Before I started to create my music advert and digi pack I analysed many other adverts and digi packs of real artist to see exactly what I was going to include and how I was going to lay them out. I have gotten shots of various parts of other media products and compared them to my own media products.
I wanted to look at artists who had the same type of genre to motion tourist, so I looked at Florence and the machine, which does have the same type of genre. I decided to make the name of the band go across the top of the advert in big bold letters, just like Florence and the machine. However nearly all of the averts I looked at done this with the title of their artist, the reason it is like this is because it straight away drags the attention of audience as usually each band has a certain font or way they right the name of their band, this helps people recognise the band as soon as they look at adverts ect.
I found when I looked at other magazines that they follow a general aspect of putting the date release of the new album they are advertising and also put the name of the album in big font clearly for the audience to see. I looked at Florence and the machines advertisement again and seen that this had the similar aspect of putting the title of the album big and the date of the release. However, as this is similar to my magazine it doesn’t have the reason as why the date is there, whereas mine say ‘the new album’ then the date. I chose to put this on as I have seen many other album adverts that did do this, for example Kate Nash’s album states ‘Album out’
In my digi pack I put a quote from a music magzine company (NME) of what they said about the album, to link my album and digi pack together I also put this on my advert. I compared it with Plan B and his magazine advert, even though my album dosnt have the starts of the ratings the ablum got it is still a rating of what certin companys thought of the magzine. This is for people who are wanting to buy yht album before they have heard it see the opionion from a trusted source as it usually from a music company who deal with the type of genre the band are.
When it came to doing my digi pack, I reasearched into all the different types they is, as you can have different styles and number of pages in a didgi pack ect. However when I looked at bands who were the same genre as the band I used I found that a lot of them just used simple 4 pae lay outs and didn’t make they digi pack to much or to much to read. I looked at other digipacks and made mine from the ideas I got from them, the first one I looked at was the arctic monkeys debut album.
I liked this digi pack as it is very controversial, as the NHS has all the new smoking awareness policy’s and with smoking not been sociably accepted any more it goes against that and has a kind of ‘we don’t care’ attitude about it which I like, as that is everything that ‘rock and roll’ is about and even though this band is just an indie band, it encourages people to buy it as everyone wants to be a rebel and go against what is right. However I didn’t use controversy on my digi pack and therefore I couldn’t find any difference between mine and arctic monkeys.
I looked at lots of albums and concentrated on the back of the digi pack, I wanted the back of my album to have typical conventions of a digi pack, but also be a bit different. The main ones were track names and numbers so that the audience know what they are looking for and therefore what they are buying. Every digi pack I looked at had a record label and a bar code so I also put this on mine also as I making this with another band’s music I had to get a copy right label as when bands do this it is against the law to sell it off as their own music. I wanted it to catch the attention of my target audience and the people who are into the type of genre I done, so instead of using a typical colour or one picture I cut out a picture I took of the actual lead singers shoe and repeated it in a row continuously to make a pattern that is very effective and I something I haven’t seen on many other digi packs. Before I don’t this is made my numbers and names of songs but I don’t them in a different muddle up way, this was to catch the attention of people as it takes them longer to read it so therefore take more care looking at it hopefully then they will buy it.
Not many digi packs I looked at where ever like this therefore it contrasts the typical digi pack.
Representation of the artist
I put an image of the band live in action playing at a gig as my front cover to my digi pack, I edited the picture and made certain colours of the picture (the jeans of the band) in bold colours then used this to make a continuous colour scheme of my digi pack for example putting in the inside images back round this colour. I didn’t want the picture of the artists to look as if it was staged so I made sure that they weren’t looking at the camera when I took the picture, with the lead singer at the front of the picture it makes him stand out and this shows the audience the type of look I am going for with the cool, dark coloured laid back look of the band. I noticed that the genre of music that the band play, when I looked at other digi packs with this genre goes for a vintage kind of image this is why I used the yellow/orange coffee stained types of colours throughout. I used the colours throughout as I seen that Kings of Leon, the same kind of music genre use this on their digi pack.
Use of fonts and styles
The use of the fonts and styles of way the information is set out follows a of pattern of real digi pack conventions this is things like the way the font is set out , the style of it and what it has to promote the band. This is why I kept the same font and size with the review of what NME say as I did on the advert, I also made the side of the digi pack were it folds and it says the name of the band in the same font and style except I changed the colours to back background and white writing. I also made the name of the band and the name of the album on the front covers the same as well as the song names. This helps keep a pattern which helps the audience recognise this throughout and know that this goes with the band each time.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
In all three of my media products there has been a brand identity throughout that link the three together. I done this by choosing different conventions in each one of my products that are similar of have a way of linking my music video, my magazine advert and my digi pack. The way I decided to do this and get ideas from was Kings of Leon ‘come around sundown’ I have analysed this and what they have done is use similar colour schemes which link to each other, they have went for summer look in each product and linked the fonts and styles to the music magazine and the digi pack, the song also has a summer feel to it which also helps link.
