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

Within our production process we made use of many new media technologies which all helped contribute to designing, producing and accessing audience feedback.

* The main programme we used to create our video was Final Cut Express, teaching ourselves fairly complex techniques such as stop motion and split screen in order to achieve the style of music video we planned – that being one following no particular narrative, but being ‘random’, nonsensical and simply visually entertaining.

(whilst speaking, video playing of us creating stop motion section on final cut, and maybe split screen bits)

* An important feature of our video is the overlaying animation – we achieved this effect through using Adobe Photoshop.

It was a lengthy, time consuming process but we are really impressed with the level of animation we managed to produce, seeing as we had never done it before and had to work out how to achieve the effect ourselves, teaching each other the technique as we went. (playing video of animation being made).

To create the animation we had to convert the video clip into Photoshop, where the programme splits the video file into 100’s of frames, that we then filtered through to find the appropriate sections of lyrics for example, then began drawing on the chosen image on every layer (100+) moving its position slightly each time, so when all the frames are played alongside one another, the pictures become a moving sequence.

* Social networking – In relation to audience feedback, we relied a lot on social networking media such as Youtube, facebook, myspace and Last.fm – we used each platform in varying ways to gain the specific feedback we needed.

- We used Facebook and myspace to upload sections of the edit as we went along, to ensure we were meeting the expectations of our target audience, and were keeping every section of the video on track to the best of our ability, to avoid any sections lacking full attention.

- We used last.fm when researching our band to gain information on the genre, their existing work, the demographic of their target audience and their overall style.

- we also used myspace to further this research, gaining knowledge on their audiences in relation to age, gender and social group.

- We used youtube to gain wider feedback other than just from our peers on facebook and myspace – by uploading early edits onto youtube we were able to see feedback from existing fans of the band who would’ve potentially been searching for videos of the Shout Out Louds songs, and would’ve come across ours in their searching – therefore we have a direct response from real fans of this genre and band that we don’t know, giving us real, honest opinions on the work so far.

*  Another fairly new media technology we made use of during out production was SD cameras – in previous years filming for A2 media would’ve been done on DV tape cameras, but we were able to use SD cards which provided us with a much simpler, quicker process when uploading and selecting successful clips.

- When filming straight onto SD the clips cannot go directly into Final Cut, but have to be converted into a different format beforehand. To achieve this we made use of a SHAREWARE programme called ‘MPEG Streamclip’ where you drag and drop a file into the window, select export to Quicktime, then chose the format ‘Apple DV Pal’ – this process is very quick and as soon as it’s done the files are ready for final cut. 

Evaluation Question Two

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

(top right) this is the image of the vinyl that we used to create our ancillary tasks. It was taken on a standard digital camera, although the quality is good i feel it could have been improved to make the overall macro effect a lot better. we removed the white background so that we could add images behind it. This took no time at all and we were able to use it for a variety of different aspects of our ancillary task.

When we were creating our music video the opening sequence of our filmed contained a shot of vinyl spinning round. On this vinyl was a paper cut out which i designed to cover the original design of the vinyl, which we had bought very cheaply from a charity shop. To continue this theme throughout our media product we used a still image of the record player which we then uploaded onto photoshop so we could edit around the vinyl to make it appear white.This made the appearance of this look more appropriate for an album cover and was suitable to fit our target audience and genre. I have included an image of what our album cover looks like when it is opened out. The top two squares are the front and back cover and is taken from the idea of the Kaiser Chiefs album cover. It is also heavily related to themes with in our media product and a line in the song 'you've seen things Ive only read in books' we felt that it was the best option to relate to this to make the connection between our music video and ancillary task noticeable. Another aspect of our album cover that relates heavily to our product are the images behind the vinyl. We used a variation of screen shots from memorable points in our music video. we then saved them all individually and made them look as if they were Polaroid pictures. we arranged them onto photoshop as if they had been scattered around. We also carried on this theme onto the lyrics page, which we decided to add after receiving audience feedback on our questionnaire. I feel that the continuity of the theme is excellent and the links between our ancillary ask and product are excellent.

(Shot of opening sequence)

This is the vinyl that we used throughout of video to include in our poster and album cover. We have used various shots throughout the video to ensure that we used intertextual reference though out.

