Superman - The Final Version

Here is the final version of the video that we have spent month creating. It involved many trips to London i order to film all of the iconic locations that we have got in the video such as Big Ben and Tower Bridge but in the end all of the effort and dedication of everyone who is in the group, as well as all of the extras that helped, it was definitely worth the end product.

The Completed Digipak

The Completed Magazine Advert

Evaluation Question 1

There are several iconic music videos that have influenced the making of the more recent videos by the different convention that have been used. In Superman, there have been numerous different conventions that have been used in other music videos which has inspired the creation of Superman. In this evaluation question I am going to specify the several techniques that were used.

 Looking Through Screens

One of the first conventions that was used in the music video, Superman is where the main actor is watching a trailer of a movie on his phone. This convention is called Looking Through Screens because it is the audience who is watching a video through another screen be-it mobile, phone, television etc. This is generally used in music videos as a way of making the audience know what the person is looking at which can also be called a POV shot (Point of View). This shot was inspired by a music video called Hey Ya by Outkast which was cleverly made.The effect that was used in the music video Hey Ya is represented differently than our music video Superman because they were trying to make the video look older with the use of the old time TV frame, while on the other hand Superman is a lot more modern because instead of using an old TV set to watch a music video; the main actor is using their mobile phone which is most probably the case in today's society.

Editing In Time With The Music
Another convention that I believe will make any music video successful is if the beat of the song coincides with the editing. If a song is really fast paced, you will expect there to be a lot of cuts, fades or transitions in the video so that the music video can keep up. This can also be said about movies where for example, if an action scene was to come up then the editing and music will be much faster. Since Superman has numerous phases in the song where the tempo changes, the editing also needed to change. In the beginning of the song where all of the band members are being introduced, the tempo of the song is fast-paced. When the song comes to the point where the lyrics begin, the editing speeds up and all of the band members eyes are shown in the tune of the guitar strums.

Time Lapse

This type of convention isn't used commonly in music videos but when it is done the results can look incredible. In the music video, Superman there is a section of the song where there is a time lapse in Piccadilly Circus. Time lapse has been used in Superman although there isn't actually any sense that time has passed. Which can be seen as continuity error but there is also an alternative ending in which the main actor is in fact hallucinating which means that the whole song in fact has been his fascination of what would happen if he were to accept the group invite.



Picture In Picture
During the first minute of the music video there is a section where there are all four videos of the band on one screen which is called Picture In Picture.  The inspiration for including this in our music video was taken from the song Na Na Na by My Chemical Romance.One of the more difficult aspects of doing this is having all four of the videos allign in the shot but also so that they appear in time with the music. In the My Chemical Romance video you can see that all of the four band members are in their own vehicles and are making their way to their destination. This is used in Superman as well because before the song begins all of the band members are getting prepared so it is very similar to Na Na Na. The preparation of all of the band members is sped up as well. This can be seen as a first indicator to the audience to show that the pace of the song and editing throughout the song are going to change as I have previously explained when the time lapse was shown in Piccadilly Circus.

Use Of An Iconic Location
 Seeing as the music video was being filmed in the bustling city of London, the group believed that it would be a wasted opportunity if we were to not capture some of London's iconic locations which include  Big Ben, Westminster Bridge, Tower Bridge, The London Eye etc. The ideal use for an iconic location is the fact that the audience will see where the location of the music video has been filmed and will instantly understand what techniques have been used in order to film. This can be seen in People Help The People by Birdy where the opening shot of the music video is the view of Tower Bridge from the inside of a taxi which has been desaturated in colour.The video is about someone who goes around London and and see people falling through the cracks of society and are just disregarded. This ties in with Superman because the main band member is going around trying to help people but he is being ignored and seen as an outcast of society as nobody is paying him any mind.

