The student produced a music video for the song "Wonderful" by the band The Different. They also created accompanying materials including a DVD digipak and magazine advertisement. For the music video, the student referenced the novel Great Expectations by portraying the main character as an unhappy bride. They received positive feedback on the narrative, editing, and representation of the band's style and genre. The digipak and ad maintained continuity with the music video through consistent imagery, color palette, and themes. The student learned new skills using video equipment and editing software.

1. Evaluation Music video project

2. The Different Band Information I found my chosen band on the website- Jamendo. Jamendo offers a wide variety of copyright free tracks available in all types of genre and region as it is used globally by listeners and musicians. My band- The Different are an Italian alternative rock band (but perform in English), consisting of a female vocalist and four other male members. When listening to their tracks I really liked the bands style and the strong female Vocals which created a lot of emotion on the track, particularly on the one I chose- Wonderful. Ideas and Concepts When listening to ‘Wonderful’ the mood and emotion of the song was the driving force for my inspiration. As the song was quite slow and ‘moody’ I needed to use specific props and camera shots which would suit the track. In the beginning stages of my production work I did not initially intend on using narrative or matching the lyrics to the visuals, but as the song refers back to a ‘Wonderful bride’ I could not help but think of an unhappy bride. It then occurred to me that I could reference the character Miss Havisham from the Charles Dickens Novel Great Expectations, to Intertextually reference this in my music video, which would be recognisable to some of my viewers.

3. Mood board Shot of the Reflection of my character, however may be problematic This is the font I would like to use for my Digipak designs , I found this font on dafont.com Intertextually referencing the character of Miss Havisham Using props I will create an atmosphere of my characters emotions I would also like to re-create the ‘rose petal’ scene from American beauty in the style of my music video and editing techniques such as reversing the shot. Inspired by the music video- The Pharcyde - Drop directed by Spike Jones

4. In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? When producing my music video I decided on using a narrative for the sequences of my video, Intertextually referencing them to the Charles Dickens Novel – Great Expectations. I wanted to do this because it would emphasize the link between the lyrics and the Visuals and represent the song in a stronger more interesting way. It is for these reasons that I believe my media product can be comparable to existing media products of which are the same context and style, such as; Fall out boy- A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me“ Lady gaga- Telephone Another influential factor when making my video, was the directorial style of Chris Cunningham. Within most of my video the actress is pictured in a overpoweringly white backdrop- of which a similar set can also been seen in Bjork’s video- all is full of love. My music video uses conventions of existing media products as it identifies with Andrew Goodwin’s theory of the key features within a music video, such as; Intertextual referencing Relationship between visuals and lyrics Genre-related style and iconography of the band

5. Target audiences and Continuity of band genre and image When listening to my chosen track, I found it easy to define what types of audiences would listen to the band. However, coming up with concepts to convey this visually was difficult as I didn’t want the female vocalist to overpower the variety in gender interest in the band. The band is strong predominately because of their female singer and I really wanted to establish her vocal emotions on screen without making the video too feminine, which was quite difficult using the props which I had chose. However, I feel that all types of audiences can enjoy the video as the narrative is strong and particularly suits the style and genre of the band. My target audiences primarily, were males and females between the ages of 13-25 and aims the genre In the rock/alternative route.

6. How my product contrasts to traditional forms and conventions of media products My music video uses most of the key factors which traditional media products use which are; Lip syncing, performance, music and tempo matches editing, genre is reflected through mise-en-scene, lyrics drive the action in the video, digital effects are used and a regular use of close ups to show the main artist/vocalist. However, the way in which my video has been put together could be said to have a very artistic approach from the conventional mainstream music videos within the media. As I have used a female Character and I have chosen to represent her in as a strong young woman. This actually contrasts with the lyrics of the song. This positive representation contrasts with many voyeuristic representations of women in music videos, depending on the genre and target audience of the product. My video conveys the emotions of the character Through performance and narrative and may be said to appeal to a very broad audience because of this as they can connect to the emotions of my character through narrative and performance.

7. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? My music video was designed to promote the release of my DVD digipak in conjunction with the digipak advert. In the planning stages of my music video, I had to think about the way the video would portray the band so that the promotion of the track would be effective in the Promotion of the digipak. I managed to maintain a brand identity throughout- referencing characters and costumes which my actress had used in the music video on the images of my digipak and advert, which would be recognisable to the audience so they could familiarise with the style and representation of the band. In order to achieve a stylistic link between my 3 products, I considered; colour, imagery, text and theme. In my DVD digipak I predominantly used the Stylised imagery from my music video featuring the track ‘Wonderful’ as the main element for the DVD digipak advert. In my music video there is a harsh contrast between black and white and for my digipak designs I did not want to move away from this look too much, so it was crucial that I maintained a relationship between the stylistic imagery in order to continue with the band identity.

8. Digipak Front Cover For the front cover of my digipak, I wanted to use a strong image of the lead singer / character from my music video, so this would link in the basic style and genre of the band. I chose to use a simple design which would draw the viewer in, using a bold image and simple text as you can see. The wedding theme is also consistent throughout my ancillary texts and music video to continue with the band appeal. For the front cover image, I used a photograph which I had taken on a photo shoot with my model and modified it using Photoshop. I experimented with different styles and textures and decided to use an ‘oil paint’ look which seemed to fit in quite well with my other images and font.

9. Digipak When thinking about the layout of my digipak, I didn’t want to present too much detail which would drown out the strong images I had the chance to use from my photo shoot. From modifying these images, it enabled me to get a feel of how I wanted my layout to be presented and from this I also decided against a booklet and to instead include a poster for the promotion of the music video- which is also a sample from my digipak advert. By doing this it also helped my audience associate the promotion of the digipak to the band and music video and continue their style and genre thus creating more interest in the band. For my digipak I used three strong images and a simple black and white track listing on the back. This made it eye catching and easy for people to read.

