Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

BLOGGER:

During the whole process of the marketing production task I used a wide range of different media technologies; throughout I have been used 'Blogger' which is an interaction website which enables you to keep a professional and organised Blog of each step of the process, ranging from the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages.


I enjoyed using Blogger because it enabled me to embed HTML codes, therefore adding you-tube videos, Power-Points created on Slideshare.net, as well as adding Photographs, Time lines from TimeToast. All of this was done in an easy, effective way - thus all examples of Web 2.0 technology. 

To show accurately how I was able to include interactive clips from other websites, using media 2.0 technology to push my work in new directions, I have taken a few screen prints, firstly from you-tube, showing how I was able to embed the file, and then on Blogger, showing how I was able to embed the HTML code:



I thought that using Blogger made this process a lot easier for me, as it helped me keep track of my time, making me a lot more organised throughout the process of the marketing package, as well as this I was also able to keep a blog of all of my deadlines, ensuring all work was completed on time. Using Blogger also helped me to present my research and planning in a clear and coherent way.

YOU TUBE:

As previously described, I also used an example of web 2.0 technology, you-tube, quite frequently whilst in my research process, this was because I was able to visit official brand sites, as well as explore new artists that I hadn't previously heard of, whom were in my 'acoustic' genre, therefore giving me a clear idea of different genre conventions. David Buckingham said  "genre is not simply given by the culture, rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change" This was seen numerous times within my research when looking at YouTube, as I was able to see how much the acoustic genre is continuously changing, specifically when looking at how its audience has evolved into a mainstream audience quite rapidly in recent years; therefore this was helpful for me when planning my own media product, as I was able to see that my acoustic product could be done in all sorts of ways, using various conventions. As the internet is global, this meant I was able to access videos from all over the world, which were able to inspire me throughout the process, thus being an excellent website for my research and resources. As I have an account on you-tube, I was also able to upload and stream some of my own videos, such as my finished music video, and clips of it half way through, and therefore this meant my target audience and focus group was able to watch my work and give me valuable feedback.
A print screen of YouTube can be shown:

TIME TOAST:

I used Time Toast throughout my Planning of the marketing package, this allowed me to create an interactive time line to show when I needed each task to be completed by, this made it easy for me to see where I was in the process of creating the DigiPak, Advert and Music Video. This helped me stay on track with each task, and allowed me to reach all of my deadlines. This was another effective way of creating media for other internet uses, as I then embedded this on to my Blog.

EXPERIMENTING WITH ADOBE PREMIER PRO:

During the research and planning stages of the process, we looked at various different special effects which we could add into our Music Video, and then we experimented with these, so we were able to see what would go well in our Music Video, looking specifically at the genre.
We particularly looked at Animation and Chroma Key.
For the Animation, we looked into creating a rapid sequence of images which created an illusion of movement; this can also be known as a motion picture. We accomplished this technique by using a camera and capturing numerous shots, however moving the image slighting each time to create this illusion of movement. For this, we were particularly inspired by J. Stuart Blackton, as he was one of the first film-makers to use similar effects. Our clip can be shown below, which we uplaoded from Adobe Premier Pro in a FLV file, and uploaded to YouTube:



We then looked at Chroma Key, and this can also be known as Green Screen. This is a post production technique which is when two videos or images stream together to create a new background, this is done based on the colour hues, and therefore a particular colour is removed, and a new background replaced. This is generally why it's recorded in front or a large green screen, as this is easier to make transparent. Our experiment of Chroma Key can be shown below:




IPHONE 4S:

My own mobile phone is the Iphone 4S, which is a modern day 32GB Smart Phone, on this I am able to access various different forms of Web 2.0 technology, worldwide, ranging from social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as the Internet, music, You-Tube, iTunes and I am also able to access all of my emails, in particular Google Mail.
Because I was able to access all of this on my portable device, I was able to gain audience feedback from my DigiPak, Advert and Music Video, by uploading them to my social networking sites, as well as emailing my work directly to my focus groups. It also meant that when organising dates and meetings with my actors and my fellow team members I was able to do it very quickly and efficiently. This was done mainly through the use of iMessage and Texting, however I also emailed frequently through the process. Thus, with a mobile, portable device like my own I was able to stay organised and professional throughout the whole process, as I was able to keep active on the go with the communication technology.

