a2 media studies evaluation - leanne, bethan and faye
DESCRIPTION
This is the final evaluation for our A2 Media Studies project.TRANSCRIPT
- A2 Media Studies Evaluation
Leanne Bell, Faye Smith & Bethan Cuddihy - Conventions of music videos
Our music video was completed entirely through the use of conceptual clips. The song chosen does not have an official music video, and this allowed us to use our own imaginations in order to interpret the song and potential story in our own way. As the song it largely emotive, the inclusion of the band was unnecessary, as we wanted the audience to focus mainly on the characters and the story line. This breaks away from typical music video conventions, in which the band is usually presented throughout.
Within our video however, there are two main characters that are continually presented to the audience, in particular the female. The video presents the two characters in the conventional form found within both music videos and films. The male has a more domineering role, his stereotype reflecting that of the subservient female. The male uses physical force in order to exert control over the female, ensuring that he is the alpha-male. The female contrasts with this character as she allows herself to become emotional and over dramatic. She allows herself to be bullied physically, and taken advantage of within the relationship. The video does however; go against convention as the story unfolds, with the female character becoming stronger. She begins to develop an ability to control her emotions, develop a more dominant approach to the situation and becomes her own person. This is symbolised in the throwing of the ring during the final argument in the video. This again contrasts with the mannerisms of the male character, who begins to look helpless and without control, once again going against conventional music videos. This introduces a feminist viewing of the scene, as it shows how the female as broken conventions, forcing the male to also change his role within the relationship.
The use of different weather conditions also played a big role in the story, and again allowed us to use conventional music videos as a guide to how to approach our project. The two major contrasting weather conditions within the video are the sunny, memory shots, and the current day rainy and foggy shots. The downcast and sombre tones of the more serious moments in the video are emphasised by the murky weather conditions. This follows conventional videos as directors often use weather to convey the mood and to affect the audiences interpretation of the story. It goes against conventions however, as rain is often the choice of weather for such moments. We chose to use foggy conditions as it gave the scene a sense of obscurity. This is reflected in the situation the couple find themselves in, as it is obvious there is an unclear future ahead. This is emphasised through the female character walking away into the fog. The reader is left to interpret the next chapter in the story, as it is unclear what will happen next. The foggy conditions are contrasted with the sunny weather presented during the memory scenes. The sun brings with it the conventional themes of happiness and warmth within the relationship. This also indicates a sense of clarity to the situation, emphasising that at this point in the story, all is well between the characters. One such example is the use of a voyeuristic gaze from the female when holding hands with the male, looking deep into his eyes with a smile on her face. The audience can clearly see the sense of calm and happiness between the couple. - The use of black & white shots throughout the video enabled
us to give the audience an indication as to which shots were
memories, as well as those that were set in the present. The use of
a black and white scheme also reflects on the conventional use of
black and white within many music videos. It portrays a sense of
romanticism within the shots, something that is often used in other
videos, as well as classic films and dramatic love stories. The use
of coloured shots contrasts with this, allowed the audience to gain
a clear understanding of the separation between the two sets of
shots, and keeps the two sides of the story separate.
The narrative of the music video is in third person, this allows the audience to witness the unfolding story without physically being involved. They are drawn into the video through using the technique of breaking the forth wall. By incorporating an extra diegtic gaze into the video as the camera zooms in on the females eye, we were able to bring the audience in, and allow them to follow the story alongside the female, rather than the male. The use of an intra diegtic gaze also suggests a third person view. The male character, at one point, turns and looks at the female lead. This gaze indicates how the story is about the two characters, and that the audience has been welcomed in to witness the unfolding events, but that they are simply just watching the interactions between the two. The narrative meets the conventions of a typical music video, and the female is portrayed as the victimised character, being dominated by the powerful male. The conventions are broken however, as the characters swap roles towards the end once the female takes more control over the situation, leaving the male helpless to stop her. The narrative is also used to enabled the audience to be left guessing as to where the story next. The final shots where the two characters are walking away and the camera zooms back out of the females eye allow the audience to interpret the next part of the story in their own way. There is no indication that she will return to the boy, but the fact that she stayed with him whilst he was abusive suggests she may just fall back into the trap.
