Media evaluation

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

For my video i chose the song kalimar (Hey) by Hulls local indie/rock band The Tennents. The band is not main stream as they are newly established and are representative of a genre of music that is mostly about self expression not making it into the charts but being true to themselves as artists. As they are an up and coming local band they do not have an existing music video. My decision to crate a video for The Tennents was originally inspired by listening to the music of bands such as The Strokes, The Cribs, The Mystery Jets and The Arctic monkeys. It was specifically the video for The Cribs our bovine public that inspired the DIY style of video, however i wanted to make it look authentic so i decided the best way to do this was to film a real existing band that i am passionate about rather then constructing one.

The recording footage used in my video was taken from The Tennents recording studio time, this was over a period of two days and gave me  a change to get lots of footage of the band and also meant that no further recording would be necessary as they had to do multiple recoding takes. I felt that documenting the bands first time in a recording studio was  a significant moment and an opportunity that i could not miss.

My video is a performance based video as i felt that it fitted with the genre my artists represent. A performance based video gives the opportunity for the band to show off there talents as musicians and also shows the audience what they are all about. Making music. As well as this The Tennents fan base are part of a niche audience and an active audience, and as a result the audience desires to see the band so by creating a performance video i would also be giving the audience what they want, which is to see the members of the band they admire.

One of the codes of conventions of the indie rock genre Is the use of bold graphic imagery. For example The Cribs video Hey Scenester’s portrays the artists as bold black lined silhouetted figures. For my video changed the video clips into a strong contrasting black and white like that of the threshold imagery used in my digi pack. I feel that the use of graphic imagery adds a more creative element to the video rather then using the original colourings the video camera captured. I also think this also helps to exude the bands creativity through there video.

Generally speaking the genre of indie rock as a majority male fan basis, as the genre is majority male dominated. however this does not mean that females are in anyway isolated it still attracts a large audience and fan basis. Although the genres videos are normally performance based and majority of the performers are male it provides different things to different sex’s. To males a performance based video gives the audience the opportunity to see the band members they idolize  and for the female audience it provides ‘eye candy’, whilst providing an insight into the artists life's providing interest for both sex’s.

With my video i did not have to create a costume for any of my band members as they where not acting in anyway or tying to mimic the style of a genre, they are the genre as is there music. i didn't feel i had to change anything as they where entirely representative of my audience profile, and to change them in any way would be changing the image the band already have.

For The location of my video i chose to film at The Warren, a local recording studio in hull. i felt it added to the stereotypical image presented by the genre. most indie rock video’s often filmed in dark poorly lit locations, although this is not ideal for filming hight quality footage it did give me the grainy DIY effect i wanted for the video. and as previously stated it provided me the perfect opportunity to get multiple shots of the same song so i had a large amount of footage to work with and allowed me to experiment with different angles. because i was fortunate enough to spend two full as filming The Tennents it meant that i had that much footage i had no need to re shoot. Another advantage to filming at the warren was that is was only about a twenty minute walk from my house which meant i had no issues getting to the location.

Although I created a story board for my music video because it was live non scripted footage I was using it mad it difficult to stick to any form of structure. As a result when editing it became more of a creative process rather then sticking to my initial planning. I felt that this worked better then if I had tried to stick to my story boarding and that the outcome was in fact an improvement on the original story board, which in actual fact did not compliment the beat of the track used. In my video i wanted to show the bands musical talents but as well as this i wanted to show a more human fun side to them and that they where in fact four friends having fun doing what they love. i did this by adding shots of the band that i would deem less serious. This makes it easier to be able to relate to the band and makes them seem more human.

The thing i found hardest about editing my video is trying to sync the clips so they where edited in time with the song and match up the clips of the rhythm guitar for example with the correct section of the song.  As it is part of the conventions of the indie genre i felt it was important to look as effective as possible. The issue i has was that the song i was using was one that had been recorded the day i was filming, as a result the recording studio technician had speeded things up and slowed things down to how they where actually played by the artists which meant in some places i had to change the pace of the clip.

Another thing i felt was important was that each band member got as close to as equal footage on my final edit as possible, i wanted my video to be varied to keep the audience entertained and i also didn't want to have to many shots of the front man, i wanted to create an equilibrium between the band members.

