Magazine Advert and Digipak - Final

Feedback

u1 44

Pros -

Good scene of dancing
lip syncing was good
nice shots

cons -
wasn't conventonal of hiphop
shots wasnt vaired enough
more locations needed

josh shona luka

Director's commentary

A director's commentary is a supplementary piece of footage that gives information to the audience about the content that they might not have gotten from watching the original video. The directors commentary is often available on a seperate disk, or in the bonus content section of the main disk. This is to show that it is seperate from the main feature and that it is not always present in many media products.
There are two main ways for a director's commentary to be recorded; it can be a seperate video, with the directors talking to the camera about the video or it can be an audio recording of the commentary layered over the original video to serve as a reference to the areas that are being talked about.
The nature of the director's commentary are generally either serious or humourous to reflect or contradict the content of the video to give the audience an added persperctive.
During the director's commentary, many different things can be talked about:

• Why certain aspects were chosen for the video, such as location or camera shots.
• Why the video was shot in that style, such as why use a dance sequence.
• What problems that they encountered when putting the video together.
• What changes they would have made if given another opportunity

Director's commentary serve as a way for the audience to get a 'behing the scenes' look as to how the video was made and what has been put into it to reach the final product.
This is the director's commentary of one of the other groups in media.



THe second video is the director's commentary for a video game.

What is a director's commentary?

A director's commentary is an audio track which consists of comments or a lecture that plays in real time with the video. Commentaries can either be serious or humorous in nature. They often give extra information about the video that would not be obvious to the audience. The director's commentary is usually available on an extra disc or in a special features section on the disc.

There are two main types of commentary; Partial (or scene-specific) and feature length (or screen-specific). 

Partial:
This type of commentary only covers specific scenes of the film. These can be recorded without the speaker viewing the film, which usually means the commentator makes more general comments rather than pointing out specific details.

Feature Length:
This type of commentary is recorded in one session. This is where the commentator watches the movie from beginning to end while giving their direct thoughts on what is happening on screen.


The most common commentary track will be a feature length track featuring the film’s director, cast members, producers and writers. Actors can sometimes perform the commentary in character.

Some commentaries have on-screen video enhancements like a telestrator; which allows the director to draw on the screen to point out specific details.

Final Cut

Analysis of magazine ad conventions

There are a variety of conventions associated with magazine adverts. This includes:
Having an image or background that has a link with the music video or the album cover. It also needs to include certain bits of information such as the release date of the album which is often displayed in a bold font. Other information that we will need to include is the place of purchase for the album, the artists name and the name of the record label, and positive reviews about the album. We would also need to include tour information and some details of the bonus content within the DigiPak or album that is being advertised. The font on the magazine advert is generally continuous throughout the ad, with the band's name being the only exception.
In order to attract customers, our magazine advert would need to include persuasive and eye catching images and pieces of text. Our genre would need to be reflected in the magazine advert using the font, text, colour and the images.

Use of narrative in our music video

These are some ideas that we thought about using for the narrative of our music video.

• Day dreaming
• normal college students
• transformed to super star girl band
• famous
• dance routine
• happy

Final Cut So Far

This is a few screen grabs of our rough cut video. As you can see, we have shot a wide variety of clips so that we have lots of footage to choose from. We are also using a lot of layers in our video which reflects the fast pace of the song, having lots of clips running over each other in order to make the video flow nicely.

Analysis of Seize Them! Digipak

This digipak is very effective, as the wrap-around cover works really well with what looks to be robots shouting the band's name but is also an order which works really well as depending on how you look at the cover the speech could be perceived either way. there is also a shot of the band inside behind the CD which is clever as it means that every time the purchaser wants to listen to the CD they see the band, which keeps the purchaser with the band's image in their minds.

The back cover is very simple with just the track listing as well as a website and record label information, the inside cover looks to contain more information about the band and their exploits.

Analysis of a student magazine ad

The group that made this magazine advert met a lot of conventions that are attributed to the genre. They have included the title and image of the artist, which meets the needs of the record label, as well as including important information about the artist, giving a release date, some reviews for the album and a website if people want to find out more. We believe that, although the image is strong, the lack of colour apart from the lipstick makes the whole advert seem dull. Also, with the information in a small font at the bottom of the advert, it gives the impression that it was added as an afterthought and doesn't grab the attention of the audience enough. We think that this magazine advert is lacking some bits of information, such as the production company and record label. it also doesn't include the relevant info for things like the price of the album or where it will be available to buy. the inclusion of the McDonalds logo gives the impression of product placement, but also affects how customers would think of the album because of what McDonalds represents.

Photoshoot

This is our photo shoot for our ancillary products. These were taken with the digipak in mind, with the shape of the tree benefiting the layout of the digipak that we wanted. We wanted to have Hope on the front cover of the digipak, with the branch extending onto the back of the product to have a continuos landscape around the digipak. The tree that we used in the Digipak was good because it left a clear space  beneath the branch which allowed us to put all the product information and to layer on any other images that we wanted. The colour of the tree was also good because it was bright and clear, which contradicted the clothes Hope was wearing which enabled her to stand out against the background more. As well as the long shots we took for the digipak, we also took a few close ups. This would be for the magazine advert as we wanted Hope to be the main feature of the product rather than mixing in with the background. As it turns out, we held a separate photo shoot to get more close ups of Hope in a different location. This is because we thought that the images would be too similar for all the products including the music video. We thought that if we had more locations we would be able to expand the product range more and have more variety in our products.

