G324: Evaluation Q4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To create our music video and ancillary tasks we had to use quite a lot of technology, in all the different stages of our production e.g. pre production, production and post production.

The technologies I used to create the product at each stage were;

Pre-Production Stage - In the pre-production stage the technologies that I used were; Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel to create documents and timetables for our music video.

Production Stage - In the production stage the technologies that I used were; a HD camera, a tripod and a dolly

The camera is going to be used for the filming of every shot. It is a HD camera  so it will capture the footage in high definition, this therefore makes it look more professional. The camera is an essential piece of equipment because it is the device that will store and capture our music video.

The dolly is going to be used to do the shots where the camera needs to be steady but moving at the same time, we will use this a few times when doing the shots where the camera will need to be steady but moving. The camera will be steady because it will be on a tripod, to operate the dolly properly the camera needs to be attached to the tripod then attached to the dolly.

The tripod is going to be used to steady our shots, it will be used for all of the shots that we do. This is because we want all of our shots to be steady, the tripod also attaches to the dolly so it will be used on the dolly as well. The tripod is telescopic so that it can be adjusted to many heights allowing us to do a variety of shots with it all with them being steady at the same time.

Post-Production Stage - In the post-production stage the technologies that I used were; iMovie, an Apple Mac

The computer that we used to edit on was an Apple Mac, I found the computer ok to use but it was a little bit tedious at times because I really didn't like using the mouse, the editing software that we used was iMovie on the Mac, I think that this software was alright but not the best that I have used. The main reason was because if you wanted to put a file on the Mac, you have to convert the file before it went on there. I have learnt from editing that the actual editing takes longer than filming the film and there are a lot of things to take into consideration when editing such as the CC, sound and how the audience will feel when they are actually watching the film.

Apple Mac

There were some good effects on iMovie as we used a CC to emphasise certain bits in the opening, the CC that we used dimmed out the edges of the screen as we are making a psychological thriller and we wanted the opening to look mysterious.

iMovie

Research and Planning - For the Research and Planning the technology that I used was the internet. I used the internet to research information and to gain extra knowledge that would help my group and I to plan the music video.

Construction - For the Construction of the whole product including the ancillary tasks the technologies that I used were; HD Camera, Tripod, Dolly, iMovie, Mac, Adobe Photoshop. For obvious reasons the HD camera, Tripod and Dolly were used in the filming side of the music video, iMovie and the Mac were used when editing the music video and Adobe Photoshop was used when creating the ancillary tasks.

Evaluation - For the Evaluation the technologies that I used were; Microsoft Word, Blogger, Pictures and Videos. I used Microsoft word first of all because the spellchecker on blogger isn't great and I find it easier to plan everything out on there first before I post it on Blogger. I also used Videos and Pictures to back up my points and to try and explain them in further detail and to spruce the work up a bit so that the work isn't just a big lump of text.

Overall - For the whole documentation of my work I used Blogger, as explained below:

I used blogger to log my individual and our group work, this was advised by the exam board and my teacher. I found blogger easy to use and a good way to upload work, the only downside to it I thought was the spellchecker as sometimes it was quite annoying. To get around this problem though for some of my posts I did them on Microsoft Word first so that I could get the correct spellings and format for my work.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, to all of this I feel that the camera equipment was excellent, the editing software was of a decent quality and our group work and blogger was good as well. I am really happy with how our finished product came out. In all stages I feel we worked well, I think that we could have possibly been a bit more detailed on some bits though. Overall I think this section went well.

G324: Evaluation Q3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Looking back at the feedback from the target audience, we got quite a lot of information from our original questionnaire that was targeted at our target audience to get some response on what we should consider for our music video. We then got some really good feedback on the rough cuts of our music video, this was good because it then gave us a sense of people opinions of our work and what they liked and didn't like in our music video so then we could make some changes to make the music video better. Below I have shown some information we got from our questionnaire at the start and at the bottom there are some responses at different stages of our rough cut.

Questionnaire:

"This questionnaire was put online and also given out to people of a few different ages but we mainly gave the questionnaire to people of our age group because they were our target audience". The number next to the responses shows how many people answered that question.

1. What is your gender?

• Female - 16
• Male - 11

This question just gives us a general idea of what genders the people were who answered the questionnaire.

2. What is your age?

• Under 16 - 0
• 16-20 - 23
• 21-24 - 0
• 25-29 - 0
• 30-34 - 1
• 35-39 - 0
• 40-44 - 1
• 45-49 - 1
• Over 50 - 1

The main group that answered the questionnaires were 16-20 yr olds and they were the people who also said they had heard drum and bass. This age group gave us an outline what sort of target audience to go for when making our own music video.

3. What is your current occupation? (open question)

• Tesco
• Asdas
• Student - 20
• Retail Assistant
• Retail
• Cleaner
• Teacher
• Governor

This question gives us an outline of what sort of occupation someone is in and how this can affect their music/video genre preference.

4. What is your favourite music genre? (open question)

• Eighties
• Pop - 4
• Drum & Bass - 4
• Rock - 8
• Dubstep - 2
• Indie - 3
• Singer/Songwriter - 2
• Metal
• Hip-hop - 2

This question gives us a really good idea on what genre of music people like, this is good because then we know what genre people of that target audience like and therefore our video can be sort of tailor made to fit in with the desired target audience.

5. Do you only listen to music from that genre?

• Yes - 4
• No - 23

This question gives us a really good idea whether people just listen to the sort of music genres they listed above, we want people who are open to listen to drum and bass and not just think its rubbish because of one song or music video. Most people said that they don't only listen to the genre of music that they listed which is good.

6. What are your 3 favourite music videos and why? (open question)

Music videos:

Lazy song
Wake me up when September ends
Don't you worry child 
Still into you
Closer
Fun
Nightmare
Stand up and run
A.M.E.R.I.C.A
Club Tropicana
Stay
Like an prayer
Lucky
Mercy
Seven Days
Waiting all night
End credits
Gangnam style
Thriller
In the Navy
The pretender
Destabilise
Banquet
Its my life
Teenage Dirtbag
Radioactive
Busy
Need U 100%
Jack
So what
Left behind
Raise your glass
Emergency
Poker face
This is war
Sail
Bounce
Goodbye Mr A

Why?

Good editing

Simple but effective

Funny
Good video
Good narrative
Entertaining
Cool

Interesting

Funky

Emotional
Realistic
Good shots
True story
Different
Good costumes
Colourful

Dramatic

Good locations

This is a very good question because this gives us as a group a massive idea on what music videos people like and why they like them. We will have to consider including nearly all of the things they mentioned to properly entertain and keep our target audience watching our music video. Some of the music videos listed above are really good, mainly because they have a good narrative and we have found that it is really vital to have a good narrative to have a good and understandable music video, no matter what the genre is.

7. Do you watch any music channels?

• Yes - 13
• No - 14

This question gave us an idea on if the respondents watch any music videos, we wanted to know if they watched any music channels because most music channels show music videos instead of just listening to a song.

8. If so what music channels do you watch? (open question)

• MTV - 3
• Kerrang - 2
• Viva - 2
• Magic
• 4Music - 3
• Scuzz - 2

This question tells us the music channels our respondents watch, most of them are channels which mainly play pop/drum and bass/dance/hip-hop and one of them shows rock/hardcore rock, we like the fact that the majority of ones chosen show drum and bass videos because then that means people have heard drum and bass as it isn't the biggest of genres but is definitely starting to make a come through. This leads us onto the next question;

9. Have you ever listened to drum and bass music?

• Yes - 20
• No - 7

Most of our respondents have heard drum and bass which is quite pleasing, our respondents were mainly in our age group of 16-18 and therefore drum and bass is played a lot on the radio channels that our age group listen too but we asked the older people and they didn't seem to know about it really which was a bit weird as it used to be very popular.

10. Do you like drum and bass music?

• Yes - 17
• No - 10

There were mixed opinions on drum and bass, some people like it and some people don't like it, the majority were people that liked it which is good for us."

From this feedback I have learnt that from the people that we asked quite a few of them knew of or listen to the drum and bass genre. This is good because they were the target audience for my music video. This feedback allowed me to cater the genre around the target audience so that they like the music video. This was just a general questionnaire really where I wanted to find out some information about the target audience.

Music Video Feedback:

Rough cut 1

We have received some feedback on our music video from target audience members, the positives and negatives of rough cut 1 are;

Positives:

• OTS shots are good
• Majority of lip syncing is well done
• The lighting is good
• The cuts are well timed
• Framing is good
• Good range of shots
• Interesting shots
• Good locations
• Clear storyline
• Transitions are really good
• Flows nicely
• Storyline links to the lyrics
• Like that couple in video are wearing similar clothes
• Appropriate shots for genre
• Fits generic conventions
• Pacing of shots work well

Negatives:

• Some lip syncing is a bit off
• ECU of mouth is blurry
• Some shots repeat
• TV should turn on
• Camera is shaky on some shots
• Some shots are slightly out of focus
• Some shots are too long
• SRS looks weird
• Gaps with no footage need to be filled
• Unclear why actor is climbing through window
• Well polished and falls away at the end
• Some colour corrections are needed
• Not complete
• Wider variety of shots could be used
• Repetition could be confusing
• Shorter and more shots in flashback
• Chorus is too repetitive
• Add in names and candidate at start
• Tracking/handheld shots are wobbly

At the moment there are more negatives than positives, we hope to correct the negatives and have more positives than negatives on the next rough cut. We aim to get rid off all of the negative comments by our final cut.

Rough cut 2

We have received some more feedback on our music video from target audience members, although this time it is for our rough cut 2, the positives and negatives of rough cut 2 are;

Positives:

• Lip Syncing is really good
• Visuals and music work well
• Good variety of shots
• Nice effects on video
• Good match on action
• Song choice is really good
• Good transitions and cuts
• Performance shots outside are great
• Nice colour effects on argument at the end
• Good zoom at start
• Good OTS

Negatives:

• Can't see eyes of actor in some shots
• Some more effects needed over shots
• Doesn't really look different to rough cut 1
• Camera shaky sometimes
• TV should turn on
• Speed up the flashback at the end
• Some out of focus shots
• Needs to be finished
• Some shots a little too long
• Indoor shots aren't brilliant
• Some shots need to be added in
• Not clear storyline

At the moment the negatives are pretty even with the positives, we hope to correct the negatives and have more positives than negatives on the next rough cut. We aim to get rid off all of the negative comments by our final cut.

Rough Cut 3

We have received some more feedback on our music video from target audience members, although this time it is for our rough cut 3, the positives and negatives of rough cut 3 are;

Positives:

• Lip Syncing is really good
• Visuals and music work really well
• Good variety of shots
• Nice effects on video
• Good match on action
• Song choice is really good
• Good transitions and cuts (especially tv one)
• Performance shots outside are great
• Nice colour effects on argument at the end
• Good zoom at start
• Good OTS

Negatives:

• Camera shaky sometimes
• TV should turn on
• Speed up the flashback at the end
• Some out of focus shots
• Needs to be finished
• Some shots a little too long
• Indoor shots aren't brilliant
• Some shots need to be added in

At the moment the positives are now outweighing the negatives which is good, we hope to correct the all of the negatives and have virtually no negative comments by the final cut.

Final Music Video

We have received some feedback on our Final Music Video from target audience members, although this time it is for our Final Music Video, the positives and negatives of the Final Music Video are;

Positives:

• Lip Syncing is right on point
• Visuals and music work really well together
• Really good variety of shots
• Some really good and effective effects on the video
• There is a good match on action
• The Song choice is really good and catchy, think the music video goes well with it
• Nice and clean transitions and cuts, some transitions go really well with song
• Performance shots outside are great
• Nice colour effects on argument at the end
• Good zoom at start
• Good OTS (Over the Shoulder)

Negatives:

• TV should turn on
• Speed up the flashback at the end

As you can now see, the positives massively outweigh the negatives, that is exactly what we were hoping for although it would have been nice to not get any negative comments but I think the negative comments that we got were pretty opinionated. We aimed to get rid off all of the negative comments by our final cut and we have all but 2 which I see as a huge success.

This feedback from our rough cut 1 all the way up to our final music video has helped us drastically improve our music video. From the start as you can see we had loads of negatives and hardly any positives on our rough cut 1 then by the end looking at our final music video we only had 2 negative comments which is a massive improvement. 

