Monday, 16 February 2015

What are the codes and conventions of a film opening?


Codes and conventions of the opening of a film:


·         Have to include the main actors

·         Make it gripping

·         You should include the title of the movie

·         Should include the producers and distributors and actors  of the movie

·         Name of production company/companies

·         State the genre of the film

·         You should establish the mood and atmosphere of the opening sequence

Target audience

Our target audience

Feedback from Mrs Dolby

Note to Moderator

Dear Moderator, 


My brief was to create a music video, a Digipak and a website as a promotional package of an artist of my choice. As a group, we chose the song 'Black and Gold' sung by Sam Sparro.
I have used labels to help you navigate my page.

Yours Sincerely,

Max Austin

Candidate Number: 9060
Center Number: 51111

Friday, 13 February 2015

Final music video

Final evaluation 4

Final evaluation 3

Receiving audience feedback is a massive help to us as directors/ actors and editors. Receiving both positive and negative feedback is very handy. The positive feedback lets us know what the audience like seeing and enjoy watching in our  music video, this then makes us aware as to what else we could include to keep the audience entertained. Negative feedback is crucial in the development stages of a music video. We need to know what the audience don't like and why, this way we can take out any bad bits and be aware in future not too include anything that the audience doesn't like watching. 

The first bit of feedback we recieved was from our teacher, we recieved this feedback when we proposed our idea to Mrs Dolby. We told her what our song was, where we were going to film, the mise en scene our characters were going to wear and the props and loctions where we would film. We wanted to hear what Mrs Dolby thought about it and what she thought we could include to make our music video the best that it could be. Below is the feedback we recieved from our teacher. 

 


Receiving feedback on our music video draft was very helpful because it made us think about what the audience like and don't like in our video so far. The audience think that Eoghain staring into the camera singing with  a green screen behind him is a really good idea. They said its clever and the animations on the green screen behind Eoghain will keep the audience gripped.  However, they said that we shouldn't just focus on Eoghain and the green screen all the time because it can get boring. They want more unique scenes with more action in to keep the audience entertained and intrigued. This can be easily changed, all we had to do as a group was get together and storyboard a few more ideas. 

Feedback from our teacher told us that we needed to make the storyline of the music video more narrative based. This way the audience stay interested because they have to work out the storyline for themselves, the music video will include a range of different scenes and actors/singers to make the storyline clear, and the visuals will link to the lyrics of the song making the music video seem very professional. 

Although negative comments are not what we want to here, they are much more valuable than positive comments. As a group we have learnt to take negative feedback positively because they are only helping us make our music video better. 

The other day I gave a couple of my friends a questionnaire which simply asked them about what they though about our music video, below are a couple of examples of the questionnaire I gave to people:








Thursday, 12 February 2015

Final evaluation 2

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


Brand identity is a very important thing for an artist. Brand identity is what draws in audiences and fans for that artist. Different band brand identities can inspire and promote different styles such as what they wear etc. Some popular brand identities trend all over the world and can encourage and inspire people to be interested in that music genre and band.



Its always important for an artist to be consistent in their brand identity, an artist who constantly changes their brand identity will be seen as confused and people are less likely to focus and follow them. Brand identities are the best way for audiences to recognise and be familiar with certain bands, if a band constantly changes their brand identities the audience may be confused as to whether their are two bands similar. Sam Sparro keeps the same brand identity throughout all of his media products. His digipak, website and merchandise all have his name on, the name is written in the same font on all of the media products, this is called brand identity and is what makes audiences familiar with that artist.



