Final post- End of coursework!

I've leant a lot from this years A level media course work and despite some of the stress, I've really enjoyed it! 

Some of the things I've learnt include:

• The importance of planning before we actually get around to trying to film and edit (I found making a shot list and storyboard really helpful to keep on track of what needed doing)

• The importance of Mise-en-scene including props, costume and setting. If one of these wasn't quite right or fitting for the genre then it wouldn't look as good and the audience wouldn't like the final product.

• I have massively improved my time keeping skills. In the first year of this course (AS) I didn't really have a plan of what needed to be done when so I sort of just went along with it and after a whole years worth of procrastination the majority of my work was done almost last minute which was really stressful and I didn't want a repeat of that this year so I made sure I was always up to date on what posts I needed to have done and what filming had to be done by when etc.

• I learnt about team work as well. The first year I was working by myself so everything was my responsibility and I had to make all the decisions. This year I worked with a partner and it meant that I had to compromise a lot and we had to fit our schedules for filming and editing around each other. I think this is a really useful skill and if I hadn't developed this reasonably quickly then we may not have finished in time due to miss-communications or what have you.

• I learnt about the importance of codes and conventions and how they have a massive impact on the final product but also about how the audience feels about the product. 

• As well as all of these new skills, I also learnt to not only use Adobe Photoshop and manipulate images, but also to use Adobe Premiere Pro so I can now edit moving image.

I have loved every minute of the course this year and I hope I can continue to use the skills I have picked up throughout the two years. I have also loved the theory side to the course, learning about the theorists like Bathes and Andrew Goodwin and how these theorists have impacted my work because of what they've said.

Thank you for reading my blog goodbye! :)

Evaluation Question 4

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

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

I put up a post on facebook for people to watch my roughcut so I could get feedback. I had a couple of technical issues because copy right meant that the video wouldn't work on mobile devices or tablets.

Loads of people commented on the post with great feedback.

Positive comments included:
"The settings were perfect for the genre!"
"Some of the shots are amazing and really well framed."
"Most of the editing is really good and fits in with the song."
"The storyline is great and reasonably easy to follow."

Other comments where:
"Right at the end the lipsync doesn't quite fit so maybe that could be changed slightly."
"Maybe some more shots could be edited on the beat so it has a better flow."
"The storyline is fab but suddenly the couple goes from being in love to arguing and hating each other so it would be good if you could add something in to explain that a bit better. I'm not sure how though."

These comments really helped me because I know which shots I need to cut down, which bits to edit and which ones I should get rid of completely. My partner and I made sure we had too much footage which meant that bits that my audience didn't like I can remove and replace with footage that is better suited.




I also asked my target audience about my ancillary tasks. I originally made two slightly different digipaks and asked my audience which they preferred.

           

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the main combination of your media product and ancillary tasks?

For my ancillary task, I wanted it to look more artistic and like a painting rather than a photograph because I found this was quite common with Indie Folk digipaks and posters. Most posters and digipaks have a photo of the band but because my genre is Indie Folk I wanted to do something different that would stand out completely.
In order to make sure that my ancillary tasks linked with my main media product I decided to take a photo at the same setting that quite a lot of my music video was filmed. This meant that it would be easier for my audience to see the links between the products because chances are these products wouldn't be seen in the same places for example the music video would be on TV or on sites like youtube, the poster would be found in various magazines and the digipak would be found in music shops like HMV. This means that it was essential to make sure all of my products linked in some way so that my audience could tell they were all the same product. I decided to have no people in my ancillary photo and just a natural setting as this is similar to existing products.
I took my main photo whilst filming for my main task because then the theme of nature would be consistent throughout my products. This brought them together through the colours and scenery which allowed me to create linking products. The use of the same setting complimented my music video because it added an artistic depth to the products that wasn’t previously there with just the video.
I also used some photos taken of my band at the same time as I filmed these sections and then put the same cutout filter over the top as the main image because then they all looked the same. This also meant that they linked more with my music video.
All of my products fit into the Indie Folk genre and I have stuck to codes and conventions to make sure they have. The most common convention used in Indie Folk products is the use of natural or outdoor locations so I have made sure all of my products have this. I have also used bright lit settings as well as bold bright colours on the poster and digipak. 
I chose to use HMV and iTunes as my distributors and put these logo on my poster and digipak because these are the two biggest music distributors in the UK at the moment with one being online and available for digital download and the other being a store selling physical copies. I thought this was important because then it offers a range of format that the product can be bought in and opens up options in terms of my audience.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Digipak

Poster

Final Piece

Digipak audience feedback

Out of the 50 people I asked about which CD design they preferred, 68% said they preferred the green one where as only 32% said they liked the trees design which is the same as the cover for the digipak.

Ancillary photo

Editing

After posting our rough cut our audience said that our narrative was unclear as our couple suddenly went from being together to arguing so in order to get around this I added in some text messages on the screen so our audience could understand the narrative more easily.

First rough cut feedback

Here is the feedback we got after posting the YouTube link on Facebook. Most of the people who commented said that they could obviously tell which genre the video was for and that as a whole it was really good. The main things we need to focus on now are making sure the lip-sync is perfect and also changing around some of our shots so that we can use the 'hey' parts of the song for transitions and changing between shots to make it more smooth and overall better. We had some mixed feedback about the starting scene with our actor looking at the photo, with some people saying the silence added to the suspense of the scene but with other people also saying there needed to be more background noise. We are also going to consider putting more text bubbles over the scene where our actors are sat on a sofa together while the male actor is on his phone. This would make it easier for our audience to understand what is going on in the story but if we didn't do this then the audience could decide for themselves what they thought was happening in the relationship. Over all, there are less changed we need to make than we expected as our audience really likes this piece as it suits the genre its meant to be.

FIRST ROUGH CUT WOO HOOOOOO

Secondary feedback

I showed my rough cut to my secondary audience and asked them what they thought of it and what we needed to improve on/ what was good :) Below is the video of their feedback. This feedback is really useful as it enables us to create a product that our target audience really like as it is based around their likes and dislikes.

Possible ancillary fonts

So far, 70% of my target audience have said they like the first font the most, 20% of the people I asked said they liked the last one, 6% said they liked the third font and the remaining 4% said they liked the second font the most out of the three. Because of this data, for my ancillary tasks, I shall be using the first font because this is what my target audience likes and wants.  

Almost doneeee

Now I only need to edit in a few more shots and it's done. Once I have it all edited, I'll show it to my target audience and I can make changes based on that.

Editing

So far we've done get 2 out of the 4 minutes filmed and completely edited. We still need to film a couple more scenes including the fight scene and the bonfire scene but after that we'll be done in terms of filming.