Final Edit

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

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Defining my Audience 

Audience feedback is one of the most important factors in evaluation of any project. By obtaining audience feedback as part of my evaluation, I have gained knowledge about my target audience, their interests and how this affects their opinion on my media product. The target audience for my media text is people who listen to alternative rock and other rock genres such as psychedelic and dance rock. The ideology of this target audience is involved in fashion and attending live music events, like gigs and festivals. The costume design of my artist was particularly important when planning and constructing my media product because of this, as the target audience should see the artist as being fashionable and idolize their fashion and ideology, in order to create greater appreciation of my artist and develop a brand. The audience for my media text would generally come under the C1 and C2 categories of the demographics table. 

This means that although my audience aren't exactly at the lower bracket of demographic, they aren't at the highest bracket either. So the merchandise for my artist should come at a reasonable price, but at the same time there is certainly opportunity for my artist to make money from the sales of merchandise, as fans of music artists generally will pay the money for merchandise, particularly at live events. Purchasing merchandise during live events often part of the live experience for people attending these events, especially as a part of the ideology of my target audience. I think that my music video and ancillary texts will appeal to my target audience as the subject represents my target audience well, and as does the overall style and iconography fitted into my media texts. 

Audience Feedback 

I collected my audience feedback by taking screenshots of messages to individuals that I personally know, who I thought best fitted my target audience. I treated the process of collecting audience feedback formally, basically as an interview but on a more informal basis as I used messenger. 

This first respondent was relating to my ancillary texts and was overall quite positive towards them. I first of all simply asked them 'What do you think of my ancillary texts for media?' and their response was as read in the first message of this screenshot. The second question that I asked this respondent was to do with how well the two ancillary texts synergies together. There response was great as it related to the colour scheme of my product, which was obviously an aspect of my media text which I deemed to be most important, particularly as this is the case with the original music video for 'Music is My Radar' by Blur. The next question I asked was relating to whether he thought my media text represented my target audience, which they themselves where a part of. This answer was also particularly helpful to myself, as he said that yes it was because of the costume design that I used, which as I have already mentioned, was an important factor whenever we filmed or shot the media text. The final question that I asked this particular respondent was regarding any constructive criticism they could give me regarding my ancillary texts, which I thought would be helpful to my evaluation, especially as this respondent does study media as well. His criticism was that there are some elements of my ancillary texts which are tailored to my target audience, whereas some elements aren't so much. It isn't 100% clear what exactly he means by this. However, my interpretation of this response is that due to the fact that my target audience is those who listen to alternative rock and sub-genres like psychedelic rock, some elements of my media text are purposely unconventionally, though some aren't as much. Indie and alternative genres are often a case of style over conventions, for example the style I have chosen on my two discs is much more unconventional then say the back cover of the digipak which consists of a much more conventional layout. 

This next response is also to my ancillary texts and like with my last respondent, the first question which I asked them was simply 'What do you think of my ancillary texts for media?' The first comment is their response is great, as he clearly understands the audience that my media product represents. I assume by indicating that my media product captures the 'indi spirit' they themselves understand the ideology indie and alternative rock music fans, which relates to the fact that I had chosen this person as I know that they themselves listen to this genre of music. However, unlike the last respondent, his response wasn't 100% positive which is great from an evaluation perspective. They commented that some of the tone in the media text is unclear, particularly in regards to the image of a dartboard inside the digipak. When I was constructing this part of my digipak, I was thinking of the more working class members of my target audience, and the pub ideology of both this social class and the genre of my media product. It is for this reason that I am not so concerned about this criticism, though perhaps this style strays away from my overall idea a little. This respondent also commented saying that they did enjoy the colour scheme, titles and social media tags. These are three elements of my digipak and magazine advert that are especially conventional, though adapted to the overall style of my media product. 

This next respondent is the last of the three key responses that I selected to give feedback on my ancillary texts, to which I asked the same initial question as the other two respondents. There's nothing much to say about their response to their first response, except that it is clearly a positive initial reaction to my media products, which is great as like the other two respondents, this individual would also represent my target audience. This respondent is also female, whereas the other two were male, which is important as my artist's audience would obviously consist of both male and female listeners, both under the same social class demographic. In their response to their second question they have stated that they do indeed think that the media texts would be appropriate to my target audience, and that this is because of the iconography and 'unconventional features' used. I think that by unconventional features they mean that their are elements that are unlike more conventional similar media texts, like the handwritten style on the two discs in my digipak. I think that in a way their response to my last question somewhat  contradicts this statement as they have stated that some elements of the media texts are too conventional for the music genre, like the more conventional studio lighting and background on my magazine advert and back cover of the digipak. The aim that I had when constructing my media text was to keep some elements of my ancillary texts more simple and keeping other elements like the discs more stylised. 

The following feedback is regarding the main product of my media portfolio, an original music video for the song 'Music is My Radar' by Blur. The feedback that I have gotten for my music video has been a great asset in allowing me to reflect on the work that I have constructed. 

I asked this first respondent their general thoughts on my music video which I sent them the YouTube link to. In his response he noted that he thought my music video was unique, which is really want I was trying to accomplish when constructing the music video. I wanted my ideas to be represent a media text that was in some way unique, like a lot of music videos of the same or similar genres to my music video. Many music videos that represent alternative music have stylised ideas that create a representation that is unique and therefore can be enjoyed by their target audience, that being people from a middle/upper working class demographic can enjoy. A great example of this is the music video for the MGMT track Time to Pretend, which was an influence to certain aspects of my music video, as I have stated in my blog. 

The term creativity can be defined as 'the use of imagination or original ideas to create something'. This first response indicated that I had used a great level of creativity when planning and constructing my music video, to which they used the creative use of editing to create backgrounds using the green screen and ultra key tool on adobe premiere pro. Any media text must influenced by creativity in order to be successful and attract its target audience, which is why it was important to myself that my final product did show some level of creativity. However, in self-reflection I would say that creativity was one aspect of my portfolio to be most difficult, especially when it came to the recording stage of production. However, to have someone's genuine response to be that my product shows creativity proves that I did succeed to some extent in this front. This respondent then went on to comment about how the creativity within the editing reflects the genre of my song and that this reflects my target audience. Before my A2 portfolio, I had no experience in video editing, so this certainly shows that I have developed skills during this past year, and for someone who does them self represent my target audience to say that my creativity and editing reflects my genre and target audience, I think is an accomplishment in itself. I followed up the conversation to ask them how they thought my media text conformed and/or challenged the conventions of a music video representing my chosen genre. Their response was rather generic in a way, though they stated that this was represented in the cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene is fantastic, as they are of course three of the four core elements that impact any media production, the other being sound. 

I chose this next response as it contains an element of criticism unlike other responses which I received, and the criticism does contradict the last respondents praise on the music video. This respondent claims that the editing in the music video is quite choppy, which perhaps is a fair claim as I haven't had any experience editing before I started my portfolio. I think that the difference of opinions between each of the last two respondents proves that feedback isn't always 100% certain, as it is based on opinion and every individual has their own thoughts and feelings on a media text. However, the rest of this response is very positive, as they did say that they found the music video to be creative and entertaining to watch, which is basically the objective of all media texts, to provide entertainment and creative thought, which I believe my main product indeed does. 

For the next question I asked about whether my music video would attract my target audience. This respondent does indeed represent my target audience, which is why there response is so great as feedback to my main product. They state that yes they do think that my main product reflects my target audience as they themselves enjoyed the music video, and they watch many music videos of my chosen genre. They also gave the example of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by the dance rock duo Eurythmics. 

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The brief for my A2 portfolio states that I am to create a music video and two ancillary texts that would promote the release of the music video. The two ancillary texts that I chose to promote my music video were a digipak and magazine advertisement. During the planning and research stage of my portfolio, I researched already existing music videos, digipaks and magazine advertisements. With the research that I had conducted I then planned how I would create each of the three products and achieve an effective combination of the three media texts which would attract my target audience. The more successful the combination between these three media products is, the greater level of synergy that I would have created. By researching already existing products and planning each of the three media products that I have now created, I ensured a greater understanding of how to create synergy between the media texts. This made my overall finished product containing the three media texts to appear as a brand, each one recognisable to the other, including the same style and conventions as each other. By developing my product in this way, I have gained a greater understanding of the ideologies of my target audience and improved the representation and synergy of my combined product. 

The following powerpoint presentation develops on the effectiveness of my combined products and demonstrates how continuity has been adapted throughout. 

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

Digipak Front Cover

Digipak Back Cover

Inside of Digipak

This first image is from the inside left of my finished digipak. As you can see, I adapted this idea from the initial idea for my magazine advertisement, which I discussed in more detail on a previous post. The idea for the inside left of my digipak was to keep it simple
and keeping the style that has been created. The black/white colour scheme is something that fits the overall theme of my digipak and the ideology of my target audience. 

The second photo on the inside of my digipak is a photo of a dartboard. I took various photos of the dartboard, as I it was very important that the photo I use had good framing, and that the colours looked good. From there I just changed the colour balance of the image so that it was blue, which I think looks rather effective and matches the colour scheme of the digipak. 

Digipak Discs

This was the first draft idea for the CD for our digipak. The idea for this clearly comes from adapting the artwork on the front cover. However, this CD will not make it to the final product because I honestly think it is a little too weird for it. Though the design works well on the front cover, I think that this is a little too much for the CD. I would like to aim to have the CD looking a little more simple and somewhat conventional, though with an abstract and unique style that I think relates to all of my products. 

Instead, I took influence from the intro to MGMT's 'Time to Pretend' music video, which I have included a screenshot above. I think that this handwritten style suits the genre and ideology of my artist, as it is somewhat similar to MGMT. I think that this will look rather effective on the CD's in my digipak, as it is a very simple idea, though that tends to work with the CD. 

Here are the two CD's that will be present within my digipak. Seeing the final product, I think that this design suits my artist very well. Though it is a simple idea, the design took a while to execute as it is was difficult to get it to look exactly how I wanted it, especially using the Microsoft Paint application. 

Creating a Track-list

The tracklist for the new album 'Electric Blue' is featured on the back cover of the digipak, as well as each of the two CD's in the digipak. The tracks on the tracklist were carefully selected, as I determined which song titles suited the genre and style of the artist 'Maverick'. Below is a list of the tracks that are featured within the 'Electric Blue' digipak, including the original artists:

Disc 1
1. Music is my Radar - Blur 
2. Around The Bend - The Asteroids Galaxy Tour 
3. Don't Fight It, Feel It - Primal Scream 
4. Losing My Edge - Lcd Soundsystem
5. Democratic Circus - Talking Heads 
6. Paranoid Android - Radiohead
7. Thought I was a Spaceman - Blur
8. My Little Japanese Cigarette - Spoon
9. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead 
10. Cherry Blossom Girl - Air 

Disc 2 
11. Electric Feel - MGMT
12. Blind - Talking Heads
13. Delta Bay - Empire of the Sun 

Disc 2 will also feature and promote the music video for 'Music is my Radar', which has been filmed and edited by myself and Alfie Adams. This will be one of the main factors that sell my digipak, as it will be made exclusive to the physically copy of the album. 

Below I have included some of the music videos for the tracks that I have chosen for my track-list. 

Magazine Advert Research and Analysis

As well as the digipak that I will be creating for my ancillary texts, I will also be creating an advertisement on photoshop for a magazine which will advertise the digipak and the artist which I have created. As with any advertisement, my magazine advert will sell the digipak to my target audience, encouraging them to purchase the product which I have created. 

The conventions of a magazine advert promoting a digipak include the artist's name, name of track(s), release date, record label, and information regarding where customers can purchase the digipak. Though, the advertisement must also contain visual links to the digipak, continuing the same artistic style, which is initially created within the music and music video. 

The magazine advert above is for MGMT's album 'Kids'. I particularly like this magazine advert as it looks similar as to the kind of product which I would like to create for 'Electric Blue'. I think that the style and ideology that this magazine advertisement reflects would be similar to that of my product, which is why I have chosen to include this as a piece of inspiration for when I come to construct my final magazine advertisement. 

During a photo-shoot that we did for the ancillary texts, I did attempt to get some photos that could be used to recreate this magazine advertisement for MGMT. However, I wasn't happy with how the photos turned out, especially the framing, which ended up being quite wrong. As a result of this, I did not continue to recreate this magazine advertisement, and instead decided to make a more conventional, though original magazine advertisement for my digipak. 

The magazine advert above is for the Gorillaz ablum Danger Days. The main image that is features predominantly on advert is closely linked to the artistic style of the digipak and album artwork. In fact, this particular artistic style is extremely iconic to Gorillaz in general, as they have used it in a variety of music videos, official artwork, merchandise and promotional material. The main image immediately grabs the audience's attention, because not only is it so iconic to the band, but it is also the only part of the advert which isn't black and white. A black and white colour scheme is of course something which is commonly used with any alternative artists, as it fits the ideology of the target audience and just generally looks effective. 

The name of the album and artist is featured at the top of the of the magazine advert, as is conventional with a magazine advert for an album. The font used fits the overall representation of the digipak, and correctly associates the artwork with the artist. The release date of the album is also clearly placed beneath the main image, in a much larger/bolder font than the rest of the text. This is because it is the most important aspect of the magazine advert to the customer, who is obviously a fan of the artist and therefore would want to purchase the product.

As for the rest of the magazine advert, there is a rather great deal of text, which is all useful information that relates to the artist, album and record label. In fact, the Parlophone record label is also featured at the very bottom of the page, next to the Gorillaz logo and website. Although the text-based information is prominent in this magazine advert, it is certainly out shadowed by the artistic influence of the music and the artist themselves. 

'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' and 'AM' - A Digipak Analysis

The front cover and back of the digipak for Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not shows Chris McClure, a friend of the band Arctic Monkeys smoking a cigarette on the front cover. This synergises throughout the digipak, including the disc which is designed to look like the inside of an ashtray, with a pile of burnt out cigarettes. This theme is very simplistic, and the minimalism of it really works greatly for what this band represent and how they will connect with the ideology of the audience, which is particularly significant when you think how this was Arctic Monkeys debut album. Also, the fact that this was the band's debut album and the overall theme of the album is cigarettes does reflect what the band are about. The dullness of the greyscale back/white colour scheme symbolizes a common theme within the indie rock genre, which had a great impact at the time, and is still used to this day. I think the reason for why this kind of minimalism of a digipak works is that it really reflects how the audience think, as perhaps if the art was much more extravagant then it could take away from what is really important, the music. 

In more mainstream music, the emphasis is much more on the persona of the artistic. This often relates to commercial exhibitionist type music videos, which Sven E Carlson suggests the music video attempts to represent the artist as a brand rather than an artist. Though, this does not appear to be the case with this digipak, and to my knowledge the only music video which could be argued to represent factors of commercial exhibitionism would be 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor'. However, in more recent years 'Arctic Monkeys' have become much more mainstream, particularly with the release of their newest album 'AM', and because of this, many people would argue that their music is more about their persona than it was, which may be why many of their newer videos feature themselves, like 'Arabella' and ' R U MINE'. 

The digipak above for the band's newest album 'AM' that the band that it does feature a very similar minimalist theme, though with a more modern looking black/white colour scheme. The theme of this digipak is very simplistic, especially with the front cover which is also the same as the disc, and just features one very minimal piece of artwork, with no text at all that would conventionally relate to the name of the artist of album. Although, the most significant difference which is present on this digipak, is the band who are present on the inside of the digipak. This was not the case with the first digipak, which might say a lot about the music and how ideolgies could have changed over the last seven years. In the newer digipak, the band are shown smartly dressed on the inside of the digipak, though on the older digipak, a man is shown smoking a cigarette, the common theme of the digipak. 

I think that this not only says a lot about this particular band, but how music and interpretation within society has changed in the last decade. A brilliant example of how this is so, is that when 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' was released on 23rd January 2006, the smoking ban was not yet in effect, as this was introduced on 1st July 2007. The smoking ban in England made it illegal to smoke in ANY workplace or social public places, which would have had a very significant impact on social culture that perhaps Arctic Monkeys first album represented. 

Although I have gone into deep analysis of the representation these two Arctic Monkey's albums in this post, it is also important to recognise the more basic conventions which relate to a digipak, even if these particular digipaks could be regarded as unconventional in one way or another. Both front covers of the digipak's feature some iconic artwork which is now very recognisable as an Arctic Monkeys album, even if 'AM' does not say so at all in text. The same goes for the back of both digipaks, though 'AM' is about as simplistic as it can get, it does still feature the band's name and album name also, as 'AM' is just an acronym for 'Arctic Monkeys' and therefore this is a self-titled album. I think that this is a rather clever idea for the digipak, as the front cover is lacking of the artist's name, and customers will always take a look at the tracklist on the back of a digipak, so then they will see the artist's name. There is also a tracklist on the back of the digipak, as well as a barcode and the band's independent record label, Domino Records. Finally, the inside of each of the two digipaks do feature extra information and artwork relating to the overall theme, as do the discs. 

Conventions of an Album Digipak

A digipak is a style of CD or DVD packaging that became popular in the early 2000s, commonly used with music artist's albums. The design of the digipak is generally made of paper which is reinforced by a plastic casing, often with folding spine which they open up like a book. They are designed to fold into a square shape like any CD casing, though they can fold a number of ways, rather than the more conventional and simpler CD cases. A good digipak is always one that is iconic, meaning that it will be recognised, even years after its initial release. 

The front of the digipak will contain artwork which will promote the artist, usually with a central image of the artist(s) or some other design or model which fans will be able to associate with artist, as this is what customers see when they are on the shelves in a store. The front of a digipak should be as eye-catching as possible, and reflect the genre of music and ideology that fans of that artist will be interested in.  The name of the album and artist will also be conventionally placed on the front cover of an album digipak, the exception being with some more alternative music, which may not include the album or artist name on the front. One example of this is the album cover for 'Dreamland' by Wild Belle, though this cover still works as it features Natalie Bergman, the lead singer on the cover, so fans of the artist will still recognise the album. 

The back of a digipak will most likely contain a tracklist, so that customers can see what they are buying in terms of the music on the CD. There will be more artwork on the back of a digipak, again reflecting the genre and ideology of the music on the album. The back of the digipak may also include the artist/album names, as well as conventional things like the barcode and record label. 

Inside the digipak you will firstly see the actual CD, which fits inside a plastic CD disc holder, like any form of disc based media. Though, a lot of these plastic holders in digipaks are different from other disc based media forms, as it is often transparent plastic, as they have more artwork behind the disc. The disc itself will also be incorporated with some form of artwork which will fit in with the style of the digipak. There may also be some extra information about the artist or album inside the digipak, though some artists will go with style over substance, depending on the genre which they represent. 

Digipak Template

This is a template for a digipak that I found on the Wyke College Moodle page. The template reflects a basic structure of a digipak, like the one that I will be creating for my music video.

Third Draft

The third draft of my music video is almost my final edit, though I still had to remove the stock footage that I had included in the video as a place holder, before I worked out the extra footage that would be edited in for the final edit. The changes that I made between my second and third draft were to change the beginning and ending of the video. 

Second Draft

A lot changed between the first and second draft of my music video. The first draft had a lot of gaps and so the aim for the second draft was to film more footage so that we could fill in these gaps and develop our idea for the music video. 

First Draft

This first draft of our music video for 'Music is My Radar' is uncompleted due to complications with plans that were made in terms of the recording. We plan to film and edit a completed first draft shortly after new years. 

The Lumineers - Ophelia

We looked at the music video for the song 'Ophelia' by The Lumineers and there is a long sequence within that music video where the lead singer of this band is dancing free style through the street in time to the music. From this, we got the idea to film the lead singer of our band 'Electric Blue' doing something very similar. Though this idea was not present during the construction of our storyboard and animatic, I think that if we were to go through with it, it could we well incorporated with our music video. 

Kaleidoscope Editing Process

During the process of creating our first draft for our music video, we dedicated a lot of time to understanding how a kaleidoscope effect is created in adobe premiere pro and experimenting with different effects that are used to create this effect. Though, these are the steps that we used to successfully create this effect:

1) Apply mirror effect to the footage which you wish to have the kaleidoscope effect. The mirror should then be set to -45 degrees and a centre point of 1525,1080. 

2) Right click on the footage in the timeline and select the 'Nest' option (the clip should then appear green on the timeline).

3) Copy and paste the footage, making sure that it is pasted after the original footage in the timeline, both should now be green. 

4) Next drag the pasted footage on top of the original, making sure they are the same length and start and finish at the same time.

5) Now apply the following effects to the nested sequence on the timeline:

- Horizontal flip 

- Crop at 50% on the lift 

- Mirror at 90 degrees and a centre of 1544, 540.

6) Lastly, apply mirror effect at 90 degrees with a centre of 1544, 540 to the bottom clip. You may also want to apply a crop at 50% on the right, though this is not necessary unless you are planning on changing the opacity of the kaleidoscope sequences. 

The video that I have included above is an example what somebody else has created, which I watched to get some idea of how to begin to develop the kaleidoscope effect. Though, we did not copy this method exactly, as it is probably more in-depth than our method. The image below is a screenshot of myself creating the kaleidoscope effect in adobe premiere pro. 

Acquiring footage that will look effective after using the kaleidoscope effect can be a difficult process in itself. This is because it is very difficult to understand whether or not the clip will look effective after the kaleidoscope effect is applied. Though, generally speaking the effect requires a large amount of movement, either from whatever is being filmed, or from the camera itself. As a result of this, we decided that the best way to acquire good footage for this is to just go out record somewhat random footage of anything in the environment, with movement, colour and anything else that will enhance the effect.