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.
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?
Making of my advert:
Making of my digipak:
Question 4 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In this video you are able to see some audience feedback.
Here are some of the words describing my video
From watching this video, I have learned that
