Sofie's Evaluation- Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research & planning stages?

Sofie's Evaluation- Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Sofie's Evaluation- Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product & the ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 2 on Prezi

Sofie's Evaluation- Question 1

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

Final Digipak!

Here is my final digipak! I am really pleased with the outcome. I kept the theme within our group of putting a quote on the top right panel, and I think the quote is quite ironic given Hewitson's persona, which works well, and the candle is an image used in our video. I prefer the simplistic look with my digipak and I like that there isn't a lot going on because it looks more professional.

Back Panel- Track Listing

 Here, after looking at some CD track listings on CD's that I own, I have experimented with different layouts for tracking listings. My favourite that I came across, was the tracks written as long lines, rather than one on each line. I think this works better with the image I want to use for my back cover because the image takes up the whole bottom third of the panel and with the text interupting the photo, it looks a little busy, whereas with this layout it looks neater.

 I don't like the tracks set out this way because it is very generic and get's in the way of the photo.

Positioning the tracks in this way makes the picture look too heavy on one side, and it lacks balance, unlike in the first picture where the tracks were all together at the top.

 I lowered the opacity of the text to fit more to the grey and blame of the image, as the white was a little too bold and contrasting against Hewitson. I like to keep the image as the main focus because this connotes Hewitson's importance. I like the track's in this position as it creates a good balance and looks neat and tidy.

 I tried putting the tracks right at the very top but I don't think this works as well as it doesn't look like the track listing at first glance. It is a little too unconventional and I think it looks odd.

Here I moved the text further towards the centre. I like it this way, however I prefer the way it looks further up, without the empty black space above it.

After adding the barcode & production title....

Magazine Advertisement

This is my magazine advertisement. I prefer a simplistic look, as I think it stands out more and it is more eyecatching, which is essential in a magazine. The black and white adds to this as it is a bright contrast. I have used the same fonts as on the CD cover to add continuity, and I first put the website underneath the rest of the text, but then moved it into the top right hand corner because I felt as if it was too in the way of the image before. However I then moved it into the centre at the top, to align it with the rest of the text and keep it neat. I gave the album a five star rating from Q magazine as this is something widely recognised by an audience and having a high rating from a famous magazine gives the album presige and adds to the professional look of the advertisement.

Another common thing that adds prestige and is a good way of advertising to an audience, is to include a small reviewing quote on an advert to help persuade readers of the magazine to buy an album. I decided to incorporate this into my advertisement, using a short and simple made-up quote as not to over-load the advert, adding to the five star rating

Experimenting With Fonts

I downloaded a range of fonts and as usual, they always look a lot different when you use them to when you downloaded them, and I don't like this font. I think the feel of it contrasts too much with my images as it is too cartoon-like and not sophisticated enough.

Similarly to the above, I downloaded some fonts that look painted and drawn, as to relate to the rotoscoping within our video, however I think that this font is too neat and again looks too cartoon-like for the image

I really like this font as it is the font that looks the most natural in terms of it being drawn. I like the faded parts as if painted, and it relates to the drawn parts in our video. I think it is the only font that works well with the album title undernearth and it doesn't look tacky, and although drawn, still looks quite sophisticated. It is my favourite of all the fonts and the one I will most probably use.

I think that this font looks too 'gothic' and doesn't look right against Hewitson and especially against Hewitson's clothes. Although it is a supposed to look as if it was drawn, I think that it looks too neat.

Magazine Advertisement Idea

This is what I have come up with for my magazine advertisement. I love the image however I am worried it may look a little too modern for the song/album we are promoting

This is my second idea, which incorporates the split personality theme in our video, with the split down the middle of Hewitson with one side grey and one side colour, however doesn't incorporate the duplicate theme as much. However I think this looks less modernised and works better with our vintage style feel.

After recieving feedback from my teacher, I created this image. I like it because it reminds me of the mug shots of a criminal, connoting the 'rock n roll' sort of image of Hewitson. I used the side on photo from the album cover to relate to it, bringing the familiar image in to advertise the album. The image over all is similar to the CD cover, but still has its differences, which I like because it all comes together as a brand.

