Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Alongside the video shown here, I used many different forms of digital technology in the research & planning, the print production tasks and the evaluation questions.

Research and planning;
I used websites like YouTube to view music videos for research into genre. This element of web 2.0 is extremely helpful as before websites like this existed, the main form of music video viewing was through channels like MTV, websites like this make music videos easily accessible and therefore the research and planning a lot easier.

Facebook is another example of web 2.0 I used which offers the easiest kind of interaction with my audience and allows opportunity for feedback.

Blogger was used throughout the whole precess and this included the blogger app which I used to upload photos taken on my mobile phone (more digital technology) directly and easily.

Print production;
Adobe Photoshop was the biggest use of digital technologies in this task. The camera used to take photos for it was the Nikon D3200 DSLR camera. One these photos were taken I used many tools to place and manipulate them on Photoshop.

I used the magic wand tool and the magnetic lasso tool to select areas which proved particularly helpful as the photos of the morphsuit included tight angles and long curves that a selection box couldn't cover.
As far as colour goes, I used the bucket tool to fill in the majority of the selected areas, in particular the silhouetted man, and then used the paintbrush tool to touch up and errors made in the colouring. After this I used the blur tool to blend any jagged egdes not meant to be there into the background.

Also on the print productions, namely the advert, I used the shape tool so I could add in magazine reviews with 5 star ratings etc. Alongside this I used Google (more web 2.0) to download the logos of two magazines and paste them onto my product. I also did this for Amazon and iTunes logos as well as a barcode for the digipak.

Finally on the print production task I used the path tool to create the effect of a heart rate monitor on the digipak. I used this to draw a path of a suitable shape which would then be filled with a chosen colour. This proved helpful as it made them look a lot more convincing than after I had tried making these shapes without the path tool, and was also considerably quicker.

Finally, the evaluation.
For question 1, I used Adobe Premier Pro like on the music video to slow down the video and I then plugged a microphone into my computer and recorded a voiceover into Audacity for a directors commentary,

For question 2 I used a slide show internet application called PowToon. This allowed me to animate the way the information was portrayed. I then uploaded the PowToon video onto YouTube and embedded it into my blog.

For question 3 I used the Panasonic full HD camcorder as used in the music video to record audience reactions. I also used Facebook to interact with one member of my target audience and used Photoshop to screen grab these answers and add to the video. I used titles like explained in the video above as well.

For this question, question 4, I used the same camcorder to record me speaking the script and then removed the video in Premier Pro. Alongside this I used another web app called Screencast-O-Matic which can record everything on the screen for up to 15 minutes and then be saved as a video file. I blended the audio I recorded with the video recorded on screen in Premier Pro and exported it as the above video.

Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The original audience feedback was given to me for the first idea we had and was largely positive despite the fact that many people didn't believe it could be done. As we found out that they were right and it was proving too difficult, we realised that we had no time to do any real audience research into the new idea and trusted our instinct. This was definitely a downfall as audience research would have made a much more accessible and well put together final product.

This video however shows the audience reactions to the finished video.

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Music Video

The link to the finished video: http://youtu.be/X5JJQlRQI5U

Finished advert

Here is my finished advert for the digipak release.

Finished dikipak

Here is my completed digipak.

Time plan for filming

magazine advert research

 Here are five of the magazine adverts I have been looking at to get inspiration for and I noticed many similarities.

Firstly, the main feature is the album cover itself which in most of these cases is a close up of medium close of of a figure which works well with ideas I've had for my magazine article.

Next up is the band logo which appears at the very top of the page or at the bottom of the album art in almost every example I've looked at. It seems this is a common but successful template that I will be employing into my advert. 

 The next common aspect is that the information is lay underneath the image in an appropriate colour to the main logo. This includes the album name, the release date, reviews and what it will be released on.

Green screen practice and the use of chroma key

As we are still using the silhouette as the main character in the video (just with a much lesser role to play), it is still very important to be able to create them as realistically as possible. here is some evidence of work that me and Niall have been doing to work on our skills to create the silhouette. We use the chroma key tool on Premier Pro for this.

