What have you learned from your audience feedback?

A video of me explaining the answer to this question. 

How effective is the combination of your main product ancillary texts?

In both, the magazine advert and the digi-pak we used the same image, and added effects to the magazine advert that are different from those that have been used on the CD, we did this because with all the examples we looked at for ancillary products of the same genre of indie, we found that the same method was used.

The image that we did use for our ancillary products was not an image taken directly out of our music vide. The image used in both shows our main character, this offers recognition for our audience and also reflects a stronger effect between our main product and ancillary texts. We had to take a photo separately, this worked in our favour as it allowed us to have a lot more freedom with what we wanted to do with our ancillary product rather than being confined to only images taken from the video.

Synergy- The main theme of synergy in our product is probably the theme of isolation for the main character and protagonist of the music video (the little girl), we have shown this through the use of shots of her alone in the music video, I think that we have successfully reflected this on the digi-pak and magazine advert, by showing a shot of her alone in a field. All three together are very effective as they are all connoting the same message. Another key theme about our music video is the little girl's broad imagination, we have shown her in this way in the music video with the doll coming to life, all of the activities she does and more, we have also represented this on the ancillary product, the image is of the girl smiling with her arms stretched out in the air, giving a large element of imagination and exploration. 

Font- Both our digi-pak and magazine advert used the same font, this was done for a number of reasons, the fonts represent creativity and femininity, as the font is very fancy and swirly, also decorated with flowers which is stereotypically linked to femininity. They also look hand written, representations of this can be imagination and creativity, both themes our music video was trying to achieve. This makes the combination of our ancillary products and main product effect as our main character is supposed to be represented as feminine and creative in our main product.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of real media products?

As a group we decided that our music video should conform to stereotypes and conventions of an indie genre  of music video, we thought that it would be useful for being able to target our audience. For us to do this we had to look at other similar artists of the same genre, or who have videos with similarities, one of he videos we looked at was by a band called "xxyyxx" and their song/music video "About You" and we took a lot of ideas from this for example use of certain effects like the colour boost came from this video. We did not want to abide to stereotypes fully, as we wanted to challenge forms and conventions in order to relay a recognisable message.

The Magazine Advert: Our magazine advert conforms to the genre of "Daughter" and their music of indie, and also to the real conventions of magazine adverts within the music industry. This is because of the use of the "sepia" tone which we applied to it, to give the advert a very old fashioned theme, which is a theme of indie music, it's retro aspect. Our magazine advert can be said to challenge forms and conventions of the genre of magazine adverts, this is because we looked at about 6, and all were drawn whereas ours is a photograph. Another similarity that is noticeable is the font is very similar in many magazine adverts of this genre, which tends to be fancy and curly, which is why we went for this approach.

We chose to challenge conventions of digi-paks and magazine adverts, this was to make ours really stand out among the rest, however we did consider using a hand drawn image for the digi-pak and CD case, but decided we'd go with the original idea of a photograph.

The Music Video: Our main product in many ways does conform to conventions, one being that the music video contains acting in which the majority of music videos of this genre do also. We also managed to match the emotional feel of the song with the video, which is obviously a stereotype. The visuals of our music video are very well synced with the pace and timing of the actual song, this is similar to many videos of the same genre that we looked at. Finally for conforming, our music video has a clear storyline, which is also a very common theme in indie music. On the other hand our music video does not conform to conventions and codes, for one the visuals do not match the lyrics at all, however this is necessarily a bad thing, as the lyrics were very obscure at times. In our video we decided to not include musicians in it, this was for the sole reason that it was an emotional song and we didn't want that ruined with cheesey dubbing, however many indie music videos show the musicians in the video. Finally, a lot of other music videos that we looked into used drawings and animation, however ours has nothing along those lines.

Digi-Pak: Straight away from researching into other similar artists it became blatantly clear that many similar artists use drawings on the cover of their digi-pak, therefore this is an example of where our's challenges the forms and conventions. After further research we found out that none of the artists we were looking at's digi-pak is in no way contextually referencing their music video, this is another example of where our product challenges conventions of this genre as our digi-pak links to our music video directly, referencing one of the key themes of the girl which is her imagination.

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

When filming the main product, all of the footage was recorded on a HD digital camera, excluding some external footage gained on holiday on a camera phone. We chose a HD camera because we wanted optimum quality of filming for our camera shots and footage, which would be lower if the camera was not HD.

During the editing phase of the music video we used Final Cut Express, this was very easy to use and also very efficient.

During the planning stage I used lots of different programmes such as:

• Microsoft Word
• Facebook
• Youtube
• Google

These were all very important in their own way. To research music videos for my genre I mainly used Youtube and Google, as these both have ways of viewing videos very quickly and efficiently. I mainly used Google to search for images of the artist and research into similar artists, I also looked up the lyrics to the song on Google, for lyrics research. Music channels were also a good medium for research, as it allowed a broad range of different genres to be looked at.

