2011-2012 A2 Media Studies

Media Evaluation.

For my A2 Advanced production portfolio I have chosen the first brief option. This is to create a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with;

· A cover for its release as part of a Digipack.

· A magazine advertisement for the Digipack.

The genre of my music video is indie, alternate rock and these are two similar music genres. The majority of my audience I asked said they liked a mix of theses genres and that the song gives away a feel off this genre. The title of alternate rock implies that it is an alternative to mainstream music as well as an alternate to the usual “Rock” genre. This differs to the genre of “indie” alone, which is more commonly known as the style of alternate music. This covers bands that are not under influence of major record labels and release their music alone. They can do this independently via websites such as You Tube, Face book, My Space and Twitter. The genre of my music video and song represents the forms and conventions of the music video genre, magazine advertisement and Digipack.

The usual stylistics and conventions of the indie pop genre are the camera shots. The usual close up is to attract the attention of the audience and to emphasise the notion that the person who is in close up is the most important. I break this conventions as I have not used any close ups. All my shots are long shots however many conventional long shots are to give the audience the privilege of seeing the band together in performance. This is another convention I do not follow, I do not have any band performances within my video as it is some footage played as a back ground and the lyrics appearing on top. The indie pop genre is represented through the use of cinematography, for example there is alot of focus on the one character whom my artist is searching for. This also shows him walking back and forth searching for her.

When I look at Tzveten Todorov's narrative theory, I see that he says the narrative starts with an equalibrium > then there is a disruption > the resolution / re-equilibrium. I think this is the narative within my lyrics however my video does not have narrative within it. I have tried to imterpret some lyrical and narrative imagery but this does not show through very my video well. Robert McKee also has a similar view because he says that every thing has a 5 part split structure. He says things go in this order:
1 - Inciting Incident
2 - Progressive Complications
3 - Crisis
4 - Climax
5 - Resolution

Clip of music video of the two extras looking
like ghostly figures.

I choose three main people to be the main focus of my music video. Within the made up artists video I have a male and two females videos. This is to mimic the lyrics as the one she loves the most because as stated on my blog the lyrics are saying that she leaves to try to change her life because she feels like the ones she loves are telling her to but when she returns she finds that nothing has changed. The lyrics also show that she is looking for love and that she wants someone to be there for her when she needs help and support. I tried to show this as the ones she loves are walking in the field with her but they are walking back and forth whereas the true love is walking left to right. This footage is all that is shown with the lyrics over it. This is to re-enforce the idea of her searching for love and leaving the norm. I then have two people walking in the far distance which are far away from the camera and within the fog look like ghosts. This was done to re-illiterate the title of the song, “Misguided Ghosts”.

In the first edit of my music video I had a main female who was my original main artist; I also had a male who was the love she was searching for. I then had people walking randomly within the background trying to act liked they had pushed the singer away and she had wondered closer to the camera. My music video is very unconventional to the modern day style of a music video. Modern video clips are usually performance clips or narrative clips whereas, my music video is and lyrical video which has been made to be shown and this is not a usual thing that would be seen. My music video has no narrative however they do represent the lyrics.

This is the back cover of my Digipack. It shows all the
songs that are available within my pack and the one that is
on the DVD as a music video.

My Digipack has text on that explains what songs are included on the CD and it also thanks the audience for buying the Digipack and keeping the music industry alive. The use of blue brown, pale yellow and white makes the Digipack continue the style of the Video. It is the design that is on the disks and it also continues within the footage is filmed within a field which was white on the ground with snow, brown to symbolise the trees in the background, and blue is simply the sky. It has the lead singer within the image, however this is not clear because the image as a whole is stylised. This is breaking the usual conventions because artists usually have a solid an un-edited image of themselves on the cover. They also usually have a bit more graphical imagery going on especially within this genre.

