Evaluation Question-4. How did you use new technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Using new technologies was a key component to the production of completing this task. I used new technology through many areas such as the designing, construction, planning and evaluation.  The different types of new technology and technology of that I already had existing knowledge of are: 

• Adobe Premier Pro cs3

• Sony Handy camera
• Software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign
• YouTube, Facebook and Skype
• Samsung MV800 camera
• Blogger

When researching for this task I mainly used technologies of that I had existing knowledge of such as the internet and YouTube, with these I could find existing music videos and information of them concentrating on their conventions and the type of iconography they use. As I was used to using these technologies I found that my research was made easier and I could respond quickly to any new ideas or interest using these to gather the information or knowledge I needed.

To communicate to the best of our abilities amongst the group to ensure that schedules  where kept and we could organise before shoots be used technologies such as Facebook,  mobile phones to text and ring each other and Skype of which became extremely useful as the technology abled us to communicate both verbally and visibly. This became a frequent way of communication for our group to plan our story board and for myself to show my designs.

The main use of new technology for me was learning to use Premier Pro cs3, learning how to use new software and hardware doesn’t always come easily to me although with the use of YouTube I soon picked up on the programmes main uses and how to create and edit many short pieces of footage and turn them into a video.  This was vital knowledge as premier Pro cs3 was the main construction and production of the task. As for the use of camera to captured our video’s footage it wasn’t too complicated to use although which was extremely useful considering it is the main component to producing this music video.

Evaluation Question-3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Receiving feedback from an audience of variety was key to producing a good music video and promotional products. Often my group and I have asked member of our media class of their opinions and criticisms that may be helpful for changes that may be necessary.  We found that these where the best people to ask as they themselves are also have good media knowledge and would be most likely to pick up on any element that we may not be noticed by others. When the group received the feedback from the Arts and Media evening we looked through the comments thoroughly, this helped us to get a new perspective which concluded to us editing our lip syncing of which did occur in many feedback responses.  This effectively had a good response when changed and showed good feedback response.

Included in this feedback we also received good comment on how we had used good and effective use of lighting, camera angles and shot types, we found that these comments were given mainly from a younger audience of whom we would have considered to be our main target audience for the music video.  We was very surprise with this technical knowledge from the audience although was pleased that the best response we got from was our target audience for the album. They also commented on our use of different locations and how these where significant and iconic which are seen in many other music videos of our genre choice, such a ‘People help the people’ by Birdy and 'Empire state of mind' by  Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

Here is a short video of some feedback from a class member Nick Porter looking through some of my promotional and advertisement work:

Evaluation Question-2. How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?

To combine with the music video I have designed and created an album cover and case which includes a song lyric booklet with the design of the CD. I also made an advertising poster for the album’s release and a one page magazine advertisement. When it came to designing and getting ideas for these products myself and my group created a style guide which included, main colours we may use, size font and style of text, logo designs and pictures that could fit with our chosen style of genre. For an example of this, all members of the group used the same logo for all ancillaries but also we all kept to having 3 main colours of black, white and another of our choice.  

I feel that I made very good and effective combination between my main and ancillary text with the use of images I used within my ancillary task, such as the photography I used throughout my CD booklet of that was photographed in-between filming on location shoots. This was effective as this meant that the costume that our artist was wearing in the music video could also be inside the advertising products and CD package, making the genre and mood of the artist and album very consistent. This also meant that it could be easily recognisable that all of the ancillary products are linked together and cross promote the album and each other.

Although to a certain extent the groups promotional packages did all combine and in ways linked to advertising and promoting the album effectively, there were some cases within the production of the ancillary task where there is signs of individual work and development of ideas. I feel that this is a may have been down to at times bad communication and some disagreement although I also feel that this has been overcome by previous planning of the style sheet and so in conclusion all promotional products have successfully been well combined to advertising the album and its genre style.

Another combination of linking the main video and my ancillary products is shown within my premotional products such as the T-shirt i had designed, clearly showing either the logo of the artist and album or a main image from the album of the artist. I also designed a mug and a umbrella of which are both advertising merchandise for the album.

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

When first researching into the genre of our song choice i found many conventions within the real media products which constantly came to my attention. These conventions such as the way in which the music videos where being shot, the camera angles they used and the colour schemes where very consistant to their genres and the style to their artists. When observing new releases for albums and the covers of these i noticed that many had the same basic format, the artists boldly placed centre of cover acting to gays theory for best advertising but also the placing of the logo or artists name, towards the corner of the cover in a plain and basic but bold font choice.

Researching into our songs genre of music was a little hard as we did not have just one style of genre to concentrate on. Feedback we got from researching into our song was that the song may be considered in many different genres considering who you ask, these genres where, Indie, jazz, Pop and Soul. Although this was the case we as a group thought we should focus mainly on the Indie genre with artists such as Kings of Leon, Madness and Coldplay. Also considering the Pop genre with artists such as Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Bruno Marz and Christiana Aguilera. 

The typical conventions we found from Pop videos portrayed the artists as extremely flirtatious, using gays theory to attract the opposite sex into buying the album or song, also the lighting of which is used is consistently bright and shun directly above the artists as they dance.  A typical conventions of Indie music videos such as Madness 'Our house' concentrate on telling the story of the song, using Reception theory.

I did follow these convention when designing the front cover of the album by dominantly placing my artist in the centre and the logo of the album on the top left corner, the reason for keeping to these conventions where simply due to my research of other bestselling albums from the past year and many of the layout of their album covers having a very similar layout. This showed that this style and design of the albums must be very advertising towards a large audience and have the best revenue in sales.

Adele - Set Fire To The Rain Final Video

Magazine advertisment for Album

Album Poster