2. In what way does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
We knew that our genre was ‘pop’ and that most ‘pop’
music videos have a clear narrative structure to show a
‘cheesy’ storyline. We kept to this convention by
allowing a narrative to flow through the lyrics and beat
of the music. Our influential artists were Taylor
Swift, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry and Lilly Allen, these
artists videos kept us on track to stay with the
conventions of a ‘pop’ music video. My favourite ‘pop’
music video is Carly Rae Jepsens to ‘Call Me Maybe’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNaR-rxAic
3. The star image of Lois Lame was clearly promoted and met the conventions
in my digi-pak due to it clearly showing that Lois Lame represented herself
as Superwoman to her fans. She shows she can and loves playing the guitar
and also sends out a personal message to all that have supported her. Lois
Lames key prop (The nerdy glasses) are shown to represent Lois Lames
quirky style and personality, they show that she is different from others but
likes to be like that as nobody is the same. I used a white background to
allow everything else to stand out on the page, it also represents Lois as
innocent and brand new in the music industry. The two different types of
pictures of Lois show her two personalities telling her audience that we all
have a different side. Overall, this digi-pak fits with the conventions of a
pop genre.
4. We studied our narrative closely at first, making
changes to it to perfect it. We aimed for a clear and
simple but fun narrative that would flow smoothly and
be clear to the audience. We did this by creating a
storyboard with drawings naming our locations and
camera angles we needed.
Within our music video we wanted to range our
camera angles and shots. We did this easily by noticing
that pop genre music videos like to use close-ups on
the artist along with mid-shots too. We included
plenty of these in our music video so the star image of
our artist is promoted.
5. The narrative of our video is based in an American
school due to the pop and cheesy storyline. I wanted to
convey this culture through the font I chose on my
Promotion poster. The font I have chosen reminds me
of an American high school’s poster that is promoting
the next Basketball game. However for the font on my
album cover I have used a font that stands out and fits
with Lois Lames Superhero theme.
To fit with the beat of our music, we created a fast
paced montage when editing to show the narrative at a
fast pace during the end to add energy to the video.
6. Our music video did not show any conflict or jealousy
between the two girls in the narrative. We did this to
use the typical Mise-en-scene of a pop genre music
video and change it instead. This sends out a positive
message to the audience telling them to rise above
anything going on like this. Usually the normal Mise-
en-scene would be a young cheerleader falling for the
popular football player who leaves her for another girl
then the conflict begins between the females. We did
allow Lois Lame to play both girls in the video to add
humour and to also fit with a convention of the pop
genre music video.
7. Lois is never shown to be with a boy in a relationship
but only as friends. This represents Lois as a
young, free, outgoing and an independent girl who
works hard. This creates a positive view of her in the
media to inspire the younger girls of her generation.
Lois Lames two different sides (Everyday girl &
Superwoman) shows she has a serious and mature side
to her aswell as a fun and bubbly personality. Giving
her two personalities allows more girls to relate to
her, creating a wider star image!
8. An example of Lois Lames split personalities is
Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus in the Hannah
Montana TV show. Miley Cyrus represents the
everyday high school girl who doesn’t stride to be
popular, just like Lois Lame. However, when she wants
to be, she can be Hannah Montana who is a rockstar to
her fans and is adored by many with her
bubbly, friendly, fun and laughable personality which
is just like Lois Lames Superwoman side. It also relates
to how Taylor Swift is represented in most of her
videos, a nerdy girl who is just herself and wants
someone to see her for that. (E.G. You Belong With
Me).
9. How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary texts?
My products completed are my music video, my digi-pak/album cover and my
promotional poster. All these are very similar to promote Lois Lames distinctive star
image. In every one, I have included Lois Lames Superwoman theme to represent
Lois Lames personality. We chose that red, blue and yellow would be our main
colours running through our products at the beginning to create a pop art/superhero
theme. I have done this and so kept a consistent house style which creates
professionalism. The house style has been kept by the white background on
everything to allow everything else to stand out such as the bright colours and
pictures, the white background also represents Lois Lames innocence and
introduction to the music industry showing she’s ‘new’ to the fame.
10. To also represent Lois Lames quirky and ‘different’
style, I have again included the nerdy glasses in all my
products, to promote the star image of Lois lame.
11. Overall, my main product has linked well with my
ancillary texts due to the constant promotion of a
consistent house style and star image. The theme
of ‘Superhero's’ has ran straight through my
product representing Lois Lames personality to
her fans and audience. The use of pictures, fonts
and colours are not too ‘girly’ and so can appeal to
both girls and boys which will widen Lois Lames
target audience. The popular ‘pop’ themed music
video will be a great way of entertainment for the
teenagers today and overall I think it has worked
well with my promoting ancillary products.
12. In class we had a Music video screening set up to show
our class our music video. Everyone was given
questions to answer about our music video, some of
the people in our class are around that age of our target
audience and so would be an appropriate group to ask.
The evaluation questions were:
1. What do you think was successful?
2. Can you think of any improvement that could be
made?
3. Who do you think the target audience is, and
does it appeal to them?
4. Does it fit the genre?
5. What is the narrative? Is it clear to the audience?
6. Do you really like my work?
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
13. As a class, they agreed that our video easily identified
the pop genre due to its narrative structure and fun
factor. They also agreed that the narrative was easy to
understand and that we had included a wide variety of
shots to balance out the video. They loved that we had
a difference in setting to represent the two different
personalities and that the stage presence was
energetic. We needed to improve on lip syncing at
times due to the timing being off, and also the guitar
playing, due to it not fitting with the music. They
agreed that our target audience was met and that
teenagers (mostly girls) would love Lois Lame.
14. How did you use new media technologies
in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
The whole of our Media coursework has been based
around using modern technologies to film and record
our coursework. We have used the blogging
website, Wordpress to write down and record
everything for our coursework, such as talking about
audience research to talking about the profile of our
artist. It was a great blogging website due to it being
easy to use and portable on and app for Iphones.
15. To film our music video, we used two different cameras to
capture our footage. These were a Mini DV camera – Canon
Legria HV40, this was used for portable filming out and
about round college and was very useful. The second
camera was a Canon XF305, this was a huge HD camera
that we used in the TV studio. They were great to use for
capturing clear and amazing videos but not so easy to use.
We also used the HD cameras to film our directors
commentary, using green screen to project our music video
in the background.
We used YouTube a lot in the making of our video due to us
using it to find influential videos to link our video to and
give us ideas. We could get any music video we wanted
quickly and easily. We also used YouTube to link our music
video to our blog.
16. We found social networking incredibly useful to us on
the production of our video. We used Facebook in
particular, this was used to make a group for our 4
member to pass and share pictures and information to
each other regarding our video. We could plan what we
would be filming in that week and also communicate
as a group when not in class.
Twitter was used too, this was also to communicate to
each other regarding media classes and to also Tweet
Katy Perry to ask to use her song. (One Of The Boys).
17. In order to put our music video together we had to use
various programmes to make our Digi-Paks and video.
To edit our video we used Adobe: Premier Pro, we
cropped and put our video together using this practical
piece of software. This software was used to create the
spin effect when Lois Lame turned in to Superwoman, it
was a clever way to portray Lois Lames star image.
To make our Digi-Paks and Promotional poster, we used
Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator on the Macs
which was difficult to use at first but easily adapted too
when you get used to it.
18. Another programme we used was Microsoft
Powerpoint to create this evaluation presentation. We
also used it to show our artist profile at the beginning
of this media coursework.
When out and about I took some pictures of filming
by using my iPhone 4s, this was handy as we could
show the hard work of all the filming through the
pictures taken. The iPhone was also used to play our
track to Patsy when she had to lip sync to it as Lois
Lame on the video.
