Evaluation Question Four

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




The prezi above briefly shows all of the media technologies of which I used throughout the coursework. Below I am going to concentrate on one of the main technologies.

Blogger:


Blogger has many strengths and weaknesses as to why it is a good and not so good way to present all of the coursework.


Strengths include the fact that all of the work can be separated into labels, clearly showing the 'Research' 'Planning' 'Construction' and 'Evaluation' sections. This helps to organise the entire quantity of work into an organised and chronological order.
Secondly another good aspect to blogger is that a wide variety of different media technologies can be embedded onto the one blog, these include; prezi, slideshare and soundcloud. Soundcloud allowed me to embed voice clips onto my blog, which I would of been able to achieve if I was to produce a paper copy of the portfolio.  Again this keeps the presentation well organised and completely together.
 Using blogger allowed our group to have access to each others progress and to ensure that nothing contradicted one another.


The main weakness was that Blogger was alien to me at the beginning of the portfolio, so therefore I have developed the skill to be able to use it effectively.
The page layout of blogger is designed by the owner of the blog, and therefore I needed to ensure that all of the content on the blog fitted onto the page using the design element, this was difficult to do as many tables didn't fit onto the blog, and if it width of the page was made bigger, other elements of the blog looked lost.
Finally if a piece of work was to be added in, the time of the post had to be altered to ensure that the blog flowed properly without the newest post actually being at the beginning and maybe not quite fitting in.
Overall I feel that blogger was a fantastic site to display all of the work and to also communicate between the group.

Evaluation Question Three

These clips were some recordings of which I took when I asked people what they thought of the second draft of my video. They are very positive and this meant that I was able to tweek slight things. Having the feedback recorded meant that I could listen to it at any point so I didnt forget what they had said/suggested and it also includes a different technology in my coursework.

Joe Davis Feedback;

Audience Feedback 2 by Jessica Langley


Beth Parrish Feedback;

Audience Feedback 1 by Jessica Langley

Throughout the portfolio I have used many different types of audience feed back to ensure that the final product I made was as effective and would appeal to the audience I intended, below is some feed back of which I got from a social networking site about my first draft of my video.

This feedback really helped me to understand that I was on the right tracks for my video to appeal to my audience. I really appreciated the fact that people gave me good points and constructive points, this meant I was able to evaluate accurately what my target market wanted.

I did produce a survey which I posted onto many social networking sites, but unfortunately only one person completely this survey and therefore this didn't provide me with any relevant information as to how to improve my video.

Overall audience feedback has played a major roll in making sure that I produced a good quality video that would appeal to my target audience and therefore promote an album. 

Evaluation Question Two

To ensure that I created a brand identity for The Racoons, I made sure that I linked all of the products together. This meant that if someone saw one piece, then another, they would automatically link the pieces together. I did this mainly through the logo, costumes and images I used.

How effective are the main tasks and ancillary tasks together?

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Overall I feel that my ancillary and main tasks gel really well. They create and icnic style and one that would catch the attention of the intended audience. The style is consistent and therefore makes it all look very professional.


Combination with institutions:

I feel that my CD cover and poster would be published by EMI music, this is because they have a very wide label list and mine could fit in with these, EMI would then sell the CD onto other retailers for the public to purchase and they would also provide the same retailer with the corresponding poster to keep with the brand identity. 

The music video itself could be shown on any music channel, especially music channels such as VIVA or 4music. 

If the song was to hit number one, these music channels both show the UK top 40 and therefore this makes them ideal for my music video. The video could also   be shown in other selections of music and on many other music channels.

Evaluation Question One

In the research I carried out at the beginning of the portfolio I discovered all the conventions that makes a successful music video, magazine and CD cover. Below is a prezi presentation that covers the conventions I used, challenged and didn't use in my music video.

In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? on Prezi

Conventions are also present in the production of the CD cover and poster. Below I will analyse how I did this well.

On the left we have Lady Gaga's Cover for telephone and on the right there is my cover. From these we can see many similarities. For example, following the route of the eye, we see the image of the band first, followed by the artist name and the song/album title.  These are conventions I found from all of my research and ones that I felt it was necessary to use. Along with this route of the eye concept I have also used costumes, which feature a lot on CD covers. I have also created a logo for 'The Racoons' and used this throughout my ancillary tasks to create an identity. Another convention I noticed in my research is a colour scheme, and I have also tried to portray this convention as well. 

Lady Gaga's tour poster had a distinctive image of her which is very central. A very bland colour scheme of black and white has been use to create a dramatic look and appeal to the audience. Because this poster doesn't relate to the CD cover, there aren't many similarities between the two, but there are similarities between them in the concept of Gaga's style. Both use bold white text, and have a very distinctive image, Lady Gaga has created a brand identity through her appearance more than a logo and this is reflected in her products. The use of the conventions is very strong and makes a very appealing poster.


My poster uses the same logo, colour scheme and image as the CD cover, this was to provide consistency but to also stick to the conventions of the ancillary tasks. By using the same colour scheme and Logo I have stuck to the conventions of a typical poster, keeping it simplistic yet effective.

Video Second Edit

For this edit we decided to make the video more conventional by removing all of the transitions. In a music video there doesn't tend to be transitions, more jump cuts from clips, we have tried to do that in this edit. We feel that this version works better than the previous version.

