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

evaluation stages?

Research- The importance of research is to inform action our study should to contextualize our

findings. Research for my preliminary task took on place on YouTube; an established

platform to share music videos through institutions like VEVO. We researched different types of music videos, resulting in being fond of narrative performance videos and being

fond of music within the mainstream pop genre and our interest of a target demographic

of stylers distinguished from the UK Tribes youth research website, it was an unanimous decision to choose our song Im Not the Only One Sam Smith. The music video research carried out on YouTube was an example of using Media Technologies as

YouTube enabled me easy access to Music videos for future research and referencing.

After establishing our chosen song, I could then convey more specific research into codes

and conventions that would apply to my target demography, an artist and song that my

audience would also listen to could be songs like Ed Sheeran Thinking out Loud another mainstream artist. After writing about this particular music video I evaluated it on

my Tumblr blog with a video link through using a URL, this could then later had

references made in my analyses.

As a group we also carried out research into established theorems within the media

institution; for example we carried out research into Goodwins Theory, which distinguishes relationships between lyrics and visuals and music and visuals, as a group

we have incorporated this by portraying our character in a narrative performance where

the lyrics project an unsuccessful relationship which can also be identified as a theme in

our music video.

This is a screen capture of a slideShare document I found on the Internet using the

tool google chrome as a search engine enabling to gather my research.

As it is a convention to create a brand image or a motif for an artist. I decided to research extensively into mainstream artists, I learnt that Ed Sheeran has developed a

motif of being instantly recognisable through his trademark red hair this was

something in our research stage we identified as a technique we wanted to emulate, so

we decided to feature our artist throughout in a sharply dressed suit, which would be

perceived as a motif for our artist, this can be exemplified further through more

research into Goodwins theory who puts forward his star theory which defines that the protagonist, the star will feature in predominant camera shots making him/her centre of attention. This was something we wanted to incorporate in our music video is it is an established genre characteristic.

Although as a group we identified that was not only beneficial to research established

products, we also distinguished that audience research was important especially into

our target demographic. So, we went about creating a questionnaire uncovering what

aspects of media conventions would appeal to the demographic for example usage of

intertextuality references to other media institutions, Portrayal of Laura Mulveys gaze theory etc.

Here are some screen captures of our findings this was a very beneficial process

because it was pitched our ideal target demographic; the social class B.

These are photos showcasing our own motif

development of a sharp suit image developed

from our research of mainstream artist Ed

Sheeran. You may notice in the featured photos

that we decided to change the colour of ties as

we felt black projected a more slick image.

Above pictures a photo of Ed Sheeran in the late

2000s when he broke to mass fame, below is a

recent photo of a 2015 performance, you can see

his signature motif of red hair has remained as it

can now be connoted with Ed instantly, this

exemplifies the potential marketing success

motifs can bring.

The created questionnaire was pitched to the target demographic. We published these

on Tumblr via using the publishing service Scribd; it allows the prosumer to publish documents that can then be embedded to other sites like social networking Tumblr

which I deem efficient as my portfolio in later stages will be published on Tumblr

through HTMLs, embedding.

Type of music video you

prefer?

Performance

Artistic

Narrative

Do you like watching music videos?

Sometimes Yes No

These are results from a recording we made

interviewing our target audience, what is below is

quotations of the exact conversation:

Two out of six of our recipients said they looked

for pretty women in the music video this is Laura

Mulveys theory of The Gaze in context.

We found that three out of the six recipients said

they look for the artists interpretation of the

lyrics, and how they express themselves This can

only be taken into consideration. We will used this

in our ancillary video, as we feel our song choice

Sam Smith Im Not the Only One can easily

present and show the artists performance and his

expression when performing it.

Planning we began to proceed with the planning

stages of the portfolio by firstly, contacting

the record label and the institution that

handles the distribution of our song. We

located a contact email to Capitol Records

requesting the rights for the song, we got

permission rights to use the song, although

the video was subjected being labelled

Unlisted, meaning that the public can only view the video directly from a link,

which examples our usage of HTML

embedments once again as well using the technological tool of Scribd to document

our reply from Capitol Records.

Furthermore, further planning will entail producing scripts and storyboards made on

paper which were then scanned onto the computer, then imported onto Tumblr.

Tumblr also used to document filming schedules, lists of props and characters by

uploading from the software Microsoft Word onto Tumblr as a PDF File, this enabled

us to be very time wise and efficient in filming as we already enhanced a detailed

plan.

Individually, I constructed a dummy digipak and poster using the technological tool

of the editing software, Photoshop. In the process of doing this I determined ideas and

brainwaves on exactly how I wanted my finished digipak to look. The planning

process enabled me to smoothly produce my digipak and posters as appose to starting

from scratch.

This is the email I sent to Capitol Records, I

fully enhanced the ease of web 2.0 by

sending this email using the tool outlook

express

This is a picture of my dummy digipak. I was not impressed with how it was coming

along, my skills were basic to say the least, so I watched a crash course video in

using Photoshop on the video upload tool site YouTube to enhance my skills; below

reflects my transformation in Photoshop skills. Left (before) right (After)

After completing storyboards I then created an animatic video using Premiere pro, animatics

incorporated frames from the storyboard to create a basis for the preliminary video,

foreshadowing when we edit it, its easier as the animatic projects rough implications on how the video should look at the end of production as the concept of it is essentially in place, I

used frames from my storyboard then edited them onto Premiere Pro. They were edited in

time with the track creating a relative storyline. The planning stages contributed pivotally to

the success of our video, as it set us up effectively for the construction phases.

Construction -

The filming process was captured on a high quality video camera (Nikon D3200)

complemented with the usage of a tripod to create a perfect still image, we also used a small

camera recorder to create implications of past memories of the couple. After the filming was

successfully taken, the video was edited on Premiere Pro, we utalised the use of the animatic

that was previously made by cutting the video together using the cut tool. The most basic yet

essential construction we made was to create multiple video and audio layers, this enabled us

to edit efficiently to the backdrop of the song, by naming each clip appropriately e.g. bench shot This foreshadowed that we could locate the clips on the timeline quickly so we could edit them to standard. Within Premier Pro we constructed several techniques into our music

video by using several tools:

Time-remapping to speed up the bench shot in the video; also examples intertextuality as this type of shot is used in other media products like in film commonly to reflect the fact that

time has passed.

We also used the tool motion scale to zoom in on our characters face emphasizing his sadness to the situation. As well using razor tool to crop the video effectively.

Fade to black crossover of scenes. Dip to white used to create crossover of scenes. After successfully creating a music video I commended on with taking my images for my

ancillary task, to take my photos I would need for my Digi-Pak I used the same Nikon D3200

Camera, to produce a high quality image that could easily be edited on the editing software

Adobe Photoshop, Within Photoshop I used tools including:

Layering to create a conventional feel to the product alike established digipaks. Text Warping to create another established feel to the video, to try and portray the image that it is a professional product.

Eye dropper to cut out my image of the silhouette galaxy. Burn and Dodge tool bring out the significance of the watchful eyes in my Digipak. Gradient Changing to create a contrasting feel to my house style scheme, portrayed through the contrasting pinks coral and hot pink. I also used the brush tool to disappear the fill of my love heart shaped balloon making way for my text warp to go over the top.

I also used the text tool to attempt to portray a consistent font scheme I used to the font Trajan Pro with thick bolding to maximise class and style. I then went onto blending options to the text layer. I increased the shadowing and outer glow whilst keeping its in your face nature intact.

All the extensive editing I done to my digipak and poster was a deliberate to create an artistic

feel to the video, as within the mainstream genre it is becoming increasingly commonplace

for artists to convey artistic designs without their face on the cover digipak to sell the

product.

I created a house style and brand image creating convergence between my ancillary texts;

digipak and promotion poster. For example by using the stamp tool I transferred the same

shade of pink to my poster from my digipak creating this. My research of digipaks from

earlier on in the portfolio enabled me to identify the concept of brand images and house styles

which lead me to develop a style relatively easily.

Evaluation

In order to create a successful evaluation, I want to project the message that I was

savvy with a wide range of media technologies by presenting my evaluation through

various platforms such as the stylish cloud based presentation software, Prezi. Prezi

allows users to create an energetic form of publishing. I employed the embed tool to

present images of my digipak design, poster and YouTube URL link to my

preliminary video. Furthermore, I added HTML links to specific blog posts

(samlewismedia) that were relevant to appropriate research. Prezi like the more

conventional format of Microsoft PowerPoint includes the option to use an option to

use a variety of themes and templates. I chose to us the hourglass template which exemplifies classic style a theme I desperately attempt to convey. The layout was

simplistic yet modernistic.

This is a screen capture of my Prezi that I completed to format my Evaluation.

I also flexed my technological know-how, through using Scribd again by uploading

Microsoft Word documents to show my evaluation as I chose to write it an essay style

Scribd was the obvious platform to upload on to Tumblr using PDF files as it is taken

from Word like for like. Scribd is also compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint that

also can be embedded through a link to Tumblr, I used this to format my answering of

the question relating to audience feedback. I use the tool of screen capturing to

document elements of audience feedback like Email interactions I use the crop tool after screen capturing to make for a neat presentation.

To diversify my evaluation presentation even more, we filmed a directors commentary on the same Nikon camera as previous with a boom mic to maximise the

sound quality. As it was put together during school time we capitalised on the

availability of Premier Pro, this was used to edit the commentary together with the

music video in the background; we used this Adobe software because we were so

familiar with it, after its completion I uploaded it to my Tumblr blog using the

YouTube embedding tool.

For the question in the evaluation process which was required to be completed as a

group regarding audience feedback was portrayed through questioning people from

our target audience on camera in a focus group style as this was a technique we

picked up from media students of previous, we recorded this using a Nikon D3200

again and a tripod to capture a still focused shot.

Here is a screen capture of our focus group.