Evaluation Question 4

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

-Janet

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from audience feedback?

-Janet

Evaluation Question 2

How did you use new media technologies in the 

construction and research, planning and evaluation 

stages?

Construction:

When constructing my music video, I decided to use Adobe Premier Pro, rather than iMovie, of which I was more familiar with, because I felt that iMovie was a lot simpler, and it wouldn't allow me to experiment with other post-production effects and transitions. Although I hadn't used Premier Pro before, I was able to practice editing with it for the preliminary task of creating a 1 minute copy of an already existing music video. This gave me the confidence to use this software when editing my clips together. These clips were filmed on my Sony HD AVCHD camcorder, as it meant that we didn't have to borrow equipment from school, or have to wait for other people to finish using it, so we could start filming promptly. 


For my ancillary texts, I manipulated the initial images using Adobe Photoshop, as this is a programme I am already familiar with after using it last year for my AS foundation portfolio last year. The construction of the magazine was similar to that of the creation of my music magazine, and I could transfer the skills I learnt to make a poster.

The second main piece of equipment was a tripod, which allowed us to film panning shots very smoothly, as well as the shots filmed in the middle of the music video, with the shot reverse shot of the protagonist and the girl in the red dress. 

Research:

The main way I researched for this project was through Web 2.0, which gave me easy access to websites showing other professionally made music videos. By watching countless music videos on YouTube, I was able to note the genres and the specific codes and conventions found within them. I was able to use Andrew Goodwin's theory to spot the narrative, use of star image, and editing on the thought beats, to be able to understand how these things can differ between each genre. For example, rock music is generally of a faster tempo, therefore the thought beats will be much quicker than that of a slow pop song. 

The video that gave me the most inspiration, narrative-wise, was "Rain" by Mika:

Even though it's a pop song, I was able to see how to apply Andrew Goodwin's theory. The setting for this music video and my music video are similar because they are both completely filmed outdoors, but the main difference here is that "Rain" is filmed at night. Initially, I wanted the dream sequence to be filmed at night, but we came to the conclusion that it would be too difficult to film it clearly, even with the use of lighting. This research was a vital part for us to learn and understand what we could or couldn't do, because of our limited time and budget. However, we were able to take ideas from this professionally made video, and place them into ours.

After researching genres and other music videos through YouTube, I then utilized Web 2.0 to get some audience feedback. Surveymonkey was easy to create a quick survey, asking my audience what sort of music they listen to, and how they use the internet to listen to music. I asked whether they watched many music videos on YouTube, to which the majority said either "Yes" or "sometimes", which allowed me to see where would be the best place to advertise my final product. Everyone used Facebook, which means I can put my final music video on both YouTube and Facebook, so I know that my primary audience will definitely be able to watch it. 

Planning and Evaluation:

The majority of my planning has been uploaded onto this blog through many different visually appealing ways such as powerpoints on Slideshare and Prezi, and images on Photobucket. These have been useful to the planning process for me, because my information is much more organized in this form. It is through the easy use of Web 2.0 that I have been able to access these websites to plan not only this project, but also my project during my AS media studies coursework. Web 2.0 has been incredibly beneficial to me throughout my media journey, and has been vital during the research, planning and construction phases of this particular project, and these techniques have been applied in my evaluation as well.

-Janet

Evaluation Question 1

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

What are forms and conventions?

In Andrew Goodwin's theory, the forms (or codes) and conventions of a music video are used for different reasons which include:

• Star Image- you can see who the band/singer is
• Narrative and performance- the storyline that goes with the music video which will either amplify or illustrate the lyrics
• Thought beats- cutting to the beat of the music so depending on the genre, it will either be quite quick or quite slow
• Technical aspects of music video- they hold the music video together through camera angles, movement, mise-en-scene, and editing.

A mind map on how I used, developed and challenged the codes and conventions using bubbl.us...

"It's Time" by Imagine Dragons...

-Janet

Institutions

These are my final products pictured next to each other. I have laid it out like this so it is easier to see how they all link together, and to show that they belong to the same artist and are part of the same product. When looking my final products, I have been thinking about which Institutions may publish or host the video, digipak and poster. As seen in the ancillary products, I would want them to be produced by the same institutions as Imagine Dragons. This is because I was following the conventions by using a production company who produced music within my genre.

The music video is more simple, as I have used YouTube as a platform to upload it. As YouTube is free and easy to access, it is a well-used option for many musicians and artists to share their work to a mass or niche audience. Furthermore, TV channels such as MTV often have music channels, in which the audience can watch popular music videos on their TV. With different genres, it means that channels like MTV can have a number of different sub-channels, in which they can show specific music videos for different genres. An example of this is MTV Rocks. 

