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

Robotz Movie for Media Evaluation
by: smilney

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

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

Evaluation: 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Video: For analysising my audience feedback I have used Wordle.com to pick out the main points people have liked/disliked or think I could improve on.

I used Facebook email to gather feedback for my products 
because it is a wesite that is now regularly used and easy
to contact people with.

Opinion  from Sam Allison, student:
 

"The video is incredibly well directed, very well timed too, I love the split of time between shots of them playing the music and of the characters and couples. I also love the contrast made between them using the black and white for the playing, I actually really love it and literally can't think of much that's bad to say... So this is being seriously picky. The only thing I can think of is that sometimes the camera seems very static... Maybe a couple more shots where both character and camera moved to make a flow a little more...

But tbh, that's only cause i have to say something :L all in all i really love the piece, it accurately captures and represents the music :) A giant well done from me :D it's awesome :) "

Words:

• Couple: Some feedback I gathered mentioned the good relationships are directed within the music video. The two relationships were between Charlie and Matt and then Charlie and Brad. I believe my skills in Drama helped develop this and realised that realism is what the audience liked to see.

• Narrative: Before I started filming, I planned that I wanted a little bit more narrative than performance because as an audience member I like more of a storyline and also with the genre I chose this is a main convention, that there's both narrative and performance included. However even though more narrative was included some of the feedback shows that they would of liked to see more performance. From this I have learned that perhaps a bit more performance included would of been better.
• Brad: My audience feedback showed that they liked the character that Brad portrayed; a kind, young man who looks after the broken hearted girl. This type of character stereotypically catches an female audiences heart and something that perhaps appealed to that target audience.

• Shots: In the feedback, I have learned that from my use of unique shots such as the paper ripping and dropping onto camera shot, that these sort of shots is what the audience like and find "attracting", rather than normal, mid shots all the time.

• Represents: In many feedback's and opinions I received, the audience believed that the storyline and music were "represented very well" and showed a storyline very professionally. I have learned that if the music used isn't represented well within a storyline then it is not well received.
• Transitions: People said in my audience feedback that the transitions were good but a better range of them would have made it flow better. I have realised that my knowledge of how to use different transitions isn't as good as I thought it was and shows if I was to do this again having a wider knowledge of the more technical side would have made my video look more professional.

Magazine Advert and Digipak

For my ancillary tasks, I gathered more feedback from my school email account. I did this as getting feedback for my video via Facebook was more time consuming than I thought and people look at their school email every day for other work tasks so was easier to get opinions.

Opinion from Elena Hamilton, student:

"Very nice. The pictures are fun but the black&white effect gives them an atmospheric edge. The pictures and font work well together and link in with the rock indie genre very well."

Words:

• Professional: In my audience feedback for the other two products, many opinions stated that they both looked professional and were likely to be seen in most music shops. This was due to the use of black and white throughout and the information used. I've learnt that if this information wasn't put their or if the black and white didn't show the relationship then it wouldn't of looked as professional as the opinions state so.
• Link: My audience opinions spoke about the links and relationship between the products that appealed to them. The use of black and white throughout my pieces was the main focus point and something I worked hard on to not look cheesy or too moody. Links in products is what the audience like and I have learned that a link is something that could potentially sell more products.
• Attracts: I have learned also from the opinions given back that a combination of the pictures, colours and artists I have used are a combination of the two products becoming "attracting" to the eye. The moody use of black and white and pictures of the two male artists have been attractive to the audience due to the style and perhaps gender of the artists. This is where star image links in and I have learned that something being eye catching helps promote a band or artist.
• Pictures: The picture I have used for my magazine article has setting and environment issues. Before my final edit I had a huge lamppost in the middle of the two artists which ruined the image, however once I had removed that, the audience still thought the setting of a car park wasn't appropriate. This has taught me that I have to think more about image and background before hand.

