Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout the creation of my 3 products I have tried to stick to the same genre signifiers and style. The Blighters music, in the real bands mind, comes under Indie – New Wave. This to me sounds almost like a hybrid of folk and pop music thereby creating mellow sounding songs. The importance of sticking to the genre is because it will instantly create a foundation of potential audience and buyers as well as enabling the creation of a label or link to the band.

By establishing the genre I was able to create more specific products. In the music video production we decided on setting it out as an action oriented presentation with no structured narrative apparent. The action was based around skateboarding, further adding a Sub-class of potential audience via its aspiration attraction and the ability to enable fellow skateboarders to relate to the video. However the key benefit of this is that it enabled me to be base my products around more of a ‘New Wave graffiti skate park’ colour scheme.

The actual music video challenges numerous conventions of media productions just by it's location. We decided to base our video in a rural, rather than urban, skatepark. This connoted a feeling of quirkiness and uniqueness rather than the conventional rich and famous connotations felt through over urban bases skate boarding videos such as Avril Lavinges Sk8er Boi. Throughout our music video we use long to medium shots to enable the audience to truly appreciate the location, and maybe even relate it to their own local skate park, in such images as below.

In many other fashions our music video stuck to many key music video conventions. Such as a shot showing the entire band (like above), a quick succession of actions shot which can be located in our music video at 1.55 to 1.59 below via editing in Adobe Premiere. These fast pace of shots are in many music videos but especially in the Judith - A Perfect Circle music video which I analysed some time ago in another Blog Post. However the fast paced transitions are also supported by being synchronised to the beat of a music providing a more seamless change.

Another convention of camera work we used was to use numerous close up shots of the lead singer. A prime example is the common occurring low angle shot to connote the singers overall importance By comparing the Lostprophets - Shinobi VS. Dragon shot of their lead singer with ours below you can see the similarities. By doing this we enable the audience to identify with the band more easily by allowing them to link it to a single face.

The video goes on to further develop the songs title "Boy's in Motion" by firstly using an untraditional Stop Motion title sequence connoting uniqueness along with basing our video primarily on performance and no narrative. We were largely influenced by Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie when deciding which stop motion to employ. Once reading the fact that the video consisted of 3225 still images we decided to use slightly less stop motion than planned for pure time limitation reasons.

My Digipak design mainly sticks to the conventions by having images of the band from the music video throughout. Along with this I wanted to use a simple Jewell Case instead of a digipak or some other constructed device because while being a convention it is also what audiences are used to. I also developed the usual lyric listing by having them annotated by the band members which adds another layer of communication between the band and their audience.

My Magazine Advert stuck to most conventions by being A4. Using the artwork from the album cover it plans to promote and to use promotion quotes from supporting magazines or companies stating the album is a positive construction, which can be seen in most other Album advertisements.

However throughout the production I have tried to keep note of Andrew Goodwin's theory. Throughout my product there is a link between the lyrics and visuals as shown perfectly in the above 2 images from my digipak construct along with these Goodwin mentioned the need for close ups of the vocalist and as mentioned previously we kept to this music video convention strongly by having Owen with the most screen time as well as the front cover of the digipak design and Magazine Advert.

Overall I have used a large amount of conventions while only developing and challenging a few. This is because while my band is part of the Indie - New wave genre their audience is still quite broad due to their demographic being around the age of 16-25. This means while I could go for a straight quirky and totally unique setup by keeping a slightly low key uniqueness it enables the overall product to attract a larger audience.

Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When looking at my audience feedback I decided to ask the same amount of people with another questionnaire similarly to my Summer Media Investigation and my Audience Research. The questionnaire was designed around 3 or so questions for each of my products produced throughout the course and a final question to gain a rough idea of their overall opinions.

Please tick the boxes as appropriate

Age: 15-17 [ ] 18 – 20 [ ] 21 – 23 [ ] 24 – 26 [ ] 27+ [ ]

Gender: Male [ ] Female [ ]

Do you find the Music Video entertaining?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

Does the video suit it’s genre of music?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

Would you watch the video again?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

Would you buy the ‘Blighters’ Digipak?
Yes [ ]
Probably[ ]
Unlikely [ ]
No[ ]

Does the Album promote the band?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

Does the Album suit the Music?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

Does the Album suit the Music?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

If so why?

