Friday, 9 December 2011
Evaluation Q4 - How did you use http://www.countrylifegreatbritishpicnic.co.uk/recipes/show/112/mini-cornish-cheese-and-onion-pasties/media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used a range of media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of making our music video.
RESEARCH
MAC'S
All of our media texts were constructed using the Apple Mac's. The Mac's have lots of different programmes on it which enabled us to edit during the later stages of our construction.
Pro's
GOOGLE
I used google a lot throughout the research stages in order to obtain vital information about our band's genre, this aided us hugely and ensured we had enough background knowledge to carry out the construction of our media texts.
Pro's
For filming our music video we used Sony digital camcorders, we found the quality of these camcorders to be amazing as they enabled us to zoom in without blurring the footage. they were easier to use than last years cameras as they were digital and the others were tape which impaired the quality which subsequently this time improved due to the digital technology.
Pros's
All of our editing was done on apple mac's which has advanced technology and many programs for us to edit our footage and Print work on.
PHOTOSHOP
Pro's
Pro's
Pro's
RESEARCH
MAC'S
All of our media texts were constructed using the Apple Mac's. The Mac's have lots of different programmes on it which enabled us to edit during the later stages of our construction.
Pro's
- Simplicity - we found it relativity easy to use despite it having quite complex programmes/Apps.
- Quality - everything we did on the mac's looked flawless, the only time something didn't look as flawless, was our music video footage which had been filmed on a tape camera at certain times.
Con's
- Access - We were not able to access simple programs such as 'Word' or 'PowerPoint' on the Mac's if we wanted to use these programs so that we could accumulate and edit our information at home we had to find a standard PC which was time consuming.
- Time Consuming - Most programs had lengthy processes which made us need to rush certain parts of our media texts.
I used google a lot throughout the research stages in order to obtain vital information about our band's genre, this aided us hugely and ensured we had enough background knowledge to carry out the construction of our media texts.
Pro's - Simplicity - all you need to do it type in what you want to know and it gives you the best possible answers based on your search.
Con's
- Can provide a lot of answers, however, not all answers will be relevant or required.
CONSTRUCTION
SONY HANDYCAM's
For filming our music video we used Sony digital camcorders, we found the quality of these camcorders to be amazing as they enabled us to zoom in without blurring the footage. they were easier to use than last years cameras as they were digital and the others were tape which impaired the quality which subsequently this time improved due to the digital technology.
Pros's
- Ease of use, even for amateurs
- excellent quality
Con's
- Not always available due to the high number of students using them at one period of time.
- Battery life was limited.
All of our editing was done on apple mac's which has advanced technology and many programs for us to edit our footage and Print work on.
PHOTOSHOP
We used Photoshop to edit our pictures and add text to them to make them look professional. Neither myself or Adeline was an expert with Photoshop, but we were pleasantly surprised at how easy to use Photoshop actually was.
Pro's
- It had a lot of different techniques on it which enabled us to make our print work look more effective.
Con's
- Difficult to use - as we had never really used photoshop before we found it increasingly difficult to do the simplist of tasks.
- lengthy processes due to Adeline and myself not knowing anything about photoshop.
INDESIGN
InDesign was used to set out the layout of all our ancillary texts, which again was surprisingly easy which made the print work quicker and easier to get finished as opposed to our music video.
Pro's
- Easier to use than photoshop
- Less time consuming.
Con's
- Still quite complex as we had no previous experience with the program.
EVALUATION
After completing our music video we used Facebook to get people to give us feedback on our music video. This worked by setting up an event, and asking people to leave their feedback on the same page.
Pro's
- Popular and is used by millions of people worldwide.
- Easy to access from most places that have Wi-fi access.
- Advertising via 'Word of mouth'
- Free so most people will respond to the video.
- In the top 5 most popular social networking sites.
Con's
- Time consuming
During both the research stage and evaluation stage we used YouTube. YouTube aided us in finding similar music video examples, and somewhere to put our music video once we had finished it.
