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

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

Media Technologies allowed me to further develop my products throughout the length of this course, in terms of planning and researching, as well as creating my final products.

 The primary piece of technology, used throughout the course was the use of a blogging website to act as an e-folder for all of my work, allowing me to present it in such a way that was both convenient and aesthetically pleasing, clearly displaying all of the work I had created, including planning tasks, research tasks and diary posts, which can be easily ignored if not displayed correctly. Using the blog allowed for my work to be displayed in a formal clear manner, which not only increases functionality when it comes to marking, but also for myself, as it became much easier to track which tasks I had completed and what I should complete next. The ability to embed a range of products onto my blog was a very useful feature when it came to displaying products that I had  created particularly during the planning and researching phase, with both word and PowerPoint documents being easy to insert into my blog. Specific tools on the blog, such as Labels and Polls also played a key role in increasing the functionality, with labels providing ease of access, and polls acting as an easy method of gaining audience feedback for my products respectively.

Linking in with the use of a Blog, the internet itself proved to be a rich and useful resource when it came to working on this course. In particular, video hosting websites,  specifically YouTube, allowed me a backdrop on which to complete my music video, with a wealth of ready-made music videos from world famous artists being easily accessible, allowing for similar product research to be made with the click of a button. In addition, the use of search engines, such as Google,  provided me with a similar wealth of information when it came to working on my ancillary tasks, with unlimited numbers of digipak and magazine adverts being easily accessible. When it came to simply researching the music industry these search engines again came into a league of their own, providing me with endless pages worth of information listed throughout the internet. In particular, Wikipedia was a site that  I was often directed too, which provided me with a range of details, specifically institutional based, that were key as I began to understand the music industry. In terms of displaying my work, the internet also provided me with a range of resources in which to upload my work in a much more functional and aesthetically pleasing way, rather than simply embedding the products. Websites such as Scribd and Slide share are two examples of such websites that allowed power points and word documents to be uploaded in a way that was more interesting than purely embedding the documents. In addition, the website ‘Prezi’ allowed for a further example of a product in which to create tasks, allowing for a more visually pleasing and interesting way of looking through work, with transitions in the form of zooms and pans to move from one idea to the next.

In terms of my actual text creation, a number of technologies were used throughout this process. Equipment such as the Canon 550D camera provided me with the ability to give a much more professional looking music video, especially when combined with similar level lighting, and as a result were vital in the creation of my music video. In addition, when it came to making voice over tasks and getting feedback from classmates,  I used a Dictaphone. This provided me with a high quality and easy to use way to produce voice-related tasks, further adding to the significant amount of variety required in a top level blog.

In the production phases of my product creation, Adobe Premiere Pro was my primary program that was used for editing my music video, which gave me the opportunity to cut up each piece of footage and place it in the form of a timeline along with my chosen song, with the ability to then add any special effects that I wanted to following this process. For my ancillary tasks, Adobe Photoshop provided a similar role, with the ability  to both comprise my text, and edit it in such a way that highlighted its quality. In particular, the images I used in each of these tasks were heavily edited in Photoshop, which made my images appear much more professional.

The creation of each of my tasks would have been near impossible without the use of a vast number of technologies, culminated by the production of my blog, on which all of my work is stored. The use of professional products such as Photoshop and Premiere Pro provided me with a backdrop on which to work on my products, to make them as high quality and professional, and as a result allowed me to take my coursework to the next level, beyond that of which would have been possible with non-industry standard products.

Evaluation 3 - What have you learned from Audience Feedback?

What have you learned from Audience Feedback?

My primary goal at the beginning of the project was to think of a theme that could be ever present in each of my texts, and could act as an image for my brand. Both research and my own ideas allowed for me to recognise methods in which I could do this, as  exemplified in my ‘Intial Planning Ideas’ tasks. I finally settled on the theme of opposites, as not only was it original and interesting, but also included cohesion between the theme and the title of my song of choice; “Evening/Morning”.

I adopted this theme throughout the entirety of my music video, with the opposing nature of both of my characters, with the male being very uncaring about the situation, as reflected by his lack of interest in the date, and the female being all about the date, trying to loads of outfits and trying to look her best. Similar to my ancillary tasks, the main role of my music video was to promote the song itself, and it did this through not only creating cohesion between the lyrics and video, but also by helping to develop the opposites brand that I contained in each of the products. In this sense, I feel that the song served its purpose, as it provided a video that will please audiences, both in the sense of an enjoyable narrative, and the relate ability that it contains.

