Final Music Promo

Final Magazine Advert

Final DigiPak

Final Evaluation

Question 3 - (Audience Feedback) What have you learned from your audience feedback

Male for Audience Feedback:

Female for Audience Feedback:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of Real Media Products?

First Draft:

Second Draft:

Mrs D

The nine frames work well. I would change the order and move left to right with your images rather than up and down. Make sure your labels are a bit more specific and technical. A good draft.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? (How synergy is created and evaluate)

First Draft: 

Second Draft:

I have altered my 9 frames slightly, by moving them across to show the link between my music promo and Ancillary work, this way it is more obvious to the reader. As well as this I have changed the image showing the process of my Album art, to now show the finish product of my Magazine Advert. As this shows were I have taken my work and how I have developed it throughout. 

Mrs D

The Prezi for question four looks fine - it's a bit narrative in style. Think about HOW the technologies made your product better. Sort the path out and make sure we can read all of the text. Don't use future tense - use past too.

Evaluation - Audience feedback

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Overall, I am happy with the feedback I have received as it has generally been mostly positive, and it has made me feel more confident in my work. Some things that were seen as strong positives from my target audience were: Mes en scene working well with the narrative and target audience as it is young and quite fashionable as well as this, the location of the skate park and IQ had positive feedback as they worked well within my music promo. Different camera angles as I included many different shots by using a variety of close up and long shots as well as using different angles and using the tripod as well as filming some shots handheld. As well as this I included 3 different types of camera lenses in order to make my scenes more interesting. My target audience particularly liked the narrative within my music promo for example one said that the lyrics matched the narrative effectively, I’m really happy that my target audience thought the narrative was effective as this is an important part of my music promo, as well as promoting the artist, the music promo needs to have a repeatability factor, and I’m therefore confident that my target audience seemed to think it did.  As well as this young adults that fall into my target audience also mentioned that my characters and artist were believable, this is an important factor as it allows the music promo to look professional. I really appreciate my main character/artist for working hard throughout filming, as this has really paid off and allowed the acting and singing from main artist to look quite professional, particularly in parts were he is lips inking as there needed to be clear emotion on his face in order for his target audience to connect with him and I think this has been done successfully. As these things have had only positive feedback, I do not plan on changing them as my target audience seem happy with these features within my work. This is very reassuring as it is essential that my target audience like almost all features in my music promo, as this will allow it to be as successful as possible. One thing I am particularly happy about is the fact that I have had only positive feedback when it comes to my story line this is great as it means that my target audience are more likely to watch my music video over and over again as they like the story within my video, this therefore suggests it works well with the lyrics as well as the genre Alternative Genre of music.

Before I did my Audience Feedback I was generally happy with how my Ancillary work looked and hoped that it was seen as effective from my target audience. I am pleased that one person from my audience feedback even said "If I saw this in a magazine I would definitely stop to read it." This is really reassuring and has made me feel more confident in my work, as my audience feedback has shown me that I targeting my audience correctly and in an effective way.

However, I have also learnt from my Audience Feedback that there are things which I need to improve upon. I am glad that not all my feedback has been positive, as negative feedback allowed me to improve on my work and make it more suited to my target audience. Most of the negative features that were mentioned within my Audience feedback were to do with the editing, I was then able to go back to my work on Final Cut and re-edit certain aspects that they thought needed improving. For example, my one person from my target audience said “One thing that you could improve on was the shot of the new boy smiling near the end of the music video. I think he looks really awkward...” I then went back to my music promo and cut out the close up of the "other man" in my music promo, as his facial expression and the shortness of the clip made this part seem awkward and unprofessional to my audience. I have now changed this so it only shows the "other man" walking off with the female at the end of my music promo as I think this will look more subtle and effective.

Another thing my target audience picked up on was the jumpy cuts within my music promo. “Maybe make a couple of small changes like singing being out of time at the beginning and it was a bit juddery at times.” As well as someone else saying “ My only negative would be that some of the shots are a bit shakey and maybe need going over.” The fact that two people noticed that the music promo judders at times because I have put different clips too close together told me it was an important factor which I needed to improve upon, as my target audience found it looked unprofessional. I will therefore go over my editing and try to sort out as many of these as possible.

 As well as this, a few people within my target audience also noticed that the lips inking was slightly out of time. “His singing it slightly out of time at times, which you need to correct.” I therefore went over this and tried to adjust it as it was important that the lips inking within my music promo looks as professional as possible. This is particularly important as it makes a real impact on how effective my music promo is as a whole, and I do not want my target audience to see the artist in a negative light. I thought about reshooting some of the shots of my main artist singing, but I also had positive feedback from my target audience telling me his singing looks believable. “My favourite thing about your music video would be Robs [the main artists] singing!! It's actually very professional and looks so believable.” This then reassured me that the singing itself looked professional, I just needed to adjust the timing of it. 

One comment from my target audience which really helped me was the last comment, although it is mostly negative it has really helped me when it came to improving my work. As it mentions that not all of my music promo flows, for example “Certain aspects don't flow for example when you're (the girl) waiting for the second boy under the archway, the video shows a quick clip of you standing up and then it goes back to a clip of you sitting down again.” This is not an obvious flaw as you are only shown the top half of me, but when you look closely you can see that I am in a slightly different location and my body language suggests I am sitting as I am hunched over. This is something I corrected by changing the order of my shots to ensure that everything flows in a clear and professional way.

I also learnt from the last comment that certain shots can be quite slow, for example there is a scene in the middle of my music promo of the main artist skating after the girl going into the underpass. My target audience picked up on this by stating “Another thing I thought could be improved was the clip of Rob skating after you at the beginning. As it dissolves to him going round a corner and then takes awhile for him to come back into shot, so I would sort that out as well.” This wasn't very effective as I had edited this and to cross dissolved the two scenes of him skating round a corner together and unfortunately that meant that the main artist went out of shot for a long amount of time. To improve on this I chose to crop the two shots down, making them shorter and getting rid of the scenes where he is out of the shot, as well as this I also adjusted the speed of the shot to ensure that he is in scene for as long as possible.

