QUESTION 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the production of my coursework i have used many media technologies. For the actual creation of my media product i have used technologies that i have been familiar with such as final cut express but also technologies that where new to me such as Photoshop. I have learned many new skills and am now confident in working with Photoshop where as i hadn't been before i now know how to for example adjust brightness and hue and also how to layer images to create a desired effect.



Of course i also got to grips and built upon my knowledge of camera work this time round in my course work being more adventurous and advanced with my camera shots and movement having a much wider variety than i did in my movie opening at AS level. As well as the use of different angles which added much more depth and interest into my work.

The internet played a huge part in my coursework obviously an important media technology with in my research and the blogging process. Alot of my early research which entailed research into the convention of music video's and different genres of music video's as well as research on the auteur theory and into people such as Hype Williams the internet was a brilliant and very useful resource.

The blogging process has obviously also been a big media technology that i have used in my course work and i have used it in many different ways. I have uploaded pictures from he internet and screen shots of my products that i have created as well as power point presentations and a directors commentary through the use of garage band. I think the blogging process is a very successful way of tracking our progress through our course work as with a subject like media it is a very fitting way to use a media technology in itself to do so. The blogging process also allows us to present our working many different ways as i said through the use of a power point presentation, picture evidence of though a directors commentary.

My research and planning was also made a lot easier and more accessible with the use of the blog as it allowed me to keep all my research in one place and in a chronological order which was specifically helpful with the planning process and my progress and the development of my ideas can be seen clearly.

QUESTION 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For my audience feedback i conducted a group discussion with a year 11 class. I started by passing round examples of both my digipak and my poster and then playing my music video. After this i asked three main questions about my products.

Qu 1: What genre would you say my music video is trying to represent? What style of music would you say it is presenting?

After asking this question there was a fair amount of debate as to what genre the music would fall into some quite quickly said it had a country feel while others went for alternative rock one girl saying it reminded her of Fleetwood Mac. When prompting them and asking if they thought that the music had an old fashioned retro vibe to it they also agreed.

Qu 2: How well does my music video fit with the song?

After watching my music video everyone agreed that the music video well with the visual i had created. They said that the outside scenery contrasted well with the indoor domestic setting of the narrative and that the outside setting in which the artist was places they felt fitted to the personality of the music and of the artist. We also obviously discussed the narrative and weather it fit well with the lyrics and plot of the song. The common opinion was that the narrative had just the right amount of both happy and sad moments between the characters the sad moments obviously displaying the sense of the relationship going wrong but then the happy moment pleasing an audience it was argued that this would appeal to a female audience more specifically than male one.

Qu 3: What comes to mind when you look at my ancillary products? (Poster and digipak)

There common answers for this question within the group where The recognition of a connection between the outdoor theme within the video in my video. and the connection of the similar fonts used on both the digipak and my poster. The conversation also included the mention of the genre of my music and how well the digipak and poster matched the music, which most agreed matched very well with a retro country album cover.

From this research i have i have been able to see what idea's i had in the planning process have been successful and are identifiable to an audience.

QUESTION 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

One of the main themes i run with throughout the production of my music video, digipak and promotional poster is the idea of nature the outdoors and autumn. Examples of this can be seen in various shots of my music video for example where Connor is sitting on a log with and autumn forest behind him as well as in my digipak through the autumn leaves for both the inlay, background of the lyric booklet and the forest scene on the back cover. This rustic idea of the outside is also carried on through out all my ancillary products for example the wooden bridge and walkway thought the water in my music video is developed and featured in my poster with the country and western style wooden panels to create a banner for my poster.

My artist styling within my music video is also something i thought was very important to keep consistent throughout my ancillary Connor's conservative style that is appropriate for the outdoor setting fit both his personality music and genre. For example as you would expect a rapper to be wearing a vest tracksuit bottoms and lots of chains and diamonds you expect a country pop singer to be dressed in a relaxed practical mode of address. The retro elements of the song are also bought out in his hair cut and shoes and to some extent in the vert neutral browns and the outdoors and nature is brought out in his green coat. These styling ideas are carried through to my digipak, showing a picture of Connor in the same outfit on the back cover and showing a close up of his retro hair cut on the front cover and a similar image on my poster.

The use of an instrument is a convention of my genre and is a theme that runs throughout my ancillary products, specifically my digipak.
On the lyric booklet of my digipak i created a skull and cross bones style crest or coat of arms out of two guitars and my artists face. This adds a new aspect and point of interest to my artist personality as well making it clear that guitar in an important part of him and his music. various shots of guitar playing such us close up's of fast riff playing show of talent and mid shots of rhythmic strumming can be seen in my music video.

[Insert pictures of close playing and mid shot playing]

In both my video, digipak and poster i have close up shots and pictures of my artist. I have done this because it allows an audience to become familiar with my artist's face and link the artist album and poster together as this is a debut album he will not be well known yet. Also in order to help people connect me digipak and poster i have used the same font through both for the presentation of the name of both my artist 'Johnson' and the name of the album "Silver Lining' and for the information on my poster.

Finally a last small element that i kept the same in order to add to the autumnal theme and all Connor's retro image i wanted to create a warm light and tone to all my images on my digipak and in my poster on the poster this creating both a warm autumnal and retro feel. especially to my front cover which is enhanced by the orange font.

   

QUESTION 1: In what way does your media product use, develop ad challenge forms and convention of real media products?

Collage of Magazine Adverts for Album Releases.

