Evaluation: Question 4

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

Research:

For my research I decided to take inspiration for my CD digipak and magazine advert on Google. This way I could look at a wide range of images all in one place which I found easy. From this research I saw that artists that were in same genre of the song that we had chosen tended to have a really busy style, I decided I didn't want to follow the same convention as that because I thought it was to much to take in.

When it came to researching for a song for our music video, I looked at YouTube and MySpace to try and find an artist since we had to chose a song that didn't already have a music video for it. By using the internet this made the process a lot more easier. 

Also looking at TV channels such as MTV which as a wide range of current music videos gave me inspiration into what music video tend to have in them. Without these tool it would have been much harder to research what we needed to look at. I wouldn't have gotten a wide range of inspiration from everything that I looked at.

Planning:

For planning I used a wide range of different software's and also the types of sites that I could go on in Google. Because I have a Iphone I found it easy that if I had an idea I could just go on to Blogger and post a little post that I could look at later on.

Whilst in the planning stage we had a look as a group at different camera techniques that we could use in our video. We had a go at the green screen animation, stop motion filming and also jump cuts. We also had a go at filming our own shots that we thought we needed when it came to filming. 

 To test our skills we had a go at Photoshop so that we could experiment and think about what we could use when it came to constructing our Digipak's and Magazine Articles. I found this useful because it gave me a sense of how I wanted the layout to look and the type of colouring I wanted to use. Another software that we had a practice with that we would defiantly need was Premier Pro, this was the site that we were going to create our music videos with. So we decided to do some jump cut shots then rearrange them into a little film. 

Moodboards were a good part of planning because it allowed us to put all of the ideas that we had into one place so that we could look back and think about what I wanted to put in each of the work that I had to do. Timetoast was a way that I could keep track of all the work I had done and also when I needed to have it ready by. This allowed me to plan what I needed to do during college time and also when I was at home. 

Construction: 

For constructing my Digipak and Magazine Advert I used a DLSR Camera to take the images with. I found using a proper camera helped my images look more professional and clearer so that you can see all the details within the image. Also when it came to editing the image in Photoshop it didn't make the image blurry when I had to zoom in. Photoshop I used to edit my images, I used a wide range of tools on all of my images. This video below will show a technique that I used in on my image.

To film my music video I used a HD video camera, a tripod and lighting. All of this helped me keep the camera steady when I had to film, apart from the scene where we decided to do a shot in a hand held motion. To put our music video we used Premiere Pro, we had a slight problem at the start but we managed to get around it, this was that the camera that we had used wasn't adapted to the settings that were already there, so when we had a section of clips in the right place we had to render them. 

Using Premiere Pro meant that we could use special effects on our video. We used over lay on some parts of our video which made the shots look really interesting and also they seemed to go with the song well. Also we used the fade out at the end of some of the clips, this would stop the clips changing into another scene so abruptly.

Evaluation: 

For the evaluation I used YouTube to put upload the videos that I wanted to use examples up on to, also my Powtoon had to be uploaded to YouTube as well. I used Screen Cast O'Matic, so I could record how I managed to achieve the look I got on the images on my CD Digipak and also Magazine Advert. 

To answer the questions I used a new site called Powtoon, this allowed me to create a slideshow but add little figures to liven up the slideshow. After all that I did I uploaded them to Blogger, some of my posts I decided to write straight onto blogger. 

Evaluation: Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For my audience feedback I decided to do a different ways to get a lot of feedback out of the audience. I decided to create a focus group on Facebook, get a group of my target audience to watch the video and then afterwards write down what they liked about the video and also what could have been improved.

In my Facebook focus group I showed my target audience my final Digipak and Magazine Advert and asked them to give me their opinion of what they think and also if anything could have been improved on.

This feedback was for my Cd Digipak and the feedback seems positive. What I have learnt from this is that she likes the different shots that have been used and how I have made all the images different to each other. The one negative that I have learnt from my cd digipak is that I could have added a little more colour to the front. I understand this because if I had added a little bit more colour to the front it would have made the digipak more interesting.

For my Magazine Advert my target audience seemed to like it. I got some good feedback and found that they liked the colour scheme on this because it didn't have many colours that stood out over each other. I tried to keep this advert simple and I think that is what my target audience like about it. 

These are some examples of the feedback that we got back from when the people watched our music video. One person found the video "really entropic" and they "really like the narrative of the video". Another person found the video "very engaging that has a lot of interesting ideas and concepts in it". They really like the idea that we did of using animal masks in the video, they said it was "spooky and cool" and this went well with the music and gave off the right tone. 

Editing of the video I have learnt that the liked the use of effects that we put on such as the fading transition from clip to clip and also creating a ghostly effect around the singer when she moved around. 

However, from looking at my feedback I have seen some criticisms of the music video as well. Most of them said that the lip syncing was of in some parts of the video which I agree with, we could have made sure when we were filming the video that we should have done a couple of takes of the lip syncing scenes. Another feedback was "editing pace sometimes the shots were too long" and also the "cuts could be more on the beat". 

Overall, what I have learnt from feedback from my target audience is that I would say that the video that the pleasures that they got from the texts would be jouissance (intellectual) because they are engaging with the video and keeping with the story. They are more preferred readers because they have responded the way I wanted them to. The feedback that I have got I think has really helped me see what they like and also show me the improvements that I could do if I could do all this again.
I think if I could alter my work I would have made sure that the lip syncing was 100% and also would have made sure the editing went with the music and make the shots shorter because some of them were too long. The 50 shots per minute rule is a good rule to follow, so I should follow that next time. 

Evaluation: Question 2

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

Evaluation: Question 1

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

Inspiration:

Our music video was inspired by the movie "The Wicker Man". This is where we saw the animal masks and thought about incorporating this into our video because the animal masks gave off a creepy look and we thought that this would work well with the music. A music video that inspired us was Bastille's Pompeii, because in the video he is doing a lot of running away from people who have weird eyes. These two ideas basically helped us create our music video. 

Theories:

Steve Neale says "instances of repetition and difference" this means that the video should have conventions of the genre that it is in so that the audience can recognize so that it attracts attention. Another theory is from Nicholas Abercrombie who says "television producers set out to exploit genre conventions.. It makes sound economic sense. Sets, properties and costumes can be used over and over again. Teams of stars, writers, directors and technicians can be built, giving economies of scale." He is basically saying that if you research into something in detail, it can help you be more organised and help you be more economic. 

Use:

My music video uses the typical conventions that you would expect in a music video:

• Lip syncing
• Editing - Pace & Montage
• Illusion - Miming and acting
• Cinematography
• Special Effects

By doing audience research I found it easier to come up with idea or get rid of some ideas that they weren't very keen on. By doing audience research it eventually helps you get the idea that you want and helps you create it. Comparing my work to other type of media I can see that I have used the typical conventions of music videos. We decided that we wanted to do a video were the whole song the performer was lip syncing to, we wanted it to differ between the shots. Close ups are used a lot in music videos, Andrew Goodwin's theory says "the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist," in the type of genre that the song that we chose in, the artist needs a lot of support so this theory will go with the close ups. 

I think our video is more entropic and less redundant because not many music videos have this sort of theme to them, you would expect the Bastille video because of the genre it is in. Our video being in a different genre you wouldn't expect and this would be much more interesting for the audience to watch. 

From looking at research I think following forms and conventions is dangerous because otherwise most music videos will all look the same, instead of them all being different and unique to each other. People will start to lose interest in music videos so no money would be going in to making them. I think it is good when different artists change the conventions and forms and bring something new and fresh to the music world.

CD Digipak & Magazine Article: 

For my ancillary products I think that these have had a good overall effect on the audience. They seemed to really like the colours and the different type of editing. 

I would say in these two I have developed the conventions because not many artists tend to do this type of theme with their cd digipak and also the magazine advert. 

I researched into other artists CD covers and also there magazines and saw a lot of sepia tones, and they also tend to have a lot going on in the cd covers so I decided I didn't want to do that, I wanted to keep this simple as I could.