Evaluation - Question 4 How did you use media technologies

Evaluation - Planning second question - Synergy within Ancillaries and Music promo

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? (How synergy is created and evaluate)

My target audience seemed happy with how my Ancillary texts and Music promo worked in synergy together. I made sure that my print work and music promo worked well together by linking certain features into all my work. An important feature that I included in both my main work and ancillary texts would be the colour scheme, this was a key factor as by using similar colours within my ancillary work and music promo this allowed me to conduct a house style which brands my artist, an important part of making him recognisable to his audience. I used colours within my work which I thought linked in well with the genre of the music such as dark tones as this suits the Alternative style of music, if I was to use bright, neon colours this could suggest a more upbeat style of music such as Pop. I chose to film my music promo at night, which gave me dark tones and also allowed me to control the lighting for example I found filming in a well lit Skate Park was really effective as the lights gave out yellow tones which worked well within the Story line, as the warm tones from the lights connote happiness within my music promo. I have included this feature within my DigiPak as I took various images of the graffiti within the Skate Park and cropped one graffiti image to fit the CD pane within my DigiPak. This was seen as effective within my target audience as it brings the warm yellow colours into my DigiPak. I also think the Graffiti is effective as it links in well with the location of the Skate Park within my music promo, as well as the Graffiti linking in with my target audience of young adults.

Other colours I used to link my music promo into my Ancillary texts in order to have an effective house style includes the use of Red within all of my work. This is a particularly important factor as the use of Red links in with the title of my artist’s song “Heartbreaker”. I have therefore included this within my ancillary by making the spine of my DigiPak burgundy as this colour works well with the yellows and greys I have used within my DigiPak. I also edited the image I have included within my DigiPak of the large Archway that is located in the IQ Business Park, where I filmed the final scenes of my music promo. I edited this image in several ways one being to bring out a deeper Red in the background, as this made the image link in well within my DigiPak. In my music promo I have included the use of Red in the most obvious way by dressing my Artist/main character within my music promo in a burgundy shirt, as this makes him seem more desirable as well as making the sense of romance more intense to the audience. 

Evaluation - Planning first question - Codes and Conventions

Use of forms and conventions of real media products in my work:

•  In my music promo I included close ups of my artist singing for example lips syncing, to help promote the artist. This is generally done in all existing Real Media Artefacts as it shows the audience the artist and allows them to become more well known.
•  I dressed him in a new outfit for the singing scenes which is typically done in RMAs, as it separates the narrative and performance scenes.It was important that he remained the main focus in these scenes, instead of his clothes. I therefore dressed him in plain colours such as a grey top and a plain parka coat and hat. As this worked well with the location of the skate park, as this is typically what young males wear and suited the Indie/Alternative Genre of music.
•  I included a clear storyline which is easy to follow by showing development through my scenes. Many RMA's include narratives as this gives them the repeatability factor allowing their audience to watch it over and over again without the fear of them getting bored.
• Ensured that my artist was the main focal point of my music promo to allow the artist to be promoted as brand. I did this by featuring him more in the music promo, and also showing a number of close ups within the music promo to show his emotion making the music promo about him and how he feels. This makes him seem more human to the target audience, and they are therefore more likely to feel connected to the artist. 
• In Ben Howards RMA which I analysed I found that tones and colours were commonly edited into music promos to set the scene and suit the genre or mood that the song represents. I used this in my own work as I have included different tones of light to reflect the mood in my music promo, the lighting is warm and yellow at the start which connotes positive things and suggests that the couple are happy together. However, as my music promo progresses the lighting becomes slightly blue and dark in the second location, the cold lighting could be seen as reflecting the female’s attitude towards their relationship and it connotes negativity.
• Includes an establishing shot at the beginning of my music promo, by panning down from a light to my artist in the skate park. This would be seen as an establishing shot, as it clearing shows the location of the Skate park, as well as the artist, showing the audience the Mes En Scene within the music promo. This gives the audience an idea of what the music video will be like, as well as suggesting the genre of music. 

Development:

• When analysing existing RMA Red-light "Get out my Head" I liked the use of jump cuts at the start before the singing starts within the music, as they showed extreme close ups of the artist. I have developed this in my own way in my music promo as I included extreme close ups of the main artist’s lips, as well as the female’s hands and eyes. I wanted to develop this code and convention within my work, as it adds drama to the scenes. Particularly for the female character as she is seen as the "Heartbreaker" Within my music promo and showing only parts of her at the beginning makes her seem more mysterious. 
• When researching for my Ancillary RMA’s I chose to develop the use of handwritten font for the artists name on my DigiPak and Magazine Advert. As I thought this looked effective on Ed Sheerans magazine advert, as it gave the advert a more personal feel. I therefore wanted to include a similar style on my own ancillary work.
• Other forms and conventions I found within my RMA’s when researching for my ancillaries would be that many posters advertising indie and alternative genres are in black and white.  I developed this within my work by editing my album art within my ancillaries to make it black and white. This image then features on the front of my DigiPak and magazine advert as the black and white style represented the artist and suits the genre of music.
•  Many existing music promos include the notion of looking, or voyeurism in their work. This is when the camera is focusing on the artist by looking through a window or into a mirror. I have developed this in my music promo, by filming some of the skating shots through the bars in the skate park. I think filming a frame within a frame looks effective as I have made the scene more interesting by adding something into the foreground.

Challenges of Forms and Conventions:

•     You could say that my location of a skate park challenges the typical codes and conventions of a narrative based on love and relationships, as the use of skating takes some of the focus away from the couple and makes the narrative more suited to both genres. I deliberately included skating in my music promo as I wanted my video to target my audience of young adults, both male and female.
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•         When filming my music promo I did not use typical cameras such as the school cameras which are SONY HDV 1000E, instead I used my own Canon DSLR. I think this challenged forms and conventions of Real media artefacts as I was then able to use different camera lenses which do not generally feature in Real media artefacts. For example I used a fisheye lens for many scenes in my music promo, as this is a lens that is commonly used by young adults interested in photography. I chose to use the product when filming as my target audience are likely to recognise the technique, particularly as it is also used by skaters when they are doing tricks so this therefore links in with the location of my music promo. 
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3rd Draft Music Promo

Things I have learnt from my Audience Feedback

Overall, I am happy with the feedback I have received as it has generally been mostly positive, and it has made me feel more confident in my work. Some things that were seen as strong positives from my target audience were: Mes en scene, camera angles, use of different shots and lenses, narrative, lyrics matching narrative, location and good acting/singing from main artist. As these things have had only positive feedback, I do not plan on changing them as my target audience seem happy with these features within my work. This is very reassuring as it is essential that my target audience like almost all features in my music promo, as this will allow it to be as successful as possible. One thing I am particularly happy about is the fact that I have had only positive feedback when it comes to my story line this is great as it means that my target audience are more likely to watch my music video over and over again as they like the story within my video and they think it works well with the lyrics.

