Tom's Evaluation.

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

Our music video was a representation of a typical folk song. Our artist was “Bassboosa”, and the song was a cover of “Wicked Game”. The typical conventions of a folk video are a love-heartbreak narrative. A performance going on throughout the duration of the video; with close ups of the main characters. For our video we decided to keep the same conventions but modify them a bit, and make our entire product abstract. We analysed the original video and some others like it and then compile our results and work out our plan from them. We wanted to challenge the typical conventions of a folk music video, to make our one ‘stand out from the crowd’. One of our original ideas was to have lots of shots of ambient things; such as sky and street shots. We then thought that we could fast forward these, this then played with the idea of time. Most folk music videos have a limited number of shots throughout the duration of the video. This was one of the things that we thought it would be best to stick with. If we did not then our video would be completely of topic. Rap/hip-hop music videos have lots of shots; we did not want our music video to be associated with them. In doing a love based narrative and putting a twist on it by making it abstract, we had quite a limited amount of effects we could use when editing. But the one that we did use when manipulating time, was the green screen. Most music videos do not use this effect, so this was challenging the forms and conventions of real media products. In doing so this made our music video stand out from others. Although the person watching the video could associate our video with others of the same genre it could also be seen as one that is unique in its own way.

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

For our ancillary products we had to product a magazine advert and a digipack. Originally we decided to product our products as a team/group effort but we ended up producing them separately. The combination of our main product and the ancillary texts worked quite well together. We used a screenshot of Danni from the main product and then placed it onto the Digipack/magazine advert. To do this we had to get rid of the surroundings around Danni, and then we made her a solid colour. We then placed the same image of Danni adjacent to it. In doing so this made the two images contrast each other, playing with the essence of good and evil. This relates to the song where the lyrics say “what a wicked game to play”. This makes our combination of main and ancillary products work quite effectively. While making our digipack we got to play around with quite a lot of the effects that were on offer to us. For the title and the image of Danni, we used a few blur and glow effects. Making the title seem almost ‘holy’ for the good contrast.
While making our Digipack we set out to get some pictures from a ‘photo-shoot’, we set out to get some quite ambient images. After doing our ‘photo-shoot’ we then came to the conclusion that they would not work quite as well as we originally planned. With the lack of time we had we could not get images that were substantially relevant.
Throughout our two ancillary texts we used the same font and colour scheme. We wanted the buyer to be able to recognise and associate the main product with the ancillary texts. In doing so, we used the same picture of Danni alongside the same image from the Digipack on the magazine advert.
Most typical Folk DVD’s feature sepia-like covers; the rest of the DVD is quite plain and ‘laidback’. We wanted to keep some of these features on our products. So we made all but one of the panels (the one with the biography), quite empty. Those panels featured a URL for the website and some logos.
In using vivid colours on our products, the buyer would be able to spot the DVD quite easily as it will stand out from others. If the buyer has seen the magazine advert as well then they might be able to spot it even quicker. For the vivid colour on the digipack we used Photoshop and like our music video, we tried to create something abstract and different from most products. The digipack featured a ‘Dolby Digital’ and ‘Sony’ logo on it.
On our digipack we did not place a barcode. We did this because we wanted the pack to be sealed in a plastic wrap. And on this wrap would be a barcode and security tag. When the digipack would be first released we were going to package a ‘freebee’ with it; which was going to be an online address that only buyers could access with their own unique access code.
The magazine advert had a variety of information on it including, Tour Dates, DVD Release date, the artist website, where the DVD was being sold at and some informative logos on it. The person reading the advert would be able to find enough information so that they could find and turn up at the store at an applicable date.
Editing our two products at the same time between Fireworks and Photoshop allowed us to consolidate them at the same time. Two of us were working on the products next to each other; in doing so we were able to get the same logos, images and information on each product accurately. Although we wanted our products to be abstract, we did not want them to look identical. Yet at the same time be able to be associated together.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Due to bad planning we did not pull a rough cut together on time for our focus group discussion. But throughout the duration of our project we were constantly getting verbal feedback from our teachers and colleagues. With the feedback that we did get we were able to make our project slightly better. We tried throughout the duration of the project to keep on track without deadlines but failed due to absences.
Some of our audience feedback helped us improve our street scene; where we were playing with the essence of time.
“I think that you should try to remove some of the green surrounding Danni. Due to the nature of the song it would make it seem quite ‘tatty’ leaving the green there. The end user might feel that the editor did not care about the appearance of his product”.
Using this feedback we tried to remove as much of the green as we could with the help of one of our teachers. Due to the gradient on the green that the excess light made we found it harder to remove all of the green that was left while post processing Danni on the computer.
We also learnt that we should have done a few more close ups of the singer. Showing her emotions while singing. This would have made the song seem more ‘personal’ and close to heart.
We received some feedback on the transitions that we placed in the video. We learnt that they were “good and slow, matching the beat to the song. They start and finish at an applicable point in the song”.
A lot of folk music videos have two shots sliding up and down the screen. This is one of the limited amounts of transitions that folk videos use. From our feedback we learnt that we should use a very limited amount of transitions in the video.
Having feedback from our audience helped us learn what we should do, what worked well and what didn't. Without an audience it would have been a shot in the dark at weather it all worked well together or not.
An example of this is that, although we went off and made something very abstract that did not typically seem like a folk product. It still worked quite well and did its job.
“The product’s as a whole would not seem like a folk video etc… someone could see this digipack in a store and pick it up thinking that it’s a dance cd. They may then think that it’s aesthetically appealing and purchase it. It leaves a mysterious and spontaneous aurora surrounding the musician. If these were real products I would be eager to see what lied ahead in the future.”
This feedback helped us to recognise that people were picking up on our main goal and that it was succeeding and leaving people in thought.

