Presentation for our project

25.04.2010

Today in class everyone had to give a presentation on what they had done for their media work.
My partner and I worked on our presentation to produce a brief summary of our work that we showed to the class.

I am going to upload each slide and write our notes that we read out to class about our work, which is a brief summary of the evaluation questions we answered. Both my partner and I took it in turn to read each bullet point.

Slide 1

Slide 2

- It uses forms and conventions of real media texts because it focuses on the aritst as the main feature of the video as do a lot of music videos today.
- It also uses forms and conventions because in our video we have created a story that relates perfectly to the lyrics in our video. This is also a similar feature in a lot of videos.
- We feel we have slightly developed forms and conventions by combining both, one being the artist as the main feature, and the other being the story. We linked them together because we felt that teh song was quite descriptive and emotional, and therefore felt that it was important to highlight the artist, but also link it to the story.

Slide 3

- From our audience feedback we found that most people could see that the film must have been well planned and not rushed. Some people commented on how it must have been well planned due to the shots of the instruments, combined with the shots at the house and also the shots outisde, as we used a variety of shots and were determined to use the best one with no errors.

- Due to the delicateness and the mood that our song portrays, we decided that we would try and keep our editing as simlpe as possible, and again, from our audience feedback we were told our editing was good and well done, and it was really effective that it was kept minimal, and that it suited the song really well. The simple effects such as making a few scenes black and white were also said to be effective and suitable
- Unfortunately something was pointed out to us in our feedback that we did not notice at all. One of our shots wasn't framed all that well, and the framing showed that the top of the character's head was actually cut off a bit. We were disappointed that we hadn't noticed this before.

- From the previous mistake we were told about, another one was pointed out to use. One piece of feedback told us that one of the shots were quite shakey. We noticed this during the editing but it did not seem so bad to us at the time, and this scene was of great importance so had we not had included it we would have missed out something quite important. Again we were disappointed but felt it didnt effect the video too much, and it was lucky it was just one quick clip.
- Our target audience were teenage girls of around 14-16, because of the emotion and rawness of the video and a few teenage girls commented our video. They said that they felt they could really connect to the artist and the emotions in the song and that they totally related to the song completely. We were really pleased with this, as it meant that it connected to our audience the way we wanted it to.

Slide 4

For this slide I wrote my own part as I was discussing how effective my ancillary texts were combined with the finished products, this is what I wrote:
- During the planning process of trying to create a good image for my album cover to go with our video and song, I decided before we began filming to incorporate the guitar within the album cover as I knew it would be a feature in the film. A lot of Kate Nash's videos are based on her playing the guitar, also her album covers are quite random. I had originally planned to have the character peering around the corner of the guitar however when I took the picture it did not look right so I changed it to this.
- I believe that my advert and album cover is quite effective with the main product as I have used the guitar to show in the pictures as it did in the film and tried to represent the song in the album cover.

Slide 5

This is my partner's slide and this is what he wrote for his:
- Again I wanted to incorporate the guitar as I felt that it gave the image more of a focus. The image is based in a tree which is something I thought would be creative at the time and would make the artist stand out within the environment. I looked at an album cover of Kate Nash and it was her jumping in the air in the middle of a green field, it gave the impression of a relation to nature and kindess.
- I've tried to keep consistancy by using the guitar because it plays an important part within the music video and wanted it to be related to the album cover and the advert.

Slide 6

- To aid with our planning stage we used YouTube to research any current music videos for our song choice, however we found nothing. We then looked to find videos for similar song choices to attain a flavour of the different styles that have been used. We found it better to have not found anything because we know we do not have anything to base our ideas upon and everything is our own innovation.
- For the filming process of our project, we used a video camera to record our shots.
- We used Photoshop for the editing of our album cover picture and advert. Once we had the pictures we were able to manipulate how the image looked using the tools within the Photoshop, for example the colour contrasts and using a black and white effect.
- We also used iMovieHD which we used on the Mac for the editing process of our video. This programme allowed us to use numerous effects including changing clips from colour to black and white, slowing down clips, cutting out unnecessary shots, cutting down shots and actually putting the filming together with the song.

Slide 7

- We used Blogger to keep a record of our planning process and our filming process and every last thing we done, from mistakes we made and had to rectify to showing the pictures to give evidence of us working and also upload our drafted images of album covers etc. Blogger was our main feature for our planning and evaluation stages.
- We used the internet for our research and again as previously mentioned our planning and evaluation stages due to using Blogger. We used the internet to research Kate Nash and other videos that we thought might relate to our song. We also used this to research how Kate Nash represents herself in pictures to try and capture a way of how we wanted our character to portray the song we had chosen.

- And finally, we used PowerPoint for our presentation, creating a housestyle and trying to make it informative for a summary of our project.

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

^ My partner using the Mac to edit our film



^Myself using the Mac to edit our film

To plan, process, produce, research and evaluate my film, a lot of software and programmes were involved to allow me to do so.
Firstly obviously was doing the research for my product. The computer and internet was one of the first things we used, to research songs that we were going to consider using and then once we decided what song we were going to do, we continued to use the internet to look at the way for example Kate Nash represented herself and her character in her pictures. We also used the internet to download the lyrics to her song so we could plan out our filming line by line to ensure we had enough footage for each line.
Another technology we used was the camera for actually recording our film and also the cameras to take the pictures for our adverts and album covers.
To aid with our planning stage we used YouTube to research any current music videos that had the same sort of point that our song tried to get across. We also used YouTube to explore other videos that worked differently from the way we intended ours to, so that we could get a full view of what would work better for our song.
I also used Photoshop for the editing of my album cover picture and advert. Once I had the pictures in Photoshop it allowed me to manipulate how the image looked using the tools within Photoshop, for example the colour contrasts and using a black and white effect.
For the editing process of our film we used iMovieHD on the Mac (which is demonstrated in the pictures above) This programme allowed us to use numerous effects including changing clips from colour to black and white, slowing clips down, cutting out unnecessary shots, cutting down shots and actually putting the filming together with the song.
For the planning and evaluation process, I have used Blogger. This has allowed me to keep a diary of each thing we have done during our creation of our video. This technology has been excellent to make a diary with and also be able to evaluate my whole project.
Also myself and my partner used PowerPoint to make a short presentation answering evaluation questions in more of a brief way than on here, to basically give a summary of what we have done throughout our project.

