Final Evaluation - Luca

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 In our music video we have followed certain characteristics of a female artist's music video but we have also created a music video that is individual and unique, which does not follow all the characteristics of a typical music video of a similar artist. One way in which our music video demonstrates the characteristics of the genre is through the way love is portrayed between the two characters. The boy and the girl in the music video are in love and this is typical of the pop-folk genre. The video follows these two characters as they wake up, go about their morning routine. The similarities between the two characters are shown and this again follow the characteristics of the genre (innocence, love, relationships). Our music video defies the characteristics of the genre in the way it is shot, using stop motion creates a surreal, jerky effect. This is not usually afflicted with the genre we have used. However using stop motion has created a positive effect as it will appeal to our target audience. Our target audience are creative and loving so therefore they will be open to trying new things. Stop motion has created an effect which reinforces the innocence of the music video as the jerky effect gives an amateur look to the video as if the two characters portrayed have actually created it.

Shows two characters and the love theme.

Emphasises love and shows stop motion (hat appears on boys head)

We have used lip syncing in the chorus of our music video, this has created a link between the lyrics and visuals (one of Goodwin's points on analysing music videos). We see the artist, Eliza Mindel, singing the chorus which emphasises her creativity and musical talent. She is also playing the guitar at the same time which further reinforces her talent. Lip syncing follows the characteristics of the genre because most of the artists in the pop-folk genre are very real and talented. This scene is positive because its creates an emotional bond between the audience and our artist. Through the lyrics she is singing and how she is singing them the artist is portrayed as being emotional and down to earth, she is singing about a real matter which has emotionally effected her. This is typical of the genre as past experience is usually what influences most artists and is shown in their lyrics.

Artist lip syncing

In the chorus of our music video we have used a cartoon cloud background with our artist walking along, this is still shot in stop motion. This scene was added so that the audience could see the artist and therefore relate to her. The whole chorus sequence is supposed to portray a 'dream sequence' this is represented by the clouds in the background and also emphasised by the surrealism that comes with stop motion video. Our artist is represented as being the cupid between the two main characters and therefore emphasising the theme of love within our music video. This theme strongly follows the characteristics of the genre used. In this chorus scene our artist is also seen playing the guitar. This represents her as being creative and down to earth. She can play the music to accompany her songs. This is typical of the genre used and members of our target audience who play instruments can relate to this. This scene follows Goodwin's point of music following visuals, you see her playing the guitar and you can hear what she is playing. This is also emphasised on our digi-pack through the pictures of guitars we have used, it gives a theme of musical talent which is something we wanted to associate with our artist.

Artist walking amongst clouds

                       

Artist playing guitar

We have used frequent references to voyeurism  how ever we have not used camera-work that depicts the female body in a voyeuristic way. This is because that would not follow the characteristics of our specific genre and would not match the star persona we have associated with our artist. However we have used references to voyeurism with techniques such as frame within a frame, to do this we have a scene in which the actors hold up a board. This board is a green screen board, then using the effect we have added a video into the green screen. Therefore to the audience the characters are holding up their loved ones (pictured). We have also used close up of our artist which shows her eyes and also the artist looking at the camera, this emphasises the voyeuristic nature of our music video. Also we have used voyeurism in our digi-pack. The album cover has Eliza Mindel with a magnifying glass which is over her eyes, magnifying them. This is very effective in creating a link between the artist and the audience as it seems as the artist is looking through the magnifying glass at you.

Artist shown looking at audience

Character shown holding green screen

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

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

"That cloud scene... didn't work with the rest of the video" This comment is referring to the scene that includes our artist, Eliza Mindel. She is pretending to walk whilst we use the effect of stop motion to move the clouds that we have cut out of paper and stuck on the blue background. This creates a cartoon type of effect which is meant to portray a dream sequence, this is emphasised by the surrealism of the scene including the cartoon background and the natural 'jerky' effect that stop motion creates.  We intentionally added this effect, to show the audience the artist so they can relate to her and recognise her. Also by showing the artist singing the chorus we have reinforced her star persona. This sequence portrays her as being innocent, creative and loving. These factors follow the conventions of the genre we have chosen for the artist. We think this scene fits in well with the rest of the music video as it gives some flow and variety to otherwise a very simple sequence. This scene helps reinforce the theme of love throughout the music video as   our artist is acting as the cupid for the two main characters of the sequence. This theme follows the characteristics of the genre.

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

Prezi question 2

Question 4

Question 4
by: semeluca

Evaluative points

"That cloud scene... didn't work with the rest of the video" This comment is referring to the scene that includes our artist, Eliza Mindel. She is pretending to walk whilst we use the effect of stop motion to move the clouds that we have cut out of paper and stuck on the blue background. This creates a cartoon type of effect which is meant to portray a dream sequence, this is emphasised by the surrealism of the scene including the cartoon background and the natural 'jerky' effect that stop motion creates.  We intentionally added this effect, to show the audience the artist so they can relate to her and recognise her. Also by showing the artist singing the chorus we have reinforced her star persona. This sequence portrays her as being innocent, creative and loving. These factors follow the conventions of the genre we have chosen for the artist. We think this scene fits in well with the rest of the music video as it gives some flow and variety to otherwise a very simple sequence. This scene helps reinforce the theme of love throughout the music video as   our artist is acting as the cupid for the two main characters of the sequence. This theme follows the characteristics of the genre.

digi pack

This is our final digipack cover.

Question 1 Evaluation

1. In our music video we have followed certain characteristics of a female artist's music video but we have also created a music video that is individual and unique, which does not follow all the characteristics of a typical music video of a similar artist. One way in which our music video demonstrates the characteristics of the genre is through the way love is portrayed between the two characters. The boy and the girl in the music video are in love and this is typical of the pop-folk genre. The video follows these two characters as they wake up, go about their morning routine. The similarities between the two characters are shown and this again follow the characteristics of the genre (innocence, love, relationships). Our music video defies the characteristics of the genre in the way it is shot, using stop motion creates a surreal, jerky effect. This is not usually afflicted with the genre we have used. However using stop motion has created a positive effect as it will appeal to our target audience. Our target audience are creative and loving so therefore they will be open to trying new things. Stop motion has created an effect which reinforces the innocence of the music video as the jerky effect gives an amateur look to the video as if the two characters portrayed have actually created it.

We have used lip syncing in the chorus of our music video, this has created a link between the lyrics and visuals (one of Goodwin's points on analysing music videos). We see the artist, Eliza Mindel, singing the chorus which emphasises her creativity and musical talent. She is also playing the guitar at the same time which further reinforces her talent. Lip syncing follows the characteristics of the genre because most of the artists in the pop-folk genre are very real and talented. This scene is positive because its creates an emotional bond between the audience and our artist. Through the lyrics she is singing and how she is singing them the artist is portrayed as being emotional and down to earth, she is singing about a real matter which has emotionally effected her. This is typical of the genre as past experience is usually what influences most artists and is shown in their lyrics.

In the chorus of our music video we have used a cartoon cloud background with our artist walking along, this is still shot in stop motion. This scene was added so that the audience could see the artist and therefore relate to her. The whole chorus sequence is supposed to portray a 'dream sequence' this is represented by the clouds in the background and also emphasised by the surrealism that comes with stop motion video. Our artist is represented as being the cupid between the two main characters and therefore emphasising the theme of love within our music video. This theme strongly follows the characteristics of the genre used. In this chorus scene our artist is also seen playing the guitar. This represents her as being creative and down to earth. She can play the music to accompany her songs. This is typical of the genre used and members of our target audience who play instruments can relate to this. This scene follows Goodwin's point of music following visuals, you see her playing the guitar and you can hear what she is playing. This is also emphasised on our digi-pack through the pictures of guitars we have used, it gives a theme of musical talent which is something we wanted to associate with our artist.

We have used frequent references to voyeurism  how ever we have not used camera-work that depicts the female body in a voyeuristic way. This is because that would not follow the characteristics of our specific genre and would not match the star persona we have associated with our artist. However we have used references to voyeurism with techniques such as frame within a frame, to do this we have a scene in which the actors hold up a board. This board is a green screen board, then using the effect we have added a video into the green screen. Therefore to the audience the characters are holding up their loved ones (pictured). We have also used close up of our artist which shows her eyes and also the artist looking at the camera, this emphasises the voyeuristic nature of our music video. Also we have used voyeurism in our digi-pack. The album cover has Eliza Mindel with a magnifying glass which is over her eyes, magnifying them. This is very effective in creating a link between the artist and the audience as it seems as the artist is looking through the magnifying glass at you.

Feedback from other group

These screenshots shows the feedback of our music video from the other A2 media studies group. We swapped classrooms and we all watched each others music videos. we set up video cameras to record the reactions/feedback of the group watching our music videos. Also we were told to fill out these sheets as pictured.

the levels we received were:

T2-10: 19.66

T2-08: 21

T2-07: 25

T2-09: level 2

Font Ideas

I have been looking at potential ideas for the font we will use in our digi-pack/magazine advertisement. I have considered the star persona of our artist and I think that because she is potrayed as innocent and from a folk background this font will represent her well. It appears to be the handwriting of a woman. The typography will suit our target audience well. This font is from a website called dafont.com all of the fonts here are free to download and this is a good website.

digi pack ideas

There are many different ideas we could use when it comes to designing a digi-pack, i have been researching and looking into many different concepts. The first one I looked at and I really like is from the album 'Here we are!' by the Citizens. I really like the idea and it is so simple yet so effective. It looks as if a Photoshop genius has created the image however it is literally a photo of matchsticks burning. If we could use intuition like this and apply it to another simplistic idea I think it could be really effective to our target audience.

This is a really cool looking album and I really like how simple the idea is.

Another idea that could be used in making an album would be to go even simpler and use simple shapes and colours. This is a very effective way graphic designing and I usually like and am intrigued by adverts/posters that use this effect. Using a couple of shapes with block colours always looks good and would be a good way to appeal to people. It is a good method of catching peoples eye, this is by using bright block colours. This album cover is a compilation album for the A/W 12 season.

These colours are really effective and produce a simple, yet appealing digi-pack.

These two digi-packs were designed by a guy I know from Paris. Check out his Facebook page for more info.

Target audience and magazine advert

Our target audience has been stated before, however we will need to be revisiting it when we come to design our magazine advert. We have to take the interests of our target audiences incorporate them into our advert. We must also use the factors that appeal our target audiences to our star persona and incorporate them into the advert. These could be all sorts of factors including graphics, typography, placement of images and theme of advert. I have been looking at a couple of magazine adverts from similar artists and analysing them. One factor i think would appeal to our target audience and match our star persona would be to include an image of our star, Eliza Mindel. This image would show her face and include her emotions/feelings. It would be good to use some of the Photoshop techniques i have mentioned in previous posts as well. The image should fade to black either on the top or the bottom, or both. Creating a main focus on the artist. Meaning audiences will be able to relate to her feelings. One advert i have seen a similar effect on is Ellie Goulding's 'Lights' advert.

The advert will also include ratings from multiple recognisable critics. Just like in the above example. This will appeal to our target audience because teenagers are easily influenced, therefore by seeing a review saying it is 4 or 5 star they will take the word of the critic.

Eliza Mindel Facebook page

We recently have created a Facebook page for 'Eliza Mindel', our star persona. This is a good idea because it means we will regularly be able to keep fans and our audiences up to date with what is going on with our star. Another way Facebook is a good idea is the fact that you can use it as a marketing technique. Lots of companies compete over how many likes a page gets or how many page views their page gets. This is one good way of targeting potential customers or in our case fans. Ways in which we can do this is by creating adverts which will appear to everyone in a specific region (our most targeted) and also we can run competitions, for example a user must like our page, share a promotional image (for all their friends to see) and at the end of a specific time period we will pick one user who shared the image and they will win a prize.  This could be concert tickets or merchandise. This is a very effective way of marketing/gaining awareness/advertising to target audience.

This image shows the Eliza Mindel Facebook page, we have included a generic concert audience image for the cover photo and also the profile picture is similar. I have left in the advertisements at the side so you can see where we could place advertisements.

Target audience with digi-pack

We hope to incorporate the interests of our target audience as much as we can into our digi-pack cover and our magazine advert. Our target audience is teenagers, predominantly women aged around 12-20. Our digi-pack will include a front cover, a CD  a back cover and an insert. All of these will follow the same theme (as will the magazine advert) and the front cover will be very similar compared to the CD. This may include the artist's face, logo/name, album name and relevant legal images. The back cover will obviously include the track names and will also include the legal images and maybe a graphic.

 It is the insert that I would like to focus on as this is always the most appealing part of a digi-pack. The insert will include some interesting facts about the artist which we think will give good reason for the target audience to relate to her (as this is what we find the most appealing about the artist, the ability for teenagers to relate with her). The insert will also include some 'behind the scenes' images which will appeal to the target audience through teenagers love for information. I find that once an audience has all the information they can get on their interests, they will always look for more. I think the behind the scenes images will be a nice compliment to the digi-pack. The insert will also include the lyrics to the song we have made a music video to. This means that if teenagers do relate to the song they will enjoy reading/learning the lyrics.

The whole digi-pack will be influenced by the target audience of our star persona  One way we will find information on what the interests of our target audience are is by interviewing a select few who fit the match and recording the results.

More image techniques

During our time at A-level media studies we have learnt many Photoshop techniques. Another one we have learnt is editing textures of things. For example earlier this academic year we put a flag on a human hand, however by editing the textures and adding multiple layers/effects we made the hand look as if the skin was the same colour as the flag.The image that becomes the texture wraps around the lighting/shadowing of the base image. This effect is very realistic and can work in an effective way by appealing to the audiences of the images used. (eg. an English flag would appeal to English people.) For example:

Editing Images

In the promotional package (digi-pack)/Magazine advert the images we use must look appealing and professional. To edit the images we use will be created in Photoshop and using the techniques we have learnt  in media studies. One technique I am particularly fond of is creating a good 'lomo' effect in Photoshop. This is achieved by getting an image, then creating a new layer with the same image on it. Then use the layer effect 'Overlay'. This will give the image some more aesthetically please colour levels. Then messing with the hue, saturation etc can further more improve the image.

Before

After

Copyright mail

This screenshot shows the message we posted on the Ellie Goulding Facebook page informing her that we are making the music video and we are not using it for any commercial reasons

Split Screen example

This is Example and Calvin Harris- We'll be coming back. They use split screen in this video but they use it with a horizontal effect and the fact that it is a extreme close up lets you identify with them both and shows the similarities in the shot.

This screenshot is from Beyoncé's music video 'countdown'. there is lots of uses of split screen showing two different characteristics of beyonce. this creates a cool effect which makes the music video much more interesting and original.

screengrabs

Target Audience

The target audience for our music video is teenagers who will be predominantly female, aged from around 12-20 however it could also attract a slightly older audience (in the 20's) but this is not the main target audience. The target audience is mainly female because A. Our singer is a female solo artist and B. she comes from a folk background therefore does not include sexually appealing photos or nor does she convey a similar message in her media. Something that usually attracts a male audience.

We decided to use this group of people as our target audience for a variety of reasons. One being that it is easy to get teenagers to listen to music, and if they like the music they will then research more into the artist. We think that by having teenagers as a target audience, the radio could be a good form of media to use as well as the internet. Teenagers spend most of their time on the internet therefore by using viral videos and internet sharing (eg. through facebook, using our facebook page) we can really spread the awareness of our music.

One problem with our target audience is that because our singer has come from a folk background, this influences all of her music. Which usually would mean having a niche audience (where teenagers are not usually found) therefore we have to 'bring the niche to the mass' audiences. This is similar to what Ellie Goulding has done. She is mainly a folk/pop singer. But for example her song 'starry eyed' is very upbeat and     'cool' this makes it appeal to a young audience.

Goodwins points

Media

Goodwin’s points

(Dance) Pop music

Example featuring Calvin Harris – We’ll be coming back

In this music video there are two main characters (who are portrayed by Example and Calvin Harris) in the video. There is a narrative in the video and the two main characters are thieves who steal money. They are then pursued by a woman who is most likely a police officer.  The music video does not contain any genre characteristics as it is more of a film with a narrative and key events. (Directed by Saman Keshavarz) there is some link between lyrics and visuals, for example when the character is driving he seems to be singing along to the radio but in fact he is singing along to the main song. However relationships between lyrics and visuals are kept minimal as it would disrupt the video and make it more of a music video than a film.

There is a relationship between music and visuals, for example at one point when a car chase is happening one of the characters changes gear in the car, this is shown by his hand moving the gear stick. Just as he does so we hear the car drop a gear and this the moment when the music drops and the melody plays. 

There is also lots of close up of both the artists in this video. For example when Example is driving his car there are many shots of his face/facial expression. The same shots are used with Calvin Harris as well. There are also comparison shots of both the artist’s faces, these shows their expressions/different reactions to a certain event that occurs within the narrative of the music video.

There are also lots of references to ‘looking’ and voyeurism. There are many shots and especially close up of all the character’s eyes (although the majority of the time they are wearing sunglasses, this adds to the sense of voyeurism as the audience doesn’t really know what the characters are looking at/what their expressions are) in the sequence.

Drum and Bass

Rudimental - "Feel The Love" ft. John Newman

This music video follows a group of children/teenagers who ride horses around a village, and race each other. They ride around in their gangs and race/chase other children. The video does not include the artist or any singers.

This video does not include any conventional characteristics of a drum and bass video. In fact typically drum and bass songs do not have music videos as most of the music/artists are not mainstream and are more ‘underground’. However this video does demonstrate lots of relevant pace changes especially when the horses are racing, this is key to the stereotypical ‘drop’ of a drum and bass song.

In this music video there are no links between lyrics and visuals. The music video has a completely separate narrative to the song/lyrics and therefore does not have any relationships between lyrics and visuals. On some occasions the children in the video are shown smiling as if they are responding to the lyrics “I can feel the love, can you feel it too?”

There are not many relationships between  audio and visuals. However following the typical drum and bass convention there is a ‘drop’ in the music (where a beat comes in, the pace changes, a melody is played etc) when ever this drop is played the visuals are always paced accordingly. This is an effective relationship and shows good editing.

There are no close ups or trademarks* of the artists within the video, the characters portrayed are mostly children and the video follows the characters in a specific narrative.

There is lots of references to looking and voyeurism and the video shows lots of shots of people looking at things (the camera?) especially people turning towards the audience as the camera focuses on them.

Green Screen test #2

this is our second shot from the same greenscreen test as #1. this is better/easier because the green sheet doesnt really change