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

Album booklet

CD design

This is my Album disk cover, it is very convential with the rest of the album package, using my three ma9in colours black white and the font colour a burnt red.



Album Case

Front of Album  Back of Album

Feedback from Adele

Finishing off Ancillary work

This week during the easter holidays i have been going into school to finish the final edits on the music video and to complete my final ancillary task, which is the CD booklet. This week i have been working on my Ancillary task to try and edit and finish off what i could, including the last few pages of the music booklet of which includes the song lyrics of Set fire to the rain, our featured song. For all of my Ancillary taks i used mainly Adobe Illustrator and Indesign.

Merchandise

For extra ancillary work i decided to design merchandise to help advertise the release of the album, these will help to premote the album and the artist. As an extra i have designed a cup, two T-shirts and an umbrella which will come as a premotional package along with the album.

Review & Feedback

Nick kindly evaluated our music video a short time after the Arts and Media evening, he gave helpful feeback of that we took into consideration before doing our final edits.

Feedback from Nick

Here Nick has taken the time to look over my work and give me his opinion and evaluate my acillary work.
The feedback i got from Nick was very helpful as i got the opinion of someone who studies media but also it was the opinion from a fresh pair of eyes.

Last shoot

On the 15th of march was our final shoot and last chance to get any spare footage that could be useful to have when it comes to final edits. The location was again at Claire's house as we needed more shots Katherine at different angles which would reflect better on our storyboard. We used the camera and the tripod to get different angles such as low shots, mid shots and high angle shots. Katherine was very helful when it came to instructing her of persitions we wanted such as sat slouching across the living room sofa and nelt down infront of the fireplace. These persition where key as they held great story line within our video, showing Adele reflecting back apon the good times she had with her boyfrined but at the same time greiving and being emotionaly effected. It was a little hard to manage all of the equipemnt we had such as the tripod in the living room as it was quite small although was deffinately the location we needed.

This last shoot also gave me a chance to take some last minute pictures for my ancillary tasks of which i though could be useful for my music booklet as behind the scenes shots.

Behind the scenes

Break up shoot

Last Week we had the break up scenes to film, unfortunately i couldn't attend this shoot as i had college. This footage took place beinhind our school in the nearby wooded area, we felt that this would be a good location for these shots as the narrative for these scenes was of a break up and Adele being left and feeling very alone and isolated from anyboday else. The tall trees and wooded poen area could reflect this well, for the breakup scene we used angle reverse angle and over the shoulder shots, we felt these would be very abstract and make the audience see the shot from Adele's point of view. Again we didn't use a tripod or dolly for these shots as the ground was very uneven and it would not have of been as dramatic and exiting using a steady cam and so using handhel camera infact did make the shot more realistc and gave a very rustic impression.

Here is a brief explanation from Dean and Claire of what they shot this day:

Open Arts & Media Evening

Last Night was our schhol's open Arts and Media Evening of where many parents and teachers of the school came to see our produced work, this included showing our music videos of that we have produced so fare. I felt very proud it show my groups music video, the feed back we got from the audience was very positive, we all looked at the feed back as a group and discuseed what we thought we had to change or edit of our video such as improving on lip syncing and having more scenes of the couple together.

Home shoot

Today as there was a staff training day and myself and the group had a day off we spent our time filming more scenes at a new location. This was at Claires house, we needed a homely location of which could represent Adeles's home of where we wanted scenes and shots of her getting over her ex boyfirend. We also wanted this location to make the video come across as realistic and create the right mood and atmosphere,we also wanted it to seem like anyother break up or seperation, the situation being devastating and very hard on the woman in the relationship.

The type of equipemnt we used for these shots was, the camera, tripod, dolly, and the tracking system of which we used for backward tracking outside of her house. At first we had a liuttle problem assembiling the tracking system although we eventualy overcome this and managed to get the fottage we needed.

Group discussion

This week we grouped up and discussed what future shots to take and the footage we deffinately needed to keep from our draft work. This included the scenes from Adele's house where she would be alone and showing how she is being emtional effected, feeling hurt, alone and sad. We also discussed hoe our ancillary work is getting on and the simularities that where accuring within our seperate peices of work. Images from our discussion

Editing skills

Learning how to use the software of Adoble Premier Pro cs3 is a priority when it comes to editing and producing our music video, myself and claire thought it was necessary for us to get more equiped with the programme and so in our spare time we took it upon ourselves and with help from Dean to practise editing.

