Final CD Digipak

        Front Cover              Inlay 1

                     
                             Inlay 2                

                          Back

                         
                                                                                                                 Overview

   

Finished Website

We have now finished the website which we made on a website called wix.com. The website looks very professional and is easy for the audience to use. It gives the audience an insight into when the event are and where, but also allows them to see pictures and the first official music video.
Below is a list on what you can access on the website:

• Home
• Info
• Gallery
• Media
• Shop
• Contact  

Here is the link to the final website:

Coma 69 Website

How We Made Our CD DigiPak

Below is a video showing how we made each of the panels of our CD DigiPak in Photoshop:

Task 4 - How Did You Use New Media Technologies In The Construction And Research, Planning And Evaluation Stages?

Directors Commentary Script

Commentary 3

Task 4 - Media Technology In Post Production

Final Cut Pro was a key piece of technology that we used in the post production stage due to use editing our music video on it. I used Final Cut Pro to edit my Thriller which mean't that I had already built up a basic skills base from the program. However there was much more to learn. I had to learn how to sync the music video to the beat of the music, which allowed us to develop the skills on Final Cut Pro checking that the video of Rachel singing starts and when the start of the singing on the song started. We did this by dragging the shots onto the timeline and cutting the shots where it matches the song using the blade. We then started editing the shots, cutting it where we wanted the shots to go. In the 'Browser' section I was able to look through all of the clips and decide which ones I wanted to use and which ones I didn't want. The 'Viewer' and 'Canvas' section allowed me to view the clips and final video. The 'Timeline' section was where I dragged the clips onto and edit them together. This allowed me to put the final music video together.




To create the website I used Wix which enabled us to create a free website to promote our artist. My inspiration was taken from similar artist' websites such as Black Sabbath. We also used YouTube as well as further tutorials to gain the knowledge on how to use Wix. It was a challenge to get used to at the start but was a great experience.

Photoshop became another essential media technology that we used in post production as it allowed us to create and edit our CD DigiPak. This software allowed me to edit images, layer text with images, resize and crop. It also allowed us to edit the pictures so that they represented our artist and genre to the best of our ability. During the photoshop stage, I struggled a bit, as I had never used it before. Having said this I managed to get a photography student to help me and teach me what to do, which enabled me to help with the DigiPak.

We used a Timelapse on the day to make a record of the shoot day taking a picture every 1 second to allow us to have a picture of everything we had done. This mean't that we hada record of every little thing we did on the day.

Task 4 - Media Technology In Pre - Production

We used a range of digital technologies for the various stages in our advance portfolio. We used these technologies to record our progress, development and journey. These were essential for our coursework as it allowed us to display how we progress as a student as well as understanding the technologies used.
Media technology was particularly important in the pre - production process of our music video not only to prepare myself for filming the music video and the editing after but to research our artist. 

Blogger has been a large part of our whole coursework as we have used it the whole way through our coursework. We have used it as a reflective diary, showing every part of our research and planning throughout making our music video.

Another important online technology that I used was the internet. The internet was a key tool that I used to research bands of a similar genre to mine and also what heavy metal music videos look like to give me an idea of what our music video should look like. An example of a heavy metal band I looked at was Black Sabbath

Before I filmed the final music video, I drew out the storyboards on a piece of paper, to make it easier for me to imagine what the video would look like. We filmed the story boards with a Sony NX 5, and created an animatic using Final Cut Pro so that we could see what the music video would look like. This allowed me as well as my group to see if there were any mistakes which we could prevent from happening on the shoot day with the real video.

 

I used my Blackberry take photos of designs and storyboards quickly and instantly to upload to my blog or for whatever I needed it for. This allowed us to create a detailed account of everything we had done in the research and planning stage.



Task 3 - What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Task 3 - Questionnaire Results

Here is a questionnaire that we made to get people to fill in after they had watched our music video.

I have analysed the results from the questionnaire we did below. We handed it out to 18 people, a mixture of girls and boys amongst our year group. Below are the results:

As we can see there is a variety of different genres that people liked with only 2 people actually liking the heavy metal genre. Most people like Hip Hop or rock music consisting of 11 people out of 18 people liking this.

This shows that over 3/4 of people that watched our video would definately watch it again which shows that they must have liked it.

Everyone that watched the video have said that it was a heavy metal band which is what we wanted them all to think.

As we can see in this video 13 people think that the guitar solo, lighting and the camera angles were the best think in the video. This highlights that we have made an effetive video where everyone liked the video.

This pie chart shows that over half of the people that watched the video have said that they would have preferred it if we had a narrative in the video as this would have mean't that it wasnt as boring.

Over 3/4 of people that have answered this questionnaire think that the editing was to the beat of the music which shows that the video has been made effectively and meets the task that was set to us.

This shows that only 1 person thought that the camera work was average, meaning that 17 people think that the ca,era work in the video is very effective and makes our video work due to it being a performance based video.

Over half of the people that watched our video said that they didn't like the song we had chosen. This was most likely because our song was heavy metal and not many people actually like heavy metal music.

16 out of 18 people think that the lighting was really good in our video. This is really good if people thought it was good as we had to make the lighting really good due to it being a performance based video. This made our video effective and makes our performance video stand out.

 

Over 3/4 of people that watched the video think that the video was made to a professional standard which is good meeting the task set to us.

Half of the people watching the video said that they would buy the album after watching it as they thought that it was very effective and liked the elements we had to it.

The only thing that people thought was missing from our video was the narrative element to it. They thought that it could be made more effective if we had a narrative to it.



Task 3 - Focus Groups

Focus Groups: a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.

