Final Digipak

This is our final Digipak. We wanted the layout of the Digipak to look bare and simple so that it symbolized that the CD was all about the music. The pictures on the Digipak were taken on the same location as the music video and advert. This was so it gave a sense of continuity between the products and combined them to allow the audience to realize they're the same band/artists. We also used the same actors so that it was more professional and made all the products combine.  

Final Advert

This is our final advert. It was created on Photoshop CS5 where we edited the photograph first and created the text after. The shot was taken in the same location as our music video and Digipak, this was done to show a sense of continuity and cross media advertisement. We have tried to make it as modern as possible by using new media forms like the blackberry barcode scanner to get a copy of the advert. We downloaded the font from Dafont.com and its 'an unfortunate event', we chose this as we felt it worked best with the advert and gave it a modern touch.

Evaluation: Question 4

How did you use new technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I have learnt lots of new skills while doing this project and used lots of new technologies to help me with all the different stages.

Blogger: I had never blogged before doing this project so I have learnt how to use blogger to present my whole project. Blogger is very good however sometimes crashes and can cause work to be lost. I was fortunate enough that it recovered most of my work and that all was not lost.

Facebook Page: I used Facebook to get audience feedback regarding the music video. This was very useful as it was easy to do and made the video available for hundreds of people to see.

YouTube: We also used YouTube to upload our video onto our blog and also gain audience feedback. A drawback was that there was no feedback left from the viewers however it was still needed to upload the video.

Sony A1E: We used a Sony A1E to film our music video. The quality of the camera as a whole was very good; however when we filmed our footage it appeared to be all in focus and fluent when being watched back on the little screen it has. Once uploading it and playing it on the computer screen it revealed in fact that the footage wasn't as good as we first thought. Also when filming with the camera the screen cuts off a bit of the top so when looking back at the footage on the computer there is far too much head room above the actors.   

Final cut Pro: We used final cut pro to edit our footage and make the music video. The software was hard to use at first because it is quite advanced however picked up the basic skills relatively well. I think that if we had more time to learn all the different functions and apply them to our footage we could have made a much better video.

Photoshop CS5: We used Photoshop CS5 to create our ancillary products and edit the photos for them. This was very useful as it allowed us to take things out of the shot that we didn't want there, making the pictures of a much higher quality. To make the quality of the pictures better we also removed any blemishes on the actors like what would be done in a professional advert.

Evaluation: Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

To gain audience feedback uploaded our video onto Facebook. We felt this was the best and quickest way to get honest feedback regarding our video. All the feedback we got about the video was good and thought that there was a good variety of shots. The location was seen as romantic by some comments which is a bonus as the song is about love. The main drawback to the video which we already knew about was the lip syncing. Quite a lot of people felt that could have been improved upon ad would have made the video better. It is hard however to improve upon that because we couldn't get the actors to stay in time with the track.

Above is a screen shot of the some feedback we were given by friends on Facebook.

Evaluation: Question 2

How effective is the combination between your main product and your ancillary texts?

There is a clear combination and sense of continuity between the ancillary products and our main product. The photographs taken for our ancillary products are from the exact location of our music video which makes a clear link between the three products. The ancillary products have the same actors in with the wood featured in the music video in the background, this makes it obvious for viewers the three products are linked. Natural lighting has been kept throughout all the products so that it helps combine them as a unit, making it more obvious they are linked.

As you can see in the photographs provided there is a clear link between the two ancillary and the main product. The actors in both are the same, the location is the same and the font used for each ancillary product is the same. This informs possible customers that they are all combined and gives a sense of continuity.

The purpose of the music video is to show the song with a visual story or their interpretation of the lyrics. This means that you get an insight to the band/ artists personality and style.
The purpose of the advert is to advertise the band; getting their name and faces out there.
The purpose of the digipak is primarily to sell the artists material however it also advertises the band.

I feel that the combination between our products is very effective. It is crucial that there is a link between the products otherwise the public would struggle to find digipaks having seen the advert or music video. The cross media advertising means that it is alot easier for the public to know straight away that the music video links with the advert and digipak.

Music video

Evaluation: Question 1

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

In some ways our music video challenged the forms and conventions because we have not primarily used a straight cut throughout the editing of our music video. We decided to use transitions which faded one shot to the next, and used flash transitions rather than use a standard straight cut. I feel that this worked well with our video as it is a slow track and made the lyrics flow well with the video.
We did use/follow the conventions however regarding the relationship between the tempo of the track to the tempo of the filming/editing. As the Ellie Goulding track is slow and has very meaningful lyrics we felt it was best to do that with the video which creates emphasis on the lyrics.
Regarding camerawork (movement, angle and distance) I feel they linked well with the song. We showed the couple with distance between in long shots to show that there was distance between them in their relationship. The camera movement throughout the music video was very slow with fluidity to link with the flow of the track and lyrics. The angle of the camera was always eye level to the actors, this is because we wanted the viewers of the video to be looking at the face of the actors to see their emotions.
The location of the video was carefully chosen. We feel that the mise en scene in the video was good and worked well with the song as it was a very beautiful and relaxing backdrop. The natural features of the location like the wood and the pond make the song seem more pure and meaningful.

I think that the video works quite well as a whole and follows some conventions but also challenges others. If I were to improve the project i would improve our time management so that it allowed us more time for filming so that we could have better quality footage.