Dear Examiner

To clarify exactly what each team member has done on my blog, I have added the initials on to each post title of the group member that is responsible for the content of each post.

(J.P) = Myself
(J.H) = Jessica Higgs
(K.P) = Keira Pain

To make it easier for you to acknowledge what I have done, I have changed the colour of the font to GREEN, indicating what is my work, as well as adding my initials to the blog title.

Thank you.

Music Video

Question 4 (J.P)

Q4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During the construction of my media work I have used a variety of different technologies to help me through the stages of my research and planning. The first main technology that I used for my work was the Apple Mac that I created all of my work on for my blog. My computer became a huge part of my course and all of my free time was spent on the device. This helped me to learn how to use the computer which has a lot of different qualities that normal computers don't have. Unfortunately there was a downsize to using the Apple Mac is that a lot of videos that would have helped me with my research were not able to play due to a 'blocked plug in' something that Apple products suffer with. 

As a group the first technology that we all used together is the digital camera that was used to capture all of the different scenes of our music video. This camera became an asset to our media work as with out it we wouldn't have been able to capture our movie in good quality shots. Along with the camera, there was other different items and technologies that went along with it, such as the tripod, which I find easy to use as I used it a lot last year, and then other accessories such as camera lighting and a sort of home made green screen. To be able to use the lighting, Jess, Keira and I, the whole group, decided to attend photography club, this came in useful when we had to set up the lighting for the photo shoot for our digipak's and magazine adverts. Using the lighting and the media department camera was difficult at first as I was scared to experiment with brand new, high value equipment, but in the end it was fun to get stuck in and it has taught me a new skill. In the media room, there has been a dedicated space that has been re-decorated especially for photographs to be taken. The wall has been painted white so that it makes it easier to edit the backgrounds on photographs, and lots of props are available. 

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also came in handy for my course,especially when I had to request permission to use the artist's song, as Twitter was the easiest way to do this. We used Facebook to promote our music video to our friends and we also uploaded the video on to YouTube which was a good way to get feedback from unbiased people. As I have all of these social networking sites on my iPhone, I was able to use this technology to use these different media sites to promote my music video. 

Another social networking site that I have been using every day after starting media is Blogger, the site that I have ended up loving and hating at the same time. I love that all my work is documented online as it is a more up to date way to record everything, as you wont loose it or get it ruined like you might with a book full of work. Although there is the upsides of using blogger, there is also a lot of downsides, like the fact that blogger was blocked on all school computers by the council at the beginning of the course, which didn't give us the best of starts. There is also the problem with uploading pictures and videos, as they all end up being blocked and invisible, so organizing them becomes a huge unnecessary task. Saying that, I do enjoy using blogger and I believe that if these problems are fixed by blogger and other appropriate authorities, that using this technology to do course work will get more and more popular. 

The next main technology that we used as a group was iMovie, this also became a big part of the course as we had to edit and cut our whole music video on the Apple product. As we used this application last year for our horror movie, we already new how to use it and make a good quality video, so less time was taken up trying to learn how to work it. Although we did learn a few new tricks along the way when it came to editing the colour of different shots to reflect the shots that were flashbacks. 

Another application on the Apple Mac that came in extremely useful to me was the Photoshop app that I used to perfect all of my images so that I could use them to make a professional looking Digipak and magazine advert. At the beginning of this course when the prospect of using Photoshop became clear, I was worried due to the fact that I had never used this application before. So after taking all of the photographs that I needed, I decided to dedicate some time to practising how to use the app so that I could edit my photographs easily. After spending time trying to work out how to use the app, I became better at doing the simple thing that made my images and ancillary tasks look better. I am now happy to use Photoshop in my spare time as I finally know how to use it successfully, I am also happy to help other people use it and teach them how to do the simple things on there that lead to the more complicated tasks. 

To do my evaluation I decided to use more technology so that I can experiment to the very end of my course. For my first evaluation question I decided to use Prezi as a way of displaying my answer, creating a sort of PowerPoint to break down masses of text and make it more interesting to read, as chunks of text can often be extremely boring to read. 

Question 3 (J.P)

Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To capture some unbiased audience feedback on our music videos, we as a media class, decided to show all of our coursework pieces in a 'Media Showcase', where we invited all teachers and a big group of pupils to watch the film and then to be filmed for an interview. This is the end result of our footage, Keira Pain wrote the questions, Jessica Higgs filmed as I then interviewed several people.  



Q1. Did you understand the concept and narrative of our music video? 

From this we found that everyone we interviewed understood that the video was based on the act of bullying and how to overcome it, one interviewee also thought that our music video was the best regarding the narrative. People also considered the narrative to show that it reflected bullying being like a cycle, where the bullied becomes the bully.  

Q2. Do you think that the video raises awareness for bullying? 

After asking this question we were told that our video showed all the different elements of bullying that goes on through schools and how it showed the process of the act of bullying and that the choice of characters and scenes reflected bullying well. We were also told that it worked well if our target audience was of school age, which they were. 

Q3. Is there any elements that you think we could improve on? 

The majority said that there was nothing to improve on when talking about our music video, a teacher also said that our video didn't have any wasted shots like a lot of the others, where shots were included for no reason or to just add time to their piece. One person did say that some of our editing could have been sharper, but we did good with the amount of time and facilities we had available to us. 


Overall, due to audience feedback, I have found that people did enjoy our music video and they easily understood the meaning of the video and what we were trying to get across to the audience. 

Question 2 (J.P)

2. How effective is the combination of your main production and ancillary tasks?

Evaluation Question 1 (J.P)

1.     In what way does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions on the real media products?

Our Media Showcase (J.P)

For the media showcase I decided to make my own poster advertising my music video and advertiseing the whole event.  After making and printing the posters, I then stuck them up in the most popular parts of the school, to attract a big audience. 

I then had to make a programme which could be handed out to the audience. Me and Liam Bowen worked together to create one that advertised everyone's music videos and the year 12's horror movies.

Final Magazine Advert (J.P)

Here is the final version of my magazine advert for Katy Perry's album release. I have decided to go along with the idea of using my digipak design for the advert, just so that people can keep the design of the album in their head and then find it more easily in the shops. I have tried to change the design a little bit by adding a bright, eye-catching boarder and then adding the date of the album release, which is the actual date that the album was released, hence why its in the past. 

My Best Magazine Advert Idea (J.P)

I have gone along with the idea of having the digipak cover blown up so that it fits the magazine advert size. Although I feel that it would spoil the surprise of a brand new digipak cover, therefor I have tried to change it a little bit. 

Ideas For My Magazine Advert (J.P)

I have now started to come up with ideas for my magazine advert, using the images from our digipak photo shoot so that it links in well with the digipak cover, this is so the audience can associate the advert with the new CD. These are a few of my ideas that I have had, I don't really think that these have worked. 

Magazine Advert Analysis (J.P)

Before I decide what image from our photo shoot I would like to use on my magazine advert, I have decided that I am going to analyse different magazine adverts and magazine covers first. I have decided to do this so that I can look at the way the photos have been used in both. All of the magazine adverts and covers that I am looking at in close detail are all covers that are featuring Katy Perry. 

This is the first magazine cover that I have chosen to look at. I have chosen this one as I feel that it is one of Katy Perry's more classy magazine covers. The first thing that I notice about this cover is that the MLS (medium long shot) of Katy Perry is the centre piece of the cover, with all the titles and font around her, giving her a frame.

I also like the styling of this photograph along with the font as the different colours of the font goes well with katy Perry's outfit. I also like the subtle tints of black in her makeup which compares with the colour of her hair and top. I think that the pose that Katy is doing is a very classy pose which I tried to copy in the photo shoot for my digipak.

This magazine cover of Katy Perry on 'Lucky' magazine is yet again another classy image of Katy Perry that reflects her more self respected side. I have chosen this cover to look at mainly because I like the styling of the photograph and I also tried to re-create this type of image in the photo shoot that I did for my digipak design.

This is a magazine cover for 'Billboard', that is acting as a cover and an advert for the release of her album, this is due to the image on the front being part of the photographs that were taken for the album. The fact that Katy Perry's image is in front of the magazines name is reflecting how she is the main focus for this magazine. This is also reflected with her name being in bold and not covered by anything, unlike the magazine's name. 

I like this image of Katy Perry as she is looking straight into the camera, looking directly at her audience. This is also one of the more natural and elegant photos of Katy Perry, which is what I am aiming for in my work, the more elegant and classy side of the artist. 

I have noticed a pattern between the majority of the magazine covers containing Katy Perry, and that is that most of the front covers have MLS (medium long shot) images on the front. This is a characteristic that i will aim to keep so that my magazine advert conforms to the forms and conventions of magazine advertisements.  

My Digipak Design (J.P)

This is my digipak that I have designed and created on photoshop, using photos of myself that were taken my Jess, a member of my group, using a white backdrop, so that I could edit the background, and professional lighting.

These are the photos that I have used on my digipak.

Then this is the final result of my digipak for Katy Perry's 'Prism' album, that contains the song that my group used for our video, 'Roar'. As you can see, I have created an image where the layout of my digipak is flattened so that you can see what it looks like when joined together.

Complete Digipak -

Front Cover -

Inside Panels -

Back Cover -

             Inside Panel                   Back Cover                        Front Cover

Fitting In My Tittles (J.P)

Now that I know the font I want on my digipak and what colour I would like it to be, I now have to find a way for it to fit onto my digipak so that it looks bold, eye catching and synthetically pleasing.

What I decided to first, after knowing what font I wanted, I just typed out the album tittle and the artist's name and then placed them where I wanted them and changed the colour to what I wanted. 

I then looked for a triangle shape that I could create to use as a backdrop for my tittles. To do this I had to look on custom shapes and then find the triangles, create one to the appropriate size and the fill it in to the colour that I wanted. 

I then had to move the shape so that it was behind the text, to do this I had to mover the text layers above the triangle layer, this was pretty straight forward to do.

All i did then, to add some more eye catching qualities, was to create another smaller triangle shape, turn it upside down, fill the colour in and then place it directly underneath, but in the middle of the text.

Typography (J.P)

Here I have tested out different typography for my digipak, I am looking for something classy but bold and I have also decided that I would like to have it in red, to match my nails in the photos.

I have tested out the typography for the words 'Katy Perry' and the name of her album, 'Prism' amd I have decided to use the font named 'Perpetua Titling MT'

Now that I have decided what font to use on my digipak, I have to find an attractive way to include the name of the artist onto my digipak so that it doesn't look out of place with the image on my front cover.

Progress Of My Digipak (J.P)

Here I have used screenshots of the progression of my digipak on Photoshop and then made it into a moving image (gif). At the beginning of this course, my Photoshop skills were not that well developed, but after taking the time to experiment, with the images that I want to use for my front cover of my digipak, I have learnt how to use some of the Photoshop features. 

After experimenting, I knew what I wanted my front cover to look like. So the first thing I did was to get the background to the right proportions of a CD cover, 12.5 x 12.5. I then placed the image that I wanted to use onto the background, but as you can see, there was a big white strip left, which I had to fill in with colour, to make this colour match the background of my image, I had to change the colour of that too. After moving the image around and filling in more blank spaces where the background was showing, I was then happy with the results and ready to pick my typography. 

Experimenting With Images and Photoshop (J.P)

After doing the photo shoot for my digipak, I have looked through all the images and picked a few that I think would be eye catching to the audience. I then edited the images so that they looked more professional and experimented by putting them on Photoshop and seeing which one I preferred.

These are some moving images (GIF'S) of the two digipak ideas that I really liked, after changing the background on both of the images to see what they both looked like, I then decided to use another, more colourful image instead. Although I didn't end up using these, I feel that they helped me with experimenting and widening my skills with Photoshop.

Digipak Photoshoot (J.P)

For the cover of our digipak and the images that are to go inside, we did a photo shoot in our media room against a blank, white wall, using myself as the model. To make the photos more interesting, I brought in a variety of different clothes so I could dress up in different outfits. I also brought in makeup,  jewellery and props such as Katy Perry's new perfume. Here are some of the final images that I have edited to use for my digipak.

These three photographs were taken by a Jess, a member of the group, and styled by me, as these images were for my digipak and I wanted to have a classy feel to the images. While being classy I also wanted to include colour, just in case I didn't go for the black and white idea. As you can see, I have edited one of my favoured images so that it is in black and white, just so I can compare whether I want the colour or not. We also brought in Katy Perry's new perfume to use as a prop as we thought it would be a good element to have in a magazine.

These other two images were also taken by Jess and also styles by me, as I wanted to have two different outfits in case one didn't work well on my digipak or my magazine cover, when I get to that stage. For these images, I decided to go for a darker outfit to go with my original idea of having minimal colour.

This is one of the end results of one of Jess' images that she styled and photographed. It is one of my edits as I wanted to see what it looked like. As you can see, Jess wanted to go for a school uniform style so that it linked in with our video. She also liked having Katy Perry's perfume featured in it for her magazine covers as well.

These are then some of the images that Keira styled and edited for her digipak and magazine. To achieve this result, Keira had looked at a lot of Katy Perry magazine covers to find inspiration on different poses and camera angles and shots.