Showing posts with label Shumon Ahmed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shumon Ahmed. Show all posts
Friday, 1 February 2013
Final thoughts
FIIIIIIIIIIINALLY WE'RE FINISHED!!! It's been a long and challenging process but I'm relieved that our project is over and we can look forward to the exams. I would like to sincerely thank everyone in the group for all their efforts and our media teachers and technicians for all their help.
I have improved a lot this year compared to AS. Although there may be a few gaps in my blog posts, I have blogged more regularly, researched more and had a lot more input into the final product. I have realised I am usually quite enthusiastic with blogging at the start and towards the end. I seem to have become complacent at some points, this is something I would change if I had the chance to do this again.
Final progress review blog
How does your A2 blog compare with your AS in terms of detail and use of ICT?
My blog is a lot better this year (although not as good as I wanted it to be.) I have used more of a range of ICT, blogged more often and blogged in better detail. Although, I started blogging a little later than everyone else, I think I covered for most of it. I have enjoyed using a range of ICT such as Powerpoint, Photobucket, text, photos, Prezi, Slideshare etc.
How effectively does the blog show all aspects of research, planning and production of your Advanced Portfolio?
I think the research side of this project was probably one of strengths as I did a lot of individual research into the music industry, theories and different genres of music. This helped to understand everything better and eventually produce solid media products. I may not have that much detail about the editing process of my video as I was editing and simply didn't really think about posting as much at the time. I think overall, my blog shows the journey from September till now. I have tried to blog about every step along the way, from my personal location scouting and ideas for the video to the process of creating the digipak and presenting it.
Where are the gaps in your blogging work?
The gaps in my work are mostly from the ending of the filming of the video to the start of creating the digipak. This is when I, unfortunately, got complacent and posted rarely. I realise I do not have much to say for the editing process and research into real artists' digipak. I didn't really look into it in as much detail as I should have, but just created the digipak and advert from my original ideas.
How many individual blogging entries did you produce?
Approximately 65-70
What would you change given another opportunity?
I would definitely blog more frequently to avoid any gaps and employ a higher range of ICT in my work to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
My blog is a lot better this year (although not as good as I wanted it to be.) I have used more of a range of ICT, blogged more often and blogged in better detail. Although, I started blogging a little later than everyone else, I think I covered for most of it. I have enjoyed using a range of ICT such as Powerpoint, Photobucket, text, photos, Prezi, Slideshare etc.
How effectively does the blog show all aspects of research, planning and production of your Advanced Portfolio?
I think the research side of this project was probably one of strengths as I did a lot of individual research into the music industry, theories and different genres of music. This helped to understand everything better and eventually produce solid media products. I may not have that much detail about the editing process of my video as I was editing and simply didn't really think about posting as much at the time. I think overall, my blog shows the journey from September till now. I have tried to blog about every step along the way, from my personal location scouting and ideas for the video to the process of creating the digipak and presenting it.
Where are the gaps in your blogging work?
The gaps in my work are mostly from the ending of the filming of the video to the start of creating the digipak. This is when I, unfortunately, got complacent and posted rarely. I realise I do not have much to say for the editing process and research into real artists' digipak. I didn't really look into it in as much detail as I should have, but just created the digipak and advert from my original ideas.
How many individual blogging entries did you produce?
Approximately 65-70
What would you change given another opportunity?
I would definitely blog more frequently to avoid any gaps and employ a higher range of ICT in my work to make it more aesthetically pleasing.
Evaluation: Question 4
As I posted earlier, it had been a day of nervous excitement for me on the day the video was shown in the cinema. But I was relieved to hear a lot of cheers and applause for Marcus Green's Too Close. I have recorded some audience feedback for our video of 'Too Close.'