When I first designed my digipak, I had designed it how I wanted it too forgetting that I needed to keep the brand identity the same throughout all of my media products. My digipak was on a black background, with a picture of Eoghain on the front looking up to the sky (SamSparro) and on top of that I included the name and the name of the song. Although it looked amazing, very classy and modern the digipak didn't include the same name font as it does on my website, to viewers and audiences this may be seen as 'unprofessional' and 'confusing'. Its very important that the brand identity is kept the same, so I will be going back to redesign and slightly change my digipak. My website is very good. I really like the colours of the name and name of the song, the colour gold jumps out at you as you enter the page. This evidently draws you into the names on the website. The name Sam Sparro is written in the font 'Monotone', this is a very fancy and appealing font that makes the name look classy and the page exciting. Underneath the name we have the name 'Black and gold', this is written in the font 'Avenida'. As you can see the names aren't written in the same font, this has been designed purposely to attract the viewers to the name 'Sam Sparro' before the name of the song. On both my digipak and website I have include the same images, so that it looks good and people can be familiar with the same photos, it is also a good way of advertising the album if the same picture that is on the front of the digipak is the same as the website.




My digipak has been cleverly designed to represent class. The digipak is very simple and contains few pieces of writing and images, but it looks very professional and is a digipak that any body who saw it would want to pick it up. On the front cover of the digipak, we have a close up of Eoghain who is looking up to the sky, his face is almost moulded into the black background (the lighting worked wonders). Underneath the image of Eoghain we have the name 'Sam Sparro' in a gold bold font. Underneath the we then have the name 'Black and gold' written in a slightly larger font in gold aswell. Having received feedback from a range of people I have taken what they have said into consideration and I will be: Changing the font of the name 'Sam Sparro' to the same font that is used on my weskit and I will also be making the font size larger. Inside the front cover I will include images of Sam Sparro and will write down some information regarding that artist to inform the audience about him. On the other side will be the CD. The back is very lively and there is a lot going on. Down the middle of the back cover on the digipak we have the names of the songs that are on the CD. The digipak represents and promotes the artist very well, I am very happy with what its turned out like.


My website is very 'cool', the colours black and gold are used on the website which promotes the song, the colours also look very good together, looks very classy and exciting. We have the name of the artist and the name of the song in very large funky fonts which draw the audience in. We also have a large image of the the artist right next to the name which instantly makes the audience familiar with what the artist looks like. Underneath the front header we have a photo album of Sam Sparro, his tour dates, added information regarding him and a small section with his album on which promotes the release date and what it looks like.






Final Evaluation 1


Sam Sparro Twitter page


We felt that it was very important for Sam Sparro to keep up to date with the market trends and the social media sites. Facebook is still a very popular social media site, but, times have changed and twitter is a lot more popular and includes a lot of people who are aged within our target market - more so than Facebook is. Therefore, it was crucial that Sam Sparro had a twitter page, Sam already has 40 followers and it has only been made 5 hours ago. We hope that Sam Sparro will reach one million followers once we have completely finished promoting his new song and album everywhere. This is also another place where Sam Sparro can communicate with his fans and followers, he can let them know his new song and album release dates and he can also post information regaridng his tour dates.

Sam Sparo Facebook page


I made an official Sam Sparro Facebook page so that his fans and followers can keep up to date with Sam's life, this is a place were Sam can socially communictae and interact with his fans. Sam posts information regarding his latest music video and songs which is excellent for promotional reasons, this is one of the biggest ways Sam can promote his latest music because so many people will see this post because he has thousands of Friends/Followers on facebook. Facebook is also a great place to post his tour dates, with a live link to the online ticket store where his fans and followers can easily buy his tickets, its very simple which is what the fans want as theyre is nothing complicated about the social media site.

