Music Video

This is our finished music video
http://www.youtube.com/user/stmarksa2media

A2 Media Magazine advert

A2 Media: Final Digipack

: This is my finished digipack

This is the middle page.

The first picture is my CD, the next picture is my back cover and the last picture is my front cover.

Editing Part 5: Finished

We have finished our editing and we are happy with what we have achieved. We are excited to see what our class mates opinions are and to know their feedback. I will be posting the link to our music video on youtube soon.

A2 Media - Digipack pictures

We went out and took a lot of pictures for the digipack. We may or may not use these. Some we will and some we will not.

A2 Music Video- Editing Part 4

Today we have been editing even more, adding in effects this time. We are doing quite well with this hopefully to get it done by Monday. We have been splitting a lot of the clips and putting them in different places. We have got just a bit more editing to do where we will look at what we have the whole way through and see what needs changing, cutting down and what needs taking out.

Creating my digipack!

Today we have been creating our digipacks and using different effects on different pictures that we have used. This is what I have done so far. A you can see I have done half of my digipack.

These are the pictures I used before and after I edited them;

A2 Music Video: Filming after school

Today we will be filming after school. We are going to go to our first location with the camera and the tripod. We will also be posting pictures of the filming process and pictures for the digipack. We will only be filming the singing parts of the music video because we have decided that we might not need Jake but we will see how filming goes later on. I will try and wear the same outfit as I did the first time we filmed, if not then I will post pictures on here of what I will be wearing.

A2 Media: Exam Preperation

Today we have doing preperation for the exam that is coming up. We have been practising answering questions. Every Tuesday we have a lesson like this. Today's question was;

"Digital technology turns media consumers into Media producers." In your own experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions? Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

• What Digital Technologies did you use?


• What skills did you have at the beginning of both years?


• How did your skills improve?


• What difference did my evolving skills make to my production work.

We had half an hour to answer this question during the lesson and our teacher did let us look at our previous notes. This is my answer;

When I first started AS level media I had two years experience from GCSE, the skills I had already gained helped when first studying AS. At the beginning we were introduced to Photoshop, we were taught how to use it properly and effectively for our work. I had already had some experience with it at GCSE. I would say I had a good understanding of Photoshop when I first started media at AS. During AS; the first project on Photoshop we were told to do was; a Nature magazine. This is just the practise task that we had to do before our coursework. I used Photoshop to the best of my ability for this. I took a picture of a river and used it, adding text and the barcode. Though it looked OK the teacher said I could improve on it. After this task we had to create a school magazine as another practise. For me; this task was harder than the last one. It also looked very simple and unfinished compared. For me; I think to improve; I needed to make a mistake. Looking at this magazine; I knew what to do and not to do when it came to my music magazine coursework. Looking at the two magazines; everything just looks better done and improved.

A2 Media: Theory and photo taking

During the lesson today we are going to be doing mostly theory work for the exam so my sister and I are going to be taking pictures for the front cover of our digipacks during our free periods. I have done my hair curly like in the very first picture I posted yesterday. We are going to try to take a picture like that one today and I will have a go at editing it later. I will be posting the original pictures and the editing versions soon.

A2 Media- Digipack: Images that will inspire my front cover

While looking on the internet for a bit of inspiration for some front cover ideas; I cam accross a few pictures that I liked the style of. They are headshots or mid shots because I have already stated that this is what I want for the front cover. All of these pictures are very different from eachother but I like them all. This is because they all have a unique feel to them. They are completely different to eachother.
I saw this first image and I thought it was absoloutely stunning. I like everything about it. I like how the girl looks so innocent and almost sad. I like her dark make-up, her paleness and her hair. I also like the amount of editing that has been done to this picture. The lightness has been changed to show the innocenceof the girl. They have also added an effect to her eyes, making them stand out a lot more. Although I have a plan set out for my front cover already; with the colours being much more natural being autumn colours. I have been thinking of doing a front cover a bit more like this , with a head shot/close-up. Making it very light and doing something I said I didn't want to do first of all; having dark make-up. After seeing this picture it has given me a whole new look on what I want to do for my Digipack front cover. I'm not sure if I will do something like this or not but I will have a try and see how the pictures come out. If I like the way the pictures come out, I will try to edit them. If this proves to be affective then I will probably use it for my front cover.


I also found this picture on the internet. I like the close-up of this and the look in the models face. Though it is not like my original idea, I do like overall colour of this. Though it isn't like Autumn, it's a lot more like Winter because of the hat and the models make-up. The editing for the eyes is also very good because they have changed the colour completely. As I have said, I want to edit quite a lot to make the picture look more professional. I will try taking a picture like this and see how it looks. Though I think it is going against the style a little too much but I will try it out and see what it looks like.
Looking at this image; I think it will be quite easy to create and edit one like this. I like this image because of the natural style of it. This image is also like the style of the artist we have made. It's also like the plan I originally had for the front cover. Though it's missing the autumn colours I wanted, it has the natural feel to it. I don't think a lot of editing was done to this; just a bit to enhance the colour and the models eyes. I think out of the images; this one will be the easiest to inspire my own front cover. I will try this one as well as the others and decide what looks the best.

