Evaluation - Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation - Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Here is Question 4 of my Evaluation, displayed on web-based presentation software Prezi.

Link to view on Prezi:
http://prezi.com/2dyelwqnk3td/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Update: 24/4 - Images added and evaluation completed.

Update: Half Term: Due to low loading speeds at home, and the potential of Prezi crashing, I still need to upload some supporting images to the Research, Planning and Evaluation sections of this Prezi. These will be added when I am back at college, at the same time that Question 2 is recorded/edited.

Evaluation - Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product with your ancillary texts?

Update: 20/4 - Full edited directors commentary completed and uploaded.

Update: 15/4 - Unedited directors commentary filmed and uploaded. Now in the process of editing in clips and images.

SCRIPT

In order to create a professional collective product for my A2 Media Project, I recognised the importance of synergy throughout my texts and main product. Through constructing my music video, and through conducting research into the conventions of both music videos and digipaks, I established an understanding of the ways in which these products interlink and support one another in their design and content. I endeavored to replicate this in my own media product in order to maximise the effectiveness of the product and make it usable be my artist.

Firstly, before I began with my own project, I conducted various pieces of research, into the music video, and into digipaks and magazine advertisements, the ancillary texts that would go alongside my video. It was important to consider the genre of my own artist when conducting this research, as different genres utilise different conventions in each of these texts- for instance, a "pop" music video would differ hugely from a rock video in content, imagery, and representations. Hence, I looked at a British Band that I likened to my own artist, Abandoning Sunday, a music project that varies between rock and acoustic, but attracts fans of multiple genres- so I studied a music video, digipak and advertisement from Norfolk-based Deaf Havana. Fronted by James Veck-Gilodi, the band have changed in their style almost continuously, and their products have done so accordingly to accommodate their latest genre. Most recently was the album "Old Souls", which served as the inspiration for my digipak, and the accompanying Old Souls tour, which I analysed for a poster. In the analysis of Old Souls, I briefly looked at the lead single's music video, "Mildred (Lost A Friend)" (my main analysis was of Hunstanton Pier) in order to draw links between the products.

Immediately a theme became apparent, which could be related to the Uses and Gratifications theory - on the digipak, the front cover shows a small child running across a pale beach. The theory states that audiences seek out the media that they wish to consume, and focuses on what the audience does with the media text, rather than what the media does to audiences. Where other bands would perhaps overtly brand themselves over their covers where audiences are given a prescribed view, such as in pop music, the blank canvas of the inside cover creates an open interpretation of the band for the audience to make their own "use" of, and decide what it symbolises in terms of the bands ideologies. This is a much more descriptive approach in which there is no set idea of the band given in the digipak, making them more accessible to wider audiences, who may feel that they can get in to the bands music for this reason. This could be applicable to my artist, as an unsigned artist looking to increase their following, and so translating this into my own digipak was something I seeked to do.
However, creating the link was then important. It should be noted that the theme of children continues from the digipaks into the music videos. The video for "Mildred (Lost A Friend)", follows two children throughout the video, one of whom bears a striking resemblance to the same child used on the front cover of "Fools & Worthless Liars", and could perhaps be an older version of the child on the front of Old Souls. It does depict the children as doing some adult tasks, such as working in an office, and does also feature several shots by a beach, continuing the coastal theme of this digipak. 

This research was vital into creating my own product, as I now understood how to make my own products effective and to construct them with synergy in mind. Like with Deaf Havana's set, I knew location could be an easy link to create. My digipak is shot mainly on Thorpe Marriott Green, which is nearby to and the same location to where I film some of my shots in the video. These shots include Elliott's character at the end of the video as he is smiling, and then some of the opening sequence shots - the shot where "Real Talk" is shown in the trees, for example, is the same exact place where the back cover image for the digipak was taken, and the opening time-lapse over the field is the image for all 3 of the inside panels of the digipak. Having 3 panels covered by the same image was something inspired by Old Souls which I discuss more about in Question 1, but I found this to be effective, and the image also created direct links with my video, creating synergy. 

