Coldplay Music Video Final

Album Cover

This is our album cover.

Website

Here is the website created for my artist:  http://www.all-saints.bardaglea.org.uk/media_cw/coldplay/welcome.html

Evaluation - Music Television Show

Evaluation - Write Up Evaluation

Within my video I feel I have managed to both conform to and challenge real media products, I did this using numerous techniques and effects. Firstly the use of fragmentation of the body is a very common motif, we used this in order to show the broken up emotions of Mitchell, however this can also be used to sexually objectify parts of the body. Another common motif is impossible sequences, I used this in the form of both a rewind sequence and a disappear scene. These are commonly used in music videos today in order to show something out of the ordinary. However we also challenged some media conventions as we refrained from sexually objectifying the female character, this is something very common in media today as it is found appealing to young people, we have not followed this route as we felt it was not in keeping with the tone of the video and the song and thought it might be refreshing for our audience to not see when sex is found everywhere they turn. Another way we break conventions is our setting and actors used, as usually expensive sets and beautiful actors are used but we have set our entire video within a suburban council estate area using real normal people to add some reality and so help people relate more.  

When comparing my main text (video) with the ancillary texts it is clear to see a comparison in themes, they are all dark and mysterious with minimalist content, for instance the website has no colours other than black and white this matches the album cover and even the website which features black and white scenes. There is minimal writing and pages on the website to match the album cover, many of the website pages have very little writing and a few pictures to keep the mysterious vibe matching the album. This is also seen throughout the video as it is filmed in a basic real life setting and doesn’t move around too much, keeping it simple.
Through the use of audience feedback I have been able to learn many things about my video and my other media works. By using the target audience I was able to get a real life reaction to the very people my work was aimed at. I found that overall the special effects, lip syncing and story line were all found to be believable and interesting. The story line in particular seemed to entice the audience to keep watching as on viewer commented, “I kept watching as I wanted to know what happened to the relationship” This shows me that I have been able to make an interesting video with quality special effects and lip syncing. However from audience feedback I also learnt what could have been improved such as my website which people felt was a little boring, while this was done to keep to a minimalist theme I understand why people felt that it was lacking in quality. In future I would keep to my theme but not so harshly, making it a little less minimalist and adding some eye catching features such as maybe a gift shop area. 

Media technology was used in every step of our creation process from planning to production. To begin we used Celtx to plan most of our project, we used this as it is a professional way to create scripts, calendars, storyboards and a master catalog. We used the calendar to create dates and times which we would film and edit; this helped us organize our entire project so we kept on a schedule and didn’t fall behind. We used the storyboard to plan our video and know exactly what scenes and shots we needed to film, this way we knew what we wanted to film from the beginning. The master catalog allowed us to know what props, clothes, sets etc we would need throughout our film and prepare them for days of filming. During the construction phase of our projects we used brand new cameras in order to get high quality filming. I then used Mac computers with specialized programmes such as premier and adobe after effects to edit my work. These were key in my project as editing is a very important part of creating a film and without these I would not of been able to edit the clips or add any special effects or music. For the evaluation section of my project I also used premier to edit my target audience interviews and my music television show, this meant I was able to produce a creative way to deliver evaluation questions. Throughout the entire process I used Blogger, an online blog, as a way to track my progress and explain every detail of the work I had done over the year; this is an easy, fast and modern way to develop coursework and helped organize each piece of work by knowing it has been uploaded onto the blog.  

Evaluation - Presentation On What I have Learnt From Audience Feedback

Final presentation

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Evaluation - Test Audience Viewing

Test audiences are used with most media work as it will allow the creators to see what is and isn't working within their project. I chose four people within my media class as they will have a background knowledge on media and therefore be able to appreciate and criticize more specific aspects of the projects then normal viewers. My audience consisted of both boys and girl aged between 16-21, I chose this age range as it represents the target audience of Coldplay's listeners and having both genders allows us to generalise.

From their reactions I can see that my video is interesting enough to keep them watching as they didn't loose focus or concentration which is a big plus/ However it is meant to be a serious video and they laughed several times, this may be due to the fact that they know both me and Mitchell and found it funny watching us attempt to act but it may be due to other issues such as the video itself, I will be able to fine out more about why they laughed when I do my test audience interviews.

Evaluation - VIdeo of Test Audience Interviews

It is important to interview a test audience after a viewing as this will allow us to gain a deeper knowledge of what they really felt about the video. From an interview we can gather what exactly they did and didn't like about the video as well as more detailed questions like if they thought the special effects were believable. I will be using mostly the same questions from my survey which I posted on Facebook to understand how they felt about the different aspects of the video.

Evaluation - How Do My Media Texts go Together in my Project?

How Do My Media Projects Go Together on Prezi

Evaluation - Podcast On Artist's Image

Evaluation - Edited Podcast On Technology Used

Evaluation - Podcast On Evaluation Questions

Evaluation - How My Project Challenges Real Media Texts

While my music video has many conventional motifs within, it also contrasts with traditional media work in many ways. One of these is the use of black and white, while this is used in music videos, it is not highly common and would only be used in a certain type of music video.

Another contrast found in our music video it the actors used, as usually glamourous beautiful people would be used and sexually objectified but we have used real average teenagers in order to represent teenagers and help viewers relate to the video more. Lastly our setting is different as it is set in Dagenham in a park, music videos are often set in exotic, expensive locations. This represents the lower middle class society rather then an upper class unrealistic setting. 

Evaluation - Presentation on Similarities with Media Texts

Presentation on similar to musiv texts

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The link for my Music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-42Y1qguF3o&context=C320fef0ADOEgsToPDskKUCmwtT4X8jxim2U9kMcJp
The link for the music video in reverse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yrlw8FuJko&ob=av2e

Evaluation - podcast on project

Evaluation - Survey on my Music Video

I created a survey asking various questions about our music video, such as questions about special effects, lip syncing, set and props, music choice etc. Some were closed questions while some allowed more detail to be given. It compromised of 8 questions so we could explore all the different areas that needed to be evaluated.

I posted this survey on Facebook along with a youtube link of my finished video, it is important to use mediums such as Facebook and youtube as they are a free way of advertising and reaching our target audience as most young people use both Facebook and youtube.
Below is the post on Facebook and some of the responses on Facebook to my video.

Some people on Facebook took my survey and below are the results.

Overall I found the results to be positive towards my video, most seemed pleased with the narrative, use of set and props and also felt it was appropriate for the target audience. As most people taking the survey are within the age range of my target audience I know that it really is attractive for that target audience. 

Evaluation - Presentation on Motifs Used

Presentation on motifs

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Evaluation - Prezi on Media Programmes Used

Programmes Used for Media Programmes on Prezi

Evaluation - Podcast on Group Work and Organisation

Evaluation - Prezi on Camera Shots and Angles

Camera shots & angles on Prezi

Construction - Seventh Day of Editing

As Mitchell had to leave the course I was forced to come up with an alternative ending to my music video. Instead of having Aisleen and Mitchell reunite I chose an ending that kept with the theme of the song. As the point of the song it "going back to the start" I decided to have the video reverse as if Mitchell is going back to before they fought and this time he will do things differently. To do this I had to copy my existing film, I then separated the clips of the flashback and the clips of him singing so I essentially will have two separate reverse scenes. To reverse the clips I highlighted them and went to clip then to speed/duration.

I then selected reverse speed and put the speed up to 200 percent so that clips didn't just reverse but went quite fast.

This allowed all of the clips to play in reverse looking like the whole story is running backwards, this was a clever way of solving the problem of Mitchell missing while keeping with the song and rest of the video. 

Construction - Podcast on Results of Mitchell Leaving

R

Construction - Podcast on Mitchell Leaving

Construction - Sixth Day of Editing

With the amount of filming I had done I had now finished the basic editing until we filmed some more, I took this opportunity to go back through the video and tidy it, also adding some special effects. Any clips that needed shortening slightly I was able to cut to make the video look more continuous. I also added a cross dissolve to add the effect that I had disappeared.

When filming we knew we would later want to add this so we first filmed me walking over to the bin then got the same shot of the bin without me in it. I put these two clips next to each other and then dragged on a cross dissolve from the effects bar. 

Edited by Aisleen Dunne

Written by Aisleen Dunne

Construction - Creating a Calendar

Using Celtx we created a calendar of times and dates we will be filming and editing. We did this so we could be organised in our filming and editing, by staying organised we are able to get all the filming and editing done and edit it correctly, we will then know how much we have left to do and what we have done. we chose each day we wanted to film and inserted this on the calendar by adding details of what times we will film, where and what we will be filming.

