Monday 19 December 2011

Friday 9 December 2011

Evaluation Question 3 -DRAFT

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

         We received feedback from a variety of different medias and sources. These included twitter, blog comments and paper feedback from teacher, peers and classmates. This ranged from positive and costructive.

        The main positive feedback we received for our final product was for the quality of editing. I would have to agree with this as we chose to spend alot of time on editing our footage of Abbies Macbook. We ensured all lip synching was accurate and the shot timings fitting in smoothly with any highlights in the song, and luckily this paid off. (Insert comment from teacher here)
        The paper feedback we recieved from our classmates regarding our final product seemed to flollow along similar lines. The posistive comments liked the authenticity of our characters and editing again. With comments such as 'artist styled well- fits with the image' and 'stop motion looks good' 'reverse shots work well'. We were pleased with our feedback of these elements as we worked hard to create and authentic and beleivable style and band image.

       Additionally we also received constructive feedback which were able to review and analyse. Overall we agreed with these comments, as we knew that we had some weaker elements such as a poor quality camera image, limited amount of shots and less disjunctural elements than we originally anticipated. A reoccuring comment was that the 'bag-headed' character that appears occaisionally throughout the video was unnessassary and shared no link to tha main storyline. This is an understandable comment as you would have needed to see the combination of ancillary texts and final product as a whole to recognise the links. The character that appears in the video is a main element to my digipack and magazine advert, in reality a fan would have normally already seen these texts and would therefor understand the significance of the 'bagheaded' character.

      Feedback we recieved from our teacher Ford came in the shape of 'good editing however could have used a better location'. We would have to agree with this as we found our location a likke tempromental with changing weather conditions and therefor changing in lighting. A few peer feedback comments also commented on location, stating that the 'forest' set would have been more appropriate for a different song genreand seemed a little unsuited for an electronica song.

Thursday 8 December 2011

Evaluation Question 2 - DRAFT

       In the final draft of this question I will use this text but add it into a different style of media, such as a photoshop document.

Media Evaluation QUESTION 2

Sunday 4 December 2011

Evaluation- Question 4 DRAFT

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


To start off with, Blogger is the main media technology that has allowed us to complete and post all research and planning surrounding the ancillary texts and main piece. The blog has allowed us to post all ideas and inspiration during the research stages. For example, as a pair, we were both able to express and share all ideas we might be keen on using in the build up to the final texts and piece. In addition, when completing the ancillary texts and main piece it has allowed us to receive feedback from our peers which we were then able to put to good use. For example, feedback we receive can be used when evaluating our overall success with the texts and main piece.The website Blogger as a whole has ensured and allowed us to keep up to date. Overall, the blog reflects the effort and standards that have been produced throughout the research, planning and evaluation stages. 


Youtube and TubeChop were both huge participating technologies throughout the research and planning stages for us both. TubeChop was used in the early stages of the task to allow us to pick up skills and knowledge of typical video conventions, e.g. disjuncture. YouTube contributed hugely when gathering potential ideas and inspiration for the main piece. A numerous variety of videos were watched on YouTube and posted on the blog to show more research towards the final piece. Once an inspirational or highly rated video by myself or Julia was found, TubeChop then allowed us to go on and makes our ideas more concise by showing exactly what we enjoy and what we may want to incorporate into our own piece. 
In the early stages of research and planning, Animoto was a piece of media that allowed us to present all the intial ideas that we had gathered. For example, when presenting a pitch to our peers, this was the media we chose to use. Through this,  we were able to feed our ideas using images to other in our class which allowed them to take a glance at the style we were attempting to create for our final pieces. In relation to images, when taking images of band members, location, equipment and other various things, Flickr was a website we used to upload, and store a feed of images when could then be viewed online, or transferred to a blog, which is a processed we performed.
        Additionally, in the early stages of planning, Adobe Photoshop was a technology which we used to create mood boards and collages to express ideas of what we may want to feature on the ancillary texts. This was a program that once again allowed us to piece together several album artwork covers/magazines and display them together to give an overall style we were keen on. Photoshop was repeatedly used in the stages of creating the draft ancillary texts as well as the final pieces. This included creating the digipack and the magazine advert. Photoshop was a piece of technology that  helped us  to edit photos and piece together different elements in order to produce a completed digipack and magazine advert.



In relation to social media, Twitter was a social networking site that we used to promote that band. As a group, we set up a Twitter account for the band 'Passonfontaine'. This contained a stream of the bands tweets, containing details of the bands whereabouts, and updates. This was following the footsteps of many other bands/artists as Twitter is a trend that is now commonly followed and allows fans to keep up to date with their favourite artists.


