Markings

Through out the posts I have Marked who has done what on each post With either H- for Harry, B-for Ben and G-for Garryn

Music Video Finished H, B & G

Evaluation Q4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research,planning and evaluation stages? H

Evaluation Q3) What have you learned from your audience feedback? H

Recently we held a showcase for all the Year 12 and 13’s Media films; we set it up in a darkened room with a projection of all the videos. We mainly held this showcase so that each group was able to obtain an audience members reaction of their production.

Overall the showcase was a great success and we definitely got the feedback we expected. I feel that our theme for the music shone through perfectly, with loneliness and depression being obvious. It was also quite clear with some of the audience members that the theme was coming through as you could see from the look on their faces that they really felt for the character and we quite moved and upset by the production.

The audience that attended the showcase were teachers and mainly other A-Level students this made sure that we were able to get a review from not only our target audience  but from a different kind of audience aswell. When filming the audience reviews, we asked specific questions and asked what the thought of it as a whole, these are the results we received.

Overall I am pleased with the feedback and results we received but if I was able to go back and change the video I would definitely take into account the responses we received for the video.

When trying to get audience feedback for my Digipak and magazine advert I uploaded the images to Tumblr, this was because our target audience tends to use social media such a Tumblr nearly every day. The feedback I received was surprising as not only did it get a large amount of likes favourites and reposts but I also got some personal messages from strangers complementing my work and some people giving constructive criticism on how I could improve.

Over all the feedback and audience response I received was exactly how I wanted with the theme easy for the audience to realise and that it made the audience feel for our character. 

Evaluation Q2) How effective is the combonation of your main product and Ancillary tasks? H

How do the three products work together? What links are there?

I feel that there is a definite link between my three products one major link is the use of the contract label the band are signed up to which will not only help our artist out but can help the company gain a lot more successful artists through 1 magazine advert and Digipak.

There a quite a few links between my products, one of these being the theme of loneliness. This theme comes through in all 3 products quite clearly, for example in the music video when he is on his own the saturation is lost and there is a darkened border around him where as when he is with his girlfriend the colours are a lot brighter and warmer. This theme also comes out in the Digipak and Magazine quite clearly this is because the only this in colour is himself showing that the world around him seems empty and has no colour since he lost her.

How have you represented the characters in your video/ magazine/Digipak?

When coming up with ideas for the characters as a group we decided on the story line of a teenage boy who has lost the love of his life to a fatal accident. Our main character Alex we decided to be a typical late teenage boy we got this image across by giving him long dark hair, jeans and a big coat. We also got his image of depression across with the way he walked; we achieved this by making him walk with his head down and hair in his face, this gave off the perfect image that we wanted. Our second character was a late teenage girl who was meant to have died in a tragic accident we found this look to be quite difficult to pull off during the filming stage so we worked on it more during the editing stage. We achieved this more by making her seem like a memory by adding more vibrant colours and a romantic effect but then made her fade away into the distance. The depression and loneliness is also shown  in both the Digipak and Magazine I achieved this by making sure that no colours where shown apart from on him again showing the only this in colour is himself showing that the world around him seems empty and has no colour since he lost her. Also because he is so high up and alone it shows that he is isolated from civilisation.

How have you tried to target your audience in each case?

In all three of my products I have made sure to target my audience.

The genre of music we have used tends to appeal to the Female sex rather that male as Females tend to feel more sorry for the man and tend to have an attraction to the male singer in acoustic videos. I tried to make my audience as balanced as possible between the sexes and within the 15-21 age range. A main factor that I used to target my audience is by uploading the music video to Youtube this is because the age ranges we are trying to target tend to use social media sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. Another way of targeting my audience was the genre of music used tents to attract a certain type of people for example the genre we have chosen will pick up people who listen to the pop punk and acoustic genre of music.

How would your campaign work as a real marketing campaign?

 If my campaign was a real marketing campaign I feel it would be very successful due to how we focused our target audience and the types of distribution we have used.

I believe that the fact we used a real music label to promote our music video would give us a huge edge on other promoters, also the fact we put good reviews for our campaign would really aid us in selling against bigger competition. On the other had I wish we had used other methods of distribution and advertising such as Facebook, Twitter I feel this would make fans more aware of our upcoming album and target our audience a lot more.

Another process I would have changed if it was a real campaign would be not to use IMovie and use editing software that I’m more comfortable with for example Sony Vegas.

What could you do to improve your marketing package if you had the opportunity again?

If I had the opportunity to go back and do this task again I would defiantly use Sony Vegas rather than IMovie this is because I would be more comfortable during the editing process and not be trying to rush around learning techniques on IMovie when pressed for time to finish the film.

