Evaluation Question 4

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

Throughout my coursework new media technologies have been essential in allowing me to research, plan, create and evaluate my work. I have used iMovie to create a video about the technologies I have used and how they have helped me.


Photoshop and iMovie have been particularly useful for the creation of my work. Below I have demonstrated the ways that I have used them to develop my products.

I used photoshop to make the map slightly transparent and light in colour. I then edited the colour, saturation, exposure and brightness of my chosen photo of Jonny and used the quick select tool to cut out the section of the picture which I wanted to put on my advert. I then  dragged the cut out image of Jonny on to the map and edited the size in order to fit an A4 page. Following this I opened the artist name font which I had also created using photoshop, and then used the text tool to write more detailed information. I used the quick select tool again to cut out an image of a star and inserted this on to my advert in order to create a star rating. Finally I found an image of the Twitter logo and edited the brightness in order to make it stand out; I then dragged this on to my advert, positioned it next to the artist's Twitter @.

The screen shots below demonstrate the ways in which iMovie has been a useful technology. The software allows me to not only order and time footage, but also enables me to edit the colour and speed of each shot and use transitions in order to show different connotations within each shot, fit with the conventions of the genre, and make the music video more appealing. 

Overall new media technologies have been hugely useful throughout my project and have helped me create products to the best of my ability. Without the development of Web2.0 and the creating of technologies such as social networks, smart phones, and youtube, it would be difficult to target my video at the correct audience as a lot of my research and feedback was carried out through these and without them it my audience would struggle to find out about my music video. These Web2.0 technologies allow me to directly acces my target audience and have helped me access a wide audience through sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In addition presentation technologies such as Prezi, Bubbl and Golgster have been very useful throughout my coursework as they have enabled me to explore ideas and present my research in an appealing way in order to make my blog more interesting and easy to understand.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the planning and construction of my three products, audience feedback has been a great deal of help as it has aided my decision making and helped me learn about my audience in order to ensure that I was creating products which would be appealing to our target audience and promote the video successfully. Our target audience was initially thought to be just teenage girls, however my poll suggested that we should also aim it at boys as well; therefore we decided to aim our video at people of both genders between the ages of 14 and 20. As I am in sixth form I can easily access many people who are within this group as I am able to speak to year 10/11 students and people within sixth form. As I was able to speak to many students I have received reliable, useful and encouraging audience feedback from my target audience; therefore allowing me to make the right choices and focus my products on this audience. 

When we first chose the song, we wanted to ensure that it would be enjoyed by our target audience, therefore I decided to put two polls on my blog in order to find out what genre of music the audience felt the song fits in with - this helped to ensure that our chosen song did belong to the genre of alternative / indie rock which we chose to look at. Soon after this I created a poll asking who our audience felt the song was most suited to; the results shows that the majority (10/11) of our audience felt that the song is most suited to teenage girls. However one person believed that both genders would like the song; therefore we decided to open our target audience from just girls, to both genders.


In addition I decided to ask my audience for their views about the song we had chosen, and I constructed a video using Movie Maker showing their feedback about the song Like We Used To by A Rocket To The Moon:

This feedback ensured that we had chosen a suitable song which could be enjoyed by our target audience. The choice of song was essential for this project as it has to fit with our chosen genre of indie/alternative rock so that we can use the conventions of the genre in order to create a music video suitable for the song and the genre.

I have created a presentation which shows many other ways in which audience feedback has assisted the development of my products:

Throughout the creation of my three products I have learned that audience feedback is essential. A text is constructed by the directors and producers, but actually has no meaning until it is decoded by the audience. For this reason it is vital to constantly ask audience members for feedback about ideas, plans, products and decisions. An audience bring their own experiences, opinions and expectations to a video and therefore everyone interprets texts differently; I had to ensure that my products could be understood by my target audience and it is also important that they can be enjoyed by the audience as well. Audience feedback is the most efficient and successful way that I can make sure my products are as appealing as possible.

Web 2.0 has been essential in gaining audience feedback as it has allowed me to directly access my target audience through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook which are highly popular amongst people between the ages of 14 and 20. Therefore these sites have been very helpful throughout my project as they have allowed me to ask for feedback from people within my specific target age range. With the development of technologies, social networks have become a vital part of the marketing process of music videos within the music industry, as celebrities and record labels can quickly access a large group of fans in order to create an online 'buzz' about a product and therefore promote the video, artist and record label all at the same time. I have done this by uploading my video to YouTube and then posting the video and ancillary texts on both Twitter and Facebook in order to allow a mass audience to access my products and give me feedback about my work.

Evaluation Question 2

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

In order to create a sense of cohesion between my three products - music video, digipak and advert - I had to include as many similar themes with each product as possible. It is conventional within the music industry to have some very clear similarities between albums, videos and advertising because this allows the target audience to connect to all three products and notice a theme throughout; this would enable an audience member to easily recognise the album in a shop or online, based on an advert they had seen. 

I have created a Prezi which shows the ways that I have made my three products connect:




In addition, I have also spoken to some members of my target audience in order to find out whether they believe my products connect and work well together.



This audience feedback suggests that I have successfully created a sense of cohesion between my music video, advert and digipak, as the audience members can see a clear connection between the products. For example all four people picked up on the use of the same font for the artist name, the use of maps within all three products, the guitar featured in the three products which shows that Jonny is the artist. In addition they also noticed aspects such as Jonny wearing the same clothes during the rain scene and in my ancillary texts, and the use of polaroids within the video and the digipak. Overall I feel that my three products work well together and have clear connections which would allow my audience to recognise that they are all related.