Time plan

On Tuesday 19th November, Niall and I will use a camera we have booked out from college to take photos of the model in the morphsuit for our digipak. They will be used to create a silhouette like in the video but it will be easier with photos as we can use the white background sheet and lighting kit that college provides to full effect and then finish them off using Adobe Photoshop.

I will use lesson time and free time from 19/11  until 27/11 (the deadline) to finish my digipak which includes taking and completing the images. I have already added the main text and completed the entire head back page and some of the head front page.

Later I will upload my ideas and drawing to display the possibilities for this digipak and magazine advert.

Risk asessments

L = likeliness
I = impact
S = severity

Props

A list of props, for which stage and how we will acquire them for the video.

Location organisation

This is the list of the set of locations for our new video

The video of the child playing football - this can be filmed in my garden where we have adult supervision, lots of space and all the necessary props like footballs and goalposts, a back up to this is in a local field. I have a park by my house with very suitable scenery for the shot.

Student - we will be using a classroom in college then later going to a local pub or bar to capture the student life, this will be filmed in black and white and can use a specific local pub called The Oak Apple as it is an older looking pub.

Working man - we can use my grandparent's house for this, it is an old fashioned house and is extremely suitable for this video.

War section - we will use a war memorial site in a park by my house. This time of year is ideal as poppies are around everywhere and the weather creates a perfect mood.

Performers and casting

A list of performers and casting in the new video idea with how we can get in contact with them.

Digipak research

I looked at my personal selection of digipak albums displayed in this picture and looked at reoccurring themes and ideas. I noticed that the digipak once opened up displays one image stretched along both or all three pages of the booklet. In a small number they were separate images but the vast majority displayed one shot which could be a band shot, a live performance shot, a band logo or just a disjunctive shot. This has given me inspiration and ideas for my own digipak using the heartbeat monitor idea.

I also noticed that on almost all of the digipaks I looked at, the track listing took up just a small amount of space on the page, and the rest of the space used a logo, a fairly blank page or a mixture of the two. Once again, this has given me a lot of inspiration for ideas on my digipak.

New idea

After speaking to Niall and doing research into moving silhouettes, we realised it would be difficult and probably out of our capabilities to create a silhouette of a baby and a small child using the same actor and same suit, so we have devised an alternative which sticks to the theme of a journey from life to death and still uses the idea of the silhouette character. The character will be displayed as an old man in a hospital bed, the heart rate monitor line will be everpresent and layered above the silhouette which will help us to tie into Andrew Goodwin’s framework by matching the movement of that monitor like to the beat of the song. At this point, he is on his final few minutes and we follow them by visiting the flashbacks of his life he has in this time. These will be shot in colour video and edited to match the time zone they are supposed to resemble. This is helpful to us as although we have done practice, our skills of making a moving silhouette are simply not strong enough to last for the entire song professionally. So it will be easier to film this as it requires less post filming work and still sticks to the theme of a journey through life as an alternative that we like just as much as the original idea. The ideas we have for the stages of his life are him as a child, his as a student, his getting a girlfriend, him socialising and making friends, him as a worker, him getting married, him as a veteran remembering the times he spent in battle (as he is an old man now it is likely he would’ve served in his early adult life) among a few more. Niall will draw up a character list, a location list with risk assessment and a props list for this.

Problem solved

Throughout the process of this idea, we have been worried about doing the video in one continuous take as that would prove the hardest challenge of all. It has now been suggested to us that we can make it look continuous without doing so by switching between long shots and close ups and therefore shooting the video in multiple shots. This will help display knowledge of cinematography and make the idea a little more achievable.

Risk assessment

After looking in the potential location room, there is little cause for concern. There is nothing in the floor that could cause the actor to trip, all tables and chairs will be moved out the room and lighting will be managed suitable. No wires will be needed for filming and as it is inside, there is no need to worry about weather, traffic or pedestrians like we would if we were filming outside.

Potential location

These four photos are a room in college that could be a potential location for filming the video. It is a very plain room with the blinds shut and the furniture moved out and we would film with a tripod in the centre of the room. The advantage of filming in here is that the background is endless and we don't have to worry about running out of room like we would outside. A risk assessment will be conducted.