Evaluation Question 4

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

I used media technologies through the construction, research, planing and evaluation of our media product in various ways. I did most things through a Mac through pre-production, during production and post production. This Includes programs, websites and general tools.

The Mac was my main tool throughout my whole project. It allowed me to access many programs and applications such as Safari (Internet Browser).

For starters, I used Safari for most of my research. Starting off with search engines like Google, I researched music as a whole. This included finding a genre and artist for our project. This is how me and my partner discovered and decided on Alesso.

Also, Safari allowed me to research and find more out about the Ancillary tasks. This includes my poster and digipak. I learned what a digipak was and found the appropriate template for me to use myself.

Youtube was a big factor during my project. I used Youtube to stream music such as Alesso's (When deciding on a music piece). In addition to that, I was able but more importantly it allowed me to upload my own videos onto my free, online account. I used this to upload our test shots and final music video product. Whilst uploaded, it allows anyone who pleases to stream it for free; getting our product out to the public.

Emails (Gmail and Outlook) was our way of communication. I used it to get in contact with my peers, to request permission of the music track and for confirmation of the filming location. I could also use my mobile phone as a form of communication through texting and apps such as messenger or snapchat.

Furthermore, Safari gave me access to social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where I researched information on artists, music and also learned about how advertising/marketing worked on these sites. As well as social media websites, I used sites with information in depth such as the well known Wikipedia. Again, this helped me learn about artists, and their products.

We used a typical but reliable DSLR (Nikon) to film the test shots. For the main filming of the project we used a Canon with a high end lense. These gave us an easy to use experience and captured our footage perfectly for us to edit and complete.

We also used other equipment during the construction of our media project. Firstly, we used a portable bluetooth speaker which allowed us to play our track whilst we filmed so the main actor could lip sync easily. Tools for the filming specifically such as the Tripod and Track/Dolly gave us a better experience for capturing the best footage possible; following the story board.

Programmes on the iMac allowed us to construct our project and bring it all together as a whole. Once we had captured all the required footage.

To create my ancillary texts (Digipak & Magazine Poster) I used photoshop CS4. It allowed me to edit and perfect them in every possible way.

To express my ideas and work I used programs to present them to the public. This includes Microsoft powerpoint, Keynote, and Numbers. In addition to that, I used websites such as Prezi and survey monkey for the same reason. These were free to sign up to and use.

Evaluation question 2

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

I believe my combination of my main product and Ancillary texts are very effective for a few reasons. When planning the music video, making the music video and analysing it I knew I had to do it the most professional and appropriate way. As well as my music video, my other products such as my digipak and magazine advert reflect and create cohesion with the main product through colour and general theme.

I believe that a magazine advert has to show a strong, clear link to the particular product. For example, Kendrick Lamar or Eminem. Here are a couple of their posters:

Every product needs to be linked in some way, thats why all my products share the same elements from the music video. For my digipak I used photos from my music video, here they are:

This was the setting of our music video, hence why I used them. For my poster I also used one of the photos above merged with another photo of our main actor. Here is the poster:

As you can see, I've used different fonts, and most importantly a blue tint. I used this because in my music video the blue smoke symbolises the boy and the red symbolises the girl. This is gender representation.

The setting for my music video represents the song and lyrics well. The woods are thick, where you can get lost easily. This syncs with "If I lose myself".

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For our audience feedback, we have done a couple things. Firstly, I created a survey on the free website SurveyMonkey:

Here is the website and its features I used to create the survey:

Here is the final survey which we have handed out to peers for them to give us feedback on our music video product: 

From our audience feedback questionnaire, we learned what people liked/disliked and how we can improve for our final edit. We found out that our audience really enjoyed the idea of smoke with the representation of gender. However, we found out that we may have used too much smoke. We were very happy that our audience gave us an average of 8/8.5 which gives us the indication that our video can't be improved a-lot. 

We also got the idea of a reaction type video. We planned to film the audience while they watch our music video on a Mac. We edited in the music video as a small window in the top right so we can watch the reaction video knowing what they are commenting on. 

Magazine Cover

For my magazine cover I used a couple photos I took while shooting our final music video. I placed one over the other, cut it, and made it transparent. After this, I added text to the image giving it the magazine title and look with a few differed fonts.

Final Music Video - If I lose myself - Alesso

Digipak

What is a Digipak?

The digipak is a type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs. Here are some examples from popular artists:

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP2

Kendrick Lamar - MAAD City

J.Cole - Forest Hills Drive

Kendrick Lamar - To pimp a butterfly

Designing my digipak:

When designing my digipak I used a couple photo's from the morning of the filming of our final video. I put both into photoshop CS4. Cut the head out of the original photo and placed it over the other image. I then lowered the opacity of the layer with the figure in it to 50% resulting in a very interesting image. 

Here is my digipak, with all the editing complete on photoshop CS4. 

Music Video - Rough Cut