Evaluation Question 3 - 1st draft

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before I began constructing my media text I used research to help me identify the key elements which my target audience would like to be included in my video and ancillary’s, I did this by creating a questionnaire and asking questions which I believed would be relevant in helping me decide the type of video. The questionnaire consisted on eight questions and was filled out by 25 people within the sixth form area of my school. The results I received from the questionnaire were extremely useful as it   gave me a better understanding of my Target audience and what there likes and dislikes are. And this also lead me to the conclusion that indie rock was the most popular genre and so I began looking into a variety of indie rock track to use for my video.

The general feedback surrounding my media text was positive. As a trio the overall opinion was that each of the media text complimented each other and that they all worked well as a collection as the ancillaries and music video all followed the same house style through locations, style and layout. I received a lot of comment saying that my were a good combination as they look similar and followed the same style whereas with the video the general feedback was that it should not be as similar in style to the ancillary’s as they were for the same album and the video was for one song and so it should have its own unique identity. From the feedback I received from my target audience I have learnt the importance house style in helping to create an artist identity as the most minor changes in location, music, presences and clothing can have a major impact on the artist image. 

This was the worst received media text I created and this understandably so I faced many challenges when creating it this. The main criticism was that the video was too slow, this was from the lack of fast cut editing and this was due to the fact I had very limited footage and so I had make each clip last much longer than I would have wanted too. From this I have learnt how important scheduling is as it allows you to know when you will have everything done by in result you can plan around any incontinences. I also learnt that when it comes to editing the more footage you have the greater potential your video has. As With an insufficient amount of clips it make editing hard as you are often forced into using shots you don’t want as you have no other alternative this in result restricted=s the creativity of the final product.

Evaluation Question 1 - 1st draft

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

The main conventions of music videos are close ups and fast cut editing. Star image is one of the main ways my media products uses conventions of real media products. Richard Dyer suggested that a star  is constructed through a range of materials. Pete Fraser also said that close ups are fundamental in music video to help establish star image.Close ups are used throughout my videos with most of the shots being front facing Close ups of my actorsin order to put the focus and attention on them, resulting in an enhanced image.

 Fast cut editing is another common convention of music videos as music songs are often only 2-4mins long and often so much footage is taken they aim to use a lot of this. Also with such a short limit for time it can be very difficult to establish a theme so many shots are needed to do this. Lastly high shot counts and fast cut editing are so frequent in music videos as they increase repeatability as you do not often take everything upon first viewing meaning multiple viewings are needed to fully understand the video.



For my specific genre there are a variety of conventions linked to the indie rock genre such as perfomances based videos, longer takes, natural settings and casual costumes. Firstly I decided to go with a peformanced based video. Both my actors lip sync in the video which is seen in close up and mid shots. Unlike many other indie rock videos I did not use any instruments as I was unable to get hold of any and also it would not have been suitable taking them out on location. Costumes are also very important with videos as it shows the specifc styles of the artists. I loooked through several bands similar to those I wished to imitate and then decided upon a layed back casual style for my artist as bright colourful over the top clothing is much common in pop songs and this is not the image I was aiming for. I asked my actors to wear dark jeans, bomber jacket or hoodies and to bring some shades which gave them a cool layed back look. Natural locations are typically used in indie rock videos, this is one of the reasons for me choosing to film out in the woods but also because after looking around the area there were a few nice looking shot and areas.the centre of the my video is up on top of a peak which has a open clear veiw for miles in each direction, I thought this was an ideal place to film as it was out of the way and also matched the tone of the music it was visuallkly what i imaged when listening to the song.

 

 My ancillaries also used many conventions with them both being very similar in style and layout. This was done intentionally to help establish a band image and album image.

