Evaluation!!

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

I feel I was strongly guided by the use of conventions within my coursework, they are the elements which I feel strongly positively affected my work. However, I was not fully satisfied with just using set conventions which have been used over and over again by music video directors, I wanted to create something new, fresh, ambiguous and artistic for my video as I had to strongly reflect the genre within my promo video. I did still use conventions within my promo video however, conventions such as miming to the song: I felt I needed to include some miming, as I first of all thought it interesting for a female to mime to a male voice singing and also It created the idea that this song is about her, she may not be a man with a guitar or a Finnish opera singer however the idea was to reinstate the idea of this song and his music can be connected with anyone, therefore it’s basically someone’s journey and their interpretation of the song.


I also used choreography within my music promo video which is also a convention, I felt this reflected the beauty of the music and also the beauty and gracefulness of the character. It reflects how lost and failing she is at the beginning when she just begins searching, however through the music promo video it becomes clear she’s getting better and better at dancing therefore she’s heading in the right path. I chose the dancing to be light ballet as it is more art-form choreography whereas Hip-Hop dancing would not have made sense with Damien Rice’s music as for Hip-Hop dancing you need a heavy bass beat, nor did I choose for the choreography to be tap, as this is not a musical theatre piece of music nor film, therefore ballet seemed the most appropriate, beautiful and artistic form to use.


Another convention which are seen in music promo videos which I also used in mine, is direct mode of address, where the character looks directly at the audience. I felt this is a necessity as by doing this the audience begin to connect with the character and are able to identify with that certain character, and by provoking this emotion within the audience for a character it enables the story line to create more depth as a narrative. I also felt that it breaks the illusion between the ‘story world’ and the real world which in this case are the audience watching it at home, as the character is making eye contact with the viewers at home instead of the camera.


I edited the camera footage to the beat of the music which is also a convention within music videos as I feel it keeps it interesting and also keeps the narrative flowing along with the music, it also reinstates the idea you are watching this promo-video for it is advertising of the music rather than just five minutes of drama entertainment.


I also kept the idea of having a strong relationship between the video and the lyrics in the song, as I feel this is such a strong way of promoting and making the entire concept obviously about the actual song rather than just the music video. I also feel by doing this is constantly compliments the character and makes the audience feel more connected as they are discovering more and more about this character and the story.


Another convention I used throughout my music promo video, which was a feature used throughout the videos in which I analysed was the theme of voyeuristic pleasure, in particular when the character was asleep, as it is letting the audience see into the forbidden and personal, this is also used in the beginning when the audience are the last to leave the bedroom which was purposely painted bright pink to suggest the naivety and vulnerability of the character. Also by looking in extra close up of the characters material her dress is made out of, and also more explicitly her tattoos this voyeuristic pleasure lets the audience discover and connect with the character through the viewing of the forbidden.


The image of the character I also feel was a convention of the genre of music which I was aiming to promote from creating this music video, the image of an artist in this genre conventionally are artistic, not bothered about self-appearance and are also strongly artistic. I feel I used this convention to a certain extent in particular with her image, I purposely dressed her in a vintage, pale frock which I felt suggested the vintage fashion and idea of being different, creative and artistic however I also dressed her with white tights which reflect the convention of her not being necessarily bothered about her personal image as an artist. The tattoos I always wanted to show as I also felt they demonstrated the artists artistic influence and interpretation on music.


I wanted to try and make my music video as different as possible as I wanted to make it my own interpretation and away from all the conventions which were not necessary to use.


I did not use themes of scopophilia within my product, It is inevitable that sex sells within the media industry however there was no way I could have placed any suggestion of sex within my music promo video, it would have strongly meant I had taken a totally different interpretation upon the song lyrics, instead I wanted to make my idea artistic and ambiguous amongst the audience instead of using the theme a lot of music videos use to promote their product.


I also left out the themes of narcissism, and fetishism as well as I don’t feel it was appropriate for the song nor the genre of music, these are themes used a lot within music promo videos however I really didn’t feel these themes where appropriate, I could have used them however if I once again, interpreted the lyrics completely different and also tried to market the song for a different audience. There was nothing narcissistic about the characters as she was supposed to represent a lost, confused and low self-esteemed girl therefore it would be completely sending out the wrong messages to the audience, and possibly result in the story not making sense at all. The themes of fetishism I also left out, as this character literally has nothing, she is supposed to have nothing emotionally, physically or materialistically therefore it would have contradicted the character and the story line if I chose to place these elements within my media product.


In terms of the narrative I also chose to leave it open ended, instead of a closed ending. In many music videos you see the star walking off the set, or the lights shut down fading the screen to black, which automatically create closure for the audience, whereas with my music promo video I chose to use an ambivalent ending reflected by the use of the cinematography in the zoom and fade of whilst she is sleeping. I think by making something ambiguous it makes the audience think about what they have just witnessed and seen and it provokes them to make up their version of an ending in their heads, I find ambiguity and abstract pieces very strong and as you’re thinking about possibly ending scenarios the song will guaranteed be remembered.