Ideas for digipak

The ideas we have had for our digipak are:

• We have decided to use the DVD layout for our digipak
• We will include bonus content such as lyrics, tour dates of the artist and some posters of the group
• On the front cover we will have the name of the artist and songs as well as an image of the artist
• On the back, there will be a track listing, website information, the record label and a barcode
• Within the digipak, we will have the tour dates . 
• We have also  decided to advertise a competition for the customers to enter.
• We will use Autumnal colours to match with the group name 
• We will include various shots of the artist, but we won't have the same picture repeated to stop everything being confused for the other

Magazine Advert and Digipak Themes

We have decided to centre the magazine advert and digipak around nature. This is because it relates to the artist "Autumn" and some of the shots throughout the music video. At the moment, we are undecided as to whether or not we will shoot new photos to include, or to adapt still shots from our video. We have decided  to have Hope as the only person in the images as she was the lead in the music video and therefore the centre of the audiences attention.

The Digipak will have the CD layout so that we can include bonus content such as lyrics and tour dates. On the front cover we will have the name of the artist and songs as well as an image of the artist. On the back, there will be a track listing, website information, the record label and a barcode. We have decided against including an age rating on our digipak because it only applies to DVDs and this is just a music video. Within the digipak, we will have the tour dates of the artist, some posters of the group. We have also  decided to advertise a competition for the customers to enter.
We have later decided to use the DVD layout for our digipak so that we can use the template already on the computers in order to save time.

The magazine advert will include the institutional information including the record label, the price of the digipak and the location to buy it. We will also include some reviews of the digipak and the release date and the website information. We will also be including an image of the artist again without the dancers in  the background in order to emphasize the fact that Hope is the lead of the group.

External Feedback Reflection

We were able to get some external feedback on our rough cut video during the open evening. The person we talked to addressed the points of editing, camerawork, performance and general observations. This person got to see the new footage that we were going to put in and included a few comments on the new areas.
Editing
The person that we asked thought that overall, the editing of the rough cut was very good and well synced in time with the music. He did point out that one section of the rough cut was out of time but we were able to sort that out so that everything ran smoothly.
Camerwork
Like the peer feedback we recieved, the person that saw our rough cut on the open evening thought that the pan shots of the trees were a bit shaky. We decided that we would keep these shots in the video because we didn't have enough time to re-shoot and it would be difficult to keep the camera steady on the terrain that we were filming. Because this was only the rough cut, we hadn't been able to include all of our footage for the external viewer to see. Although this is the case, the person that watched our video said that there was not enough variation in the shots but the lighting in the video was good and the new footage that we shot helped by adding more camera angles to the video.
Performance
The feedback that we recieved for the performance was generally positive. This person said that the dance routine and acting was good overall, with it lip synced well although some areas of the dance routine were out of time slightly.
Other
There wasn't many other observations that the external peer brought up apart from the fact that, in the new footage, the people in the video can be seen walking towards a floodlight. After he brought this up, it was explained to him that it could be edited out or in such a way that you cannot notice it. His general impression was that the video was very good and the that the finished product would be good as well.

External Consumer Feedback

During the open evening, we showed our work to some of the visitors in order to get their external opinions and improvements as to what can be done to it.
editing
one area out of sync
pretty good editing
well synced in time with the music
camerawork
pan shot at the start bit shaky
not enough variety in camera-shots
the lighting in general and the new footage was good
performance
lip syncing good in general
dance routine wasn't always symmetrical although it was good
acting was good
other
for the stuff recorded on open day, walking towards a petrol light.

Reflection of Amar's feedback

We received a lot of helpful feedback from Amar, who is a technician at our college and is also a professional music video director, for the rough cut of our music video. By having someone like Amar give feedback on our work, we were able to go into more depth with what we needed to change based on his opinions and suggestions. He was able to comment in more depth than other pieces of feedback because he was able to point out areas that needed to be changed and what can be done to change them, rather than general comments and suggestions that we have received.
He said that our introduction was very good because it doesn't reveal too much of the music video and therefore grabs the audiences attention and makes them want to see more. For this introduction, Amar noted that this section runs into the vocals of the song and should be changed into shots of the artist singing. We have listened to this and shot a new piece of footage that includes the artist singing the introduction directly to the camera. This meets Amar's feedback as well as adding to the Goodwin's theory by having close ups to meet the needs of record label.
Like the peer feedback, Amar said that there was need to establish a main singer separate from the dance routine. We sorted this out by shooting the lyrics of the song on a separate occasion, using different costumes, to make the main singer stand out. We also were able to establish the main singer more by filming a new dance routine with her at the centre. This emphasized her lead role within the group because she would now be in the majority of the final video.
Amar said that we should alter the dance routine for each chorus. this would allow the video to progress along with the music rather than having the same clip repeated throughout the video. We managed to resolve this with the extra footage shot on opening evening, by using a variety of camera angles to help make up the dance routine.
On the editing side, Amar thought that it was very good that Ashley had marked up the timeline of the video so that it is easier to edit according to things like the chorus or certain parts of the song. This helped during the editing process because it enabled us to put new clips in according to the marks rather than having to find the right place in the song.
Amar thought that the video was good overall but there should be more performances included to match the genre of the song and that there should be a big climax to signify the end of the song. We think that we have taken this feedback on board and have managed to include more performances and edited the song so that it ends on a climax.

