2. + In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Song, genre & artist-
In my music video I created a new artist persona called Melody, giving me as the
artist certain freedoms. My persona was based on and similar to artists such as
Adele, John Legend, Beyoncé and Jess Gylnne. This star persona is a soul
artist but could possibly fit into indie genres, the build up in 'Demons' gives the
song less soul sound, moving slightly towards the indie genre of music. As this is
a piano only cover of the song 'Demons' its similar to the John legend Song 'All
of me’. Because of this I tried to include a variety of performance shots showing
a ‘recording’ of the song and piano keys. This fits with the genre conventions.
Keeping with the female artist genre conventions when styling my artist I chose
to use neutral coloured eye makeup and a darker, stand out lipstick. This draws
focus to the singers lips and was done as a subtle way to infer the importance of
the voice therefore song.
3. + In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Music video inspirations-
When developing the idea for my product I looked at a variety of different music
videos from different genres. I conducted textual analysis on them breaking them
down and looking for meaning in symbols, shots and performance type. From this I
decided that I would have a mixed narrative and performance music video, with two
corresponding narratives playing side by side. An older war veteran visiting a
memorial and a young woman who appears to be a widow going to a grave. These
narratives run side by side and are spliced with different performance shots from the
artist. This is similar to the music video ‘Army’ by Ellie Goulding.
My music video takes a combination of influences from a variety of different music
videos. After watching the music video for Lady Gaga – ‘Til it happens to you’ I
decided to give my video an overall message- deciding to go with war as it fit with
both my own background, growing up with a military family and the actual song lyrics.
This video also inspired me creatively, its filmed in black and white which I initially
copied however after feedback I decided to use a saturated colour filter instead,
sticking to black and white for the military shots. There is a vast range of shot types
4. +
How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?
For my ancillary texts I designed a CD cover and poster to work alongside and promote my
music video. I thought the combination of my ancillary texts and music video work
effectively together creating a good overall effect and artist brand.
When creating my CD cover I decided to use a facial shot of the protagonist (Artist)
creating a star image. This was done in high contrast and using saturated colours. This is
an example of synergy between all of my products as this is the main filter in my music
video. The CD cover makes use of shadows, highlighting the artists face whilst
simultaneously not over powering the title and artist name. When editing my star image I
decided to air brush the photo, creating a cleaner and smoother effect. This is a commonly
used effect in media, however it can be seen as controversial. So I tried to use it sparingly.
This shows off some technical skill as it was done using the adobe Photoshop app as well
as an onlne website called ipiccy.com
The dark burgundy and faded grey writing contrasted each other and drew in the
audiences eye, the colours playing off the star image. This fits with most female artist
album covers as most will use a star focal image when promoting a CD. An example being
Adele's album ‘21’.
5. +
How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?
My use of high contrast and saturation was also done in my Music video poster, showing synergy between all
of my products.
For my interior cover I decided to have a faded picture of piano keys with song lyrics going across the keys.
The font of the lyrics is the same font used on both the poster and other aspects of the CD design. This
shows synergy between the music video and the cd cover.
The back of my album had a white bar down the left hand side as well as a artist photo. The photo is edited
so that the focal point is on the artists face. dark grey and burgundy text to show the different songs on the
album. I tired to incorporate real media features into the CD such as the producers name and a bar code-
smaller features that make my product look like a real CD.
The CD interior cover what is being covered by the physical CD uses a faded facial shot shaped like a CD-
there are two white bars running through it separating the CD name and the artist name. There is white roses
as a background going behind this cd design.
Both my CD and poster make use of white boarder blocks in some way. This was done to draw in the
audiences eye and adds to the overall effect and synergy between the texts. It also fits with the soulful
branding of the artist, adding a softer element to the darker imagery.
6. +
How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?
As previously stated my use of high contrast and saturation was also done
in my Music video poster, showing synergy between all of my products.
In my music video poser I used a similar image to that of my CD cover this
was done to show synergy between the two. I decided to remove the
background of my image and instead use a burgundy spot light. This
created contrast between the stark white boarder art and the grey writing,
whilst matching with the burgundy writing. I used the same font in all of my
ancillary texts. This added to the affectivity of my products.
To make my product appear like a real media text I tried to incorporate
realistic elements such as a review, the available on iTunes logo, the price
etc.. These elements help add to the affectivity of the poster.
7. +
What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?
From my audience feedback I was able to create a more effective music
video and design better ancillary texts.
Whilst editing my music video I continually used audience feedback, as I
thought it would be easier to effectively incorporate their responses into
my work.
This feedback included changing the initial colour scheme of my music
video as initially I was going to create my music video entirely in black
and white. However feedback from my audience influence me to instead
use saturate colours for the majority of my footage and black and white
for only my military footage. This was done to try and make the footage
appear to be aged archive footage when in actuality it is footage I filmed
on a recent trip to London and edited.
8. +
What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?
I also had my audience complete a questionnaire after watching my
final product. This included answering questions such as ‘Is the
narrative clear?’ ‘features do you like about the music video?’ ‘What
would you improve about the music video?’ ’Do you think the ancillary
texts and the music video match?’ ’What would you rate the music
video out of 10?’