All my texts are continuous as they link in with each other and this is shown with in the questionnaires I gave to people within my aimed audience. They all have stylised images and the images contain snow. This is because in the video is filmed within a field of snow a

This added the ghostly effect and made the footage look mysterious and faded. I used the same font style on the front of the Digipack as I did on the DVD, CD and my magazine advertisement. The conventions of a music promotion normally have images within the music video on them or they have the artist clearly shown on the full promotion. The music videos are all postmodern as they aesthetically borrowing from other media products; this is as well as them being a pastiche of other products within the genre. This is not very clear within my music video as mine is a lyrical video and the lyrical video I have analysed is Level Up by Sway.

I have repeated alot of features within my promotional package. I used the same text style, images and colours. The digipack, DVD and CD, music magazine advertisement and iTunes advertisement all use the same features. I think this was a good decesion as it helps the audiance become familiar with my product and it would be easily recognised within stores and sales places.

To do my music video I had to do a lot of research and some had to be repeated because of my circumstances as an individual. These are explained within a blog post on the 6th Jauary 2012. When planning I knew that there was a lot of research to do. This involved me checking the meaning of LIIAR. LIIAR is the key concepts to a media product. If you do not know these then the products is likely to miss its market. LIIAR is the Media Language, the Institution of the products, the Ideology behind the creating of the product, the audience of the product, who it is aimed at and finally who it is aimed at. How it is showing society back to people.

The established genre of Paramore would be Alternate Rock and Pop Punk. The conventions of Alternate Rock explain themselves within the title. They are Alternate to rock. Most pop punk videos contain the normal conventions of a rock video with a little twist. For example rock bands have their members playing their instruments in the dark with the odd strobe light across the band; this contrasts with alternate rock because they would have the back ground bright and the band members doing some abstract things to attract attention.

During the research period I looked into the history of music videos and I found out that music videos started in the early 1900’s. There is an entire post within my blog, dated Wednesday 14^th September 2011, that focuses on the history of music videos. The first music video was created by The Beetles in 1965. This is a different style to the one of David Bowie, Space Oddity of 1972 which I analysed.

Both videos have developed massively however the videos of today have developed with a great margin of difference within features, footage quality and meaning of lyrics.

I found that this video uses some of the conventions and cuts to the beat, this would be discussed under Editing, close ups and establishing shots. This video also includes a lot of performance and some futuristic elements. The futuristic elements would be looked at through Mise-en-scene; there is also an oscillator across the screen to show that it is different and from the future. The last thing I found about this video was that it had no continuity editing. This is now known as something that has to be done like a convention.

There is then the first music video of the millennium; Fat Boy Slim, Weapon of Choice, early 2000’s. This music video has neither lip sync nor any lyrical link in the narrative; it just has the song being played over the footage of their chosen actor, Christopher Walken, jumping and flying around the selected areas within a hotel. This video differs from many because of its unusual story line and because of the fact it starts and finishes with Christopher Walken sat in an armchair in the lobby of the hotel. This shows the development of music videos. At first in the 1900’s it was a projection of images, this developed into the band being recorded in a room or on a stage, this was the start of the 1900’s. In the 1980’s music videos similar to those of todays were being created. This has developed more and more however; today’s technology has changed so much the standard of a music video has increased. Music videos can also be shown on any website now. A song could be released and all you need is one person to hear it and the whole world knows about it, this is because of sites such as YouTube. A music sharing site which any one can upload a music video to and then be called a “Fan Made” video. This all became highly recognised in early 2001-2003.

When researching my audience I looked into the demographic and psychographic view of them. My whole audience is shows in a post on Thursday 15^th September 2011. A quick summary of my audience is: those who are in the early years of their teenage lives and love to be different. My audience is most likely to have people that are individual and like things different from the rest of society. My audience will be people that like sitting alone and concentrating on what they are doing, or those who like to stand out with bright coloured hair and clothing or just unusual clothing.

Clip from music video, with lyrics on screen.

