Storyboard

Thank You

Thank you for reading my blog.

I hope you enjoyed all stages of construction, planning and research towards my main product and my ancillary texts.



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

I captured a few good shots on my iPhone and edited them with an app called Instagram, which allows you to alter tones, contrasts, with autofixed choices. I used the same effect, called X-Pro II, in order to maintain a similar style on each of the photos.

This app was very useful, as it was on my phone I could snap a shot whether i was on the bus, in the car, walking to school or when we were actually on location, and add the effect and save the photo there and then. I've taken many photos on this app and because of the effects we all agreed it suited the idea of having an idyllic setting as an album cover, so we went through them all and chose which ones we liked most. Out of them, a suprisingly plain photo ended up looking quite appealing. The colours were attractive, with a sillouette of a hill with a fence on the top, with the sun setting behind it. The picture gave us room to edit and also put in text and the two best ideas we had ended up like this:

vs.

In order to create a professional looking graphic album cover, we had to find out how to work on illustrator or adobe photoshop CS5. Although photoshop was more easier to access through school, we decided to use 'illustrator' which specialises in graphic design. We travelled especially to an advertising agency who had the relevant equipment to produce a top-quality album cover. We used Adobe Illustrator on an Apple MAC.

During my research, I used various methods to present my findings in a simple, interesting yet clear way. I used a 'wordle' (http://www.wordle.net/) Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.I used wordle to show the initial thoughts of people when they were told the title of the song - "For The First Time".

'Prezi' was a useful tool to present my research of the song we decided to base our video around. Prezi lets you bring your ideas into one space and see how they relate, helping you and your audience connect. Zoom out to see the big picture and zoom in to see details — a bit like web-based maps that have changed how we navigate through map books. It cleverly showed a mordernised version of a slide-show that keeps the viewer focused and interested.  

A 'Scribd' allowed me to present an overall mind-map of all my ideas of my music video put together.

To edit themusic video, we used the programme 'adobe premier elements' which, although it took a lot of getting used to, proved to be very helpful in ensuring the quality of our video. The many effects and transitions were placed on our footage to give it a professional element to it. The endless hours using this programme proved worth it!

In conclusion, it can be said that I have used all different types of media technoligies to research and construst my main product and ancillary texts. Furthermore, these technologies have appeared in my planning and evaluation stages to modernise yetclearly present work.

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

There is no doubt that the combination between the main product and the two ancillary tasks is extremley effective.

When creating my ancillary tasks in particular, I realised there had to be a distinct theme between them so they could all be linked together and recognised as a package, promoting each other.

Since the main product, the music video, is the catalyst for promotion and sales of the album, I realised that the magazine had to clearly assist and guide the way for the introduction of the album cover. This is why similar forms and conventions can be found in both the magazine advert and the album cover. I decided that the audience had to clearly distinguish what they were looking for and the only way of doing this was to make my advert stand out in order to sell albums.

All three products equally have a connection with the intended genre and therefore target audience.

The heroic themes in the magazine advert and the album cover also link in with the main product as the heroic nature of the male character ultimately saved the relationship.

The final video

Here is the finish product, something that me and my group are very proud of producing:

Yet, after watching this a few times after we decided that the end could be perfected some more and therefore, the following finally became the final, finished product.

Final plan

Plan

This is an overview of our music video whilst taking all aspects into consideration.

Filming locations

Here were the various options where we could film our video:

Filming Schedule for Music Video –‘For The First Time’: Dec 2010/Jan 2011

After emailing my fellow group members about availability over the Christmas period and the New Year we have come up with some dates where filming can be carried out. Due to a variety of reasons there are a lot of dates when all group members are busy; this is especially tricky when we are still at school as we will have limited time to film. We have to be as efficient as possible when we go out to film. This is why we need a plan of what shots are to be filmed, who we need and what we aim to achieve in that period of filming.











Filming Schedule; December 2010:






 Wednesday 15th – go to location and run through shots that are going to be taken there. Make a list of what needs to be shot here so that when we arrive to film we know what is needed. This is a day where we have media in the morning before leaving at lunch, so if possible we could leave early to go on location. Adam is unavailable for this.


 Wednesday 22nd / Thursday 23rd – Wednesday Josh is busy from 4pm but as we do not have school we can utilize our free time and do a lot of filming. If we arrive on location early a lot can be done and Josh’s work will not affect the schedule. The next day is completely free where we can also get a lot done. This will be the last day in December when we can film so we have to use it to our advantage. Our the Christmas holidays we can briefly look over what footage we have and decide what needs to be done in January to complete the video.






Filming Schedule; January 2011:






 Monday 3rd – This is a date where all group members are free; it is a crucial day as it is a chance to compete filming. After reviewing our footage over Christmas we will know what we need to capture on camera and can do so. We can visit several locations as Adam has his car and hopefully finish filming.


