Evaluation - Question 4.

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

Prezi.
I used Prezi to collect all of my ideas together on one page and to present them in a visually entertaining, interactive way. Prezi was helpful as it allowed me to create things like mood boards, collages of pictures and videos, ect. I was able to do this as Prezi allowed me to upload pictures, videos, internet links ect onto one page which would represent all of my ideas. This helped to plan all of my work and organize my ideas, especially when doing my pitch to the my classmates in my media class, as I was able separate each idea, showing each one in detail. I also used Prezi when planning my print work, as it was a great place to write down and store ideas, it was also somewhere that I could come back to, knowing all of my notes and ideas had been saved.



HD Camera.
I used the HD camera a lot throughout this whole year of my media course, especially during the construction part of the course. I learnt how to use it before taking out and using it, this way I was able to film the best footage possible as I knew how to work the equipment. I learnt how to keep the camera steady during filming as I was able to use a tripod, which again like the HD camera, I was taught how to use. I managed to film and shoot everything on the HD cameras that I was given as they were quite small and handy to use and transport around.

Premier Pro.

Premier pro was very important to the whole of my project. I used it in my research and planning, as I wanted to decide what style to film and edit my video in. Premiere Pro was also used to edit my video. It was a really excellent site to use as I was able to experiment with different tools and see which tool worked best on each part of the video, for example I was able to edit the control and lighting levels on some of my shots to make certain moments in the video to be darker/lighter than others. However, I found difficulty with the software when it came to rendering some of the effects. This was mainly because it took a long time and if we didn't like the effects then we had to change them and render them again.

Facebook.

Facebook was a crucial part of my project as it was a great source for audience feedback and comments, which then helped me improve my work as a whole. When trying to gather audience feedback, I was able to upload my music video, digipak and advert onto Facebook into a focus group I had created, then I was able to tag lots of people into the group to gather their comments and opinions. This was a great site to use as it allowed me to gather positive and negative comments, which even though negative, were still very constructive.

During the production stage of my project  I was able to upload some of the photographs taken onto Facebook, into the focus group, this was again to gather comments and opinions, this also allowed me to see which photos the audience on Facebook preferred  Some of the comments on Facebook were again positive, and some were quite critical, so I used the photos with the most positive feedback for my final design.

I also used Facebook when looking through my friends to cast and to use as my target audience. I would go onto their photos, judge how photogenic they were and see whether they were a good match to use for my work. I also went through my some of my target audiences profiles who I felt our video would appeal to and saw other music that they had listed to. This allowed me to give a detailed audience profile.

Timetoast.

Timetoast was a great site to use when it came to my planning and my time management, as it helped me organize my work and what order I was to do my work in. As soon as I started my project as a whole, at the beginning of my research ad planning, I wrote down everything on my timetoast timeline that I needed to complete and what order I needed to complete it in. As my timeline was online and saved, I was able to log into timetoast whenever I wanted to and check what I needed to do, which was a great help for me, as I have never been great at time management.

Blogger.

Blogger was a great help during my project and my media year as a whole, as it was the main source where I uploaded all of my progress, worries and issues with my work (weather conditions, ect), and it was also the place where I uploaded all of my final pieces of work. Blogger was also a great place to upload ideas and thought son my work and what I could do, it helped me decide on my final ideas and what was the best idea to go with. Like Prezi, the ideas I put down into blogger were never the final decision, which was a great aid to help my creative decision making. I was able to upload videos, web links, Prezi's ect onto my blogger page, which also helped me express my ideas through more than just standard texts posts, which made my whole blog a lot more visually engaging.

Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshop was a software I used to edit my pictures before I added them onto my digipak/advert. At the beginning of the year I found the software quite difficult to use, so for a long time I just had to experiment with what tool was what and what did what. This was an unexpected advantage on my work in the end, as it allowed to discover new effects that I didn't even know I could use, which made my work a lot better. The one thing I had problems with was the layering bar at the site of the site, which I could never get my head around. If I messed that up, it would all go wrong! By the end of the project, though, I feel like I finally got my head around what was what and what did what. The main edit I did to the digipak was getting a matching brightness/contrast across all the photos, so that they would all look symmetrical in the way they looked.

I also did other editing to the photos such as getting rid of blemishes and spots that any of the cast may of have. This was to give that professional, airbrushed look.

Media 2.0


Without Media 2.0, I would not have been able to gather any of my audience feedback or half of my research, I would say it was the main source of information for my project right from the start. It helped me plan out all of my work right from the start, this was either done by using timetoast, researching into different bands or artists and looking at different YouTube videos that inspired my own work. The technology that was available to me during this project has decided the product that I created, mainly because I used media 2.0 for nearly all of my research and planning, deciding on my target audience and editing all of my work. My iPhone was also a great help to me throughout the course of this year, as I was able to us certain apps, like Instagram, which was useful throughout the editing stage of my product.

YouTube was very useful to me during the research part of my project, as I was able to look into different styles of music video that were based around the genre of music that I was working within. My main inspiration were bands like Deftones and letlive. I looked at a variety of their music videos and the editing styles they had used, which I then used within my own work. It definitely inspired the construction of my work.

Evaluation - Question 3.

Question 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

After finishing my music video, digipak and advert, I decided to evaluate my product by gathering some audience feedback. The first thing I did to get audience feedback was post my finished music video onto the social networking site 'Facebook', I also tagged certain people onto the music video who I thought were the right target audience to watch and evaluate the finished music video. Most of the feedback that I received was helpful to my evaluation, the feedback had a good range of opinions and showed difference of taste within the target audience.

I created a specific group on Facebook called 'Media Studies Focus Group' to which I added who fitted into the target audience (some people who were added weren't even close friends of mine, but they fitted into the target audience.) People who were added into this focus group were mainly aged between 17-21, which is the stereotypical age for an audience who would be 'into' this genre of music. Within this focus group, I decided to post and share my finished music video, the planning for my music video (shot list, ect), the first plans for my digipak and my advert and then the finished versions of my digipak and advert. When I first started uploaded stuff onto this group, I hardly got any response or comments, even when I specifically asked people to comment, which was quite disappointing. As I uploaded more onto this group and more people started joining, then a lot more people started to comment on my work, which allowed me to use their feedback to my advantage. When working on my digipak and my advert, I was able to ask my audience questions and ask for their opinions on different styles and editing techniques, which allowed me to see what they wanted.

When gathering audience feedback on my music video however, I decided to ask people in person to get a better response, as I was able to watch them watch my music video, also getting their physical response to the video. I asked 5 people to watch and give me feedback on my music video in person, as I felt this was enough to show a wide range of opinions. The people I asked to view my video in person were all close friends of mine, which made it easier on me to ask the questions. It also got a better response from them, as they felt more comfortable and relaxed around me. The questions I asked my target audience were the following:-

• Does the performance look convincing?
• Does the music video remind you of any other texts?
• Is the narrative clear from the video?
• What genre of music do you think the music video is suitable for?
• If you could change one thing about the video, what would it be and why?

The responses I got from my audience were all very different but at the same time, they answered as a group rather than individually. Here are some of my responses:-

• "The narrative wasn't clear from the start of the video, but got more and more clear as they video went on. All in all, you've done a great job!"
• "The music video reminds me a lot of Skins!"
• "The music video is very convincing in terms of the way the main role acts and reacts to whats going on, very convincing."
• "Not very convincing towards the end of the video, but the part of the video where the main role is getting ready for her night out, its very convincing."
• "If I could change one thing about your video, it'd be to create more of a party sequence and include more people. Apart from that, it's great!" 

I also got some online feedback as I had posted my digipak and my advert designs onto Facebook into the group for some audience feedback, here are some of the comments I received:-

Once again, I had a good mixture of positive and negative comments, even the negative comments were constructive towards my work. Facebook was a great online site to gather information and feedback from my target audience, especially as a group.

Summary of my audience feedback:-

How have my audience been affected by the text?
I'd say that overall my audience enjoyed the music video and were positively effected, as they all reacted in an enthusiastic manner. I was very nervous about showing my audience my work as I didn't them to like the music video as much as they did, but some of the comments I received were very positive. The target audience showed great interest in the narrative structure and the change within the narrative, which was exactly what I wanted.

