Andrew Jobe - Filmed Evaluation

This is my filmed evaluation in which I talk about how our Music Video, Digipack and Website have been integrated so that they are all clearly shown as being for the same band and song. I also talk about how we used different technologies throughout the coursework. This includes the use of the blog throughout the whole course, the use of iWeb to create out Webpage, the use of photoshop where we edited all our images for both the digipack and website, the use of QR codes to integrate the Webpage and Digipack and finally the use of iMovie where we created the final music video. In iMovie we used lots of the different elements including changing the brightness and contrast of shots, speeding shots up, different transitions such as fade in and out, zooming shots in and cutting and editing all the shots.

Andrew Jobe - Reflective Evalutation

1. Our music video fits the conventions of a stereotypical Indie/Alternative music video, which was something which we felt was very important. Even though we based a lot of our music video around narrative we included a large amount of performance because that is what Indie/Alternative bands are known for. Music video’s are used to publicise the band and showing a lot of the band playing will help the audience remember them. We ensured that there were close ups of all band members, and a lot of the singer singing as that’s used heavily in performance videos. We also included the whole band playing together to signify the “group” as a whole, like both of the other videos.  The camera movements and tracking shots of the band also add a different element to our music video, which bands use to keep the audience's interest. We followed the Indie genre by all wearing stereotypical Indie clothing, we all had clothes that went together and it made us seem together as a band. Both videos above, from ours and the Futureheads have similar "quirky" elements, and performance. There's is a lot less serious, but have quirky elements such as the stop motion section.

The Wombats video is a bit slower than ours, and has slower cuts, but our video is similar to theirs in the fact that it moves between performance and a narrative. Our cuts needed to be quicker because of the pace of our song, and to fit the conventions of a music video.

2.  We kept a clear house style throughout all of our media products and that was the idea of a “double life”. The background of the website with the mugshots all linked together with the digipack and parts of the music video. This is something which we’d planned to do to maintain a clear image and theme. We have the QR code on our CD cover which allows you to get a code which you can trade in for a free video on our website, this allows both the CD cover and the website to be interlinked. They all target the same kind of audience and all are suitable for the Indie market, they’re a bit quirky and different and the mugshot theme will flow throughout and it will be something that the audience will remember. The inside of our digipack and the video have images which feature in both, the picture of Alex in his normal life and then his alternative life are something which are noticeable in both media pieces. On the website we have links where you can buy either the song or the music video which allows fans to purchase online, and it links all of our media products together, and with social media, which is important in this current day and age. The CD cover and website can be seen below. We tried to keep a dark tone throughout all of our media texts.

For our blog post which has nine images that we thought we key parts of the music video, which show a clear house style throughout Click Here

3.We gathered audience feedback by showing our completed music video to the rest of our class. The main issues raised were that the “robbery scene” could have been filmed at night, this is something which we originally wanted to do but felt that it wouldn’t have been as clear to film. We then tried to change the light on iMovie but it just didn’t look right, so we felt that it’d be better to leave it how it was. Five people said that performance looked professional, but one person said it didn’t look professional. As none of the band could actually play, we pieced it together to make it look believable, and we felt we did so. Everyone said that the video held their attention throughout, and said that it looked like a proper music video. A few of the comments highlighted how they enjoyed the fast performance cuts. Most of the feedback was positive, but if we were to film again we might have filmed the final section, the “robbery scene” at night time, to make it feel more menacing. I agreed with a lot of the performance feedback, but some comments such as “try not to use group members in your video” didn’t seem like they were a problem.

A wordle of our feedback

For a link to our feedback sheets Click Here

Key Images From The Music Video

These are nine key images that we have taken from the music video, we chose these images because they show the narrative behind the music video in full including the performance, sped up shots at the office, stop motion tie, police arrest, mug shot lyrics and then the double life at the very of the music video where we have two shots side by side which shows the two different lives. 

Group Feedback Questionnaire

Above are scans of the feedback sheets that were completed by members of our class when they watched and evaluated our music video. People rated our use of performance, whether the song and video held their attention, whether the narrative was strong and suitable as well as how it could be improved. The feedback we got was very positive and all of them said our performance was professional, the video held their attention, the video was suitable for the band/genre and there was a large variety of shots. We will analyse this feedback in more detail in our reflective evaluations.

