Evaluation Question 4 - Technologies

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

QR Code and Viral Video
Viral Video
For our original production track 'When I Grow Up by The Pussycat Dolls', we came up with the idea of a viral video, to increase interaction with our audience. Here is our promotional viral video below:

Us choreographing a dance routine for the PCD video

The viral video idea was to use the basic dance (choreographed by ourselves) and get fans to send in clips of themselves performing the dance in the video or a dance of their choice to the chorus of the song. It was also an idea to get them to send in videos of themselves singing along with the song. This idea gave us a platform for creating a fan-based video using the footage which fans could send in, and meant that the whole video and production was more user-generated, involving willing fans in the success of the production.
   In relation to the user generated content, we can argue that we reflected the web 2.0 theory by doing this. This theory states that the web is increasingly becoming user-generated as audiences can now easily contribute to the production of texts as a result of digitisation. We feel that the idea of getting fans to send in videos of themselves dancing to the same song allowed our target audiences to become involved and, particularly with the primary audience, makes them want to watch other videos and listen to other Pussycat Dolls tracks.
   Although we didn't actually carry this through into our new and final production for 'It's OK - Atomic Kitten', we still feel that by initially doing this, we have added to the audience interaction element of our production as a whole. On our target audiences, it has the effect of intriguing them and making them feel as though they want to watch the video repeatedly, perhaps to learn the dance, and become involved in the process of production. This is important as it creates a connection and relationship between the audience and ourselves, and so it makes them feel as though they have a say, and can easily influence our decisions.
   By doing this, we have increased our use of technology by creating extra videos on Final Cut Pro X, whilst also nicely linking the 3 texts together. If the video intrigues and involves the audience, then they will be more likely to want to research our production to discover more information about the viral video and to enjoy the digipak and mag ads, as well as learning about how we have progressed and the stages at which we're at.

QR Code

Our QR code

One of the major features which we used on our digipak and mag ads was a QR code. We used it on our teaser mag ads especially, as we wanted to anchor the use of Barthes' concept of narrative enigma. The use of the QR code and the lack of writing intrigues the audience more, making them more likely to want to scan the code to discover what the ad is actually advertising. It provides an interactive link to our groups Twitter page, which was achievable through the development of digitisation. Having it link straight to our Twitter page keeps our fans and target audiences updated on our progress, whilst also proving links to our other texts.

our twitter page

We also used it on our digipak, for some of the same purposes. Narrative enigma wasn't used in our digipak, as it needed to advertise the groups comeback, but we still included it so that the fans who but the digipak can also have access to a quick and easy link to our Twitter, to find out about the groups comeback and to see what else may have been happening.



   Here is a short clip demonstrating how our QR code works. Poppy scanned the code using her smartphone, and it instantly comes up with a link to the MKTP Productions Twitter page. The increase in digitisation has allowed smartphones to cope with this kind of technology, and in society today a huge number of people are using smart phones, making our QR code available to a mass market.




BLOGGER

We used the website blogger to create a blog and show our research, planning and development. We uploaded posts fairly consistently throughout the production of our music video, digi-pak and magazine adverts, showing drafts and out progression. We embedded video, audio and images alongside these text posts to make it more interactive and interseting. It is easy to link to other websites using Blogger, as well as creating links lists to previous posts, which was extremely helpful when we needed to refer back to our research. Blogger uses the concept of Web 2.0 as it helps not only the user but the reader to interact by posting comments on posts. The comment section on Blogger is extremely helpful as it gives us instant feedback and constructive criticism. As we create and produce posts ourselves we are able to display exactly what we want our target audience to see. we also used other blogs from around the world for research purposes as they are so easily accessible.

YOUTUBE

We used YouTube in a number of different ways throughout our research and planning. We uploaded rough cuts, sample footage and vodcasts which we can the embed them straight to our blogs. YouTube is also very useful for research as we can watch artists' previous music videos and get an idea of the conventions of certain acts and genres, As it is such a vast website it is more than likely to have video content for whatever you are looking for. YouTube, like blogger, is and interactive website with an active comment section, which is another opportunity for audience feedback. 

DIVSHARE

Divshare is a website used for uploading files online. We found this website useful as we can upload audio, word documents, images, videos and then embed them onto our blogs. We used Divshare predominantly to embed audio and word documents, and the final effect on Blogger looks neat and professional. It isn't over complicated and is easy to use on Blogger. However we found the uploading process onto Divshare is more difficult for audio documents in particular so often we opted to use a website called PodOmatic instead.

PODOMATIC

Podomatic is very similar to Divshare however it is specific to podcasts and audio files, and uploading files is much simpler with PodOmatic. Adding podcasts to our blog gives our audience a different way to view information. This helps keep the blog interesting instead of just being simple boring text. We mainly used podcasts to talk about our idea development and keep our audience updated. 

FAN FORUMS AND WEBSITES

We used fan forums and websites to further research our artist and their fan base. We learnt exactly what the audience want and how they like the band to be portrayed. We also shared links to rough cuts and any ideas we had about the video, the mag ads or digipak to receive feedback and constructive critcism. 

