How have you used new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used many media technologies in construction, research, planning and evaluating, for example


Blogger- we used the website www.blogger.com to upload all our work and research throughout dong our coursework.

YouTube- we used YouTube to look at different videos and analysis them also we used YouTube to upload our music video so we could get feedback from viewers.

Google- we used google to research information on topics such as
-theories
-institutions
-digipacks
-advertisements

Wordle- I used wordle to place lots of words which are to do with my music video and research and placed them at the top of my blog so it is made more interesting to look at.


Email- we used email to send links to people for feedback on our on digipacks, tour poster and video, we also used it to email each other work we was working on.


Clothes websites- we used clothes websites such as topshop and river island to look for types of outfits which we want our actors to wear in the music videos to stick with the genre and attract the right type of audience.


Font websites- we used font websites such as 'da font' and 'urban fonts'. We used these to find the right type of font to put on our digipack and tourposter, we looked through a few until we found what one fitted the best was from 'urban fonts' and was called 'ALPACA'

Facebook- we used the social network website Facebook, to get our video seen and to get feedback from our target audience.

SDR-S26- the SDR-S26 is the camera we used to film most of the clips for our video, we also used equipment such as tripods to help us get the right shots and angles.


HD SD card- we used a HD SD card to save the clips we filmed, by saving them to HD SD card instead of just the camera it was easier to transfer them into the laptops to edit them as all we had to do was insert the card into the laptop.


Windows movie maker- we used windows movie maker to do our animatics which is images of our storyboard to the music, this would help uswith the order and know how our video is going to look like, we came across a few problems whilst doing this such as, getting all the timings right so it fits in wit the music also trying to save it so we can putti on our blogs wouldn't work.


Digital cameras- we also used a different digital camera to film some of our other clips, as the SDR S26 camera wasn't avaliable but we used the same SD card so all our clips were together.


Memory stick- we used a memory stick to keep all of our work and research together so if one person needed to upload it we'd all be able to access it easily.


iPods- we used IPods when we first started planning, we used it to listen to the song and sorted out timings for example how long each shot would be.


Photoshop- we played around with photoshop, to edit images for our digipack and poster, here are some examples of what we come up with....


In the end we choose to just turn the images into grey scale because it got the simple look we wanted and turned the front and back cover and poster image in, a black and white but changed the brightness to make it dark.

How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary products?

Props and costumes-
The costumes worn in our music video fit with the genre of the band, the band are very indie and we have tried to make our actors in the video fit with this sterotype by dressing them in indie clothes in the video and our band on the CD, these will work well together as they will attract the right target audience.

I think our music video gets consumed as primary media by the audience, as they are choosing to wtach if and need to pay attention to understand what is going on. The digipack and tour poster is also primary/secondary media as people may choose to read and look at it yet others may not be as interested.

All of our fonts and colours on the digipack and poster are the same black and white theme and also with our video we used a black and white aswell so it all linked together.

Both our main and ancillary products have the same ideas (ideology), we wanted to get across the genre of our band and the music they play, so having clothes that represent the indie genre show this to the audience.

What have you learned from audience feedback?

From our audience feedback we learnt that when we first did our tourposter the image on the back ground was very dark so people didnt know what the image was, or what type of genre the music is.

We got told there was lots of detail provided on how to buy tickets and dates which is good for the audience.

Also how we kept a colour scheme and the black and white contrast worked really well.

The only negative points we got were the image on the poster being to dark and hard to notice so we made it brighter and easier to see. We then got told they liked the image of the guitar as this shows them the genre but they wouldnt of over lapped the writing on the guitar. So if we did it again we'd think more about where to put the website, phone number and social network site or just make the writing smaller.

Which asked people what they thought it was.

Everyone said it was a poster of tour dates or poster for a music concert.

This is good as everyone knows what it is, and what it is advertising.

We asked what genre it was for.

Majority of people said it was indie/pop.

This is good so we know it will attract the right audience.

We asked if it was informative?

They said yes, because of the phone number, dates, websites etc.

This is good as we know we have put enough information on the poster for the reader, so they know who is performing, where and know to get tickets.

Is it credible?

And everyone said yes.

This is good as we used the codes and conventions of a real tourposter which we learn from our research.

This is what our audience have said, and from our audience theories we think our video fits in to the theorys of,
Uses and Gratifications- Blumers and Kats, as audiences may may watch it for entertainment to enjoy the music video and to fill time and also they may watch it for personal identity as they may relate to the actors in it, as they may have experiences being in a relationship being cheated on.

Also the two step flow theory, as if people see our music video and talk about it to their friends it may change there opinion on it and see it in a different way.


Here is feedback for our music video, we uploaded our video onto youtube, so people could watch and give us feedback, we also posted it on the social networking site facebook so our target audience would be able to watch and give us feedback.

• i think its really good, especially the start the writing on the black screen
  
  i think with some of the camera shots, (unless i'm wrong if their handheld) could be a bit steadier.
• maybe that the filming is a bit shaky in parts but thats not even bad, i only noticed it once.

