Blake Blackburn Evaluation

MediaEval

Evaluation - James Hamill

Our task at the start of this year was to produce either; a music promotion, a film teaser trailer promotion or a television trailer and promotion. Initially we wanted to produce a film teaser trailer promotion, but when we struggled to gather ideas, we then decided on making a music video. In order to avoid copyright laws when producing the video, we downloaded a song from www.jamendo.com - the song is called Discount Store by Dan Byrk.

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

Our media product follows the basic conventions of real media products aswell as challenging them. Many music videos are performance based and although some have a slight narrative, ours actually tells a story between the performance shots. After looking at several music videos, I have found one which is mainly narrative like ours, Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Below I have included our video, and a clip from Thriller so that you can see the differences and similarities between our music video and a professional product.

Fellow - Discount Store



Michael Jackson - Thriller


*I could only include a clip from this video due to YouTube restrictions*

I think that the main way in which our music video has challenged the conventions is the strong use of narrative. The video tells a story of a day at work for the protagonist, who is working in a Discount Store. While undertaking his duties of stacking, cleaning etc. he has some problems with customers and then deals with them himself until getting fired by a manager. There are not many music videos that use such a narrative as most which do are mainly performance based, with little bits of narrative included.

Another thing that we have challenged is the camera shots and angles. We captured a shot from height and changed the gradients and colours to make it look like a CCTV image, then we embedded this shot with another so that it is seen on a screen and it is easy to see that it is CCTV.



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

The brand image that we aimed to get was fun, yet mellow and we tried to incorporate this into all our of products. The background of the storyline for the video was to get this image accross, which is why the main character gets into several arguments with customers and his manager. The theme was carried accross into the ancillary tasks as the album covers and website had cartoon-like effects added to them.

Question2

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Below is our audience feedback video. This video shows the audience watching the video, answering the questionnaires and also giving us their answers.




Below is an example of the questionnaires that our audience were asked to compelete after watching our music video and then also seeing our ancillary products. Questionnaire 1 is for the Music Video, 2 is for the Ancillary Tasks.


From our audience feedback we learned alot about our products. The good things that we found out are that it does appeal to our target audience of teenagers and young adults that are interested in the pop, rock and indie genres. We found out that people's favourite shots were when the protagnoist was filling the shelf with Rubicon and also the CCTV shot. The other things that the audience liked from our video was the use of camera angles and effects added to brighten the shots up a bit. Another thing that was commented on by some of our audience was the use of props available to us. We were able to use a broom, cupboard, stock etc. from the shop and also managed to actually board a bus so that it looked more realistic.

However, there were some aspects of our video that got pointed out for possible improvement, the main one was the poor acting of the protagonist as even in the first shot, he was smiling as he awoken, as well as several other times during the footage. Another problem was the lip syncing was sometimes just slightly out of time with the music, this was down to various issues. Although most of the audience liked the narrative within the video, they did say that there could have been a few more performance shots. Some of the clips seem to be dragged out a bit and could do with being seperated a little by showing more performances.

 Below is a pie chart showing some results from our audience feedback. The question asked was; What would you rate the music video on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the lowest - 10 being the heighest).



We also asked our audience to fill in a questionnaire for our ancillary tasks. Blake and Danny produced album covers and a magazine advertisement and me and Ash produced album covers and a webpage. When the results came back the album covers produced appeared to be the most successful. The audience liked the effects that each group had added to theirs and how they still managed to each follow the brand image. As well as this, all our other ancillary tasks received positive feedback, especially the webpage which received very positive comments. There were only a couple of negative comments to take from this questionnaire, mainly being the size of the writing on the products.

4) How were media technologies used in the tasks

Media technologies have been used throughout the whole process of creating these products. The slideshow below gives information on all the technologies used and how we used them.