Video First Draft

This is our first attempt at the music video. Our overall opinion is that it works very well and we were very pleased with the first draft. We worked very hard to get the lip syncing perfect to create a professional look but to also keep pace in the video. I got some feedback from a social networking site:

From this feedback we can see that the overall feel from our target audience is that the video works well. The like the locations and techniques we used. Although they commented on the good use of editing we felt like we wanted to remove the transitions to see if that improved the overall professionalism of the video.

Reconsideration of video

Once filming had commenced, we soon realised that what we wanted to film was too ambitious in the time scale we had to complete the video. We therefore sat down as a group to discuss what we could do to still produce a good quality video but to also actually finish it.

We decided on:

Using band scenes for the chorus', we had already filmed them at this point and felt they should be a strong aspect of the video.

Focus on Ben and Aimee being the couple that want to be together, which relates to the lyrics.

Use clips mainly of Ben and Aimee, (both together and alone) these should be ones where they are acting natural  to show a connection between them.

Final CD

The front cover of my CD follows the same colour scheme as the poster. The image used is also the same so that the two products relate together. I feel that this is a good use of the ancillary products as it follows the conventions and would appeal to the target audience, as I can tell from the target audience comments.

The back cover of my CD has a more casual image of the band, it also has the signature of the band, a barcode and the list of the tracks on the CD. I feel that all these aspects make it conventional.

Final Poster

I decided to go with the feedback from my target audience and use this poster as my final poster. I feel that it is very eye-catching and it follows the conventions that my research revealed. The logo is consistent on all of my ancillary products as is the picture. I have used two fonts on this, one for the logo and another for all the text, altering the size to prioritise the information on the poster. I have also included a comment from an independent source. 

Props

Guitar:

 in our video we used three guitars, this is because there is two guitarists in the main section of the filming of the song, but in some sections only two are used. This guitar is similar to the one that Ben used, he is the main singer/guitarist in the band.

Guitar: 

Becky, the second guitarist in the video used a guitar similar to this one. She doesn't play such a big role in the story line but still contributed to the music.

Drumkit:

Aimee, the girl who is in love with Ben, is the drummer in the video. She used a oldfield drumkit. The use of all three of these instruments will bring the band together as one. 

Notepad:

This is the pad that Aimee wrote 'I love you' on when thinking about Ben.

Car:

A Ford Focus Ghia is  used for Aimee and Ben.

Poster ideas

"This poster really catches the attention with the big header and the 'here we go'. The stars also catch attention."

"VERY eye-catching! best poster by far."

"This design is very good again, but the image looks slightly distorted."

"Good poster! really catches the attention."

"The white background isn't as eye-catching as the black background. I feel that this draft is wishy washy."

I asked my target audience for some feedback on these posters; their comments are below each one. From the comments I can see that the poster that they prefer the most is the first one.

CD cover and back ideas

Target Audience Feedback Comments 

"I like the black and white colour scheme, it makes the colours from the pictures stand out. The fonts used are also very clear."

"The Racoons logo is used on all of the products for consistency."

"The use of a circular image adds an edgy look to the design of this CD cover, I like it!"

"This CD cover definitely catches the eye!"

"This is the same as the first design but I prefer the title of the album at the top of the logo."

"Another great design for a CD cover!"

"This back cover is very clear. The circles add a different style but wouldn't work well with the cover with circles as well"

"Love the style of this cover!"

"I like the image used for this cover, it shows the whole band looking natural."

"The image really makes a statement on this one."

The Racoon's Logo

This is the font I decided I would use for the logo on all of my ancillary products, I chose this one as both the words are of equal dominance. I will be using them throughout all of the ancillary product to provide a more consistent and professional look.

This will be used on products with a black background.

 I inverted the colours to make a logo that is suitable for white backgrounds.

Photography for Ancillary

I took a range of images for the ancillary task, some of my fellow group who helped to construct the music video also used these, but also took some of their own.

Risk Assesment

Risk	Who is at risk and how?	Prevention
Fire	Actors and filming crew. If a fire was to break out, injury could be caused or even fatality.	The school has fire alarms, break-glass and sprinklers already in place. Everyone should know the correct fire procedures in advance.
Rooftop	Actors and filming crew. Due to the height of the rooftop people can fall which would end to them being seriously hurt.	Everyone should be made aware of the fact that the rooftop is dangerous and no one should be allowed near the edge of the rooftop.
Equipment	Actors and film crew could easily trip over filming equipment and props.	All equipment not in use should be placed to one side away from anyone.

Copyright Music - Contacting The Record Label

Using a copyright product is illegal without permission, so in order to use the song Teenage Dirtbag - Wheatus, in it's original state, we had to contact the record label that owns the song to ask their permission to use this song for educational purposes. 


This is the letter we sent them.

Consent to use copyright material

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Unfortunately we didn't hear back from the record label.

Band Name Survey

In our group we decided on a range of different band names, we let out target audience decide on the name we were going to use. We decide to let our target audience decide as these are the people we want to promote the song to, and if they like the band name they are more likely to listen to it.

The survey shows that the most popular name choice for the band is 'The Racoons' This is what the band will be called. The video being released, therefore, is for the single 'The Racoons - Teenage Dirtbag'.

Band Members

 

BECKY: guitarist 

AIMEE: drummer, guitarist and GIRL

BEN: Guitarist and BOY

All of our band members will be wearing casual/rock costumes. This is to reflect the nature of the chosen song by to also bring the band together.