61. Ancillary Work Responses

Evaluation Question 4

Question 4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For question 4 i decided to make a Padlet to show all of my audience feedback from my video and ancillary products and what i have learnt form the feedback overall and how certain pieces of feedback helped me to improve the products.

Created with Padlet

Jessica - Question 4

Audience feedback

made using screencast and premier

She also liked the way the album cover and the website were similar, and showed a clear link with the use of the album cover in different colours. It is unmistakable for another album because the title is everywhere. 

I also got good feedback online too:

Overall, I have learned from audience feedback to be careful with the effects put onto the music video because it can either make it successful or be its downfall. On more than one occasion the black and white was mentioned, and we debated where we should use it or not/which way, as well as the way we used the green screen, because green screens are something not many people are confident in using because of how it might look (i.e. unproffesional).

Digipak inside and outside panels

This is my digipak inside and outside covers. I feel i have done well as it links with my video and website creating a good synergy. 

Jessica - Question 3

To create the animatic, I used Premier Pro. Even though I didn't use markers, it was quite an easy process as I was just using JPEG images and going with the times I'd written on the papers before hand

Evaluation Question 3

Question 3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?


 This is my Powtoon presentation which talks about all the different technologies that I have used during the year to help me make my video and ancillary products.




      

Jessica - Question 2

Evaluation Question 4- Joram

Audience Feedback on product

Evaluation Question 1

Question 1: In what ways does media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Here is my Camtasia video which explains how our video developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products.

Here is also my Prezi presentation which explains how my ancillary products developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products.

                   

Evaluation Question 2- Joram

Created with Padlet

Final Digipak

Evaluation Question 3- Joram

http://www.photosnack.com/Mantz/howiusedmediatechnologies.html

Click the link above to see a slideshow.

Evaluation Question 1- Joram

Evaluation Question 1

Our overall music video is evidently greatly supporting Andrew Goodwin's theory as it heavily leans towards the conventions of our artists performing as well as narrating. This is shown when not only do they narrate to the camera while looking directly into in order to make a connection while addressing the audience but they also fall through darkness hence the name of the song "Fell Apart" which also supports one of his theories that music videos are mainly based around the included song lyrics themselves.

We chose not to challenge conventions in either of our products as my group and I felt it would distort our artists image if they did not apply to the typical "grime scene", which would therefore also not apply to target market and audience that came with that scene. This is shown through the alleyways, walls and graffiti that we have all used in synergy through design in all three products for the artists.


My digipak and website were mostly conventional but to an extent. I made sure to keep to the do's and dont's of design. These being to not go too crazy over fonts by keeping them similar and not going over 3 different types. I also made sure to keep the design similar to that of an urban background with brick walls and I high contrast to bring out more gray in certain areas of the digipak.

Although I did not choose to challenge convention in any way I feel that this has complimented my digipak and website in a way that could not have been done if I had have challenged any conventions. For example the graffiti background that I used in comparison to brightly coloured and vivid backgrounds for example.

It was Devlin's cd cover that influenced me the most as well as Krept and Konan's original cover.




Devlin's digipak inspired me to go for the pathway and wall design as it was by far the most simplistic yet effective in my mind as it complimented everything that grime stood for. This being that it originated from the streets and is completely designed to stay that way as artists associate themselves with the area that they grew up in. The framing of the shot is also well designed as it applied to the 3 point rule, I also tried to apply this to my own digipak.

Krept and Konan's digipak influenced me to have the artists as the main focus when creating my cover. Also, the filters applied to both artists blend them perfectly into the picture to uphold the illusion that they have been drawn, I also tried to recreate this on my cover except with a more line drawn style. The font used was also similar to mine aside from the fact that I made mine more part of the picture instead of more separate and 2D as it is on their cover.

Evaluation Question 2

I believe that overall my ancillary work was highly successful as from the design and style alone I managed to create a clear connection between my main product that was my music video and both ancillary products, being my website and digipak.

My target audience would be attracted to all 3 of my products as they are all equally appealling to the audience. This is because they have all been purposefully shot, edited, composited, drawn and designed in a way that would reflect rough urban life or in short the genre of "Grime". I have stuck with convention of that genre as well as gathered several inspiring ideas across a range of different mediums, these being digipaks, websites, music videos and the social branding of artists themselves.

Created with Padlet

Evaluation Question 3

How did you use media technologies?

In the planning stages we organized several mood boards and presentations that collected all our images involving set, design, location, costume and props all together in order to create a more connected illustration of the Grime genre. This was all done in order to create our main product being the music video for our artists.

This application was used to gather pictures in order to display the design for both the music video and my ancillary products. It helped people watching and listening to get a better understanding of the genre and themes for our video.

Thinglink achieved the same objective in a way that illustrated our genre with different designs and layouts for videos/ ancillary products.

The production stage was mainly evidence of different editing techniques in order to produce the music video. This is mainly why we uploaded screenshots of the editing interface with annotations on what we were doing and how we were doing it. For this specific main product we used Adobe premiere Pro to create the video.

This editing platform allowed me to organise clips together efficiently and with a evident layout that correlated to each verse and chorus of the song. Effects for the video were easily accessible and just as easily applied.

