How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
When conducting our research, I used YouTube to find and analyse music videos in our genre. This allowed me to watch any video I wanted as many times as necessary in order to analyse it effectively. It helped me to identify the typical conventions within the punk rock genre, such as costume, colours and narrative. I could then ensure we used the same conventions in our video. For example, I noticed the majority of the music videos I looked at used dark clothing. Videos including Happy Ending by Avril Lavigne, Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day and Pressure by Paramore.
It was clear that dark clothing was a typical convention of the punk rock genre, and so we needed to include this in our video.
After analysing the videos, we were able to use Zamzar to convert the video and add it into iMovie in order to create a Punk Rock documentary. We used Facebook to organise when and where we were going to film, this was helpful as it meant everyone in the group could contact each other at any time so we could decide the best time to film for everyone. It was also helpful for getting people together for the concert filming, as we needed quite a few people to attend it was much easier to message them all at the same time because they all use Facebook. We used iMovie to put together our music video, this software allowed us to edit our video successfully because we could edit it in the exact way we wanted to. We had experience using iMovie before and so we found it easy to navigate around the software and use it effectively. It allowed us to trim clips to find and use the best ones, this meant that we could film the band singing the song the whole way through and then trim the recording and select which parts we wanted to use.
We could also use different transactions between the shots such as fade out to portray a memory being shown, this was used when the lead singer says "I remember the words I was told as soon as I spoke of her". The shot fades to white to emphasise the fact it's a memory, and changes to the girl love interest to make it clear who he is talking about.
We used Photoshop to edit and put together our digi-pak and poster, this software meant we could place our text and images where ever we thought was best. It also allowed us to edit colours in the text and images, as well as lighting effects. We photographed each member of the band separately, as we struggled to find a time when they were all available. We then used Photoshop to cut them in front of the same background so it looked like they were together. The website Blogger.com allowed us to put all our research and production together to document our development. This was useful as it meant we could look back at our research whenever we needed to .
It was clear that dark clothing was a typical convention of the punk rock genre, and so we needed to include this in our video. After analysing the videos, we were able to use Zamzar to convert the video and add it into iMovie in order to create a Punk Rock documentary. We used Facebook to organise when and where we were going to film, this was helpful as it meant everyone in the group could contact each other at any time so we could decide the best time to film for everyone. It was also helpful for getting people together for the concert filming, as we needed quite a few people to attend it was much easier to message them all at the same time because they all use Facebook. We used iMovie to put together our music video, this software allowed us to edit our video successfully because we could edit it in the exact way we wanted to. We had experience using iMovie before and so we found it easy to navigate around the software and use it effectively. It allowed us to trim clips to find and use the best ones, this meant that we could film the band singing the song the whole way through and then trim the recording and select which parts we wanted to use.
We used Photoshop to edit and put together our digi-pak and poster, this software meant we could place our text and images where ever we thought was best. It also allowed us to edit colours in the text and images, as well as lighting effects. We photographed each member of the band separately, as we struggled to find a time when they were all available. We then used Photoshop to cut them in front of the same background so it looked like they were together. The website Blogger.com allowed us to put all our research and production together to document our development. This was useful as it meant we could look back at our research whenever we needed to .
In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We have used the typical convention of the punk rock genre in our media products; we looked at our research and applied similar themes to our own work. When doing our research, we noticed videos such as The Kill by 30 Seconds to Mars, Pressure by Paramore and Happy Ending by Avril Lavigne all featured a narrative alongside a live performance.
This told us that a performance and narrative based video is a convention of a punk rock video. When doing our questionnaire to find out what the audience wanted or expected to see in a punk rock video, they also said a live performance and narrative should be included. So after all research was complete, we knew it was important for our video to be in this format in order to please our audience. We have shots of the band performing to an audience along side a narrative that follows the lead singer who is in love with the girl but she doesn't notice him and rejects other boys. This keeps the audience entertained as they can enjoy the performance as well as watching the narrative and empathise with certain characters.
Our video
The majority of the CDs we looked at didn’t have the artist’s image on the cover, such as The Rasmus ‘Dead Letters’, Green Day ‘21st Century Breakdown’ and Pink Floyd ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’. Instead, they use images that will grab the audience's attention as they are quite interesting and different. Very few of them did feature the artist on the cover, some examples of ones that did are Avril Lavigne ‘Goodbye Lullaby’ and Razorlight. Showing the artist on the cover helps the audience to identify them, when they see them on the cover they will be able to recognise them when they see them on TV or on posters. Our research told us not showing the artist on the cover is a convention of the punk rock genre; however we challenged this and decided to show an image of the band on the cover. We thought it would help the audience to identify the band and to relate to them. Many of the CDs we looked at used dark colours such as black and white with some red, such as Avril Lavigne ‘Under My Skin’ and Lostprophets ‘Liberation Transmission’ our audience research also told us that audiences expected to see these colours on a punk rock CD. We decided to follow this convention in order for our audience to be able to identify straight away what genre the album is.
Our digi-pak
Our research also showed a clear theme of the colours red, white and black. Covers such as 21st Century Breakdown by Green Day, Razorlight, Under My Skin by Avril Lavigne and Liberation Transmission by Lostprophets all use one of these or all of these as their main colours. Our audience research also told us that audiences expect to see these colours on a punk rock CD. And so, on the cover of our digi-pak, we have used a very dark image and background with a bright red title. This emphasises that the genre is punk rock.
From our research, we found that nearly all of the posters we looked at used the image that is on the album cover, for example, The White Stripes ‘Icky Thump’, Supergrass ‘Road to Rouen’ and Led Zeppelin ‘Mothership’. For our poster we included the same image that is on the album, however it is in colour rather than in black and white. We thought the image would stand out more against the black background better than if it were in black and white. It's clear again, that colours used in the punk rock genre are black, white and red. For example Led Zeppelin 'Mothership' and The White Stripes 'Icky Thump'. We followed this convention to ensure it's clear to the audience what our genre is and also to follow the theme on from our digi-pak, so the audience can see that they are the same artist and the same product.
Our poster
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I think our media products sells our artist well as we’ve followed the typical conventions of the punk rock genre and this will help attract the correct audience. For example, we have used the typical colours, costume, narrative and settings. Our artist is clearly represented, using the typical codes and conventions of the punk rock genre enabled us to be successful in our representation. For example, we found punk rock artists wore dark clothing and so we incorporated this into our product to help our artist be represented as a punk rock artist. If they were wearing brighter colours, the genre would become confusing on the surface, if someone saw the band on the album cover wearing bright colours then they are more likely to get the genre confused.
We listened to the audience research we did and created our product around what they wanted to ensure we pleased them and they’d be interested in it. For example, our audience research told us the audience expected to see colours such as red, black and grey on the print products and so we ensured these were the colours we used. The audience research was important as it ensured we created our products to how they expected it to be which enables us to target our audience.
Our research told us it wasn’t typical to see the artist on the cover of a punk rock album but in our questionnaire, our audience told us they would expect to see the artist on the cover. I think that following what the audience telling us what they wanted to see helps to sell our artist better than if we simply went by our research into other products, because it’s the audience who show us if it works well or not. Showing the band on the cover of the digi-pak is therefore more likely to appeal to our targeted audience because they told us that's what they want to see.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
A positive comment made about our video was “the video follows a sense of genre quite well since the majority of it is performance based, which is what you associate with the punk rock genre”. This told us that we’d been successful in creating something the audience expect and want to see in a punk rock music video. Another positive comment made was “very obvious what the genre is”, this told us that we followed the typical conventions of a punk rock music video well enough to portray our genre effectively. A weakness we were told our video was “shaking camera movement when he is walking down the street”. From this comment, we could see that using a tripod or holding the camera more steadily would improve the quality of the video. Another weakness given was “don’t see girl until after singer and drummer talk about her”, this made the narrative slightly confusing the some of the people who watched our video. From this, we knew we had to have a shot of the girl before their conversation and so we were able to add this in and make the narrative more understandable to the audience.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
A positive comment made about our video was “the video follows a sense of genre quite well since the majority of it is performance based, which is what you associate with the punk rock genre”. This told us that we’d been successful in creating something the audience expect and want to see in a punk rock music video. Another positive comment made was “very obvious what the genre is”, this told us that we followed the typical conventions of a punk rock music video well enough to portray our genre effectively. A weakness we were told our video was “shaking camera movement when he is walking down the street”. From this comment, we could see that using a tripod or holding the camera more steadily would improve the quality of the video. Another weakness given was “don’t see girl until after singer and drummer talk about her”, this made the narrative slightly confusing the some of the people who watched our video. From this, we knew we had to have a shot of the girl before their conversation and so we were able to add this in and make the narrative more understandable to the audience.
A positive comment made about our digi-pak was “good use of colours, match genre”. This shows our use of colours is effective and we were successful in telling the audience what genre the band is. Another positive comment made was “it’s distinctive”, from this comment we can see that we’ve made a product that stands out and appeals to the audience. A weakness we were told about our digi-pak was “band need more of a straight face, the smiling makes it look less like a rock band”. This tells us that in order for it to be clearer that the genre is punk rock, the band need to look more serious. Another weakness was “the use of a paw print over the image of the band doesn’t seem very purposeful”. This feedback tells us that the idea we had might not be as effective as we thought and maybe the image of the paw print on its own or the band on their own would look better.
A positive comment made about our poster was “use of the word ‘unleash’ works well with the band name”. Our continuous theme of animals through the use of paws and the name of the band as well as using the word ‘unleashed’ rather than ‘released’ helps make our poster more memorable. The feedback shows that it’s effective and it’s clear what we’re trying to say. Another positive comment was “title stands out”, this shows that the audience’s attention goes to the title. The use of the colour red helps it to stand out, we followed the typical conventions of the punk rock genre through the use of the colour red and so we know we were successful in portraying our genre. A weakness we were told about our poster was “looks like a film poster”, this tells us that in order to make our poster more successful, we should include some kind of indication that it’s a CD. This could be done by having the text informing them it’s an album in a larger font on the poster. Finally, another weakness was “the use of a paw print for the letter ‘A’ made the reading of it unclear”. To improve on this, we could have used a paw print for just one of the letter A’s as this could make it clearer.