I have analysed my lyrics and I have stated what I think they are saying, what the connotation is. I am aiming my video at an audience of people in a similar position or lifestyle as myself. They lyrics of my chosen song relate to my true life as this is what I sometimes feel and what I feel I should do. The lyrics are about a woman / teenage girl who are having a hard time and wanted to get away from all her current troubles and discover her real meaning within life. This, however, is not what happens. When she left the place she lived to explore she returned having found nothing that she was meant to do. Her life had not yet reached a peak and she slowly realised her friends where living their lives and she should live hers and then maybe things will improve. The real version of this song is sung by Hayley Williams, a woman aged 28. The lyrics suite some one of her age as they are likely to be starting out in life, new careers and families, however teenagers listen to her as well and therefore the lyrical representation I receive is the one explained above.

I looked at three music videos from the same record label and analysed these. I looked at each of the music videos and analysed their cinematography, connotative meanings, sound and editing pace. I found each video to have similar annotations for all categories as they are from the same genre. They all had bright objects such as bright clothing or hair on the main singer. They also contained performance clips which edited to the beat. The videos I looked at where Nine in the Afternoon – Panic at the Disco and We’ll be alright – Travie McCoy.
I also analysed two Digipack covers for bands with a similar genre. I looked at Blink 182’s Digipack and Muse Digipack. I again found similar features within the promotion of the album within the designs for these. I found bright colours or lyrical representation to a song or more. In between looking at these I also analysed a music magazine, this was because as part of my ancillary products I was asked and I have created an advert within a magazine.

However, when my research had to change and I had to look into a new music video. I wanted to do a video with lyrics on screen and I therefore chose to analyse a new music video. I looked at Level Up – Sway. This video was unfortunately not analysed to my full potential as I was unsure what I could have looked for because as I say in the blog post the lyrics appear to the beat and on queue for the word to be sung.

After looking at the above music videos and the above Digipack of current artists, I found that there are many shots within a music video and that there was a lot of planning and detail within a Digipack design. To plan my music video it would take a lot of storyboarding. I therefore did a story board with images and turned this into an animatic. My animatic helped me visualise what my music video could actually look like; I also wrote my story board with no images this helped me keep track of my shots. My story board, animatic and written story board are all on my blog.

Again when my idea changed I had to create a new story board and animatic. These are posted up on the 22^nd & 25^th January 2012. I had to look into creating these and they take a lot of time so I had to work hard and fast but as accurate as possible. When I had dome my first storyboard I had to make a location, prop and cast list. I had done this and I got some practice shots done. Then however one member of my cast was a reason as to why I could not film what I originally wanted to. I then changed this idea and made my cast list and location list again. This time it was a lot simpler and I got a lot done and I am now on the way with editing my music video, my Digipack and my magazine add. I have also taken it upon myself to create some extra products to boost the advertising of my product.

I designed some Digipack covers but only in pen. These include images of my lead singer standing under a tree or near telephone pole. I had aimed for this image to spread onto more than one page, or both the tree and telephone pole included. These objects where going to be used because they are tall and would catch the eye of people within the audience, which in return would attract attention to my singer as she would be near then all the time. These images where not taken on location unfortunately; however as part of my research I choose to collect images of the locations I wanted to shoot my video. These images are posted on my blog. The images are basically where I would shoot my footage but in one location there would be one single shot of the actors walking in and the out of shot as the camera would stay still. I have then decided within my new video that I would keep the camera stood on the tripod on one spot with all the performance going on and off screen with my direction.

I did a poll on my blog asking the people within my audience what they think sounds like the best name for my artist. They were given 5 potential names and 60% of my audience choose the name Kaylee. Within the same poll I asked how much, people within my audience would pay for a Digipack by the real artist, Paramore? The most common answer that people said is that they would pay between £10.99 and £15.99. This then encouraged me to push my limits and charge the top price. I then decided I was going to charge £15.99 to gain the highest possible amount for the music industry. I then asked what people are most likely to do in spare time, or what their hobbies are. The most popular answer to the hobby question was playing or creating music, this was a good start to the overall description of my audience. I then decided I should dig a little more in depth about my audience and I did this by asking their gender, what they do for a living and their age. The majority of my audience, in fact 55% of my audience were female yet only three people within my audience are out of the 17-24 age bracket. I have two members within my audance that are over 24 and one is under the age of 16. I then asked the same people their occupation, many of them say they are a working student and the second most popular occupation is a student.

This is my digipack laid out with all sides visable.

The front is the bottom right, Back is bottom middle, Inside with DVD and CD is top left and middle and the other two are inside flaps that will only have a message on like the one to fans.

I then evaluated my audience, again, to summarise if my product was accheiving its aims and attracting the audience I wanted it to. To do this I did some paper based questionaires and checked what it is these people would actually buy and if my product would suite them. The audience I want my product to attract would be a mass audience and this is because of the genre of music I have choosen. The song is Misguided Ghosts by Paramore; the genre is alternate rock and pop punk. The genre shows that people in my audience are different to others and young, students and love to be different. I think I could summarise my audience as those who love to be different and like things that many people would possibly not. I think people within my audience will be those who like to be alone from time to time and do their own thing; however they may be the complete opposite. They may like to stand out with bright coloured hair or simply unusual clothing.

The demographic view of the audience for my music video would be people in class E. This means my audience are most likely to have been to college or done a form of higher education after school. Some may also be in school and still studying and aspiring to be something big and famous within our culture and society. Some may also be unemployed or only doing causal part time work but once when they was in school wanted to be big and famous. My audience may also look at the band and see because Hayley Williams, lead singer, is bright and individual she has become what she is today. She is different to society and the viewers may take her attitude towards life because she is bubbly and very influential.

The psychographic view of my audience would be those who are a reformer or an explorer.
A reformer is someone who seeks enlightenment, an insight, freedom of rules and personal growth within life. They want to make their own road and follow it. It is someone who has a good social awareness and has good judgement of things around them so they know what they need to do and where they need to go. They are not greedy however they have a good taste; they will have a good understanding of life and society. They know what is going on in the world. Many members of my audience, I suspect, are in or will attend higher education.
An explorer is someone who values difference and adventure, they like to live their life but know that there are many restrictions. They like new brands and are more than willing to try. This description sounds to me like a student.

I made the decision to change my ideas and film in the snow as it has a ghostly feel about it, and has a major impact on the song its self. Whereas; if I had filmed within the bright sunshine with someone wearing bright colours the impact would not be as punctual as it is currently. I also made the decision to call my artist “Kaylee” because this is what the audience preferred. The decision to only have three main actors was made because this had a lot of effect within the lyrical representation. The boy was a symbol of what the girl was looking for and the two girls holding hands where showing the ones she loved who pushed her away. I made the choice to have them walking away so that it was showing them leaving her or perhaps a lyrical representation of pushing her out, or away. The boy walks across screen and the girls walk back and forth on screen because I wanted it to shows them never meeting so the girl’s life will never change. However there is one encounter and this is when the girl hugs the boy and the lyric is “oh you are not useless”.

My magazine advertisement within a music magazine.

The combination of my media products together is very good. They all continue with the same image style and technique. The images are also continuous within the promotional pack. The same image has been repeated throughout the pack and this ads continuity to the whole pack it also shows that there are not many people within the video. The text and font style is the same all the way through there is only two different fonts and they are both very understandable and user friendly. My music video, Digipack and magazine advertisement are all of a similar design. My iTunes is also using the same image as you can see above in the music magazine advertisement. The text that is alongside this image is also continuous within my iTunes and the Digipack.

This is my iTunes work seen on a computer screen.

When creating my music video and the ancillary texts I used some pieces of equipment which are the obvious ones. I then also used three different pieces of software on the computer. I used a Cannon hand held camera with a video tape to record my footage and then uploaded this onto a computer and imported it into Adobe Premier Pro 1.5. I then took about 25 hours to edit my footage together. This is including my old footage when I started to make a practise original version. When using the editing suites and Premier Pro 1.5 I found that I was using the cut and slice tool alot and i also used titles much of my time on them. This was to add the lyrics to my video. There was many effects i could have done to the footage; for example I could have made is back and white, made it look like a 60's film or even made it look bright and sunny. I choose to make it black and white as myh iew idea meant that I needed the footage looking dull and slightly grim. This decision was made because I want the actor to look like ghosts a little. I also used Adobe Premier Pro to create my anumatics; these were very easy to do.

