Final Digipack design

Here are my final digipack designs

Skeleton Layouts Digi pack

Here are my skeleton Layouts for digipacks

Final Layout website

Here is the final product of my website ancillary task. 

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

In what ways does your media product use from Oliver Robinson

Evaluation Question How did media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Firstly, when researching the digipacks and websites I used google to see view similar media products so that I could analyse them. When analysing the media products I used two different presentation platforms, the first being Prezi and the other Powerpoint. Prezi was more visually appealing and gave made more options where templates were concerned. When analysing a video I used Prezi more than Powerpoint as once the video link was put in, it converted it to video format immediately. Not only this but it allowed me to input images with ease. The videos I analysed were Aerosmiths 'cryin' and The Strokes 'Someday' and both of these were helpful in finding out what conventions we could apply to our own video. Before this though we filmed a focus group using a Canon 1300D as the camera quality was better than the video cameras offered at college. Along side this we used a HN1 which is a sound recorder and this helped deal with audio inadequacies with the camera. I then took the footage into Adobe premier cutting elements of silence within the footage so that the interview seemed more natural. From this we found out what our audience expected from our video. This lead me onto my analysis of digipacks were I used Powerpoint as this format was better for organising information. This is because each slide gave me more space to write up my analysis than Prezi did. I analysed The Strokes 'Is This It'  album and NBT 'Broken Machine' album where their simplistic colour schemes and imagery influenced my own digipack skeleton layouts, with both conveying the themes of the album withing the art. This conformed to the conventions of the romance genre as they have simple themes that are easy to understand for all audiences.

Next, for my website, I again used Google again to research different website layouts such as ED Sheeran's official website and Sony Musics website.I preferred ED Sheeran's website due to conventions of the Indie genre being used such as a simplistic uncluttered design which include included a legible bold font, clips from the music videos as imagery for the backdrop. This met the conventions of folk music (a sub genre of indie) as the website told you what you needed to know with no hidden messages, similar to how folk music videos lyrics match with video, telling the story how it was. Also, ED's costumes fit within the indie genre as he has a very conservative, casual style which drew me to the website more. 

Finally during the research I used Survey Monkey to collect and analyse the results from our focuse group. The website was really easy to use, giving the user question templates and question types. For example multiple choice and a rating system. After collecting the results in it then drew them up into pie charts so that the responses were easier to analyse. This was really useful moving forward into the planning and construction phases as it sped up the process of seeing what my audience wanted, instead of filtering through individual responses. 

Moving onto the planning stage I used a new piece of technology called Wix, which is a website creator. This was very useful in drawing up both the skeleton layouts and final design for my website as you were able to switch between two website designs simultaneously without having to finish one to begin the other. It also allowed you to promote social media pages within your website. The social media pages were also pieces of technology we used to keep our audience interested in the activities of our production company. The apps we used were Instagram and Facebook, we posted on both frequently allowing our audience to comment on the content we posted so we could gain feedback on what they thought of the post production stages. During the planning stage of my Digipack I used photoshop to create my skeleton layouts. Photoshop was again user friendly and easy to use as the tool bar was self explanatory and with plenty of youtube tutorials on how to develop our photoshops skills editing the photos for my digipack became second nature. Where the colour treatment was concerned, we went back into premier pro and became affiliated with the three way colour corrector, which allowed us create the unsaturated tones we knew were a convention of the indie genre. 

The media technologies that I used for constructing my digipak were Photoshop and InDesign. Photoshop was used initially edit my images, so that they fit within in the indie genre. I did this by layering my images and blending them together and adding the colour scheme through the luma-curve, colour wheel and photo filter tools. InDesign was used to piece the rest of  the layout for my digipak together by including the images I had edited in Photoshop. Using the Command D dunction I was able to upload my images and fit them proportionally to the CD frame. Once this was done I could apply a HD quality to the image to make it look more professional. InDesign also allowed me to create a inside tray card as well as the reverse cover to the digipack so I had an all round professional looking CD case. 