Wednesday, 11 February 2015

Analysis of Music Video

I am extremely happy with the way our Final music video has turned out. I believe that we have made massive progress as a group and our hard worked that we have put in  to researching, filming and editing has payed off. The final music video is a vast improvement from out draft music video. Our draft had no story line, confusing scenes where the actions on screen had no relation to the lyrics and the music video was just packed with a wide array of different pieces of footage in different locations which made the video seem really confusing and unprofessional. Haven taken all that into consideration as a group, when it came to our final music video we had planned a story board, we made sure that our music video was a mix between a performance and narrative based music video rather than just a performance based video, this way the music video would have a meaning and it would make it more interesting for our audience. We also made sure that the use of mise en scene in our music video was massively improved, outfits and locations were planned rather than just wearing what we wore that day to film in. Overall, I am over joyed with the way our final music video has turned out, the lip syncing is perfect, the acting on screen and the amount of different shots on screen makes the audience interested and keeps viewers entertained. Here are a few shots from the music video that I think make the music video good:


The music video starts with a black screen and the words 'Silverwing Records' written at the bottom, this instantly promotes the Music record company and makes people aware as to who this song is promoted and made by. 


The next screen is almost the same, although the name of song is written in the centre of the screen in a gold font which relates to the name of the song and also makes the name look very classy.


In the next screen we are instantly introduced to the two main characters who feature in the music video, this instantly makes a connection between the audience and the two people on screen because it makes them ask questions to themselves, e.g. who is the girl? Are they in a relationship or what? The way Ruby is leaning on Eoghian implies that they have a connection themselves and that they may be a couple. The use of lighting in this clip is perfect because the spotlight is shined pin point at our two 'performers' and as your attention moves off of the two people the colour goes darker so its almost as if you are forced into looking at the two people. We have included a mid shot here to make the audience aware of the different heights of the performers and the location its set in. 


In  the next screen we have a long shot of our main artist Eoghain as he dances in the hallway. The atmosphere is created in this scene by the omniscient spotlight thats positioned slightly behind eoghain which provides the screen with a silhouette of Eoghain's figure. 


In this screen we have a close up of the side of Eoghain's face, this is where our artist begins to sing, here the lighting is shone at the front of him which makes it look quite atmospheric and appealing to watch.


Throughout our music video we have included the use of a green screen, here we have positioned eoghain in front of the green screen and simply edited in a space effect behind him, in the video the 'space' feature moves and makes it look like Eoghain is singing in space, this is an excellent feature that we have used, and we believe it makes our music video look interesting and shows a diversity of the skills we have and are able to use on set.


This is my favourite scene from the music video, here we have taken a low angle shot up at Eoghain  to make him look important and to also get a good shot of the sky, because as he walks towards the camera, stars begin to fall form the sky. This bit is so clever because we have managed to make the visuals on screen relate to the lyrics. As the starts fall out of the sky the lyrics go "and the stars fell out of the sky". We are very happy with the way this scene has turned out.  


Again, in this scene we have made the visuals link to the lyrics that sing over the top. The lyrics go"because if you're not really here" when Ruby comes on screen, which makes the audiences aware that there is a link between Eoghain and Ruby, here we see the story of the music video unravel and the story from then on becomes apparent if you listen to the lyrics closely. 


We have included many different shots throughout our music video to show that we can use a wide variety of shots, we have also included many different shots to make it look interesting for the viewers and to keep them entertained. Here we see a close up of Eoghain looking into the camera directly addressing the audience as he sings. The colours used in this scene are very clever because the colour has been produced by lighting that we used on set and editing, the colours appear in this scene as Eoghain sings the chorus of the song which is Black and Gold. 


As this scene appears on screen Eoghain sings "I want to be next to you" which signifies the fact that these two are in or where in a relationship. Again matching the visuals on screen to the lyrics which keeps the audience interested. 


As the footage on screen appears Eoghain sings "Look up into the night sky, see a thousand eyes staring back". The clever use of editing software in this scene has allowed us to produce small eye figures in the sky, which makes the scene feel very real and professional. 


Shortly after the previous screen eoghain sings "I see nothing but black" which relates to the screen before because now he is saying he sees nothing which is a massive difference. The clever use of editing and filming has made us create this scene very well. 


We finish on a  close up of the side of Eoghain's face as he sings the last chorus, finishing on a site of the main artists music video promotes the artists and familiarises the audience as to what he looks like. 