Another process I would have changed if I had the opportunity to do this again would be to expand my knowledge on Photoshop so when making a Digipak and Magazine advert I could make it look a lot more professional and eye catching. Finally during the filming stage I would make myself a filming schedule rather that filming at random times, I feel this would of stopped us from panicking to get the filming done and not have had as many problems with the weather.

Evaluation Question 1) In what ways does your media product use, develop and challange forms and conventions on real media products? H

Music video

Most music videos tent to conform to specific conventions these are:

1    1)      Camera shots of the Band/artist

2    2)      Lighting

3    3)      Sound

4    4)      Camera movement

5    5)      Mise En Scene

6    6)      Editing

As a group we did try our very best to follow the conventions of continuity, the language of the film and the grammar of the edit for example we made sure the story of our video was clear with good continuity and grammar of the edit. At the early stages of filming we made many mistakes such as not filming enough scenes and clips for the video and also not getting a clear message across. We acted and improved on this by returning to the story board and script that we had and stated to film the clips in a more linear path rather than filming random bits and pieces. Another challenge we face was the weather, this had a massive effect on our filming schedule as quite a lot of our filming was based outside. We overcame this by planning ahead and if it was raining we filmed the shots inside the house to make sure we had something to work with, also when it was sunny we put our minds to it and filmed as much as possible so we didn’t have to rely on the weather anymore.

I think that our music video reflected the conventions of really well as we used many symbolic clips and shots to relate to the song, examples of these are how most of the video is quite gloomy and dark and is focused on the loss of a single person. We found from looking at other acoustic music videos the video and lyrics are about the loss of a lost one. We didn’t really have too much influence of a different music video as we wanted our ideas to be fresh and our own, so when we were filming we thought of clips that could relate to the lyrics and give them more of a meaning.  We did look at the live version of remembering Sunday played by Alex Gaskarth and seen when he was playing he had his head down a lot and is quite emotional we used this idea when filming the guitar scenes to give off the same effect.

When planning for our music video we thought that we wanted the video to be very hard hitting and upsetting so we related it to The Hypodermic Model. 

We used this as the main character in our video, his girlfriend is deceased this leaves the audience not able to feel any other emotion apart from sadness we amplified this by adding the main character thinking about committing suicide we thought this would make the audience really feel for the character and feel his pain that hes going through.

Digipak

Most Digipak’s tend to contain the following things.

1) Bright Colours.

2) Pictures of the band/artist.

3) Relates to the genre

I feel my Digipak follows the conventions of a typical Digipak really well; this is because it contains many pictures of the artist, a song list and also some symbolic key features that relate to the genre of music.  My Digipak does not contain too many bright colours but this is because I was making to relate more to the genre rather that making it eye catching. I did face some problems when doing this because at first I made the entire picture black and white but then found it was too dark and wouldn’t be eye catching at all and didn’t really suit the image. I overcame this by looking at other examples of Digipaks and I took the idea of having one or two particular parts to the pictures stand out, I took this idea from Paramore’s Riot album cover.

These made the Digipak seem more eye-catching and suit not only the images used by the genre as well. Even though my Digipak isn’t eye-catching I feel the colours and images I used would appeal to the target audience of that genre.

Magazine Advert

Most Magazine Adverts conform to certain conventions these are

1   1)      Bright Colours

2   2)      Picture of the band/artist

3   3)      Bold Font

4   4)      Date of the video release

I feel my Magazine advert follows the conventions of a typical advert really well; this is because it contains a big main picture of the artist and also some symbolic key features that relate to the genre of music.  My Advert does not contain too many bright colours again this is because I was making to relate more to the genre rather that making it eye catching. I did face some problems when doing this as I wanted my image to have a cartoon/sketched effect like All Time Low tend to use on their albums and adverts.

 I overcame this by looking on the internet for tutorials on how to turn a picture from its original state to make it look like a drawing, this did take up a bit of time and involved a lot of trial and error but in the end I think it came out just the way I wanted it to. The text on the advert I used not only relates to All Time Low’s adverts but also to my front cover of my Digipak. Also some of the font I added was the reviews of the album and its release date, I put this on here hoping it would persuade the audience to by my album seeing how good it is, but also so they could look forward to the release date 

Finished Magazine H

Finished Magazine Advert

Magazine planning H

First of all i too the original image I used for my front cover of the Digipak and changed the exposure and brightness to give the image a pale and desaturated look. I then added thicker oulines to the image to make it seem like a sketched cartoon, this was to keep with ATL's main theme of being unique with the cartoon styled images.

I then added text to the image making the name of the band very plain to relate back to the front cover but the name of the album to be in a chalk style to make it seem like ot has been drawn on. I also added the additional information of ratings and dates to make the advert look real and legit.