This of course is the most obvious and most basic link between the main product and the ancillary texts, but tends to be one of the most effective. I also created a house style to apply to all of my products. All artists tend to have a logo and then a specific text font that they use across all of their products for a specific album at least, and so I have replicated this to enhance the inter-connectivity between all three texts. The font in question is "Please Write Me a Song", which was selected after a lot of deliberation, as it wasn't too brash or bold, and reflected the nature of my artist. This text is seen in my video for the text "Abandoning Sunday" and "Real Talk" at the start, and for "Struggle" being shown at the end, and is the main font used in both the digipak artwork and in the magazine advertisement.

Whilst on this topic, the two ancillary texts link very strongly through content- naturally, the advertisement has the front cover of the digipak taking up a large proportion of the page, which clearly links the products together, and through the font being the same and including some of the track names from the album on the poster, "Words" and "In Your Dreams", but also more subtly- the backdrop of the advertisement is taken along Marriott's Way, the same place where the back cover image was taken, just a little further down, and so shares some of the thematic meaning that was constructed originally with the digipak. I discuss this throughout my blog in regards to location, in how I make a religious reference to the famous epic poem "The Divine Comedy" by Dante, specifically Inferno Canto I, wherein I reference the line "midway upon the journey of our lives I found myself within a forest dark, for the straighforeward pathway had been lost." As I discuss in my digipak analysis of my own product, This path may seem monotonous and endless, but ultimately there is an end- the brightness of the image contrasts the literal meaning of the word "struggle" like in the front cover. The shaded areas could be seen as representative of these struggles along the path, and the brighter areas offering the positives- a simple Light vs. Dark analogy that gives clear connotations that relate back to "the struggle", the name of the album. The advert is in keeping with the autumnal theme established in the digipak's images, and there are regions of colour contrasted with the browning leaves, helping these colours to stand out, such as the yellow leaves to the right and the leaves that are not yet brown in the foreground. The bare trees and dying leaves are perhaps indicative of some of the issues the album deals with, such as themes of sadness (winter or seasonal depression could be dealt with here), but more so gives a sense of tranquility. 

Both of these relate back to the issues that are dealt with in the music video. There are religious references in both halves of the narrative, as my artist is religious and so I thought it important to reflect these ideas, such as Tom finding himself "lost within the forest", like in Dante's poem, and Elliott's loss of faith in the Church more overt, but linking to ideas of hopelessness, depression and so on. 

Overall, I feel that the links between my products are very effective. The digipak, although minimalistic, appears aesthetic and professional. It links to the main product and advertisement overtly through locations and the house style, so that the audience immediately recognises certain aspects and associates it with Abandoning Sunday. Furthermore, there are more subtle links between my products which makes the whole package have synergy, including the references to themes, religious context and issues dealt with in the song and album as a whole. There are of course things that do not link- I do not have the dog on the front cover in my video, for example, but the dog links in with the ideas portrayed in the video, the symbolisation of hope, freedom and happiness, which is shown towards the end of my video as the narratives are resolved. I wanted to create something that was, although inspired by previous products that I have known to be effective, unique to the artists style and lyrical themes, eye catching and professional, and I feel the combination of my texts is effective enough to have accomplished these aims.

Evaluation - Question 1: In what ways does your Media Product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 1 of my Evaluation can be seen below, on Padlet, however I would advise viewing it on the website itself, at the following link:

http://padlet.com/joeweston17/cm63ia7fhhfx

This will prevent images and text from moving randomly across the screen and obscuring the other images. Due to pad let's restrictions, most of the supporting images can be found at the bottom of the document. If this does not work, the document can be viewed as an image below, but this does trim some of the far right hand side. Text boxes can be read fully by clicking on them.

Created with Padlet

How my Focus Group helped to inform changes to my Video

After conducting my initial audience research, I created a Focus Group of 6 people to which I would consult in more detail regarding changes I could make to my ideas to make my video as effective as possible for the genre whilst still including the technical aspects that needed to be observed, such as intertextuality and "Britishness".

During the initial discussion, they echoed my thoughts to change from the initial idea from the first Treatment drastically, and eliminate the character who would be playing the guitar, as it mis-portrayed the star image and didn't add to a narrative, which was what my questionnaire found to be most engaging.

Examples of Physical Questionnaires. 

The initial responses shaped my first draft, and after completing my first draft, I created a Questionnaire that I distributed to my Focus Group via E-Mail.

Focus Group Questionnaire

This was sent out to each member of the group who then replied to the E-Mail with a completed questionnaire, seen below, with Elisha's E-Mail.

From these responses, the focus group effectively helped shape the changes from my First Draft to my Final Cut. The most striking concern was in Elisha's response, she described the plot as something completely different to what I had intended (Hall, Preferred/Oppositional Readings) and had misunderstood the video due to the gaps that were in there.

Elisha's Response to the Plot Question.

 However in general Elisha's response was one of the most helpful, as she picked out how I made use of Britishness and Intertextuality and links to Goodwin's theories such as the links to lyrics, seen below in a more complete example of her response.

 This showed I was along the right lines with my First Draft. However, in Jack's response, he picked out that the editing and some scenes seemed "repetitive or slightly too long"- as a result, I made the intro section with Elliott shorter, including clips with Ria in this section, and then also eliminated shots that were similar in the Bridge, and replaced them with clips of Ria's side of the story, to enhance the narrative.

As a result, the finished video differes hugely from the initial shot list, but the greatest change was that right at the start, where the initial shot list changed drastically, and then small adjustments were made to shots to make it more appropriate- for example, the intro remains very similar, and in the shot list, shots such as "group in the city", changed to "group in the streets". 

This all contributes greatly for when it comes to answering Question 3 of the Evaluation, what did you learn from your audience feedback.

Equipment - Filming, Editing and Props, and their effect on my production.

For my Music Video project, I used different equipment to film and edit my piece. For filming, I used a Sony HVR-HD1000E Camera with Tape, and then my iPhone 4S with Hyperlapse. For Editing, I used Final Cut Express on a Mac computer. I also utilised a wide array of props to aid the narrative and discuss different ideas as well as create intertextuality. 

Filming

Equipment: Sony HVR-HD1000E Camera, Standard Definition Tape, iPhone 4S, Hyperlapse Application 

 

Reasons: I used the Sony HVR Camcorder as it was easy to use, and was provided by the college and so was practical. I could film in 480p with the camera with although not ideal was still good quality and allowed for smooth, steady shots to be filmed, and it is manoeuvrable so it would be easy to film in the main locations and capture some interesting shots. For smaller, impromptu shoots when the main camera was not avaialble, I switched to my iPhone 4S' camera. This camera shoots in 1080p which is a higher quality, but is less stable and more susceptible to smaller movements and other subtle changes in the composition of the image. Hence, I downloaded and used the application "Hyperlapse", produced by the makers of Instagram, which automatically stabilises video footage with the purpose to make time-lapse videos, but with the option to slow the video down to it's original speed. This allowed me to film both time-lapses for the start of the video and then shots from smaller shoots that were simply dropped into my timeline on Final Cut as the core of the shots were there from the main camera. The downside of this was the constant rendering of these clips, but it was far more practical and at no loss of quality.

Props

• Mobile Phone

• Notepad & Pen

• Posters & CDs

• Bible

• Beer Bottle

• Car

• Textbooks and Essay

• Vase of Flowers

I used each of these props to convey different aspects of the video through the mise-en-scene. The Mobile Phones were pertinent to the narrative and hence contributing towards understanding the characters relationships and contact. Without conversation, as the sound in a video is almost entirely the sound, the phone indicates conversation occurring without the presence of both characters and the audience recognizes this. The Notepad & Pen are used to convey Elliott's character's state of mind, and the way in which he conveys his emotion, and they also are a fitting expression of his rage in the penultimate section of the video. The Posters & CDs in both rooms lend themselves towards the significance of intertextuality and allow the target audience from my audience research to identify with the characters through their music, TV and film interests. The Bible is a fitting prop in the Church section and fits in with the lyrical themes of losing hope, in the religious context of the song/band, and Elliott closing the Bible is perhaps indicative of a loss of faith. The Beer Bottle shown at the start is another interesting prop I use to create a sub-narrative- half drank, it is depicted during the lyric "I've got a real bad habit", indicating a potential drinking problem, discussing an issue of modern society which is alcohol abuse and the reasons for this, which, as conveyed through the other props and narrative, include hopelessness, depression and self-depreciation. Regarding Tom's character, the car is a useful prop as it resembles the lengths to which his friends will go to find him and also creates a link between locations. Regarding Ria's character, the textbooks and essay is shown before the last chorus as she discards them and looks at the vase of flowers, pertinent to the narrative, as by this stage we assume that they were given to her by Elliott's character and that she cannot concentrate due to the preceding argument. The props used throughout strongly aid the narrative and allow the plot and ideas to be clearly or subtly illustrated.

Editing

Equipment: Final Cut Express, Mac Computer

Reasons: I used Final Cut on the College Macs for my AS project and found the interface easy to use and organised with a variety of extra editing features to enhance my project. I was familiar with the software and hence did not have to learn how alternate softwares like Adobe CS6 After Effects operated. The clips from the Sony Camera did not need to be constantly rendered and re-rendered, making it easy and quick to create, and I only used the iPhone shots for supporting shots which would render quickly.

Here is a screen grab of my project in Final Cut. As you can see at the bottom, I locked my audio layers so that adding in new clips did not move the clips around, and then locked video layers as sections were completed. The top left displays a "Bin", or folder in Final Cut, where I store clips from a specific shoot, the one in question here is the shoot with Ria.

Above here are a further two screenshots illustrating the organisation of clips into "Bins" for the shoots in the main window in the top left. Clips were all renamed so I knew what they were as soon as I imported them into the Library, making them easy to access and organised. I felt this worked well as I could simply drop clips in where there were gaps, and the quality is turning out well.

I also made use of other editing features in my project. I used a variety of dissolve transitions throughout where jump cuts were not neccessary due to the pace and nature of the instrumental, and then preferred the use of jump cuts in the faster section. I also made use of make-shift transitions by adjusting the opacity of clips over time- the screen grab to the left is from when Tom's character is in the tree during the first chorus. In this section, I also adjusted the scale and rotation of the shots to make sure that the transitions did not cause the central tree to move, and only Tom's character warped around the shots. I also used audio effects like Gain and Colour Levels to enhance specific aspects of the shots, i.e. I had a Gain on the diegetic noises of the seatbelt and car starting up.

Overall I feel that the filming and editing process was very successful and that I have progressed from AS, leading nicely on to the evaluation section of my blog.

Preparation and Ideas for the Evaluation

With my video essentially complete, I must turn my attention to the evaluation. The 4 Evaluation questions I must answer are as follows:

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

2 - How effective is the combination of your main product with ancilllary texts?

3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

For question 1, I am thinking of presenting my answer in the form of a Director's Commentary. This way, I can link my answer to actual clips from my video, and also discuss different themes and ideas that allows my product to develop, use and challenge forms and conventions. Alternatively, I could present these ideas on Padlet, which I used for this question last year, and found worked well to analyse each individual aspect of my video in depth.

For question 2, I am thinking of presenting my answer in the form of a Slideshow Presentation or Powerpoint. This question has a limited discussion and I can utilise the image aspect of Powerpoints to annotate and discuss the key areas of my ancillary products that make them effective. Alternatively, I could create a Director's Commentary, as this would demonstrate this skill and make use of the limited material I could perhaps discuss. Either of these would aid illustrating the synergy between my products.

For question 3, I am thinking of presenting my answer in the form of a blog post analysis where I can reference my earlier findings in my audience research, my focus group analysis and bring it all together in my evaluation as to how it informed the final cut. To vary it from a formal essay I could alternatively portray this information in a powerpoint, depending on whether I use this method over a director's commentary in question 2.

For question 4, I am thinking of presenting my answer in the form of a Prezi presentation, where I can create a "mind-map" effect to include each aspect or planning, filming, editing and evaluation and the progression I have made since AS.

NB - Posts currently being finalised/worked on before Evaluation questions will be published are:
- Final Cut of Music Video
- Shot List Vs. Reality (to include original storyboards from before any changes happened)
- Locations of Shooting (with Photos from the shoots, maps, and analysis)
- How the Focus Group Responses affected the Final Cut (to include Focus Group Questionnaires)
- Filming/Editing Methods and Equipment* (to inform Question 4 of the Evaluation) (*may discard as it is very similar to Question 4)
- Use of Intertextuality
These posts will not take long to finalise and will inform the evaluation questions strongly.

LABELS