Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I chose to use a Taylor Swift song for my music video, incorporating the four main types of music video: abstract, performance, narrative and animated to create a video to the song 'Last Kiss'. For my music video I decided to use a narrative form of video, with some performance elements from my artist. I wanted to use elements from other music videos such as Lady Antebellum's 'Need You Now' and Kelly Clarkson's 'I Do Not Hook Up', which both include narrative and performance and fit with the genre of country that my song portrays. For my music video, I wanted both performance and narrative equally, telling the story of a couple and their demise and eventual split. These narrative shots are not in chronological order as the lyrics throughout the song tell of different stages in their relationship. This adds a little abstract element to the music video but is still clear to the audience what the narrative is telling. I wanted my video to be more narrative based but with the chorus to be sung to the camera to convey the emotions she felt. However, when I started to edit my video together, it didn't look right to have more narrative than performance with the song I had chosen and so I cut down on the narrative element and now there is more performance within my music video than originally planned.

To find out the codes and conventions of a music video I looked at various music videos within my genre to find out what the recurring theme was throughout these videos. When looking at the video 'Need You Now' by Lady Antebellum, I found that its main theme a narrative looking for their lost love, common with many music videos of my genre. They also used predominantly close ups and long shots within the music video and so I took these ideas and added it to my own music video.

Although my song does not have an official music video, I took the lyrics and analysed the language to see what the meaning was behind the song. This is where I started to plan and try to take these lyrics and transfer them into images, taking literal meanings and portraying them on screen. For example, the lyric 'how you kiss me when I was in the middle of saying something' is recreated in my music video with a man and a woman kissing on screen. This turned out to be successful with the narrative side of the video, with the more prominent images from the lyrics being portrayed through the narrative.

When researching the codes and conventions of my chosen genre I found that most of the music videos were narrative being the main focus with performance within that. However I didn't want this to be the case in my music video because it wouldn't work, as the lyrics were written in past tense, she had to be reflecting on the events that had already happened and so I chose to have the performance element reflecting on the narrative. Many of the cinematography shots in various music videos of my genre included close ups of the artist so as to make them the sole focus and to really connect with the emotion that is trying to be conveyed. This is a common feature throughout many videos of my genre and allows the artist and audience to form a bond. In my music video I used close ups whenever a very strong feeling or emotion was being portrayed, reflecting the lyric being sung. Long shots are also a prominent in many music videos of my genre and so using them allows the audience to see the surroundings and see how their body language reflects their emotions.

The mise-en scene is one of the most important things within a music video, establishing the surroundings, props, and costume of the artist. If you get the wrong location, props or clothes, the music video will look out of place.

For my video I wanted to explore the outdoors and nature and so my main location was set in a grassy field was long grasses, an idea that came from a Carrie Underwood CD cover and which seems to be a common theme within the country genre.

Some shots could be described as abstract as they do not contribute to the performance or narrative. I used images such as the sky (wind), trees (earth) and puddles/rain (water) to convey the elements of the earth. The important feature would be that fire would be missing as the fourth element because the fire of the couples love has burned out. Other locations seen in my music video are a backstreet, my back garden and the artist's house. The reason why I didn't film at my own home for the narrative was because her house had the right layout for what I wanted to film, with the argument and the door being in the same frame.

The costume in which my artist was dressed in was casual, as everyday clothes as this is a hearty song that cannot be portrayed as glamorous or eccentric and so casual clothes fit within the context and feel of the song. With the song being slow-paced I could allow the calmness of nature to be portrayed in the video by using cross-dissolves and dip-to-blacks.

My ancillary texts were created using inspiration from various CD front and back covers. 

