How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluate stages? (Ancillary Task)

• Software Used for Ancillary Text: Adobe Photoshop

• Other Technologies: Digital Camera, Facebook, Flickr

• I used media technologies such as photoshop and the use of a digital camera in order to create my ancillary task, which was to:
  1) create a one venue poster representing my artist
  2) create 3 panels which would be used in the digipak.
  
  The way in which I approached this was that I was influenced by Florence & The Machine, Kate Bush and Tori Amos- how they looked and their genre of music, being almost opera for Kate Bush, and twists of indie/dream-pop for Florence, equalling to a "hybrid" genre -- I wanted my artist to looked upon as a new and contemporary "replica" of these artists. I used the commas to insinuate that the artist may seem to be similar to them, but the artist only has certain aspects and traits which is evident in the ancillary tasks.
  
  
• Venue Poster: This is the updated version of the venue poster. The way in which I used media technologies to improve my work was the website Flickr - and from using that website, I was able to broadcast and share my work out into that community, and from using Flickr, I recieved feedback from people, who mostly critiqued the font and text not being clear enough and it needed to be more illuminated.
  
  
  Also, in terms of planning, the group and I planned out what our artist was going to look like and what kind of genre Madelyn would be suited to. We also spent a few days at Nonsuch Park to get some inspiration, planned and taken photographs of the artist in the woods to get a feel of what the specific genre should be(hybrid), and in this case we chose to contrast the ancillary posters, (dark and light) to show multiple sides or personalities in Madelyn Faith, so it would challenge the conventions of a music video and how artists would usually be represented. (the lighter poster is Laura's).
  Photoshop has severly helped with piecing the work together - the "swirly" vector andthe fonts neatly go together and the glowy text makes the poster stand out. Also, the use of a dark blue 'exclusion' has made the photograph appear more ominous, and almost surreal, with the use of lens flare which is focused on the artist. Overall, the use of photoshop has made this poster become more interesting and abstract to the desired audience.
  
  
  

Digipak Panels:
"Madelyn Faith" album front cover. I think that this works very well as a front cover as the composition of the artist's face remains in the middle, and how the background of the trees are overlapping her face symbolises eccentricism and also the concept of a "ominous, yet twisted woman" who is in fascination with nature, similar to Tori Amos and the video of Cornflake Girl. I feel that this photograph is very beautiful and captivating for the audience as the piece is quite abstract in a way that it is challenging the conventions of a music artist in the way that most people do not present themselves or manipulate themselves in such a way. The mask and the trees have worked really well to conceal Madelyn's identity, and the editing itself is very subtle and very alluring, it could seep curiosity for viewer as to who she is and the purpose of hiding one's identity. (We had done this because i'm camera-shy, and wanted to have this artist be different and original, and present herself in a way which is comfortable, yet odd as we have challenged and even used the conventions of a music video, and we also wanted to do this as it would bring attention as the audience would want to find out who she is, and why she hides her face).


This photograph is more so focusing on Madelyn Faith and the location. I used photoshop to again, hide her face and identity - by using an overlay of a tree branch and changed the opacity so it looks like it's engraved on the skin. I found this effect to be very idiosyncratic as it represents something unfamiliar, but it is effective in terms of genre and mise en scene; recreating the "surrealist" theme through the panels so they all blend together. I used the blur tool on photoshop to make the artist more in focus and appealing. (but before this I used the pen tool and outlined the figure and copied + pasted the image into the same place) I also like the composition of this panel as she is looking down, rather than a full on close up, again exemplifying shyness or curiosity. Lastly, the text is a line from the song 'Blinding', which is the main song (music video), and decided to encorporate the text into this photo almost as if she was thinking of it.



Inside panel (used to be the front cover). This used to be the front cover for the album, but I then decided that it wasn't strong enough - that it does not sum up the artist as intended. However, I do like this panel as the blue, cold tones are evident in the background,and the overlay of trees over her face and body remains, which is also captivating and pleasing to the audience. This picture is quite simplistic but it endeavours ominousity and beauty at the same time -- and this combination would realistically would not relate to one specific audience -- for example, young people.However, the use of a digital camera and photoshop have really broadened my knowledge for what makes a good digipak and venue poster, and the techniques I have used have had a real change in my learning and taught me to become more experimental with my work and ideas for further projects. I'm throughly pleased with the way the ancillary task has turned out.