Hallucination 
In some music videos there are effects that have been used to make the music video, movie or even TV show real or vice versa. For example at the end of the Superman music video in order to show the audience who are still watching and remind them that none of this is actually happening, the end clips makes it seem as if he is flying when in fact he is being held up by a swing. Another example would be in the movie Pulp Fiction where John Travolta and Uma Thurman are on the date and she says the quote 'Don't be a square' while drawing a square in mid air. This is a smartly entered part of the movie because it reminds the audience that they are only watching a movie.

Digipak
With the group we had all come to the decision that the digipak was to stay with the genre of the song which was ska. But more importantly all of the promotional items such as the magazine advert needs to be connected with the main music video Superman.

The first thing and that needed to be considered before anything else in the digipak is the background. Since the genre of music that we are using is ska and the costumes that the group were wearing during the filming had the black and white checkered theme, we believe that this would be the most suitable background for the digipak. Next came the pictures of all of the band members. Since everything on the CD packaging needed to be linked together or connected to the genre, the initial thought was to desaturate all of the members of the band to try and bring out the light and dark areas of each band members face although that was not the case and didn't achieve the look that we were going for. Next we  used the effect torn edges which ultimately gave us the finished pictures as you can see on the digipak. After this stage is a crucial part which needs to be included into every digipak is the track list. All of the songs that have been inserted into the track list are all of the songs that Behind Bad Luck have produced between 2007 and 2008. Next you will have the back panel of the digipak which will include all of the smaller details which may have some further use to the customer. Things such as the bar code for purchasing, QR code for social sites such as Twitter and recommendations from companies like the Ministry Of Sound who will tell the customer how good the music really is. Lastly, you will have the front cover of the digipak which should contain the main song of the album and some kind of album art so that the customers will understand who has created the song. Normally on the front cover of the digipak it will be the main star of the band or if the whole group is on the cover then the main star will be the person to stand out more.

Magazine Advert
For the audience to be able to figure out that the digipak, music video and the magazine advert are all connected, it would make sense to use an image that would be used on all of the promotional material. This is exactly why the image that has been used on the magazine advert is the same image that has been selected to be on the magazine advert. Most of the material that is on the magazine advert is similar to the digipak. This can be seen from the type of font and colour that has been used for the title, the QR code which is on the back panel of the digipak and all of the same companies that were present on the digipak. Even though most of the same material has been generally copied over to this advert, we believe that to state that we are also trying to create a motif for the ska genre by repeatedly using the same checkered design which can be looked at in the bottom section of the advert. Magazine adverts which are usually linked with ska type genre music tend to lack colour apart from the select pictures that aim to stand out and draw the customers attention. This technique has been used in Streetlight Manifesto's album cover which has all of the other areas of the cover in black and white while you have the vibrant red stick out which will draw the customer to that section. Now very similar to the digipak in order for it to look a lot more professional it was advised that we were to add a rating from a company and add a quote from them.

All of the promotional material that has been created with the Superman music video consistently has had inter textual references to different kinds which have been made aware above. While we may have used the above influences a lot in our music video, digipak and magazine advert a lot of the creativity came from the group.

Evaluation Question 2

I have produced a Popplet explaining how effective the digipak and magazine advert are and tie in with the main music video of Superman.

Evaluation Question 3

Getting feedback from the audience is always the best way to ensure that the target market was met and how successful the product was. But on the other hand it could also be an indicator that there are things that need to be added to make sure that it reaches a much broader target audience. After the Survey Monkey questionnaire had been completed, the best place for it to have been filled in was to send a link to Facebook and Twitter which are both the top social sites in today's society which mean there will be a much higher chance that it will be completed.

Survey Monkey
 On the right there is a print screen from one of the responses of the survey that I have created from Survey Monkey. One of the aspects of the response to this survey was the last question in which they left a comment in. The feedback received was different from all of the other response because they all referenced music videos that were tied in with the R&B genre type of music while Michael Jackson's song seems to be more pop. One of the questions that I believed was important to whether or not Superman would be successful is if when the audience is hearing Superman would they be interested in the song or the video. This is an interesting point to research because people will listen to songs on the radio or TV but have never seen the actual video to the song which may also be the whole reasoning behind the lyrics. In most of the responses that was received from the questionnaire, as i suspected, most teenagers will watch the video to the music but from the other pieces of feedback that I have collected people who are over the age of 18 are less likely to search and watch the music video.