For both my magazine advert and digipak and I had to go about putting this idea on paper, which I feel I did successfully. After several drafts of my Digipak, I finally began to focus on the idea of splitting the faces of the characters, both facing different directions, to symbolise the opposites theme in this product. Editing this photo in a way that distorted the backgrounds of each of the characters also further signified this. The clear link between the music video and my digipak was made by including the same models from my music video as the two contrasting faces, which helped to further consolidate my brand identity.

In terms of my magazine advert, after studying conventional magazine adverts, generally they adopted the same image as was present on the front of the Digipak. As a result, I used this in the form of a full bleed image, another conventional factor. This, in itself, created the cohesion between each of the products, as the image of the two characters became symbolic of the song itself, as they are featured in each form of promotion for the song, which in itself, highlights how they have served their purpose of promoting this specific piece of music.

As suggested by feedback that I received, the link between the music video, the digipak, and the advert draft is clear, which highlights how successful they are at promoting and creating an identity brand for my song of choice.

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

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

My primary goal at the beginning of the project was to think of a theme that could be ever present in each of my texts, and could act as an image for my brand. Both research and my own ideas allowed for me to recognise methods in which I could do this, as  exemplified in my ‘Intial Planning Ideas’ tasks. I finally settled on the theme of opposites, as not only was it original and interesting, but also included cohesion between the theme and the title of my song of choice; “Evening/Morning”.

I adopted this theme throughout the entirety of my music video, with the opposing nature of both of my characters, with the male being very uncaring about the situation, as reflected by his lack of interest in the date, and the female being all about the date, trying to loads of outfits and trying to look her best. Similar to my ancillary tasks, the main role of my music video was to promote the song itself, and it did this through not only creating cohesion between the lyrics and video, but also by helping to develop the opposites brand that I contained in each of the products. In this sense, I feel that the song served its purpose, as it provided a video that will please audiences, both in the sense of an enjoyable narrative, and the relate ability that it contains.

For both my magazine advert and digipak and I had to go about putting this idea on paper, which I feel I did successfully. After several drafts of my Digipak, I finally began to focus on the idea of splitting the faces of the characters, both facing different directions, to symbolise the opposites theme in this product. Editing this photo in a way that distorted the backgrounds of each of the characters also further signified this. The clear link between the music video and my digipak was made by including the same models from my music video as the two contrasting faces, which helped to further consolidate my brand identity.

In terms of my magazine advert, after studying conventional magazine adverts, generally they adopted the same image as was present on the front of the Digipak. As a result, I used this in the form of a full bleed image, another conventional factor. This, in itself, created the cohesion between each of the products, as the image of the two characters became symbolic of the song itself, as they are featured in each form of promotion for the song, which in itself, highlights how they have served their purpose of promoting this specific piece of music.

As suggested by feedback that I received, the link between the music video, the digipak, and the advert draft is clear, which highlights how successful they are at promoting and creating an identity brand for my song of choice.

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

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



The creation of my music video and its accompanying products was a long and strenuous process, that began with the consolidation of ideas that would become the basis of my project as a whole. Whilst I was sure on my genre of choice (Indie/Rock), I was unsure on how I would structure my music video as a whole, and used this as an opportunity to look at media theory, which would allow me to recognise the conventions of my chosen genre.
 I looked at the theorist Andrew Goodwin, who has a range of views on music videos themselves. I used his theory as a basis of which to build my music video. His theory, in part, suggests; there should be a link between the music video and its accompanying lyrics, usually by telling a story, close up’s on the artists will help to build relationships and intertexual references are common, and these provide further gratification and pleasure for the viewer of the video

