Evaluation Questions

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

Our choice of song, is an upbeat song although it's about a heart break. We looked at other music videos of similar genres and from the same genre and saw that they all had their unique set on what made them differ in comparison to those of the same genre.

Most of the songs with in this chosen genre and those that inspired some of our wok in the video were upbeat even though they weren't always about happy narratives they had an upbeat and lively feel to them. We tired to create this feel in our video as well, we did not want to make it the

same as other videos yet wanted it to have a similar feel. For example when choosing a song we looked into Pixie L

ott -turn it up,

Pixie Lott - Turn it Up on MUZU.

which was about a break up, the song although about a break up looks at the situation in almost a positive way and has a energetic feel through out the video, it was almost a source of inspiration for our work. In specif it was inspiring when it came to our studio shoot. As most of our non studio shots were less dramatic but more heartfelt in terms of the characters facial expressions and costume, we wanted our studio shots to differ and almost have

a more dominant and dramatic feel in comparison to the rest of the video. We wanted them to stand out and be the main narrative of the video and to allow this, our use of costume and lighting were more emphasised and dramatic. We played about with conventions such as allowing the main character to dance about to the lyrics and express her emotions through what she had experienced (a heartbreak) which she was frustrated and almost annoyed about. we wanted to portray how her being immature and naive previously, while she was in the relationship came in the way and she put her heart where her mind should have been and allowed the main character to play with her emotions.

In particular when looking at similar videos we saw that when it came to setting the scene and narrative what made each individual on differ was the use of costume and storyline, also facial expressions as they showed how the character being played felt in each video.

In regards to the non studio shoots we based them in everyday locations to por

tray that this is in fact a normal girl who fell in love and learnt from her experience, as the boy she thought was

perfect turned out to be the opposite, the videos about her realisation of what she let herself in for and through

this it's as though she wants to show the boys actual worth. W

e used casual clothing here, although at times we did emphasise on makeup

to make her look girly. In particualr when it came to the non studio shoots on the eye which are used through out the video we wanted to create a narrative as this is one of the only scenes where the main character and the boy who broke her heart are seen together. We wanted to create a fell of anger where she expresses how she feels towards him not only through the use of lyrics but also through her expressions and

body language, which are bold.

In regards to the st

udio shoots here we felt that the main character should look dressed up almost to create an image of herself as one that shows her worth and how she expresses herself through her costume.

For example the use of false eyelashes although a small feature in the video when she has a pink dress on creates an over dr

amatised effect. This is something that was purposly put in place, to create a dominating imagine in regards to the situation and how she knows her worth and the male character was a let down. In general how we expressed the narrative through the use of studio shots we feel is something that personally adds the final touches to the video, although the rest may not stand out as much we purposely wanted

to create this as we wanted individual clips to create different effects and express different emotions of the character through out the video. The use of lighting in the studio shots shows the importance of costume, lyrics and the main characters performance and facial expressions.

The conventions of our video do differ and in some way create a new and original feel

. We found that the use of lighting where the lights were turned on and was put in place to show that the charac

ters in between the light and dark where she's almost lost yet is expressing how she feels about the male character in particular as it's a source of venting out her frustration. T hats what breaks it away it could be said to those of a similar genre as the in studio shots have a similar feel and the out of studio shots have a different feel, which is something we did on purpose as we wanted some scenes to be more dominant narrative then others.

Arguably it is still similar to those in it's pop genre and also other genres, as it contains varied camera shots, body language, use of lighting and costume which emphasise different emotions.

For example when it came to the character expressing her emotions we looked at Nicki Minaj- Your love, although not of the same

genre, it's about love, in this video we looked at the use of camera shots and facial expressions. This video we found stood out through it's use of props also the expressions made in the video strongly reflect the use of lyrics. Which is what we wanted to create through our video. Through out the Nicki Minaj video, as seen above, the use of make up and costumes is what r

eflects and dominates the narrative and so this influenced our work as we wan

ted to create a dramatic feel not through out the whole video but in certain parts. So we used more outlan

dish costume and make up then we had originally thought up .

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

The video, magazine and CD cover were all set out to compliment each other. First of all as mentioned before through out the video we used both glam and dulled down shots to create different feels. We took this into consideration when working on the print based work to. The video consist of shots where the main characters dress and make up is full on and other shots where this isn't the case. The shot's on the eye and where the character has a coat with the hood over her head where purposely we dulled her make up down. This was done to compliment and connote her feeling of being lonely, she's portrayed as an innocent girl who's hear

t got broken. In terms of the CD cover we looked at other ones of artists from similar genres that do such videos and produce music relating to heart break. We carefully looked at and took into consideration other covers for influence and almost direction, we found that most cd covers reflected the narrative of the cd in some way, through the facial expression or the use of background etc. We decided that the character should wear the hooded coat that she wore in the video to reflect and link in, so we took many pictures, with different backgrounds and facial expressions etc, we then chose the one that we felt best suited her in relation to o

verall imagine that we wanted to create for all the products and how we wanted them to link in. The magazine cover had the same back drop and costume as the magazine cove, we all added an imagine of the cd cover at the bottom of the magazine cover, this allowed us to keep the same sort

of design and style in both.

