Evaluation Question 1 - In What Way Does Your Media Product Use, Develop and Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real media Products

Here is a Prezzi answering question 1 of the Evaluation.

Evaluation Question 2 : How Effective Is The Main Product and Auxiliary Texts?

Here is my full answer to question two.

Evaluation Question 3: What Have you Learnt From Audience Feedback

Evaluation Question 4 -– How did you use media technologies in the research planning, construction and evaluation stages?

To begin creating our music video product we had to research the common conventions of music videos to do this we used the Internet as it held a vast amount of information. To search for conventions of music video etc., the web browser Google was of major help during research as it provided us with numerous sites that provided secure reliable information. Furthermore, Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) was also a media technology, which was very useful during the researching stages. It allowed us to pull facts and figures from the site about music videos and put these ‘facts’ to use in our own music video so we could replicate the conventions of official music videos. During the researching process, through using these different technologies we came across the music video theorist Andrew Godwin (who stated that there were a number of common conventions present in music videos).  We found out about Godwin on Wikipedia and though Wikipedia had been useful before when searching for information about Godwin the site did not have a good amount of useful information on. Due to this we used Google searching ‘Andrew Godwin’ and found numerous sites containing more helpful information. We found many slideshows online from our own media teacher and other media teachers across the web, which were far more useful and supplied the information we desired. 

We found out about ‘Godwin’s Seven’ conventions. To see if we agreed with these seven ‘rules’ we took to YouTube and searched for numerous music videos to see if any of his seven rules could be applied to these music videos. YouTube was a very useful technology as it supplied us with thousands of music videos to study and analyze.

Throughout the researching stage we researched for the history of music videos, again Wikipedia was of great to us when researching for the history of music videos as it provided us with a timeline of ‘music video history’. However, Wikipedia supplied us with so much information it was difficult to understand which parts were most reliable, as it is known that anyone can edit pages on Wikipedia. After this we decided to take to other websites to find information about music video history. Again we found numerous slideshows online that broke down the information into simpler forms. These slideshows were mostly presented on Slideshare. Slideshare presented these slideshows in a simple manner allowing the information being easy to follow. Slideshare was a very helpful technology during the research stage.

We also began researching previous student examples online we found examples via Youtube which was helpful as all we had to search was ‘a2 media studies music video’ and hundreds of videos were available to us. We also came across past students blogs from our school on the website Blogger which allowed us to see what marks and what level they achieved. This allowed us to see the standard of quality we needed to achieve to get a good mark that we desired.

Blogger as a technology was very useful to us as it allowed us to showcase our creativity with the feature of allowing us to embed videos, images, post screen grabs, post slideshows and other technologies such as: Prezzi, Glogster, Pixton etc.

This allowed for my blog to be more visually interesting and enjoyable to read. We were also able to use Blogger throughout all the stages; researching, planning, construction and evaluation as it appeared to be such a useful technology.

Throughout the planning stages we used the Internet again to provide us with information. for example, we used BBC Weather to check the weather forecast for when we went our filming as we wanted the best possible weather conditions which wouldn’t effect to quality of the camera.

During planning we knew that when we had filmed our footage and were ready to edit we wanted to us the advance-editing program of Final Cut Pro however, we were quite new to this editing software so we took to YouTube again and search for online tutorials of how to use the software. From watching numerous online tutorials on YouTube we found about the techniques of; split screen, colour correction and green screen. If we had not searched for these online tutorials we would have wasted a lot production time trying to work these techniques out ourselves so by having these tutorials at our fingertips it was really beneficial to us. 

We already has basic knowledge on the type of shows we wanted to use in our music video however, these shots were very ordinary such as over the shoulder shots and eye line shots. So again we took to YouTube as it has been great help to us previously and searched for different camera angles and shots that we could perhaps replicate into our own music video. We also tried looking for camera shots on the website Vimeo, though this was still useful, YouTube contained far more useful videos of what we were looking for.

During the planning stage we also used google Images to source pictures of the types of props we wanted to use and costumes we wanted our characters to wear in our music video. This allowed us to develop our ideas. Once we had a rough idea of what we wanted our characters to wear we used the online survey site Survey Monkey and produced a survey that asked our audiences preferences on the possible costumes for our characters. We posted this survey on our own personal Facebook accounts and got a good amount of replies, which were useful to our final decisions. Therefore, Survey Monkey in conjunction with Facebook was of great use to us as they allowed us to plan and cater towards our audience feedback. 

Throughout the main construction stages our digital camera was a major technology to us as it allowed us to successfully record our video footage. We didn’t encounter any major problems whilst using the video cameras as they we of HD quality and easy to use.  However, we did notice that when filming in dark lighting the camera quality didn’t appear to be as clear in comparison to when filming in brighter lighting. The camera also has an organized system, which allowed us to delete any unwanted footage easily without any hassle, this also freed up space on the memory card so we could film more spare footage if need be.

Though a rather simple technology, we use a tripod, which was of great use to us. It allowed to steadily securing the camera in place whilst filing our footage. The tripod was very easy to use and it allowed us to get steady successful shots. The only hindrance of using the tripod was that a few times it wasn’t tall enough or high enough for the shots we were trying to get so we had to hold it instead of putting it on the ground. 

Once we had filmed our footage. We imported it onto to iMovie. The process of importing the footage was very easy and iMovie placed our footage into well-organized system putting all the clips as one ‘event’. 

We then imported our footage to Final Cut Pro X which was of great use to us as this was the editing program that we would editing our music video on. As a whole Final Cut was easy to use however, as the program is so advanced there were features that we were not sure how to use properly so we had to use Google a few times to find out how to use certain features successfully.

For my ancillary texts the main program that I used was Photoshop. I used Photoshop for both my Wix Website and my magazine advertisement.  Photoshop as a whole was extremely helpful as it allowed me to edit images together, cut certain part away and even create the social media toggles for my Wix Website. Photoshop allowed me to take ‘normal’ images and enhance them, creating a more professional and artistic feel.

As said previously, to create my online website I used a website builder called Wix, while this was a useful technology I found it to be rather limiting and difficult to use at times as you had to pick a preset template so you had to try hard to make your website look different and creative to other existing website created on Wix, however once to had overcome these issues I was mostly pleased with the overall look of my website.

For the evaluation stages we firstly used Microsoft word to plan out our answers and write scripts for our answers. Word was very easy to use and we were very familiar with the program prior to the evaluation stages, we could also access this program from home and at school making it even more useful to us.

For question one we used the online presentation software called Prezzi, Prezzi is slightly more advanced and has a more creative feel than the traditional presentation software of PowerPoint. Prezzi allowed us to embed images and video into our presentation giving it a more interactive feel. As a whole Prezzi was very easy to use as we were already familiar with the technology, as we had use it in the planning and construction stages.

For question two I decided to use the presentation software of Powerpoint, though it lacks the slight creative interactive feel of Prezzi, the program is easy to use as it allowed me to set out my answer in a structured manner. Like Prezzi, it allowed embed images, so I did this to make the presentation more visually interesting and it also helped me visually reinforce my points. After I had created my PowerPoint, I had to upload it to Slideshare to upload to my blog on Blogger. Using Slideshare was very simple, it guides you through the process step by step and then allows you to share you presentation anywhere online by providing you with a copy and paste code that you embed into you blog post. Without the aid of Slideshare I wouldn’t have been able to upload my blog therefore it was very useful to me during the evaluation process.

For question three we decide to use the online tool Glogster.  This presented our answer in a ‘poster’ format. We were familiar with the program, as we had used it during the planning and construction stages. Glogster allowed us to embed images and add text. It also provided us with features such as speech bubbles and arrows making the Glog seem more interactive and interesting to read.

Audience Feedback

We collected audience research and presented our feedback in a Bubbl.

Audience Feedback Survey Monkey

These are the results that our target audience responded to our first draft of our video. The video is uncompleted and so there are a lot of parts where there is just Molly singing where we are going to add in different clips (once filmed) or overlay different clips like we have done a few times during the video. This has helped us greatly as it means we know what the liked (so what we can add more of) and what they disliked (what to either remove, have less of or not film more of) and it also made it clear for us of what we have left to do to make it more appealing to our target audience.