AISHA HUGHES EVALUATION

QUESTION FOUR

Q4. How did you use new media techniques in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?

We used many media techniques through out the duration of creating this media piece, from Youtube to Final cut express. Each technique had a purpose to create the most successful video, poster and Digipack possible.

Each stage from research to evaluation I used different media techniques. To start with I used YouTube to gain inspiration and knowledge on pop artist who are current. I looked at their music videos to see what was a current style that I could see than ran through out many of them. From this I realised that each music video had a very strong concept and performance. From this it was then made clear that this was something that was very important that we should incorporated into our music video if we wanted to stick to the traditional pop music videos.

We used the Internet to gain inspiration for costume and make-up ideas for our music video. I looked at the artist own websites, and browsed through their gallery for inspiration. I also gained inspiration by looking through magazines and shop windows. I wanted to have as many sources as possible to have a wide range of ideas and thoughts, thus then creating a more interesting and dynamic final piece.

I was inspired by several artist, these being Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, in every music video they have they have a very strong concept that is very visually appealing to the same target audience we have. The costumes are bright and vibrant as well as the make-up. When you watch one of their music videos its very memorable, something we wanted to make our music video.We used Barb to gain research about our target audience, this is a very useful website as without it we would not have known the key information about our audience.

Through out this whole project I have been storing my research, experiments etc. on blogger. I have used it as an online scrapbook. It has all of my development throughout this duration and is a visual way of recording what I have been doing. By it being online it is more interactive as I have been able to upload videos, wordles I have made, mind maps, collages etc. 

To gain more information about our target audience we used a website called barb, it allowed us to gain important knowledge about what channels our target market watched and now often. This was useful as if we were going to put the music video on TV channels we would then know which ones were the most viewed to then give our artist the most exposer. 

For the practical music video filming we used a digital video camera, we had to make sure that each time it was used that the colour contrast was the same as the last time to make sire there is continuity throughout the video, we white balanced it. We also used a tripod to make sure that the camera was stable and we then could produce a clear shot. Lights were used in every shot; this was because it gives a clearer, crisp image and adds a more professional look to the video. By using the lights it helped us to be able to film outside when it was dark, something that would have been a major problem if we didn’t have the lights. For the dig pack and poster we used a digital camera and took the pictures in a drama room, which gave us a good black backdrop, this making the artist the main focus.

In the editing stage of the music video I used Final cut express. To make sure that I knew what I was doing on the software I had several practices on it using different images and video clips. Such as the lip sync technique using the Tom Jones music, using images to practice key frames etc. This was very useful, as with out it the music video would have been edited at a very poor quality. I found the lip-syncing the most tiresome part of the editing as it took a lot of concentration and get the clip in the correct place, if it were slightly off then the whole video would look a much poorer quality. For the poster and digipack we used Photoshop, this was a very useful software to use as it allowed make and us to edit the picture we had taken them how we wanted them. We used the colour tool brush to change the colour of the eyes and lipsticks, as well as using the smoothing tool which allows for all imperfections to be cleared away, making the artist look more professional and as if it was a real CD and poster.


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WIX LINK : http://www.wix.com/aishaliz/media

AISHA HUGHES EVALUATION

QUESTION THREE

Q3.  What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our target demographic for our music video was mostly females aged between 15-20. We decided that they would mostly be white girls as they are the most popular ethnicity that listens to our genre of music-pop.  We thought that they would mostly listen to pop music with a mixture of R&B such a Rhianna, they would read Look magazine, go to a college to study beauty or fashion studies.

The decision for this came from the fact that we ourselves our in the age group and listen to Jessie J’s music ourselves. This has helped us to understand our audience even better and have a more complex understand on what they like and dislike.

Ke$ha music video ‘Tik Tok’ is a music video that is very similar to ours, in the way that she has a concept and narrative but the main essence of the music video is performance. I feel that this music video type is most popular with our target audience, however by the many female gaze shots and the sexuality of the video I feel that the male audience would also be interested in it.

To make our target audience interested in our music video we added many features in which would be popular to teenage female girls.In our music video we introduced characters that will appeal to our audience, these were interesting and out of the ordinary characters. Such as the mime, ballet dancer and violinist. All these characters add depth to our music video. It allows the audience to connect with them and be able to feel more involved in the music video as if it is telling a story. The main characters are the artist and her friend that she is having the conflict with. By having these two characters in tension, it allows the audience to make up their own mind on whose side they want to be on.

With flash backs to how their friendship used to be to now with the artist trying to apologise and the friend denying it. It creates a story and a situation that these teenage girls may be very familiar with, as that the ages of 15-20 friendships is hugely important to them. Therefore they can connect to this music video and can identify characters in the video that they may know in real life or may they be.

We have portrayed a group of friends with all different backgrounds by some characters being dancers, musicians or just a neutral friend. These characters all represent equality and individuality to our target audience allowing anyone of any gender or background to understand the situation and feel as if they can connect themselves. Not excluding anyone for any reason. This also allows a larger audience market.

From the positioning of our music video we allow the audience to have a first hand look at the situation that these two friends are going through. It is as if the audience is another friend on the tea party table. This allows the audience to have the full understanding on what the argument is about and how each character is coping by it, this allows them to create their own opinion.  

In the music video there are many close up shots of the artist in performance, this is very common in pop music videos, so we thought it would be fitting to carry this on into ours. I feel that this is appealing to our target audience as it allows them to know what the artist looks like and can get familiar with them and feel as if the artist is singing to them, its more personal.

We have used a high amount of mise-en-scene to fit the narrative and make the music video more attractive and interesting to look at. We have set the artist in several locations around the main location the house. This brings depth into the video and adds contrast, by having different locations against each other. For example the tea party is very light and bright, brings across and friendly atmosphere, compared to the balcony scene, where the artist is performing. The lighting is the main focus on the singer and the background is very dark and mysterious. a high contract to the pervious location. By doing this visually shows the change in relationship between the friends. This will help the audience to understand even more so about the situation that is taking place.

Other artist in their own music videos such as Katy Perry and Lady Gaga inspired the make-up and costume; we went for an exciting and in your face clothing. The make-up is very dark at point but in other scenes very light and girly. This complements the location change in location discussed earlier. This is because it highlights even more s the relationship stages, from when friends to no longer friends.  Our target audience being girls will appreciate the make-up and costume changes as it will add more interest and allow them to feel inspired by their favourite artist. It is allows them to feel more similar to the artist and thus creating a more connected fan and artist connection.

We have used quick editing, and cutting on the beat. This makes the video editing come across much smoother, allowing the audience to watch it comfortably. By having a very fast scene when the clocks are making noise it adds excitement and will be attractive to the young audience.

We asked for audience feed back about our music video, digipack and magazine advert. The fed back we received was very productive and complementary.

About the music video the feedback we received from that was that the performance level was at a high standard, with the artist looking very realistic to the emotions she is singing as well as good facial expressions. The lip-synching was edited in well to makes sure that the music fitted in time to the words being said by the artist.

The make-up and costume was one main point that kept on coming up, they felt it was done to a high standard and fitted in well with the theme of the music video. The lip and the eyes were one of the strongest points.

The clothing changes added to our advantage and the audience enjoyed them. The props used such as the teddy bear and teacups with the lipstick in them added to the effect that we were aiming for, a bit twisted and different.  From the audience fed back they seemed to enjoy it and felt that it worked.

The frames that were used seemed to receive good fed back; the audience enjoyed the different locations and the way that the artist was set in the frame. It made them aware of who the artist was and what her signature style was.

The camerawork received very good feedback, the audience mainly enjoyed the close up shots of the artist as this allowed them to have a better connection with the song, as they were able to read her facial expressions and understand the song in more depth. As well as feel that the singer is singing to them, thus making it more personal.