Does the Magazine advert grab your eye?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

If yes what part?

Do you see a link between all the products?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

If yes why? Overall do you like the products?
Yes [ ] No [ ]

The demographic aim was at the age range of around 16-25 consisting mainly of students who are aiming to go onto a higher level of education or a professional career. This suggests they would mainly be an aspirational independent audience as pin pointed in my Audience Profile post. By sending this questionnaire out via the social networking site Facebook.com I was able to efficiently and painlessly collect 12 returned emails.
The graph above shows you the participants details who filled out my questionnaire. As you can see the majority are around the age of 18-20. This is because, as mentioned, I feel the demographic will be centred around 16-25 so I've taken the tact of aiming at the middle age group. Furthermore I tried to get a mixed sex group. This is because while Blighters is an all male band which may attract more young women interested in the lead singer the type of music played is not gender reliant to be enjoyed as shown by such bands as Linkin Park, Lost Prophets, Oasis etc.
The 3 Music Video questions were aiming to see if the audience enjoyed the video and felt that it was suited to the genre. As you can see from the results 80% of them are positive. 10 out of 12 participants would watch the video again and also felt it suited it's genre, interestingly enough 1 person who found the video entertaining would not watch it again.

I also wished to gain feedback for my Album creation. Once again the majority of this was positive. All of the participants agreed that it promoted the band due to it's semi-professional production. However 4 of 12 did not feel it truly suited the genre of music. Comments such as "It is too active where as the Blighters music is more mellow" as well as "Prob look better black & white" which informs me that if I was to re-do my work I would go for a more mellow affects.
After all 12 agreeing the work promoted the band you may expect them to buy the album. However with music tastes also taken into account you need to not take this to seriously. Considering 4 of the replies were the album does not suit the music only 1 person has said they would outright not buy the Album. This is a positive step forward for my work showing that it is up to quite a good standard.
Not surprisingly with how happy I am with my magazine ad everyone agreed it would draw their attention. The majority of comments were along the lines of "It's so greeeen!!!". The graph below on the other hand shows how there is a clear link between all of the products and that only 1 of the 12 did not enjoy them as a whole unit.
To conclude in terms of my print productions the majority of feedback was very positive with most saying they would purchase it, or at least consider it. My magazine ad was also successful in the sense it did what it was designed to do; grab peoples attention. Plus my music video was also a successful hit. Overall I agree with this feedback and it has made me more confident about my work as a whole.

Q4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and reaserch, planning and evaluation stages? [testing]

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

Within the entire Media unit I have used numerous new media technologies from sites such as Youtube and Facebook to professional programs like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. What you're reading right now is off a new technology known as a 'Blog' which I use to host all of my work. However to answer the question...

Construction
During the construction stages of my work I used numerous different programs from Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements to Microsoft Office Word and Excel. The beauty of the new technology available to me as well as the new digital technology such as Camera's and Video Recorders is that I am no longer restricted to doing my work in a chronological order. Non-linear editing is born!

These programs enabled me to use an amazing array of different tools to change, distort and even transform my work into the images you see throughout my Blog and in the Prezi above. An example of the affects I used just look at [ This ] blog post. Premiere likewise provided so many transitions I would never have been able to use in a simple program like Windows Movie Maker similarly it enabled me to change contrast settings and the actual speed of clips. Slow motion skateboarding is superb.

Furthermore new media technology enabled us to use stop motion within our video which is multiple images taken with only a slight moving of an item to create the illusion of an inanimate object moving.

Research
Research was made so much easier due to new technology. MySpace.com provided a platform to find Unsigned music as well an inspiration for Album designs. Facebook.com provided a platform to send out questionnaires and to gain feedback on my main production and ancillary texts. Then there was youtube! Without it I would never have found music video's to analyse.

Planning
The beauty of using Blogger over a normal work folder is that it allowed you 3 key things.

