Evaluation Question No. 4

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

To start with, to complete all of my advanced portfolio work I used an Acer windows 8.1 laptop. I used an windows laptop against an apple product because I  find it much easier to use a window product much more easier than I do an Macbook Pro for example. I not only find the operating system easier to use but also the software layout and keyboard easier to use than most apple products.

Research
To start with I obviously used a laptop throughout this project. One of the primary things I did on my laptop was begin research. The specific search engines I used was Google.This access gave me the ability to research products similar to the ones I would be creating very easily. Some of these consisted of magazine adverts and digipaks. I was also given the ability to research into the band and the song I would be creating a music video for.

This research didn't end here, It extended into my similar product planning and research. To start with I researched a variety of bands. This was mainly done on YouTube to begin with. Using YouTube, I analysed five very different videos. These included Muse, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Thirty Second To Mars and even The Prodigy. Whilst analysing these video I took it upon myself to gather ideas from what other producers had done not only whilst filming but also to the footage afterwards, such as adding effects. These videos influenced the final outcome of my video.

This ability to research on the internet also gave me the chance to research up on different related bands and songs to the one I was going to make a music video for. This research also lead to the finalizing of my ideas before actually starting to make my music video. This was done by the internet giving me the ability to search what other related artists music videos looked like, and from this I could efficiently construct my ideas. The searching was mainly done on Youtube and Vimeo

With the ability to access the internet it also gave me the ability to use email to contact my teacher and other students when I needed assistance with my music video, or any of my ancillary products. It not only gave me the ability to get assistance but it also gave me the ability to receive advice when I needed it.

Computer - Premiere Pro and Photoshop.
Both of the programs I used on my laptop were in fact Adobe products. Premiere Pro was obviously used as my assembling and editing software for my music video. This editing software not only aided me in creating the my rough cut, my finalized video but also an evaluation question I've previously answered.

As for Photoshop I primarily used this to create my stylized font contained in my music video, my digipak and also my magazine advert. On Photoshop, for my digipak I arrange pictures and type into a proper manor. The ability to use this software allowed me to make my ancillary products look professional and stylized, this was something I was aiming for when creating my products. Not only did it allow me to do this for my digipak but the use of Photoshop also allowed me to do this to my magazine advert. Changing the positioning, layout and effects on my images and text, Photoshop gave me the chance to also make my advert look professional and match the style I was aiming for.

Equipment
To create my music video I used digital hardware such as a 700d canon camera. The use of this high quality camera on manual setting gave me the ability to put forth my ideas and make them into actual footage. It also gave me the ability to change the focus, aperture, and shutter speed as I wished. Throughout different parts of my video some footage was either filmed in complete darkness or in a very light wooded area. The contrast in these two settings caused some difficultly when filming but they were quickly resolved. Whilst it was dark outside I changed the camera to manual focus and changed the setting to have an ISO of 13000, this also seems to be extremely high if you were taken photos gave me just enough light to see my actor, although this being only slightly. During the day shoots the ISO and other setting were also changed so that the increasing light would not make my footage overly bright.

As for the equipment I used along side the camera I used a Jib for some of the outside shots in the woods, this proved to be a struggle to carry it through woods for a few hours. I also used a tripod, this gave me the chance to film static footage, without it looking like I was constantly moving and make the footage look 'shaky'. Although this shaky footage was in fact something i wanted, but only on some pieces of footage and not others. The last thing I used was the studio setting. Equipment in this setting contained, an Arri 650watt fresne light and a backdrop along side using a tripod.

Evaluation Question No. 3

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

Generally The Prodigy's fan base consists of people of all ages. Therefore audiences members from the age of 10, all the way to the age of 70 enjoy the bands music. Due to the fact I could not attend a Prodigy concert whilst I created my music video I went to the next best thing and found some images on the internet from recent gigs they've performed at.

The audience members throughout these photos consist of not only family's but also couples of all ages. We can also see groups of teenagers and their friends. You can see the audience ranges from people aged 18 - 30. As you can see, there is a limited number of people actually on their phones in these pictures, and more people actually experiencing the gig instead of just recording it. One this which is clear, is that feedback is gathered by bands these days mainly by social networking on platforms such as facebook, instagram, twitter and tumblr.

Throughout my advanced portfolio feedback was indeed a vital part of the course. In order to improve my video I decided to collect this feedback on a variety of platforms, some of these included Facebook, Youtube, and a survey website called Polldaddy. To receive the most amount of feedback I could on these platforms, I decided to call my music video " The Day Is My Enemy " which is the name of the bands song. I also added A2 media studies to the end of my music video title to gain a wider audience when it comes to other students looking on youtube for examples of work. I also added numerous tags when exporting my video to gain as much attention as possible. Another thing which I did to spread my video was to make it public, and file a 'Fair Use' dispute on you-tube. This will give me the ability ( If accepted ) to keep my video public, and have the original song on it. This dispute is done to prove the video is for non-profit education use only.

Due to the fact my I took this screenshot with my video only been uploaded publicly for 8 hours, it has only reached 145 views, 8 likes and six comments.

Several members of my family shared my video, but not only them. When the video was shared by my family it spread to those outside my friend groups and theirs. Having such a large audience range that my family members have ( my father having over 17k twitter followers ) it meant that my music video spread to not only everyone who follow him but to those who shared my video from him. Some of those people consisted of runners and owners of festivals such as TedFest.

In the early stages of my production I got feedback for my Digipak, Magazine advert, rough cut and also my final music video. This helped me improve each of my products in some way or another. This could have been in terms of design or stylizing the product more to match the genre I was creating a music video for. Some feedback I gathered was in fact purely compliments and no constructive criticism, but even though they were compliments it gave me an idea of how well I'd actually made my product.

Below are select pieces of feedback gathered from my final video, which also gave constructive criticism rather than pure compliments.

I also gathered constructive criticism from my rough cut, below are some screenshots. These answered were gathered from students I'd asked as random whilst in college and whilst they were near a computer. These pieces of feedback were gathered from a variety of age ranges, going from the age of 11 to 19.

As for my Digipak, I generally asked a wide audience range for feedback on which inside panel design they liked the best. From this feedback I changed my digipak accordingly.

When I'd finished my digipak I also requested for some more audience feedback, and this can be show the in picture below. From all this feedback I have realized that I would indeed 'tweak' and change some of my design idea's to match what the audience want more, and incorporate their design opinions in my final design more than I have done previously

As for my Magazine advert I also asked for some audience feedback on whether they liked the look of the red ant or the white ant more on my design. Due to the feedback I gathered I did in fact change my design to match popular demand, and rather have the white ant design I proceeded to have the red ant design. From this I could not really change the design any more due to the fact that I had already changed my design to match exactly what my audience wanted.

Evaluation Question No. 2

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

Evaluation Question No. 1

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

Final Video Feedback

Due to the fact that part of this course is linked with social networking I decided it would be appropriate to collect feedback from YouTube and Facebook. So that I could gather a wide range of answers requested for a number of people to share my video on Facebook, and to show it to their work / school friends. By doing this I was able to gather a wide range of examples from all age ranges and social groups. Below is my Facebook feedback and then my You-tube feedback.

Please excuse some of the language

And here is some of the piece of feedback I've received on You-tube. 

Final Video

Side Note: Play in 1080p for best quality 

Making Final Video

To start with I obviously began by filming all of my footage. All together I had over 89 pieces of footage from all of my filming, and these clips were at minimum 5 minutes long, some even ranging to 20 minutes. Once all of the filming had taken place I then began to import each file into a program called Adobe Premiere Pro, this initially took about an hour.

Along with importing the song file into Premiere Pro, I simply started by putting the song file into the audio section of the program. I then started on creating the time lapse piece of footage. This was several clips all merged together and conjoined to create one long piece. This footage was filmed over a three hour period but when each section was sped up, to 7000x it's normal speed, the time lapse came to be about 10 seconds long.

The time lapse was created in a separate project before it was imported into Premiere on a different project. This different project would be the one I would be creating my final piece on.

I began by starting to load footage into the timeline bar, and begin position it in the places I wished it to be. This proved to be a lengthy process, and it quickly became hours and hours of work. Moving through the project, once the footage was properly in place I started to chop at it and begin adding the film effects I desired. This was also a lengthy process. Below are some screenshots show this process.

Once all the footage and effects were in place, I started to edit how each piece of footage looked, meaning I could add more effects, change the hue, add contrast and even change the levels. On specific parts of my footage, for example on the bits where I have my male actor in the horror make-up flail through the forest, I made it grainy to give a hand-held video feel and make the footage look more twisted.

Once my video was done, I exported it at the proper setting and then uploaded it to youtube.