Amar's feedback

We received feedback from Amar, one of the technicians at the college who is also a professional music video director. This professional advice helped because he went into more depth with his comments and suggestions rather than making general statements.
good intro, sets the scene well grabs the attention of the audience. overruns into vocals - change with artist singing
establish the band better at the start, no main singer
more performances before showing the narrative.
chorus/dance routine alter for each chorus
marked up well so that the timeline fits properly
more performances
big climax to end the song

Rough Cut Feedback Reflection

          The feedback we received was pretty good but a bit contradicting in places but we will take on as much as possible, for example we will include more close-ups which will increase the variety of shots in our video. We will also have a change in costumes, with the dance routine, to have a more varied visual theme throughout our video.

          The feedback we received regarding Goodwin's theory of Analysis was generally that we didn't meet the needs of the record label well enough. This means that we didn't include enough close ups of all the dancers and we didn't emphasize the notion of looking well enough. Both of these can be seen as related and can be resolved in the same way. One way to do this is when we shoot the close ups, have the dancers look directly into the camera to give the impression that they are looking at the audience. We could also incorporate them in different ways in order to emphasize the notion of looking further.
          For the editing section from the peer feedback, we found that although the fade-in transitions were good, they were used too frequently and that there should be more variation in the transitions that we use. This would be pretty simple to resolve as we can just change the transitions and add new ones if we need to. Some positive feedback we received from our peers was that the reverse shot was good.
          The main point of feedback we received for the camerawork was that the shots were as steady as we would have liked. For the still camera shots, this could have been dealt with by using a tripod but because the majority of those shots were outside, making it hard for the tripod to stay steady. As well as that, it was suggested that we should include a larger variety of shots. One good thing that was said about the camerawork was that the pan shots of the woods at the start of the video. It was said that it went well with the theme of the music well and established the scene nicely.
          For the mise-en-scene aspects of our rough cut, the main positive points we received were regarding the opening sequence in the woods. The feedback we got back said that the sunlight was used well and the fact that we used natural light in that section rather than artificial light also added to the positive feel of that section of the video. The rest of the feedback we were given were things that we could improve. These were generally small changes that don't need a lot to alter. One of these improvements were about the costumes. Although they were nice, bright and colourful in the opening sequence, there wasn't enough costume changes in the rest of the video. This would help add more depth to the video and add to the links between the lyrics and the visuals from Goodwin's theory. This could be achieved by shooting more footage on another day in order to get the costume changes that we need. Another piece of information that we have taken on board is that we didn't include enough locations in our rough cut. We sorted this out by shooting some more footage, using different locations around the school. The last comment about the mise-en-scene was that we didn't include enough props in our rough cut. Although this is good feedback, we felt that the inclusion of props would go against the video and against the focus of the people in the video.
          The final section of peer feedback that we received was about the performance in the rough cut. One of the main pieces of information to take from this is that our peers thought that the dance routine was very good although there wasn't enough of it. Having said that, it was mentioned that there needed to be more lip-syncing along with the lyrics. We have adapted our music video to accommodate this and have shot seperate sequences of some of the people singing along in different locations. This is also to go with the feedback saying that we need to include a lead vocalist and have the dancers as backup dancers rather than the main feature of the music video.

Action Plan

• Film more with the new lead
• Re-film the dance routine so it is more in sync
• Learn the lyrics hope!
• Edit the video
• Done

Rough Cut feedback

Goodwin's theory

• Conventions of dance routine for pop video
• not enough close-ups
• visuals and lyrics contradict themselves
• don't think it works as it's too different
• no intertextuality
• not a lot of notions of looking

Editing

• too many fade-ins, more transitions
• good use of the fade in transition
• jump within footage needs to be sorted
• like the reverse shot

Camerawork

• bit wobbly, could have used tripod more
• use tripod if possible
• need more variety of shots
• liked the panning shot of woods at the start

Mise-en-Scene

• no change in costume
• get more locations
• possible change in costumes needed
• not much use of props
• bright natural light, used well
• good use of sunlight at the beginning
• bright colourful costumes

Performance

• dance routine is good
• routine was brilliant just need more
• not enough lipsyncing
• lip-sync with dancing
• dancers not strong enough for lead vocalist
• get a new lead vocalist and leave the others as back-up/ dancers only

Rough Cut