Question 4

What have I learned from audience feedback?

Question 3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation: Question 1 (Part Two)

Evaluation: Question 4

Evaluation: Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)? 

Question 4: Additional feedback

This feedback for my music video gave me the sight of what I could have done to improve some of the things in the production. One of the comments mentioned that we needed more location choices as it would be more appealing to the audience. To a degree, I agree with this statement. I do believe that we, as a group, could have been more imaginative with some of the location choices and really capture a stronger narrative within the production. However I do believe that some of the location choices was a clear representation of the artist as it stated luxury and good standard of living, which is what our artist is all about.

Reflecting on my progress.

Question 3. How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation: Question 3

REVIEW OF THE YEAR

I think that this year has gone really well, with the filming and the blogging. I have twice as more blogs that I had last year which is great. This year I knew that I had to do more blogs because I was not pleased with the amount of blogs that i did last year so one of my goals was to do more blogs which I achieved. 

All in all i enjoyed this year more than last year and I also learned more about softwares this year aswell which is great. 

Question 4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is some of the feedback i received for the music video we created. I couldn't upload this video onto  powtoon so i have done an extra bit of writing on the slideshow which links to this video.

Question 4 (Part 2) Ancillary products

Seeing as the ancillary products and the music video had to link the targeted audience is still the same. 
I think I achieved my goal of appealing to the targeted audience and from the feedback that I received the people that I showed my ancillary products too thought the same way apart from 1 or 2 things that I could have done better. 

When I started my ancillary products I knew that I would get positive feedback because I done a lot of research concerning album advertisements and I followed the codes and conventions carefully which in my eyes made my ancillary products a success. 

I did not have time to start a draft so I jumped straight into the final product and I received good feedback for that and I was very pleased. 
The feedback that I received was that they liked that my advert and album was consist, they also liked the use of the diamonds, they also liked how effective the black was on the diamonds. 

The improvements they said I could have done was to create more space on my advert. If I could, I have done so, however, I do not think that the spacing is that bad so it does change my advert dramatically. 

Looking back at it i am very pleased and proud of my ancillary, the research that i done for it is evident in my work, from the beginning i knew that my ancillary products would be a success and i do not think i really need to change anything and if i did it wouldn't be a very big thing that i would have to change. 

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main products (video) and ancillary texts (digipaks and advertisement)?

Question 4: What have you learned from your audience feedback? - Music video

The targeted audience for my music video was females from the ages 16-20. Young females around these ages are now more interested in pop videos. Artists like Katy b, Chase&Status, Disclosure and also AlunaGeorge. We decided to choose this age group because we thought that it would be easier to reach out to them seeing as we are roughly in the same age range and there are two females in the group including myself. 

We did not get amazing comments from the pupils at the cinema, I think this is because we did not plan our video very well and because of this the outcome was very poor. 
Comments that we received from our rough cut was to put in more shots and add some effects to it and to also cut it down a bit because it was too long. we was also told that we should cut the video in a way that people could relate to it and understand our ideas. 

Listening to the feedback helped us improve our work, seeing as the people in our class our around the same age of our targeted audience it helped us see our music through their eyes and we were able to change it to their satisfaction. In my opinion trying to improve on our video was very hard because we did not have a lot of shots which meant we had to repeat a few shots in our music video. Even though we did not have a lot of shots we still managed to finish the music  video with the help of the feedback that we received. 

The changes that we managed to do:

 . Cut down the music video so that it was the correct time that it ran for which was 3 mins
. Add effects to it 
. Add more shots 


If we had the time we would have gone back for more shots and would have changed the clothing more as well. 

