Showcase Evening

The showcase evening was last week and we finally showed off our final music video to a rather large audience. The evening was very successful and also useful as it allowed us to gather audience feedback which will ultimately be included in my Evaluation. Here is the audience feedback that we collected.



Adding to this audience feedback, I also carried out a survey online using 'SurveyGiszmo' which I then sent out to other people within our target audience. Overall, I received 11 responses and the information below will be used in Question 3 of my Evaluation.

Evaluation Preparation

I have began scripting and organising my evaluation questions. Below are brief answers to each of the questions with the style in which I will be presenting each question.

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
-Use- NoNoNo- Pumpin Blood, Two Door Cinema Club- Something Good Can Work, Crystal Fighters- LA Calling
-Develop- Coincides with our genre, all members of the band shown (lip-syncing), kaleidoscope (effects)
-Challenge- no narrative, all females are shown- strength of the female character

Style
-Vlog
-Blog: Costume, Inspiration, 
-Prezi

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
-Use of kaleidoscope throughout all three media products
-Including the band in all three products
-Nature (used within the kaleidoscope/ subtle)

Style
-iMovie
-Survey
-Voice over

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
-What did you like about the music video?
-What do you think could have been improved?
-How well does the music video relate to the indie genre?
-Did you like the fact that there wasn't a narrative?
-What emotions did the music video evoke?
-Can you relate it to any other existing media products?

Style
-Interview
-Survey
-Prezi with voice over

4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
-Both software and hardware

Construction and Research
There were a range of media technologies that were vital when constructing and planning our music video.

-iMovie: our music video was solely edited and created on iMovie and it was here that our footage that we collected throughout the year was uploaded and edited on.

-Nikon D3100 DSLR camera: When constucting our music video we used this camera only once but we found that the footage produced was of a very high quality. We used the camera mainly to take a variety of shots of our location and some behind the scene pictures.

-iPhone: We used our iPhones to take photos on location and behind the scenes images to show updates of our progress. It was also a helpful device when listening to the song which ensured our lip-syncing matched perfectly and was used a few times to create vlogs again tracking our progress.

-Panasonic HD SC-90 camcorder: We filmed the majority of our footage on this camera as it was oh a high quality and we were also able to flip the screen over which was very helpful because at certain times when filming all four of us had to be in shot. Once we had finished our filming we then transferred all of our footage from the camcorder on to the iMacs using the SD card. We then uploaded it on to iMovie to begin editing.

-iMac: The iMacs plaed a key role in the constructing, researching and planning stages as it was on these desktop computers where we underwent our media journey.

-Itunes: allowed us listen to a vast range of songs which eventually inspired us to create a music video for a song within the indie genre.

-Youtube: was a strong source where we collected inspiration and useful information about the process of creating a music video. We used this website to upload vlogs which were created on both the iMacs, and also our iPhones and on the camcorder on location which we then uploaded on to our blogs which tracked our progress throughout the year. Our final Music video was also uploaded onto youtube.

-Google: here we collected a range f images for inspiration which was then uploaded on to our blogs. The web was also a useful tool when collecting information on other artists and genres

Planning
At the beginning of the year I signed up to multiple presentation software services and many Web2.0 services because I knew they were going to be vital throughout the year in terms of presenting and planning my findings and also for my final evaluation.

-Blogger- this was the key where I presented all of my findings and work throughout the year. Any presentation, vlog, footage, image was uploaded on to here. It displayed my progress throughout the year.

-Prezi: was a useful tool for presenting my ideas throughout the year and particularly when displaying my evaluation. The prezi I created was then uploaded onto blog.

Ancillary Task and Evaluation
-PicMonkey/ photoshop: This software enabled me to create my digipak. The software allowed me to edit my images using layering techniques, edit the exposure/saturation/brightness,  and finally add text on top to create my didgipak. I created all 4 panels of my digipak on picmonkey, and used a template found on google to ensure I had the correct dimensions.

