Final Portfolio

Evaluation Q1 - In what ways does your media product (music video, digipak and magazine advertisement) use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Q2 - How effective is the combination of your music video with your digipak and magazine advertisement?

When creating my digipak I aimed to create a synergy between my music video and the actual digipak. I chose to have screen shots of my music video on my digipak as I think it's important for the audience to see a consistent pattern as they will subconciously make a link between the image and the band.

I thought it was effective to have similar colours throughout my music video, digipak and magazine advert as it relates back to the theme of loneliness and rebellion. For my magazine advert, I chose to have a photo of a forest, as it's quite spooky an ties in nicely with our theme. Forests can be linked with freedom, loneliness and neglect. I used photoshop to create my advert as I wanted to make the photo of the forest slightly opaque so the font isn't hidden. I also edited the colour and made it black an white to add to the dark, gloomy effect.

I chose to have our artist on the front of my digipak as the audience will already be familiar with what she looks like after watching the music video. I opted to have the images inside of the digipak negative as I thought this would be out of the ordinary and stand out from ones already in the shops. For the back of the digipak, I chose to have an image of our artist in an alleyway as the urban setting is a big part in our music video. I also chose this image as it conveys the feeling of being trapped and isolated as it is taken from a high angle, making our artist seem small. I made the font centralised to catch the audience's eyes. I placed my track listing on a wooden fence to almost make it seem like it has been written on.

I added screen shots from our music video when making my digipak as I wanted to show a brand identity. As I previously mentioned, having a brand identity is important as the audience will become familiarised with our band and recognise them.

I wanted to use different images when creating my digipak and magazine advert as I didn't want them to look similar. As our genre is dubstep/bass, I wanted to avoid having my artist on both the magazine advert and digipak, therefore I chose the digipak. I think it is a big part on the fans behalf to know what the artist looks like, so they can be familiar with them. However, I didn't want to over expose the artist as this could distort the views of the audience.

Evaluation Q3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our target audience was predominantly teenagers of both genders as they could relate to the given circumstances happening in our video such as love and heartbreak.



The video above was our first approach at getting audience feedback by pitching our music video concept to our media class. At the end of our pitch, we gave our class mates the opportunity to ask us questions and give us feedback in terms of what we could change/improve.

We then created a Twitter account for our artist to promote their music video/album and to engage with 'fans'. We found this an effective way to get our music video heard and seen by our target audience. We received feedback from 'fans', below is a screenshot of what they said:



We composed several tweets to make our artist's twitter seem more realistic. We mentioned tour dates, future collaborations, thank you's, the link to our music video and where to buy our new album etc.











We then went onto the social networking site Facebook and asked our 6 questions from our questionnaire to 5 teenagers. We decided to do it this away as it is easy to interact with our target audience this way as social networking sites play a big part of their everyday lives. We opted to ask open questions to receive more qualitative data rather than asking closed questions. Here is an example of how we gathered our results using Facebook:







Here is our actual questionnaire with all our feedback:

Person 1
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I liked the lip syncing and how in sync it was. I also loved the way the character's eyes changed."

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"A bit of both."

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"I would say that there is as I could understand the connection between the two."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"I would definitely watch it more than once. I loved the effects."

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"Kind of, it is a little bit different and unique though."

6. What could we improve on?
"In my opinion, I like it the way it is."

Person 2
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I would say the bit that stands out the most is the candles...I loved that!"

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"Quite easy to understand."

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"I think the link between the video and the lyrics is really there and understandable."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"I think I would definitely watch it again because there are so many different locations which makes it interesting to the eye."

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"I do think it fits the genre especially with the mix of tones and lights!"

6. What could we improve on?
"The only thing I would say is there was one bit where you were running through the forest that was in bright colours which I thought would have been more effective in a darker light. Also, more candles could have been used as I liked those bits."

Person 3
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I liked the candles in the form of a heart at the beginning, the change of eyes and the burning photo."

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"You can tell that you were a couple and that you had broken up. It was clear that you were messed up in the head afterwards as well."

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"You looked like you wanted to kill someone when it says 'going in for the kill' and the 'now let go of my hand' when your hands slipped away."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"I thought it was really clever and interesting to watch."

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"I personally think so."

6. What could we improve on?
"The part where she pushes her boyfriend seems a little fake."

Person 4
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I like the bit in the lift, the reverse shot of the cars and the bit with the trees at 1:50, they're quite fun and interesting."

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"I think it's easy to understand. It is definitely about a boy and girl falling in love and portraying the ups and downs of their relationship."

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"Yeah, I think the bit with the photo burning is good because the lyrics are talking about fire/desire. The bit with the woods is good because she's singing about being left out for too long."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"Yes, I've watched it a few times now, it has some interesting shots and it's nice to see a music video with some correlation to the lyrics of the song, not all of them do nowadays!"

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"I think the bits with the flashing colours are good for dubstep because they fit with the music which is quite vibrant and fast paced at points."

6. What could we improve on?
"I didn't really understand the bits with the candles?"

Person 5
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I really like the first part where it's in slow motion when she hugs her boyfriend at 7 seconds."

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"No, it was pretty easy to understand, well I hope I understand it because what I think it means is pretty cool!"

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"I can definitely see that there is a link."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"Yes, I watched it a few times actually! I really like it."

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"Yeah, it's very straight the point and edgy so it goes with the music genre."
6. What could we improve on?
"I have no criticisms, I really enjoyed it."

Lastly, we asked a couple of people what they thought of our music video after watching it at our showcase.





In conclusion, we feel that our audience feedback was a crucial element within A2 as we wanted to live up to our target audience's expectations of our music video being unique and interesting to watch. We received positive and constructive criticism and we took this into consideration incase there was anything to change or improve. One suggestion was to improve the long shot of the main character running in the forest and to edit it so the lighting was darker rather than bright. We agreed with this suggestion so we decided to make it lighter and also add and effect to make it slightly distorted. Overall, we met our aim of introducing what happens behind closed doors of a broken relationship.

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

Finalised magazine advert

This is my final magazine advert. I wanted to have similar colours throughout my digipak and magazine advert as it relates back to my brand identity theme of loneliness and rebellion. Of all our locations, I took a photograph of a forest scene in order to connote mystery, yet also rural freedom. The trees create a frame for the writing, emphasising the text which draws the audience to read it. The vanishing point within the frame also captures the audience's attention drawing them deep in to the forest, almost like in our music video where our protagonist is drawn in to this rebellious lifestyle. I used Photoshop to overlay star ratings to adhere to the conventions of real media texts as I saw this feature on many professional adverts such as Delilah's. I used photoshop to create my magazine advert as I wanted to improve my creativity and digital technology skills.

Planning our evaluation

Today me and Alyce are meeting up to plan our evaluation, and hopefully complete some of the questions. We are most likely going to create a brainstorm for each question, and talk about how we are going to approach them. We want to be creative, so we are looking to include prezi's, youtube clips, photographs and many more things.

Finalised music video with credits

This is our finalised version, as our previous one didn't have credits and the credits are a vital part of a music video.

Photoshop

I chose to use photoshop to create my magazine advert as I wanted to make the image slightly opaque, and do several different things you can't do on paint.

Magazine advert research

Delilah

What particularly stood out to me when I first saw this magazine advert was the fact the artist Delilah is the only part in colour. This highlights the fact she is the artist, and making her the focal point of the advert. What also emphasises Delilah is the triangle outlining her. A message behind the advert could be that Delilah is in another world with her music as her eye are closed and by the looks of it she has no clothes on which could mean she is free and in another world. The ratings are clear and they stand out as they are in white against a grey background. The words "The album out now" are centralised, clear and directly underneath Delilah so are easy to read. The fact that the advert is so simplistic, the targert audience being teenagers and young adults are more likely to read it as it's straight forward and is not time consuming to read. The advert could have connotations of her love for music.

Chase And Status

This magazine advert is very similar to their digipak, I think this is a good idea as it keeps your band brand consistent and people will recognize the image. The font is big and yellow, this automatically draws the audience to read it. Having the bulldog on the front is great as the band aren't revealed to you, and you can interpret the bulldog however you like. It is a common convention for magazine adverts to mention tours. It mentions the name of the tour, and where you can purchase tickets. This advert is very different to Delilahs as there is a lot more information to read. It could be seen as a bad thing to have a lot of text on a magazine advert as people may not be bothered to read it all. However, it could also be seen as good as it's informative and people like to know specific details. I think the target audience is young British teens, and the advert is effective to draw this audience in as their is a British bulldog on the front, and the font is clear to read. The advert could portray the emotion of loneliness as the bulldog is by itself, isolated from the rest of the world.

The XX

This advert was created by a past pupil, and I found it very inspiring. The grotty, urban isolated area relates to our video as we included places such as alleyways, rooftops and forests. The lack of people present could insinuate that the theme is loneliness. This advert also doesn't show the band, this creates a sense of mystery and the urge of wanting to know what they look like, so may push the audience to watch their music videos. I think the target audience is teenagers as the advert has grafitti on the wall, and this is linked to young people. I like this advert as it's simple and easy to read as their is minimal writing. It mentions key information such a when the album is out and where to purchase it. This is effective for the target audience as that is probably the only thing that they want to know. I also like the idea of ratings as this can push sales as people will realise it's a good album if there are 5 stars. The grafitti makes us think that the area is bad, and this is based on our natural attitudes and beliefs.

Our twitter account

We have created a Twitter account for our artist to promote their new album. We thought this was a great way to engage with fans, and keep them up to date with new music, new videos, tours etc. Below are a few screenshots of their twitter account:

 

Music video questionnaire

Person 1
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I liked the lip syncing and how in sync it was. I also loved the way the character's eyes changed."

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"A bit of both."

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"I would say that there is as I could understand the connection between the two."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"I would definitely watch it more than once. I loved the effects."

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"Kind of, it is a little bit different and unique though."

6. What could we improve on?
"In my opinion, I like it the way it is."

Person 2
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I would say the bit that stands out the most is the candles...I loved that!"

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"Quite easy to understand."

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"I think the link between the video and the lyrics is really there and understandable."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"I think I would definitely watch it again because there are so many different locations which makes it interesting to the eye."

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"I do think it fits the genre especially with the mix of tones and lights!"

6. What could we improve on?
"The only thing I would say is there was one bit where you were running through the forest that was in bright colours which I thought would have been more effective in a darker light. Also, more candles could have been used as I liked those bits."

Person 3
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I liked the candles in the form of a heart at the beginning, the change of eyes and the burning photo."

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"You can tell that you were a couple and that you had broken up. It was clear that you were messed up in the head afterwards as well."

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"You looked like you wanted to kill someone when it says 'going in for the kill' and the 'now let go of my hand' when your hands slipped away."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"I thought it was really clever and interesting to watch."

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"I personally think so."

6. What could we improve on?
"The part where she pushes her boyfriend seems a little fake."

Person 4
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I like the bit in the lift, the reverse shot of the cars and the bit with the trees at 1:50, they're quite fun and interesting."

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"I think it's easy to understand. It is definitely about a boy and girl falling in love and portraying the ups and downs of their relationship."

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"Yeah, I think the bit with the photo burning is good because the lyrics are talking about fire/desire. The bit with the woods is good because she's singing about being left out for too long."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"Yes, I've watched it a few times now, it has some interesting shots and it's nice to see a music video with some correlation to the lyrics of the song, not all of them do nowadays!"

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"I think the bits with the flashing colours are good for dubstep because they fit with the music which is quite vibrant and fast paced at points."

6. What could we improve on?
"I didn't really understand the bits with the candles?"

Person 5
1. What part/s of the music video stood out for you the most?
"I really like the first part where it's in slow motion when she hugs her boyfriend at 7 seconds."

2. Is this music video easy to understand or a challenge?
"No, it was pretty easy to understand, well I hope I understand it because what I think it means is pretty cool!"

3. In your opinion, is there a link between the lyrics and our narrative?
"I can definitely see that there is a link."

4. Does the music video appeal to you enough for you to watch it more than once? Why?
"Yes, I watched it a few times actually! I really like it."

5.Would you say this is a typical music video for our genre? (Dubstep/Electronic)
"Yeah, it's very straight the point and edgy so it goes with the music genre."
6. What could we improve on?
"I have no criticisms, I really enjoyed it."

Final Digipak

Front and back cover



Left and right inside



This is my finalised digipak, and I'm thrilled with the outcome! I screenshot parts of our music video and inserted them into paint to create it. I wanted my digipak to reflect our music video; dark, scary and unusual. I like the fact it's simplistic, and easy read as this will draw our audience in. I like the negative effect used in the inside of my digipak as this looks unusual, and I wanted to make my digipak stand out from the ones already in shops. I wanted to make the track list almost seem like it's written on the fence. I thought it was essential to have the artist on the front of the digipak so the audience can see who the artist actually is.

