Thursday, 9 June 2016
Wednesday, 8 June 2016
Effective Ways to present and evaluate research methods
Before I began work on my music video, I thought it were best to learn as much as I can about the structure of music videos, by educating myself on different codes and conventions that they posses. I began by taking notes from a powerpoint that was designed to brief us on some of these codes and conventions. We where then introduced to two theorists, Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin, whom specialise in film theory and understand what it is that makes a music video what it is.
They both had written books on their individual theory's, which I was able to utilise and make my own music video the best it could be. I primarily gathered information from the Goodwin's book, "Dacing in the Distraction Factory" as well as articles that he had written for major newspapers such as the Guardian.
I have never myself analysed a music video before, despite being an avid music video watcher myself. After reading material from both of these theorists I was able to expand my knowledge on how to derive the directors intention behind different music videos. It also allowed me to fully appreciate the different genres in which music videos had been placed in, which would later prove useful when planning my own music video.
I decided to analyse 3 different music videos and pick out their genre, codes and conventions. Due to the research that i had conducted previously which broadened my understanding of the different structures of music videos, I was able to efficiently identify different codes and conventions without too much trouble. This also helped me pick out what genre my own music video would belong to. When choosing the song for my music video, I thought it were best to conduct primary research amongst my own HNC classmates. I played two example tracks and out of the both, the majority preferred the song "Corrine" by Black Honey and therefore I chose this track. This benefitted me extremely as I wanted to produce a narrative based video and this song, which contains familiar themes is extremely adaptable for just that.
I also produced a questionnaire which the public could fill out in order to get a better understanding on what people prefer to see in their music videos.I included questions such as:
What is your preferred format of music video?
-Live performance (stage)
-liver performance (studio)
- narrative
- experimental
- non linear
- conceptual
What engages you the most in a music Video?
- Riveting narative
- Relatable themes
-Interesting visuals
- Controversial themes
In the end this genre music video was achieved and i was able to stay true to the primary research that I conducted.
The other question i asked was what engages you most in a music video? The top answer appeared to be "relatable themes" and therefore I decided to explore the themes of love and relationships in my music video considering the song itself is also a love song.
Conclusion:
Overall i felt that quantitive data gathering and research methods worked in my favour as it allowed me to make easy decisions regarding the format and genre of my music video. It also helped me come up with the themes in which i wanted to explore which ended up driving the narrative to what it is now. However my research methods didn't exactly give me a solid idea of what I wanted to do with the video as a whole. The information i gathered was fairly vague and didn't apply to every aspect of the video. This is because of the lack in questions that were put to the public in the questionnaire, if I were to have written more and more precise questions I may have gotten a better idea of where Wanted to take the video from the start. Instead I spent a lot of time storyboarding and visualising different shots when listening to the song itself. The research did in fact make it easier to choose how the video was going to look and what themes it was going to explore.
I also felt that qualitative research collecting such as the focus group with my class was also incredibly useful as a research method as it allowed me to talk directly to my audience and gather their opinions down which would further benefit the final outcome of my music video. The people involved with the focus groups were able to bounce ideas of off each other which proved extremely useful when brainstorming concepts.
What further expanded my understanding of the structure of music videos was researching the two film theorists Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin by applying their theory to different existing music videos as well as my own. I searched online for different interpretations as well as additional notes on these theorists and their theories which helped broaden my understanding of their specialty. However I had to ensure these we sources were correct by reviewing the references section just in case.
Improvements:
To ensure that I gained as much qualitative data as possible I could have set up a camera and microphone during the focus group. This would have allowed me to revisit the footage and apply any opinions or information i could have taken fro the individuals involved.
- I should have also included more questions in my questionnaire to cover a wider spectrum of aspects which could have further improved my music video.
- I could have also staged a focus group with a higher amount of participants to ensure that a wide range of opinions could have been collected.
They both had written books on their individual theory's, which I was able to utilise and make my own music video the best it could be. I primarily gathered information from the Goodwin's book, "Dacing in the Distraction Factory" as well as articles that he had written for major newspapers such as the Guardian.
I have never myself analysed a music video before, despite being an avid music video watcher myself. After reading material from both of these theorists I was able to expand my knowledge on how to derive the directors intention behind different music videos. It also allowed me to fully appreciate the different genres in which music videos had been placed in, which would later prove useful when planning my own music video.
I decided to analyse 3 different music videos and pick out their genre, codes and conventions. Due to the research that i had conducted previously which broadened my understanding of the different structures of music videos, I was able to efficiently identify different codes and conventions without too much trouble. This also helped me pick out what genre my own music video would belong to. When choosing the song for my music video, I thought it were best to conduct primary research amongst my own HNC classmates. I played two example tracks and out of the both, the majority preferred the song "Corrine" by Black Honey and therefore I chose this track. This benefitted me extremely as I wanted to produce a narrative based video and this song, which contains familiar themes is extremely adaptable for just that.
I also produced a questionnaire which the public could fill out in order to get a better understanding on what people prefer to see in their music videos.I included questions such as:
What is your preferred format of music video?
