The document provides an evaluation of Natalie Palmer's media project on the band Flyleaf. It summarizes the conventions used in Flyleaf's CD packaging and music videos. It then describes how Natalie's project adhered to or diverged from these conventions through the use of black-and-white photography, lyrical themes of faith, and merged band photos. The document evaluates the effectiveness of combining the music video with supplementary materials like posters and advertisements that maintain consistent visual themes. Audience feedback suggests ways to improve story clarity and reduce repetitive footage.

1. Evaluation of my media project… Natalie Palmer

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or change conventions of a real media products? … The CD Package

4. Some (if not all) of the lyrics to each song on the album.

5. Style of booklet… in terms of it looking like a leaflet… some bands use this instead of the generic book.

6. Square shaped case.

7. Generic band photo pose and angle – mid shots, focuses on the head and the torso.

8. Serious pose

9. Band logo for the iconography.

10. Having photo’s from the video/footage of the band. This links them all together.

12. There is a photo where they are not in a serious pose. This shows the lighter more relaxed mood for the band.

13. Usually when seen in a band booklet the people are shown separately. I have merged them into one picture by using the airbrush on photo shop. I give it a black mist effect so that it all links together. (lyric leaflet/book)

14. I haven’t included a ‘thankyou’s and dedication page’.

16. For the lyrics leaflet I wanted to make the lyrics stand out and link to the rest of the project. To do this I used the black airbrush effect to merge the five photo’s together and then I used the white font to write on the lyrics. This made them stand out and makes it easier to see.

19. The use of the jesus on a cross picture on the CD back links the piece to the christian faith. And to the band.

22. The websites at the bottom of the page are another generic convention that I have followed in order to make this look as professional as possible.

23. I have done the date in large writing so that it stands out and catches peoples eye when they walk past it. This is also why it has been done in a white font.

24. The band pose in this picture is a typical band pose where by they all look strong and committed to each other and the music.

26. I tried to use one theme colour throughout the whole of my project, this was black, white and purple. I used these colours because they represent the contrast between the two ideas of the christian (light themed) rock (dark themed), also the colour purple is a typical colour to be used throughout rock. Another reason why I used the colour purple is because in terms of roses it represents saying bye to loved ones. It acts as a colour of rememberance and this works with the video because that too is of rememberance. Within both the main and the ancillary tasks I tried to portray the thought ‘stand up for what you believe in’ I did this by adding still shots from the video to the ancillary tasks, thus again connecting the different tasks. Throughout the whole project I have tried to keep the shades of colour the shade which would be a dark shade or which ever colour. This dark theme takes away any ideas of this band being a ‘rave’ kind of band, but the colour also takes away any ideas of it being a ‘depressing’ band. The shades I have used say that this band is happy and they take what they do seriously, whilst still having fun. Within the ancillary tasks (as no writing was needed in the video) I tried to keep the fonts as close to the originals as possible, however it didn’t always fit what I was trying to do so at these points I have changed the font to something different. I have used the original font within some of the work. To keep the pages consistant I used the familiar font within the same shades of colour. The writing I have used is clear, bold and easily read from a distance. The images of the band that I have used portray them as a strong band that who take their work seriously whilst going to have fun. Another photo shows the closeness of the members. I thnk the font that I have used compliments the pictures because you constantly get a strong togetherness theme to it all.

27. If I had the chance I would deffinately get some better quality photos as some of them are not really well focused even though you can still see what is happening in the photo and they still give out the meaning that I was trying to portray in it. In that respect all the pictures are good because they all give off what I want them to give off. Another thing that I would have done differently would have been to take a bigger variety of photos so that I could use different things for the CD package. I would have also changed the general immage I was going for as it was hard to find the bands real posters and article in general. To work around this I used the general style of a rock pop band which in a lot of ways is similar. I used the generic conventions of that genre and mixed it in with the conventions I found for christian rock. In terms of putting the stuff together so that it looks realistic I think I achieved it. In the video there are a lot of things that I don’t like within my final product. For one thing I believe there is too much footage of hannah mouthing the song and too much of it is set in the graveyard (I think it gets a bit tedious). I would have liked to have set it in a variety of places so that I could give out an understanding of the real story behind the song. There are a few shots in the grave yard that I am happy with such as the where hannah has reached the grave stone up untill she is standing infront of jesus. One shot that I am both happy and dissappointed with is the one where andy pulls shauna up from under the table. I am happy with it because the way it slots into the video it is successful and with it being played in slow motion it fits in with the part of the song where it is played. I am dissapointed with it because of the setting, I would have wanted it to be in the library rather than the media classroom as the actual event happened in the library. I was going to reshoot this with a different person (as the andy looks too much of a rocker) but I was ill and then I didn’t have the time to re-shoot anything.

28. I think the majority of the band shots at stayfree are effective and work fairly well, the stage presence of each character is effective and work fairly well, the stage presence of each character is effective in showing you who (in some ways) more important to the band, to do this I used different levels. There are however some shots that I really am not happy with, these are generally the close ups of hannah mouthing the song. She didn’t listen to the way the song is sang and mouths it in a dodgy way so I couldn’t get the lip sinc right and thus making the shot look really bad. She has done this several times in a few different shots. To create my CD digipak and posters I researced into types of adverts used by a similar genre as mentioned before. I used kerrangmag to aid my research in posters and CD’s in general. The music video fits well with the two ancillary tasks because I have used similar themes in each piece. I have ecorperated a bit of research in each product into another of the products to help make the package successful.

29. What have you learned from your audience feedback? From my audience feedback on my video I have discovered that I need to make the story behind the video and song more clear, as several people have mentioned that they didn’t understand it. They mentioned that the bits with andy in are fairly random and they don’t really understand the story. So I would need to put in more footage that outlines the story for those that don’t have a background knowledge on the song. I have learnt that sometimes if you use some odd camera angles that aren’t seen very often and that compliment the photo then your target audience may be drawn in more and find the piece more interesting. I have learnt that when I am ending a video I need to start it a bit earlier on because I was told that it ended too suddenly and this wasn’t liked so much. The audience liked the mix up of the footage of the band and the story. They said it kept them gripped. I have learnt that if you have too many clips in one setting it gets a bit boring for the audience and it is ‘too samey’. The audience have mentioned that they like the refrences to god and some of the suggestions to the bands christian religion.

34. Hmv – i used to gather music and find other bands with the same genre, i also used it to find posters and CD packages.

35. www.Flyleafmusic.comi used this to find other connections to flyleaf.

36. www.google.co.uki used this to help find pictures, examples of things and more information on the band.

37. www.flickr.comi used to put all my photos together and to put it on blogger.

38. www.slideshare.comi have used to upload any and all powerpoints to my blog on blogger.com.

39. www.gmail.comi created this account so that i could make a blogger account and several other accounts so that i could use them on my blog.

40. www.blogger.com is the website in which i have my blog and is where i store all my work for media.

41. Digital camera’s have been used so that i can get the photographs and so that i can keep an account of what i have been doing.

42. Video camera’s have been used in order to make the video.

43. Mac computers have been used in order to edit the video.

44. Fire wires have been used to transfer the video footage off the tape ad onto the Mac computer.

46. Camera memory cards have been used in order to store the photo’s.

47. Photoshop has been used to edit all the photo’s and to put together the posters etc...

48. Imovie was used to edit the video footage.

49. www.A&Moctonerecords.com and www.myspace.com/flyleaf was used to email them asking permission to use the song.

50. Facebook, youtube and msn have been used in order to gather thoughts and views on my products.

51. Several products with wheels (such as skateboards and bikes) have been used to create some effects on my video.