Final Ancillary Products

These are the completed ancillary products from our group:

Altogether we made a bus/ bus stop advert, a calendar, a website, a poster, a digipak, a magazine cover, a DVD cover and a magazine advert.

I personally created a magazine advert and a DVD cover:

Looking back at the project I am extremely happy with all the products that have been created. As a group we have been able to work well together which has been a huge advantage because it means that we could get honest feedback from the group. We often had meetings to discuss the progress of the group, however I think that we should have met more because the major flaws would have been outlined earlier.

Louisa

Main Evaluation

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

When creating our music video, we wanted to follow conventions of a current music video of the same genre as closely as possible. During the research period we watched several current music videos to try and determine what the codes and conventions were. We found that most of these videos had a narrative which we decided should be a main feature of our video. We also noticed that continuously throughout the video the band were frequently featured playing the song which is a main part of our video. We thought this was important because if this video were to be released, one of its main aims would be to sell the song and to promote the band.

            In terms of the ancillary products, I think that my advert follows conventions because I looked closely at how similar advert have been constructed in magazines and newspapers and based my advert on these. The research was hugely helpful as initially I didn’t know how to construct my advert, and after research of current adverts I made a few sketches of what mine should look like.

            On the other hand, I think that my DVD challenges some conventions of current DVD covers because during my research I found it hard to find a cover that suited the genre of the band. This caused some complications during the planning of the DVD cover and it meant that I had to try and assume what the conventions would be, and I based the final product on different genres.

How effective is the combination of your main ancillary texts?

I tried to reflect aspects of the video into the ancillary products, for example I knew that both ancillary tasks needed to have dark colours, and the text needed to fit the genre. As a group we had agreed on a dark grey/blue colour and on all our ancillary products we used the font 'Skin and Bones' and all our products had the same house style. This worked really well because our products matched which would allow the audience to be able to recognise our band, for example they would see my advert and could identify the album and calendar.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From the audience feedback I have learnt that the music video looked professional and that the transitions and effects between each shot were good because it allowed the video to flow well. The locations were frequently mentioned during feedback, as some thought that it added verisimilitude and people could relate to the location. However, some feedback showed that parts of the video were hard to follow and left audiences confused. This problem was identified as being caused by certain parts of the storyline being too complicated, and this problem could have been resolved if audience feedback was conducted during editing. 

            Feedback associated to my ancillary tasks was mostly positive, however bad aspects were identified on the DVD cover. Some thought that the cover had some dead space which made the cover look at times unprofessional, but they thought that some parts, such as the copyright information and legal rights, were very good. Similarly to the music video, I think this problem could have been resolved if I had conducted audience feedback during production, even perhaps pre production, as this would have allowed me more time to plan the DVD cover.

            On the other hand, audiences thought that my newspaper advert was very professional, and the fact that it included minimal information meant that it was easy to read and was more likely to attract an audience to look at it. I found this very positive as I was reluctant to leave the advert minimalistic because I thought that it may have look too empty. However, feedback from my group told me that this made the advert look more appealing.

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

New media technologies were used during the research stage because I used several search engines to try and find out the conventions of a music video, DVD cover and album advert. I wanted to know what was expected on my ancillary tasks, and from the internet I found out the legal requirements and what copyright issues I needed to address on the DVD cover.

            During planning, illustrator was used to find out the house style of all the ancillary products, this included the colour scheme and the house font. This needed to be identified during the planning stages because they all had to work well together and if there was a problem it would be easier to resolve during the planning stages.

            During construction, the music video was created on Adobe Premier Pro which was the best software to use because it allowed us to edit the video by importing videos and cutting them in the correct places and inserting fades between each shot. Furthermore, whilst making the DVD cover and advert I mainly used Adobe Illustrator because the software is easy to use and the tool bar allowed me to construct both products with ease. Alongside this, I used Adobe Photoshop to cut out the backgrounds of the photos I wanted to use and place them into illustrator.

            I filmed some of the key parts of the evaluation stage which a video camera, for example some audience feedback was filmed so that I could include all what the individual had to say because I saw questionnaires as being limited. I found videoing helpful because it meant that the person could say all they liked, which worked well because some of the main flaws of my production were highlighted this way.

Louisa

Feedback from Non-Target Audience

I conducted audience feedback from non-target audience representatives.





This video is feeback from a non-target audience individual, and I was particularly interested in what people who the video was not aimed at thought of the video. From this audience feedback, I found that the storyline was good because it showed the girl's journey to London and it featured many of the landmarks. However, as this videos shows, some viewers found that the text messages appeared too quickly and did not give the viewer enough time to read them and realise how they affected the storyline.



From this video, the person thinks that the shots were very good, in particular on the train station where the train pulls away and the girl is sitting on the bench. From this video I found out just how important each shot type was in creating versimilitude and professionalism.

Both of these videos showed me how a non-target audience would view the video and I realised that this audience prefer to watch a video which contains a storyline and perhaps not a focus on the band.

Louisa

Evaluation from target audience

This video shows the opinion of a previous media studies student and their opinion of the music video. I showed her the music video to try and evaluate what the target audience thought of the video. From this video I found out a lot of positive aspects of the video, such as the many transitions between each shot, however there were some negative points. One of which has become apparent from the majority of the feedback that I have received which was the fact that the video can be hard to follow. I think this problem occurred because as a group we knew the concept of the video from the beginning, and we ourselves were perhaps blinded by this fact because we were concentrating on trying to make the video look professional. With the advantage of hindsight I think that we should have received feedback from audiences during the making of the video which would have highlighted this problem earlier so that we had time to deal with it.

This video shows the opinion of a girl who represents a view from the target audience of our video. She has never studied Media Studies before, therefore I see her as a good example of what our general audience would think. This video shows that she thought that the video looked like a current music video, which was because of the transitions between each shot, however once again she picked up on the unclear narrative.

Louisa

Comparing Video to Current Videos

Our video is aimed at a particular audience, and after looking at similar video that are circulating today, I think ours does follow the codes and convention of these music videos. Most videos in today's market contain a storyline based around an individual and gives the viewer an insight into their life. Our video features an ordinary girl who is lonely and is abandoned by her friends in London.

I found this website (http://www.slideshare.net/jamsjamsjams/conventions-of-music-videos-2935597) useful because it gave me an idea of what is expected from a music video and how the narrative could be constructed. Also, I learnt the vital mise-en scene that should be shown in the video.

useful
Louisa