Evaluation Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Blogger- This website has enabled me to document the research of digipack and digipack adverts and record a diary through out this media studies period of making a music video. When looking back on my blog, it has helped me learn and take on board the mistakes i endured during this period. Blogger has enabled me to share posts and information to the examining board in a productive, neat, efficient and effective way.

Final Cut Pro-We used Final Cut Pro in the editing process of our music video.This particular software enabled us to cut clips to the correct length, place effects and fades on clips to make them look more exciting and interesting to look at and also to make sure the viewer can recognise different characters by various colour effects.

The timeline that is shown when opening this software enables me to place the clips in the correct order that they should be in. We placed the song underneath the clips so we can clearly identify where they meet,also giving us the opportunity to mark spaces to know where certain important spots are.

Another postive advantage when using this software is that you can easily transfer footage onto it with no fuss or bother,then can easily be transferred to the editing stage where eyou can cut and play around with different filters for example.

Photoshop- This technology allowed us to create our digipak and digipak advert using various tools to make what we thought was the best we could make. The biggest advantage to me personally was the amount of different tools and effects you can use on a page that you are editing to make look professional and realistic. The amount of fonts you can use and different effects are astonishing and really did help us to make a effect page.

Social Networking Sites:

YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter - We have used youtube to look at other music video to gain ideas to work towards our own video. This social networking site aloud us to see what other people our age have created in previous years and to see what grade and standard they are looking at, helping us compare and work towards certain targets. We have used Facebook to post our finished video on, looking at our peers viewing in and giving us feedback that is very valuable. Also it has allowed us to see what people think off it and too also see how many people like our video, to acknowledge if it was successful enough for example.

Web 2.0-This software has given me the ability to upload and share my media files to the internet and has given me future skills in producing and distrbuting my media products.

Evaluation Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before producing our music video we carried out a significant amount of preproduction work; one of the key features of this was finding out what the conventions of the medium and the genre which we had chosen to work in were. From this we could begin planning our product to ensure it looked professional and more importantly that it met the needs of our target audience. Now we have completed our project and produced what we feel is a professional and engaging music video, we can assess how well we incorporated these conventions into our text.

1. Conventions of the medium

The conventions of the medium consisted of making the music video look professional. To do so we used short shot lengths in our editing to keep the target audience involved and wanting to carry on watching it, we also used montage editing to engage the audience and follow the conventions of the medium. The close up shots of Roger is a convention of a professional medium making the viewer aware who the artist is, this refers back to Goodwins theory as the record label would want to promote the star in the music video. Our video used performance, narrative and conceptual ideas. There is not a clear narritive , more of a conceptual idea revolving around the Alice in wonderland theme, to keep them entertained and also relate to our conventions. We felt this was appropriate for our target audience as it would interest them (a fact which we found out from our primary research- see earlier posts)

2. Conventions of the genre

The genre in which we were working was quite unique in the sense that it was a hybird of pop, dance and rap music. Therefore we had to incorporate elements from each of these, however we did end up focusing a lot on the rap aspect of this through our representation of the lead singer.

I learnt that one of the conventions of a real music video consisted of signifiers to represent the type of genre the music video is by costume choice which we included in our music video. We focused on this convention because we looked at the forms and conventions of a real media product and recognised that this was a major part in letting our target audience decode this. Another thing that i learnt from looking at real media products was the locations that were chosen. We have used this media convention to signify not only what target audience we are aiming at but to portray an idea of drugs and imagination can be anywhere you want ti to be, as long as you frame every shot correctly.

I have learnt that real music genre conventions are the building blocks of creating a target audience, and the music genre conventions we have added in our music video are using a attractive black male which can relate to the the genre of hip-hop and rap. The image (right) is of British rapper Dizzie Rascal, reasoning behind this being shown is too portray how the clothing we have chosen Roger to wear makes the viewer make a subconscious decision that this artist relates to hip hop, which is a convention of music genre.

We also have incorporated the pop genre to the music video due to the controversial topic of drugs and living a party lifestyle. This has helped us grab a wider audienece and also i feel has interested the viewer into a more exciting montage music video.

