Throughout the project i used Youtube, mainly within the planning stage, i used youtube to research other music videos to give me inspiration on the route i wanted to go down. This was a key part of my research as it allowed me to analyse them and compare them to my own video.
Web 2 was a vital part in my project as once the video and adverts had been created Web 2 pages such as Youtube, Myspace and Facebook allowed the wider world to see and give feedback. After creating my video we put it on youtube for a month and it received 132 views. The majority of our views came from first view on channel page, which suggests its important to use these web 2 pages as by just adding the video and people have seen it on new videos and clicked on it is already allowing people to view it without even having to search for it, it's just there for them to view it. The second highest views came from referral from facebook, this again shows the importance of web 2 pages. By just me posting a status with the link to my video allows all my friends on facebook just to click it, again rather than searching for it. So by getting my video and putting it out there allows people to look at it, but may have not searched for it, in a way to increase the audience.
Youtube allows us to view were in which the people that has viewed our video are distributed over the world. As you can see from the map below, the most popular was the UK this was inevitable as a lot of my facebook friends are British, and the band are from Torquay so all their local fans will have viewed the video. However as you can see on the map people in America, Canada, Spain, Germany, Austria and Guatamala, although it may not be a huge amount of my total views but still some. It shows that i need to tag my video more carefully and more relevant to the British music scene, as I'm not trying to appeal to an Austrian audience and shows that by typing in something comes up with other relative videos with similar names. So that audience wont have been looking for my video but still have come across it. However this may not have been my fault it could have been people typing in Os Vampiros as there have been other bands in foreign countries with the same name, so either way it has taught me to be more specific when tagging my video.
Facebook was another vital part in my project, not only were alot of my views referred from facebook which allowed my target audience (17-25 year old males & females) as alot of my facebook friends fit within that. Facebook had a deciding role on what advert i used as i made 2 adverts promoting my DVD cover, i put them both on facebook and tagged some people in it allowing them to see the picture and give their feedback on it. This worked well as i received alot of comments on which one they preferred and a reason why.
By allowing the audience to decide which one they prefer then allows me to say that this is the advert that appeals best to that specific audience because they chose that one and facebook allowed me to achieve this.
Google was a key part of my research as it allowed me to search for other DVD covers by just typing it in and giving me the correct resources to deconstruct as part of my research, otherwise i wouldnt have been able to deconstruct DVD covers and adverts as well without even being able to see them. Also helping me come up with ideas for similar bands and producing ideas for similar videos which i then got from youtube.
Myspace is another web 2 social networking site which has been involved with my project as once i created my video i gave it to the band and they decided themselves to put the video on their Myspace page. This allows more people to see the work that i have done on a wider variety that like this music, as its on their page so their friends on myspace are people that like their music and interested in what they do, so they are the real judges for my video. Also gives me confidence as it received very good feedback from people i didn't even know and also the band have asked me to make another video for them. So overall i received good feedback through Myspace from the band and their fan-base.
The way in which we kept a log of our work was online, using blogspot. This worked out well as alot of our work was done online such as our research using youtube videos to deconstruct, blogspot allowed us to upload the video so the examiner can see the video and understand our analysis'. It also made it easier to log our work just after doing the work and shows a true reflection of our progress as it's all there in order of date and times. When adding our final products (video, digipack and advert) it made it easier to show the progress of making them using screenshots and uploading our latest work to how much we had actually done which again worked well as alot of work was done using computers.
Now moving onto the aspects which actually made the video such as camera's, tripod, video recorder, Imovie and photoshop.
Whenever me and the band decided to meet and up and film I took a camera along with me in order to get a few photos to add to my blog to show my progress. This was successful in a sense that some of the photos i took i later used for one of my adverts and for my digipack which wasn't my original intention but when it came to researching adverts it worked quite well and i decided to give it a go.
The video camera was an obvious part of creating the video as it records the video. I decided to use a tripod as it kept the camera static and level and alot of my shots were static shots so this was used intentionally, using hand held cam would create a different representation or maybe make it look worse. Also in my video there is a part were the band switch instruments several times so the camera has to be in exactly the same position each time for the frame to remain the same but the band members to have changed. Luckily each time i went to rehearsals to record footage i gathered enough in order for me not to have to go and re-film this is due to the fact i learned from my mistakes from last years practical production, and decided to film indoors for the idea if all fails i can just re-film but that wasn't necessary.
We used Imovie to edit our footage for our music video. Imovie allowed me to add all my footage together and cut into very small frames as my video has alot of cuts to give the video pace and is what i learned from my research that Indie videos have a large shot variety. Also Imovie allows us to add on special effects and transitions. Such as being able to add in fades to join 2 shots together in the opening scene to make the footage shorter and to make the jump cuts look softer.
Also using Imovie i was able to change all my footage to black and white by adding a filter and being able to edit the strength of the filter to my specific preference.
This is because the colours within the video were too strong and would have the audience focus on the wrong part of the frame. Also i was able to speed up some of my footage in order to show time pass and again continue with the pace of the video.
Photoshop was considered to be prosumer software and was the software we used in order to create and edit our digipacks and adverts. I had never used photoshop before so this was a challenge to get use to, i quickly picked it up and was able to use my specific requirements i wanted for my digipack and advert. I imported photos that i had taken when on set for recording. i was able to add a black/grey background, i knew the font i wanted in order to keep it simple.
I came up with a colour scheme which i decided i would stick to, which i used continually. On my digipack and advert i cut out individual shapes from the photos and added them all together and scaling them all into the right size.
I decided to put the band on the back but without a colour overlay, to allow the band to be recognised for what they look like and what clothes they are wearing. Instead i decided to transform the band members from the front onto the back so that they were facing the opposite way and in the wrong order opposite to them on the front. This links with my video as within the video the band members switched instruments between short clips so that the transition wasn't noticed. This subtle altering contributes to the representation of the band suggesting that they are a care-free, laid back, young, funny band.
By having a colour scheme already i decided i would add a colour overlay to stick with the colour scheme as it also makes it less busy and much more simple which is what i found from my research that other bands had done.
The advert was simple to make as according to my research bands had used the artwork for what they were promoting on the advert such as 'delphic', they were promoting their album and the same artwork was used. Therefore i decided to do the same so i simply had to copy everything over and rearrange it and add on any other information present. I felt photoshop was a good way to create our digipacks and adverts as it allowed us to learn a new way of creating something and was a challenge to some of us and also the possibilities are endless, so we just had to come up with what we wanted to do and then find the way to do it.
I felt i learned alot with the use of new equipment and software especially photoshop as i had never used it before and didn't even have a basic understanding of it, however this challenge was short-lived when i quickly was able to work out how to do exactly what i wanted and was a success. i leanred new techniques using the camera and Imovie as last year was the first time for using everything and i only knew the basics, now was a time to take it a step further and learn more complicated techniques such as time lapse, to show i am able to do so. Combining all software and equipment worked well as it was all a cycle to show my progress and each was as important as the next as the planning and research was vital yet so was creating the products itself. so everything fitted together.
