Evaluation - Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Before we started creating our product we used technology. The main being the internet as this is where the majority of our research was undertaken. The use of the internet allowed us to use the website youtube to view and analysis existing videos whilst also letting us view existing websites also. WE also managed to use the social networking website, facebook, to arrange our film shoots for all the party scenes.

To create our video we used Final Cut due to wider range of opportunities it created for us than a standard piece of software like iMovie. The biggest bonus is the use of layers in Final Cut making editing footage easy and manageable rather than in one long timeline.

The most advanced use of the technology was used when splitting the screen. The first stage of this was layering the video clips. As said previously this is a huge advantage on less advanced software and would have hindered our project if not possible. with the layers arranged we moved the clip we wanted to start with into the central viewer and used the tabs at the top of the viewer to edit settings to move the clip on the screen. For example, crop and opacity. When creating the split screen we used the motion tab to rescale the individual clips to arrange them on the screen fitting two or more clips on to the same viewer. To polish of the effect of the split screen we feathered the edges to create a smoother transition from one clip to the other intertwining the characters on the screen better.

By feathering the clips they become one clip rather than separate clips requiring separate attention.

This split screen was again adapted for the scene in the bathroom with our main character looking in to a mirror and seeing a bear mask. However, the cropping had to be much tighter this time without feathering edges to create one image. Feathering the edges would have blurred the edges of the clip making it look like two separate takes on the camera rather than one. To help this we had to make sure our filming was tight and the camera was not allowed to move. This took a few attempts by getting our main character to try different reactions. We settled with a less dramatic reaction as the camera was moving when our main character jumped back in shock.

A more subtle use of Final Cut was playing with the contrast of shots. This was for the flashback clips. We were able to add a more grainy grey colour to them separating them from the rest of the footage. This symbolised looking back with hazy judgement due to the influence of alcohol at a party. These clips were much easier to create as they were pre-set under the Video Filters tab.

To create our website we used Adobe Dreamweaver. This is a professional website development software. It allows you to do many different things other software can not and is linked with all other Adobe products. This is extremely important as we used Photoshop for our digipak and Flash for elements of our website.

To create our website we used a mix of flash and HTML code. The hardest part of the website to create was the scroll box using HTML. This is because although it is easy to find a rough code template on the internet it is hard to manipulate to create our own and create the style we want.

To do this we needed to first generate the code with all our text in to it. This is easier than trying to type what we wanted in the area manually. With this simple code created externally we had to modify the widths and height to fit our website. We also then changed the colour of text and added a horizontal rule to separate the information.

To ensure all media we put into our website was viewable when hosted we imported all photos, videos and animations in to a folder to link to. This folder would have to be on the server of the person hosting our website. This is a simple stage in creating the website and ensuring it works properly once hosted but can easily be forgotten and often causes mistakes with websites due to content missing.

For all the animated elements of the website they were created in Adobe Flash. As stated earlier it is linked with the same package as Dreamweaver making it easily compatible. The animations were imported as movie files to play without being on a loop. This therefore looks like a heading and menu system rather than a separate part of the website. Due to the black background and same colours it ties in well and makes the whole webpage look seamless.

Our digipak was created in Adobe Photoshop with a huge focus of the idea being done with editing the original photos. This is because a huge influence of ours was The Horrors Primary Colours with its blurred image. Our final digipak accomplished this well with us also managing to get similar colours of The Horrors digipak unintentionally.

In Photoshop we took down the opacity of our

band photo and then layered with the television static. Consequently we added a guassian blur affect to achieve the bright glow. To complete the album artwork we placed in our logo and added a glow to match the television.

The back of the digipak was made by importing our chosen photo. We believed it would be a good idea to go along with a theme of keeping the identity of the band hidden. This was taken from the blur on the front cover and the hidden identity of the video. With our chosen photo we zoomed in and played around with what fragmented image would appear in different positions. The first idea was a picture of my neck and ear until we found the two bottoms faces together. We had to however, play with the contrast and hue to ensure the same colours from the front of the cover carried on. This was also applied to the inside panel.

