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

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

Throughout the process of creating my texts along with planning and research and even evaluating the project used a huge variety of technology. I will go through each stage separately, from the start of planning and research through to the evaluation, I will identify each technology that I used and explain what I have used them for.

Planning and Research
My planning and research section was extensive and I wanted to thoroughly research each element of a music video for example genre, audience, conventions etc. This was to ensure that my final product would be conventional and would look professional, presenting this research was very important. From the get go I have been using Blogger to present my entire portfolio throughout this process I have learnt many things about Blogger at the start all I used Blogger for was to post simple text however now I am aware how to use Blogger to its full potential and present my work in a nice manner and the making it look consistent and professional. Throughout I have also used USB sticks and cloud storage to store my work, I believe that cloud storage was very important throughout my progress, I used it more often than a USB stick as it was more reliable as it was impossible to loose or forget the work on the day that I need it.  The use of college computers and my own home computer was used to do the large amount of work on, the access to simple software such as Word and PowePoint assisted me in my planning and research.

When looking at conventions of music videos I wanted to display them on my blog and I used the YouTube embed function so they would be displayed efficiently onto my blog, this is very useful as it saved time and blog loading time, if the embed function was not available I would have to use a software such as ClipConverter and download the videos then upload them onto my blog.  I presented my finding about conventions of music videos and my analysis using a few presentation methods for example Prezi, Prezi in my opinion is the best way to present work for my media blog, this is due to its appealing style and ease of use, you can present simple text in a colorful and active environment making it look more appealing then a simple powerpoint. Saying this I still did use powerpoint for things such as theory research, this was due to needed large amounts of information in a basic form, I would use slideshare to present this, this allowed me to embed my powerpoints onto my blog in the same way that YouTube does.

The most of my research was done using Google search, I used this to search for my ancillary text examples as well as music video examples, however if I wanted to find something more academic I used  https://scholar.google.co.uk/ as this filters anything that is not used as an educational source therefore getting me relevant and reliable information fast. This was specifically helpful when looking into theories.


As well as researching existing products I had to plan my own and I used a variety of technology I used Vimeo and YouTube to look at videos to gain inspiration for my own work, I often presented this in Prezi. As well as looking at videos I also looked at sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr, In this I could search specific tags that relate to my music videos and therefore make a moodboard in Photoshop this Photoshop skills I obtained when working on my AS Media work. For my ancillary texts I had to decide on a style and a main aspect of this is the font. I used DaFont to research what fonts I wanted to use and I compared them as part of my planning process this helped me set my style of my magazine advert and my digipak. When looking at colour I used Adobe Colour, this allowed me to select a specific colour and it would pick colours that are similar or suit the colour I have picked therefore making choosing a colour scheme very easy.  

Audience research was a huge aspect of my planning and research as mentioned in my previous evaluation question. I used a method of research that can be distributed easily over social media and through emails.  I used sites like Smart Survey and Surveymonkey to create questionnaires examples of my surveys can be seen on my blog.

Construction of my Products 
I used media technologies throughout the construction of my media products, for my music video I used 2 simple pieces of equipment a Canon 1000D camera and a simple tripod, I stored all my footage on a 8GB SD card and the transfered all my footage into a folder on my home computer to ensure that it was all stored in one place. When filming I didn't use any extra lighting as I wanted it to be natural, along with this it would be heavy and expensive to transport good lighting to my shooting locations.
For editing I used Sony Vegas Pro 13 and Adobe After Effects, the two software I used allows me to experiment and do different things with my footage, within Vegas I simple added my footage together in order and edited with fades and cuts, along with this I edited the clips to the beat to make my video conventional, within Vegas I also added colour contrast as you can see within a previous post. Within Adobe AE I made my star effect and my moon effects these was made through research that I did on the Internet to enable me to achieve this look.
For the construction of my ancillary texts I used Photoshop and the templates that was provided on the student resources, to take the photos for my ancillary texts I used the same Canon camera as I did for filming.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout my the process of creating my text audience feedback initially guided me into creating the product and after that I used audience feedback and research to improve upon my texts. I have used many methods of audience feedback this includes surveys and questionnaires. Below I will explain how I used this audience feedback and how I responded to it as well as how I gathered this information.