Another convention which I broke was to actually feature the artist within the music video, by the vocals the singer of the song is obviously a man, therefore to gain more well known conventionally you should feature them within the music video, however I didn’t want to do this at all, I felt it suggested a message of the idea that everyone feels lost and down at some point in their life, and what use is watching Damien Rice mime to this in front of your very eyes? I felt if I did this, it didn’t mean anything therefore I chose to only feature the girl character, I also loved the idea of her miming the chorus of the song as I felt it was interesting, to view a female character miming a male vocal and in terms of story, I felt it also reflected the message of once again, anyone can feel lost and low at some points in their life but it’s only up to you to sing, scream and just tell people how you feel as that is what has to happen before it gets any better.


My CD cover I feel also uses and challenges the usual conventions which are featured upon normal CD covers. The main convention which I used was the idea to make the artists name bigger then the album name, many of the CD covers which I analysed all did this and I felt it’s more important to make the artists name bolder and more eye catching for the audience to see, then the album name. As if a browser went into the high street music store HMV, the Cds would be arranged and stacked alphabetically depending on the artists name, not the album name, also when a browser goes into the high street store, personally myself, I never only know just the album name I am personally looking for, if I need to ask a retail assistant I will ask the name of the artist. Therefore so it is a strong marketing tool to promote the name of the artist more than the name of the album, however the name of the album is still very important, however in the future the artist will bring out more albums and will obviously call them all by different names, however the artist will probably never change his name to something different, therefore also the artist name will be a lot more memorable than an album name.


A convention which I challenged was the idea to have your artists as the main image on the album front cover. I did not want to use this convention as I felt only certain image driven genres did this, such as pop, hip/hop and R’n’B, they seem a lot more dependant on sales of the record by the image and look of the artist and use of the largely popular themes such as fetishism, narcissism and scopophilia whereas my artist would only attract a niche audience whereas genres like the ones exampled above would be more driven to attract the mainstream audience. I felt by not placing the artist on the front cover of the album explained his artistic and intelligent musical ability by only caring about his music to sell the record and not an ‘image.’


Another convention which I chose not to use was the use of a different design around the artists name and the album name. Many albums use a fancy and different design to make their album seem ‘different’ amongst the public as once a specific design or a logo has been graphically created for the artist, by law that their identity, no other artist or marketing team can take that certain design. It makes albums and artists become different amongst the public and allows and also can be reflected in the idea that certain artists music will be different too, it singles out the artist from any other competition. However, I chose not to create a graphical design surrounding the artists name of the album name as once again, I aimed for the laid-back, no image needed design as I felt if I created and included an special design and logo for the artist, it would take the attention away from the raw and intelligent artist who composes and writes an art form of music.


I also feel, what makes my CD cover strong, is the idea of the main image looking like a completely professional photography piece, which I feel fits into the idea of the image im going for with my artist however, what is more interesting is the idea of the image becoming a recurring motif from the actual promo-music video which I created for the song, it presents mystery amongst the audience of what the image is about and I feel also puts pressure on the music to be outstanding since the CD cover is nothing special at all, however I love the simplicity of this photograph and once again reflects how raw and all-about-the-music this CD is going to be.


The back of my CD cover I feel is also strong, as it is continued piece from the actual CD front cover. It is a close up of the branches from the tree filled in white which the background is filled with bright blue.


I wanted to bring the audience close to the tree, as the tree is the root of this album, seen within the music video, reflects the ideas surrounding creativity, imagination and fairytales it brings the audience literally closer to these themes as well as the artist personal thoughts which are the songs, in this case as the audience wont have listened to the songs as of yet, they are brought closer to the artist through the song titles which are also featured on the back of the CD cover.


A Convention I have used on the back of my CD cover, is it displays the album song listing in numerous order. I felt I had to include this as I wanted my audience to be brought closer to the artists visually first, as in a shop you cannot just open the CD and listen to the album straight away, therefore the song titles give the audience some insight on the type of album and also some personal information about the artist. With us having to create a digi-pak which includes a second DVD, I also included this information on the back of the CD cover as well, it is another main selling point for the album, by using the word ‘bonus’ and ‘exclusive’ it increases the interest within the audience by making it seem this is literally once in a lifetime opportunity to see this ‘exclusive interview.’


Other conventions which I used on the back CD cover, was the barcode, production company logo and also the ‘DVD’ logo. These are all used on a CD back cover, for legal and for retail use, you cannot purchase a CD with no barcode and also for legal reasons the production company’s logo has to be printed onto the product as well as the DVD logo. Conventionally I placed them all at the bottom and not taking up much space at all, as it is not supposed to be the main focus point on this certain product at all, it is just literally used on every single album.


I did not really break any specific conventions within this certain product, as I thought for it to actually look like a back of a CD cover, I needed to use the appropriate conventions as I felt as though I had challenged the conventions enough of my CD cover.


