Dear Moderator

Dear Moderator,

My name is Georgina Watkins, and my candidate number is 8042.

I have created a music video, digipak and front page of a website, all of which can be found on this blog.

thank you for taking the time to asses my work :)

Here is the link to my other members blog http://alicelenihancreus.blogspot.co.uk/

Evaluation of my work

Here is the link to my evaluation, I have used Prezi as I felt this would present my thoughts and ideas in an interesting way:
http://prezi.com/p6_cuqpf6a3j/present/?auth_key=o1z1xl5&follow=8m_qz72su3bw&kw=present-p6_cuqpf6a3j&rc=ref-11607441

I am pleased with the way our overall music video planned out. Although not everything we planned to film happened due to the weather conditions and the fact it didn't fit in with the theme we managed to find an alternative. One of the things I feel has been the biggest help towards the success of our music video is the fact that we filmed the whole song as a group twice: once in the trees and once on the field. By doing this we had footage for the whole song and so anything that didn't go to plan we had an alternative for. I also feel that the storyboard we made helped contribute towards our success. This is because we planned all the shots together, said where the shot was going to be filmed, how long the shot would last for, what part of the song it would be, who was in the shot and what type of shot it was . As we was so detailed with our planning not only did this make things more organised on the day it was a great befit when we edited our music video because we knew exactly what the order the shots should be in and what part of the song should be wear meaning that our music video is as close to our original plans as it could be. 

If I was to do this piece of coursework again I would focus much more carefully on mis en scene when we actually came to filming our coursework. I may have also considered getting someone else to be part of the band instead of me and Alice so one of us could over look all of the shots and ensure the mis en scene, costumes and props all looked right and accurate. This may have improved the overall quality of the shots we took, I would have also done this for the picture shots as we had the same issue with this. This I feel was because we wasn't fully focused by the end of the day as we had filmed our whole video. One last thing I would have done was make sure we filmed in a location where there was facilities for us to get changed. This not only would appeal to our target market more because they could dress like their "favourite celebrity" but also make the video more interesting and look more like a pop video as all girl groups have costume changes in their music video. 

Digipak finished

Here is my finished Digipak, i have produced a front cover, inside cover and back cover for my band All Saints. I produced all 3 of these on photoshop, with the images that were taken on our photoshoots. Overall i am happy with the way the digipak has tunred out, i feel that the back cover looks the most realistic because of the copy right paragraph and the barcode. Something which is on real back covers of cd's. Below are my final images for my digipak.

This is my finished digipak placed into the template to make the finished product look more realistic

 

If I was to re do this digipak there would be some changes that i would make, one of the first ones would be on the front cover I don’t feel like that title of the band name stands out as much as it could, as well as that I do not feel that the image of us as a band really stands out and so would consider using a different image for the front cover to make sure that it was eye catching. I don’t think there would be anything I would change for the inside cover as I struggled with what should be on it, I feel like a message works well and also shows that the band cares about their fans as well as their  family therefore giving off the right image about the band. One thing I would change about the back cover would be to make the track list stand out more, I fee like the position works bit the text could have been brighter and bolder to make it more clearer.



Website finished

Below is the link and finished images of my website for my band. It was only of me to produce the home page and so the rest of the links on the site wont work.

http://georgina14994.wix.com/media-a2

 

Overall I am happy with how the website turned out, there are a lot of features that i have put on there that I feel would interest my target audience. I found out what would influence my target audience by family and friends who are of a similar age. By doing this I could incorporate the features they liked on my website. By having a fan of the week section on there it will make fans aspire to be on the webpage too and also will bring a closer connection with the band and the fans. I put in a "get the look" section because i remember when I was younger I always wanted to look like and where the clothes and accessories that singers were wearing, this I feel it still something young people want to today. By having many pictures on the site it will make the website look more interesting and appealing because there aren’t masses to read, again something that would interest my target market.

Music video finished

This is our finished music video, below is the clip embedded and the link to Youtube. 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZf4jK1pZks

 

Overall I am happy with how the music video turned out. All though not all the plans and ideas we had worked and was used in our music video I feel like we improvised well. One thing I am disappointed in is the fact we are wearing the same clothes throughout the video, however we have tried to ensure we are wearing the same accessories such as all wearing a hat/ scarf which makes us look more like a girl group. I am glad that the quality of the video is good as I was concerned it would become pixelated once uploaded to YouTube. If I was to do this again I would think more about costumes and the story we was trying to tell in the video as I feel this would have improved it significantly.

