Task 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Construction

In terms of the construction of our products, the most obvious – and most important media technology we used is computers. Most of the work we did in all our stages depended on some sort of computer usage. In the construction of our video, we used computers to edit our video. We used a Mac Pro to upload all our footage and then edit it. We would save the work we did for the day and then easily access it the next time we wished to use it.

The software we used to edit our footage was Final Cut Pro. It allowed us to edit our video digitally, in a non-linear way. If we didn’t like a shot, we could change it easily and watch the edit multiple times to see if worked or not.

This is what our project looked like on Final Cut Pro - the timeline allowed us to edit in a non-linear way.

This was especially helpful in our video because we had so many different layers which we placed on the timeline because we had several people from different shots in the same frame. This is where non-linear editing really helped us. If we didn’t like one of the many shots in a single frame, we could simply change that one shot instead of creating the whole shot all over again from scratch. This was very convenient and gave us flexibility with the creation of our product. We got to try several different editing styles to see which best suited our video.

As you can see from the yellow box on the left side, we could layer several shots over each other to create shot on the top right - multiple characters within the same frame.

Also, Final Cut Pro very easily allowed us to cut each shot at the beat. It has a little sound bar at the corner of the screen to see the audio waveform at a specific point in the song. We chose the exact point at which the bars were the highest which signified the beat where we were to cut to the next shot. This allowed us to be precise with the beat which made the video look more professional.

As you can see there are a lot of cuts - these have been made specifically to match the beat which explains why some shots are longer than others.

We also used Adobe Photoshop in the creation of our ancillary texts, that is, the digipak, advert and poster. We gathered some images from Google Images - such as the one of the lake that is in our poster and front cover of digpak and the fragment of the broken UFO/spaceship. We combined these two pictures together to create the picture so that it looked like the UFO/spaceship had crashed into the water.Using these images allowed us to create a piece of digital artwork to come up with polished final media product that fit with our band’s image. In addition, we used screengrabs from our footage to get a picture of the full band. We got individual shots of each of the band members where they looked best with their instruments and we then joined them together in Photoshop. We also used tools that allowed us to turn a picture of a band into a silhouette in addition to using the warp and mirror tools to create the effect of the reflection of ripples in the water on the front side of our digipak.

One of the most obvious media technologies we used was the digital camera. We used the Sony NX5 which shot digitally, that is on memory cards which could then be easily uploaded on to the Mac Pros so we could access them. We could also keep changing the memory cards if they got full

Research

In terms of research, the most useful new media technology that we used was the internet. We used websites such as YouTube to access videos of potential songs we could use. Once we decided to use the song ‘Baby Loves Me’ by ‘The Eels’, we watched videos of the other songs played by them to get an idea of what kind of a band they were. This taught us a lot about genre of the music. We understood the style of the band which then helped us to get ideas for our video. YouTube helped us in this area too, by allowing us to access different kinds of music videos to get ideas. We got our main inspiration from this one video by Red Hot Chilli Peppers called -. We observed the themes and message portrayed in the video and decided to create a video that would work similarly.

We also used MySpace to research our potential target audience. We went to ‘The Eels’ space and looked at the different kinds of people that visited this page. This gave us a lot of information of the age group and gender of their fans and therefore helped us with our research for the band.

We also used Twitter similarly to get a better idea of ‘The Eels’ audience and fan base.

This is The Eels Twitter Page

                                               We had a look at some of The Eels followers

This gave us an idea of the fanbase of The Eels. This helped us to plan our target audience.

In addition to these methods, we also used the bands official webpage to help us understand our band better. We could use this information for the band we create as well and this is reflected in our video and its ancillary texts.

Planning

After the wealth of information we gained from the research stage of our video, we used new media technologies such as Prezi and Powerpoint to help us plan our video. We used Prezi to put all our ideas together and share them among our group to brainstorm and finalise our ideas. For example, we had to pitch our initial ideas for the pop video we were to create and we used Powerpoint to create a presentation. It allowed us to combine text, pictures and videos which helped us share our ideas better with other people.

We also used Photoshop in our planning stage - we put together different pictures on an empty page to create a moodboard for our video. We used websites such as Google on the Internet to collect different kinds of pictures. Another key media technology that we used is smartphones. It was especially helpful when we were deciding on the props we could use. We visited a prop room where we took pictures of the different available props that could potentially be in our video. We then uploaded these on to a computer to share with the other members of our group to discuss which ones we could use which we could pick up the next time we went there. This was helpful for planning especially since we didn’t all have to go to the prop storage which made it more time efficient.

We also used DSLR cameras to do test shots of our idea to see if it worked out. Our idea included lots of flickering lights and we wanted to be sure that it showed up on camera or else we’d have to change our idea. After filming it, we uploaded it to a computer to watch it and analyse whether we were happy with it or not and how we could improve it. This made our planning stronger thus increasing the likelihood of our shoot being successful. Lastly, we also used Final Cut Pro to create an animatic. We drew storyboards which we filmed with our DSLR cameras and edited together to create an animatic. This made our planning more solid because we knew where each shot belonged and the all the shots we needed to film. This gave us all a better idea of what the final product would look like. This later on helped in the editing stage as well because we all had the same idea of what it should look like which was because of the animatic.

