evaluation question

1. RESEARCH
At the start of the project I chose to use the internet to help research possible bands or
artists that my partner and I could use for our A2 music video. The task brief was to
succesfully produce a music video of an unsigned band that follows or challenges the
genre conventions of the genre of the song. The first task my partner and I did was to
search for suitible and possible artists. We chose to use Google because it is the most
used search engine in the world and is an endless resource of information.
Google allowed me to be specific with my search and to browse lots of sites at once. I
was able to narrow down my search by using hyperlinks on websites and links to other
similar websites.
The media blog I used was incredbly useful in helping me create an aesthetically pleasing
and effective portfolio that showed the jounrey I have taken in each stage of the project. It
also allowed my peers, teachers and the memebers of my focus group to add comments
on the positive and negative aspects of my work and also to help me in the further stages
of production.
The research element to this project is extremely important as it allowed me to identify
genre codes and conventions that will be key later down in the project as they will be
used in my product. It will also be key because it will actively help me create effective
Digi-Pak and magazine advert that target the audience for my product effectively.
The next stage was to actively choose a song to use in our product the webesite we used
to do this was calledhttp://www.unsignedbandweb.com/ .

2. This website was filled with talented unsigend bands and artists. My partner and I had
recenlty been to a Folk festival and felt it would be the sensible to choose this genreas it
was fresh in our minds and I personally have a lot of expirence with gigs and festivals.
This gave us an advantage as we have been able to see first hand performance and know
some of the genre conventions used.
After choosing our artist and song my parnter and I decided to carry out some secondry
research by watching music videos and listening to music. We used websites such as
Youtube and google to do this. We used Youtube because it a free service that has the
largetst database of artists, bands and songs avaialble to listen to. It also allows each
video to be emeded onto my blog which helps with the use of technology within my
project.
The picture above are of bands my partner and I have seen live. They show the power of
the internet and media technology as someone has been able to capture their performance
on their mobile phone or camera and have quickly uploaded it onyo youtube. To research
more well known artists from this genre I used Googles search engine and this gave me
quick and relaible results. The excellent thing about youtube is that the viewers can post
comments on the video, either their opinions or views. They can also like or dislike the
video, this gives me the indication to whether they like or dislike the video.

3. Using search engines such as google and bing it gave me the chance to research our band
and look into their past music and albums. This gave my partner and I a look into their
specific style and taste. This also helped my partner and I in the production of the
ancillary texts becauce we could look at their previous albums and the artwork so you
could produce media texts that represented the band effectively and constuctively.
Blogger had a substantialeffect on helping me create an up do date summary of where I
am in the project. It also allowed me to embed videos that are suitble and relevant to what
I am researching and relating. This allowed me to easily watch the videos wihtout the
hasstle of having to switch websites.
PUT PICTURE OF EMBEDED VIDEOS
During the research stage of the project I wanted to make sure that when designing and
constucting the Digi-Pak and magazine advert, I had succesfully targeted and linked the
genre conventions and ideologies well with our main product. Technology also supported
our audience research and was an effectiove way of gaining audience feedback when I
wanted to measure how well I had targeted the audience of our product by uploading
some of the picutres onto my Flickr account and facebook to gain feedback. This picture
instantly got viewed and commented on. This gave us a good idea that we had been
targeting the right and secific audience for our product and acillary texts.

4. When reseaching into digi-paks and advertisment, I found it much more difficult as I had
to create something that catered to the needs of Indie and folk. I wanted to create the
ancilliary texts to help identify the genres within the song but also use genre conventions
from both genres. I have found cross overs when researching. The search engine I used
for this task was Bing. I found it to far more useful and had more suitible results than
Google.
While resarching I found sites such as http://www.codamusic.co.uk/product-list/3/FOLK
and http://www.ukfolkmusic.co.uk/music.php . These websites only sold and advertised
tradtional Folk and other less mainstream genres such as; country, scottish and gayleich.
I also used google images. These resutls gave me limited picutures and links to websites
that advertised and sold music and digi-paks relating to the genre of the song my parnter
and I are using.

5. After researching and finding suitible digi-paks and magainze adverts I uploaded them
onto word and analysed them in comparison to my designs and ideas. I analysed the ways
they used genre conventions and represented the Folk/indie genre. Afterwards I uploaded
the word document onto Scribd. This allowed me to embed the document onto my blog
and show the use of technology.

