Evaluation and reflection

Weekly reflections: 

(27/02/2023) week 1

I have sketched some rough storyboards to use for my music video and have begun planning everything I intend on doing for my final major project. I am on schedule.

(06/03/2023) week 2

this week I recorded some vox pops interviews and experimented with making posters in Photoshop as practice for my final poster, I think it is going pretty well but I could have gotten a bit more done. I am on schedule.

(13/03/2023) week 3

I'm having issues with the Vox pops recordings gathered so I think I'm going to just create a survey instead, I have also started recording for my music video, as I have recorded 3 different performances from different angles and I am on schedule.

(20/03/2023) week 4

I have taken some photos to use for my poster and album cover, I also have decided that I'm going to do two posters instead of just one (one portrait and one landscape) I chose to do this to display different styles of advertisement as they would be placed in different places. I have recorded another performance strand with someone else who I brought into the college to film, I think it went really well as I also took some photos of the person.

(27/03/2023) week 5

I have completed my final landscape poster and have started on my portrait poster and album cover and I am on schedule.

(17/04/2023) week 6

I have completed my final portrait poster and my album cover and I am quite pleased with the outcome.

(24/04/2023) week 7

I have evaluated both my posters and my album cover, based on the tools I decided to use, whether or not I think it clearly displays my skill set and how pleased I am with the outcome. I am also on schedule.

(01/05/2023) week 8

I have started editing my music video, however, I still need to shoot a few more shots for it, I decided to add a short stop motion segment and an animated segment as the artist whose song I have chosen tends to add those elements to his music videos.

(08/05/2023) week 9

I am not happy with the current state of my music video, as I failed to get the clips I needed for it, and because nothing has really gone to plan, it makes me want to restart the whole project but I know I can't do it all in two weeks. I am also behind schedule.

(15/05/2023)

I'm editing and completing my music video as a rough cut with the clips I have acquired. I am behind schedule.

Pecha kucha:

Whilst presenting my pechakupcha, I think I covered all the points I wanted to, but I got really nervous whilst presenting so I didn't do the best at actually explaining everything on the slides and in my head, I could definitley improve on my confidence next time i need to present. I was short a few slides as I didn't know it had to be 20 slides, so that is something I would probably change as well next time. One point i did miss was who my fmp is supposed to be aimed at.

Final album cover evaluation:

For my album cover, I used original imagery, as I had taken two different photos of the sky (one at night and one early in the morning) and I had also taken two photos of the moon where I had changed the white balance to make the colour of the moon appear slightly different. the drawing used was also my own, the reason I decided to include a few different photos and drawings is to make the album cover look like a bit of a mess whilst also having the images work together quite well. I did change things around a lot, as I had an idea in my head on what I wanted it to look like, as well as a few drawings, however, I had lost the sketches I had done so it's not exactly what I wanted it to be but I still quite like what I've managed to create.

Final portrait poster evaluation:

For my final portrait poster, I decided to use the colours pink and green in the background with the gradient tool to match the lighting in the photo I had taken for this, as well as the fact that pink and green are contrasting colours so work well together. I wanted to give the poster a slight "glitch effect" so I copied and filled in the image using the lasso tool and layered it behind the image to create that glitch. I decided to use papyrus font because I compared it to alternative fonts and I picked out the one I liked the most as well as based on how much I thought it suited both the poster style and music style. I used the rectangle tool to create a box at the base of the poster to display the "stream on youtube and Spotify" stickers so they would be separate from the rest of the poster and easier to see. I used a polygon lasso tool to outline the subject of my image as that was the only part I wanted in the poster, I also used the dodge and burn tools to lighten up and darken certain areas in the image. The image of the moon and of the subject are both original images I had taken myself.

Final landscape poster evaluation:

In my landscape poster, I used purple and pink for the background with the use of the gradient tool as it matched the colours of the lighting in the image I used. I wanted the image to stick out from the background so I copied and filled in the image on another layer then made it slightly bigger to give the image an outline. I used the polygon lasso tool to outline the image to cut it to only the main subject as that was all I wanted on the poster. I also decided to manipulate the image a bit with the dodge tool so the face would have more of a glow to it and the hair would reflect more light, I also moved the subject's lips slightly to make her look like she is smiling slightly. I decided to use papyrus font because I compared it to alternative fonts and I picked out the one I liked the most as well as based on how much I thought it suited both the poster style and music style. I have also used original imagery, as the photo of the moon and the main subject are both my own original images.

Rough cut:

In my music video rough cut I decided to try my best to apply Goodwin's theory, I did this by attempting to record performance, narrative and conceptual strands for my music video. Most recordings did not go to plan, as I had people cancel on me last minute for quite a few recordings, and for some of the recordings that I was able to do, I ended up forgetting to book out key equipment for the weekends. I only had one of my recording sessions go to plan and it ended up being blurry throughout half of the recording. 

The equipment I used for my filming consisted of Canon cameras (model 2000D and 1100D), the gimble, a lighting kit with gels, and a tripod. I had also intended to add a stop motion segment, which I had taken the photos for but I had somehow lost the photos taken. Whilst I definitely could have edited the clips a lot faster to at least match the pacing of the song, I didn't because by this point a lot had gone wrong and I felt as if I'd lost love for my project and lacked the motivation to complete it to a higher standard which was completely my own fault, looking back now I could have done a lot more to improve it in a multitude of different ways. 

Some things that I feel would improve my music video consist of the following, I would record excess footage for my music video next time to ensure that i have enough useable footage, another thing i would do is have more back up plans to film with other people incase of cancellations and plan changes. Additionally, i would keep the stop motion segment i recorded in, as i had recorded a stop motion segment but i got rid of it because I didn't like it.

Overall, there isn't anything that I really like about my final music video, as I know I definitely could have done a lot better if I hadn't had people cancel on me and if I'd applied myself a lot more. However, if I had to choose something I liked about it, I would say the lighting in the performance shots, as I tried my best to use two-point lighting with colours that would contrast and work well together.