The Final Music Promo:


If I Had My Way:

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

Final Digipak:

Final Magazine Advert:

I created synergy between all the tasks so they were easily identifiable. The italic writing is commonly used amongst R'n'B products and therefore will be recognised by current R'n'B listeners. We used this in all three of our tasks to make each product recognisable to the R'n'B audience. Especially at the start of our music video it is important so if watching it on television people do not just quickly turn it over. Also by stating the name of the song at the start of the video it will allow potential audiences and customers to know the name of our song in case they wish to purchase it.

 Also the continuous colour scheme of black and gold creates a relationship amongst the ancillary tasks. The use of lots of pictures of the artist allows her to be recognisable and allows the audience to feel as if they know her as a person and not just as a singer, therefore they are able to relate to the story and her when they hear one of her songs.

The ancillary tasks are used to try and sell my music video and her album, therefore there had to be a distinctive link between all three. The colour scheme allows the traditional, stereotypical values of R'n'B products to be shown allowing audiences to establish its genre.

The reasons i chose the pictures i did and the way in which they are shot is due to they are shots that we have used in our music video and therefore create a synergy between all three, the reasons for these shots is to allow the audience of our music video to understand the narrative.

When looking at my album cover, you get the feeling that the video will be neatly done due to the glamorous patterns used. Therefore we can build a good impression on the audience before they have seen the video.

I used a mixture of both black and white and colour pictures as there is both used in our video and therefore when watching the video or looking at the album cover or magazine advert the audience will be able to create the link or synergy themselves feeling more involved with the overall album.

What have i learnt from audience feedback?

To gather feedback from my chosen audience (R'n'B listeners) i undertook several questionnaires at many different stages of the course, this was to ensure that my audience were kept in mind and so that what i produced would be successful.

The questionnaires included both open and closed questions as using both gave me comparable and detailed answers that we could use and develop.

The first questionnaire we undertook was at the very beginning of the course which establish what genre we would do and who our target audience was.

I also took questionnaires after each task i had created as this helped me to gain ideas on what the audience was looking for and whether or not each task would be successful. Therefore the audience were vital in the production as they shaped my tasks final production.

To gain feedback on my music video i posted it on Facebook the social networking site, so that viewers are easily able to leave their thoughts and comments. I have taken a few of those ideas and in co-operated them into our video, once discussing them with my group.

In older posts in the same label category (Evaluation) you will find my questionnaire results, and how i in cooperated the ideas into my final product. They are available in written or graph format.

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

Throughout the course of making my tasks of a music video, album cover and magazine advert i have used many media technologies which have helped me through the processes to finish. In the following paragraphs i will outline when and why i decided to use each technology.


Research:

You tube: This program allowed us to view many different music video to help us to know what was already on offer, from this we were then able to decide whether or not to use, develop, or challenge the stereotypes in these videos. When doing this i updated some posts about our findings, you will find these under the research and planning label on my blog.

Television Channels: This was a great aid as you could see what you thought when they appeared it no particular order you could see what characteristics stood out to you and therefore you would gain an understanding about which stereotypes or characteristics you would want to use and which ones to steer clear from.

The Internet: This was a great way to find out extra information about artists and background information about them. It also helped me to find theorists and their theories about the findings i had made, therefore i was able to link the two and gain theories to support my ideas.


Overall Evaluation: You tube was good as you could find exactly what you wanted to find, although with television channels you were more able to point out different characteristics that stood out because you did not know what was going to come next, although the song that came on after may not relate to your genre and therefore may be time consuming.

The Internet is a fast way to find out exactly what you want to know in just a few clicks i was able to find out a lot i didn't know about R'n'B artists.
I found the blog a great way to keep track of my ideas, i was able to blog my ideas as soon as i either thought of them, or found them and therefore i could research into them further adding more and more detail throughout the course, enabling me to gain a lot more research than i did in AS as we were limited to our scrapbook.


Planning:

I-movie: This program helped us a lot in our planning stages as when building our storyboards, me and my team were able to see what effects and editing techniques were available to us and therefore we were able to create our storyboards, knowing that we would not come across many problems as we had already checked that we were able to do it.

Pictures: Me and my team went out and took location shots to ensure that we were going to create the exact effects that we wanted. We came across some problems in doing this and therefore were able to sort them out before we had filmed, therefore we did not waste much time.

Internet: We again used the Internet in our planning stages as we had many ideas individually and therefore used a program called Facebook to share them, as this gave us all an opportunity to say what ideas we had and then as a group we were able to come to a decision on each one, sometimes we made compromises whereas others we were able to develop certain ideas.

Overall Evaluation: By using these media technologies for planning we saved ourselves a lot of time as we did not come across as many problems as we would have done without the aid of these programmes.


Construction:

Video camera: Although we had used these before in AS, it had been a while since we had used them, therefore we had a practise go first to make sure we didn't make any mistakes. We filmed parts several times to make sure we got the right outlook on it and therefore we didn't have to go back and film certain parts otherwise slight differences would have been noticeable. When uploading and beginning to edit we realised we had to go back and film a bit again here we had to use a certain type of lighting to make the weather look the same otherwise the storyline would not look continuous.

Editing: We used a more modern version of i-movie this year to edit our music videos. This gave us more opportunities as more effects and techniques were available to us.


Hard drive: Whilst editing our music video we backed up our work onto a hard drive therefore if anything did go wrong then we would have a second copy. This hard drive came in handy when going to the CLC building as we were able to take our work with us and connect it to their computer, which had even more techniques for us to use.

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

After doing all the research into R'n'B genres we were able to define what is expected in a typical R'n'B music video and therefore i am able to outline how we used, developed and challenged these conventions in our own production of an R'n'B production:

Conventions:

• Dull lighting, except of girls
• Male gaze shots used a lot
• Patriarchal
• Big expenses cars and houses
• Men wearing lots of jewellery
• Girls often wearing just underwear or swimwear
• Many girls often crowded around one boy/man also known as 'pimping'
• Lyrics and video often about relationships (make-ups, break-ups and cheating)

Use:

We used the stereotypical lyrics and video storyline, we done this so the genre was easily recognisable to an audience, although we put our own twist on it as we wanted to come away from the stereotypical audiences. We chose to use this convention as we believed it to be important in keeping the R'n'B audience as if they didn't recognise the usual setting of the video they would be likely to turn the channel and find something more to their taste. Our lyrics are used to tell our story that's why we wanted to write them ourselves, the storyline is about a girl who gets caught cheating on her boyfriend and he finds out. Therefore this follows the stereotype of the storyline and lyrics about cheating in a stereotypical R'n'B music video.


Develop:

Instead of using expensive houses, which the majority of R'n'B listeners cannot afford we film in the local town, this enables the R'n'B viewers and listeners to be able to relate more to our video. This develops the conventions of real media products, because not many people can currently relate to their video instead just seeing the video as 'the American Dream'. If the audience can relate to it they will feel more involved with the story and maybe even share emotions. The idea of them sharing emotions may make them want to see more from this artists to see if they can relate to more of their videos and therefore we create a long lasting audience.


Challenge:

Our video challenges the current conventions as the girls used in our video are fully dressed and not in underwear and bikinis, we did not want to include this as we believe it shows patriarchal control, when we believe it should be of equal control, therefore we have shown both matriarchal and patriarchal control in our music video. We also went against the stereotype of the male usually cheating on the female, instead the female is cheating on the male.Instead of the men wearing lots of jewellery we had the male and female characters in everyday clothing, therefore it can also be related to better by the audience.We used a variety of different shop types, but we did not wish to include the male gaze as we believe it does not represent women in the correct way.Another way in which we challenge the conventions is the fact that we used natural lighting as we believe this gives a more realistic outlook on our video helping people to feel involve and help them to relate to the storyline that is being unfolded.

Questionnaire results:




· Most people prefer my second attempt at the magazine advert

· The majority like the image that is used

· They like the image due to either the pose or the positioning mainly

· Most people either like the layout or the image best out of the options given

· Most people would not change anything about the magazine advert

· The people that would change something, the majority said it would be the colour scheme

· The advert would stand out to most people

· The advert does look like it belongs in the R’n’B genre

· The advert would encourage most people to buy the album

· Half the people asked said it challenges the conventions, whereas the other half said it conforms to.

Question ten Results:

Question nine Results:

Question eight Results:

Question seven Results:

Question six Results:

Question Five results:

Question four Results:

Question three Results:

Question two results:

Question one results:

Magazine advert questionnaire:




1). Would you have preferred the other magazine advert?



· Yes [ ]

· No [ ]



2). Do you like the image that is used?



· Yes [ ]

· No [ ]



3). If yes, what do you like about it?



· The size [ ]

· The pose [ ]

· The positioning [ ]



4). What is your favourite aspect of the magazine advert?



· The layout [ ]

· The picture [ ]

· The colour theme [ ]

· The font [ ]



5). Would you change anything about the magazine advert?



· Yes [ ]

· No [ ]



6). If yes, which of the following would it be?