Several documents that were created for the blog were produced on Microsoft Word which meant a process of conversion took place. We used the Internet based technology Scribd for this. This simply enabled us to embed the word documents into a format which could be posted onto Blogger. This meant that any rough pieces of work could also be uploaded to the blog to show different stages of research and planning.


For taking images that feature on both digipacks we made use of the still camera mode on a Canon SX130 HD camera. This gave us the option to use several different modes on the camera according to what sort of images we were hoping to produce. We also made joint use of this camera and filmed the draft video and final piece with the Canon. This was a camera that gave us a standard quality, but we would have  hoped for better. The camera allowed us to film a mass amount of footage which could then be transferred onto a computer.


Lastly, a large piece of equiptment that contributed massively during the research and planning stages, alongside with everything else was the Macbook Pro. This allowed us to store all footage and photos, alongside with a reliable source  to carry out research and post new information onto the blog. This meant that the program Itunes was frequently used in the planning stages. For example, in the process of ilimination when selecting a song, Itunes was program where the source of the music came from. Additionally, after choosing a song, Itunes was once again the source which 'Wildfire' came from and was used on the final video.
     In addition, we also made use of the Apple program IMovie to piece together our final video. This was software was something that was fairly new to the both of us so took a slight bit of getting used to. IMovie was an excellent program for us to use, as we were able to edit the piece exactly how we wished to and incorporate the song by transferring it in from Itunes. This was the program the overall allowed us to complete our  final piece to an acceptable standard.



Overall, we made a great use of a various number of techonlogies. I beleive that without these we would have struggled to complete the research and planning stages to a high standard. Each different technology has different elements of our project which all link to the ancillaries and final piece succesfully.

Friday 2 December 2011

Evaluation Question 1 - DRAFT


Evaluation- Question 2 DRAFT

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


Firstly, the idea of a missing identity is heavily played up on throughout the main product and the ancillary texts. During the process of creating the ancillary texts, the two artists within the band appeared to have little identification revealed. For example, one set of ancillary texts contained the incorporated idea of 'motion blur' as a reoccurring theme, whereas the other follows the idea of masks and hidden faces. As musicians tend to be a watched talent, as a group, we feel the idea of missing identification throughout the ancillary texts and main product characterised the band and gave them a recognisable image amongst others within the same category. 


The duration of the video the two artists are made apparent to the audience and can be identified as this links into the ancillary text idea due to the two artists only being partially hidden, rather than completely. Within the video a 'bag headed' character appears in minuet snippets which is an immediate indication for the audience to make a visual connection between this, and the advertised image that is presented of the band. The mysterious 'persona' that is given off from this is illustrated discreetly in the main product and more obviously in the ancillaries which gives a reminder of the bands 'trademark' each time. 


Passonfontaine wear a recognisable style of clothing throughout the images within the ancillary texts and the main product.  For example, we see Pat sporting a shirt/hooded combination along with jeans and trainers in the ancillaries, and although we did have a change of character, we see Grace in dark, basic attire which is reflected in the video through the styling of Lorna (female vocals replacement). The two are both styled in a way which compliments each other an this is continued within the main piece. As a result of this, it would seem that Passonfontaine could be identified by their audience through a system of continuity. 


Overall an element of simplicity is a stand out factor we have developed throughout two combinations of tasks. Once again, as in any band, it appears as a system of identity. 



Friday 18 November 2011

Change of Character

It seems that as a group, we have made a final decision that a change of one of our characters is necessary in order to get the filming complete and met the deadlines which have been specified. Although it is one week until the final video deadline, we have been experiencing some issues when trying to gather everyone to meet together. Therefore, me and Julia have came to the conclusion that it would be a wise idea to replace Grace, the "female" artist featuring in our video, due to her constant busy schedule and unavailability. Luckily, we have been fortunate enough to find a highly suitable replacement in a short spurt of time. Lorna will now be playing the female "character" in our video as she has the authentic look we need alongside with much more spare time than Grace. We will need to upload images of Lorna to replace the previous ones that we have posted. Obviously this is going to effect some other elements of our previous research and planning but over all we are hoping to overcome and work around these issues and create a successful video to hand in next Friday. 

Final Filming List


Wednesday 9 November 2011

Magazine Ad.

       Below is a possibility Magazine Advert that I may hand in as final. I like the fact the photograph is interesting that just a plain background as I haven't used that element before.



Digipack and Ad.

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Digipack and Ad., a set on Flickr.

Digipack and Ad. Photos

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Click the link below to see the complete shoot:
Juliarvey's photostream on Flickr.