EVALUATION/Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research and Planning

For my coursework, I used a PC instead of a mac computer as in my AS coursework, I encountered a few problems with the mac computers as they were not compatible with some of the files. The PCs that we have used in our A level coursework are much more powerful, quicker and are compatible with more files. I found them a lot more easier to use.

In the research stage, I primarily used Google to gather my findings about what music I wanted to use for my music video. I also used Google images to research some existing products, such as existing album covers and posters for my print work. This helped inspire me to come up with my own ideas.

Another platform that I used for research purposes was Youtube.com. This proved useful as the music artist is actually a Youtuber. Therefore, I used her Youtube account as a base platform to find out about my target audience. From there, I used the website YouGov.com to gather further research on my target audience.

I captured all of my research on the blogging website, 'Blogger'. Blogger was useful in many ways as I was able to go back to my initial research on my target audience and artist and then make improvements to my products and designs. Blogger was also useful as I was able to download it in the Apple App Store on my phone, meaning that I was able to make notes anywhere if necessary. One of the main tools I used in Blogger was the embedding tool. I needed to evidence my work and research throughout the coursework, so I used the embedding tool to insert photos, screenshots and even videos into my blog.

In the initial research and planning stage, I had to create a pitch in order to gain audience feedback. I decided to create this using a Prezi. I chose to use Prezi as it is one of the most engaging platforms used to present, in my opinion. I was able to embed this into my blog so that I would be able to access it at any time throughout my production if I needed to.

Another way of documenting my progress was through using Google Drive. A particular service that Google Drive provides is Google Docs. This is accessible from any computer or phone with an internet connection, so it saved me time as I did not have to email my work and notes back and forth to myself.  I also quickly made notes on my iPhone as I was thinking of ideas.

I primarily planned my production using an online storyboard, which I created using a website called 'Storyboard That'. This was useful as I was able to refer back to it when I needed to in the coursework. It also allowed me to have a more clearer picture of what I was going to have to film. I also used Microsoft Powerpoint to create a mindmap of basic ideas, which then helped me to develop them into more complex ideas.

Construction

For my print artefacts, I had to take some photographs. To take these photographs, I used a 700d with an array of lenses, including a 50mm and a 18-55mm lens. Having an array of lenses to take photographs and to film with was useful as I could change the ISO, aperture and shutter speed levels to act accordingly to what I was filming/taking photos of. By adjusting the aperture, I achieved blue in my backgrounds. ensuring that the subject would stay in sharp focus at all times. Whilst capturing my photos and footage, I used a tripod to steady the camera, which meant that there wasn't any unnecessary blur or noise in my images. I also used a ring light whilst taking my photographs. This proved to be effective as we were shooting in the Autumn/Winter time, so the natural lighting was quite dull. The ring light enabled crisp, bright lighting.

 

To create and design my initial print artefacts for my digipak, I used an array of mobile apps. These included Afterlight, Superimpose and Snapseed. I used these apps to quickly design some prototypes of my print work as they were quick and easy platforms to use. With Afterlight, I was able to quickly add an effect to my photographs to create an overall aesthetic to them. This ensured consistency to my photographs. With Superimpose and Snapseed, I could create a basic boarder for my cover.

After producing a prototype designs in Afterlight, I edited my final pictures in Adobe Photoshop, where I was able to adjust opacity, contrast, saturation and brightness levels accordingly. I then used a website called Canva.com to produce my final album cover and magazine advert. I began by inserting the photographs I had previously edited in Photoshop to Canva. Canva allowed me to edit the overall layout of the print work. It provides a range of professional fonts to use. In this stage, I studied the album covers that I had found in the research stage to try and grasp the overall codes and conventions of album covers. I would finalise my print work by adding similar codes and conventions to them.

A piece of technology that I primarily used was an SD card and an SD card reader. The SD card that I used was a 64GB one, so I knew that it had enough storage to hold all of my footage. I used an SD card reader as the PCs that we have been working on do not have an SD card slot like the macs or laptops. However, this was not an issue as I had an SD card reader to plug into the computer and import the files onto my user.

To edit my footage, I used Adobe Premiere Pro. This was an excellent software to use as it was quite easy to use and navigate around. I was able to quickly import clips, cut them down and place them in the timeline where appropriate. Another important aspect of my media construction stage was downloading appropriate transitional effects and music. I had to download the music by using a converter and converting the file into an mp3 file. After this, I was able to import it into my Premiere Pro project. I had to complete a similar process for downloading the light leak effects.

