Dear Moderator

Dear Moderator,

My name is Georgina Watkins, and my candidate number is 8042.

I have created a music video, digipak and front page of a website, all of which can be found on this blog.

thank you for taking the time to asses my work :)

Here is the link to my other members blog http://alicelenihancreus.blogspot.co.uk/

Evaluation of my work

Here is the link to my evaluation, I have used Prezi as I felt this would present my thoughts and ideas in an interesting way:
http://prezi.com/p6_cuqpf6a3j/present/?auth_key=o1z1xl5&follow=8m_qz72su3bw&kw=present-p6_cuqpf6a3j&rc=ref-11607441

I am pleased with the way our overall music video planned out. Although not everything we planned to film happened due to the weather conditions and the fact it didn't fit in with the theme we managed to find an alternative. One of the things I feel has been the biggest help towards the success of our music video is the fact that we filmed the whole song as a group twice: once in the trees and once on the field. By doing this we had footage for the whole song and so anything that didn't go to plan we had an alternative for. I also feel that the storyboard we made helped contribute towards our success. This is because we planned all the shots together, said where the shot was going to be filmed, how long the shot would last for, what part of the song it would be, who was in the shot and what type of shot it was . As we was so detailed with our planning not only did this make things more organised on the day it was a great befit when we edited our music video because we knew exactly what the order the shots should be in and what part of the song should be wear meaning that our music video is as close to our original plans as it could be. 

If I was to do this piece of coursework again I would focus much more carefully on mis en scene when we actually came to filming our coursework. I may have also considered getting someone else to be part of the band instead of me and Alice so one of us could over look all of the shots and ensure the mis en scene, costumes and props all looked right and accurate. This may have improved the overall quality of the shots we took, I would have also done this for the picture shots as we had the same issue with this. This I feel was because we wasn't fully focused by the end of the day as we had filmed our whole video. One last thing I would have done was make sure we filmed in a location where there was facilities for us to get changed. This not only would appeal to our target market more because they could dress like their "favourite celebrity" but also make the video more interesting and look more like a pop video as all girl groups have costume changes in their music video. 

Digipak finished

Here is my finished Digipak, i have produced a front cover, inside cover and back cover for my band All Saints. I produced all 3 of these on photoshop, with the images that were taken on our photoshoots. Overall i am happy with the way the digipak has tunred out, i feel that the back cover looks the most realistic because of the copy right paragraph and the barcode. Something which is on real back covers of cd's. Below are my final images for my digipak.

This is my finished digipak placed into the template to make the finished product look more realistic

 

If I was to re do this digipak there would be some changes that i would make, one of the first ones would be on the front cover I don’t feel like that title of the band name stands out as much as it could, as well as that I do not feel that the image of us as a band really stands out and so would consider using a different image for the front cover to make sure that it was eye catching. I don’t think there would be anything I would change for the inside cover as I struggled with what should be on it, I feel like a message works well and also shows that the band cares about their fans as well as their  family therefore giving off the right image about the band. One thing I would change about the back cover would be to make the track list stand out more, I fee like the position works bit the text could have been brighter and bolder to make it more clearer.



Website finished

Below is the link and finished images of my website for my band. It was only of me to produce the home page and so the rest of the links on the site wont work.

http://georgina14994.wix.com/media-a2

 

Overall I am happy with how the website turned out, there are a lot of features that i have put on there that I feel would interest my target audience. I found out what would influence my target audience by family and friends who are of a similar age. By doing this I could incorporate the features they liked on my website. By having a fan of the week section on there it will make fans aspire to be on the webpage too and also will bring a closer connection with the band and the fans. I put in a "get the look" section because i remember when I was younger I always wanted to look like and where the clothes and accessories that singers were wearing, this I feel it still something young people want to today. By having many pictures on the site it will make the website look more interesting and appealing because there aren’t masses to read, again something that would interest my target market.

Music video finished

This is our finished music video, below is the clip embedded and the link to Youtube. 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZf4jK1pZks

 

Overall I am happy with how the music video turned out. All though not all the plans and ideas we had worked and was used in our music video I feel like we improvised well. One thing I am disappointed in is the fact we are wearing the same clothes throughout the video, however we have tried to ensure we are wearing the same accessories such as all wearing a hat/ scarf which makes us look more like a girl group. I am glad that the quality of the video is good as I was concerned it would become pixelated once uploaded to YouTube. If I was to do this again I would think more about costumes and the story we was trying to tell in the video as I feel this would have improved it significantly.