Pro's
- Easy to post your video's to for free
- Worldwide
- Most popular site for viewing free video's
Con's
- Can take a while to upload
- Streaming takes a while
BLOGGER
We have used blogger throughout all of the stages of our media coursework. Blogger is a site where you can post parts of information about topics you are interested in.
Pro's
- Easy to access.
- Good place to catalogue idea's
Con's
- Difficult to edit, when the text messes up a little bit.
- Complex stages to upload images and video's etc..
Evaluation Q3 - What Have You Learned From Your Audience Research?
BEFORE
We conducted an interview with the band after selecting the song to see what they wanted in their music for example, things they'd like us to include in our video. We also considered the bands 'Smile look Alive' compared themselves to and they types of bands they consider to be like
Who are your main influences? And who would you compare yourselves to?
We have alot of influences but the ones that seem to be prominent in the music we seem to be producing is bands such as, A Day To Remember, Four Year Strong, You Me At Six, All Time Low, Blink 182, New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday and Brand New.
Id compare us to You Me At Six, Taking Back Sunday, A Day to remember sort of cross over
We conducted an interview with the band after selecting the song to see what they wanted in their music for example, things they'd like us to include in our video. We also considered the bands 'Smile look Alive' compared themselves to and they types of bands they consider to be like
Who are your main influences? And who would you compare yourselves to?
We have alot of influences but the ones that seem to be prominent in the music we seem to be producing is bands such as, A Day To Remember, Four Year Strong, You Me At Six, All Time Low, Blink 182, New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday and Brand New.
Id compare us to You Me At Six, Taking Back Sunday, A Day to remember sort of cross over
We also asked the band what type of music video they would prefer, Concept, Narrative or performance based.
Performance based, (e.g. A Day to Remember All I want)
We knew that it was vital for the bands ideas to be taken into consideration as they were letting us use their song, they also know what idea's they had for the music video when they wrote the song this subsequently forms an important part of our research.
We also conducted a questionaire to determine what sorts of things our Target audience likes and what they expect from a typical 'pop/punk' genre's music video.
after conducting our questionairre we had a better idea of what our target group expected/required in order for our video to be as accurate as possible.
DURING
during the process of constructing the music video we came across some challenges which changed our views of what we wanted to achieve in our media texts. we discovered that it would of been really difficult to get all of the band members together in order to film a performance for our video, so we challenged the typical convention of the band featuring in the video, as in our video the band did not feature, nor did they feature on the cover which is another typical pop/punk genre convention.
We did not request any audience feedback during the process of making the music video as we felt we might have got too confused, so we decided to stick by the information we had already gained from initial research as we felt this would enable us to try and stick by the typical conventions of our genre with just a few challenges or amendments .
AFTER
We asked a lot of people to watch our music video and view our print work (Poster, CD cover and insert) We asked a variety of people at different times, one way we acquired information was by setting up a Facebook event which was open to the public so anyone could comment on our music video.We felt that people our own age would be familiar with the genre of music and give us honest answers as it is our generation more so than others that watch music videos on YouTube. After obtaining our research we read through the feedback which contained positives and constructive critisims, we didn't expect anyone to find our music video perfect and we were welcoming of any critisims that arose during the audience feedback process. Now we know what aspects of our music video were truly appreciated which was a confidence boost for Adeline and myself, as we were worried about it.
We now what we could of improved on and which parts really stood out to the audience, one part that was brought up was the plot was slightly confusing, which to a certain extent I can agree with although the aim of our music video was to get people to think, and piece the different pieces of information together and take away there own thoughts from it. We wanted people to be a sort of negotiating spectator, to take in there personal views but integrate them with the music video letting them make there own decisions about how to feel and we wanted people to align with the main character,\and feel her emotions, and think how they would feel if they were in that situation. People seemed to like the running scenes because they are in time to the music. We felt that the audience research corresponded with everything we intended it to. We wanted everything to look more natural rather than over -edited which was appreciated by the audience feedback as it was brought up that ' Things aren't overly edited so that they look tacky ' . We have to thank the actors and actresses as their acting was positively commented about from lots of different members of our audience. They enabled us to make our ideas become a sort of reality and they contributed massively in making our video all the good things people said it was. Our audience suggested a range of things we could improve on and they aren't necessarily negative comments, a few people wished we would of made the story and plot clearer, and also others thought that the tea party scene could of been used more throughout the video, which I agree with because it did make the tea party scene seem a little bit random considering that was the initial idea we started out with. One of my main concerns was the comments about a shaky scene, this was due to a handheld camera shot and couldn't be done using a tripod so unfortunately its just an unfortunate circumstance, however, I don't think it impaired the quality of our music video.
