3. I feel that in the media product I have produced, I have used various conventions from real pop videos and have
created a music video that is concept based. Although this music video type is rare, the band I chose to use, for
my video have perused this frequently in their videos such as “Teenage Kicks” and “Live While We’re Young”.
The video has no narrative but it features various clips of miming, different people partying, playing in the park
and engaging in other random activities. I developed these ideas by adding my own initiative and planned a
fancy dress party to film some of my music video. I thought this would add a twist to the video and effectively
develop ideas taken from the original media product.
My version of Live While We’re Young and the accompanying ancillary tasks feature the typical young, male
character of a boy band or singer. This character then becomes the main focus of the album cover and
advertisement along with being the prominent feature of the video itself. One example of this can be seen in
pop album covers by the likes of Kelly Clarkson, who is seen as the main feature in the front cover of her
albums. This helps portray the artist as successful and of importance, usually these pictures make them look
worthy and respectable, again adding to their status as an artist.
4. The beginning of the music video sets the scene with a shot of the sun which pans down to body height and
switches to the next scene. I followed this scene with a few clips of other events that will occur throughout the
video so that it doesn’t appear as complete nonsense. Furthermore, there are a range of different shots in my
video such as close ups and mid-shots to emphasize the character lip syncing. I have used close ups in the party
scene at the end to highlight the characters enjoying themselves, I also used a spotlight setting on the digital
camera as I was filming in a dark area and this allowed me to focus wholly on one character. This convention comes
from a real music video, Cooler Than Me – Mike Posner, that used a similar technique however he followed the
spotlight rather that the spotlight being on him.
I attempted to challenge different conventions of pop music videos by, firstly using concept based music video, but
also by including clips that may not be usual in the world of pop. For example, in order to reflect the song’s title I
had used younger children in the video, which is rare for music videos as artists are usually adults.
5.
6. My accompanying ancillary texts consisted of an album cover for the music video/song and an advertisement
to promote sales of my media product. Both the ancillary tasks follow a simple, bold layout with a dominating
picture of characters from the music video. These layouts also have a funky, bold font to accompany each one.
Through research, I found that in general, pop artists, particularly One Direction, use bright colours on album
covers as they give out a fun and relaxed look. The colours and layouts used in my ancillary tasks relate to the
music video’s theme of people enjoying themselves and ‘living whilst they’re young’.
On the front cover of the album cover and the picture for the advertisement, the same person is used to
represent the artist, who also features in the main product. The character on the front of the album cover is a
young, attractive male who features in the film. I used Adobe Photoshop to contrast the colours and add bring
the main character forward, Photoshop also allowed me to add a One Direction logo and spine in order to
make it look more proficient. The colours on the front, back and middle pages all correlate and although they
are quite similar, they work well together rather than having random different pictures on each page.
7. The advertisement reflects the video well as it again, uses the character but with a funny facial expression to
add to the look. Through the use of Photoshop, I was able to include a faded black border to the advertisement
to enhance its appearance so that it comes across as eye-catching and attractive to look at. The colours used
are bold with red and blacks making the tasks standing out.
Furthermore, both tasks include the same character as I chose to follow a simple layout to make it look more
professional. The front and back covers have very similar pictures, the front cover being a face on look to make
it bolder along with a subtle smiling expression for the back cover to create a more relaxed look for the music
video.
8.
9. Audience feedback is important to determine how successful my media product could potentially be. My music video
was uploaded to YouTube as I thought this would be an honest source of feedback as it would come from individuals
who watched the video out of choice. This way, we are able to see what people like and dislike about the media
product. Additionally, this would be effective as the feedback given would be from individuals unfamiliar to me and
their opinions would be less biased. For example, the picture on the left shows a few comments on our music video on
YouTube, many of the comments mention how good the editing was and this is an indication of what went well. I also
established through these comments what did not go as well and what we can improve on.
I also asked individuals in my A Level media class what their views were about the music video I had produced and the
ancillary tasks. Much of the feedback was positive, although some filming was criticized for being ‘random’. From this
we have recognised where I went wrong in the filming process as I should have included more clips of lip syncing which
could have potentially made the video look more professional. The positive feedback I gained from the audience
included the idea of the funny scenes that were edited to merge different people and places together. One audience
member said this was “inventive and clear that the characters were enjoying themselves and represents the feel good
atmosphere of the video”. As I myself have watched the video and could consider myself as part of the audience, I
decided to comment on what I thought about the video once it was complete. I felt that with all the time and effort I
put into this production, the final product was successful and that I addressed the target audience well. On the
completion of the task, I felt relieved and a sense of achievement as it got good reception when shown to the
audience. Next time however, I will organise myself better and ensure that all the filming is done to the best it can be. I
will also make sure that mis-en-scene is relevant to the place I have filmed and to the video itself and portrays the
characters in the production successfully in order to achieve the best possible product. Throughout the creation of this
media product, I have learnt that audience feedback is essential when making a media product as they can give you the
best help for improvement and recognising anything that could be done better by sharing different ideas.
10.
11. In the construction of my media product, I used various media technologies such as digital cameras for filming
and my iPhone smartphone for still shots to display where we were planning to film each scene. This was also
used to play music in the background whilst filming, in order to keep the lip syncing in time. The computers in
my sixth form provided me with different Adobe editing programmes that were specifically useful in the editing
process. This software was used as it supplied me with different ways to add effects, transitions and
cutting/inserting clips and I was able to add the music to the background to help synchronize the lip-syncing.
This was done by cutting clips, shortening them, lengthening them and adding extras if the clip didn’t fit with
the song. The outcome was a successful and professional looking pop video. The software to edit the ancillary
tasks (album cover and advertisement) was called AdobePhotoshop11, this allowed is to edit the pictures and
add texts to the tasks. I used this to edit all aspects of the album cover which includes a front/back cover and
middle pages.
12. Through research via I found a website creator called Wix.com, which
allows me to display all the information used to create my media products.
This includes research, planning, filming and editing, it enables me to
document it for all internet users world to see. I was able to upload
videos, pictures, evidence of filming and editing, examples of different
album covers, all of which were crucial to the planning and research for
the creation of my media product. Wix.com also provided an editing
option for the pictures I had created for the ancillary tasks and once they
were uploaded, I was able to enhance their look even further. To film, I
used a digital camera provided by the school to film the moving pictures
needed for our A2 coursework. Many of my clips were filmed free hand
and without a tripod, however I used the digital camera to my advantage.
This is evident when I panned across a lake which features near the
beginning of the music video to set the scene. The camera also enabled
me to zoom in/out and film various shots until I was happy with each clip.
To create an interesting look to my audience profile, I used the iPad
software ‘Pages’. This software enabled me to make a header with the title
‘Audience Profile’ and add an attractive look to the pictures using the blue
border. I found that this software was much more creative and easier to
use than Microsoft Publisher or Word.
