How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Production:
Digipak The digipak was created in Photoshop as it was suggested by Max that there should be a focus on artwork rather then on then the band members. We used the basic features of text and and the paintbrush/drawing features to create the images. In addition I used colour changing tools to find the perfect colour of the digipak. Its transformation tools and small photo editing tools such as patch and colour correction allowed me to edit some on the images that went on to the website. Photoshop CS6 was also used to download the back template of a digipak, 6 panels so that we could create the product that we did.
Evaluation In the evaluation, I used new media technologies to present my answers:
Prezi/sway/Emaze; Used to create presentations for detailed responses to each question.
Padlet: Used to create a different looking way to present my answer.
Blogger: Collect all pieces of my answer together and create a coherent answer to the question
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? We created a music video, a 6 panel digipak and a band website in the genre of psychedelic rock. This was the general theme with bight colours and strange imagery. We were inspired by a number of sources including The Beatles.
Social Media With the society that we currently live, Social Media is an important part of daily life. It allows people to find news and stay updated with the world and the people with in it. It allows people to discover new and interesting music. Its imperative that musicians and bands these days use it to connect with fans and allow their fans to get extra information about the band, upcoming tours, albums and singles. Its a platform that encourages safe conversation between band and artist. It also gives the band a chance to wider promote their products as fans can share what they are interested in with the rest of their friends that may not know about what the band is promoting. It can link all the products together as links to social media can be on the website and vise versa. It can be used to promote new music videos and albums that the band have just released. We used social media by having a Twitter account for the band. We decided to have Twitter as its one of the larges platforms on the internet and the one most commonly used but artists. We used in promote the song and the video that we created as our target audience is between 20 (15 at the lowest) and 30 year old and most people within this age range have a twitter. Our theme also carries over to the twitter page.
Synergy "The interaction or cooperation of two or more organisations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effect [1]" During all phases of production we kept synergy in mind. We produced an overall theme that featured in all the products, such as the cute characters, bright colours and death. We used bright colours on all of the product including merchandise and twitter. Like both Jeff Lynne and Twenty One Pilots we keep the colours constant to create a sense of togetherness for all products.
In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? For our products we created the band Acid Rain and made the music video for the song "Bone" by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Music Video The music takes the form of a typical music video as we didn't draw inspiration from TV shows however we do subvert slightly as, even though it has been used in other music videos, we decided to use stop motion animation type shots which aren't normally used in this form or media. Our main source if inspiration came from the 1960s and 70s. For our video we took inspiration and conventions from the psychedelic rock/pop genre such as I Wanna Adore You by The Stone Roses, Nights in White Satin by The Moody Blues and A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harem. It gives the video a more 70s feel despite being a more modern product. The video opens with a stop motion sequence that was inspired by Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer which we knew wouldn't be suitable for the whole video so we decided open with it as it set the video apart form others immediately and brake music video convents as they tend to open with the shots that set up with a narrative or shots of the band. It gives our video something unique from the out set and sets it apart from others within the genre, especially as it isn't continuous stop motion.
The majority of the video is performance and thus we took some of our ideas from it such as the close ups of Max singing and playing instruments and the simplicity of the structure. We particularly liked the coloured filters and the more natural or high key lighting which is evidently a contention of the genre and all 3 of the videos used as an comparison. There is also quite a few outdoors shots which we also decided would be something to use. As it links to the subtle subtextual theme of the products and song in addition to it being a common convention of the genre. We also decided to us a lot of close ups and angles to one again conform to the conventions of the as you can see by the examples provided. It forces the viewer to focus on the performance being given. Due to the majority of music videos, we decided to have a small portion of narrative at the end of the video. In the form of stop motion cartoon characters we have a short story that links to the lyrics music many music videos.
Digipak
The digipak is aimed be psychedelic, with modern pop rock inflections. This is quite a common hybrid for modern music as it can be seen in music by Panic! at the Disco, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, and the Stone Roses. However was aimed to give reference to ealier 60s and 70s bands such as The Beatles and The Moody Blues. Due to its hybridity it manages to both conform and break genre conventions.
The final cut of the video includes a revised panel that now links the digipak to the content on the music video. It also includes the legal information and a bar code that had been missing from the rough cut of the digipak.
We had some technical difficulties whilst making the rough cut. Due to the start being in stop motion the rest of the footage was out of ratio with the still images. This meant a lot of the footage doesn't fit. It was often hit or miss with the size of the footage as we thought we had fixed it but some of the footage still didn't fit with the ratio. We had to use the stills camera to film. We always made sure to have the settings the same so we are unsure as to why the size of the footage is so hit and miss. However it does have some positives such as it fits the genre with the types of shots being mirrored and the coloured filter over certain shots.
