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

Research and Planning

To document our research and planning we used a site called Blogger. The blogs which we created to do our posts were made much simpler by writing them virtually and having them all saved on the computer. We had to create shotlists, storyboards and other documents like the plot and narrative guidelines. Having Blogger store all of these things meant they were all accessible in one place rather than if they were done by hand. Virtually, they were always there and available whereas having paper copies of everything were likely to get lost or damaged. Blogger has weaknesses, because there is no back up system there was the risk of all of my work being lost. Some things were made by hand first like the storyboard and shotlist but the majority of work was on the blog. YouTube was also used slightly during the research and planning stages because we needed to upload our lip-sync practice video. Putting this on YouTube and then embedding the clip into a blog post is much easier and safer because if something goes wrong it is available to embed again. Slideshare was another technology used. It is a helpful website which offers hundreds of slideshows on things which are of use to posts and research. I learned more on Andrew Goodwin's theory through a slideshow I found on Slideshare which benefited my research and planning because I was then able to base my music video plans around his principles for a successful music video. Internet Explorer also acted as a credible resource for my research and planning because I found out a lot of important information on the internet which added to my research and planning. Extra research into other theories like The Reception Theory which were extra information to me were available due to the internet. Photoshop was also useful because it meant our digipak and magazine advertisement plans looked rather professional so we had a template to work from. Photoshop is a very good programme to use because it gives you hundreds of tools to use to make the ancillary products however you want them. The images can be edited and words and colour can be layered over the top to create the plan which we wanted.       

Construction

YouTube was another online technology which was helpful to me because both of my rough cuts and my final cut were uploaded to YouTube so they could be viewed by both me, my group and my teacher. As well as this it gave me the chance to embed them into Blogger posts so they were securely there and weren't likely to disappear. If something happened to the iMac then YouTube would have my videos on there so they could still be viewed and marked. The Canon HD CMOS Pro was the camera we used to film our music video. It was a very good quality camera which allowed us to film in HD to get the best looking music video possible. I also used a tripod and a dolly.  As well as this there was the use of iMovie to create the actual video. iMovie is a very good programme for editing the footage together for the music video however we encountered a few problems. When adding the music for the music video it would only make the song available for the length of time as the footage, this made it hard to match up lip-syncing shots and narrative shots but eventually we overcame this problem and produced a high quality music video. We also used Final Cut Express, another editing software which allowed us to enhance the colours of our music video and give the finishing touch to our video like saturation, brightness and additional effects. The Blogger App was very useful during construction. This meant that I had the storyboard, shotlists, any influences and plot and narrative framework to use during the shoot. I could go back and edit them when plans were changed and to add more detail to posts which may not be clear or may have needed developing. Having all my research and planning at my fingertips made shooting the music video and creating the ancillary products, especially with the mobile app for Blogger. During the shoots I was able to bring up the app and search for the post I needed to make sure I followed our guidelines and plans which we made ourselves. Using an Apple iMac instead of a Windows computer was very beneficial because it has a faster processor, better quality screen and louder speakers which help when looking over our rough cuts. For the magazine advertisement and digipak we used Photoshop to create the ancillary products. This meant we could crop and merge the images we had taken together so that it looked professional.

Evaluation

During the evaluation I have used many different programmes to create interesting ways of evaluating my music video. First of all I used Blogger to create this post whereas my other evaluation posts are more creative. I used iMovie to create my directors commentry and to film myself. This was much easier to do by using iMovie because it gave me the option to overlay footage over the recording of me talking about my video. Making a Prezi was another resource I used to evaluate my products and this was pretty simple to use. I did it because it was more interesting than doing a PowerPoint presentation and it is more user interactive. I experimented with Final Cut when doing my evaluation too and the vast features that Final Cut offer allow for a professional looking directors commentry. The iMac was a benefit to me when doing all my evaluation questions because of the faster processing and the built in iSight camera. I was able to film myself and the videos were quicker to create and export than if I used a Windows computer.    

New Media technologies have vastly helped my evaluation processes and it would have been difficult to evaluate my products without such hardware and software. 

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from audience feedback?

I used a Prezi to show the feedback processes which went into the development of our music video and ancillary tasks.

Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of the main product and the ancillary tasks?

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

FINAL PRODUCTS

Final Music Video

This is our final cut of our music video. We have added in various different things based on personal opinions and also based on feedback received from our target audience.

 

The first noticeable difference between our final version and the initial two cuts, is that the use of black and white is more purposeful, we changed this based on audience feedback. Prior to this, the effects had been used very sporadically and that meant that the audience did not really understand why it was being used. The main reason for the black and white is to distinguish between reality and dreams. The black and white connote this to the audience and as a result the audience can understand what is happening.

Also in this version we have a lot more location shots, again this was based on audience feedback from the first two versions that we had done. The audience wanted to see more of the location, this was beneficial to us and the audience because it meant by doing this we could build on strengthening the narrative to make it obvious what was happening throughout, all the way until the end of the music video. The location shots also meant that we could show off our camera skills, we have used a range of shots, long shots, close ups and even establishing shots of the moon with the trees in the way.