(Poster design)

Here is an image of the poster that we designed for the ancillary task. We have continued the theme of vinyl throughout of products to ensure it shoes thought of continuity and theme. As a group we thought it would be better to include the Polaroid images behind the vinyl so that it links strongly with our album cover. As a poster i feel the over outcome is excellent because it is clear, informative and fits out target audience perfectly. Also creating it on photoshop allowed us to have more options when designing it. Another bonus was the fact that as a group we gained many skills adding animation to our video.

Here is the overall outcome of our album cover. Once the book has been put together it looks very realistic and links strongly with the representation on books with in our video. The vinyl throughout our ancillary task adds continuity and theme to the finish product. As an overall piece i am very happy with the outcome and i feel that it looks professional and meets the needs of our consumer. As a group i am happy with the amount of time and effort that we put into this as i feel the management of the time was dealt with very well to ensure that we met the deadline this time. It also helped that i was able to use scanners, printers and photoshop in other classrooms so that we could get it done quicker in the lessons we had.

Evaluation question 3: What did you learn from your audience feedback?

 

SCRIPT FOR VIDEO. 

Evie

In order to establish our target audience, after deciding which song to use we thoroughly researched the ‘Shout Out Louds’ as a band, through their MySpace site, their Last.fm profile and website. Through looking through the comments posted onto these sites, and also the comments posted on their videos on YouTube we were able to see that the majority of those commenting were both male and female in the age range 18-24 years.

Anna

This discovery was supported by our research into indie music as a genre in general, through which we discovered that it is mostly aimed at and attracts young people in the 18-24 age range due to it’s ‘alternative’ style and colourful and diverse content. We therefore came to the conclusion that our target audience was made up of males and females aged 18-24 years.

Ellie

We collected opinions from our target audience throughout the production and postproduction processes of our video, so as to ensure that we were creating a product that attracted and fulfilled our consumer’s needs and expectations.

Originally our concept involved dividing the narrative between a male and female character – following the idea that the female character was releasing new life and showing the male character “something new”.

Evie

When we had created our first rough edit we asked for opinions from our audience based on this concept and realised after analysing the feedback we received, the relationship between the two characters was unclear and therefore we recognised we needed to make changes in order to improve this as it was such a central part of our product.

Anna

Based on this constructive criticism we received we decided to replace the sections of the film that contained the female character with shots of the male protagonist so as to create an improved sense of continuity and a clearer narrative within the piece.

Ellie

The other main piece of criticism we received was that the shots of the male protagonist lip-syncing in front of the white wall were too plain, especially for the typically colourful indie genre to which the piece of music belongs.  In the feedback we received it was suggested that we could add an element of animation to some of the shots in order to introduce some colour and variation to the overall text.

After discussion we decided that this would be an appropriate element to include due to it being present in other similar texts and also suggested by a member of the target audience meaning that it was likely to attract our target audience in general.

Evie

We also carried out audience research when discussing ideas for our magazine advert and digipack designs. This was in the form of a questionnaire, in which we focused on asking members of our target audience which features they would be most attracted to within the digipack design; for example if they would prefer it in black and white, colour, or a mix of both, or if images from the music video itself should be include in order for the product to be wholly successful.

Anna

We also asked for audience opinions on the content of the promotional products, for example whether the bands website should be included, or if the lyrics of the song should be present within the digipack design.

Evie

We then analysed these results in the form of graphs and tables, and concluded that in order to attract our audience to buy the product, the magazine advert and digipack cover designs should incorporate a selection of colour and black and white elements, and images from the video should be present. The lyrics of the song and the bands website should also be included within the design.

Overall we feel our audience research was effective as it helped us shape a product that attracted the target audience, as well as the promotional texts to support this.  When questioned, 80% of our sample group concluded that they were more likely to purchase the music video on disk rather than download it, if the digipack and magazine advert attracted them. We took into account constructive criticism in order to achieve this, as well as forming promotional products based on suggestions from members of the target audience themselves, in order for us to ensure that the product would sell. 

