Today

We are working on our evaluation questions, trying to think of interesting ways we can present them.

Ideas so far:

Magazine Article
Letter
Commentary of Video
Band Interview

Todd W: Evaluation Question 1 Draft

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

Our music video uses and develops many types of conventions that are used in real media products of the same genre. To find out what types of conventions are used in the genre we first did lots of research. This included looking at music videos from the same genre, album artworks, digipaks and live performances. All of what we looked at had an influence on our video in some way.

To begin with we noticed that almost all of the music videos in our chosen genre were performance based. After seeing this we decided that our video would be performance based as well to fit in with this theme. We also decided this was the best thing to do as we had experience in playing instruments and performance.

We noticed that many real music videos of the genre used black and white effects on their videos this made the video look dark and gritty which conveys the genre well. As a result of this we decided to use black and white effects in our own video and we felt that it made it look a lot more professional than when the video had colour. It also conveyed our genre a lot better than before giving it a real gritty feel which is what we were aiming for.

A lot of music videos that we looked at used very fast paced editing and camera shots. We tried to replicate this by using hand held shots throughout the video, I also continuously shook the camera slightly to make the video even more fast paced and energetic. We felt this portrayed our genre perfectly as the song we used is very fast paced and energetic.

As our chosen song was by ‘Enter Shikari’ we were heavily influenced by their style and music videos, we wore very similar clothing to what they wear in their videos and live performances and tried to perform in a similar way to how they perform in their videos.

For my Digipak and poster I looked at many examples from our chosen genre and noticed that to my surprise that a lot of the covers were very minimalistic which is almost the exact opposite from what you would expect from this type of music. I then noticed that triangles were a very prominent shape in the genre and were being used on a lot of album covers so I decided I would implement this on my own digipak and poster. My digipak is also heavily influenced by ‘Enter Shikari’s’ album artwork on their album ‘A Flash Flood of Colour’ which used a very prominent triangle in the centre of the cover. So I implemented this onto my own cover and poster.

FEEDBACK

BALPREET AND VISHAL SAID IT WAS AWESOME

Evaluation Question 1 DRAFT - Brad

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

Our media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products as we have looked at many other existing videos that are out there and took bits as inspiration to continue filming and editing our own to make it look the part and fit into place with our chosen genre. One way would be that we took out all our hand held shots within our draft; this adds a lot more energy to the entire video throughout. This challenges forms of existing videos as they too have included this simple but effective method of filming. We found that it was a lot easier and effortless to film as you could just do one continuous shot whilst filming for the whole song.

Another way would be the way that parts are edited, we saw that on some existing conventions of music videos that the editing was extremely fast paced, this is also to convey more energy to an audience when they are watching the video. Furthermore, in parts we made the editing glitch in a way so that it fits in with part of the song and again ties in with our chosen genre. From the research and planning that we completed it was clear that not every video was the same, we found that some conventions of real media products use black and white throughout the entire video. Not only does this look good depending on the location but it also adds more of a “gritty” feel and therefore this effect correlates to the genre.

Our video developed from the draft massively as the editing looked a lot more professional, not only this but it challenges other forms of real media products by including a lot of slow motion shots during parts of the song where it is needed and is suitable. We found that in the research and planning process that other conventions of media products use this to get the right message for the song across not only that but to display the action in another type of way. By seeing slow motion used within a song from our genre is good as you can see that the editing does not always have to be continuous quick cuts and fast editing, from our music video you can evidently see that we have included both fast paced and slow motion editing, we found out during the editing process that these both complement each other if they are used in the right context.

The research and planning process showed us that some real forms of media products have a large location and a crowd interaction so that more energy is portrayed, we had to substitute for the crowd but in place we chose a smaller location so that it did not look too empty and bare. If we chose a large location and did not have a crowd then it would have looked quite odd due to the lack of energy that would have been shown within the video. But in the end having a smaller room and location meant that we could show as much energy as some of the music videos within our genre that contain a crowd.

During making the Digipak I knew that something fairly generic was needed so that I can portray the genre that we chose easier, with this in mind it was clear from the start that it would be best to make a development of existing Digipaks/Album covers. I took influences from many bands one being ‘While She Sleeps’ and their album ‘The North Stands For Nothing’, I saw that they used purely black and white on their album cover and therefore I used this. In development of this I used a picture of a crowd that I took during playing a gig and changed it into a black and white image. In the process of making the back of the Digipak I took inspiration from an ‘Asking Alexandria’ called ‘To The Stage’, the writing in this video is outlined with a white box, I thought this looked quite different and therefore used and developed it to make my final writing on parts of my Digipak stand out.

Evaluation Question 4 DRAFT Jack M

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

Technology I used in the production of the final pieces and the research, planning and evaluation pages:

4 Main Groups-

Edit and Create

Digital Camera - to film the video, this was a small camera so worked well when creating hand-held shots. It was also a high quality camera so we were able to film our video knowing that the footage will be good quality.

iPhone - For many things - Blogger App. - Allowed me to access the blog via my mobile phone which allowed me the make posts whilst away from a computer. It also allowed me to take photographs throughout this coursework task, most notably the photo of the fire used for my poster and digipak.

Photoshop CS6 - This software allowed me to create my digipak and poster. I found it relatively easy to use and enjoyed developing my skills in the program.


iMovie - This was used throughout the editing stage of the video, since doing the prelim task at the start of the year i have found this program pretty simple to use and enjoyed editing the footage.


Feedback

Twitter - The bands twitter account was used to speak out to the fan base and get feedback for our video. Twitter is one of the most vital technologies bands use today to reach out to the public and advertise their products.

Facebook - This allowed us to use our personal Facebook accounts to distribute our video to our friends on the social networking sites, this led us to gain some comments regarding our video and a numerous amount of 'likes' for our video.

Presentation

Slideshare - This program allows you to upload slideshow and publisher documents to the blog, this came in handy during the research planning and evaluation stages of the project.

Scridb - This program allows you to upload word documents to the blog, this came in handy during the research planning and evaluation stages of the project.

Blogger - Perhaps the most vital technology we used was Blogger. this internet broadcasting site has allowed us to store our pieces of work and show the examiner exactly how we got to our final product. Blogger has been very useful as it can support any file or request we wanted and allowed us to all store our work together as a group.

Animoto - Animoto came in handy during our pitch and my evaluation questions. We used it to create videos containing text, images and our choice of song.

Generally Useful

iPod - The iPod was useful in two ways, firstly when deciding on the song we wanted to choose for our video, and secondly when playing our song through the PA at the rehearsal room where we filmed our video.

eMail - eMail was useful when sharing ideas with the rest of my group, and when receiving feedback from my teachers, as it is a quick and easy method of communication i was able to talk to my teachers about my work easily and effectively.

Safari (blogger) - Access to the internet was vital. Safari allowed me to use search engines for my research and also gave me access to blogger.

Youtube - This was important especially throughout my research and planning, as i was able to use it to search for similar videos which gave me ideas. Another way it came in handy was finding turorials for iMovie for when the video was being edited, and for Photoshop CS6 when i was designing my poster and digipak.

Evaluation Question 3 DRAFT - Jack M

Question 3 What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have recieved a lot of feedback from my audience, both from my selected target audience and from people outside my target audience. I got comments on the youtube upload of my video, written down feedback from my classmates and then word document assessments from my peers for my ancillary tasks.

Evaluation Question 2 DRAFT - Jack M

EVALUATION 2. How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

I think that the combination of my products are very effective throughout all three texts, as i think i have created a brand image for my created band that fits in with similar real life artists today. Using the same font (hunter squared, from dafont.com) throughout my Digipak and Poster has allowed me to create an effective image for the band, this is also backed up by the use of the same background image within both of my ancillary tasks. Also using the crystal logo has allowed me to create a noticable image that will be recognisable for a band with a large fanbase, this is a common technique that is seen in large rock bands today, for example Enter Shikari use an upside down triangle as their band logo. This sense of branding is used to represent the band and for the fan base of the band to recognise the certain images and logos used. For example the fans of a certain band will feel good wearing clothing with certain logo's on as it would allow them to feel part of the bands fan base which, especially young people, take a lot of pride in. I used the fire in the background of my poster and Digipak to convey a sense of outrage and anarchy, this fits in with he genre of music in the video. I chose to do this so I could combine the fire image and the way the band act in the music video, as they are jumping around and hitting the floor etc. so it fits in with this sense of destruction and anger, so i wanted this message to be conveyed throughout my 3 products. A good way in which i have combined my main product and ancillary texts is by using a 'space' related theme, as i use what look like alien text on my Digipak, this also relates to the band name 'Mothership', which then relates to the style of song we chose, as it has electronic influence and uses synthesisers to create a space-type feel. These all combine to create a good image of the bands style of music, as the audience will generate an alien and space idea of the band.  I chose not to include any shots of space or any spaceships (mothership) in my product as i thought this would be too cliche and I wanted to be more subtle with this style and image i was try to convey. I also thought this would make the band look quite childish and amateur as it is common for bands within the same genre to have a totally unrelated name to their style of music or their image they give off.
Using 'Havoc Records' as the record label for Mothership has given the band a sense of realism and professionalism. Taking influence from the current label 'Hassle Records' I created this label to give the band another aspect of branding, as the logo i created is featured on both the poster and digipak, i think this has worked well and helps my products to fit in with products that are already on the market. However, if i were to add anything to my final product i think that adding the Havoc Records logo at the end of the video would complete this sense of branding. Many bands do this, however it seems to be only the smaller bands that have their record label at the end of their videos as maybe they need more recognition and want to be advertised to the public more. As you can see there is a correlation between the black and white of the music video and of the panel in the Digipak, this also shows the way in which i have used a combination of syles in each of my products to create a sense of branding.

Evaluation Question 1 DRAFT - Jack M

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

My media product challenges and uses forms and conventions of real media products, especially within the final music video. As bands of a similar genre typically stick to a performance video, we chose to do the same, this is because it is an effective way of conveying energy and outrageous behaviour, which is something the rock genre is noted for. The way in which we used conventions of videos are most notably with the fast cuts and moving shots I used, I included zoom shots, track shots and pan shots within the video to create the energetic feel that my music video needed. Examples of this are found in the video for the song we chose 'Zzzonked' by Enter Shikari, as the video for that is solely performance and includes very fast cuts. Another way we used a real product to influence ours is through the use of the black and white colours, as again the video for Zzzonked is in black and white, however i have found that this is quite rare for a rock performance video as they are usually in colour, such as the video for 'Song 2' by Blur. The decision to make our video in black and white was to stop our video looking budget as I found it hard to create an effectiver frame using our clothes and the minimal lighting we had available. Another way my music video uses convenions of real music products is the mise en scene of the room we filmed in, as its size is very small it makes the video claustrophobic, also the walls are very plain. Examples of a small simple room are in the video for Paramore's 'Ignorance' and for Hawk Eyes 'Kiss This' video. These are both similar styled videos with similar genres. I think that the decision to film in this room was very good as it made our video look more realistic and impressive, especially as it significantly keeps in with the genre of our music. The inclusion of slight humour within the video actually challenges the conventions of real media products, as in nearly all rock performance videos the band looks quite serious and maybe try to convey a sense of anger within their music, especially within the heavier forms of rock. However we wanted to challenge this as we belive music isnt meant to be that serious and we thought it would be a good idea to speak out to our target audience using humour, this is why shots with funny faces are included. My Digipak and poster also fit in with the conventions of real media products, I took a real inspiration from the Album cover i analysed in my research and planning (Every Time I Die - Ex Lives). As this uses a bright pink 'I' that stands out from the hectic background, i really like this use of a logo as it represents the band effectively in a simple way. This is why I used the crystal idea, as i wanted to create a little logo or image that can represent the band, I used this in the centre of my poster and in the corner of my digipak. I think this worked well and am happy with the outcome. I also this crystal across the digipak and poster to really press this logo upon my target audience, as once a band uses a log it often sticks with them throughout their career, it also allows fans to represent their band i.e. through merchandise (t-shirts etc.)

Feedback from Peers

Here is a peer viewing our video, we are very happy with the response we got from our classmates. After viewing our video this peer Stephen said to me that he 'enjoyed the video and liked how fast it was', he also commented on our playing of the instruments and the committment to the song we had. He also very strongly praised the editing as the 'parts where it flickers look really good'. This response was good for us as he is within our target market group as he is 17 years old and likes the music that we based our video on.

Presenting to the Class

After finishing the video we presented our final piece to the class. We got lots of feedback from our peers and we will collect and evaulate this and then upload it to the blog.

Evaluation UNFINISHED

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products. Our music video does not particularly challenge or develop forms and conventions of the typical music videos of our genre. The original video for ‘Zzzonked’ by Enter Shikari is a pure performance video, which is in black and white, which shows that the way we have made our own video is not a completely original idea. We thought that making a video in this way would be the best way to connect to our intended target audience. As in rock music, live music is seen as just as big a part of a band as an album is, it is a good way to bring this live music into a music video. It also makes a statement about the style and energy of the band, and in our video we wanted to create a lot of energy through the movement of the camera, which is used in the video for ‘Skyspinners’ by Hawk Eyes which is another similar to our target audience. As the target audience is mainly male ages 16-24 gig goers, our music video works, because it appeals to these people through the energy projected and the feel of a live gig, much like the way Enter Shikari music video appeals to people of a similar target audience. My digipak is similar to many albums from bands, especially that of debut albums. As seen in my planning and research, debut albums from Slipknot and Don Broco use very simplistic album covers, with no real album artwork, with Slipknot it is a photo of the band with the band name, and with Don Broco, it is just the band name alongside the tracklisting that is notable. My magazine advertisement uses typical conventions of current media products. It is a simplistic idea that simply expresses the album cover, the band name, and reviews from mainstream rock magazine’s. The mention of these magazine’s, and the fact that they have approved of the magazine…..