Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

 The Internet was extremely helpful in all areas of this project, from doing research, making my music video, and creating my digipak and my advert. I was able to access different websites such as Polypore (www.polyvore.co.uk) where I created ideal outfits which my audience members may wear, similar to my band members. Another website is DaFonts (www.dafonts.com) where I was able to find a font to fit my genre from a variety of different types. Most importantly Blogger, where I was able to track my progress and keep up to date of what work I did. I was able to post all my ideas and changes, which was very helpful. I posted different tasks, which were set such as finding out about Goodwin’s theory, which helped later on as I was able to look back at what conventions were found within a music video. I also was able to include timetables of when I needed to film and what I needed to film. Blog as a whole has proven very effective in keeping up to date with work and it made it easier to make my music video.

Another media technology that was helpful in making my music video a success was Final Cut Express, where all of my music video was edited. Final Cut Express was simple and easy to use. I already had an understanding of how to use it from previous years so it was not new to me which made the task slightly easier, however I was far more creative, looking at different effects such as kaleidoscope and glow. It was easy to make changes whenever I wanted too and I was able to show my audience so they could give feedback so I could edit more. This was far better than using something like iMovie as Final Cut Expression has far more options so I was able to be more imaginative and creative.

Using the equipment for filming was another challenge. I had had practice with using a camera before so I was quite familiar with how to use it and how to film different shots and angles. I did has a minor problem to begin with however the footage that did not work was not needed in the end.

The last significant media technology that I am now familiar with is Photoshop. At first I found it quite tricky but once I got the hang of it I found editing my images and creating an advert, which was my very own very enjoyable. You have no limits on Photoshop which I loved as I was able to be as creative as I wanted. Although I was not able to get any original pictures and had to use still images from my music video, Photoshop made it possible for me to make it look just as professional as if I had taken pictures because of the different effects, opacity levels, and various other factors which added that made my ancillary projects a success.

Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

After watching my first draft of my music video, the feedback that I got was mainly positive however my audience suggested I created some visual metaphors, to do this I used alcohol and drug equipment such as syringes and powders to represent drug culture to match the name of my music video. I also attempted to use smoke for the end of my music video, which turned out to be successful. I also got advised to add in more effects, which is when I discovered kaleidoscope and ended up using it throughout the whole my video and ancillary products as it made my video stand out and look less bland.

My audience also suggested that I make my cuts shorter and quicker as the video is fast paced. I also decided that the video needed to match the music beats.

I created a small focus group who I got to analyse my video and suggest some pro’s and con’s of my music video and these were the results:

Pros	Cons
The idea of a cigarette burning Itunes and Amazon was good as it goes against the mainstream audience, it also keeps with the theme of smoke throughout the video, advert and digipak They also suggested the cigarette stumping out Amazon and Itunes could suggest the band are promoting the idea of live music and ‘gigging’.	The colour of the font did not stand out on the advert
Fast pace editing was good as it matched the song	The video could have been cut better to match certain beats
All the products matched well	At times the lip syncing was slightly off
The rebellious image is very clear and enticing for a teen audience	The band and all its products could be seen to promote drugs and alcohol
The use of visual effects clearly presented the bands state of mind and a psychological element.	Perhaps could have used scenes of the band playing at a gig as this seems to be what their image is all about but it is not explicitly shown.

Cigarette being stamped out on Itunes and Amazon, giving the idea that the band go against mainstream lifestyles and prefer their music to be listened to live.

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Themes and Ideas of my brand image carried from music video include:

- The theme of rebellion is clearly embraced through stumped out cigarettes on my tray- they are burnt out just like the band who often go wild on nights out. This is also shown in my advert where you also see a smokey background.

- The idea of underclass/working class rockers is evident through the use of the bricked wall- this symbolises they have no where to go and hang out, like many unemployed youths, on the streets- getting into all sorts of trouble. The graffiti style writing on my advert adds to this idea as young people are stereotyped as being trouble makers.

- The idea of the band being about the live music is made clear through the use of the cigarette being put out over amazon and iTunes which gives off the idea that they are against a mainstream audience and they are in it for the music not the fame.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Convention	Used/ Challenged/ Developed	Evidence
Bold but dark colours are typical of an indie rock band Instruments are usually shown on an indie-rock digipak The band is also featured on the front of a digipak	Used/challenged- On my advert and my digipak I did use some bold, dark colours however it was quite bright which is different for an indie rock music video Used- you can see a couple of guitars on my digipak Challenged- Although I have my band members on the front of my digipak it is not a shot of them all together as I wanted it to look unique and busy
There are usually random images, pictures of the band on an indie rock digipak Picture of the band Flamboyant colours	Developed- I did use a couple of images of the band, however I wanted to focus more on the meaning of the music so I had a lot more focus around smoke and drugs Used- there are obvious images of the band so the audience get to know the members Used- over the top colours such as blue and red are used together, clashing to represent their crazy lifestyles

Justifications of my advert

This is a screen shot of my final draft of my advert. First of all I decided on the font and position of my bands name to be at the top and in an immature font. I feel for the advert to be successful it needed to be at the top as it would be the first thing the target audience would look at. Underneath I had the name of the album 'Particle Dreams' with a review from NME. I chose NME to be the magazine review as NME matches the genre of my music video. For my main image I decided to use an image of each band member and tried to do my own version of Blur's album for Parklife, I did originally have four images, two of each band member however I felt it looked better this way and it would have been confusing with two pictures of each person. I decided to make the font for the stars and "Out March 15th 2013" a different colour from the rest of the text as I wanted it to especially stand out as it is important information and also is a lot smaller than the other font. The background I used was again copied from  TV show called Breaking Bad, however I put my own spin on it, making the smoke blue instead of green and a lot more bold. I used a cigarette in the advert in the bottom right corner just to keep in line with the re-occuring theme of cigarettes and alcohol. Last of all, I decided to have two images of my digipak at the top of the advert, One of the front and one of the inside. I decided this would work better than just the front of the digipak so the audience can see what to expect, it makes my advert far more visually appealing because it balances out the sides of my advert.

Ideas for advert

This is the sort of font I would like to use for my advert for the titles. I found this font on Da Font, which is a website with a wide variety of different fonts to use.




I want to use a smokey background to stick with the theme of my music video, which is a rock and roll lifestyle. I want the colour of the background to be a purple/blue colour so I can have brighter coloured text over the top for it to stand out.

I would definitely like to use cigarettes somewhere within the advert so a theme of drugs and alcohol is obvious. Also this matches the digipak where I used an ashtray filled with cigarettes as the CD template.

I decided on amazon to be where my music is sold as it is growing very popular and people would recognize it straight away.

Advert annotation

This is Two Door Cinema Clubs magazine advert, I chose this one as it is a similar genre to mine and it has conventions that I would like to use, such as bold, bright text and darker colours to make images stand out

Collage of adverts

I decided on these particular adverts as some are a similar genre so I used some of the same conventions, such as the dark, 'grungy' colours, I also used some adverts which clash with the genre of my music video, such as Rihanna, however I like the use of bright colours so I wanted to incorporate that into mine.

Different stages of creating my advert

these are the different stages I went through while creating my music video. It was trial and error with different fonts but I decided to use one called 'childs play' to give a laid back feel to the advert to match the band. I also wanted vibrant colours that clashed slightly to make sure the audience focused on particular parks such as the quote from the magazine 'NME' and when the music was out.

Conventions of a magazine advert

Album adverts are used to promote the album. They feature the basic information on the band, including the name, album name, release date and where it can be purchased.


Adverts are usually found in magazines, newspapers, billboards, internet and even buses etc. The advert would also feature a picture of the band, or a symbol that represents the band.


On some adverts you may also find the ratings of the album, a mini picture of the album so the target audience knows what they are looking for, who the record label is and any awards they may have won for it. All of these conventions come together to entice an audience to buy the album.

Digipak reflection

After many inconveniences and problems I have finally finished my digipak. Although I was not able to take any pictures with the band I was able to compromise and take still images from my video for my front cover. One of the images are not from my music video but I thought it would look effective if I had more than just two images of the boys and that particular image fitted nicely.
I chose Blue as the font colour of my title as it stood out over the red. Also I wanted to make sure the genre was obvious of my band so I made sure the images that I used included their instruments. Overall even though this was not what I had planned I still am confident about it.


My inner tray was inspired by The Arctic Monkeys digipak as I think it matched my genre so I thought I would do my own interpretation. I wanted to use it in black and white to make it look more stylish and attract a 'rock n roll' audience. I wanted to keep it simple as all my other faces are very bold and eccentric.

My next face was the lyric booklet. I struggled with this one the most as my original images of eyes were too blurry and did not look too good once I had finished editing. At this point I decided to scrap my images and use an eye off of the internet as I felt it would work better. I used a kaleidoscope effect on the inside of the eye as I wanted to have all the faces linked together in some way and also with the music video.

The back cover for my digipak was quite straight forward. I tried out many different effects before deciding to use a spiralled background in black, red and white. I decided on using spotify as it is an upcoming music streamer where you would be able to listen to all sorts of music and it is good for promoting bands.

