Evaluation Question 4

Question Four: How did you use media technologies in construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This question can easily be broken down into four sections which are research, construction, planning and evaluation stages. When thinking about how we used media technologies within all these stages there are huge a vast amounts which we can include within in there.

Research:

When doing the research into creating the music video, digipak and adverts there are vast amounts of information which I came across when using a variety of different media technologies.

So when thinking about the research aspect of the main tool which I used was the Internet then search engines such as Google, then websites.

Here are some of print screens of the websites which I used with research aspect. The main piece which I used was Google which helped me get results for when trying to look for specific key bits of information linking into our specific genre. One of the other main sites which I used was Youtube, I found this most useful because it helped me when trying to look for specific conventions of music videos which applied to Goodwins Theory. I also used music websites such as NME because this showed me how certain types of music was represented within the media which was helpful when trying to plan the advert.

Planning:

When doing the planning aspect of producing the music video and ancillary taskes we used number of different media technologies. One of the one which we used is Imovie to produce an Animatic to make us get to grips which we need to produce by the end of the course work.

Here is screen shots of the animatics. We also has to use Microsoft word to manipulate and annotate our animatics within a story board, this was a really big aspect of our planning because this backed up the rest of our music video because this was the main foundation of it.

Construction:

It is obvious that construction is a big part of my blog when it comes to amount of space which it has taken up with the posts. So we had to use a number of different media technologies when doing the construction. The main piece of construction media technologies that we used was Imovie we used this in producing the music video, this is all for editing which was a very long process which took a long time to actual edit the footage to produce the video.

Another couple of pieces of media technology which I used was Apples Pages and Microsoft Publisher which we used to produce our final digipaks and adverts.

Evaluation:

Even though this is not the biggest part of our course work we did use media technologies within part of the evaluation. We used Imovie to create a video where we spoke over specific shots which showed conventions within the music video which we were trying to follow. We found this extremely effective because it saved the group writing and we got the point across well which we were trying to emphasise.

We also used Blogger as a media technology when doing the evaluation, in that matter all of the coursework. We have recorded our process throughout Blogger which we found very effective in keeping on top of work and keeping it organised.

Evaluation Question 3

Question Three: What have you learned from your target audience feedback?

Here some of the photo's which I took during the target audience feedback when they were watching the music video or looking at the digipak or advert.

What we decided to do for our target audience feedback was to show the audience either our main product or ancillary tasks, then we got them to answer a set amount of questions.

Here are the list of questions which we asked the audience:

Media Questions for Target Audience Feedback

1. Does the

digipak/advert/music video catch you eye?

2. Do you think that the digipak/advert/music video is comparable with professional products?

3. What do you think are the good aspects of digipak/advert/music video?

4. Where do you think there are areas for improvement for our digipak/advert/music video?

5. Do you think the digipak/advert/music represents the genre well?

6.Overall what do you think about the digipak/advert/music video?

The reason why we asked set questions for both main product and ancillary texts is because it was a lot easier when trying to assess the results which we got from the target audience response. We believed as a group that it was a much better way to record the target audience feedback because we got there actual response, rather than just handing out a questionnaire.

So what did we learn from our target audience feedback?

When thinking about how we can assess what we learned from them, it can be broken down into the two different categories which are the actual music video and ancillary tasks.

Main Product, Music Video

So for this part the target audience which we used to get a response was 2 males and 2 females, aged 16-19. We did this because even though this is a small age range we did generally believe that this was a big part of the potential buying audience for our genre and type of music.

So from the overall target audience feedback from our music video the majority of the response was positive, then they had minor negatives which they said would make the video better.

All the the target audience which we asked found the music video extremely eye catching, they said that it was good the balance between greyscale and colour, so this helped with drawing them into the music video.

One of the other points that the target audience made which was extremely positive was that the main product was comparable to professional products, they said that we achieved this because we did follow specific generic features of the genre. We did try to make our music video to the best possible standard and from getting the target audience response it shows that the hard work payed off.

The places where the target audience felt that there was areas for improvement were minor issues which we were expecting to get criticism on. One of the main areas was the use of the instrument, we thought this through out the editing process. So an area for improvement would be to use the instrument to a better standard throughout the video. Also another criticism which we had was the use of only one actor, we do believe that it would of made the video better if we would of had a another actor, would of benefited the music video a lot.

However, overall for the target audience feedback made us realise as a group where we had gone wrong within specific areas, also we got the response of where we did well within the music video.

Ancillary Tasks

The way in which we did the target audience feedback for the ancillary tasks was the same out lay, we used 2 males and 2 females and asked them the set of 6 questions. We used different target audience members. This was so we had different members of the target audiences thoughts and perceptions of our ancillary tasks.