-Live performance (stage)
-liver performance (studio)
- narrative
- experimental
- non linear
- conceptual
What engages you the most in a music Video?
- Riveting narative
- Relatable themes
-Interesting visuals
- Controversial themes
The results of this survey helped me choose what kind of format and genre I would make my music video as well as what themes it would contain.
As you can see the majority of my audience preferred the music video to contain a narrative which helped me make the decision to include a narrative which explores the themes that are presented in the lyrical content of the song.
AIn the end this genre music video was achieved and i was able to stay true to the primary research that I conducted.
The other question i asked was what engages you most in a music video? The top answer appeared to be "relatable themes" and therefore I decided to explore the themes of love and relationships in my music video considering the song itself is also a love song.
Conclusion:
Overall i felt that quantitive data gathering and research methods worked in my favour as it allowed me to make easy decisions regarding the format and genre of my music video. It also helped me come up with the themes in which i wanted to explore which ended up driving the narrative to what it is now. However my research methods didn't exactly give me a solid idea of what I wanted to do with the video as a whole. The information i gathered was fairly vague and didn't apply to every aspect of the video. This is because of the lack in questions that were put to the public in the questionnaire, if I were to have written more and more precise questions I may have gotten a better idea of where Wanted to take the video from the start. Instead I spent a lot of time storyboarding and visualising different shots when listening to the song itself. The research did in fact make it easier to choose how the video was going to look and what themes it was going to explore.
I also felt that qualitative research collecting such as the focus group with my class was also incredibly useful as a research method as it allowed me to talk directly to my audience and gather their opinions down which would further benefit the final outcome of my music video. The people involved with the focus groups were able to bounce ideas of off each other which proved extremely useful when brainstorming concepts.
What further expanded my understanding of the structure of music videos was researching the two film theorists Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin by applying their theory to different existing music videos as well as my own. I searched online for different interpretations as well as additional notes on these theorists and their theories which helped broaden my understanding of their specialty. However I had to ensure these we sources were correct by reviewing the references section just in case.
Improvements:
To ensure that I gained as much qualitative data as possible I could have set up a camera and microphone during the focus group. This would have allowed me to revisit the footage and apply any opinions or information i could have taken fro the individuals involved.
- I should have also included more questions in my questionnaire to cover a wider spectrum of aspects which could have further improved my music video.
- I could have also staged a focus group with a higher amount of participants to ensure that a wide range of opinions could have been collected.
Tuesday, 7 June 2016
psychoanalytical Film -Evaluation
I intended to reflect the issues presented in such example films as Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man. The idea of someone perceiving themselves to be something that they are not to such an extreme length fascinated me in several different ways.
I wanted to present an individual who had fallen victim to his Id, and his natural instincts had taken over his rational behaviour. I shot this in the format of a fake documentary to amplify the bizarre nature of the subject. This includes interviews with himself and loved ones as well as any candid shots.
I shot this primarily with hand held camera movement to give the film a much more realistic feel, as if it were an actual documentary.
I tried to make the shoot as spontaneous looking with less cinematic angles and more of simply following the subject round with the camera.
I also included footage of the camera being set up before the actual shoot itself which furthered the scene of realism in this short film.
The takes I chose to use in the final film were especially long. This was again to further distance myself from the cinematic filming techniques and shots that would not be present in a documentary.
In cinema, filmmakers would be more inclined to use quick cuts and different angles to maintain the interest of the audience, however I chose instead to have the main focus pointed on the subjects of the film, especially during the interview scenes.
I wanted to present an individual who had fallen victim to his Id, and his natural instincts had taken over his rational behaviour. I shot this in the format of a fake documentary to amplify the bizarre nature of the subject. This includes interviews with himself and loved ones as well as any candid shots.
I tried to make the shoot as spontaneous looking with less cinematic angles and more of simply following the subject round with the camera.
I also included footage of the camera being set up before the actual shoot itself which furthered the scene of realism in this short film.
The takes I chose to use in the final film were especially long. This was again to further distance myself from the cinematic filming techniques and shots that would not be present in a documentary.
In cinema, filmmakers would be more inclined to use quick cuts and different angles to maintain the interest of the audience, however I chose instead to have the main focus pointed on the subjects of the film, especially during the interview scenes.
To stay true to the documentary format I also chose to not colour correct or stabilise any clips, and just present raw footage as it was filmed.
As there was going to have to be a fair bit of dialogue to convincingly play this off as a documentary, I had to write a script. This meant organising events into different scenes. I was able to use this structure of the script to organise different clips into different folders during the editing process. This helped to structure the film more easily as I knew which folder to refer to when I was searching for a specific clip.
Editing Tutorial Video Essay - Reflection
To easily grasp the concept of continuity editing techniques, I decided to provide cinematic examples of the different techniques whilst providing the definition of the technique to accompany it. This was also further presented with our own self shot examples of different editing techniques. I felt this was the easiest and most direct way to coherently present different editing techniques.
Looking back on the final product I could have defiantly provided a lot more detail when it came to the definitions of the different techniques. There are also some examples of the cinematic clips where the editing technique isn't immediately apparent and may require a second viewing as they can be quite easy to miss.
