Final Draft of Music Video (Sabrina and Emma)

Final Draft of Digipak (Sabrina)

Since my first draft I have added the name of the artist and the same image as I used in the magazine ad. This creates a clear link between the two texts, even though they have different colour schemes, I used pastel colours on the digipak rather than red because I feel it compliments the drawings more. I also feel it links and backs up the prominant ideologies and narrative of my music videos as I have recreated all the 'fashion' looks into fashion drawings.

I've done this to exemplar how the album cover looks against others in a place we normally see them. I think is looks very typical of the genre whilst following and conforming to conventions of album covers. I also printed it off and assembled it too see how it looks as a final product, I think it works really well and all the fashion drawings lined up inside looks really effective next to each other.

 

Progression of Final Draft of Magazine ad (Sabrina)

A2 Evaluation of Coursework (Sabrina)

Brief:

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video

•a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);

•a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

The exam board requires you to create your own “identity” for your artist or performer.

You can use the title of the track but you must produce a new original branding for the artist or band. This must be constructed to reflect the genre and appeal of the performer.

Therefore if your song is by Beyonce then you can’t use the name Beyonce or images of her on your DVD/CD covers or any of your production pieces. You can still use the name of the track. A performance-based video is more typical of new wave/pop genres and doing this style in my video helped fit the codes and conventions appropriately

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

Being in a group with Emma Jackson we created a list of potential songs, which we agreed on, and began to think of visuals to go with them. We both decided on the song “fashion by David Bowie form the 1980’s album ‘scary monsters (and super creeps)’ the institution of my song used in my music video is RCA records, and the genre is new wave. The narrative of the video has the to Todorov’s theory of structure within a narrative.

Narrative of my music video in relation to Todorov's structure of a narrative:

Equilibrium = Girl is a geek and unfashionable

Disruption = Decides she wants to be fashionable (pretty) after seeing a fashion magazine

Quest = She searches for the perfect dress with help from fashion experts in hopes to be like the person in the magazine

Resolution = Makes her own dress in an arty abstract way (convention of music videos)

Re-equilibrium = Catwalk, everyone loves her new dress and look and she is happy again.

To create the basis narrative of my music video I began by drawing a story board to present how I was imagining it. I based all of the looks used in my video on my initial drawing and improvised with min and Emma's wardrobes. We didn't buy any of the clothes used we just mixed and matched and carefully planned the outfits before we started filming. However, I did make the 'Au natural' white dress from and old jumper dress I didn't want anymore, I did this because we had to splatter red paint on it for the final look. This meant ruining the dress, which is why I chose something I didn't need anymore.

The language used in my music video has connotations of different fashion trends such as ‘hippie’, ‘goth’, ‘glamorous’ etc. The abstract noun‘FASHION’ also appears at the very start of the video to reinforce the song title and is also a convention of music videos to have to title at the beginning.
comparing my video to a real video in the the New Wave genre The B52's - Private Idaho
This music video represents New wave through the post modern style of the 1950's/1960's, there is a geometric colorful background made popular in the 1960's. They use this merge of pop culture in an ironic and exaggerated way for example the the 60' hair being bigger than usual. This is a concept I included into my video using different styles from different era's to create a post modern style. However there is still the generic convention of the New Wave as they have reused the retro conventions in a new and exaggerated way which is typical of /new Wave. The video is purely a performance with no use of narrative (like mine). It uses long wide shots of the band and mid close ups of the lead singer miming, which is a convention, whilst the drummer is in the background; this reinforces the the ideology of them playing and coming together as a band. their are various camera angles of the band performing throughout and the use of cinematography, when the screen is split, is suggestive of good and evil as their costumes are black and white referencing an angel and and a demon. I also did something similar to this with binary opposites in my video for example, the 'model' and the 'geek'.

My ancillary texts displayed in a 'real life setting' demonstrates the conventions of them compared to real media products.

I thought it was important to portray both my magazine advert and digipak in a real life setting. To do this, I edited my album panels into a life-sized 3D image of a digipak as well as editing the album cover onto the popular digital media application iTunes. I figured iTunes was to be the most popular way my target audience would access digital music, so would be helpful to see the album as if being played by a teenager, to see how realistic it would look. Overall, I think my digipak looks effective placed into real life settings.In a similar way, I edited my music magazine advert as a JPEG image using Photoshop onto an open magazine, as this is the way it would be viewed. I thought it was important to be able to view my advert as it would be displayed in a real magazine, as it then gives me some idea how effective it would look to my audience.

Overall, I feel my advert looks effective placed in an open magazine as the image dominates the whole page just as I intended, and the font is large and clear so the readers can be aware of the adverts intentionally immediately. Another reason I used red in my advertisement was to draw attention, it is well known that peoples attention is grabbed by bold colours, it also fits with the narrative of my music video as I used red painted hands as a common theme and splattered the final dress red.

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

Prezi comparing Ancillary texts to my music video:

How the costumes used in my music video reflect the drawings in my digipack:

 I used still shots of the video to create all the different looks used. I feel this creates a clear link between them in a non-conventional way. I decided to break conventions when creating my digipack because I feel it reflects my video better as it was creative and feminine.

Since evaluating my ancillary texts I decided to change my magazine ad slightly; after receiving constructive criticism off a teacher I felt I could make it better here is the finished product.

I feel this works better as a final piece as it follows the rule of three, it follows conventions and links well to the music video. For example, the red 'fashion looks painted on which is part of the narrative in the video. I used elements to make the magazine look 'professional' for example, the 'available on iTunes' logo and my made up record company 'lipstick records'. I then set about creating some form of website information for the audience to be able to contact to buy the album or 'DL box set Cd and DVD package'. I added the artist's personal website onto the advert, and then began to create a simulacrum of the iTunes website logo. I also thought putting a well-known website on the advert would make it look more realistic and professional overall.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback on music video and ancillary text:

I asked members of my family to watch the video for the first time and asked them questions about it and to compare it to my ancillary texts. This was useful as part of audience feedback because this gave me a wider age range; 23-53. The participants said they enjoyed the video; I feel this proves that there is no specific age range for my music video and the target audience is up to preference. 

The ideology of my music video is a mixture of things including the application of some theorists and how I want it to be represented. The over all ideology of my music video is a criticism of the fashion industry. The video demonstrates the consumerism of fashion, which relates the Karl Marx theory of Marxism. Marxism relates to my video in the way that the fashion industry changes so rapidly and you need to have the last trends to be up to date and 'fashionable'. My music video also demonstrates how fickle the fashion industry is with the consumerist idea that we need material objects to feel good, beautiful and happy with ourselves. The ideologies of new wave has also influenced my music video which is an umbrella term for several late-1970's to mid-1980's pop/ rock styles with ties to 1970's punk rock. This is pretty heavily featured in my music video through the ‘cheesy’ over-exaggerated dancing and movement and the outdated styles represented as fashion.

The beginning of my video uses lots of transitions; which is conventional of music videos in the new wave genre. I have also edited to the beat with subtle movement which suit the song e.g. the eyes moving side to side as if reading. this is also to help the narrative and demonstrate that she is reading a magazine.

The target audience of my music video varies because I would assume most teenagers and adult will get the idea of consumerism. However since the idea is based on consumerism aimed at women I feel that females will relate to my video more. However I feel my video is enjoyable and out of everyone that answered my questionnaire about the video said that they enjoyed watching it.

For the audience feedback we tried to get an even number of male and females to respond so the results could be as even as possible, however because more girls do the media course and we took the questionnaires in to lessons this wasn't possible. However I feel our rand of audience is reliable.

I think the transitions in the music video was one of our strongest elements; it matched the conventions of new wave and was really effective in the video. Everyone we asked in the the questionnaire said they liked the transitions in the video, this reflects strength of this in my video and shows hoe effective it it to my target audience.





Most people understood the narrative of our music video but we did have a couple of comments asking about the red hands. However, because the narrative has a deeper message rather than a straight forward linear one might demonstrate why some people felt this we. Additionally, the people who have read further into the video have also sorts of different interpretations. for example, the comment from Facebook below.

Representation is shown throughout media in many ways. Everything is represented by something, the way it works, or something it does distinctively. In a music video the artists is usually represented in a particular way for example females are usually represented as ‘sexy’ and ‘beautiful’ I took these conventions and used them in my video partly as a criticism and also to make my video look visually exciting. I used many different look and styles in my video to go with the theme of fashion but also to show versatility and make the video more exciting with contrast of colours and inspirations from different era, which is what the genre of new wave does. It uses eclectic borrowing, which is using aspects of things from the past to create something new. In my video there are two representations of types of women, one of them is objectified by the media, made to look glamorous on the magazine, and trying to influence women to act this way. The other woman is showing the effects of Laura Mulvey’s 'male gaze' in that she thinks the woman on the magazine is so 'ideal' she even wants to be her and not seeing the fact that she is been shown as a sparkly object that is easily disposable. One of the overall meaning in my video is showing that audience how women are portrayed in the media through the platform of a magazine cover, it show the woman to be perfect (smile clothes, face, hair, body) and creating an unrealistic sexualized expectation of women. I have also represented the two different girls in the video as binary opposites, one conforms to fashion and is the epitomy of it and the other breaks free from this ideology and makes her own dress free from consumerism.

This section of the video demonstrates her making her own 'fashion' and getting her hands dirty in the process. At the end of the video I have shown the reveal of the red painted hands belonging to the main protagonist. I used the colour red to connote passion and a beating heart to contrast against the shallow ideology of the fashion industry. A few people in the audience feedback commented saying that hands looked as if they had blood on them. However the denotation of the hands was red paint and creativity and the connotations was blood and passion, this shows people understood different concepts within the video which I think makes it successful in conveying a message or messages.