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

If we had to create our music video with just a camera and tripod then we would have struggled much more. We would not be able to do any editing and would have had to of shoot each scene in order that they were going to take place. New media technologies helped us to make our products stand out from others, making them unique.
Without new media technologies we would not have been able to do any kind of research. We would not have been able to have found any information on the band or there works. It would take weeks to find things out in person. But thanks to new media technologies we were able to find out about Bassboosa and have their biography on screen in less than five minutes.
The products that we used to research, plan and construct our entire project were: The internet, www.blogger.com, www.google.com, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut, www.last.fm, camera and tripod, Microsoft Word and ITunes. Using all of these products together as a collection allowed us to rapidly plan and create a product.
The main new media technology that we used was www.blogger.com, it allowed us to put all of our thoughts and work into one collaborative workspace that people could read and keep track of our project on. Using Blogger we were able to leave feedback on each other’s blogs and use it as real life feedback on our project. Blogger also allowed us to put our rough and final cuts on it easily.
Using websites together we were able to do our research and planning stage quite quickly. We used YouTube/blogger and word together to plan. We watched music videos on YouTube a few times and then compiled our thoughts into word, analysed them with Goodwin’s theory and then posted our analysis on Blogger. We used blogger as a ‘virtual notebook’, posting all of our thoughts, ideas and creations on it, alongside some images and notes. We made each post easy to read, so that whoever was reading it would be able to visualise our ideas.
Creating our actual music video with Final Cut could not have been easier. It allowed us too rapidly create and piece together our ideas into a final product. There were plenty of filters and effects to use to make our video look however we wanted. Final cut is very ergonomic software to use. Once you are started, each tool and effect is very easy to get a hold of.
We also used Photoshop and Fireworks together to create our ancillary tasks. We used Fireworks to create the basic vectors and gradients and then post processed them in Photoshop, adding cloud and other effects to make the image seem bolder. We also used Photoshop to place the template, text and other parts of the Digipack and Magazine advert.
Using our project feedback and the new media technologies side by side we were able to create a good project. We had all of the tools at our disposal and it was down to our own effort as to how we used them. Without new media technologies we would not have been able to create anything near what we had made.