Saturday 14 May 2011
Friday 6 May 2011
Evaluation Part Four - New Media Technologies
"How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of your project?"
The use of the web 2.0 provided a huge advantage for most aspects of our project. For example, throughout the research stages we were able to access thousands of music videos, album covers and websites to give us inspiration for our work. If access to the internet wasn't available, then our research would've taken much, much longer. We would've only been able to analyse CD covers by going into shops or buying them, and music videos would only have been able to be viewed by waiting for them to come on to music channels on the television or again by buying CDs with them on. So not only did the internet save us a lot of time, it also saved us money! It was also very easy to do so as we could use search engines on websites like Google and Yahoo to find websites, and then search engines on individual sites to find particular things. For example, when I used Katy Perry's website to find out information about target audience, I was able to search through the website to find certain forums where I'd be able to gain the information. The internet allows you to reach huge audiences, which enables you to find out diverse, valid results very quickly.
Music websites like Spotify and Last.fm were also very useful as they can recommend artists similar to who you are listening to, so when I wanted to look at music videos by artists similar to Katy Perry, I was able to enter Katy Perry on to Last.fm and was linked to pages of similar artists. This allowed us to find out about codes and conventions of pop music videos very easily, and meant that we could see what shots & mis en scene we should use. This is a very good example of web 2.0 as it shows the interaction between audience and the internet. For example, the way that these music sites recommend similar music to what you are looking for is by saying what other people who listen to the same thing also listen to. So if I was looking for artists similar to Katy Perry, and somebody else had listened to Katy Perry but also listened to RIhanna, this information would be on the website and would show the most popular similarities. Another website like this is Ping which is linked to user's iTunes account allows people to rate and comment on songs with their opinions. In my next evaluation blog entry, I am going to embed a slideshow of shots in our video compared to real media texts which is like a storyboard.
We used iMovie to upload our footage and edit our final video. Although I'd used the programme for my AS project, I still didn't know much about it and it was very different making a music video on it than making the opening scene to a film! We would've been able to create a better quality video if we had the time, as we would've been able to use Final Cut Express, another video editing programme. We used iMovie to sync together the shots we'd taken in different locations to fit it to the song. This was useful because it meant if we wanted to change something we could do it easily as it was all in different sections. For example, we were able to add a performance shot to our storyboard but then if we thought it didn't work well we could delete it and replace it with something else. We were also able to edit sections of our footage to fit the music and sync up the lyrics when it was on the storyboard which made the software quite straightforward. I found iMovie relatively easy to use as we got used to it, but was quite confused at first! But the help section of the programme gave us information to work out the best and easiest ways to produce our work.
When we were producing our ancillary tasks, most of the class used Photoshop to create high quality images. However, I found this programme particularly hard and struggled finding ways to use it and therefore had to use Paint Shop Pro 8 as I had a better understanding of it. This was quite a disadvantage as not only was the programme I used quite an old version, I feel that it didn't produce as high quality work as Photoshop does. Paint Shop Pro still enabled me to produce my ancillary task to quite a good standard though, and also provided help when I needed it. For example, when adding text to certain areas, sometimes I had to change the layer style but I was given warning messages when I had to do so which I found very useful. I was also able to find PSP tutorials all over the web which gave written and visual guides, which is another very useful aspect of the internet.
As mentioned in my previous post, the internet provided a huge advantage for our audience feedback, as were able to post our video on YouTube which is used by a huge amount of people and onto Facebook where we could get direct feedback. Without the internet, audience feedback would've taken much more time and effort. Sites like surveymonkey.com allow you to create questionnaires online, and share them with friends and followers on multiple social networking sites. I was going to use this, but as we'd already created a questionnaire for feedback, I thought it'd be a bit pointless. However, it is another example about how easy the internet can generate fast results, and if I was to complete this project it's something I'd definitely use.
When I have had to complete projects in the past, I've normally had to display them in a Word document, PowerPoint document or sometimes by hand. The use of blogs such as blogger.com and tumblr.com allow you to display your whole project in a small but organised place where you can access from just about anywhere. My blog has enabled me to use direct links to other websites I have used, and even show pictures and videos. Another useful aspect of this is that you can include PowerPoint presentations in a very tidy way by using sites like scribd.com and slideshare.net as they let you upload presentations just by using one window.
