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

A Presentation To Answer This Section

A Detailed Equipment List-

Hardware-

Macbook- Personal Laptop. Built in webcam and microphone used in some sections of my evaluation.
iMac- School Computer.
Olympus OM-10- 35mm SLR Camera
Panasonic NV-GS60- A Digital Video Camera

Software Packages-

Photoshop- Photo Editing Suite. Used to creat ancillary task.
Garageband- Digital Audio Workstation. Used to create section of my evaluation.
iMovie- Video Editing Suite. Used to edit my music video
Google Chrome- Web Browser. Used during research and evaluation stages.
Pages- Word Processor. Used to type up shooting script.
Keynote- Presentation Software. Used to make powerpoint presentations in this section of the evaluation and in my research.
Shape Collage- Used to arrange screen shots in the evaluation stage.

Online Resources-

Poll Junkie- Poll Website. Used in audience research
Blogger- Used to document the process.
Dropbox- Free online server space with file sharing capabilities. Where I hosted all my files
Reddit- Forum website with a twist. Where I posted a link to my poll.
Voice Thread- Online video commentary application. Where I did a section of my evaluation
Scribd- An online document hosting website. I hosted some powerpoints on there.
Flikr- An online photography community. I hosted my storyboard on there.

[Evaluation] In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My Answer

Above is a link to "Voicethread" an online video commentary application on which I have answered this section.

[Evaluation] How Effective is the Combination of Your Main and Ancillary Tasks?

The combination of my ancillary CD sleeve and my music video create a genre specific representation of the band. The ideologies presented are very much inline with Dick Hebdige's ideas about subculture- the style I have used throughout is very genre specific. The referenced subcultures are the psychedelic movements of the 1960's, 1970's and 1990's and also the various decades of drug subculture. The archived drug film footage I used in my video used film from the 1960's and 1970's. I felt that I wanted to create a "freakout" section as when the band perform live they often perform a psychedelic freakout, which involves heavy use of lighting and feedback from guitar effects pedals. In my research I looked at bands such as The Brian Jonestown Massacre and My Bloody Valentine because they suit the Fly Honey Warehouse's Ideologies.

In my ancillary task I creating this feel by using a film SLR camera to shoot the images. This creates a "cheap" film grain and cheap processing look that is familiar with my research bands and genre and reminiscent of lomography style images (some examples). I edited the colours further on Photoshop and added the titling. The back cover (the image on the left) is rotated slightly to make the lamp post parallel to the frame. This in itself presents a narrative which is linked to the slightly unsettling images of the psychedelic genre.

After I shot this image I was informed by the lead singer of the band that the same location was used by Bristol based Portishead (a "trip-hop" band) in the inner sleeve of one of their albums. This adds a layer of intertextuality to the narrative. The psychedelic subculture is generally considered to be one where people are well read into bands and music generally, so I decided to use this image as a homage to (and therefore a confirmation of the ties to) this subculture. The similarities in the narratives of the two texts create an overall set of ideologies which are aligned with those presented by followers of the psychedelic genre. Overall, the effectiveness of the combination is an individualistic experience based upon the audience's experience with the ideologies of psychedelic sub-culture.