A2 Advanced Production- Maisie Hesketh: February 2013

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Evaluation Question 4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Q4) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Planning, Q4

Q4) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have used audience feedback throughout each stage of the production process to ensure that each piece of work I did was to the highest standard possible and met my audience's needs. Despite the majority of my selected audiences that I have used to collect audience feedback being in the 15-30 bracket, I have also used a wider audience to help proliferate our products and collect wider audience.

Evaluation Question 3:How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In both, the magazine advert and the digi-pak we used images taken from within the music video, or photographs taken at the time of filming.

As a group, we felt that this was the most effective way of familiarising our audience with these images and henceforth would encourage them to buy it.

Synergy therefore took place causing our products to proliferate.

This was something I particularly noticed when collecting audience feedback; once somebody had seen the digi-pak, and knew we had also created a magazine advert and a music video- they wanted to see all of our products, and vice versa.

From my research I know that this is a reflection of how it works in the 'real world' because sales of CDs increase with advertisements, and the release of music videos.

I think that this is because some people may only read magazines, some people may only watch the music channels, and some people may only listen to the radio- therefore by using synergy we are allowing a bigger range of people to access our media products.

We chose to use a six page digi-pak, rather than simply a CD cover sleeve, because we felt that it added value to the product as it was more visually pleasing for the buyer; in an age like today, where mp3 downloads are much more popular, increasing the value of CDs is increasingly important to encourage sales.

Our music video is simple and this is reflected in both of our ancillary products. This helps to create a theme and, again, helps to increase the familiarity of the music video and song- and therefore sales additionally.

I think that our use of conventions in the combination of our ancillary products and our music video is very effective because we are targeting a wide audience by breaking some conventions, whilst being careful to conform to others as to appeal to existing 'fans'.

When planning the creation of each aspect- the music video, the DigiPak and the magazine advert- we went back to the song, and Coldplay's existing products to look at the conventions and techniques used.

We found that many of the same ideas appeared in our mind-maps each time; this is also how, in almost every single case, Coldplay's existing main products and the ancillary texts were linked. I think this is why our combination and synergy was so effective.

Evaluation Planning, Q3

Q3) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In order to collect audience feedback, we have proliferated each of our products on different media platforms in order to apply synergy.
Same images- familiarisation
DigiPak- visually pleasing for the buyer
Music video- simple
Conventional, familiar- existing audiences but breaking some to expand the audience
With each aspect- the music video, the DigiPak and the magazine advert- we went back to the song, and Coldplays existing products to look at the conventions and techniques used. In almost every single case, the main product and the two texts were linked; which is how we found our ideas working out as well.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Evaluation Question 2: How did you use new media technologies in the various stages of the production?

Q2) How did you use new media technologies in the various stages of the production?

Evaluation Planning, Q2

Q2) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

http://www.newmedia.org/what-is-new-media.html

Defining New Media Isn’t Easy

By Bailey Socha and Barbara Eber-Schmid

Introduction: What isn’t new media?

New Media is a 21^st Century catchall term used to define all that is related to the internet and the interplay between technology, images and sound. In fact, the definition of new media changes daily, and will continue to do so. New media evolves and morphs continuously. What it will be tomorrow is virtually unpredictable for most of us, but we do know that it will continue to evolve in fast and furious ways. However, in order to understand an extremely complex and amorphous concept we need a base line. Since Wikipedia has become one of the most popular storehouses of knowledge in the new media age, it would be beneficial to begin there:

Wikipedia defines New Media as:

“… a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content anytime, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content. Another important promise of new media is the "democratization" of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content. What distinguishes new media from traditional media is the digitizing of content into bits. There is also a dynamic aspect of content production which can be done in real time, but these offerings lack standards and have yet to gain traction.

I used various platforms throughout my planning, production, and feedback processes. We used video cameras- both HD and non-HD, digital still image cameras, iPhones, Blackberrys, the scanner, the iMacs, PC computers, the interactive whiteboard (for presentations), PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, Photoshop, Fireworks, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, iMovie, iDisc, YouTube, Prezi, SlideShare, XtraNormal, Survey Monkey, Facebook, email, text messaging.

Research

Macs, PC- internet

interactive whiteboard- theory lessons

YouTube- existing products

Prezi- initial ideas presentation

SlideShare- existing slideshows

Blogger

Planning

digital still image cameras (mise-en-scene photographs, photos of storyboards/work etc.)

iPhones, Blackberrys -organisation

scanner- storyboards, shooting scripts etc.

