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

Research and planning

I have used a lot of different Internet sites and programs to help me progress through this course, a few are: blogger, YouTube, Makeagif and many others. Blogger.com was pretty much home base during this project as it is where we saved all of our work that we did whilst at home and in class, this is where all of the planning and research for our music video is located. It was a very useful tool as it was able to hold multiple platforms of different media so I was easily able to store all of my work in the same place, making it easy to access and to locate. YouTube was one of the largest contributors to the completion of my thriller as it was largely beneficial to all of the different stages. This was especially good for research as I was able to access a large library of different medias to get ideas for my thriller. Also I discovered a lot of videos demonstrating how to use other software's and how to use different techniques, which I found really helpful. So overall this piece of software has been extremely influential and helpful.  Make a gif was also another internet site that help in doing the blogger side of the coursework, allowing me to put in little snippets of something that I was explaining.

Construction

There have been multiple different types of hardware devices i have used throughout this course is a camera and tripod, these two components were essential to completing our thriller piece. The camera was not only used to help to do our music video it also helped to complete things such as the storyboard as we had to take pictures. These two components were a nice asset to having better quality in our music video, although useful , the tripod wasn't essential.

 

Software

Throughout the use of different software's i have pick up many different skills, from learning how to actually operate them to being able use the advanced parts of the software itself.  There are multiple different software's that have been used throughout the course however the main ones consisted of premier pro and Photoshop. Adobe premier pro was the most essential software to the course as it allowed us to actually construct our final music video. However there was a lot of work that has to go into learning how to actually use the software which i did manage to grasp quickly. Using premier pro we were able to edit clips gathered off of the camera, into the order that we wished for it to be. We only used Photoshop to help use create our advert and our digipak. 

So as you can see over the course i have develop a lot of different skills and techniques from the teachers on how to properly used the hardware, software and the internet sites listed above. Especially in things such of editing as I did edit a lot of past work and or music video. So from my progression through the course is evident that I have attained new skills and have adapted to using them effectively.

Evaluation Q.3 What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

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

Advert

Here is our finished music video advert.

Making of the advert

In order to create our Magazine Advert we used Adobe Photoshop CS6 to edit pictures that we took from Google Images and that we took ourselves. We took this picture from Google Images as we thought that it would catch the eye and would be suitable for our Advert.We first collected a background image that we wanted off of google and downloaded it and made it the base of our advert. In a different window we then cut ourselves out and placed us in our respectable positions, we also cut out the coins and put it behind us. After this we implemented all of the music website that it would be available on and then put in all the additional details such as the website, the date it comes out and where it would be live.

After we selected our image and put it into Photoshop, our next task was to make it a suitable size and shape for the advert. We didn't want to crop or resize as the image would look too edited and look cheap. In order to solve this we used 'Content-Aware Scale'. This works by getting rid of 'empty' space and altering the picture size without massively effecting the image.

Music video

Here is our finished music video product 'Unbelievable'

History of pop video

The evolution of pop videos has developed since the earliest pop music video in 1929. Bessie Smith was one of the most popular Blues singer of the 1920's - 1930's. The first example of pop music video was shown in a short film called "St Louise Blue's" where one of Bessie's songs was featured. She was starred in the film and it was shown in cinemas for around four years.

 Influence from the Beatles 

Hard Day's Night was a defining work in the development of music videos. The musical segments were created in a film and led the way for modern music videos. The Beatles then took music videos to another level with films for Strawberry Fields Forever using techniques such as: reverse film effects - dramatic lighting - unusual camera angles -rhythmic editing

 MTV

MTV launched in august 1, 1981, New York City, New York, United States

This changed the the music industry and was seen as the golden era of music videos. MTV aired "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. MTV doesn't just show music videos and music related news, but now with their many channels they are able to give the world entertainment as well as music. On February 1st 2011 they removed all music from their channel and put it onto their other channel called "MTV Music". They have many channels such as MTV Hits and MTV Base where they are able to reach millions of people across the world. With their social media platforms they are able to promote new upcoming artists, give people the latest entertainment and celebrity news and alert their viewers on the newest music videos. This network has changed the music industry completely as news and information about artists can be accessible from almost anywhere.  

 

Today

Nowadays people may watch videos for their own pleasure and not for the love of music. The quality of the music may not matter to most viewers as they are too engaged with the video. This may be down to corporate manages wanting to take advantage on exploited males and females instead of concentrating on the meaning of the lyrics. However, there are some artists that have music videos that relate to their song lyrics or express how they feel emotionally.

Audience feedback

As well as getting some people to watch our music video and comment about it we had also made a survey monkey which some viewers had shared their thoughts about the music video on. Here are some of the results as of now. On survey monkey the results were mixed however in real life they were mostly positive. The feedback consisted of:

Positive

• There was a good variety of different shots 
• The variety of different locations kept the video pleasing to watch
• Good use of the split-screens and they weren't overused
•   The lip syncing was sync up pretty well
• They appreciated how childish the video was allowing them to enjoy it more 

Negative

• To many shadows during the band sequence 
• It would've been nice to have different locations for the lip syncing
  
  

Here is a picture of people watching the actual video:

Purpose of a music video

A model of the media.

Audience Reception Theory

Reception Theory

1. Encode meaning- the meaning the producer of the text (you) puts in.
2. Decode meaning:

•   Preferred meaning (reading of text)-what the author intended.
•   Negotiated meaning (reading of text)- a mix preferred and oppositional. 
•   Oppositional meaning (reading of text) - the viewer puts his/her own interpretation to the text.

      3. Cultivation Theory- Long term effects of watching television - believe social reality portrayed on television.

Audience Reception Theory describes how audiences respond to certain texts. Each audience member will react to texts differently based on their age, cultural experiences, gender, sexual orientation, etc. A section of this theory is the 'Encoding Decoding Theory'. This theory, created by Stuart Hall, suggests that a text is 'encoded' with meaning by the producer, which is then 'decoded' by the audience. Texts can have multiple meaning that were encoded by the producer and different people can decode these messages in different ways. 

Stuart Halls theory is about produces encoding meaning/ideology into text, which the audience decode. Decoding can result in the audience to look at the preferred meaning, negotiated meaning and the opposite meaning, which they put their own interpretation to the text. This was David Morley theory in the way the audience responds to text. In addition text can be decoded through body language, to understand emotions and relationships.

An example of where three different interpretations can be used is in the "Batman v Superman" trailer. The intended message is that they both fight to save innocent people. The negotiated meaning is that they both fight for what they believe in. The oppositional meaning is that one has gone rogue and the other is trying to contain the other one.

Star Theory

Richard Dyer - Star Theory

Richard Dyers star theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain. He believes that stars are constructed to represent 'real people' experiencing real emotions. Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose; to make money out of audience, who respond to various elements of a star’s personality by buying records and becoming fans. 

His theory is split into three sections:

1. Audiences and Institutions 

2. Constitutions 

3. Hegemony

Audience and Institutions 

Stars are made for money purposes alone. Increasing the brand identity benefits the institution as they become a household name increasing sales in all of the media platforms they are in.  The institution then models the artist around the target audience they choose. For example Lady Gaga, according to Dyer, was modeled around fashion forward people so the audience can relate to her as a person and also her music. 

Britney spears

Britney Spears is a well known artist. She is an actress as well as a singer and since signing with Jive Records in 1997 she has been successful in the music industry internationally. In her early days of her music career she was represented as a girly artist. She wore pink, had her hair in pigtails and wore make up. In her video "Baby One More Time" her dance routine was choreographed in a way to make the audience desire to be in her gang. Her look was branded to suit the record label. The whole music video enhances the idea of innocence and purity.

However, she later changed her image to be a more sexualised singer, which was in order to please the record label and to enhance her image, supporting Richard Dyer's Star Theory.  An example of this sexualised version of Britney was "Oops!... I Did It Again", where she wore a full body suit of Red Spandex. This was a much more mature version of Britney, which was created in order to please the record label and to conform to Richard Dyer's Star Theory.