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Progress Blog

Review on Progress -

I personally really like our music video and ancillary work. Our music video followed normal conventions of hiphop/grime videos which gives us an advantage as we have used our genre to follow conventional ideas. We followed the genre and theme through the magazine advert, digipak and music video and created good visual links between all products. We had good feedback on our video and overal I think it was a good success.

What we could have done different?

If we had the chance to do this project again I would reconsider using the green screen in our music video as we really struggled to find a good background to fit in with our video and to make it flow.
If I had the chance to do thid again I would make sure that I kept up with my blogs and did not leave any gaps which I have done in this blog. I would also learn how to use more media technologies and keep up with the fast pace of the blogs.

Evaluation Question 4 - Audience Feedback 4

Evaluation Question 4 - Audience Feedback 3

Evaluation Question 4 - Audience Feedback 2

Rough Cut Feedback - Evaluation Question 4 - Video

Rough Cut Feedback

Evaluation question 4

Target Audience - 

Our music video had a very specific target audience. Our target audience is young males between the ages of 18 and 25. We target males rather then females and use Mulvey's, 'male gaze' to attract the male audiecnes . We target poeple who are intrested in grime/rap music and have a love for this type of music.  At first we did not focus mainly on males but throughout our filming.

Feedback from Rough Cut

See Post Rough Cut Feedback - Evaluation Question 4

This is the first feedback we got on our music video, this is our rought cut and we got feedback from our media teacher Dan. Dan thought that we have very positive aspcets to our video such as the fast edting, editing to beat, mise en scene and shot types. Although he had lots of positive feedback to give us he also gave us some citicism which we took on board and changed for our final video. He suggested that we removed some of the 'crazy' footage andnot use so much of the party footage. 

Feedback on Final Video from Cinema screening 

After the cinema screening we managed to film some of our audience feedback. Fortunately we did not have a lot of negative feedback from audeicnes between the ages of 17 and 19. Here are some videos of audience giving there opinions on our music video.

Audience Feedbak 1

 

See post - Evaluation Question Four Audience Feedback 2 

See post - Evaluation Question Four Audience Feedback 3

See post - Evaluation Question Four Audience Feedback 4

As mentioned i two of the above videos our music video really stood out in  the cinema as it was very cotroversial, different and followed the normal conventions of a hipHop/grime video.

In two of the clips our audience mention the fact that our video looked very realistic and created a good vibe in the cinema. Most people we asked said that they believed this actually looks like a realistc music video and that they could imagine it on music channels and MTV.

After the cinema screening soem teachers were concerned about our music video and the explict lyrics. They advised us to put the sound down on certain words to make it more acceptable and appropriate. 

What we have learnt through audience feedback?

Throughout the duration of this project we have been given regular feedback from our teachers who have given us ideas and suggestes ways in which to improve the quality of our muic videos and ancillary products. our audience feedback was all positive and the males we asked seemed to like this video and understood the way we incorperated the male gaze. We took on all the feedback we were given and all the advice we were given and produced a good, conventional video.

Evaluation Question One

EVALUATION QUESTION 2 - How effective is the combination of you main product and ancillary?

Evaluation Question 3

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

YouTube Icon

Research - 

During my research process for both music video and ancillary work I used the internet. I used sites such as Google images and you tube to research other music videos, adverts and digipak's and to get an  idea of what the product should look like and contain. 

YouTube - I used YouTube in my research and throughout the entire project manly when research and trying to finalise a song choice.

We watched several videos on you tube that gave us inspiration and helped us start to plan our own music video. We had a general idea of what type of music video we wanted to create but the research on you tube and on other sites helped us get ideas of actual shot types, prop;s and overall mise en scene.

Blogger -

Throughout the entire duration of the project we had to constantly blog about our progress and blog everything we did. Each group had their own blog which allowed us to personalise our blogs and make them loo interesting and more personal. In terms of research we uploaded various video clips and posted various images and information  that we learnt in class and that we did at home. Blogger allowed us to track what we had done and what we were doing and demonstrate our research.

We did not only use Blogger for our research process but used it throughout our planning, construction and evaluation as well. Blogger is an on-line software in which we post or work onto. We used different forms of media on our blogs to make them look better and to show that we have the skills to use different media forms and know our ICT.

JVC Camcorder - When filming we used JVC Camcorders which are top of the range camcorders. This gave us an  advantage and really contributed to the quality of our filming. We were taught how to use these camcorders in as when we created our thriller opening, this allowed us to get straight into filming as we all knew how to work the equipment from our tutorial on it in AS.



