Antonia signing off her blog (100th blog)

                                 Take 1

                                               Action

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

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak)?

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

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

Points made after the rough cut viewing of our video

 Esther Mongo 17

"I really like where your video is going. I love the wind blowing effect in the purple scene use it more"

After hearing this but of feedback we went on to use the purple scene throughout most of the video cutting between all the different scenes. This is the scene that started the video as this seemed the strongest and most liked one.

 Ishail Hashir 18

"I love the couple scene bit but some of the scenes are on screen are on for a bit too long."

This bit of information was very important as it helped me when it came to editing to make sure that each scene was on screen for the right amount of time. I made sure to only use the couple scene in the first bit of the song and once the chorus began it changed scene to show a change in the mood and beat of the song.

Korrie Powell 17

"The concept is good but perhaps include more scenes because the scenes feel quite repetitive"

This was very helpful imformation because it prompted us to go and film two more scenes the following monday which was the white wall scene and party scene. R and B music videos tend to have 4 - 5 scenes in their videos and we only had 3 so this helped to allign with the actual conventions of the genre of video we were trying to create.

Cinema screening 

The audience's reaction was very heartwarming. They kept cheering and saying how "Sick" it was. 

Cinema screening response

Ancillary feedback

This bit of feed back really helped me during the production stages of my ancillary work as it highlighted what did and didn't work. All of the people who I asked for feedback said they could clearly identify my synergy links. One of my peers Titilope said that she thought my poster looked really realistic and that I had made the artist look very much believable. 

Why getting feedback is important

Getting feedback is very much important both for the music video we made for our media course but also in the real world because it enables you to stay on track and produce a video that will meet the  needs and wants of its intended viewers. If no feedback is given about a video or ancillary work during the production stage it may likely not be recognised by its intended audience and they may decide they don't want to buy it.

Look at the post below to see my photoshop construction process in detail!

Photoshop construction process (Advertisement)

This was the original picture that I wanted to use and the original background colour but it just seemed too dull for my liking so I decided to start again from scratch.

 

I started with a blank canvas and filled it dark green. Then I went on a colour wheel tool and added saturation to end up with different blends of green. Then I used the gradient tool to fade the background and then placed my chosen image onto the advertisement and erased its original background.

Then,  I added the artists name onto my adertisement and used the bevel and stroke tool to manipulate the lighting within the text.

Afterwards, I added a text entitled 'out now' onto my advertisement and placed it at the bottom. Then I adjusted the glow of the text to make it stand out.

Then I added the album name as well as featured hits to my advertisement to attract fans who have heard the songs. 

Next, I added in music icons such as spotify, itunes and google play so that fans know where they can purchase the album. I also added in a picture of the front of the album cover and also the website at the bottom right hand side of the advertisement.

Then I added in the record label logo. And added a drop shadow on the artist to make her more 3D. I moved the shadow to the right to make it look more realistic.

Photoshop construction process (front of digipak)

I started by changing the background colour of my canvas to green and used the gradient tool so it had a fade effect. I then went on to add my chosen front cover pic of the artist and erased the original background of the picture.

Then I added the artists name to the top of the front cover as well as the album name at the bottom.

 Next, I went on to add the tracklist to the back of the digipak and alligned the text so that it was in the centre.

 Then, I added in the barcode to the bottom right hand side of the back as well as the copyright information at the centre bottom.

 Afterwards, I went online and found the copyright logo and added it next to the copyright information. I also out the artist name and album name on the spine of the digipak.

Then I added in the record label logo 'EMI' to the spine of the digipak as well as the back.

After this, I thought about what else I could change and realised the picture looked a bit too 2D so I added a drop shadow to make the artist stand out on the page.

Photoshop construction process (Inside of digipak)

I started with a blank canvas and filled the background green and then used the gradient tool to make it have a fade effect. Then I constructed a circle as a base for the CD.








Then I filled the circle in black and put the artist name and album name at the top of the CD. I then put the copyright information and EMI record label logo on.

Then I lay my first image on the left side of the inside and erased around it with the magic wand tool before placing it centre.

I then put my other two chosen pictures onto the canvas and placed them behind the first picture so it looked like they were standing behind eachother. Then I used the paint tool so slightly fade the top bits of the back pictures so the front one standed out more.

Lastly, I used the drop shadow tool to make the images pop and stand out.

Blog health check

My To Do list:

1.  Post my mock-ups and plans for my ancillary (both pieces) and make it really clear where my ideas have come from and how they link to my research
2. Post a short list and final choice of photos, along with a brief commentary explaining why I have chosen them specifically.
3. Post an overview of the construction process using photoshop
4. Post audience feedback during the construction process to help me with question 4 of the evaluation.

I have completed most of these tasks so all I have to do is post them to the blog. As for the other posts I will set aside some hours this week to do this.

Final advertisement

Final Digipak

Front side of my digipak

Inside of my digipak

Chosen photos for my Digipak

I am choosing this image to be the picture I use for the front cover of my digipak because I particularly like the artist's pose and how she's looking straight into the camera. Plus her cream turtle neck won't clash against the green colour scheme that I've chosen to use.

I decided to use these three pictures for the left inside panel of my digipak as feel they all look fierce which adds to the artist's image. Also the orange jacket will give my green neutral colour scheme a boost and the use of synergy with the artist's big gold hoop earrings will make her recognisable as an R and B artist to her fans.

Ideas for my ancillary work

Planning - Advertisement mock up

 

Planning - Digipak Mock up

Evaluation planning

OUR MUSIC VIDEO!

18. Antonia, Bernice, Jessica from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Ancillary Production pitch

Planning My Ancillary products: Our Tracklist and Album name

As a group we have decided to come up with our tracklist and name of album together. The rest of our digipak and advertisement ideas will be made separately.

Here is what we've chosen:

Tracklist

1. Moving on
2. Where did we go
3. Crazy in love
4. I can't breathe
5. Baby boy
6. Fantasy
7. His way
8. Gone
9. Better without you
10. Come back

Name of Album: Back & Forth

Digipak practice

In today's lesson we were given this picture and had to produce a digipak with it in order to practice how to make one. I came up with name for the artist Akeeva Williams and also came up with an album name. Using photoshop I cropped out the pictures original background and placed the image onto the front cover. I made the background purple and came up with a tracklist which i put on the back of the digipak. I then went onto google and found a record label logo, barcode and some copyright information. 

Looking back, I should included additional info such as the artist's website and also put information on the spine of the digipak. I also shouldn't have let the artist's name extend onto the spine of the digipak. Thirdly, I think the green was a bit of a random colour and doesn't necessarily fit with the rest of the colour scheme. In conclusion,  I definitely enjoyed this task and look forward to producing my own digipak. This task was all about trial and error and has shown me what works and what doesn't when it comes to making digipaks.