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

Evaluation 4

Ancillary Feedback

After analysing these comments I can clearly see that my audience fully understood the synergy within my product as they pointed out things such as using the same location in both my music music video and digipak.In addition to this they really liked my ancillary work stating that really liked the colours that I used and the fact they could clearly understand what genre I was representing 

Evaluation: Q4

Evaluation: Q3

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

The technologies we have used have been vital in the making of this project.
To film we have used: new cameras and used memory cards to put them onto the mac computers to then use in final cut pro to edit the clips.
While this was all going on we were using blogger to update everything we was doing and also twitter to let the teachers know where and when we was filming.
the internet was used a lot for research purposes.



Photoshop was the main thing used for my digipak.

Evaluation: Q2

How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement?) 

My music video and ancillary follow a clear visual link in many different ways.

Firstly, the setting of my front cover and one of our base tracks in the video are in the same location which is Alexandra Palace. The back of the CD cover is also a landscape view of Alexandra Palace although I put the focus more on the sky and clouds as I felt that they fit in with the theme more as the overall theme is quite dark and sinister and grey clouds create a dull dark theme too. 

I made all of it black and white as we also have black and white in our music video and also because of the theme. The artist is shown on the front cover for the audience to familiarise themselves with this new upcoming artist. 

My inside panel still continues with the black and white theme. The inside picture is an image of the artist which was inspired by james blake as he had a similar image for his album cover, and then i added a quote from the song we made a video to. The CD  has a city image on it in black and white too which also has his name and album name on it.

My advert has the image of the album cover so people can remember this image. The same fonts have been used to create the advert for synergy. The audience will remember this font which will always remind them of Nathan Grey as it will be his signature font and also the font for his album 'Overgrown'. I have made the font blue so it will stand out a bit more to the viewers especially as it is an advert so it will be the first thing people look at.

Evaluation: Q1

Evaluation 3

I have collect some data from my blogger work to see what type of websites I used during blogging, from this I found out that the most websites I used were creating websites and softwares such as Pixlr and Final Cut Pro, this is because creating was the main aspect in the course as we had to make a music video and ancillary. Whereas I used social media the least as I considered this to be the least important

Evaluation: Planning my response By Cristian Gonzalez

Evaluation - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

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

Evaluation 2: How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipaks and advertisements)?

Is there enough synergy in my Digipak and Advertisement?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

 Name: Montel 

Age: 18

Favourite Genre of Music: Rap

Name: Bernice
Age: 18 
Favourite Genre of Music: Hip Hop/Rap 




I believe that from analyzing these original album covers I imported some of their ideas into my own work. For example from the Bob Marley album uses the same style graphic on the in side and outside over. This was the same technique that I used on my album by having the distorted city skyline; as the the actual CD cover and as a back panel too. The Ray Charles album creates synergy by having the glasses as a significant object for the musician. I used the same style jacket throughout my music video and my album covers to stick to this theme of synergy. Having the same clothing for the artist makes it easier for fan and other target audience to recognize Nathan Grey. I imported the ideas of using the same font and colour lettering from the Cuban album into my own. I saw that this was quiet effective as it made the album look more professional therefore I decided that I would stick to a minimum use of colours for my text. I would also try to stick to the font as much as possible. These factors help the target audience recognize an artist for who they are. Helping them build a picture of an artist through simple synergy is a very effective way to create more fans for our musician; Nathan Grey

Evaluation 3: How did you use: media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This is a Thinglink showing specifically what tools I used to make my advertisement with. I mainly used the Pixlr online editing tool as an alternative to Photoshop; which I do not own at home.

I highlight the tools I learned to use; such as the stamp tool which allowed me to extend the ground of the original image to fit the advertisement template size.



This was my first time using Camtasia and ended up with a video that was originally 23 minutes long. From my skills that I learned whilst constructing my music video in Final Cut Pro; I cut out all parts of the video that were not necessarily needed. I also took away all the "umms" and long pauses. This worked successfully and I finished with a 7 minute video. I the video I go through all the online media technologies that I used to help me research, plan, and construct my music video.

In this Camtasia video I am displaying my Photoshop/Pixlr skills and showing how this technology helped me construct the ancillary side of my music video.

Evaluation 4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Points made during the middle of our music production

"The footage is nice but the majority of people are saying that the flashes are a bit bright"

This feedback was extremely important as it gave us a chance to fix the brightness of the flashing lights. Without this information we could of dramatically affected the viewing pleasure of our audience in the cinema. This meant that are target audience would keep away from watching the video because of the powerful lighting. The main reason we changed it was because it could effect people that are epileptic.

" There are sections that are too long, I think you have to cut to more shots"

This was a very information was very important. It made us go back to the editing studio are cut most of our shots by one second or more. We also went back out to film to fill in the areas where we cut video time. This was useful information because it drastically changed the final outcome to the video. I helped us make our video fit more the genre and target audience by increasing the speed of shots. Like in music videos with rap; they usually speed up with the speed the artist is rapping.

" I think we are not being introduced to you as artists. Who is the featuring artist and who is the star? We need to see more of Cristian Aka Nathan Grey" 

We used this feedback and responded to it by giving myself ( Nathan Grey) more screen time then Korrie. We used longer shot of Nathan Grey singing with closer shots to the face. From past experience I figured that the audience would feel more connection with the artist when his face is closer and bigger on the screen. It was not good to hear that the audience did not recognize who was the featuring artist and who was the actual artist. Therefore this feedback affected the final video a lot.