Un-intentially, I did not prepare a self shot example of the 180 degree rule. I therefore had to recycle the clip I shot to demonstrate the shot reverse shot technique. Luckily these two techniques coincide and therefore was able to use the footage to represent both the shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. If i were to revisit this project i would have double checked that every technique had been covered and that they all had examples to accompany them.
The match on action shoot was particularly difficult as we had to ensure that the timing was perfect when it came to editing to convincingly and accurately portray this specific editing technique. If the timing was off then the clip would have been irrelevant.
Overall the most challenging aspect of the video was coming up with seemingness transitions between different editing techniques. I believe in doing so it has further improved my editing, as well as my practical and camera skills.
Un-intentially, I did not prepare a self shot example of the 180 degree rule. I therefore had to recycle the clip I shot to demonstrate the shot reverse shot technique. Luckily these two techniques coincide and therefore was able to use the footage to represent both the shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. If i were to revisit this project i would have double checked that every technique had been covered and that they all had examples to accompany them.
Overall the most challenging aspect of the video was coming up with seemingness transitions between different editing techniques. I believe in doing so it has further improved my editing, as well as my practical and camera skills.
The conversation (Four hour film challenge) - Reflection
This task was designed to explore our skills when it comes to working on a group project, as well as time management, practical and organisational skills. The most apparent issue that first came up was the time limit which had been set for the whole film to be complete. It did not help however, when we took an unnecessary amount of time to plan the narrative of the video. To make up for lost time, we decided on a vague plot and began to shoot. It was decided, to achieve the best possible look for our film to shoot the majority of the video outside. This meant we had natural light to work with and therefore would avoid film grain which would lower the quality of the picture.
As soon as the exposure had been calibrated we began the shoot at a variety of sense in many different locations. As time was running out, one of us volunteered to begin editing the footage that we had already shot whilst the rest simultaneously shot the remaining footage that was needed to complete the film. This saved a lot of time when it came to the editing process.
What I felt we achieved particularly successfully was the fact we were able to manage time efficiently that we had time left to experiment with different shot transitions during the editing process, such as fades and different text graphics as apposed to the simple cut.
What did lack however that could defiantly have been improved was the lack of experimentation with different shot types which made the film look a bit uninteresting and plain. I would defiantly be more inclined to use a larger variety of lenses with different aperture settings in the future. The different aperture settings offered by different lenses would have given us more freedom to explore different shot types.
What also lacked in this film was a cohesive narrative. I felt like the concept was rushed and therefore not fleshed out to its full potential which left it as an unorganised and cohesive plot structure. What we took away from this was that the concept of the video is just as important as the visuals in order to overcome this issue and not make the same mistake again.
As soon as the exposure had been calibrated we began the shoot at a variety of sense in many different locations. As time was running out, one of us volunteered to begin editing the footage that we had already shot whilst the rest simultaneously shot the remaining footage that was needed to complete the film. This saved a lot of time when it came to the editing process.
What I felt we achieved particularly successfully was the fact we were able to manage time efficiently that we had time left to experiment with different shot transitions during the editing process, such as fades and different text graphics as apposed to the simple cut.
What did lack however that could defiantly have been improved was the lack of experimentation with different shot types which made the film look a bit uninteresting and plain. I would defiantly be more inclined to use a larger variety of lenses with different aperture settings in the future. The different aperture settings offered by different lenses would have given us more freedom to explore different shot types.
What also lacked in this film was a cohesive narrative. I felt like the concept was rushed and therefore not fleshed out to its full potential which left it as an unorganised and cohesive plot structure. What we took away from this was that the concept of the video is just as important as the visuals in order to overcome this issue and not make the same mistake again.
Initial Draft - Promotional Video
I decided it would be a good idea to come up with an initial draft of my promotional video. This would help me work out the structure in which the clips will be placed as well as a rough idea on how to intertwine the interview clips with the rehearsal footage.
I also used this as an opportunity to get a variety of different opinions on each aspect of the video, such as the structure, soundtrack, levels etc.
I was advised that the same setting through the entire video may run the risk of loosing the interest of the audience. Because of this I decided to request additional stock footage from my client, of past shows that he had previously produced. As the audience would be able to see the finish product of the shows, it further legitimises them as a more successful company, than how it was preciously conveyed in my initial draft.
I was also advised that the soundtrack that I had originally selected wasn't as professional as you would expect to hear in a promotional video that you would like to take seriously. Therefore I replaced it with a sleek soundtrack with a slower beat that I was able to cut to in a more fluid manner.
It became apparent through feedback that it was essential to include an interview in the video in order to present an explanation of who these individuals are and their role in the company, as well as the foundations of the company itself.
This will then be edited around the footage of the rehearsal so the audience are able to focus on the chemistry of the actors and acting ability of those involved in the company.
As I filming 3 hours worth of usable rehearsal footage including images and certain scenes, whilst recording audio on a separate device, I organised my different video and audio files into different folders so that I could access them when I wanted to with ease.
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