 

Evaluation Question One

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

To start off our investigation into our music video we firstly looked into suitable songs that were not signed to a well established record label, this would make it easier for us as a small group to gain consent from the organisation and band to use their song. After looking into this and receiving a fast response from ‘bud fox management’ we then decided as a group to look at other music videos and music video products to gain knowledge of the market and to give us the opportunity to develop our ideas.

When looking at other real media products we picked up a few techniques that we thought would look effective within the genre of our music video – ‘Indie rock’. 

Example – Kickstarts                                                   

When viewing this media product we were interested with the idea of feet tapping to the beat of the music. We felt that it would both fit in with the genre of the music and our target audience. To challenge this convention as a group we decided to only have one pair of feet tapping to the music (so there is no split screen). I feel that the outcome of this technique is very effective as we could use it through out the open sequence of our music video. We were able to split the opening sequence so that it alternated bewtween shots of the protagonists' face and shots of the feet. We wanted to inclded fast edits thorugh out the music video so that it linked and resembled edits with in the 'Kickstart' video. Unforunatly due to the bad quailty of the SD camera it is not as good quality as we first thought. Another factor was the dark lighting in the room. It would have been more suitable if we had lights to light the area. I have included a screen shot on the left from out music video to show how the shot challenges that of Examples.

.

Another technique that we recognised with in the music video was the split screen just after the foot tap. Again we felt that this technique was very effective and would fit into almost everything in our music video. We particularly liked how the frames multiplied as the music progressed. To challenge this convention we chose to start with a black screen (bottom right) we then took clips from different sections of our music video that were significant with in the video and separated the verses. We made each clip gradually come onto the screen to that in time it would create a 9 way split. We then selected the frame we wanted and it would come out to reveal a full screen. The music video would then carry on. We did this in ever interlude.  Although the concept of the technique is the same we have modified it so much to fit the needs and opinions of our target audience that the link between the technique isnt that reconisable which is disapointing. However i feel that the outcome of this technique is excellent and adds aesthetic values to the overall macro effect of our video.

In terms of our digipack we looked at various colours, techniques and layouts that could be used. However we felt that it would be best to create a digipack that had strong relations between our music video. The strongest aspect to use was books - opens out, and we could design our own front cover. I had seen the 'Kaiser Chiefs' album cover before and remembered the distinct album cover of a book. As a group we felt that it would be an excellent idea to design and create our own book cover to fit in with the genre of our music video.

To challenge and develop this we decided to change the colour of the digipack to reflect the genre of the music, and also so consumers would buy our product due to the eyecatching colour. We also decided that it would be best for the title to be hand written so that it linked with the vynil at the beginning of our video. In comparison to the 'Kaiser chiefs' who have used black as the background colour and yellow as the label, also this stands out very well we felt that it would make the band look more like a rock band instead of indie rock. As a final outcome i feel that or digipack is the most successful aspect of our ancilary task as it has been well thought about and shows in our final outcome.

In terms of our poster we didnt look at specific existing media products when desinging it. Originally we had planned to look at music magazines etc but unforunatly due to issues eguarding our music video we didnt get round to doing this. I already had a few magazines but none of them included the type of content we were looking for to create our poster. As a group we decided to go forward and create our poster on photoshop and i feel the over all outcome of it is very effective.

Focus group

We have put together a small focus group in which we put quetions to them to them to get positive feedback. They have also watched our music video and we recieved very positive feedback from them. They felt that the animation was a really professional aspect of the video and works very well with our genre and music video. They felt that a few of the clips looked a bit basic and could have done with being a lot more imaginative, however on the whole the quality of the video was good and we recived the feedback we wanted to. In relation to our ancillary tasks they felt that it looked very professional and that it suited the genre well. They particularly liked how we had used the vynil through out our project. They felt it related well and created intertextual reference.

Changes in the industry

Today I found another news article documenting the changing music industry, this time focusing on the record label 'Mercury's decision to abandon the production of music singles on CD and vinyl. This is due to a huge drop in both CD and vinyl sales, with music download continuing to be the most popular consumer choice in regard to purchasing both singles and albums.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/12850186

DISASTER!!!!!

today i wasnt able to be in the lesson as i was helping another group out with thiers filming, however i heard from a very worried and upset group that when they had gone to open the timeline that all of our video was gone.....As i wasnt actually there i dont know the whole story but Mr Canning managed to sort it out and get all of it back, thank god because i dont know what we would have done as when they last marked the video it wasnt actually done so that would effected our grade alot. Mr Canning has now backed it up incase it happens again.

Working toward the final edit

After making many changes to our musio video we are now in the final stages of editing the animated sections. We are getting closer to the finished product and are mainly working on the original footage, mainly because the original footage was boring and the colout of the shots were dull and colourless. To improve this i have changed the brightness of the shots, this adds a lot more colour and makes it look alot more professional. It is also alot quicker as we do not have to re-upload footage and can simply use our timline to make it more visually interesting. Although animation is very time consuming it benefits the outcome of our video and makes it look a lot more professional. I have taken screen grabs from some of the animated sections....

The photos below show me and evie adding the final touches to the animation sections. Currently we are working on the chorus..'radio daylight, radio darkness' To create this we have cut down an original clip to a suitable length which means that it will not exceed the frame limit. I have then started to change the colour of the clip so it is brighter than the ones above, this give it a much better overall effect. Evie has been working on 'radio daylight'...and drawing a sun that stays static but will be sketchy when played as a clip. I have been woking on 'radio darkness' where i have drawn a moon and stars. Previously i made a sun that rose and set around our character which we have now saved, uploaded and slotted into our time line, this looks very effective and i am please with the outcome. We aim to finish the animation this week as it doesnt take very long to upload and slot into

Finishing our digipack

After a lot of hard work, scanning and editing we have finally finished our ancillary tasks of the poster and digipack.

Here is our poster design complete. We have put together a range of different screenshots from our video and made them look like Polaroid pictures so that we could arrange them behind the vinyl so that we have intertexual references between our music video and ancillary tasks

After researching a variety of different artists and bands and looking at thier album art work we felt it was best to create an album cover the resembled a book. Not only would it allows us to incorporate black, white and colour aspects but it would also make it easier for us to put in vital information such as; websites, institutions, barcodes and lyrics. We felt that it was most important to take note of the valiuable infromation we had recived from our target audience and try and achieve everything they had wanted in our research.i feel we have addressed this well and the final outcome is very successful. Instead of putting the lyrics on the front of our digipack we felt that the best option was to put it on the inside left cover so it is clearly visable when the digipack is opened. In terms of continuity we felt it best to carry on the theme of the poster onto our digipack because it shows how we have thought about the outcome and look of our overall ancillary task and shows a clear link between the two.

Here are the inside covers of our album. the top image is located on the left side of our digipack so that the lyrics are visable. The bottom image is located on the right hand side, behind the CD.

Production of the Digipack!

A

After creating a variety of different layouts and shapes for our digipack i decided to print off a template for each of us. We then drew on what we thought would create a successful digipack cover, taking into account all the feedback we had received. We tried to include all of the advice we had put together after creating audience research. After talking about ideas and we have combined sections of each of our ideas to come up with a rough outline of what our digipack will look like. Here is an image of the rough edit that/brain storm that we have put together to create an outline. (right)

Here is an image of me editing the vynil for our album cover. polaroid pictures in progress! 0ther images are available, however i am unable to upload them due to the type of file it is.

Magazine adverts

From looking at other magazine adverts from similar genres and types of bands we have found that most of the adverts have quite a simple approach to the presentation of the covers. They mainly include images of the band or images from a particular video. The title is then bold and noticable, however it works with the background covers and creates contrast. Here is an album cover that i feel represents the tpye of approach we wish to achieve when creating our poster -

The poster clearly states the song choice and the album that it has been taken from. I feel we need to address this in our poster to inform and attract our target audience. In comparison with this i feel the best option would be to take photos directly from our clip instead of the 'band' as we did not use a band in our video so would be irrelivant. In relation to our research, i feel we need to incorporate more black and white contrast so that it fits in with our target audiences needs.

Digi Pack: AUDIENCE RESEARCH!

Today we put together a number of questions that related to certain aspects of out digipack cover. We then put the questions to a small group of our target audience fans aged between 16-24. The questionnaire included questions that would determine the final outcome of our digi pack, for example; colour, images, type face and layout.

 From the results of this question it is evident that the album cover of our product most attract our target audience as it would encourage them to buy our overall final outcome. as aposed to downloading it via itunes or other legal download sites.