Overall, I'd say that the internet has had a massive impact on my project, as it's easy to use, doesn't cost very much and has access to millions of different pages and information. The use of programmes like iMovie and Paint Shop Pro helped me produce my work aswell, but I found them a lot more difficult to use! Although, I think that if I was to use the same programmes in future then I'd be a lot more comfortable with using them.
The use of the web 2.0 provided a huge advantage for most aspects of our project. For example, throughout the research stages we were able to access thousands of music videos, album covers and websites to give us inspiration for our work. If access to the internet wasn't available, then our research would've taken much, much longer. We would've only been able to analyse CD covers by going into shops or buying them, and music videos would only have been able to be viewed by waiting for them to come on to music channels on the television or again by buying CDs with them on. So not only did the internet save us a lot of time, it also saved us money! It was also very easy to do so as we could use search engines on websites like Google and Yahoo to find websites, and then search engines on individual sites to find particular things. For example, when I used Katy Perry's website to find out information about target audience, I was able to search through the website to find certain forums where I'd be able to gain the information. The internet allows you to reach huge audiences, which enables you to find out diverse, valid results very quickly.
Music websites like Spotify and Last.fm were also very useful as they can recommend artists similar to who you are listening to, so when I wanted to look at music videos by artists similar to Katy Perry, I was able to enter Katy Perry on to Last.fm and was linked to pages of similar artists. This allowed us to find out about codes and conventions of pop music videos very easily, and meant that we could see what shots & mis en scene we should use. This is a very good example of web 2.0 as it shows the interaction between audience and the internet. For example, the way that these music sites recommend similar music to what you are looking for is by saying what other people who listen to the same thing also listen to. So if I was looking for artists similar to Katy Perry, and somebody else had listened to Katy Perry but also listened to RIhanna, this information would be on the website and would show the most popular similarities. Another website like this is Ping which is linked to user's iTunes account allows people to rate and comment on songs with their opinions. In my next evaluation blog entry, I am going to embed a slideshow of shots in our video compared to real media texts which is like a storyboard.
We used iMovie to upload our footage and edit our final video. Although I'd used the programme for my AS project, I still didn't know much about it and it was very different making a music video on it than making the opening scene to a film! We would've been able to create a better quality video if we had the time, as we would've been able to use Final Cut Express, another video editing programme. We used iMovie to sync together the shots we'd taken in different locations to fit it to the song. This was useful because it meant if we wanted to change something we could do it easily as it was all in different sections. For example, we were able to add a performance shot to our storyboard but then if we thought it didn't work well we could delete it and replace it with something else. We were also able to edit sections of our footage to fit the music and sync up the lyrics when it was on the storyboard which made the software quite straightforward. I found iMovie relatively easy to use as we got used to it, but was quite confused at first! But the help section of the programme gave us information to work out the best and easiest ways to produce our work.
When we were producing our ancillary tasks, most of the class used Photoshop to create high quality images. However, I found this programme particularly hard and struggled finding ways to use it and therefore had to use Paint Shop Pro 8 as I had a better understanding of it. This was quite a disadvantage as not only was the programme I used quite an old version, I feel that it didn't produce as high quality work as Photoshop does. Paint Shop Pro still enabled me to produce my ancillary task to quite a good standard though, and also provided help when I needed it. For example, when adding text to certain areas, sometimes I had to change the layer style but I was given warning messages when I had to do so which I found very useful. I was also able to find PSP tutorials all over the web which gave written and visual guides, which is another very useful aspect of the internet.
As mentioned in my previous post, the internet provided a huge advantage for our audience feedback, as were able to post our video on YouTube which is used by a huge amount of people and onto Facebook where we could get direct feedback. Without the internet, audience feedback would've taken much more time and effort. Sites like surveymonkey.com allow you to create questionnaires online, and share them with friends and followers on multiple social networking sites. I was going to use this, but as we'd already created a questionnaire for feedback, I thought it'd be a bit pointless. However, it is another example about how easy the internet can generate fast results, and if I was to complete this project it's something I'd definitely use.
