2.  When researching into the codes and conventions of music videos, I
became aware that music videos have different codes and
conventions depending on what genre of music is used, To gain a
better understanding of what I needed to include in my video, I
decided on a genre (A hybrid genre; Pop Indie) and delved deep into
researching that specific genre. I found that many music videos
included lip syncing to portray strong emotional links with the lyrics and
the video itself. However the videos I preferred the most were the ones
without the artist lip syncing in it at all. After further research I found that
these types of videos only worked well if they had a grasping narrative
story, therefore to achieve the best results, I needed to come up with a
story that would grab the audience. However, when trying to use this
convention in my own work, I discovered that I would not be meeting
the criteria of my brief and my camera and editing skills were not
developed enough to achieve this, this then led to filming scenes of my
artist singing. I wanted my protagonist to portray strong sadness and
emotion when she was lip syncing, from my research into pop/indie
music videos, many artist sung with hand movements to exaggerate
their emotions. I included this and also used a costume prop of a jacket
which she could take off in frustration and throw across the room. I also
used close-up shots to make the audience feel connected with the
artist and make them feel her upset and anger. However, my research
into music videos that included performance and narrative story
suggested that in scenes of performance, I should include a band
behind the artist singing. I challenged this idea to create an intimate
performance where the artist was also part of the narrative story. I
wanted the cuts between narrative and performance to portray a
memory where the artist is looking back at a past relationship which
ended badly. I placed my artist in a medium lighted room as I wanted
the audience to see her as the protagonist in the video, rather than the
antagonist in dim lighting. In addition to this, I used the same location
for the lip-syncing and the fighting/make-up scenes between the
characters to connote the importance of the location; the memories
and pain that is left in that room, and to represent the loneliness that
she is left with which is also portrayed in the lip-syncing scenes as she is
alone.

3.  I chose to have my artist sitting down when lip-
syncing/performing as I wanted to challenge the
conventions of a typical pop/indie music video.
Through research I found that artists often performed
standing up and often whilst walking through a
scene or narrative story. However I chose to
challenge this to make my media product different
from mainstream media. I wanted my video to be
memorable to my audience; for them to hear the
song and to instantly remember my production. In
addition to this, by having the artist sitting down, it
allowed my audience to see that she felt insecure
and upset, linking her to the narrative story and
reinforcing that she is looking back at a memory.
However, after looking back at my video I think I
could have made this clearer with her holding a
photo of them; though the clothing and the setting
was the same, some of my audience didn‟t realise
she was part of the narrative story.
Moreover, I also wanted to challenge the forms and
conventions of editing in my music video. Most
professional music videos do not include any
fades/dip to black in their clip transitions. I decided
to include this technique three times in my work as I
felt it aided the audience in identifying the rewind
scene and to give an ambiguous ending.
However, although this helped, I do not think the
reasons why the rewind happened were entirely
clear.

4.  My video generally follows the typical forms
and conventions of the pop/indie genre. As
my actress was performing in the narrative
sequence and the lip-syncing performance, I
wanted the two scenes to link together;
therefore my actress wore the same clothing
in both. The clothing iconically connotes the
pop/indie genre with fashionable items and
converse shoes. When choosing what clothing
my actress and actor was going to wear, I
chose to dress them more in indie clothes than
pop as my actress was supposed to be
casual. However, I found some continuity
errors after re-watching my video critically. In
the opening shot of my actress on the bed lip-
syncing and the scenes at the beginning of
her fighting with my male actor, she isn't
wearing a necklace that is seen throughout
the rest of my video. Moreover, In the shots of
the car coming down the road and the shot
where the car hits my actress, there is a blue
car in the background of one of the shots and
not in the other. I think this makes my video
unprofessional and I would need to be much
more careful if I had to do this task again.

5.  My music video also follows the typical narrative story of pop/indie
music videos. Most pop videos that have a narrative story include a
short story or memory of a boy and girl in a happy or unhappy
relationship. I chose to include both happy and unhappy in my
video, at the beginning of the video my actors are fighting with
each other, and at the end they are making up. However this also
challenges the typical narrative of a music video as many begin in
a state of equilibrium and then progress to a disruption. I decided to
begin with disruption as it fitted better with the lyrics of the song.
Moreover, pop music narrative stories are often set in a normal
house or bedroom, I used this convention and had my actress in her
bedroom and walking through the house which made it clearer to
the audience that my video was from that genre.
 Music videos use editing to match the pace of the song so the
video is kept to the beat of the song. I developed this technique by
cutting between shots when appropriate e.g. drum beats. However
despite this, I do feel some shots were too long and could have
been changed through inter-cutting as I feel it slowed the video
down in parts of the song like the chorus which are much more
upbeat.

6.  When choosing which type of music video I was
going to make e.g. narrative, live performance; I
found a few videos that included a rewind
technique (See Blog Post on Young
Guns, Coldplay, and Alt-J). I decided that this type of
video was very effective and it allowed me to be very
creative in my ideas, therefore I chose to develop this
convention. I chose to include it half way through my
video, to give the impression that my video had two
alternate endings: it would then be down to the
audience to decide which ending they believed
happened. When attempting to rewind the footage, I
found it very difficult to match the pace of the song
with the footage. Looking back at my work I think I
placed the rewind too early in the song; it appears
too slow to match the tempo of the song and due to
the intercutting between the narrative story/rewind
and the lip-syncing/performance, it isn't established
that the video is rewinding and cuts in the wrong
places and timings. Furthermore, at the end of the
rewind I included a fade to indicate the end of
rewind and the start of normal footage, however I
feel this was very weak and looked poor compared
to the rest of the video. I could have used a different
transition rather than fade to black e.g. a merge.

7. Another way that I developed the forms and
conventions of real media products was through the
use of slow motion. Most music videos do not include
this technique unless something dramatic happens in
the narrative story or in dance routines. However in
my music video I felt it was appropriate to include
this technique when editing as it added more drama
and held the audiences attention. I think this worked
very well in most parts of the video, however it was
weak when rewinding in slow motion
Most music videos use simple camera techniques to
ensure the audience is interested, keeping up with
the pace of the song. However, I chose to
challenge this at the end of my video, where my
singer is lip-syncing on the bed. I decided to hold this
shot for thirty seconds as I felt that my actress was
singing important lyrics and needed to connect with
the audience. I also used a zoom to get further away
from my actress to connote distance and her
loneliness in the room. I feel this worked well but I also
think I could have made it a little quicker as it
seemed to be too exaggerated and not realistic.

8.  When creating my ancillary texts, I feel I didn‟t do as
much research as I could have into the codes and
conventions of real media products, instead I just
viewed them as a whole. However, despite this I am
very pleased with my finished products and believe
they look professional. When researching I should
have completed further deeper research into
typography and the types of shots needed for my
chosen genre. Nonetheless, I used general codes and
conventions of posters and digipak‟s and based my
final decisions on what would suit my artist and ideas
best.
 Looking back at my poster, I feel it is too „busy‟ to the
eye; although there is a clear synergy between the
digipak and poster, I think I tried to complicate my
work using many different techniques, rather than
keep it simple. I developed the conventions of real
media products by creating synergy between my two
texts; I used the same back ground setting, the same
fonts and colour scheme. I intended my work to look
professional using professional shots and editing that
mainstream artists would use. I believe that I achieved
this, though on the other hand it can also be seen as
too glossy and over the top.

9.  When creating my digipak it was important to consider the way it was going to be set out;
digipak‟s have 6 pages so it was important to decide what pictures were going to go
where. Besides the front and back covers, the inside of the digipak needed to be
positioned correctly to gain the desired effect. I wanted my digipak to be the first album
my artist had ever made so I decided that I would design it in a way that would focus
mainly on the image of the artist to allow the audience to easily indentify what genre of
music she created. I chose a black and white colour scheme to connote simplicity, the
main background that I used throughout my two ancillary texts was a floral wallpaper;
connoting beauty and wealth from the pop genre of music, however it also represents the
indie genre with ideas of nature. The photographs that I chose to use were pictures that
portrayed natural beauty, they worked well with the background and didn‟t need any
editing. To match the symbols of beauty, I chose a font that was majestic and flowy, and
used this on the album cover and the back with the song list on. I ensured this font was
clear and stood out as it is a key marketing technique. I chose to place two identical
photos on the inside of the booklet but each flipped a different way so that they were
facing each other and looking at the CD which was in the middle of them. I believe this
also gave a conceptual focus on the music itself as the photos look towards the CD. I
believe that my digipak worked well as it included many items of synergy throughout and
looked professional.
 As I made the digipak first, I used the cover of the album as the main focus in my
poster, allowing my audience to easily recognise the CD if they were going to buy it. I also
include references to my real artist (Elissa Franceschi) website as she asked me too when
using her song. I wanted to use the same floral background in my poster as well as my
digipak, however, after centralising my album cover on the poster and using that
background, I then realised I had no where to place any text unless I used a very bright
colour which would have made it look unprofessional. This led me to add a bar at the top
and bottom of my poster to allow me to add text, however I believe this has made it look
very hectic on the eye. Despite this, the use of shadowing my album cover with black
around the edges like a border, gives the effect of embossing, which immediately draws
your attention to the centre of the poster where the album is, a key technique in
marketing as my audience knows instantly what this advert is for.

