EVALUATION: Question 4

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Having finished creating our music video, on Tuesday 6th of December 2011, our college had booked the Screen on the Green cinema in Angel so we can all see each others finished music videos. This gave us the opportunity to view each others music videos and compare the similarities and differences between them. As it was the first time our music video was being shown to everyone, it gave us the chance to see the audience's first reactions to our music video. Below is a video showing the audience's reactions when the music video starts and when it ends. The video below also contains some detailed and in-depth feedback from our college's head of media department, Mary (interview courtesy of Nick). 

Mary had given some very detailed and feedback about our music video. Being a media teacher, Mary is very experienced within the media world and knows exactly what works and what doesn't. Thankfully, we received a rave review from a knowledgeable person who has seen may examples of student's music videos. Unlike most people I've heard reviews from, Mary firstly, she went on to praise Poppy's performance in the music video. By playing a big role brilliantly, Poppy was able to make the video look as if she was actually singing the song. She then went on to praise the camera work stating that how there was a massive range of shots. Overall, we had recorded nearly 20 base tracks from all different camera angles to make sure we had a variety of shots in the video. These ranged from low angle shots to extreme close ups. It was great for someone to have noticed this. She also mentioned how the lighting was consistent throughout the video where we tried to have as much lighting on Poppy as we could. She greatly appreciated the locations we recorded in  and the images we projected on to Poppy using the projector. The shots and lighting were so unique that Mary even went on to say how it reminded her of Angela Carter. Picture below:

The journalist (known for her feminist work) Mary had compared
Poppy to, due to the woodland shots we had filmed.

The mise en scene was something else she had said worked well by the way the costumes changed to suit the lighting and colours. This was because during the planning stages, we had discussed greatly the colours and outfits were to be worn by Poppy. We also spent time discussing what make-up she should be wearing and how it should be done.

Although I do not have much footage of peoples thoughts of my music video, I have heard extremely good reviews from everyone who has seen the music video. Many people have stated that they find my group's music video unique in terms of lighting and mise en scene and greatly appreciate the camera work and projection shots used as well as the make-up. As my group all contributed to create the music video, we all feel great appreciation that our music video was seen by many as a success. Much time and effort as well as commitment had been implemented into creating the music video and that effort has shown through in the work we have produced.

Our music video had been posted on YouTube by Nick in response to another successful video to hopefully gain some feedback. And gladly, we did. With over 1900 views on the video, our video had accumulated a few comments from friends and also random people. Below is a screen shot showing the last 8 comments on the video, with mostly all of them being positive.

Comments from our music video on YouTube.

There was however one comment on the video which provided useful information into how we can prove the music video.

Although I do not know who this person is, they gave some good and bad feedback. Whereas Mary and many others had stated they like the way the costume changes depending on the lighting and colours, this person states they prefer the costume to stay consist in the woodland shots. Like may other people I have shown this music video to, they also went on to say that although the projection shot is a good idea, they feel as if it was used too much and not enough footage in the woodlands was used. I have to completely agree with this feedback. This is because as we were going for a theme where the artist is in touch with nature, we did not show that much footage of Poppy actually in the woods. When we did, most of the shots were recorded at night and you could not there see the surrounding woodlands. If we had the opportunity to redo this music video, I will take that advice greatly on board. This is because even I had stated to my group during the production stage that the projection shots were shown too much in the video. If we were to have the opportunity again, I have learnt to focus on each shot equally and make sure more of the woodland shots were implemented into the final edit. By doing this, the music video will present a more constructed theme, rather than the music video looking like its switching between two themes. With this improvement in place, the  the music video would appeal to a more specific type of audience who like the opposite of an urban and technological advanced location.

Trying to find people who found criticism within our work was extremely difficult. As I stated before, people generally liked the music video for what it is as it had surpassed their expectations. An example of this is the below image. Out of 26 votes, 25 people had liked our music video.

25 people out of 26 had liked our music video. That is nearly a ratio of 4 dislikes per 100 people.