Question 3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Question 1: Part 2 (Ancillary Products)

How i feel

Question 1: In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 3

Prezi

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Evaluation: Question 1 (Part One: Music Video)

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

The project for this year was based on creating and developing an artist of our choosing through the use of media products such as Digipaks, advertisements and the recording of a music video. We had to design these products in order to give a strong title to our artist and promote them as much as we could. The first product we had to produce was the music video. Before the process of editing and going out to get footages, we had to research the type of genre we were willing to imitate and the conventions of a music video. Many theorists have different ideas for the conventions to a music video. For instance, Andrew Goodwin argues that every music video has three type of distinctions between them: Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture. In brief, illustration is self explanatory- this is when the artist  displays images and footages that are correspondent to the lyrics. Amplification is when the video has different type of meaning to the lyrics and disjuncture is when the footages has no relation to the lyrics. Another theorist, Carol Vernallis, states that music videos tend to break the rules of continuing editing in order to keep the viewer at interest. This is done by music videos having more jump cuts. Lastly, the last theorist, Laura Mulvey, talks about the male gaze. She believes that all music videos have a clear representation and she states that some consistent on the male gaze. This is when the women in the music video are objectified and intentionally to be portrayed as sex objects.

As we covered the conventions of a music video, in the design of the music video we decided to follow the aspects of amplification and illustration- by displaying images that suggests the lyrics of the song (Attracting flies). Our music video belonged to the Genre of Electro pop and we decided not to follow the conventions of this genre as we wanted focus all our attention with having a clear narrative to the song. For our music video, we had a few music videos that may have had a strong influence to the final design of the video. Here are some of them.

The first video I would like mention that had a strong influence to our music video was Azealia Banks 212:

These two particular shots were a strong influence in our music video because we had a similar camera shot when we were filming. The close up of the artist's lips and the mid shot of the artist behind a wall, these were used because we liked the idea from Azealia Banks' video. We interpreted that the two shots displayed above showed that the artist is confident and not afraid to get up and close with the camera and the same time it somehow gave her feisty image. We wanted to give this image to our artist- the girl with attitude and glamour. Also there was a strong link to the mise en scene between our artist and Azealia Banks. In both of the footages with the artist standing against the wall, we see that their costumes are almost the same. The white jumpers with the black writing shows a strong influence. Again this was to display our artist with some attitude by the informal type of clothing we chose for her.  As I felt that Azealia Banks was represented as a sex object, we decided to challenge the theory of women being displayed as sex objects according to Laura Mulvey. From this, we wanted our artist to be seen as a strong and independent artist that inspires young women. 

Another video that had a strong influence was American Boy by Estelle. As this was the original song that we wanted to do, you will find that most of our products and image is strongly influenced by Estelle. 

Since our song is about a bad lovestory between the girlfriend and boyfriend, we decided to use the same mid shot that was used in American Boy. We also used this shot because it displayed glamour between the two characters but we wanted something a little different and wanted to slightly challenge this in our music video. Instead of being a romantic atmosphere with both characters being glamorous, we only wanted the artist to seem glamorous by carefully picking out the costumes for the two characters. Boyfriend, dressed in dirty fashion, and the girlfriend, in classy and expensive clothing. This     was to display illustration within the lyrics and also follow the image we wanted for our artist which involved a luxury lifestyle; an image that was heavily influenced by American Boy. In the other screenshot above, the outfits for Deseree Diamond (our artist) and Estelle have some similarities. Another influential aspect is the mise en scene, the rich and classy costume between the two artist are very similar. The hairstyles are almost in common as we believed that Estelle beautifully portrayed the idea of luxury with the costumes and hairstyle. With the theory of Andrew Goodwin, we decided to follow the conventions of illustration as we wanted to create a narrative in the video.

Another video that also had an influence to the production of our music video was Brandy Ft Monica- The boy is mine. Here is a clip to the video: 

From watching this music video, it is clear that we have challenged the aspects to it. The reason why is because we wanted one artist and wanted to create a narrative to the music video. But with the idea of the two contrasting characters, we decided to slightly incorporate that into our main artist, Deseree Diamond. 

