Evaluation 4

HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

Over the process, there were many media technologies that I used throughout the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages. These included sites such as Youtube, social networking sites such as Facebook, Blogger and also the use of SurveyMonkey in order to create a target audience survey. Other media technologies which i used were camera equipment and also computer programmes such as FinalCut Pro in order to create my music video. All of these media technologies were very useful throughout the course of creating my overall final product.

During the research stage, I looked at other existing music videos of similiar genres to which i was interested in for my own video in order to note down the types of conventions that were associated with it and take screen grabs of shots that i found appealing. The conventions included; camera angles, locations, costumes and props. This helped me to gain an insight into what i will be including in my own media product.

Once I had done a profficient amount of research and chosen the genre i wanted to use, this then led me onto my planning stage. During this i creating a storyboard of the shots i wanted to include in my sequence and then created a storyboard animatic using the same images. I used websites such as Facebook and Youtube in order to gain feedback. Photoshop and Final Cut Pro were the programmes i used for my ancillary tasks.

When my music video was complete, I uploaded it onto Youtube in order for people to view the final media product.

                                                    

During research, I used social networking sites like Facebook which became a very useful source for gaining audience feedback on my survey. Not only was it for my target audience, but a wide range of different people which helped me to gain responses of different opinions and likes and dislikes when it comes to media products like mine.Once the responses were collected, i could then begin to arrange the conventions I wanted to include in my music video in order to appeal more to my target audience. 

For my evaluation stage I uploaded my final media product onto Facebook so that it could be viewed easily. Facebook also enabled me to gain feeback from people who had watched it.

Blogger is a website I have used throughout the planning, research and evaluation sections in order to keeps records of the work i had produced leading up to my final product and more. This website has enabled me to keep an up to date note of the different tasks which i was set over the period of this course. Blogger has allowed me to upload information from various sources making it easy to add in texts, images and video clips for my reasearch, planning and evaluation stages. Also the use of a 'comment box' has given me a way to easily gain feedback of my work so far.

During my research section, i mainly looked at existing music videos, digipaks and posters on websites such as Youtube using an Apple Macbook. Using an Apple Mac has been much more useful than a PC due to it being more advanced. The programmes i used on the Mac in the research stage was the internet and indesign. In the planning stage my times was spent mainly on creating digipaks and posters for my artist as well as using the Canon 7D and tripod to begin filming my music video. After filming, I then uploaded my footage onto the Maz computer and compresssed it in order to edit shots on Final Cut Pro.

For my evaluation I used my Mac to look at the tasks I have completed over the course and then used my knowledge to complete questions both written and as a video. This helped to make my evaluation more interesting to look at. .

Evaluation 3

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

Below i have created a short video on imovie about what I have learnt from audience feedback

SCRIPT

Before I began planning my own music video I used the survey money website… www.surveymonkey.com in order to gather feedback based on indie music videos from my target audience. The feedback i collected gave me an insight into what my audience expected to see in an indie music video such as things like; the types of clothing my artist would wear for example shorts and a casual top, the location it should be filmed at (beach or forrest location) and the different camera techniques used such as close up shots and depth of field. After looking at all my audiences feedback I began to draw up a storyboard of the sequence of shots i want to include in my video. My class then gave advice on what they thought worked well and things which could be improved for example to include more footage of close up shots of my artist singing. 

After uploading my music video onto youtube in order for people to view it and give me constructive feedback, I felt that I needed to add in some shots of my artist doing random things such as walking and just basically chilling out so that it gave my sequence a bit more variety. After highlighting what needed to be added in I then took my actress and went to do another filming session down by the beach. I felt that the shots i had filmed made a big difference to my sequence and gave it a more interesting appeal for the viewers to watch. 

Having completed my final music video, I used sites such as twitter and facebook in order for the audience to view my product, allowing me to gain some more comments on what my target audience thought. I managed to gain both positive and negative feedback which i found very useful for example they felt that there was a good amount of shots of my artist singing and how she fitted in to the 'indie' style of music very well. 

For my ancillary tasks I gained most feedback from my class media class mates as we watched eachothers videos one my one on a projector screen. Some of there feedback included: 'Good location choice', 'nice depth of field technique used on the poster image' etc. 

Overall the feedback i gained from the social networking sites such as Facebook, Survey monkey and twitter was very useful in helping me to complete my media coursework. These sites have enabled me to develop my ideas and gave me more of an insight into the different aspects that have to be taken into consideration when creating a final product. 

Evaluation 2

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

Overall I felt that The combination of my main product and ancillary tasks were very effective because there was a clear theme that ran throughout both my poster, digipak and music video which worked well with the genre I had chosen. Both of my ancillary task and music video followed the same specific style for example the font used for my digipak and poster was called 'crankdeal' which I downloaded from the internet in order to give it a more distinct appearance. However I had to keep to the conventional and therefore used the same font as other existing digipaks on the back cover. As you can see when you look through my ancillary tasks, there are quite a few different shots of my artist however they are all fairly similar  due to the location and the costume that the artist is dressed in. The colours which appear within my task are all fairly similar due to the image I was trying to give off which was a naturalistic and chilled out atmosphere therefore I used soft tones in order to achieve this. The feedback I gained from from my first draft of my music video was mainly that I needed to bring down the exposure on some of my footage as the natural lighting ended up being too bright on the day. I then edited my clips on FinalCut Pro to correct this. My first attempt of putting together the images to make a digipak did not work out due to there being too many images of my artist and not enough simple shots such as the location etc therefore I used a shot of the grass on the sandiness and a photo I took of the sky in order to add in some soft tones to my final product which also became more relevant to my music video too. 

 The photos which are featured in the lyric book were taken myself at the location where the music video was filmed. I used the same location for the photos with my artist however I added a couple of seperate images of the sandunes and the sky in order to give it more of a variety. I edited the images on iphoto to add more of a contrast so that my artist would be the main focus for the audience. 

Evaluation 1

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

POSTER;


My product is conventional for a music poster for the HMV company which incorporate fonts such as Arial Rounded MT Bold which is the font used for real media products. Below is the poster for …….. which shows the similarities of which my poster contains and the conventions associated with it. A common convention used among media products is to have an image of the artist on the front in order for the audience to recognise the solo artist which is why i have selected an image of my artist and placed the photo on my poster of her and her guitar (a common convention of an indie music poster) taken at the location of which i filmed my footage. I particularly like the photo of my artisit due to the natural colours i was able to capture on the day and the scenary around her. Also the depth of field helps to draw your attention more onto the artist herself who appears to look very relaxed, emphasising the genre of the poster.I felt that this technique was very effective in making my poster stand out to the audience as it introduces a clear image of the aspect of the poster. I made sure that my artist was dressed in casual clothing such as shorts and a baggy plain t-shirt in order for the whole image to look as natural as possible in order to create an effective indie appeal. I also included on my poster an advertisement of my artists album on my poster. I made sure it was large enough to see clearly which is a common convention for a music poster. Furthermore my digipak is eye catching due to its bright colours which is an important factor to take inure consideration within advertisement. 

DIGIPAK;

There are many conventions which can be found throughout my Digipak. Using the common conventions in other digipaks i included a barcode, music company and also the regulation copyright text. This gave my digipak a more professional appearance as it was similar to those digipaks sold world wide. On the back cover I used important conventions that are normally found on a CD album. For example, in order to sell CD's it is necessary for them to have a barcode such as this

This acts as an aspect which makes your product look realistic. The main photo on my digi-pak is of the artist herself looking towards the camera. I chose this image because of its simplicity, which I felt gave of a really natural look. This can be compared with other media product as the conventions are very similar with my own. Furthermore another common convention within an album is to include a booklet of lyrics or additional information in your CD pack. A photo of this booklet is placed on the inner cover of your dig-pak which can then also be seen in your lyric book. Again, this method is conventional as it shows how photos were taken throughout the filming process.The other photos on the digi-pak I photographed myself along with the inside photos to go on my lyric booklet. Due to there not being many images of the artist on the actual digi-pak i decided to incorporate all images of her for the inside booklet to add a more interesting appearance and so that the audience can have a better look at the artist. Most of the photos were editied however i decided give them all a softer look so that it it wasnt overpowering. Furthermore the location for my photos were the same locations as my footage which i think brings a nice link in with all the final products. 

FINAL FILM

Lotta- Contact sheets

Below are a list of contact sheets I shot of my artist for both the final digipak and poster. I took these images at the location of my music video, however I found that the lighting in some of the photos was quite overpowering and took the focus away from the artist therefore I used iphoto to edit some of my final photos in order to give them a better definition and a more enhanced contrast.

Below I created a short sequence on imovie of me filming my artist and uploaded this onto youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWKxvwZaP9k&feature=youtu.be

Ancillary Tasks