Presentation 1

Final Evaluation - Daniel Collinson

At the beginning of our coursework we were asked to either produce a music promotion, a film promotion or a television promotion. My group chose the music promotion. Through research and in depth searching we found a song that had a good rhythm and the narrative was simple and so it would create a good video. We found the song on http://www.jamendo.com/, it was originally by Dan Byrke. I worked with Blake Blackburn, James Hamill and Ashley Hartley. In this production I had many roles. I performed in the video as the bands guitarist. I played the role of the camera man, many significant times and came up with some creative and original ideas. I also took part in the editing where I helped to cut unnecessary shots that were not required and I also helped to sync up the video with the song. For the ancillary tasks, I created five album covers (extra back cover for backup) and the magazine advertisement, using photoshop. Also I helped to draw up different styles and types of shots in the storyboard, to make the video more visually interesting.

When we finally decided on the song 'Discount Store', Blake and James came up with the idea of calling the band we made up fellow, this comes from the idea of fun but mellow.

I believe that the audience would be extremely affected by this product because it highly relates to the Maslow's theory of hierarchy of needs.

The protagonist in the video is deeply depressed. He hates his job so much and has to put up with horrible customers every day, and so he has low self-actualization, low self esteem and finally he has a lack of belonging.


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

First of all we had a song that had a very popular and common genre, rock pop. We have shown this through conventions such as camera work and narrative scenes in the video. Although most rock videos just show the artist or band on a stage or in a room, we had narrative and performance shots, the narrative is usually seen in a pop video, and so we have placed both elements together to create a good rock pop video. Also we used the idea of placing shots of the band's guitarist playing guitar to add another rock genre element. I believe it is vital to use these typical elements because it creates realism and understanding in the audience. The shot below shows these elements combined.

The power point below shows the ancillary tasks using and developing the forms and conventions of real media products.

Album Covers Powerpoint

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Although we used typical conventions and elements we also added something different. We used transitions in the video, since not many rock pop or any music videos use transitions. We used them because it helped the video and song flow better and also it would become very difficult to sync up the song and the video. I believe it is vital to use and do something new in the video because it is refreshing for the audience and also keeps them interested. I think the innovation were likely to prove successful because it is a mixture of new type of editing and shots as well as old, well known and recognizable shots that the audience can relate to. I believe the choices we made, especially the choice of camera shots did work. For instance, on the questionnaire/audience feedback 3 out of 10 people said they liked the cctv shot (where we used a long shot high shot to create a cctv affect, the shot is then modified and placed in front of a shot of a computer monitor). Also another 5 out of 10 said that they liked the close up of the protagonist stacking up fruit juice on the shop shelves.

(Below is the CCTV shot and the protagonist stacking up fruit juice on the shop shelf)

For the ancillary tasks, 6 out of 10 said that they liked the idea of desaturation, colour filters and the effect of the black and white used in all of my album covers and my magazine article, one audience member wrote that 'they were quite well produced'. (As shown below).For the ancillary tasks, 6 out of 10 said that they liked the idea of desaturation, colour filters and the effect of the black and white used in all of my album covers and my magazine article, one audience member wrote that 'they were quite well produced'. (As shown below).

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

The brand image for this artist is laid back, mellow and easy listening. We wanted to make the logo for the band simple but with some style. (As shown below)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


I continued to use this style and font of writing in my ancillary tasks. I also kept the same elements in colouring. I first made the original photo black and white. I then desaturated the image to give it a cartoon like style. This also shows the band image. They are not really serious if they are going to have a album cover that is mainly cartoon. (I did this by using the adjustment tool from the image tab on photoshop). Also for the band's name and the album's title I used dark purple for colouring whilst everything else was black and white. This added good effect. (As shown below).
 

We also kept the same style of clothing in our music video and ancillary tasks. In both the pictures and the video the protagonist and the guitarist are wearing laid back clothing such as jeans and a simple shirt. I believe it has kept the same image for the band and established the brand image.


