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

Throughout, our project, we used a massive range of new media technologies, some of which we were familiar with others which we were not. For example in the construction stages we worked with brand new softeware called Adobe Premier Pro 5 which was massive step up from the older version I had previously used. We also got to use HD camerasm, and utitlised web 2.0 in the form of social media in all stages of our project.

Research and Planning

One way which the grouped communicated with each other was through Facebook, a social networking site made available by web 2.0. We created a group for all of us to use, a place where we could easily contact each other and share our ideas.

 Facebook allowed us to share documents, video inspirations and plan and arrange shoots. For instance, we could name the actors which we planned to bring to our shoot, plan group meetings and delegate tasks for each other. This was our best method of communication outside of lesson time, and was especially value to us seeing as had a split, with Jess and I in one class and Alex and Narishma the other. This would often prove impractical as in the early stages we could go a whole day without the four of us being together. However, during the later stages we arranged to meet every lunchtime for a summary session of how things are going, where we decided how it was best to progress.

The advantage of Facebook to our group was that everybody knew where they stood, the roles were visible to everybody and everyone had the chance to input and give their views on the project. This is opposed to say Blackberry Messenger and SMS which was used, but to to a lesser extent.

We also used Facebook to get actors for shoots creating public event pages where we could easily invite hundreds of people, thus effectively making sure we get the 16 we were after.

As previously mentioned, we used the Facebook page to share video inspirations, this was done via the video site Youtube.

 In the early stages of the product I used the website to research into the rock genre for my Kasabian idea, however I later used it when finding choreographing a dance routine (which at one point was more complicated than the final one!).

I also used it to research the dance genre. In addition, we had quite an observational/documentary style of filming, a style which we researched to conventions of other videos to incorporate in our video.

To a lesser extent we used twitter, setting up an account in our group name so that the teachers could follow our progress as a group. This allowed them to see what stage we were at, as they didn't have the time to ask every day, this proved a great way of communicating with the teachers. We also used our personal accounts to communicate with each other, however, this was not done to the extent of Facebook.

I used Google maps to plan how the locations of shoots, and how we would get to them. Although a simple technology, Google maps were very effective in helping us plan our music video. For instance, we didn't want our  train entry set at a dirty area like Southgate as we didn't feel this reflected our feel good and happy video. So instead, we thought that we may as well use where we know works and go to Belsize Park, where the Coldplay video was shot. However, we didn't want to jump to conclusions, know music vidoes can be edited in misleading ways so scouted the area on google street view. 

We also used the technology to see whose house was best suitable, seeing as we wanted freedom to film, we worked out who lived in the least busy area before making our decision.


The following blog post for the 'routine shoot' shows all of the techniques mentioned above including email, BBM and SMS services and even Scribbed.

http://latymermusicvideo2011group4.blogspot.com/2011/11/final-shoot.html



Construction

Video

During the construction process we used HDV cameras. Our main camera was the Sony HVR A1E, which allowed us to film in high quality HD footage, as well as providing a whole range depths and focuses as well as providing richer footage in comparison to standard DV footage.

Primary Camera

When filming I learnt how to perfect the technique of manual focussing, and am very proud of one particular shot with a 10 pence coin.

On the routine shoot, we required a second camera. This was a simple Cannon Legria HV40 which also provided good quality HD footage.

Editing

We were assigned an editing suite, this was to aid us in the construction of our video using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, which was a newer version that what we had previously used in the years before, however many of the tools and editing techniques were exactly the same which meant we were able to work as fast and efficiently as possible on the editing.

The following video shows some of the techniques and effects I used when editing





We colour graded our video by using the 'three way colour corrector tool' and 'brightness and contrast'  effect. This was very important because of the many shoots and locations used. This meant we had different lighting levels and different weather conditions so we had to grade them to give them the best match as possible. 

Here is a video showing how we used the colour grading tool.




