Music Video - Lego House by Ed Sheeran & P Money

here is our final music video for 'Lego House' by Ed Sheeran & P Money

Evaluation question 4

How did you used new media technologies in the construction  and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Through the course of completing our tasks and designing my products I have used a large varied amount of technologies to help me through the process. Having the convenience of all these technologies it has made the process easier and more varied in my approach and conclusion of each task. Most of the technologies I hadn't used before but now I have a firmer understanding about how different technologies work, individually and together.

Some of the technologies I used:

• Digital Camera 
• Apple macs
• Blogger
• YouTube
• Mobile Phone
• iMovie
• Photoshop
• Film Projector
• Slideshare

Digital Camera

the digital camera was essential in most aspects of the tasks we had to complete. We used it for recording our music video, and audience feedback. We decided to use one camera for the recording of our video, to keep a continuity in terms of quality. We did not experience any problems with the camera other than it's battery life being poor, where we found ourselves changing the batteries constantly during a scene. Our progress with the cameras have improved in comparison with last year. We now have a better understanding of how to use a camera 
to promote a message or a representation.

Apple macs

The macs were again, essential in completing our tasks. we used i t to edit our music video on, create my magazine advert  and create my CD cover. We also used it for blogging and researching similar products such as music videos.I have had some experience with the Apple Macs and was fairly familiar with them. the only problem was that they constantly froze and kept crashing during our editing or designing which became frustrating.

Blogger

Blogger was probably one of the most important technologies we've used in this course. We were able to record everything we did through blogs posts. All of our finished products were able to be put on blogger to be displayed too. We've had experience with blogger before as we used it last year so we were familiar with the website. A problem we faced with blogger is that the images wouldn't show until you published a post so we had to memorize what we were analyzing most of the time.

YouTube

YouTube enabled us to research existing products like similar music videos. We were also able to use YouTube to upload our products and audience feedback, because it's easily accessible and easy to embed into blogger and other sources.

Mobile phone

We used our mobile phones in contacting each other when to film, and more importantly, taking location shots and behind the scene stills of our music video which we were easily able to upload to blogger.

iMovie

iMovie was essential, it was the only editing software we had so we had to make full use of it. I have had experience with iMovie from last years production but this year i learnt more features it owns such as effects. We did experience problems with iMovie, in that it kept freezing, quitting the program and overall slow performance so iMovie did get frustrating to work with.

Photoshop

Photoshop was a fun program to use which was very important in the creation of my Digipak and magazine advert. Photoshop has so many features I still learn new ones each time I use it even though having used it in my media lessons for three years. the only issue with Photoshop is that it can get complicated because it has very advanced features and effects.

Film Projector

The film projector was used to show our films in the showcase we held. The film projector enabled us to put a showing of all our videos for an audience. This then enabled us to gain our audience feedback and response. the film projector allowed us to show our music video in front of a wide and larger audience rather than showing them individually.

Slideshare

Before making my evaluation through Slideshare i was completely inexperienced with Slideshare, but it was easy enough to learn. It essentially just embedded a presentation in my blog post. Slideshare enabled me to use more technologies in my blog and helped me make my evaluation more interesting to read.

BH

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Here is a series of clips we filmed after a screening of our music video in front of an audience. We also filmed some of the audience reactions and here, we filmed some audience members and their response to the film and the questions we asked them about our film.
Here are the questions we asked each of our selected audience members:

1. How do you feel after watching the video?

2. What message do you think the video was trying to get across?

3. What do you think could be improved?

4. What was your favorite part of our film (if any)?

From question 1's response it seems the audience feel an emotional attachment to the music video and character (s) in it. The audience members do sympathize with the main character in our music video which reinforces the message and themes we are trying to portray in the video.

Question 2 shows that the messages we were trying to create through the narrative perspective of the music video are visible to the audience, which is one of the primary targets of the music video. The message that the audience notice  the most is that of the relationship between the character and his father which was one of the few main narratives of the video. 

