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

When it came to media technology and showing the work I had done, I used a blog site called blogger.com. This allowed me to write posts and share my research, planning and the final product on to my very own blog. By doing this, it allows other people who have a blogger account to view my blog and leave comments if they want to. I was able to look back over the previous work i had done and I could also change anything that I thought needed improving. I decided to put my video on social sites such as YouTube and Facebook, this allowed me to share my video and work with people around the world and also of my own age, particularly my target audience. 

When I started my research I relied on media technology a lot especially the internet as Google was a very reliable source. I also looked across YouTube for other A2 music videos, to get an idea and to see how professional other peoples work looked at this level. I also used the internet for websites such as Facebook, to share my video socially for audience feedback. Another website i used was slideshare, here i uploaded a powerpoint presentation onto my account on the website, this was to pitch my video to the audience. I also used a useful website called weebly, this was where I made the website for my band. I used the classic pen and paper to plan for my music video and also took lots of pictures of evidence of my research and planning and uploaded them to my blog. However I decided not to make any storyboards due to the fact I can't draw and also because I didn't really have a real narrative structure in my music video. Also because I was the only person working on my video, I knew what ideas I had in mind and I didn't need to share them.

Whilst out filming my video I used many media technologies that helped me to achieve the high standard of video I was aiming for. I took pictures of 'behind the scenes' with my iPhone 5, this is very high technology with a good camera. When it came to actually recording the footage and taking photos for the music video I used a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10EB camera, this is a very professional and good quality camera that took decent footage and images for my video. Hardware within media technology was evident in the editing process as I used my MacBook Air which has a top editing software that many professionals use called Final Cut Pro X on it. This allowed me to edit at a high standard and use many techniques that others who don't have this software wouldn't be able to use. When I started the editing process I imported my chosen song as an mp3 format into Final Cut, I had already downloaded the song previously. Again this shows how I have used many different types of media technologies to help me research, plan, construct and evaluate my music video.

Overall, when it comes to evaluating my work the media technology i used the most was blogger.com. I used this website from start to finish whilst working on my product, this was to show every aspect that I did to create my final music video. From the research of the band and theorists, to planning with screenshots and finally audience feedback etc. It would have been impossible to even attempt this project if it wasn't for the media technologies we have today.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once i had completely finished my music video, I uploaded it onto YouTube to gather some audience feedback and so that people around the world could access it and view it. Although YouTube is the most popular video sharing site around the world, not many people knew that my video had been uploaded, therefore i looked at other ways to share my video so I would be able to get some feedback. The first thought that popped into my head was social networking sites, as these are also used around the world. The most popular social networking sites are Facebook and Twitter as many people use these. Therefore I thought it would be a good idea to post my video through a status on Facebook so that my friends and family could give me some feedback. Although I do have a Twitter account, I rarely use it, therefore I didn't want to post my video on the site. I knew that this would reduce the amount of possible feedback that I could of received but I was more than happy with just putting it on Facebook. When I posted it onto Facebook, I was happy to welcome any positive or negative feedback.

I knew that if people watched my music video and liked it, they would press the 'like' button available to them. This was clear as a number of people were pressing the 'like' button and also leaving comments for me to see. As more and more people came across my video on Facebook, the more the views were going up on Youtube. In a day, before my video was posted on to Facebook, it had received 10 views. When I put it onto Facebook, in less than a week it had 74 views. The comments on Facebook were very positive, one person expressed which particular bit of my video they liked the most, I thought this was nice of them to do that. Others had high hopes for me and spoke about future job careers in the media, which I thought was very positive. As well as the audience feedback I have learn a lot from social interaction within the media from sites such as YouTube and Facebook.

From looking back over my audience feedback I have learnt that it plays a big part in knowing what people think and how media is consumed today. For my video the feedback showed that it was success as i never received any negative feedback. This is what I was hoping for as I had spent so long creating it and the ancillary tasks to go with it. I was overall happy with the response and felt proud of myself for completing everything and getting the response i had hoped for. 

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

When I began to do some research into my ancillary tasks, I discovered that they would all need to link to each other and my video. This was so that the audience can recognise the band and the particular theme running throughout the ancillaries. I wanted to make sure that all of my ancillaries as well as my main music video were all consistent and looked similar. If they are consistent then the fans would always know what to look out fir and may even help us to gather more fans. I think that, looking over my digipak, magazine advert and website I achieved this goal I was aiming for. 

I think that I have worked hard to link each ancillary task to my main product, making sure they look consistent and relate to to each other. Both the digipak and magazine advert both have similar images on and the same font and text. As I have used two images that are alike the audience will now recognise that particular band, their video and the media products that go with them. For my website I have also chosen a picture for the background that relates to the other two ancillary tasks as well. Also on my digipak and magazine advert and also in my music video, I have used the same font throughout my media products. This again is for consistency and so that they are all similar and recognisable. All of my ancillary tasks have recognisable images on them that the audience will remember from watching my video. They will be able to see the link between my main product and my three ancillary tasks, hopefully leading to more sales and fans, which is what I was aiming for. 

Each different ancillary that i have created from scratch, allows the audience to see that each particular media product and my video all link together to help develop the band further. I have carefully considered the audience when creating my ancillaries, this was to make sure that each product, even my music video linked together and also advertised the band in a positive way, helping them to sell more songs and the album.

Overall I think that the combination of all of my ancillary tasks and the actual music video itself is very effective as they all relate to each other. This makes them more noticeable to the audience and more so the fans, as they will be able to link each product to the main video, knowing that it is all by the same band. As more and more people notice this, more people will see and recognise the magazine advert, website and album cover, and will want to watch the video, leading to them buying the album. 

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

As my music video was based on a concept theme and it wasn't a stereotypical pop song by Rihanna or Beyonce etc, I wanted to make sure that my music video didn't follow the same conventions as they do. As I chose a British indie male band, I knew straight away that I didn't want a performance based video. I thought that this would look unprofessional and I knew i would't be able to pull it off as I obviously didn't have the real artist to perform in it. 

Many music videos today are based on performance and the artist is almost certainly in the video, whether they're singing or not. As i knew this was a typical convention when it comes to creating music videos I knew i wanted to avoid this as I wanted to be different. When I had chosen my song I decided to research the band and the specific genre of indie. This was so that I knew what conventions to apply or even consider to put in my music video. I found that indie music videos are more narrative based, however also performance as they show clips of the artist in the video. I decided that I wanted to challenge the usual forms and conventions of indie music videos. This let me incorporate a non linear narrative into my video, which proved to work in the end. I chose to use a variety of different types of camera shots and angles and also a wide range of editing skills like, slow and fast motion and reversing the video. These were all used to create the concept based convention I wanted to achieve in my video. As you can see I have made a distinct difference between the conventions of music video and the traditional band's music video. 

When it came to creating my digipak and magazine advert I wanted to input some of the normal forms and conventions  in media products today. I decided that I wanted my album and cover and magazine advert to stand out, as they would obviously need to attract attention in a shop, billboard etc. this is so people would buy it. I chose to use images that I had took from filming my video and change them into black and white. I thought that this would help them both to stand out as not many other albums or magazine adverts are just black and white. I also thought that by using the same images that I included in my music video would attract the audience more, because if they have seen my video they will recognise my album or magazine advert. I also thought it was a good idea to get specific fonts off specialised font websites rather than the usual 'Arial' off Microsoft Word. This would make my album and advert unique from other media products and help them to stand out in shops. 

I followed the same path when I came to make my website for the band. I wanted to use the forms and conventions that most music products use today but with my own twist on it. After researching indie bands and looking at their websites, I came to realise that there were four main pages that I needed to put on my website in order to follow the typical conventions. These were the home page which told the audience a bit about the band, an images page that had pictures of the band and the video, a video page with their recent video/song releases and finally a contact page which allows the audience to get in touch with the band. However for me to develop further and slightly change the forms of media products today, I thought it would be a good idea to make the pages stand out. I did this by using a particular image that I also used in my music video, again changing it to black and white and inserting it on every page as a background. This links to my other ancillary tasks, the digipak and magazine advert which the audience will recognise if they have seen my music video.

Pitch

Music Video Pitch from livthompson95

Social Networks

Social networks have grown more and more in recent years with many different people using them for many different reasons. Uses such as communication, sharing videos and images, music and advertising are all popular. Many artists use social networking sites to inform their fans of any upcoming events or releases and also to share new music, images or videos. The most popular social network site that is used today is Facebook. Facebook is used by many people around the whole world for many reasons including keeping up to date and interacting or liking the artists official page. 

Below is a screen shot of Everything Everything's official Facebook page. At the top of the page they are promoting their latest album and the three popular released songs off it as well as the album cover. It also shows three buttons where a user can like, listen or message the band. There are also buttons where you can view their photos, events, buy tickets and mail them. This page also shows the direct statuses that the band writes themselves to their fans.

Below is the bands Twitter page where again they have advertised their newly released album. On here you can follow the band which will then inform you of every picture, video and post they put on their page. 

Audience Feedback

Facebook 

When I uploaded my video onto Youtube I decided to put it on to Facebook the day after. This was so that I could get audience feedback from friends and relatives on the social network website. Another reason why I put it on Facebook is because not many people would know to go on YouTube to watch it and also to leave feedback. When I first posted the video onto the site I kept an open mind and welcomed both negative and positive feedback. I felt that the feedback that i received on Facebook was important to let me know what the audience really thought. Overall I am very pleased with the feedback that was left on my post as it was all very positive. 

I posted a status and shared my video on to Facebook the day after I put it on YouTube. As you can see in less than a week, 10 people have liked my status and four have commented. One person commented on which particular bit of the video they liked the most, it was nice to see that someone had a favourite bit in my video. Others commented on how good they thought my video is and how I or my video could be successful in the future. This was a nice reaction from my friends and family, helping me to feel even more successful with my finished product. Below is a screenshot of the YouTube page of my video. Here you can see that in less than a week I have received 74 views. Since putting my video on it has gained more views considerably which I am very pleased with.