This is Fatboy Slims digipak cover, who is a big beat artist. This digipak relates to our genre as Chemical Brothers genre was also big beat and also relatable to other genres eg electronic music, breakbeat hardcore/techno. The font type of the artists name is relatable to the genre and audience as it got a funky/techno type feel it is also quiet a large size which makes it stand out. There is mixed imagery on the front cover there is an image of an overweight boy which makes it unusual and different. Usually digipaks of this genre do not have the artists image but it has a differnet image that attracts the main audience.
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Madonna's video 'Hung up' influenced me the most because it was the most suitable for our genre 'dance' as it portrayed a lot of movement and dancing. The aspect that influenced me the most was the use of camerawork as when Madonna was dancing it was like the camera was following her in rotation and getting her from different angles. I was influenced by the movement, fluidity and dancing of the Madonna and the dancers. The camera filmed the body parts of Madonna and that's what we've done with the belly dancer which is a clear link, convention. We decided to use the convention of the dancers however in Madonna's video there's a part with slow motion but we decided to speed up the dancing which I thought was very effective. We used intercutting from long shots to close ups to create a fast-paced movement of the dancers to the beat of the song. In our video we use different locations with different shot types and angles which Madonna's video also uses. We was also influenced by the video DMC 'It's like that' we used the convention of movement and dance again however we challenged the convention of the dancing as in the video they dance against each other in groups (boys vs girls) but we used only 1 dancer. In the video there is a shot of the boys feet movement in trainers dancing to the song which we used in our video of the dancers feet movement. The locations are very similar as there is graffiti walls in both videos, however in DMC's video they are dancing in an old warehouse factory of some sort. This also shows a clear difference between the two videos as Madonna's video has a classic feel to it and our video is contemporary, more modern to the generation.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement) ?
I think the combination of my video, digipak and advertisement is effective in creating a clear visual link, however I believe that I could of produced a better, more effective ancillary products such as using the same font types and colours to suit the genre. A clear, visual link (key prop) is the 'Don't hold back' t-shirt that links with the digipak front cover and the advert. As there is a main part in the video with this t-shirt which is very recognisable as the main words of the song is 'Don't hold back'. This was a direct visual link, a strong base from the video to the ancillary products. In the video the image was in black and white however the t-shirt colour was red so I decided to make the words in red on the digipak and the advert. A clear, visual link is that I used imagery from the video and used it for the ancillary products which I believe makes it recognisable for the audience. I have also used imagery of the dancer in mixed, graffiti effect on the back cover of my digipak which the audience will notice as it is eye-catching and it is a big part of the video this also establishes the genre 'dance' as the audience will know what kind of cd they will be buying. The movement, dancers from our video is reflected on the digipak which the audience will recognise them as linked products. I think my main (video) was extremely successful, and ancillary texts we're also successful, however could be improved by the use of font types. I think my target audience would be attracted to them as I have used the same imagery and colours throughout the video and ancillary products.
Advert
Digipak front cover
Video
Digipak back cover
3. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
For the construction of our video we used the video cameras to film at our locations using memory cards and hard drives to put the filming onto the computer.
We used the lighting kits when filming at the location at it was dark so we needed to create a clear shot.
I used the Mac computers to construct and research eg internet (blogger) for research eg Youtube to embed videos for research and Google, planning and evaluation.
I used Photoshop for the construction of my ancillary products used for inputting images, effects and text
Final Cut Pro for editing the video which includes a variety of shots.
I also used my mobile phone (the video camera) to take a video of the audiences reaction to our video.
We did an animatic storyboard which shows all the locations and shot types we we're going to use in our video.
This is at the beginning when editing in Final Cut when I was inputting images and setting the size it would be on the digipak.
4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The audience in the cinema reacted extremely well to our video we received excellent comments and a lot of clapping, which made us feel even better as all our hard work had paid off.
This is two of the comments I received after the cinema screening which she said very good points and aspects of the video such as the different shot types, dancer and the belly dancer which came as a surprise as it was inspected this made me happy as I believe it's good to surprise the audience and produce an unexpected outcome as an hip-hop dancer and belly dancer is two separate dance types. I am happy to produce a different video from all the other groups. Most of the feedback we received was different than the other groups as we used a different style such as including flashing imagery, fast-paced editing to the beat. Thr narrative of our video was extremely strong as we didn't use the same shots repetitively we used a variey of different shots of the belly dancer, boy doing grafitti, street dancer and the Dj. We only received one improvement which was to improve the lighting in the Dj box as it was a bit too dark so it didn't stand out as much. However, if we was to do it again I would make sure the lighting was more effective and the image was clearer.
