Evaluation, Question 4;

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


There were a number of different media technologies that we had to use in order to construct our music video. This included programmes such as PhotoShop and iMovie.

PhotoShop was mainly used in the production of our ancillary tasks. 
We used PhotoShop to add images on top of each other when inputing a crack into the wall that we had an image of. This meant that we had to be able to use the 'overlay' tool and then erase around the rest of the crack so that we were only left with what we wanted.
The first image that we had was a plain wall that we needed to edit to make it look more like an image that Eminem would use on this album cover. 

To make this wall look more interesting and darker, we used a range of different effects within PhotoShop. 








The first thing that we needed to do was to find a picture of a crack in a wall that we thought would look good on top of the image we already had. After searching we found this image and then used a number of techniques to make the crack look like it was already in the wall when we took the image. 

Another media technology that we used to help us in the construction of our music video was iMovie '09. 
This is the programme that we used to edit all of the footage that we shot. It allowed us to input all of our shooting sessions and then cut certain sections from different shots to make the film look more professional.
iMovie allowed us to add effects to shots so that they look more professional and reflect certain effects that Eminem has previously used in his music videos. 
Themes that seem to run through his videos are that most of them are filmed in urban locations with a dark theme consisting of him walking around singing to the camera.
Adding our footage to iMovie after everytime we had been out filming meant that we were edit as we went along and allowed up to see what we still needed to film rather than wasting time going over the same part over and over again when we could be filming something else.


Youtube is another method of modern technology which enabled us to complete some in depth research into the latest music videos.
Initially we just looked at a number of videos that we each liked and then managed to rattle it down to about 6 videos. From this we sat around numerous times and talked about which aspects we liked the most and which ones we didn't. 
After a while, we reaslied that the song 'Love the way you Lie - Eminem featuring Rihanna' didn't have a music video which is the main reason we decided to chose this song. The fact that there was no video made yet meant that we were free to do what we wanted and also meant that there wasn't a video for us to steal ideas from meaning that all of our work was original!
Having access also meant that we were able to look at all of Eminem's past videos to see what effects etc he includes regularly. It was important for us to see how they have changed over the years and to see what we needed to do to reflect him in a positive light.  


Another recent media technology that i have used throughout the production of my music video is Blogger. This has helped to make sure that everything we have done as a group has been recorded.
Updating my blog as we went along made things a lot easier when it came to meeting the deadline as i was already up to date and only had to add a few extra posts.
Blogger doesn't only allow you to update your own blog, it also allows you to see other people's which helped a lot when trying to find out what needed to be included. Also, other members of the group and myself were able to compare to make sure that we each had the same information.



A number of other programmes were used in the planning stages of our production such as Microsoft Word so that we were able to keep notes of the videos we had watched and what we liked about them etc. Having them electronically meant everything was a lot easier to share and less likely for people to forget.
Microsoft Powerpoint was also used in the planning stages as this is what we used to create our digital storyboard. This helped us a lot when out filming as it enabled us to see what shots would look like before we performed them and also give us to time to decide whether the shot looked good or not. 


This single most important new media technology that we used to produce our music video was a video camera. This allowed us to go out on numerous different dates to film footage for our video. Having a hand held camera meant that we were able to take it turns and make sure that everybody in the group was able to do everything. 
This also meant that we could look back at the footage that we had shot that day and decided whether we need to do more or not rather than having to wait until we had uploaded the footage.

Evaluation, Question 3;

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once we had compeleted the our A2 media production, we took the time to create a evaluation form that we used to collect some feedback of what people thought of our film.

Getting feedback early on meant that if people gave us negative reviews we still had time to edit the production and take into consideration the points that people had made about our film.
Overall, the feedback that we recieved was very positve everybody said that they enjoyed the film and that it included certain shots that they thought looked like shots from other videos.
However, there were a few things that people thought needed to be changed including one shot in particular which had bad continuity. Having negative feedback isn't always a bad thing as it allowed us to make sure that we able to make our production the best it can be before the deadline. 


