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

Below I have created a Prezi explaining the ways in which my media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products.

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?

Below I have created a Prezi explaining how effective the combination of my main products and ancillary texts are.

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In this post I have created a Prezi explaining what I have learnt from my audience feedback. 

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Main Task Tigerhead

Final Digipack

Final Magazine Advert

Image For Magazine Advert

MAGAZINE ALBUM ADVERT:

This screenshot is of the site Pixlr. We have used this website to edit our magazine album advert. As you can see, on the left hand side there is a tool box with different things you could do to edit the image.
This is the image we have chosen to be our magazine album advert. We shot this using an iPhone 4, using the focus feature to blur out the background.

We thought this image of a red flower would be relevant to our Main Task, as it reveals connotations of energy, confidence, passion. These words, indeed are what make up our music video.

The image on the right hand side is the original image of the red flower edited. We utilised the paint bucket tool on Pixlr to create this effect. What we did was use the colour black to fill in all random sections of the image except the flower in the middle. This was done so that the flower at the centre of the image would be clearer, because of it being a brighter and lighter colour than black.

After we were satisfied with the image, we turned to the texts and fonts. We clicked on the font tool (the 'A') on the tool bar and looked for the font that would suit our magazine album cover.

The image on the right is of the magazine album advert with the text on. We have only used the words 'Eliska' and 'keep real' and we were very impressed with the results.

The font used for 'Eliska' was called 'Aparagita' and for 'keep real' it was 'Aharoni' in bold.

We decided to put 'Eliska' in capital letters, as this would grab the readers attention, along with it being white against the red background.

'Keep real' isn't in capital letters, as it looked better that way and conveyed its importance easily without using capitals.

'Keep real' was placed on the corner of the image because we'd thought that as it would be used in a magazine, the reader will have to turn the page and so it will be the last thing that they see. 'Eliska' was placed in the centre, where the flower is and is in white. This colour emphasises purity and simplicity. We have used this colour on the name of the album, 'keep real' as well.



Here, we played around with the contrast option from the 'Adjustment' tab above the image. It made the dark bits more darker, to emphasise the brightness of the flower. We wanted this in order for the reader to see the artist's name first, before anything else.








Draft #1:

To the left is our finished magazine album advert. We have included other text like websites, songs, etc to

add detail and so that the reader could be familiar with what it is we are promoting.

The screenshot below is of the Twitter post we tweeted, requesting for a response to this magazine album advert. We have yet to receive comments on it.












Draft #2:





This is the second draft (left). Here we included the iTunes logo and an image of the artist so that our target audience would familiarise themselves with her from the music video and the digipack. This is essential in media, as it supports the notion of synergy, which provides the chance of promotion for two or more media products that converge and boost profit for each other.







Draft #3 and Final Draft:

Magazine Advert Ideas

In this post I will be showing some of the ideas I have sketched out as part of planning for my own Magazine advert

Idea 1:

Here is an image that I have sketched and scanned. This is for our background of our magazine advert.

Ancillary Task 2: Magazine Advert

Another task we had to do alongside with our main task and digipack was to create a magazine advertisement for our digipack.

In this post I will be showing some research I have undertook, for inspiration for our own Magazine Advert within the Dream Pop Genre.

Example 1:

Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock/dream pop band formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Glasgow. This album advert is from Arctic Monkeys', 'The Jewellers' Hands'. The colour combination that the designer has decided to choose is a black background with white lettering. The combination of these two colours is very effective and popular, as both of these colours complement each other. The stereotypical connotations of White are purity, goodness, etc and black has connotations of evil, mystery etc. These two colours oppose each other, as it is obvious from their connotations. Therefore, in this image, the influence that this will have on the audience is that it would attract them to purchase the album. Additionally, the font of 'Arctic Monkeys' takes up 1/4 of the album advert and is written in a bold font style, this is done to attract the audiences attention as this is one of the hot-spots in imagery. We can also see that the designer has gone for a simplistic design with not too much imagery or text, this suggest that the album is going to be simplistic but nice to listen to. The image in the middle of the advert relates to the whole concept of "Arctic Monkeys", we can see the protagonist is wearing a mask this could suggest that she doesn't want to give her full appearance away until the audience buys the album also the monkey represents  mischievousness.

Example 2:

Here is  the magazine album advert of Cocteau Twins, 'Four-Calendar Cafe' from the Dream Pop genre. We can see that there is a lot of colour used in this advert, colours include; blue, yellow, red, black to make the advert bold and eye catching for the readers reading the magazine. The background used in the advert is a quite dark purple, this has been used to bring out the random objects in the foreground. It includes the date of release on the bottom right corner, as well as the modes (i.e. cd, lp record, digital compact cassette) in which you could watch or listen to the music. The biggest font is 'Cocteau Twins', which is used to promote the band. The colour of the text is all white so that the reader is be able to read it easily. The font style that the designer has used is also very simple and elegant.

Overall

Overall we can see that Dream Pop genre adverts consist of unusual but effective imagery to catch the audiences eyes. Unlike other types of genres, for example R&B who mostly have  pictures of the protagonists on the front cover, Dream pop genre goes against this and uses images of object rather than the artist or protagonist. Another convention of dream pop magazine adverts is that they consists of bright but simplistic designs effects and colours. Overall this research has helped me highly for planning my own Magazine Album Advert, 

Digipack Draft

FRONT PANEL

Design 1:

Design 2:

Design 3:

Design 4:

BACK PANEL

Design 1:

Design 2:

DISK

SIDE PANEL

Main Task Record Label

During the process of creating a digipack for our music video, I have created a record label to put on my digipack. As you can see I have decided to call my record label "Big and Bold Records", the reason for this was because these words both have significant meanings, for example big represents popularity and bold denotes a sign of importance. This goes really well with our narrative because its portraying a big and bold message about females in today's society.  

I decided to use the colour pink because this a colour that is most liked by females and also this colour has connotations of positivism, inspiration and warmth. We want females to buy our album with confidence and be attracted to it easily.

Record Label Research

In the process of making our own Digipack I undertook some research into Dream Pop genre record labels. 

I visited the site http://www.allrecordlabels.com/db/genres/Dreem-Pop.html. Which showed me all the Dream pop genre record labels.

Here is a screenshot of all the results I found. From this we can see there is an A-Z list of all the names, these names mostly consist of situations and abbreviations of society.  

Digipack Original vs Edited

In this post I will be explaining why we chose certain camera composition and editing effects.

I used a photo editing site called BeFunky to edit the photos below. This site is a free editing site and it had some great effects that go with the dream pop genre, for example dream pop genre characteristics include bright imagery with all colours standing out to the audience. 

SHOT 1:

This is one of the pictures we took of our Protagonist Halimah Ali. As you can see we decided to take a side angle of her looking ahead, the reason for this was because we wanted to create a reflection effect of her looking at herself. We arranged for her to wear red and black because these are two opposing colours that go well together. For example red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, it is also a colour associated with energy, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Black is associated with power and elegance and gives the feeling of perspective and death. The connotations of these two colours goes really well with our narrative which is portraying how girls in society should not be influences by the media and act in ways which they are not. We also decided to use a medium shot of our protagonist to make the audience feel as if they were looking at the whole subject. The use of eye-level also helped to make the audience feel as if they were actually in the scene. We decided to use these certain camera angles and positioning because we wanted the digipack to portray the typical dream pop characteristics which included; simplistic but effective imagery. 

EDITING EXPLAINED:

SHOT 2:

This is another picture we took for our digipack's back cover. We again decided to use a mid-shot to make our protagonists costume and facial expression was portrayed properly and effectively and stereotypically this camera angle is mostly used to make the subject stand out to the audience. The use of eye-level also helps the audience to see the protagonist normally like they would be able to see any other normal person on the street. Our protagonist is also covering her face in this shot; this was done to signify that she is scared of today's society and has mixed emotions. The position that she is standing was done to relate to the position of the digipack's back cover, it helps the audience to understand that it’s the back and there is a lot of story inside the digipack.

EDITING EXPLAINED

SHOT 3:

This is the second picture we took of our protagonist. As you can see she is now looking down, the reason for this is because this is her bad reflection of her therefore looking down signifies she is scared and can’t face society. We had to keep the camera angle and positioning the same as the picture above because we needed to create a reflection and this effect would not work if we had two different pictures. The protagonists positioning is also the same; with her hands back denoting that she is not strong enough to take society. We also decided to put her hair forward to connote that she is hiding her mediated face from the audience; also the colour of her hair is brown which is associated with depression and conservatism. 

EDITING EXPLAINED

Digipack Photo Shoot

Here are the pictures we took of our protagonist Halimah Ali. We took these pictures at her house on a white background, the reason for this was because when we would edit the pictures on Photoshop we would be able to put any background on the pictures. 

We arranged for our protagonist to wear red and black as these are two contrasting colours which go really well with each other. For example red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, it is also a colour associated with energy, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Black is associated with power and elegance and gives the feeling of perspective and death. The connotations of these two colours goes really well with our narrative which is portraying how girls in society should not be influences by the media and act in ways which they are not.

Shot 1:

Shot 2:

Shot 3:

Digipack Font Ideas

In this post I will be explaing the diffrent types of fonts and text we will be considering for our own digipack.

Idea 1:

We thought that the font of the artist's name on the front cover of the digipak, as well as the album name should be in capital letters. This would help draw the audience's attention to the digipak.

We tried using this font, called 'Death in the Shadow' from the website DaFont.com with the decided album name, 'Keep Real' as well as the artist's name.

The album name would be 'Keep Real', because of the lyrics being repeated in the song and because of its relevance to our narrative.

The font, 'Death in the Shadows' appealed to us because we thought it was looked flowy and soft. However, we thought that this wouldn't be suitable for our digipak because it was too fancy. We wanted the font to look more bland/plain and utilise an original type font, even though this one complemented Dream Pop codes and conventions in terms of the curls and loops in the font above, depicting an almost 'fairytale' feel.

Idea 2: 

Here is another font style we have considered to use which is called "bellota". The reason for this font choice was the simplicity but neat finishing. 

This is how the font looks like when we write our protagonists name. As you can see it looks very simplistic but attractive to the female audience. It also spaces the letters out and signifies that each letter has a specific meaning. We have planned to use this font on the front panel of our digipack but not as the main title, however on the left hand side horizontally. 

Digipack Image Ideas

FRONT PANEL

One of the ideas we had of making our own digipack front panel is to use a 'reflection of our protagonist Halimah Ali in the mirror with make up on one side and no make up on the other. The reasoning behind this specific choice is because we want our target audience to visually see that our protagonist is critical of herself and her identity. This picture will also give away a story beforehand to our target audience and will influence their decisions on buying our album cover.

Idea 1:

The picture to the left shows the effect we are willing to create on our album cover. This is because our main aim of our Main task is to illustrate that girls shouldn't be influenced by anyone in society or anything. We would be able to create this effect by using Adobe Photoshop on the iMac.

Idea 2:

This is a sketch of my protagonist Halimah Ali looking into the mirror. I used this idea because I wanted to show my target audience how girls should not get influenced by society but be themselves. Therefore the reflection portrays the protagonist with and without makeup to show how society has constructed her on the right and who she really is on the left.



































Idea 3:

This is another idea we sketched out which goes against the makeup vs non makeup idea. This is a simple shot of our protagonist laying in the leaves like in our music video. We thought that this would also be an attractive eye catcher for our target audience because the mis en scene is very unusual and the colour green helps the subject stand out and signifies nature and purity.  We decided to use a close up because this shot composition helps facial expressions and features more clear for the audience to see.

































BACK PANEL

Idea 1:

Idea 2:

Dream Pop Digipack Research and Deconstruction

In this post I will be undertaking some research into Dream Pop Digipacks.

Developing some front cover ideas for the digipak I knew I needed to look at some existing examples to distinguish the conventions a dream pop digipak, so that what we produce is  is a successful digipak that will appeal to people who listen to dream pop music. 

MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

Top Left

On the top left of the digipack we can see that the designer has chosen to go for a white background, this has connotations of simplicity and purity. This could suggest to the buyer that this album is going to be soothing to listen to and gives a sense of reality. The colours of the CD is grey with a handwriting font style which is coloured in black. It almost seems like someone has handwritten the name of the album and could have connotations of reality and not something that has been constructed by technology.

Bottom Left

The bottom left of the digipack is the back of the digipack, we can see this because there is also a barcode on this panel which makes it more clear. The designer has used a close up shot of the protagonist, this shot magnifies the protagonist and shows the importance of her in this album. We can see she is leaning back with a strong expression on her face, this could suggest she is a strong character who doesn't fall for things easily. The other songs in this album have also been curved into her hair which makes the album look attractive and interesting to look out because the buyer will have to turn the album around to read the names. The use of the colour white over a black background helps the audience to read the text easily and also makes the test stand out. The font style is also very unique as it looks like the protagonist may have handwritten it for her buyers. 

Top Right
The front panel has the her stage name and the name of the album The Family Jewels, in the same typography but in a smaller font. this dominates the the cover against the rich gold, green and purple floral background.

Dream Pop Album Cover Research and Deconstruction

In this post I will be deconstructing typical Dream Pop genre Album covers.

As you can see above I have created a selection of Dream Pop album covers arranged into a mood board. Here you can see the colours, textures and styles used to promote products based on the music genre, Dream Pop. We plan to use this as inspiration when designing our own album cover.

Analysing Dream Pop Album Covers

Dream pop is "an atmospheric sub-genre of alternative rock that relies on sonic textures as much as melody". Common characteristics are breathy vocals and use of guitar effects, often producing a "wall of noise".

FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE 'LUNGS'

FISHLIGHTS

FREDERIC DELARUE'S 'REFLECTION'