An Oak Tree Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our video is an animation. We chose to do an animation because we thought it would be more interesting to link the lyrics and the visuals together for the subject of the song (an oak tree) also an animation is actually quite original seeing as not many other groups have done it. Our music video isn’t very good in the way that it represents the artist. As you can see the video is all an animation, so the artist is never actually seen in the video. But on the other hand it could be quite a good representation for the record company as its original and stands out so hopefully people will remember it more. Our genre is “indie” and you find most indie videos to be surreal much like our animation. And as it’s quite different from the average indie video it could appeal to audiences of a wider range. Even though there isn’t any music videos that are at all like ours I did find some videos that used elements of animation for example Major Lazor-Keep It Goin' Louder feat. Nina Sky and Ricky Blaze and Christina Aguilera-Car Wash and Kate Winslet-What If. But in all of these videos the animation only pops up in little bits unlike ours, which runs all the way through.
For our music video we managed to include one of the main suggestions of Goodwin’s points which was the lyrics relates to visuals. Goodwins points are a good way of learning some boundaries of making a music video.
In our music video we did not use the camera at all; all the work was done on the computer. We used Photoshop to create all the images and final cut express to animate them and put them all together. We also didn’t use any lighting as it wasn’t needed for the animation. The mise en scene in our music video was included all in the frame for example the type of tree we chose, the animals, the background, and what style the cartoon would be animated in. animation gives you a lot more freedom to mess around a play with the video to how you wanted. We weren’t given that much freedom with our specific video because of the detailed lyrics we had to stick to a certain animatic form. All of our video is basically the same shot, so you could say that the whole animation demonstrates that we watched other music videos with animation in, for example milkmaid by former Long Road students sort of inspired us, as well as the Ben and Jerry’s advert, which although it isn’t a real music video it still uses elements of animation and jolly music much like our video.
The similarities between our digipack design and some actual album covers I have seen is much like Kanye Wests graduation digipack. They both use animation. Kanye west uses the bear which is recognisable for him as an artist. If you see the bear you know that it is something to do with him, so you don’t even need a photo because he’s so famous. Where as our animation is of a tree, but we still have the images of our faces added in because obviously we aren’t that famous.We have used many conventions for a magazine advert in our magazine cover for example its got a 5 star rating which you can usually see on any song or video being released. It also says it’s out now, which you can also find. It’s got the title on it and the website, which you see on most adverts, so it can link you to further information about the product.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
In our animation the main feature is an oak tree, which links to the title of the song “An Oak Tree” We linked up the ancillary texts by using the same image in the magazine advert, and the digipack, so it shows that all our products are actually connected. By using an image in the majority of the products it makes it pretty clear what the song is about. We used the same texts in both products so it would be easier to link them up. We connected our products up to the video in different ways for example the magazine adverts animals were also featured in the video. As well as that, the background that we used for the digipack was the background that we used for our actual video. And the font on both the magazine advert and the digipack was similar. The photograph of our group that I made to look like a cartoon oak tree stands out because it is quite original so hopefully people will remember it and it will promote the song and the band. By making all of our products so similar it makes it easier for the audiences to differentiate our band and our song from different bands and their songs. It is important when trying to promote a band or a music video that you keep continuity up so the audience is able to easily link up all the products to do with the band. That’s why we tried to keep our digipack, magazine advert and music video all very similar. You’re able to promote the song and the band if you have a special feature, for example our oak tree, everyone will connect the oak tree to our band and our song.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We got feedback throughout the making of our music video, some from our teacher , and some from other groups in the class. We did find the feedback very helpful, and took what the audience said on board. The audience gave us feedback on the blog, our Digipack, the Rough-cut video, the advert and our final video. Sadly not all the feedback was positive but we listened to all the negative comments and used them to try and make our project better. Our music video has been put up on Youtube because it is a good place to get yourself noticed and promote your band and sadly our video has been on You Tube for about three weeks and has not yet received any ratings or reviews. One of our audiences made a point that there wasn’t much variation in the shots that we had, and we agreed so we added some different angles in for example when the musical notes and the leaves appear in the video, that got put in that was because of feedback. In a professional industry, feedback from the audience can make the difference between success and failure. That’s why sometimes you can get special previews in films so the directors and producers and makers of the film get a chance to listen to the feedback and make changes if they have too. Feedback is vital, because your product is aimed at the audience so if they aren’t happy with it you’ve got to change it to benefit them, as they are the people that can make or break your creation. Feedback from Our teacher told us that our screen grabs are really good in showing how we are getting on with the project and progressing through it all. We got a few positive comments for our final video people said it looked unique, time consuming, and the visuals matched the lyrics. We had hoped that the audience would notice these factors so was glad to see they had. They also said that some of the images could have been faster paced,I feel that the audience thought that the animation could have been a bit quicker to fit in with the animation. But it wasn’t terrible but I do understand where the feedback is coming from though. The effect of editing really reflects the pace of the song. Also the magazine and DVD cover should have matched with the music video. We didn’t want to make it completely match because we wanted to show the audience what else we were capable of other than animation.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction of research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used a wide range of new media technologies in the construction of our research, planning and our evaluation stages such as the internet, Photoshop, paint, Youtube, blogger, myspace, facebook, and final cut express we used the internet for research on the band ideas for the video and similar videos to see what other people had done and the variation between the different genres. We used Youtube to watch the different music videos and upload our video so it was available for the world to see. Blogger helped us keep a log of our progress and it helped us keep track of what we had to do and what we had done. We also were able to get feedback off this and look at other groups projects. We used myspace and facebook to try and get hold of the band; sadly we didn’t get any response. But we were able to get a bit more background information on the band and see how they promote themselves and the types of different songs that they have made. I used paint to create my own unique image of our group as an oak tree. Paint isn’t available on the pc Macs at college so I had to do this at home. Photoshop was used a lot in the making of our animation, the background, tree, bench, swing, sky, animals and of course the oak tree was created on this by just using simple tools such as the paintbrush. Without final cut express we wouldn’t have been able to animate our drawings, we were able to add effects, and put all the drawings together so it came out as a video and we were able to play around with it so it all matched in with the lyrics of the song. Technology places a vital role in our lives today, without it we wouldn’t be able to do so many things, stay in touch with friends, find out what’s going on in the world, upload pictures and listen to music and much more. The internet enables us to do so many things and it played a vital role in helping us with our music video. It also helps to promote things. The world wide web is used by the majority of people and is a great place to promote bands, videos and games as well as a lot more. For example the internet lets people from Australia watch our music video and read about our blog. Without the internet we wouldn’t have been able to log our progress or promote it, or upload the music video onto various different sites such as youtube and blogger. The internet is a great access point, and I think now in this modern world we would be completely lost without it, because everyone is so dependant on it.
Overall I am pleased with the outcome of our video, it took a lot of time to do and was a lot of heard work, and is the first piece of animation i've ever been involved in before. If I could make any changes I would have a bit more variation in the shots. But am glad it’s finally finished. And now feel that I am now more skilled in using Photoshop and final cut express.
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