Evaluation / Question 4

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

To plan my ancillary texts and music video, I researched various EDM artists and their videos with the internet. I used Youtube to view music videos and analyse the content and the conventions that they followed. I also uploaded drafts of our music video and a cut of our pitch on my Youtube channel so we could easily share the drafts and gain feedback. Additionally, I used the internet to determine the target demographic for EDM music. The use of blogging the process of making the music video also helped as it kept our schedules organized and acted as a diary for us. I was able to re-read my opinions on my work and remind myself of what I need to develop and improve. I uploaded presentations via Slideshare and images of existing digipaks and music videos on my blog, which made it easier to find as it was all in one location- this helped me as I wrote my evaluation. Moreover, audience feedback was also uploaded which-again- served as a reminder as to what needed to be refilmed and changed.

The typography chosen was downloaded from ‘dafont.com’- I chose a modern looking font which represents my artist and its genre well. Without the use of dafont or the internet, it would have been very difficult to find a typography that fit within the EDM genre.

During the production process we used a DSLR 500D camera to film with, alongside this we also used the crane and the tripod in order to shoot a range of shots. Hannah- who was in charge of cinematography- found the crane difficult to use due to the heaviness it creates and the struggle to shoot steady shots with it. We also found that it was difficult to shoot high angles and birds eye view shots in the way we wanted it. For example, during the scenes at the beginning, we intended to shoot a high angle directly above me. However, Hannah found this difficult as the crane was not long enough and the camera was unstable on the crane causing it to frequently turn. The tripod was much more reliable in enabling us to shoot the footage we planned. Hannah also used the camera handheld which can be seen in the club scene as we did not want the camera to be stoic on the tripod. This was to elicit the feeling of a club which is upbeat and constantly moving.

As I have a Macbook Pro with softwares such as Photoshop and Final Cut Pro X I was able to edit my digipak and the music video- as I was in charge of editing-  whenever I wanted as I was not restricted to only editing during school hours. Our music video heavily relies on editing in order to achieve our desired look- we used filters to emphasises the character’s distortion and also played around with masking in order to make it look as if the ‘L|NES’ logo was in my eyes. I played around with the use of cutting footage and overlapping clips together which can be seen during the club scene- I think it presents the hectic atmosphere of a club well. Photoshop enabled me to improve my digipak as I was able to play around with filters such as ‘extrude’ which gave the images a more stylized and graphic look. I altered the brightness and colour of my images in order for the images to match well with each other.

For my evaluation, I filmed it behind a green screen and edited it together in Final Cut Pro X. I used relevant clips and images that related to what I was discussing. Media technologies served as an incredibly important role in the construction, planning, research and evaluation stages in both the process of creating my music video and digipak.

Evaluation / Question 3

•          What have you learned from your audience feedback?

As we made our music video and digipaks, we received audience feedback which enabled us to gain a different perspective as to how we approach our drafts. The feedback we received was from our target demographic of students which ranged from 16-21. My group partner and I presented the first draft of our music videos and received feedback on mostly the two scenes we intended to change which were the paint scene and the club scene. We knew that it needed to be re-filmed in a different location and presenting the music video confirmed what we needed to do as they did not like those specific scenes either. It was suggested that we should change the paint setting to a white room which would add to the bizarreness of the music video. This suggestion was very helpful for us as we wanted to change the paint scene but we did not know what setting to film in. However, the possibility of finding a white room to throw paint in seemed quite unlikely. Once we raised this concern, we received more helpful feedback in how we could achieve this. From the feedback, we decided to film using a white paper background- however, this only enabled us to film in one angle. Regardless of that, we decided to incorporate both scenes from the original paint scene and re-filmed scene, which- in my opinion – works very well. We also refilmed the club scenes. However, once I viewed the footage I found that there were not enough people in the shot therefore it did not fit with the style of the club. To amend this, I decided to overlap the clips and set each clip on various speeds in order to convey the hecticness of a club. We screened the final cut of the music video and received positive feedback. Many were pleased with our changes and found that it improved the overall video. We received comments such as 'good editing' and 'club scene looks better now after the refilm'.