Still Camera - While filming we used a still camera to capture images of us filming which allowed us to blog our filming process and give evidence of or filming. This is all part of the blogging we have to do and the images we took on the still camera was a good way of portraying what we were doing through images rather them just text.

PhotoShop - PhotoShop was a major part of our ancillary work as we composed both advert and digipak on Photoshop  We had a tutorial on Photoshop in lesson which helped us get to grips with the way Photoshop works. I found this very useful as I had never used it before and it was exciting to see what type of things could be done on Photoshop. I used Photoshop to create my digipak firstly, i found it very tricky to use all the tools and found the magic laser tool very hard to use as I had to carefully draw around the image i wanted to cut out. I then used it for my inside digipak and magazine advert.

Final Cut Pro - We used finally Cut Pro a lot when making our music video. Again this is a software we are familiar with from AS, but this did not make it easy for us. Compared to the thriller we produced in AS we had to construct our video in a whole different way. Rather then cutting everything and adding to the timeline we had to create  base tracks and upload them and cut between them. This was a good method for making a music video as it would be harder to cut everything individually. I final Cut pro we produce our story board, which we drew, took pictures of then uploaded them onto a time line and added our chosen track behind it. We had some problems with final cut pro during our editing as our footage kept moving along the timeline moving and moving our of sync with the music which we tried hard to get in perfect sync.

Sound Track Pro - Sound Track Pro is  a software used on Mac's. We use this software when adding our music onto our clip. This is the software we use to sync the music with our lips making it look more realistic. This software allowed us to see the waves in the sound which we then perfectly matched up with the waves in the actual video allowing us to lip sync almost perfectly, giving our video a professional realistic look.

Quark - I personally did not use quark to get my fonts for the ancillary products but i did go on it and look at the different types of fonts etc. They had a wide range of font and this is were i found the two fonts that I use in my ancillary products. I found these fonts and really liked them then managed to find them on Photoshop.

Prezi - throughout this project i have used Prezi, an on-line presentation  maker which has allowed me to create presentations that  are detailed, unique and clear. The main task i used Prezi for was our pitch for our music video. I created this Prezi which was detailed. It is easy to use and easy to upload images, videos and clips onto. This made it easy to present and the style of Prezi made our presentation flow and highlight out clear ideas. This is a media form which we used for many blogging tasks as a way of showing our ICT skills and conveying our work in a nice way.

Throughout our blogging tasks we had to use different media forms to show our work.

Slide Share and Power Point Presentation -  I used power point presentation to do some of my blogging tasks then uploaded them onto Blogger through slide share which is a software ghat allows you to view power points on-line easily. This makes them look professional and creates a easy format which is good and fast to view on Blogger.

Research into Magazine Adverts

Adverts 

A magazine Advert is an advertisement on paper usually A4 that is printed in a magazine. Almost all artist have some form of advertisement promoting there album. These magazine adverts can be in any type of magazine, this usually depends on the genre of the artist and their album.

Different types of Magazine Adverts in Different types of Magazines
The placement of the advert in different types of magazines is very important it need to appeal to the  readers of the magazine. for example there would be no point advertising a Hip-Hop album in a children's magazine. This would be a waste of advertisement money as children are less likely to know the artist or go out and purchase there album. In a children's magazine you would expect artists that are young such as Justin Bieber, as this is more appropriate and they are more likely to hassle their parents about getting that album for them rather den a hip-hop artist they are not to familiar with. Therefore the placement of the advert in different types of magazines makes a different to the amount of sales you would receive and would also affect the artists promotion.

Differences in Magazine Adverts due to Genre
All magazine adverts follow the same conventional ideas and have the same purpose; to promote themselves and their music but not all magazine adverts look the same. Different genres have different audiences, styles and ways of portraying themselves which makes it had to say that this is what a magazine advert should look like.

This is a Magazine Advert of Ellie Goulding. As we can see this advert is very simple, calm and has high key lighting. She does not use over the top font, keeping it very plain and well lit. This reflects her and her type of music and also suggests this is the type of image she wants to portray.

Rihanna's magazine advert on the other hand is very outrageous and stands out. This reflects her personality and what we see of her in the media as she likes to make a statement. The low key lighting adds depth to the image and makes her seem 'dark' in some ways.

Final Magazine Advert

This is my final magazine advert.