To push the brand image we kept the same clothing throughout the video. We used clothing that everyday people can afford and wear. This is as mentioned before, laid back clothing like jeans and simple shirts and T-shirts. We also kept this style and branding in the ancillary tasks where the band members are wearing the same clothing. This is reflected by other artists who keep up a brand image for their fans to follow and recognize (which is what a brand is suppose to do).

Michael Jackson is the perfect example for branding and ideology. He made the idea of a Stetson hat and wearing a glove covered in diamonds an icon representing him. (As Shown below).

We also used a medium paced editing to go with the song. On two points of the video we sped up the shots to keep the story going and also keep the audience interested. These two points where when the protagonist gets on the bus and when he is just walking from the other bus stop to the entrance of the shop. (As shown below).
 

As said in my research our product/band would probably get signed by EMI records, since they sign many artists of the particular genre of rock pop. Artists such as The Beatles, Lily Allen, Beastie Boys, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry, Pink Floyd, queen and Robbie Williams. Obviously the genre of rock pop is clearer in some of the artists than others.
 
 
This is the EMI record company logo. I used this logo on my back covers of my ancillary tasks. (Below).
 

 
A budget is a big matter in creating a music video. When a producer and director is allocated to create the video, the producer draws up a budget, which is approved by the head of production. This is submitted to the client (record company) who may wish to negotiate or to modify the idea, to fit a manageable budget. Once agreed, a deal memo will be countersigned on director and budget. At this stage the production company is committing itself to expenditure as the director and producer need to put together the production unit, the main team of creative personnel.


The recent economic downturn in media industries has led to both a reduction in available budget for music promotion and a far greater degree of corporate involvement in many products. Despite the brevity of the planning period, record companies are often reluctant to green-light a project in case they make a mistake. At Sony for example, six different levels in the company have to sign off (approve) video budgets before shooting can commence and the head of the label has to approve any project over £20,000 (ours would probably not cost that much). The production company may need to apply considerable pressure to get the confirmation needed to proceed.

It is said that the majority of the music is now created for the young people and generation. And so I believe this product would make a profit because it stands out and it is special because the performers are the same age as the listeners and so the record company would value from this profit. Also the performers dress the same and have the same average low paid jobs that teenagers get, working in a small discount store. This product supports the teenage generation.


3) What have you learned from the audience feedback?

Here is the first page for the discount store music video questionnaire.

Audience Feedback Charts And Graphs

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Here is the audience feedback below.






Our target audience for this product was teens and upwards, around 16 to 25 year olds. Looking at the socio-economic scale in the demographic profiling, I would describe the best group for this particular product to be E to C1 (Basically, the subsidence’s like unemployed students to the lower middle class, such as trades and supervisory jobs). However the product definitely relates to the audience who come under the class of D because the protagonist in the video is a shop assistant (manual worker) or the lower working class.

Looking at the psychographic profiling and the young and rubicam’s cross-cultural consumer characteristics, I would place this product in the group of the mainstreamers. I would do this because this is 40% of the market. This is the largest section of the market. This group seeks security in conformity and thus tends to buy well known brands. I believe this large portion of buyers would buy this product because it is a mainstream genre.

The audience we have got for our product is a potentially large mass audience and so it is bound to make a good financial profit.

We are likely to have a secondary audience. Because this product is a hybrid genre, meaning there are two genres. Rock and pop. That is why other bands such as the beatles for example were so successful because they appealed to a lot of audience. They would have songs like 'Twist and Shout' for the rock lovers and then 'I saw her standing there' for the pop lovers. (As in the link below).

TWIST AND SHOUT (1964)
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I SAW HER STANDING THERE (1964)
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Our product must appeal to an audience. That is why we need good advertisement and marketing. Here we can use AIDA (acronym used in marketing that describes a common list of events that are very often undergone when a person is selling a product of service:

A - Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer = To do this I used the effects of photoshop and made my ancillary tasks black and white and also desaturated. I also used a thick purple font to attract the customer to the band's name and album name.

I - Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features, as in traditional advertising) = On my front cover for the album, I did not use a image of the band. The picture I chose was the shop where the narrative takes place. I believe the shot makes the customer focus on the album and makes then more interested when they are not 100% sure who the band is until they read the font.

D - Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs = Here I used the interesting photos to convince the customers, it also depends on the customers music taste.

A - Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing = Here I used logos such as HMV's logo on the magazine advertisement to entice the customer in the store to buy the album.

S - Satisfaction: satisfy the customer so they become a repeat customer and give referrals to the product = Once again this depends on the customers taste in music and whether they would buy this brand or genre again.

We knew from the start that the song was not up to much, and so we were going to have to attract and address the audience some other way. We did this by using various interesting shots in our video. The questionnaire shows that 50% of the audience believed the close up of the protagonist stacking the shelves with fruit juice was a very creative shot. Also another 30% of the audience believed the cctv camera/computer shot was a good feature to the video.

Also to attract the audience I used similar elements in all of my ancillary tasks. As mentioned before, on all tasks I turned the picture black and white and then desaturated it in photoshop. I liked to use this element because I gave the pictures a continuous style and also they looked quite like a cartoon. This also goes with the bands style, 'fun but mellow'. I also used the same style in font, a bold but deep purple text to give the band logo some character. This also helped the album and the magazine advert stands out because everything else was black and white whilst the band name and album title was in colour. (As shown Below)

We have used audience research throughout the project. We have used questionnaires for both the ancillary tasks and also the video and we also have a video recording of the audience explaining their answers for the questionnaire. This was a good idea because it saves the audience having to write every little point down and also gives our group more evidence and backup.

In our project we have used still cameras, video recorder cameras and also apple mac computers. All have them have affected our project in a good way. The still cameras allowed us to choose a good location as well as selecting photos for our album covers, website and also our magazine article. Also obviously we would need to use a video camera for our video. This was effective because it allowed us to get experimental and challenging shots to make our video visually interesting. Also the use of the camera stand was good because it allowed us to get the really high cctv shot. (As shown below).

Also the use of the mac's has been very effective because they have allowed us to use specialized programs such as photoshop and also complicated industry standard editing software programs such as final cut express. From using photoshop last year in one of my projects I was able to think of different styles of camera shots and the effects I could use. I had to go through a tutorial with final cut express but this allowed me to understand the program and realize the effects I could use in the project.

Looking at the feedback, we have done very well in our tasks. The audience has said it is well paced and conforms to the elements of a pop video. They have told us that it is for teens and the song lines with the story. They say that the camera shots are effective and help to pace the story. Also for the ancillary tasks the audience has said that they liked the desaturation, the colour filters and the colour grading as well as the black and white effect (80% of the audience said this). One audience member said that they liked the one of the middle picture, the one with the lyrics on the receipt. This positive feedback is very gainful and has shown me that I could use these photoshop elements in the future for further projects.

Reflecting on the feedback, I would definitely add more performance shots in the video and also get more serious acting in the narrative scenes. Also I would try to use final cut express to make the lip synching absolutely perfect.

4) Use of creative technologies - Skills you have learned

How did you use media technologies in Construction, Research, Planning and evaluation stages?

In this project I used two main programmes/software. I used photoshop and final cut express. I have used photoshop before, last year for my film project I used the program to edit photo's I took for a storyboard. Although I had some knowledge of the programme this project helped me to develop it. However the programme final cut express was completely new to me. Last year we used the apple mac's own editing software imovie, which is a lot simpler than final cut. I took the tutorial of final cut and began to understand it, but it did take a while.

The advantages of photoshop allowed me to do my ancillary tasks. However I do believe I could have done more if I used the programme indesign to make the magazine since it had better layout functions and is a programme designed to deal with making magazine covers.

In Photoshop I first uploaded the photo and then turned it into black and white. I then used the hue and desaturation effects on the image tool. This allowed me to get the effect I wanted. I also used the brightness tool to get the best exposure of the picture.

