Useful Technologies- New Media - The Qr Code.

When researching into existing products the use of the Quick Response Code came up reguarly in different products. For example, I found many album adverts providing these codes for the audience's use to scan, using their smart-phones to recieve more information on the artists and their new album's, also linking them to digitally purchase the items.


 Qr codes are a two-dimensional bar code that contain information which usually feature URLs that take the consumers to a certain website which relates to the subject they are placed on. The consumer can learn more about the certain subject. - (Mobile tagging)


Decoding the information within the QR code can be done with any camera-phone that has the QR reader software.


Secondary Research - An useful article on QR codes by Educause Learning Initiative

This research is useful for the production of my own media product, as technologies like the QR codes will be interpreted and made in such things as the magazine advert.

Media Time Plan

10th October - Technologies - Useful for my media production- info on Qr Codes.

11th October - Research into new media - Photoshop cs5 & into Cross-media advertising

Research on existing products - The Jewel Case & Digipak

Jewel Case

This example is of a quite simple design of a jewel case. Within this project I am to produce a dijipak product which is like this but with additional panels within the design. Researching into the contrasts and comparisions of the different designs is useful as it helps identify the construction and conceptions of a digipak. The design is obviously important as it would be the first thing the audience/buyer would see, therefore would want it to be attractive and pleasing to the eye. 

Jewel Case Design

Example of Jewel Case

The back of the jewel case shows the content of the CD and also works with the themed artwork of the whole album. 

6- Panel Digi pak Design

6-panel Digipak

example: 

Definition : 

"Digipacks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipacks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipack that hold the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background.
Digipacks were first created by MeadWestvaco, and their product, called Digi-Pak, is trademarked. However, as the format became more popular and began to be used by more manufacturers, the generic "digipack" came to be used to describe all soft CD packaging.
Digipacks have pros and cons:

• They look nice, and many bands and labels like to use them for aesthetic reasons. The three section digipack sleeves opens up more design options because there is more room. However, they're more expensive than traditional liner notes and jewel cases.
  
• Digipacks don't crack like jewel cases do, but they will rip and eventually the paper begins to peel apart and separate.
  
• The trays in digipacks break much more often then in jewel cases. There's not as much protection since the outer portion of made of paper, so the teeth that hold the CD in place crack and fall out easily.
  
• When the teeth of the tray does break in a digipack, the CD falls out of the bottom of the digipack, because unlike jewel cases, there is nothing to hold it in.
  
• Digipacks can be more environmentally friendly than jewel cases because they can be made of recycled paper - however, they aren't always in fact made in this way.
  

Digipacks look great, but if you're just starting out and money is tight, looking for ways to cut your manufacturing costs is important. Stretching your budget to because you like digipacks aesthetically is not a good investment."

(Taken from http://musicians.about.com/od/ah/g/digipacksleeve.htm by Heather McDonald)

Secondary Audience Research - Examples of Completed Questionare + Results

Conclusion of Results

From the results of the questionnaire I found out about certain codes and conventions of pop - videos and the audience's attitude and perception towards them. Many of results showed that the auidences of pop-videos believe that women are being advertised in very oversexualised ways which also giving viewers the wrong perception of reality. This is because they are being presented as sex objects(in very little clothing) to attract the male attension and audience and appear to be visually perfect, making auidences believe these airbrushed and edited women convey true beauty and what is meant to be. (Even changing the views of society.)
I also found out that men in pop-videos seemed to be shown as the dominant star figure for the young generation of males to look up to and women to be attracted to. Money, wealth and power are also represented in videos to appear important. This could have a negative effect on the audience showing that in life only wealth and money matter and it is the only way of becoming successful.

Also the audience from which I investigated preferred to watch a music video than just listen to it, which shows a good video is useful for a song to be successful. 

The location in which pop-videos are preceived to be at is primarily in the city and night-clubs. The second place suggested by the auidience was a location in which gives the song more meaning and links to the song lyric.

From this result I learnt alot about pop-videos within media and its affect upon society.
Within our own video we shall try and challenge the sterotypical view of men within pop-videos and show them in a more subtle and less distrupive way.

Time Planning.

4th october - Finish Magazine Advert Analysis

                   - Summary/ Results of Questionare so far.

Research into Music Genre

The genre of the music track for the music video in which I will make, falls into the genre of electropop. Therefore research into this genre is very important to reveal the certain conventions and codes within electopop and how I will translate them into the certain works such as the video, magazine advert and digipak.

Web definitions:

Electropop (also called technopop) is a form of electronic music that is made with synthesizers, and which first flourished from 1978 to 1981. The genre has seen a revival of popularity and influence since the late 2000s. "Electropop" is the short form of "electronic pop".

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro-pop

A modern version of electro-pop is David Guetta feat Usher - Without you

 This track shows the influence from the begining of the genre in the 1980s, for example Blue Monday by New Order which was released in 1983.

http://www.britain.tv/entertainment_britishmusic_80s.shtml

^: A useful article on music in the 1980s and origins of electro-pop.

MTV's Most Wanted: Jessie J - Who You Are

MTV's Most Wanted: Jessie J - Who You Are

Pop music and artists passion for music is shown in this video done by mtv.
Interesting to see where the artists get their ideas from and how they choose to produce the different codes for the audience to read within their content of lyric, beats, videos, representation, clothing etc...