10. Magazine Advert As my magazine advert was modified from the poster included in my digipak, it made it easy to link the products together. For my advert I wanted the image to be strong and reference to the music video and I done this again by using the wedding dress theme. However, to make the appeal of the advert look like it was selling ‘music’ as opposed to wedding dresses, I needed to add in some details that would enable viewers to comprehend the purpose of the advert. I done this by adding in an image of a crash symbol which also pointed towards the genre of the music that was being advertised. Another way in which I conveyed style and genre was the use of colour and text. My advert does not make a statement by using bold colours to catch attention but instead links back to the theme of the digipak and music video and also conveys the styles of a rock/alternative genre

11. What have you learnt from your audience feedback? For feedback on my music video, I produced a questionnaire through survey monkey and from my initial research questions, cut them down and re-worded them to make it less time consuming for my audience. The questions included important information about their opinion on- narrative, editing and mise-en-scene and also if they could recognise any elements in my video which they had seen in a conventional music video or any other forms of media products. From my results I could see that my audience were prominently male between the ages of 17-21, and most of my responses felt that my music video would fit the style of current videos on NME. I had many positive responses about the editing techniques, shots used and accuracy of lip syncing and learnt that these are all very Important elements to achieve an effective music video. Although there was some constructive criticism about my video and these were mainly comments about the pace and length of some shots as the audience felt that some lasted too long and lost interest because of this. However, results showed a positive reaction to the genre, mood and editing of the video and people agreed that it boosted their interest in the band because of this.

12. Results Quantitative Data

13. Results Quantitative Data

14. Results Qualitative Data

15. Results Qualitative Data

16. Results Qualitative Data

17. Results Qualitative Data Feed back from YouTube comments

18. Band feedback Emails and feedback from The Different Eric: Hello, we are very happy that you like our music. We would very much like a video made by you. I give my permission ...:-). Let me know how the work proceeds. Myself: hello, sorry for my late reply. I have been very busy completing the music video finally and also have to produce an example digipak to go with the video and would like to use your real names on the digipak if that's ok but cant find your details anywhere. Obviously i haven't used the lead singer as my model but would rather put the lead singers real name on there as it seems more appropriate. Here is the draft for my digipak and i will have the video uploaded soon. Oh and to answer your question about which song i chose- Wonderful. Its a beautiful song to work with :) Trudy. Eric: Hello, thanks again for having worked to our song. These are the names of all the musicians who worked on the song: Serena Altavilla: Vocals Enrico Lelmi: Wurlitzer, synth Andrea Franchi: Drums, keyboard Salvatore Santitoro: Bass Produced, recorded and mixed by Enrico Lelmi in DDR Studio. Prato (Italy) I hope to soon see the video Myself: hello, i have finally completed all my work thank you for getting back to me about the band names. on the link below you can find all the work I have produced for the music video. Eric: Hello, Trudy. I am very satisfied with the work you've done. I already linked to the video on facebook many pages, I would also add to the video channel Jamendo if you is not a problem. It 's very nice that people in different places so far apart can collaborate together on a project. I'm building a new studio very large, we will also video production. This summer we are planning the creation of a film, I'll take care of the soundtrack. We plan to shoot with Canon 7D. If a partnership might be interested let me know. See you soon

19. Email evidence

20. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Planning When preparing to shoot my music video, I wanted to achieve very high quality images and editing in order to complete my music video to a good standard. By planning out the look of my video it became easier to decide what to do when shooting so I produced an animation from my storyboard. I completed this through Adobe premiere and from this I furthered my skills and knowledge of the programme, although I did not use premiere to edit my footage with and I chose to use the TV studio instead, as it would enable me to edit quicker by using high quality footage from the A1 cameras in the studio. Construction Before starting on my music video project, I had little knowledge of how to use the cameras and equipment and found it difficult to adjust the settings at first but began experimenting and eventually gained basic knowledge about them. Another new experience was editing on the Mac’s using Final cut. This was another programme I had never used and because of this it became quite time consuming in the first stage of my editing as I needed to teach myself the skills to use the programme properly to achieve a high standard of work. However, experiencing the new equipment definitely boosted my confidence as I have learnt new skills and know that I can produce a high standard of work from it. Research For my Digipak and Magazine ad I had spent a lot of time researching my target audiences’ sense of style and what they expect to see with existing media products. I gathered my results using survey monkey and other social networking sites such as facebook to get quick and reliable responses. After this I posted my feedback on my blog in order to construct and develop my ideas into my product. When thinking about how to manipulate my images in Photoshop for my digipak covers, I wanted to achieve a very high standard and professional look, so I looked into online Photoshop tutorials to gather ideas. From this I constructed my ‘oil painting’ style and developed my final look from this. Evaluation In the evaluation stages of my work, I posted my music video onto YouTube and started analysing the comments . I saw that I had Many positive comments about the style and editing techniques within my video and I also used Survey Monkey to Collect More detailed feedback of what my audiences thought.

21. Bibliography (web 2.0) Adobe SlideShare SurveyMonkey Wikipedia Jamendo YouTube Google

22. How I could have improved From the transition from AS to A2, I feel my work has progressed and developed significantly and using my previous experience from my Magazine project last year, I was able to produce good ancillary texts but also learn new skills from using the equipment from the TV studio for my music video. Looking back, there are some things I would change about the organization of how my coursework shaped, as it was difficult at times to use the TV studio because of other students’ busy schedules. This set my intentions for the music video back As I then did not have time to experiment with different shots within the studio. However, I feel the outcome and feedback from my audience Was generally good and I feel very pleased with the products I have produced As they clearly promote my bands identity and status.