1. Advanced Portfolio: Coursework Evaluation Laura Henderson

2. Introduction My project is a Music Video with an Indie/Rock theme. I worked with my very good friend Scarlett Jepson, of which we both agreed on the same choices and decisions on our coursework. We both made a significant contribution to the coursework itself by participating in all areas possible, making sure we understood how to professionally use all equipment from cameras to the Mac computer, including programs within the Mac itself. We each contributed to the filming and the dreaded writing up of our project, equally sharing the work between us. According to the theory of G R A S S our target audience was: GENDER – males RACE – mainly white AGE – 16-24 SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS – C1 There would also be a female audience for our coursework, along with possible other socio-economic status’ yet males would be our main target audience.

7. Here I have used a lightening effect on James’ face as to make him stand out from the rest of the picture and to increase the impact of the stare in his eyes to draw the viewer in and purchase the CD I have used a disorientating effect here to blur out the background to focus mainly on James’ face. This gives the album cover an edgy effect, again drawing the viewers to purchase the product. Here is the Logo and prominently the Album/Artists name. I have put it on a slant as to give it a more edgy and exciting look than it just simply being straight as this to a viewer would look plain and boring. For the album name I have used a different font, again to make it stand out and not look simple. I have used the same colour ‘white’ as it blends with the background and looks effective. Any darker colours looked unprofessional. Front Album Cover

8. For this inside cover I have used a darkening effect around the edges as to bring more attention and focus to James Keane. I have used a low key angle shot on James as this shows that we as a viewer feel that we are in control and that we have to purchase the album as this type of shot makes him look mysterious so we want to purchase it and listen to the music in order to discover who he really is. From how James is stood and what he’s wearing reflects upon the ‘Indie’ style attitude and look. Therefore, this fulfils the criteria of our chosen genre. The viewer can relate the whole camera shot and can tell by what he is wearing that this is and Indie related artist. First Inside Album Cover

9. Second Inside Album Cover Again, I have used a darkening effect on the background in order to focus on James’ face. Then on his face I have used a lightening effect in order to make him stand out from the dark background. His clothes show us that he is of the Indie type and stand out as it is a bright navy blue. This compliments the colour of his eyes and makes them stand out, again attracting the viewer to purchase the product. This is a medium close up shot in which focus’ on the face entirely showing his expression and mood. This portrays through the reader and draws their attention in.

10. Back Album Cover I have used the effect of colour here in order to make James stand out from the rest of the picture. He is in colour and the rest is in black and white. I chose to do this to again focus on him as he is the main artist and I think the shot in black and white looked very effective and made James stand out. I have chosen this type of font as it looks effective and it a complete contrast to the rest of the album. For the front cover I have used a very bold, simple font, where as now for the back I have used a soft, slanted font. This is because the songs chosen are themselves very moving and gentle so I thought a softer font would nicely reflect upon this.

11. Question 2: Branding and Brand Image A brand often refers to more than just one product so therefore can relate to a whole line of products like our coursework has done. Not only have we produced a music video, but also album covers and a magazine advertisement. Branding is about creating an image that people can relate to a particular type of product – an image and message that will draw them over and over again to buy our product. Therefore we had to make our products fit this profile to make people want to listen and to buy our product. The brand image we have created for James Keane is and edgy, Indie style. This comes across in our ancillary tasks and our music video by creating edgy dance movements and also for our album cover in which has just been annotated to show you why. ‘ Brands need to provide customers with a consistent compelling experience in order not to confuse them, as confusion leads to doubt’ http://www.mudvalley.com/

12. Our logo for our music video is very simple yet edgy. We originally came up with various ideas for our original name ‘The Kojos’ before they actually split up because then we had literally a week to come up with everything again! Even though the logo isn’t very big you can see that due to it being slanted it stands out and is edgy, which relates to our whole brand image on James Keane of being edgy and Indie. As you can see to the right, there are numerous designs of which we decided upon and drew up together for what would have been our decided logo! Our new logo however for our final product was kept simple and edgy as to not be too complex as we wanted it to be eye catching, yet not too ‘out there’ as to fit within the genre of our band/artist. Throughout all of our three products we have maintained our brand image by editing and producing all three projects to be of the same kind and not to differ so that they would all fit together.

13. Sony BMI is one of the worlds leading music entertainments, owning a huge 20 Record Labels and is situated all over the world. This is along with Universal Music Group, EMI and Warner Bros. Blue Dog Records is an independent record label and was affiliated to Richard Branson’s V2 Records and was active in the 1990s with a mostly guitar band roster of artists including: The Crocketts Daytona Contempo, The Mumbles Rangers Super j Lounge Billyshot An Indie record label like this would be a suitable company for ‘James Keane’ as it is mostly guitar bands and indie bands of which our product was about. From starting from an Independent Music Label and then moving to one of the ‘BIG 4’ would be a main objective if the project was to be realistic.

14. Question 3: Audience http://www.rssmediastudies.co.uk/main/gaudience / The above website gives a clear definition of what audience is and what it actually means relating to media itself. ‘ Media texts are a product usually made to make money/generate revenue for the institution that has produced them. All products need an audience for the institution to target and so they can construct the product to appeal to them’ The French ‘Cahier’ writers such as Truffaut and Godard had radically altered film theory, re-evaluating and redefining film, raising it to high cultural and artistic status rather than a generator of sleazy low social and sexual standards. Some commentators had even argued that TV watching produced a trance-like effect akin to taking drugs, now media theorists like Marie Davies conversely put forward that TV was an educating medium that stimulated sophisticated textual understanding. ‘Audiences were discussed as being complex, in need of detailed analysis and explanation. Rather than vacant consumers, audience members became active participants in forming meanings and it was recognised that individuals bring all sorts of knowledge and awareness to media products. Hartley in 1982 listed a number of ’subjectivities’ that help to define an individual: Self Gender Age group Family Class Nation Ethnicity This list was added to by John Fiskethus: Education Religion Political allegiance Region Urban v. rural background. http://www.rssmediastudies.co.uk/main/audience/

16. There may be secondary audiences such as females and also black people of which again will be another target for our artist to achieve to gain as many audiences as possible. Other audiences could range from the Demographic profiling of E (unskilled and unemployed people) right to the very top of category A (higher managerial, administrative or professional people). Again, there could be a distinct range of Psychographic profiling where they could be ‘Succeeders’ (people who want to keep control of what they already have, who like power) or ‘Reformers’ (people who want the world to be a better place). For audience feedback we produced research questionnaires to find out what people thought of our product and did it fit the targeted audience etc etc. We also recorded students who fit our required target audience to give actually live feedback and we produced these by using video cameras and using the Macs supplied at college to create and view our audience feedback as this was a fun and effective way to do this. Through hearing peoples reactions and feedback towards our products made us realise what we could have done better and what was effective in order to reach our selected audience, so yes this did influence us hugely!

17. We tried to attract our audience by using edgy pictures and simple fonts in order to make it stand out and attract our selected viewers. For the magazine advertisement I used effective words in order to make our project sound interesting and amazing! By using words such as ‘debut’ and by giving excellent magazine ratings. This all made our product sound amazing and so that people who would see that advertisement would instantly want to go out and buy it. Magazine adverts such as the ones you see to the left and right are all about drawing the readers attention making them want to read and notice the advertisement themselves. This is what we tried to do with our product. Attempting to catch the readers eyes so that they would be drawn to that page and want to then purchase our product. With our album cover the front cover is eye catching as it is edgy and is different from other album covers. As well with the music video itself, it is edgy and different as it associates with two characters one of which is an elegant dancer and the other who is a weird teen. Of which both characters contrast relating to the song and overall emphasis of the product itself.

19. Question 4: Use of Creative Technologies Majority of the technology that I used to produce my product I had already used the previous year for my AS Coursework. The new software that I used this year was Final Cut Express which was already set up on the Macs. I also hadn’t experienced using a video camera yet so all of that was new to me this year, seeing as I produced a magazine last time. Since last year I had enhanced my skills in PhotoShop and InDesign as I was able to work effectively and sufficiently this time around without having to ask many questions on how to work things! Obviously I had used a Mac the previous year so knew how to use that well. I had used a digital camera last year also to take pictures for my magazine so again that was nothing new to me. Fonts for my magazine and album covers I either used ones off the internet off a site called www.dafont.com which was really useful as it had hundreds of fonts for me to choose from to find the perfect one to fit within our theme. Again, last year we all had bloggers so that was easy and very helpful to use this time around too. YouTube is used regularly by myself so copying hyperlinks and uploading videos wasn’t a problem for me.

20. Around 2 weeks before our project was due to be handed in our music video had completely messed up and still to this day we don’t know how or why it happened! So we had to completely start all over again which was a huge set back for us both and a very very stressful time! For the editing part of our project I did the ancillary tasks of which I used different gradient tools and other different tools in order to make our pictures stand out and not look plain like some others did. This way it would again look different from other projects and be eye catching to our targeted audience which is what we wanted to achieve. From using these effective and brilliant technologies it has helped us create what seems a near professional music video, magazine advertisement and a full album cover/s. If we were to have had basic programs to do our project with we would have struggled and the quality would have been nowhere near as what it is now after using the specified programs. These technologies have helped us create our project to the best of our abilities and we are proud of what we have produced by ourselves 

22. And finally overall.. For my overall evaluation of myself I think that I have worked hard as an individual and that me and Scarlett have worked exceedingly well as a team. Both communicating and sharing the work between us. There are times when I could have pushed myself a bit more and possibly contributed with more things. But I am very happy with what I have achieved in my Media Studies course and my coursework in general! 