Q1 // In what ways does your media products use, challenge or develop forms and conventions of real media products

Q2 // How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts

I made a collage for this and because i needed to make it so you could zoom in and out of it i uploaded it on flickr. unfortunately flickr doesn't allow you to embed images so click here

Q3 // How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We had to use a variety of different technologies during the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of making our music video, with the most prominent ones being Final Cut which we used for all of the actual music video, and photoshop (CS6 and Elements) for the ancillary products. I also used the internet for research purposes, like youtube and artist sites, and then different bits like Prezi, Timetoast and Emaze for our blog. Below is the animatic we made earlier in the year for the music video and a short video i made using Camtasia and Premier Pro (Camtasia doesn't let you speed up footage so i exported it into Premier Pro and then took it back to add annotations) to show how I used Final Cut Pro and Photoshop 

Q4 // What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We got audience feedback for our music video on two separate occasions, when we showed the rough cut to the class and then again after the screening at the cinema. The feedback from the rough cut was significantly more helpful as we hadn't yet completed the video, and we still had time to make any alterations that were needed.  The feedback from the rough cut is underneath, and from the cinema on the left. When we showed our rough it wasn't completed(just at the end), but thankfully we also had constructive criticism for the bits we thought we'd already finished so we went and made the changes. The theme of the criticism seemed to be about speeding up the edits so that it wasn't as slow, as well as removing a couple of unnecessary shots (we had one of a bird and a door opening but the later slowed down the scene too much)which we then acted upon. The feedback from after the screening was all positive, with a couple of people noting how they particularly liked the narrative 
aspect of our music video and they didn't know really how to improve it(although it would've been a bit late anyway). I think that audience feedback is really important because the purpose of a music video is for marketing, and if you're audience aren't responsive to it then it won't be successful. 



I also got feedback from my ancillary products, mostly on the two adverts that i made. I had generally positive feedback; people said that they liked the obvious synergy between the music video and digipak with the falling and water themes. One person said that they preferred the advert on the left, but understood why I made the second one and liked that it was more informative. She also said that she liked how my ancillary products worked as a set, with the monochromatic colour scheme and themes and fonts running throughout.

Remake of advert

I decided to remake my advert for the ancillary product because it wasn't what the markers wanted to see, so i sold my soul and made a generic one that doesn't fit the conventions of my genre. I gave the album a mercury prize, which is for the best UK are Irish albums, but they usually go to smaller artists (like Laura Mvula and Two Dancers).

ADVERT FINISHED

making the advert

Here you could see me using 'layer style' and placing a shadow behind the image of my album cover so it gives a 3D look to it.