Using these questions I was able to see if my music video was
successful and see what people thought bout it.
I found that most people understood the narrative, and liked the
political message, which is based on the message delivered at the end
of the music video 2014 lady Gaga video ‘til it happens to you.’
9. +
What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?
On the improvement question ‘What would you improve about the music video?’ I
received feedback about the footage quality, and having consistent quality throughout
the entire video.
A feature that was brought up on multiple occasions was the ‘old’ war footage. This
footage was in fact filmed recently by me when In London attending a military gun
salute. I however edited the footage to make it appear to be old stock footage. Another
feature that was mentioned and people liked was my time lapse footage of clouds. This
was done by leaving a camera in a stationary position for 5 hours and then speeding up
the footage. It created a good effective piece of film.
’Do you think the ancillary texts and the music video match?’ most people responded
positively towards my ancillary texts liking the synergy between them. The star image of
the artist is the same as in the music video and the style and makeup is the same.
’What would you rate the music video out of 10?’ the average mark I received was 8.3
out of 10. this was worked out by tallying up all of the results and dividing by the total
number of people who completed the questionnaire. this shows that the people who
watched my music video responded to it well.
10. + How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
In the development stage of my music video I used YouTube. To
research different music video style and types. From this I was
able to get tips on how to make a successful music video. It was
clear that most successful music video's have a combination of
both performance and narrative intertwined throughout them, this
combination is also the most common. Therefore I decided to use
this combination in my music video.
From my initial research I was also able to see that there should
be multiple locations in a music video. This helps with
synchronization between the performer and the song lyrics. It also
help to hide any errors as jumps can be used between locations
and narrative whenever a mistake is make. I used 5 different
locations in my music video. The National Arboretum. St Editha’s
Church, Tower London, the music recording studio, and The
National Forest in my music video.
11. + How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
After researching music videos on YouTube I then moved on to analyzing
different ancillary texts such as CD covers and posters. I did this both
online through Google and actual magazines such as Billboard.
When watching the videos and conducting this research I began to look
for examples of anchorage in the texts. Anchorage is when words/images
come together to create meaning. In my music video I planned to use
anchorage to link in the song lyrics with the shot types. An example being
that every time the song lyrics ‘look into my eyes’ came on I would have a
different shot of either the performer or one of the actors looking into the
camera. I also tried to match up mise-en-scene by having shots of white
roses, poppies and graves when appropriate creating anchorage between
the lyrics and the video.
I deconstructed a variety of different music videos such as Lady Gaga’s
2009 video ‘Paparazzi’ this gave me a deeper understanding of all of the
subtleties needed to create a successful music video.
12. + How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
I deconstructed a variety of different music videos such as Lady Gaga’s
2009 video ‘Paparazzi’ this gave me a deeper understanding of all of the
subtleties needed to create a successful music video.
I did textual analysis for numerous different cd covers to determine what
was successful and what I would need to do before settling on what I
wanted to use.
I eventually decided on the song and came up with a narrative for my
music video- I decided use a cover of the imagine dragons song demons.
When it came to creating my story board I decided to use the website
storyboardthat.com- a free online story board creator. as this is a simple way
of having clear images.
After this was done I used the story board to help me film.
13. + How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
I filmed using two different cameras. A Sony HDRCX130
Handycam Camcorder and a Fujifilm FinePix S4000 14MP
Digital Camera.
The variety in cameras lead to a difference in the shot quality
which was something picked up on in the feedback the Fujifilm
camera being the one which lead to slightly less clear footage,
there was also no stabilizer on this camera.
When filming in the music studio I tried to use lighting subtly to
highlight the artist, having a very low spotlight on with a darker
back light. This was done to draw focus to the performer. This
fits with the performance element of my music video and draws
attention to the artist.
14. + How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Once I had all of my footage I imported it onto a apple mac and
went through each clip naming them and checking to make
sure they were all okay.
After this process was done I imported the clips into adobe
premier pro, which is what I made my music video on. The first
thing I did when creating my music video was to lip sync all of
my performance clips wth the song lysrics. After this was done
slowly started to build up my narrative making it so that the shot
clips all ran smoothly from one to another.
After I had a basic first draft I began to edit the clips. I reduced
the saturation of the clips giving them a more sombre quality.
15. + How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
I then went on to edit my London stock footage making the clip
black and white to represent a memory.
After I finished using the fast colour correcting editing tool on
adobe premier pro I went on to edit the transition between my
clips. I used fade transitions between some of my footage to show
the connection between the narratives and performance.
Once my music video was complete I started on my ancilliary
texts, a cd cover and a poster.
My cd cover used a star image of the artist as the cover. The
photo was edited using the online website ipiccy.com as well as
adobe Photoshop.
16. + How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
My evaluation was done using a combination of written and video
texts.
To start with I planned my evaluation and wrote out everything that
I would need to say. I did this on PowerPoint so that I could
eventually embed it as a slide share.
I then recorded me reading my script out, answering all of the
questions.
After I had completed this I started to make evaluation videos
using adobe premier pro. Matching u p appropriate evidence to
link with what I was saying.
Once my videos were completed I added them to my advanced
portfolio blog.
