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

Perhaps the most valuable piece of technology I used during my media coursework is Blogger. I have used blogger to record everything i have needed to whilst I have been undertaking my coursework. Blogger has been used since the beginning of my coursework and till the very end. I have found a very useful piece of software as it allows me to keep in close contact with my group members and to also have an easy access to all my previous blogs which may contain information i needed. Blogger is a recent piece of technology that has come about due to the phenomenon which is the internet.The internet has been an integral part of my media coursework, especially when it comes to research. The internet offered me the chance to look at every music video in the world with the broadcasting website YouTube being very useful. As before, the internet is a new piece of technology which has become very important in the way we live and work. YouTube was also very useful when it came to planning as it had tutorials of how to use Final Cut and Photoshop. Without these tutorials the main task and ancillary task would have taken far longer due to me not knowing the basics of the software. Facebook is a social networking site on the internet that allowed us to gain further audience feedback for our music video to help us evaluate.

Another useful piece of technology was Final Cut as it offered us a great chance to edit it an advanced way. Final Cut is a very sophisticated piece of software that allows the user to a

variety of effects. We took advantage of this software by changing the brightness and contrast of the video so that the video looked more bould. This was just one of the many tools available from final cut. Final cut also offers the chance to see the timeline at the bottom which shows the user where their piece of footage is in comparison with the time on the song. I feel that Final Cut was a great piece of software and that it defiantly helped when constructing our music video. iMovie is another piece of editing software that i used when i was evaluating as i have access to it at home. I also used iMovie to convert our music video into a movie file as Final Cut didn't offer us this option.

Another piece of technology that was very useful in the construction of our ancillary tasks was Photoshop. When i started first using photoshop i didn't feel it was very user friendly as it was quite complicated to work. However after tutorials and practices i managed to get the hang of it which enabled me to progress while helping our with the magazine advert and digipak. Photoshop was also useful when it came to doing research as we used it early on to see what its capabilities where. This enabled us to figure out if we could use the software and how long the tasks we take using it.

The Sony video camera we used was another very useful piece of hardware, although problems with other camera's meant only a few number of camera's could be shared amongst serveral media groups. However we were very lucky to be able to film when we did as no one else needed the camera then allowing us to have priority over it. We would record our music video using this camera and it was wireless (unlike an older version we used on our second day of filming). The camera recorded onto tapes and using a firewire we transferred the footage onto the computers at school. The video camera was a very useful tool whilst constructing our video as it offered us the chance to film a high quality music video as well as being easy to use.

Fianlly, the last piece of technology we used was the iMac. This is the computer we used throughout our whole project and it gave us access to the software above like Final Cut and Photoshop. Its speedy connection with the internet meant we could research on YouTube in high quality as well as construct our video. The iMac is a different sort of computer from your typical desktop but as i already have a mac, i managed to get used to the controls faster than anyone in my group and when they forgot what to push I would know. This meant that the group would ask me to help if i was needed so i was always involved with them

Overall the technologies I used throughout my media coursework have allowed to push for the highest of quality finish along with me learning new skills. I found that in some areas it took time to adapt to the using this new software available, but i can safely say i cam grateful that i did take advantage of the resources i had as it has helped me to produce a good product and a good piece of coursework.

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our audience feedback was a very advantageous tool to have as it provided us with several opinions on how we could improve all our products.

Firstly, the audience feedback on our video enabled us to change many features of the video. The way we took our audience feedback was by taking the opinions of the people watching the video. The images under this paragraph of two sheets of audience feedback i took one lunchtime. I simply asked each person who was watching the video to write down what they liked and didn't like. By getting one person at a time to watch the video it meant that their feelings toward the video would not be changed depending on what other people thought. I also made sure that the person watching the video stated whether they were a media student or not as they would be looking at different features of the video. The people we asked to watch and comment on our video were people all in the same age boundary of our target audience and they were all of the same employment status, being a student.

Our audience feedback enabled us to keep in parts of the video that our audience liked. The clips that found that our audience most liked were the bass drum shot, good camera movement and the inclusion of all band members in the video. The bass drum shot has so far developed into being our flagship shot has whenever somebody watches our video they always comment on how much they like this shot. However, although we found that are target audience really enjoyed watching this shot, it was very important that we didn't put to many shots of it in otherwise the admiration for it would be far less than if it was only shown once or twice. The camera movement was a very nice piece of feedback that i wasn't expecting to hear. We had done several hours of filming and we were standing and crouching for long periods of time as we tried to get the shots we wanted. To hear our target audience liked our direct work from filming was more of a moral boosting piece of feedback that helped morale amongst the group.

The inclusion of all band members was another piece of audience feedback felt by the majority of people that watched our video. We published the video on facebook and 3 of the comments left were in fact about 'how they liked all the band members being shown for a fair amount of time correlating with their contribution to the performance'. This was very positive feedback as it meat we had given each band member the right amount of camera time which is an integral part of editing a music video.

The audience feedback also gave us comments about the negative aspects of our rough cut music video. Each person had different opinions of what they didn't like but there weren't really any collected opinions on what people disliked. The reasons for people disliking parts of our video is that they found it too shaky in parts, shots being too long and being too close to some band members.

As we were filming handheld there was always a chance that the footage could be to shaky and we filmed the same thing several times so we had several alternatives incase the footage was to shaky. This meant that when it came to changing some of the footage, we had several alternatives to use which was a big advantage. Our audience feedback also told us that Our shots were too long in places which was also another feature of our music video that we could change without tampering with the video too much. The alter this problem we simply added for more footage where we felt the shots were to long. This did help to improve our video as this criticism, constructive as it was, led to us increasing the tempo of the video, making it better. The final piece of criticism we got from the majority is that there were shots when we were to close to the band members. This was the hardest piece of criticism to take as we didn't entirely agree with it, but if our target audience didn't like what they were seeing we had to address that issue. To do this we found alternative shots to replace some of the old shots that were deemed to be to close to the band member.

The audience feedback for our digipak and magazine advert was also very useful, but we didn't write down what our critics said because we just made the change there and then. The changes needed were only minimal has the only constructive criticism we got was that the font didn't look right and the colour of the background was also a bit dull. These changes were only small but they did offer us the chance to make our product better. Overall our audience feedback allowed us to improve the overall quality of all our products through the constructive criticism and positive feedback from our target audience.

Evaluation 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Firstly the passion in the video was portrayed because it had to be if we were going to do the song justice. Our digipack was able to express the passion from the video due to the front cover being a picture of the band performing in the video. This photograph exerts passion through the band members playing with such focus. The lead guitarist, left of the guitar, is a prime example of what we were trying to put across to our target audience as his head was down, looking at his guitar but you can see enough of his facial expression to notice that he is really tying hard to get the best out of himself in his performance.

Our target audience is 14 to 25 year olds, which means we had to make sure that all the tasks we did, were aimed at this target audience. To do this we put effects on all three tasks that we felt would appeal to the consumer. In our video we changed the brightness and contrast and added a red tint. In our digipak the lure is the image of the guitar, which has been edited to stand out amongst a black and white background, in which it does. The effects where meant to add a sharp edge to our products which would make them stand out from other products.

Across all three platforms there are clear signs of the genre of music. The rock genre can be seen in our work through the frequent use of the guitar. Our video shows a performance and therefore the instruments can be clearly seen, especially the guitar. The front of the digipak has a large image of our lead singers guitar, the magazine advert has been made so that the image of the guitar seen on it is yet again the focus of attention.

The fonts were also another feature that had to be kept consistent especially through the magazine advert and digipak. The font used on previous Foo Fighters albums was added after audience feedback onto the magazine advert. After short consideration we changed the font on the digipak to be the same as the font on the magazine advert as both products go hand in hand with one another and shouldn’t be clashing.

In research I found that many bands had a strong link between their video and digipaks. This research meant that we had to make sure we had a clear link between our video and digipak. The music video for many bands is seen as an advertising tool and the digipak must use the advertising power from the video to sell as many records as possible. I feel that as a group we did managed to keep all three products within the traits of the genre. The link of the performance, colour effect and guitar has helped to keep all three products similar in aesthetic value. The aim was to always keep links between all three products so the advert can be linked to the video and the video linked with the digipak.

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

Evaluation 1 from Jake Clements on Vimeo.

Script:

In our music video we chose to film without a tripod, leaving us with handheld shots throughout the video. The advantage we saw from filming handheld was it allowed us to move freely amongst the band and get into angles you simply can’t whilst using a tripod. In our research we saw that this was common amongst other rock videos.

Shots of the bass pedal were once again another trait of the genre of music that could be shown through the video. Bass pedal shots are also common in many music videos for our genre but they are normally filmed from the side. The difference between how we filmed it and how it is usually filmed is we removed the front of the drum so we could put the camera inside the bass drum to get the effect of the bass pedal hitting the camera. This shot was different from anything we saw in our research and the immediate feedback from it was everyone who watched the video found this feature most impressing.

Many music videos are used to showcase the musical skills of the artist and ours is no different. We were very lucky that the band we chose were all talented musicians who knew exactly what they were playing. This meant we had even more freedom whilst filming. As they knew what chords to play and as they were always playing when the camera was rolling we could move around the band with the guarantee that they where playing the right part of the song. This ensured none of the footage was out of sync with the song.

The drum kit is a recognized symbol of contemporary rock music and in our video we decided to film the drum kit and the drummer in more creative ways. In our research we saw many shots were either face on with the drummer or to the side. One shot we chose to do was a point of view shot of the drummer playing the drums. This meant placing the camera in front of the drummers face and following the drumsticks as he played. Although this was time consuming, the end product was worth it, as it is a different angled shot that we could have never performed on the other three band member’s as their instruments wouldn’t have shown up well.

The passion shown in the music video is one feature that can grab the audience’s attention. Our chosen genre is known for its passion, normally in live performances at gigs. However, as our video was a performance it was very important we showed the passion amongst the band, whether this be the drummer head banging, extreme close ups of the instruments, the lead singer closing his eyes to show his passion or the fast paced editing. The song increased in tempo as it progressed which is common in rock songs and this was why we had to show the emotion and tempo increasing in the video.

In this genre the end of the song is either at a high tempo or a low tempo, and in this case it’s a low tempo that sees the song out. The change in light is there to show there is less energy in this part of the song. The lead singer also holds the microphone at the end, another feature of rock videos we found in our research. By keeping to the forms and conventions we saw in our research, we managed to create a music video that can be instantly linked to the genre of rock music.