Final Post

As we have come to the end of our media journey I have learnt a lot throughout the process of planning and making the products. I have really enjoyed making a music video for my A2 project, I have used all the key aspects that I learnt last year and used them this year to make a product that is better and I made it on my own which meant that I had complete control over the creative process. I am happy with the final outcome of my music video.
Thanks for reading my blog I hope you have enjoyed seeing my progression throughout the whole process.

Jess Awdas

How Did You Use Media Technologies In The Construction, Research and Planning And Evaluation Stages?

From making my product to making my ancillaries I have used a wide range of different media technologies in order to help me plan my products, make my products and evaluate it all. Media technologies have really helped me to expand my knowledge and make them the best that they can be.

Research and Planning

The main media technologies that I used for this section of my product making was web 2.0 this is essential the internet and by using the internet it allowed me to get a better idea of what I wanted to create and allowed me to use and adapt other peoples ideas. I firstly started of using YouTube to find out more what student music videos and short films look like, this really helped me decide which video I wanted to create, I looked at various different video to give me an idea what I could do on a very low budget film. I thought that it would be better for me to make a music video because I was working on my own I thought that this way I wouldn’t have to sort out equipment for sound because it would just be the soundtrack and also this would be time consuming and I was working on my own. I then expanded my knowledge by looking at other music videos on YouTube to give me an idea of what I could use in my video. I deconstructed many different music videos like the Bastille Oblivion music video, which I used the idea of going again the conventions of a male singing and they used a female as the main protagonist, which is what I used for my video. I also used pinterest to generate costume ideas for what my main protagonist could wear.  I also made a pinterest page on shots that I could use throughout the video this helped me to start thinking about a storyboard and what shots I wanted to include. I then went on to making a animatic which is essentially a storyboard of photos but its put into a video so that it gives you a better idea of how it might look before going out and filming it. I thought this was very helpful for this task I used Premiere pro in order to make the video.

The making of the film.

In the making of the film I used my Canon 100D camera in order to shoot the film. i thought that this camera was really good for what I wanted it for it was easy to use and it was easy to transfer the footage onto the computer.

I did all of the editing of the music video on Premiere Pro this allowed me to have many different settings and effects that I could paly around with making my video better and more eye catching.  When editing the film I tried to use my animatic to help me edit but my ideas had changed a lot so I had that as a back up and just edited the way I thought it looked better.  Because Premiere Pro has many different effects it allowed me to make the drumming sequence more vibrant by changing the colour and saturation of some of the shots so that they contrasted each other really well. I also used Adobe encoder in order to export my video. This meant that I could show people my video throughout different stages of the filming and editing. This allowed me to get feedback from my target audience to make my video better and more tailored to my target audience. I uploaded my videos to YouTube so that I could embed it onto my blog and this also meant that they public could see my work and leave a comment.

Evaluation

For the evaluation process I used different media technologies to show what I had learnt throughout the process. I used sites such as Emaze, Prezi and wordle to show what I have learnt about the process and what convention I used and how I made my final products. I also used blogger to show the development process throughout the making of my products. I thought that by doing a blog alongside making my main product it meant that I could refer back to the posts making the evaluation question easier to write about. I think that by using different media technologies it has allowed me to be more creative and have more of an idea of what my product might look like when finished. I think that the key point was using Web 2.0 for researching the task and making the evaluation questions.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2- How effective is the main combination of your media product and ancillary tasks?

I think that my media product and ancillary tasks link together and look very effective and memorable. The idea was to makes sure that both the product and the ancillary tasks were unique and memorable. To keep them both consistent I used the same effect on both the products and made sure that my main protagonist was a key aspect of my main media product and my ancillaries. I think that by having the main protagonist really emphasized on both if the products it puts a familiar face for the audience to identify.

I had to organize a photo to get some shots for my ancillary tasks; I wanted my main protagonist to be wearing similar clothing as to the shoot at the forest and the main hall shot. It was key that she wore dark clothing so that it helped to emphasize the darkness and the danger that she was in. I took some of the photos when filming the forest scenes. I had a separate day for the shooting in the main hall and the photo shoot so I had to make sure that my main protagonist was wearing the same clothing so that it fitted together. The lighting for both of the shoots that I had were differently done when filming in the forest I used natural lighting and in the main hall I used artificial lighting to create an effect of shadows around and on the main protagonist. It really helped me making the ancillary task alongside making the actual video because it meant that I could reflect the ancillaries to the way I was editing my main video. This meant that my ancillary tasks and main video were pretty similar.

Below is some of the photos from my shoot:

Research

When making my ancillary tasks I had to start of by researching both a digi pak and music video posters. I thought that by researching some ideas it made it easier for me to generate ideas. It also meant that I could see what was done in the past and use and adapt their ideas to make my own. Because I already do Photography A2 I knew how to use Photoshop, which meant that it was a lot quicker for me to edit the photos and it meant that I could play around more with the different effects. I looked at many different music video posters; I also looked at just black and white posters because my film is mostly in black and white and I thought that by carrying this out on the digi pak and the poster it would make more of a statement.

Codes and Conventions

I used some regular codes and conventions for my ancillary tasks. I used the same font for both my digi pak and poster this helps to show that they are both linked. I also used the same effect so the photos were in black and white and then it had the trippy effect of the pink and blue colour layered into the photos. This shows that all 3 of my products are linked and it is a very distinct effect. From my research I found out that the audience wanted a clear connection between all of the products made so that it was easier to tell that they were all linked.

I used the conventions of the person being alone in both my digi pak and my poster so that it shows that the main protagonist is lost and alone. I also made the photos in high contrast and darker to show that there is a darkness and this shows that there is something she is hiding from because in the digi pak for the front cover you can see half her face which could either infer that something is taking over her or she is hiding from something.

Digi Pak 

This is my digi pak.

Poster 

This is my final poster below.

Evaluation Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of already excisting media products.

Final Music Video

Feedback from my digipak

I have now finished my digipak and have shown it to my audience so that i could get some feedback, and to see whether they liked it. Below is the feedback i got from my audience:

*'I really like the way that you have used black and white I think that it makes it stand out. Also by having it in black and white it allows the colourful title to stand out from everything else'

* 'I think that the photographs that you have chosen are really professional, they are very clear and work well with the digipak'

* 'The title are really effective and they stand out which is good because thats what the audience are going to see when its on the shelves of a supermarket for example'

* 'It's cool'

* 'I really like the way that the photo's show isolation and that reflects the music video'

* 'Its clear from this digipak who the main protagonist is'

* 'I think that you could have added running shots on the inside

* 'It really reflects your music video through the use of the different colours with the black and white'