Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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Evaluation Question 2

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

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?
For the last two years, I have been studying Media Studies at A Level. During this time, I have had to use audience feedback for various tasks. More recently, I have used audience feedback for the making of my music video, magazine advert and digipak. This has been helpful as I have been able to render my work before it is too late and I have therefore been able to make it better. The three stages of the making these products are: the planning stages, the production stages, and the evaluating stages. The audience feedback is and has been very useful at all of these stages. I have used focus groups, Survey monkey, and I have even posted things on my Facebook account in order to ensue that I got a larger range of people and more thorough research.  Audience Feedback in the Planning Stages During the first stages, I chose the music that I would use. I managed to narrow it down to a possible three songs which were: "Fast Like You" by Chasing Thrill, and "Soldier" by Samantha Jade. I chose the latter and so began to prepare what I would do in order to make the music video as good as possible. In order to ensure that I had everyone telling me their ideas, I held a focus group with my class so that they could tell me their ideas and opinions on my initial thoughts. I listened to the ideas that were put forward but I was already confident that I knew what to do and how to effectively use these in my video. After having been given other ideas, I put these all together and I had a brief meeting with my partner to discuss the ideas that had been mentioned and so began to record the music video. Audience Feedback in the Production Stage  After I had filmed the first part of my video, I made a rough cut. I then had people comment on it while I held a focus group. I showed the rough cut to my peers and then asked for feedback. One person suggested that I should make the editing faster and that I should edit to the beat more effectively. I took this advice on board and proceeded to increase the speed of the editing. I noticed that the song was much faster than the slow editing. For this reason, I edited to the beat throughout the entire song. Another person said that I had not used very many locations. I looked through my song and found that I had, in fact, not used too many locations and that I would benefit from filming in other places. I then went out and filmed some more shots for the music video. I felt that it was a good decision to re-film and that by getting audience feedback, I made my video even better. Audience Feedback Evaluation: Final Stage After having completed my three products, I received my final bit of audience feedback with those that I asked giving me their final input. In order to show these results, I used the website "Survey Monkey" to get feedback about the music industry and my music video. I chose six questions that I would include on my page for some people to answer. I then evaluated the answers and posted the results below.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7DQHQD6   The results from the survey monkey that I did showed that I have successfully ensured that the music video was relevant to the song. 100% of the responses that I got showed that I had managed to film relevant shots to compliment the song.  The results from the second question on my survey showed that the majority of the participants who answered my questions felt that I had filmed the music video in the style of a music video. Only one person was unsure of how the style of a music video should look. The results from my third question divided opinion amongst the participants. The majority of them thought that I had used a good variation of shots in my music video. However, some people believed that I could have done more to ensure that there was a wider range of shots. Some of the answers I had were that I could have had more close up shots and that more angled shots could have been included. My fourth question was about the timing of lip syncing was. The results from this question showed that everyone who took this survey agreed that the lip syncing was in time. This was a question that was important because if the answers had not been positive, then it would have meant that the music video wasn't very well done. "Was the lighting effective?" was my fifth question and I had all but one of my participants agreeing that it was in fact effective. This was disappointing as the lightning was important in the overall theme of the video. My sixth and final question was about how well the locations worked with the overall feel of the song. Unfortunately, I had mostly negative responses from this question. Some of the ideas that the participants suggested were that the outdoor locations were irrelevant and that there could have been shots in fun fairs with the boy winning prizes for the girl. However, one person said that they loved every location that was used. These are the people who completed my survey on survey monkey watching the rough cut of my music video. Overall, at every stage of the work that I have completed, audience feedback has been priceless in helping me get the work done to a good standard. It has enabled me to perfect my work and make it to a standard that I am very happy with.

Evaluation Question 4

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

Media presentation from Conor2

Digipak

Digipak

Magazine Advert

Final Magazine Advert

 Preparation for my Magazine Advert:

For my magazine advert, I have used a magazine name as the heading and I have used quotes about from reviews of the song. I have used the sharpening tool so that there is still a clear picture being used but it is a grainy image. I have also included the Spotify, iTunes, and HMV logo as these are the places that the album are available. I have also included a QR code so that potential buyers can view the album and listen to it on their mobile phones.

My magazine advert has a white boarder because the blog post is white you will not be able to see it unless you click on the image.

Filming the music video

Filming the Music Video

 When I was filming the music video, I went to various locations including Brighton seafront, a hotel in Brighton, and a local park. I had studied different music videos before setting out to film the music video and I had a good idea of what I wanted to do with my film and how I wanted it to look from the beginning. I knew that I would have to use a lots of shot variation as it would not look good enough after it was all put together afterwards. I got mid-shots on the balcony in Brighton and then I had filmed long-shots on the beach. I had also filmed shots on the train but they seemed to be unnecessary after having watched it back so I decided against including it.

 However, after I made my music video, I realised that I hadn't used very many shots after all. I was no longer in Brighton and so I just had to make-do with what locations were accessible with limited time available. Therefore, I included the shots that I had filmed in Brighton and went away and added the additional shots afterwards. The original copy was obviously not good enough as it lacked shot variation and it was quite boring. When I went away and filmed the other shots, I made sure that I included long shots, and also close-up shots as I hadn't included them in my original film. This made the music video much more entertaining and it did not feel as though it dragged. I recorded close-up shots in the park and I got different shots using mid-shot with the pond, and when there is an argument on-screen. I finished my film after a lot of editing and a lot more filming as I did not have what was required but I was happy with my end product.

Constructing the Digipak

Constructing the Digipak

When making the digipak, I used Adobe Photoshop CS6 to create a professional looking digipak. I knew that when I have seen CD cases in the past, there are six panels and a spine to the case. I noticed that the is often a picture stretched out across the top three panels and then in the bottom left, there is the inside cover, with the middle panel on the bottom is where the back of the case would be. I therefore used the bottom right panel to put the front cover on it. This is what a digipak should look like.

Therefore, before using Photoshop, I used a digipak template which was six blank panels on which I placed the pictures on top of. I used one screenshot from my film where I am looking into the distance as it was a great shot and it conveys a lot of emotions that can be interpreted from the song. I cut parts out of the picture that I took a screenshot of and then cropped out the remaining parts of the edges. I then proceeded to add a faint blur on the picture before using it for my digipak. The other three pictures that I used for the three remaining panels were pictures that I took when I filmed the music video so I used these after having manipulated them on Photoshop. I used the sharpening tool on two of the images and then cropped them until they were in the shape of a square so that they could fit on the panels. I also used the text tool to write the songs from the album on the back of the cover and the artist's public web address. I also used this tool for the title on the front cover along with the artist's name. I used the radial blur tool for the pictures to make them slightly distorted and I then played with the contrast until I was happy with how the images looked. This was my final digipak.

Constructing the Advert

Constructing The Advert

 When constructing the magazine, I began with a handful of images. I then chose which was the best image. I then considered the things that I would need for the magazine advert. It must have a picture, an album title, maybe a release date and perhaps a rating from a newspaper or a successful musician. I knew I needed manipulate the image but also need to make sure that it is relevant to the name of the song and the album title. On the magazine advert, I will have the picture in the centre of the page and there will be the album title "Soldier". I have looked at album covers from artists such as Taylor Swift, Rita Ora, and Beyonce and this has given me some ideas as to the way that I want my album cover and my magazine advert to look. I have decided to make the album title the same name as the name of the song because there are a number of artists who use the same title for both album and song title. This also means that I can be more creative with how the album looks.

 Once I had chosen the photo I would use, I used Adobe Photoshop CS6 for my magazine advert and this is an ideal programme to use because it is a very helpful piece of software that allows you to be creative with your work. I used the sharpening tool on the picture and this made it clearer. However, I then continued to use it and this led to the picture becoming grainy. This was an effect that I liked the look of and it meant that I could add other images on top without it looking extremely unprofessional as I could blend them together. I added very faint ripple effects also to enable the reader to focus on the centre of the page. I chose to have a QR code in the bottom corner of the magazine advert so that readers can access the album on their phones and tablets. I also put images of the HMV logo and the iTunes logo along with the Spotify logo so that readers knew where exactly to find the album. This was the original picture alongside the finished product.

Editing the Music Video

Editing The Music Video

 After I had made my music video, I had to edit it. In order to do this, I used Adobe Premiere Pro which is a type of editing software. This allowed me to make my music video and put all of the shots in order and see which shots needed to be re-done and which shots aren't included even though they need to be. After careful consideration as to what I could do to improve my video, I decided to put the first version on YouTube and name it "Rough Cut" so that I could see the difference between the two. This is my first version. 

