Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I used a variety of technologies in my construction and research, planning and evaluation stages.

Blogger
I used blogger to create a blog that shows how I have advanced my research and planning over time to being able to finally use what I have learnt and produce my music video. Blogger is useful because it allows you to show progression from the start of the course up until the final product. Blogger is also useful because it allows me to use different fonts, colour and sizes for text, although I didn't use these in my posts. Being able to use pictures and videos in blogger allows me to show evidence of my research and planning and having the blogger app allowed me to update my blog when i though of something. I found blogger very easy to use, however, the only disadvantage is you can’t copy and paste pictures. 

Adobe Photoshop
I used Photoshop to edit images for our digipak and magazine poster. Using Photoshop helped with the development of our digipak with the front cover, inside covers and back cover. I experimented with many different tools within Photoshop and many different images to come up with the final finished piece, this would stand out and relate to my video in terms of the similar conventions in style that I have used. Photoshop allows people with the knowledge of the conventions of their chosen product to make an industry standard piece of professional work.
Within Photoshop I used many different tools, for example inserting a shadow effect onto all of the photos and also adding a blue overlay to make the environment look colder in my digipak. I also increased the brightness and contrast of the images (as it was hard to see when i printed it at home), this didnt effect the shadow or the blue overlay it just made it more visible.
On the advert I used the opaque tool to create a collage of the band members, this was done because in the video I used a dissolving effect to overlay the transition between shots.
In the image below it shows how I added the shadow and blue overlay and also how i changed the opacity levels. In the advert Freddy is the main person and then James is in his body and Rory is in the hat.

Premiere Pro

Premiere pro allowed me to edit my music video in detail. I didn't use a wide range of the effects and tools available on Premiere because I wanted it to be simple to promote the performers pain at loosing someone, and so less is more in my case.  That said i did use a small range of different tools and effects. My main one being the dissolve tool between shots. I really liked using this tool at the start of the video and linking it with the opacity tool made the effect that I was looking for. 

Filming

I used HD HVC cameras and my iPhone to film my music video, this was because we had been filming all day in a field and the battery on the camera ran out, so I thought I would make a creative decision and film the last few shots on my phone and if they looked bad wait until another day to film it, but they looked good so I used them. 

Along with the cameras I used a tripod which allowed me to create a more steady and still type of shot, the tripod came in handy when I did the opening establishing shot of the location. Also I used a technique that I learned whilst working for a TV company which was to zoom and then pull the camera up and it looks really good. I was only able to do this because of the tripod. 

To take the photos for my Digital and Advert i used my own Nikon coolpix L23 14 megapixel camera. I found this technology extremely useful and made the process of editing so easy as the picture quality was good. 

Question 2

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

What I will talk about:

Digipak:

·         Does it fulfil its purpose?

·         Is it appropriate for your target audience?

·         How does it combine with the music video?

·         How does it combine with the advert?

Advert:

·         Does it fulfil its purpose?

·         Is it appropriate for your target audience?

·          How does it combine with the Digipak?

Digipak

Does it fulfil its purpose?

My digipak uses the typical conventions of existing digipaks. Before I created my digipak I researched many different digipaks from the same genre of my song. I found out that all of the digipaks in the indie rock genre includes the artist on the front cover, the artist name (which for most of them is bigger than the picture of the artist), track list, spine and additional photos of the band. I have included all the essential information into my digipak and so I feel that it fulfils its purpose.

Is it appropriate for your target audience?

I think my digipak is appropriate for my target audience because I aim my audience at the young generation who are about 15-25. It is specifically aimed at young males who have lost someone close to them as that is what the video is about, but can also be for females. I made the digipak very translucent (adding blue overlays to make it seem colder) this is because it represents the song. I also used the band members on the front so fans of the band will recognise them and want to get it. A more obvious look at my digipak shows that it is a group of attractive males so there could be a female audience that like the digipak because they think the members are ‘hot’. Overall I think my digipak is appropriate for my target audience.

How does it combine with the music video?

My music video is based on the band performing the song ‘Colder’. My digipak combines well with this because both the settings are the same for the video and the digipak. I have also linked the two together by having the name of the track as the name of the digipak and also having the lyrics for ‘Colder’ in the digipak. I feel that the digipak combines well with the video.

Advert:

Does it fulfil its purpose?

I think my advert does fulfil its purpose because it consists of all the important features which includes the artists name, album name, when the album is released and the artists hashtag and facebook page. The advert is to promote the album and urge people to want to buy it. I think I have done this successfully with my advert as I researched different existing music magazines adverts and included all the features I stated above.

Is it appropriate for your target audience?

Similar to my digipak, my advert is aimed at young people aged between 15-25. My advert has a blurred image of all the band on it and so people who have seen the music video will understand the technique that I used in making my video. If the liked the video and then see the advert it may then make them want to buy the album. Overall I think my advert is appropriate for my target audience as it is promoting the artist, the video and the album.

 How does it combine with the digipak?

The digipak combines well with the advert because I used the same tools on photoshop to create them (blue overlay). I also used the front of the digipak in my advert. Also as they are both shot in the same location it indicates that the same message is being explained in both products and that if you have seen the advert you will know what to look for. This means that using the same theme would increase peoples memory of the album.

What would I change?

In all, I am happy with the outcome of my ancillary tasks. I really enjoyed creating my advert and digipak and I am proud of what I achieved. Even though they look realistic and professional I would say the only thing I would change would be to be more adventurous in the photos that I took because I think they are all a bit the same.  But in all I am happy with what I accomplished 

Evaluation Question 1

Kieran's Question 1

My finished music video

http://youtu.be/_mFfACPGqS0

Finished Advertisement

Finished Digipak

Research into magazine adverts

As I have to design an advert for my digipak, I have decided to do some research into key conventions of an album's/ single's advert in a magazine.

In the FUN advert they use big bold black colours to emphasize the the band and album name. Also by using yellow as a back ground colour in put even more emphasize on the words and makes the whole advertisement stand out.
Having the reviews at the top of the ad shows consumers how good the album is.
The use of the band members at the bottom of the advertisement could make some of their audience relate to them and by having one of the members holding the album it tells them what to look for.
Although I think that this is a good advertisement, I don't think that it is right for my advert because it is too bright and colourful. This will not appeal to my audience and so I will have to use a different method of advertisement. 


These next three photos I feel will appeal to my audience.
The Script's advertisement for their album I feel works better for my audience. This is because it is more grown up and powerful. It is also eye catching but in a different way to the use of yellow in FUN's advert. The Script's is eye catching because it is different and makes people look more into the photo. The use of mashing the band into one image suggests unity and a sense of togetherness which I think my audience will want to see from their artists. Something which I don't think I will be able to replicate from this advertisement is the fact that the artists are bigger than the name and the album name. This because my band are new and so their faces are not as well known as the likes of  Danny O'donoghue (lead singer of The Script) so this means that to sell the album I have to show of the band name and album name.

As the song is called colder, the way that I am going to interpret the way The Script's advertisement works is to have the three band members blow air to create the effect in the photo on the right. As they are all going to be taken from the same place and of the same part of the face, I can overlap the photos so that it gives the effect of the photo on the left. This also means that there is the sense of unity that The Script have and it relates to the song. All these things I feel will appeal to my audience and make them want to buy the album.