These factors of music video, suggested by Goodwin, became the basis on which I would create my music video. In particular, the focus on close up’s and protagonist/audience relationship, as this also complied with the conventions of Indie music video, as I discovered through my similar product research. The entirety of my music video was narrative based, as my similar product research suggested that this was very common in my genre, and this also allowed me to focus on my main protagonist, who I implied was also the lead singer of my band. This also allowed me to follow the ‘close up’ clause of Goodwin’s theory, as the opportunity to focus on the protagonist was presented and made clear throughout the video. In terms of locations, these were picked automatically due to the narrative base that I decided on for my music video, with the fairly conventional male-female love story scenario being the main theme of my music video. Due to the fairly simple nature of these locations, I was sure to use camera shots that are both conventional to my genre, such as close ups and long shots, but also film in a way that was aesthetically pleasing for the audience. In terms of picking my Actors for my music video, I made sure that they were similar to my target audience, which is mostly made up of young adults and teenagers, and as a result the audience will likely be empathetic towards the artist, or in some way feel a relationship with them.

 Following on from the filming of my music video and the planning and research of my topic as a whole, I began to piece together my ancillary texts, in the form of a Digipak and Magazine advert. From the beginning of the project, I had the theme of opposites in my head, a theme which was also included in my music video. This alludes from the title of my song, ‘Evening/Morning’, portraying the opposite times of day, and as a result, I adapted this in each of my texts, and instantly gave me a strategy in which I could link each of my tasks together. I decided on the same models for each of my tasks, with the same people featured in my music video, as in my secondary and tertiary text, which further stated this fact. A split image of both characters originated for my Digipak, to both display the artists, but also the mixed personality/opposites theme for the project as a whole. This also allowed as a means to display the target audience of the piece to the viewer, with, as typically in my genre, both genders, within the age range, featured as a potential target audience member. I also adopted this mutual viewer approach with the general layout of the piece, including images of both artists, but also, in particular, the font I chose was a fairly neutral black font, displaying no clear directive audience was being stated.

The institutional conventions that are present on all musical texts such as those that I created I also made sure were present in each of my texts. These include barcodes and institutional details of the record labels/artists being present throughout each product, particularly the ancillary texts. Particularly on my magazine advert, I adopted the conventions of including a date of release and reviews of listeners to the advert, which would add to the sell ability of the product. I attempted to focus more heavily on a link between each of the products, similar to what I had created between the Digipak and the Music Video. I further added to this by using the same image that was on my Digipak case and CD on my magazine advert. This, I found, was a very conventional feature of Indie Music, and is used to not only add a link between the products, but also show the audience an image of the product they are trying to sell, rather than just the artist. The mise en scene of my music video also representative here, with the urban environment of the park, and the homely
nature of the houses, emphasising the split nature of the characters, as presented on the cover of the digipak. 

In conclusion, whilst In many cases I did attempt to go against conventions, in the form of performance based videos in particular, the majority of my music video was conventional of a music video, and in particular that of a music video particular to my chosen genre. I personally view each of my texts, particularly my ancillary texts, in being successful in their roles of trying to promote the song and video, which in turn highlight the successful nature of the link between the products, a conventional feature of music video.

Discussing The Project - A Video Log (Evaluation)

This is a video log that I made that discusses how I feel that I've worked during the process of this topic.

Final Products

Final Music Video

This is my final music video. Compared to my previous draft, I have changed alot, including added a variety of transitions and generally tidied it up.

Dear Diary - In Closing

Tommorow, I will upload all of the evaluations been completing over the past week or two, and as a result have finished the course. With my preliminary deadline coming up in a couple of days  I am very pleased with how the end of the course has turned out. I have been working very hard over the last few weeks making sure everything is done and up to date, and everything has been uploaded. Whilst I still plan to make changes over the next week or so leading up to the final deadline, and following on from any feedback I receive from my teacher, this will be the final state that my blog will be in before its first marking. I am pleased with the progress I have made, and look forward to receiving my grade back with several improvements that I can make.

Genre

Today I analysed how my music video follows the conventions of it's particular genre, in my case - Indie

Theories and Theorists

This document discusses 3 examples of theorists that I plan to use in section 1B of my media studies exam, significantly due to the fact that my music video adheres to them strictly. Each of the theories are well recognised as key in how the media, and more importantly music videos, work and appeal to their audiences.

Audience Feedback

I posted on my social networking sites asking for some feedback on my blog. Here is an example of someone that responded and gave me some feedback, specifically on my 3 final products

Technical Difficulties

This is a video that I made that displays some of the technical difficulties that I suffered with while constructing each of my products.

