Digipak Ancillary research

For my second ancillary task I will be making a digipak for the song. So I have done some research on other digipaks.



This digipak is of the Green Day album "American Idiot", this is the album that the song Boulevard of broken dreams (this is the song that I am doing for my music video) is from. Looking at this digipak, there are a lot of dark colours, but the digipak is also very simple as there is not a lot on the digipak.



This is a digipak from the band The Script, this is similar to American Idiot from Green Day, this is because both of the digipaks use hands in the digipak, there are, however brighter colours in the digipak, however there is a lot of cream like colours in the digipak. This one also features the band on the front cover of the digipak, this is different as the band does not feature in the American Idiot digipak at all.

From this I have learnt that there are different ways to present the album of a band or artist and that there are many ways to present the emotion of the album ( dark being sad etc.). 

Ancillary advertisement draft 3 improvements

I have asked for feedback from my audience on my most recent draft of my advert ancillary task, below is the comments that were made.

• They liked the different colours on each side of the advert, it looks better and more presentable and aesthetically that way.
• They thought that the advert needed some reviews and star ratings on them, as it will make the advert look more realistic and professional.
• They also thought that I should add social media images to the advert as it will tell viewers that this is present on social media.

I will act on this feedback to make my advert look better and more professional.

Ancillary advertisement draft 3

This is the 3rd draft of my advertisement, I have chosen to use the second font that I had chosen, this is because it looks more stylish and suits the personality of the song and the band. I also used some of the advice that the audience gave to me and I think it looks a lot better because of it. This is adding colour to one half of the advert.

Ancillary advertisement fonts

When editing my advert, I need a text font that will match the music video. I have narrowed down the fonts to three different styles. Below are the three styles of font that I could use in my advert.

The Bill Douglas museum trip

On the 30th November I went to the Bill Douglas museum in Exeter university. There I learnt about the history of film, from when it started to now. 

There was a part of the museum that was dedicated to the stars of film, this benefits me because it tells me more about the consept of Star Image which is part of Andrew Goodwin's theory. Below are some images of the Star Image cases at the museum.

There was also cases for the mechandising of film products, one of these cases was for Star Wars which is one of the most marketable films.

From this I have learnt more about the history of film and how companies market their produts to an audience, from this I have some ideas of how I could market my music video.

Editing the Music video

Below are some images of the one minute of footage, this has taken many different attempts to get right for different reasons. One reason is that I needed to swich Macs half way through editing the clips, this is because the Mac would not render the files and the original PremierPro file would not load any of the fottage that was filmed, this meant that I was behind with the amount of work done, so I have now cought up on the work.

Apart from this one problem, the editing process and the filming of the music video has largely been a succuss as I have enough footage to edit for the time being. I am reshoting the chorus due to the feedback of my audience, as then the chorus will become much better and look more professional, as the lip synicing in the music video lets the scene down in my opinion and the opinion of the audience.

From this I have learnt that different things do go wrong in production and post-production, this means that I need to be ready for this and I was not ready at this point.

Aucience feedback on 2nd draft of the ancillary

After completeing the second draft of my music video advert, I have gotten some feedback on my ancillary task.

• The text on the advert is still not good, as it does not look like a professional text. From this I will try and change the text to make it look more professional.
• The background looks better then the previous draft, however a background of a road could make more sence to the song title, although the background at the moment looks good. From this feed back, I will experiment with other backgrounds and see what looks the most professional.
• The female character on the screen looks stranger, as the effect has made it so the chin sticks out more and the nose is bumpy. From this I will edit this to make it look more like the original image, this will mean that the chin will be less pointy and the nose will be less bumpy.
• The text has been spelt wrong on "Boulevard". From this I will edit the text so that the text is spelt correctly.
• The advert could look better if one half is in colour and one is in grey scale. From this I will test the colours and see if the colour makes the advert look better.

From this I have collected more feedback on the ancillary, I can now edit the advert to make it look better and more professional.

Ancillary 2nd draft

From the feedback that I have gained from the first draft of the ancillary, I have edited my advertisement. Below is the second draft of my advert.

Research on music videos

From editing the first part of my music video, I need to film the second part, I know what I wanto to film, however more research into similar music videos may help me to get some more and better ideas.

The song Unfinished Sypathy by Massive Attack is similar to the idea of my music video.

the music video of the song is the inspiration for The Verve's song Bittersweet Sympohny, hence the similar name. The Verve's song is one of the inspirations for my music video. The music vidoe is similar because they where both filmed in one continuous shot, also they where both filmed with the main character walking down the street. I like the music video, as I think that it is a creative and different idea, filming everything in one shot is different as this is one f the first music videos to do this.

From this I have learnt that the one shot throughout the music video is a different and an idea that has inspired one of the most famous music videos of all time in The Verve's song that was mentioned earlier. I have gotten ideas from this music video, one of the ideas is that there are many different types of people behind the character, this is a good idea as it shows diversity and adding this to my music video is a good idea. As it shows that the problems that the main male character can happen to anybody.

Feedback on ancilary task

After completeing the first draft of my music video advertisement, I have gained some feedback on my ancillary task.

• Contrast, the audience thought that the colurs that where used in the advertisement where good and aesthetically pleasing.
• Add more to the background, the audience thought that the background of the advertisement was simple and they thought that I could add something to the backgrond to make it stand out more.
• Good use of the effect, the audience thought that the use of the cartoon effect was good and looks good.
• make the text look better, as it looks bland, the audience thought that I should add a boarder to the text to make it stand out more.

From this I have gotten constructive feedback that will help me to get a better and more aesthetically pleasing advertisement.

Magazine advertisement - first draft

This is the first draft for the magazine poster to my music video.

Plans of ancillary tasks

Below are the plans that I have made for my digipack and magazine poster. 

Ancillary Research

I am creating an advertisement to go into a magazine, below are some film posters that I like in different ways.

The Avatar poster is good, one reason for this is the establishing shot at the bottom of the page, I like this poster becasue the two characters at the top of the page, this is because the poster is saying that the characters are close, which in the film they are. The blue of the faces is good as it fits with the text at the bottom of the screen. However, I think that the poster could be improved, one way that the poster could be improved is by increasing the size of the title of the film as I believe that it is too small. 

Even though this is not a film poster, I think that I can use this design in my poster, as it can make the poster stand out and look good. However, I would make the colurs black and white as the technicolor will not fit with the theme of the music video. The cartoon effect is one that I think looks good and aesthetically pleasing.

The tilte of the film being in the black of the bottom of the Titanic is good. I like that the boat is vertical as it is foreshadowing what will happen in the film. The characters at the top of the page is similar to the Avatar poster, this is because I would like this effect of one behind the other in my poster. The fade of the characters at the bottom of the page is also something that I would like to have in my poster.

The two characters in the middle of the poster is different to the posters previously, this is more of what I want in my poster as I plan to have nothing underneath the characters. I like that the poster is all in dark colous as my poster will be similar to this as in my poster there will be no bright colours as it does not fit the tone of the music video. I like that the title stands out from the rest of the poster.

This poster is similar to the previous posters as they also have large images of the characters on the poster, however, this is more similar to the Avatar and Ttanic poster, which is not what I am not going for, because I want the characters to be more in the centre of the screen. However I like the image of the ships below the characters as it looks aesthetically pleasing.

This poster is the most similar to the look that I want in my poster, as it has the main character in the foreground and another rightbehind in the background. I like the image of the skeleton behind as it looks faded and fits with the colours in the background, this makes the poster look better in my opinion. The gold title below contrasts well with the colours in the actual poster.

From this I have learnt what actual posters look like and I have learnt how to take elements from the posters and make it into my own piece.

Intertexuallity

Intertexuallity is referencing another text in another text. This reference casn be done in two ways:

Parody

A parody is referencing another text in a humorous way. This can be directly at the text or a genre. One exapmle of this  is Family Guy, as the show references different texts in every show and most of the time it is to make the audience of the show to laugh.

Pastiche

A pastiche is pating homage to another text, this can be basing the text as a whole on the other text or taking a part of the text that is iconic or has influenced the text and putting it into the film, television show or music video etc. An example of this is the music video to Telephone by Lady Gaga, this is because the music video has many references to Quentin Tarantino's films. Such as the opening text is from Pulp Fiction and the "Pussy Wagon" is a reference to Kill Bill.

From this i have leant the difference between Parody and Pastiche, but also I have learnt more about intertextuallity.

Make up

When filming the scenes, make-up was put on the actors, this is so the film looks better and more professional. Below is a shot of adding the make-up onto the male character, which is played by Eddie Wilkinson.

Below is a photograph of the male character, Eddie, before the make up was applied and after.

Below is a photograph of the female character, Joy, before the make up was applied and after.

From this I have learnt that appling make-up to the cast before filming will make the overall product better and the film will look more professional.

Audience feedback on one minute of footage

This is the audience feedback to the one minute of footage that was edited.

• The first shot of the main character has his eyes looking down. From this feedback, I will refilm this shot so that the main character is staring at the camera.
• It would look better if the characters infront of the green screen should be in black and white, this will mean that the shot would look better. I will edit the film so that the characters in the foreground will be in black and white.
• The characters in the chourus have their glasses on, this shows the refelction. I will refilm this shot, with the characters without glasses, this will make the shot better.
• The chorus needes to have cuts in it so that the viewer will not get tired of the same shot for so long. From this, I will add in more shots inbetween parts of the chorus.

I have recently shown the one minute of footage to my primary audience, from this they have given me feedback on the music video so far, from this I can improve the music video, to make it better quality.

One minute of film

This is the one minute of film that has been edited so far, the footage has been edited so that it fits with the codes and conventios that I said that I would use at the start of research.

The audience to my music video

Below are some of my audience for my music video. I will be showing them my video throughout the process of editing and the feedback that the give will help me to produce a good quality music video. This is because I will use the feedback that they will give me to make my music video better, as I will improve the parts that the audience did not like.

Audience Profile

Name: Dylan Fielding

Age: 17

Favourite genre of music

Alternative

Favourite type music video

Animation

How do you watch music videos?

YouTube

What do you think of our idea?

It's good, very deep meaning

What social media do you use?

SnapChat, YouTube, Instagram

How do you find out about new music video?

Youtube trending tab

From this I have learnt more about Dylan, such as his likes and dislikes and how he watches and accesses music videos. This is good as I know how people like Dylan (who are my target audience) access music videos and find them.

Audience

The audience is critical when making a media product, without the audience there are no viewers, this means that there is no money earned. So the media industry tailors their products to a certian audience. From this they can collect feedback from the audience and make the product better from the improvements made. Through the process of making my music video, I will get feedbakc from my audience to make the product better.

Fragmented audience

A fragmented audience is the division of audiences, the audience are in smaller groups because of the variety the media can be consumed. For expample news can be consumed in different ways, Television, Newspapers and, now becuase of the impact of new technology, the Interent

The different types of audience

The two different types of audience are Mass and Niche audiences. A mass audience is one that consumes main stream media. Where as a Niche audience is a audience that has a unique interest. When creating my music video I will be using the critisism that I will get from my Niche audience.

Categories

Audiences are categorised so that media products are tailored to their interests, this means that the product will be successful and earn lots of money when it is released. The categories are:

Group A - Lawyers, Doctors, Well paid professionals

Group B - Teachers, Fairly well paid professionals

Group C1 - Junior management, Nurses, "White collar" professions

Group C2 - Electricians, Plumbers, "Blue collar" professions

Group D - Drivers, Post workers

Group E - Students, Unemployed, Pensioners

The audience that will be my niche audience is Group E, as my product is tailored for teenagers, this is why I will use a teenage cast in my music video.

Pick and Mix theory

The pick and mix theory is the idea that audiences consume different types of media, such as YouTube and Spotify. 

From this I have learnt the different types of audience that are there, I have also learnt about the niche audience I will use and what group my niche audience is. This helps me as I can mold my music video to be of my niche audience's interests.

Green screen alternative

As an alternative to green screen, I tested a projector. As if the green screen does not work, I will be able to use a projector. I have taken some photos, these photos are with lighting, as I will use lights in my music video. These are the photos that I took.

After testing projecting the images, I found that the photos have an effect that looks different and stylish. This is that the image is projected onto the characters face, this gives the image a effect that looks different. However the projector has the shadow of the character ion the screen, this is not good as it is taking up space that is needed for the background.

From this I have learnt how to use a projector if the green screen does not work, this means that no time is wasted, learning how to use the projector. However I would rather use a green screen as it looks more professional and there is no shadow in the background.

Representation

In my music video, I have two characters, a male and a female. I want to represent the characters in different ways throughout the film.

This is Eddie Wilkinson, he is playing the male character in my music video. He is 17 years old, this is good as it is the same age as my target audience, this means that it is easier for the audience to identify with the character.

I have chosen Eddie because he fits the stereotype of a male teenager, this is what I want the character to be like. It means that more people can identify with the character.

I will represent Eddie in two different ways, the first way is in a strong and happy. As he is in a relationship. I will do this by using different coloured clothes and filters on the flim. However this will change towards the end of the music video, this is because the relationship has ended and he cannot move on. This means that I will represent him as weak and sad. This will be done in the same way that I am representing Eddie at the start of the video, this means that there is continuity in the music video.

This is Joy Strason, he is playing the lead female role in my music video. She is 17 years old, I have chosen Joy as she is the same age as my target audience and this means that the audience will identify with the character more.

]Another reason I have chosen Joy, is that she fits the stereotype of a teenager, this is good as it means that the audience will know what age she is in the music video.

Joy will be represented in two differetn way, this is like Eddie, as at the start and the end of the music video she will be represented as being strong and happy. I will do this by using filters on the film and the clothes Joy will be wearing. In the middle of the music video, however, Joy will be represented as being sad and weak. I will also do this by the clothes that she will wear and the filters that I will use on the film when editing.

From this I have learnt how to represent each character and when I will change how I will represent them. This is good as I can now move on to the filming of my music video and editing it in the way I want the characters to be represented.

Audience feedback from the secondary audience

I have done some more audience feedback with my secondary audience.
I explained my idea to a mixed audience of males and females aged 16 and 17. I found out that the majority of people that like the idea are male. So I need to find out what appeals to males in my audience so they will watch my video and enjoy it.

This is what people thought about my music video idea:

The flashback idea is good, this is because it is different and they have not seen a music video with that sort of idea. This is good because the idea attracts people to watch it, this is because it is something different to the stereotypical music video.

The audience also thought that the story of my music video had a lot of depth, this is good as because the narrative is a major aspect of my music video, this means that the story needs to have depth and people need to like the idea. Depth means that my music video has replay value which means the product is successful and it will make money for the artist.

This has helped me as it means that I know what the audience likes about my music video, this means that I can improve on the aspects that they did not enjoy, this means that my video will become a better product, this is good as it will mean that more people will watch my video, making more money for the artist.

Shot testing

I have tested different shots of the male character mourning., This was done in different locations, and in different ways so that I can see which one is the best for convaying the characters emotions.

From this I have learnt how to convay to the audience how the character feels emotionaly.