If I had only received reviews from YouTube, then I would have been sceptical as the people who watched the video would have only watched it as it would have appealed to them in the first place. Someone who has no taste in this genre of music would not click on the video to watch it therefore making the reviews on YouTube slightly bias. However, the fact that I have received great reviews from people who have no preference in this music at all (such as my friends who listen to more of rap/hip-hop) says itself that the video contained shots or references that relate to everyone's tastes. Although this may sound great, this may also mean that we may have done something wrong. This is because when planning our music video, we had a general theme with a specific target audience in mind which we wanted to target. The fact that we met everyone's preferences shows that we didn't stick to our target audience as much as we'd should have. This has shown me and made me learn that mise en scene plays a big part in music videos and also that our music video needs to have a stronger and more clearer meaning. This is so the target audience get exactly what they want, and not a mixture of a bit of everything.

In terms of feedback for my ancillary products, all I have received are positive reviews. All three ancillary products had taken me over 25 hours to produce excluding planning time. This was because I had scrapped my initial plans after I had discovered I could not do certain edits with the images available to me. Having posted my advertisement to Facebook, I had received all round great feedback.

As you can see, the comments from Facebook show what people think of my work. Each person said something different yet still positive and this is what I have discovered about my work. However, I have heard one or two comments from people stating what they did not like about the work. Firstly, the main thing people stated about both my digipak and advert is the font. The majority of people who look at my ancillary products state the way they love how the images blend together in a unique design and love the colours used. After I press people into saying something negative about the digipak and ancillary product, they always say that the font choice could have been better. I had used Dafont.com to download the font I had used in my ancillary product. However, after a bit of thought, I have learnt and realised that the font could have been more suited to the genre. This was because the font I had used is simple, plain and ordinary with a few effects added to it. The font itself is not one which stands out and has noticeable features that would make it unique to my work. Therefore I have learned that font choice is absolutely vital within my designs.

Overall I have learned a few things in reference to some feedback I have received on my group's work (music video) and my own individual work (my ancillary products). I have learned that my in my music video, most people liked the projection shots while some thought the shots over powered the video. What I have acknowledged from this feedback is that if I was able to redo the music video again, the edit would have to be changed slightly. It would be changed to evenly show Poppy in the forest the same amount of times it shows Poppy in front of the projector. I also learned that in terms of my ancillary products, everyone generally liked the design, the colours and the lighting, but feel as if the font was a let down. This was because people felt that the font didn't link that well with the theme and images and looks as if it much thought had not gone into it, when it had. If these could be redone, I really feel as if the design itself is great, but the font is not; I will change the font to one more suitable to the theme so it can all link up together. Overall, I don't think much change is needed in terms of my music video and ancillary products.

Q4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

With our music video, we were very pleased with most of our feedback that we obtained as it was all positive. Everyone liked the use of base tracks as well as some noticed the techniques that we used such as the sped up effect of the projection shot as well as the slowed down shot on the swing. Everything was well reviewed and I couldn't find anyone who could give us a full on negative comment or review on it. 

Here is a video that I have used earlier on in my blog but it shows all of the reviews that I got after the premiere at the Screen on the Green.  

What I have learnt from my feedback is that hard work pays off. My group and I worked so well as a team as well as dedicated our spare time to complete our editing, we listened to one an other's opinions and took them in, taking in each others feedback and working from it and molding it into the best music video that we could do. 

For example, when we were deciding the possible endings for our video we all had different preferences on what we thought would look best and so we recorded each one and then looked back at them all one by one, deciding which one would be suiting to the end of the video:

 Video A

Video B

Video C

With this compromise, we get good feedback as well due to when we show other people outside of our group the alternative endings, we have many different opinions on what they thought would suit best for the endings. Some thought that video A would suit best as it has a simple ending whilst the lights go out having the projections turn off my face revealing a hauntingly stare into the camera. Some people thought that it would be a good ending as it has a haunting effect where as some thought that it may not be exciting enough after all of the build up for it to be a slightly "boring ending"With video B had a good response from the audience as it has a sort of magical effect to it and as you watch the fairy lights switch off and the artist shut her eyes, it really shows the audience that the video it ending and many of the audiences agreed with this. Finally, video C got the most negative feedback from it as people said that it lingered too much on two shots and that it should vary more on the many options that we had s well as it didn't have "good enough shots, there should be more cuts to make it look more exiting." Over all, we used the ending of Video B. 

