Deadlines/Brief

Music videos are so 80s/90s, right? They belong with the era when MTV screened wall-to-wall vids instead of 'reality' TV? Try telling that to the millions who bought Gangnam Style; were they really simply loving the music? 1.6bn (and still climbing) have viewed the video on YT, not to mention the many re-makes (school eg, eg2), viral ads + celeb link-ups (even political protest in Seoul) - and it doesn't matter how legit it is, this nightmare for daydream Beliebers is making a lot of money, even from the parodies + dislikes. All this for a simple dance track that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1990 ... but had a fun vid. This meme itself was soon displaced by the Harlem Shake. Music vids even cause diseases it seems!
This blog explores every aspect of this most postmodern of media formats, including other print-based promo tools used by the industry, its fast-changing nature, + how fans/audiences create/interact. Posts are primarily written with Media students/educators in mind. Please acknowledge the blog author if using any resources from this blog - Mr Dave Burrowes

Friday 17 February 2012

EVAL answering through video

I'll bring together past posts on this over the next week or so, but to get you started on thinking/planning about this, here's an example of an Eval Q being answered by students elsewhere, on which I'll make a few points below:

What do I like about this? The shot-in-shot, which is selectively taken off, is a good idea. There's a fair amount of detail in there too (I only watched up to around 1:15).
There are issues though which you'd do well to consider:
  • whilst R+P can be largely shared out, the firm guidance of our exam board is that Evals MUST be clearly individuated; this one isn't - you shouldn't answer the Eval Qs as a group
  • that doesn't mean you can't collaborate on PLANNING answers tho', or share resources such as screenshots + vid clips
  • it does mean your response must be in your voice/words
  • a formal script is something to avoid; make detailed notes by all means, but try to avoid reading word-for-word off a script - and certainly don't film yourself doing this!
  • these students make some nice points about shot variety - about 0:55 they list some of these; rather than continue with the linear run-through of their video, it would have been much, much better to put stills on screen of the shot-types referred to (from their music vid). The fairly simple approach of commenting over a single play of the vid works reasonably well at AS, with the SEVEN Qs, but isn't really sufficient for the A2's FOUR Qs
  • I don't know if they do later on, but its always a good idea SOME self-criticism; no matter how good it is (and every professional would echo this) it could always have been better with more time/resources ... What DON'T you like about your vid? With some distance, what might you change? Your exam Q1a/1b definitely requires such critical objectivity so grab the chance to tease out such points now
  • last point is a general one, repeating something I've been trying to hammer home for months: the more time you spend on R+P posts, especially in terms of vodcasts and the stills/clips you've gathered for these (not to mention the comparisons to existing vids + general analysis undertaken) the likelier it is you'll score well on the 20% Eval, AND it'll take you much, much less time. These 4 Qs require vid-based (or other truly multimedia, eg Prezi) responses; pointing a webcam at your own visage is really quite basic 'Use of ICT' in 2012 - you will need extensive materials (stills, clips) to illustrate and bring alive your answers.
Lets call this a bonus point ... You're marked on 'choice of form in which to present the presentation'. That means you could/should vary the format of the videos you create: do one, or part of one, as a chat show interview for instance... You can be creative/quirky with the Eval, tho just be careful to consider the very different humour of a teen and an adult marker.

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