Coma69: the band behind ‘Down & Out’, with the selected genre of ‘heavy metal’ with a main interest coming from a male audience 17-24 year olds.

The idea of a focus groups is to be an important tool for acquiring feedback regarding new products, as well as various topics such as Music Videos. In particular with music, focus groups help bands/artists wishing to develop or test market a new products, and to discuss, view, and/or test the new product before/after it is made available to the public. With our focus group we can great useful feedback on ‘Down & Out’ to help understand what was key in our product and what we could’ve developed further

Task 3 - YouTube Comments

We have used YouTube first to gather audience feedback online about what the public think of our music video. The comments have been very constructive in suggesting what they thought was good and what could have been improved. In general alot of the audience liked the lighting, thinking that it was very effective and fit the genre of the band. A couple of people also liked the jump cuts that we have used and done during the editing stage. The things people said that we could have improved was a larger variety of shots and maybe we could have had a narrative to go with it.
The two very constructive YouTube comments are:

Below is a screengrab showing the rest of the comment:

Task 3 - Audience Feedback On YouTube

We were able to get immediate feedback on YouTube and over the internet.

On the Coma 69 Youtube account the statistics show that the target audience is 45 - 54 year olds.  This meets our secondary target audience of older males.

On the official hurtwood house media Youtube account. This shows that the target audience is 13 - 24 year olds which meets our primary target audience.

This shows that all of our target audience have watched the video, achieving what we set out to do. Furthermore it also shows that on the Coma 69 Official YouTube account, they have received about 200 more views than on the Hurtwood account. This highlights that the Coma 69 account maybe reaches out to more people as well as followers of the band.

Task 3 - What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

In task 3, I am expected to collect lots of different forms of feedback through YouTube, focus groups and questionnaires relating to our target audience of 17 - 23 rockers and older males as well as a variety of other people. The audience feedback will allow us to test how effective our media campaign is. It will also allow us to see what other people outside the target market as well as in our target market think of our video. The campaign will be shown to our target adience as well as people outside the target audience to get this information.

Task 2: How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Texts?

task 2 powerpoint-1.ppt   

Response To CD Digipak Design

Task 1 - Applying Pete Frasers Theory

I also used some of Pete Fraser's conventions these included:

Lyrics - Establish a general mood, key lines may only play part in the visuals 
Music - Tempo of the track drives the editing 
Genre - Reflected through mise-en-scene, themes,performance,cinematography, editing. 
Cinematography - camera may move to accompany performers, or circle them, to create a drama, Lots of close ups to create viewer intimacy and emphasize voice. 
Editing - generically fast-paced, but slow-paced could be used to establish mood. 
Intertextuality - "Music video as incorporating, raiding and reconstructing" (John Stewart) .Music videos often incorporate what a viewer will be familiar with. 
Narrative and Performance - sugguest storylines, and offer fragmented, non-linear, narrative. These leave an audience with a desire to re-watch. 

Music videos offer a more varied access to the artist than concerts....

• as a guarantee of a band's authenticity, by showing them in rehearsals or on stage performances
• to establish a relationship to familiar film or TV genres in narrative

Task 1: In What Ways Do Your Media Products Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

Codes And Conventions - the familiar and predictable forms and techniques used by the media to communicate certain ideas or to convey a desired impression.

Our music video uses the conventions of a heavy metal band, music video. We have used lots of close up shots which is typical of a heavy metal band, we also used strobe lighting which is a convention of a music video of this genre because it creates the rebellious feel. The fast cross cutting is also a convention of a music video because it cuts between each different member, it is especially a convention of a performance video.

Our website is also a typical convention of a bands website as we have the twitter section, the logo, the sound cloud section and many other sections which is typical of many band websites.

However on our CD digipak we don't have an album title which is going against the convention of a CD digipak because there should always be a title so that the audience know what the album is called. We have however included the artist name and a man in image which

Task 1 - Music Video

Task 1 - Website

The main image is going against the convention of a website because it isn't stretched along the whole page which a normal picture would be

The twitter section is a convention of a website because all websites link to social networking sites such as twitter - this is also a convention of the online age as audiences are demanding social networking 

The wallpaper background is going with the convention of a website. The galaxy background is a convention of a heavy metal band

The whole website also goes with the convention of a heavy metal band

The latest news section is a convention of a website as it shows what the band are going to do

The logo at the top of the page is a convention of a website because then the user can see the logo of the band 

Sound cloud is convention of a bands website because all bands need to show and advertise the songs that they have produced

The gallery of images is conventional as it shows the images of the band from past events or gigs

Task 1 - CD DigiPak

Panel 1

Artists Name - Coma 69

The artists name is going with the convention of a CD DigiPak because there will always be the artists name on the front of a CD cover. This makes it easier for their target audience to not only remember their eye catching album cover but the name with it. This is both a symbolic and written codes of the album cover

Main Image

The main image is also going with the convention of a CD digipak because there will always be the main image on the front of an album cover, whether it is in the form of a portrait, text or black and white image. This is to get a message across to the audience about the artist's or bands's unique and interesting style. Different genres would normally have different images, for example a pop act such as Rihanna would have herself on the album cover, but a more alternative act such as Foo Fighter or Coma 69 would have a logo or image which would be putting the message across.

Album Title

Our digiPak goes against the convention of an album cover because there should always be a title on an album cover. This helps the audience know what the album is called but it is also to give the audience a feel of what the artist was thinking whilst creating the album, but also what the album might contain. For example Eminem's new album name, The Eminem Show, is an insight into his current life.

Panel 2

The black background gives a darker sense without stealing attention from written information.    Clear conventions of barcodes and record labels have been displayed. Technical and symbolic conventions have been used on this back cover.