DEADLINE!
Today: 28th March 2011 is the year 13 deadline day! My group have fully completed our music video and all our ancillary tasks have been handed in. It was a struggle but I was finished by 2.30pm! I am so relieved that it is finally over; all that there is left to do is complete my blog evaluation over the half term.
I shall complete my evaluation by answering, in detail, four questions about the entire process- thus completing not only the evaluation but the entire project!
Lily-May Smythe
Friday, 25 March 2011
Saturday, 19 March 2011
EVALUATION...
The DigiPak:
Just as with my other ancillary tasks I have decided that the best course of action, in order to gain the very best feedback, is to approach my target audience. I have shown them my final design for the DigiPak and asked them a series of five structured questions in order to gauge their reaction and learn whether or not the product is suitable.
I decided to ask three people from my target audience:
- Natalia Alekseev: 15 years old, female
- Elanor Bradshaw: 16 years old, female
- Natasha CarMichael: 18 years old, female
and then, to get slightly more varied feedback and then an awareness of outside opinions, two people not from my target audience:
- Nikolei Alekseev: 21 years old, male
- James Moretti: 18 years old, male
After taking note of their answers using a dictaphone, I transfered the data onto pie charts for two reasons: the first was to give myself a greater general impression in terms of what alterations to make to the design and the second was for easier reference.The five questions, answers and pie charts are as follows:
1.) Do you think my choice of images are suitable for a product such as this?
"Yes, I think they reflect the theme of the record well as they are in quite dramatic locations- for instance the one with Melissa in the leaves."
- Natalia Alekseev
"Yes I think they do! I've just bought Birdy's new album and her DigiPak actually very similiar to this one."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"Yes, they're quite consistent seeing as the locations are all outside; makes me think there is some sort of earthy theme. "
- Natasha CarMichael
"Yes, the one with her lounging on her own by a tree seems like quite a girly thing to do and this is a girls record."
- James Moretti
"No, I think smaller ones would have looked better, I'd have seen more of the artist."
- Nikolei Alekseev
2.) Can you read all the text easily?
"Yes."
- Natalia Alekseev
"Yes."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"No, the writing on the back is really tiny!"
- Natasha CarMichael
"Yes."
- James Moretti
"Yes."
- Nikolei Alekseev
3.) Does this product reach a proffessional standard?
"Yes!"
- Natalia Alekseev
"I do."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"Yeah."
- Natasha CarMichael
"Yes."
- James Moretti
"Yes."
- Nikolei Alekseev
4.) Does this DigiPak provide you with all the information you need?
"Yes, I'd only ever open this booklet to check lyrics."
- Natalia Alekseev
"Yes, I think so."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"Yes, I don't really understand what it is."
- Natasha CarMichael
"Yes."
- James Moretti
"No, I want to know producers!"
- Nikolei Alekseev
5.) Have you any suggestions or improvements?
"No, it's fine."
- Natalia Alekseev
"No."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"Maybe make the font on the back slightly bigger- I really can't see it!"
- Natasha CarMichael
"No, it's great."
- James Moretti
"None."
- Nikolei Alekseev
For the last question, I was unable to produce a grid- so I just took on board their comments when it came to making changes to this design. I have learned all I needed to from this evaluation and look forward to seeing how it will influence my work.
Lily-May Smythe
Just as with my other ancillary tasks I have decided that the best course of action, in order to gain the very best feedback, is to approach my target audience. I have shown them my final design for the DigiPak and asked them a series of five structured questions in order to gauge their reaction and learn whether or not the product is suitable.
I decided to ask three people from my target audience:
- Natalia Alekseev: 15 years old, female
- Elanor Bradshaw: 16 years old, female
- Natasha CarMichael: 18 years old, female
and then, to get slightly more varied feedback and then an awareness of outside opinions, two people not from my target audience:
- Nikolei Alekseev: 21 years old, male
- James Moretti: 18 years old, male
After taking note of their answers using a dictaphone, I transfered the data onto pie charts for two reasons: the first was to give myself a greater general impression in terms of what alterations to make to the design and the second was for easier reference.The five questions, answers and pie charts are as follows:
1.) Do you think my choice of images are suitable for a product such as this?
