Final Product!- (Digipak Design)

Here is my Digipak design for my artist Ezmrlda's album 'Blacklist'. This is the final element of my campaign.

Final Product! - (Website)

Here is the link to my website for my artist 'Ezmrlda':

http://jakeleerpfc.wix.com/ezmrlda 

Final Product!- (Music Video)

This is my Music Video 'Special Affair'. One of the three elements of my campaign.

Evaluation 4- Conclusion

By using digital media technologies I have used technical convergence to ensure that I have produced three products as part of a successful campaign. My use of the Sony FS100 during the production of my music video and the use of Adobe Premiere Pro has allowed be to become a prosumer by uploading the final piece onto the online software: YouTube.  The use of Premiere Pro has allowed me to organise my footage and cut it to create a very high standard piece of work. Digital technologies have given me the opportunities to upload, share and distribute my products using YouTube, a free video platform where anyone can upload videos. It also allows for feedback through likes and comments, I was also able to use Google Forms which is tool which you can write surveys and gain audience feedback.

Henry Jenkins was interested in examining this participatory culture and most specifically how the internet has brought it to the forefront through offering opportunities for regular audience members to produce and upload their own products. I have been able to achieve this by creating my own music video and uploading it to the internet.

Evaluation 4- Our Directors Commentary

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For Evaluation 4, myself and my group produced a script of a directors commentary and then filmed the commentary.  We edited the footage over our music video so that it enabled the audience to compare the content of what we were discussing to our video. In the commentary, we explain the range of digital technologies that we used across the whole of A2. 

Evaluation 4 - Media technology

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

When first looking at evaluation task 4, I made a rough mind map of all the digital technologies which I had used over the course of A2 media studies:

After discussing how we would approach evaluation 4, myself and my group decided that we would create a script and then film our directors commentary explaining which digital technologies we used and how we used them. Here is a rough copy of our script:

CRERAR: In A2 we shot a music video for our music campaign with a Sony FS100 camera which has the advancement of an adjustable lens which enabled us to get extreme close up shots and also wide, establishing shots which perfectly show the depth of field simultaneously. 

LUCY: The Sony FS100 allowed us to use extreme close ups on  ‘Ezmrlda’ to present her star image correctly to viewers. For instance, the studio shots in our music video are dominated by close-ups with our artist as she is a solo female artist so all eyes should be on her.

JAKE: We used a tight 35mm lens for extreme close ups on her lips and eyes so that the viewers and potential fans could get an emotional connection to our artist as well as enjoying what they are looking at. By varying the lens from a 16mm for wide shots and a 17-50mm for more mid-shots for example, it resulted in us having a wide variety of footage and a broad spectrum of shots to choose from, consequently making our footage look much more professional. 

LUCY: When editing our music video we uploaded our footage onto AppleMac computers and used Adobe premiere pro editing software which is an off the shelf editing software. 

CRERAR: The first thing we did was watched our footage and organised the rushes into labelled ‘bins’ for us to identify the shots that we needed. The accessibility to Premiere pro allowed us to sync the soundtrack of the audio and video footage onto our timeline so that the lip singing synced perfectly to the soundtrack of the song. 

JAKE: We produced a rough cut by primarily using the ‘blade’ tool to cut the footage and discard to footage we didn’t need. We recorded an audience feedback video so that our final product would appeal to our targeted audience, which are ages 16-25. 

LUCY: We ended up altering and almost restarting the editing process of our music video over three times because the structure alone was the key feature to making our video the best with what we had recorded. 

JAKE: We also colour graded our music video so that the temperature of the video had a cool blue tinge to it which added an urban harshness to the footage thus enhancing our artist’s R&B, HipHop genre. 

CRERAR: As our editing process was carried out in a non-linear editing structure were able to be elaborate with the types of shots we could use because the music video was not narrative driven, so it wasn’t so fixated as to which shot went in what order. 

LUCY: By proofing and finishing our video, our product was a more realistic reflection of the group’s vision for our artist by combining our music video with the ancillary tasks. 