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

During the planning process of trying to create a good image for my album cover to go with our video and song, I decided before we began filming to incorporate the guitar within teh album cover as a lot of Kate Nash's videos are based on her playing the instrument or it being the main feature.
Also her album covers seem to be quite random. I had originally planned to have the character peering around the corner of the guitar however when I took the picture it did not look right so I changed it to the artist laying down to what looks like next to the guitar.
I believe that my advert and album cover is quite effective with the main product as I have used the guitar to show in the pictures as it did in the film and tried to represent the song in the album cover.
Although I quite like my album cover, I just feel that it lacks something, as does the advert. I believe that maybe if I had done more editing to it, it could have come across as more technical, whereas because I know that I didn't necessarily have to Photoshop the image a lot, or change a lot of things and make it look more intricate as the song is, that not a lot went into it and it doesn't look as professional as it maybe could have done. As with the advert, I believe that could have been better. I did try to change it from the album cover by giving it a different appearance making the picture black and white, however I am not overall happy with my ancillary texts and if I had the chance I would try and do something different, although I do believe that the album cover picture goes well with the song and the message I was trying to get across, so on that part I am happy with what I had done.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our audience was a particular audience that we chose. We imagined ours to be a teenage girl of around 14-16. We chose this age group because it is the typical age group who are at school that begin or are already going through what they deem to be as heartbreak etc and we felt that the female artist relating to the audience would be the best way to attract and keep the audience interested in our song.
There are certain moments in the song where you can see the emotion in the artist, and therefore this was another attempt at trying to get across that young girls can relate to this because they are going through a similar sort of thing.

From our audience feedback I learnt a lot. I had a couple of comments from girls of this age who said they totally related to how we presented the artist and the love story which I was really happy about as this was one of our aims. This meant that the way we had the artist represent the emotion and heartache she felt worked for them, and it attracted the audience and helped them relate to the story we tried to get across.

Also from a more technical view, we found that we had a few good comments on the fact that our video looked well set out and that a lot of planning must have gone into it. A few comments mentioned (as well as this) that they can see planning must have played a huge factor because of the intricate changes from instruments to characters to instruments again. We also got commented on the fact that our timing with the instruments and the music was impeccable, and that it could not be faulted at all. This was fantastic to hear and I felt really happy at these comments.

We also learnt that there is no need to over complicate the editing. Due to the delicateness and the mood that our song portrays, we decided that we would try and keep our editing as simple as possible, and again, from our audience feedback such as comments on a social networking site where I posted the video, we were told our editing was good and well done, and that it was really effective because it was kept minimal and that it suited the song really well. The simple effects such as making a few scenes black and white were also said to be effective and suitable to the simplicity of the song.

Although we had some positive feedback, as expected we also got a couple of negative feedback, however after looking at this feedback and looking at the video, we accepted it completely as the feedback was correct. Unfortunately a scene that we had shot, after it was pointed out to us, it was obvious that we hadn't framed the shot correctly, the artists head was not in the shot properly and part of it was cut off. I was quite disappointed with this however was also grateful that this only occured in one shot.
Also, I learnt through feedback that we need to double check everything for simple errors, because there is a certain point in the video that we did not realise until after where one tiny shot is a bit shakey. We had realised this before but didn't see it as a problem as we thought we could barely notice it. Until we watched the video after we saw that in comparison to the other shots in the video you could really notice it.

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

I believe that my video uses quite a lot of conventions of real media texts.
For example, during the creation of the video it was decided that the artist would be the main feature of the video, this was after doing a lot of research and finding that some videos focus on the artist, and others focus on telling a story, so there is a mixed variety of what way videos are done. It was decided that our video would be based on the main artist, so therefore this means that we used conventions of real media texts. I felt this was better than trying to challenge conventions because I was worried it might make the video unrealistic, as it seemed more realistic to use the artist as a main feature to the song.
We also decided to incorporate a story to the lyrics as well as focusing on the artist, as this is something that is quite frequently done in music videos now. We also linked the main feature and the story we told to the lyrics because we felt that it developed conventions, although we realised it had been done before, we felt that it developed what is usually done today, because most videos we researched that were similar to our song, showed either the artist, or the story, but not the artist trying to tell the story, however songs such as Nickelback - Photograph, is a song that does just what we done, use the artist and the story telling and combined them together, and this is also something that we thought worked for this song and this was one of the original songs we were contemplating doing, when we began planning Nicest Thing we decided it would be a good way of developing conventions of media texts and putting both the artist and story together.

Kate Nash - Nicest Thing - Final video!!

(26.03.2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R49u15rPB_o

Album Advert

(26.03.2010)

This is my final advert for my album:


I made it black and white to try and show a contrast between the album and the advert, just to make it different. I included the date it was released, and also put a quote in from 'The Sun' in an attempt to try to show that Kate Nash has not produced an album in a while and is now coming back.
I am very happy with my advert, as I feel it is basic and simple, and much like Kate Nash's adverts for her previous albums, the adverts do not come across as if they are entising people to buy it, more like they are just informing them, as she is a down to earth person and that is what I tried to represent in this album advert.