How Did You Use New Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

During the construction of my music video I used many technologies that were new to me.

When creating my ancillary tasks, I manipulated some of my photos, for example the Polaroid pictures on my advert, using programs such as Fireworks.

Having never used this program before I was at first confused and found it quite difficult, but I managed to pick it up quite easily after reading several articles on how to use it. I had never manipulated images before so I was pleased with the way my images turned out. For example the process of the development of the top image below:

When editing, although I had used the editing program before, I had never used it to this extent. I used many different techniques, such as speed up and cutting to the beat. I found the program easy to use, however there were several techniques that I wanted to use when editing but they were not able to be done with the program.

Doing my Research and Planning and my Evaluation on a Blog format was new to me. In previous years I had done this work on PowerPoint, so I had to try and learn how to use this technology. I admit that I found it hard, mainly because I could never seem to get the writing and images in the layout that I wanted.

I also had to overcome the challenge of creating the whole video by myself and discovering how to use the new technologies alone, as my partner left me during the course. I did find it hard to carry all the workload by myself, but I felt confident enough to work on the original song choice we made and managed to develop the idea we had for a video. I also had to manipulate the idea so it would suit my needs more, for example changing from doing a group to a solo artist, meaning I did not have to organise and rely on other people anymore.

What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?

To help me with my audience feedback I made a questionnaire for viewers to fill out, an example is shown below.

  

In order to gain more informative feedback I uploaded my video to Youtube and Facebook to gather more comments and opinions.

The results of this questionnaire showed a good general response.

I found that people felt the lip syncing was very good, and that the cuts were cleverly edited to the beat. They also felt that the length of clips kept pace with the music. Most people were shocked that I did all the filming with just a tripod and the editing by myself. 

Some 'Further Comments':

"I thought that the video was actually really good. All the short clips were really on time with the music and so was the lip-syncing."

"I like your video and I think the lip-syncing is really good, but I didn't really think it showed characteristics of an indie video".

"The video was awesome. All those little clips were edited well and very in time to the drumming."

"I loved the sequins on Florence's hands and the lip-syncing and the facial expressions. The song clings to the drum beat brilliantly."
"It was very well shot, cleverly edited and brilliantly performed. The slight  

criticism come form the editing vision and the quality of the camera (which is not your fault). I feel there were some more cutaways needed in the first verse, but apart form that it was a very well shot music video."

"It was really good. It actually looked like you were the one singing the song!"

"I thought some of the images you used really linked to the lyrics which was cool. I particularly liked the art shots of the church. I felt that the music really moved with the mood of the song."

"It relates to FATM previous videos in a simlar surreal way but not as surreal due to the budget of this (which is understandable). But it sends a message through a story, not nessacirly in linear order but gives the audience the story and the message all the same."

Many people thought that it did reflect conventions of similar music videos and that it was slightly similar to Florence and the Machine videos, which is good because I was aiming for some orginality away from just copying their videos.

The results of my questionnaire also enabled me to go back and make some changes to it to improve my video.

I realised that my audience feedback, although it was targetted at my target audience, it still had an age bias. To try and fix this and gain even broader opinions, I asked my mother to put my video on her Facebook so it would reach a larger audience.

 

How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Tasks?

I feel that my Main Product and Ancillary Tasks are effective when combined together, as well as individually.

I think my ancillary tasks work really well together and I believe that they are both representative of Florence and the Machine's style, for example the photos being quite artistic, natural surroundings and the use of dark colours. I think that I have presented this style continuously throughout my products.

When my Ancillary Tasks are combined with my Main Product I think it also works well. I feel that they complement each other as they are intertwined. For example, the photos for my Advert are of a similar, natural environment that has been used for locations in my video.

Also, the advert and digipak are linked together as I have included the owl from the album cover on the top of the advert, and also I have placed a small picture of the entire album cover, quite small, in the bottom left corner of the advert so readers are aware of what they are looking for. Also, I have included a website for access to extra information.

I have included the quote that is very typical on most adverts; "Available at all good record retailers" so people know where to buy it. The quote used to be Record Stores, but now accessibility to music has grown due to stores such as Tesco and also the ability to buy albums in digital format.

Evaluation - In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge the Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

My music video uses many forms and conventions of a real music video. For example, my video is mainly performance based, with a slight underlying
concept that is presented at the beginning of the video.

It follows most of Goodwin's Key Features of a music video, such as representing genre characteristics, having relationships between lyrics and visuals and a relationship between music and visuals.

The shots of Florence singing are not continuous as they are broken up by other clips that tell a story or are related to the lyrics, which is a feature of music videos.

I feel that I challenged one Key Feature, that being particular voyeuristic treatment of the female body and the notion of looking. I felt that this song does not relate to this feature as the lyrics are not that way inclined, so I therefore did not want my video to be like it.

I believe my video shares several characteristics of similar genres, which my research into other similar artists and their videos helped with. I feel that the dark colours I used on my digipak and in my video, and the use of natural environments are very similar. Also the use of an underlying concept that is not quite obvious is common in this genre. However I have tried to challenge some of the typical characteristics of videos in this genre, such as the voyeurism shown by other female artists of the genre. 

I think that my video does fulfil the main functions of a music video as it is promoting both the song and the stars. It is effective at promoting the song and the artist, for example I have included a large amount of close ups. Also the fact that I have tried to make it not voyeuristic means that Florence is represented in a positive way which will allow her to be seen as a positive role model for girls, especially of a young age. It promotes the song by using montage editing that puts emphasis on the lyrics, such as "I ran to the tower", "I run to the river" and the Heaven and Hell lyrics by use of certain visuals.

I believe the pace of my video is appropriate to the song. I have used quite long clips, especially for the verses, as i preferred this to the original Drumming Song video, which I felt had too many short clips. However, I have used quite short clips for the chorus to make the pace faster to match the music. They cut on the beat to make it more effective. I also used short clips of the narrative storyline for the very dramatic drumming parts of the song. I tried to do disjunctive editing, so my performance and narrative was broken up, making viewers focus on the music as well as the visuals.

I also feel that my digipak resembles a real one due to features such as the use of real labels, for example the label for Island Records and Moshi Moshi Records. I also researched the typical Legal Content that albums have, for example the copyright and the information of who produced and wrote the songs, and what you cannot do with the CD, such as reproduction, hiring and public performance. I used the information in the original Florence and the Machine digipak to help me get my information as realistic as possible.