Media Portfolio

1. ALL OF THE STARS
Kate Parker

2. Q) How do your products use or challenge conventions
and how do they represent social groups or issues?
Rather than challenging conventions of a music video with a
romantic genre, I believe it follows most conventions of it.
Starting from the song itself, the lyrics of ‘All of the stars’ represent a
cliché plot story like all other tragic romantic songs; which is usually a
legendary love story ending on a grievous tone, due to various
reasons including, death, the couples family not supporting on their
relationship ,physical distance due to one out of the two going away
for war or shifting countries, and the most common and simplistic
reason which I've indirectly portrayed as the reason for the couple
splitting up in my music video too, is that they were simply not
working out and eventually broke up.
Hence the story in my music video is a the typical plot of a classic
love story shown in all forms of media, whether it'd be a short film or
a music video. It portrays an enchanting love between a boy and a
girl, which eventually ends. However like in most romantic plots, the
boy and girl are ultimately reunited and instantly their love is
rekindled; portraying the hidden message of ‘what's meant to be will

3. Such as in the music video ‘The story of us’ by Taylor Swift which has similar plot line to my
music video. The music video is about a thriving high school love, where the girl is shown the
reminisce her love, showing flash backs of their time together, portraying how ecstatic they
were when they were together, such as in my music video where ive shown multiple flash
backs of them being affectionate towards one another.
However, after a long period of time, as destined, they catch a glance at each other whilst
sitting opposite each other in school library. Where in my music video I've shown how they boy
and the girl both reunite at a a restaurant, showing how they catch a glance at each other.

4. Another example following the same cliché plot line, is the multiple award winning song ‘Hello’
by Adele. This song is also based in the present, which shows continuous flash backs of the girls
love, as she sits their time together. The music video also shows how in the present she rather
grieving over her lost, just like I've shown in my music video, multiple times, such as in the garden
scene and the roof scene where she is shown to reminisce he lover.
In Adeles music video there are also cut-ins in the
music video, such as in mine also, mostly of
abstract, multiple flash backs which just show the
love that they possessed. One similar one amongst
many other cliché ones is the cut in of the girl
Swiping her hand across the boys face, showing
their tenderness and desire towards each other,
which has faded out effect on it, such as in mine
to make sure it looks like it’s a scene from the
past.

5. Hence I have aimed at the convention of ‘happily ever after’ of romance,
that after any hurdles or offsets in the path of love, it will always continue
to find its way back and continue to grow even if it was disturbed at one
point in time. Hence I made the couple in my music video reunite.
Other than that, my music video follows the conventions of a romantic
genre in terms of many typical scenes that I've shot. These may include,
the shot where the girl is swiping her hands across the picture of the
couple, as she looks back to the memories of them together. Other
mainstream shots may be the flash back cut in of the girl swiping the boys
face and where the boy and girl are holding hands, the garden scene,
where she runs her fingers through the boys hair while lying down, and the
beach scenes where they're running after each other, and taking a long
walk along the sea, are all very conventional scenes shot in every music
video of such a genre.
I've included common flash back scenes used in a romantic genre media,
such scenes shot on the beach, where like every other music video there
will always be stereo typical settings where scenes will be shot such as
urban environments like the beach. I've just highlighted their closeness,
and emotion towards each other through capturing moments such as them
hugging each other, giving her a piggy back ride, and twirling her around in
his arms; Such shots are very commonly shot in every media with a

6. Generally, I've used conventional angles such as close in shots where she's
opening the door, or showing her feet walking up the stairs, to focus on the
minor details or each scene. I've used shots such as over the should shots to
show the girl viewing something, such as the scene where she's looking at the
picture of them. Lastly, I've put in shots of the sky, and like any other music
video there always few short shots of nature, or something abstract not
relating to the video at all to not make the video a drag and divert the viewers
attention for about two seconds.
Other than common using the concept of several cut ins to show flashbacks,
I've used the conventional editing of fading out the saturation and color of the
shots to make it seem as if they were flash backs too. I've used slow motion in
many scenes to make it seem more dramatic and make the whole shot come
to life such as the part where she looks at the boy and cannot believe its him,
or the part where she bangs her arms on the wheel in the car in frustration;
such effects were done to make the scenes look dramatic.

7. My camera angles have been inspired via various conventional music videos with
romantic genres, such as ‘wildest Dreams’, ‘Begin Again’ both by Taylor swift, and
‘Fight Song’ by Rachel Platten. This includes the scenes on the beach, such as the
scene shown as a flash back where the boy is hugging her from the back, or the one
where they’re walking
on forward and the sun
is shinning upon them.
Another scene may with
the same camera angles
is the garden scene,
with the side close-up
shot of the girl lying
down and missing him.

8. My music video represents high schoolers, and teenagers. Its true
that one of the stereotypical of such an age is ‘young love’. Teenagers
are known to be emotionally driven, and deep in love with their high
school lovers. It’s a known convention also shown in most romantic
media plots is that your first love is your high school, and that you will
always go back to it, which is exactly what I've shown.
I have always covered a stereotypical view of women, which is that
women are emotional, and sensitive’ which is portrayed as a social
issue as women oppose to such a thought as it makes it seems like
they are the weaker gender, when they're not. They're always shown
to be the gender that feels more and hence are more sensitive when it
comes to things that are very close to their heart such as being
impassionate about their relationships amongst other things in life.
It brings out inequality which is why its social issue. In my music
video, I've also represented women in an emotional tone as the girl
rather than the boy is shown to be continuously reminiscing her past,
and in dismay over loosing the one she loves. Hence I've shown the
girls side of the story to be very emotionally driven, and continuously
grieving as she does not have control over her mental state.

