2B Fatima Grace Elizabeth

Evaluation - Advanced Portfolio

2010-02-25T14:20:00.000-08:00

Fatima Adam

Evaluation
Erica Shine - I Will Wait For You

For our project we decided to produce a music video. There was three of us who worked on this project, I worked alongside Grace Rewaj and Elizabeth Ann Robinson. We managed to split the work evenly between us so that each of us could participate in every part of the project. Therefore I contributed to all areas of the project which was the filming, the editing which was mostly done by Elizabeth as she was unavailable for the filming days however we did do a fair share amount of work in this, I also took the pictures for the ancillary task, and worked alongside Grace Rewaj to make the 4 sided Album cover whilst Elizabeth Ann Robinson made the magazine cover. Our target audience was from 15-25yrs olds who would watch this music video, however we do feel that it the video would be watched by an older group over 25yrs. This product would appeal to them because it is modern and it is based on a female singer songwriter, who is singing about how someone within that age range might feel.

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

The genre for our music video is female singer/songwriter, our main aim was to focus on the her throughout the video to introduce the audience to the new artist. It was vital to use the typical elements for this genre in order to call her a female singer/songwriter and also not to loose our objective."Genre is created through repetition and recognition leading to anticipation and expectation." (G.Burton 2000) For our video we used different locations, we had the park/woods scene where we used the snow to our advantage to add effect to the video, we had the flashbacks of the images of the couple and flashbacks of videos of the couple, the different weathers shows that it was throughout a period of time which is what the song is about, and finally we had a photo frame scene which the artist sang through, this was a very unique idea as it is rarely used in other videos. We wanted to test the typical elements without changing the whole purpose of the video, at first we felt that the frame may not work, but gradually as the editing was completed we agreed that the photo frame fit in well with the rest of the video. "Unexpected and the familiar" (G.Burton) which is exactly what we did with the typical locations such as the park and the woods, but added our own twist to it with the photo frame and the flashbacks I think our innovations were likely to prove successful as it is still familiar enough, as not to frighten the audience away but different enough to offer the audience something new. overall the feedback we got from our audience was mainly positive, which shows that our music video worked well as a whole. Andrew Goodwin a media theorist has identified a number of key features in a music video they are:
- A relationship between the lyrics and visuals,
- A relationship between the music and visuals,
- Genre related style and iconography present,
- Multiple close ups of main artist or vocalist.
Furthermore I believe that our music video meets all the key features as it is a well established Music video.

Here are a couple of inspirational videos and images from existing female artists;

Leona Lewis
Taylor Swift
Pixie Lott

They're all the main focus of their album.

Alesha Dixon - To Love Again

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

Our brand image is simple yet fresh and elegant which is a great way of describing our artist. The logo we decided to use was our artists name 'Erica Shine' we used the renaissance font which is very stylish. We kept it simple because we felt that after taking a risk with the photo frame, for our ancillary task we would use our artist as the main focus to introduce her to the audience, so for our album cover and magazine adverts we used images of her throughout instead of other distractions. We have maintained a brand image across the product firstly for our album cover we edited and used a spotlight on our artist to make her the main focus and everything else around her dull which foreshadows the meaning of the song as it is about waiting for that special person. For the back cover we used black and a peach colour which shows a bit of happiness and sadness in one we also had a hand clock put on the back of the cover, the connotations for this was 'I will wait for you' which is the name of the song. For our magazine cover we used the opposite we decided to keep that bright and simple. We took many pictures which we then dedicated a whole page in the album to Erica Shine.

This is our brand image...

The kind of media institution that may distribute our media product could be any of 'the big four' they are the big music companies around the world. I think the kind that may distribute ours would be EMI. The EMI Group (Electric & Musical Industries Ltd.) is a British music company. It is the fourth-largest business group, making it one of the "big four" record companies. Branding is a very powerful component for a company. The brand must have a logo to make branding easier and more possible. The consumers decide if they will buy a product or use a service based on how they view the brand. The brand itself tells us or let us imagine how good or bad the product is. All that brand promotion and advertising really do tell us how great a brand can be. Once a customer likes your brand they will definitely come back for repeated services or products.

We got feedback from our audience on our brand image:

Can you sum up the brand image of this album in one word?
•Elegant
•Stylish
•Graceful

Do you think the album cover fits in with the brand image of the video?
•Yes
•Yes
•No

Media Powerpoint

View more presentations from fatima.

I used Slideshare to present my ancillary task i think this is a great way to present the images of the album cover and the magazine cover.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Our main audience is ages from 15-25. This is because the artist is a female singer/songwriter who is also young. Furthermore young people listen to music the most of there time downloading or buying songs.UK Music is pleased to present the results of its annual academic survey investigating the music consumption behaviour and experience of young people aged 15-25. Carried out in spring 2009 by the University Of Hertfordshire, the online survey was completed by more than 1,800 young people throughout the UK. Statistics have shown "Music remains the most valued form of entertainment" - Evidence of the value of TSL

"Ownership of music is hugely important" - Evidence of the value of downloaded music
"61% said they download music using P2P networks or torrent trackers" - Evidence that young people don't want to pay for music.
Our secondary audience may be people from the ages of 26- 30 yrs.

This is the feedback we got back on our music video and ancillary task from people aged 15-25:

Music Video Feedback

Do you think the product is typical of a music video?
• Yes
• Yes
• No
• Yes
• Yes

Does anything make it different or does it stand out from the typical? How?
• It stands out from the typical because of the photo frame.
• It is different because the snow effect and photo frame is very rare
• The pace is typical and it works well with the song, but the photo frame isn’t it stands out than the rest
• The snow effect makes it different
• The photo frame makes it different because it isn’t common to find that in music videos.

Does it work?
• Yes because it tells a story within the video.
• Yes
• Yes
• Yes
• No.

Name two interesting elements from the video?
• The flashbacks, the snow effect
• Flashbacks, Frame
• Frame, Location
• Flashbacks, Location
• Flashbacks, Location

Do you think the video fits well with the song?
• Yes
• Yes
• No
• Yes
• Yes

Do you think the pace of the video is typical of this kind of product?
• Yes. Because it is a slow song the slow pace works well with it
• I think the pace of the video is typical of this kind of product as they are both slow
• I think the pace of the video could have been a bit quicker however I do feel that everything else in the video fit well together
• Because the song is slow the pace of the video works well with it
• Yes the pace works well together

How do you think the video can be improved?
•I think it all fits well and no improvement is needed
•More scene variation
•Overall I think it was a great product
•Overall it worked well together
•Less of the frame scene

Ancillary Task Feedback

Do you think the product are typical of magazines and album covers/if so in what ways is it similar?
•Yes because it is simple like the artist
•Yes because the content is the same as what you would get on a normal album or magazine
•It is typical

Does anything make it different or does it stand out from the typical?How?
•Yes. The font is very elegant
•The colour scheme is not typical according to the artist in this video as the front cover is dark
•Yes.The front cover shows that the artist is the main focus

Does it work?
Yes
Yes
Yes

Name two interesting elements from the ancillary tasks?
•The colour scheme and font
•The pictures and font
•The layout and Pictures

Could this product be stronger? If so how?
•Yes. More colour
•No
•No

Can you sum up the brand image of this album in one word?
•Elegant
•Stylish
•Graceful

Do you think the album cover fits in with the brand image of the video?
•Yes
•Yes
•No

Would you be tempted to buy this album?
•Yes
•Yes
•Yes

90% said that they would be tempted to buy the album
10% said they wouldn't the statistics show that many people would want to buy the album.

To gather our information from our target audience we gave out questionnaires. We used blogger to display our feedback and other research. And we used Microsoft Excel to present our information.

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

For our planning we sketched out our storyboard from this we then used a video camera to film it and Imovie to create an animatic storyboard, after that we uploaded it onto our blog. We each drew our own album covers and magazine covers for our ancillary task and put our best ideas forward onto our final product. We also put our song 'I Will Wait For You' on our blog by using Imovie. We also planned out a schedule for when we would start filming outside of college time which we did on the 3rd of January 2010 and 20th January 2010.