The most commonly used transition within the video is fade to black. This was used to help the transition between memories and darker shots. This was contrasted with the use of fade to white, which was used to emphasise a dramatic shift in the narrative of the story. There were also times when no transition was used between shots. This encouraged the audience to be aware of the sharper changes between different camera angles, creating a dramatic tone for the story. This ties in with the conventions of a typical music video, as transitions are often used to distinguish which scenes are set in new locations, or on different parts of the timeline.
Our Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGwipYkoRcA
The shots themselves were also used to act as transitions within the story. There is a shot near the start of the video where a car passes over a bridge in sync with the music. This, coupled with the shot of the female flicking her hair towards the camera, allows us to catch the attention of the audience, emphasising a shift in the story. Towards the end of the video, there is a key moment within the story. - The female walks away from the male and 6 shots flash across
the screen. 3 shots are used to remind the audience of happier
moments within the relationship, and 3 reflect on bad times. This
provides a contrast between happy and sad, and follows the
conventions many bands attempt to add to their videos. Heavy bands
often like to get their videos to move with the beat of the music.
By switching shots in time to the drumbeat, the scene becomes more
dramatic, and the story behind it becomes more powerful. By using
the 6 shots, the audience is able to relate to the video, as they
are able to remember key points in the relationship. Using
previously seen shots also provides the audience with a more
aesthetically pleasing image. This is because they have witnessed
these moments before, so they are able to relate the story even
more. The fact each shot falls on the beat only adds to the drama
of the ensuing argument and emphasises the importance that each
shot had to the relationship.
Along with such shots being timed to fall on the beat, the use of shots alongside the lyrics of the song also plays a part within the video. The moment when the words I fall for you are first heard when watching the video, the female character falls to the ground after being pushed by the male. Such shots allow the audience to further relate to the video, as both the lyrics and the images draw them in. This relates to the conventions of music videos, as many video directors use transitions and drumbeats to add drama to the story. This creative flair is what separates a standard tale into a story worthy of being promoted to the target audience. Our video develops the clich of structuralism, by utilizing equilibrium and disruption frequently throughout the video. Usually, structuralism would entail a simple: equilibrium, disruption, re-equilibrium pattern. Our video features numerous elements of equilibrium and disruption, repeated over and over. Through use of rapid cross cutting between some scenes, and fading to black before others, the editing aims to have an effect on the viewer, as the video quite often fades into scenes of equilibrium, whilst cutting between disruptive scenes. The video ultimately reaches re-equilibrium, by featuring a traditional style happy ending with two lovers walking into the sunset.
Combination of media product and ancillary tasks
CD Digipak
We created consistency between the music video, the digipak and the magazine advertisement by using still images from the video in the lyrics part of the booklet and using the same female from the video throughout. We had originally planned this as it would enable the completed texts to appear more professional and the audience would be able to recognise the connection between the three and the band themselves. - In terms of the music digipak, we found that it was successful
for fulfilling its purpose. It followed the typical conventions of
existing digipaks. In the beginning stages of the research for CD
digipaks, we found that it was popular to have a recognisable image
on the cover; however, some had images which were unrelated to the
band themselves. The text font also represented the bands genre,
meaning that heavier bands had a font which appeared more distorted
opposed to the softer bands, which featured softer fonts. The name
of the band and the album name are placed so the audience can
easily see them; this also stands out against the main images. On
the back of the digipak, the tracks included are listed and the
spine is present on both sides; this allowed us to choose how we
wanted to layout our digipak. We chose to use an image which was of
the female character that had been featured in the video. The fonts
we have chosen to use broke the conventions of heavier bands as the
band name appears to be sketched into the image and the album name
is hand written, this compliments the main image which appears to
be soft in comparison to the genre of the band themselves. However,
the fonts used on the back cover meet the expectations of a heavier
band as the font appears to be written by a type writer. Many
heavier bands will use fonts such as a typewriter for the back page
as it gives a disjointed feel to the CD digipak. So we had met the
stereotypical conventions of heavier bands for the back cover in
comparison to the front.