I found this image and it looks a lot like the one from Michelle Branch's album cover that I have already posted. This is a head shot of the model posing. The sun is hitting the back of her hair and giving it the autumn feel that I want for my front cover. Like the last image I think that this will be very easy to capture and edit. Though out of all of the images I have to say my favourite is the first one; however this will take longer and a lot more hard work to incorporate it into my own front cover and style.

As I have said I will be trying to take images like these ones in my own style, then editing each of them. I will be blogging all of this to show my progress.

A2 Media - Starting Digipack: Template

Today we are going to be starting our digipacks for our artist which is myself. We are going to be making a CD front cover, designing the CD, make the inside page and designing the song page/back page. We will be doing this on Adobe Photoshop. Through the whole process I am going to be blogging my progess, stating every bit of editing and photo capuring I am going to be doing.

This is a template of a Digipack. I will be using this as a guide line for my own digipack. I have put this on Photoshop and will be putting my own images and design over the top of the lines so I know the measurements of each of the seperate 'pages.'

A2 Music Video: Digipak research!

This is the front cover for Michelle Branch's album; Hotel Paper. Looking at this image I want something quite similar for my own cover. With myself on the front. I want my front cover to look quite simple and classy. Like this front cover I want the colours to be very natural, with autumn colours. I also want the text to be quite simple and small, with not a lot of colour distracting away from the artist. In this photo Michelle's make-up is quite dark. I do not want my make-up on the front cover to be dark. I want everything to be very stripped down and natural, not covered in make-up. We will not need to worry about the clothes that I will be wearing because it will just be a head shot of me like Michelle in this cover. For my hair; I want it to be like hers, very natural, not full with hairspray and straight. Quite wavy and natural.

This is the CD for her album. There is one thing that I have said from the beginning about picking this song; I didn't want a lot of black involved. Unlike Michelle's CD; I do not want a black CD. I want it to be like the colour of the front cover. Brown and Autumn colours involved, the theme I am going for, for the whole of my digipak is Natural. I want the Digipak to look simple and trendy.

This is the back cover/song list of Michelle's album. It's like the image of her on the front but as if the camera were behind her. It is a behind the shoulder shot. I would like to try something like this but I don't think it would look as good as this so I might change my mind about it. We will take a variety of different headshots and behind the shoulder shots. I like the layout of this back cover; with the songs in a list, the barcode out of the way and the use of the artist in the background. I am not going to completely copy the Digipack, I am going to do my digipack inspired by these ideas and incorporate some original ideas of my own.

A2 Music Video: Filming Part 3

We have filmed again today. We filmed at home in our garden. We though it would look quite simple and natural like we have wanted it to be. We got a bit done. We spent about an hour filming. We got a lot of the singing parts done. This is what we wanted to achieve from filming today. We used a tripod because we wanted to show that we can hold a shot steady because in the other footage that we have; it is a bit shakey but it is supposed to be because it adds to the affect of the song and music video. We just wanted to make sure we do not lose any marks on this so we are making sure that we have a lot of footage where the shots are steady. Like the other footage that we have taken; we have used a variety of different shots and angles. We will definetely be filming next week because our deadline is Monday the 13th of December. We no longer have time to film or edit during class time so we have to do this in our own free time during the week. My sister and I have decided that we are going to take the free periods that we have to get this done.

A2 Music Video: Decided when we are going to film next

We were discussing it and we have decided that we are definitely going to film on Sunday, with or without Jake. We were talking to other students who have completed this A level and they're music video and saw that you don't have to have a brilliant idea of clips to get a good grade. So we were discussing about just filming me singing to the camera at home to make it very simple and focus on the key marks we could get from holding a shot steady. We have not made a plan to film with Jake yet but we will next week. We will need to film and edit on our own time because last week was this week was the last of the filming and editing time we have been given within the lesson. In the lesson we are now focusing on the digipacks we are going to create for our music video/artist. We are also going to create a magazine advert for it as well. This means on Sunday or one day next week we will need to take pictures of Myself for the advert and digipack. It will be a good idea to take some pictures on Sunday when we are filming because we are already prepared for photos and videos.

A2 Music Video: When are we next going to film?

We were supposed to be filming with Jake today but Lysette and myself were both feeling very ill and could not attend school. We let Jake know that we would not be able to film today. We have however been discussing when we are next going to film. We were thinking about filming at the weekend because Jake is not available tomorrow (which is a Friday). We will discuss when to film later on and I will be posting it on my blog tomorrow. We will also be discussing what we are going to film.