Question four

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

To create my advance portfolio, technology has played a rather large role, which resulted in my knowledge of how to use different technology to develop. Where as in my foundation portfolio, I was using basic technology to create my research, planning and evaluation and also my main product which was a music magazine front cover, double spread contents and also a double spread article. The two programs I used in my foundation portfolio was PowerPoint and also Adobe Photoshop. Whereas the advance portfolio allowed me to use various programs to create the products. One of the main programs we used was PremierPro, this is what we used to create our music video in. This was a program in which neither me or my other group member knew how to use, so to over come this we had to do research on the internet which meant either watching videos people had created to show you how to use this program or simply reading an article on the troubles we were having. After watching the videos and reading up information, I quickly learnt how to use this new program. The type of camera we used to capture our video was a HD camcorder.  We chose to use these type of camera because we wanted the best type of quality for our video and by using a HD camera it abled us to do this because of the quality of the camcorder. However when we wanted to do some shooting of our video, we didn't always have access to a HD camcorder, because of the shortage of them in the class. Parts of our video was also created using photoshop such as the mind bubbles, which are shown below.

To create the mind bubbles we have firstly chosen a simple mind bubble shape from the options gave to use by photoshop, we have have then used the fill bucket to fill the outside of the mind bubble with the same colour of the green screen, so that that we are able to use the chrome key to get rid of the colour around the mind bubble just so that we are left with the mind bubble.
To then get the image inside the mind bubble we have used the magic wand tool to delete the inside of the mind bubble so that the image behind the mind bubble will then be shown through the mind bubble.



















To create our ancillary texts we used the program Photoshop, because we had used this program in our foundation coursework we both had a basic knowledge on how to use some of the tools that were available on the program. By already having this knowledge from the previous year it allowed us to transfer it into our advance portfolio to create our ancillary texts. Although I already had a basic knowledge on how to use this program, I also learned new skills on how to use the program. 
I have also used media technologies when producing the research and planning. My research was created using the internet, because to present my research I have used a website called Blogger.com which allows me to upload, pictures and video's which allows people who view my blog to see these. I have also been using YouTube to be able to watch other music videos so that I can analyse them and gain an understanding of them and to also come up with my own ideas to discuss with my other group member. 

Question three

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

To gain audience feedback we have asked some of our peers, to give advice on what they like and dislike on the video, we have also asked them to give constructive criticism. 
From the video above we have learnt that we have been able to interest our targeted audience with out video and that they are able to relate to our video because they could be going through the same problems. We have also learnt that people are able to recognise what type of techniques we have used and they also like how we have used them and that it keeps them more interested in the video.
However we have also learnt that some people would like to see more of a performance based video because they think it will relate better to our genre of music because this is what you most commonly see with this type of genre of music which is 'Pop Rock'. However we thought it would be a good idea to tell a story within the video so that our targeted audience can relate to the situation that is happening in the video, and we have succeeded in this part well. 

Question two

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?H
Both me and my group member Janna, feel that our main product and ancillary texts work well together because there are clear links between both the product and ancillary texts. One of the main reasons as to why they combine effectively is because we have used the same theme of confusion that men have during relationships. To do this we have created a mind bubble which is both in the video and on the poster and CD, the mind bubble in the video changes to images of different girls that the character in our video is thinking about, this is one thing that combines our main product anf ancillary texts because we have also put a mind bubble on the ancillary texts, with images of the girls from the video inside the bubble. The colours used in both our main product and ancillary texts are similar because in the video we have used colours such as red, yellow and green etc. to show envy and danger, we have also got hints of these colours on our ancillary texts because of the colours behind the title of the band on these and also the colours of clothing the girls are wearing in the images. 

We have also linked the inside of the CD case to our main product by having an image of liquid flowing, we have done this because in the video we have got a falling glass with liquid in which is spilling everywhere. It also relates to our main product because of what the song is called which is 'Liquid Confidence'. is

However the person who is on the front of our digipak and poster, is not the character who plays the role in the video, but is the person who sings in the video, we have chose to do to this because it is most commonly known that the singer will be on the front over of the digipaks and posters because these are what the fans will be looking for and will recognise, so we have decided to do it this way so that our 'fans' recognise that this video goes with the singer.

Question one

Evaluation

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

Within our media research, we have looked at the same and different types of genre of music to gain a full understanding of both conventions and forms of real media products, to be able to come up with ideas to put into our own music video. 