Through question 3 we were able to understand how the video could be improved and what is essentially wrong with it. This is in my opinion the most important question because the criticism can help develop us as better film makers and primarily develop and improve our music video. The answer that was frequently raised was use of the same shots too often which i agree with, we should of taken more shots on more locations, perhaps with more narrative orientated shots.

overall I think our film did promote a message to the audience and the shots and locations worked well in the video to create n emotional attachment between the audience and the main character. But i do think our video could of improved with more varied shots and more use of narrative based scenes which will create a stronger relationship between the audience and character in the music video.

                                                                                                                             BH  

Evaluation question 2

How effective is the combination between your main product and ancillary task? 

 Here is a slideshow presentation on the links, similarities, themes and marketing relationships between each of my products and tasks to promote the album package 'Lego House'. this is including the Music video, Digipak, and magazine advert.


BH

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your promotion package for your album use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real music videos?

Music Video

To us the most important component to our promotion package was the music video, it took the longest to plan and create, and is seen as the main part. In terms of sales in the music industry, music videos play major role in advertising and promoting new singles and tracks. So it was the most important part of the package to create.

 We had three directions to go with the creation of our music video, one was to make it solely a narrative based video, to make it performance orientated or a mixture of the two. With consideration that the mixture of the two sticks to the stereotypical conventions of a rap genre video, we went for this option. originally we planned for the video to be partially performance with different shots of the main artist rapping and the majority narrative, but the song lyrics portrayed little opportunity to make the video solely narrative based. We wanted to follow conventions like that of  the theory portrayed by Andrew Goodwin, that some typical forms and conventions for music videos is the relationship between lyrics and visuals.

We felt the best way for us to portray any message, like the themes and messages we did use in the final edit, would be through narrative and not performance, we managed to portray a poor relationship between the artist/character and his dad, his physical inability to write lyrics etc, which were all pointed out by the audience in the audience feedback. 

We stuck to the typical codes and conventions of the rap genre and it's videos but, with the element of pop and alternative genre through the Ed Sheeran chorus we altered from most primary conventions of typical videos of this genre. Such as the character not being set in urban looking environments and settings, but instead in typical town settings that most audience members can relate to, than being set in big city locations. The general attire of our main character conforms with that of the rap genre (hat, jacket, jeans etc) but the actions he performs isn't that typical of rap conventions.

Digipak

For the digipak I used a simplistic looking digipak theme, by having the cover white with Lego bricks that are in relationship with he album title bordering the image. 

My digipak design certainly challenges conventions of a typical rap cover. Usually the typical rap/pop CD cover contains the artist on the front or on the rap side, an urban theme shown through the  images or typography. I wanted a digipak that was simple and effective, by reinforcing the theme or title of an album like Jay-Z's Magna Carter Holy grail where he uses classical, historical artifact based images which are in relationship with the title, while keeping the simplistic element like AM.

Magazine Advert

My magazine advert is of both the artist's featured in the title track of the album, and main single Lego House. I have used both artists (Ed Sheeran and P Money) facing forward towards the camera. I have used themes from the digipak, such as the blue and red lines, symbolizing the artists performing in unison, and the white background. While using themes that are typical of Ed Sheeran as an artist including the paw and orange theme.

 My magazine does stick to the conventions of a typical magazine advert from similar artists. The ones i have researched before i designed the advert all contain the artist facing forward. Of all the components of my promotional package the magazine advert forms conventions of magazine adverts of similar genres and artists.

BH

Peer assessment

As a class each group sat down and watched each others music videos. we each had a single aspect to look at being either camera, mise en scene or editing depending on which group. Then everybody chipped in together with their comments and constructive criticism to help us understand from a media skills point of view,what was good, bad and could be improved.

We learnt that our strengths were the effects we used and the strong narrative or shots created. the most frequent point we could of improved on was the frequent use of same shots.

Media Showcase

For our audience feedback we had a media showcase to premiere all of the music videos and thrillers made by sixth form made by media study students. This helped us get an understanding of what the audience thought of our film and any criticisms or feedback they had towards it.

pictures and program provided by Liam Bowen and Jodie Philips

BH

Magazine Advert

This is the final version of my magazine advert. I have included both artists as each are equally important to the song and digipak. I have kept the theme of the red and blue line in the poster and added each artist either side of the line and put them in  similar effects to promote that both are equally important to what the poster is advertising. I used a large number 1 at the top as it catches the audiences eyes similar to the Kanye West poster i researched.

