Prezi Links!

As some people have had issues viewing my prezi's answering the third and fourth evaluation question, I have decided to post a URL link to it shown below:


Third evaluation question prezi:


http://prezi.com/i5b2-dmih9st/what-have-you-learnt-from-your-audience-feedback/?auth_key=14e739b0688b28a6be03ad74ad414f909f94a135


Fourth evaluation question prezi:


http://prezi.com/n4yapakdpmrf/how-did-you-use-new-media-technologies-in-the-construction-and-research-planning-and-evaluation-stages/?auth_key=5e4ee44d9cc38a4cb9f26bb148034202d0394585

Evaluation question 4; How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I have decided to display the answer to this question in a prezi, which is an online software in which you can create a presentation in a creative way.This is shown below:

Evaluation question 3; What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

I have answered this question in prezi as I feel it shows it more effectively and shows how I am able to use different technologies to present my findings:

Evaluation question 2; How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As well as creating a music video to go along with our chosen song, we also had to create a digipak and magazine advert. This was in order to make the music video appear more realistic and professional, as if we were selling it for real. In order to keep our music video, digipak and magazine advert interesting to the public, we ensured they held similarities. This was also to make sure they were relatable to one another and recognisable. 

In order to make our main product and ancillary texts work effectively together, we included both similarities and differences.

Similarities:

• Colour pallette/Natural environment
• Stills/images
• text/hand writing
• Natural movement

The similarities in the Colour Pallette/Natural environment of the main product and ancillary texts:

Throughout our music video and our digipak and magazine advertisement, we used similar colours. Often using natural colours, including autumnal colours and earthy colours. We used these colours as we wanted to use the natural environment. We also included similar shots in these environments:

As you can see from these pictures, the inside of the digipak has a similar image as one shot included in our music video.

In both of these images, the female character, Sarah, appears to be standing alone in an open field. Both with autumnal colours. This creates the desired emotion we wanted of isolation. As these images are both similar, featuring in the music video and digipak, it emphasises the connection between the two.

We also included many connections due to the season. We used shots of the trees in both the digipak and music video and also, of the leaves fallen on the ground. This further emphasises the continuation of the connections between our products and how we tried to relate the, all to our chosen song:

Digipak:



Stills from the music video:

 Each of these images portray the same nature setting, each containing autmun colours and aspects. Inluding fallen leaeves, trees, and a slightly gloomy background colour, due to the season.

The similarities in the Stills/Images of the main product and ancillary texts:

In order to make the connection between and main product and our ancillary text more obvious and effective, we also used some stills from the video and included them in the digipak. This also emphases the connection between the two as they hold similar ideas. This will increase the selling of the product as it will be easily recognisable to the video, making the use of stills effective:

Digipak:

Stills taken from video:

 

 The similarities in the text/hand writing of the main product and ancillary texts:

In both our ancillary texts, we used the same font for the texts and also the same 'hand written' style for the writing in both. For the back cover of our digipak and the main text on the advertisement, we used the same style font:

The text was simple reflecting the image we portrayed in our music video, simple yet effective.

We also used the same 'hand writing' effect text for the title of the advertisement and for the text on the front cover of the digipak. We done this by using the Wacom Bamboo tableton Adobe Photoshop:

We used this hand writing as we wanted the digipak and magazine to appear more personal and unique in order to suit the personal emotions of the music video.

The Similarities in natural movement of the main product and ancillary texts:

Troughout our music video, we were able to use the natural elements in order to make the female charcters hair move in the wind, to create a calm natural feeling, and to also emphasise the emotion. We wanted to carry this out in the ancillary texts too. We used wind constantly showing the links between both the music video and the advertisement:

Advert:

Music video:

However we also had some small differences between our main product and ancillary texts, these included:

• Inside panel of the digipak
• Editing of the digipak
• Tones of the colours in the main product and ancillary text

Differences between the inside cover of the digipak and the main product and advert:

The inside cover of our digipak was different to the restof our products as it contains a personal message written by Allie Moss herself. We did not feature anything like this in our video or advert. This was effective however, as it gives a more personal effect and as this digipak is easily related to the rest of our product, we believe it makes the effective as a whole.

Differences in the editing of the digipak compared to the main product and the advert:

The inside cover of our digipak and outside cover where edited differently to eachother and to the rest of our products. The inside cover was edited in order to appear less like the rest of our products, this was because our digipak included other songs,not just our featured song in our music video and advert. And therefore, we wanted to create the effect that other emotions were included throughout the CD,not just our desired emotion and effect.

Also the outside of the digipak is edited differently:

The outside digipak appears slightly brighter than the video and also contains polaroid images over a wood like background. By being different to the rest of the texts, this also emphasises different emotions, showing how the songs featured on the CD are different to our single featured song in our video.

Differences in the tones of the colours in the main product and the ancillary text:

As just mentioned the outside of the digipak is edited in a brighter tone to the music video. Like this, the magazine is also edited differenlty to the rest of the texts. Although, it is edited slightly darker than both the digipak and the music video. When placing the digipak, magazine and music video together, they all create different colours. This also emphaises that the songs Moss sings aren't just limited to the emotion we used in our feautered song for our music video.

Evaluation Question 1; In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

I have answered the first question of the evaluation of my final product in a slideshare presentation. Although, as my PowerPoint was quite long, I had to cut it in half, creating two slide share's.


These are shown below:

Evaluation question 1

View more presentations from ashleigh_hay.

Evaluation question 1, continued

View more presentations from ashleigh_hay.

Final Products; Music Video, Digipak and Music video Advertisement

In order to portray how are products connect, we have decided to show them all next to each other in one post. Our three completed projects are shown below:


Our music video:




Our Digipak:


Inside Cover: 


Outside Cover: 

Our Advertisement:

Gaining our audience feedback

In order to find out whether we had been successful in the creation of our music video and to also assist with answering our evaluation questions, we have decided to carry out some audience feedback. We have chosen two methods of audience feedback including:

• A survey monkey questionnaire
• A short video answering questions on our music video

The short video:

We created the video first, in this short clip, we asked a group of 4 students who had watched our music video 5 different questions. These questions were:

• Did you like our music video?
• What did you enjoy about our music video?
• What was your favourite part?
• Would you change anything about our music video?
• Do you think our music video matched the song?

We have edited the answers these participants gave us for these questions into a short video. This will help us to discover how well we carried our music video and whether the audience enjoyed our music video. 


This audience feedback is shown below:



Survey Monkey:
We also decided to make a survey, this way we would be able to compare these results to the ones in our short video and this will also enable us to get feedback from a wider range of people not just pupils from our sixth form. 


This survey included ten questions:

• What is your gender?
• How old are you?
• On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, how much did you enjoy our music video?
• What was your favourite part?
• What was your least favourite part?
• Do you think the lip-syncing was in time to the song?
• Do you think our music video gave a valid interpretation of the song?
• Would you be interested in our products after seeing our advertisement? 
•  Do you think our three products work well together?
•  Do you think our three products fit the genre of Allie Moss' music?

Audience theory: Analysis of finished video.

As we have recently completed our music video, we feel it to be beneficial to analyse it. As we have previously been learning about different audience theory, we have decided to analyse our music video using them.


The Effects Model:


We feel as though the Effects Model isn't very relevant to our music video as it does not follow the traits of the effects model. The effects model suggests that our music video would have a negative effect. Although, we believe our video holds a positive effect as it ends on a positive note. Also our music video portrays the female character as in control emphasising her strength, consequently further deeming our video to be positive. Also we feel as though our video would not cause the audience to imitate it, and we do not feel as though our video has a negative impact which may cause it to be banned. All of these things suggest that the effects model is inapplicable to our music video.


The Uses And Gratification Model:


I have discussed the uses and gratification model recently on my blog. This model suggests that the audience are active when watching the music video. We believe this to be applicable to our video and that the audience will respond in similar ways, although their responses may differ. 
The audience will possibly use the text in many ways. One way in which the audience may use the text is to relate to it. Some of the audience may be experiencing a similar situation as to the one shown in the video and they can connect with the video because of this. Also, the audience may simply enjoy our music video as we believe it is enjoyable. The audience may also use our music video to 'escape the real world' this video will enable them to get lost within the video, leaving behind the real world for a short period of time. And finally, to understand others grievances. 


The main reason we decided upon the idea we used for our music video was in fact to portray the emotion shown in Allie Moss' songs and to support her. 

our final video

Below is the finished outcome of our video:

Advertisement; second draft

During class today we discussed our advertisement and decided that it needed to be more personal. Therefore, we have decided to add three more features. This include a 'HMV' logo Allie Moss's website URL and finally, a logo which represented Allie Moss's record company. Below is an image of Moss's logo;


In order to make the image stand out more we placed it over a black background on Photoshop, however when putting this on our advert this would need to be taken away and re-scaled to fit in with the rest of the advert. 
We then added the 'HMV' logo coppied from their website. In order to only select the words we wanted, 'HMV', we used the lasso tool on Photoshop to get rid of the areas around the image we didn't want. 