Our audience feedback was always really important to us because without it, we wouldn't know what age groups would be considered and what aspects the audience liked and disliked before the marketing and distribution process, so at least we could of made changes if we needed too.
The comments about the Poster were generally positive as everyone was commenting on how professional looking it is, this is a really good response as it was quite simply just an image took whilst filming the attic scene it had minor editing and it just had the required information on it. One problem we became aware of which we found unavoidable was the information of the record label on the back was blurred we went to the print shop twice after editing them, we managed to make it a little clearer but it was still moderately blurry which again was brought up in the audience feedback.
Here are some of the responses we received via Facebook.
- Concept based (e.g. young guns stitches -although it has parts which are performance based),
- Narrative (i.e. a story e.g. you me at six rescue me)
- Or a mixture of 2 or all 3.
We knew that it was vital for the bands ideas to be taken into consideration as they were letting us use their song, they also know what idea's they had for the music video when they wrote the song this subsequently forms an important part of our research.
We also conducted a questionaire to determine what sorts of things our Target audience likes and what they expect from a typical 'pop/punk' genre's music video.
DURING
during the process of constructing the music video we came across some challenges which changed our views of what we wanted to achieve in our media texts. we discovered that it would of been really difficult to get all of the band members together in order to film a performance for our video, so we challenged the typical convention of the band featuring in the video, as in our video the band did not feature, nor did they feature on the cover which is another typical pop/punk genre convention.
We did not request any audience feedback during the process of making the music video as we felt we might have got too confused, so we decided to stick by the information we had already gained from initial research as we felt this would enable us to try and stick by the typical conventions of our genre with just a few challenges or amendments .
AFTER
We asked a lot of people to watch our music video and view our print work (Poster, CD cover and insert) We asked a variety of people at different times, one way we acquired information was by setting up a Facebook event which was open to the public so anyone could comment on our music video.We felt that people our own age would be familiar with the genre of music and give us honest answers as it is our generation more so than others that watch music videos on YouTube. After obtaining our research we read through the feedback which contained positives and constructive critisims, we didn't expect anyone to find our music video perfect and we were welcoming of any critisims that arose during the audience feedback process. Now we know what aspects of our music video were truly appreciated which was a confidence boost for Adeline and myself, as we were worried about it.
We now what we could of improved on and which parts really stood out to the audience, one part that was brought up was the plot was slightly confusing, which to a certain extent I can agree with although the aim of our music video was to get people to think, and piece the different pieces of information together and take away there own thoughts from it. We wanted people to be a sort of negotiating spectator, to take in there personal views but integrate them with the music video letting them make there own decisions about how to feel and we wanted people to align with the main character,\and feel her emotions, and think how they would feel if they were in that situation. People seemed to like the running scenes because they are in time to the music. We felt that the audience research corresponded with everything we intended it to. We wanted everything to look more natural rather than over -edited which was appreciated by the audience feedback as it was brought up that ' Things aren't overly edited so that they look tacky ' . We have to thank the actors and actresses as their acting was positively commented about from lots of different members of our audience. They enabled us to make our ideas become a sort of reality and they contributed massively in making our video all the good things people said it was. Our audience suggested a range of things we could improve on and they aren't necessarily negative comments, a few people wished we would of made the story and plot clearer, and also others thought that the tea party scene could of been used more throughout the video, which I agree with because it did make the tea party scene seem a little bit random considering that was the initial idea we started out with. One of my main concerns was the comments about a shaky scene, this was due to a handheld camera shot and couldn't be done using a tripod so unfortunately its just an unfortunate circumstance, however, I don't think it impaired the quality of our music video.
Our audience feedback was always really important to us because without it, we wouldn't know what age groups would be considered and what aspects the audience liked and disliked before the marketing and distribution process, so at least we could of made changes if we needed too.
The comments about the Poster were generally positive as everyone was commenting on how professional looking it is, this is a really good response as it was quite simply just an image took whilst filming the attic scene it had minor editing and it just had the required information on it. One problem we became aware of which we found unavoidable was the information of the record label on the back was blurred we went to the print shop twice after editing them, we managed to make it a little clearer but it was still moderately blurry which again was brought up in the audience feedback.
Here are some of the responses we received via Facebook.
(Audience Feedback)
What makes you think this?
Feels Moody 4
The use of the colour red
Darkness of the video 4
Pace of the clips 3
The extreme ness of the angles
Expressions of the character are aggressive 4
What elements did you enjoy most in our music video? E.g. Camera angles, lighting, acting, colours on screen, tea party scenes, running etc
Ambiguity of the video, good use of close ups 3
creepy interrogation scenes 4
originality of story line 5,
fast pace of editing 4,
running scenes were very effective 4,
the use of colour, the locations especially the loft, having to piece together all the information, how professional the whole thing looks 3,
the message behind the video, how the video compliments the mood of the song, edgy camera angles 5,
the ending was amazing 2,
the actors –especially the main girls expressions 6
What do you think we could improve?
Make the story a bit clearer 4,
have more tea party footage 6,
some of the shots look a bit shaky, somehow separating scenes in her head and scenes outside to make it clearer,
have the band performing 4,
Do you think the imagery we used worked well with the song?
Yes 17
Why?
The song itself was quite dark mood wise, and the visuals were also dark 10.
The storyline was dark 4.
The lighting was dark like the song 2,
the visuals complimented the lyrics 2
Do you think our poster and CD artwork and music video are all cohesive?
Yes 17
*question we asked but wasn’t on the questionnaire – what do you like most about our print work?
How it all uses the same girl and things from the video. 4
The poses the girl is in look like she’s a professional model, which made everything look professional 6
The things aren’t overly edited that they look tacky 5,
the colour scheme 2
*question we asked but wasn’t on the questionnaire suggestions for any improvements we could make on our print work?
Have the band somewhere on there 5
make the band name bigger 3
back cover is slightly blurry 2
Do you think our music video fits in with the genre of the song?
Yes: 15 Mostly yes: 2
Mostly yes: there are elements that aren’t there such as band performance or ‘rock and roll culture’
Yes: it’s dark, moody edgy, aggressive, use of scissors (dangerous object – rock and roll lifestyle)
Evaluation Q1- In what ways does your media product use, develop, challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Developing, using and challenging pre-existing media products is vital, we found it easier to appeal to our target audience by looking at media products that already exist, helped us create our media products (CD cover and insert, Magazine poster and music video).
Our Music video is narrative based which challenges most pop punk bands music videos as most usually a combination of narrative and performance base, however we decided not to include the band in the video because we felt it would distract the audience away from the narrative. for example the Boys like girls video for Hero/Heroine is a combination of narrative and performance based and the same with All Time Low's Time bomb. We felt it was a good idea to challenge the idea of a mixed music video, as it is extremely rare. Usually the pop punk genre have a deep meaning theme to there narrative based side of footage, we decided to develop this as usually its a romance theme, so we decided to associate with our lyrics and keep it relevant. like most pop/punk bands the imagery is usually dark bright colours are almost always avoided so we decided to use that aspect of existing media products also in almost every music video for a punk/pop band there is a running scene.
The CD cover and insert for us was again challenging the rule of thirds and the typical iconic images you see on band CD covers and Albums normally with pop/punk bands the band is the key feature they are shown so that people can recognise who they are, additionally the band usually have there name on the cover, in large writing so that people know in an instant who they are. We kind of wanted to deter away from the convention and make our band name smaller and have the imagery from the music video on our cover to make people pick it up and look at it. which is the same with our poster.
although we didn't use any hybridity in our music video because we didn't mix any of the narrative with performance or concept based footage. I still think the narrative was enough and the way we portrayed the emotions through the narrative were in relation to the lyrics.
Inter-textual references I feel were used by the stereo-typical view of liars and teenagers, and how everything feels like the end of the world, I think that relates slightly to Buffy the vampire slayer, who is a teenage girl, and although shes a hero in a way she still when it comes down to it is just a teenage girl, and shes in love, and someone lies to her it all feels like the end of the world and she wants to run away. which in a certain way links to our music video.
Our Music video is narrative based which challenges most pop punk bands music videos as most usually a combination of narrative and performance base, however we decided not to include the band in the video because we felt it would distract the audience away from the narrative. for example the Boys like girls video for Hero/Heroine is a combination of narrative and performance based and the same with All Time Low's Time bomb. We felt it was a good idea to challenge the idea of a mixed music video, as it is extremely rare. Usually the pop punk genre have a deep meaning theme to there narrative based side of footage, we decided to develop this as usually its a romance theme, so we decided to associate with our lyrics and keep it relevant. like most pop/punk bands the imagery is usually dark bright colours are almost always avoided so we decided to use that aspect of existing media products also in almost every music video for a punk/pop band there is a running scene.
The CD cover and insert for us was again challenging the rule of thirds and the typical iconic images you see on band CD covers and Albums normally with pop/punk bands the band is the key feature they are shown so that people can recognise who they are, additionally the band usually have there name on the cover, in large writing so that people know in an instant who they are. We kind of wanted to deter away from the convention and make our band name smaller and have the imagery from the music video on our cover to make people pick it up and look at it. which is the same with our poster.
although we didn't use any hybridity in our music video because we didn't mix any of the narrative with performance or concept based footage. I still think the narrative was enough and the way we portrayed the emotions through the narrative were in relation to the lyrics.
Inter-textual references I feel were used by the stereo-typical view of liars and teenagers, and how everything feels like the end of the world, I think that relates slightly to Buffy the vampire slayer, who is a teenage girl, and although shes a hero in a way she still when it comes down to it is just a teenage girl, and shes in love, and someone lies to her it all feels like the end of the world and she wants to run away. which in a certain way links to our music video.
Evaluation Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I think that our music video and print work are extremely effective. I feel that our video is one that most people can relate to in terms of the theme 'Liar's' as I have written about previously in my blog. Our music video makes you want to know what they have lied about, especially by someone you love, who is the only one emphasized in our music video apart from the lead actress. We wanted the video to show the lead actress's emotion and vulnerability.
The Video and print work worked well as (Becky) thould be more likely to buy the album if the same image was used because they will recognise the image as sort of the iconic band CD/album image, much like The Clash and Yellowcard and paramore etc. The advert is one of the most important parts of distribution as when people see the magazine ad actress was the man motif of the video and therefore it was vital she was shown on the cover and magazine ad. this made Smile lookalive's album recognisable, which would mean fans of the band wer they might go to watch the music video and subsequently buy the CD. I feel our music main product and ancillary texts will stand out because the images used are kind of dark and burnt orange, not typical colours of a CD cover or Magazine advert as most album covers just state the name of the band. Our CD cover in relation to the rule of thirds is situated to the right not making the actress the centre of attention on the cover, which means to intentionally make the eye look over at all of the CD cover because our eyes are normally immediately drawn to the centre it also makes our CD cover look more individual and stand out much like this one
.
We felt it was important to have cohesion between our main product and ancillary texts, because the girl was our main focus in the music video we felt it necessary for our magazine ad and other media texts to coincide.
We felt it was important to have cohesion between our main product and ancillary texts, because the girl was our main focus in the music video we felt it necessary for our magazine ad and other media texts to coincide.
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