A2 advanced porfolio: April 2011

For my portfolio I decided to make and produce a promotional music video using my knowledge and skills I had learned within this subject, I was also set to maintain my blog updating it when research and analysis was needed to be done, and for also showing work I had done towards making my video and ancillary texts. I was also set a task of producing two ancillary texts, these being a magazine advert and a CD digipak. For this production I decided to go alone, I believe if my work was going to be successful I had to leave everything up to me, there for if anything went wrong there would be no confusion because it would be down to me to fix the mistakes. All this was started by researching different magazines and digipaks getting all the conventions and linking them in to my production making my products a success. I did each park of my research using time management skills this was very important because it let me manage what work I had to do and in what order. The blogging website I used was as follows (www.blogger.com) it was a good way of researching because it let me and my teachers know where I was and how much I had done or I needed to do.

For this production I used a variation of skills, in comparison to last years work I took it to a next level in the way I did my work. This programs used were of a more a complex and sophisticated piece of computer programming.

Just like the previous year I blogged and progressed using the blogging website as mentioned above. My research started by looking at music videos on YouTube, this is a web 2.0 website and is accessed through internet explorer. I evaluated these videos to get the conventions and the ideas behind music videos to help produce mine, it help my in the way that my music video was made due to the information gathered. The next part in producing my video was through the analysis of my lyrics to get a narrative and storyboarding the different shots used. In production I believe this is the most important part in the making of my promotional music video. The shots are used to try and support the narrative and make the video successful. Once the story bored was completed I uploaded it to my blog to create a timeline within my production. I also did a shot script to give a analytical using the lay out I collected.

I gathered my shots in the locations I had chosen, I did the same shots a number of times to try and get the perfect shot for each scene. My music video had a variation of shots, these were used because they support the narrative structure. I used straight cuts from each shot because my video was telling and showing the audience a story. I cut, edit and produced my video using newly learned skills gained at the end of the first year in the there weeks at the end of the year used to introduce us to A2 media. I used a video camera to collect my shots and then used a scart lead transfer the shots on to the editing suit which is where the putting together and the editing of the video on the Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 video editing software. To get an idea about editing I had previously put together a Anamatric, this is a picture version of my video used from the story bored to create this video. I did this through taking pictures of each individual shot from my story bored and uploading them from the camera to the computer. I then put each shot on to Windows Movie Maker as well as uploading my chosen song and matching the shots up with the music I chose. Once each shot was lined up with music to make this image type video I saved it as one complete video and uploaded it to my blog, this is used a kind of mock up of the final video. After uploading all the images on to the editing suit I renamed each shot I was going to use so it was relevant to me. I then uploaded my song onto the software via a memory stick which has to be checked on a laptop for viruses. I then placed the song into the timeline when all the shots and audio pieces of media are placed to start editing, the song was placed into the audio 2 part of the timeline.

After the song was uploaded I then started placing each shot where they should be in time with the song, I did this using my storyboard. Once I had put each shot next to each other to start and progress my music video I then started editing. I did this using the razor tool and the stretch tool. I used the razor tool to cut each shot where it needed to be to place next to the next and previous shot to get a continuous flow of video footage. I used the stretch tool to stretch some of my shots, I did this because within the first couple of shots I used stills to get a jagged look to go with the main beat of the song. I created the stills for this effect by simply going from file to export to then clicking on export frame and then saving the still and transferring it onto the timeline but on top of the clip I am making this for. Each video clip is put into the video 1 section of the timeline. I did my video using both continuous and montage editing, I did this because I need to start the narrative off but also miss out the irrelevant parts of the narrative. Using the software Adobe Premier pro 1.5 has helped me in gaining knowledge and skill about putting together a music video. It has shown me how difficult and how challenging producing and putting together a music video can be. While producing my music video I was also analysing ancillary texts, I was looking at magazine adverts as well as digipaks. By researching these I gained ideas a influence for mine. I used a number of technological aspects for making and designing these.

The digipak I have made is a big part of the production, I have made designed 6 panels to make up this digipak. I have used a number of programs to make each panel, for example I uploaded the images I took using the same person as the video and as the poster, just to keep the theme running through out. I used paint and Photoshop, I used the adjustments to changed the colour to black and white and then used the writing tool to do all the writing. I changed the font so it was the same through out, but used a different colour for the front cover because I did not want to make the digipak boring. Made each section the same layout and try to do it as professional as possible. I also used Photoshop and paint to make my poster, I put another 2 images that I collected and used them for the background of the poster. I added text and the front cover of my CD as a selling point, I transferred via paint onto Photoshop. I have used the same narrative structure throughout to show relation through the digipak, poster and video. My music video carries the codes and conventions of a indie rock style, my narrative structure is within the codes and conventions, my story is shown to have a narrative structure via the video, which also gets linked in with the lyrics. For the way I structured my work I used blogger, this had many pros and few cons. For example it is a environmentally friendly way to do your work, its also organised and easy to use making us as students know where exactly where we are and what we have left to do. I believe it’s the best way of logging work. In the past editing was careful and decision making but now you can shorten, lengthen and change the way the shot is used but can all be reversed if its not liked. That’s why there are huge benefits of having a number of editing computers because we can try make a high standard of work, together with the blog it’s a professional way of doing it.

To get some kind of response I did a number of questionnaires and past them round to a number of people to know what people think I have done right, and what could be improved. The answers shown suggest I maybe a little more time could have been taken to edit, it was a little simple and needed to be made more entertaining. The link with the events of the video and the narrative structure was a strong point to my video, I know this through audience feedback.