Below is a final image of our finished product of our advert:





We are happy with this outcome as it fits in with our desired look and our digipak. We also feel as though it is up to a professional standard. 

First draft of music video advertisement

Today, we designed a draft our advertisement poster for our music video. We are happy with this result although, still need to add all of the correct information onto the poster.
I have included an image of the first draft of our advertisement below:




We had decided to keep the information on the poster basic for our first draft, we wanted it to appear simple just as our digipak is. In order for the two to match we also used the same font on both and continued to use the wacom bamboo tablet to create the effect that the writing was hand written. We made one simple difference in changing the colour so as to not be boring with our ideas. 

Advertisement - Initial ideas

Recently, one member from our group went out and took potential photos of Sarah to be used as the main image on the advertisement. He decided upon this day because of the wind and it would be possible to take images with the Sarah's hair blowing in the wind and in her face which we had mentioned we would like to portray in our mise-en-scene planning originally. We decided upon a few of the images we liked which Connor had edited, these are shown below:

This image was good as it shows Sarah looking directly into the camera, causing the audience to look directly into her eyes. This would portray the emotion we would want it to. However, we disliked this photo for our advert. This is because her face is the main object in the photo, taking up the majority. Therefore, the text would have to appear across her face, ruining the original image and idea. 

The image above was one that we decided stood out due to the movement of the hair in the wind. The colours are bright and match the image we have created in our digipak and music video. Although, we feel as though this would not be the best image to use due to similar issues as the first image. The text would have to be placed over her face, losing the idea of the image. Also, this image does not represent the rest of Moss' songs which will e portrayed on the track list of the digipak. 

This is the same image as above, just edited into black and white. We all decided we preferred this image to the earlier one. However, still would not like to use this image as we would ideally prefer the advert to be in colour to stand out more, becoming more eye catching. 

The above picture was the final picture taken and was also our favourite of the three. The position of the side of the face being in more to left is perfect positioning for the text to be placed over the image in the centre, unlike the previous images. Also, the movement of the hair creates a lot of emotion and the colour is extremely eye-catching. Moreover, this image could create both a happy and sad emotion and would fit in with all of the songs featured on the track-list. 

To see what the images may look like with the test placed over the top, one member of our group created some sample images, shown below:

We have decided, we still all like the last image the most. As mentioned in the earlier images the text covers most of Sarah's faced and becomes lost. However, in the final image, both the text and the image stand out clearly.

Advertisement ideas

We have decided to analyse some pictures which one member of our group took for his photography work, in order to gain ideas for what we would like to include on our digipak.

These images are included below:

The above picture is a close up of a female and male character. We like the idea of the photo, although have decided we would not be able to use a photo like this, as it appears to happy which is the opposite of the sad emotions we are trying to portray. 

This image is our favourite of the three shown in this post. The photo is very strong as you cannot see the characters faces and creates a sense of mysteriousness, we would ideally like to re-capture this image with the characters included in our music video.Text could easily be placed over the top of the image making the idea even more appealing.

This is another image we are considering re-capturing. The image is emotive and is shown in a secluded beautiful surrounding, which we would like to re-create. The image captures the bond between the couple and can be portrayed as a memory. Furthermore, we could also easily add text over the top of this image. 

All together, we have decided to take a variety of shots so we have many too choose from and decided as a group which ones we prefer and which suit the mood we would like to capture.

magazine advert analysis

As a further part of our coursework, we are asked to create an advertisement for our song. Therefore, I have decided to analyse a music advertisement of Florence and the machine for her 2009 album 'Lungs' in order to. 

I think this advertisement for Florence and the machines album is particularly effective. Florence is centred in the middle, drawing the audiences attention to her also, she is the focal point of the image. 

The image also features lungs in the position of her actual lungs above the title of the album, 'LUNGS'. Showing a visual representation of the title, which is effective.  

The colour green is natural, the red of the lungs could be representing passion also, anger or danger. Florence is displayed as pale, therefore she stands out against the background. Furthermore, it could be representing her as pure tying in with the natural element presented in the photograph. 

The flowers further represent this, showing a natural and soft element towards the album and song. 

These elements could be illustrating what the album entails, Florence is a natural singer and sings from the heart and lungs you could say. Therefore, further emphasising the visual representation of the advert.  

Overall, I believe this advert is effective as it attracts the audience and the reflects the artist well. 

This advert linked to my on project;

This advert and the others our group have looked at has given us a start to the standard we need to meet. We would ideally like our advert to create something new and exciting for the fan base of Allie Moss yet, also reflect her. furthermore, we have discovered the advert doesn't always have to be over the top or overcrowded, sometimes simplicity works just as well. This is something we are planning on incorporating into out advertisement.

Advertisement - Components of the advert

There are a number of important aspects which must be included onto our advert. If all these are used it will look professional and to a high standard.
These important things to include are as follows:

• The name of the artist
• An image of the artist or associated with the music video
• The artist's record label logo
• The name of the album/tour
• The date of the release of the album/tour
• The location of the tour (if applicable)
• The branded logo of the company which produced the poster
• A star rating with a suitable source in which it came from

Digipak inside cover; second draft

We were particularly happy with our original image chosen for the inside of our digipak and therefore, chose to stick with this decision. Although, we felt as though it needed to look more personal. In order to do this, we decided to add a paraphrased quote taken from one of moss' interviews shown below:



In order to place this new feature onto our original digipak, we had to use the 'lasso' tool on Photoshop. Below is an image of our second draft:

Digipak outside cover; fifth draft

We believe this to be our final draft of the outside cover to the digipak. To complete the didgipak, we have added text to the spine creating an overall flow of the digipak. An image our final outside cover is shown below:

Digipak outside cover; fourth draft

In order for our digipak to be complete we would need to add on a tracking list and also, a barcode.
For our barcode to look realistic, one of the members of our group created it through the use of a tutorial which they allocated online, this can be found here. 


Furthermore, after researching many digipak's, we realised a section on copyright would need to be included on our digipak to make it more professional. One member from our group liked one particular example found on Adele's album '21' album cover. Therefore, we used a similar tet to the one she uses and also, included her URL. We then created a fictional record label; 'AM Recordings LTD'. We created this text using Photoshop. We ensured this text was smaller than the rest, although still big enough to be visible. In order to highlight the text more, we put a border around it using the 'stroke' feature on Photoshop. in order to do this, we used layers on Photoshop, first creating a layer and then clicking the fx option. We then had to choose the 'stroke' option:


   


As shown in the picture below, we were able to change the pixels of the font using the stroke option:

Digipak text track listing

In order to ensure the writing on our digipak went well with the genre of the images and the music we had to edit it. We decided to use photoshop as we were most comfortable with this photo editing software. Also, it has a very wide range of fonts and text sizes in which we wanted to choose from. 
Below is an image of a few fonts we have created in order to choose form:

We chose as a group the last text shown in the image was the text we were going to use as it fit in the most with the images.

Digipak outside cover; third draft

There isn't a vast difference between our second and third drafts for the outside cover, we have simply added the title and the artists name onto the first panel which will be the front cover. In order to do this, we used a Wacom Bamboo Tablet in photoshop, this allowed us to write directly on to he image where needed. We want the writing to appear more uniques and personal and we feel as though we were able to create this image through the use of this panel on photoshop. 
The image of our third draft is shown below:

Digipak outside cover; second draft

Today we carried on with the digipak, we realised we were unhappy with the front cover picture. Therefore, we began to select different pictures for the front cover in order to find out which one would look best and suit the theme of the rest of the pictures featured on the digipak. Although, we were unable to find an image which suited the image alone. Therefore, we decided to experiment with photoshop. We were able to find a setting which turns the photo into a polaroid image. We decided this would be a good idea to use for the front cover as it would be different and stand out, also we would be able to use more than one image. We decided upon two images for the new front cover of the digipak. Our new idea for the digipak is shown below;


New front cover;

We are happy with this outcome as we feel as though all of the images and the colours match. We will be adding the writing soon and will post the final outcome when it is finished.

Starting our digipak

Today, we started our digipak. As a group we have decided to go through our video and take some screen grabs of the images in which we may use in the digipak. These potential images are shown below:

We have decided that for the three inside cover panels containing the the two disks we would like to use one long image across all of them and for the other three(the outside cover), three separate images. We have managed to come up with a rough idea of what we would like the images to look like, although we will be altering it and changing it around as we aren's completely satisfied with the outcome so far. Some images of the digipak so far are shown below;


The Inside cover;

The outside cover;

We have decided to change the saturation and contrast of these images to make them appear more brighter, making them more eye catching. This will hopefully make the audience more interested in buying our product. However, we found out that this was too bright for the idea we wanted our music video to portray and consequently our digipak. Therefore, we added fill layers over the top in order to soften the photos, matching our desired effect more. 


On the outside cover, we have decided that the right hand panel is the weakest and doesn't match the other two panels. Therefore, we have decided to brainstorm as a group for some new ideas;