THIS BLOG IS CLOSED

After a long and fruitful project, sweaty hours in disgustingly hot edit suite, and a rollercoaster of emotion;

We're done. The end.
Thankyou for your time, I hope it was enlightening

Bye bye :)

Evaluation Question 4; Reflections

Question 4 was quite a difficult question to take part in a discussion about.  We found that it was more describing but when we got into the production section of technologies it all started to flow.  I felt that I made some really good points about the software we used and also the camera hardware and how it greatly improved our project.  However I think a lot of the time we came across a bit too optimistic, as there were some hindrances that we could have spent longer discussing like the exposure settings on the camera.  We didn't quite understand the zebra lines and this meant that throughout our shoot we ended up with a lot of really dark footage which made the editing process really difficult.  In future we would learn how to use our camera a lot better before going out on the main shoot, probably through test shoots and general practices.
All in all though I felt the question went rather smoothly and was a good end to our evaluation, and that I made good, frequent and relevant points throughout.

Evaluation Question 3; Reflections

I started off Question 3 of our Evaluation discussion and I feel that in particular, this and question 1 were my top moments. Myself and Matt got into a really interesting discussion about the difference in genres seen through the artists brand images. I really felt I made some good points about how R&B is based on the glamour factor and how rock is more based around the music. This was a big deciding factor in doing a performance video for us and so it was good to get this into our evaluation. We didn't talk too much about our original demographic however and in the future this would have been a usual thing to discuss.

Evaluation Question 2; Reflections

Question 2 got off to a better start than where we left question 1, with Ben leading us into a discussion of epic proportions about the codes and conventions of websites and album covers.  This meant that while covering the combination of our products we equally covered the theory that we had missed out of question 1.  Although I did feel a bit left out of this question and that I did not say as much as I had liked to, especially seeing as I did a lot of the design work for the album cover and myspace.  However we did get across a lot of points on genre signifiers and things that linked heavily with question 3 (which I lead) meaning that we could develop them later.

Evaluation Question 1; Reflections

I felt that the first question of our evaluation went rather well.  I feel that I gave an adequate contribution throughout this question and that I touched on some really important points.  The biggest problem was a confusion about what evidence needed to go in each question and so technically we missed out the album cover and myspace conventions and codes in this question.  Obviously this was bad as we would lose lots of marks but instead we managed to cover this in question 2.  Even though Simon was leading the question we managed to pull it off very much as a group and therefore has an equal share of points.  The question focused very heavily on Goodwin and Vernallis and I think we got into a really good level of depth throughout.

Clips, Pictures, Myspaces and more for the Evaluation

Here are the videos, websites, and album covers, mentioned in our evaluation.

Every Time I Die - 'Wanderlust' : Where the idea of individual shots came from and vocalist walking down the corridor. Vocalist clothes also change when it moves to individual location. It is also mainly peformance with some concept thrown into the mix. Vocalist addresses audition as well.


Every Time I Die - Wanderlust on MUZU


Pantera - '5 Minutes Alone' : Lots of close ups and ECUs. Entirely performance based. Cut to beat and focuses on music. Dark lighting with spots on instruments. Cuts to instruments at important parts.



Muse - 'Dead Star' : Lots of instrument close ups. Dark lighting again. Focuses on music. Focus on guitar in opening riff.




Architects - 'Always' : Genre characteristics, energetic performance, headbanging, band setup and clothing. cut to the beat and quickly cut. Referenxced shots such as CU guitar and drums from side. Linked to person percentage of each member in video.



Architects - Always from Hopes Die Last on Vimeo.

Underoath - 'In Regards To Myself' : Inspiration behind the individual vocalist shots wiht stationary camera nad vocalist moving around room. Also darkly lit and same band setup.

In Regards To Myself - UnderOath

Disturbed1 | MySpace Video

Underoath - 'A Moment Suspended In Time' : Use of lyrics to inspire video. Words shown and cut to different members at different points. Mainly performance video with energy. Claustrophobic feel. Use of costume.




Alex Gaudino - 'Destination Calabria' : Lots of voyeuristic shots. Shows another genre and how ours is different. No instruments and not really about the music and more about the video content.





Madonna - 'Material Girl' : Star image motifs and intertextual references. Video focused on star image of Madonna and targets audience with Marilyn Monroe reference.



Muse - 'Uprising' - Link with single cover




MySpace

A Day To Remember - Unconventional MySpace look, more unique and professional looking, common today as people move away from MySpace
Set Your Goals - Very promotional, album cover, merch and video are all on show and clear to the viewer

Architects - Introduces the band individually and follows institutional conventions, such as showing the record label, endorsements and bookings

The Saturdays - Has a more scopophilic feel, with more emphasis on a celebrity personality and look. Bio + Pictures

Alexisonfire - Has a competition on the page, a fine example of viral marketing


Album Cover

International Superheroes of Hardcore - Takin It Ova - Strong visual theme, taken from title

Oh Sleeper - When I Am God - Dark, moody colours

Muse - Uprising Single Cover - Has common themes with Video - Teddybears

Reflections on the Test Screening and audience response so far

We did a screening of our music video to an audience this week to get some demographics for our evaluation, I felt that this went very well and we got some really positive response.

The actual statistics will be posted on the group blog during the evaluation blogs but in general it all basically matched our predictions in the treatment and we found that many of the archetypal comments we had made, turned out to be true