My contribution to the final construction

My contribution to the final construction

In terms of the final construction, I contributed a significant amount. I helped contribute to the drafts and created final product itself. The drafts were created at first to help us give an idea of what the final product would look like; it was from this we gained feedback and looked at what our strengths and weaknesses were. Although the drafts took a lot of time and planning they were very helpful because they would of not made the product look like how they are today. 

In order to successfully film the shots that we needed to i created a schedule list and told my group (and reminded them) what days we were filming and what equipment we may need. This made my group organised and helped us film on the correct days which meant that no time was wasted and then we cracked on with the filming; therefore we knew what scenes/shots to film on what exact day whether it was a scene recorded outside or a scene within a house.

As regards to the final product, I contributed a lot of the ideas. For example, the one screen text in which the boyfriend receives in the video was my idea; i believe it would help the audience what is going on in the video in terms of where the couples relationship stands; it also allows us not to focus the camera on the phone which we found quite difficult as it was quite blurry at times. The text bubble itself was created by myself on PhotoShop CS6; I obtained an image of a text bubble and wrote a piece of text over it and saved it as a PNG and exported it onto Final Cut Pro. 

I also filmed some of the shots in this years music video; this is because last year I was restricted just to editing so I I wanted to explore camerawork as well as editing; this is because I am hoping to study media production at university which will consist of both elements (camerawork and editing). I filmed quite a lot of the shots within the final construction and a lot of the shots were my ideas such as a low angle shot when we see the boyfriend running back after the text he receives (low angle suggests patriarchal domianance and hope) and then a high angle shot at the end when he arrives at home (to foreshadow that his relationship could potentially be in jeopardy - a sense of enigma). 

I also colour corrected the video accordingly, this was after post production at the very last stage; it was also very time consuming because I had to colour correct each individual clip accordingly because if I was to do it altogether then some of the clips may look darker than each other because when filming some of the original clips some were darker than the others. However, I believe that although it is time consuming it made the overall product look more aesthetically pleasing and I am happy with the final outcome. 

Overall, I believe the input made by myself helped inform my group and made us more organised as a whole. I believe that this year we have made more progress in the sense that our pre-production was used a lot more than last year; it is amazing how being organised can help produce a better final product. 

Final Music Video (CONSTRUCTION)

Final Music Video

Below is my final music video which was uploaded to YouTube. After months of preparation and filming it is finally completed, the music video itself was filmed with a Canon 700D (DSLR) and was edited by myself on Final Cut Pro X.

Final Audience Feedback On My Final Digipak and Magazine

Final Audience Feedback On My Final Digipak and Magazine Poster

So these are my final designs on my digipak and my magazine poster, even though the designs will not change according to the feedback given; I wanted to gain feedback anyway to see how effective my final designs were.

Feedback:

So in terms of feedback based on the final designs of the digipak and the poster; I asked a member of my target audience what the thought about my final designs; to which he replied "I think the overall aesthetic really stands out , "I think it looks really professional and in terms of real life music industry if you look at existing digipaks from artists such as Drake and Kayne West it certainly matches something of that stature" this immediately suggests that my digipak is at a high standard and that it suits a person of that demographic. 

He went onto say "the four band members in the picture stand out visually and you can see all the different components gone into it such as the bright colours used which makes the overall design stand out" - again this suggest that the choice of colour I used was done well and that it suits the poster itself. 

When i asked "Do you think there are any issues with the digipak or the poster", he responded with "I wouldn't say there are any particular stand out issues, but maybe there are too much colours as in Haughton mentioned in our Skype interview, you can never have too much colour but at the same time you dont want to draw your audience away from what you're actually going for". 

He proceeded and said that "as Bangladesh is a place filled with colours it's right to explore these colours on your poster, however you could stick to one variation of a colour such as yellow or green, but overall I don't think it makes a difference it still looks good". So again the feedback given here suggests that my final product is good but I could maybe reduce the amount of colours that i have used instead of going for four different colours.

Overall, I am satisfied with my design and I am happy that I decided to plan the designs before I went onto the computer straightaway. I believe that this made my final outcome a stronger piece and that I have effectively listened to the feedback because i have made changes according to the feedback that was given (evident in previous blogs).

Ancillary Task - Magazine Poster (AUDIT)

Ancillary Task - Magazine Poster (AUDIT)

Below is the marking criteria of the magazine poster ancillary task, next to each criteria I have outlined what I have done in order to make the final product at a high standard.

