Thursday 3 May 2012
Sunday 22 April 2012
How did you use new technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
New Technologies were important in the production of this portfolio and new technology was used throughout the stages of construction, research, planning and evaluation.
Here is a Quick list of the technologies used by me during the course
Facebook/Twitter - Used to communicate with the group and organise filming and share resources.
Youtube - Used to host videos that are on Blogger and also as a way to share videos and get feedback
Blogger - Used to constantly update progress and contains all of the work that has gone into the portfolio
Adobe Premier pro CS4 - Used to edit the entire music video project
Sony Vegas Pro 10 - I used at home to edit the review videos and the commentary
Smartphones - Used for internet access on location and also to communicate with each other on the go
Bose Bluetooth dock - used to play the song on location allowing actors to lip sync accurately
Sony Handycam - School provided cameras to film on which was of a great quality and the new technology in the camera allows us to preview shots with a projector built in
In Research the internet was the main technology that I used as well as the use of Blogger to update my work. Youtube played a part in research too, it was the main source that i used to find the music videos that I was studying to find out what conventions and iconography is used in music videos so for that point of view, it was one of the most important technologies used. The overall effect of using technology for research was the simplification of the process, I could sit in one place and do all of the research i needed with a few simple searches, this allowed me to do lots of research in a small amount of time leaving me with plenty of time to spend on other tasks.
In planning a great deal of communication was used through the different methods mentioned above like Facebook and via phone. Most of the planning materials such as storyboards were made with little technology used, nothing more than word processing was used when making planning materials however the easy communication meant that the whole process, while not reliant on technology, was easy and seamless as it was easy for the group to all be on task together.
Construction was the most technologically heavy process of them all as many different forms of hardware and software were used. In terms of hardware the main object was the camera used which was probably the most important technology used, it was used to capture all video which was obviously the key part of the portfolio. We also used the Bose docking system which allowed us to play the track for our actors to hear which was incredibly important for quality lip synchronisation. This made the process of synchronising the vocals easy and precise so it was worthwhile using this technology. As for software a great deal of different software went into making the products such as Premier Pro, Vegas and other video software such as PMB which we used to convert files from their standard format into ones that could be used by the editing suite. As well as these mentioned to do with video, many print and web programs were used such as Photoshop for the album cover and Dreamweaver for the webpage creation. The software that is available to use makes everything more simple as without them editing photo and video would be nearly impossible.
For the evaluation, Blogger was the main technology used as this is where the evaluation has been presented, but this stage has incorporated more than just this as sites such as youtube, Google and countless others have been used to gather resources for this evaluation. Using the internet for the Evaluation has all of the same benefits that using it in Planning does, it makes the process quicker, easier and gives you the chance to easily amend information should you need to. For this reason I feel that the use of the internet will increase my grade
Here is a Quick list of the technologies used by me during the course
Facebook/Twitter - Used to communicate with the group and organise filming and share resources.
Youtube - Used to host videos that are on Blogger and also as a way to share videos and get feedback
Blogger - Used to constantly update progress and contains all of the work that has gone into the portfolio
Adobe Premier pro CS4 - Used to edit the entire music video project
Sony Vegas Pro 10 - I used at home to edit the review videos and the commentary
Smartphones - Used for internet access on location and also to communicate with each other on the go
Bose Bluetooth dock - used to play the song on location allowing actors to lip sync accurately
Sony Handycam - School provided cameras to film on which was of a great quality and the new technology in the camera allows us to preview shots with a projector built in
In Research the internet was the main technology that I used as well as the use of Blogger to update my work. Youtube played a part in research too, it was the main source that i used to find the music videos that I was studying to find out what conventions and iconography is used in music videos so for that point of view, it was one of the most important technologies used. The overall effect of using technology for research was the simplification of the process, I could sit in one place and do all of the research i needed with a few simple searches, this allowed me to do lots of research in a small amount of time leaving me with plenty of time to spend on other tasks.
In planning a great deal of communication was used through the different methods mentioned above like Facebook and via phone. Most of the planning materials such as storyboards were made with little technology used, nothing more than word processing was used when making planning materials however the easy communication meant that the whole process, while not reliant on technology, was easy and seamless as it was easy for the group to all be on task together.
Construction was the most technologically heavy process of them all as many different forms of hardware and software were used. In terms of hardware the main object was the camera used which was probably the most important technology used, it was used to capture all video which was obviously the key part of the portfolio. We also used the Bose docking system which allowed us to play the track for our actors to hear which was incredibly important for quality lip synchronisation. This made the process of synchronising the vocals easy and precise so it was worthwhile using this technology. As for software a great deal of different software went into making the products such as Premier Pro, Vegas and other video software such as PMB which we used to convert files from their standard format into ones that could be used by the editing suite. As well as these mentioned to do with video, many print and web programs were used such as Photoshop for the album cover and Dreamweaver for the webpage creation. The software that is available to use makes everything more simple as without them editing photo and video would be nearly impossible.
For the evaluation, Blogger was the main technology used as this is where the evaluation has been presented, but this stage has incorporated more than just this as sites such as youtube, Google and countless others have been used to gather resources for this evaluation. Using the internet for the Evaluation has all of the same benefits that using it in Planning does, it makes the process quicker, easier and gives you the chance to easily amend information should you need to. For this reason I feel that the use of the internet will increase my grade
What have you learned from your audience feedback
Audience feedback was an important part of our process and we often checked with the people around us to see if changes were necessary or if what we was doing looked okay. This was done in the media classroom as we were editing so it was useful to have people with media knowledge around to help us whilst we went along. They helped us learn what was good and bad about our product. One notable peice of feedback U recived was from one of the member of our class Tayo Adeboye who gave a good analysis of where our product was at a point of its development which allowed us to make some drastic changes that increased the quality of the product greatly. This is an example of how the feedback we received was great and improved the product a huge amount.
We also revived feedback from non media students at an evening showcasing the creative work at the school. This was a useful learning experience as most of the audience would not be media students so their response would be mainly emotional and not as technical as the evaluation be media students. By receiving their emotional response some technical elements can be changed to allow a different emotional response from this audience. This is why learning from an audience of non media students was useful as it allowed us to change the video to get the intended response from the audience when applying the uses and gratification theory to my work.
Finally here is a short video that one of our friends agreed to film for us giving her feedback on our video.
We also revived feedback from non media students at an evening showcasing the creative work at the school. This was a useful learning experience as most of the audience would not be media students so their response would be mainly emotional and not as technical as the evaluation be media students. By receiving their emotional response some technical elements can be changed to allow a different emotional response from this audience. This is why learning from an audience of non media students was useful as it allowed us to change the video to get the intended response from the audience when applying the uses and gratification theory to my work.
Finally here is a short video that one of our friends agreed to film for us giving her feedback on our video.
Saturday 21 April 2012
How Effective is the combination of main and ancillary texts?
For this portfolio I had to create the main music video as well as part of a website and an album cover which all had to combine to form an effective promotional package. The way that I done this was by developing a reasonable Style Sheet with my group which we would all follow meaning that we would come out with something that ultimately looked the same. for example the font Verdana which was used throughout the body text in the website was used in the title text on the music video which helps combine the products and make them uniform.
Another example of how an effective combination was created was the photography used. In my album sleeve product I used photography from the band shot filming day to create a link between the video for the song and the sleeve that the CD of the song comes in. The reason that I made this link was to make it clear that the two products were related. This would be useful as all of the products linked by images would cross promote each other as audiences would see the same images in different places and across different media platforms and may be interested in using the texts on different platforms.
My products also had to incorporate the rest of my groups products so that they all combined to form one larger promotional package that had to be as effective altogether as they were individually. I think that this was achieved, to some extent. The reason that I think this is that we did not all agree completely in some areas and we also had some poor communication in relation to the ancillary tasks where we focused our communication on the main task.
However there were some strengths in the combination of all of the groups promotional package. For example two website samples were made and they both linked to one another making a larger website. This was useful as it meant that there were not two completely different websites so they combined well to make one single entity. Another example of where the groups work combined well was with the album covers where we chose to make one CD Jewel case with booklet and one album sleeve case with posters (Example Right) so that there was a variety of products in the package.
Another example of how an effective combination was created was the photography used. In my album sleeve product I used photography from the band shot filming day to create a link between the video for the song and the sleeve that the CD of the song comes in. The reason that I made this link was to make it clear that the two products were related. This would be useful as all of the products linked by images would cross promote each other as audiences would see the same images in different places and across different media platforms and may be interested in using the texts on different platforms.
My products also had to incorporate the rest of my groups products so that they all combined to form one larger promotional package that had to be as effective altogether as they were individually. I think that this was achieved, to some extent. The reason that I think this is that we did not all agree completely in some areas and we also had some poor communication in relation to the ancillary tasks where we focused our communication on the main task.
In what ways does your Media Product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real Media Products?
The media product I have created uses many conventions of real media products such as other music videos and many products associated with the genre of music that the song is from, alternative rock.
The reason that I decided to use the conventions, rather than subvert or challenge them, is that through research I discovered that the products existing within this genre were mainly conventional and many previous productions have stuck to them. There are, however some exceptions like Wild Beasts - Hooting and Howling (Bellow) which uses some experimental techniques and shots as well as the underwater setting.
However many bands and examples looked at through research as well as everyday experiences and encounters with this genre show that videos are mainly conventional such as The Strokes - Reptillia (Bellow) which uses simple techniques that are easy and realistic for us to recreate, for this reason we have used this type of conventional, simple video as coordinating a shoot underwater (for example) would be incredibly hard to accomplish.
It is also conventional for real media products to use significant iconography in their products. In our product we used iconography in terms of musical iconography such as the Guitars, Drums and Bass Guitars used in our video, iconic locations were also featured such as Greenwich and the urban/industrial settings that are commonly seen inside of this genre. In addition to this the clothing that the actors were dressed in, while part of Mise-en-scene, are also iconic for the alternative genre as shirts, trench coats and skinny jeans are all common within the genre (Right).
To conclude on this question, the products that have been created are all conventional of the genre used as well as fitting with the conventions of the form. The mise-en-scene that we created fits the conventions and supports this conclusion. I believe that we have succeeded in following the conventions found in the research stage and applied them well to stick within the conventions of the alternative rock genre.
The reason that I decided to use the conventions, rather than subvert or challenge them, is that through research I discovered that the products existing within this genre were mainly conventional and many previous productions have stuck to them. There are, however some exceptions like Wild Beasts - Hooting and Howling (Bellow) which uses some experimental techniques and shots as well as the underwater setting.
To conclude on this question, the products that have been created are all conventional of the genre used as well as fitting with the conventions of the form. The mise-en-scene that we created fits the conventions and supports this conclusion. I believe that we have succeeded in following the conventions found in the research stage and applied them well to stick within the conventions of the alternative rock genre.
Thursday 19 April 2012
My Commentary About the Music Video
Here is a quick video commentary by me about the video, watch and enjoy
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