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

Below are stills from my video, the first four, and the below four and taken from the pendulum official fan site. You Can see from the pictures the link an the conventions i had taken into consideration when filming, as their is a significant and obvious link.

When deciding that I was going to make a music video, with corresponding ancillary tasks, I researched and collected several examples of everyday modern music videos and, I was able to identify common codes and conventions. Looking out for these specific examples and noting them down, really helped me to ensure that my music video was as professional looking as possible.

From the official site:

Pendulum Pendulum singing pendulum Band member

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

The band and song that we decided to work with, was, ‘Pendulum’, ‘Tarantula’. This is a rock/back, alternative rock genre song. We decided to work with his as it was a different style to the rest of the peers in our class, and also none of us were really familiar with this kind of genre, this enabled us to learn and find out more about the current genre.

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

When we begun planning our music video, we spent a lot of time looking and researching the costume that the artist wears, and also common occurring colours. We found that in all the videos that we had watched, and posters of the bands, dark colours, blues, blacks, greys, shirts, jeans and plimsolls were all common costume types. We incorporated this into our own music video, to ensure that we were able to meet the genre style of the band we had chosen to follow.

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

The staging and set seemed to play a big part of the music video and featured a lot in the 5 minutes that it’s being played. Again the staging is dark, and minimal, with the band instruments, and lighting. The colours of the red and green lighting, portrays a danger, and sort of eerier feel to the bands performance. This demonstrates the meaning and ideas behind the songs of this genre.

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

When filming our band sequence for the music video; we kept in mind what we had originally seen in videos, with bands with the same sort of genre; faithless, the prodigy and also Pendulum itself. we developed the idea of having a live performance within the video, and carried on with the codes and conventions that we had found in the video, continuing with representing the theme; this being, smoke machines, green and red lights, and also using the camera tri – pod’s, and the advanced technologies; ’fig rig, to allow us to get a range of abstract shots, showing the wackiness of the bands and fans life styles.

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

More often than not, all of an artist products link together and you are able to identify the artist’s image, just the same as how a slogan would work if you wish. Having either the same sort of colour theme, or band member appearing or some sort of repeated image is a visual way for the fan to remember the band/artist.

Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

The combination of both my ancillary tasks and the music video is evident, and the viewer is able to see that there is a clear link. For the front cover of my music video, I used a similar image to one of the shots that appeared in my music video. Again for the inside cover I used a patterned image, with fine detail that also was a shot in my music video, and the poster advertising the release of the DVD, CD cover, was a photograph of similar background to the video. With my photographs that I used, I edited all of them in Photoshop, changing the contrast and brightness in all the pictures. This allowed all the pictures to be linked, and tell that they are all a part of the same advertisement.

Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

Throughout our music video there was a colour theme, of reds, greens and woodlands. A lot of the shots were taking place in the woods. Within my ancillary tasks, I ensured that the wood like effect was a continued theme throughout all of my work.

Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

Whilst making the front of my CD cover and the poster, I originally used standard fonts that were available on photo shop; however I felt that they were slightly boring, and didn't really fit in with my chosen genre. I went onto a website; www.dafont.com and I was able to look through a range of different fonts and sizes, and try them out on my work to see which worked most successfully. I decided to use the 'CREATOR CAMPOTYPE SMCP'. I downloaded the font and then uploaded it and opened it into photo shop; I was then able to use the font whenever I wanted, as it had been saved onto the system.

Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

When I was initially planning my designs for my ancillary tasks, you were able to indentify that the music video and the CD covers and the magazine articles linked, but not as clearly as I desired. In my original design, I planned out for just the colour scheme to run throughout the merchandise. When it came to actually creating my works, I changed my ideas. I decide to use images that were ‘like’, ones that had already appeared in my music video, as I felt it was a prime code and convention of the music video, and other items that came with it. It is a key idea that all of the products link, this meaning, that if my product was to be sold for real, then it would be able to sell, as it may well become ‘know’, and ‘recognizable’.

Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

Maybe to further the link between my ancillary tasks and the music video, I could incorporate the actual band onto the front cover of my case. This would show the buyer instantly, whose CD this is, and what it is etc. I could have even maybe had a faded outline of the band artists, just to show some sort of connection.

Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

Overall I think that within my work there is a clear connection between the music video and my ancillary tasks. The main way that I was able to achieve this was through the use of Photoshop, using the contrast and exposure tool, allowed me to have a theme of abstract running through my pictures. Also the use of woods and landscapes allowed my video and ancillary tasks to still feel connected.

Three - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The idea behind audience feedback is to see if we were on target to achieving an interest from a target audience that we had selected. Also we are able to find out, how to improve our video to meet the needs of the desired target audience.

Three - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From having the benefit of getting other people to watch our music video, and see my ancillary tasks throughout the making process, it allows us to pick up on errors and problems that we haven’t yet been able to discover ourselves. A fresh eye, to see the work, picks up on small timing problems, or fine detail that we have missed on. I think that a new eye is able to pick up on this minor problem as they haven’t been studying the work for so long. When we were editing and filming we had become so familiar with the work that we were producing, we were finding it really difficult to see faults and changes.

Three - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We showed the music video to the other peers in our class, and the feedback we received back, was mostly positive. The audience said that we had met the criteria of developing and making a music video to a professional standard. The editing and uploading of our work was very efficient, and our hard work was realised and appreciated. One point that we picked up on from our audience feedback, was that a section of our lip syncing was slightly out of time. When we had noticed this we were able to go back and correct the minor problem.

Three - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

When we watched other people’s videos in our class, this really helped us, develop and understand the problem with our own work, when looking at other peoples; we could see how we could improve ours. For example, with one group that we watched, we saw that they had lots of shots of their band, and comparing this to our work we saw that we were lacking.

Three - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From the feedback which I received for my ancillary tasks, I got mainly positive feedback, like the fact of the tasks seem to fit with the genre which I was trying to achieve, and follow on from the music video due to the fact, that I have included some of the same surroundings within my covers.

Three - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

A problem that the audience picked up on my ancillary tasks, the music poster, was that the text needed to be moved over slightly, in order for it all to fit on the page, as half of the text was missing, due to being positioned wrong.
Audience feedback gave us another view and opinion of the work, and allowed us to develop our ideas, looking in from another profession, another viewer’s eye.

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

Within the creating of my music video I have been able to use a variety of media technologies though the various stages of the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages of my project.

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

During the research and planning stage of task, I was able to apply a variety of different media technologies to help greater my understanding of the genre that I have chosen focus on, throughout the development of my research I was able to explore the web, using a website, called, www.youtube.com which is a video sharing website. This website allows web users to upload and share videos.

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

I have several examples when I have used these different technologies through the use of both hardware and software. An example of where I have used constant hardware throughout my making of the video is, I used an apple Mac to create the whole of the video. At first I didn’t know much about the Mac’s or how to use them. But with the team effort of my friends, in the end I was able to use and edit on my own.

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

For the music video itself, I used an added programme, called, ‘Final cut’. The programme of final cut allows you to used added effects, and applies transitions into your music video. I used the effects a lot on clips, that hadn’t filed to well, or looked a bit boring.

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

After we had finished making the music video, I moved on to completing my ancillary tasks. This included a DVD cover, the inside cover and also a magazine advert. To make my ancillary tasks, I worked again on the Mac’s, using a programme called, ‘Photoshop’, this is a programme that is designed to edit graphics and photographs.

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

I used Photoshop in the ancillary task to use to manipulate several images that I wanted to use within my work. Using Photoshop, allowed me to change the Hue and the saturation, the contrast, and brightness of each image. By doing this I managed to change the whole colour of the photographs, from the normal contrast to a more fitting darkish blue/ black/ grey, colour upon which I was after.

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

Another tool on Photoshop that I used was each piece of information that you place on the blank canvas that you start with automatically gets put on to a new layer which you are able to then able to correct any mistakes that are made in the process by just selecting the relevant layer. Using the eye tool, allowed me to control which layers I saw, at the relevant times.

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

On Photoshop, I opened all of my pictures into a blank canvas and used the exposure tool to change the contrast of the pictures. It gave an unusual abstract effect, which really fit into my genre. I used text within my work, for obvious titles. For the barcode of my cover I used the 'BARCODE' script on Photoshop, and made up my own digits for the code. I also used the stamp tool, as when rating the pieces, as if it was from a magazine, which made the piece look professional, and really up to date with the current media.

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

Another use of technology I used was, www.blogger.com, this is a website that allows a user to upload, edit and share short blogs, given precise information. Blogger allows the user to upload not only text, but also film, photographs and music soundtracks. Throughout the creating process, this meant that I could regularly update my blogger, with storyboards, plans, sketches to show my progression. As each blog is separate, every new step/ progression that I made, I was able to make a new post, and this become apparent to the viewer. A real advantage to using blogger, allows other people to comment, and follow my blogs, gaining relevant audience feedback – this allows me to change and edit my posts, depending on what comments people leave, also maybe being able to edit my music video, or ancillary tasks, as my progress is regularly updated online.

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

To improve my use of technologies, I could have uploaded my music video to the website I have already discussed in my earlier evaluation, www.youtube.com. The reason I didn’t upload my video to the website is because I looked at other a level students work online and felt that the lack of audience feedback that they received was a waste of time, and wouldn’t benefit my work at all.

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

Within my research and planning stage, I felt that making mood boards really helped me understand my genre, become involved in the band development. Within my mood boards I looked at costume, set design, and just general appearance, when looking at the appearance of the band members I found that within every band, there was a member with several tattoos, piercings and wacky hair! Breaking the stereotypes of the ‘typical’, members, is the lead singer of ‘Faithless’, He’s black. We tried to break the stereotypes in our own video, by using a girl as the drummer. We weren’t able to do this, as i6 had no rhythm, and really couldn’t get the drum beat and the music together!

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

When we begun the research and planning stage, I was put in charge of a lot of the drawing and uploading. For example, when I was organising the shooting schedule, I made several copies, and uploaded a final copy to the internet, onto the blogger site, this allowed the whole group to always have a copy on hand and to share our ideas with other online users.

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

When I was doing the story boards, I also uploaded these to blogger, after colouring them. I felt it was important to upload the visual stimuli, as the ides of blogger is to incorporate both pictures and text; it breaks the web page up a bit, and keeps the reader interested.

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

When I was using the camera to film, I really enjoyed using the fig rig. I liked the outcome of being able to get some really up close and abstract shots of both the band and the surroundings, when I was filming in the woods, the fig rig ensured that we could follow the band members, and turn the camera upside down to get that ‘wacky’ effect that we desired.