Prezi!

Being part of a post-modern generation I wanted to try new software to build my evaluation on. I wanted it to be an interesting, interactive and fun way of reading my evaluation, rather than just flicking through slides of text. After consideration of this I was introduced to an online website called 'Prezi' which enables me to do this.

Prezi is not like other presentation programmes. You do not build multiple slides, it is all done on one blank canvas. This blank canvas allowing the viewer to zoom in and out of and rotate. This giving the audience a more interactive role within my evaluation.

Prezi allows a wider element of creativity. This programme enables you to upload not only text but images and video, to incorporate them all together. This is a lot more interesting and interactive than large essays and will make the audience want to read it more. Not only does it make it more fun for the reader, it also makes it more fun for me. More enthusiasm will reflect work in a prezzi rather than conventional, standard slides of text.

Here is a link to my Prezi which will evaluate the whole project!

SUBSIDIARY DONE!!!

After weeks of planning, research and editing I have completed the final Digi-pak and Magazine advert. Both have been editing on Photoshop for a professional finish. I am going to upload the finished products to talk about how and why things were made and put together!

Music Magazine Poster

To construct the magazine advert I had to take into consideration what I had learnt about them. When I had achieved this I was able to build a layout to conventionally form to the research, then choose the most effective layout. I then had a layout established and I was able to bring it to life by adding images and effects.

As the lower half of the advert needed to be bottom heavy I placed the information and carpet monster there. I then added neon lines, to keep continuity with bright colours, to add to the bottom heavy and to draw the audience eye up the lines and to the album cover. By taking the viewer to the album cover they are able to get a visual of the digi-pak, meaning they would relate the digi-pak to the promotion. They would also find out the name of the band, which gets the band name known and promoted.

I kept with the theme of dark background with bright colours laid on top. This keeps continuity between promotion and distribution products. Also the colours standing out makes the advert eye-catching to capture the attention of the target audience. Again to keep continuity I used the album cover (slightly modified with removal of the album name as its been placed larger on the poster) on the advert. This ay the audience can relate to all products knowing, recognising they are all part of the same production.

Why upload to Youtube

With the advances in internet technology bands and artists are able to introduce their music to potentially a massive audience, at low cost without having to affiliate with a major recording label. A major recording label with be very costly. Websites with massive libraries of songs are most successful as they are more widely known. This creates high numbers of opportunities for Independent label bands. Royalties from digital services could be a massive source of income, potentially. If an artist or band have decided to pay to record, manufacture and promote their album, there is little to no additional cost for Independent artists to distribute their music online. Online websites offer a massive opportunity to expose the artist/band to new and existing fans which could lead to an increase in sales through online retailers such as Itunes. When releasing music online it can be done more frequently and quickly and is easily accessible. Also artists/bands can release limited edition or live-material, not necessarily recorded professionally, online to be seen. This making advertising more cost efficient.

We, the producers, and our target audience are part of the We Media generation. Social networking sites (Facebook) and online sharing websites (youtube) are the craze within the generation. It is a quick and efficient way to communicate and upload videos to promote and see favourite, or research new, bands. Not only is youtube a massive hit online, it has also transferred to television, Rudetube. This showcasing all the most popular videos on television. Therefore potentially its allowing you to promote via television for no extra cost. Uploading and joining these sites are cost free yet reaching out to a massive, massive market.

Taking all this into consideration we have found it best that we upload our finished video to youtube.

Our advert layout

After considering Rachel's research on past bands/artist adverts and Lauras research into how to make an advert, I am able to build some design layouts for what our advert will look like. Then as a group we can decide which one we think will work best and why. Below are three advert layout ideas:

As a group we have decided the above layout is best suited. It grabs the audiences attention quickly with not too much to take it. It's bottom heavy so is easy on the eye. The main advantage is lines coming from the bottom will be used to take the audience eye through the whole frame, and with the layout, will be able to take it all in quickly and easily! We have laid it out how, as a language how we would read, left to right and up to down. Easy to read fonts and colours will be used to stand out. The advert will keep continuity with the digi-pak, therefore we chose the above elements to incorporate within it.

Evaluation talk!

On completion of final products we decided to talk about and evaluate decisions. Alex uploaded the video.

How to design an advert

After looking into past layouts for inspiration we needed more information on how to make an advert. Laura furthered the research in researching adverts.

Magazine Advert

As a group we had to decide and research what we wanted our second subsidiary task to be. We decided a magazine advert would be appropriate as it would promote the band and digi-pak. We will research a well known magazine to place it in, which would be appropriate for our target audience, so it would be seen by them and get it known. Here is some more information on decisions within Let's make an advert!

Finished editing and Problems!

