In what ways does your media product use, develop or change forma and conventions of real media products?
My media product is a combination of music video CD cover and back and tour advert. I researched into my genre and looked at the different codes and conventions used in similar products. I then sued these cods and conventions and manipulated them to suit my product.
I looked at things such as CD covers for similar and different artists also advertisements in magazines. I picked out conventions such and featuring the artist within the storyline and used the idea in my own work. I think this adds a emotional attachment to the video and the story within the lyrics.
I looked at music videos such as The Script – For The First Time that had the story acted out by non band members. I think the video represented a sound track to a film rather than a music video. However this song is similar to my song choice as it has a solid story line. Compared to videos such as Rhiannah – Only Girl In The world were the lyrics don’t tell a story in the same way, the music video for this song was focused on the artist and because she was acting it made the song feel more emotional and powerful to an audience. I wanted to combine these two conventions in my own work so that I my music video was telling a story but powerful and moving. I think by having the artist acting the song it helped portray the story in a powerful way.
A convention I studied but rejected from my product was having the whole music video focused on one person. I used a variety of characters breaking up the focus on the singer with shots of a violin player, and the use of the notepad. I think this was effective as it broke the music video up and gave it structure.
An example of a convention that developed during the process of creating my media product was the use of a notepad and still photo images. At the start of my project my idea was to just use the notepad to open the video and close it. However after filming and beginning to edit my video I decided to use more of the notepad to send messages to the audience making the feelings of the young girl more apparent. I then also came up with the idea of using photos that symbolized the journey of the young girl. This convention developed and became a valuable part of my media production.
My ancillary products follow similar conventions we see on the market today. I used the singer wearing the same outfit and using natural scenery keeping all the same themes as in the video as my image for the advert and CD cover. I think this is effective as it links all three together to form a whole production. It also means that audience members can see one product and know exactly what the other products are and what they are about. Artists such as Katy Perry have used the same ideas, using her California dreams video and the image she portrays using candy and a wonderland style costume and set and transferring it to her tour and album.
How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?
I started by researching into similar products and transferred the ideas I saw into my own work. I also did research into what my target audience wanted to see. I found that a natural vintage look was very popular in today’s society and that helped me a lot with creating my ancillary products.
The folk genre is very natural and traditional; I wanted to reflect this within the image of my products. I wanted to show the audience that folk music is a dying tradition. The idea of combining the vintage ethnical look of today and the natural tradition of folk music fitted together perfectly.
I believe that is could help raise awareness for folk music and that my ancillary products will bring the image of today’s society and traditional folk music together.
I believe the combination of my music video and ancillary products is effective. The image and style of the CD cover and advertisements reflects perfectly to the themes and conventions within the music video.
From an audiences point of view the ancillary products are interesting and unusual. However they do relate to the fashion and style we see today so will catch an audience’s eye.
The fact that my products all links together is also effective as it leads an audience from one product to another.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
Through the whole production I have used numerous new media technologies from the very start of my production I have relied on computers and the internet for Research and planning. Using You Tube to analyze similar products and Google images to search and analyze album covers and advertisements.
Blogger the whole journey of my production has been recorded using a blog.
It also helped me look at my project as a whole to see my progress.
I used web links from my blog to music videos on You Tube. And I also transferred photos from the internet too my blog.
The filming process relied on technologies as I used a hand held camera to film my whole music video. I also used a still camera to take photos of location ect..
Whilst researching into my target audience I used email to contact and question people that I knew would give valuable answers but weren’t accessible to meet face to face.
I also used new computer soft ware such as I movie, and final cut to edit the whole of my music video. I also used Photoshop and fireworks to edit and manipulate my images and create my ancillary products.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I have personally learnt that feedback from an audience should always be taken with a positive attitude. Constructive criticism is a huge part of learning and improving and it has helped me through the whole process of creating a media production. Working on my own has been a challenge as I have had to go off my own judgment and have not had a second opinion an any of my work, therefore my audience feedback has helped me improve my product a lot giving me fresh ideas and improvements through my whole production.
I gained feedback by doing questionnaires and emailing people with ideas to see what they thought and how I could improve. I started by asking people about what they want to see in my video and I then went on to try and meet the requests made. Once my production was finished I asked numerous people what they thought and I could improve and adjust my project to suit. 