We arrange to start filming on the 24th of November.

Aisleen Dunne

Construction - Fifth day of editing

Today I finished editing both the piano clips and the phone call scenes. I began with the piano clips to insert in different points of the video. I started by adding a close up of Mitchell's hands playing the piano near the beginning of the video to show he is an artist and add some intertexutality.

I added more clips of him singing while playing the piano when needed to continue the theme of intertextuality. Editing these shots was quite easy as I only had to cut and place them together in the right timing, there was no special effects used.

Edited by Aisleen Dunne
Written by Aisleen Dunne

Construction - Prezi on Programmes Used for Media

Programmes Used for Media Programmes on Prezi

Construction - Fourth Day of Editing

On the fourth day of editing I continued to finish editing the argument clips and began inserting clips of Mitchell phoning me. However editing the argument was a hard process and took a long time to edit as meshing together the clips was very tedious. I had to get the timing just right to make the argument look effective and this took some time. By the time I began editing the phone call clips I only had five minutes left before the end of lesson and therefore we need to finish all of this the next lesson. Therefore next time I edit I will be editing the phone call clips and the piano shots we will proceed to film.

Editing by Aisleen Dunne
Written by Aisleen Dunne

Construction - Third day of Editing

Now we have more of the clips that make up the story line it has made it much easier to put other clips from the first day of filming into our film such as Mitchell singing on the bench. I added this as a base clip for the second half of the video, I could then cut in and out of it and begin to develop the story line. I had trouble lining up Mitchell's lip syncing with the song but once I zoomed in more and adjusted the clip over and over again I managed to get it in time. I began to add clips of the argument, first the beginning of the argument then as it gets more and more heated. I used the black and white effect and the dip to white effect on all these clips as they are flashbacks. Now some of the argument clips are added we can see more of a plot through the video and it makes more sense. I also added some clips of Mitchell from the first day of filming that now make sense, such as him standing up to phone Aisleen, now the flashbacks are in the video it is clear who he is phoning.
This was all I had time to edit as I had other blog posts to write, but I will finish the flashback editing Tuesday and Wednesday. We will film again Thursday at which point I can then begin to edit the clips from the third day of filming.

Edited by Aisleen Dunne
Written by Aisleen Dunne

Construction - Second day of Editing

To begin with I uploaded the clips from our second day of filming on to our computer. Once these had been changed to mpeg files I continued to import them into Premier. I then looked through the editing that had already been done to see where the flashback clips needed to be put in. I matched different parts together for instance Mitchell sitting on a bench in current time and then a flashback of the couple on the bench to show that the places he is visiting have meaning to him.
I also slotted flashbacks in between clips of him singing to add more of a story line rather than having 20seconds of him just singing. I had to start by editing the clips from when the couple were happy and placing them in near the beginning of the video then as the song became more intense insert and edit the clips of them arguing. Once i had picked the clip i wanted to used i had to cut out the parts that weren't needed and make it short enough to fit in the current gaps of the video.

To edit the clips so they looked like flashback i first changed them to black and white to show they took place in the past. To do this I went to effects and searched for the black and white effect, then simply dragged this onto the clip I wanted it on.

I also used a dip to white whenever entering or exiting a flashback to emphasize that these clips are a memory. I also found this effect in the 'effects' tab. I again dragged it to the beginning or end of any clip i wanted it on. I then dragged the end of the effect to make it last longer or shorter. I will use these effects for all of the flashback to add continuity to our film.
I then began to edit flashbacks together, such as me and Mitchell looking at each other. I edited this shot of two different angles together as to show both of our facial expressions. SCREENSHOT.
On the next day of editing I will finish adding the rest of the clips from our second day of filming, mostly these clips will be the of our fictional argument.

