Evaluation Question 4

How Did You Use Media Technologies In the Construction and Research, planning and Evaluation Stages? 

Evaluation Question 3

What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Evaluation Question 2

How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Your Ancillary Tasks?

Evaluation Question 1

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

Final Cut - Music Video

Final Cut for My Music Video

This is the final cut for my music video, "Stuey's Morris Isis" by my chosen band, Not My Day.

Throughout this music video, I feel that I complied with the typical Indie-genre videos. There was primarily one location used, like other music videos, and there was also some links between the visuals, proving Goodwin's Theory.

If I was to do this again, I would use more locations in my music video to create more variety. However, I am fairly happy with the end result.  

When compared to my animatic, there a few differences, but overall I tried to stay true to it. For example, one difference was that in the animatic there were more locations present, such as a long shot of the band in front of a tree. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get this shot into the final cut of my music video, so if I had the chance to do it again I would definitely include this shot in order to add more variety to my music video. The rest of my final cut I feel stayed true to the animatic, as the feedback I received from my audience liked the animatic that I showed them, so I felt that it would be best for my final product to stay true to the animatic. 

Magazine Advert

Final Magazine Advert

This the magazine advert for my chosen band, "Not My Day". The background image is a collage of the band's instruments, which I thought would conform to the Indie genre, as instruments are part of the main image for bands in this genre. Also, the same instruments are used in the advert and the digipak, creating a brand identity in the process. Other images seen are the band, also seen in the insert for the digipak. This makes sure the audience know what the band members look like, once again conforming to a brand identity. Domino Records and Atlantic Records also feature on the magazine advert, which is typical on all magazine adverts and promotional products for albums, in the top right hand and top left hand corners. They are included to remind the audience which record labels the band belong to. All the images seen throughout the magazine advert conforms to brand identity, as the images are consistent with the digipak for the band. 

The text that features on the magazine advert is all written in the band's typical "stencil" font, which is consistent with other fonts seen throughout the marketing campaign (digipak) for the band's new album. The band's logo, "Not My Day", is written in a dark blue stencil font in the middle of the advert, which is typical of the band and the audience would have seen that throughout the digipak - this means that the brand identity has been successfully presented to the audience. The rest of the text seen in the advert is written in a smaller lighter blue - also seen on the digipak. The stencil font creates consistency, whereas the difference in colour adds variety to the advert, as the main colour is dark blue. Situated at the top of the advert is the text "THE DEBUT ALBUM" with the words "OUT NOW" seen just below - this alerts the audience to the availability of the album; if any of the magazine readers see the advert and are interested in the band, they now know that the album is available to buy now. The release date is always seen on the magazine advert, whether it is out now or in the future. Seen below the bands logo are the most popular songs included in the album, "FEATURING THE HITS "STUEY'S MORRIS ISIS" "... - this also gives information to the audience, and that their favourite songs are featured, giving the audience all the more reason to buy the album. Something like this is typically seen in magazine adverts, but is especially seen in adverts for a debut album, as the audience might not be familiar with the band and their songs. Once the artists are fully integrated into the mainstream audience, like Arctic Monkeys, they might not have to include successful songs on the advert in order to promote the album to the audience. Seen at the very bottom of the advert, much like the digipak, is a black border with the album reviews included on the advert - this appeals to the target audience of the band, the magazines that have reviewed the album are typical of the Indie genre. The magazines are also the most likely to have this advert for the band featured in their magazine. 

All in all, I feel that this magazine advert conforms to the Indie genre, whilst solidifying the brand identity of the band that was created throughout the digipak.

Digipak

Final Digipak

Seen below are the images of my digipak, including previous audience feedback and details on how I changed my digipak in order to make it a better final product. The software I used to edit images for my digipak was Photo Shop.

Front Cover of Album for the Digipak

This is the front cover of my digipak for my chosen band, Not My Day - the album is called "Not My Day", which means that the album is a self titled debut; this is common in all genres, and especially Indie, as it solidifies the band's name to the audience. The medium shot used in the background includes all the band members - I also thought it would appeal to the audience if the location of the album cover was where their first video from the album, my final cut, was shot. I believe this would appeal to the target audience because it would be the place that they recognise the band from, creating a brand identity. The use of the entire band in the debut album cover is important because it introduces the audience to them, creating the brand identity that will be associated with Not My Day with future releases. There was a "vintage" filter - this conforms to the Indie-rock genre, as they believe that they making music that in the future will be classed as vintage. Also seen in the front cover is the logo, "Not My Day". This is situated above the drummer's head, and is written in the band's "stencil" font - this font is seen throughout the front cover of the album, solidifying the brand identity of the band, because if any of the audience saw this particular font in the future, they would link it back to Not My Day. The font colours chosen in the album cover are dark blue, for the band's logo, and light blue, for the other various information on the front. I chose blue as a theme on the album cover because it creates consistency - the band's logo colour will always contrast with other text on the cover as to keep it refreshing, too much of the same colour would bore the audience. Featured at the top and bottom of the cover, in front of a black background, are the album's reviews (top) and singles that the audience may have heard before the album was released (bottom). They are written in the same stencil font that is seen on the band's logo, but in a light blue colour to contrast. The "Rolling Stone" review is featured on many front covers of albums of all genres, and it signifies to the audience the quality of the band's music - including a "Rolling Stone" review on the album cover promotes the band, and therefore attracts audiences from different genres, not just the Indie genre. The bottom of the album cover has "Featuring the Hit Singles Stuey's Morris Isis and Taken Too Much". I thought it was imperative, as it is a debut album, to include singles that were released before the album, just in case the audience didn't know who the band were they would recognise their hit singles. Upon showing the rough cut, the feedback that was given by classmates was that they thought the image itself would look better with a filter, which in my final product, as mentioned earlier, was added. They also felt that the font colour needed to be changed in order to keep the album refreshing, instead of using the same blue throughout. I changed the font colour to a lighter blue for the smaller text, as it kept the brand identity of the band's chosen colour (blue) but also kept things refreshing for the audience. If I could improve one thing about the front cover, I would say the band's logo, "Not My Day" in the centre of the image, isn't as clear to the audience as it could be - if I were do do it again, I would make it bolder so the audience can see it better.  

I believe that the front cover of my digipak would create a successful and consistent brand identity for the band, mostly due to the fonts used and the image included in the cover. 

Back Cover of Album for the Digipak

This is the back cover of my digipak for my chosen band "Not My Day". The background is a close up shot of a piece of paper, pens and drinks - a band member, the lead singer, looks like he is writing the album's track list on the piece of paper. I liked that idea a lot because it signifies to the audience that even band's have to start brainstorming somewhere, giving the sense of normality, and I feel that the end result of this idea was well executed. Also seen in the background image are drinks of beer - I feel that these props conform to the Indie genre, as many of the artists in this genre present to the audience that they like drinking and having a good time, and the empty glasses show that they have been there a while. In the lead singer's hand is the pen with which he wrote the album's track list, and there is also a black pen seen, which the lead singer wrote the album's specifications, seen at the bottom, with. The image also has a blue vintage filter, which is a similar filter that was seen in my final cut for my music video. 

The fonts used in the back cover of my digipak, apart from the specifications, are all seen in the "stencil" font, which is always used in the digipak - this is because it solidifies the brand image of the band, because if the audience see that font elsewhere they will automatically think back to the band Not My Day. However, the font colour changes between dark blue and a light blue colour, like the front of the digipak. The dark blue is always used for the words "Not My Day", as it is the band's logo and the band's logo colour, and it is also used for the track list, as it is displayed bolder against the white paper background; everything else, like reviews for the album, is in a light blue colour because it contrasts with the dark blue, but still keeps the blue image of the the band. At the top and bottom of the back cover are the back boarder that also featured in the front cover - I felt that I had to be consistent, and that is why they feature on the back cover. Also, they contrast the light blue stencil font perfectly, with the words "NME - *****" and "Kerrang! - ****" and "Q - A Breath of Fresh Air - *****" (top of the back cover) featured. All the album reviews featured on the digipak are from magazines that would typically review albums from the Indie-rock genre, therefore conforming to the genre. The words at the bottom, "see more of the band at www.notmyday.co.uk" tells the audience where to go if they want to learn more, or see more about the band, such as tour dates and new releases. In the specification, the band's logo is once again seen in their dark blue stencil font to continue with the brand identity. However, the rest of the album specification is seen in a black "typewriter" font - this particular black font is typical of a large majority of albums, not just the Indie genre, due to the font being easy to read (it needs to be easy to read because the font size for specifications are small). The copy write image is also used for legal reasons. The record labels logo's are located just above the specification - the logos are Domino Records and Atlantic Records; they are included for image and brand identity purposes, because if the audience researches those record labels, they might find other artists that belong to the label, which could in turn make the label generate more revenue.

I am fairly pleased with how the back cover of the digipak turned out, because all the images and fonts were all executed in a way that conforms to the Indie genre and also solidifies the brand identity of the band. 

Inside the Digipak (Insert)

This is the insert for my digipak for my chosen band, Not My Day. As you can the see, the insert features the entire band with their instruments, and also acknowledgements from the band. The images of the band members used are the same that featured on the front cover of the digipak - the difference is that all of the background is removed, so you only see an individual cutout of the band members. I did this so the acknowledgements seem more personal to the audience, as the only image you can see are the band members and their faces. The acknowledgements are written in a "handwriting" font, which once again signifies a personal touch from the band to the audience, which shows that they are truly grateful. I feel that the black colour of the font adds professionalism to the acknowledgements. The bands logo, "Not My Day", is seen in the background - once again solidifying their brand identity.  

I am fairly happy with the way that the insert for my digipak turned out, as I believe it creates a personal touch from the band to the audience and also keeps the brand identity of the band consistent. 

CD Print for My Digipak

This is the CD print for my digipak. For this, I decided to keep things simple, as the CD print is used the majority of the time just to tell the audience the name of the album. I used a black CD template, as I felt it would make the images on the template stand out even more to the audience. The images used were the instruments the band uses - this reminds the audience what genre of band they are listening to, and also in a sense creates brand identity, as the same instruments are pictured throughout the digipak. The instruments are presented to the audience with a blurry effect, and I felt that this keeps things refreshing for the audience, and that brand identity for the instruments was created effectively enough so the audience know which instruments they are and the band member they belong to. The band's logo is once again situated in the top-middle of the template - as it is the band's debut album, I felt it was imperative to include the band's logo at every opportunity, without over doing it, in order to cement brand identity for the band. I feel that I have created brand identity successfully throughout my digipak, as I have included the band's logo on every part - the front and back cover, the insert, and now the CD print. This sets the band up for their future albums, as a brand identity has been created in their debut, their band logo won't have to be used as much because the audience know who they are. Also seen in the CD print are the specifications, written in the same font seen on the back cover, except the font is white in this case to make it visible against the black background. There is a copyright image seen, indicating to the audience that "Not My Day" are now a brand, and can't be copied by anyone. The record labels, Domino Records and Atlantic Records, also have their logos featured on the CD print - this is common in every genre, not just Indie, as it proves as more advertisement for the record labels. 

That is my digipak - I feel that throughout it all I created brand identity successfully through the use of the band's logo, and that I also conformed to the Indie genre through the images that featured on the digipak.