The feedback we got about the narrative was mixed, a reaction that we were aiming for. We wanted to make our music video complex and for the audience to come away from it thinking about a certain situation. We wanted them to be able to relate to what the song was about and the visuals that they saw on screen. The narrative was about two girls who have had an argument and one friend looking for her forgiveness. Most of the audience understood this concept whilst others were left unsure about the small details of it but understood the basic idea; both good outcomes for us.

The lighting we used got good feedback by our audience review, it was used in a smart way to make the main focus on the artist but also allow enough light to show the surroundings the artist is in.

The main idea for the dig pack was to have the artist face as the focus, similar to other popular artist CD covers such as Adele’s. It allows someone browsing in a shop to see the CD and straight away know what artist they are looking at. It draws attention to the product and allows the artist to have full coverage. The inside pictures are certain props that were used in the music video, all of these images are quite odd and different. This being a concept seen through out her music video.  All of the images are black and white with a certain part of it a sharp purple colour. This is connected through out the magazine and music video to give continuity. I feel that by doing that to the images it brings a branding and identify to the artist and sets her out from the rest of the artists. The audience felt that this worked well as a concept and gave our artist a certain branding.  By the front cover being a black and white picture of the artist with lavish make-up and having purple font it fits in well with the inside of the CD and matches the magazine cover.

The magazine cover is black and white based with the artist face centred in the middle; this brings attention to the artist. If a person with flicking through the magazine, this image used would make them take a second look. It is eye catching and different, it brings all the focus onto the artist and draws you to her lips. As her lips are set in the purple colour used in the CD as well as the magazine font. The reason for having her lips this colour is it relates to her being a singer and adds continuity.

I feel that from the positive feed back we have received from our music video it will encourage the audience to go and purchase our CD in shops, or download the track. I also think that by having such an eye catching and mysterious looking magazine ad it will make the audience want to by the artists CD to hear the thoughts that she looks as if she is hiding.

The way that this artist has been branded and marketed to our target audience will place her to be promoted by a major record label instead of a small independent one. The reason for this is that being a in the genre of pop she will be seen worldwide and become very popular to all audience, this is due to her music being able to connect to a lot of people and not a niche market. I know this by our audience feed back were people of all ages have be enable to understand the music video and connect with it and enjoy it. 

Our music videos USP is the fact that her clothing and make-up is very lavish equal to the locations and props used to make the music video. But the selling point to not only the music video but with the CD and magazine ad is the use of black and white with the hint of purple. The purple was seen in the lips on the video, as well as the lips on the magazine, linked to the font on the CD and magazine ad.

This idea can then be used as spin-off for merchandise, for example using the idea of the purple by creating a purple lipstick. This would be perfect for our target audience; young teenage girls, but as well as older woman. Posters can be made in black and white with hints of purple in the lips again; all genders and generations would attract this. It could be seen as a male pleasure or for a female to idol. Either way I feel that this USP is very individual to our artist and can also translate into work that she does in the future, making this her oh brand.

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AISHA HUGHES EVALUATION

QUESTION TWO

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Branding is a large element of our media products, these being the music video itself , Digipack and poster. It brings continuity to each aspect of our product and helps the audience to be able to relate each product with each other. Thus then creates a world of that product which then can be related to the artist, giving the artists their own identity in the music world. This is a very important factor to make sure that the artist can stand out against every other person in the field. 

The themes that we used in through out is the use of the colour purple and black and white. The purple is now seen as the artist ‘colour’ and many items can be related to her now. The colour purple is seen on the artist lips on the music video, there is a close up seen of her singing with that colour lips with jewels on them.  The colour purple is also seen on the writing for the CD cover and back cover as well as the poster text. This then links both ancillary texts together into one, allowing the audience to have a clear understanding that each media belongs to the artist. 

The reason that we used the colour purple is that we feel it is a colour that will be most attractive to our target audience. It is not a childish colour but is also not too serious for it to come across boring and portray our artist in the wrong light. It is mostly attractive towards females however there are numerous boys who will also be attracted to this. 

