Q4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To overcome copyright issues we used a website called www.unisgned.com. This website gives us a huge selection of unsigned bands to choose from. This is where we found the band that we ended up using from our media product.

I used Gmail to contact the band to ask permission to use their song for our media product. They also used Gmail to reply to my email in which they agreed to let us use the song. I used Facebook to follow the band during our production to find out the names of different songs and any information that might be useful to the rest of the group during the planning and production stages of our coursework. 

During the research and planning stage of our coursework we used YouTube to research and watch promos so that we could analyse the promos to get a better understanding of them. I also used websites like Wikipedia to get extra information about bands and important music promos and events. I also used blogger, Moovly, Prezi, Padlet and Tagul to help present that information I found in interesting and eye-catching ways.

During our production we used cameras, tripods, apple macs, iMovie and Photoshop to construct the finished texts.

I learned more about each of these technologies during the production of A2 when compared with AS. This is mainly due to having more freedom to do what we wanted with the music promo than with a thriller. With our thriller we had less freedom with what to do when compared with the music promo because for the promo we got to choose what genre we wanted and what type of band whereas with the thriller we couldn't due to the genre being picked for us. During the thriller we focused more on continuity and plot but with the promo we had to focus more on creating a strong concept from the meaning we got from the song we got to pick from an unsigned band. During the promo we took more risks and did more creative things with the final product than with the thriller as we were focused on making it a conventional thriller opening which meant that we had less risks to take.

 

During filming I learnt that picking the right performer and giving them the lyrics beforehand so they can learn them properly is very important as for our promo the performer kept looking down at the lyrics when we were filming, making the performance in the promo look slightly weaker than it would have if he had learnt the lyrics. I also learnt that it is important to film the performance all the way through several times with several different shots and locations. This is so that if one part of the shot looks bad when editing then you can just pick a different shot instead of having to pick the not so good looking shot. I also learnt that getting a lot of shots of the same sequence and getting filler shots is very important as well so that if one particular shot doesn't look good when editing than you can use the other shot as well.

 

During editing I learnt that getting good lip-syncing is very important. This is because than it is easier to sync the performer up with the song. I also learnt that doing this is pretty difficult and takes a long time to do so that it looks professional and effective within the promo. I also learnt how to cut on the beat and how good and professional that looks when it is done properly. I also learnt that getting a variety of shots of everything we filmed is important as it means that we can edit the footage together so that the audience won't get bored by us showing them the same shot too many times in a row. I also learnt that the narrative can be in any order you choose when you edit it together and as long as the performance is in the order of the song then it looks effective and you can still follow what is happening. 

Q3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The audience research that we undertook during the process of constructing our texts was questionnaires, Vox pox, poll everywhere and a focus group. We did audience research every few weeks during our planning to find out if the target audience was happy with our progress.

The questionnaire influenced our three texts as we found out what type of things that people expected

from each of the products and what type of music promos are their favourites. We used a questionnaire because it is an effective way of finding out information from our audience quickly. We hoped to find out what type of conventions the audience expected from our promo and what types of music and promos they already liked. We found out that they liked the idea that we wanted to go for, which was the idea of a girl painting, as they thought it was creative and unique. It was helpful to get this insight from our target audience as it helped us find out whether or not the idea was going to work or not. We found out that while most people thought that the song would match the video one person thought that the video sounded more like a pop video and said that we should add more performance. In the end we did this to make sure that the majority of the audience would be happy with the end product. We also found out that the audience liked the fact that our digipack and magazine advert linked together so easily. This method was quite effective as it got the information that we wanted from our audience. However, sometimes people aren't serious on questionnaires so we had to take this into account as we read through the questionnaires.

The Vox pop influenced our three texts as we found out what type of music promos people liked and we tried to see if we could add any intertextual references to any of the music promos. In the end we didn’t add any intertextual references to the music promos as they were not very similar to our idea. The Vox pop also helped us find out what type of genre was most popular among our target audience which influenced our pick of band and song.






The focus group influenced our three texts in a similar way to the questionnaire that we did. The focus group helped us find out if the audience liked our ideas for the promo, digipack and magazine advert as well as if they liked the song. The focus group helped influence the idea change we did as we found out what people expected form the music promo and if they actually liked the idea or not.









