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

During construction, research, planning and evaluation stages, I have used a variety of new media technologies in order to create a successful and high quality promotional package. Some of these technologies I have used before in AS, however a long the way I have used some newer ones. The skills I learned in AS have developed as my work now looks attracting, professional and superior.

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, documents, and videos anywhere and share them easily, this was an effective and easy way to share our work with one member of your group group as we would use all the same images. By using Dropbox it saved a lot of time as we wasn't passing USB's back and forth.

This is the Dropbox account I set up and I also suggested that the other members of the group did as well so that we could create a shared folder to view all the work such as, images and logos.

During our research I used the a new technology to help me through this process as I able to look Google for existing digi packs, album release adverts, band shots and existing logos. Research was a key process as without this I wouldn't of been able to gain influentual ideas in order to create my promotional package.

This is an image to show how I used technologies within the research processs.

Youtube was a technology used within planning our song choice right at the start when the project was set, we searched music videos of the same genre and that of contrasting genres in order to make sure we had the right song choice for our music video. Not only was it for planning but also to research music videos so we could understand what camera shots they use, mise-en-scene, codes and conventions, props and setting. After constructing the music video this was our source of where we would upload our final videos, pitches and feedback.

Our main task was to create a music video and with to make a professional video we used technologies such as, a hand held camera to film all of our footage in locations such as an isolated studio, someone's house, a car and Mick Jagger Center but the hand held camera also was effective as this is when the audience could feel like their in their shoes. Other equipment that helped us to create the video was equipped a jib,dolly, tripod and a tracking system to create movement and  different heights/levels to our video. We used different lighting for the video such as dark then low key lighting(main spotlight) when filming the band shots as this emphased an isolated environment. We also used a a hand held camera when taking footage of the creative arts evening and audienc's feedback.

As we started the construction process this is when the technology, Photoshop was used so that we was able to uload our images and then adjust and edit them to how we wished. Photoshop specialises in images as I was able to use the magic wand tool, hue and saturation, brightness and contrast, crop, solid color, rasterize, layers to create more professional and effective images. Photoshop was also used to create our band logo as well as the bands name logo.

Indesign was a technology that I used to contruct my my digi pack and album release advert as well as the tray card and CD. I found Indesign is the best software to use when creating these tasks as they have all the tools you need, cropping, text, enlarging, layering, drop shadow, rotation, masking, opacity etc. All of these are tools that I used within my final ancillary tasks. Indesign was very helpful when creating my tray card and cd as they had borders, measurements and instructions templated onto it for me to follow for my work to look professional. However, I developed more skills as I learned how to make an image transparent so the image blends in with the background, which made my tray card look effective. To learn these skills I used a tutorial from YouTube to teach myself how to make the image transparent.

 This is what I was able to create in Indesign as I learned the skill to transparent an image with the tutorial that I found in Youtube.

Premier Pro was the newest media technology I have used. This was used to place and edit our footage of constructing a 'real' music video. We had very little experience with this media technology, however we did test it out when we was set a short tasks of creating an open day video. Premier Pro allowed us to place a song onto premier pro and layer the footage over(removing footage sound) it. We cut down all of the footage so that the lip syncing was in time with the music so that it looked realistic. Effects and transitions we used were cross dissolve, zoom, blur, black and white effect and ghosting.

Evaluation: 3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout this advanced project, I have regularly gained audience feedback which has enabled me to progress within the development of the project. The audience feedback has helped me from start to finish as I received constructed criticism that has made me change elements in my product to make it more professional and superior. Without the feedback our final tasks wouldn't have been half as good. 

Our teachers helped us by regularly having group discussions to see our progress within our ancillary’s and music videos. As a group we focused on the criticism that was giving to us for the music video as creating a music video was very new to us. But also giving us advice on things like ghosting effect, this helped us develop a better video. As the narrative just flowed straight through we was given criticism as to this being very boring so the teachers advised us to use jump cuts which would look more effective.

Here is audience feedback:



Narrative: It was clear through feedback from audience that the narrative was intriguing for the audience as one of the comments was how realistic it was portrayed. They were lured in by the effectiveness of the narrative and how they thought about the song in a completely different context for example; the pregnancy. As the audience we either school students or adults they understood that the narrative was about separation and the audience said that they were moved by this as they could relate to every aspect. 

Camera Shots/Editing:The ghosting effect was mentioned from the audience and said how effective this looked throughout the whole music video. The jump cuts was also mentioned by the audience as they said   it helped to break up the band shots to the narrative so that there was more of a mixture but it also gave you time to think about the narrative. It was mentioned how the shots of the band  were dark which emphasised the mood and feeling of what was going on in the narritive. Lastly, it was said how the use of camera shots such as close-ups and zooms out of the band worked will with the genre and got it 'Bang on'.

