Final Progress Review

Personally I think the detail that I have been putting in my work between AS and A2 has grown majorly! To begin with I think because the amount of research we did in the beginning helped us to learn to add more detail in our own planning work, because we were able to see a lot of existing work and be influenced by how great it is, and this inspired us to want to make our work really good, and the only way to do this would be by adding much more detail in everything we do. For example, when we viewed the last years A2 media work, we found it was great and we were able to see the key reason for it being great, and detail was a major one, and when we saw the high grades they got, it inspired us to want to make our work really great and get high grades as well. Planning takes times and effort, improvising isn't enough, I have learned that you have to be specific about your planning, for example, costume choice in production, if we hadn't planned our artists costume choice and she just turned up in any casual clothing then it would mess up the genre of our music video and the location.

I also think I have become more confident in using a wide range of ICT to present my work, such as embedded videos, Prezie TimeToast, Camtasia, Slideshare, photo sharing sites and many more! I think this year I have used much more different ICT technologies.

I think with all the blogs I have done, from research to planning and to production, each blog shows how my work gets more detailed each time and how my planning skills become better each time.

Lastly, if there was anything I could change about my blog, I would choose to use more ICT and less text! Because I think it would have made by blogs visually better and more enjoyable!

Question 3

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 

Music Video Audience Feedback: 

Brandon, Farheen and Zhane 

 

 

Brandon:

Brandon thought overall our music video was good, what he liked about it was the simplicity of the music video, he understood the narrative well and thought the idea wasn't complex. This was great to hear because our group was worried that our audience might not understand the story our video was telling. He liked the contrast from day to night and the journey the mystery man makes from day to night. He also said the theme of lights was clear which therefore means our synergy was clear, and this was one of our aims. To improve Brandon said we needed more day shots and to lighten some of the night shots up and also he said that it would have been nice to see more costume changes from the artist. From this feedback I have learned that during production you can never have enough footage, the more you have the better, because you have more to work with, and if for example one shot is too dark you have alternatives. In relation to this feedback if I could improve my music video, during our planning stage I would plan to have more base tracks, and also have more locations so we could have more costume change, and during production I would make sure we took out more lighting equipment to add more light to the night shots.   

 

Farheen -

After Farheen watched our music video in the cinema what she liked about it was the location choice, because the lights in the background looked good and it was clear our synergy was lights. She thought there was a strong costume choice, the clothes were bright and coloured and there was a contrast as a lot of the footage was filmed during the night - as a young female artist to a female target audience. This was good to hear because we thought our artist looked a little too casual in her costumes and this may have made the music look less real. She also thought the camera angles were good and the artist always came across as centre stage, which was one of our aims. She also understood the narrative in the video and thought it worked really well and was creative. To improve, Farheen said we could have used more lighting. From this feedback I have learned that it is important to manage and plan the time you have well, yes filming is essential, however it is also important  to leave a reasonable amount of time for editing because if my group had more time we could have edited some of the dark shots in our music video and made them brighter through different effects on Final Cut Pro. In relation to this feedback if I could change my music video I would have spent more time editing, I would have increased the brightness and contrast in some of the dark shots.

Digipak And Advertisement Audience Feedback:

David: 

David gave me feedback on my Digipak and advertisement, what he liked about it was the font and the fact that it suits with the background and the image. I am happy about this feedback because it means I choose the right colour scheme. He in particular, liked the dotted lights because they stand out and it's a visual aspect as it's something the audience can remember. This was great feedback because the theme lights was my synergy, and this is clear to my audience, it means I have incorporated synergy well in my products and this was my main aim. He also liked the layout as the track list was clear and positioned in a way that can be read clearly. To improve on my front panel David thought I could have made the letters of the artists name clearer by maybe adding something behind the artist name. What David liked about my advertisement was that everything was readable and all the information was clear, for example the artist website. To improve my advertisement David suggested I add a view more reviews, just to fill up some empty spaces.

Steven:

Jenny:

Evaluation question 4

Feedback for music video

After the cinema screening were all the music videos were viewed by the A2 year, we got feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of our music video. The target audience was originally a young female demography, so we got most of our feedback from the female pupils. However, to make the feedback unbiased, we also got feedback from a male pupil who also viewed the music video. Below is the feedback that we received.

This is the feedback that we received from Zhane. All of the feedback that she gave implied that we did a good job at not only during the process of filming, but also the way we planned the music video. For example, firstly she mentions that the idea of the narrative was good for a number of reasons. She began by stating that the narrative was fairly easy to understand. This may be because the structure of the video helps to create the bigger picture of the narrative as they can visualise and anticipate from different gestures shown in the video. This includes the editing, mis-en-scene and camera work. She did not mention any weaknesses in the narrative which goes to prove that the main focus of the video, which is the narrative, appealed to her, 

She also picked up on the amplification of lights. Our main target was to ensure that the audience recognise the synergy, being the lights in the mis-en-scene referring to the name and concept of the song. If she managed to realise this synergy, it would be very useful for her to realise the distinction between the music video and ancillary products. Overall, her feedback suggests that it appealed to her as a young female audience. There were not any criticisms about the music video which is very positive.

