EVALUATION question 4

4.

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

During the filming of the video, we tried to use various methods of shooting, to keep the shots different from one another, to make our video unique and stand out to viewers. We did this because of the ‘abstract’ qualities of the narrative, which we thought should be reflected by camera angles and composition. Evidently, this affected the way in which we used our camera and other *equipment such as the tripod and strobe light. For example, during the performance shoot, we decided to try some experimental shots such as lifting the tripod by two of its legs over a horizontal bar used for lighting which was directly above the band, which gave us a very effective shot looking down at the band. We also used a dolly cam, which was useful for tracking shots of the band, and was also made more effective by the surface we were filming on which was slightly uneven and altered the effect of the dolly cam, making it bumpy as though the viewers were in a car or witnessing an earthquake for example.

These small problems we encountered due to our media equipment/technologies, rather than hindered our progress, actually helped us to think outside the box and forced us to be creative. Some aspects of our video are similar to the concept of ‘modern art’, where the video may be appreciated more if the viewer were to watch from a distance and an open mind.

When planning our music video, we used a few different technologies to research our genre of music, and what other artists videos within our genre were looking like. We found a vast assortment of videos on music channels located on Sky and Virgin TV such as MTV and Kerrang. This helped us to see which videos were the most popular, as programs shown on these channels such as ‘Top 100 Best Ever Music Videos’ let us have a look at what audiences want to see when they tune in to watch music on their TV. This program led us to the question of whether or not a video is important for gaining popularity, as a lot of the bands whose videos were rated highly were not as popular as other bands and had lower budgets, yet the popular bands that did have videos, had much higher budgets for their videos, allowing them more freedom to play with in the production process.

In the same way, using technologies such as YouTube has helped us gather audience feedback as there are hundreds of comments on each video from viewers giving their own individual opinions, some useful and some not. This allowed us to locate our chosen bands previous videos, and check their comments to see if there were any particular aspects of the video that viewers and fans enjoyed. Obviously if any themes or conventions occurred throughout the bands previous videos, we would have to be sure we carried these on in our video.

We are able, through technologies such as our bands website, to have a YouTube link directly to our video on our page, which would make it easier than ever to watch and access our video. We can also add links to the bands social networking pages, such as Twitter, Facebook and Skype which all contain this video, allowing us to reach a very wide audience as members of each of these different online communities would be able to access our video.