Question 4

4.

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

Using the website unsigned.com to find our chosen band and their track was very useful. This website was personally chosen because of copyright issues as the bands put their tracks up to be used by us for free. We wanted to find a lively song that is fun to listen to and matched our favourite genre being Rock/Alternative  in whom we came across 2^nd Half’s track ‘One Night Alone’ and requested them that we used their track for the music promo. The band had not been found by a record company to sign them up. The band was started by singer-guitarist Ed Gandolf and drummer Drew Scalero back in the mid-'90s; by the time the group released its first album, Now It's Real, in 2003, they were the only members.

To contact the band we used G-mail letter sent to the bands E-mail explaining that we would like to request permission to use the track in which they happily replied with ‘yes.’  We used Facebook to research their band in more detail through images of their posters and live band pictures. To exhibit the promo we used use YouTube as it is shows the video for free and we can receive feedback in the comments of what viewers thought.

We also used YouTube to explore and research other music promos at the beginning e.g. Red Hot Chili Peppers with their promo ‘Can’t stop’ where we took inspiration from with their use of disjuncture and similar ‘rock’ genre. We looked at the conventions used in different promos to explore which would work the best for our chosen song. We searched our chosen band on YouTube and only found 1 video of them doing a live performance with little views meaning that our promo will be original to advertise the band. 

 To get the songs to listen to we used sound-cloud where we downloaded the songs for free. This was also used to get the song One Night Along from our chosen artist to use in the editing.

To get feedback from our audience we used poll everywhere. This is very quick to vote with and enabled us to find out what the majority of the target audience prefer through our poster and Digi-pack designs typically between two choices that we had inspiration from other rock artist posters and Digi-packs.

Constructing our production required a lot of technologies from filming to editing. Filming was difficult on our chosen days because of the unreliable lighting changing constantly as outside it was cloudy and getting the camera still with high winds was a challenge.

Google was used to research the band in more detail and to research any bands that the vox-pop interviewees said they liked such as Red Hot Chili Peppers. Google is very reliable and fast to get simple information.

Another problem we encountered with filming the performance was that we needed the singer to sing in time with the song. To counter this problem, we setup our phone to play the song and film the entire 3 minutes with the singer singing exactly with the beat along with the instruments playing making the performance look professional. We also had the problem of playing the instruments as only one of us was able to play the drums and the rest had no experience with the guitar. To solve this, we had a few practices strumming the guitar to gain a feel of how it is played and filmed us playing the guitars at different angles that appeared to show unnoticeable errors in falsely playing the guitar.

For filming we used simple equipment consisting of a video-camera and a tri-pod. The camera was small and lightweight so holding it to get certain shots wasn’t a challenge and could hold a lot of film so we were able to film for both days and not worry about the space and the battery life. The tri-pod was small and easy to man-oeuvre and placing it in different locations was a simple task. A problem we encountered though was keeping it steady on hills and because of it being lightweight, the wind was very strong when filming and knocked over the tri-pod frequently outside so we needed to hold it down to get still shots.  

To edit we used Adobe Premier Pro.

This software is very effective at getting all of the different shots and cutting to the beat. However this software was completely new to us so it took a while experimenting with the different effects and techniques we could use. The editing skills we have learnt through experimenting with the software are changing the lengths of the shots so that they match the beat of the music. We got used to the different channels to editing with the music and the actual video where we could see the clefs where the beat changes to add a shot into the space. We found that some shots didn’t match the pace of the music so we used a new technique of speeding up/slowing down the clips length so it stays in sync with the music timing. This was repeated with the instruments where we cut the clips in a professional manner from all angles in very short clip duration 0.5-1 second long each and placed them in-between the performance and narrative. For the performance, we used the 3 minute long clips with the singer and band playing in time with the song and cut out clips where the lyrics go and placed them with little trouble to sync with the song.  

We found another issue with our clips where there were unwanted items in the background/sides of the shot so we used cropping to cut them out of shot so it looks cleaner as it would mess up the continuity of the promo. Along with this problem, the editing software made the clips not entirely fit the screen so we re sized them and made sure they fit the dimensions and were in HD. We also had a problem with the lighting where we needed to keep it the same for all the clips so it doesn’t look untidy and keeps in sync throughout the whole video so we changed the lighting opacity for every shot so they matched as the sun lightened up some shots and some were filmed in relatively darker areas such as the stake park. Once the promo was edited, we exported it into an mp4 and uploaded to YouTube for others to view.

We also used another technology that I was familiar with called Adobe Photoshop Elements as this was used to create the ancillary tasks. The most challenging part of this software was to get all of the images to layer on top of each other and fit in the A4 dimensions. New techniques that I learnt in Photoshop include getting the black/white effect on the band members in which I used ‘Threshold’ and adjusted the effect of the black and white on the characters so they still stand out even though they are in two colours. I chose this effect as I got inspiration of an image the band made on Facebook with them in a similar black and white effect. Once I added the black and white effect, I then copied the layer and selected the objects we were wearing such as the helmet and mask and kept them in the original colours so they stand out contrasting with the black and white adding better synergy with the poster and Digi-pack.

I also used layering to get the realistic effect of the whole band in one shot. For this I cropped around single images of us with a transparent background and added them to the original image. I first added the members of the back being Matt and Sam and dragged the layers on top of each other for the remaining members so Luke was at the front. I rubbed out certain white lines around the members as this ruined the whole band being together look.  I chose to add all for members of the band in the magazine advert because this is similar to all the other magazine adverts following the rock genre as the audience, similar to the promo, want to see the whole band when watching.

I also added the text in Photoshop and found a font that stood out that was similar to the originals text that 2^nd half use for synergy and placed it accordingly for the title of the band. I faced a challenge of placing the text as I needed to place it in the right size and area in the poster and Digi-pack so it didn’t look messy and unprofessional.

I used Blogger as a technology to put all my work on so a wider range of people can view it for free. This website was particularly helpful as it enabled the Digi-pack, magazine advert and promo to be shows all at once advertising the band all for free and can be seen by anyone with or without a blogger account. I have used blogger before but I looked at new ways in which I present the work to make it stand out and interesting towards the audience.

The benefits of advertising our music promo on YouTube is that is one of the most popular websites in the world and millions of people visit every day.

YouTube is free to use and everyone can see it with or without an account. YouTube proves easy uploading taking minimal time and allows viewers to make comments and like the video so the artists can get feedback. YouTube allows videos to be shared to viewers can share the video to their friends. YouTube is currently most popular with our target audience of older teenagers to young adults which are most likely to search for a rock video and watch.  YouTube allows videos to be shared via Facebook meaning an even bigger range of audience can see the shared video online and also leave comments/likes.