I noticed that I stuck with one shot for far too long at a time, so I went out and shot in different locations with different shots as opposed to the long shot of Jade on the bandstand, and the shot where she's standing on the balcony. I also edited to the beat a lot more. For example, every time that she says "stay" I changed shot and so there was an entirely different shot type and shot location and it was a more entertaining video. I also added many different cuts throughout the music video when the song had multiple beats in a limited amount of time. After having done this, I uploaded my final outcome onto YouTube and this is my finished version of my music video.

1st Production Meeting/Plan

 This is me and my partner taking part in the first production meeting. We are planning what we will do when making the music video. This includes what we will film, where we will film, and what shots we will film. This allowed us to be properly prepared for the making of the music video with both the filming and editing.

Blog 6 Andrew Goodwin Part 2

Blog 6 Andrew Goodwin Part 2

 Many people have their own ideas as to what a music video must include. People may believe that it consists of images of the artist surrounded by people perceived as the object of erotic desire. There are often music videos where girls where nothing or very little and the men are just focussing on the camera or they are not leaving the girls alone, it is very rarely one or the other as it is one extreme to the other.

 The idea that there must always be a link of some kind between the lyrics and the demonstration that is visual in the video is one that is widely believed to be true. This is an idea that mainly comes from Andrew Goodwin's belief that this was crucial and that there was always some link between the video and the lyrics.

 He strongly believed that they must either be illustrative, amplifying or contradictory. The video to the song "Fireflies" by Owl City shows the illustrative part of Andrew Goodwin's belief as he is singing about fireflies when they appear on the screen.  The video for the song "Homecoming" by Kanye West very much fits in with this belief in terms of the amplifying element as the video shows his home and him coming home. Finally, the music video to the song by Usher and Will.i.am called "OMG" represents the contradictory side as it is not a video that necessarily show the story of the lyrics.

Blog 12 Alex Southam Case Study 3

Blog 12 Alex Southam Case Study 3

 Alex Southam trained as a lawyer and studied law at University. He thought that it was tedious and so decided to start again and instead began a career in music video production. At first he wanted to start making music videos to learn the ply of the trade in order to make the change from law to film production.

 Alex Southam previously worked for "Agile Films" who, on their website, describe him as "an exciting new talent". Initially, he took on all aspects of music video production such as the camera, lighting, and editing. However, he has now made the decision to use a director of Photography.

 Alex likes the format of music videos. He feels there is real freedom and you can do anything you want. He does not like to shoot commercials because he feels there is more direction and no room for his own ideas. Occasionally Alex Southam uses Vimeo to advertise his projects and videos. He uses Vimeo as generally it is seen as more respectable than YouTube.

 Southam first made an impact with the video for "Tesselate" by Alt J which took only one day to shoot and cost £10,000. He used various special effects which earned him many plaudits.




Another video that Southam is credited for is the video for the Chase and status song "Lost and Not Found" which had a £50,000 budget. It was filmed in LA at 36 frames a second and then played slowly for a distinctive effect. This is partly because he wanted a 1990's VHS look. Interestingly, there are only three edits in the entire video. 

Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback

 During the making of my music video, I wanted to constantly ensure that I was doing well so I asked for an opinion from my peers and teachers. I had this feedback throughout the making of the first music video which subsequently became my rough cut and I then had feedback after I had completed the video. I asked a host of questions and took the responses and constructive criticism away to complete the music video to the best of my ability. 
 Some of the questions that I asked were met by the following answers:

• Question: Was the lip syncing in time with the song?
• Response: Yes, it was in time and it looks as though the singer is singing the song.

• Question: Are there any problems with the speed of editing?
• Response: There could be a different editing speed when the word "stay" is sung.

• Question: What are your thoughts about the shots of the boy?
• Response: The shots imply that the boy is the "Soldier" that is being sung about which I'm sure was your aim.

• Question: Finally, are there any locations that aren't included that perhaps should be?
• Response: I think that there could be one or two other locations as the locations at the moment are showing both the romantic side of the relationship and the part of the relationship where the couple clash.

 I took the first response on board and I kept the clips where they were in terms of how they looked with the timing of the song. I felt that the speed of the editing was a problem and so when I was told that this should be altered, it confirmed my suspicion so I set about changing this and this resulted in the video being edited up to 3 times a second. I certainly felt that the change in the speed of editing meant that my video flowed from shot to shot more naturally.

