Evaluation Question 4 Spoken.

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

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

After being briefed on making a music video I was confident that I could construct a professional looking video due to my knowledge in certain video editing software’s such as Adobe premier CS6. I knew this was what I was going to be using, as it is reliable and very popular editing software. I began using adobe after filming my music video, I placed the raw footage into premier and began to cut away at my music video and place it in a timeline shape until I had rough copy of my video. After doing this I was still reasonably new to adobe so decided to research tutorials on basic editing until I had a substantial knowledge on editing, that’s when I began to edit my music video to fit my representation, genre and target audience. 

I started by converting the saturation of my music video to a black and white contrast to create the eerie and sad atmosphere of my video, after doing this I was left to edit the transitions and filters of each cut to make my music video smooth and easy to watch. When choosing cuts i had to refer to my chosen genre for example i would not be using slow and boring cuts, in fact the opposite and such cuts as strobe effects, dip to white and dip to black to enhance the fast and party like nature the song portrayed. After editing transitions i used filters to make the scenes look more visually pleasing as if i was editing a photo on photoshop, i did things such as film filter making the contrast of the clip more black and white by changing the exposure and highlights in the scene, i also used overlays and blurs to emphasise each scene making sure the viewer wanted to keep watching on. 

Other technologies where used throughout the course when planning for example Prezi, this was handy as it allowed me to display my work neatly and through something which is nice flick through and a lot more entertaining than a bog standard powerpoint. In addition to this my planning was also displayed through a range of video's and voice recorders giving the audience more of a range of texts to look through instead of text making it more accessible and fun.

Lastly Photoshop played a huge part in the development of my final products, PS allowed me to design my products with templates and to a professional standard. I began to make my digipak by making a rough draft, then using a template and photoshop to bring it to life, photoshop let me create layers and use effects similar to a digipak featured in shops as if it were a real product. 

New media technologies played a big part in the development of my research planning construction and final products of my music video by allowing me to access professional softwares, websites and equipment to enhance the quality and look of my products, without them my work would not nearly look as professional.

Question 3, What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Why was gaining feedback important in the making of my music video?

Gaining feedback was a very important part in the creation of my music video, as it allowed me to hear other peoples opinions on my video and its strengths and weaknesses and what I could do to make it to the best of my ability. Gaining feedback also helped me hear an opinion from my target audience and what they thought was good and bad about my video. After gaining feedback from a range of ages within my target audience created a plan out of the feedback and realized what parts of my video were weak and strong allowing me to easily make changes so it appeals to everyone. Other than just asking for feedback I also posted my video on social networking sites as well as the well know YouTube and asked for comments from everyone not just people who enjoy my chosen genre, therefore this allowed me to know if my video came across as a video of the drum and bass genre and if people recognized it as it. Lastly by posting it on the internet I also gathered anonymous comments all helping towards my end product and allowing me to hear a range of comments and thoughts that helped me finish my video to the best I could.

When gaining feedback from my target audience of the social categories of b, c1 and c2 it was important I realized the weak parts of my video for example I created a table with the re occurring parts people had mentioned for example the car crash scene and asked how I could improve it, which significantly helped as rather than just one idea I gained an range which really helped the making of my video.

Question 2

Question 2, How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?

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

The whole idea of creating a music video is to promote a band or artist in a visual way, which allows the audience to feel and get a story to the music they are listening too, which effectively is another way of distributing music too, therefore when creating my music video I also wanted to give it an edge which makes it different and very visually pleasing, after doing this I also had to create a digipak and poster to sell my product even more.

Firstly I created a digipak, which is something special for a fan to have as it includes special features lyrics, posters and even pictures therefore I tried to make it as visually pleasing and drum and bass related as possible whilst trying to make it fit in and look similar to my video. I began doing this by researching current drum and bass digipak’s, after doing so I realised there was no specific generalisation’s with drum and bass unlike other genre’s as most digipak’s included a surreal graphically designed image on the front or a heavily manipulated image. Therefore this gave me no boundaries when designing my digipak, I therefore decided to choose a surreal and abstract image of graffiti on a street wall enhancing the urban street feel I wanted anyway making it relate and look very similar to my music video. I edited the image through photoshop making it more colourful and distorted in relation to my music video and to make it as eye catching as possible, so that my audience could notice it as something they like. The rest of my digipak I left rather simplistic as I didn’t want to go over the top and make it look too busy or pop genre like, after finishing my digipak I was pleased with the connections I had made with my music video and genre itself and believe it could stand and look like an existing product in shops today.

After creating my digipak I created a poster to further the advertising of my music video and digipak, in terms of drum and bass posters they are very similar to digipaks in that they feature something surreal and very different to any other genre of music, so I decided to carry on the surreal effect and create an image that has my model from my music video however I manipulated the eyes and mouth out of the image to reinforce the surreal image aswell as the lyrics and themes of my song being ‘black and blue’ in which is an emotional song therefore by having no eyes or mouth cannot show emotion, enhancing my confused and emotional themes.

I believe the combination of my texts work very well together as they all successfully relate to my intended audience and fit in with my genre as well as music video. After receiving feedback from an audience I would class as my intended I received comments such as “Overall George’s work perfectly fits in with the drum and bass culture and demonstrates a very well though out music video which is complimented by his ancilliary texts” leaving me pleased with my final products.

Question 1

Question 1 from GeorgeAllard

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?

When creating my media product of which was a Music Video I had to ensure it would come across as realistic and professional, to do this I researched into existing media products and created a list of key conventions of a music video.

 Firstly the genre, being drum and bass, I had to make my video look as if it were an existing drum and bass music video and use specific shots, angles and editing preferences as well as props costumes and settings. This all falls into the representation of my music video in which I tried to create a surreal and dream like video by shooting it in strange settings for example an underground car park, an empty pub and use specific camera angles that created an eerie feeling as if the model himself is being watched and followed throughout my video. Not only did I do this but I intended to conjoin the use of black and white and distorted editing to make my video as visually pleasing as possible and make the viewer feel as if its something they can relate too. I also had to ensure that the costumes used would be recognised by my target audience as something they would wear and create a bond making the audience feel a friendship growing with my model.

In terms of Andrew Goodwin’s theory that music video lyrics have to intertwine with the narrative, I have challenged this as I have not made my narrative clear as you only have a rough indication of what’s actually going on, however by the feedback gained my audience enjoyed this as it lets you interpret my video pretty much anyway you want allowing your mind to wonder and let you enjoy the music video to your taste. The song used by Miike Snow – Black and Blue however is a very emotionally related song, and in parts of my music video certain hints are given off to enhance the emotion whether it being a happy atmosphere or sad. After allowing my music video to have a rough narrative structure it enhanced the use of my ‘flashbacks’ and the sense of what if? Therefore really allowing my audience to question the music video. Furthermore Andrew Goodwin’s theory’s states that music can be used to amplify emotions and moods of which my music video conforms by having a sad storyline in relation to the lyrics of my chosen song therefore amplifying the emotion of the song and also leaving the video ending on a vague note.

When thinking about representation in my music video I had originally focused on using a sense of ‘love’ in a relation to the song lyrics, however decided to switch it up and focus on the idea of life and time and how making certain decisions can affect you in several ways, I believe this related to my target audience significantly as my audience is aged between 18-25 where themselves have to make big decisions about life. Themes of alcohol and going out also relate to my intended audience as nowadays it is a big part of ‘teenage life’.

In addition to Genre when filming my music video the whole look of the video had to be thoroughly planned and though about, for example I had to ensure it looked like an existing drum and bass music video. I did this by making a list of 2 main factors – shot’s and editing. This helped me reach my target as firstly I gathered similar shots that I had seen in other drum and bass videos such as extreme close up’s, CCTV shots, long shots, lots of panning and finally reversed shots I then took these shots and used editing to match existing videos for example I made choices to edit in black and white, use lots of dip to white and black, strobe effects and distorted videos to match the style of song and genre I was portraying.

Another main factor in my music video, which makes it aesthetically pleasing, is my focus on locations and my diverse use of shots at these locations. When beginning to film my music video I had to make sure all the locations would merge nicely and relate to my audience however I also wanted to feature an urban feel to my video therefore I gelled the two themes together and featured pub’s, underground car park’s, house’s, streets and alleyway’s to create a more teen related out look on my video.

Overall I am very pleased with my finished product and believe I have met all the requirements to make it look like an existing drum and bass music video with surreal and abstract themes that relate to my intended audience.

Evaluation Question 1 Spoken.

Diary Entry

Today i ensured all my evaluations were up to date and scratch and also made sure everything on my blog was labelled correctly.

Music Video Timeline