9. Q) HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT ENGAGE WITH AUDIENCE
AND CAN IT BE DISTURBUTRED AS A REAL MEDIA TEXT?
Generally my music video is a mass production product and
doesn't’t target any sort of niches, such as a particular subgroup
of people, therefore it can be catered to a varied age bracket of
people. It’s a neutral toned song, and can appeal to all genders,
age, and cultures. The plot of the music video too, is very general
and can be catered to a mass audience.
However, I do believe such a plot will mostly attract females,
aged from teenage years to 25 years of age. This is because such
plots are most relatable at this specific age, and relatively females
will be more attracted towards such a plot line as they can
emotionally refer and relate to such incidents. Hence it caters to a
large audience, normally aged above 12 years, and having a
rating of ‘U’.
I will initially choose a website to market my product along with
using sites such as Sound Cloud and YouTube to post my

10. Later, I see my music video being distributed by a website
called ‘Loudr’ which is known for distributing music. I will choose
such a website because it has no sign up costs, and considering
my music video is based on a cover song of an original, this
company obtains licenses from the original production companies
and singers them selves, they also have a great share cut of
each music video released, which seems economically attractive.
Gradually, rather than simply uploading my products on
YouTube from an independent, personal channel, Ill work with
Indie Music Management (IMM) , to distributed my music even
further to reach worldwide audiences. but gradually will hire a
parent company to distribute my products when they’ve reached
the success they need in order to go global. Not only will IMM
distribute my music video, but will also be contracted to record
my songs.
Indie Music management has distributed many music videos of
many artists such as Tori Jill, Travis Scott and Sam Smith. Since
IMM have a collaboration with Virgin stores which is a retail store

11. Other than that, I also I plan on also selling my music and music
videos to apple, hence have a collaboration with them, this is because it
offers great revenue, and is easily accessible threw the use of iTunes to
download or even just stream media products.

12. Q) HOW DID YOU INTERGRATE TECHNOLOGIES
(HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, AND ONLINE) IN THIS PROJECT?
For my portfolio, I mostly developed knowledge about software’s to
edit movies through using various different sites, and apps, such as
Imovies, Windows movie maker, Sony Vegas, Fotor, and Picasa.
I used such software's to edit my videos for great precision and
extensive detail. One of the most important elements I developed
knowledge about was transitional effects, since my video is based
mainly on flash backs, I needed some kind of transitions to put in
between each changing scene in order to somehow stitch everything
together into a well connected video. This is where I used the blur
effect for every scene change, such as from the car scene to the beach
scene.
Another effect which I used
immensely was the fade to black,
this I used before and after each
flash back scene to make sure it
seems like the scene is now
changing and going into the past.

13. Lastly, the usage of the dissolve effect was very important in the scene
where she's lying down on the ground reminiscing her past, and
suddenly the scene changes to the future, and the boy is gone. Such
scenes could’nt have been so realistic if I hadn't put in editing
transitions.Another key aspect was basic editing
in terms of handling the shadows,
highlights, contrasts and saturation in
each scene. It was very important to
make sure that each flash back
scene is distinguishable enough to
actually be seen as a scene in the
past rather than in the present.
Clear color schemes changes
needed to made in order to get
that semi black and white
saturated look for each flash
back. As well as for the present
scenes, each scene has to be
brought to its correct saturation,

14. Such as the garden scene brought to bright daylight colors in order to
make the whole scene look beautiful and well contrasted.
Other than that, other technical aspects were vital in editing this music
video. This may include the split half concept where you split one clip
into two halves and edit them separately, I've done that with many clips
such as the car scene where she hits the wheel with hands is slow
motioned compare to the rest of the clip. This is done to make the whole
scene look more dramatic and to have a greater impact than usual.
The use of cut ins needed
careful editing, to make the
whole music video not seem
like such a drag, such as the
stream of flash backs, or the
cut ins of the beach and sky.
Such cut ins made the music
video not seem monotonous
and mundane which was
easily possible because it’s a
slow beat song.

15. Two of the key element I newly learnt as apart of the A2 media
requirements were the Digipak and the webpage.
As was developing the Digipak, I learnt how to use various softwares
such as Fotor and Picasa to edit my pictures. I precisely edited them
into high saturated, and bright color schemed pictures, to make sure
they look as appealing as ever inorder to instantly catch eyes of any
viewer passing. I learned how to make a collage, and put two pictures
together, along with developing the knowledge of so many editing
effects that you can put on the pictures to make them look beautiful.
I also learnt how to make webpages, which required so much effort,
and hardwork. I had to individually create each pages’ background, to
make the site look as appealing and less mundane as possible.

16. I had to design each pages’ layout differently, such as where to place
the footer of the page, or where does the toolbar go, or even where the
main menu needs to be set. Hence I had to place each and every
content uploaded in a specific manner, designed in away to make the
website look as organized as possible. I learnt to design these pages
through choosing the correct color scene, to match each contrasted
background. I learnt how to make a GIF as there is a video instead of a
plain image on the first page of my webpage which is the home page.
Through creating this webpage I learnt a lot about Soundcloud too, this
is because I uploaded a few songs on the webpage through
Soundcloud, I understood how to initially upload the songs on
Soundcloud, and then with the help of an embedded code transfer the
link on top my webpage which is very complicated, but gave me great
insight into the whole process.
More over, I learnt how to make contact forms as displayed on the last
page of the site, which is the contact link, where you can send your
feedback to the website.
Lastly, I got a hand of using my camera on different modes. Such as the
macro mode, which I used in all the close up scenes to get a good
quality frame where everything is in deep focus, such as the scene