The Internet was a vital piece of technology that has helped us throughout the whole process of the development of our coursework for both the main and ancillary task. The first use of the internet was for the research in to music videos and then more deeply into the music genre our group was going to focus on. Global site YouTube has helped our group massively as we were able to load up specific videos that related to our genre and analyse them and take key conventions out of them. If we did not have access to a video site that shows music videos, then we would have had to have sat in front of a TV and analyse the videos that we were given, something that may not have even been beneficial to our genre of music. As well as this, the internet meant that our research in to our ancillary tasks was genre appropriate and that we carefully analysed the images that were on the screen. For example, from looking at adverts for Rihanna we realised that the artist is always in the forefront of the advert. We were also able to look at the house style between album artwork and magazine adverts, thus keeping our brand identity. Using the internet enhanced our
knowledge into the music industry, and if we did not have access to this, then our research stages would have been heavily delayed.
As well as researching just in to music videos themselves, we also were able to use the internet to aid us in how to construct one ourselves. Before the project was tasked to us, none of us knew how to operate Final Cut to a standard that was required, and the internet had many videos and forums that we were able to locate and heighten our knowledge. Without the internet in the research stages of our coursework, we would never have been able to identify how to professionally construct an appropriate media package that has a
consistency with the music video.
The internet was also used in the planning stages of our coursework. Before we set off and started to film anything, we had to plan where we were going to go and the use of google maps enabled us to easily identify where it was we were going to film.
Another key website that was fully taken advantage of was Blogger. The website allowed us to ‘blog’ our stages of our work in a neat and professional manner where we have access to other peers studying the same course, which is ideal for product feedback. This use of communication helped us to identify weaknesses and improve the quality of our video and ancillary tasks. The website allowed us to exhibit all of our work which is a fantastic way to place work as the media is becoming more and more dependent on the internet. If we did not have use to blogger, then we would have had to written the whole of the coursework by hand, which would have been time consuming and messy.
Other internet sites such as prezi and viemo were used. Prezie, which was useful in our planning stages was effectively used as it displays a presentation style piece of work in an aesthetic way, and vimeo was used to upload our final cut and showcase our video as it was of a higher quality than uploading it to YouTube or as an mp4 format. Without the internet and the sites that are available we would not have been able to produce such a media rich portfolio throughout all of the stages of the coursework.
When creating our media product audience feedback was crucial, especially recieving feedback from people that are in our target audience. This was helpful, it helped us to gage as to how well we were catering for our audience. We were then able to make some minor amendments to our work based on the feedback we recieved.
Teacher
Here is a replication of the conversations me and my teacher had. She was harsh but fair in her critic overall it was her feedback opened our eyes as to how much work we needed to do.
Before we could start our video we had to run our song choice and idea through our teacher. If we were able to choose the first song that came into our heads our video may not have been as good as it is. We also would have dived in and used the first design for our adverts and digipak rather than thoroughly researching the key conventions and working out which of these we would follow and which to challenge. Looking at our original ideas we would not have been happy if they were our final products, without teacher feeback we probably would have stuck with these ideas because they were done quickly.
After editing our rough cut we and the rest of our media class had a feedback session in which we all sat down infront of the big screen and watched eacher others rough cuts. This was good as we were able to get feeback from our peers, who fitted into our target audience. Also our class mates have been through what we have been through so they were able to give useful and quality feedback and specific ways we could improve our videos. Our teacher was also in attendance and was able to add further to our feedback which was helpful. After this feedback we were able to make a plan of action which helped us improve the quality of our work. The feedback session was also useful for us as we were able to sit back and look at what we had done, when editing on final cut we did not have time to evaluate the work we were doing properly. We were also able to look at what other people had done in their videos and pick out some good ideas.
When our final cuts were almost nearing completion we had another feedback session which was again organised by out teacher. This time the two media groups joined to provide feedback on each others work. This was useful for use as we gained additional feedback from people who had not seen our rough cut, we were also able to see and compare the feedback given by for the rough cut and the final cut. It was also interesting to see if people thought our work had improved.
After finishing the video and ancillary tasks I wanted to get some feedback to see what members of our target audience thought of the products that we have designed. This would give us some idea of how well we have fulfilled the brief we were given. I decided to use the website survey monkey construct a quick survey for people to do which would give me some valuable feedback. I added 6 questions that I wanted people to answer, I then posted both the ancillary tasks as a seperate link and the video, I asked people to view the products and then fill in my survery, via twitter and facebook.
These results are very valuable they show that for most of the areas we have fulfilled our brief, 100% of people said that the ancillary work looked professional, this was very rewarding for myself as this was our main aim at the start of the year. 60% of people said they would buy the album if they saw the advert. This is another good result as the advert is used to promote the album and generate interest in the artist. These results suggest our audience believe the two compliment each other well. It also means that the advert promotes the album and the artist.I was slightly dissapointed with one answer, which was a 6/10 for how eye catching are the products. I feel that the products do engage with the audience with the use of bright colours, however for someone of our audience to give this mark is slightly dissapointing. One more piece of feedback
Here I have used Wallwasher, to give the oppurtunity for my collegues at work to give me feedback on my products. Because I have recieved alot of feedback from similar people at school I wanted to broaden this feedback to people at my work, who are at different ages to people at school and also have different interests.
After recieving this various feeback especially for our rough cut we came up with a plan of action.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The relationship between our main task, which is our music video and our ancillary tasks, the digipak and magazine advert is crucial. We needed to ensure this relationship was very strong in order to create a strong and effective media product for our target audiences fulfillment. We needed to create a strong brand identity to ensure audiences across the world and develop a global brand. People will then recognize our products and buy them.
We feel that throughout our video we have made intertextual links in our three tasks, by using locations on our digipaks that have been used in our video. The shot on the back panel of our digipak is used in our video. Also our main character Glenn is on the front of our digipak, our magazine and is in the video, it is pivatol that Glenn is present in all three media platforms. By keeping the same artist its an effective way to keep a house style and make it easier for our audience to associate and put the three together.
Research
When creating our media product we decided as a group to choose a genre of music that we enjoyed and had knowledge about. This improved the quality of our ideas as we were more familiar with what is seen in an Alternative Rock music video. Alternative Rock is a very popular genre and includes bands like Coldplay,Oasis,Kasabian and Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds. The popularity of this genre means that their is a large target audience around the age of 18-21. Our audience is of a similar age to use, this helps us because we know what people their age look for in a music video and in a digipak. Once we found the age of our audience we had to look at what were their needs and how would we fulfill them. To do this we used UK Tribes website, this helped us because we could attempt to relate to them when creating our media brand. Before we started making our video we need to explore ways of appealing to our audience in our video, how can we engage with them. We found that the best way to do so was the use close ups of Glenn and make sure he kept eye contact with the camera throughout the majority of the video.
Narrative
Image, Colour and Fonts
We needed to establish how we were going to make our audience buy our digipak something that drew them to it rather than buying a different album. When researching Noel Gallaghers album we noticed that they effectivley used a gradient. We realised that this would help our product stand out on the shelf and capture the audiences eye when shopping. We could also use this gradient to create a house style and create a brand identity that become notorious with our target audience. We wanted to make a digipak that used bold colours, many albums are uninspiring and lack colour we felt that our album colours would encourage people to buy. If a potential buyer sees the advert with the colour scheme of green and orange they will relate this to our digipak when they are shopping they will see the gradient used on the CD and link the two together. We also used the colour to highlight things we wanted our audience to see, for example the ratings. We decided to put the ratings in the orange colour because we felt it woul jump out to the audience which may encourage them to buy the digipak. The large quote under the title is in white with a black stroke, we also want people to see this as it may enocurage them to buy the digipak. However we felt using the white colour would improve visability, if we had put it in orange again it may have blended into the background and not stood out. We have used a text box so that we can display information in the house style colours. We could not do this on the normal background because of the colour. We changed the opacity so the box did not dominate the advert and take away from the picture and other information, but you can still see the information.
The use of fonts also helps our audience link the different platforms together. This is mainly done by the use of the title font on our digipak. We have used the same font style in order to create a strong house style, however we have adapted this slightly. This is done by the background that is put on our title in our magazine advert, however it is in the same font, bitume, and the background colours are relevant to our house style which means our audience can relate between the two. We felt that using the same title would make the advert look plain and not catch the eye of the general customer. We wanted to alternate and mix it up with the design but we feel that we were able to do this without comprimising our house style. We did this because we felt people tend to just gaze at an advert, if they see a plain white title they generally do not look back. We needed to inspire this second look so we added a bit of colour to the title so that it would catch peoples attention. We also wanted a font that would catch the eye of our audience, we did change our font because we felt it was too plain and did not stand out. We have used similar fonts throughout our digipak, all the titles are in the same colour even on the CD disc, also the font of our record label is consistent. We did introduce a different font on our magazine advert, this because we needed visability so that our audience could read and be informed. We did not believe that any of the fonts we had used were suitable so we used a plainer font that we felt still fitted with our house style.
The image used on our front cover of the digipak is a location that is used in the video, which again strengthens the link between the two. Our audience may be watching the video on MTV Rocks or You tube and see the location, they will be able to link certain scenes to the front cover of our digipak. Also the fact that we have an image of our artist on the front cover helps develop this already strong link and keeps the mise en scene consistent by keeping what Glenn was wearing the same as his attire in the video. We have used the same picture on the digipak as we have on the magazine advert. However we have used it in a different way, the magazine image in stretched so that their is room for the additional information that is not needed on a digipak. We felt using the same picture would help our audience link the two together. Also the other images used on our digipak are linked to our video, the inside panel shows a guitar that is used throughout, this is also a key instrument used in alternative rock, it is something that our target audience would expect to see in our video and digipak. The back cover is also a shot taken directly from our video. The images have all been mainpulated in the same way by having a gradient placed over them.
What would you improve?
With hindsight I would have done many things differentley especially in the construction of the music video, but I would have changed elements of the digipak and magazine advert.
Music Video
We as a group should have done alot more planning for filming our video, we should have started filming alot early than we did. This would have allowed us more time to practice getting used to using the camera which would have improved the quality of our video. Some of our camera work was shaky at first which meant that we had to spend alot of time editing around our problems. We also had some problems with commitment of our character, we should have sorted this early than we did rather than letting ourself get behind. Also scheduling was an issue, we all had other commitments and were not always able to attend which means things may have been done differently. We should have filmed more in half term when we had more free time without work commitments. We felt that travelling meant we did not always have alot of time in London. Although we felt the video being filmed in London made it look more realistic it was very ambitous considering our time constraints. The time constraints meant that we had to film fairly late because we wanted to utilise the time we did have. This meant some of our footage was too dark to use, if we had started earlier the evenings were longer in terms of light and we could have utilised this. Looking at some other work by other groups looking at it know it would have been easier for us to do a performance based video. We could have chosen an authentic location that was local and easy for us to get to. We would have been able to film more often and groom our camera skills to make a better video. With hindsight we could have made a mock video just to test and improve our filming, as a group none of use have used a proper camera in this scenario. We found keeping a steady hand was important when back at school on finl cut these shakes really show up. The song we chose had limited lyrics and had a lot of empty spaces to fill, it was easy for us to find links between the lyrics and come up with good visual ideas but when there is no tempo or real beat to the music it is hard to think creativley. We then spent to much time thinking of ideas and storyboarding which meant we had less time to film. Some of our original ideas were unrealistic and were impossible to film, if we'd had expirmented more we would have discovered this earlier and been able to brain storm new ideas, rather than improvising in London. Personally I believe we should have filmed more close ups of the instrument Glenn was playing as this is a key part of our genre of music. I feel we did not utilise this often enough. Also during the madness of making a music video we went away from some of our original ideas that we had earlier in the year. One idea was to have Glenn busking, we did not use this particular idea except for money being dropped into the guitar case. We also wanted to show more aspects of life in London, again when in London it was very hard with the time constraints to find and film enough footage like this. We did not want to spend hours walking around looking for people to film and get back to school with nothing to edit, if we had of started filming earlier this may have been possible.
Digipak
Personally I am really pleased with our digipak and I believe we have fulfilled our brief. We have made a professional digipak and created a strong house style throughout, whilst creating a brand identity for our magazine advert. I felt that we should have changed the font and we made this change I believe that that made it more eye catching. Possible it could be argued that Glenn should be looking at the camera to encourage the audience to buy the product but I feel this picture is just as effective.
