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

I have used many new technologies in the production of my coursework.

In the contruction I used a video camera and digital camera. For the editing of my video I used a linear editing software Premier Pro to capture the footage on to the computer and edit it according to both our story board and what we thought would fit best. I had not used this software before but found it useful and a great tool for video editing, especially for fitting particular clips to cues in the music. For the poster and cd cover I used Photoshop which I have experience with. I used it to experiment with many different layouts and effects before settling on the final product. An example of tools I used on photoshop are cropping, magnetic lasso and saturation.

During my research new technologies I used were sound recording to capture interviews to use on my blog. Also I used youtube to research existing videos recomended by my audience research and google to find out more about similar artists and find lyrics. I also used Facebook to communicate with other members of my group when sharing images and videos.

In my evaluation I used a Blog which I have not used before. I found it useful in logging my progress and keeping all my research and creative planning together, it was also easier to peice together all my research to come out with ideas for my final product. I used it to write my evaluation as well as embed important videos and images for examples and reference. I think it is a good way display information to my audience and for myself to look back eaily at important information.

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

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

The combination of my main product and ancillary text is effective because they all link together in small ways however they are all seperate peices of media to make it more interesting to our audience. The main text on all products is a similar font and in the fluro pink colour. We also use the same group of people to cleary link the products together and give the audience a group of artists they can recognise and relate to in whatever media they are seen, by doing this we are using synergy to promote the promote the product.

I think the overall package is succssesful in promoting the album because it displays all relevant infromation in a way our target audience will be interested in viewing. For exaple our A4 advertisement shows an image of 17-18 year olds who are the age of our target audience so they could relate to the artists.They are each dressed individually to suit different genres so I think the package would appeal also to a wider range aswell. To make an emphisis on this,the people are the only thing on the image that is not in black and white. The text is the same colour as the girls leggins, to emphisise the text. The image will draw in the reader to study the advert closer. When they do, they will find a relevant information on release date, reviews and band website however it is only enough for the reader to find out more and not get bored reading too much text. For example the reviews are 2-3 words and I have put a black fade behind it to make them easier to read.

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

Video
My video generally follows conventions of other Bassment Jaxx music videos for example the video for Oh My Gosh involes an element of mime, in this case by old people, as many of their videos do. Our video also involves mime with some close up shots.

Alot of music videos our audience enjoyed contained good story lines like Paparrazi by Lady Gaga. Our video contains a vague storyline but uses a structure more like that of Bingo Bango which uses random clips of both ordinary and strange, extravergant people.




We also develop themes as seen in Praise You by Fat Boy Slim (below) directed by Spike Jonze. We shot the video guerilla style (in a public place without permission) for example the bus scene, because we felt that it would be entertaining as we were entertained by this particular video, it would also leave the opportunity open for any unplanned happenings. The camera work is also simialar with lots of medium shots to capture the action and some elements of shaky handcam to add to the atmosphere of a group of friends doing their thing.




Cd cover

Our Cd cover follows the coventions of Basement Jaxx videos by using bright, funky colours in abstract ways like the saturation of the front and back images. We develop and challenge this convention by using real people who feature in the video. This is extremly rare for any Basement Jaxx cover or any album cover of this genre. (see below)



(left to right)
-Chemical Brothers
-FatBoy Slim
-FatBoy Slim
-AudioBullys
-Hotchip
-MIA






It is a typical cd cover in the sense that it features the band name and album title. We have also featured a logo for Basement Jaxx own record label Atlantic Jaxx. On the back I have included the disk contents for both disks and the barcode and also information on track production. It also relates to the front of the cd cover by incorperating the saturation of the front cover on the forest image. In these ways the conventions of cd covers are followed. From these cd backcovers you can see that there is alot of freedom for the way the information is presented. For the inside of the cd cover, I used an array of images on a film reel to make it look like memories and outakes from the video. I used images taken on the day of filming and also screen shots of the video.





A4 advert



The A4 advert challenges the convention of a typical Basement Jaxx album advert in that it does not use the same image or graphics as would be on the album being advertised. The image is still eyecatching by the way it uses the artists in colour in a black and white world, this is symbolising the importantness of the people to the advert.It does however follow the use of bright colours and text on a readable background. It also gives a nod to the title of the album 'do your thing' by the way the young people are dressed in bright clothes, which is an idea used in many Basement Jaxx adverts. For example the poster adveritising Crazy Itch Radio uses an image of a dog with a radio for a body 'itiching'.
It uses general conventions for any advert by putting the title at the top and trying to make the image and text as relevant and informant as possible.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This is an image of audience feedback from our video on youtube.com. (click to enlarge)


We got the feeling from our feedback that our audience enjoyed the atmosphere of the video and they thought we captured it well. They really enjoyed the dancing and quirky editing as predicted from out audience analysis.(film an interview) We also posted the video and digipack on Facebook but most response was generated from YouTube.com.

Final Digipack

This is the finished Video, Cd cover and A4 magazine advert.




VIDEO










A4 Magazine Advert (click to enlarge)

Final CD/DVD cover and inside ( click to enlarge)

DigiPack progress

For the Digipack our group decided we wanted to encorperate images of the performers in the video so the different media platforms linked. We also wanted to encorperate some bright colours and quirkynes as a refernce to Basement Jaxx. The images used were ones that were taken on the days of filming. We tried different effects, images and positionings to see what worked best.
Here are some screen shots of different images we have tried.



This image uses quirky colours well but it looks too neat and predictable for the design we wanted.

I liked the idea of lots of duplicated people but we thought the image was messy and the meaning was unclear. Also the text would not fit well.

Due to the use of animals in the album covers we wanted to try and use that idea and put animal heads on the people. The file became corrupt so we decided to move on with another idea in order to save time.

For this image the people were deselected and on the backround we used a blurry glass effect. I liked the was it made the people the focus, so we kept this effect and tryed to add some colour.

Because we wanted some colour in the image we saturised the backround with the colour from the people which we really liked and it gave the image a natural wierdnes so we kept this image to use for a front cover.

Text was added to the front and we found the logo for Basement Jaxx own record label Atlanic Jaxx.

We decided to used the same saturation technique on the back cover as the front, but we broke it up into horizontal strips to make it slightly different.

For the track listing we researched Basement Jaxx's highest charting singles and used them. ( See screen shot below)

Album cover research

The singles (2005)

This is the album cover for Basement Jaxx 'greatest hits' Cd. We are thinking about doing the cd cover based on a Basement Jaxx greatest hits.

The cover uses a rainbow of bright colours in an array of verticle stips which ends in random lengths and flicks. The image is simple and follows the typical Basement Jaxx theme of happy and strange. The title is very simple which contrasts the busy lines.

Rooty (2001)

Rooty is the Duo's second studio album. The cover involves an albino gorilla, which is a rare being much like Basement Jaxx themeselves.It is placed on a starry backround with some bright graffitti. The title is in their trademark mark text in an array of eye catching colours.

Crazy Itch Radio (2006)

This cover also involes the image of a rare animal. It involves a dog with a radio incorporated into the body which is a referane to the title of the album as the dog is also scratching. The backround is again bright with absract graphics. The Basement Jaxx is in their own text however the title is a different bold font in black with a white backround to stand out.

Filming and editing

Filming went great, although we had some trouble with the camera and the quality of the footage however we can work around it. We managed to nearly all of our shots and some extra footage which we thought would look good as we went along.



Editing is going well and the extra footage is becoming useful for our corrupt footage. We are working as a group to see which footage goes best where and with what music.