MICHAEL KERSHAW

A2 Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

Breif

Promo Video – Codes and Conventions

By doing research into other music videos of a similar genre. I was able to generate a set of codes and conventions within which I could follow in order to make my promo video, seem as genuine as any other. As the artist of the song I chose was ‘Biffy Clyro’ a popular indie/rock/alternative artist I could research into videos from them and other artists who fit into the same genre. I found a lot of the video is normally performance based, often featuring abstract elements. I tried to include these factors in my video to make it clear it is supposed to be a music video, and also to give it the element of professionalism. When looking at the bands version of the song I am going to use. It is all performance, kept very simple which I feel gives a safe yet interesting look to it. This therefore, was the reasoning behind mine therefore I feel I have strictly stuck to the conventions throughout this video.

Digipak Packaging – Codes and Conventions

The codes and conventions of a digipak (CD/DVD) package made it very easy design, they work as a template, for example I knew where I needed to put what information on the package then the rest was up to me. They were overall conventions whereas I then had a look at genre specific digipak covers and found that it was very common for them to not bare much resemblance to the band. Abstract photographs, illustrations and paintings were all the band ‘Biffy Clyro’ used for all of their CD covers. Bearing this in mind When designing my packaging I wanted to incorporate this convention. For the Cover of the album I created a photogram using microscopic slides of a fly this gave the clear black and white contrast i then used an original font to enter the name of the band and album name. Doing this has given it a simplistic yet complex look to it. I did the same on the inside covers and the back cover where i used red text to make the song names stand out. To show my packaging was for a digipak I gave information of a bonus DVD on the back and on the front inserted a red band saying ‘DELUXE EDITION’

How I Followed Conventions of CD/Digipak Packaging

Simple colour scheme

Alternative picture not of the band

Standing out banner to show the CD is a ‘deluxe edition’

Matching Colour schemes

Track listings

The usual information on the bottom of the back of a CD cover, e.g. Produced by, website, record company logo, barcode, price, CD/DVD logo Region logo.

Magazine Advert – Codes and Conventions

As I have experience within Photoshop due to being a photography student I found it easy to produce these ancillary texts. Again I followed the conventions of magazine adverts advertising digipaks or CD releases. A general trend I found through a number of them is the advert also worked along side a current tour for the band, as not all of them did this. I decided not to when it came down to the final product as I previously tried it and found the advert looking too cluttered and becoming more of a tour poster than an advert for the release of the digipak. Other conventions i followed were;

The use of a simple colour scheme (red, white and black)The advert worked along side the CD cover It featured company logo’s for sponsors e.g. PLAY.com iTunes and

HMV.Featured the record company ident

When compared to another magazine advert I feel my poster looks genuine, it is not over cluttered, it features the essential information along with the additional information to help sell the digipak.

Addressing and Interesting the Audience.

Even though our video is meant to a mass audience I feel the most regular viewers would be teenagers aged 16-20, I think the song especially interests boys as is quite rocky. This is the reason therefore, why I chose an average looking guy and dressed him in clothes from the high street which other viewers may also have.

Target audience

The target audience for this music video is to appeal to a mass audience due to the nature of the song, being well known, but I mainly want to attract an audience of alternative teenagers. I chose this audience as it is a small group and I can model it around what I see some of my friends being interested in. The video has to be simple, no high budget values or special effects, I want to give the effect of being homemade as it seems the newest way of bands/ artists being discovered is through the means of You tube where people film them selves doing covers of songs in order to be recognised.

The effect of the Ancillary Texts on the Main Text

I feel I have achieved a maximum effect in linking the 3 texts together I feel they all say something about each other

When looking at the CD cover, we see the artistic photogram of a fly, we automatically rule out a lot of genres of music which it clearly isn't going to be as it gives off the look of being alternative and edgy. Once the video is watched after viewing this, I feel the audience would already have a similar idea in their head to what the video may be like.

I used the same colour scheme for my CD cover as I did on the magazine advert as I would want each product to represent the other. An advert is always successful when it has the effect on the viewer whereby, when they see the product they can remember the advert. This also means if someone went to find the album they would recognise the colour scheme.

Once watched, the video will have created an image about the band to the consumer. They hopefully, through the video will have recognised the individual style video fitting with the alternative music, giving a ‘rough and edgy’ look to it. Therefore if put with the advert i feel they matched as the use of black splats and stencil style font make it look very alternative.

Audience Feedback

For my audience feed back I thought instead of only asking my target audience, I wanted feedback from all age groups to see if my aim of being a video appealing to teenagers was correct. I asked one person from each of the following age categories:

- 16 17-23 24-40 The youngest age group said the video was boring and didn’t understand what it

was about. My target audience seemed to understand the video, enjoyed it and said it looked

professional. They said they liked the fact the actor in the video was of at a similar age and alternative style. When I asked them how i could improve my video, they said to add to the homemade effect, I could add something at the start to set the scene, I agree with this statement.

The next category (24-40) said they didn’t understand why the video was supposed to be simple and thought it should have had more special effects, they also said they did not like the song. From this I took that they weren't fans of alternative music so would not have seen many examples of videos within this genre, so makes sense why they felt this way about the style of video.

Media Technologies - Production

As my production is a simple narrative/only performance piece I needed to keep it interesting, I first thought I may do this all post production through the means of special effects, I then thought this may make it look cheap so I used the simple conventional way of using different interesting camera angles. Through this I faced a number of issues, firstly when I wanted extreme low angles the tripod would not go low enough so I had to steadily rest it on something to give me the right angle. Another issue was there was a number of shots I could not use due to being unsteady, for example my favourite shot was an extreme high angle as if it was shot from the ceiling I unfortunately could not use this due to it being unsteady due to being a hand held shot.

Media Technologies – Post production

I feel this was my strongest part within this project. For the editing of the video I used both Windows movie maker and

Imovie I used both to enable me to work from home. Windows movie maker was used to simply put the sequence together with music I then realised it was too limited to give the full effect I wanted to put across. I therefore converted the file from WMA format into MP4 so I could import it into Imovie where I could change the colour of the shots and up the contrast to give more of a dramatic feel.

For my ancillary products I used both Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Due to being a photography student I am well aware of how to use Photoshop so I feel my Digipak packaging looks original and authentic. For the magazine advert I used a new programme, Adobe illustrator to add in graphics to the advert which I then saved and imported into Photoshop. At first I was confused with how to use the programme but once i played around with it I worked it out.

Media Technologies – Planning, Research and Evaluation

ResearchFor The research I used Blogger to present my work and

used Google to find research I needed. I embedded videos into my blog using YouTube.

PlanningI kept all my planning to a tight schedule in order to make

sure everything got done I used my blog to track the progress I was making, with what needed to be done etc.

EvaluationI created my evaluation on PowerPoint then using a

website called slide share I could convert the file type to enable me to put it onto my blog

Overall evaluation – Bad points

When I started this project I was working with a partner, we had been working on a different song and video a week before the deadline my partner dropped out of sixth form meaning I had to start from scratch as the previous work I had done I had shared the work load so could only be marked on half a project.

I also had a few problems with the equipment. Firstly, once filmed the first time, I connected the camera to the computer and all the files corrupted on the memory card I therefore had to start from scratch with the filming Secondly, the tripod I was using did not always stay stable so some shots had to be done twice or three times.

Overall Evaluation – Good Points

Even though my partner left, I think I coped with the situation and used it as a new start it enabled me to do things the way I wanted and instead of working out who did which job I did them all. I found maximising the effect of working on my own, everything fitted together and I knew where I was and what needed to be done at all times.

I feel the highlight of this project is my magazine advert and digipak packaging, by following codes and conventions and using my creativity I feel I created two products which look professional and like they could be used in the industry.