When it comes to my ancillary work, I have had only positive feedback which makes me very happy! Before I did my Audience Feedback I was generally happy with how my Ancillary work looked and hoped that it was seen as effective from my target audience. I am pleased that one person from my audience feedback even said "If I saw this in a magazine I would definitely stop to read it." This is really reassuring and has made me feel more confident in my work, as my audience feedback has shown me that I targeting my audience correctly and in an effective way.

However, I have also learnt from my Audience Feedback that there are things which I need to improve upon. I am glad that not all my feedback has been positive, as negative feedback allows me to improve on my work and make it even better and more suited to my target audience. Most of the negative features that were mentioned within my Audience feedback were to do with the editing, which is fine as I can easily go back to my work on Final Cut and re-edit certain aspects. For example, I will make sure that I cut out the close up of the "other man" in my music promo, as his facial expression and the short clip made this part seem awkward and unprofessional to my audience. I will therefore only show the "other man" walking off with the female at the end of my music promo as I think this will look more effective.
Another thing I need to adjust would be the jumpy cuts within my music promo, as two people picked up on certain shots being slightly jilted and making my music promo look unprofessional. I will therefore go over my editing and try to sort out as many of these as possible. As well as this, it is important that the lips inking within my music promo looks as professional as possible. This is particularly important as it makes a real impact on how effective my music promo is as a whole, and I do not want my target audience to see the artist in a negative light. I therefore need to go over all singing scenes and ensure that they are perfectly timed.
One comment from my target audience which really helped me was the last comment, although it is mostly negative it has really helped me when it comes to improving my work. As it mentions that not all of my music promo flows, for example I go to stand up at one point in the video and in the next scene I am then shown sitting down. This is not an obvious flaw as you are only shown the top half of me, but when you look closely you can see that I am in a slightly different location and my body language suggests I am sitting as I am hunched over. This is something I plan to correct by sorting out the order of my shots and ensuring that everything flows in a clear and professional way.
I also learnt from the last comment that certain shots can be quite slow, for example there is a scene in the middle of my music promo of the main artist skating after the girl going into the underpass. This wasn't very effective as I cross dissolved the two scenes of him skating round a corner together and unfortunately that meant that the main artist went out of shot for a long amount of time. It is important that I therefore crop this down, and even adjust the speed of the shot to ensure that he is in scene for as long as possible.

Once I have taken all of these comments into account within my work and changed things within my music promo to ensure that it is as effective as possible I hope that I will be left with something that my target audience are likely to enjoy and watch over and over again. As I feel that my music promo has the potential to be really popular within my target audience, and I am glad that I had positive feedback when it came to the narrative and filming as these features are really important within my music promo. If I had received strong negative comments that were to do with my storyline this would have really concerned me and I would have been worried that I wasn't reaching out to the correct target audience. I am also glad that almost all of my negative feedback can be improved with the help of Final Cut as it is easy for me to go back to my second draft and correct it in certain places.

Results from Audience Feedback

Although I asked over 20 young adults to get back to me and give me feedback for my music promo, this is all I have received so far:

"Wow Olivia! This is really good!! I love the style of it all and the Mes en Scene, it looks really believable and professional. :) The colours in the skatepark are great too. I think you've filmed it all really well and the story is nice and clear. I think it's great the way it is, maybe make a couple of small changes like singing being out of time at the beginning and it was a bit juddery at times. Your album and advert are really impressive too, they look super professional and I love the pictures you have used throughout it."

"Your album looks so good! I love the main image on the front I think it works really well with the music video!The narrative is brilliant, I think you've done a really good job because it's nice and clear :) the skating also adds to the storyline by making it a bit more unique and interesting. As romantic music videos can sometimes be very boring! The skating works really well with it though and makes it more boy friendly. My favourite thing about your music video would be Robs [the main artists] singing!! It's actually very professional and looks so believable. Well done :)"

"Your music video and print work work really well.One thing that you could improve on was the shot of the new boy smiling near the end of the music video. I think he looks really awkward :( but the idea of her cheating and being with someone else is great because it works well with the lyrics so I would still use the idea just change that tiny bit. I like the locations which you have filmed in, the business park is really interesting and unique as I would never have thought to film in such a place but I think it really works within your music video."

"I think you've done a fantastic job in terms of matching the story to the lyrics. All of the song works well with what you're seeing :) like when the lyrics of "She had a lover" play and you have shown her phone with a text from another boy which works well! And in other parts of the song where there is no singing, just instrumental you have included less acting and just shown shots of the scenery for example I  think the shot in the underpass where you've used a special lens looks fantastic. My only negative would be that some of the shots are a bit shakey and maybe need going over :) The print work you've done looks brilliant, you've done a great job making that look really professional. If I saw that being advertised in a magazine I would definitely stop to read it."

"I bet Rob loved being your singer! He's actually done such a good job haha I'm really surprised!! Well done both of you :) My favourite thing would probably be the use of different camera angles you have used, as it look way more professional than if you were to just film all of it handheld. I'm guessing you used a tripod for most of it and that has really paid off. I loved the fisheye lens effect, it really made an impact in certain scenes and gave it that extra something! I also like the use of blur you have used and you've done a great job with editing as it looks really profesh! Very proud of you for this, it looks amazing!"

"You've done a good job with filming and I like the storyline but have some issues with the editing. His singing it slightly out of time at times, which you need to correct. As well as this, certain aspects don't flow for example when you're (the girl) waiting for the second boy under the archway, the video shows a quick clip of you standing up and then it goes back to a clip of you sitting down again. Just little things like that are things you need to touch up. Another thing I thought could be improved was the clip of Rob skating after you at the beginning. As it dissolves to him going round a corner and then takes awhile for him to come back into shot, so I would sort that out as well. Overall though it's really great just thought I would help you improve it a little."

Audience feedback

To ensure that I get reliable audience feedback from the right sources, I facebook messages over 20 young adults that fall into my target audience to look at my music promo so they can then message me back telling me what I could improve on and why, as well as what they think is successful within my work. It is important that I ask both males and females, as my chosen artist is a typical Alternative genre which is popular with both male and females. It's really important that I take these comments into account as small changes they suggest will help me to refine my work and improve upon it.

2nd draft Magazine advert

I have not changed my magazine advert drastically since my first draft, as I was quite happy with my original draft. However, I did change the image on my album art to the final edit as the image was very blurred before. As well as this, I did not want my advert to look too dark as this could suggest a heavier style of music to my audience. It was therefore important that my magazine advert represented the alternative style of music of my artist. I decided to change the background to a light grey as this draws the attention in to the middle of the image where you see the album art as well as quotes from known music magazines. I like the colours I have used in this music magazine, as I have stuck to the same house style on both of my ancillaries which helps to promote my artist and brand him. I'm glad that I used subtle colours, as these work well with the black and white image and make the red font stand out even more. I think if I used strong coloured fonts throughout this advert, it would take away the focus on the main image and be unsuccessful.

3rd draft DigiPak

I'm glad that I included a 6th page for a "Thank you" page as I think this adds to my DigiPak and gives it a more personal feel. I found from my research that thank you pages are one of the most popular features of an album for my target audience so it was therefore very important that I included this within my work. As a page like this makes the target audience feel as though they know the artist that little bit better and creates a stronger relationship between the two.
I have also made other small changes to my DigiPak, for example making the centre of the CD page grey, as I learnt from looking at Real media artifacts that the centre of the Cd is often clear plastic or black plastic so I have coloured this to match my house style. Overall, I am happy with the images that I have used within my DigiPak, as they are all quite eye-catching. I am glad that I edited all the images as I think this has allowed me to get the best possible images. I think editing the image of the arch was a good idea because I added more red and yellow tones to the image, so that it links in with the rest of the DigiPak and does not look out of place. The framing I have used on the pages including text in my DigiPak add more depth to the pages, without them I think the pages would look quite dull. 

2nd draft DigiPak

Overall I am happy with the extra features that I have added on from my first draft. I think making the spine of the DigiPak burgundy works well as it suits colours within the images, as well as adding a bit more colour to the DigiPak to make it look more interesting. When adding the album title "Lost in Love" to the DigiPak I tried using the font that features on my tracklist, however I found this large capital font looked messy on the front cover of my album so I chose to use the same font as the artists name. I think this works well as it allows the digipak to flow nicely and look more professional. I have also added on an extra page which will fold out from the image of the arch, this leaflet style is commonly found in Real Media Artefacts so I therefore wanted to include it in my own work. On this blank page I will include a thank you letter from the artist to the audience, as well as a fan-mail address for the audience to get in touch and tell the artist there thoughts on the album.

Draft for the thank you page:

Thank you
It's taken me three long years to put this album together and I would like to thank every single individual that has bought it. Lost in Love has meant a lot to me over the years and helped me through many hard times, and I can only hope that it will be the same for you. I hope that all my fans enjoy this album as much as the last one, and that I maybe interest someone new! Over the years I have been lucky to have such a faithful audience and I can only thank you. Honestly, you are the people that make this all worth it so thank you so so much. I'm always interested to know what you people think of new songs so please get in touch with me and let me know! You can email me at RobDobbie@hotmail.co.uk or you can always leave a comment on my website Mstrkrft.tv.

Editing

To improve my ancillaries, I went over my main image on the front cover of my DigiPak and Magazine advert as certain parts of the image were out of focus and I was not completely happy with the image. I have not made any drastic changes, just edited the image slightly to improve small parts of it. For example, I felt that I needed to add more of the female hand on the second layer as it was too faded. As well as this I made the males hands more in focus to show more detail. I also made the centre of the image lighter to make it more dramatic.

1st Edit:

2nd edit:

2nd edit made slightly darker:

How to improve my DigiPak

Originally I was planning on making the album self titled after the band Mstrkrft, however when I had finished my first draft of my DigiPak I found it looked unprofessional without an album name. I have therefore brainstormed some album name ideas, the name of the album needs to tie in with the song titles on the tracklist as well as suiting the images I have used within the DigiPak. So it would probably be best if that name of the album suited the name of the song in my music promo "Heartbreaker".

Album name ideas: 

Old Heart
Lost in Love
Viscous love
Life without love 

I had lots of ideas for the name of my album, however I found a lot of them were quite depressing and I wanted my album title to be a little more light hearted so I have decided to name the album "Lost in love" as this does not give off a negative feel unlike other names I came up with such as "Viscous love" which could put people off from buying the album as it is quite a depressing name. 

As well as this I also need to include one more page on my DigiPak, when planning my ancillary I found from my research that my target audience also like to see a fan-mail address so that they can get in touch with the artist. When planning my work I thought it would be a good idea to include this as well as a Thank you note from the artist, as this creates a stronger bond between the artist and the audience. I will therefore include this on my final DigiPak. 

2nd draft music promo

Editing Reflection for completed 2nd draft music promo

It took me quite long time to ensure that my music promo was lips-inked correctly, I found this particularly difficult because every time I put in a new shot of my artist singing the rest of my footage would move. I have not included a large amount of my artist singing because I did not want my music promo to be entirely performance based, as this was the least popular music video in my Audience Research. I therefore included only a couple on shots of my artist singing throughout my music promo, and generally only used parts of him singing the chorus. I am happy with how this looks in my music promo as I think showing him performing helps to promote him as an artist. I am also glad that we decided to dress him in casual clothes for this part, as I think this makes him seem more human and therefore more likable.
When editing my music promo I tried not to over do it, as I think it would have been easy to make my music promo look unnatural and unprofessional by over editing it. At times I adjusted the lighting and brightness when editing, as certain footage was either far too dark or had bright light that looked unnatural. I think the lighting was probably the biggest negative of filming at night time, as it was hard to ensure that the lighting was good enough to film or didn't look too harsh. However, I am really glad that I chose to film at night time because I like the effect that it gave my footage, as it made it look more edgy and young. I think if I had filmed all my music promo in the day, my target audience would be less inclined to watch it as filming at night makes it more intriguing.

Filming for my 2nd draft music promo

I knew from editing my first draft what I needed to reshoot and what new features I needed to film for my music promo. Before I starting filming again I made a written plan to take with me so that my filming would hopefully be more organised and quicker. My main focus for filming again was to make sure I had good shots of my artist Rob singing. As I did this in a badly lit area first time round, I decided to change location this time to film him singing in the skatepark. As I really like the yellow tones from the lights in this location, and thought it would work well with the lyrics as he sings. I thought it would be a good idea if my artist wore a new set of clothes, as I learnt from looking at Real media artefacts that artists normally seperate their scenes of performance and narrative by wearing different clothes. If my male character was wearing the same thing this could be seen as confusing to the audience as they would think the singing ties in with the narrative. I therefore asked my male character Rob to wearing something a little more casual compared to the shirt he wears in other parts. Before we set off filming I went to his house and we chose a plain grey tshirt, jeans and a parka coat. All of these clothes have quite simple colours which we thought would work well because it's important that he is the main focus, not his clothes. He also opted to wear a beanie hat, I thought this was fine because it is typically a young thing to wear and particularly works well with the "skater boy" vibes that feature in my music promo.
When it came to filming Rob singing I started by using the fisheye lens, as it looked really effective when he stood in the middle of the half pipe (a type of skate ramp) this worked well because the sides of the ramps curved up around him to give an unusual shot. I thought this would be effective within my music promo as it adds a little something extra to make my music promo more interesting. As well as this I also filmed various close up and extreme close up shots to show the emotion on his face. I found it was quite difficult to keep his face entirely in focus when filming the extreme close ups when using a normal lens, as he moved slightly as he sung which made him go in and out of focus. This was quite unfortunate as there are some really good shots of him singing which I would have liked to have used but they are too blurry. However, I have tried to include some of this within my music promo as I think when it is included in a subtle way it does not look too bad.
Another important factor that needed focusing on was improving the storyline of my music promo. As I found it difficult to completely stick to my storyline when filming. My original storyline included a number of male characters acting as well as skating, however I found this almost impossible to do as I could not find any males that wanted to act in my video apart from my main character. I therefore had to change my storyline slightly in order to make it work with just me and Rob in it. I thought the best way to do this would be for the female character to be cheating on the main character. I drew up a new storyboard and came up with the idea of using a mobile phone to show that the female character is organising to meet up with another man. I thought this would be effective because it is clear, as I did not want my storyline to become confusing to my audience. Although using a mobile phone to show texts from another man could be seen as quite cheesey, I think it works well in my music promo as it gives the video a stronger narrative. At the end of my music promo I thought the most dramatic ending would be for the female character to walk off holding a different mans hand, as this links in with the song "Heartbreaker".
Other features that I wanted to film included quick shots of the couple (me and rob) kissing or hugging, just to make it more clear to the audience that we were together. This was quite easy to shoot as I have been using a tripod so we were able to both stand infront of the camera.
I am glad that I have been able to use my own SLR camera when filming my music promo, as it has allowed me to go out and film whenever I want. This week I have filmed most nights, and I feel like this has really helped me to get on top of what I wanted to achieve.

Updated version of the storyboard:

Dolby

Fab images and a great house style here with the ancillaries. Do you want the album title on the front of the digipak? Make sure to upload the original images and how you have manipulated them to show your ICT skill. It will make it easiert o reflect on later.

Completed first draft magazine advert

Completed first draft DigiPak

Overall I am happy with how my Digipak has come together, planning my ancillary in advance really helped me when it came to constructing as I already planned what features I wanted on each page and had already planned what colour scheme would link in well with my music promo and magazine advert. I think the use of the colour red links in well with my main artist as he is wearing a red shirt in parts of my music promo, it was therefore important that I included this colour in my Digipak as I wanted it to link with my artist. The use of yellow tones also link in with my music promo, as the skate park has very warm yellow lights. I tried to link this in slightly with the title on the front cover, by making "Mstrkrft" a cream colour instead of bright white as it gives it a warmer, less harsh feel to it which suits the romantic feel better. I learnt from my RMA Research that many back covers do not include bold images, as the focus is mainly on the track list. I chose to use this in my own work as I think the track list should be the main focus. It was important that my choice of fonts flowed throughout the DigiPak, I therefore used the same font on my back page and on the inside leaflet. When choosing my font I looked at my RMA Research and found that Capitals were commonly found on the back of albums as they usually include a lot of text so the text therefore needs to be clear and easy to read. I chose this font because it links in with the use of graffiti in my music promo, and I think that this also ties in well with my target audience of young adults.

DigiPak first draft

Magazine advert first draft

When doing my planning for my magazine advert, I made several different layouts in order to see which design was most effective. I then took forward my two favourite layouts and asked ten people that link in with my target audience which one they prefer. This layout was the favourite as 7/10 people preferred it, I am happy with this result as I also prefer this layout too. I think it is more effective as the image is slightly bigger than my other designs, it is therefore slightly more simplistic, which shouldn't be seen as a negative thing as the minimal style could be seen as quite up to date and fashionable. I have therefore made my first draft of my magazine advert, by including my chosen font and using the quotes and ratings that I want. Although this still needs a lot of work, I am still quite happy with how it is coming along.

