Evaluation: Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products?

Ancillary: CD and Case Product Visualisation

Ancillary: Vinyl Cover Product Visualisation

Ancillary: Vinyl Covers (Final)

Our initial draft of the vinyl cover consisted of two gas mask images.  We decided that we wanted more of a contrast between the back and front cover, resulting in us inserting the silhouette image.  We took this photo whilst filming at an abandoned warehouse.  We feel this reflects our desired moody atmosphere, due to our use of a smoke machine and very high contrast.  This is a photo of Alex, who has quite flat hair.  To give the impression that the photo is of Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys, we used the Liquify tool, smudge tool and paint brush in order to give the hair a wavy and slick look.  We decided to create our own logo for Innovo Music, which we subsequently used at the bottom of the page as the record label.  The simplicity and smoothness of it links in well with the retro Arctic Monkeys style.  We think it contrasts the black background well, although we reduced the transparency to 90% to ensure the logo does not distract from the centre image.  Next to the logo is copyright information in small font and the website of arctic monkeys and Innovo Music.  By publicising the website, arctic monkeys customers would be taken to other forms of products like CDs and Merchandise.  This acts as good advertisement for the Band.  We did not include a bar code as we feel it would downgrade the retro style and design.  We found a solution in the form of a plastic sleeve that covers the vinyl, that will feature a bar code and pricing information.  The picture to the right was taken whilst we filmed a gas mask.  The photo was taken with slightly longer exposure than normal, giving the smoke a swirly and silky look.  One thing we were not happy about regarding the photo was the amount of stones and dirt that was on the ground.  We used a spot removal tool and burn tool to clean up this, resulting in an clean and smooth overall image.  We did not want to over edit or 'overdo' the front cover design and felt after much consideration that just featuring one logo in the corner would be most effective in conveying the simple, raw style.  This logo has a 90% transparency as to not distract eyes from the gas mask, resulting in what we feel to be a design that evokes a moody, retro and 'Arctic Monkeys' feel. Going against conventions of traditional media products, we have chosen to not include the name of the album anywhere on the vinyl cover. This is because to maintain the consistent minimalism and simplicity it made sense to only include the name of the artist, 'Arctic Monkeys' coincidentally the name of this album would have been 'AM', so in a more cryptic way the title is technically present.

Ancillary: Vinyl Centre Label

This is the first draft of our Ancillary Vinyl Centre labels, as can be seen from above they follow the same design as our Vinyl cover. The photo used on the centre labels is another variation of the gas mask photo, this one has less smoke but more light. As the Vinyl has two sides we needed a way to show which side was which as they are using the same photo. To do this we decided to write the number '1' and '2' and centre them on the end of the gas mask where the smoke was coming out, we applied a blur effect to the numbers to make them look like smoke and blend in more which has been fairly successful. The next thing we need to do for our ancillary tasks is to produce the CD cover and booklet.

Ancillary: Vinyl Covers (Draft)

This is the first draft of our Ancillary Vinyl Sleeve for a 12" Vinyl, as can be seen from above it is very simple, minimalistic and in-keeping with the theme of Arctic Monkeys and our music video. The front of the vinyl sleeve features a black and white photo of a gas mask with the smoke pouring out (this photo was taken during the filming of the gas mask). Prior to our editing the photo had things like pellets and stones on the floor, we removed these using the spot heal tool to ensure that the photo was as simple as possible. The contrast of the photo was tweaked to ensure that there was enough of a different between the darks of the blacks and the lights and highlights of the whites. To In the bottom left there is the Arctic Monkeys text in their traditional font with a small amount of transparency applied to ensure that it fits in with the photo behind. The back of the vinyl sleeve features another photo of the gas mask with smoke coming out, but this time it is much darker to enable text to be written on top of it. On top of the picture on the back there is the song list for both sides of the record written in a simple, non-serif, white font. Along the very left bottom of the back of the vinyl there is the record label producer, and the Arctic Monkeys 'wavelength' based logo. One thing that may be considered 'missing' would be the barcode, but we have decided that the barcode would be stuck on the cellophane that wraps the vinyl, we have decided to take this route due to the simplicity we want to maintain and the 'vintage' display like value of the packaging. The next thing that needs producing for the vinyl aspect of the ancillary task is to produce the label that is on the centre of the vinyl itself.

Planning: Shot List

This is the shot list that we have produced to use as a rough guide, when filming and then editing the footage that we gather. The aspects of the song that use concept ideas are the most likely to change from what we have written due to the amount of freedom we have when filming that we may come up with some better ideas. Shots to do with the band are more likely to remain the same as they have been thought through with the lyrics in mind.