Evaluation Question 4

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

Throughout the process of this project, I have used a large range of media technologies in all stages efficiently and successfully. As there are a large range of different ways to use technology now more than ever, it has become easier to make producing work a lot more innovative and more creative. Firstly, one of the first technologies I used was Blogger. Blogger is an interactive blogging website where users can sign up to have a blog and post a number of different things. They can upload pictures, videos, embed youtube videos and add text like I am now. I have used blogger in a number of ways like, for example, embedding youtube videos for some of my blog posts. When I analysed a music video on youtube I was able to embed it onto my blog so that I could emphasise my argument more clearly.

YouTube has also played a large part into the completion of my advanced portfolio as I have been able to use Youtube in a number of ways. Youtube allows users to upload videos in which other users can watch, rate, add a comment or embed it onto their own website. I have used youtube to watch videos in the research stage of our project to research different music videos, for example, I have researched a large range of indie music videos including videos from Mumford and Sons and James Blunt.

Youtube also allowed me to annotate on videos I have already uploaded, here is an example of this:

The equipment I used to film the music video was also another technology I embraced during this project. In order to film the footage, I used a video camera with a memory card which I then plugged into the computer to upload the footage. As well as a video camera, I also used a tripod, figrig and still camera. A tripod is used to stabalise the camera and can be moved to change the angle of the shot. A figrig works in a similar way but it is more often used when filming something moving.

Here is a demonstration of how I used the video camera on a tripod whilst filming my music video:

In order to edit the footage I have filmed I used a software programme called 'Final Cut' - another technology which is simple to use and creates a professional product. Final cut has a range of features, it allows text to be put on top of a clip and can be moved about according to the individual. Final cut also allows a user to edit footage, like for example slowing it down or shortening a clip too. Photoshop was used for the ancillary task in this project - it is also a technology fairly simple to use and understand and it too has a large range of features. You can create a number of layers on photoshop and therefore adding more edits to an image if that is what the user wants, one of the edits I used was called 'fade away' in which I selected a bit of the image to be slightly faded whilst the other part of the image was not faded therefore making it more prominent to those viewing it.

In order to present my work I used a range of technologies for this, including prezi, sliderocket, slideshare and mapmyself. Below is a video of how I have used a few of the technologies mentioned above in my own work and how it has contributed to the completion of my project.

Digipack Final Draft

Music Video Final Draft

Evaluation: Question 3

"What have you learned from your audience feedback?"


Music Video Feedback  

 Ancillary Task Feedback

As well as feedback on our music video, we also received feedback for our ancillary task in which we asked a few people to answer some questions we had created whilst filming their response. The questions we asked were designed to see if our ancillary task meets conventions of our genre and if they believe they could guess the genre just by looking at the advertisement and digipack. We found that all of the audience giving feedback noticed that our genre was Folk-rock - this was made possible through sticking to conventions of that genre in order to make it recognisable to the audience.

Evaluation: Question 2

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

Evaluation: Question 1

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

As the tasks initially began, I was asked to research and carry out an investigation into finding out the conventions different music video's hold and how important the conventions are in correspondence to the music video's overall success. The first task was to decide which genre of music I would prefer to use - and I then opted for Folk Rock as this interested me the most and I believed this would be the best genre of music to use. Once our group all decided this was our genre we then began some further research specifically only for folk rock in order to find out the most we possibly could before planning our own music video.

We then used the internet and found websites with links to pictures, videos and album and advert covers so we could have an idea of what conventions we would then adhere to in order to make the music video a success. As a group we had all found that in folk rock music videos there was a strong convention of the artist playing an instrument - and this would often be a guitar which we have also used in our own digipack and music video. As a group we then decided that these conventions were imperative for success so we did abide by these most of the time - this would allow the planning of finding locations and purchasing costumes to be a lot easier if we are aware of the main conventions of our genre. We have looked at many different real media products to see what we could compare - and in particular if the conventions were adhered to as much as possible.

Album Cover






The album cover is most definitely one of the most important parts of the entire digipack - it is the first initial cover the target audience will see so therefore must be very carefully planned and considered before making out own cd album cover. The first main comparison between our cd cover image and the actual James Blunt album cover is that they have both included still shots of the artist to easily recognise them when looking at the CD cover. The font and font size is also another thing which can be compared - in both CD covers the font is bold so therefore stands out and it is also a lot larger than the ordinary text in other parts of the advertisement.

It was also important to make sure that the background image was of good quality and serve the purpose it should have. The background image in the real media text can only be described as calm, wishful and suits the conventions in the main advertisement. This is also prominent in our own album cover which also had an image of mountains.

Advertisement

The first image in the GIF file displays our own advertisement cover and how it compares with an advert cover from Mumford and Sons. It was important to adhere to the conventions, so we began with the simple ones which were some form of text with the artist's name and also the album cover - as well as the logo of the record label and when the album is going to be released. One of the main similarities which our advert has in comparison to the Mumford and Sons advertisement is that they both have the artists prominent in the cover as well as the artist's name in large writing so this is the first thing the target audience can notice when reading the advertisement. 

Our own advertisement has also used a mid shot of the main artist and this has been compared to with the Mumford and Sons advertisement - even though they are a band of four all artists are in a mid shot positioned in the advert cover. The font and size of font was also important to take into consideration when designing and creating the advertisement - we had to make sure that it fits in with our genre so it does not confuse the target audience when they see the advertisement. The font on both advertisements for the album name and artist name are very similar as they are both bold and prominent in the cover to easily be recognised by the target audience. 

Little Bird Music Video Second Draft

After the feedback we received from our peer assessment of our first draft, we went ahead with creating a second draft in the hope of eliminating the problems we had in the first draft. One of the main comments we received in what we could have improved on is the performance of James in the long shot of himself walking and lip singing - his lip singing was not prominent enough and the audience could not see what part of the lyrics he was singing as it was not clear enough. So, we have re-shot this part of the scene in the suburban area, as well as add a completely new location too.

First Draft

Digipack cover and Magazine cover Feedback