BH

Magazine advert development

I added a picture of both artist in my first draft with a plain white background and a banner-footer to the poster which is usual in conventions with posters. 

I then decided to change the colour of the background on one artist's side and he effect of the other artist because the poster looked more appealing.

BH

Pharell Williams magazine advert research

This is an advert from a magazine for the artist Pharell Williams who is seen in this magazine advert in a sci-fi lighting or 3d effect which relates to the caption 'gravitational pull'. The artist  and general image is very similar to the advert for Kanye West where the artist is staring straight at the camera and audience with sunglasses on perhaps connoting his soulful sound and iconic image, or portraying an element of mystery.

BH

Ed Sheeran Magazine advert research

This is a magazine advert for the artist Ed Sheeran. the photograph  is very interesting as it is simple but effective. I chose this magazine to use as research as the artist is featured in our music video. The image includes the artist looking away as in deep thought, a guitar by the artist portraying his iconic image and acoustic sound. The caption of the photo is a quote of the artist in bold white and red writing similar to the Kanye West advert.

BH

Kanye West Magazine Research

 

 this is an example of a magazine advert from Kanye West.

The image here depicts the artist firstly as confident as he stares at the camera (audience). His attire is smart and considered suave possibly portraying his wealth and good sense of style. The advert here stands out which would attract the readers to the advert, the contrast between the background and the colours he is wearing makes the advert more eye-catching. The large '#1' on the advert stands out instantly possibly connoting the artists arrogance and his superiority in the music industry, followed by names for the artist 'Maverick, Trendsetter'. All the words and phrases portraying his style and superiority are in bold red which are memorable and sell the artist well.

BH

Music video planning

Initially we were going to have an Ed Sheeran character singing the chorus in our music video, two show the contrast in the two artists and to make the video more interesting and have the two characters meet or become part of a twist at the end.





But some of the audience and somebody who already works in media suggested that having a sudden jump from one character to the other. This being a controversial decision we decided to go with he popular opinion and just keep the one character in it, P Money.

BH

Digipak final design

I decided to put the front back and side together to show the digipak open for my final design. For this to look more effective I made the line patterns go opposite ways so  there is more symmetry to the pack when opened.

BH

Lego House single and B sides - Digipak

This is my Digipak design for a lego house remix single by Ed Sheeran ft P money

For the general design adn theme i have kept it simplistic and white based which, being against conventions, makes it more eye catching and interesting. Both artist names are on the side of the cover showing neither artist is more superior in the song and digipak. The theme of lego is apparant in the front cover which reinforces the title. instead of keeping the front cover in majority, white, I added a pattern which I used on all the aspects of the digipak. the pattern is a red line and a blue line which could convey the two artists working in unison on the track. I used this font instead of a classic plainer font as it stands out more and makes the digipak cover more appealing.

BH

Digipak front cover development

The first thing i did to create my digipak was to have a lego-based theme. I wanted to keep the digipak generally plain, like the white background as it looks more interesting and enticing. 

I wanted to add some sort of image or pattern to the front cover to represent the two artists, so i added a blue and red line which looks effective. I added the border to create an image of symmetry like the two artists.

I added the title 'Lego House' which is typical to single conventions, i added this font because i think it looks the most interesting and stands out the best.

I thought about adding the artist pictures either side of the line, like Ed Sheeran above and P money underneath but instead i thought i'd keep it plain otherwise the cover may look overcrowded with images, so i just added the artist names at the side.

Jay-Z Magna Carter Holy grail digipak analysis

Jay-Z Magna Carter Holy grail

Magna Carter holy grail is a CD from the artist Jay-Z. The CD's instant image is of statues in a monochrome black and white, suggesting themes from a period around the time of Da Vinci. this reinforces the image of the rapper being part of the Illuminati which he uses to his advantage such as CD covers. The images give a classic sophisticated look to the album suggesting Jay-z's royalty in the music industry and his wealth.