PENTAX 645D - 40megapixel Medium Format Digital SLR Camera:

To take the photographs for my DigiPak and Advert, we used a Pentax 645D 40 megapixel Medium Format Digital SLR Camera, we deciding to use this camera instead of a small camera phone because we wanted the best quality photographs; and with this camera we were able to experiment with different shutter speeds and auto-focus, as they were high megapixel shots, they also looked very professional, which were ideal for our print production task. We were able to take a variety of shots, ranging from close ups, extreme close ups and medium shots, however we were focussing on taking close shots so that we could capture the artists emotion within them. We also used tripods, to get the shots as professional as possible, we decided to experiment with LED lights so that we could capture the images effectively, as well as adding some yellow gels to make our artists face more warm to the camera.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS5:

When producing my Print Production task, after taking my photographs, I uploaded them into Adobe Photoshop CS5 and this is where I created both my Digi-Pak and Advert.
I used this because it is professional media technology and so I thought I would get better results, as supposed to working in other programs such as 'Paint.'
For my Advert and Digipak, (as shown in the screen shots) I used a lot of technical features, for example I added a gradient map to add some colour to the black background, I then set the gradate map to 25% opacity, and the layer style was set to darken, so you can still see the artists physique.
Another technique I used to achieve the firework effects around my artists body was the transformation wrap, I did this so that I could shape it around the body better, enhancing the artists image.
Finally, I also experimented with the colours throughout the task, and because I wanted the firework colours to stand out, I used selective colouring, so that it looked very striking to the viewer.


As I haven't previously used Premier Pro CS5 much before, I looked at many tutorial programmes for my research such as the one below, (this was found on you-tube) another example of web 2.0 technology, and I think that this helped a lot with my designs as it allowed me to create a much more professional finish. I think that by using this programme I was able to create a very impressive finish, and I was able to use techniques which weren't accessible to me if I wasn't using a professional media technology. Therefore I think that this programme was very beneficial.


PANASONIC HDV CAMERA:

We decided to use the Panasonic HDV camera to video our music video because it was a good quality video camera, and would give us some high-quality shots for the end piece, Another reason we decided to use this camera was because it was easy to manipulate in post production, this is because unlike using video tapes like some video cameras, this was a modern day kit and so we were able to record straight onto the SD-card, and then put this straight into the computer, and this way it was a very simple and efficient way to transfer all of our data. We also used a camera tripod for parts of our video to create a smooth and professional finish, however as it is a music video, we used many hand held shots to to create an atmospheric atmosphere.

ADOBE PREMIER PRO:
After videoing, we then downloaded the video clips by inserting the SD-Card into the computer, and imported them into Adobe Premier Pro, which is the professional media technology that we created our music video on. In the past, I have used many video programmes such as 'Windows Movie Maker' however this is a much simpler programme, and so by using Adobe Premier Pro it allowed me to get a lot more technical, and professional with your clips. Therefore we experimented with a lot of different aspects of our video.
As shown in the screen prints, we tried out a 'warp' effect on our actress, to create a time laps effect, and although this was very interesting, we decided against using it in our final piece.
Although we didn't use this, we did work on this, as we liked the overlap effect to make it quite smooth, and therefore adding to the conventions of an acoustic genre. To do this, we added various key frames into the music video, and faded a lot of things  in and out of each other, in order to create a very smooth, calm effect throughout, which corresponded with the music.
I really enjoyed using Adobe Premier Pro and I think that there were many useful aspects which made it increasingly effective for our task. As we wanted to create an understandable narrative, the razor tool cut clip was also very effective, and as we were able to zoom into the clips of the music, it was helpful to get the lip sync accurate, thus therefore making it look very professional. Due to all of these features, I think that the programme was very beneficial for making a professional music video.

Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

At the begging of the whole process, we decided on who our target audience actually were, so that we had a clear idea of what we need to achieve, in order to appeal to our target market, we came up with a detailed description, as shown below.

