Final products

The Video:

The poster:

The Digipak:

Evaluation Q4

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

I have created a Pinterest board in order to answer this question.

In this board I have highlighted the technologies which I used in my research, planning and evaluation stages.

Click below to access the board.

Evaluation Q3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Q2

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

Evaluation Q2

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Evaluation Q1

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

A2 Media Evaluation Q1

Poster final

My final poster design which I chose involved four photos of the artist in the stages of throwing the bunch of petals. I preferred that the album and the number of pictures all being four, in order to create a slight connection. I needed to create a blur between the white an red backgrounds, so that it looked as though they were not one layer on top of the other. I think the text is clear, by adding a shadow behind both 'Beyonce' and the '4', which drew attention towards the centre of the poster, which is what needed to be advertised. 

Poster choices

My first choice to make was between which text I preferred to have 'Beyoncé' written in and the number '4' to be written in. The text needed to be readable, but also fit with the style of the artist and the genre. The final text which I chose was park lane, which was the first text of these 3.

I then decided to remove the lines I had inserted, and instead use guides to evenly position the four artist photos at a bigger size. The text I kept the same but changed the colours to white with a black shadow for the Beyoncé, and gold with a black shadow for the 4. I also moved the text to the middle in order to fill unnecessary space, against putting the text at the bottom of the page. The text was then made larger in order to fill the space.

An alternative option I looked at was using just 1 image of Stefi blown up. I picked my favourite image from the four throwing flowers shoot and then blew this up to fill the whole page. This image was backed by a silk piece, in order to keep it plain and simple, but not just be a plain white background. 

As I preferred to have 4 of the artist shown in order to create a link between the album being named '4', I decided to further add to the background of this poster draft. To the background I again added the silk texture, but I then added a curtain type effect in the middle to draw attention to the name and the album title. As the artist is considered to be simplistic in the way she presents her music, I decided to keep writing and information at a minimum for the poster. I just included: the name, album, release date and available to pre order on iTunes.  

Magazine poster research

Jessie J's album advert featured a close up photo of the artist, with her name, album name and songs featured below. She used the colour scheme of black, gold and white in order to follow the conventions of the R&B genre. For her background it is plain white, but for my poster this may not work as well as the pictures I will use are not quite big enough.

Ellie Goulding's album advert featured the singer, her name, album name and some reviews of the album below. As part of the pop genre, she follows the conventions of fun and playful colours, by using the sparkles.

The Rihanna 'Loud' album features an close up of the artist face, in order to highlight the colour red which appears to be a theme throughout the album cover also. As part of the R&B genre, this fits well with generic conventions of colour.

A further Rihanna album is advertised by showing an alternative image of the artist, featuring the front cover of the album and the release date. This is simple, yet gives the message about the album without having much text or any ratings of the album. This simplistic look is what I want to use for my poster.

Digipak final

This is my final digipak with the top photo being the inside page where the CD would fit over the artists body. My colour scheme followed conventions of the R&B genre; using red, white, black and gold, as the rest of Beyonce's album fits the R&B genre. For the spine I used the same text as on the front cover, although on the back page of text, I changed the font and colour in order to make it clearer and stand out. As Beyonce belongs to 'Columbia Records' I featured the companies logo in the top right hand corner of the back page, which was not too noticeable given that is was also red. My final choice of backgrounds was the red, old fashioned style wallpaper, with a light feature in the centre, and the back page was the bed of rose petals.

Editing digipak

I began the front cover by selecting the best photo of Stefi posing straight on. I then cut the background and shadow of her out before copying this image to the front cover.

I copied the photo four times and spaced them evenly across the cover. I then changed the opacity of each Stefi, with the first being 100%, the second being 90%, the third being 85% and the fourth being 80%.

For the back cover, I chose to use a picture where Stefi's hair was shaped in a heart shape, to highlight the song style, with most being about love. I cut out the background, and especially the inside parts of the hair.

I then copied this image onto the back cover, but due to her outfit being black, it became difficult to see the text, thus this would need to change colour to white.

For the entire middle spread, I wanted Stefi to be lying along the floor on a bed of rose petals. However, when it came to cutting Stefi's body from the background, some of the flowers were cut too, as I had photographed her on a white background and there was several cream petals. For this reason, I had to use the pure photos of the rose petals:

I had taken a photo of the bunched rose petals and so I copied these 7/8 times behind Stefi in order to fill any remaining gaps. By using real petal photos, rather than just google images, it gave a more realistic shot that she was physically laying on a bed of rose petals.

Choosing background:

I have cut out the photos of Stefi which left a blank background to fill.

The final choice of background is the red on either side for the '4' feature:

However, the back cover I need to choose between the songs at the side and the photo of the artist facing back, or the songs at the bottom and the photo of the hair in love hearts.

