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

BLOGGER! Throughout the planning, research, and production stages of our products we have used a large range of media technologies. To begin with when we initially started the year we each set up our A2 blogger account and had to blog about our lessons and blog the research and planning and development of our tasks. When we initially began using blogger nearly 2 years ago now i had little knowledge of how to use the website and became confuddes easily however over time i have learnt how to use different aspects of blogger and now have a greater understanding of its cappablities.I now understand the software in greater detail than previously. We had to blog images of actors and locations and costume ideas, analyse and discuss ideas which we had and show that we have looked at how these would compare of challenge existing media products and artists. Within our blog we had to ensure we included a story baord of our ideas. When it comes to blogging it seems that you can never really do enough, theres always going to be more that you can blog about and ways in which you can expand on what youve already discussed. In general our blogs were a way in which we could keep a note of our progress and track whether we were behind or not. Blogger is also a vital took when it comes to evaluating your work as it allows you to easily access your previous work and review your progress and then carry out a clear evaluation.

VIDEO CAMERA! In order to create our music videos we had to use video cameras to film the footage. The video cameras were used throughout the filming process in order to capture the clips. Our group used a combination of the cameras which were available from school and my own person video camera however the only issue which arrose in this situation was the quality difference between the two. Another issue we had when using video cameras was that on a couple of occasions we was given camera which did not have any charge and were not provided with a charger which led to delays in filming and a severe issue with technical problems and therefore the group fell behind scheduale.

CAMERA! As mentioned the group had to capture images of costumes ideas, location ideas and actor choices ect and therefore we had to use the media technolodgy that is still-imaging in order to capture these image to show evidence of planning for our final products. Cameras were also used within the creation of the anciliary tasks in order to capture the images which would be used within the work.

APPLE MAC PRO! Within our groups we were each asssigned a MAC in order to be able to carry out the editing stages of our main product. The MACs held the software which we would need in order to form our clips we had taken into the video which is now our final product.

IMovieHD! IMovie HD was used throughout the editing stages of our final product without this media technolodgy our product would not be what it is. We needed this software in order to put the audio of our chosen track together with the video clips which we had captured for our final product. IMovie HD allowed us to apply transistions and effects which would add to the overall final product as a whole. Examples of how my group has used these effects include how we have adjusted the lighting within the story line clips in order to show the contrast and difference between the mood and emotions which were being expressed within the two. Our group also used a fade in effect between the clips in order to show a smoother transition from clip to clip rather than the clips just jumping around randomly and unevenly. Once wed uploaded our clips and editied and arranged the clips in order we wished ensuring that they were synced correctly with the audio we had to then compress and save our video using IMovieHD in order to make it compatiable and ready to be uploaded on to youtube.

YOUTUBE! YouTube is a website which allows us to discover, watch and share videos with billions of other world wide web users. We have used this media technolodgy in order to initially research for ideas and inspiration of existing media products which we could use within our own product. This is where we found the evidence of the existing video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra-Om7UMSJc and was able to research for ideas which we could use of other simualr artists of the same genre including assesing aspects of our favourite videos which we wished to include within our final piece. You tube was not only used for planning but was also used as a method of sharing our video with our audience in order to gain feeback at each stage of the process. Evidence of this can be seen here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra-Om7UMSJc

FACEBOOK! We used Facebook in order to initially show that we have used a variety of media technologies within out work. We had discussions with each other via the social networking site about ideas which we had for our video evidence of these can be found within our blogs. Personally i chose to also use the social networking site as a method of gaining audience feedback from fellow peers. I posted the link to our initial video on my facebook account in order to gain feeback from out target audience of whether they enjoyed the video and comment on aspects for improvement. I carried out the same process with my ancillary task in order to gain feedback from both my audience and friends who are part of other media insitutions evidence of this can be found within the question on feeback.

TUMBLR! Tumblr is a social networking/blogging site used by many i personally used the site as a method of gaining audience feedback from a large audience on my work. I have posted both my ancillary and main task to the website in order to gain more feeback and ideas which will help me within this evaluation stage of my product.

