Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video stuck to the normal conventions of pop videos, switching between performance clips of the singer and shots displaying the narrative of the video. We were mostly inspired by the original video for Smile, which has a similar style (performance and narrative clips together). It also gave us ideas for the narrative of our video- in the original, Lily Allen is getting her own back on her cheating ex-lover, while in ours the singer has just broken up with her boyfriend and is getting over him.
Our video
Original video
Our video
Original video
We liked the bright visual style of the original video, and thought that it went well with the upbeat and happy tone of the song, so we did our best to film as many of our shots during the day as we could. For the studio shots, we arranged the lighting in a way that would highlight the singer, so that all the audience's attention was focused on her.
The digipak cover was also conventional, as the front cover is simply a picture of the singer's face with their name and the album title in front of them, a technique that many female pop singers such as Duffy, Rihanna and Beyonce have used over the years. The adveritsment is similar to the digipak, with the same colour background and another photo (this one a medium shot) of the singer.
My album cover
Cover of Duffy's album Rockferry
Cover of Rihanna's album Loud
Cover of Beyonce's album I Am... Sasha Fierce
Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?
Personally, I don't think there is a very strong link between the video and the ancillary texts I produced. The video itself doesn't contain many strong images besides the singer herself, so finding something to use on the digipak and advertisement was challenging. I also don't think the target audience would be likely to be attracted to them, as they are both quite plain and boring. The only way the audience would be able to recognise that the video and ancillary texts are linked is the presence of the singer in both. Otherwise, there is no clear visual link between them.
Question 3 - How did you use media technologies in the construction & research, planning and evaluation stages?
When we were researching music videos, we used Youtube to find music videos to watch for inpsiration for our own video, and used Google and Wikipedia to research the codes & conventions of music videos. We also found research about narrative, such as the theories that both Vladimir Propp and Andrew Goodwin made, on various websites. When planning our video, we researched on the internet a bit more, and also created an animatic storyboard on Powerpoint which we then converted to a video using Quicktime.
Question 4 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In class, each group gave feedback to the other groups. Here is some of the feedback we received about our video:
"Lighting was good throughout the video"
"Mis en scene kept with the codes and conventions"
"The ending was really good with the fading effect"
"Locations are varied, but too much time is spent in front of the black background"
"[the singer's] performance could be stronger"
"Good narrative"
"Keeps the audience engaged"
Overall the video was quite well received. Compliments centred mainly on the narrative of the video, as well as our wide range of shots. Criticisms many people had in common were the number of shots in front of the black background (although the variety of other locations was praised) and the performer's "robotic" performance and lack confidence.
After receiving this feedback, I have decided that if we were to do this task again I would plan further in advance, so that we could think of more locations and perhaps find someone else who was willing to be the singer. I've also learned that narrative can play a bigger part in videos than I thought, and I would find a way to include a bit more if we were given the chance to.
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video starts with black and white photos showing the past - informing the audience how it was before. Then throughout the video we've got narration once again portraying how it is now. Below i've listed the videos that have influenced us and why they've influenced us. This is how the music video starts after the black and white photos...
zooming out of an ipod.. making it seem like she's listening to the song while its been played - artists name and song written on the track.
We started our journey by making a Lily Allen's song, Smile. This song is a typical pop song as its got the 'love' theme about a boy and a girl. However the thing that makes it untypical at the same time is the fact that she's talking about breaking up instead of getting together - this is quite different compared to any other pop song these days. Most songs will have lyrics about loving or missing someone etc. This song shows a couple together at first and breaking up towards the end.
Locations were important - as we had to choose the appropriate places to shoot the music video. We used the same bedroom shot as Lily Allen. The bedroom shot shows whats going in the room. In Lily Allen's shot we see her eating a chocolate, like women do when their going through a hard time. However, in our shot we showed this with the surrounding - messy at the background, showing her depressed and telling us that she's going through something.
Taylor Swifts song "You Belong With Me" took my attention as it had the typical theme "love" with a boy and a girl (typical pop genre) - and another girl who makes it impossible.
We were influenced by the fact it had another girl involved - the lyrics of our song also matched it. it was about a girl who found out that her boyfriend had a relationship with another girl - cheating on her to be more simple. However, Taylor Swift's song doesn't contain any cheating, but the idea of it involving another girl gave us an idea, and it has worked pretty well.
This is one of the videos that influenced me. Taylor Swift - You belong with me. Because of the use of camerawork, when both of the characters are communicating from window to window with a pen a blank paper writing to each other. We've used the communicating technique too, but with mobile phones and shot reverse shots to show that they're speaking, at the same time introducing the characters in the video.
Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?
I believe my digipak is successful and it fits the pop genre by the use of colour, I've used purple, gray, white and black mainly on my digipak because that was what we decided as a group - what we thought would attract the audience. The swirly design on the digipak and the use of the microphone image at the back gives it more of a pop-look. I think this will mainly catch the eye of young teenage girls - she is like an idol to them - girls will die to be as 'cool' as Bee.
I think my digipak would attract females mainly because of the song and lyrics and the digipak it seems like its aimed at women more. My audience is young teenage females and adults and i believe ive achieved my goal. The use of image will want to make girls want to be like Bee, sing like Bee and be a superstar like Bee, another reason why someone would want to buy the album.
My advertisement is quite similar to my digipak as i used the same swirly design and colours. I wanted to use the same text, colours - so it would reflect back to my digipak. Keeping colours designs the same is important as you need to relate back to the album. Using different colours/designs won't really work because it will seem like two different things - whereas you should make them seem similar to help people recognize your product.
I've got different bright colours involved, that i didn't have on my digipak - the reason for this was because for the advertisement I wanted to take more attention. Colours such as green, yellow, orange and red did the trick, because it easily takes someones eye. Informing people that the albums out and listing tour dates, websites and logo's gives information to the fans and updates them with future plans.
I was also influenced by Lily Allen's album cover 'Smile'
Mainly the fact that she had a close-up picture which was above her shoulder, this is why I've used the same type of shot for the front of my digipak because I found it very successful, gives a clearer look at the artist and more attracting - could be easily identified by people walking by it.
I saw an album cover of Jack Johnson, with a microphone..
so i've decided to use the same idea on mine, however on the back of my digipak - without the artist, just the microphone itself, Jack Johnson's cover gave me an idea.
I thought that a microphone will also show people the genre of the music. I'm aware that a microphone
may portray all different types of genres, but the way I've placed it and the type of colours I've used to go with it will give the pop-look.
Question 3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Before we started any filming we were introduced to the brand new state of the art video cameras
we had to practice using the cameras first and get used to them - we gave a short practice video shoot for a song, which was given to us. We had to learn the lyrics to the song and learn to lip-sync. Memory cards were given and shown how to use to store footage from the lips.
The research, planning and evaluation went really well - as a group we gave few ideas on which song we should pick and make a music video on. Created a list and then voted. All this information was then transferred into blogger.
Blogger is a site where we store all our work, planning and final work. Using blogger was quite easy for me as i've used it before - It was also useful as it was a place to show some independent and group work.
At the process of choosing which song to pick we used Youtube as a site to view songs/music videos, because its the most common and most helpful site to watch music videos. We also used Youtube to view certain videos on their camerawork editing to give us brief ideas on our music video.
Once we had rough drawings of the digipak we posted them on blogger and got started on our original work on photoshop. I was already very familiar with photoshop in GCSE and AS so it was easy to use for me.
I had almost finished my digipak on my photoshop - I needed some text to do the titles and add some writing onto my digipak and advertisement. So I used a program called Quark express to add the text. I've also used this program before, so i know what i was doing. Quark is a program which helps you write texts in different font/colours and styles - also helps you re-arrange the text in any way you want organizing and moving text on quark was easy.
Editing the clips we had was the best part! using a program called Final Cut Pro to cut and stick clips together. Lip-syncing and joining the clips to the soundtrack was quite difficult but it was well done by the group. Using transitions to give it a more realistic and professional look was fun. Even though I've used Final Cut Pro before there was still some stuff which I didn't know. I found out that filming and editing a music video was way different compared to a thriller opening. In the music video we got introduced to the razor tool which made things much more easier and clips easier to cut.
Question 4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I've recorded few people who have seen our music video, for their feedback - which could help me in the future letting me know what i should and should not do in the future videos.
Question 1: what did you like about the video? people have said it was really good and catchy and the beat was just right and went well with the sequence, lyrics matched well with the scenes. Overall very successful.
Question 2: what do you think could be changed? they said that it should be more fast paced in-order to appeal to more people. I do actually agree with this, our music video was medium paced and maybe if it was more fast paced it would've been better. I should also focus on different angles, perhaps more on the background - not just on the artist herself all the time. Focusing on the background will show what is happening in the surroundings. I've also been told that shots should be taken in different locations. The locations that were used was a park, bedroom, outside the house and the studio. Maybe we should of took various other shots in different locations. Question 3: do you think our video fits the pop genre? apparently it fits the pop genre very well as we had the male/female 'love' theme going on, like every other pop song these days. It was quite typical. However, I've learnt that the music video will attract females mainly because women could relate to the song more than men, because they may have the same problems that Bee has - it might help them resolve their problems.
I did take note of the feedback and I will make sure that in the future i will apply all of those things that i missed out. Feedback are very important as they let you know where your at in your filming and editing, tells you what you have to do, and the things you shouldn't do. I've chosen females in particular to give me feedback on my video because they are the main target audience their response is more important to me, that is why I've asked three females in the clip above.
You all seem to have collectively missed the draft deadline. Could you please make sure that you post something today or tomorrow as I would like to give you feedback as this will improve your final grade. I would like you all to get something up as soon as possible.
Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our video has a genre of mainstream pop. Within this genre there is a typical girl/boy romance, which we have stuck to and tried to show this within the narrative. In our version of Lily Allen "Smile" we have tried to develop the conventions by having a clear beginning and ending.
For the beginning we have used a series of black and white photo's of the couple to show when they were happy. However, when Lily Allen begins to sing the video starts and it is in colour showing the present. For the ending we chose to have a burning picture of the couple which the singer then stamps on at the end, showing the audience he is no longer in her heart. Each chorus is in different locations and is addressing the camera.
This is Lily Allen's music video for "Smile", which we was influenced by, for our video. In Lily Allen's video you are able to see the clear links between our video and Lily's.
Lily Allen - Smile Our version
Here in these images you are able to see how they are similar. They are both sitting by themselves, which is showing the loneliness they are feeling. However, they are in different locations.
You can see in my groups version of Smile we decided to show our couple outside and arguing. Although, in Lily Allen's version she is lying down with her boyfriend. Both of these images are giving off a different atmosphere. We chose to show the couple arguing because he is her past and we want the audience to know that.
In these two photo's both of the boyfriends are on the phone outside. However, they are on the phone to different people. In Lily Allen's video she has chosen to have him on the phone to someone who the audience doesn't know, giving the impression he doesn't really want her back. Although, in my group's version of "Smile" we have shown the boy to be on the phone to the singer begging her to take him back. We showed this through a shot reverse shot, allowing the audience to see the reaction of both the girl and the boy.
In this next video by Ny, this is where we got the inspiration to burn the picture at the end whilst having our artist still in the frame.
In these two pictures you are able to tell where we have got our influence from. As a group, we decided that we had to have a good ending, so we decided to burn a picture of the couple together. This is showing the audience that he is no longer going to get her back and that she is over him. This can also be shown when the singer stamps the picture out like in the images below:
In this video by Charlotte Church we took inspiration of having black and white photographs, which I think are showing the past.
As a whole the pictures are very different as the pictures from Charlotte Church's video are of someone taking photo's of someone else where as in our video the photo's are of a couple. However, like Charlotte Church we have decided to have them in black and white, although, our pictures are showing the past. Charlotte Church's video "Crazy Chick" stays in black and white, where as our video soon goes into colour when the singer begins to sing, showing the present.
How conventional is your digipak and advertisement?
I think my digipak is conventional for the pop genre as I have used a large photograph of the artist's face, they are also quite girly and colourful.
Rihanna with her album Loud:
On the front cover for Rihanna's album "Loud" she has used a close up of her face, with a thin white font showing femininity.
Leona Lewis with her album Spirit:
In Leona Lewis's album "Spirit" she to has gone for a close up of her face following the conventions of a pop album. She has also used a thin white font for her name followed by a thin gold font for the album name.
For my digipak I have stuck to the conventional pop album as I have also used a facial photograph for the cover of my album, which I think suits the album well. I have also made sure that I didn't cover the artist's face with text as this is not conventional for the genre and I didn't want to challenge this.
My digipak cover:
Below you will be able to see where i have got my influence from for my advertisement:
Lily Allen:
From looking at Lily Allen's Advert you are able to see where I have got influence from :
As Lily Allen has done, I have used a big photograph so the audience are able to recognise who the artist is. Also I have put a photo of the cover of the digipak I have created. By doing this it makes the audience understand what this is for.
Question 2 -How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisment)?
As there was no visual link that we could use from our video, as a group, we decided to use a floral pattern as our artist was in a park a lot in the video, so we thought this would be relevant. Below you are able to see the floral pattern that I have decided to use for my Digipak and advertisement. Also, the floral is similar to a top that "BEE" was wearing in her video.
The floral background Bee's floral top
By having a design like this I am able to use it on the digipak as well as the advertisement. This is so the audience are able to recognise that they are linked to each other. Below you are able to see how I have linked the digipak and advertisement.
On the digipak I have decided to use floral to how I made it: The yellow background with the purple and grey florals, which I have carried on to the advertisement:
Here the audience can see that I have stuck with the same floral background, but I took away the yellow background and changed the opacity. This is because I wanted to keep it simple but also let the audience see that they are linked. To make sure they could see this I put a image of the front cover of the digipak.
I have decided that because smile is just a single it does not have to match the digipak or the advert.
Influence for my digipak
Cheryl Cole has been a big influence for my digipak because she kept the design very simple throughout, which I believe I have done with the simple floral pattern. Below you can see images of her digipak compared to mine.
You are able to see where I have been inspired by having the artist name and album name on the CD and having a plain background. Also, I have only one picture of the artist as Cheryl Cole, this is because I didn't think I needed to have a picture on every panel.
Below is a video of me commenting on if my music video will make a clear visual link between it and it's ancillary products.
Question 3 -How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