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

As this task was to create a promotional package I found it important that our products use and follow conventions. By following the same forms and conventions the audience are able to recognise that this is a part of a promotional package but not only they are then able to relate to the products, and still know that they come as 'one'. This was very important during the creating of the video and the ancillary tasks, below is an image of my promotional package and explanations of how each of the products created relate to each other.

 

I have used motifs within my media promotional package, as well as the members of my group who all used the same fonts for the band name and the album. The motif as you can see is the lyrics written across the digipack and adverts which has been used effectively for the audience to recognise this is one promotional package.

 

The font styles have been used effectively through the ancillary product because as you can see the fonts are exactly the same within each of the products. For example if I was emphasising 'For the First Time' I would use 'Mistral' and if I was using 'The Script' I would use 'Prestigue' throughout. But also to show that the main product e.g. the music video was related to the ancillary tasks we decide to include a sequence at the end with the same font style.

 

 

 

The images I have used throughout the package also have been used effectively in both main product and ancillary tasks as they both follow a consistent effect through the use of black and white. All the images in the promotional package are very dark as well as the band shots from the music video. However you could look at it in a different perspective for instance as the images/band shots are dark this has been done for a reason as the darkness of the images relate to the type of mood that the video is going to be.

 

It is evidentely shown that the combination of my main product and ancillary tasks have been used effectively so the audience are able to recognise this is a promotional package but however in person able to relate to the band but also the narrative that runs through the video.

 

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

Real media products are created and revealed in certain ways so that an audience can understand and interpret the codes and conventions of the media product.

I found it very important when creating my media products that I included the forms and conventions as I wanted to portray my products as ‘real’.

This blog post will show the ways I have developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products in my advanced production.

Here are my ancillary tasks and I am going to the comparison with my work and real existing products to show how I challenged and developed forms and conventions.

 Here is clips of my video of where we have developed and challenged forms of conventions:

The first shot was incluenced from The Kings of Leon. The group decided to use a similar overlay effect. The convention was developed and challenged by appling it to a different genre, however by using the convention in a different way, the effect was able to suit the projects genre.

The next shot of the close-up of the main singer was influenced from the music video Sex is on Fire. The group decided to take a similar shot, a slow zoom from the side into the singer. The convention was slightly developed and challenged as the way the singer was standing and singer was different, so that the convention was now unique to the media product.

The shot of the close-up guitarist was from a Green Day music video. This influenced us to take similar shots to follow on the converntion especially as this is the same genre as our music video.

Lastly, the final shot was of memories that was shown in the narrative. We found this in quite a few different music videos. However the one that influence us was in the pop genre so we challenged the convention and used it for a completely different genre, alternative rock.

How I applied reception theory

Reception theory is based on the idea that no text has one single meaning. Instead it suggests that the individual members of the audience themselves help to create the meaning of the text. For example in our music video you could say that there is not one single meaning because

How I applied Uses and Gratification Theory

In order to target and appeal to my target audience I am going to apply the 'Uses and Gratification theory' to my music video. To gain my target audience I am going to have to use all four of Bulmer & Katz reasons.

Diversions – escape from everyday problems and routine – this is shown in my video through the narrative when the boy starts drink alcohol to forget all of his problems.

Personal relationships – using the media for emotional and other interaction – this is shown by  showing the emotions between two characters within the narrative, the audience is going to be able to relate to it and find it more appealing. The audience is going to be able to identify with sections of the relationship, and will accept it easily. I am going to show this through still shots of the two characters being close and happy and also using flashbacks of them doing the iconic relationship actions. 

Personal identity – constructing their own identity from characters in media text, and learning behaviour and values - This has been applied by the age of my actors, through the fashion and role models. I am going to have my actors and members of the band wear clothing that will represent and relate the genre. These means clothes that is similar to 'The Script,’ and other similar bands that fit into the alternative indie rock genre. By applying this reason of the theory to my video, it will allow the audience to link the video and themselves to the genre.

Surveillance – information gathering e.g. educational programmes, weather reports, news reports – this can be shown through the ‘message’ that we tried to portray to the audience as not everything is ‘perfect’ in real-life and by consuming alcohol doesn’t make everything better.

Digi Pack Development Draft 2

Here is some feedback from target audience's that will help me make a final succesful ancillary task:



Eden: The solo shots are very effective as they are all clear and making eye contact with the audience, however I think they could be placed differently as I feel they looked squashed.

