Final Cut of Music Video:

Magazine Advertisement & CD Digipak

What Have I Learnt From My Audience Feedback?

I asked two people who are at a similar age to me and my target audience if i could film them while i asked them questions about my music video and what they thought of it. The questions included:

Do you understand the narrative of my music video?

Is the conflict scene easy to see?

Is the costumes used appropriate?

Did you enjoy the music video?

What would you change?

Does it work being black and white?

Is the narrative too cliche? 

How old are you?

Male or Female?

From the video I learnt that they understood the narrative in my music video and that the costumes which i picked for my actors was suitable and fit the genre really well. I asked them if they enjoyed the music video and they both said they did. I asked them what i could do to improve my video and they said that i need a few quick edits in my video to fit the beat as some cuts don't do that which i agree with. I was worried about my video being too cliche since it is based on a love story but from the feedback they said that the cliche works and they think that it needs to be a little bit like that for it to make sense.

Second feedback

I asked the same questions for this feedback too, instead i asked people of different gender and ages. I asked 10 people non were the same age. i scaled from 18-47years. I wanted to see what people thought. My feedback was similar to the 1st feedback but some of the older people thought the narrative was too cliche where as the younger people didn't. Some people didn't understand the narrative and suggested i made it more obvious. 

How Did You Use Media Technologies In The Construction andresearch,Planning and Evaluation Stages?

In Research:

Web 2.0

When i first started my research i used YouTube to find which song i would be using and to help chose which one i would be using. I also used it to look at other video's to help filming with mine. It gave me idea's for narratives i could've used, locations that other artists used, but it mainly helped with how to use my cuts and changing from one framing to the other. I needed to know the conventions to why certain narratives need different angles. I also tried to focus on YouTube video's which showed behind the scenes footage since i thought it would help with the production of my music video and how they capture certain angles. 

I also wanted to know whether they used tracks for certain things or if the movements were just hand held. The video's that i looked at were helpful because i tried to look at video's with a similar narrative to mine and i found that not many of the video's include someone singing directly to the camera. Therefore i thought i would have that concept in mine. I found that the artist was singing the song but they would have an actor for the girl. 

Social Media:

Within web 2.0 i used the social websites, i asked people's opinion on what they thought was best  in the planning part of things, I posted on facebook to see which video they think has the best narrative. I also asked my friend Elle if she thinks the song which i planned on doing was good and my storyline was interesting enough. I also posted my ideas onto twitter to try and find what people thought of my initial 3 idea's. Another thing that we discussed was the blogger app which I used on my IPad called Blogger' which allowed me to access this site.This screenshot shows my social network site (Facebook) and blogger.

The other app which you can see here is photoshop, I used this for my images to bring them up to the standard that they needed to be. I also used the app 4od to help with my research since I could look how certain genres use the 4 key elements. 

Blogger Questionnaire:
Including the questions being asked in the focus groups above, i also wanted to put a questionnaire on my blogger which all of my work is on. Therefore people who have the same interests can look and answer the questions knowing what the topic is based on. I had to email around the college to get people to do the questionnaire since a lot of people who are studying the same thing as me and in return i also answered their questionnaires.

Focus Group:

After focusing on the social network sites I wanted to ask people in person therefore i decided to have a focus group which i recorded to see what i people thought and which of my initial ideas were better. I asked them the same questions which were asked in the questionnaire above. I wanted to get a variety of answers. I found out that everyone who i asked in these video's listen to music everyday since it is a large part of society and it is easier to listen to music on phones and new MP3 players. I also found that people enjoy watching pop video's seen as though they consist of a lot more things and seem to come across as a lot more exciting. When I asked my audience what they expected to see in a Indie based genre they said they expected to see a variety of things such as a band playing but also video's which include a narrative. When I asked about the song which i am doing they assumed a cliche story. 

Construction and Evaluation:

Web 2.0:
I YouTube once again to help me get video's such as my focus groups. It also helped me put my music video out to the other people who use YouTube and you can see how many views the video has. If needed i could allow people to comment on my video but i didn't think this was necessary.

Final Cut Pro:

    Nikon P500
This is the camera which i used for the recording of my music video. This is a Nikin Bridge camera which allows you to take pictures and use the camera to record for great quality.











Cannon 1000D

This is the camera which i used for photoshoots. This camera allows me to connect to the studio in photography giving me high standard images.

How Effective Is The Main Product And Ancillary Texts?

I think the music video and the ancillary texts link well together because the colour theme that i went for throughout the whole process what black and white. My whole music video is in black and white. With my ancillary texts i used the fact that i am using black and white imagery therefore i learnt how to use infrared photography to get a different effect instead of just normal photography. The people who i used in my video is also the artist who sings the song (Elle). I wanted to have her be part of the narrative in the video and then have her as a model on my ancillary texts since people would recognise her and could possible help with the promotion side of things. The images on the left are the images that i used. I wanted her wearing black leather jacket and dressing indie like to continue the theme which has been used in the video. One thing that i did like about the costume which she was wearing is that it seemed different and really helped when i needed to refer to the conventions of the genre which is indie. One image that i used was just a landscape image, this is what i used for the image on the back where there is a list of songs that is included on the album. I thought it was effective because the image isn't too over powering. My magazine advertisement was also in black and white, since again, i wanted to carry that theme on. When I did the shoot for the images i wanted Elle to wear something which was plain but still had an edgy look. I know she always wears the same necklaces every day therefore i asked her to wear them too. I compared my digi pack with some of the over covers of albums. These ones are simple but still seem very effective. I didn't want any of my ancillary to be crowded i wanted it to be spaced out but look neat.

