Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

Question Two: How Effective is The Combinations of Your Main Product with Ancillary Texts ?

I would argue that the combination of my Music video, CD sleeve and Magazine advertisement are quite effective. For example I have tried to keep a common theme of Movement or travel going across all three parts of the production. This theme is mainly got across though the images that I used which were mostly taken from a car in motion to create the blurred effect to suggest movement or travel. The fact that all the images used in the various aspects of the print production I took directly from the Music video further solidified the connection between the two and help the audience associate one with the other as the idea was that they would be able to instantly recognize and link the two productions.

For example, for the front cover i chose to pick a images that i took from the latter half of the music video, which was taken in a way to create the blurred lines of the lights which connotes motion, withe the lights themselves getting more emphasis due to the lack of light within the scene. 

On the back cover I chose to create a graphic resembling a road sign as a Song list as I through this would be appropriate as well as being synonymous with the theme of travel, having to make a choice in direction, and looking for something for the character to help make their choice. I have also used this to further expand on this theme as if to make the audience make a decision on which way they they would like to go, so if this were to become a entire album i could have grouped similar songs on the album to 'guide' the audience to songs that would be to their liking. This could also reinforce the theme of travel across the production.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3; what have you learnt from your audience feedback?

To first collect and analyse my audience feedback I used survey monkey which I then posted a link to on Facebook and twitter as this would make it much easier to target my chosen audience which is around my age which is 16-19.  

For audience feedback, using these methods, I asked a variety of questions starting with Age and gender to offer some way of grouping responses to identify what age groups and which sex liked the production most. I then asked the question ‘Did you like the track?’, which I could have changed to ether have more options or asked if they felt that the track fitted with the video instead. I also asked a series of multiple choice questions which were meant to ascertain how well the audience thought my construction of my music video was and how well the two parts linked together, although I didn't feel like I asked enough questions to get clear feedback to base my future changes upon. For future reference to myself I needed to ask more questions and offer the audience a better choice of answers so to get better feedback.

Despite this the feedback I did receive was generally positive, with a few comments suggesting small things to change about the video, mainly suggesting that I change the fonts used and the position in the print productions, with some suggesting that I make the camera work a bit smother as well as using some better transitions between shots to make it flow better. This could have been caused by the fact that I made the music video to appeal to my ‘eye’ and not anyone else’s, and as most people have their own particular style that they like I could have made some changes to make the production appeal to a more mass market audience. Though I didn’t feel like that was a problem while looking at the feedback – although I may not have been asking the right questions or got enough responses to establish if this may have been a problem.

Overall, from the feedback I didn’t notice that much of a difference between male and female responses, with a 50/50 split between each sex and with the majority of people liking the track chosen as well as the production overall. And also with a lot of the people asked liking the combination of the Music video and the print productions overall.

Evaluation Question 4

Question 4: How Did You Use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages ?

The way I utilised media technologies throughout the production of my media project has had a major impact on the way I produced the various aspects of the course.

Canon 400D DSLR

One of the most important parts where technologies have be of the most help have been in the actual production of the music video itself. For example when filming the music video I did have not have a Video camera to hand when I thought I would, this caused me to rethink my ideas a little and as such I decided to stop motion video capture using my Canon 400D DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera to capture sequences of individual images that I put together in processing.

The Program that I used to put together the sequences of images was Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, a video editing programme part of Adobe’s Creative Suite of Programmes. To do This I Imported all the Images within a sequence into the Project Bin within a new Premiere Pro project then dragged all the images into the Sequence which I then exported as a video file which I could then either edit or Put straight into the project bin of the Music video. I then used the same program to put together the entire music video as it would allow me to put in various effects such as increasing or decreasing the saturation, brightness or contrast on several individual parts of the video. It also allowed me to put in transitions to make the music video flow better from sequence to sequence as well as being in time with the track itself. Another program that I used in the production of the Music video was Audacity. I used this to shorten the track to a more workable length by taking long instrumental parts out of the track.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 - Editing the Music Video



Adobe Photoshop CS6 -

Adobe Fireworks CS5

I used another two Adobe Creative suite program in the construction of my Print productions, Fireworks and Photoshop. I firstly used Photoshop – which I a professional Image editing program -   to edit the images in a way to make the images stand out and draw the intended audience into buying this product. I also used the Filter gallery within Photoshop to edit the image used in the magazine advertisement as the image I picked for this had no feel of movement that I wanted to create a theme throughout my production, so I used to radial blur filter to produce an image with a feel or illusion of movement.




Adobe Fireworks is another Creative Suite program which is designed to be a Graphics creator and editor. I used this particular program to produce the back cover of the album sleeve which is a graphic of a road sign which I used as a song list. This further reinforces the theme of movement, travel and direction. I also used this to create the logo for my Record lable.

YouTube



Blogger

Another media technology that has made it possible to publish my music video and print publications is social media, most notably the Video sharing site of YouTube and the Blogging site of Blogger. YouTube has made it much easier in recent years for people to get their creations up to show to the world, not just in the music industry but in TV, Film, Gaming, and other forms of the modern media network. Blogger has been also very important and useful during the entire media course as it has enabled me to put all my work towards this music video into one location on the internet which means anyone with an internet connection can view and evaluate and comment on my work, suggesting alterations I could make to my work, alowing another aspect to audience feedback for me respond to.



Editing a Blog post in Blogger

Uncompleted evaulation Question one

One of the main points of my music video is that I have no focus on a main character of any sorts, this leaves the audience open to interpret the character that the song is about and base and preconceptions upon the character they have created themselves based on the lyrics of the song. I chose to have no characters depicted as it also allows a much larger audience to associate themselves with the video and put a part of themselves into their own version of the video as they are allowed to expand on the video put before them and to try and revers the fact that the genre of the song – which the band have described themselves as indie rock – could be considered not very popular genre of music so I have tried to have the music video appeal to a larger audience while still appealing to the more traditional audience of the genre of this track/band. Having no character has also allowed me to challenge many of the theory’s surrounding music videos, a majority of which state that a majority of – though mainly the more popular and mass market pop - music videos contain a lot of sexism and the over sexualisation of women as well as both sexes being made to fit a very narrow idea of what a Man and a Women should be like in modern culture, with the reality being very far from these ideas

I have also chosen to have the convention of travel in the way that I have used shots of looking out upon the world. I decided to have shots like this mainly because it fits in with the song, but also as it reflects how my age group as it is my target audience as looking for an identity. This Is what Dick Hebdige states that teenagers get their identity from the products they consume to fit into a divided and fragmented subcultures, and that we also pick and mix different parts of old and current cultures to create their own small sub-culture – known as Bricolage. 

Please note that this is unfinished and that i have not been able to upload anything to this blog untill now as my internet at home is down.

Completed Music Video

Compleated Album Magazine Advertisement

The Changes i made to this advertisement was changing the font to be inline with the font on the Album cover aswell as moving the text away from the edge. I Also Moved the '5 Stars from NME' down to the bottom of the page.

Compleated Album Cover/CD Sleave

This is the front album cover, the revisions i made were changing the font as well as moving the text away from the edge of the cover.

Inside of CD Sleave

Back Cover