• its really good, like loads of different camera shots and good cuts used so theres continuity but just abit to many zoom in zoom out

•  the writing at the start introduced the video, helped it make sense and you dont normally see it in videos.
• Great video, it's clear what's happening and good use of different camera angles.
  There's a few repeated footage, but it works. :)

• This Music Video certainly fits the genre of the music, it sets the theme very well. The range of camera angles used is good and the editing is smooth and fits the pace of the song.

• The lighting effects were also great, they emphasized the emotions of the actors.

After hearing the feedback, we found out that people found it really good, and found the definition at the start of the video, interesting and different as its not in the codes and conventions of a music video, if we had to do it again i'd say that we should put more time into the filming as we had a few comments about the filming not be steady so we should make sure we know exactly how a certain shot should be filmed.

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

Codes and conventions- Most music videos have elements of performance, they can be solely performance or include narrative.

In our video we challenged real media products as many videos include performance and show the artist/band members, but our video is only narrative in our video also it was a non-linear narrative as we wanted to tell the story backwards, we want to do this because we thought it would be interesting for the audience to watch.

Narrative and narrative theory  -Torodovs theory thinks that they is an equilibrium where everyone is calm theres disruption, someone realises the distruption and repairs it there is then a new equlibrium. In our video we used a non-linear narrative, which shows a backwards story, but we still show Torodovs theory in the video as we have a beginning middle and end, and it shows the couple getting along, then the distruption of finding out about the cheating we also have a new equilibrium where its calm but things have changed for example the boy looking at a photo of him and her, yet they are not together. We also have Strauss theory (Binary opposites) in our video as there is a boy and girl who are known as opposites yet our video challenges this as normally the boy is known to be the one cheating yet in our video it is the girl cheating, which a lot of people would expect.

Codes and conventions of music videos include voyeurism, in our video we shown voyeurism by watching the actors story. Videos are edited to the timing of the music, we edited the video to ensure the right clips work with the lyrics for example when it says 'im not saying it was your fault' we have them arguing.They have close up of the artist we challenged this a little bit because we didn't have close ups of artists, but had close ups of he actors in the video to show emotion of their facial expressions, to show the audience how their feeling which helps them understand the storyline better and have tracking shots to follow the action, for example in the actual kooks naive video, they track the girl through the night club to show where she is going, in our video we followed/tracked her walking to the road into the other boys house to show the audience that she was going to another boys house and had close ups of her face and her turning her head to show she was worried about being seen.

Digipak & Advert-

Cds use conventions such as

• Artists name
• Artists image
• Album name
• Barcode
• Songs
• Distribution and production logos

We used a black and white image, and this can challenge the conventions of a album as many indie cds use colour images. The album representing the whole genre/ band as is the poster, our poster doesnt have an image of the band on it but a guitar, so were letting the music speak for itself, as indie audiences arnt as obessed with the band but just want the music unlike pop fans, indie auidences may just want to know the music and go to the gigs, and if they wanted to know more about the band the CD can tell them that. We used forms of real media products such as keeping to a colour scheme throughout the digipack and tour poster as many real products use the same colour scheme and images from the cd to the tour poster to show the tour is for that certain album. We used the same font on the CD cover and poster, its big and bold so it would stand out and its easy for people to read, its quite edgy so makes it interesting.

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First poster before feedback.

Second poster after reading first lot of feedback.

We choose to go with a black ad white theme as we thought by having the black back ground helps the writing on white stand out as it is the important information on the poster. We tried with having the dates first then the city but decided it would be better to put the city then the date because the first thing fans are going to look at is to see if the band is playing where they live. We put a image of the album and the date it is out as on many tour posters for certain albums show the album and when it is coming out or came out, so fans can know what a majority of the songs they will be playing are. We had a guitar as the background image as it is to do with music and the type of band they are. We put the logos for myspace, facebook and twitter so fans know they can find out more information on the tour or just get to know and listen to the band more on these.

Feedback-

Our question.

Drafts of our tour poster.

digipak.

In side the album we have a varitey of different images of the band and on the image names of each song, we did this as it makes the images more interesting and the reader may get to know and remember the songs more, by seeing the songs by flicking threw the album.

We used these images as they shows band members with a guitars and musical equipment we did this as it is showing to the audience that the band is very musical and make there own music.
We also showed the band being fun and laid back which may make the audience like them and relate to them. The images also contribute to the genre of our music video as the clothes they are wearing look indie.

This page in our digipack gives all the information that the audience may want to know about who took part in making this album, also theres a note of the band which help the audience know the band really appericiate the fans.

The back cover shows a image of the whole band, looking happy at the camera. We used the same effect as what we did on the tourpost so it is all the same theme, we put a white background on the writing so it stood out and used a font of 'urban fonts' to make it more interesting to read for the audience. We put all production and distribution information and logos on the album as all albums have them on so the audience know you helped make it and can also find out for information about them if they wish. We put the bands myspace website on the back too as the audience may want to go on it and find out more about the band and there music.

Our front cover shows a black and white image to stay with the colour scheme, we then used the same font as the tour poster and back cover of the cd for the band name and title of the album, as it stays out agasint the dark background. 'The Tantrums' it is big capital letters in the top left corner as it is the main thing people will look at then the album name, the the bottom right corner in smaller writing as people will  look for that second.

Here is our inner for our digipack, we choose to keep the colour scheme, and used images of the band being fun to show the audience more of what they are like.