Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary task?

Throughout the creation of our final products we had to insure that all three products had to link together to create a cohesive and professional looking final piece.

The products all link together in a cohesive way due to the use of linking images, conventions and colour schemes. While researching music videos for artists inside and out of the genre we also looked into magazine adverts and digipacks from a variety of different genres to find conventions that fit each genre. By then seeing the conventions that run through all of the products, for example dark colours, and similar images we were able to create a set of products which all link together in a clear way.

The music video we created revolves around a single male character that is in a mental asylum. The music video uses a lot of artificial lighting to increase and decrease the level of brightness within the shots; effects were also used in the video to decrease the level of colour in the shots. The front cover of the digipack is very similar to the final shot of the music video; this will allow the audience to link the video and digipack together and will be aware which band the digipack is for without having to look out for the band name. Another reason the music video and digipack link is the images of the building are images from an asylum.

The music video and magazine advert do not link as closely as the music video and digipack. This is because the advert is based off of the digipack. The background image on the magazine advert is the front cover of the digipack, which is also the final shot of the music video which is one of the few ways the music video and magazine advert link together. Another way the two products link is because of the dark tones used in the image and shots; this is often seen in many magazine adverts music videos and digipacks.

The digipack and magazine advert are closely linked. The front cover of the digipack is the only image seen on the magazine advert. As the image on the magazine advert and the front cover of the digipack are the same, the target audience and people who wish to buy the album will be able to remember the image of the front cover when finding the album. The font and colour of the information follow the same theme yet stand out from each other so they eye I drawn to different parts of the advert so will read off the information, the colours of the font link the two products as the dark colour contrasts from the light background making the titles and information stand out.   

Evaluation Question 1

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

As the band we have chosen for the music video is a rock/metal band we have decided to follow the stereotypical conventions of music videos in this genre. Videos with a narrative tend to have equal amounts of performance and narrative shots. This is because the performance is usually the strongest part of the video and the narrative is usually simple and very easy to follow as the audience is usually focused on the performance shots. The narrative shots in the videos will also often feature members of the band. One of the videos we used as inspiration contains a number of these generic conventions as it has a simple narrative, strong performance shots and members of the band are featured in the video.

In our music video we have used equal amounts of performance and narrative shots. We used a very simple narrative so the audience could follow the plot with the performance shots added in between. 

In some metal videos for example ‘Slipknot- Before I Forget’ the focus is more on the instrument and only very rarely show the faces of the people playing them. In videos of this genre the music is often a lot more important than the narrative so during performance shots the instruments are the main focus.

In our video we decided to use this convention and have the main focus on the instruments during the performance shots and only show the face of the lead singer/ actor in our piece.

The editing in majority of rock/metal videos is very fast paced, with short clips and cuts in between, this increase the pace of the music video. We followed this convention by using short shots and cuts to increase the pace of our music video.

The lighting in music videos of this genre is usually very harsh, the performance shots usually have artificial lighting to make it look a lot darker or brighter than what would usually be seen, in narrative shots this can be the same or the lighting can be more natural. We decided to follow conventions in our music video as we decided to use artificial lighting in both the performance and narrative shots to increase the brightness and harshness of the shots.  

Second design idea for a magazine advert

I have designed the magazine advert in this way because it links to the digipack because of a similar image and again links to the music video because of the similar image, the colours and font used also link to the digipack, the advert also contains information that is important to the reader such as release date and the bands social networking address.

First design idea for magazine advert

 

I designed the magazine advert in this way as it fits with the genre of the band, it also contains all of the important information such and band and album name as well as release date and social networking information. However, it is not a very good magazine advert and it does not link to the digipak and does not link to the music video either.

Analysis of a magazine advert in our chosen genre

Machine Head-Unto The Locust

This Magazine advert is for an album called 'Unto the Locust' by 'Machine Head'. I analysing this advert as it is for a well known artist in my chosen genre. This advert has an image of the album front cover on a background that follows the same theme of the album title. The dark colours used in the advert are often used in adverts in for albums in this genre. The dark colours also fit with the theme of the album. The advert gives important information such as release date, record company information and social network information.

2nd idea for digipack design

 

 

 I designed the digipack in this way as the images link to the plot and theme of the music video and also fits with the image of the band. The dark colours used are often seen in other album covers and digipack created for other bands in this genre. The front cover is an image that is very similar to one from the music video. There is again a picture of the band so the people buying the digipack will know what the band look like. 

 

1st idea for digipak design

 I designed the digipak in this way as the images link to the narrative of the music video and also fits with the image of the band. The dark colours used are often seen in other digipak form bands in this genre. The picture on the middle of the inside panel is of a corridor in an asylum which links to the theme of the music video. The image of the band is also there so the people buying the CD will know what the band look like.