Question 2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Question 4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

How did you use new media technologies in the construction of Research, Planning and Evaluation stages?

During the course of my advanced portfolio I have learnt and developed various skills as well as improving on my knowledge and experience from my foundation portfolio where I created a thriller opening. This year we was allowed to freely pick any song to make a music video to, enabling us to be more creative in terms of directing and producing a narrative which is suitable to the genre and lyrics of the song. We used a range of different platforms in order to showcase our ability as media students to be able to use a variety of different programs.

The visual work which includes filming and editing effectively ensures that our artist is being presented in a commercial manor to be able to sell to a wide range of audience.

Research and planning

Blogger

Blogger was utilised store and collect all of the research I carried out and the present the planning I created with my group.

Through my research I have discovered various media elements and theories from well-known theorist within the media industry that could be beneficial to provide us on useful information to improve on. In addition at the same time the research allowed us to plan a more successful music video.

Planning which was practically the pre-production stage, was also work which I uploaded onto blogger to ensure the planning process is well marked in addition to receiving feedback for me and my group.

From using this platform it has allowed me to be able to continue doing my work when I’m not in school as well as keeping track and update my work in a safe platform. I have also learnt how to store my ideas and my work online so I can access it from all places (phone, laptop, tablet etc.).

Microsoft

The purpose of Microsoft was used to create and present my work; making a questionnaire on Microsoft word allowed me to collect all my results whilst doing a survey on what the audience prefer which then led me to producing the top demands on a graph in Microsoft excel.

I leant how to illustrate various graphs and present my results making it easier to record and collect audience feedback. The use of using various Microsoft programs has allowed me to present my work in a more professional way.

YouTube

Another platform for research was YouTube where we would look in different music videos to collect ideas and identify conventions for different genres allowing me to be more creative and original when planning and creating our own music video. Following Dyer’s theory, I looked at how the star image is being presented and which shots and angles enhance the image the most hoping I could implement similar shot to create the same effect and success

From this I have learnt how to critically analyse a music video and by doing so I have collected many creative ideas that would help me to plan and create an original idea that would fit my chosen song perfectly.

Google

Google was useful in a variety of ways to collect research accurately. Due to studying more theorists this year, google was a search function which allowed me to find information about them and their theories more efficiently. Google also allowed me to find and be able to access other online software’s such as blogger and Prezi.

This has enabled to navigate through the internet to find selective material for my blog as well as providing ideas that will influence me to be more creative whilst planning my music video.

Construction

Camera

The cameras were used within the production and filming process to capture a variety of various sizes, angles and movement. In addition it was a way to show my characters and artist in a professional way on screen displaying their costume, body language and facial expression, especially for the artist, where I would try to make my artist more appealing, enhancing their star image. Furthermore compared to my foundation portfolio I have developed my filming skills to learn to capture conventional shots that highlight lip syncing in time to the lyrics of the songs.

The process of using the filming has allowed me to use the cameras more professionally and effectively capturing shots such as establishing, tilt, pan a lot better.

Tripod and SD card

A tripod was used to aid my cinematography whilst filming by stabilising the camera.

When filming I am now able to maintain leverage, resulting in steady clinical angles, movements and shots. Due to experience from last year on knowing how to position a tripod correctly, I am now more versatile whilst filming with a tripod to capturing shots which wouldn’t be achievable handheld.

The SD card was utilised as storage for all of the footage that I have collected through the filming process. This was beneficial as the SD card had a lot of memory space to store extra footage for shots which I may want when editing.

Final Product: Magazine Advert

Final Product: Digipak

Research and planning: Drafts of adverts

Adverts are marketing tools which is used to attract a target audience.  It provides visual information about the artist and the album which is used to influence the consumers decision to buy the product. Key information such as the track list and where it is available to buy should also be included as these are seen as conventional elements of a advert. 

To make sure we created a conventional advert that appealed to our intended target audience, it was important that we created drafts of our work and feedback on them. We created two in total and this process allowed us to analyse and review our use of conventions, what worked and what didn't. Below are the drafts that my group and I created. 

The positive criticism we got were:

- Image of the diamonds are good

- Ideas compliment each other well 

The constructive criticism we got were:

-         Album name/ artist name

-         Key information missing

-         Artist image

-         Does not compliment digipak

Draft 2:

POSITIVES:

- typography more consistent and relevant to artist/genre

- colour scheme works & compliments digipak

key information present

NEGATIVES:

- not enough gold in typography

- song outlines are too faint

- all space has not been used

Research and Planning: Drafts of digipaks

The drafting process has been beneficial to the group and because it is essential during any digipak production that a rough copy, otherwise known as a draft is created to give the person an idea of what the real product will look like.

We mocked up a few designs to get a understanding of the digipak and what the digipak required. We had to pick a specific layout that was conventional. We followed right conventions and looked at audience feedback, and created the drafts of our digipak. We analysed the positives and negatives of each draft in order to improve and have a better end product for digipak.


Draft 1

TThe positive criticism we got were:

-        Like the image of the skull

-    -   Typography is good

-    -     Ideas are relevant to genre

The constructive criticism we got were:

-         Panel missing

-         On the back, space not filled

-         Key info missing

-         CD inserts does not look consistent with other panels

Draft 2

The positive criticism we got were: 

-      good colour scheme

-      sketch of skeleton is creative

The constructive criticism we got were: 

-     Inconsistent typography

-    Inside does not correlate with other sections

-    Too basic; consider more backgrounds/images

Draft 3

The positive criticism we got were: 

 consistent with the advert style

- better typography

The constructive criticism we got were: 

CD image needs to be selected better

- provide some star image

- key conventions missing from the back

Draft 4

Positives:

- betetr consistency with front and back

- colour scheme adjusted to a better genre convention

Negatives:

- still needs star image

- change typography for the production info

- make barcode stand out more

- edit coin to suit the campaign

Conclusion:

For our final product, we needed to ensure that our digipak follows the feedback which we had done by improving sand working on the drafts of our digipak. The improving process enabled us to have a more conventional digipak, which was essential in the overall production of our music video work.

Research and Planning: Creative brief for advert

CREATIVE BRIEF FOR POSTER ADVERT

Oasis Academy Hadley

South St, Enfield EN3 4PX

Artist: Frankie Felone

Album name: Felone Season

Release date: 4th January 2016

Project Managers: Gizem Mayil, Khaled Jaffer, Lara Lawal

 

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

Who is he?

Frankie Felone is an American rapper who launched his career from performing in local rap battles and making mix tapes in his home made studio. As his reputation grew, he started being hired to perform at urban   festivals and soon headlining shows Eventually he was known for creating a new sound, experimental Hip hop, which created a new audience for him leading him to get signed to a major label company Esoteric records due to the co-founder witnessing his raw talent several years ago. From here, he started to play more of a dominant role for the company where he would write, produce and direct videos for other artist's music. This then enabled him to expand his reputation and name on the Hip hop scene. As he went from performing in small clubs to arenas, it enabled people to know what his music was about and even though his videos were rather commercial, his lyrics were quite niche at the same time resulting in international fame on the Hip hop scene, there is definitely a demand for his 3rd album release.

THE MAGAZINE ADVERT CONCEPT

What is it?

We want to create an advertisement that best represents star image in order to pull in a variety of different audiences from the international hip hop scene. We want to create something that will appeal to our audience and also that will reflect the genre we are making our music video for, ‘oh well’. The advert poster will be a very illustrative of his fame and what’s going on at the present time rather than his past or what he wants to work towards. Now that he has a strong and large fan base, this poster is specifically to appeal to them as they can feel closer towards our artist. We are creating this advert as we want to maintain his star image: this in turn will boost our chances of having a music video on the top 10 charts.

Why are we doing it?

Felone's 3rd studio album will bring success to an international audience and the digipak creation will help in order to do this. The art work on the album cover will be crucial in our success. The consumers should be able to understand the values and ideologies as well as the themes the artist is trying to portray. The pictures, typography and backgrounds will allow us to communicate visually to our audience. The theme of the album which is ‘about his fame’ will allow the consumers to understand the Hip-hop genre, without even having to listen to the music. In more technical terms, we are investing in synergy to enhance the promotion of the album due to the rise of globalization, allowing content to be seen through multiple media platforms. 

Where do we want the advert to be seen?
As the world is now highly digitalized, people often do not pay attention to advertisements on the street. Though we believe it may work depending on the area - as it is in the Hip-Hop genre, a good location may be within urban areas as Hip-Hop is associated with them. Online we plan to show it through social media such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook as these are some of the top 3 popular social network platforms. 

What is the reaction we want?
We are targeting young adults within the age group 18-25, both males and females and of white/black ethnicity. We want the audience and the consumers to feel like they can understand the artist and enjoy his music to live their lives and get over the problems that come with being of around that age and ethnicity, which is explored  a lot through Hip-Hop music. The target audience should be able to build and develop a relationship that is different from other artist as this one is about getting to know your true self.

How will we know it worked?

We will know if our album was successful from the sales. We will compare these alongside our sales figures to enable us to see if our album was a hit. Following on, we will be hosting a focus group to allow fans and consumers to look at our first drafts and give us there feedback on our album designs. From there criticism we will know ways in which we can improve.

Felones campaign dates: 
Press campaign: 29th January 2016
TV Launch: 4th January 2016
Album Release: 13h February 2016