Evaluation.

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



We used various media technologies to make our products, the main media technology we used was Blogger, we used this technology so that we can keep track of our on progress knowing what left to do it also helps us analyse, plan and construct our final product and finally evaluate it all. Using the blog technology shows that everything is more modern than working on folders, it also makes work more efficient and professional looking, this is the second year of using a blog as we used it the year before in our AS work.


To help aid stages of our analysis we had to look into other video's that are similar to ours we used youtube, youtube is another media technology that was very useful, we was able to watch the video's as many times needed and then post onto our blog by copying the embedded code into a post. I think youtube is the most useful technology we used, it helped us look at wide range of music video's which helped us depth-en our video analysis, the blog was very simple and easy to use and posting videos onto our blog was even easier.

Another simple technology was goggle images, we used this to get photo's of existing CD covers and annotate and analyse them. This helped us a lot as we was able to get some ideas in able to help us create our promo packs and make it that bit more original and quirky. We also used it to access some images that have been print screened so we could help evaluate and compare our images to professional footage.


The main piece of media technology we was using was our camera, tripod and charger now and then. We was taught how to set up the tripod and use the camera basically, we knew were all the USB slots where and batter slot. However we had not actually used it ourself, but was fairly easy to use and set up, as we continued filming are skills with setting up the camera and using it became more efficient. Once we would have finished we would upload our footage to the mac, which we have been using since GCSE, so it was easy and quick to use.


Once the footage was uploaded we would then move it into Premier Pro CS4, this was the main technology we used it allowed us to construct and build our music video. The programming was efficient and brilliant to use. All though most of the time it was frustrating and difficult to use the end results was worth the time that was put in. We was given a basic use of how to use this programme by our teachers, we was taught how to upload, save and move our clips, from now on we had to use it ourselves we found as a group that using this type of programming yourself and figuring things out was the best way in learning. We figured out how to use basic editing by trying and if it was wrong, did not look right or just did not work we would simply undo it.


Without these use of media technologies it would of been extremely difficult to make our final media products which were effective, successful and professional.

Audience Feedback.

When doing our questionnaire we found it best to do a hard copy rather than a blog as we knew we would get a better feedback because not many people use blogs. We handed our questions out to late teenagers 17/18+ both female and male, this helped us get a wider knowledge of what suited other people. The majority of the audience that had got back to use were majority female, this worked out better for us as we knew that females would sympathise more with our main character also the story would appeal more to them.
When handing out the questionnaires our main concern was that the audience would not understand the story, that it might not be clear enough to the audience. It was hard trying to reveal the story bit by bit without giving away the twist, once we had the feedback, our questionnaire audience re-enforced that the story line would be fine and clear to the audience and that it was not that complicate to follow. All though some responses did tell us that we needed to make the part and the end clear for it to work, we needed to add a flashback or more than the photo to tell us that the boy was the ex, we made sure of this by added the flashbacks of the boy 'Alex' at the end as we thought that the was the best idea, and as it was an idea from a viewer it would work more than most ideas we would come up with as a group.
We tried to mix up our questions so that people would give us a view about everything and even some advice, we asked 'Are the drugs/alcohol a good idea to include in this kind of video?'. We asked this because we believe that this was an issue we realised could cause most problems, but because most of our viewers would be 18 and above that they would be sensible enough to know that it was just a video. People responded well to this question as we had hoped, this helped us improve our video by editing well on the parts that involved drugs and aggressiveness when smashing the bottles. the positive feedback included 'The drugs and part violence gives it the edge that is involved in a drum&bass genre' also 'This stuff happens everyday with drugs and alcohol, its good to confront it because its in the environment we live in'. This type of feedback was encouraging for us so we continued with out positive attitude with the drugs and alcohol use in our video.
When we was editing we was worried about the speed of our song because it has so many fast paced and slow paced parts it's hard too keep control with the shot's, we did not want the viewers to be caught up in the fast paced editing and then find the slow parts boring, we asked a question to our audience about this, ''what do you particularly like the most about the music video?'' the responses was good as people said the editing worked well with the timing of the music, one reply said 'the slow parts of the music was the best, the rocky-ness of the camera made it exciting and they seemed deeper and darker than most parts of the video' - This was a good response and what we hoped for, also the way the included the 'dark and deep' bits worked well to our advantage as this was how we wanted our video to be portrayed.
We had good responses to our point of view shots especially the one on the bridge, one response told us 'The shot on the bridge, when looking up to the sky made it different to what most people do, even though it was a long shit and was stable, it still kept me interested'. This was a brilliant feedback as even the long shots did not bore people as we thought they would, it is good to hear that some of our shots our different to most video's, this gives us the sense of individuality which is what we aimed for at the very beginning of our project.

