Question 2 - Plan

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

 

Explain the importance in advertising in being able to connect an audience to ancillary tasks and make them refer to a main product when seeing these products.

Types of advertising -

• Trailers in films
• YouTube
• Adverts
• Posters

Talk about how we researched into existing ancillary tasks and advertising methods (SHOW IMAGES OF THESE), and how the things that we have learnt from these were put into use in the planning of the ancillary tasks.

A common theme is good within a range of products. Helps to create a brand/association between the products.

 

THE POSTER

A poster is by far one of the most successful pieces of advertising. It shows, usually in a large format, features of the main task which helps to captivate the audience. (SHOW PROFESSIONAL EXAMPLES).

The stereotypes of a poster include: NAME THEM, EXPLAIN

We decided to use more/less of these stereotypes because…. Explain etc.

From audience research into these stereotypes, we decided that we would need one thing to be apparent across all our products… the band logo. Explain.

Our poster connects to our music video by…. song, photo, theme, etc.

To improve our poster… Quote audience research "image needs to be lighter" etc.

 

THE DIGIPAK

Next, we had to create a digipak for our video. This would consist of a cd front, back, and inside, with some of the stereotypes of a digipak. These stereotypes include… logo, image of artist or an album cover image, text on back (explain), and simple things e.g. barcode, other logos etc.

The stereotypes that we decided to use were… logo, album cover image, text on back (explain), and simple things e.g. barcode, other logos etc.

The digipak relates to the poster by… logo, images, fonts, themes, colours, etc.

The digipak relates to the main product by... images, theme. We chose to use photos of the Vikings rather than photos of the band to relate the digipak and the poster to the main task, and create an association between these products. Explain more...

 

OVERALL

The combination of all these tasks is very successful with many people from the audience research making comments such as ‘it works with the theme’, and ‘it all suits the video’. We are happy with these comments because…

We wanted to make sure there was a clear connection between these ancillary tasks because… it connects an audience to the products, it makes the brand stronger, and it allows a variety of ways for the product to be communicated.

 

We plan to present this question as a podcast discussion style video with the entire group using cues from the above plan. In the editing process of this podcast we will add in pictures from our coursework and other relative products to help demonstrate our ideas better.

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

I decided to answer this video as a vlog.

Question 1 - Plan

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

forms and conventions of music videos in general -

• repetition of shots to emphasise the point that songs tend to repeat themselves with repetition of the chorus and certain lines that have particular importance to the meaning of the song. Also helps to identify any key moments to the music video. 
• the visuals - characters, setting and actions, should all relate to the general theme and genre of the song. By looking at these visuals it should be easy to see what genre the music video is. 
• typically show all members of the band and can show personalities of the band, something that the audience can familiarise themselves with about the band
• a character/main artist that the audience can easily identify as being significant to the music 
• a narrative that is not very clear, making the audience pay close attention to the video and the lyrics so they can make sense of what is happening.
• usually represents the band positively

specifically, forms and conventions of rock music videos:

• characters in this genre are typically bold and rebellious guys that go against mainstream society and fighting conformity - this is shown through the artists confidence and stage presence (usually being centre stage and at the front of anything)
• quick cuts and close ups of instruments being played, keeping in time with the fast pace of the music
• few or little special effects as the main focus of the music video is the band and their music - although some rock music videos do use slow-paced editing to emphasise any certain points within the song or the narrative, running in parallel to fast-paced parts of the song
• narrative is usually linear (shown in sequence) and tells a story
• most commonly performance-based narrative 
• iconography - satanic symbols, negative imagery like drugs, alcohol and headbanging
• lighting for the genre tends to be stereotypically darker than other genres
• typical props include the instruments that the band are playing
• setting is usually based around the theme of the song or is a big open stage with space for a big crowd