Macs, PC- storyboard/shooting script/risk assessment templates, internet- communication (organisation)

interactive whiteboard (for presentations

Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher- questionnaires, plans (roles/responsibilities)

SlideShare

Facebook, Twitter, email, text messaging- organisation

Blogger

Construction

video cameras- both HD and non-HD

iPhones, Blackberrys- organisation

Facebook, Twitter, email, text messaging- organisation communication

Macs- Music Video

MacBook Pro- Ancillary Products

Photoshop, Fireworks- Ancillary Products

Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, iMovie- Music Video

iDisc- burning Music Video to a disc to collect audience feedback

Evaluation

Blogger

Survey Monkey- audience feedback

Facebook, Twitter, email, text messaging- collecting feedback/ proliferating our video

Prezi

XtraNormal

SlideShare

YouTube- collecting audience feedback (proliferation)

video cameras- both HD and non-HD- self video

digital still image cameras- photographs

iPhones, Blackberrys- audience feedback

scanner- Q1 (written tasks)

Macs, PCs- internet programmes, powerpoint, word

interactive whiteboard (for presentations)- audience feedback

Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher- questionnaires, organisation of images

Research and Planning

Dyer's Representation Theory of Starshttp://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/Music/music.php?pageID=popstar
Dyer theory suggests media makes the artist and the star is the images made out of different things e.g. magazines, films. For example, artists who are open to the public and fans through platforms such as radio, television and internet, if it wasn’t for these then their music wouldn’t be as widely heard and they wouldn’t be artists. Stars are commodities (products) produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings. This means that for them to be ‘stars’ they were on covers of magazines and featured in movies. As the Dyer theory suggests ‘stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media (magazines, TV, radio...) in order to construct an image for the target audience.’ This means that an artist has to act and present themselves in a certain way to attract a certain type of audience. For example Beyonce may be seen in a magazine such as Cosmopolitan in a sexy dress. This may be to attract a male audience as she looks seductive or female teenagers/ young adults as they may aspire to look like her.

http://maisieheskethmedia-advanced.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/media-platforms.html
"Media Platforms
Q.What is a Media Platform?

A.You just need to break it into two parts - Media (you should know what that is) and Platform (a raised surface)... the answer will be things like local news websites, local newspapers, teletext, etc. Anything that gives the news a raised base to be seen.

(http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080908050852AAa0iuA)

The above is a simple explanation I found on a question-and-answer website for the public to use.

_____________________

(http://tedescostwocents.com/social-media-models/)

I found that this website really emphasised the ever-growing list of Media Platforms, even despite being a little outdated. In fact, the fact that it was created so recently, but is still viewed as outdated highlights this further!

Research into Media Institutions & Platforms"

http://maisieheskethmedia-advanced.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/specific-research-into-media-platforms.html

Production

During production we used video cameras- both HD and non-HD, digital still image cameras, iPhones, Blackberrys, the scanner, the iMacs, PC computers, the interactive whiteboard

Audience Feedback:

http://maisieheskethmedia-advanced.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/final-product-collecting-feedback.html

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Evaluation Question 1- In what ways do your ancillary product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Evaluation Planning, Q1- Ancillary Products

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

Digi-Pak

Plan:

We decided to have a picture of Jeff (our performer) on the stage at the back and with songs down the left hand side. We thought that this would be effective yet simplistic; it would still attract the audience’s attention. We thought about having another photo of Jeff on the front cover, we decided maybe the magazine advert. This way people would be able to recognise the album because they have seen the magazine advert, also as Jeff is shown mostly in the music video. We thought about using a clock on the fold in panel, this is because we wanted to promote our music video and the single 'Clocks' more. Therefore, as soon as they open up the product the clock is the first thing they see. We thought about having a review page on one of the inside panels, this would be seen as they open up it up, by putting the reviews on that page the audience are likely to read them as they see it straight away. The reviews would be about the album or about the songs featured on the album. We decided to use a piano on the second inside panel because when they opened it out more they would see that a piano is used in one of the songs. A picture of a candle is used underneath the CD holder, this is because it is similar to a graphic match as the candle is circular and the CD holder is, also the flame of the candle would be in the same place as circular hole of the CD.

Magazine Advert

We decided to conform to conventions by using a simple font, and having the basic album information, an image of our 'artist' on the magazine advertisement:

However, we decided that it would also make the magazine advert more effective if we were to add reviews of the album (which we found from http://www.rollingstone.com/and http://www.nme.com/).

Researching Album Adverts from sophiestock94

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Evaluation Question 1- In what ways does your music video use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?

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

She Moves in Her Own Way- The Kooks
Our original idea was to do a music video for the song 'She Moves In Her Own Way- The Kooks' but part way through production our ideas changed. Therefore, my evaluation is assessing our completed product for 'Clocks- Coldplay'. However, during planning, I had previously briefly answered a few questions on, and made reference to, some conventions I had planned to use in The Kooks video-

Clocks- Coldplay

Monday, February 4, 2013

Evaluation Planning, Q1- Music Video

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

She Moves in Her Own Way- The Kooks
Our original idea was to do a music video for the song 'She Moves In Her Own Way- The Kooks' but part way through production our ideas changed. Therefore, my evaluation is assessing our completed product for 'Clocks- Coldplay'. However, during planning, I had previously briefly answered a few questions on, and made reference to, some conventions I had planned to use in The Kooks video-

Clocks- Coldplay
First of all I began by discussing the question in detail with my classmates to decide what elements we used to include, and which were the most important. I noted down the points I felt were most important and thought of some specific aspects i could include and discuss.

Despite it being a long process, I decided that I would go through each individual shot from our production and analyse the conventions either broken or conformed to in the shots. I will be using the internet for research into details and examples to back up my explanations but the majority will be done by hand allowing me to analyse each shot in much more detail, with much more ease.

http://maisieheskethmedia-advanced.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/artist-research-coldplay-existing.html

http://www.tech-talk.com/sample-articles/powerpoint-use-black-screen

Conventions Of Music Videos from jamsjamsjams