Fonts ...

I did not believe any of the fonts available on the computer suited our band genre and how our posters etc. look, so to find another one which suited better i visited www.dafont.com. The first font that came to my attention was one called 'Spleen Machine', i felt that it suited our genre and also looked good. We have used this font in our CD advert, concert posters and Digipak.

Talent Release Form ...

A talent release form is a document

in which the producers of a project

get permission from the actors to

be able to publish anything which

they have performed in. If this is not

completed an actor could claim they

did not want something to be shown

and the producers can get into trouble.

It includes the name and signatures of

each party to prove that the document

is official and valid. It also includes the

date it was drafted and the terms and

conditions of the release form.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluate stages? (Music Video)

During the production of our music video, we used many media technologies to get things done. To film the video we used a digital image camera, without this we would not have been able to record any footage. The cameras have many useful features such as zoom, which is important if your want a close up, and includes night vision for when filming in the dark.

Another media technology which was essential in the creation of our music video was Final Cut pro. This is a video editing software for Apple Macs, you can manipulate video clips in many different ways such as cutting, changing the speed, and even adding effects. We could use multiple tracks within the programme so that you can have more than one clip playing at once and even layer them on top of each other so you can see both at the same time.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluate stages? (Ancillary Task)

For planning, i used media technologies to search for other pieces of work in which i can draw inspiration from. For example i used the internet to search for other digipaks and concert posters that famous music artists have produced, or that other media students from previous years had made. This is important as you can see what elements work well, and which dont and then add them to your work, or choose to leave them out - this way you give the audience what they want and they will be more likely to buy our product.

I also used media technologies whilst planning my work - using a digital camera we went to different locations and took preliminary shots of the seaside and around the school. This is important as it gives you an idea of what different locations would look like on camera and you can decide whether it will work in your final product or not.

For the construction of our ancillary tasks, we used the photo editing suite 'Photoshop'. With this programme we can edit images in many different ways and add effects that will make your piece of work unique and how you would like it. We used this though out all our tasks and i believe the outcome was brilliant.

A final way we used media technologies tn our ancillary tasks is in our evaluation. In order to get some audience feedback we posted our work on the popular social networking site Facebook. We got multiple people giving us feedback on our work including what went well, and what we could do to improve it.

What have you learned from you audience feedback? (Music Video)

No Audience Feedback Yet

What have you learned from you audience feedback? (Ancillary task)

In order to gain audience feedback about my work, i decided to post it on the popular social networking site 'Facebook'. With over 500 people who could view my post, this is a very effective way to gain feedback. I posted the concert poster and got several replies about how to improve it - some from media students doing the same work, and some from people who don't take media - It is important to get feedback from both sides.

Overall the feedback was good, there was a suggestion to change some of the colours to look more like our music video, although i do agree with this statement - i also think it would be hard to read text if we added some of the effects we have in our music video, and may be off putting to some people. Another comment was to make the font size larger to make it more readable - this was a thought i had taken into consideration, but due to the lack of space in the black brick it was hard to make the font any larger without changing the whole posters style. I am pleased with the feedback overall and will definitely take it into consideration - i could make the font more easy to read and maybe change the colours slightly to match our genre more closely.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Ancillary task)

As well as making a music video, i also produced 2 pieces of ancillary work - a Digipak, and a concert poster. I chose 'KOKO' as a venue because i think it suites my artists, it is not too big as we are not an extremely popular band and it is based in an easy to access locations such as Camden.

Concert Poster:

The poster has been designed with the local area in mind, it has a very urban style to it - which is shown by the brick wall background. I believe it will fit in well and not look out of place, but still catch peoples eye due too its bold reds and whites. The poster also has a different style to our actual music video, this is because we wanted to challenge the conventions of our genre and make our band different to any other dance group, for example - our music video has many bright neon colours but my poster does not include many. All ours works share the same fonts and style, this is intended so that when people see our different works - they can easily recognize that it is the Blackened Neons who are being advertised.

There are many elements i like about my concert poster ancillary task. I like the background of the brick wall, but where i have removed some of the bricks and added a glowing edge effect to make them stand out - i did this so that the text on the poster would be easy to read. I also like the way that each band member is on the left hand side, having all the band on the poster is important to us as we want to be easily recognisable. We also look similar and are all wearing dark clothes, this makes us all look equal and shows that there is no band member more important than any others. Another element i was pleased with was the font. I downloaded a font of 'Dafont' which i think suited out style and was still easy to read, i believe it makes our poster look unique and different.

Digipak:

In our group of three, we all created 2 digipak panels each and then collaborated them into one. This is an effective way to get all 3 of our groups unique ideas and styles into one piece of work and i believe it turned out better than expected. Both of the panels i created feature all 3 band members, i believe this is important as people will always know what we look like and associate our product with us - but at the same time i wanted to create a sense of mystery and exclusiveness. This was achieved by only including silhouettes of the band, this way it can still remain recognisable but also keeps a sense of mystery.

I also wanted it to reflect my music video, this was achieved by adding effects like glowing edges, and other neon/bright effects. The bright green colours on one panel, and the bright blue colours on the other, immediately show any viewers what our style is and they can relate it to our music video - where many of the same effects are used.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Music Video)

Our music video uses, challenges and develops the conventions of real media products in many different ways. The conventions that our music video follows are:

- Lip Syncing

- Location Change

- Cuts on the beat

- Montage

- Looking at the camera

(Eye contact with audience)

- Establishing Shots

- Pans

- Close-ups

The reason we followed these conventions is that they are proven to be effective when used in a music video, this can be seen by analysing popular music videos and looking at their conventions. These videos are successful for a reason and they engage the audience in the way a music video should. The conventions do vary between genre, but are mostly very similar.

Lip syncing is one of the most important conventions when it came to making this project, it is an extremely good way to make your project look professional - when watching music videos without lip syncing; they can look amateur and that not alot of time has been put into them, when you see a performer lip sync it assures you that it is them singing is and it is also more interesting to watch. We lip sync through most of the parts of the video where vocals are involved, but for some shots it would be ineffective to do due to the large distance between the camera and the performers.

Locations change was also an essential element to implement in my project. By having a range of different locations it gives the music video variation, and therefore makes it better to watch and listen too. My project has 4 different locations, which are used in different places in the video - if it did not have these different settings it would be dull, and not show any progression within the song. During choosing our locations we challenged he typical our genres conventions, usually big beat videos would be set in dark, dingy areas, or in clubs and urban areas. We filmed alot of our video in rural areas such as forests or even in a river, we believe that we can still make this just as effective by adding certain effects and edits to make it an obvious Big Beat video.

Cutting to the beat is where you cut your video to a new shot, in time with the beat of the music. We used this method frequently in our project as we believe it makes the video look alot better, it gives it more of a natural flow and leaves room for some interesting editing effects. It shows that the video has been tailored for the music and that it is not just a video which has no relation to the song. Looking at the camera is important, it makes your music video a more personal feel for the audience. If a viewer feels as though the performer is singing to them; they can relate to the lyrics and therefore enjoy the song more.

An establishing shot is the first, opening shot within a music video or film. They are useful due to the fact that they give the viewer an idea of where the video is set and therefore some context. It ensures viewers are not just thrown into a scene in which they do not understand. Our establishing shot does not show the location, but instead shows the name of the band on a record player, which also portrays our genre of Big Beat well.

Pans and close-ups are used often throughout our music video.

Latter to Mathmos for Filming Permission ...

These are the emails sent between me and 'Mathmos' - a lavalamp company based in London. We got permission and me and todd got the train to the store to take shots for backgrounds for our film. There were no problems and we got all the shots we needed too.