Planning and Research

During my planning and research I used surveys to discover what my target audience wanted to see within a music video, with this information I could ensure that my product was professional and appealed to my target audience. This research was crucial to my planning and research as it allowed me to progress with my research into the areas pointed out within the survey. For example a simple question such as what is your age, allowed me to identify that my target audience for my product would be around 16-25 therefore I could research into my audience and discover further information. This was very helpful as I then identify that the indie genre was very popular within this age range and therefore researched the genre itself. Another question that I asked was based on the elements within a music video such as narrative, abstract, or performance. Many of the responses stated that they like a combination and many stated that they like abstract within a music video. This survey ensured that I could go ahead with creating an abstract without loosing major interest from my target audience, despite the votes not being unanimous I felt like it would still be a good idea, this is because I took inconsideration the sample size of the survey, within the real world the survey was a very small sample size therefore I felt comfortable with going and making an abstract music video. Through some simple question to my class friends I discovered that I wanted to do a black and white video however I wanted it to be a darker black and white therefore I asked them if they liked the style, from this I discovered that the style would fit well and it would look different without taking away from the professional feel.

Ancillary Texts 
When creating my ancillary texts I sent around my finished products, I also tweeted on my blog link and asked for feedback on my texts. This ensured that my research would reach a wide audience with a variety of age ranges and genre preferences.

The responses I got allowed me to improve upon my existing product as well as keep things the same that I may have changed. Personally feedback on a product you have recently finished is more useful then just pointing out improvement but also to stop you from changing things that may look conventional or good. As when you are creating a product you often look at things from a very critical perspective and this can often be bad because you waste your time altering things that never needed to be altered, for example from my feedback I discovered that the font used did look good however I personally didn't like it and thought I should change it.

I did receive some constructive criticism with my products for example with the feedback I received for my music magazine, for example I created two posters for my magazine advert as you can see below.


Through user feedback I discovered that the original font that I used did not fit within the genre as well as my second choice therefore I changed it, I also moved around the spacing of the text to make the poster look fuller instead of bland and blank. I think this fits with the genre better and looks more professional. I also added more cohesiveness between all of my product by making the background image alot darker therefore linking it to my music video. One thing that I kept the same throughout my drafts was my website link and purchase options as they looked professional and are conventional to magazine adverts.

Another feedback stated “I like the style of the poster, however I think that the name of the band at the top of the page looks bland” I took this constructive criticism and work upon it as I agreed with the comment, personally I didn’t want to break the colour continuity that I have been following throughout the texts therefore I opted for a style choice, I played around with a few things until I set on using a strikeout, I felt the drew attention to the text however it didn’t make the text hard to read and still followed my colour scheme. To achieve this look I simply edited my text within Photoshop and used the pre-set strikeout option as you can see below. 


Overall I found that audience feedback was very important in the development of my texts. It helped me make the first decision to create the video that I wanted to, it also showed me conventions and what my target audience is. Along with the simple things it also helped improve my texts to make it more conventional and appealing to my target audience. It allowed me to safely break conventions without making my product look un-professional.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout the process of creating my products and the development of the music video and promotional package I have tried to make my work as professional as possible. I decided early on that I wanted to follow conventions as this would help with making my work professional however the genre that I picked also has the convention of breaking traditional conventions this means to follow conventions I had to break them where possible. Within the post I will discuss how my music video, digipak and magazine advert use, or break conventions within the genre and within the medium.

My music video has followed conventions of other videos within the genre, however broke simple conventions of the form itself. This was because I wanted to break conventions as it itself is conventional within the genre. During my planning and research I drew most of my inspiration from music videos within the genre however I did draw some inspiration from other media forms outside of music videos, such as photos and films. Looking at films for inspiration was good because they are both moving image however looking at photos was different as they are not moving image however I ending up incorporating many of my inspiration from images into my music video. One of my main inspirations in terms of imagery was Eleanor Lonardo the visual style of her images inspired me a lot. I used many styles that she uses within her images in my final video, for example the use of dark black and white on close ups is a method that she uses often in her images of nature, this style also transferred over into my digipak and into my promotional poster. The black and white style is also one that is conventional of many indie music videos. It is also used very often within advertising which fits into poster advert and digipak. My main inspiration for some of my shots is this image.