Final Completed Music Video

This is our finished music video.

Darkened video

In the above video, we have attempted to darken some of the shots of the main character outside, in order to get it closer to night time, as this is when the lyrics suggest the break-in should happen. It was not possible for us to film at night due to arrangements with actors and locations.

Having tested these effects, we don't feel it works all that well, but was something we still wanted to explore. The shots have a slight blue tinge to them and they look very unauthentic and unnatural, so we will be keeping the original setting lighting.

Filming Complete

We completed our final filming shoot Saturday the 7th of January. That was the section where we recorded the break in and the police part of our footage, and the main idea behind our "double life" idea. This shoot went successfully and we've cut up all of our footage and we're just concentrating on piecing all of our film together in time for the deadline in a couple of weeks time. In the next few days we'll be uploading clips of our film which we've edited.

Scheduled Filming

We are going to be filming on the 7th December, this will be our third and final shoot and it will be to film the final section on our music video which is the break in scene and the arrest scene. As well as that we will be filming the small stop motion section of the film, this will be where the main character is talking his tie off.

As some of the filming tomorrow will be carried out outside it is important that we check the weather forecast as on our first shoot we filmed outside, not much time passes between when our character is at the office to when he is at the house. Therefore it will have more continuity throughout if the weather is similar for both parts. The forecast for Saturday is for dry, overcast weather. This is similar to our first shoot so we should be fine with the continuity of the film. Below is a link to the weather forecast for our location on Saturday.

Saturdays Weather Forecast

Permission To Use Actor

Above is a scan of the permission sheet that our actor and their parent/guardian had to sign because they are under the age of 18 and not part of the media studies course.

Final Website

Final Website

This is our final website which we've completed and submitted before the deadline, which was last Thursday. I changed the website slightly from the last edition which I posted below, the major thing which I changed was the layout of the website. I lined the website up so that you could see the main singers face, to enhance the profile of the band. This has made the website a lot cleaner, and with a more organised layout. This makes it look more like a website which is professionally made.  We've manipulated images, used technology, used appropriate fonts and relevant pictures on this website which is all noted in the mark scheme.

Website Progress 4

This is our website just before the final stage, we have everything on the website but we just need to choose what kind of layout we're going to have. This is virtually finished with the navigation bar, and all links to different types of technology all linked to the place where they should be. We have manipulated our background so it fits with the grey background that we have around the side of it. This is one of the final versions of the website, we just need to decide on what the final layout of the website is going to be.

Website Progress 3

Our Website currently.

This is what our website looks like at this current moment with the deadline on Thursday. We've made developments today and we've managed to sort the background which is the three members of the band stood for a police mug-shot, as you can see above. This fits in with our video and we feel that it's an interesting background for our site. We've manipulated the image and merged them together changing the lighting so they fit together without looking out of place. We've also made the photo black and white so it fits with the album cover which we have to make similar to our website. We also had to widen the website so that the background wasn't pixelated and distorted so we're going to add a few more things on the website, which weren't planned. We've also changed the opacity of the text boxes on the website, this was done so that you can see the picture behind them and I feel it's a nice touch as it's similar to the current Futureheads website. I'm yet to change the colour of the navigation bar, but that should be easily done, but we're not quite sure what colour to have it yet. 

We're just adding the final touches to the website. We've got sufficient technology links on there with links to iTunes, Twitter, Facebook and The Futureheads Youtube channel. The main things that we have to do is add the two pictures in the top left corner, we also need to change the title font to the font which we've downloaded off the internet. Also as well as that we have to add a couple of articles on the website so it looks populated. Finally we're going to add a video on there so fans can watch the music which The Futureheads are currently producing, this is something which you see on lots of band websites now. We're very confident that this will be finished by the Thursday deadline, because we have the two hours on Wednesday, and then we can stay behind after that lesson if need be.

Last Years Website Analysis 2

I have now decided to look at two of the lower mark websites from last years A2 students at Bilborough College. These got around the 4/5 out of 10 mark and they're at least 4 marks worse than the websites which I looked at last week, which can be seen at this link here.

Apples Go Miles - Samantha Shephard & Hayley Webster - click here for the website.