In Final Cut Express, we captured and imported the images and shots we got on the video camera. We then imported the song from http://www.jamendo.com/ and placed it in the sound timeline. We then began placing all the performance shots in synch with song. This required a lot of editing and close study of the image to get it as synched up as possible. We then placed the narrative shots in chronological order to give the video a story and make it look more visually interesting as well as make sense.

The use of the mac's was very efficient because they are media related hardware it allowed use to create what we needed to and it had the programmes on it that we needed. Obviously we needed camers at first we had problems with them because the batteries would randomly lose power after about five minutes of filming. We were going to use my camera but having two different models which used two different kinds of quality would make editing difficult.

We used multiple websites for our project. I used mainly www.google,com to find pictures to illustrate my points and http://www.youtube.com/ to show video's of examples. As mentioned before, we used jamendo.com to find the song we chose.

Also we used http://www.soundeffectsdownload.com/ to get the alarm sound at the start of the video and of the song. (As shown below).

Blogger has been good to use because it has helped me keep track of my research and helped me to figure out what to do next. However I find it difficult sometimes when I upload a picture and have to drag all the way down past the text and other pictures. It would be more useful if the picture uploaded where you click on the page.


In Final Cut Express, we used the colour grading tools on the colour corrector video filter menu to add brightness to the shots that where in the store. This made the video look quite cheerful yet the song and the protagonist in the video is quite depressed. This added a great contrapuntal element to the video. Also we could modify the images to make images appear over other images. (As shown below).

However I stilled had problems with lip synching with Final Cut Express and so this came at a disadvantage to the project, in the end though it worked out.


I decided to use photoshop for my magazine advert instead of indesign because I already had a year’s knowledge of the programme and so I saw that as a advantage and used it to make the magazine advert. I used the modifications on photoshop to get the magazine advert at to the right size. However it might have been more proficient if I used indesign since it is designed and developed to create posters and newsletters. However I still got the image and effect out of photoshop that I wanted.

Overall the technologies I have used have been very proficient. They have allowed me to complete our project. Although we had problems with finding our location to shoot our video we had no major problems with the hardware or the software we used.

I believe that I have made progression from last year because the camera work was more creative as well as the ideas. Also we were using much more complicated programmes and software like fiinal cut express. I think that this project has had much more creativity put in it. Also we had much better research and planning. We found it easy to place a genre on the product, even when it was a hybrid.

I believe I did a good job at research and planning. I researched rock pop videos as well as record companies that would possibly take our artist under their wing. I also researched magazines that would publish the magazine advert.

The overall product was pretty good. Although I do believe the acting could have been better and the lip synching could have been more accurate. However I do believe it comes close to the real article. It has creative cinematography as well as a realistic narrative.

In conclusion, I have tried my best with the project and contributed by giving and using my ideas with both the video and the ancillary tasks. Although I could have found the location for the video quicker, once we did start filming I tried to contribute to the project as best as I could by performing in the video, research and planning, camera work and post production elements like editing and the ancillary tasks. I believe the ideology and the brand image are well portrayed in both the ancillary task and the video the image being a laid back, casual, fun but mellow band. I believe the product is successful and the audience would easily be able to recognize the artist through the use of the same iconic elements used in the ancillary tasks and video.

Final Evaluation - Ashley Hartley

1) In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product uses and challenges forms and conventions from real media products because as you will see from the videos I have selected that both artists that I have researched have both done two types of music videos, all performance or performance and narrative, the ones that I have chosen to compare with are the performance and narrative videos in on performance. The pop/rock/indie genre within the music video was similar to the type of videos that Bon Jovi and Michael Jackson have made within the past few music videos that they have made. Having looked at these I have noticed a few similarities within my video and that of Bon Jovi and Michael Jackson. Within the Bon Jovi video we keep seeing the band on a regular bases, in our video we have tried to follow this kind of setup and showed a performance shot when we think appropriate, unlike in Michael Jackson’s videos when all we see is the singer, as he is the main part of the band, we have also tried to incorporate this into our video by using the main singer as the protagonist to follow him around. The use of close up shots on the singer and also the use of a good match of narrative and performance. As you can see from the video below we have used many creative shots during our music video, one shot that I think challenge the original typical shots that we see in both of the music videos below is the high angle shot that was used for the CCTV footage which has allowed us to add the look of professionalism to the video.