"Yes, I think they reflect the theme of the record well as they are in quite dramatic locations- for instance the one with Melissa in the leaves."
- Natalia Alekseev
"Yes I think they do! I've just bought Birdy's new album and her DigiPak actually very similiar to this one."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"Yes, they're quite consistent seeing as the locations are all outside; makes me think there is some sort of earthy theme. "
- Natasha CarMichael
"Yes, the one with her lounging on her own by a tree seems like quite a girly thing to do and this is a girls record."
- James Moretti
"No, I think smaller ones would have looked better, I'd have seen more of the artist."
- Nikolei Alekseev
2.) Can you read all the text easily?
"Yes."
- Natalia Alekseev
"Yes."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"No, the writing on the back is really tiny!"
- Natasha CarMichael
"Yes."
- James Moretti
"Yes."
- Nikolei Alekseev
3.) Does this product reach a proffessional standard?
"Yes!"
- Natalia Alekseev
"I do."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"Yeah."
- Natasha CarMichael
"Yes."
- James Moretti
"Yes."
- Nikolei Alekseev
4.) Does this DigiPak provide you with all the information you need?
"Yes, I'd only ever open this booklet to check lyrics."
- Natalia Alekseev
"Yes, I think so."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"Yes, I don't really understand what it is."
- Natasha CarMichael
"Yes."
- James Moretti
"No, I want to know producers!"
- Nikolei Alekseev
5.) Have you any suggestions or improvements?
"No, it's fine."
- Natalia Alekseev
"No."
- Elanor Bradshaw
"Maybe make the font on the back slightly bigger- I really can't see it!"
- Natasha CarMichael
"No, it's great."
- James Moretti
"None."
- Nikolei Alekseev
For the last question, I was unable to produce a grid- so I just took on board their comments when it came to making changes to this design. I have learned all I needed to from this evaluation and look forward to seeing how it will influence my work.
Lily-May Smythe
Friday, 18 March 2011
Ancillary Tasks...
FINAL PRODUCTS:
Below are the final drafts of my ancillary tasks; I am very please with their outcome as I feel they resemeble exisiting media products well.
Billboard Design-
Tour Poster:
DigiPak-
Lily-May Smythe
Below are the final drafts of my ancillary tasks; I am very please with their outcome as I feel they resemeble exisiting media products well.
Billboard Design-
Tour Poster:
DigiPak-
Lily-May Smythe
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Final Product...
The Digipak-
Lily-May Smythe
My DigiPak is now complete and I hope to show it to my teachers before the deadline in order to see if there are any improvements that need to be made.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Music Video Complete...
Rough Cut-
Our music video is now complete! We have a rough cut and there are just a few finishing touches that need to be added. The group hopes to complete these as soon as possible.
Lily-May Smythe
Our music video is now complete! We have a rough cut and there are just a few finishing touches that need to be added. The group hopes to complete these as soon as possible.
Lily-May Smythe
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
DEVELOPMENT...
Digipak:
The development stage began for my digipak when I constructed the initial draftwork. Inspired by the existing products I had analysed during my research, I started drawing various design ideas to see what I could come up with:
Seeing as I have already been told what fonts I am to use and our photoshoots have already taken place, the design for my Digipak is quite straight forward. I intend to create a 16 page booklet featuring three pairs of pages with large, edited photographs on. I also hope to include the common convention of an acknowledgement page.
Melissa has already designed the front and back cover for the Digipak:
and so it is crucial that the rest of my design is inkeeping with these.
Soon I hope to progress to using Adobe InDesign to complete the task.