For the CD cover of my digipak, I wanted it to be simple but effective and so I took an image of my artist and simply added it to a black background. For the back cover, I took the idea of the stripes from a back cover I had found in my research and added them to my own, creating my own track list and bonus tracks. The colour scheme for these would be black, white and grey. Taking inspiration from various CD's I had at home, I thought I'd create a collage of my artist and some of the 'silly' images that had been taken but not been used for the front cover or the poster. This allows the fans to see the fun and friendly side of the artist. As the album is called 'Lights' I used an image of blurred lights to complete the digipak and to tie everything in together. The CD's themselves were just black and grey with white writing to compliment the colour scheme. Along with this I created a magazine advert which also included the same colour scheme and was inspired by various magazine adverts I has researched.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Both my ancillary texts and my music video can stand their ground on their own. I researched both equally, however I feel that with me drafting and working more on the ancillary texts, these are stronger than my music video. I took inspiration from a variety of album covers and magazine adverts and took different aspects from each of these to create an original digipak and magazine advert. I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 software to create my digipak and magazine advert. To create these I took around fifty photos of my artist so I could see which ones were the strongest and which ones could fit with what I was looking for. I knew when I created my digipak that I wanted the front and back covers to have a grey theme but I wanted the inside to burst with colour and this is why the collage of my artist found inside the digipak has colour treated images and the lights add to the explosion of colour. I used the website www.befunky.com to colour  treat my images as I found it easier to do it on this site than work on it on Adobe Photoshop CS5. 

When creating my digipak, I chose a close up image of the artists face that reflected the artists timid yet confident nature with her looking away from camera. I felt that the original photo needed some form of colour treatment in order to portray the theme I had in mind. Using the 'befunky' website, I colour treated the image so it looked black and white, but not the generic black and white that can be seen on many images on CD covers. This one added more white than black to the image and created an illuminated effect.  

When choosing the font I wanted, I used the website www.dafont.com, and looked at the various 'script' fonts as I wanted a handwritten style. 

I chose the font to be white as it fit well with the black background and tied in with the colour scheme I wanted for my ancillary texts. I decided to keep the same fonts throughout my digipak and magazine advert so to add to the continuity and for people to recognise that they are of the same advertisement. 

The inside spaces of the digipak became a challenge for me. I decided that I would use the discarded images I didn't use for the front cover or magazine advert and create a collage of the artist. This allowed the vibrancy to spring out inside my digipak and along with the lights which coincide with the album's title, it adds that extra spark to the digipak. However, I didn't get to my final result until the fifth draft. The problem was the CD's. This was a sticking point that I had to try and overcome. I just couldn't think of what I wanted my CD's to look like and so on the second and third drafts, they looked quite plain. By the fourth and the fifth drafts, I had added text to the CD's and they now looked like professional CD's and although they are still blocked colours on the final digipak, the white writing just makes the CD's tie in with the overall theme. 

The colour scheme of both the magazine advert and the digipak coincide with the narrative of the music video and the memories that the artist relives, therefore creating the black, white and grey colour scheme. I wanted to show the significance and importance of memories and the fact that they can never be eradicated from your mind. This ideology then spans to the magazine advert as well. Because of the template of the digipak, I had to use the rotate option for the top row of images to turn them upside down so when I print the digipak off it would fold the correct way.  The colour scheme of the white, black and grey is seen in the magazine advert and the stance suggests a confident artist who accepts her past. The image used in the magazine advert shows a long shot of the artist with a guitar, which highlights the acoustic element to the song. I wanted the artist to be wearing the same clothes as she would be on the digipak for reasons of continuity as in the music video, the artist also wears the same cardigan. This mise en scene theme allows the audience to recognise that they are all linked and that the ancillary texts are part of the same advertisement. I wanted the image on the magazine advert to have the same colour treated effect as the one on the CD cover and so I used the same website to create the effect. I didn't want the black and white effect to be exactly the same as the one on my CD cover so I chose a different black and white effect from the four that were listed.

Following many conventions of a magazine advert, I chose to include both the artists name and the name of the album on the advert so that the audience will know that the artist will have released a new album for them to purchase. Along with this I added the relevant information as to where they can buy the album from and a tag line to create a sense that this album is worth purchasing. The idea of having the image of the album cover on the magazine advert came from the advert for Adele's '21' album. 

I thought this would be a good idea for my own magazine advert because it allows the audience to see what the album looks like and what to look for if they want to purchase it. The rest of the magazine advert is made up of the required add-ons needed to create a professional looking advert: a website for the artist, the copyright details the release date of the album and where is will be available from to purchase. These tied everything together to create a full and professional looking magazine advert. The magazine advert, digipak and music video, I feel, work together include shared elements to create cross-form synergy, with the ancillary texts being more similar with each other than all three together.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? 


When receiving feedback throughout my course on various drafts of my music video and ancillary texts, I have changed and improved these so as to try and make the best possible products that my audience are looking for. For my final product and ancillary texts, many people commented that it fit the genre of country that I was aiming for because of the location I shot in. The field with the long grasses seemed to be the prominent image for the country theme that people think creates the genre of country in a music video. Along with this, the song and lyrics themselves also added to the genre that my audience knew was country music. When I asked about the ancillary texts, some people didn't quite see the connection with the black and white memories of the narrative in the music video which looking back might not have been as clear as I wanted to be, however, once i had explained the notion I was trying to create, they instantly saw the connection and thought it was an 'ingenious idea' (quote from Ellie Walker). They agreed that the theme runs through both the ancillary texts and could see the connection between the ancillary texts and the main music video. The audience liked the fact that I had added the little details such as the copyright details and the website address for the artist, agreeing with the fact that it followed the conventions of a digipak and magazine advert. 

When I asked what could be improved on my music video, one person said that the 'artist needed to show more expression when singing the lyrics as the lyrics are meaningful and need to be expressed in the right way' (Alex Cheeseman). Others said that there could be more shots in different locations as they felt that the video needed some indoor shots to break up the some of the same outdoor shots. This could have been resolved with more shots from another filming session, however time got the better of me and I had to settle with what I had already filmed. Some indoor shots that I had filmed beforehand turned out grainy and unclear and so they had to be discarded, which therefore halted the improvement of my music video. On my first draft of my music video, most of the people wanted to see a difference in location and so I took that on board and found a main location to shoot in. They also wanted the bedroom scene to be changed to another location as they didn't feel that the bedroom had any significance with the song. Another improvement to make was to add a variety of shots as my first draft was mainly made up of mid shots. I took this on board and in my final edit, I made sure that I included close ups, mid shots and long shots to create variety and not to seem monotonous in tone. With adding the small abstract shots, many people thought this was a good idea so it allows a break from the performance and narrative and was received positively.

Looking at my online poll on my blog I found that 63% were females with 100% being in the 16-19 category and 36% of people who took the poll said that their favourite genre was country. This showed that there is an audience out there who do favour country music over any other and so doing a country song seemed to be a good opportunity to break away from the mainstream and focus on the niche target audience. 77% of people liked to watch a narrative music video while 33% like a performance based music video and so taking these percentages into account I decided to do a music video to include both of these forms. 

Digital Feedback



How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The first thing I needed to do to start the project was to create a blog on www.blogger.com which I would use to post up-to-date planning and research and the progress of the work I was doing throughout the A2 year. The next thing I then had to do was to research various music videos to get inspiration for my own music video. I used the website www.youtube.com to access these videos. YouTube uses a suggestions list based on what you have listened to before and so it was easier to find different songs within the same genre of music and so I could then find the song I wanted to use for my music video and research the various codes and conventions from other music videos of that genre. I also used this website to upload the various drafts and the final edit of my music video by using the account 'beckybumblebee11' where people can like, dislike and view my videos and comment with feedback.

The next thing I had to do was to research the codes and conventions of a music video. I collated my ideas into a 'prezi', an online thought shower of sorts, presenting my ideas in an easy to access way. I also used a 'prezi' to collect possible songs I could use for my music video in the same place through an easy to access medium. Along with this I used Windows Live Movie Maker to create my animatic when planning my music video. With this I took my storyboard, cut out each storyboard drawing, put it to the music and created a still image movie to represent how my music video would look in the initial stages without re-shoots. 

Once I had got a partial first draft of my music video, I created a 'goanimate' to present my audience feedback I had received. This allowed me to then make improvements towards my second draft.

To create my music video I initially started using Adobe Premier Pro CS6 at college which I used to upload all my raw footage from my first shoot. I had no experience of using this software other than the preliminary task that we had done before starting the course. However, this did not hinder me in being independent as I found it quite easy to navigate around the software and I asked various people to help when I became stuck. This then helped me immensely when I started to edit at home, having acquired the free trial of Adobe Premier Pro CS6. I made the decision to edit at home because I found it more flexible and easier as I would find on many occasions someone else on the edit suite I was using at college. I used a Sony HD digital camera for the initial footage. This footage would became the shots for my narrative in the final edit. I then decided that I would use my own camera, a HD Vivitar, as it was easily accessible to me and I could never be able to book a camera out at college because they were already fully booked out. Although my camera has a lower quality than the cameras at college, I don't think it disadvantaged my music video in any way.

For my ancillary texts I used an OLYMPUS SP-600 UZ still camera to take the photos that I would include on my magazine advert and my digipak. I then uploaded these photos and used 'befunky' to doctor the images and Adobe Photoshop CS5 CS5 to create the overall product. Having already used this software in AS Media Studies, I was pretty confident in my knowledge of the software and what tools I could use on my ancillary texts. With the options of multi-layering and the knowledge I had, I was confident I could create something that could look professional and something that would follow the conventions of existing digipaks and magazine adverts.

When collecting the audience feedback I used my Blackberry Curve 9300 3G phone to record the feedback from the audience. I felt that this was a quicker and easier way of recording audience feedback as my phone was easily accessible to me and I didn't have to wait to book out a digital camera from the department. I could just upload the video from my phone onto YouTube and embed the link onto my blog. 

All in all, I feel that the audience feedback I received  I feel like my music video fits with the genre that I was looking to create. Although some of the cross-form synergy could have been made clearer, I think my initial idea was a good idea to use as the theme for all three products. I feel like I managed my time to the best I could with the time I had as I had to share my time between two other subjects alongside Media Studies, however I feel like I should have spent more time on my music video to make sure it was to the top standard that a music video should be. My progression on the course was a fairly smooth one, with a few hiccups along the way, however I asked for help and managed to overcome these little obstacles to end up with my final products. If I was to do this project again I would take on board all the criticism my final video has taken and make sure I improve my video even further, however, for now, time has ran out.

Word Count: 3,762

Final Video

Improvements:

To improve my final edit I added the black and white effect to highlight that they are memories she is re-telling and are in the past.

Audience Feedback for Final Edit

Audience Feedback on Final Edit of Music Video by s0013189 on GoAnimate

Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.

Final Ancillary Texts

This is my final magazine advert. After taking feedback from people they generally said that they liked the overall feel of the advert and so I didn't change much to it. I did however, include the new CD cover that I had re-drafted.

This is my final digipak. From the original digipak to the final digipak, a lot has changed. I have changed the CD designs and what pictures are included within the digipak. However I did not change the back cover or the collage of my artist as I felt these did not need to be changed.

Audience Feedback for Second Draft of Music Video

Audience Feedback on Second Draft of Music Video by s0013189 on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

Full Second Draft

This is my second draft of my music video. From the first draft to this second draft I have changed the location of the artists performance from inside to outside after receiving audience feedback about the location. I also decided the put the narrative that was in the first draft into black and white as  this would reflect the past memories she is reliving in the song.The next thing I need to do is to replace the shot of the love heart as I don't think this shot first with the whole of the video and to replace the rain shots at the beginning.

Befunky.com

With all the images on the inside cover of my digipak, I used a website called www.befunky.com in which I uploaded the images and added certain effects to them in order to create the images that are featured above.

I used this website to create the image on my front cover. 

The way I achieved the effects on these images and the image for the front cover is as follows:

Fifth Draft of Digipak

This digipak now includes the new version of the front cover after receiving feedback on the image of the previous front cover.

Changes to CD Cover

After receiving feedback about the image of the previous front cover being the wrong contrast, I decided to change the contrast and make the image become more black rather than have a yellowish tinge.

Third and Fourth Drafts of Digipak

With this draft I decided to add writing to the CD's so they didn't look plain and people could tell which digipak they came from.

After receiving feedback on the previous draft they pointed out that it would be better if the 'Lola Mae' and 'Lights' were on the opposite CD's as the second disc would be the first disc that the audience will see when they open the digipak and so the audience will want to know the artist first and the album title second.

Second Draft of Digipak

After receiving feedback for my first draft of the digipak, I have learned that i needed a digipak with two CD's and so had to change the design inside the digipak to fit with this. I have taken out the picture of the feet and replaced it with a CD. I decided to keep the collage of the images of Ellie as it shows the fun side of the artist and also the lights as it coincides with the album title.

Change in Layout of Digipak

After my first draft of my digipak I have decided to change the layout of my digipak to two CD's rather than one.

First Draft of Full Digipak

I decided to choose this album cover because it is simple but effective and fits with the genre. Along with this I chose this back cover because it has the same colour theme and style as the front cover and so adds to the fluidity throughout the digipak. The collage I created out of discarded images of the Ellie shows the artists fun side and makes the fans believe they are seeing into the artists 'real' world, therefore creating a closer bond between artist and fans. The image of the lights coincide with the albums title and the design of the CD reflects the nature of the album.

First Drafts of Magazine Adverts

 

For this magazine advert I took inspiration form Adele's '21' magazine advert whereby she had a separate main image from her album cover image. This allowed me to add a different image and incorporate the guitar into the image to show her style of genre and that is was music related Like Adele's magazine advert, I included the album cover in the bottom left hand corner along with the information of when the album would be released and where to buy it from.

 

 

For this magazine advert I took inspiration from the 'Fleet Foxes' magazine advert which had the main album cover image as the focus of the advert and having written the awards that they had won. This allowed me to then create a magazine advert and add my own ideas to it which resulted in this magazine advert.

Ancillary Texts: Examples of Magazine Adverts

 

This advert featuring Adele and her second album '21' not only features the album cover but also a separate image of Adele herself. This allows the reader to see what the album cover looks like when going to buy it but also allows the reader to see the artist as well. The magazine advert achieves the purpose in advertising the album.

 

This magazine advert features the album by 'The XX'. Although it doesn't actually feature the artists or the album front cover, the design is very effective. With the inclusion of the quotes from various music magazines about the album, this allows the reader to see what others though of the album and is used as a persuasive tool to persuade the readers to buy the album if the reviews are good.

 

 

This magazine advert by 'Fleet Foxes' does feature the front cover of he album but only the image. The fact that the advert also highlights the number of achievements they have won from various music magazines shows that this band has a good reputation and is a good band to listen to, another persuasive device to persuade the audience to buy the album.

 

This magazine advert by 'Florence and the Machine' is another advert that features the album cover on it. Along with the album cover there's is not much else, just the date of release and what formats you can find it in along with the website for the band and what singles are included on the album. This is a very simplistic magazine advert but very effective as it catches the readers eye and the image is stuck in their head so they know immediately what the album cover is as it is the main focus of the advert.

First Draft of Album Back Cover

This back cover correlates with the front cover which both feature the lights as the background. This is a simple back cover which is effective because the lights are the main focus point and the black capitalised text which show the track list stand out from the background of the lights.

This back cover was inspired by a researched back cover. I particularly like the idea of the bands across the page in white and grey and the black background all knit together in a perfect colour scheme. The bands across the page are the main focus of the back cover and the fact that the track list in within these bands also makes the track list the main focus along with it.

This back cover was created by using an image that I had taken and adding a semi-translucent white square in front of it so you can see the track list but also see the faded image behind it. The bonus tracks are in a different colour to break away from the black and white colour scheme.

All the back covers have this at the bottom to make it professional:

"All Rights reserved. All copyright censorship belongs to Lola Mae. All songs written and recorded by Lola Mae for Universal Records. Published by Universal Publishing Company 2013"

First Drafts of Album Cover

 

To achieve this front cover design, I used an image of lights for the background to coincide with the album title. The image itself I took myself. To achieve the see through look I changed the various levels, contrasts and exposure to create a see through look.

This front cover was achieved by using website 'www.befunky.com' to doctor the image used on this cover. I used the effect 'instant #2' and then using Photoshop to change various levels and contrasts. The background colour along with the image creates a warm feel.

This album cover was created by also using 'www.befunky.com'. I used the effect 'old photo 17' on the image to create a black and white, old style image which relates to the genre. 

With this front cover I took a raw image from the images I had taken of my artist and filled the whole CD cover with the image. This seems effective as it is taken at a different angle with the intention of being a main image.

All the text was created using the website 'www.dafont.com'