Below is the video from our project and also two videos from Michael Jackson and Bon Jovi.



Michael Jackson - Earth Song


Bon Jovi - It's My Life


Another way that I think that the video challenges the conventions of the music videos is by relating the video to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

As of when we first see the protagonist we notice that he looks dull and does not like his job, this would put him at around the Safety point in Maslow's Hierarchy, although what he is looking for is to work his way up to Esteem and gain the respect he deserves and then onto Self-actualization.

2) How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?
The brand image that we have gone for is that we are tongue in cheek, laid back and easy to listen to, we tried to get this across through our album covers and other products, as shown in the image below.

Taking them things into account James and Blake came up with the name 'Fellow', meaning fun but mellow. The music video is filmed in a discount store and frequently shows the band members within the performance shots, it also shows the fun side to the video with the over the top boss and the fights that the protagonist gets into, with the ancillary texts we have carried on that fun theme in one of the album covers, this is in the form of cartoon effects, this is because everyone sees cartoons as fun and tongue in cheek behavior, as shown in the image above.

Below is a word document that contains our album covers and then compares them against others that have been produced by well known artists

Below is a presentation about my album covers.

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Below is our video from our audience feedback, this shows the start of the video, people answering the questionnaire and also the answers from the questionnaire.


We conducted the audience feedback in our class room and were filmed by the media technician, the results are as follows. From our audience feedback I have learnt a lot from both our video and or ancillary tasks. For our video I have learnt that there are a lot of good points about it, I have learnt that the video does appeal to its target audience of teens/young adults that are interested in the genres of pop, indie and rock music other good points that I have taken from the feedback are that we have used a range of good creative shots to keep the audience interested and to carry on watching, for example the ones that have been pointed out to us by our audience are the following; when the camera is on the shelf and the protagonist is stacking the juice on the shelf and then covers up the camera bit by bit another is when we have the guitarist playing in opposite corners of the screen and then in the background there is a picture of the discount store, the two clips then switch corners and finally another one is the CCTV video footage that had been made from a high angle and then edited onto the picture of a computer and then had special effects added to it to saturate and make it flicker. The audience had rated our video from one to ten, the results of that can be found in the power point below. The story of the protagonist runs smoothly with the music and is also upbeat and complements each other therefore giving the video good continuity. The use of generic shots liken us to many other music videos that have been created and therefore we can then compare between videos and spot similarities in videos from different artists.
Although throughout our audience feedback there had been some things that have been pointed out to us that could be improved and then make the video better as a whole. The main things that the audience spotted are that at the beginning the protagonists is laughing as he was waking up and getting out of bed also he does this in other scenes even though it maybe for just a second, re shooting these scenes without the laughing will help create a more professional look for the video also the lip syncing in some of the performance shots is out by maybe a few milliseconds but can be noticed in the scenes that it has happened to, correcting this will again help the video to look more professional. Although the use of generic camera shots does allow us to be like other music videos it does not leave much to the imagination, the use more creative shots and maybe the use special effects would allow us to stand out from the other music videos and would help encourage the audience to keep watching the video. The use of not many performance shots was a big thing that came up in our audience feedback and could be improved by using a variety of places within the store used to film different kinds of performances, doing this will allow the audience to see more of the band and will help them to recognize them. The use of shorter shots was something that came up, this would help improve the video as the song is quite snappy and some of the clips are too long for the beat of the music, trimming these clips down will allow the video to e faster and more upbeat and then in tune to the beat of the music. Another problem that the audience has said is that the protagonist does not interact with the camera s much as they would have liked, correcting this would allow the audience to feel like the protagonist is connecting to them personally and therefore adding a personal touch to the video that some people may be able to relate to.

