Evaluation 4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

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

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I feel that we used a lot of different media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages. The many technologies we used consist of:


Our group blog
The internet
YouTube (Online video websites)
Filming equipment
Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and AppleMacs
Focus Group
Our Group Blog

Our group blog was one important aspect of constructing (mostly) our theory work. Although there are a small number of video reviews and ideas within, the majority is theory work about our music video. We used this to keep together all of our work in a suitable way for all to see. Many of our posts are about planning the whole event. This includes a shooting schedule, storyline, equipment/prop list and focus group video.

The Internet and Online Video Websites

For our video to be successful, we needed to see as many exmaples of other band videos within a rock genre as possible to gain many ideas for our own music video. This helped us plan what we were going to do and what to expect when filming and editing. An exmaple of what we did was going to YouTube to search rock bands and watch the videos. This helped us greatly to gain ideas and see videos in a video maker's prospective. Also, YouTube is a great way of getting feedback from viewers on our music video.

Filming Equipment

The filming equipment we used constructed the video itself. We used HD Camcorders to film our videos in high definition and carry out our recording of the video. These cameras are better than the older generation as we can now watch the clips we have recorded on set, and not have to go back and watch the whole thing, then go back and record again if there is anything to re-record. We also used a second Camcorder to get the same scenes we filmed from a different prospective at the same time for more clips to use while editing.

Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and AppleMacs

When the filming was finished, we needed to edit and customise individual clips to make the video a high quality and unique one. Final Cut Pro was the main software we used to edit our clips together and create the music video, while using its many features such as cutting, adding effects, filters, snapping clips together, etc. Photoshop was also used to create our album covers for the finished music video. All of this has been developed and carried out on AppleMacs which, in my opinion, is a great computer to edit videos in as it has quality software.

Focus Group

Filming the focus group with HD Camcorders was something that helped us evaluate our finished product. We uploaded it to the AppleMac and went through it, while listening to what other people had to say, giving us feedback of what they thought about our finished version. This was also uploaded to our blog. The focus group is something that we can watch again and again for feedback while seeing the reactions of the group volunteers, and not just reading off of paper.

To conclude, I feel that we used a lot of different media technologies. These individual technologies has greatly helped us in finalising our music video, while keeping a record of our theory work through the use of blogs and camera equipment. These have definately played a part in completing our task of creating a successful music video.

Evaluation 3) What have we Learnt from Audience Feedback

What have we Learnt from Audience Feedback on Prezi

Question 3: What Have We Learned From Your Audience Feedback?
Audience feedback is vital throughout the different stages of the production process because you can change certain things during our music video earlier rather than later, also we would not have to rush our production and put different effects in and end up with the effects being miss match and not turning it into a high quality grade.

A peer discussion about our music video drew me and my group to produce a different type of music to be different from the different genres in the class and hopefully appeal to teenage viewers how teenage life can be sometimes.

Our group started to develop our music video when we had a visit from Bevan, who we were luckily enough to have a discussion with. Bevan is a director and has helped out in the latest batman film "The Dark Knight". Bevan had a positive effect on our group by telling us to cut out some of our shots, and put more of the storyline in the actual music video, so the audience can get a feel of what is actually happening.

Next we were also luckily enough to get feedback from our teachers who are monitoring our blogs and videos very closely and make sure we complete our music videos by the deadline set.

My group have just received feedback from other members of the class about watching our music video the feedback on the good side was, "fast pace editing matched the clips well", "the good close up shots show the emotions of how the characters are feeling" although the final comment was talking about how slick and crisp our close up shots were, we also had a negative effect on the shots where one person said "dont like the shots from inside the car" which made us realise that even though our close up shots were good, we still had to think about where we shooting our shots from. Another positive comment we recieved was "Good use of narrative and band performance" but in exchange we recieved a negative comment suggesting "Narrative was hard to understand". Even though we recieved this comment the majourity of the class understood our narrative but maybe the people that said theydid not understand are into a different genre such as dance, hiphop, grime etc whereas our genre is punk/rock.

We gained a good insight into the opinions of our audience through our focus group, some of the views expressed were influenced due to the fact that we told our group before the viewing that we wished them to concentrate fully on the video, analysing it in detail to give us aspects within our music video to work on. As two of the students within our focus group are studying media studies themselves, their points made were more critical than the average target audience we would be aiming for, however this works in our favour allowing us to correct certain areas of the narrative or shots that are unclear and/or unsatisfactory.

Evaluation 2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? on Prezi

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
CD Covers

The CD cover design we created a while ago as an idea was first a basic drawing. We had to improve and re-mould this in PhotoShop changing the colour and background. All of the actors performing with instruments in the video are those of our band, Change Persona.

I wanted to design a cover that would signify all of the emotions included in our songs. The name of the album "It's only natural EP", is meant to show the emotions that humans feel, as our songs do. Love, anger, desire etc. We have a multi colour kalideoscope effect as the background of our cover. This is because each individual colour connotates each different emotion. Red for anger, blue for sadness, lack of emotions etc. The way all these colours are thrown together in a kaleidoscope effect shows how we can feel a mixture of all these different emotions at the same time. The songs also make the same points, meaning the cover, album name, and music are all interlinked with each other.

Audience members who may lack certain emotions in their lives may relate to this, and buy and listen to the album to fill this void. This relates to Richard Dyer's utopian solutions theory.

The skull in the middle is a logo for the band. When the audience sees this, they may recognise it as the band logo, a motif, making the product jump out of them from the shelves etc. The eye catching colours would also help to do this. Skulls are also seen as quite dark and are closely related to genres such as rock music. This may also help to tell the audience that this is a rock album. This "Look at me" approach to the cover also helps to promote the image of the band. It may suggest to the audience that the band is lively and attention grabbing, and promote a "Star image".

