Evaluation Question 1 - Draft

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

Hollow's new music video 'The Look' has been under speculation from many critics suggesting that the failure to create a unique video will have a detrimental effect on how much viewers will enjoy the piece. With recent news of this, the bands director Tarun Solanki and his producers have quickly come the the bands rescue with a quick fire, defensive response to protect the bands integrity from the disappointing reviews. The following statement has been received via email in the last few days.

Having read the many reviews that the video has received this recent week for it's failure to challenge pre-existing forms and conventions I felt I had to reply with my own thoughts. Firstly, the success of a piece of work such as a music video is not dependant the originality of it. Secondly I feel it is clear that our video challenges the conventions of a modern video as the song itself is upbeat and quirky whereas we have stripped the video right down so it is focused on the actual music itself. Also the deadpan facial expressions again allows no attention to be lost from the song. Our extensive research proves that we have used and developed forms of real media products. We have re-developed all of our favourite ideas in a different format to create what we feel is a top quality video that our audience demands. We knew what we intended to do and combining what we feel were the culminating parts of videos and re-interpreting them is how we came to construct our video.

The pictures below prove where we have found our inspiration but also are evidence of how we have changed our video to suit our style and make it unique. It is obvious to viewers that there was a heavy influence from the band Metronomy from their video from the song "The Look". We liked their setting of a plain studio so that the focus was on the music and the band. However our video differs from theirs in many ways. We wanted to strip it back even more and opted for a black and white effect as we felt it was captivating and challenged the conventions of many music videos of our indie/alternative genre. These include Mentronomy - The Look and Vampire Weekend - A-Punk. Both of these videos have colour and have a quirky touch to them. However we didn't want to target our audience in this way. We felt to really exploit the music we needed to have our video in black and white and to coincide with this we had every band member emotionless. The deadpan expressions leave the band looking removed and detached and you could say this follows the band name of being "hollow" and having no emotion in them.

 The screenshot of Vampire Weekend - A-punk shows how they have a colourful theme  and the video is quick paced and they have sped up dancing. This is the opposite to our video as we have a basic black and white visual and our video speed is slow to not effect the focus of the viewer listening to the song. They have all the band members wearing a different colour and standing out from the background. We liked this idea and felt that we should have each band member in different clothing (top). However we felt that to look effective that all the band members should wear black jeans as seen in The 1975 - Girls video. Another way we have developed conventions of another real media product would be through the setting/studio we decided to film in. In all the examples below they are based in a plain white studio to focus on the band. However we decided it was better to have a smaller studio as it helps focus in on the band members and them playing the music as I keep saying. Our main priority is for the viewer to really see the music not just hear it and we felt that The 1975 achieved this best which is therefore why we were guided/inspired by their idea.

It has also been suggested that the Advert and Digipak use conventions of Foster the People's posters. We did take inspiration from Foster the People after seeing this poster. We felt seeing as the video was so basic and plain that we would challenge modern mainstream conventions by switching it up and having a brighter enticing colour scheme but still sticking to the simple theme and this explains why our digipak isn't busy. We liked the colour scheme however we decided we didn't like the image and therefore after testing various images we dropped the idea and went for a simple yet quirky look.

Evaluation Question 2 - Draft

When creating my digipak and magazine advert I wanted them to reflect the band in a different way. In the video, the band are very emotionless and detached. This was to create a dramatic affect that would hook viewers and also I feel it looks more professional. It is also very different to what you would expect to see coinciding with the song therefore we thought it would be contradicting and make people interested to watch the video. However in the design of my digipak and advert I wanted to truly represent the bands quirkiness. Therefore I created the digipak and advert in bright, scintillating colours to stand out and try to represent the band in a different way.

The digipak and advert are identical with the style I created. This is because I wanted to keep the simple yet quirky theme. My draft digipak and advert are completely different. My draft has dull boring colours (brown/grey) and the colours did not work well together. The font was poor and didn't express the band how I had intended or express a band/style whatsoever for that matter. After some well needed feedback I was able to completely redevelop my digipak and advert for the final version. I got rid of the amateur font and found a font that represented the bands odd culture and indie style more effectively. I took inspiration from an advert I found whilst looking at different indie bands' twitter pages. Foster the People had loads of different adverts and colour schemes. I chose a colour scheme myself that I liked and complimented each other and made my final version.

However with my final video I decided that a black and white colour scheme would be more suited as we wanted the audience to feel the unconventional and unusual theme of the band in a different way.The deadpan expressions also adds to the detached feeling of the video. I feel this combination between my digipak/advert and final music video is something that not often happens and is different in a good way. The controversial change in colour scheme is the band being represented in a different way. The colours of the digipak and advert truly represent the indie and peculiar personality of the band. Whereas the music video was made to be emotionless to look more professional and smart, as I feel it adds a clean crisp finish to the video. Although this idea is unusual, Peace have used a similar idea. Their video "Lost on Me" starts with a plain white colour scheme whereas all of their advertisement campaigns are full of vibrant colours.

Evaluation Question 3 - Draft

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

The overall feedback for our video was good. Both our teachers Mr Ford and Mr Smith liked our styling for the video as it fitted the genre we were trying to portray. I feel the teachers feedback is the most important as they have the most knowledge of the subject and can mark our work like the exam board would. Both the teachers liked our draft video and explained how we could improve it. The feedback we received helped us as they liked our drummers deadpan facial expression. We then used this feedback and improved our final video and made sure that throughout the video all of the band had deadpan facial expressions. Other feedback we received was that we should make sure all of our camera shots had a consistantly professional look. This meant more use of the tripod and more precise angles making sure all of the band members were balanced correctly in the frame.  I also got feedback from all of my friends that are the target audience we were aiming our video at. They all enjoyed the video and gave us good verbal feedback. Some of the feedback we received included; liking our fashion/costumes for the video, liking the black and white theme, liking the detached emotionless effect. I also got feedback from family, they all enjoyed it. Especially my brother who is a media student also. He fits the target audience that we are trying to attract (indie/alternative) and he thought it was a really interesting video. He said he liked the attention to detail and the research behind being able to look like we are playing the instruments properly.

For my draft design of my digipak, I recieved feedback off my teachers and many of my peers. The general feedback was very critical and showed me where I had gone wrong and how I could change it. The feedback included, changing the colour of the digipak, this was because it was dull and boring and had no thought or reasoning behind why it linked with the media I was trying to produce. Also the font was wrong and didn't have the quirky edge that would be expected from an iconic indie band. I also hadn't placed the bar code in a very good place and it was wrongly sized. The record label wasn't on my digipak either. All of the above led me to change my digipak and advert completely. Also with feedback from my peers, they helped me decide that I need to include a lot more colour in my digipak and poster. This is because they explained to me that I need to keep my digipak and advert simple but I need to incorporate an unconventional theme such as use of colour which differs from the anti-climatic theme in the video and coincides with the song that can be heard. I then recieved feedback from my peers for my final product. My peers like that I have changed the unimaginative theme with a more bizarre theme and that the digipak and advert looks like it fits the song that can be heard.

Evaluation Question 4 - Draft

Evaluation Question 4 (Media)

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

New band Hollow have released their first music video featuring the song "The Look", however the music video has come under a lot of criticism due to the fact that the video looks very similar to the original piece. The director and producers have received many complaints about the video not being new/fresh in the music world. Now the director and producers have composed this letter to state why their music video is not "copying" other music videos and why.

Since the release of our first music video "The Look" by Hollow, me and my co-workers have been receiving a lot of criticism about the video stating that we have copied the original piece. Working with my co-workers and the band themselves, we wanted to create a music video that would homage the original video and that would develop and challenge it to make it modern and suit our target audience. We did extensive research and planning meaning that we had a huge amount of inspiration and ideas from the videos that appealed to us, so when producing the video we used ideas that we liked and challenged them. So for people saying we copied the original music video we have gathered ideas that we liked to make a music video that would be enjoyed by our target audience.


 We were heavily influenced by the original music video by Metronomy and Vampire Weekend as they both have their music video in a white studio, we thought that the video would look best with a plain background as the viewers are able to focus on the band rather than what's going on around them. As an establishing shot we wanted to have a static long shot of the band as it gives the video a sense of style. Hollow themselves wanted this shot as it fits in with their look and how they want people to view them. We have also used other conventions from our inspiration as you can see with the position of the band members, having them spaced out gives the video a simplistic feel as if all the band members are playing their instruments separately and this is what we wanted the viewer to think when watching the video. However in the facial expressions of the band members we wanted to show no emotion, so we went for a dead pan look to archive this goal. That is where we have developed or challenged other music videos because in any other music video the band members are usually have a lot of enthusiasm and many facial expressions and in ours there is no facial expression. This gives the video a very simplistic yet stylish look. Doing a performance video is another convention we have used, inspiration came from Peace- "Lost on me" and many other band videos, however I don't feel that we copied them as we have a very minimalistic video where as they have energetic performance videos. The shots as you can see from the video are editited to fit in with the beat of the song, this is so that all edititing feels semless when watching the video . All music videos follow three narrative forms: narrative, conceptual or, performance. We are just using what has been successful for many other bands.

We as a producers of the music video felt that we wanted the video to look retro and simplistic, to do this we added black and white colouring, we felt that it fits in with the tone of the song as it is very simple. The black and white colouring adds class and professionalism to the video. Doing a good amount of research also helped us making this decision, bands such as The 1975 use this colouring in their videos and it is also used in many successful songs. Again we are not "copying" we are just using developing conventions and not the first to do so.

The digipak and magazine advert use the same conventions as most digipaks and magazine adverts. It uses the convention of having a picture, however like some digipaks the picture does not relate to the band its just a picture that we thought would go well on the digipak and advert. This is challenging the convention as many album covers relate to the band. The picture it self is in a way challenging the normal conventions as it uses a well known toy to replace people, whereas in mainstream digipaks they have people.





EVALUATION 2.- Tarun

When creating my Digipak and magazine advert I wanted them to look similar to the band and try and reflect them in a way. As seen in the music video the band do things differently because they have a dead pan face and are not very energetic, so I wanted to used something else rather than people in this case a Lego figure. The Lego figure links in with the music video as we have a lively song however the band have no energy and very stiff in their movements, so using the Lego figure in a place where its not meant to be and doing something it shouldn't links to the music video because the band are behaving different. I also wanted to use a Lego figure as it is different and not been done before by another band, this means that it will stand out from other ancillary text. The picture that I've used on my ancillary text correspond with the title of the song which is "The Look" as the Lego figure is looking for the perfect picture around the city of Leicester.

I wanted to carry the minimalist tone of the video over to my ancillary text so I went for a simple layout of text, and my picture, I did this so that people will know that I am going for a simplistic look. The colouring on my ancillary matches the colour used in the music as I have used black and white colouring on both. Using black and white allows the viewer to know that all three products link, however on my ancillary text the picture is in colour.

When designing my ancillary text I wanted to make links between all three products so that a sense of branding was created. I feel that using a Lego figure will add exclusivity to the band Hollow and people will know when they see that figure they will know which band that relates to. It was difficult trying to link all three products together but by using a simple tone to them and adding the Lego figure to the ancillary text I feel that sense of "branding" has been created.

Evaluation Question 3- Tarun

The feedback we received regarding our draft music video was good. Our teachers Mr.Ford and Mr.Smith both liked the styling of the band as they fitted with the genre of music we chose. On one of our band members face they had a deadpan face, which both teachers thought looked really well so when re-filming for our final video we decided to make all the band members have a deadpan face. The camera work and framing of the shots was also praised as they all looked good. The only problem was trying to make sure that the band members were playing at the right time so that it fitted in with the music . I think that the feedback from the teachers is the most important as they know what the exam board are expecting and they can give back the best short of feedback saying what we have done well and what needs improvement. I wanted to get more feedback so I asked friends and family that were not in the target audience, they all liked the music video and thought that it fitted of genre of music really well. This feedback is also important as the people I asked were not our target audience but still enjoyed watching the music video. Lastly we had feedback from the rest of our peers and again they all enjoyed it and thought that the shots were framed well and that all band members fitted the genre really well. When asking people that fitted with our target audience they really liked what we did with the band members as it was something they had not seen before with such a lively song. They felt that all band members fitted great with the genre of music and gave a great performance.


The feedback that I received for my draft digipak and magazine advert from my peers was good, they thought that I had a unique idea and the concept of the picture. However there were some concerns about it, my peers were concerned on how I was going to take striking picture like the ones on my digipak and magazine advert. This was the same for the feedback that I got given back from the teachers, as they wanted to know how I was planning to take pictures similar to the ones on my digipak. They had also pointed out to me that I had missed out inportant features on my digipak such as the legal requirements and the record company label. For my final magazine advert and digipak my peers commented on it saying that my pictures were not as striking as the draft versions but the layout of it was completely better than the draft. The font on the final version was much better then the draft because it matched the genre of music more and fitted well with the pictures. I feel that comments and feedback from peers especially ones who are not in our target audience are important because they can identify if it looks like a digipak or not and this can really help when designing it.

Evaluation Question 4

Apple mac computer- This was the computer I used to do most of my work on this includes researching, editing, designing and much more. This computer was very helpful to me as it had all the software on it for me to complete the tasks that I was set. Having this piece of equipment has made it easier for me to complete our video as it is easy to use, fast and people can get to grips with it fast. This allows for the process of researching, editing and evaluating much more quicker and productive.

Final Cut Pro- This is an editing software that we used on the Mac to edit our video, I had never used this software before so I found it difficult at first to edit, however after having a couple of turns to edit myself I got to grips with the basics of the software and then it became much more easier for me to edit the video. We found out how to change the colour of the footage and thought that Black and White colouring would fit nicely with our video. Also we added a fade out at the end of the video as it ended the video nicely.

Photoshop- I had used photoshop in the previous year creating my magazine so when it came to designing and making my digipak and magazine advert I knew I had the skills to make good work. This made the process much quicker for myself as I did not have to ask the teacher many questions about Photoshop. By using the skills I had learnt from the previous year I knew that choosing the right colours and font is very critical to making these products look professional, so I used what I knew to make the best possible digipak and magazine advert I could.

The Panasonic HC/V700 full HD was the camera I used when filming our music video, I borrowed it from the colleges media department so that I could capture footage for our music video. The camera is at a good quality and made the shot within the music video to be clear, there was a problem with the battery life but we worked around that issue. We were able to get many different kinds of shots with this camera e.g. long shots and close ups.

Tripod- I used the tripod so that our still shots could be recorded with out any shaking and make the shots look much more professional. The great thing about the tripod was that it allowed me to adjust the hight and angle of the shot we were filming and this was a very useful feature for me.

Microsoft word- I used this software to do pieces of work such as the risk assessment and the days itinerary, it is very easy to use and would help me if I made any grammar mistakes.

Scribd- This is a website that allows people to upload their word documents on and then share it online, it was useful to me because it looks more professional on the blog.

Google- This was the search engine I used when in the research and planning stages of my work, it allowed me to find information on the internet and also get images off it.

Blogger- I used Blogger so that I could post my work online for people to see, I'm very comfortable using blogger now and its a good way to post my work online as my teachers can comment on it straight away. This would allow me to improve on my work at any time.

Phones- The phones were used to make our bands Twitter account, take pictures when we were filming and communicate with each other.

Facebook- We used Facebook so that we could message each other, informing each other if things changed.
YouTube- YouTube was used a lot during our research and planning as we used it to get inspiration from other existing bands. We also used YouTube to upload our draft and final video so that people around the world are able to view our work. 

Evaluation Question 1

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

Hollow's newly released music video " The Look ", has been subject to some scrutiny and prompted a handful of critics to question their originality claiming it  " Reduces viewer enjoyment " as its similarities to the original piece seem somewhat coincidental. Band members are yet to respond to these disapproving reviews, however director Tarun Solanki and producers of Hollow's new video have hit back promptly at these accusations earlier this week with this innovative letter stating their case.

Having read a number of negative,pompous reviews which criticise Hollow's latest music video " The Look " for its parallels to the original video and its diverse approach to a modern music video, I as the producer and my colleague Tarun where left rather infuriated. I believe firstly it is worth stating that the success of any piece of work is not determined by its originality. And secondly significantly pointing out the inaccuracy of these claims -  while our music video challenges the conventions of a modern music video its diverse approach opposes many mainstream conventions. From the get go, myself, Tarun and the band where aware that we were creating a product which was an amassing of various pre-existing alternative videos and of course the original video itself. Our widespread research enabled us to gather inspiration from a range of work the matched our genre and appealed to us as neutrals, and subsequently allow us to produce a music video which included our favourite ideas. Therefore, the coming together of our video was not accidental as we consciously researched and studied to produce a product that met our target audience's demands.

Most notably, we were influenced by Vampire Weekend and their song " A-Punk " and also of course we took influence from the original video by Metronomy, which was set in a plain white studio along with our other influences. The use of static long shots to film the location and layout of the band interested us, as it seemed to give the video a slick, professional look which corresponds with Hollows styling and image. Similarly we chose to film our video in a plain white studio, which would maintain the focus of our video on the band and the styling rather than say a picturesque setting. This was in an attempt to get an overall stylish impression and designed feeling which is what was mostly important to us. There are obvious comparisons to our music video and the other examples I have mentioned as there is a distinct symmetry in the line-up of the bands. Additionally, as a band we decided to use a deadpan facial expression to add a minimalistic feel to our video but also to enable the viewers to focus on the artists in the band which we feel was a successful part of the original video. Another result of our in depth research into all these artist that match our genre, we decided to make a performance style video. Aside from the original video and Vampire Weekends " A-Punk " we also enjoyed Peace's " Lost on me " and considered the making of these videos to be mostly down t their quirky performance style. Having said this, i do not believe that Hollow's music video can be accused of " copying " as we made the executive decision to completely strip back our video and make it very monotone giving our own stamp on a performance video. Also music videos generally only ever use one of three styles: narrative, conceptual or,performance- we were simply prompted by pre-existing bands to choose a performance style as it had been so successful.