· The colour scheme [ ]

· The image used [ ]

· The layout [ ]

· The font [ ]



7). Would this advert stand out to you in a magazine?



· Yes [ ]

· No [ ]



8). Would you recognise this magazine advert is for the R’n’B genre?



· Yes [ ]

· No [ ]







9). Would this advert encourage you to buy this album?



· Yes [ ]

· No [ ]



10). Do you think my magazine advert



· Conforms to [ ]

· Challenges [ ]

· Develops [ ]



The conventions of an R’n’B advert

The results I recieved from my questionaire about my digipak prove my digipak to be a success, as the majority of the people would like to buy it for many reasons. The positive reviews about my digipak have lead me to believe that i should not make any more changes to it otherwise I may ruin the overall effect that it has been given.

Question ten Results:

Question nine Results:

Question eight Results:

Question seven Results:

Question six:

Due to the type of question i could not put it into a graph format.

Question five Results

Question four Results

Question three Results

Question two Results:

Question One Results

I handed out the questionnaire to 30 people
 From my questionnaire the results were as follows:

• Most people liked the colour scheme the best
• The colour scheme also attracted most people to the album cover
• Most people when first seeing the digipak thought it would be from an R'n'B genre
• This was mainly due to either the colour scheme or the font
• A majority of the people would change the image
• The most popular reason why is that it makes you question whether or not this is an R'n'B digipak and may deterre listeners
• Most people liked the continuous colour scheme
• They also liked the use of different colours to promote competitions
• There was a split view as to whether my digipak develops or conforms to current conventions
• Most people would pick it up due to the way it is presented

Audience feedback on digipak:


Questionnaire:



1). What aspect do you like best? (Please tick)

 Colour scheme [ ]

 Picture/image [ ]

 Writing font [ ]



2). Which aspect attracts you most to the digipak? (Please tick)

 Colour scheme [ ]

 Picture/image [ ]

 Writing font [ ]



3). Do you recognise the digipak is for an R’n’B album? (Please tick)

 Yes [ ]

 No [ ]



4). If yes, which aspect tells you this? (Please tick)

 Colour scheme [ ]

 Picture/image [ ]

 Writing font [ ]



5). Which aspect would you change? (Please tick)

 Colour scheme [ ]

 Picture/image [ ]

 Writing font [ ]



6). Why? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….



7). Do you like the continuous colour scheme? (Please tick)

 Yes [ ]

 No [ ]

8). Do you like the use of colour to help promote certain events/competitions? (Please tick)

 Yes [ ]

 No [ ]

9). Do you think my digipak (Please tick)

 Challenges [ ]

 Conforms to [ ]

 Develops [ ]

Current R’n’B conventions?

10). Does the design and look of the digipak make you want to pick it up/buy it?

 Yes [ ]

 No [ ]

When using the editing techniques again i created a much better and more organised albulm cover. I am happy with this cover as it looks professional.

Narrative of our video:

Our narrative is incut in our music video.

Our story is told through our song lyrics in a simple way, but our video is more complex. Therefore our music video tells the story in greater depth than the song lyrics themseleves.

Uploading: here we uploaded all the clips we had collected, we would watch the footage we had collected so we would know whether or not we needed to re-film any parts again.

Filming: we would film any parts which we needed to, we tried to get as much done as we possibly could, as some factors could effect the continuity of the film such as the weather.

Editing: We would edit the footage we had collected so that we knew if we needed to gather any more footage. We could not edit entirely as we wanted all our footage before we started editing.

Idea sharing: Here we used programmes such as Facebook to share our ideas, this program was good to use as we could all comment on the same idea as once. This program played a bit part in our planning of our film, ideas were introduced and adapted here.

when reviewing the changes i made to the digipak i discovered that i like the changes i made to the background with adding lighting effects and making it sharper to give a more professional outcome. Although on the other hand i am not keen on the multiple pictures as i believe there is too much going on in one cover.

This is our shooting schedule:

When making our schedule we had to take many things into account:

* Other lessons
* When our actors were avaliable to film
* Allowing time for people to attend jobs after school and weekends
* How much we were able to film before we had to upload
* After uploading watching it through incase we needed to film parts agian

After making my magazine advert i began to research into using more editing techniques to develop my digipak here is my first attempt.
I created this using a program called Picasa.

Textual analysis:

• Is the skill of deconstructing media texts: that is, a detailed examination of the way in which a text has been constructed to convey. Such study reveals both intended-and sometime unitended-meanings in films, television programmes, advertising, newspapers and so on.