The feedback that we gathered from farheen was unexpectedly similar to the feedback from zhane. This is something that we wanted because the similarity of response shows that it also appealed to her in the same way. Farheen similarly implies that the narrative was good, but also gives a reason which was that the locations used in the narrative were effective. She aslo says that the costumes worked well with the theme of the song as they were bright colours that contrasted with the colour of the night. This is a good suggestion due to the fact that it brings up the idea of synergy once again as the bright costumes refer to the theme of lights.

Farheen identifies that the camera work on the artist was very good because it makes her centre of the stage. This is a statement that was very positive because it shows that we have promoted the artist in a way that she can be recognised. 

Unlike Zhane who gave full postive responses, Farheen spotted a weakness that we could improve on. This is to do with the lighting used in the night scene as some shots were unclear, limiting the visibilty of the artist. This is something that has had a huge impact on the response of the video, as it has given me a variety of ideas that could i change and possibly improve upon. 

How we could improve for future use

Whilst filming at night, we did have difficulties with the lighting equipment due to the fact that some filming sessions, we were limited to a small amount of batteries. Therefore, we were not able to film with the highest standard of lighting. To improve, I believe that if we had a better source of lighting, we could have filmed to a better standard were the the artist as well as the location could have been presented to the viewers in a much clearer manner. I have learnt from this feedback that the audience automatically picks up on the visibility and brightness of the mis-en-scene. Therefore, i have gathered that filming at night time must involve high preparation to overcome the slight glitches that have caused this negative response.

Lastly, we gathered a response from a male pupil who also viewed our media product, Brandon. This is to contradict with the opinions of the female target audience, to show the clear difference in the way a male would percieve the video. Bringing in different views allows me to openly discuss the wide range of responses from an unbiased perspective. 

Like the previous feedback from Zhane and Farheen, he also mentions the strengths in the narrative. However, he realises the simplicity throughout the music video. The concept of simplicity is a structure that we decided to follow and from this feedback i have learnt that we have executed it very well.

Criticisms

He similarly criticised the brightness of some of the shots. On the other hand, unlike Zhane and Farheen, he brings up the idea that there was a lack of costume changes. I have learnt from this that Mulveys theory of the male gaze has fitted into the way that the male viewer forsees the video. The two female responses did not mention any ways that the costume was limited, but the suggestion from Brandon instantly adapts to the ideas that i have previously learnt from the research of mulvey, due to the fact that the negative response revolved around the female artist. Therefore, i have learnt that for this type of music video to appeal to a wider audience, specifically females and males, the presentation of the female artist is crucial.

What i have learnt overall from all the feedback

I have learnt that the mis-en-scene is more crucial than the aspects of camerawork and editing. The camera work and editing that we used was very simple, in a way that was rather effective in engaging the viewer. However, the mis-en-scene is what most of the criticisms were based upon, including the lighting and props. There were not any negative comments on the in-complexity of the editing and camera work. Also, from research that was done through the earlier stages of this project, the main focus of the research revolved around the aspect of mis-en-scene including clear lighting, suitable locations etc. Research also suggested that editing and camera work were to be simple in order to make a conventional pop video. We did the editing and camera work simply, following the ideas of Carol Vernallis but lost focus on the mis-en-scene were the artist was involved. Andrew Goodwin suggests that a music video is a way to promote the industry further but with the lack of lighting, it could have possibly affected the promotion of the artist. Affecting this type of promotion could be very crucial in the real world, as gaining publicity would be very hard if some unclear shots make the artist unidentifiable. 

Feedback for the ancillary

Firstly, i started of my ancillary feedback from Brandon. I chose Brandon because i wanted to get a view of someone who does not have much knowledge about media as he does not study the subject. The reason i decided to do this was to test the audience, such as consumers too see what they are really intrigued by. I have learnt that the only way industries promote their artists and products is not only by showing products within an industry but by exposing it to a wider range of people. What i have learnt is almost an abstract of me (being the industry) willing to promote the artist (Farha) and album to a wider range of people (Brandon who is a male).

