Q4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout our project we have both used new technologies and software, as well as expand our knowledge of technologies used in previous projects. The following are the key advancements I have made in my uses/knowledge of the media technologies.

Research/Planning:

• Camcorder for test shoot of lip sync and location reccie
• Web 2.0. and social networking sites for audience/industry research (e.g. YouTube)
• Blogger to present the presentation to the class and teacher, showing all our references and ideas

Production:

• Stills camera (particular new technique of burst mode to capture 'action')

This shows the effects that can be gained using burst mode. We used this for the back cover of our album cover, instructing the actors to run towards the camera throwing confetti, thus creating the mid-action shot we used.

• HD footage
• Studio light (floor lamps, laptop to control head lights)

• 

  Here I am filming the band. The floor lights are lighting them individually, while the studio lights controlled using the laptop light the overall set

  Adobe Premiere Pro for editing (new techniques learnt in rotascoping/colour correction)

This film demonstrates the key processes we learnt and went through when editing our music video.

• Illustrator to design the logo

This is the development of our logo. We made it look neater and sharper using the tools of illustrator so the image would look clear on any merchandise/website we placed it on

• Playback when filming in the studio
• Photoshop for the album cover

We used guidelines for an actual digipack to ensure when printed our images/text were the right size. We then had to use bleed lines as when it prints, it may cut/add to these guides. Photoshop worked well as we could also edit the photos to enhance the lighting and colour depth to make the album cover stand out and look professional

• Wix.com for designing the website
• 

  

  On wix.com I learnt how to create a flash website, adding in all the features of a bands official website (e.g. links to facebook, music video, music player, links to different pages)

  
• Burning the DVD to hold a screening

This is me when in directing role - filming with the HD camera, panning using the tripod and instructing the antagonists as to how to move

Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Screening:
We filmed the premiere screening of our video, showing it to a range of people from our target age range of 15-20. After watching it through a few times, we recorded their opinions on questionnaires.




Audience Interview:
We selected two random members of our audience screening and filmed an interview to gain more indepth reponses.

We found:
(Table charts referenced from Dominic Crewe)

• 50/50 male and female audience questioned, aged 17/18
• Appreciation the music, instruments and playing ("soft spot for the drumming")
• Of the ones who had similar music genre taste (indie/rock) they believed the band worked well
• High level of understanding in the narrative (imaginary characters, running away)
• Consensus of seeing music video on rock channel Kerrang!
• Narcissitic pleasure from the girls of Izzy's clothing and from the boys of Angus
• Sexual gratification from Tom's appearence and role in the music video



Our target audience (and how its changed from the start of the project):

Original TA	Actual TA now
16-24	16-20 (greater focus on the teenage audience
Predominantly masculine	Equal both genders - sexual gratification of Tom and narcissism of Izzy
Love of live music/finding new music	Same
Artistically cultured	Same - appreciate the sites such as Rough Trade in video
Techo savvy (social networking sites)	Comment on/discuss band on Facebook/Twitter
Be in a band of their own	Liked the instrumentals in the video
Indie/emo music taste	Broader - metal/rock/indie/emo fans all enjoyed the music and visuals
Individual style in clothes	Same
Politically/socially active	Same

OVERALL - a broader target audience in terms of music taste and style, however more niche in terms of age range

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Here we took on the roles of managing directors of Live Records ltd. who have produced Erwin's Felicide. We therefore analysed our choices of website, album cover and music video in context of their branding to audience and potential revenue that could be gained.




Detailed Website Evaluation:

1. Used a common font (Bicycle) for the band's title to enhance branding. We chose the font as it was a clear, legible font (good on t-shirts/merchandise) however also appropriately spikey and different to suit the genre
2. The music player consistently plays while the viewer browses the pages to promote both the current album's tracks and the new single Like a Drug
3. Links to social networking sites (FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube) creates a fanbase with our techno-savvy audience and keeps the site interactive
4. Consistent use of the logo with the orange/navy/black/white colourscheme strengthens the brand identity
5. Informal, chatty style of 'talking' to our audience reduces the space between them and the band - makes them feel they are on friendly terms
6. Constant music references as our audience may like finding out about the band but the music is always keys (instruments, headphones etc)
7. Copyrighted by the record company Live Records creates a symbiotic relationship - the band promotes the label and vice versa

Detailed Album Cover Evaluation:

1. Consistent use of the logo with the orange/navy/black/white colourscheme strengthens the brand identity
2. The theme of our album cover is party related - the party streamers shows the band having fun/lighthearted nature
3. We use burst mode to create this mid-action style photograph, so the shot looks action packed and exciting
4. The Live Records logo
5. We used a consistent font for all the text on both our album cover and website (UWCH), which is a clearly legible yet sketchy/trendy font
6. The small print maintains the copyrights of our band being owned by Live Records, as well as directing our audience to the bands website
7. The spine is in the regulation font and style, with reference to the live records and bar code
8. We wanted to convey a sense of friendship and closeness in the front image - so our audience would want to know the band - which is helped by the brightly coloured tshirts/shoes

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As a group we filmed our discussion into the key forms and conventions within our music video. We focused on the music video analysts Goodwin and Vernallis as well as the film theorist Levi-Strauss. Then we looked into all the real media products we were inspired by, developing their conventions, as well as the ones we differed to in challenging the forms.

The video shows visual representations and references of our discussions.

Social Networking Sites

We've set up a Facebook, Myspace and Twitter page to enhance the level of interactivity our techno savvy audience can gain. We will link our website to these pages so that the target audience can also discuss on forums with each other

Editing

Editing is still going really well, we've got the basic clips down

To make it more original we've learnt about this process called rota-scoping and colour pass. It makes it look really professional, and I don't think it'll take too long.

Nearly finished on the product! :D