I wanted to keep the editing relatively fast paced to make sure i maintain the audiences interest and keep the video entertaining, however i had to slow don't the editing to what i had originally planned from one clip per second to one clip per two seconds as i felt the pace didn't match the more mature nature of the song. Because of The strong performance element of the video the issue i had was to create an entertaining video without it feeling to repetitive. I did this by varying the angle of the shots used throughout the video rather then just going for a standard and un interesting wide shot. The Majority of the shots are well framed, i believe it represents the seriousness and maturity in which the band take creating music whilst juxtaposing it with the fun and the friendship  they share in other clips.

I decided to create an outtakes video for my blog as well as the music video to demonstrate some of the problems faced when filming. Fortunately as i was filming for two days and it was a recording studio session it meant that there was no need for any re- shoots. Another reason for me creating my outtakes video was to show some of the fun The Tennents had recording and that i had filming them. Although the out takes video is not part of my final product i think it also helps t show a more relatable side to the band and brings more of a sense of normality about them, that they are just teenagers like the ones watching there video’s and listening to there music .to create my outtakes video i used the same editing software i used on my final piece ( I-Movie). I used i move as it is quick and simple to use and because i have the software readily available on my Mac Book Pro, which means i am not restricted to only editing within college hours and i can edit both at homes and in my free’s because of the laptops portability. although i did not use the same song in my outtakes video i used one from the same genre of music by The Cribs. A band that to me have been hugely influential to me throughout the process of both the video and the ancillary texts.

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

To create my digi pack i took some images off The Tennents band Facebook page.i then uploaded them into photoshop CS5. after doing so i then changed the image to a higher contrast version and then converted it into a threshold image. After doing so i then used the paintbrush tool to fill in the black and white sections to make a stronger bolder image. After doing so i then removed the white section on the image and added a texture layer. I then began experimenting with colour and texture to create to several different out comes.

The aspect i found most difficult about making my digi pack was making sure the images had a sense of continuity across all the panels. i found it had to make it look like a complete piece of work rather then five individual images. as well as this i had to make sure it also fitted in with both my video and my other ancillary texts. Although my video is shot in strong contrasting black and white i felt that my ancillary texts needed an introduction of other colours along side the bold black and white to make it more eye catching and visually appealing. However i was concerned that by doing so it would not correspond very well with my video. I decided to do band images for my digi pack and my video is a performance based video i thought it would add more continuity throughout my video and ancillary texts, making the addition if colour more justifiable. 

I think it is important to see how my product in the right  environment that it would be viewed by the audience. So i edited both my magazine and DIgi pack into a  real life setting using Photoshop CS5. I Put my digi pack onto i tunes , as i tunes is the biggest online music distributer. As well as this it gave me an opportunity to see how realistic my album cover would look from the point of view of a teenagers i-pod. I feel that my digi pack looks effective on I tunes over all. For my music magazine advertisement i edited my advert onto a magazine page using once again photoshop CS5. Over all i think that the advert looked effective placed in the magazine and it looks like something that i would see in magazines such as Q and NME as they are representative of the genre of indie rock music. The font it clear and stands out and the image dominates the age without taking away from the informative aspects of advertisement. I do know however that a full page advertisement would cost the record company a lot of money, and although the record company have faith in the artist as wichita is proudly independent it does also mean they do not have the money to throw at advertising all the time and are more likely to use online Facebook and twitter artist pages to do most of there advertising.

For the creation of my music magazine advertisement i used images previously used on my digi pack of the band members to give the sense of continuity. i uploaded them to photo shop CS5 and converted them into a threshold image. After doing so i then selected all the white areas individually with the magic wand tool and deleted them leaving them blank. I then went onto the internet and googled photoshop textures. after fining the sort of texture i wanted i then placed it behind the image of sed bad member and merged the two layers together. after doing this i then filled in the black outlined section of threshold image with  the paint brush tool to give it a more bold definite and graphic appearance. I wanted a bold graphic appearance like the ones scene on the foo fighters and cribs album covers, as well as this i wanted to have a colour element like that of the cold play album cover.

I thought this looked most effective for my advert and that it was bold and eye catching as well as being creative and sticking to traditional codes and conventions. I felt that the creativity of the piece and the sense of atmosphere created by the inky background created an illusion of when lights reflect dust particles in the air like you see at gigs. which reflects the sort of environment you would see the band.  as well as this the creating of a more bold graphic image is reflective of the bands own creative definite style as artists.

I had a clear idea of what text to use on The Tennents magazine design as they already had there own font style associated with the band, so i did not have to go through the process of typography experimentation. For my text i used the impact font. it s bold and graphic like my imagery, both the font and the imagery marry up in style whilst the white colorless font contrasts with the back imagery of the silhouetted band members and the smokey atmospheric backgrounds.