One of the main key aspects which I learned through part of this target audience response was that they all agreed that the colours worked together well to make the advert and digipak stand out. Through the whole of the construction of the ancillary tasks we tried to ensure that we kept the same colour scheme running through, the main reason for this is that so the target audiences could see that the digipak and the adverts were linked together and portrayed the artist. However one aspect which we tried to make stand out was the front cover of the digipak, we did this so it would catch the eye of the audiences when they saw the digipak for sale.

One of the other positives which we took from audiences feedback was that they all agreed that it was comparable to professional products. When going through the production stage this is one of the key aspects which we were striving for, so we did this by making sure the images had been edited to fit well, use of logos and use of fonts. All of the target audience which we used for the feedback said that the all of the ancillary products were very well put together, which was a massive boost for us as a group because there was a lot of effort which went into them.

However we did get some criticism with the ancillary tasks, all of the criticism which we received was mainly based around the digipak rather than the advert it's self. The main piece of criticism which we got about our digipak was that the font on the CD did not really work when it was in comparison with the rest of the digipak. As a group we thought this when we put the product together, this would be one area of the digipak that we would change if we did the digipak again over, the reason for this being is that the font does not really fit in with the rest of the digipak and does sync well with the genre.

The other criticism which our target audience had with our digipak was the front cover not going with the rest. However we did try to justify this because we wanted to try and make this stand out in comparison to other digipaks which you would see on the market which it would be competing against.

So overall from the target audience feedback we learned that we did well with the production of our final product and ancillary tasks, but then with a few minor changes which could be made. But over all we are happy with the response we got from the target audience.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question Two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Here are images from both our main product (screen shots) and ancillary texts.

When producing all of the final products I wanted to make sure that there was a certain link between them all, however I wanted to make sure that there was not a massive link with the music video and ancillary tasks. The reason for this being is that within the advert we are trying to actually advertise the album and within the album we are trying to get across the artist as an individual. However I do believe that the combination of our main product and ancillary task does work well for numerous reasons.

One of the main reasons why I think that the products work well together is the portray of the artist throughout. With the music video it is very emotional and up close to the artists, so with this the audience get a good feel for the artists and builds up a good bases which make audience feel sympathetic towards the artist. We have also done this within the digipak and advert because of the close up images which we have used to get across the artist well. So this had made the combination good because both of music video and ancillary tasks are portraying and getting the artist across within the same way. So by doing this it makes both the main product and ancillary tasks very effective in trying to achieve pretty much the main purpose which is trying to get across the artist.

Another piece which shows and emphasises a good combination between our main product and ancillary tasks is the use of instruments. I have used the instruments because I noticed that it was a generic features which was used with the genre that as a group we were trying to achieve, I noticed this when doing the background research into the music genre. So the combination of this being used across the main product and ancillary tasks has worked well because it shows that the genre is running through both of them, because we are keeping the same sort of theme.

Also, the last idea which has made both the main product and ancillary tasks effective is the colour coordination and fonts that have been used. When planning this we tried to used this as a sort of sub theme which is running through, so that the audience could see that there was some link, even if it was a very small factor. As you can see the font which we have used is the same, this got used because it is very eye catching which we are trying to achieve when produce both the main product and ancillary tasks. The colour scheme that we have used is predominately black and white and dull, however we have use occasion bring colours in contrast to help with catching peoples eyes. You can see this being used well within both main product and ancillary tasks.

So overall I do believe that the main product and ancillary tasks work well and are very effective when working as a combination. With everything working so well together and fitting well it does do well to try achieve a good sense of realism.

Evaluation Question 1

Question One: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Here is a video which we composed as a group on Imovie for Question One of the evaluation.

Target Audience Feedback of Video and Digipak/Advert

For the TA response we asked 8 people over all 4 females, 4 males there thoughts and option on our final products. They were in the age range from 16-19, we believe this is quite representable for the target population which we are trying to advertise to.

Target Audience Feedback Music Video

Target Audiences Feedback Digipak and Advert

Final Product Music Video

This is our final cut of our music video for T.J.B - I Wish We Could Talk Now.

As you know there is a lot of back up research and planning which has gone into this video, as a group we are quite proud of ourself. We are extremely happy with how it had turned out.

We have tried to use a number of different convention shots and effects which we saw being uses within our genre music videos which we assed, even music videos as a whole. From the response which we have had we believe that we have done a good job.

Film Video Motion Advert Extra

This is an extra piece of footage which we did as a group, we found a new feature on Imovie which we could make adverts on so we though we would take advantage of it and make one to put on our blog.

Final Advert and Digipak

Final Advert

Final Digipak

Overall with these as a group we are extremely happy of how they have turned out. When looking back at what we actually wanted to achieve within our adverts we have done well and pretty much ticked all of the boxes.

Realism: We believe that we have achieved a sense of realsim within both digipak and advert, one of the main reason for this is the use of fonts, colour schemes, logos and images. We believe that all of these factors go well together go produce good standard final products.

Portrail of Artist: Looking at the digipak and adverts we believe that the artist has been portrayed well by the images and the amount of information on there, and key conventions which we have followed from other digipaks and adverts from the same genre.

Theme: When looking into the digipak and advert we do believe that there is a clear theme running through, due to the colour schemes which has been used.

Eye Catching: we believe as a group that we have achieved this because it would attract people if they saw this when they were shopping or out, this would defiantly catch people attention.

Decision For Final Advert

As said before hand we created two different adverts, so we decided that as we are creating the adverts for target audience rather of use deciding we would get 10 of them to fill out aquestionnaire on which one they preferred.

There are the two adverts which we produced for our two final products.

As you can see the adverts are similar within certain ways then they vary within certain aspects of them.

Obviously the main thing which they have in common is the image which is used, but from the start we have said that we were going to use this image.

As said before one of the key concepts which we wanted to try and achieve within these is a sense of realism. The way in which we tried to achieve this is the use of specific logo's, we have tried to use the 'Q' and 'NME' logos to promote the album because they are well know music magazines so people would more likely to be interested if there is a big brand name on the front of the advert. We also tried to use the retailers logos which are 'Amazon' and 'iTunes' this is a convention which we have seen followed within numerous adverts within the same genre.

We have tried to get across the album cover on the front of advert so the target audience understand what we are trying to advertise. When trying to actually advertise the album we have tried to give more information on the advert such as release date and website.

Now when trying to think about differences between the two adverts there is not a huge difference. The main specific thing which we have done is having the layout and the colour code different, so that they are in contrast with each other when it comes to colour schemes. Personally we believe that the white works better on the black because it sticks to the idea of trying to stand out.

Another difference is the size of the actual image, in advert one on the left the image is much more of an eye catcher where as compared to advert two on the right the image is smaller which maybe might effect the its capability to draw people in.

Here is the example of the min questionnaire which we gave to people to help us decide on the decision of the final advert.

The sample which we used was 10 people in the age range of 16-19, 5 females and 5 males.

Overall when looking into the results it showed that 80% of people preferred advert one, so this is going to be our final advert. We also preferred this as a group as well.

Construction/Editing of Final Music Video

For the editing of the final music video we used Imovie, we used my Apple Macbook Pro. As a group with me having an Apple we did find it most beneficial because we could work at home and free and did not have to worry about other people trying to use it.

Editing is a part which we all had some input in, the reasons why we did this is because we want to discuss as a group what looks good and works then what does not.

Overall when using Imovie we find it very easy to use and extremely user friendly. One of the good points of Imovie is the amount of effects you can do through the editing, this really does make a huge difference to the over all outcome of the video.
We also found it easy importing the video from the video camera which we used becasue it works straight from one hardrive to another which is quick and simple.

Here are some screen shots from Imovie showing various techniques being used which we made on our music video.

When looking back over the editing it is defiantly the most difficult part of producing the music video. When comparing to AS we only had footage and dialogue which is easy to edit, however with A-level we had to use the new skill of lip syncing which in some parts of the song can be really difficult to try and make it look in sync, so this means you may have to change the speed or duration of clip by a mer millisecond just to make it look correct.

Construction of Final Adverts

As a group we decided that we were going to produce two final advert drafts then ask for people feedback on them to help us make up the final decision.

The construction of the final advert has changed hugely since the drafts which we did as a group. Where as the digipak has stayed the same we changed the program which we used within the drafts, we decided to change the program which we used for the adverts.

So the program which we used to produce the final advert was Pages by Apples, this is a mixture of Microsoft Word and Publisher, we found Pages extremely effective when trying to produce good quality adverts.

As you can see from the print screens, the program does seem very simple to use but it did take a lot effort to make the adverts up to a good quality.

One of things which we wanted to make sure we did within the advert was advertise the artists well, we did this by using colours which help to represent the artist and the genre of which the music falls under.

As you can see from the second screen shot we wanted to make sure we included the Album cover we believe that this keeps the theme running through both the advert and the digipak because they can see both on this.

Also when doing the editing stage I decided that the best font to use was Helvetica Neue, this is because it is bold and stands out which we want our advert to be.

This is the image which we agreed to use as the final image for our advert. When looking at the picture we agreed that this worked extremely well with what we were trying to achieve. We believe that this emphasised the artists emotions and represents the genre well because of the clothing used and the guitar is a really big centre piece to the image. Also we having guitar within the shot has been a big convention of the adverts which we have analysed so we decided to add it into ours. As you can see there is some editing which has been used so we could actually use it within our final advert, we did this bit of editing on Iphoto.

So from looking into the construction phase of the adverts we are happy with how everything is going along, we believe that changing over to pages is a massive help for us because we are finding it easier to produce better final products.

Construction of Final Digipak

A lot of the construction of the final digipak I already covered within earlier posts on because we have basically used the same process within using Microsoft Publisher.

However some of the image manipulations I have used to change the image have changed a within some of the ways I edited the images.

Here is print screen shots from publisher, these are construction of all parts of the digipak which includes front cover, inside, back and CD.

Here is the way in which the image editing changes. The way in which I have edited this is through an application for the Iphone called colour splash, this is the main image which we used within the CD panal on within the Digipak.

As you can you see from the print screens we have kept some of the themes from the drafts, but have removed some of ideas which were not to good within the drafts. One of the main things which we have tried to do is make the front cover eye catching which hope to to achieve.

But as you can see we do have a sort of theme running through the digipak, but people may think that the front cover is in contrast with the rest of the digipak, but we intended to do this.

So if everything fits well the digipak will be what we are hoping for.

Day of Filming for Final Video

Day of Filming Thursday 6th January.

As said earlier within the blog this is the day in which we agreed to shoot on.

Here are some of the shots which we have from the day of filming. Over all we found it extremely productive as we got all of the footage which we intended to get within the time down there.

For the weather which occurred on the day we were rather lucky because we had mostly cloud with intervals of clear sky, but we did take advantage of the clear sky as you will be able to see within our final music video.

Reviewing the equipment which we used we found it all extremely effective and easy to use.

We found the camera good, this was the first proper time in which we used it as a group since I brought it, we found a number of the features on it extremely useful. Such as the face tracking, this aloud use to focus on the artist and keep his face within the shot. Also the 16x optical zoom came in handy because we were able to do good variation of shots from long distances away with it still being good quality.

The Hama tripod was also good which we used. We found it extremely easy to do panning shots when filming, and the pans were smooth. We also found that it was level as well, because in the past some of the tri-pods have been on a slant which makes it difficult when filming. Finally the dolly wheels which we used were good especially for tracking shots, however because of the surface a lot of the time it was really ruff surface so we had to improvise.

So overall the whole day of filming was a success because we got what we intended to do, and with the weather being reasonable it was a massive bonus.

Digipak and Advert Drafts Finals

Final Advert Drafts

Overall with the advert drafts we were really with happy with them, we found good aspects and bad aspects about all of them. So overall with them both having positives and negatives it should hopefully make out final advert up to a much higher standard because we know what works and what doesn't.

Final Digipak Drafts

As you can see from both of the digipak drafts we have used the images from the photo shoot which we did. Looking at everything and analysis all the aspects of these digipak drafts we are quite happy with how they have turned out, we believe that it has met the 4 aims which we are trying to achieve.

So overall with both drafts of the adverts and digipaks these gives us a good starting block for producing our final products.

Construction of Digipak Drafts

For the same as the Advert we decided to produce a number of digipaks for drafts, the reason for this being is that we could see bad points and good points of the digipak which we are producing. Therefore taking consideration of what was good and bad about the drafts. Then as a result of this it would enable us to produce a better final digipak because we can see how to create a better final product.For the digipaks drafts th

e program which we decided to use was Microsoft Publisher. As the same as the advert we all agreed as a group that we found that Publisher is the easiest program to use to produce good quality final products.

Here are the screen shots from the editing and construction phase of making our digipak drafts.

As you can see from the screen shots the amount of effort and the qu

ality of are drafts were up to a good standard which made us feel extremely optimistic about our final digipak.

Images For Digipak

For the actual images of the digipak for a while we contemplated what photos we were going to use. One of the things we did not want to do was use images from the day of shooting because we wanted to have new and fresh images for the digipak front cover.

So for the pictures which we used for the whole of digipak was photos from an even

ing which we did a photo shoot, with a digital SLR camera and white back ground, with

numerous changes of outfit. Over the course of the evening we took a over 300 images, so this gave us a huge selection of images which we could use for our digipak.

Here are some of the print screen shots which I took of Iphoto where I put the images to organise them, as you can see that only two print screens of the photos and there was plenty more.

Editing Images

Obviously with taking the images from the photo shoot they are extremely boring because there is no editing put into them. So for the editing process we used two different programs

which were Apples Iphoto and Googles Picasa.

We used these in a variety of different ways to put specific effects on the images, we found these images very easy when trying to edit the images because they are very simple to use, but they are extremely effective what we are trying to achieve what we are trying to do.

Here are some of the print screens of editing on both of the programs which we used, we all found them equally effective when using them while editing the images.

What We Want to Achieve With Digipak

As a group we wanted to achieve 4 main point when creating the digipak.

The four point are below:

1. Realism: we want to make the digipak look professional to our most capably standard, so that we could actually compare it to professional products and measure them up for how effective they are on an audience.
2. Portrail of Artist: We want d to make sure that the artist is portrayed within a good way within the digipak, so that his audience could relate to him.
3. Standing Out: We want to make sure that digipak was eye catching so that if someone was in a shop it would standout and they would be inclined ti picking the album up because they are interested.
4. Theme Running Through Ancillary: As the same as the advert we wanted to be able to see a link between both the digipak and advert so they can see that they are clearly linked together.

Construction of Adverts Drafts

When sitting down as a group to start off the process of of Adverts we agreed that we would try to produce 3 advert drafts. Then from this we would discuss good and bad aspects of each and then put these ideas together to make our final adverts.

When going throw the process of which program we were going to use as a group to design out ancillary tasks, we contemplated a number of different programs.I downloaded the program Adobe Design which I tried to use to make some advert, but after having some goes with this I decided it would be best to stick with what I actually knew how to use rather than trying to learn how to work a new program.

The program which we used to design all of the adverts and digipak for that matter, was Microsoft Publisher, we used this at as for a our magazine advert so we were very used to using this program to produce a good standard of work.

When thinking of the advert we actually need to consider what we want to achieve from the actually advert.

Four main aims which we wanted to try and achieve within the advert are:

1. Standing out: we want to make the advert eye catching, so if someone was looking through a news paper, magazine or going past a poster we want to actually make them stop and be interested by the actual advert.
2. Put across the artist: This is key when trying to produce an advert, we need to make sure that it is clear that we are trying to produce an advert for the artist and make them standout.
3. Sense of Realism: we wanted to have a sense of realism and making it look professional when producing our advert, such as including logos and having reviews on the advert.
4. Theme Running Through Ancillary Tasks: We wanted to do this because it would give a people a better idea of the link between the Digipak and the Advert.

When producing the adverts we decided that we were going to use one image for them because this portrayed the artist in the best way possible. Also within the photo we included the guitar because we believe that this is a big part of the genre itself, because we are trying to emphasise the idea of singer/song writer and acoustic music.

Here is the image which we are planning to use for our advert, however are trying to see what other images look like when producing the advert.

The reason why we like this image so much is because we think it does the aim to portray the feelings and emotions of the artist. We also all agreed that the image fit in well the the genre of music which we have selected, so this is a huge positive.

As you can see from the advert screen shots above for drafts of the advert we tried to bring all everything that we think would look good, so when we looked at the drafts when they were made we would see what worked well and what didn't work to well.

Prepping For Filming Equipment

When we have been planning for filming we have tried to make sure that we turn up to the set location on the day of filming and ensure that we came fully prepared, the way in which we did this was by planning what equipment we were going to use.

The camera which we used was a Panasonic HDC-SD10 High Definition camera which I brought for the purpose of producing the music within Media Studies at A-Level. This camera works on a hardrive which is much easier when importing the footage to Imovie on the macs compared to trying to work off tape on the other cameras. When playing about with it we have found it very user friendly as well when working with it.

For the filming the tripod which we decided to use was a HAMA one, this is one which we have borrowed from school. We tested it at school by just doing a bit of filming, we found that it was the best one which we had access to use, we also found it easy to move when doing the filming.

Overall with the filming equipment we were happy with how easy it was to work and how user friendly it was.

Prepping for Film Analysed Storyboards and Animatic/Shoot Schedule

These are scanned images which we have scanned of are final story boards. We have analysed the shots and said what is shown and what we are trying to achieve within them.

The reason why we analysed the story board is to make it easier for us as a group when trying to do the actual filming.

This is the final Animatic which we have made as group, the reason why we made this is to help out with the filming process, so we can see the shots which we need to include throughout the filming.

We have done the animatic and storyboards as a ruff guide to help us filming.

THESE WILL BOTH COME TOGETHER AND ACT AS OUR SHOOTING SCHEDULE