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

Through the use of new media technologies such as search engines like Google and video-sharing networks like YouTube have helped me to create and develop an understanding of the aspect that I wanted to include in my project. Throughout the project, I have had to carry out research on a number of different things ranging from images to use for my band logo, codes and conventions of album release and music posters, to the shots I will use in my music video. 

We decided to create a production schedule which we could have been better at sticking to but we did meet the brief and the deadline set. Overall, our communication was fairly good and we often had quick meetings to check the progress of each others work and to see if the similar codes and conventions were being reflected throughout.

We documented all of our style guides, location settings, research, cast, costume and production schedule all onto our Dropbox account so that we would all have access to each others work.

For my research i used a number if websites researching both the conventions of the genre of my music video and of music videos in general, I got most of the research from watching videos on YouTube. In terms of my music video and the song, i used https://twitter.com/paramore, http://www.myspace.com/paramore, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramore and http://www.paramore.net/

I used a Sony HD Handycam Camcorder to film my scenes with an tripod and a dolly which was used for some of the band shots, to get some shots we used nothing apart from the camera to get a feel of being in the room with the band. Also all of the narrative was handheld filming.
As well as this, I edited my video using Adobe Premiere Pro. It was an easy piece of software to use in terms of editing but only as i had previously used it whereas i had to teach my group members a few things so they could get used to it.
I used Adobe Photoshop CS6 all the pictures that we have used, it was a stressful process as it continued to crash while i was editing therefore losing the work i had done but in the end i managed to take out the green screen and just have a black background to enforce the rock.
To create my digi-pack i used InDesign CS6. In previous years, I found this a useful product which I was most skilled at using. However, I have never been very good at using the software and my skills are still fairly low with the program.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have received feedback in many ways from my peers, who are a good representative of my target audience. Gaining feedback is an important process that helps develop and improve products. I gained feedback at each stage of creating all of my products, which has helped it look more professional, and appeal to my target audience more. From feedback i learnt how well my products link in with the genre through the use of colour and the clothing. I improved my video in some areas by doing the jump cuts and making sure they were on time with the beat after i had been advised to do so through my feedback.

Throughout this project, I have regularly asked for audience feedback which has helped me to progress within the development of the project. From the start of the project to the end we have changed many elements of our project because of the constructed criticism we received from our audience and professional advice. Without the feedback our final tasks wouldn't have been half as good. 

Initially the narrative of our music video was planned to be very dark, however over members of the group disagreed with what i had put forward. Therefore we had decided to do something less dark and more people may be able to relate to the narrative. The mise-en scene for the music video seems to portray what we wanted to achieve but we could have used another location of the actress and her journey on that day instead of having her just walk around London. 

Our teachers helped us by regularly having group discussions to see our progress within our ancillary's and giving us advice on things such as the triple jump, originally we had the singer slow motion of her jump but we were advised to change that by multiplying it and we took that comment a bit further and created the triple jump.

An element where audience feedback has proven to be successful, was by the use of consistent jump cuts and this was to reflect the fast pace song but we could have used this more throughout our music video to enhance the fact that it is a motif in our video. When we showed our peers the first cut of our video, it had been suggested that we add a scene of the narrative with a problem to clearly announce a problem which shows she is in an 'emergency' state and that she is in desperate need of help. We agreed therefore adding the change, which we believed that it worked better as it helped the audience to establish straightaway what problem the girl in the narrative is facing, as well linking the video to the lyrics.

Without the audience feedback our music video would be in a critical state and we all acknowledge how it is vital to get feedback from your audience throughout the development of the project. Having others look at your work and evaluate your own creation makes you aware of flaws in your work that you were not aware of because often or not we tend too overlook flaws especially as we have seen the product loads of times and fully understand the plot of the story whereas other may not.

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

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

Most music videos have clips of the band performing the song, with cuts to the narrative. There are usually many cuts back and forth between the performance and narrative. By showing clips of the band performing it helps to make the viewers feel more connected to the band.

On my music poster I added things that would usually appear on a typical music poster such as a rating of the album from a music magazine, a picture of the albums front cover and mentioned two other songs from that album. They also included a 'download on iTunes' logo as well as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the Fueled By Ramen logo.

I have attempted to use the conventions of the real "pop/rock" music genre by using fonts and colours that are linked to the genre. The font used for the album name and the tittle of the song we chose is a font that is very much like smashed glass and in red as the colour is associated with war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire and love. We decided to use a darker red which is associated with rage, anger, courage, longing, malice and wrath. The font for the name of the band is black, this colour is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery, fear and the unknown. It also gives the feeling of perspective and depth, and using the 'urban jungle' font which contains an outline of a city is also showing us depth and a perspective that 'Paramore' is above a city's highest buildings. 

The clothing that the band wears is usually fashionable but not as revealing as in pop videos but not as dull and dark as those in rock videos. Our band members are dressed quite casually, in jeans and shirts. They are fairly laid back and the passion they have about their music is clear by their facial expressions and emotion in the singers eyes, also the close up we used show how passionate they are about the music. Bands in pop/rock music videos are normally seen performing in a studio, stage and sometimes outdoors, we used a dance studio with spotlights on all 3 members of the band.

There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals and this is something I have consistently tried to create throughout my music video by using certain clips at certain times. For example, the lyrics 'I think we have an emergency' were sung after we saw in the narrative how a young woman had woke up in her bed with empty alcohol containers surrounding her also she stumbles out of her bed and down the stairs. I also tried to create a relationship between both the music and the visuals by editing clips with the beat, such as the jump cuts that are in time with major drum beats and the singer landing from a jump on time with the drum beat. I tried to create a connection between the audience and the actors by the singer of the band and the female protagonist frequently looking directly into the camera, as well as the singer pointing to the camera when she sings the word 'you'. 

I watched a lot of music videos before we started filming to get some idea of the conventions in other music videos and there were a few that I used, such as the close ups of the singers mouth, the drummer being slowed down on a major beat, the clip of the drummers foot pedal, and the clip we sped up in the narrative while 'the lost girl' stood still as everyone around her was moving. This indicates that everyone around her knows there path and she doesn't so people are to busy on their path therefore not noticing that she is lost.

                         

This is my final album front cover and my final adverts.

Proof of seeking permission

As part of the process of using a song from the artist, we need to have proof we tried to contact them in some way to get their approval on using their song for educational purposes only, as their song is copyrighted and not allowed to be used to make a profit from.

Email part 1  

Email part 2

Edited band photos

This is some of the band photos that I have edited.