My final ancillary text was to create a magazine advertisement promoting the record. I feel overall I created a strong product as I feel it strongly reflected the image I wanted my artist to have. I made it as simple as possible as I think with magazine advertisements, the bright coloured eye catching adverts are specifically suggesting a certain genre of what that artist is producing music for, whereas the more laid-back, simple and artistic approach I feel reflected my artists music a lot more, as the genre which my artist is creating and producing is singer/songwriter genre, therefore this needed to be reflected within the advertisement for the album.


I once again used the image of the tree, however I rough cropped it to gave it the look of the picture, like the album is raw and not perfectly crafted and produced like a pop album would be made. The image of the tree is once again in black and white which was also used on the actual CD cover, therefore once again it’s a reoccurring motif of the artist which seems to have been created into a sort-of logo representing the artist, this is a convention of a magazine advertisement for a CD, using the main focus point, which is also the same image from the album cover, it allows the audience to become more and more familiar with the image and therefore becomes more memorable if the audience see that image again and will be able to link that certain image to the artist.


I included pull quotes from reviews on this advertisement from well known and respectable music reviewers such as ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Observer’ which are all broadsheet newspapers which include more highly respectable cultural reviews in their newspapers, such as reviews on Art, Film, Art-house film, theatre and music. I feel it would have given the wrong impression to the audience if reviews came from media institutions such as ‘The Sun,’ ‘Heat’ or ‘Daily Star’ which usually seem to review mainstream media, in particular they only seem to review mainstream musical genres such as pop and R’n’B. Therefore by including these reviews from highly respectable critics from a broadsheet newspaper the audience are aware of these certain critics judging the music, rather then the image and gossip of the artist which tabloid and gossip magazines are notorious of doing.


Other conventions which I included was the use of product placement within my advertisement, I included the HMV logo at the bottom of the page, companies such as HMV, play.com and even Tesco pay the marketing team to place their logo on all of the advertisements for that certain album. It is telling the audience of where they can get that certain album from, and sometimes they even put the price of the album on for an attempt to increase sales of that record, from that certain store. I felt it was a necessity on my advertisement as HMV is a national video and audio retailer and after looking at many examples of magazine advertisements, the logo has been featured on many of them, therefore it has gained strong iconography for the company.


I placed the artists name at the top of the advertisement which is also a convention as it is their advertisement for their album. It creates a sense of ownership for the advertisement and also when I personally look at a poster or advertisement in a magazine, I will first look at the main focus point and then read the text beginning from the top of the page. I also included the name of the title on the advertisement too which is also a convention you expect to see on the advertisement. I felt I also needed the title of the album on the advertisement as the concept of that advertisement was to advertise that certain album, not just the artist therefore it was completely necessary for the advertisement of the album.


Another convention of which I included on my advertisement was the use of ‘lures’ where it explains what successful songs are also on this album, by including these it is making the audience remember the songs the artist has released, by underlining the song titles it gives the idea that these songs where also strongly successful therefore the audience may believe they are ‘missing out’ if they have not heard of them. It’s just another example of what marketing companies use as a strong selling technique amongst the audience.


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

I feel overall the combination of my ancillary texts and my main product is strong, as they all feature the same reoccurring motif which is featured within the music video which is this certain tree. The tree has become a kind of logo which the artist will be represented by, many marketing teams do this to promote the artists, as artists such as Him, Britney Spears and Onerepublic have used this technique. I feel each product reflect the idea that the musician sees himself as an artist rather then just a musician, it reflects the creativity and intelligence within this artist as no gimmicks, product placement or certain image such as sex, American sweetheart or bad boy where purposely given to the character within the promo-music video.


Throughout all of my products, I also feel what makes them so effective with one another is the fact of the artist is no where to be seen on any of the products, therefore the marketing tool to promote their image and their ‘celebrity status’ is not used on here, therefore it is obvious the artists once again wants to show the audience he is part of a particular musical genre which I believe is clearly singer/songwriter as conventionally artists within the hip/hop, R’n’B, pop and dance like to promote themselves by showing an image and getting their face well known amongst the public in order to sell the most records by attracting a mainstream audience whereas singer/songwriter attracts a completely different audience as the audience my artist is attracting is niche.


What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Looking through my audience feedback which I received from people who have seen my products and answered a set of ten question about my media products.


I learnt many things such as 100% of people asked ‘liked the music promo-video’ and they also ‘liked the song I made a promo-music video for’ which is strong positive feedback.


I also learned, when asked ‘what they didn’t like about the music-promo video’ the answers where split 50/50 with, 50% of the answer being The Choreography, whilst the other 50% being The Editing. It just shows how the target audience notice elements such as these within music promo videos, and not just the actor nor the music.


When asked ‘Do you think the music related to the video?’ 100% of answers replied ‘yes’ which I thought was very pleasing to read as if the video and the song will constantly remind one another in the audience’s mind as a song would obviously sell more copies if people remember it.


When I asked the audience questions on my ancillary texts, there where more split and interesting answers. When asked ‘Looking at my ancillary texts, do you think they are a strong promotional package for the single?’ The answers where once again split, with 66% of the answer being ‘they’re okay,’ where as 33% of the answer being ‘yes.’ I feel disappointed having learnt this statistic, however as my artist is attracting such a niche market, it’s understandable most of the products which are promoting him are not as liked and as strong as the artists promo-music video.


The next question I asked my audience was ‘what’s my strongest ancillary text?’ and once again the vote was split informing me according to my audience, my strongest ancillary text is in fact ‘my CD back cover.’ This was also a shock to read, as I personally thought my strongest ancillary text was my magazine advertisement which didn’t receive any votes by my audience for being my strongest.


The next question I asked, was focussing on the genre and if the audience understood what genre the artist was creating music for, and 100% of the audience asked got the genre correct, therefore I feel like I have used the specific conventions which are featured within this genre, through out my products which I was also surprised by. However, I still feel I managed to base my product on these conventions which I identified as well as use other elements which made the products individual from a retail perspective.


‘By look at the ancillary texts, if you hadn’t heard any music from this artist, would you be interested to hear some of his music?’ When asked this the vote was split once again, 66% voting ‘Yes’ whilst 33% voted ‘maybe.’ I was extremely happy with this result as I realised no one had chosen the option ‘No.’ Within this niche audience which I was aiming to attract I wasn’t aiming to attract every single person alive to hear and love my artists music therefore im extremely happy with these results.


Finally the question, ‘What’s the strongest product I have created?’ 100% of the audience who responded to the questionnaire had voted my music promo-video as the strongest. I was happy about this result as I did realise it was a lot stronger then any of my other products, however I feel the music video has to be the strongest product to promote an artist. For, if you have an amazing and interesting music video, the artists will obviously gain a lot more interest from an audience then if the audience where going to go into a high street record shop for chances are, that high street record shop will have thousands of other records, the exact same shape therefore music videos are easier and a lot more interesting way of promoting an artists music.




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


I used many new media technologies which I learnt how to use through this production task.


With my research I began planning what I would like to create and want my music video to look like, and also which genre and artist I should create a music video for, I watched many music video channels on Sky digital television. Sky offer many music channels all offering different genres of music such as The Box offered Pop music, MTV 2 offered rock music, VH1 offered 80s pop and NME offered Indie/Rock music. I then begun to understand, the main concept for the use of music videos which was in fact to promote the artist and their music in my research of music videos to which I also learnt the history of music videos also which dealt with the censorship and statistical issues which they faced through the years. For this research, I used the internet which I found extremely helpful, then I followed on my research by researching and looking at explicit examples of the pop genre. You Tube was a large help in me being able to find examples, I did experience some difficulty being able to watch certain music videos as some where not legally be allowed to be shown in this country, however another amazing thing about You Tube was, you could see pop artist musical performances which really held in all of the conventions of the genre.


I then had to decide on which song I was going to make a music video for, having an Apple IPod helped me make this decision as the device literally chose my song at random for me and that was my chosen song, which happened to be Damien Rice - Eskimo. The choice was out of: Slow Moving Millie, Anthony and the Johnsons, Kate Rusby and Britney Spears.


After this decision was made, I then went into depth about the songs structure and researching the personal meaning behind the song, to the artist.


I then went into researching other artists music videos, using You Tube allowed me to watch the music video as many times as I want, I was even able to print screen, copy to paint, and save a picture as JPEG of key moments within the music video, of which I wanted to get a picture of, to back up my point within the research. I felt this was important and easy to do as it’s key evidence to back up my point. You Tube was also amazing, for if I did not have the song on my IPod I could literally listen to the song on the internet as many times as I wanted. If the video on You Tube provided a link, I could also place the video upon my blogger page which I posted the analysis underneath of the video.


To begin my actual planning, I created a questionnaire which I gave out to5 males, and 5 females. I created the questionnaire on Microsoft word, and ask open and both questions about what they personally like to see within a music video. I then later on, was able to place these results in a graph using Microsoft Excel which worked out an easier way to view my results.


Using the internet and my personal IPod, I was then able to move on to the next stages of planning, which was analysing the lyrics. With my song having Finnish in the middle, it was difficult to personal interpret the lyrics myself therefore I used Google translator, which gave me a rough idea of what was being said however, I then decided to use a few song lyric websites such as ‘Leoslyrics.com’ ‘elyrics.net’ and also ‘azlyrics.com’ these gave me all of the same Finnish translation and was also surprisingly similar to the translation I got from Google. I then listened to the lyrics numerous times, replaying them on my IPod and wrote down, and brainstormed my interpretation of the lyrics.


Therefore, through the use of market research, intense analysis of media texts and intense research I had created my first idea of what I want my music video to be about. To gain a stronger idea of what I planned my music video to look like, I created an animatic using my synergetic mobile phone, I then transferred all of the pictures which I drew on my story board and then lined the pictures up with the appropriate timing of the song upon the time line using Windows Movie Maker. By creating this I was able to see what my finished outcome would hopefully look like. By analysing it, I was able to plan what I want to change and also new ideas which I want to use.


On constructing the music video by using the software Matrox which I personally never used until this project, I uploaded the footage from the digital camcorder onto the editing suite, transferred the footage into Adobe Premier Elements and then began to put together my music video. Using all of this new media technology was challenging when I first begun this process however having learned how to use it all, I quickly became comfortable with the software. I soon enough found Adobe Premier Elements comfortable to use, especially key techniques such as the Fountain Pen Tool, Colour Corrections, Speed Duration/ Reversing speed and also cutting. I personally found the colour correction technique interesting to use as you could enter your own specific colour effect by altering the contrast, hue and also saturation of the clip, which I found allowed you to create a more individual effect as I could not imagine another person having the exact same dimensions of colour effect upon their clips.


On the construction of my ancillary texts, they did seem a lot easier to produce then my music video, however my music video took a lot of time, planning and intense editing. The main programmes I used whilst constructing my ancillary texts was Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8. I have used this since I was young therefore I felt a lot more comfortable using this than Adobe Photoshop, which I used on one of my ancillary texts and I do feel, it shows I was not comfortable with using that certain graphic software as it is not as a strong ancillary text.


On the construction of the back of my CD cover, this was the first ancillary text which I completed, and this is the product which I created using Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8. I have used this software since I was younger therefore I knew a lot more about how to use the software then I do with Adobe Photoshop. I also used this software in my last years production with editing photographs for my magazine, however I knew this would be a completely different photograph to edit. I began my production by taking pictures using my Panasonic Lumix TZ7, I originally turned up the contrast on the actual camera which I was later to regret as I soon learnt, come to editing the photograph I was strongly limited. Therefore after realising my first twenty photographs where unusable, I took pictures again on the original colour settings on the camera which resulted in being a lot more successful. I took the majority of the photographs of the branches in close up, as this was the desired image frame and shot which I wanted for my CD back cover.


When editing the photographs, I began by altering the contrast and brightness, bringing the contrast number and the brightness number lower, creating a photograph with such strong contrast, this gave the photograph a lovely effect, as it made the sky in the background a lot bluer and brighter. I then used the ‘fill’ tool, and filled in all of the branches of the tree white. I wanted the branches to become white as I felt I needed something to reflect the album title ‘Eskimo’ which connotes to the idea of cold, bitter climates hence the white suggesting snow.


The text I used on the product was straight forward ‘Copperplate Gothic Light,’ I just wasn’t convinced on using a ‘fancy’ and ‘different’ text, it did not appeal to me as I felt it would have ended up looking more un-realistic and overall a cheaper product. Therefore I felt by using a bold, strong text it gave another image about my artist, how he is strong, independent and does not need an image to sell records. I placed some text size ‘26’ whilst other text size ‘18’ on my product. I felt this gave the product some depth, and overall more interest as the text was plain enough, I felt if all of the songs where all of the same text, it could become tedious and a boring item to look at.


The second ancillary text which I constructed was the front CD cover. For this I decided to use Adobe Photoshop. One problem which I encountered by using this format, was, I could edit my photo fine at college however when I tried to edit the photo at home it was unable to open as the Photoshop file format could not be supported by Jasc, which is the only photograph editing software I have available at home. I personally feel my CD cover is not as strong as my other products, mainly because of the software I used to make it, however I learnt how to alter the hue, contrast and brightness therefore I am pleased with the dark, mysterious image I have been able to create. I originally, for my CD cover wanted to create something abstract, I wanted my main image to be a piece of photographic art rather than just an image of the artist presenting a commercial image. I aimed to create something which saw the musician as an artists rather than just a singer, and I do feel I’ve presented this image to the audience.
I shot the photograph in a long shot, as at first glance I wanted the audience to feel distant from the artist, as I feel the feeling of distance provokes interest, hence why the back of the CD cover is a close up of the tree, once you’ve taken in the CD front cover and shown your interest you are then able to become closer to the artist. I wanted to have high contrast within the photograph as I loved the idea of the black branches against the white sky, I felt it suggested this album has dark tales and something really artistic and beautiful, no matter how dark. I also love how the branches reach past the top of the product, I feel it suggests how large, brilliant and literally ‘out of this world’ this album is, coming from an artistic, cleaver and creative point of view. I also love all of the texture which is featured within the CD cover, I defiantly feel it reflects the idea of this magazine including anything and everything which suggests this artist is creative, talented and one of a kind. One thing I do not like about this image, is the fact is can be perceived as boring to look at, it is nothing interesting, the chances are the audience in HMV are not going to see this image from an artistic point of view, instead they will see it as a boring CD front cover and that is what makes me not so pleased with this product.


The font on the CD front cover I just chose Ariel. I felt it was gimmick-free, no-nonsense font. I felt it also represented the album for being stripped back and just reflected the idea of how talented and passionate this artist is. He does not need a fancy name/logo design, he already has a recurring motif throughout the promotion campaign therefore I feel that was enough image control for the artist. I felt the need to have the font in black and white to amount the contrast within the photograph and also I purposely used white for the title of the album ‘Eskimo’ as it reflects the connotation that Eskimos have, once again, the idea of them living in cold, hostile environment I wanted reflective within the title. This suggests the album is something different, the idea that this album has not really been heard about, and I feel definitely gives the look of the album a lot more depth. The problem I had with the font, was I strongly broke the convention of a promotional album launch, through out these launches the marketing team always use the same font on every type of promotion they use, in advertisements, posters, CD covers etcetera and I did not use this convention, the font on the back of the CD cover is a completely different font to all of the other ancillary texts. I do feel it reflects how unconventional and different this artist is however, I feel it would just be so much a stronger promotion pack if they where all of the same font.


Finally to create my final ancillary text which was a magazine advertisement for the album release, I chose to use Microsoft Publisher. This was the software I was most comfortable with for making such a product. Having used the programme for all of my production work last year, I felt it most appropriate as I knew what I was doing, I knew my was around the programme but I also felt I could use this knowledge to create something different.


After a while of using this I felt I was creating something very basic, It was not eye catching at all and was not appropriate to tell and interest the audience of an album launch. Therefore for the main image I decided to use Adobe Photoshop once again, I felt through the mystery and horror I felt towards the programme, at least I could be sure I was going to make something completely different. I discovered the ‘Quick Selection’ tool which allowed me to roughly highlight the area around the main image, which was once again, the tree. Once I had roughly highlighted all of this area, I filled in the area white, saved as a JPEG and inserted into Microsoft Publisher. Now I had my main image inserted onto Microsoft publisher I was then able to begin to construct my final ancillary text. I made sure I used the same font which I used on one of my other ancillary texts, for at least they had all connected with one another as a promotional package.


I thought the language used was the most important feature within this advertisement as a successful advertisement to me, is all about how it speaks and identifies with the audience.
At the top of the page, keeping the same strong contrast which is seen throughout of the promotional package, I wrote in Arial ‘Jonathan Brendan presents Eskimo,’ I used the word present to once again to show the audience he is an artists rather than just a singer. It’s as though he is finally presenting his work towards the audience. It feel it creates strong interest, as there is not much detail into what his music is like, it creates ambiguity amongst the audience which I feel is such a powerful tool amongst audiences. I gained this inspiration from a television advert for the band ‘The XX’ which was just literally thirty seconds of the bands logo on the television screen, there was no music played, no information on who the band are, jus their logo. I thought this was such a powerful television advertisement due to the ambiguity behind the concept, therefore this is what I tried to bring out of the audience, the emotions of ambiguity, interest and wonder.


I placed the pull quotes in italics to the left side of the tree, I felt I needed some reviews on about the album as it gives the audience some indication on the genre and also advertises the album and promotes the artists more and more. I chose to use the newspapers ‘The Observer’ and ‘The Guardian’ as having looked through tabloids, broadsheets and magazines it became clear to me that these broadsheets are the only newspapers to have a specialised art pages inside. These included Performing arts, performance art, independent films and also music and concert reviews. I felt these where the most appropriate newspapers to review my artists music, for I felt if a tabloid such as ‘The Sun’ had left a review, it would have represented a completely different genre for the album.


I also chose to use the music label ‘Sony BMG’ for last year, during our researching the music industry, I discovered they represent some of the most creative and influential musical artists, such as ‘The Clash,’ ‘Glasvagas’ and ‘Bob Dylan’ and I felt it strongly appropriate for this label to support and represent my artist. I also placed the HMV logo on the bottom as product placement on my advertisement, reasons for this are basically for realism, as these high street retail shops and even internet shops pay for their company to be mentioned within the advertisement. I chose HMV as I the logo is iconic of the dog listening to the gramophone, I feel HMV are never limited to the amounts of genre of music and film which they distribute and for that I think they would be a strong company to help promote the album.


In conclusion I feel I have created a strong promotional package I could use for a album release. There are certain elements which I would like to be stronger such as the CD front cover as I feel that is my weakest product basically due to the fact I feel audiences would find it boring and uninteresting, therefore it would attract their attention within high street stores. However, I feel my music video is the strongest promotional product which I have created, as I feel it deals with the themes I was originally inspired by brilliantly and also leave the chilling ambiguity which I craved my video to convey so much. I was overwhelmed with the performance from my sister and was astounded at how a video to a song, can enhance the song with such strong beauty.
If I was to do this production again, I would have spent more time on my CD front cover, came up with different designs and asked for audience feedback about every single product separately, so I am not just reading a generalisation of results. I would also have made all of the promotional package with the same font, where text is used, I feel this has seriously impacted on my whole promotional package.

My Finished Music-Promo Video.

Candidate Name: Jonathan Kelly
Candidate Number: 9388
Centre Name: Wyke Sixth Form College
Centre Number: 44154

My finished Promo music video.

This is my finished promo music video for the song Eskimo written and performed by Damien Rice. The film was directed, shot and edited by me, Jonny Kelly and it stars Victoria Kelly. Apologies for the quality, the origional file is a lot better quality film, just blogger will not upload any files bigger than 100MB. I've created a small survey at the top of my blog so please watch this film, take a look at my ancillary texts and fill in the 10 questions, i'd very much appreciate it.

MUSIC PROMO-VIDEO:


CD COVER:




















CD BACK-COVER:


















MAGAZINE/BILLBOARD ADVERTISEMENT:

My CD Title Cover Artwork:

This is the first edited draft of the title cover artwork which is meant to inform the audience on what number certain tracks are, and also what the tracks are called, the back of a CD cover is just as important as the as the original cover, basically due to the fact when people are browsing around CDs they first look at the front, turn the CD over and then look at the back of the CD, it's understandably random why people do this, however i feel the back of the CD cover is designed for the audience to feel closer to the artist and the artists music, therefore i have designed and edited some drafts of some CD covers and i will now explain what aims i wanted to get and eventually which one I will use and which one i like the most.

This was the first back cover which i created, i wanted to create a contrast and a sharp difference between the front cover and the back cover, i feel it makes the product as a whole just seems a lot more interesting and gives it more depth.

I wanted to use a close up of the branches as i want the audience to feel like by looking and being interested in this artists music, you are becoming closer and closer to him personally, whether it be, you're getting closer to his personal roots or just to his music, i wanted to make the audience feel they're close to this artist.

I chose to fill the branches in white, as i thought it created strong contrast between this back cover and the front cover and i also wanted it to reflect the name of the title as it's named 'Eskimo' i wanted to connote that name, which i did by replicating the look of snow on the branches. I also absolutely love the colour of the sky in the background, i feel it reflects how peacefully and free the artists music is.

The font i used is a totally different font to which i used on the front cover, conventionally the marketing company will use the same font for the advertisement campaign for the artist however, i didn't want to do this as i feel with using the same font, as my font was quite plain, stripped back and simple anyway it would have made the album tedious and boring for the audience to read, therefore i also made it slightly more interesting by making songs different sizes, it's also more interesting and makes the audience want to read the title-list more then if it were just plain Arial text, which they've seen on the advertisement campaigns and the front cover, it gets very boring.

One problem with this back cover, is there is no conventions used which are absolutely compulsory such as the logo of the production company which produced the album, even the name of the manager of the artist which is usually printed on the back cover of highly successful musical artists.

This is the second draft of the backing CD cover which is an edited version of the first draft, i haven't changed much, apart from i have included the name of the production company in the bottom left corner of the product. This i feel is still not enough as on many digi-packs which include DVD footage they include the DVD logo and also i realised i need a bar code also. These are absolutely compulsory for the product to look like a CD backing cover.

This is my final edit of my CD back cover, i have edited in the must-have-conventions which make it look like an actual CD backing cover. I have make the logos appear see-through so you it does not just look like i have copied and pasted the logos, and it does look a lot more professional.

I haven't changed anything else nor am i going to write the name of the manager who manages the artist as Damien Rice himself isn't necessarily well known and marketed at a specific audience nor do i see a lot of his advertisement campaigns either therefore as he is not a pop artist i do not expect to see all of these techniques used to be used upon a singer/songwriter artist such as Damien Rice nor my made up artist Jonathan Brendan.

Pictures I took for use on the CD backing cover:

There are a few images which i took for the CD backing cover, i wanted the image to continue the first image which is seen on the CD front cover, i wanted to bring the audience closer to the artist behind the music and also closer to the music, therefore i thought of the idea of using an extreme close up of the tree's branches. These are the images which i managed to take:


This is the first image in which i took, i like the idea of it being a close up of the trees branches, i feel like this presents depth to the album, such as there's lots of feeling and emotion created from the base genre of singer songwriter the base being the tree trunk. I like the idea you can see the bright blue sky through the thin branches and also the contrast within the photograph. However, i dont like the way you can see other trees in the background, i do not feel it presents anything positive or noticeable for the photograph, and also there is a really annoying cloth thing on one of the main branches of the photograph which i also feel is pointless and ruins the photograph. It wasn't supposed to be there, therefore the there is no point with it being there at all.




This is the second photograph which i took of the branches in a close up, i feel this photograph was better taken then the photograph before. This photograph has more image of the branches and are more visible within the photograph. There is blue sky throughout this background also which i feel frames the photograph a lot better. The annoying cloth which was in the other photograph has managed to vanish out of the shot and therefore left with a perfect shot and the photograph which i wanted to achieve. Basically, everything which was wrong with the other photograph has been removed or changed to this perfectly framed photograph. This image is defiantly my favorite and i also love the strong contrast between the clouds and the shadows on the branches. You are able to see the branches in fine detail, which is the look and image i was going for, as i feel this suggests this album has been made up with many fine details which make the album to be perfect and artistic.

Kings of Leon CD Title Cover

This is a Kings of Leon CD title page which displays the name of the songs and what number track the song is on the CD.

The main focus point within this, is the image of glass being smashed, to reflect this to the title of the album, which conventionally is usually done. The image strongly stood out part because of the colour of the background and the colour of the image also connects with the colour of the text of the title of the songs. It's not strongly clear what the main image is, however with the name of the album it's self, it would make a lot of sense if it was a hour glass being smashed whilst the picture is being taken in mid-air. This image creates a sense of ambiguity and wonder as the audience do not know what the image is. The framing of the image also does not take up the entire space on the back, therefore there is still a lot of dead space within the CD backing cover in comparison to Britney Spears' backing cover.

The name of the songs only take up roughly 1/3 of the entire backing cover which also seems to have become a convention as the same amount of space was used on Britney Spears' backing cover. The font of the text seems to just be standard Arial and also in Sans-Serif Font. This creates the idea the musicians are also passionate about their music, with the simple font and artistic image it's clear it's a completely different genre to Britney Spears' image and genre being pop. This seems more rock, singer/songwriter genre, which i feel is reflected through the simple black on white text with black connoting to the genre of Gothic, however through the artistic photography, it comes across as less harsh and easier to listen to and digest, therefore the genre of Indie/rock is explicit i feel.

The number of the track are also in a different colour to the text of the song, i feel this is also becoming a convention as both Britney Spears backing cover and this CD backing cover have both used this idea. I feel they have done this to make it easier for the audience to tell apart the different songs, and to make it easier to make out the number of the track and the track's name i makes it less harsh on the eye and more pleasant for the audience to read, rather then the whole text just simply being a white, bold mess.

There are also the conventions of bar codes and music production company which appear on all back of CD covers for the reason i explained on Britney Spears' CD cover analysis.

Overall this has been a very simple and easy CD backing cover to analyse as it's completely stripped back and they've definatly taken the artistic image to reflect their attitude as a band and to reflect their genre.

Analysing The Back Of CD Title-cover-art.

This is a title-page CD cover art for Britney Spears’ debut album Circus.

The main eye catching thing upon this piece of artwork is the main image; there we see relaxed Britney spears lying on a bed filled with pillows and luxury whilst a child/ dwarf clown is presenting her with a cake with lit candles on the top. This could have many meanings, with the most probable being a celebration as this album was in fact released on her birthday which collaborated with the other idea that she has spent a decade with the same music production company, Jive. Therefore the birthday cake could be a celebratory momentum, this idea is reinstated as Britney isn’t looking at the character holding the cake, she seems to be looking ‘behind the set’ towards the camera crew or an item actually behind the audience, I find this very interesting due to the fact of it does not seem posed or un-naturalistic at all, it creates a strong sense of realism and is allowing the audience to have an exclusive look at Britney Spears behind the production of the album, and off the record which is strongly valuable due to the level of celebrity Britney is deemed to be. The lighting within the image is very low lighting which suggests intimacy and reflects something personal and closed off from the rest of the world; the colour pallet also is pinks, reds and oranges which also suggest intimate, sex and passion. The image is also retaining the circus image by the gypsy cloths and rags and I also like the way the image of sex is used very subtly only just by showing a small bit of flesh. The black heels which she is still wearing on the bed, I feel also reflects sex and fetishism however also reflects the idea she’s a strong, sexy and independent woman who makes up her own rules as it’s rather odd and strange to wear shoes, in particular heals on a bed.

The listing of the songs which are on the album are again, in the same font which are used on the CD front cover, this links the whole product together and also is constantly reinstating the theme of the album which is, in this case: the circus. The song list is in red, which reflects and connects with the colour pallet within the main image, with suggests my idea of intimacy, passion and up-close-and-personal. This means the songs are very close to the singer and celebrity therefore it makes the audience crave to listen and understand what the songs are about.

The number of the songs is in a total different colour to the red used to name the songs; the numbers are printed in a blue. I feel this represents the colour of the sky which suggests freedom and being allowed to sing and perform about what ever Britney is emotionally feeling or inspired by at the production of her album, I also feel is suggest the idea of the album is fresh, brand new and sharp. Where it says ‘Bonus DVD’ is written in green, which also suggests something fresh and new especially powerful with the word ‘bonus’ as it suggests the singer has never given out a bonus DVD before, something like this is brand new and fresh, reinstated and backed up by the fresh and bright colour green.

I love how the titles of the album of the song are framed, it’s as if they are written on a banner just like it’s advertising the Britney Spears’ circus, to some extent it is as her album is her circus just not the literal form of a circus. The background of the banner is yellow which connects with the colour of Britney’s hair and also the pillows she is laying on, this can suggest the idea of these songs have come from her head, they are her creation.

At the bottom of the page there are the usual conventions which you expect to see on the back of a CD cover which are the manager’s name, Music Company and barcode. These are pretty much seen on every CD backing-cover-artwork. They are pretty much used for easy retail use and for legal reason and promotion for the record company.

This was a very interesting CD backing-cover-artwork as it’s interesting to see how the management and production staff manages to keep the themes of the album, even on other strong images. It’s also interesting to see this in particular through the font and framing of the product as a whole.