Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Part 2

 

Evaluation Question 2

 

 

Part 2

Evaluation Question 1

Infographics

Tweaked Digipak

This is my tweaked digipak, it was pointed out to me that I had missed out some information on the spine. This is why I went back on to my digipak and added the catalogue number and band and album name down the spine of the digipak.

Evaluation Q4

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

I used Animoto during this project to present my pitch about the band and music video to the rest of the class. Animoto was the best product to use to present my work to the class, this is because it creates a video made up of images. You can put your own music in the background as well, this makes it more personalised, you can also add captions to the images to explain it in a better way. This is why I decided to use Animoto to present my pitch. I could have used it to present other pieces of work as well, but I decided against it.

Final Cut Pro was used to edit my final music video, I used this as it was the best technology to use as it is a professional editing software program. Final Cut Pro is an editing software that is used the on Apple products, I used this software at home so that I could do it in my own time and take as long as I wanted, rather than trying to rush it in school time.

I have used Blogger the most out of all the other media technologies, this is because I used this to publish all of my work, every piece of work that I have done has been posted on the blog, this is so that it can be seen and then commented on by my teacher. As well as this my peers can view my work and then comment on it as well, this helps me with the rest of my work as I then got an understanding of the views of people in the target audience. Another positive of Blogger is that the teacher can post work on his blog and inspiration for our work that we can then go on and view. This helps as we can view this at any time and even at home which means that I don't always need to talk to the teacher and he doesn't need to talk to us.

A Nikon D3100 camera was used to film the music video, this was so that I could create the video. The camera was of a relatively good quality which made the video look better than if it was a poor quality camera.

Scribd was used  a couple of times during the research, planning and construction stages of the products. I used Scribd to present work that I had done in a professional document, which made it easier to read and understand.

Photoshop was I big part of the project, especially for the ancillary texts. I created both the digipak and the advert using Photoshop, this was because it was the best programme to use to create professional products. I also used Photoshop to present some of my work, I did this to create a professional looking layout for my work that I could then post on my blog.

I used a tripod when I filmed my music video, this was to produce shots that were steady and didn't shake around, creating a more professional look.

An iPod was again used during filming, I used it to play the song so that the band could hear it which helped them with lip syncing.

A speaker was also used during filming to play the music out loud, this made it easier to hear the song and make the lip syncing and playing easier.

I have used Microsoft Word for most of my work, I used it to check my spelling  so that I didn't have any mistakes in my work. I also used Microsoft Word to create mood boards as I did this at home and I don't have Photoshop so it was the easiest thing to use.

UK Tribes was a website that I used a lot during the research for the main product, I used this to find out about the audience for my band. UK Tribes is a website set up by Channel 4 for people to do research about young people, it gives information about loads of different social groups. It gives a lot of information about each group so you can find out exactly what each certain group do, look like and wear. This was very useful to me and helped me produce my audience research and audience profile posts.

Another website that I used was YouTube, this again was important for me in the research stages of the main product as I used it to look at existing videos, and look at things that I liked and videos that matched the genre that I was doing. I also used YouTube to upload some of my own videos such as the animatic in the planning stage and the music video in the construction stage. YouTube helped me to present the video to my audience.

I used an iMac computer throughout all of the stages in the project. I used a mac at school to do all of my work, I used a mac as it was the best piece of equipment for me to use, this is because it had all of the programmes that I needed to complete the project, for example Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.

I also used a Laptop when I was at home, this was so that I could complete some work when I wasn't at school so that I would still be on schedule to finish the product. It also has some programmes that are not available on the iMac at school, for example Windows Movie Maker, I used this to edit and publish my animatic, I used Windows Movie Maker as it was only images that I had to edit which meant that I didn't need a sophisticated editing programme and it was easier to do as I was at home when I created my storyboard.

Another application that I used on my laptop at home was Microsoft PowerPoint, this was used during the construction stage as I created the pattern that I have used on my digipak and advert, I used PowerPoint as I thought that it was quite simple to create the shapes on there, I also used PowerPoint as I was at home and I didn't have access to Photoshop, so I used it as an alternative. I also used PowerPoint to present my work in a professional manner, like what I did with Photoshop, I created the audience profile using PowerPoint.

A memory stick was a vital part of all stages of the product, this allowed me to save my work at school and then transfer it to my laptop at home and vice versa, this meant that I could work on a piece of work at home and at school without losing any of it or without having to start again, this was a massive advantage for me. It also meant that I has a back up of all of the work that I had produced, this was another positive a the work at school or home could have got lost or become corrupted and I wouldn't have had to start again as I had it on my memory stick.

I used Sound Cloud during the project to create a playlist of potential songs for the music video, this was in the research section of the project. The playlist indicates to the viewer which songs I was thinking of doing and as they can be played on my blog you can hear what they sound like, which is better than just reading about the name and band.

I also used Twitter during this project. I created a twitter page for my band to gain recognition and act as if they were a real band. This would appeal to the target audience as well as a lot of them would use twitter, this increases the band's recognition and promotes the band's brand.

Evaluation Q3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the construction of my products I have been given feedback, both good and bad points. This has helped me to produce my main product and the ancillary texts to a good standard, I have used feedback from my peers and from people who would be the audience for my band as the feedback from them is the most valuable as they are the people that I am trying to appeal to.

The first piece of feedback that I received was for my music video pitch, I presented this to the class as they are in the age range of my audience which means that the feedback that I receive will be valuable to me and it means that what they say is relevant and should be listened to. The pitch included information about the band, such as members, name, and the song that I used in the video. It also included information about their style and genre, I presented it right at the start of the project so that I could get a good understanding if what I was thinking of creating was worthwhile and the potential audience actually liked it, if they didn't it wouldn't make it too hard to change as I hadn't done any other work. The feedback that I received was positive, my peers thought that it was quite good and thought that the things I has said about the band fitted well with the genre and would be something that they would listen to if they were a real band. This was good for me as I knew that I didn't need to change anything and I was able to stick to the ideas that I had originally thought of.

I then received feedback for my draft digipak and advert, throughout the construction of the draft versions I was asking my peers and friends (as they were the potential audience of the band) what they thought of the designs. This was helpful to me as it meant I could find out exactly what people thought of the designs, I asked them to tell me what the good and bad points of the ancillary texts were so that I could improve them to make them more appealing to the potential audience of the band. Once I handed my work in I received feedback from my teacher for the designs, I then went around implemented some of what he said into my designs. The reason that I didn't put all of the feedback into the designs is because I again asked my peers and friends what they thought of it and they told me what bits to put into the ancillary texts, the reason that I didn't  listen to all of what my teacher said is because he isn't in the audience range group which means that although he is the teacher the genre of music might not be appealing to him so he might not know exactly what he is talking about, which is why I didn't listen to all of the feedback.

Once I had posted my digipak and advert on to my blog I received feedback from my peers on the blog. I received comments about both of them from several different people, this feedback helps me to see how my products are perceived by the age group of my intended audience. The main feedback that I recieved for my digipak and the advert was that the layout of both was good and that there was a sense of continuity between the two as I used the same background and the same main image. Another thing that was said to me was that they like the minimalistic look of both the digipak and the advert, and that it worked well with the research. These comments help me to see how my intended audience think about the ancillary texts that i have created, this then lets me know whether the products are appealing to the audience or not.

Evaluation Q2

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

I have made some links between my main products and the ancillary texts, which help create an image for my band, but as the video is only a single whereas the digipak and the advert were for the album, this meant that it was harder to create a link between them, I also didn't want to have the band on the digipak or advert as I wanted a more simplistic look. This is why I wanted to create a video and ancillary texts that links to the genre of the band more than linking together.

The combination of the digipak and advert are quite effective in my opinion, they work well together with links between the both creating an image for the band and a sense of continuity between the two products. I wanted to make the two products quite simplistic as this is would match the video as well. When creating the two ancillary texts I looked at existing ones from bands of the same genre, this along with the simplistic look that I wanted to use helped me to come up with some designs for the work. I wanted the digipak and advert to link together as much as possible, this meant that I could do the research of the two together and just pick out sections that I liked and then try to integrate them into my designs and onto the other product. the firs thing that I created was the background for the digipak I like the look of it as although it is quite simple it does differ from the regular black background. that is why I liked it. Along with this I created a kind of half moon half pattern image, this is to link with the name of the album 'Luna Plantation', I then put these two onto my advert as well, this is so the link between the two could be made and create a kind of image for the band or album at least.