We have now finished editing the video. There are good points and bad points to the finished production. The tone and feel of the video works well with the music and the cuts on the beat have worked well. However there have been problems with technical sides of editing. At the beginning of the project, on uploading footage we found Final Cut wasn't working. So we uploaded to I Movie and converted over. By uploading to I Movie and exporting it and importing it to Final Cut, the quality of the footage had been damaged. If we had more time we would have waited for Final Cut to be fixed before uploading but time is against you in the media world. Now we have lines running through frames which does make the video seem more amateur. Three quarters of the way through editing the music video, it was completed and saved. Later found that the programme would not open the file again, therefore it all had to be re-editied from the last saved point.

Alex primary done the editing, as she has most knowledge of Final Cut, however the rest of us assisted her within effects, cutting and timing. With Alex coaching us while we tried to edited the film.

Here is a link to the final Music Video Production! (Back-up for the embedded version)

An embedded final Music Video Production:

Preparation for the Evaluation

G324 is marked and internally standardised by the centre and marks are submitted to OCR by a specified date, a sample is then selected for external moderation. The unit is marked out of a total of 100 marks: 20 marks for the planning and research and its presentation; 60 marks for the construction; 20 marks for the evaluation.
In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:

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

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

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

Digi Pak-Inside Cover (Behind CD)

A big percentage of the time behind the disc is left blank. The disc will have a cover on it. However to keep the full on, bright colours, school theme alive we chose to put detail on the panel which would sit behind the Disc. We wanted to keep it quite simple as the other two panels have aot going on, within the inside panels. Therefore we used a 'Carpet Monster' we felt would appropriately sit behind the Disc. We chose this 'Monster' as when the Disc is lifted it would be asif it is smiling and waving at the viewer. This brings a fun atmosphere to the digi-pak along with the rest of the drawings.

On photoshop the panel was put to the correct size. I enhanced the Carpet Monsters colour to make it stand out against the dark background. I also textured a gallery effect to enhance its drawn/art appeal and to add more texture to the image. Once again my group was with me to be coached themselves on photoshop tools and help make decsions on layout and colour.

Digi Pak-Inside Cover (2 Panels)

This panel is made up from the size of two digi-pak panels. It will sit across the inside, barring behind the disc. This panel is a collage of all the Carpet Monster interpretations that people interpretated and have drawn for us. Below are images of people drawing their idea of a 'Carpet Monster'.

By doing this we are fully representating the name of the band, the Indie label and our music video; non-linear, easy going, fun. Conventionally inside covers contain a picture. As we have a 6-panel digi-pak layout I was able to incorporate all drawings by using two panels. Within photoshop, using a blank canvas the correct size, I was able to cut, paste, resize and place each carpet monster on the canvas I turned the optimacy up and down to fade the two big monsters in on the side. My group sat along side to help with layout, placing of the monsters, and be guided to try for themselves to cut a monster and paste it in, using photoshop. This furthering their photoshop skills.

Digi Pak-Track list (Inside Flap)

A track list is conventional within the digi-pak layout. It lets the audience know what songs are on the disc and what number the track is. To keep with the fun, school drawing theme we wrote the track, and track number, out in pastels onto black card. We were then able to photograph this to use on photoshop. We wanted to use a Carpet Monster drawing within the panel to add detail and to keep with the theme; keeping continuity. On photoshop I was able to cut, paste, resize and place the carpet monster onto the track list photograph. I was then able to enhance the colours to keep to the same neon/bright colours as on the front cover. We started the listing of the tracks going downwards and written left to write as that is, as a language, we read. This making the the reading clear and easy on the eye.

Digi Pak-The Thanks (Back)

To find a 'Thanks' on digi-pak's and CD's are common. Therefore as we had a 6 panel digi-pak we decided to incorporate one into ours. This then giving all the people working for the Carpet Monsters to create videos and promotions credit and a sense of accomplishment. Also so the band had a chance to thank all those who have helped them promote, gave them gigs and built them up to who they are today. It makes the digi-pak more personal and meaningful to the band and all those involved with them. We kept it black to suit the theme of the front cover. White writing used so it would clearly stand out to the viewer. I created this panel on photoshop with the assistance of my group. Together we decided the layout of the panel. We kept it simple as its a serious part of the digi-pak for the band. There is alot going on within the other panels that we decided it unnecessary to add loads of detail to this one, so we kept it plain to get the message directly across; 'Thanks!'.