Research

For our research we used the Internet and additional sources such as books to gather information on music videos, we researched about branding and other existing artists which we were inspired by, we also researched on genres, institution, our target audience which would best suit this product, camera angles, cinematography, narrative etc

Construction

Firstly we began by filming, for this we used a video camera, a tripod, batteries, a tape, and a stills camera to take the pictures for the flashbacks. I took still pictures of the flashbacks, and a clip of the artist and the male which was used in our video also as a flashback. On the 3rd of January 2010 we did more filming, I filmed our artist (Grace Rewaj) as Erica Shine for three hours constant in the snow which we used to our advantage, we filmed most of it in the park and the woods. We then had another day which was the 20th of January 2010 which we filmed in college, this is when we did the photo frame scene and took more pictures of our artist for our ancillary task. We used a apple mac computer which I was familiar with because I had used it for my AS coursework therefore I was familiar with the features on it, the softwares I was not so familiar with were final cut express, Indesign, and Photoshop however as began using them i began knowing how to cut between scenes in final cut express how to use colour grade and add transitions in between each scene in order to make it flow, I also learnt how to link the music with the clips at the correct times. With final cut express it was very challenging and at times I felt that as i was editing it I made a couple of mistakes but as I started using it continually i got used to it and was able to edit it without making any mistakes. Overall i enjoyed using final cut express as it was a challenge and it was something new that turned out to make our video quite appealing. With Photoshop and Indesign as I played around with it using the different effects I became more confident in them both. We chose our music from a copyright website where music was free to download and use. We also got our font from a website because we wanted it to look different and unique (http://www.dafont.com/). Overall blogger was very useful as we were able to put all the information that we gathered onto here so it was easy to visualise.

These are a couple of the shots from the music video:

This is an image that was used in the video of the couple. (Flashback)

These are the technologies that were used to film and edit our media project with:

Apple Mac Computer

Tripod

Stills Camera

Camcorder

There wer many advantages and disadvantages to using the technologies and softwares:
Advantages
- Very easy to handle
- We were able to take it to many locations
- Long last on battery life

Disadvantages
- Tripod wasn't very effective
- Final cut express was difficult to use at first
- Photoshop was also a little difficult to use at first

and these are the softwares we used to produce the whole music video along with the album cover and magazine cover:

This is Final Cut Express we used this software to edit and complete our music video.

We used Photoshop to make any adjustments to the magazine and album cover.

And Finally we used inDesign to create the magazine and album cover.

Conclusion

In conclusion I feel that our product turned out well, we were able to edit it well and get the music to flow with the video along with the ancillary task, which we were able to achieve what we wanted by making the artist the protagonist, however even though there were a couple of downs with the final cut express we got used to it and in the end we were able to pull it all together. Overall I feel that my fair contributions in everything has made me confident in this area as I was able to gain skills and improve on them.

Evaluation of 'I Will Wait For You'. Grace Rewaj

2010-02-21T15:11:00.000-08:00

In my group I worked alongside Fatima Adam and Elizabeth Ann Robinson. Our project was to make a music video to the song, ‘I Will Wait for You’ by a female solo singer named Erica Shine. Myself and Fatima did all of the filming for the outdoor scenes in our video, whilst Elizabeth did the vast majority of the editing as she couldn’t make it to the filming shoots. For our ancillary tasks, Fatima and I worked solely on the album cover, back page, and middle pages; whilst Elizabeth worked on our magazine advertisement for the album.

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

The Genre of our music video and ancillary tasks is a female solo pop artist, trying to portray to the audience a ‘clean-cut’ image, in which the artist appears young, fresh, sweet and innocent. This is a typical convention for this type of genre, and we haven’t challenged the common aspects used in this respect, as we have also intended to create this image, as it was the look that we wanted to push to the audience for our artist. We have used lots of different shots in our video to establish our artist, and our costume for our artist helps to put across the right image. This is all part of our mise on scene, and the fact that there is snowy scenery helps to create the ‘fresh’ and ‘clean’ look. Here are some of our shots of the artist:

This is a close up shot. As you an see, we
have used mise en scene to our advantage
and our artist does not wear over-powering
make-up for the video, and wearing a

flowery scarf helps to put across the ‘innocent’ and quite ‘girly’ image that artists such as Taylor Swift often portray within the music industry. We have also used shots such as long and medium shots too to show our artist as music videos tend not to stick to the same shots all the time so that the audience doesn’t get bored. Here are some other shots we have used:

Extreme long shot

Over the shoulder shot/POV

Medium shot.

All of these different shots do not really challenge the forms and conventions of real media products, however, our video consisted of two different locations, and our other location was quite creative. I was quite skeptical about this to begin with as it was an idea to have my face, as the artist, singing through a photo frame, and I thought it may have been too random for our piece, which has quite a mellow, sad feeling to it. However, when the video came together I feel it fitted in really well as in our video; we fitted in some flashbacks of the past relationship the artist is singing about, and these photographic flashbacks linked into the photo frame idea. This made our video more interesting and one persons comment within our target audience of 15-25 year olds, said it was very creative and worked really well. This type of shot also helps our video in challenging the typical conventions of a music video. Here is a still shot of one of the flashbacks and of the photo frame idea that links to it:

Flash back of happier times.

The photo frame idea

By including shots such as these, we are aiming at keeping the audience interested in the video and, offering them something different from what they would normally be used to watching.

In my research I mentioned Taylor Swift's song 'White Horse'. The link below enables you to watch this video to see how we have incorporated this style into our video, but with our own unique twist to make our product challenge the conventions of a real music product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Xr-JFLxik

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

I feel we have stuck to the genre well, whilst adding our own twist to it with the close up of the artist in the photo frame. Our ancillary tasks, I feel worked really well and established our creativity and design to express our brand image. From our audience feedback, you can see that our audience thought that our front cover was simple, yet effective, which is what we was hoping to achieve. The use of the spotlight, in which I moved around and changed the size of etc, was used to focus on our artist, and I put an effect on the edges to make them appear gradually darker and darker in order to make the colours worn by the artist stand out more. Below is one of Taylor Swifts some album covers. Taylor Swifts brand image is very similar to one in which we were trying to establish in our work. This album cover is like ours in many ways, as the hair of the artist is quite flowing and we also have a clear shot of the young, female artist.

Here is a shot of our album cover:

As you can see we are trying to create a similar ideology for our audience. We want to create the ideology for the audience that our artist is a young, fresh, female artist with a unique style. We are trying to achieve the 'uniqueness' by making our picture quite quirky by having the artist as if they are lead down with the spotlight on them.

Also, we included a lyrics page, a middle page and a back page.

Throughout all of these we had a continuous theme of colours, which consisted of red, black, and white. We also used our logo, which was simple and elegant. It was the name of our artist in the font, ‘renaissance’. It looked like this:

This logo helps to establish our brand image as it is repeated throughout our products. i feel through mise en scene, in our ancillary tasks, and in our video we have created a donminant ideology and a clear brand image for our artist successfully, in that she appears feminine, young and fresh.
Record labels such as Universal help to promote many various artists, and are extremely successful in doing so. They also include artists who have quite a ‘pop’ type of sound, therefore I feel they could be suitable for our artist and brand image in order to create a successful artist. I feel our main product works well along side our ancillary tasks as both help to astablich the genre and create a certain image, without contadicting each other in any way.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
In our audience feedback, we asked males and females throughout our main target audience of 16-25 year olds various questions about our music video and ancillary tasks. This age range was our target audience as it is proven that this group is the people that spend the most money on music products, which would therefore make our product a lot more profitable if we where to distribute it. Our secondary audience was 25-35 year olds. Our main target would be females, as they are more likely to buy the type of product that our brand is, however we did ask a varied audience for a wider opinion on our product. When creating our products, we thought about how we would try to match the audience's characteristics of the music genre we chose to work on, with the characteristics of our desired purchasers should we sell this product in real life. This is the demographics and psychogrphics of our audience. When looking at theories such as Maslows theory, we incorporated this into our product, focusing on things such as the social, self actualisation, and phsycological needs of our audience. As our target audience would be mainly young females aged 16-25, our song could relate to their needs of self identity, focusing on relationships etc, and they can relate to our artist and find a sense of escapism as they would feel that they have someone relating to them. This preserves a sense of 'social identity', according to Maslows theory, and so we can connect to the audience's feelings and can link to a sense of creativity through music.
Everyone who took part in our feedback thought that we had established our genre well and promoted our artist effectively in both our video, and our ancillary tasks. In the video, most people felt it was creative and different, especially breaking away from the usual music videos with our photo frame element. We had mixed opinions surrounding this idea; with some saying it was too ‘random’ when switching from the snowy scenes and others thinking it was extremely well thought up and a more interesting element to our video, that helped to brake away from the regular boundaries. However, everyone who participated did understand why it was there and where it linked in with the flashback images. Some people felt that the flow of our video could be a little slow placed at time, with certain shots being held on for a slightly bit longer than they thought it should have been. One person also commented saying that we could have varied our flashback images, and could have maybe had a few more photographs rather than repeating some; however they did comment on the colour grading of the flashbacks, and said that the black and white effect was a good idea to establish the images as past tense. Everyone who took part in our questionnaires believed that it had the main elements of a music video, and was like a typical music video in many ways, switching to and from all the different shots and showing the artist in different images and sceneries.
Our target audience also completed questionnaires for our ancillary tasks. They felt that the magazine advertisement ‘well placed’. They said that the images and the writing complemented each other by their placing as they worked really well together. Everyone said the same for our album pages too, saying they the pictures where well placed, with one person making a particular reference to the middle page, saying that they like the way lots of different pictures where all put together on the one page. Some people mentioned the boldness of our images, as they felt it showed our artist really well. They did say we could use a variety of more colours though, and a wider variety of costumes for the audience. Everybody felt that our brand was well presented through our products, creating the image we hoped to achieve for our artist and genre.