How did my audience read my text?
I feel like my target audience read the text in the way that I intended for them to read it, the preferred reading. I wanted to show what today's society was like and how they are stereotypically viewed by other age groups, I also wanted to create a party, young vibe throughout my video. I feel that none of my audience were offended by my video, as it was very similar to other mainstream texts, such as 'Skins'. I feel that if I had asked an older, more sophisticated age group to watch my video, they would have maybe been offended and would have had an oppositional reading.

What sort of pleasures are being offered by my texts?
I would say that my three texts offered a range of different pleasures. Firstly, as the people within my music video and print work were in the same age group as my target audience, the audience could then relate to not only the characters themselves, but also the things they were doing within the texts and they way they acted. Another pleasure that could be taken from my texts would be the costume, as again the target audience would dress in the same way as the people within my texts dressed, as it was all very casual wear. Many of the audience enjoy the dressing up and getting ready sequence within the music video, as they could relate to it, especially females. 

Evaluation - Question 2.

Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? 

My products needed to have a house style which ran all the way through them to establish a particular brand image. I defiantly feel like I achieved this, the house style was supposed to be an entropic representation of today's generation and society as a whole, targeting a teenage audience of both genres. I feel that the music video, digipak and advert created a coherant package.




Why is marketing the house style so important?

The quality and detail of the house style and brand image is important as it shows the all round quality of your product. A house style reflects the morals of your brand and what your brand stands for as a whole, for example, if you are marketing a music product, you will firstly base the 'morals' on the genre of music it is eg: R&B, pop, ect. A hip-hop music product for example would be based around having some fun and the objectification of woman and going out partying.

Below are some examples:

'The XX - Intro' is a perfect example of why a house style and brand image are important to selling a product, as their digipak and video reflects a very chilled, indie style of music, which itself has a very urban sound and style. The very distinct use of low bass, sepia tones and the very prominent use of a city atmos along with the unique adverts reflects the brand.  

How this relates to my own products:

                                     

I used the same kind of style as the XX in my own products as I found their entropic house style quite interesting, in terms of  attracting their target audience. The target audience for the XX would be the same audience as mine, all teenagers who would be a mixed gender group. Again I used low lighting throughout my music video, apart from a few flashes of bright lights and high key lighting which appeared when the female character went out, a lot like the XX used high key lighting at random points during their music video.

I tried to use the same house style throughout all of my products, so in my digipak, I made it quite dark, yet, still quite vibrant with the use of a teenage model. Like the XX's advert, I decided to use white text in front of a dark background, which made it stand out. My house style was based around my products standing out and being quite entropic and a bit different, yet still attracting the right target audience for this genre. 

The same concepts apply to my advert as I tried to keep the same house style running throughout all of my products, keeping the same styles and ideology running throughout. The use of dark colours within my advert again allows the audience to see what genre it belongs within, although again, there are some hints of colour throughout, which would attract the audiences eye. Again, I used white font on top of a dark background, which in itself is quite redundant within this genre of music, but having the whole advert and digipak in nearly black and white would come across as entropic. The redundant use of advertising brands such as 'HMV' on my advert shows where the product is advertised and distributed, which again is redundant for most genres within the music industry. 

Evaluation - Question 1.

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

When deciding on what genre I wanted to work in for my media project, I researched artists into the ‘pop/punk’ genre of music and noticed a lot of similarities in their music videos.  Bands like ‘Deftones’ and ‘Letlive.’ were helpful for me to research into, as their music videos were a lot like something I wanted to create for my own media project. Their music videos were very narrative based rather than performance based, which is the direction I wanted to head in.

I've used jump cuts and close ups within my own music video, as again, using these created the effect throughout the music video which I wanted to create.The use of outside settings, which were all shot at night, were inspired by the other music videos I had researched into beforehand of the same music genre.

Here are a few examples of some conventions which I incorporated within my music video from other music videos from within the music genre I am working within.

Above shows the music video for 'Example - Shot Yourself In The Foot Again', which like many of the other music videos within this genre, include a lot of conventions which I wanted within my own music video. I decided to take the idea of starting my music video in the same way as this one, opening the video in very low lighting, almost complete darkness, yet the light from a lighter/cigarette being the only visible light showing. This introduces the audience into the kind of music video they are about to watch and how it may display society and youth, as the cigarettes lit up in both videos are lit by teenagers. This then goes into a sequence of a girl preparing her make up for a night out, which shows levels of different social classes and stereotypical conventions of today's generation. 

