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

Throughout the research and planning stages to the construction of my music video, digipak and advert I have used different forms of media technologies such as Youtube, iMovie, and photoshop for the construction. of these products.

During the research and planning stages, I found YouTube a very useful resource in aiding my ideas into my own music video. Watching videos from a similar genre allowed me to pick up the conventions of the pop/rock genre and later on in the evaluation stages I was able to highlight where I used, developed and challenged these conventions. Instead of watching a music channel on TV that would not always show the specific genre I was researching, YouTube allowed me to specifically search and select what I needed. Pausing the videos meant I could analyse and go back and view over multiple times. Google Images and Google itself was useful in the research and planning stages of my digipak and advert, as I had an essential range of examples to search for. It was particulary vital for researching into directors of music videos and artists of the pop/rock genre of our music video and I had a rich amount of information at my fingertips at all times.

When constructing our music video we had access to a video camera and tripod at our sixth form. The tripod allowed us to use tracking shots, and steady long shots while the camera allowed for zoom ins and close ups. iMovie was then used to upload our footage onto and then to finally edit. Throughout this process, our work was backed up to an external hard drive, but unfortunately there was a problem with this as at the middle stages of editing, we lost a majority of our edited footage and had to start from scratch. Nonetheless, the rest of the experience was pleasant enough, and we used YouTube clips for tips on effects and cropping as the software was updated and therefore brand new to the production team. Photoshop was used for the majority of the construction of my digipak and advert. The ability to crop images, add effects and use different fonts and tools was a great help in making the products look as professionally done as possible. Using it during the planning stages meant I could create a draft for a certain product and then ask for essential audience feedback, before moving on to develop a final design.

What have you learned from your Audience Feedback - Digipak

Audience feedback is an important aspect when designing a new product and so after the final draft of my CD digipak cover, I issued a questionnaire to ten people in order to gather opinions and feedback on my design that would help me to make future decisions and alterations in the next ancillary task. The questions I asked were as follows:

1. What aspect of the digipak design did you like best?


2. What aspect of the digipak design did you not like?


3. What would you change about the design?

I summarised the answers they gave below.

What aspect of the digipak did you like best?
Looking at the answers to this question, many people stated that they enjoyed highlighting the musical references and links on the cover with the use of musical notes and the band's name being Amber RHYTHM. One respondent wrote that they "...liked the band's logo because of it's use of graffiti in the name..." This showed that one of my original ideas to use graffiti font in order to reflect and appeal to youths and being expressive worked. Many people wrote about the fact that they believed the cartoon image of the band's lead singer "...made the cover look more "fun" but also not too serious..." as cartoons are often presented as childlike. Some commented on the use of dark colours, the purple and the black musical notes giving the cover a more dark tone, which they found was present in other pop/rock album covers. One participant liked the way "...the red of the word Amber contrasted against the darker background, making the name jump out at you...", while a female participant added that she really liked the composition of the cover, as the band name and image were set out perfectly and that "...it doesn't look so confusing...". Finally a few commented on the fact that I had used a Parental Advisory sticker, and stated that it made the cover look much more professional.

What aspects of the digipak did you not like?

When asked this question, many participants stated that the image of the girl did not stand out enough on the cover itself as both the background and the picture were dark colours. However on closer inspection you can see that I have blended in the girl's top with the background so she looks a part of the action going on behind her. Some of the participants commented that they "...didn't know if Amber Rhythm was the band name or the album name..." while another wanted the album to have a name. I later informed them that as this was the band's debut album, it was self-titled. Other participants felt that the cover "...looked too plain..." and thought the exposure of the purple background dominated their view, making the cover appear too dark and moody.

What would you change about the design?

Most of the participants replied to this question saying that they would change the colour of the background as it was too plain and not a lot was going on. They also said they would "...adhere to the conventions of pop/rock genre a little bit more by adding subtle hints, but I do like the musical rhythm notes..." Other suggestions included giving the album a name, to personalise it more and to also make it more memorable in the market. Others suggested I should of kept the cartoon theme running along by creating the whole cover itself into a cartoon layout. I never considered this originally, and quite like the idea and so will hope to maybe use this in my next ancillary task of a magazine advertisement.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? - Digipak and Music Video

When designing my own digipak, it was important to consider the ways in which the combination of the music video and digipak were effective. This is otherwise known as synergy and would allow the audience to build a relationship and spot connections when viewing the music video and digipak design.

Digipak

Music Video
Our group's own music video production to the song "Superman" portrays a strong female protagonist in control of who she wants to date, and so I wanted to further reinforce that theme onto my digipak. I used the image of a young female as the face of the band "Amber Rhythm" and as she is presented on her own and as a main focus of the front cover of the album, she is seen to be independant just as our female character in the video is presented. However we did include a male gaze in the video, the female's chest area highlighting the female stereotype, and so my images for the digipak show this, particularly the third cover, albeit hindering the female's dominance of sorts.

The theme of love is involved in the storyline of our music video and so this theme was also something I wanted to integrate onto my digipak. The heart on the cartoon image of the artist symbolises the love of music as the musical notes flow from within it and in the music video the CD's are placed in the shape of a heart to portray connotations of love.

The scenes involving the female protagonist and her "superman" playing on the swings in a park emphasised the childlike tone to the video but also highlighted the freedom the youth have. And so my digipak portrayed this feeling too with the use of graffiti to create the logo of the band's name as it is seen as an expressive tool to create art.
I created cartoon images on my digipak to reinforce the idea of the song's title "Superman" as the video itself uses aspects of cartoon effects inspired by Marvel comics, the creators of Superman. It too highlights the youthful aspect of both video and digipak.

Using, developing and challenging forms and conventions of a Digipak

When looking back at my own album cover it was clear to see that I used, developed and challenged the forms and conventions of a digipak, as well as an album cover from the pop/rock genre.

Used Conventions
The main similar characteristics I found within my own product included the use of a female artist's image. Not only does this attract a male gaze; as I found in my questionnaire male participants preferred the Lily Allen album cover of "Alright Still" where the female artist is the focus of the cover, but many albums of this genre include an image of their artist or band such as Pink's "I'm Not Dead" and Katy Perry's "One of the Boys". Also the fact that the artist makes eye contact with the audience was important and was a convention I applied as it creates a personal connection between the buyer and artist. The band's logo/name is graffited/graphic art which is similar to "Alright Still" maybe highlighting the fact that it creates a sense of freedom and rebellion amongst our young target audience. The Parental Advisory label conveys the conventions or traditional album covers, placed on the right hand side. It also states that content may not be suitable for a younger audience, a theme reflected in the genre of pop/rock e.g Lily Allen and Blink-182.

Developed Conventions
The constant ongoing use of musical notes was something I took from Paramore's "Riot" album cover where the word of the album is reinforced all over the cover. However I used the musical notes to highlight the band's love of music as well as it's importance to their image, with the word rhythm used in the bands name.

Challenged Conventions
In contrast, there are certain areas of my own album cover that did not conform to the conventions of traditional pop/rock album covers. Firstly, album covers such as Lily Allen's "Alright Still" seems very busy compared to my own, which is quite basic and simple. I find this a lot more effective as I believe simple designs are more likely to catch the eye of an audience because so little is happening. Secondly the image of the artist has a cartoon effect attached to it. Although other artists such as Pink have used "real" images for their album covers, I wanted to create synergy between my digipak and music video. The use of the colour purple seems very dark in mood when compared to the pop/rock genre that is usually aimed at a young female audience. Although artists like Pink use pink and other girly colour schemes, I wanted my band to be more mature in their outlook by using the dark purple. Dark colours were also a popular choice with my audience.