Music video

First draft

This is the first draft of our music video, yesterday we thought we had finished, however we feel we may need to tweak a few things.

Finally finished!

Me and Alyce have finally finished editing our music video and we are thrilled with the outcome! After months of blood, sweat and tears we are over the moon that we have finished and that our video looks appealing. We included various angles such as canted angles, low angles and close ups. We had a great beat to edit to; this enabled us to make our video choppy. I like how we challenged the conventions of a typical break up video, and added a scary element.

We only have a minute left

With only 4 days to go until the deadline for our music videos, we only have 1 minute left to go until we're finished! This morning we've added shots of Alyce in the forest, it looks really effective as the miss-en-scene is dark and spooky, portraying her state of mind.

Our opening

Chase & Status - Time ft Delilah

I was on Youtube earlier today and saw this video in the suggestions. It reminded me what a great video it is, so I thought I'd post it. The message behind the video is so powerful, and it really touched me. This effect can make the audience want to watch the video again, and spread the message and tell others to watch it. The video touches upon a sensitive subject, so some of the audience may feel traumatised by it.

We nearly have a minute of our video!

Me and Alyce nearly have a minute of our music video, another 2 minutes to go! The editing is going smoothly, and we have added new ideas towards it.

The start of our editing

We have started editing our music video, so far we have 30 seconds.

The opening of our music video

After weeks of contemplating what our opening should be, me and Alyce have finally decided. We are going to have stop motion tea light candles forming a heart. In the middle of the video, the candles will re-appear, however in the form of half a heart to show the broken relationship. At the end of the video, the candles will form a whole heart again to show the couple reuniting.

Digipak research

Chase And Status

I am particularly drawn to the yellow font contrasted against the black background. As the colour yellow is very bright, it draws your eyes to the track list encouraging you to read it. The English bulldog is a good symbol to represent the band, as they are English and there music is quite edgy and fast - similar to a bulldog. Having the bulldog on the front of the digipak is great as the band aren't revealed to you, and to see them you have to explore the digipak. I really like the idea of the artist not being revealed on the front, and I may use this idea whilst making my own digipak.

Nero

I like Neros idea for an out of space digipak. On the front cover, it looks as if there are 2 people in the middle of the galaxy, this could suggest freedom, and the feeling of being in another planet whilst listening to their music. The recognised band brand is on the front of the digipak, and it will be easily purchased by fans as they are familiar with the bands font. The CD itself is very simple, and yet again has the band brands famous font.

SBTRKT

I like the simplicity of SBTRKT's digipak and how the mask is the main focus within it. The mask stands out due to the bright colours used. It looks like there is another image in the mask, it looks as if it is a yellow hooded man. This image within an image seems abstract and it could mean there are 2 sides to the band. The track list is simple and clear to read which is an advantage as the consumers will be able to read it easily.

Cutting down our song

Me and Alyce decided to cut the length of our song as it was originally 4 minutes long. We used Garageband on the mac to cut the song down to 3 minutes. We felt that 4 minutes may be too long, and the video may drag therefore we cut it down to 3 minutes aa we thought this was an appropriate length.

Media questionnaire vlog

Email to the seller concerning our missing contacts

Me and Alyce ordered 2 more pairs of contacts for our music video as I mentioned in my previous post. I emailed the seller asking them why they haven't been delivered, and they replied and said we will get a full refund, therefore we need to order from another seller. We are going to order them as soon as possible so we can carry on filming. However, me and Alyce had a discussion and we think it'll be best to only order 1 more pair as we feel we have enough footage of her. We need more insert shots of random things e.g the sky, candles, the burning picture etc.

Waiting on our last pair of contacts

Me and Alyce are nearly finished filming our music video, however we cannot finalise our video without the contacts. We ordered them 3 weeks ago and they still haven't arrived. I've contacted the seller, and hopefully they should be in contact with us ASAP. Once they arrive we will finalise our filming and start editing straight away.

Back from Christmas

Over the Christmas half term, I went away to Las Vegas and L.A and haven't been able to blog, but I'm back now and on a roll :D! I had an amazing time, and visited many iconic places. One place I visited that stuck out to me was Universal Studios. I gained great knowledge of the history of Universals produce. On the Universal Studio Tour, we saw the set for the American series "Desperate Housewives", the original motel in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", the tank where they film under water scenes in films and many more great things!