Advantages and disadvantages of the research methods I chose

My creative processes throughout AS and A2 Media

Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challange forms and conventions of real media products?

Research
Before I constructed my music video, I decided to do some vital research in order to help me follow essential codes and conventions. If I hadn't of analysed any existing videos this could have resulted in me not being able to produce appealing and successful media products.

During my research I found different types of music videos which helped me see the difference between each style of video that artists produce.

When researching what style of music videos KlangKarussell had created,  I found it difficult to find many that they had already produced. When some of their existing videos, there wasn't a common style running through all of them. However, the ones I did find they were more of a concept video, rather than narrative. As they seemed to have a narrative in all their videos, I thought this is a convention that I must stick to. I did come across an animated video, but I thought this would of been too challenging for me to make a similar video in the amount of time I had to do make it in. When comparing the two main styles they have already done, I personally liked the concept videos because I liked their ideas that they had in their videos. The concept videos go better with the bands music as the music doesn't really tell a story either, they are always more of dance songs with little vocals. This was one reason why I decided to create a music video under this style.

Initial ideas
Before I had decided on my song and style of music video, I had a rough idea of what some theme or genre I wanted to do. This started out to be the complete opposite of what my video is today. After I had researched stop, go motion videos I decided I was creative enough to to be able to make a music video like this. I then decided a song which was called 'Counting Stars' by One Republic. I chose this song because it is up beat and happy, which was the type of song I needed to be able to make a stop, go motion video. However, after spending a week struggling to construct the video and realising how time consuming it all was I knew I needed to re-consider the type of video I wanted to make.
Therefore, after taking time to think and research, I realised that throughout the music industry recently there has been a lot more focus on festivals, parties and drinking. This is because with festivals and concerts becoming increasingly popular videos like this attract the audiences attention, as the majority of people like being able to relate to music videos or just escaping from their own personal lives by listening to a song or watching a video. Thus, I thought  a concept video would be perfect for this genre. Another reason I preferred the concept videos was because I knew they were easily done and was more realistic for me to be able to make rather than stop go animation. 
My initial idea was, like KlangKarussell's concept videos, I didn't want my talent to lip sync. This was because I think it looked better without her singing the lyrics than singing them. However, after constructing the video as receiving feedback I soon realised that I needed to incorporate lip syncing into the video to make it more interesting and to give variety.

Deconstructing existing music videos
After I decided what style of video I wanted to create, I thought it was best to look at existing videos from that genre and deconstruct their codes and conventions. I did my best to ensure that I stuck to typical conventions from existing dance videos that I deconstructed, so I was able to convince my audience that my music video (at first glance) was a stereotypical representation of a dance video, as there isn't usually a story line to them. I believe I conveyed this idea as best as I could.

Codes and conventions developed in my music video
Throughout my music video I kept referring back to two main existing music videos that I deconstructed, they were Adele's 'Someone like you' and Audio Bullies 'We don't care'. This was because I first looked at Audio Bullies music video and compared it to the original 'Sonnentanz' music video, by KlagKarussell. I quickly realised they are complete opposites in terms of the Mise en scene and also the music. However, when I was looking at them I watched the Audio Bullys video without music and had KlangKarussell playing in the background instead, and I thought it looked really effective. Therefore this is where I got the idea to make a rough looking music video to a juxtaposed song. 

Adele

Audio Bullys

Throughout my video I constantly put dull effects on to the footage so it suggested the location to be needed sun light and that it was lifeless, whilst particular words in the song stood out e.g. "the sun don't shine". The dull effects are also seen throughout Audio Bullys video in the images that are shown below.

 The effects I used were called the following: 'Black and White, Combat and Cold Steel. When I first used the effects on the footage it made the footage look very harsh and unrealistic to what the weather would look like on a dull day, or in the music videos I had researched. I mainly wanted the video to look more like Audio Bullys music video in comparison to Adele's. This is because the black and white effect that is used throughout Adele's video symbolises the sadness that she is feeling, whereas in Audio Bullys video the dullness that is used fits better with the mise en scene in my footage, the mood I was trying to convey and also the song. This is because the song I was using is a lot more up tempo compared to Adele's song. 