Kieran: I like how the lyrics are layed out but I don't like how the images have been structured I think they look messy.

Harry: I think they follow conventions as you have put the lyrics in the right place as well as the images but I think it needs to be rearranged to make it look more professional.

Digi Pack - Development Draft 1

I knew this is how I wanted my layout to be with the logo at the top. Although I got some of the features wrong as I made this out to be an album however 'For the First Time' was the single so I had to changeeither the 'For the Fist Time' or get rid of the '#3'. 



Album Release Poster Development Draft 3

Below are other scans of developmental drafts. I felt like I included all the conventions and furniture that matched the genre. However I felt like my layout was not right so I still kept using InDesign and Photoshop to improve.

Album Release Advert - Development Draft 2

Below is my second development draft of my album advert. I have now changed the design of tour dates to album release with credits as my other partner in the group did a tour release. I thought this would be different and still as effective.

 

Here is another scan of the way the album release should be set out. I asked my teacher for some help as I felt like the advert wasn't coming together to give it an overall professional look.



 

Album Release Advert- Development Draft 1

Below are my first development draft of my magazine advert. In order to improve my work I have asked my peers to critise my work.



Below is the feedback I was given:

· I need to say who the 'Special Guest' is going to be, this will make the generic conventions stronger and make it more appealing to the audience.

· Need to include the 'Facebook' and 'Twitter' logo in order to make it a more realistic magazine advert.

· The colours work very well, I like how the black and white contrast with each other and make every stand out more.

· The band images are to large as they go over the two lines and the middle image is over some of the key text.



Creative Arts Evening

On the 25th March, our school held a Sixth Form 'Creative Arts' Evening which allowed the Sixth Form of the school to exhibit their creative work to a hall full of guests.

Showing our video to a wide audience of varied age groups, meant that audience feedback could be obtained not only from our peers. To do this, a 'video feedback' booth was set up on the evening to allow guests to be filmed whilst they spoke about their opinions.

A short clip of our introduction to the video:

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Here is some feedback from the audience:


After showing our video here is the response of the audience:

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The group being very busy

Over the past few weeks, the group has been busy, in filming and editing all areas of this task, from filming clips, to working on the Ancillary tasks such as digi-packs and adverts.


In the half term, we sat down as a group and thought hard about what needed to be finished as we only have 2 weeks left until the deadline. We needed to include a lot of transitions in the video to make it look superior but professional also finish designs of digi-packs and adverts.


Below is a few pictures of myself editing, this is when we started to add transitions and zooms to create the full effect of a finished video, it is important to edit the video as poor editing can bore the viewer and also damage the way the narrative is conveyed to them. We also needed to ensure that the narrative created feeling that the audience could relate to.

Narrative Filming/Shots

Whilst filming the narrative section I took some still shots to show what angles were going to be used for example low and high shots, close-ups and zooms. By using different types of shots creates feeling for the audience as they are able to relate to what is going on.

Here are a few pictures to show what type of shots that will be used in the music video:

Main Location Filming - Band

One of our main locations for filming was at Mick Jagger Centre. This setting was to show an isolated area of the band which helps the audience to separate the band from the narrative. We found this setting didn't work because of the lighting it didn't look professional whilst editing.

However in the school was another isolated area which was a dance studio with professional stage lights that we could adjust to fit the mood and theme of the our song choice. This worked really well and we were happy with how the filming and still shots looked. Here are some still shots that I took whilst some of the band filming was being done.

As a member was in the band I was able to video the band shots with help from the others with lighting and direction of the camera.

We have used a handheld dolly camera to make the band shots fluid throughout the video. The location that we decided to go with was the dance studio, as we were able to control the lighting, which made each band member stand out more. The dance studio also helped to create the sense of isolation with the black background and just the small glimpses of light. We took each shot several times in order to get different angles, lighting effects etc. Which allowed us to choose from a wider selection of shots. I also helped to look at the storyboards and say how to take the next shot, which angle, movement etc.

Below is a video showing me helping to set the drums up, as of course I do not have images of me filming as I was in the band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vmq_LU8Yrg

Location shots

My group and I have looked for where we would like to base our story and band shots. We looked at several different existing music videos with the same genre. Below are the examples of the locations that we are going to try and use:

Band shots:

We are looking for a isolated location for our band. One of our ideas is to use a dance studio, with the curtains pulled so that it looks completely black, which makes it look very isolated. If we use the dance studio, we are also able to control the lighting easily. 

The groups second idea is try and find an small arena that we could book out. The group and I discussed that if we used a dim lighting effect and left all the seats in the arena empty, the effect of isolation would be stronger and more powerful.