The piece of music that we have used is an acoustic track called 'Over Night.' Because of this, we have looked into various other artists with a similar genre such as Ed Sheeran  ..I found that his main audience is quite young, between the ages of 15-25, with him being 20 years old, this is around a similar age as our artist. Because of this we imagine our audience would be of a similar age, and so we have placed our target audience in the 16-19 or 20-26 category. We have decided that our audience will be hedonists or aspirer's, as they are quite young and so are care-free and up for a good time, and so we assume they will enjoy listening to chart music, and the mainstream top 40; however as the track we are using is quite unique, we also think it may attract individualists and non-conformists because acoustic music wasn't typically in the public eye as much as other genres of music; although this is changing in today's society, and so that is why we felt that our target audience could come from a variety of different groups of people. We have decided that our audience will be both female and male, however due to the fact the artist is a young, good-looking male, we are assuming the main audience will be from young females. They will be decision pending or 
career committed in the life staging groupings, and so again this may be quite varied. We are aiming mainly at middle class people, at B, C1 or C2 on the Jignar scale, however this doesn't cancel out upper or lower class people, as the acoustic, soft music will be attractive for most audiences, including the mainstream audience. As seen in the mood board, our audience are likely to be quite laid back, they are likely to like a drink in their local pub, they will enjoy quiet, relaxing nights in however they will also like a night out every know and again. They may use quite nice make-up and concentrate on looking quite nice from day to day. They will be quite friendly and may spend quite a lot of time with their friend, playing pool or in a sports group like Netball, or in any social situations.

As this is our selected target audience, I have focussed on asking people who fit into this category, to give me constructive criticism for my marketing package. Therefore, I have put together a selection of qualitative questions, to gain more detailed and valid feedback from my target audience. A short video is shown below:




I have specifically looked into the hypodermic needle model, which is based on the message being directly received, and accepted by the receiver.  
For example, with the narrative of the music video; (linking to the Narratology, and the theorist Todorov, "the study of narrative and narrative structure, and the way in which this affects our perception").  in my own words, the perception I wanted to achieve by my music video was the following:

"A boy breaks up with his girlfriend, and later regrets this after finding out she has taken kindly to the news."

I then looked at what other people received from the narrative: 

As you can see by these emails, both Gaz and Phebi thought that the narrative was very similar to what I intended; "I understand the narrative, it's of a boy that finishes things with a girl, and then she goes out and has a good time, and he regrets it" "I'm guessing that the guy and the girl fall out, she maybe goes of the rails slightly?? Gets with another lad."

With this in mind, I have decided that I have a collected a preferred reading from my target audience, as most people thought what I intended for them to think. (thus linking to the cultural studies approach). 

As you can see by the 2 emails, the feedback from my focus group was very similar to that of my spoken interviews with people, from the emails I have received, as well as the questions that I have asked my target audience,  I have concluded a few bullet points:

• I gained a preferred reading in regards to the narrative of my music video
• The pace,edits and performance of the music video fit with the conventions of an acoustic genre
• The 'sky' theme worked throughout, making a coherent feel through the whole marketing package. 

Where there any negatives??

• Add more content of the 'balcony scenes' (as shown in the photographs) - as this was only introduced near to the end of the music video, and it was a popular, professional section.
• The colour theme throughout was orange/dark, however blue/green was introduced towards the end of the video.

I have taken the constructive criticism on board, and therefore hypothetically, if I was to alter my work, I would add more of the balcony scene into the music video as this proved to be a popular shot, favoured by a lot of my target audience; I also feel this repetition through the video would me it more coherent throughout, linking to Steve Neale's theory; "instances of repetition and difference"

I then wanted to focus a bit more on what people thought about the marketing package as a whole, and to do this I uploaded a photograph of my Digipak and my Advert to Facebook, a social networking site, to see what my friends thought about them both, as well as sending them to my focus group, via Googlemail:

As shown in the screen prints, I received another preferred reading, as people seemed to like my DigiPak and Advert, commenting things such as "very professional" and "looks wicked". Therefore I think my target audience liked my designs. 
I also received phrases like "wooooow," and because of this I think that it shows that the DigiPak and Advert is quite pleasurable to look at, and that people feel quite revitalised once reading the texts - with a "feel good factor" Possibly linking to Ferguson (2007). Overall, this is what I wanted to achieve out of the work.
I also received some detailed descriptive feedback:

• The software used was noticed, suggesting a very professional effect was created.
• The structure is original and unique, with a horizontal layout. 
• The contrast between the dark background and the bright print makes the writing look effective.
• Facial expression and posture looks calm, a coherent effect throughout the video.
• A lot of the features reflect the acoustic genre well.
• The 'sky' theme was favoured.

With the audience feedback I received from the DigiPak and Advert, it was directly correspondent with the audience feedback I received from the Music Video, and so I think that I have done a very good job at making the 3 pieces of work coherent throughout. 
I also think that with my feedback, I have learnt that the idea of using a 'sky' theme throughout the 3 pieces of my marketing package was a very beneficial idea, and I think the sky connotes peace, and relaxation, as well as the calm, relaxed performer throughout both the texts, and the music video, I think that this created a coherent effect throughout which I think corresponds nicely with the acoustic conventions and style. I think all of my focus group and target audience enjoyed all pieces, and I am extremely happy with the audience feedback I received, resulting in very little which I would change in the future. However my audience feedback has helped me a lot throughout this process, as I am not a big fan of acoustic music myself, and so I knew little about the conventions of the acoustic genre, and therefore by asking qualitative questions throughout the task, (which can be seen in my blog with the title 'AUDIENCE RESEARCH') I feel I have been able to produce a good marketing package which will appeal to my exact target market - thus making my focus group, and my audience feedback extremely useful, and helpful. 

Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The original brief for the task was to create a promotional package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with

• a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

The idea was to produce a coherent package that had a house style and worked together to attract audiences to the album; therefore this was a marketing package. 

To begin, it's important to ask the question, what actually is creativity? In order to see if I combined a good ratio of creativity in my marketing package in order to create an effective end result. 

Michael Mumford conducted a scientific experiment, suggesting: "Creativity can also be defined 'as the process of producing something that is both original and worthwhile'" 

Therefore, it's important that my end product was both 'original' and 'worthwhile' ...To find this out, I have asked my target audience what they thought about my package, in particularly asking about how coherent it was, and therefore linking this to how creative it was (original). The results to this will therefore link back to whether the overall marketing package was in fact worthwhile. 

To verify, the dictionary definition of 'coherent' - 

'Orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts'

To start, I showed my target audience (who were from my focus group in previous posts), as well as a number of different people, ranging from male and females my age and male and females who were adults to get a large range of feedback, and therefore more accurate and valid feedback, the actual music video which we created, as well as the Digipak and Advert. Both can be shown below:

Because I was looking specifically into how effective the combination of my main product (music video) and the ancillary texts (Digipak and advert) were together, instead of just asking people what they thought, I thought I would specify what I wanted to know, gaining a more reliable and valid response. Therefore, I created a questionnaire, and got various people to fill them out, a selection are shown below:


Completed by Jake Seth, Aged 19, Male, interested in chart music and top 40.

Firstly, did you enjoy the Music Video?
Yea it's so good Sam, looks really professional 
Did you think the Digipak and Advert looked interesting and original? Why?
Yea I think it looks pretty sick with the fireworky parts, actually the bits with the orange firework parts make it really interesting, especially with the way it kind of wraps around his face, makes his figure stand out quite a lot - don't think I've ever seen something like this before so nice and unique!
Did you think the style of the Digipak and Advert looked like they went together (were coherent)?
Yep they both look like you've put a lot of thought into them both with the way the fireworks theme are in both and that 
Why did you think this?
Just said, fireworks in both like, the way they're all wrapped around things, nah looks gd 
Did you think there was an overall style that made the Music Video look coherent with the Digipak and Advert?
Defo - you can defo tell the style
Why did you think this?
Well its like dark, orangey themes throughout, the bright lights, it all goes together real well 
Overall, do you think that you would look at all 3 products and put them together as a marketing package?
Defo yea 
If so, was this an effective and original marketing package?
It's really gd yea Sam, I would buy the video if I saw all that, it looks really interesting to look at, really gd 
How do you think this could have been improved to make them link more effectively?
Um I don't think I could improve it, like how it's coherent throughout, the theme is really clear, it all wraps into each other really good
Thank you for your time!