INSTAGRAM

We used the very popular social networking site Instagram to keep our audience updated on our progress. Instagram is extremely interactive platform as you are able to like, share, and repost pictures as well as commenting. this large platform allows us to expand our audience. You can also add tags to pictures making them easier to find by posting teaser pictures of our work. We are also building up the audience for the expected release of the video. 

GMAIL

We used gmail for two main reasons in our research and planning. Through Gmail, we contacted the record label to ask for rights to use the audio of their track in the video. We also used it for contacting our cast in a professional way. Gmail is connected to our Blogger and YouTube accounts, which means our audience can find us easily. 

FACEBOOK

We used arguably the most popular social networking site Facebook to contact and talk amongst our production group. However we felt it would be unprofessional to contact the cast in this way.




TWITTER
Twitter was extremely useful during the production of our video, magazine ads and digipak. We received audience feedback through Twitter as well as promoting our production company. By writing short tweets, we can quickly get messages out and add hashtags to our work, making our production company easy to find.

MAGAZINE WEBSITES
We used magazine websites to search for previous magazine adverts that Atomic Kitten had featured. We researched the types of publications we would want our magazine ads in. We also searched these websites for figures of their sales to anchor our target audience.

CONSTRUCTION AND EXHIBITION

HD CAMERA
To film our music video and take pictures for the digipak we used a HD camera. The camera we used was a Canon Legria HF R36. we used a HD camera to get the best quality footage possible. A lot of HD cameras are reasonably priced, making them accessible to a wide range of people.

USB and SD cards
Usb sticks are extremely useful to transfer the work to and from home and school.

Final Cut Pro x

Final Cut Pro X was the software that we used for creating our video. It has a wide range of effects, titles and editing tools which we used to shape our video into almost exactly how we wanted it. One of the main effects that we used throughout the video was layering, which was one of the more complicated techniques to complete, as we had to make sure that the opacity of the shots were just right, and that the layering blended well with the underlying shot, so as to maintain the continuity of the editing. Another effect which we used on more than one occasion was the split screen, as it offered an alternative to layering whilst still showing more than one shot at a time, and also helped to portray the characters' emotion and thoughts effectively. Because we have used this software before, our skills and knowledge have been greatly enhanced and we have been able to use more effects and tools than we have done previously, because we have become more familiar with its navigation and the outcomes of all the possible choices. However, there were still some tools that required outside help from classmates and online tutorials as we couldn't work them ourselves or they weren't achieving what we wanted. In some cases, we had to re-think sections of the video and edit them according to what we could carry out rather than what we wanted to achieve at the end. This software is becoming more frequently used by major film producers, as it offers a massive variety of effects and alternative transitions, to make videos more interesting and fun to watch.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop was used for creating our Digipak and Magazine Advertisements. I had previously used Photoshop and so I was relatively familiar with the software, however I did need reminding on how to carry out the more complicated techniques. Once I has re-familiarised myself with the different tools and effects, I was able to begin editing our products and putting them all together, and our final products were completed to a high standard because of the capabilities of this software. Because I was already fairly familiar with this software, I didn't take me long to get started, however some members of our group were confused and overwhelmed by the tools available and so it took them longer to get used to navigating it. For this reason only, it may not be the most appropriate software to use for such major products if it is the users first time using it, as it can take a while to get used to.

YouTube 

As well as for research and planning, we used YouTube for production and exhibition. The website provided us with a platform to upload rough cuts, sample footage, audience feedback and vodcasts, which we could then embed onto our blogs. YouTube also links to Final Cut Pro, as we could export our videos off of Final Cut Pro straight onto our YouTube profiles, which proved very time efficient. John McMuria analysed content on YouTube and discovered that the most frequently watched videos involved white middle class and that minorities do not tend to be recognised as much. After researching his findings, we decided to promote our work on other platforms as well as YouTube, to make sure that our video was reaching people of all ages, gender, ethnicities and religions.

Evaluation

Blogger 

We used Blogger for our evaluations as well as research and planning. The use of links lists made finding previous research to anchor points made in our answers much more convenient and less time consuming. We have also created our evaluation questions on Blogger, using both text form and embedding videos and other types of files, which ties in all of our work completed over the past few months.

Final Cut Pro 

Final Cut Pro was used again for vodcasts to be included in our evaluation questions. We recorded ourselves speaking and then dropped this into a new project, before adding screenshots and titles, so that viewers can easily follow the points being made. Because there is an inbuilt record tool, it made it easier for us to establish these videos and we have been using it for many other video that we have created and so it was simple and quick to put together.

VLC Media Player

To include short clips in our evaluation vodcasts, we used the VLC Media Player. This software was pre-installed into the macs that we work on so all we needed to do was to open it up and press record. This proved to be very useful as it added an extra visual element into the vodcast rather than straight images and it can visually demonstrate points being made, making it easier to follow for the viewer.

Screen Capture

Screen capture has been an essential tool for our evaluation questions. You can download it off one of many sites online and as soon as it has downloaded it is ready for use. You open up the screen or image that you want to screenshot, then you simply open up the application and capture the region of the screen that you need. Screenshots have been essential for all the vodcasts that we have created, but for the evaluation questions they're even more important as we needed to be able to clear back up our points. Taking screenshots as we developed our products proved to be very useful and less time consuming, as we already had them when it came to needing them.