Images for my ancillary

I have done two photo shoots since starting the ancillary construction, one took place in the skate park as I wanted to capture images of the graffiti which features on the ramps. I chose to photograph this as I thought it would link in nicely with my target audience as graffiti is generally linked to young adults. I took various images of all the graffiti in the skate park, in order to get the best shot possible. I was actually quite surprised at how good some of the graffiti work was, as some things were really artistic. I'm therefore glad that I chose to include this in my DigiPak as I think it will work really well with the rest of my work. I have edited a range of images from the photo shoot to see what works best. I want to be sure that I choose the correct image to be in my DigiPak, it may be good idea to show a number of young adults that tie in with my target audience which image is their favourite, to ensure that my DigiPak is effective.
Here are some images I have edited from the skate park shoot:

The next day, I then went out and did a second photo shoot in the IQ Business Park which features in my music promo. I wanted to include this location in my Digipak because it is very well lit and has impressive architecture which makes it quite a beautiful place. Therefore, I thought it would work well in my DigiPak. My ideas for this shoot were quite simple, I chose to take a fish eye lens with me as this allowed me to capture more in one take, this was beneficial as it allowed me to capture the architecture in the IQ Business park to show its full beauty. For example, there is a large archway in the IQ which I was able to capture successfully because I used a fish eye lens. I'm really glad I did this, as I think my images look really effective. I took some images with and without my main character, as I was not sure which works best. Here is an image I have already edited of this photo shoot:

For my front cover I took 3 separate images as I plan on editing them together on photoshop to create one image. I came up with this idea as I thought it would be an effective image that would hopefully draw peoples attention and make people interested in buying the album. I learnt from my RMA's that a dramatic front cover is generally popular as it's important to make an impact on your audience. This is therefore what I was aiming for, as I wanted an unusual image that stood out. Originally, I was planning on using a red background as this linked in with my chosen colour scheme. However using colour in my images did not look as effective as I first thought, as the red sheet I used as my background looked too bright as the lighting is very harsh. I felt this would look out of place when sitting on my Digipak with the other images I have taken, as my other images are darker and do not include many bright colours. 

Here are my three separate images that I will edit together:

I started the editing process by layering the images together one on top of the other and then changing the opacity for each layer to suit the image. However, this did not look successful as I unfortunately forgot about my watch in these images. This caused a bit of a problem when it came to editing because my watch and bracelets in the images made me look like I had an arm made of metal when I edited the images one on top of the other. To stop this from happening I used a different approach when editing, by using the clone stamp tool and selecting the exact point that I want to copy and placing it on the main image. I found this a lot easier as I then had full control of what I wanted to put on my main image. Once I was happy with how this looked I then edited the background to diminish any creases on the sheet in the background, as these look quite unprofessional. I then tried altering the colours to look darker but I found the image looked more effective in black and white as it was more suited to the brand of my artist.
Final image:

Dolby

It seems that asking the audience has been effective and this planning is effective. Now look at images, layouts and colour schemes.

Preferred fonts

I asked 30 young adults that fall into my target audience to choose one font they like most which will feature on both my Digipak and Magazine Advert. I also asked my audience if they would generally prefer to see the artists name in capitals or normal text, overall most people seemed to prefer the idea of capitals however when I gave my audience this sheet to tell me which font they prefer the most popular font is not written in capitals. This left me a bit confused, as I was unsure what kind of text would work best for my Ancillary tasks. I therefore went back to my target audience and asked a handful of them what they thought of my fonts. I noted down some quotes so I had a closer idea of what my target audience like "I would normally say capitals look a lot better on posters and on albums but after I saw the sheet I changed my mind as I really like the font called Galeforce, it looks like handwriting and I like the fact that it is a bit messy as it looks like it would suit the style of music." This was a quote taken from a student at school called Carys Colborne aged 19. I am really glad that I went back and asked a few people what they really thought, as it gave me a more in depth and clearly answer so I am now more sure of what kind of font I want to use.

Fonts

I will be asking my target audience which fonts they prefer from this page.

Constructing my DigiPak

I have thought about what images will be most effective in my DigiPak by planning what image will work well on all four pages. On the front page the album art will focus on something that relates to my music promo, such as the couple, rollerblading or the male character alone. I am planning on taking a range of shots, so that I have more options when it comes to deciding what works best, as I need to ensure that the front of my DigiPak is eye catching in order to grab my target audiences attention.On the front of my DigiPak it is essential that I also include the artist name and album title. On the inside of my DigiPak I will include a track list on the left hand side. I am also considering making this into a leaflet as this will make my DigiPak more interesting for my audience, as the page that features the track list could then fold out to show lyrics for the songs. I think the lyrics would work well in my DigiPak as I found in my questionnaire they were the most popular feature of an album to my target audience. Next to this, on the right hand side of the inside of my DigiPak I will have the CD. I am considering featuring some sort of pattern or close up shot that links in with my music promo on this page, such as graffiti which features on the walls of the skate park in my music promo. A pattern such as this would look better than an image of a character as I could then feature this on the page and on the CD itself, so when the CD is separate from the album the image will still be intact. On the back page of my DigiPak I will then feature an image that is very simple, or I will just include a coloured background. As I have learnt from the Real Media Artefacts that the back pages of DigiPaks are normally very plain and simplistic as they are not the main focus. On this page I will also include a message to the audience from my artist, as this makes the album seem more personal and is likely to have a positive effect on my target audience. As well as this I will also add a fan mail address on this page, as this creates a closer relationship between the artist and the audience which will help to promote my artist.

Mrs D

This is a great first draft Olivia. Well done. I like the focus pull at the beginning and the CUs of the artist. More of these please to improve. The colour is very effective and the Movement shots of the skaters are brilliant.

First Draft Music Promo

Editing

It's taken a lot of time to edit my music promo to a higher standard. I have been editing my video everyday this week and it is still not 100%, so editing is definitely a lot harder than I thought it would be. There are certain aspects of my music promo that I have struggled to edit, for example I have found it hard to include my main character singing along to the song as I only filmed a few clips of him doing this in my second location. This was definitely a mistake, as I have not been able to include him singing in my first draft because having him singing in a different location to the skate park at the beginning of the music promo doesn't look effective. I also found it hard to include my male character lip sinking at the end of my music promo as the lyrics that he sung don't match up to the end of the song. Therefore, for my second music promo draft I need to re shoot my male character singing so that I can include this throughout my music promo.
I am really happy with some aspects of my music promo, I like the different use of camera angles which I used when filming and found this really helped me when it came to editing and making my music promo look more interesting. For this first draft I have not used many effects or editing techniques, instead I have focused more on where I will cut things and which order I want things to be in my music promo. For my second draft I am planning on playing around with the effects so that I can work out what looks best and what suits the mes en scene of my music promo. However, I am not planning on changing this in a drastic way as I am happy with the warm colours that feature in my music promo as they connote romance and I think they work well with the lyrics.
I have tried to use a variation of fast and slow cuts throughout my music promo, to give it more of a variation and make it look as effective as possible. I have also used slow motion as well as speeding certain footage up, I found this can look quite professional when done subtly however I want to keep things quite simple when it comes to editing as my music promo could easily look overdone.