Front Cover

These are my two ideas for my front cover. I think the simple look is effective because it's eyecatching and striking. As for the wording, I like the simple but bold font and think it looks better in the bottom image, where it is closer together at the bottom. Putting the text at the top looked too cluttered, and so did in the middle. I think that at the bottom it looks good because it has enough of it's own space to stand out without taking the attention away from the photographs.

Photos For My Ancillary

when edited...

My idea is to blend the two side on photos together into one duplicate photo, where there is two of Hewitson, and each one showing the opposite of the other- one moody and one happy. This incorporates the juxtaposition idea that I have been keen on from the start of this project, and also relates to the duplicate images within the video. It fits Hewitson's mysterious persona, and the two sides of him which we see in the video- the moody and stroppy Hewitson at the tea party, and the happy Hewitson singing and dancing within a graveyard.

I copy and pasted each photo onto a blank photoshop page and put them side by side. The right had had to be altered in size in order to look equal to the left one, and I had to move it up and outward to make sure that each photo looked just the same (I hadn't yet blended the background to make it even)

I moved the images further away from each other in order to make space for text and I think this looks better, less cluttered and more simplistic

 After blending...

I think that I prefer the image in black and white, as it adds to the aged feel of our brand
adding to the aged feel, I put a grain over the photo which makes it look less clean cut and modern which I think is important as I don't want the image to look too 'glamorous'.

Futher Mock-Up Experimenting

My original idea was to incorporate our duplicate idea into our digipack, and as I am still poorly and unable to get to Jordan to take photos, I am experimenting using some stills from the video.

I have blended two of the video stills together and I love the effect this creates. I adjusted the lighting a little, but the original lighting is perfect because of the contrast of Jordan against the dark sky. It connotes his importance and star persona. I adjusted the contrast slightly, to make him stand out a little more, and lowered the saturation to age it slightly. His facial expressions are moody and typical of one side of Hewitson's character. As Hewitson seems to have a split personality within our video, I thought that an effective idea would be to duplicate and blend a photo like this, with Jordan portraying a moody character in one photo, and a happier character in another. When/If I get the chance to photograph Jordan, this is something i'd be interested in trying out

I added a grain over the top of the photo, to add to the vintage and aged feel that is part of the brand we are creating. I love this effect as it is subtle but effective

 I think that using a simple font like Times New Roman is classic and simple, not taking the attention away from Hewitson. However it may look too simplistic and boring. I like the positioning and size of 'HEWITSON RIVER' at the top but I think it takes all the attention away from the album title.

Here I have centred Hewitson's name and made it bigger, and filled the empty space below with the album name. Although it is bigger than Hewitson's name, the opacity is lower and blends more with the background. This style of album cover is typical of The Smiths, our main inspiration

 To add texture to the picture, I cut out the tree texture from my previous experimenting, and cut it onto the top of the page, to make it look old and worn, like an old page. I smudged the edges slightly to reduce the harshness of contrast between the two foreground colours

I brightened the areas of the tree texture and added the text back on, and I like this effect because although simple, it is more visually interesting and reminds me of old film or old paper.

Mock-Ups

I planned to take photos of Jordan for my ancillary mock-up today at the end of school, however since tuesday I have been unwell and haven't been in to school to see him. This sets me back a lot, as I won't be able to take the photos until tomorrow, and then I will only have two days to put my ideas together. However i'm sure this is do-able and in the mean time, I have been experimenting with stills from the video.
I have had to use print screens from the HD setting on youtube and the images are still bad quality and not the right sizes for me to use.

I edited this still from the video, which is from my favourite scene and I like it because it's visually appealing and addresses the tea party, nature & performance elements in the video all at once.

