Evaluation

C:\Documents And Settings\Joanne\My Documents\A Level Subjects\Media\Joanne Hodgson Evaluation

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Combination – Do my Finished Products Work Well as a Promotional Package?

Overall I think that the advert and Digipak work quite well together as they both have a night time feel, with the indication of dance music through the colours used and the type of font used for the track list and artist and album name. Unfortunately I don’t think that the video works as well with the ancillary texts as it doesn’t link with the theme of ‘boy racer’ music. It is focussed on go-karts, and so doesn’t match as well with the Digipak and advert which are linked to cars.

Since my video doesn't work well with my ancillary texts, and my target audience didn't like it, I have decided to change it. To do this I am going to go back to my original idea of using a car, but change the storyline.

Finished Product (Advert)

Personally I think that my advert is okay, but could have been better. I liked how I laid out the text, as it was clear to read, but I don’t like the background image of the strobe light. It seems too blurry and looks unprofessional. I also think it would have been more effective if I had added a shadow to the Digipak so it looked more 3D rather than having, a flat 2D style image.

Creating the Advert

When I made the advert, on Adobe Photoshop, the way that I had planned it looked very plain, and I didn’t think it would catch the audiences’ attention so instead of having a plain background I chose to use an image of a strobe light, which was originally taken for my Digipak. I also put the artist name in the top third rather than at the bottom so it would be one of the first things to read. I used white writing as it stood out from the strobe light on the background. I used capitol letters and an exclamation mark for the release date, to emphasise it. I had reviews alongside the release date, so they would be noticed as well. I used the same program for the advert as I did with the Digipak so I found it relatively easy to create my desired effect.

Ideas and Sketches (Advert)

For my advert I was going to have a plain background and then have an image of the front of my Digipak in the top third of the advert. In the middle and bottom third I was going to have all of the information, such as the album name, artist name, release date and reviews from newspapers and magazines. I thought this would be a good idea as it would show what the Digipak looked at, and have all the information without it looking overcrowded on the page.

Finished Product (Digipak)

Overall I am quite pleased with the outcome of my Digipak. By having the plain black background, it helped to make the main image of the car to stand out. The artist’s name, Manic Speakers is at the top of the page in a black and white neon writing, which also links to the picture. I liked how I used the same style of writing for the artist name as well as the album name and track list as it shows continuance, and the neon writing links well with the night time, club feel. I think that the inside works well with the outside, because it does look like you are looking inside the car. To improve it however, I would focus more on the speakers or CD player inside the vehicle so that it linked more the with artist name of ‘Manic Speakers’.

Creating the Digipak

When it came to getting the image of the strobe light it was quite difficult, but I did manage to get many shots, which I thought I could work with. However when I uploaded them onto Adobe Photoshop they didn’t look as good, and when I enlarged them to fit she shape of the Digipak they became pixelated, and looked unprofessional. Because of this I decided to change the idea of having a strobe light and speaker, to something, which would be easy to get pictures of but still link with the style of music. I chose to have the image of a car, from the side for the front and back cover. For the inside covers I decided I would carry on the theme of having a car and have the inside of the car on both sides. I did this because when the Digipak is opened up it looks like you are opening the car door and looking inside. I used a variety of tools, such as the colour enhancement, paintbrush, lasso, to edit my photos. I had used Adobe Photoshop last year when creating my magazine, so I had quite good experience with using it, so it wasn’t too difficult to achieve the look that I wanted.

Ideas and Sketches (Digipak)

After looking different types of Digipaks I started to gather ideas of what I wanted to include on mine. The main thoughts that I have at the minute are to have a strobe light effect for both the inside and back covers but it will depend if I can get photos of a strobe light.
My initial idea for my Digipak was to have a speaker as the main image on the front cover and have the album title and artists name underneath, in the bottom third. For the back cover and inside covers I wanted to keep it simple so I was going to have an image of a strobe light, as it would link well with the dance style music.

Finished Video

This is my final video.

Editing the Video

To edit my footage and make it into a music video I used Adobe Premiere Elements, which I had previously not used. In the preliminary task last year I had used Windows Movie Maker so using a different program was quite confusing to begin with. I started by importing the footage and watching it through to see what shots I had managed to get. I used the razor tool as I watched it first time through to cut at the ends of the scenes. After this was done it was easy to go back through and delete the section I didn’t want to use. Once I had discarded the footage, which I didn’t want to include, I started to rearrange the order of the shots so that they followed on better.Once I had decided on the order of the shots I wanted to have, I then used the video effects. I used a fade from black at the start of the video and a fade to black at the end, which I think worked quite effectively because it opened and closed the video in an interesting way. Adding music over the top, linking shots together to create a sequence. For the rest of the video I chose not to have any effects in it, as I wanted it to be quite snappy, and keep the audience alert. I thought that by adding effects it would make the video seem slower and could possibly get boring so I left it with sharp cuts in it.To finish the video I added the music and made sure that the length of the song matched the length of the video. Once this was done I saved it as a movie file and asked people to watch it and give me feedback.