Narrative:

For our narrative we need a common house for our couple to live in. As the target audience is able to relate to a common house, this location will make the video more appealing to the target audience.  Below is a image of what I am going to try and find for the video. 

We also need a small bedroom for a section of our story, there is an example of a similar location we are going to try and find. 

Lastly, for another section of the story, we need a car. I thought about this and felt that the if I am still trying to apply 'Uses and Gratification theory,' I need to use a car that the target audience will be able to relate to. For that reason I have decided to use the inside of a corsa, as it is a common car for our audience to have. Below is an example of what I am going to try and find.

Development - Band shots

Here are just a few of the band shots that we will use when designing our ancillary tasks.




However I felt like this band shots didn't work well as they were boring and dull so in a quick spare of the moment we took some more to get the band shots looking like real media coventions within a band.

Copyright Permission

'For The First Time' by The Script is owned by Sony Music. As a group we felt that we should ask for permission to use this song to create a music video for copyright legal reasons.  Below here is a print screen to show evidence that we researched into who owned the song and then wrote to them asking permission.

Applying Uses and Gratification

The uses and gratifications theory is an audience centered approach which states that audiences are active viewers, choosing to view texts for different reasons as well as in many different formats. Blumler and Katz (1974) then expanded this idea and created their own version, which stated that individuals choose texts for the following reasons:

Escapism – Removing themselves from everyday issues and routines. Music videos are a form of escapism from the real world. In reference to narrative videos, the audience have a chance to observe a character’s life, they are able to escape into that character’s narrative. This is applied through the narrative within our music video where in we show the emotional journey between the two characters to the point where the audience see it as reality as they are so drawn in and become the character themselves. The audience may never have experienced love before so by watching this video they feel the emotion for the camera, escaping into new emotions and situations just through watching and listening to the song.

Personal Relationships – Building emotional links within the music video. Some people will watch the music video because they can relate to it, they like to know that they aren't alone in certain situations  Also some people will watch it so that they can feel even more depressed, they want it to create emotion and/or back up their current emotions. This will be applied within the narrative, footage of flashbacks, chemistry between the characters(hugging,kissing, smiling,holding hands,)locations etc. For the smallest things could create emotion for the audience member as they could remind them of a specific time in their life, e.g. footage of the park could remind the audience of a time that they were in a park with a partner,friend,family member etc. This could create emotion for them as it reflects their personal relationships.

Personal Identity- Stating particular identities by consuming texts, 'finding yourself' and learning behaviour from them. Individuals are able to gain a personal identity from watching particular music videos. This is because being associated with various genres of music, places people into categories in the public eye. For example, this who enjoy rock music may be classed as 'emos.' The style within our video follows two different social groups. Adding to this, our video is indie pop which incorporates the mainstream social groups. The age of the band members.actors in our music video are supposed to be perceived as 19-21s, this will lure in an audience 19 and above. Adding to this there are both male and female actors band members(gaze theory) which means both male and female audiences could relate to our music video. The theme of love and romance implies that the audience intended would be 15+ as this is the age that teenagers become emotionally involved in relationships , this once again would create a personal identity for the audience as they can put themselves in the actors shoes and feel their emotions.

Wider research into music channels

As well as researching existing bands and videos, I thought it would be important to research relevant music channels in the beginning stages of our research in the same specific genre as our music video. I thought this would be able to give us an insight in to the platform in which our music video would be predominantly shown on, giving us key ideas in which to include in our music video in order to comply and 'fit in' with existing media that would be similarly categorised as alternative rock music videos.

Most satellite TV providers offer a wide range of music channels to suit most tastes of music, some music channels in the 21st century have become hugely successful and popular worldwide such as MTV which operates across in Europe, Asia, America and Africa. They offer a mixture of music such as pop, dance, R&B and hip-hop, classics and rock. Whilst flicking through music channels on Sky, I came across MTV Rock, which showcases music videos from bands in the rock genre. I spent time watching this channel in order to pick out common conventions from videos shown, and the channel as a whole.

Research into band photography

The next step in order to get the progect up and running, I have decided to start researching and planning for our photography shoot. The photography will be placed either in a studio or on a green screen to get the best quality picture. As the photography will take up some time I have shown a few camera shots that I would like to use in the ancillary tasks. The ancillary tasks will a creation of a magazine advert promoting their new single 'For the first Time', not only creating a magazine advert I also be creating a digi-pack.

Here are some of the band photography that I researched. I have also pointed out the main codes and convention of band photography followng the 'Pop Rock' or 'Alternative Rock' genre.

The first band I researched was The Script

Other band photography I researched were Maroon 5, Neon Trees and Cold Play