Evaluation

The last part of my project was my evaluation; where I was able to reflect upon my creative process of my work and the experiences that I encountered. I used by blog when doing my evaluation to help guide me and show my teacher what I was explaining. I spoke about :

• The ways my media media products developed and challenged the forms and conventions of real media products. I didn't include any shots of my actress playing an instrument even though this is a significant element of a performance based music video, this was how I challnged the forms and conventions. I also spoke about the images I had used for my album cover, as it was a still from my footage, which is unconventional. For my DVD cover I explained why I had decided to stick to the forms and conventions.
• How effective the combination of my main product alongside my print artefacts was. I spoke about the theme of 'bricks', which was used throughout the video as well as the album cover and why I didn't carry it on with my DVD cover.
• What I learned from my audience feedback - I saw how my media products were seen from the perspective of my audience. From the feedback I could highlight any areas of improvement, as well as highlighting the things that people liked the most.
• How I used media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages. I spoke about the various new media technologies I had used and how they had helped, but also what I had learned from using them and how I applied it to my work.

Overall, I would say the evaluation stage of my work was a great reflection on my work as a whole. I was able to take a lot into consideration and be able to give my personal opinion. It was a good opportunity for me to analyse my work, looking for areas of improvement and I was also able to adopt a honest approach.

Audience Feedback

As part of my audience research, I gave out a questionnare to my classmates when they viewed my promotional package. My audience feedback has shown me the areas that I can improve on, as well as highlighting the things my audience have liked about my digipak. Here are the questions asked and the replies I recieved:

1. How would you rate the success of the production in terms of following codes and conventions of a music video, a documentary or a short film?

Excellent Good Average Poor Very Poor

6 people said good, 2 people said excellent


2. From the evidence you have seen on the blog, how well planned was the production?

Excellent 1 2 3 4 5 Poor

3 people said excellent, 3 people gave it 1, 2 people gave it 2

3. Would you say the production showed evidence of:

No Imagination Little Imagination Some Imagination High Imagination & Creative flair

7 people said some imagination, 1 person high imagination & creative flair

4. The following refers to the technical aspects of the piece. Please rate the following on a scale of one to five (1 being excellent, 5 being poor)

a) Shot Composition - 3 people said 2, 5 people said 1
b) Mise-en-scene - 2 peole said 1, 4 people said 2, 1 person said 4, 1 person said 3
c) Editing - 5 people said 1, 3 people said 2
d) Sound & music - 7 people said 1, 1 person said 2
e) Use of fonts/texts - 3 people said 1, 4 people said 2, 1 person said 5

5. How could the production be improved? Please make your comments constructive and as specific as possible

- "Good editing!"

- "Simple song, simple cute video - effective. I liked it"

- "I think the video and song fit well"

- "Clouds were good. Good backgrounds, I liked the sweeping shot when the girl was dancing. More colour"

- "Really like how you cropped the wall smaller at the doo doo part"

- "Very good video and it fit very well with the actor & song"

- "Brown walls could have been lightened up"

6. How well do the print artefacts tie in with the main production in terms of a) Codes and conventions and b) Style and creativity?

- "Print artefacts are very abstract and creative"

- "Goes well with video"

- "Match the style of the song"

- "Very well"

- "Fits well"

- "Print artefacts are good, especially front of album. Effect is good. Good shot from video."

- "Links in with main product very well. Wall looks like it's drawn on with chalk. Very good effect."

- "Very good"

Overall, my feedback shows me that my audience enjoyed my music video and liked my print artefacts. I am pleased with my comments and will take anything that a member of the audience thought on board as constructive criticism, I will see how it can be applied to my work and how my work could have been improved; as after all, one of the most important things to take into consideration is that the audience enjoy my product.

Final Magazine Advertisement

This will be the final magazine advertisement:

Research Into Print Artefacts: Magazine Advertisement

For this research, I have been looking at various magazines and newspapers for advertisements. Outside of college time, I have been going to Hmv to try to find some inspiration by looking at the posters and booklets/magazines that they have in-store. I have found that they all consist of the following:

• the band or artist's name
• the name of the album
• places where you are able to buy the album
• the release date of the album
• the price of the album

I will be using the image of the front of my album cover to create my magazine advertisement, based on those that I have been analysing from hmv.

Final DVD Cover

This will be the final DVD cover:

Development Of Print Artefacts: DVD Cover

The image I am going to use for the DVD cover is a separate shot that I have taken of my actress. I didn't want to use a still from my footage for this cover, as looking at the DVD covers I researched, separate shots of the artist have been used and I want to follow these codes and conventions.

Here is the original shot that I have taken, and next to it is the edited version that will be used for the final DVD cover:

Research Into Print Artefacts: DVD Cover

I researched DVD covers to look at the codes and conventions of the covers, and to see if and how they were different to the album covers. I concluded that the same font and logo had been used, but not the same images. The DVD covers were all really simple; consisting of an image (or lots of various images) of the artist, their logo and name of their tour. It also consisted of the DVD logo and the parental advisory logo (if required). Below are the DVD covers that I analysed:

I have decided that I will not be using a still from my footage for the DVD cover, as I don't think it fits the codes and conventions well. I will instead be using an image of my actress taken separately. I will edit the image to see what I can do with it to make it more visually interesting and then add the logos required, along with the artists logo and the name of the tour, making the front and back cover. The back cover will consist of the artists playlist, which will be the various tracks off her album.

Final Album Cover

This will be the front of the album cover:























This will be the back of the album cover:

Development Of Print Artefacts: Album Cover

The original cover for Kate Nash, 'Made Of Bricks':

The original cover for the album features Kate Nash walking along a pathway towards a house; the house looks like a perfect, model house. For this original cover, I see how the words from the title of the album have been put to use, the house has been used to show something that has been 'Made Of Bricks'. However, I had a different idea for the album cover, and as already shown and explained in my work, I have used the title of the album as a theme throughout this promotional package, in particular my music video. I decided that I definately wanted to incorporate some imagery of bricks onto the album cover and I also wanted to tie in a shot from my music video, instead of taking a separate shot for the cover. I therefore used a freeze frame from my music video, which I then edited in Photoshop. The original cover of the album by Kate Nash is very different to the one that I have produced.

Below is the freeze frame from my footage that I developed/edited to create the image for the front of the album cover:

I added a paintbrush/watercolour effect to make the image darker and appear a little smudged. I felt that this effect brought out the different tones in the colour of the bricks, which made them look better. I designed a logo with the name of the artist, and wrote the title of the album underneath. I used the colour red for the text of the title, as I felt red really stood out. I will add a parental advisory logo to the right hand corner of the cover, as some of the songs featured on the album do contain some profanities and it is important on my behalf to maintain responsibility. The logo is there to help parents determine whether or not the content on the album is appropriate for their children.

Below is the edited image of the still that will be used for the album cover:

The outcome of my edited image portrays a darker, edgier version of the still I used. I didn't want everything about the music video and album cover to be exactly the same, so as my video had neutral and bright colours in there, I decided to use darker colours for the album cover. As my chosen artist is quite versatile in terms of the music she creates, (her album contains a variety of pop songs and other songs from different genres, such as Indie; there are a few songs on there that have quite dark lyrics, such as 'Caroline's A Victim'). By choosing to create something with a darker, edgier effect I have then been able to show my artists versatility.