Evaluation for advanced production Question 4

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

I used my blog to record all aspects of research and planning for my music video. With the blog I was able to research the genre of ska before the shoot and this helped me gain inspiration and ideas. One of the features of the blog I found useful was that I was able to analyse and compare original ska videos against my own.

For example when it came to choosing the location for my music video I took a series of shots around Norwich, specifically Anglia Square it had a similar style to the video ‘Ghost Town’ by 1980’s ska band ‘The Specials’. I was able to post this information on my blog to enable me to see the comparison as well as draw others to the tributes of classic ska genre which occur throughout the music video. The blog also allowed me to embed music videos from the website Youtube. I could then analyse modern ska bands such as ‘Less Than Jake’ and develop my ideas through their influences.

The blog also allowed me to support my reasons for the use of costume and cast within my music video. I was able to post images of the style I was trying to convey by posting images researched on the internet. This was important when it came to deciding on the costume used for the females within my music video as due to my music video being male dominant, I didn’t want the females to appear sexualised and, as said previously, used for ‘audience pleasure’. I was able to research and develop this idea on my blog by looking into a ‘tomboy’ style for my females and posting images of celebrities such as Agynes Dean, who is associated with this image, therefore my blog allowed me to support this idea.

The blog allowed me to insert images of my digi-pak and allow people to comment and give me advice on how ways to strengthen promotion. It also allowed me to look at and compare my own digi-pak with other ska-punk bands such as Less Than Jake and Sonic Boom Six. Like the research for the music video, I could develop my own ideas from theirs and look at the way in which they promote the genre ska punk.

I used the blog in the same way when it came to researching ideas for my magazine advert which was promoting Smaller Than You’s latest EP. The blog allowed me to gain audience feedback of my advert as well as an understanding of what information is needed to successfully promote an artist by being able to look at and insert other adverts.


Music Video:
The camera used to film the music video was a Canon Mini DV. Most of the footage was taken using a tri-pod to allow the shots to be a clear as possible. The camera allowed us to view the raw footage of our music video and pick up on any footage we had missed or needed to add in order to strengthen the promotion of the band. The lighting used for the shoot was ambient as we had no access to artificial lighting. This created problems as some of the footage towards the end of the video is too dark as it was filmed at dusk.
The editing software used was Adobe Premier Elements. This software allowed us to blend our narrative together. Due to our narrative revolving around a ‘chase’ it meant the edit had to be continuous and well constructed. The editing software made this possible as we could use special effects such as the ‘cross fade’ to help blend the shots together and allow it flow. Another effect which helped develop our narrative was ‘time delay’, this allowed us to speed up footage which took too much time as well as helping us move the narrative forward by making the sped up footage resemble the day moving on so we could move onto a different location.
One aspect of filming I had to remember was Goodwin’s theory. Andrew Goodwin states that their ‘needs to be a lots of close ups of the band to allow strong promotion’. Therefore we went out and filmed the band playing the single ‘Who Knew’ the whole way through whilst getting close ups of their instruments and faces. With this footage the audience would recognise the band and strengthen their promotion.

Print Productions:
For my print productions I used the editing software Photoshop Elements.
The pictures were taken using an ‘Olympus’ stills camera and where taken at dusk in order to bring out the harshness of the urban setting.
Photoshop allowed me to manipulate the image and make it appear more striking. For instance the original design of the front of my digi-pak had a layer put over the lamppost to give it a ‘doodled’ effect to the image and to resemble the American ska Digi-pak covers but to also give it a British twist. However this design ended up making my image look juvenile and weakened the image. Therefore instead I removed the layer added the poster filter to still give a ‘cartoon’ effect but make it appear more professional and for it to still to resemble the American ska digi-paks. The skateboard used for the front and back of the image wasn’t strong enough and due to it being black didn’t stand out. Instead I took a skateboard from another image I had taken which showed the underside of the skateboard which was much brighter and was therefore more striking, this allowed the audience to recognise the ‘skater’ style of Smaller Than You.

For the inside right panel of the image I used a grain filter to make the image of the skateboarder stand out against the dark background. At first I this was a simple image without the font. However as I was able to post this image onto my blog I was able to gain feedback that the image wasn’t strong enough with just the skateboarder on his own and didn’t have a strong enough promotion of the band. Therefore I improved the image and placed the band members names around the image. I reduced the opacity of the text to make it appear drawn on the tarmac and positioned each name so it would fit into the shape of the CD.

The inside left panel didn’t need much modifying as the image was strong enough on its own. However in order to make the image stand out I increased the contrast and brightness levels, this made the image look more professional.

Magazine advert
The software used to create my magazine advert was the same as the digi-pak, Photoshop Elements. The image follows continuity from the digi-pak as the shot used is the front cover of the digi-pak but from a different perspective, I’ve also used the same font and cast in order to make it continuous. I increased the brightness of the image in order to make it more striking and give the impression of artificial light reflecting on the ‘skateboarder’ from the streetlight, this allows the audience to see him as the focal point of the image and understand the message of youth culture.
For the image of the man climbing the wall I had to enhance the colour. The image was already painted on the wall and when it came to uploading the image I found the colour didn’t stand out. I wanted this to be bold and eye-catching as it resembles the rebellion of the youth within the image.