Between the costumes, we can see a clear contrast. This was to create the idea that character, Deseree Diamond, was miserable without the boyfriend and towards demonstrate that she found independence. The idea from the video 'the boy is mine' helped to create a strong structure to the story of the video. This also helped develop the image of the artist being glamorous and feisty. 

Question 2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Question 2.

An Ancillary product acts as promotional material for artists. These materials are often CD’s, magazine adverts, websites, posters, YouTube account, Twitter and Facebook. For my ancillary work I created a Digipaks and an Advert for the main artist (Desiree Diamond). The purpose of an ancillary product is to mainly promote the Main artist as well as the song, which is done through different forms of media technology, it is done to create a platform for the individual artist so they are known to their audience.

The purpose of Ancillary products:

v  To promote the artist and the song.

v  For visual branding.

v  To offer fans the chance to buy there album.

v  For Fans to be able to see the type of genre and persona the artist is portraying.

The link between the actual Music video and the Digipaks/advertisement is to highlight key ideas used within all three of these promotional materials. This is usually visual links to acknowledge the genre of the music. It is very important to follow the codes and conventions of ancillary products as the artists targeted audience/ fans expect to see visual links within the promotional material this is because it helps them identify what material belongs to an artist.

SYNERGY USED IN THE PRODUCTION PIECES.

Synergy means to work together. The term is used to describe a situation where different media products cooperate advantageously for a greater outcome. In our music video there are some clear visual links to the Digipaks and advertisement. The use of Synergy is mainly created through clothing and style of the main artist (Desiree Diamond). We used the same type of clothing she wore in certain scenes from the video for example the head wrap, white blouse as well as jewellery to highlight the strong representation of women. Another aspect of my music video which links to the ancillary product is the use of colour I used neutral colours such as black and white this is because the artist wore sophisticated clothing which were not too bright so the black background used on the Digipaks is there to focus on the main artist herself. To also highlight this even more we used a black and white base track. There could have been another form of Synergy which was the diamond necklace, the necklace is seen in the video because we wanted to make a direct link between her surname and the necklace but during the photo-shoot there was a slight problem as the artist had lost her necklace so we couldn’t include the necklace in the Ancillary products. Overall the use of Synergy is very important as it helps the target audience identify which aspects of the Digipaks/ advertisement link to the music video. It also portrays the type of genre the artist is involved with especially with our artist ‘Desiree Diamond’ her positioning and the direct stare towards the camera shows a clear representation of women and her style is something the young audience can relate to mainly females.

Ancillary texts and the main product

In my opinion I think my main product and ancillary texts did turn out to be quite successful as we did challenge some of the codes and conventions of ancillary products. An example of this is portraying the genre of the music video as well style and the persona of the main artist. I think we did present the style and genre well within the video as we made sure the main artist was wearing sophisticated and often casual clothing. Even though we went in with the electro pop genre we added a kind of RnB touch to it maybe in the sense of how the artist was framed and her mannerisms. Towards the end of the video we made sure the last scene contained Desiree Diamond wearing nice classy clothing, something more attention grabbing to justify the story which was easily done by her walking into the lift and smiling – this gave the audience (females) a strong representation of women of this generation and bringing across the message of not letting anyone get in the way of your happiness. Another convention used within the video is visual branding which is used in the main product (music video) and the ancillary products. For my Digipaks and my advertisement I used the same style images across all three products as I wanted to make it look more consistent so fans are able to recognise the image and then link it to the Digipaks. I didn’t include any filters or effects on the original image as I wanted her picture to stand out the same way it does in the music video. This is to again make it noticeable. I made sure I used a few codes and conventions across all the media products this is so the audience are familiar with this and for them to gain excitement into seeing how each ancillary product supports the music video whether using a certain style or colour.