The image used is of a couple holding hands, this links back to the album name Over and over; and this creates a subtle connotation to the structure of relationships, as the hand hold is very intimate, which the audience can relate to. A still from the music video is used as the background of the lyrics page in the booklet itself. The audience is likely to have seen the music video, so they can relate to the image. This provides a strong link between the two texts and strengthens the bands relationship to the audience; this is an example of intertexuality being used throughout the products. By creating this link between the music video and the digipak, the band are already advertising themselves to a higher standard, enabling them to create a larger source of revenue. This comes through the ability of the audience to relate to the band, creating a connection between themselves and the music. We have not included more stills from the video as it was not necessary and the other images used are separate to the video. However, an image of the band is included in the digipak as there is a Thank You page from the band members. This creates a more personal feel for the audience, as they have not seen them present in the video itself. We followed the conventions of popular digipaks as an image of the band is always included in the booklet, if not on the front or back cover. The images used on the front and back cover do not necessarily have much significance to the video as they are not directly related. The female on the front image is the same within the video, although they cant actually see her face or any detail of her, just an outline of her figure. This is not a problem however, as album covers do not always link directly to a specific video from one of the bands songs. By deliberately choosing a plain image for the cover, it is still able to catch the audiences attention but suggests that the album was created by a band with a romantic basis for their music. They will also naturally look at the back of the CD case to see the song list for the album. By designing the back to look more visually appealing, it causes the audience to become intrigued as there is a stark comparison of the genre on the front and back cover. Having a contrasting back cover allows the text to stand out more effectively, and indicates that the music is founded on love and relationships. This is seen through the handhold on the back cover, as it clearly indicates that love is involved within the music. This allows the outside case to appear to be interesting to the audience, avoiding any loss of attention or creating a digipak that is monotonous or cyclical. - Combination of media product and ancillary tasks
Poster Advertisement
The advertisement was designed to appear in Kerrang! Magazine, arock musicmagazinepublished byBauer Consumer Mediain the United Kingdom. The magazine is well known for advertising heavy rock bands from across the globe, including bands such as Papa Roach and Slipknot. This type of magazine matches the genre of music the band we have chosen, so is an ideal publication to advertise the album. No stills from the music video were used on the poster, so the digipak and the poster are generally unrelated to the video. The main thing that we decided to keep consistent was appearance of the lead protagonist from the music video, as she appears to be an icon of the band. She creates a link between the advertising of the album, and the video for the song. For those of the target audience who may have seen the video before buying the album, they will be able to remember the female character on the poster and immediately know why they recognise her.
The image used is a close up of the girls face, split into two contrasting emotions. These create an obscure image and feel to the poster and will grab the audiences attention. The expressions on her face are representative of the ups and down conveyed in the video, emphasising the story presented. Emotions are conveyed mainly through the tilting of the mouth on one side, and the shape of the eyes, as these are the parts of a facial expression that most obviously convey emotion. It gives the target audience a hint as to what the theme of the music video is. As it is an advertising campaign, it is necessary to keep the attention of the target audience, and create a sense of intrigue in the video. The poster uses interpellation to associate with the audience, drawing their attention to the advertisement. This is an example of intertexuality that the audience can associate with, if they have seen the music video. This way they will immediately link the poster to the band when they see the image. The name of the band is in a large printed font, at the top of the poster, right above the picture of the girl, to capture the attention of the audience. It gives a structured feel to the poster, which is important because without structure it will look unprofessional. It also minimises the audiences confusion, making it easier to understand. The font used throughout is greyscale, but this varies to contrast with the promotional materials. By doing this, we were also able reflect the contrast of the colour scheme on the photos in the digipak. The girl in the poster is wearing dull colours, which create a sombre tone, and form a link between the video with its black and white elements - and the CD cover - which is printed in black and white. Greyscale was chosen as a recurring theme as it represents the nostalgia felt by the main character in the video, as well as indicating the contrasting set of emotions, black and white alongside happy and sad. The promotional materials use the same theme throughout to give a sense of familiarity to the audience. The colours on her face are separated by a grey shading, meaning one side of her face is noticeably darker. This draws more attention to her expression and the audience is able to put one hand on one side of her face, to see her smile, and swap sides to see the opposite reaction, this then increases the audiences understanding of the image. - Important information such as the bands social networking sites
(Facebook and MySpace), where the audience is able to download and
buy their music (iTunes and Play.com), as well as view videos
(YouTube), are also included on the poster. This allows the
audience to see that the band is well established and are already
rather popular in terms of advertisement. This enables them to
create a larger fan base. The bands own website www.TDG.com is also
featured on the poster, as well as the back of the CD cover. This
increases the chances of the band creating a larger revenue stream.