PHOTOSHOP! PhotoShop was used through out a large proportion of my work for creating my anciliarry tasks. PhotoShop allows me to combine and overlay images together with text to come up with my finished products for both my advert and digipak or both my preliminary and final tasks. Not only does photoshop allow you to combine images and text but it also allows you to add special effects to your images which can ulitmatly transform the images examples of such are tools such as the airbrush tool and liquidfy which allows you to completely re-adjust and manipulate your image in order to produce your desired final product. Evidence of how i have used this software can be seen here:

Finished product:

During Production Stages:

Brush effect used for pink strokes. Colour Effect Warm Filter used for overall image. Text overlay Used for text. Original Image:

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

In order to ensure that our final product and ancillary tasks were completed to a standard of high quality, we carried out several methods of research, using both primary and secondary data. For secondary data we used evidence of existing media products in order to show the simularities between our own product and the real media product. However for primary research my group has carried out 2 serperate surveys in order to gain audience feedback. The two forms of audience feedback which my group has used involved:

• Class Feedback


• Peer Feedback

Class Feedback was carried out during lesson time and involved the class coming together and watching each groups video and commenting on the areas which they enjoyed and believed were done well whilest also making note of any glitches within the products. From this each group would then give constructive critisism of how the group could better there work and improve upon their final product. There was then a chance for us to come together and discuss the notes which the other groups gave us with them and give other suggestions and advice on how to go about making the improvements.

Peer Feeback was carried out outside fo lessons and was undertaken my our fellow peers who were not memebers of our media class. Each candidate received a questionaire and were asked to carry out a simular process as above where by they would watch the video and then look to answer the 8 questions which were presented to them.

From our class feedback we received a mixture of positive and negative feedback though largerly positive. The members of our calss were also able to provide us with ideas of how we could improve our music video before the final product was complete.

As mentioned the majority of our feedback which we received from our class was positive; with most commenting:

• Good editing techniques.


• Good Miming and syncing with the audio and video.


• Good Varience of Mise-En-Scene.


• Good use of camera angles.


• Story line matches well to the audio.


• Generally liked the story line.

The comments on good editing techniques were largerly linked with the flashback scene and how we had devised and adapted this to fit the audio and give more impact and effect upon the audience. The comments also showed that most felt that the darkness and contrast difference between Beths and eddies scenes or in otherwords the actors and the artist, which is Jodi's clips, works really well and helped show a clear definition between the two.

The negative feedback which we received as a group was generally for minor matters which could be fixed quite simply. These were things like:

• Why is there a random horse in some clips mise-en-scene?


• Issue with zooming in and out on certain clips.


• Issue with unsteady camera work on certain clips.


• Why the random slips during a scene?


• The swear word within the text was not allowed within the clip of the phone.

And therefore from these negative comments we have been able to asses them a discuss how as a group we would try to improve the product. From the constructive critisim we were also given the following methods as ways in which as a group we could improve our work:

• Crop the random horse out of the clips if possible.


• Re-Film unsteady clips.


• Re-Film clips with dodgy zooming.


• Pixelate effect on swear word of text.


• Re-Film the text if neccesary.


• Possibly exlpore the story line further.

Our peer feedback was largerly simular to the comments made within the class feedback. however after receiving our questionaire these were the comments which we received:

1. When asked whether they enojyed the music video or not and asked to rate it out of 10 100% of candidates rated our video 8/10 or above.


2. The comments on what the aidence felt was positive aspects of our video alrgerly discussed the way in which the music fitted with the storyline, the enthusiasm of the actors within the video, the way in which the acting fitted with the song choice, jodi's convincing role as kelly clarkson and the chemistry between the two actors and the good varience of mise-en-scenes throughout the video.


3. When asked whether they beleived the story line fitted the song 100% of the candidates commented that they did beleive that the story line fitted the song.


4. When asked if the actor who played the artist fitted her role again many commented on the simularities and skill of the actor in the sense of her excellent miming abilities and simularities in looks such as blonde hair.


5. When asked if the actors fitted their role the comments again showed that 100% agreed that the actors fitted their role as a couple due to the chemistry between them and their excellent acting skills.


6. When asked whether they were fans or not of kelly clarkson and even if not whether they enjoyed the video 100% of candidates agreed to enjoying the video and stating that they beleive it did kelly clarksons original work justice even if they were fans.


7. When asked on suggestions for improvements the general comments included adding more of a variety of camera angles, sorting out the dodgy zooming within clips and adding a range of shot.


8. No candidates said they didnt enjoy the video and therefore skipped or answered this question.

Another method which i personally chose to use in order to gain audence feedback was the social networking site facebook. This website allowed me to post my work where media students of other instistutions could give me feedback but also to simply gain feedback from my specific target audience for the video. Evidence of this is:

There were a couple of things which personally as a group we picked up on throughout our main product such as the random phone playing on the piano. These were aspects which others hadnt noticed but we as a group had a beleived should be adjusted as others may notice them who are important such as our examiners.

