Evaluation Task 4

How my use of digital technologies has improved since the beginning of AS Level Media to A2 Media.

The first way in which I found improvements was simply through more extensive research into music videos to find further inspiration to build our music video off. As our chosen genre was grunge rock it was easy to begin research. I researched into Nirvana, Biffy Clyro and The Strokes. All these bands had similarities such as aggressive rockstars who showed immense passion when performing which gave our group a lot of inspiration to follow this path. This led us to following this path and trying to imitate their bands, therefore we used a dark haired singer to be the lead to help sell our star image as an aggressive and passionate rock artist to the disengaged youth.

Next, I used my phone to record questions being answered by different potential groups of target audiences. This was an effective method to get a clear insight into what these audiences expected from a grunge rock band in particular. It was clear from our target audience that they agreed with my initial assumption of having an aggressive, passionate, dark haired male to be the lead rockstar in the band as it “resembles a rebellious youth” answered back by a participant in research. Asking questions to different audiences and being able to record it meant we could look back at it regularly which allowed us to come to a clear conclusion that the alienated youth was the most ideal target audience that related to our star image.

Furthermore, another technology that I used was the internet. I used the internet purely as a research tool into the genre of grunge rock and into artists who had a similar star image to mine. This was probably the most effective and easiest technology to use as it deepened my knowledge of my target audience, genre and star image all of which are key aspects of creating a brand around an artist. 

Moreover, I also used the internet for research into locations. This was important as the locations were what built the narrative and what keeps the audience connected, so my research was very thorough. For example, the main theme I was looking for was how it can relate to the alienated youth as the majority was filmed in a designed mental asylum, therefore the ‘outside’ location was vital in connecting the target audience to the music video and more importantly the artists themselves.The research via the internet gave me a clear vision of the exact locations that would portray the story I was telling the most. The research led to me be clear on the location of the asylum which would be a studio in which I was able to design to make it look like a real mental institution. Secondly, and more importantly the research allows me to find the ideas that led me to find the perfect location for the ‘outside’ scenes where the main artist will be running through with his trapped self. The location that I found was an underpass covered with graphiti, which definitely associated with our target audience of the disengaged youth.

In contrast to the simple technology of the internet, when I created the animatic not only was it hand drawn, but I edited it on imovie to sync in time with our chosen song ‘Lithium.’ This was more advanced than AS media as the animatic had to be in much more detail and was much more important as it guided me on how and where we would film each part of the music video. This is why I spent more time editing and syncing the animatic to the tune of the song as it gave me a clearer vision when I had to film the real music video.

The real deal - filming was much more advanced than AS, this is because we had to use a much wider variety of shots to keep the narrative engaging and the audience on their feet. This was different to AS as we filmed an opening sequence to a film so it is much easier to engage and audience for 3 minutes through an intriguing narrative, rather than  a rock music video. Therefore, if we wanted to appeal to our target audience, using a variety of shots was a definite. Examples of shots used:

Far wide shots

Quad shots

Over the shoulder shots

Tracking shots

Panning shots

This extensive list of versatile camera shots were all apart of our united mission to engage our target audience into an experience that will result in them buying into our star image and becoming a fan of ‘The Roaches.’

Additionally, as the camera work was much harder than AS so was the editing. We used the same programme as AS, but as we were doing a music video not an opening sequence inevitably the editing techniques would be harder and different. This involved cutting to the beat of the song so the clips/shots were in rhythm with the music. Moreover, the editing had to be perfect so the artists lips would be in sync with the song. We call this lip syncing and it was one of the most crucial aspects of editing in A2 which would definitely effect how engaged our audience would be if the lip syncing was off.

Another difference in technology between AS and A2 was the way we got the majority of our feedback in the post production stage. We created an online survey monkey questionnaire which gave us feedback and helped us make changed in post-production. This was effective as the online world is massive, therefore being able to get feedback on a national scale gave us a great insight into what the world was thinking about our music video. It allowed us to see what audiences liked or disliked the video and how we could improve it, whilst we were still editing. However, the common themes received were that the majority understood the narrative and therefore picked up on the intended target audience which was a relief as it meant we portrayed our star image perfectly to our primary target audience of the disengaged/alienated youth.

In A2 we were tasked to create a digital as part of our brand for our artists. I become much more creative in my understanding of how images, words, colours, and fonts can be interpreted so widely and how to create a digipak that will enhance your artists star image as well as resemble the intended target audience. Therefore, I attempted many digipaks on a complex software that allowed me to edit effectively, all the digipaks I attempted all linked to the concepts of dark colours, to resemble emotions of anger and rebellious thoughts across the three band members faces. 

10. In addition, in A2 we were also tasked to create a website promoting our entire brand that surrounded our artist. We created the website using wix.com in which we had little to no knowledge of how to create an effective website. However, research into our star image prior to creating our website gave us a more vivid idea of what we wanted the website to look like. The website needed to resemble similarities to the music video and digipak, therefore we used dark colours, unique fonts and black and white images to promote our band as the organic artist they were. I mainly took inspiration from Biffy Clyro’s website which also used dark colours and mainly black and white as well, so this meant we could follow similar patterns that would engage our target audience of the alienated youth.

As we live in a technology first society where social media is central to everyday living, I made sure that the online social media technologies of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube were connected to our website so our fans could go straight to our platforms and follow ‘The Roaches’ and keep up to date with their whereabouts. I did this because social media is a huge digital technology where fans can reach out to the artists and ask questions and hope for responses. Moreover, we used youtube to post out ‘Lithium’ music video so people can watch it all over the world. We created a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram page for interactive purposes so fans can join the journey and connect with ‘The Roaches.’ Additionally, our organic band and grunge rock dna can be felt through social media to our fans, so this is another way to spread these messages to anyone who loves grunge rock.