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

I decided that it would be best to create this section of my evaluation the the online presentation site "Prezi". Click the following link to see my presentation; http://prezi.com/l_skpgwajikk/media-10/

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the course I acquired a lot of feedback, some of it I considered to be very useful, some just useful and some of it I ignored as I considered it to be irrelevant. A lot of my final product was constructed from audience feedback. I got regular feedback around the class room and from my teacher so that I could improve my product so much that it was the best that it could be. During the construction of my video I rendered several earlier versions of my video and uploaded them to YouTube. This helped me understand what needed to be improved and what people liked about my video. Social media played a big part in my feedback because I used it even before I started constructing my product; I asked my audience what they wanted my product to be like. I constructed my questions to be almost like a virtual survey that the audience could fill out online. Before finally committing to by video this was uploaded to YouTube in a bid to see what people though. People were very positive about so I committed to say that, that was my final video. This is what people thought of it;

"I enjoyed it. The editing was fantastic"

"Thanks for getting this song stuck in my head"
 
"Love the superimposition of your singer and the music instruments, as well as the exteriors. I think it was a great idea to do that, very imaginative!"

"I love the shot at the end of the sunset of the beach! Well done James"
 
"It's really good James"

"Well, overall enjoyed the vid. Loved the overlay of some of the scenic images on the band members but felt the river footage had too much sun reflection (sun spot) that could perhaps have been edited out. The beach footage was a little juddery in places and at the end of the panorama when panning back it was a very sudden move, perhaps a fade out and back would seem less sudden. As for the music, really enjoyed it." 

If I were to do this project again I would get my video for visual disturbances such as a shaky camera or sunspots in the lens of the camera. I would do this to satisfy my last piece of feedback. I would also check that my video was shot in HD; my camera had the ability to shoot what I wanted to in HD but once I had filmed what I wanted to I discovered that the setting was not set for HD recording and it was too late to re-shoot so I have ended up with a Lo-fi video instead of  High definition.

 

Verbal Feedback

In an attempt to gain my feedback I, on a regular basis, went around the class to do a verbal survey, I would ask people on a one to one basis which version of my product that they preferred; it was almost like the audience chose my product for themselves. I did this for my poster as well as my CD and CD packaging design. This was mid product feedback. If I were to do a similar thing again I would be a little more inquizzitive; instead of simply saying this or that I would maybe say this or that or something else, if it turned out the audience did not enjoy either of my pieces.

My Media Pitch

Prior to the construction of any of my products, I presented my work in front of my class and requested that it was filmed. I gained feedback on my idea's through doing this. I asked for it to be filmed so that I could record what people gave me as feedback. This process I felt was really useful and it allowed me to gain perspective on what my target audience thought about my concept. If I were to go and do my pitch again I would aim to improve my presentation skills to maybe be a bit more specific to allow for the audience to completely comprehend what I had to say.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

 

Music Video

CD Packaging

 

CD

 

Poster 

Record Label Logo

I can answer this question on two very different levels; in terms of business as well as in terms of creativity.  I feel that my main product and my ancillary tasks were rather well together. I have used synergy between the two by the inclusion of the "Lost Minds Music"'s logo. Both pieces compliment the song in my opinion too. Distribution of my product will be done in different ways for each of my product but each of them will link to each other. The poster will be placed into record shops that will then go on to sell the product. The video will be distributed online as well as to the main video video broadcasting channels. It will be placed on YouTube (a popular video streaming site) and will be linked across to the band's Facebook page. This will advertise the song on each platform and then may make people want to buy the physical release of it; they will enter a "Record shop",see the poster and buy it.It will be distributed this way so that the target audience is hit, social media plays a big role in success these days since the release of the Arctic Monkeys on MySpace.

The release of my song into the modern media environment would require all of the things that I have created for this project. A video would be needed to "advertise" the song on the music channels, a CD single would be required so that people who enjoy the physical releases of the song can by it. A poster would be needed to promote the CD release and indirectly it would promote the video. In the actual media environment, house style is important and I have managed to use one of these so that my product would look real in music market and correlate to other products that are present in said market. The paper based design work of the poster and CD packaging has a colorful optimism which I feel is also present in the song which is projected via the video.A lot of my feedback has been positive for all of my media project and people have said that my product works really well as package.

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

I chose to create a music video with the addition of a poster and a CD digipack. I initially wanted to construct a website but I found that this would be too much of challenge as I would have to learn very difficult skills in a short space of time to complete the course on time. I created a video for my band; Back to Basics' song "Good".  A poster to promote CD's release was constructed as a CD digipack  for the single release of the song.

Music Video 

Before I started constructing the product I considered what audience I wanted to hit. I chose the indie market as this was the style of song that I chose. I chose to attract my audience by using a very conventional video. Indie music video's typically feature all members of the band as actor's or performers; as a benchmark, the band Oasis feature in everyone of the music video that they produced in either of these roles. My band members fill the role of the performers in this video because this is the most common form indie video's take.

I, as the constructor of this product want to create a performance music video that was quite experimental in it's construct; like Blue Monday by the band New Order. I deconstructed this video during my research and evaluation but took no inspiration from it as my mind had been changed. My vision was changed when I did a survey on my blog which told me the audience wanted a narrative piece. A narrative featured in the product just like a performance did. In the indie genre there are a lot of these type of videos.

Indie music video's tend to be fast paced to match the pace of the music. I feel that I have matched this convention because my song is of the fast nature. A mixed range of shots is quite common in a music video; it is done to show diversity and maintain interest in the video. I have used two main types of shots; close ups and wide shot. To many people it is conventional for video's of my genre to be black and white; I chose to subvert this convention because I feel that it would of hindered the quality of the video. It another convention that the band is often dressed in casual clothing; so it is rare that formal dress codes are a present, I have stuck to this convention so that my target audience to relate to the video; as they would dress very similar.

My video appeals to the audience because I have tried to make the characters in the video look like members of the audience I have tried to do this by the way that they look, dress and they behave. The audience was, mainly for, middle class teens who have an interest in all things independent but still enjoy the pleasures of the major industries. I feel that this audience has been met due to both band members been clothed well, looking clean and being wealthy enough to afford instruments to be in a band.

 CD Digipack

Having constructed a convention music video I chose to create a rather unconventional CD digipack; unconventional within the genre. It is conventional in the indie genre to have one main image on the CD sleeve but this was not the case because I chose to make my sleeve text based. No single image is present of the front of the album. Notable example which follow the single image convention are;

 

In a move that I also deem controversial I have allowed the bands song name take prescient over the band

name. This is not often done in either the CD single or album market because it is often considered that the artist is more important than the song but in my eyes it is the song you are promoting via a CD single release and not the band. This is my reasoning for doing this. I have used the limited colour palette convention because I feel that if I did not follow this it would look messy and visually un-appealing.

I have continued the text based inside the sleeve. This conventional notion; continuing the theme of the front into the inside. I have included the lyrics to the song in question inside the sleeve so that people can learn them and because it is conventional. I have chosen to make some sections of my digipack more conventional than others so that the sleeve doesn't look completely alien to my target audience. It is considered common to have a behind the scenes image in sleeves like mine so that's why I have included an image of my drum kit and guitar to make the audience feel like they are looking into behind the scenes.

 
The back of my CD digi-pak is very unconventional. I have featured all of the songs that feature on my CD EP but as far as conventions go that's about it. I have included recording credits on the back; these are normally reserved for the inner/sleeve notes of a release. I have included limited details about the record companies because one of my inspirational texts did do this.I have chosen to use synergy in my product; on my CD sleeve I have advertised the album that the song is on; this used to be common practise on CD/Record sleeves and now it is not so common so I have decided to bring it back to my design because I feel that it is an effective way of cross platform advertising. A barcode has not been placed on my digipak for the reason that it is not a requirement for every design to have and also I feel ruins the whole look and feel of the product.

I feel that the audience for my product will be attracted to it because of it's design work. I have made the colour scheme a very accessible but vague style; in the sense that could attract my audience as well as others because these colours could be applied to any product. The style of the product is unique and throughout history innovative designs/ unusual design have often triumphed; it is an innovative design because as similar design does not exist in the music world. The innovation also comes from the inclusion of art in the sleeve. The piece is inspired by the work of Robert Indiana who was a 60's pop artist and people may buy it to see this piece of work.

Poster

 This poster is quite a conventional poster. It continues the theme of the single cover onto the poster. This is conventional for every album and poster combo.Below you can see two recent examples;

 Promotion posters often contain the release date of the album/single that the band is promoting. My poster has one main image present on it. It is this that is the main focus for the poster; throughout my research into posters of nature I have found that this is a very conventional thing to do. I have on my poster unconventional features too; the biggest piece of text on my poster is the name of the song and not the artist. It is often considered that the artist is more important than the song but when it is the song you are selling and not the artist this fact should be turned on it's head. I have not included a record company logo for a very similar reason as my digipack; it is not about who produces it, its the song itself that's important. Locations of where you can purchase this CD release have not been placed on this poster due to the fact there is the assumption that the target audience will understand where to get it from. In my initial poster designs, I did include the conventional reviews of the song but found that they ruined the feel and design work of the overall poster.

Above is a montage of all four of my early poster designs.

The final poster will attract audiences to it through it's use of retro photography; recently people who consider themselves "Indie" have enjoyed using an application called "Instagram" that allows you to apply a filter to your photo's to make them look older than they are. They will see the imagery and relate to it as they know how it is produced. They will be attracted to it because of the generously bright colours present; it is often noted the people are drawn visually to thing that are brightly coloured. It is also often the inquizzitive nature of my audience to check things out that they see on the street or on a poster. 

The Real World 

I have uploaded two photo's of my pieces in the real world context to my Flickr account; http://www.flickr.com/photos/95237150@N05/sets/72157633355771360/