EVALUATION - what have you learned from your audience feedback?

EVALUATION - how did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

during the process of making our music video, there was alot of media technologies used.

EVALUATION - how effective is the combination of your main product (video and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?

a sucessful music video has links between the music video and the ancillary products (the digipak and advertisement) i think that my ancillary products has some link in the ways that we are trying to promote the artist, this is shown by the use of using four different pictures, doing different silly poses, this shows that the artist is fun and outgoing, just wanting to live life to the fullest. We have shown this in the music video aswell, by the use of the artsist doing silly things, -dancing around, strumming a guitar.

this gives the audience an understanding between the two, they can see that the artist is herself and doesn't care what other people think, both the digipak and music video how this.

Evaluation Question 4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The feedback given from this person states that the artist could have worn more costumes. In my opinion, I think the same as well so we could have made a better use of Mise En Scene. Just watch the video to find out more.

Evaluation Question 3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

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We used many technologies to construct our ideas for the video and ancillary work.



Camera

Memory cards

Memory cards are used to store the video files and the pictures.

Blogger

YouTube

Internet Research
Photoshop stuff

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?

THIS POST IS NOT FINISHED, MORE INFORMATION WILL BE ADDED SOON


I believe that the ancillary work would be very successful because I think it's appropriate for the right target audience. Our product is mainly aimed at teenage girls and young females so they are our target audience. I think that my digipak would be attractive to the target audience because it has so many girly features such as the font colour and and the way the images and text are laid out.
Our artist is presented in 3 ways: Music video, Digipak and advertisement. We show our artist's image in many ways through the music video, album cover and advertisement.
I think there is a link between the video and the ancillary work, both promote the artist in a way which is similar. The artist in the video seems like she's having fun, she's careless, social and silly. We took different pictures for the album cover, many consisting of silly poses as we're trying to portray the artist as a fun and care free girl.
The video gives the audience a message saying that the artist does not care what they think about her.

As you can see above, I tried to make my album cover similar to the Jessie J's album covers. I decided to put a picture of the artist doing a pose, similar to what Jessie J does in her one's. I changed the contrast of the picture because I didn't want it to look exactly like Jessie J's album cover.


(MORE INFORMATION TO BE ADDED SOON)

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

THIS POST IS NOT FINISHED, MORE INFORMATION WILL  BE ADDED.


Which video(s) were you influenced by and why?
Our group were influenced by many pop music videos consisting of artists such as; Pink, Jessie J and Katy Perry and Lily Allen etc.
Here are some music videos that we were inspired by:

Jessie J - Who's Laughing Now?

Pink - So What?

Lily Allen - LDN


We used the song 'Domino' by Jessie J for our music video, here's a preview:

The official video of 'Domino' by Jessie J was released after we finished our video.


The thing that grabbed our attention the most in these videos were mainly how the artists look and the way they act in those videos, they seem rebellious and crazy which our artist mainly represents.
For example, in the 'So What' video by Pink, she performs crazy acts such as cutting down a tree with a chainsaw.

The video 'Who's Laughing Now' illustrates a young Jessie J having to live with bullies and what she does to overcome it. The story behind this video is that Jessie J probably used to get bullied when she was at school and kids used to laugh at her etc. Now that she is famous, she's laughing at them because she became successful. In the music video, the little girl in the video suggestively portrays a young Jessie J, it's set in a school as you can see there's classrooms and P.E halls.

Our artist is a female and we want our music video to portray a message of girls being free, careless and fun, as you can see in those videos above, the girls seem to be reckless and care free and we tried to portray something similar.

Andrew Goodwin's theory states that females are presented as objects of male desire, mainly in pop and R'n'B videos, but in this situation, we didn't try to do it because we wanted to represent 'Girl power'.
Some examples of women being used as sexual objects are in videos such as 'Candy Shop' by 50 Cent and mainly any other Hip-Hop videos.
There are three types of videos; Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture.
Illustration is when the music video is portrayed as a story, it tells the story of the lyrics mainly. Dance is used often to express the feelings or moods in the song.
Amplification occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.
Disjuncture is where the is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric.
In this case, I think our music video type is Amplification. Our video doesn't really follow the lyrics but the artist does act out some of the things that are sung in the lyrics.

Conventions used in music videos, mainly consisting of R'nB and Pop videos include:
Camera Shots: Videos tend to include long shots, mid shots and so much close up of the artist. This is used to emphasise on the artist
Costume: The artist mostly wear more than one costumes in music videos. Costume could have a slight influence on how their viewers dress, because the celebrities could be role models to them. In pop and R'n'B videos, artists(mostly female) mainly wear flashy and bright clothing while on the other hand in rock music, artists mainly wear dark coloured clothing.
Lighting: Some music videos use different types of lighting to emphasise a particular mood.

In our video, we use many close up of the artist and mid shots of the artist. Close ups are used to show the facial expressions of the artist. Mid shots are mainly used to show what the artist is wearing.
Mostly in our video, the lighting is bright, we use this to express a happy feeling.
Visual motifs is used in the video. We use dominoes to reflect on the single itself, in our video, the dominoes are used a lot especially the word 'Domino' built out of actual dominoes.

My album cover for 'Messie M' our artist was inspired mainly by Jessie J album covers. This one above shows her face with some dark coloured make up on in a white background. Our artist's image is similar to Jessie J's image and my album cover is something similar to this but instead, I decided to make my album cover look 'Messy'

EVALUATION - in what ways does your media product use, develop or challange forms and conventions of real media products?

when making our music video, we got some inspiration from other music videos of different genres and combined them with our own ideas. When we had chosen our genre of music we were making our music video for, we stared to look at that specific in more detail. this, which was the pop genre.


As our artist is female, we wanted convey that, the representation of females. Not so much in which Laura Mulvey explains how men have the pleasure to look at women and fantasize what they should look like. We wanted to represent women as they are, just themselves not the way men ‘would like’ to see them. This moves onto amplification the theory of Andrew Godwin, this occurs when new meanings are introduced and do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning, in our music video, we added the layer of meaning, showing that women can be ‘sexy and free’ just the way they are. Our music video is also partly illustration, where the video tells the story of the lyrics. This is shown through the use of actions of the artist, -the strumming of the guitar and the beating of the bass drums. And also the use of dominoes, -the sun, moon and clock.


one of the music videos that influenced us was Lily Allen's music video LDN. We like the way the music video used the effect of changing the video from colour to a dull greyscale colour. this is effective and makes the video more interesting keeping the audience entertained.

-in this video, we also liked the use of costume, the way Lily Allen wears a dress with trainers, shows that she doesn't care about what other people think and that she wants to stand out and represent herself.

Evaluation Q4 - What have you learned from your audience feedback ?

Audience feedback was given at each crucial stage throughout the production of the music video and  the creation of my ancillary products. Audience feedback was firstly given after posting a mock up of our music video onto blogger. The feedback given to us at this stage allowed me to really focus on potential changes and improvements that I needed to make for both products. In addition, it allowed me to get the audiences honest thoughts and opinions on my products during the process of creating and completing them.

The feedback given to me during the production stage of the music video was:

The next stage where I received audience feedback was during our visit to The Screen on Green cinema in Islington , where we premiered our music videos to everyone. During this visit , we were able to capture the audiences reactions whilst watching our music video. The effect of this allowed us to capture the immediate reactions instead of waiting till the very end of the showcase of what the audience thought of our video. This would determine whether they enjoyed it or not.

Below is a short documentary about my trip to the cinema

I decided to record some audience feedback given to me about both my music video and ancillary products asking the audience questions such as :

- What they thought of the overall presentation of my music video ?

- What was the main highlight for them ?

-What they thought worked well and what didn't?

-What changes could I have made to improve?

-Is there a link between my music video and my ancillary products? 

Audience feedback on my music video

From Imani's feedback , I learnt that our music video was successful in several ways. Imani said she liked the use of dominoes Incorporated within the video, she felt that it correlated well with the name of the single being called 'Domino'. She felt that aspect stood out within the video. I felt this was a good point as it made me feel that I achieved my goal of using props to make a link to the song title and the lyrics. I felt that I achieved the look I was going for and that I accomplished Andrew Godwin's theory of the narrative I wanted to illustrate within the music video. I was glad to see that the overall look of the video that I wanted to show was made clear to the audience. Imani also commented that she felt the repetition of using the same clip of the domino didn't work aswel which I kind of agree on. I feel that we could of Incorporated more of a selection of different shots of the domino pieces. I felt due to running out of time and not using the shots that we shot well enough lost the creativity within the overall video and made it look repetitive.She also added that to improve , we should break up some of the location shots ie. the studio shot, I agree with this because at the beginning of the video there was more of a break up of locations in contrast to the middle and end of the music video.