From the results of this question we can see that our target audience would be most attracted to an album cover that included both black, white and colour aspects. I feel this would work well as it would attracted more attension and therefore boost more potential sales. 

from the results of this it is clear that having the lyrics encorporated within our digipack would be recieved well by our target audience

  We also asked if our target audience would prefer to have a link to the bands web page. Although the difference is fairly close the majority of people asked would like to see the bands webpage encorparated into the digipack and album cover.

From the results of our research we can come to the conclusion that our digipack should contain; direct shots from our music video that clearrly show stages and progression with in the clip. The presentation should be with black, white and colour so that it attracts the audience and would convince them to buy in store and not online. We are going to include the lyrics of the song inside the digipack so that our target audience can see the lyrics. Finally our target audience would prefer us to include the website with in the final outcome, so we will fit this in so that they can be linked to the bands webpage.

Photoshop illustration

When we showed our rough edit of the music video to our target audience they said that some of the shots we had used of our main protagonist were boring and did not intrigue them. We felt that this way influence them not to buy our product. We felt that the best option to make the shots better was to edit them on Photoshop. As the lighting was already bad there was not much else we could do to them. As we had already tried to film actual leaves falling around our protagonist we felt that it would be a good idea to draw photoshoped leaved falling around him.

Because i was the only one that could use photoshop i was allocated the task of doing this which i didnt mind, however it took a considerable amount of time which we didnt account for. Along with these we chose to add photoshop writing that went with some of the lyrics - 'Eye for fashion' which i feel will suit the needs of the target audience and fit in with the genre and overall macro effect of our piece.

Illustration

Screen shots of editing

Here is another screen shot from our film. As a group we have now decided that the best option would be to get rid of the girl in the video because she doesnt fit in with the narrative or story line. However it is going to be much harder to fill the time with frames just of the boy as we are limited with what we can do.

Here is screen shot to show how we have edited together the dates so that they flow through quickly. As it needs to be very fast this section doesnt fill up as much space as it needs to which is disappointing considering how much time it took. The same with the books.

Research into animation

I have tried to find a way of helping us with animation, after a long search i have managed to find a website that clearly states how to use photoshop correctly so get a professional look....here is the link

http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/animation/animation.htm

Editing plan

we have created a plan that we are to follow on sunday to ensure that we get all the shots that we need, we have done this by writing in where lyrics are sung and which bits of the song we have already filmed. On sunday the main bit we are aiming to get is a clip of Alec changing clothes. this will take a long time to do but the finished effect of the film will be very good. We had planned to film in the morning but because Alec is in another group they also need to film so we are allowing him to do some filming in the morning so that we can get on with ours.

This lesson i have also created a rough outline of the centre of our record, by sunday i need the final design so that i can stick it down and we are able to film the establishing shot of our film. This will also link to the overall look of our promotional pack. Both plan and design will be scanned in and put on our blogs at a later date.

After talking to our media teacher yesterday about the progression of our film he suggested that we got around a few problems by using photoshop to add in images that linked to our film. i have tried doing this on a few rough clips and the look of the drawing looks very effective as i can make the images move, i have tried with leaves so that it looks like they are floating down. However when i came to save it photoshop saved it as an image not a video, it then only saved one clip so that i couldn't play it. Because my teacher wasn't in the room i couldn't ask for help so i will have to show him what i have done next lesson and hopefully solve the problem. i have also manages to make the background of the images white which looks a lot better. I hope this technique works because i think it will look very effective in our film.

Sunday filming

Evie is freeeeeeeeeee, not sure about Alec yet! fingers crossed he can.

Past week - (week beginning 24th)

We have been working towards a small internally set deadline that our teachers had set for us. we were told to have as much of our video as we could, with no large gaps. We struggled to do this as our film has a lot of fast edits in it and we are finding it harder than we first thought to put it all together because of how short the clips are. To get around this problem we are going to have to film a lot more clips to fill the space. Originally we had planned to have a female and male part in our video, but after talking to out teacher he said that the female sections seemed a bit random and didn't really fit in with the narrative of our film. We have now decided that to just include Alec would be the best option, although this means it will a lot harder for us to get a variation of shots.

