1. 1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Within my media products for the song Dark Paradise sung by Lana Del Rey, there are many ways
that develop andchallengethe forms and conventions of real media products. One of the main
ways that display the developments was the use of techniquesby using media language using
elements of camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene.
Camera:
The camera techniques used in music videos within this particular genre, being a
combination of pop and indie are generally similar, presenting little changes between the varieties
of shots used. For example the music video which was shot by I and my group were typically long-
medium shots with the occasional use of close-up shots to enhance the realism of the video and
CD packaging.
The use of particular camera shots and angles was relevant to my media product (music video). It
was essential that specific shots for example, close-ups were used in order to get a vivid look at the
props. Forinstancethe shot which shows the artist with the pills placed in her hand. This particular
shot is common in many music videos, where the camera is positioned in a way which focuses on the
key props; this is demonstrated clearly in a video recorded by Ed Sheeran Titled A team. The reason I
and my group decided it would be essential to use close-up shots was because we felt as though the
audience would become more engaged as a result, in addition to gaging a deeper understanding of
the feelings felt by the artist. The close-up also shows the facial expressions of the artist which
appear to be sad, although the artist in the music video can come across as complicated and difficult
to understand. The aim of this was to reveal a female who is going through a difficult situation but
tries her hardest to draw attention away from her situation but then results in the use of drugs.
(Show image)The use of drugs is a way to defeat her current circumstances, as shown in the video
through the use of close ups. These close ups portray emotion and of key iconic symbols like pills,
they act as action codes as they are easily de-coded by the audience (Barthes). Close-up shots were
an important part in displaying the print product, primarily for the front of the CD in order to pay
attention to the art work.My group and I thought that it would be useful to use both close ups for
the front of the CD and the promotional advert, however we also thought that we woulduse a close-
up image of the artist looking directly into the camera for the promotional advert, thisdirect address
is also a form of action code, creating a strong connection with the audienceThis is a form of
persuasion as this can influence the audience to buy the CD.
Just as suggested by Goodwin (1993) a relationship between the audience and the artist has been
formed through the use of all the technical areas (camera, sound, mise-en-scene and editing), for
example the lyrics and visuals which are combined in order to produce a general feeling of sadness
and romanticism.
Again through the use of camera (close up) enigma is represented through her facial expressions as
it is enigmatic. This makes the audience want to know why she is sad and what has really happened
with her boyfriend as this also allows the audience to keep watching. However, it is answered to
some extent but is still ambiguous which was deliberately post-modern and poly-semic whilst
allowing the audience to make their own meaning of the music video.
2. Bird’s eye view was a camera shot that I believed best fit to demonstrate her clearly going through a
nightmare in her dream from an elevated view from above. This shot was selectively chosen because
it gives an overall establishing shot of her dreaming whilst she tosses and turns her head from left to
right.
The use of long-shots were also essential as I believed they were significantshots to include, as
they typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually planned to place it in some
relation to its surroundings.With the purpose of understanding long shot, it was used in some
aspects of the music video to show when the artist/female was searching for her lover during her
dream. This part in the music video was exceedingly important because it was an indication which
was planned for our audience to understand the narrative of the music video clearly. I believe that
long shot allowed that scene to become interesting because this shot revealed a vivid look of the
artist running as well as the forest location in which she was in. The mise en scene of forest connotes
mystery and she only searches for him
Todorov narrative theory is evidently present in the music video as it follows a narrative problem of
love lost. It shows the development of narrative; however my group and I used a post-modern
approach, moving around in time and space and with no clear resolution.
In the magazine advert, a different image which was of a medium close up of the artist’s face was
used to produce a less complicated design that also contained relevant information. I ensured that
the colour scheme black and white (monochrome) was followed through within the advert as well as
the consistent use of the same capitalized font (Felix Tilting) which was used on each of the digital-
packaging productions.
(Goodwin theory)
Editing:
Editing played a great role in the music video. The music video featured editing techniques
that is familiar to the vast variety of real music videos
Fade
Editing using phtotoshop
Fast cutting rate
Slow cutting rate
Editing technique- B&W, flashback, Special effectow cutting rate
Sound:
Music
In synched
3. Overall, all of the products created are linked together in some form or another, which makes the
set of products evidently part of a “brand” as recognisable in various of music artist’s today, for
example Lady Gaga . They also have characteristics from the genre in each of the product that would
make them popular and fit the style of the product associated with that type of music and narrative
of the actual song itself. This all reinforces Richard Dyer’s star image theory as all of the products
relate to each other and include elements of the artist’s strengths, (performance, and lyrical themes
shown through the visual images).
4. 2. How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?
Both of my main products and the ancillary text is effective in the sense that the typography and the
house style font being ‘Felix Tilting’is consistent throughout it all as well as the use of using the
colour effect monochrome in relation to my music video.
Within the main print products, my group and I ensured that were-used certain elements that were
used in the music video, like for example the use of black and white and the artist wearing dark
make-uparound her eyes to describe her mood and her pain. It was important that her style in the
music video and her style in each of the print products reflected each other effectively, as well as it
remaining consistent, following the codes and conventions of real life existing print products
especially in the music genre of indie pop.
It is important that her styling
Reinforce importance of her styling and her presence as n artist as very alternative – link to case
studies and her representation in the real world
Collectively my group and I decided to stick to the effect black and white (although there are some
elements/scenes which are in colour) this idea was chosen for the motive that black and white is an
effect that encourages the audience to continue watch the music video and draw their attention to
the promotional advert. On the other hand, the purpose of using colour was to show the flashback
and demonstrate the happy moment/scenes.
It was important that I created several case studies which consisted of me researching several artist
album/single artwork as well as promotional adverts; artists such as the likes of Ed Sheeran and
Adele who use several codes and conventions within their artwork in order to create continuity and
relation to their style in music and most important their music video.
(How would it be marketed in the real world?)
Through radio stations – Heart, Kiss fm
Posters]
Photo peach
5. 3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
From the audience feedback, I have learnt as well as understood the preferences of different
audiences and also what they expect from a music video when they understand the genre of indie
and popular music together, in order to make the video and print products successful. This aided my
group and I to become more critical about our own music video as we are now able to identify the
problems that we have in the music video and the ways that we could improve.
Focus groups
Survey monkey
ElieGoulding
6. 4. How did you use media technologies in construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Throughout this project, I and my group have used a variety of media technologies to simplify the
research production and evaluation stages as well as using the media technologies to produce the
best final promotional package. Throughout the project we used a large variety of new media
technologies. "New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the later part of the 20th
century to encompass the amalgamation of traditional media such as film, images, music, spoken
and written word, with the interactive power of computer and communications technology,
computer-enabled consumer devices and most importantly the Internet."They have become
common within today's postmodern society and with that we have taken advantage of them in the
construction, research and planning and evaluation stages of the project.
Research and Planning
In the research and planning stage we each individually used forms of new media where we would
be able to showcase our journey through each of the stages. Ideally, we believed that using the
Google-owned blogging platform ‘Blogger’ also known as ‘BlogSpot’ to record our process and
journey through the entire task, from shooting the music video, editing and creating promotional
packages. This platform has been beneficial, as it has enabled me to personally keep a record of all
my research that I was able to find for future references, in addition to help assist pace myself with
the planning and production work. Using Blogger was very easy and straightforward for me to
use/feature my work, this is due to the reason that I already own a personal Blogger in which I am
indeed confident to use and manage. Again, blogger enabled me to work from anywhere where
internet was accessible, for example my iPhone, this allowed me comprehend that it’s the perfect
example of a new media which has enabled ease of use where I can keep a record of my production
journey, monitoring and planning. Also on my blogger featured a production schedule which was
also beneficial within my journey.
