Evaluation Question 4-

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Throughout my project I used lots of different media technologies, I am going to explain how and why.

For my construction, research, planning and evaluation I used the Internet, the main search engine I used was 'Google', this provided me with lots of information on existing music videos, DigiPacks and advertisements which enabled me to compare them to my ideas.


I used a social networking site for my feedback results 'facebook' was beneficial as it was accessible, I was able to achieve my audiences opinions from this media technology. Not only did I use this technology in my evaluation it enabled me to contact me group and actors throughout the planning, research and construction stages, e.g. I sent my group a message on facebook telling them when I was going to buy the costume and makeup we needed for our filming, enabling them to share any ideas they had with mine. It also enabled me to find information on 'poppy and the Jezebels' in my research e.g their facebook page-http://www.facebook.com/poppyandthejezebels


This screen shot of me using facebook reinforces the popularity of it and why i used it for my feedback.


I also used a 'scanner' where I scanned in my drawn drafts for my ancillary products, I was also able to scan in my risk assessment, costume and makeup ideas for my music video and editing. Therefore I used this technology throughout my research, planning and construction.


I used the Sony A1E when researching and planning our shots before filming our music video, without this technology our final product would not have been as successful as we wouldn't have known how to use this type of technology, I also used this camera in my research when I was finding out about 'new media technologies.'



I used 'hotmail' when organising my actors, when asking for permission to use Poppy and the Jezebels song 'UFO' and when a member of my group sent me the original image of our Digipack to edit. This screen shot shows the email sent to 'Poppy and the Jezebels' management and without this we wouldn't have been able to use their song.


The media technology 'Photoshop CS2' was highly beneficial in all stages of my project, when researching other products and seeing how they achieved certain effects, when testing my drafts, and for my final product 'advertisement' and DigiPack in construction. Here is a screen grab of me using Photoshop to edit effects for drafts of my DigiPack front cover.


I used this tripod with our camera to film certain shots in my music video, it was highly beneficial achieving accurate shots, I would use a tripod again when filming as it helped me 'pann' the location and film lots of establishing shots, from my feedback I would advise others to use it more frequently as because their were 4 of us in my group we each personally whether we would need it in the shot we were filming and therefore some shots were more effective than others. Overall this technology was extremely beneficial for our final product.


I used 'youtube' frequently in all stages of my project, to research existing music videos, to upload my feedback focus group, uploading my Animatic and to display my final music video on my blog. This shot of my final music video was achieved through uploading the video, I was then able to transfer it to my blog by copying the embedded code, this was useful for my research of different and similar existing products.


I also used Microsoft Word to display documents in planning and research and editing, this was a useful technology as it wasn't complicated as 'photoshop' can sometimes be, however I would not choose to present my advertisement or DigiPack in 'Word' as it doesn't have as many effects as photoshop. This screen grab of me using word shows what I used it most for- creating documents, this was highly effective for transferring onto my blog.


Microsoft Publisher was used in my planning for my drafts as you can see below, it didn't choose to use this as often as photoshop because it wasn't as effective and only had basic effects although it is very feasible to use.


I have used 'paint' regularly when copying and pasting documents, and images in order to change effects such as cropping or change documents such as annotations on inspirational music videos into an JPG image so I can upload it onto blogger correctly, this is a new skill I have learnt.


My digital Nikon s210 camera was used throughout all stages, to take pictures of actors for drafts, participants for feedback, costume and makeup before filming, I could also use the video mode on my camera to achieve my 'focus groups.' Using my USB for this camera enabled me to import my resources into the computer.


Microsoft excel was good for displaying my results for my questionnaires, and then creating many charts so I could analyse my results. This screen grab shows me using excel to display my feedback questionnaire results. I found excel easy to use and would use this technology again if creating another similar project.


Blogger was a new and exciting media technology I hadn't used before this project, I have constantly used this to display my work. It is effective in that if saved you cannot loose your work whereas you are more likely to loose a printed project, I also found blogger easier to amend mistakes especially because it had a spelling check in place and if I was presenting my work on paper I would have to print of the problematic document again.

Windows Movie maker has also been a technology I hadn't use until this project, it was effective in tha I could create any videos I wanted easily during my planning and evaluation stages. I could create videos increasing or decreasing the time line, dragging sound onto it and putting my shots in order, this was effective for my story board, it also supported Youtube in that I could add my video to it successfully. Below is a screen shot of me using Movie maker.


I have also used an 'Apple Mac' during my construction stage, this was vital to be able to use iMovie and create my final music video, in this screen shot of me using apple Mac you can see me editing our music video, I liked how it contained important functions a Windows computer would not be able to locate and overall it achieve a more professional approach.


I used my Sony ericsson W205 phone when contacting a member of the band 'Popppy and the Jezebels' and asking to use their song this technology was very useful in all stages for contacting my group and organising actors and without it I don't think my project would have been possible.

Me and my group used the JVC 300 Camcorder on the day of filming our music video as the Song A1E was unavailable. This camera was still as benefical and effective as they are both similar so we could achieve the same shots and effects we ha visioned in our construction stages.

iTunes was a vital technology for downloading our song 'UFO' for research and planning stages in my animatic, we also used it in construction when creating our final music video, this technology was easy to use and every group member had knowledge of it.

imovie was important in our construction used mainly for editing our music video. imovie was simple to use letting us separate footage and synchronise to our storyboard and script. It allowed us to import 'UFO' and create many effects. I am going to show you how in several screen grabs of me using it below:
This is a screen shot of me using transitions enabling different effects for how each shot would appear and flow onto the next shot, we used Fade in at the beginning of our music video.