YouTube

YouTube can be regarded as another social site such as Facebook and Twitter because is it an area where different kinds of people can upload videos, statuses and give other people their opinion on numerous subjects. The same as Facebook, people can search up other people or videos that they are interested in which is why this is the best site in order to post up all of the latest videos or rough cuts so that they can be viewed and commented on. YouTube is the site where the rough cut, alternative ending and the official Superman video have been uploaded. The comments that have been received from the main Superman music video have all been really positive. Even the original singer from the band Behind Bad Luck commented commendating us for the music video. As of the 27th of April, overall the music video has reached 404 views and hopefully this number will continue to grow.

Rough Cut Feedback

 As you can see from the print screen on the right, there was not as much success on the rough cut as there was with the main music video Superman. This is clearly seen by the much smaller amount of views that the video has received and also the lack of comments. Seeing as the rough cut didn't help with the process of figuring out if we have reached our target market, the group then decided to each create their own surveys and show them to the general public which, did in fact, give us the results that we were hoping to get from the rough cut.

Twitter

 As well as using YouTube to be able to make the music video Superman more popular, the group were also using social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Word-of-mouth was also used by spreading the word to all of the students that are in the same year as the group, which in turn they would also use Facebook or Twitter to advance the music videos popularity. As you can see from the print screen, using word of mouth one of the people which we have spoken to have decided to use Twitter to expand the video into the mainstream of the general public.

Evaluation Question 4

• Photoshop
• Camera
• Final Cut Express
• Phones
• Unsigned.com
• Facebook
• Microsoft Word
• Survey Monkey
• Blogger

 These are the points that will be included in the Prezi that I have created to answer the evaluation question:

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

Superman - Animatic

This is the animatic of the storyboard that was used for our group to be able to film the music video Superman which was covered by Behind Bad Luck.

Audience Theory - Hyperdermic Needle/Effects Model

Audience Theory is the way in which the consumers which are the people everyday that decided to watch TV, are effected by the advertisements. Even though we may not be aware of it, we are being affected; this is where the different theories come into the equation.

Hypodermic/Effects Model

The Hypodermic/Effects Model theories are the same thing but are given different names. This is the idea where the audience is not aware that they are being used to think a certain way about adverts; as if they have no control. This theory is labelled as negative because it is labelling all of the viewers as passive and powerless to prevent the influence. For example, there are adverts that are catchy and will stick to people's mind. Such as adverts like GoCompare or Compare The Market which are a lot more memorable because of the images, slogans and characters that are used in the advert. Although we can see this model as being true, there has been an experiment that has been conducted to show that watching violence or experiencing it will influence a child to do violent acts. This was called the Bobo Doll experiment which eventually proved inconclusive because dangerous toys were placed in the room with the child so they would have picked up the toy and start attacking the doll.injected into the audience by a powerful, syringe-like media. So, therefore the media works like a drug that is addicted or duped to the adverts that are produced. The Effects Model also contributes to Moral Panic because the media will use this to produce inactivity and will highlight that students will not pass their exam and will become 'couch potatoes' who will make no effort to try and get a job. The definition of a moral panic is an intense feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order.
The Hypodermic  Model believes that the messages that are portrayed by the media are

Superman - Storyboard

In order to know what we were doing for the filming that we are going to do, first we need to draw a storyboard so we know exactly what order we film in so that it makes sense. In the group Connor as tasked with the drawingof the storyboard because of his artistic skills which made the images a lot clearer to see.

What Resources You Will Need (Actors, Props, Settings)

Since we are making a music video, there will need to be plenty of things that will need to be thought over such as the actors who will be included into the filming, the props that will be used and the costumes that the actors that we are going to choose are going to be wearing. Now the original idea for the actors was to be the people who are involved in our media group but we also needed another person who could be the main star. So after consulting with the group, we decided that we would use the same person that we used in our project last year.
The next thing that needed to be considered and talked about with the group are the kinds of costumes that we are going to wear. Now since the song that we are performing to is of ska genre we decided that we need to fit the part as well. So each of us needed to purchase a ska tie and if we didn't already have one, a black shirt. Next we needed to considered having instruments in our music video as the band will probably be using them in the music video as well. We then needed to consult some of the teachers in the school if we could use one of the professional music rooms and some of the instruments such as bass guitars and an amplifier for the main actor Tomas. This isn't a necessity for the music video but it would be a nice feature to have included. Luckily, there were extra props that we available which we could use which is the black hat at the top of the page. This is exactly the kind of headwear that most ska artists would wear so this fit in perfectly. With the lyrics to the song that we are trying to make the video for, we have also tried to tie the lyrics to what we are doing and the surroundings that we are in. For example, one of the lyrics says 'pretending I'm a supermam!', in our video the main actor and singer begins to pretend that he is superman and tries to fly away from our group.

Finally the first thing that needed to be thought about before any filming could commence is where exactly are we going to film for the music video. Since we are really close to London we thought that the best idea would be to film in central London and get all of the most well known landmarks such as Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Westminster Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral. This way at least that anyone who is watching the video will know where we have been and filmed.

Locations Sheet - Westminster Bridge & Surrounding Areas

Production Schedule Location Visit Sheet Programme Title: Superman Client: Behind Bad Luck Writer: Dapo, Aaron, Nick and Connor Producer: Dapo, Aaron, Nick, Connor Director: Connor Date: 5/11/2013

Rough Sketch/Explanation of location and key points to note: - Have to pay train fee - We will be going at an off-peak period in order to avoid crowded trains - When going to this location to film we will go to Westminster station as it is very close to the bridge Access to location via: - Parental permission - Pay for train fee to Westminster station

Name and number of location contact: - Westminster Bridge Rd, London Borough of Lambeth, London SE1

Health and Safety Issues to note: - We ensure that we don't drop any of the filming equipment and instruments as the ground will be concrete - We must ensure that we are not too close to the edge of the bridge as filming equipment or even ourselves can trip and fall off

Potential Filming Problems: - There may not be enough space on the pavement to fit all of us - Cars passing by may interfere with our music which will mean we will not be able to sing along to the music when performing - Members of the public may interfere with our filming

Additional Notes: (map of area/weather forecast etc)  Map of Westminster Station The Shard Westminster Bridge

Location Sheet - The Shard

Production Schedule Location Visit Sheet Programme Title: Superman Client: Behind Bad Luck Writer: Dapo, Aaron, Nick and Connor Producer: Dapo, Aaron, Nick, Connor Director: Connor Date: 5/11/013

Rough Sketch/Explanation of location and key points to note: - Have to pay train fee - We will be going at an off-peak period in order to avoid crowded trains - When going to this location to film we will go to Westminster station as it is very close to the bridge Access to location via: - Parental permission - Pay for train fee to Westminster station

Name and number of location contact: - Westminster Bridge Rd, London Borough of Lambeth, London SE1

Health and Safety Issues to note: - We ensure that we don't drop any of the filming equipment's and instruments as the ground will be concrete

Potential Filming Problems: - Cars passing by may interfere with our music which will mean we will not be able to sing along to the music when performing - Members of the public may interfere with our filming

Additional Notes: (map of area/weather forecast etc.)

Contingency Plan - Superman

Contingency Plan Name: Nicholas, Dapo, Connor & Aaron Production: Nicholas, Dapo, Connor & Aaron

Potential problems and how to overcome these problems: There may be many problems when filming and editing. These problems need to be avoided as much as possible to ensure that our finished product is exceptional. The first possible problem could be the day we film. We need to communicate as a group and find a day where we are all available to film. In our group, some of our members are involved in activities outside of school such as football and rugby teams and even also weekend part time jobs. We will need to make sure that we find a date that is comfortable for all of our group members. In addition another potential problem could be transport funds. We will be filming in London so this means that we will be taking the train their which obviously costs money. We will need to be aware of these costs so that we do not delay our time to film.

Costumes and Props - Superman

Character Name: Nicholas
Costume: At the beginning of the video, Nicholas will be wearing a grey coat over the top of his usual sixth form shirt and tie as the park scene takes place during a normal day at school. When the band relocate to London, Nicholas will be wearing a black shirt and checkered Ska tie with black trousers and shoes, the same as the other boys.	Props: A musical instrument (In the band scenes)
Character Name: Dapo
Costume: At the beginning of the video, Dapo will be wearing a dark blue coat and backpack over the top of his usual sixth form shirt and tie as the park scene takes place during a normal day at school. When the band relocate to London, Dapo will also be wearing a black shirt and checkered Ska tie with black trousers and shoes.	Props: A musical instrument (In the band scenes)
Character Name: Connor
Costume: At the beginning of the video, Connor will be wearing a grey fleece over the top of his usual sixth form shirt and tie as the park scene takes place during a normal day at school. He will also wear his trademark Adventure Time hat in this scene. However, When the band relocate to London, Connor will drop the hat and wear a black shirt and checkered Ska tie with black trousers and shoes. In the scene where Connor exits his house, he will also be wearing a scarf and gloves.	Props: A musical instrument (In the band scenes)
Character Name: Aaron
At the beginning of the video, Aaron will be wearing grey coat over the top of his usual sixth form shirt and tie as the park scene takes place during a normal day at school. When the band relocate to London, Aaron will be wearing a black shirt and checkered Ska tie with black trousers and shoes, the same as the other boys.
Character Name: Tomas
Tomas is the only exception to the established dress code as he will be dressed in a red cape in addition to his ska gear throughout most of the video. This is because he fits the ‘Superman’ description best and is also a good actor. At the beginning of the video, Tomas will be wearing his sixth form clothes like rest of the band.	Props: A Mobile Phone, and a musical instrument (In the band scenes)

Risk Assessment - Superman

Group Members: Aaron, Connor, Dapo, Nick

Location: The Shard, Westminster Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, London tube, Performance Stage, Playground

Hazard	Person(s) at Risk	Likelihood of Hazard 1 – Extremely Unlikely 5 – Extremely Likely	Severity of Hazard Outcomes 1 – Very Low Risk 5 – Very High Risk	Risk Level (Likelihood + Severity)	Measures to Take to Manage Risk	Risk Managed? Y/N
Minding the gap when boarding trains (London Tube)	All group members	2	3	5	Look before stepping onto trains	Yes
Stay on the left hand side when using escalators (London Tube)	All group members	1	1	2	By always having it in mind to stand on the left along with other members of the public	Yes
Not to leave any of the equipment's or instruments on the floor without some looking after it(All locations)	All Group members	3	1	4		Yes
Being careful not to trip over any wires or equipment whist preforming(Performance Stage)	All group members	1	2	3	By covering any loose wires or moving them as far as possible away from us performing	Yes

Being careful when filming on climbing frame with the camera (Playground)	All group members	1	2	3	By minding our steps when boarding and leaving the climbing frame at all times.	Yes
Not being too close to the edge of the bridge (Westminster Bridge)	All group members	1	3	4	By always being a few steps away from the edge at all times even whilst filming ensure that we're not too close.	Yes
We will need to be wary of vehicles whist whether filming or not as Piccadilly Circus and the area around The Shard can get very busy	All group members	1	3	4	By staying way from the road	Yes
Playground equipment's could be faulty	All group members	1	2	3	By checking with a forceful tug being using	Yes

Contacts

Emergency Service: 999
Robert Clack School: 02082704200
Mr Johnson (Head Of Media): 07944714569