When thinking about what types of camera shots I should use I look at both videos and noticed they both had a lot of tracking shots within them. From looking at this and also because I knew I wanted to film the talent walking through the town a lot, the best way to do this was to use tracking shots.
Audio Bullys video:

Adele's video:

My video:

I didn't use many close ups, however I did use some camera shots with the talent walking past the camera. For this I mainly looked at Adele's video because her music video contains a considerable amount of these shots and close up's. Below are the examples of how I have used the conventions of Adele's video in my own.
Adele's video:

My video:

This is just one part of the close up as my talent walks past, like the screen shot of Adele's video. In my screen shot, you can see the skip. When filming I found the skip, and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to use the camera shot that was used in Adele's video whilst using the to symbolise the rough surroundings.
For the mise en scene in my music video I looked mainly at Audio Bullys music video because it contains a variety of mise en scene that contributes towards the rough feel of the town he is walking through. Therefore, I picked certain props and characteristics out of this video and incorporated it into my music video if I was lucky enough to find it in the town I was filming in. 
Audio Bullys video:

As you can see, to the right hand side of the image there are two phone box's that are in full view of the camera. I thought they denoted an English culture, I also think that with the posters over one of them that it indicates that its surroundings are messy. This type of appearance is usually found in rough places.
My video:

Above is my perception of the phone box idea when I first came across the phone box I noticed that it wasn't as dirty as I would of liked, however there was a bin to the left of the phone box and white marks all over the floor. I thought about the positioning of the camera so I could include all three things in the frame to make it look dirtier. 

I also noticed in Audio Bullys video as the talent was walking along pathways a lot, there were a couple of points that the camera captured some cars driving past. I liked this idea and for this reason I incorporated this into my video. This is shown below.
Audio Bullys video:

My video:

Within my shot I of a car driving past, unlike Audio Bullys camera shot I didn't place the camera behind bars. Looking back, I wish I did because it creates a sense of feeling confined and trapped. This would of worked perfectly in my music video. Like Audio Bullys camera shot I have contained more than just a car. However, instead of containing the talent in the frame I chose to have a bus stop in the frame so there is variety instead of having too much of my talent in all the shots. It didn't feel necessary. 

The main media codes that I have yet to mention are the lighting, colours, location and costume.
When I was filming it was early afternoon on a normal, bright day. As I was filming outdoors for all of the music video the lighting was high key and ambient. I would of preferred it to be darker compared to what it ended up being like, this is because it would of gone better with the genre and location of the video. For this reason, I ended up changing the lighting and colours of the footage do that they were darker and more similar to the style of the video. I wanted the lighting to be low key so it was symbolic of the mood within the video i.e. lifeless, dull etc. 
The locations that the footage was filmed in was specifically used for a number of reasons, these were; because I needed the landscaping to be urban and rough as the location was the main support of the genre; another reason was because the urban landscaping represented the surroundings that the talent was in and also helped to be symbolic of their mood. For example, the footage I captured of the ally way and the graffitied wall showed how rough the area was as graffiti is seen as a very unsociable act and is expected to be seen in rougher areas, rather than well kept, cleaner areas.

As you can see in the image above the costume that I asked my talent to wear was a plain, dark brown jacket, plimsolls, jeans with her hair in a low ponytail. The reason I specifically asked her to wear this costume was because I wanted her to wear dark, basic clothes with her hair pulled back as if it was effortless. This was because I needed her clothes to be in tune with the video and the surroundings she was in, the costume also symbolises the lazy mood of the area and the talent because people that live in the this type of area in the video, usually don't make any effort with their appearance. Therefore I tried to show this through the costume. It wouldn't of looked right if I asked her to wear bright clothes with time consuming, complicated hair and jewelry. I specifically didn't want her to have jewelry on because it connotes wealth and luxury of the person. This is the opposite to the style within the video.  

Conclusion
I believe that throughout the construction of my music video I have constantly kept looking back at conventions mainly within Audio Bullys and Adele's videos. This helped me to improve the professionalism of my music video and therefore I think I did well to develop the 'typical conventions' of existing videos in my own video because I thought about specific conventions and improved them by adding certain factors to them that would look better within my video.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

When creating all of the products for the ancillary tasks, I ensured that all of them fitted in with the urban landscape style. Therefore, I had to ensure that I kept continuity throught all my tasks. Below are the completed tasks for this project, such as the music video, magazine advertisement and finally digipak.
Video

Magazine advertisement

Digipak



One of the main ways I kept continuity was the fonts that I used on both ancillary tasks. I ensured it was a bold font, as on existing album covers, theirs are usually big and bold to catch the audience's eye. This is an example of house style. The bands name is consistently the same font and colour throughout each task. The images below show this.

The inside digipak image is also seen within the music video, however in a video format. This consequently creates a visual link between these tasks. This is similar for the outside image of the digipak and the music video. For example, the view of run-down houses is seen in a video format within the music video. By creating these links within each task, it means that when the audience looks at a specific task, e.g. the digipak, they will think of the music video and where they have seen the image before. This could mean two things; if they have seen the music video before the digipak might remind them of the video and cause them to view it again. Alternatively, the audience could see the digipak and be intrigued to look at the video for the first time. This can also work the other way around, thus it is good to make a link between the tasks. The images below point out the previous commonalities I have just mentioned.

Throughout the construction of my video I made sure that if some footage was too bright compared to the rest of my work then I would put a darkening effect on it. The same effect was put on every clip if it was needed, it is called 'Colbat'. This is one way that I kept continuity through the making of the music video and also the ancillary tasks as I also put darkening effects on the images I used. 

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

Introduction
During the process of my planning, research, construction and my evaluations, I have used a variety of technologies to help me create my final pieces. Although at the time I didn't appreciate how much software and hardware I used, looking back I used a lot to create everything I wanted to achieve. Overall, I am happy with how all of my final pieces came together and in this evaluation, I will explain everything I used to help produce them.

Apple Mac
Due to the fact we have macs at school, I was able to spend time on my music video and ancillary tasks whenever possible. However, as I don't have an Apple Mac at home I found it difficult at times to spend my free time working on my coursework. This was because the school Mac's are used by multiple people, during lessons and not. Therefore, at times when I'd go to use the Mac with my coursework on it, it would be being used and this limited my time that I could spend on my work. 
Furthermore, as this is my second year on the course, and consequently being able to use the Mac's, I am already reasonably experienced in using this technology. Thus, it meant that the construction on my A2 media products was noticeably easier.

Panasonic camera
As I am fortunate to have my own camcorder, I was able to use this whenever I needed to film. I knew that I would only need to use the Sony camera to record all of my footage, as it has all of the facilities I need. The camera enabled me to film whenever possible, inside and outside of school. Therefore,  I was able to capture extra footage if I felt that I needed more even after editing the original footage I had at school. Along with this, close to the end of the deadline I wanted to change bits in the video. By having the camera to hand I could go home and capture last minute footage in my own time. Another advantage of having my own camera was that unlike borrowing a school camera, I didn't have to think about returning it in time to school. I also didn't have a certain time limit to be able to use the camera. This was very beneficial because if I had planned to record footage at the weekend and I was delayed because of bad weather then it didn't mess my plans up too much as I could just reschedule on my own terms.

Nikon camera
As my parents have had this camera for a couple of years now, I felt comfortable using the camera to capture pictures for the ancillary tasks. I was able to easily capture the camera shots I needed, whilst using the different lenses that come with the camera. Consequently, this was an advantage because it helped improve the quality of my work instead of using a basic digital camera. 

Search engines
I have used a variety of search engines throughout this project, however there was one main search engine I used most of the time. This was Google. I used this more often than others because I know how to use it more than the other, such as 'Bing' or 'Yahoo'. Therefore, it was the quickest way to obtain information. I found the Internet extremely useful when it came to the researching stage as I was able to see what conventions I needed to stick to when creating my music video and ancillary tasks/ Due to the fact you can multitask freely, I was also able to search music videos for inspiration as well as using Blogger to write my thoughts down. As I am constantly updating my blog and using other websites, such as Pixlr, YouTube etc. this was my most highly demanded technology I ended up using. The only disadvantage of using Google was that there is so much information to choose from, I had to research carefully and be selective with the information I chose. This meant that it was quite a time consuming task to do at times. 

Blogger
This again was one of my most used piece of technology throughout this piece of coursework, as I had to continuously write for my research, construction and evaluations of my final music video and ancillary tasks. As I am fortunate enough to access the internet, and therefore Blogger, at home and school I was able to update my posts whenever I needed to.