From this collage i have created i have become very familiar with the styles of poster that are created for different genre's and artists and become more familiar with the conventions of a magazine advert for a newly released album.

Conventions of a Magazine Promotional Poster.

Now that i have created my music video and my album digipak it is ready for release and i need to create a magazine poster to promote the release of my album and persuade people into buying it. in order to create a successful poster i must first research the conventions of a promotional magazine poster.

after conducting some research i could see that the main coventions of a magazine poster would be:

-Artist name
-Release date
-Picture of artist
-Review star rating 
-Digipak image
-Extras 
-Possible tour dates

From this i know that these are all things that i will need to include in my poster in order to make it successful.

Case Studies:

Below are two case studies that i conducted in order to see weather these things are included in real Magazine posters for new albums...

Completed digipak.

Today after making some final tweaks i have completed my digipak and am ready to start work on my poster.

                                                                      Front cover:

                                                                     Lyric Booklet:

                                                                            CD Inlay:

Back Cover:

Justification:

First and for most i wanted my digipak to represent and create a brand identity for my artist. The natural theme that was running through out my artist contribution to my music video is what i decided to carry on and develop within my digipak. After watching our music video's in class and listening to idea from my peers i decided quite quickly on creating a rustic simple and nature orientated digipak opting and aiming to use autumn colours such as oranges, reds and browns which fit with the motif of nature and woodland that i used in my music video and built on that idea. you can clearly see this idea through my cd inlay and my lyric booklet with their bacground of autumn leaves and on the back cover with my artist standing in a an area with trees.

For my artist i also decided that i wanted to create a quite old fashioned image and was inspired by the idea of a 70's vinal record for example like that of Simon and Garfunkle. i feel that my font choice which to me has a country and western, outdoor, frontier feel to it also added to this idea of and old record and also of the autumn atmosphere i have tried to create. I portrayed these ideas on the front cover by using a close up image of his long hair and using and orange hue over the image to create and old but natural look. In my Music video my artist comes across as quite mysterious and whilst the lyrics of the song could be quite sad the actual melody is quite fun yet my artist says relatively neutral which is something i wanted to change within my digipak, showing a different side to my artist which i have done through his huge smile on the front cover and smile as he plays his guitar on the back cover.

My inlay was somewhat of a tricky one, i started of by just having the leaves again and realised that i definitely needed something more, so i thought about the aspects of my artist that i hadn't yet explored and it quickly came to me that i had not highlighted my artists instrument: the guitar. I decided to create the idea of a coat of arms or a skull and cross bones to add again to my artist personality that wasn't completely expressed in my music video, this i felt would make my artist more appealing and more of a sellable artist. so i took to acoustic guitars again orange and brown to go with the colour scheme and put them across eachother with my in the back playing with the opacity to have him in the background of the guitars to achieve this skull and cross bones, coat of arms affect that gives my artist edge but also could become my artist symbol similar to that used by Queen.

Digipak

Over the weekend i had planned to take some pictures of my artist for digipak but he had to cancel for family reasons. so whilst i may be able to meet up with him and take some pictures during this week it may be that i have to use screen grabs from my music video or footage that i already had or existing pictures of my artist. i will be starting this process today.

sketch designs for digipak front cover and back cover

Front Cover Sketches:

                                                               Back Cover Sketches

Artist brand/image identity brain storm.

In class we did a practical group exercise where we watched each others music video and brain stormed ideas and things that we associated with our artists image. Above there is a picture of the brainstorm.

digi pack forms and conventions

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Digipaks usually consists of 4 sides but can consist of up to 6 or more. Whist digipaks have the same plastic trays as jewel packs they are considered much more time resistant and fashionable.

Digipak nets look like this: 

Digipaks casn have anynumber of faces. The most common number for a a CD digipak is 4 sides but for DVD's and still even CD's more can be added.

What do you usually find on the faces?

Front cover:

From looking at many album covers i can see that it is conventional for The artists or bands name and the album title to appear on the front cover of the album. The Album cover image also conventionally has some kind of link back to the artist so weather it be a picture of the artist which is usual if it a debut album or a picture or still image of something that relates back to a music video made by the artist or a track on the album.

Back Cover:

Usually on the back cover of a digipak you find a tracklist of all the song you can find on the album and a bar code so that the album can be perchised. Also usually the back cover will have some relation to the front cover so weather it just be a colour scheme of front or picture of the artist.

Inside cover

it is conventional to find a lyric booklet within the inside cover of a digipak.


CD tray

The CD tray is often made of plastic and behind it has some kind of image or design that relates to the artist of to the rest of the images on the digipak.

Editing Process

At the start of the editing process we had a lip syncing lesson with miss excel in order to show us how to sync our music with our footage. This lesson was obviously very helpful when it came to editing footage and lip syncing for ourselves.

After filming for the first time i was not at all happy with the footage i had produced. Whilst i had produced some good scenery shots to establish my setting and mise en scene, my lip syncing shots where very poor and there wasn't a lot to work with. But as i come to editing i ended up using some of the shots in my final production.

My story line played out by abigail and alex worked very well throughout my editing process, they way i filmed my footage allowed to me do little sequences of their action creating depth and interest in my piece.

It was suggested to us that we film our artist lip syncing the song all the way through as when i came to the editing process it would be easier. In doing this i found that this was really helpful and that once all the part where lined up on the timeline it was very easy to chop and chain through narrative shots and different lip syncing shots.

At the very end of my piece i chose to use and effect of fade to white to give my music video a finished feel.