Media evaluation 4

1. Evaluation question 4 - How did you use new technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
Before any planning could take place, research had to be done on:
- the genre and its conventions
- the artist we wanted to use
- the conventions of a music video
- magazine adverts for music products
- digipaks
- target audience
Research was carried out using the internet, more specifically google chrome
and safari depending on which device was being used. These search engines
were used to find all of the research because they can direct you to any
website.
Research was posted on our blog using blogger so that the whole group could
have it presented all in one place

2. Research
To research the target audience, I looked at the website for Capital FM where I found
lots of information on the type of music played and the listeners who are the same age
as my target audience; ages 16-24.
To research the conventions of music videos I looked at three existing music videos on
YouTube and presented my findings on a Prezi before posting it on the shared blog. I
found YouTube easy to find what I was looking for and I embedded the videos on the
Prezi to make it easier to compare what I was writing to the product. Prezi was easy to
present my research because you can insert pictures and videos, and the transition
between slides is smooth and easy to follow.
To research the magazine adverts, I bought the music magazine ‘Kerrang’ because this
is a similar genre and target audience to the one I was aiming for, and I took photos of
the adverts and uploaded them to the blog so I could analyse them in a post.
For my digipak research I looked on google images to find an example of an existing
digipak for the indie genre and I saved the images onto my library then annotated it on
word. I then screen grabbed this to upload it in a post for the blog.

3. Planning
To plan for the task ahead, we constructed a mood board of still images
displaying ideas of the indie genre, and our target audience. For practicality we
printed these pictures from google images and then cut them out and stuck them
together in the form of a mood board. Once it was constructed we took a
photograph of it and uploaded it onto the blog to present it as our group research.
Our initial ideas were brainstormed on a piece of A2 paper because we found it
easier to jot down our ideas by hand and it allowed our creativity to flow better
than using digital technology.
Our storyboard was also produced on paper and photos were taken to upload it
to the blog. Then using a flip camera to film it and imovie to edit it, we produced
an animatic from the storyboard and again used the flip camera to record our
audience feedback on the animatic. For the animatic we were unable to add any
images so we included the song in the background. This was a compromise we
had to make due to the limitations of the software.

4. Construction
To film the music video we used a DSLR Canon EOS 650D camera, which
allowed us to alter white balance, focus and zoom to give us the effect we
desired. I found this a very useful piece of equipment and it gave our video
a professional appearance so I was pleased with the quality.
To edit the video we used final cut pro. I found this a very effective editing
tool as it had a wide variety of special effects, transitions and filters as well
as the ability to manipulate the brightness, contrast, exposure and
colouring to give a desired effect. This was very useful in the argument
scene of the video because we had to indicate a change in mood from the
previous scene of a happy memory of the couple so we added the filter of
‘desert glare’. We also used the transition ‘cross dissolve’ a lot between
scenes as we found this made the changes between shots smoother for
our video and more subtle. The blade tool for cutting clips was very precise
and allowed us to have the lip synching exactly in time with the music. For
the titles we used basic font but there were other options of font and colour
available.

5. Construction of print products
To produce the magazine advert we used powerpoint because we didn’t understand photoshop
so we decided it was more beneficial to use a software we are comfortable with. The base layer
of the advert was an image of some yellow leaves from the setting of the music video. Using this
primary source we changed the brightness and contrast from the previous magazine idea
because of our audience feedback. After trying out the different filters for the background we
decided to keep it simple but not boring. We then inserted the image of our digipak front cover
into powerpoint and added it onto the leaf image, making the cover large enough to be the main
focus of the poster as this was the product being advertised. Adding textboxes from the writing
was easy and there were many fonts to choose from as well as changing the size and colour of
the text. For the magazine reviews we inserted the logos to add more colour to the advert and to
make the reviews more legitimate and eye catching.
For the digipak we used a template found on google images and also used powerpoint to create
the images to create the digipak. We found that powerpoint was easier to use as you can move
around the images and make changes more simply than on photoshop or In Design and our
print products still had a professional finished look. Again we inserted the images we wanted to
use and added filters over them them the text box on top of the images.

6. Evaluation
For my evaluation I used a variety of formats to present my answers.
These were a prezi, a mindmap, a blog with a video and images of our
products and a powerpoint. Using these different forms allowed me to
compare how effective each is for presenting my evaluation and I found
that each had its own advantages and disadvantages.
Using prezi was very time consuming as I had difficulty with the layout and
for me the display kept either zooming when I did not want it to or the
images and text boxes moved when I was trying to do something else.
This frustrated me because all my content was finished by arranging the
presentation of it took up a lot of time so I would not use prezi again.
Presenting with a mindmap was very useful for laying out and categorising
all my points and I think the final mindmap looks pleasant and not as
intimidating as a large block of text to read. However the software did not
allow me to incorporate images or links and so to some people it may look
plain although I personally enjoy the simplicity and I think the colour makes
it more fun to look at.
Using powerpoint is also easy and helpful for separating points and I was
able to use google drive because my laptop is not installed with
powerpoint. This was very useful as it allowed me to work on my
evaluation at home.