EVALUATION QUESTION FOUR

SCRIPT FOR EVALUATION FOUR

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

During the research stage of creating my products, media technologies played a vital role.

YouTube was the main media technology we used from beginning to end. We first used this during the research progress to find the song "Teenage Fantasy" and we carried on using it to research further into the contemporary R&B genre by watching similar music videos, as well as videos from other genres. This helped us know what conventions from this genre we wanted to follow and challenge. We also used YouTube to download the song so that we could start editing in iMovie.

I also used Spotify because it has a "similar artists" section on musicians' accounts. This allowed me to find other singers that are part of the same genre as Jorja Smith which gave me a wider variety of music videos to watch. As well as this, I looked through playlists that are made either by Spotify or other users to find similar songs and artists. Having a wider range of musicians to research also gave me more digipaks and magazine adverts to look at for my ancillary tasks.

Also, I used Google throughout my coursework to research into artists, music videos, genre conventions, what digipaks consists of, examples of magazine adverts, along with other information we needed to research. Google images was also useful when it came to looking at inspiration for colour palettes but for this I also used social media sites and other music videos mostly on YouTube but on Vimeo too.

When planning, blogger was used from the beginning to the end of the year as it was crucial for putting all of my thoughts together. This website allowed me to create blog posts explaining my inspiration, ideas, and plans. With an easy-to-use layout, it was very simple to organise everything I needed in the labels I want. I was also able to change the look of my blog so that it includes handy links on the side, which includes the school youtube channel (where I uploaded most videos). 

Another software we used to plan was Microsoft PowerPoint to create a pitch for our music video idea. This simple application allowed us to explain our ideas mostly through images. We then presented this pitch to our class to receive feedback which turned out to be extremely helpful.

Furthermore, since we were using someone outside of our group as an actor, we needed to make sure that we were organised with everything. We mostly used Microsoft Office Excel for this as it was easy to organise the timetables for shooting days, locations, what actors we'll need on what days, what costumes, and the props we will need on certain days. Since Excel is easy to share with other people, it meant that we could all be connected in the plans which allowed us to be more organised. In addition to this, we also used WhatsApp to create a group chat with the three of us who were working on the music video together, along with the actor. This meant that we could let each other know if we were going to be late, have to cancel, if we needed a spare SD card, or any other last-minute messages we might have had to send each other. We also messaged each other on WhatsApp to share inspiration and ideas throughout the year.

When it came to the construction of our products, we used different hardware as well as software. Originally, we wanted to film our portrait shots using a camera called "Super 8". This would have achieved the perfect look we wanted and other music videos that include this camera are Dodie - "You". However, Super 8's are extremely expensive and difficult to use so we had to find an alternative that was more realistic. After researching on Google, we then came across the app "Fyuse" which allowed us to create short videos that go back and forth, making a 3D feel to the portrait shots. Unfortunately, this app was downloaded on Julia and Lucy's phone because it's only available on iPhones which became an issue as I couldn't film any portrait shots if I wanted to whilst I was out on my own. Although it was possible to do this without me filming on my own, we could have got it done quicker if I was able to have it on my own phone too. The only other downside to using this app was that it decreased the quality of the videos. However, the rest of the music video was filmed on DSLRs cameras which meant that the high quality hugely contrasted to the low-quality shots of the portrait shots. Since there was a clear difference anyway, it didn't become a problem because it seems as though we purposely wanted it a lower quality which is an effect used in quite a few music videos, for example, Tigers Jaw: "June" (although this quality is a lot lower than our Fyuse shots)

The other hardware media technology we used are mine and Julia's DSLR cameras which were a Nikon D3300 and a Canon 60D. Using these cameras gave us the quality of video that we wanted and having two DSLRs also meant that we were able to capture a lot more footage throughout the day. Since Julia and I had our own cameras, it also meant that we could film whilst we were on our own. For example, I took a few filler shots of trains whilst I was in central London without the rest of the group. This allowed us to take advantage of the limited time we had, rather than sticking to the few days we could all film together.

Once we had footage for the music video, I started to edit it all using iMovie. We had the option of using this or Final Cut Pro and although to begin with, I wanted to use Final Cut, I ended up deciding that iMovie would be a better option. This is because I used iMovie for my AS film opening so I was already confident in using it. This meant that we wouldn't have as wide of a variety when it came to editing techniques because iMovie doesn't come with much but with the variety of cameras and software we were using, we didn't want to use too much "fancy" editing.