Issues with some of the shots in our music video

Once me and Alice had finished editing our clip we was watching it through to see if all the lyrics were lip synced in time and showed our peers and teacher we realised we had a few issues with the some of the shots we used. When we first started editing the clips we didn't notice these faults and just wanted to make sure we got the video done in time with the lip sync at the right timings, therefore we was a bit upset when we first noticed the faults. The shots we noticed which have faults / issues are below:

 

 

One of the first things we noticed was that this shot you can see Alice's phone. We needed her phone so we could sing in time with the song therefore meaning we was actually singing, which we hoped would make the quality of the shots a lot better. As here was only 3 of us on the day of the filming we had to use the tripod and as you can see from this shot this was a quite a distance away. As the volume on Alice's phone wasn't very loud ad it was windy on the day Alice needed her phone on her for us to be able to hear the music. At the time we didn't think about what the camera would capture and just wanted to make sure we got all of the music video done in the first day therefore meaning we was rushing. As we was so focused on getting everything done we made a silly mistake like this which brings down the overall effectiveness of the video. If I was to do this task again knowing what I know now I would invest in a pair of wireless speakers so the music could be played loud and be next to the tripod so they were out of site and but we could still sing along to the song.

 

The next issue me and Alice noticed in our music video was in the picture shots. By the time we had got the round to doing the picture shots we had been filming for some hours and so wasn't fully focused on what we was doing therefore meaning we made another silly mistake, something in which could have been avoided easily. The issue with this set of picture shots is that in the background car can be seen in the background which is the car park to the field we fimed at. This issue could have been resolved if we had faced the other way, we didn't really think about it at the time as to what way we should have faced and even when we was taking the pictures we was just looking at the person and what the person in the shot looks like not the surrounding area. If we had focused on the surrounding area we could have avoided this happening.

 

The next issue we noticed is similar to the one above however this one is something we should have been conscious about the whole time. As you can see in the background of this shot the tripod and the bags we had with us could be seen. Me and Alice noticed this whilst we was editing the clip and tried to crop the tripod and bags out of the picture however when we did this the whole image shrunk and it stood out when watching it, the only option was to crop all of the pictures in this photo but we knew that would also make the video look silly and so have left the pictures in which the tripod and bags can be seen still on there. If I was to do this again I would make sure that mis en scene is something I really focused on to avoid this happening and to make the video look more professional.

 

 

A final issue I have noticed with our music video is in this clip above. I had the idea to sing the sing the whole way through face on to the camera in case any of the clips didn't work or didn't look right we would have a back up plan. As we sang the song through all at once and we was moving around Ana go cut out of some of the clips, as you can see Alice is in the centre of the camera and so it makes the video look unprofessional as we can only see a but of Ana, this isn't something you would see in a real music video. We had to use this clip as there was no alternative clip for that part of the song and we wanted to look like we was singing, If I was to do this again I would sing the song in parts to make sure that everyone could be seen at all times and if we did move around it wouldn't matter as it would only be for part of the clip and so could therefore be recorded again, this would avoid having clips like the one above.  

Why i choose certain features on the website

Here are some of the features that can be found on my website, I am now going to describe

why I have included certain aspects.

I have chosen to have a get the look section on my website because i know this is something that would appeal to my target audience. All young girls aspire to look and be like someone when they are younger and so by having this on the website they will be able to achieve this. It will also make the girls feel like they have a closer connection to the band members because they can buy and get things that the band members have actually worn.

 

I have chosen to have information about social networking with the girls from the band because social networking is something that all celebrities use to today to keep in contact with their fans. By having this featuring on the website the girls will again feel like they have a closer relationship with the girls form the band which may in the long run make them more willing to buy tickets to their concerts etc.

 

The next feature that I choose to have on my website is a fan of the week. The main reason i chose this is because when I was younger I would have loved to have had the opportunity  to feature on a bands website and so I decided to incorporate this on my site because I knew my target market would also love something like this. As well as that by featuring on the site it shows that the band appreciate their fans and the fans will feel like the band actually knows them.

 

A final feature that I have chosen to have on my website is a gallery. I chose this because my target market aren’t always going to want to read of the site and may become bored, therefore by having a gallery they will have something else to look at. By having a gallery that also features pictures of the band with fans it will make fans want to send their pictures in with the band members meaning pictures will be updated all the time. As well as that by having a gallery the fans will be able to copy what the girls are wearing which also incorporates with the "get the look" section on the page.

Evaluation Questions

We have been given the questions we need to answer for our evaluation of our music video they are:

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

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

- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

My skills on photoshop..

The image below is one of the images i used to create my digipak, as you can see in the first image their is someone in the background who has just walked past. This i feel makes the image look unprofessional as you wouldn't see this on real bands digipak. They would have had the area sealed off. I really like this image as i thought it was something that would be done by a typical band and you can see all of us clearly. Below is the original image.