This website is a lot more simple then the websites which I looked at last week, the background does not seem to fit with the rest of their website which means it doesn't have a consistent house style, which all good websites have. They do have an example of new technology links with pictures of Facebook and Twitter, but they do not actually work, which is something simple that they've elected not to do. The site has appropriate pictures from the music video, and the band performing which is something which I like about this particular website. They've manipulated the photos and made them black and white which is something else which is necessary to gain marks. Something which I feel lets them down is the background of their website, it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the site and it seems a bit of a rushed job. Also their articles on the website don't seem like they're very realistic and the font doesn't really fit with the website they've made.


MGMT - Kieran Booker, James Bowler & Jon Watson - click here for the website


This website is quite basic compared to some of the other websites I looked at, which is why it got around 5 out of 10. The good points of the websites are that it has numerous links to technology even though they don't work, which is a prominent feature in websites nowadays. The website is also colourful (ignoring the background) and happy which matches the theme of the band, MGMT, who are a quite upbeat happy band. The problem is that the black background drags the rest of the website down, and it seems like it should be from a band of a different genre. Also there is not enough writing on the website, which means that it isn't very informatve and it isn't using the correct language, or layout of a website.

Sped Up Shot Progress

This is the sped up shot that we will be using for the music video, we filmed this at the office and we have edited by speeding it up 5 times, this is the most that it could be sped up by on this version of iMovie. Ideally we would of liked it to be a little bit quicker but we are happy with this overall. This clip will be used for 14 seconds of the first verse 24 seconds into the song.

The idea of this clip is to show that the main character doesnt want to be at work and while everyone else is fine at work this character feels as if the day is going very slowly. We had other charachters walking behind clearly working to really show the effect that we are trying to create.

This clip is the exact right length for the clip that we need. So far we have not edited much more of the music video but we edited this as it is quite a significant part of the video. We will focus more on the editing of the video after the CD and website have been completed as the deadline for these is very soon.

Written by Alex Beale

Website Progress 2

Website Progress

This is what the website currently looks like, and it has developed a lot since the last time I showed you how much I'd done. With next Thursday's deadline looming I've began to get a real template together of the website that we're looking to create. We've got the title and the navigation bar for our website, along with Facebook and Twitter links which go directly to The Futureheads Twitter and Facebook. We've also got the mailing list at the bottom along with the tour date along the side. The background is not the background we're going to have, we're having pictures from a shoot, that we've not yet done. At the top left there are two white boxes, they're going to be filled with pictures. They were originally going to be from band performance, but due to a mistake with the camera they will now be from the video and on the "Double Life" theme.

Still Image Shoot

After the issues we had at our last filming session where we lost our still images we've decided that because one of the shots was on our website cover we're going to have to take them again. We've organised the date is this Friday to go into the office and take the pictures, thankfully we were able to secure a date to re-do the pictures before the Thursday deadline. This time we go to take pictures we'll be using one of our own digital cameras to make absolutely sure that we do not have any problems this time, after the college camera was wiped last time. That was a real set back with the deadline in just over a week leaving us without a CD cover picture or a picture for our website, but we've thought round the website idea and we'll be able to take the CD cover one again, so luckily we'll manage to not let us affect the group too much.

Something we will have to make sure is that the actor is wearing the same clothes at what he was in the first shoot, to make sure that the continuity looks correct. We've organised the actor and the location very quickly due to the deadline, and dealt well with our setback meaning we've not lost too much time over it.

Still Image Problems

When we shot our footage in the office (Saturday 26th November) and at the skittle alley for the performance (Monday 28th November), we also took a stills camera with us so we could take pictures for both the CD Digipack (Inside left image of the character sat at the desk) as well as various pictures of the band performing which were supposed to go onto the website.

Unfortunately, these photos have been wiped from the camera before we had chance to upload them. We were not aware of the procedure that the technicians have to be told that we have photographs that require saving. If they are not told, they assume there is nothing on there and the photos are deleted.

We are therefore missing:

• Office picture for the CD Cover
• Performance for the website
• Band mug shots

We have some photos of the above shots, but they were pictures we took on our mobile phones to demonstrate the filming or setting up process, rather than to be used as the actual digipack or website, therefore these photos aren't the required quality, they contain the camera/cameraman and just don't look at all appropriate.

Due to the deadline being so close (9 days) and the logistical issues of transport and liaising with the location as well as getting our actor, equipment (stills camera, tripod etc), instruments (drum kit, guitar, microphone and stand) and other essential items for the instruments that weren't provided by the college that we had to source ourselves from friends and family (drum sticks, plectrums, guitar strap), it wont be possible to go back to the performance location to acquire the two necessary photographs.