As you can see I took a lot of inspiration from this images, I even adopted the style of black and white with the really deep blacks and the whites being more grey than standard black and white. The framing of the image I even adopted into my own style too, I used uncomfortable close ups of nature this makes the audience see nature in a different light. This way of black and white is also non conventional specifically for nature as you often see nature in full bright colour, often in more vibrant light than real life however within my video it is shown in a rather dark lighting meaning that you see nature in a non conventional way. This is an example of how I broke conventions, this may not be the biggest break in conventions however it is something that isn’t seen often and might be strange for people who often look at this genre, however I think that because of the genre it is based in it does fit rather well as you often see non convectional framing and styles within music videos of the indie genre.

My music video can be analysed by many theories, as a part of looking if my video challenges or follows conventions I will be applying different theories to it, this is so I can deconstruct the video it terms of genre, and narrative theory. This will display if I have followed or challenged conventions.

Narrative:

My videos has no obvious linear narrative like the Equilibrium model by Todorov suggest as it doesn't have a beginning, disruption or a resolution however it can be viewed in a subjective manor. This is a way in which I deliberately broke conventions, I didn’t want to tell a set story line within my music video but leave the meaning of the video up to interpretation. The video does show signs of narrative in the form of leaving the house and getting ready however this doesn't suggest a beginning or an end, or even a challenge within the characters life. The view is all subjective and I left it up to the audience to decide the motives of the person, this idea of subjective view is rather post-modern as ht music video is just images that’s all I set out for it to be nothing more nothing less however the audience can make up their own narrative based upon this however that narrative will not be true nor false but just one of many views. This links to Andrew Goodwin (1992) as he suggested that modern audiences create their own meaning, this meaning is based upon their understanding of society, this means that the video will get many opinions based on the person experiences with society and key images within the video. This is unconventional in terms of a music video however within the indie genre it is not unusual, indie music videos often adopt this style and disregard structure when it comes to narrative just to break conventions or display some more abstract then and objective view. The reason why I wanted to break the convention of narrative or challenge it is because within music videos the narrative structure is very set, as mentioned earlier most videos have a progression of beginning, problem and equilibrium. However songs within my genre reject this such as Alt-J, many of there videos reject this idea of narrative, for example the video for 'Breezeblocks' has reverse chronology this twists the story of the video, and many views have put in their input of what the narrative is about within the comments of the video of streaming sites such as YouTube. Sven Carlsson (1999) categorised music videos into three sections: narrative, performance and abstract. Many music videos feature performance and narrative with many few focusing solely on abstract. However my music video is heavily abstract focused based on the fact that I challenged the conventions of the form, however I do think that the video has a narrative that is subjective and not clear therefore making the audience active in terms of them creating their own response over the video telling them how to respond, I think this in itself is conventional to the genre. The indie genre and its music videos have active audiences that create subjective views upon images within the music video, this was displayed from audience and genre research and often you see views and opinions more often within comment sections of indie music videos. I felt that my choice to choose abstract suited the genre well and it allowed me to experiment more with the way the video looked without being constrained by the narrative of the video.
The last theorist that applies to my video is Michael Shore (1984), Shore said that music videos are 'audio visual poetry' he also talked about borrowing styles and surface without substance these points are also relevant to my music video. I wanted the visual look of the video to be more important than the meaning of the video This is very conventional within the indie genre as they often focus on the visual style over the narrative.

Genre:

The genre my chosen song is placed in has a lot of debate over what can be classed as indie and what does indie feature, therefore it is not as easy to say what is conventional of the indie genre because it is so wide range in compassion to a set in stone genre such as pop or rock. However some genre theory can be applied to my music video.

One of the theorist that applies to my music video is Rick Altman (1999) who states that genres allow audiences to experience a combination of pleasures – emotional, visceral and intellectual. Many music videos focus on emotional pleasure and so does my music video, I tried to encourage an emotional response to my video by showing images of house hold sights and nature this is very relatable for the audience, however at times I distorted the way people look at simple images through the use of black and white and close ups that are not often displayed. This itself is not conventional in music videos however what response it creates it.