So i could still use this above image i used photo shop to remove the person from the background. To do this i used a pen and the same colours that was in the original image and painted the person out. This was all done on photoshop. Below is the image once i had photo shopped it.

I am pleased with the results from my use of photo shop because unless i hadn't of pointed it out it wouldn't have been noticed. Doing this has made my image look much more professional and i can now use it on my digipak. I feel that my skills in photo shop have developed and i wouldn't have considered doing this last year as i didn't feel confident using it but now i do!

Progress of Digipak

As well as producing a music video, we also need to produce a website and digipak of our band. Here i am going to describe the processes i have been through with my digipak. I have created a front cover, back cover and inside cover for my band.

Above is the template i have used to help me produce my digipak, i got the template of the Internet by simply typing in "digipak template" i chose this template because it had the dimensions on it which made is a lot easier to measure up to.

Above this is my inside cover, to begin with i wasn't sure as to what an inside cover should contain, i have never really looked at them in much detail and so took a guess as to what should be on it. I have done some photo shopping on this image which i plan to describe in my next post. My original idea was to have just the band name on the inside cover, however after getting my peers, teacher and doing some research myself i realised this didn't fit in with the usual conventions. This can be seen in the first image. I then thought that maybe i should put a message to my fans as this is something all young girls and fans would appreciate and it would also seem like a personal touch from the band, this is the idea i have went with and this can be seen in the second image. Doing this i felt made the band seem fun and would really appeal to our target market.

The 2 above images are my ideas for the front cover. I wanted to have the title of the band in the blank area to the left of us because it would make a statement and nothing would be distracted from this. I chose this photo for the digipak because we was all holding the same position and therefore made us seem like a proper girl band. I thought pink text would work well as it would stand out and would also fit in with what our target market would like as well as the website as this was also pink. All the original ideas i had for the front cover i feel worked well and so the only change i made was the size and boldness of the title of the album to make it clearer what the name of the album was.

Above are the images and stages i went through when completing the back cover of my digipak. On most Cd's the titles and track number can be seen all along one side either the right or the left. I tried to follow this convention on my back cover but it didn't work as well as i had hoped because half of Alice's body was covered and you couldn't see the songs properly, therefore making it look unprofessional. One of my peers then suggested i had the song and track numbers at the top instead if the size, although this wasn't the usual was track lists were listed i had seen this on other albums before and so thought i would give it a go. This i felt worked much better then my original idea because there was a blank space at the top and so none of our body's would be covered in text. I decided to add a "~" between each song so our fans could see what each song was called, this i felt also made the back cover look more professional as i hadn't used any numbers. I then added a bar code and the Virgin records label on to the cover to make it seem more realistic. I felt something else was missing at this point and had a look at Cd's to see what else was on the back cover to see they had something written about copyright on there. Although you cant see it in this image i have also included a copy right protection statement to make the back of my CD look as professional as possible.

I have described the changes and stages i have been through for my front cover, back cover and inside cover until finally i was satisfied with what i have produced.

Progress of website

As well as producing a music video, we also need to produced a website and digipak. Below is some images of how my website has progressed and what i have included. I got the template for my website of Wix which has a range of different styles.

This is the top of my website, i have added on tabs to other pages to make it look more realistic, i have chosen to have a pink and brown theme. The reason for this is because pink is associated with girls and pop and this is the theme of our music video. I used brown because i felt this would make it look more professional and therefore more like an actual band website. I have put an image of the 3 of us together to establish that we are part of the band together and our fans can recognise who we are.

I then decided that i should add in the band name and a little paragraph introducing our website to our fans. By doing this our fans will feel like they have a closer connection to the band.

I added in a gallery section on the website so our fans can look at latest pictures of us and copy our style. Something in which all young girls love to do.

I added in a blogging section again i did this so our fans would feel that they had a closer connection to us, by doing this they can see regularly what we was up to.

I have also added in a get the look part on the website, i have done this because girls love to dress up and look like celebrity's and as we are a pop group this fits in well.

I have added more blogs on to the website which shows that we are regularly on the site and so our fans can feel close and know what we are up too. By doing this they will be more willing to buy our records because they know we will appreciate it as we would blog about it.

I have added in a section of all of the tour dates that the girls are going to be at, with a link to actually being able to purchase tickets. By adding on this feature it makes it simple and so our fans would be more willing to buy tickets.

The final feature that i have added on to the website is links to social networking sites. Social networking has became a big thing and allows the fans to have a closer connection to the band as they can see what we are doing each day.

