Evaluation - The Use of New Media Technologies Within Our Project

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

The main impact of new media technologies, on our project, has been the internet. For our research we were able to use a search engine to quickly identify relevant fan websites and artist websites to collect data, and assess who our target audience was. We were also able to analysis artists similar to the one that was chose, using sites such as youtube and spotify, that suggest songs you may like. The use of the internet made it possible to find videos we wanted to watch, and we were able to watch them at our convinence, instead of relying on a radio or a television to possibly show the songs we wanted. Web 2.0 is interactive, because of these people are able to leave comments, talk about a product etc. This enabled us to look at what people thought and how they compared certain artists to others. Using youtube and the print screen function, during our research we were able to capture certain moments and analyse them, because of this, it was easier to notice different shot types, use of lighting, mis en scene, props, locations etc. This media technology allowed us to physically look at other videos and artists and helped us to decide what techniques to use, and how well they worked.

To edit our video, we used iMovie. As none of us in the group had ever used any video editing software, we decided that it was a good starting point for beginners, even if it isn't the most accurate editing software. used a digital camera to film with and then uploaded it to iMovie, because we used a digital camera we were able to change what we used easily, rather than using film which would have to be cut together. We filmed the majority of our video, and then came to the conclusion it wasn't what we wanted, and we were easily able to change our footage. It also gave us the opportunity to quickly cut together the parts of film that were needed, and then later refine the lengths on the shots, and easily sync up the music and action. For my ancillary task I used photoshop CS4, I'd only previously used photoshop for my AS task. As I wanted to create something similar to existing media texts, I downloaded relevant fonts. I also used masks for the background. For the photoshoot for the ancillary task, I used plain backgrounds, such as a black curtain, to make it easier to edit.

Using a blog to document all of the progress towards making our products was the most beneficial part of the available new media technologies. I used the website Scribd to embed powerpoints, without converting the powerpoint into another form. I was also able to upload pictures of screen shots, and add links to other relevant blog posts. Social networking site, Facebook, allowed us to directly recieve feedback, after uploading our work, making it easily accessable by our target audience.

Evaluation - Audience Feedback

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The use of web 2.0 played a large part in our audience feedback. We created a rough cut of our original idea, the story line was a girl and a boy falling in and out of love, all leading to the prom. After showing this rough initial idea to some of our class mates, the feedback was largely negative. Due to this point we made the decision to completely change our narrative. We then sent out questionnaires through email and facebook to decide on a new story line. Then with the new completely video we posted it onto youtube and onto facebook. You can see the comments we recieved on facebook here. Here is a screen shot of our video on youtube, it also shows how many views we recieved and the likes and dislikes.



Out of the feedback that we recieved, it was mostly constructive. We also recieved alot of comments about the narrative storyline, questioning the relationship between the two girls, which isn't what we originally aimed for but is good as it differs from our genre. Alot of people also liked the heart warming hug and laugh at the end of the video, which is a bonus as we wanted the video to end on a high. Considering we'd never used the software iMovie before to create a video, the comments about editing and the techniques used were positive.

When looking at the questionnaire results, that can be viewed here. We noticed that people thought our performance shots were better than our narrative shots. We did this partly on purpose because most of the videos in our genre that we looked at had heavy performance shots, quite often during narrative sections. By recieving this feedback it shows that we achieved what we had set out to. However our narrative could've been stronger.

The majority of people said that we had used a variety of shot types, however 35% said we didn't. We understand this, because we only did about 3 different shot angles in each location. If we had more time we could've rectified this. However we feel that it was not hugely important, as long as we had a wide variety of locations.

Evaluation - The Effectiveness of Our Products as a Package

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

Comparing music videos with the relevant album and posters there is generally no real connection, unlike films and their promotional packages which are connected very closely. Our music video and the rest of our promotional package are not closely linked. Our music video connects with the lyrics of the song we chose, and the song we chose is a part of the album. We used the same location for the pictures in our ancillary task as the shots we took for the stage performance shots, we also used the same outfit. This is effective because it gives the impression that the ancillary products and the music video are part of the same product package. The idea of everything as one package, is to create an image of the artist and send out an impression to the public. By the video, album, and poster being slightly different, this creates a wider target audience for the artist.

During our music video our artist appears to be quite cheeky, and outspoken. I tried to convey this in the pictures chosen for my ancillary task, I did this by choosing a photograph for the front cover of her with a cheeky smile, the insert photograph she's in a performance position and looks very comfortable in who she is, and the back cover she's standing with her hand on her hip. All of these pictures show a connection to moments of self confident attitude which are also present in our music video.
Here is a screenshot of a similar position during the music video compared to one on my album cover.
The title of the album 'One of the boys' also fits with the self confidence attitude theme running through, as it gives the impression of being a tom boy.

I kept to the theme of stars for my album cover and insert. This was so it wasn't bitty and came together nicely. On the insert is the lyrics of the song we used, as in many album covers they list the lyrics of the songs. Click here to see my completed album artwork, and here to see my completed poster.

I think it's important to have some similarities between the poster and the album cover but also to give the fans a taste of something different. I used some of the same font and colours on the poster as on the album, I also put a picture of the album cover on the poster advertising it's release.

Evaluation - Challenging Codes and Conventions

In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge the codes and conventions of real media products?

For our A2 media project we had to produce a music video, an album cover with inserts and a promotional poster, these would all form part of a promotional media package. All 3 products link together using and developing existing pop genre media techniques. We have also challenged many of these codes and conventions.

If you go here you can see our performance and narrative pitch. By looking at other music videos from our genre, we found that most narrative parts focused on romantic relationships between a man and a woman. We decided that we wanted to keep the feeling of a close relationship, to link in with the lyrics. instead of a romantic relationship we developed the normal codes and conventions and focused our narrative on a friendship between two girls. From feedback we received it was not always completely clear that we had created a friendship environment, but possibly a same sex romantic relationship. This still goes against the conventions of existing media texts, because most videos portray heterosexual relationships instead of same sex. We noticed that many shots in the original 'Hot 'n' Cold' music video, Katy Perry sings during narrative shots, this is very typical of the pop genre. We decided to incorporate this into our music video.

When it comes to the performance shots of our music video we were more traditional, and used techniques from videos we had looked at. From looking at 'Ellie Gouldings - Starry Eyed' used similar techniques for our on stage performance, the expression in her face and directly looking into the camera singing.During the video Ellie Goulding stays in one spot but dances with her arms and knees. We got Emma to do the same in our performance shots. By using a variety of different shots in the same location focusing on Emma, makes her the centre of attention, which is the case in many music videos from this genre. We also looked at 'Lily Allen - Smile' Throughout her music video she's in her own personal space in a bedroom, singing into the camera in different positions on the bed. We decided to do the same in our music video, as it connects the audience to our artist as she is seen as vulnerable.

For our ancillary task we decided to use the original name of the artist and the album. When looking at existing album covers we discovered that quite often there was a picture of the artist with a plain background, generally black, white or other dark colours, with the except of the original album cover for 'Katy Perry - One of the boys' which is a picture of Katy Perry on a sun lounger in a brightly coloured garden. However most of these album covers didn't relate to the album name. However I also looked at singles covers and found these to be more elaborate and generally related to the song title. I decided to try and use the codes and conventions of existing media texts, and chose a dark blue/black background with stars to add that little bit of excitement similar to Ellie Goulding's single cover and Katy Perry's album cover. I also used very similar font and font colours to the original album cover on mine.


When researching posters pretty much all of them in our genre had white backgrounds and use one colour font. When looking at Lily Allen's poster for her tour 'With Natalie Portman's shaved head' she has used an animation of her our face and colour it pink. I decided to use the same technique. However instead of only using one colour for the font on my poster I decided to use two colours, the same as the album cover. I also noticed that posters were quite often very similar to the album cover. Challenging this I decided to use a photograph of Emma with curly hair instead of straight like in our music video and on our album cover. However you can still see the album and the poster are related.

Evaluation plan

Now that we've finished our final video and our ancillary tasks, all we have left to do is the evaluation. We will have to evaluate our products and our pre-production work. The following questions will need to be answered in the evaluation.

- In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge the codes and conventions of real media products?
- How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
- How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages of your project?

Audience feedback

We uploaded our music video to facebook to gain some feedback. We then uploaded a quick questionnaire for people to fill out and let us know what they thought. 25 people answered the questionnaire for us.

How would you rate our music video out of 10?
1 - 0
2 - 0
3 - 0
4 - 0
5 - 4
6 - 5
7 - 11
8 - 2
9 - 3
10 - 0

How would you rate the performance out of 10?
1 - 0
2 - 0
3 - 0
4 - 0
5 - 0
6 - 7
7 - 8
8 - 9
9 - 1
10 - 0

How would you rate the narrative out of 10?
1 - 0
2 - 0
3 - 0
4 - 0
5 - 3
6 - 9
7 - 12
8 - 1
9 - 0
10 - 0

Does the narrative create an easy to follow story?
Yes - 19
No - 5
Don't know - 1

Does our video look like a pop video?
Yes - 22
No - 3

Have we used a variety of different shot types?
Yes - 18
No - 7


Here is a screen shot of when I initially posted our music video onto facebook.

Final version of our music video