Some of the feedback that we received included;
- Some of the shots were too long,
- I liked the boy rapping to camera, very similar to some of Eminem's videos!
- Good range of shots,
- I like all the different locations that you have used,
- Some of the shots aren't as good as the rest of the video.
As you can see from the feedback above, we had mixed reviews. This isn't all bad as it meant that we had things to work on rather than everything being positive. We have worked really hard and been out a number of times to try and get lots of shots which we can incorporate to make the other shots shorter. Hopefully this will improve the feedback that we  have already gained. 
It was very nice for people to say that they liked the bit of the boy rapping to camera as this is the main aspect that we took from Eminem's previous music videos.


As well as completing an Audience Feedback Form, I also took the time to record some friends and family members about what they thought of the production that we had created.

Evaluation, Question 2;

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


We have tried to make sure that there are themes that run throughout our main product and out ancillary texts. For example, within out ancillary texts everything is on the background of a brick wall  and throughout our music video there is a number of shots which are in front of brick walls. 
On our magazine advert we have used 2 close up images of a girl and boy which are featured throughout our production and act like the main characters. This meant that if people see the poster and then watch the video or vice versa, they will recognise the couple and therefore be able to put the two and two together.

We made sure that we used a range of shots so that it looked like previous videos that Eminem has been a part of. This included close up shots of him rapping to camera and also shots of him walking away from the camera. We made sure that we incorporated these shots and a lot of others to make our production look like a real music video.
Another factor that we made sure we incorporated was using a wide range of locations. We made sure that we had atleast one different location for each verse and each chorus. This helped to set the scene and also helped to make the film flow more as we were able to do a lot of short, sharp shots rather than having shots which were really long and boring.

Evaluation, Question 1;

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


When creating our production we made sure that we did a lot of in depth research into the current music videos which had recently been released. This meant that we were able to see a good range of different shots and techniques that were used within them.
Within our film we use a number of conventions which are used in real media productions. This includes having a number of close up shots of a girl singing to camera for the chorus of the song as we had seen this previously in a number of videos such as Diana Vickers as she sings to camera in all of her videos. Another factor that we have included is having a girl cheating on her boyfriend with a new boy. This happens within our film and helps to tell the story of the song.
We have tried to develop our Digi-Pak on the basis of previous covers Eminem has used. All of his latest single covers have used bold colours and either white or red writing. We still wanted to incorporate the same colours so that people would be able to identify that fact that it was Eminem's song but we wanted to change it to look more professional. For this we took an photo of a plain brick wall and used Photoshop to bring out certain elements such as the colour in the wall. We toned down the colour so that the whole image became a more dark brown rather than red. After editing the wall, we then inserted a crack which made the wall look more 'urban' and 'grimey' rather than just a wall. We then had to spend a lot of time researching different fonts to see which we wanted to use on our Digi-Pak. Once we had come to a decision we then had to make sure that the same font was used throughout to make sure that it was all in-keeping.
Challenging forms and conventions of real media products is very difficult for us as we are only A2 media students using basic equipment to create our production. However, we did our best to make sure that used as many original ideas of possible although some of them didn't look as good as we thought they would. This was still worth a try and it was better for us to do so rather than leave it and wish we had tried it.

Developing media conventions within our Digi-Pak and Magazine advert was a lot easier than trying to develop media conventions within our production. We were able to develop small factors such as rather than using a plain black background we incorporated a brick wall that we had edited ourselves in Photoshop so that it was a lot darker than the previous image. We also made sure that we tried to keep a continual theme, this meant that we had to make sure that we each used the same fonts when creating the Digi-Pak and Magazine Advert.

Fonts;

Due to the fact that we needed to use a font which stood out as well as reflecting Eminem's image, we thought it would be a good idea to download a range of different fonts that we would then be able to use. 

The first thing that we did was went onto dafont.com and had a look at fonts which we looked. After downloading a wide range we were able to rattle it down to a total of 5 fonts which we were going to try out on the cover. 

The first font that we downloaded was called 28 days later. The reason that we liked this font was because it fitted in with the theme that we had chosen which was dark, grimey and quiet urban. The fact that this font is very bold means that it is likely to stand out on our cover as well as being like other fonts that Eminem has used on previous covers.

The second font that we liked the look of was called defused. This font looked really in keeping with our theme and we all agreed that we liked the way that it looked as if it had cracks running through it which would match the crack that we had put into the wall on the image used on out front and back cover as well as our magazine advert. 

 This is the third font that we found when looking through the website and is called projecty. Although that this font is similar to the others that we had chosen, the fact that it was shorter and meant that we would be able to fit more writing on our cover.