Evaluation - Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

With our completed rough cut we needed to gain some feedback to help push our rough cut to the final product. We decided the easiest way to do this was to our ask our friends to view our video in one screening. This was shown to our friends who had not previously seen our footage with the majority of them not knowing we had made a music video. This was key to gaining non bias analysis of the video. The friends we chose for the screening of our music video are all of the age range in our target audience leaving us to hope all feedback would be positive as the video should be of their tastes and expectations.


The picture above shows the screening of our music video with the audience and the video being on a large screen. With the screening complete we asked to briefly interview the audience with the following questions:

• What were your initial thoughts?
• Were you shocked by the ending?
• Do you think the visuals correspond with the chosen song?
• What do you think are the positive aspects?
• What do you think are the negative aspects?
• If anything, what would you change about the video?

The video below shows the feedback we received from the audience after the screening.

Audience Feedback - Rough Cut 2 from WGSB on Vimeo.

From the video above you can get a feel for the feedback of our video being overall positive with some criticism, which was welcome as the screening only being of our rough cut.

Positive points

• Lighting
• Cast
• Setting
• Editing
• Narrative

Criticism

• Animal masks
• Child
• Hints too strong taken away from the impact of the ending
• Some scenes monotonous
  

This feedback was all taken on board and allowed us to make changes for our final product. The criticism we received was the main feedback we used to do this. The biggest example of this was changing the short clips of our characters holding hands. This is because our audience found it too revealing and took away from the climax of the video. With this replaced it works much better and leaves the aim of our video, hiding our characters identity, until the end. We also used the positive feedback as well using more of our fast paced editing to cut out the monotonous scenes the audience picked up on.

The feedback our group received showed that our final product was something that hit our target audience with each member of the audience relating to the video in someway, whether it being them waking up and regretting something, behaving inappropriately at a party, or the homosexual side of the narrative.

Here is a screen shot of further feedback we received via facebook on our final product.

This was the feedback Jonathon gave on Jordan's facebook post

'I liked it. Editing to the beat can be tricky when trying to hold up a narrative. But you pulled it off by using constant "flash back" clips. Also, the picture in picture effect contained just the right amount of shots. Overloading the viewer with information can draw attention away from the narrative flow.

The reference to the child, suggesting a forgotten innocence within the character, tied in well with the video's portrayal of todays youth.

Overall, the sequence included some well thought out editorial decisions and I was happy to see normal cuts, rather than quick fix transitions.

I give the Prodigy parody a 80%, I deducted 20% due to indieness.'

The feedback was great due to them being a professional. Although there is a jokey tone to the comment we can see strong positive points in the feedback and they have managed to pick up on all the underlining themes we intended to put in the video with the child, animal masks and narrative of the story by relating the video to The Prodigy's "Smack my bitch up" video which was a huge inspiration to the narrative of our video.

Evaluation - Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation 2 from Jack Osman on Vimeo.

Here is a copy of our script for the voice over

Jack: We have produced a series of products, including a music video, website and digipak to promote the release of an album by the band Delphic. There are several themes and images explored throughout each of our tasks that maintain a consistent house style.

Sam: The main video is a narrative based affair that follows a morning after, the night before scenario where the lead protagonist; Jack has regretted or doubted sleeping with someone. This of course resonates with the title of the song; ‘Doubt’.

Louisa: Both the digipak and video explore the theme of confusion, and hiding your true identity. This is represented via the use of animal masks. In the video this theme is explored more explicitly with Jack masking his homosexual feelings; in attempt trying to convince himself he is heterosexual before coming to terms with the truth.

Jordan: In the digipak the masks are used on the inside sleeve opposite the disc tray, this is to hide the identity of the band itself. This is something we have consciously decided to do, in order that there is more emphasis on the band’s music rather than image. Additionally it creates an air of mystery surrounding the band, which may intrigue potential audiences.

Jack: The fact that Jack masks his homosexuality is referenced throughout our video in a variety of manners. Most notably in the scene where he looks up into a mirror to be haunted by the image of himself wearing a bear’s mask. The split personality in the mirror represents the trouble he is having choosing his sexual orientation.

