Media Evaluation By Dom Coleman

Media Evaluation by Dom Coleman

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

      The codes and conventions of our music video show that the genre we are basing our music video on is most likely pop due to the fact that our song is a very mainstream and recognised song. Though are music video is considered mainstream we still had to aim the music video to fit our specific target audience, we achieved this because of our use of the codes and conventions (mise en scene, editing and the use of shots). An example is our use of black and white on particular shots, this has appealed to our target audience because we felt that our target audience can relate to how our actor feels from the way we have created specific shots.

       The way in which we have managed to challenge the conventions of real media products is by using dolly when creating moving shots. From the original music video the camera remained static throughout, we have challenged this by creating moving shots in our music video to create effect and making it more interesting. Also by doing this we have managed to stick to the conventions of our music video seeing as our music video has stuck to ‘Goodwin’s theory’. We have stuck to Goodwin’s theory because the lyrics in our song are strongly related with the visual of the video, also the music is synchronised very well with the footage so that nothing looks out of time and the miming fits perfectly with song.

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

      I believe that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts is effective because of the way I have connected the two together through my created digipack and posters. I have to connect the digipack and posters to my music video otherwise it wouldn’t look affective and wouldn’t appeal to my audience as much. I have connected these two together by maintaining the same theme and mood within the digipack and posters. We have sustained the same mood since the mood board we had created earlier this year and we have stuck to this since. By doing this it shows audiences about our featured artist (Chanele) and how she has her own unique style that can be recognised by these audiences. If I had chosen not to combine my digipack and posters to the music video then our featured artist wouldn’t be unique or as recognisable to audiences.

       I created my own personalised ancillary text on a font website and then applied it my digipack and posters in Photoshop. This contributed to my main product as I have shown that I have stuck to the theme and the specific font I have used has contributed to making that happen. Photoshop was important to combine the two together because it is where I designed my posters and digipack so it therefore gave me the opportunity to continue with the consistency of the ancillary texts.

      

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

   

       This is the feedback which I received from putting my music video on Facebook.com. The response we have received from the music video was great and we could take a lot of things into account when making modifications to the music video. Receiving feedback is a very essential aspect for making improvements seeing as we are receiving opinions from different perspectives which allows us to make changes to help perfect the video. I also believe our music video has successfully reached out to our specific target audience (female teenagers) as they have given us positive feedback and they enjoyed the video.

       Overall from the feedback which I have received I have learnt how useful feedback really is and it has helped our group change parts of our music video which needed improvements. From viewing our music video before and after the changes it is clear that the feedback I have received is very great.

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

Construction and research

       For the construction and research we had to devise what song we were going to choose and then take into account how we would use the wide variety of media technologies in order to make our music video successful. We had to make consistent lesson journals on our blogs about our research which we had conducted to find our desired song for our music video. By doing this it shows that we have put the consideration, time and thought into choosing the right song. We also had to use YouTube to view different music videos from over ten years ago or songs without music videos to help us obtain a few ideas. YouTube was helpful as it hold thousands of videos which helped us create the idea for our own music video.

       Once we had done all of the research four our desired music video we then had to use the equipment to create the video. We used a flip camera and also on some shots we acquired a dolly which allowed us to create movement shots for our video. These pieces of equipment were the most necessary forms of media technology as they were what filmed our footage. We had to use our own work to decide the type and style of shots we were going to use then we had to acquire the camera to make them happen. Once we had recorded our desired footage we put the files onto the editing software we were going to use (Final cut Pro). Final cut pro allowed us to store our footage and once we were ready to start editing we then went onto the software and began to synchronise the footage to our song.

Planning

       For the planning stage we acquired media technologies such as YouTube because from there we could view videos to obtain ideas so that we can use them for our music video. We then wrote our potential plans on our blogs, this is important as then we could look back at our blogs and use our planning whilst creating our music video.

Evaluation

       For our evaluation we acquired feedback for our music video so that we can make improvements where necessary. In order to receive this feedback we posted our music video on to Facebook and YouTube. Posting the video on here allows people to comment their opinions; with this we can then edit our video to make it as good as it can possibly be. Throughout this process we continue to post our feedback onto our blogs so it shows that we have evaluated how we can improve our music video.

Poster 1 & 2

  

     These are the two posters which I made to promote my artist ‘Chanele’. These posters are effective in different ways due to the fact I’ve shown the audience what our artist looks like, included social marketing where the audience can find our artist on Facebook & Twitter and I have also clearly stated her name at the top centre of the two posters.

Digipack

       

       This is the digipack which I have created; this is simply the design for the potential digipack for my artist. I have created my digipack in this way as I have stuck to the theme of my artist and our music video and I have applied it to my digipack to show that I have maintained the same theme throughout the process of creating our music video.

Lesson journal 15

editing, used original song, used the changes planned in our discussion

Lesson journal 14

filmed in a restaurant, used variety of angles, props (wine)

Changes and improvements we will be making

changing editing narrative/structure

Feedback for the screening of our music video

Positive:

Negative:

Improvements:

Lesson journal 13

filmed round michael house, acquired storyboards and watched animatic on youtube, used specific shots, struggled with the focus on the phone, edited them together

Use of location

used typical *dating couple places, explain why we choswe these and how it is relevant to the narrative structure of our music video

Lesson journal 12

        This lesson we decided to film in the studio again,


crrected the lighting, used various angles but there we some shots we couldnt use
edited them in together and planned what other shots and locations we plan to use

How we plan to correct our faults

       Over the course of our filming we have experienced a few faults. Our main faults consist of the lighting issues in the studio and finding the shots to fit the animatic perfectly.

