Evaluation Question 4

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

Throughout creating the 3 products, I had to use new media technology for all aspects of production.

In the research and planning, pre-production stage, it was mainly linked to basic technology. This included Microsoft (Word, Powerpoint, etc.), YouTube, Sony DSC HX400V  also iMovie. Microsoft was mainly used for basic planning, for example location plans on word and lyric analysis on Powerpoint. I also used YouTube to look up existing/previous music videos for analysis. iMovie was used to put my storyboard together in time with the lyrics to get an idea of how long the scenes needed to be, and the camera was used to take pictures for the location planning and the test shots for the actors.

The production stage used mainly the camera. This was because only pictures and filming were needed for this stage. The camera was used to film the music video, and also to take pictures for the digipak/website.

The post-production stage was where the most technology was needed, and this focused on mainly photoshop, iMovie, YouTube, and Wix. Photoshop allowed me to create my digipak, the biggest part of photoshop was editing the images to fit the genre, and adding text over the top. iMovie was possibly the largest part of technology needed in this stage. I used iMovie to edit my music video, and add effects over the top of certain clips. YouTube and Wix were used to upload my music video, and to create my Website. 

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For all of my products I tried to get audience feedback, this was mainly in the form of survey, however I did get a couple of videos. 

Firstly was the music video. My main feedback was to add effects over the music video to make it look clearer and more professional. As one of my feedback's said to add it to make the scenes of the couple brighter, I made sure only to add effects over the scenes of the couple and left the scenes with just Vanessa dark with no effect to add to the story telling. A positive part of my feedback suggested that the editing technique with fades was good, so I added more in between certain scenes to make the story more obvious. Some of the feedback suggested that the lyrics were out of time with the lip-syncing so I tried to make that fit better.

In my digipak, the only negative feedback I got was to ‘make it look more professional’. The ways that were suggested was to add a bar code, the record label, copyright information, etc. However, I did get positive feedback for linking everything together with continuous text and fonts. 

For my website I received feedback to add more tabs as I started out with little. I did this by adding the information and photos tab. I also learned that the compass theme going across both my digipak and website was well liked, and linked everything together well.

Evaluation Question 2

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

Script:

Along with my music video I made a website and a digipak to go alongside each other to perceive the idea of an upcoming artist.

For each product, there had to be a linking feature to make sure that it’s evident that all by one artist, as well as making each product is evident that it links to the genre. This included, particularly in the digipak and website, a black and white theme throughout each, which looking at the indie genre is a key feature throughout the genre which I’ve incorporated into my products. The video does feature more colour throughout, however the effects placed over the footage also mirror those seen in music videos in the indie genre, and there’s photos that match throughout the website in the ‘photos slide’.

Along with this, I’ve made sure the clothing somewhat matches in each product, with clothing matching stereotypes in the indie genre, for example oversized jumpers in most the images and partially in the music video. The same coat features in many of the pictures on the website, but also in certain scenes of the music video. However, there could’ve been a better effort to match the clothes throughout, as in certain parts of the music video they don’t match the indie genres stereotype, or those previously used in past products.

However, throughout all products, the text doesn’t match, which it should’ve done to create the clear link for each task. There was no text in the music video, so this shouldn’t be included, however in the website and in the digipak, the text and fonts do not match which doesn’t link the products well, and instead makes them both look different from each other.

I believe that the combination of all my products is somewhat effective due to the matching colours and the somewhat matching clothes, however it is not totally effective due to font and text being very different from each other which doesn’t create a clear link, and therefore can be seen as ineffective.

Evaluation Question 1

Music Video

Ancillary Task - Website

Website

http://sianxhurst.wixsite.com/mysite

Ancillary Task - Digipak