From Jerome's feedback I learnt that we were very creative with the use of dominoes which was a positive. He highlighted on the overall narrative of my music video saying that he likes the fat there was an actual narrative Incorporated . He likes the transition from getting up in the morning , to getting ready and so forth and felt that worked well as it splitted up the rest of the music video. This comment again reinforces Andrew Goodwins theory on narrative illustrating a story. Jerome commented that we could have Incorporated more camera shots. I think we could have Incorporated more camera angles but we wanted to follow the camerawork Jessie J uses such as lots of  mid shots, full body shots and close ups.

The video starts with audience feedback 2 - Jerome, it should say Feedback 3 , Jay,Vanessa and Tomas (Minor mistake). They all commented on the use of editing within the music video, they all agreed and liked the effect added to make the domino clock move around they felt that looked very effective and creative. This reinforced the skills that I have learnt using Final Cut Pro and how I have made good practise of the techniques that I have learnt. Vanessa commented that at times the lip sync was out which was a mistake on our behalf when editing , on reflection this has made me realised that you have to be careful when moving things within the timeline on Final Cut Pro or it will put everything out of sync which is very noticeable when having to match the lip sync to the lyrics of the song. Jay also added that at times the dance moves were limited. Taking this comment on board, I feel that me as the artist could of moved around more when performing giving there a sense of movement, using more of the space instead of standing in one spot. Thomas noticed that there was a link between my ancillary products and music video , he said that one piece of the domino falling represented the shape of the letters of the artist name on my ancillary products. I'm glad that the I was able to translate a clear link from my music video to my ancillary products.  

Audience feedback on my ancillary products

Reem commented on the relation both my ancillary product and music video had. She said that the song is quite girly and the digipak is quite girly aswel, This shows my artist gender is made significant in both products. She commented on the fact the colours work well together , its simple but nice and shows an consistency throughout my ancillary products . In addition she felt the pictures translates the artists personality. I feel that this another factor that links my music video to my ancillary product as the same energy and personality seen within the music video is translated within the ancillary products which I feel is a good factor. She highlighted on the fact the inside panel , where the CD goes could be more eye-catching , The feel that left panel of the inside of the panel had a lot going on so I wanted to maintain the simplistic on the CD. If I had more time I could have maybe Incorporated an image that linked in within the artist to give it more of that personal feeling I think.

Jerome commented on the effect used on the images , He liked the fact that we left the purple remaining on the images he feels that it links well with the artist. I think the colour I chose fits well with the gender of the artist as purple is a feminine colour. He felt that it was a unique and a good draw for the audience looking. He also highlighted the fact that he like the multiple images used of the artist , I feel this makes the artist more memorable in terms of brand image as within my ancillary products you can see different emotions of the artist which shows that the artist is diversable.

Poppy commented on the use of the colour purple used within my ancillary products. She felt that the use of the purple allowed the colour and font to pop from the products making them eye-catching to the audience. In addition, she highlighted that she would of loved to see elements of the purple used with my ancillary products Incorporated within my music video. In relation to her comment , I totally agree with her , I feel that if I Incorporated the colour 'purp;e' as well as some other bright colours , it could of made the music video more colourful and make a clear link to ancillary products. I feel that looking back I could of Incorporated more colour within my music video in a sense of the brand image of the artist maybe using the colour splash effect on some of the shots in the music video or just incorporating some colours visually through make up , outfits etc...

Using comments from my audience feedback for both my music video and my ancillary products , I decided to make a collage of words using Wordle , to separate the positive comments to the negative.

Positive

Negative

I received further audience feedback from uploaded our music video on Vimeo, which is like Youtube. This allows the audience to rate / comment on the video. It also allows us to see the total plays of the music video , the overall statistics , total loads and geolocation on where around the world people are watching the music video.

This video illustrates my overall thought on my audience feedback and how it makes me look at my products. 

Evaluation Q3 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research , planning and evaluation stages ?

Q3. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? on Prezi

Evaluation Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product (Video) and ancillary texts (Digipak and Advertisement)

How well does my promotional package make clear visual links between my music video , digipak and advertisement? 