Both the digipak and the advert are quite simplistic with not much text on either of them, I did this as I wanted a simplistic look, as well as this I wanted to link the two products together and if one had a lot of text on and the other had very little the link between the two wouldn't be as strong and wouldn't look right, this is why I made sure that they both had a little amount of text on them. As well as the amount of text I also used the same font on both of the products. This was again to keep continuity between the ancillary texts, it also makes it look more professional. The last thing that I did with the text on both products to create a link was to make sure that all of the text on both the digipak and advert was the same colour, I made sure that the text was either in a cream kind of colour or a blue. I did this to keep continuity and to make a good strong link between the two creating a brand for the album and the band, using the same font style and colour also creates a link with the audience as they recognise the font, this increases the bands popularity.

For the video I had a heavy focus on the lead singer rather than other two members of the band, this created an image of the band for the audience to relate to. The focus of the other two were of their contribution to the song, rather than the image, this is why there are more close-ups of the main vocalist than the other two, they have close-ups of their instruments more than there face.

Evaluation Q1

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

For my products I have used conventions from real media products rather than to develop or challenge them as my products were quite simple, and I feel that it is harder to develop or challenge forms and conventions due to the fact that to do this I would need  I researched the indie-pop genre and found out as much information as possible about the genre. I also looked individually at both indie and pop genres, this was to see the difference between the two and to make sure that I didn't have too much of one genre. For the three media products I have researched into existing products and then picked out things that I like, I then went about creating them for myself.

When looking at the digipaks and adverts I wanted to create something quite simple and not too full of information, but I wanted to do this using my editing skills rather than of images. I looked at existing covers for example The XX use very simple covers, and consist of edited images rather than pictures taken of the band, which is a popular convention used within indie-pop CD covers and adverts, which make it quite appealing. A lot of indie/indie-pop digipaks are quite simple, they stick to neutral background colours that don't make it stand out too much and they consist of a centre image that is usually linked to the name of the album. As I wanted to follow these conventions I created a digipak that was similar with a neutral background and a centre image that linked to the title of the album. For my advert I again looked at existing products an bits that I would be able to use for my advert. I found that a lot of adverts used the image of the CD on the advert, so I started by putting this image onto the same background that I had used for the digipak, I then added the band and album name to the advert and also the release date. After looking further into some more adverts across all genres I picked out pieces that I liked, for example the information about the album, I got this from Kings Of Leon's album advert 'Only By The Night'. I used this idea and put my own information onto the advert, the same concept is used on several other adverts such as Florence & The Machine 'Lungs' and Jessie J 'Who You Are'.

My music video also follows the conventions of real media products, I have looked at existing products to get a good idea of what conventions are used in indie-pop music videos. I researched into many different music videos of all genres, mainly indie-pop videos so that I could get a good understanding of what conventions are used within the product. It is extremely hard to develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products, so I did research into existing products so that I could get a good understanding of the conventions used in the videos.

One of the key conventions of an indie-pop music video is the use of a narrative alongside the performance of the artist, normally linking to the lyrics of the song, but doesn't always have to.

Another convention is the use of mise-en-scene to show the setting of the video (usually abstract, natural settings) with the artist showing through the use of setting that it is a fictional idea and is the narrative part of the video.

These videos also use camerawork to show a heavy focus on the artist and their performance, rather than the narrative that doesn't include them, which is a feature used in a lot of other genres, such as alternative rock.

Another convention that is used a lot in indie-pop music videos is the use of a mixture of close-ups and long shots. These are used to keep the video interesting and at a fast pace. The use of different camera angles is also used in indie pop videos, again to keep the video more exciting.

Overall I feel that I have used the main forms and conventions for my music video and my ancillary tasks that are included in real indie-pop products. I think that sticking to these has made my products safe but still look good. Developing or challenging these conventions can be very hard to do especially when it is not a professional video, and attempting to do so can make it the products look quite poor, so I feel that using the forms and conventions has worked out well for me and I have created products that fit well with the genre of music.

Final music video