Final Products

Final Video

Final Digi Pack

Final Magazine Advert

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

A wide range of new media technologies have been used throughout the advanced production. Some of these media technologies I have used in previous projects. Some of the new media technologies have been used for the first time in this project. I have developed many of these new media technologies in this advanced project to make a good quality music video.

Construction

The programs that were used regularly during the construction of the advanced portfolio were Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Premiere Pro. 

Adobe Photoshop was used to construct my front cover of the CD. I have used the Photoshop a lot in previous projects last year. I am very confident using this software, such as cutting images, placing things in right places, being able to cut out the background of a photo and to construct my work on there. In order to create the album cover, Adobe Photoshop was used as it helped to get the effects I wanted and also play around with the colour schemes using the Hue/Saturation bar. Above is a video that shows how Adobe Photoshop was used to alter the images 'Hue and Saturation.'

Adobe Photoshop was used to make logo (above image). Using Photoshop made it easier to create the text, look at the shaping and space of the letters and merge them into the positioning that we wanted. Adobe Photoshop is one program that I was most comfortable with which allowed me to create to above image to the standard that it is.

In order to create the CD back and poser I had to use Adobe InDesign, I found that is programme worked well with my skills and knowledge of it as I have worked a lot on it throughout these two years. By using the grid lines to make sure everything was in its right place helped my CD back  to be in a order to make it clear. I allowed me to create new things and also play around with different ideas which then lead into the creation of my final products.

The most important program that was used was Adobe Premier Pro. This program allowed the group to upload, alter and create the music video. As I was new to this programme that I had never used before it was a program that was hard to get to grips with, several lessons were spent learning new skills from other pupils, teachers and from tutorials on YouTube. Above is one of the tutorials I used to get to grips with the programme.

In order to shot our video we used a Nikon D5100, which had a HD video record on it which allowed us to film in high definition. By using a DSLR we were about the set certain focuses by having the lense on manual, we also used the profile setting when shooting close ups which created a more crisp effect onto the shot. We found that the HD shots worked a lot better and made our product a lot stronger.

Research

A massive part of the research of the advanced portfolio was the use of YouTube. As well as using YouTube other new media technologies that were used include Google and DropBox. Each of these media technologies helped to develop my understanding of the conventions and forms that are associated with the music videos, magazine adverts and digi pack. Below are a few videos that demonstrate how each of the media technologies were used to help with the project. Looking at existing products.

YouTube was also used to upload videos and help to upload them to 'Blogger.' This enabled me to film our shooting sessions and upload them and also videos of information about our pieces which have added to my blog.

Dropbox was used to help share documents between computers. Which helped when working with my group and then when I wanted to complete some work from home. 

Planning

To help the group share work at ideas at the start of the project a Dropbox folder was created to help everyone share documents with each other easily and efficiently. Powerpoint was used to help create a slideshow, which stated our plans, ideas etc. This was used to present our idea to the class, and gather feedback on our narrative ideas and initial song choice. 

Evaluation

I used my iPhone during the evaluation in order to record audience feedback. This made it easier to capture feedback then carrying a camcorder around. I then used YouTube to upload the videos and then upload them to Blogger. I also used my iPhone to take the videos you see above and YouTube to upload them. My evaluation also includes photographs and screen shots from all the new media programmes that I have used.

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

Development

During the final completion stages of the development of the video, it was important that audience feedback was taken into consideration. Feedback was needed in order to make the essential improvements. Feedback such as:

'I feel certain shots are too long and don't link to the narrative that you are trying to show.'

Feedback such as the above was extremely useful as I was able to make the improvements and create a stronger product. It allowed us to go out and re do these certain shots to make sure they were improved and better to make sure the audience are interested by our product.

Evaluation of Final product

On the 30th April a Creative Arts Evening was held, where the music videos done by 6th form were played in front an audience. After our video had been played, feedback was taken from members of the audience. Below are the videos of feedback that we as a group gained from members of the audience. 

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

It is always important in a promotional package that all of the products repeat conventions. By having the same conventions the audience is able to relate the products, and know they are part of the same promotional package. This was very important during the making of the video and the ancillary tasks, below are images that show how each of the products created relate to each other.

Ancillary Tasks

Below is a selection of photographs of the ancillary tasks, highlighting all the aspects that link them together showing the audience that they all relate to each other. 

1.The font and colours are the same throughout all the media products

2.The photographs are all similar and have the same people in them.

3.The paint splash is kept consistent throughout.

4.The logo is used throughout.

5.Album name highlighted.

It is clear the ancillary tasks are part of the same promotional package due to the reasons above.

Link between video and ancillary tasks

The only similarities between the video and the ancillary are the graphics, after our research we found that the posters and albums never have any relation to the music video itself within the dance genre. So we as a group decided to stick by this convention and follow the conventions of the genre as we found that this worked best. We also found the DJ's never appeared in the video so we have a different main character to the DJ which again is a convention of this genre. The reason we kept the Ancillary's plain and simple was to stop confusion with the video, but overall we found that the way the combination of the two task working against each other worked really well as it has supported our research and shown that we have followed the conventions of the dance genre.

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

It is essential that the audience recognise the genre in which a media product belongs to. Commonly, media products include specific codes and conventions that create meaning for the audience. In terms of planning and developing our products, we made sure that we conformed to our genre in different ways, allowing the audience to associate it with the dance genre and perhaps even relate it to other existing products that they may have seen. This is apparent through, Camera work, editing, narrative and our ancillary work.

This blog will evaluate the way in which the media product has used, developed and challenged the forms and conventions of real media product.

Comparison with real media products 

The idea for this section of shots came from 'Love Generation - Bob Sinclair.' The group decided to take a similar selection of shots, which all showed his general day to day routine. The convention was slightly developed and challenged as the way the sections were set and placed were different and they way in which everything went wrong for our character whereas the other one was everything go right so we turned it on the flip side for our video. Also the point of view shot looking into the fridge were both very similar as we felt as this was a very strong shot to use in our piece.

The idea for this shot came from 'I got u - Duke Dumont.' The group decided to take a a similar shot from a real product and take it and change it into to fit our video. The convention was slightly developed and challenged as we decided we wanted to physically show he was going on journey as you see him leaving the house whereas in the real video we see the man going into his house then going on a journey, so we took what we could from this shot and made it into our own to fit our aims and ideas.

Editing

This is one example of editing that we was inspired by. In the video 'JLS - Billion Lights.' As a group we decided to suggest a split screen ideas where we would have 3 different shots going on at one time. The convention was developed and challenged by changing the layout and idea around slightly we discussed that having an actual split screen as such would not be appropriate for what we were trying to show but a split screen with 3 similar shots in making into one shot would work better as it would fit our idea.

Narrative

We got our first idea of the narrative from the new and current film 'The Secret Life Of Water Mitty' this follows the story of a man who lives a dull boring life who then starts to imagine and see the real life that he would endure to live in. This is very similar to ours as we follow the boring life of a young boy who then gets caught up in a life that he wants but then towards the end realises he doesn't. This was a massive step for our group as it allowed us to explore into more ideas and discuss what we would want to do on the bases of using this particular trailer as a template. After taking into consideration the goings on in this film it helped us as a group and our video itself to be able to develop and also go against the typical conventions that you would see in today's music videos.

Main Idea

We as a group decided that we were going to follow the type of video that would fit our genre,so we looked at the DJ's previous videos and throughout this research we found that not once was the DJ seen or mentioned throughout the videos, this is what gave us the idea of just simply telling a story throughout without any singer or band shots to support the video. We felt that this worked for us and the song as it then allowed us to concentrate on the narrative, although the narrative did not match the song this was another convention that we had noticed was a constant occurrence throughout the dance genre videos, 

Ancillary 

Development: Media Language

Below is a video that we made to explain the kind of language and media terms we have used within our music video.

Development: Digi Pack

Above is the gradual development that I have made with my digi pack throughout creating it, it is clear that it is very different to the drafts as I decided against using the bars and found the paint splashed worked a lot better as we thought it suited the genre. We have kept with the same house style and all the font styles have remained the same as I and the group thought that it worked the best, also by adding in the photographs of the DJ it has kept within the conventions of this genre.