The way in which my promotional package make clear visual links between my music video and my ancillary products is through the use of mise-en-scene , the overall visual style of both my music video and ancillary products, the camerawork used in both products and the use of colours with the video and the ancillary products.

As you can see , there is a clear visual link made through the repetition of the use of the black background. Within the music video there are several scenes that have the artist singing against a black background. In comparison, the background colour for my my digipak and magazine advertisement have a black background. I decided to a black background within my video , to make my artist stand out against the back. Similarly , I wanted my ancillary products to follow this same effect of  allowing the features images and font to pop from the product. I felt that the use of black was simple and that was the overall look that I was going for.  

The colour black used within my music video

 This screen shot illustrates the use of black incorporated within my music video.

The colour black used for my ancillary products.

 The two screen shots illustrate the background colour used for both my digipak and magazine advertisement.

Another link is the visual style of both my music video and ancillary products. Within the music video I used a 'Color Correction ' effect to enhance the colours of the surroundings and to brighten up the footage shot outside. For my ancillary products , I applied a 'Duotone effect' and ' Colour Splash' effect onto the photos for my products, This was to insinuate the artist lips with the colour 'purple' with my images and alimenting the remaining colours within the images to make it look desaturated. The link between the video and ancillary product is applying colour effects to highlight the colours.

This screen shot illustrates the colour correction effect applied on the footage within the music video.

This screen shot illustrates the colour correction and dup tone effect being applied on the images for my ancillary products.

Another link is between the visual design of the font used for the artist name , incomparison to the effect of the fallen dominoes seen within my music video. The broken font used links in with the effect of the fallen dominoe pieces seen at the beginning of the music video. Another there is a another link with the layout of the artist name. There is a link betweent the video and products with the shot of Messie M laying on top of the domino pieces. The position of the dominoes link in with the letter positioning seen on the ancillary products.

This screen shot is taken from my music video where u see there is a visual link between the position of the domino pieces. The screen shot below illustrates the positioning of the letters. See how there is a link between the two.

Another link is  between the layout of the album title and the action of the domino pieces falling at the beginning of the video. The effect of the terms ' KNOCK ME DOWN' is made relevant in relation to the action ocurring with the music video.



What Aspects of the video link with the Digipak and Advertisement?

The video below illustrates the main aspect within the music video that links in with my ancillary products.

Within my audience feedback in Q4: the audience state how they recognise the link between my video and my ancillary products.

Evaluation Q1 - In what ways does your media product use ,develop or challenege forms and conventions of real media products?

 When producing our music video , we got a lot of inspiration and ideas from looking at existing music videos. The effect of this enabled us to look at the forms and conventions primarily found within R n B , Pop genre music videos. With this we were able to take elements / ideas from existing music video's and build upon / change some of the ideas so it would follow the stereotypical forms and conventions found within the R n B , Pop genre.

The conventions that are  generally found within Pop /R n B videos include:

• Use of close ups of the artist
• A Narrative which sometimes refers to a girl/boy
• Element of colour 
• Choreography
• Visual Motive that sometimes correlates to the lyrics of the song
• Performance base track

Some of the conventions listed above, were noticed in a number of music videos that we looked at from artist from a variety of genres such as: Ed Sheerman , Mark Ranson , Ndubz , Tiao Cruz and The Saturdays but mainly looked at artist who conveyed the R n B , Pop genre such as : Jessie J, Pixie Lott , Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen , Pink and The Sugababes. The effect of this allowed us to look at the conventions music videos follow and what conventions R n B, Pop genre followed.

We released that we were going to have a female lead singer , so we selected videos that had this. We then had  a look at the forms and conventions of woman within music videos using Laura Mulveys theory on the ideas of representation. Laura Mulvey theory illustrates the representation between both men and women in music videos. She quoted that :
 " In a world ordered by sexual imbalance , pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/ female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto female figure which is styled accordingly."
I noticed that it was a convention in R n B for woman to be portrayed as:

• Sexual icons
• Objects to men
• Seen wearing skimpy clothes and lingerie
• Reinforces the idea of sex
• Close up of body parts e.g Breast , bum , waist etc...