Third day of filming

On Wednesday, I planned on filming my two main characters (male and female) walking from the skate park to my second location the IQ Business park in Farnborough. I wanted to include this location because it has really impressive architecture and I thought it would look effective in my music promo because it is very well lit. I carefully thought about how this location could work with the narrative of my storyboard, and decided it would probably work best if only the main male and female characters were in this location. This is similar to how I planned my music promo in my storyboard, however I have altered it slightly by making my male character chase after the female character in order to speed up the walking process to the new location. I think this is more effective in my music promo as it makes my female character look more mysterious. As well as this it also makes it more obvious that the male character in my music promo clearly wants to be with the female character, as I have filmed the female walking away and the male chasing after her on his skates. I think this small change to my storyboard should work well within my narrative and hopefully when it comes to editing the story will be easy to understand.
Once I had filmed that, I then focused on my male character as he had not done any singing in the previous days I had filmed. I think filming in the Business park worked well, as there were only the two characters in the location which made the scenes more intimate. When it comes to editing, I may find that I need more singing nearer the beginning of my music promo, but I am happy to reshoot that in my second draft. In reflection, it would have been a good idea to film the two characters together as a couple, as this would add to the story of my music promo. For my second draft I will reshoot and focus more on making the story of my music promo more obvious by filming the couple together, as it is quite limited at the moment.

Second day of filming

On Tuesday night I filmed my male characters rollerblading in the Skate park. I'm glad that I chose this day to film  as the weather was perfect for it, I'm really happy with the footage I've got and I think I will be able to use quite a lot of it in my first draft. I will go through all the footage of skating that I have and decide what works well in my music promo, or if I need to reshoot. I have quite a lot of time between handing in my first and second draft of my music promo, so if need be I will be able to reshoot certain aspects of my music promo. I have thought about reshooting some skating as I was only able to film two males skating and in order to make my music promo look more professional it may be a good idea to include more skaters throughout the video.
I am happy with the different camera angles that I used, as it has given me a good range of shots for my music promo. I tried to vary them as much as I could when it came to filming my male characters skating as I think it helps make the scenes look more dramatic. I used a Stabilizing handle when filming certain aspects, as this allowed me to film my characters at a low angle while they were skating, allowing me to focus on their blades. Strapping my camera to a stabilizing handle was really helpful, as it allowed my filming to flow and be fluid as it was easy to move the camera around and follow my characters while they were skating. Although I am not the best Roller blader in the world, it was important that I skated behind my characters in parts as this gave my footage more movement. This would not have looked as effective if I'd of just held the camera, as it would have been filmed from a higher angle and would have been very gerky and looked unprofessional.

Cast signatures agreeing to be in my music promo

My first attempt at filming

On Monday 15th I filmed close ups in the skate park of my male character, as well as using the tripod to film shots of myself (the female character). Before we started filming, I made sure that my male character was dressed appropriately as it is important that he fits in with the genre of the music. I carefully thought about this over the weekend so that my character was prepared and knew what to wear on the day. I didn't want him to look too dressed up, as a formal outfit would not suit the location. So I asked him to wear black skinny jeans as they are typically what teenage boys wear, as well a burgundy button up shirt. I think the shirt could be seen as too formal if it was in a different colour, but I chose it because I felt burgundy suited the dark tones that will feature in my music promo, as I am filming it at night. I thought a dark colour such as this would allow my character to fit in with the different scenes, instead of looking out of place. Another reason I thought a dark red would be a good colour to wear, would be because the colour connotes love and lust which links in with my chosen song "Heartbreaker".
We started filming with the opening scene of my storyboard, I adapted this to the location by using a spotlight in the skate park as my starting point instead of using the stars. I did this because the stars were hard to make out, and the lights were much brighter and therefore looked more effective on screen. I have found that making small changed such as this have actually worked to my advantage, as I have been using my storyboard as a starting point instead of sticking to it. I think this is a positive thing, as it allows me to tweak and improve my storyboard whenever I need to when filming.

Mrs D

The 2 draft of the storyboard is much better. Well done. More shot variation. The start is better and the pace is good. I would use a slower fade at the end though and why do you have a CU of the skates and of the hands when it says ‘Mind’? Have a look at when you are using CU and link to the lyrics. Also half way through it looks like you have just looped the images rather than thought about the message they give when joined with the lyrics. Be aware of this when constructing.

Branding my artist

It's important that my music promo links in with my artist, and helps to promote them as a brand. As well as this I have thought carefully about my target audience when planning my music promo, to ensure that my video suits young adults from the age of 15-25. I think by choosing the location of a skate park, I am attracting my target audience as many young adults recognise skating as an alternative sport, which then links in with the alternative style of music in my chosen song. There are many existing music promos that are filmed in skate parks, or include skating of some sort. This shows that skating can be linked in with the artist as it portrays my artist as young and hip, helping to promote them as a brand.

Changes to filming schedule

I was unable to make a start on my filming yesterday due to the weather, as I'm not able to film rollerblading or skating when it is raining or if it is wet on the ground. This could be a dilemma when it comes to filming, if the weather is wet for the rest of the week then I may not be able to get all the shots that I want. I have looked at the weather forecast so that I can plan what day is best to film skating. Hopefully, the weather will improve and I will be able to film my male characters rollerblading tomorrow night, as it is due to rain tonight. I am making the rollerblading and skating parts of my music promo my main priority when it comes to filming, to ensure that I get the right shots. I am able to film close ups of the female and male character no matter what the weather is like, so I am planning on filming close ups of my characters tonight. I want to make a start on this now as it will give me a clearer idea of how I want things to look, in terms of what works best in my music promo.