These reactions are generally very positive and I'm pleased that our video was received positively by members of our potential target audience.The audience saw Marcus Green as someone they could relate to in his situation and his costumes were also similar to what the target audience wear. Most people commented on the locations and the lighting in relation to the genre and mood of the song, which delights me as it means that we have achieved something by having similar locations to real videos in this genre. I've learned that location and timing is key because if this video was shots in a big field of grass in the afternoon, it wouldn't make any sense because there would be no links with the emotions of the song. even if it was shot at Ezra Street, but in the daytime, it would still lack the 'it' factor. Shooting in the night gave us an advantage because it allowed us to manipulate camera angles better and portray the location as even more secluded and lonely than it is. However, I would change 1 thing if I could make this video again. I think we ended up using too many mid shots in the video. As MG is a new artist, we should've employed more close ups and different angles to promote him through the video.
Anil
Benny
Zubeir
Amber & Alex
Natalie
Zak
These reactions are generally very positive and I'm pleased that our video was received positively by members of our potential target audience.The audience saw Marcus Green as someone they could relate to in his situation and his costumes were also similar to what the target audience wear. Most people commented on the locations and the lighting in relation to the genre and mood of the song, which delights me as it means that we have achieved something by having similar locations to real videos in this genre. I've learned that location and timing is key because if this video was shots in a big field of grass in the afternoon, it wouldn't make any sense because there would be no links with the emotions of the song. even if it was shot at Ezra Street, but in the daytime, it would still lack the 'it' factor. Shooting in the night gave us an advantage because it allowed us to manipulate camera angles better and portray the location as even more secluded and lonely than it is. However, I would change 1 thing if I could make this video again. I think we ended up using too many mid shots in the video. As MG is a new artist, we should've employed more close ups and different angles to promote him through the video.
Evaluation Question 3
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planing and evaluation stages...?
There is a range of technology I have used through out this project that has allowed me to create effective media texts. There was one form of technology that was crucial in every stage for us- the internet. I used the internet for most of my research, whether it was YouTube to watch music videos for inspiration or sharing sites such as Photobucket and SlideShare to present my work. The internet also helped me to research into the different theories (Goodwin, Vernallis & Mulvey) and examples of it in music videos.At the beginning, I also used Facebook to ask Alex Clare for permission to use his song, although he never replied :(I also used Facebook to do some of the audience research by asking Alex Clare fans on his official Facebook page what sort of things they would expect from our video.
After getting our rough idea of what our video would eventually look like, we created an animatic storyboard to present the ideas.
The photos above show the type of camera we used for filming and also me filming it. Of course, the photos themselves taken by another form of technology we used, digital cameras. Digital cameras were beneficial to us as we used it to document our filming progress and for our digipak photoshoot.We also used memory cards and hard drives to save all our work. Last year, I remember my group having a crisis towards the end because we did not save as we went along. So to prevent this from potentially happening again, we saved while working and had duplicate copies of everything in the hard drive and my USB.The next step was, of course, editing. Now was the time to see if our footage was any good...
There were two main technological products we used, the Mac (hardware) and FinalCut Pro (editing software.) Editing is a huge part of a successful video and we edited everything on FCP. We marked the beats of the song according to where we wanted the cuts to be in the video. Everything had to be very precise to make sure the lyp sync was perfect.
We further used effects such as brightener and slow motion to enhance our video. Slow motion had a huge impact in the effectiveness of our final video because we used it to build up tension and anticipation at the beginning, which worked well in harmony with the slow beats. The photos below are of the main editing process.
During the digipak and poster, I used Photoshop. Although I had never used the software before, YouTube tutorials taught me what I need to know. I didn't use too many effects in my digipak and poster because it distorts the product. Because the photos were taken at night, I adjusted brightness and contrast to make the photos clearer. I also used the lasso tool to cut around the pictures of Marcus Green to be put on the dark background.
Before creating the digipak, we had come up with the names of all the songs we would use in for the album. We had to think very carefully and creatively because we wanted the songs to reflect Marcus' journey and change. We used a name generator, which helped us with a few of the names by giving us synonyms rather than just plain words.
Finally, here is a Camtasia clip of me just browsing through this blog.
Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts..?
In the video below, I have discussed the video and the ancillary work.
I have made clear visual links between the video and the ancillary texts, such as the locations, fonts and colours. I think the ancillary product would be successful in the real media world because I have used the right colours and the artist has the type of image that would be appealing to the target audience of teens and people in their twenties.
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