Introduction

Hello,

I am Joshua Leek (6179) and this is my blog for my A2 media. This blog works with the most recent post at the beginning so I recommend that you go to the earliest post first as it will make more sense. This blog contains all of the information about my project and it is also easy to navigate using the navigation bar on the right hand side.

The finished product

I have assembled all of the different elements of my project.

The images below shows the album:

I appolagise for the poor quality but i took them on the webcam

Final Comments - Deadline day

Well it's deadline day! I am on track to getting all of my work finished. We have been given the Easter Holiday to do the final evaluation question but apart from that and maybe a little bit of tweaking to the blog I have finished the A2 Media Portfolio.

Evaluation part 2 - How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?

My poster and digi-pack have very simplistic themes; the black and white is different as it is not a common thing to see on either a poster or an album cover. It would also be argued that my main task has a simple approach to it. The reason for using a simplistic approach is that it is clean and tidy and it fits the genre of the song well and since the song is quite a slow pace it is also reflects the tempo.

The audience needs are met through the combination of the different media texts that I have created. I think that there is an expectation from the audience of what they expect to see from a Paul Weller music video.  These expectations include the following; it makes you think of a utopia, it reassures you and that there is always a song from Weller that reflects your mood. Another important convention of a Paul Weller so is the simplicity, it is not a complicated thing to understand and I have tried to carry this trough to all of the different texts that I have created.

The institutional needs are also met on the digi-pack as the island records logo is present on the back cover of the album. The poster however does not have the logo on and this is not all that uncommon on a poster advertising music as it usually focuses on the product and not the institution. In this respect there is a theme of a stereotypical poster and album cover. Another reason that I did not put any logos on the poster is because of the simplistic theme that I am carrying through the whole project.

In conclusion then the combination of all of my media texts is very effective. The constant themes and the approach to both the main task and the ancillary tasks flow through all of my texts and I feel that they work well and overall produce a very effective piece of work.

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

For the first evaluation question I created did a voice over (a sort of director’s commentary) on the finished video. I feel that I have spoken about all of the important points in this short video. The video uses the first few minutes to show the evidence as the themes are constant throughout.

Here is the video:

Evaluation part 3 - What have you learnt from the audience feedback

Here is the third evaluation question;

Evaluation part 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I have used media technologies throughout this project. I have used a computer the most, I used a PC for researching songs and genres and I also used them for editing the footage into the final music video. I used final cut express to edit the footage that I had and this software has enabled me to create a good final project. When I was researching I also used social networks, when I had finished the video I posted it onto Facebook and asked people what they thought of it and the overall response was good. This helped me so much as it allowed me to get a wide range of people to provide me with feedback for the video. I also spent a lot of time on YouTube watching music videos from both other A2 media projects and professional videos to draw inspiration from.

Other equipment that I have used when creating the music video was of course the camera equipment. I used a High-definition camera and this allowed me to have a better quality video overall. The use of the blog to present all of my work is also an important factor in this question. Using a blog meant that I could log in to it and work on it from home which made it much easier especially when the deadline was coming up. In terms of the evaluation stages I have used media technologies to create two short videos and I have also used it to  create two written answers including this document.  Planning was a major part of this project and I used mostly paper based planning techniques however I did use a computer to transfer my notes onto the blog and also to arrange times and dates for filming.

As a brief summary then I have used media techniques in many ways throughout this project and without them I do not feel that I would have been able to complete the project at all. The use of a computer was essential as it made ever aspect of the project easier all the different areas of the portfolio.

Finished video

The music video is ready. I feel that the final result is to a good standard and and I am happy with the final result.

Here is the finished video:

Audience research

I designed a small questionnar and from this I have discovered that my target audience like the current video for Brand new start but they feel that it is dated. From this i have decided to stick to the original theme of the video but to add some more narrative to give it more of a storyline.  There was also a strong belief that it would be good if a new twist was put on the video and it may appeal to a younger audience.

Editing

I have filmed the performance part of the music video and I have imported it to the mac and after viewing the footage I have decided that I need to film a little bit more but I will do this when I film the narrative.

The screenshots below the editing process:

Performance only

Adding the narrative

Final Video

Editing techniques

When creating the music video I used a number of different editing techniques to achieve the final product. The Black and white is connotes the old and maybe even a hint of depression but when it lifts to colour it makes the audience thing that the protagonist is moving on.

I have also used other techniques such as split screen where the same image is on the screen at the same time. This technique is used simply to keep the audience interested and this is one of the most important things.

Finally I have also used shot transitions such as fades and the reason for this is that if there is a extreme change in the image then i have used a fade down then up again to the new scene. In one instance I have also used it when a straight cut between two scenes looked out of place.

The screen grabs below show the editing process and also the rendering of the video:

Ancillary tasks

Now that I have completed the ancillary tasks I feel that they both look really good and the simplistic look to both the album and the poster work well with my genre. I also feel that the song that i have chosen also works well with the ancillary tasks, the song has quite a slow and calm tempo and I feel that the poster and the Digi-pack reflect this.

The Poster that I am going to use is the following:

The reason for this is that from my research I have found that this one appeals to the audience more and that it fits with the whole Paul Weller ideology better than the other two. I am pleased with the final outcome of the poster as it has a strong link to the album cover, and this is very important as if they looked different then three would be no point in promoting it.

Poster

I have created a few different posters and at the time of writing this post I am undecided which one to use.

Below are the posters that I have created

As you can see they all have the same theme and I just need to decide which one I am going to use. To help me decide I will ask my teacher and I will also ask my target audience which one would work better with my genre.

Album cover

I have created the album cover and I think that it has turned out really well.

Here are the images.

Front

Inside front

 Inside back

Back

Spine

Here is the cover laid out on a single image:

The reason that I have chosen this theme of black and white is that I feel that it fits with the genre of my track and on a shelf it think that it would be eye catching as it is unconventional. I am particularly pleased with the inside font of the album, the lyrics are clear and the image of the guitar makes it more interesting than just having lyrics.

The overall simplistic effect of the digi-pack works well as the track is slow and calm and the album cover reflects this.

Digi-pack -Album cover

From looking at other album covers and from my own ideas I have decided to have a black and white stamp effect of my actors face in black and white then have the words 'Paul Weller' in one colour and a font that looks like it has been signed and then another line of text that says 'brand new start', this will be in a different from from the previous line to emphasis the name of the track and to make the album cover stand out.

Print media research- Digi-pack

For the printed media I have also done some research, the way in which I went about this is that I looked at some Paul Weller album covers and tried to identify any running themes. I have identified one thing, almost all of the album covers have the artist on on them. Another thing that stands out is the colours used on the cover; the use of black and white has a nice effect however it is not as eye catching as some of the others such as the forth one down.

Here are some album covers that I have drawn inspiration from:

 

I have a rough idea of how I want the album cover to look and then I stumbled across the image below and it is very similar to it. The effect that I am going to use is the black and white 'stamp' effect. The reason that I am going to use this is not only does it look good but it fits with the genre of my track.

Here is the album cover in question:

The use of the black and white on this poster is effective as it is appealing and the reason for this is that it is different from what you come to expect form album covers.

Props

The props that I have used in my music video are the following:

Guitar for the performance
Pen for the opeining when the actor is composing the song
Paper same as the above
Clothing Bag when the actor is leaving home to 'make a brand new start'
CD's also to be put in the bag but I an undecided weather to include this or not.