•  Symbolic: This links in with the work above in terms of some audience opinions said that instead of natural backgrounds, more symbolic and abstract backgrounds could have worked better with the genre of the piece of music and helped develop more of an image for the artists.
• Font: When I was choosing my main font to use for both digipak and magazine article, I really had to think about what I thought would look great for the type of genre I was using. After looking at lists of fonts, I found a chunky, old and worn looking one that I thought would really promote their indie/rock style. I have learned that the audience liked this too and found it worked with the artists and images used.

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

Evaluation 4

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Eval 333

Video (Final)

Re-filming

Friday 4th November- 4.00pm-5.00pm Neil Baker and Scott Doyle

After having my draft video marked, one of my improvements was to get more varied shots of the performance such as more close ups, side shots and long shots. In this re-filming session I needed to get as many different shots as possible of the performers to achieve a better grade and video with a better professional look. The filming session went very well as I used two camera which allowed me to shoot 2 shots at a time, saving time for the performers. I shot close ups of guitars, lips singing to the song and side shots of the performers. After going back to the editing process, this has been essential for my video to look more professional like I believe it does now. Due to the lighting and the black and white effect I was planning to use for the 'performance' filming I wasn't able to capture very successful close up as shadows would ruin the shot. However even though I didn't use as many different close ups and angles I would of liked, I believe the majority of shots I got were of good quality and worked well for the video.

Digipak (Final)

Magazine Advert (Final)

Digipak- Draft

6 PANELS- I have used this template for the Digipak as I believe using the panels for pictures works well to sell the band to the audience and as this would be their debut album, this attention is necessary for sales.

FONT: The main font on the front cover is from a font website and I thought it worked well with the genre of the band and their type of music. I wanted a font that would stand out and that could possibly become a part of their bands image.

LAYOUT: I wanted to keep the layout of the font and pictures quite simple so that an audience can recognise their album straight away. As I wanted this album to stand out I made sure the main picture and the font work well together to achieve this. The rest of the pictures are different angles and shows different personalities they have such as the serious look in some of the photos to the back page photo where shows a fun, happy vibe.

COLOUR: For the colour of the pictures I have opted to keep to black and white as I think works best not just for the quality of the images but this works with their genre and their whole look. One of the band members also prefers the use of black and white for the band and thinks it displays their genre well showing that I have used my own ideas but made sure the band is happy and comfortable with what I'm doing and how i'm displaying it.

Front Cover:

Back Page:

CD Tray:

 Digipak Inserts:

Video- Draft

Magazine Advert- Draft

Editing: Video and Ancillary Tasks

For editing the photos from the band filming evening, I have used 'Windows Photo Gallery Editing Software' as this is the program I normally use for my photo editing and even though it is not as techinical as 'Photoshop' I know how to work this prgram and I know that good result can come from using this. I realise with some photos I will have to use more advanced software such as 'Photoshop' to improve the quality of the photos but for the initial editing I have opted for this software.

I wanted to make most of the pictures I took look more 'indie' in terms of style and set more of a mood so the black and white wash on most of these pictures were used for this reason. Ajusting the exposure and contrast makes the image stand out due to a better quality however it's the changes in tint and saturation that gives the black and white wash needed.

Digipak and Magazine Advert Images

Research into Digipak and Mag Ad Images

This is the album cover that I analysed for my magazine article too. This means that this image and font is used in their Digipak and Magazine article which is a possible option for myself. I like the colours used in the image and the image itself portrays the indie/rock genre.

This album cover is one of 'This Modern Life's main influences Bruce Springsteen. I have been looking at this image for inspriration as I would like to copy the colour use and the similar font use as I believe it would work for their album artwork also. This is very moody and atmospheric and the style I would like to use for both Magazine article and Digipak.

I have used this album artwork from One Night Only's album 'Started a Fire' as I like the contrast in the image and how it presents the band to be quite rocky. Even though this is in colour it is dark and is also atmospheric. This is something I want to portray when I am constructing both Digipak and Magazine article for 'This Modern Life'

Filming Session Three

Sunday 25th September 2011- 10am- 3pm - Narrative 
Charlie Kirk and Brad Evans

This filming went well in terms of getting all the shots I needed but in terms of quality of shots, weather and rush for time, it didn't go as smoothly as planned. I had planned to shoot a couple of shots before Charlie arrived however she arrived earlier than I anticipated meaning I had to shoot these with her watching which isn't a bad thing, it gave me more time to explain the story to her however I felt I was wasting the time I had with her. The shots of Charlie went really well due to her understanding of what emotions of hurt and abandonment I wanted her given character to portray. Even though these shots were well angled, the lighting let the shots down and even when I applied the white balance it didn't imporve the quality of the shot. This meaning I will probably have to ask Charlie to re-film parts of the this filming session to improve the quality of the shots. 


As I didn't manage to film a few shots before Chalrie arrived, I had completely forgot to film some of the shots which involved symbolism of how Charlie was feeling (Cut outs of words such as 'abandoned' and 'heart broken' that was meant to be placed around her head) I only realised this after I had finished filming with Charlie and when she had left. I really wanted to keep this shot and didn't want to ring Charlie and ask her to come back so I re-thought my idea and set up a mini set that night using a black piece of material and the cut outs then just shot mid shots of the words to insert into the beginning of the video. However when I re-film with Charlie I will remember to film my original idea and compare which one works for me and my video.

When Brad arrived, I hadn't finished filming parts of Charlie alone so my schedule was changed again and Brad was waiting a little bit. The weather didn't look great all morning and by the time we got to the outside locations it didn't hold out for me and started to rain. This weather worked well for Charlie being upset as it representaed her state of mind and her feelings at that moment (breaking up with Matt) however the weather got worse meaning the shots where Brad and Charlie were 'happy together' were filmed in the rain. I had tried to wait for the weather to settle however my actors had to hurry as time was running out and I had to finish my shots as I wanted to just have 2 filming days.

Many of my shots are not of great quality however some shots are quite good and can be used for the video. Some essential shots will need to be re-filmed at a later date to acheive the high quality music video I want to. 

Filming Sessions One and Two

Friday 23rd September 2011 
1. 12.30pm- 1.20pm- Narrative
Charlie Kirk and Matt Peall (Girl and 'The Ex')

This filming session went very well and even better than I imagined. I knew I needed to film on our college/school grounds but I needed to find a small, pretty and quiet area as I would be filming at a lunchtime and I wanted to avoid distraction from fellow school/college pupils. However I found the perfect place, just behind the media department where the greenary and path was just what I had imagined to film the shots I had planned. Also the weather was sunny and great for filming as it gave connotations of happiness which is one theme I wanted to portray in these shots. I was worried about getting all these shots done in this time period as I only had 50 minutes to set up and shoot 5-10 shots of Charlie and Matt. However with their help with setting up and co-operating well with me we finished in time and completed filming all the shots I needed.

After looking back and through these shots I had filmed, the lighting and angles are great. The acting from Matt and Charlie is done well as they portray the characters I explained them really well and in conclusion I am very glad to have chosen those two for this filming session because of their co-operation, acting skills and the friendship that they have anyway that helped them work well in these shots. 

2. 3.30pm-5/5.30pm- Performance
Neil Baker and Scott Doyle

This filming session went well, both Baker and Doyle arrived on time in costume that they wear to their gigs and works well with their star image (very similar to the images I have shown in 'Costumes' section) and the shots I got were the perfect angles for what I had imagined. However Nicole turned up from their band and I got a bit distracted by filming her aswell with Baker and Doyle, however the shots I needed more of was ones with just Baker and Doyle in them. In conclusion I may have to re-film some shots of the performance, just so I have a variety of angles and positions of shots of just Baker and Doyle. 


However even though I may have to re-film, I shot this filming sequence in one of the Drama departments rooms which worked extremely well due to the black walls and lighting system that I could use to my advantage to create an atmosphere that would fit well with the genre but also contrasting with the narrative of the performance. In the editing process I intend to make this contrast more obvious anyway as I want to make the colour tint black and white for this filming sequence.