JAKE: Similarly with online technologies, by broadening my YouTube research and being able to link our artist through social media like SoundCloud and Instagram on her website, just further enhanced the quality of our overall creative vision for a music video campaign. 

LUCY: When we were happy with out final product, we then fulfilled the role of being a prosumer by uploading our media text to the online software: Youtube. 

CRERAR: We were already familiar with uploading to Youtube as a result of previously uploading our thriller opening title sequence in AS. This meant that we could distribute our video for free and reach our target audience.

JAKE: Fundamentally, digital technology enabled us to create an all rounded campaign, which fit the star image for our artist  ‘Ezmrlda’ as we were able to utilise many different online and offline software’s to create our vision.

Media technologies

Here is a mood board of a selection of the media technologies we used throughout the A2 Media Studies course:

Below, you can see a member of my group, Jake, using photoshop to create our digipack design:

Evaluation 3- What have I learned my audience feedback?

Evaluation 3- Feedback on Campaign

In order to get feedback on our campaign we did a focus group. We selected 5 people (3 females and 2 males) who fitted in to our target audience.

Firstly we showed them our video and then ask them a selection of questions. We then showed them our Digipack and got some vital feedback and then finally we let them browse our website to see what they think.

Evaluation 2- How effective do you think the main product is and your ancillary task?

Evaluation 1 Conclusion

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

Conventions are generally accepted ways of doing something. Conventions can be used, supported reiterated. They can be challenged to deliberately follow conventions or subvert conventions. For example following a convention would be including lots of close ups of the artist in a music video whereas subverting a convention would be not including the artist in their music video at all. 

In evaluation of the question set I feel that I have drawn on the conventions of media products in my own campaign. This use of these conventions is evident in the construction of my own products, for example, we followed conventions when making our website as we included links to social medias and also made the artist the background image. This use of conventions was supported by my research into female artists under the category of young RnB female artists. For example we looked into Kelis and her products. At the same time I have sought to develop and been able to challenge conventions, for example, we challenged conventions in that our music video was short in dark lighting which is unusual under the categories of pop and female artists. 

The reason why feel that I have achieved this is to differentiate my product in a competitive music industry market and I have attempted to challenge audience expectations, bring something new to the media forms.  Media Conventions are ultimately relied upon for communicating the right message to the intended audience, but also deviate from these expectations helps sell the star image that I wanted to promote. Audiences produce meaning from the interaction of the conventional material in a text, and their understanding of conventions, for example in our audience feedback, we found that they picked up on the meaning of the text and decoded themes of "female empowerment". 

Evaluation 1- Digipak Conventions

Our digipak has elements of following conventions but also challenging conventions. For example, conventionally, our digipak has a bold title 'Ezmrlda-Blacklist' and includes a big image of the artist centre frame. On the other hand there are unconventional elements. For example, there is a big quote of a Japanese phrase on the inside of the CD cover. This is not a conventional element and would not be found on many pop music digipacks, however it adds an interesting and unique element to our design. 

For our design, we wanted ours to incorporate art and special effects, to suit the style of music and our artist; Ezmrlda. We therefore researched into the conventions of these digipaks. 

Below is some of the digipacks that we use for inspiration when researching the type of digipak we wanted to create: 

Evaluation 1- Website Conventions

Kelis website: 

Kelis website follows conventions in many ways: 
-links to social medias (top right hand)
-info for tour/news/store etc.
-kelis appears centre frame
-stylised titles
-artist name clear
-easy to use/accessible

Alicia Keys website: 

Alicia follows website conventions in the following ways: 
-big photo with artist centre frame
-links to social media
-bold/big font for artist name
-stylised design
-info (eg.news)

Ezmrlda website:






















Our website also follows conventions: 
-background photo of artist
-information on new album
-social media links
-pages for tour/store/about
-stylised font and overall image

Evaluation 1- Music Video Conventions

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

1. Close up, Centre frame

In order to reflect real media products we shot our video using professional looking shots and having our lead centre frame. this reflects most pop videos with female artists and choreography (the lead is usually in the middle of the frame and includes lots of close ups as she is supposed to be the main focus.

2. Abstract Clothing

Our costumes were also very important in creating a certain image that the audience would buy into in the same way they buy in to professional artists. For example, Miley Cyrus has a strong image of a "bad girl" and this is portrayed through the clothing she wears. We were going for a more "out of this world/abstract' feel so we dressed our females in a variety of colours and outfits.


















3. Dance Routine

By including a choreographed dance routine, it added that extra element of professionalism as it added another concept to our video which is very common in the industry. A dance routine adds more interest and means that the audience doesn't become bored of just watching the artist sing.

Introduction to Evaluation 1

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

Conventions are what the audience expects to see. They can be used, supported or reiterated or on the other hand they can be challenged and deliberately broken to subvert expectations. The use of conventions is clear in my media product, although in some elements we did break conventions.

In answer to the question, the use of conventions is evident in my media product. For example, relating to the music video, we incorporated a dance routine which is a definite convention to an all female cast music video. We researched elements of digipak, websites and videos in order to create a realistic campaign which reflects media products in the industry.

On the other hand, we developed and challenged common conventions. For example, our music video was shot in very dark lighting, this isn't a common convention of pop music videos, as they are usually shot in bright lighting. Our video was also unconventional in the way that an all female cast were exploring a forest/run down building, this is because female artists are usually shot in stereotypical female environments. I feel as though this differentiates my product to other products in the competitive music industry. We challenged audiences expectations and attempted to bring something new to media forms. Moving away from traditional conventions enabled us to sell the star image that we intended to promote.

Audiences produce meaning from the interaction of the conventional material in a text and their understanding of conventions, for example an audience should be able to see what the  type of band/artist is by looking at the digipak/website/video.

Website

Link to our completed website for EZMRLDA:

Read Article →

HTTP://JAKELEERPFC.WIX.COM/EZMRLDA

Digipack

Our CD Digipack:

Hannahs Photoshoot for Website Gallery

Earlier on this week, my group did a photoshoot with our lead artist Hannah for a "gallery" page on our website. Here are a few of the pictures: 

Editing Process

Digital editing is part of the creative post-production process of digital video making. The term editing is derived from the traditional process of working with film, but now it increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The digital video editor works with the raw footage selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished 'pop promo'.


For our editing, we use the software: Adobe Premier

What expectations did I have about editing before I started?

-Before we started to edit, I thought that it would be a fairly easy process to organise our shots in order of how we wanted them, but it turned out this is a long process. Because the lighting in our video was flashing, it meant that each shot had to continue the lighting from the previous shot. This caused difficulties along the way, when we wanted to use a specific shot, but we couldn't because the lighting didn't match.

In our group, Jake took the role of the main editor as he has the most experience. Crerar and I would then help him decipher which shots looked the best. This worked well as me and crerar usually had different ideas which meant we had more options and more variation in our final outcome.

We began the process, by browsing through all of our shots and labeling each one of their content. At this point we didn't reject many shots as we didn't know what may be useful further on in the editing.

After we finished our rough cut, and got our feedback, we then made plenty of changes. For example, the main feedback we got was that we should use more of the location shots and introduce them earlier. We realized after, that this really improved the structure of our video.

After finally shooting the ferro fluid, we decided as a group that the concept no longer fit our idea, and it didn't actually add to the interest of our video. This made me realize that sometimes less can be more.

I have been empowered as a prosumer of a media text... 
because after creating a product which looks fairly professional, I have recognized how capable prosumers have become because of the advance in technology. I found editing our music video a very exciting and satisfying process because it enabled us to put together all of our ideas and hard work over the course of a long period.

Experimenting with ferro fluid

At lunch time today we went to the science department and did a few different experiments with the ferro fluid. We found that mixing ferro fluid with glow stick liquid looks really cool and fits the colour scheme of our video.

Ferro fluid is a magnetic liquid. We plan to use it in our music video to dissolve over the scenes with Hannah our lead as an interval.