The name of this font is side walk, we thought that this was a nice font as it is round and therefore easy to read. However, the fact that the font is rounded and is all lower case letter makes it look feminine and less like something Eminem would use.

The fifth and final font that we found is called broken74. The reason that we liked this font was due to the cracks running through the lettering. 


After downloading all of the above fonts, we created a text box on top of the image we had edited and then wrote the title down and compared them all to see which one we preferred. The two fonts that we managed to narrow it down to was 20 days later and broken 74. Both of these fonts looked good on our cover and each had their own qualities which made them stand out over the other fonts.
After a while we decided that the font we were going to use was broken 74. The main reason that we chose this font was because it was so bold, this meant that the writing stood out on our background. This meant that people would be able read the title from far away drawing their attention to the single.

Magazine Advert;

Before creating our advert, we sat down as a group to discuss what aspects need to be included and what we thought should be included to reflect Eminem.

After sitting down we decided that the main aspects of the advert will be the date the single will be released on, the name of the single and maybe a picture of the artist. Having this information meant that we were able to create a basic plan and then add to it once we had taken photos etc.

The background of the advert is going to a brick wall that information and other photos are going to be put on top. Both the image of the wall and the photos of the artists included in our video to make it look more professional and include certain aspects that Eminem has previously used for example colours such as black and white.

This brick wall is going to be used throughout our ansillary tasks so that we have a theme running through both the Digi-Pak and the Magazine Advert that we are producing.

We are using Photoshop to edit this wall and make it look more like something Eminem would use. At the moment this wall looks really boring so we are going to add effects such as a crack into the wall to change the way in which it looks.

On top of this wall we are going to have half the face of a girl and then half the face of a boy. Firstly we will need to take pictures of a boy and girl looking as if they are upset/angry and then use Photoshop to cut them out and make it look as if the photo was taken with them infront of the brick wall rather than doing it all individually.

We have taken some example photos of Sophie and Jack to see what it will look like when we start producing our Magazine Advert.

It was important for us to make sure that the photos were taken at the correct angle so that it was easy to cut out on Photoshop and so that the photo of Jack's face is the same size as Sophie's so that when they are at opposite ends of the advert they are the same size rather than having one image bigger than the other.

The first time we took the photos we took them against a brick wall as thought this was the best thing to do when placing them on top of another brick wall which we have set as the backgroud. However, this made it very difficult when trying to cut out the images on photoshop, especially when cutting things out such as Sophie's hair.

So once we had uploaded these photos and tried to cut them out we then took a second photo of Sophie against a white background which made cutting the image out a lot easier. Which them left us with just having to shoot another photo of a boy.Once we had a clear image of Steve, we then cut him out as well and placed both images on the background that we had created on Photoshop. This then meant that we had room running through the middle of the advert that we could fill with information about the release date etc.

This is the final magazine advert that we created. We feel that this is similar to others that Eminem has previously created as we made sure that we incorporated factors such as having bold writing on a dark background. However, we developed these ideas by using a wall instead of a plain colour background and also made sure that we carried the crack from the wall into the font that we decided to use. This helped to make sure that the theme flowed and everything was continual.

Digi-Pak;

After completing some research into Eminem, we found the most common factors that Eminem includes in his album and single covers. This made it easier for us to them plan for the pictures that we need to take.
Most of Eminem's singles have bold writing in black, white and red rather than including images. This means that we only have to take photos to go on the back page and a photo to go inside on the centre page. We have draw up some ideas which we can work from and see what the images look like before deciding on the final images that we are going to use.
Once we had drawn up our plans, we then went out and took some potential photos for us to use, below you can see the photo that we took to use for the back of the album.

 I am going to edit this picture to make it look like an image that Eminem would want to be associated with his personal image. This will mean that i am going to need a add effects such as a crack in the wall, make the image darker and add a font which is similar to ones that have been used on previous album covers by Eminem.

From the picture above, this is what we created when using Photoshop. We used a number of effects including changing the saturation and the overlay feature to add a crack into the wall. This helped to make it look like 'Eminem' punched the wall and cracked it rather than just him clenching his fist and looking like he is punching the wall.


After editing the picture once, we decided to do it a second time to see what effect we could create. This time we decided to add more effects and try and create an image which looks different again. This time we left the colour quiet dull and just put an overall darker colour so that it looked more like a cover Eminem would use.