1. Awareness of conventions of layout and page design.

When designing my magazine poster I wanted it to be conventional; by this I mean sticking to a specific colour scheme, consistent use of text across all my media products, images of the artists and the correct choice of grammar. I done my best to stick to the conventions and was aware of my layout and page design; in order to do this I first sketched my magazine poster. Doing this gave me a clear idea of how I wanted my poster to look like. During the skype interview with designer Ian Haughton (Handsome designs); he stated that you must not jump onto the computer straight away, you must think about how you can communicate your ideas first. Therefore the conventions of the layout and the page design was carefully considered by myself by planning the ideas first and then going onto photoshop and creating the final product.

2. Use of a variety of fonts and text size.

I done some research on existing magazine posters to see how effectively fonts were used in posters from different artists but from the same music genre; after analysing the conventions of different magazine posters, I realised that the majority of posters have 2-3 different fonts, the name of the artist is usually the biggest of the font, followed by the name of the band and then followed by the slogan. I met the conventions in the sense that I used a total of 3 fonts in my final design. The reason why I chose 3 fonts and not 4 or 5 or lower is because I did not want to overcomplicate my design or oversimplify it. I also had one main font which is the bands logo, the font I used for the logo was called 'Rakoon' this was consistently seen throughout all of my marketing, for example the digipak consisted of the same font because it was part of my bands branding.

3. Accurate use of language.

The language used in my magazine poster was accurate and was set for the correct demographic and psychographic group; this is because it is targeted for those who are between the ages of 16-24. Therefore we used certain languages that can be easily interpreted by those at that age group for example 'The boys are back with a banger' which is a play on word with our bands name; this type of language is therefore appropriate with our target market. There are also no spelling or grammar issues. In contrary to my digipak, the magazine poster has slightly more language on it and has quotes from famous music institutions such as MTV. Again, in the skype interview with Ian Haughton; he stated that as a designer you must be wary of the type of grammar you use because with different audiences you may need to use a different style of grammar. I personally think the choice of grammar I have used was done well. 

4. Appropriate use of ICT.

The software I used in order to create my magazine poster is Photoshop CS6 (I used this for my digipak as well, although I had attempted using Adobe InDesign I felt much more comfortable with Adobe Photoshop). This software can be quite difficult to grasp at first however it is easy to learn and as I have used this software I was familiar with most of its tools; the looks are brilliant and you have hundreds of feature on it. I used photoshop to crop the white background of our original images which makes the poster more smooth and professional, I also manipulated some of the images and colour corrected them.

5. Appropriate integration of illustration and text.

In terms of integrating both illustration and text to my magazine poster; I personally believe that I have done this well and effectively, this is because I have kept a consistent theme (for example the same text and choice of colours which makes all three of my products unite; for example people may associate my magazine poster with my digipak and may further associate this with my music video and my band. I have also illustrated some of my own images in the magazine poster for example the logo 'Bangladesh Bangers' was created by myself on PhotoShop (CS6) and the QR code which was also created by myself.

6. Framing a shot, using a variety of shot distances if appropriate.

As regards to the magazine poster, I believe that I could have used a variety of different images and shot sizes, however I don't think this would have been appropriate because with magazine posters they are conventionally restricted with one photo therefore I couldn't explore the poster with other shot sizes that I took earlier in the photo-shoot. Therefore, I believe that if I added more images to my magazine poster it was have overcomplicated the design and take the audience away from some of the vital information within the poster such as the band name, the album name and the QR code. However, in my opinion the image that I use was effective because the whole band members can be clearly seen in the shot with enough head-room.

7. Shooting material appropriate to task set, selecting mise-en-scene, colour, figure and lighting.

When I was shooting the images for the magazine poster (which were also used in my digipak) the mise-en-scene, lighting and colour were all carefully thought about before actually producing the final poster. This is because our band kept to a specific theme which we all decided prior to the photoshoot, for example we wanted to wear suits to give our band members a smart, sleek and sophisticated look. We also had professional lighting (three point lighting to eradicate shadows) and white backgrounds sheets whilst taking our photo-shoot so lighting was essential as it gave a glowing effect on our faces which made the overall product more aesthetically pleasing. 

8. Manipulating photographs as appropriate, including cropping and resizing.

In terms of my magazine poster; when I was manipulating the photographs on photoshop I had to ensure that I was resizing and cropping the images accordingly making sure they were not 'stretched' and out of proportion. For example, in some instances when images are resized they can be disproportionately resized to what it looked like in the original photo-shoot. However, because I had experience in Photoshop before I ensured that the images were resized accordingly. In terms of cropping the images, I made sure that too much wasn't cropped; this was very important because in the pictures there are four members and cropping too much could mean that one of the band members could have been cropped, furthermore with the magic eraser tool there is a possibility that you can rub out the image itself when cropping the background, I made sure that this wouldn't occur by carefully outlining each band member; although it was time consuming I believe I done this effectively and I am happy with the final outcome.

In the magazine poster I also added QR code which takes people to our official website if you scan it with a smartphone. This QR code was generated by using the QR generator website which meant that i could create my own custom QR code which gives it a personal touch to my poster.

Ancillary Task - Magazine Poster (FINAL)

Ancillary Task - Magazine Poster (FINAL)

Below is the final design for my magazine poster. As you can see I have taken feedback onto board and have incorporated social media sites at the bottom. I also added the 'Warner Music Group' logo on the top right. I am happy with the outcome of my magazine poster.

Magazine Poster Draft and Feedback (Progression)

Magazine Poster Draft and Feedback

Below is my draft for my magazine poster draft which is part of my ancillary task. The poster was created using PhotoShop CS6. I am happy with the design so far but I though their could be some improvements. This is why I asked for feedback on my magazine poster, I asked for feedback using the soundcloud app on my iPhone and got peoples opinions on the overall design. The feedback is also posted below.

Soundcloud feedback:

From the feedback that was given to me, it was apparent that the design of the poster was good in the sense that their is a contrast between the colours used (such as the blue background and the burgundy text) as well as the black and white text, however I believe that I could make the colouring of the poster more interesting and colourful to intrigue more of the audience members. 

However, the most common critique that I was given in this magazine poster was the fact that I haven't "incorporated any social network sites on my poster", according to the feedback this means that more people will be aware of the band as it is using the power of new media to spread the word; for example if my poster has a social network site on it a passer by may follow us on a social network site which may make us gain more followers thus promoting our new music video and our new album. 

Furthermore, in the feedback it was suggested that I could use a QR code on my poster to further attract my audience. A QR code is a matrix barcode which is a machine-readable optical label that contains information about the item to which it is attached; they are becoming increasing popular especially in recent years. I can potentially incorporate a QR code onto my poster whereby users with a smartphone can scan the code and it can take users to our band website. The feedback that was given to me about my magazine poster was very helpful indeed and I believe I could add some social network sites to help promote the band overall.

Magazine Poster Sketch

Magazine Poster Sketch

Below is a magazine poster sketch of my design which is annotated. The reason why I wanted to draw me design first is because Ian Haughton emphasised the fact that you should always plan you ideas before actually creating them; I felt that drawing my magazine sketch has helped me get a clear idea and I hope I can incorporate this design onto Photoshop and develop some ideas.

Final Draft of Music Video and Feedback

Final Draft of Music Video and Feedback

In order to get feedback from our music video again I asked my media teacher on what she thought about the music video. I thought that my third and final feedback should be from someone who has had experience in the media industry; I believe that the feedback given from my teacher was very important and I hope to alter the clips based on the feedback, Below the feedback I summarised some of the points that my teacher has given and ways that I could rectify the issues that have been addressed.

Third and final draft of music video:



Feedback:

In terms of positives; one thing our media teacher liked was the performances even though we are not graded on this; however it makes the piece seem stronger overall. She went on to say that the lip sync was accurate and she felt engaged with the singer. Furthermore, she liked the idea of the narrative slipping in and out between the music video. 

However a key issue is that that our teacher said was that "at the moment it doesn't feel like a pop video it feels like a short story; and this is because the images aren't working enough with the music this is because the music is moving fast whereas the story is moving slow. This again relates back to previous feedback that we were given suggesting that our clips are far too long. She also suggested that we could see some more close ups of Jeremy the actor. Judging from this feedback it is apparent that some of our coursework is not fully filmed yet and that we can re-film some scenes in order to fully progress. 

My media teacher went on to say that "the story drags, for me your match on action is superb but your framing isn't good; there is too much head-height and in the beginning scene the flower is seen as a subject" this relates to a common feedback that we are still getting from our drafts which is the repetitive nature of the running scenes which makes the story seem the same and consistent. She also said that "remember to cut off at natural points and also you the shot reverse shot when the camera is focusing on Jeremy so from the girlfriends perspective makes it seem less professional". 

A key question that we asked was "What did you think of the narrative piece at the start before the song started?",  she responded with "it's too long, you know when someone has an argument, you don't need to see the shot reverse shot necessarily... and the shot of the door can be used to see you walking down the street". She further said that the there isn't enough of enigma it needs to be tightened more up and moved onto the more interesting stuff.

I believe that this feedback has made me realise that our piece of work isn't as strong as we though it was, however it isn't too late and we can alter our music video according to the strong feedback given by our teacher.