Finally, we have used a fairytale theme to relate to a younger range of audiences. Not only will it capture these types of age groups but young adults can relate to this convention because they can reminis, look back, as fairytales was a big part of a majority of people younger lifes.

I felt any additional conventions towards genre would not make it specific enough and would loose a target audience. If we started to add lots of dark filter and blacks then it could relate to rock/ metal which i think is too much.

Evaluation Q3. How have i learnt from the audience feedback?

It is essential to get audience feedback when you finish a media text to not evaluate the success of the text, but to learn how it could be improved upon. In the music industry producers would use this feedback to improve the video before realising it. However we wanted this feedback to find out how successful we had been, and what we could do differently if we made a video again.

The positive feedback we recieved from the focus group included a lot of comments about looking professional and realistic. We as a group realise that the reason for this was the locations we had chosen and the framings of the shot that looked professional. The audience liked the mix of performance and narrative footage, and commented on the fact that it looked really professional

The feedback from the focus about improving our video was about more of a story line to the video and to have maybe a different scene or location added to the video. This would had given us a more variety of clips to edit and make the video look more visually interesting and appealing to the viewer. The storyline was confusing to some and they felt that we could have had more shots of the singer and lead actress to show some kind of relationship between the two.

These comments will help me improve in the future by involving more locations and a more scenes that expand the story to a wider extent.

See audience feedback focus group below for the video of this.

Evaluation Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Having a brand identity when creating multiple media products is very important because it allows the audience to recognise that this is who they are and what they are about, alomost like first impressions if you do not know them,you find out all you need to know, but also I strongly feel the way you identify a band clearly communicates the genre and appeals to the correct target audience.

We have created a "brand identity" by using the same colour scheme throughout the digipack and digipack advert, also including the repetition of the artist name which is written in a large and and bold font so it can be easily acknowledged and recognised. Roger was the solo artisit who we were promoting in this video and therefore both the video and the digipak feature close up shots of his face so the audience would come to recognise him (from our research we found artisits such as Example and Kayne West did this successfully).

Within the music video we have used the same background, clothing and colour filter over Roger's scene so that people know that this is the artist, to make him the only person that is singing the lyrics to ensure that the audience know he is the artist and this is the person's album you are going to purchase. I feel that also in the digipack advert using a playing card (a motif from the music video) can relate back to the song and make the audience feel that they are in almost a type of community, and know that this song has a relation to all the other songs, which may lead them to buy the whole album as they may feel interested in the songs on the rest of the album. This "brand identity" brings together the whole media product, so people do not become confused and will lead them to recognise the artist for future events.

The style of the video and digipak was that of an urban contemporary artist, which would successfully fit in with similar artists in this genre.

Digipak Advert

This digipak advert was created on photoshop layering three photos that have a lot of meaning to the album itself. The colours of font are in red and whote which both contrast against the dark background. We have also incorperated the facebook logo to relate to a young audience and older audience, to show that this album is up to date with the modern day society. Also the HMV logo show where you find the album and the shop you need to go to to get this particular album.

The image of Roger is clearly postioned in the centre of the frame to capture the viewers eye, and to let them know who is the artist, plus on the front cover of the album he is looking away from the viewer, yet we wanted the advert to capture the audiences attention using eye contact and interesting and exciting images that reflect the album.

Digipak

The front cover of our digipak consists of Roger on the right of the frame in black and white, which represents a dramatic and bold character, also following along with out music video theme of Roger being without colour and alice is. This shows a clear definition between the two characters and symbolises Roger as a more serious character. The bold white font on the front cover stands out due to the contrast between the dark and prominent background.  The silhouette represents a bold relationship about Roger's personality.

The inside front cover of Lucy and Roger in a half and half portrait shows the strong relationship between the two. The layered photographs show an interesting and exciting profile image, which again can successfully attract a target audience.   through our research we acknowledged that no other pop artist is doing something like this, so we can show our originality.

The flip out cover where the CD's are going to be consist three splits of one photograph of a forest with Alice towards the frame. This compostion suggests a sense of movement as you suspect her to be in the centre. The quote in the bottom left corner represents a powerful message that will hopefully reach out to our young target audience. The switch betwwen Alice being in colour is the oppisite of Roger to not get them confused with eachother and to show that they are seperate and there is only one artist, and that is Roger.