Digi Pak-Front Cover

Conventionally Indie labels do not use a picture of the band as their front cover. However we had a lighthearted, fun picture of the band we wanted to use as it represents the idea of the video well; natural and non-linear. Indie is conventionally known as bands who play for the enjoyment of playing, the love of the music. We wanted to make our video in this way keeping subsidiary tasks to the same theme. To make the digi-pak front cover more conventional I worked on photoshop and added a gallery effect to make the image cartoon like, with bright neon colours to make it stand out against the black. A theme for our digi pak was 'Carpet Monster' interpretations. This was inspired by a band member, who is a teacher, and asked her class to collectively draw what they think a 'Carpet Monster' would look like. The original Carpet Monster, the kids came up with, we used on the front cover as this is where the inspiration came from for the rest of the digi-pak covers! Obviously it is important to add the name of the band, so the digi-pak is easily identified, and the album name, so people knew what album they were buying. We decided the names would be best in white to stand out from allthe colours.

Above are the Jamie T and The Wombats CD covers. The artist and this band both come under the Indie, Indpendant, label. Both front covers are light-hearted, fun and interesting to look at with alot going on. Initially everything can't be taken in, the more you look the more you see. We kept conventionally to this idea, but breaking it slightly by having a picture of the band. However our digi-pak cover may be perceived as quite dark, primarily being black, which does not suit the theme of our video and subsidiary tasks. The effect creating the neons meant for a darker background. Perhaps to make the cover suit our theme better we could have considered changing the colour e.g. to white as the neons would still stand out.

Digi-Pak update!

We now have several different ideas for our digi-pak. I have mainly created them using my mac and Photoshop software. However the group have helped to contribute to composition, drawings and assist me in creating the panels for the digi-pak. Laura researched further into digi-paks so we were able to create layouts to determine which best fitted our genre. Laura uploaded these.

Green Screen!

Today we filmed and expanded on knowledge on green screening. We filmed the shot we wanted for our music video; Laura 'on the front' of an NME magazine. We used the NME magazine as it is the most likely to feature our music genre, therefore it would be seen and read by our target audience!

Another filming schedule!

We have spoken to our media technician and booked the equipment we need to finish filming on Thursday the 11th of February. To ensure we stay on track and organised we devised another filming schedule. The original written schedule can be found here.

Digi Pak-Layout

Originally we decided we were going to use a basic digi pak lay-out (four panels), however we gained alot more ideas and decided we would use the layout above. This allows us to use more images and add more information to the digi-pak, as we have alot more space. We were able to get more people involved, adding their versions of 'carpet monsters' to make the digi-pak more fun, also to get it more well known. This is the layout we decided to use but original ideas can be found here.

We decided to use a digi-pak as they are more cost effective and eco-friendly. Our genre is 'indie'. This generates from the term 'Independant label'. These bands were generally bands that didn't realise CD's, they would perform their music live. If they were to produce a CD it would be in the form of a digi-pak as they did not have the money for a CD production.

Digi-paks are becoming to become more popular, for example Biffy Clyro and Muse have both recently released a digi-pak.

Digi-Pak layout research!

Whilst I played around with ideas on photoshop, Laura conducted Digi-pak research for me to consider when designing.

Reflective Comment..

By division of the group we have been able to push our productions forward. We have equally distributed work between the four of us to carry out. As we have decided to make a digi-pak me and Laura are going to be working within that area. As I am the photoshop expert within the group I played around with images and ideas for the digi-pak whilst Laura research more information on them. Alex and Rachel worked the editing of the video, fixing any technical problems we had been faced with. They began to match up film with the story board to bring the story board to life in the music video. Video editing and photoshop editing came along way today keeping us on schedule for finishing.

Subsidiary Tasks

We have decided to do a digipak, either as a DVD or CD cover, as one of our subsidiary tasks.

We felt we needed to know more about digipaks so Rachel carried out some research to boost our knowledge on them.

Update.

We are having difficulties with the audio and getting it to work on Final Cut. We have been using a copy of the song off a CD, but have found we need a copy of it on the software.

Uploading Film!

When trying to upload into Final Cut we had problems. Within our first lesson we had already found Final Cut was not working on the school Mac Computers. However we further knowledge on I Movie we decided to upload to that software and convert it into Final Cut once it has been uploaded. Once the footage had uploaded onto I Movie we went to speak to the technician, as well as working out ourselves how to convert the final to Final Cut. Luckily come our next lesson we found Final Cut software was once again available and we could start looking through the footage. It is a confidence booster knowing when facing a problem, sometimes guidance can help for a push in the right direction!

Picture Questionnaire!

We asked our target audience which picture they liked best out of the still digital images collected. One of these would be used within the subsidiary tasks, to keep continuity between products and for promotional purpose. We asked our target audience to choose their favourite image, why and comment. Alex has upload the results for this primary research.

Band picture slideshow

As well as taking location shots Alex took photos of the band which she has made into a slideshow. These images with help with the subsidiary tasks and help keep continuity.