MEDIA A2

This is the script I used within my evaluation video... I have also added some clips and print screens in this script.

"I decided to present my evaluation in a form of director’s commentary however I will be including audio, clips of my video and pictures within my evaluation. After undergoing many stages of research, planning and making, I finished my final music video and have uploaded it to YouTube. I have also created my own advertisement; website homepage and digi pack which includes a front cover, back cover, inside lyrical book and CD. These ancillary tasks help promote my product. I will now evaluate my media texts on the effectiveness of using, developing and challenging conventions, how each element of my coursework works together as a product, what technologies I have used and what audience feedback has taught me during my project.

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

When researching into my genre I found a few things that seemed to come up a lot; the conventions of the acoustic genre. These included things such as time within a music video. Acoustic artists seemed to use slow motion, time lapsing and fast forwarding which was used an indication of the speed of time as seen in videos such as “The Remedy” by Jason Mraz.

The producers of acoustic music videos also seemed to use slow pace camera movements. I used these conventions in my music video such as when my artist goes “back in time” and thinks about his memories with the ex girlfriend in my video. I also found that acoustic artists were more likely to use complex narratives to build feelings and emotions with the audience and build up to a climax which leads the viewers along. Again, I conformed to these typical conventions by using an in depth narrative to tell the story which had a strong link with the lyrics as well as having a slow motion ending which created a twist within the story – when it is shown that the ‘ex girlfriend’ does in fact have a new boyfriend.

During my format research stage, I analysed a few music videos, adverts and website homepages so I could notice the typical conventions of media products so I could use, develop or challenge them. I recognized the characteristics so I could apply them when looking at mise-en-scene, narrative, fonts, colours and editing. One main aspect I came across was that in nearly all acoustic songs, it is a male singer which has written about a woman/best friend or people that are close to them and there is always an emotional tie with the lyrics. I again used this within my product to create a music video that looked professional and realistic. As well as complying with typical media conventions I also challenged some. The use of black and white in music videos can be extremely rare, in this way I challenged that by making my music video completely black and white. I also used Ollie – my artist in my digi pack, advertising and website homepage. This is usually shown in the pop genre and not in the acoustic genre which usually use abstract shots – this I would say is how I have developed media products and conventions. Finally, the last element to consider is that my artist looks directly in to the camera during the music video therefore acknowledging the fact he is being filmed which breaks mainstream conventions. This is a post modern phenomenon of filming.

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

I believe my final products work really well together and the combination of the ancillary tasks with the music video is really effective as the similar styles between the elements links them together and makes me believe they would be a successful package if they were marketed in the real world. I have combined them so they all complement each other and the link between the video and ancillary tasks are clear. I made sure I used the same artist in my music video for my ancillary tasks as I believe if I had used someone else or done an abstract drawing, it may have not been obvious that the 4 products worked together. One flaw I believe is that I used a picture of some candles for the inside left cover of my digi pack. This may be confusing for my audience as I have used the artists face for everything else. I have used a consistent font throughout my ancillary tasks as well as using the black and white effect on both my music video and digi pack – again to show the viewers that all 4 products are linked together and the continuity makes my final products look authentic and proficient.

What have you learned from audience feedback?

It was in my audience feedback that I was able to get constructive criticisms in how to make my music video more successful. I gathered a lot of my feedback from peers at school by asking them to watch the video and then let me film them – this was a really helpful technique as I was able to go back and refer to it. I also posted drafts on to a variety of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. I emailed family members, friends and teachers so I was able to get as much feedback as possible from a range of people who have different opinions and finally I did a questionnaire to get final feedback on my finished products. I have learned a lot from audience feedback and have come to realise that it is extremely helpful to have someone else’s view as they looked at my video in a different way to me as I’d been working on it for so long and extra opinions help when working on the same project for a while. It also made me pay more attention to detail and raised points that I didn't see at first due to concentrating on other aspects. For example, in my first draft I didn't realise my tripod was in view because I was so focused on making sure the lip syncing looked professional. Unfortunately I was unable to correct my mistake as it would've required extra filming which I couldn't do so instead I was able to ease in on the artist by using an old edition of windows movie maker. Audience feedback also helped me gain important suggestions for improvements that my target audience wanted so I could change aspects of my video to suit the audience I was directing it towards. The main issue that was raised when asking for audience feedback was that the story line didn't completely make sense and some bits were confusing as they did not know whether Ollie was ‘invisible’ and didn't understand why Tayla was looking at photographs. Some suggestions consisted of taking some scenes out and re shooting and due to getting these suggestions early on; I was able to change them in time so my video made sense. Another factor mentioned was that it was too dark in some places so in my third draft I slightly lightened my video but not so it was over exposed. As well as criticisms, I also got some positive feedback from my audience such as the black and white effect looking “arty and cool” and the narrative being great when fitting with the lyrics. This positive feedback let me know which elements of my video my audience enjoyed the most so I could keep them in. In conclusion, I have learned a lot from the feedback given for both the editing of my music video as well as the ancillary tasks.

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

New technologies have really helped me when researching, filming, editing, planning, promoting and have been essential when constructing my final project. To start off, my whole portfolio has been documented on my online blog (blogger).

This site enables me to upload text, images and videos using links to YouTube. This technology is also one that is sometimes used by artists to give their fans updates and promote their work. Because blogger is controlled by the same thing as YouTube, I was able to directly link them. During my research stages I didn’t need to use many new technologies except for the internet which I used to gather information about the history of music videos, theories, and researching into genres. I also used the InDesign software to create mind maps - these helped when choosing things such as the genre I wanted to concentrate my music video on. I also used DVD video studio and YouTube to download existing videos when I then went on to using for format research, these software’s became very helpful as I could re watch the videos over and over so I could analyse them in detail to spot things such as typical media conventions. I also used a site called surveymonkey.com when doing research which helped me when finding out what my audience liked and thought was common in music videos. It was quick and easy to use as there were a range of options for answers such as multiple choice or written response. Survey monkey was also good as I was able to post a link of my survey on to any social networking sites which meant it reached a large number of people and I could get a representative sample. I could also display the results in a way that was helpful to see the big trends. When it came to promoting I used email (Gmail) and social networking. This was an efficient way to reach a large number of being in a matter of seconds. It also helped me reach around 100 views on YouTube just for my first draft. Finally, I used a flip camera and movie maker when interviewing friends for audience feedback. To plan my videos I used iMessage to organise my artist/actors and gave them all the information needed – for example, on when to meet, what I wanted them to wear/bring. This was a successful way as iMessage is instant so reached to my friends fast and I was able to get quick responses and to get an idea about who could do what day. When it came to planning, I mostly used pen and paper however I then scanned them in to my computer so I could show that stage on my blog. During the construction stage, I started by using an HD camera and tripod to film, the tripod helped me steady the camera so I got some professional looking shots for my video. I also used my flip camera and iPhone to help “behind the scenes”. I then started editing which I used Windows movie maker. Although I don’t think this is the best software to use, over the holidays it was the only software I had access to and although it does not have some features that things such as iMovie and Adobe pro has I believe I made full usage out of the resources I had. I also used movie maker when creating my ‘test shots’ video, ‘photo shoot’ video and ‘behind the scenes’. Finally for my ancillary tasks, I used Photoshop which is used by many professionals in the media. I was able to use this to create my own effective advertisement, web homepage, and digi pack as well as using it for things such as merging my final products with real life sites to show what my product would look like in the real world. I slowly built up my ancillary tasks by editing the images to enhance contrasts and tones. I also used tutorials I found in books and the internet to airbrush my artist and brighten his teeth. I then used the Internet to source different style fonts. I found a few options on dafont.com which I then used in all of my ancillary tasks by downloading them and transferring them to Photoshop and InDesign. I used the techniques I had learnt from my AS coursework and developed them further over this project whilst using the knowledge of music magazine conventions to create my own. When I had finished my final product I uploaded it to YouTube and used tags so that my video would come up in related subject searches. Finally, for my evaluation I have used Adobe after effects which have enabled me to switch between different types of media, footage and audio easily to edit them together in a successful way. All these media technologies I have used links with web 2.0 and how technologies are so advanced and so accessible.

Overall, I believe I have learnt a lot from this project and I will take this knowledge with me for further projects.

Front Cover of digi pack

Left inside cover - the lyrical book

Back cover of digi pack

I am extremely happy with my final product. The front cover and inside left cover were really simple and were easily edited with using a black and white effect as well as adjusting tones, brightness, contrast and exposure. The photographs are also really simple and I’ve displayed minimal writing which I believe is really effective as it draws the attention of the viewer towards the artist but also consider the writing as there is not much to read.
As mentioned in my print screen post, the inside right cover was quite challenging as I had to be very careful with making sure the picture was in between the lines.
The back cover was my favourite bit to create. I started by simply editing the image like I did with my other ones. I needed them all to have similar brightness/contrast/exposure as I wanted my digi pack to be consistent. I then asked Ollie about some of his existing songs which he had written and recorded. This was so I had a realistic back cover. The names displayed on the back cover are all his songs apart from the Fast Car (cover). I then looked at some back covers on Google images and looked at all the CDs I had so I could get an idea of what writing I needed at the bottom. I took inspiration from this and made my own versions of "copyrighting". This has made it look a lot more realistic.
I then placed the barcode to create a sense of verisimilitude and the record I had created before. Finally, I made up a website name for Ollie which links in with my website homepage and it can also be seen on my final advertisement. Overall, I believe my ancillary tasks have worked really well together and you can see a clear link between them all due to fonts. The black and white effect on my digi pack also really works well with my video which is in black and white.