Completed Ancillary Task: The Digipack

I personally find it difficult to visualise it when it is presented like it is above, so i printed in out and now have a more 3D version of it below (sorry its poor quality):

Completed Ancillary Task: The Magazine Advert

Completed Main Task

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

My Script:
The most obvious media technology I used through out this entire “project” is the blog. I created my blog on http://www.blogger.com/ and throughout all the different stages I updated my blog and used it to display all the work I did. Using this medium was really useful as it meant that it was much easier to keep my work organised as well as allowing me to try different methods of presenting the work I did for example I was able to gain audience feedback and research and present it in a variety of ways, such as the blog post in which I had people write a comment in response to what they thought made a music video as well as the video of the feedback from the different classes after we had completed our main task. For my AS I used the “scrapbook” method and while this wasn't a major draw back at the time as I chose to do print and create a magazine front cover, if I had carried on using that method for A2 it would have been a major draw back and would haave serioulsy limited what I would have been able to do.

Within my work I used many different software programmes and technologies. In my research I used hard copy music magazines as well as the internet. Because magazines are so easily available on the internet it was cheaper and easier to look there than to buy 5 different music magazines that represent different genres in order to see how the representation changed or differed. For the main product I used the internet to view other music videos as well as the TV as there is a whole host of music channels that show music videos non stop. For my planning I mainly just used good old fashioned pen and paper to draft ideas and then scanned them into the computer. My evaluation will also consist of an array of different technologies, I have used images, videos and text to complete the questions. The construction of my media products involved the software such as iMovie, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop CS4.

What have you learned from your main product and ancillary feedback?

Feedback was a vital part of my production as it allowed me to understand what other people thought of my work. Admittedly I gained a lot more audience feedback for my main production piece that for my ancillary tasks, and looking back this is something I would change if I were to do it again. However, I don't think that gaining less audience feedback for my ancillary tasks has hindered my work; not only did I gather and employ vast amounts of audience research before beginning production, throughout its production I frequently questioned my peers for their opinions on my work as it was being produce, mainly with concern to the digipack.
Throughout this coursework I have tried to gain and present feedback in a variety of different ways. During the post-production of my main product I received comments on my posts as well as verbal feedback within class and I responded to the main comments within this post. After my main production piece I was able to gather feedback by showing my work to each of the media classes in my school. This was done as a department effort and each persons work was screened and the classes response was filmed. In this post I created a film of some of the feedback that was gathered and I took it into consideration when editing my work and creating the final finished piece.
I have learned that it is useful to gauge how people see your work, by way of audience feedback, because even if you know why something is the way it is, some people see it other way and if it misunderstood by the majority sometimes you need to tweak it to make it more acceptable to an audience if consumption and business are the reason for creating a piece of work. For example it was said about my piece (to paraphrase) that they liked the bit of the music video where "the boy" was in the picture in picture but they would have liked it more if there was footage of him throughout the piece as well as he came and disappeared then came back. I took this point into consideration and thought that I could kill two birds with one stone (so to speak) as it had also been said that there was too much walking. So, when I re-edited my first finished piece I did more filming of "the boy" and interspersed his new scenes within the old scenes of "the girl" walking.
Both the positive and negative feedback was extremely useful overall with both the ancillary tasks and the main tasks. By carrying out audience feedback I was able to get a thorough knowledge of what an audience might see when they watch my video and to see what they might think works or doesn't work, rather than just seeing what I thought about it. This is a constructive way in which to see how the product can be further improved.

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

If my work were being made “for real” then one of the main focuses and purposes of the products would be to sell. The music industry is there to make a profit and therefor it is important to make something that will do so. This would involve a marketing campaign which in general works better if it is co-ordinated rather than having many aspects of the product that don't fit together. If there are links between each separate piece then they might be more memorable as the image being constantly repeated makes it stick in the brain. For example Lady Gaga's new song “Telephone” has had a strong campaign; her video has very specific imagery which is reflected in the single that was released which showed an image that fit with the music video as well as there being many online ads and articles about it.
In my own work, the imagery of the music video filters through to the still images of the ancillary tasks. There is a cohesive natural environment throughout each of the seperate pieces as well as clear links with the props: the red balloon, origami boat and flower are all mirrored in some way in the ancillary tasks, as you can see.

The path in the magazine advert represents the trail she follows in the video, the origami birds reflect the origami boats, the flower that the boy presents to the girl is used as the image for the panel where the cd would be and of course the river is depicted in the lake in the digipack. The front cover of the digipack and the front of the magazine advert also have similar images to tie them together. It was this subtle imagery and anchoring that creates this “co-ordinated campaign” and what I think would make it sell well as a “real product”.

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

I chose to make a music video, and before creating my own I looked at existing ones as well as getting audience feedback in order to find out what the general public thought the conventions of a music video were. I took this into consideration when making mine and then developed my ideas from what people said. Instead of focusing on one main aspect I tried to create my music video in a way that used many of the separate conventions and themes that people and I identified through my research.
My music video takes a very narrative form which could be seen to challenge the form of certain music videos. However, it could be seen to be using the conventions of the music videos within the genre of music that I chose. In my music video the main protagonist followed a trail and it finishes with her hugging “the boy”. It could be said that I challenged the conventions by having the break from the narrative towards the end. I also purposely chose to have minimal performance from the actress as I thought this would take away from the narrative and not fit in with the style of the song. When I chose my actress I chose someone who I thought would fit in with the style and look of other woman in music videos: tall, skinny and pretty. When I was coming up with the idea of what to do for the music video I mainly just listened to the lyrics over and over again in order to get inspiration and ideas and to find something that would fit with the song rather than something than focusing on something that was typical and of the style of the genre. I decided not to use many effects as I thought that this was not common of the genre and I did not want to ruin the filming or take away from the narrative by using lots of unnecessary effects.
I do not think that I challenged any conventions in an overt way but I think that aspects of my music video stand out enough in order for it to be memorable, for example how I used props such as the paper boats, red balloons and the giant flower. Overall I think that my music video would work as a real media product because of everything I have stated above.