Images not my own on my digipak

The images I have used on my digipak are all my own however I have had to use 2 images from the internet. I have done this to make my digipak look more realistic as the images I have put in are something you would see on a real life digipak. The first image I have used is a bar code I did this because otherwise my digipak wouldn’t look real as all items today have a barcode. This is the website I got it from:

http://www.judaismvschristianity.com/666_in_barcodes.htm

 

The second image I have used which is not my own is the Virgin records logo. I have included this on my digipak again to make it look realistic. Not only will the company get credit for employing the band but more information of the band members will be able to be seen on the virgin records website therefore appealing to the target market. The website I got this logo from is:
http://media.photobucket.com/user/shocking123/media/virgin_300x300_crop_le.gif.html?filters%5bterm%5d=virgin%20records%20logo&filters%5bprimary%5d=images#/user/shocking123/media/virgin_300x300_crop_le.gif.html?filters%5Bterm%5D=virgin%20records%20logo&filters%5Bprimary%5D=images&_suid=1363941497239015488317671100216

 

 

Editing our music video

Now that me and Alice have filmed everything we planned too and taken the picture for our ancillary tasks it was time for us to start editing our work. So our video was as close to what we had planned as possible we used our storyboards to ensure we had the right lyric, order, shot and timings. The storyboards were a massive help to us whilst we was both filming and editing our music video because we had made them so detailed we could refer back to them for almost anything. To edit our music video we used a Macbook in which the school provided for us, we could upload all our work directly from the camera to the Macbook. Below are some images of me and Alice editing our music video.

As you can see me and Alice worked as a team changing parts we didn't like so we was both satisfied with every shot we used. We referred back to the storyboards the whole time we edited our music video which you can see us doing in the last photo. By us working as a team and experimenting with different things i feel we managed to produce a much higher quality video then if we had done it alone.

Draft of website for ancially task

I have produced a draft of what I want my website to look like for my ancillary task. By doing this it will become easier when producing my website because I will have this original plan to refer back to. I have chosen to have specific sections on the home page so the fans and target audience can just look at the section that interest them the most. I plan to have quite a few images on my site, not only will this make the website look more interesting but it was also make the target audience look at the band as role models and they will be able to dress and look like the band members more easily if there is plenty of pictures of them. I have chosen to have sections that I have purely because I knew when I was at that age they would appeal to me. I plan on having the colour scheme of the website pink and beige. Not only is this fun but it will also fit in with the theme of pop. Below is the draft of my website:

Photoshoot for ancillary task - take 2

As mentioned in the previous post me and Alice decided we would need to take more pictures of us for our ancially task as the original photo's we took were poor. Below are some of the pictures we took on our second photo shoot, by having someone take the pictures we had a wide variation of distances and heights therefore giving us more to work with.

These photos i feel look a lot better then the original ones we took, we was more prepared and so our hair and make up looked better and we didn't look as tired. As well as that we was in dresses which helped fir in with the pop theme of our music video, therefore making the pictures more appealing then the original ones. As we wasn't as tired we could be more creative with our pictures such as us being in a staggered line and bending down making the pictures more fun and interesting.

Location for photoshoot number 2

After looking through the photos we took for our ancillary task on the day of filming me and Alice decided that we are going to need to take more photos. The reason for this is because we didn't have a lot to work with and as we both need to produced separate websites and digipaks we would end up using the same photos as they were the best of the bunch. So we didn't have the same problem we had before we planned the photos carefully. We thought we should wear dresses as we are a pop group and therefore dresses would appeal to our target market of girls, we also used a different location from last time by using a river and field near our school. We also asked one of Ana's friends if she would take the pictures for us so we could have a variation of distances and heights therefore meaning our photos look better and have more to work with. Below are pictures of the location that we used for our second photo shoot

Although we are in the picture this is the bridge and scenery we used to take some of our photos. This is located right bear our school.

Photoshoot for ancillary task - take 1

On the day of filming i had scheduled in that we would try and get our ancillary photos done as well as our music video so we wouldn't have to go out twice and finish it. At first i thought this was a good idea however we was all tired by the end of the day and was struggling to come up with creative ideas for our ancillary tasks. Here are some of the picture we took on the day, we took pictures both in the fields and in the tree's.

As it was only me, Alice and Ana there on the day we had to take the pictures on self timer. we all needed to be in the pictures because we had all been in the music video and therefore all part of the band. As all the pictures were done on self timer they are all taken from the same height and position and so therefore looked very boring. As well as that we was all tired and didn't look our best. A final thing that added to the photos was the fact we was in the same clothes as our music video which therefore made it look unprofessional. Overall i am not totally pleased with the photos we produced and neither is Alice therefore we plan to re take these photo's to make the standard of our anciallary tasks better.