The Internet is another huge part of the research and planning stage, I used it extensively to find out
information on codes and conventions, on different technologies I was going to use, which locations
which is appropriate to film. Using search engines such as Googleencouraged me to search about
thing related to my project. It has been helpful in helping with in the project and once again this is an
ideal example of new media technologies and ease of use. I also used the Internet to access Moodle
created by my college (Leyton Sixth Form College). This was extremely beneficial as this is where I
was able to access and download important documents, like for example the recces and the talent
release form templates.
Other sources of online media also contributed to the planning like for example Google which was
one of the main primary online search engines, simply because it is the one that I am confident in
using which produces relevant and reliable results. By using keywords associated with I and my
group’s main theme, we were each able to discover a great deal of online content that contributed
towards our research and planning.
The social media site Youtube has been helpful in both the research and planning stages. It gave me
the opportunity to look at professional music videos in more detail. The site also aided me along the
way allowing me to upload my own videos of the focus groups and our official music video.
7. When my team and I began the planning and production, it was clear that my group started to
become quite reliant on media technologies. We used Microsoft’s word processing program ‘Word’
to draft and write up our original narrative for what will appear in the music video, before turning it
into a story board which was later hand drawn by one member in the group. Using Microsoft Word
was not a challenge at all, seeing as I it’s a programme in which I use on a daily basis.
Within the Internet we created a web survey using ‘Survey Monkey in order to gain additional
feedback (which was helpful in research, planning and the construction plus the evaluation stage).
Survey Monkey was a great way to gain feedback because it was accessible to everyone allowing our
responses to be varied. The website (Blogger) allowed me to feature links which was accessible to
everyone where they will be able to complete an online survey which I had personally created
through an online survey named ‘Survey Monkey’, the feedback featured on the survey has allowed
my teachers and peers to offer my group and I instant feedback on the final print products and
music video. Using an online survey was not the only beneficial technique that I and my group used
to gain feedback, we had also used the college’s HD cam recorder to capture footage of our peers
feeding back from our ideas that we pitched to them.
Construction
When it came to the stages of filming/producing and editing the music video, I personally suggested
that it would be most suitable to use one member (Symone) of the group’s Cannon 600D DSLR
camera to film with, the quality of these cameras are fantastic and are able to achieve a better result
than the camera that we had used to film our progress group. The cannon camera had a variety of
settings as well as including features of where the aperture and shutter speed can be altered. My
experience with being able to use the DSLR camera was good seeing as I am an A2 photography
student. Not only did we use the camera to capture the moving images for the music video but we
also used the camera to capture photographs (stills) of behind the scenes and the images that we
included for the front of our digital packaging and inside insert.
It was important that we used a tripod to make sure that the camera is still as well as the footage.
Most of our lighting was natural, and we tried to plan out our filming so that we got the best lighting
possible during the day. However, we did use artificial lighting during the photshoot for the digital
packaging. This enabled us to get a variety of good lighting so that our images are good.
In order to create the promotional packaging to a level that I and my group were satisfied with, we
did ensured that we carried out a reasonable amount of research into real existing media products
so that we can develop our understanding of our target audience and draw inspiration. We used a
variety of software to present this; one of the most important tools that was used for the entire
packaging was Adobe’s Photoshop CS5.1, which was mainly used to sharpen the images (saturate)
and insert text like for example the title of the song and name of the artist, in addition to adjusting
the sizes of font (typography). My experience with using Photoshop was a good experience although
I don’t use it regularly, it was challenging but also fun.
One of the programmes we were able to use was Final Cut Pro created by Apple using the iMacs
provided by my college. This programme was used to edit our footage, as it enabled us to add
8. effects for example, slow/fast cutting rates (speed), transitions and fades. It also allowed us to edit
the colour of our video from colour to monochrome, however there were still elements of colour.
Overall I do believe that each member of my group worked effectively as the project continued.
Although not everyone in my group is strong at certain things, we divided the teams roles
http://www.slideshare.net/guest964880/how-did-you-use-media-technologies-in-the-construction-
and-research-planning-and-evaluation-stages-2836027
Prezzi
Technical strengths of group members
