Reflections of our evaluation

The video evaluation we did the other day was a new experience for me, as I had never done one before. I am so use to having to write an essay and be marked on that, that the concept of a video evaluation was all very new to me.
        At first I thought it was going to be horrific as I dislike public speaking a lot and the thought of having to sit there and talk to a camera really scared me.
I didn't stop complaining, wishing miss had just given us an essay to write instead!


However... having completed it I don't even know why i was worrying so much. It was much easier to begin the discussions than I first thought. And with the experience of having done it once, im pretty sure I would feel much more confident doing it again.
      I think it's a great way to evaluate our work as some things are hard to say in words, this way we were able to discuss our point, analyse it with suitable references and then evaluate it as a group.


Take back asking for an essay now!
It was funnnnn :)

Evaluation (4)

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

 

Above is a clip of our question 4 evaluation in full. I think we answered this question well, the use of technologies was and still is a major aspect for completing our three media products.

Above are two picture of my group and I with all the technology we used when constructing our project. As you can see we didn't use much equipment when out filming, this is because we went for natural light and also as we were travelling around quite a lot we decided to try and be as lightweight as possible.

Question 4, here we spoke about the techonologies that we used throughout our project. Without these techonologies we would've found it extremely hard, if not, impossible to construct our project. The interenet was a main component when researching our videos, myspace and song. Without it we wouldn't have been able to look up conventions and analyse numerous other album covers, it was a great help that we could because it meant we were able to include all the specific conventions that are needed to make good ancillary texts.

Some technologies we used:

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  Internet- google, youtube
  
  
  
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  Sony Digital SLR
  
  
  
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  Tripod
  
  
  
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  Song HDD camcorder
  
  
  
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  Adobe Photoshop CS3
  
  
  
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  Adobe Permier pro CS3
  
  
  
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  Myspace
  
  
  
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  Blogger
  
  
  

Evaluation (3)

Audience Feedback



For our audience feedback we decided the best way to get data from them and find out what they really think is to put a questionnaire together and ask relevant questions.
As shown in a post below, there is my reflections on what i think of our audiences feedback.

When discussing this question I think we did it very well, because we were all happy with the outcome of the audience feedback we were able to talk for a while on our screening. The feedback session was really good and we managed to get some really good answers.
Above is a clip of our evaluation for this question in full!

Evaluation (2)

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

This question was one of mine that I had to plan for. At first I found it quite hard to think of what to write, however after a while i realised that the common features between the three products are actually what makes our combination work effectively.

Again, we all spoke about the sections equally, I probably spoke most about the myspace and how the colours between all three work really well with eachother and it is this that promotes Skye's image and branding.

I am happy with this question, but do think we could've answered it better. Firstly, we didn't actually have the album cover up ready to make reference too which made it much more difficult when trying to discuss it. Therefore meant we ended up wasting time trying to find it and losing our focus on the question slightly.

Secondly, I think here we seemed to repeat ourselves numerously, instead we could have perhaps made our point quicker and saved ourselves time for other questions.

As you can see above, this is a clip of our actual evaluation and what we discussed in detail.

Evaluation (1)

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

In question 1, we all split up the planning of each media product (myspace, album cover, music video), this meant that whoever did what factor would start the discussion of that media product. Here we spoke about what conventions we used for each media product and how we may have developed them or challenged ourselves.


Above is a small clip of our question one, however you can find the full version of this on our GROUP BLOG!
I was to do the planning for the Myspace, and it was my task to talk about how we developed, used or challenged the conventions for this. I started off the question and think we answered it well, for our planning we had all written seperate sheets on each topic for planning. And so even though we did our individual planning we had bullet pointed numerous points in order to make it easier to prompt each other on what to say.
We did this with all sections of question one. I think we answered the question well and included all the components of the question successfully. I think because as a group we picked out points to say seperately, we all equally spoke about whether or not we followed the conventions.

Overall, i think we did our evaluation well and covered all the points that needed to be.
In a couple of posts below you will be able to see our planning for this question.
Below is a clip of our evaluation....

Here we made reference to numerous items.

Crying Blood- VV Brown, Empire state of mind- Jay Z, Charlotte Church- Moodswings

Below is Empire state of mind- one of our few examples.

Also, for Goodwins theory of the notion of looking we made reference to our reaction shots and a frame within a frame shot of Sian.

