Josh's Questions

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

Music videos are a good way of promoting the artist and their record label; they will usually include a motif that is known to that artist. The genre of the music video chosen by our group was of the indie genre, a few well known bands who are also of this genre are the kooks and the killers. We looked at these bands and researched such this as what they wore, which colours they wore and other conventions of the indie genre. Performance based videos are a common convention of an indie video also, there is also usually a story going on and lyrics and visuals are very strongly related throughout. Our video was mainly the band, playing instruments which is also very common within indie bands, playing looking at the camera, which is a form of performance based even though you could not see a audience, There was a few moments where lip syncing did occur, but the video could of been a lot more effective with the help of better resources including an input of money, a proper green screen, lighting for more effect on the video, which is what signed bands have access to which is how they enhance their videos. Our video does not really have any links between the lyrics and visuals or visuals and music, i think with more time and better planning we could of made it so some of these did take place. We used the green screen so we could be in any location we wanted, and we could choose somewhere that related to the genre and out video, we finally decided on the inside of a speaker as it was a weird and original idea, which a lot of other indie videos include.

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

Between out ancillary tasks, the digi pak and the magazine advert, there is a slight correspondence that could of been taken even further if more time was available. The correspondence comes with both tasks using similar pictures, also the editing done to the two pieces were also similar, both pieces use the colour grey quite a lot and there are also blurs around the edges of pictures on both pieces. The digi pak consists of some stills from our actual videos and a few pictures used from a photo shoot where there were members of the band posing wearing conventional indie clothing, just like famous indie bands do to try and promote the band and also the record label. Both pieces of work include notions of looking with the band members looking directly at the photo in certain pictures. Our video is off the indie theme so this links into our ancillary tasks in a few ways, these include what the band are wearing, in both the video and the two ancillary tasks they are wearing indie clothing, skinny jeans waistcoats etc. The main picture on the magazine advert is also present on the digi pak, with the colour of the back ground being quite low toned it allows the pictures to stand out more which is what the record label will want because it is all about the artist and this will help promote them. Also both pieces are all about the band with everything always focused only on the band. However there are also a few contradictory factors between the pieces, the music video is a very laid back thing with the band looking to have a good time, and the ancillary products are a lot more serious, I think this is a good thing as it allows the band to relate to more audiences, the music video will attract younger audiences, where as the digi pak and magazine adver attracting the older population, who will read these magazines or they may be collectors of digipaks.


3.What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Our group received both positive and negative feedback as expected as we did not think the video would appeal to everyone, We did not mind receiving negative feedback as we knew that it would be helpful in improving our overall tasks. In coming up with ideas for our video, we would all right down what we think would fit in good here, people commented on there not being a huge relation between lyrics and visuals, we knew this would be the case as it was going to be a performance based video so it would be hard to do we took this criticism on the chin as there was not a lot we could do about it. Positive feedback was also received throughout the project saying how that we had good ideas, the feedback we received on our rough cut was very helpful as it allowed us to make minor but noticeable changes to make our piece more appealing. We got told that the camera work was very good with good, We had the king of final cut to do the editing so the feedback on our editing was all very positive. In relation to our final version the feed back we got was The music video fitted the conventions of the indie genre as it was a performance based video. Some of the criticism was that we needed sound, which we could not get on final cut in time, more footage, more variety of shots and also we needed to use actual instruments rather than pretend ones. The ancillary tasks also got very good feedback being told that there was good consistency throughout the two pieces, they also received negative feedback saying it wasn’t very appealing and boring, but all in all it was rather good feedback

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

We used numerous amounts of new technology in creating our piece. In the construction phrase we used programs like final cut where it is able to edit your clip and add numerous different shot transitions enhance the quality of the final piece, photo shop is what is used to create the ancillary tasks such as our digi pak and our magazine advert and we could use different filters and change colours etc which will make the quality of our work better. Video cameras and still photo cameras, to collate work, which were then modified in these programs which made it possible to create our final piece. The main research that took place, was about the band looking closely at what they wore whether they had certain motifs etc. Most of this was done using Wikipedia or by using Google as a search engine to search for other websites, then navigating through these websites to collate extra information on the band. We also looked at other indie bands and their videos to get a good idea on what their video’s were like to give us a good idea on what would be needed in our video to make it into a good video. To plan our work we used story boards to illustrate our ideas, pictures where then taken of these images which were then put onto our blog allowing others to see our work and allow them to give us feedback. Furthermore, the impact of these new technologies on amateur film makers makes it easier and more accessible to create their own films. The range in software and equipment available through these technologies has been adapted through the modern era and one that is beneficial to film makers across the spectrum.