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

This year we decided to use some new media technologies that we were unable to use last year, due to lack of experience and time, in all three areas of the production process.

As we knew we were going to have to do a lot more research into the conventions of music videos than we did last year due to the fact that there is more variety and stricter conventions to follow we had to utilise websites such as YouTube. We looked at exsisting music videos by famous Indie bands in order for us to get a good idea of what sort of tone and atmosphere we wanted to set for the audience/genre. For example we got a huge amount of inspiration for the narrative section of our video from the famous Smiths song Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before. Another thing that we got out of watching these music videos which we were not expecting to see what the equality within the band. Lots of these music videos tended to give the main singer a lot of the status throughout it; making them always be close up to the camera or on a higher level to the rest of the band. This was a really interesting aspect of the indie genre and its characteristics and was something that we took advantage of by having our whole narrative based around the singer.

When it came to shooting the footage we chose to use the DSLR camera with a 50mm lens which came in really handy when we wanted to get our close ups of Harry. The use of this new media technology meant that it was easier for us to import our work onto the macs as we didn't have to mess around with tapes like we did last year. It also saved time and gave better quality images meaning that our work as a whole looked more professional and effective.

Similar to last year we used the editing software Final Cut Pro but this year we really tried to develop the skills we had already acquired instead of just doing the same as before. We had to utilise the 'markers' more than we ever did last year and had to make sure we were able to efficently use the whole programme. As well as Final Cut we did create some new skills in an apple programme called Color. This was something that we had never used before but we were eager to try so it was quite a risk on our part as if it had gone wrong our music video could have been a disaster! We knew colour grading would make a huge impact on our music video but the software can look very daunting for new users so we went onto YouTube to watch tutorial videos and got a lot of information from Google in order that we could have the best knowledge on it. Our original performance and narrative shots were very different in colour due to the fact one was filmed in an artifically lit recording studio and the other outside. Color was a huge benefit to us here as it meant that we were able to make our outside shots more red in tone to give off a warmer feel so that they not only matched the indoor shots but followed the conventions of the genre.

For our evaluation one of the greatest technologies we used was social media, in particular Facebook and Twitter. This was helpful to us as it meant we could get opinions on our video not just from our friends and families ,who could be biased, but from anyone in the world that wants to comment. This gave us a huge advantage as we were clearly able to see what people thought of our video and we could make changes and adjustments, if we were to make another one, based on this feedback.

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

I am on the right hand side and on the left is my partner Georgia Clark, 3234!

Evaluation : How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

This is purely a voice clip and should have no images with it. I am the first person to speak with the other person in the clip being Georgia Clark, 3234

Evaluation: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We conducted our audience feedback in many different ways; from surveys to asking our peers to comment on certain things in a sort of 'premiere' style but from all of our feedback came a few of the same issues that i will be discussing in this post.

Lots of people commented on the pace of the music video as we tried to make it quite a bit quicker than the song itself. This was due to the fact that we tried to stick to many of the conventions of music videos in which this means that there are a fair amount of quick, choppy cuts throughout. All our audiences thought this was a good idea as it kept them interested and not bored as the images were constantly changing meaning they were free to enjoy to the music and the accompanying video. They also commented on the ratio of performance to narrative as being good as, like most indie bands, the main focus is on the music and so this is why we opted for a performance based music video so we could really emphasise each instrument and voice. By using a recording studio it gave the music video the much needed intimacy that indie music videos tend to have.

However one thing that someone did mention on the survey was the lack of close-ups and 'intimate moments' with the band, especially Harry in the cycling scenes. This is definitely something that I would change if i was going to remake my music video as I did feel in some of these shots you feel slightly disconnected with the main singer/actor. This gave a feel that we were not able to relate to the character on the screen as it created distance between us, meaning that the audience could not enjoy the video quite as much. 

Another comment we got in our feedback was the fact that the video was 'very repetitive and needed more going on'. If i was to make this video again in the future I would definitely try to come up with more of a storyline behind the narrative section of our video so that it gave the audience something easier to relate to. If we had gone for something with universal themes we could have potentially widened our target audience so that more people would be able to relate and want to watch it. 

Overall from getting audience feedback it meant that we were able to develop and adjust some of our ideas for next time if we decide to make another music video. We were able to see a wide range of peoples views on our video as we asked people of all ages and genders which helped us to see if it had hit our target audience correctly.  

Creating the Poster

Then came the task of creating a poster for our new album and we decided that we wanted to have the same picture of the bottles on the front of our poster aswell. During our research for this we found that most bands tend to do this to keep consistent for their audience and so it is easily recognisable for the people buying our album. We also knew that we wanted to include something along the lines of 'including their hit singles...' and about their tour dates so that we could also promote them also. Below is the poster that we created:

Finishing Editing

Today we finished editing our album artwork and below are the pictures of each side of the album!

We decided not to have the album name on the front cover as we felt it didn't really need it and the person buying the album should look at the artist name more as they are a new band trying to get remembered.

For the back of our album we thought it was essential to follow the conventions for an album back (as shown in a previous post) and we thought that the font really summed up what YCRK were all about. Georgia found the font during this week and I have to agree that I like the mix it creates between the old and the new. 

We decided that a nice personal touch would be to put a short message from the band behind the CD. All the words that you can see opposite are actually what they said as we took them from their fb page and a post they made at the end of last year.

This is the inside left side of our album and I think it works really well in keeping with the themes of our album. We decided to use one of the bottles, in particular the orange one, as we wanted to keep this idea of consistentcy going throughout the album. We also knew we had to put things such as copyright and all the production information  that are essential conventions for an album.

Start to edit on photoshop

Today we started to edit our pictures using photoshop and found that we were able to create some great effects with some of the pictures. The outside shot looked especially effective as we had used all natural light so everything was slightly brighter and this meant that the quality of the bottles was greater. We then decided that we wanted to put the information about the band (production company, copyright etc) where the labels for the alcohol would be on the bottles and, with the help of YouTube, we were able to do this which created a clever and interesting look for the back cover.