Evaluation conclusion

So in conclusion I think that this project went well, even through the music video isn’t at its best yet. But I didn’t even have that much trouble making the different media texts.

Product schedule 20th - 27th

Evaluation Q4 - How did use new media technologies in the construction and research, planing and evaluation stage?

I used a picture camera to find out the sizes for the animated wolf, I also used a video camera to take the shots for the actual music video. I have used both cameras before, they might not be the best cameras for the jobs but I was use to them so it seemed a better option. I don’t really learn anything more about them.

I used Final Cut to put my music video together, I knew a lot about this programme before I started, but I still learnt new things for example, how to rotate and change the speed of the footage. I also made use of the layers to create different effects; this also helped me to have both the girl and the wolf on screen at the same time.

I used Photoshop to make the end picture, and to take off the backgrounds of some of the images. I used this programme as I also knew this one very well meaning that I would be able to do the work quickly but also to a high standard.

I also used YouTube and Slide share which I have done before. But YouTube was having problems connecting to Blogger so I used links to make some of the videos accessible from the blog. Another website I use was Prezi; again I’ve used it before but this only help as I could spend more time on the detail of my work instead of trying to work out how something works.

And then there’s Blogger; like I said earlier, some of the videos would directly connect to the blog but that was easily fixed. The blog wasn’t hard to do; my biggest problem was remembering to upload the work to the blog.

Evaluation Q3 - What have you learned from your audince feedback?

Link: Evaluation Q3
This link will take you to my answer of the question.

Evaluation Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Music video:

My music video is different from others because mind combines drawn animation and real footage. Most music videos use either one or the other to put their point across but there are a few that use both like what I have, but none of these are in the Gothic genre. I decided to use these two methods together so that the girl (in the real footage) could be related to by the audience, and will therefore keep their interest through the video. But also the animation wolf would visualise her personality and emotions that she keeps hidden from the world. So you can only really find out what she is like by watching both of them. But this didn’t work out as what I wanted because the animate wolf didn’t look that great and as the music video had too many shots, for the fact that it is a slow song. So the video didn’t end up much like the story board.

The music video is also different as it holds an unclear storyline, and if you see the story line of the video it’s doesn’t tell you how she ended up like this, or what had happened to her. All it does tell you is how she wants to deal with it. I did this so that anyone can relate to the actress, also they can easily relate to the character in my music video because she isn’t strongly defined; the close ups of the actress a slightly out of focus so that she isn’t recognisable and becomes more of a blank character (again making it easy for the audience to relate to her).  This should help me to get the attention of a wider audience, because the genre of Goth is only strong in the song and lyrics, and not so much in the video; but having said that the actress will be wearing gothic clothes and Gothic styled makeup.

But real media products have the genre at a consistent strength through out, which is great at interesting the genre that it is styled to, but other people that aren’t in to that genre don’t want to see or listen to the media product. I kept the Gothic genre strong in the song; and the actress’s costume was designed to show strong elements of the Gothic genre so that the Goths themselves would watch and listen to the music video. But other elements don’t use the Gothic genre, the main aim of doing this was so that other genres would be able to enjoy the music video, this then widen my audience. Will this was the theory, but it might just make everyone hate it; but I think that my idea worked as the music video got a lot of good feedback.

The introduction to my music video is also different, as most start by showing the band, or the main character of the music video, mine starts by showing the title of the song and artist which isn’t that different to some other music videos. But just after that my music videos tries to show that the wolf is that girl’s personality and that there deeply linked.  I did this so that it would interest the audience, because of it stating so differently.

Digipak:

I mainly used three fonts (Fairy Dust B, Northwood High, and Kingdom heart) this helps to keep everything consistent, but they are still interesting fonts that suit my target audience. The only other font that I used was a standard font for the copyright at the bottom of the backside of the digipak. This was so that I could make the text smaller but still readable. The three main fonts that chose to use are very different from each other but I think that this helps to add interest. But also it would widen my target audience with the Goths as the three fonts are styled to the three main writing styles that most Goths like (but each one usually has their favourite). Those three styles are flowing and curvy, old faded, shape pointed lettering.

The Victorian flowing handwriting would be like Kunstler Script, but this font is hard to read when it is made small, which is what it would be on the digipak. So to solve this problem I chose Fairy Dust B, this font has curls and curves that play at the style and is close enough to give the same sort of effect. But also it is readable on the digipak.

The font Northwood high is a good example of the old faded font, and to make sure that the audience can read it I doubled it up, so that it was like a drop shadow. This made the text more readable, which allowed me to use it on my digipak.

The kingdom heart font consists of shape pointed letter and with this font some words were hard to read, so I changed which chucks of text used which font and then this sorted out this problem. Also some of the size that I used needed to be change so that I could fit everything on the pages.

I wanted my project to represent the Gothic genre as more than just sadness, black and old styles, I wanted it to show a more arty and elegant side of the genre. I think that the Digipak particularly shows as a digipak is all about the art.

