Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

At the research stage the main media technologies that I used where:

• Blogger - Blogger was a vital media technology as it was used to complete the required coursework, using it made access easy as it is accessable via the internet meaning that work could be done at any time, anywhere. Also the blogger interface makes it easy to upload images, embed video's and sound clips which all make it possible to make my courseowork more interactive and easier to show what I have learnt on the course, giving me a better chance at accessing higher grades.
• Screen Grabs - This media technology allowed me to get a direct copy of pictures, reviews, repsonses and still images within a video. This is a plus because it makes it easier to refer to direct evidence of something and to elaborate on particular shots in a researched video.
• Youtube - Youtube was used in various ways to help me find out information on bands and audience opinions, this influenced me to form certain genre specific questions as I knew I would get the most information from them. Also, it allowed me to create and post video's about answers to questions; on an online community that the whole world has access to, making my coursework more visual and nicer to look at.
• Google Docs - This was used to form a questionnaire in a quick and simple way as result could be put into charts and graphs automatically. Also using this gave me the ability to embed the questionnaire onto my blog where anyone could go on to and answer giving people easy access to it. It also gave me the ability to email the questionnaire around without having to contact the people again for their answers, saving time and making the audience research contactless as I didnt have to meet one person face to face.

At the Planning stage the main media technologies I used were:

• Animatic (iMovie) - The animatic was made using iMovie and it was basically a slide show of our storyboard in time with the song. This was good because I could manipulate the length of time each picture lasted for making it a very good visual representation of how the official music video would look. This was an effective way of my group seeing if the chosen shots were good or bad and helped us decide what to leave in and take out. Also, it was a good way of showing my understanding of how to use iMovie and how to upload various images, thus making the courseowork better.
• Still Camera - The still camera was used to go out and take pictures of various potential locations of the video shoot. Using this allowed all the images to be put in one place and compared on whether they were suitable or not.

At the Construction stage the main media technologies I used were:

• Da font - This was use to gather up approriate fonts for ad covers, album titles and artwork for my genre. It was good as the wide range of fonts meant we could use more than one, and search for almost any type.
• Photoshop - This was used to manipulate images so that they could look better and enhance the quality of the final media product.
• Tripods - This was used to give us perfect still, level shots whilst filming.
• Fig Rig - This allowed us to use video camera's in an unorthodox way where shots could be rotated and held without getting the effect of a hand shaking.
• Final Cut - This was used to edit the music video at a professional, intricate and detailed standard in order to get the best results when editing was completed. It allowed this as there were many unique transitions and effects exclusive to final cut.

At the Evaluation stage the main media technologies I used were:

• Facebook - This was used to gather feedback from peers and others as it gave me the ability to post my video on a social networking site and ask the people for opinions and answers to questions in an easy and efficient way.

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The combination of my main media product and ancillary texts are effective because the two compliment each other. The ancillary texts follow the themes of the media product using the same colours, being, red, black and grey. Also the text fonts used are conventional and will be recognised as stereotypical fonts for this genre. But I feel the way in which the two combine well is based on how the pictures in the ancillary section create a similar emotion to the main media product and develop conventions of my genre. This is done by one picture being the whole band standing together closely and we see Freddie glaring at what would be the audience. This glare creates a feeling of heart-break and anger which is what is portrayed in the main media product. But, whilst creating this emotion it is also developing a convention of heavy metal as many band pictures are similar, with the band standing close together with a stern look on their faces. But this simple glare changes the whole theme and feel of the product as it is giving the customers an insight into what the product could be about. I think this is effective because it will draw more customers in based on curiosity and intrigue. Our advert is the same image as the album cover, we decided to do this because we want the audience to be familiar with the artist’s look and this will make it easier to find the album when looking for it in stores as they will recognise the faces as they will have previously seen it in the ad. Also, in the ad there are ratings from Kerrang who are a popular rock magazine. Putting this is effective as it tells the audience that if a well established and influential magazine think the album is good then it must be worth buying, boosting the amount of people that look about buying a copy. On the ad there are also links to places where the album can be bought so it can be found efficiently without confusion. All this combined with the main media product is effective because releasing all at once will hit the public hard in the sense that ads and the video will be everywhere they go, getting the song in their heads and information on where to get it.

Q1. In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

One way my media product uses conventions of my genre is by the video being structured in a stereotypically in relation to the genre; which is Heavy Metal. The video has a variety of locations but the main base of the video is set in a concert like hall where we see the band performing as if they would do to fans. This is a convention as most videos in this genre have some involvement of performance shots where we see the artists engaging with fans and “rocking out”, this is the effect we were trying to re-create. A way in which my media product develops conventions of my genre is by us using very symbolic but extreme cutaways. An example of this is when we see the main artist in the band, Freddie, with black tape over his mouth; this is to represent the lyrics, “Your silence is so haunting, your words relentless, burying in”, showing yet she’s so quiet her words are so powerful and this is the visual representation we came up with. It also challenges conventions of a music video as you cannot see the lip-synching which is what audiences expect. My media product challenges conventions of my genre as there are subtle uses of bright colours which are not seen in heavy metal videos which are almost always seen to use dark tones such as navy blue, black or purple. The use of bright colours in our video is to add intensity to the emotion of the music video where we see Freddie throw a bunch of bright red roses onto a fire. These red roses symbolise the love in the song between Freddie and his ex and represents the love burning away. Just the colour red intensifies this scene as red is the colour of pain, love and danger. Another convention of a music video that my video follows is the use of editing; in the video the shot cuts are in time with the beat, reflecting the tempo of the song through imagery. This helps to create the specific emotion that we’re trying portray on the audience which is good as it will mean that the video is effective at grabbing the audience.