Edited by Aisleen Dunne
Written by Aisleen Dunne

Construction - Second day of filming

During the second day of filming we needed to get in all of the flashbacks of the happiness and breakup of the relationship between Mitchell and Aisleen. Again we went over to the park and filmed there as it is a good place to show a couple with happy memories. This time there was no miming as it was all flashbacks and he would only be singing at the present time in the video. We started by filming Mitchell and Aisleen sitting on the park bench laughing and joking with each other as a happy couple would. We shot this from a few different angles such as from behind Mitchells shoulder to see the expression of Aisleen and behind Aisleens shoulder to show the expression of Mitchell and also from a straight on view to show us both together. Another shot was Mitchell and Aisleen walking together where Mitchell has his arm round Aisleen, we shot this from behind to show them walking off and in front of them as they walk towards and into the camera, this just highlights that they are a happy couple. Another shot was Mitchell and Aisleen standing by a bunch of trees, hugging and standing with each other. This shot then leads onto Aisleen walking away and we are going to edit it so that she disappears, to highlight the fact that because of the breakup, Mitchell has now lost her. Next we went over to a bus stop to film the scene where Mitchell and Aisleen break up. During this scene there’s a shot where Aisleen is ranting on at Mitchell which causes him in the next shot to get angry and argue back. In the next shot Aisleen slaps Mitchell round the face; this was filmed at many different angles as it is a big part of the argument. It was filmed from behind Aisleen, beside both of them and a POV shot from Mitchell watching Aisleen slap him. After this Mitchell grabs Aisleen and throws her to the bus stop and hits the bus stop in anger, this was filmed from behind Mitchell and beside them both. This causes Aisleen to get really upset and end the relationship; the next shot is her walking away and disappearing then Mitchell’s sad expression. On the next day of filming we will be filming the scenes where Mitchell is playing and singing along to the piano and the scene in the cafe.

Mitchell Pace

Construction - Album covers

Also as part of releasing this single an album had to be made so therefore album covers would be needed for the album. As the song "The Scientist" is quite a sad/depressing song we decided to make the covers for the albums with a  black and white effect to outline the depressing mood of the song. For the front cover there is a picture of me (Mitchell) as i am the person who is in the music video with the name of the band "Coldplay" and the name of the song "The Scientist".

 One half of the cover, the left side, is in black and the other half, the right side, is in white

 and the picture of me has been edited to black and white.

 This was done by removing the background layer by cutting the picture of me out with the magic wand tool

 and deleting the background and making one half black and one half white. To make me black and white i had to edit the threshold of the picture until it came to a good enough effect.

 Then the title of the song and the band needed to be added and this was in courier text.

 The same effects were used to create the middle pages of the album covers but on the middle pages there is a picture of me and Aisleen (The girlfriend) holding hands

 and the other one is of Aisleen with the same black and white effect.

For the back cover we have a picture of flats in the same black and white effect. Also on the back we have the logo of the company "Star Records" with the list of the songs and the copyright text.

Mitchell Pace

Construction - Creating a Radio Spot

Our band needed to promote their new single on the radio so to do this we had to create a radio spot. This was a difficult and timely process but when we put time and effort in we managed to create a believable radio spot. To begin we opened garage band and selected voice to start laying down some vocals.

Next we added some sound affects to make it sound more like a radio station and then began recording our voices introducing the station. To add effects we went to the side bar and found the effect which best suited our needs.

We then started recording our voices to introduce the show and pretended to have a caller requesting the single The Scientist, this made the radio spot much more realistic as it is something a real radio station would do.  

We then added the song at the end of our radio spot as requested. We then faded the voices in and out by using the track pan and adjusting the lines for each voice/sound. We also cut some of the audio by clicking on it and dragging left then pressing delete as seen below.

Radio spot edited by Aisleen Dunne
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Construction - How we Made Photos for our Website

We began building the website for our band using iweb, this allowed us to create a structured professional website. First we had to choose the design of the website, for this we chose a simple black layout as we felt this corresponded with the type of music Coldplay make as it is quite slow and serious.

One we chose our theme we started to add pages, first was the welcome page to introduce the website, once this was created we needed to take some of our own photos of our band and edit them. To do this we found different areas to take photos that are common in photo shoots such as on stairs. we then uploaded these photos and added some effects such as black and white and also an edge blur on the photo. To do this we used iphoto as seen below.

We also enhanced the photos to make the lighting more professional using the enhance button and then cropped the unneeded bits of the photos. 

We also adjusted the lighting to make the photos a little darker, to do this we clicked on adjust and lowered the light levels slightly.

Once all our photos were edited we then continued to put them on our website by dragging them on, starting with the welcome page.

We created a scarface theme by the colours we used for our website; black, white and red. We did this because when we came to making our single cover we knew we was going to give it a scarface theme, this way they link and correspond to each other.

