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.

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:

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. 

Feed Back Videos.

Planning Ancillary: Mock up Digipak

 

Analysis of 3 Ancillary Product.

Planning Ancillary: Experimenting with photoshop.

Experimenting with Photoshop

     

In todays lesson I was given a set of random pictures to work. The task was to create a digipak that included the usual look of a normal album. I started by cropping the original image and placing it on the template. To make the task easier I decided that the couple looked like a dance duo therefore based the album around ballroom dance. This lead to me calling it the Golden Frame. This task helped get an idea of how to name my album; there has to be a connection between the image. For the back and name of the songs I kept to the ballroom dance theme. The font I used reminded me of the movie The Great Gatsby which I think the album reaches to the same type of audience. 

Researching Ancillary Products: Reasons behind location choice

Main Photo Location :

I decided to use Alexandra Palace as the location to take pictures because it also features in the music video. I also think there is a lot of things around Ally Pally, that if I used in the album, would give a nice effect. For example I found a stone lion head that was perfect, then I found another that was broken and old. I took a picture because I could edit them and use them on the album. 

It was important to take pictures at Alexandra Palace because it has a big backdrop which makes it easier for me to edit the photograph after. I wanted to take a panorama of London but it wasn't successful because the view was too big and my camera could not zoom in this far. I wanted to used the fence at Ally Pally because they are recognizable but also because it is where we filmed the cloning shot for our music video. 

Researching Ancillary Products: Overview of the costumes I will wear

Researching Ancillary Products: Photos I plan to use

Researching Ancillary Products: Brief Overview Of Do's and Dont's

Planning Ancillary Products: Shortlist of: Fonts,Colours,Layout, and Design Ideas

Researching Ancillary Products: 3 magazine advertisement that relate to our genre