Completed by Olivia Rose (member of my focus group) Aged 17, interested in Acoustic Music 

Firstly, did you enjoy the Music Video?
Loved it!

Did you think the Digipak and Advert looked interesting and original? Why?
Really original, the sparks throughout look amazing, specially how its wrapped around the face makes it all really stand out

Did you think the style of the Digipak and Advert looked like they went together (were coherent)?
Very!! It all looks like it was designed to be a package yes 

Why did you think this?
Mainly because of the orange, dark theme throughout, I like how they both look quite busy, yet they're both quite sophisticated at the same time

Did you think there was an overall style that made the Music Video look coherent with the Digipak and Advert?
Definitely! It all fits together so well 

Why did you think this?
The sparkles, the big orange background behind the artist, such a good location, the background goes really well with the firework parts in the Digipak, especially when it's like specifically overlapping his face 

Overall, do you think that you would look at all 3 products and put them together as a marketing package?
Loved it yes, definitely think they go great together 

If so, was this an effective and original marketing package?
Really good 

How do you think this could have been improved to make them link more effectively?
They link brilliantly how it is Sam, I don't know what I could have done to improve it all

Thank you for your time!

Completed by Paul Slingsby, 60, interested in Classical

Firstly, did you enjoy the Music Video?
Yes it was enjoyable, some really good ideas throughout, I liked the blurring and things, the overlaps

Did you think the Digipak and Advert looked interesting and original? Why?
Yes, very unique, I haven't seen a album cover like it yet it was professional at the same time. Things like the orange parts were what I thought stood out, effective technique used   

Did you think the style of the Digipak and Advert looked like they went together (were coherent)?
Definitely, like I say the orange was coherent, and the night sky was also good, which added a distinctive theme throughout the too 

Did you think there was an overall style that made the Music Video look coherent with the Digipak and Advert?
The music video was very similar in the ways that you used the lighting, the colours, the images of his close up face, yes effective 

Overall, do you think that you would look at all 3 products and put them together as a marketing package?
Yes, a very good one!

If so, was this an effective and original marketing package?
I'd buy it

How do you think this could have been improved to make them link more effectively?
I think it's all pretty good, not too sure what I'd change 

Thank you for your time!

With this advice, and that of some other volunteers who offered to give feedback for the marketing package; I created a video showing how I think the 3 products link together in a coherent effective way:





I then looked more into depth about how the DigiPak and Advert were coherent, and annotated them both:

As you can see in the photographs, there are many things that are coherent throughout the 2 pieces of text:

• The costumes in both remain within the dark, emotionless colour theme, with a very 'laid back' feel in both, connoting relaxation and calm, relating to the acoustic genre conventions. 
• Throughout, the artist's facial expression is very motionless, looking deep in thought, (looking away from the camera, showing hurt) and both photographs are quite close up, and thus showing full emotion within the shots, the bland colour of his face connoting heartbreak and sorrow.
• Through both designs, there is a unique and original structure, especially with the horizontal structure on the back of the Digipack.
• The Mise-en-Scene throughout suggests calm, peaceful connotations, with light sparks, showing a hint of worry and outrage, which relates to the narrative of the music video.
• In particular, the 'Sky Theme' and the same background throughout the 2 designs is coherent, as well as the bright sparks. The bright sections of 'fireworks' are in both designs, and the reds throughout connotes love, as they are very messy on the page and out of place, this could connote the heartbreak, and how the love is spiralling out of control.
• The colours of the font are the same in both texts, as well as the ARIAL font throughout each piece, to make them both look as professional as possible with a standard font, as well as staying with the plain motionless theme.

Question 1 - In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout the process of researching, and producing our music products, we wanted to remain original and creative throughout. Therefore, we looked deeply into other media texts, cultural products and images so that we had lots of inspiration, for our ideas.
To begin the process, George Bills, a close family friend of ours propositioned us and asked if we would do one of his songs, and we happily obliged as he is an incredible artist, the song was called 'Over Night' and it was an acoustic, 'folky' song, as I wasn't familiar with this genre of music, it was even  more interesting as we had to research what the traditional redundant conventions were, as well as the original, entropic ones.  

INSPIRATION FOR DIGIPAK & ARTWORK:

As I have explained, the song we will be using is called 'Over Night' written by the band Eyes like Giants/George Bills, the genre/style of music is acoustic and so for my research into the album artwork I looked at various other acoustic artists, and their album artwork/music videos- to therefore try and entwine that with my own to produce a realistic and professional digi-pack. Similarly, this also gave me the opportunity to look into forms and conventions in the acoustic genre, which I didn't want to include in my music video, therefore linking to Steve Neale's theory of gender, "instances of repetition and difference." I also looked into our specific target audience so that I produce a Digi-pack which would be relevant and appealing for my target audience - I thought that the song would be aimed at  a more individual audience because it is an acoustic piece of music and so therefore it isn't as generic as most pieces of music in the charts, as it could be considered to be more rural and original. However on the contrary, it could also be considered as being aimed at a more hedonist or inspirer audience, as the music video itself is quite mainstream - with an amplifying narrative, and in today's society, more acoustic pieces of music have been introduced into the charts by the likes of Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard, and so our piece of music could be seen as quite popular - and this is where I thought our mainstream audience could appear. On the jicnar scale, I thought our audience would be around B, C1 or C2 - and our age range is quite varied, however we are specifically aiming it at late teens - 30's.

BEN HOWARD:

I thought that the simplicity of this album cover could connote the simplicity in his music, and the raw talent he has as an artist - the first thing that catches the eye is the bold, big and clear name of the artist across the top of the album cover - this could mean that the artist wants the audience to notice his name instead of his image which isn't typical for a usual artist. (possibly an acoustic convention?) This could mean that he is trying to promote his music instead of himself as a person/'celebrity' /the star image..this is seen quite frequently within acoustic music, with close up's of key objects instead of people, for example guitars. The album itself looks very sophisticated, with simple fonts, very little detail to show his simplicity of himself and his music and simple, neutral colors throughout the cover - the blues, whites and greens create a very pastel effect which connote soothing and calmness, which could represent his music and what the artist tries to include in his music - the mise-en-scene also relates to this, as it is a man diving under water, with a long shot showing a full image of the man diving - this connotes a man in a world of his own doing the thing that he loves - which again connotes directly to the music that Ben Howard, the artist, makes. The layout of this album cover doesn't reinforce the artist as the star image as such, however it contributes to the creation of the music, and his style/attitude towards his music instead; which is what the artist is trying to achieve by this album artwork. The album artwork as a whole represents a high degree of entropy because without looking into it too deeply it doesn't show a very familiar or usual album cover and it is quite unique, however it is also interesting and inspiring to look at, and it does directly correspond to his music which is what the album artwork is supposed to do, as well as appealing to his target audience of teenage, to 30's, male and female. - therefore I think Ben Howard's album artwork is very good and achieves what it should in a very simple, yet intriguing way.

ED SHEERAN:

Another artist who is very similar to the artist I used for my Media Coursework is Ed Sheeran, as he is in the same genre: acoustic. I also looked at his album artwork to help me decide exactly what sort of digi-pack is appropriate for my style of genre and artist - which will appeal directly to my target audience. Ed Sheerans 2012 album, is shown to the left - the first thing that the audience can see is a close-up photograph of the artists face, this is quite common in a lot of Album covers as they aim to gain recognition for their star image, and so this follows the conventions of a usual album cover, it also adds reinforcement to the artist himself. The lighting in this photograph is very recognizably bright orange, this is to make the album stand out, and it also makes the artists face seem quite dark and gloomy - which could connote dark love or deepness, which can be heard in some of his music/songs. The fonts are mostly irrelevant on the front of the album cover because their is just a small, bold, white '+' on the  bottom right of the cover, which is made very noticeable by the contrast of colors, which enhances how important the name of the album is for the artist - it also reinforces what the name of his album is, to make it more recognizable for his target audience - thus could show how important the music is, more important than anything else - as there is no other writing on the front of the album cover.The simplicity in the album cover also connotes calmness, yet at the same time, bluntness, which suggests that his music is also quite edgy, yet with a calm, acoustic feel to it too - all of these features can relate to his target audience of the hedonists, male and female and families audience, as it a very wide, mainstream image - hence this album cover has a high degree of redundancy as it is quite common for an artist to have a close-up image of their face on their album cover, and so it is quite predictable - yet the album as a whole can also be seen as being very simplistic, with most of the detail on the back - which can be seen as the least important side... The back of both album covers is very plane and simple - with just the names of the songs in the album, again creating a sense of simplicity and directing the main focus onto just the music itself.