I also applied theorists and theory into my music video and into my print work, first starting off with Andrew Goodwin and his theory. He says that music videos are often constructed by the link between the visuals and the song plus the artist. Relationships are built between these in the video, and the close-ups of the artists gives them the representation and publicity they require. Throughout my music video I shows a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics. For example, when the artist would sing the lyrics "away I go", I showed the main female character walking away from the camera. I also used the male gaze and voyeurism throughout my music video, as my actors within my music video are all female, which attracted an audience, particularly males.

Settings and lighting were key to my music video, as they are key to most music videos within the 'pop/punk' genre of music, especially to music videos with a narrative based structure. As a good percent of my music video was set at night, lighting was an important aspect of my video. I decided to use high key lighting to highlight the main character ad the main aspects of my music video (like pubs cars, buildings, ect), I also decided to use low key lighting when I filmed inside, as it gave it a more relaxed feel to that specific part of the video, which was what I was intending. Most of my video was inspired by many artists/bands, this is because I wanted my music video to be as close to real music videos what were the 'pop/punk' genre as possible, as this would attract my target audience.

The use of lighting and outside settings were inspired by the bands 'Deftones' and 'Letlive.', as a lot of their music videos are shot at night, using the same types of lighting and settings as I have done. Throughout the whole of music video, I decided to use the use of flashbacks and jump cuts, as it made the narrative a lot more layered, making the audience active when watching the music video itself. Like most generic 'pop/punk'music videos, I also decided to include lip sync into my music video, which allowed the audience to relate with the music video more, as it visible to see the artist or band connecting with the lyrics they were singing.

However, following typical forms and conventions of 'pop/punk'music videos could be risky as audiences who listen to that style of music could find it very predictable  which may result in them losing interest quickly. This is the same case for my design of my digipak and my advert, if it looked to predictable or too generic, audiences wouldn't be interested, which is why I had to make it stand out and look somewhat different to the usual style of print work that you see in today's music industry. Yet, on the other hand, if I made it to different, audiences who listen to that genre of music wouldn't be interested, so in this case, I had to have a balance of both challenging and following forms and conventions.

My music video has elements of entropy and redundancy throughout, it isn't entirely one or the other. I would say my print work was very redundant in a way as I used photos of the main band themselves as my digipak cover, which straight away would attract fan of that music and of that band, just by looking at the digipak. The use o black and white photos was quite entropic, though, as not many artists/bands use that style within their print work, which in a way, would make my work stand out a lot more, as it's not seen that often. My music video itself is quite redundant, as it follows the conventions of this specific genre. The video follows a heavy narrative based style, with a multi-layered narrative, forcing the audience to become active viewers, which is what many other music videos do within this genre.

Audience feedback was very important when it came to deciding on final ideas and changing certain ideas to what the target audience wanted, as I was trying to reach a specific audience with my music video. The following shows some of the feedback I received from my audience when I posted my first initial ideas on Facebook:

As you can see from above, some of my comments didn't like what I created, yet they gave me positive critism, which again, helped me develop my ideas more to what my target audience wanted. 

Finished music video.

Filming update.

I now have all of my filming complete and have been editing for a few good weeks, and now I'm confident that I will get my editing finished by the set deadline on March 1st. Although, throughout my editing time, my ideas and concept for my music video has changed throughout, meaning I have had to use time throughout editing to re-shoot certain shots and add other shots in.

This hasn't disrupted my editing or slowed down my work in general, if anything its helped me finalize my ideas down, meaning I was more confident when it came to my editing. My actor has been great throughout my whole project, as she's always been there whenever I needed to re-shoot specific shots or travel to different locations, which helped me a lot throughout the entire project.

Song change.

As my filming came together and I actually started to film my music video, the narrative and the 'feel' of the video didn't fit my choice of song what so ever, which is why I have made the creative decision to change my choice of song. The new song, which is named 'Strangle Kojak - Away I Go' is still by the same artist, but this song will fit my music video a lot better than my original choice of song.

My ideas and concepts have changed a lot over the period of this task, which I feel is a good thing as it shows my thought process along the way. In order for me to get the grade I'm aiming for, I'm willing to make creative changes, such as this one.