Finished Digi-Pak

After many hours of discussion as well as playing around with effects we came to the decision that these four images would be our final images for the cover.
The images above are all representive of our artist. The top left image is the front cover; it is a council estate shot in black and white with the black enhanced slightly more than the white to get a better contrast with light and dark. We layered the dog over onto the image as we had to represent the character somewhere onto the cover. Our aim was to do this subtily rather than make it the focus point on the image. The artist's name is at the bottom of the cover in small white writing, again we decided to not go with fancy writing but we preferred a simple font as we felt it makes more of a point.

The two bottom images are the inside covers, they are of equal black and white ratio rather than the top images. The reason for this was when the CD cover is opened up, we wanted it to be bright and stand out. Both images are of natural settings and are interesting places. We were attracted to the image of the bench as it showed a link with our music video which was filmed in a natural park. It was also a well established image and we did not feel the need to place the dog onto the image as it was good enough. The writing was well positioned on the image and placed on the bottom where its black on white and stands out well.

Finished video

Finished webpage

The website is now complete, below are a few screenshots of the completed webpage for Jonny Hants. The website was too large to fit onto one screen shot so top and bottom of the site are included.

This is the link to the homepage:http://www.jfs10236mediawebsites.org/darren_oli_greg/index.htm

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

1. Mini DV Tape - The tape was placed in the camcorder and used to record the footage whilst filming. It can hold up to 90 minutes of footage and then be placed into a machine to capture it.
2. Canon DM-XL2 Mini DV Camcorder - Being part of a well resourced school we had full use of a top spec camera which was sophisticated whilst having easily accessibility. Using the camera was easy enough as we had already used the same equipment for the AS production.
3. Tripod connector - The tripod connector is a metal plate which screws to the underneath of the camera and stays on there and then clicks into place on the tripod for stability. Also you have to make sure you have secured it properly as using expensive equipment can be costly to replace from a minor mistake.
4. Tripod - The tripod has the most stability for better filming rather than hand-held which can look amateur wheras the tripod holds the camera perfectly still to create professional footage. The tripod is simple to set up and also there is a leveller to help make sure that you have each of the three legs placed correctly; if not then you can easily adjust it.
5. Computer - The computer at school is a dual monitor which allows you to see more than just one single screen. The computer hosts the editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro 2) which is the latest editing software available for personal use.
6. JVC DV Recorder - On completion of the filming we needed to transfer the footage onto the computer; the steps for this were simple and I have written about them in my editing post below.
7. Keyboard - the keyboard was slightly different to most conventional keyboards as it was colour coded as well as having different words written on some of the keys. The reason for it being different was that it helps to make the editing process a little faster and by holding down the shift key and another key, you can turn it into a razor tool, which is faster than having to click it.

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

1. Google - Used almost every time I need to create a post for my blog from spellings to images, it is always my first port of call to search for something. It helped with obtaining images as well as helping us to find our artist.
2. You-Tube - This was one of the first websites we used to search for our artist. Oli in our group typed in "knife-crime" and it happened that someone had created a song and we liked that artist's music. From this we researched who he was and found him on myspace.
3. Microsoft Paint - Often used to alter certain images with ease as well as crop a few images before placing them onto a word document.
4. MySpace - The my space social networking site helped us get into contact with out artist "Jonny Hants". He had a social page on which he had placed a few of his latest tracks. We preferred a track other than the first one we had heard and decided to go with that.
5. Adobe Premiere Pro - This was the key to creating our music video; the programme is a video editing software used on a computer. It helped us make and edit the video, for instance using visual effects and different types of cuts. As well it made cutting up the whole video a lot easier by the software being simple to use.
6. Sound Cloud - This is a music website where artists can upload their tracks and also you are able to download from there. The website was also used in the hunt for an artist who was unsigned and whose music had not yet been copyrighted.
7. Windows media player - For the viewing of the production, we used the media player as well as to listen to some downloaded tracks from a selection of artists.
8. Fireworks - Adobe Fireworks was used when it came to creating our website homepage.. Fireworks was beneficial when creating the website homepage as it allowed the user, myself, to import images onto the canvas to work with. It also gave me the option to add text, change its font and colour. It was also very good as I was able to create the pop-out menu, where (once hovered over with the cursor), a menu pops out and displays more text. It is a very good program as I could choose any direction in which the pop-out menu 'popped out' from.
9. Corel Draw - Used to make practice digipaks when we first started experimenting in IT lessons. It has a far simpler user face compared to adobe Photoshop but with Photoshop there is a more professional feel to it.
10. Photoshop - A application used in the process for editing the images that we had created. It contains unique tools such as the "magic-wand" which is able to select a certain section and crop it. Also the use of all the effects such as blurring and mist.
11. Blogger - This is the main programme used in creating our blog site, it helped us keep up to date with our planning and research by creating posts to display onto our blogs.

What have you learned from your audience feedback - evaluation

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback has to be one of the most important issues when creating a video, even if it is a small music video. If the audience does not think it is any good then the whole project has been a failure for us as a group. The feedback and constructive criticism are what helped us create our production rather than what we thought was good.

Once in our groups we came up with a few ideas for the music video with different styles. Once we had decided to film the video as a narrative, it was from then on we started to ask our prospective audience for their feedback. The group created a questionnaire which we could hand out with a set amount of questions, both open and closed. This helped us create a wider range of results to sift through and analyse them. We also carried around our storyboard and asked people to note down what they thought and what should be changed. One person said that we should change the order of some shots and we agreed with their suggestion and it reinforced what our teacher had said would be the right thing to do.

We also sought approval from our teachers and asked them for their thoughts on our idea. They helped us with the technical side of the production and told us which shots that were missing, for instance "you need to include more low angle shots". We took this on board and changed the way we filmed some of our shots. Also the head media technician, Mr Yadger helped us see what we needed to add in, as well as tell us which effects would be good.

The digipak also was in need of audience feedback as we had created several images on which we were undecided on. We had about 10 people come and look at the several images which we created in a school computer room to see which they thought worked best. Once we had narrowed down the choice, we quickly asked our subject teacher for her approval and a few changes were needed, such as the inclusion of the artist's tracks on the back cd cover. We also felt that there was a strong connection between the music video and the digipak cover in the sense that it incorporated certain aspects of the music video on the cover.

The website was the larger of the two features which we had to create as there was a large amount of research that went into looking at other websites and deciding on what shall be in it. We wanted a basic website in the sense that it was not too confusing and we preferred to have it simple and easy to use. We liked the simple look and felt it was most effective and after asking a few of our peers what they thought, people said that we should move around a few things as well as pointing out what we had missed in the form of a biography button which is the artist's "about me" section. One person's feedback was, "I like the way you have shown certain music radio stations as well as other critics and their thoughts", this we were pleased about, whereas others felt the site was too basic and did not have the wow factor. They realised that this was due to the fact that our skills in using the software were limited. However, we felt we did the best we could with the time and knowledge we had.

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

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



From the above stills which I have taken, it can be seen that there is a link between the images. Looking at a few images they are in black and white which we found was much more effective than loud vibrant colours such as pink and turquoise. The dominant colours were all toned down and made lighter so that they are matching and we altered the ratio between black and white, so they were the same levels.

Linking images from the actual music video was key as we wanted to show that we had incorporated the music video into our digipak. The video was shot in a park and we decided to focus on that and add the park bench into the digipak. The images are also black and white which runs throughout the whole digipak. We often found that we had to brighten up certain images as well to make them match.

The reason for there being blurred images of the dog was that, Jonny Hants is a lonely man and was feeling alone, who had resorted to self harming and we used the blur effect on the images of the dog in the digipak because we wanted to show everything is not clear and precise.

The website is also quite stark with it being placed on a white background with black writing, which the group thought would be more effective than bright colours. This theme was kept running through the website as we wanted continuity rather than images which didn't match.

Evaluation

There are four questions which as a group we are meant to answer separately and place onto our blogs. This section is worth twenty marks, the four questions are below.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4.How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

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

1. This image (taken under the monument) shows our main character sitting with his eyes covered over by his hands. This section is accompanied by lyrics saying 'I close my eyes, but might as well be open'. Showing that we have related our narrative to the song. This does not happen that much throughout the video, the reason for doing this was we felt it was a powerful lyric.

2. This image shows the way in which the record company would want their artist to be presented, the artist is lonely and is suffering from self-harming. He cannot be shown to be happy all the time as his character portrays him as sad and often lonely.

3.This is a shot of the dog lying on a bench, the genre of music is indie. This shot is related to the image "down in the gutter", showing how he has nothing anymore. This is a clear representation of genre, as drinking is often related back to indie music. The genre of music can also be related to emo and self harm as this is what the lyrics are about.

4.This shot is quite common in music videos of a pianist. We decided on this shot seeing as we had no performance shots and felt this would be the best way to utilise the piano.

5. This shot in an alley-way we made use of the lighting equipment that we had loaned from the school. We placed the light at the end of the alley-way to give more emphasis onto the dog and his actions.

6. From this shot we used our camera skills to create a tracking shot to show the loneliness of the character by filming him walking through the park.

7.This shot not only shows our location which was the park, but also character and clothing Mise-en-scene. It shows the dog costume, the park bench and the bottle of whisky.

8. This is a shot we decided to use based on some of our research into other music videos. I liked the idea of the character running through the park and we decided to use this, we held the camera in POV fashion. Once onto the computer we changed the ratio of shot (speed).

9. This last shot of the dog turning round was inspired from the "30 Seconds to Mars - Kings and Queens". The reason for this was we decided it would work well with our production of the dog looking at a sign then realising the connotation of it.