I did however have to go through several texture changer before i found the right one for my magazine advert. this was partly done in the making of my digi pack in which i tried several textures and colours such as paint splatters, rust, scratched surfaces ect.

I decided that as it was The Tennents first album the best way to market the album was to name it after the band so it would be instantly recognizable to there fans it is there record rather then trying to be obscure and creative it could potentially cause confusion, where as if they see the name The Tennents they automatically  know who it is the album is by and will pick it up instinctively. I didn't have to create a name artist name as the songs i was using are original material used by the local band i am representing through my work.I felt that the graphic nature and use of colour in my magazine advert helped to link it to the music video, i used bold black and white as one of the main dominating colours in my magazine advertisement like the bold contrasting black and white used in my video. however i felt that just black and white as a colour scheme was a bit boring for an advertisement so i introduced the colours blue and red. Red is a colour often stereotyped with the Indie rock genre and is a conventional colour as it represents passion and anger something prominent within the image of the band and the genre. The colour blue i took from my digi pack as it is a dominant colour featured across my final digi pack design. although neither colours feature within the video i think it creates a different interesting more eye catching dimension for the sake of advertising. 

After doing this i then  decided that i would construct a more interesting way of arranging my font whilst remaining informative, i altered the font sizes to slot together like a slightly miss shaped jigsaw. this created a more interesting way of portraying information and made the viewing experience for the audience less like a task and kept them interested in what the advert had to offer them.

I then did some eclectic borrowing of wichita recordings record logo and applied it to the bottom right corner of my poster, i felt it was necessary to do this to make the image look more professional and therefore more believable as an advertisement. Although the The Tennenets are signed to a record label they are only a very small independent label that are relatively un herd of and there for don't have a reputation. Wichita recordings is a world renowned independent label, although they are only small they are know for sticking to there ethical indie roots and there rejection of large cooperations such as sony. I feel that this is something that The Tennents share and there for would be reflected by the presence of the logo on the advert.

I added two coloured images of the rhythm guitarist Ryan onto the front of my advertisement. One blue one red, i the doubled the layers so they where slightly overlapping and different in size, i felt it created a sense on movement on my front cover. and added and energy representative of youth. I also added where the album is available to purchase and that is was available to buy as a physical copy as well as available to download. by doing this  it directly informs the audience where to go to by the album making it as easy as possible to by the album legally so they wont resort to illegally down loading it of peer to peer sharing.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have learnt from my audience feedback from Facebook that in places my video should have had more clips in showing precision synced editing rather then just using visually appealing camera angles, however i added in the more dynamic camera angles t keep my audience entertained as the music video is quite long. I would have also liked a change of mise en scene like in the original drafts and would have meant i would not have to compensate on precision for entertainment. However unfortunately The Tennents where not gigging as much in the time i had available to record them.

In addition i do feel in places (particularly toward the end) my video could have been edited at a faster pace although i was concerned it would compromise the beat and timing of the song. As well as this i think that the performance element could have been broken up with some more abstract clips to keep my video more visually appealing.

Although my ancillary texts where oven all received very well by my audience and are part of my project i feel to be particularly strong i do feel i could have improved on my digi pack. From my audience feed back i found out they felt the image could be more contrasting in places, and that the image i used as the from cover was not as strong as it should be. However for the front cover i wanted to use a band photo, and unfortunately that was the only image strong enough to make into a graphic image of the whole band. Admittedly if i had time i would have like to have re shot some images again.

The only real critique i had for my music magazine advert is that it should have includes more web addresses and online information such as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. although it is only a small thing in a digital era it is quite an important thing to miss out as it would have given my artist a lot more publicity and the audience greater accessibility on different platforms using different medias. 

By looking at my You tube statistics i found out that  my top play back locations where 41.8% you tube watch page, Embedded player on other websites 35.8% and mobile devices 22.4%. i thought it would be intriguing to see my youtube results although they where not entirely what i expected. I though the percentage of mobile devices used would be higher, however it did post my video ofter college hours so people are more likely to use laptops computers ect rather than there phones as they respond quicker.

I also did additional questionnaires amongst my peers rather then my close friends to get a non bias opinion in contrast to theres, i though that it would give me a more balanced out look on potential changes to my media products. 

