Note to Moderator

Dear Moderator,

Welcome to my A2 G325 blog, I have tried my hardest to portray my journey from my initial ideas to the creation of my music video as clear as possible. I have a total of 89 posts and I have tried to clearly label my research and planning posts.

Thank you for your time.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Evaluation Question 2

Synergy was critical to use in my music video as it is a key factor of a promotional video and it is also just as critical to the Indie genre itself. We also had to use synergy in order to create a brand identity for Chase so my initial TA can easily recognise him or one of his products. Firstly I used the same outfit for a few shots in the music video, the digipak and the advert so Chase is more recognisable to the TA. I also used the same photograph for the digipak and the advert once again so the TA instantly recognise him, the colour used on the images also links to the colouration of the video, thus creating synergy across the different media platforms by linking the video to the ancilleries.

Another convention I adhered to of music promotional products was to use the same font (Cold Spaghetti BTN), the research I conducted into synergy between other bands all resulted in them having the same font on different products and different albums, I decided to adhere to this as it created a brand identity for Chase and made his products instantly recognisably to the TA. I believe this font also adheres to the Indie genre as it is unique and messy, it gives Chase a distinctive look and due to this reasoning I feel it was successful on the media products.





I have also used synergy through the clothing of Emily and the fonts on the digipak, I felt red was necessary for Emily as she is a girl that is causing Chase a lot of problems and when referring to semiotics red can link to love and danger, two factors of which Chase is receiving off of Emily.
As well as this linking to the narrative it also shares synergy with the cards that I referenced to Barthes symbolism, this gives our TA more to take in and think about when wondering why red is quite a discrete yet key colour in and on our products.

In the digipak I also included some of the symbolism from the video, not only does this make discrete links to the narrative through Barthes theory of symbolism, it also makes the audience question why they are an important part of the digipak and how large of a part do these cards play in the narrative in the video. I also have used them as they make large connotations to gambling and due to the album being called "The Gambler" I felt it was necessary to put these symbols linked to gambling on the disc, the cd spine and in the music video.













I also added the logo of our groups record company "Reckless Records", I feel this not only gives the digipak and the advert a much more professional look but it also is a key convention of a promotional ancillery that I felt I had to adhere to and it also adds to Chase's and the record companies brand identity as it makes both companies more recognisable through this product.

Cross media convergence was also a key convention of promotional ancilleries I felt I had to adhere to when creating the advert and the digipak. Firstly as we are trying to attract a young audience, including links to social media is a direct way of reaching out to youth culture as technology is a way of life for younger people, therefore a larger audience can be attained by adding these links. They are also a key way for the audience to find out more about the artist if they're interested, e.g. new songs and tickets.






I also applied synergy by using the same rural location on the digipak, the advert and in the music video itself. This adheres to the conventions of having a low budget set in the Indie genre for music videos and photoshoots. The use of these locations also reaches out to a Northern audience as we used very gritty, down to earth locations in the video and for the digipak and advert.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation question 3 from RyanFrankish7

Ryan Frankish's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

Here is a slidely I created for our initial TA. I think since I created this to the posting of the final video I believe our TA has changed but not to a huge scale. For example our audience still crave escapism, change and despite satisfaction are always conquered by the hearts desire. On the other hand our initial TA may have not been able to understand the intertextuality and symbolism applied throughout the video, that of which an older, more educated audience can.

Evaluation Question 4

Construction from RyanFrankish7


How did I use technology in the evaluation stage?

Question 1
For question 1 I used Microsoft word to write up the script for the directors cut, I then colour coded them so we all knew which parts we had to read out when we recorded them. I screengrabbed the scripts so I could then post them on my blog to show my journey and use of technology. I used Final Cut Pro X when speaking about the shots.

Question 2
For question 2 I used text and screen grabs as I feel it is easy to present when needing to write larger quantities whilst carrying out image analysis, this in my opinion also gives it a more sophisticated look due to the amount I have to analyse whilst the page doesn't look as crowded as it would on a PowerPoint.

Question 3
For question 3 I used PowerPoint as I feel it is easy to progressively show slide by slide how we changed our TA and adapted to it whilst also changing the video to suit the TA's needs. I also used this to show variation in technologies used for the evaluation and show I am versatile with media technology.

Question 4
For question 4 I used PowerPoint and Emaze as they both have very similar formats in the way that they can portray journey easily by progressing slide by slide and these were my exact intentions as I wanted to show how I used different technologies throughout my journey and how versatile I am with technologies now since the beginning of my media journey at AS.

Finally I used blogger to set out the evaluation of this question as I think aligning it all to the left in paragraphs makes it look neat and professional and is a good way to conclude the evaluation as it is simple to write a brief summary on this method of technology whilst also showing I can use media technology efficiently.  

Old Yellow Bricks Final Video

Ancilleries: DigiPak Final

Ancilleries: Advert Final

Ancilleries: Advert Draft 6

Ancilleries: Digipak Draft 5

Ancilleries: Digipak Draft 4

Ancilleries: Digipak Draft 3

Group Post: TA research 6 focus group of 14 FINAL VIDEO

Q1:  When looking at the music video, do you understand what affects and harms the relationship between the two characters?

Preferred encoding reading achieved: 14 Yes

Negotiated reading: -

Oppositional reading: -

Action: -

Q2: Do you see the reflection of the genre through costume in the music video on the stars?

Preferred encoding reading achieved: 13 Yes

Negotiated reading: 

1: The smart clothes contradict the genre of the video

Oppositional reading: - 

Action: If we had more time to do this music video, challenging this convention would still be in our mind, as we want to portray the youth as people who can dress stereo-typically, and not at the same time.

Q3: Do you think that the cards and the bottles represent something negative in the music video e.g: the social issue that the youths face which should be addressed?

Preferred encoding reading achieved:  13 Yes

Negotiated reading:  

1: It is but it's very subtle

Oppositional reading: -

Action: Next time we would include more specific shots, for example of the female drinking.

Q4:Would a music video of such genre spark interest and tempt you to find out more about the male star and his music?

Preferred encoding reading achieved: 8 Yes

Negotiated reading: 
1: No because this isn't my type of music
1: Would listen to music, however from a different artist

Oppositional reading:  4 No

Action:  Next time we would make sure the artist seems more authentic to appeal to our audience.


Q5: Do you feel that the yellow is one of the main colours used in the music video? E.G do you see them in the title, shots, costume?

Preferred encoding reading achieved: 9 Yes


Negotiated reading: 
2: There was some yellow, but there could've been more
1: Not really, spray painting, smashing yes, but could've been seen more  

Oppositional reading:  4 No


Action: Next time we would include yellow edits, props, makeup, and make yellow dominant in locations.

Q6: The music video contains a lot of shots with drained colour, and some that are heavily edited, for example the shaking screen, 3D effect. Do you feel that this suits the song and the genre of indie?

Preferred encoding reading achieved: 12 Yes

Negotiated reading: 
1: Yes, could've had more steady shots to give a sense of professionalism
1: No, but I never seen indie music videos before

Oppositional reading:  - 

Action:
Next time, we would Include more closeups, shots of the main star in general to make it seem more like a promo video. 

Ancilleries: Advert Draft 5

Ancilleries: Advert Draft 4

Ancilleries: Digipak Draft 2

Ancilleries: Digipak Draft 1