EVALUATION - Final blogging task

Blogging has finally come to an end although my journey on blogger still continues with my private blog. 

Overall I really enjoyed using blogger as a way of recording the progress of this coursework because it really shows how far technology has come... no written essays for media coursework woop!

Mariama has officially closed off her blog, bye :)

The End of the Road

Dear Blogger,

It looks like our time has come to an end. Its been a great experience hope you enjoyed working with me.

The Denz :)

Evaluation - Question 4 What have you learned from your audience feedback?

AUDIENCE REACTION AND FEEDBACK !

In terms of Goodwin's theory we wanted to illustrate the song and we done this through a narrative, whilst sticking to the conventions of a music video by adding performance into it. However, by using a narrative based on running away and leaving we clearly illustrated the song which is about running away and leaving. I was mainly concerned with the audience understanding our storyline because, if I reflect back to my AS thriller opening some did not quite understand what was going on and some found it slightly cliche. Although my feedback for my music video differed. We avoided the cliche 'look' this time by surprising the audience i.e. when Shazray held the photo of me and him some may have expected him to come back to me (my character Ann) like most music videos although we did not. Although the audience understood the narrative clearly Charlene suggested we could have used black and white next time. Having listened to her advice I looked over my video and found some scenes where we could have used black and white. Such as when Shazray is reflecting on the argument we which is shown in colour and could have been shown in black and white. Furthermore this would have illustrated further use of editing as well as emphasises the argument scene and shows its importance.  

I also learned the importance of discontinuity editing, jump cuts and transitions in a music video and from Charlene's comment it is clear that people actually notice these things and how it makes it flow. Furthermore the idea we (the producers) had in our head for the opening transition introducing Denzel seemed to also be understood by the audience.
For my ancillary products my favourite part was only using half of Denzel's face and others also noticed and liked this idea as it was very different but it clearly worked and without the visual links in the music video and advert I personally don't think the audience would have understood the concept of the digipak cover.


Take a look at Adam's (AdzOutlaw) tweet he sent me :) By the way 'ill' and 'mad' is the slang term for very good :D

Evaluation Question 4

During the production stage for my music video, it was ideal to ask for feedback regularly from peers, teachers and fellow students. So we often asked for feedback to make sure we were doing the right thing (as we knew that once the main product was completed ...70+ students would HAVE to view it, be a judge and make feedback).

During the cinema screening the audience reacted fine to our music video. Their were no 'boo's' or an awkward silence. I was able to interview a few people who had never encountered on our production, or editing (so they were like, oblivious to the whole video. This was nice to hear their thoughts as it was their first time seeing anything) and most of the reviews were great like :

• Acting- narrating was on point-believable 
• Editing - Lots of it. Made the story within the song more realistic
• Lypsync - was excellent ... and for such a hard song
• Lighting and scenery was well

To comment on peoples reaction; i would say that overall, there were a lot of feedback that are positive. The only comments that has made me aware of what 'to change' if i had a chance to re-film the music video is that the lighting of the 'red walk' part could be a little brighter to highlight Shazray's appearance. The location of the artist could be changed as we only see in like one location shot (and the female has a few).

4. What have you learned from audience feedback

Using comments from the audience feedback if i was to film another music video i would include the following.

• Make the target audience clearer through use of location. perhaps use more of a variety in locations as well

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

Credits

Google.

Google was used to research everything that inspired the video. I googled various artist album covers and poses.  I used google images very often for pictures on the blog, to find bar codes, and record labels for my ancillary product.


Special Thanks to Google.
Youtube.

The video sharing site Youtube was very helpful in the research process. I looked at hundreds of raps videos to draw inspiration for my own music video. I found loads of different types of videos and made a short-list of all the best ones than created a video that combined all of the best elements from the short-listed videos.

Blogger

I spent many monotonous hours blogging every and anything about the whole coursework on blogger. Blogger was helpful because i had the opportunity to see where other groups were with they're work and could compare it to mine and often i would have to add more or work harder based on what other people where doing. That really helped me push and get the most out of the video.

Digital Camera.

The digital camera was very useful throughout the duration of course. I used the digital camera to...

