This was made by me, Christina Stier, for my A2 Media Evaluation of the year 2014

1. Media A2 Advanced Portfolio
Evaluation
By: Christina Stier

2. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge form of conventions of
real media products?

3. Performance
In my music video I have used performance, but specifically, I have
used contrived performance. I have taken this convention from
my “Features in Music Videos” and “The Rock Genre” posts on
my blog.
In my post of “Features in Music Videos” I analysed Queen's music
video “Don't Stop Me Now” . Their music video was based
around contrived performance just like mine, as I have taken
much inspiration from that music video.
I tied this in with my other post about the Rock genre, in which I
found out that bands usually include performance (live or
contrived) as a convention in their music video. Therefore I can
say that I have used and applied the convention of performance
in my music video product.

4. Special effects
Referencing back to my post about the Rock genre, surprising for
me, I found out that Rock music videos do very rarely include
some form of special effects (this including transitions).
When I learned this, I looked back and some videos such as “I
Love Rock n' Roll” by Joan Jett and saw how effective this was
to represent a (mostly) fast paced type music genre.
Therefore I used this form of convention and applied it to my own
music video as I really wanted to emphasise this genre.

5. Thought beats
This is a convention which I identified when I researched Andrew Goodwin. This
convention is about matching cuts to the beat of the song in order to
emphasise certain beats.
As I did a Rock music video, this was definitely a convention that I wanted to use
since I've discovered it.
I think that I have used this convention but I think that I have slightly
developed/changed it. My reasoning for this is that I didn't use the strong
beats to match them with my cuts. But I feel like I have used the lower beats.
What I mean by this is that I for example didn't cut when the drummer hit a
heavy beat on the Cymbal, instead I cut it, so that, as in this example (below
the power point), I matched the “heavy” guitar bit and then cut it in between
the beats so it would still show the beats nicely matched up to the action.

6. Shots
In my music video I have used shots that would typically
be used for a band music video.
I feel that I have applied this convention well in my music
video as I have a range of group shots, close up shots
of instruments and close up shots of the lead singer.
Using this convention enabled me to showcase the band
very well because it gave the audience a wider angle
of the band as to how they work well together but it
also enabled me to showcase each band member
individually.

7. All male
As again, in the research on my post “The Rock Genre” I
have written that Rock genre is male dominated.
Yes, females are coming through in this genre and are
getting more recognised, however, from that particular
research and just asking people, the rock genre is
immediately seen as a male dominated genre.
This was the main reason that I chose an all-male band. I
wanted to follow this particular genre convention so
that this band would immediately be “accepted” and
that my music video would have a solid point and
convention to follow in order to be well received.

8. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?
I think that my products did moderate in effectiveness. I feel like this applies
when I look at my products all together, but individually I am very much fond
of my products.
I feel like I did well in colour-scheming my ancillary tasks and that this translated
into my music video by its moderate lighting. I also think that I have linked all
my products well because In all three tasks I focused on showcasing the
band through pictures and video in order for them to be recognizable.
However as I feel like the logo of the band is what stands out in my ancillary
tasks and it is not present in my music video. I feel like this might have
disconnected the music video a little bit because my logo also connects with
the genre of this band as it follows with the back and white theme. Although I
know that having the logo of the band in a music video is not a convention in
general rock band music videos, I would have wished that I would have either
put a watermark of the logo in the music video or that I would have been able
to put the logo on the main drum as I thought of it at one stage.

9. What have you learned from your audience
feedback?

10. From my audience feedback I have actually learned that I am way too harsh with myself.
Before doing the audience feedback I thought that my products were a disaster and
that they were not up to standard at all. But my audience feedback showed me that all
my research and planning has proven to be such a big factor in creating these
products.
My audience feedback taught me that researching something before doing it is a key
element in creating a product, be it any product in the world. If I wouldn't have done
the research about how to construct my products I would have probably never
included half the things I did end up using in my final products.
Specifically though, my audience feedback has shown me that I have completely
succeeded in getting my target audience interested in this band by keeping their
attention in the music video, putting in the right information in my website and in
designing an interesting front cover.
However I feel like there was space for improvement with my audience feedback. As this
was my first time in getting audience feedback for my products I was quite unsure as
to what questions to ask. I feel like I could have spend a little more time in specifying
my questions in order to get a more detailed feedback.

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

12. The construction of all my research and planning, editing
and evaluation were either done on my laptop or on
my home computer. This year I did not use the school
computers (Macs) at all due to it being a severe
problem last year that caused most of my work to
dissapear. I feel that I have made a great decision in
using my own computers do to it being safer as it is
only used by me.