Draft Music Video - Black and Gold by Sam Sparro

Back cover digipak drafts


This was the first back cover digipak design I had made, it was a very good starting point because the standard I had set was very high, this first draft could quite easily of been my final design because it looked amazing. The main background image is Eoghain looking down, it looks as if Eoghain is looking down at the songs that are on the album though so it has been designed very cleverly. Down the centre of the back cover we have the names of the songs written in a century gothic lower case font just like the front cover. This back cover is very simple yet looks so effective and unique.


In my second back cover digipak design I had decided to change the main background image and layout of the writing on the back. In this draft I have changed the image to Eoghain looking directly into the camera straight at the viewer, to make it look like the artist himself is directly addressing the audience. The colour scheme of the image is kept the same in a black and white edit to show continuity and class. In the bottom half of the back cover we have the names of the songs written in order which is clearly stated by the use of numbers to the side of the songs. 


This was my third and final back cover digipak design, this design is my favourite page on the whole digipak. It looks so appealing, modern and unique and will instantly attract viewers to read the back page. We have gone back to the same image used in the first draft design, this was because the fact that it looks as if Eoghain is looking at the names of songs on the album looks really clever and almost attracts people to read the names of the songs. Here we have jumbled up the names of the songs to make it look really interesting instead of just listing the names of the songs in order like the second back cover draft. We have kept the same century gothic font and kept the same colour gold because it works well with the black and white coloured background and also stands out.

CD cover digipak drafts


This was the first CD cover digipak design that I drafted. I have to say this CD cover looks unique and appealing but also quite boring at the same time. The background is black because the background colour throughout the digipak so far has been black, on top of this black background we have the CD itself, the CD is gold because it promotes the main song on the album which is 'Black and gold'. The gold also makes the album stand out as it is a bright and classy colour. We have the name of the artist written on the front cover in a century gothic font, this is a very simple yet easily readable and modern font, below that we have the name of the album and the main song that features on the album, we ave included this for promotional reasons. 


This was my second digipak design, I must say this CD cover looks really boring and dull. The CD cover does what it says and is great for functional reasons but the colour choice for the CD itself doesn't correspond with any other colours used on the digipak so far, also the writing and size of the font used on top of the album is quite boring and almost fairly non existent because this isn't an attractive page and people will not be attracted to it. 


This was my third and final CD cover digipak design. It was also my favourite by far because I had taken into consideration my boring design 1 and 2 CD cover digipaks and had focused on what I needed to change in order to make this design better.  As you can see the main background on this CD cover page is an image of Eoghain looking into the camera. So when the CD is lifted up you will see Eoghain's face, the colours used on the background of this CD cover also work will with the rest of the colour used on the digipak. On top of this image we have the CD itself, with the words Sam Sparro written on it in a very classy and quirky font. We also have the name of the album and the main song it features on this album, this CD cover page promotes the Album very well. 

Inside cover digipak drafts


This was the first inside cover digipak I had designed. I think that this inside cover would have worked well with my final digipak but I felt like I could improve it every so slightly just to make it look a lot more appealing and interesting for my audience. We have the name of the artist Sam Sparro written in a  fancy font in the centre of the page, this makes people even more aware of the name of the artist and also makes the digipak look a bit more interesting and funky. We have kept the colour scheme the same throughout the digipak so far so that we have shown signs of continuity which makes it look classy and appealing, rather than adding in lots of different colour which has no meaning what so every would just make the digipak look tacky and confusing! At the bottom of the digipak I have included the official Sam Sparro website link and a rating that we received from the times.


This was my second inside cover digipak design and it was one of my favourites which is why it was such hard decision when it came down to me having to choose only one which i could make my final inside cover design. I have made this inside cover look really quirky and cool by only including the name of the artist many times in a funky font, this is a very simple way of filling a page but also making it interesting, again this would have worked well with my final digipak design as the font and colours have been kept the same. Again, at the bottom of the page I have included the website link to Sam Sparros official website page where his followers and fans can keep up to date with Sam Sparro's movements. 


