An evaluation of my media products.

1. Grace Newman
Research:
Whenresearchinginformationtohelpme withmymusicvideo,manyformsof mediatechnology
were used.Anexample of this,wouldbe Google,Iusedgoogle toresearchwhat Icouldwork from
and use to expandmyknowledgeof differentmusicvideosandespeciallythe genre Iwashopingto
use.I alsousedGoogle tolearnabout Goodwin’stheorywhichhelpedwidenmyunderstandingof
the conventionsof amusicvideo.InadditiontoGoogle,IalsousedYouTube inorderto become
familiarwiththe ‘indie’/‘pop’genre inwhichIwantedtodisplay.YouTube wasalsousedfor
embeddingmusicvideostomyblog,priortoevaluation.Again,thisallowedme towatchvideosof
my chosengenre andintricatelyassessthe waysinwhicheverythinginthe videofitstogetherand
worksfor that genre. Whenresearchingthisgenre further,itwasemphasisedtome,the key
conventions.Thesebeing:acombinationof bothnarrative andperformance,havingalinkbetween
lyricsand visuals(asGoodwinstates),the pace of the visualsfittingwiththe pace of the song,for
example whenthe musicspeedsupforachorus, there will be asuccessionof quickcuts.Another
conventionwasforthe artistto be playinganinstrument,inourcase the acousticguitarand finally
havinga romanticelement.
Whentryingto gain more of an insightonwhatour target audience wouldpreferourmusicvideo to
be like,we createdasurveyon SurveyMonkeywhichhelpedus withunderstandingthe needsof our
audience.Afteranalysingthe results,we createdapie chartwhichinformedus onwhatareas we
neededtoaddress.Forexample, the majorityof ourtargetaudience preferredamusicvideothat
included the mainartistinit,therefore we have made sure thatourmaincharacter features
throughoutthe video,alongwithanothercharacterattimes.Ithenpublishedthe resultsand
feedbackontomyTumblrby embeddingmydocument usingSlideShare.UsingSlideShare has
helpedme tomaintainasophisticated,tidylookingblog.Sophie andIconductedadditional research
by gatheringafocusgroup discussion.We chose studentswhichwere 16-18 yearsold,50% male,
50% female fromthe Sixth-Formwe attendasthiswasour perfecttargetaudience andthe opinions
of the studentswouldbe veryvaluable andhelpful touswhenfilmingourvideo. We filmedthe
groupdiscussionusingaDSLR camera, thiswasthe bestway to obtainour data as itwas leasttime
consuming. Once the discussionwasfinished,we usedPremierProtomake slidessayingwhatthe
questionswere thatwe askedthe group,forexample one of ourquestionswere ‘Wheredoyou
thinka goodlocationto filmourmusicvideowouldbe?’whichwouldthenfollow withthe footage
of the groupsanswers. We thenpostedthe discussiongroupfootage ontoYouTube andusedthe
embedcode topost the videoontomyTumblrblog.
Planning:
Once Sophie andI had decidingonthe songwe were goingtouse (Blame ItOn Me – George Ezra)
we had to prepare a storyboardwhichwouldindicate tousthe timingsandorderof each shotwe
were goingtofilm. The storyboardconsistedof drawingsof the shotswe used,how longthe shot
wouldtake,if there wasanydialogue andif there were anytransactionsbetweenshots.The
storyboardhelpedustovisualisewhatourvideowouldlooklike anditgave usa solidbase towork
upon. Afterfinishingthe storyboard,we thenscannedinthe storyboardandusedpainttocut out
the individual picturesinordertoproduce ananimatic,usingPremierPro.Ananimaticisa mock-up
of whatour musicvideowill looklike,butinsteadof actual filmfootage,itwill be the drawingsfrom
our storyboard. The photoswouldcorrespondwiththe beatof the song,presentingarealisticform
of the musicvideo. WhichagainfollowsGoodwin’stheory.
Aftercreatingouranimatic,we thenuploadeditontoYouTube forotherpeople tosee whatour
musicvideowill hopefullylooklikefinished.We thenembeddedthe linkfromYouTube andpostedit

2. Grace Newman
ontomy Tumblrblog.I explainedhowwe hadcreatedthe animaticandwhyit will be auseful
platformtouse whenfilmingourmusicvideo.Italsogave me a chance to describe tothe audience
whywe chose certainshotsand whywe thoughtthe timingswouldworktothe song.
In additiontoproducingthe animatic,Ialsotooka varietyof locationshotswhere we thoughtwould
be appropriate tofilmoutmusicvideo,thisalsoallowedme tovisualise whatourvideowouldlook
like andhowthe locationwouldrepresentthe genre.
Once we had finishedplanningourmusicvideoandwhatwe wouldlike ittolooklike,we hadto
create a digipakandposter.The planningof the videohelpedwiththinkingof creative ideasformy
digipakandposter. Asour character isportrayedas havingtwoseparate livesandwantingtobe in
the countryside,Idecidedthatitwouldbe appropriate toportray thisinmy digipak.
Construction:
Whenfilmingourmusicvideo,IfounditeasierthanmypreliminaryandI was familiarwiththe DSLR
camera that wasprovided.Thiscameraallowedustoenhance ourfootage,more sothana
camcorderwould.Therefore ourfootage wasmanipulatedbythe quality,focusanddepthof field
that were createdbythe camera we used.In many of our shots,we wantedourmain characterto
be in focusand the backgroundlessso.We achievedthisbymakingsure ourcharacter stayedinthe
correct positionandframe,and thenfocusedthe cameraon himwitha wide aperture andshallow
depthof field.Whichthenblurredthe widerpicture.We usedthiseffectmajorlyinthe citylocations
as thisis where we wantedourcharacterto seemlessentitledtohave funin.Therefore the blurred
backgroundgivesthe audience adistortedimage of where he isplaying. Afterwe hadfilmedthe
majorityof our video,we thenimporteditontoPremierPro andstartedto editthe footage.When
we firststartededitingthe video,we onlyusedone videolayer.However,afterexperimenting,we
preferredthe videobeingonmore thanone layeras thisallowedustolayclipsof the videoover
otherclips.Forexample,if we hada clip thatwas too longon itsown,we woulduse anothervideo
layerplacedinthe middle of the firstclip,thenwhenwe playeditback,the footage wouldjump
fromone location,toanother.As a group,we thoughtthiswas effective asitallowedthe audience
to recognise where the maincharacterwantedtobe. We usedmany toolsinPremierProsuchas:
Razor tool - to separate a clipintodifferentsections.Croptool - to shortena clipandto fitit intime
withour soundtrack.Colourbalance –to enhance some clipsasa minorityof clipsweren’tthe right
contrast or brightnessthatwe wanted.Forexample we changedthe colourof ourimaginationshots
and changedthe contrast tooto make it more distinguishable toourtargetaudience.We alsoused
cross dissolve manytimestomake the cuts betweenclipsmore smoothandprofessional looking.
We wantedtocreate the effectof time passing.We achievedthisbyfilmingourcharacterfor a few
minutesinthe same positionandthenspeedingupthe clip. Afterwe hadcompletedourfirstcouple
of drafts,we postedthemonYouTube.We decidedtodothisto gain verbal feedbackfrompeers
and fromour target audience.Afterreceivingsome constructivecriticism,we tookthe advice of
alteringafewparts of thisvide,thisincluded:Addingfiltersoverthe imaginationshots,makinga
fewof the cuts shorterand replacingthe time withadditional shotsand finally, reshootingthe
endingtomake it more obviousthatthe girl was inthe boys’ imagination.
Whencreatingmy digipak,IusedPhotoshoptoeditthe photosandprovide a professional outcome.
I decided onoverlappingtwophotostoportraythe character beingintwo differentworlds.Ididthis
by takinga photointhe countryside,andone inthe city.Ithenenlargedthe cityphototo make it
justthe main charactersheadand shoulders,thenIcutthe countryside phototomouldto the head
of the cityphoto.I changedthe opacityof bothphotosto make the countryside photostandout
more so it coveredthe charactershead. The effectIwantedto create isfor the audience to

3. Grace Newman
understandthatthe photoinside the charactersheadiswhere he wantsto be and alsowhere his
imaginationtakesplace.
In the processof creatingmy poster,Ikeptthe ideaof havingitin blackand white.Iwantedto
continue onfrommy digipakdesignandkeepthe themeconsistent.Thereforethismade the editing
of the posterverysimilartothe editingof mydigipak,whichwashelpful asIhad become very
familiarwiththe conceptof PhotoShopandIknew the toolsthat were mostappropriate touse in
orderto conveythe story of our maincharacter. For myposter,I decidedtotake a picture of the
guitarthat is featuredthroughoutourvideowiththe maincharacter.Itookthe photo of the guitar
ina dark surroundinginordertoemphasise the importanceof the guitar.Additionally,the photo
makesthe guitarlookisolated,muchlike ourmaincharacterthroughoutthe musicvideo.
Evaluation:
Duringthe evaluationstages,IdecidedonusingPrezi asaway to presentone of the questions.I
usedPrezi asI believe itisvisuallypleasingandalsopresentsworkinaprofessional andintriguing
wayfor the reader.I embeddedlinkstomymusicvideoonmyPrezi as thisallowseasyaccesstothe
audience readingitandalsoremindsthemof the productthat hasbeenmade.AdditionallyIadded
picturesof othermediatextsandalsomy owndigipakandposteras a wayof comparingmy workto
othersI wasinspiredby.WhencreatingaPrezi,I chose the ‘cloud’theme asI believedthiswas
appropriate touse as it linkedtomymusicvideowell asitrepresentedthe theme of imagination.
Whenconductingthe discussion group,we usedaDSLR camera as thiswasthe piece of equipment
we were mostfamiliarwith. Inadditiontothat, thiscameraproduceda professionaloutcome and
allowusto keepthe highqualityimage consistency. Afterfilmingthe discussiongroup,the footage
was lateruploadedontoPremierPro,inwhichwe arrangedthe clipstofitinwiththe questionswe
askedour targetaudience.Similarly,whenwe recordedour director’s commentary,we uploaded
the recordingontoPremierProandplaceditoverthe topof our musicvideoandadditional sources
we usedas examples.
Aftercompletingone of the evaluationquestionsonMicrosoftWord(question4),Ithenusedthe
facilitiesprovidedbySlide Share.Iusedthismediafacilityasitallowedme tocreate an embedcode
inorder to uploadthe file ontomyTumblrandmake the accessof the file easiertogain.