Storyboard - Moving image second draft

I have made some changes to my storyboard as I thought I needed to improve it, the main thing that needed work was the beginning of my storyboard as I was unsure what to show in the first 20 seconds of my music promo because this part of the song includes no lyrics. I have thought about what would work best for this section of my music promo, and decided to include flashbacks of the couple being happy together at the beginning of my music promo. I think this would be effective, as it works well with the lyrics of my chosen song as the memories could represent what my male character misses and why he is so upet about losing the female character.

Calender

Mrs D

Well done for hitting your second deadline. The planning looks good. Your storyboard has some ideas. The first shot is too long - go back to your RMAs and see how the introduction works when there isn't any singing. You also need to think carefully about how you will use your filming at the skating park. The filming is good, but make sure you have a clear idea how it brands your artist and how it fits with the narrative of song.

Mes en Scene

It's important that my characters dress appropriately in my music promo, as they need to suit the style of music. I therefore need my characters to wear indie style clothes, this could be seen as quite a general term so to make my characters outfits more precise I want them to wear appropriate clothes for skating. This will then ensure that they do not look out of place in the skatepark, as that is my main location for my music promo.
When it comes to the female character, I also want her to suit the style of music and the location, so I want her to wear quite tomboyish clothes, including trainers and a hoodie or denim jacket. This way she will fit in with the male characters of my music promo, this will then make my storyline more convincing as the male and female characters will dress and look alike, making them more likely to suit as a couple.

Font styles

Storyboard - Moving image first draft

Casting

For my music promo, my main character will be a male as the artist singing in my music promo is male. As well as this, I have also included other characters which will act as his friends in the music promo. As they only have a small part in the music promo, there gender is not important but they will probably be mostly males as this fits in well with the main focus of skating or roller blading which will partake in my music promo.I plan to only include 2 or 3 male characters in the background. I also need a female character in my music promo, as my chosen song is called "Heartbreaker" and I want to show the woman in small cuts throughout the music promo to make her look more mysterious. I have found it difficult to find a female friend that is willing to be in my music promo, so I am willing to play the part myself.

I have emailed the people that I want to feature in my music video asking them if they would like to take part.
My email said:
"Hello, I'm making a music video for my media coursework and was wondering if you would be able to be one of my characters in it. I am planning on filming my video in a skate park and would like you to bring your blades/bike/board. I would like you to play the part of ____________, really hope that you're up for it as I think you would work really well in my music video and it should be fun filming it! Get back to me as soon as you can please, thank you!"
Main character - Robert Dobbie
Friends in background - Bruce Dobbie, Aaron Hunt, Matt Wyatt.
Female Character - Me (Olivia McCulloch)

Storyboard second draft

After looking into more detail when it comes to the location of my music promo, I have decided to alter my music video slightly. As I needed to include the male and female characters walking to a new location half way through, to show the journey from the skate park to the business park. As well as this I have slightly altered the ending, so that the male character is the main focus of the music video. I find this is more effective, as the lyrics of the song are from a males point of view so it links in with this.

Location

Location for my music promo on Prezi

Ideas for Magazine Advert

Overall, I prefer the first and last drafts of my magazine advert, I think these two will be my preferred choice when it comes to constructing my magazine advert as they look more professional.I also asked ten people that fall into my target audience what they think of these layouts, and the most popular choice was the last draft. I will keep this in consideration when it comes to making my final advert, as I want it to attract the right audience.

Ideas for DigiPak

I chose to make three different Digipak when planning what I want it to look like, this way I know which style looks most effective. I have changed the colours slightly on all three of my DigiPaks, as well as changing  what text I want on each individual page as a way of knowing what works best. I am happy with how my first draft looks, particularly with my choice of colours as I think the dark reds would work well with my target audience, as they give the DigiPak a more mature theme. This is important, as I don't want my DigiPak  to look too childish as I need to ensure that I am targeting young adults as well as teenagers. 

This is my second option for my DigiPak, I am not as keen on the colour scheme of this DigiPak as I think it looks too young and girly. However, I prefer the way I have laid out the text on this DigiPak, as it includes all the factors that were popular with my target audience from my questionnaire. I like the fact that this DigiPak is also slightly different to the norm, as the back of my DigiPak features the lyrics of the track with the tracklist. I think this works well as typically you would look at the back of the album to see the track name, so the lyrics link in well with this. I plan on keeping all the features of my DigiPak similar to this design in terms of keeping my message to the audience on the inside leaflet, with a fan-mail address along side it. I like that these two features fit in well together and make the artist seem more involved with their audience. 

This is my final plan for where I want the features of my DigiPak to be placed. As well as planning what images I want on which page. I am happy with how this is laid out, as all of my features link in well with each other and I think this helps my Digipak flow for my audience, as it is easier to read when it all fits in together like this. 

Final ideas for my DigiPak I am happy with the dark red colours that I have chosen to include as they suit my target audience, I tried to ensure that each page in my DigiPak is different as this way it is more interesting for the audience. Obviously, this is not my final draft for my DigiPak as there are still things I am unsure about. For example, I am not very keen on the framework I have included, but I felt the page needed something extra to make is more interesting. However, I do like the fact that I have used a squirl over my CD itself, as I think this is quite different and could make my album more memorable so this is something I may consider when starting my construction. 

Colour scheme

I need to ensure that the colours I use in my DigiPak and Advert are similar so that the artist has more of a brand identity which my target audience will be able to register. This is important as it will help to make my artist more noticed, which will help to promote both the digipak and advert.
The colour scheme that I use is therefore very important, as it will feature in all types of my artists work. I need to make sure that the colours I use suit my target audience, as I am aiming this work at young adults between the ages of 15-25. It is essential that I use colours that suit both genders, as I my target audience is not gender specific.
I am therefore planning on using prime colours, such as blues or reds. As I think these colours would be the most effective. In my research I asked which colours my audience think an indie record would suit. Blue, red, grey and black were the most popular choices for this so I plan on including grey and black in both my Magazine advert and my Digipak as these dark colours will go well with the main colour of either Red or Blue.