Farewell Post

Goodbye from all of us :(, Sayonora and Arigatou Gou-shaimastte 

Evaluation question 4 - Etienne

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

During the production stages of our media products our main equipment was the Canon EOS 650 camera which was used in things like our video making and taking photos for our print products e.g leaflets, covers, posters.

It's use was essential to our group as without it we wouldn't have been able to get the high quality and noise-free recordings, and the functionality is better comparable to something like a handheld camera. Using the camera puts us in a more creative position and puts us in the role of the director and the cinematogropher, as it allows us to choose how we want to frame a shot entirely. We could experiment with our shots and choose creative ways to film e.g wall mounted and pov shots.

We already have a years worth of experience from watching youtube videos and learning how to use the camera through the AS preliminary work we did last year. Furthermore it's very customisable which could possibly be a downside to people that are new to DSLRS however its user friendly to people which have experience with DSLRS already. It's low battery life and fragility meant we had to be careful when we were handling it in order to not break it. Initially, when filming our first take for the musical performances our battery ended up dying as a result we had to return to later get all the takes we needed. On our next recording we had two back up batteries in order not to slow down our progress.

Blogger

An essential part of our research is the website blogger. It's an online social media platform that allows users to post images, text and videos. The functions it included was essential to my group as we used it to get things like case-studies and also to have a convergence point where we could re-direct our audiences to things like youtube and social media websites. Our advantage with blogger is that we had one years worth of experience using it from our As coursework which meant it's familiarity made it easier to get the blog exactly how we wanted it with our decorations and our embeddings. It has a learning curve but it is not steep enough to deter new users but rather encourages them to look for more creative designs and posting methods for example we used another embedded link from a different website to get slideshows on our blog. A disadvantage of Blogger was the fact that glitches sometimes meant our work often got deleted by accident or not posted at all.

Prezi

Prezi is a website that my group used for our 3 music video research including contemporary, controversial and seminal videos. It doesn't include any paid firewalls unlike Microsoft power point which meant my whole group could use it. Furthermore it was easy to embed it into my blog whenever I wanted but sometimes the links didn't work and required me to goto the website to open them up which is a massive detriment as its ease of access was meant to be the main selling. We used it to create our posters by importing the pictures, colour correcting, then putting fonts over it. We then exported to photoshop to make fine edits.

Imacs

The iMacs were also an essential part of our groups equipment as without it a-lot of the software wouldn't be accessible to us. It's quick and easy to navigate  UI allowed us to work diligently and be able to have our work laid out in a clear unobtrusive way. We have been used to them since last year and also some of us have them at home meaning we are able to work on our projects in more than one setting. The biggest disadvantage is that most of us were used to windows based OS so the mac OS was very new to us initially and we had to re-learn things like key commands.

Adobe photoshop

Adobe photoshop was a key part in our digi-pack production phase. It's a photo editing software and It has a very steep learning curve meaning those who aren't used to it would've struggled. We had to google youtube tutorials in order to understand what we were doing, and often the software was very unforgiving as it does exactly what you want it to and if you didn't know what you were doing you often ruined your own work. Which for those adept at it would be better accustomed to, but beginners would often be frustrated with it. After spending a few months with the software we gained insight by google tutorials and spending time after class to develop our work.

Canva

 The website canva was used in conjunction with photoshop as it came with a number of preloaded fonts and styles which we used heavily to plan our digipacks then imported unto photoshop to make final edits. It's mostly free however some of the premium styles cost a-lot and were usually better. It's an essential part of our production phase, as our print products included fonts from the website.

Final cut pro 

 Final cut pro was another essential part of our software use. It's a video editing software which includes editing and pre-made transitions. It was very user friendly and came loaded with many diegetic sounds which made it easier to work with. It's drag and drop feature is very beginner friendly and mostly all we used. We have had a long amount of experience with it since our As preliminary phase, were we learnt about things like cuts and edit to make our videos seem more proffesional. We sometimes ended up accidentally deleting all our work but usually we came back with a better video in the end. We used it when cutting together many of the scenes and it has a feature where we can upload it straight to youtube. but a disadvantage is the massive lag that occurs which could be workable if the software allowed mp3 bouncing however it doesn't.

Soundcloud

 Soundcloud is an audio sharing platform, we used the website to share  audio files from audience feed back and also to upload evaluations. It also had private and embeddable links which we used heavily on our blogs.

Evaluation question 3 - Etienne

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From showing our 3 products to our audience, we have received mostly positive and negative feedback but capitalised on the negatives to turn them into positives by adapting our final products to fit better.



MUSIC VIDEO:

From showing our audience our initial music video, we found out that they all followed our preferred reading. Our preferred reading was that the main character is a drug addict and uses the drugs as a form of escapism. His hallucinations are a physical manifestation of the things he's running away from and they always catch up him when he runs away but confronting the issues with violence causes them to return.


We also learnt from the audience that to them, the performance shots of the artist was very energetic and upbeat and so some of the audience suggested how the music video as a whole was like a representation of different sides of youth. How there are the positive and negative sides of colours young people our age usually experience. The performance would represent the positive and joyful side of youth since the music video, the artist is shown to be using the instruments as an escapism and becoming passionate enough to learn multiple and play them at once. Whilst the actor succumbs to his demons and lets them chase him.


Additionally received feedback that the music and visuals were working very well. Our audience agreed that the timing of the cuts between choruses and verses was well done and accurate whilst the lip sync was convincing enough.
in conclusion the audience had similar readings to us and even expanded on them more throughly. In the draft stages we had various different shots that didn't make sense so we had to re-record to make a better video and more linear and clear story line which is probably the most essential pat of the video.

MAGAZINE ADVERT:

Initially we had 4 different fonts and made a tally of ones audiences preferred then we made the poster with that in mind.
Our first attempt at our advert was met with many negative reviews and feedback as it didn't look at all professional. The audience recommended we redo it by putting the main character at the forefront and make the advert look more appealing, In our final magazine advert our audience really liked how well structured and eye-catching it was


We used the technique of using the contrasts to make things stand out individually with the black background and white text which audiences thought of as eye-catching, clear and had appealing aesthetic.






However we received some oppositional readings from the audience as well which was mostly concerned with the titles and the image which is linked with it. Some of the audience had question if the actor's moniker was "Spur" and thought that this was the actors album. They felt that the main image should have been an image of the artist instead of the actor since it was really the singer who's the artist and that the singer should be the main focus. It was understandable that the audience would read our magazine advert like this since most real magazine adverts would have the name of the artist with the artist as well as the main image but our magazine advert didn't conform to that. However most ended up preferring the actor as the main focus as it sets the tone for the album and reminds them of the video.




Overall I think it was the most important feedback and I've learnt that the magazine advert as well as the digipack should usually focus more on the artist rather than the actor since most real magazine adverts would do that and it wouldn't cause any oppositional readings. However most audiences know that there isn't a link to the actor and the artist as most indie bands around our area use pictures of different people for their covers so our generation is used to it.



DIGIPAK:





For our digipack the audience loved the dark and visceral colours mostly associated with destruction and anger as it fit very well into the theme of the music video. They also liked how it all fit together with the CD and the poster, yet they criticised the image of the actor on the front cover as most bands usually put the artist so they said it could be confusing however they agreed that overall the actor did have a more synergistic link. Initially our audience didn't like the original digipack, it looked amateurish and didn't fit at all with the themes of the other products. We used their feedback and managed to transform the digipack into something much more use able.

Evaluation question 2 - Etienne

How effective is your combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our Media Products:
1) Music Video
2)Magazine Advert
3)Digipak

Our group was moderately successful when creating a synergistic link between all of our products. Initial prototypes were heavily reliant on audience feedback to get them to the standard that they currently are which meant having to re-create entire shots for it. we made sure to get a similar font and style and also use axels face as the synergistic link between the media products and the music video.
when we started making the posters people disliked our first draft as the font was too different and felt like it didnt have a synergistic link so we had to change it.

The photo show a mid shot of the protagonist in the music video doing a straight faced look to the camera with red and blue highlights on his face. The photo isnt a still from the video but the audiences would see his face and make the connection between the video and the products.

The text was also the same through out the entire product range to give it that recognisable and eye catching look that many bands have just from seeing the font.

Much like jessie J's album cover. This was the basis for our design as we use the actor as the biggest emphasis and the writing contrasted to a black background.

Most bands use the main musicians as thier main selling point however we decided against this as our actor was the most recognisable synergestic link. Much like Vampire Weekend's album cover which doesn't include the band.

real examples:

The killers used the same image for thier vinyls and adverts so its very clear to see that its thier band and gives them a wider audience as its eye-catching due to the contrasting colours of pink and blue. 

Evaluation question 1 - Etienne

Music Video: The track that we have chosen to use for our music video is called "Fire" by Spur. The genre of the song is alternative rock. "Alternative rock is a style of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s  Washington DC and became widely popular in the 1990s due to its diverse and more emotional lyricism".


Andrew Goodwin's features:
Conventions of rock genres

• live instruments

• lip syncing 

• set in studios 

• close ups

• liberal lifestyles

Our music video also has a narrative as well which allows us to have a simultaneous story to match the verses and also have the performance shots during the choruses. We decided on this option as the verses' wording was mostly ambiguous so it allowed us to tell a story that would be right in different ways depending on the interpretation. Furthermore the chorus was more upbeat so we used the shots to match the dynamics.










Having the set/playing in a studio is a very typical convention of an alternative rock band or even just a live performance. Below is an example from "blur" on the song "song 2".

Conventions of a Digipak:
1) The artist's name
2) An image/logo of the artist
3)A song list
4)An insert (Could perhaps be a booklet with info about the music, artist or a poster)

1) Demonstrates genre characteristics
Our video is easily identifiable in the rock genre as it has a quite stylistically unpolished look and shown with fast and rhythmic playing styles showing an element of aggression and freedom. it also has characteristics of a live performance with dynamics and follows the beat of the song.
Additionally, since there is a narrative in our music video, it's able to show how there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. We researched and discussed the meaning of the lyrics and we agreed how the lyrics was about someone having a strong love for something that too much of it can destroy the person themselves. We decided that protagonist would be a drug addict who takes drugs in order to make himself feel better. The drugs were used as a form of escapism however the person that kept following him was a personification of the trouble he was running away from yet he always run away from them instead of facing them head on. An example of how the lyrics and videos are linked is that part of the lyrics were "You could be the one to drown me out" which we implied meant that the person is totally in love with his own drugs that he wants the drugs to destroy himself. 

In Andrew Goodwin's theory on music videos, it suggested that a successful music video would contain these features. The features are:
Its very similar to Japandroids' near to the wild heart of life in that sense as its a rock band and has very similar conventions with a unpolished and gritty look.
Digipak:

2) A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals
3) A relationship between the music and the visuals
4) Close ups of the artist; used by the record label to market and advertise the artist
5) A reference to the notion of 'looking' or voyeuristic treatment of the female body 
6) Intertextual References (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.)

and also has scenes based off "reptillia" from the "strokes"

From looking at our cover you can clearly see the synergistic elements of the production. The colour palate of red and black to give it a more aggressive and edgier look. It both challenges and converges to typical conventions as it doesn't have the lead singer and instead the character from the narrative. However it converges to typical album covers as it has the band name is bold with the same font used on all digital media, the same colour scheme and track lists and barcodes.

Magazine AdvertConventions of a magazine advert:
- The artist's name
- An image of the artist
- The Album title
- reviews/ratings
- where to find the song

Similar to our digipack our magazine advert follows the colour scheme, font and has where to find the bands websites and the record label. its very similar to real  magazine adverts as it follows the same conventions. 

CONSTRUCTION: Digipak (Spine)

For the spine of the digipak, we decided to go for a simple and dark look. We chose to use a black background and we've included the band name and the album name.

CONSTRUCTION: Digipak (Back Cover)

For the back cover, we decided that it was going to include a song list for the album since most real digipaks also did this, we decided to do it too to not only to enhance the digipak's appearance of being a real product but also, it's to show our audience what songs there are. The song list includes the track we used for our music video but the rest of the tracks have been made up.
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For the background of the back cover, we decided to use an image of one of the guitars that were used. It isn't a still from the music video but instead we decided to take a close up photo since we felt that using a still too often wouldn't make the digipak look real. We also decided for the edges of the back cover, it would have a bit of darkness so it would give the digipak a dark appearance.
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We included a bar code as well since the digipak would have to be purchased and it follows one of the conventions of a real digipak.
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Details about the digipak are also included in a small font. Most real digipaks also included this.

A logo that we created is also included. It's for synergistic link purposes.

The final back cover look

CONSTRUCTION: Digipak (Inside Covers)

We decided that for the inside cover, we would use stills from the music video. This is so the audience, when they open the digipak, will be able to see the images and it will have a gist of what the music video is going to look like. 

We also decided to include a little lyric booklet that connects with the still above because from looking at some real digipak examples, we noticed that in the inside of the digipak, it would usually come with an insert so in order to make our digipak look more convincing, we chose to add a booklet in order to conform to one of the conventions of a digipak.

Lyrics

CONSTRUCTION: Digipak (Front Cover)

Front Cover:

Initially, we thought of using this kind of font for the name of the band. We decided to use white as it would contrast from the black background heavily so therefore it would be able to stand out.

However, after some thinking we felt that the title looked a bit too thick so we decided to go for a much thinner font like the one below.

We agreed on using this kind of font so we decided to use it for the Band's name.

We also decided to use it in the album name except we made the font slightly thinner so that there would be a difference with the band's name and album name and that it wouldn't cause any confusion if they're in the same name.

We decided to use this image below of the protagonist of the narrative of the music video. The image isn't a still from the music video. It was taken separately after the filming. We wanted to go for a dark appearance with a red filter as the narrative was very negative since it was about the dangers of drugs so using red which connotes danger on the photo would show how the person in the photo is in danger.

We took a few shots of the protagonist and we believed that since the narrative was quite depressing, we could have the protagonist smile at all so we chose to use the image of the protagonist with a black facial expression instead.

We put everything together (The album name, band name and image) and we decided to use the image below as the front cover of the digipak.

Front Cover (Final Draft)

CONSTRUCTION: Magazine

To help us construct our own we used examples of some real ones, and looked for what the different conventions are in a magazine advert. We mainly used the image above which is an example of magazine advert for the artist, Jessie J.

Above is our first draft of our Magazine advert. We decided that as the narrative and the visuals of the music video was quite dark, we were going to go for a dark appearance. We chose to use a still from the music video which features the protagonist in the narrative that is a close up to his face but it has been dimmed out. A black background was chosen next as we found that it makes the protagonist look as if he is part of the background (as you can see in the still, we have applied a fade look on the edge of the still). We included the band/artist name called 'spur' and we decided to use a white font as it would make the name stand out and contrast from the black background. We've also included the album name which is called 'flames'

We decided that the font for the band name was going to be a plain and simple font and we decided that the colour should be white since we planned on having a dark background, the colour white would be able to make the band name stand out.


Below is the first draft of our magazine advert. We've applied the still and the title to the advert as well as the black background and we've included some other details such as ratings and the website since most real digipaks would do the same

Below is the second draft of our digipak. Some of the changes we made was that we changed the font of the band name since we felt that it wasn't standing out well enough. Also, we included a line at the top of the still saying that the album is out now since this was an advert.

Below is the third draft of our magazine advert. More changes were made to the overall look. We felt that the advert was lacking a variety of different colour. We noticed it was mostly dominated by black and white so for the album name, "Flames", we decided to colour it in orange as it's the same colour as real flames. Additionally we also included a label saying what songs the album will include on the top of the still.

 Initially we believed that the draft above would be our final product but from looking at it constantly from time to time, we felt that it didn't look really professional and it was lacking a couple of things such as colour, meaning and realism so we decided to start again.

For the background, we decided to use the image below we took ourselves. It's not a still from the music video. we weren't going to use a simple background that we could simply edit it. We instead used the darkness of the photo for our background. In terms of the image itself, we decided that since we wanted colour, we used a red filter. This was because it would convey the message of how the person in the image (who's the protagonist in the narrative of the M/V) is in danger since connotations of red is danger and also, it would make the magazine advert look more colourful.

Below is the fourth draft of our magazine advert. we used the image above for the background and we still applied the thick font for the band name. We changed the album name since it didn't really sound like a name for an album and also, it sounded too similar to the track we used. We changed it to "THE NEW SOUNDS". We also included labels we previously used such as what the album will include and the website. We also included a logo at the bottom left of the advert for synergistic link purposes.

Below is our final draft of the magazine advert. we showed the magazine advert above to an audience and we received feedback. They said it looked more convincing comparing it to our first draft. However they felt that the band name was too thick. It didn't look like it was part of the advert as it looks like it was simply just stamped on the advert because it didn't match the font of the other labels.

We took note of this feedback and decided to make the font of the band name thinner. It's more similar to the other labels and from receiving more audience feedback, they felt that the thinner font looked better.