The first thing that we did at the beginning of the year was set up a blog which is then easy to display all of our research and planning, and other work, it was also very good with progress updates therefore we blogged every step of the way. Blogger is a very useful tool to use as it was easy to embed videos and pictures, this meant we could upload pictures of our audience feedback with the use of a scanner.

Having a personal mac at home is very handy as it allowed me to do my own research at home, which I was then able to email and relay to the rest of the group via facebook/email.

Magazine advert final idea

This is the final design for our magazine advert, it is distinctively an ad, via the inclusion of date of release, and the record label/company's logo.

Evaluation update

Today we discussed the evaluation questions, and what the best form of media would be to go about each one. The questions are as followed:

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media questions of real media products?
• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
• What ahve you learned from your audience feedback?
• How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research , planning and evaluation stages?

These are the questions in the evaluation, in which we need to answer.

Roles

As a group we have designated different roles for each other.

All the planning for filming will be decided as a group, but Fran will be doing most of the filming, as the main setting being at her house, with her family as the actors it is a lot more convenient. Also we need some filming done at night and with me and Tom living far away it would be very hard at stages.

The shot script will be written by me and Tom, after we've decided everything that is need to be done.

Fran will take the photos for the storyboard, and then as a group we will construct the table for all the information to be displayed on.

All the editing will be done together and mainly in lesson time, this means that we can all contribute our ideas, and we can decide if something looks bad or good.

We have not decided on any roles as far as the magazine advert, digipak go, but will soon decide.

Final Digipak

This is the final, completed digipak design, I believe that it has turned out perfectly, with all of use discussing what and what wouldn't look good to match the genre, the video etc... Just shows that all of our ideas have come together to form something very good.

Magazine advert planning

This is when we sat down as a group to discuss and choose what the magazine advert should look like, we drew out some rough ideas, and will be choosing from them soon.

Me and fellow group member Tom having a strong debate over a magazine advert idea.

Digipak Front and Back

This was the front of the EP digipak, Based on the idea that I drew, with the girl with her arms wide stood in the middle of a field, to show the freedom aspect of it, which is one of the main themes we were trying to achieve.

It is able to see here that we have mainly stuck to the main ideas of the digipak design, and made a few minor changes  to it, for example we changed where the track list is, as we thought that with the track listing being up in the clouds, this adds to the freedom element of the music video itself, we also decided to remove the birds, as with the birds, the image would look very clustered and busy. We kept the theme of the hills and the trees in the background, this was because it looks like it is very open, and feels like she is in a fantasy universe.

The back of the digipak/album.

The bar code adds to the realism of the digipak, also the "compact disk" logo.

Final Product

This is our final, edited music video.

Youth-Daughter

Digi pack Drafts

Here I will post all of the main designs that my group took into account.

This was the album cover that I made, I liked the idea of having two different perspective on the front and back of the album, and in this came the front and back of a girl, and this resembles the situations seen from different perspectives.

This was Tom's idea for the digi pack, he wanted to use the actual picture of the band on the front for recognition, however he wanted to change the font that the band usually use, this gave it a more personalised by our group sort of edge.

This idea was Fran's, she liked the idea of using birds on the digi pack, to represent the girls freedom, as this links in with the video, where the girl is very free and creative. Also the second shadow is meant to represent the doll that the girl believes is real in the music video, so this represents that she is a figment of her imagination.

This was Fran's second idea, which was a slightly more elaborated idea than the shadow one, using the theme of imagination again, as in the mirror she is able to see the bird, but it is not in reality, therefore showing her imagination.

Fran created an idea, which was a take on my idea, with the girl stood in the field. She came up with the idea that things that appear in the girls imagination should appear on the front, however not on the back, for example the doll and the birds, and then to just have the normal imagine with nothing on the back to add to the imagination aspect of it.

Class discussions and Decisions

My group and I gathered around a table to pitch our own digi pack ideas to each other, we did this as it meant that we could easily pick and choose the digi pack that we all thought was the best, we are currently still deciding which is the best to use.

Being in a group like this allowed us to easily recieve the opinions of the peers in our group.

Creating the spine and interior of digipak

The original idea to have a collage on the inside was Fran's as it represents the style of indie folk very well.

Collage 1:

Collage 2:

We then did the same as what we did to the front and back image on the digipak which was add a sepia sort of effect to the whole image, giving it that aged, stylish look. 

Edited collage 1:

Edited Collage 2:

For the spine we used the same font, and colour background as the title, this was mainly because in the study of digipaks we found that this is very common, to have the same title on the spine.

Creating the Digipak front and back cover

For the front and back of our digipaks we took the original images, and used an application known as "Instagram" to add an effect to the photos, we believed this was very effective, as it gave it all a much warmer and folkier theme, therefore linking in with the music.

Original image 1:

Original image 2:

Edited image 1:

Edited Image 2:

As you can see here the image almost glows a little and gives it a much happier feel to it.

We then added the title, and on the back the track list.