I like the second draft of the magazine advert that I have created as the colour scheme works better than the one I created before, as the main points stand out better.
I used some ideas from the previous magazine advert as I believed some parts worked well and therefore I interpreted these ideas into this draft aswel.

We used this image as it both challenges and conforms to the conventions of an R'n'B magazine advert photograph. It challenges the conventions as the girl (Priscilla) is wearing clothing appropriate for a younger audience which a majority of R'n'B adverts do not. It also conforms on the other hand as Priscilla is include in a full body shot which could be interpreted as seductive to a male audience.
The use of the image at an angle gives the advert some direction and gives the impression that it is 3D, this helps the audience to recognise and notice the advert better.

I liked the magazine advert that I have made below as the background is in keeping with the digipak that I have made, making the album and digipak recognisable to our target audience. Although I believe that the loud and vibrant background takes some focus off the details making the information not stand out which means people may remember the background, but forget what the advertisement is actually for.
The writing conforms to the conventions of the R'n'B genre as it includes italic writing. Therefore people will be able to recognise the genre easily.
The Hmv sign is used so that our audience are made aware where they are able to purchase the album, this will increase our sales and Hmv like the advertisement too.
The use of quotes from newspapers that people trust allows the audience to believe that this album is spectacular. The use of ratings allows the audience to see just how good the album will be when they purchase it.
I included the website address on this advert so it allows the audience to read deeper into the artist if they wish to do so.

Madonna- Die another day:


There is representation of gender included in this video. This is shown through the patriarchal dominance of men near the beginning of the video where they are trying to electrocute Madonna, the change in status is made apparent when Madonna escapes and she is then in control.

There is evidence of binary oppositions due to there being two images of Madonna one fencing in white, whilst the other is dressed in black, this shows that Madonna is fighting between her good vs. evil sides. A theorist that supports these binary oppositions is Strouss.

Another theorist’s idea is also made apparent in this video. These are the ideas of Saussure and the signifier and signified theory. Here the signifier is the music whilst the signified is presented by meaning.

The image of women fighting is not very stereotypical and is therefore a countertype of archiaichal women in the James Bond films.

Although flesh can be seen in this video, the video tries hard not to present Madonna in a sexual way, instead the video is more about the storyline, rather than Madonna herself.

Class is represented also in this film due to the higher class activity Madonna is taking part in, which is fencing.

Digital technology used:


• We used the Internet for a lot of our research; this enabled us to watch videos that were already made for our genre. This gave us an idea of conventions of an R’n’B music video. We were also able to gain definitions which we may have not found out about without our intensive research.

• By training at the communicative learning centre also known as the CLC building, we were able to gain a range of knowledge on the use of technology and how to use and work them properly to obtain the best results. This helped us to achieve the quality of the video.

• When trying to overcome the problem of how to rejoin clips in Imovie we found the Internet a great help, although we could not find an answer and had to use other techniques to overcome this problem, we were able to hear about other peoples problems of the same thing, this gave us an idea on how to use this problem to our advantage.

• By the use of modern mobile phone technology, we were able to organise meetings better, another program we used for this is Facebook as this modern technology allowed us to all contribute and share ideas on the one conversation.

• Websites such as you tube were a big help to us as we were able to gather music videos to compare and analyse.

We wanted our album cover to be recognisable so that our target audience could easily recognise the album and by the colour scheme being continuous through the album cover and the magazine advert the audience can easily spot it in various shops in which it is sold.

There is a synergy between our digipak and our music video as the glamorous outlook in the video is again repeated on the digipak. The digipak and my magazine advert also has a extreme sense of synergy as the colour scheme, font and pictures used are the same on both.

This is the background that I am going use as then my target audience will be able to recognise the background of this with the background of my album cover this will therefore hopefully increase my sales as they will be able to make the link between the two and be able to spot my album easily.

What are usually included in magazine advertisements:

• Name of artist
• Name of album
• Relesase date
• Extras(bonus tracks)
• Reviews and endorsements
• Record label
• Picture
• Tour dates
• Outlets in which avaliable
• Website
• Myspace links
• Slogan
• Limited addition
• Out Now
• Debut Album
• Star ratings

Analysis of Jamie.T's album kings and queens magazine article.

Analysis of Charlotte Gainsbourg album IRM magazine article.

Ancillary Task two:

• To design a magazine advertisement for your digipak

Firstly I am going to look at other album covers already produced and analyse them in detail so I can get a better understanding of what I should include and what is effective today with my audience.

To make our music video to the best we can we had to edit little bits out to make all the details exact. By editing little bits at a time this made it easier for us to get the music and video to link. The editing took a long time but was worth it as we achieved the effect we wanted.

This shot is of where the colour changes from black and white to colour to show and emphasise the changes in mood between the girl. 

We used shot reverse shot so that we could emphasise the presence of the other boy at costa coffee, this boy goes unnoticed to the arguing couple. This also shows the different angles of the argument making it seem more realistic to our audience.

To help the audience to understand the storyline, we used the stereotypical convention of a mobile phone, therefore this part of the video adhere's to the conventions of an R'n'B video. We used an over the shoulder shot to get the right angle of the mobile phone to enable the audience to read it clearly, here we also slowed down the timing so that the audience has time to read the text message.

After much time spent looking on the internet and using imovie help, we were unable to join the clips. We wanted to join the clips as there were slight jumps in the movement and action of the video. Instead we had to come up with a different solution. We tried many different effects such as the 'film strip effect' but it did not fit in with the conventions of a typical R'n'B video. Therefore we decided to add the 'photo album effect' This makes the jumping look more natural and it also allows the audience to follow he storyline chronologically through the album as it goes from one clip to the next through the images.

Here is a clip taken from our music videos. We imported clips of photos of the girl to show her and her life as the pictures allow the audience to build a character for themselves. We changed our video to black and white from colour as it shows the past of the girls story. The video will then change to colour so that it shows her mood change when she meets the other boy. The pictures also break up the 'getting ready' part at the beginning this will therefore make sure the video does not become boring.

This image shows that we have uploaded our song to our music video. It also shows some of the techniques such as transitions that we have used so far. 

Here shows the clips that we filmed of the photo frame of the girls pictures. From here we took out certain parts which looked he best and fitted in well with the timing of our song. We had to edit them so that they fitted to the beat of the song.

We added a title to our music video, this will make our song and video recognisable to our target audience. We used italic writing as it fits in with the conventions and stereotype of the R'n'B genre. This will also allow others who have not yet seen or heard the song to recognise that it is an R'n'B video and therefore will continue to listen if they have not yet heard it and like the R'n'B genre.

Final Digipak:

I continued the colour scheme of my album cover throughout so it flowed nicely and made it look professional. I added colour for the tour dates and winning tickets as this would appeal to the audience and they could find out quickly.
I used italic writing as this is a steretypical typography of the R'n'B genre. I continued the same typography throughout.
I used gold and black as they are also stereotypical colours of my genre but also because the gold gives the album a grand feel to it.
I chose those particular images as it adheres to the convetnions of the R'n'B genre and therefore my audience will recognise the genre easily.
I will use a gloss finish as I believe it adds to the grand feel and also because many of my questionaires brought back the result to use a gloss finish.
To come up with my final digipak ideas I took into account my questionnaire results and also I research other album covers that have already been produced and which ones i believed were successful.

Inside:

I used the stereotypical colours of an R'n'B album cover so that my target audience can easily recognise its genre. The italic writing also fits in with the conventions for R'n'B. I used a pattern so it was not just plain otherwise it might look boring, also the pattern makes the cover look more glamerous. The writing and black background also ties in with the beginning of the video, where the title is shown.

 

This is my inital idea for my back cover. I included the track list so people can identify what songs are included for easier listening. The website is included to advertise the product further and to get more information on the artist. The barcode is included to make sure it can be sold and at the right price in shops. The picture again will be a glamerous full body shot. The colour scheme is in keeping with the front to make it flow. 

 

This is my first attempt of my front cover.I like the colour scheme as it stands out and fits with the coventions of our genre. I dislike the the snowflake style picture as it looks like a christmas cd only. This may discourage buyers from buying it out of the christmas season therefore i wish to change the background. The italic writing also fits with the conventions of an R'n'B digipak. The picture would be a full body shot. 

I like this album cover due to the writing, as it looks very neat. Also i like the fact that Ashanti stands out due to the light background. The shot used is a full body shot with a male gaze appeal, this is a stereotype of an R'n'B digipak front cover. I also like the fact that there is a consistant colour scheme throughout, even Ashanti dress fits in with it. This means the complete focus is on her as she stands out. I think therefore they are using Ashanti's attractiveness to sell the album to male consumers.

This album cover also uses the italic writing which portrays feminism. Taylor Swift also stands out due to the blurred background. By he hair being blown back by a wind machine gives her a more glamerous look, this will make the cover appeal more to the male gender. The album cover name 'Fearless' makes women seem more powerful as she is not scared of anything. It looks like a tattoo on her body which shows she is not scared of anything.