We also asked questions about our promo packs to see how they would come across to our audience. We had good feedback from this also, we asked 'If you see this as a CD pack would it appeal to you to buy it?' - Our responses went well talking about our individual photo's majority of people preferred our front picture, 'the colours are eye catching and the effects on the photo also the type of photo suits Pendulum'. This was a brilliant feedback that was received, as the majority of people liked the front picture we was concerned about the back of the CD cover, until we came across what we think and no is positive feedback. One reply said 'The back cover is amazing, not something you would put with Pendulum but the originality works perfectly to draw in people'. We think that this is very positive feedback as we said at the start of this project we want something different and original. Everyone gave positive feedback about the poster inside including how it is the perfect advert for people to go to one of their concerts as well as lesson to their music.

We had a lot of different responses to our questionnaire all positive, and we are great full for this response we have got.

Magazine Advertisement.

When creating our magazine advertisement we wanted to make it easy and simple and nothing too fancy, so we stuck to the conventional things to do.
We have in big bold letters 'PENDULUM' this straight away attracts the audience and gets their attention of who it. We then put the front cover of our CD as the main image so the audience know what is is about and what were advertising.
At the bottom of the page we have magazine quotes and ratings about our album. All positive of course to promote the band. In the right corner we have a puff like text telling the bands when the CD will be released and available to buy. This is key information and therefore is in a different colour so it stands out and is a main focus for the audience to see.
We then have the same image we used in the middle of our CD and is a very famous photo of Pendulum, so this will draw in the audience attention, across that in a different colour we have 'UK TOUR IN JUNE', this straight away will get attention from the audience. This is added to create publicity and not only help sell their CD but their tour for next year, we are multi-advertising to make Pendulum bigger and well known. This is common amongst Drum&Bass or Rock genre bands to get them promoting everything all at once, so everyone knows what's next for this band.
When first making this advertisement we was going to challenge conventions that Pendulum normally do and make it bright and out their, but then we realised it would make more sense to keep it dull and dark with bright which they normally do because other music advertisement will be having bright colours to attract attention. We kept our advertisement in tune with the same theme of colours we used for our DigiPack, by doing this is makes the whole advertisement process look sophisticated, modern and neat instead of having bright and tacky colours. By having the dull colours it also creates the real pendulum vibe they give out, but when they preform it is the complete opposite. Also by having the simple colour theme the writing will stand out which is a repetitive theme that we used when making the DigiPack, which helps us deliver the message short and sweet to the readers by making it stand out.

Our Final Music Video.

The video starts with a close up of a phone, the phone vibrates a receives a text in perfect timing with the beat of the music. The camera then moves to an extreme close up of the text being opened and the text reading, 'Sorry I can't do this any more' from 'Alex'. We then pan upwards to be introduced to our main character who has just red the text his face shows different emotions of upset and anger, so we assume he has just been dumped. This is where we know that the whole music video will be revolved around our main character. We then have a shot reverse shot of our main character resulting to alcohol, he would take swigs of vodka and then a medium shot of the alcohol slowing decreasing, this emphasizes how much the character is drinking in such a short period of time. We continue these shots for another 6 shots until the alcohol is all gone. We chose to have our main character drinking alcohol so early because it will show his anger and un-happiness caused by the text just received, also alcohol is a convention that is normally associated with drum&bass music videos. We then have a point of view of him looking down on the vodka bottle that he has just dropped, this also shows how much he has drank as he has finished a whole bottle.
We then have wide medium shots of our main character messing up his room by tipping part of his bed, throwing items and throwing his clothes. When editing these shots we had to decrease the speed to make them fit in with the slow pace of the song at the beginning. We then have a close up of our main character ripping the photo up, this photo has a big importance in the video as we see it later on in the video.
We then use medium shot of him leaving a house, this helps makes the video flow and make sense so we know how he gets to one place to another. Also using different transitions help show that time is passing throughout the video quickly.
As our main character is walking along the street he is still reading the same text from earlier in confusion, but is shocked to see his ex with another person, their is obviously tension in the atmosphere. So as our main character passes staring at the couple, they both look over their shoulders making eye contact, we have decreased the speed of this clip as well to show the importance of this part of the video.
As the slow music begins to speed up, we have added quick cut shots of the main character and his actions, this fits in with the music and keeps the audience engaged. Out of fit of anger, the main character goes onto kicking and throwing road signs, this shows the audience how angry he really is, we then switch to a point of view shot of an on coming car, this is done by hand held so it still fits in with the fast paced music with the unsteady and jolt of the camera, this creates excitement for the audience as they do not know what's about to happen, in a last second our main character jumps out of the way to watch the car go past. This shows to the audience how desperate and distraught our character is with his attempt of suicide.
By keeping this whole shot hand-held it keeps the audience intrigued as its as if they are watching it through the characters eyes.
The following sequence start with the lyrics 'Take me out of her' as we have a pan downwards to the protagonist falling onto the floor in weakness, the high camera angle shows the vulnerability and weakness. The protagonist makes a phone call, which is then followed by a mystery character walking around the corner, we use a long shot so the audience can see the full mysterious character, from a stereotypical dress and walk we can see that this character is trouble. We use a shot reverse shot of the protagonist and our new mysterious character talking, the camera is close to show the frustration and anger on their faces this highlights the tension and anger in their conversation. An extreme close up of drugs being swapped from hand to hand is seen, so we now know this character was a drug dealer. After the shot of the swap, we switch to a point of view shot of a white blur that dissolves into a clear point of view shot of drugs lined up, the blur and then sudden clear view shows the effect that drugs and alcohol has taken on the main character.
A new location is introduced by an establishing shot, the following shots are of the protagonist throwing bottles at a wall, we used a special effect to keep the audience interested and highlight the smashing of the bottles by reversing the shot and slowing the duration down, so our character throws the bottle - it smashes - the then bottle reforms like rewinding and he throws it again. We then highlight one and slow the speed down when a bottle smashes against a certain part of the wall with graffiti reading 'Jay is Gay', the audience for the time being will take no notice of this un till later when it relates back. To keep the flow going we have a shot of the protagonist running up a hill from a long distance shot, to then a point of view shot of him looking down whilst standing on top of the tunnel, the camera is still shaking and unsteady this emphasizes the use of drugs and alcohol. The use of this hand held shot makes the audience again see the pressure and distraught from our protagonist considering suicide again. We have an extreme shot of a watch, this is to illustrate time going quickly and that the events have taken place over a whole day. From now on all of our shots are in darkness, this helps creates more confusion from the main character especially the point of view shots with lights that blur and spin, this again highlights the use of drugs and alcohol.
The following section of the video is the fire, we choose to use this bit towards the end because using the fire in pitch black makes it stand out, it also makes the video have the dark and gloomy feel. He burns presents and items that belong to his ex, this emphasizes the lyrics that are playing at this moment of time 'Feed the Fire', we switch to a point of view shot, by using the camera hand held to where he walks towards the fire then falls in front of the burning fire, again this is another near death experience for our main character.
From the previous shot the blurriness zooms out into the clear view of the drugs to which our protagonist wipes away the drugs and throws away alcohol, this is a significant turning point for our character to which we believe he gets better. He pours alcohol into the sink which shows the cleaning phase we us a transition from the running water down the sink to running water coming out of bath taps. This helps keep the video running smoothly. As the audience now knows we are in the bathroom, we have an over shoulder shot of the main character looking into the mirror with a distraught and deppressed look on his face. We see a close up of a phone were out main character forwards the text previously recieved from his ex, saying 'Sorry i can't do this no more', this add suspicion and confusion to the audience as they expected him to be getting better. We have a pan upwards to show the protagonist in the bath, but with blood on his wrists as the pan upwards continues we see him laying their in the bath surrounded by his blood and his other wrist slit. As the audience would be startled to see such a blunt ending, the photo that was ripped earlier by the main character is slowly dropped from his hand, and in slow motion falls to reveal that the ex 'Alex' was in fact the boy from which we saw earlier in the street when our main character had passed them. This reveals that our love couple are a homosexual couple, this challenges the conventions of the typical couple as we see homosexuality to be embraced. We see a flash back of the boy Alex from earlier we also increased the contrast of that shot to make it brighter this clearly shows that its a flashback, we then switch back to the photo laying on the floor to remind the audience that it was the boy from earlier. We switch to a medium shot of our main character whilst zooming out, it ravels that he is still in bath still with slit wrists and has sunk lower in the bath as the blood spreads, and the music slowly dissolves out to a blunt ending.

Final CD DigiPack.