When it came to editing on iMovie, I used a range of editing techniques including cropping, split, rearranging shots, saturation,  and contrast. Another editing technique I used in the majority of the shots was stabilization because since we filmed mostly handheld rather than using a tripod, I had to fix the shots that were extremely unsteady. Finally, I downloaded the song from a YouTube to MP3 converter website to be able to insert the audio onto iMovie.

To create my ancillary tasks, I tried out a range of software before finding the ones that I felt comfortable working with. I first tried to edit the screenshot I took from the video on an app called "Afterlight" however since I have never used this before, I quickly went back to the app called "VSCO" which I use regularly for my media work as well as for editing other photos. After this, I took the screenshot to "Picsart". This was going to be where I would design my digipak and magazine advert. I've used this app a few times in the past but I've never needed to use it for anything important, or anything that I wanted to be extremely good quality. Once I finished editing my album cover on there, I sent it to my laptop to then find out that since it was done on my small phone screen, the quality was nowhere near what I wanted it to be. This app also adds a green tint to photos which wasn't the look I was going for. This meant that I had to find another software that would enable me to design my ancillary tasks. After a quick google, I found a website called "Fotor". Although I've never used or heard of it before, it was extremely easy to design exactly what I wanted. It also had enough fonts available for me to use that meant that I didn't have to use the apps I downloaded on my phone (which included "Phonto", "Font Studio", and "AppForType"). Overall, Fotor was extremely enjoyable and is definitely a media technology I will be using in the near future.

To receive feedback to help with the progress of creating my ancillary tasks, I first used a website called "surveymonkey.com" which let me create surveys that I could easily share with whoever I wanted, to receive as much audience feedback as possible.

When it came to creating the evaluations, I used different media technologies for each question.

Since I don't have iMovie at home, I downloaded an application on my HP laptop called "Animotica - Video Editor". This allowed me to put voiceovers over videos and pictures which helped me create evaluation questions one.

For my second evaluation, I used a website called "Powtoons" which although takes a while, I think it's worth it. The problem I came across when using this, is that I didn't realise before that the free trial means I can only have a video of 5 minutes maximum. Since my voiceover was roughly 8 minutes, I knew that I couldn't cut it down to 5. To fix this, I realised that I had to do it in two parts but the only way to export the videos was to upload it to youtube so I then had to use a youtube to MP4 website again and edit the two together.

For my third evaluation, I used a website called "Prezi" which is similar to powerpoint but it's more complicated and looks a lot better.

Finally, for this evaluation which is the fourth, I'm filming it on my Nikon D3300 which is the same camera I used to film the music video.

In conclusion, I used a wide range of media technologies through every step of my A2 coursework. I went back to old technologies that I am familiar and comfortable with, such as iMovie and VSCO, as well as trying out new technologies that I now love, such as Fotor.

SCRIPT FOR EVALUATION TWO

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

I wanted there to be clear similarities between my music video, digipak, and magazine advert. I did this in different ways including a link between the colour, fonts, shapes, images, and of course the album title, single title, and artist name. This meant that there will be a link between all three which will lead to them looking more professional as real marketing campaigns for music videos tend to all go together. For example, a band called "As It Is" released an album last year which had the whole marketing campaign revolving around the theme of the 50s. The music videos, album covers, and all of the promotional posters had a very clear theme throughout.

My music video starts off with a shot of the title and the artist name on a blue background. This immediately sets the tone for the theme. Originally, I wasn't sure if I wanted the main colour to be red or blue but after carrying out a survey on "SurveyMonkey", I found out that more people agreed that blue suited the album and song better. Because of this, the background is a pastel shade of blue, and to make sure that I had the exact same shade of blue for all of my pieces, I made sure to take note of the hexadecimal number, which is #5986BD. This allowed me to already have a theme because the colour is the first thing to stand out. I used this same colour in my magazine and digipak. Having a plain coloured background helps to make the writing throughout my products stand out more.

Furthermore, I also made sure to use the same fonts. For "Jorja Smith" I used a font called "Cavier Dreams" and for "Teenage Fantasy", I used a font called "Rock Salt". I also made sure to have both lines of text to end and begin at the same point and to do this, I had to change the spacing of the lettering. The fonts were also all capitalised to make them stand out more. I used these fonts for the music video, magazine advert, album cover, and all throughout the rest of my digipak.

I've even made sure to use these fonts and colours in my evaluations.

