Final Video: Olly Murs-Thinking of Me

Final Ancillary: Digi-Pack

Album Back Cover



CD

Front Cover

page2 and 3

page 4 and 5

page 6 and 7

page 8 and 9

page 10 and 11

back page



Final Ancillary: Promotional Poster

Evaluation: How did you use new technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Without new technology this project would not have been able to happen. New technology has been used throughout the whole project from research to planning to production.

Research: youtube, google, google images

Having access to such sites as youtube allowed me to research the same genres and take inspiration of location and themes. This particular use of new technology helped make the final music video as conventional as possible, as the website allowed me to understand conventions and similarities with in the genre

Google and mainly google images helped  for the research of the ancillary tasks. It was used to view different promotional posters and CD covers and digi-pak's. This particular research was also very important as it gave an understanding of codes and conventions of real media products.

Planning:

Facebook was mainly used to keep the group interactive, it was decided that this would be used as everyone in the group already had an account and it was simple. It was used to set up meetings and discuss general questions and queries. This was all done via facebook messenger.

Dropbox was another piece of technology that kept the group interactive when we were apart. A shared folder was created in which the group could upload documents and images which were then accessible to the rest.



shared dropbox folder

The Adobe suite was used for planning, Photoshop was used for the manipulation of images, Illistrator for the manipulation of text and InDesign to combine everything together. Constructing test pieces helped as they then progressed into final ideas.

Youtube and google were also used for the planning stage, to help develop knowledge and understanding.

Construction:

Premier Pro was used in the construction to put all the shorts together to make the final video. The group already had previous experience on how to use this piece of software so when it came round to using it we could get stuck in.

The Adobe Suite was again used for the construction of the ancillary tasks. Across PhotoShop, Illistrator and InDesign a promotional package was created to advertise the music video that was created using Premier Pro.

Across the whole project other equipment was used throughout such as, a tripod, a dolly, a Nikon SLR camera for stills and a HD Sony handy cam. These pieces of technology were the most vital to the whole project as they captured the footage giving it a professional feel and captured the stills that were used for the Ancillary tasks.

Blogger.com was also used throughout the project to publish development on how the project was going, giving pros and cons about certain aspects.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From the very beginning of the project it was clear that audience feedback was a critical aspect. To make the projects appealing to the target audience, gaining enough feedback was needed. Having other media students analysing the work was extremely beneficial as they analysed the products in a connotative and denotative manor. Yet having other people giving feedback was also very beneficial as a wide variety of comments were needed from the target audience, for the group to be able to make the video a success.

Throughout the project the group constructed different ways to get feedback, from simply asking peers and teachers to developing questionnaires (see post: Development: Audience Feedback) to creating video booths (see post: Audience Feedback: Creative Arts Eveneing). If the group was unsure about a certain part of the video, simply asking other media students was preferred, where as half way through the construction, the video was played to year 10 and 11 media students and then a questionnaire was filled in. This was a benefit to the group as it allowed a different opinion of a different age, who picked up some very important aspects, such as lip synching not being quite right in certain parts. This enabled the group to change the video making it as strong as it can be. Most of the feedback was constructive saying how well the lip synching was since it was edited, that the locations and characters worked well with the lyrics, yet when it was viewed again, A-level media peers explained that a few seconds of the video didn’t fit in. We listened carefully and then decided on a new plan and replaced the footage. The footage that we replaced, the group decided it would be best to incorporate more of the songs iconography ‘pebble beach’, so this is where the filming took place.

With the CD magazine advertisement, audience feedback helped with the simple mistakes, such as spelling. When I first started my peers were critical about the design as I took an unconventional approach. The feedback I got was to ‘play it safe’ but I chose to ignore this feedback and carry on constructing an unconventional promotional poster. I did take on board what my peers said and started to create a conventional poster as well in case it did not work out. Fortunately my first idea worked.

When the first draft of the CD digi-pak was created I showed it around to get some constructive criticism. The text inside the booklet was all sideways, in which I was advised to change it to up right. This was a very key point as it helped me understand even if the booklets I researched were this way designed, I should not always copy simple aspects such as this yet I should just take inspiration instead.

By gaining this feedback it has enlightened me to the way in which others think and understand a product. This also gave me a greater knowledge into the conventions of certain products and the way in which they are perceived.

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

Due to the house style being created the main and ancillary tasks linked well together as they all incorporated the specific features chosen, such as: font, logo, colours and the record label Syco. These also linked in with the other people in the groups ancillary tasks as the house style was designed to be usable across everyone, which made the groups ancilary tasks look like they came from the same production team due to all of the simularities. Also a vintage and retro feel was added to the music video and across the production. The retro and vintage theme was also created in the ancillary tasks by brown and orange tones being used.
I also managed to link the video with the ancillary ask by the images used. Throughout the video 'Olly' was quirky and fun, so the images that were decided on for my promotional package had to be quirky and fun also.

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

When researching for the ancillary tasks i hadnt decided whether i wanted to conform or subvert the conventions. It wasn't until the pearl jam poster was found that i decided to subvert the conventions. Having the effect the poster shows below instead of an image of the artiszt was the convention that I went against. Also considering the pearl jam poster was not from the same genre as Olly Murs, this subverted the convention that bit more.

Although i subverted one of the conventions for my ancillary tasks i decided to conform with the rest of the conventions. This made it easily recognisable for the audience and allowed them to identify what type of product it is.

The music video follows the codes and conventions of real media products with the pop genre, the group made sure that it was a conventional video by researching in depth of other videos from that genre as well as the artist Olly Murs.

The videos that were researched all had similar narratives, all revolving around love. The group decided to use this convention also as it is a simple yet effective plot. Todorov's theory of equilibrium was used to create the story; from the character being in a relationship, breaking up and then coming out the other end happy.

From researching some of the olly murs videos a particular location looked familiar. In the video dance with me tonight, a location near greenwich market was used, which the group decided to incorporate with in our production.