Seen as though my images for my Digipak seemed a very depressing black and white i tried to up lift it a little bit more with the advertisement poster. I wanted to keep this poster very simple very much like the digipak. When I did my research on what the posters looked like, I noticed that a lot of them had star ratings on them, therefore I thought I would refer to well known magazines that report about the music that artists are trying to promote. I chose 3 different well known magazines. I put one comment in pertiuclar in larger font than the others because I know that in the music industry that 'Q' magazine is very well known and respected therefore getting a comment like that would need to be seen clearly. Comparing this poster to tohers which are in magazines today, is seems like it fits in well.

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

The first media product that I am going to talk about is the magazine cover, the conventions which I used and developed was the star rating. From my research I noticed that majority of the covers had this, this would help sell the album which is being advertised and help people listen to the artists music since there is opinions from well known newspapers or well known indie magazines. This would help attract a certain crowd of people. With the indie genre being so hard to define, I think it makes it easier to apply certain conventions of the magazines. I chose to have the theme of the front cover to be black and white as I think a certain choice of colour would effect the convention forms and wouldn't refer to indie. The black and white theme is throughout all of my ancillary texts, it is also in the CD Digi-Paks. I did think about using colour but then it didn't fit in with the mood i wanted to project through the album advertisements and the music video. The text on the advertisement took me a while to decide what i wanted. I came to the conclusion to have something quite plain but make the important things stand out. I actually made one of the comments from 'Q' magazine a little bit more bigger than the others to highlight that, the magazine is well known and it is good to have their comment feature. I also had some writing bold, such as the title and information that means it is the album of the year. One thing that i did challenge about this advertisement is showing that you can buy it on a Vinyl. I think this represents the indie genre as a lot more people are buying it on vinyl now compared to the past. I find that the advertisement is a little bit plain but i didn't want it to look too over crowded as i related a lot to another magazine cover which was plain and only had small text and had the main band singer and the others in the background. If i could change anything about the image which i used, would be to use the costume which she wears in my music video,  I think it would've linked them nicely together. Although I think that it still goes well with the genre in the costume she is in. When i did the shoot for the magazine cover, I didn't want her bouncing around as it wouldn't show continuity as in every other image i have used of her, she isn't. The images i used for my CD covers, are her either in a studio, or outside. One thing that i could improve to make my images look a little bit more interesting would be the background of my images. E.g. Magazine cover, the background is very plain and it could have been a black background and white writing to look a little bit more interesting. My magazine challenges the appearance of girls in the indie music industry. Some women dress for men to look at them where as my model had her own fashion although she had a lot of flesh on show, it isn't seen as sexual where as if she was dressed different she might be seen as different. I have looked at every little bit of detail such as the necklaces she is wearing, this is all the way though out every image relating to my ancillary texts. The music video that i chose doesn't refer to the male glaze (Laura Mulvey) theory. It is seen as a typical love story. My story board was based on a couple who then have an argument as the guy gives another girl attention which causes the conflict, he then makes it up to her by taking her to a meal. The original music video is like that too. I wanted my music video to be a happy ending but then I didn't want too much conflict, but at the same time I wanted it to be obvious that it happened. In other music video's they have fast cuts when the conflict scene happens. This applies to my music video too since I didn't use a tripod to keep it steady, instead I used it handheld to give it that dramatic affect. A music video which I used as inspiration was Max Schneider and a music video which he is in, called 'Say Something'. It is featuring another girl called Victoria Justice. Within that video they are sitting back to back, i used this in my music video to refer to my conflict scene. It shows them making up and showing their effection towards each other.
In my music video this is just after the conflict scene where they slowly make up and become loving and having a laugh again. Since all of my music video was in black and white, I showed continuity by having my images which is shown on my digipaks and the advertisement black and white too therefore you could see the link between them. I only chose images which included the girl since the idea is that it is meant to be the artist who is part of the narrative created by this music video.

For my shoot I wanted todo something which not many people do with the images. I tried infrared photography to see if the outcome would look any different and some of them did. Not many real media products use this, so I thought it would be a good idea to try and do something that would challenge the conventions and form.

Draft of Music Video (Still missing bits)

Creating My Magazine Cover.

When i was planning this i knew that i wanted it too looked quite simple but effective and i wanted to have the correct information on my poster to be able to advertise for the right things and gather publicity. I know that i want to make my images black and white therefore i decided to use Photoshop to edit my images which i used to create my covers for the digipak. I already am quite experianced on photoshop as I learnt how to use it in depth in my A Level Photography class.