Additionally to Goodwin's theory we made references to the use of musics and visuals, we used this lots thoroughout our video. Below is a short example of the theory lyrics to visuals, where Skye is wiping away a heart on a steamed window, implying a broken heart and lostlove.



Also through editing we changed the speed of numerous shots in order to make them work well with the beat of the music.

A few album covers we looked at where The Saturdays, VV Brown, Lily Allen
As shown below...

Evaluation- 9.12.09

On the 9th december we did our evaluation, i think it went really well, we managed to discuss the questions for a significant amount of time. I think all factors that needed to be covered were, we split up the roles equally and nobody seemed to talk over anyone throughout the filming which was good. We all managed to discuss roughly an equaly amount and decided that individually we should rate each part of the project; myspace, music video and album cover.
We then at the end gave our individual mark and opinion on how we thought the overall project went.

All in all, im glad the evaluation is finally finished and we can now move on the finishing up our last minute notes and putting everything together.

Evaluation

As we are doing our evaluation in a couple of days, we know we need to start planning for it and making sure we are all aware of what content to say. To ensure we had all the information covered we split up different sections between the three of us. We all took either questions 2, 3 or 4 and with the first question we split it up between Music video, Myspace & Album cover.
This made things much easier and meant we didn't all have to complete everything. Once we finished all the sections and  typed them up, we then printed them all off and looked through the questions. This was so we all had a rough idea of what needs to be said and to make sure as a group we are covering all aspects that need to be.
On the 9th we have numerous frees/ lesson, which gives us time eaith individually or as a group to run through everything and feel a bit more relaxed for when it comes.

Question 2 planning

It was one of my tasks to plan for question 2 and so I did some research back into all three products.

Ok so for our project we had to produce a main product (music video) along side a website (Myspace) and an album cover (digipak). Having finished all three products it is evident that work very well together, from the colour schemes to the way Skye is presented in all three.
From looking over the video I realised the constant bright colours in the costumes and graffiti around Bricklane, we thought it would be ideal to incorporate both aspects in the ancillary texts. This way Skye has a constant image and branding, which fans will remember and associate with her.

The video, shows Skye as a fun, young, quirky female who enjoys being independent, and by dancing round London shows she is able to move on from things and enjoy herself. They will see it and think if she can do it then so can we, this image of Skye really helps when trying to appeal to or female target audience. Additionally, although we didn't try and put across a voyeuristic image, we managed to anyway because she is an attractive female.
Myspace, again has all the bright colours and artwork from the album cover, this is working alongside the album cover because both products include this image. The pictures uploaded onto her page work with the promotion of her new single because people with see the images from the shoot, see how exciting it looks and therefore go and download her single.
The album cover has numerous images of Vinyl records on it which promotes the genre of the song.

Overall, I think our combination is very effective because they all portray a strong brand and image of Skye. The Myspace gives a bit more depth into her personal life, however has the artwork from the album and has the music video streamed onto it. The album cover shows an image of her on her shoot as well as 4 completely different images of her on the front cover, which show many different components of her personality to the audience. Finally, the music video portrays her as a young female who is outgoing and wants to go out and have fun. Swinging round lampposts and dancing down Bricklane, isn't a usual activity for people to do and so people like watching it because it makes them laugh and some part of them wishes they had the confidence to do it too. One part of our video that our target audience seemed to really enjoy was when she starts singing with the guy in the road; this was completely spontaneous which is why it works so much better.

Question 1

Myspace
Here we looked through numerous other solo female artists and compared them. This way we were able to pick out the common conventions and use them when constructing our Band Myspace. I think here we used the forms and conventions well, and don't think we developed or challenged them in any way, this was mainly because a Myspace can't be a differentiated as a music video because the website needs to include specific information such as; videos, gig dates, photos, blog entries and a paragraph about herself.
Our Myspace is again very distinctive with Skye's personal style and image. We decided to put our front cover artwork as our banner on the website, this was because it not only looks good but it plays a part in promoting Skye's new album release. This way helping with the cross platform marketing strategy, all media products help to promote each other in different ways and all do the same job of selling Skye's branding and identity. We also put a personalised headline banner in which promotes her single 'Chick Habit', it is orange and flashes, therefore immediately attracting the viewers eye. Because of the use of numerous bright colours, we thought the background will need to contrast with all the colours which is why we chose a simple black background.

