Finished!

Today I finished my blog, and now it is ready to be marked.

Evaluation Question 4

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

Below is a video I have made including all the different forms of technology I have used throughout my coursework.For this video I used a site called Animoto, which takes your photo's and music and creates an exciting presentation video.

How did I use the technology and was it useful or not...

For all of our filming we used the Colleges Mini DV Sony Camera, we didn't have any problems when using the camera. However we had a lot of trouble uploading the footage onto the computers, but whether that was the fault of the camera or the computer I do not know.

When we edited our footage we used Final Cut Express, I personally found this program very difficult to use as there is a lot to it and because we wanted to use a lot of complex effects, we had to use the internet to find out how to create the effects. Besides this it did produce a high standard of footage which we were happy with.

To get our footage onto Blogger we had to upload it onto YouTube first, even though YouTube is an extremely easy site to use I did have quite a few problems when using it. It wouldn't upload our videos because of the format they were in, so I had to try several different formats and use different computers to get our videos to upload, which I feel wasted a lot of valuable lesson time for us. Another problem I came across was when the video uploaded the quality was seriously damaged and therefore I think it has really ruined the video. Although YouTube is useful as a Media 2.0 technology, I didn't get any feedback from it.

Another Media 2.0 technology I used was Facebook, which for me is  incredibly easy to use as I use it everyday. It was great to use for feedback as I got a lot of feedback which was quite productive.

Adobe Photoshop for me is easy to use as I use it a lot at home and in other subjects, however I did struggle when using it on the Mac Desktops as the controls were different.

For this coursework I used a lot of presentation sites that were new to me, Prezi was one of these sites. At first I had difficulty using it but once I got used to the site I felt it was a really creative way of presenting my work.

Another presentation site I used was Slideshare, which was generally simple to use as it just allowed me to upload power points on my Blog. On the other hand I did have trouble uploading one of my power points which led me to use another site called 280 slides, which lets you create interesting slides as well as upload them to Blogger.

My Iphone came in handy when I wanted to take photo's of the band and digipacks I had analysed. The photo quality was really good and they uploaded really easily to my Blog.

Technology determinism is a theory that presumes that a society's technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values.

    I feel that the majority of technology I had used did not determine the outcome of my work, it in fact helped to improve my work and make it more interesting. However when using sites such as YouTube I had no control over the quality of video it would produce.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For our audience feedback we used several methods to collect audience feedback one of these methods was a filmed focus group...

Once we had created a rough cut we decided to film a focus group, putting together a group of people we felt fit our target audience.

This audience feedback was very helpful as we got some productive answers to our questions. Although they liked our video they gave some points on how we could improve the video, such as add a performance element which we acted on and there is evidence of this in our final music video.

To gather feedback for our final music video we created a Facebook page...

Generally we got positive feedback for our music video, however a point that was put across by a few people was that the lead singers voice didn't suit the person we chose to portray the lead singer. But there were no points made about the lip syncing which I am pleased about, because it is a difficult thing to get it perfect.

I am pleased that people were able to understand the narrative as in our rough cut it wasn't as clear as it could of been, so we have been able to improve from our previous audience feedback.

We used quite a number of effects in our final music video, especially "colour spotting" as it was suggested early in our coursework that we use that effect to pick out significant colours. It's could to see that they have been noticed and appreciated.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1 on Prezi

Final Print Advert

Here is my final digipack advert.

Final Digipack

Here is my final design for my digipack...

Digipack Advert Photo's

The reason I chose to just use a shot of the lead singer was because we got some really good shot's of him in particular. In comparison to the Green Day digipack advert I looked at previously, I think just using the one member of the band draws your attention in more as there is more space around the individual.

Third Digipack Draft

Second Digipack Draft

First Digipack Draft

Further Photo Edits

Using photo's of myself and the actors we used for our music video previously, I knew I wanted to incorporate them into my digipack some way. I found an effect which visually looked good and I added a black and white effect as I felt it was appropriate for our genre and it has also been a key thing we have used when it came to editing our music video.

Photo Edits

Out of my selection of photo's I chose the one I liked the most and made various edits, so that I have a wide selection of photo's to test out and see what will work best on my final digipack.

Photo's

                               

I have picked a selection of photo's from our photo shoot of the band that I feel will suit the digipack and advert well. I chose these photos in particular as they link to our filming as they are shot in the same location our music video was shot in, I also like that the band is performing as it makes them feel more like a band and it also incorporates the instrumental element we associate with rock bands.

Font Ideas

These are font's I have chosen to possibly use on my digipak and advert.

I chose these font's as I feel they will work well in terms of our target audience and genre, I like the fonts I have chosen as they are bold and stand out. 

Colour Scheme Ideas

These are colour schemes I have made to use for our digipak and music advert.

What I like most about these colour schemes is that they go with our circus theme music video as well as fitting our genre and target audience. Some of the colour schemes I have made I may not use as they are quite bright and I feel they wouldn't work well on the digipak or advert. I will experiment with the range of colours I have chosen to ensure I get the colour scheme perfect.

Final Music Video

Perfromance

Today we are going to film our performance element, as it was a key thing that was mentioned in our audience feedback. After filming we will experiment with how we will fit it into our music video, so that we can make it flow better.

Rough Cut (Audience Feedback)

• The main criticism of our rough cut is that it didn't have a performance element, because of our genre I feel it is appropriate that we film a band performance so that our video is narrative and performance based.
• Another point that was made was that our storyline wasn't as clear as it could be, to approve this we will need to cut down some of the clips in our rough cut to make room for some of our other footage. This will ensure that our target audience understands the video.

Rough Cut

Rescheduling Editing

Due to a power cut at college yesterday (March 8th) we were unable to finish creating a rough cut for our music video and therefore we have had to change the deadline for when we present our rough cut to an audience. We now plan to present our rough cut on Thursday 15th March.

Editing

Today we are going to start editing and plan to have a rough cut done by Thursday 8th March.

Filming

Today we are going to start filming our music video.

Actors and Costumes

After deciding on the theme for our music video (circus theme) we then had to think about who we wanted in our music video and what character they would be playing. We decided that we only wanted three characters in and music video:


The Clown


We decided we wanted to use Tom Painter to act as the clown in our music video, because we wanted our circus theme to be more modern we still kept elements of the clown such as the make-up. But ultimately we changed the clothing but not so much that you didn't know the character he was playing.

The Mime

I'm playing the mime in our music video and because the mime has a very distinct look, we didn't change that many elements you associate with a mime. With the use of stripes and black and white make-up it was clear what I was playing.

The Ringmaster

Holly Hughes chose to act as the ringmaster, we used very bold/heavy make-up to fit it with the crazy circus theme and kept with the traditional top hat and blazer. 

The Stranglers - Waltzinblack

When doing our focus group it was suggested that we listen to the song Waltzinblack by The Stranglers, this song relates closely to want we want to achieve in our music video. The band haven't made a music video for this song, so I chose this particular video made by a pro-am as it reflects the ideas created when listening to this song.

The song itself is very different and strange and I feel these factors will inspire us when we start to film our video.

Focus Group

Audience Theory

The cultural studies approach to audience:


According to Morley, audiences aren't just passively affected by media texts, they take an active role in reading a text.

How might audiences read the values expressed in your video and print work in a preferred, negotiated and oppositional way? 

I think that our target audience will be able to read our video in a preferred way as its all about people being different and because of the age of our target audience I know that they will be able to relate to and understand the idea we are going to put across in our video. I don't think our target audience could read the video in a negotiated way but possibly a oppositional way as we could have misinterpreted their view on difference and they could reject the idea of how people react when people are different, it really depends on our audiences opinion on the subject.

What are you going to do to encourage the target audience to take a preferred reading? 

I think that the overall idea will appeal to our target audience anyway but to encourage it even more we will use actors in a similar age range and the types of things the actors will be doing will be things that our target audience can relate to e.g. learning to drive or trying to get a girlfriend/boyfriend.

What kind of person might take an oppositional reading?

I think that someone who would watch the video and are older than our target audience might take an oppositional reading as it is possible that the older generation can be made to look like they don't accept difference. This could lead to some viewers to reject the idea we are showing them, however our video is only meant to appeal to our target audience.

The cultural studies approach perspective on audience:

David Morley tries to understand how media might be a powerful influence on audiences, but as well as this he encourages researches to understand the active nature of certain audiences.

     

This approach tries to understand the intended effects of media texts, but also see's audiences as active and that different audiences will differ in how they read the values in a media text.

• Preferred or dominant reading: The audience recognize the values being offered by the text and accepts them as natural and correct.
• Negotiated reading:The audience recognize the values in the text as legitimate and accept them in general, but adapt their reading of the text to fit in with their experiences and interests.
• Oppositional reading:The audience understands the values in the text, but disagrees with them and rejects them.

Narrative Theory

In this post I am going to illustrate how we are going to use narrative theory in our music video. In our video Levi Strauss's theory on binary oppositions is very relevant to what we are doing, as it shows difference which is important in our video. What will be used in our video is this idea of "rich and poor" and this will be illustrated in the video when the circus group is busking to get money and the richer people are throwing money at them.

We will also use "love & hate" in the video and this will be shown through the clown trying to get a girlfriend and not succeeding.

Using Barthes five different codes I have been able to identify two out of the five that relate to our music video. First the symbolic code, which is all about the audience assuming something about someone a bit like stereotyping. For example in our music video people will assume that the clowns don't fit in because they are different.

Todorov's theory is that in media text there are five different stages. Original equilibrium (normality), disruption, recognition, attempt to restore and new equilibrium. Not all these stages link to our storyboard such as the original and new equilibrium as we don't see the circus as it was before it got closed down and we don't see the stage where all there problems are sorted out. However there is a disruption in our story (circus closing down) and the circus performers attempt to restore what has happened by going in to society and trying various things e.g. working, making friends and driving. None of these things will help to get there circus back but its more about restoring themselves and finding happiness else where. 

Storyboard

Time Management

Things that need by the following...


Friday 27th January

• Target audience research
• Casting
• Costumes and Props
• Risk assessment table

Thursday 2nd February

• Photo's of locations
• Permission to film at locations
• Shot-lists and storyboarding

Risk Assessment

This is our risk assessment table, containing all the possible dangers and how we will overcome them.

Costumes & Props

Costume & Props on Prezi

Audience Profile

Audience profile powerpoint

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Fightstar - Mercury Summer

Redundant Features

There is a band performance throughout the video, there is more of a focus on the lead singer but the shots go from the singer to the band as a whole and they are all playing instruments. Another redundant feature was the idea of a romance with this girl, which seems to be what the song is about.

Entropic Features

The main entropic feature was how photos were incorporated into the video, I thought this was a very different and different idea. It also shows how creative you can be when it comes to editing and creating effects.

Shots

There are many long shots and mid shots used, with close ups of the lead singer and especially the love interest. Many of the shots go from a mid shot to a long shots especially during the scenes with the repetitive photos. The shots seem to change so much because throughout the whole video the shots bounce off of each other and there is a lot of zooming in and zooming out going on.

Edits

From what I can see the only cuts used are straight cuts, this is because the video moves quite fast and it's hard to tell and you don't notice the cuts. 

Mis-en-scene

The band wears suits during the whole video, where as the female characters costume changes quite a few time. She wears quite casual clothes that seem to go with the theme of what's in the photograph. Apart from the photos the backgrounds used are quite plain, and are just black and white.

Audience Feedback

Audience feedback

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The Pitch!

The Pitch on Prezi

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Can't Stop

Red hotchillipepper powerpoint

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Textual Analysis's

Paramore-Monster

Redundant features

The key redundant feature of this music video was that the band was seen performing for the majority of the video as well as us seeing the instruments they are using.

Entropic features

I thought that the setting for this video was entropic as I didn't think it has any relevance to the lyrics, also I know that the song was made for the transformers film therefore I expected it to relate more to that. The introduction was also surprising, the shot of the band in the water is very unrealistic and you don't expect to see them fully clothed.

Shots

Close up shots are used quite a lot in this video especially when the camera is focusing on the lead singer (Haley Williams). There are many long shots of the performances in the music video, I think this is done to show the band as a whole and to capture what's going on around them. There are a few establishing shots to set the scene of what appears to be an abandoned hospital.

Editing

There are a lot of jump cuts in this video, a lot of which go with the beat of the music. They also seem to go along with all the explosions, the band members playing guitar and the sparks coming off the lights.

Mis-en-scene

The band members wear a casual, punk styled clothing, which is redundant of the band as well of the genre of music. The way they are styled in smart clothes in the water can be seen as a entropic feature.

Foo Fighters-All My Life

Redundant Features

What is redundant of this video is the close ups of the bands and their instruments, what is more redundant of the band itself is that it is a performance based video and its shot to look like a live show.

Entropic Features

What we see at the start of the music video is a cinema styled introduction to the video and that there is no music at the start of the video, which I thought was an entropic feature. At the end of the video we see that the Foo Fighters are not performing to anyone which was unpredictable.

Shots

There was a lot of close ups of the band and the lead singer of the band which I have found to be   redundant as in a lot of the Foo Fighters videos there are close ups continuously of lead singer. Also there are a few long shots of the band as a whole, I think this is to capture the performance element and to get that feel of a live show. There is quite a lot of variation in angles and camera movement in this music video, looking at the band from low angles as well as high. Also at the end the camera zooms out and away from the band (reverse zoom).

Editing

From what I can see most if not all of the cuts are quick cuts, and each time there is a cut it goes from each of the different members of the band.

Mis-en-scene

A common and redundant trait of the Foo Fighters is incorporating their logo within their music videos, we see their logo at the end of the video. The drummer isn't wearing a top and there is this hot and sweaty atmosphere, which makes it seem more like a live gig. Near the end there is a use of red lights behind the band which have a really good affect and go with the beat of the music.