EVALUATION - QUESTION 3 - FINAL

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

To get feedback on my music video I wrote out a questionnaire which had questions in it which included things that I was perhaps worried about or unsure of within my video. 

The questions were as follows:

1. - How old are you? 
2. - What age range do you think the video is for?
3. - Did you enjoy the video?
4. - Is it repetitive?
5. - Did you understand the links between the song and the video?
6. - Did you notice the cut off at the end?

I also asked these two questions about the digipak and magazie ad.

1. Would you be able to tell that the two print texts were the same if the names were blocked out? 
2. Is there anything that would deter you from buying this album or seeing this band in these ancillary texts? 

I asked for more quantitative data as this would be easier to analyse and get more efficient results from. 

I asked the respondents age to work out later on when they answered the third question if their age group would have enjoyed it as well. 

I asked the second question to see what the respondents perception of the target audience was.

I asked the third question to gauge whether the age group of the person answering the question enjoyed the video as well. 

I asked the question about repetition as I thought in the back of my mind that it probably was.

I asked the question about the links between the video and the song to see what their perception of that would be.

I was worried about the cut off at the end so I specifically asked about that to see if they had noticed it or it was simply my own awareness of it. 

The results

I asked 20 people who I thought were of a variety of different age ranges to answer the questionnaire to make it as fair as possible. 

The first question showed us that I had asked a range of ages although the vast majority were teenagers. Five of the group were older (what I did differently to the rest of my groups in my class was to ask people that did not do media and were not in my class meaning that I got fair unbiased results). 

75% of respondents were older people

25% were teenagers

In relation to the second question most (16 out of 20) believed it was for their age range or for people up to their mid-twenties ( this was my expected result). 

80% of both groups believed it was for people up to their mid-twenties

The five adults of whom I asked this question responded that they believed the music and the video wasn't for them. There was too much going on but not enough content to stop it being repetitive. However in the part where there were lyrics on the screen the older age group said they liked that as otherwise they found it hard to understand the words. Almost all the teenagers themselves liked the song and the video and felt the same way about the video as the older groups had done but they specifically didn't like the part where they lyrics were written out as they said there wasn't enough content. 

100% of the older people didn't feel the music or video was for them

90% of the teenagers enjoyed the music video

10% of the teenagers didn't like the music video

Sadly the answer to this question was rather resounding as a yes. I was not surprised as I had thought this might be the case. 

100% of both groups respondents thought the video repetitive

In hindsight I realised this was a leading question - because I had thought the video repetitive I sort of wanted to let them know that I wasn't happy with that element I think. So their view was coloured by my leading questions which means this may not be as accurate as I thought. A better question might have been 'was there anything you did or did not like about the structure of the video' although this was a qualitative question it might have got more helpful answers. 

Some of the respondents (mainly the younger ones) saw a relationship between the song and video, in guessing that the male prevalent character (me) was in fact possibly Justin. 

60% of the younger group of respondents saw a link between the song and the video and recognised the the male character was representing the one in the song 

I wasn't searching for them to understand the link between the main character in the video and the song but  was pleased they had seen a link even though it was not my intention whilst shooting. 

Around 10% of the younger respondents noticed the slight change at the end of the song whereas none of the older groups did but as they are not my target audience I guess their perception was less important. 

0% of the older respondents noticed the slight change at the end of the song

With my digipak and magazine ads it was a more cheerful experience as the feedback which I received said that minimal to no changes were necessary and the only change I did make was taking one of two black squares inside the digipak and turning one into the band logo's yellow colour so it would be a better link between the two products.

100% of all respondents (both age groups) when shown the ancillary texts, said they would be able to tell the texts were the same without the names

100% of all respondents said 'No'.  

Additionally several respondents gave some extra feedback that they liked the colours of the digipak and magazine ad and also the design which had a good New York feel which is what I had been aiming for so this was pleasing. 