Digipak

I have had a lot of problems in making my digipak as my band members would not meet to take pictures so I have had to improvise. I have had to use some images that were not mine as pictures that I took of an eye were too blurry so I thought it would be best to use an image which would look more professional off of google. I also had to get still images from my music video for my front cover.

Gender representation

For the last two lessons as a class we have looked at gender representation and stereotypes in music videos and then have applied the 5 micro elements to our own music videos. The 5 micro elements are:

1) the use of the body

2)Facial expression

3) Mise-en-scene
4) The gaze

5) How the camera frames the body

I found my music video showed the boys in the video as active, as they are throwing themselves around    

showing their crazy lifestyles and eccentric personalities. However they are also passive because of the activities they have taken part in which the audience can get idea of just from their imagination.

Facial expressions include worn out, tired faces because of them sobering up, coming off of any form of drug they may have taken.

Mise-en-scene in the video is a colourful bedroom, this is the only time any hetrasexual behavior is shown when you see the naked curvy cartoon which can also show their creative side. They are very alternative and do not follow the crowd as you can see from their 'out there' outfits such as colourful jumpers and suits. 

The gaze in my music video is always focused around alcohol and drugs, which goes against the male stereotype of focusing on women.

From Point Of View shots again you can see their crazy drug life and alcohol consuming lifestyles. Close ups show the focus on the boys face making him look addicted.

Photoshop digipak ideas

This is an idea I have had for my digipak backcover. I would like to use this for where my other song titles will be .

Digipak researching ideas

I have been struggling to get hold of my band to take some photos for my digipak so I have been coming up with as many ideas as I can for each of the faces of my digipak. My ideas include the kaleidoscope effects which I may edit to use within an eye.

 I also looked at the opening sequence to the Brady Bunch TV show which I think would be good to use with different pictures of both the band members faces with different facial expression and different coloured backgrounds

Digipak rough ideas

These are rough ideas of what I would like my digipak to look like. I am going to stick to using bold colours, such as black and red, but also grey for a smokey effect. 

Inspirations in my music video

When I was making finishing touches on my music video I felt that something was missing. I decided the video should end on something that would keep in the audiences mind afterwards, so after coming up with a couple of ideas I decided to try and do something with smoke, which lead me to the idea of using the Breaking Bad opening credits page. This TV opening is one I always remember so I wanted to create the same for my music video

Digipak Brand Identity brainstorm

Recently my whole class watched one anothers music videos and brainstormed ideas for each others brand image, I found this a helpful task because my video was aimed at teenagers so the feedback will come into play a fair amount. The ideas were very eccentric which is exactly what the band aspires to be, some of the ideas include looking scruffy, using the colours red, grey and black and the use of leather for outfits and the Rock 'n' Roll genre

Digipak band research

Here are a series of bands I have recently
looked at,I did research on their digipaks looking at their brand identity and making a decision on which I would like to focus on. The bands I looked at were Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Bloc Party and The Strokes.  After looking at each digipak I have decided to look at the Arctic Monkey’s digipak as I think their digipak is similar to what I would like mine to look like. The Arctic Monkeys are a British indie rock band, similar to my band.

On the front cover of the digipak there is an image of a group of boys, I’m slightly unsure of whether the image is of the band or just a random group of friends as the band are not vain and are more about their music, the image also reflects the target audience who are teenagers, also the image not being of the band is interesting so it would easily grab the audiences attention. The bands name is also on the front cover, however it is slightly modest in the size of it. However it does stand out as the font is black so at the same time it’s very bold.

The back cover on the other hand has the bands name in the centre in a redish colour, the stands out and looks very effective. They have a plain track list just underneath the bands title and also the album name ‘humbug’ written simply above the band name. The back is plain and simple but still leaves a big impact on the target audience. 

On the inside of the digipak there is a large image of two people on a hill playing around, again this is a random image which leaves an impact as it is different and promotes the bands brand identity as wanting to be known for their music not their faces. On the left side of the pack there are four small images of each of the boys from the front cover, the audience will gain a slight relationship with the image as they would understand the idea better.

Also on the inside their is quite eccentric, creative art work, which reminds me of the kaleidoscope effect I used in my music video, the colours are quite vibrant and are shown over a black background.

 I also got an example from another one of their albums which has an old/vintage looking image of a young man on the front, possibly them when they were younger or even maybe one of their dads, the image is very 90’s which was a rock and roll period matching the bands brand identity.

On the side where the CD would fit there is an image of an ash tray which I have been totally inspired by and hope to use something similar. 

The colours throughout are quite dull and vintage looking, the use of reds, whites, greys and black create a vintage feel which is the look I want to go for in mine.