How would Jean Bauldrillard view my music video?

This is a power point I made based around the postmodernism theorist Jean Bauldrillard. I discussed how he would respond to my music video based on his theories.

Task Completion Check

I kept this log throughout the course, ticking off tasks as I went. This helped me to stay on track of what I still had left to do. This is the final version, highlighting that all the tasks, plus a number of extra ones on top of this list, have been completed.

Music Video Feedback

I asked 3 people to give me some feedback on my music video second and first drafts. Overall, they were impressed with it, and gave it fairly positive remarks. Particularly on the first, they were fairly critical of a few issues, but these were resolved with my second draft and as a  result, feedback was much more positive.

Alterations Made Along The Way; Music Video

I made this document to highlight some of the changes that I made along the way to my music video.

Second Draft Music Video

This is the second draft of my music video, with several changes made from the first draft in particular, including resizing clips and re-ordering clips, as well as adding additional clips and cuts in order to follow the conventions of both music video and my genre in particular.

Final Magazine Advert

This is my final copy of my magazine advert, used to accompany and promote my chosen song. From now and the previous version, I have made only minor changes, however I believe that these, in the long run, add significantly to the product as a whole. The most evident change is the import of a brush, in the form of a faded leaf. I added this because my feedback suggested that the bottom of the page looks a bit bland in places and I should add something there to fill in the space. I used the leaf brush because I feel that it ties in well with the song title 'Evening/Morning', due to the feelings of nature that it connotes. Most of the other changes I made were minor, with slight adjustments of size and position made to each of the contents of the poster, as these minor errors will make the poster look poor.

Alterations Made Along the Way; Digipak

I made this prezi to just highlight the several changes that I made throughout each stage of the drafting process, which shows just how much work and effort went into creating and securing this item to be of a high standard.

Magazine Adverts - A Comparison

For my final advert poster design, I decided to make two copy’s, as after looking at similar product research, I discovered that this was something that quite a lot of bands did to promote their song, and in particular was conventional for my specific genre.

My first poster is a development from my second draft poster. It uses a full bleed image that is the same as on my Digipak, as not only is this a conventional feature, but it also highlights a link between the two ancillary texts. It includes the name of the album and a few reviews, as well as conventional a company logo and a date of release. This copy appears fairly conventional, and is likely to be seen in indie magazines, as this genre has a strong focus on having an icon that represents the band, and the full bleed image helps to emphasise this.

My second poster was developed after I sought inspiration from the internet, with a majority of posters using a smaller image to allow more space for extra writing. I included quite a dark deep purple colour, as not only is this colour conventional for my genre, but I also felt it went well with my image and font choices. A border was included purely for aesthetic purposes, and this works well with the black writing featured on the bottom of the page. I included several reviews from well known sources, and also the band name and album name. Similarly to my other design, the  date is included on the image, as it allows the reader to draw an instant link between the date and the album release. This album is likely to be featured in perhaps a non-music magazine or a newspaper, as it adopts a much less specific method of selling the magazine, and helps to give the reader much more detail about the album, such as including track lists, something that a fan of the genre itself that reads indie magazines may not require.

Digipak Final Version

This is my final copy of my Digipak. I have taken in a number of pieces of feedback from peers and after taking it into consideration and editing accordingly, I feel that I have the optimum product that I could create. From my last draft, I completely changed the CD, and made it the same as my front cover image, as this is a fairly conventional feature of cd's in my genre. I also added the required institutional information for my artist, which I hadn't included previously.

Dear Diary

Digipak Feedback

This is an ISSUU file that I made that displays some of the feedback that I got on my digipak

Dear Diary

This week I have been working hard on getting specific tasks done in order to get closer to the deadline. The majority of the tasks have now been completed, or atleast started and plan to have all of these done by the middle of next week, giving me the weekend to simply focus on perfecing all my tasks and making my blog look good, aswell as finalising my music  video.

Below is a tracker that I have been using to keep track of what tasks I have completed and what I still need to complete. You will notice that I have not finished any of my evaluations yet, which will be a focus over the coming days.

Raw Footage of Locations 2

This is the raw footage to accompany my second location recce, detailing the set of the park I filmed in.