conventions that we used -

• linear narrative of group of characters that connects with the theme of the song and makes sense - viking battles and then transitioning to the children playing in the garden
• use of some performance-based narrative - using close-ups to show the instruments of the band. close up of the singers face and actions - actions could be depicted as rebellious and confrontational, fitting the genre of the music video
• slow-motion editing used to emphasise a certain point within the narrative, a certain point in the story and drawing attention. use of fast-paced editing to keep the video interesting and in line with the upbeat pace of the music, however some of the shots are not quickly edited and last longer than normal for the genre of the music video
• most of the characters relate to the genre of the music video, vikings, but the location is not necessarily that of a rock genre, however I think that from the video you could distinguish what the genre of the music was 

conventions that we challenged -

• no use of stereotypical genre iconography - in comparison our music video is pretty 'clean' in comparison to other music videos in the genre. No references to satan, drugs or alcohol
• we specifically used a filter on our video to make it lighter and to make images stand out, completely going against the convention of the genre about having dark shots and lots of low key lighting
• more focus on the story telling elements of the music video rather then the performance part of the narrative, typically rock music videos are more band orientated and contains more of them playing instruments and singing
• music videos typically feature the band playing the characters if there is a story telling element to the video however we use a whole different set of characters for the narrative pieces
• some elements of the video do not directly relate the genre of the music video but the overall concept of the music video fits the rock genre

video snippets to use in evaluation -

• our own music video
• the all American rejects - gives you hell à challenging the conventions of typical rock videos (uses light colour schemes and plays around with humour), although follows some conventions (boisterous lead singer, band-narrative shots, band also play as characters in the story line) - contradictory: has both a good character and a rebellious character (stereotypical)

Evaluation prep

For the final section of our coursework we have to answer four evaluation questions for about the research, planning, and production processes of our coursework. Below are the four questions and some ideas to include in each question. Each question will be presented in a different format so I have also made notes about how each question may be presented. 

 

How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages? - possible use of prezi, allowing for use of animations to focus on certain aspects in more detail. Use of screenshots and video clips to emphasise points.

• construction - digital camera & premiere pro for the music video filming and editing. adobe photoshop & filming pictures for the creation of the two ancillary products: poster and digipak.
• research - internet/YouTube to search for existing music videos, both student-made and professional, and blogger to share our research findings, allowing analysis of products and development of ideas
• planning - blogger was the main technology used in the planning section of our coursework, also use of youtube to research existing products and to draw comparisons to help construct ideas for our own products, drawing on ideas from all that we'd researched before.
• evaluation - powerpoint/slideshare/prezi used to showcase evaluative points and give explanations and detail into developments in skills and abilities over time (possible use of video diaries/voice recordings over texts and images too)

 

What have you learned from your audience feedback? - group discussion, filmed. 

• mostly learned about how to tailor our designs to fit the needs and ideals of the target audience better.
• something that we may have considered to be good when designing something turned out to be not so good in the eyes of the target audience, using their opinions to help make our products better.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - written text, may be used as a script for a vlog or a commentary over some pictures or clips of video.

most music videos feature a mixture of live performance and a simple narrative - a convention that we have stuck to but also challenged a little. Use of band and lip syncing sticks to conventions, and use of narrative - however we decided to split the narrative into two sections, creating a miniature storyline within the music video (kids daydreaming about being Vikings with the end scenes showing the children returning to reality).

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? - voice recording with possible images of ancillary texts to emphasise certain points. Potential for a collaborative podcast with the group, allowing us all the discuss certain aspects of the coursework

• made sure to use a running theme throughout the music video and in the designs of the ancillary products - Viking theme is continuous.
• every product uses the same fonts and the bands logo

 

Obviously these are not notes for the full answers but they are some rough ideas that I have begun to note down.

Thumbnail

We decided that a Thumbnail should be made for our video, since most professional music videos have a Thumbnail to go along with it. So we used Photoshop to edit one of the photos we got when filming and kept all the same fonts and logos that we used on the poster and in the ancillary work for this project.

Here is the finished thumbnail:

Update: lip-syncing

Previously, we posted on the Darkness' fan page asking for musicians who fit the following to be in our video:

• Willing to participate for free
• Able to play an instrument
• Know the song 'Barbarian'
• Lives in either Norwich or Gorleston (filming locations)
• Free next week (half term)

It has now been a while since this was posted and we only received 1 reply.