The image included at the bottom left hand corner of the screen is
of the front cover of the CD digipak, this creates further
intertexuality as fans will recognise the image, enabling them to
relate it to the rest of the published material. Reviews of the
album from other, similar bands, allows the target audience to see
that there are a wide range of bands that they are associated with.
This also means they are more likely to attract a greater number of
fans, as they can attract fans that listen to the bands featured on
the poster. The positive reviews can only increase the interest in
the advertisement, further generating income for the
album.
- As there has been a drop in record sales in recent years, often
due to illegal downloading, many artists and bands are finding that
they have to increase their revenue through gigs and festivals
alongside specialised merchandise such as official band clothing.
The advert we have created has stated that their music is available
to download off play.com or iTunes; consequently, there is an
additional slip within the CD digipak that includes a downloadable
content feature. This means that fans are able to download the
songs onto their phone by using a special code. This can be vital
for the band, as it is important that fans are persuaded to buy and
download the songs legally, as opposed to illegally downloading
music off sites such as Limewire.com. The band themselves are able
to use the fans to promote the music to their friends, thus
widening the bands fan base by encouraging them to buy CDs and
follow them on social networking sites.
Target Audience
For our target audience, we found that the completed texts were completely appropriate. Our target audience is primarily teenagers and young adults and the music the company helps produce is often placed under the popular music category. The music produced is appealing to the target audience as they can easily relate to the story within the video. The scenario that plays out often reflects that which goes on within the lives of teens and young adults, so it is a genre of music that they are drawn towards. Due to the use of a female on the cover of both the digipak and the advertising poster, the female section of the target audience would be more drawn to the story. They would therefore seek more information from the poster, and are more likely to buy the CD due to presentation of front cover. The general layout of the advertising poster would attract more fans due to the interest in the published image. Fans would be persuaded to buy the new album due to the positive reviews given by well-known individuals in the music industry. Overall, we found that the final product of the magazine advert and the CD digipak are fully appropriate for the target audience and fulfilled their purpose successfully. - Audience Feedback
For our audience feedback, we created a questionnaire which allowed our target audience to complete with regard to our music video. This is an example of the questionnaire:
1. What is your name?2. What genre of music mainly interests you?3. Did you feel the video matched the song? If no, please state why.YesNo
4. Did you feel that the video created a coherent story? If no, please state why.YesNo
5. Did you feel that the use of effects in the video were relevant? If no, please state why.YesNo
6. Did you feel that the use of transitions were relevant? If no, please state why.YesNo
7. What did you think were the strengths of the video?
8. What did you think were the weaknesses of the video?
9. Did you like the video? If no, please state why.YesNo
10. Did it matter that the band wasnt present during the video? If yes, please state why.Yes
No
11. Did you feel that the video matched the conventions of actual music videos? If no, please state why.Yes
No
12. Please state any improvements that could have been made to the video.
Thank you for filling out the questionnaire - We gave 12 participants our music video questionnaire, 4 of
which have been recorded on the online blog. The participants did
not specifically have a general interest in our music video genre
so this allowed us to gain information from an audience that we
were not aiming at. By using a questionnaire, this allowed us to
see what other people thought, who are fans of different genres of
music. I showed groups of 3 people my music video and asked them to
fill out the questionnaire honestly. These were students from the
AS and A Level classes at the Sixth Form. The age and gender were
not present on the questionnaire however the participants added
this to the bottom of the page should we need the information. This
questionnaire contained 7 quantitative questions and 4 qualitative
questions. We included open questions which allowed the user to
write down their own opinions/criticisms/thoughts about the
completed music video. The other 7 questions allowed us to be able
to create charts of the results, giving us a clear indication as to
whether we have been successful in different aspects of the music
video in accordance to the questions. We have created a diagram to
show the overall results from the questionnaire per question.