"Why are we cutting from you in the daylight then going back to nightime?"

Originally we were going to tackle the problem by desaturating all the video.However due to our own accord we decided to get rid of this decision. The daylight to nigh-time and back was resolved by collecting shots of ally pally during sunsets. However this footage was not used and instead made sure that in our editing process more day time shots would be at the beginning and darker shots at the end. We also kept some desaturated shots to stay with the darker sound and theme mysterious.

" I think you should include the cloning shot of you "

We originally had a cloning shot with 3 Nathan Greys on screen. I decided not to include the shot because there was a split on the screen where the edit was extremely noticeable. However I went back to the edit because I wanted to use the effective shot, instead using online 2 Nathan Grey's where the edit was much less noticeable. The shot got a very positive response in the cinema. 

" The flickering is nice but because of the change of speed in shots it would work better if you sped up the shots afterwards too"

This was useful information as it made us change the tempo to the rest of the video. The flashing lights are a very memorable moment in the video and it speeds up the pace of the video; At this point in the video there is a lot of changes in shot it is a dramatic change from fast to slow. Therefore afterwards we had one shot where it was Korrie rapping with a small flashing light in the background. This was to bring back the audience from the flashing lights to normal pace again. This worked very well because it smoothed the audience back into the slower tempo. 

Audience Response During The Cinema 

Audio recording software >>

Feedback after the cinema viewing

Audio recording and upload >>

Record and upload voice >>

Audio recording software >>

Record music with Vocaroo >>

Record audio or upload mp3 >>

Ancillary Feedback 

Here is a response on facebook after uploading the digipak. I learned that the audience really pick up on the layout of the CD cover as they can relate this to other Album covers that they have experienced. Linking this to genre is a surprise to be because I have never noticed how the layout of an album can relate to a genre. However I think it was a good point to make because I looked at albums in different genres and did notice a difference in how the layout is displayed. He said that it all worked really well so I am happy with this feedback and that my combination of editing in photoshop and my ability to create a digipak to mix a complex genre was good. Although I am aware that this response is only from one person. 

 

The font was a slight worry for me as I wasn't sure if it people would understand how it fit the genre. I think that its ok he mentioned the font however; the song is written by James Blake. In my opinion he is a very diverse artists. He started in electronic music and then developed into a singer which is why he imports a lot of vocals into a electronic feeling song. From my research of James Blakes album I noticed they were quiet calm and simple. However since the flashing lights created a lot of hype in the cinema I think it was important to show that his songs also have a theme of techno in them. Relating this back to my ancillary: I kept to the conventions of Electronic music album covers by having an obvious edit on my front cover. The cloning of Nathan Grey is my interpretation of how, mainly electronic music musicians, create an album cover. The use of this font ,that was a little fancy, to have on the album; was my response the James Blake persona that Nathan Grey is closely related with. Because James Blake's album was quiet basic but looked to high standards this was the reason I used a combination of this font with an obvious edit, therefore it fits the combination of electronic music and calming vocals. 

Feedback on Ancillary Work

• The distortion of the digipak is the similar to the distortion to the video
• The front cover has synergy because I have repeated myself
• Used the same location which created more synergy
• Likes how I used the same picture throughout the ancillary work
• Does think I should change anything

• Noticed it is the same location and realizes the synergy of cloning.
• Thinks that it works as a far away shot.
• fits in with the "trippy" genre of the music. 
• Thinks that half and half lion face fits with the featuring artists.
• Likes how I've used the same image on the backpanel too.
• Loves how I fit the album onto the original image.
• The font works throughout the advertisement.

Evaluation 2

Progress Review

After reading my teachers comments I am very proud to be rewarded with an A* as i believe I have worked very hard and made sure i put 100% in to all my blogs to make them visual interesting an resourceful As I am now reaching the final stages of my coursework I am going to set final myself goals in hopes of furthering my mark;

• Reach over 100 blog-post by the end of my evaluation
• Tidy up any blank blogs 
• Upload audience feedback on my ancillary 
• Find any new website to show diversity amongst my work

Final ancillary

the making of my ancillary in photoshop

Production Ancillary Work: Final Advertisement

Production Of Ancillary Work: Final Digipak

Outside Panel 

Inside Panel

Production of Ancillary Work: Feedback from Target Audience.

Production Of Ancillary Work: Screen Shot in Production

Inside Panel:

Outside Panel:

Advertisement:

Editing process

evaluation plannig

Ancillary Construction

Planning Ancillary: Experimenting with Photoshop 2

In this lesson I looked around on the internet for tutorials on how to successfully achieve the effect I want on my digipak. The tutorial explained what type of photograph would help me construct the mini world effect. First of all I used example of panoramas from the internet(this is how my image will look) I resized the picture into a square and rotated it to then go on filters>distort>Polar Coordinate.

Here are the images I managed to achieve. On the day I go to take pictures I will try to make my shots fit. This will avoid any jaggered edges and will make the photograph a smooth 360 picture. I am contemplating whether to use this image for the back panel of the digipak, or use it as the actual cover on the cd. 

I'm using images of London as it relates to the North London born artist; it will also appeal to Londoners. 

Planning

My album cover and digipak for our artist will follow a dark theme similar to our music video. The main colours will be grey white and black with a simple and bold font which makes his name stand out. The artist's face will feature on the album cover and will be the main focus as he is a new artist and should be recognised by the public. The back and tracklist will have the same font throughout and will be a dark background with clouds similar to something like this: