Note to the Examiner

We hope that you enjoy looking through our group's work and the journey we have taken over the past several months to create our main and ancillary texts.

To navigate through our blog with ease, you can use the label cloud OR the archive OR the search bar  provided on the right sidebar. 

Thank You, 

Max, Jay, Rayan and Sahil

THE HUNTER - RENEGADE (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

Max - Final Digipak and Magazine Advert Products

Jay - Final Digipak and Magazine Advert Products

Rayan - Final Digipak and Magazine Advert Products

I have edited the lion head and also the background pictures a lot due to the fact that, if my magazine advert and Digipak did end up getting printed off on the proper material for each of these products, I would have a clear coat on top so that there is an extra shine and texture to the lion head and the background picture. The clear coat would allow the lion head and background images to stand out more and be more noticeable to the audience. I have designed these adverts and Digipak purely due to the fact that if they ended up getting printed off, I would use the proper material and use a clear coat on top for the added shine and texture.  I believe that the finer details such as thinking about the material which it would be printed off on, and the clear coat, will enable my designs to be liked by a lot of the audience and also have a professional look.

Final Digipak and Poster

(Rayan) Evaluation 1:

(Rayan) Evaluation 2:

(Rayan) Evaluation 3:

(Rayan) evaluation 4:

Evaluation 2

Evaluation 3

During the creative process of our project, my group and I received a wide variety of feedback on our music video, digipaks and posters during their different stages of production. The feedback that we received came from wide range of audiences, specifically punk music fans as that was our target audience. The constrictive and critical feedback that both my group and I received on our music video and individual pieces of work helped greatly with making changes and improvements to our work. The feedback that was gained overall helped my group and I to create the best possible media products of our ability.

Verbal feedback was one of the key categories of comments that we received. After handing in our initial music video draft and talked through our storyboard, we were given verbal feedback from our teacher that our ending needed to have more of a twist and be more unique. After this we came up with several ideas. Some of these ideas were; having the hunter kill the victim, then for the hunter to unmask himself revealing the face of the victim and the hunter would show up at the band studio and burst in on the band performing and cut to a shot of the musicians looking up in fear. We eventually came to a final decision that ultimately made our music video more appealing; enhance the horror/shocking theme we were trying to apply making a better music video more suitable for our genre. 

One of the main methods of feedback that we received was digital. The music video was posted in our Media Project group chat which included all the members whom had helped with filming the video. The feedback that we gained was overwhelmingly positive. Kieran Goodson whom was our drummer in the music video was a fan of the song and was happy to help us with filming it. After watching the video, he gave us great positive feedback. Being someone of our target audience, this was pleasing as it showed that the steps we took to make our video genre specific and match our target audiences was effective. Furthermore, another member of the group chat, Sam Wells, whom is not a fan of our target genre was also positive in his feedback. Despite not liking the genre very much, he was impressed with the video and it kept him engaged from start to finish. This was positive for us as despite us having a specific target audience, we wanted other people who may stumble across the video to also like it to widen our coverage of views as well as attract new fans.

After handing in my first draft of the digipak and poster, I received a copy of my work back with written comments telling me what I should consider changing and improving upon. Some of these comments were big impactors on how my final drafts for my ancillary texts came out. Some of these comments/improvements were too; make the rise records logo smaller on my back panel and make the one on the spine slightly bigger; include an album code on the digipaks spine; and the biggest piece of feedback being consider changing my image on the cover of the digipak and poster as they were potentially overly violent. This comment made me think quite a bit about changing my plan and I initially didn’t understand why it was recommended for me to change it, however after considering it more I released from a marketing perspective that it made sense to change it. This comment from my teacher helped me to create a better and more effective digipak.

I also received comments from my peers on the first and final draft of my digipak and posters. I asked for my peers to judge my digipak on their own opinions and give me their thoughts. One commenter, James Tagger whom isn’t a fan of the genre was positive in his feedback saying that he liked the direct approach and link that I had taken with my digipak and poster. He also gave me some constructive criticism being perhaps including a band photo on my digipak as well as making the text on my advertisement poster larger making it stand out more to audiences. I acknowledged both these comments and made the changes which I believe created a much better digipak representing my group renegade effectively as well as market better towards my target audience. 

