Evaluation question 4

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

Research
During the research stage the main sources of my information came from internet searches but especially using google.com. Whether it was searching for certain genres of music and their conventions or finding out the definition of something that would be useful e.g punk rock's actual definition shed a lot of light on what it is that the genre stands for and is aiming to do in the texts they produce.
Planning
The internet proved to be the most valuable tool at our disposal as we discovered that it was not only useful for finding things related to whatever we need to search for, it also allowed for us to produce things like surveys to gauge audience expectations and cater to them accordingly.
Construction
The construction of our product was riddled with errors both man made and technological with the camera running out of battery with no charger nearby we decided that we would use an iPhone camera to record the scenes we had missed. furthermore we had trouble with some of the attachments for the camera such as the tripod as we had not encountered this before and it took a while to adjust to use it properly. This difference in camera quality was noted in our feedback and has been taken on board in regards to establishing a good and stable foundation for any product we produce.
Another, often overlooked, media technology we used was social media as a way to both keep in touch when we needed to meet anywhere to record but also it allowed for us to instantly share anything that we found useful with the other members of our group. Online tools such as giphy.com and digipak maker proved invaluable to us in creating an authentic and professional product.
Evaluation
My evaluation utilised media technologies in that we created a podcast as an answer to one of our evaluation questions. Moreover, I used online tools like Prezi to inform my responses to the questions asked. Furthermore, Microsoft Office Powerpoint was used to answer another of the questions in my evaluation along with Paint and Photoshop to make an informative, yet fun, and distinctive personal response to the questions that I have been asked

Evaluation question 3

This is a podcast created by our group to answer question 3 of our evaluation on audience feedback. We asked 4 audience members to give feedback in regards to 4 questions that we asked:-

What would you rate our video out of 10?

Results 8, 8, 9, 7

How likely is it that you would watch more videos produced by us?

Options:- Definitely not, Unlikely, Likely, Definitely

Results:- Definitely, Likely, Definitely not, Likely

How likely are you to recommend this video to your friends?

Options:- Definitely not, Unlikely, Likely, Definitely

Results:-Don't know, Likely, Unlikely, Likely

How would you improve our video?

Results:- Don't know, bigger budget, better editing, use the same camera throughout.

There was some confusion as to the format in which we asked the questions with one audience member not understanding how to answer the question. This was rectified by a group member explaining however this can be avoided by making the way to give feedback simpler. Furthermore, our results have been hindered by one of the audience members being incapable of comprehending what it is that we asked of him in terms of choosing one of the 4 answers provided that best suits his attitude towards our product.

Evaluation question 2

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

This is a Powerpoint presentation I have produced to answer question 2 of my evaluation.

Evaluation question 1

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

Real media products are often meticulously planned down to the last detail to ensure that what is filmed accurately reflects the wishes of the director. Our product however began as something that was meticulously planned and transformed in to a master-class in improvisation with each member of the group simply doing what they felt was natural and had a camera recording as opposed to having a very artificial situation with people acting unnaturally.

We felt that we had to make a statement through our product in that we used juxtaposing music genres to construct our video. The soft and mellow country music contrasts deeply with the hard and rebellious punk rock allowing for us to have polarising themes and actions within our product.

Our product plays on the expectations of costume in our videos as we took inspiration from music videos such as Play Hard by David Guetta and movies like Blazing Saddles and amplified it by using bright colours and exaggerating the extent of the costumes.
Furthermore, our video subverts the expectation of cowboys and Mexicans fighting because although at the beginning of the video we intended it to look that way in the end we decided that it would be better for us to show all the members of the 'band' having fun as would be expected from a punk rock music video.

A large portion of our thinking behind the shots which we did plan are referencing real media products such as the egg in my mouth being a reference to Conan The Barbarian. Moreover we didn't explicitly label our references and instead chose to take parts from general areas of media, for example our parody of the genre convention of pop to have dance routines came in the form of Kelli's sloppy, exaggerated dancing and his eventual fall then recovery.

Permission Update

As a group we decided that it would be for the best of the project if we chose a different song than Cancion Del Mariachi because we have found that another song is more fitting to our requirements. Therefore we have decided to use Ecstasy of Gold by Ennio Morricone, more commonly known as The Good The Bad and The Ugly.

Final Digipak

First of all I had to find a template to begin my digipak making process because i had previously brainstormed some ideas that i could use on the digipak.

This is the template that I was going to use because it is simple and allows me to properly express myself through my creative choices in the presentation of my digipak. However, I felt that I had more material that I could use for the digipak than 4 sides allow which lead to me using a larger template.

Final Magazine Advert

Final Advanced Portfolio Production



Permission

One of our group members sent an email requesting to use the song 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' by The Clash. Once we have a reply from the record label we can then implement their song in to our music video and comply with any conditions they may have for us using their content. For example they may ask us to not put the music video online which we would have to honour as they have allowed us to use their song. Below is a picture of the email sent to epic records asking for permission to use 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' by The Clash.

We also intend to use the song 'Cancion Del Mariachi' by Antonio Banderas also, to begin the video, so that we can use a genre and song change for effect. Below is the Email sent asking for permission to use this song in our project:

Both emails were sent by my group member Joseph O'Grady.

Technical Equipment:-Camera

The Nikon D600, provided by the schools media department for this project. The D600 has 1080p HD video, built-in HDR, an electronic horizon and more. This will help provide solid quality of our music video and prevent any bad quality shots from becoming a problem.

Costume

The costume choices made by our group were informed by the Western genre paired with influences from the media such as Pierce Brosnan and Clint Eastwood.

Filming updates

We attempted to meet up and film our music video during the half term we had over Christmas, however because it was difficult to have us all in one place to film we have decided top begin filming on the 16/01/2017