Love shoot

Today my group went to shoot some scenes for the background story for our muscic video, this included taking shots of katherine and dean together as a couple to show how intermate and happy they once where. This was greatly needed to make the contrast between Adele being happy and in love with her boyfriend and then the shots where she is alone and miserable without him in her life.

The footage produced was used using handheld camera as the loaction of where the footage was taken in bluewater was quite uneven to walk on or role the tripod on. We also felt that it would be more appropriate to use the camera handheld, this would make the effect of a home made video of which do appear consistantly in Love films or love music vdieos, such as The Notebook. Even though the equipemnt that was used for these shots wasn;t of great diversity, we still produced a range of different shots such as closeups, long range, of which could be helful to show different angles for emtions and points of view.

Feedback

This week my group and i had a feedback session on the porgress we have made so fare and what we have produced. This including our ancillarieds and pictures we have taken so fare, they discussed with us how we should,'t use such dark and dismal colours as they are very simular to the type of colour scheme that Adele had used for her Album and merchandise for the Album. Although it is key that we do try and attract the same type of audience as Adle had with her chice od merchandie and style range, we should also be trying to diverse our work and put our own style onto our work. We also got feedback that some of out group needed to finish off any outstanding draft work as it is very imortant when going to design the final templates on Indesign or Illustrator, fortunately i had all my draft work done as i do art as another alevel subject, this also make very helpful when drawing up our storyboard.

Shot list

To help the group schedual when we are filming and what equipemnt we need to get for each scene we are shottage we have designed a shot list:

Location	Shot Number	Start	End	Equiptment Needed
London Moorgate	1	0.00	0.08	Tripod
	3	0.16	0.25	Tripod
	5	0.35	0.43	Jib
	18	3.36	3.44	Tripod, Dolly
London Bridge	6	0.43	0.58	Tripod, Tracking System
	11	1.49	1.58	Tripod, Dolly
	19	3.44	3.57	Tripod, Dolly
Studio	2	0.08	0.16	Tripod, Tracking System
	4	0.25	0.35	Tripod
	8	1.12	1.17	Tripod
	12	1.58	2.07	-
	15	2.42	3.00	Tripod
	17	3.20	3.36	Tripod, Dolly
	20	3.57	4.05	Jib
House	7	0.58	1.12	Steady Cam
	9	1.17	1.34	Tripod, Tracking System, Dolly
	10	1.34	1.49	Tripod
	13	2.07	2.26	Jib
	14	2.26	2.42	Tripod
	16	3.00	3.20	Tripod

Detail to Ancillary

15th January We are deciding apon features for our Ancillary taks, for this as a group their are details such as fonts, logos and colour schemes that we need to decide on. To make sure that each of our Ancillaries do match with the genre of our music video but also trend and advataice our music video to its fullest we all need to have these same key elements. As our music video is extremely sombre and very emotional the colours we chosen had to fit with this and show the audience a little about the mood of the video. We reached a desition of using mainly colours such as black, greys, white and hints of other softer tones.

Chosing the Logo was not an easy desition although eventualy i did produce a basic logo design to show the rest of my group, I made this using photoshop as i was used to using the programme for text and logo designs. The group did like this design and we are keen on using for our final logo for our Ancillary tasks. Final Logo Design

Studio shots

Today my group started to shoot in our second location, the drama studio, where we wanted to create the shots of Katherine singing in a club. I thought that this location would be almost perfect for this shot as we could use the black curtains to black out the light, but also to give it the club like effect with the spot light shone upon Katherine as she sings. Although we didn’t use a smoke machine as planned, we still created an amazing Smokey effect with the lighting we used and the shot types taken from high cornered angles but also using the tri-pod to move the camera around the room.

Ancillary Photography

Yesterday i captured a range of photographs for my Ancillary work, these consisted of mainly Katherine acting as Adele, in the loaction of where most of the key scenes of the video will be shot, in central Lonon. I had Katherine model wearing the clothes the group wanted her to perform in for our music video, i thought this was a good idea as the package of the CD and the rest of my ancillaries would be very consistant with the video.