This was my third and final inside cover digipak design. It was also my favourite by far because its really simple yet so appealing and cool. It really attracts the viewer into the digipak, the quirky font and colours are very interesting and unique, but the way the name is arched makes it look really interesting, the size of the writing is  a lot bigger and smaller round the sides, its makes it look as if the name is jumping out of you, very clever and will definitely be using this as my final inside cover digipak design. 

Front cover Digipak drafts



This was the first front cover digipak I had designed. It is very similar to my final front cover, all thats changed is the layout. Here you can see that the name of the album is underneath the name Sam Sparro, the placement looked okay but I felt that it took the focus out of the name, which is the real promotional feature here on this digipak. Even though the name of the album is just as important I felt like the positioning could be a little different so that it could have its own spotlight somewhere else, where it would look a lot better.


This was my second front cover digipak design. The layout and look of this front cover is very similar to the others, although in this one I have changed the font of the name, just to see what fonts looks better and suit the album cover more. I think that the font on this cover looks okay, close up its a very stylish and unique font, however, if you look at it from a far its very hard to read and doesn't stand our nor look very bold. Having said that the positioning of the album name on this front cover is a lot better from the first. Here the digipak looks a lot more evenly spread out and it looks really good and appealing. I have carried on using the same font for the album name because it looks really good in this font, however, for continuity reasons it would have looked a bit weird having two different fonts on the front cover.


This was my third and final front cover digipak design, also my favourite by far. This is my final front cover design because it takes improvements that I needed to make in my first and second front cover drafts. This front cover includes a century gothic font for the name of the artist, written in a gold font because it stands out the most and also looks very appealing and works well with the black background. I have kept the positioning the same as my 2nd draft for the name f the album because i believe it evens out the layout a lot more, it also looks a lot better and by having it at the bottom it attracts customers to all areas on the digipak. 

Analysis of back cover on digipak


Apart from the front album cover, I have to say this is one of my favourite designs I have ever done for my digipak. I am so happy with the way this back cover has turned out, the layout is a lot better compared to previous back cover designs I have done. The main background image is a photo of 'Sam Sparro' (Eoghain) looking down at the floor, the best thing about the layout of this back cover is that it looks like Eoghain is looking down at the names of all the individual songs on the album, this looks really clever and makes people look at the names of the songs. On top of the image of Eoghain we can see the names of the songs on the album, I have decided to jumble the names of the songs up and not just list them in a long line because i wanted to make it look more interesting for customers and i wanted the album to look very unique and original. At the bottom of the back cover we have a bold yellowish gold line that supports the names and makes the album look a bit more slicker and interesting.

Analysis of CD cover on my digipak


This is the CD cover which will be inside my digipak. This inside cover is very plain yet so 'cool' and relaxed. It looks very modern and the colour scheme makes it look very appealing. The main background is an image of Sam Sparro (Eoghain) looking at the camera, the edit is in a black and white format to make it look retro and classy. On top of the image of Eoghain we have the CD, here we have a black CD with the name Sam Sparro on. Again we have used the same font for the name as we have on the previous page to show signs of continuity, its also a very modern and unique font that looks really well for the name. At the bottom of the CD we have the name of the album, underneath that it says 'Feat Black and Gold', we have also included the biggest song name on the album for promotional purposes and to let everyone know that its an important song.

Analysis of inside cover on my Digipak


This is the first design I did for the inside cover of my digipak and its my favourite by far. Its a very simple inside cover yet very appealing and unique. The name 'Sam Sparro' is written in a quirky font that looks really well with the arched feature that makes it ooh bolder in the middle than the sides. The name is again written in gold so that we show signs of continuity throughout the digipak. At the bottom of the inside cover we have the website name. If customers of fans type this web address into google then Sam Sparro's official website will pop up, here people can keep up to date with Sam Sparro's present and future plans in his life, e.g. tour dates and book signings etc. In the bottom right hand corner we have a 4 star rating from the Times, this was such a massive thing for us that we had to include it on the promotion of our new digipak, here people can see what great album it is as it has been given a 4 star rating by one of the biggest newspapers in the United Kingdom.

Analysis of Final digipak front cover



I am very happy with the way my final digipak has turned out. Since receiving feedback from my first draft I have changed the style, font and layout ever so slightly just to make it look a bit slicker and appealing. The main image used on the front cover of the digipak is a photo of 'Sam Sparro' (Eoghain Kilbane), you can see that he has closed his eyes and is looking up to the sky. This photo is really good because you can see from a close up camera shot the distinctive features of his face, e.g. the cheekbones, the lips and facial outlines. It looks very professional and will attract customers. At the top of the digipak we have the name of the artist we are promoting which is Sam Sparro, we have chosen to make the font of the name in 'Century Gothic' because its a clean, easily readable and fancy looking font. The colour of the name is in a yellowish gold colour because it sits really well on top of the black background and also relates to the main song on the album which is 'Black and Gold'. At the bottom of the digipak just underneath the image of Eoghain we have the name of the album which is 'Believe'. The name gives an inspirational message to all people as it gives people hope and a sense of independent belief, the name is also written in century gothic to match the main heading and is also in gold because it works well in correlation to the name of the artist and also sits well on the black background.

Final Digipak





Sunday, 8 February 2015

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

4th question - draft 28/01/15

Media technologies have been a massive help to me, they have helped me from the construction and research stages up until the planning and evaluation stages. I have used media technologies such as:


Blogger - Blogger has helped me upload presentations, progress updates and first drafts. Blogger is a place where I can store all my information and work that I have done. it is a very easy website to use and I especially like it because its so easy to receive feedback on.


Prezi - Prezi is a really easy presentation website to use. I have found it really simple to upload images and information onto a range of different prezi layouts and styles. I have done numerous amounts of presentations on Prezi, mainly through my research and planning stages as I had a lot of information to gather and not many places where I could store it at once.


iPads/mobile phones - Apples devices such as the iPad and iPhone have also been very helpful throughout the process. When we miss lessons to go home and film our music video we have to add a progress update onto Blogger. Instead of logging onto a computer or something, I just simply upload a picture of us filming and a short sentence onto my blogger via my mobile phone within a matter or seconds.


Apple Macs - The Apple macs have been the technology that we have used when it comes to post production of the music video. We have used software's such as Final cut pro and motion 5 to edit our footage. Software's like these make it so easy for us to improve our final music video, making sure that Eoghain's lip sinking was in time with the music was no hassle at all and adding animations to the green screen was very easy, although we are yet to explore different animations and to perfect the use of the green screen.


Digital cameras - The Canon camera that we use to film our music video is very helpful. The camera is very steady, can zoom in and out whilst staying very focused and the quality of the footage we get by filming off this camera is extraordinary.


Photoshop - Photoshop has been a massive help to me when it has come down to ancillary tasks. I used my iPhone to take images of Eoghain on and I sent them to my Apple Mac at home which is where I designed my album cover, Photoshop enabled me to edit my artist into a 'perfect human being'. The color of his face which is white smoothly transitioned into the black background which looks really unique and clever.


You tube - Will be a massive help once we have finished our music video, because we can upload our video to you tube to see how many views, comments and likes it gets.


Facebook - This is an excellent way to promote our music video because all our friends and family will be able to see it in which they can share it for others to see.

3rd question - draft 28/01/15

Receiving audience feedback is a massive help to us as directors/ actors and editors. Receiving both positive and negative feedback is very handy. The positive feedback lets us know what the audience like seeing and enjoy watching in our  music video, this then makes us aware as to what else we could include to keep the audience entertained. Negative feedback is crucial in the development stages of a music video. We need to know what the audience don't like and why, this way we can take out any bad bits and be aware in future not too include anything that the audience doesn't like watching.


