Evaluation 4 - How have I used digital technologies in the research, planning and creation of my products?

We went onto video sites such as YouTube and VEVO, to find inspiration for our music video; we learnt the conventions of music videos We looked at artists like Ed Sheeran, Paulo Nutini, Sam Smith and Olly Murs, from there we looked further into their website and how they interacted with their fans, this gave us a real in-depth knowledge into these artists

. We used our personal mobile phones to record interview with our target audience, to find out what would entice them into watching a music video, and what they are looking for in an artist. We used this information to direct us in knowing what key aspects to feature in the music video, we also found out the Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles of our target audience and identified they are Traditionalists, this meant they enjoyed a typical love narrative. Therefore we decided that we should focus more on the narrative in our music video, than the lip-syncing, as we felt our young target audience would relate to the story better than making it more performance based narrative. We used the internet as a research tool to gain an understanding of similar artists’ image, this therefore meant that we could find what our artist could wear, so they could generically link with the type of music they are playing e.g. Synthetic Pop We used the internet as a research tool to gain an understanding of locations, we looked at other artists such as Lily Allen and One Direction who had the set of a Café/Shop, and as a result we researched cafés in the London area, near where we were filming. However due to restraints on timings of the song and narrative, we had to cut out the section in which we filmed on location in the café. To create our animatic, we first drew out the storyboard, and then once completed, we took photos of each individual shot using our phones, and then sent them onto the Editing workspace using email. After we downloaded the images onto the workspace, we put them into Adobe Premiere Pro

. After this we cut each shot to the beat of the music. This enabled us to learn more about the timings of each shot and as a result we understood that we knew we should place in more shots as the cuts through were too long, making the video look dull. We used a Canon ----- to film our music video, this was a digital recording camera that enabled us to give a professional edge to our product, and film in High Definition.

 By using a semi-professional camera we could smoothly zoom in and out, used tracks to create a tracking shot, and make our finished product look as professional as possible. We used the software, Adobe Premiere Pro. This is a professional editing suite that allowed us to edit freely and easily. By using this software it allowed us to create transitions to gradually bring the shot in, we were able to cut directly to the beat which is a key convention of music videos, we were able to change the brightness, contrast and colour of particular shots so that it would fit better, since we had two days in which we filmed. We slowed the speed of shots down and also sped them up so that they would fit the narrative and not have too much screen time. We were able to move shots around and place them in the order to fit our narrative. We also used discontinuity editing devices, which matches the convention found in other music videos analysed. We used online survey sites including SurveyMonkey questionnaire to gain audience feedback on our products, as a result of doing this we made minor changes in the products in post-production, also from this we found out how we could make a more cohesive package to sell and market our artist. We researched into similar artists’ digipak, by searching on the internet for similar artists and their album covers. As a result we knew what our target audience expects to see from an artist in that genre. We planned the layout of the digipaks in Coral Draw/Paint, this was a basic software that enabled us to manipulate images into the way we wanted it to be perceived by the audience. By doing this we found out what worked and what didn’t. I produced my digipak using Photoshop, this professional image editing software allows the user to use layers as a way of control image and manipulating it in a more sophisticated way than Coral Paint/Draw can achieve. As a result of doing this, it meant that the finished digipak looks more professional. We researched into similar artists websites, by finding their social channels and analysed them for emergent themes. This allowed us to know what to include in our artists websites. Including items such as buttons, sections, and the overall layout etc. We planned and produced out website using Wix, this is an online web designing tool in which you can easily create your own website. As a result of using this tool, we were able to be creative and learnt additional new skills. We made sure our website liked with other technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by embedding the artists feed into the websites HTML code, this is so that users can easily navigate to the artists’ social media pages, to spread the message of our artist and to help build target audience and fan base, to ultimately gain more downloads and purchases of the stars music.