The back cover, being similar to the front still connotes the theme of a Da Vinci era and statues depicting antique icons. The font is a classic bold font which stands out showing the initials of the album. The cross may suggest a religious theme and icon again connoting to his illuminati conspiracy.

The disc again continues the religious, mysterious and Illuminati theme like the front cover.

BH

Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience Digipak analysis

The front cover of the album consists of The artist behind a phoropter which is a piece of equipment for testing eyes which retains the idea of 20/20 vision, which is taken form the album name. The artist is dressed in a smart attire connoting the artist takes his work seriously, or is trying to portray his style and money. The main shades/colours of the album is white and black which are stereotyped to the colours of suits and a 'suave' appearance. The artist has no expression on their face portraying that they're either showing their serious attitude towards the album. or that the artist is showing the casual actions taken in an eye exam.

The back cover continues the theme of an eye test,showing the relation between the eye test and 20/20 vision which is mentioned in the title. The writing of the tracks are in gold suggesting that his classic look on the album reinforces the track quality.

The CD still stays with the classic look theme and vintage sound and appearance by having the appearance of a vinyl record. This reinforces the vintage look and perhaps describes the sound of the album.

BH

Arctic Monkeys - AM digipak analysis

Arctic Monkeys - AM Digipak analysis 

The front cover is an eye-catching black background with a white oscilloscope pattern on the front instantly projecting a strong image of sound and noise with the oscilloscope theme. The oscilloscope is taken form the second single from the album 'Do I Wanna Know?' and it's video, which is a psychedelic and hypnotising animated video based around the ever moving oscilloscope. The waves and bars on the front of the cd cover gives an impression of loud music and constant smooth sounds. The waves meet in the middle to form the album title name, AM. It is a sort of hidden feature that the fan/customer will not instantly notice.

The CD inside the cover also conforms to the theme of the oscilloscope. Although it is often associated with sound it is still an original idea and theme the band have produced, and are committed to this theme throughout the album and it's artwork.
The theme and image of the oscilloscope and the idea of portraying sound on the front of the album helps when it comes to sales. The plain black and eye-catching oscilloscope waves stand out on shelves compared to other albums and their artwork. The image of this album is iconic and easier to spot on online or in shops.

BH

Titles development

The original title idea for 'Lego House' was to be a lego-based font style but it was to difficult to do or to read. So i went for basic photoshop fonts. The first thing i had to decide was the colour, either black or orange which goes with the Ed Sheeran theme, and if it should be in capitals or not. The titles I have gone for (the top one) is one that stands out  of the ordinary and is quite eye- appealing.

BH

Digipack analysis

A digipack is an original version of a cd covering and album package. A digipack usually conforms of a gatefold (book style) from cardboard or plastic. with plastic trays or sleeves holding the CD and the attachments inside. Digipacks were among the first to be used by major record companies other than the jewel cases. (classic clear CD covers)

Conventionally Digipacks contain images all over portraying the trademarks of the artist and represent the theme of the album such as here, oasis released a greatest hits album called 'Time Flies' where the image on the front of the pack is of a huge audience in a field from a festival portraying their successful career and many fans they have. There is also normally a continuos colour theme throughout the album.

Digipacks are usually used as special editions of the record or albums as the packaging is more resistant to scratching and damage. Digipacks can also be used for DVD's.

BH

Music video effects

In our music video we used a number of effects and interesting transitions to make the music video more interesting and pleasurable to view.
We used filters at the beginning and through narrative shots to mix up the scenes and make the overall view more interesting.

The most successful effect we used was the mirror shot, where Karl (P Money) looks into the mirror. The reflection is in colour while Karl himself is in black and white. this effect was used by using the same two clips together and placing them on top of each other as a green-screen effect, and cropping it so one clip fits in the mirror, and making the main image black and white to show Karl's detachment from society and life at that time and place.

Music video plan

Our initial music video plan was to have a strong narrative with little performance as opposed to what it is now.



We wanted an emotional video that really gave an impact, message and punch but we couldn't achieve this with our original plan because it became to depressing

So we decided to change the original plan and have him mainly performing with small snippets of narrative all coming together to form a message, or something that the audience can decide what they think happened.

GT