The feedback suggested there were changes to make to the video but there were also things which had worked as well. Most people knew which age group the video was aimed at which was a good thing. Those who watched in in that age group mainly enjoyed it which was a bit surprising as I hadn't been too happy with it as it lacked content. It was agreed that it was a bit repetitive but on the positive side links between the song and the video content were recognised which was good and I mainly got away with the cut-off at the end. I was really pleased with both the digipak and magazine ad and this was helped by the feedback which showed that the design had come together well - I was pleased to have to change very little about this.  Sadly within all of these  possible changes in the video there were one or two mistakes which were unavoidable and could not be changed such as, the repetitive nature of the footage. Sadly the footage which was gathered previously was not enough and as members of the cast in the original video were no longer available there was never an opportunity to capture more footage. This also applies to the cut-off at the end of the song as if it was not cut the song would have been longer and it would have been embarrassingly repetitive as well. It was a shame it was not possible to make the changes suggested by the feedback but I think the feedback was fair. 

EVALUATION - QUESTION 2 - FINAL

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

For the music video we decided at first to do a video for two of our friends who performed together occasionally, we decided that this would be a good idea as they lived nearby which would allow us to be able to film easily as we were all within easy reach of each other. This meant things could have been re-filmed if necessary, allowing for the best product. 

Sadly as we got into the second week of our shooting schedule we still hadn't received a song from them so we decided to take it upon ourselves to write and perform our own song, we had been thinking about forming some sort of group so this was a good opportunity. We managed to write our own song but sadly this had taken up far too much time for us to be able to justify it, this was our first mistake as it meant that we obviously had much less time to spend on the video which I feel largely impacted my video. 

So we were left with creating the music video for 'Autumn Term' and our song 'Layers'. This was the Debut single and this was heavily highlighted throughout the ancillary products. We decided that we wanted to try something different than just a performance video of a narrative based so we had seen the concept of long exposure shots used to create text within the stop-motion shots  using lights etc, so we attempted to contact Toby Lockerbie several times to no avail. But we eventually worked out how to use the shots were constructed which allowed us to experiment but after realising that it would take far too long to do all of the words to an acceptable level, we settled on the shaking text which I managed to finish within two weeks. 

One of the main things realised throughout this project was that relating the ancillary texts to the video was much more simple than the other way around. So I decided to base my digipak and magazine ad around the video instead of vice-versa. 

I settled on a video that would show the artists which would settle the need for a performance piece and using the band I also created. Meaning that anyone who saw the video would recognise them as part of the band if they saw them elsewhere (recognition being an important part of any unsigned band). Also it helps the audience and fans feel perhaps more connected to the artists, which can be difficult and lacking for other artists such as Deadmau5 with his trademark mask. However I thought that a concept video would fit in most with the small but ever-growing in popularity  genre 'indie-rock'. As they are (in my opinion) the least used in today's music videos. I had a basic idea of the structure of the video which would be that we would be following 'Justin ' around on a normal day of his and it starts out with him hanging out with friends and it makes numerous references to drugs and alcohol which grow in size throughout the video highlighting his spiral into 'madness'. Then it all climaxes with the chorus and the intensity of which the text shakes and the high volume of the music.

Digipak

When it comes to the combination of the digipak and the video I tried to really put across the idea of America and how that is a huge part of the characters life. So firstly I left the area where the band name was blank, this meant that it does resemble the American flag but is a subtle reference and not glaringly obvious. Again in the translucent pictures which would make up the 'stripes' part of the American flag you can recognise certain aspects and landmarks of America, such as: Times Square, Hard Rock Cafe, One World Trade Centre (the new 9/11 memorial) and the view from the top of the Empire State Building. The largest part of the digipak's link with the video is the same as the magazine ad's which is the faces of the two band members on the inside of the digipak. This is I believe the most helpful tool for recognition with the fans as when you open the digipak the first and only thing you see is the faaces of the two people in the video you also saw. This leaves no mysteries as to who the people were in the video or who the people were singing the song and doesn't involve asking friends or looking all over the internet for answers, which would deter many other possible fans.