Sam: The video culminates with Jack battling through several party goers adorned in the aforementioned masks, as the feelings of paranoia and regret take over Jack tries to escape the clutches of scene of the incident by running towards the front door. Upon opening the front door he comes face to face with his ‘one night stand’ and finally accepts his homosexuality.

Louisa: The theme of bright, neon lights is continued throughout all three promotional products. In the video this obviously applies to the shots of the strobed party.

Jordan: On the digipak the television dominates the album artwork with a bright glow, to illuminate the image and the presence of the band. Furthermore the links tab and the updates section on the website are coloured in bright green and blue thin strips representing neon lights. This theme ties in well with the electronic genre of the music.

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

As a whole our media products use the conventions situated to them a lot, rarely challenging them. I believe this is because with an industry set strongly in its ways it would be hard to break in to the music industry with a video, digipak or website that challenged the fundamentals of it strongly.

Website:
Our website uses the conventions of an artists' website. This is because we closely analysed existing products to see what made hem strong and also to see what they all had in common. You can probably see this most clearly in the menu system. This is because the links we created are all simple and can be seen on the majority of music websites. This is because they link to the information users want to know and access to this information must be simple. If it was not simple to find this piece of information users are unlikely to return to a website as it will become an inconvenience to try and find the information all the time. With our simple menu system a user would be able to log on to the website and find all information they need. With access to a members area. This would involve developing the website to give the members more information. This would involve more links to more pages, however, that would be kept simple.

Another convention we used was the news updates. We fund that again the majority of music websites had an update section this would be used for people to have a quick glance to see what had been happening. If a user became a member these updates could be received via email. When looking at existing websites we looked at our chosen artists website to find they had an update section that went down the front of their home page. This was the main feature. We liked this idea as it was an easy feature to create and gave the user great ease of use to find small information quickly, which as i said earlier is a major thing of a website to keep users interested and happy to return the the site. To slightly change the idea of peoples use of an updates section we decided to put ours into a scroll box. We did this because it would show a good use of our HTML knowledge and would also help keep our website minimalistic. This was key as our website is a compact unit and we needed to fit a lot of information into a small space. A scroll box was the best way to do this. A problem we faced was making it clear the difference between each update post. This was highlighted through our feedback. this caused a rethink to make it clear which posts were new. We eventually came around this by having dates at the start of the post and also having a rule across the scroll box under each post. Therefore, although our updates were in a scroll box they stuck to the conventions of a website very closely.

A clear use of the conventions of a website was the links to external websites of the band. The most obvious ones being myspace, facebook and youtube. This is the biggest marketing tool an artist has on the internet. By using synergy people can always be linked to an artist whatever website they are on. With a target audience of 16 to 25 year olds this is a huge advantage. This is down to the majority of the time they use the internet they are using social networking websites. With the usage of social networking sites being this age range an artist can access them whenever and therefore a real buzz can be created about a band. With a huge part of social networking being about sharing news people can hear about an artist via advertising but the majority of it would be done by word of mouth by these users.The graph above shows that the average age of users for social networking sites is slightly older than out target audience. However, it is closer on the external websites we have linked too.

Overall I believe our website works well and uses the conventions very well. This is because it is a very simple website intertwining all 3 parts of our project which tries to keep the users attention by having news updates, videos and a members area.

Here are some screen shots of our website against the existing Delhpic website.

You can see the conventions we used as all elements of our website are on their website although in a different layout and design.

Using the conventions of music websites this should mean that our website is sticky. This means it entices users to keep using it and stay on the website for a while. I believe this is achieved with the easy news update section and the simple menu system at the top. A simple to use website with features that involve the user are how to create a successful website. I believe we have done this via our music video and simple layout. The sign up option will also lead to a members section giving members bonus material. Members that have signed would clearly like the band and enjoy using the website to gain this extra material.

Digipak:
For our digipak again we used the conventions to create our own. Although the conventions we used are not all necessarily from the Indie genre. This is because we used an image of the band for our front cover. This is not a typical digipak cover within the Indie scene as they tend to use simplistic images not related to the band. We managed to stick within in this theme by making our band image in a TV keeping the identities of our band hidden. This links in with our video as we try to keep the identity of our main character hidden until the end of the video. The TV used in the image is the biggest link with the indie music scene. This is because it is an old fashioned TV which may be considered vintage. This is exactly what appeals to indie followers as they buy retro clothes and have begun to start collecting vinyl records. The way we constructed the digipak using the interference on the TV screen and the animal masks creates a huge sense of confusion which we tried to create within our music video. This shows how we have intertwined each part of our project. With this sense of confusion created it shows how we managed to follow the conventions of a digipak as they do not tend to make sense or link with the band.

Video:

Here are 9 key shots to our music video. These shots show how we used the conventions to create a realistic video that could exist in the world of music videos.

Shot 1

The favourite shot of our audience was the strobe party used within the intro and later in the video. This party scene was created trying to copy the conventions of an electronica band. This is clear throughout the artificial, futuristic lighting. This made the party believable as the party was meant to replicate a live event or a large scale party. The lighting represented the music well with the help of our editing in the intro. This was done with quick cuts of the long shot of our main character. The mise en scene of the party was fairly modern with all our cast dressed in present day fashion. This fashion is typical of the indie genre having denim shirts, polo shirts both with buttons done up to the top.

Shot 2

A controversial shot in our video was of the little boy sitting in the cupboard watching two people have sex. This was he hardest part for the audience to understand. The meaning behind this was to show our young by and main character to be the same person with the min character being affected by an incident when younger. Another meaning behind the boy in the cupboard is of "coming out" which at the end of the video is revealed as being gay. I believe this shot challenges the conventions of music videos. This is because they tend to focus on heterosexual relationships with songs being written about boy meets girl story lines. Although society is becoming more accustomed to homosexuality it is still not a focus point in music videos or other types of media. I believe the shot is more controversial as it involves the young boy and raises the issue or nature vs. nurture and brings up the point that homosexuality is not a decision.

Shot 3

We used the conventions of music videos by matching the lyrics of the song with the action on screen. This can be seen by the representation of the lyric "Doubt" with our main character looking troubled throughout the video. We did not only pic up on the title of the song but other points in the video also. This can be seen in the Delhpic - Doubt lyric post. With the key lyrics highlighted we tried to represent these points and ideas.

Shot 4, 5, 6 & 7

Another point n our video that we challenge the conventions of a music video is in the above shots. This is because although relationships are often the main narrative of a video it is unusual to see sexually explicit shots. We however, showed this to create a bigger effect on the audience once they know the relationship is between two men. This is is strongly influenced by The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" video which was banned from TV. The video also had a gender twist at the end and was extremely sexually explicit with a huge part of the narrative and footage being of explicit sex. Our music video uses our sexual shots as more suggestive but they carry the same effect and emphasise the shock of the twist at the end. This is due to the shots hiding the gender of the other person involved but still being convincing that it could be a normal relationship with a male and female.

Shot 8

My favourite shots of the video are of our main character in the shower. This is because it really shows the anger, doubt of the character. We used the conventions of music videos for these shots as we follow the lyrics of the song closely "I've hit the wall, all that's left for you is doubt." This shot shows the doubt on our characters face and the emotions he is feeling.

As you can see from the screenshot our character has acted well during this scene and made it believable that he regrets something and has stuff on his mind. The shower represents him trying to wash away his problems or possibly drown his sorrows.

Shot 9

A hugely controversial shot of our music video was the kiss at the end of the video. This is due to the homosexual relationship being revealed. The fact that there is no camera movement gives the audience a longer amount of time to absorb what has happened although the clip is not on the screen for very long. This makes the shot heavy and leave a last impression on the audiences mind. This is exactly what we wanted the shot to do. I believe we have pulled off this part of the video very well and accomplished the shock we wished the audience to feel.

Our music Video

Doubt Final Cut from Jack Osman on Vimeo.

Final Website

Click here to see the live website homepage

Final Digipak

Here is the complete copy of our digipak. AS you can see there are four panels That are very similar in style giving the digipak consistency. This gives us a house style that is similar to a magazine and therefore gives the band an image to go with their sound. This image can often be better known than a bands' music. A great example of this is The Sex Pistols album cover.