Before deciding which image to use as the actual cover, we made sure that we tried out a number of different fonts in different colours on each background to see which ones showed up and which ones didn't look as good. 

Eminem's Albums;

This album by Eminem is called Relapse and was released in May of 2009. As you can see, this cover is different to singles that Eminem has released mainly because it contains an image of his self but also due to the fact that it doesn't include any large writing telling you the name of the album.Also, the writing which is normally used on the single covers of Eminem's is big, bold and either black or white. From this cover you can see that there is hardly any writing and what there is, it is very small.

This album cover is very similar to the single cover for the song 3AM. The only thing which has changed is the colours that are used. These colours are a lot less harsh and make the cover look less like any of the other Eminem covers.

This album cover looks like single cover for 'Old Time's Sake' showing that Eminem sometimes has some silimarities between album and single covers that he produces. This was released on 18th May 2009, which was only a few weeks after the Old Time's Sake single was released which may have something to do with the fact that they look similar.

Recovery is the most recent album that Eminem has released. This cover is nothing like anything Eminem has released before and the only thing that Eminem fans may recongise from this cover is the backwards 'E' in the title Recovery. This album was released 22nd June 2010 and is very different to anything Eminem has released before.

Comparing Recovery which is Eminem's most recent album to the first album that he released in 1999 which is called The Slim Shady LP, shows how much he has changed over the years. This album cover doesn't include Eminem's name at all and would be hard to identify who the artist of the album is.

Eminem's Singles;

This single was released on 2nd February 2009 and is called 'Crack a Bottle'. As you can see from this cover, the artwork that is used is very dark and bold. This is the same as most of Eminem's other album covers meaning that we will need to produce something which along the same lines. Most of the covers that Eminem releases have just the artists name and the title of the song rather than having images on them.

This was the cover of the single 'We Make You' that Eminem released 13th April 2009. From the cover we have noticed that it is yet another cover which uses bright colours and bold writing. Also, from this cover i have noticed that within his name the second 'E' is back to front which is something that we may be able to use within our production.


3AM was a single that Eminem released on 28th April 2009. Yet again, he has used the same colour scheme which is very bold. This is a good way to get customers attention as they will instantly recognise that it is an Eminem single. After looking at these covers, we have decided as a group that it would be appropriate for us to use Black, White & Red within the production of our album cover.

Old Time's Sake was released on 5th May 2009. This is the first single cover of Eminem's most recent singles that has a picture on it rather than just writing. It also uses Blue within its colour scheme which makes it look different to the other covers.

Ancillary Tasks;

Along with the Music Video that we have to produce, we also have be told that we have to produce a Digi-Pak, a Magazine Advert or a Website. The two that we have chosen are a Digi-Pak and a Magazine Advert.
Before designing the Digi-Pak for our Production to the song Love the Way You Lie. We thought it would be worth while taking the time to research into previous single and album covers that Eminem has released, to see what they looked like and what they included so that we would be able to make one which is authentic.
We also had to look into previous magazine adverts that have been made to promote Eminem's album releases, so that we were able to create one which looked realistic and if people saw it would know straight away what we were trying to advertise.

Final Production;

We have spent a lot of time tweaking this film and making sure that it is just right. We like to think that we have incorporated a number of factors that Eminem has previously used and we hope we have done him justice. Hope you enjoy our production.

Digital Story Board;

After creating our inital story board, we went out and took a range of the shots that we were planning to use so that we were able to create a digital story board. This was a lot easier to follow and meant that we got to see what shots looked like before we went out probably so we had time to change things.

Above you can see a copy of the digital story board we created. This was the rough guide that we had to follow when going out filming. However, this isn't how our actual production turned out due to people not being able to film and circumstances that were out of our control such as members leaving the group and the weather.

Production Log;

Tuesday 28th September;
This was the first day that we decided to go out filming and get the shots for the first verse of our song. These shots were taken in Stephen's house and garden to follow the lyrics of the song. The most effective shot that we created during this day of filming was a conversation, in which we used a range of different shots such as over the shoulder shots. We took this shot numerous times so that we would have alot of footage to play around with and create an imaginative shot with. Despite the fact it rained, we still managed to get some good footage.