It was also important to communicate effectively as a group and so we created a group on facebook called ‘Baby Loves Me’. It was a private group and it only consisted of the members in my group. We used this as a means of communication especially during the holidays when we were in different countries and wanted to share our ideas and plan the logistics of our video.

 

Evaluation

We also used several different new media technologies to evaluate our task. The most-used one was Blogger. We were able to combine several different kinds of media such as audio, video, images, prezis and powerpoint presentations. This allowed us to present our information in a very visual way and we would always put any work that we produced (e.g. sketches, ideas, moodboards) on our blogs so that we wouldn’t loose them. This also worked as a means of communication among my group because we’d keep visiting each other’s blog to keep ourselves updated and see where we were at with our ideas.

In addition to that, YouTube was another key technology that we used to evaluate our product.We uploaded our final video there and a lot of our audience posted comments on the video, providing us with useful feedback that helped us measure the effectiveness of our products. We were also able to see the statistics with regard to the age group and gender of our viewers - we found out that our video was most popular among 13-17 year old girls, 25-34 year old and 55-64 year old males. We found this out through the YouTube statistic chart:

Lastly, smartphones are another kind of new media technology that we used in the evaluation of our products. We used a smartphone to film the focus group that we held. It was quick and easy and didn’t require any additional equipment to work. It was also easily accessible seeing as a large population of our generation own smartphones. The footage was easily transferred to a laptop where we could upload it to YouTube and Blogger.

Task 3

Audience Feedback on Prezi

This is the director's commentary that we made for our video.

Task 2

Blog Task 2

Evaluation Task 1

PERFORMANCE/PROPS

In terms of symbolic conventions present in our product, the fact that our entire video was a performance shows the existence of a music video convention being upheld. It is common for an alternative-rock music video to have the band members performing with their instruments as shown in the still below from the Nickleback video ‘Someday’. Nickleback aren’t the exact same band genre as The Eels, but they can still be compared because they are both part of the larger rock genre, and therefore have similar conventions.

              

As you can see in the Nickelback video still, each of the band members are playing their instruments together in a studio which is conventional in such music videos. Our video upholds this convention in the sense that our entire video is based around this element of the band members performing. The performance in the video mimics a live performance and shows the audience that they are serious about their music. Audiences and fans will be impressed when viewing this video because it displays their talents which encourage them to watch the band live.This means increased revenues from tour and concert sales, which is why we decided to uphold this convention. This also ties in with Dyer’s theory of absence and presence. Because the viewers of the video watch them perform so well in the video, they are likely to want to watch them live to consume more of the band because of the absence in their lives.

The conventional presence of four band members will help the audience identify this video as those that would be found in a similar music genre and therefore encourage fans of the altern-rock genre to watch this video because of their interest in this area. We chose to have four band members so as to make it seem like a regular conventional band which also makes the point of them being serious about their music. It shows that they know the norms and follow them adequately in order to sell records.

The conventional positioning of the band members in a music video is for the lead singer to be in the front, the pianist and guitarist to his right and left side and the drummer at the back. In our video, we challenged this convention by not having these band members in the expected positions. Instead, they move around without any fixed position, unlike regular bands and an example of this is again the Nickleback picture.

Also, another convention found in music videos is that the lead singer gets the larger amount of screen time in comparison to the other band members because he/she is considered to be the more important performer and is the main voice of the band. Single shots of the other band members playing their instrument do exist in videos, however to a very small amount. In our video, we challenge this convention: we gave our other band members more screen time than one would normally expect to find in a video. This is possibly because our video has no narrative element and solely focuses on the performance. This again portrays a band image based on the talents of these performers, which is upheld by giving them more screen time. However, whilst the other band members have more screen time, ultimately, the lead singer is most seen and is the more dominant performer in this video because of that. This is where the convention of giving the lead performer more screen time is upheld. This shows that in spite of them being a band, he is still the dominant one and is after all the band’s voice. We chose to conform to this convention because it is important for the audience to like him and his voice which is representative of the brand image of the entire band.

In terms of costume, we aimed for a ‘geek chic’ sort of look where our band members wore chinos and tees in neutral shades such as whites and nudes. This is unconventional for a rock band – they are usually more rockstar-like, however ours are nerdier looking. This is a look we aimed for - our target audiences are meant to be of a similar sort and would possibly dress like them. This will help fans identify with them and want to purchase their music because of this common interest. This increases record sales and is why we chose to have this look.

So in terms of mise-en-scene, we uphold the common convention of having four band members each playing their own instrument however at the same time we challenge this representation by not giving them fixed positions.

EDITING

In terms of editing, the most common style found in music videos, especially fast-paced rock ones is fast and snappy editing on the beat. The editing style in most music videos is very visible and stylistic, unlike films or TV dramas where the cuts are meant to be invisible.  As you can see from the above video of Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ video, the editing style is conventional (to music videos in general), and each shot is no longer than a few seconds. Our video, being an altern-rock one maintains this convention and every shot is matched to the pace of the song to emphasise its tempo. It draws attention to the rhythms and beats of the song, helping to showcase the record. Having said that, to maintain repeatability and keep the audience entertained, we used a slightly unusual editing style by portraying multiple band members in different size scales within the same frame.

The lyrics are closely synched with the singer to mimic a live performance, which again, is conventional. This helps sell records because it encourages viewers to watch them live based on their singing talents. Having said that, the editing in our video is what creates the main theme of our product and is what makes it original. As we know, our performers have no fixed position in our video and it is the way we’ve edited it is to bring about this style. This is what challenges the conventions and makes our video unusual. Had we not done this, our audience would not be able to differentiate our band image from another one. There aren’t a lot of videos where there are different sized shots of band members mixed with each other in the same frame. The unusual editing style is what makes it stand out and is the kind that will be remembered, therefore making our band distinctive to others.

Digipak & Poster

In terms of our CD panels, we carry forward the ‘geek chic’ style by maintaining the monochrome theme throughout the digipak. The first panel is a picture of various magazines, which adds to our geek chic persona since fans of the band are those who would like to read magazines such as the ones in the panel.

In the second panel, we have the credits and a blurry image of the four band members. This is conventional since most albums have the picture of the band on them so that audiences can spot them easily in shops, etc. It helps create that brand image as well, connecting the faces of the band to their music and the ancillary texts (poster, advert, digipak, etc.). However, we wanted to maintain a certain amount of mystery for the band by following Dyer's principles of absense which is why we decided to blurr out the the image. Because you cannot see the characters properly, our viewers may be encouraged to watch the music video and even see them perform live, to get that sense of presence of the band in their lives.

Our poster conforms to the conventions as well. There are 3 fonts, the name of the band is the largest, the structure is balanced with half of it being the bands’ album’s front cover and the second half with information about it. We carefully followed all the rules of a poster so that audiences can identify with it and link it to the brand image of the band without any distractions.

Forms and Conventions

Forms and conventions refer to the recognisable format of media products which help us identify what kind of product we are consuming. These are things that an audience expects from a particular type of text and also from different types of genre.

Conventions in a music video make it easy for an audience to understand what type of text they are consuming and enable them to situate a song and artist within a musical genre.

As you can see, Taio Cruz music video has different conventions than a Taylor Swift video.

There exist technical and symbolic conventions in music videos that help us understand the text.

Technical Conventions:

These relate to styles of camera, editing and sound

Camera:

-         Close ups and extreme close ups help to build recognition of artist (builds star image) and also to emphasize link with music and lyrics (show singer’s face/mouth singing, guitarists fingers playing, guitaring, etc.)

-         Medium close ups and mis shots to show body language and costume of artists, this can demonstrate emotions and can connote values and attitudes.

-         Tilts, pans and tracking shots to follow the artists as they move around a stage or set, to move from one band member to another emphasizing their relationship/collaborative effort

-         Long shots and wide shots to show band in location and props

Editing:

-         Closely synched with the song to mimic a live performance.

-         Matched to pace of the song to emphasize tempo and emotion of music

-         Cut in sync with beat to emphasize rhythm 

-         Discontinuity editing, jump cuts (as opposed to match cuts) to create high energy and sense of frenetic movement. Can also be divided into repetitive chapters to mimic the verse-chorus-verse structure

Symbolic Conventions:

These relate to mise en scene, lighting, costume, props, etc. They are highly generically specific and embody entirely different values and ideas and their symbolic appearances attempt to create their meanings for a target audience.

Lighting:

-         Artificial lighting is extremely common and aften used to give the artist a glow of perfection (clear skin, tanned, etc.)

-         Can help create a tone and atmosphere

Costume, hair and makeup:

-         Take influence from different trends in society and can set new trends

-         Can indicate membership to a subculture: a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture

Props:

-         The instruments themselves are highly symbolic and fit into distinct categories that link to other bands that use similar instruments and have various connotations

Sets and Locations:

-         Establish the domain of the artist, where they belong

-         May also feature locations familiar to target audience to enable them to identify with artist

Colour:

-         Can represent the moods of the artist, bright colours generally are feel good, dark colours down beat

-         Neon colours: artificial environment, city, urban life

-         Black and white can have connotations of ‘classy artists’

Performance:

-         The direct address – unlike most media texts the performer looks straight into the camera and this gives a sense that they are communicating directly with the audience

-         When combined with slower paced editing and CUs and MCUs, this gives a feeling of intimacy and closeness, like the song is being performed especially for you.

-         Tends to have different connotations in different genres but overall a sense of the artists’ message being directly given to the audience.

Digipak and Advert - Final Draft

Final Product

After the whole post production process, this is the final product we came up with: