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

Throughout the entire process of this media project, I have come across and had to use a variety of different technologies, which has made the research, planning, and production process of the project easier and organised.

An online site that we used constantly throughout the project was the website ‘Blogger’, which is a free weblog publishing tool where people can share videos, photos and text. We used ‘Blogger’ to show all of our research, planning, construction of the music video and subsidiary tasks and also the evaluations. Using this site is an efficient and easy way of storing and keeping track of our project, as using paper would create a high chance of us losing our work. Another reason why ‘Blogger’ was a great help was the fact that we could include videos from ‘Youtube’ and pictures from various other sites that were helping with our research process, which I wouldn’t be able to show on paper. And finally another reason why  ‘Blogger’ is more useful than using paper is the fact that my entire project is in one place and so I could reference back to my research and planning when creating my final products.

I also used other online sites that helped with my project, mainly the research and planning side of the project. One site that was very useful was ‘Youtube’ which helped me view a lot of music videos that had been posted on the site and so helped me with my research. I found the music section of the site, which shows almost every music video, such as videos from Rihanna and Beyoncé to One Republic and Lucy Spraggan, extremely useful as it could take me immediately to the genre of music that I wanted to see and analysis. As well as using ‘Youtube’ for research and analysis, I used the site to put upload my music video. Using this convergence is very useful as it allowed me to have a backup of my product so that if I had lost my product, it would be safe on ‘Youtube’. Furthermore uploading the video is also great because it is very easy to receive audience feedback, as there is a comments section, and so this helps me as I can use this feedback in my evaluation, which can therefore improve my final products. Finally, I used ‘Prezi’ and ‘Slideshare’ as part of my evaluation section of the coursework. These sites were great in the sense that they could provide me with a way to show my evaluation, as these sites were easy to function along side my blog as I could embed them into a post.

For the research section of the coursework I used the programme ‘Microsoft Excel’ which helped Kate and I research our target audience. This programme was very useful as it was a very easy way to display my findings into an clear and readable graph, which I could analyse very easily. Having all these graphs and finding displayed in one programme and saved onto the computer meant that I could easily refer back to if need be.

For both planning and constructing and editing my music video, I used the software ‘Final Cut’. During the planning process I used ‘Final Cut’ to construct my animatic storyboard, but only used the very basic tools that the programme has to offer, as I simply inserted my scanned storyboard and the correct music and put them together in the correct sequence. However, for my music video I had to use more complex techniques to construct the final product that had to have a professional look. I learnt many different techniques using this programme such as being able to edit the pieces of footage down so that they run with the music that’s playing, also I learnt how I could swap footage around so that it could all be in chronological order and so it could all make sense. Furthermore I was also able to create text, which then would appear over the top of the footage, this was very useful as it allowed the video to flow and the story to make sense. This programme was manageable to use, as you can upload lots of footage and choose what you think would work and not work, which means you could get exactly what you want out of the programme. Finally it was easy to cut up the footage and use the selected pieces in certain places.

I used the software ‘Adobe Photoshop’ for the construction of my subsidiary tasks, which were my music magazine advert and my digipack. This programme was great for creating and editing both the digipack and music magazine, as it was very simple to insert both photos and text, which were vital in making our products look professional. As the image was a big element of our products, ‘Photoshop’ was great as it was very easy to edit the photo so that we could make everything just how we wanted to, such as changing the colour palate and removing some of the artists facial blemishes. Also another great thing about using ‘Photoshop’ is the fact that it was very easy to change things with all the layers section on the programme, so we could get our perfect product.

For the construction process of the project, I used different pieces of hardware that were extremely useful. Firstly throughout the entire project I used an apple mac, which I could access, many different programs such as ‘Adobe Photoshop’ and ‘Final Cut’ and also my online blog, as they were free to access within college. Another useful feature of using the Macs was that Kate and I could transfer research that we individual found out that could help each other, we could also share ideas which would eventually make our products how we would want them. Another piece of hardware that we used was a Nikon DSLR camera that we used to film all of our footage for the music video and take pictures for our subsidiary tasks. Using this camera was very useful as it was very advanced as it allowed us to record our footage in high definition and also allowed us to pull of many different shot types, like a focus pull while also being very lightweight so it could be easily transported. Furthermore the camera had a lot of memory which meant that I could get exactly the right shots as I wanted, and lastly the camera could easily connect with the Mac and so it was very easy to upload all the footage on to mac so that I could begin constructing and editing the final product.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We asked 20 people within the age range of 16-19 to answer the following questions after having seen our music video, digipack and music magazine advert.

Questionnaire

Music video

1.     Name a strength and a weakness of our music video.

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2.     What music genre would you place it under?

3.     Do you think we have succeeded in appealing to both genders?

4.     Do you think that the music video appeals to the older generation?

5.     What improvements would you make?

Digipack

1.     Name a strength and a weakness of our digipack.

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2.     What music genre would you place it under?

3.     Would you purchase this album?

4.     Do you think the simplicity of the CD disk works well?

5.     Does the colour scheme work?

6.     What improvements would you make?

Music Advertisment

1.     Name a strength and a weakness of our music advert.

2.     What music genre would you place it under?

3.     Do you think the image works well with the rest of the advert?

4.     Does the colour scheme work?

5.     What draws the most attention to this advert?

6.     What improvements would you make?

And finally: Do all three products work well together?

Results...

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

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

Our main production uses the conventions of real media texts and also challenges them. After looking at different music videos we came up with different conventions that we want to use in our final product. We looked at different music videos that were suited to our genre of music and realised that many of these music videos are narrative and so we wanted to do a narrative music video. Also we noticed that the narrative storylines of the music videos that we watched were very melancholy and downbeat and that’s what we wanted to show to the audience. Watching the different music videos, we saw that there were different ways in which we could show the title of the song and artist(s). Some music videos have the titles in the corner, which I feel could sometimes go unnoticed so we wanted it be obvious to the audience what the song was called and who the song was by. After observing the music video for the acoustic version of ‘We Are Young’ by ‘FUN’ I saw that they used a title sequence that was controlled by the beat of the music and we both thought that this was really effective in making an audience watching a music video as it challenges regular conventions of music videos which makes it stand out from the crowd, and so as a result we used a title sequence that was different from other music videos.

Another convention that we followed was images/cinematography. Most narrative music videos that we watched used cinematography that captures how the characters feel and what mood they are in and because we want to tell a story we felt that the best way in doing so was showing the characters emotion through the cinematography, as using speech would distract the viewer from the music. Using shots such as close ups, establishing shots, long shots and mid shots make the audience feel a connection with the characters, which we believe, is vital for a music video. We also used other cinematography techniques such as a focus pull as it makes the video look more professional.

Our music video challenges forms and conventions of real media products mainly by the editing techniques that we used. Most music videos use continuity editing but we wanted to use discontinuity editing, such as when the protagonist gets numerous text messages from people about the loss of his brother, as this would make our video be distinct from the other videos.

Our first subsidiary task, which was the digi pack, used many different conventions of real life media products. After looking at many other professionals products we could make our digi pack to be more of a professional standard, we used conventions such as continuously using the same typography throughout, so for example we used the font ‘Brain flower’ for both the title of the album and also for the list of tracks on the album. Another convention that we noticed was that many albums have a message to their fans on the inlay and so we thought this looked professional and so we added a message from the artists to their fans. We also have the website and company that produces the album, including copyright information on the back of the album, which gives a professional and realistic feel to the digi pack. Lastly with many digi packs that we analysed they have the artist or a person on the front cover that is making eye contact with their audience. We also have our ‘artists’ making eye contact with the audience, because we feel that this will make the album eye catching to the audience and draw them in as they feel the album is looking right at them.

Finally our second subsidiary task, the advert, used many conventions that real life media products use. Many adverts that we analysed have a small amount of information on them and so we followed this convention by only including the title of the album, the date of release, how you can buy the album, the website, the band name and two reviews. Like the digi pack we used a picture that shows the ‘artists’ looking straight at the audience, which grabs the audiences attention. Furthermore we added some critic reviews praising the album, as seen in the Plan B advert that I analysed, because it highlights to the audience how good the album is and that you should buy it, which is the main reason for a music advertisement.