YouTube
YouTube was another main technology that came in handy during this coursework, as I looked at a variety of music videos to find the song that I wanted to use. As well as this, it gave me inspiration when planning what will go into the music video. Additionally, I uploaded my final product onto this website so people were able to view the finished video.

Final cut pro
This was a main technology that I used as it had the editing software I needed to help create a professional looking music video. As I have had some experience of using it at school in previous tasks, I was able to experiment with various transitions and editing techniques to make my video more appealing to my target audience. Therefore, this was mainly used for the construction of the music video, as well as audience feedback videos.  

Pixlr
I used this image editing software to edit the images I took for my ancillary tasks (digipak and magazine advertisement). I used this software for manipulating images last year, so I felt very comfortable using it this year for the same purpose. During the construction of the digipak, I used this image editor program to help me create the dull effect and image overlays that KlanKarussell's existing album has. Along with this, I used this for the finishing touches of my magazine advertisement, where I used the different image effects and image darkening. The software helped me to improve both the digipak and magazine advert because it enabled me to create a style that was like KlangKarussell's and also the style I wanted throughout the project.

Prezi
Until last year when I used Prezi software for some of my music magazine evaluations, I hadn't used it before. Although it was a bit confusing to begin with, I now feel confident using it. Even though this software is some what time consuming, I decided to use other technologies for the researching and construction stages of my products. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to use it in one of my evaluations for my coursework. This is mainly down to the fact I can go into detail when concluding on my final products as well as it being more visually appealing to read than just blocks of text.

Mobile phone
Throughout the planning stage of my music video, I had to keep in touch with my talent so they knew what time they needed to be free for filming and if there was a problem on the day I could let them know quickly. Therefore, texting or ringing them from my phone was the best was to communicate with my talent, as well both have unlimited texts and phone calls which means we could communicate easily without it costing. This piece of technology helped a lot when organising dates to shoot the film. 

Tripod
This piece of hardware helped a lot during the construction of the music video, as I was able to get smooth steady shots with the use of the tripod. At times I needed the hand held effect to make the video more moving, but at times (such as using a pan shot of a run down estate) I used this device to keep the camera in the same place all the way through. This was to get the best possible footage. Due to the fact it is portable and it collapses, I could take it wherever I went because it isn't heavy to carry. 

Bicycle
This was a very handy piece of equipment that I used more that the tripod in the construction of the music video. This was because I used the bike to strap the camera onto the seat so I was able to use a tracking shot, this is seen at the beginning of the video when the talent is walking through the field. The bike was mostly easy to transport to different filming locations, apart from busy areas in the town as I had to be careful.

Audience feedback on final draft of the advert

I have taken the previous feedback from the first draft into account, and have made improvements based of their answers to the questions. I then issued my questionnaire again to the same people to see what their opinions were on the final draft. The information below are the questions and answers that I received.

What do you think about the overall advertisement?

• It is different to most adverts that sell albums, however I like this
• The landscaping is very urban which ties in with your digipak 
• I love the image compared to the previous image you used in your first draft

Would this advert entice you to buy the bands album?

• Definitely, it looks more like an advert for an album, especially for one of KlangKarussell's albums
• Yes, it looks really interesting and would make me want to check out their video and album
• Yes, the image and layout you have used looks exactly the type of band I would listen to so I would buy the album 

Specifically what do you like about the advert?

• I love the layout that you have used for the bands name because it is the first thing that you see
• I like how you have cut half of the bin off instead of keeping it all in the frame
• I love the effects that you have put on the image because it gives the image a finishing touch, especially to the sky as that's where it is most visible
• I prefer how you have placed the bands name in the center of the advert, and also how you have changed the bands name from being in one straight line to staggered across the page 

What do you suggest could be improved?

• I think you could still add small bits of writing to the advert, like the date the album is released
• You could of had your talent walking towards the camera to the right of image
• The bands logo could of been on the advert somewhere

As you can see from the feedback the things that they said they would change are very minor and don't impact on the overall look of the advert. I am pleased that most of the audience like the minimal affect of the advert by just using the the band's name and an image. I am also pleased they liked the effects that I put onto the image along with one persons comment about how it looks very urban as this was the look I have been aiming for throughout the project. Therefore I am happy with the changes I have made and the feedback I have received, and for these reasons this will be my final draft of the magazine advert.