Evaluation - Question four: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In order to explain and answer how my group used media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of our work, myself and my group partner Amber also collaboratively answered this question. We used Gliffy, a mind mapping website, to list and analyse every form of technology which was really important and beneficial to us. I also made links to appropriate theories and concepts for this question which are stated below.
An example of a concept which can be applied to my answer to this question are Henry Jenkin's theories. He has theorised about the emergence of a convergence culture as a result of different types of technologies and skills used for them. This relates to me using different media technologies for my research, planning and evaluation stages. My mind maps which list and explain how I used them can be seen underneath this, they are best viewed by clicking on them to expand them and then opening the images in a new tab:
Media Technologies - Hardware:
Media technologies - Software (Internet) related:
Media technologies - Software (Computer technology) related:
Evaluation - Question three: What have you learned from your audience feedback? I was able to answer this question by retrieving feedback from a variety of people from different age groups. They were able to provide their thoughts, opinions and suggestions about my group's music video and ancillary tasks (website and CD digi-pack). This was done through filmed interviews and online questionnaires. These provided answers which we learned from in relation to questions like what they would rate our main product, what they liked about it and our ancillary tasks, what they thought we could improve on, if they'd recommend them to other people to view and use and what theories and concepts they thought our products related too. For example, the hypodermic model states that audiences consume the messages of media products by interpreting them directly. This would mean those who view mine would take on the approach that love won't last forever. This allowed my group member and I to gain a lot of knowledge about what different viewers thought about them.
Audience Feedback Interviews:
Once we filmed our interviews, which included asking females and males between the ages of sixteen to fifty four a mixture of open and closed questions (to gain an in-depth range of data) about our music video, CD digi-pack and website, we made one joint video of them by editing them together. This was done by using Adobe Premier Pro and Windows Movie Maker. We mostly included young people as they are our predicted target market and were more easily accessible to us. This is why we included a longer, more spontaneous interview with Ryan at the end of the video. This was helpful as it proved to us our target market may mostly be relatively young girls who apart of an active audience since they may share our media products on social media. Although it was also really interesting and beneficial to see what adults thought about our video too since they helped me learn about how different age groups would consume my media products and therefore media products in general. It can be viewed below:
Audience Feedback Online Questionnaire:
We also asked students from our school to answer questions on an online questionnaire which featured closed questions. I thought this would help us learn quickly about what viewers thought as it would take less time for people to complete and therefore appear more appealing to do so. I made it on www.surveymonkey.com. Three males and three females answered it and they were between the ages of seventeen and eighteen. The questionnaire can be seen below:
The answers of our survey can be viewed on this picture:
Conclusion about what my group learned from this feedback:
I created a presentation using www.powtoon.com which summarises what I have learned about as a result of gaining feedback from different people. I have analysed how they responded to my music video and ancillary tasks which has resulted in my knowledge about viewers increasing. For example, I have made theoretical links to their feedback which has helped me to explore the fact that different people will have different responses, opinions and emotions towards my media products. One of the theories I have mentioned in relation to my feedback is Hall's Reception Theory. It relates to it because those who recognise and agree with the messages in relation to love and the loss of it I have incorporated within my music video and ancillary tasks, would take on a dominant reading. Other connections to theories as well as how my knowledge about audiences has increased can be viewed below:
Evaluation - Question two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? I used PowerPoint and Slideshare to present the introductory part of our answer. This describes the combined importance of our main product (our music video) and ancillary tasks (CD digi-pack and website) with links to the synergy between them and theories such as and Katz and Lazersfeld's Two Step Flow Theory and Anderson's Longtail Theory.
For example, since my main product and ancillary tasks share the same themes and conventions in relation to love and the loss of it, the combination of them exaggerates this. However, since my group has incorporated metaphorical and symbolic imagery, they may be consumed by viewers in different ways. An example of this is the snakeskin background used on the front cover of my CD and on my website, which could be a metaphorical link to the character of the boyfriend in the video as snakes have connotations of being sly. Therefore, this relates to the Two Step Flow Theory, which states opinion leaders view media products in one way, spread their thoughts to others, who then interpret these in their own way too. This highlights how effective the combination of my main products and ancillary tasks is, as the presentation below continues to do:
Pixton is a collaborative presentation tool myself and my group partner used to help in explaining the rest of my answer, but in a cartoon format. We liked that this allowed us to create characters which could be likened to us and our situation. It allows us to provide more detail in further explaining how effective the combination of our main product and ancillary
tasks is in a more informative, original and mostly relatable way.