1. Share your work quickly and easily via a simple URL
2. Access your work anyway whether at school or home
3. Re-drafting work didn't require writing something out again just editing and reposting

This meant that when ever my group and I met up to discuss work whether via communicating in an email or in a group discussion at school we could all edit our planning to show these revisions. Such as when we decided to move away from a narrative and concentrate more on a performance style music video.

Evaluation
In the evaluation itself I have used all of the programs mentioned and even used a new technology called Prezi at the top of this post. Without these constantly improving technologies my work would have been far harder and I wouldn't have been able to produce almost professional like pieces.

The gap between professionals and amateurs is constantly shrinking because media technologies make tasks that were hard a year ago a piece of cake now. Amateurisation is a real thing constantly happening around us and my media products are proof of this. If you really wanted to see you would just need to surf youtube for a few hours and you would see an amazing amount of art and videos created by normal non-professional people.

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In constructing the main product and ancillary texts I worked towards a goal of keeping them to an alternative stylisation. This was done because the Blighters music is within the Indie – New Wave genre which to me means an alternative and unique style; wanting to bring across consistent products I stuck to the artist’s genre like glue. By doing this I enable the audience to identity with all of the bands products and help create the bands own unique identity to further increase their popularity.

Therefore after finishing my main product I went about finding a basis to hang my ancillary texts. With the music video being created in a quirky non-conventional location yet also using many traditional approaches I wanted a similar angle for my ancillary texts. To achieve this I wanted to link the majority of the digipak to the skateboarding aspect of my video, one stereotype that follows skateboarding and is manifested in many skateboarding products is graffiti or strong graphical elements. Once I had this style in mind I looked for a way to use my limited artistic skills to bring this across.

Through using Adobe Photoshop as well as Illustrator CS4 and a large amount of varying textures and flourishes I was able to create multiple images to use for constructing my digipak. I linked the band strongly to the ancillary text by having the lead singer from the main product, Owen, on the front. This is ideal because many bands singers are seen as the most attractive of the band because they are the ones constantly shown throughout all products which link them into its core identity. Furthermore wanting to stick to the alternative artistic style I created the other 2 panes above. These stick to the strong background drop affects adding depth to the image while also following the same strong sky backdrops within the music video as shown from the original images below.

Another aspect of the audiences attraction may be because aspirers see the band as the ultimate of any musician due to their ability to sing as well as play an instrument. Wanting to play upon this fact I also set Owen up as the main image on the magazine advert which solidified the link between the main product and ancillary texts and used the same colour scheme and base image of the Album cover itself.

I also used another pane to show the entire band along with writing along them giving you their name and instrument played. Meaning the 2 panes below above employ background images that came from the music video enforcing the link between both products.

Another link between the band and the ancillary texts is by having the booklet within the digipak to have a page per song released on the CD. This enabled me to create 4 very distinctive images constructed around each songs unique lyrics. Each page has an alternative style following the feel of the song as well as the overall quirkiness of the products. For example the ‘Boys in Motion’ song which I choose for the main product is on the first page while also having a strong background taken from the product, as well as a few notations on the lyrics (Shown above - 2nd Image).

Furthermore wanting to keep with the strong graphical element the other pages in the booklet and back of the digipak keep to a flourish basis and have no photo elements to cement the style. The colouring of each page also keeps to the quirkiness by having a brighter palette of colours with high contrast; this in itself creates an attraction to the audience because it catches people’s eyes along with making the product more desirable by being uniquely designed. This uniqueness links to the rural rather than the urban skatepark location within the main product music video.

Both the main product and ancillary texts bring across a feeling of freedom to be you due to their uniqueness yet also strangely traditional style. You can identify with the band by their lyrics such as the Boys in Motion song being based around love and moving on, yet it’s also mellow sounding on a subject which can be quite hectic. This simplicity to life shown in their lyrics is also shown in the design of the main product and ancillary texts. The main product is a simple down to earth video with no special effects or massive high maintenance likewise the ancillary texts follow very simple designs yet both bring it across in a strong fashion.