6. Planning
The planning stage of my project is another that is key to a good and realistic end
product, relating to the my Digi-Pak, magazine advert and final Product. At the minute
we have access to the most up to date technology which allowed my partner and I to
capture and note ideas immedatly. The technology also allowed me to open my blog and
show my peers when ever was necessary and needed.
Another aspect to technology meant that my tutors and peers could comment on my posts
whenever they felt neccesary and they could email me at any time. I could be on set
shooting footage or I could be ill and I would still have access to feedback, help and
support from my teachers and peers.

7. Television and video technology is such a big and mainstream part of our lifes today and
It is something that is rarely used in the folk genre. Folk is seen as something tradtional
and a neishemarket so it has been a genre left to its own acord and has stayed the same
for many years. Now as folk moves more into the limelight and begins to make the
journeyinto the maintream market it has had to adapt to the conventions of mainstream
artists and bands. Mumford and Sons are the first band to make the full transition to the
mainstream market and many bands have begun to follow. The main change I have seen
happen is that folk bands are beginning to make music videos for their songs. This is
something that has only recently happeneed as folk has always been a specatators genre
and people would see artists of this genre at festivals and gigs. When refering this section
to my product I wanted to portray the ideology surroudning the journey folk takes when
becoming more popular and mainstream. This is acomplished through the use of
technologies as they in themselves have their own audience.
CONSTRUCTION
The constuction stage of my project is crucial because it is the section where my partner
and I had to create the music video and the ancillary texts. Throughout this section we
used a numerous variety of media technologies. My partner and I filmed our music video
using a Canon EOS 600D digital SLR. As one the newest cameras avaiable it gave us the
opportunity to shoot in 1080p HD. The camera had a live view feed which allowed me to
view the footage while recording. This allowed me to see whether we had all of theright
angles and shot needed. The camera had adjudstible lenses so we could choose which
one to use as all lenses were used for different reasons, for example; I could change the
depth of field in the image but foccusing on a differenct subject and blurring our part of
the shot. This is important beccause it can be used to represent the conventions within a
video. It can by itself change the subject of the video and blur out the parts that are of no
importance and add nothing to the video. The specific lens that I had that was most
sutible was the Canon Ef-S 50mm 1.8mm. The 1.8 refers to the amount of depth of field I

8. could achieve within my image. As my partner and I thought this was not the most suitile
lens to use as we did not need this low depth of field. We, in the end chose to use my
Tamron 18-200 3.6mm. This lens gave the impression of depth of field but I showed that
most of what is in the shot is in detail not just part.
After shooting all the footage for my product, my partner and I had a slight problem as
we chose to film in 1080p we had to encode all of our raw footage which meant the
quality would decrease. The encoder we used was Adobe Media Encoder
After my partner encoded all of our footage we began editing using the software ‘Adobe
Premiere Pro’. This software was excellent for editing as it had all the necessary effects
and transitions, for example; dip to black, dip to white, black and white overlay. My
partner had to carry on encoding our footage as the software caused the footage to delay
and when we wanted to view what we had achieved so far it would lag. We addressed
this problem by encoding all the new footage before we put it into Adobe Premiere Pro as
this addressed the problem of lag. The footage would then run smoothly. I have learnt a
lot from using this software as it made me realise the simplistic nature to this style of
work. At first the proccess was complicated, but once you become use to this software it

9. becomes a lot easier. Compared to the software I used in my year 12 project, this
software is far more complacted as it has more options and a lot more going on within the
programme. This is not necceserally a negative point as once you become acustom to this
programme it become simple.
Trying to create a 3 minute video that keeps the audience intrested and engaged is
difficult. To try and acomplish this my partner and I chose to engage the audience by
using specific genre conventions and also challneging. This would evoke the sense of
curiosity from the audience due to fact we chose to both challenge and conform to
folk/indie genre conventions.
DIGI-PAK AND MAGAZINE ADVERT
When desinging and constructing my Digi-Pak it was key that I created something that
reflects and represents all of the emotions and feelings evoked in the song. The first way I
knew I could do this is if I used primary imagery. I chose to use pictures that were taken
at the same time and location as some of the footage used. I took the pictures using my
Canon EOS 600D. The reason for doing this is to create links between the main product
and the ancillary texts. The references would make a clear link to the video and therefor
the emotions within.
The software I used to create the ancillary texts was Adobe Photoshop CS5. This
software gave me endless posibilies and so many effects. I knew that to truly represent
my product I needed my images to be black and white to help evoke the sadness within