When I have had to complete projects in the past, I've normally had to display them in a Word document, PowerPoint document or sometimes by hand. The use of blogs such as blogger.com and tumblr.com allow you to display your whole project in a small but organised place where you can access from just about anywhere. My blog has enabled me to use direct links to other websites I have used, and even show pictures and videos. Another useful aspect of this is that you can include PowerPoint presentations in a very tidy way by using sites like scribd.com and slideshare.net as they let you upload presentations just by using one window.
Overall, I'd say that the internet has had a massive impact on my project, as it's easy to use, doesn't cost very much and has access to millions of different pages and information. The use of programmes like iMovie and Paint Shop Pro helped me produce my work aswell, but I found them a lot more difficult to use! Although, I think that if I was to use the same programmes in future then I'd be a lot more comfortable with using them.
Thursday 5 May 2011
Evaluation 3 - Audience Feedback
The use of the internet and social networking gave us a huge advantage to gaining feedback on our music video as we were able to reach a large group of people in a short amount of time and for no cost. We still used a few more traditional methods like getting the students from our class and teachers to watch the video with us but we mainly used modern methods. I think the combination of the two allowed us to obtain some genuine feedback and allowed us to see what went well and what we could improve. I also think that using different methods of gaining feedback worked well because we received different criticisms & praise from each way we did it.
"What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
The picture above is a screen shot of our video which we put on YouTube. We put the link up on Facebook and a few friends posted it on their 'walls' too, meaning that quite a big group of people were able to view it and give us feedback. The thing we were most surprised about is the amount of views it received in such a short time! We put it online on the Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday evening we had over 100 views which shows how good web 2.0 is at distributing work to large and diverse audiences.
We were quite pleased with the feedback we received, as a lot of people found the video easy and humorous to watch, which is what we had intended our video to be like. A lot of people commented on the storyline of the video, thinking it was about a homosexual relationship. Although we had tried to make our video about friendship which goes against conventions we had found in most pop music videos, we weren't too disappointed because same sex relationships are rarely seen in the pop genre which means that whatever way you look at our video, it's likely to show a very modern representation of people that challenges current conventions. Another thing that was mentioned quite a lot was the light-hearted feel to the video. People who watched it said it would suit our target audience very well as it wasn't as serious as a lot of pop music videos around. Another good aspect of our video that people commented on was our choice of costume as it was quite casual but without looking boring or out of place. A few people said that the clothes we had used made the two characters in the video appear as good role models, which is a very important aspect as we aimed our video at quite young girls/teenagers.
We did also receive some criticisms, for example on the variety of shots used and the quality of filming in some shots. Because we started filming relatively late, it meant that we didn't have a lot of time with the camera which limited how many different shot types we could take in each location. Although the majority of people did think we'd used enough shot types, quite a few people disagreed. I think this goes to show how important time is with filming, if we were to do this task again then I think it'd be a good idea to start earlier to ensure we had plenty of time to film and include many different shot types. On average, our performance scenes rated higher than our narrative scenes. Many of the videos we looked at combined narrative scenes with performance but we wanted to use more of a split. I think that if we had used more narrative scenes then our video might've looked better and maybe would've provided more of an understanding of our storyline.
In our performance scenes where Emma is seen singing on the stage, the quality of the footage is quite fuzzy and blurry. It was very difficult to create a setting similar to performance scenes we've seen in other videos as we were restricted to where we could film. When we used bright lighting, Emma looked far too bright, but when we turned the lighting down, it was very hard to see her! However, we decided to film in this setting anyway, as it was the most appropriate setting for a performance scene which meant that in our final video the stage scenes weren't as strong as the other scenes. Our media teacher also pointed out that a lot of of shots were quite stiff, we were able to add movement by using the Ken Burns tool, but I think if we were to film again, it would be useful to use some panning shots.
Overall, I think we done quite well considering between us we only had very, very little knowledge of filming and editing! I also think that this task has made us realise how important time-management is and that using a timeline that we would stick to would probably have impacted greatly on us!
"What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
The picture above is a screen shot of our video which we put on YouTube. We put the link up on Facebook and a few friends posted it on their 'walls' too, meaning that quite a big group of people were able to view it and give us feedback. The thing we were most surprised about is the amount of views it received in such a short time! We put it online on the Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday evening we had over 100 views which shows how good web 2.0 is at distributing work to large and diverse audiences.
