Final Product - Digipak

(Click image to englare)

Final Product - Website (By Larissa)

http://larissabrown96.wix.com/takenrecordpresents

The above link directs you to final website for our fictional artist 'Cecila Kay'

Final Product - Music Video

Evaluation Question 2 & 4

EVALUATION QUESTION 2
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Generic conventions of Music Video
Through research and analysis of music videos, I found that a typical convention of music videos are an emphisis of the artist through the use of close up and mid shot more often but, some long shots. Through these types of shots, an emphasis on the location and emotion/atmosphere of the music video/song is also achived. I conformed to these conventions by using a variety of close upshots through out the video in order to maintain and emphise the main star performer in my video. I also relied heavily on mid shots of my star performer to establish the rural, urban, gritty locations that my video was filmed in. Music videos also usually use mise-en-scene to reineforce the importance of a certain aspect of the video or the lyrics to the song for example, a music video that is about heart break may include long shots of the star performer walking down a long road alone to reingenforce the fact that he is single and alone. In my music video, I both challenge and use this convention in my music video, to an extent. Rather then trying to have it so that the mise-en-sence renforces the lyrics of the music video, I relied on my the use of mid shots to reenforce the theme of the genre of the song. My music video is of a underground/indie genre which, are not filmed in high built, modern location usally, rather run down, rural areas. So, I tried to portray that aspect through the use of mise-en-scene although, the lyrics of my song are about the 'party atmosphere' and raving  and I included close up shots of names of bars and clubs to reingforce the message behind the song. By doing this I have supported Godwins theory where he suggests that there is a relationship between the lyrics of the song and the visuals in the song. He states that the visuals either contradict or amplify the lyrics of the song. By including shots of names of bars and clubs, I have amplified the meaning behind the song. Godwin also said that there is a high demand of close up shots of the star artist/vocalist.

 A convention of music videos of the underground/indie genre is that it is not filmed in built up, well established, modern locations because it defeats the purpose of entire genre of music which is inntends  to portray an independent, low budget (in comparison to pop music videos), rurual feel to it. I conformed to this aspect of indie music videos by selecting to film in areas of south london such as Croydon, Stockwell and Brixton which, in my opinion, best portrays an urban, independant lower budget music video. I conformed to this convention becaause It is expected of the target audience for this genre of music so, I would have a higher chance to attract my audience.

(Click to enlarge image)

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

 Image 1

 I collected audience feedback from my target audience (15-18 year olds) using questionaires which consisted of a mixture of both open and closed question to allow me to collect Indepth, opinionated information aswell as generic information about music videos in general. I also carried 1-to-1 interviews with people within my target audience during post prediction stages of my music video and anciliry products (website and digipak) where I alowed the interviewe to preview parts of my products then asked them questions such as 'do you think the font works well with the genre of music' and 'what would you change about each product & why'. I deliberately asked such broad questions so that I could gather as much feedback to then use to my advantage by revising my concepts and ideas to ensure that they meet the expectations of my target audience.

 

                               

Image 2 

 I translated all quantitative data from my questionnaire into pie charts to help myself get a clearer image of how many people prefered different things for an example, the question that asks 'How do you listen to music'. From this information, I learned that the majoirty of people who answered my questionnaire listend to music via Youtube. I used this information to my advantage by making sure that my music video would be avavliable on Youtube, so that my target audience would be more likely to listen and view my music video.

One thing that I would change about my method of feedback would be reaching out to a wider audience. I distributed my questionnaire and carried out my interview to students that attend my sixth form and that were in my class. I done this because I felt that it was the easiest way to target my audience but, in future, I would also interiew and give out questionnaires to my friends that are not in my class neither attend my sixth form so that my level of feedback is more broad and I have more to use to help me improve my work.

Image 1 is an exapmle of the questionnaire I distributed to my target audience. Image 2 shows data collected translated into a pie chart.

 

Evaluation Question 1 & 3

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

I explored and used a variety of media technologies construction, research and planning of my music video including Google, Blogger, Slideshare, YouTube, Twitter, Microsoft Office programmes, my IPhone and many other media technologies that I will highlight in my answer.

To begin with, I started with researching codes and conventions of music videos of the same genre that I wanted to make which was the underground genre. My main source of information was the internet which I was able to access on my mobile phone or my computer. Through the internet 
, I mainly relied on the search engine, Google to find out about the expectations of a music video of this particular genre. I also used YouTube to watch music videos by artist who produce songs of the genre that I was making such as Katy B. I also used Google when researching for the codes and conventions of a basic digipak and what a website for a musical artist looks like. Once I was familiar with the basic features of both a digipak, using Google, I researched further for digipaks and artist for up coming artist who produce music of the underground genre. I done this by researching images so that I could get a visual idea of what they look like to help form a basic outline of what I wanted mine one to look like and so that my final outcomes conformed to existing products of the same market.

