Evaluation-Question 4

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

From the very beginning when we started out research, I began using the internet. The most common site that I used was Google. This is where I research for my textual analysis, my research for my ancillary products, and ideas for my music video. Also for the actual video ‘YouTube’ was used a lot. By looking at one video that I liked, the links carried on and on making it a lot easier for me to find what I wanted. This wasn’t just for these things but for finding out about music video directors and other information about people which expanded my knowledge on certain topics.

Software’s like word was one of my main applications that I used. Obviously as part of research I used it a lot as it has more functions on it than the blog has for writing. I spent a lot of time on word typing up research and writing up my posts which I then copy and pasted into my blog.
I didn’t actually use MP3’s as much as I thought I would have. With the amount of lip syncing that I had in my final video, I thought I would have needed these a lot to listen to all the time and get the timings right. But I managed to do this without this. As I already knew the song very well it was very easy for me to just go along with the song as it played. But I did use a CD player to play the song out loader for the shoot. It was obviously a lot clearer and loader which made it easier to lip sync and follow the dance to.

This was my first time I had used I-movie on my own. So I was new to it and didn’t know much about how to use it and all the shortcuts on the keyboard. I did get a bit of help from friends and teachers at the beginning of my editing journey just so I could get use to the whole thing and it was pretty simple and straight forward. I got use to it really quickly and I emended up doing a lot for editing in my video. Fast paced stuff and some longer shots. I also added some effects from these which I found were very helpful towards my video as something very simple and light made a big difference to certain shots and footage. Once this was done and all the basics were done I uploaded this onto final cut pro where I cropped down some scenes as you could see the wall in the background. I also tried playing around with the color and the brightness and contrast but I think it looked a lot better the way it was and the color and contrast I added in I-movie.

Photoshop was the most used software. I used this all the time to play around with colors and layouts, text, designs for my ancillary products as well as for editing pictures and images for the actual music video. I spent a very large amount of my time on this during the whole project. Even once I had finished designing text for my poster and digipack or creating vectors and backgrounds, I still went back on to it trying my best to make things look even better by using my good Photoshop skills. As you can see on my blog and glogster, I have shown development of my poster and my digipack designs.

The glogster wasn’t used a lot. For me this was more of a mood bard just to show what this genre was about. I think it helped people understand and identify what they could possibly find at the end of this project as my result. With all the functions that it had on it I thin it made it easier for me to design stuff, add in colors, backgrounds, text and obviously videos of what ‘bhangra’is all about.

Overall my blog was used all the time as it was my online sketchbook where I added on all my research, planning, designs and shared my ideas. It was quite fun as I could personalize it to my standard and my taste and obviously bhangra being the genre it gave me another way to advertise what it is and what was planning to aim for.

Evaluation-Question 1

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

With the genre I have chosen which I bhangra the forms and conventions differ a lot. It’s not always about fancy, flashy cars, with ‘hot chicks’ and alcoholic drinks, but it varies from storytelling, whether it being love stories or historical stories to live performances which are turned into videos or traditional colourful acts with a bit of western touch. Over the past few years, artists and music video directors have started to use use fancy setups and glamourous backdrops with elegant lighting in there videos. This ususaly doesnt often tell any story but has a typical theme where the girl and the boy are either dancing, or singing to each other. They are often more enetertainment peices rather than stories. Like this video below.
JUGGY D!


Unlike this video where it is part of a live performance which has then been edited to produce a music video.
POOJA-N/NACHLE


this video is a religious video and there alot of pictures that have been added in from hisotry.
SON OF A SARDAR


I have chosen to go for an entertainment video where there is just dancing and performance in the video. I felt this would be suit something like as in the video they are talking about 'a beautifull girl, and her lovely eyes and how there can be noone else like her'. To show this through a girl whos dancing and being an enetertainer I thought would be about right and then add in parts of instruments to show whats being used in the music and the parts that actualy liven up the song Aashique.

I think it also represents the girls from British-Asian communities becasue it shows young girls dancing and enjoying their cultural music which shows their cultural side which is not often shown across to British audience. It also shows what this kind of music is about, how it is used as part of people everydays lives.

Evaulation-Question 3

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Overall my feedback has been fairly positive! Allot of people liked the genre, I think it was different and unexpected. From the very beginning of this idea when we screened them the first time, the feedback was positive. People enjoyed the dance, colours, editing and camera shots along with the actual song. I was told to keep up everything which I had already had then and along as it carried on it would end up in a good result. Luckily it did! From the feedback I have been given, a lot of people liked the idea of filming it on different backgrounds and the contrast of these and the costumes. I was also told that I could have added in footage was filmed outside or even ‘behind the scenes’. I was thinking of this but I decided to leave it. This might have given it a different feel and more western as people would have been able to see what goes on in our personal lives and the western side of Brit-Asian artists.

The performance was one of the biggest hits in the video! The bhangra dancing; moving the shoulders and hips and twisting the light bulbs was enjoyed by everyone and got them in dancing too which involved them in to the final piece. The facial expressions while singing to the song were picked up by a few people and they liked this because ‘it showed affection and passion towards the video’. Also I think as not many people understood the lyrics, some of the dance moves gave across some vague suggestions of what we might be singing which shows the audience are interested.

‘The uses of camera shots have been done really good’. This was a comment I was told by one viewer. By showing close ups I think it promotes the artist a fair amount. I think it shows who they are and it gives the audience a chance to see them properly (as weird as it may sound) and almost get them feeling close to them. Some of the viewers liked the shots where the drum was in front and the dance was going on in the back which showed different types of dancing and also showed off the costumes worn. The editing was quite fast paced in some areas, especially when the drums got faster or the verse changes back to the chorus. One of the most popular bits was the picture animation of the drums when they all flash and flicker to the beat of the drums. I added this in once near the beginning but it was liked a lot and I was told to add it in frequently.
From audience and other viewers my ancillary products were liked very much. They liked the colours, images and layout of these. I tried very hard to make them look professional as I could and I think with a little bit more work I could have reach this for my poster and digipack.

Evaulation-Question 2

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I think my digipack and poster link in very well together along with my video. The genre of the song chosen is very cheerful and funky and I think the ways I have designed these two products have been successful. In the video I have used bright coloured backdrops and colourful costumes so therefore I decided to set myself a high contrasted colour scheme for my digipack which I designed first. I went for an orange and a bright blue on a black background which was then worked on top off by adding images of myself, (the lead singer/artist), my partner who is also in the video as the second singer and vectors which were I created myself.

I went for the 6 panel digipack cover and I had a fair amount of space to work on and add information too. I designed the front cover by using a silhouette of myself which is worked up to from the patterns of my dress. The front cover almost hides who the artist is but at the same time it gives off a sense of dance and excitement as the silhouette is posing. I think the front cover gives quite a lot away. The panels inside consists of a close up picture which is taken by me of the Indian drum called the ‘tabla’ which is played fairly load in the song and also a lot in the video. This is the reason I decided to use the whole of the panel for this picture because it plays a big part in the video/song and I thought it would only be right if I slowly reveal the genre and identity of the artist by flipping the panels one by one.

Following this is a panel which shows a close up picture of me from the day of the shoot. I added text to it as I thought it looked slightly bland without other things on the layout of the page. I went for close up as it shows clearly who the artist is and also shows a bit of the outfit, making it more recognisable for the audience. I did the same with my sister who played the other singer in my video. The next panel is hers and I carried the same method for this one too but just used a mid-shot picture of her this time. Again she is seen wearing an outfit which is worn in the actual video. I added text in this panel again saying ‘accompanied by G’ so the CD cover wasn’t just promoting me because I was the main singer, but also my other singer. Furthermore I added an imagine in the background of these two panels from a dancing move which I thought would again add some idea of the kind of performance the audience would expect.

Finally the tracks panel and the middle panel were very simple and continued from the theme and colour scheme which I chose. The poster was also the same. Everything was kept the same, even the images that I used of me and my sister. These were a clip from the video which I thought would be interesting to add in as it would make it easier for the audience to recognise the link between the video and poster.