•  take pictures of locations that i scouted and show them to my film crew.
• do a photo-shoot of the performing artist for the album cover
• take pictures while filming, to upload to blogger.
• For the animatic I made before filming.

Flip Camera

I used the flip camera for behind the scene footage specifically for the blog just a different approach to updating readers on new ideas, events and general events of filming days.

I also used a flip camera to interview audiences for feedback

JVC Camera

Without the jvc camera ( the Camera i used) there would be no music video. I was surprised at the high definition quality of the video when I first watched it on Vimeo.

Vimeo

Vimeo is another video sharing site i used vimeo to share my music video with family and friends who did not get a chance to see the video in the cinema.

Mac PC
there were many functions on the Mac PC that assisted the creation and evaluation of my music video and ancillary product.


1. Final Cut Pro

Final cut was the only software used to edit my music video. I found features on final cut pro like transitions and slow motion useful when trying to create memorable moments in the video.

2. Photoshop

I used only Photoshop when creating the digipack. It had some useful effects like a cartoony effect i put on the performing artist for the digipack.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)

It has come to my attention that many artist these days are referring to themselves as "brands". Because of this i wanted to promote "Professor D" as a brand I researched the way that actual brands promote themselves in different products using McDonalds as an example. 

Its all about making the public familiar with the brand and the best way to do this is through repetition. Anywhere in the world if you see a big yellow M you automatically know it is Mcdonalds.

I used this method of repetition by putting a similar image in every product involving professor D a medium close-up of him wearing a Ralph Lauren t-shirt this will create notoriety. Hopefully he will become notorious for these small idiosyncratic features.    

Evaluation Question 3

We were supplied with many different types of resources during our research , planning and evaluation process for our project.

For example:

 (From left to right: memory card, memory card reader and JVC video camera)

Brand new JVC cameras that had more than one slot to hold more memory cards. This was of good use to my group as we were sure that we wouldn't have to worry about running out of memory whilst filming. With these two pieces of equipment, we were able to plan (for example- try out some shots or experiment with camera movements) and carry out making our main product (the music video). The memory card was also useful as it had a large size (16GB) so we were happy to feel positive about the storage. It was also easy to transfer the files into the hard-drive .

Blogger. This was used for recording the planning, research and evaluation otherwise known as the way in which I was able to write up and post my coursework assessment unit. it was very useful to do and more fun as i regarded blogger.com as a diary including every detail about my experience on the music video project including the planning, researching and evaluation progress. With blogger, I was able to share videos that gave inspiration towards my music video as well as post pictures, screengrabs (of attempted work or what i had been doing in programs such like Final cut Pro). Blogger is valso able to let me add more stuff like embedding slideshows from sites like wordpress.com and prezzie.com alongside youtube.

I was able to embed a number of different video from my research online. This was important to show comparisons and differences. Also was much easier to point out where my inspiration had come from, or different types of shots and styles from a particular video wold help my main product become a success.

Using Photoshop Elements was REALLY useful as it was the program that we had to use to make the digipak and advertisement. Not only that, but in Photoshop Elements, there were a range of tools used to create interesting effects and ways of adding text for the album name, track list and etc. it made life easier to make the digipak as it was easy to import the template of the four-panel and build up on my work from there.

A tool that I found very useful was one that helped change the colour of my brick background (which originally looked pink). With that tool, I was able to change the colour and experiment with the tones and contrasting to electrify the realness which helped in the end as it was able to related to my music genre more, now that i have used this tool

The most important pieces of technology that was used during the A2 coursework - Apple Mac's !!

Why?! Well  they were not only used to basically put our filmed work somewhere safe (were the only way in which we were able to have our filmed work transferred safely to our video drives) but with Final Cut Pro, (the program that we had used for editing ) we were actually able to make our music video ! 

We had also used the MAC'S to create our ancillary products with the program, Photoshop Elements, and throughout my evaluation I was blessed to have programs like MPEG Streamclip, ClipGrab and Quicktime Player to help edit snippets of videos and re-create my own video using Final Cut Pro.

A Program for converting videos from youtube

A program which i used to import video clips and shorten instead
of showing the whole clip

I also used a flip camera for filming interviews for my feedback, and also to record the behind-scenes. The flip cameras were also used for filming our animatic and digital storyboard. Using both the digital and Flip Cameras made life easy as we could upload the result straight to blogger.

The digital camera was also a good factor and benefit as I was able to take still photography of scenes of my artist and group at work alongside other stuff.

The animatic storyboard

Evaluation - Question 3 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

RESEARCH

 The most important form of media technology I used throughout this coursework was Blogger. This is because blogger is the website we use to blog and record the progression of our coursework which included the the research, planning, production and evaluation stages. Blogger is a very useful form way of recording our coursework stages down because, you can access ir anywhere (at home, in college on your mobile) which means I can always blog. It has features which allows you to add images, videos, links etc and you can label your own work. I used most of the features during my coursework especially when it came to adding images and videos from YouTube (during the planning stage) very quickly.

YouTube was used a lot throughout this coursework, particularly the planning stage as we needed to research, watch and analyse many music videos in relation to ours. in order to gain inspiration and to actually look for the song we were going to make a music video for. 

In order to create my artist I had to ensure that he either challenged or conformed to the stereotypical grime artist persona. Although I listen to some UK rap and grime music, i wanted to understand their personality further therefore, I had to get up close and personal and snoop around their twitter. The reason why i used Twitter or their website is because celebrities tend to interact with their fans much more on Twitter. Furthermore it is an application that can be used on smart phones whilst artists are on the go. Unlike FaceBook and YouTube Twitter does not need to be regulated by an artists 'assistant' etc, many tweets come from the artists themselves. Occasionally we see artists fight over twitter, they tell fans when new albums are going to be released etc. Therefore using Twitter in order to see how grime artists personalities are worked well. Two things I can say about them is that they are funny and supportive of other artists which i showed throughout my music video and advertisement through the feature of other artists.


When delivering presentations such as the pitch, Prezi became very useful. it is a programme that allows you to create very unique presentations, edit them and also add features such as different themes, images and videos. The programme is web based and you do not need to download it therefore, it is a programme you can use in a public or private computer. 

In order to access the above applications/programs I needed access to the internet. I use google chrome just because it is quick and efficient for me. However using the internet was also needed for research purposes, particularly for research purposes on the theories we learned and more information on the conventions of music videos, information on grime artists and locations.

PRODUCTION

Much of the filming equipment used were brand new state of the art camera's which ensured a good quality music video. We also had enough memory cards for filming and taking pictures during the filming and also for our ancillary products. The equipment used for filming were expensive yet simple to use so we never really had problems setting them up. We also used a flip cam for recording behind the scenes of our music video. However we had to be sure of the safety procedures beforehand.

The form of technology used the most throughout this coursework was definitely the MAC OS X computers. Many of the programs we used for editing and creating our ancillary products were provided through using the mac's. 

Final Cut Pro was the software we used to edit our music video. My group decided not to use effects such as the green screen because our music video consisted of a narrative and we wanted it to be as realistic as possible. For my evaluation I also used Final Cut Pro to create a short clip.




QuickTime and MPEG Stream clip were used especially when converting our music video and any other clips we created, in a format suitable to be uploaded onto Blogger.

Photoshop Elements was used to create my ancillary products and I used it for both of my products. I was much more comfortable using Photoshop Elements as I have experience using it however, I have broadened my knowledge and my skills much more compared to how it was when I first started. I particularly liked the effects I could use on Photoshop and the fact that it was accessible for me to use at home. For example in order to adjust and create effects on the photo below used on my Digipak cover I had to do the following

Use the Magic Wand Tool to get rid of the white background, use the blur tool in order to make image look less 'sharp' and not simply stuck on the black background (even though it was) and lastly I adjusted the lighting using brightness/contrast.

EVALUATION

For some of my clips I created for my evaluation I used Windows Live Movie Maker which is an updated version of Windows Movie Maker and allows you to directly upload videos onto YouTube and save your movie with different formats including mobiles devices, HD, standard and variable sizes. This was also a very simple program to use however.. when I uploaded my clips onto blogger the texts came out fuzzy. No problem though, I used my blackberry to create a voice over.   

I also used Photoshop to annotate many of pictures and screen shots to compare.


A new software I came across on Windows during my coursework was using 'Snipping Tool' I personally LOVE it! For a while I was angered at the fact that I had to press Prt scr in order to screen shot an image then copy, paste, crop and resize it. Then I googled a program or software I could use that was similar to the screen grabber on MAC pc's which allow you to drag the cursor to the selected area you want and automatically saves. 


C:\Users\Mariama\Desktop\2012-01-25_2200.swf

**COPY AND PASTE THE URL ABOVE INTO THE URL BAR FOR A VIDEO TUTORIAL**

This tool allows you to create screen shots similar to the ones on MAC softwares

- Press START

-  Click All Programs

- Then Accessories

- Press Snipping tool

Once it opens the screen may look like it fades, just as shown in the video above drag the '+' cursor selecting whatever you want a screen shot of (the software I used to record this does not move in time with the mouse hence why you couldn't see me drag the cursor). Once you have selected what you want to screenshot VOILÀ! 

The tool allows you to annotate it using a pen however, I was terrible at this. It also allows you to save the snip with different formats therefore your snip can be used for a range of suitable devices i.e. mobile phones, in a clip, document etc

ANIMATIC/DIGITAL STORYBOARD

Evaluation - Question 2 How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement) ?

Evaluation Question 2

The main location from my main product os in an urban area. A mixture of locations also follow a similar background which highlights the urban and grime music genre. Referring to my ancillary products, this is replicated with the brick background which was used in my digipak to represent the urban scene and the genre. The type of font used for both my didgipak and advert also fitted wel with the the conventions for an urban CD.

The main camera shots within the music video are close-ups which establish the artist as the main whilst promoting their image and the full length shots are there to show them in the surroundings of their background. With these types of camera shots, help establish them in 'their world' (music genre and who they are about). Also, when the camera did have a close-up of the artist, the facial expression (in my personal view) did seem to pop up quite often.

A similar facial expression is used for the front cover of my ancillary product (the front cover)

I tried to capture the same and similar poses that my artist showed in the music video and replicated then used it for my digipak and advert.

Another visual reference between the music video and the ancillary products is in the costume. In the music video, we do see the main artist in a polo shirt , which is a designer brand and we aslo made sure we used a similar polo shirt for the front of my digipak. We thought that we would try and keep the connections within strong so that my audience would be ale to recognise the link between the music video, the digipak and the advert. 

Taken on My iPhone 4s

GoAnimate.com: Question+3 by oliviazara

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

I was influenced by Drake's effect on his image for his album cover because, it does not follow the conventions of a normal rap album cover. This usually consists of lots of girls, cars, excessive jewellery, lots of artificial light etc. My main aim for my digipak was to challenge the conventions of the normal rap digipak/album cover. Despite this however, in order for the target audience to familiarise themselves with the genre I used a parental advisory logo which had a graffiti, spray design to it which represented grime.

I was also influenced by Wretch' 32's advert for his album because on his album cover he uses a similar effect to the one I had. Furthermore the logos for where his album could be purchased also influenced where my artists music could be purchased. As my artist is an UPCOMING mainstream artist I could not use all of the same stores Wretch used for his album because, he is no longer upcoming. Therefore because my artist is upcoming I could only use really obvious places that are more likely to promote his music. 

In Devlin's music video 'Runaway' it is mainly set outside (hence the title) although, the locations used are in urban areas and locations in the UK that people are more likely to go when running away. For example we see him sitting inside a train, and Shazray who is the performer running away also enters a train station. However because our video is set in London we use an underground because, it is used much more.

We were also inspired by Ludacris and Mary J Blige in 'Runaway Love' because their song is similar to the song we chose. Furthermore there is a female singer who stands next to the male artist which females tend to do in R&B, Hip hop and rap music videos. This is to make the music video appeal to both males and females, so we used some shots of Denzel (Professor D) standing next to Kudiwa, our female singer.