After looking at this, in the production of my products of motion tourist ‘this is an end’ I followed a theme which was kept simple throughout but it worked because the audience can link them together, for example putting the magazine advert up in their bed room as a poster, means that if they friends were to look at this they could link it by saying that is looked like cd cover to the song.
I done this by using a picture of the main singer on the digi pack and the advert but not the same one, however you can tell it’s the same person so this links the two together as well as having the lead singer in many shots of the music video. I also edited the images by making the certain colours stand out then continued to use these colours as back rounds for the digi pack and magazine advert to link the two together like Kings of Leon did.
By using a certain brand identity throughout it shows the identity of what the band of like and how everything links together.
I used a video to record most parts of music video.
I used a flip camera to shoot certain parts of my music video, mainly when I dint have my video camera on my and I only had to shoot small parts.
I used the computer, I used it for photo shop to edit and make my magazine adverts and digi pack. I also used the computer to make and edit my music video with premier elements.
I used a stills camera to take the photos for my advert and digi pack, I used this with a tri pod and a card reader to upload the images on to the computer.
This is me using a tri pod which I used to take my stills shots of the band playing at a gig.
I used flicker across all of my areas as well and planning and evaluation. Flickr was very easy to use and I got the hang of it straight away, even though it is easy it is also very effective and works perfectly when evaluating or analysing certain things. I used it to analyse my digi packs and magazine adverts that I looked at to get ideas before I made my own. It means that my work is also accessible to the pupil and they can comment to give me constructive criticism to improve. It also means that I am able to use even more technical programs and I have been able to use this for other things rather than just media.
I used blogger to publish all of my construction, research and planning and my evaluation. It meant I could present my work neatly and simply, I could put everything I done using other technologies with no difficulties just embedding them all. It took a bit to get used to first as some parts were difficult when uploading but once I got the hang of it, it was very easy to do. It also allows the public to see my work and be able to comment and give feed back to me on my work. It is also the way in which the exam board marks your work which means that you can keep adding and taking away until my work has been sent away.
I used YouTube when I need to upload videos I had done for my research and planning it is also the way in which you put you finished media video on. It is very easy to use and is accessible from all over, I also used to look at videos to get ideas of what to do for my video. A final way I used YouTube was when I was stuck with certain programs on the internet and technical problems they was always a video on YouTube with step by step guide on what to do when you got stuck or couldn’t use certain programs.
I used Facebook for my research when getting feedback on evaluating my blog. I let my friends leave comments of my draft video and give me constructive criticism so I could walk on it.
I used Microsoft word to write up most of my evaluation and research and planning to then put it on to my blog, I done this so that all my spelling was correct with spell check and so that I could write up all my information and check it was ready to upload to my blog before I did. I also had it as a backup in case anything happened to my blog or the internet I was working on with in school as we sometimes had some problems.
I used premier elements to create and edit my music video. I found that it was slow and you had to take your time when using it, I also found many ways to improve my video with the many options of effects it has on it and how much of a step up it was from windows movie maker which is what I used to make my prelim music video.
I used windows movie maker in many ways when creating my media coursework. It allowed me to get an idea of editing and making a music video before I went on to use premier elements. I used it on my prelim task and also when I made little presentations on my research and planning.
I showed my friend (some were other media students) my video to get personal feedback and constructive criticism and to get an idea of what the exam board would think of my video. I asked my friends because they like the kind of music genre that motion tourist is and what they play. This is what they said.
Dan a fellow media student and a A* sociology pupil said
“I really enjoyed your video, they were parts I didn’t quite understand but I think that works as it makes it seem like a conceptual video at many parts, the footage of the band was really effective as it was obvious taken dewing a live performance and this makes the video storey line feel a lot more real. They is parts which could use more footage and parts that are seen to be a bit cheesy, but all together it think it’s a great video”.
Michael a chemistry student at my sixth form and a base player of a popular local band said
“I love motion tourist so the fact you chose one of their kicking songs made it enjoyable for me personally as well as the fact you had footage of the actual band playing a live performance, however the lip sinking at this point could have been made less obvious that they aren’t playing this song. This style you have used throughout really works and links in perfectly with your advert and digi pack. There is massive room for improvement with in you video in such things like making the story line a bit more exciting or understandable but over all I enjoyed it.”
Francesca an A* phycology and English student said
“The music and styles of this video are not really my scene as I prefer different music and image types. However I still enjoyed the video even it was hard to understand and some parts were obvious that it had maybes been done in a rush. I would still recommend it to other to watch as there are exciting parts within”
Becky a year 12 media student said
“ This video was right up my street, I enjoyed it a lot and it has really helped me on ideas for my music video next year. However it has also shown me what not to do as there are points in the video which you can tell it has just been made by a Alevel student for example filming on different days were the actor has changed clothes and this doesn’t make sense. I think it could have also done with some more special effects and editing, Although I did really enjoy it.”