Digipak

Front Cover
The conventions I identified when doing my research are:

1. Band Name
2. Album Names
3. Images of the artist
4. On main image
5. Simple colours that are shown through out the pack
6. One to 2 fonts used
7. clear and east to read font

Front covers of albums are often used to show and images that is relevant to the album or is and expression of the style of the artist, therefore they are only a few conventions that are set and often the only difference is the main images used. On the front cover I chose to be as conventional as possible while still linking my album artwork to the music video itself, I put both the album and band name on the front cover, I did this because I thought this was the most important part of the album front cover. This is because people need to know what they are buying, these things should not be difficult to find on the front cover and should instantly be clear when looking at the album. Despite trying to follow as many conventions as possible such as having a simple colour scheme with the blacks and white this links to the style of my music video therefore making a professional continuity. The only convention I broke with the front cover was choosing not to feature my artist on the cover. This has become more popular with recent indie albums and is starting to challenge the conventions of add the artist. The indie genre often chooses not to include the artist as it is more abstract focused and therefore fits with the music videos better than an image of the artist. I personally do not think this makes my product any less professional this is because many indie bands use an abstract image for there album front covers making it become the norm for that genre.

During the process of creating my front cover I was inspired by many existing albums. One of the main influences for my album front cover was the very simplistic XX album X. I personally like this album as it is very simplistic and displays the name of the album and it is instantly known by the audience who the album is by. I adopted this simplistic look ingot my own work however I didn’t go the extreme that XX did as that was one simple image, however within my album I added a single simple image with the artist and album name, therefore the album cover is nice and simple and can be instantly known by the audience. Originally when creating my product I was going to inspiration from the font used also as they used a font very similar to Bebas Neur, this is a font that it very block based and can be seen from far, however I soon decided that I wanted to use a thinner font that makes the product look more individual.

Back Cover

Again I will identify the convention I found when doing research on existing products:

1. Tracklist
2. Position of the track list being centre
3. Album and Band name
4. Main image linked with the front cover image
5. Barcode
6. Copyright information
7. Record Label
8. Website of social media links

With my back cover there was a lot of conventions that needed to be followed as many of them are essential to making the product look like an album itself for example track list. I chose not to directly challenge the conventions of a back cover however I did change some ways in which these conventions are presented. This is because I wanted my digipak overall to look professional and I think if I challenged conventions heavily in this aspect it would have made my digipak look unprofessional. I did the traditional track list and centred the tracks in the middle of the back. When doing my research I found that it is often 50/50 if the tracklist features numbers next to the song, however I personally think it is useful and add an element of professionalism therefore I chose to add numbers onto my tracklist. Social media links and websites are now becoming more and more popular on the back of albums therefore I made the decision to add one, with Web 2.0 audience now like to interact with artists in a way they couldn't before therefore websites and social media are the easiest ways of doing that and often artists use them to interact with fans and promote albums making it very important to advertise on an album. I also followed some very simple conventions such as barcode and copyright information, you cannot break conventions with these as they are both needed for the product to function as an album and for it to look professional. From a design preservative I wanted to make my back cover look and have the same style as my front therefore I decided to reverse the design on the front, I believe this follows conventions as my product has continuity from front cover to back cover.

Spine

Identifying the conventions for a spine was very simple as not many are present however the ones that I did identify are very important as its how much shops stack there albums with the spine facing out. These conventions are:

• Album and band name
• Background that is consistent with the front and back
• Serial Code
• Record label

With the spine I wanted to be as conventional as possible because of what I mentioned earlier, this is often how CD's are advertised within shops, stacked spine facing outwards toward the consumer. With the spine being a rather small section you do not have much room for experiment. I included the simple conventions such as album and band name, with this I used the same font as featured on front cover and back cover to follow simple conventions of continuity through the album. I added a serial number at the far end of the spine to follow conventions. However I did not decide to add a record label to my spine, this was based on the aesthetic of my spine with me using a very thin font throughout adding a rather bold image would have distracted the customer from the name of the band and the album name therefore they are not directly engaging with the product as soon as they see it. The positioning and size of the elements features on the spine is another thing that I kept conventional, I put the band name in a larger font as the customer often recognises the band name before the album name specifically if it is a new release. The the album name directly after, this means that you can notice the band and then the album, making it easy for the customer to spot on the self within a store.