Both products are aimed at a younger demographic because of their slightly Indie - New Wave genre and unique stylisation. Non-mainstreamers would be attracted to the bands identity and mellow sounding music against rock or pop counterparts.

However while these links are strong and quite effective I could have gone for more photo based ancillary texts which would have enabled me to have a stronger link between the Music Video and ancillary texts. Likewise it would have enabled a stronger skateboarding relevance which I could not include due to my limited artistic skill set.

Overall I feel the links between my main product and ancillary texts are effective. They both have similar identifying factors creating a unique brand while also strengthening Owen as the lead musician.

Blighters - Boys in Motion Video

Lost Prophets - Shinobi VS. Dragon Analysis.

Lostprophets - Shinobi VS. Dragon Ninja - Music Video -

Similarly to my other analysis of Judith - A Perfect Circle is that I am going to analyse only a few key shots in detail. However rather than a spray of the first few shots I have selected a wide range which have influenced my media production, along with analysing the similarities for the choice of location.

The first 2 shots which interested me were the above. The left is a medium shot of the entire band playing which is a key dependency for any music video. By showing the entire band you thereby create a type of label for it as well as allow the audience to recognise each member for their instrument. The right image goes on further by having the conventional low angle close up of the lead singer. The constant close ups and larger viewing time of the singer connotes his overall importance. The more you see the singer the more you relate him to the name of the band; thereby creating a visual link or label in your head.

Another great aspect of the Lost Prophets video is the Urban location of the top of a car park. As you can see from the 2 images there is a great expanse of blue sky connoting the freedom of the city landscape. While there are large buildings around the blue dominates the imagery far more. This freedom would fit into our Indie - New wave genre of the Blighters music perfectly, so expect imitations of this in our own video.

Another great example of a close up shot of the lead singer is shown above. By showing the concentration of the singer you create an intense sense of intimacy as though he is in his own world and we just happen to be near by. This adds to the feeling of the band having a great talent which we can only aspire to gain.

As you can see the majority of the skateboarding shots are taken from a low angle enabling you to gain a better view of the skateboard itself. We plan to use this shot type within our own video. Likewise by recording the skater performing a large trick you can attract aspirers or other skateboarders enlarging the audience attraction. Furthermore the location is used to great affect in the right image connoting a form of escape, as though the skateboard is free from the grasps of the urban city landscape and jumping to the sky.

The location plays a large part in the visual elements of a music video. The Lost Prophets while using a traditional urban location also has a large amount of the advantages and connotations which a rural location bring such as the large sense of freedom and space. Along with the large dominating sky shots with a pure blue colour rather than a grungy city scape connoting a purity. However the location does not provide the quirkiness or uniqueness of a true rural location.

Overall this video has been a strong starting point for our music video, especially the superb synchronisation of the music to the beat of the song. The faster the beat the quicker the shot transition. A very good performance video.

There For Tomorrow 'Pages' Album Analysis

There For Tomorrow album covers were quite a large influence on my ancillary media products from their text affects to their dominating background colours. I particularly liked the repeating of the text on the Page's Album (Right top image) and therefore employed it into one of my own album booklet pages.

However to concentrate on the 'Pages' album (right) I would say it suits the name very well. The cover has a repeating text affect of the name of the band on top of an image of pages being thrown in the air in a chaotic fashion suiting the Indie / Rock music. The blankness of the sheets equal just that, a page, which can contain anything but without reading it you do not know what.

I think this kind of artwork would appeal to their target audience as it is different from the norm and via it's striking green colour it will stand out against the more darker traditional rock album covers. The target audience would be mainly male based with the age range of 16-25 similar to that of Blighters. This is due to the fact quite a bit of the music is slightly 'screamo' with a strained voice singing.

The lettering of the band while being very straight forward also relates to that of the name of the Album. The majority of pages you pick up from books to magazines are made in very basic fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman such as the above.

I do feel that this CD connotes a confused mind, similar to that of the bands music, while also showing the uniqueness and artistic values of theirs. Overall I found this cover to be extremely inspirational in my own work, and when comparing it to my work you can see some large similarities employed.

Audience Profile

This post aims to provide a simple audience profile of the target audience for my Main and ancillary texts. As mentioned in my Audience Research I look at the age group of around 16-25 because from my own taste in music and experience in attending Indie music gigs I know that this will be the age group most likely to enjoy the Blighters type of music.

The demographic would be only slightly heavier on the male side than females but otherwise gender equal. The indie scene is made out of many individuals but can also attract Aspirers who are attracted by the musicians’ skills or even mainstreamers can be attracted depending how popular the Indie band becomes.

Age: 16-25
Gender: 60%-40% (Male-Female)
Social class: Working to Middle Class
Occupation: Student
Media Interests: Mainstreamers with a slight art house interest (Mellow sound)

Consumption of Media
They would most likely consume media in numerous ways from a live gig to watching a music video on their laptop or IPod / mobile phone. I would say they prefer owning a CD Album rather than downloading it via Spotify or Itunes along with this I would say they'd purchase merchandise from the band such as shirts.

This is why I have created quite a strong set of Ancillary texts with a strong colour base enabling easy applications to posters or 'Print T-Shirts'.

Demographics Attraction to Blighters
The reasoning behind the above demographic finding Blighters attractive is relatively simple. Firstly the band consists of younger musicians enabling the audience above to relate to them through that medium while also enabling them to aspire to the skill of being able to play a musical instrument and being in a successful band.

Furthermore the mellow sound offers a respite to the usual rock or dance music which many of the age group within the demographic listen to. From my own experience I know a change in pace is nice every so often. Plus the indie factor and uniquness adds a final touch. The demographic age range may be nearing the end of the 'teen years' yet many will still have the wish to be rebellious and their own person, meaning the look of the ancillary texts suit perfectly.

CD Case Original Images.

The 3 above images were used throughout my CD Case design. The image to the left was used as the front of my Album booklet after removing the background via cropping using the magic wand and eraser tools. I then used an overlay affect to change it to black and white to gain the final version.

The centre image I used for the 3rd inner page within the booklet. I used minimal editing on this image apart from adding a layer beneath it to add more depth via an Overlay / lower opacity value. Similarly the right image was used on the 1st inner page within the booklet and has minimal editing.

But as you can see from the 3 final products above there are numerous other layers used on top of the original pictures including textures as well as gradients. The most difficult affect I created was the 'Rays of light' using the Pen Tool in photoshop. By using the Pen Tool to create a single beam of light I then went on to duplicate the layer and use the transform tool to rotate it 20 degrees. I then repeated this step until I had 5 rays, merged the layers, duplicated and then rotated 100 degrees. Then by using this 'Ray of light' as an overlay over a gradient I was able to create the affect you see in the left image above.

The beautiful thing about the rays I created above is that I could stretch them to huge lengths to gain different thickness of rays from the same original image. However as previously mentioned I also used numerous images as back layers to add depth via a mix of gradients and changing the opacity setting.

Magazine Advert

The magazine advert I designed is quite an in depth image with multiple layers used to enhance the entire image. I first designed the advert below which is only half the size of A4. This was done because it would enable me to use the front of my Album Cover straight away with only minimal editing of the backgrounds.

The initial advert consisted of over 15 individual text layers and 30 image layers. Rather than using the Photoshop transform tool to attempt to curve the text I simply created individual text layers for each letter I wished to change. While this sounds like a lengthy process it was relatively easy. The bulk of the image layers are the individual 'rays'. The process I used to create the rays is explained [ HERE ]

Realising that most adverts consist of a Full A4 page within a magazine I decided to then move onto creating a larger image. Along with this I wanted to add in more reviews to entice the audience into buying the Album / Tickets. Along with this I decided to add a more darkened effect to the background of the image.

The final image is the advert to the right promoting the Album of the band.

CD Designs

The 2 images below consist of the Back of the CD Case and the Front.

The images below consist of the booklet within the CD Case itself. As you can see the Front of the case is also the front of the booklet. Each song has it's own page with select lyrics of the song and finally the back of the Booklet lists the tracks as well as the website of the Band.