Lesson journal 11

        For this lesson we filmed in the schools music studio

lighting faults when we looked back at it, used good shots/angles

Faults with filming

        For our first time filming


snow, couldnt film there again etc lighting, struggled to get a restaurant

Lesson journal 10

        For this lesson we filmed properly for the first time.

brough storyboards with us and looked at animatic from my phone/youtube

'Practice filming' shots

Costumes that will be used when we film

        For the use of costumes in the film I will be deciding what both characters will wear, the boy and the girl. I will be giving a detailed insight to what the

Lesson journal 9

       In this lesson we decided to go out and take location shots for our music video. We acquired a camera and headed to the park which we will be filming in. We chose this park sheerly because it is a great place for us to film and it will be significant to our work. Once we arrived we discussed which areas would be most effective to film in and then we decided to take several pictures of the places which we believe we will be using. We also went into a restaurant and asked for permission for if we are allowed to film in there one day next week. Unfortunately we will have to wait for confirmation if we are allowed to film.
       Onc the screenshots were taken we went back into school and uploaded them onto the Mac's so that we could then upload them to our blogs. We then started to sketch the plans for our digipack as this is a piece of work which will be needed for our production. We sketched and discussed possible ideas that we could do.

Location Shots

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These are the images we took when we went out to take location shots. This is only one of our few locations, we chose to take images of this one as this will be the one which will be featured/used most in our recording. This location will be significant to our recording because the area is very spacious which can help raise the theme of lonliness and being distant from someone. Seeing as this will be the location which will be used we had to acquire many different shots to help us find the ones which will be best when we are filming.

Lesson journal 8

       In this lesson we knew we had to begin filming very soon as we had completed almost every task around filming. We began by discussing the roles each member of the group will do. We discussed between ourselves who is best at particular roles so that we can all obtain our own individul roles. This is a good idea whereas if we didn't do this it would be unorganised and two people could take the same role resulting in work being undone due to poor organiation. We then organised when and where we will be taking our location shots, this is important because we will have to require permission to record in certain places. To enable to film we have to e-mail different people/businesses asking if we are allowed permission to record in a certain spot. We have planne to take location shots by going to the location and taking pictures of the spots we plan to use. We then discussed the days we will be filming, we have orgnaised date with Google calender and added on there the days hen we will record. It will alert us on the days of our recording.

Lesson journal 7

       This lesson we created our presentation about the brief of our film and then presented infront of our class and it was also recorded. We begun by structuring our presentation so that we were clear on what we were going to say when presenting it in class. We created the presentation and we ensured to include all the important features such as the story behind the music or how we will use the mise-en-scene to connote this. Also we had to create an audience profile too. The audience profile is simply writing descriptively about the audience of people we believe will listen to our artist. 
       When we were making this presentation we had to consider that we couldn't be vague and write out a few plans we had. We had to be descriptive about what our plans are to our audience, we have to tell them what we are creating and how everything will link together such as clothing and lighting. When we had finished and completed the presentation we went to class and each group assessed eachothers work. Once our work was assessed by the teacher and the students everyone gave their psoitive/negative feedback and asked us questions. We then took every suggestion and reccomendation into account so that when we record the music video will be as good as possible.

Lesson journal 6

       Once we had completed the storyboard and we finalised everything I acquired a camera and took pictures of each image (there was approximately 65 pictures altogether). Once I took the pictures we uploaded them onto the Mac's and put them into Final Cut Pro so that we could edit them with the song. What we are creating is called our 'animatic', this is where we simply had to edit the pictures with the song which shows our plan for when we start shooting. We used the storyboard to help us with our editing, we made sure everything fitted together perfectly as we didn't want to have any mistakes in the animatic as would make the filming more confusing and difficult. To ensure this we listened song carefully to make sure our shots covered over the instrumentals of the song as well as the lyrics.  
        After finishing editing this in final cut we then had to present the animatic to our teacher so that we could receive a response about the positive and negative aspects of the animatic. After receiving the teachers response we have to ensure that we take what she has said into account so that we make the plan for our filing as good as it can possibly be.

Lesson journal 5

       For this lesson we began to design our storyboards. We decided to do a 'scrap storyboard' as we wanted our main storyboard to be as sharp and accurate as possible. For our scrap storyboard we created approximately 50 boxes of pictures and a brief sum of writing and describing beside it. Once we completed our scrap storyboard we all discussed and analysed the changes we were planning to make. We done this as we couldn't afford to make any mistakes so we thought it was best if we discussed before we went on to create the proper storyboard.
       When we created our main storyboard we ensure all our drawings were as good as possible and we made sure we were specific when describing each shot. We had to sync the shots in time with the song so we had to write down: the timing of each shot, type of shot, movement and any other notes included with it. Once we completed all slides we filled in the correct colour on each shot and then doubled checked to make sure everything was fine.