Personally, if I had to critique my own video I would have improved on the following, I would have taken the time out to watch fully all the way through all of the shots that we had and then had written down or memorized the good shots so it would have been easier to track down the good shots from the bad as while we were editing, we made our lives a little bit harder by not taking the time out to look through every shot that we had filmed. That way I believe that we could have found better shots to use in some of the base tracks. (Not that I think the base track clips we used aren't good- I just believe that I could have chosen a slightly better ones that may suited the moment of the song better.)

Inside caption. 

Front cover (right) Back cover (Left) 

Poster- Advertisement. 

From my reviews on my digipak and advertisements, everyone seems to have reacted positively, giving the suggestion of their liking to the background image on my advertisement as it links well to the woodlands scenery in the music video. Nathan gave a review of his opinion and how he didn't like the fonts, however, taking that in, I can confidently say that my Target audience wasn't targeted at male audiences. And so I half expected that sort of reaction towards the advertisement as it doesn't appeal to him and others like him (most of the time).
Since most of the comments I got were positive, it is quite difficult to learn from what I can improve on since not many have said anything about what I should improve on except fro Nathan, however, what he said was then overpowered by everyone else mentioning on how much they "liked the font".
Over all, if I could have done more on my ancillary product, I would have wanted a more variety of useful images when editing as there weren't many images that we could have used as because of the lighting available, most of the images came out blurry.

Please go to link below- I tried to add it to the site like I usually do but it wouldn't upload. Sorry. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGWBbbGGwx8&list=UUjNjtfp78qkMeIKrvcFjJ3Q&index=1&feature=plcp

Evaluation - Question Four

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

On the 6th of December 2011 we visited the Screen on the Green cinema where every group's music video was screened. This was an invaluable experience, as we were able to see an audience's reaction to our music video, in addition to the possibility of receiving individual feedback, both of which I documented in the video below. As you can see from the comments that I filmed, we were given great feedback. This was also consistently true for all the other feedback we have received throughout the editing process from our peers and online via Facebook and YouTube.



Max was the first to comment in the video above, stating that he believes the editing is the strength of our video. This is great because we put a lot of effort into the editing, so the fact that that shows through is definitely a positive thing. This was one of the many things Evie mentioned too, in addition to praising our performer and her costumes. This was something we thought about extensively during the planning stage, as we knew how important an artist's styling is in order to appeal to an audience. By portraying Poppy in a modest yet slightly eccentric way, we broke the conventions of modern pop videos, making it clear that our artist is not marketed for strictly mainstream consumers, instead opting for a more niche, artistic, young adult audience, such as that of the audience profile we created early on (see here).

Judging from the audience's reaction and responses, I learned that the video met, or perhaps even exceeded, their expectations. The fact that we received little criticism, even when I pressed people for possible improvements, makes me confident that our music video would appeal to its audience. However, I was still determined to find out what my audience thought we could have improved on. This is where YouTube came in handy. Since uploading the video to YouTube a month ago, it has garnered just under 2,000 views (the majority of which being from Florence + the Machine fans) and the following comments:

I then decided to contact each user that commented, requesting that they respond with any possible improvements, no matter how big or small. Here is one of the responses I received:  

"I really like it but some things I would change are maybe the outfits and make them more of the style of that pinkish grey one she wore on the swing. and the makeup make it more like she lives in the forest and add some scratches and dirt spots, and use more of the forest and less of the green screen... but don't change the actual location because that is the perfect place for this song"

This comment has definitely made me look at my music video in a new light, as some of the projection shots could look disjointed in comparison to all of the forest shots. However, as a group we really loved these shots, and I think there's a good balance between them and those filmed in the forest. Nonetheless, it makes me wonder what our video would have looked like if we had not used any of the projection shots. It would have been great if we had been able to make alternate edits of the video (if we had more time, that is). The suggestion of adding "makeup [that makes it look] like she lives in the forest [such as] scratches and dirt" is also interesting, and seems to lean towards a much more literal translation of the song, which we weren't aiming to achieve, instead opting for a more abstract and visually rich portrayal of the song.

Above you can see some more constructive criticism in response to my request. This person commented extensively on areas that they felt could be improved. However, I think these are very little things that, if we had time to take them on board by working on the music video more, would only have made it even better. I must say though that, taking all things into consideration, I believe Poppy's performance was brilliant. Besides, we're not actors, so we couldn't really help it if the acting wasn't perfect! Nevertheless, I can definitely see where they are coming from. For example, some of the shots are indeed slightly shaky, but not once did we think that this hindered the overall feel of the video. In fact, I was wary of having too many steady shots as it might make the music video feel static whereas music videos tend to be energetic and full of movement. The comment on Poppy taking on the role of a character and building their backstory was something that made me think too, as we didn't really look at it in this way. In retrospect, this could have been interesting to explore.

