A2 Media Coursework: February 2011

Friday 18 February 2011

Evaluation Question 4

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

Technology has played a vital part in our A2 media coursework project, with the internet playing probably the biggest role. However, we have used a wide variety of technology throughout the year.

The internet has helped us hugely with our research for all three tasks. Examples of magazines, digi-paks and music videos are easily accessable on the internet. This enabled us to create a proffessional brand for our artist. the internet has also enabled us to research parts of our tasks such as our target audience. Tghe internet allowed us to look in depth at our speciofic target audience which has allowed us to go into detail which we otherwise would not be able to access.

The first software we used was blogger. Blogger was easy to get used to due to the fact that we had used it in our AS coursework. As as whole, blogger is an easy and fast method of displaying your work. However, blogger does come with its own problems. At the start of the year i had to create several blogs due to the fact that blogger was using the wrong default java settings for the computer that i was on. After making a few blogs, i simply wanted to just go back to the old fashion way and use paper and a folder to display my work but i battled on and finally got a blog to work. I was then able to post all my work from the year on the blog.

When creating the music video we used two main pieces of technology to help us complete it proffessionally. Firstly we used a high quality Sony Handycam to capture all of our footage. We made sure that the footage was of a high enough quality to start with to make sure that the filming would not become distorted when we added effects later on in the process. After capturing all the footage we needed, we then uploaded the filming onto a computer. This then enabled us to use our second piece of technology to edit the footage. The program Final Cut Express allowed us to edit all the footage that we had captured so that the visuals related to the music from the song.Although i had not used the program before, i managed to pick it up quickly. The program was easy to use and allowed me to edit the footage accurately. This easy usability enabled me to relate the visuals to the audio but more importantly allowed me to lip sync the footage precisely.

When creating the ancillary tasks we used two main pieces of technology again. Firstly we used a Panasonic Lumix camera to capture the photos we needed for the magazine front cover and the digi-pak. We had to make sure that these photos were of a high enough quality to look proffessional. However, we then had to use the second piece of technology to polish the photos up. The girls used a program called photoshop to then manipulate the photos we had already taken. This program helped us to finalise the photos so that we could then add the extra effects to make the magazine and digi-pak.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We valued our audience feedback throughout the progression of our music video. We firstly organised a showing of our rough cut to the rest of our class. This way they would be able to give us precise feedback on things such as our editing.

We then organised a showing for our final cut. However, instead of showing it to our media class again, we dorganised the showing for people who fit into our taget audience.

Evaluation Question 2

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

The brief of our A2 coursework was that we had to create a music video and 2 ancillary tasks to promote it. We chose to design a digi-pak and magazine advert to promote the music video. However, i didnt take part in this part of the brief due to the fact that i was solely concentrateing on editing the music video, whilst the girls completed the ancillary tasks to promote the video i had edited. We decided to use the artist from the video on both of the ancillary tasks to make sure that they were consistent throughout. We also did this for promotional reasons to make sure that every task added to the artists iconography.

When designing the three tasks we had to be open minded. We realised that we werent just designing a video, magazine and digi-pak, we were actually creating a brand for the artist. For this reason we had to research into things such as a target audience to see who our brand would be aimed at.

Before specifying your target audience, you have to look into the kind of music that you are using. As the song we had chosen (Pieces) featured two acts, we had to research them both. We discovered that both artists linked quite well musically. Chase & Status are Dj's that focus in on the Drum & Bass/Dubstep side of music. Whereas Plan B is classed as a Singer/Rapper. This makes sense in trhe song due to the fact that Chase & Status produce the instrumentals whereas Plan B supplies the vocals for the track. These artists together combine the D&B/Dubstep loversd with the Indie/Alternative fans. This means that the song reaches a broad target audience. This is why i believe these artists are in such high demand at this summers music festivals. This year Plan B will be famously opening Ibiza and Mallorca Rocks whilst Chase & Status will be entertaining the crowds in Staffordshire for this years V festival.

Evaluation Question 1

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

After completeing our music video we recieved lots of glowing feedback both from our friends and other members of our class. However, they just simply saw the final cut of the music video and didnt understand the stages we had to go through to develop the video so that it lookerd proffessional.

Nearly all of these stages include watching the video itself through and then analysing it. By observing the positives and negatives, we can then move on and hopefully turn the negatives into positives by either changing the shots or by tightening up the editing.

Andrew Goodwin

Visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and the music.
Genres have their own iconography and style.
Close ups are essential.
Music videos create and enhance star iconography.
Voyeurism is a common theme.

John Stewart

Lighting is used to highlight the star's face.
Visual references derive from a range of sources such as art and fashion.
Video allows more access to a performer than a stage performance.

So, in conclusion;

Music videos wouldn't be as alluring and specialised without:

Lip syncing/ Close ups/ Innovative and accurate editing/ Camera movements that enhance the music/ Post-production aesthetic effects/ A clear interpretation and amplification of the lyrics/ Iconographic mise en scene/ Excellent lighting...

The screenshots you can see below show how we related the visuals to the different parts of the song, pieces.

We used cross dissolves during the slow paced stages of the song. These dissolves seemed to work well with the backing instrumentals at that time in the song.

Whereas these screenshots show the editing at a different point in the song which clearly contrasts the editing shown at a slow part of the song.

We also included some special shots that we used for a specific reason. One of these included the desaturation of a shot to give the impression that a photo was being taken.

We also speeded up some footage to give the impression that there was a passing of time. We speeded the walking round the house footage up to ten times its usual speed. However, we also used speed to slow footage down from the hotel scene.

The following shots show how our music video relates to existing media products. The conventions below can both be seen in our music video as well as others that already exist in the music video industry:

1.