Within our research we have looked at different types of genres, to be able to find out how they would portray a 'failing relationship' and boys of the age of 15 to 25 are confused as to what they want and who they would like to be in a relationship with. The video in which we got inspiration from is Taylor Swifts 'You Belong With Me', we have got ideas from this video because the boy character is confused as to who he want's to be in a relationship with, so this is a convention we would like to show in our video because it is problems in which our audience can relate with. Another convention we have taken from this music video is that it is most typically the girl who get's hurt and is left behind and this is portrayed quite well in Taylor Swifts video because the character who Taylor Swift play's is a girl in which likes the main boy character but because he is confused as to who he wants to be with, he leads Taylor on giving mixed signals but the result to this is her being the one hurt. By doing this it helped us to gain an understanding of how to entice our audience to watch our music video if they were going through the same situation. To show these things in our video we have video the main boy character thinking about other girls whilst around his girlfriend and her getting upset about this, but we have also filmed them when the boy is in love with his girlfriend but that he is also confused, because he is confused about his feelings and a result of this is basically leading the girlfriend into false pretence that the relationship will last. 
Our fan base is both genders, who are teenagers to young adults. It also helped us to gain ideas for our video because of the age we are because, we could put in similar situations that had either happened to us or to people we know, by doing this it will help our audience to relate to the video more. 

A convention we have stayed away from is having the singer also play the role of the main character, we have chosen to do this because we wanted our video to be concept based, so that it gives the idea of a failing relationship and that it will also make our audience think about how they could go about situations like this.

Our video could also be considered stereotypical because, of the boy being confused as to what he wants, because it is most commonly known for the men aged between 15 to 25 to be confused to what they want, because they want both, as in be in a relationship and to be free and to be able to do what they want with out being hold down to one women. To show this in our video we have filmed the male character thinking of other girl's, to show this we have got the male character looking thoughtful and then there is a mind bubble coming from his mind, showing that he thinking of other girls, but the one girl who keeps coming back into his mind is his current girlfriend.  

video

Here is my group and mine final video, to 'Liquid Confidence' by You Me At Six

Evaluation of digipak

Digi Pak

Above is the final image of mine and my groups, inside of our digipak. The main image of the digipak is a photograph that myself and my other group member took ourselves, the photo is ink that we dropped in to water, so that it spreads in the water to create patters and swirls. We chose to have ink as our main image on the inside of the digipak because, we want it to represent the song title of 'Liquid Confidence' and by having the ink it represents this. We have chosen to have the image blocked out in mainly black because we wanted to create confusion when the audience look at this. We wanted to create confusion because in our video the main aspect is that the main character is confused as to what he wants, so we wanted to carry out the same aspect in this. We have then made the edges of the liquid glow a orange, yellow colour because we wanted it to represent, the colours worn by the girl actor in our video, which are warning colours. In our plan we was originally going to have the background plain white so that the main focus was on the liquid, but when it came to making the inside, we thought that with just the liquid it was creating enough confusion, so we have added in text behind it, however the text is lyrics taken from the other songs of the album. The Lyrics we have taken relate to our music video as well because they are mainly all about the boy actor being confused about how he feels and what he wants. 

Here is the final front and back cover of mine and my groups digipak. The first thing you notice on the CD is the image of the male on the right hand side, we have done this because he is the vocalist in the song, so we want the audience to know that the album is his and the viewers will be able to recognise who he is because he would of been in previous songs of the bands, we have also chosen to give him a glowing white edge because it makes him stand out more which will catch the viewers attention more. The next thing you notice is the mind bubble which is coming from the vocalists mind, in the mind bubble is images of different girls, we have chosen to have images of different girls because we want it to relate to the theme of the song of being decided and always tempted by other girls. The reason for overlaying the images in the mind bubble is to create confusion, because it represents that the mind can be a confusing place and that it is very crammed with thoughts and wonders. The name of the band is in the middle of the front cover but to the right slightly, with an image behind it of liquid, we have chosen to put an image behind the text because we want it to once again relate to the song.

Poster planning

Poster planning

Above is a scanned image of mine and my groups planning for our advertising poster of our digipak. For our poster we have taken exactly the same idea from the front of our digipak and added it to our poster with out changing anything, we have chosen to do this because we want it so that when people see the poster they will remember it when it comes to finding the CD because they would of all ready seen it. On the poster under the band name and the name of the album we will have in a big bold text 'out now' to let our viewers know that our digipak is available in the shops. In the bottom left hand corner we have added the web address to the bands website, we have done this because it will make more people aware of how they can find out more information on the band and when new upcoming events will be occurring.