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

One main factor of this project is wether the main task links with the ancillary tasks or not. In some cases the music video does reflect my ancillary tasks in the cases of costume, poses and song title.

The music video links with my ancillary tasks in form of costume because we as a group wanted to keep consistency within our products so as we were filming occasionally one person would take pictures, in some sense killing two birds with one stone in the way that effort and work is put in both main and ancillary tasks. We also wanted to represent the urban mise-en-scene in the video by dressing Tinie Tempah in a baseball cap aswell as in some shots a jacket and scarf combination as seen below.

  

 

The music video also reflects the ancillary tasks in the way of poses that Tinie makes. To make sure that the media texts keep consistancy we as a group decided to keep Tinie making the same poses to keep some familiarity within the project. The poses that Tinie makes in some of the shots we chose are ones used by some modern day rappers so useing these poses would make our work more similar to music media texts of the same genre. We kept the poses similar in the main task and the ancillary tasks to show similarities between the two texts which an audience member could notice.

  The backgrounds and house style which we used was one which was consistant throughout the whole project. The title of the song "Written In The Stars" was what decided the backgrounds for most of our tasks which also decided the colour scheme for the whole project (purple, black and yellow). We used starry backgrounds for most of our ancillary tasks and the star logo was also featured to add an urban kick to our tasks.

In conclusion we can see that there was quite an effective combination between the main tasks and my ancillary tasks. The costume, poses and title of the song are very similar between the tasks and this shows consistancy and how much effort and thought has gone into the project.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Feedback played a very important part in the evaluation process. When the video was near completion we asked a few students in the lower years to tell us what they thought about the video, the answers given back were mainly positive apart from one shot where Eric Turner plays the piano. This shot was said to be the biggest flaw in our video because it did not fit in with the genre of music we were aiming for. This helped us greatly so we decided to head out and gain some other shots.

I also asked a few of my peers to evaluate the video and say what they thought of it after we had made the changes. Below is a sample answer from a friend of mine who I asked about what he thought of the video. This is what he had to say:

    

This was the answer that we were looking for it had vast amounts of positive criticism and enough negative criticism to work upon to make the video better. This showed that the effects and jump cuts used were used in the correct places and we were doing something right.

Not only did peer and student feedback help us but teacher feedback also helped a great deal. Our teachers would look at our video from time to time to check how it was going along, and then suggest what should be taken out or put in which helped a great deal towards the project.

Overall without some of the feedback we received we could not have made our video what it is today. Feedback from different audiences has helped greatly to find a target audience and what we could do to improve it. It can be said clearly that feedback has helped us improve our skills and has helped me learn much more than I ever thought I could do. 

How has our group used new media technologies

Over the past few months our group have been using some of the latest technology to create both our ancillary tasks and our main tasks. For our ancillary tasks we have used the likes of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator which everyone in our group has used before in previous tasks. However there was one programme which I have never used before which was Adobe Premier Pro which we used for editing our video. Eventually my group and I got accustomed to using this programme and we made our video what it is today.

Most of the research which I collected was from the internet which was where I found examples of many different types of media product such as the consert ticket, magazine advert and tour poster.

For the main task my group and I had to undergo filming to collect footage, we collected this footage using a handheld camera, jib, tracking, dolly and a tripod. For me this was the first time I have ever filmed something so using this equippment was pretty new to me. Eventually I got used to handling the equipment and filming went pretty well most of the time.

The use of a tripod, dolly and handheld camera

The use of a tripod handheld camera and tracking

A shot from using a handheld camera on a jib

I believe that I have gained alot of experience using media technology over the past few months from using programmes that I have used countless times before like Adobe Photoshop to programmes that are completely new to me like Adobe Premier Pro. I can also say that my camera skills have improved aswell as my planning skills, so in conclusion in comparison to my prelim tasks when I had to create a music magazine I have to say that my skills in technology have improved immensely. 

Comparison of Video and shots used

In this post I will compare the music video which our group has made with the actual video on which we based ours upon. I will evaluate the variety of shots which were included in both videos and why we chose them.

As you can see in these two shots both include a long shot, an establishing shot and an urban background which fits well with the genre of music which we have used. This shot includes the artist looking towards the background, the shot in both videos is used nearer the start of the film which is used to set the scene for the rest of the video.

In these shots we see a close up of the the artist of the song, we can see an urban sort of background in the video which we created but in the actual video we see a hallway. Although the backgrounds are very different the artists are left justified and the shots are pretty similar which is what our group was aiming for.

In these two shots we see the artist in an urban background again, but we can also see that there is a slight difference in the backgrounds. This difference is that in the shot from the video which we created, we see more of a graffiti scene which fits in with the R&B genre, whereas in Tinie Tempah's video we see him rapping in a playground which is the scene where the child gets bullied.

In these two shots we can see an extreme close up of the piano which Eric Turner uses. Filming from this angle shows a very iconographical shot where we actually see the piano being played, this sort of clashes with the R&B genre but somehow makes the video more unique. The actual video does show the piano but Eric Turners hands are more out of focus which adds depth to the shot which would have been a good idea to put in our video.

In these two shots we see the main storyline of the two videos which are both the child being bullied. In our video we see the child being pinned against the wall where as in the actual video we see the child's work being destroyed by the bully. Our video shows a long shot of the bullying where you can see the the physical impact whereas the actual video shows a mid shot which shows the childs expression as his work is destroyed.

In these two shots we see close ups of Eric Turners face. These shots aren't centered which make the video look more dynamic in a way as they focus on the singer and the background isn't as imprtant and dignified.

In these two shots we can see the expressions of the childs face using a close up. In our video we have also used a high angle shot to show sadness after he is being bullied whereas in the actual video this clip is used towards the start where as the stroyline expands it shows why he looks so sad.

In conclusion I can see that the video has taken time to create and it has not been easy. We as a group have tried to stick to the story board but some shots and storylines have not completely stuck, but as a group I think that the video project has been quite successful.

Comparison between magazine adverts

In this post I will compare my magazine advert to an actual advert featured in a magazine. As you can see there are many similarities. These similarities include the name of the artist in a position which is eye-catching to the viewer and the main image of the artist on both posters has had effects put on it to show no dead space in the picture. There are however some differences, these differences include comments by professional newspapers and magazines and places where you can find Tinie Tempah's album and information about the artist which are included in my advert but not in the other.

Positive aspects about my advert include the effects placed on the main image and incorporation of places where someone can find information about the artist which links to the website which another group member is creating. The negative aspects of my advert are that I have not included a picture of the actual album which is shown in the other magazine advert and the effect which I have created is not shown in any of the other ancillary tasks which shows that they are not as linked as some other tasks which our group has created.

Comparison between consert tickets

In this post I will make comparisons between my ancillary consert ticket and an actual ticket from London's O2 Arena. As you can see from the images above I have tried to follow the codes and convertions of a consert ticket by useing the real O2 ticket as a template to make my ticket look as realistic as possible. Similarities include a key image of the O2 Arena and a font however there are also differences which include an actual picture of the artist shown on my own consert ticket as well as a unique starry background to show consistancy of my ancillary tasks.

The positive aspects of my consert ticket include the iconographical starry background to compliment the name of the tour however a negative aspect of the ticket is that it does not contain as much information as the actual consert ticket such as numbers and codes.

The Storyboard

 This post will include the storyboard which I and the group created before putting together the video. this includes a variety of shots and includes the elements of a rap music video. It includes the rapper Tinie Tempah and vocalist Eric Turner.