I asked my target audience what genre they thought my music video was majority of the people questioned answered Indie/ indie rock/ alternative. Which means that i have done a good job at projecting the genre i was aiming to represent through the choices made to create my music video. I also asked if my ancillary texts linked well with my music video, as i was concerned that the addition of colour to my ancillary texts would cause confusion. However around 93% of people questioned felt that my ancillary texts worked well with my video. which means that the addition of colour did not effect the over all graphic bold nature of my imagery to much. and that the bold black and white still remained key and was not over powered by the addition of Red and Blue.

When i asked what i should change to improve my music video, i got numerous responses. Some felt that the performance element could have been made more entertaining if it was broken up with more abstract scenic shots ect. others felt that my editing and timing could have been improved, and that there should have been more footage of guitars, drums and bass synced in my video rather then concentrating more on visuals. i do agree with some of the comments made however i do think some of it was just peoples personal preference in video style. If  could do it again though i would experiment with using abstract shots as well as a performance narrative just see what kind of out come it would create visually. As for having more synced editing i feel that my video included quite a bit of it but unfortunately it was somewhat effected when uploaded on to youtube.

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

Throughout my corse work i have used many different forms of technology to contribute to the construction of my final edit and ancillary texts. Firstly I used blogger as an online portfolio for all my corse work entries, this meant i could work on it at home and at college at all times and that my teachers could continuously monitor and mark my work thought the coursework period.

I movie has been vital to editing my music video and out takes video. I uploaded my footage onto my laptop and then dragged 

the footage from i photos into a new project in i movies. I then selected the clips from the complete amount of footage stored on i movies and selected certain parts and dragged and dropped it into the footage panel. The drag and drop controls used on a mac makes everything more simplified, the same applies for there applications such as I movie, it is quick and easy to use as well as this by doing this on my laptop it meant that i could do it both at home and at college because it is so portable. The program allowed me to speed up, slow do not cut, edit and apply special effects to my clips as well as alter sound and colour and much more. I had never previously used I movie before but i found it very user friendly and easy to use. It allowed precise editing without making it un nessicarily complex to do so. I used You tube to up load and put on my blog all my videos created on I-movies. 

to film my video is used a Sony Handycam rather then using a HD camera. i felt that the handycam would be better suited to the environment in which i would be filming and the quality of footage i required. as well as this the camera allowed me to film everything onto a memory card. this meant that the footage could be quickly transferred and uploaded in a matter of minutes rather then having to wait for the tape to rewind.

The size of the camera was important as there was chance i could have been filming in small club environments, which would have made moving around amongst the crowd difficult if i had a large camera. fortunately i got all the footage needed at the recording studio, however the same principle applies at the recording studio was only small and it would have mad it difficult for me to get some of the close up and hight angles shots that i have achieved with the use of the hadycam. Although the quality of footage is not the best on a handycam i believe it works in my favor in this instance because of the DIY nature of my genre it makes it look more authentic.

As well as this i used both Prezi’s and animatics within my coursework unit. This helps to express my ideas in a more visually interesting format as well as demonstrating the different  media forms available. This was my thought process could be viewed easier and more effectively, especially in the case of Prezi and its mind map format.

Adobe CS5 was also essential to the development and creation of my digi pack and my music magazine advert. I used it to create my final media AS product and i am also a graphics student so i am very confident on how to use the program. i was able to completely alter the original imagery used on both my ancillary texts with a number of tools on photoshop ( levels, Magic wand, Paint tool, Threshold effect different layer settings) as well as freely move and arrange text using different layers to crate a more fun way of presenting lyrics and song names on the digi pack and information on the adverts. Photo shop CS5 gave a proffesional look to my final product and overall really realistic. 

to take images and record my audience feedback i  used my iPod touch. my iPod is always on me and the camera is of a reasonably good quality. My ipod is highly portable and is an example of miniaturization. As well as this video’s and photo’s are very easy to up load to any computer as it uses a USB cable to connect to the computer, which means that providing i have the cable i can upload content to my blog from my ipod any where at any time.

I uploaded my final edit of my music video on to the social networking site facebook to get some audience feed back, by uploading it onto facebook i would be receiving feedback directly from the age range my media product is aimed at. as well as this it means i can get feed back quickly and easily throughout the day.

I got a lot of feedback from posting my video on Facebook, a lot of people both commented and messaged me about my video, most the feedback was positive all of it was constructive. some people felt that the timings could have been improved app on slightly, however on my original version on my laptop the timings are correct but since uploading it to you tube some clips are out by a fraction of a second. i feel however over all my target audience gave the impression that my video appealed to them.