Finished Video

Friday 26 February 2016

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

http://lizzieschmizzie.wix.com/parkerproductions

This is the Wix website I created in order to document what technology I used, I used a Nikon D5200 to film my music video and also to take pictures for the other promotional packages. For editing software, I used Final Cut Pro X to edit my video & Photoshop to edit my other promotional texts. I did all of this on a MacBook Pro computer, including research, evaluation and planning. Additionally, I used a tripod to steady my camera and an iPhone for research and communications.

Wednesday 24 February 2016

What have I learned from my audience feedback?





From my audience feedback, I have learned that my media products (especially when uploaded in their completed form) appeal directly to my target audience of young alts in their mid-late teens. Overall I'm satisfied that I have produced effective media.

Tuesday 23 February 2016

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

In the video below, I describe how effective I feel the combination of my main products and ancillary texts is. I believe that as a combination they work well as I maintain clear signifiers of the artist throughout the texts. I did this by keeping the same or similar font and colouring, which I chose in order to conform to the typical traits of the genre of indie music so that my products would be ideal for my target audience.

Monday 22 February 2016

Finished Digipak



Here is the mostly finished version of my digipak, below is a video of how it looks when it's printed out




I decided to maintain a theme of green throughout the digipak to incorporate the suggestion of the woods and forest into the general aesthetic of the overall product, this is to emphasise the contrast between the couple and their surroundings and to make the couple stand out more. I will also be adding additional titles to the exterior right side panel to give the digipak EP a title as opposed to it being titled by only the band's name.Finally, I will be adding the artist's name and the title of the EP along the spines of the digipak.
  This is my final digipak layout, I have added spine titles and a barcode.

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

My music video and Years & Years' video: Take Shelter






Similarities include:
  1. location choices (indoor industrial, outdoor woodland)
  2. colour editing, use of blues and greens
  3. similar shots, lip sync and contextual
Following these observations, my media conforms to the conventions of real media products.

Friday 19 February 2016

The Difference Between Digipaks and CD cases

This is the generic layout of a CD case cover, with two sides, a front and a back, and no spine. Whilst in mass production this is a viable and cheaper version to promote the artist across a wide audience. This tends to work best for popular genres with a guaranteed wide audience base, they are more interested in getting the songs than the whole package, Miley Cyrus for example.


Whereas a digipak (image below) has more panels, spines and would be more expensive overall to produce. This is optimal for an artist that has a specific target audience, one that is invested in more than just the audio of the artist but also the concept behind it.
One band that has used this tactic is The 1975 (digipak below). They used a consistent theme with the cover and the band's various music videos with an achromatic theme with dark and light being a prevalent feature in both. 
I plan on creating a digipak for my artist as they are in a more niche genre, from which it's audience proves authenticity by how much effort is put into the entire package of the artist as a whole.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Third Draft



This is the penultimate edit of my music video, all that is left to do is go over all the cuts and finalise the colouring in some of the shots where there are some flickers of the lighting changing very quickly.

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Poster



Below is my initial idea for the poster advertisement for my artist, I created it using a web-based editor called Pixlr, I then inserted the text and music platform signifiers by using word, and the fonts from my previous post. As on this poster I am intendng to advertise the artist's new ep I chose to place the release date in the centre of the image where it contrasted with the colours most in order to make it stand out and for my target audience to see it straight away.




This was my original image:

I then used Pixlr to add in the two gradients:


I decided on using only two music sharing platforms on my poster as these are the two that my target audience use most.

Experimenting With Fonts

Below are examples of some fonts I feel match Cage The Elephant's pre-existing branding. I wanted to explore the range of fonts that seemed handwritten as I believe this adds a sense of authenticity to the band's image. I found these fonts on www.fontspace.com and have contacted the creators and asked for permission to use them.
These first two fonts I feel are not appropriate for the album cover, as I feel the chaotic style of them is too aggressive in its entirety, the strong lines and hard uppercase lettering are too dominant for the look I want to achieve.

Below are the two fonts I have decided to go with initially, I feel they work well hand in hand and are a strong visual link to the overall look of the artist that I want to achieve.


Thursday 4 February 2016

Initial Draft For My Digipak





This was my initial idea for my digipak, I then developed my concept further into this:







Wednesday 3 February 2016

Second Draft




This is the second draft of my media video, whilst I'm happier with it than the last, I think there's a lot of room for improvements through varying cuts and effects that could point it towards looking more like a "real media" product.

Creating a Marketing Look For My Artist / How Relevant Musicians Promote Themselves

In looking at marketing my artist, I have learned it is important to have a unique selling point, and for your artist and album to have a specific look. As adverts and promotions are often the first things the audience will see of the artist, their look is the first thing people will judge them by so I need to consider what my target audience will find attractive. Especially with social media marketing these days, the audience is likely to see the advert before hearing the song. The main things I will need to consider within the advertising of my artist are; font, text size, and colour, what text I will be including, the placement of the text, images that will be behind the text & where I chose to make the artist available (gigs, music playing platforms etc.).

Below are a few album covers & posters from the real band Cage The Elephant, I will take inspiration from certain elements within their marketing as a guide to my own digipak and poster.


As you can see from the above images, Cage The Elephant have a somewhat consistent style of an almost hand-written style of font, paired with art images with bright colours with the band's name being often more prominent than the title of their single or album. I intend to take inspiration from, but not entirely imitate the bands pre-existing style. I will do this by taking key points from their marketing (for example, the style and placement of the band's name).