Overall I feel like my digipak has followed most conventions that I have discovered through my research of existing media products. The only time I challenged conventions throughout my digipak was when I made the creative choice to not feature the artist on the front cover of my album. I felt this was appropriate because of the genre that my music video is placed within, the indie genre often challenges conventions therefore making this not unusual for the genre, but as a whole it may be classed as challenging conventions within other genres. Overall I feel like I have produced a professional looking product that is conventional within my genre and conventional of a digipak that you would see within a shop environment.

Magazine Advert

As with the digipak I wanted to be conventional as possible with my magazine advert, I also wanted to create a product that was professional and look like it could be printed within a magazine or on a billboard.

I followed some very simple conventions when creating my magazine advert for example continuity between my entire promotional package through the use of the same font and similar images and styles. The artists name is at the top of the poster in the largest font size and is very easy to see from a far. The album name is clear to see and follow the same colour and font scheme as my entire promotional package. I added an 'Out Now' tagline to my advert this will encourage people to buy it and check for its availability on the website or stores I have advertised on the advert. I also decided to list a few singles that are featured on the album, this includes the song the music video is for therefore making the poster consistent with the rest of my promotional package. The next convention I followed with my magazine advert was featuring a rating on the poster itself, I used an existing magazine Q that is know for rating albums and is often trust, I also added a quote to my star rating, this is often done in film posters and is starting to be seen in magazine adverts for albums. At the bottom of the poster I placed the logos of distributors, I used the most common ones which is iTunes and Google Play, I used these digital distribution outlets instead of stores such as HMV because of my target audience, my target audience will be young therefore they are more likely to purchase the album straight from there phone in a digital formate instead of getting a physical copy, I know this because of my audience research that I did many people preferred to download the album over having a 'real' copy of it just to save time and for it to be instantly available.

With my magazine advert I have decided to follow conventions very closely as I thought that challenging them wasn't needed and may have made my product look unprofessional. I think that overall my magazine advert is conventional in comparison with existing products, I used the adverts that I analysed in my “ANCILLARY TEXT: Poster Advert – Conventions” to see if my product was conventional. Just like in the magazine adverts I have used all the same conventions, therefore making it look professional.

Conclusion

Overall I think that I have produced a set of cohesive and conventional media texts that are conventional based on existing media products. However I have chosen to challenege conventions at points but only when I felt it was needed for my creative style or if I have seen the convention been broken before in existing products. I do not think this takes away from the professionalism of the work.  

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

When creating my three texts I wanted to create a consistent products so they all looked similar next to each other. I did this because the three products are intended to be part of a promotional package for the album and therefore they should all work together. The main thing that draw my three texts together is the use of colour throughout, this along with the fonts I used in my magazine advert and my digipak, however this can not apply to my music video. From the start I wanted to create a very gloomy image with my products and thus I used black and white throughout. As you can see from the screenshots below I have used a very deep black and white with high key lighting too create this look. Through my magazine advert and album cover you can see the use of this alongside my video, you can also the use of fonts that are consistent with one another.

They are some differences with the music video in compression to my ancillary texts as in terms of aesthetic I uses extreme close ups within my music video that is not consistent with my texts as they have a wide angle sky shot that is distorted however the effect on image is still the same because you see simple images from a different angle due to the distortion of the images and the angles the shots are at, therefore making them consistent in terms of creative representation of the images. The font is used throughout my magazine advert and is cohesive. As you can see above distorted black and white images are show within my music video and within my magazine and digipak.

 

In conclusion I think that I have created three texts that form a professional looking promotional package and will be effective at doing that. I think I could have made some links between the texts more obvious I think it is overall clear that my texts promote the same products, and these small difference do not make the texts less effective at promoting the products. I think that they will al work well within a real life environment as explained.

Music Video

ANCILLARY TEXT: Digipak Elements

ANCILLARY TEXT: Album Back - Conventions