This convention is generally found within Male R n B videos such as Dizzee Rascal -'Holiday' and 50 Cents - 'Candy Shop'

Artists such as Jessie J and Lily Allen break away from this convention by including shots that show the artist full body , wearing outfits that don't expose or reveal to much of their body parts or reinforce the idea of sex within the overall video or lyrics. 

With this information , we were able to explore the prime conventions generally found within female artists videos.

I feel that our music video challenged the convention of not using a male icon as the focal point or incorporating a male figure within our music video , which is a prime convention generally Incorporated within R n B , Pop genre videos. Our music video portrays the message of a girl being care free , having fun and enjoying life to the fullest. We were influenced by several videos which conveyed this same message within their music videos.

Which videos were you influenced by and why?
The following three music videos influenced me : Pink - 'So What' , Lily Allen -'LDN' and Jessie J ' Who's Laughing Now'. I felt that we could incorporate some of the ideas seen within the three videos into our video.

The 'So What' video illustrates the different problems the artist Pink faces ie. starting a fight with her ex , starting a fight with the guy in the guitar shop and destroying the shop and illustrating that she doesn't need her ex to still have fun. The crazy scenarios shown are illustrated in a comical way through the use of props , added extras , bright colours and use of camerawork. In our music video, we incorporated similar elements such as use of props to illustrate the lyrics of the song in a fun way. In some parts within our music video , we added comical actions when our artist 'Messie M' broke out and began to do random dances and pull funny faces. This was to show that she is a care free character, having fun and enjoying life. Another feature , that we included within our music video was the use of choreography which was a feature seen within the ' So What' video.

Lily Allen's 'LDN' music video illustrates her walking along the London streets in a comical way as she happily skips along the pavement. As she passes one part of the colourful street an desaturated effect is used to reveal the ' real side' to London illustrating many negative issues seen within the London streets. We were able to borrow conventions from this video through the use of editing and mise-en-scene. Through editing we Incorporated the use of playing around with effects. The mise-en-scene shown in Lily Allen's video illustrates a contrast between the dull London mise-en-scene to Lily Allen's bright red dress and converses. In our video we Incorporated the same convention , showing a contrast between the  dark location seen at the beginning of the video to the different colours of the domino pieces. The visual style seen in Lily Allen's 'LDN' influenced me on possible effects that I wanted to see within our music video. I was able to illustrate a similar visual style by using a Colour Correction effect. A similar effect is used within the 'LDN' video as a desaturated effect is used to desaturate the surroundings when Lily walks along the pavement. 

We were influenced by the mise-en-scene, visual style and camerawork seen in Jessie J's - 'Who's Laughing Now' video. Jessie J uses bright colours and wears funky clothes so we wanted our artist to  reflect that same brand/ image look. We watched a variety of Jessie J videos and saw that she wore really bright , out of the ordinary clothes and her makeup was really different so we were inspired to incoporate this for our artist. Also in the music video the editing matched the beat of the song and when it cut it would cut to a completely differnt scene so it keeps the audience entertained.

I looked at several digipaks but a few influenced me on the overall design and style for both my digipak and advertisement.

- The link will take you to the blogs that show the digipaks that influenced me.

http://candipop11group20.blogspot.com/search/label/Michaela%20Graham-Gardner?updated-max=2012-01-09T04:40:00-08:00&max-results=20

Evaluation of finished Production work - Audience feedbck on both ancillary products.

Evaluation of finished production work - Auidence Feedback - using survey Monkey

What have you learned from your feedback?

Well some of the audience liked it and some didn't. The people that liked it said that they like the fact that we used dominos because it was different and very creative but the people that didn't like it said that one of the scenes were not in sync and that we should have used more locations because it was a bit boring.

We could have improved by using more locations and adding more effects to the music video to make it more fun for the audience also we could improve the video by making all the shots in suc with rest because even if it is just one shot that is out of sync it still effects the rest of the video.
Next time if I do this again which I know I won't but next time I would plan this music video properly and really think about what we are trying to portray in the music video. I would also use a song that already had a music video so that it would make it easier to think of an idea that really works.

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

This is my first time making a prezzi i hope i did a good job of it. Um i dont know why the images moved about i tried to fix it continued to move out of place. So it looks a bit messy.

How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?

My digipak and advertisement have a direct link because they both use the same font, the colour scheme is the same consisting of white purple and black, the main images on my advert and digipak are of the same person.