For my ancillary tasks, I would probably approach retailers such as HMV to sell the digipak, as the genre I have chosen is becoming increasingly popular, and HMV sells a variety of different genres in both its stores and online. From my research in the AS course into the music magazine industry, I would go to places such as HMV, to sell the magazine to music lovers, but I would also go to Supermarkets, including Sainsbury's, as I know they sell magazines of all types. This would be a good way for my artist to get recognition, because it means that a variety of different people would be able to have access to the magazine with my poster in it. 

In terms of a magazine who would publish my poster, and advertise the digipak, I would approach those in the rock genre, including Kerrang!, Mojo, or Q Magazine. Out of the three, I think my poster would suit the style of Kerrang! and Mojo the most, so I think these would be the two magazines at the top of my list. Mojo is for a variety of genres, as many of the front covers range from artists such as David Bowie, to the Arctic Monkeys, whereas Kerrang! is mainly just for the rock genre. However, Kerrang! is "the world's biggest weekly selling rock magazine", so it seems to make sense to sell it to them, as it would therefore mean advertising the poster and digipak to a bigger audience.

Overall, I am really pleased with the outcome of all three of my products, and looking back through my posts, I can see how much progress I have made. Even comparing my preliminary task to my final product shows how my editing skills have developed in this time, and I can now call myself a media consumer, and a media producer. 


-Janet

Primary & Secondary Audience Feedback

I showed my music video to my mum for some secondary audience feedback, as she isn't in my target audience age range. I felt this would be important to get a different point of view on my music video and to see what people of different age groups thought of it. This was a good way to see a different outlook on my final music video, but I understand that this opinion may be biased, as I interviewed someone in my close family. 



Below I have uploaded a video of our audience watching the video, with their reactions to see what they liked and disliked. This was a really good way for us to see what their expectations were, and how they may have been subverted throughout the narratve of our music video. Even though we filmed females from our target audience, it was equally as important to have some feedback, as the rock genre tends to be male dominated. By filming girls our age, we were able to see that they also have an interest in this genre, and it shows that we have followed our initial goal by not stereotyping who our music video was for. 



-Janet

FINAL MUSIC VIDEO!

-Janet

Final Ancillaries

Below are my final ancillary texts:

Digipak- Original Way Up

Digipak- Upside Down

Poster

I am really pleased with the final outcome, and am relieved that the process is nearly over! I think the two products link really well together, and it is clear that they are from the same artist. 

On my digipak, I have used a screenshot of both the right way up, so it is easier to see the front and back images, and also a screenshot of it upside down, so the inside images can be viewed.

I have kept to the red as being the visual motif, by having the red rose, red colour font, and the red t-shirt on my protagonist. I think the black and white on the digipak make the images stand out even more and it is something that I believe will be of interest to my audience. 

I like how my poster has more colour to it than my digipak, because even though there are differences, they are obviously from the same artist. I have adhered to the codes and conventions of a typical digipak and poster by including the same font on both products, having critics reviews, a release date, and other ways in which people can share this product further, like through social media. 

-Janet

Digipak: Updated

I have worked on the feedback I was given from people on Facebook, and I have updated my ancillary tasks:

The main thing I changed was the inside left image. The first one looked too stretched, and it was noticeable to my audience, so I felt it would be a good idea to change it. I used the screenshot from my music video, but I still had white space above and below the image, so I put in two black boxes so I could write a thank you note at the top, and the band members at the bottom. 

I also put in a bar down the middle, with the name of the band and the album title. I also changed the font on the front cover so that it coincides with the font on my poster. I now feel that the images all link better as they do now, because I have kept with the grey, black and red colour scheme, so people can interpret it better. 

-Janet

Behind the Scenes

The filming process is finally over and done with, which means we can get on with finishing all of the editing as soon as possible. The filming side to this task has been harder than I initially thought it would, but I have learned about the importance of organization, research, and planning and how much of this goes into the filming. 

The short film above is from when we filmed the dream/nightmare scene. That day was probably the best for us, because we finished filming ahead of schedule, which highlights our organisational skills. It was also a lot easier because we only had to film with two actors, rather than a large group. 

Filming/Directing our Protagonist

Filming with our extras

These images are from filming the extras. Both of the days we filmed were very cold, so it was important that everyone bought enough warm clothing with them. However, I am proud of everyone and we managed to power through the day and get the scene done. 

The hardest part was finding enough extras to be in our music video. It took me a lot of effort to try and encourage at least 10 people, but unfortunately many of them were unreliable in working with us. This led to the tough decision of cutting down the numbers. 

-Janet