This is the statistics, audience ratings I got from Vimeo. The statistics show our video has been watched a lot which is very good, however we haven't received any comments yet.
In conclusion I've learnt that it is very important to create a clear, visual link between the main and ancillary products so the audience will recognise the product and the genre.
These photos are in my shortlist for my digipak because it relates to our audience and genre. Our genre is dance so I decided to use photos that show dance and movement. The grafitti is very relatable as it is also in our video.
This is just two of the comments we received after the cinema screening of our video. We received excellent comments and feedback from other students it was all very positive as this showed all our hard work had paid off. I was extremely happy with the feedback I received as this proved to be a very good pop video.
Use a clear/similiar font type throughout digipak and advertisement which relates to genre
Use clear/appropriate images for your genre
Use same layout
Don't
Stretch images as they will be out of focus
Use unnecessary effects as it might not relate to the genre
Use different fonts that doesnt relate to the genre
Font - Electro/techno type
Colours - black/yellow/red
Layout and Design
Electric hazard symbol on the front cover which relates to the song title of an electric current as it shows movement and also relates to the genre 'dance'
'Galvanize' - main song title underneath means electric current
Back cover
Image of waterloo/grafitti wall
'Don't hold back' - main song words underneath
Track list '10 song titles' - on the left
Bar code - bottom left
Record Labels/producers - next to barcode
Copyright
Year of production
Writer
This is my planning page of my digipak and advertisement. I have written all the information I will be including in my digipak and advert. I think it is very important to plan and get all your ideas together before starting to produce the digipak and advert. Planning has helped me alot as I know what to do and also how to make it better.
In this lesson we had a tutorial on holw to use Photoshop and Quark as we'll need to use these programs to produce a Digipak and advertisement.
I learnt how to put effects and text on the image and learnt how to crop the image to make it fit into the panels of my digipak. This lesson was helpful as I learnt how to do different things which will make my coursework better.
Personally i think the rough cut video is 'good' but not at its best standard yet. Even though there is still much more to add on and highlight our editing techniques, there are some shots that need to be either taken out or edited to make it look more stylish and continuous. At the moment it looks simple and implies a sense of amateurism. Conversely, when we add the the rest of the shots and create an impact on the editing to portray the shots slick and up to beat; the music video theme would sit into its place and would be enjoyable to watch.-
( Bilal Salli )
I think the rough cut is good but the main problem is that it's unfinished. We need to include a variety of different shot types eg close ups of Jack doing the grafitti, add special effects to give it a class-looking production. The main critism we received from the teachers is that it was unfinished, however they did really like the editing of different locations.
Of course the main problem with our rough cut so far is that it is unfinished.Bearing that in mind,I still feel that it is a solid piece of work.I think the main thing to take away from this cut is the fact that it creates a solid foundation in terms of the sequencing and pacing for our music video.For example the alternating between shots of the graffiti scene,to the shots of our dancer were a result of editing to the beat and seeing what fitted each part of the song the best.It also helped our storyline of the song and this is where the 'pacing' comes in.So far the first minute and a half of Galvanize is building up to a slow paced 'drop' in the middle in which the speed of the music changes drastically.To contrast with our fast paced editing in the beginning, we are planning to use our footage of the bellydancer in the middle.We are most likely going to add some effects to this sequence,so far we are thinking either/both slow motion and a strobe light effect to make the shots feel as though they were coming from a lively club.This also acts as a mechanism to make people forget about our shots of me spraying graffiti from earlier on,so when we go back to them towards the the second half of the video, they will feel more fresh in the minds of the viewer.This diversity of shots and locations we stop the video from getting stale halfway through.We have the amount of filming we did to thank for this.
The main criticism we have received so far from our teachers have been about the sequence towards the end,from about 1:14 to 1:29.Although the concept is good and I think it fits in well with the pace and feel of the video, the shots here last a bit too long and will need to be edited.This is an editing issue, not a footage issue,so this should be an easy fix.Perhaps we could start by playing around with the order of the shots a bit more and experiment with it.