13. However, my phone played a big part in me being
able to organise and do my work whilst I was
not at home and after my laptop had some
issues.
With my phone I have used numerous apps that
benefited and helped me conclude my work

14. However, my phone played a big part in me being able to
organise and do my work whilst I was not at home and
after my laptop had some issues.
With my phone I have used numerous apps that
benefited and helped me conclude my work

15. This is a screen-shot that I took from my phone
which shown my main used apps for this
project.

16. Quickoffice enabled me to create any documents (word,
power point or excel) at any time. This was useful as
sometimes I would have gotten ideas out of no where and
so, I had something where I could write everything down
and when I got home I would be able to transfer it to my
blog and upload it. This was also the case for the app
“ColorNote”, but I used this app to just make some quick
notes so that I wouldnt forget whilst doing something on my
computer, editing for example.

17. Next, I downloaded the “blogger” app. This came in very
handy, as I was able to have my blog with me at all
times. This helped me greatly because I would just
have to click on the app, show it to my teachers and
get feedback instantly. Therefore I was able to change
and modify certain things on the spot.

18. InstaFrame and PicCollage worked kind of the same.
With these apps I made some of my image collages
that I used to analyse my shots and make the gatefold
of the cover for example.
These were very usefull to me as I find it much easier to
make a collage on the phone rather than fiddling
around with complicated editing software.

19. The app dropbox was probably my most used app and the
saviour of my whole project. Dropbox allows you to transfer
files (images, videos or documents), to wherever another
dropbox is linked in. So, for example, I had dropbox on my
phone as well as on my home computer. This allowed me
to take a picture (as I did to create my template for the
digipack for example) and immediately transfer it to my
computer so that I could edited and then upload it to my
blog.

20. And of course, I had Youtube on my phone so that
I could research and look up inspiration whilst I
wasn't either on my computer or to not have to
switch back and forth whilst analysing a music
video for example.

21. Survey Monkey
Survey monkey is a website that I found completely by
chance as I was researching how to make a good
questionnaire so that I could establish my target audience
for my products. This is a free website which allows you to
create a survey/questionnaire online then gives you an
URL that you are able to send people, and when they click
on that link, they are taken to an online page which shows
your questionnaire and they are able to answer it.
This was very useful as it was a much easier and quicker way
of getting the information that I wanted. And as I haven't
used this technology before, I was very impressed and had
wished that I had found this website last year.

22. Camera
This year I have used two cameras. The Canon SLR and a Nikon.
I used the Canon SLR for my main filming and the Nikon for just
picture purpose.
These were two completely different cameras from what I used last
year. Therefore I had to take some test shots and found that the
Canon delivered much better quality videos than the Nikon and
therefore the Nikon became he camera that I would just take still
pictures from.
The main reason I have used two cameras this year, was that I
didn't have one SD card cluttered with pictures and videos as I
wanted to be more organised this year and the pictures weren't
for the video project anyway.

23. SD cards
This year, firstly I made sure to not only have a spare 16gb
SD card, but secondly,I also used a smaller SD card (2gb)
that I used for behind the scene shots.
To change something this simple helped me greatly because
last year, despite having used quite a big SD card we ran
out of space. Therefore time was wasted in getting
everything transferred back and forth as for this year I
made sure it wouldn't happen again.
And I made the decision to use a smaller second SD card for
the camera that I was using just for pictures as it would
have been a waste of a big SD card, and much space for
pictures wasn't needed anyway.

24. Wix
Wix is a website that lets you create other, (your own),
websites for free.
As I have experimented with making websites a few
years ago, I felt that choosing to make a website for my
project would be a better option for me.
This website is very easy to use and it shows you
everything you can create for your own website step by
step. I loved using this technology as it enabled me to
achieve and create exactly what I wanted for my
project.

25. Pinnacle Studio 15
Pinnacle studio 15 was the editing software I used this year
for my music video. I decided to switch from “final cut pro”
that I used last year to this one as for my last project I felt
lost in the editing software. Pinnacle Studio Pro does
basically the exact same this as Final Cut Pro, however in
a much simplified version.
I was so happy that I switched to this editing software as I
was able to edit my video normally without having to figure
out how to work it every 2 second.
This editing software made the construction so much easier
than it was last year which enabled me to achieve exactly
what I wanted.

26. Corel Paint Shop Pro x5
And finally, Corel Paint Shop Pro is an image
editing software. This was the first image editing
software that I used for a proper project and not
just the odd pictures.
Although quite complicated I was able to figure
out quite quickly how to work it. I felt like this
might have slowed me down a little, but I think
that I came out with a better result as I would
have, if I used something as simple as “Gimp”.