Here is how one person answered some of the questions on thir questionnare:

Video questionnaire:
Do you think the product is typical of music videos? If so in what ways is it similar?
Yes I think it is a typical music video as it shows the artist and the video represents the words of the song.

Does anything make it different or stand out from the typical? How?
I think that the photo frame image is a unique style.

Does it work? How?
Yes because it fits in with the flashbacks (photographs)

Name two interesting elements.
The photo frame and the snow scenery.

Do you think the video fits well with the song?
Yes as the song is quite sad and the video matches the mood of the song.

Do you think the pace of the video is typical of this kind of product?
Yes, most parts as it changes shots and images regularly.

How do you think it can be improved?
I think that sometimes the shots can be left too long and can feel slightly repetative. also the flash backs could be varied more as some are the same.

Ancillary task questions:
Do you think the product is typical of magazines and album covers? if so in what ways is it similar?
I think that they are typical becasue they clearly promote the artists style.
Does anything make it different or and stand out from the typical? How?
I think the middle page is creative and stands out as all the photographs are put together in a creative style.

Does it work? Why?
Yes. It clearly establishes artist and style.

Name 2 interesting elements from the ancillary tasks.
Bold cover, easily identify the artist.
Lyrics page to get to know the song.

Could the product be stronger? If so, how?
I feel it is already a strong product but could maybe vary colours and costumes more.

Can you sum up the brand image of this album in a short sentence?
Female solo artist, unique and own individual sound.

Do you think the album cover fits in with the brand image of the video?
Yes. Young female artist showing emotion through song and images etc.

Would you be tempted to buy this album?
I would have to hear more songs but I would be attracted to look at the album cover and images as they are catchy.

How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
Reasearch: For the research part of our project, we used several different sources. We used the internet to look at different images and different videos for some inspiration on our genre. We also researched certain artists who fitted into this genre by using 'google' to find different informative websites. We also found out about the artist who sings the song we based our video on by using the internet. For our anllary task research, we looked at different real life magazine adverts and album covers etc. This helped to enhance our ideas for our own project.

Planning: We all worked together to plan various things for our product. Fist of all we had to plan our initial idea for our video on a story board. Although our ideas where refined to be made more suitable for our genre and in our opinion, made better, we all put together to make our intitiall thoughts. We had to plan and think about what type of song we was looking for and what mood we wanted our video to create towards the audience. Our whole video would then represent this ideology. We then had to decide on filming dates that where suitable for our group. Our first filming date was during the Christmas break on 3rd January, in which we had to make a list of all props that we would need etc as to not forget anything once it got to the day. We then filmed again on the 20th January within college time. Again we had to arrage what props we would need, in this case, the photo frame.

For our ancillary tasks we all sketched an ideo for the front cover etc of the album, and all made a sketch of the magazine advert. Our best ideas where then put into practise as we planned for our photos for these tasks. We wanted to clearly establish our artist, getting inspiration from albums such as these Leona Lewis albums

Construction: For the construction of our product, we had to begin with the filming of our video. I could not actually film any of the video itself as I was starring as the artist in the video, however, I did still learn how to use the video camera as I thought it would be helpful for me to recap on the skils that I learnt last year in my AS media studies. For the filming aspect of our product, we used a video camera; our tape, batteries, a tripod, and the connector used to keep the camera on the tripod in a stable position. We then used the AppleMac computers to go on 'final cut express', 'photoshop' and 'indesign' to create our video and ancillary tasks for real as finished products.
We had to use many different elements of photoshop for our music video, such as colour grading etc. This helps to make the image look more attractive and to stand out as a more 'eye-catching' piece. Also for the black and white images, we had to use the desaturate tool and make them look different to the rest of the video. We had to take out the sound from our original recording as then the artist would be miming to the underscoring sound of the real song. When using photoshop and indesign for our ancillary tasks, we has to use the pen tool to cut out various images, and to make the image more clear around the hair of the artist etc. We had to change the lighting on our front cover to make the edges dark, and we varied the light used the 'spotlight' to enhance the focus on the artist. When using these different softwares, I feel that I started to learn alot more about photoshop and indesign as I had never used them before, however as I hadn't used final cut express until this year either, I found that slightly more difficult, and do feel I would have liked to spend abit more time on there to get used to it a little more. However, from when I did go on it, eventhough I struggled getting to grips with it, I did like the way it was set up even if I did find it a little daunting at times.

Indesign

Photoshop

Final cut express

Our song was found on a copyright free music website, which includes many unsigned artists, and our logo font 'rennaisance' was found on the website http://www.dafont.com/, which consists of many different style of fonts to choose from. We have continually put our progress onto the blogger website, which has tracked our project ideas from beginning to end.

Summary

Overall, I feel that our product worked really well. I think that although we had some difficulties in some areas from time time we all worked well as a team to distribute the work that needed to be done, and have achieved an effective, well established product.

Evaluation Elizabeth Ann Robinson

2010-02-20T05:03:00.000-08:00

Evaluation: Advanced Portfolio

My project was Music Video production with promotional materials. I worked with Grace Rewaj and Fatima Adam. I contributed to all areas of the three tasks, but mainly I worked on the editing and the magazine advert, completing most of the editing, and all of the magazine advert.

Our target audience is 15-25 year olds, as this is the most common age for watching music videos. Our secondary audience was 25-35, as I think that this age group would also appreciate the product. Our products will appeal to our target audience because they are modern, bright and are made especially for this audience.

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

An example of an existing music video is Bat for Lashes- Daniel music video. This is a very creative music video with use of fast paced editing, iteresting lighting and unique dancing. This video, although of a similar genre to ours, is a complete contrast to the music video that we have produced. Although both contain the conventions of the genre( footage mainly of artist, more than one location, pace fitting with the song, a simple narrative and visuals complimenting the lyrics), they are both very different as finished products. The Bat for Lashes video, is much more creative, but is also a little quirky and strange. However this compliments their music well, and their brand image, which is a little strange. Below are some stills from the video, to illustrate the strange, yet creative and unique look:

Genre theories:
Andrew Goodwin, a media theorist has identified a number of key features in music videos, which are listed below:
A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.
Genre-related style and iconography present.
Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.
Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.
Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.
Our music video definitely follows the first point, our images are in sync with the song, and the lyrics are mimed. Also our footage is of a girl on her own, singing about missing someone, so this also establishes the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The music is of a slow tempo, and is acoustic, this is illustrated by bright visuals, that show an innocent character and are not too flashy, as to detract from the slow and steady pace of the song. Our music video also includes genre related style and iconography ( features the singer.songwriter, has different locations) see below for more. Our music video does not contain voyeurism or intertextual references.

The music video genre consists of many things such as: short storylines, interesting editing and effects, unique camera shots, lots of footage of the artist(s) and instruments, where applicable. Also, music videos are usually fast paced, to keep the audience's interest and do not contain complicated storylines, as they only last for 3-5 minutes and so there is no time for development of a story. Within the music video genre there are many subgenres: rock, indie, singer-songwriter, hip hop, dance, pop and many more.The genre of our music video and promotional materials is female singer/songwriter. The conventions of this genre are: a focus on the singer/songwriter with most of the shots in the video being of the singer, although these videos sometimes have a narrative accompanying the singing shots. Of these conventions, we have used lots of shots of the singer/songwriter, and we have used two locations to add interest to this, a snowy scene in the woods, and a photo frame scene. We chose not to use a narrative in our video, but we have added photos of a couple together ( the singer and a male ) to illustrate the song. This also fits nicely with the photo frame shot, and continues the photograph element throughout the video. We added this new element, the photo frame, as it is very different from anything I have seen in a music video before, and it will hopefully interest the audience, and me a memorable feature from the video. Also, by doing something different, and challenging the conventions of

the genre, we are keeping the audience interested, and offering them ‘the same but different’ (G. Burton). I think our innovations were likely to prove successful because they are very different to existing music videos, but they are not too different as to disconnect our products from the genre. Our Ancillary tasks, the magazine advert and the CD cover, followed the conventions of the genre rather strictly, and are not as adventurous as the video. However, I feel that they do not need to be too different, and the photo frame shot, the different element, would not have made a good advert or CD cover. Our choices here worked effectively for our audiences, as they found these elements interesting, although some people disliked the photo frame idea, claiming it was ‘a bit random’, on the whole, our products were well liked. I feel that our products were different enough, but not too much as to displease the audience. In comparison to other music videos, our video is sucessful. However, it is not quite as interesting as some videos and lacks further interesting editing techniques, but these would have been very difficult to achieve without professional knowledge and experience, for example the kaleidoscope effect in Little Boots video for Remedy.

Stills from existing music videos:

Stills from various genres of music videos

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

Our brand image is a fresh, elegant, clean look that is bright and professional. The brand image for Erica Shine, the singer/songwriter, is innocent, young and slightly naive.

Our logo is simple and elegant. It is simply the name, Erica Shine, in the font, Renaissance, it looks elegant, and fits well with our brand image. It fits our brand image because it is simple, but looks professional. Also, it is not a cluttered logo, like some, which helps to keep with the fresh, young and innocent parts of the brand image.

We have maintained a brand image across our products, we have used the same font, Renaissance, throughout, and have stuck to the colours of red, white and black for our ancillary tasks and bright colours in our music video. We have also kept the mise en scene in the images simple, so as to not detract from the artist, and so that the artist stands out more and the photos do not look too 'busy'. We have colour graded our video and photographs so that they look bright and clean, and this also helps to maintain the brand image. By using the same colours, fonts and image editing, across the texts, we have maintained a brand image, and all our products look as though they go together, which was the intended outcome.

The kind of media institution that might distribute our media product would be a company like EMI. This company has a wide range of genres and artists on its label, and so would probably distribute our products. Also, EMI is a professional company, which produces and distributes polished products, which are usually of a high standard. Therefore, I think that they would be a good company to distribute Erica Shine.

This is our logo

Quotes on Brand image:
'Brands need to provide customers with a consistent compelling experience in order not to confuse them, as confusion leads to doubt'

(Taken from mudvalley.com)

'Brands work because they offer us a form of guarantee, a set of ready made values attached to a product that we too can adopt upon purchase.'

(Taken from mediaknowall.com)

An example of a real brand image:
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga's brand image is: strange, quirky, eccentric, but also fun, sparkly, confident and very unique. Below are album covers and shots from her music videos which demonstrate this:

As you can see, Lady Gaga's brand image changes slightly from video to video and album to album, but the main elements are always there: the confidence, the weird element and the sparkle.

What have you learned from your Audience feedback?
Here are some samle answers from the Audience feedback questionnaire:

Do you think the product is typical of a music video?
• Yes
• Yes
• No
• Yes
• Yes
Pie chart to illustrate this question shows that 80% answered yes, and 20% answered no.

Does anything make it different or does it stand out from the typical? How?
• It stands out from the typical because of the photo frame.
• It is different because the snow effect and photo frame is very rare
• The pace is typical and it works well with the song, but the photo frame isn’t it stands out than the rest
• The snow effect makes it different
• The photo frame makes it different because it isn’t common to find that in music videos.

Does it work?
• Yes because it tells a story within the video.
• Yes
• Yes
• Yes
• No.

Name two interesting elements from the video?
• The flashbacks, the snow effect
• Flashbacks, Frame
• Frame, Location
• Flashbacks, Location
• Flashbacks, Location

Do you think the video fits well with the song?
• Yes
• Yes
• No
• Yes
• Yes

Do you think the pace of the video is typical of this kind of product?
• Yes. Because it is a slow song the slow pace works well with it
• I think the pace of the video is typical of this kind of product as they are both slow
• I think the pace of the video could have been a bit quicker however I do feel that everything else in the video fit well together
• Because the song is slow the pace of the video works well with it
• Yes the pace works well together

How do you think the video can be improved?
•I think it all fits well and no improvement is needed
•More scene variation
•Overall I think it was a great product
•Overall it worked well together
•Less of the frame scene

Do you think the product are typical of magazines and album covers/if so in what ways is it similar?

Yes because it is simple like the artist
Yes because the content is the same as what you would get on a normal album or magazine
It is typical

Does anything make it different or does it stand out from the typical?How?

Yes. The font is very elegant
The colour scheme is not typical according to the artist in this video as the front cover is dark
Yes.The front cover shows that the artist is the main focus

Does it work?

Name two interesting elements from the ancillary tasks?

The colour scheme and font
The pictures and font
The layout and Pictures

Could this product be stronger? If so how?

Yes. More colour
No
No

Can you sum up the brand image of this album in one word?

Elegant
Stylish
Graceful

Do you think the album cover fits in with the brand image of the video?

Would you be tempted to buy this album?

Pie chart to show results of this question 90% answered yes, 10% answered no.

Our target audience was 15-25 year olds, predominantly females. This is the main audience for female singer/songwriters, and so that was the audience we felt best suited our ideas for the products. They are also a loyal niche audience, which would help the product to be well received. This target audience is also right for our products financially because this age group spends more on music products than any other age group.

We have two secondary audiences, one is 15-25 year old males, and the other is 25-35 males and females. Both of these secondary target audiences would also probably appreciate our product, as with similar artists to Erica Shine ,such as Taylor Swift and Alicia Keys, the products have the potential to be equally appreciated by these secondary audiences, as they do with the initial target audience.

We used audience feedback for our research, and for our evaluation processes. We handed out questionnaires for this, and collected in the results. For research, we used the information to make decisions about our products, and for evaluating, we used the information to analyse the success of our products.

The technologies we used for audience feedback, is word processing to create questionnaires, and a video camera to film people giving feedback about our products.

We tried to attract our audience by sticking to the conventions of the singer/songwriter genre, and on the whole this worked.

From our audience feedback, I have learned that sometimes, unique ideas are not appreciated by everyone. For example, an individual didn’t like the photo frame idea in the video, and said it was ‘random and stupid’, however, on the whole, this element was received well, with another individual saying ‘it (the photo frame) looks really good, I think it works well’. However, I learnt that what appeals to some of the target audience, doesn’t appeal to all of them, so it is difficult to suit all.

Reflecting back on this feedback, If I was to create the media products again, I would perhaps add a storyline to the video, use more colour grading and effects and create more interesting effects for the photographs in the video, used as flashbacks. For the ancillary tasks, I would make the CD cover more colourful, and would alter the magazine advert slightly to make it more eye catching, perhaps by adding more colour or by using bolder fonts.

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

Research

For the research, we used the internet to gather information about existing products, and to view existing music videos on youtube.com, and to look at album covers through Google, image search. We also used blogger.com to post our research, and present it as a blog. In addition I used Microsoft word to create the questionnaires.

Above: existing Album covers

Blogger and youtube logos

Planning

For the planning, we sketched ideas for the storyboard, and ancillary tasks by hand. From this we then used a video camera on a tripod, and imovie to create an animatic storyboard, which we then uploaded onto the blog. We filmed each hand drawn image for a few seconds, and then put this into imovie, cut some of the shots down, deleted unnecessary footage and sound, and then uploaded this to our blog. In order to post the song onto the blog, we also had to use imovie, to create a blank screen with the title of the song, which we did by creating a title page, and then we simply added the song, and uploaded this video to our blog.

Construction

For the construction we used two cameras: a digital stills camera, and a digital video camera. We used both of these cameras for our main project, the video, the stills camera for the flashback photographs and the video camera to shoot the rest. We also used the stills camera for our ancillary tasks. The other hardware we used was an Apple Imac, which I am very familiar with. The software we used to create our products was Final Cut Express, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe In Design. Two of these programs I was already able to use and quite confident with, as I used them for my AS coursework (Photoshop and In Design). However, Final Cut Express was completely new to me, and took me a while to get to know how to use it. But as we progressed through the construction stage, I learnt more about the software, and how to use it better. For example I learnt how to combine two independent video tracks, to create the photo frame element of the video. To do this, I re-sized the video with the miming in, and placed it inside the photo frame, and then I also desaturated both videos, and used the colour corrector video filters menu to add colour grading to the photo. I used the various controls (blacks, whites, hue, saturation) to make the image look much sharper, which enhanced the overall look. I also added colour grading, again by using the controls in the colour editing screen to enhance the rest of the video. For the photographs, I used the desaturate tool again, so that these linked in well with the photo frame. Some of these also required additional colour grading, which was added in the same way as before. To make the album advertisement, I used Photoshop. I cut out the image of Grace using the pen tool, and creating a separate layer so that I could separate her from the original background. I then used the hue and saturation tools to brighten up the image, and then I used the lightness/darkness tools, and the contrast to sharpen the image. I fiddled around with these until I was happy with the image, once happy, I placed the image into InDesign using file, place, and using the downloaded font, I added the text. To get the correct red colour, I used the colour picker tool, and clicked on the red in the image, to ensure that I had the same colour. I then took the finished album cover and placed this into InDesgin in the same way as before. Once all the information and images were there, I tried many different layouts to see which looked best before choosing the final layout.

We used dafont.com to download a font for our ancillary tasks, called Renaissance. I decided to use this downloaded font instead of the basic fonts such as Times New Roman, as I felt it suited the brand image better, and enhanced the products. We also used the internet to download our song. We used a website of free, uncopyrighted music, and searched through lots of tracks before choosing our final song. Another website we have used is blogger.com, we have used this to post all our resarch, planning, sample photographs, test shoot photographs and all our rough sketches. This has been useful as it has been easy to keep track of our progress in an ordered way, and by doing this online, no information, drawings or images have been lost.

Final Cut Express proved to be a little challenging at times, as I was unsure how to use a lot of the tools at first, and I found it very annoying that footage had to be ‘rendered’ every time you edited bits of it, this slowed down the work process and proved to be very irritating. However, this software didn’t limit creativity, in fact it was the opposite, for example, the colour grading and the photo frame creation discussed earlier would not have been possible on iMovie and other, simpler packages.
Images of the various software:

Above: Final Cut Express editing screen and software package

Above: An example editing screen in Adobe Photoshop and the software package

Above: Adobe In Design, example editing screen and Software package.

This is the photo frame element discussed above.

This is an example of the colour grading

in the video. As you can see, the image is bright and sharp.

This is one of the flashback images, which has been colour graded by using 'Desaturate' and then some brightness and contrast alterations.

A few more stills from our music video:

Finished Products:

Summary

Overall, I feel that our projects have turned out well, and the software we have used has been very useful in developing creativity and enhancing our products. I also think that we have succeeded in creating brand image, and sustaining it throughout all our products.From the AS Foundation Portfolio, my skills have developed and I have been able to produce much more professional results for my A2 Advanced Portfolio.

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Audience feedback

2010-02-16T14:57:00.000-08:00

In our group, we conducted an audience feedback questionnaire, in which we put forward various questions to our target audience in order to find out what they thought of our product. We aimed our media product at a main target audience of 15-25 year olds, and so we distibuted our questionnaire towards this age group. This helped us to find out wether they thought that our product was successful as a media product, and to find out ways in which they felt it followed the conventions of a typical music video, and if it challenged them in anyway. We also asked similar questions about our ancillary tasks to the audience, to get their opinion on those and to see whether they felt they worked well with the image created by the video.

Music Video Feedback
Here are a couple of feedbacks from our target audience; overall many of them enjoyed the video...

Do you think the product is typical of a music video?
• Yes
• Yes
• No
• Yes
• Yes

Does anything make it different or does it stand out from the typical? How?
• It stands out from the typical because of the photo frame.
• It is different because the snow effect and photo frame is very rare
• The pace is typical and it works well with the song, but the photo frame isn’t it stands out than the rest
• The snow effect makes it different
• The photo frame makes it different because it isn’t common to find that in music videos.

Does it work?
• Yes because it tells a story within the video.
• Yes
• Yes
• Yes
• No.

Name two interesting elements from the video?
• The flashbacks, the snow effect
• Flashbacks, Frame
• Frame, Location
• Flashbacks, Location
• Flashbacks, Location

Do you think the video fits well with the song?
• Yes
• Yes
• No
• Yes
• Yes

Do you think the pace of the video is typical of this kind of product?
• Yes. Because it is a slow song the slow pace works well with it
• I think the pace of the video is typical of this kind of product as they are both slow
• I think the pace of the video could have been a bit quicker however I do feel that everything else in the video fit well together
• Because the song is slow the pace of the video works well with it
• Yes the pace works well together

How do you think the video can be improved?
•I think it all fits well and no improvement is needed
•More scene variation
•Overall I think it was a great product
•Overall it worked well together
•Less of the frame scene

Ancillary Task Feedback

Do you think the product are typical of magazines and album covers/if so in what ways is it similar?

Yes because it is simple like the artist
Yes because the content is the same as what you would get on a normal album or magazine
It is typical

Does anything make it different or does it stand out from the typical?How?

Yes. The font is very elegant
The colour scheme is not typical according to the artist in this video as the front cover is dark
Yes.The front cover shows that the artist is the main focus

Does it work?

Name two interesting elements from the ancillary tasks?

The colour scheme and font
The pictures and font
The layout and Pictures

Could this product be stronger? If so how?

Yes. More colour
No
No

Can you sum up the brand image of this album in one word?

Elegant
Stylish
Graceful

Do you think the album cover fits in with the brand image of the video?

Would you be tempted to buy this album?

Final Product

2010-02-16T08:49:00.000-08:00

Erica Shine - I Will Wait For You

This is our final product of our music video.

Ancillary Task 2: magazine advertisement for album (group)

2010-02-16T02:19:00.001-08:00

Ancillary task 1: CD album covers (Group)

2010-02-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

Ancillary Task update

2010-01-27T12:02:00.000-08:00

Today we worked on our Ancillary Task. Grace Rewaj and I (Fatima Adam) worked together on the Album which consists of 4 sides; the front cover, the middle page, the lyrics page and the back cover, on the other hand Elizabeth Ann Robinson made the Magazine Cover. For the Album cover and magazine cover we decided to have the artist as the main focus so that the audience would be able to see what kind of a singer she is, which is a female singer/song writer.

Editing

2010-01-22T03:51:00.000-08:00

Today we used Final Cut Express to edit our footage to get it in order so that everything would flow together. At first Final Cut Express was very complicated to use but after using the tutorial to guide us through and our many attempts, we were able to complete most of our editing. For this we all gave our fair contributions however Elizabeth Ann Robinson did a little more on the editing as she was unavailable for the filming days. Furthermore before the editing we were afraid that the idea of singing through the frame wouldnt work well in the video, however as the editing was done on it and a black and white effect was added to it we were very happy with the outcome and we decided that it did fit well with the video therefore we were glad to have taken the risk.

Filming

2010-01-20T03:30:00.000-08:00

Today we filmed the frame scene. We filmed a frame for the length of the song and then filmed our artist (Grace Rewaj also known as Erica Shine) as she sang the whole song. We are now going to edit them both so that it looks like she is singing through the frame. We also took few pictures of our artist so that we could use them for our album cover and magazine cover.

Editing

2010-01-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

Today We edited some of the footage we had done outdoor in the park on Final Cut Express, however we still have a little more filming to do, which would be the frame scene.

Filming

2010-01-03T04:49:00.000-08:00

We filmed most of our footage today for 3 hours. We managed to use the snow to our advantage, and we used the park to shoot most of our footage, however this slightly changed our original idea because we felt that this would be more effective and original and would fit in with the song we had chosen. We also took a couple of shots of pictures and other scenes which are going to be used in our music video as flashbacks.

Magazine Advert sketches

2009-12-16T03:51:00.001-08:00

These are sketches for the magazine advert advertising Erica Shine's new album and video. The first is a cover of a magazine. These are often seen as adverts in magazines advertising another magazine with something interesting on the cover to persuade people to buy them. The magazines advertised within other magazines, like this, are usually produced by the same company. The idea for this was very simple the image of the artist looking over her shoulder, taken from the digipack, but on a white background. The artist will be wearing a colourful dress and the colour scheme will look clean and fresh, for example pink, orange, yellow and white. We are also aiming for a rather summery look. There is then the artists name and some other small article titles for the other parts of the magazine. Basically, it is a typical cover of a music magazine for pop music, but will look clean and polished.

The second idea is a full page advert within a magazine for Erica Shine's Album. The image will be similar to the one used in the previous idea, but will be a front view of the artist.

Album Cover Idea

2009-12-16T03:20:00.000-08:00

Album Cover Idea

These are my ideas for the Album. The top two images in this design are the front and back cover for the album. I was inspired to do this design off the albums from famous artists such as Leona Lewis, Cheryl Cole and Taylor Swift. The fact that the focus on these images is the face shows that it is our attempt to introduce our new artist to the audience. And the guitar shows that the music is unique.

These are a couple of those covers:

Ideas for digipack cover

2009-12-16T02:52:00.001-08:00

Rough Sketch of Digipack

This is a rough sketch of my ideas for the digipack cover, the top two images are the front and back and the bottom two images are the inside of the pack.

For the front cover I have used an extreme close up of the artists face, with text layed over: the artists name, Erica Shine, and the song

title, I will w

ait for you. This is a popular idea for the front of an album and is used by artists such as Leona Lewis and similar ideas are used by Pixie Lott, Black Eyed Peas, and La Roux.

This is Leona Lewis' album cover for her album Spirit. This is a very similar idea to my idea for the Erica Shine cover. It is a simple image and layout, but works well as the audience can straight away identify the audience. I think with our image, a brighter look would be more desirable. This can be achieved with makeup, image editing and the colour of background used. Although not a lot of the background is seen, I think that a white backg

round would brighten up the image, and would also fit with the brand image of innocence, created in the other products.

This is an album cover from La Roux. A more unique artist, and so the cover is more interesting. The principal idea is the same, a close up of her face, but interest is added by using a side view. Also this shows the artist's trademark hairstyle. The red background also looks much more striking than the leona lewis cover, and immediately grabs attention. I also like the use of lighting in this cover, her face has been made lighter than the rest of the image. This is probably difficult to achieve without professional lighting, but is a good idea. As with the leona lewis cover, the text is kept simple, meaning it stands out more. Because of the large images used, a lot of text in a fancy font would look too 'busy' and cluttered.