I also had some of the classical elements of Gothic genre in the design, for example the colours that I used (black, blue, red and white) are used by many media text to represent the genre, but none of them use the red and the blue together. I thought that the contrast and their different meanings within the genre would create a different effect, and bring more of the people within the genre itself to like the digipak design.

Front:

The front cover of a digipak is usually one large picture of the band or artist. But mine has two images and none of them relate the artist that strongly. 

I have a background image of old crumpled paper then I have a tribal drawing of a wolf against a full moon. The link from this to the artist is weak but it has a symbolic link to the music video as there are many animated shots of a wolf. I was trying to make the audience think that the artist uses the idea of the wolf in all her music videos like it’s her trade mark, to make her easier to recognise out of the other singers.

Back:

The back of the digipak uses the image of the old crumpled and ripped paper gave a background for the text so that it is easy to read and understand.  But this is also place in the centre of the page to add interest and an arty element to show the elegance of the Goth genre. Also to help the back page link to the rest of the digipak the background is the same as the front cover only darker (showing the old paper theme).

Some other digipaks display their text on object, but most of them just seem to be place there for the reason only, where as I tried to make it looks like it would be there anyway. I think that it went really well, and I also like how the patterning looks as old as the paper. This helps it all to come together and look great.

Inside page:

The wolf looked better in the silver, instead of the blue and purple like what I first planed. But it doesn’t really fit the Gothic genre, but it symbolically links to the wolf in the music video. The 3D effect on the wolf helps to create interest and reinforce the idea of the wolf being real as the drawing seems to be coming out of the page and into the real world.

The background on the other hand dose fit the theme of the digipak and it fits the Gothic genre of the whole project. The background image gives the page believable texture that is almost expected to be felt when they touch the digipak, this adds to the wolf ‘becoming real’. I think that this worked out well as it creates interest and sparks the imagination of the audience.

Disk:

There is a different background image for the disk, this stops the digipak from looking the same all the way through, but I also want the digipak to link to it and look like it is all part of the same thing. So I used an image of old faded paper, and I changed the colour to match the colour scheme, so that it would still fit with the theme. I think that this worked out well as there isn’t much else for the audience to look at on the disk.

The main body of text is a standard font which allowed me to make it small but still readable; this stopped the background, title, and main text from competing for the pride of place. This also helps my digipak relate to real media texts of the modern day.

Magazine advert:

Other magazine adverts use the front of thee digipak as part of the design to show the audience what the advert is about at a glaze, they use this to see whether they will be interested in the advert or not, as the digipak cover will show them how’s and what album it is. But to link it to the wolf from the music video as well to the theme of the digipak, I patterned some black around the edge of the digipak so that it looked as if the digipak was emerging from the magazine page. I think that this works pretty well, and it shows the digipak in a different light to what the others do so the reader should be more interested in find out what the digipak is of.

I used a slightly different colour scheme for the magazine advert to show it as a different media text, but it was still linked through the cover of the digipak and the fonts that I used. I didn’t use all four fonts, as this didn’t look right as there was only two type of information that I the advert was telling the reader, this was information about the album, and information about the artist being on tour.

The two fonts that I used were the Fairy Dust B, and the standard font. I used the Fairy Dust B font for the information about the digipak as this is the most fancy of the four fonts, and this is the more important information of the magazine advert. And I then used the standard font for the information for the tour details as this would be smaller on real adverts and I still want the text readable.

The colour scheme for the digipak was back, white, red, and blue; but for the magazine the colour scheme is black, white, and two shades of a purple blue. There is some red used but this was just to indicate which concerts didn’t have tickets available, so I wouldn’t really count it as part of the colour scheme. The two shades of the purple blue were used to break up the text so that I could have a large volume of information close together, but the reader wouldn’t get confused. I think that this worked really well as it also creates more interest so that the reader is more likely to read the information.

Product schedule 13th - 20th

Feed back on music video 3

Good points:

• Suits the genre
• Links with the supporting media texts well
• I like the use of fire and smoke in the video

Inproments:

• There could be more of the animated wolf in the video

Feed back on music video 2

Good points:

• Good use of shots
• Suits genre
• The video suits the song
• I like the use of fire in the video

Inprovemnets:

• Have more shots of the wolf
• Have the wolf walking in to the end shot, istead of it just being a picture of the two of them

Feed back on music video 1

Good points:

• I like the way there is drawn stop frame animation  across live footage as it gives a nice feel and if very well presented.
• Almost all the footage is to a very high standard if not for a few shots that would have worked better on a tri-pod.
• I really like the variety of shots including p.o.v shots.
• The different smoke colours and variety of fire shots is very nice.

Improvement:

• Possibility with the eyes at the start to have them almost create a face?
• Smoother transitions at the start
• Maybe also a possibility of more stop animation - maybe the wolf following her?

Music video

Link: Music video

The music video isn't much like the story board, and this is because the animation didn't look that great when I came to use it. My actress was only available to film on three day, which was before I found out that the animation wasn't really working so I made do with the footage that I had.

Product schedule 6th - 13th