CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

1. CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION
SANA ZEHRA HASAN

2. 1. How does your product use or challenge conventions
and how do they represent social groups or issues?
The song I chose for my musical video clip is, ‘Good
For You’ by Selena Gomez. Choosing the perfect song
was one of the greatest challenge I faced because the
song had to be in synchrony with the idea I had in my
head. This song was able to demonstrate that perfectly.
The genre of my music video is pop. I have kept the
traditional convention reflecting the mind set of young
people these days. People have always been more
concerned with superficial and materialistic beauty and
not what lies underneath the surface. Since always
women have been objectified and seen as sex objects,
to the point that some may have also accepted it for
themselves.

3. The popular belief in media is that sex sells, which is true
as by spicing things up, you can sell a product better. This is
evident by the fact that every clip; whether it is an
advertisement or a promotional campaign or movie, if it
portrays women in a sexual way, it is guaranteed to attract
more people (men and women both).
I have taken inspiration from videos of famous music artists
such as Nicki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’, or Beyonce’s ‘Crazy in
Love’ (Fifty shades edition) and Selena Gomez’s ‘Hands to
Myself’.
Similarly, I have shown in my video how a girl ‘dreams’ of
dressing up, using tons of makeup and loads of energy in
looking good in an attempt to please someone special. This is
a convention that has been going on since a long time. Young
girls have always been pressurized by the media, their peers
and the society to look their best to get the attention of men.
The stereotype of the ‘perfect woman’ may have kept
changing with time, but the criteria always focuses around
their psychical characteristics only.

4. This concept is further
proven by the famous Male
Gaze theory by Laura Mulvey
who believes that in film,
audiences have to view
characters from the
perspective of a heterosexual
male. It relegates women to
the status of objects and how
they are and wish to be
admired by men. The concept
of how a girl desires to be
appealing in a man’s eyes is
exactly what I have shown.

5. I have shown a girl belonging to an upper rich social
class who chooses to spend her time and money on
makeup, clothes and accessories with the purpose to
achieve her skin deep beauty. This may appear to be
stereotypical to some, but it is a stereotype that has
been circulating worldwide for many centuries.
• The young people of the upper social class place a lot
of importance on appearances. People who look
beautiful are coveted and admired and those who are
not are bullied and shunned. As much as we would love
to believe otherwise and desire to change this
perspective, beauty is what attracts people and this is
the bitter truth.

6. 2. How do the elements of your production work together to
create a sense of ‘’branding’’?
Branding is an important took in the recognition and
promotion of a product. It enables consumers to
remember it and differentiate it from the competitor
products. It is also a promise of quality and reputation.
To create a sense of branding, I have created a
webpage to promote my music artist and have also
created a digipak. Furthermore, this music video was
also uploaded on Facebook to be able to reach mass
audience and get their feedback quickly. In such a way I
was able to present my product in a formal way, giving a
sense of branding.

7. The font and the color I have used for the name of my music
album, ‘Faces’ is the same as it is on my portfolio, digipak and as
well as the webpage. The color chosen is white. This indicates that
they all belong to the same company or band.
Also, I have created my own logo for the music album which is
shown on the digipak and on the webpage throughout. This is a self
made logo as every brand has its own logo. This logo further
emphases on the brand. I have also self created a tagline to make
my product more attractive and catchy. The color for this tagline is a
darker shade of grey and is present on both; the webpage and the
digipak, and will also be on the tickets available for the concerts to be
held.
The color scheme I chose is white, grey and black and you can
notice all this in all of my components.
All these similarities in my production pieces give a sense of
branding to my work and they all come across as different
promotional techniques for the same brand, rather than completely
different ones.

8. 3. How do your products engage with the audience and
how would they be distributed as real media products?
The genre of my video clip is pop and the theme that I have
introduced is that of a young girl showing off her physical beauty and
appearance. My video targets the young adults. The video is about
glamour and beauty, something the young generation connects with
and wants to see. Our youth of today do not want to stare at a
screen where there is no razzle dazzle, they want to see something
that appeals to the eye, like a sexually attractive woman and that is
exactly what I have showed in my video clip.
Firstly I have created a webpage which is easily accessible to
all. There my musical video is available so whoever visits the page
shall be able to view the video easily.
Secondly, my musical video will also be launched in concerts
that will take place for my own musical album. Here, the screening
of my video will take place and in such a way a mass audience can
be reached out. Furthermore, at the end of the musical video fans
will be given an opportunity to express their views regarding it. In
such a way, a favorable response will also lead to more people
buying the musical album in order to view the video as well.

