Tuesday 17 January 2017

JB: Evaluation

Question 1



Question 2 

Question 3


Q4 – How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Blogspot
We used blogger.com as a collaborative e-portfolio in our group throughout the construction, planning and evaluation. For us, blogger was a better option than WordPress as we were familiar with the format of Blogger from our AS production and therefore we had grown accustom to the use of the blogs on Blogspot. Therefore, our evaluation was that it would the risk outweighed the rewards because it would be very time consuming. We assigned different tasks and work around the group in order to cope with the quantity of work demanded. This was a useful technique in co-ordination because a we each had a Gmail account, we could all access the blog and posts we did would be titled under each of our names to show clearly who was doing which pieces of work which worked well in a strategic and team based formula. This was a quick and easy adaptation which connoted the current and postmodern benefits of Web 2.0, implying there is vast amounts of choice and demand throughout the resources of the internet.
Screenshot of Blogspot



 To carry out audience research we used Survey Monkey to help decipher what our target audience actually wanted to see in our production and was also helpful in portraying a vivid image of genre conventions and themes and work associated with our particular genre. Overall, we found using SurveyMonkey self-explanatory and was always out first point of call when needing to create a questionnaire. We cumulatively had lots of experience on Survey Monkey, myself especially, even since GCSE level, where we created surveys related to psychographics and demographics. This was most useful because, although we already had quite a good understanding of the UK hip-hop artist Loyle Carner, we managed to get many responses which altered and adapted our understanding of the British rapper’s meta-narrative. For example, a large percentage of our target audience interpreting Loyle Carners song – Mufasa of having perhaps a more solemn and sombre representation, whereas we had previously determined it as a happy song, this shows the dilemmas of a negotiated reading from Stuart Halls Encoding/ Decoding. Once we looked into the lyrics and meaning of these we in fact became more agreed on the opinion that the song did in fact hold a more reserved and saddening undertone to which we had first missed, this then thoroughly influenced out preferred reading through the uses of locations, in train stations which were meant to connote ‘time unwillingly passing’, and the bottle of beer, which was meant to connote ‘turning to the bottle due to depression’. 
The trusted - SurveyMonkey

The beer bottle used to connote stress and depression

Stuart Halls theory of Encoding and Decoding


 SurveyMonkey was helpful in determining this because it filed the information’s quickly and easily into graphs which were easily read and organized to give an accurate and visual representation of our target audiences interests and beliefs. This therefore had an impact on our planning and construction as we had to begin re working and re thinking our concept due to the realized mood of the song, SurveyMonkey was helpful in doing this, however, as it helped us come to the realization that perhaps our initial ideas were not fully accurate and the feedback the survey site enabled us to retain was helpful in giving us that second opinion that in hindsight we did need. In my opinion, the most important piece of feedback from the surveys was the constructive criticism we were given. As we had studied the song for a long time, and almost knew the song word for word, we felt as if we knew the song inside out. This we thought would make it easier to apply a metanarrative and preferred reading to the storyline. However, some of the most important feedback we gained was that parts of the lines of action were confused, even though we thought they were completely clear! We came to the conclusion that while for us it was very clear, as we were working on it every day, a first time viewer would not have a clear understanding as, granted, it is a very focused viewing. As a result, we decided there was a distinct need for visual symbolism that would help the syuzhet. As there were 3 intercutted parallel lines of action. We used signifies such as costume in similar items of clothing, the dog, which was only used in the flashbacks and graveyard to create correlation.

Open to everyone and easy to use!
This is an example of a use how we Web 2.0 allowed us to really pick out a target audience and then attempt to penetrate the audience by creating an audience portfolio of what we would expect them to like. We were enabled to do this by using email to send our questionnaire of which we produced on SuveyMonkey to variety of different demographics and psychographics to gain an all rounded representation of the artists perceived metanarrative. We found the use of Web 2.0 a large part of the planning and research angle of our production, as for us, the internet was a big part of how we were initially introduced to the artist and therefore we knew that there was much more that Web 2.0 could offer us in terms of understanding the artist had to offer. It also made communicating in the groups easy and simple, through social media sites such as Facebook, where we had a group and Gmail accounts and google accounts which we all had. This we believe improved interconnectedness. This was true as we researched the artists past and life, to which we established his Father had died when he was very young and that this influenced the family and united side of his music, which again we transferred into the construction of our production where we themed our music video around losing a loved one, which we felt the track suited very well.


Di Vinci Resolve
 Using DaVinci Resolve, we constructed an animatic by physically drawing all the stages of scenes and angles of shots we wanted to use. We created about 30 individual frames and then used a camera to film the length of each shot, with this we tried to be relatively accurate as we knew it would benefit us in the construction of the film as it would mean we would have a more thorough and insightful idea of how much footage we have and need. After we had this clip, we arranged the frame in the order we wanted them to be in and shot them on a camera, this was helpful as it essentially created a real and physical form of our music video which enabled us to watch the video back with the music and decide if there were any obvious parts which didn’t fit or if there were any obvious parts which we needed to get, it also helped us decide the anchor points of the video as such. Placing the animatic with the music it made it clear which aspects of the song would be the climax’s and therefore we would need to align these with correspondingly strong visuals. However, in my opinion the usefulness of the animatic was actually questionable, although out planning was thorough, a lot of the filming we actually did was more trial and improvement on the day. For example when we were at the train station location and filming we spotted the top of the car part which we didn't even initially know was there, and ended up using a photograph from this location, an establishing pan shot of the town, in our advertisement.

The location we used for the advertisement


When shooting we used a HD camera, a multitude of equipment like the track and dolly and the Jib to exhibit professional looking footage through a variety of tried and tested camera techniques. The jib enabled us to produce steady and professional shots. We had had some practice initially in Wilderness Woods, and in the AS production where we used quite a high quality camera in the Sony NEX-7. This gave us some experience with camera which we attempted to carry though to A level. However, with this year not have access to the same camera which resulted in us using a school camera, meaning at the beginning it took a bit longer to get used to the equipment. We are most pleased with the montage of Oli sitting in front of the church because it works very effectively on the track, taking multiple different shots with Oli sitting in different places edited together on the beat of the song.  Personally, however, I am mostly proud of the flashback sequence which is produced myself in After Effects where I attempted to create a believable motion similar to that of a train, where the flashbacks, in turn came to life portraying memories and looking back at life. With this, inspiration was taken from ‘The Streets – Fit but you know it’. The cameras allow the focus to be changed it will giving us opportunities for pull focus shots, this works well with our track as it gives a sort of ambient feel especially when the focus is soft and slightly blurred. The use of the jib is also very useful, giving slow, smooth movements that are noticeable allowing camera movement, we used this is the graveyard scene to get the slow smooth movement linking closely to that of a graveyard. 

Sony NEX-7
The Streets - Fit but you know it, 'The photos that live'

O.C: Evaluation Question 4

1.            We used blogger.com as a collaborative e-portfolio in our group throughout the planning, construction and evaluation. For Example, it helped us form a clear timeline of our work where it can be easily tracked and marked. The timeline was in clear chronological order whereby we had research and ideas about our music videos coming first. After detailed research there was a link to our music video with there being a clear indication from this what genre and look to the music video we wanted to replicate. Blogger.com enabled us to reflect on our shoots whereby it allowed us to highlight areas we needed to improve upon. When we edited or did work on the print blogger helped us emphasise what roles we were all taking up in the group, with this being done with consistent progress updates. To give visual representation of the sort of things we wanted to achieve blogger.com allowed us to embed clips onto the timeline of work with this as well as the written work a clearer understanding of what was wanted. The questionnaire gave us feedback on what needed to be improved.





2. To carry out audience research we used Survey Monkey an online questionnaire where we could gather a wide range of different views and opinions. This was useful as it helped in putting ideas about our piece together, as in which things would work and which things might not. This honest reflection did alter some ideas that we had prior to the construction stage with this proving the significance of an online survey. This is an example of web 2.0 with this being conventional of marketing in the modern day.

3.Using Da Vinci Resolve, we constructed an animatic by story boarding our ideas, we left a comment underneath explaining about the shot for example the specific movement in a shot. The animatic was helpful as we could see where gaps would occur in the music video, also it gave us visual ideas about the order of shots and how that would work. A distinct first link between visuals and lyrics was also the result of the animatic. From this we concluded we were going to need filler shots as a group as a result of the animatic we decided upon adding lip-syncing into the music video. A backwards track whilst the performer was lip syncing was an idea that we had we wanted to install performance whilst still hitting criteria for movement in shots.


4. When shooting we used the HD DSLR camera an upgrade on the camera used to film an opening sequence to a horror film, the camera gave us a higher resolution. The difference between the two is evident as this gave a professional look when filming. I was most pleased with the quality of footage and how clear it was when we looked back on them. For example, we used close-ups to facilitate para social intimacy with the audience the camera allows the audience to make a clear connection with the performer as clear emotion through the quality of the camera can be displayed. Furthermore, the camera allowed us to experiment with the pull focus, this is something we used on various locations with this adding to the different techniques we can display when filming. The tracking shots is a camera movement that is used a lot when filming, the quality of these shots have now been further enhanced through the improved camera quality, a forward track was used as the performer entered the graveyard this is a good example of this.

5.The challenges we overcame were in the graveyard sequence, we used the dog as a signifier to link it to the boy in the past seen in the narrative, as this was the case getting the dog to stay in certain positions when filming was a challenge as to make the shots work the character blocking of everyone on the shot was specific. Another one of the external factors that proved to be a problem was the trains a lot of our filming can be seen to be on the trains and filming them from the outside. To get the right shot could take a long time as certain shots we only had one shot every half an hour to get right so it was vital for us to be efficient when filming to try and get the desired shot in as least as many takes as possible.  Also we had a problem with one shot in particular the tracking from left to right when I was getting on the train as to get that shot and then to all getting on the train with the equipment proved hard as the time to do this was very short. Another challenge we had to incur was gaining permission to filming on trains and at their platforms. We overcome this by getting consent from the train station to enable us to film.

6. To edit the video, we used Davinchi Resolve on this software I specifically used the cutting tool to cut down footage of the lip syncing to then match it with the lyrics of the song. Linked selection is another technique used this enabled you to discard diegetic sounds and visuals this is very important in the editing process. Another one used was the razor edit mode this is useful for cutting clips down quickly. I used this when we got the footage of the lip syncing and then cut it up using different parts for different times in the music video.



7. Digipak/magazine advert: We used a digital stills camera to get a close –up of the front of a face and the back where inside there being a picture that is supposed to resemble a memory. We are using a four pan digipack where the front and back being of the front and back of the head with the inside being a memory connoting that the audience are entering the performers mind. The images will all be distorted making them abstract this gives the audience an enigma as it the digipak is open to different interpretations of it.


8.In Adobe Photoshop, we edited all the print work using Photoshop I posturized images which made images look harsh or soft. I helped in distorting images where by layering the images and altering the opacity of each image gave that look. I also experimented with gradient overlay which effected the gradient of the texts and how steep it looked.



O.C: Evaluation Question 2

O.C: Evaluation Question 1