This is our finished and final piece of our DigiPack from left to right we have the front cover, middle section (poster) and back of the CD.
When all three are put together their is a clear colour scheme of dark and gloomy colours, mostly black. Black is normal seen in the indie/rock genre, which is what Drum&Bass appeals to, this works out perfectly as we know we will attracting the right attention.
As I said earlier when analysing the images singly you can see that the middle section and back of the CD is mostly back, this is because it creates and a classy and more modern look. But in the middle section the lights and crowd are showing a bit of radiant colours which dose not make the whole DigiPack look to dull, also on the back of the CD cover, the white smoke pops more, which takes away from the blurry background. As well we especially did not want the front cover being too dull and colourless as this is the first thing are audience will see and base their first opinion on, so we tried to keep some colour in their by changing the contrast. We want the front cover to stand out a bit so it attracts the audience, but in the fine detail when you have a close look, the colours are very dull, and the outskirts of the image is very dark and dull where we used a burnt tool on it.
The most important thing is the band reputation as well, the audience would buy the music purely on the music, it would not make such a difference if the DigiPack was done badly. When the fans are passionate about the music they wont mind. This is why we used typical normal conventions that is normally seen on Pendulums CD covers such as the production company, magazine reviews and song titles. To keep the audience interested in the basics.

Our DigiPack - The Photo's.

INITIAL IDEA'S FOR BACK OF CD.




These two photo's don't seem as effective to be on a back of the CD they both seem pretty boring and dull, their is no smoke coming from the cigarette makes it seem that it's not alight and look fake. These two images also show too much off the characters face when we wanted to create a mystery. These two photos wouldn't draw in enough attention to be put on the back of a CD.











FINAL BACK COVER



This photo out of the three is the best photo. So we have decided to use this is our final photo. The image of the character, who is actually our main character in the video is smoking which fits in with current theme of drug and alcohol abuse that is in our video. The smoke raises at a perfect angle to cover his face slightly which adds to a mystery sense. Also the dark and dull colours fit in perfectly with our occurring theme.
This photo will be turned into black and white by changing the saturation on photo shop also this will make the smoke stand out more, it will challenge most conventions of having a black and white background as that can be associated with being a bit boring.
We then can add on the conventional stuff such as the titles and track names, they can all be placed on the left side where there is a lot of room. This photo we think will be the most effective and attract the audience in and it is not a conventional background.












FRONT COVER


When choosing the front cover we wanted to keep it nice and simple and something that will draw the audience attention. We choose this photo, it was the only photo we took and the best photo. We find this photo very effective and appealing. The bright colours and burnt edges are just like pendulum. Also it is the same as most Pendulums covers with having a photo of a place as their front cover.
This photo is taken on top of the tunnel that appears in the video, this is where the characters stands on top and looks down.
The photo is a picture of a train track that is empty and by the looks of it, looks run down. All though the photo itself is very bright the actual details of photo are quite dark and dull which fits in with the occurring theme in all our work.
We think by using this image it will attract the readers and create a good feel about the album.











MIDDLE SECTION.



This will be the inside of our DigiPack where the audience will be able to see various photo's of the band and have posters.
The band pendulum do not appear in the music video and also they do not show in either front or back of the CD case, it is normally conventionally to show the band in the Drum&Bass genre. Therefore we are using this image, it is important to keep promoting the band and by using this image we are showing the audience how good their gigs and performances look, therefore this is helping promote not only the music and their CD but their tours. By doing this we helping Pendulum to be bigger and more successful band.
The image is very eye catching and almost dose not look real because we rarely see photos taken like this from bands gigs and performances. So this really makes it eye catching to the audience when they first look at it. The audience in the picture also seem to be enjoying themselves with their hands in the air, in the bottom right corner of the photo you will also see a signature. This makes it more realistic and original that it is actually Pendulum, so when their target audience buy this album they will be getting an signature signed photo by pendulum which makes it even better and more appealing.

Existing CD Covers Analysis.

This front cover is Pendulum's actual front cover for 'Watercolour', instead of having an item of just a basic pattern like they normally have they have a place as their background, they have a river and mountain in the background, with a faded edges around the sides of the cover which makes the main focus on the middle of the page where in big white letters they have 'Pendulum - Watercolour'. Because the title of the band and song is white and the rest of the photo is dull colours it makes it stand out more drawing attention to it. By doing this it makes us the audience focus of the name of the band more.







This is the back of a CD cover by pendulum. The photo seems as if it is in an ocean with neon lights.
They use bright colours and keep the writing in white this again makes the writing stand out more on the page so the audience focus on that part and their music. Also the writing about their company's are made in white to keep them stood as well. They have their name written on the side horizontally so it keeps the audience appeal to the band Pendulum.


Ideally I would like Our DigiPacks too look like these but on the back of the CD cover keep the back of it plain and simple and nothing over the top with the bright colours, maybe even have it black and white.