In addition, several people commented on the video in relation to the song's original artist, which means that we successfully created a video that would appeal to Florence's fan base.  One such comment compared our video to those of Florence's for Dog Days Are Over and Shake It Out. These two examples were in the backs of our minds during our production, although we weren't consciously trying to bring in major influences from them. Nonetheless, this is still a very good thing, as whilst we aimed to market Poppy as her own artist, there are definitely similarities when it comes to the way they are presented as musicians.

In light of the positive comments we were given, I couldn't help noticing for myself aspects of our production that I would have liked to improve which no one had mentioned. These are probably again, very little things, but I feel like they would have considerably improved the video. For example, the videos that we projected which were not sourced externally (i.e. forest shots that I filmed myself) were quite pixelated since they were taken with a phone. If we had planned in advance that we would use our own footage from the woods, we would have known to take out the camcorder during our visit. I mentioned this to Max after asking him for further feedback, and he agreed, although he noted that it wasn't something majorly noticeable. However, he did mention another improvement, which is that the projection shots would have been more successful if we hadn't had used the whiteboard for the background, and instead to have had empty space (a la Imogen Heap's video for Lifeline). I wholeheartedly agree with this, and would have loved to have had access to a portable projector. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case, and so we had to "make do" with the classroom projector.

Use of black space in Lifeline

 ...
All in all, I am very happy with the outcome of my music video, and whilst some of the feedback we received made me think about some of the decisions we made, I am confident that we couldn't have pulled off a better job in relation to the time restraints we had.

Click to expand

On the left you can see an image I created using a brainstorm creation tool (bubbl.us) which compiles together several comments I received via Facebook in response to my ancillary work. Many positive things were said, but there were quite a few suggestions and things to think about too.

For example, Comment B has made me think about the purpose of the promotional sticker, as I just assumed that they were useful for all album buyers. However, if someone is familiar with the artist's work, or if they do not know of the artist at all, then the sticker is made redundant. Ultimately, the consumer must have some form of familiarity with the artist in question; for example, if someone was to see Poppy Power's music video for Howl, and then encountered her CD in a store (with the sticker stating that Howl is included), this might encourage them to look into more of her songs or even give the album a spin. All in all, I think it's better to have the sticker than to not have it, as it's invaluable in getting across the highlights of an album in a simple way, and can be used to reinforce the fact that a CD is 'special edition'.

Photo used for digipak and advert

There were also a few comments stating that the image used for the digipak cover and advert isn't clear - because the image is quite dark and slightly grainy. I can definitely see why this could be a problem, especially since, as said in Comment G, I am marketing a new artist. However, I think the promotional slipcase makes up for this, as this is what would be seen first in stores.

My inside panels were complimented, especially when it came to the typographical design, with Comment I recognizing the fact that it looks like light graffiti. I am very pleased with the reception of this, as I originally wasn't sure if I should include it. One suggestion I was given, however, is that the words could have been placed together. Originally, I planned to do this, but I decided against it as I felt it left the other panel looked "uneven". In addition, I learned that my products link very well - the simple fonts and repetition of artist imagery being mentioned often. Again, I am pleased with the overall result and glad that it was generally well received.

Evaluation - Question 4

"What have you learned from your audience feedback?"

Here is a live recording of our video coming on in the cinema and the audience reaction we received. The audience cheered at the end and beginning of our video, which makes us feel very proud and we feel we may have met the needs of our audience, as some of our target audience are in the audience. The young, mainly female university age students, with a different style and artists who like alternative pop/rock music.

Below are four videos of the direct video responses I received after we have watched our music video on the cinema.