Brandon was the first to give me comments about my ancillary products. Instantly, he identified the theme of lights. Throughout my production, i acknowledged the fact that synergy is a very important form of promotion, due to the fact that it is a better way of appealing to an audience. As Brandon identified the lights first, it goes to show that Synergy is not only a term but a way of audience interaction. He also mentions the simplicity of the video which is also connected to the simplicity of the video. From the research of real life products, I learnt that the feeling and atmosphere that the music video bring should be reflected in its promotion products which is why i chose to follow this little form of complexion. 

Brandon seemed pretty amazed by my ancillary product although i am at an amateur promotion level. However, this review is an example of how real life media products can catch the eye of audience in the outside world other than media students, as media is a world wide business and industry.

I contrasted the views of Shrepsa purposely to Brandons so I can get a criticism from a female media student. She also realised the theme of lights and simplicity which is a similarity between a ;less knowledgeable media consumer to a experienced female media student. This strengthens what i have learnt about synergy and the way it is identified by people from different background, social groups and age. She crticised the colour use of the green on the inside panels and the different style font and colour on the advertisement. I learnt that having two different texts can make it confusing for the audience and can make it seem over worked and over exaggerated depending on the amount of colours and text/fonts used.

To conclude with...
The feedback has not only helped me on improvements that need to be made from critics and comments. It has also shown the improvements made during the whole process of this project from what i have learnt and from the mistakes and comments on previous work that i have adapted to. Mainly out of all the feedback of the products that have been were that the mis-en-scene is most probably the main thing that engage viewers and mistakes in the mis-en-scene will easily be identified. However, throughout the whole process from when I started of learning concepts of music videos through research to this very evaluation has shown that the whole process has taught me a lot about everything to do with music videos and promotion. All of what i have learnt have been expressed in the production and feedback from the audience concerning the media products that i have been involved in creating.

question 3

In the process of the planning, research and production of our music video, there were many technologies that helped us to create an excellent product of our own. These technologies are:

Video camera's, memory cards and hard drive
Photography cameras
Blogger
Youtube
Google
Final Cut Pro
Photoshop
Photobucket
Slideshare

Video Camera's and memory cards and hard drive
The video camera we used were a brand new state of the art camera. It managed to hold two memory cards (A and B) which allowed the camera to film and store more footage. Most camera's rely on just one memory card which limits the amount of footage that can be taken in one instance. The camera was also very easy to use, letting us film in the type of style we want. For example, letting us change the focus to our own standard.
Furthermore, the memory cards were able to be fit in a memory card reader that enabled us to download footage on to the Imacs, which we then stored on the hard drive. The hard drive safely stored our footage, in case there was any danger of erased footage, as some cameras and memory cards can get lost or can be unreliable.
All three were very useful, in a way that we could record footage simple, put it on the computers for editing simple and store all the footage safely on a hard drive. This made processes very easy for the group.

Photography cameras
We used Photography cameras instead of basic cameras to take still pictures of our artist to be put on our ancillary products. These cameras captured clear images, which was important for the ancillary products.

This is an example of a picture taken from the photography cameras

Blogger
Blogger is a website that gives us the opportunity to keep up to date and also to keep a diary of what we were doing in the process of research, planning and production work. It is a very good website because all posted blogs are put on to one page in chronological order. This means that all work during the process could be accessed by just viewing the blog. Whilst doing research, all our research were put onto the blog. This kept all the research in one place, making it easier to view, use and look back on. Also, all planning were put onto the blog so that we could continue were we left of rather than losing track. At the end of each day of filming, a diary of each day was put onto the blog so we could reflect on this after the production finished. Blogger has been very useful in this manner.
Apps such as Photobucket and Slideshare could be inserted into the blogs, as well as videos from youtube or from files on a computer which makes it flexible in what can be used in the blog.

blogger - slideshows

Above shows how to use the basics of the blogger. In order i of the pictures i will explain how it is used.

• Firstly, click on the pen to create a blog
• An empty post will appear where you will be able to add the necessary information required. The title name will be written at the top and to label your name, click on label and write your name.
• To insert pictures click on the image tool and it allows you to upload pictures from your computer.
• To insert video click on the video tool and it allows you to insert videos from the computer as well as Youtube.
• A few blog posts in the production, research and planning of this project are shown to give a preview of how it would look like on the blog.

Youtube
Youtube was very useful in the research of our production. As youtube allows users to watch videos and more specifically music videos, watching music videos to analyse, gain ideas and criticism was crucial in the planning of our music video. Youtube is one of the most useful websites for searching viral music videos, and most video analysis came from the videos on youtube. Analysis that youtube could let us do : compare genres, identify key factors and elements of music videos, choose the song that we used for our own production, research the original artist and much more.

Example of a video that helped my analysis from youtube

Google
Google provided us with very useful information. For example, researching the production company that we planned to use for our promotion came from research on Google. Also, researching real ancillary products such as Ellie Gouldings were done by gathering images from Google images. A key thing that Google helped us with was the research of the locations that we used in the music video.