 The third response was pleasing for me to hear as it meant that I had successfully got the message across to the audience as to how the boy was related to the lyrics. Finally, the fourth response was something that I found useful but unfortunately I did not have enough time to make these recommended changes despite my wishes because I did not leave enough time towards the end of the year. 

This is my finished video that reflects the changes that I made to the original rough cut version.

Blog 15: Digipak

Blog 15: Digipak

When an artist has a new album being released soon, the distributors create a digipak for the artist. A digipak is the CD case that the CD will be released in. They use these digipaks to keep a continuous theme that is noticeable to a fan. 

 This is the digipak in which Rihanna's CD was placed for the release of her album "Loud". We can see that there is a theme of red throughout the digipak. She has used the same theme for her poster for the tour which is also called "Loud" Her lipstick is a distinctive shade of red and it is almost the same colour as her hair. This is shown in two of the six panels. There is a picture spread out across the top three panels of Rihanna laying in a bed of red roses. Once again, these roses are the same colour red as her lipstick and also her hair. Also, the actual disc has a rose on it, following the theme from the digipak where there is a bed of roses. 

 In the poster for the tour "Loud" Rihanna has the same colour hair once again to continue the theme of Rihanna throughout so that her fans recognise the themes. The font used on her album is large, spaced out, and thin. Therefore, this theme has been carried over to the poster advertising her tour of the same name as her album title.

 This is something that is not only continued by Rihanna, it is used by music companies all over the world as it tells target audiences who it is advertising and it encourages them to buy their album and subsequently tickets for the tour. 

A model of the media

A Model Of The Media

In the media business, there is a certain cycle that exists. This consists of three key elements: Text, Audience, and Institutions. In terms of media, the text is things such as TV, films, and music videos.

 These texts are consumed by the audience in various ways. The audience can watch these texts on their phones, tablets, laptops, and TV's. There is then a financial transaction that takes place between the audience and the institutions. The institutions are companies like the record label Syco and the Big Six in the film industry.

 These institutions are responsible for producing the text, distributing it, exhibiting it and then marketing it, which then takes us back to the text. This concludes the cycle in which the media work.

Rough cut music video

This was my original rough cut of my music video. I was given recommendations as to what I can do to improve it. I was told that I stayed on one shot for too long so I changed that and added more shots and I cut between shots more often. I therefore went out and recorded some more shots in different locations. I asked my friends to listen to the song with me and I asked them to give me some advice because I wasn't sure how many beats there were in one part of the song. This meant that I could edit to the beat with more accuracy as to how many beats there were. I adjusted the positioning of the shots as I noticed that some of the lip syncing was out of time.

Final Music Video

This is the finished version of my music video.

Album Art Cover

 Photoshop Album Cover

 I took a random name from the Wikipedia link on the Robert Clack Media website where I had to choose the first name that came up and I had to use this as the band name. This happened to be "Montecastello". I used this name on my album cover and I also used the link on the Robert Clack Media website to find an album title. I had to choose the last few words of a quote and use them as the album title. I chose "The appearance of success" as my album title. I then chose a picture from a page of random pictures uploaded to Flickr in the last 7 days. The picture that caught my eye was a bear catching a fish in the river. I used this in Photoshop and I did various things to edit the picture. I used the contrast tool and changed both the brightness and contrast of the picture to make the photo look more enticing to the viewer and also to show the shadow on the bear and to show how majestic and beautiful the grizzly bear is. I then used the Filter tool and used the radial blur tool on the parts of the picture surrounding the bear to show that the only certainty of the picture was that the grizzly bear was the dominant and in control.

