4.How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used a variety of techniques of media technology to construct our music video. First of all in the planning stages we used the internet as a secondary research task to find out more about music videos throughout the R n B industry, we did this by looking at the official “Cry me a river” music video to get similarities for our product as this was our chosen music video. For the research we also looked at other music videos to get an understanding of what a professional music video consists of such as the location types, props, and the acting style in some music videos, mise-en-scene and the shooting sets used around these videos. We used Youtube to watch and listen to the videos on the internet. What we gained by this was having to improve on our locations from what we was thinking of to something very modern as in the “cry me a river” video. Another media technology we used was television as some of the members of our group watched music videos on TV to get some more ideas about how music videos are constructed and what we could use and do to construct our own piece of art.
For the construction of our video we used many aspects of media technologies. Our main piece of technology was the video camera we used to film throughout the course. We filmed every week on an average then brought the camera back to the classroom where we connected the camera to the computer and logged and captured the footage that we were most likely to use. Once all the footage was recorded and was inputted on the computer we then edited the clips on a programme called Final cut pro to produce a timeline of the all the suitable clips in the order. We mixed the shots around and scattered them along the timeline but kept in a suitable flow and included the lip-syncing shots in the video where it is needed in the main parts of the song such as the chorus. For many shots we used effects on the video to make the shots look better and effective. For example we used an effect called washed away hence the name of the music video “cry me a river”, this tied in well with our finished product. Adobe Photoshop CS3 was used to create our magazine and CD covers and to also edit pictures. This was very helpful as you could do many things with the pictures by editing, such as cropping unwanted bits on pictures or even to get rid off a bad background. We used adobe many to merge pictures together and changed colours of the pictures to make them stand out and look stylish.

The timeline on the software we used is split into many clips join together to make one whole video. This software allowed us to do many stuff to the video, such as we change the motion in some parts by slowing down the clip. Some of the shots had lighting issues so we were able change the lighting and make the shot look better. The programme allowed us to add in fades in and out, the slide affect was used which makes the shot slide away and the next shot slides in. In the video an earthquake effect was used to give more effect to the video and make it look better.

For the planning we used http://www.blogger.com/ where we planned what we were going to do ahead like we will plan for the upcoming weeks for what we need to film or re-shoot. This site was also used put many posts up of what we have done or need to do and the evaluation of our course.
The media technologies we used in the evaluation stages was http://www.blogger.com/, Youtube and video camera’s to record the director’s commentary and a clip of the focus group we got together to get feedback for our music video. We used the Blogger website to upload pictures and videos about our tools we used throughout the course and to talk about what we have done since we started and also planning stuff on this site. In conclusion media technology is vital as this gained us to do many things throughout and we could not have possibly done anything there was no media technology.

Directors Commentary

Syed is the voice in which you hear on this video. He talks about the shots used and locations. In this video we used the actual pop video that we did but took away the sound and added Syed's voice instead. We had a couple of problem when doing the directors commentary, like the sound did not work etc, but as you can see we over come them. something that Syed didn’t mention the washed out effect that were used in most shots, we edited it in this way as this song is cry me a river, so this effect would work well, a washed out effect with cry me a river. This performance pop video took a lot of time and effort but as you can see it was worth every minute it took.

Evaluation Part 3

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our audience has given us lots of positive feedback about our music video. The people that have watched our video say that there is lots of charisma in our product, the editing and effects of the video compliment the genre of the song. This gives evidence that we accomplished what we were trying to achieve.

People that have watched the original Cry me a river video have said that the video is very up-beat and the video goes together with the song. The audience say that our product compares with the original really well as it is very different but also goes with the song really well.

Those who have watched our video have also said that the lip-syncing is good and the camera shots and angles were excellent, also we show crying at the start so it has an emotional start to it that changes the feeling of the audience as they watch the video and have sympathy for the actor. We were told that the acting could have been slightly improved and that we were using too many of the same shots and angles.

Using our audience feedback we tried to imrpove the acting as much as we could. Now the acting is much better than before. Some parts of the video were re-filmed and we took longer to film our shots so we get the acting is as perfect as it can be. Also we changed the shots and angles as most of them were the same shots. They were either mid shots or long shots or we added some close ups.

This is a video I took of Syed showing how to use the tripod as he was the camera man for our music video, so he knew exactly how it was used . He explains the different aspects of the tripod and how it can be used to take various camera shots for different angles. Also that the tripod is mainly used for steady shots.

This picture is of the tripod we used when filming our music video. This helped us a lot to keep the camera still through out the video. You will notice this as it will be different to the hand held effects used in our music video. Crane and pan shots were performed using this tripod.

This is a picture of a Dolly with the Tripod on it. This keeps the tripod stable when moving. It helped me when i was filming as in one part of the video we had to pull the camera with the actor who is asad. Instead of holding it which causes the camera to shake, by using this the movement is smooth.

This is a picture of the camera used for our music video. We had a couple of issues with this camera at one point. Such as the the tape would not go in the camera when we were at Salford. Also the Battery of the camera went down quite a lot so recharging it was a problem as the chargers were in college.

This is a picture of the lights we used in the video when Asad is lipsyncing. This also caused problems the lights became very hot and they were very bright so they were really uncomfortable to use. However This added a nice effect as leaving the wall blank would not have looked as good.

Evaluation Stuff 2.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? One thing we have played with in both the video and ancillary texts is light and dark. This is to represent the fact that we have tried to show both sides of characters in our music video. All through the music video, we have used black and white, light and dark on the lipsyncin that Asaad does and also when he is talking into Fatima's ear. However, in addition to the light and dark, we have used certain combinations of effects to make various parts of the video more colourful and look animated almost. We have mirrored this in the ancillary texts by using black and white and playing with the light and shadows on Asaad and Syed's picture but leaving the hood of Asaad's top blue, which we enhanced on Photoshop. The text on the CD cover is also a shade of blue, linking back to the costume asaad has worn throughout. As opposed to screenshots from our Music Video, which many of our class have opted to do, we decided to take new pictures for the CD cover, as mainstream artists often do. This is partly because we decided to picture both Syed and Asaad together and this was not possible through a screenshot as there are no scenes where the two are together. We did however, use a screeenshot of an effect we've placed in the video for an abstract but matching backdrop for the boys picture. We wanted to show both of the artists of the song, Asaad who was playing Justin and Syed who was playing Timbaland. Timbaland has a relatively small part in both the original and our version of the video, but he is still a selling point as co-producer. Cry Me A River was of Justin Timberlake's second song since he'd split with N*Sync and his debut featuring N.E.R.D I imagine was a hard one to follow and so the fact that Timbaland was featured in the track worked in his favour. We felt for this reason we should inlude Syed in the CD cover. However, we chose to have him standing not only behind Asaad, but also in complete black and white and making no eye contact with the camera, unlike Asaad who's hood was blue and is looking straight at the camera.

The orginal Single cover for Cry Me A River was another picture from the Justified album photoshoot. Our cover is similar as not only did we stick to a blue and black theme, but also because the artist takes the attention initially, the album name rather small and mute. Our cover is like the Justified cover even moreso as in addition to the blue black theme and the initially unnoticable font used for the title in the corner, the artist is stood at an angle with direct eye contact with the camera. We feel this is effective and appropriate, due to the way in which we filmed Asaad's lipsyncing and how we filmed Asaad in general, who is rather intense throughout the video.

Evaluation Stuff.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The video to Justin Timberlake's Cry Me A River was directed by Francis Lawrence, who is responsible for many of the RnB/Pop videos that were controversial or strange to say in the least.

Some Francis Lawrence Music Videos

Our interpretation of the song differed to his in the sense that we tried to show both “Justin” and “Britney”, according to circulating rumours at the time, and their reactions or thoughts as to what has happened.

Whereas in the Lawrence video we see Justin taking revenge on his ex, we wanted to show “Britney” hurting or “Crying A River” if you will, as the lyrics in the song describe.

Like many conventional RnB/Pop videos, we wanted to have a dance routine to add to the entertainment factor. Infact, we used a slightly less well known RnB/Pop video as inspiration for our dance routine. Drew Seeley's “Just That Girl” shows two people dancing with a mirror between them . If you've seen “Another Cinderella Story”, the movie the video is from, you would know that Drew is unaware of the girl on the other side of the mirror, yet there still seems to be a connection. We wanted to show this in our video, but we decided we needed to make it appear more urban to tie in with the rest of the song and setting. It's for this reason we decided to shoot the dance routine against a brick wall. Although dance studio style mirrors have been been seen in many other videos such as Usher's “Confessions Part 2”.

The Video To Usher's Confessions Part 2.

We understand that RnB/Pop has to maintain a conventional aspect to it, because much of what makes the music is the accompanying video in modern culture. So we did have the modern apartment, the car and the “slick” looking starring character with the pretty ex girlfriend shaking her stuff. However, our cast was Asian and our “Video Girl” was covered. These are pretty much unconvetional to the genre our video is in.

This picture is of the living room in my house where i filmed Syed doing his part in our music video. We chose this location as it is modern and goes well with the music video we are constructing and also to tie-in with the modern theme and some of the shots in the flat in Salford Quays. Syed represents Timbaland as in the official Cry me a river music video.

We tried many shots and angles and came up with different ideas that would fit in with the music video but because of lighting issues we couldn't proceed with our shots. As you can see in the picture there is lots of light comng in through the window. Because of these few drawbacks we took time deciding which angles to use for the final shots for what we could actually use in our video. Finally we decided on just taking a shot of syed puttin his jacket on and leaving the house as it goes with lyrics of his part saying " The damage is done, so i guess i'll be leaving".

After this we went outside the house and filmed his bit sitting on the car and lypsyncing to the track. Later we filmed again of myself lip syncing and a few parts at a pathway in Whalley range under a bridge.

This is a high angle shot of the room to show the room from a diferent point of view.

This is a location in whalley range and this is a picture of me filming the last shots of the whole music video which includes asaad jumping onto the wall and walking with lipsyncing. Asaad says "Oh" 4 times here for the end bit of the video where i say "The damage is done so I guess I be leaving" This goes before the bit I lipsync. We filmed at this location as this was like a walk-way which was quiet so we didnt get disturbed by people looking at the camera or lots of people walking past and it helps with the continuity editing so there is no movement in the background. However we did not envisage the difficulties with filming at this place.

We did not imagine that we will get bombarded with complications when filming at this location even though it was very quiet. For example we forgot to take the song with us so we had to lipsync by guessing what words were going to come up next. We had lighting issues as we were filming under a bridge and it was dark and you can see this in the picture even though we used a good camera, so we had to make sure we were near the end of the bridge but also in it, and this on camera did not look right so we had to continuesly take different shots so it looked right. All of these difficulties made us restricted on what we were trying to achieve on the camera so trying different techniques and styles was time consuming.

It was not all difficult even though we were distracted by thinking about lighting and camera issues as this location was looking good in the camera and I pictured this being in the music video and it looked superior to filming on the road or any other location so we stuck with it.

This is a picture i took of the bridge where we filmed although it looks scruffy and the mese en scene does not look right, but we still took the risk to film and see how it looked even though we could of filmed elsewhere and it did not go with the modern theme we are using in the music video. Luckily none of the road surface or the tatty bits of the wall was filmed or came in the video when i was filming.

What Friends Thought.

So this is a quick video I made of what some friends, also media/film students, have thought of our video so far.
We've pretty much finished the video, save the odd bit here and there. We had to cut down the song by removing the second verse completely, but it's all good.

Drawbacks.

We looked at all the footage we have last lesson and we've basically decided that we need to re-shoot most of it.
In the next three weeks we have to not only re-shoot pretty much everything, but we have to add in extra shots that we have been lacking so far, such as, low angles and panning.

Shooting Schedule

Sunday 15th November

1. Re-shoot flat scenes with Asaad
2. Bridge shots tracking Asaad
3. Lipsyncing throuout whole song
4. Syed and Asaad's Timbaland bit

Sunday 22nd November

1. Re-shoot Fatima's dance routines on bridge

Hopefully, lesson time will be sufficient to get the video done with, so we can start our media pack a little early.

Stills.

We have completed a basic frame with the footage we have so far, which has allowed us to judge which bits we need to go over and film again.
Some shots there's an issue with lighting and some it's just bad acting.
Next week we're going to go and get the rest of it done, so we can concentrate on editing.

Here are some stills from one of the locations we filmed in.


Media City



View from the Balcony



Sitting Area



The counters Asaad was forbidden to slide across.

Whoops.

Okay, so we've been a bit bad about this blog thing.

To catch up:

Since the last post, we've filmed a dance routine, which was actually pretty much made up on the spot. The shots themselves were inspired by a video I've seen. From 1.45 in the video, we see two characters dancing, with a mirror between them.



We have used this idea, but instead using a brick wall just off Oxford Road and instead of using two actors, we have used Fatima, who plays the girl in our video. First, she dressed like a boy and did a slightly more male routine and we filmed her from her right and then she dressed like a girl and did a different routine and we filmed her from her left.

On Monday, we captured the footage and we used a split screen to make it appear as two characters dancing with a wall between them. Towards the end of the routine and the song, we see female dancer Fatima sink to the floor. The idea here, is to have images of Asaad flash in and to end the split screen. This is to show that by losing Asaad, she feels as if she's losing a part of herself, capturing the essence of the song and also I think, adding a bit more depth to it.

Since we have captured all the footage so far, we know which bits need to be redone and we also have a rough idea of how much footage we may need more of. We missed Thursday's lesson due to college activities, but we plan to continue filming during half term next week.

0.00 - 0.12: Establishing shots of Salford
0.13 - 0.22: Asaad crying on balcony
0.23 - 0.26: Transition to lipsync
0.27 - 0.51: Lipsync
0.52 - 1.43: Journey to Fatima's
1.44 - 2.10: Asaad knocks
2.11 - 2.14: Walks to window
2.15 - 2.22: Sees Fatima and Lamia
2.23 - 2.47: Talks at Fatima
2.48 - 3.02: Argument
3.03 - 3.25: Asaad and Syed Timbaland
3.26 - 4.06: Asaad and Fatima dance
4.07 - 4.50: Asaad fade out with Fatima

A Summary of the Last Few Weeks

In our group of four, the guys knew eachother and the girls (myself and Amal), knew eachother. This of course complicated the song choosing process, as we didn't know eachother too well and it was quite obvious that we had our differences. By the end of the lesson, we'd managed to narrow it to a few songs that we all liked, but weren't particularly excited by.
Finally, we decided on "Cry Me A River" by Justin Timberlake. Our teacher's love of the song had no effect on our choice whatsoever. Haha.

Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River Official Video

However, just because we'd agreed on a song, it didn't mean it'd be smooth sailing from then on. Quite the opposite really. We'd drawn out a rough storyboard, which we didn't end up using at all, as we'd changed our minds about what we wanted to do as soon as we had a camera in our hands. The storyboard was a good place to start however, because it helped us organise ourselves slightly better.

For Asaad's place, Amal's sister allowed us to use her Salford Quays flat. We also got hold of two extra actors, to play "Justin's" (Asaad) girlfriend Fatima and her girlfriend Lamia. Fatima's house was also used, and we will be filming a dance routine at Parrswood Sixth Form's dance studio.

Where the original video shows Justin's revenge on his ex-girlfriend after he discovers she is cheated (this is only shown in the song lyrics), our video not only shows Asaad discovering his girlfriend with another girl, but also how he handles the situation. Where some aspects of the video are going to be performance (lipsyncing and dancing), the main of it is amplification.

Essentially, there are 5 main parts to the video. There is Asaad lipsyncing, his journey to his girlfriends house, catching the girls together, confrontation and also a short dance scene.

So far, save the odd days we've taken longer shooting than we expected and a small scare we had when we thought we'd recorded over some of our main footage, things have been working out okay. Today we captured all our footage so far, so we know which bits need to be redone and what is left to be done. For example, in one scene, it's supposed to look as if a door slides open when Asaad taps it, but when we captured the footage on Final Cut today, we realised that you could see my outline and my hand moving the door, which we didn't notice when filming.

Thursday we are going to shoot the dance and possibly reshoot the scenes in Fatima's driveway.