We also used 'Video FX' which enabled me to change the colour of our shots, we explored every effect so we could have a successful music video and chose our favourite ones e.g age film. We were able to change the brightness or saturation of our lighting as you can see from my screen grab below.

I used the title button in iMovie enabling me to add our name of our music video, persuading our target audience further, you could change the colour, layout or size of font we chose a simple design and white colour to match our colour scheme throughout all products.

We experimented with iMovie's other effects for the transitions

These are screen shots of how I changed certain shots to produce the effects I wanted- I used the age film effect here for Jo supporting our research and planning ideas and targeting our student 'indie/alternative' music audience.

Likewise for this effect I chose black and white because of my research ideas,these effects wouldn't have been possible without iMovie and therefore our music video wouldn't have been as successful.

I used my 'integral 1GB' memory stick throughout the planning, construction, research and evaluation ensuring I have saved everything and allowing me to transfer images and documents onto my blog.

I used a voice recorder for my video commentary, this was easy to use and allowed me to record myself for my evaluation, I would use this product again if I did a project similar as it is easy to use and effective.

I used 'quick time' when compressing my final music video , this was clear to follow and avaliable at home for me to use.

Evaluation Question 3-

Evaluation 3:
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I have learnt a lot through my audience feedback throughout this process, I have researched feedback from our audience in many different ways, to ensure vast opinions and accurate results. I started my audience feedback through my teachers response, this included general feedback on our products commenting on how we can improve our products and knowledge on the media industry ensuring we are targeting our audience, I have presented our teachers comments in a table below:




















Another form of feedback I created was 3 questionnaires gaining written feedback the results are posted below, I have also annotated these to understand this feedback and how it effects my products if I did this project again:

Music video questionnaire:
Here are the results and my analysis.After handing out my questionnaire to 30 people I created my results in Microsoft excel, this enabled me to see my feedback clear.




Analysis:
I have also analysed the most valuable results from my questionnaire, I did this by creating diverse charts involving my results I then commented on them:






DigiPack Questionnaire:
Here are the results and my analysis.After handing out my questionnaire to the same 30 people I created my results in Microsoft excel, this enabled me to see my feedback clear.




Analysis:
I have also analysed the most valuable results from my questionnaire, by creating a variety of charts I was able to comment on my results analysing my feedback further:





Advertisement questionnaire:
Here is my final questionnaire focusing on my advertisement, again I produced my results in Microsoft Excel after asking 15 male and 15 female participants, here are my results:




Analysis:
As above I analysed my most important results, presenting them in charts helping me determine what I can improve on:





Other feedback was provided towards my draft stages, I printed off each drafted test I had designed for my DigiPack and advertisement asking my target audience participants which one was their favourtie here are the ones they chose below and reasons why:

This was participants favourite tested DigiPack draft, I agree as it is mush clearer and persuasive than my other drafts, this is why we also chose do base most of the design for our final product the only thing we changed was the CD's tray colour from black to white because it was mroe eye cathching and supported the 'white' colour scheme reinforcing it's success:

This was participants favourite advertisement draft, this was interesting because as a group we agreed that it was a good image but for our final we changed the font to a slightly more modern bold font as research proved this would attract students more, we also decided against how I edited the rabbit mask as it clashed too much with the background so we kept the rabbit, here feedback was beneficial so we could take participants opinions and consider some e.g using the rabbit mask on advertisement but change others e.g edit background to darken grass.























After achieving written feedback I wanted to achieve visual feedback from only my target audience - students so I created a 'focus group' where I asked students what they thought of each of my products and how they would improve them, this was beneficial as it allowed more accurate feedback. I created this using media convergence again, where I filmed participants on my digital camera using 'video' mode, I then uploaded each shot into Moviemaker where I created my video by dragging each shot and putting them in order finally I added titles in my video for clarity, the 'focus group' is posted below:



After completing my 'focus group' I realised I had got feedback from people that live near me or went to my college as this is where I filmed my 'focus group', therefore my feedback wasn't as vast as I liked so I also posted our final music video on a social networking site- facebook as this directly focused on my target audience 13-21 age range asking what they liked and how they would improve our music video. I could gain even more feedback as most students have facebook no matter where they are, asking male and females provides a wide spectrum as well.

Overall the reactions were positive, the majority of people said the costumes, makeup and location were the most effective and strong supporting the surreal theme e.g Julis Nottingham "the costume and the editing work well to make the piece seem very surreal." I am particularly pleased with this feedback as I brought in the costume and makeup for the music video, I decided to choose bold patterns and colours for the chorus I found a material that one actress (Emma) wore around her legs as a skirt it created a clown like appearance accompanying my half clown mask I also used this material to decorate the trees with. The makeup supports this where I bought several face paint palettes but in the end only chose black and white as this looked the most frightening and 'dream like' especially with the 'black and white' edited effect. The comment "the locations are really nice to look at" by Alex Stevens reinforces a successful group decision for our location also Katie Walls "reminds me of florence and machine type vid" is important feedback as 'Florence and the Machines- Dog days' music video was a huge inspiration to us. The feedback stating improvements was also helpful enlightening me as to what I agree with and also what could improve from an outsider perspective, due to 'cutting' out the shots of our main actress singing we had lots of establishing shots and although they were effective supporting the surrealness feedback suggested it became a bit tedious and we could have used a more variety of shots, so this is what I would add if I had another chance, I also think we could have done some more shots using the tripod as feedback from Rebecca Green suggests "the camera shakes at time." Overall I think this was the most effective format for feedback as participants gave us constructive criticism which I can learn from.