Feedback: Creative Arts Evening

Last night was the creative arts evening at school, and from this screening of our video and ancillary tasks we have collected some feedback of our work; overall, there were mixed reviews of the two parts of the project.


In terms of the video, the majority of feedback was that the narrative was extremely clear, and therefore enjoyable to watch. The narrative that many grasped was that when the couple were together, all was well, however without each other it wasn't, and this was the aspects that we were aiming for, which is positive. Other elements that was commented on positively were that the mise-en-scene matched the song, the couple had obvious chemistry and the video overall projects love and spontaneity. 

However there were also some negative feedback about our video. Feedback sheets were given out to years 8 and 9, and many commented on the fact that the lip-syncing at some points was slightly out of touch, and could have been tighter. Some shots also went out of focus at some points of the video, and this meant that people began to not focus on the video and almost dismiss it. The shot types were also commented on; many reviews stated that they  were too simplistic, and slightly boring; suggestions given of new shots were jib and tracking shots.

 




In terms of my ancillary tasks, many liked the fact that the promotional poster was a 'poster within a poster'; it was a nice touch and the brick wall reinforced this. The CD case was simple and to the point, meaning it was attractive and again the mise-en-scene and layout fit the genre.


This feedback evening, although all not positive, is a positive thing I feel for the fact that now as a group we are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of our project, and will amend these as soon as we can to create the best possible music video and accompanying tasks we can.


Below is a video of a sixth former reviewing our work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w2-nLz9B7y0

MUSIC VIDEO: Rough Edit

Below is a rough edit of our final video, enjoy! 

Tutorials

To aid my learning process through Premiere Pro, I viewed tutorials via YouTube for certain effects. Below are two video links of tutorials that helped me.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KadOADRrA - Colour Grading and Colour Correcting


http://www.youtube.com/user/nyvs?feature=pyv&ad=6285390494&kw=CS4%20premiere%20tutorials&v=QlK3jUC7bC4&lr=1 - Transitions

Genre theory

Genre theory has direct relation to our project, therefore I would like to discuss and analyse how this is situated within our project.

Fiske describes genres as 'attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts, and meaning, that circulate in our culture for the convenience of both products and audience. Genre refers to defining codes and conventions for a category of texts, which is predominantly constructed through a series of signs (visual and aural) which are indefinitely linked to that genre. The genre in which this project focuses on is hip hop, and romance, and there are various ways in this genre can established throughout our music video and ancillary tasks.

The first is through iconography. This helps the audience to know what to expect, and therefore aids their understanding. Iconography that my group have discussed to include in our video includes wedding calenders, confetti perhaps and even flowers, to associate the love between the couple.

The setting also establishes the genre. Through conducting research, it has been evident that Bruno Mars' romance videos are set in open spaces, therefore we too will follow this regime.

Themes also run through our video, and this further reinforces the genre; upon first viewing, the video may appear to be all about love and romance between the two, which primarily it is. However, there is also the struggle between the family represented in scenes set at home, which show that in the abscence of her partner, the female character is unhappy. Abscence makes the heart grow fonder, which is shown in later scenes.

Ancillary tasks: Update

My ancillary tasks are finished now, and I am in the development process of changing certain aspects. This blog entry will be very brief as tomorrow is our creative arts evening at school, where our music videos so far will be shown, in addition to our ancillary tasks. My group and I intend to video some feedback and work from this to better our project.

ROUGH EDIT-FINISHED POSTER & FINISHED CD (FRONT & BACK COVER):

 

LATER THIS DAY..

Some of my peers at school have reviewed my work via a small questionnaire, and the main positives/negatives were as follows:

• The colour scheme of yellow, white and black works very well
• There were a few issues where text/images were not lined up well: rulers not evident
• Images suit the genre; the polariod imaging is very effective
• The brick wall opacity could be less thereby the focus will be less on the background and more on the poster
• There are no social networking logos e.g. twitter/facebook
• On the CD Back cover, there is no copyright statement

All of the above will be taken into consideration, and I shall continue to improve my tasks.

Production ideas

As we have no gaps in our video now, our group have been dealing with effects for our music video. Premiere Pro consists of a range of different effects which will value and improve our work, for example:

• Brightness/Contrast
• Change/Correct RGB colours
• Speed
• Lens Flare

Through experimentation, our group will determine which effects match the shots we are working with throughout our editing process, and apply them determining these choices.

Editing

We finally have no gaps in our video! As a group I am happy with our progress, I feel that we have kept to our production schedule, not in terms of dates but in terms of weekly blogs and editing progress. Now that we finally have no gaps, our time will be spent getting feedback by peers, teachers and people outside of school e.g. family/friends, and doing changes to effects.

Editing- brainwave!

Whilst editing, my group and I realised that it perhaps wasn't very apparent throughout the video so far that it was a spontaneous marriage, and thanks to one of our members, we had a brainwave! As the target audience would be teenagers, predominantly females as the song is aimed at a female, we decided that teenagers would enjoy a teen marriage. Using a car, and improvising with paper and confetti, as well as tin cans which are iconic of marriage and wedding cars, we created a "Just Married" sign and placed it on the back of a car, as shown below:

We used a tripod to get various shots of the car driving, only from behind though to show the sign. We also filmed some footage from the inside of the car of the artist singing, which we may or may not use.

Editing

Our editing process has begun, and it is difficult using Premiere Pro! I have learnt the simple techniques however, for example importing footage, cutting and swapping pieces of footage, and simple editing features such as changing the brightness/contrast. Our video timeline is still in progress, however I am confident in using it now and will continue to edit for hopefully an hour each day. It is difficult finding time to edit during school hours as our VEM is used by another group also, but my group have decided to compromise and stay behind school to allow extra editing time.