In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product use conventions of a punk style video with changing shot types such as close ups mid shots and shots on different levels we stuck with using a tripod for most the shots as it allowed for a steady feel to the feel and stopped shaky camera work, the shots however broke away from conventions as they were quite long shots and should have been quicker and snappier to continue the pace and flow of the video as it didn't feel like it went with the pace of the song in places, we decided the footage needed to be in black and white the main reason for this was because it added to the rugged punk feeling of the song as well as it allows for you to easily remove any lighting problems or fuzzy camera shots, also our video breaks away from conventions as it is whole narrative and the performance of the guitar is part of the narrative and not related to the song, if we were to use performance which we couldn't due to problems with the band and the lead vocalist leaving we would of put performance into the narrative to add to the pace and stick to the conventions of the genre
as for the ancillary products my album advertisement uses the bands logo which is of a what could appear to be a pirate ship or a old style ship, its two tone black and grey and is highly detailed but at the same time simplistic the text underneath the logo is rough and sticks to the conventions of the genre.
The digipac uses the logo on the front cover and faded on the back cover this sticks with conventions of not just the genre but advertisement as that way if you have seen the poster and you glimpsed the digipac you would instantly recognise the album, on the back it has a record label logo and a bar code as well as copyright and distribution notices, it has the track listing, I feel that it follows the conventions of the genre because its simplistic but rough, on the inside I have created the CD design which uses the bands logo the record labels logo and the Compact Disc logo to add a professional feel to it the inside cover has a picture of the band and a thank you notice to the fans which is a typical convention of a underground punk band.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?The products work well together to an extent the use of the bands logo is good because fans would be able to pick up on it easily and the logo of the band ties in with the song title “Maps” because it shows a sense of travelling across the world, the video breaks conventions where as the other projects stick more to conventions but the main task and secondary task have something in common being they are in black and white
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?The products work well together to an extent the use of the bands logo is good because fans would be able to pick up on it easily and the logo of the band ties in with the song title “Maps” because it shows a sense of travelling across the world, the video breaks conventions where as the other projects stick more to conventions but the main task and secondary task have something in common being they are in black and white
What have you learned from your audience feedback?From my audience feedback I found the general comment was that the shots were very long and that faster cut shots should have been used, this was the overall comment when showed to a focus group a majority of the feedback was positive there were many comments on the lighting of the first shots being very good and the overall feel of the video was good, some people felt that the guitar was out of place but this played a role in the narrative and so was important, as for the ancillary projects feedback was highly positive the use of the bands logo was effective and the fact that the advertisement and the digipac were closely linked also was a positive aspect for feedback there was no negative feed back for these projects, what I have learned is that I should of used more variety of shots and they should have been fast paced.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Within the construction and research we used DSLR's to take pictures of the different shot types this helped us grasp the concept of different shot types, in the construction of the story boards we had the choice to use a storyboard maker on the mac, this software was hard to use and so we opted to stick to pen and paper, for the main project we used final cut pro and a digital video camera, and as for the ancillary projects I used photoshop CS4, last year we used webplus 10 to create a website which taught me the basics of web design, and although this year i did not create a website the abilities i gained from learning to create a website helped me understand and create a digipac and advertisement poster for my artist this year as i was able to understand conventions and design concepts of media products alot more than i did last year or at GCSE, last yera we used a blog as a more formal and organised concept to showcase and organise our portfolio, this year we have done the same which has allowed for my media work to be more organised than last year, and i also understood the use of blogs and found it easier to use this year, this extra organisation made creating my portofolio this year easier.