The main comments we received on our audience was that they really liked the projection shots in our video and thought that it was very creative. They also liked the parts of our video, such as when the artist is running through the woods and the make up styles we used. Overall, I learnt from my audience feedback on my music video that hard work really does pay off! I think we have definitely succeeded in making a conventional music video, I feel that we had met the media expectations as the audience did not reflect back any negatives or things that they felt we could of improved which is always a good thing! I would personally say, we could of possibly used more wide shots in the projection base track, and ensured that everything was in sync and I think one part of the video looks a little off. So really, it's just about sitting and watching it repeatedly to see if there are any visual faults! However, I do think that we did well, Poppy (who was this artist in the video) really had so much energy and performed so well, and I think this lead to the success of our video. She was very enthusiastic and really took on the role of the artist, so this definitely made our video more entertaining to watch! We attempted to meet the demands of the audience as best as we could; so we met the conventions of music videos by editing the shots to the beat of the music, using several close ups and ensuring the artist looked directly into the camera to connect to her audience, as well as cutting quickly towards the end to build a climax. I also feel that each one of our base tracks were well thought out and really followed the conventions of an alternative pop artist music video, we tried to be very creative in her styling and look.

In conclusion, I am very happy with the product, and by the response of the audience I feel our hard work has paid off and we have met the demands of our target consumers.

Here is a short video of a couple responses of my ancillary work. I also received some other comments:

'I really liked the way that the picture links to the video and the one on the advertisement. It's a little plain but it doesn't go overboard.'

'I like the font and the colour scheme, the darkness links to the video and you've done really well in linking the products to the video.'

'I like the darkness and cold feel to the cover, and the advert is really simple and direct, which is important to reaching the audience'

' It's really good, and the pictures are relevant and look really nice on the Digipak, only small thing is on the advert you've forgotten the "www", otherwise I like it!'

From all this feedback I have learnt that my ancillary work is good enough and does follow the conventions. This is the task I struggled with the most and I think it showed but I did try my best to constantly link both products to make a successful promotional package. I think that used appropriate images and tried to add extras to my Digipak, such as a sticker and copyright information on the CD space. I think that I will attract my target audience as my video was a success, and my Digipak is based around the images in my video so together they can attract my audience and be a successful product.

QUESTION 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?

Before we began our music video we discussed the over all pop video conventions that critics mentioned such as Mulvey for representation of women and Goodwin for structure. We worked against the representation of the 'sexual fantasy' of women in our video just as other music artists have done so, such as Florence and the machine and Bat for lashes who both aim their videos on translation of the lyrics in an artistic form as well as rely on their vocal talent and dedication for their fans rather than relying on their figure and the amount of skin showing that they can get away with. We worked against that through using our wardrobe to express an elegant and mature look with long dresses with bold block colors such as blue, red and white and with these dresses to be presenting the elegant and fresh look we were aiming to achieve. Andrew Goodwin observed that some music videos do not present traditional narratives, and can be presented in many different formats such as; Disjunction,amplification or illustration. Instead, our artist looks at the camera as she lip-syncs for the majority of the song which would most likely be seen in Goodwin's eyes as a mixture of disjuncture and illustration, our video also follows conventions in the way it climaxes as it comes closer to then end, reflected through the fast cuts and frequent cuts from shot to shot that build up faster as it comes to the end of the song.

However, Carol Vernallis observed the editing of music videos have a much more frequent edit to cutting so it is in sync with the beat of the song. For the majority of our music video we do exactly this, following the rhythm of our track 'Howl' by Florence and the machine and cutting at every other beat throughout the song until near the end when it picks up (the climax) when the editing becomes faster and more frequent as the song ends. 

We have a few edits that we have used in the music video to catch the audiences attention such as the fast edit and a very brief Glowing effect in one of the first verses of the song. We used these effects to grasp the audience's attention to show the artists interesting image and her individual and unique styile and look on her video. 

In the prezi below it is a small presentation of some of the research and inspirations that we had, it is shown briefly on this presentation however it'll be explain in detail later on in the blog. 

MEDIA on Prezi

Watch

Q3 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research and evaluation stages?

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

Q2 How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak & advert) ?

How effective is the combination of your main product (video) 

and ancillary texts (digipak & advert) ?

I scripted an interview with the artist: Poppy Power and the Radio Channel F.F.M: Fresh faced music for me to answer this evaluation- I hope you enjoy it. :) 

Evaluation - Question 3

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


Construction and Research

In the construction and research of my music video I used various technologies to enable me to create an idea for my work, as well as understand how to produce it.

