Evaluation of the photos not used.

For the album cover and advert, I had a number of images to choose from. These, as well as the images I actually chose, were our top 5 images to use. I however, decided against these 3 photos.

This first photo is very similar to the image I used on the album cover. In the album cover image however, the artist has her head down, which links well to the theme of mystery we're trying to create with the masquerade mask and colour scheme. I preferred the expression on the other photo as this one looks a little depressing and doesn't create the mood I wanted to display.

 I had very similar reasons for not choosing the second photo as although it is clear and would create a good composition for the album cover, i felt it didn't portray enough mystery which would make it harder to link all 3 pieces together.  I also didn't like how the feet looked as if they were randomly placed behind her head. Although i would be able to cut them out, i felt the image i ended up choosing for my album cover would create a better effect.

For the 3rd picture the angle was different compared to typical pop album cover pictures that are usually used, which was why i was initially attracted to the picture. After considering the other images however, i decided that it wasn't clear enough who the artist was, and it was vitally important that the artist is seen clearly to promote her.

Evaluation

Jade Evaluation

Audience feedback

How the audience reacts to a media text is audience engagement. We need to take into consideration that different people will react in different ways to the same text which is why we have decided to have a preview screening of our music video with a focus group.


From this screening we have found out that......
We will therefore change our video accordingly focusing on....

Questions on blog and explanation on how you changed anything due to feedback.

Qualitative data- more personal and time consuming. The answers are more vague but detailed.

Quantative data- Quick and easy, answers are more precise, either a yes or no.

Advert

For my advert i wanted to keep a cohesive theme running from the album cover and digi-pak, to the advert so people can link each one to the other. This gives the viewer a theme to associate the album with which reinforces it in the memory. I kept the colour scheme the same throughout each piece, the dark red and black, connotating sexiness and sophistication which is what the album is trying to portray. The text is also the same, again providing that link for the audience and representing the sophistication of the abum. I used an interesting composition to make it more appealing to the viewer and the pose of the artist is a little different to the typical, face on picture that is predominantly used. By going against the typical pop conventions, it makes the whole album different and therefore more interesting to the viewer.

Digi-pak

Aswell as a music video, it was also required that I make a digi-pak containing what would be the cover of the album. I thought it would look more professional and tye the project up if i added the back cover and an insert in with this. From researching previous Britney and similar artists album covers I decided that the layout of the front cover should be relativley simple including a picture of the artist and the album and artists name. This would therefore keep text to a minimal leaving the picture as the main focus.

I decided on a deep red as the background of the album cover as it connotates sexiness and fun which relates back to the overall theme of the album. The deepness of the red gives it a sophistication as its almost wine like and the contrast of the background to the artist makes the picture stand out. The artist is wearing a mascarade mask which links to the album name and the stars which outline the right hand side of the cover could also help to portray this giving the cover a cohesive theme. The black and white font contrasts against the red background making it stand out, the black giving the cover an edge. This and the fact the artist is dressed in black gives the album a darker side which again can be seen as sexy and sophisticated. The font looks almost flirty and again, fits the theme of the overall cover.

For the back of the album cover, the main focus was the list of songs displayed along the left hand side. It was important that the font was big enough to be easily read and understood. I kept the same font as on the album cover to have an occuring theme throughout. The text fits in well with the edgy, mysterious theme which links well to the title of the album- the mascarade and the main image on the front (the artist hiding behind a mascarade mask.) All of these things portraying a sense of mystery that the audience wants to uncover. At the bottom of the back is the DVD and SONY logo and barcode which makes the overall package look professional. The writing at the bottom left are the names of the designers of the cover art and copyright standards. Again this makes it look more professional. Although its hard to see, there is a blended image of the artist in the background. Unfortunatley when uploading the picture the quality was lost and it's hard to see the image in the background, however the clarity is present using the photoshop software package i used to create thos. The artist however, is standing up and blends into the black background, again this representing a sense of mystery. The red spotlight and lines in the right top corner add colour and detail making it more interesting.

I wanted to keep the insert simple as the front and back cover of the album were fairly detailed. I have added reviews from NME, a music magazine viewed and brought by our target audience and Mojo music, another music magazine which targets our market. As our audience will be aware of these magazines, they're more likely to listen to what they have to say and take their opinions into consideration. The other review is by the guardian, which targets our slightly older market but again, is a well known paper whose views are considered by many people. Again the writing is the same as the front and back cover to keep it consistant and the mascarade mask at the bottom right hand corner reinforces the theme and title of the album. The red spotlight is similar to the one of the back cover and matches the colour of the front cover which again, displays a running theme throughout the three pieces. The spotlight also makes the background a bit more interesting, with the overall layout remaining simple.

Final Video

How we made our video..

Once we had filmed our footage we had to upload it to Adobe Premier Pro CS4, the software programme we used to edit our video.

This was the first time we'd ever seen this programme and when we first saw it, it looked far more complicated than it actually is. This is what we initially saw once we had opened the software.


After uploading our footage onto the software, the sequences come up in the left hand corner like this.....


We then dragged it onto the timeline to begin editing. Once we had done this it was important for us to load our song from a memory stick to itunes. We then imported the song onto the software and dragged the music onto the time line the same way in which we did the footage. We could therefore begin to edit our footage in time to the music.


If we wanted to select any section of footage, to either edit, move or delete it we used the Selection tool shown.




Once we had uploaded our footage we needed to cut it into frames. To do this we had to use the razor tool shown.




This was the outcome of cutting our footage into each single frame. As you can see, it comes up very small on the screen making it almost impossible to edit anything. We therefore had to use this


to enlarge the image and zoom into the clips, making it easier for us to edit the footage.



               Throughout the song there are times in which we felt the cuts had to be smoother. We therefore decided to use a video transition to create a cut from one frame to another smoothly and that also fits in with the songs tempo. We played around with all the dissolves, wipes, slides etc until we found one which suited our video best. To add this effect we had to drag the cross dissolve shown on the left, into the time line and onto one of our clips.

To add to the humour of the video we decided to reverse certain parts of the video to emphasise the 'drama' of a specific scene. This is shown in 'the push' and 'the trip' sequences. We found this a good way to make the video more exciting and individual and really reinforced the competition between the two girls. For various clips in our video we felt it appropriate for the video to speed up certain sections. Its noticeable mainly in the gym scenes as this helps to create an exciting and humerous atmosphere which is spot on for the theme of our video. Above is how we changed the speed of the clip and how we reversed it.