Another difference is that we have added another character. This was quite a large change that we considered late on. The reason for adding the second character is that we had to add more depth to our narrative rather than just having one character who may be lost and can't find his way home. Adding a second character really aided our narrative and made our whole video more interesting and captivating to watch. We did away with the fatal ending which we thought was too severe and not shot properly and incorporated the idea of a recurring dream instead. We are pleased with our final cut and like the way it has come out.

Final Digipak

This is the final product we have created for a Digipak. We stuck with our original theme of the woods and forest which have been incorporated into our plans and featured in our actual music video. We did this because it created connection between our music video and ancillary products. We used abstract shapes around the front cover title because after researching the genres album art it was a common denominator. We used pictures of our characters on the Digipak so that it portrayed the importance of the characters to the music video.   

Final Magazine Advertisement

This is our final magazine advert. The idea for this was a joint effort from everyone in our group. In order to produce it we took ideas from everyone's original ideas. As you can see, we have incorporated parts of each team members advert into our final product.

We have used a consistent font throughout all of our products, this is good because it links all of the media texts together. It gives a sense of intertextuality. The font on our magazine advert is good because it also links in with the theme of our music video, whilst also challenging stereotypical conventions of this genre.

The image used in the background was one that we took during one of our shoots, it is an action shot that looks as though Connar is walking away from the camera. It is effective as it makes our audience want to see more, and therefore effectively advertises our music video. Also by the image being very open, it leads the audience to want to know more, enhancing them to go and watch the music video. This therefore makes the image a very good one to use on an advert as it does make people want to watch the music video.

We have included other key information on the advert, this includes the website address, iTunes logo and the record label for our artist logo. By including all of these it makes the advert look very professional. It adds a sense of realism. Based on audience feedback we did change these from the original version, we were told that originally they were too big and needed to be reduced in size, therefore we took this into account and made them a lot smaller. This is the final product, once audience feedback had been considered and changed.



MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT PLANS

This is my first attempt at a magazine advertisement. I have used Stock Images from the internet to create the same sort of gesture as our video - that a ghost will be involved with a person. I used Photoshop to create this magazine advertisement and there a lot of things which are lacking from my design. The green artist title is a difficult colour to read against the black background whereas the white is much clearer. The fonts are a bit too basic for a music magazine advertisement. The information is lacking and there is no record label logo to indicate which label SBTRKT are with. However, things which I did that I liked were the black and white effect on the 'ghost' to show he is a ghost and different from the full coloured man. I think my image choices are alright because I picked images which would connect in a way that would portray them looking at each other. They don't have a white background because I used to tools to get rid of the background. To improve the magazine advertisement I think more detailed information needs to be added and perhaps more interesting visuals.

Since doing the first magazine advertisement I have designed another one with much more detail and more sophisticated aesthetics.

I am much prouder of this magazine advertisement since I have developed my Photoshop skills. It is much better than my first one with more detail, information and better images. I have included a Young Turks logo and a quote from a music magazine to promote the single. One thing I really like which I have done is make the middle part of the title black to contrast the white and make it clearer against the background. The background of the road and the forest incorporate into the house style of all three products. Our video is based in a forest and features an abandoned road whilst our digipack also has images of trees and creepy forests on it. I used a black and white theme for the majority of the writing to match the record label logo and so it isn't too over-powering over the top of the background. However, to make the artist name stand out I used an effect which is a mix of colours to amount to something a bit different from the rest of the fonts and colours. I'm glad it doesn't clash with the background, however that is personal opinion, some people might think it does.





ANALYSIS OF A MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT OF OUR CHOSEN ARTIST

This is the advertisement from NME magazine which is promoting the release of our artist's new song which was released in February 2012. The font for the advert is quite basic due to the fill effect which encompasses the images of a modern day battlefield. This is useful because an overpowering font would distract from the symbolic imagery used. The song is called 'Hold On' which is ambiguous when it comes to the deeper meaning. One meaning could reflect the struggles of the soldiers used on the advertisement, telling them to 'Hold On'. The contrast in colour between the battlefield image and the man and woman behind the text could show the ambiguity and how the song also references to a couple and perhaps relationship struggles, making 'Hold On' another accurate term. The faces are shown through a blue tint creating quite a ghostly effect, shrouded by black to create an overall dark image with negative connotations.

The font for the magazine advertisement is quite basic and bold which is the norm for SBTRKT and their other forms of advertising. There is usually more of an artistic style to the font but this has been abolished for the magazine advertisement because there is imagery inside of the text. A normal, non-distracting style is best for this reasoning so the picture can be seen clearly.

There is a blue hue on the face of the woman in the magazine advertisement. This connotes depression and sadness which relates to the emotional song. Blue also has a calming effect which could reflect the slow tempo of the song and create an overall relaxed mood against the harsh war imagery. The blue face fades in to a black background which creates an effect of fading away or fading into an abyss.    

The war imagery has quite a harsh effect and really impacts the audience due to the severe nature of war and the battlefields. The term 'Hold On' could be about the current soldiers "holding on" in their lives while fighting in the war. The realism of the musky image of the army soldiers creates a true-to-life, hard hitting representation of the war which can be generalised to any audience due to the vast amount of wars going on all over the world.    

The thing I like the most about the whole magazine advertisement is that the symbolic and ambiguous nature of the design draws in a wider audience due to the vast meanings and significance it could possess. I have been inspired by this magazine advertisement and hope our ancillary tasks create such an effect.