We therefore have decided to come up with an alternative to go onto the website to replace the images of performance that have been lost. Our idea is to take photos at the third location, which we are yet to shoot, and take photos of one of the shots. This shot is a split screen close up of the actor in the day and at night, which emphasises the 'double life' concept behind the video. We will set up a link on these images or add text that says by clicking on the image they will be taken to a page to watch our video.

For the office shot that will go on the CD, we are going to investigate the possibility of returning to the location to get the photograph. This too will involve liaising with the location, getting transport and bringing the relevant costume and props.

The band mug shots were not 100% ideal the first time we took them. We need to create a new height chart, as unfortunately the original one we took to the shoot on Monday 28th November was slightly too small. This can be done in college by pinning the chart to the wall in the media classroom and taking the photos with our other actor. The location is less relevant for these photos as the only background will be the height chart, not the actual location. The costume will obviously have to be the same and the relevant props will have to be brought into college.

Despite the mix up and the fact we weren't aware of the fact our photos would be wiped the day that the camera was handed in, we have explored alternatives and ways to either change or retake the photos we need.

Shoot Two - On Set Photographs

Words by Alex Beale.

Below are some photos that we took on shoot 2, this was filmed at The Crown pub in Awsworth on Monday 28th November. This shoot was for filming the performance shots of our music video.

As you can see from the photos James was the lead singer and Andy was the Guitarist in the band. This meant that I was filming and directing, with help from James and Andy. The photos we took show some of us setting up the set for the shoot which included the bands instruments and setting up the camera and the tripod.

We also have photos which show some of the performance being filmed, these photos have both the camera and the band in the shot. We also took some other shots which don't have the camera in which we are planning to use on the CD and on the website as they show live performance which is an essential element of an indie band. We will upload the photos in other post.

We think that the shoot went well as we got around forty minutes of footage which will need to make up just less than half of the music video, however we will only really know how well we did when we upload the footage to iMovie and start to edit it as we will then know whether the lip sinking and the performance has worked as if the timing is out or the instruments don't look as if they are being played then the video would look unconvincing and unprofessional.

We will be be doing most of the editing after the deadline for the Website and CD cover, this is because although we have enough people in the group to be doing all three we only have the use of two Macs to work on, this means that the CD and Website take priority at the moment as we don't have as much time to finish these. 

                   Andy setting the drums up                 James, Andy and Jack - Performance

                    Alex setting the camera up                James, Andy and Jack- Performance

James and Jack setting up

Shoot One - On Set Photographs

Words by James Bolton.

In this post I have included some still images that I took on my mobile phone while we were on set at the office shooting the first sequence of our music video. The pictures include us setting up the costume, filming various shots from various positions as well as taking pictures on the stills camera that will later be used for our CD Digipack.
Alex played the part of the main character, while myself and Andy filmed the shots, directed Alex and also featured in the background for the lengthy shot that we will speed up so the background is moving quickly, while Alex appears to be moving at normal speed.

Clockwise from above: Top left - Alex preparing his costume
Top right - I film a close up tracking shot of Alex
Bottom - Andy takes some photographs for the CD Digipack

Clockwise from above: Top left - Me and Andy review some of the CD Digipack shots
Top right - I frame the shot correctly for the CD Digipack allowing head room etc
Bottom - Andy practices photos from a possibly location in the office

Directors Cut - Shoot 1

This is the directors cut that we recorded before we filmed on Saturday, in this we briefly explained what we had planned to film on that day. On Saturday we filmed all the shots for our office/work scene, this included one of our main and most important shots, the sped up shot. We also filmed shots of our main character walking to and from his desk and also in and out of work. We felt that this shoot went well as we successfully got all of the shots that we had planned to film, we also got a few extra shots that we tried out just to see if they would work any better than the ones we had planned in our shot list. On this shoot we also took some photos which we are planning to use on the CD cover, we also took some photos of ourselves filming and setting up the camera and equipment which we will be uploading to the blog.

The next shoot that we have planned is the performance section of the song, we are going to be filming this at the pub skittle alley tonight. We have all the equipment booked including drums, microphone, guitar, camera, tripod and some other smaller items.