Another band that utilised the ideas of a re-occurring theme are The Streets. While their genre may be different in musical style, I like to think of it as similar due to the fact that there is no-one genre that Mike Skinner belongs to, as he utilises a range of different kinds. His album "A Grand Don't Come For Free" is actually a story being told about how his life was great at the beginning but how he loses his girlfriend and it starts going downhill. The bus stop featuring on the album cover also appears in one of his videos. 

Another band which also do this is Gorillaz. In all of their videos they exist as avatars of themselves (Interestingly enough this is the only format in which we are allowed to see them). In all of their videos they exist in this work which is created, for instance a flotating island and a windmill appear with in both 'Feel Good inc.' and 'El Mañana'. Their many other videos also display them together in different parts of this 'world' they have created.

Another aspect to consider, which is an advantage to having two band members, both male and female is that it may attract both male and female audience regardless of sexual orientation or gender. For instance an example of this could be when Rhianna does collaborations with other male artists which draws a new audience in, not just the audience for music but for people who are attracted to the artists themselves. So I have taken this idea and  applied it to both of my ancillary texts. 

I thought it was prudent to look at every aspect of the digipak and find ways of combining it with the magazine ad. just to make it that much easier for the audience to link the two together. One of the main ways in which I have done this (which has been previously mentioned within the blog) is the font and band logo. The band logo is made up of the same fonts and colours and merely structured it differently (I merely changed the structure for practical reasons, as if I had put the words Autumn and Term above each other on the spine it would have been unreadable and therefore far less professional looking) in both the front cover and spine of the digipak and the magazine ad. Again the audience can link these two together. I have done the same with the song just to make it as easy to recognise as possible, I have created a song logo which appears in both the magazine ad. and the digipak. 

Finally, as previously mentioned in the blog the largest connection there is between the digipak and the music video is in fact also one of the most subtle ones; the pictures which are translucent within the digipak show many different types of shots i.e. some dark, some light, some with and some without friends. This may appear random but in fact there is a very specific point to this which links to the video. In the video and the song lyrics it shows our character 'Justin' going through hell at night and waking up in the morning to spend his day at school. We re-iterate this in the structure of the pictures on the digipak. As you can see at the top the first pictures are in the dark running about with friends and the pictures are mostly too small to get any specific detail and are unclear. But as we progress downwards through the pictures they become larger and therefore more easily visible and understandable until we get to the bottom when the pictures are the largest they have been and the most clear - they are also in the daytime for the first time. This may seem random but in fact shows 'Justin's' progression from night to day. At night everything is indistinguishable and hard to understand but when he wakes up in the morning everything is clear and he can finally 'see'. 

EVALUATION - QUESTION 1 - FINAL.

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

Forms and conventions are the different techniques used in different ways to create meaning in media products such as videos. They take a number of forms; technical forms include camera useage, lighting, sounds, editing and genre and symbolic ones include how the video is shot, the way the actors are used and the general mise-en-scene.

My video both uses and challenges these conventions and forms as whilst I wanted people to recognise elements of them I also wanted to make something new which might make people think and challenge some of the elements as well. 

The lyrics we used were very much a biography of the main character, it involved discussing the activities which he engaged in throughout and also in chronological order of what he did. So, for instance it starts off with all his school activities and moves onto what he does in the night-time.

"Focal point of all his peers" 

"Lovely christian boy crunching bones on the soccer team". So obviously using the idea of describing the person in question  to our advantage. Then the lyrics turn darker and we can see the other side to Justin. 

"Justin's now in front of a mirror, he's taken off his skin to reveal a life within"

"Futures in a whiskey bottle what can you do? Cocaine has got him seeing double of me and you".

