Magazine advertisement

Here is the magazine advertisement, iv tryed to keep it to how iv done the front cover and back cover, so that it is related to the product, iv put the tour dates in front of him so that it looks as though he is looking at them. Also the song title, and a line which says"one night only" trying to lure the audience in. It looks as though this is a thought that has come out of his head. Then at the bottom it says his name, its in the grass, it is a sad theme, which is related to the song again.

Dvd front cover

This from left is the back cover, the one on the right is the inset, which would be in side the album. Iv gone with this because its a grave stone, and it could be seen as him or his families, its up to the audience to decide whos grave stone it is.

Here is my final front cover, is shows very little but is effective, this is a shot from my music video which i took seperatly, i lke how the writing actually looks as though it should be on the grave, the sun is shinging onto him, maybe symbolising that things are looking up for him.
Here is my back cover, it shows the grave stone which is in the front cover, but their is no man, and it shows lots of song names on it. I have done it so it is simple, has simple font, as the song isnt new it isnt happy, he is alone, he has been symbolised in the song as having a drug problem. So i thought it would be fitting to having a simple but effective front and back cover.

These are all the photos i took for both the dvd front cover and magazine advertisement.

Evaluation

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

The task for this foundation portfolio was to produce a promotional music video in order to do this to a good standard research and planning was needed to be included. Also with this foundation portfolio it was also required to do two subsidiary products for this I choose, the cover for the release of the album and a magazine advertisement for the release of the album.
For this portfolio we had a choice whether we wanted to work individually or as part of a group. I thought it was a good idea to work individually as then you have to rely on yourself.
I found last years foundation portfolio interesting and very creative having used programmes such as photoshop for the first time, however this year I have found that it requires you to develop your skills within new wats so you get to a higher level. I have developed by using new programmes such as the video editing suite but still using last years skills from the previous asignment.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
My work which i have done is effective, however their is always room for improvement, i feel i could have improved my music video, i didnt keep time very well and it shows in the final product. Things which i have done well, is show the fact that the song is about hardship and that he has problems, i have shown that he is sad and alone and throughout the video he is alone, yet it shows flashbacks of him been happy one time. It mentions his daughter and i thought about putting that in with a picture of her looking happy showing that his life could have been happy too. I have shown the video with cuts going from each shot, the shots are in sync with the song, and the shots relate to the lyrics. I maybe could have used the editing effects more, but i thought that this would effect the meaning of the song. The song is about hardship and feelings not about how much effects you can put into a video. The shots varied from light to dark, this had a meaning of good and bad, often symbolising this.
Through doing research before making the subsidiary products this enabled me to figure out forms and convention of real media texts, which helped me in progressing my own realistic products.
Recently i saw homeless people selling the big issue, like my subsidiary products the photos in their are simple and effective. In my magazine advertisement I made sure I involved the name of the artist which was big and bold and in dark font. I also involved aspects such as the name of the album, when its released and where to you can see the artist on tour. All of these are conventions of real media products which I followed which has enabled my magazine advertisement to be successful and realistic and to the point.
They other subsidiary product I have produced is a CD front cover. The image on the front of the magazine advertisement is the same as the one I have used in the music video. I got this idea from a product I analysed in my research and thought it was a good idea to commercially advertise and sell my product by having the same image, this shows an obvious connection to one another.By having the main image being the artist this helps attract the audience.The aspects of a CD front cover often involve the image, name of the artist and the name of the album. On my album cover I decided to follow the conventions of music albums by having the name of the artist and the name of the album as this is what makes a realistic album cover. However i had these on the grave stone and in similiar font to the grave stone so that it looks as though that it is the real thing. It makes you focus on the artist, this is how people get to know about them and ask about them, often meaning more success for the artist.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I have related my main product and ancillary texts through the use of different locations involved within, the use of mise en scene which is a mixture of the same props and costume. I used different costumes when appropiate, for example when he is down and looking upset i used the props of a tatty big brown coat and tracksuit bottoms, i even used this when it was warm as i thought it was appropiate.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Whether my music video and two ancillary texts were both to the point and effective to gain the audiences attention I needed to receive audience feedbacks from unbiased participants. I did this not only to see whether the ideas I put into the video were good and effective , but also to see were I could possibly improve the video further along with my other texts. I did this by creating a short questionnaire in which the participants had to circle the answer. The questionnaire had such questions as what age range do you fall into with the answers being 12-16, 17-21 etc. Another question was do you think there is a common theme between my music video and two ancillary texts, with the answers simply being yes or no. the feedback received was very interesting and allows me to see what could be improved or not improved. One of the main things that I found was that they liked how it was simple and effective, showing how he has a problem, and how it looks as though it shows his.. I also found that generally people believed the video to be very well suited to the style of music, with one person saying that they liked how the actor wasn’t done up, and wearing clothes that didn’t reflect the ideology of the music video. However their was some negative information on what could be altered and improved. One thing that stood out to me was the comment that I could possibly use more actors in the video rather than just two. They explained that with more people that then it could show his life more and people who have influenced his decisions. Also people believing that I could have used different shots to really express how he is feeling. I believe that this is very helpfull comment and would really improve my video further.


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

Before filming for my music video and editing it, I had to carry out research in order to find out as much information as possible so that it helped me with the tasks set and complete then to the best of my ability.I began by doing some research into the history of music videos and how they have changed. A major changing point was Michael Jackson’s Thriller video which didn’t have the same conventions as others, by having his video as a short movie. This was very effective as it entertained his audience massively. I also wrote LIIAR for music videos; Language, Ideology, Institution, Audience and Representation. By doing this I was increasing my knowledge about music videos. I was also increasing my knowledge about what attracts an audience to a music video and recognised conventions that are used in them. After the research I chose my song and analysed the lyrics with ideas for my music video. I also drew a storyboard that I could follow when shooting for my video. However I had to cut my song because it was just to long and I thought that it would bore my target audience. Through the storyboard I changed it a few times, using it as a template to my music video, as when you are filming you get ideas which you didn’t have before or ideas just couldn’t be done. After the storyboard I could finally start shooting, it took me a while as I didn’t understand how long it took, it took me quite some time finally get all my shooting done. Everything that I researched and planned I have posted it onto my blog, and also shown the teacher to see if they have any ideas how to improve it, along with my class mates.I kept a note of everything that I did and when I did it in a notebook, so that I could look back at any time if needed, this was an effective way of keeping my knowledge.For my ancillary products I used photo-shop to edit my images for my magazine article and digipak, I also used publisher to see what photos could be used and try the fonts on publisher, paint was also effective as it just let me play around and see if anything was useful. In the end I stuck with using photoshop, I thought that this was the best way as it let me edit my picture and use different techniques to improve the final pieces.

Health and Safety considerations

Health and safety considerations that i have taken care off is that i hav'nt filmed anywhere which may cause harm to anyone who is with me helping do the music video. I have asked for their consent and they have said yes to help me. I have made sure that all hazards have been removed from filming and that any potential hazards have been stopped.