Another Adobe Program that I used was After Effects. I had to use this to create the title file and to draw onto some of my clips. This was quite an easy program to use, however it was very time consuming as you had to draw onto each frame individually. Therefore, it could take me hours at a time to edit one clip of footage. To learn how to create the animated title and the 'doodle' effect, I watched a few tutorials on Youtube. These were very useful as I would have been quite confused about which tools to use to create the right effect. The tool that I mainly used was the 'paint' tool, which allowed me to freely draw onto a clip.

Evaluation

Question 1
To complete my coursework, I had to evaluate my production. To do so, I used various pieces of technology. I wanted to create an animated presentation for this question to keep the viewer engaged. I began by using Adobe's free online software, 'Adobe Spark'. However, I quickly realised that this was not an appropriate platform as I was unable to edit the font size, limiting me to what I could write. It also does not give you the ability to change backgrounds and colours of the slides. I did however, like the layout of the slides. It gave you the ability to use a split screen if you so wished, enabling you to present a video or photo on one side of the screen, whilst you spoke about it in the other. I tried to research other websites and platforms that I could present this question on, but in the end I decided to settle with Powerpoint as you had to pay a certain fee to gain full access to all of the features on most websites. I really developed my basic knowledge using Powerpoint whilst completing this question. I learnt how to use transitions on slides without them looking too tacky. I also learnt how to insert videos into a Powerpoint, which is something I'd never done before. I needed to embed my Powerpoint into blogger, but found quite a few difficulties with this. First of all, the Powerpoint was too large of a file at 360MB. I needed to reduce it to around 200MB in order to upload it. I reduced the file by compressing any videos and photos within the Powerpoint to a smaller resolution, which in turn would reduce the size of the whole file. I ended up reducing it to around 190MB. After this, I used Microsoft's online platform called OneDrive to upload my Powerpoint and create an embed code. I was then able to embed my Powerpoint into Blogger.

Question 2
I opted to create a video with a voice over for this question. I thought that this was the best decision for this question as I was able to talk about my products whilst visually showing the viewer my work. I was able to show how I edited the prototypes of my print products by using the screen recording function that is provided on Apple iPhones. Therefore, I could walk through the construction process in detail whilst the viewer could visually see the steps I took in creating the product. I used my Canon 700d DSLR to record the audio as I knew that it was high quality. To edit the video, I used Adobe Premiere Pro as I had knowledge of how to use the software from previously editing my music video. I also created GIFS to insert into my video as I thought that these would illustrate my points even further. I created the GIFS using the website Giphy. I also used Publisher to crop my digipak and magazine advert to give the viewer a closer look at the details that I included within my work.

Question 3
For one of the questions, I had to gather audience feedback. I wanted to create a survey/questionnaire as I thought it was a quick and easy way to retrieve data, I wanted to make the questionnaire easy to access for audiences, therefore I thought that creating the questionnaire on Monkey Survey would be the best option. Monkey Survey allowed me to create a link which I could send to my peers and friends in order to receive feedback. It also had the option of embedding the survey into a blog post. I used a Prezi to present my overall feedback. Prezi was an easy and accessible platform to use as I was able to insert photos, texts and videos. It is a good platform to use if you want to make presentations quite personalised. Another advantage that Prezi had was the ability to embed the slideshow into blogs. So, I could present the Prezi on Blogger.

Question 4
For this question, I decided to write an essay explaining what sort of media technologies I used throughout my coursework. I also decided to embed pictures and screenshots into the essay so that the reader could clearly see what I was explaining. I think that writing an essay for this question was useful as I could go into lots of detail whilst explaining points. 