The first step that i always take when i am editing an image on photoshop is adjusting the levels. This shows me the clear image before the camera made changes itself. I always like to increase the white balance as it gets rid of the orange/cream look that is created from the lighting mixed in with the back drop. I also increased the black as it made the clothes look more definate and stood out a lot more.

This is what the Levels looked like once i had finished working with them. As you can see i put the white and black at either end which gives it a nicer effect. I also found it helped if i clicked 'Auto' as it brings the picture back to normal too.

Once i changed the levels i then move on to use another setting which is all about the saturation which will get rid of the orange in the background, i find that this doesn't need to change drastically as the smallest movement makes a huge impact therefore i only moved it ever so slightly down to decrease the orange. It also makes the skin look a lot more vibrant and normal. This image below is what the sliders looked like once i had finishe moving them.

After changing all of the settings to effect the shades of colours that are in the image, I had to change it into black and white, to do this I just used the settings that are automatic therefore it created the effect itself. I personally chose to have this effect increases the shadows and makes them a lot more visible. I think that it shows it differently to the CD cover but still the imagery of my model and artist are the same. 

I wanted change the size of my image as the magazine cover would be A4 size in the magazine therefore I think it was only right to make it this size on Photoshop as this is where I am most confident.

With the crop tool I can also create a frame, I tried to create the frame so it was white but I didn't think it looked right or good. I had a frame on my CD cover so I ink it is important that the conintuity is there. 

This is the outcome of the frame and I think it looks good as it links in the other colours and shades of black that is included it also sets the colours of the fonts so it can be as many different colours as possible and there will be no contrast. 

Magazine Advertisement - Research

This Kasabian poster is advertising for their new album, I noticed that they have based there poster on the theme of cards and used the 'King' Card which links in with the name 'Kasabian'. Secondly they have 2 different types of font, and that is used throughout the poster. The writing is also two colours; Black and Red. Finally, on the bottom, I can see where people have wrote about the album and rated it a certain number of 'Stars' and normally it is out of 5. 5 being the highest and the best. I think the images on all three of these advertisement are quite clear and don't look too crowded so I will aim to do the same with my advertisment too.

With the second advertisement, there is a lot more writing on this one compared to the Kasabian advertisement. It mentions specific tracks that are on the album since they include other artists not just Chris Brown. Throughout the whole poster, there is only one font that is being used and it looks like a olden times font compared to the other poster which had very simple writing fonts. This poster doesn't have a rating on, this could represent that no one has rated it or it isn't that popular. I noticed that at the bottom, there is a advertisment to win a compition asking the viewers to text or ring a number to win a prize. This could be an idea to put this on my magazine advertisment as it would create publicity for the artist.

Finally, with the last advertisement that I found, I noticed that this also had a star rating as part of the poster. This is there to help the up sell the album and get people's attention more. I also like that the picture for the background is quite simple, and I can relate this to my project as I would like my images to be simple but effective. I also like the colour schemes as it is similar to mine. The font is very sophisticasticed and the whole poster looks better for it and that's how I want mine to be reflected. This poster contains a lot of information but doesn't look over crowded so this is the magazine I will aim to be as clear but have the vailid information needed. I also noticed that this advertises for a film as well as the CD.

Template of the Digipak

This is the template that i am going to use for my CD cover. I used this because i think it looks simple, but when it has been done, the colour scheme will all fit in together and add a good effect. I want to use the same colours throughout the case so it is constant. I am using natural colours for my cd cover as it will go nicely with the cover which I have already made, I will be using a white boarder with the pictures and the text will be either black or white.

 

This is the cover which I plan on using for my main front cover, this includes the artists name and and the name of the single which she is singing. The clothes that she has on in this picture is what she wears throughout the music video, this creates continuity. 

CD DigiPak

After taking the pictures in the studio I used Photoshop to edit my images to make them suitable for my CD cover. I used Taylor Swift and Beyonce's CD covers as inspiration as i liked there colour schemes. On Photoshop the first thing which i changed was the 'levels'. This makes the image colours more balanced and the correct colours from the lights etc. I find that i like to change them myself rather then use auto. As i can get the colours the way i want them for further editing. 

After changing the Levels, i then decided to use 'Curves' to help add brighter colours and make certain sections stand out more then other parts. I wanted to brighten her hair and the skin tone, this will help with the next step. As i chose not to have any shadows in this image, the curves sometimes changes the colour of the backdrop.

To get the image to the correct size to fit onto the cover, i used the crop tool. When i was cropping my image, i wanted to make sure it looked good, and the framing complimented the model too. I decided to keep the face in, as you can see the top of the head line too. 

To make her face look a bit more flawless i used to 'spot healing tool' to get rid of certain dark spots. it can also get rid of certain mistakes that the camera lens make. 

Adding the text is important for the front cover of the CD, as it defines what the song or the album is based around. The text is normally plain as if it was too over the top then it wouldn't connote the artist and her genre. 

Changes in Location

I have changed my location for a few scenes in my music video.

- I will be having some scenes in the green room/studio.
- Instead of going to 'Cactus Jacks' to film for the video, i will be shooting it in college in the canteen.
- I will still be using the beach for a little bit.