Final Video

Digipak

Website

Here's the link to my finished website! Enjoy!
Toxic City Website

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3: What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?

Q4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?

Website Technologies Used

Video Technologies Used

Blog Technologies Used

Blog Technologies Used

Over the course of a year, I used a lot of different technologies in order to present my work clearly. As part of the generation experiencing Internet 2.0, I felt it was important to take advantage of the many ways of presenting information creatively that the Internet has to offer.

Padlet

I used Padlet to present numerous sources of information on my blog. I've always found Padlet very easy to use, as it is like a virtual mind map, and a quick way of getting information across. However, sometimes the information on it can be presented in an unclear way, or I've even noticed that it can be displayed differently on different browsers and computers.

Sway

Most notably, I used Sway to present my completed storyboard. I chose Sway because of its ability to very clearly display pictures and text together, which made it ideal for presenting a storyboard, since each panel was its own individual file. I mainly use Sway to present information which is very picture-heavy, and thus far have found no downsides. 

Canva

I used Canva a lot last year for my blog on my Thriller video, but really found it quite irritating to use. Therefore, I restricted my usage of it this year. I would very much prefer to present information in much higher detail than you can achieve on this website, plus it's very time-consuming, which means I switched to programs like Sway and Padlet this year.

GIPHY

GIPHY is one of my favourite websites to use. You can insert GIFs into almost any software you use to present information, and GIFs are incredibly helpful to pinpoint exact moments in videos to illustrate points more effectively. This site let me create my own GIFs of my video, which I used on my Website and in many places on my blog.

Prezi

Prezi is essentially a slightly cooler PowerPoint software that is easy to embed within blog posts, which makes it one of my favourite pieces of software to use to present information on my blog. However, I've found that it can be somewhat temperamental, and can be rather slow on certain computers.

Photoshop

I used Adobe Photoshop for MANY things this year, and not just because it is one of the easiest to use pieces of drawing and photo-editing software in the industry. Combined with my own personal graphics tablet, I used Photoshop to create many things. My entire storyboard was drawn on Photoshop, because of how easy it is to use and the ability to copy different elements of the drawing was essential in order to show repeated symbols in later scenes. I also used Photoshop the draw my entire CD pack, and edit the photos used for my Website merchandise. The only downside to Photoshop is that it can take a long while to learn how to use.

YouTube

YouTube is where I have posted each and every one of the videos that are on my blog. I posted them on there because it's widely accepted by society as the best place for videos on the Internet, and because it makes it very easy to embed these videos in other sites, such as Blogger. I also uploaded practice music videos, and even my Thriller video onto this site, which is extremely easy to upload videos on to.

Social Media

Every single band or singer has a very vivid social media presence, and so, I decided to create Toxic City three different profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and attempt to post as though they were actually real bands. Since I have personal accounts on each of these three sites, I found them very easy to set up and use.

Blogger

Blogger has been an imperative part of the technologies I used throughout all stages of the production process. I used it to keep a blog on everything I was doing, in order to collate my thoughts and upload each and every step of my process online. I knew that blogger was the best place to store this information, due to the fact that I had used it last year to record the process of my thriller video. I found that the most useful part of blogger was the ability to embed objects within posts, which meant that I could easily post videos, GIFS, Sways etc.

However, perhaps the most interesting of my use of different technologies is how much I have progressed since my thriller video. In my thriller video, I directed, filmed most of it, and edited it all together into the final product. As I was just starting out as a filmmaker, quite a lot has changed since then. Now, I have grown to the point that I felt confident enough to create a video, website, and CD pack entirely on my own. I am extremely pleased with my level of progression from my AS Thriller video to my A2 Music Video.

Video Technologies Used

In my Music Video, I used a wide variety of technologies to complete the product to its finished standard. 

First and foremost, I used a DSLR in order to film the entire thing. I did this because I found that DSLRs have a much better finished quality than mobile phone footage, plus, I used a DSLR for my thriller video too. I also used a tripod in order to stablise shots and give the overall Music Video a high standard feel. Finally, before filming I bought two cheap lights and colour filters, which I used in certain places throughout the video to reinforce themes of Red = Regret and Green = Youthful innocence.