Photobucket
Photobucket is an application that brings more than one picture into an album that can be inserted into Blogger. Photobucket is an easier and more convenient way of storing and viewing images, as it bring all images into one screen rather than them being shuffled all over a page.



Below is some ways that Final Cut Pro has allowed us to make edits and effects are shown in the areas that we used them in our music video. There are three main things which are:

Speeding footage

Speeding footage as well as slowing down footage is necessary in the production and editing of the music video. Keeping the same pace of movement throughout the video makes it less engaging and unusual. Not only does it create an effect, it also help to follow the theory of Carol Vernallis in the sense that the camera movement and speed tend to be in time with the beat. Although it may sound difficult, the video above shows how simple it is and how effective it is. Final Cut Pro is a technology that allows this type of edit to happen easily without any difficulty. It has been very useful in this way.

Fades

Final Cut Pro has tools that allows users to create transitions. Transitions, although are not commonly used in music videos which is also explained by carol vernallis, is something that we decided to use at the very end of the video. we only used it once, but the use still had a very good effect on the video. The example below shows how easy it was to create this effect and also how the execution of the effect has made an impact on the video. We did not use any other sort of transition due to the fact that we followed Carol Vernallis ideas, basing our music video around cuts and other edits such as speed which is shown in the first example above.

Base Track

The base track/master shot is a form of recording that allowed a simpler form of editing on Final Cut Pro. All the edits including jump cuts were structured by the base tracks.which made it easier to erase parts of the video that we did not want. Final Cut Pro allows more than one base track, so erasing a part of one base track will lead to the next base track in the exact same timing of the song.

Not only was Final Cut Pro very useful during the editing of the music video, it was very effective whilst planning. We created a story board which we then turned into an animatic story board by using Final Cut pro to run through the images of the storyboard like an actual music video. By doing this, it enabled us to understand what we were doing through out the music video. For example, the feedback from the animatic storyboard suggested that we needed to think it through again, which was useful as we went back to Final Cut Pro to re arrange the storyboard pictures in a correct order. The animatic storyboard is shown below.

Photoshop

Evaluation: Question 4 - Part 2

Digipak - Outside:

She liked the way that I have incorporated the lights through the dots (this implies that she is able to pick out that the synergy for my products is lights). She has identified that there is a visual link between the back and the front cover because of the dots that I have used on both panels and she has also complimented the font that I have used. I originally had a different font but my teacher advised me to change it because it didn't suit with the genre of my music. I decided to listen to his advise and picked a more fun and feminine font and I am glad I did because now you can tell from the font that this Digipak is directed to female who like pop music. She said that to improve I should fill up more of the space on the background which I agree with because my back panel does look bare. If I was to do this again I might consider filling the whole background with the dots and maybe changing the opaqueness of it so that it looks more like a transparent light rather than dots.  

Digipak - Inside:

She has pointed out that there is a visual link between the inside and the outside which I am please about because I planned my inside and outside so that they would look the same and that people would know straight away that they belong to the same Digipak. She complimented the image and said that it looks as if she is actually blowing the lights. This is because I had a clear image of how I wanted the inside to look and instructed the artist on how she should pose so that the image came out right. She said that she couldn't think of any improvements for the inside panels. If I had to criticise myself, I would say that I could have made the image of the artist bigger so that it filled up more space on the left panel. I would also try to add a glowing effect around the outline of the artist just to make it look more interesting. 

Advertisement:

She praised me for having the album on the advertisement. While researching different types of advertisement for existing albums I found that some of them had a picture of the actual album but some had a different picture of the artist. I decided to go down the route of having a picture of the album because I wanted it to be clear as to what the poster is trying to advertise and so that the audience would know exactly what to look for if they decide to buy her album. She said there was good structure to the advert as there were no empty spaces and that I planned the sizing of different items well so that they all fitted together. She also said there was no improvement needed. If I had to change something I would move the album picture further to the right so that there is a clear separation for the rules of thirds as I feel that the poster borderlines from being separated into halves and thirds.  

Evaluation: Question 4 - Part 1

Teachers Feedback:

Audiences Feedback:

We asked a few students from our college for feedback on our music video. We asked what aspects of the video they liked and if we had to improve on anything what should we change. 

- Audience member 1 (AM1)

- Audience member 2 (AM2) 

We wanted to get feedback from both males and females to see if there is a difference in feedback to our music video as we have specifically created a music video that is targeted towards females. They both mentioned that they liked the camera angles. AM1 talked about how we always positioned our artist in the centre of the frame. I think that she liked this because the whole music video is about our artist and her connection to the mystery man and so by placing her in the centre it drew our audiences attention towards her. AM2 said he liked the panning shot at the beginning of our video. I think it is because it creates a more interesting way of presenting our establishing shot of our location. They both mentioned how the video has a target audience of females. AM1 mentions the fact that she liked our artists outfits and described them as being strong way of attracting a young female audience. She also commented on the bight clothes that worked well against the dark background of the night. I'm glad that this came across because we planned our costumes thoroughly so that it would appeal to our target audience and so that it would stand out at night. AM2 pointed out that the music video wouldn't appeal to guys but we played the love story well in order to attract a female audience. I think the is really good feedback because not only has he established who our target audience is but also how we have made our video specifically for females. 

AM1 praised us for being able to film certain base tracks at night with good lighting but suggested that we could have made some shots clearer by increasing the light. AM2 also gave the same feedback. I think they were talking about the base track where we shot a high angle close up shot by the south bank trees. The reason why this shot was dark because we had to use the top light instead of the Dedo light. This was because I was standing on a platform to record from a high angle and we didn't want to balance the Dedo light stand on this for safety reasons. This caused the video to be darker and unclear but from acting from my teachers feedback it made the other base tracks at night clear and well lit. 

Another positive feedback that we received that was the result of acting on the feedback from our teacher was about the chronological order of our music video. AM1 explained how she can see the journey from day to night through the travelling of the mystery man. I believe that by taking my teachers advice I made it clear about the change in time throughout the day and made it less confusing for the audience. 

- Audience member 3 (AM3)

We then asked another female audience member for feedback on our music video and if she can identify what our synergy is. She said that our narrative worked well and that the camera work was also good because some of the clips were hard to film. I think she was referring to the scene where we shot a birds eye view of the mystery man looking for our artist. She also correctly identified our synergy as being lights and she discovered this through the amplification of the lights in our music video. I am pleased to hear that she was able to see that our synergy was lights because this means that we have made it clear in our music videos and our ancillary work. 

My changes:

If I was able to do the music video again here are some changes that I would make. 

Question 4

.

These clips were recorded using a flip after the target audience had watched our music video in the cinema. I did to get feedback from my target audience, I asked various questions such as what elements they liked about the target audience, what perhaps they didn't like and we could have improved on. they all said similar things, they said that they licked narrative of the music video and the different shots that we used were effective we could have improved on have brighter lit shots. One of our weaknesses were getting the lighting correct especially in the night scenes as it was really dark perhaps if we practiced more with different lighting we could have improved on this.

 I also asked whether they recognized what our synergy was they all seemed to say that they could which what we hoped for.

I'm glad that it appealed to our target audience which was young females which they agreed that young females would be able to relate to the narrative more. 

question 2

Evaluation: Question 3

Below I have included two clips demonstrating how I used Final Cut Pro to change the speed for the final base track at the end of the music video and the other clips shows how I have used Photoshop to edit on the lights to my Digipak.

Evaluation: Question 2

Evaluation: Question 2

Evaluation: Question 1

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Camera :

We used brand new state of the art cameras to film our videos. These cameras were able to hold two memory cards, which gave the camera a lot of space to store our footage. The camera was fairly easy to use and the things we needed to know about it were very basic such as changing the focus: manual focus allowed us to focus the camera to our own standards and auto focus would focus the camera automatically for us.

Additionally the footage on our memory cards were able to fit in a memory card reader that allowed our footage to be transferred to our Imacs, which we could easily then store on our hard drives, storing our footage on our hard drive was very crucial because footage on a memory card could easily be erased, not to mention misplacing the memory cards is very common and easily done.

This is an image of me inserting the memory cards in the camera, and focusing the camera: 

Blogger:

Blogger is a media technology we used at all times, it was used for our research, planning and evaluation, without blogger each stage of our research, planning and evaluation would have been made a lot harder. blogger is so important because it was used to store all our research such as YouTube videos, class activities, for example blogs about Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin and what kind of videos illustrate their ideas. We used blogger to keep our work safe at all times and the fact that our blogs could be edited at any time was really helpful, because when we got feedback from our teachers, it allowed us to go back to existing blogs and improve them.  Blogger allowed us to store images and this was important because during our planning a lot of our research had to come together to explain our ideas and what influences came with them. Blogger is like a diary it is always kept up to date and allows us to view our blogs in chronological order, which means our work will never be mixed up and if we're looking for a specific blog it can be found quick and easily. 

This is an example of how i used blogger to post images: 

The below slideshow shows some images of my research and planning blogs: 

Apps and Website:

There are many useful apps and websites that we were able to use in conjunction with blogger to present our work. Prezie was a really popular one because it allowed us to attach images and videos with it, which made  the work we were displaying more interesting and eye catching, it allowed us to select different kind of design and layouts to present our work. Prezie is quick and easy to put on blogger all that needed to be done was to copy the correct URL link straight onto blogger. Slideshare is also a useful website to present our work because we were able to make presentations and just added them onto Slideshare, have the URL link copied and directly pasted onto blogger. GIF Maker was a really valuable website for displaying images, on GIF Maker you are able to present the images in any position you like and the images also move by flicking in the order you chose them too. Photo bucket and Kizoa are apps that I used to demonstrate different images, on these apps I was able to add as many images as I wanted to and also add transitions which made the images more dazzling.  

How I Used Kizoa: 

How I Used Slideshare: 

How i used GIF Maker: 

YouTube:

We used the internet for many research purposes such as YouTube which allowed us to access different kind of relevant videos. Watching videos on YouTube helped us to analyse them in detail such as analysing what genre each music video belonged to and what aspects of the video helped to make this genre clear for example the visual look, which in turn helped us gain ideas and become influenced by what we watched. Watching YouTube videos also allowed us to identify key elements of different music videos such as how many base tracks are used, how many costume changes the artist has and who may be there target audience and how do we know this? YouTube allowed us to view different songs by different artists and because we had a large variety of choice we were able to listen to each song and figure out which song would best suit our idea and help create and make our idea real.

Google:

We were able to access Google through the internet which allowed us to find out all the information needed for planning our video such as, to find out how existing artists are promoted and how their music videos are promoted through social media such as Twitter, Instagram and fan pages. We needed to make sure we chose an appropriate production company that we were going to use for our promotion and through research on Google we did this. Google gave us the opportunity to collect pictures of what we were researching such as real ancillary products for example Ellie Gouldings and be influenced by this work.

Photoshop:

Final Cut Pro:

Speeding up footage:

Final Cut pro is an important media technology that we used for editing our music videos, an example of why we used final cut pro is to speed up our footage and in the above clip I have shown you an example of how this was done. Changing the pace of movement on a certain shot makes it more exciting and appealing, it also follows Carol Vernallis's theory - the camera movement and speed tend to move in time with the beat of the song. In our music video we also have slow motion, and this is also done in the same way as speeding up the footage only your decrease the pace.

Fade: 

The video above is an example of a transition we used in our music video which allowed us to fade two shots together, I think this effect is really attractive because it's a more existing way to go into a new shots, it is also a good way to finish a certain shot, which is why we added a fade at the end of our music video when Umar recognises Farha but she walks away and we were able to combine this with slow motion.

Base Tracks: 

Final Cut Pro allowed us to put many base tracks together, and in the order of our choice, it allowed us to cut certain parts of each shot and arrange them in the best suitable order. All the edits, including jump cuts were ordered through the base tracks, which made it easier to erase parts of the video that was not needed. By using base tracks we were able to structure the whole music video as it allowed us to show our audience shots from day to night.

evaluation question 2

As the Song is called the lights and the main theme of the music video was based around the theme of lights, it was only right for the theme to continue in the ancillary products that i created. the reference of lights have been continued in the synergy of all three products.Not only did the theme of lights relate to the video and ancillary products for connection and recognition, but also to create a beautiful scenery and effect in both the music video and ancillary products.

The main focus of synergy revolved aound the idea of lights. For example, in the music video, the first sight of light is the day light in the beautiful scenery of the barbican. Although this is a natural source of light rather than a sort of technology, it is the start of an implication to do with the idea of lights. Furthermore, later on in the video as the time of the day gets later and darker, the light theme could not be created by day light as this source of light was not as effective through out. however, in the night time, electrical lights look far more effective than lights during the day time. For instance, the lights that flicker of the cars, the city lights and also the lights that are seen in the background and wide shot of the master shot taken at the millennium bridge.
The idea of the flickering lights that we carried out in  the music video was an idea that influenced me whilst making the digipak and advertisement for the music video.

How does the digipak link to the music video?

The main idea that continuously popped up in my mind whilst doing the mock up of the digipak was the idea of flickering lights. The flickering lights of the cars and city lights in the music video is what i wanted to carry out in the creation of the digipak. I planned to do this by using the elements of Photoshop, rather than using a picture that consists of lights. I decided to do this not only to be creative, but also to carry out the theme of the flickering lights in a way that the audience could recognise the link between the digipak and the music video. As the lights in the music video were mainly seen during the main shots of the artist, i believed that the audience would be able to recognise the link between the music video and the digipak if a close up of the artist would be used with lights around her. This instantly gives a sense of synergy and recognition not only of the product link, but also of the artist. Also, the use of bright colours that i used in the digipak, such as purple and blue which i used a lot are colours that bright up and create a soothing feel, similar to the feel given off from the music video.

I think that the way that the digipak and music video connects through the idea and visuals of lights was successfully done in terms of promotion. If the design i chose did not refer to light but referred to something else such as love by using colours such as red and designs such as love hearts or something along the lines, the response from the synergy would not be as effective from the audience. The fact that not only does the visual elements of Lights match, but also match to the name of the song and album is what makes it more effective. It is effective because as an audience, we can instantly gather that the name on the album which says in big letters "lights" and the flickering lights have a major link.






How does the advertisement link to the music video?

The advertisement and the digipak have a large link in terms of synergy. Both contribute to the link of the music video. However, the advertisement itself links to the music video, very similarly to the the way the digipak links to the music video. The theme of lights carried from the music video to the digipak is also the exact same theme that contributes to the theme in the advertisement. This includes the designs used, the colours, images and text. The image is an image of the artist facing towards the camera. In the digipak, the image is a close up of the artist and i thought that a medium shot of the artist would give further recognition of the artist as it allows the audience to see her from a different view. Other than the image, the design is very similar and links to the music video in the exact same way that the digipak would. This comes to show that there is a good use of synergy, as the link between the music video, digipak and the advertisement is strong.

How successful is this in appealing to the target audience?

The taget audience that we intended our video and ancillary products to appeal to is a young female audience. There is not a specific group of females that it peals to, such as mainstreamers, aspirers etc. There are many ways in which the products have appealed to the female audience specifically. For instance, the music video itself is a song that is done by a female artist, which instantly appeals to the female audience. Moreover, the scenery that we chose, such as the river side in the barbican and the lights at millennium bridge are places that create a friend, soft atmosphere which reflects the interests and personalities of the audience that we have chosen.
The digipak that i created has also crated many ways in which the target audience can appeal to it. For example, the colour scheme of feminine colours such as purple, light blue, yellow, pink etc are colours that attract the eye of the female audience, as colours such as grey, dark blue and any other darker colours are colours that would appeal to a male audience. Furthermore, the design of flickering lights by using the tools in photoshop elements are simple and neatly set out, rather than it being unorganised which would appeal to a male audience. Also, designs such as stars and the pink text are also factors that would catch the eye of the female audience.
Lastly, the advertisement, which has many similarities to the the digipak has also contributed to the appeal o our intended target audience. as the digipak and advertisement are largely related in terms of design, colour scheme and font, it also gives of the same effect that the digipak would. The only difference is the text that promote the album, such as "Out Now" and "Available on iTunes" etc are types of promotional text that would be seen on any album advertisement whether the genre be pop, R&B or any other.



A Media product that has influenced me and we have compared to is Ellie Goulding - The Lights.
The media product that influenced all the ideas of my ancillary products and synergy are the ancillary products of Ellie Goulding.

Ellie Goulding also based her theme of the music video and ancillary products around lights. Her theme of lights is carried out through the design of the digipak and advertisement. The front and back cover of her digipak is simple, with a close up of herself and a simple design of flickering lights. This theme is not only in the digipak, but also has a large similarity in the advertisement, as the design and use of colour continue the theme and ideas of ligh from the digipak to the advertisement. This automatically creates synergy. Furthermore, relating both ancillary products to the video, the very begining of the video visualises the same flickering light design as seen on the digipak. The effect of lights around her during the music video whilst holding the instrument is the same sort of light that is presented in the advertisement. the synergy is clear, as all three products link in some way.

This influenced me in many ways. I followed her theme and ideas in the music video and the ancillary products i created. The use of synergy in Ellie gouldings products have clear links by using simple effects, colours, pictures. The simplicity of all the products inspired me the most, as seen above i have based my synergy upon the simplicity of the products which allow the audience to identify all the products as one.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)? 

Evaluation Question 2 from ajvazi

Evaluation Question 1

My media products have followed many code and conventions of many other media products that fit into the same genre (pop). this is not only by the chosen song, but also by the ancillary product design that develop forms and conventions of real media products. However, not only have we followed the ideas of real media products, we have also challenged many ideas.

Theories that we have challenged
Andrew Goodwin

Ways that we have challenged Andrew Goodwins theory.

An idea that our media products have challenged are the ideas of Andrew Goodwins theory - Dancing in the distraction factory.

"Music videos ignore common narrative as they are essentially advertisements  As consumers, we make up our own meaning of a song in our minds. A music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company a method of anchoring meaning"
-Quoted by Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin states that music videos ignore common narratives as they are essentially seen as advertisements  However, our music video has opposed this statement. The lights (our music video) consist of a main narrative. Although it is unclear as the main the narrative revolves around a mystery man who's face is only revealed at the end, it is still within the narrative field. Moreover, as it is the debut album of the artist we are promoting, the music video is seen as just a music video product rather than an advertisment product, due to the fact that our ancillary work which includes a digipak and more specifically, an advertisment poster are what is promoting the artist and album, not the artist promoting herself or her debut album.

Ways that we have followed Andrew goodwins theory

There is one thing that our music video is found to be similar to what Andrew Goodwin has said. He says that we make up our own meaning of a song in our mind, which is what was intended in the ideas and process of our planning. As the idea of the narrative is to be a mystery as the character is unknown, the idea of the narrative also remains a mystery as the end of the music video remains as almost a cliffhanger. Therefore, the way the audience interpret the video with their own minds through the sound and mis-en-scene is how it should be viewed, letting the audience interact with the video and also allowing the audience to be creative in the way they view the music video.



He identifies three way in which the music video can connect to the song itself. these three ways are:

• Pop videos are built around the song - Our music video is built around the song as the narrative gives implications of connection to the song. However, the narrative doe not give away it meaning, which relates to the form of amplification as the narrative and performance are connotations of its the meaning of the song.
• The main artist is usually the narrator and character - We challenged this as the artist is only the artist, separating herself from the character in the narrative.
• The singer breaks the fourth wall by directly looking into the camera - We have done this as the idea of the music video is to promote the artist as well as the album. Therefore, the best way in this sort of promotion and recognition is to for the artist to engage the audience.

Carol Vernallis - Experiencing a music video

The music video that my group and i created, The Lights has mainly followed the ideas that Carol Vernallis theorized about music videos. It follows Carol Vernallis's ideas about music videos further than the ideas that Andrew Goodwin had concerning the main aspects of a music video.

Reasons why The Lights follow Carol Vernallis's ideas 

Firstly, She states that music videos are built up around a base track and a master shot. The base track is something that we used in order to help us sync the recorded videos in time with the music. Not only does it make it easier whilst editing and filming, it is a common way of creating music videos in the music industry. Also, the base track allows enough time for a perfect master shot which is crucial in a music video.

The base track helps a lot in the editing stage which Carol Vernallis bases her theory about. She suggests that a music video revolves around the editing and camera work. Her theory was something that we focused on as a group, as she mentions that a music video would tend to have a consistency in edits, such as jump cuts. Jump cuts is one form of editing that our product revolved around. For instance, a jump cut from the artist to the character in the narrative.

Lastly, the timing of the camera movement and edits can be in time with the beat of the music. This is similar to our media product because throughout the video the edits continuously match the beat. for it to have an effect and for it to be engaging to the audience. The distinctive camera type of framing is what makes our music video unique.

An example of a music video that follows the conventions of this theory is clearly show in Tinie Tempah - Pass Out. For instance, the editing effects at the start of the video is what engages the viewer, with an orbit ring surrounding the artists head in the master shot. Further more, the beat starts of slowly and the camera keeps the slow movement in time with the slowness of the beat. However, as the song gradually goes along, the tempo of the beat goes up aswell as the speed of the camera and edits, which prove that they have followed the ideas of this theory.
Although this video is not in the same genre, it contains many similarities of the pop video we created. The camera speed, movement, speed of the edits and other such things that are seen in Tinie Tempahs Pass Out is something that we also used whilst planning and during the process of filming and editing. This goes to show that the pop genre does not have its own style of editing and camera work, as the comparison of edits and camera work of our music video The Lights and Pass out can compare in many ways.

Have we challenged the genre in the music video?
The music video 'The Lights' did not challenge the conventions of the genre that it fits into (pop). We followed the typical style of a pop music video as research suggested that not only would a change be difficult, but would also change the style and theme of the video which would take it out of the pop genre field. The music video is rather simple, with simple edits, shots and effects which is usual of a pop video. Although it is simple, it is entertaining and does appeal to the audience like other pop videos would.

How conventional is my digipak and advertisement and how have i challenged the genre?
Ellie Gouldings ancillary products on the album Lights is the ancillary products that i based a majority of my research upon. As she is a famous pop singer, her products would tend to be typical of the pop genre. One thing i learnt from researching the ancillary products of her album 'Lights' and also an album by Pixie Lott 'Young foolish Happy' is that simplicity is the main concept of the genre. However, simplicity does not mean boring images and dull colours but means keeping the visual aspects simple for the human eye. Colours would tend to be bright and images would be simple and close up.
I followed the convention of simplicity by using one simple close up image of the artist, as done by Pixie Lott and Ellie Goulding in their digipaks. Both digipaks that influenced me consisted of simple texts which i also carried out in my production. Also, the advertisement tended to be similar to the digipak to form a use of synergy, which meant that a similarity between the digipak and the advertisement was common. I did not challenge the genre in any way through my ancillary products but stuck to the conventions of the genre to make it a pop video to be recognised, as challenging the genre could take the products out of its genre.