EVALUATION FOUR (Michael Nwankwo)

Question 4 from Mikeslondon

EVALUATION QUESTION THREE (Michael Nwankwo)

EVALUATION TWO (Michael Nwankwo)

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

How have you connected all three of your products?

Magazine Advert

Magazine adverts are there to promote the artist and the album. There are many different magazine adverts so the use of why a person picks one over another would be due to the requirements of what they want to read about. This shows that the audience is active. The reader can then gain trust in the magazine and tend to follow the same views seen in it as this is the reason they liked it in the first place. This allows for the use of magazine adverts a very good form of promotion. The audience reading the magazine advert would already be willing to take in the information they are being shown which allows for greater chance of interest in the purchase of the album or just them doing further research into the artist. 

Digipak

A digipak is a styled CD packaging with elements inside. The digipak helps promote the album as it obtains extras features like a lyric book which may influence the audience to purchase the album. The album becomes more appealing to the audience as they get more information about the production of the music but also a lot more of the artist themselves. This is something that the audience likes as a lot of them idolise celebrites and people with talent and they like to get to know these people through different mediums like social networks so the digipak with extra information supports that idea of being able to idolise. Durthermore the didgipak helps potray an message to the audience. Sometimes the message can be lost in the covers of albums but the reinforcement of the extra material in the digipak can clarify the message that the media producer is trying to get across. 

Music Video

Together these products are a promotional package. Each product promotes the album and all gives the audience different methods to view the gain awareness of the album and the artist. With the music video being posted on Youtube a well-established video sharing site with over ! billion users on the site a lot of people can find out about Tyler Noel through the music video and then could then do promotion without even knowing it through word of mouth. The digipak would mainly be for people who are already consumers of Tyler Noel music as they would go looking in store to find her material. however, new fans may be interested in purchasing it as well due to the extra information inside, so if they different want to purchase intimately because they didnt know who Tyler Noel was the extra information inside the digipak and the added extras may push the audience into purchasing the product. The magazine advert promotes not just the album but the artist herself. 

Before the process of releasing an album always followed the same pattern with the release of the magazine advert then the digipak and then the music video. However, with the increase in technology and an increase in the amount of technology used actively in every day life, the release of albums can vary. The increase in the amount of ways to illegally get music has also played a role in the change. The release of the music video tends to be first now, with the song being from the album and promoting not just the artist and but the quality of the album. This song would most definitely be the 'hit' of the album which they would hope to chart with so they are able to gain recognition and increase amount of people aware of the artist so they can gain extras sales. They would release the digipak and album. This would be reinforced but the promotion they would be doing through interviews and social presence especially on social media. Lastly, the magazine adverts to gain the sales of anyone who had missed all the promotion through word of mouth, social presence etc.
I think this is the same way in which my media products develop each other as I feel that this shows that I 'soundblast productions' am aware of the current state of the music industry and am trying to adapt to the best for the consumer and the artist. The artist can gain more fans and sales if they release a very goof song in the music video like 'If you wanna Leave' and then purchase the digipak based of they feelings about the song they had just heard and furthermore they could her previews of her other songs on the Album on Itunes before the Digipak is purchased in-store. 

Do your three products have a shared identity?

My products do have a shared identity. This was something I felt was important in the success of the promotional package and how it was. It has been seen with artist from all type of genres from Ed Sheeran to 50 Cent. The use of shared identity allows the audience to identity the product wherever they see it. For example, if they see a magazine advert they may like it and continue reading the magazine and then after forgot about. The shared identity then helps when they see the same image or scenery on the front cover of the digipak in store. This would then make them more likely to purchase as they was already interested from the magazine advert they saw. If The identity was different this would make it harder for the artist’s work to get recognised by a new audience as only people searching for Tyler noel would find it. Furthermore, I felt that the shared identity should also follow in the music video with shots from the music video being the main source of images for the digipak and magazine advert. This is due wanting the audience to be able to recognise the products wherever they see them. If they missed the magazine advert or digipak and saw the music video first then would still recognise the magazine advert or digipak when they see it and hopefully if they liked the song purchase the album. However, it could be said that the magazine adverts shared identity is not as strong as the magazine advert and digipaks due to the dark black background and the big image of the artist Tyler Noel. I feel this still has shared identity but as a media producer I had to make the decision of how much focus we want on the artist herself. Tyler Noel is unsigned so not only am I trying to promote the album but her as an artist aswell. The R&B genre focuses on connection with the artist so by putting a face to music and album makes the music more successful and the artist herself grow. Furthermore, the clothes being worn in that shot are still form the music video so the identity is still shared. The black background reinforces the focus on promotion as it makes the information and images on the page stand out.

How could you have developed your products to increase their synergy?

I feel that due to the R&B genre focussing on relationship issues there could be greater synergy if the magazine advert had a greater focus on the relationship dramas rather than Tyler Noel. R&B audiences like to see an identifiable character as this is a character that they would relate to throughout as they themselves have been through relationship problems like the character. The audience would attempt to put themselves in the characters shoes and think what they would do. They could also just sympathise with the character and learn from the characters situation. With the Issue of relationships being so relatable, a greater focus on relationships in the magazine advert could have allowed for the three products to link together more rather than the magazine advert trying to promote more than just the album but the artist aswell.

How do you feel about the final products?

I feel the final products are very strong and would help Tyler Noel further her career and this is something that I felt was key in the production of these products. I felt that being an unsigned artist them to growth is good music but also being an identifiable character. The audience need to know to identify the artist with their music or the artist may just be a one hit wonder with one song but they do not know who sings it. The products being used for the purpose of promotion which are there main feature I feel that the products done their job. The Magazine advert has an image of the digipak and some reviews/ opinions of the album with star ratings.  This not just a convention of magazine adverts but can also link back to the R&B genre whose audience like to be able to relate. By seeing other people’s opinion they may see one which they value more of because that person/company who writ the review shares the same views as them which entices them to purchase the album ‘More Than Friends’.

EVALUATION ONE (Michael Nwankwo)

EVALUATION: Question 4 (Niyat Tesfamariam)

EVALUATION: Question 4 from niyattesfamariam

EVALUATION: Question 3 (Niyat Tesfamariam)

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

As Tyler Noel's song, If You Wanna Leave, is an R&B song, I initially looked at the target audience of this genre. Common audiences are often between the ages of 13 - 25 due to the explicit language and mature subject matter that R&B music sometimes has, such as Boyz II Men's I'll Make Love to You and Beyonce's Rocket.

I then took to Twitter to look directly at Tyler Noel's existing audience by finding out what kind of social groups are present in her list of followers. I found many young, black men and women as well as a few mature, white men. As the latter group of audience members are anomalous, I decided that the target audience for our music video would be 13 - 25 year old black women. This idea was also backed up by the subject matter of the song which promotes the empowerment of women. I also took into consideration similar artists to Tyler Noel such as Mary J Blige as this would give me an idea as to who would be interested in her music.

I also looked at Mary J Blige's Twitter page in order to find out what kind of people are interested in her music as this could strengthen my idea of what Tyler Noel's audience could be. I found that her audience is very similar to that of Noel as I found many young, black women in her list of followers as well as some older women and some girls of other nationalities. However, the audience that I felt would be our target demographic was the most significant social group within this list.

THE BEST WAY TO PROMOTE THE SINGLE

A common way in which R&B musicians promote their music is through the use of the music sharing/streaming website, Soundcloud. Artists such as Usher post short clips of upcoming singles in order to give their target audiences a taste of what is to come and create excitement towards their future releases.

Therefore, I felt that through the use of Tyler Noel's Soundcloud page, we could promote her single by posting a clip of it in order to tease the whole song and what the music video might be like. After posting a clip onto Soundcloud, the link to the song could then be posted onto her Twitter page (@mstylernoel) to alert her followers that new music is on its way. 

On the release date for the full song and the music video, Tyler Noel could then alert her Twitter followers by posting the YouTube link to the video. This is because her followers would be keeping an eye out for any more information about her music on her Twitter page due to the promotion of the Soundcloud teaser through the same social networking site.

HOW DID OUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK EFFECT US?

When we first found the song that we wanted to create a music video for, we asked people who often listen to music if this was a song that could be successful. These people said that they could see it featured on the charts, often linking it to songs such as Irreplaceable by Beyonce and Ex Factor by Lauryn Hill. This made us confident that we had chosen a good song to release to the public and try to promote on a large scale.

I then created a storyboard and animatics to accompany this storyboard in order to get a better idea of what our final music video would look like. After creating this video, I showed it to some potential audience members in order to find out their opinion. They all felt that the storyline linked to the song's lyrics well and that the plot seemed clear and easy to understand.

We then created an initial draft of our music video which we showed to some potential audience members. This first draft contained an ending which showed Tyler Noel and her love interest/antagonist walked away, hand in hand - this was intended as an open ending because the song offers an ultimatum but not a decision. However, our audience did not view it this way. They felt that it was confusing as it "makes me think that she stayed with her boyfriend even though he makes her unhappy". We then changed this by showing quick flashback scenes of both happy and sad memories with performance shots of her singing "I'm way too grown", suggesting that she feels to grown up to be playing silly games with her volatile partner. 