Thursday and Friday i was ill and didn't come into school, but more editing has been done to our film and we are getting closer to the finish product. I have text Alec and Evie about some filming this Sunday, as it would be good to get some more done as Ellie and i have come up with a few more ideas that would enable us to add more varied clips.

Evie isn't in school today as she has a university interview but we will talk to her when she gets back to make sure she knows what is happening.

I am in the process of designing the cover for the vinyl. I aim t have this done for Sunday so we can get this filmed and put it in our video.

Plan for the weekend.

Okay so we don't have long left to finish our music videos and we still have a few more gaps to fill on final cut. So we have arranged to do a little more filming over the weekend. On Saturday Ellie has agreed to take the cameras to her house to film her sisters for a certain line in the song. On Sunday we will all come to my house (Ellie, Evie and Alec) to do a little more filming. Alec has cut his hair but it should have grown a little more by now, we will also have to make sure that he wears the same clothing as he has worn in previous filming sessions. The main thing we need to achieve on Sunday is lyrics. We are having trouble lip syncing some of the words because either we don't have the clips are the clips we have aren't very good quality. In this filming session we must ensure that we get EVERYTHING done so that next week we can get as much filming done as possible, and make sure that our film is of a good quality.

In today's lesson Evie wasn't in school so it was just Ellie and I. we have edited together some clips of a calender flicking through the dates which fits in with a line of the song. It looks very good however we had to put the speed at 4000 to ensure it was fast enough and fitted in with the tempo of our music. Evie had said she wanted to edit together a section of the video with books, however as she wasn't here today Ellie and I decided it would be better if we got on with the editing so that we wouldn't waste time. We will also have a lot of editing next week so she will not have to worry about not editing anything.

Poster, cover etc going well, i have done a few rough sketches to show to the others that we could use, however i don't want to make any decisions without the others being there as they may not be happy with it. Evie still needs to give me measurements for the vinyl so that i can design the cover for that to use in our video.

Album cover influences!

We have chosen to take some ideas form this design of cover because of the high contrast between the colouts of the background and title. We are looking to include both black and white in our design as we feel it reflects the colour scheme with in our film. We also like the graphic look of the images, and how it lookes like it has been edited in photoshop to create the overall effect. We would try to include object such as books, CD's and frames so that there is a strong link between our artwork and our filming. we also need to design  a small circular disc to go over the middle of our vinyl that we will use at the beginning of our film.

We have chosen this album cover because of the bright nature of the objects in the picture and because of the contrast between black and white. The title of the album is in black and white which draws attension to the name and creates a contrast between the two. this is the type of thing we could easily use with in our desing.

This is  LOVELY image of me holding a lamp, this was to create the light/dark effect on alecs face which was very succesful.

Another image of us filming the same shot, me holding the lamp, directed at his face to give the illusion of it being light and dark. it was a little strenuous holding the lamp for such a ong space of time

picture of the team preparing the books for our 'book shot' this was possibly the most time consuming shot of the whole filming project. i had to empty the entire contence of my book self and then put it all back. The over all effect of this i feel works very well and realy lifts the standard of our filming.

Ellie and Alec looking very happy taking all the books back to me at the bookcase.

For this i had to go outside (while it was raining) to get some leaves to use in our shot. Obviously we cant use wet leaves because it will just stick to alec, so we had to dry them off using a hair dryer. It didnt take too long and it made them light so that they would float better. The leaf shots in general took a bit of time to get right as it was hard not to get our hands in the shots when throwing them

Filming

Here are some images that we took when filming at my house. To create this we took pictures of each date from the video camera. In total we hade about 30+ dates which we have edited together to create a fast moving edit of the flicking dates. i think that this looks very good and fits in with our music genre. This did take a very long time to get all the shots as we had to manually change all the blocks on the calender .

Here is another shot that we filmed at my house, it took very long to do as we had to empty etire contence of my bookcase so that we had enought piles of bookes surrounding alec. Every shot has a different levl and number of books in it so when it is edited together it gives the effect ofit going up and done, like music. We have now edited these scenes together and i feel that this is the main aspect to the film and again fits in with our audience and genre.

MORE PHOTOS TO COMEEEEEEEE