How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
A Canon SD was used four times from November the 16th
to the 20th to be able to gain enough images so to be able to choose
which ones to use for the digipack and magazine advert. In using it skills were
picked up about how many should be taken to gain a portfolio of photos,
especially as often lots of images can be captured and out of a few, there
should be one good photograph. This is why there were multiple photos taken for
each section of the text, and to be able to gain more hands-on experience when
it comes to the production side of work. Once enough were taken, they were
uploaded to Photoshop by inserting the SD card into a Mac. This is where the
more creative aspect of handling the ancillary products came into play, as
although using Photoshop didn’t feel new, this was a lot more technical than
having had used it before.
The first job was placing appropriate effects to modify the
image so it had the right look for a band that’s meant to perform in the genres
of Alternative and Indie Rock. Inner and Outer Glow are two highlights as those
two effects, added by selecting a layer style encapsulated the post-production
side of the construction stage. This is because these were an influence in
knowing what fonts to use as a particular font might appear too dark and in
adding that layer style, the title can be easier to read and so forth. A first
draft of the digipak was completed by November the 31st and although
everything looked rough, this was an important first step to be able to reflect
and look back and see what can be improved.
Final drafts of each of the ancillary products were done by
the 16th of February and despite the long process, the construction
stage has been efficient. Efficiency has been achieved as from the start of A2,
a lot more knowledge has been gained about Photoshop than I knew previously as
all ancillary products were created through this.
Blogger was the programme used the most for A2 Media
coursework as it was there for uploading work, doing research for knowing how
to create really good products, planning and for doing the evaluation. Part of
the research was looking into artists and how they achieved the success they
did so that would inform the creative process. Blogger helped as five of them
were researched in terms of their attitudes, audience, genres and other
information. Researching this was helpful to reach a conclusion about what the
demographic was going to be, the attitudes of the band any anything else to
create a realistic construction.
The next stage of research was through providing six music
video and three magazine advert and digipak analyses. Doing the analyses proved
to be an advantage in gaining knowledge not only about bands and how much of
their beliefs, demographic and other factors that make their image up are
integrated into products such as music videos, but also the forms. When
analysing items that come from bands it helps to be able to gain an
understanding of where the verisimilitude comes, and how it carries over.
Questionnaires were given out for feedback that would change
the composition of the texts. These included questions such as what age range
people were in, because that would determine their interests and it informed
aspects such as how much do the products follow conventions and what are they
trying to connote.
The Killers was chosen to be a band to adapt a song into a
music video and the next part of the research stage was target audience.
Statistics had to be collected from the Internet about their popularity and
these were collected through two sites, Lastfm and MySpace. Information, such
as The Killers having over 175 pieces of information shared on Lastfm informed
how the music video was going to look and the marketing. An attempt to reach them
on their official Facebook page was made, along with sending a message to the
forum administrator for their website and an email to the manager. Overall this
research helps with learning about multimedia and how that carries over to
certain demographics.
Blogger was also instrumental in the planning stage. There’s
a post named “Beginning”, where it introduces the content of the blog and has a
general overview. A couple of ideas for the video had been thought of, and
these were both uploaded to Blogger to help get an idea of the target audience,
as by uploading ideas, this would hopefully set a demographic and it did.
Filming and when the photos were going to be taken were also written about, as
by documenting progress, it helps for keeping track. More ideas also came up as
not as much energy was spent on keeping a steady flow, by documenting each
stage of the planning.
Finally, when it came to the evaluation, Blogger wasn’t used
as much apart from a couple of posts that have links to Prezi powerpoints evaluating
questionnaire results. It’s because it felt when it comes to discussing
anything ranging from the ideology to what one of the texts is trying to
connote, a more traditional format should be used. Word is used for many types
of documents, including scripts and therefore feels as if Word is natural for
writing an evaluation. Other technologies have been used however for the
multimedia evaluations, including a focus group interview, giving feedback
about the texts. This was crucial because in being able to gauge how the target
demographic is responding live, it’s a better platform to gain feedback.
To discuss an example, one of them is with the front cover,
where raindrops where placed on the image and through using Inner and Outer
Glow, it gave a texture to the raindrops that helped in emphasising the themes.
Shooting the music video with a Panasonic HD was more challenging as although
the tripod is there to steady the camera and that helps the process become more
efficient, it’s still difficult to micromanage everything. From November the 16th
to December the 1st the same camera was used and it helped with
learning what a shooting process is, how time should be used and other lessons.
Once the footage had been shot, it had to be captured on Final Cut Express.
This wasn’t always the fastest process as the tape had to be rewound and there
was waiting until it was captured and upload. Ultimately it’s an expression of
how it’s tough in the media industry when it comes to the physical side of
things though. Sometimes a member of
staff was there to provide help with shooting and overall there was a lot
learned about how to operate a video camera. Along with this was learning how
to take advantage of a tripod and about features on a still camera such as the
shutter speed.
Final Cut has been used to edit the music video, and it was
vital for ensuring it had the appearance of a professional music video. Part of
this was selecting the right effects, such as adding glows that adds a
saturated appearance and cropping the footage so the video fit together. Once
the images were taken they were uploaded to Photoshop, where the process began
to create the magazine advert and the front and back covers for the digipack,
in addition to the inside along with the CD and DVD. It was an interesting
learning process as Photoshop was used in the first year, as well as on
previous courses so this was a refresher and new skills were picked up, such as
adjusting the colour balance so the colours are kept in balance and that helped
in giving the images a magical quality.
The official Facebook fan page of The Killers was used in an
attempt to find out about audience research, but the attempt was unsuccessful
in trying to contact them. Blogger has been very useful as at the end of a day
it’s a diary and diaries normally have daily entries in them, so this was a
useful motivation to constantly update the work. It developed writing skills
also as through the analyses, analysing skills have developed. It’s an
inspiring way to display work as it’s a blogging programme so there’s a
community sensitivity to everyone uploading work. Feedback has been received by
others viewing my blog so that was also useful. Work was partially hindered
with the presence of others, uploading work in one space at times however. This
is as there was increased pressure and organisation isn’t one of my strongest
points so it was difficult at times to keep track of work, and refine them to
an appropriate level.
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