Evaluation: Question Four

Here is our evaluation answer  to the question: How did you use media technologies in the construction and planning, research and evaluation stages?

Evaluation: Question Three

Here is our evaluation answer to the question: How have you used your audience feedback?

Evaluation: Question Two

Here is our evaluation answer to the question: How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advert)?

Evaluation: Question One

Here is our evaluation answer to the question: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 1 Initial Ideas

Video

Use
- Use of earthy Locations
- Mise en scene (costume - dress/props - guitar)
- Editing on the beat of the song
- Frequently cross-cutting between the performance and narrative
- Using a wide range of camera shots and movement
- The first shot in the video is of the artist
- The first line of the chorus if of the artist performing the song

Develop
- We had a more even ratio of performance and narrative
- We included moving pictures
- We had a more varied range of different locations

Challenge
- We had a different actress for the performance and narrative sections
- There weren't many close-ups during our performance as we wanted to present the mise en scene
- Our last shot was not of the artist
- Our editing was faster paced

Digipak

Cover

Use
- The artist is presented on the cover
- We applied the rule of thirds

Develop
- Our signature style font was placed differently and on a canted angle

Challenge
- We used a long-shot of the artist
- We used the prop of the guitar
- The artist wasn't making direct eye contact with the camera

Disc

Use
- The record label was included
- We had a picture on the background not just a plain colour
- The artists name is included

Develop
- We had a link between our cover and disc through the incorporation of the prop of the guitar

Challenge
- We used a picture on the background to create a busy theme

Inside

Use
- The artist is present

Develop
- The artist is present but she is not the main focus of the page

Challenge
- We had 9 small images rather than 1 large image.

Back

Use
- We included track numbers
- We included a barcode
- We included fine print
- We included a logo
- We included a website address

Develop
- We used a wider range of fonts
- We included a similar typewriter font
- We altered the placement of the barcode

Challenge
- We used the rule of thirds and placed the writing on the left-hand side of the page
- Ours was more busy and colourful

Advert

Use
- We included a small image of the album cover in the bottom corner of the page
- We included ratings from popular magazines and newspapers
- We included the name of the artist
- We included the date when the album is due to come out
- We included the names of some of the tracks which are included on the album

Develop
- We used a painted border which we produced on Adobe Photoshop

Challenge
- Ours is darker in colour
- Our image is in focus in the foreground and out of focus in the background
- Our image is not a photograph of the artist but it is a photograph of a key to relate to the theme

Evaluation

Now that we have completed our music video and both ancillary tasks (the digipak and advert), we must produce an evaluation video to explain what we did, how we did it and why we did it. This evaluation must be a maximum of 20 minutes long and, in it, we must answer 4 questions.

These are the questions that we were required to answer:

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

2. How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and acillary texts (digipak and advert)?

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

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

We therefore recorded our initial ideas to ensure that we will incorporate all of the vital content which is required to be incorporated within our evaluation video.

InDesign Toolbar

When using InDesign, we commonly used the mouse tools in order to allow us to move features on the pages of our ancillary texts around to position them suitably. We also used these tools to alter the size of various features on the pages such as frames for images and text boxes.

The text tool allowed us to produce vital pieces of text for both the digipak and advert.

The frame tool enabled us to produce a number of frames in order to construct the general layout for the pages. Therefore, we were able to simply import the images and pieces of text into these frames in order to produce the final result.

Finally, the colour tool meant that we were able to change the colours of features on the pages such as text. Therefore, we successfully abided by the consisted colour scheme throughout to add an element of consistency and to suggest that all of the ancillary texts relate to each other.

Photoshop Toolbar

We commonly used the box tool in order to select parts of pages on the digipak and advert when we wished to move them around the page.

We also used the magnetic lasso tool which allowed us to place points around images to cut them out and remove them from the background.

We used the crop tool in order to crop features on each page to make them smaller or to remove certain aspects.

When producing the cover of the digipak, we noticed that a basket ball net was placed in the shot outside of the window. Therefore, we used the clone stamp tool in order to remove this by selecting areas of the image from around the section we wanted to remove, and placing them over the top of it. We then used the healing tool to blend over where we used the clone stamp tool to make it appear more natural and realistic.

On the disc of the album, we used the gradient tool in order to add a slight fade to the image on the disc.

Furthermore, the text tool enabled us to place vital pieces of text on both of our ancillary tasks.

 

Indesign

Also, Indesign allowed us to produce the layout of both our digipak and advert. We were able to decide where we would place everything on each page following a number of various forms and conventions of real media products in order to make ours more successful. We created a number of frames on the digipak and advert templates to confirm where everything should be placed. Then we simply imported the images and text into these frames.

Photoshop

For the production of the digipak and advert, we used a number of computing programmes in order to create a professional looking final product. We firstly used photoshop as a tool to edit all of the photographs which we used. We were generally happy with the quality of our photos; however, we decided that, in order to make them look more professional and genre-specific, we changed the curves, brightness and contrast of each image. When altering the curves, we attempted to produce a warm feel so we tended to add hints of red to achieve this. We also increased the brightness and contrast to improve the lighting on the images, to create a brighter image which stands out. On the advert, photoshop also allowed us to produce the border effect. Using a faded paint brush and the blur tool combined we were able to create a border which gradually faded into the image making our advert appear more unique.

Our Advert!

As well as completing our digipak for today we also had to complete an advert for the album, here is our final advert:

Our Digipak!

Today was the final deadline for our digipak - one of ancillary texts - here it is:

Swirly Font

Within our digipak and advert, we incorporated a swirly font which appears hand written. We generally only used this font to present the artist's name as it makes it look like a signature. We thought that making this piece of text look like a signature would appeal to our target market as it adds a personal touch due to the fact that you get a sense that the artist has signed the album personally. This may successfully persuade members of the target market to purchase the album.

Typewriter Font

We chose to use a typewriter-style font as this was a key convention of a number of already existing media products which we looked at. Therefore, we thought that including this within our ancillary tasks (digipak and advert) would make them, overall, more successful.

Digipak Photos

Unfortunatley today we were supposed to take pictures of our performance actress, Jess, for our digipak, however she texted us to tell she was ill. We decided to still go take pictures at Jesmond Dene as we need the next two days to finish editing our digipak. Luckily we already took some great phootos whilst we were filming for our video and so we do already have our cover photo of Jess and some nice images of the key. Therefore we can get away with using me (Jess Smith) for the photos by utilising some creative shot types and also through photographing the natural sights that we have found. We think that these photos could work well for the inside page of our digipak.

Fonts

When producing our digipak and advert, we thought that it was important to include a wide range of fonts in order to add variation to its appearance. Therefore, we decided that we should incorporate more than one font on each of these ancillary texts. Therefore, we used a swirly, handwritten font which contrasts with our other font which looks like it has been produced using a typewriter. Through including a number of different fonts, this also allowed us to adhere to forms and conventions of already existing media products as, through research, we discovered that this was a key feature.

Album Cover: Colour Decision

When producing the cover for the album, we altered the colour of the image to achieve a black and white effect. We were then required to decide upon which cover we thought would be most suitable concerning our specific target audience. Therefore, we asked a focus group of people from within our target market in our media class to see which image they preferred.

These were our results...

Colour:                   75%

Black and White:    25%