Focus Group

This is our focus group involving a number of questions about our music video.

Playing Cards

This is a screen shot of my friend Tom shuffling playing around with cards. We have used this as a intertexual reference to Alice in Wonderland, also relating to a younger audience as a "magical" scene, but also can relate to a older audience as it shows trickery and they will see the intertexual link between the cards and the film. We finally put a black and white filter over the clip to make it more dramatic and exciting. The contrast between the dark background and the bright arm makes the arm prominent and makes it stands out and appeal to the viewer.

Glitter Shots

This screen shots shows glitter being placed on the cards. This can relate to a younger audience due to it being glitter and can been seen to relate to fun and being pretty, yet it can also be seen as a drug (cocaine) showing cutting it up into lines. Also the use of playing cards relates to the theme of Alice in wonderland.

Here we have Lucy approaching the playing card with glitter on it. We wanted the viewer to think that Lucy is going to be involved in some kind of drug related active. We used a bloom filter to enhance the colour in the background and make the viewer feel involved in this activity. Also this shot has been cut up between other shots to build up suspense and to keep the audience guessing as to what is going to happen next.

This last screen shot portrays her blowing the glitter into the camera instead of sniffing it. The glitter sprays into the camera as if the camera is the viewer, so we feel involved. Also this shows that maybe this whole story is not about drugs, but about having fun and staying young.

Lucy leaving the party

This screen shot portrays Lucy under the influence of drugs coming back from party,showing us that she is maybe "has taken it too far" and returning and finishing up the music video storyline. This shot is handheld to show an uncomfortable feel, but also to feel like we are being dragged with Lucy.

Editing Update

We have small gaps to fill towards the second half of the video which we are going to film with a new set of clips that we are going to film tomorrow, which are going to be the glitter shots. This will be our last time filming for our videos, then it will just be finishing up and making our music videos look professional and realistic. Today on final cut express we continued to cut shots and using montage editing.
Finally we are starting to put fades on clips to make them more exciting and appealing to the viewer.

Filming Lucy close up

We filmed close up shots of Lucy capturing with her eyes closed, also placing a black and white filter over the top to make it look more professional and to make a stronger contrast between her eyes and general tones in her face. Her hair frames the shot to make a interesting composition.

This step shows her eyes opening as if she has just woken up. This relates to the song "stay awake" about awakening from her sleep in her bed. The reason for this particular shot being a close up is because we wanted to capture the detail in her eye and make this the only thing that is captured.

This last shot shows the shot of Lucy fading into the next shot of roger singing. This mixing of shots is to show the two main characters in the music video and to also represent the relationship between the two characters.

Filming Roger

We filmed Roger singing the lyrics of the song which was enjoyable and was very sucessful. The shots involved singing and also just shots of him moving around and looking into the camera.After filming we edited and synced all footage that needed to be put into place and realised that we needed to film again to get more shots of Roger singing more lines of the song, and we need asynchronised shots to relate to our target audience. Afterwards we put a black and white filter over each separate shot to make it look more professional and made him stand out even more than before.

Test shot / Green screen

Today i filmed a test shot of myself moving about against the green screen to get an idea of what we are going to film of Roger, singing the song. The things i have learnt about this practice session is to make sure you cannot see shadow in the background as it will be black instead of green and will be difficult to convert to a plain colour. Also i have to made sure that there is nothng else in the camera frame as it looks unprofessional and distracts the viewer. This has helped us confirm this location as a definite choice for Roger's scene.

Filming Wonderland

Today we filmed in the forest behind Lucy's house for the "Alice in wonderland " set for our music video. It included a vast amount of shot types and varieties and the day was very sucessful. The lighting and weather was fantastic and could have gone more to plan.We used the sun in most of the frames and  towards the end of our time filming, we saw an oppitunity to film a couple of shots that were not planned and as a group, we are excited to see what they will look like when in the music video. We are now are looking forward to film Roger acting as Example for the first time next week.

Camden Market

This week we travelled to Camden Market to capture the different varieties of people from different background to use in our film. We filmed what we thought was needed,walking around the shops and stools and we also captured some people scrolling up and down then, all to be edited and played around with. Finally on the way back from this trip i filmed on the bus on the upper deck watching the bus going past all the houses on the side of the road which could be slotted in near the start of the music video.

Props List

Intertexuality in music videos



In music video dancing

Intertexuality in media terms is using someone else's idea that they have used and to then interpretate it into there idea. A example of this is " Taylor Swift - Love Story " as it has refrence to the well known shakespeare play "Romeo & Juiliet". The music video avoids things that make it look too modern, but definatly keeps the theme of a young coupkle who cannot be together and she in this video singer of from a castle. They then soon after meet in the woods and kiss, which is identicle as the well known play. Also Taylor Swift actually brings up the play in her lyrics are states " That you were Romero, you were throwing pebbles, And my daddy said stay away from juilet" and again in the next verse "Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone" This shows that this song is based souly on the story of Romeo & Juilet .
Our influence for our music video is the film Alic in wonderland as one of the lyrics in the song says "Do we chase the rabbit into wonderland" so we may use this as a running theme, in terms of costume and make up for example.

Primary Audience Research: Questionnaires

Music video questionnaire. Please tick correct anwser.

1.  What type of music videos do you like to watch?

- RAP

- CLASSICAL

- ROCK

- POP

- HIP-HOP

- OTHER

2. Why does this type of music video interest you the most?

3. When viewing a music video, what do you find most appealing?

- NUDITY

- GLAMOUR

- SPECIAL EFFECTS / STUNTS

- INTERESTING STORYLINE

- ARTIST RECOGNITION

- OTHER

4. As media studies students we are currently working on creating a music video, our genre for the video is urban pop, what is your opinion on this genre type?

5. What do you think makes a bad urban pop music video ?

6. What do you think makes a good urban pop music video?

7. Would you give any suggestions to us as to what we should/nt involve in our music video?

Thank you for your time filling out this questionnaire.

Laura Mulvey's Theory

This theory is all about visual pleasure and

Andrew Goodwin Theory

Andrew Goodwin theory identifies six key features in a music video.

The first key feature is the relationship between the visuals and the lyrics of the song as the visuals illustate, amplyfies or contracdicts the lyrics. An example of this could be if there was a lyric " walk my down the road" and as viewers we visually see someone walk a dog down a road, that would be a example of the video illustrating lyrics relating to visuals.

The second key feature is the relationship between the music and the visuals. An example of this is a music video that i have viewed recently where throughtout the whole song it represents the same setting which is outdoors in a forest. This setting including the sun and trees links to nature, simbolising a natural voice of the artist (Ben Howard). Here is a link of the music video which is from Youtube.com  

Our genre related style is urban pop using Andrew Goodwin's theory signifies using body language and popular inconography in the music video. The costume design is normal and is like what eveeyone else would wear in everyday society which relates to the pop genre.


The fourth key feature set by Goodwin are the close ups of the artist "Example" to publish his face clearly to everyone who is watching this music video. It involves a convention of a whole scene dedicated just to "example" dancing, singing and to gain the artist himself publicity they require to sell themselves.

This main feature is voyeurism is used to raise the music videos attractiveness. An example of this in a music video is a song by "Benny Benassi - Satisfaction" which  through the whole duration of the video is entirly focused on the iconography of 'sexy' which is big boob, tight fit clothing and perfect body type and skin complextion. LINK NEEDED
This final feature is based on intertextuality which "example" incorporates in this song which we are using in our media studies video. He has used the film "Alice in wonderland". The quote within his lyrics are "Did we take it too far, take it too far? Did we chase the rabbit into wonderland?". Not only does he say it in the song but the relationship with this well known film is visually incorporated within the music video as quite fun and free. By using this line is this song represents a sense that did we as young people take it too far to end up in a interesting, yet quite feared and daunting place to be.

