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

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

The combination of my main product and ancillary tasks, i believe, are fairly effective. My ancillary tasks are linked with my main product, unlike many digi-paks now a days which are completely irrelevant to the music video. I decided to contrast between the music video and the ancillary tasks by basing the music video during the day and then basing the ancillary tasks at night, that way, i believed the audience is able to know/understand what each day is like for her. Throughout the whole of the main product as well as the ancillary tasks the audience is able to see the girl by her self, which is the theme i have tried to continue throughout the whole production to come across the view of isolation.

For my ancillary tasks i had to produce a digi-pak and a promotion poster. A digi-pak is something which you'd find inside the album case in which artists use to promote their song. Normally a digi-pak will contain a front cover, back cover and at least two more sides in which the artist choses what to include with them. For my digi-pak i chose to do 4 sides. As i stated before, when i did my ancillary tasks i decided to twist between day and night for my two differnent productions, with my music video being based during the day and my ancillary tasks being based at night. My front cover shows the girl walking down the middle of the street at night, she's in the centre of the focus but yet you're able to see that there's no wonder around her, bringing across the view that she's alone in the world and at night it's as if she follows the street lights to see where they take her. I took all of my photos for the ancillary task using a Samsung compact digital camera and edited them using Adobe Photoshop, where i added differnent fonts and texts to the images. What i like about my front cover is that i believe people may be surprised with what they hear when they listen to the song as they may be mislead by the front cover from the text i've chosen. The text i've chosen for the words 'The A Team' looks like the title from the 1980's television programme. The 1980's televion programme 'The A Team' was based about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". I believe therefore that people will be expecting a much more 'hardcore' song than the one which Ed Sheeran has produced and therefore i have almost done a play with words as such.

For the back cover i chose to use the same font which i used for the words 'The A Team' and listed 3 different songs which would be on the EP (Extended Play) and for the background i took a picture of a simlar street at night to the one which the girl was walking down on the front cover. As before, i edited the image on Adobe Photoshop. For the panel which the CD goes in i decided to use a picture of the girl walking down another street, this picture is different to the front cover due to there being a lot more light as she's walking under a lampost, i used this type of picture to try and emphasise that there's 'light at the end of the tunnel' for her and that she'll ake it through. The last image which i used is very plain but i added some text to it to state who the album was produced by and who recorded it as well. This is the type of thing that you'd see in many artists albums now a days so i felt it was essential that i included this.

The second ancillary task which i had to do was to create a promotion poster. My promotion poster is very much simlar to the digi-pak which i produced as it was taken at night but it's still linked to the video as it features the girl walking around. With the promotion poster i tried to include all the necessary information such as the name of the song, the artist, the name of the album and the website of the artist. As with my digi-pak photos i took my promotion poster photo using a digital camera and then edited it on Adobe Photoshop where i added text and used differnent fonts to ensure that the poster didn't look plain and basic.



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

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

Throughout the production of my A2 work i've used a wide range of different media technologies. In the beginning, i had a rough idea of what i wanted to do but i used a questionairre to consult people about what their own views were on music videos. I created the questionairre using Microsoft Word and i also used a video camera to record their different views. When i had all the footage i needed i uploaded it up to the editing software iMovie in order to produce a short video for my audience research and i then uploaded it to blogger which is the internet blogging website which i use for all my work.

When i looked at the audience research i had gathered i used the broadcasting website YouTube to watch a range of videos which were similar to the one i was hoping to produce and by doing this it helped me to come up with some ideas for my own production. Once i had some ideas for my production i created a storyboard which had the structure and plan for the music video i was going to produce. When it came to shooting the video i had the option of using an HD camera but due to the unavailability i had to use a basic video camera. If i had used an HD camera the quality of the picture would have been a lot better. As well as using the video camera i also used a tripod in order to shoot each shot steadily.

Once i had shot all the footage i uploaded it to iMovie and then edited it. The editing took a bit of time to do as i had to fit all the different camera shots in together in order for the video to flow, as well as trimming down clips if unnecessary footage was there. I also changed the colour of the video to black and white as i believed it would make the video a lot more effective. When i'd finished editing i exported it and uploaded the video to blogger. However i may have to upload the video to either YouTube or Vimeo as well due to it not being able to play on blogger.

When i needed audience feedback for my work to highlight areas of possible improvement i played my video on the projecter screen. This enabled the whole of the class to see it and with surround sound they were clearly able to hear the music as well which made it a lot better than the class watching it on a tiny computer screen with practically no volume. A questionairre was handed out for the class to fill in to rate my video and leave comments of the good/bad points.

When it came to producing my ancillary tasks there were a number of different pieces of software which i used. To start off with i used a Samsung compact digital camera to take the pictures for my ancillary and then once i had taken all the pictures i uploaded them onto my laptop. To edit the pictures for my ancillary tasks i used the Adobe Indesign software which enables you to edit the size of the picture, change the contrast, apply text etc. and then when i had produced the ancillary tasks i wanted i exported them into JPEG files and uploaded them to blogger.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The audience feedback which i have gathered from my music video has been a big help for the final draft/finished piece. Originally, when i started to begin to create ideas, i conducted audience research and this helped with my production greatly. This gave me good guidance as to what the audience wanted to see in the video and what they didn't. Then, once i'd produced a draft copy, i exported the video and played it to the class. This was a great help as they were able to highlight areas for improvement which i may not have been able to see myself. Each pupil was given a feedback form where they commented on my work and they also gave it a level and mark which they believed it was at. By them doing this i was able to develop an understanding as to what sort of mark i'd receive and how much i'd need to improve the video if i wished to make it better. I found all of the feedback useful in one form or another, people commented on various types of things in the video such as; camera angles, song choice, editing, transitions, props and the colour of the video. Here are a few of the positive comments which i received:

• "Really good song choice - thought it matched the video really well"
• "I liked the video, everything flowed nicely and there was a good variety of shots"
• "I liked how the final piano chord matched her falling to the floor"
• "Sophisticated use of pacing. Her wandering style of walking matches the song well"
• "Effective editing, it was cut well to the music"
• "Nice use of black and white" 
• "Held a steady shot when appropriate"
• "Used a good variety of shot distances"

All of these things which the pupils commented on were able to help me as i knew that these were areas which didn't need work on in order for the video to be improved.

However, some of the feedback which i received highlighted areas for improvement but i am glad that i didn't receive much of this as it suggested that the video was of a relatively decent standard. Here are the negative comments which i received:

• "On the phone shots it may be a good idea to turn off 'stability' on the video clip. This will stop it looking like a mounted camera"
• "There could have been more transitions and different editing styles"
• "Maybe think about being a little more subtle than using the name 'dealer' in her phone"

All of these different issues i tried to address before the final draft was handed in in order to make my production better.

I have learned much from audience feedback which i have received and i believe that by taking it on board it can lead to a much better piece of work. Also, i have learned that criticism is never a bad thing because it highlights what needs improving and can only make a piece of work better. A lot of artists when they release their own music videos aren't able to acknowledge audience feedback prior to the release - they receive it once it has been released - and therefore they aren't able to make ammendments in order to make it better.

If it wasn't for me receiving audience feedback then i believe my video wouldn't be at the  standard it is now. Audience feedback is there to cover so many different areas; the post production, the production and also the finished piece. Audience feedback is able to highlight things from a different perspective and from a different persons point of view and by taking all the different comments and feedback on board it can only lead to a better piece of work.

Evaluation Questions

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

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

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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