From this the audience can see this will be a video with a concept used successfully many times in music videos and show the spiral of Justin's demise, but instead of it being one long steady process, it repeats itself on a daily basis. Here are a few examples:

"Jesus of Suburbia" by Green Day features a young man watch his life slowly going down the toilet as he engages in drug and alcohol use, and vandalism. All the while his Mother's and his relationship is torn apart by his behavior. This different to my narrative in that he isn't a perfect young man when he wakes up every day 

"We Found Love" by Rhianna ft. Clavin Harris shows a couple of 20-somethings going about their life from the start of the relationship to the break-up, they start off madly in love but soon the drugs and alcohol binges take over them and their relationship bringing it all crashing down around them. The video features drugs heavily and is a major narrative point, similar to my video.

"Bounce" also by Calvin Harris ft. Kelis similarly features this character's day as it progresses, though slightly differently in that his day does not necessarily go worse but we do get a look into his private life and where he lives shich we can assume in maybe his parents house but we see him in and out within a few minutes which represents perhaps a less than strong relationship with his family.  You can read an earlier full textual analysis of the video I wrote here.

Sadly neither of these examples are of a similar genre to my video, with one being heavy rock and the other being electro-pop but a good example of how this narrative can span several genres. 

The accompanying music with the video you can see that the first few shots move along with the  beat, this is to set the main rhythm for throughout the video but as we go into the verses the bass line speeds up and therefore so do the pictures and therefore so does the video itself. The verse speed throughout the song is fairly fast-paced despite the lyrical speed being much slower. This means that when we see the contrast in the speed of the chorus we can use this as an example of the contrast in Justin's life between how he is in the daytime and the night time. Also the effects used on the lead singers voice give it a shaky feel which matches into the shaking text used on the choruses.

Genre is a difficult part  of my video to define, this is because i feel that my video touches over several different genres with different aspects of each coming through in the video. But, if I were to choose the most prevalent genres I would have to go with rock and indie. 

Rock, because the chorus visuals are loud and 'in your face'; there is an idea of no frills as the white stands out plainly from the black. Also as previously mentioned the vibrato in the effects of the voice match up with the 'shaking' lyrics. 

Indie, I would have to say is not because of how the video was made but actually the concept of the video and the fact that it (the idea of pictures telling a story in a music video)  is rarely done. 

The use of camerawork within the music video is limited by the fact that all of the images comprise either items added in post-production using final cut express or that the majority of my shots are in fact still taken from a camera. But within these stills the overall effect is raw and 'unpolished', again this is to create the effect of realism and to take away the ideas of 'fakeness' and acting. This allows the majority of viewers and fans (who I assume are not all actors) to relate to the people in the video and using the camera angles as a POV (point of view) perspective in order to make them feel as if they are there experiencing life with us. 

The concept of intertextuality wasn't really thought over as a large part of my video. I decided to try and be as original as possible. But as with anything the idea that no-one else has done it before or that it is completely original is usually very rare. So when I came to the end of my video I found that my story is similar to two other stories. Despite the different years in which they occurred and the different sub-texts they are very similar. The first is the story of Jekyll and Hyde, the story of a normal gentle scientist respected in society transforming into this unrecognisable murderous beast in the nighttime. 

The second is much more relateable to music lovers and maybe people that haven't read the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and this is the video concept for Chase and Status's 'Let You Go'.   During the night-time turns into someone who does what he spends his days chastising people for. This includes alcoholism, drugs, sleeping with married women and prostitutes. 

Their video shows the life of a Jeremy Kyle-esque presenter who during the day attempts to 'fix' people's lives or judges them...

for doing drugs...

for cheating...

and alcoholism.

This shot shows him at his lowest point of the night, when he is at his worst.

And here he is, in the exact same position and therefore representing him feeling the same way he did last night,on the next morning ready to do it all over again.


















One thing to remember about both of these stories is that while Mr Hyde was a disgraceful being that committed atrocities he in fact had no choice to be what he was as it was out of his control. Whereas 'Jeremy Kyle' from Chase and Status is completely autonomous in his action. He chooses to behave the way he does. This links into my video as I feel my main character is in  fact I believe in the middle of these two, while my character does have the choice to be who he wants to be it is described in the song that he lives in a trailer with his alcoholic, addict father while his mother is away selling herself in Vegas so it is difficult to justify completely blaming Justin's actions upon him alone while not also incorporating his environment. 

My digipak was firstly based around the idea of our video taking place in America. I decided this not only because it tied in but also because I had recently been on a trip to New York and therefore would be able to create a piece of completely original work not using pictures that anybody else had taken. The layout of my digipak is a subtle homage to the American flag in that there is a separation between where the stars and stripes would be. The entire image itself was created on Photoshop - the pictures which are shown on the front cover represent a typical day in the life of my character. This is because at the top of the page the pictures are small and hard to get any detail from but as it progresses down the page the pictures start to become larger and therefor clearer and start to include daytime shots rather than just nighttime. My main image is made up of the sunset and consequently the silhouette of a boy around the age of Justin who is supposedly the main character (the audience may not realise who the main character is at this point). With this image using photoshop I adjusted the contrast of certain colours in this image (in this particular case, the sun) to emphasise the colour and give it an explosion-like quality emphasising how Justin is a 'ticking time bomb'. 

I have created a band logo which features prominently throughout the digipak and the magazine ad. It contains the two most occurring colours in the digipack and is also what I based my magazine ad. around.  By using all the same colours throughout I have created a strong brand identity, something which distributors and merchandisers can appreciate and that fans can recognise and relate to. I decided as it was a 'debut' that I would create a logo for the song itself therefore as the song is called Layers I chose a font and simply made five  different copies and placed them over each other and changed each of the layers' colours to both the American flag, red, white and blue, and the bands' shade of yellow and black.

I then repeated the band and song logo on the spine of the digipak. I used this approach as I had seen it done on previous signed band's CD's and thought I would take that influence and use it in my own creation. The reverse of the digipak is the same image as the front but the wording is replaced with band members, songs,  web addresses etc. All of these are still compliant with the band's logo colour. 

The inside of the digipak is simply a picture of both of the artists. At first I just chose the pictures which are in use at the moment as models for where the actual pictures would and for what the actual pictures would look like. But I have decided that over the past week I have grown fond of them as they represent the artists well as they were taken for the purpose of education (College photos) and therefore were to be used in real-life scenarios plainly adding realism. Either side of those pictures are obviously the two band colours, red and black. 

This was also created on photoshop and the whole idea of it was based around the band colours and the two pictures in the digipak. After studying many various signed band advertisements I discovered that most used a mix of starred ratings and simple quotes from articles and reviews. So I decided to incorporate this idea. I had to clearly emphasise the idea that it was a debut and did that through the quote from the 'magazine article'. One of the other important things to think about when coming up with an artificial quote is the source of the quote and whether it is in-keeping with the genre of music. For instance 'Kerrang' is a mostly rock-based magazine and would not do a front-cover and/or heavily feature Britney Spears. I decided to go with three average magazines that would cover most of the music genres which were 'Q' , Mojo, and NME. This highlights my music quite well and captures the tone. 

The poster also features all of the 'legal' details such as copyright notices and band web addresses that the digipak also features. Lastly I included an itunes logo as an advert of where to purchase the song. I also changed the font colour and the logo colour of Apple to co-incide with my band's logo colours. 

In relation to the video I wish I had had the foresight to perhaps save more time for shooting in case the first shoot didn't go as well as planned (which was in fact the case) so overall I was less happy with my music video than I could have been. Also due to some unforseen circumstances within my team but I cannot solely lay the blame here. 

In relation to my digipak and magazine advert I couldn't have been happier, as all the elements came together well. The idea of band logo colours protruding through all areas and the speed at which it was completed and for the quality of which I achieved was great. 

EVALUATION - QUESTION FOUR - FINAL

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

Blogger.

Throughout this and past year's coursework the main piece of technology which I have constantly used is Blogger. This is website that allows me to 'hand in' work to the metaphorical desk of the internet. My Blog address is http://www.edmediabog.blogspot.co.uk/
(N.B. Sadly a rather unfortunate typo). Throughout this course the idea is to post your thoughts ideas and updates onto the site and then have your teacher read them etc. This has been a fantastic service to use as there is no time lost in whether you left your work at home or if you lost your memory stick, simply because it stores everything on the website ready for you to edit and upload at a later date. Also a very helpful safety measure saves your work immediately after it has sensed you have changed it, so you will always have the most up-to-date work even if your computer unexpectedly closes. When first using this system it was suggested we use an additional service called SlideShare which allows us to upload documents in a neat and easily expandable window, allowing us to save space. I decided against it as overall the result was still the same except without the extra account information to remember and the technical difficulties that I have seen alongside it.


Camera.
Since all of my footage was stop motion and the rest was created on final cut express I didn't actually use a video camera for any of the filming (Which is actually a little impressive considering it's a Media Studies A2). But I did check one out just in case I had a change of heart, it was a Sony HDV CMOS Handycam with which I also used a Manfrotto 190xB tripod in case of any necessary steady shots. 
However for the rest of my footage I used my teacher's (kindly lent) Digital Canon EOS 1100D. This allowed us to change certain settings in more detail(namely the exposure) to how I wanted it, which would allow us to create this effect. Which is what I was aiming for at first obviously but then I decided to go down a more simplistic route after it was realised it wasn't feasible to write out all of the lyrics in long exposure lights. But after all of the effort and the day taken out of college to shoot said scenes I still added a few shots in.
Another advantage of using an SLR was that the capturing process was seconds not hours, while other groups were still capturing after an hour, I was currently editing together all of my shots. Giving me more time to focus on the smaller things such as choosing which the right photos are to use.










































Lighting. 
Lighting was a crucial part of my video as originally the light exposure was going to be the main setting, so as you can see in the video all of the scenes with the light exposure technique are shot in the dark just to make the words more pronounced and 'obvious'. 
Apart from these mere few seconds of shots there are only two other lighting types, as one set were shot outside so there was obviously natural light used and there was no extra artificial light used as luckily it was a light day and it would have been obsolete. 
Lastly the shots inside the house are all done under normal artificial lighting. This was actually planned as it meant that the footage I captured would look far more realistic as if you were really in 'Justin's' home with him. I also decided not to use any extra lighting as I would have had to hire it myself and it would have been risky as never having used it before I wouldn't have known what the effects might be and if they would have been good. Also with practical difficulties such as transport etc. All the while taking up time that could have been used to edit.
The genre of indie/rock actually fitted in quite well with the less well lit almost 'grimy' images the camera took, enabling us to connect with the genre fans if they were to see the video. 


Sound. 
Sound was a much larger part of the project than it usually is at this level of media studies. This is mainly due to us having recorded our own song due to the artists we originally intended to use running low on time to write a song. So we decided to write our own which at the time seemed logical. Sadly not. Anyway having already started we decided to construct it into the luckily to hand Garageband. So after many weeks of beat finding, lyric writing, and instrument playing and cups of tea it was finished, all of this part of the process gave me real experience with the program and has given me new skills which is something I don't regret. 
The rest of the audio work was fairly simple and just involved importing it into Final Cut Express and locking it down in the audio track so it wouldn't split which was one problem I came across in editing. The only other part to it was that whenever a new video clip was imported I had to detach the audio and delete it from its video a tutorial for which can be seen below:

1. Choose clip from selection.

2. Place clip in Timeline with song's audio track.

3. Click the Lock Key (A) on the video track to stop it from also deleting. Then click on your video's audio track (B) to delete it from the video. Then click the Lock Key again to be able to edit your video. 






















Editing. 
When it came to editing it was a very time consuming process as obviously it involved changing the timings of each photo used to half a second or a quarter of one and all with around 150 photos. One of things which I found most important was in fact editing the pictures together to go along with the beat which if it didn't, would have been perhaps even disorientating for the audience. Also, the ideas of the pace of the video fitting the musics links very heavily up with Goodwin's musical theories. This involved experimenting with many different timings which again was very time consuming. the other part of  my video which is the shaking text was pretty much the same principle. Come up with different ways of displaying the lyrics which represent what they're saying at that time, while also making sure that they're in time with the music. 

For instance, when the lyrics on-screen are "crunching bones on the soccer team" the word 'breaking' splits in half and hangs down (as if it were broken...). 


Similarly with "got him seeing double" the word double appears twice (as if whoever was looking at it was having double vision).










It was tricky editing this at first because I had never used Final Cut Express before so I was literally learning from nothing and working on a mix of guessing which buttons to press and a series of some helpful but mostly unhelpful YouTube tutorials. but after all of this I am now comfortable with using Final Cut Pro, Express, and even the newest format 'X' to edit in most situations. When it came to transitions the decision were fairly simple to make as it was a stop-motion video which requires cuts to be most effective. There was one use of a cross-fade to switch from chorus to verse and vice-versa this was just so the footage would appear too jumpy and hopefully make it look a little more professional than it was at the time. 


There was also one particular shot which was done by writing out the lyrics of the song in cornflour and then rubbing them out. Then after this was imported I reversed the footage and changed the speed so that it fit in with the timing of the lyrics. I was very happy with the end result which basically looks as if someone is wiping the lyrics into the cornflour with one hand.

                                  
















Internet.
Also used along with Blogger were two main other sites which were YouTube and Survey Monkey. Both of these sites were imperative in their use as they allowed us to post our rough edits and our finished videos to blogger and helped us get feedback, for instance one of my feedback sheets (created on Survey Monkey) was attached as a link in the description of the video and people who viewed the video filled it out for us. This was a most useful tool as it saved us from finding people and dragging them to the computer for feedback, and it also was a good opportunity for unbiased opinions as it was unlikely that the person who may be on the other side of the world would be too interested in protecting our feelings. I decided to go against what other groups had done and not share my video on the social networking website 'Facebook' to get other people's opinions as I had mentioned earlier I was trying to avoid unbiased opinions. Survey Monkey was also the best way to collate all of the answers within the questionnaire so as to get an easy reading on people's ideas, views and opinions.


Print Productions.
I decided to go with a digipak which was the shape of a normal CD case but in fact was made of cardboard and with a slip in the front, this was because it could seem more environmentally friendly if it was used in real life maybe attracting new customers and possibly not alienating others. 
I used Photoshop CS3 for the designs of my Digipak and magazine ad. I already had a general knowledge of how to use PS so I was lucky in that sense. I first started off my deciding it was going to be an America themed digipak due to the references within the song. So I gathered all of the pictures that I had taken on a recent trip to New York and assembled them into lines blocks of pictures with similar colours and light to darkness ratio. I then chose a background picture which was a sunrise over silhouettes of skyscrapers and a man (Justin). I then upped the yellows in the picture using the colour balance wheel which then made the sun stand out above all of the buildings. I then used this colour for anything band related (e.g. the logo) using the colour picker tool. 
I then took all of the previously mentioned New York pictures and placed them over this image onto another layer. Obviously this made the silhouette image disappear. but I then made all of the other New York images translucent by adjusting the opacity levels. This covered all of it and so I left space for the band logo. I kept it simple and just used a font that I thought represented the band's style and genre. It was soft without serifs which took away the gentle refined aspect, but didn't go overboard with something that could have been the same font Slayer uses...
For the reverse of my digipak I simply re-created the same images except on the reverse and instead of adding the band name I added band member information and other information on other aspects of the group. All the while keeping within the same yellow used within the original sun picture. 


For my magazine ad I kept strictly to the colour scheme of my digipak mainly referring to the yellow and used the two same pictures of the band members as in the digipak. The only other real advances from the digipak (as I wanted to keep them very similar) were the reviews which were added in different layers over the top of everything else. Also, using the internet I was able to copy the itunes logo to add a more realistic feel.