-Microsoft/ Madmagz: was used to create my magazine advert. I initially used madmagz to look at several ideas for the layout of magazines and inspiration in creating my own magazine advert. Madmagz offered me the dimensions for my magazine advert and an array of designs and effects. I finalized my magazine advert on microsoft word.

-SurveyGizmo: One of my evaluation questions was ' what have you learned from your audience feedback'. For this question we collected audience feedback from those who were present at our showcase evening by capturing their responses on our flip camera, but I thought it was important to collect feedback from a larger sample so I created a survey on 'surveygizmo' which I then sent out to people on facebook and twitter.

-Quicktime: I used this when creating a few of my evaluation questions. The framework allowed me to layer audio over my evaluations to give more in depth responses to the questions.

-Emaze: I used this new online presentation tool for one of evaluations as I wanted to experiment with a variety of media technologies other than just Prezi.

All of this software allowed me to be more creative when it came to presenting any research or planning and my final evaluations. I was allowed to upload videos and images from Google and YouTube and i was also able to upload my own primary images.

I continuously used different methods and media technologies creating cross media convergence throughout the entire process.

Style
-Emaze
-iMovie
-Blog
-Quicktime
-Voice over

Outtakes

Final Music Video

So the deadline for our music video has come and gone and we managed to complete it with a couple of days to spare. The week leading up to the deadline was a busy one as we wanted to add the finishing touches which resulted in a few after school meetings and editing sessions. Overall we are all happy with our final product and believe that both our cinematography and editing skills are reflected in our final music video.

After months of hard work here it is, our final music video- 'Falling' by Constant Impression...

Filming

After showing the class our video, they pointed out that our lip-syncing -which we thought had improved, was not very lively and that we looked too static, so once again we spontaneously decided to grab the camera and go out to truly let go and do some lip-syncing shots. A few members of the class agreed to come out and jump around and sing with us, so we completely let go and managed to somewhat look like we were in a 'band' rather than just a group of people attempting to lip-sync.

Showcase Evening and Evaluation Prep

We have finalised the photo that will appear on the poster for our Showcase evening which is fast approaching. This is the photo that we all agreed on as it includes all four members of the group and it also incorporates the kaleidoscope which is a key element that features in our music video so it is recognisable for the audience.

The Showcase evening not only allows us to present our final products, but it also gives us the opportunity to ask the audience for feedback which is vital as we can then use this information for our evaluations. Now that we have almost finished our music videos the next step is to prepare for our evaluations and the questions are as follows:

• In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
• What have you learned from your audience feedback?
• How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Filming and Editing

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the group made the decision to go out and collect new footage for our lip-syncing parts. It was very successful as we were aware of what parts needed to be re shot so there was no time wasting when it came down to filming. All in all, it took about 30 minutes (not including the well deserved Starbucks break). We are much happier with the footage that we collected as in term of our performance there is much more character and it seems that overall the lip-syncing has also improved greatly.

Here are a few images of the group shooting the final footage.

       

       

After the filming session, we uploaded the footage we collected and continued editing and adding further effects. Here are a couple of images that feature in our music video which demonstrate some effects that we have added.

                                                                           Symmetry

                                          Adding the 'Day and Night' effect

The image above of the sunset could potentially be our final shot in our music video as we feel this could be a good way to finish, due to the fact that we start our video with a sunrise. This shows the events that happen in a full day within the groups life which goes back to our narrative idea.

Final, final filming

We had hoped that our final filming day was last week but we have decided to go out and get further footage as, although we love the different shots we got, we feel that our performance is what is lacking in the footage. As the basis of our music video relies on this fun vibe that we want to create, our somewhat lifeless performances do not quite cut it and overall we think we can achieve better footage if we go out and re shoot to improve on this element whilst still using the same shots. Although this adds slightly more pressure when considering that our deadline is fast approaching, beginning our filming early has allowed us plenty of time to go out and collect more footage which is a relief and we feel we have left enough time to complete this final filming, edit and perfect anything in our music video.