#a2mediastudies

[racheleliasmedia]

Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For this question I filmed a focus group to review my digipak and advert. I asked “What do you like about this digipak/advert?”, “What don’t you like about this digipak/advert?” and “What would you say need improvement?”

What they liked:

How the images on the digipak/advert related to the music video and theme.

The font was white, which they thought suited the theme well.

The placement of the barcode on the digipak.

The continuous sky image taking up two sides of the digipak.

The detail of the text of what’s on the digipak including the websites, logos and the copyright.

The use of the same image for the CD as well as the image behind the CD.

That both the digipak and advert looked quite professional because of good editing.

They preferred the font that was on my digipak/advert then what was on the thumbnail.

The artist and album name was on the spines of the digipak.

 What they didn’t like:

The main font didn’t match the music video thumbnail’s font.

The font was white, which with the end of the song list you can’t see very well on the digipak.

On the digipak I didn’t include images of both characters from the music video.

The images of ‘Wendy’ (Lizzie) where too similar, not much difference between them.

 What needed improvement:

One suggested to change the font colour to black on the back of the digipak, however, people where 50/50 on this as they thought black was too harsh. And that they could see the font if the image of the digipak was enlarged but could not on the blog.

To match the main font with the thumbnail of the music video.

The images could be varied between the two characters from the music video.

That the advert didn’t represent the artist or music video as well as it was just a picture of the sky.

The base colour below the images would be a lighter colour.

[jacksonfreemedia]

Directors commentary in script form with timestamps:

The first sequence of shots worked well together which is something I’m particularly proud of as they often amplify or illustrate the lyrics to the story, like the low angle of the sky or an over the shoulder shot of Wendy playing the piano. ~ 0.01 - 0.40  -  The first lot of shots excluding the dark room shots with singer. 

We used reoccurring shots of the piano as it is a main component of the music in the background and often features as an instrumental part to the music. I thought it would create a good atmosphere for the music video and it’s fantasy feel. ~ 2.10 - 2.12 & 2.43 - 2.50. 

The pull-focus shot was used to amplify the lyrics, “I promise that you’ll never be lonely”, but it could also be seen as a signifier as holding someone’s hand is a sign of affection or that you support them. ~ 0.40 - 0.45.

The music video contains repeating shots of the forest as a location signifier as images of the forest represents freedom hopefully being an image or a place that the target audience can want to be in or get the feeling of being free from it. We used different shots of the location multiple times in the video to create the idea of Neverland for the target audience. ~ 0.53 - 1.10 & 3.19 - 3.24.

I used the dark room and the same actor for Wendy to lip-sync to the lyrics for continuity and I think that the dark room with the black background and the way it was lit, not only created a more professional feel to it but also created a contrast for the clips with the forest. ~ 1.10 - 1.18 & 1.49 - 1.56.

The choreography was also done in a studio with a black background, but this time it was a drama room which has a big space for our performers to dance in and linked to the clips from the dark room for continuity. If it was possible and I could do this music video again, I would have liked to shoot it in the forest to keep in touch with the idea of Neverland. ~ 1.56 - 1.59

The glitter was used as an effect and illustrator for the lyrics that mentioned fairy dust and going away from reality as it is almost like fairy dust or pixie dust and isn’t something one would usually see in a reality type music video. ~ 1.33 - 1.35 & 1.43 - 1.45. 

The shot looking down the piano is one of my favorites as it looks very professional and you can really see the detail of the piano keys as they are played, I think it adds nicely in with the genre and theme of the music video. ~ 3.34 - 3.38.

The book was used and cut on the beat as the singer lists the characters, this was done as a visual response to the lyrics. ~ 2.59 - 3.06.

Time lapses were used for entertainment of the viewer and to re-enforce the fantasy world for the target audience. ~ 1.17 - 1.26 & 1.47 - 1.49.

The cut on the lyrics ‘Peter Pan’ with the book, the shot itself took a while to get right but I’m glad with the way it turned out. ~ 3.26 - 3.29.

The high angle shot of the water droplets ascending back up to the leaf is one of my favorite nature shots as it re-enforces the Neverland forest feel within the music video. ~ 3.40 - 3.44.

The over the shoulder shot of the book flicking backwards was a long shot, time wise, but I think it worked well with the music video in general. ~ 3.47 - 4.01.

The last shot where Wendy is singing the lyrics and looks into the camera at the end was the perfect ending for me as it was very simple but also very effective. ~ 4.07 - 4.09.

[racheleliasmedia]

A Level Media Studies Evaluation Question 4

[jacksonfreemedia]

Final Focus Group - Lost Boy

[racheleliasmedia]

Question 2 (year 13)

[jacksonfreemedia]

Lost Boy Evaluation - Question 4:

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

Tumblr:

Tumblr was a great site to keep track of my research and planning, to upload research and work I had done to help create the music video. It’s simple to use and easy to upload to, therefore there weren’t any difficulties involved when using the site. During production was probably when Tumblr became most useful as I could go back and see the shots that needed doing from the storyboards and see which ones had been done, it also helped me organise what needed to be done in the future. During the evaluation Tumblr has been useful to keep track of what I have done in the past and how it has affected my work now and the progress I have made towards, during and after the creation of my music video.

Prezi:

Prezi was the most difficult site to use out of all of the websites and equipment I used to help make and evaluate my media project. I used Prezi for the second question in my evaluation, although helpful as I could go off onto tangent and come back out and go into a different subject, getting the hang of using the tools within it, using transitions and getting text and pictures to the correct sizes was a bit difficult at the start but once I got used to it, it proved easier to use. It helped me produce better work as I was able to show my skill, and flick between relevant points to show the evaluation of my work better.

PC’s:

In the process of creating my music video my Pc and the school computers were a big part of this as only so much work can be done on paper. The benefits of using my pc and the school computer, was that I could get my projects, past work and utilise the computers to upload footage from the cameras and upload my work to Tumblr. Using Pcs and computers has helped me produce better work because I was able to edit, upload and use many other applications to help me create my music video. The only difficulties of using PC’s and computers is the time they take to render and export projects and you cant always rely on them as they may crash. 

Mobile Phone:

The benefits of using my phone during this process was that I could easily contact the cast to find out when they were free and if they could come and shoot, another benefit is I was able to record all of the work I was doing, taking pictures to document it and use later on in my blog. The phone also gave me quick access to Tumblr so I could check the shots that needed doing and upload photos to the blog quickly and easily. This helped me as a student because having my phone on me meant I could keep track of what needed doing and be able to organise shoots and cast meetings quickly and effectively. The only difficulties encountered would have been using Tumblr on the phone as it isn’t as effective as using it on a laptop or computer.

Digital Cameras:

Digital cameras, the benefits of using the cameras were that they got very high quality shots for our music video, which I was very happy about. The camera I used was a Nikon D3300 which is the same model I own and use for my photography so I used the skills I learnt from photography and my previous knowledge of how to use the camera correctly to get the right shots to get all of the shots I did when filming. The only issue when using cameras was the auto-focus, and sometimes the battery life on them when taking them out to record. There was one incident in which footage was deleted off of the camera for more memory when shooting and when uploading to the computer it saved over footage with the same name, which was unfortunate and we lost quite a chunk of footage but I managed to tweak some bits and get the music video back up to standard.

Digital editing - Premier Pro:

Premier pro helped me produce better work than any other editing software. The benefits of using premier pro was that I was already familiar with the technology due to the usage of premier pro in AS to create our film openings. When using premier pro to edit the music video I found that I had more experience and even though I hadn’t edited in a while it was quick to pick up again and I have gained more skills using it. The only difficulties around it was the time it took to render videos, sometimes hours and the time it took to export videos, again hours. This is always stressful when you have a deadline to meet and premier pro isn’t compliant but we still worked around it.

Digital photo manipulation - Photoshop: 

Benefits of using photoshop were again that I already acquired the skill from photography so had a knowledge of how to use it to create a good advert and digipak to promote my music video. For the digipak it was simply layering the pictures I wanted onto the template and creating a couple of bits for the digipak, like the spines. When creating the advert I used the difference on the two photos which makes it look like they’ve merged and doesn’t make one overlap the other which is what I was going for. The fireworks make the photo stand out and having Wendy on the front was important for brand identity. There weren’t any difficulties when using photoshop as I was already acquainted with it. 

Google:

Google was key to my research and development of my music video as I was able to research artists music videos and see the styles within the genre I was working in and see how I could make my music video conform to conventions within the pop-indie genre. When using google the only difficulty would be finding good quality information or videos to use in my blog. When doing research at the very beginning google was a great help. During the evaluation google has helped me find sites like slide share to post my work on so I could embed it on Tumblr.

Web 2.0 sites - YouTube:

YouTube has been one of my biggest helps in finding the music genre like the one for my music video, helping me come up with ideas take from other music videos about a certain shot type I could use or a technique that the audience would like. YouTube has also been where I received criticism or praise for my work once uploaded onto YouTube. There aren’t many difficulties to using YouTube however, when uploading my project sometimes it would take quite a while or I’d have to do it two or three times because the site crashed. YouTube has helped me produce better work as I was able to create a first edit and final edit and I can see the difference between the two and be proud of the final outcome.

[jacksonfreemedia]

Lost Boy Evaluation - Question 3:

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Question 3 - Lost Boy Evaluation from 11tfree

[jacksonfreemedia]

Lost Boy Evaluation - Question 2:

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

http://prezi.com/hmpoemdzbqge/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share