Final Music Video. This is Annihilation.

 

This is our final Product for the music video task. We have looked closely at codes and conventions of heavy metal music as well as how to brand a band. We also included credits and a TV stations logo.

Ancillary Task 1. Album Pack.

Front

Inside Front

Inside Back.

Disc Design.

Back.

This is the final design for the ancillary task 1- album pack.

The design includes the front cover that depicts an ancient, thorn like tree that is in flames with the band's name and album title. We also included a parental advisory label as some of the tracks contain swear words. For the inside front and back the design continues with black and white drawings of a guitar, drum stick and microphone which represent the band. Theses objects are being covered with thorn like branches that are similar to the tree design. These pages have no text on them as it was not necessary and there was no information to be placed there. For the CD design we kept it simple with a grey coloured background and a darker grey coloured capital 'R' that looks like a water mark. Finally on the back cover there is a drawing of a pocket watch which appears in our music video. This is also covered in thorn like branches. The back also has the nine album songs, a barcode, record company logo, contact details and copyright details.
The overall colour scheme for the album cover consists of black, grey, white and a dark green. This meets the codes and conventions of similar products as they are dark colours that connotes a dark and evil atmosphere which is also represented through the sound of the music. These colours also help with our overall theme of apocalypse and destruction. Finally the typography of the font we used for the album cover also keeps to the codes and conventions of the metal genre as they are Gothic or have very strong, sharp strokes.

Overall I am very happy with the design of the album cover as it is eye catching, has the theme that we wanted to create, whilst still having the correct information and overall conventions that makes it a metal genre product.

Ancillary Task 2. Magazine Advert.

This is the magazine advert promoting the album. It shows the album cover design. Then for promoting the album we have included the band's name, the album name. We have also included the release date and where to pre-order the album. It also shows a review of the album which helps grab audiences attention. The overall colour scheme of the advert is the same as the album cover with dark colours and white font. The typography that we used is the same font that we used for the back of the album. We did this so that it matches the album cover. Additional information that we put on the advert is also the record company and contact details. We did consider putting gig dates onto the advert as this is quite common for metal adverts, however we decided against it as it would ruin the overall layout of the product and we wanted to sell the album and not a tour. 

Overall I am really happy with this magazine advert because it is affective and looks this like a real advert. I also feel that we met the codes and conventions of a real magazine advert as well as the codes and conventions of a metal genre advert.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgYL4fz-V_I

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

http://prezi.com/siwrb0-zf2xx/how-effective-is-the-combination-of-your-main-product-and-ancillary-texts/?kw=view-siwrb0-zf2xx&rc=ref-14428493

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Feedback 1:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kljrY29K1MM
Audience Feedback 2:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTlm2p4gVvI
Audience Feedback 3:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlCy1tI4UIo

Our questionnaire and answers.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/?survey_id=39603619

From listening at our audiences feedback I can see that we have created a music video that is very clear on the type of genre, which we are told can be seen through the mise-en-scene of costume and lighting and of course sound. Most of the audience understood the narrative of the video to an extent and we can see that some got a little confused or found the narrative repetitive and boring. The audience have told us that the overall locations used are strong as well as the cutting to the tempo of the music. To improve on the video we have also been told that we should consider using different camera shots and should have had less performance of the band. Overall the rating was very good with a 50% rating for good and a compared to a 6.25% rating on not great and from this I feel that we have targeted and created a strong audience. 

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

Throughout the whole process of creating my music video and ancillary task I have used many new media technologies that have helped record, research and produce the final piece. One of the most useful pieces of technologies has been the internet. This helped with finding an artist to use and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter came in use for contacting the artist to ask for permission to use a song. This was a great leaning tool as I had to think of an appropriate way of addressing the band. The internet also allowed me to use websites such as Youtube and Reverbnation. These sites helped me gather research into the codes and conventions of the genre of music that my chosen artists belonged to as well as helping me to find and chose a song to make the music video for. Finally the internet allowed me to use blogging to help me document the creative processes that I have gone through to reach the end product.

For the making of the video and ancillary tasks I began to use more hardware and software technologies. With this I started off by using smart phones and HD cameras to film test shots and later to film the actual footage for the video. The use of the HD cameras allowed me to work with mics and setting up the right shot and camera angel to create the right effect for the video as well as producing good quality footage.

For the post production stage I used the software Final Cut Pro on the Apple Macs. This software is used in the actual media industry and I found this useful as I gained a great amount of knowledge about the challenges of editing whilst creating a video that could be up to industry quality. With this software I learnt techniques such as creating lighting effects like strobing, altering the colour to create a more dramatic atmosphere and using simple cuts and transitions. I also found it useful and easier for cutting the footage and placing on the timeline in time with the pace and tempo of our chosen song compared to other software.

Finally I used Adobe Photoshop to make alterations to the images used for my ancillary tasks. I used this software to crop images as well as altering contrast and colour saturation. This was a very useful tool to have as it helped to create a final product that met the codes and conventions of similar media products.