Research involved witnessing several designs of many different CD covers and digipaks for Grime artists. I studied them for their design and layout  in order to get a better understanding of the do's and dont's of design. This would help me create my own digipak and website for my artists in the ancillary work production stage. For that section I used Adobe Photoshop.

Emaze was used a lot in the pitch task where we had to explain the production methods we would be using for our main product, the music video. This worked especially well as it was a decorative application with a smooth interface.

This animating software allows you to keyframe short presentations with a decorative finish in order to make it look more professional. Once again we used this while researching our artists and the genre, as well as creating slides for the pitch.

Wix was pinnacle in making ancillary work, specifically the website as it immediately gave me the option to have a specific layout of website, that I only had to replace, change and alter some pictures to make it look presentable and professional.

We set up an instagram account for our artists as well as a twitter account for our group. This allowed us to brand our artists even more as well as keeping in touch with teachers and advisers who gave us feedback on different methods of production.

This video shows how I used Colour correction in Adobe After Effects

This video shows how I used Editing Techniques in Adobe Premiere pro

Evaluation Question 4

In order to set up a good source of feedback after I had completed the music video I set up a survey on Survey Monkey and these were the results that I gathered. This gave me confidence that the design I had gone for to illustrate the grime genre the best had obviously been successful. I then chose to carry on that same design into my ancillary work in order to gain a better level of synergy.

Link To Survey

Link To Survey Results

This is some feedback my group and I gained towards the end of editing the music video for our artists. Credit: Tim/ Jack

Originally, I made a particle effect system with a minus gravity to make our artists appear as if they were falling through these particles. After feedback from a teacher as well as other peers we deleted it as it looks far better to simply have a black background.

Here are the results, comments and views on Vimeo for the finished music video

Audience feedback was always incredibly important to me throughout the whole process as it allowed me to adapt to convention fluently while steadily making my main product and ancillary products far better than imagined.

From these responses I can analyse that the costume was the strongest point if synergy as well as the common brick wall that is best associated with urban culture and estate housing.

In addition, it was also the "Grimey" style that I managed to sustain throughout all 3 products that the target audience also found especially appealing.

Jessica - Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak/band website)?


This is my very detailed Emaze presentation which answers question 2 regarding my main and ancillary products.

Ideas for evaluation Q1-4

Ancillary Text 2- Websites

60. Audience Feedback

57. Screenshots of Production

59. completed digipak + website link

here is the link to the website, which I altered slightly from my last post
lanexmantz.weebly.com

59. Completed Digipak and Website

Lane X Mantz Official Website 

Link To Website

(If That Doesn't Work)
http://mhill4246.wix.com/lanexmantz 

pictures during digipak making

This is my Photosnack of images I took during creating my digipak. The images show the transition of me starting the digipak and the different colours I used and fonts. One of the images show the different types of backgrounds I was looking to use and also shows the starting of my digipak inside which includes the disk (which is still not complete). 

http://www.photosnack.com/Ckid1997/digipakmakingimages.html

Changes from my digipak mock

As you can see from my digipak mock, there has been changes from the mock to my final piece. Most of the fonts and colours are the same and my original layout but the images I used have been changed.

I decided that instead of using the image on the left side which was took at primrose park I decided to use the studio picture next to it as it was easier to edit and crop onto the album in Photoshop and looked more professional as it showed our faces and expressions better.

I feel this was a good decision to change this because as a new artist I think the audience should be able to see our faces and expressions as this is the better thing to do to make the digipak look more professional.

I also added additional information on the digipak that wasn't on the mock such as the artist name and bar codes and small copyright information; stuff that I forgot to add in my mock.

Band Website

This is a link to my completed band website with images of artists, album release date, music video and images:

http://jayemmakondo.wix.com/lanexmantz

digipak inside cover

Since I still want the inside to be abstract, I split the left panel in a diagonal section and reversed the image so that it was obvious there is something there. Like I've seen in the past, including 2 digipaks I own (Kate Nash and Lana Del Rey) the reason for this space is to insert a song lyric booklet, which would contain similar images to the cover and right panel. I used the distorting tool by pressing Ctrl and stretching the image of the cityscape to show an obvious overlapping of images, which I did after duplicating and decreasing the opacity of them, using 3 images in total, one edit with the Lightroom preset whilst the others just derived from original JPEGs from the mini photoshoot at the top of Primrose Hill. The meaning behind this is to show a progression within their music and lives, and a visual representation of where the artists are now.

Reasoning behind using Wix

I decided to use Wix instead of Weebly for my band website as part of the ancillary work. Most people would think this a risk especially as I have used weebly in the past (last summer in fact) and I have never used Wix before.

I can say however, that the risk paid off because I was able to use Wix successfully and I found that creating the website was easier and more simple than Weebly. The page designs and the layouts were better and easier to understand and made the website creating quicker for me and also more enjoyable.

I will definitely be using Wix again in the future over Weebly.

Blogging health check 3

From my blogging health check 3 we can see that I have yet again increased my mark, this time by 2 so that I now have 16/20 which is equivalent to an A grade. I am pleased with this because I do feel I have been improved and I think it is good that I've gone up a whole grade every health check. My only real improvements from this health check is to go through my blogging checklist one more time to see if there's any additional post I could do or any that I've missed and make sure that there are no errors in any of my posts before blogging ends.