We undertook final audience research after to find out the audiences response to our completed tasks. I posted the three texts up on Facebook to get people to comment on what they think of each of the texts. Another member of the group put the video up on YouTube to see if they could get a wider audience range to comment on it. The other member of the group did a questionnaire to see if people liked the products or not. I emailed the band the completed video via Gmail to see if they liked the finished product or not. We have used a reasonable range of different ways to get audience feedback that contains both traditional and new media.

Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventiosn of real media products?

The task was to make 3 different promotional materials for an album release. These promotional materials were a music promo, a CD/DVD digipack and a magazine. The purpose of these three elements in a promotional package is to promote the band’s new album by giving the audience a taste of the new songs through the video and the digipack and promoting the new album by giving the audience some information through the magazine advert and the website. An example of pre-existing texts is Biffy Clyro ‘Only Revolutions’. Here is the cover of the digipack and the magazine advert.

Below are the styles that music promos typically follow

Below are the general conventions of a music promo.

Below are the conventions of the alternative/indie genre

 

 

 

These conventions might be broken by particular directors/bands so that the music promo will stand out among the other music promos that people see every day so that they will remember them. This makes it successful as promotions to the album as if the video is unusual then people are more likely to remember the video and therefor the band/song.

This is the set we used. The location was a light and airy kitchen that had a wall that looked like it could be a studio-based location. While this isn’t a particularly a typical location, we chose it because it suited the type of style and genre of the promo and it worked well as an art studio. When compared to a real promo, this location isn't particularly conventional, especially for an alternative/indie promo. This is due to it being light and airy which isn't conventional when compared to the traditional gritty, dark type of alternative/indie promos.

The costumes we used are very typical of the genre as the costumes are very realistic as what teenagers to young adults would actually wear. The props we used are reasonably conventional to the genre as they work well with the theme of the promo which is art and break ups. We made these choses as we wanted a promo that followed the majority of conventions of the genre and we wanted it to be realistic.

The editing techniques/transitions/video effects we used in relation to defining genre was mainly stop motion, fast paced editing and a few transitions e.g. the blur transition. We used this because we wanted to make the promo look more eye-catching to the audience and a transition will do this quite easily.

Our camerawork was conventional as we used mainly mid shots, close ups and long shots. This is conventional as this is the typical camera shots used in any promo. The only thing that wasn't conventional was that we didn't use a pan or tracking shot to follow the actress or performer but instead to show the location and set. This isn't particularly conventional as most promos will use pans or tracking shots to follow the people in the promo and not the scenery.

We have used narrative and performance in our promo. We showed performance in our promo by getting the male to sing the song. This is very conventional for most genres as almost every video involves performance in one way or another. The genre of the band typically has more performance than narrative so we showed this in our promo. The main parts of the narrative are the shots of the girl painting, getting dressed up and arguing with the male singer. The meanings that we hoped to create were of the idea of letting someone go which we showed through the shots of the girl cleaning herself up and implying that she was going to go out. But to get to this part we had to show the different parts of the break up.

Our ancillary tasks were influenced by the idea of our music promo which was to show the aftermaths of a break up for a girl and when she overcomes this with art and the idea of the hands that were done in stop motion. We thought that it would be effective if we linked the three texts by something simple but eye-catching but also something that was important in the song and the promo. The song is very much about the idea of letting someone go so we thought we could show this with black and white hands letting go or in reality appearing to let go by either being moved away or being drawn like they are being moved away. The main influence behind the ancillary tasks was this idea which worked well. We also included the main conventions of the digipack and magazine advert to make sure that it was easily recognised as each of the texts.
The conventions of a magazine advert and digipack are:

 

 

In class we looked at a number of different theorists. Andrew Goodwin’s theory that music promos follow certain conventions which are:

1.  Conventions depend on the genre
2. Star persona is important and companies use close-ups to sell them to the audience
3. Voyeuristic images are used to attract an audience
4. They often contain intertextual references to other media
5. There is a link between the lyrics and the visuals
6. There is a link between the visuals and the music/pace.

Our music promo mostly supports this theory as we have followed a lot of those conventions such as numbers 1, 2, 5 and 6. However, it subverts this theory as well as our promo doesn’t include intertextual links or voyeuristic images to attract an audience.

Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?