Evaluation Max Carter

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Q4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,planning and evaluation stages?

Script For ExtraNormal: 

Character One: Just Answer The Question 

Character Two: Ok Sorry, What was the question again? 

Character One:How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 

Character Two:Well The first new technique I learnt was using After Effects CS6. I wanted to try out the 3D camera tracker. It was a lot of trial and error at first, but I got the hang of it. I wanted to use the camera tracker to try a new technique that I haven't tried before, it will create text in 3D space, and when the camera moves that text will stay in it's current position in relation with the scene. This new technology has helped me develop my skill in after effects, It also looked pretty sick. How about you? 

Character One:Well, taking influence from the music video for Hey There Deliah I wanted to incorporate A split into the video. I did this through Final Cut. First of all I create a white solid, this was going to be used as the background. Next I needed to scale and crop the clips I wanted to use until we managed to create something which resembles a split. I did this so the star was able to be shown a lot more. You Must have something else to say... 

Character Two:Yes I do, Some of our scenes were a little dark due to the lighting conditions. SO we had to colour correct slightly, Although not much as the darker scenes go with the Urban feel we were trying to create. Say one more thing before we go. 

Character One: Ok, I also used photoshop to create the advert and digi pack. I wanted to give our star tattoos, so i downloaded a tattoo brush template, it was a little tricky but i managed to make them look fairly real. I had the paint the tattoos on and then rub out around the arm so they didn't overlap.

Character Two: And the most important technology we used was the camera, we were able to film our music video with, we also made some use of the lighting equipment when we did our photoshoot, the camera we used for that was a Canon eleven hundred D, which allowed us to get High Res images to work with. What about research? 

Character One:Well I made good use of Safari and Google Chrome to help me with my research, I used Safari when I was using the Macs and Google Chrome when I was at home. Using these browsers we were able to find a lot of the information we needed, such as the conventions of Hip-Hop and Rap, Dance Styles and the lyrics to our song. I also used YouTube to help find Hip Hop videos to help with some inspiration, such as Macklemore. Using these browsers also helped me make good use of our blog, using blogger. the blog is where we put all our research onto and helped us plan a lot of our work. The blog is where all our research and planning is present. Got anything on evaluating? 

Character Two: Of course, for question 1 I used powerpoint to answer the question. After I created the powerpoint I went onto a website called slideshare, i was able to import my powerpoint into it, this allowed me to embed my powerpoint into a post on blogger.

Character One:Any other browser software you had to use? 

Character Two:Yep, I used Prezi to answer question 2, Prezi is slightly similar to powerpoint, but it allows you to be a lot more creative, I've used prezi before so I was familiar to it, in Prezi you are able to create different shapes and images, and some mad transitions. I also had to embed this into my blog. Oh and I'm also using some browser software right now! 

Character One:Shut Up 

Character Two:Nope i'm using xtranormal to answer this question, It isn't very difficult to use, and after some playing around you are able to get used to it, its similar to filming, as you are able to direct the actors and choose different camera angles, you also have the ability to make the actors say whatever you want. this will also have to be embedded. 

Character One: Well that's creepy, anyway. We also used final cut one more time to answer question 3. I also learnt a new technique while answering question 3, it was to shrink the video of us talking to the camera and to put it into the top right corner. I did this by scaling the clip and moving it into position. We did this so it was clearer who was talking. We also did another split screen so we were able to show the before and after on certain clips. 

Character Two:Overall I developed my skills using after effects with the 3D camera tracker and photoshop with different ways to colour correct, and adding the tattoos. I have also got a lot more comfortable using Final cut and prezi, I believe using all these techniques and technologies we were able to complete the goals and create an urban atmosphere.

Script For Feedback Video

Max
We have learnt a lot from our audience feedback by looking at written comments, as well as the video feedback. These are the parts that our audience enjoyed and suggested we could keep.
First of all, a lot of people of people enjoyed the text effects at the beginning of the video, they found it to look professional and sick, it was also unique, as no one else had attempted this.
Next they thought the costume changes were a key aspect to the music video and it follows the conventions of a hip-hop/ rap video, it kept it fresh as the artist continuously changed clothes, it also showed the star's sense of style.
Keeping the location at the car park added to the theme of the music video, which was to create a street/urban atmosphere.
We added different shot types which they liked as it went with the tempo, the shot types helped us make a good use of our location.
Another unique idea that they liked was the split screens with the clip, it helped us sell the artist more, as we were able to show him a lot more.
They were also fond on the dancing that was included in the video, firstly they enjoyed drews dancing and found it entertaining, next we had a choreographed dance routine, which also follows the conventions of some hip-hop/rap music video. We then had the star breakdancing in the car park, which again helps with the street/urban feel.

Kisu
Although there was a lot the audience enjoyed about our rough cut, there were also some suggested improvements that needed to be made. One thing that people noticed was that some clips were a lot darker than others. This was mostly because we filmed at different times and some scenes were out side compared to others inside and so resulted in different lighting.
Another comment was that there was not enough quick cuts between shots and so some clips were getting too long. we needed to change this as the audience would get bored of watching the same long clip. The last clip was the longest clip that the audience suggested changing as it was just the artist walking up to the camera. The suggestions were that we needed to make it more interesting somehow.

Allie
We took on board every improvement as well as all the criticism we received from the feedback in order to improve our final music video.
One clear improvement was the colour correction. We increased the Mid Whites, brightness and saturation so that all clips had similar lighting. This made the video look professional rather than amateur.
We also added more quick cuts as this was a suggestion most people made. By doing this it made the music video much more interesting to watch.
The last clip of the music video was a long shot of our artist walking towards the camera. This shot was very boring to watch and so we needed to change in in order to keep the audience engaged through out. We did this by cutting the long clip on every bit that the beat changed. After the clip was cut, we added a reverse speed effect on selected clips as well as an earthquake effect on the other cut clips. This resulted in the effect that the screen was shaking on the beat and also emphasized the beat of the song which would leave the tune in the audience' mind.
At the end of the rough cut there was a long blackness with no music or visual on show. We removed this as it was not needed and only made the video appear longer.

Planning Notes For Task 3

Feedback

Before:
What people enjoyed watching and wanted to keep

• Drew's dancing
• The use of break dancing and Kisu's and Alyshas choreography 
• Costume Changes
• Theme, car park
• Text at the start
• Screen Splits
• Location/Shots.

Things that need to be improved

• Some clips were too dark
• long clips and the end of max walking down the car park was too long and boring
• Need more cuts
• darkness at the end for 2 minutes.

After:

We took onboard every criticism we recieved in order to improve our music video

• Colour Corrected
• Added more cuts
• Added reverse speed to some bits to the last clip, in order to make it less boring and long, also added an earthquake effect which moved to the beat
• removed the dark 2 minutes at the end.

Possible Extra Content For Digipack

Taking idea's from Macklemore's deluxe album, I think it would be nice to include photo's from the artist, such as behind the scenes photos, with little messages from the artist. It will make it seem more personal between the fans and the artist.
I created three free images on Photoshop which could be included in our album.

Finishing Digipack

The next step was to add some labels, so we added the barcode which is seen on all items, so it was important to place. Next was to add a Parental Advisory sticker because our artist is a rapper and many rap song's contain explicit lyrics. And next was the record label, we decided to use Death Row Records as they are know for signing rappers such as Snoop Dog, Dr Dre and Tu Pac, So it would look good if our artist was signed for a big rapping label. In the above picture you can see we started to fill in the gaps, we thought as our artist is showing of the tattoo's it would be good to carry on the theme.

And so we did, I used the same brush template on Photoshop that I used to create the tattoos on the artist, At first they were black but the colour looked to strong, so we changed the colour to the more dark brown to go with the colour of the artists tattoo.

Next we added the track listing, as it was a deluxe album it contained 3 extra songs not found on the normal album, and a message from the artist. 

We then added the lyrics from the artists No.1 song and the personal message from him.

Digipack Album Cover

Completed 

Last Lesson

This is our Final Magazine Ad:

We decided to keep it simple by not adding too much information. From analyzing other Magazine Ads we concluded that it was more eye catching to add less information and only whats need such as the date of release, deluxe name and artist name. We also kept it simple by keeping to a colour them of three colours; gold, white and black in different shades. Simplicity allowed us to sell the deluxe Digipak without distracting or confusing the audience. With just a glance they will be able to recognize the artist and know when the Digipak is out.

Magazine Advert

This is our final Magazine Advert.

Jay Z Magazine Advert

Jay Z- The Blueprint 3 Advert

This is the advert for Jay Z's album The Blueprint 3, It is advertised in XXL which is a popular Hip Hop magazine. He is there front and back cover, the advert being the back cover. The picture of Jay Z goes well with the sub title "Is Jay Z Bigger Than Hip-Hop?" seeing that he is pictured as a giant as he is towering over the Empire State building and the Chrysler building, It is also reference of his past, as he was born in New York, and it was in New York where the Hip Hop scene first started and blew up. The advert itself is quite smart, but basic. The image is of lots of instruments and other recording devices crunched up into a ball, not sure what it represents, It's a simplistic white colour, with Jay-Z slapped up top. There is also three red lines, obviously representing that this is 'Blueprint 3'  The album name and the date is also printed at the bottom. It's interesting because each piece of writing is a different font and boldness, 'Jay-Z' is the bigger and bolder of the three. I think I would like the implement the simplistic style of the advert, as our album is simplistic yet effective. 

Macklemore The Heist- Deluxe Edition

Macklemore The Heist- Deluxe Edition

This is Macklemore's Deluxe Edition for his new album 'The Heist', He wanted to give his music a personality and style, he liked how you used to be able to take it out of it's cover and learn about the artist, who they were, their friends, who produced this and that song. He say's now it's just a download. So they created a box, the box is created out of alligator, inside the box under the gold foil there is 18 individual pieces of art one for each track, they are designed by Photographers, Graphic Designers and artists, the cards are of their interpretations on how they heard the song. The song also contain's three bonus tracks, which aren't on the ordinary album. It also contains a thank you card from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, which says "YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING AWESOME,WE LOVE YOU, BEN & RYAN" 

He also released a video explaining the details of the Deluxe Edition:

This deluxe edition is very different to others, especially because of the alligator skinned case, but I feel that it is very personal towards his fans, as a fan of Macklemore it sure feels that way. It isn't only for the fans, but also for the people who helped create the album. I like the idea of having art designed on the artists interpretations of how they heard the song, it's a clever and a unique idea. The bonus tracks seem to be the norm for deluxe editions. I think the thing that stands out the most about this Album is how much effort Macklemore put in to make it like the old days, where you had a physical copy of the music and that you felt like you know more about the artist.

Editing our Digipak on Photoshop

The first thing we did was add a filter to the photo that Max edited. We added a tint of blue, green and red using curve found by going into image then clicking...
Allie then chose a font that we felt went well with our Music video. It was called Urban... And had the effect of a city landscape which is similar to our magazine advert. To make sure the font stood out but still linked with everything on the front of the deluxe digipak, we matched the font colour to the colour of the tattoo's.

Because we choose to make our artist have tattoo's in one picture, it was important to do the same in all pictures we use that show his arms. We also made sure that they were in the same position as the first photo in order to make them look real.

After we edited the tattoo's we placed the image into our template by holding the shift button to keep... and then making it fit perfectly the way we wanted. We kept a theme of a grey/blue tint background for the whole of the outside of the deluxe cover.

After we had finished editing the outside of the deluxe cover, we began on the inside. The theme of the inside  was pink as we felt it would stand out and bring a fun aspect to the digipak. We chose this photo for the actual CD which we later on added the artists name 'Legacy' to so that it is obvious who the artist of CD is. Before placing the image into the template we edited Max's spots out to give him flawless skin. We also made the image brighter to bring out the strong colours.

We did the same to this photo; removed any spots and made the image brighter. We are planned on using the image as the background for our artists personal letter to his fans with a signature to conclude.

We then edited Max out of the image bellow this one onto a pink background similar to the background used for the artists personal letter to his fans. This was so that we could keep to the pink theme.

We then placed the image on the left inside the template. We are going to add the lyrics of the song in Music Video.

This is how our Digipak looks so far. The last thing we did was write Legacy onto the CD in the same font used on the front cover.

Final Video

                                                This is are final video uploaded to Youtube.

Tattoo's

We thought It would suit our star if he had tattoo's, as a lot of rap/hip hop star's have lots of tattoo's covering them so I thought I would give it a go.

I used this photo to put tattoo's on, I also like this for the front cover of the digi-pack.

I download a tattoo sleeve brush template onto photoshop.

At first i attempted it on my left arm, and rubbed out any overlapping my arm. also had to rotate and resize the brush to make sure it fitted.

I then placed the second one on my right arm, once again rubbing out any going over, so far it was looking good, but I wanted my upper arm to be covered otherwise it would like bare.

I managed to place one that fitted with the previous tattoo, and once more had to rub out any overlapping, especially with the previous tattoo. Throughout all the tattoo's I had to play with opacity and size to make sure it fitted my arm.

And here's the final picture,I think it worked and looks fairly realistic, and I hope we can use this as our front cover of our digipack.

Photoshoot for digipak

These are our Top 24 photos out of the 215 we took today. We are going to Photoshop a few of these to then finally pick 3 to go on our deluxe digipac. The main focus of the Photo Shoot was to sell our Artist and so we left the background very basic. 

Roles of the day:

Photographer: Kisu

Light director: Drew

Model (artist): Max 

Our Top 24 Photo's: