Final Music Video

Ancillary Texts In Action

Below are examples of how I will display my ancillary texts through different forms. This will promote my media texts and artist to a wide range of audiences. Furthermore, I decided to show images with my ancillary texts displayed in different countries, as this shows the effect of Globalisation and will create my artist to gain a mass audience globally.

 

 

 

I decided to add my magazine advert on a billboard on Times Square in New York as this is one of the most famous destinations for advertising. Furthermore, until I manipluated the photo via Photoshop to add my magazine advert to it, the image is original which I took myself from my recent visit to New York.

 

 

 

Final Magazine Advertisement

Final Digipak

Process Of Creating My Album Cover

Audience feedback on Ancillary Texts

Once I had created my digipak I wanted to gain audience feedback, to seek the opinions of my target audience to see if they found my ancillary texts aesthetically pleasing.

Although the majority of my feedback that I gained was positive, I received a correlation of people stating that they felt my magazine advert image was the strongest I had produced and suggested I shoud change the front of my album cover to also be this image. With this idea, I aprpocahed my media teacher to gain feedback from him and he also agreed with this idea.

Therefore, in order to make sure I was making the right decision, I created a survey with both images of my magazine advert image and my album cover side by side with each other and asked a random sample of people that fit my target audience to say which was their favourite, with the results displayed in a talley chart, as shown below:

My results of the survey show that more people found the image on the left more aesthetically pleasing and thus this influenced me to manipulate my ancillary texts, in orer to benefit media texts.

Digipak

Album Poster

Making of Ancillary texts

I have manipulated a range of different photographs via Photoshop to try and gain an image which I feel is best fro my ancilary texts. This was an ongoing proccess for me as I had a range of different ideas of what I could do and what effects I could add to my work in order to get the best quality image. Below are some of the pieces that I have manipulated, which I may possibly use for my ancillary texts.
 

 

This is the first image which I manipulated on Photoshop. At this point I was just experimenting with the different effects and styles which were available to see if they were any that I liked. At the time I liked this edit as I felt it was creative and matched my theme of identity well, although it was just a rough edit. However looking back at the image now I realise how bad this edit actually was and I view it as a learning curve to improve my images and editing further.

 

 

I imagined edits where I have two images of my artist overlapped to create a unque and artist effect. I was pleased with this edit that I created as I feel it suits the genre of my album and my artist. However, at the point of creating this image I knew that I could produce better images for either my poster or for my album cover, thus I made the decision to include the image in my digipak instead.

 

I continued this theme of overlapping images with experimenting overlapping the different layers.

 

I was pleased with the outcome of this image after I had inserted different blur effects and knew that I wanted to improve it further to a higher standard, as I could image the image being my album front cover. Improvements that I planned were to create the centre image of the artist more clearer, so that she was more distinguished and recognisable. Consequently I feel that my final album cover was improves from the image above.

 

Although I was still experimenting with the different effects available on Photoshop, I was not happy with the images I was producing, so decided to do some image research to gain inspiration of what I could produce for my poster. Whilst browsing through the internet I found two images which caught my attention as to the way they had been manipulated. They are below:

 

 

 

I was fascinated as to how these images had been manipulated to create a shattering effect and immedialty envisioned incorporating it into my own products as I feel it would match my artist, genre and theme of identity well.

 

I began to practise manipulating my photographs with this effect to see what the outcome would be. However my first attempts were not very successful and were not to the standard that I wanted, but after some practise I finally was able to create an image which was to the standard that I wanted to achieve:

 

 

This if the final image which I edited in Photoshop CS6 and is one of my favourites. I decided to add the shattered effect to my image as it connotes the inner turmoil of emotions the artist is feeling and what the majority of the songs on the album represent. With the artist directly staring at the camera shows a mode of direct address and represents that the artist is wanting to share her emotions and thoughts in her music with the audience. In addition, this use of editing is conventional and can be seen during post-production of professional music products.

Creating the CD'S with chosen music label
In order to create a professional looking CD for the inside of my Digipak, I carried out research into music labels. I wanted to create a realistic and professional digipak that could be sold in shops, that would also fit into my Indie genre. Thus I decided to create my CD's with the style of smashed mirrors, as not only does this show a new and creative design, but it also creates cohesion with the album cover of my digipak, and also the use of props in my music video with the cracked mirror. This brings all three of my products together and creates familarity for my artist with the audience.

I came up with the idea of my CD covers being an allusion for cracked mirrors by existing artist's CD artwork.

Kanye West - Yeezus

I was inspired by Kanye West's album 'Yeezus' artwork, as it creates the allusion of a clear CD case. Although Kanye does not fit into the 'Indie' genre, this artwork creates originality, and provides the image of a low-cost album, which would be associated with the indie genre.

 

 

I found this CD template on www.wizbit.com it was a huge help for me in the deisgn and construction process of creating the CDs for my digipak because I was unsure on how to create a CD prior to this task. After finding this disk during my research, I knew exactly the layout of one. However, once I had decided I wanted my CD to just be a plain design with no tetxt, I did not need to work into designing the pathways on the disk for copyright, as seen in the image on the right.

 

I am pleased with the final design of my disks, as they are simple which reflects the simplicity throughout my products, as well they create cohesion of not only the use of props in the music videol of smashing the mirror; but it also fits in to my colour scheme of black and white.

 

 

It is typical to have some brand names on album disks for copyright purposes, however, because I made the decision to not include these on the disks, I added them to my back album cover instead. These include:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made the decision to place the logo's in the bottom right hand corner of the back cover of the album, so that they do not take away the attention of the main artist image and the tracklist. But also I have placed them alongside the barcode, which is conventional to be situated in the right hand corner.

 

Back Cover

Before I consturcted the back of my album cover , I researched existing designs of artist's albums and found inspiration from them. These include:

 

I was inspired by this back cover of Britney Spears as I liked the layout of it featuring a simple close up of the artist and how the tracklist was presented. I knew that I wanted to present my own tracklist in a similar format.

I also took insiration from the album back cover of Lana Del Rey. Firsrtly, I found it admirable as it features the same simple oclour scheme as mine, thus I knew if I portrayed a similar design mine could appear professional. In addition, the artwork also features a close up of the artist, which I have now found as a conventional feature for albums and made the decision to include this cinematograpy into my own deisgn. Moreover, the positioning of the tracklist was also what I had in mind and I would like to design mine in the same way.

 

 Poster

After gaining feedback form my media teacher, I was recommeneded that the image I had created on the front cover of my album was very strong, and it would be a good idea to use the same image for my posterm, as this would create cohesion and recognisation.

 

 

I aimed to make my poster very conventional, thus I included copyright and promotional logo's which were also included on the back cover of my album.

 

I inserted my posters in several advertising locations to see how effective it appeared and to see if it would be eye-catching. This is a conventional proccess for posters to be advertised in public locations. I felt these images were appropraite as it shows globalisation and also creates realistic situations.

 

 

 

 

 

Album Digipak and Poster Research + Conventions

Digipak template net and information

When researching into Digipaks, I found an online website which allowed me to download an album digipak net and template. I made the decision to choose the six sided template, which contains two CD's, because a very popular feature of artist's music albums is that they have one CD with their tracklist and another CD for extra features including music videos. This conventional feature is present on current music artist's albums, such as Beyoncé and Coldplay.

I will manipulate my Digipak using Photoshop and create a product which I feel represents my music indie genre, but also my artist and music video. I will base the pack off of my music video, conveying a continuity style so that they appear professional and aesthetically pleasing.

Artist Name

When planning the name of my artist, I did not want to just use my actress' full name; 'Lucy Thompson' as I felt this was plain and did not really stand out for a music artist. Therefore I immediately began to research names.

As my artist is of the indie genre, I decided to research into existing indie female solo artist's and name ideas of that genre, to gain inspiration of what I could name my artist. I researched through search engines and found that many of the existing artists' names were the artists first name and some included their middle name also.

As the actress of my music video is also the singer of my song that I am using, I wanted to keep the artist's name real and as true as possible to her, therefore I was inspired to use her first name and middle name, 'Lucy Mae', this sounds a lot more appealing to me than her full name 'Lucy Thompson' which does not really sound catchy, and I also did not just want to use her first name 'Lucy', as there are many other artists named Lucy in the music industry and I wanted to be original.

Consequently, I decided on the name 'Lucy Mae' as I feel the name fits my music video and the indie genre perfectly and there is no one else in the music industry with that name.

Filming Diary - Day Four

The next day that I planned to film with my actress, was to film shots 4, 11, 13 and 20.

However although we had previously organised a date and time, my actress struggled to make it due to other issues therefore we had to schedule to the next day, although again this made the amount of time we had to film limited, due to other commitments.

The location I decided to film these shots in was my bathroom as it has white walls and would appear effective for the simple background that I had in mind. 

In order for my mise-en-scene to look as effective as I had planned, before filming, my model wet her hair and wiped makeup down her face to gain the look that I had planned.

Overall I feel the shots that i had filmed were successful as I achieved the look that I aimed to create. 

Filming day 3 - behind the scenes + bloopers

Here are some behind the scenes photos and videos which were captured on the day of filming, these either did not go to plan or were just for fun, therefore did not make the cut for the video.

Some of these photos were captured for my ancillary texts, as I took photos the same night as filming on day three, as the cinematography and mise-en-scene are very similar.

Filming Diary - Day Three

Shots filmed:

The next day of filming I arranged was to capture all of the close-up shots of my actress and shots of her lip synching, as I made this choice as the location is easy, as I just needed to film her against a bare wall, therefore we could film at either my house or hers, and this would make it easier to allocate a time slot to film, as both me and my actress have busy schedules.

Complications:
Despite my actress suddenly being available on the day and time we had arranged to meet up, as shown in our text messages below:

We were able to film later on that evening, although the time we had was more limited and restrictive, due to other plans.

We arranged for my actress to come round to my house, and whilst I waited for her arrival, I set up the equipment which I needed. I had previously borrowed a tripod from college and set up my Canon 550D camera, and adjusted the height and distance to how I wanted them.

We then successfully filmed several shots of close ups and lip-synching scenes, which I had planned on my storyboard.

Choosing the music label

I looked into record labels from the major conglomerates as well as labels from independent record labels such as Rough Trade.

I studied both record labels thoroughly below, so that I could decide which label to choose for my products.





After weighing up the pros and cons of each label, I have made the decision to sign my artist to the major label of Sony. This is because although Rough Trade matches the alternative style of my artist, Sony Music Entertainment will provide more a bigger audience to my artist and will  be more successful in promoting the music, as it is one of the most recognised labels in the music industry and I want to portray my artist as very popular.

Furthermore, I have decided to categorise my artist in the subsidiary label of EPIC, as this label features other popular artist's who are successful and also have a similar style to my artist, such as Sia and Coldplay, who are in the alternative indie genre.