Evaluation:

Unfortunately I was unable to upload my slideshow presentation using slideshare which I used for previous presentations, so I have decided to print screen the stills of each slide instead.

Evaluation:

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

I used many different media technologies to help me arrive at making my three different products, some were used during the research stages; questionnaires and audience feedback were used alongside online media programmes such as facebook, wordle and wallwisher. This type of technology helped me to gain a better understanding of what people wished to see in a music video and in the ancillary products which go alongside it. I used these programmes to upload images and also my video to receive such comments and luckily it worked, helping me with my research and construction. I used my Apple Iphone to take photographs for my ancillary tasks and also used it to play music whilst my actor was lip singing in time with it in my video. This also acted as a memory stick as I stored a lot of my work on it whilst working on editing my video and transferring information onto my blog. I was lucky enough to have access to an Apple Mac at school which had the editing programme ‘Final Cut Pro’ on it, this editing software is really effective and I took full advantage of this when constructing my video. I used the different effects which are included with it, such as a wide range of transitions, editing of the speed/ colour of shot as well as many other more complex effects. Although I only experimented with a few of these effects, I believe and judging from some of my audience feedback, that the ones I did use looked professional and tied all of my clips together nicely.  This programme also allowed me to easily transfer my music (the cover version) so that I could cut the clips whilst listening to the music, making editing a lot easier.

Production:

To film my music video, I used a new video camera, which had a memory card, instead of a tape, preventing me from having to change films. However, this did cause a few problems as only the new Apple Macs at school were compatible with this type of camera and so I had to wait until these specific computers were free until I could upload my video and start to edit it. I also used a tripod which when fixed to the camera made my filming a lot smoother, although there are a few jolts in my final footage, the tripod kept these at a minimum and as there was even a built in spirit level, which ensured that my shots would be straight.  When making my ancillary products, as previously mentioned I used my Iphone to take photographs which I then uploaded and edited using a programme called ‘Adobe Photoshop Elements 7’. This programme was great, it allowed me to manipulate my photographs and I edited the lighting effects to make the image more atmospheric and used different filters to subtly change the overall texture of the image. As I learnt from my audience research, I could have used this to make the writing slightly lighter and bigger and I would definitely adhere to this if i were to make it again.

Research and Planning:

In my research and planning I used a programme called ‘slideshare’ to make slideshows which can be accessed via blogger.com. This was an interesting way of presenting ideas and really helped me, especially when comparing existing products. I also used this for part of my evaluation, as once again I find it really useful when comparing items.

Perhaps one of the most important media technologies I used was ‘YouTube’ which I used to show the existing videos I was researching, as well as when uploading my own videos (both for my evaluation and as my finished piece). I uploaded my footage/searched for exiting videos on ‘YouTube’ and then transferred it onto blogger so that people reading my blog can see what I am talking about, look at my work.

I also used Windows Vista, in particular, Microsoft word, excel and PowerPoint to help me with my blog work, making charts from data gathered and forming slideshows to be transferred onto slideshare.

One other problem I did encounter was that as many programmes are filtered on our school internet, for quite a long period of time, my classmates and I were unable to access blogger.com at school so we had to write up our posts on word documents and then post them at a later date.

Evaluation:

What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

I used audience feedback throughout the production process of my products. I used questionnaires as well as programmes such as ‘facebook ‘and ‘wallwisher’ to help me collect people’s opinions of my ideas as well as their opinions of my final products.

To begin with I used a simple questionnaire, using the information to learn more about the audience I would be targeting in particular. The people I asked all were relatively young, aged 25 and under. I therefore set about creating products which would appeal to them, using their comments as guidelines as what would be needed. This form of audience feedback also helped me to decide on which genre of music to use, a huge percentage of the people I asked in this initial questionnaire proved Pop and Rock genres to be the most popular, so I decided to choose a band which has dabbled in both of these genres at some point. My first choice was ‘The Script’. I really like this band as I feel that their music has a lot of depth as the lyrics have meaning, and emotion is put behind each word. After I had decided to go down this route, I conducted another questionnaire, this time to gain knowledge about my target audiences favourite types of CD covers, to help me prepare for designing and ultimately making my digi pak. The results showed that the covers which were the most popular followed certain conventions, the colours and effects resembled the tone of the music and it became apparent that the main image would be a big part of the CD covers overall success. I used this information to help me when making decisions about my own products; what to include and why it should be there.

Another tool I used was the programme ‘wordle’ which helps to make comments a bit more aesthetically pleasing which is helpful when looking at results. I used this tool to comprise some of the comments my target market made about existing products, giving me a clear idea of what sort of things proved popular; ‘Simplistic’, ‘peaceful’ and ‘reflections’ were words which stood out to me and I incorporated these ideas into my ancillary tasks. After these results I took some photographs and once again relied on a questionnaire to help me decide on which one to use. The results were clear and helped me to decide on which three pictures to make some initial designs around. I then used the programme ‘Wallwisher’ to choose between these. However this programme was not particularly successful as only two people commented on my designs. I used their ideas and went on to design my final CD cover around all of my audience feedback. I went through the same process when designing my magazine advert, using information and opinions gained from questionnaires.

Finally, I used ‘facebook’ to upload all of my final products, and collected a few comments from people. Largely, the people who watched my video felt that the lip synching was a bit out of time, and some of the footage of the motorways was obviously on repeat loop. I completely agree with these comments and think that they are fair and justified and if I were to re-film I would try and improve on these points. However, I was really pleased with the comments as a whole as everyone I asked said that they thought that the music went really well with the images shown on screen and felt that the video flowed well. This was what I was hoping to achieve and through the feedback I gained I can see that my video was successful and did follow many conventions seen in existing products. I also asked my friend’s mother to upload it on her facebook, and some of her friends and work colleagues commented on it. I wished to include this as I felt it was important to see how other people from a different audience would view it. I am happy to say that all of these comments were positive and kind although realistically it may have been slightly biased as the film starred the woman’s son! I also used ‘facebook’ to learn about people’s opinions of my ancillary products. Again the comments were generally positive, although most people thought that the title of the album on both my CD cover and advert could have been slightly lighter and bigger so that it showed up against the background better.

Overall I have learnt a lot from audience feedback, it has helped me to gain a better understanding about the conventions of such media products, has helped me to identify my target market as well as ultimately shaping how all of my texts have turned out. The feedback has also shown me how I could improve my products.

Evaluation:

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

My video responses regarding each of the products: my video, digi pak and magazine advert. I apologise for the length, I tend to talk quite a lot and quite slowly!



My final music video - A higher quality video to come

Audience Feedback: Once again I uploaded my product onto facebook and asked my friends to comment on it, givivng me their honest views on my finished piece. The comments I received are as follows:

Michael Alcock ( the man playing the 'artist' in my video) also showed his mother, who also uploaded it onto her facebook account, here are some of the comments she received which gives me the opinions of a different age group entirely:

Some of the comments made above are a little misguided as they do not appear to realise that it is not Michael singing. However, I did mention that he is singing along to a cover version of 'The Scripts' song.

Although some of the people who commented on my video may have been biased ( Michael, Ellen and Michael's mum) all of the comments I recieved were pretty similar. Overall I am really pleased with the feedback from both groups of people, as on a whole it has been positive and I have been given some constructive criticism which I will talk about in more detail in my evaluation.

Audience Feedback - Magazine advert

Audience Feedback - CD cover (digi pak)