Lily-May Smythe
The development stage began for my digipak when I constructed the initial draftwork. Inspired by the existing products I had analysed during my research, I started drawing various design ideas to see what I could come up with:
 |
| First set of 8 boxes |
 |
| Second set of 8 boxes |
Melissa has already designed the front and back cover for the Digipak:
 |
| Front Cover |
 |
| Back Cover |
Soon I hope to progress to using Adobe InDesign to complete the task.
Lily-May Smythe
Monday, 14 March 2011
RESEARCH...
Further Research into DigiPaks-
Out of all three (four including the attempted bookmark!) of my ancillary tasks, the Digipak concerns me the most as I find it the most difficult. With approximately 16 pages it's also a lot of work but I am confident that I shall get it done by the deadline.
With my time using the software (InDesign) rather limited, I am putting alot of effort into the planning so that I can basically copy it from paper to screen. Therefore I have conducted further research into existing Digipaks in order to gain a few ideas:
After this research, I feel much more confident about the task and shall immediately construct some of my own designs and submit them for feedback.
Lily-May Smythe
Out of all three (four including the attempted bookmark!) of my ancillary tasks, the Digipak concerns me the most as I find it the most difficult. With approximately 16 pages it's also a lot of work but I am confident that I shall get it done by the deadline.
With my time using the software (InDesign) rather limited, I am putting alot of effort into the planning so that I can basically copy it from paper to screen. Therefore I have conducted further research into existing Digipaks in order to gain a few ideas:
 |
| Here is a two-page spread from a Digipak currently in the market. It is an Acknowledgements Page which is a convention I am keen to incorporate into my own design. I like the use of key images on this page, subverting the common code of mainly using copy. I may choose to follow this example or I may adhere to the usual use of a double-page spread largely covered in text. |
 |
| On the left-hand page, which I assume is the back of the DigiPak I noticed some small logos. On closer analysis I saw that they represented various companies that have helped construct the artist's record. I will ensure that I follow this convention when it comes to my own design. |
 |
| Due to the tracklist being designed by another member of my group, there is only a small selection of songs- much less than what I have found to usually be incorporated inside a DigiPak. This means that I am left with quite a few blank spaces in my own design and this example offers a great way to use them! I really like the idea of just using images to fill the space, something I am keen to do. I have several suitable outtakes from previous photoshoots with Melissa and could edit them using Adobe Photoshop to make them suitable for the DigiPak. |
Lily-May Smythe
Sunday, 13 March 2011
RESEARCH...
Digipak-
As well as designing a tour poster and billboard design for my ancillary tasks, my teachers have also suggested that I create a Digipak. At first I had absolutely no idea what one was but after conducting some much needed research, I have a slightly clearer idea now.
As always, I turned to Wikipedia which stated that:
Here are a few examples:
The next step now, as with my other ancillary tasks,is to draw up my draft work.
As well as designing a tour poster and billboard design for my ancillary tasks, my teachers have also suggested that I create a Digipak. At first I had absolutely no idea what one was but after conducting some much needed research, I have a slightly clearer idea now.
As always, I turned to Wikipedia which stated that:
'A Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holding company.'Still slightly confused, I read on:
'Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.'Now that I am aware what Digipak's actually are- I am going to find some examples to gain inspiration for my own designs.
Here are a few examples:
 |
| This six-panel digipak uses consistent images. I hope to use conventions such as the track listing on the back for my design. |
 |
| As before, this design uses consistent imaging and colour schemes. I also wish to incorporate the idea of an image behind the text also. |
Lily-May Smythe
Friday, 11 March 2011
Editing...
Video Editing-
Today Rebecca, Jennifer and I reviewed the current state of our music video and were happy when Mr. Palmer declared that we finally 'had a music video!' The three of us looked over what we had and discussed any possible improvements that could be made.
I noticed that a certain scene towards the end was our video was completely out of sync. As the scene was only a few seconds shot in Nuxley Park I suggested we either re-shoot or scrap it, but in the end we tried to move the music to fit the footage only to find that we could move it as slightly as we needed too. The next time the group are all together, this scene is an issue we shall have to address.
