Evaluation question 1

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

The conventions of real media texts relate to the certain clothing, setting, props etc. that you would expect to find in a media text before actually seeing one. An example of this would be for an alternative rock genre you would tend to see certain things such as guitars and often see the clothing they were as urban which would tend to be bright colours which would often have rips in to show that they are ‘masculine and cool’. Moreover, for our media product it took us a while to know which genre we wanted to choose as we were stuck between two which made it hard to choose which one. For example, for our research and planning we decided to look into ‘The Verve’ as a band and decided that their song ‘bittersweet symphony’ was the best one to choose because the song has a slow pace meaning our actor would be able to lip sync it easier. Also, we looked at a number of James Blunt songs which helped as it had clear narrative which is what we wanted.

Camera

In alternative rock music videos you tend to see a number of close ups which means that in our video we tried to do the same as we need to fit the conventions of real media products to show that we have an understanding of our genre. An example of this is in our video we used a number of close ups at the start to show the expression and emotion on his face. Also, anther generic convention is the camera tends to move a lot when showing someone’s face to make it disorientated for the audience.

 

Costume/clothing

As a group we decided that costume within our video is a key aspect in order to create a perfect student music you must consider clothing as it stands out if you use the wrong clothing. For example making characters wear a suit for a rap video isn’t correct and would look odd and this would restrict the mark you will get.  We ensured that our character was wearing specific clothes in each scene so that it fits the conventions of real media products. He was always wearing oversized clothes in the homeless scenes to connote that the clothes weren’t his and that they were donated to him by various charities. The last clothing was a suit for when he was in the work scenes to show him smart and professional.

 

Setting

Setting was another element we found was a key aspect of a video that critics pick up on as it can be noticed when the setting doesn’t fit the genre. To show the setting we chose, we used an establishing shot which clearly connoted to the audience that we were in a lower class area where the surroundings are rather dirty and not easy on the eye. We chose an area where homeless people tend to sleep as our actor was meant to be homeless which made it perfect.

Evaluation Question 4

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

 

Research

The research section of the coursework was in my opinion that bit I found one of the easiest but as time went on it got a lot more difficult and complex as the ideas we had were at some point going to be put into action and if they were not good enough then we just had to deal with it.  YouTube and Google were prominent when it came to the research section of our coursework as when we were researching similar artists and other information about our own chosen artist etc. the web was the best place as I could find out information about our chosen artist and gather an in depth knowledge of what is expected of our artist. YouTube was another one we used which enabled us to watch videos from our chosen artist and see what different generic conventions are used and then we could take this away with us to use in our music video. It wasn’t about making a music video that is completely original as this would end up with a bad result, the key to success for this task was to take ideas from previous years student videos and ideas from famous videos. Reinventing the wheel wasn’t something that appealed to me as I am not very imaginative. The technologies I listed below played a vital role in me completing each piece of work and the reason they helped me was because Google enabled me to research into sections of the ‘research and planning’ that I couldn’t do using other resources and from this it enabled me to gain information efficiently and effectively. Moreover, YouTube also played a big part in me gaining information on music videos. I was able to research into different videos that I wanted to take inspiration from. Also, researching into music videos within my genre (alternative rock) was essential in me ensuring that I use codes and conventions that match my genre.  

Planning

Photoshop is an editing software that can be used by anyone across the world who can access a PC. The software can be used for many things such as producing flyers for businesses, simply to play around a create stuff and then producing adverts etc. like I used it for.  Photoshop was important and a key aspect when it came to the planning of the task as when we were creating our digipak and magazine advert this was the best document because it provides a number of different tools you can use to make the perfect advert and digipak. We also used Paint which is a creative programme and I used this whenever I had a rough idea and we just wanted to see what it would look like. Due to the fact paint isn’t very advanced it meant that I could take a quick 5 minute break to rough out an idea and see what it looks like. These programmes were significant as they allowed us to create stuff we would have never thought we would be able to make as the technology is very good meaning you can create a professional looking product if you spend your time wisely.

 

Construction

Construction was the most important section within this coursework as if you did not film the footage properly then this would have a negative result on how the final piece would look. My group unfortunately made this mistake and had to film again because our first set of raw footage was just not up to industry standard and made the decision to go and reshoot with a different actor as our first actor had to pull out last minute causing problems for us to try and find a new actor in such a short amount of time. Furthermore, we used a HD camera to shoot all the footage for our video, however we were only to use other cameras such as our own iPhone cameras as the quality is just the same but we didn’t as we could not mount our phone to anything to keep it still. The HD camera was provided to us by our school's Media Studies department with a tripod and dolly in case we need it. Once the filming was complete we would upload the footage to one of the Mac’s that are also provided by our school of which would then be ready for editing and lip syncing. Fortunately for our school we are provided with the best equipment in order to produce a quality student music video.

The second piece of media technology we used was IMovie and this was in my opinion the best software to use for editing as we used it for our AS coursework therefore I was familiar with the software and how to use it due to past experience. However, we were given the option to use final cut express which our group instantly said no as we were not ready to use a completely different software even though it is regarded as equally as good as IMovie. Once the clips were uploaded we started by taking sections from the raw footage and once we had all the best footage we would put this all together and creating a video.

Evaluation

Lastly, for the evaluation section we used Blogger which was the only thing I used for this. We had two blogger accounts which was a group blog and an individual blog which I posted daily to update people on everything I’m doing in order to create the video. The group blog was a lot less work as there were two of us which means the work was divided accordingly. Both of my accounts were made public for two reasons, one being so that people can view them whenever they want and the other being so that our teacher can view it so that she can make sure we are completing all the necessary work set.

 

 

Evaluation question 2

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

In order to make up our ancillary tasks we had to make a digipak, both individual and group. A digipak is basically a CD packaging that was marked out of 10 meaning that we had to put time and effort into it to ensure we achieved the mark we were capable of. Next, we also had to produce a magazine advert, again both for individual and group. The magazine advert was also out of 10 therefore ensuring a professional look was important. All of these different tasks link together as they all contain an image that is seen in my final music video. I wanted to use the same image and near enough the same image as I believed it would it would have an effect on the audience so that they remember the video and what’s it about.

The digipak links to the rest of the ancillary tasks because the clothes used in our ancillary are the same as the ones used in music video, this is also because when we was filming we decided to take photos to use for our other tasks. Some people didn’t do this which we think wasn’t the best option because it would mean that they would have to take photos another time which would mean time of day wouldn’t be the same which would result in the lighting looking different in each ancillary task. Also, our magazine poster has a picture of our actor dressed in casual wear which has clearly been thought out to ensure we didn’t portray him as homeless. in addition to this, due to the audeince feedback we made a couple a changes to the look of the magazine advert as we were told that the colour of the product was too bright  meaning we had to tone it down a bit to ensure we met all audeinces requests. in addition to our actor wearing casual clothes, we did this to show the difference between how he used to dress when he wasn’t homeless and the way he dresses now he is homeless. It shows the lack of hygiene, food, money etc. has a major impact in the time of life you live. We ensured that our costume matched with the type of person. For example, if our actor was homeless then the costume with match. However, if our actor was wealthy as he was at one point in his life then we ensured he wore expensive clothes such as suits etc. Also, we make sure the costumes we used could be clearly distinguished so that people knew whether it was past tense and present tense. There is use of frequent shots of our actors face (close up) and in our ancillary tasks you see a pictures of his face. We decided to use this as we believed the close up shows his true emotions and anxiety he feels on a daily basis due to the fact he is scared living on the streets at night.

In order to link main product with our two ancillary products, we used a consistent alternative rock theme and we did this by using similar images on the digipak and magazine advertisement and then when the audience view the music video they will notice the consistency there as well. Throughout the production of our magazine advert we did make a few changes to it as we thought that we needed to improve it and ensure it’s the best it can be. Moreover, the changes we made to it were the font as the feedback we got was that the font was too bold and didn’t fit the genre correctly which resulted in me having to change the font to fit the alternative rock genre.

The two images show the contrast between when our actor was homeless and when he wasn’t. This is key for our audience to see as this basically describes the narrative just from showing two images. The props used within both images fit the stereotypical codes and conventions, for example an expensive computer is used within the top image to connote he is wealthy whereas the use of the binbag, blanket and the hat show that he is homeless and unwanted.

 

Evaluation Question 3

 

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The audience feedback that we have received from both my teachers and my peers was useful in the sense that the comments that gave us would help us to improve and develop some of the different aspects of our film. The first person to give us feedback on our music video was our teacher and then our peers added their thoughts. The comments were both positive and negative, which is exactly what we wanted as the constructed criticism enabled us to develop our music video and finish it to a standard which we feel is good.

Rough Cut 1

Our first rough cut we did was uploaded onto YouTube in order to get some feedback on what we did well and what we could improve on. Due to the fact it was our first rough cut, we understood that the feedback we will be given will mostly be negative. Nevertheless, this enabled us to correct what didn’t work well and move forward to develop the video. The general vibe we were getting from our first rough cut was that the camera was unsteady on a number of occasions and the other improvement was to darken some of the clips to show a difference in mood. After analysing the feedback carefully I and my group member decided to take this feedback on board rather than just ignoring it like a few members in another group. From the feedback we decided to then darken a few of the clips at the beginning and the end. This created a nice effect for the audience as it now meant that they were able to get an understanding for the atmosphere we are trying to portray.

The second improvement we made was very difficult to make, this is due to the fact we had already filmed all the footage and were no longer able to re-shoot anymore but then we thought of another method that would no mean filming more footage. Due to the fact the unsteady camera footage was towards the end of the clips, all we did was trim the endings so that the clips were consistently steady throughout and it would now be easier on the eye for the audience.

Rough Cut 2

Furthermore, the feedback for rough cut two was mainly positive and for this rough cut we tried to get feedback from different people from the previous rough cut as we believed that the more opinions we got the better our music could become. However, to ensure that the feedback we were given previously was taken on board we asked them to come in to view rough cut two to see if they notice a positive difference in comparison to rough cut one. Three out of the three people we asked were now satisfied with the improvements and were glad that we had taken on their advice and constructive criticism and noticed a real difference in the consistency on the piece.

Generally, the feedback we got was to do with lip syncing and this error was made after making changes to rough cut two we didn’t lip sync two sections properly which meant that it was a little bit out of sync and therefore we knew that the criticism we would receive was in relation to that. Luckily though this was easily fixed and we were able to make it a lot more in sync compared to the first one which is good as it meant that because we made a mistake we were able to make our original lip sync better so that it flows nicely and doesn’t look like our actor is miming the lyrics. Also, rough cut came with a number of positives such a few people mentioned the transitions and how the use of transitions allowed the piece to run smoothly throughout. Lastly, one person said that they liked how the lyrics were considered to what was happening in the video. This feedback was much appreciated by me and my peer as we spent a lot of time considering Goodwin’s theory and how we could link it into the music video without making it obvious.

Rough Cut 3

We make corrections to the lip syncing which was the major change we made, we also made a change to the colour off the sky at the beginning to try and add a colourless effect to create a dark/sad atmosphere. For our last rough cut we were pretty certain that after watching it on several occasions for the full duration of time that it was ready to be submitted as out final one but however this didn’t last long as we asked several people to view the last rough cut and after hearing mainly positive feedback that towards the middle of the piece we used slow-motion effect to try and add a variety of different effects in order to access the higher marks that we over used the slow motion effect to the point the clip looked pixelated and blurry to the viewer.

This however was corrected simply but it then caused problems to the lip syncing from that point onwards which took us a number of hours to correct but after that we watched it through as a group and with our teachers and peers to ensure that everything was running smoothly, if there was consistency and constant transitions to keep the piece flowing nicely and this was all in order ready for our final cut.

 

Overall

Overall, the feedback from each rough cut allowed us to change our video in order to fit the audiences opinions of which we hoped would result in our music video more professional and better video that would be liked by all different people from all different genres. It was important and had a major impact on our final video as we didn’t plan on changing much at all as we had a vision for what we wanted it to look like so changing it so much meant that listening to peoples feedbacks and criticism resulted in us making changed that would enable us to access the higher marks. The more rough cuts we created, the less development we did on each one as we were able to correct all but one corrections before rough cut three and this meant that less work had to be put into rough cut three as we worked hard in the previous cuts to ensure there were no more errors that we restrict the mark we received.

Magazine Advertisement - Rough Cut 2