I got a really interesting response during my audience feedback about the representation of my video. Its a more of a pessimistic interpretation using the red hands as a metaphor for blood drawn to create 'fashion'. However, I like the idea that there is many layer in evaluating and interpreting my video. I never wanted my video to be just surface level and I intended there to be a deeper meaning behind it and the fact that my audience has responded in this way, I think makes it successful.

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

To edit the video we used premier pro and a cannon 600 D to film on. We used various techniques in the video such as black and white effects. I made this section of the video black and white because it needed colour correcting and I found this to be more effective and give a 1950's feel as this genre uses eclectic borrowing it works well.

This day was the first time filming and one of things we experienced was trial and error. for example, we didn't set up the lighting correctly to make the white wall appear white on camera. When editing the video later I found the scenes with an 'orange tint' looked really out of place. I began to find ways to correct this problem but one of thing I found most effective was taking the colour out completely. I feel the black and white creates a 'Hollywood glamour' look with the hair rollers and fluffy dressing gown. On reflection I think this has created yet another look in the video from a completely different era the 1950's, this worked well as every style in the video is form a specific decade. for example, '1920's gent', '1960's hippie', '1980's denim' and the goth could be representation of the 1970's punk.

On the same day of filming the 'getting ready' scene we also filmed the 'goth' scene which meant the lighting on the goth video's also had the 'orange tint' and since I didn't want the goth sections to be in black and white as well I had to colour correct it best I could. On premier pro I took a section of the goth scene and tried to counteract the orange with a blue tint; since they are opposites on the colour wheel. I tried to used the correct amount of blue to hide the orange and make the wall in the back look as white as possible. I couldn't of made this look perfect just by editing but I think it looks as good as possible considering the circumstances. If I of had more time I would of filmed this again. However, because there was so many scenes that needed filming with my model we couldn't of found the time with her schedule and ours to start filming things again.

One of the main things we need for the narrative of our music video was the magazine, but we also needed our main protagonist to look like she reading it. To do this we too an over the shoulder shot of her reading and ordinary magazine and layered the portrait video of Lauren (the women on the magazine) to create the effect the magazine coming to life. We then added the conventions of a magazine to the video such as a masthead and stories inside. 

I used various effects in my music video to make it visually stimulating, for example I used backwards motion when she flips her hair. I feel elements like this make the video more enjoyable and less repetitive.

Another effect I used was using four videos in one shot appearing to the beat of the music. This type of effect is typical in the genre of new wave and look really effective in my video. The four different styles appear from the bottom whilst the glamorous shot appears from the middle or the heart, this is to reinforce the ideology of the video yet again.







When she is finally wearing the glamorous dress i used a technique of putting a white screen in between each shot and using an additive dissolve to create a flash effect. This created a feel of fame as we associate the flashing of cameras with this.









To make the dress the protagonist wears in the final 'glamorous' take Emma filmed me splatting the dress with red paint. I used shots of the red hand beating in between these shots to reinforce this imagery and to reveal why her hand are are red in the narrative; from making the finale dress.








For the finale I used fading transitions on all the shots so all the different styles looked like they was merging together to represent 'fashion'. I also layered the beating hand over this again to reinforce the connotations of heart and passion over ruling the shallowness of the fashion industry. The final shot, which reveals the beating red hand belong to the protagonist, also shows that she is the one with 'heart' and is different. The video ends with a fade to black to show she is finally content and happy with who she is. This was also a good opportunity to fit in extra uses of cinematography, we zoomed and used a tilt for the final reveal.

Another convention of new wave music videos, or music videos in general, is for the content to be edited in time with the music. This ensures that the content of the video follows the song effectively, and is something I made sure I did in my video. Each shot in my video wasn't more than a second long apart from the first and last, which help the narrative, this helped to create the fast paced effect I wanted to create. This is something I have attempted to demonstrate below.

 Here I have devised a a pie chart from my audience feedback asking how effective my music video was. Nobody marked lower than a three out of five, which means it had some relevance and effective images to push the narrative, but a common theme in the audience feedback comment was that they didn't understand the red hands. Because my music video was non-linear as it started with the ending showing the painted red hand in the first seen might of thrown people off, however I think showing the red hands throughout made it more visually exciting and created a common theme through out.

For my planning and evaluation stages I have used blogger, to document my thought process and end products. When creating my digipak on Adobe Photoshop CS5 I used an image I had taken on the still camera (the same picture I used for the magazine).

For my magazine ad i used a website called pic monkey to edit my pictures. I did this because i find the tools easier to use and i feel it gives a better and more professional looking quality and you can do conventional things like whiten teeth and remove blemishes, things i can do on photo shop but not to the standard i achieved on pic monkey.

When I was finished editing my music video imported it to YouTube along with other short clips i have uploaded to demonstrate my process.