Collecting Video Footage

To get the footage of go-karts, I went online and searched for racetracks in the area. I found one in Middlesbrough called Teeside Autodrome, so I rang them up and asked if it would be possible to film the go-karts. They said it would be fine so I planned to travel to Middlesbrough with my family on the Saturday to do my filming. When i got there I introduced myself to the manager of the company. I then had to ask the people who were go- karting if it was okay for me to film them, which they happily agreed to. I then filmed the characters putting on the helmets and preparing themselves for the race. I stood on top of a hill so that I could get the long shot I wanted for the start of the race when they were all lined up. I then stood near the edge of the track so I could get close up’s and use tracking shots to follow certain karts. I then used a mid shot to film the marshal waving the chequered flag to signal that it was the end of the race. I then stood in the pits and filmed as the characters drove the karts in, and parked them up.

Ideas and Sketches (Video)

My initial ideas for my music video was to have two boys fighting over a girl and choosing who gets her by having a drag race. I wanted to show the first boy driving up to the drag strip, but only show his feet getting into the car and not his face so that the character remained a mystery. I wanted the driver to then turn up to the drag strip where the other driver was waiting with a crowd around waiting. I wanted to then film from different angles, showing the drag race and to finish the video I was going to have the winner drive off with girl. However when it came to filming this I realised that it was practically impossible to get some of the shots that I wanted, for example a close up of the wheel. Also there was nowhere for the cars to have a drag race as it is illegal therefore I had to change my whole video.For my actual video, I chose to have a go-kart race, as I thought it would be in keeping with the style of music, by involving vehicles and the idea of a race. I decided to start the video by having the characters putting on the helmets and fastening their overall which helped to build up the atmosphere and let the audience see that a race of some sort was about to begin. I then wanted to film the characters getting into the go- karts and driving off onto the track where they would line up ready to begin the race. I wanted to have a long shot for the start of the race so that the audience could see what was happening. After filming the start of the race I then wanted to have a variety of shots from different areas but trying to focus on a few key characters. To finish the video I wanted to have the checkered flag waved and all the go- karts coming back into the pits.

Research & Preparation

In the following lesson we looked at some Digipaks so that we could get an idea of what we need to include and how to present the information. After I looked at existing Digipaks I started to think about what I could do for my own. The Digipaks I looked at were by Jack Johnson, Damien Rice and KT Tunstall.

Jack Johnson – I liked the idea of having one main image, in a colour, which contrasted with the background. He also has his name in black which links with the silhouette of the tree and himself. The name of the Digipak is in a very similar colour tone to the background. For my Digipak I think I am going to have one main image of a speaker and then have a plain background so that the image will stand out and be more noticeable.

Damien Rice – This Digipak is very standard, and the name of the artist and the Digipak name are in the centre. At the bottom of the Digipak is a small image, which looks hand drawn, and this could be used to show that the idea of having a standard, simple image reflects his use of neutral colours. I don’t like this Digipak as much because I feel that it is too plain, and doesn’t have much to attract the audience.

KT Tunstall – This Digipak contrasts quite a lot to Jack Johnson’s and Damien Rice’s as it is very cluttered, and uses a variety of colours and images. I like the idea of using bright colours to stand out however I don’t like the use of multiple images on the front cover. Her name and the Digipak name are in the top left hand corner and the font is also quite difficult to read and I would prefer on my Digipak to have fairly simple writing which is clear to read but still unique so that it stands out.

For the Advert I went onto the Internet and looked at existing magazine adverts that had been used in magazines, and also some adverts that had been made by other media students.

In this advert they have included pictures of themselves and all of the information about the album is at the bottom of the page. I like the idea of having most of the information at the bottom of the page but I think I will choose to have an image of some sort in the top two thirds.

For this advert they have used an image as a background and then overlaid other images and text. They have the album information spread across the page but have included an image of their album in the middle third. I think that in my advert I am going to have a similar idea to this, by having a background image and then include a picture of my Digipak so that the audience can see what they are buying.

In this advert there is no image of the Digipak but they have used bold black writing for the name of the album, so even though there is no image of the Digipak it is easy to see what is being advertised. This advert is quite complex, as it contains a lot of images as well as a lot of text. I want to keep my advert quite simple, but have enough information that will make people want to buy the album

To research music video’s I used different media technologies. I watched the music channels on TV such as 4Music and Viva, where they showed a variety of music videos, going from urban music to dance music. I also used things such as Youtube where existing video’s can be uploaded as well as being able to look at media video’s created by other students. During one of our media lessons we also looked at a DVD, which included some of the best-voted music videos. By looking at a variety of videos from different sources I was able to get many idea of what was needed to keep the audience interested.

Introduction to Course

Today we were told about the coursework. We have to produce a music video, a Digipak and an advert in a music magazine advertising the Digipak. To do all this, I will need to brainstorm a variety of ideas which could be used. We have been told that the deadline for this coursework is the end of the Christmas half term.
In the second lesson of media, we looked at the media videos which the previous year 13's had made. We did this so that we had a rough idea of what is expected in the videos. I have jotted down some notes on the types of shots used, so that I can use them when it comes to planning my own work.