Both my digipak and Magazine advert are laid out following industry conventions. This is due to research I put into existing products. From looking at existing products I noticed that the majority of the magazine adverts and digipaks I looked at followed a similar layout. Firstly the artist's name was nearly always located at the top and was the biggest and boldest. Then the album name was often either placed below the artist's name or at the bottom and once again used the same font, was bold and easily readable. I chose the font PrimeTime from dafont.com for both my title and band name This was becasue it was easily readable and also fit the style of the genre. I also noticed that for magazine adverts there is normally only one image and this is the focus of the advert so it is often large and certral. Although the focus of my artists does not entirely fill my magazine ad it is placed centrally and is the only imagery within the forground forcing the attention on to them.

For each panel of my digipak the artist are featured as the main focus point to reenforce the star image created from the music video. For the back panel I wrote the tracklist, the tracklist is the list of all tracks featured on the CD. I matched the layout of digipak by placing it on the far left side and aligning them all. 

Evaluation Question 2 - 1st draft

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

I believe that the combination of my ancillarys really helped to enhace the star image of my artist in my music video, these ancillarys also helped to establish what type of artsit they are through style, look and location.

the main theme that can been seen on both my ancillarys and my music videos is the natural outdoor setting, this was done to create a link between the video, advert and digipak. the reason why i chose this setting was because of these types of bands are known to be more true to te music and naturally grown artsit and so i tried to show this through location.

Star Image was one of the main theme i wanted to be shown through my media texts ands so I decidede to sow this by make the entire video preformanced based and for both the magazine advert and the digipak I used images of the artist0 consistently throughout to create the connection between the band and the album. 

both my ancillarys and my music video are very effective as they are very clear own showing the artsit image and style, this was done through song choice, actor outfits, loction and various other methods. This is essential for defining a target audinece, the genre and style for my arist was indie rock and I believe this is clear from the portayal of my actors through their layed back casual looks in both the ancillarys and the music video.      

The photography for my Digipak and magazine advert is very similar this was done intentionally as they are both used to promote the same album. It is essential to establish a clear house style as this will allow people to easily identify and recognise the band and album. For both my advert and Digipak I used the same font "Primetime and coloured this in white as this showed up best on darker backgrounds also for both of these I decided to alter the lighting and contrast by lowering these in all my medias text. I decided to do this because bright and colour video are often asociated with pop music and I wanted to create a clear distinction from that genre also under light videos are very common for the indie rock genre.  

Evaluation Question 4 - 1st draft

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

Research and planning

youtube was used mostly for my research as I looked into exsisting music videos, on youtube is where I found all of the music videos which I watched several time and then went off and reveiwed and analysised them.    

I used facebook messanger regularly during the planning stage as this allowed me and my actors to hold convosations over my filming schedule. Another advantage of this facebook messanger is that you are able to hold convosations with multiple people at the same time meaning I was able to send out a message that they could both see and everyone in the group can see all of the responses. 

blooger was used during the entire process of my project as this is work all of my work was posted I used it as a dairy to doccumnet the progess of my work. As I had to do thi sfor last years project I had gain knowledge and experience on how to properly use blogger. 

                        

construction 

To capture my footage I used a  camera and tripod this year I used the Nikon whereas last year I used the cannon, this took some getting used to but after some pratice I was aware of how to use properly and effectively.

I used photoshop for all of the image editing for my ancillaries texts. firslt I made my magazine advert which I applied many effects to as this added depth to the image making it look more appealing and attractive.

I used a nikon to film the footage of my video I had previous experince with this camera as I used this to film my AS project and so I had become familair with the camera and found it much easier to use the second time around.
 
The software I used to edit my videos was sony vegas, I had also used this for my AS Media project last year and so I had a much better understanding of the project this uear compared to last. I was able to use the programme much more effiecently as well I new most of the tools and functions avaible on the programme. 

Blogger was also another programme I used throughout the process of my project from start to finish. I once again had the past experience of this programme as for last years project we had to blog the entire process from as early as the preliminary tasks up unitl the evaluation, we are told to blog as often as possible as this helps to show our progress during the course.