Blog 14: Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

  Michael Jackson had a 44 year career as a popstar and first appeared as a member of the Jackson 5 at the age of 6 and he went on to be an all-round popstar in terms of entertainment and his voice. He was the lead singer of the Jackson 5 from a very young age and he was seen as a cute, young talent. They were managed by their dad and they were hugely successful. Their songs included Rockin' Robin, ABC, and later on Blame it on the Boogie.
  In his solo career, Michael Jackson began with the album Off the Wall and went on to make many more albums over the course of his life, with the hit Thriller arguably his most famous and the most successful album of the 20th century. This made was originally a 14 minute video that was shown in cinemas worldwide and was like a short-film with the 4 minute song in the middle of it. Vincent Price, a well known horror movie actor provided the voice over in an attempt to make the film more scary. There is a famously choreographed scene in the film and with Michael Jackson wearing his famous red leather jacket that is now remembered worldwide. It brought music videos to the next level in terms of how important they were to create or further enhance an artists image.
  The album Thriller is widely regarded as one of the most successful albums of the 20th century. After having released the album, Michael Jackson hit the headlines for many of the wrong reasons. There were rumours of him having a skin disease known as Vitiligo which made his dark skin colour turn white. However, after a short while without a song of his having been released, he returned on September 7th 1987 with the chart-topping single Bad. This was such big news to Michael Jackson fans, that the BBC even televised the release of his single at midnight. Many people stayed up to see his new look and hear his latest song. He was back with a bang and made headlines for all the right reasons. However, after the album Bad was released, he was once again on the spotlight, but this time, it was due to some serious allegations.
  In 1993, Evan Chandler accused Michael Jackson of sexually abusing his 13 year old son Jordan Chandler. It was soon found that Michael Jackson had children visit his private theme park "Neverland" and played with them before sometimes asking the children to stay in his bed for a sleepover. This obviously raised questions due to the suspicious nature of the situation, with Jackson being a grown man and Jordan Chandler being a young boy who had just entered his teenage years. 

Blog 7 Brand Identity/Spice Girls

Spice Girls 

 During the mid 1990's, a family management team consisting of Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert, and Lindsey Casbon decided that they should create a girl group that could rightly compete with the boy bands that had previously dominated the pop music of the 1990's. February 1994 saw an advertisement placed in The Stage trade magazine by Heart Management and it read "WANTED: R.U. 18-23 with the ability sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated?" This was the advertisement that sparked life into 5 girls who would go on to become arguably the most successful girl group of the last 30 years. 

 The Spice Girls were promptly formed and moulded into pop stars. Their clothes were chosen very carefully before they first appeared on American TV. Victoria appeared with a sophisticated slinky black number, Emma in a baby-pink dress, Mel B in her leopard-skin trousers, Geri in red hot pants, a top and bra, and Mel C in her favourite Liverpool shirt and tracksuit bottoms. 

 Although The Spice Girls were sold to us as a group of good friends having a laugh together and making top-selling singles together, they were in fact strangers and a very carefully selected group of girls who were seen as unique and had been the fortunate few to make it after a number of auditions where hundreds of girls were sent home disappointed. They had a number of companies hoping for an appearance on their TV adverts and Pepsi and Polaroid had the girls advertising their products. Also, there were Barbie-esque dolls made in the style of each of The Spice Girls in terms of the fashion and looks of each of the band members. Everything about the group was under the control of men or corporations even the names they were given (sporty, scary, posh, baby, and ginger). According to "Ginger Spice", she almost didn't make it into the group as she looked too old. She reportedly said "I'm as old as you want me to be. I'll be 10 with big boobs if you want."

 Artists are often sold as a brand and the music video acts as a product of the band, in the hope that the audience will be inspired to "buy into the band" and occasionally artists feel that the image is of the most importance as opposed to the quality of the product. The Spice Girls are a very good example of this. Other times it is the meaning of the song that is sold and the image of the artist is not important to them. For example,

Blog 13: Sexism in Pop Videos

Sexism in Pop Videos

 Laura Mulvey's theory can be applied to pop videos, where there are many examples of sexism, with recent examples including Nicki Minaj's Anaconda, Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea's song Booty, and Robin Thickes hugely controversial song Blurred Lines where there were two videos with fully clothed women and one with explicit content.

 Not only was this a controversial song because of the nudity, but also the way that the girls danced around or more paraded around with the three men staring at them in a lustful way as if they were pieces of meat.
 The video to the song Anaconda is also incredibly explicit and has received many reviews, positive and negative. The incredibly controversial video is just a video with women shaking their bums and dancing about wearing very little. Not only was the graphical content deemed explicit for audiences, but the lyrics are only about having a big behind. The song has very little purpose, other than gaining male attention and money. It is not a good enough song to win awards or to even be nominated, but it attracts a lot of attention, due to its explicit nature.
 There is a song that Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea sung together called Booty where the whole video is just backside rubbing up against each other and water running down women's bodies while they are wearing lycra swimsuits.
 In almost every music video where the song is written by a modern day artist, it is almost definitely going to be a sexist video.