Album cover

For this we used Photoshop CS5, again an updated version. I played a more supporting role with this product as one group member, Jess was very skillful and we wanted to be time efficient. Therefore I focussed on editing while Jess focussed on the cover, constantly asking for each others opinions so as to make sure all products remained a group creation. However, I did help construct some aspects of the cover as well as being heavily involved in the planning stages.

Photoshop window

One technique that was especially helpful was grouping layers into bins, similar to how we had done with our editing. This made our layers much neater and easier to use.

Grouped layers

As for taking the pictures for the album cover, we used a Cannon 550d, I'd used the camera before taking photos on sports day, so I took a prominent roll in taking the pictures and directing Odelia This was great fun as I'd built a DJ set for Odelia to use, so everything felt real. However, I was inexperienced with lighting, so with the help my group members and the technician I learnt how to light the set and model properly. The gallery on our website shows some of these photos.

Cannon 550d


Website

We used a brand new media technology that we had never used before called WIX web designer, flash-based software that was again made available by Web 2.0. Wix allowed us to construct an artist identity for Absynth, forming a website which featured all the conventions of artist’s websites. We produced a professional and realistic website in a simple and efficient manner. The video below shows some of the functions WIX had. 

WIX also allowed us to produce a mobile website, allowing us to target our intended audience of 16-24year old male and females. This TA are big users of mobiles 24/7, WIX allowed us to create access our artist through their phones, thus utilising the huge development in new media through development in mobile technology

Evaluation

Just as it was in the planning stages Web 2.0 was a very important technology in the evaluation; for example we posted our final video on YouTube to receive audience feedback, linking this video on Facebook to quickly reach our target audience.

 Unfortunately the close proximity to the deadline meant that we did not get substantial feedback of your video, instead relying on our focus group. 

One feature that we planned to use was YouTube's statistic feature where you can the demographics of our target audience. This will allow us to see if our video is being watched by our target audience or of a younger one, ultimately telling us whether we appealed to the right audience, especially relavant given the feedback from our focus group about younger audience. 

This shows he format of the stats - would have hoped to achieve an equal weighting of male and females ass both were our target audience.

We also used Facebook to promote our premier, making a promotional video for it to drum up interest and encourage people to attend. Further promotion took place via the school intranet system with a post, meaning that the whole school new about the screening. 

Intranet notice

Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

On Monday the 12th December we arranged a focus group session in the media block so that we could find out whether or not we had successfully appealed to our target audience. Everyone in this focus group were 17-18 at the younger end of our target audience, although helpful it would have been great to have a few younger teachers in the upper end of our range. However, we had to use what was easily available to us, and instead received feedback from these different ages online and out of school. We were still selective in the people we asked, aiming for two people from four different social groups to receive a wide range of feedback. These included sporty people and academically focused ones, different groups that had different interests, making the feedback more diverse and to give a broad viewpoint.


To begin with we showed the website due to technical issues with the dvd player meaning we had to wait for mp4 version of the our music video, which ideally we should have shown first.

The video below shows our audience’s reactions to our three products.


The focus group members were given the following questionnaire so that we could understand the feelings towards the video.
Group 4 Audience Feedback Questionnaire

We had 9 completed questionnaires from an almost equal split between boys and girls


Video
After the main session we asked two individuals from the group to stay behind and discuss their opinions on all three products and whether they worked well together. We chose both a boy and a girl, again for diverse feedback. I played the role as interviewer and the video is below.

It was very interesting to see the response of these two members. In most cases it appears that we were successful in targeting our audience, however their comments about featuring the artist in the video particular stood out to me. They suggested Absynth made a cameo role in the video, perhaps in the dance video. Looking back, I think this could have definitely been possible as a subtle appearance would still create the enigmatic atmosphere which we aimed for. They pointed towards David Guetta as an artist who does this, so I looked into his video. Below shows my analysis of this style and how it would relate to our video.








We held a discussion about our audience feedback that same afternoon, in an aim to identify whether we had successfully appealed to our target audience.