In addition to this, I was consistent with the shapes I used. This includes small pairs of rectangles and blue triangles scattered throughout my digipak as well as my magazine advert. With the triangles, I wanted to make sure that they were identical on all of my products so I made sure that the angle of the line was exactly 16° on all of them. This was quite easy to achieve on "Fotor" which was the editing website I used. I also used white lines around the image on the album cover and I decided to continue this theme by having more white lines around the other images on the digipak.

Another link between products, is the song "teenage fantasy" being the lead single. Usually, the first single from an album tends to have a music video to accompany it because the musician and the marketing team want that song to receive as much attention as possible. For example, "Puzzle Pieces" by Broadside was the first song from their album "Paradise" and they released the song with a music video. Throughout the rest of their promotional posters and adverts, they would often say that the album featured "Puzzle Pieces" as a single. They also included a photograph taken on the set of the music video as part of their album adverts. Having Teenage Fanatsy be a single released before the album helped to give more reason as to why the album cover was a screenshot from the music video. This also gave me more of a reason to include teenage fantasy in the magazine advert, as well as on the back of the digipack along with the rest of the tracklist.

There are various albums that have the cover either as a screenshot from a single's music video, or a photograph taken on the set. An example of this is Movement's album called "Feel Something" which has a photograph taken on the set of "daylily" which was the most popular single. This all meant that having Teenage Fantasy made perfect sense to be the lead single and since the music video was the first product I created, I took inspiration from that to create my ancillary tasks. First of all, I took a screenshot from the video to use as my album cover which ended up on the magazine advert too. I then also took several more screenshots and placed them on the inside of my digipak. This helped to further bring the products together as the three images placed on top of each other are clearly linked to the video of the single "Teenage Fantasy". Also, if a costumer saw the digipak first, they would be able to notice that the images used have been taken from a video which will hopefully lead them to watch the video if they haven't already.

Throughout my digipak and magazine advert, to make it as professional as possible, I included small details such as the artist's website "jorjasmith.com" (which I made up) and the record label "epic". When it comes to the record label, I also included the copyright details at the bottom of the back of the digipak. This includes phrases such as "Epic Records, 1953 Tokyo Japan. Owned by Sony Music", and "Unauthorised copying, lending, hiring, public performance, and broadcasting prohibited". This helps it look more professional as well as link the products together since you can tell that they're from the same singer and record label.

Furthermore, both of my ancillary tasks have quite a "minimalist" approach as although they include all the information necessary, I managed to not make it overwhelming with writing and information.

Overall, I think that my music video and ancillary tasks are extremely effective as I have used various ways to tie them all together, creating memorable final products.

MAGAZINE ADVERT: SURVEY RESULTS

What I liked most about using survey monkey, is that it automatically compiles all of the responses and organises them to make it easier and quicker to analyse. It also lets you chose what type of graph you would like to view the answers as and I chose a pie chart for most as I feel like that's the easiest to analyse.

The answers from my survey are as shown below.

MAGAZINE ADVERT: SURVEY QUESTIONS

When sending the link to people, I'm planning on sending it along with these two versions of my magazine adverts:

This meant the the questions I was writing were going to be based around those two designs, and how to combine the positives of both to create one final product. I thought it would be best to only include closed questions because this meant it would be easier for the respondents to answer and it would be more efficient to compare results. However, I thought that it would be useful to have a last question available which was open ended where people can include any other thoughts they had.

To make sure I received as many responses as possible, I made all of the questions compulsory to answer apart from the last one. This meant that the respondents weren't able to skip any questions. This is why all (but the last) questions have a * at the start.

The question I included are as shown below:

THIS IS MY SURVEY

MAGAZINE ADVERT: SETTING UP A SURVEY

Throughout my coursework this year I wanted to receive as much feedback as possible to help me achieve the best end products to my ability. Audience feedback is extremely useful as it will help me find out what the potential audience / customers will be looking for if this was a real product. The results will also come in handy when creating my evaluations as I need audience feedback for that to speak about how I improved my products over time.

I've already had some feedback on my music video but I thought I'd get some for my ancillary tasks too. I wanted to get as much feedback as possible from different people and I thought that the best way of doing this would be through Survey Monkey since it's easy to set up, send to multiple people (of different ages), and receive the results all organised.

Another benefit of Survey Monkey is that all of the responses are anonymous which will hopefully lead to people being more honest and this will help me more with knowing exactly what to improve.