Evaluation

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

I think that we managed to use, develop and even change some of the forms and conventions of our band for MuteMath. For instance we had to change some of the stereotypical mise en scene, for instance the costume and the props. We had to change the costume, as we didn't have any suits which the would be similar to what the band wares therefore we had to change to a modern take on it, jeans with a casual shirt, with converse trainers so it was a grunge style. We also had to change the key prop, which is MuteMaths retro style microphone, as we couldn't get one due to the cost of one and our college didn't own one. We made it as a narrative and performance video, which contrasts to the original one which was only a narrative film. We kept to the lyrics of the song to give us ideas, which then gave us a great narrative.

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

We have used similar images throughout the products to link them together as this would be done in reality. We used the same black and white format for our photos and for the album cover. This represents the spotlight in the video and a spotlight in general. The website is more white than black as it doesn't just involve the spotlight idea on it but other videos and things that the actual band have been up to, for instance the New york news, but we kept our band photos on it to keep with the spotlight them.

1. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The main feedback we received was for the design of our website and other design features such as the Album covers and our blog. We did this by having polls on our blog so it would be easy for people to vote on our designs. We got a couple of people to look at the first rough cut of the video. They said that it looked good, but that the editing of the video could of been sharper with the lip sinking. They said that the website looks good and professional, but seemed a little bit over crowded. The Album cover also looked good as it was also done with Photoshop like the website. To gain more audience feedback we will also put our finished video on to YouTube. We eventually managed to gain some feedback as we finished the film, they said that the editing was fast and kept with the pace of the music, but the actual narritve was a bit hard to follow until the end.

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

We used many different types of software, mainly Photoshop and adobe Premiere and also the blog, with lesser use of paint and Dreamweaver. We also use media hardware such as a digital camera, recordable camera and a tripod. We had many problems with the software as it would sometimes not work or we were unable to manipulate the software and use it to our full advantage. We used the software continuously during the project. With the blog we have been able to record our progress, by posting messages, adding pictures and also being able to upload videos. We used premiere to edit our film, the same as last year. We used some of the built in special affects to create our video and our backstage video. I used Photoshop to edit images and created our website design using it. At first, I found it hard to use as we were not told how to use by anyone, but I eventually got used to it.

We also managed to finally finish the video,but we cut it very fine to the deadline due to all the tecnological problems and casting issues. We used many affects which we didn't use last year. For example zooming into parts of the filming and the solorised affect which fitted into the theme of the song.