With our ancillary tasks we split up into two groups of two as there were four of us and we felt that we could not contribute equally to the two tasks that had to be done. One group produced the album covers and a poster and another group produced a website and another set of album covers with different effects. When we carried out our audience research the thing that was most popular with the audience was the album covers from both of the groups was the most popular product, particularly the one with the black and white effects. Although this was the most popular product with our audience the other products still received positive feedback and on the whole nearly all members of the audience said that the products could not be improved on, they also said that throughout all of the products there has been good continuity. One of the questions was that “do you think that the products was up to standards of other artists?” all of the responses said yes, this shows us that all of our products look professional as they look like others that have been done before by big bands. Also when asked if they would buy the real product from what they had seen the majority of the audience would buy it if it was their type of music.
The bad points from the questionnaire was that some people thought that a wider use of effects could have been used with certain products, this would make the products look more creative and stand out from the original non filtered products. Also the writing could have been bigger to allow the audiences with seeing aids to be able to view the product more easily, this would help us be more user friendly towards the customer and therefore show that we cater for all of our customers.
Below are two of our audience feedback sheets, the first one is about the music video and the second one is about the ancillary tasks.

Below is the power point containing quotes and charts from our questionnaire.

4) How Did you use media technologies in the...
I used media technology in all of the stages throughout my coursework. In the research section I used the internet to search for videos of different artists so then I could compare videos and find inspiration, I also used video to show which genre of music would best fit our band. The disadvantage about this was if we found a good quality video but the emmbedded link was not in use then we would have to go and search for another video of nearly the same quality. The use of images allowed me to show the style of album covers that artists of a particular genre produce there album covers.
Within the planning section of the coursework I have again used many different elements such as; the use of blogs to document and show what we have done and a storyboard to allow us to see what the finished project may look like.

Within the construction aspect of the coursework I have used final cut express to allow me to make the video, it also has allowed me to edit the video in the way that suits the beat of the music and to suit that genre, it has a large amount of tools that could be used within it such as different effects and sounds that could be incorporated into the video for example it has a razor tool that allowed me to Cut the video clip in the place that I wanted so then we had had to footage we needed and not a long clip of outtakes. The use of a colour correction allowed me to brighten up the colours in the shop where they might have seemed a bit dim to help bring out the colours and make it look more vibrant. There was a wide range of video effects available to us, the ones we used are as follows, the speed up effect on the bus scene to allow the shot to be shorter as the bus driver was talking to our actor while we was filming also other effects we used was the flicker filter to help us make the CCTV footage, the use of sizing and then laying it onto of a still image of a computer made the impression that someone (the boss) was watching the whole thing on CCTV. The bad points about using final cut express was that because it was on the apple macs the screen would start to seperate due to accidently pushing the buttons on the side of the mouse, another bad point is that when importing the video footage into the programme it someties does not capture it all and then you would have to redo the proccess again, or the mac would crash making you load up your project and restart uploading the footage. I have used video to allow me to make the music video and to film with cameras, the use of digital pictures has also helped in showing things such as the location shots and also was used in our ancillary tasks, the use of a website management software was used to create a website for the band, the use of word processors to write the letter to Tesco’s that later got rejected.
The use of image manipulation softare was used to help create the poster and the album covers. For the set of album covers that I worked on I took a still image that I wanted to make into the covers and then started to use the effects on them, the first efect I used was a cutout effect which allowed the picture to have the cartoon look that I have used throughout, i then added the poster edges effect to make sure that the lines of the person's body/hands and other objects where made visible.