10. the song. The software I was using allowed me to choose over 1000 different fonts. After
gaining lots of feedback from my peers about what font to use I finally chose AnnieBTN.
This font was free and looked handwritten which helped me represent free and organic
ideology about folk.
Photoshop is a very complicated programme if you know what outcome you want, but
when I was designing my groups Digi-Pak I didn’t know exactly what I wanted it to look
like, therefor I experimented within a range of ideas and effects. I have a lot of expirience
with this software thanks to doing GCSE graphics, art and A level art. This allowed me to
utilize my skills.
After ganing feedback from a focus group, peers and media teachers about my ancillary
texts, they all shared the same negative opinion. The picture I used were effective but the
one that were simply pictures, with no effect or font on them looked to bland and plain.
My partner had the idea of creating aripped effect on the images. This would help re-
enforce the ideology that folk is free and unrestricted. This is an aspect about folk that my
partner and I wanted to portray through all of our anicllary texts and main product. This
design can only be created using modern technology and media products. We used Adobe
Photoshop CS5. This gave us multiple options when creating this effect as we had to
choose the size, length and thickness. The fact of the matter is that, you cant create
aesthetically pleasing Digi-Paks that have the special connection to the main product
without using modern day technology.

11. One small aspect from the feedback my partner and I received from the focus group about
my Digi-Pak was that they wanted to see what this would like with the CD in. This gave
me the idea to create a template to show where it will be placed and what it will look like.
This added to the aesthetic look of the product because it made the design that bit more
interesting.
Because of the simplistic nature to my Digi-Pak design I did not need to edit the picture
much, the only change I made was that some of the pictures I used, were not taken in
black and white, therfore I had to edit them and turn them black and white by using the
‘Grayscale’ setting.
After I

12. changed the colour of the some of the pictures, a did not have the true depth and the
strong dark and white relationship between the sky and the foreground so I used the
‘Brighness and Contrast’ setting the help me cater to this aspect of the design. It was
incredibly easy to do this. My past experience with Photoshop gave me all the expirience
I needed to make this product. This software was very helpful and useful as it catered to
my needs well and had every tool I needed. I would still use this programme if I were to
do this product again.
Throughout my Evaluations I have used a variety of media products and mainstream
technologies. I have needed to use these technologies to acomplish my tasks. The use of
Youtube was key for me to do research for my evaluations. It allowed me to post my
video for a free and it has access to the largest audience. It also allowed for viewers to
post comment and likeor dislike my product. This gives me an indication to how well my
product targets its audience and how it is liked by other viewers. Google was key because
it enabledd me to research individual aspect to the project and had all the necessary
information. It also fed off onto other websites that gave me key information about folk
and indie conventions. It was incredibly helpful because I was able to fin out crucial
points relating to the bands/artists I have looked at and allowed me to give reasoning for
doing certain things.
In question three I gained feedback trhough a variety of sources; Youtube, Facebook,
Twitter, Flickr and questionnaires. These were all incredibly useful and allowed me to get
instant feedback from all of my friends, peers and if someone ‘shares’ the video it will
gain instant access from all of the friends of the peson sharing it. This created a massive
audience and wide range fo viewers for my product. I posted the embed code onto my
Facebok wall like this:
I did this for all of the parts of my product that I wanted feedback for. This allowed
anyone to comment or like my posts. This would give an instant indication to what the
audience think of my products and designs.
In question one I used technology to copy images and create links using the HTML code.
This allows the viewer to click on the link and be taken to the video I am analysing.
I particulary wanted to do this because it allowed the viewer to easily have access to what
I am reffering to and it showed the use of technology within my work.
In question two I used Google images. This allowed me to show the links between my
products and the ones I have been inspired and taken inspiration from. This question also
allowed me to show the connection between my ancillary texts and my main products. I
did this by displayingimagery of each all of my products together, this also enabled to
analyse all my work together.