Analysis of other students work

Analysis of other students work
I looked at a former students blog and analysed each section of her blog from her research to completed task and evaluation. The link to her blog: http://gsa2014a2cb.blogspot.co.uk/

 Research

Example 1: Stupeflix video

A strength of this students blog is that she uses different forms of media including prezis, pictures of notes, text, slideshares and embedded videos. This variation of multimedia shows her skills and that she has invested time and effort into the appearance and accessibility of her blog.
Another strength of this students work is the amount of detail she goes into such as creating a stupeflix video which allowed her to show shots of a video and then write about it on a following slide so you can visually see what she is analyzing and this makes it easy to understand and allows her to analyse in depth.

Example 2: A link which doesn't
work and appears blank 

A weakness of this blog is that a couple of the links don't work and this means that not all of her work can be accessed and the way it is layed out looks slightly messy which may make it harder to understand which bit of text is relating to which picture.






Planning

Example 3: Costume mood board.

Something which was really good in this students blog was the depth in which they planned each and every single stage to make sure they knew exactly what they were doing and how they were doing it. This included a fully detailed story board and mood boards as inspiration for costume and makeup. This detailed planning meant that they knew exactly what their music video was going to be like before they even picked up the camera.


Music video
Something I really liked about this video was the way in which each clip was only short and then switched to another shot. This meant that you didn't get bored watching the same girl in the same place doing the same thing. The student instead made it so each shot was set in a different location and the girl featured wore different clothing. This captures our attention and keeps us interested in watching. The locations also varied widely from a train station, to a park to what looks like a dance studio which meant that it wasn't repetitive.

Example 4: In the park, dressed in casual clothing.

Example 5: At the train station in more formal, old fashioned clothing.

Another thing which I liked was the use of editing and slow motion in this video. The slowed down footage which was also sometimes (deliberately) out of focus fitted with the song 'summertime sadness' by Lana Del Ray. Her music is described as 'chilled out' and 'calming' and so this effect works with the music to create a slow, relaxed feel to the video and gives the watcher a feeling of happiness which her original music videos also aim to do.

Example 6: A still from a clip in slow motion and blurred. 

Although this effect works well in parts and the editing was done to a good standard in some parts this was not done so well. When the girl in the video is miming the lyrics the slow motion effect made it difficult to see what she was miming and it seemed to not match up and took away from how sleek the whole video was as the music didn't fit with what she was mouthing.

Example 7: A still from the girl mouthing the words of the song.

Another thing which was good was the use of different colours and lighting. The contrast keeps the viewers attention on the video and is visually pleasing as well as interesting. In particular, the use of lighting used where the girl is dancing is effective as it creates two shadows, moving in time with the dancer and this clever manipulation of light looks like something which could be found in a proper music video.

Example 8: Girl dancing with two shadows reflected on the wall.

Digipak

Example 9: Final version on digipak with explanation why.

A really good thing about this students digipak is that they didn't just settle for their first copy, they made improvements to it in order to make it as good as possible. This is a strength as it shows time and care has been spent and their final product is also of a good standard.
Something which could have been improved in this digipak is the actual front cover as the colour red on top of the black and white background combined with the pictures doesn't look as professional as a proper cover which would have been edited with greater detail.

Example 10: Magazine advert

Magazine advert 
A strength of this students magazine article is that it includes all the important information which should be shown on a magazine cover such as the record company, when the albums coming out, who the artist is, the name of the album and such elements. This makes it a realistic advert and shows it could actually be used in a magazine.
A weakness of this is that it is rather simplistic and the editing of the girl could've been done better as around the edges it appears blurry and this takes away from the professionalism. The colours don't stand out or capture your attention which could

Evaluation 

Example 11: Summary in their evaluation section

A strength of this students evaluations is that they include a lot of detail and have created summaries to explain and evaluate what they have found from peoples reviews as well as how they themselves felt it wen. This is effective as it brings together evaluation from different people and you get an over all view about how well their work went.
A weakness of their evauluation is that is that they have only included three evaluations. The evaluations were to do with location, their digipak and a final review, this is limiting as it doesn't show you about all aspects of their coursework and some parts which they haven't included may have gone wrong or couldv've been improve. This lack of evaluation means they can't fully reflect on their work and see what they would do differently if they were to do it again.