Issues with some of the shots in our music video

Once me and Alice had finished editing our clip we was watching it through to see if all the lyrics were lip synced in time and showed our peers and teacher we realised we had a few issues with the some of the shots we used. When we first started editing the clips we didn't notice these faults and just wanted to make sure we got the video done in time with the lip sync at the right timings, therefore we was a bit upset when we first noticed the faults. The shots we noticed which have faults / issues are below:

 

 

One of the first things we noticed was that this shot you can see Alice's phone. We needed her phone so we could sing in time with the song therefore meaning we was actually singing, which we hoped would make the quality of the shots a lot better. As here was only 3 of us on the day of the filming we had to use the tripod and as you can see from this shot this was a quite a distance away. As the volume on Alice's phone wasn't very loud ad it was windy on the day Alice needed her phone on her for us to be able to hear the music. At the time we didn't think about what the camera would capture and just wanted to make sure we got all of the music video done in the first day therefore meaning we was rushing. As we was so focused on getting everything done we made a silly mistake like this which brings down the overall effectiveness of the video. If I was to do this task again knowing what I know now I would invest in a pair of wireless speakers so the music could be played loud and be next to the tripod so they were out of site and but we could still sing along to the song.

 

The next issue me and Alice noticed in our music video was in the picture shots. By the time we had got the round to doing the picture shots we had been filming for some hours and so wasn't fully focused on what we was doing therefore meaning we made another silly mistake, something in which could have been avoided easily. The issue with this set of picture shots is that in the background car can be seen in the background which is the car park to the field we fimed at. This issue could have been resolved if we had faced the other way, we didn't really think about it at the time as to what way we should have faced and even when we was taking the pictures we was just looking at the person and what the person in the shot looks like not the surrounding area. If we had focused on the surrounding area we could have avoided this happening.

 

The next issue we noticed is similar to the one above however this one is something we should have been conscious about the whole time. As you can see in the background of this shot the tripod and the bags we had with us could be seen. Me and Alice noticed this whilst we was editing the clip and tried to crop the tripod and bags out of the picture however when we did this the whole image shrunk and it stood out when watching it, the only option was to crop all of the pictures in this photo but we knew that would also make the video look silly and so have left the pictures in which the tripod and bags can be seen still on there. If I was to do this again I would make sure that mis en scene is something I really focused on to avoid this happening and to make the video look more professional.

 

 

A final issue I have noticed with our music video is in this clip above. I had the idea to sing the sing the whole way through face on to the camera in case any of the clips didn't work or didn't look right we would have a back up plan. As we sang the song through all at once and we was moving around Ana go cut out of some of the clips, as you can see Alice is in the centre of the camera and so it makes the video look unprofessional as we can only see a but of Ana, this isn't something you would see in a real music video. We had to use this clip as there was no alternative clip for that part of the song and we wanted to look like we was singing, If I was to do this again I would sing the song in parts to make sure that everyone could be seen at all times and if we did move around it wouldn't matter as it would only be for part of the clip and so could therefore be recorded again, this would avoid having clips like the one above.  

Why i choose certain features on the website

Here are some of the features that can be found on my website, I am now going to describe

why I have included certain aspects.

I have chosen to have a get the look section on my website because i know this is something that would appeal to my target audience. All young girls aspire to look and be like someone when they are younger and so by having this on the website they will be able to achieve this. It will also make the girls feel like they have a closer connection to the band members because they can buy and get things that the band members have actually worn.

 

I have chosen to have information about social networking with the girls from the band because social networking is something that all celebrities use to today to keep in contact with their fans. By having this featuring on the website the girls will again feel like they have a closer relationship with the girls form the band which may in the long run make them more willing to buy tickets to their concerts etc.

 

The next feature that I choose to have on my website is a fan of the week. The main reason i chose this is because when I was younger I would have loved to have had the opportunity  to feature on a bands website and so I decided to incorporate this on my site because I knew my target market would also love something like this. As well as that by featuring on the site it shows that the band appreciate their fans and the fans will feel like the band actually knows them.

 

A final feature that I have chosen to have on my website is a gallery. I chose this because my target market aren’t always going to want to read of the site and may become bored, therefore by having a gallery they will have something else to look at. By having a gallery that also features pictures of the band with fans it will make fans want to send their pictures in with the band members meaning pictures will be updated all the time. As well as that by having a gallery the fans will be able to copy what the girls are wearing which also incorporates with the "get the look" section on the page.