10.  I feel that there is a clear synergy between my
two ancillary texts. They both include the same
colour scheme, fonts, pictures and effects. If my
ancillary texts were on the market, I believe it
would be very easy for consumers to link the
two pieces together. Moreover, by including
the intense background of the floral pattern
and having a lot of it prominent, it is striking to
the audience and will stick in their mind; a key
aspect in marketing. The front cover of the
album which is featured in both the digipak
and the poster includes a picture which was
taken with a professional camera which gives it
high definition which makes the album look
more professional. When creating the ancillary
texts I felt it was important to focus more on the
artist, rather than conceptual ideas. I tried to
make it seem like this was the artists first album;
many real media artists that produce a first
album are often mainly focused on the artist.
Mainstream artists however are more focused
on conceptual images. Every page of my
digipak contained the floral background or a
flower from the background so they are all
clearly linked. Similarly, my poster contains the
floral background and the album cover so
synergy is very clear.

11.  Although my ancillary texts work very well together and compliment
each other, I do not believe that my ancillary texts and my main texts
work well together. Overall, my main text is completely different from my
ancillary texts and this can be seen both positively and negatively.
On one hand, by having my ancillary texts and main texts very
different, it portrays two different sides to my artist. My ancillary texts
connote beauty and the upper class, whereas my main text contains
ideas of teenagers in the middle class. My main text can be seen as a
real life reflection of society; a teenage girl having an argument with
her boyfriend in her bedroom, who then places herself in the wrong
place at the wrong time and she gets run over. However my main text
portrays the ideal lifestyle for my audience and having the luxuries that
are denoted in the ancillary texts. If my media products were to be
marketed, this diversity represents two different sides to my style of work
and the artist herself.
However, on the other hand, this difference between the two products
does suggest that my audience will be unable to connect the two texts
together. The only similarity between my ancillary and my main text is
the artist which is throughout my video and pictured in both pieces of
my ancillary texts. The tones of the two pieces are completely different;
my ancillary texts are sophisticated and stylish, whereas my music video
is portraying a narrative story. To amend this in the future, I could
change the lip-syncing scenes in the music video to a high class
performance by the artist, possibly wearing something more classy. I
could also use the same background which was used in my ancillary
texts as background to her performance in the video; thus creating a
link between the two texts. In addition to this, the colours which are
used within the music video are more vibrant compared to the black
and white ancillary texts, suggesting that synergy is lost within the two
pieces.
Nevertheless, what can be seen to link the two pieces together is the
connection both pieces have with the audience. In my ancillary
texts, my album cover includes a picture of the artist looking directly
with the camera, which engages the audience. Similarly, in my music
video, when my artist is lip-syncing she is showing strong emotion with
facial expressions and body movements with engage the audience
with the powerful lyrics in the song.

12.  After putting my music video up on YouTube, I
created a questionnaire on Google Docs. I chose to
use YouTube as it is a well known site which is easy to
use and upload footage and most of my peers knew
how to use it. I chose to use Google Docs as I was
familiar with the site as I used it last year during my AS
production. The site is easy to use and when looking
at results they are already processed and organised
so it makes it easier to read. This questionnaire
allowed me to ask specific questions that I wanted
feedback on in my texts. I decided to combine both
my ancillary text and main text questions together as
it was easier for my audience to complete, rather
than having to complete two.

13. “Good video, would have liked to see
a different set on the lip syncing
scenes”
“The font that was used
on the CD and poster is a
little challenging to read
but does work well with
the design.”
"The sets & costumes suited it.
Plus izzy does look very indie
when she's not actually
talking "
“Favourite part was the use of
the rewind and alternative
ending.”
"the representation of the boy and the
girl and their use of clothes
indie videos are usually based on a
story (like your video) and mainstream
pop music videos focus on the singer
itself, so yeah your video reflects the
genre."
“The choruses had good
quite a few good shots
including the close ups of
the singer. I think the video
could have used quicker
cuts though throughout -
some scenes were
extremely long without cuts
which is not common for
most music videos.”

14.  After sharing my questionnaire and video over Facebook and Twitter to
family, friends and peers, I gathered enough feedback to analyse. The feedback I
received was both positive and negative, and mostly what I had expected to
receive. Many liked the idea of the alternate ending and how it made them think
more deeply rather than just watch and enjoy. However others found this difficult
to understand, which is what I intended to happen as I wanted to challenge my
audience. Many felt that the representation of the pop/indie genre was easily
identifiable through the use of setting and clothing, however I do feel that I could
have included a prop with significance to my protagonist and that also made
clearer links to this genre.
 As I expected, many of my audience didn‟t understand why my actress was in the
same setting and clothing in the lip syncing scenes and the narrative story. Many
felt that it would have been better to cut to a different setting and make my artist
look more like a mainstream singer with a band performing. If I was going to
improve my work, I feel this would be the most significant improvement I could
make as despite aiming to challenge the codes and conventions of most music
videos, sometimes by using and developing these conventions you can achieve
better feedback and results.
 The main concern that many had with my music video was that the pacing of my
editing was very slow and they felt it slowed my video down. I agree with this
feedback as the song and the video feel quite separate despite the lip-syncing.
The narrative story that I included in my video didn‟t match the lyrics of the song
and some said it felt quite disjointed. When planning my video, I tried to match
some parts of my video with Young Guns „You Are Not‟, where the screen play
doesn‟t match the lyrics of the song. As I was aiming to challenge this idea, it
would have worked better if I had edited my video better with the tempo. People
also said that my shots were far too long for a typical music video; however I
wanted to include these long shots to make my video different. Shots are normally
only held for around 5 seconds in most videos unless they are tracking something
or someone. In my video I chose to over exaggerate this and hold my end shot for
30 seconds, which put a lot of my audience out or their comfort zone. Many videos
that I liked when I was researching and intended to use certain aspects of their
video in mine through remixing, were often videos that didn‟t feel like a music
video; the story came before the music. However, reflecting back on this decision I
think it was a bad decision as my target audience were passive and weren‟t as
open minded as I had hoped. If I was to improve my video then I would choose to
challenge my audience in a subtler way. When choosing to over exaggerate shot
lengths I could hold a shot for possibly 15 seconds rather than thirty.

15.  Feedback from my ancillary texts were also positive and negative.
Many stated that they looked professional and were put together
well, however others felt some aspects could be improved on.
One concern that my audience voiced was that the synergy
between the music video and the ancillary texts was not clear and
didn‟t have anything linking them together. I agree with this and
some suggested that I could have used pictures from the music video
or taken professional pictures with my actress wearing the same
clothing or in the same setting.
 Another point they raised was that the font used in my ancillary texts
wasn‟t very clear. However they did state that it still suited the
design, therefore if was to improve my ancillary texts I would like to
find a font that is still floral and formal, but possibly a bit clearer as
some of the letter intertwine and makes it difficult to read.
 The final point that was raised about my ancillary texts was that they
didn‟t express the same emotions as the music video. I agree with this
statement to a certain extent as I could have included a picture in
the ancillary texts which shows my actress showing stronger emotion.
However from the research that I did on digipak‟s, most of them
included beauty shots of the artist. I chose to make the digipak for an
album rather than a single which gave me more freedom in choosing
pictures and the style. On the other hand, I could choose to make my
digipak for a single next time rather than an album as this would give
better synergy between texts and better feedback.

16. Research
 To begin my research, I was required to find out what a
music video was and what the important codes and
conventions were for each genre of music. For this, the
easiest way for me to get a greater understanding was
through the use of different search engines. I mainly
used Google to get results and then used various
websites that were found like Wikipedia. This then
allowed me to go on professional music video and
filming websites which gave me background
knowledge and ideas on how to film my production.
 To widen my knowledge further I was then required to
watch as many music videos as I could so I could gain
a better understanding of what works well in my chosen
genre and some rough ideas to work on. For this, the
easiest website was YouTube, music videos are easily
searchable and you can refine your results to get
exactly what you‟re looking for. It also recommends
videos for you that are similar to what you are looking
at which then gave me a wider knowledge and
understanding of other techniques that I could use in
my music video. YouTube videos also allowed me to
deconstruct real media products to gain a greater
understanding of how they were constructed and how
meaning is created e.g. Pace of editing and narrative
story techniques.