My target audience was a student at university who likes to socialise with her friends and keeps up with the latest trends. We considered her to be a mainstreamer.
I think my target audience will be attracted to my digipak and advertisement because the colours are not too bright and flashy and the text is not to fancy. Thinking back i should have made a link to my music video in my digipak and advertisement by using an image of dominos to show the link with my music video.

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

Laura Mulvey talks about the representation of women in music videos. She says that women are the subject of mens desire so they dress in a particular way to please their male audiences. Jessie J and Lilly Allen go against this through the makeup and outfits they wear that is why we were influenced by them. They portray themselves as strong women. We wanted our artist Messie M to be strong and independent, that is why she is the only person in the music video and she is dressed in clothes that are not too revealing but comfortable for her.
We also wanted to show this by using long shots of her whole body and close ups of her face instead of taking shots of her legs or her bum. We did this to show that she is not trying to be the subject of the male gaze.

We were influenced by Jessie J's Who's laughing now music video. So we aimed for our music video to be similar to what her music videos looked like in who's laughing now.
Jessie uses bright colours and wears funky outfits so that is what we wanted our artist to look like. We watched videos like price tag and saw that she was wearing really bright clothes and her makeup was really different so we were inspired to use that. Also in the music video the editing matched the beat of the song and when it cut it would cut to a completely differnt scene so it keeps the audience interested.


We were also influenced by Lily Allen because she had an effect in her music video ldn that changed each time she skipped by, we liked the effect and wanted to use it but we couldnt because it was too difficult for us to do.

As you can see in the video she is skipping along when the colours behind her follow her revealing "reality".


We were also drawn in by her outfit. She mix matches her outfits which give her a carefree fun attitude e.g she wears a dress but instead of high heels she wears trainers. So because of this we wanted our music video to be fun and colourful.

For our digipak and advertisment we also looked at Lily Allen and Jessie J. Both there album covers were bright and fun but the font was simple so that it was not too distracting to the image. So for my advertisment and digi pak i did the opposite by using a fun bold font but a simple picture. Our group decided to use white black and purple as our colour scheme. We wanted the colours to match but with the purple and white it was able to brighten it up a bit.

Andrew Goodwin talks  about how pop videos are built around the feelings of the song rather than the story a pop video would usually use the singer as both the narrative and character and the singer will often look directly into the camera so that they can involve the audience.

My music video would be considered as a performance based music video with visual motives.

Production of Ancillary Product - Change of Layout for Final Advertisement

Change of layout for Final Advertisement

I decided to change the layout for my final advertisement as I felt my original advertisement looked too crowded and felt that everything looked to squashed together. To resolve this issue I decided to take out the photo-strip image of the artist positioned on the left hand side of the advertisement. I felt this would allow more space for the information regarding Messie M's album to be positioned in the centre of the advertisement.

I also felt that it was a more simplistic and clearer advert for people to see when on the go , as there wasn't too much happening and it was more easier for people to read the information.

Finished DigiPak

I have finally finished my digipak. I really hate photoshop..... i really do why is it so complicated to use. Anyways this is how my final digipak looks like.

In order Inside Panel
Advert
Outside Panel


The process of making this digipak was not easy i found out that i only had two days to complete my digipak and i had not started yet. I originally had ideas but scrapped them because i thought they were bad so that left me in a ditch because i had no ideas and little time. Amy who has photoshop at home and was able to finish hers told me that i could download photoshop for free at home and do it there so i did...... I dont know what i did but i ended up with a completed different version of photoshop and it took more than 1hr and 1/2 to perfect one image and in the end i ended up not using it. So that day was a waste luckily i had done some work on monday so i had something to do on wednesday. 
I'm happy that this is finally over and i dont have to think about photoshop again.
I think there are some things that i could improve on my digipak and i would like to improve but its too late now. Hopefully i get a good grade.

Production of Ancillary Product - Final Digipak and Advert

Final Digipak and Advert

Today I completed both ancillary products (the digipak and the advert) to promote the new album for my artist ' Messie M'. I had to create both the front and inside panel for a digipak for my artist and create an magazine advertisement to help promote my artist album.

This screen shot is off my completed magazine advertisement to promote Messie M's
'KNOCK ME DOWN BUILD ME UP' album.

This screen shot is off the front and back panel of my digipak .

This screen shot is off the inside panel of my digipak. 

