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

Research

New media technologies were extremely useful when researching the typical conventions of a music video. The internet was a good source to start gathering relevant research from. For example, Google was a useful source to find out general conventions of a music video. From here, Google linked me to other media students work on Blogger from around the country. This gave me a brief insight into how my blog should look when completed and the stages that needed to be undertaken. I visited a range of websites that gave brief information on music video conventions. I also visited the popular social networking websites such as Facebook and Myspace and searched for bands that were of the alternative rock genre. From browsing through unsigned bands, I was able to identity the style of this genre and how they represented their band through the colour scheme and band photography. However, for my main source of research I used YouTube and watched existing music videos. This allowed me to identify and determine for myself what the popular conventions were among the alternative rock genre. I looked at music videos from bands such as The Cribs, Muse, Linkin Park and The Kooks. As YouTube was such a great source to locate any official music video, I also researched conventions of other musical genres such as heavy metal and pop through watching videos from Iron Maiden and Katy Perry.

I also used the internet to research conventions of music magazines and digipaks for my ancillary tasks. To locate information about the typical conventions of a music magazine, I visited popular magazine websites such as NME as it had up to date news relevant to the alternative rock genre. This was useful as the latest news inspired me on what to include on my magazine front cover. For instance, one of the coverlines on my magazine cover reads 'The Strokes new album 'Angles' set to be released April 2011' which was inspired from the NME website. http://www.nme.com/news/the-strokes/54693 As well as going to HMV to look at existing products of how different genres have different styles on their digipaks and album artwork, I used the internet to gain further information. For example, the website www.slideshare.com was very useful for me to gain some facts about the conventions of digipaks, as much like Blogger, other media students have uploaded powerpoint presentations onto this website. These presentations included brief bullet points about digipaks that I could further develop and expand on.

Planning

As a group we needed to come up with a style guide of the colours we were going to use across all of our ancillary tasks. To do this we used Adobe Illustrator CS3. From using this programme we were able to use the colour panel and decide on our colour scheme. We knew we were going to use dark colours we just needed to decide on the right shade of colour. We ended up creating a dark blue/grey colour in which we all saved a copy of the colour to our saved area. We then chose a range of colours to see which colours were the most effective when placed on top of the grey background colour. The colours that we found most successful were white, black and red. After deciding as a group as to what our main colours were going to be, we began with our individual ancillary tasks. I also used Adobe Illustrator CS3 to create some plans of initial ideas. I used text boxes and shapes to design a rough outline as to what my magazine cover could look like once completed. I continued to create some initial ideas freehand by sketching some out on paper.

Construction


To construct our music video we used the programme Adobe Premier Pro. This software was straightforward and easy to use as we were able to edit our music video together by importing relevant files onto our timeline. From doing this, we cut the video clips we wanted to use by using the razor tool allowing us to create a timeline of our video. After importing all of the footage that we were going to use, we created a rough cut of our video. At this point of our construction of our music video, the rough cut didn't include any effects or transitions, it was just our cut of the video in a chronological order. This was useful as we could see whether or not we needed to re shoot any footage or cut any footage down. As a result of this we needed to add in some shots of the boy coming out of the house, so that for our final edit the narrative would make more sense. Once the rough cut was completed, we then the relevant video transitions between the shots such as cross fades and dip to white fade. By adding in these transitions it helped our sequence move more smoothly between cuts, shots and scenes.

To construct my digipak I used the programme Adobe InDesign CS5. I had never used this programme before so it was a challenge to get used to. However, once I understood how the tool bars worked it was straightforward. I used this programme to design my booklet that goes inside my album. After creating my page to the correct size of a CD, I set up rulers that went around each page. This would then act as a guide as to how big I could make my information on the page be. However, when printing my final pieces off, the borders were not the right size and I had to redo everything on every page so it fit. This was the only major problem I faced whilst constructing my digipak. I frequently added to my 12 page CD booklet with lyrics and placed images until I had finished constructing it.

To construct my magazine front cover I used the programme Adobe Illustrator CS3. As I had already created a magazine at GCSE level and last year at AS, I was familiar with the set up of a magazine front cover, so I knew the importance of setting up a border and how much border I should leave. Another advantage I had was that I knew how the programme worked and so I could easily use the tools appropriately. After thoroughly planning my magazine cover idea in my free hand sketches, when I started to create my piece on the computer, it saved me time as I knew the exact layout of my magazine. For instance, I had a clear view that my masthead was going to be positioned in the top left hand corner, coverlines down the left third of the page, a key image, a main coverlines, a puff and other smaller images. Whilst creating my magazine cover on Illustrator I didn't have any problems and was able to complete my design quickly and efficiently.

The equipment we used whilst filming our principal photography was a standard video camera, a tripod and tracking. In terms of still photos that we used across all of our ancillary products, we took these pictures whilst we were filming the band at the studio. We took a variety of shots of the band in a number of positions. For example, we took a number of studio shots with the band standing against the plain grey background, sitting on the stairs, standing against a brick wall and standing outside in the alley. The only other photos we took were to document the locations we filmed at and what shot we were filming at that location.

Evaluation

To compare our ancillary tasks within our evaluation, myself and Kate B took some photographs of our completed ancillary tasks. We took a variety of photos, including all of our products together and our individual products seperately. The camera we used to d this was Sony 7.2 mega pixel digital camera. This was a very simple piece of equipment that takes high quality photos. The process of uploading these photos onto my laptop was easy and straightforward, through inserting the SD card straight into the laptop. Other media equipment that was used witin our evaluation was a Flip video camera. I used this piece of equipment when interviewing a number of people for audience feedback.

EVALUATION - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Gaining audience feedback was useful as it allowed us to make some improvements to our work. After our work was submitted we gained further audience feedback to find out whether or not our target audience enjoyed our work. From showing our music video to some members of the target audience age group, I learnt that there were many factors of our video that the audience enjoyed. From the feedback from the first person I interviewed, I learnt that  the locations used and the wide variety of band shots were very popular. I also found out that the concept of the narrative was understood easily and reflected the lyrics well. A main feature that received positive feedback was the time lapse shot in Trafalgar Square as the audience felt that this idea was original and that it was useful in telling the story of the girl feeling alone. This is due to the editing and speed of of the shot which emphasises how lonely the girl is until she finds somebody. The second interview highlighted other aspects of our music video that the audience enjoyed. These factors included the style of the video being very similar to that of an official music video that would be shown on a popular music channel such as MTV. Another feature that received positive feedback was of the band shots being set in a real studio. This is because they audience felt as though the band looked realistic and looked like an actual band. All of the feedback we gained was very useful as it shows that our target audience enjoyed the chosen song as well as the narrative and performance that goes with it. It also shows that our video was very successful in conforming to real life conventions of a real life music video.

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

There is a clear and coherant link between our main task and my ancillary tasks. As well as recording in the studio, to give our video a mixture of a narrative and a perfomance from the band, we also took still images of the band playing. These images came in useful as we used them across our ancillary tasks. For instance, we took some individual shots of each band member and I used these on a page in my digipak (as shown below). I then watched the video and took some screen shots of the band shots of each person playing individually. This demonstrates that there is a link between our main task and my ancillary tasks. In addition, we all used studio images across our ancillary tasks, which creates a consistent link between all of our work.

Another link between our main task and ancillary tasks is that the grey colour of the background within the studio is enchanced in all of our print work. For instance, we chose to use a plain grey colour as the background across all of our ancillary tasks. This reflects the mood of the studio as the studio contains these colours within the setting. This element can also be extended across all of our ancillary tasks as we all use colours that coincide with the music video. For instance, we used the colour red throughout our ancillary tasks as it stands out on the page, much like how the girls red coat stands out amongst the crowd in our music video. On my magazine cover I used the colour red on my main coverlines which can be related to the girls red coat. Therefore our ancillary tasks link back to our main task.

Also, the colours used within our music video are set in dark/dull locations which reflects the house style and colour scheme of our ancilalry tasks. For example, the background within the shot of the girl standing alone in Trafalgar Square consists of dark grey, creams, stone and concrete textures which reflects. It also reflects the mood of the song as being dark and lonely. Other examples of how the dark colour scheme matches the dark locations used throughout the video is within the narrative when the girl wakes up and her room is black and white. We chose this bedroom to set as the girls room as we felt that the plain colours and then emptiness of the room reflected the mood of the video.

The mise-en-scene across both the music video and the ancillary tasks reinforce the alternative rock genre. For instance, the clothing that the models are wearing are appropriate and suit the genre. The main girl is wearing a tartan shirt and a black skirt and black tights. As well as being of the indie style, these colours match the house style of our ancillary products. This is another example of how there is a clear link between both tasks.

Within our ancillary tasks our colour scheme was similar to this as the three main colours we used were grey, black and white. However, the red coat is a bright colour which symbolises that whilst the girl is surrounded by dark and gloomy locations, she still remains positive and upbeat throughout the story which links to how she finds somebody in the end. This shows that there is a clear link between our main task and our ancillary tasks, as both tasks incorporate many dark colours but they each only include one bright colour - red. Therefore, the house style of our ancillary tasks is clear and consistent which the audience can relate to our main task with.

Having a clear house style benefitted the consistency of our group work, as the audience would be able to identify the fact that our digipak and website linked together. For instance, both products share the same main colours of grey, black, white and red. This colour scheme has been reinforced on each web page with the grey border, black background, white and red text. Both products use the same font and sizes with stroke around certain text boxes and uses images that relate to the information on the page. If they did not share the same colours the house style would not be consistent and it would make the overall representation of the products look unprofessional and unrelated.

Website

Magazine Cover

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

Before we came up with an idea as to what our video was going to be about, we watched a variety of existing music videos to help determine what the general conventions are in a music video. We discovered that the general codes and conventions of a music video include a performance of the band/artist playing, a narrative within the video telling a story of a one or a few main characters, a mixture of a performance and a narrative, the mise-en-scene being appropriate for a certain genre/song and the editing reflecting the the song and pace of the music. We watched a variety of videos to make sure we knew what the conventions were of a music video to make sure that our final piece looked professional and realistic. We focused mainly on the alternative rock genre. However, we also individually looked at a number of other genres such as heavy metal and pop. This was useful as we could determine the differences between genres. This helped us gain an accurate understanding of the elements within an alternative rock video as from looking at other genres we knew that we shouldn't use that style in our music video as it would not conform to our genre.

The key conventions that we discovered within an alternaive rock genre was that the artist/band is featured throughout the video and that there is a narrative running alongside the band shots. There are also a variety of camera shots and camera movements used such as, close ups of guitars and a pan and track of the band as a group. The alternative rock music videos settings tend to be set in dark locations, such as a small and dark studio or room or a dark venue. The darkness of the colours within that location enhance this element which is a key factor to this genre as alternative rock uses dull colours as opposed to bright colours. From watching several existing music videos of the alternative rock genre, we recognised which elements needed to be adapted into our own music video. Therefore, our music video conforms to real life media products, as from looking at this existing material, it helped us to create an accurate and conventional product.

Here are some screen shots that demonstrate the similarity between a real life alternative rock band (The Cribs) and the band in our music video.

Across both videos, similar shots are used. An extreme close up is used on the lead member of the band singing into a microphone. The fact that these two shots are so similar, supports the idea that our music video conforms to the style and conventions that are used in exisiting media products.

The Cribs was a useful example to compare our band to, as there are 3 members in each band so it was helpful to see how The Cribs positoned themselves in the studio. From watching a number of The Cribs music videos, I noticed that the lead member is always in the foreground and the videos main focus is on them. I also noticed that the lead singer/guitarist and bassist stand in the foreground with the drummer positioned behind in the centre. This is common among most bands and because of this, this is why we chose to have our band positioned in this way.  

EVALUATION - Compare and Contrast of Completed Digipak and Real Life Products

Key Image - I chose to compare my album to The Cribs album because both bands have three members. Therefore, it is interesting to see how my album cover relates to a real life band's album with three members. On both of the album covers all three members of the band are shown. This adds a realistic view to my product as it is following the codes and conventions of the alternative rock genre. Also, the style of both bands reflect the alternative rock genre. This is due to the band members dressing similarly in shirts and skinny jeans, as well as having long, messy hair with a fringe and having a beard.

In addition, on both of the album front covers, some of the key image is layered on top of the band name. It is not fully covering the text and so the text is fully visible for the audience to read. This is a technique used mainly on magazine front covers, where the magazine brand is so well known, the audience will still be able to recognise what the magazine is, even if only one of two letters are visible. Therefore, it could be interpreted that this technique has been adapted to these album front covers, suggesting that these bands are becoming more and more popular and can afford to style their album in this way.

Band Name - Across both album front covers, the band name is written in a recognisable font, that is used throughout the rest of the digipak as well as the other band products. On both of the album covers it is centred at the very top of the page. It is also the biggest font on the page, so it's the first thing that the audience's attention is drawn to.

Album Title - The title of the album is also written in a recognisable font. However, on The Cribs album, two different fonts are used to distinguish the difference between band name and album title.

Colour Scheme - The colour scheme used across both of the album front covers is simplistic with a minimal 2/3 colours used. This colour scheme is used throughout the digipak as well as other products, with little or no change. On my album front cover there are three main colours - white, black and grey and on The Cribs album front cover there are also three main colours - yellow, black and grey. This is a positive reflection of how I have followed the conventions of existing digipaks.

EVALUATION - Compare and Contrast of Completed Magazine Cover and Real Life Products

Masthead - Both magazine front covers have a big and bold masthead positioned on the left hand side. They both include two plain colours with a white stroke to give definition to the outline of the letters. They are both of a similar size.

Free Posters - Both magazines share the same lure at the top right hand corner. The lure of 'free posters' is used to grab the audience's attention as it shows extras that are featured in the magazine. The use of freebies are a good way to lure people into buying the magazine as they are getting something extra for their money. Both magazines portray an image also.