Receiving feedback on our music video draft was very helpful because it made us think about what the audience like and don't like in our video so far. The audience think that Eoghain staring into the camera singing with  a green screen behind him is a really good idea. They said its clever and the animations on the green screen behind Eoghain will keep the audience gripped.  However, they said that we shouldn't just focus on Eoghain and the green screen all the time because it can get boring. They want more unique scenes with more action in to keep the audience entertained and intrigued. This can be easily changed, all we had to do as a group was get together and storyboard a few more ideas.


Feedback from our teacher told us that we needed to make the storyline of the music video more narrative based. This way the audience stay interested because they have to work out the storyline for themselves, the music video will include a range of different scenes and actors/singers to make the storyline clear, and the visuals will link to the lyrics of the song making the music video seem very professional.


Although negative comments are not what we want to here, they are much more valuable than positive comments. As a group we have learnt to take negative feedback positively because they are only helping us make our music video better.



Progress update 24.01.15

In todays period 5 lesson we went back to Christians house and started refilming our music video, we included new ideas and props in order to make it look more professional and smooth.

Monday, 19 January 2015

2nd question - draft 19/01/15

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

Brand identity is a very important thing for an artist. Brand identity is what draws in audiences and fans for that artist. Different band brand identities can inspire and promote different styles such as what they wear etc. Some popular brand identities trend all over the world and can encourage and inspire people to be interested in that music genre and band.

Its always important for an artist to be consistent in their brand identity, an artist who constantly changes their brand identity will be seen as confused and people are less likely to focus and follow them. Brand identities are the best way for audiences to recognise and be familiar with certain bands, if a band constantly changes their brand identities the audience may be confused as to whether their are two bands similar. Sam Sparro keeps the same brand identity throughout all of his media products. His digipak, website and merchandise all have his name on, the name is written in the same font on all of the media products, this is called brand identity and is what makes audiences familiar with that artist.

When I first designed my digipak, I had designed it how I wanted it too forgetting that I needed to keep the brand identity the same throughout all of my media products. My digipak was on a black background, with a picture of Eoghain on the front looking up to the sky (SamSparro) and on top of that I included the name and the name of the song. Although it looked amazing, very classy and modern the digipak didn't include the same name font as it does on my website, to viewers and audiences this may be seen as 'unprofessional' and 'confusing'. Its very important that the brand identity is kept the same, so I will be going back to redesign and slightly change my digipak. My website is very good. I really like the colours of the name and name of the song, the colour gold jumps out at you as you enter the page. This evidently draws you into the names on the website. The name Sam Sparro is written in the font 'Monotone', this is a very fancy and appealing font that makes the name look classy and the page exciting. Underneath the name we have the name 'Black and gold', this is written in the font 'Avenida'. As you can see the names aren't written in the same font, this has been designed purposely to attract the viewers to the name 'Sam Sparro' before the name of the song. On both my digipak and website I have include the same images, so that it looks good and people can be familiar with the same photos, it is also a good way of advertising the album if the same picture that is on the front of the digipak is the same as the website.

My digipak has been cleverly designed to represent class. The digipak is very simple and contains few pieces of writing and images, but it looks very professional and is a digipak that any body who saw it would want to pick it up. On the front cover of the digipak, we have a close up of Eoghain who is looking up to the sky, his face is almost moulded into the black background (the lighting worked wonders). Underneath the image of Eoghain we have the name 'Sam Sparro' in a gold bold font. Underneath the we then have the name 'Black and gold' written in a slightly larger font in gold aswell. Having received feedback from a range of people I have taken what they have said into consideration and I will be: Changing the font of the name 'Sam Sparro' to the same font that is used on my weskit and I will also be making the font size larger. Inside the front cover I will include images of Sam Sparro and will write down some information regarding that artist to inform the audience about him. On the other side will be the CD. The back is very lively and there is a lot going on. Down the middle of the back cover on the digipak we have the names of the songs that are on the CD. The digipak represents and promotes the artist very well, I am very happy with what its turned out like.