We were quite pleased with the feedback we received, as a lot of people found the video easy and humorous to watch, which is what we had intended our video to be like. A lot of people commented on the storyline of the video, thinking it was about a homosexual relationship. Although we had tried to make our video about friendship which goes against conventions we had found in most pop music videos, we weren't too disappointed because same sex relationships are rarely seen in the pop genre which means that whatever way you look at our video, it's likely to show a very modern representation of people that challenges current conventions. Another thing that was mentioned quite a lot was the light-hearted feel to the video. People who watched it said it would suit our target audience very well as it wasn't as serious as a lot of pop music videos around. Another good aspect of our video that people commented on was our choice of costume as it was quite casual but without looking boring or out of place. A few people said that the clothes we had used made the two characters in the video appear as good role models, which is a very important aspect as we aimed our video at quite young girls/teenagers.
We did also receive some criticisms, for example on the variety of shots used and the quality of filming in some shots. Because we started filming relatively late, it meant that we didn't have a lot of time with the camera which limited how many different shot types we could take in each location. Although the majority of people did think we'd used enough shot types, quite a few people disagreed. I think this goes to show how important time is with filming, if we were to do this task again then I think it'd be a good idea to start earlier to ensure we had plenty of time to film and include many different shot types. On average, our performance scenes rated higher than our narrative scenes. Many of the videos we looked at combined narrative scenes with performance but we wanted to use more of a split. I think that if we had used more narrative scenes then our video might've looked better and maybe would've provided more of an understanding of our storyline.
In our performance scenes where Emma is seen singing on the stage, the quality of the footage is quite fuzzy and blurry. It was very difficult to create a setting similar to performance scenes we've seen in other videos as we were restricted to where we could film. When we used bright lighting, Emma looked far too bright, but when we turned the lighting down, it was very hard to see her! However, we decided to film in this setting anyway, as it was the most appropriate setting for a performance scene which meant that in our final video the stage scenes weren't as strong as the other scenes. Our media teacher also pointed out that a lot of of shots were quite stiff, we were able to add movement by using the Ken Burns tool, but I think if we were to film again, it would be useful to use some panning shots.
Overall, I think we done quite well considering between us we only had very, very little knowledge of filming and editing! I also think that this task has made us realise how important time-management is and that using a timeline that we would stick to would probably have impacted greatly on us!
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Evaluation Part Two - Our Products as a Package
How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?"
Through my research, I found that its quite rare to find artists in the pop genre who have a direct connection between their music videos and albums, unlike films where the posters, billboards, trailers and adverts all correlate with one another. For example, Katy Perry's album is called 'One of the Boys' but the colours and mis en scene used are quite feminine. She's pictured outside in a garden, yet none of the songs in the album have anything to do with this! I think a lot of album work tends to reflect the artist's personality rather than the songs that are on it. The images used for single CDs on the other hand are more likely to reflect the song, for example Ellie Goulding's CD cover for 'Starry Eyed' uses a lot of stars and sparkly images which is not only very similar to the title of the song but is also similar to to the music video for the song.
As I created a digipak for an album, I decided to stick to the conventions that I had found in my research and used plain backgrounds. Because the photos we had taken for our ancillary tasks were taken on the day that we had filmed a scene, it meant that the pictures used in my digipak looked similar to the performance shots in the video, which could be seen as developing a convention of real media text. I feel that this is a good development as it shows consistency between advertisement and the music video which allows the audience understand clearly that it's all part of the same package.
Above is a screen shot from my music video and the back cover of my CD ancillary task. They both show Emma stood performing on stage in the same outfit.
Our target audience is girls aged around 12 - 14, an age group that is associated with innocence but with a cheeky, mischievous edge. We tried to convey this behaviour throughout our video and our photoshoot, as we felt it would appeal to our audience. For example, in the video, Emma comes across quite smiley when she is on her own but 'stroppy' and more annoyed when she is around her friend. In our photoshoot, we asked Emma to pose with a hand on her hip and singing into the microphone, which gives off the impression that she's quite confident and outspoken. I feel that the video and ancillary task both portray the way that our target audience behave accurately, but also quite positively. I used dark backgrounds throughout my ancillary tasks as I thought it was the colour that produced the best quality work, and also used a light purple, dark purple and grey colour scheme for every part of my digipak. This was because it looked quite feminine without looking childish. I also used vintage brushes in the background to make the covers look less plain but creating a feminine feel at the same time. The colours and brushes I used could've made the CD look like it appeals to an older age group, but I think because the pictures we used were quite fun and happy looking which makes it look a lot less serious and more friendly, making it suitable for our target audience.
