4 panels of the digipak

Evaluation Question 4

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

Media technologies/equipment used:

• YouTube
• Facebook
• Sony Handycam
• Sony Cyber Shot camera
• Dafont.com
• Photoshop CS4
• Final Cut Express

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Receiving feedback from our target market was extremely important to the success of our video. We used the comments made from class members, friends and our teacher to improve our video where necessary.

The first time we received feedback was from our teacher during our pitch to her. This was our first real start to our video, when we were just planning what could feature. We explained the idea's we had for the video so far and how they would link in with each line and the song it's self. We received positive feedback on the individual ideas that could feature in the video, and those ideas eventually did feature.

However our teacher told us we had no real base point and no real meaning of what the video was going to be about, we had a poor structure. We had lot's of little idea's that would look good, but nothing to really spin from those small ideas. So after our pitch we researched and researched and brain stormed some idea's for what the main base for our video could be about.

We came up with the idea of cyber bullying as the main theme of our video, it is a big issue in today's current society and something we thought we could reflect in the video and would work well with the song choice.

Click here for the feedback from our pitch

I constructed some research of my own to our target market before we started filming, myself and the group knew we had some rough idea's that could possibly work very well, however I wanted to make sure that our target audience agreed with our ideas. For example the use of black and white and also if they would mind if the video did not include the band/singer who's song it was. I gave the questionnaire

out to 10 people aged between 16 - 19. If I got a lot of conclusive no's back from our target market I think we would of had to re think our video's story and it's structure. The questionnaire results were very positive, 8/10 of the people asked wouldn't mind if the video did not include the band/singer who's song it was, and also 7/10 people wouldn't mind if the video was in black and white. If I had received the questionnaires back and they would prefer to see the band who's song it was, then myself and the group would certainly have to think about getting a local band involved and possibly produce a performance video.

Questionnaire research click here.

The next time we received feedback was after the screening of rough cut to our Media classmates, they wrote down what they thought of the video, what they liked and what they disliked. This feedback really helped us in the construction of our main product, as you can probably tell!

After the screening of the rough cut myself and my group members looked through the comments that we had been given, the main comment made was about the many gaps we still had left in the video, this prompted us to go back to our locations and film a lot more footage. Classmates enjoyed the argument scene, they thought the hand-held camera scenes were very effective and life like and they also thought the pace of the editing fitted the music well.

Link to the rough cut feedback click here.

The next time we received feedback was after we showed media students and friends of the group our final video. Asking media students fortheir feedback of our video was particularly useful, they themselves are obviously doing the same thing to us, so receiving their feedback on editing techniques, colours, and the pace of the editing and music at certain times was very helpful.

What they enjoyed:

• They enjoyed the storyline of the video
• They thought that the use of cross dissolves and cuts were used in the right places at the right time
• They enjoyed how the editing linked in sync with the music, for example Claire running away, the start of the argument scene, and also the hand picking up the pills!
• They enjoyed the black and white imagery

What they didn't enjoy:

• The lighting in the suicide scene was different when Claire reached for the alcohol in the cupboard, it ruined the feeling of a dark and depressing situation

How could we improve the video?

• Feature the graveyard scenes more

After we interviewed our target market (the video is below) we also got them to fill in a booklet about the digipak and the magazine advert. We had already got the feedback from them over the video, however we wanted extra feedback on our ancillary tasks, after all a band's digipak and advert is really what attracts the customer to buy the products.

• In my opinion I feel that the way there are logos and representations of other companies on the magazine give it a very realisitic feel. Alongside his I would also say that the use of colours make the adertisement stand out. The text is very easy to read and the advert gives a lot of information without using a mass amount of text, keeping it simple was a very good idea.
• The magazine advert goes well with the CD cover. I like the way both images are quite dark and shady. I like the way the reviews lie (ie. star ratings) are below the images
• The magazine advert is similar to the CD cover, which creates synergy within the campaign. THe images are well edited and the text is easy on the eye.
• The layout is very professinal and the colours, fonts and lighting match the digipak creating a strong house theme. The professional touches such as the itunes and hmv logo work very well.
• I like the combingation f the dark background, suble images + light, clear, easy to read writing.
• Beautiful images, the upside down rose is distinctive and symbolic
• Maybe pictures better aligned.

• The digipak almost tells a story through the pictures used, I would say this is very good as it clearly builds from the music video. Again the use of logos make it look realistic and credible. It is kept very simple but at the same time very eye catching for the buyers. It definatley looks like an album to buy and keep.
• I like the saturation - could poss edit further?
• The dark imagery gives a hint as to the lyrical themes of the video. The sense of foreboding is conveyed through the open gates and tree shapes.
• Dark contrast makes it seem very gloomy and mysterious. I like the barcode positioned at the bottom right.
• The gothic theme indicates what the genre of the music will be.
• The use of dark low key ighting is amazing, the saturation of the pictures and lighting emphasise the message and tone of your vdeo. The front image works really well as it is a scene from the video and entices viewers as it does not give too much away. Also love the continual symbolism created by the rose
• I like how dramatic the pictures are. The front picture has mysterious elements that draws in audiences.
• The lighting makes it very atmospheric. The open gate draws you into the picture making you wonder what will happen next.
• Atmospheric - sets a sombre tone. Pictues are excellent, perhaps bottom right could have zoomend in on graves a bit more to distinguish it from bottom left.

After they completed their feedback myself and the group analyzed it to see where we could improve and what they enjoyed. The feedback we received was very positive and we were pleased to get back from our target market, however one person said we should edit the saturation on the panels of the digipak. After a lot of trials with different levels of saturation and getting the group's opinion on the matter, we decided to leave it how it was because the continuity would be ruined if we proceeded with the changes.

Below is our feedback video.

Untitled from Jack Jarvie on Vimeo.

We obtained further feedback by posting our video onto Facebook. This was very useful because it allowed us to show the video to a lot of people all in our target market age range in a very short amount of time. Also during my research into my target market I found out that they use Facebook a lot for social interaction between friends and also as a hobbie. The audience feedback from Facebook is below.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation question

View more presentations from manufan93.

Digipak research

The Blueprint three

The digipak below is the Blue print 3 by Jay - Z, the genre for this digipak is obviously hip - hop. Although our genre is rock/indie, i love the house style and the continuity this album has, for example the red and white that runs through out. The back of the digipak is almost like an actual blueprint, with the lines and the random squares and rectangles placed around the song titles. The three red lines is something that run's through two of the four panels, I am fairly sure that this represents the three part, from the Blueprint three. This is an interesting technique that maybe we should consider when producing our digipak, having something significant that runs through our digipak.

Digipak research

Clubmix

This digipak is from Clubmix 2007. The house style is a very important feature in all of the digipak's i have viewed, when constructing our digipak we have to make sure this is a key feature. The obvious connotations from clubbing, is a very sexual one. Men dancing with women etc. So I think the under dressed appealing girls on the front cover are very suitable for the genre being advertised. The colours on the digipak appeal to a very wide audience, with the purples and the blues reflected through out the album, this is very wise to do, clubbing songs do appeal to both females and males, and they have been clever enough not to devote too much attention to one sex.

Digipak research

The Nightfly

When constructing my digipak research i really wanted a diverse mix of digipak's, and this one certainly is! It is an old swing album, with a lot of 60s - 70s music. The colour's certainly represent the genre and the date of this music, there are a lot of black and white's on the digipak. I love the old record player on the front cover with the cool traditional 60s guy. The inside of the digipak is surprisingly plain, it just has the blue page with the artist's name, also the actual CD itself is very plain, there is no extravagant graphics or images slapped onto the CD, again it's just the artists name and the album cover. The artist, Donald Fagen obviously wanted a very simple digipak to represent the style of music he was producing.

The back of the digipak was missing.

Bigger role for me

Originally I thought that my role in the video was going to be a fairly small one, with me just acting out happy scene's with Claire and then me posing in Facebook and my text message sending her abusive messages. However since filming some of the video and in discussion with the group, we have decided that I should take on a bigger role in the video. The main reason for this decision is because our song is fairly slow in parts, and after showing our teacher our rough cut video she gave us the idea of making the audience feel really gripped and emotional towards our video, and she really liked the idea of my character showing regret!

Final cut

Untitled from Jack Jarvie on Vimeo.

Final digipak

This is the group's final digipak that Alysha and Charlotte have produced together, i love the continuity between each panel, for example the use of the rose and the black and white theme! For the inside two panels we decided to use the graveyard, we originally wanted a really wide shot of the graveyard stretched across the two panels, but we couldn't get the right shot to fit in well enough, we decided to stick with the gates to the entry of the graveyard, the gates are a significant part in our video so I think this equally work's very well.

Links to the creators of the digipak's blog are below.

Alysha Bennett

Charlotte Bailey

Too many tutorials..

Myself and the group really wanted an effect that we have seen in many video's on the television. We wanted to make the whole of the clip black and white apart from one thing in the clip. The dying ambition for where we wanted this to happen was with the rose, we thought the dark black and white background in contrast to the luscious red rose would look outstanding! My self and Claire got onto YouTube to find a way of doing this in our video, we were looking for a straight forward video to guide us to this effect. What we found and used is below!

Magazine advertisement research

The parts of this advertisement i like is how the images match the text, for example "Written in the stars" matched with the galaxy of multi coloured starts around the artist. I also enjoy how the text keeps its continuity through out the advert with the Tinie Tempah and Disc - Overy in the same font, this adds to the brand identity that the record company are trying to create.

I also like the main image in the advert, the big bold picture of the artist is something i think really works, after all the advert is trying to promote and then eventually self the artist to the target market, i think this effect of presenting the artists in a big bold way is something we should consider during the production of our advert in the future.

The release date of the advert is very big and clear for the audience to see, this works on many levels, the whole purpose of the advert is to sell the artist and his new album to the target market, the release dates have to be big and bold for the market to see, this has to be a key area that we should reflect in our advert, it will add to the authenticity.

Magazine advertisement research

It is a very important process to look at existing media products to get some sort of idea to how we can influence ours to make it look as authentic as possible. This magazine advertisement is from Basement Jaxx which is a typical band that our target market listen to. The main things i like about this advertisement is the different types of fonts used through out the advert, the straight smart layout of "Congress Theater" and also "Friday November 6th 2009" adds a simplistic and stylish touch to this very busy advert.

I also like the main image in the advert, if you look closely it is a classic record with the main Basement Jaxx image in the middle of the record. There is a lot of colour in the main image which represents the type of up beat and disco vibe that their music has.

To make our advert look authentic as possible we must use some of the characteristics that this advert has used, what i mean by this is to use record label companies, their websites and also logos of the companies.

Risk assessment

This is the group's risk assessment that we have put together, we have identified the potential hazards in our locations and a way round it. Although we only film in about five or six locations the risk assessment is obviously still very important for the safety of the group and myself. However the potential risks that are in our specific locations are quite large.

Digipak planning

Charlotte and Alysha have taken the role to produce the digipak together, by producing two panels each. The rose in our video really is the focal point to our story, in our video Claire the loves and nourishes the rose, but after the brake up she uses the rose to symbolize her emotions against me, by ripping it up and throwing it on the floor! So myself and the group have decided that we need the rose in more than one panel.

So far so good in terms of putting together the panels, Alysha has worked her magic again on Adobe Photoshop by creating the front and the back panels. Below is what she has come up with so far.

The back:

I love the authenticity that Alysha has managed to produce on the two panels. Especially the one above, the Mercury Prize award and the Columbia Records emblem makes this panel look outstandingly professional. The band's website and the record label's website is something you would see on a real album! The background of the hundreds of roses is actually just picture of a bunch of roses scattered on to the floor, which Alysha has then duplicated in photoshop around 50 times. It has made an outstanding effect.

The front:

The initial idea of Claire holding the rose an then eventually picking the rose petals off and dropping them onto the floor was my idea. We were filming Claire when she had to be isolated and in distress, we shone a bright light to the left of her in a dark room, with a white background behind her and it created this fantastic clear shadow! Alysha the group's photographer was obviously inspired by this image and it has turned out to be a great photo, with the necessary editing done to it in Adobe Photoshop.

To edit the original photo Alysha used a small amount of tools in Photoshop, she simply brought the contrast up and the brightness down. She then used the eraser tool to blur the edges around the pictures. She then added the text in the bottom corner, the same font and size that she used in the advert, it is vital that we have this continuity running through out our ancillary tasks!

The front of our digipak:

Final digipak:

Below is a link to Alysha's blog.

Alysha Bennett's blog.

Production of the advert!

Alysha and Charlotte are producing the group's two ancillary tasks, the magazine advert and the digipak. Myself and Claire haven't worked on the two tasks at all but we have obviously given our ideas for how to improve it.

The whole feel to our video is a dark one with an aery edge to it. It was very important for our group that our video matched up with the two ancillary tasks, so we decided to have as the main house style through out it all as black and red, the black really enforces the meaning of our song, The Funeral, and also the red represents the rose in our video which is a big part! However, with the advert and digipak we had to incorporate Claire.

Originally the picture below was going to be the main advert, obviously changed with Alysha brilliant editing skills in Adobe Photoshop. Every time she made a new advert, which was quite a lot, she always asked for mine and Claire's feedback, and i think by doing this we grew as a group and so did our advert. As you will see later in this posting our final advert did include the rose draped down, but not Claire in this picture.

Alysha took the original picture above and transformed it to something brilliant in my opinion using Adobe Photoshop. By making everything black and white apart from the rose it makes the rose look beautifully crisp and really natural! She then tided up the whole picture using the photo edges filter tool, then simply cut out the part she wanted to use, by using the magic wand tool. She then desaturated the whole image and used the history brush to colour the rose back in to it's normal colours!

She then cut the rose out, and placed four images around Claire that we took of her when we were filming. The images are all of Claire looking in distress apart from the one in the bottom corner. The one in the corner almost looks like she has two faces and two sides to her. In the video she is almost two different people, very happy enjoying life and then suddenly i crush her back down so i think alysha has done very well capturing those sides!

Below is the stages that are music video advert took during it's production, the group all had input into what we wanted to see in the advert and how it could be improved.

Below is our finished advert for our music video, as you can see our last picture in our development of the advert is different from the final advert. We all agreed we needed a fourth picture and when we found the blurry almost two faced one of Claire we knew it would work well with our concept. So below is our music video advert!

Below is a link to Alysha's blog

Alysha Bennet's blog