Gender
Question 1 cannot be evaluated as it only shows the participants name. This information is generally irrelevant, it was used mostly for us to ensure that we had asked a wide range of people and that no one had filled in a questionnaire twice.
Question 2. What genre of music mainly interests you?
Age
In this pie chart, it shows that our target audience listened mostly to Alternative and Rock music. There is a large mixture of genres that our audience listens to meaning that the views on the video are less likely to be biased. It meant there would also be comments from what would be described as an oppositional audience, which is beneficial as we are able to see how different audiences interpret the video. - Question 3. Did you feel the video matched the song?
This pie chart show that the group was largely in agreement, as 92% of the participants felt that the song matched the video and only 8% disagreed. Out of 12 people, it wasnt much of a loss that only 1 person believed that the song did not match, consequently, that person was the participant who had stated their music genre as hip hop so it was understandable that they may not like the video as much as the others did.
Question 4. Did you feel that the video created a coherent story?
From this pie chart, our group found that it was successful in creating a story which the video conveyed. 17% of the participants found that it did not, whereas the 83% found that it did. Again, only 2 people out of 12 disagreed and those people were the ones who were into hip hop and electronic music genre. Their reactions to the video may be more biased as they originally do not listen to the genre of music used, and therefore have a lesser understanding of the stories often conveyed in this genre of music. - Question 5. Did you feel that the use of effects in the video
were relevant?
Our group was very happy with the results from the response from this question due to 100% of the participants all agreeing that the use of effects was relevant. This gives us confidence that our music video is successful in looking professional and is visually appealing to the audience, whether theyre our target audience or not.
Question 6. Did you feel that the use of transitions were relevant?
Again, our group was extremely happy with the results from this question as all 12 participants agreed that the use of transitions were relevant. This gives us more confidence that the completed music video was to a typical conventional standard. - Question 9. Did you like the video?
The results for this question show that 11 out of the 12 participants liked the music video as a whole. Only 8% did not like it. This negative result was from the hip hop participant. Although this participant was negative with several of their answers, they did give positive feedback on several occasions previously, showing that their answers are not overly biased. This indicates that found the music video is appealing to each audience even though they may not necessarily like every aspect of it.
Question 10. Did it matter that the band wasnt present during the video?
The results from this chart showed the group how an absence of a band may affect the target audiences opinions of the music video; however, there is a larger percentage (75%) of the audience who liked the video without the presence of a band. This means that our video is very successful in terms of the usage of narrative continuously throughout. - Question 11. Did you feel that the video matched the
conventions of actual music videos?
The final yes/no question we asked in the questionnaire was if the audience felt that our music video had matched the conventions of actual music videos. We were extremely surprised and incredibly impressed that 100% of the participants agreed that the video had been completed to a standard that high. This gave the group great confidence that the music video as a whole was a complete success.
The other questions that we had asked were open questions, enabling the audience to fill out, in their own words, their opinion depending on the question. These comments are briefly listed, due to the repetitive nature of the answers:
Question 8. What did you think were the weaknesses of the video?
- The frame sizes of the different shots were sometimes apparent.
- The equivocation between the black and white shots and the colour shots (however, not very noticeable)
- The frame size difference.
12. Please state any improvements that could have been made to the video.
- Editing the frame sizes to ensure they are all the same.
- Include a band.
- There was a clear sign of narrative.
- The transitions between the happy scenes and the bad scenes were very easy to follow.
- The message being shown through the video was understandable.
- The song matched well with the video.
