Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenged the forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product which I have created both challenges and follows the conventions of my chosen music genre. The chosen genre is a hybrid of Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock and Skatepunk. This decision had come about after thorough questionnaires from both the blog poll and paper written questionnaires. It was from the replies of audiences that it was decided a hybrid would be best to cater a variety of audiences, therefore attracting and pleasing a larger number.
My chosen music video; OPM-Heaven is a Halfpipe is a music video which contains elements of all the genres that were chosen. This was decided after extensive research into each of the genres. My research extended to Youtube clips and I had other music video such as 'Blink182- All Small Things' which i thought about working with. But they unfortunately didn't consist of all the elements that were needed, though they may have had rock elements of electric guitars instruments and vocals, they dont have hip-hop elements such as graffiti and rap or skatepunk elements of skateboarding that I was looking for and was needed in my music video as I wanted my music video to be targeted at the youth.
In order for me to challenge and develop my music video, I had to do extensive research on skateboarders. This was done by interviewing both skateboarders and the general public on their beliefs of how they are treated in society and through the media. From this I was enlightened to the fact that skateboarders are given a bad reputation in the media and it was from this that I realized the abbreviation for OPM is 'Opening People's Minds'. I wanted to use the music video to change the public's perception on skateboarders.
My target audience is mostly for teenagers between the ages of 13-19 so in order for me to attract these younger generations I had to use youths just like themselves in the music video in order for the teenagers to relate to it more.
In order for me to challenge and develop my music video, I had to do extensive research on skateboarders. This was done by interviewing both skateboarders and the general public on their beliefs of how they are treated in society and through the media. From this I was enlightened to the fact that skateboarders are given a bad reputation in the media and it was from this that I realized the abbreviation for OPM is 'Opening People's Minds'. I wanted to use the music video to change the public's perception on skateboarders.
My target audience is mostly for teenagers between the ages of 13-19 so in order for me to attract these younger generations I had to use youths just like themselves in the music video in order for the teenagers to relate to it more.
I looked at music videos that relate to my chosen hybrid genre and especially the camera angles and movement.
I also developed the convention of the music video by adding graffti and colour to the music video. I had come to notice that both graffiti and skateboarder are interlinked as they are both an expression of self and a sense of freedom and therefore i thought it would only be wise to use this in my music video as it will attract the younger generations to the music video more and also be a reflection of the skateboarders fun loving personality.
I developed the music video by adding a clear narrative to show the audience a side of skateboarders that are not normally seen, in order to 'Open People's Minds'. This scene was when the skateboarder is seen skating by a lady who represents the general public is seen giving a face of disgust and words appear on screen such as 'violent' 'aggressive' 'waste of space'. This was done to add both realism and portray the negative view the public have on skateboarders. The skateboarder is then seen dropping and the lady is then seen shocked and she goes to down to help him. The skateboarder gets up and continues as if nothing had happened. This scene sees skateboarders in a positive light as it shows determination and the risks that they put themselves under in order to do what they love.
The digi-pak that I created followed the forms and conventions of what is expected of my chosen music genre. I looked and analysed alot of the posters and CD Cover albums and found a similar pattern of the use of colour in the title. Black and white seem to the most used and therefore I wanted to follow that convention. Also I noticed that the artist is always placed in the middle of the poster or CD Cover allowing full attention to be given to them.
Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
This video shows the comments that I received after spreading the music video over the internet via Youtube and Facebook, which was done to have a wide range of audiences viewing and commenting on my music video. My family also watched the music video and left a comment, they seemed very pleased with the outcome of my music video and stated that the message that the positive imagery that the music video was trying to portray was powerful and clever.
Audience feedback is very quite effective as it allows me to look at aspects of the music video in which I could've improved on. For example I had comments stating that the acting was not as great and energetic as it should've been and the lip syncing was not in time with the music.
I also gathered audience feedback on my ancillary tasks for my final production of Magazine Poster and CD Cover. During the process I had asked various different people from different ages what they had thought about my initial ideas; some had said that the Magazine Poster and CD Cover had too much characters on it which was considered distracting and it took away from the promotion of the media product. I took this criticism into account and only included one artist from the music video. In relation to this I was told from the audience feedback to not have the artists identity hidden as it doesn't promote the artist as I would like it to so therefore I made sure that I had an artist from the music video be in the cover of both the Magazine Poster and CD Cover. Another feedback the audience gave was the title- OPM, Heaven is a Halfpipe not being clear and readable. So I also took this constructive criticism into account and made sure that band name OPM and their track Heaven is a Halfpipe was clearly visible by having it written in bold white which would stand out from the dark background. Even though I received constructive criticism I was told that my poster was very realistic and theme in the Magazine Poster and CD Cover was continuous which adds to the value of my media products therefore attracting the audience's attention.
New media technologies was in constant use throughout the three stages. The blog was a new media technology that was used from the very beginning of the course. It was a way for recording all of my work and posting them on the blog instead of writing on a piece of paper. I was able to edit any of my posts and add extra posts whenever it was needed. The blog enabled my teachers to look at my work and comment on the posts that I've published already.
In the researching stage the internet was considered very helpful as it allowed me to look up various different bands from my selected genre on Youtube and analyse them such as "Blink 182- All Small Things". The internet was also considered useful in helping me select appropriate music videos, CD Cover and Magazine Posters in relation to my hybrid genre. This allowed me to understand it's different forms and conventions.
The planning stage also used new media as I had to scan images that I had drawn out for my storyboard onto paper. After scanning the images onto the computer, I had to animate the images, on Windows Live Movie Maker.
Whilst filming our music video we used a Fujifilm FinePix AV120, this digital camera enabled us to look at the footage we had just filmed and decide whether it should be cut out or saved to be later edited. The camera has 12 mega pixel and 3x optical zoom which meant that the images would be much clearer due to the high definition of the camera. Not only did we use the digital camera but we also used Tri-pod to accompany it which was used to help us keep stable and smooth shots whilst filming. We also used to the digital camera to take location shots of the skateparks in which we were planning to film in.
In the construction stage of our music video, we used Mac computers to edit the footage. We used iPhoto at first and then dragged the clips into iMovie. This software made it easier for us to organise the clips similarly to our storyboard to make a narrative out of our music video. iMovie gave us the opportunity for applications of transitions and effects to be used such as words appearing on the screen and the sudden cuts. After we created our music video on iMovie, we used iDVD in order to burn the information onto the Disc.
For the creation of the ancillary tasks a program named Abode Photoshop CS5 was used. This program is very useful as it enabled us to design a Magazine Cover and CD Cover. The program had tools such as lighting which was very helpful as we gave us the opportunity to play with the lightning which I believed helped make the media product very bold.
In the evaluation we used the internet quite alot to promote our music video. We used social networking sites such as Facebook for audience feedback and promotion of our music video and Twitter to promote our music video even further as well as keeping our followers up to date with what were doing with our blog. We also have a like button on Facebook in which 166 facebookers have liked. This was done to get as much people as possible looking at our blogs and commenting on our page which can be seen at the bottom of the blog.
Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Having the same style of font, colour and theme to link the media products together is vital. It was important for me that both my Magazine poster and CD Cover compliment each other, to add more professionalism, continuity and value to the music video, reducing confusion to the audience.
The theme of the graffiti was also used in both the ancillary tasks and the music video. This is to show the constancy in the media products. This instantly makes the message for promoting the skateboarding society more effective as skateboarding and graffiti are said to be immensely related.
Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
This video shows the comments that I received after spreading the music video over the internet via Youtube and Facebook, which was done to have a wide range of audiences viewing and commenting on my music video. My family also watched the music video and left a comment, they seemed very pleased with the outcome of my music video and stated that the message that the positive imagery that the music video was trying to portray was powerful and clever.
Audience feedback is very quite effective as it allows me to look at aspects of the music video in which I could've improved on. For example I had comments stating that the acting was not as great and energetic as it should've been and the lip syncing was not in time with the music.
I also gathered audience feedback on my ancillary tasks for my final production of Magazine Poster and CD Cover. During the process I had asked various different people from different ages what they had thought about my initial ideas; some had said that the Magazine Poster and CD Cover had too much characters on it which was considered distracting and it took away from the promotion of the media product. I took this criticism into account and only included one artist from the music video. In relation to this I was told from the audience feedback to not have the artists identity hidden as it doesn't promote the artist as I would like it to so therefore I made sure that I had an artist from the music video be in the cover of both the Magazine Poster and CD Cover. Another feedback the audience gave was the title- OPM, Heaven is a Halfpipe not being clear and readable. So I also took this constructive criticism into account and made sure that band name OPM and their track Heaven is a Halfpipe was clearly visible by having it written in bold white which would stand out from the dark background. Even though I received constructive criticism I was told that my poster was very realistic and theme in the Magazine Poster and CD Cover was continuous which adds to the value of my media products therefore attracting the audience's attention.
Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
New media technologies was in constant use throughout the three stages. The blog was a new media technology that was used from the very beginning of the course. It was a way for recording all of my work and posting them on the blog instead of writing on a piece of paper. I was able to edit any of my posts and add extra posts whenever it was needed. The blog enabled my teachers to look at my work and comment on the posts that I've published already.
The planning stage also used new media as I had to scan images that I had drawn out for my storyboard onto paper. After scanning the images onto the computer, I had to animate the images, on Windows Live Movie Maker.
Whilst filming our music video we used a Fujifilm FinePix AV120, this digital camera enabled us to look at the footage we had just filmed and decide whether it should be cut out or saved to be later edited. The camera has 12 mega pixel and 3x optical zoom which meant that the images would be much clearer due to the high definition of the camera. Not only did we use the digital camera but we also used Tri-pod to accompany it which was used to help us keep stable and smooth shots whilst filming. We also used to the digital camera to take location shots of the skateparks in which we were planning to film in.
In the construction stage of our music video, we used Mac computers to edit the footage. We used iPhoto at first and then dragged the clips into iMovie. This software made it easier for us to organise the clips similarly to our storyboard to make a narrative out of our music video. iMovie gave us the opportunity for applications of transitions and effects to be used such as words appearing on the screen and the sudden cuts. After we created our music video on iMovie, we used iDVD in order to burn the information onto the Disc.
For the creation of the ancillary tasks a program named Abode Photoshop CS5 was used. This program is very useful as it enabled us to design a Magazine Cover and CD Cover. The program had tools such as lighting which was very helpful as we gave us the opportunity to play with the lightning which I believed helped make the media product very bold.
In the evaluation we used the internet quite alot to promote our music video. We used social networking sites such as Facebook for audience feedback and promotion of our music video and Twitter to promote our music video even further as well as keeping our followers up to date with what were doing with our blog. We also have a like button on Facebook in which 166 facebookers have liked. This was done to get as much people as possible looking at our blogs and commenting on our page which can be seen at the bottom of the blog.
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