1. The Internet - Whereby I used websites such as Youtube, Google, Vevo, ITunes, Vimeo.
2. Cameras - State of the art Video Cameras, Mobile Phone Cameras and Digital Cameras.
3. Programmes - Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, iPhoto

In my planning and evaluation I used even more technologies to complete my work.

1. Internet - Vimeo, Da Font, Blogger, Youtube,  Prezi, Iaza, Photobucket, Facebook, Twitter
2. Programmes - FInal Cut Pro, Photoshop,  CLipgrab, Wordle
3. Cameras - Flip Camera

.

Here is another screen recording of me using IPhoto - an editing programme on the Mac. I used this programme to edit the colour of my image used on the Digipak, here is an example of me demonstrating some of the skills you can do on this, it involved me changing the contrast, cropping and image, and changing the colour scheme. This was important in making my image suitable for my Digipak and the theme I was trying to convey by doing this.

Here is a Quick Time screen recording of me using Photoshop. I am just demonstrating some of the things I am able to do on the programme. Therefore I am cutting out images, pasting them onto my work, adding and removing texts as well as rotating it and changing the colour.

Here is a Prezi of me showing how I have used media technologies in my work.

Here is the animation of our storyboard, we were able to complete this on Final Cut Pro as we felt it was a more creative way to capture our story board, and we could develop our skills on the programme and put good use to media technology! This was also easier to paste onto our blog, as we could edit the shots to the time of the music - similarly to what we done in the music video - following the conventions.

EVALUATION: Question 3

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

To plan, design and create both our music video and ancillary products, we had to use a wide variety of technology. This was done consistently during the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of my group's music video and the associated ancillary products.

YouTube was greatly used in order to view real examples
of music videos and see what conventions and theories
them apply to them.

Firstly, in order to conduct research for us to then plan our music video, we had to use a PC or MAC to gain access to the internet to see a few examples. YouTube played a big part in the research we had conducted as we had used YouTube to see examples of real music videos and the conventions they have. Access to a fast broadband connection was needed here so when we watched/analysed real artist's music videos, the video played smoothly with no buffering screens interrupting playback. Other websites included Vimeo. Vimeo, like YouTube, is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share their own videos. The difference between Vimeo and YouTube is that Vimeo is more associated with planned and constructed videos (e.g. short films, user created content etc....) whereas YouTube has both amatuer unplanned videos and constructed videos. Vimeo was used to research and analyse past student's music videos from within our college and other colleges. As we were to be creating the same type of media product, Vimeo proved useful as it allowed us to see what worked well within past student's music videos and what didn't work well (what to avoid).

Blogger also played a big part in the construction and research of my work. The college's own blog on Blogger (which all media students had access to) contained links to past students music videos as well as past students blogs. The web URL candipop11.blogspot.com allowed us to access this blog on any internet connected device. This included any internet connected PC or MAC, my iPod touch as well as my Blackberry smartphone.

Blogger media homepage. Accessible on any internet connected
device.

These important links which is on the homepage of the college's blog
allowed us toview useful content which would
help us in the research, planning and construction
stages or our work.

As blogger is internet based, I was able to also access it on my smart phone. When ever I needed to add information or gain information from past blogs, I could easily load up blogger on my mobile phone.

The blogger website on my Blackberry Bold smart phone.

The homepage of my groups blog on blogger on my Blackberry Bold
smart phone.

The internet played a huge part in the research, construction, planning and evaluation stages. This was because we were able to use the internet to for all our media needs. For example, before we began planning our music video, we had to use the internet to look at and observe real artist's music videos so we can get a general idea what a general conventions music videos have. Without the internet, the only other source of being able to watch and analyse music videos would be music channel's such as MTV and Kiss on the television. In terms of planning our music video, the internet was used do conduct more research on the music conventions of Carol Vernallis and Laura Mulvey. Both people have separate theories to what a music video contains and how certain perceptions are shown and perceived. With this information in mind thanks to the internet, we could plan our music video accordingly knowing the conventions we have seen will be found in our music video.

Digital cameras were used by us in order to take images of possible locations we may consider to record in. The use of digital cameras allowed us to take images and then look back on the locations we visited, to see what we could record if that place was part or our plans. This piece of technology was used many times by us. This was because the camera was used during the planning and construction stage of both our music video and ancillary products. We had taken images of our locations, then took images of a little figurine (representing the artist) in front of those images to see what the shot would look like. The camera was used while recording our music video; the resulting images are what we have used in our ancillary products.