Key Image - I chose this example of an existing magazine to look at mainly because of the key image. This is because it is an image of a band rather than an artist. Therefore, I looked at it to see how I could position my image of a band on the front cover. The similarities with both of the images is that the lead member of the band is in the foreground, with the rest of the band members in the background. This is done to emphasise the lead singer's importance as perhaps the band's most recognisable/liked member. In addition, the band on my magazine is wearing dark colours which is similar to that of the NME front cover, which represents the genre of music magazine.

Coverlines - The coverlines on both of the magazines are listed down the far left ahnd side of the page. The heading is written in a bold colour with a block background behind it. This is done to highlight the importance of this heading and makes it stand out from the rest of the page. Both sections of the coverlines are similar as they both have two different colours - a bright colour to grab the attention of the audience and a neutral colour such as black or white to give further information

Main Coverlines - On both of the magazines the band's name is written across the middle of the page in a big and bold text. This signifies the importance of the band and that they will be the main feature of this issue. It is also the biggest text on the page which, again, emphasises this.

Puff - On the NME front cover there are no puffs, but there are extra images on the page instead. On my magazine cover the 'explsion' effect of the puff enforces the idea that this issue is a must read and creates the urgency that the audience must read it. The binary opposition of the colours makes the puff stand out against the rest of the page.

EVALUATION - Comparison of Completed Ancillary Products

Magazine Cover and Website:



This is an image of the magazine cover and a page from the website. These two products are very similar as they share the same colour scheme of grey, black, white and red. The colour grey is used as the base background colour on both products, but on the website a block colour of black is placed over the top with the layers of text and images on top. Both pieces used the colours red and white for text and headings. The masthead on the magazine and the heading on the website are both positioned in the top left hand corner. Both products use a similar key image of the band with the lead singer in the foreground

At the bottom of the magazine cover there is a white stroke around the banner to highlight this section. This is similarly done on the website as a white stroke has been added to the text box at the bottom of the page to highlight the 'Social feeds' information. On the magazine cover down the left third of the page are coverlines highlighting major articles inside. The layout of this is also done on the website as down the right third of the page is the heading 'Tour dates' with a list of dates and venues. This is another similarity between both products.

The positioning and layout of both pieces are very similar. Each text box and image are carefully and precisely lined up to the side of the page . This gives the product a professional look and makes the information easier to read and follow.

The only thing that is different is that the website uses the font 'Skin & Bones' whereas the magazine uses the text 'Impact' for the headings. However, this is not a criticism of our house style as the conventions of a magazine cover do not have fancy fonts for headings they use bold fonts that will stand out on the page and match the rest of the text on the page. For example, the NME masthead is written in a basic font, similar to 'Track'. 

Digipak and DVD:

Front Covers:

The band name 'Kings of Leon' is positioned at the top of the page on both products. Both headings share the same font 'Skin & Bones' in a black font. This, therefore, shows consistency between both of the products. Even though the digipak heading is placed on a white background, the DVD cover doesn't need to do this as well. This is because each product doesn't have to be exactly the same, just as long as they share most of the house style components. From doing this it also distinguishes the differences between a DVD cover and an album cover.

The key image is similar on both products, but not exactly the same. This is good as both products share a similar main image which adds variety to both products. Both images have been edited on photoshop to remove the background and palced on top of the plain grey background. One difference is that a thin black stroke has been added to the digipak image, which defines the outline and makes it stand out more on the page. This could therefore have been also done on the DVD image if given a chance to redo it.

Back Covers:

Both products have used the same key image on the back cover. However, the original image has been edited on Photoshop for both products. On the album, the colour and saturation of the image was edited to being black and white. Also, I altered the transparency to make the image more appropriate to use as a background image. On the DVD, the background of the studio has been edited out and the image is left with the three members of the band playing. Louisa placed this image onto a black background and added a stroke effect around the members to make them stand out which works really well.

Both of the covers display the album's track list. The songs are listed in the same order which gives a realistic feel about the products as it looks professional and creates a link between both of the products. In our group we had to communicate with each other on what our record company and producers were going to be to create a sense of consistency throughout all of our products. For instance, if one person added 'Sony' to their product and another person used 'Universal', this would not be consistent within the group and our work would not be recognisable to one anothers. Therefore, we all decided to use Universal as our record company.

Discs:

To further the consistency between the digipak and the DVD cover, we used the same design on the disc across both products. Myself and Louisa created the design together so it was fair for both of us to use it in our product. We created this design by finding a blank CD template on google, importing this file into Photoshop, placing an image of a moon over the top and added text.

The design is largely the same for both of the discs. The only difference is that on the appropriate product one has got CD written on it and the other DVD. The fonts, font sizes and colours used are exactly the same on each product. This therefore demonstrates that these products are very similar.