The use of black and white for the CD and Poster was to make sure that the image we are portraying of our artist is how we want it. We wanted her to come across as friendly and approachable but to also have a deeper side to her thus using the black and white images. By having the pop of colour in the lips and title on the poster and CD it adds counituity as well as a personal touch. 

The farcical expressions that can be seen on the cd and poster are not very typical to the POP genre, this is something we spoke about and decided we wanted to do. We felt if we had an image that was striking and different to the norm it would add more interest into the artist and make people take a second glance and what they are seeing. This then making tem go out to buy the CD to figure out what the messages JESSIE J is showing through her music.

Adele’s 21-album cover inspired the way that our Digipack had been produced, she uses a simple black and white image of herself and the simple 21 text to show the name of her album. This is a design that we liked very much as it was simple and elegant yet still had the interest by the purple text. Its not very typical for a POP artist and other reason for why we chose this design as we liked the factor that it was different and stood out from the norm.

The back of the CD cover we were inspired by the Rolling Stones, the use of the song names being placed like so was and visually appealing way to show song names. I felt that it was youthful and playful, showing the different sides to the artist personality and also links into the different types of songs on the album. Some playful and youthful whist other have a serious tone to them.  The colours used link into the front of the album title, as well as the images inside of the digipack, such as the close up on the purple eyes and the lipsticks. This just adds depth and relation to one another in a subtle way.

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WIX LINK : http://www.wix.com/aishaliz/media

AISHA HUGHES EVALUATION

QUESTION ONE

Q1. In what ways doe your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?

Our music video follows the typical conventions of the genre of music that we focused on; pop. We stuck with the typical conventions seen in pop music videos; we used research from looking at other artist music videos of the same genre. From this we worked out the typical mise-en-scene, make-up, camera shots etc. used. We then translated this information into our own music video.

The way that we have made our music video is by following the conventions of a narrative, with a large base of performance. This style of music video is very typical to ones that are used in popular POP artist videos. It allows the artist to be in 80% of the camera shots to give them the biggest face time available. This is done so the audience know straight away who the main artist is and what they are about, i.e. the style of clothing they wear, their typical make-up aka the branding of the artist. Having large bases of performance in the music video does this, however the narrative of the music video is very key in making it a popular music video and something that the audience can engage in.

By having a narrative it allows the audience to be straight away engaged into the music video. It makes the audience want to keep on watching to find out what happens later on and how the situation unravels. This is very typical to a POP genre music video, such as Katy Perry Last Friday Night music video. Both Katy Perry and our artist have a very similar audience base their for portray our music videos in a similar way to get the audience interested in it.

The use of camera shots is very important in our music video; the use of close up shots has been a large percentage of our video. It is key to get a close up shot of the artist whilst performing and not, as they are the selling point in the video. The audience wants to see their favourite artist singing instead of images. The close up shots are important for the artist as it gets their face out into the industry and therefor generates their popularity, making them more popular i.e. more audience awareness, more money.  Something that was made clear in Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’- 1992.

There were several shots that were typical to the ‘male gaze’; Laura Mulvely ‘Visual pleasure and narrative cinema’ – 1975. These shots showed the artist in a seductive way allowing the audience to be over both genders and different ages, as these shots are most attractive towards males in their 20’s.

From using several factors from Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’- 1992 we were able to link the visual images with the lyrics, as well as shows a relationship between the music and visual images.

The starting sound in the music video is of two cups hitting each other, with the image to follow. This sets the scene of the music video and allows the audience to have a second of understanding the surrounding and what the concept is without jumping straight into the song. This effect of having a ort story of sound before the music starts is seen in many music videos so is a popular concept that we thought would be appropriate to use in ours.

The editing used is similar to popular music videos that follow the same genre, by having fast edits it makes the imagery more interesting and grabs the audience’s attention. Whilst also having slow motion parts, this highlights key moments and also exaggerates moments, such as the ballet dancer with the wind going through her hair. By having that slowed down it becomes far more dramatic and visually interesting. By having scenes which are faster to match the music, in the clock sound scene. This links the imagery with the sound and connects both well together with a concept, which is interesting for the audience.

For our music video we were inspired by many artist, we found inspiration for a large mise-en-scene based music video by artists such as Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, the props they use in each music video they create is very over the top and creates a visually interesting atmosphere for the audience to look at, something we aspired to create.

Lady Gaga also inspired the costume and make-up, the way that she allows her make-up and costume to be a large part of her music video. She is seen as a fashion icon by her outrageous fashion choses, this makes her even more popular through a larger audience base, Not only her musical fans but now by her fans who are inspired and are more interested in what she is wearing than her music. This is an idea we went with, creating interesting outfits that our target audience will respond positively to and want to follow.

For our mise-en-scene I was inspired by old fashion toys and games I would play as a child. The use of the tea party scene with the teddies is something I did as a child. It relates to our concept of having an edgy and imaginative atmosphere were grown adults are still acting like children. Showing the way one doesn’t grow up and shows the strong friendship bond these two friends had, and they way that they stayed friends through the years.

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Question 4 Evaluation Emily Phillips

How did you use new media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?


Our first stage of the production process was to make sure way we had an efficient way to record our progress throughout the production and so we created a blog on blogger.com as group. This proved to be extremely useful as each post was shown clearly and was easy to label so that each member of the group knew what posts were theirs. It also kept all the stages together on our own website that was easy to access at anytime and at any computer so we could work towards the project as individuals as well as a team.


The next stage was to research; before making decisions on the type of genre we wanted for our music video or what song we wanted to use we wanted to make sure we looked at as many options as possible. Due to our own preferences as a group we knew that our final music video had to be with the pop genre as this was the music we listened to the most and were most familiar with.


We therefore thought that the best way to gain inspiration for choosing a song would be to look at what was popular in the charts at the time. The websites we mainly used for this was the official MTV website and youtube. In this case, you tube proved to be more useful as as well as showing the music video, it also had lists of other videos either by the same artist or in the same genre which gave us a wider range of videos to look at.


After the research was done and we had gathered as much information as possible about different artists and their music videos, we used a website called wordle that was a creative way to present some of our ideas.


Thorough research and organised presentation of ideas allowed us to them begin the filming process; in regards to the hardware used, a modern HD Video Recorder. The HD effect meant that all the footage that we wanted to shoot would have a crystal clear image of the highest quality. The new camera was also equipped with many effects that we could experiment with whist filming; this included what the right white balance looked like, what images looked the best in focus, and how far could we zoom in/out to create as many different angles as possible. The camera was accompanied at all times by a tri-pod that made our shots of a high quality as the camera was always aligned correctly. To make the picture even better on screen we were lucky enough to get a hold of some professional filming lights. These lights proved to be crucial to the filming process and contributed incredibly to the quality of the shots. Not only did they allow the artist to be clearer in the shots, they created interesting and bold effects, particularly when the light were in front of the camera in dark surroundings (the garage shot shown below).

Once we had all our footage, we used final cut express to edit our video, being a alien program to all team members, we experimented with cutting to the beat of a song using final cut’s marker technique an the Razor Tool icon. We also experimented with the effects that this program provided such as the fading technique or changing the tempo of a shot.


When creating our ancillary texts, photoshop proved to be the most successful, I personally found it difficult to understand at first however after watching some tutorials and a few cases of trial and error, the CD managed to look effective and professional. Although not mentioned to our team member who posed for the photo, the airbrush tool was very useful because from a production company’s point of view, the representation of the artist had to be clear without blemishes in order to be seen as an idol. Also, the colour change tool was very useful as it allowed us to make our ancillary texts look professional and effective.

The skills that I have acquired through the entire process I would have liked to already have had at the beginning, particularly with final cut express and photoshop as the process would have been quicker and easier, allowing me time to experiment further even though I am extremely happy with our final outcome.


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