9. I will also promote my musical video on TV channels and musical
channels like MTV and MBC. Here, my music video will be shown and the
digipak will be introduced to inform the audience regarding the whole album.
Nevertheless, the whole album will also be played on Radio Channels to
grasp the attention of daily radio listeners.
My video clip will be distributed world wide through the social media,
which includes platforms like the Facebook and YouTube. As we all know
social media is the core place to attract the attention of the majority people,
and thus to remain active on it is crucially important in the promotional
aspect of your product. We will also make an Instagram page for the album
and post short 10-15 seconds of the musical video so that when people
view it, they will have a little idea of what the video is about and the
suspense will also remain. This will encourage the interested party into
purchasing the digipak. We will be conducting concerts in USA, Japan and
England, for which the tickets will be available on our official website.
The digipak will be available on all musical stores and the locations will
be communicated to the fans through social media and the television.

10. 4. How did you integrate technologies-software,
hardware and online in this project?
New Media is a 21st Century catchall term used to
define all that is related to the internet and the interplay
between technology, images and sound. New media
evolves and morphs continuously.
While doing this project I had to come across many
softwares and online websites. Firstly I took online help
from the internet and after surfing through YouTube, I
came across many existing musical videos to get the
idea of how to create one of my own. But the final idea
and concept behind my musical video was a result of my
own creativity. Internet helped me with all the important
research work and gave me ideas from different links
that I could take inspiration from.
I shot my musical video with my DSLR (Canon-EOS
1100D). This is a professional camera which enables
high quality videos, without any jerks or disturbances, to
be produced, with clear sound.

11. The digipak I created was with the help of Adobe
Photoshop, as it is a great and an easy software to work with.
To construct the logo of my album name, I used to the help of
Google and as well as Adobe Photoshop. The eye type mask
is generated from a picture online but the original image has
not been taken, it has been cut and edited and the design on
it has been made by me. Also, the original color of the mask
has also been changed. The page I used to create my own
website was by ‘Wix.com’. It is an extremely user friendly
website builder and despite that this was my first time creating
a webpage, I faced no difficulties and was successful in doing
so.
I also took pictures from my IPHONE 5S. Applications
such as Snapchat made it easier for me to take high quality
images and also use suitable filters for it.

12. However, this time, I did not make the use of a
tripod as I did the last time, for my movie opening. The
criteria of shooting a video clip is quite different than
that of a movie. It requires a variety of shots, all of
which require great depth and detailing and to portray
the art of different dimensions, I had to constantly be
holding the camera.
After I had shot the video clip, which took me about
a week to do so, I had to edit it, which was the harder
task. To be able to put all the right shots together, make
sure that no scene was too dragged and edit it in a way
that it does not come across as boring, is a tricky job. I
used the help of Camastia Studio to edit all of my
musical video clip. This is an extremely user friendly
software to work with as it enables you to use many
effects and transitions which may not be available
otherwise. Although I did use
Windows Movie Maker to edit and construct my
evidence video.

13. Digipak Analysis
This is how the front of my digipak will look like.
The main artist (Alex Jason) featuring in the cover
of the musical video ‘Good For You’, by Selena
Gomez can be seen on the front cover.
At the left corner, is the tagline ‘Drop the Beat’,
which is the official tagline of the album ‘Faces’
and will be seen on the webpage as well as on
tickets for the concerts of this album. Beside the
album name is the logo for the album, which
appears alongside all components.
The name of the artist is mandatory as this is a
new rising singer and is not famous yet and so
people need to know her name.
The year (2016) in which this album will be
released is also mentioned on the cover.
The main image is of Alex Jason simply sitting
wearing a party dress which shows the main
genre of this album which is indeed fun and
glamour.
Beside the image, is the corner of the digipak,
that can be seen in white with the album and
artist name written on it with a black outline.
Logo
Tagline Artist name Album name

14. Tagline
Images from the musical
video
Barcode
Producer’s signature
List of songs in
the Album
DVD Logo

15. The previous slide show how the back of my digipak will appear as.
Another tagline here has been used; ‘Let the Music do the Talking.’ This is to further
attract the audience as they are always attracted by catchy taglines. Also, I believe this
tagline has a sense of meaning attached to it, one that our generation of today can relate
to and actually understand. Our youth of today tend to lack the art of words to express
themselves, as it used to be back in the day. Now they use music as a form to express
their emotions and feelings, which is exactly what this tagline claims. I have also attached
images from the video clip itself in order to make the back seem striking and eye catching.
This also enhances the beauty of the back cover and gives it an edgy look, giving the
viewer an idea of what the musical video is about.
Furthermore, you can see a barcode, at the bottom right corner, because of course no
actual product exists without a barcode.
The signature beside it is the actual
signature of the producer of the album
(me). This is to give the fans a sense of
commitment and closeness our team has
with the album.
The background is of the same artist as
used in the musical video (Alex Jason). In
accordance with the images below and the
background, the consumer gets a fine idea
on what the video clip will be about and so
it will further attract more people who (if)
may be doubtful as to whether purchasing it
or not, now will have a clearer perspective
on it and more fans will be tempted.