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Hello, hope you have enjoyed exploring my blog, hopefully you have jigged along also to my music video and taken on some of my dance moves ha ha. Bye

My A2 Music Video - Click

Evaluation Question 4

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

I answered this question using 'prezi.com', so follow the link below.


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

Evaluation Question 3

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Link to Evaluation question on Youtube - Here!

After some feedback on my evaluation I added to more slides to it but these are not on the Youtube video of this evaluation. Here they are below screenshotted from the PowerPoint presentation I created it on..

This slide would be come third on my video evaluation :)

This would come just before the end slide, as it sums all my findings up :)



Niel Lee

Extra writing on the digital technologies I used

In my development throughout the Media Studies course I have used a range of different digital technologies that has influenced my coursework. I began by doing an AS Preliminary task that involved a short conversation using shot-reverse shot, the technology involved was simply a camera, tripod and iMovie. I then fore fronted amongst a group of four the main task that was to create an opening sequence to a tame thriller that was a maximum two minutes long called “Wheelchair Bound” using a better video camera, tripod, sound recorder and Final Cut Pro. Following this going into A2 the task was to create a music promotion that involved two ancillary texts; a digipak and a website for my chosen artist to back up my main task a music video, it centred the artist “Plan B” and song name “She Said”, for this incorporated many of the technologies mentioned above but also using others like ‘I Can Animate’ for added creativity.

I have been a student of media studies now for 3 years after initially completing it at GCSE level, my starting point coming in the AS level course was limited to production tasks centred around Adobe Photoshop that I am fairly accomplished at using coming into the course. But my capabilities did not span to the digital film creation, here I was a beginner, my camera and editing skills were limited and I found the preliminary task a great starting point for developing my competency with the Canon XM2 DV Tape and iMovie eventually moving on to Final Cut.

My development was particularly prevailing when I look at my use of titles in my AS and A2 tasks. In the making of my AS thriller opening sequence where I used Final Cut Pro to make simple, basic titles with very little emphasis on its importance to the product. Using basic Final Cut effects such as ‘fade in’ and ‘fade out’ was simplistic and quite unimaginative, in my opinion not using the full use of my media technologies at the time to create an even better opening sequence.

However moving in my A2 main production, learning more and more about the digital technology on the software side in the creation of my music video, I broadened my scope of media technologies by using title specific software called Adobe After Effects. This was a brilliant piece of media technology because it allowed advanced, powerful title manipulation, even though I was a beginner at this software technology I quickly began more proficient at it (by experimentation and the digital technology Youtube) that led me to create a moving animated title sequence that would compliment my music video well, using 3D incorporated transitions and effects like glow.

In AS, our first experience of practical media production came in the preliminary task, to coincide with my limitations our class were given basic video camera’s, called ‘Canon XM2 DV Tape’ this was a simple to use hardware that allowed us to create a film, but the great limitation to this was the its size and the DV tapes quality and inability to delete unwanted shots on the spots, which I believe is one of the main strengths of the Canon 550d SD card video camera I used in my A2 task to create my main music video. The SD card holding video camera allowed me to instantly view shots I had just recorded and delete them if they weren’t correct and reshoot the shot, saving shooting time and more importantly editing time and resources on Final Cut Pro.

In the A2 production my range of technology went further than AS, I used more software and hardware to create my work, for example in the ancillary texts, I had to use software like Photoshop to create my digipak, this is something I did not have to do in the past productions but I enjoyed it thoroughly as I had experience of Adobe from GCSE media, another example of my expanding variety of talent built up in Media was in the internet based software ‘Wix.com’ that I used to create my website ancillary text, the was free but powerful user friendly digital technology that allowed me to experiment with layouts, colour schemes, images and fonts.

Extra writing on my creativity skills

My development on the Media studies course I began by doing an AS Preliminary task that involved a short conversation using shot-reverse shot and the principles of the 180-degree rule. I then led, amongst a group of four, the main task that was to create an opening sequence to a thriller film that was a maximum of two minutes in length. I came up with the creative and original name “Wheelchair Bound” for our creation. Following this, into A2 the task was to create a music promotion that involved two ancillary texts; a digipak and a website for my chosen artist that backed up my main task a music video, it centred the artist “Plan B” and song name “She Said”.

In general I started with a fairly creative mind this helped me have a good basis to develop in Media. Throughout my A level course however I have become more creative in the way that I have begun to think more outside the box.

A clear example of my development in terms of creativity centres the two main productions created for my foundation and advanced portfolios. In the AS task my creativity was limited, when I picked our characters for our production I stayed within the small, secure, simple route by making myself the main character (antagonist) and group members other characters in the Wheelchair Bound film I created. This is not very creative but it worked well for our first time creating a thriller opening sequence. However my creativity expanded in A2, working by myself I was allowed creative freedom and I found advantageous, using the research I found in R&B, Soul and Hip-Pop genres I made creative decisions to reflect my intentions, the characters for instance were my choice and came from outside my Media studies class and I also made the creative decision to have black characters in the narrative, I done this because not only was the artist also black, but creative wise it fitted some of the main conventions of real media texts I researched previously. Although I chose again to put myself in the spotlight again, this time creativity was solely down to me, I was able to choose costume designs, locations for the as-live and narrative and choose the shots and angles I thought would work best.

My creativity again broadened between AS and A2 in terms of my technological prowess, during my AS year the powerful internet based software ‘Blogger.com’ it functioned as my hub for all my creativity, here I put up my work, research, ideas and evaluations for my teacher to see without difficulty, but this looking back was limited, it was basic, it did the essential things, but it wasn’t innovative enough, I was not able to present information in enough inventive fashions. But in my A2 year my software creativity spanned different forms, for example my evaluations were not made all in one form a short video simply edited and slapped onto blogger, in my A2 evaluations I tried to spread my creativity, using other tools and software’s such as ‘Prezi.com’ which was more powerful internet based presentation making website. Also built on the success of my video presentations for the AS evaluations and used it for one of my A2 questions this was creative as it was outside the box, it wasn’t as narrow and simplistic as a basic essay it was moving and visually creative.

In the making of my AS production our shot types and angles wasn’t very creative, we made sure we had some of the straightforward essential shots and then worried about creativity afterwards, this was a method that didn’t work well as we had to go back and film on numerous occasions due to a lack of creativity and content, even though my ground idea was a good basis to be creative. This is mainly evident in the use of the main concept of disability I thought of initially. This prop was largely unseen in films and we wanted to think outside conventional spectrum and create something no one had seen before and wanted to see after watching our opening sequence.

My creativity I believe shone through in my A2 production my choice of shots was far more advanced and effective for creating the storyline intended in my work. Match on action shots seen in both I would argue was more effective in my A2 task, I used other shots alongside this such as shot reverse shots (first learnt in my preliminary exercise), close ups, handheld and point of views to build up the storyline far more creatively for my audience. Props were also used in my A2 task but I took the creative decision to make it less prevalent throughout my production but allowing it to be understood by the viewer slowly by building up keep subliminal messages. In my opinion this was a more advanced technique and took more effort in the post-production editing process to show it.

My Media studies development I believe has room for unlimited growth and I aim to take forward everything I have learnt into further media production projects, such as the one I took part in October 2011 where I helped my local area film a sporting event for young children, experiences from the media course has allowed me to produce advanced, creative work that are seen on wider scale.

Evaluation Question - Production Combination (2) Screenshots

Evaluation Question 2

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

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

o   Synergy

     PLAN B - Digipak has logo, website does too this works alongside the main video as it shows the artists signature logo and his name which all have big and bold.

      

      B & B - Digipak has record company logo so does the website homepage, this is effective for linking both ancillary texts and creating a unity between them.       

    CLOTHING - In both ancillary texts I have used screen shout images from the music video, this brings all aspects of the production together in a consistent way. If you see the music video the images used in the digipak and website you immediately link it all and feel it all fits together.

     BARCODE – the website and digipak link here well to allow a new kind of experience consumers are able to access the app by bar-coding directly either from the digipak or website.

o   Colour scheme

 The gold colour is used throughout my production, I highlighted this early on in my planning and research stages and have used it in the digipak creation, the website and in the opening titles of my music video gold is shown to show the artists name and song title.

The gold has mainly been used as the main font colour, I chose as it connotes ‘no.1’, winning, champion, essentially I want my artist to achieve number ones and prizes, so I have main fonts gold and places either on top of an image of my artist (website) or next to it (digipak).

The fonts itself are quite similar between the two ancillary texts the gold with the white background glow is useful to make an instant recognition, the two fonts are different because it of the individual functions the digipak is a lot more slick, whilst the website is more rugged.

My website has become the hub for all my media products; on it I have been able to put the digipak for all my fans/consumers to see and purchase using an easily accessible navigation bar. The website has also served as a centre for my music video, one easy click and you are able to view it. This as a combination is hugely effective as it brings all media platforms onto one easy to see, accessible port that my consumers will be able to enjoy.

The website also has combined with my main video production because it has the ability to play the new song ‘She Said’ with one click, and this can be played throughout your experience on the website. This can work to create a buzz for the song in the minds of my audience who are on the website.

Overall I believe my ancillary texts are very effective combines with my music video, the use of screenshots from my music video as images in the ancillary texts is particularly strong as it links the three products creating a synchronised theme of clothing, look, style, connotation and more. Also the ancillary texts have been created with the intention of blending it to the music video, this is because I knew in real media products the connections between the texts and music video have a real impact on whether fans liked it, I tried to bring about image selection and theme connection was a detail in which was important to me.