The technology used for creating our final music video was Premiere Pro. This enabled us to crop shots and remove any unnecessary filler shots and extended seconds on particular shots so that they were more polished. Having used premier during the test shoot the colour treatment was easier to apply, simply applying the steps we had previously used. Something new we learnt to was apply transitions such as fades and gradients to help the narrative flow. For exampled we used a fade to white to illustrate we were moving to a flashback as it created  dream like feel. This also made our video look seamless and professional for when they watched the video on Youtube. The editing was also used to help connote characters emotions and relationships. For example, a black and white tint and the sepia tone created using a three-way-colour wheel gave the flashback scenes a warm and happy feeling , which connoted the relationship was in a good state. This links to Barthes symbolic code as it allows the audience to understand the state of the relationship. Also, using the puma-curve enabled us to make older Will's look eerie by darkening the shot around the edges, this would then allow the audience to sympathise with him more. This links to Barthes symbolic code similarly to the last one. 

In conclusion, the different technologies I used helped me develop my skills, as well as convey the messages we set out to establish.  Also, the use of Photoshop and InDesign has enabled me to learn how using a variety of different media sources can make my tasks easier. For example editing my images in photoshop then made my job of piecing the digipack together in InDesign simpler and sos my outcome was more effective. These skill will also help me for future reference if I'm every required to use a software like InDesign again as I will know how it works. Overall, all the processes took a long time but upon reflection they all overlapped nicely. For example , Survey Monkey allowed me to reach out to my target audience whether in reference to planning or research. 

Evaluation Question How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary task?

Digipack Textual Analysis

Title ideas

Here is a survey we sent out to our audience with title ideas for our main task. As you can see our audience preferred the title of 'retrospect' and so this is what we will be naming our video.

Talent Release forms

Here are the forms of consent from our actors for both main and ancillary task.

Main Influences

We were influenced by a variety of different media texts  which are as follows:

• Jeff Buckley 'Hallelujah'
• Sundara Karma 'A young understanding' 
• Gorillaz 
• Rufus Wainwright 'Hallelujah' 
• Robbie Williams 'Angels' 
• Banks 'This Is What It Feels Like' 
• Lana Del Rey 'Lust For Life' 
• Duke Dumont 'As Long I Got You' 
• The Script 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved'
• The techniques that  have influenced us include editing, camera angles, mise-en-scene and sound. Most of the Indie music videos operate with low key or natural lighting which is a reoccurring theme within our videos. Additionally, there are a variation of  shot durations or quicker shot durations in order to communicate specific messages within our music video. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Firstly, I chose Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah as the soundtrack for our music video  due to it using many conventions of the indie genre which inspired me to make my music video similar to. For example, the mise-en-scene used were natural lighting, which creates a realistic atmosphere as our music video is reflecting the relationship of two everyday people.  In relation to Barthes action code  our video opens with an older version of Will asleep in which  initially does not give a clear storyline therefore creating an element of tension which then makes the audience wonder how this scene relates to the music videos title of retrospect. however as the narrative unfolds and the flashbacks become integrated into the narrative this cohesion of the title will begin to make more sense. In my music video, I will include dim lighting by filming in daylight and using candles  for interior scenes in order to provide small amounts of  light and create a relaxed and romantic  atmosphere. Using Barthes enigma theory, my aim was to mainly use the symbolic and proairetic code to symbolise the relationship between this couple and how it breaks down across the narrative of the video. 
    
  
  In regards to the mise-en-scene of our music video we have taken influence from a fan made music video of Sundara Karma's 'A Young Understanding'. We have taken inspiration from this music video to inspire the costumes for our music video as we will be taking inspiration from the indie genre as it is known for being particularly diverse in its choice of clothing with their being multiple different subcultures and ways of dressing within the 'indie scene'. In our music video we are choosing to conform to traditional ideas in regards to costume as our narrative focuses on the relationship of a heterosexual couple. We have chosen to use costumes that are made up of casual clothing, this is due to the indie genres clothing style being focused on the expression of individuality and not conforming to traditional expectations on how to present yourself to society. 
  
  Furthermore, the cinematography used were close up shots at 1:48 and 2;27 . Close-ups are used to emphasise the artists emotions and makes the audience sympathise with them as it portrays the experiences that they have wrote the song about.  In addition, we have chosen to include  an over the shoulder shot in our music video to demonstrate an argument between the two which is a key part of them breaking up. In our music video we have chosen to subvert the traditional representation of women, whom are stereotypically victims in pop music videos by having the female being unfaithful in the relationship after having their bank loan for a wedding is declined. I will be using two teenagers as my main characters as they will be demonstrating the younger version of the couple and how the older version of the male character is reflecting on their relationship after her death. 

• In regards to editing we have chosen to take influence from Jeff Buckley, Lana Del Rey and Banks in regards to editing techniques through the use of black and white editing. We have chosen to do this as it relates to Barthes' cultural code as Black and White is something we associate with the past as this is how all recorded footage would appear before the use of colour video in the media.  The tint is black and white due to it being an old memory, therefore the tint links to the colour for old-fashioned films when black and white was used. Also, the black and white signifies the purity of the relationship between the main characters. Before applying the tint, our team used the three-way-colour corrector and used the colours orange and red to make the image have a warm effect, giving a little saturation to the black and white tint. This gives the actress a silhouette effect due to her wearing a dark coat, resulting in her looking nearly invisible, connoting her current situation of not being around. However, the white makes her hair and face stand out, connoting purity and innocence, making the audience focus on her more rather than the actor.  The overall colour treatment resulted in making the scene look old-fashioned with the camera focusing on the actress rather than the actor, connoting that she is the main character within this scene due to the narrative focusing on flashbacks of the couple, giving the retrospect. It is also a convention of the indie genre due to the indie subculture being old-fhasioned as well as many music videos such as Plain White T's video "Hey There Delilah". Therefore, this colour treatment will be the main one used for our flashbacks to signify the indie genre and give the flashback an old fashioned effect. 
  
  In one of  the flashback scenes of our music  video  a medium shot of the male proposing to the female,  is used showing the traditional progression of a relationship. The colour treatment used was only the three-way-colour corrector, using the colours orange and blue. The faint orange tint made very little difference on the darker colours within the shots by making them slightly darker. Whereas the blue gave the image a summery look by saturating the sky and the colourful circles from the lens. This links to the indie genre due to bold saturated colours being used, giving a happy and joyful image towards the audience, which is a convention, especially in music videos such as Coldplay 'A Sky Full Of Stars'. However, this colour treatment will not be used within the flashbacks in the music video due to it looking modern, whereas flashbacks tend to look old-fashioned by having a black and white or sepia filter to make it look outdated. 
  
  
  
  
   The audience questionnaire showed us that our target audience were mainly 16-25 year olds. Our music video is aimed towards the struggler, who, seeks escape and lives for today, with few plans for tomorrow. This is classed as the socio-economic class group E/D as the struggler is more likely to be in the working or under classes. 
  

  Using the GEARS model, my film wouldn't be ideal for young children as they will lack an understanding in regards to the relationships portrayed in our music video, whereas elderly people  are unlikely to watch our  video as it the cast does not particularly target their demographic and may find it boring as it's unlikely to appeal to their experiences or to their age.Therefore my target audience will be aged 16-25 Plain White Tees 'Hey There Delilah'

Call Sheets

 

Call Sheet 
Shooting Day No. 1               Call Time ___12pm__________              Day/Date    

Producer _Light Beams Productions_________________                  Director Oliver Lee Robinson  

Scene	Location	Cast
Bedroom	Ollie’s house	Allan Harris	No makeup
High  Street	Much Hadham
Graveyard	Much Hadham

Shoot Day 2 – 22/03 / 18 
 
 

Cast	Character		Makeup	Set
Harry Watson	Young William		None	Bedroom High Street  Field
Molly Manley	Laura		Foundation  Concealer  Powder Bronzer  Lip Balm	Bedroom High Street  Field
Beth Isted	Niamh		Foundation  Concealer  Powder Bronzer  Lip Balm	Field
Allan Harris	William		None	Bedroom High Street  Field Graveyard

 
 

	Bits & Extras	Report To:
		Ollie’s House

 
 

Special Instructions – Equipment – Remarks:

Camera

Tripod

Guitar

Photograph

Loan Letter

Candle

Advanced Schedule:

Refreshments required

Cover Set:

N/A

Directions to Location
Bus Routes: __410 – Hoddesson 351 – Much Hadham