Photos edited by Aisleen Dunne
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Construction - First Day of Filming

We began filming by going to the place where most of our video will be set, the park, we did this as we needed a minute of edited film by the end of the week. We decided to get most of the clips with the main character in and film the flashbacks at a later time to insert them on top of the first layer of our video. Firstly we shot the clips that would be played without singing, such as the establishing shots, close ups of Mitchell's face, shots of Mitchell walking. Firstly we filmed Mitchell singing the entire song from different angles in different places around the park so we began with him leaning against a tree singing into the camera, this allows us to show intertextuality as he knows he is being filmed and recognises this. We also filmed him singing into the camera while sitting on a bench and also looking away from camera as if he is singing to him self. Once we had enough clips of him actually miming the song we needed to film the in between shots to tell the story line. These are such things as Mitchell wandering around the park looking depressed to go with the song. We filmed him walking slowly through the park from different angles for the intro of the song and to be shown throughout the video between him singing. We also filmed close ups of his face such as his eyes and mouth not only does this use fragmentation of the body, a common motif in music videos, but also helps us to show his emotions therefore helping with the story line. We filmed all of the pieces of the storyline with just mitchell in so we had a basis to work with, such as towards the ending of our video when he calls the girl and asks to meet and then runs to meet her. Mitchell phoned me and we filmed this from many different angles including a close up of the phone so we can see he is phoning a girl. We then showed him putting his phone away and running out of the park and down the road, it is then clear he is running to meet the girl. On our next day of filming we will film the other parts to the music video like Mitchell playing the piano, meeting me in the cafe and all of the flashback scenes.

Filming done by Aisleen Dunne and Mitchell Pace
Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Construction - First Day of Editing

Now we had some filming done we needed to edit it, we transferred our files onto the computer and changed them to mpeg. We then uploaded these files to premier to we could edit them professionally. I first added the song to the audio layer so we had a basis to work on, from here we could add clips and time them to the song. Firstly we added out opening clip, this was of Mitchell walking with the sun behind him, the sun or bright lights is a common motif used in music videos and this is why we used it. We added a dip to black before this so the film eases in rather than suddenly starting. We then added the shot of him walking through leaves in the park followed by a close up of his feet kicking the leaves, we then returned to him walking but this time shown from the front, this allows us to show continuity.

When Mitchell stopped to lean on a tree and sing we added some close up shots to show fragmentation of the body before he starts singing. On this part of the film I added some transitions of dip to black between the closeups, it adds some tension as it is building up to Mitchell singing. 

We then added the filming of him singing against the tree, however I need to edit this scene by adding some clips of flashbacks and Mitchell on the piano but cannot do this until we film some shots as I don't have the filming we need. After this we added Mitchell walking while singing and dispersed this by inserting an edited clip of mitchell by the trees. This clip was filmed in one take in which we filmed mitchell at different points near different trees, to edit this i had to cut them into separate clips then mesh them together. We also added some clips of Mitchell singing between the trees scene to keep the film interesting.

Video edited by Aisleen Dunne

Blog post written by Aisleen Dunne

Planning - Need for organisation

Organisation is a huge factor when it comes to this coursework. This is simply because without any organisation nothing would get done on time, deadlines would not be met and everything would get muddled up. As we are working in a group for this coursework it makes organisation even more important. This is because as a group we need to work together and without organisation it would bring both of us in the group down causing our coursework to be less successful. When being organised this involves both members of the group being organised and being involved with the coursework equally, it also involves the blog posts being in order and up to standards to keep the blog looking professional. As we have to film our video it involves arrangements being made as in dates and times for filming and both members being there and on time. Where there is limited lesson time it involves both members attending lessons and getting the work done. When it comes to class work it involves splitting up and getting separate pieces of work done to save time, it also involves working together to do podcasts, presentations etc. With all of this organisation the coursework is much more likely to be a success, but without it is would definitely be less successful.

Mitchell Pace

Planning - Investigation into CD covers

When investigating real life CD covers it is clear to see some aspects taken and used for our own CD cover, these are common motifs like the use of black and white or a city skyline. For instance this cover of the album cover by American Strange features a skyline and black and white, both used in my CD cover below. Not only this but the way the black and white is separated is also very similar to my cover. I thought this album cover had a very cool sophisticated look to it something which kept with the theme we were aiming for with our Coldplay release.

The most common thing we found on album covers was the black and white theme something we have used again and again within our project. Another album we found this featured on was Razorlight's album, similar to us it features the artist in black and the back ground in white.