The black eyed peas also used a similar idea on the cover to their latest album, The END, they used a robot style face which was green. This fits with the electronic sounds of their music, and once again is eye catching and unique. This however, would not be appropriate for our album cover, and would be very difficult to re-create. (the image was unable to upload)

For the back cover of the digipack I originally thought of an image of the artist, the photos and a track list, which is what I have drawn above. However, I think that the image of the artist looking over her shoulder with the clock would be better, as it is more unique. I also think it will be easier to see the track list with one simpler image rather than my original idea.

for the inside, my ideas i have drawn I think would work well, but after thinking about it in more detail, I think that one large image stretching across both pages would be more stylish and appropriate. Perhaps an image of the artist led on grass with some photos would be appropriate, and would look more professional than two separate images.

As these are just rough sketches, there will most probably be changes to the original ideas to improve the product. Also some of the shots may not be possible such as shots in the grass as if the weather is bad, it will be very difficult. However, I think that these rough ideas, if possible, would work well on the digipack and would link well with the music video.

Album cover ideas-ancillary tasks

2009-12-09T02:58:00.000-08:00

For our album cover design, we would think about designs such as these:

These are the album covers that have inspired us to think of some possible designs that we can have for our artist album cover. These album covers focus on the artist only to establish who they are and what their image is. As our artist is a female solo artist too, we will be planning on making a cover that is similar to these in order to show our artist as the protagonist.

Photoshots

2009-12-08T01:57:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of Photoshots for our music video:

Casting Shots

2009-12-08T01:27:00.000-08:00

Grace Rewaj and Ben Clynes

primary research on an existing music video-Taylor Swift, White Horse

2009-12-07T11:47:00.000-08:00

Taylor Swift is a female American country pop artist. The song, white horse has an on-going narrative throughout about Taylors character finding out that the person that she was in love with has been with somebody else. She even suggests that she used to believe that she was his 'princess' and he was her 'prince', which is where the name 'White Horse' comes from. This narrartive also fits in with our music video as the song that we are using also relates to a female who was in love with someone and has now lost them. It even has a reference to another woman when it says "do you think of me, whenever you lie next to her?"
Lots of different shots are used to introduce taylor as an artist, such as close ups, medium and long shots all used so that the viewer doesnt get bored whilst watching the video as they dont see one shot for to long. I am hoping that we will be able to incorporate this into our video too.
In Taylor's video we can see past scenes of her and her past love. we also want to include this in our video to establish what the song is about. Low key lighting is used during the shots of her on her own, which contrasts with the high key lighting used when we see scenes from the past. This is to show to the audience that when she was in this relayionship she felt happy, but now that has gone she is on her own and is very unhappy and feels lonely. The rain through the window helps to show the sadness too as it generally create a more unhappy surrounding. In our video we want to aim at creating a noticable difference with our 'past' and 'present' scenes too, maybe a difference with the lighting like in this video, or by putting an effect on such as black and white for example. Also, we are even aiming at showing a difference in emotions at these points through the artists facial expressions and movements as Taylor does in her video,.

below is a link the video 'White Horse' on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Xr-JFLxik

Institution

2009-12-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium, and later with the launch of VH1. The term "music video" first came into popular usage in the early 1980s. In Chinese entertainment, music videos are simply known as MTVs because the network was responsible for bringing music videos to popularity in that country.
Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action.
With the arrival of the sound films and talkies in 1926, many musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts (1926–30), which were produced by Warner Bros, featured many bands, vocalists and dancers. The series entitled Spooney Melodies was the first true musical video series. The shorts were typically about six minutes in duration, and featured art deco style animations and backgrounds combined with film of the performer singing the song. This series of shorts can arguably be considered to be the earliest music videos.
Animation artist Max Fleischer introduced a series of sing-along short cartoons called Screen Songs, which invited audiences to sing along to popular songs by "following the bouncing ball". Early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons.
The early animated films by Walt Disney, his Silly Symphonies, were built around music. The Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films. Live action musical shorts, featuring such popular performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to theatres.
Furthermore the first music videos of the modern era were produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith who started making short musical films for 'Saturday Night Live' in 1979. In 1981, he released 'Elephant Parts', the first video album and first winner of a Grammy for music video. However now there are many videos that have evolved from this and have become more based on the recent technology. Entertainment is a big part of the music industry therefore thats what the videos are mainly based on rather than on the artists individual talent. There have been many music videos that have been animated which shows that the artist does not have to be in the video for it to be a success.

Brand image of artist

2009-12-04T07:27:00.000-08:00

For the brand image of our artist we want to give off a 'clean' and 'fresh' image. We want the audience to feel as though she is a 'nice' girl. Because of the lyrics to the song and the overall feel of the music is quite sad, we want the audience to feel quite sorry for her so that they understand what she is feeling. We will not have our artist in lots of make-up as this would give the wrong impression of what we are trying to put across about her as a person. Also, for this reason we will have her wearing non revealing clothes as we want to portray the artist in the right way.

An example of this type of artist is Taylor Swift. She

gives off a young and fresh image and is portrayed as a nice and genuine type of girl, which is exactly what we are aiming for.

Storyboard Page

2009-12-04T07:06:00.001-08:00

Feedback 4/12/09

2009-12-04T05:38:00.001-08:00

Very good group - lots of good research and planning - good case studies and analysis also - well done!

Planning
- Remember to put on your blog where you got your song from and the creative commons licence agreement also - to prove it is non copyrighted.
- Also sum up the brand image of your artists you are trying to 'push' in your products.

You can also add...
- shooting schedule
- health and safety form
- cast list
- location shots
- costume shots/ideas etc...

- keep blogging on your ideas and progress!

Miss McNulty

Camera Angles

2009-12-04T05:22:00.000-08:00

The term camera angle means slightly different things to different people but it always refers to the way a shot is composed. Some people use it to include all camera shot types, others use it to specifically mean the angle between the camera and the subject. The camera angle marks the specific location at which a camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles. This will give different experience and sometimes emotion.

Here are some of the angles that are used and will be used in our music video:

Eye Level - This is the most common view, being the real-world angle that we are all used to. It shows subjects as we would expect to see them in real life. It is a fairly neutral shot.

Low Angle - This shows the subject from below, giving them the impression of being more powerful or dominant.

High Angle - A high angle shows the subject from above, i.e. the camera is angled down towards the subject. This has the effect of diminishing the subject, making them appear less powerful, less significant or even submissive.

Bird's Eye - The scene is shown from directly above. This is a completely different and somewhat unnatural point of view which can be used for dramatic effect or for showing a different spatial perspective. In drama it can be used to show the positions and motions of different characters and objects, enabling the viewer to see things the characters can't.
The bird's-eye view is also very useful in sports, documentaries, etc.

Slanted Angle - Also known as a dutch tilt, this is where the camera is purposely tilted to one side so the horizon is on an angle. This creates an interesting and dramatic effect.

Which technologies we will use

2009-12-02T03:57:00.000-08:00

During our production of our music video, we will use various technologies

These are:

Digital video camera

Digital stills camera

camera equipment-batteries, computer connecting wire, tape(for video) and tripod

Apple Imac

Final Cut Express software

The photo booth

And possibly:

Adobe photoshop to edit the stills

For our other tasks we will be using:

Digital stills camera

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe In Design

planning for music video-cinematography & lighting

2009-12-02T03:47:00.000-08:00

Cinematography

When we go out filming we have lots of different plans for our camera shots. Firstly, we will begin to establish our main character and the plot of our narrative. In the introduction of the song we have medium and close up shots of the girl looking at the photos of her and her ex-boyfriend. She will have an upset facial expression to show how she feels. This introduces our character and shows that she is upset. We use close ups throughout of photographs etc, and the pair holding hands in the past to establish that they was once happy and that is what she is clinging to. At one point we are planning on having a high angle shot of the girl lead on the floor with the pictures surrounding her to show what her life revolves around. Also we are going to have a point of view shot of the girl putting a ripped up photograph back together. This is our way of trying to really show how she feels and what she longs for to the audience.

Lighting

The lighting which we intend on using will be bright natural lighting when showing the scenes from the past, however, when we are showing the girl feeling down and emotional, the lighting will be duller to reflect her feelings at this time. We are hoping to make a sort of 'film effect' once we have filmed all of our product and are planning on using colour grading on final cut express to make it look more professional.

Music Video Planning- Media Language - Sound and Mise en scene

2009-12-02T03:09:00.001-08:00

Sound

In our music video, we are not going to have any dialogue as it is a music video, and it is uncommon for dialouge to be used. Also it would detract from the song. We may try to include some camera sound effects for the shots with the photographs, but this will depend on how the song fits with the images, and if the sound effects work with the song. Our main sound in the video will be the song. Erica Shine's 'I will wait for you'.