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

When assessing the effectiveness of the combination of my media product and my ancillary task i must first remind my self of the genre of my music. My Music Video is based upon Kelly Clarksons track Becasue of you. Kelly Clarkson is a pop/rock artist and therefore we must ensure that moth tasks link with this theme. The track weve chosen is quite dark and in a sense depressing. The artist sings of her troubles and pain and therefore we had to ensure we showed this within both, the video and images used for the ancillary task. In order to do this we had the artist often singing with a pained expression and using camera angles which show her vunerability and victim identity. Much of the footage was darkened within the acting scenes to show this darkness and rawness of the footage and action. In order to show this within my digipak and final task i chose the artist to be waring darker clothes which links to the dark nature of the video. Some of the images which ive used show a sense of vunerability however a couple are more attitutey i decided on going with this attitude approach in order to represent that because of you is a track from the album and not the whole album and therefore it represents her past, the brick wall represents the rawness and rough past shes expereienced but the attitude show that this is her past and now she has to be strong. Throughout the video we try to show both the vunerable victim side of the artist who breaks down alot but also combine this with the slightly stonger aspects which shows she understands her past and now shes dealt with it she can express it more freely, what hasnt killed her has made her stonger. Expanding on this ive tried to show both aspects of her life throughout both tasks the past and the present. The brighter lighter clothes used within the video also express this new life where shes no longer in pain and suffering shes not the victim. The big simularity between the two is that both artists have rather dark make up, naturall we went for the pale skin and dark eyes apparoach which can be seen throughout the video and ancillary tasks.

In what ways does your media product use develop, challenge and conform with forms and conventions of real media products?

When we created our media products, we had to think about how we would use develop, challenge and conform with existing real media products. In order to this we had research into real media products and assess our findings in order to have a greater understanding of their format and presentation. From our findings we took note of the stereotypical view of a pop artist and how generally their real media products would be colourful and cheerful and on the cheesy side. The images of a pop artist are usually pretty perfect and airbrushed with a large focus upon the artist themselves. After researching and analysing the existing real media products according to this genre we came together as a group and discussed that it would be difficult to altogether challenge the genre of the real media products and therefore we look more at conforming with the existing products and then developing upon them in order to create our own media product which will have slight areas of development that shall hopefully at the same time challenge the norm.

Within our music video the artist focus is about 50:50 with that of the story line. This could therefore show a slight sense of developing and challenging upon the original real media products. Due to most media products of this genre (pop) being artist focused and would usually consist of at least a 65:35 percentage ratio upon the focus of the artist over that of the actors. However in order to conform with the stereotype of this genre I ensured that my ancillary task was heavily artist focused with 4 images in total over the four pages being of the artist.

We wanted to really appeal to our target audience and for this reason we decided that Kelly Clarkson was kind of an out dated artist and for this reason we should look to update her image and use a more modern artist. Therefore we researched analysed existing artists in order to gain an understanding of how we could develop upon the existing image and re invent a more modernised Kelly Clarkson. After carrying out a lot of research the artist we have chosen to use is Pixie Lott we felt she held the similar qualities as Miss Clarkson with her pop label but edgy rocky fashion style. Evidence of this is shown here within her video "Turn it up":

We decided to research for artists who adapt this self approach and therefore i looked at a young stylish icon who adapts the rock/pop style but also sings a slow song. and therefore i have assessed the work of Miley Cyrus -The Climb.


With no form of racism intended we challenged the norms of the existing media products of a pop video with the strong deep story line which was not cheesy or cheerful at all. The video shows a deep story line and involves the use of a black couple which is unlikely within the sterotypical pop genre. We never meant to show any form of rascism with the choice of actors, these were simply the best candidates due to acting skills for the role. However within real media products its unlikely to see the use of a black couple and an abuse story due to issues with rascism and sterotyping.

Our video challenges the general storyline fo pop videos where by usually the artist would be stelling her own story in the sense she would play both roles however within our video the artist is the narative and the actors play the roles. Evidence fo this can be found within some artists videos such as the script- for the first time.

Another method in which we have challenged the norms of a pop video is due to the fact that generaly the music and pace of the video are rather fast however we used a slower paced pop song and therefore we have matched our video to this tempo in order to create harmony between the story line and pace of the video with the audio and therefore conform with the idea of matching the music and video and audio together.

Evaluation

As part of our course we needed to prove that we could both produce a media product which would use challenge, conform and develop with existing media products but we also needed to be able to analyse our work and comment on how we have achieved the final result and be able to be critical of our own work.

Our group as created the following prezi in order to use as a presentational method to our class.

http://prezi.com/usia9rfxyt3p/a2-media-evallation/

A2 Media Evallation on Prezi

Final video

Here is our video after all the re-editing and lip syncing has taken place, we have worked as a group to try to improve our work by referring the the feedback gained from our research into the opinions of two audiences those of our media class and the external peers whose opinion was also asked. From our original first draft video we have now managed to sync and compress the video correctly in order to avoid issues with the video becoming out of sync after the upload process onto youtube. The group re -filmed scenes which were unable to be adjusted using special effects.

Final advert

Spelling mistake addressed and adjusted.