EVALUATION/Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Create your own user feedback survey

EVALUATION/Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

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

It was crucial that my print work depicted the right information as it could drive potential audiences to listen to the album and watch the music video. Therefore, the colours, fonts and imagery had to be specifically directed towards my target audience of young women, between the ages of 13-21. For my print work, I identified colour schemes that the artists uses within her Youtube and music videos. Dodie Clark primarily uses pastel colours, such as pinks and blues. I also tried to incorporate pastel pinks and blues within my music video. There is evidence of pastel colours in a lot of Dodie Clark’s EP album covers as the background depicts pastel coloured houses, whilst Clark is standing in the foreground. I wanted to keep my work in the style of Dodie Clark’s so that it would show a true representation of the artist. It was important that the digipak and magazine advert that I created looked aesthetically pleasing as it would try to capture my teenage target audience. If the two did not catch people’s attention, then people could be diverted from watching the music video and buying the album. Therefore, pastel colours can be seen across my music video, digipak and magazine advert.

The viewer can see that in Dodie Clark’s previous album cover, there is a slight white border around the edge. I wanted to replicate this in my album cover as I thought it gave quite a neat look to the product. I also wanted to represent Dodie Clark’s branding. Clark’s ‘Intertwined’ album cover depicts colours which are quite muted. The viewer would expect the yellow dress to be a bright colour, however an additional filter is added over it, which appears to glaze over the bright colours. I have tried to replicate this into my own products. The digipak and magazine advert are quite cool toned. These cool tones are also illustrated towards the end of my music video.

To create quite a relaxing vibe, I used a series of light leaks in my printwork and music videos. Whilst designing my prototype, I decided to experiment with using light leaks on the album cover. I wanted to experiment with this as I heavily used light leaks within the editing of my music video. Light leaks also appear to be a convention of Dodie Clark’s style as they often appear to use light leaks her music videos. I did initially like how the light leaks looked, however I noticed it clashed with the pink tones I added to the images when I edited my final photographs in Photoshop, therefore I decided to remove it.

The themes and tones of the music are heavily depicted across the music video and print products. I tried to depict the themes by adjusting the composition and facial expression used within the photographs on the album cover and magazine. On the front of the album cover, my actress can be seen almost looking blank and expressionless. Through this, I wanted to depict that Dodie Clark’s music is quite personal and serious to her. I think that these vibes are portrayed in the music video as well as my actress looks quite serious, yet emotional as she mimes to the camera at the end of the video.

    I had to ensure that the print products and the music video created synergy so that they would be instantly recognisable to the target audience. Synergy is defined as ‘the combined working together of two or more parts of a system so that the combined effect is greater than the sum of the efforts of the parts’ Therefore, I tried to create my products in the same style to achieve synergy and cross media marketing. I used the same costume and actress across my products. I knew that it was important to replicate the mise en scene used within the video onto the print products so that viewers would be able to link the music video to the artist. So, I featured the same costume that my actress wears in the music video in my print product imagery.

It was important that I featured the artist across all of my products in order to give them star representation, which is a convention used in music videos identified by Andrew Goodwin. This convention is used to increase sales of a product, so it would hopefully increase the views on the music video or the amount of plays of music.

Also, to create synergy I used similar fonts throughout my products. I opted for a handwritten type of fonts as I felt like it would give the products a more personal aspect. The handwritten fonts are used across my print products, so that audiences can identify that it’s the same artist. It is also visible at the start of my music video. It was paramount that the fonts used on my print products were bold and stood out to capture attention. Therefore, the fonts used are not identical as I created the products on different platforms, but I tried to choose fonts that were similar and had quite a handwritten look to them. I managed to use the exact same font for the digipak and album cover, however I had to adjust to more of a ‘curvy’ font for my music video to allow me to use the animation on the text. In evaluation, I could have tried to used the exact same font to achieve more synergy throughout products. Dodie Clark herself used quite a handwritten font on her EP album cover, so I thought it would be quite nice to replicate this. The font in my music video title closely represents the font that Dodie Clark used on her album. The handwritten fonts used could stereotypically be regarded as ‘girly’, which would match my target audience. However, I think that it shows the artist’s personality and reflects the style of the music.

In Dodie Clark’s previous album, the text was pasted across the middle of the album cover. I think that this feature adds quite a unique look to the album as typically the artist and album name are at the top or bottom of the album. This is something that I wanted to replicate in my own products. On my album cover, the text is running through the middle of the imagery. This is the same case with the title in the music video as I composed it so that the text would be in the centre of the frame and would be the centre of attention. Another way that I used the text within the album cover was by placing a small snippet of the lyrics of the music underneath the album name. I wanted to do this to add a unique look to the album cover. I also thought that it was a good idea to encourage the viewer to watch the music video. The viewer might further be encouraged to watch the music video, due to the magazine advert including ‘Party Tattoos’ as a hit single. This means that the song has received good press and many people have listened to it.