 Here I have experimented with the positioning of the album title. I turned the opacity down so that it would fit with the dark and low constrasted image of the CD cover. I like it most as one line rather than two, because it looks simple and less cluttered. I don't think that positioning it on the left hand side works because it makes the picture look too busy as it clashes a little bit with the fairy lights, and makes the right hand side look too empty. It works a lot better on the right hand side because it fills the empty space and looks good against the texture of the tree.

Here I added vignetting but as the image is already dark, it is very subtle and almost doesn't make a difference. I think that the title would have to be positioned over the vignetting for this to work properly so that it doesn't over-lay it and set it back into the photo.

The only thing I don't like about this image, is that it doesn't portray Hewitson's persona at all, so I would hestitate in using it as a photo for the CD cover, and prehaps would work better for a picture on another panel.

There are few stills that I think would work as portraying Hewitson correctly, so tomorrow, when I am hopefully back in school, I will take some appropriate photos of Jordan and also ask Jack to send me some good quality skills from his laptop, and then experiment some more.

FINAL VIDEO

this is our final video! i have posted a link to the video onto twitter so that we can get feedback :) Well Done Everyone!

Our Last Day of Filming- Sofie

Today we filmed our last bits of footage. This was lip syncing and Hewitson waking up in the grave yard to show the transition of night to day, and to explain why he is in the grave yard. We used the church nearer to school to save time as we were nervous about not filming all we wanted before the end of the day. With permission from somebody involved with the church, we got plenty of footage filmed making sure we filmed more than we needed so that we wouldn't be left struggling for footage when we are editing over the next few days. I liked the location today as it's a big and very pretty church, and we had a good amount of sunlight for the video as well so everything went very well. We had to make sure we were careful with our shadows getting in the shot and encountered problems whenever anybody walked by, but other than that, it all ran smoothly. 

Tomorrow, Owain will edit a lot of the footage as he has a day off on Thursdays. Jack and myself are planning to edit in a free period we have together tomorrow, and we will share the workload to ensure that everybody is contributing and to get it done quicker as our deadline is nearing. We will hopefully all get together on Friday to edit together and make sure we are all pleased with our final piece and make any small tweaks that we think should be made.

Here is a short video of footage from our filming today, including a mini vlog by Jack and Lily

Other CD Conventions

I am interested in looking at the more linguistic side of our ancillary task. Rather than just looking at examples of other band/artist's CD covers, I thought it was important to look at the dedication & thank you pages and promotional information within other bands CDs.

 This is from the Maccabees album 'Colour It In'. For one, the design on the album relates to the title as it has the iconic image of the cartoon people, coloured in a child-like way, and this is carried on through the rest of the album, creating an individual image. This page is used for copyright purposes, with information about the producers and designers, credits to people involved, and also includes promotional information such as the band's myspace and website. At this moment, I am not sure what information we will need to include on our album cover, as nothing is actually copyrighted. But in terms of promotional information, I am really keen on making a small insert, as seen in this blog post.

 The Maccabees used a page to include a dedication in the album, as seen above. I think this is a nice idea but I don't think it would work within our CD because of the image we are trying to portray of Hewitson River, as we are playing upon the idea of him being self-obsorbed & miserable (much like Morrissey!)

This is a single from McFLY, who used a panel to promote an upcoming album. I think that if we were going to include an insert in our CD, then it should either include contact information such as twitter, facebook, myspace & a website, or details of a tour. I personally think that a panel in our digipack, or section of a panel, could be dedicated to Hewitson's social networks, and an insert could promote a tour, because this is a more common and conventional way of advertising.

In an earlier album, McFLY use polariod photos in their section of the album for 'thanks'. This part of a CD is a very common and quite an important part and something we should probably include. We could take inspiration from the polaraids used, as it relates to our 'old' theme and we could easily create polaroids on photoshop. It has a simple but effective look.

Jason Mraz's thanks is very lengthy and I don't think we should aim for something as long as this, but I like how the text is arranged around an image. We could use this for inspiration for both our back cover and our 'thank you' page.