Main Task and Animatic of Storyboard

The main task is to make the music production which we have been researching and preparing for. The main ideas for our music video that Paige and I must take into consideration is that the aesthetics of the video must be dated, and we will use suitable clothing like 1950's looking dresses, and suits. As well as retro hair styles for both Dani and Jack. When editing, we are going to use a sepia or black and white effect to make it seem dated, and transitions such as fade to blacks to keep it classic and sophisicated. Other important ideas to think about when making the video, is to keep to our storyboard and watch back each shot to see if we need to re-film. With lip-synching, it can be acheived well if we have the music on our phones or i-pods so Dani can get each word on time. This will make the video look and appear more realistic. Other planning that will help us on our filming days, is getting our props ready such as a shirt, wine, picture etc. If we do not include these props, it may effect the aesthetics, and the storyline may not be as clear. As we are shooting outside, it would be ideal to look up weather forecasts to see if this could alter our filming days, and let us get behind. By making a plan before we start filming, it will help us get the filming shot as quickly and efficeintly as possible, without having to re film too much.

Me and Paige have filmed and uploaded an animatic which has helped us with our timings of each scene. We produced a storyboard which included the timings, position of camera and actors and actions. We have matched the music to each scene so we could fit in techniques such as shot reverse shot and also lip synching. The animatic shows us if we need to make any changes in the storyboards.
We collected feedback from our teacher and our classmates, who said that the timing was good as although they are long scenes, it suits the beat of the song as it is a slow jazz song. There are also a range of shots, and also tracking shots which will show our potential when framing a shot and holding the camera steady. Me and Paige have also included a range of locations, which will contrast with each other in the video.

Ancillary Task Two: Magazine Advertisement Evaluation

After having a feedback session with our other class mates, we then took into consideration how we can improve our product in order to meet the deadline. Around the advertisement are comments which are positive, and suggest how to improve it. Me and Paige have decided that in order to make our advert look realistic and fit perfectly to our video, we will take photos for our ancillary tasks during the filming.

In conclusion to this feedback, I can say that our media product uses and developed forms and conventions of real media products by us being inspired by style models such as the ones shown below. We also took into account what magazine we want our advertisement to be shown in, therefore we have developed real media products as they would consider this in industry. We have used a bold title, placing it at the top (this is common) and a large picture covering the whole page - relating to the song. Extras such as quotes and the record label slogan also relate to real advertisements. Me and Paige have learnt from the feedback that we need to think more about the location and the image we want to portray of the song. We realise that not everyone will find this an interesting enough advertisement to look at. However, we did use media technologies in planning and researching- magazines reviews and advertisements (also checking any ad's online). During the construction stages, we used Photoshop 7.0 to edit our image.

First Draft of Magazine advertisement

From our rough draft of the ancillary task two, we have produced a first draft. We used a location in Ware to shot our background, however we have not included our actors as we wanted to meet our deadline, and we were not all free at the same time to shot the picture unfortunately. We have included a similar picture to our rough draft, for example the bridge and the river. In our next draft, we can include the lamp post in which we would photo shop onto the side of the bridge. It will be difficult to shot it at night because of the lighting up of certain areas. It will also be a full A4 page in our final draft. We used PhotoShop 7.0 to edit our image, changing the colours and brightness, as well as adding text.

Here is a picture from it:

Preparation for Ancillary Task 2

We have produced a sketch of our magazine advertisement, inspiration taken from our style models. This draft shows the positioning of our titles, and our pictures. We decided to take an image on a bridge at night with the light from a lamp post lighting up the title. We have included the positioning of the dates, quotes, website and record label.

For our first draft produced on the computer, we will have to take one more picture, and use photoshop effects. We will use a suitable text; similar to the type font we used in our first ancillary task.

Ancillary Task 2: Style Models

We need to produce a magazine advertisement for our digipack, so we have collected certain advertisements to give us inspiration for our own advertisement. The first images are from music magazines such as NME and The Word. These are both music magazines and collecting advertisements from these will allow us to use realistic elements of advertisements. The images we have taken show what stood out to us, and what we need to think about when producing ours.



This picture shows the top right of an advertisement on an A4 page. The black box is an advertisement for another signle by the artist. I think the positioning of this is different because it cuts into the background image and stands out. Also, it shows us how we can advertise other songs in our advertisement.




This advertisements looks like the front of the digipack cover, and I like the idea of including the other song titles by the main title. If we done this, it would also relate well to the digipack because it shows what it inside the pages like other song titles.



This image shows where the title of the artist and album name is: 2/3 down on the left hand side. I do not think this stands out very well because of the positioning. Also, I do not think the type font is effective.


However, we have decided to put our advertisement into a womans magazine, such as Glamour, Look or Elle. This is because of our songs genre; our target audience that will pay most attention to the advertisement will be young woman because of the romantic aesthetics. We do not want to put the advertisement into music magazines, as I feel that it would not get recognised as much (sterotypically, I feel the majority of readers are men) as it would in a womans magazine. By naming Julie London as an icon, relates well to women.

This is from Elle magazine; although it isn't an advertisement, it shows that the magazine advertises music through reviews. Glamour does the same, with many digipack covers on show.

Ancillary Task 1: Draft of Digipack Evaluation

After making up a rough copy of our digipack, we took pictures and collected factual information to put onto our digipack. We have put it all together, however we would do this differently in our final draft by printing it all directly onto paper. We have asked our class members for feedback on our first draft and can make these changes for improvement, and to make it more realistic. In our next and final draft the following changes will be made.

Front Cover

First and second page

Center double spread

Fifth and sixth page

Back cover

Our evaluation feedback has been written around each page, so we can clearly notice what needs to be done in detail, paying close attention to each page.

In conclusion, I feel that our digipack draft uses certain conventions from real media products as we have followed elements such as front covers, pictures, lyrics and information. In contrast to this, our product challenges real media conventions as it has a retro feel to it by the effect of black and white pictures, and the type font. From our audience feedback, we have realised that we need to make a slot for the CD. Also, to use and develop real media products further, we have thought that a cardboard CD case would make it more realistic. We have used media technologies during the stages of the digipack draft by using photoshop to edit photos; camera to take the images and internet for collection of information.

Research and Preparation for Ancillary Task 1

As our presentation shows, we are going to carry out ancillary tasks along side with our production. The first ancillary task is to design and make a digipack. This digipack will go inside the CD case the song, 'Cry Me A River'. Designing a digipack will enable us to show information about the singer, Julie London and photos which will tell our target audience about her career. Also, by listing her songs in the digipack, it will show our audience that it is important to know about old genres of music, not just modern day music. However, we want to also include still images from our production with the female and male performers, as we want to relate to our target audience; if we had an image of Julie London on the front, our target audience would not be as interested as they would not recognise her.

We made a prototype of our digipack from white card to plan out what each page will include. We then took pictures of it as seen below.

The first picture shows how we have measured a model CD case and cut out two pieces of card that have four sides each. We are going to join these two pieces together to make a booklet for the digipack.



Similar to above, this picture simply shows the pages of the booklet at another angle.


We have now shown how the pieces of card will be placed together. We are going to make our booklet from scratch not by using any other ready made booklet, and it would be a good idea to use the paper that is used in digipacks to make it more realistic. Card could be too thick and stiff, whereas the over paper is shiny and will give it a more expensive look.


This is our digipack from a front view when put together.


We have shown the front cover of our digipack. We are going to have a still image of the performers hand in hand, in the location in the field/along the river. We are going to also include the name of the song in a feminine but bold font, and the artists name, with the year of the song below. Because we want an old fashioned aestheic, it shall be black and white with maybe splashes of colour.


We want to establish the singer first; our target audience will not know alot about her, so we are going to include a still image of her, and background information. It is important that our buyers know recognise her success because the aim of our project is to get the younger generation into older music.


The double spread inside out digipack shows a still image from our production of our performers in a romantic location. We are also going to include the song lyrics in random places over this image, almost blending in with the background image. We are including the lyrics as looking at style models has told us that most include the song lyrics, so the buyer can relate and enjoy the song.


Here, on the 5th inside page, we are going to include another image of Julie London along with 'thank yous' on top of the image. Like above, we have looked at style models and found that artists do this. With research we could find one of her albums and use the 'thank yous' from that, or improvise. On the opposite page, there will be a list of all her songs that she has realeased over the years, for the buyer to see what other music she has sung. This will also help our aim, if the audience enjoy the production and music.


The back page, will be the first thing the audience will see when opening the case, so we are going to create a collage of Julie London images. It shall be colourful and eye catching.