Advertisement

I created the advertisement using a photo from a band photoshoot. Once again I was gifted with material to use which we had gained through promoting the band long before our coursework was set.

I used photoshop to create the poster. I first created a black background. I put the picture at the top of the page, and blurred out the edges to make a header for the poster.

I then added the band logo and name of the tour on top of this layer over the picture. The name of the tour takes it's name from the title of the album. This helps viewers of the poster relate to it and instantly recognise the theme running through all of the different products. The song featured on the video is on the album, and the album name is in the tour title. The way the products are interlinked helps them to cross promote each other.

The skull next to the band logo appears again and is a motif as it appears in all of the different products.

I included a small advert to the right hand side of the poster to promote the album. There is a small image of the album cover and some text. This once again helps to interlink the products. Someone who buys a tour ticket may also buy an album because of the mini advert. The only people who would pay great attention to the poster are the fans, the target audience. This makes the placing of the advert highly significant as it will be viewed by those who it will appeal most to.
I then added the list of tour dates below. I ensured that the text was written in a font, colour and size that was easy to read, and would stand out from the background and attract the audience's attention.

When this was completed I added the methods to buy a ticket below the dates at the bottom of the poster. I changed the font so it would be easy for the reader to differentiate between the tour dates and the other information. I also added the ticketmaster logo as it's design fits with the house style of the poster, and it is also another way of purchasing tickets.

Evaluation 1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

Advanced Portfolio in Media 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The form and conventions in a music video defines its genre.

As a whole our group analysed various music videos similar to our chosen genre before beginning to address the forms and conventions we would be working in. What we generally found was that the running conventions throughout the Rock/Punk genre had a diverse range of emotional feeling and a sense of strength in portraying the performers in a powerful light. For most of the examples we studied, most notably the song Know your Enemy by Greenday, the performers are on a stage (Andrew Goodwin's genre characteristics) or in a position of height to depict power and dominance, engagingly commanding the attention of whoever is watching. For this very reason we decided to stick closely to this convention in order to present the usual compilation of Narrative/Performance contextually within our video, to initially captivate the audience. However, we did realise that by presenting our lead singer as a dominant figure in the video, we would lose the ambiguity of our narrative and the emotional side of the main character to an over powerful ego-enhanced image of the cliche "Rockstar" stereotype, which is something we didn't wish to highlight.

The ambiguous narrative is a choice we made in an attempt to challenge the forms and issues deriving from the music industry today, with the anticipated expectations we all have in the ability to subconsciously guess at "what comes next" in a music video, the very basis that music is founded upon of the freedom of expression and interpretation is lost. Our narrative breaks this mould by enticing the audience to believe in what is put before them, but then on the other hand begs the question who is obssessed by who? Is the concept merely a teenager dealing with her problems through music or is it something deeper, a "voyeuristic treatment of the female body" prehaps as Goodwin opinionates in the lead singers case? These signifiers to what the genre is attempting to put across can be seen from many different angles but the fact that remains is that our media product contrasts nicely in the way that the emotional side of the narrative collides with a strong band performance, hitting our target to treat our audience as intelligent viewers who can think for themselves.

The various apsects in our music video (pinpointly the mise-en-scene and the camera work/editing) have been constructed carefully to match the genre of our music video, and is created in a way to show the performers in a light to appeal to their target audience. With the social group chosen mainly older teens with an interest in the Rock/Punk genre, the key for us was to also represent costumes as a signifyer to what entails in the music video. The conclusion that evolved was that with the everyday clothing attainable to everyone, our audience would be able to relate further in the fact that they could identify with the actors in terms of appearance, as well as on a more deeper and confounding level of social issues. The camerwork follows a slow narrative that opposes the performance which is shot quickly and with sharp jogging movements, switching between the lead singer and the rest of the band. We kept close to the usual form and convention of close-ups of the lead singer and individual members of the band having certain time slots so to speak. The editing has been formed to develop conventions by reiterating the narrative with fast cuts towards the end, as to build tension and suspense. The mise-en scene was very much concerned with props and the use of lighting. We wanted to break forms and conventions of existing media products by using car headlights as our main source of lighting, due to our other challenge to the media world by filming at night in a public car park.

The general conventions of our type of genre are based very much around the relation and mood of the song to what is actually happening in the narrative. The fast paced editing that we have used in the band performance shots is something we decided to use to equal the intensity and situation of the music video when the tempo of the song is high. The first line of the song, "I saw you walking home in the dark"and "I always wind up thinking about you" is acted out in accordance to our film, with the shot of our actress walking alone at night and our lead singer sitting alone while pondering to himself (Goodwin's point on the "relationship between lyrics and visuals"). This is in addition to a mixture of many shots of the band performing and our storyline, plus scenes of the skyline and the location, to differentiate and hold the audiences attention. The line "But you're a working progress" is the main title hook in the song which sums up the video and hints at the idea of something fulfilling or becoming salvaged towards the end. (this is what the audience will notice rebounds off each other the lyrics and video to reach a conclusion)


We have used genre signifiers like the use of guitars, the traditional band set-up and in much detail, the link of a wristband which can be used to idenify the "saviour" at the end of the video. Hairstyles in the video also refer to the ideology of breaking the trend in flase modern music of having to be told how we all need to look, each band member has their own indiviual style, unlike some bands now that opt for a contemparary style or a themed look: indie, gothic, emo, etc.

Finally Roland Barthes shows in his studies of semiotics that people percieve certain aspects of life in many different ways and at times in some (bourgeois-middle class) societies ideals are contradicted by realities. In terms of our music video, what we see to be ideal in forming a good structure for a piece of film, may be contradicted in the way our narrative or choice of how we want our audience to see it is in reality.

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