As we are nearing the deadline of our video and cannot organise more of a band, we have decided to use people we know to imitate the band in the lip syncing parts.

We will use close up shots to cover up the fact we are using people we know, and fast paced shots to fit with the fast paced action of the battle scenes. We will be filming this today and editing asap.

Update to rough cut

After a few hours of editing, we realized that quite a few shots are boring/mediocre. Therefore, we plan to give ourselves more work by adding scenes of a lip-syncing and a band playing. As our deadline is quickly approaching, it may be difficult to get this done. To confront this problem, we will be editing the video now with the scenes that we have, and will also be creating another edit if we are able to get lip-syncing done.

To go in search of a band, we have posted on the Darkness' fan page asking for musicians who fit the following to be in our video:

• Willing to participate for free
• Able to play an instrument
• Know the song 'Barbarian'
• Lives in either Norwich or Gorleston (filming locations)
• Free next week (half term)

Hopefully we get enough replies asap that we can plan and film before the deadline.

Ancillary tasks - the final products

Today, we finished the Ancillary tasks for our coursework, which are shown below:

I think that the poster is the best of the two finished products. This is because it related to the video, contains information about social media for contact or more information, and it also isn't too crowded, which makes it look simple but effective.

With the Digipak, we simplified the rough version so that there was less text and added a spine to the case. This would allow us to put a jewel case in the digipak if we were to print an actual version of our design.

Overall filmiing review

Now that the filming is all finished, we have been able to reflect upon what we have done. The first day, the Viking day, was a very professional day of filming. We learnt new experiences from directing and positioning, and learnt how to deal with a larger cast than previous projects. It also gave us a variety of professional clips that we will be able to incorporate in to our A level project.

With the second half of filming, it enables us to practice working with kids and media, which some people may not have the patience for. When you give a child toys and fake weapons, all they want to do is pretend to fight. This means it is very difficult to be able to direct the children in order to get the shots that you want. This, however, was not a problem as the children were eager to help and wanted to be in the video. We also let them keep the weapons after which ensured they would do their best.

Now that all the filming is done, we look forward to starting the editing process and producing a finished product.

Image rights

For our project, we had to ensure that we had permission from people in the video (or their parents/guardians) to use their images in our coursework.

For this, we asked them to sign image rights forms, which gives us full permission to use the footage of them. These have been filed away with digital copies saved as well.

 

 

Audience feedback on ancillary products

Since the last post we have made a few alterations in the designs of our ancillary products so today we decided to get some feedback from the target audience about them.

 

This is the latest version of our ancillary products and this is what we showed when retrieving our feedback.

The poster -                                                       The digipak -

 

We made sure to ask a variety of people within our target audience so we could get a range of responses towards our ancillary products.

 

The poster -

Most responses said that people liked the image used in the poster and thought that it suited the genre of the music (rock and roll) well. They also said that they liked the layout of the poster and that the simple design looked professional and cool. It was also said that the use of social media advertising was good as it directly targets the younger audience of the product.

A common negative response that we got for the poster said that it looked a little dark and dull and that ideally it needed to be made lighter to look more appealing and eye-catching.

 

The digipak -

Many of the responses for our digipak said that overall they liked the design and layout, especially the use of a shield for the background of the jewel case. Responses also said that they liked the use of fonts in the designs and they also liked the fact that we the bands logo and also showed recognition to the re-enactment group that was used in the production of the music video. It was also said that there was suitable imagery used throughout the digipak design and that it suited the genre of the music video well. Some responses also said that they liked the idea that the front cover and the back cover were one continuous image, rather than having two separate images for each.

A criticism of our digipak design was that in some places it looked a bit 'busy' and that we should consider removing some logos or fonts to create more space within the design.

 

 

In general, most of the responses towards our ancillary products were good and people mostly said that they liked the designs and thought they were simple, yet professional. There were a few criticisms but we can use these to help improve our designs before deciding upon our final products.