This was the main digital camera we had used in order to take images
of the locations we had visited and capture the
images of our photoshoot.

Here is an example of the use of a digital camera. The image captured using the digital
camera was the image also used in the digipak.

To record our music video, we were lucky enough to have access to brand new state of the art HD video cameras. These camcorders are worth well over £1300 and had all the features that were capable of doing mostly everything we needed to do.

This JVC HD camcorder was the video camera we had used in
order to record our music video.

The camcorder was only used during the construction stage or our music video and was not used neither before or after. This was because the video camera was not needed into order to research, plan or construct our ancillary products which included our digipaks and advertisement. The camera itself was able to record 1080p high definition video. This I feel was a brilliant piece of technology as the HD recording looked amazing. As our music videos were to be shown in the cinema projected to on a large screen, the video needed to be shot at high definition or the final quality would look severely poor when enlarged for the cinema.

Settings allowed us to have the option to record in may different
formats. Although we didn't change this setting, it was nice
having this setting available to us just in case we needed to
make some altercations. The camera was set to record in the
best possible video quality which looks stunning.

Most conventional video cameras record their content onto a cassette or tape. The fact that these video cameras were able to record straight onto memory cards meant they could be much smaller in size which allows ease or use. Also, memory cards are a form of digital memory, so therefore each recorded clip is saved on the memory card as a separate file. This proved to be extremely useful during the construcution of our music video, as if this was to be recorded on to a cassette, some footage can easily be recorded over as the cassette can not distinguish between individual clips. The memory cards also meant that it can easily be replaced for another memory card of another size (e.g. changing a 32GB memory card to a 64GB card).

Final Cut Pro was the one and only video editing software we had used. Final Cut Pro was only used during the construction and evaluation stages of our work. As the planning and research stage did not need use of this program, it was not used during those stages. The software itself is capable of doing every single thing you could need and ask for a video editing software to do. The software was mainly used during the construction stage of our video. This involved putting all the necessary clips together and syncing them with the music. As some of our shots were recorded in low light areas, Final Cut Pro was also used to alter the colours of some of the shots used in the video. Below is a video of that process in Final Cut Pro:

We as a group did think about using a green screen in our music video which we will then chroma key the footage using FCP. However, as we were not too experience using the software to that context, we stayed away from that idea. Changing the colour of some shots in the music video in my eyes are not seen as using/adding any effects. This is because the colour altercation we done on FCP was to make the footage more clear and viewable to the audience. We did use one effect in the music video, however, this was as an experiment to see what the capabilities were of the technology we were using.

The use of Apple MAC's was a huge boost and helped us in every stage of our music video and ancillary products. This is because the Apple MAC's are made for multimedia use and as such, are designed to allow the user to do what they want easily and seamlessly. For example, the MAC's were used during the research stage of our music video to watch videos on the internet via YouTube. They were then used when we were evaluating our images and begun planning our music video. During the construction stage, without the MAC's, the project would be impossible to do. This is because the MAC's were then used for Final Cut Pro, in which we edited and produced our music video. During this time, the MAC's were still being used by students to update our blogs via blogger. Even during the evaluation stage, blogger was accessed via the MAC's as the large display screens and elegantly flat keyboard made blogging much easier and much more enjoyable.

For the ancillary products, the MAC's were used to research and construct the digipak and advertisement we had created. Google was used a lot on the MAC's to conduct research into how general digipaks are designed, what they contain and what conventions they follow. After doing all this research and after planning the designs, Photoshop Elements 5 (and Photoshop CS5 at home) was used in order to create the designs. Below is a video of me editing my digipak on my home PC using Photoshop CS5:

We did use another piece of technology which was needed in order to construct our music video. This was the group's video drive. This external hard drive allowed us to save our immense amount of memory intensive work which we could use on any MAC within the college.

Although this is a relatively basic piece of technology, it was a necessity in order to create our music video. This was because each group had their own individual hard drive; this allowed us to take our work from one MAC to another without being inclined to using one specific MAC only. Also, it prevented everyone saving their work on the same hard drive which may result in some work being overwritten accidentally.

Below is an animatic my group have created using a digital still camera and Final Cut Pro. The song was added on to the timeline and the images were placed and trimmed accordingly in sync with the music.

Evaluation - Question Three

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





Using Final Cut Pro:



Using Photoshop:



Animatic:

EVALUATION: Question 2

How effective is the combination of my main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?

The purpose of a music video is to sell the album. Although my digipak has 10 songs and the design of the digipak has clear visual links to the one music video we created, the purpose of this is to promote the artist. During the production of my group's music video, we already had plans into how we are going to link our music video to our ancillary products. This was done by Nick photographing Poppy (the artist) during the production of our music video. By doing this, the photographs we had would show a direct link to the music video as the images show Poppy with the same clothing, in the same location and with the same props as in the music video. We had thought of this during the planning stage of our music video as doing a separate photo shoot would be time consuming and may not link that well to the video. This is because we would have to recreate the same scene as in the video and this would be difficult to do. We also did not want to take stills from the music video itself as we were told the image quality would be compromised. I feel my main and ancillary texts are successful as both have clear and noticeable links to each other in many ways.

The fact that the same artist (Poppy) is used on all three products show that the music video, digipak and advertisement all relate. This is because in the conventional media world, you will generally see the same artist try and promote his/her own album as well as feature in their own music video. The advertisement will also contain the artist as the main reason all these products are released is to promote and sell the artist whether it be their name or image they're advertising.

The camera angles used in the music video are very similar to the camera angles used in the images of Poppy in the digipak and advert. An example of this includes the way the camera angle is a wide angle shot in the digipak front cover showing the whole of the artist's body. The music video also contains the same wide angle shot showing the whole artist's body. Below are two GIF images (one image from my digipak and one from the music video) showing the similar camera angles used in both shots. 

1st image is from digipak while 2nd image is from video.
As you can see, the camera angles are similar as they display the whole artist in both shots.

1st image is from digipak while 2nd image is from video.
Both images contain the artist in a standing position with a mid shot at eye level. The similarities of the camera angle show how the video and digipak link visually.

The font used in the digipak is exactly the same font used in the advertisement. Having conducted a bit of research, I noticed that designers use the same font in both their digipak and advertisement. Having seen this consistently in real media products, I felt that I should keep the font in my ancillary products consistent. This is because I want both the digipak and advertisement to relate to each other as much as they could in terms of visual similarities. The font colours are both red to keep the consistency in the designs so the audience can see the visual links.

I feel that overall, my music video and ancillary products are successful in terms of how they relate to each other. The noticeable links between the three are clearly obvious to the audience with many similarities between the colours shown, camera angles, setting and lighting used. I do feel the audience would be attracted to the media products I have created as all three have been planned and created in a way which ensures that every aspect of the video and ancillary products show direct links to each other. The also have very unique designs and I feel the audience will appreciate the way all three products look similar.

Evaluation - Question 2

 "How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?"


Overall I was very proud of the main product we produced, and I think that the music video was very successful, as well as fun filming. In creating my Digipak, although I did go through some difficulties, I finally produced work that I am happy with and I tried hard to continuously link both products. Here is a PREZI I have created explaining some of the ways in which I linked both products together as well as creating them with the wants of my target audience in mind.


Below is a collage I have made which is a few images of the pictures I have taken from my music video and used on my Digipak. There are also examples of other artists who have done the same thing - their image has been represented similarly or maintained the same to link the ancillary products to the music video and make it clear to the audience who the artist is and make it clear which song where the video has been released, will be featured on the album.

Rihanna has maintained the same image, as she is pictured in her music video California King Bed with curly red hair, and then pictured again on her album cover Loud with the same style. This shows the audience that the video is linked to the album cover, and the song will be featured on it. As with Ellie Goulding, the close up screen shots I have taken from her video Starry Eyed are linked to the image of her on the Album cover, as glittery shot to the right of the album is similar to the artistic shot on the front of her album cover. Her target audience will instantly know that the song is on the album. In my Digipak cover, I made sure that I used shots taken on the set of my video to link both products, because it is a convention of a successful promotional package.



Ellie Gouldings Album Cover, Advertisement poster and A screen grab from her music video.



Florence and the Machines Album cover, advertisement poster and a screen grab taken from her music video

Here is Rihannas advertisement poster, album cover and a screen grab from her music video.

As you can see, all three artists have used the same image from their album covers on the advertisement poster to link the products, which is why I chose to do this.