Within the evaluation stages I have used power points to allow a more creative way of getting the information of charts and quotes that I needed to show across to the audience, the use of videos was a big part as it allowed me to compare my own video to that of other well known artists and has allowed me to create a audience feedback video as proof of the feedback is real and to show the finished music video. The use of pictures is a big part of my evaluation as they demonstrate some theory’s such as Maslow and also was used in the word processor to help me spot similarities within different album covers. Word processor has been used as it allowed me to show pictures of our ancillary tasks and allowed me to annotate them to show differences or similarities between ours and other artists, the blog is used to hold all of my evaluation and to present it. Although the problems with blogger was that if you had if you had prepared it in a word processor then you had to make sure that the new settings were activated before it would allow you to paste. Another bad point was that when a picture was inserted it went to the top of the page and not to where the curser was, so this resulted in getting the picture and dragging it down to the correct position.

In conclusion I feel that I have created a brand image well as there is the same style (cartoon or black and white) throughout all of the products and all offer the tongue in cheek and relaxed feeling and look that the music video creates with the song. I think that overall I have done the project well as I have helped in all areas of the production including the planning on on the blogs and storyboards, having a small role within the video as two customers and also helped in creating one set of album covers and website.

Our Video

Below is our finished video





Ashley Hartley

Audience feedback

Due to the file size being to big to fit on blogger i have uploaded the feedback onto YouTube and have embedded the link below.



Ashley Hartley

Ancillary Task - Album Cover ( Ash and James)

These are our album covers that we have created using image manipulation. We have used some filters to allow us to create the cartoon effect.


Below is the back coverBelow is the middle cover
Below is the other inside cover
Below is the front cover

Ashley Hartley

Ancillary Task - Alternative Back Cover (Dan and Blake)

This is my Alternative Back Cover. I used the program Photoshop to desaturate and turn the photo black and white. Although the shot is simple, it is effective. I added the same style and elements to the cover. For instance, the song titles, the text (protagonists names and website), barcode, band name and EMI logo. I was going to discard this image but I decided to keep it because I believe it was a little too good to get rid of.

By Daniel Collinson

Ancillary Task - Back Cover (Dan, Blake)

This is my Back Cover. Here I have used Photoshop to modify the picture by desaturating it and turning it black and white. I have taken the idea from one of the most famous and globally recognised album cover of all time, 'Abbey Road'. This was one of the first album covers I had in mind because I was going to use it even if our video was to take place in a canteen and the protagonist was going to be a dinner lady. I believe it helps promote the bands image and style which is 'Fun but Mellow' (i.e. fellow) and it also promotes the song quite well because the artists are walking somewhere, i.e. 'I'm going to the discount store'. The shot looks quite sad and depressing, which also relates to the song because it is about a shop assistant who hates his job and is quite down about it. We also had the same shot in the video, but as a moving image. However we removed it because the shot was too shaky, plus we took the crossing of the road shot on a very foggy day and the other outside shots on a non foggy day and so it would break the rules of continuity. To make this back cover more realistic I placed on track names and also the names of the band members and their roles. I also placed on the name of the real artist as well as the website we found the track on (http://www.jamendo.com/). To add realism I also added a barcode and also the EMI logo, which we previously decided that this type of artist would be signed to.

Although I wanted to use the 'Abbey Road' idea, I wanted to change it a little, which is what I have done using Photoshop. I have added my own authenticity and style in this image and throughout all of the images I have edited.

By Daniel Collinson

Ancillary Task - Right Middle Cover (Dan, Blake)

This is my Right Middle Picture of the album. Here I also used Photoshop to turn it black and white however it is less desaturated since this would affect the text and make it more difficult to read. My original idea was to use a receipt and place the band members names and role at the bottom and in the middle of the receipt and would place the song tracks. It was originally going to be my back cover. However I had the idea of placing the lyrics to the song down the length of the receipt instead. We got the lyrics by emailing the real artist 'Dan Byrke'. I was a little concerned because I could not fit on all of the lyrics without making them too small. But then i realised it looks quite effective having some of the lyrics cut off because they cut off where the receipt has been torn.


(Click on image to see lyrics much clearer)