The text within the music video has a clear glitch effect throughout, in order to fit in with a recurring 'glitch' theme in both my video and website.

To achieve this glitch effect on my text, I searched YouTube for assistance, which provided many ways to achieve this effect. Here's the video I used to create mine:

After following this tutorial in Adobe After Effects, I finally transported the file into Premiere Pro, where I could begin to edit it.

I also used this tutorial in order to place glitches on the people throughout my video, as shown here:

Another way I used this glitch effect is present throughout almost my entire video. Every shot set in the past with Ruby has the effect of being a video because of the 'PLAY' and the timecode in the corners. I caused them to glitch using the same effect.

Next, another shot used in my video is one of this glitching TV.

To achieve this effect, I simply filmed my TV with a blank screen. From here, I opened the file in After Effects, where I used the 'Mask' tool to cut around the black screen.

Finally, I could add both the static and coloured bars TV effects that I found as free videos to use in projects like this. I used Premiere Pro to cut these clips to make it look as though the TV is flickering between static and colour.

A feature I used a little within my video is the Warp Stabiliser effect, which helped to give shots like the one below a smooth and crisp feeling, even though I was spinning around with the camera at the time.

Website Technologies Used

Media technologies were essential in the construction and research, planning, and evaluation stages of my media products. 

My website required the integration of many technologies to ensure its success. Perhaps the most important was the use of the website building site Wix , as it's one of the easiest website builders to use for free on the Internet. However, this does mean that a few of its features I found restrictive, and there's an annoying advertisement for Wix on the completed site.

This lightbox's flickering TV effect was achieved by using a GIF I found on Giphy.

I used this because a major theme within my music video and CD pack is that of a glitchy, flickering TV, therefore I knew that this would tie the three products together.
Another interesting way I used media technologies throughout the website was this blinking eye GIF I created.

To do this, I used After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Giphy. 

On After Effects, I drew each individual frame of the eye blinking, before using Premiere Pro to reverse the footage of the eye blinking, and create the eye's open and shut effect.

Finally, I exported the footage as a video, and used this video to create my own GIF on Giphy, before uploading the GIF to my website multiple times to create the final effect. Another interesting addition to my website is that if you click on this particular eye:

It brings the user to a separate page, which I did mainly to increase fan interactivity and to provide an immerse experience for the fans.

First and foremost, the text on the page is in reference to the fact that a band member left fairly recently; an issue that has been well-publicised on the band's social media. The pixel images I created on a site named Piskel, where users can create their own pixelated GIFS, and these show the band's leader singer and a character referenced in the CD booklet I created.

Possibly my favourite aspect of the Website I created was the shop page, where I got to design Toxic City's merchandise! 

I really enjoyed this process, taking different elements from the music video and CD pack and incorporating them into the design process. To create each picture, I first sourced images of plain shirts/jackets/etc:

From here, I opened the images in Adobe Photoshop and editing them using my graphics tablet to display the design I wanted.

These are all the different media technologies I used in the building of my website. I tried to vary quite heavily the variety of technologies in order to make my finished product informative, entertaining and interactive for the fan. I feel that I have achieved this effect quite well.

Marketing My Band

One of the most important aspects of creating a band is promoting them through marketing. Otherwise, how are people going to see and get into the band?

Easily the most inexpensive form of marketing in our modern era is through social media, and so, I updated each of Toxic City's social media sites in order to promote the band. These links were also shared on my website, to promote authenticity.

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

Audience Feedback

Website Merch

For the 'Shop' page on my website, I have been busy creating Toxic City's very own merchandise! To do this, I found images from Google and Flickr, which you can see here:

From here, I inserted each picture into Photoshop, and set about editing each one to make it an official piece of Toxic City merchandise. Using my graphics tablet, I drew on every picture. Here are the finished results:

I used iconography from the album cover and also from the music video, as well as colour schemes from my website and digipak to ensure that they all were identifiable as Toxic City's band merchandise.