Evaluation - Question one: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I used Soundcloud to upload a voice recording of myself starting to answer this question. For example, I explain how theoretical links to Andrew Goodwin's Conventions Theory and Richard Dyer's Star Theory can be made to my music video in relation their forms and conventions.
Another concept in relation to the narrative of my music video which adheres to the conventions of real media products since it revolves around love, but also involves the loss of love which means it develops this convention, is Barthes' Narrative Codes. Since there is an element of mystery within my video as reasons for the characters' break-up isn't fully explained, it relates to Barthes' enigma code. This makes it interesting as well as slightly different to real media products. I also begin to compare my video to real media products such as Justin Bieber's and Lady Gaga's videos. For the complete script I used for this recording, it is featured in the description of this clip on my Soundcloud profile which can by found by clicking this link: Question one - Soundcloud Introduction:
To answer the rest of the question I chose to write in the style of a media student, like myself, for a school magazine. I write as the media student analysis how I have created a music video (my music video) and explain to other students about it. I thought it would be an interesting and original idea to further analyse the forms and conventions of it in this way. I was able to do this by using www.joomag.com. It can be viewed and expanded so my analysis can be seen clearer below:
This is my group's final music video for the song "Desire" by Years & Years. We created this under the fictional group name Cupid & Medusa. It was really enjoyable to create as we collaboratively shared the roles of directing and editing to make it. I also played the minor role of the "boyfriend/ex-boyfriend" in it too. We were able to use our combined knowledge and skills when using hardware and software from both the AS and A2 parts of our Media Studies course to produce a music video we were both really happy with.
The digi-pack template I used for my CD in Adobe Photoshop.
The album booklet has the themes of love and the loss of love, which my group wanted to emphasise. These are represented by photos of the main character in our music video we took. We edited them using the website www.picmonkey.com and Adobe Photoshop to feature broken hearts, subtly edited flames onto the front cover and insert, as well as the tearing of the heart on the Lyrics CD insert and the broken screen effect added onto the back cover. The snake theme is also present throughout as a metaphor for the male character in our video. Snakes also have links to the Garden of Eden, as do apples, which also have links to fairytales. These also imply that love can be tempting, but dangerous and it won't necessarily end in happily ever after as our music video shows.
By editing our female character into Snow White for the CD insert behind the CD with text in the form of the seven deadly sins onto it, it represents the corruption of her innocence, addiction, pain and loss of hope which are conventions which tie my music video and ancillary tasks together and link to the main themes. Therefore, we used our female character from our music video on the front and back cover as well as similar conventions to emphatically create a synergy between them.
We also incorporated promotional and advertising techniques in the form of the logo of 'our' fictional record label and a link to our website on the back cover of our CD. These would help to attract more people and gain more fans as I learned from analysing the group, Years and Years, and their official website. A larger picture of these can be viewed on the right.
The CD booklet/Digi-pack can be viewed by slideshow (which I created on www.albumizr.com) below. If you would like to view each individual image please click on the icon on the bottom left of the slideshow and click "direct image link" on the image you would like to view:
Below are some images I took of my digi-pack to display what it could look like if it was an actual media product:
In order to connect the conventions and themes of my group's ancillary tasks and music video together, create a synergy between them and help to promote our music duo as if we were real artists, we created a website.
Our website helped to emphasise the metaphorical meanings in connection to love and the loss of it which we wanted to imply. For example, this was done by including eye-catching moving gifs like a girl vomiting hearts, which represents our female character in our music video. This can be seen on the screenshot of our homepage below. It would also aid us in attracting, creating and maintaining a continually growing fandom by displaying features like links to social media, news updates, merchandise and our song and music video. These are advertising techniques which real artists use as I learned about them when I analysed Years & Years's website which can be seen by clicking here.
The website was created on wix.com. It can be viewed by clicking here or by clicking this link: www.cupidandmedusa.wix.com.
