2. 1) In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media?
● Since the start of October 2011, I have been researching music video’s in
my chosen genre. I started by looking at what I needed to take note of, that
would take a similar but different edge to the way my music video would be
made. Some of the key points I found were:
● The narrative of the story and how it is followed by the music video
● The links between music and visuals
● The representation of the artist and how the artist would meet demands
● The characteristics of the conventions of my genre
● The camera angles and special effects
3. The narrative of the story and how it is followed by
the video
● In the music Video “take care” by Drake and Rihanna that I looked at in my
research, I could see how the main message of the song “I loved and I’ve
lost” was followed by the video in a cold atmosphere that was set. They
used dim lighting and cold mountains to symbolize the icy feeling they had
for each other. We could also see how they used different camera angles to
work the emotions of the singers, this helps the singers express the
emotion of the narrative. This works really well as the narrative is
represented by the symbols in the music video.
4. The narrative of the story and how it is followed by
the video
In my video we tried to create a
style of following the narrative, set
by facial emotion, we could see
when our artist was happy and the
how she was put down by bad
situations.
We felt we expressed the moral of
the story really well in this video,
with the narrative and the scenes
of the video. The moral is if things
are going bad in relationships they
can get worse before they get
good but there will be light at the
end of the tunnel. We felt this was
expressed really well in our video.
5. The links between music and visuals
In the music video Timbaland – The way I are, a music video I researched. We
can see how the lyrics link between the music to the actual visual effect of the
music video, when they sing to each other you can see how the music links to
the visuals when they say “I like the way you are” they express it by singing it to
each other face to face in a close up.
We can also see how the beat of the music goes with how the footballers in the
video juggle the footballs, as it comes back down on the foot the bass of the
beat kicks in, which is used to great effect.
6. The links between music and visuals
In our music video, we tried to apply our research to our video. we made our
music video try to apply the music to the visuals, we did this to add effect to our
music video, we did this using symbols of pictures of the words “we found love”.
We also tried to apply happiness in the video and we tried to show it as a visual
link when our artist is seen walking in a field. We can see this when the music
drops to “turn away because I need your more” when there is a sense of
happiness in the clip.
7. The representation of the artist and how the artist
would meet demands
Most artists in are represented in a certain way to
how their album is laid out and their state of
mind they are in. We researched artists such as
Adele, who is an artist who has rose to fame in
the past year because of her emotional songs,
we wanted to represent our artist in that same
manner, we felt we could target our audience
with a soft song with a moral behind it we can
see this type of strategy in a lot of Adele's music
and videos. Like Adele, our artist must meet the
demands to satisfy the target audience, we feel
this was done by creating an emotional video to
go with the chosen song. We also feel choosing
a song which has a bit of a beat to it and then
has a moral and emotional narrative to it was
also key to meeting demands.
8. Characteristics and conventions of my genre
We look into the characteristics of our chosen pop/Rnb genre and we wanted to
create a artist who had the characteristics of a popstar but put that into a music
video that could be interpreted as emotional. For this we created our artist to be
bubbly and entertaining like Rihanna and then also added the emotions of
Adele, who sings from her heart.
In order to make this possible we had to put together a music video that had the
values of both chosen characteristics, this was mainly built into the song choice
of an emotional song with a backbone to it in the form of a decent beat which
most pop beats fall under.
It would of been easier to keep setting a trend than rather making a new trend
but we decided to outline a new trend with a new type of artist to a good song.
This was done by crafting together two split personalities and rolling them all
into one and basing a music video around that to create a representation
9. Characteristics and conventions of my genre
For the conventions of my chosen genre, we was mainly trying to Identify
what conventions would fit the characteristics of of my music video and
artist.
After creating a new artist that could express both joy and emotion and
the same time, we went on to include that in our music video, we needed
stylish clothing and a good setting to catch the eye of the audience. Then
we needed to impress the audience with the video and music and how it
follows the narrative of the story. The most important thing that could be
the best convention was we needed to make quick scene changes in our
music video, this would allow us to draw the audience's attention and hold
the eye contact on the video.
10. Camera Angles
Different camera angles were used in our
video, this includes medium shots for an
effect where we want you to see some of the
surroundings in our music video.
We also used quite a few close up shots as
our main point was expressing emotion, we
believe that close up shots allowed up to do
this.
We also used tracking shots, long shots,
medium long shots and many more. We felt
that the more times we changed the camera
angles the more gripping to the eye it would
be. We also got some of the idea's for the
shots from Drake's music video "Take Care"
where you can see Rihanna expressing
emotion in a close up, which works well.
11. Special effects
In our video we used a strobe lighting
effect to make the video look like a pop
video, where many pop video's usually
have a different effect, we felt this effect
broke up the video nicely.
We also used a fade in fade out effect
to put two scenes together, we felt this
was a very professional type of editing
and special effect which is used in a lot
of professional music videos.
We felt including some of these special
effects will add professionalism to our
music video and engage the audience
more than something plain.
12. Editing
We done a lot of editing that was
based around what we saw out of
music videos, one of the main
successes of our editing was a shot
when our artist was walking down a
pathway, we edited 3 short clips
together to give a great effect that
follows the narrative of our video.
We can see in the photos left how we
edited the 3 short clips into 3 short
scenes, to give a feeling of loneliness
and walking away from a bad
situation.
We got insight of this technique from
our research by watching numerous
music videos.
13. 2) How effective is the combination of your main
product and your ancillary texts?
Here we can see:
- my digipack (left)
- my website (right)
- my main product/music video (centre)
14. The combination of my products..
As we can see my 3 products appear very similar in the way of
appearance. As a group we decided that we should have a colour
scheme for the 3 products we were about to create. We decided that
the colour scheme should be black white and red. We can see this
colour scheme on all three of the products very clearly, we kept the
colour scheme going in the video as you can see here with the
lighting effect of a black background, a white circular light and a cap
with red writing on.
We wanted to target the audience first of all with the
colour scheme in our music video, which they
hopefully would pick up on. We used different
symbols to replicate this, such as lipstick for the red
colour, which symbolized love, Black clothing which
symbolized bad times and darkness, white lighting
and pale skin (via makeup on the girl) which
symbolized sensitivity and brightness.
We saw these colour schemes a lot in worldwide
known artists combinations of their website, video
and digipaks, so we thought we could achieve the
same result. I feel this has been accomplished.
15. The combination of my products..
When we was making the digipak and the website, the ideology behind it was to keep the colour
scheme the same, making the red stand out above the dimmer colours that were in the
background. We saw this in our research on Drakes digipak where he was bright colours above
dark colours. This made our digipak and website stand out more and jump off the page. We also
hoped this would catch people's eye, so they would have a look.
We also put the digipak on the website, so it could get seen as the main website banner and in
the store page on the website, so people could get a different look at the digipak online.
We also combined the representation of the moral behind the video into our digipak and
website. We did this by keeping the digipak as a mix of emotions for the user, with the artist on
the front cover of the digipak seemingly happy and on the back dealing with depression by
smoking and looking glum. We also used this technique for the website so you can still sense
the emotion has carried on throughout the music video and digipak into the website.
In the music video, we can also see how it is combined with the website, with various photos
captured from the music video displayed throughout the website and various digipak inside
covers displayed throughout the website. We feel this would keep up the representation of our
music video as well as continuously applying the characteristics shown by our music artist.
16. The combination of my products..
There are many similarities between the website and
the Digipak, some of them can be seen as:
- The similarities in colour scheme
- The advertisement of our artist
- The contrasting representation of emotion
- The background scheme in both are black
- The typography in both are the same, red and white
you can see the relations with our colour scheme in
our ancillary. It was really thought about in the
design process, along with the actual
advertisement coming through the pictures. We can
see how we have made the images stand out off
the page by using Dark on bright colours.
17. The combination of my products..
The ideology between the website and the video was a challenge to combine
the two to really show the effect of what we was representing in both.
- We tried to keep the colour scheme the same in both, with the
representation of dark on light colours.
- On the website we tried to include as many photos we took from the video
as possible, so we could represent and advertise our video through the
website.
- We also have a linked video on our website, to advertise the music video in
full, this link will take you straight to the youtube account to the video.
- The video represents the website's colour scheme throughout, with mainly
most scenes sticking to the colour scheme.
- We also tried to advertise the video as much as possible on the website,
with a store page where you can see the detailed story on why the video was
made, in a sense to try and catch the audience's attention and make them
18. The combination of my products..
We made the digipak and music video bounce off each other, we
done this by representing the same moral in both
- The digipak represents emotion from the back cover to the front
cover and the music video represents emotions throughout.
- The middle cover photos of the digipak are photos from the
music video to correspond from one to another.
- The colour scheme is represented in both items with the dim
lighting effect of the music video and the dim background colour of
the digipak.
- The representation of colours can be seen in both, as the digipak
back cover as our artist is leaning against the black fence
represents struggle and past. While in one shot in our video the
artist has darkness all around her and a glimmer of light, which is
also seen represented in the digipak.
19. 3) what have you learned from your audience
feedback?
● Whenever we could we tried to get audience
feedback.
In April there was a presentation night, which
went really well. We presented our videos to an
audience in the school hall, each audience
member had a questionnaire to answer with 9
different questions we had put together that
would guide us to either guide us, make changes
or keep the same in our video.
We also uploaded our video to Facebook and
YouTube to see what people thought of our video
and to see how many views we could get.
20. Audience feedback
● We uploaded the video to
Facebook to get some audience
feedback, we received a
considerable amount of likes on the
social networking site for the music
video. We also received quite a few
comments about the video as well.
Overall we are happy with the
reaction we got from the music
video on Facebook, with some
encouraging comments it made me
more determined.
21. Audience feedback
On the 19th April 2012, we had a media presentation night
at Cheshunt school, where we presented our video to an
audience. We got audience reactions via a questionnaire.
We asked questions such as:
- Did you think the choice of settings in the video were
appropriate?
- Was the narrative easy to follow?
- Cinematography - how successful was the choice of
camera angles and movement?
- Editing - How successful was the editing?
- What could we do to improve this music video?
22. Audience Feedback
● Our overall audience feedback was very good, with our audience giving us an average score of 8
out of 10.
The main points we picked out were:
● Nearly everyone said the narrative was easy to follow, with a good understanding contrast
between the music and the actual video.
● Most people said the setting was a correct choice, this gave us a feeling the setting represented
the moral of the story, which we was very pleased with.
● The cinematography was a split decision with most people saying that we could do with a few
more camera shots from this video, which we took into consideration.
● Almost everyone was impressed with the editing and how one shot blended in well with the next
shot coming up.
● Mostly everyone who did the survey said our lip syncing could do with being a bit better, which we
took into consideration.
We was overall pleased with our reception of our video at the presentation night, taking away
valuable advice on what we should change and what we should keep the same. We met the next
lesson to discuss how we would change the video to satisfy the audience.
23. Audience Feedback
We uploaded our video to youtube, for anyone
that wants to view the video, comment on the
video or even like or dislike the video.
We did this so we could get a clearer picture
from a wider audience to see who is interested
in our video and who thinks our video is good
or bad.
It has been up around 15 days and has
recieved almost 200 views, which we believe
is a positive reaction.
24. Audience Feedback
Overall we took the target audience's views and
opinions into account and re-shot a lot of scenes from
our video to improve it. A lot of scenes we re-shot
were lip syncing scenes where the lip syncing was
fractionally out with the music.
We also re-shot any dodgy camera angles and shaky
camera shots to make the scene seem a lot more still.
We was generally happy with the response we had
from Youtube and Facebook, with the comments we
recieved on Facebook gave us a real incentive that
people liked our video and that we should push on
with getting the final product completed, which we did.
25. How did you use media technology in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
With my media coursework over the 18 months ive had, i have decided to do
my coursework using Blogging technology and also Microsoft Word and
Powerpoint. As i knew how to embed videos and pictures using HTML coding,
the blogging technology was not too difficult and i have always found microsoft
Word fairly straight forward.
The main challenge came from creating the actual video on an Apple mac
computer with two programmes called IMovie and Final Cut Pro. As i had no
previous experience using these two programmes, this is where i was most
challenged on the technology front of the coursework.
Here is my blog, as you
can see i have
embeded a picture on
my blog using HTML
coding, i have done the
same with videos.
26. Use of Media Technologies
Blogger
I used blogger first of all to create an area where it is
easily accessible on the internet for every party interested
in my work. I made this blog so i could show what
research, planning and finished products that i have made
or done. The Blog was fairly straight forward to make so
that i could customise it in any way i liked, as you can see
from screenshots how i have changed the background
and how i can embed video's to my blog using HTML
coding. Blogging technology is really useful and i think will
be a big part of future technology
Here is the design
phrase when first
making a blog
As you can see, this is the
HTML coding off of my
blog for one of my videos
that i have posted.
27. Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
I used microsoft word and powerpoint to do write
up's on the work that i have done, even product
whole analysis's on work that i have produced.
Microsoft word was easy to use to write up, but now
i am writing this very evaluation using Microsoft
PowerPoint. Microsoft powerpoint is very easy to
use, you can create as many slides as you was,
customise the background and edit the layout of the
pictures and words. This is probably one of the most
used Institutions in the world in the form of Microsoft
Office, because it is so easy and basic to use.
Here you can see a
Microsoft powerpoint
presentation
Here is a blank Microsoft
Word document, ready to
write on
28. Sony Bloggie Camera
We used a Sony bloggie HD cam corder to
film what we needed to film our products on,
we decided as a group that this camera was
cheap enough, pocket size, and could film in
High definition which is what we wanted for the
making of our video. We also believed that
Sony as an institution, was a reliable quality
maker of technological equipment, so we
opted for the Sony bloggie.
We also used a tripod to hold the camera in
place to get an even, balanced recording of
the scenes we were going to film, we agreed
as a group that this camera and a tripod was a
good practical choice.
29. IMovie and Final Cut Pro
We decided to use IMovie first of all edit our video together, which
can be found on an Apple mac computer. Things were going
good untill we noticed with IMovie there is a lack of effects you
can put on the video, We tried adding slow motion and fast
motion effects and this was becoming more and more difficult and
we found it impossible to fade two scenes into one on IMovie.
We therefore switched over to Final Cut Pro, where we could add
effects onto our video freely such as slow motion and fast motion,
also we could fade scenes into each other and work with our
footage more easily than IMovie, so we decided to edit our video
using final cut pro.
Here is IMovie
where as you can
see, you can only Here is final cut pro
edit one scene at and somebody can
a time with no edit 4 scenes at one
effects. time unlike IMovie.
30. Photoshop
For mostly all my images used on the digipak and
the website, they went through an editing stage first
of all using Photoshop. Photoshop is a really useful
software program which can brush up pictures by
adding more detail and making the general picture
look sharper in contrast, we felt doing the
photoshop process would make our digipak look
and feel how we wanted it to feel and give the
correct representation. We feel the photoshop The front cover of our
process we used was a huge success and believe digipak, created on
photoshop
in this software as a key tool in our coursework.
An idea of what
photoshop can do to
a photo, by knowing
the techniques
needed to master
photoshop
31. Youtube
Youtube is probably one of the most known
media technologies in the world, this is why my
group decided on making a Youtube account to
upload our videos of programs to it, this is a
simple process which has been used by many
people since Youtube came about. Soon as the
video is uploaded it can be seen by everyone
who logs onto the site who finds my videos via a
searchbar.
Youtube was a great technogloy to use when we
made it, we felt that we could gain audience
feedback, likes and video comments on the
video. It also has easy HTML embedding
processes as well, which is extremely useful.
Here is embedding
on youtube, simply
copy and paste
32. The Internet
The main media technology i used was probably the
biggest one. The internet, i used the internet to
research and plan for my coursework, this was me asking google a
achieved by search engines that i used to get here. question for an internet
Google being the main one used, helped me find search
what i was looking for as it is the biggest search
engine in the world.
I also used the internet to host my video up onto
Youtube so it has a chance to be viewed by Youtubes
mass audience following that it has, as well as other
media platforms with huge mass audiences such as
Facebook.
I used blogging technology to upload my work so it is
easier for everyone, this new technology will be used
by a mass audience in the near future because it is so
simple to use and so good at what it is meant to do.
33. To conclude, i have worked hard throughout the year doing thorough research accross all areas of
Media Studies, I have researched and planned along the way aswell as learned how to use new
media technologies such as IMovie and Final Cut pro as well as Photoshop in the quest to make my
main product and ancillary tasks even though it required a lot of motivation and concerntration to do
so. I have enjoyed doing this media project and also made close friends in doing so in my group and
believe we are all extremely proud of our work.
Luke Smith
Cheshunt School
Centre number 17226
Candidate number 8132