We as a band decided to put a diverse twist on a modern music video, so we incorporated a black and white feature to our video to give the video a retro, monotone feel which we thought made the video look very effective. But of course it wasn't just an off the cuff decision, we looked in depth and it was apparent many modern day artists of all genres had given their videos this black and white feature and have turned out to be some of the worlds most popular songs, therefore as much as we "challenged" the conventions it is clear that we weren't the only ones to do so.

The Digipak and Magazine Advert that Hollow recently released reflected their music video heavily, it stuck to the minimalistic approach the video showed and also maintained the black and white theme using this as the colour pallet for both digipak and advert. As the music video was all about the band again we tried to challenge some conventions as we didn't prioritize the band on the digipak and advert so therefore was unnecessary to use photography. This stereotypically challenges mainstream Digipak and Magazine adverts conventions which normally feature imagery of the band/artist using their looks as the main selling point. Again through research it came to our attention that indie/alternative bands also detract attention away from the appearance of the band and focus more on their " Artistry ". Foals, The XX and Arctic Monkeys are all prime examples of this style of advertising.

Evaluation Question 2 draft

How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

When designing my digipak and advert, I chose a very minimalistic and simple approach where i decided to have no imagery on either product, just a self created design and minimal text. I had seen this same style used among other artist such as "The XX" and "Arctic Monkeys" and thought it looked very effective. I also looked deeply into our main product, our music video and felt as though the minimalism that my digipak and advert showed corresponded well with the video. I consider our music video to be very minimalistic as the band are using a deadpan facial expression, and the monochrome clothing and use of black and white gives a simplistic visual connecting my main product with my ancillary texts.

Additionally, after messing around with my digipak various times, i decided to have the name of the band and album name in bold lettering, but more importantly i used a black and white colour pallet which coincides with our music video as its in black and white which again links the product and my ancillary texts together.

The main thing that links these two together is the framing of both products as it is quiet precise. We worked tirelessly to storyboard our video and when filming worked together in order to create some shots that would be framed in an interesting but specific way. And this is emulated in my digipak and poster as i also attempted to give them the look that they were polished and refined. Occasionally during the making of my digipak and poster i used the grid tool on Photoshop to attempt to line things up correctly, which was emulated on final cut when editing the video as we used the crop tool to crop shots ensuring they fit into the frame.

My main aim throughout the process was to keep the minimalistic feel, but also incorporate the retro feel which is highlighted in the video by the instrumentation in the song that we chose. And this links the products together as this retro minimalistic feel is mirrored on my digipak and advert by the choice of modernist 1920's-1930's font and graphology that i used.

Finally the lack of photography used is also typical of my genre as rather than being focused on the photography there is a distinct focus on the artistry rather than their appearance.This is emulated in the video, as all the members of the band are intended to show know emotion with a deadpan expression.

Evaluation Question 4 draft

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

Pre-Production:
- Blogger- this was the documentation of our work, it helped us give and receive feedback to and from our peers, and collect things that inspired us for our video. Teacher blogs where also a big help.
- Email - Enabled us to email our location to organise dates and times for us to book a studio.
- Google Chrome- Used for general research and gathering ideas.
- Youtube - Main source of inspiration, enabled us to view similar pre existing videos and instrument tutorials.
- Apple Mac, Windows, Standard HP computer.
- Animoto - Allowed us to inovativley produce our 25 word pitch.
- Google Images - Helped us to form ideas for our own video conceming ideas a variety of things such a styling and layout of the band.
- Paint- This helped us to save screenshots.

Production:
- Iphone 5s - for taking photos of filming on the day and behind the scenes.
- Four Artificial lights - This was used to make most shots brighter, reduce shadow and retain continuity.
- Panosonic HV/v700 full HD camera - Enabled us to achieve great, crisp shots with great clarity.
- Spotify- to play accompanying music when filming
- Photoshop - Used when we created magazine advert and digipak.

Post Production:
- Youtube- Used to post the draft and final video on.
- Final Cut Pro- Used to fully edit our video
- Blogger - Used to evaluate our experience , and used as a platform to exhibit the music video on.

Evaluation Question 1 - Draft

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

- Our product uses the conventional ideas from previous music videos such as a plain white background and all played in a studio. But, it also develops the idea by having a band with straight faces all the way through the shot with no emotion and limited movement. Also, by putting the video in black and white to make it more dramatic and emotional.
- We have loosely based a lot of our video on the music video to the song we are doing with the same setting of a white studio and the whole band playing in the same place. We have also done similar shots such as the one shown below of the whole band together and the length of the shots are similar with long slow changing shots which speed up as the song gets going. This is how we used mainstream conventions by basing our whole music video in a white studio with just the artists playing the song throughout the video. This is done in a numerous about of different music videos in order to amplify the music and to make it conjunct to the style of music. However, not all videos are just in a plain white studio as some are in a more dynamic setting but still has the same idea of amplification. For example the video for Sex by The 1975 has a similar style but in a more of a bedroom setting. 

- There are lots of different songs that just use a studio with the band for their video. But, we have made ours different and gone against some mainstream conventions by developing ideas by making the music video focus solely on the music that is being played. Bands have done this by just showing the artists playing the song in a studio all with their instruments and getting shots of all of them playing, similarly to our video. However, we have developed the idea and by having no emotion in the video from the players by having limited movement and deadpan faces it focuses even more on the music and makes it stand out a lot more.

- Researching different ideas we thought that a simple yet affective way of doing a music video would be for the best as we feel as it makes the idea of the band and the impression the artists are trying to get is enhanced a lot more with just having the band. I feel this is because it is simply just the band and nothing else to look at so the audiences attention cannot be drawn away by any other thing happening on screen other than the band playing. This is also helpful as the audience would be watching the music video and also listening to the music a lot more as they can physically see all the instruments being played and there is a lot less to draw their attention away from the music as well.

- For my digipak I have also gone for a simple yet affective idea. This is because, after a lot of research and self opinion, I have found out and also think that the less that is on a digipak and advert, the better. This is because that here is not too much to look and for the audience so they can have a quick look or glance and straight away know what it is supposed to advertise as it is an easy read. This means that it can get across the information needed quickly and easily and the audience will not get disinterested after looking at the advert for too long.
 

Evaluation Question 2 - Draft

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

When creating my digipak and advert I wanted something that would represent my band in a really good way and to also sort of mirror their appearance and style. I decided to go with a black and white simple design with minimal features on them. The reason why it is so plain and simple and is also in black and white is because it perfectly corresponds to our final music video. This is because the music video is in black and white which shows that it has matched already and it also has minimal features as it is just the band playing in a plain white studio. The reason why this works so well is that it shows the band is all about the music with this and the minimal features gets you straight to the point of what is going on and gives the audience a straight idea of the band and their music as soon as possible. Also with the lack of features it really makes the audience listen to the music instead of being distracted by other things going on either on the digipak and advert or in the music video.

The extra panels of my digipak also are combined with my final product. The extra panels are the ones with the lyrics to all the songs that would be included to the album. This shows that the artists really want their audience to learn their songs as well as possible and really appreciate the music for what it is and now what they look like or do.

When first designing my digipak and advert I was thinking about bright colours to go onto them but after a lot of thought and different research I found that black and white not only worked best together as a colour combination but also worked best compared to my final product as I feel as it reflects the band and the video well. Also, in our video we have dead pan expressions on our faces so I had to go for a darker colour or the digipak would not fit in with the style and also mood of the members of the band. The similarity of the band and the digipak really helps the audience see what kind of band it is and the genre they not only play but also look and act like.

The combination of the minimal look on both my digipak and advert and also my video is that it creates a more professional look for the band and helps the artists to be taken more seriously and also it looks a lot better than something that is too much as it could bring in the wrong target audience, such as a younger one, instead of the target audience that we were going for which was mainly teenagers and young adults.

Evaluation Question 3 - Draft

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our main feedback came from both of our A2 media teachers. This was some of the best feedback we received as they both have a very critical eye into looking at music videos and they can look out for what is good about them and also what is terrible. I feel as that the feedback from our teachers was the best as they know exactly what the exam board are looking for so we can get the best possible video with our audience and also the board liking it and looking professional. After having them viewed our draft video they had many opinions on it that helped us improve it as much as we possibly could to come up with our final product. For example in our first draft only one person in the band had a dead pan expression and the rest of the band looked very casual. They gave feedback that they thought that the dead pan idea was a good look. So after asking other peers that were in our target audience they all agreed that the dead pan expression was the best look. So to make our final product better we decided for the whole band to have the expression all the way through the music video. We decided to keep most other things the same as I had gotten feedback from people within and also not in our target audience who had seen our draft and they said that the shots were at good angles and the video really fit in well with the genre of the music and band. However, people did notice the shaking in some of the shots so that made us get the new recording equipment that we acquired for our final product, such as the shoulder attachment and the tri-pod so we could get extremely still and professional shots.

When I first designed a digipak and advert I received feedback from peers in and out of my target audience and also my teachers again. All of them said the exact same thing, that they did not fit in with my music video, artists or genre. This is because I had done minimalism but not the correct way. The colours were all wrong and also the fonts looked awful and all out of genre. So, when re designing my final digipak and advert I did a lot of research into what colours looked best myself and came up with black and white as they fit the best and also looked the best. However, when deciding on my font I asked many different people on their different opinions in what font they thought looked the best and also what they thought fit into my genre the best. I had come up with a lot of different fonts that I liked and came down to a final three fonts and I asked many different people including my teachers what they thought looked best, what they liked the most and which one fitted in with my genre the best. There was one that stood out the most out of all three of them for most people and was the one that was voted for the most. So, naturally that was the one I used for my final design.
Also, it was pointed out in my drafts that some critical parts were missing such as websites and also a record label to be on them both so I was able to put them both and also take off the 'iTunes' logo on the bottom of my draft advert as that is not normally put on the bottom of posters.

Evaluation Question 4 - Draft

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

Apple Mac Computer: We used an Apple Mac for researching, editing and literally doing all of our work on. Any research that was made that needed the internet or computer technology of any kind we did it on a Mac Computer. It had all the software we needed to do all of our work on and also the editing software that we needed to complete our video and make it look the best it possibly could.

Final Cut Pro: This is the editing software we used on the Mac to edit our draft and final video. None of us at first off were confident with the software as we had never used it before nor edited a video before. But, after some research on the software and a lot of practical practice doing practice videos we were able to work out how it worked and what we could do with our video using final cut and eventually we mastered it and produced our final video.

Photoshop: I also used Photoshop for the creation of my digipak and advert. I had used Photoshop before for my AS media coursework in creation a magazine so I already had the skills I needed to create a good quality digipak and advert. By using these previous skills I was able to make my digipak and advert to look exactly how I wanted with the best colour scheme as I could get, the best text I could use so there is no faults in them and they could look high quality and professional.

Blogger: Blogger was used to place all of my research and planning of the video on there. It was very helpful as all of my work was in one place and easy to find. It helped me place all of my research somewhere and track my progress as I went along.

Camera: The camera we used was a Panasonic HC/V700 full HD. The camera was provided by the school to be used for filming our draft and final music video. Watching back on the clips we got with this camera we can see that it very good quality with good focus and it helped us get the image and picture we were aiming for.

Camera Equipment: We used two pieces of equipment to attach the camera upon to get better, straighter, stiller and clearer shots than before. The large tripod was used for still shots that will need no requirement of moving and also the shoulder attachment which was used for the harder to get shots like the high angle shots and panning shots.

iPhone 5s: I used my phone to take the filming and behind the scenes pictures and also for other things like our story board and the printed lyrics. This was useful as it was quick and easy to get the pictures we took on the day on blogger as soon as they were taken.

Animoto: This is online and was used to create a short clip for my 25 word pitch. It was good as it make it easy to present my ideas and to show what we were going for from the beginning.

Safari/Internet Explorer: These were the two internets we used for literally anything that needed to be done online e.g. research, blogging, presentations etc. These mainly helped us with our research through allowing us to be able to watch lots of different music videos so we were able to see mainstream conventions of a music video, what was popular and what we could challenge. Also it allowed us to go onto many different websites to learn about different bands and styles which we could then use. It was also useful for presentation and blogging as it is quick and easy to blog from the internet and other online software could be used from the internet such as scribd and animoto so we could present our work.

Final Updated Digipak

Initial Digipak Idea

Second Filming Pictures

Filming Itinerary

Filming Day

Learning how to play other instruments

We have decided to watch these tutorials to help the band members look more like they are playing to give a better more professional finish.

Reflection Post - 25/11/2014

After receiving feedback on our first music video draft, the overall impression was positive and well liked. It was noted that the good points of the video where the performances of a few members, especially drummer Adam who was praised on his deadpan expression throughout the video and it was advised that all band members should copy Adam's approach. Our incorporation of the black and white feature was promising and complimented the video well. The styling of our band was the stand out thing in our draft, quote Mr Ford "The styling was impeccable" which is what are main aim was to ensure that the styling was on point, we also got comments on how well framed our shots where throughout the video which is down to our camera man Tarun. On to the negatives of our drafts and the points that where picked out, firstly it was Dino who wasn't looking directly at the camera on his solo performances and let his eyes stray. Another point was that the band need to set a specific order and stick to that , as during the draft the guitarists seemed to switch places a few times. Overall our draft was good just need a few minor tweaks to hopefully produce a level 4 video.

Video

We have decided to re-film our video on Friday the 5th of December to perfect our video and achieve a level 4.

Draft Video Feedback

Adam, Tarun, Jack, Dino (Matt) - Level 2

All the band need to deadpan the performance (see Adams face). Maybe to drum on first beat. Costume is appropriate, room works, most shots well framed.
Dino always look straight ahead!
Take care to keep order in line up.
We EXPECT level 4!
Singer has to be dead on, really on it and focused.

- Black and white works really well
- Styling is impeccable
- Don't bother with the walk (not essential to the success of the video)

Feedback from peers- Tarun

Feedback from peers-





















Feedback to peers-

Journey of Digipak

Image 1: Before designing our Digipaks i had a thought of using a picturesque setting for my image, like a quarry as i felt the randomness of it would suit the alternative theme as its pretty distinctive.

Image 2 : I continued with the quarry/picturesque theme again for image 2 , but this time from a different angle to get a different sense and view.

Image 3 : Image 3 goes away from the quarry theme and more onto a simplistic image of a tree but i liked the idea of the tranquil still black and white image.

Image 4/5 : These are my adaptations of a landscape/picturesque setting, but i didn't think it looked right.

Image 6 : This is me beginning to change my idea , I felt a more simplistic approach to my digipak would work a lot better.

Image 7 : This is a quote from Dieter Rams a graphic designer who works for Braun , who sums up my new approach to my digipak, where keeping it simple works.

Image 8 : I selected this image as i feel as though " Hollow " really means emotionless and empty.

Image 9 : At first i wanted to use a stencil font, but after some deliberation decided it wasn't really the font that suited my digipak, I then finally settled on a block font which fitted perfectly with the layout i was going for.

Image 10 : I felt as though black and white where emotionless colours so it fitted well with the theme of my digipak.

Image 11 : This is a Swim Deep album, this is the type of digipak that i'm going for it is very simple and using thew same colour pallet as me.

Image 12 : This image is my advert with the incorporation of the ideas and examples I have looked at
with my twist, I have attempted to keep it simple and minimalistic but also approach it with a stylish look and layout.

Image 13 : This is another example of a digipak I took inspiration from, it is of The 1975 album.

Image 14 : And my final example I took inspiration from is the iconic Arctic Monkeys AM album.

Image 15 : This is my final Digipak

Digipak Story

1. My first initial idea was to combine a sea blue colour with my advert but I didn't know how I wanted to do this yet.
2. I then felt that I wanted to in
clude something with a bit of thought behind it and thought about the band name "Hollow" and as caves are arguably hollow I went with this theme.
3. I had recently been on a geography trip to Dorset where we visited a beach called Durdle Door where I took a similar photograph of the arch seen above. I was planning to use this as it is hollow and a very capturing picture.
4. At this stage I wanted to make my advert black and white as I felt with this type of picture it would look mysterious and looming to capture my alternative audience.
5. Similar to picture number 5 I had seen some shoes hanging from a telephone line in Fleckney (an area not far from where I live). This had then inspired me to try and incorporate this in my digipak. It also can be a symbol where drug dealers go to deal so I felt this might be appropriate for some of the bands audience to associate with.
6. I was on my Twitter and I follow many bands of this genre and decided to have a look through their twitter pictures for some inspiration and came across this poster that I liked as it had combined the black and white theme and the blue ocean colour I had initially wanted to use.
7. At this point I had re-thought my whole idea and wanted to go with the dull colours that can be seen in this photo.
8. I am very keen on patterns including paisley which is where this photo comes from. I thought about using one of my shirts the has a paisley pattern and taking a photo of it but it didn't look right. I then attempted drawing a paisley pattern but it didn't look how I intended it too and I'm not a brilliant artist therefore I scrapped that idea.
9. Following on from the shoes over the telephone line idea my next thoughts was to go back to shoes. I had seen an interesting poster that used a white pair of vans with blood on and thought I might be able to recreate this with my converse however I didn't feel it looked professional how I was using it therefore I didn't use this idea for my digipak.
10. This was my draft. I had decided to scrap all of my previous ideas and go with a simple idea. However I feel this wasn't effective and I got constructive criticism from my classmates. The whole idea was wrong including the colour scheme, font and production company.
11. I was looking at bands on my twitter and found my first inspiration when I came across this poster. I liked the bright colours and felt my digipak needed something similar to this.
12-19. These images were all other things I had found on bands twitter profiles, mainly Foster the People's page. I liked the bight colours and wanted to incorporate this into my final digipak.
20. I had liked the idea of a fist on photo number 15 so I tried to replicate it and I put it on my final digipak but I removed it as I didn't feel it looked good enough and preferred the simple version I had made.
21. This is a Foster the People poster I found on their twitter page, I really liked the colour scheme and decided I would use this for my advert.
22. This is my final digipak.