 Saturday 8th – By this point we should have all of the footage that we need, so this date is a ‘back-up’ in case something happens to a previous date. Adam is unavailable.


 Wednesday 12th – This is another ‘back-up’ date, we have media in the morning and then the afternoon free so could use the whole entire day to finish film if need be.


 Friday 14th, Monday 17th and Wednesday 19th – All of these dates are going to be used for editing and finalising our video. Mondays Adam and Alex are free so can do the editing all day, Wednesday we all have the afternoon off so can use that time effectively. Friday we have media when James comes in to help so we can ask him for some help if needed

Availibility

Shot list

Synopsis

• The film begins with the band setting up. They begin the song as soon as the amp is shown being plugged in. They are filmed singing “She’s all laid up in bed with a broken heart, while I’m drinking jack all alone in a local bar” and there are a mix of quick shots to exemplify the tension in the relationship being discussed.


• The next line “And we don’t know how, how we got into this mad situation, only doing things out of frustration, trying to make it work but man, these times are hard” will exhibit the couple in a room first shown as separated and calculating and contemplating in their own heads about the feud they are having. The male tries to comfort the girl but she pushes him way and he decides to leave. After the last word ‘hard’ there is a 3 second pause between the lyrics in which a piano plays. The male lead slams the door as he leaves in sync with the last beat before the next verse begins.


• The next shot presents a cross fade between the band playing and the emotions of the characters. The man is shown walking away from the previous location, but constantly turning back and hesitating, then finally deciding to leave (she needs me now...). Then the girl is shown pacing in her room (I got a new job now on the unemployment line). Throughout these scenes there is a faded image of the band playing covering all shots.


• “But we’re gonna start by drinking on cheap bottles of wine” shows the band singing. “Sit talking up all night, saying things we haven’t for a while. A while yeah” presents the girl sliding work off her desk in frustration. She knocks a photo album off the desk and picks it up.


• “Smiling but we’re close to tears even after all these years. We just now got the feeling that we’re meeting for the first time” shows the boy walking into his old room and taking out a photo album from his bag which has “for you <3” written on the front.


• There’s a big drop as the instrumental begins with “Oooooooooh’s”, in sync with the drop both of the characters are shown sliding to the floor against a wall with the photo albums on their laps with a split screen so they are seemingly back to back. During this 20 second space there are shots following each of the couples separately turning the pages of their albums and looking at photos. Through this time there are various short clips of the band.


• “She’s in line at the store with her head held high” demonstrates the girl noticing a picture of the couple on London bridge and it zooms in and fades quickly to white then into the moment. “While I just lost my job I didn’t lose my pride” shows them on London bridge posing animatedly in front of a camera as a tourist takes the picture for them.


• The band are shown singing the lines “and we both know how, how were gonna make it work, when it hurts. When you pick yourself up, then get kicked in the dirt. Tryna make it work but damn these times are hard.”


• With the chorus “Were gonna start by drinking on cheap bottles of wine, sit talking up all night, saying things we haven’t for a while, a while yeah” we can show the male coming across a picture of the girl pulling a really cheesy smile in the kitchen and it zooms into the moment. As the line reads “Smiling but...” shes smiling like she was in the picture but as it says “close to tears” the male putting flour on her nose so she pulls a sad/cross face and the two laugh.


• “Even after all these years, we just now got the feeling that were meeting for the first time” shows quick clips of the two play fighting with the flour then the “for the first time” shows them about to kiss before it goes back to reality with a white out.


• Then the band are shown singing the “Oooooooh” bit, while in between we cut to different shots of each of the couple in split screen. From a front view they both look up wishing they were together and then from a side view they both stand up.


• As the line “Oh these times, yeah they're making us crazy, don't give up on me baby” is repeated over the duration of 45 seconds the male is shown walking towards his ex-partners house with small shots of the band in between. As he reaches her door and goes to knock, she opens and they hug as she invites her back into her house,


• The last shot shows the band walking off the set.

My final magazine advert

After taking my research into consideration, this is the magazine advert I produced:

Magazine advert

My brief included producing a magazine advert for the album cover.

Therefore, it was essential I find some research and annotation of magazine adverts that have been published already.

This is the slideshow I made to show my research:

Analysis of existing magazine cd adverts

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My research has given me a clear indication of what normal forms and conventions of magazine adverts are and how I can incorporate them into my personal one.

My final album cover

As a group, we decided that a theme for our ancillary texts was to be 'heroes' in the style of a comic book.


The title for the album is 'Everyday Superhereos' which not only carries on the theme but connects with the consumer and the 'every day' person.


Produced on Adobe Illustrator, we eventually produced a two sided album cover that is very unique compared to real products currently out.

Steps to producing my album cover

During my research, I learnt many techniques I could use to make my album cover and I presented my findings in this slideshow:

Album covers

View more presentations from jfreedman93.

This certainly expanded my thought process towards one of my ancillary texts.