After this, we discussed what final shots we still needed to film only to find that we actually needed to film even more flash backs than we already had- even though we'd thought we'd filmed plenty! This is due to when we inserted the flash backs we had in to the numerous instrumental segments, we were having to insert more than one which we had not anticipated. The group solved this problem by deciding that we are going to incorporate more than one flash back per instrumental but break them up using quick bursts of still images.
With this in mind, the progression of our music video is moving swiftly- on time for the looming deadline.
Lily-May Smythe
Today Rebecca, Jennifer and I reviewed the current state of our music video and were happy when Mr. Palmer declared that we finally 'had a music video!' The three of us looked over what we had and discussed any possible improvements that could be made.
I noticed that a certain scene towards the end was our video was completely out of sync. As the scene was only a few seconds shot in Nuxley Park I suggested we either re-shoot or scrap it, but in the end we tried to move the music to fit the footage only to find that we could move it as slightly as we needed too. The next time the group are all together, this scene is an issue we shall have to address.
After this, we discussed what final shots we still needed to film only to find that we actually needed to film even more flash backs than we already had- even though we'd thought we'd filmed plenty! This is due to when we inserted the flash backs we had in to the numerous instrumental segments, we were having to insert more than one which we had not anticipated. The group solved this problem by deciding that we are going to incorporate more than one flash back per instrumental but break them up using quick bursts of still images.
With this in mind, the progression of our music video is moving swiftly- on time for the looming deadline.
Lily-May Smythe
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Filming...
Flash Backs (Rebecca's House)-
Today the whole group plus Aaran (who is playing the video's love interest) went round to Rebecca's house to film numerous short clips that could be used as flash backs. It has been decided that during the editing process we shall change the flash back segments to black and white in order to give them a more reminiscent romantic feel. The equipment we used was the video camera and tripod and also an image camera.
As well as capturing moving images, I also took some still ones. I took a photograph of Aaran and Melissa together as if leaving from prom which will be featured in the music video. It is going to be used in the music video along with the footage of Melissa walking down the stairs as Aaran greets her. We are going to pair the two in order to construct a sense of realism that the two did actually go to the prom together, almost as evidence that the memory did actually happen.
Lily-May Smythe
Today the whole group plus Aaran (who is playing the video's love interest) went round to Rebecca's house to film numerous short clips that could be used as flash backs. It has been decided that during the editing process we shall change the flash back segments to black and white in order to give them a more reminiscent romantic feel. The equipment we used was the video camera and tripod and also an image camera.
As well as capturing moving images, I also took some still ones. I took a photograph of Aaran and Melissa together as if leaving from prom which will be featured in the music video. It is going to be used in the music video along with the footage of Melissa walking down the stairs as Aaran greets her. We are going to pair the two in order to construct a sense of realism that the two did actually go to the prom together, almost as evidence that the memory did actually happen.
Lily-May Smythe
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Filming...
Green Screen-
Yesterday Rebecca, Melissa, Jennifer and myself completed our planned filming using the green screen at our school. Prior to filming we had ensured that we had booked out all the appropriate equipment so there was no confusion or delays as we began filming. The equipment we chose to use consisted of:
We set up the equipment whilst Melissa got ready for the shoot. It was decided that Melissa would look very glamorous for this section and so she wore a lovely long black sparkly dress- very much in keeping with our Gothic theme. She also had long black hair and red lipstick to complete the look. Whilst she dressed, the rest of the group arranged for the camera and lights to capture several large mid-shot.
Overall, the shoot was a success, we managed to capture all the shots we needed rather quickly and returned all the equipment safe and sound!