Final Digipak

In created a 2 panel digipak.

Front cover

Inside

Fonts and Colours

Colours for Ancillary 
The colour scheme we have chosen in black, white and red. After much consideration and looking at our music video we decided that black and white as our main colour scheme would be best. We decided this because our music video has a lot of low key lighting and is filmed in the evening which makes it quite dark. We decided to add red into it to give it a flash of colour and because in our music video our main artist Pats in wearing bright red. We have done this to create a visual link between all products and believe it will look stylish. Black and white are a classic combination and is very simple.

Fonts

After looking on PhotoShop and Quark i have decided to use two main fonts. The main font I am going to use fro both my digipak and my advert is BASE 02. This is a bold font that I believe goes with our theme and genre as they are very bold and look like graffti text.

Codes and Conventions of Ancillary Products

Codes and Conventions of Magazine adverts - 

There are several codes and conventions of magazine adverts. some conventions depend on the genre, the type of music you are promoting etc. But all adverts have the basic things you expect to see on them, from simple things such as a name to small details such as a website.

Here a list of conventions of an advert -

• Name of artist in Bold, clear Font
• Name of Album in Bold, clear font
• Information on were this album can be purchased ( promoting the album and artist) 
• You could also include a picture of the album cover as a way of letting people know that is the album and also making it recognisable to the audience.
• Social networking site links or icons
• Image of the artist so we can recognise the artist
• Important information such as who it features
• Could also include Ratings
• Special effects or added images depending on the artist being promoted and what type of image you are trying to convey.
• Website

Codes and Conventions of Digipak - 

There are also many conventions of digipak's all depending on the type on genre, colour scheme, font etc. But again there are main elements of a digipak which you expect to see on all digipak's.

Here are the main things you would need to see on a digipak:

• Name of artist
• Name of Album
• Picture of artist
• Name of both artist and album on spine of digipak
• Website
• Copy Right Information
• Bar-code
• Parental Advisory (if music contains explicit lyrics etc)
• Record Label (major and/or minor)
• Tracklist

Purpose of ancillary products

Ancillary Products

As part lo our project we have to also create a magazine advert and a digipak for our artist that we created. This is an extension of our music video and is a good way of promoting our artist and advertising their album. A digipak is a CD cover with an inside. We can either choose to do a 2 panel digipak or a 3 panel digipak.

The purpose of our ancillary products along with the music video rather than just the music video alone is that with the ancillary we can promote our artist more and use these to attract certain audiences and portray our artists image.

As you can see below Lil Wayne's, I am not a Human Being is the name of a track and the name of his album. The purpose of this digipak front cover is to promote the song, promotes all the other songs on his album and to promote himself as an artist. This is affective as it promotes him as a rap artist. For example if people do not know about the song, I am not a human being and they see a magazine advert or a digipak in the stores selling it they are more likely to find out about it which raises awareness of his work, promoting his music.

Final Embeded Music video

          

Previous Students Work

Classwork
In class we looked at some previous students work and were asked to compare them and highlight the positives and negatives of their digipak and magazine advert. As a class we looked at all members of the same groups work comparing their similarities and differences within the groups.

examples of CD covers and adverts from previous students.

Class work comparing three previous students work

 Poppy Power - In my opinion there were hardly any negatives to this digipak and advert.
                         Digipak - Negatives - same image was used for the advertisement.
                                      Positives - made reference to the actual music videos, followed the themes and                                                                                     colours made obvious visual links between video and digipak
                        Advert - Negatives - used the same image as used on front cover of digipak.
                                      Positives - again  follows colour schemes, clear font in not to many styles. follows same theme as digipak linking all of them together.



 

Photoshop Tutorial

Photo Shop Tutorial 

In class we were given a Photoshop tutorial in which we had to create a practice digipak using specific pictures that we were provided with. We were shown how to open a 2 panel CD cover on to Photoshop and how to import our chosen photos. Then we were sown how to use good tools such as the magic cutter tool which allowed us to draw around the imagine and cut out or background. After that we were given 30 minutes in which we were allowed to explore the Photoshop tools and effects and apply them to our practice digipak.

Practice Cover on PhotoShop

Practice digipak for Photoshop tutorial

This was my practice digipak which as you can see is not very good. This was my first attempt at using Photoshop and I think for a first attempt it is acceptable. I am defiantly going to practice using Photoshop to improve my skills and to make sure that my final digipak and advert are a lot better.