Overall I feel quite confident about my ancillary products appealing to my audience which is teenagers from 15 to adults up to 30! I know the age gap is fairly big but with this genre it’s not about ages but more about passion and type of music you like. Also if the audience are interested more in the actual music, then that is clearly shown on he digipack, and if it’s the artists themselves, then that is also very bold on these products. So therefore I think these products would appeal to my audience.

Final touches to the music video!

My poster!

I startd to take pictures of the some of my punjabi dresses and the one that i wore in the video. I tried to make my own vectors out of these and used them in my poster.

I began designing the poster and went on to looking at images i would use.

this is my final poster. I have kept the theme the same as you can probably tell from my digippack design too. I kept the colour scheme the same which is orange and blue. I also added in pictures from the video that i used on my cover as i found it would have linked in and shown the connection between this. I also added the production name which i made up and kept as 'desi-licious'. I worked with the fonts on photoshop and made my own vectors which i think fit in very well with.

digipak design!

This is my final digipak design.

Costumes

For the costumes I want to go for a traditional punjabi style as the music video is very traditional. I did consider adding abit of western style to it but I dont think it would work out as good and as times running I need to stop changing ideas and choose something quikly as i still need to shoot. I think by using these costumes it will add more enthusiasm to the video as it will already consist of colourful backdrops. The bright colours will go witht he video as its a very upbeat, funky song. These images give a basic idea of some of the costumes that may be used.

storyboard and images of wwhat it might look like!

Here i have used a black backdrop to mget an idea of what this ida and video might look lke. Iv used a picture of myself and a freind where we are dressed with bright colours to see what this would look like. These are pictures of us dancing.

This is my favourite one as the colour contrast is very bright and hgh. this is what i am aiming for in my new video where high contrasted footage is used. The costumes will play a big part in this as they are the main thngs that make this mor atractive.

new band and there biography!

write about mine n gupies lifetimee in music. wat are we called? wats our genre?

New song! miss pooja!

I am going to change my song to a punjabi song called 'Aashique' by a lady called Miss pooja. think this would be easier for me as i would hyave more words to mime and would have a bigger roll in the music video. This song is a traditional punjabi song which is very upbeat and funky. I think if i keep the costumes the same it would be good as it would go with the beat and the overall feeling you get when youo hear this song.

the split!

the spplit!

suggestions of changing the song

11. Suggestions on changing the song

Working with mon is not a good idea!

After a long time i have realised that working with monica is not a great time. So we have decided to stop working together and go our own ways.

Develping digipak designs

This is my digipack design. Its not complete but itss semi done. I have gone for a urban backround which shows a cityscape and the addd in gold vectors which gives it a elegant and glamourous touch.

Here i tired to make a collage of artists in which i would have included my self in. Iv playd around with the colour and the layouts and the scale of the images.

On ths one i was playing around with the gradients on photoshot trying to work out a colour scheme and see wat colours would sut the type of song chosn.

Clips from the footage.

8. Add in clips from our footage dressed as Chinese girls in china. (different colour backgrounds plus green screen dancing bits)

Adding more ideas to the new idea!

For our green screens parts, instead of using different colour backgrounds we have decided on using pictures from different countries. We will dress up as people from these countries and use the country pictures behind us so it loks like we are on a tour in these places. We will show about four-five different countries and then show India or an asian country where the guy will find the write girl. As its called desi girl this will link in well.
I find this will bring a bit of western and multicultural into our video making it more attractive to our audience in the UK.

Green screen test!

4. Add in the green screen attempt on final cut pro.

Pictures of what the idea will hopefully look like!

7. Make Photoshop pictures and add in to see what it would look like.

New idea for the video

After some thinking and planning we have come up with a second idea. This time we are thinking of keeping it more urban. And also, we are thinking of making it into a picture animation. So basically the idea is to have a guy who will be shown at the beggining through normal footage, who then gets bored at home and goes out to find a 'desi girl' for himself. This is whee it will start going into the picture animation of the boy walking down the streets of ilford which is a very urban area with a wide range of asian. This will make sense that it will be eaiser for him to find a 'desi' girl in that area. Obviously this wont take up all the time we are going to add bits of our dance routine which will be greenscreened with different coloured backgrounds.
These are some of the pictures that I took for the video. It shoes him looking in th mirror getting dressed and then walking out the door and on to the streets.