To summarise what I have learnt from my audience feedback

• We were successful in reaching our target audience with an average overall rating of 8 and 9 for the album and website.
• People found the video 'funny' 'entertaining' and 'unusual'. Their favourite parts were the dance routine, the Greggs part and the tube sequence.
• However, when asked 'who would you buy the album for' many replied young teenagers 10-14. This suggests that our video was not directly appealing to our target audience, we wanted to install an element of reliving their childhood in the video, however the childish nature of the Panda was perhaps a little too strong. Our target audience were teenagers and young people who like to go to gigs and club at universitys etc, perhaps they would have liked more of conventional dj feel.
• However, we did want to create something unique and fun, and despite their feedback we can take the positive that our secondary audience was Children and families.
• Therefore seeing as our primary audience rated the products highly and recommended a younger demographic we may have successfully appealed to both. 
• As mentioned above, they also identified a desire to see more of an artist. 
• Although we wished to create an enigma which was later revealed by a reward on the website, featuring the DJ would have still been able to achieve this.
• If we were to do something again this is definitely something we would aim to achieve. 

The most negative feedback we received was relating to the album cover. Although the consensus was that this auxiliary product was very professional, our focus group felt that the font on freewired was difficult to read.

'The black text is difficult to read on the dark background'

This is feedback which all of us agreed on, I would look perhaps a blue font or the relocation of Freewired to the bottom of the cover. 

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

I believe that as a whole, the main product and the ancillary texts work well together despite the link between the video and the album cover/website not being visually obvious. Perhaps this could have been improved by Absynth making a cameo appearance in her video.  However, there is a universal theme which all three products share and that is that they all focus on the music. This was a theme that we run throughout our marketing campaign, deciding that the artist is there to compliment the music, which is the most important thing. Not the other way around. 

For instance the observational style of filming means that the Panda is not the focus of everything. Although he stands out, there is a lot attention made to the things around him, his surroundings and the people. We felt this reflects our artist as again it does not draw the attention away from the music. The observational style allows viewers to get lost in the video and the track simultaneously

Our artist identity is fun but hidden; the name ‘Absynth’ doesn’t reveal the artists true identity leaving an element of the unknown which helps sell our artist. This decision creates an enigmatic atmosphere, which urges the audience to want to find out more about the artist. This is how our website and video work in synergy, the element of the unknown sends them to the website, thus creating a symbiotic relationship between the two products. Once they reach the website they are rewarded with information about the artist from the word go. 

There is an image of the artist on the home page which shows the audience who Absynth is, where as the news and bio pages also inform the reader with a variety of content which serves to uncover the secrecy of the video. However, this decision did not come easily to us, as after all Absynth is a debut artist and we needed to make a connection between her and the audience. However, after research into other genres we realised that this enigmatic style of branding was common for artists in the dance genre. For instance the original artists Daft Punk also use narrative for this video in the form of an animal centred sequence.

Nerco's cameo is subtle

Like our video, this video gives nothing away about the artist, urging their audiences to go online and to find out more about the her. Daft Punk were not alone in using this method, Skrillex for example, although a slightly different genre of dance music, does not feature, where as Nero only performed in a cameo role in their debut single ‘Me and you’, which is a narratively driven video. We created the persona of Absynth and chose for her to be absent from the video as her stance is that the music is the most important thing, music is her passion, she wants her music to be famous and not her, a stance shared by most top DJs in the dance genre.

Narrative based story line

Skrillex-  Artist not featured

           

Music player is predominately black, however pink still reveals artist identiy 

This focus on music is also evident on the website, with the media player streaming the single ‘one more time’, where as the appearance of Absynth serves to compliment the music. The first thing our audience notice is the sound of the track, like the video, the website focusses on music. However the track is feel good dance track, and planning how we would link this factor to the website to this was the tricky part, we had to make the decision if we wanted our artist to be fun and childish like a Panda or cool and trendy like a standard DJ. We decided that Absynth would be a combination the two, cool and trendy but with a fun side. The website is sleek and trendy, with the black colour scheme conventional of websites from the dance genre.