Photos

Contact Sheet

Photoshoot day

 

Before I began filming, I bought 4 dozen roses in order to break them up into petals. This would be scattered around Stefi in order to make it a more realistic background, rather than just copying a photo of roses.

The makeup for the shoot was natural, as I was using flowers I didn't want anything too dramatic. For a brighter eye, I used a silver glitter.

I scattered the roses once Stefi had laid down in position. I used a variety of white and red roses to fit with the R&B/ pop theme.

 For the front cover and back song list, Stefi wore a black sleeveless blazer which was tied up.

Font choice

Before I began to insert my fonts to my digipak and poster, I looked on Dafont.com for ideas different to those which were provided on Photoshop alone. Once I began looking I found that I had a general style of letters which I liked, of a retro feel. As the type of artist Beyonce is, and the fan base which follows, I can assume that using letters like these, along with glam style outfit, hair and make up will be fitting with the genre of pop/ r&b. 

This is the first idea of the font's which I will use for my digipak: 

For the song titles on the back page of the album I used font 'Stencil1935' which I then made the numbers bold to define them a little more:

For the 'Beyonce' name title I used font 'Optimum princeps' which resulted in a larger 'B' than the other letters:

As the album is called '4' I wanted to incorporate a big 4 covering the entire page of the digipak, which will have the opacity changed once the 4 same photos of Stefi are inserted. For this 4 I used font 'Dita Sweet':

A further big four in the same font will be used on the lyrics page, however in a different colour so that the text stands out a little more. I am hoping to use the colour scheme of red, black and gold, as these are the colours used in the r&b genre. For the lyrics font I used 'Ginebra':

Digipak plan

ejerman_2016-04-29-15-33-43

Digipak analysis

I will be choosing between a one fold and a two fold digipak for my final product. For either one or two fold there will be various conventions which I will need to follow in order to successfully sell my product; the CD.

The front cover will include: 
- the name of the artist.
- the album name.
- a front cover image (often of the artist).
- a background image of an assumed location the artist would be at.
- props associated with the artist (in Beyonce's case - jewellery).

The inside cover/s:
- a variety of images of the artist (often in the same locations).
- a blank/ plain image where the CD is placed.
- lyric sheets.
- notes from the artist/ about the album.

The spine: 
- album name.
- artist name.
- serial code.
- plain/ block colour scheme.

The back cover: 
- continuation from the front cover image.
- all songs from the album/ single.
- titles in an ordinary font which is easily readable.
- barcode.
- copyright laws.
- publishers information.

Ancillary products research

This post from Khloe's Instagram account is what I would like to mirror for the front cover of my album. As the album is called 4, I would like the 4 to feature on the front cover, perhaps behind or in front of the 4 images. This image will be taken of Stefi once and then over layed on Photoshop, before changing the opacity of the second, third and fourth, to give it a fading out effect. I will need to consider in the planning of the photo shoot, which type of outfit would be most appropriate for the front cover.

The wall of flowers, which features several times on Kim's Instagram page, is the desired effect which I would like to gain for the big middle 3 pages of the digipak. I will not be using a wall of flowers given the cost to produce such a huge amount of flowers, so instead I could use flower petals scattered on the floor for Stefi to lay over, or in the middle of the flowers.

This camera angle is one that I would consider using for the middle 3 pages. Although on my pages it would appear with Stefi lying over the top of the flowers, this could be achievable with a dozen or so roses/ peonies. Alternatively I could shoot this from above the flowers.














This middle 3 pages of Rihanna's digipak is similar to the flower idea which I like. Although Rihanna here is lying on a bush of roses, I would prefer to have pure flowers or rose petals (as shown above).

This photo I liked, and if possible I will try to incorporate it onto my digipak or poster. If on my digipak it would be on my middle pages lying over flowers, or alternatively on the back cover showing the songs featured. If on my
poster it would be just the main photo whilst she lays on a plain background. If I was to do this shot, I will need to consider carefully the type of clothing which I use to fit with the generic conventions of the genre.

As the album is called 4, I want to feature similar to the 1898 as just the number. This will be on my front and inside cover, with the opacity changed in order to see the photos behind.

Finished product

This is my final product after having feedback about slight out of time lip syncing, which I have improved on.

Ken Burn pan

From 2:15 I planned to do a longer Ken Burn pan as well as a zoom into Stefi dancing. This would give the desired effect of Stefi appearing dancing 6/7 times whilst it panned across the room at each different dance move. This routine involved 8 different dance moves performed one after another, so in this part of the song, Stefi would appear in cannon performing this routine 6/7 times.

The first stage of this editing process involved me cutting each Stefi down to size, so that she did not overlap at each position of the room:



This stage involved the initial part of the clip whereby I wanted it to show all of the Stefi's and then zoom in and pan across, before once again returning to the full room of Stefi dancing; the last dance move which was Stefi saluting to the word 'stop' in the song. Once I had seen this first stage, I wanted to fill the empty gap on the right of the screen with another Stefi to give the final total of 7 Stefi's dancing.

Initially when I began to pan this shot, I was working with each clip individually panning and individually zooming. However, given that there would be 7 shots and each time I panned and zoomed the shots they would all need to be in line with each other, it became an extremely difficult process. So for this reason I merged all of the clips seen in the above video into one MP4 which I then copied onto my actual music video before beginning the pan and zoom technique as if it was only one clip.

Then I began the next stage which was to zoom in from 100.0 to 225.0 points on scale. This would then zoom and take me to the far left of the screen before beginning the panning process. This zoom was only completed on one clip, given the difficulty level of doing it all separately. I would then zoom back out from 225.0 to 100.0 at the end of the clip for the salute. After I had put in the zoom, I needed it to stay consistent, which I did by inserting toggles along the clip in order for the zoom to stay at 225.0.

After this stage I began the panning effect, which I also did by inserting toggles at various stages for a smooth pan along. Each of the toggles would slightly change the the stage or number of Stefi's, e.g. moving from 1-3 Stefi's on show, to 2-4 Stefi's on show. The toggles had to be inserted consistently throughout the clip in order to give a smooth panning effect. As I began to do this, the camera would jump, but by keeping the toggles consistent this stopped this from happening.

At the end of the panning effect, the camera would return back out to show all 7 Stefi's in time for the 'stop' and salute.

Editing process

As I began the editing process for my music video, I came across various things which worked well, but also some mistakes which needed to be corrected from the first round of filming. As I filmed the majority of Stefi's solo scenes over 1 day, and the various group shots over different days, this meant that some of these shots did not match up.

For the beginning opening instrumental part of the song, I intended to pause the music whilst she held her hand and then continue it once she began to start dancing. However, this break was too quick which made the gap in the music look strange. As a result of this, I decided to cut from the wide shot to the zoomed medium shot and continue the music to play over this. It meant that I could still use match-action, even though I could not cut the music to fit with it.

A part of my filming which went well was this window shot, although it was shot from one angle for the majority of it, the break in between, shot from the other side of the window allowed for a sharp editing cut to follow with the upbeat and sharp lyric that I matched 'pane'. In terms of the length of the shot, I will consider this after filming my backing dancing scene. I am unsure whether the pan to the right, followed by the next location and the break in the middle is enough to keep the audience interested in the shot and what will come next, therefore, this shot may need to be broken up by a group shot.

The group shots all went to plan in terms of the actors which I chose. As I needed to use an all female cast, choosing an upbeat group of women was important. There was all but one shot that worked, which I have cut out and replaced with a longer shot of Stefi (outside shot). As I have discussed above, I may need to film 2 or 3 more of these type of shots, dependent upon the choice when I go on to edit further.

This shot will follow with a tilt down from the dance routine scene. I have cut this shot so that a group shot proceeds before. This was needed as I filmed the outside shot in one take, and then the tilt in one take, so that for it to fit, where Stefi stands in near enough the same place, the group shot before became ideal.

The shot outside was then followed by a downward tilt to change the locations between outside to dance studio more swiftly. I have matched the pointing of Stefi and the dancers (Louie and JJ) so that once the outside shot hits the sky, the dance studio shot comes down from the sky.

The wind shot had a warm lighting which I liked, but the shot is too long which makes it become boring. I will need to film 1 further group shot to break it up half way through. However, my favourite parts of this shot are the dancing and champagne drinking which are in the middle. In this case, I may use the beginning of the champagne shot for the break, so that the drinking part and kisses to the screen are shown of Stefi.

A further issue with my first set of filming was with one of the group shots. An editing technique which I wish to use is whereby Stefi will start a slow spin, followed by a match-action spin of a group shot, then Stefi finishes her spin after. However, the group shot did not match up with Stefi's spin, so I will re-film the group shot, as I cannot film this Stefi shot again given that most nights it is raining. This will require a further actor, which I could also use to sing a missing line earlier in the song too.  

The main editing technique that I was going to do was similar to that in the 'countdown' music video. This would involve a pan across the room with 8 Stefi's dancing in cannon as this pan moved. However, when it came to filming, I needed to keep the camera completely still and then pan in editing, but I panned the camera on the day, which resulted in Stefi being cut when she did certain movements, as well as the floor not matching up in each shot. Therefore, I am taking this as a practice of the shot, which I will need to repeat. Next time, I will need to keep the camera in the same place and record on a continuous basis, so that when Stefi moves along and she will repeat the dance several times. This will then need to be cropped in size and the shots stacked, before I change the angles of the shots so it appears as if it is panning along the room, rather than doing a circle of the room; like in my practice.