Another way I created synergy was by using the same imagery within the print work. On the front of the album cover, my actress is featured against a blank white wall. I chose to feature this particular image at the front of the album as this is the location where a lot of the miming within the music video takes place. The images used on the back of the album cover and magazine advert contains sunsets. In one of the scenes in the video, the viewer can see that the sun is setting as the frame is quite pink/purple toned. The consistency of imagery is used on the spine of the album cover as well, due to the sunset imagery being featured on it.

In addition to this, the character in my narrative can also be seen walking across a field at one point in the music video. This scene is reflected through the use of imagery on the back of the album cover and on the magazine advert. I decided that using this imagery was an appropriate choice as it links all three products together and will hopefully encourage the viewer to watch the music video. In addition to this, the representation of the woodland scenery can also be seen on a polaroid within the digipak. Woodland scenery is a code and convention of a typical Indie Pop music video, which is the genre that Dodie Clark’s music belongs to. It was important that I included this within my products as it depicts the type of music and will hopefully capture my target audience’s attention.

    I decided to included polaroids of imagery that one might find or expect to be in the music video. The images contain a lot of outdoor features and a proportion of the scenes filmed in the music video are filmed outside. The polaroid feature was inspired by Taylor Swift’s album as she has also included polaroids that link to the music in her album. I feel like this gives the album a more personal experience. The polaroids also display lyrics of the music, linking to the actual song which is used in the main product. These polaroids would be placed inside of the album cover, possibly in a separate sleeve. The colour scheme within the polaroids were important. I decided to have a ‘day’ and ‘night theme’. The day theme reflected how the character within my music video went on her journey to the party. The night theme foreshadows what is yet to come at the party. I could have included some night shots within my main product. The themes within the polaroids are binary oppositions and could reflect the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ themes in the music videos.

    To ensure that my print work looked realistic, I had to research existing album covers and the details that they displayed. On the back of my album cover, Party Tattoos is the second track. I decided to also actually call the album Party Tattoos as I think it has interesting connotations to it. Teenagers are also stereotypically more likely to go to more parties than adults, so it is direct to my target audience. It is important that the text ‘Party Tattoos’ is pasted over the album cover as it links to the music video.

The label company, Dodie Records, is also placed onto the album cover. This is significant so the audience know that it is the artist’s original music. The record label logo is placed on the back panel and the spine of the album cover. I also placed it on the magazine advert. In conclusion, I could have also included the record label logo onto my music video to create further synergy amongst my products. However, Dodie Clark’s name is visible in the opening titles of the music video, so I didn’t think I really needed it.

    My magazine advert in A4 in size as this is the size of most magazines. I opted for it to be landscape to give a quirky look to it, mirroring the style of the music video.     I decided to resize and use an image of the album cover on the magazine advert to link the two ancillary products together. I decided to do this as it follows the typical codes and conventions of a music video advert. I decided to include the Spotify and iTunes logo on my magazine advert to illustrate where viewers would be able to stream the artist’s songs. I did not chose to add these logos onto the digipak as it is the viewer’s personal preference to how they listen to the music. This links the music video and ancillary texts together as the viewer might consider watching the music video after listening to the song, or they might consider listening to the artist’s other music after they have watched the music video.

I decided to use positive reviews on my magazine advert as this might encourage the viewer to watch the music video. I chose not to include the price on the digipak or the magazine advert as the price is ultimately up to the retailer therefore can vary. I made sure to include a clear date on the magazine advert, depicting when the viewer can expect the album, as well as the music video to be released. This is a feature that can potentially create ‘noise’ within a target audience as it depicts a build up for the release of the artist’s new music.   

    In conclusion, I believe that I successfully used mise en scene features, such as costumes, settings and colours to create synergy and cross media branding throughout all three of my products. I ensured that I stuck to the same colour palette, which mainly consisted on pastel pinks and blues. In addition to this, I used the same imagery across my products, which was a woodland scenery. I opted to do this as this is a general convention of Indie Pop music. Through editing, I created synergy through each product with the type of font that I used, which was in a hand written style. I used this to give each product a more personal aspect.

EVALUATION/Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?