Mise en Scene

For our video, we are going to have a relatively bright look with use of bright colours to reflect the artists innocent and harmless image. We will have the actors dressed like average teenagers, in fashionable clothing that is not from any particular stereotype. The girls bedroom will be girly colours such as pink or lilac and white, to show that she is a 'girly girl' and to add to the innocent look. The boys bedroom will be more boyish colours such as blue and green. The girls bedroom should be relatively tidy and clean to represent her innocent and girly character. The girl will wear bright colours and jewellery to create a pretty look and also to create her innocent image. The boy will wear a simple outfit such as jeans and a shirt, and will also dress to look clean and also relatively innocent. The mise en scene of the street and photo booth will be just whatever is there at the time including other people, cars and objects. This does not matter though, as we can edit the colours using Final Cut to create a bright look, and the other objects will just add to the 'normal' look of the street. Overall, we will try to keep our mise en scene bright, colourful and clean looking, however, for the outdoor shots we will use a slightly grittier look to create realism.

Narrative

2009-12-02T02:54:00.000-08:00

We will be creating a music video to the song 'I will Wait For You' by a singer called Erica Shine. Our plot is going to be based around the lyrics of the song, in which a boy and gils relationship has come to an end, and, whilst the girl still loves him and wants to be with him, the boy has moved on and found somebody else. Like Levi-Strauss' theory of following the binary oppositions, it brings up the conflict of the future vs the past, because whilst we will be showing that she is clinging onto the past, we are also putting across that he is moving on with his life. This shows the binary opposites.

Primary Research on an existing music video

2009-12-01T05:21:00.001-08:00

Pixie Lott- Cry Me Out
Pixie Lott is a female British singer songwriter from Essex in London. Her birthname is Victoria Louise Lott she was given the name 'Pixie' by her mother as a nickname. Pixie Lott is currently signed with Mercury Records in the UK and Interscope Records in the U.S. Her genre of music varies from pop soul and R&B to Wonky Pop and Electropop. She started out with the single 'Mama Do' which was released to Myspace and gained over 2 million views on Youtube. It was then entered both into itunes and the UK chart at number one after 50,000 sales. It spent one week as number one and eleven weeks within the top forty. She released another single called 'Boys and Girls' which topped the UK Singles Chart on 13 September 2009. During the week in which it reached number one, the single sold just under 50,000 copies. It has so far spent nine consecutive weeks within the top seventy-five and eight consecutive weeks within the top forty of the UK Singles Chart.
On 14 September 2009, Lott's debut album, "Turn It Up" was released. The album debuted at number six on the Album Chart. The album has so far sold over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom and was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry in October 2009.
Lott has written a song for Alexandra Burke's debut album, Overcome, titled "You Broke My Heart" and a song for Girls Can't Catch titled "Alone". She also has written two tracks on Lisa Hordijk - the Dutch X Factor's winners album, they are titled "No Good For Me" (1st single off of album) and "Promises, Promises".
Pixie's third single from the album was confirmed as "Cry Me Out" upon the release of the previous single and the single was later confirmed for physical release on 23 November 2009. The music video was directed by Jake Nava (director of recent videos for Beyoncé, Leona Lewis and Shakira) and was shot in Cuba. Lott won two MTV EMA Awards MTV Europe Music Awards 2009, Best UK & Ireland Act and Best Push Artist (best break through artist.)
'Cry Me Out' is Lott's most recent single which i think relates to our music video the most from the others as they are both about relationships and not being with that one person anymore. However I also believe that it is a good inspiration as to what locations should be used for our music video and the style of the video is very similar. As it is black and white throughout the video it shows how she feels. There is alot of natural editing used which shows realism therefore the audience can relate to it.

Pixie Lott- Cry Me Out Music Video

Questionnaire Analysis

2009-12-01T02:13:00.001-08:00

A sample questionnaire has been posted earlier. We gave out several questionnaires, approximately 10 to members of the target audience, and received the results which will help us with the rest of our planning.

Our first couple of questions were to make sure that the person completing the questionnaire was part of the target audience or secondary audience.

We asked people how often they watched music videos, the most common answers were Every few days and Every other day, with a 3 people answering Every Day. Nobody answered once/twice a week. This proves that music videos are popular with the target audience and that they are watched frequently.

We also asked which channels and/or websites people watched music videos on. The kost common were Viva, 4 music and youtube. But there were some other channels such as MTVdance and specialist rock channels. This shows that the most popular channels are the free ones, the ones available on freeview television and websites, which shows that people do not like paying to view these videos.

For question 5 we asked had a music video ever influenced the person to purchase a song or album, and surprisingly all answered No. This shows that there are other factors that have to be taken into account before someone purchases a song or album. The video will help make the song and/or artist known, but will not neccessarily promote sales.

We also asked, when people were watching music videos, how long that they spent watching them? There was a variety of answers, with someone answering each choice: 10 minutes or less. about 30 minutes, about an hour, and longer than an hour. However the most common answers were about 30 minutes and about an hour. This shows that music videos don't hold attention for as long as films and long television programs, but do hold the attention as long as soaps and hour long programs. This also proves that people spend a reasonable amount of time watching music videos, and so there is a good chance that people will watch an artist's video, especially if it is popular and on a lot.

For question 7 we asked if people had a favourite music video. Most people answered no, but one person gave an answer of Michael Jackson's Thriller, an extremely popular music video.

Question 8 asked What would you like to see in a music video? There was a variety of answers some of which were: the artist/band, a narrative, something interesting not just stood there singing, and other similar suggestions. We have included all of these suggestions in our music video, as we have the artist, a narrative and a unique idea revolving around photographs, and we are planning to include some interesting effects to show the photographs in the video.

The last question was do you have a favourite genre of music, and every questionnaire gave a different answer! Therefore this question did not really help with our planning. We included this question to help with the choice of song, so we decided to go with a song that sounded relatively mainstream and like other artists that are popular today like Taylor Swift.

Our Questionnaire was useful in planning our music video, as it gave us ideas for what to include, and whether or not music videos were important in the selling process of music, and other general facts that we wanted to know, such as how often people watched the videos. Therefore, it was useful to do the questionnaire, but if it was carried out again, we would include more questions on the content of music videos, rather than genre of music and favourite videos, as these questions did not really provide any useful results, but at the time we thought that it would be useful.

Shooting Schedules

2009-12-01T02:08:00.000-08:00

Call Sheet (Day 1)

Date: 5th December 2009

TIme: 10am-1pm

Location: House, Bedroom, Street, Photo booth

Cast: Grace, Ben

Crew: Fatima, Elizabeth, Grace

Equipment: Camera,Tripod, Battery, Tape etc.

Props and Costume: Pictures, Clocks, Watches, Normal everyday clothes.

Representation

2009-12-01T01:33:00.000-08:00

Research and Outline of the representations used in our music video, and an outline of Walter Lippmann's 4 functions of stereotypes.

Representation

The group represented in our video will be Teenagers, one boy and one girl. Our protagonist will be a teenage girl, who is in love with a teenage boy. The teenage girl will be represented as a relatively simple character who is experiencing love for the first time. She will be represented as a young, free spirited girl who is no trouble to anybody else. She will not be represented as violent or abusive, and so will reject the dominant stereotype of teenagers. The girl will also be represented as quite mature for her age, so as not to appear foolish, and to make the product appeal to the target audience, as this audience covers teenagers, but also slightly older people. The Boy will be represented as a nice, friendly boy, who like the girl is not troublesome, violent or abusive. He again, will reject the dominant stereotype of teenagers today. He will also be represented as quite mature for the same reasons as before. The two characters will take on some of the behavioral traits of teenage love, and so to some extent will follow the stereotypes for this on naïve, young and relatively foolish. We will not make our characters complex as there will be no dialect in our music video and it will be short( the length of the song) so there will not be time to explain the characters, and they will have to be portrayed by their costumes and actions.

Walter Lippmann’s Four Functions of stereotypes are:

1, A short cut – easily recognizable people / characters that the audience is already familiar with and so do not need exlaining.

2. An ordering process, an easy way to put people in order of class, socio economic status and other categories, To put people in groups, for example people will expect teenagers with hoods up and dressed like chavs to be part of the villain group.

3. A map of the world. Stereotypes can represent cultures and create one stereotype for a whole nation. For example, the Japanese will be represented by one oriental person eating sushi.

4. An expression of our values and beliefs (as a society) Stereotypes can represent a whole society’s views on different groups of people or countries. For example, an Arab represented as violent represents the dominant ideology of the violent Arab, which is a common media stereotype, even in children’s films like Aladdin.

Storyboard Page 1

2009-12-01T01:24:00.000-08:00

These are the scanned images of our storyboard

Animatic story board

2009-12-01T01:12:00.000-08:00

This is an animatic storyboard for our Music Video. it is a rough shot to shot outline of what will be in our video. When we are filming, we may add in or take out certain shots and possibly move things to fit in better with the song. However, we feel that this storyboard would be suitable for our music video.

Daniel Powter- Bad Day

2009-11-24T02:03:00.000-08:00

We were inspired to do our music video like Daniel Powters song, Bad Day in which it includes settings such as train stations workplaces and home settings.

