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.