- The editing was superb.
- The acting in the video was good.
- The shots were placed together in a logical order.
- How did you use new media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
During the research stage of our project, the group made good use of web 2.0. This enabled us to find existing music videos that were similar to our original idea. YouTube was the main user-generated content platform we looked at. Through using this website, we gained an idea of how videos are presented within the alternative rock genre. For research purposes we used websites such as Wikipedia to gain a general understanding of the history of alternative rock and to keep up to date with the biography of our chosen band. These two websites are examples of web 2.0, as almost all the content is editable and user-generated. This meant we had to obtain our information from various sources to be certain of its validity.
Whilst planning the project, we made use of scanners to digitalise the hand drawn plans and story boards . It proved easier to draw the plans before uploading them to the blog as it enabled us to edit the sketches more effectively, whilst keeping a digital copy should the originals be misplaced. It was convenient for accuracy as details could be easily manipulated by hand, as opposed to using the accuracy of a computer mouse. Another reason for this was that we found that the computer software did not have the necessary capabilities to create each image as we desired. Work was continually uploaded to the shared blog in order to keep a note of what had been completed. This meant that an extra copy of the work was available if accidently deleted or corrupted. Our planning also involved the deconstruction of other music videos, for which Microsoft Word 2007 was used. This enabled us to quickly write up text, as well as creating a simple document to upload to the blog. - The construction of the product was completed using a variety
of filming equipment. A Canon HD camcorder was used to do complete
the required footage, along with a tripod. This ensured that the
camera could be kept steady, minimizing motion blur. The use of a
tripod was particularly useful when filming in confined spaces,
unsteady surfaces and gradual focus. After gathering all of the
recorded material together, Adobe Premier Pro was used to cut the
scenes together and complete the final publication. However
complications did arise when constructing the video. Premier Pro
was used to attempt to alter the ratio on some shots used in the
video. Unfortunately, due to a formatting error on the camera,
these shots could not be edited in that way, and had to remain at
their original ratios. This editing software was useful as the
original audio of the clips could be removed, and the chosen song
played over the footage. The library of clips used were recorded
over a six month period, enabling a wide range of weather
conditions to be integrated into the video. The clips were not shot
in chronological order as there was no guarantee that the weather
would be ideal on any given day. This was not an issue however, as
the editing software could be used to organise the clips at a later
date. An SLR camera was used for all the still images in the
ancillary tasks except for the video stills used in the digipak.
The use of the SLR camera gave us an advantage, as it meant the
image quality was of a very high standard and the numerous settings
within the camera meant Adobe Photoshop was not required.
Word 2007 was originally used to create the necessary templates for the CD Digipak, this allowed the lay-out to be correctly established with the required measurements. Using this software meant the images could be edited manually by altering the brightness and contrast where appropriate. However, Adobe Photoshop was used when any advanced editing was essential; such as the image on the poster consisting of two images placed together, split down the middle which then created the overall image. The liquefy tool was used in order to emphasise the emotions on her face and develop the two contrasting emotions. A colour filter was used to improve the clarity of the image making it stand out more. The opacity of the right-hand side of the image was reduced to 35% using a rectangular shaped box. This created a sombre tone to the image due to the conflicting emotions contrasting sharply. However, the ratio of the box did not fit with the image and a lasso tool was required to crop the box around the girls face.
Image 1 & 2 combined
Image 1
Image 2
Final Image
Completed Poster - Premiere Pro was used as it contains several features such as
sequence support, high bit-depth rendering, multi-camera editing,
time remapping, scopes, colour correction tools and advanced audio
mixer interface, giving a wider range of tools to be taken
advantage of. Originally iMovie was used to edit the production but
it was found to be inadequate developing the product due the
softwares basic nature. Premiere Pro produced far more professional
results and provided a wide-ranging set of tools and transitions.