Friday 1st October;

We used this day to edit the footage that we had shot on the Tuesday before. This took us longer than we thought it would as we had new software that we were advised to use. However, to overcome this we went to ask out media technician for help on how to get the best out of iMovie '09.
Monday 4th October;
This was the second day that we went out filming. Today we used two different actors to take part, and then shot our footage at the lakegrouds. This afternoon of filming went well and we were able to get the shots we wanted relatively quickly due to both of our actors studying Drama, and therefore were able to get into character and do what we asked of them. The weather today was really bright and sunny which helped reflect the atmosphere that we were trying to create, which was when the couple were happy before their relationship turned argressive and abusive.
Monday 11th October;
The day was used to edit the footage that we had taken from the second couple that we filmed. We didn't get many shots due to a limited time that we had to shot with both actors being free. This meant that the next time that we shot this couple we had a lot of work to do. 
We were able to put our shots together pretty fast and get a good amount of editing done because we were all becoming more familiar with the software. 
Tuesday 12th October;
This day was used to film the third couple that we are using. Luckily it was a nice day which meant that we were able to get a lot of filming done outdoors. We had the whole of the afternoon of this day free so we managed to get a lot of filming fog this couple done. Both actors knew each other well which made things a lot easier for us and meant that they felt comfortable acting with each other.
Friday 15th October;
Like two weeks previously, we used this lesson to edit the footage that we had shot on Tuesday. This took us longer than we thought as we had a large amount of footage due to the nice weather we had on Tuesday. After this lesson we planned to meet up in the evening to get the rest of the editing done before shooting anymore.
Wednesday 20th October;
As a group we all met up in the evening to get some more editing done. This took a few hours but then meant that we were up to date with all of the editing and allowed us to go out and get some more footage for our production.
Friday 22nd October;
This day was meant to be used for filming, but the weather turned against us so therefore meant that we were unable to film and then left us having to find another day that our actors were both free again.
Saturday 30th October;
This was the next day that we were able to have both of our actors free due to the fact it was half term and everyone was busy at different times. Due to the fact that this was such a long time from the last time we filmed we had a lot footage to film in a short period of time. The fact that we chose to film on a Saturday was an advantage as it meant that we had the whole day rather than a few hours in the evening before it started to get dark. After this days shooting we had almost all of the footage that we needed of couple 1.
Monday 1st November;
After collecting more footage on Saturday, this enabled us to put together the whole of verse one with the song and chose which shots worked well and which didn't work so well. Once this editing session was over, we were left over with a large of shots that we hadn't used. However, this was good because if we decided at a later date that something didn't work we had other shots that we could incorporate.
Tuesday 2nd November;
None of the male actors were avaliable on this day so we thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to film the chorus' of the song. This would include all 3 girls, singing the chorus and then us cutting the shots so it looked like each girl was singing a line. All of this filming didn't take us very long as we had the iPod with us which meant that they could all hear the song that they were singing and were able to keep in time with the song, making life a lot easier for us when it comes to editing the shots.
Wednesday 3rd November;
We were able to get couple 3 together which meant that we could shoot some more footage of them and make our film come together. Not alot of footage was shot due to the weather changing as we were on set.
Thursday 4th November;
Luckily, the weather today was nicer which meant that we were able to shoot the shots that we planned to complete yesterday. Once this was done, we headed to Layla's house where we uploaded the footage and then started to edit the shots.
Sunday 7th November;
We were able to get all 3 of our couples avaliable on this day which meant that we sorted out different time slots and different locations for each couple. This allowed us to get alot of the filming done that we needed to fill any gaps that we had after reviewing the footage we had already shot.
Wednesday 10th November;
Due to the weather being bad on this day, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take the time and shoot Eminem. For this we e-mailed the head of drama to see when the drama studio would be free for us to use it as our location. Our reasoning for using this as our set was so we could make it look like a rehersing studio which we could flick back to throughout the production.

Sunday 14th November;

After reviewing the filming that we had already completed, we found the final shots that we needed to complete and used this day to do so. As we had the whole day, it meant that we were able to get hold of all of our actors and complete our filming.
Wednesday 18th November;
As we spent all day filming previously, this meant that we had a lot of editing to do which meant that we were unable to complete it all in one afternoon.
Friday 20th November;
Only Becky and Layla were available to edit this day, but rather than waiting for Sophie to be free, we too it upon ourselves to get as much work done as possible so that we don't fall behind schedule.