This first draft also included a scene at the end in which the performer dances in front of the mirror to the instrumental as there are no vocals in this section of the song. Members of our target audience felt that this was inappropriate as it "distracts from the seriousness of the song" and the difficult position that Tyler Noel is in.

Once we had finished making these changes amongst others, we posted the final video onto video sharing site, YouTube, and shared the link on social networking site, Twitter, in order to find out people's final opinions.

These are two examples of our audience's feedback of our final product. They both felt that the final video's storyline was clear and followed the story that Tyler Noel is telling in her song. The main issues that these two expressed were the quality of the lighting and the amount of camera shots that were used. As these issues are relatively minor - the video is still visible despite the lighting issues and complex camera angles are not needed - I feel that the music video was successful and we were able to do what we aimed to do: tell a story about a strong yet heartbroken woman who has taken control.

Our digipak was also met with positive comments as audience members felt that the images gave a strong idea of what the album would be about: relationships and heartbreak. The song titles also help establish an idea of what feelings and topics would be explored in Tyler Noel's music. They felt that "the link between the music video and the album's images show that the project was well thought about" and makes the whole project "stronger as a whole." This also made audiences "have an idea of what future music videos would look like. They'd probably have a similar setting and tone to the music video and digipak." A critique that we took on board in the early stages of creating our digipak was that our images had originally included song titles: "the pictures have too much writing on them, it distracts from the pictures and makes them seem to busy." Upon hearing this, I decided to strip back the images and keep them minimal, allowing the images to speak for themselves.

Reactions to our magazine advert were similar to that of the digipak as audience members often praised that the images linked all three of our products. They felt that the advert gives them all the information they would need about the album in order to decide whether or not they would want to buy the whole album. "The magazine reviews make me think that this is gonna be a good album, also because I read those newspapers so I trust them." They also liked that the magazine says "OUT NOW" as they felt that it "creates excitement" and urges them to buy it. The fact that it informs them that If You Wanna Leave is on the album was considered "helpful" as it gave them an idea of the sound and tone of the album which in turn made them want to buy it more. This differs from the reactions to our initial magazine advert to which we took a minimalist approach, only including the artist and album name and the "OUT NOW" alert - they felt that there was not enough information on it and they did not "know enough about the album to want to buy it". This motivated us to add additional information such as the reviews and the inclusion of a 'hit single'.

OVERALL REACTION

I feel that the overall reaction of our three products was positive and that we have appeased our target audience of young women - black or otherwise - as well as some young men. This assures me that, if these products were to be released to the general public, they would be somewhat successful. However, I do feel that with a larger budget, professional equipment (such as cameras and lighting) and professional actors, this project could have looked much more professional and could have decreased the amount of criticisms. In terms of the storyline in relation to the song, it was felt to be clear and had a strong link to the lyrics. The main issues that I found were technical so, with professional software, this could have been avoided. With these factors taken into consideration, I feel that this project was successful and this feeling has been backed up by the reactions of members of our target demographic and others.

EVALUATION: Question 2 (Niyat Tesfamariam)

EVALUATION: Question 1 (Niyat Tesfamariam)

  

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

Evaluation Question 4 (Daniel)

HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

CONSTRUCTION

1.For the production of our music video we used DSLR Canon EOS 650D for the filming. Utilising the use of white balance and over exposure, it was quite easy to use as the functions needed to produce our music video was limited.This was mainly due to the fact that most of the raw footage would be edited in post production.  We also used the DSLR cameras to obtain stills and images to use for our magazine advert and digipak cover. This was usually done before filming on a new day or location in order to get the right amount of sunlight due to the unpredictable weather of London. 





2.When it came to post production of our raw footage, to turn it into an R&B music video we used the program Final Cut Pro on the schools iMac Computers. Being an upgrade from iMovie it was easy to use whilst offering more variety in terms of technical features in order to make our music videos look more professional. An example of these new features is more precise clean cut tools, an essential key needed in the production of music videos. As well as access to Multi-cam support which allowed us to sync multiple shots simultaneously from different cameras, a feature that came in handy given that we were using not one but two DSLR camera in order to get different shots at the same time in order to add to the image of a real music video whilst also allowing us to cut down time. 

3.Once connected to the computer all we simply had to do is import it into Final Cut Pro and we were off as we edited whilst it imported files in the background.Being a music video, the first thing we utilised was the programmes overlaying and cutting tools in order to get our work to look remotely like a music video. After that was done, we used filters to increase the brightness of colours in scenes that we wanted to be highly exposed in order to keep a distribution between the past and present of the narrative. 

4.Whilst editing, we also had to make sure the footage was edited to match both the lyrics and music to the visuals on screen. We had to make sure this was precise if we wanted our product to look professional. Luckily Final Cut Pro made it a bit easier by allowing us to precisely place markers at the points we wanted to cut. Once the use of magnification was used on the clips timings, we were able to place markers at key points to get precise cuts that blended and fit with the beat helping us create the product we invisioned both in our minds and storyboard. 

5.When it came to creating our digipak, we used Photoshop provided to us on the Mac computers. Given a variety of features and tools to use we manipulated our stills and images through the use of contrast and saturation and added text until we felt happy with the end product. One of the main effects that we incorporated was the use of over exposed grain in order to gain the reflective aspect portrayed through out the scenes of flashbacks that the still image was extracted from. This was to give the digipak a more calm yet bold image that would cause it to stand out from a distance and be seen by audiences as they walk past if showcased in an actual store.

6.We used this same type of process to create our magazine advert, the only difference was the use of the add picture function in order to place our completed digipak cover on the magazine cover next to the enlarged image of the female protagonist. This use of layering came in handy as it gave us the ability to not only take the best pictures from stills, precisely cropped but to also place the image over a new background that emphasises on the image and causes it to stand out. The use of layering also allowed for the implementation of other images such as the the digipak as well as written text that not only stood out in front of the image but did so without creating any obstruction.

RESEARCH

1.When it came to research the internet was my main tool and weapon of choice. This was due to the access to Google which opened a bridge to a world of websites with the info, I needed and required. By using a mixture of Wikipedia and artist sites, I was able to come to understand the conventions associated with the R&B genre. Using these websites, I was able to get a better idea of how the R&B genre works and how to appeal to its target audience through our music video, digipak and Magazine Advert. Once I learned the conventions of the genre, I went onto Soundcloud and looked for a song by an unsigned artist that challenges these conventions. This lead us to find the song 'If You Wanna Leave' by Tyler Noel an up and coming unsigned R&B artist.

2.When it came to presenting the information gathered, I mostly used power point and only slight traces of Prezi. This was due to the fact that not a lot of research required the use of youtube videos meaning the power point option was a preferred choice as it allowed for easy layout planning and creation. When research did require videos, such as research into music videos themselves then prezis were used as I was able to embed them into blogger and shape the size of the video thumbnail and link.

 

3.Whilst doing research having access to both twitter and Facebook, we used these social media websites to see what Tyler Noel our unsigned artist fan base was like and how we could use these social websites to promote our final products and give Tyler some exposure whilst at it.

4. All research gathered was then recorded and placed into our blogs. Having used Blogger for two years it was easy to use and provide each piece of work a neat and clear layout that made it easier for readers to go to sections they wished to visit with no hassle. However, the downside to this use of blogger is that when it comes to writing on the blogger website itself and incorporating pictures, it becomes very difficult to create and make the layout you were hoping for. Hence why most of the research gathered and recorded is actually embedded from other websites like Prezi and Slidershare. 

PLANNING  

1)In terms of planning, before anything was done we discussed what we wanted in our music video and the aim of the narrative as a group. This was then presented to the class in the form of a power point that was recorded using a DSLR Camera for reference during filming. It simply stated the song’s lyrics as well as analysis, our ideas of how the music video should play out, location, character profile and props. 

2.Once that was done we created a story board denoting the sequence we wanted our product to follow. This was then converted into animatic. Through the use of importing images of our storyboard into Adobe Premier we edited each shot in order to match how long we wanted it to last in our final piece. In turn it gave us an idea of our final piece and a template to work off during filming.

 

3.When it came to developing our digipak, we first looked at examples of digipaks in the genre through the use of Google. We then chose a net we felt would suit our digipak and edited it using Photoshop in order to incorporate a still or image from our photo-shoot to fill each individual field of the net as well as the disc.

Just like our digipaks we used Photoshop when it came to the planning of our magazine cover including colour of the background, font and placement of the digipak cover on the advert.

EVALUATION

When presenting my evaluation questions, I used  a variety of media technologies and electronic formats:

1. Evaluation 1: I used a prezi format, this was due to the fact that I felt that I needed a layout that provided YouTube videos concisely whilst not distorting the presentation. This use of importation allowed me to show a clear link between the points that I aimed to convey.

2. Evaluation 2:For this I chose to simply record my voice going through the question showing visual cues as I felt that the structure of power point did it no just.

 3. Evaluation 3: For this question, I used power-point for its simple layout which fit the more heavy written evaluation question.

 4. Evaluation 4: For this I simply used the Bloggers format and included images. This is due to the fact that going through our presentation every thing can be see as we go through the journey from beginning to start. This means the use of images alone will help readers understand the links and decisions we have made