I City Learning Centre

Today we have been to the I City Learning Centre, it was really interesting we got to practise using Photoshop with an already exciting image, I did struggle at first but thanks to Sara the lady that was in charge she helped me figure out how to work it properly, as she is a professional. I really enjoyed using it. After that we had to get into our groups and each produce either the front cover, the back or the poster of our Song, I did the Front Cover

It was straight forward not too much fuss ,as we didn’t  photoshop our images, I just played a bit around with the contrast of the image and darkened it, and added the title, the name of the band on the top of the CD Cover and the name of the song At the Bottom, first we couldn’t decide on where the lay out the text but thanks to some of our class mates and their opinions we made a final decision.

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On the left hand side are the original images, and the above 2 are the images that we have chosen for the CD Sleeve, as you can see there isn’t a difference in the images apart from the added text.

        We chose those images as they appealed to my group the most, they relate to the lyrics and also match our music video cover really well.

We added the text by clicking onto the T button and the font was size 18, Bold, and as a group we chose the Rage italic writing which we thought suited the Cover really well. I changed the contrast slightly by going onto layer, then clicked New adjustment layer, then chose the brightness/Contrast, and finally increased the contrast level which then darkened the our character in the photo on the left hand side.    

The Image on the right hand side is the original picture,

 The 2nd image that we just did a tiny part of editing in was the other member of my group did, he just took one bird out of one of the original pictures we have taken and pasted it onto one of our images that goes inside the CD.

  and the image below is the one we applied the bird onto, you have to look closely to identify it, but its the bird on the far left hand side.

To do this we used the Magnetic Laco button, then we clicked around the image we wanted taken out, then we clicked control C (Copy) to copy the image and then paste it onto the image you want it applied on. Pressing control V (Paste). Then when the image was applies we dragged it to the place we wanted it to be placed as you can see at the bottom.

We also tried doing this onto the Poster a small bird on the side, but we ended up changing our minds as it looked too much.

This was the first time I got to use the Magnetic Laco  Button, I have really enjoyed using this.

Continue Editing

Today we uploaded the final part to our music video onto the computer, and started to edit.

We were really pleased with the results.

Final Shooting

Last Saturday we finally finished filming our final part to the music video, this took place at Colston Hall Practise rooms, it went really well and managed to get all the shots and angles we needed.

Here are some of the pictures we took while we were down there to show we all had something to do.

Poster + CD Sleeve

On Tuesday the 16th of November we are going to the I City Learning Centre, were we are going to have all day to complete our CD Sleeve and our Poster of our music video. We are going to work with professionals and they will teach us on how to create the perfect images using Photoshop to edit and apply stuff onto our CD Sleeve/Poster.

After all this is done, now we will be able to put 100% of our focus onto the music video to get it finished.

How did you use media technologies in the research and planning stages?

We used a variety of different websites to research information for our media product,

Such as Google is one of the main ones we have used to look up our postmodernism scene from our chosen film “The 400 Blows”, also to also we have used Google images to look up different CD Sleeves and how they are represented.

Youtube was also one of the famous websites we have used to look up music videos,

That we could include into our music video. This was very straightforward to use.

A scanner is also one of the technologies we have used to complete our media product as we scanned some of the work we did onto our bloggers such as the storyboards and the drawing we made as an idea for our CD Sleeves and posters.

We have also made use of course the Mini Divi Camera's, which was very easy to use,

Instructions very straightforward, plus we have also made use of it last year, so we have more experience of how to use it. And how to create certain effects with it to achieve the required outcomes.

Still camera we used to create the photos  that we will be needing to make the CD Sleeve and the poster for our music video, we took quite a lot of shots and are very pleased with the outcomes, all of them are when the girls is stood on the beach and seagulls flying above her. One of them is the image below. 

Tripod was also one of the equipment we have used to completer our media product, this helps keep the camera steady in a stable position to keep the shots nice and clear, without  shaking. 

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

Our media product is telling a story of the girl that everything in her life is going wrong, and taking control of her own life and starting again. We did include some shots of the girl being on her own looking sad walking on the beach; however we also included shots of the band members playing, to also keep it music video genre it is (Indie) like the stereotypical indie bands that play, most of them just contain shots of the band playing up on the stage. we wanted to include something original, something totally different that usually is not put into a indie music video, when she’s on the beach, we also used the shot when she looks back feeling someone is there with her, just like in the film "the 400 Blows", when the boy is running for ages on the beach then he turns around to show he knows the audience they are still there watching.

Mise en scene: We did keep the dress code the same to match the indie genre as you have to specify what genre it is. The girl on the beach wore a pair of skinny black jeans, and a grey hoodie. However we didn’t want her to place the hoodie on her head as it could change the genre into hip/hop, as this is the stereotypical thing the media relates hoodies with, the ghetto life. Such as in one of T.I music video’s “I’m back” its starts of with him wearing a video arriving in  car before the music starts the audience right away know what genre it is.

This is why we also had to think carefully what and what not to include into our music video to match our chosen genre. The same we have to do with our poster and CD Sleeve, these are even more important than the video itself as this is the image that represents the band and their genre.

Editing

We have all taken part in editing our first scene shot, and have finally finished editing that part. Together we have also added the chosen song onto it, and ready for the rest of the music video to be filmed. We still haven’t had the right time to film it, as our band members weren’t available, but hopefully by the end of this week we would have finished the entire filming ready to edit. We will have to include some more angles and and a variety of shots, as we didn’t do on our last filming. This part might also be easier to film, because it will include quite a lot of close ups and different shots of each instrument,

possibly low angles as we planned on our storyboards.

 And some shots of the band members, unlike the first part we filmed which included tracking, long shots, over the shoulder shots, etc.