Evaluation 4

Click or past the link in a new tab to view Evaluation 4:

https://smaj57.wixsite.com

Due to the inconsistency of the link working, please find bellow a word document of Evolution 4:

Evaluation 1

Jay - Evaluation 1

Jay - Evaluation 2

Jay - Evaluation 3

Click the image for the link to evaluation 3

Jay - Evaluation 4

FINAL EVALUATION 1 - MAX

I have presented EVALUATION 1 as a website which can be seen here or by clicking on the image below:

FINAL EVALUATION 2 - MAX

FINAL EVALUATION 3 - MAX

FINAL EVALUATION 4 - MAX

Due to Software restrictions I had to separate the evaluation into two parts. 

PART I

PART II

Draft Evaluations:

Below are my draft evaluations, they are all in a Word document but I will upload them all in different formats when the final evaluations are due in, I didn't use different formats for the drafts because I will still need to change elements when I am doing my final evaluation questions. Also I haven't evaluated anything using survey analysis and that's because I still want more responses so in the final evaluations, there will also be a survey analysis.

Evaluation 4 (Draft):

Evaluation 4 by rayansolanki on Scribd

Evaluation 3 (Draft):

Evaluation 3 from rayansolanki

Evaluation 2 (Draft):

Evaluation 2 by rayansolanki on Scribd

Evaluation 1 (Draft):

Evaluation 1 by rayansolanki on Scribd

JAY - EVALUATION QUESTION 1 DRAFT

Evaluation 1 media a2 coursework from JayFranks

JAY - EVALUATION QUESTION 2 DRAFT

Evaluation question 2 from JayFranks

JAY - EVALUATION QUESTION 3 DRAFT

Evaluation question 3 - what have you learned from your audience feedback from JayFranks

JAY - EVALUATION QUESTION 4 DRAFT

Evaluation question 4 how did you use media technologies in the construction and research from JayFranks

Digipak And Magazine Advert Survery.

Create your own user feedback survey

EVALUATION QUESTION 4 DRAFT

EVALUATION QUESTION 3 DRAFT

EVALUATION QUESTION 2 DRAFT

EVALUATION QUESTION 1 DRAFT

Music Video Questionnaire

Magazine Advert Questionnaire

CD Digipak Questionnaire

Music Video Feedback Questionnaire

Problems whilst filming

During our 5 hour filming session at Pirate studios, we had a couple of issues whilst trying to film. although the lighting provided was unique and interesting, its distribution was limited leaving some parts of the studio noticeably darker than others. for example the our drummer wasn't exposed to as much light as the signer and guitarist. to tackle this issue we all brought a multitude of different torches and lamps to try and neutralist the issue. it some aspects it worked but when watching or video back it still had room for improvement. However the grey scale effect that runs throughout our video helps to mask the lighting issue making it almost unnoticeable. Further more, whilst filming within close proximity of the drummer, we experienced a problem with the camera shaking for the vibrations of the drumming. To counteract this, each of us would alternate in cupping the cameras sides to hold it steady whilst we filmed. This method worked ultimately giving us a number of good shots that are being used in our final draft. Finally, due to the size of the room, we were limited for space and whilst filming. We had to be cautious about any of our equipment and belongings getting in the frames which proved to be a pain as it sometimes would limit the types of angles shots we wanted. to conclude, our filming session was a great success and the issue we encountered were minor and manageable not majorly disrupting the music video's process.

Filming Day Reflection - 12th of November

After completing a 5 hour session of filming at Pirate Studios, we are reflecting on how it went. We were able to complete all the shots planned out on our storyboard and these matched almost exactly with what we shot. The storyboard was really helpful as it helped us to film everything quickly as we weren't thinking of what shot to do next as it was already planned. On top of this, we were able to complete extra shots that we felt would look good in the video. Prior to going to film, we made sure the guitarist knew the song well and how to play it so this wouldn't waste time when filming, and he did which was really helpful. Our drummer also did this, and picked the beat up instantly and he stood out really well in our band. The lead singer also knew all the words so this didn't hinder the band and we were able to play the full song from multiple angles and then put the best bits together form the variety of camera angles we used. One problem we faced was the timing, we left 30 minutes to film the narrative studio scenes when in reality we needed around an hour. However, we managed to complete all the different possible endings for our video and they turned out well so this wasn't a problem.We are having to go back and film on the 17th of November again however, to film close ups on the lead singer again as we noticed the guitar was in the background of these shots. Which then took the attention away from our lead singer which isn't wanted. We feel these are really needed to give the video variety in camera angles, and we feel they would look really good towards the end of the song. To conclude, our filming session was a great success, we got some really good shots where the band were really passionate which we feel is vital for our music video to succeed as it is in the punk genre.

We have a problem.

Due to changing the file names of our videos after editing the videos with their original file names, Adobe Premiere Pro isn't locating the files we have edited together on the software. This is because it is looking for the original file name and therefore can't locate them. We are hoping to solve this problem by retrieving the video files that have all the original file names. This has delayed our editing process, however if all goes to plan, we should get back what we edited together.

Re- Shooting: Close Ups Of Lead Singer

We have noticed that some of the close up shots of the lead singer have the guitarist in the background, and we find that this takes some of the focus away from the singer so we will go back to the studio and re shoot some close ups of the lead singer, without the guitarist in frame as we feel that the shots would then look better.

To- Do List:

Based on our feedback from the teachers, we have to film other scenes to give the music video a twist that will hopefully have the audience on the edge of their seats. We have been told that the music video so far was not thrilling enough and was very predictable, so as stated on the previous posts, we have had a brainstorm of ideas for how the music video could pan out and we will aim to film the best ideas and then choose the idea that is best suited to our music video to give it an exciting twist.


What do we have left to do?

• Film the performance part of the music video, with the band. ( Saturday 12th November)
• Film different endings to the music video (Saturday 12th November)
• Film flashback scenes (Sunday 13th November)
• Re- shoot some narrative scenes (Sunday 13th November)
• Edit the music video together (Monday 14th - Friday 18th November)

Filming Update

All the band shots should be completed this Saturday as the group are going to Pirate Studios for a 5 hour session to get these done. In that time also, a few narrative scenes will also be filmed. We are then going to be filming on the Sunday also, all day if needed to re film scenes and film the ones we were unable to complete. If all goes to plan,  all filming should be done by Sunday night. Which leaves us with a week to edit the music video,  as well as some remaining time to re film areas again if needed.

The Plan

After discussing thoroughly with our media teachers on advice for our music video, we have decided on the narrative for our music video Remain with the initial idea and emphasise the intensity with more shots, faster cuts and changes to editing. We will re-film shots which are necessary to have less white space and tighter framing. The video will involve a mysterious killer, who out of vengeance, hunts down the man that killed his brother when he was a young boy. The Hunter tracks him down and stalks him like prey through the woods. We would reveal “The Hunter” as a younger child in the middle of the video as a flashback scene. This will be apparent though a pause in the middle of the video, where the soundtrack changes to a disturbing beep taken from Time to Dance by The Shoes. The flashback will reveal The Hunter's motive and how it turned a troubled teen into an angry killer.

 

We have then been instructed to film different possible endings and see which one fits best:

1. We would have a loop connecting the start and the end together (the start is the end with a slight change). The Hunter will come into the studio at the end, take off his mask and then as he is walking up to the mic, the video would cut and a black screen would be shown. Matching similar shots shown at the beginning of the video.
    
2. Another ending idea would be at the end after “The Hunter” has just killed the victim, a face reveal would be shown showing the mysterious person taking off his mask, to actually reveal that it is the victim. Which would indicate that he is killing himself.
    
    
3. Another idea is that towards the end of the video, The Hunter (lead singer) appears at the studio door where the band are waiting to record; the band (Drummer and Guitarist) look up and are shown to be shocked/surprised, and the scene cuts to black.
    
4. Another variation is that all members (lead singer, guitarist and drummer) are there about to start recording, but then The Hunter walks through the door, and all band members look up, and it is shown that the “The Hunter" takes off his mask and he is actually the same person as the lead singer. The scene would then cut to black.

We have to change our narrative.

Our music video's narrative was an idea we had from the start of this project. It involved a mysterious killer who out of vengeance hunts down the man that killed his brother when he was a young boy. The Hunter tracks him down and stalks him like prey through the woods. We would reveal the Hunter as a younger child in the middle of the video as a flashback (this will be apparent though a pause in the middle of the video where the soundtrack changes to a haunting sound taken from the music video of Time to Dance by The Shoes) - The flashback will reveal The Hunter's motive and how it turned a troubled teen into a angry killer. At the end of the video we would reveal the face of the hunter, being the young boy and the lead singer of our band. 

After getting back our feedback, we were told that changes needed to be made to this narrative. We have been told that our video's narrative is to typical and predictable and that it must be more intense, unique and out of the ordinary so it will stand out. We were then show this video to take as inspiration: 

From here, we have discussed a number of ideas that we could implement to change our video:

1. Remain with the initial idea and emphasise the intensity with more shots,faster cuts and changes to editing. We will re-film shots which are necessary to have less white space and tighter framing. 

2. We would take inspiration from the likes of Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow and have the Hunter repeat this day over and over again, killing the same victim, progressively getting more and more tired of the repeated day, until one day (at the end of the video) he decides not to kill and he is knocked out from behind. 

3. Another idea was to have two killers. Both assigned with killing the same victim. We would then have both killers stalk the victim until the end where they meet and stand-off against each other. 

4. The Hunter as a kid is then shown at the end of the video, in the background of the shot, watching the older version of himself  killing the person that killed his brother. Face reveal at the end which shows it is actually the kid when he is older. 

5. Another ending idea would be at the face reveal it shows that the hunter is actually the victim and he is killing himself. 

6. Another idea is that towards the end of the video, The Hunter appears at the studio door where the band are recording; the band look shocked/surprised, and the scene cuts to black.

6A. To lead on from this idea we could have The Hunter massacre the band 

6B .Dump the victims body into the studio and then leaves.

6C. The Hunter kills himself after entering the studio.

6D. A shot is shown early on in the video showing The Hunter walking out a room which shows he killed a previous band member (mise en scene = guitar, drumsticks to show he was in the band) and then at the end the hunter turns up at the studio and kills the band. 

6E. We would have a loop connecting the start and the end (the start is the end). The Hunter will come into the studio at the end and take his mask off,walk up to the mic, matching the same shot that reveals the singer at the beginning of the video. 

Digipak Design Feedback Questionaire

Magazine Advert Feedback Questionnaire

Change of Filming Location

After careful consideration, we have decided to switch the location of our performance shots. We were previously set on filming at Yellow Bean Studio, however, we were unable to book any dates in time for the video deadline (No bookings available till after Christmas).

We have now found a new studio called Pirate Studio who are a brand new facility with plenty of times available. They also have far cheaper rates than yellow bean and provide the majority of equipment that we need in the video, including a drum kit, amps, microphones and more. All for almost £40 less than Yellow Bean.

We have planned to film on the 12th of November.

Photo Shoot

Here are the best images taken from our photo shoot. It was a good success as it was planned well in terms of the types of poses, framing and clothing required for the photos to look good. The quality of the pictures are excellent, and that is down to setting up the correct equipment properly, getting the lighting right and using a high quality camera.

In terms of the styling, we looked to Slaves for inspiration. They are shown to wear casual clothing which is the intention we went for in one set of clothing. But then they also liked to look punk which was why we decided to have a punk artist on the lead singers top and we all wore black. The glasses are also symbolic of Slaves, and we were able to borrow similar glasses to them off a classmate which was really helpful. We felt this would give the photo the edge needed to make the band look more punk and different. Hair styles were also changed so that artists suited the genre better.

Spotted A Mistake?

From 2:18 to 2:22 on the draft music video, we have noticed that it doesn't really make sense on how The Hunter ended up right behind the man walking. Noticing it early means that we are able to re-shoot that scene in advance and edit into the music video. What we are going to do is, re- do the high angle shot at 2:18 and we are going to make The Hunter come around the corner so that when watching the final music video, it makes more sense to the audience how The Hunter ended up behind the man.

Filming Stage

We have completed half of the music video and edited it properly, we still have the performance side of the music video to do in the studio that we will use when all members of filming are available. On the draft version of the music video, there are shots of the performance scenes on the storyboard and we have used them in the draft music video so that you have an idea of what the final version will looks like, but it also shows that we know exactly what shots we will use in those scenes. So far the narrative scenes look really good and the visuals really match the tone of our song choice for the video.

THE HUNTER - RENEGADE: MUSIC VIDEO DRAFT 2

The Hunter - Advertisement

THE HUNTER - RENEGADE : MUSIC VIDEO DRAFT 1

Click Here if the video above is not working

FILMING DAY 2 - NARRATIVE

Today was our second day of filming and it was very successful. We shot the other half of the scenes in the forest in the same location and brought our Axe prop to shoot the scenes we were unable to yesterday.  There are still a few narrative scenes that we still need to shoot, however they involve other individuals which were unable at the time. We are now planning a date in which we can get them available to film the final few shots of the narrative half.  

FILMING DAY 1 - NARRATIVE

Today we completed our first day of filming the narrative shots of our music video. Are aim was to complete half of the narrative shots today and half tomorrow. Myself, Sahil and Rayan went out and filmed all the shots that involved the victim and the Hunter at Mosdale Meadows in Braunstone. We were able to meet our target and will continue to film these shots tomorrow along with a few re-shoots of shots i noticed were slightly off.  We had to rely on the weather to become overcast to really suit the tone we were going for, however, it was becoming extremely sunny every so often. Thankfully, the weather is not so noticeable due to it being blocked by the trees we filmed under. 

Reviewing Feedback For Digipak And Magazine Advert

For the advert and also the Digipak I had a target to choose just one record company, I had two which were Interscope and Polydor. I ended up choosing Polydor and there was no real reason why I choose that record company to stay on, they both suited my advert and Digipak but I felt the Polydor logo just looked better so I kept that and got rid of the Interscope logo. Also on the advert I had a target which I had to change the release date to a Friday because that is when albums are released now so I have changed the date to be a Friday.
On the Digipak, I received feedback that the parental advisory sign was too small and that I had to enlarge it a little bit so that it was more visible and stood out more. I also got feedback for my back cover and that was to do with the punctuation on one of the song names. I initially typed 'Dream'in'  and had been told to change it to 'Dreamin' ' and a piece of feedback I got back was to complete the spine, which I already knew I had to complete so I followed the feedback I received for the spine and coloured it in and added the bands name (the band name is also the name of the Digipak) and added the catalogue number too so it looks professional. The last piece of feedback I received was to make the record company logo a little bigger, which I did.
The target that really surprised me was that I had to make the parental advisory sign bigger, when looking on the computer screen, it looked like a suitable size to me, but once I flowed the feedback and made that sign bigger, I realised it was a good piece of feedback as it has to stand out to warn people that the album contains explicit content.
I will meet and complete these targets very quickly on Photoshop and they won't take me long at all as they are targets which I can meet by changing a couple of minor elements such as making things bigger, removing certain elements such as a record company, changing the release date and also completing elements which I already know I haven't met yet.
I learnt a lot about my products. I learnt that they actually were not too bad but they needed some small improvements that would make the advert and Digipak look professional.

Jay - Evaluation Task

Evaluation Task

Task

 

For your evaluation you are required to discuss what you have learnt from 'audience' feedback on your work. In order to do this successfully you need as much feedback as possible. 

 

This task is designed to help you acquire as much feedback as possible.

 

 

Step 1

 

Review my feedback on your work.

 

What targets do you have?

        CD Digipak

• Remove bio on inside cover of digipak – but add credits, song writers, musicians, producers, engineers, studio
• Incorporate idea from CD disk to my creative journey.
• Remove the numbers.
• Record company logo needs to be bigger

       Poster

• Add record company logo to poster
• The text “The Hunter” needs to be more legible.

Are any of these targets a surprise to you?

The complete removal of the short band bio I was told to remove was a surprise due to the fact it is the band’s first album so I thought it would be nice for the audience to learn a bit about the upcoming band and enable a closer connection between the band and the audience to be formed. The other targets I understand why they are targets and therefore have no queries with changing them on my CD digipak.

How will you meet these targets?

I will meet these targets through making another version of my draft and applying changes so it meets all the targets. For the target “Incorporate idea from CD disk to creative journey”, I will recall my thought processes of what gave me the idea and include images to show the journey I went on to come up with the idea.

When will you have completed these targets?

I will complete these changes straight away after receiving my targets.

What have your learnt about your own product from this activity?

That my initial ideas and creation is typically good, I just need to refine elements so it is more professional.

 

 

Jay - Magazine Advert and CD Digipak Improvements

Improved Draft Digipak and Magazine Adverts - Max Sunnar

After gaining feedback, I have made some improvements to my Draft Digipak and Magazine Adverts. I have made some appropriate changes in order to apply a number of appropriate conventions that appear on a Digipak and Magazine Advert.