The above pictures are examples of how we made the character in our music video and ancillary task look innocent and friendly but quite cheeky and confident at the same time. I did this as it'd make her appeal more strongly to my target audience.
The poster I produced is very similar to the rest of my digipak, creating more consistency throughout my work. The only difference with my poster is that I used a different font. This was because the font was quite bold and I thought it would be good at drawing attention. Its also very similar to the font used by Rolling Stone music magazine which means that if someone looked at the poster, they'd probably think of music almost straight away.
I think that keeping some kind of consistency throughout the music video & ancillary task is useful, as it means that straight away you can look at one piece of work and know that it relates to another piece, even if its just a font or a colour scheme. Its also a good way of trending and promoting something if consistency is used as it makes it easily recognisable and people can familiarise themselves with the products.
Through my research, I found that its quite rare to find artists in the pop genre who have a direct connection between their music videos and albums, unlike films where the posters, billboards, trailers and adverts all correlate with one another. For example, Katy Perry's album is called 'One of the Boys' but the colours and mis en scene used are quite feminine. She's pictured outside in a garden, yet none of the songs in the album have anything to do with this! I think a lot of album work tends to reflect the artist's personality rather than the songs that are on it. The images used for single CDs on the other hand are more likely to reflect the song, for example Ellie Goulding's CD cover for 'Starry Eyed' uses a lot of stars and sparkly images which is not only very similar to the title of the song but is also similar to to the music video for the song.
As I created a digipak for an album, I decided to stick to the conventions that I had found in my research and used plain backgrounds. Because the photos we had taken for our ancillary tasks were taken on the day that we had filmed a scene, it meant that the pictures used in my digipak looked similar to the performance shots in the video, which could be seen as developing a convention of real media text. I feel that this is a good development as it shows consistency between advertisement and the music video which allows the audience understand clearly that it's all part of the same package.
Above is a screen shot from my music video and the back cover of my CD ancillary task. They both show Emma stood performing on stage in the same outfit.
Our target audience is girls aged around 12 - 14, an age group that is associated with innocence but with a cheeky, mischievous edge. We tried to convey this behaviour throughout our video and our photoshoot, as we felt it would appeal to our audience. For example, in the video, Emma comes across quite smiley when she is on her own but 'stroppy' and more annoyed when she is around her friend. In our photoshoot, we asked Emma to pose with a hand on her hip and singing into the microphone, which gives off the impression that she's quite confident and outspoken. I feel that the video and ancillary task both portray the way that our target audience behave accurately, but also quite positively. I used dark backgrounds throughout my ancillary tasks as I thought it was the colour that produced the best quality work, and also used a light purple, dark purple and grey colour scheme for every part of my digipak. This was because it looked quite feminine without looking childish. I also used vintage brushes in the background to make the covers look less plain but creating a feminine feel at the same time. The colours and brushes I used could've made the CD look like it appeals to an older age group, but I think because the pictures we used were quite fun and happy looking which makes it look a lot less serious and more friendly, making it suitable for our target audience.
The above pictures are examples of how we made the character in our music video and ancillary task look innocent and friendly but quite cheeky and confident at the same time. I did this as it'd make her appeal more strongly to my target audience.
The poster I produced is very similar to the rest of my digipak, creating more consistency throughout my work. The only difference with my poster is that I used a different font. This was because the font was quite bold and I thought it would be good at drawing attention. Its also very similar to the font used by Rolling Stone music magazine which means that if someone looked at the poster, they'd probably think of music almost straight away.
I think that keeping some kind of consistency throughout the music video & ancillary task is useful, as it means that straight away you can look at one piece of work and know that it relates to another piece, even if its just a font or a colour scheme. Its also a good way of trending and promoting something if consistency is used as it makes it easily recognisable and people can familiarise themselves with the products.
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