Evaluation - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation Stages?

Technology is now taking a massive influence on all types of media conventions, we realised this and decided that when researching and developing our music video and digipak, we were going to heavily use a variety of all sorts of technology throughout the process. We used Blogger to post all of our coursework online, and when we were researching information we made sure that we took full advantage of the features it provides for audience research. We managed this by using tools such as Polls and Questionaires. These helped us decide which song to do, what style of video to do it in and even the events which should occur in our video. This helped us massively with our audience research.
Another website we used was Youtube, this helped us greatly when looking through song nd video clips for inspiration and ideas. The reason we prefered using Youtube for this is for many reasons. One of the main ones being that it has such a huge extensive range of music videos throughout all different music styles. Another is that the website has a very good system for rating videos and commenting on them, which is great for looking at our target audiences reactions and interests in certain videos.
We also used the internet when we were researching our song artist information, as well as information on other artists performing his same style of music. For this sort of research we found the website Wikipedia very useful. Also his own website and myspace gave us some reliable data.

When recording our video we used a Sony Handy Cam which was very easy to use and gave us good quality footage to work with. Once we had recorded the appropriate parts for the video we then captured to scenes onto 'Final Cut Express' and then used this for editing the footage together. We found this a very simple yet effective tool for doing such actions. Features we took advantage of this software included us being able to change the colour of the video, as well as altering the speed of the footage and adding scene transitions. These all added to a much more interesting, professional looking video.

When we were filming the video we also used a blue screen for the band shots. We were aiming to keep the same actor who was the main character and have him playing the different instruments individually. Then with the technology we were using put them all on the scenes together. This was a very time consuming and skillful process and although we did manage to succesfully achieve a few scenes with this we didn't achieve our full desired effect.

For our Digipak again we used a variety of different technologies. We started off by taking pictures with a digital camera, we then transfered these images onto a computer and used a piece of software called photoshop to edit them to get the effect we desired. This was quite an easy yet very effective piece of softwareto use, and perfect for what we wanted it to do.

Evaluation

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

The main product is out music video. This contains mainly narrative based filming and some performanced based. Within  the video there is just one character who plays both the actor within the story and all the band members; made possible by blue screen. The story line is of comic effect about the guy having a bad day, which is made worse by his girlfriend breaking up with him. The performance is also comic as the band members all wear different outfits and play the instruments.

The ancillary products are the poster and digi-pak in its entirety. The poster is an image of the main actor how looks happy even though there is a rain cloud over him. The picture of the actor is a real photograph where as the background and cloud has all be hand drawn on paintshop. I think this works well as it corrisponds with the comic effect from the video. The digi-pak front and back cover are the same as the poster, except the back cover is a reverse of the front. Within the digipak is the track list and place which will hold the CD. all of the inside is the same color as the back and front. we included the tracklist inside the digi-pak as the back cover is the reverse of the front.

The products work well together because the images on the poster and digi=pak work well against the video. The technology used to create the products include:

• blue screen
• sony handi cam
• digital SLR camera
• final cut express
• blogger
• paintshop

Evaluation - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We made an audience questionnaire back towards the start of our project to get a good idea of what the audience wanted to see within our music video. The majority said that their favourite genre of music is pop music and so we decided to go for a song that would appeal to a very widespread audience. Our audience questionnaire gave us the idea for our music video because we were contemplating whether to have it as a literal video so we follow what he’s saying or have it completely storyline and the audience preferred the idea of a storyline music video.

We learnt that it’s not often people go out looking for the music video but people regularly go onto YouTube or music channels looking for the song, so we figured if it’s a popular song it’s going to be searched for often and people will be more likely to see our music video that will be published on various sites.

All of our audience said when they do watch a music video they enjoy it because they think it helps show the artist in a completely different way, I couldn’t agree with this statement anymore, I think listening to a song is one thing but to be able to experience that same song visually opens your mind to listen to that same song in a completely different way to just listening alone.

Through our audience feedback we have learnt that you can’t just pick what you want to see and what you think works well, you need to realise that it has got to suit everybody’s needs and what you might think looks good somewhere others may not. You’re trying to sell your media product to an audience. So you have to plan your shooting around your target audience’s needs and not your personal preference.

We got some good feedback off of our audience and I think this helped us collaborate all our ideas to come out with a spectacular finish, we asked our audience if they would want to see us challenge conventions of real media products and they said they would like to see this. We took upon the challenge of challenging ordinary conventions for instance we used normal everyday shooting locations which isn’t typically used in pop music videos as they are usually high class locations or un-realistic ones.

Overall I don’t think our final outcome would have been half as good if we hadn’t of got audience feedback at a few certain points during our project. It helped us change and edit bits that didn’t necessarily attract our target audience.

Evaluation

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

First of all the song is a pop song. so we decided to use some of the normal conventions of that to create our music video. with in out music video its is happy and upbeat which corresponds to the sound of the song. Its a very cheery song with a comic effect. the ways our video used the conventions of a real media products are as followed:

• Band shots
• male lead
• narrative
• story line
• Boy/girl love interest story line

Within the task we also produced the ancillary products the poster and digi-pak. We kept these similar to a real media product. Like with the digi-pake we had the normal DVD shape and trake listing. Also with the poster it showed a clear image of what the music and artisit we're about and information along the bottom.

We challenged the forms of a real media product because the mis-en-scene within the video show normal everyday locations, something that isn't usually used in a pop video as they are usually high class locations or un-realistic ones. Some of the shots are in a public place with would be hard for a real music video to use, as they would probably attract lots of attention.

Within our music video we stuck within the norm conventions of a real media product. How ever we did deveolp it slightly in terms of our music video having more narrative over proformance in the product.

Digipak

Here is the spine for our digipak, we once again went for a simple design where we continued the blue colour theme and the font style from the rest of the designs. This means that all the aspecs of the digipak corresponds with each other and gives off a smart and professional look.

Digipak

This is the inside right sleeve for our digipak and this is where the disc will be situated. We again continued the theme of green grass banner at the bottom abd blue sky background to make it blend in with the rest of the pack. We also brought back the rain cloud to make it look like it's raining onto the disc. Where the disc will sit, behind is an imagine of a vinyl record, we once again left the design very minimal and simplistic and we think goes very well with the rest of the digipak. We experimented with various other designs including a more detailed vinyl, a sun instead of a record and different coloured records, but in the end we decided that this was the most effective and best looking.

Digipak

We decided to put the tracklisting on the inside left of the digipak, this will mean it is adjacent to panel with the disc on and in easy view for the audience to see which track their desired is. We once again went with the simple design continueing with the theme of the green grass bottom and blue sky background making it blend into the rest of the digipak extremely well. We have also continued the use of the font style from the front cover and the spine. This is once again because we feel that it fits so well with the style of the digipak and the video. There is a new addition to the design which comes in the form of a bee. This bee features a few times in our music video and we thought it would be a great way to take up space and add some nice detail to the page.