We even added personal pictures of Skye's everyday activities, this way it is letting her fans keep an update on what she is doing, it is so so important to keep the fans updated and letting them know what Skye is getting up to, because it is them that are going to spend money on her products. If they are't happy then Skye can't do well, so her label need to make sure they are pleasing the fans and giving them what they want. Additionally, we added in a paragraph saying a little bit about herself and also a blog entry which talks about her day of shooting 'Chick Habit'. We also added in a few of upcoming gigs, as to let the fans know where she's going to be and when. The venues where Skye is performing really suits her image and the genre she sings, she will be performing in small bar places such as, Camden's KOKO.

Below are a couple of female artist's Myspace's we looked at for inspiration:

http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic

http://www.myspace.com/katyperry

http://www.myspace.com/vvbrown

Music Video
We spoke about how we decided to use performance and concept throughout the video specifically. We thought we would challenge the conventions by only including a short narrative sequence at the beginning of the sequence. Many videos we looked at, incorporated a narrative throughout their video. However we decided against that because our song was very repetitive in the first place, it meant we would have to have a great narrative. And unless it was worthy enough, it could ruin our video. The narrative at the beginning also gives the audience something to draw into, they want to see more cos the narrative brings the audiences to asking questions, 'who is the woman?'. 'Why is she in a taxi?', it is these questions that keep the audience intrigued.

When we first chose our song we new because it was repetitive we will need to do something unique and upbeat in order to keep the audiences interests going. Therefore, we came up with the pitch of having a young blonde female dancing/running around London. We thought this was a really good idea as it wont be the same throughout the video and it means we can choose a couple of hot spot areas (Carnaby street, Bricklane, Liverpool Street). Using areas such as these is good because they are areas that London residents would definitely know about, and when your audience can relate the the surroundings they will fell more involved and therefore want to keep watching to find out where Skye is going/what she's going to do next. As shown with the audience feedback, we managed to do this extremely well, our audience constantly felt involved and the majority of them said they would watch it again because there was so much going and therefore will not get bored as easily.

I think that we definitely used the conventions of Diegesis in our video as actions are not completely as although she is walking around London a lot you never see her get to the end of a road or turn a corner, so there are gaps in the audiences understanding of her movements. Furthermore there are many repetitions, in the outfits and locations, and our artist definitely moves to the music.
Unlike a lot of videos we do not have an explicit link between lyrics and visuals, so I think here we have challenged the conventions. For example in the video clip we showed of Lily Allen when she sings ‘sun is in the sky’ it really is! The only bit in our video that I can think of is when she draws a heart and then wipes it away, this is the only section of our video that implies a break up or a relationship going wrong. However I think our video follows far more Goodwins theory of a strong relationship between music and visual, as we have edited to the beat a lot of the time, we see editing and cutting to the beat in almost every music video.

Below is an example of Empire State of Mind- Jay Z- the beginning few seconds are a perfect example of Goodwins theory.



Finally I think with Goodwin’s ‘the notion of looking’ I believe we have definitely challenged this because our video is not scopophilic like many solo female artist’s music videos are, and she is not dressed in a provocative way yet she is still sexy and cute and appealing to guys, as well as promoting a strong, independent image to her female fans.
Vernallis theory includes not always including a narrative which we follwed completely as we only used a 20sec narrative at the beginning to create enigma for the audience, arising questions to get them more interested in watching more. Also, Vernallis says a music video needs something to drive it, with our video it is Sian's performance that does it. Finally Vernallis says the video is a visual response to music, which our video is based on. We used our music to base what e would edit and where.
Album Cover

I think our cover definitely stuck to most of the forms and conventions. We included the majority of conventions like; record label, song choices, recording information, image of Skye.

However, in the end we decided on having a self titled album, mainly because Skye's branding is so strong we didn't think we needed an album name. Also, most album covers we had looked at of female solo artists were a single image of them on the front, trying to sell their image and identity.

Where as we challenged this by using 4 different images as the font cover, as a group we really liked this idea because he doesn't portray Sian as being self-centered. And with the 4 images, it gives more of a sense she is innocence and merely a young teenage artist. The use of the vinyl records allows people to immediately realise Skye's retro pop genre. Additionally, one of the images of our inside sleeve is a CU image of Skye, the image is actually an edited version of a still from our music video. I think the four different sides of the album cover work really well, because unlike others there aren't just lots of 'in your face' images of Skye, which personally i think is much better than included lots of shots of her. I think this is good because from the inside sleeve they can see her on her new single 'Chick Habit's' shoot and from the front they can look at four different images of her that all show a different side to her personality; fun, quirky, outgoing and young.