FINAL PRODUCTS

PRELIMINARY PROGRESSION TO FINAL PRODUCT

Here you can see the great progression that has happened from my first preliminary music video task to my final A2 coursework piece. The amount I have learnt is incredible and I believe you can see the developments throughout both my videos. Not only have I learnt to de-construct and construct a successful media text, but I have applied my skills of technology alongside knowledge of genre, representation, audience, narrative and media language to produce a music video and additional products to the best of my ability. I've never been more proud of myself!
 

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

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

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

3. What have you learnt from Audience Feedback?

EVALUATION QUESTION 2

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary tasks?

One of my main aims at the beginning of this A2 project  was to produce not only a music video and ancillary tasks that I would be proud of, but to create these products to the best standard I possibly can with the intention of selling the products as part of a package. Through advertising can this be achieved, but to do this successfully there must be a key theme or house style that runs through each of the products, linking them with one another. 

I chose to do this through colour schemes and as you can see before you, there is a running theme of the colours, red, black and white throughout all 3 of my products. This would help in selling my products as because of a recognisable theme, they can be easily linked by a mass audience and this would allow my audience to view all three knowing of the connection.

Another way in which I chose to do this was through using my star image 'Ollie' as the main focus in all three products. He would ground my work into a whole piece, linking them obviously together. 

One of my main decisions as a producer was choosing whether to take the photographs for my ancillary tasks on the days of shooting the music video or organise separate occasions to set up shots. I chose to capture my photos on a separate day in order to play around with lighting and colours. My original idea was to have silhouettes of each member of the band for my digipak and a half lit close up of Ollie's face and to do this I would have needed artificial light and a blacked out room which is what I eventually used for my ancillary pictures. 

Time is also a key factor I had to bear in mind if I was planning to take pictures on shooting days, as I would need to allocate time during the day to do this. Even though this wasn't my original plan, looking back there wouldn't have been enough time to do so successfully. Another negative to doing it all in the same day is the issue of getting exactly what you want, as it would be more difficult to return in order to recreate shots.

Therefore I chose to collect my images after my main product was done. This also helped in linking my products as my music video could have changed drastically at any point of the course which would then mean I would have to recreate my ancillaries differently.

Technology was vital in creating and developing my ancillary tasks into the finished pieces in which they are now. I felt my use of appropriate technologies were successful in creating the outcome and results that I was striving for and my skills have henceforth developed significantly from my AS project.

These are the stages I used in creating and developing my ancillary tasks via the use of Web 2.0 and appropriate technology:

1. The Internet (Google Search Engine) - I used the internet to search for pre-existing media texts that would influence my own piece by analysing conventions of digipaks and music album posters. From this I learnt what is expected to be seen by an audience on these particular products; including release date, artist/band name, album name and images etc. These conventions were needed for an audience to recognise the product and understand what its intention was.
2. Canon Digital Camera - This would allow me after creating flat-plans of my product, to take the images which will be used for my digipak and poster. Using digital cameras in the 21st century is a quick and easy process which gives you instant photographs which you can assess before printing or uploading to a computer.
3. Once I had my images, I chose to use 'Picmonkey' an online editing service which offers quick editing for free that will then export your edited pictures back into one of your computer files for you to use. I used this in AS to edit my magazine images, but since then I have learnt how to use the site to full benefit of my product. 
4. After adding a filter to my images, I then use 'Photoshop' to edit the rest of the image, adding text, record label logos, bar-codes, 5 star ratings and so on. Since being a novice at AS level, after applying my knowledge from the previous year, I feel even more confident wit the software than before and have become a practitioner at editing in 'Photoshop', learning new skills and being able to use the software for specific changes and improvements.

Researching existing products:

For my digipak I took a lot of interest in several different pre-existing album digipaks, including this one in particular as you see to the right. I felt it followed the themes of a punk/rock digipak successfully and I was inspired by the idea of having a section for each member of the band inside. This was my main influence for my own digipak, and I therefore created mine with the same themes of having a side for each band member in a silhouetted form that has light over their faces, showing expression and adding a sense of mystery. Dark themes are represented by the darkness in each shot which also applies to the themes in my video of how the darkness is attempting to take over his mind, just as the darkness in the image overpowers the image of him.

My poster also shares similar themes as this is the reason I chose to have a light split his face in two, showing both the conflicts of his mind and an overpowering darkness - the death of his friend Dan. I was heavily influenced by the two posters on the right - as although the second one of Jessie j does not reflect my genre, I adhered to the convention of focusing on the star image and having a close up on his face. The first image focused more around my genre and has a split of the face which I really liked. 

I'm very proud of my album poster and I believe the influences have inspired me successfully into creating a great product.

I feel that in general my ancillary products adhered to the conventions of a poster and digipak - I didn't challenge anything in particular against the typical conventions. The artistic and photographic elements of my products were incredibly important to me in creating an impacting final piece. Lighting as I have already spoken about, along with house styles or colours and fonts. I have used the same fonts for my poster as I have done for my digipak in order to keep a link between products and to help the audience recognise it is from the same set of products. The font I chose is relevant to the genre of punk/rock therefore fitting with my styles. As you can see on my digipak and poster, the most important things on the poster - highlighting the new parts of Greenday are coloured in red, a production decision I chose to allow the reader to be drawn first to the vibrant colours for the key information, whilst also having important elements in larger font.

Overall I feel my main combination of my media product and ancillary tasks has been highly successful. I have developed them over time and gone through multiple draft of each particular project - another possible back cover for my digipak you can see in the image below. I feel that my products link well with a house theme that runs throughout, keeping to the conventions of these media texts and adhering to those of my genre.

EVALUATION QUESTION 1

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

Using conventions of real media products while planning is of vital importance, as to make a successful media text/ product you must first understand the conventions of both music videos and your own music genre. To do this I watched many pre-existing texts online via YouTube to get a sense of how to adhere to their conventions. I learnt of the conventions of music videos, such as having narrative, music/band/artist shots, no dark themes and videos that are easy to watch, that are suitable for a mass passive audience. Most music videos are watched on a platform like YouTube therefore anyone can watch it – so many artists make their videos suitable and appealing to all audiences. Adhering to these conventions is important for audiences to be able to identify it as a music video and it also maintains the audience’s attention. If too much is subverted you can lose your audiences interest and they may dislike the video as it does not fit their expectations. The same goes for my chosen genre of punk/rock alternative music as the audience for this market expect particular things – these are the conventions I discovered for the punk/rock alternative music genre:

• Band shots flipping to a storyline
• Close ups on instruments and artists
• Focus on lead singer
• Close half shot of lead singers face
• Low angle shots
• Wide shots of the band
• Constant variety of depth of field shots
• Usually a small band - 3 - 4 members
• Occasionally edited with a black and white filter
• Dark Clothing (rebellious)
• Make-up (eye-liner etc.)
• Crazy Hairstyles

• Outdoor shots - nature
• Natural light
• Indoor artificial light
• Always a form of narrative, but it doesn't always have to link with the song/ lyrics
• Many videos take one idea from a song and create a narrative around that.

These helped me design the mise en scene for my video allowing me to pick and choose what to adhere and subvert whilst knowing what my target niche audience expect.

I mainly adhered to these conventions:

•   A strong narrative mixed between band shots, lip-syncing the song.
•   Use of Star Image (Andrew Goodwin) – Important focus on lead singer, e.g. Extreme close ups and main attention on him.
•      3 members all male band - SUBVERTED
• Enigma codes – foreshadowing image of ‘Dan’, best friend.
•    Dark Themes.
•    Natural vs artificial lighting.
•  Narrative usually does not fit with song – SUBVERTED

Usually in music videos, dark themes such as death and post-traumatic stress disorder are unusual to find, as often videos that make people feel good or have a strong message are more popular. So in theory I have subverted the music video conventions, yet despite this I have adhered to the punk/rock alternative genre conventions, as dark themes like P.T.S.D are quite common within this genre.

I also subverted the genre and modernised my video by eliminating sexism. I chose to have a female drummer, which goes against the usual concept for both drummers and punk/rock bands - women are sparse within these bands. By also adding a female into my army scenes, I therefore added a counter-type to what people expect of army soldiers. This challenged conventions but in this modern 21st century day, the more media coverage of equality, the better the things will become in the future.

Pitching my song, genre and video narrative ideas –

I began with SurveyMonkey to identify people’s views on these ideas. The survey, I created online through the website was then posted onto Facebook in order to receive direct feedback from a mass audience via web 2.0, of people my age all the way up to pensioners. My main reason for addressing such a broad audience was to see if the narrative, genre and song would be appealing to an audience and also identify what age-range my audience were likely to be.

I then pitched my idea to our media class, in which we gained some very interesting feedback. When you work by yourself or in a pair like myself, you can become very closed off and focused around your chosen ideas, often neglecting some of the flaws in your plan. Opening up ideas to a wider audience allows those elements to be highlighted as everyone thinks differently and sees things in different ways. Through our audience feedback we discovered that our concept was too complex and that we needed to simplify the story, whilst giving it a bigger impact to an audience. Which is where the idea of P.T.S.D was born.

DIGIPAK ALTERATIONS

After shooting all my photographs for my digipak, the next step was to go into editing, via selection of images and use of photoshop.

Overall I was very pleased with how my pictures came out and managed to have successful pictures for 3 sides of my digipak ancillary. Yet I was having a few issues with the back image of my digipak.

As you can see on the diagram below - this was my original flat plan idea for the back of my CD. My idea was to have all three band members holding up their instruments, almost in a silhouetted form with the outlines of their bodies displayed from artificial lighting behind them. A postmodern technique that was much inspired by Greenday itself, where they show the workings/ behind the scenes of a music video or image, by having wires and lights set around. 

With all considered of the general theme of my digipak and difficulties with lighting, I decided that my picture would be best being simple with no instruments and just a light behind them.

This was my result. 

From my imagination to product, the concept of my idea had not worked how I had planned it to, although the lighting was right, the positioning of my band was not how I had hoped when I took the picture. With this in mind, I didn't think this image would be suitable for the back cover of my CD case. Therefore I created this possible back cover image with some of the close ups I took of my band the same day.

In photoshop I created this image, made up of 3 different close-ups of my band members by changing the opacity, fading them into one another. I chose to have Ollie, the lead singer brighter and more detailed, whilst the others lose opacity of their images as it fades backwards. However after deliberating with audience feedback, I decided that there would be too many faces on the digipak, and I wanted to maintain my simple but effective style, in terms of my digipak and poster.

This was my final image for the back cover of my digipak ancillary. It is simplistic but postmodern in the form of showing the light and stand, proving that everything is artificial. I am very happy with my final choice and am proud with my final digpak!

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ANCILLARIES

 DIGIPAK

"I LIKE HOW YOU'VE USED THE COLOUR RED AS IT STANDS OUT AND SHOWS THE IMPORTANT STUFF"

"GOOD LIGHTING"

"THE FONT FITS REALLY WELL WITH THE GENRE"

"THE LIGHTS AREN'T THE SAME WHICH FRUSTRATES ME A LITTLE BIT"

POSTER

"THE LIGHTING IS A LITTLE BRIGHT ON ONE SIDE"

"ADORE THE FONT-HOUSE STYLE"

"FANTASTIC USE OF COMPOSITION" 

Here are a few comments of audience feedback I have gathered throughout my drafts and work for my ancillary tasks! This has really helped throughout my work, understanding the positives and negatives. Unfortunately the lights on my digipak were taken on the images in that way and I wanted the back cover to be in more detail showing the post-modern element, influenced by Greenday of showing the works of music! The light on one side of his face is meant to be bright to show conflicts in his mind, so this was a artistic decision of lighting composition but it may not appeal to everyone!

 

FINAL DIGIPAK

Ancillary Album Poster

This is my album poster for 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' advertising my Greenday album.

I have used a picture of Ollie both the lead singer of my band and the main  protagonist of my music video - he is the star image which is why I have featured his face on the poster. 

I have used a house colour scheme of red, white and black which is a scheme that I have used throughout my work so far, including in my music video. Sticking with this theme I have linked the colour red to the main album title and the 'out now' catchline to lead the audiences attention and it quickly identifies to the audience that the album is available now. This colour also associates itself with our music video in which the blood of 'Dan', our protagonists best friend is a key and vital feature of our video.

I have also put 'Greenday' in the largest font, as it is one of the first elements of the poster that grabs the audiences attention and because 'Greenday' is such a massive band, they would be more likely to read further and be more interested.

Included on my poster is:

• when the album is out
• ratings by big music magazine companies
• where you can buy the album
• the record label
• social media - twitter account
• website address
• parental advisory, explicit content label 

FINAL MUSIC VIDEO

ANCILLARY TASK PICTURES

These are the pictures I will be using for my Ancillary tasks. I have chosen to use silhouettes and low level lighting to create a mysterious mise en scene, which also fits with the punk/rock alternative music genre I have chosen to use.

The picture to the left I have taken of 'Ollie' my film protagonist and star image of my band will be used for my digipak front cover with the words set out in the blank space to the right of him. 

The pictures of 'Lily' below who is my drummer for the band are done in the same way but with her at more of a distance. I really like the house style I have chosen for my digipak and I have already altered the picture by using 'Picmonkey' to pre-edit my images before going on to use 'Photoshop' - a more advanced software. I have used a slightly blue filter to enhance the colours and after experimenting I found that this filter particularly enhanced their faces from the light which I thought worked very effectively.

Below I have two options for the images I will use - one with the light more prominent and Lily set further to the left in the image.

The second has the light just off image and Lily is a more prominent part of the image.

'Lewis' our bassist also has two options for his images. The way in which I have designed my digipak features Lily's picture and Lewis's pictures opposite each other, so I played around with his direction positioning.

 Using the 'Picmonkey' Collage option, I managed to create an idea of what the images will look like back to back, to play around with which pictures to use and how to use them! Here I show two options of the inside pages of the digipak - I aim to collect audience feedback to reach my decision of which one to use.

This last image will be used for my album poster, with a black box at the bottom where the album information will be, as shown in my sketches on older posts. I have used a faded poster effect on this image which connotes the idea of his life being a story. Yet it is so faded that many will just see this as a realistic image, blurring the lines between reality and fiction - giving this image a sense of the modern hyper-reality that the media portrays to us today, enabling me to adhere to the media's modern forms of advertising and product placement.

From my original lighting workshop I carried out in lesson, I have used a split lighting technique, where half of his face is in light and the other half is in darkness with a light behind. I used a light behind him as I wanted to show the outline of his head, making him appear slightly angelic as a hero, a good man in the narrative who did everything in his power to save his friends. This is also reflected in the conflicting light over his face. One half symbolizes honesty and the good, whereas the other has a darker tone, reflecting both the band shots and how the P.T.S.D has taken over his mind. The narrative shows a constant battle within his mind and I believe the lighting I have created for this shots, reflects the same ideas.

ANCILLARY TASK FLAT- PLANS

MY ANCILLARY TASK FLAT PLANS

Album of Greenday 'Wake me up when september ends' music poster

Our protagonist Ollie's face will be on the main highlight of the poster.  The face on the right will be central to the poster design on the left. The image will be dark over one side of his face and light on the other, showing a conflicted mind and a change in himself during the video. As the darkness in his mind begins to overpower him. His eyes will be visible on both sides however through editing skills to draw the audience into his mind.

The Digipak

Design for my front cover of my Greenday digipak. 'Ollie' is out own protagonist and therefore the 'star image' of our band and being influenced by Goodwin's theory, I have decided to focus on his face for the front image. 

The inside keeps up the theme of the silhouette faces for the other band members, which will either be filled with song lyrics or information on the band!

The back page will contain a band shot showing the backs of their heads with their particular instruments raised. The song titles will be places at the bottom of the page in the structure I have laid out.
The reason I have chosen to use silhouettes is to represent the darker genre of music that is punk/rock alternative which mainly focuses on the colour black. Not only this but using silhouettes takes away the identity of the band or person, which is a particular theme of struggling for an identity within P.T.S.D. as people can lose who they are.
I also chose this digipak as inspiration because I liked the idea of separating the band and giving them each a platform to be displayed on, highlighting the importance of the band as a whole but still giving 'Ollie' the star image on the front cover and poster.

REPRESENTATION

REPRESENTATION

Representation is the re-presentation of information. It is when we view a text and choose to re-present that information in a particular way as their are different interpretations of the same text. We mediate what goes on.

We use representations to engage and entice the audience quickly as we only have a short time to grab attention.

One particular use of representations are:

• Stereotypes
• Archetypes - (extreme stereotypes)
• Counter-types - (challenges stereotypes - opposing)

Media texts, such as films, television programmes, books etc. all feature stereotypes of one way or another, and because the media mediates what we see, these representations have become part of our own look at life; even when representations are changing all the time.

Gender stereotypes are a massive stereotype that is beginning to change across the world, giving women especially more equality and this particular stereotype is one Eddie and I have taken particular interest in regarding our music video.

The Punk Rock genre in general features a mostly male group of people, as most of their artists and bands tend to be male with a strong lack of female members.
Here are just a few punk rock bands that are just male members:

• The Clash
• Nirvana
• My Chemical Romance

These three very well known punk/ rock bands feature all male members, which leads us to question why there is an absence of women.

By challenging the stereotypes of a male drummer in a punk/rock band we have also modernised the music video into the 21st century where these representations are lowering.

We also chose to add a female into our army scenes as it is another known stereotype that women are girly and wouldn't be in the army, or that the army is just for men. So we added Alice as a counter-type to this stereotype to modernise our music video into the 21st Century. Therefore we have subverted this gender stereotype.




Representation is also all about what visual and technical codes you use to present an idea - for instance the colours, the dress, camera angles, lighting, miss en scene etc.

For instance all of our actors are either wearing black, red or green which are the typical punk colours, and we chose to do this as it represents the punk genre of music making it identifiable to an audience.

The media has the power when constructing stereotypes and representing information as they choose what we as an audience, see. Unfortunately for us as an audience though, the media usually only shows bad things and negative views, often portraying people in a bad light, sometimes with stereotypes. Whereas the good, positive views and portrayals of people in a light way is not often shown.