I used Blogger as an online diary to keep track of information that I had collected throughout my research. I found that using Blogger was very effective because I was ale to not only access it on the computer but also on my phone. I Installed the application onto my phone so that I could quickly and efficiently access it when necessary for example, when I was out filming without a hard copy of my shooting script, I had a copy of it on my blog so I was able to access it through my phone quickly. I also found Blogger very effective because I was able to embed images and videos on to my blog which meant that I could keep a track of where my inspiration and ideas were coming from.

The media technology that I found most useful during my planning stages of my music video was the Microsoft Office programmes because the software itselfs provdies a variety of tools such a Powerpoint, Excel and Word. When creating my audience questionnaires and writting letters to request permission to film in certain areas, I used Microsoft word. With anyinformation I collected through surveys and questionnaires, i was able to transform into charts using the microsoft software Edexcel program. I found that I relied on the Microsoft office pragmmes more than I realised during pre and post production.

During the construction stage of my production, I relied on Final Cut editing software, Photoshop CS4, the internet and the Mac computer greatly. Once I had filmed all my footage that I had filmed using using a high qualigty and sophisticated Sony HDVZ5, I uploaded them on to Final Cut. I couldnt transfere the footage inbetween different computing devices so I had to ensure I used the same Mac computer each time I wanted to edit, thoughout the post preduction stage of my production. Final was a very good program to use to edit my footage because it provided me with so many different tools that I coul use to achieve the best, most effective outcome of my music video. I was able to crop sections of my footage that I wanted to use, using the blade tool, add transitions inbetween different scenes, add text and filters ontop of my footage to create/add different atmosphere to my video or to achieve a specfic look of my video, in my case was an underground, urban but rural feel to my video. To best achieve this, I found that adding a filter on top of my footage then manipulating the brightness and contrast worked well. I used Photoshop to consrtuct my entire digipak. I was able to edit the images I wanted to use on my digipak on photoshop, including adding text, filters and effects on them. I used the internet to create my website for my star. I used www.wix.com which provided me with website templates that I manipulated so that It was my own. I was able to insert my own videos, images and text on the website and change the colour scheme of the website, using the templte colour schemes or creating my own. The webiste alowed me to completely customise the template so that it was exactly how I wanted it to be. Once I was happy with my website, I was able to publish it and make it public so that it could be viewed by others although, I could go back to make anychanges to the website even after I had published it.

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

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

I think that both my anillary procudts and main product are very effective because there is a consistent theme inbetween them. Through research of already established artists, I found that there is always one feature that is keptconsistent  throughout their products. For an example, Both Rhianna and Beyonce mainatain a consistent font that their names are emebed in, whether it be on their albums, webiste, clothing brands or even before when apearing on televeision, their name is presented in the font that has been associated with them. Having a consistent feature throughout branding helps to identify the artist and artist song without even having to see or hear them. 

The theme of my digipak and website was influenced by ideas from my music video and the genre of the song I mad me music video to. Not all artist use a theme to help their audience identify them, some artist use a iconic or different images to make them stand out from other artist. For an example, Michael Jackson was associated with a white glove which, when people saw, they knew he was going to be presented. For my artist, I chose to maintain a consistent font and black & white through out my ancillary products. This idea was influenced by both the genre of music I used which was underground/indie and by the mise en scene/iconics in my music video. I thought, the best way to represent rural, run down, youth associated areas through colour was by using black and white because in the past, black and white was originally associated with poverty and lower class, through television etc. It was known that the rich/upperclass had coloured television. Music videos by underground artist don't demonstrate an upper class, high budget video rather a video that portrays a rural, realistic everyday life setting such as in Katy B - Louder music video, you can see litter on the streets and graffiti on the walls. So, through using black and white theme, I hope to have portrayed some of the conventions of underground/indie music videos. 
 

The image below is of my completed digipak. You can see that the entire product, including images are in black and white and the same font has been maintained across the digipak. 

(Click to englarge)

 

 

 

Audience feedback of Digipak

Digipak

The initial CD on the left hand side and the final CD ont the right hand side. I think the final CD cover is far more apeealign to the eye and hence, more effective. It looks far more professional than the initial CD cover. Using photoshop, I manipulated a black, disc shape by adding text, colour and an image ontop of it to create m final disc. Using the erase tool on photoshop, erase sections of the image so that it created the effect of the image being an actual embeded image on the disc rather than just an image added ontop of a disc.

Images for website and digipak

I carried out a photo shoot of my star performer, taking all pictures myself to avoid any copyright issues. Over 100 images were taken so that I had a variety to pic from to ensure I selected the best pictures to include in my digipak and website.  When I am happy with the images that I select, I intend on editing them using the Adobe Photoshop CS4 program. I think that this is the best editing program for me to use because it provides a variety of high quality tools such as the liquid tool, giving me the opportunity to produce high quality, professional pictures.

(Click image to enlarge)

Using photoshop

To create the digipak for my artist song, and album, I used photoshop software. Photshop allowed me to manipulate the colour of my images to suit the genre of my music song and enabale me to carry out a consistant theme through out my digipak. I was also able to add text, again maintaing a consistant theme through out the digipak by using the samw font.

All images used in the digipak were taken using my Iphone camera then uploaded onto the computer.

Imgaes for the digipak

(Click to image enlarge)

(Click image to enlarge)

(Click image to enlarge)

(Click image to enlarge)

(Click image to enlarge)

All images were taken by me using the camera of my mobile phone. 

behind the scenes filming 'Cecilia - On a Mission' (Part 2)

Behind the scene footage filming in second setting : Croydon.

New character profile

(Click to enlarge image)

(Click to enlarge image)

behind the scenes filming 'Cecilia - On a Mission' (Part 1)

Some behind the scence footage, filming star charcater in Brixton.

Using Final Cut

 (Click image to enlarge)

Using Final Cut editing software, I manipulated the brightness and contrast of my original footage (left) and added a Matte Choca filter on top of it to create the black and white effect on my footage.

 

(Click image to enlarge)

Editing shots I filmed of my friends both male and female, in a natural setting to capture realistic behaviours and footage to be represent the youth, to enforce the theme of the song which is urban but rural. Using the blade tool (Ctrl B), I cut sections of the footage I wanted to include that best went with the song. I specifically cut and included parts of my footage where my friends where smiling or laughing because the lyrics of the song are about the felling of euphoria you get in a club so I thought, another way to represent this is through laughter and smiling.

Exploring fonts

(Click on image to enlarge)
The title of my album is ‘Underground’ so using a website that provides copyright fonts, I explored the fonts to find one that I thought was most appropriate to suit to the theme the genre of the song. The genre of the song is underground/house so I wanted the font to have a rural, urban, handwriting look to it.

 

This is the final font that I decided to use for the title of my  album cover. The font I chose I found, I think is most appropriate because I feel that it best represents and demonstrates the look I am going for. This font will be consistent through out the digipak.

Analysis of Music Video

Robbie Williams-
Candy

Dyer – Utopian Pleasures

Dyers utopian pleasure theory is the idea that entertainment such as music videos provides escapism, providing the ‘ideal ‘ life and expresses the life could be lived and organised. Candy music video demonstrates an utopian world within the real, chaotic world. The female character is living the utopian world because the male character, the star, experiences the disturbances and inconvenience that occur in day-to-day life such as coming across two people conversing in the middle of a path way, walking into puddles or running into things such as lamp posts. A life where a person did not have to experience these would be the ideal world. By doing this, the audience gains gratification by not only watching the ‘perfect’ world, but by watching the perfect world directly against the real world. It also highlights other circumstances that a person would consider as minor and therefore does not realise that there is a utopian version of the situation.

 

Laura Mulvey – The Male Gaze

The male gaze is the concept of how the audience views the people presented. For females, it can be thought of in two ways including

•How men look at women

•How women look at themselves

Mulvey stated that in music videos, the audience is put into the perspective of a man therefore, females in music are sexualised and objectified. The Candy music video supports the concept of the male gaze as through out the video, the female character is repeatedly sexualised and objectified. The female is sexualised when the camera focuses on the curves of the female as she walks. This conforms to the stereotypical expectations of what males focus on when looking at a women. When the female eats the ice lolly, the pase of the close up shot, focusing on the motion and movement she makes as she puts the ice lolly in her mouth is slowed down dramatically which directly draws the audience attention to the motion of her mouth which, again, sexualises the female.

 

 

 

Conventions of Music Webiste

Music websites are usually easy to use, very basic and logical. There isn’t much information on the home page, just picture, name of the artist and previews of other images and information that are on other pages on the webiste. There is usually a grid system  which is used to separate sections of the website and presents the information in small, easy to access segments. Many sites provide an image or small audio content such as a music player with tracks to listen to. Music websites are used as a promotional tool therefore, the site should not be to jam packed with information because this could give  to much away, permitting the audience from going to check out the actual products. Using websites is a way to capture the audience attention to get them to view the actual product. However, very few artists have music websites. Mainstream artists such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, Jay Z and Kanye West use social sites such as twitter, Facebook and Instagram to promote their upcoming products such as new albums, music videos. Social media sites are more popular and frequently use than music websites therefore, artist manage to reach out to a mass audience fast and effectively. 

(Click on image to enlarge)
This is the home page of Beyoncé official music website. Her webiste conforms to the codes and conventions of music websites as it is simple, includes a image of her which takes up majority of the screen. It has her name across the top in a font that is associated with her because this is the font she uses across her labels, products and on album covers. The home page only includes likes to other pages within the website and Facebook, twitter and Instagram logos which enables users visiting the site to have accesses to social media sites that promote and advertise Beyoncé's products. By including hyperlinks to social media sites which are very popular and are used by a very wide population, Beyoncé manages to reach out to a wider audience who may not access her webiste. Beyoncé not only uses her webiste to promote her music, she also uses it to provide information about tours she will be doing and as an advertising tool for her other products such as her fragrance. Her website also allows her audience to feel like they have a more intimate relationship with Beyoncé as it includes personal, non related pictures of her professional life, a blog and charity work that Beyoncé does.
 

 

Treatment for music video

Treatment for Music Video

Nadine: On a Mission

Concept

The narrative behind my music video illustrates the story of Nadine, the main character, in search of her romantic lover throughout the day, as she walks through the streets of Brixton. She constantly comes across him throughout the video but is unaware that he is the guy she is looking for. As it gets later on into the day, Nadine and male character eventually meet and embark on a short journey together through the same journey they came across each other previously. The video will be shot in a way in which that allows for the audience to watch the video as Nadine is experiencing it. The tempo of the song is very fast and upbeat. I will represent the pace of the song using jump shots when changing to a different scene s which will be short and fast moving. In the parts of the song where there are no lyrics, just a fast pace instrumental playing, I will include shots of architecture and natural things that are going on in the locations the video is set in. My music video also consists of conceptual typologies.

Lyrics

The narrative of the video opposes to the original meaning to the lyrics of the song whilst some parts of the video are in synchrony with the lyrics. The lyrics to the song are about a females experience in a night club but in my music video, I have managed to manipulate the lyrics to fit a completely different, love story narrative. Some of the most frequently repeated lyrics in the song include “keep up with me as I lose control” which suggests that the female in the song is refereeing to the male in the song to keep up with her on the dance floor as they dance but In my music video, these lyrics refer to Nadine indirectly speaking to the male character, telling him to keep up with her so she eventually meets him and finds out who he is before she loses ‘control’ and gives up. The lyrics ‘when we erupt into the room’ will be Nadine and the male character bumping into each other in a shop causing Nadine to drop her shopping on to the floor but Nadine does not see the Male characters face, neither will the audience. “But he doesn’t he blocks my way, I try to push past” these lyrics will be in synchrony to the narrative of the video. Nadine will be shot in the Market in Brixton, trying to push past people as the male character repeatedly blocks her way. 

Representation of Gender

My music subverts from the female representations of music videos. Laura Mulvey suggested that the purpose of females in music videos is to be passive and objectified for a male gaze. The presences of women in music videos only serve the purpose of display rather than for a narrative functions. In my music video, the female has not been sexualised through her image and she serves the purpose of the narrative rather than just an object for the male gaze.

Locations

The video will be shot in Brixton SW9, using different locations within the Brixton such as the market and Brixton station. The skate park in Stockwell will also be used to film sections of the music video. Both main locations are ideal as they are strong, reliable representations of south London whilst portraying an urban, rural, underground atmosphere and theme which is what I want to achieve in my music video.

Planning - Shooting Script

Shooting script including the shot types going to be used to shoot each scene, a brief description of what will occur in each scene, the equipment that will be used to shot each scene and the location that the scene will be shot in.

Click on images to enlarge.

Locations

Images of the main locations that my music video will be shot in. The busy roads of Brixton SW9 is the ideal location for me to film in because I want my music video to portay an urban, rural, undeground feel to it and I feel that using this location would be highly appropriate as it represents an urban and rural but modern feel to my music video. The other main location that will be used in my music video is the Skate park in Stockwell which will also portray an urban, rural setting.

(Click on images to enlarge)