Here is a link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH476CxJxfg

We are now thinking of changing our style of video so that it consists of the artist performing and a girl and a boy acting out the story line which is about a girl who is waiting for that special someone.

Feedback 23/11//09

2009-11-23T02:58:00.001-08:00

Very good research group - good links and references to songs/images etc...

Try to include the conventions of music video in your own words (e.g. use of close ups etc... and also reference Andrew Goodwin and Pete Fraser's ideas on the conventions of music video also - quotes etc...

Also what are the conventions of the singer/songwriter music video subgenre? What makes them distinctive from general music video conventions?

Target audience - you need your questionnaires and results on here also - charts/graphs are good at highlighting the main points from your primary research. Dont forget psychographic profiling also - Young and Rubicon etc...

Now move on and look quickly at your other key concepts and we should be starting to see some planning - location shots/casting shots etc...

Remember to outline your artists and brand image you are trying to create through your products.

The Target Audience

2009-11-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

For our artist and music video, our target audience will be female 15-25 year olds. We believe that our song will appeal to this age group, and possibly more people outside of this target audience, but our main focus will be on 15-25 year olds because this age group generally listens to and buys the most music. However our secondary audience would be males and older age groups. The genre of our song is acoustic rock, and sounds a little like some songs by artists such as, Alesha Dixon, Taylor Swift and Little Boots. We carried out a questionnaire, in which we asked people within our target audience, what they would like to see in our final product and what kind of music they appreciate. We also asked questions based on music videos themselves and how they appeal to them, maybe encouraging them to purchase the music. We also found out how often people watch music videos in their everyday lives.

This is the questionnaire we used:

Questionnaire , to find out what the audience looks for in a music video

2009-11-20T07:12:00.000-08:00

Questionnaire

1. How old are you?
2. Male or Female?

3. How often do you watch Music Videos?
Once/twice a week
Every few days
Every other day
Every day

4. Which music video TV channels or websites do you watch? Do you have a favourite?

5. Has a music video ever convinced you to purchase a song or album?

6. When watching Music videos/channels how long do you spend watching them?
10 minutes or less
about 30 minutes
about an hour
longer than an hour

7. Do you have a favorite music video? If so what is it?

8. What would you like to see in a music video?

9. Do you have a favourite genre of music?

Research Existing Music Videos, Remedy-Little Boots

2009-11-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

This is the British singer, Little Boots' video to her 2009 hit, Remedy. It is an electronic sounding pop song, written by the singer herself. I have chosen to look at this video as it uses some very interesting editing and effects, such as making the image look as if it is being viewed through a kaleidoscope. This video has no narrative, as the song is more of a dancing number, rather than a story, as some songs are such as Taylor Swift songs. The video works very well with the song as it matches the overall genre and mood of a glittery, electronic pop song, and looks very unique amongst other music videos. I really admire the kaleidoscope effect, which is used throughout this video. It adds interest to what would otherwise be very boring shots, the singer stood playing a keyboard and singing. Also, the shots are very short, making a lot of 'flashes' which also adds excitement and interest. I also like the mirror images used in this video. At around 50 seconds into the video, a shot of her hands playing the keyboard is used, but instead of a normal shot, a mirror image is used to make it look much more enigmatic and interesting. I like this effect and it is unique, and not used by many artists. Although the song my group has chosen is a slow song, some of these effects may still be appropriate to use.

Most of this video's exciting elements have all been added during the editing process. The actual shots are just of the singer, Little Boots, playing the keyboard, using mixing desks and singing, and without all the imaginative editing would have produced a very boring music video. But because of the editing, the video has been made into a very unique and interesting video.

The lighting in this video helps to add to the 'flashing' and the overall look, studio lighting has been used, and you can see in the video that there are spotlights. Also at about 1 minute into the video, tubes of lighting are arranged to create a triangle shape. This is very different and looks impressive. As mentioned before, a kaleidoscope effect is used throughout. Images of Little Boots are taken and made into a kaleidoscope image. This idea is also used with just an image of her mouth which looks a little strange but adds interest by adding an extreme close up. Kaleidoscope images are also created just by the different lights used, which looks more like a traditional kaleidoscope. Towards the end of the video, an image of the singer led down moving her arms creates the kaleidoscope. It is important to note that the producers have included variety with this effect, as by doing the same thing all the way through the video would have become boring. I also like how the images and effects change to reflect the music, such as when the different sections (verse/chorus) begin, and when there are important chord changes. The whole of this video uses fast paced editing, which helps to keep the audience interested, and also to fit with the relatively fast tempo of the song.

Little Boots refers to a kaleidoscope in her lyrics "spin me faster, like a kaleidoscope" so this effect is very appropriate.

Throughout the video, the singer wears a metallic dress and bold, metallic accessories on her wrist and in her hair. This means that the lights catch her and make her clothes look like they are moving with the lights. This adds further interest and is a lot more fitting with the video than plain clothes would have been.

This music video looks to have been shot in a studio, and the set up is made to look a little like a recording studio. This highlights the fact that Little Boots enjoys working with electronic machines and effects to produce her music. It also fits with the genre of the song.

Overall, although this video probably had a very large budget, I feel it is very effective and works very well. Although not many different shots are used, there is very creative use of lighting, and effects to create an interesting, unique video with an emphasis on technology. Although this song is a lot faster and of a different genre than the song chosen for the group's project, some of the effects and ideas could still be applied. I also like how there isn't many different shots used, and the creativity and excitement is all created by the editing, which is different to most other music videos.

The song we will use

2009-11-18T03:30:00.000-08:00

We have decided to use a song by a female vocalist called 'Erica shine'. The song is called 'I will wait for you'. It is a slow acoustic song with themes surrounding time and love. Here is the song and the lyrics

. I Will Wait For You

Do you think of me As much as it might hurt inside Do you recall how we Said our love would never die

Never saw it coming us falling apart And now you’ve left me with nothing  But pain in my heart

Chorus I will wait for you  Until you come back to me I will love you till the end of time You are my destiny I will wait for you I know one day you’ll see There is nothing  That could change my mind You were the only one  Meant for me

Do you think of me Whenever you lie next to her Or do you believe That we will never be together

Will I ever have you back  in my arms,  Maybe one day you will  hold me again  And never let go  Chorus  Once in a life time  A person gets to know The love of a life time They can never let go ~ oh~

Chorus (Meant for me~~~~~)

Branding-Kate Nash

2009-11-11T04:06:00.000-08:00

Kate Nash is a 20 year old female British singer and songwriter. Nash was born in Dublin, to an English father and a Irish mother, on 6th July 1987, she grew up in Harrow, North West London. Nash became interested in music in childhood. She attended St. John Fisher School and moved onto the St Joan of Arc Catholic School, Rickmansworth. She was taught guitar by teaching louis Mitchell. She studied Theatre at the BRIT school for Performing Arts and Technology in SOuth London. She auditioned at the Bristol Old Vic theatre School but was rejected after falling down a flight of stairs, breaking her foot. During her recovery she was housebound and unable to move, so her mother bought her an electric guitar. Nash used this time to focus on her songwriting: she began to wrote some new songs, finished old ones and decided that she would book a gig at a local bar in Harrow called Trinity on Gayton Road for herself, to showcase her songs. Her first ever album was called Foundation this was released in 2007.

She tries to put across a unique and quirky style through her music. In the review of her album, 'Made of Bricks', the BBC say that she 'displays a unique tone and style'. Throughout 2008 she was able to pile up on awards such as; winning a BRIT award for best female artist, an NME award for best solo artist and a Q award for breakthrough act.

This is her recent album cover Made of Bricks.

Branding

2009-11-11T03:46:00.000-08:00

Branding is about creating an image that people link to a particular type of product. It is an image and a message that will draw them over an over again to buy the particular product.

* Brand Essence - what the brand means in a sentence

* Brand Slogan - often a catchphrase linked to a logo

* Brand Personality - what kind of character does the brand have? Humanises the brand - makes it easier to relate to

* Brand Values - what does it stand for/against?

* Brand Appearance - what does it look like/sound like/taste like?

* Brand Heritage - what kind of tradition does it have?

* Emotional Benefits - what feelings does it offer consumers?

* Hard Benefits - is it cheaper or better? what 'real' quantifiable benefits does it offer the buyer?

'Brands need to provide customers with a consistent compelling experience in order not to confuse them, as confusion leads to doubt'

(Taken from mudvalley.com)

'Brands work because they offer us a form of guarantee, a set of ready made values attached to a product that we too can adopt upon purchase.'

(Taken from mediaknowall.com)

Naomi Klein, of No Logo states that "cooperation may manufacture product, but what consumers buy are the brands"

Our group and brief

2009-11-11T03:14:00.000-08:00

Our group consists of three members, Grace, Fatima and Elizabeth. We have chosen to do a music promotion brief.