My website is very 'cool', the colours black and gold are used on the website which promotes the song, the colours also look very good together, looks very classy and exciting. We have the name of the artist and the name of the song in very large funky fonts which draw the audience in. We also have a large image of the the artist right next to the name which instantly makes the audience familiar with what the artist looks like. Underneath the front header we have a photo album of Sam Sparro, his tour dates, added information regarding him and a small section with his album on which promotes the release date and what it looks like.

1st question evaluation - Draft 19/01/15

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

I have learnt a lot about the music industry and the codes and conventions that music videos should follow in order for them to be well known and popular. The basic structure of a music video is a 3-5 minute song that plays over a live performance from the band whilst other things may appear on screen, like computer generate images etc. Music videos often contain a number of different elements: Performance based music videos which include clips of the band performing on stage. Could be shots of the artists in real life situations like warming up or joking around as a band before hand. There will also be lots of close ups of the artists to promote the individuals and to get the audience aware and familiar of the different band members. Performance based music videos often are the best way to promote a bands 'style', the impression we get as an audience will be viewed and based on their motif, e.g. the type of clothes they are wearing, their actions, props and type of images used on screen.

The idea of the music video being a spectacle. This is where the artists directly address the audience by looking directly into the camera etc and trying to connect with the audience. In the case for men, the male is seen to be addressing the viewer directly, as in he is trying to make it look like he is only singing for you. Whereas, the female figure is often an object of an 'erotic' gaze, where they are often dressed and posed in very sexual ways, to address to the males and to draw them into the music video.

Narrative based music videos, which either tells a story or that the lyrics relate to the happenings on screen. A narrative is usually like a mini film that relates to the lyrics, which can be very impressive when its done professionally. Narrative based music videos are usually very fast paced, with lots of shot and cuts, mimic other TV genres and sometimes the story can contradict what is seen for effect.

Thematic music videos depend on the genre of the song that the band are singing. Genre stereotypes include, pop songs which include lots of fantasy characters, bright colours with lots going on. Rap would include street views, with many boys and girls, fast cars and lots of 'Bling bling' jewellery.

Symbolic music videos which use lots of symbols to represent and link lyrics to the visuals. Lighting is often used to suggest moods and to create different atmospheres, pictures can either support or contradict the lyrics.

In our first draft music video we made it a performance based music video as we thought this would be the best idea for the song we chose, we included lots of close ups of our main actor singing and then we included a wide range of shots in different locations to make it interesting. However, once we handed it in and received feedback from Mrs dolby, we realised that our music video should be more narrative based and should include a story. Since our last set of feedback we have been refilming and readjusting our story board.

When it came to digipaks, whether it was designing my own or analysing others I needed to know the codes and conventions. The front and back cover of a digipak are the main promoters of the CD and digipak, they draw in customers and potentially persuade them to buy it. The inside cove of the digipak is used to promote additional information regarding the artist. And the other inside cover holds the CD where people can easily get the CD out. I have included all these codes and conventions with my digipak.

When it comes to designing a website for Sam Sparro, I will be following all the codes and conventions in order to make the website the best that it can be. The website will promote the artist by pictures, information and his name and the website will include all important information regarding the artist and his tour dates etc.

I have included all the main codes and conventions of a music video, digipak and website. I will be following them because in order for me to make the music video the best that it can be it has to be perfect, and by following the codes and conventions i will miss out any important points or information regarding the artist.

Saturday, 17 January 2015

Dolby

Upload draft evaluation questions and ancillaries asap.

Friday, 9 January 2015

Progress Update - 9/1/15

Over the weekend and the next week I will be working on the back page of my digipak, the inside cover of my digipak and my website. Once I have done this I will go back and make the changes to the front cover of my digipak and then I will have fully compelted my ancillaries.