ATL Magazine Research H

In this magazine article, has been effectively used to both draw in the readers attention as well as promote the artist's image. The main image used is of two of the band members with the words 'Refocused & Refined' this is maybe to show that the focus isnt always on Jack and Alex other members are as important aswell hence the picture of Alex and Ryan. The band name is highlighted in red making it stand out, and therefore promotes theband clearly. Underneath is the words 'Return Home' this maybe to show they have been away for a while and are coming back, this may intice fans to buy more of their albums and go to see them in up coming concerts. Also the advert is not sketched as a cartton as the band nomally are this could be to show they have a new image and are showing a new side to themselves.

ATL magazine reasearch H, B

In this magazine page is used to draw the readers attention but also promote the bands image. The cartoon like writing is a re-occuring theme in this advert to keep with promoting the band and what they are like. There is a large image of the band in the middle of the advert to show what the bands actual image is like so they can focus on their target audience. some parts to the advert are highlited in yellow to show what the main and key parts to the advert, these are the band members and the name of the album. This is used not only to draw attention to the band members but the album aswell so the readers will buy it.

ATL Magazine research H

This is an example of a magazine advert form All Time Low.

The image on the advert is portrayed in a sketched cartoon style this maybe to show the band are not prefect and not wealthy but they do it how they want to. The advert may have a lack of colours but the black and white on a yellow background really stands out and is really eye catching. The ratings down the side of the advert shows that they are almost perfect to everyone but I think It also relates back to why they used the sketched theme which fits perfectly.

Finished digipak H

Front cover

Second cover

Inside pannel

Back cover

Digipak Process H

When creating the front cover of my digipak I took the original image, resized to a CD cover and removed the colour from the background of the image but keeping the colour on the main character making him the focus of the digipak.

I then added Text to the top of the Image giving it a very subtle and clean look but keeping the focus of the main character in the middle of the cover.

The second cover I carried out the same steps as the first which was removing the colour from the background and keeping colour on the main character so he is still the main focus. 

Aagin the same concept was done with the inside pannel which was to make the sky the focus giving the idea of the sky is hevan.

Finally with the back cover i removed all colour and changed the colour of the tracks to red again making them the main foucus but also the coulour red is a main theme aswell as it is the colour of the main characters shirt.

My Chemical Romace Digipak - Reserch H

My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade Is Dead!

This digipak is a live album, which therefore relates to the images used, as they contain fans and the crowd My Chemical Romance performed in front of. The front cover is made u of three images all put together. The first picture is of a closed gate, which connotes the end of. The second picture is of some flowers standing upright on some grass where lanterns have been lit, suggests a funeral and an end to something. I like how they've added the title into this image, which makes the Digipak look really professional, and eye catching. Again the Parental Advisory Explicit Content sign is seen in the corner to show that the songs on the album are not suitable for everyone.

All the tracks on the album are in the format of a newspaper. In the type of newspaper they have there are usually some form of death notes or missing people this also relates to the theme of the funeral and this particular Digipak tends to stand out from other ones.

Inside the Digipak is a picture of a crowd which is full of My Chemical Romance fans I like the use of the crowd especially since this particular Digipak is a live album with all live songs so the picture of the crowd really fits in well.

Paramore Digipak - Research H

Paramore – Riot

Riot! Is the second studio album by American rock band Paramore, succeeding their debut album, All We Know Is Falling, and was released in the United States on June 12, 2007 and in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2007. The front cover is and image of the band stood in black and white with only the word RIOT! In colour this shows that the band are trying to make the album more important than themselves and trying not to commercialise themselves it could also show that the word riot plays a big part of the album meaning the album could be chaotic and destructive. The black and white with the word riot could show that things such as riots take away most life from life meaning the lack of colour could mean the lack of life. The back of the album is very minimalistic carrying on with the theme of lack of life and colour.  The theme of lack of life could also relate to the songs on the album as they could have a lot of meaning and back stories about big tragic events that have been happening in the world.

All Time Low Digipak - Research H

All Time Low – So Wrong Its Right

This Digipak So Wrong, It's Right is the second full-length studio album by American pop punk band All Time Low, released through Hopeless Records on September 25, 2007. The front cover is an image of a couple together with two other people which could connote that the main two people are cheating on the other two, this relates to the title of the album So Wrong, It’s Right as cheating as seen as wrong but the people cheating see it as right. The Back image is of the couple with a big building in the background, this shows that this particular album is one of All Time Low’s more urban albums, Also the birds on the cover could signalize paradise meaning that the album its self is paradise to listen to. The album is extremely colourful in comparison to other albums, this could show that the album is very up-beat and lively.