Black colour scheme is conventional of Djs

However, our use of purple and bright colourful pictures of our artist who is smiling and having fun still reflects the feel good nature of the video. We felt this was important in our overall campaign, Absynth is unique to other DJs as she is young and fun, the pose of Dj Shortee above shows quite a serious attitude, however her style of dance is more gritty and suitable for this. Absynth creates a bridge between pop and dance, her music is all about having a good time, a personality which we were influenced by the repeating line ‘lets celebrate’ in the track that we used. Both the Panda, comedy and absurdity of the video create this feel good atmosphere which works alongside the friendly photos of Abysnth.

The website can be seen as the hub of the artist, home to a multi-sensory experience for the audience as they both see the appearance of his logo and hear the song playing.  Furthermore, the home page gives fans an immediate insight into the artist with two static images promoting merchandise and the album, offering them chances to interact. We also offer interaction on the home page with quick links to social network sites, as well as a live twitter feed on the news page. What is more, the home page features a news real, exposing fans to multiple aspects of the artist, ranging from her personal life and involvement in WFF and her music.

Promoting artist

The WFF is where our video and website come together. We wanted a way to connect the artist to the fun Panda theme. Although, this was done through the fun of the panda, we thought that her kind and friendly personality can be displayed through her love for wildlife and animals. The video therefore serves to raise awareness about WWF, although we do not present the dangers facing Panda’s the the video creates a buzz about them that only when fans visit the website do they see the reasons behind it. As well as mentioning this in her bio, the issue has a whole page from the news section dedicated to Absynth and her conservation work, giving fans a connection with her that they haven’t been able to make with a lack of video. 

Absynth and WWF. 

The option for a webcam chat with her on the home page and news page further offers fan interactivity, as well as the use of social networking sites, which specifically appeal to our young, target audience who are big users of social media. 

The website and the album cover work perfectly together, and unlike the video are clearly related.

For our website, we have two primary colours, purple and black and secondary colour of white, a colour scheme which is symbiotic with our digipack, thus the two products support each other.

There were three fonts which we used across the website, in order to make it simple, yet add some variety. However, one of the fonts which we used was the same one that was used on the album cover in order to create synergy, and make the font directly link the website to the album cover. Both feature the Absynth font which acts as her logo. Furthermore, the website features the options to buy into the brand, as well as selling the album cover we offer merchandise, some of which reflects the themes of the video, others which reflects the artist identity.

Using a font as branding is not unheard of, for instance the DJ avicii uses a distinctive font that doubles as both his name and logo.

Based on the fact that Absynth is a debut artist, every page offers uses the chance to invest or get involved in her brand. With purchasing opportunities on the home page, a dedicated online store, and banners on all pages but photos offering interactivity. 

Online store offers interactivity and chance to buy into the brand

Online stores are essential, our store features products related specifically to the video, another example of how our website and video have a symbiotic relationship.  We use our website as a chance to sell both music and merchandise, nicely separated into categories. This was inspired by the Red Hot Chilli Pepper's online store which we felt was chaotic and disorganised. It offers no distinction between male and female clothing let alone music and merchandise. As I have mentioned our target audience want what their content fast. The objective of a website is to keep the user on it for as long as possible in order to sell the artist. Easy navigation provides this.

We aimed to perfect the concept of an online store

We have a 360 degree interactivity campaign, constantly giving people the opportunity to get involved. Furthermore, we utilise social network sites with the opportunity to tweet or like news articles. , Through using such interactivity sites, it has a broader appeal and would be able to reach a wider audience, possibly through word of mouth on the internet. Our enter site page features the album on its own, making it stand outfitting as it was the main focus and aim of the website.

The theme of music being the focus and Absynth's passion is again present in the album cover. It is the factor which truly links all our products together. 


Once again the emphasis on her passion for music is demonstrated through the dominant headphones on the front cover and they also feature on the inside cover. Although direct address, the pose doesn't play up to the camera or try to sell the artist. Instead she holds her headphones, creating the impression that she is lost in her music. Furthermore,  a music related prop features on every side of the cover, the boombox, the DJ set up and of course the headphones on the final panel. The brushes that have been applied to the back, also imply trance and music. 

Music is dominant

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

To answer this question, we decided the best way to present this video was through a group discussion so that we could all get the best out of each other. After planning the content that we wanted to talk to about we conducted a discussion where we explained how theories of Goodwin and Vernallis were applied to our video. We also talked about conventional influences from the musical industry, about how we challenged, conformed or developed them, specifically in relation to the dance genre or other female artists. The answer is broken down into four videos, the first two being about the music video and the last two concerning the website and album cover. We felt it was important not to script our discussion as wanted a natural conversation. Many of our shoots featured spontaneous shots, so felt that by not scripting we were playing to our strengths.




 Part 2






Spike Jonze director

These videos are two which particularly inspired us both featuring animal costumes, and filming in an observational style which relates to Goodwin’s theory of the notion of looking. This observational technique threw our audience into the music video, as it really gives the feeling of watching something like you were there. This is emphasised by the fact we filmed hand held for all our footage. the audience to feel as if they were walking along side the panda and experiencing the action first hand.

Mat Whitecros as Director

As I mention in the video, Coldplay inspired us to go through with the Panda idea which we came up with. After seeing how their use of animals worked, we were sure we could pull of it, taken inspiration for specific location shoots like the Underground one. (GIFs made by Jess Rich)

These bullet points offer a summary of The Music video Theorists,  Developing and challenging conventions.

Develop Conventions

• Not featuring artist in video (dance genre)

• Cutting to beat and jump cuts

• Variations in framing

• Dancing scene/routine in video (dance/pop genre)

• Pose questions to audience that are not answered

Challenges –

• Not featuring artist in video (Pop Dance e.g David Geutta and debut artists)/No lip synch

• Narratively based story line obeying rules of continuity (although we do also have plenty of discontinuity.

Theorists - These webcam entires show me applying to theorist's ideas on what is typical of a music video. There are many crossovers, between the two and a few between are group discussion. However, this is my individual response. 

• Andrew Goodwin

• Carol Vernallis

• Postmodernism, McGonagol - Everything about this theory is mentioned in the group discussion

Website








We decided not to challenge website conventions in the same way that we did for our music video. The only main challenge is the fact that our artist heavily features on the front page, however, we wanted to reward our audience with knowledge when they visited the website. We felt that our target audience are more likely to like our product if it conforms to what they are used to, this has been done through the layout, general content and opportunities that the site offers.

Here is a brief summary of conventions we followed for the website.

Develop conventions

• Dark colour scheme is cool and trendy
• Social Networking - Interactive opportunities
• Biography - allows connection to artist that was missing from video
• Navigation bar - easy access which our target audience like
• Merchandise - opportunities to buy into the brand 

There were two websites which especially influenced us in terms of building the website. 

Nero and DJ shortee. Both in our dance genre.

Album Cover

The album cover is where we take influences from other genres. Although a DJ we wanted Absynth to be the focus of her album cover as she is a debut artist. Most female artists feature with Close ups and this is certainly something we have been inspired by.

Beauty shots - typical of female artist

We also offer a beauty shot with Absynth, however, we still conform to the dance genre by connoting music through the headphones. This stands to show that music is the focus, wherever our artist goes, the music goes. A theme which we run throughout our marketing campaign.

Holding the headphones suggests she is indulged in her music i.e music is dominating

Challenges

No artist - DJ

Sexualised image - female artists

• No abstract art like some djs e.g Chase and Status  
• Female artist who is not sexualised. E.g Rihanna

Develop Conventions

• Music connotations from headphones
• Female beauty shot
• Direct address

• conventional insitutional information on our album cover: e.g

Tracklisting

Record Label and copyright

Barcode

The video below answers question 1 in terms of the album cover