Production of Ancillary Product - Creation of Digipak and Advert

Creation of Digipak and Magazine Advertisement

To create both ancillary products , I used the program Photoshop Elements. However , as time was getting ahead of me and the deadline for the ancillary products was getting nearer I had to download Photoshop at home and used the Program Photoshop CS5.1 Extended which was similar to Photoshop Elements. At first I found great difficulty using Photoshop as a whole , as it was a program that I  did not regularly use or familiar with , but after producing a pre - digipak for the artist Dan London in class , playing around with the features on Photoshop and watching Youtube tutorials, I was able to begin my creation.



Creation of the front and back panel of digipak

To create the front  and back panel of the digipak , I had to open the template for the digipak which was already made for us. The template was a blank canvas so I decided to add a background colour. I decided to use the colour 'Black' as I felt it was a bold colour to use as I felt the photos and colour scheme that I was going to use would work well against the black background. I felt it would allow the text to stand out and felt that it would suit my simplistic theme for my digipak.

This screenshot shows the background colour added onto the template of the front and back panel of my digipak.

Next , Using the type tool , I was able to add some text to the front panel of my digipak. I decided to type the album name first as I needed it as a guide to help me know where I could position images of the artist. I decided to type the first part of the album title downwards , to illustrate the words ' KNOCK ME DOWN' . I felt it was a fun way for the audience to read the album title, as they would follow it downwards with their eyes. The remaining part of the album title ' BUILD ME UP' would be typed going upwards to reinforce the idea of the word 'UP'. This would also allow the audience to follow the title upwards which was the purpose of me writing the album title in this way. I felt that it was a creative , fun way to illustrate the album title and felt that it reinforced the message of the album title.

This screenshot is of the album title positioned on the front panel of my digipak. I decided to used the font: Century Gothic as I wanted to use a simplistic font for the album title. I wanted there to be a contrast with the fancy font I would use for the artist name.

I decided to continue using the font : Century Gothic to type the album title on the side panel of the Digipak , the artists tracks which was positioned at the back panel of the digipak and the copyright clearance information for the album. I decided to use the colour ' white' as I felt that it would stand out against the black background. Also , I felt that it is a nice simply colour that links in with my simplistic theme.

This screen shot shows the remaining text added on the front, side and back panel of the digipak.

For the images that I wanted to use for the front panel of the digipak , I decided to use Photobucket to edit the photos of the artist.  I selected the four images that I wanted and decided to put them in a collage. The position of the photos look like a photostrip which was the effect I was going for. I decided to use four different images to show different emotions of the artist 'Messie M'. This was to show the audience that there is more then one side to the artist.

This is the screenshot of the collage that I created on Photobucket for the front panel of  my digipak.

As my colour theme was black , white and purple, I decided to incorporate the colour purple in Messie M's photos. In the original photos , the artist was wearing 'red' lipstick , I wanted to change this and have her wearing 'purple' lipstick to maintain the colour theme. To do this I used the effect 'Duo Tone' and chose two colours I wanted to apply on the images. I chose the colours black and the colour #9966CC which was a mid- purple and applied this effect onto the images.

This screenshot illustrates the 'Duo Tone' effect being added on the images.

To apply the purple on Messie M's lips I had to apply the effect 'Colour Splash' which would disaturate the images and allow me to highlight the areas that I wanted to expose purple. To do this , I was able to use a brush and brush over the lips which would then change the colour of the lips to the purple used in the 'Duo Tone' effect.

This screenshot illustrates the process of changing the lip colour for Messie M. The first two images of the artist show the effect taken place.

After the effect was completed I was then able to import the images onto the front panel of my digipak. I decided to duplicate the images and position the images both and the top and bottom of the front panel of my digipak , allowing there enough for the artist name to be positioned in the middle.

This screen shot illustrates the position of the images of the artist on the front panel of the digipak.

I then overlayed the purple title on top of the white title , this was to give the artist name a 3D effect as , I felt that the white highlighted the artist name making it stand out more. In order to overlay the purple title on top of the white title , I had to move the layer with the purple title on top of the layer with the white title.

This screen shot illustrates the different layers created whilst producing my digipak.

I then added the finishing touches by adding the record label logo that is associated with the artist , also a barcode image and the websites to both the record label companies and Messie M's official page. I decided to highlight these two links in purple to make them stand out in contrast to the remaining white text seen at the back panel.

This screen shot illustrates the finishing product of the outside panel of my digipak.

Creation of the inside of Digipak

To create the inside of my digipak, I used the previous technique of using Photobucket to edit the images that I wanted to use for the inside of my digipak.

This screen shot illustrates the 'Colour Splash'  effect that I used on the image of the artist Messie M which would be prime image used for the background of the inside panel of my digipak.

This screen shot illustrates the finish product of the Colour Splash effect added onto the image.

I then imported the image onto Photoshop , positioning it on the left side of the inside panel. On the right hand side of the panel, I used the ellipse tool to draw two circles. The circles would be used to highlight the CD. To highlight the outline of the two circles I applied a style called a ' double ring glow' which would reveal the shape of the inside panel of a CD.

This screen shot outlines the process of positioning the image and adding the double ring glow onto the two circles.

I then later imported another collage strip of different images of the artist that match the scenery used in the main image inside. Using Photoshop I applied a desaturation effect to maintain the same effect used on the images. I then decided to used the text tool to create a personal message made for the artist for her fans. I used the same font used for the album title , track list etc... to maintain the same fonts used. To sign it off I used 'Messie M's signature font ' Earwig Factory'. The use of this allows the audience to know that the use of the font relates to the artist , like the artist signature font.

This screen shot illustrates the text added inside the digipak.

I then applied the The artist title on the CD panel maintaing the same font and colours used.

At the bottom of image shows text that is information regarding production , distribution , design and copyright clearance information. I felt this was essential to add these details as it is general features usual seen within artists digipak.

This screen shots illustrates the finished product of the inside of my digipak. To add a finishing touch , I added the compact disc logo which is primarily seen on CD's.

Creation of the magazine advertisement

To create the magazine advertisement I had to create a new canvas at an A4 size. I then applied a background colour onto the blank canvas. I applied the colour black to tie in with the colour scheme used throughout the design of the digipak.

This screenshot illustrates the background of my magazine advertisement.

At the top of the magazine advertisement , I decided to insert 'Messie M's name using her signature font. At first I decided to just use purple for the artist name but decided to change this and apply the white underneath the purple , which I original used for the front panel of my digipak.

This screen shot illustrates the originally title that I was going to use for the magazine advertisement of the artist name.

This second screen shot illustrates the improved title used for the magazine advertisement. I felt that the white makes the title stand out more against the black. It also highlights each letter making it more easier for the audience to read.

This screen shot illustrates the overall look of the title added at the top of the magazine advertisement.

I then took a screen shot of the front panel of the digipak created and position it underneath the artist name in the centre. This will allow the audience to see the product when they see the magazine advertisement. Under neath the screenshot of the album , shows the shape of a purple rectangle. Using the ellipse tool I wanted to add a background to overlay the text on top of the rectangle to make it stand out.

The text inserted on top of the shape reads 'Debut Album' , the use of this attracts the audience attention to the word. I decided to use a white font to make it stand out in contrast to the purple background. Using Messie M's signature font , I wrote ' Out Now' , I wanted to maintain the number of fonts used. I felt that it gave it an edgy look instead of using a normal font. I used the colour white for the font to stand out against the black background.

I then applied further information on the advertisement using the colours white and purple. The information included information regarding no.1 singles and additional tracks. I decided to highlight the single titles in purple to highlight the titles to the audience when reading the advert.

I repeated the use of the 'Earwig Factory' font for the the title 'Available at': to separate the phrase from the remaining information. I then imported logos of companies in where the album could be obtained from. In addition, I included the record label company that is associated with the artist , the copyright clearance information and the artist website just in case the audience wanted to obtain further information regarding the album.

This screenshot illustrates the finished product of my magazine advertisement for the artist Messie M.

In conclusion, I was pleased with the overall design and outcome of my ancillary products. I felt that I reflected the artist personality , artist gender and artist genre onto both products. I felt that I translated My theme throughout the two products but in different ways. To begin with I did found it quite difficult , but eventually got the hang of the process. If I was to repeat this project again , I would assure that I had a clear layout of where I would position everything and assure I was certain on the features I wanted to include on both products. If I had more time , I would be able to spend more time perfecting both products to make them look professional. Overall , I am quite happy , besides the fact it was my first time producing ancillary products.