Lily-May Smythe
Yesterday Rebecca, Melissa, Jennifer and myself completed our planned filming using the green screen at our school. Prior to filming we had ensured that we had booked out all the appropriate equipment so there was no confusion or delays as we began filming. The equipment we chose to use consisted of:
- Video Camera
- Tripod
- Studio Lights
 |
| Here me and Melissa are arranging the shot by adjusting the tripod, positioning the subject and checking the lighting is correct. |
We set up the equipment whilst Melissa got ready for the shoot. It was decided that Melissa would look very glamorous for this section and so she wore a lovely long black sparkly dress- very much in keeping with our Gothic theme. She also had long black hair and red lipstick to complete the look. Whilst she dressed, the rest of the group arranged for the camera and lights to capture several large mid-shot.
 |
| With the lights in place, we reviewed the choreography we had planned for the shot and did a couple of practices before filming the actual footage. |
Lily-May Smythe
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Meeting...
Filming-
We plan to film several close-up shots of Melissa using the green screen and include them periodically throughout the music video. With the help of green screen technology, we are able to super-impose different backgrounds behind Melissa. We have chosen to use floral background images inkeeping with our house style and colour-scheme.
Here is an example:
It was also decided between the group that we are to filming these clips after school on Friday 4th March (tomorrow).
Lily-May Smythe
We plan to film several close-up shots of Melissa using the green screen and include them periodically throughout the music video. With the help of green screen technology, we are able to super-impose different backgrounds behind Melissa. We have chosen to use floral background images inkeeping with our house style and colour-scheme.
Here is an example:
It was also decided between the group that we are to filming these clips after school on Friday 4th March (tomorrow).
Lily-May Smythe
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Meeting...
Flashbacks-
Today, the group met to discuss how to fill in the remaining gaps in our music video. We each suggested various locations in which we could film Melissa and Aaran together to reinforce the romanticism as the major recurring theme throughout the video. We also thought that it would be best if we kept the flash backs relatively short- almost burst-like. This is so as to maintain the audience's attention but we also need to ensure we convey the storyline efficiently.
Together, we created a list of possible flashbacks:
Each flashback will more than likely require a different outfit, varied make-up or at the very least a change of hairstyle in order to maintain an heir of verisimilitude. Then we discussed when we were all free to film and it was concluded that we shall film on 6th March 2011.
Lily-May Smythe
Today, the group met to discuss how to fill in the remaining gaps in our music video. We each suggested various locations in which we could film Melissa and Aaran together to reinforce the romanticism as the major recurring theme throughout the video. We also thought that it would be best if we kept the flash backs relatively short- almost burst-like. This is so as to maintain the audience's attention but we also need to ensure we convey the storyline efficiently.
Together, we created a list of possible flashbacks:
- Sitting on the sofa
- At a bar, having a drink
- Walking a dog
- Mini golf/tennis
- Dinner together
- Cooking
- Playing board games
- Flowers
- Water-fight
Each flashback will more than likely require a different outfit, varied make-up or at the very least a change of hairstyle in order to maintain an heir of verisimilitude. Then we discussed when we were all free to film and it was concluded that we shall film on 6th March 2011.
Lily-May Smythe
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Production Schedule...
March's Agenda-
Our final deadline is: Monday 28th March 2011!
Here is an updated version of our Production Schedule; focusing between 28th February and the week beginning the 21st March 2011:
Week beginning: 28th February-
Though ambitious, I'm sure we'll be fine!
Lily-May Smythe
Our final deadline is: Monday 28th March 2011!
Here is an updated version of our Production Schedule; focusing between 28th February and the week beginning the 21st March 2011:
Week beginning: 28th February-
- Make any final changes to ancillary tasks
- Group Meeting to discuss Green Screen filming sessions
- Group meeting to discuss the flash backs we wish to create and capture
- Complete both Green Screen and flash back filming
- Continue video editing
- Review Green Screen and flash back footage
- Upload and edit this footage on the video editing machines
- Lip sync all footage
- Finish filming
- Complete rough cut
- Review all finished ancillary tasks
- Video editing to add effects and final changes
Though ambitious, I'm sure we'll be fine!
Lily-May Smythe
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