After looking into the main conventions of an advert and digipak for my acoustic genre, I then concluded which are frequent:

• Many tend to be quite simplistic, with a calm, relaxing feel
• The colour theme is coherent throughout, neutral is frequent to connote the feel of the peaceful music  
• Can have a high degree of redundancy (usually with a close up of the artists face) or alternatively you could have a completely entropic cover, with something bizarre and original 
• Most have a lot of significance to their music, instead of their star image
• The fonts are usually quite plain an simplistic - i.e. arial 
• The style is simplistic, yet intriguing at the same time
• Interesting and inspiring. 

After researching into other conventions of an acoustic genre, I collected a lot of inspiration for my actual ancillary texts, therefore I came up with the following conventions that I was going to include in my own:

• I want my print production to be quite simplistic, following the original forms and conventions of the acoustic genre, adding a calm and relaxing feel to the pieces, however I do want to make my designs slightly original by adding an exciting, entropic feel to the design. Possibly with the use of fireworks and sparks; therefore challenging the forms and conventions at the same time.
• I want the front cover of the DigiPak and the Advert to have a high degree of redundancy, like many other acoustic designs, in that I want the photographs of my artist to be either extreme close up's, or close-ups, capturing a lot of emotion within the shots.
• I want the colour theme to be coherent throughout, much like the real media, acoustic products, however instead of using neutral, pastel colours, I am going to be using a dark colour theme, with the 'sky' as the overall theme. I got inspiration from this when looking into various other music videos, which I will explain later.
• I will follow the the usual acoustic forms and conventions in that the font will be quite plain and simplistic.
• I want it to have a lot of significance to his music, possibly involving guitars.
• I want the style to be simplistic, yet intriguing for my audience.

As shown, is my finished DigiPak and Advert, and as you can see I included a lot of the forms and conventions which I found in my research about other artists from acoustic genre conventions. Therefore a lot of my inspiration for my Digipak and Advert was from what I found when looking at other artists work, however I added a unique twist to it to make it my own by challenging the usual forms and conventions - such as making it quite busy, yet keeping it quite soft, relaxing and simplistic, at the same time. 

We then looked into what we were going to involve in our actual music video; and as we already had our song we needed some inspiration in a number of ways; to increase our creativity, and to show our journey, we created a prezi:

http://prezi.com/rjn1nuj2ncio/copy-of-research/  - please see attached if HTML fail.

As shown in my DigiPack/Advert research, Ed Sheeran is an artist who is quite similar in the music and style, as our artist, and therefore a lot of our research was based on him. There was one video which we really liked, as shown below, 'The A Team, Ed Sheeran.'


Throughout this music video, like many other acoustic music there is a black and white theme throughout, connoting dull, emotional feelings, and we considered using this convention for our music video however after having a quantative vote with 7 people in our class, the results were as followed:

BLACK AND WHITE - 2
COLOUR                      - 5

The results showed that although it was an interesting idea, it was slightly unoriginal and may have made the music video look quite cheap or unprofessional; therefore we changed our ideas slightly because of this; we looked into our audience research a lot, especially our focus group votes and class discussions, and a lot of our decisions changed based on these results, thus directing our creativity throughout the process. Another example of this is when presenting our pitch, we had originally had an idea of having quite a poor girl and boy in a rural rough area, much like the video shown, (A Team, Ed Sheeran,) however after we looked at all of our feedback, we came to the conclusion that it wasn't a very original idea and that it had all been done before - previously we had been really focussed on that idea, and so after looking at our feedback it changed a lot of our ideas; and so the audience feedback was definitely a big help for us, and had a big impact on our creativity. Previously, we were quite set on the original forms and conventions for slow, acoustic music, however after looking into what our target audience actually thought, we came across Nicholas Abercrombie's theory, "Television producers set out to exploit genre conventions." This opened our eyes, and made us come up with some really interesting ideas, that were challenging the original forms and conventions, and our audience feedback gave us a lot of confidence to do this.

ORIGINAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS KEPT:

In the A Team Video, we were particularly inspired by the amplifying narrative, and after a lot of research on a theorist, Todorov, and the Narrathology, describing "the study of narrative and narrative structure, and the way in which this affects our perception" we really wanted to entwine this within our music video; having a strong amplifying narrative, (a lot like that of the A Team), and in particular we liked how emotional and touched the audience feel after watching the video, and we wanted this effect in our music video, having a strong, emotional effect on our audience after watching the video, as well as feeling quite empathic to our characters.

Looking at our audience feedback, I think that this was a beneficial decision for our music video, with 2 people in my target audience stating:
"I understand the narrative, it's of a boy that finishes things with a girl, and then she goes out and has a good time, and he regrets it" "I'm guessing that the guy and the girl fall out, she maybe goes of the rails slightly?? Gets with another lad."
After showing various other people, we also received some verbal feedback; such as:
"I actually feel really touched, I just wanna give him a big hug!"
"You just want to shake him don't you!"
"Awww it's so cute! I just wanna cry"
Therefore I think that by looking at the audience feedback, the amplifying narrative was clear throughout, and the emotion was also received, adding a preferred reading to our music video, and therefore I think this is an extremely effective way in which our media products use and develop forms and conventions of real media products.

We then looked at Ben Howards, Only Love Video, and we particularly liked the blurring effect right at the beginning of the video, and throughout, we thought we would incorporate this in our video, as well as the slow paced editing to correspond with the slow paced music.



CHALLENGING FORMS AND CONVENTIONS:

The main way we have challenged forms and conventions of an acoustic genre is by entwining other forms and conventions of other genres into our video:

As you can see in Tinie Tempah's video, the miss-en-scene is quite a big feature, with the sky line a big significant background in front of his performance. We were very inspired by the use of big, bold backgrounds, and as my brother has an apartment in the Cube, Birmingham, overlooking the beautiful sky-line, we thought we would take this to our advantage; therefore, we filmed george in front of the skyline. This was quite a professional aspect to our music video, making it quite similar to real media products, however it was also quite entropic as in our research about acoustic artists, such as Ben Howard and Ed Sheeran, a lot of the music videos were quite simplistic, and lower-class. However we decided to challenge this, and make George appear very upper-class, and we thought that this would make our music video as professional as possible, which is what we wanted to achieve. We also thought having an extravagant skyline would, yet blending his stiletto over this with a screen effect, would create an interesting and unique effect, yet still linking to the relaxation and calmness of the acoustic style, forms and conventions.



We also looked into Justin Timerlakes, Cry me a River; this isn't acoustic genre, however we used many aspects of this video; possibly challenging the conventions of our actual genre.
For example we looked at many things, particularly the way in which his lip sync is quite near to the camera, with many close-up shots, yet he looks away into the distance quite frequently, like he is deep in thought. We wanted this effect in our video, to look like the artist was really into his music, thus relating back to acoustic genre forms and conventions, this has a high degree of redundancy in many videos, as it is expected for the artist to be really interested in his music.
We also liked how professional the video looks in his house because the house was empty, with not a lot of equipment or furniture, giving an extremely professional final shot. We liked this idea, and with my brothers apartment being new and empty, we were able to duplicate this effect.
Finally, we liked the shower scene in this video, and we wanted to use this (however completely changing the shot types and reasoning) We liked it because with our amplifying narrative, a raunchy shower scene could show the actress's worries flush away, especially straight before going out. We also liked the high degree of entropy with a raunchy, sexy shower scene in a slow, acoustic music video - as we thought it would be quite original, yet interesting to watch, and it would also relate to our mainstream audience, as these scenes can be quite frequent in other genres, such as hip-hop or pop.


We  then presented our PITCH to the group, with as much detail as possible about our ideas for our music video, again this movie shows in debth a large amount of our creativity throughout the process: