Sunday 23 February 2014

Evaluation Question 3

I didn't find any images of the band's gigs on google images but I did manage to find a video of a concert on youtube. I  got a few glimpses of the audience. There was a range of ages from both genders in the audience, but I think it was mainly between 18-40. Here are a few example screenshots from that concert:




Music Video Feedback

On my music video, I had 24 you tube views. There was also 1 comment that a friend made on the video. It wasn't very long but it mentioned that my video was good. 

Over Facebook, a couple of friends told me that my video was very enjoyable. They said the editing  pace was right for the pace of the song, and that there were a good range of techniques that were used. One improvement that this friend mentioned was the steadiness of the camera. They said that some of the footage was a bit shaky and could have been steadier. Although, my footage was meant to be shaky so that it matches the edginess of the song. 

In class, I got three lots of feedback from peers. They all gave me similar feedback. This is some of the feedback I got back for my music video: 

  • Good range of camera techniques.
  • Editing pace matches the pace of the song.
  • Good transitions through the shots.
  • Some of the camera work is shaky. 
  • Could have included some lip synching.
  • Can clearly tell what the narrative is.
After I got this feedback, I decided that I didn't need to make many improvements to my music video as I had used many camera techniques, the editing pace was good which  matched the pace of the song, and the transitions were good throughout the different shots.

Digipak Feedback

I also had feedback from my peers on my digipak design. This is some of the feedback I got for my digipak: 

  • More of a balance between text and images.
  • Move the record label logo to the other part of the spine.
  • Make the record label logo bigger where the CD would go.
  • Change the text colour because it was quite hard to read.
Because of this feedback, I made a couple of improvements. I added more text  so there's more of a balance between text and image, I also moved the small record label, made the other record label bigger, and I also changed the text colour to a different style which would be easier to read.

Website Feedback

I also had feedback from my peers on my website. This is some of the feedback I got for my website:

  • Very good website which includes most of the main website conventions.
  • Would be good if the music video was somewhere on the website.
  • Not much reference to the music video.
Because of this feedback, I made a slight change to the website. I added to the music video to the menu page so that there was more reference to the video.








Monday 3 February 2014

Evaluation Question 4

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

I used many new technologies in each of my stages. I used most of the technologies either on a MacBook at College or on my own PC at home. Technologies I used include:
For my music video research, I mainly used the internet. The search engine was Google. I used the internet to research music video conventions, the target audience of music videos, what genre I would like to base my video on, and to look at other similar music videos.

For the starting point of my research, I researched similar bands in the genre I wanted to make the video for, so I researched bands' official websites, track listings, sales figures and the target audience.

Tracklisting of The Calling - Camino Palmero

The amount and trends of listeners that The Calling have on Last FM.

 The people who were listening to The Calling at a specific time. From this, a majority of listeners are male.

I used YouTube to analyse other music videos in the genre. I analysed music videos from The Calling, Bastille, Imagine Dragons, The Temper Trap and Kings of Leon. These videos influenced me to create a video where the narrative was the main element.


Screenshot from the video of Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.


Screenshot from the video of Pompeii by Bastille.

After analysing these videos, I decided that I wanted my music video to have the narrative as the main element, and the video to be darker in colour and lighting. I will do this by using colour correction, and being darker, it will add extra edge to the video as the song is rocky.

While researching for my digipak, I used the internet to research digipak conventions. I would then include them conventions in my digipak. I also used the internet to find a suitable 4-panel template that I would use for my digipak.


I again used the internet to research websites. I analysed different websites to discover what the conventions are, and then I compared them to find out what conventions similar websites all use. I would then use them conventions in my website. 


To create my music video, I used a DSLR Camera and a still digital camera

I used the still digital camera to take recce shots of the locations in my video so that I could have photos of the locations, and I used the DSLR camera to shoot my music video because it is one of the more high quality cameras that were available for me to shoot with. 

To construct my music video, I captured the footage in Final Cut Pro



I used Final Cut Pro to edit the video with cuts, transitions, colour correction and other filters. Using colour correction allowed me to make the video black and white, which would gave the video the edge along with the rocky, edgy sound of the song.


To create my digipak design, I used Adobe Photoshop.

As I have shown below, I used many layers to create the design. The many layers consisted of text, images and effects.


The images I've used are photos from my music video which shows how they come together as a promotional package. I then included several things including the band members, track listing and text effects.

To create my website, I used Wix.

This image below is the template that I used to create my website. I chose this template because the colours match the genre of the song in my video. There were plenty of templates available but I chose this one because again, it matches the genre and then I could edit it to make it my own style.

Wix is also good to use because it allowed me to create and publish the website for free. All of the tools I needed were also right in front of me at the click of a button,


The image below is of my final website. Before creating the website, I researched similar websites to find out what conventions I will use in mine. 


I also used SoundCloud to import sound onto the website.

I used Slideshare to upload my Evaluation Question 1. I uploaded it to Slideshare and then pasted the embed code into Blogger.

Finally, I used Blogger for all stages of my project. I uploaded everything to Blogger