G324: Final Music Video

This is our Final Music Video. It has been fully edited now and it looks like what we were hoping for. The editing is loads better in what is now the final cut and the lip syncing is near perfect. We used a few transitions; the first of which is into-television transition at 14 secs, then we had a transition 1:53 (had to do that because the split screen didn't work as intended), then at 1:00 there was a transition going through the window, then there was another into the tv at 2:15, then there was another transition at 3:05 (this was the transition to go into the past), there is a fade to white transition at 3:27 and finally a fade to black at the end to then show the writing . We have re filmed some of the shots that were out of focus and added in the shots that needed to be filled in, we now hope that the music video will flow really well and make the narrative easier to follow.

 

We have received some feedback on our Final Music Video from target audience members, although this time it is for our Final Music Video, the positives and negatives of the Final Music Video are;

Positives:

• Lip Syncing is right on point
• Visuals and music work really well together
• Really good variety of shots
• Some really good and effective effects on the video
• There is a good match on action
• The Song choice is really good and catchy, think the music video goes well with it
• Nice and clean transitions and cuts, some transitions go really well with song 
• Performance shots outside are great
• Nice colour effects on argument at the end
• Good zoom at start
• Good OTS (Over the Shoulder)

Negatives:

• TV should turn on
• Speed up the flashback at the end

As you can now see, the positives massively outweigh the negatives, that is exactly what we were hoping for although it would have been nice to not get any negative comments but I think the negative comments that we got were pretty opinionated. We aimed to get rid off all of the negative comments by our final cut and we have all but 2 which I see as a huge success.

G324: Final Magazine Advertisement

This is our final Magazine Advertisement, it has the same theme as the Digipak to keep a consistent theme throughout.

G324: Final Digipak

The front panel is the one in the middle there, the back is the one on the left, the inside ones are the one on the right, then the ones at the bottom.

We have kept a consistent theme across our Digipak and Magazine Advertisement so it is easier for the audience to recognize that they are linked.

G324: Final Costumes

Man

Black coat:

He wore a black coat as for the majority of the music video he is viewed as the antagonist. Black is seen as a dark and sinister colour. it is the colour which is stereotypically seen being worn by an antagonist in a film.

White T shirt:

He was wearing a white shirt in parts of the music video when we didn't have much of a gauge for his actions so wt these points we see him as an innocent character. This feeling if further reinforced when we see him wearing the T-shirt towards the end of the video.

Dark blue or black jeans:

He wore dark blue jeans to contrast to the woman's light blue jeans to symbolise their contrasting opinions. He also wore these jeans because he is viewed as the antagonist as his behavior is for the majority of the spectrum compared to the woman's behavior. Dark blue, like black, is a colour which represents power, something all antagonists seek to gain.

Trainers:

He wore trainers to represent his down to earth straight thinking attitude. These trainers will also be dark in colour to further reinforce the connotations of the colours of the majority of the clothes he is wearing.

Woman

White top:

She wore a white top as white is associated with light, goodness, innocence and purity. These are the characteristics of the woman that we see in the music video as we see here as the victim throughout the video who only has one goal within the music video which is to mend what goes wrong in the video, as this is the nature of her character.

Light blue Jeans:

She wore light blue jeans which were torn at the knees as light blue is associated with healing, understanding and softness. These are also characteristics of the woman as her understanding compels her to mend what goes wrong in the video, as this is the nature of her character whilst the tears are there to reinforce the fact that she is the victim.

G324: Final Props

This is a list of our final props and the reasons why we chose these:

Glass Vase (with No Flowers)

We decided to use a glass vase from a charity shop instead of lamp. There are a few reasons for this:

We figured that we wanted to break a vase and if we tried to break a lamp it wouldn't have been good. The lamp would have been more expensive and out of our planned budget, therefore the vase was a cheap and better alternative to the lamp.

Cream Sofa

We decided to use the cream sofa as we believed that the colour worked well to make it seem like part of the location; we though that a darker coloured sofa would not fit well because most of the colour scheme that we wanted to go for was pure white/cream so a dark sofa would have looked out of place.

Television

The television was a prop that features in our storyline, it was essential to have a decent TV and have this in the same room as the sofa. Therefore, we used a flat screen Sony television as it was easily maneuverable so it allowed us to place it at the right point in the room to match our storyboard. It was also useful as it wasn't too big, making the framing slightly easier for us.

Remote Control

                    

This was what came with the TV so therefore it wouldn't seem weird using a different controller for a different TV, this prop came into use when the actor turns the TV on and off in the music video.