The next step was to create my Digipack and to do this I needed some still pictures of my artist or of people within my video. I used an Olympus 600UZ still camera to take my still photos and then edited them in Adobe Photoshop CS5. I changed the style of the images and i also cropped some as they where a little too tall or long. I had one image which was the correct width but was to tall, I therefore had to crop a littl off the bottom and alot of the top other wise this would have made my artist look very small and very wide and this is not the image I want. When I got my images to the correct height and width I placed them all on a template and discovered some did not match entirely, I then had to use my Photoshop skills and merge them together and make it look like one continuous image. This worked and i did this as my final background image. I made the rest of my Digipcak within Photoshop and this was very easy as I made my inside image in it also. This then looked good as a final and I then added other layers containing Text, small logos and song information.

My media product does not challenge many of the modern conventions of real media forms. This is because it follows conventions that they all do. It does, however, break the conventions of this genre. This is becuase it is not a full performace video and it does not have any points that stand out very clearly and make you think wow that could be me one day. My products are all the same with the font and image, this adds a touch of continuaty to my work. As a whole promotional package I think it works very well.

From my audience feedback I learnt that my products all matched and made a good promotional package. Only one person who did some ancillary questionnaires said they would not buy my product, as a promotional package, and this is because they do not like the genre I chose. The questionnaire was done when I had created my promotional package as a draft. When I created the feedback questionnaires I asked what people though should be changed within my products. These responses helped me a lot as I used these then to make slight changes to all my products. This was a very productive thing for me to do. I then looked at the package myself and decided that it was the right thing to do. I then decided to change my own little bits for it to appeal to me, as I am within my specified audience. When this was done I declared all my products final.

I then asked an 18 year old Female within my audience to simple evaluate my promotional pack; she said “I think the pack works very well. The iTunes product especially looks good because not only can I down load the track I can get the video as well. This is thinking with the audience as many of the youth do not go to shops and buy CD’s they would rather download and place it straight onto their iPods or mobile. However I think the Digipack is a great piece because it could possibly, one day, be worth a lot of money. As would any CD or DVD because many things are becoming digitalised and not available in store. The Digipack however may become a collectable item as it is not often you see these in store already in current retail industry.”

Throughout my production, construction, pre production and post production I used many types of new media technology.
In my pre-production, which finished around the 17th January I had to use a camera, the internet and blogger. With the camera I took pictures of my storyboard(s) to create my animatic. I alos used a still camera to take pictures that would create my digipack, music magazine, DVD and CD disk design and I also took photos of my old artist. I used the internet to do my research on audiance theories and and genre conventions. I also used the internet to find other products, like the ones I have created, so that I could analyse them. The internet is also hosting my blogger. Blogger is very usefull to me as a media student because it allows me to post my analysis of different media products. I can also insert pictures and videos which could possibly be the products I have analysed or mock ups of those I have created.

During production I used a Cannon hand held camera to record my footage out in the snow and a tripod to keep the camera steady while filming. While I was going through the recording process I decided to check the health and satety considderations. I posted this after the filming had been done and this assess the dangers and risks to me and my cast. I also considered if there was any way to minimalise these however the only way was to not film within the snow. I then used Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 to edit and create my final video. I used Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 to add the titles to my video as it is a lyric video. I used this screen to minipulate the title how I wanted it.

During Post-Production I used blogger again to up load images or products I created and I have also uploaded footage which I have recorded and edited to as my own. Blogger has also helped me because, as seen in my evaluation, I can link words to either something else on the internet or some where on my blogg. I have also used photoshop and the still camera again after producing my music video to create and take more photos. This was to create my anxillary products. I also used Mocrofort Word to create some questionaires to gain audiance feedback on my Products.

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