In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
At the beginning of the task I began by researching 4 music videos, I gained inspiration and influence from these in terms of shots, concepts and so on. These showed me conventions of music videos and how I can utilise them, I also realised how important mise-en-scene is to a music video, its not just the shots that matter but what’s in the background as well. I chose the clothes of the actor in my video while thinking of our own influences but also the influences of Johnny Marr who wrote the song, this worked well because it fit in well with the song and the genre it was most suited to. The location was just as important as anything else, I chose mainly the Peterborough Cathedral due to the magnificent architecture there, it made for some very appealing establishing shots and made a very eye catching backdrop for the viewer. I gained this influence from The Smiths, they very often did it the opposite way round though by using their home, Manchester, to display a run down area in major need of rejuvenation, I used the opposite of the convention by showing a more appealing part of an otherwise uninteresting and run-down city. With the face pace of the song I used videos like The Who’s “Who Are You” and jumped from each shot very quickly to keep it interesting as well and as the beat of the song matching it.
A video I didn’t actually research but gained influence from was Jake Bugg’s lightning bolt, this video was using a song with similar beat and was filmed in a similar sort of location, he used many 1 second establishing shots to break up the video and keep it interesting and I have also used this to good effect.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
My digipack and magazine advert link directly with the video, the photos of the actor (Chris Crowther) are taken on location of the video to make it recognisable with the video. The video itself is linked to influences both by me as the director and Chris as the actor, this is the reasoning behind the 2 inside panels where an image is spread across it, It features items such as a guitar, played by Chris, vinyl owned by me and various other pieces of music and music memorabilia. The magazine advert photo is also used in the digipack making that recognisable if someone has bought the digipack due to the advert.
For the magazine advert I chose to make the text for the artist stand out more than the song, this is because the video is more about him then the video, it follows him round throughout the video much of it not concentrating on the song. The reviews are there to encourage the reader to want to go out and buy this song with the song title being lower as it is one of the last things the reader will see meaning it will stick in their minds, the ones lower have smaller text as they are not as important as the song itself but is important towards whoever wants to buy it, each lower column will stick in the readers mind more, on the bottom right is the record label logo, I called the record label All Mod Cons Records as I am interested in the Mod scene so have influences from it, this will be the very last thing the reader does see after the song info so it may encourage them to go and check out what other releases the record label has. The digipack links in a lot with advert as it uses the same photo and is the product being advertised, the back of the digipack is in the same style as the magazine advert with a close up of part of the photo and the bold text is the same font as the magazine, this is also the same with the cover. It also features all the same logos and then has the record label logo featured on the magazine advert.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From the feedback I’ve received from the video, digipack and advert it has been virtually all positive.
For my video I was told the video was interesting throughout with only 1 or 2 shots being too long which was accepted and edited, The fast paced song was matched by the fast paced video with the concept of the video allowing this as it is done with quite simple shots all very quickly interchanging with a straight edit. There are no continuity issues throughout the video that have been suggested meaning the video is believable and flows very well. The camera quality was commented on by one person but this was something beyond my control which I going to be unable to change. The syncing of the sound was noted to be good quality other than a section of ambient sound that was too harsh and edited to make it softer but not drowned out by the noise of the track. The performance of the actor was quoted as being talented, dependable, almost flawless and various other positive comments.
The digipack also received generally positive feedback with a lot of the comments focusing on the pictures of Chris himself, the editing was quoted as making it appealing to the eye with the colours of the suit being very soft yet eye catching, especially on the front cover. The concept of the back was enjoyed by who I asked, the close of the gate on the cover with the “PRIVATE” sign sharpen was effective, the bold text made it very easy to know what tracks on there with the b-sides being chosen by the actor as it was songs he may cover if he was producing a single. The spine was very easy to read with one person saying it was the first thing they noticed as it stood out so much. The inside 2 panels with the influences was commented as being a good idea and the objects were well selected, the only real complaint of that being there was not enough items and it looked quite bare.
The magazine advert was quoted as being bold and attractive for any reader which instantly attracts the eye. One person commented on the sharpness of the face on Chris explaining it made him look very red in the face, I tried changing this but it left the picture unfocused with it looking as if the sign on the gate was the main focus of the picture. The reviews on the side said by one person to be too small, these were made bigger and I agreed with the person in they stood out more now and looked better overall. The text getting smaller was taken well with the hierarchy of importance being commented as a clever idea that works well. One person said the black text blended slightly with the background but also another colour wouldn’t look right and white blended in too much.
Overall I gained lots of genuine feedback for all aspests and listened to all of it with some being acted on as well, this helped me develop my products further so that they were more user friendly or more appealing, this helped as my opinion would be biased towards my own work and this allowed me to hear the downfalls of it and change them accordingly
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Throughout the project I used various technology to help get to the stage I am at now. To start off the project we had to create blogs where we described everything that I was doing related to the video and ancillary tasks, this was done on blogger, a programme I was familiar with as I used it last year for my music magazine and once again it was very easy to use and I used it effectively. We posted our research of music videos on there, this included analysing each shot and explaining it in a large amount of detail. This meant using print screen to get the shots and uploading the pictures onto blogger. For the ancillary research I had to take photos of digipacks which I owned myself to analyse them, here I chose a single gatefold, double and triple gatefold to cover all areas, I had to upload these from my ipod to the blog which was also successful. Throughout the whole project I have had to constantly update the blog which I have been effective and detailed with.
For the filming I used a video camera which was a new way of filming for me as I hadn’t done the film option at AS, at first I had difficulties uploading my clips onto the Macbooks in school due to the file type and as a result changed camera, after re-filming the first clips and more I found it very simple to upload and transfer my clips across to edit. The camera was very easy to use with the only real problem being how to keep the camera still while walking which was never really overcome.
For the ancillary tasks I used a programme called Paint.Net, its is a free editing software which is best described somewhere between photoshop and paint. I used this to edit the photos to make them look more professional and more appealing as well as adding all the text. This was a software of which I was familiar as I have used it a lot in my past including for my AS media music magazine. Throughout this I used tools such as contrast, brightness, saturation, cures, noise reduction and sharpen to make it look like a high quality photo in a high quality magazine or in a proper digipack.
For the editing process I used iMovie on the apple MacBooks in my school, this programme was very easy to use with a simple drag system to place clips in the video and very easy tools to shorten clips and place music in. This was a relatively new programme for me which I had very basic experience with many years ago with a personal Mac but never before had I used it in such a depth. I was very pleased with my progress as I edited more and more, I was becoming more and more efficient with the programme and began using more complex tools such as the neutralizer which I could of never imagined using 2 months ago. The syncing of the sound was one of the more difficult aspects of it and took lots of effort to get the timings right and many times went wrong and needed to be amended. I will upload the video onto youtube as well to gain more feedback which is another technology I am familiar with.
All this technology made the whole thing much easier, the blog made it very easy to keep track of where I was and iMovie made it very easy to start where I left off almost without notice.
