Original images before editing (Digi-Pak)

This image was used for the front panel of the digi-pak.

Image used for inside panel. Transition shot within music video

Transition shot in music video. Used for Inside right panel.

Back Panel.

EVALUATION!

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products? The music video that I have created for A2 level is that for a indie-folk artist who happens to be a friend of mine. In order to help promote her as an artist I helped create a music video for her, as part of the subject. As an add on to this, print productions for a digi-pak also had to be created. Seeing as the genre the video is being designed for is that of indie-folk genre it was important to capture aspects of the countryside that relate to the roots of the genre. This had come from extensive research into the genre itself and looking at related artists that feature under the genre. Other texts where found on sites such as Youtube, to collect a certain amount of clips that helped me develop a better understanding of the genre as well as conducting research on similar artist that inspire the artist. With these clips I was able to research into the shot types used in the folk artist's videos gaining an insight into how connotations are made, costume idea's, narratives and mise-en-scene. looking into certain events such as the 'Newport Festival' to gain an insight into how artists were generally discovered in the genre within the genre. Folk artists morals are often portrayed through there music and lyrics, I learnt this from through the genre research and research into similar texts. I don't believe I have challenged any conventions of the genre, however I believe that with this music video it has given a new take on the genre like artists such as KT Tunstall and Ellie Goulding have. As for the print productions which were created after the video had been fully edited is indifferent as the images used have be taken from the finished production piece itself. Editing printscreen shots in Photoshop to create a more distinctive image, using a range of effects that improve the image dramatically. I had planned out the digi-pak as rough sketches to start with, however over a couple of weeks the idea's grew in creativity. Idea's were developed from looking at other relevant artists that are similar. Looking at the editing techniques used in on the covers as well as information that is provided on the case. analysing digi-pak images was a major part of the research i conducted, it gave an insight into what colours to use, fonts and what sort of images to use. For example, for the front panel (cover) I used an image of the artist which is common with the folk genre. 2) How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts? Digi-pak Below is the 4 set images for the digi-pak for my artist Mayenna Plastow-Smed. (Insert Images) In correspondence to the genre I would say it is an ideal representation on the modern aspect of the genre. These images where taken from the music video itself to create the four necessary panels needed to create a full digi-pak. These images have been selected out of many other diffrent screenshots that I had taken. As I was actually asked by the artist to create a digi-pak centred around her, thus it was important to capture the best images that both represented her and her genre of music. Front Panel The artist is the main focus of this image. The only altercartions that occured in this screenshot was that of the 2 rose, paintbrush effect which overlay each other. 2 Diffrent fonts were used for the front panel which were both edited to be white, so that they stand out from the main image of the artist revealing herself from behind a tree, which creates connotations of shyness. This shyness can relate her singing style and in a sense her lyrics. The use of the landscape of woodland relates heavily with the folk genre, so it was therefore essential to feature. Inside Panel (Left) Again features a main image of the artist, however this screenshot was taken during a transition in the music video which has somewhat created an image of illusion. The image features the artist walking down a stretch of country pathway merged with an image of a guitar overlaying. An overall pretty image which had minor editing done to it in Photoshop. The only tweaks made were those of the change of contrast and brightness which boosted the vibrancy of the image. Inside Panel (Right) More commonly referred to as the 'CD panel'. Another cross-fade screenshot was used to show aspects of the artist's genre. This cross-fade image has a close-up image of the artist's acoustic guitar which is a symbolic instrument to the folk genre. However in this image the transition captures the sunlight bursting through the guitar box. Like with the other inside panel, the images contrast has been edited to brighten the sunshine in the image. Back Panel Considering this is the back panel, I thought it would be a good idea to use the last image in my music video. A stunning image of the artist walking away from the camera. The image was edited with the contarst and brightness to raise the light levels from the sunset in the image. Text in a stylish, feminane font has been used for to relate to the possible target audience which is highly likely to be a female audience. It also features a false company logo to make the complete digi-pak look authentic. The logo was created in photoplus before being transferred to photoshop. The text of record releasing details have been put into a small font at the bottom of the image to tell of trademarks and company information. 4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and Evaluation stages? Since the beginning of the study of the subject, we have been introduced into a new way of recording work. Instead of writing wording onto a conventional piece of paper, we’ve typed our notes and research onto http://www.blogger.com a site which is usually used for blogging. All notes for research are input into this site and saved. It contributes to our overall coursework marks. These blogs allow teachers to comment on the posts that have been created and can then be edited by the user. These posts can also be edited at anytime during the year. When researching the internet as a whole has been a beneficial factor in itself, proving to be the main aid when looking into certain aspects of the project. When looking for a band to create a video for a numerous amount of sights were looked into, however after separating from a group I decided to chose a reliable artist. When looking into the artist’s genre I used sources that linked to related artists and artist’s whom my artist (Mayenna Plastow-Smed) aspired to. Using the site Youtube was great for looking at similar artist’s music video’s before analyzing them, pointing out key features that the genre of Folk had when influencing video’s. When looking into genre, the internet offered information about certain festivals which have help progress the genre. One example of a festival would be “Newport festival” which discovered many significant folk artists, a prime example being ‘Joan Baez’ who at the time was support to ‘Bob Dylan’. Clips from Youtube enabled me to gain a better understanding of what music videos utilise within the genre. Main aspects include performance based shots those mainly being close-ups, the idea of nature with scenic landscapes. All clips I have used on my blog were taken from http://www.youtube.com/ . Drafts and sketches of possible ideas from storyboarding for instance are scanned onto our blogs to assist with our planning by uploading the scanned images to our blogs. When shooting the raw footage for our projects we used Nikon digital cameras. These enabled us to first capture the motion before reviewing it on the screen to see if a suitable sequence of footage had come out well. Tri-pods used for the camera enabled us to capture a smoother image and capture different angled shots to give variation to the footage itself. Once all footage had been shot, it came down to the edit. The editing was done on the program ‘Adobe Premiere Elements’. This software allowed us to upload the footage and organise it into a suitable narrative structure that related to the original, drawn-up plans. This program allowed us to use many effects that were offered to edit our videos. These included a host of transitions that made the video more interesting. Transitions used included ‘fade to black’ and ‘cross-dissolve’. Fonts from the internet site http://www.dafont.com/ to find a suitable font for the digi-pak that had to be created from scratch. Screenshots from my created music video were used as 4 panels. These were edited on Photoshop, an image editing program. Fonts can easily be added to impose effects on the image. The images I used for the panels were edited with a simple effect, which was the change of light contrast and brightness. Ideas for my print productions came from research into similar artists front covers, looking into what the main features were. From the research I could deliberate what aspects feature often. These include the artist as the main focus, aspects of folk (drawing/sketches), wildlife/ nature. Which I believe has been captured in my images. When creating the promotion poster I looked into how acts are advertised within certain magazines. Despite mainstream magazines like the ‘NME’ promoting more common artists, they occasional feature small, unsigned artists. When producing a poster is key that the artist is the main feature of the image, a centre piece for what is their promotion image. Inspiration for my poster came from using a design like this, using the artist as the main image with a supporting image of the front digi-pak cover so that the album artwork is recognisable to the audience for whom it may appeal to. 3) What have you learned from your media research? For our audience we had created sheets filled out. These sheets allow the audience to give opinions and score on a rating system for an overall mark they would give the productions. The participants of this feedback write their age and sex, so that demographics can be identified. All sheets collected are anonymous however. Since the video was uploaded onto the video sharing site http://www.youtube.com/ it has had one comment from the artist herself, commenting on how she enjoyed the video. A link to the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12mSPPLw0v4 .