17. Planning
 To begin planning my production, I needed to gather all of my
information that I had gained in research and pick out the most
important parts for my music video. Once I had acquired a
rough idea of what I wanted to include in my music video, I
created a questionnaire on Google Docs to give out to my
target audience so I could shape my video around them or
subvert this and challenge them. Google Docs was easy to use
and gave me clear results in different tables so I could decipher.
 I then used a digital camera to take pictures of my story board
and them import them into Adobe Premiere Pro so that I could
create an anamatic to see what my idea would look like with
the chosen music. This was important as it allowed me to see
what shots would work, what shots needed to be change or
repositioned and timings of the edits so that I could easily film my
footage and edit it with less problems. I found it quite easy to
create my anamatic as I had already practiced in AS.

18. Construction
 To begin constructing my music video, I used a HD camera with a tripod
to film my required footage. Half of my scenes in my music video were
required inside, so I shot these first as they were much easier to do. Inside
I could adjust the lighting accordingly using lamps or daylight, and I then
began to edit this footage on Adobe Premiere Pro to ensure that my
music video was progressing well and that I didn‟t need to change my
narrative story last minute like my AS production. When filming the lip
syncing scenes which were based inside, I used YouTube on a laptop or
my phone to play the song in the background for my actress to allow her
to lip-sync the best she can. By doing this, it allowed me to easily edit the
music video together as I could match the song in the background of
the video, to the song in Premiere Pro.
 When I began to film outside for the half of my music video, I was aware
that the weather could become a big problem which could lead to
continuity errors. I filmed the scenes where my actress was coming out of
the house, up to the point where she is about to walk out into the road
on a very sunny day. However, due to having to re-film some scenes that
were indoors, I didn‟t get round to filming the scenes where she gets hit
by a car until very later on. Unfortunately, the weather for a few weeks
was due to be raining and cloudy and I was going to miss my deadline
unless I re-filmed the entire outside sequence on a cloudy day.
However, as I filmed at my actresses house, more complications came
when they had to move house and I couldn‟t film there anymore, this
then led to me using Premiere Pro to tone down the lighting using the
brightness/contrast tool in some shots so that they were all matched but
did not look heavily edited.
 Another tool I used a lot in Premiere Pro was the speed/duration
tool, which allowed me to change some of my shots to slow motion and
also reverse my clips so they played backwards. After teaching myself
how to use this tool through YouTube videos, I found this very easy to use
and I think it worked well. I also added some titles at the begin which
allowed me to credit my artist and myself by using the title tool, I was
familiar with this as I used it in AS, so it was completed fairly quickly.

19. Construction
 For the construction of my ancillary texts, I used Adobe Photoshop
CS5. I wasn‟t very familiar with using this program however fellow
students gave me a basic lesson on how to use most of the tools I
would need. To begin creating my Digipak, I needed to find a
template to place my pictures in. I found this by searching for a
digipak template on Google and downloading one of the images. I
then needed to edit my photographs to get the correct lighting
and contrast which were easily adjusted in percentages.
However, some images needed to be placed on top of one
another which meant I had to cut some parts of photos out using
the magnetic outline tool which easily followed my mouse. I found
this quite difficult at first as it was hard to keep a steady hand when
trying to outline, however with practice I achieved it.
 I also used the flip and rotate tool to turn some cut outs of flowers
and the inside pictures of my actress, which was done by clicking
on the appropriate arrows. I changed my cut out flowers from black
to white using the invert tool which automatically turned them the
opposite colour. I also included text which I had downloaded off a
website in Google that matched the style of my ancillary texts.
 I found that creating my poster was much easier as it was quicker
and I was familiar with many of the tools. I used the same front
cover and background and simple used the spray can brush to
gradually add black shadows to the top and bottom of my poster
and around the centre of my album cover.

20. Evaluation
 To evaluate my work I uploaded my music video onto
YouTube where people could watch and comment to add
any feedback. To speed this process up, I created a
questionnaire on Google Docs and broadcast it to my
family, friends and peers by Email, Twitter and
Facebook, allowing me to gather a wide range of responses.
I ensured the questions were straight to the point and
allowed people to elaborate their answers. The people I
shared the questionnaire with were also mainly my target
audience aged 15-25 which made it a quick and easy was to
gather results.
 I used Microsoft PowerPoint to create this evaluation and
then used a website called Slide Share to upload it to the
internet and share on my blog at Blogger.