Main categories of music videos

Narrative Based

A narrative based music video contains mostly footage that attempts to tell a story through the moving image which involves actors normally replacing the singers of the song. The narative based music videos can either follow the story of the song with the lyrics or something completly different normally realting a film or programme. An example of a narative based music video that tells a story with literal relation between the lyrics is "The Script - Nothing"as we follow there journey through as the a night to the pub, we realise that as the singer is visually saying the lyrics "They say a few drinks we help me to forget her" as he is about to drink alcohol. 
Performance Based
These types of music videos is where the perform throughout the majority of the duration of the music video. the location and camera shots are vital to keep the viewer attracted. An example of this is a song by "example - change the way you kiss me" as he is performing in a venue to a large group of people. The camera changes and cuts between the artist and the audience representing a lively group of people which makes us thing that us as viewer could be where they are and we want to be a part of it.
Concept Based
This type of music video contains footage that tries to tell a story by just using image. An example for this type is "Lady GaGa - Bad Romance" as there is a lot of quite weird things going on and tells a story about her and she is trying to make a statement.

Desription of target audience

The age we expect our audience to be within are the ranges of 12-25 as the song is about a young genration of people which spreads across teenages and young adults. This song is very modern and uses recent topics within the lyrics and the pace of the song is fast and ubeat which can be linked with younger people. Also as the artist "Example" raps within the majority of his songs as well as singer, i feel that this type of genre of music is aimed at the ages between 12-25.

The genre of the target audience i feel would be a mix of females and males as it does not specify a group in society and in the original music video there is a variety of girls and boys in it. Personally i feel that the target audience is aimed at all sexualities and all types of people whatever background you come from,music you are into and instead of specifing a target audiene,it groups all ages of the younger genreation so they feel a part of a community when relating to "Example".

the television shows that the audience would propbably watch is popular shows such "X factor" and would very watch humourous programmes such as the "Inbetweeners"and television shows such as those types as they are well known and involve a sense of community, if everyone else is watching these programmes, being young, you want to fit in and be "normal" so you watch them.

Focus Group

This focus group was to help us prepare for the making of our music video.

Digipak Advert Analysis

This is Britney Spears's digipack advert which promotes her new album "Circus" available from the 12th of February 2008. I feel this is a very stong and effective digipack advert due to the relatationshio between the visual layout and theme, to the album name itself. This clever advert represents a stong brand identity and portrays a interesting and exciting album. The advert is very unique and orignal,and has it own identity which i feel is key. The contrast between the colour of the background and the font makes it very easy to look at and remember. The artist's name is the biggest font towards the top of the page which is the first thing that is seen by the viewer.

The only constructive critsizm i would give is that viewers may be slightly confused into what type of genre of music it is going to involve, espeacially a new and upcoming artist.

The next digipack advert belongs to a artist named Katy Perry, and the name of the album is called Teenage Dream, which is also a name of one of the songs on this album. I feel the bright colours in this image stands out and looks very vibrant and bold, which could attract the viewer and grab there attention. The compostion of this image leaves space on the right hand side where the artist's name and album name are postioned. The pose of the artist is quite seductive and sexual , which i personally feel attracts both genders to the album and may interested a group that may not of looked at it before. The contrast between her and background makes her stand out and makes her the main subject, which is very important. All information about specific dates and selected together at the bottom of the page and can easily be recognised. The only negative thing i would say about this digipack advert is to make the background a slight less outragous, but i feel this contrast well against the plain body of the artist and makes her stands out to the audience she is aiming at.

Research into the music industry

The main things that are vitally important when creating a music is a variety of locations so that the viewer does not become bored and it keeps the video flowing and maintains a degree of entertainment.

Another factor you have to consider when creating  music video is that when you are trying to sync your voice to the voice of the music yu hve to actually say the words instead of miming them. If you do not move your voice box then it will not appear realistic and will not look as if she is actually singing.

As viewers cn find music videos everywhere in todays mordern society. they are found on music channels on television, youtube and other internet sites, itunes which have a package of the music video and the song together for a set price. they are widely recognised as an essentional part to promoting the single and to portray the artist in a light that they want to be seen.

Goodwin's Analysis

One of Andrew Goodwin's quotes is that there is a relationship between the visuals and lyrics in the music video. this can apply to my music video as i am going to get the person in the video to sing and act as he is in the position of the person writing the song. The characteristics of my music video is going to relate to the specific genre and is going to relate to Goodwins analysis.