The following are direct visual links between the products:

When i did research into digipaks i came across these two album covers which i posted as a blog post a while back. The reason why these two influenced me into creating my final design for the digipak was because they had a strong positioning and stood out. I wanted the positioning of our artist to be similar to Leona's positioning as it stands out and can be easily recognised by the audience. For the chris brown album cover i really liked the use of diamonds in the background so i wanted to create something like the ones shown on his one, i added simple diamonds to the       background and made sure the diamonds were visible and consistent on my ancillary products.

 

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

 Evaluation Q1.

Looking back at our Music video we have challenged and used some of Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin’s Ideas from looking at aspects of their theory. We used continuity editing to draw attention to what is going on which in this case is the story of a girl breaking up with her boyfriend. We also made sure the editing had a rhythmic basis closely associated with the song. The music video had a small disjuncture narrative (what we see doesn’t match with what we hear) which is seen in the video most of the time as parts of the song doesn’t relate to the original concept. Base tracks are used to give the video a structure and to relate back to the story of the video. Apart from Vernallis ideas we also used some of Goodwin’s ideas. These are constant repetition of images in the way songs repeat choruses or lines, there is a sense of closure and ending to show the building of the climax or repetition before fading away. In our music video this can be identified when the video starts off with the lead singer and then cuts to the break up scene in which it then goes onto cross cutting between the characters to show the contrast between the two characters this then leads to the ending – Fade away. There is a illustration narrative which is one of Goodwin's ideas he challenged this is when the music video tells a story. In the music video the lead singer looks directly at the camera, this is to grab the attention of the viewers and to make them feel involved. Overall we decided to use these aspects of both Vernallis and Goodwin’s theories to create a clear structure and proposal for our music video, this was beneficial for our final product. 

The following videos were used as a guideline for our music video. We used the same concept from each video to use in ours. As you know we changed songs which obviously meant that we had to change genres so our original ideas came from the RnB genre so we decided to stick to the same concept despite of us changing to the Electro Pop genre. We were influenced by the song American boy - Estelle, Attracting flies which is by AlunaGeorge and 212 by Azaelia banks. The reason why we chose to link our music video to the ones listed above was because they all had a leading female artist all showing a different style and persona and so we decided to use some of these aspects to create a similar type of persona for our main artist. In my opinion i would say that we didn't include as many codes and conventions of real media products, the only aspect we used was the main artist being the lead singer as well was the character throughout the video. The artist had more camera time and was clearly shown throughout the video despite there being another character involved. In reference to my ancillary products i did include an RnB style to my digipak and ancillary which is obviously the diamond images i displayed on each product. This genre is mostly associated with diamonds, nice houses, cars and Jewellery. I also added the electro pop theme to it which was the style of the font and the colours black and white which is visible on most electro pop albums. Overall we didn't challenge the codes and conventions from the genre as it was quite difficult to distinguish due to it being under different genres within music. So we decided to use some aspects from AlunaGeorge music video and Estelle's music video to create the final piece.



These are some of the videos i looked at which also influenced me, mainly because both videos had a female singer.

The images below are scenes from music videos which have influenced me. We decided to use scenes from an RnB music video and an Electro pop music video, as you can see below these are similar to the ones we created. 

Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product (Video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?

Our use of synergy was going to revolve around the theme of diamonds. I think synergy was achieved  fairly well, through ancillary and production. We planned to have the performer in the music video wear diamonds, which isn't as clear as it could've been. However synergy can be seen better in the ancillary products.

Although the diamonds can't be seen very well within the video, the theme of diamonds or in a more vague sense shiny things are very prevalent between production and ancillary texts.

In my ancillary work as seen here:

The theme of diamonds are heavily seen and in fact present in all pieces of work. The front of the outside cover features diamonds in the bottom left and right corners. It also has the artist wearing a a necklace with diamonds on it. The back of the outside cover has the track listing in a diamond shape.

The inside of the digipak has the same sort of diamonds seen on the front cover. This was to link the two but also to add to the theme of diamonds. Most obviously is the picture of a diamond which takes up the whole left side of the inside cover.

On the magazine advert, I tried to continue the theme of diamonds by having the artist once again prevalent in the advert. The picture used is the same picture seen on the outside cover, so it also has the same diamond necklace. I also put the image of the artist in a diamond shape to further add to the theme of diamonds.

Most obviously our audience would likely recognise the ancillary texts and main product through the performer. Personally I feel like both the main and ancillary text were ok but could've been better. For me personally with the ancillary texts, I feel like it could've been a lot better if I fixed a few things such as placement, however do think it was a good attempt. I think our target audience would be attracted to the ancillary work because the diamond theme would most likely appeal to aspirers. I don't think the main product would appeal to them as much because it isn't as flashy as the ancillary work.

In comparison to say, Katy Perry:

who has established her image as a pop star, with bright colours and a conventional pop video. The main and ancillary text link fairly well and most of her target audience would recognise it. Although this may be because of the fact that Katy Perry is internationally known.

In conclusion I think the combination of the main product and Ancillary texts were slightly effective but not incredibly effective as a combination. I think the ancillary text does a better job of promoting the image we had set out for the artists, as it was easier to send the image of high class across in a picture rather than in a video.

Question 1: Music Videos that influenced our music video

Question 1

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

Our media product uses several conventions from real music products. We focused specifically on the theories of Andrew Goodwin and to an extent, Carol Vernallis. Goodwin's theory of 'The Structure of Music Video: Rethinking Narrative Analysis' was something I looked at heavily, and which I think can be seen within the music video. Our music video would be categorised as under 'amplification' or 'illustration'. We also used the very obvious conventions of a music video such as the artist being the lead character within the music video.

A few songs we were influenced by were 'Aluna George - Attracting Flies', 'Azaelia Banks - 212' and 'Estelle - American Boy':   

                                                                                                                       

I was influenced by these videos as they all had a female lead, which our group also had. We also were originally planning to use 'Estelle - American Boy' as the music video we were going to perform. However we still decided to take some aspects from the video. We decided to use the theme of classiness or sophistication, Estelle had in her music video as you can see in a side by side here:

Influenced

Also influenced

However the music video created was more inspired by 'AlunaGeorge - Attracting Flies', and this can be seen in our music video. Both take place inside and outside, and the mannerisms adopted by our performer are fairly similar:

Both walking at the camera

Establishing shots

The camera work of AlunaGeorge - 'Attracting Flies' were the main things that influenced production of the video. We were somewhat inspired by the camerawork of the video, but MES-wise were more inspired by the MES of 'American Boy' as we felt more it applied much better to the image we wanted to give our artist Deseree Diamond.

We couldn't really challenge or use the conventions seen within the genre of the music video as the song comes under multiple genres of music. If I were to specify which route we went with, I would argue we went with a more R&B route, as we had a male lead and the story was more focused on a romantic sort of plot. The use of a male lead or in general another person other than the performer being  a main character within the music video is often seen in R&B videos more so then in electropop and dancepop which were the other two genres the song was classed under.

Ancillary Work

Ancillary wise my digipak and advertisement are very conventional. Both link to each other, through font, picture of the artist which was used or the general theme which linked all three pieces together. Certain conventions I decided to use with regards to the ancillary products  were mentioned earlier, use of the same font, theme, and picture are conventions of ancillary products as we can see here by Katy Perry's recent album 'Prism':

'Prism' retains every characteristic apart from the specialised outlining on the album cover.. Font and general theme stay the same.

 We can also see ancillary conventions used here by Miley Cyrus 'Bangerz':

'Bangerz' features a covered Miley Cyrus. The general theme stays the same although Miley has switched poses. Album font and general theme of the album stay the same.

In conclusion our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products in a lot of ways. Production wise we used similar camera work, and theme. We also applied the theories of Andrew Goodwin to the music video produced. Ancillary wise we followed the general concept seen in Ancillary works. Synergy was prevalent between all three pieces of work, whether it was through font, the artist's image or theme.