As a software package, it was also far more precise when editing
the length and position of shots within the video. It allowed for
shots to be placed at the exact moment they were required, which
was especially effective towards the end of the video when six
separate shots needed to be flashed on the screen quickly one after
another. Another way in which Premier Pro proved to be a more
effective software package was the editing of shot speeds. Several
shots were slowed down within the video, and the ease and precision
with which each shot could be manipulated was vital to the timing
of the production. The transitional tools available were key to the
flow of the video, assisting in the progression of the story. Fade
to black was effective in shifting from the present day to the
memory shots. Using fade to white also emphasised the contrasting
emotions between the memories and the present day, and helped
create an immediate transition between the tone of the
video.
- Web 2.0 was used when uploading the final music video onto
YouTube. This gave us another way in which to gain feedback from
the public, thus increasing our understanding of improvements which
need to be made. Although feedback on the website was not stated in
the evaluation, both the negative and positive comments influenced
the choice of questions in the questionnaire. This example of
technical convergence also presented us with a way of promoting and
distribute our product. Another advantage of using such websites
was the accessibility for the public throughout the world.
Microsoft Excel 2007 was used to create the graphs regarding the information derived from the audience feedback from 12 participants. This was an effective software package as it allowed for creation of professional without worrying about time constraints. The production of such graphs allowed us to present our information in a simple, clear manner. The use of Microsoft PowerPoint meant that the graphs could be included within the presentation to coincide with text.
Microsoft Office PowerPoint was the chosen form of presentation for the evaluation. This was chosen as it is an easy format through which the final work could be combined and summarized. This meant that images used in the ancillary tasks, along with stills from the video could be placed alongside text to further support points made. We made use of pie charts and diagrams to include the information obtained from audience feedback. PowerPoint can also been seen as an aesthetically pleasing device. It is a basic, yet professional form of presenting the evaluation without facing the difficulties producing a podcast would present. One such example would be the time needed to learn the software, as well as the need to ensure that points were detailed, but more importantly, understandable. As all members of the group were literate in the use of PowerPoint 2007, it also meant that little time was required to create the presentation to a desirable standard. - Microsoft Office PowerPoint was the chosen form of presentation
for the evaluation. This was chosen as it is an easy format through
which the final work could be combined and summarized. This meant
that images used in the ancillary tasks, along with stills from the
video could be placed alongside text to further support points
made. We made use of pie charts and diagrams to include the
information obtained from audience feedback. PowerPoint can also
been seen as an aesthetically pleasing device. It is a basic, yet
professional form of presenting the evaluation without facing the
difficulties producing a podcast would present. One such example
would be the time needed to learn the software, as well as the need
to ensure that points were detailed, but more importantly,
understandable. As all members of the group were literate in the
use of PowerPoint 2007, it also meant that little time was required
to create the presentation to a desirable standard.
Potential Improvements of the Project
The main area of improvement within the music video would have been the resolution of the shots. Some shots were recorded using the desired resolution, but unfortunately the same camera could not be used to record each day. The second camera had a completely different resolution and it was not possible to make the resolution the same. This meant some shots were smaller than others, and although it was not too apparent, it still affected the quality of the video. Another aspect of improvement would have been the quality of the video. The software package used was of a standard quality, but it could have been much more advanced. This would have allowed for a greater variety of transitions to be used, rather than the 4 that were on offer. We would of also have liked to have used a wider variety of shots, and had a greater number of shots to choose from. This would have allowed us to have more options with regards to shots used. We would have liked to have used more shots within the house, but were unable to find time within the length of the video to add more shots of the couple together there.
With regards to the CD and the case, we would have considered using a large variety of shots from the video in the form of a collage. We found this difficult to do as the quality of the shots would not have been good enough to use. They would have blurred, and given the picture a less professional look. Again, the use of a better camera would have meant that the shots could have been used to create a collage, with each shot of a high quality standard.
For the advertising poster, different images could have been selected over the chosen shot, though the photo was actually the preferred choice. The improvements that could have been made to the poster included the quality of the editing on the photo. The contrast between both sides of the face was effective, however it would have been preferred if the colour of her skin was more subtle. There needed to be a difference to an extent, in order to allow the audience to recognise the two sides of the image, but we would have liked it if the skin tone was a little more consistent.