had gone down a bit so it wasn’t too bright .As we used stop-motion in our video we also used a Nikon D40 which had automatic or manual focus. Getting the focus on the camera got some getting used to as sometimes when it was on automatic, it didn’t have the right look to it. Especially on close ups it look a while to make sure we got the picture as clear as possible.

I personally had never edited on Apple’s Final Cut before so it was all a bit confusing to begin with. As Jessica in the group had, I watched her for the first bit then when I came to have a go I feel I picked it up very quickly. Cutting footage and moving it around was very simple. In our media video we used green screen which we wanted to put a solid colour behind. This we quite tricky as we had to move the controls around to get rid of as much of the green as we could without fading out or blurring the edges of what we wanted to keep in focus. After doing this had to make the colours behind with green otherwise they turned a horrible colour.

Taking pictures for our digipak and our advert we also again used green screen as we made silhouettes we also used a basic bounce light. We had to make sure the shadows weren’t going to ruin the picture and that the lighting was as natural as possible. Using camera by now was no problem we just had to worry about putting the light in the right place.

I have used Adobe CS4 Photoshop before so the basic skills I already knew how to use it but making our silhouettes was quite complicated at first. We had to first get rid of the background by using the magnetic tool to pick out the pixels around the photo to get as close as possible the picture. Once we were happy with picture we had we put it onto a new layer and used colour overlay which turned it to whatever colour we wanted which was black. Once I had done it once the whole process was quite easy and I feel we used these images as a theme to our music video. I feel I used the technology very well throughout our piece and enjoyed doing it. Editing I have always found fun and think that with the help of my group we used it very well.


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Freya Catmur-Hill's Evaluation - Question Three

Question 3 - What have you learned from you audience feedback?

Our target audience for our video are late teenagers, boys and girls. They enjoy going clubbing in the evening and their typical holiday locations would be somewhere like Ayia Napa or Ibiza. They take good care of their appearance and love to shop. Generally their favourite artists are people like Calvin Harris, Example, Swedish House Mafia, LMFAO and David Guetta. We looked at the original video for ‘Feel So Close’ and we thought the way the narrative shows a few different stories. Our video also shows two different relationships the whole way through, boyfriend and girlfriend and two best friends. From this we hope that the audiences’ from the original video will also be interested in our product.

In our music video we tried to get the audience to have an emotional bond to the characters as we felt this happens in other videos. We did this by making the characters in our video easy to relate to. For example, the costume is basic and nothing you wouldn’t see on a daily basis. We don’t have a villain in our video as the song gives off a good atmosphere. We aimed for the video to give off a feel good vibe. The characters in our video are representing most young adults. This is shown by how we put an effect on the camera to make it shaky and energetic as this is how I think they should see life. I think most people in our target audience will be able to relate to the characters as they are of a similar age and class.

We showed our music video to a selection of our target audience and the feedback we got back was very useful. We gave them all a questionnaire to fill out so we could read our data easily and make it into graphs easier. Most of the people thought our idea of people coming together was very good. We also asked everyone if our video was too similar to the actual video and most said no which was a big help.

Our digipak and advert were also both highly appreciated by our target audience. On both the digipak and the advert, we were told the colours worked well together and made our product memorable. Again on both these auxiliary products the font was commented on. It was said that it worked well with our background as it did not take any attention off it. Most of our audience believes that the images on the digipak show the main point of our music video. Yet again, the main picture on our advert is the silhouettes all linked together to show closeness.


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Freya Catmur-Hill's Evaluation - Question Two

Question Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

In our video we tried to incorporate Richard Dyers Star theory which is used in actual media products. It means that a certain per cent of the video has to be close ups of the artist. This promotes the artist and is used as a branding element. We stuck to the conventions of a music video by doing this as a lot of the videos in our genre that we looked at did this.

With our digipak we stuck to a theme. We thought this would be more memorable and it made all of our products match. The digipak has blocks bright colours and silhouettes which we had made on Photoshop as the front and back images. For the inside, we used shots from the video of Chloe and Jessica who play the best friends, this made the link of people coming together which is the theme of our song. I believe our digipak does conform to the norms of real products as we tried to make it memorable and stand out, but the use of the bright colours would not be seen on most. The font we used, Helvetica, is commonly used in the media business as it is clear but also aesthetically pleasing. Calvin Harris, who is the artist of our song, always produces songs that are very upbeat and funky. We have tried to show this in the digipak with the colour, we also show class because of the simple text and the silhouettes of the women. The idea of our CD cover was to be clear, simple and bold. I feel we managed to create this as I do not feel that it is overcrowded.

Our magazine advert sticks to the same theme so the audience can make the link between the two products, also in our music video we use a section of bright block colour on our lips, at the beginning and when we used green screen. Our magazine advert again used the silhouettes to create an abstract image which again shows people coming together. We looked at other magazine adverts to look at the classical conventions and we saw that a lot have ratings from either celebrity’s in the business or companies that relate to the music industry or to the genre of the album/artist. We used this idea to promote our product. For the audience to see that what they are potentially buying has already been given a rating by someone or something they trust it makes them more likely to buy it.

Overall the combination of all our products together I think is very effective. Both the digipak and the advert are very easily recognisable as being linked because of the editing of both, the colour and the pictures. The digipak has pictures taken from our music video which also show our main message of our video which is people coming together in all different ways.


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Freya Catmur-Hill's Evaluation - Question One

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventional of real media products?
Before making our music video, we did a lot of research and viewed a lot of existing music videos to look at the classic forms of a music video. A lot of the music videos we looked at also kept to a narrative and will carry on the same storyline the whole way though. We found that most music videos will cut on the beat to the music and the cuts will correlate with the pace of the music. The other main research we did was to look at the different theories that are linked with music videos and tried to incorporate the guidelines that professionals will use.

The editing of our music video sticks to the conventions of the established form for a music video. This means we put markers down on the time line in Final Cut to the beats we wanted to use in the music and made sure all of the cuts we made were in time with these. From this we could decide from the music, what pace we wanted out video to be. Mainly, we kept the pace of the editing the same as the music throughout the song. Our use of camera also keeps to the general conventions of a music video. Richard Dyers’ Star theory made a big impact because we made a lot of close ups of the artists face, we also had both the singers on our Digipac.

A few ideas in our music video we have got the initial idea from other products. For example the shot of Chloe in the shower with the water pouring down her face we originally saw from Beyonces video '1+1'. Another video we looked at in great depth is Rihanna's 'We found love'. The reason we looked at this particualr video so much is because the song has the same genre as the one we had chosen and also, that the songs context is the same. The pace of this video is very fast as is our and also there are a few shots with people sped up which we liked.

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Silhouette for poster

For our advert, we have had an idea to use a silhouette of Sarah and Jack. This is because we have used them in our video so our audience will see the relation between the two. Also the title for our video is 'Feel so close' and this is two people coming together and feeling close. Our idea is to put the coloured strips that we used for the CD cover, behind them, with the titles over the top.

Filming Silhouettes

We filmed our friends Sarah and Jack behind a green screen to produce a silhouette effect. Here is some evidence on how we did that.

Finished Silhouettes

These are the finished versions of the silhouettes. Now these have been completed, we will be able to place them onto our CD cover to finish it. 

Advert Analysis

Digipak Analysis

Digipak Analysis

Digipak Analysis

Digipak Analysis

Digipak Analysis

First Day of Filming - Wednesday the 30th of November

We all met at Jessica's house at 10 o'clock, from here we went to Debden shops to buy all of the props that we need throughout the day. This included 24 balloons, a bouquet of flowers, selection of confetti and heart shaped sweets, a big selection of cakes and a bottle of champagne. Once we had all of these, we went  back to Jessica's house to prepare for filming. The first thing we shot was the close ups of our lips with different coloured lip stick. This went very well as once the camera was in position all we had to do was to make sure it was focused and then sing into the camera. We had an idea to have a cake fight so we decided to have shots of the lips but with cake around them. After this we wanted to take a shot of the balloons going up into the air. We had to make sure that we could see balloons as they went up, so we did a couple of test shots. Unfortunately because the sky was too light, the camera could not pick up the balloons as they went off in the distance, so we decided to wait until it was a bit darker to set the balloons off. For the line 'Your love pours down on me surround me like a waterfall' we wanted to have a waterfall effect. For this we had to use a clear shower screen and have Chloe behind, again we had some problems so we decided to do it a bit later on. In our story board, we had imagined a shot of heart sweets and confetti falling slowly which we tried to do but due to technological reasons, we could not use this shot. We then decided to use stop motion of the heart sweets and confetti making a heart shape and then the confetti sliding off the surface like a snake. This worked well, however, we may not use the stop motion snake, but this will be decided when we come to editing our footage. By this time, the sky was getting darker and the lighting of the sky was dark enough to set the balloons free. This was a success. We had bought flower which we wanted to make it look like a bride was throwing them. We talked about how we would do this when Jessica realised that we could use her mum's wedding dress. Ashley wore the dress so she was the one to throw the flowers. This went well as each time Ashley threw the flowers the same so we could shoot it from different angles. This is when the rain started which meant we could not do any more. We still wanted to do a close up of the flowers falling another time. It was now getting late and we were all very tired so we decided to do the last two shots and call it a day. Because of the type of shower we needed we decided to pack up at Jessica's and go to Freya's house. While Ashley helped Chloe get her make up and hair ready, Jessica and Freya tried to get the camera in the right place and sure the water poured right. This all went well and the lighting also made the shots look good. We then decided to run a bubble bath and take a couple of fun shots with the champage. From this, we actually got a few good shots we can use. The last thing we decided to shoot was the cake fight. We already had the cakes and Freya had a light in the back garden so the lighting wa not a problem. We put all the cakes on the floor and had a bottle of squirty cream each and started to throw them at each other. Chloe, who was filming, used some hand help shots and some on the tripod. This is so when we come to edidting we can use the different shot. After the cake fight we were all very dirty and tired so decided to pack up. We had now done alot of the shots we wanted to do and now we will have to arrange a day to shoot the rest.

Learning to use the camera

As we are filming tomorrow, I learnt how to use the camera. We went through how to set up the tripod to make sure it was level and stable. Then we were taught how to put the camera onto the tripod as we had to make sure it was facing the right way to film. We had used the tripods before so this part wasn't that hard it just refreshed our memories. The camera we used was different to the one we used last year so we had to learn all the basic skills and also how to make sure the white balance was correct. This was to make sure all the colours were as they should be. We did this by zooming into something white in the room and pressing correct. This then automatically sorted out the brightness of the colours. Now all of this was sorted we were all ready to go out filming tomorrow.

Make Up

The make up that we use in our video is generally natural looking as we don't want it to look fake or too much. We also, do a section where the make up stands out and is the main attraction of the shot. For example, for the first chorus we are using an extreme close up of four peoples lips with different coloured lip stick. This shot will be in black and white apart from the lips.

From MTV to YouTube Trip

As a class we went to Brick Lane to a place called RichMix. We listened to the head of the examining board talk about music videos which would hopefully help us in our coursework.

History of Music - Music Videos
A music video last the lenth of the song (sometimes longer)
Normally it will feature the artist in the video
They can sometimes tell stories
Music videos need to have an impact on the audience to make them watch is again.

The first time music videos were experimented with was in the 1930's
This was the colour box, Len Lye created which turned out to be sponsored by the Post Office. The music was being shown throught the videos. Most of the images Lye ued were scracted onto plastics.

In the 1940's music videos were developed. The video juke box was created which meantas songs were being played, the juke box would also show a promotional film. 4000 of were installed round the united states. Many people thought that some of the films being shown were 'too sexy' to be shown. Nat King Coles promotional video shown performance and also a male gaze where the camera tilted up the woman. this video also showed screen in screen visuals which was very advanced editing.

The 1960's brought a new development in the video jukebox which was the new colour image on it. this was called the scopitone. most of these were created in France. there was a very low budget in making music videos but with the new colour screen, real promotional videos started to get made by big artist like Elvis Presley and the Beatles. The Beatles video was taken from a film but camera tricks like slow motion and fast motion were used.

Music videos really started to take off in the 1970's and the 1980's after Queens - Bohemian Rhapsody took of and people relised that making these videos could make some money. shortly after MTV was made wich showed ownly british artist for the first 2 years.

The first music video to be shown on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star, and soon after people like Madness with there vidoe our house. Madonna was the first female artist to be shown and Micheal Jackson was the first black man to be shown on MTV. After people started to love Jackson, people realised that there was money to be made in black music. and now today people like 50 Cent and Jay-Z are very well respected.

we then went over Andrew Goodwins Theory which had already covered in class. he then gave us Ten Top Tips on how to do well in the exam.


0. Limber Up:
1. Choose a track
2. Write a treatment (Pitch) 
3. Plan for everything
4. Set up a Blog
5. Know the equipment
6. The shoot
7. Capture your footage
8. The edit
9. Screening
10. Analysis

Location Photo - Brick Lane

This is another location which we hope to shoot. When we went to Brick Lane on our media trip we decided that the colours and the scenery were perfect for what we wanted for a section of our video.

Music Analysis - Carry Out by Justin Timberlake and Timberland

Andrew Goodwin’s 6 point theory was written in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992) I will use this theory, as well as a few others to analyse Timberland featuring Justin Timberlake’s video Carry Out.

Carry Out is from the album Shock Value 2 released in 26 April 2010. The genre of this music video is R&B, Hip Hop and Electro. It was written by Timothy Mosley, Jerome Harmon, Justin Timberlake, Timothy Clayton and Jim Beanz, and it was produced by Timberland, J-Roc. Its record labels are Background Records and Mosley Music Group.

This video is a performance/ conceptual as there is no real narrative to the video and most of the time the artists are singing the lyrics. This has been lip synced as they would have put the visuals over the sound track.

The characteristics of this genre I would say would be pretty woman dressed provocatively, nice cars, a lot of ‘bling’ and good dancing. All of these are seen in this music video which links into Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory. She believes that men look at woman as objects so not in a nice way. The whole way through this music video all the women are dressed in very revealing costumes with the two males (Justin Timberlake and Timberland) watching them as objects not as people.

The visuals amplify and almost illustrate the lyrics as some of the lyrics are ‘Cause is me, you, you, me, me, you all night’ they are talking to woman and this is obvious as while they sing this the women are dancing over them. The whole way through the lyrics are suggesting they are talking to woman the lyrics ‘Before I feed you appetite’ show they don’t look at them as equals as they are saying they need to feed them. The whole song is about how they can spend the night together, it is a very sexual song and the visuals accompany this by having sexy women dancing all over them.

Again the music and the visuals work well together as most of the cuts are on a beat of the song. The cuts are sometimes faster than the beat of the song which creates an emphasis on a particular part the song, mainly when a woman is dancing it will flick between so shows both. Also, the video is set in a ‘drive through’ which also is some of the lyrics. This makes the lighting very bright which again goes well with the music as it is a very upbeat song. The instrumental parts of the song are very well illustrated by the visuals as they are mainly of Justin Timberlake dancing. This works well as Justin Timberlake is a very skilled dancer and he normally dances to a beat so the instrumental part of the song is perfect for this.

The record company have to have a certain percentage of shots of the artist which is show in this video as most of the close ups are of Justin Timberlake or Timberland. There are also a few of women eating cake or cherries which is mean to look sexual. Richard Dyer’s Star theory stated that the stars need to be the USP of a music video for it to be successful as no one want to watch a video where they cannot see the artist. He also stated that stars are constructed almost as if they are not human as this makes the star more liked and easier to model to become a super star. This music video shows both artists as being ‘laides men’ as the whole time they are surronded by women. This will make the male audience appreciate they as it is socially meant to be a good thing if you can ‘get all the girls’.

This video is very voyerisic. Most of the shots, as I have said, contain scantally clad women and them men looking at them. All of the women are very attractive and have attractive bodies. Even though the women are dressed nicely, I think this shows women in a horrible way as they are being looked in a vulgar way. This is the main point of Laura Muvley’s Theory as she believes that women should not be shown in the media like this as is it not nice for the women. One particular part in the video, Timberland is sitting on a throne like chair framed between a womans legs. Personally I think this is a very pornographic shot and should not be allowed in a music video. Even though the whole song is of a sexual theme, I think think this shot is too much. His facial expression is very appreciative which shows he likes what he is seeing which is very voyeristc.

Most of Timberland and Timberlakes videos show women in this light as most of there songs are about women or to a woman. This shows that both of the artist have a reccuring theme to all of there videos which will help the audience recognise the videos and relate the songs to the videos and the videos to the artist which will make the artist more well known.

Location Photov - Epping Forest

We hope to film part of our music video in Epping Forest. The only thing we are hopeing, is that the weather will be ok for us to film, as if it is foggy or rainy this location will not be possible to use.