When it came to inspirations for the cd cover we looked at Christina Aguilera's cover for Dirty, in this we saw that although through cost

ume and make up there is a sense of her being dramatic at the same time through her facial expressions innocence is reflected. We looked at different covers and used them as inspiration but we made ours differ in ways through the use of text the costume and the use of back ground to reflect feel

ings. In regards to how the three link in on the cd cover we wanted the main character to reflect her pain and also her innocence at the same time, so we placed a close up on the cover of

the cd which reflected this well, we also added lyrics the the cd and the play list was placed on the back, all in a font that fitted in and was similar. We carried this effect over to the magazine cover in some ways as can be seen above. In regards to representation we used costume and make up in all three product to create the image we felt was required. Overall though they reflect her innocence we also wished to place a feel of confusion and hurt in from the way sh

e had been betrayed. To some extent costume and facial expression in

the cd cover, magazine as well as video are a reflection of emotions and lyrical content. In regards to marketing we the image created overall we hope would help with the marketing, the cd cover does draw attention. We received feedback from our target audience in regard to the print based items to and they stated that the overall imagine created was one that would attract attention and the appearance and feel from the video are carried over into the print based items as well.

The use of the wall in the print based item is a representation of the serious feel we have in the video as the topic being dealt with "heartbreak" is a touchy one. The snow was used to emphasize once again the main characters innocence and this can be seen in parts of the video to such as shots in the eye, though in these shots there's drama, you can see her anger and frustration and hurt through her body language. Overall it could be sa

id that in regards to representation of such products they help in the marketing process. The cd cover is important in regards to sales figures and making sure it links to the lyrical and musical content with in the album is essential. We tried our best to do this through the production of the music video an the effect it had on the print based items to, as we thought it's essential to link them in in regards to usefulness when it comes to marketing of the products etc. Also in regards to the magazine advert, it's not always necessary that only the target audience will see this, other people have interest in the magazine from different audiences may be drawn in by the advert so it's essential that it stands out yet at the same time ha a unique feel and so we took this into consideration. We thought that little things such as the font were also important and made the covers stand out and created an image to reflect representation in regards to all products etc. We want all products to in some way impact our target audience and also potential attractor's so we almost created some what of a unique feel to each product all though all three link in and are connected to each other through use of imagine, costume etc.

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After our video was complete we showed it to our target audience, which is both males and females aged between 14-22. We played the video for them to watch through, and then we received feedback. One we had received feedback we went back to make some changed that we thought would best suit the video after taking into consideration what the target audience had said in regards to our techniques, lighting and even setting. We had added some effects to the video but personally thought that it wouldn’t suit plastered effects as the narrative was strong enough, although

we did place a few effects on certain scenes. From the audience feedback we gathered that in the video there were certain scenes that stood out more than the others. Our audience found that the studio scenes generally speaking were stronger then the clips taken on the hand held cameras, but at the same time they thought the difference between the two created different feels. They stated that those clips related to the boy deceiving the character, where as the studio scenes almost narrated the video and added that touch to it, through it they saw her emotions and they thought her performance made it differ in certain ways to those of the genre. After receiving our first set of feedback we changed certain parts of the video by adding on effects to change the lighting as certain clips that were filmed at night weren’t bright enough and were dulled down in comparison to the rest of the video. We adding in lighting and changed the saturation in certain clips. Also we were told that the tilted angel shot, where the male character and his current girlfriend walk under the bridge stood out and was prominent in comparison to others. So we added an almost tilt to some of the “weaker” shots, which we found from our second audience feedback brought the shots up to scratch. Below is our final set of feedback from some of the target audience who we interviewed for a response with the following four questions being answered:

1) 1) What was your overall response to the video?

2) 2) What would you say are 3 particular strength’s of the video?

3) 3) One suggestion for i

mprovement?

4) 4) Choose one technical area: either camerawork, editing, or mise en scene and give feedback?

4)How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation of your blog?

In the initial planning and construction stage of the process in regards to creating a music video we looked at location, we did this by going out into our potential locations and taking location shots and then finding which location best fit our description of what we needed within the video. We looked at other video’s and in detail compared them to see what it was that made each unique and differ.

When we finally started to film at first we had days where we did film but after

the shoots thought it would be suited to the feel of the video, for example we used a garden shot where the characters in jeans and a hoody, when it came to uploading this to the rest of the video we found it stood out, not in a positive way though and so we didn’t actually make use of all our shooting. When it came to camera work used different angels and shots, focuses etc to create the feel and narrative we wanted to reflect. For example in the opening of the music video we used a close up to show the intense start and a dramatic feel mostly close ups were used when we wished to emphasise on facial expressions, we took this on when shooting for the cd cover to as the use of close ups allowed this. Distant/long shots were used in order to set the sense and we also used tilted shots to create a bold and different unique feel. In certain parts we also place the male and female character in different positions for example when they are arguing he is stood below her while she is stood on a stepping stone we used a mid shot for this as we wanted it to reflect that she’s bigger then him in that she’s not the one that moved on easily as she had respect for what they had whilst he was obviously the opposite.

In regards to the Cd cover and magazine advert Photoshop allowed this through it we created a flawless imagine and emphasised on certain areas, we also made the background stand out which could be taken into consideration when put in context and looking at the characters emotions. The use of text and fonts allowed us to create a stronger image on both. Generally effects on the video, Cd cover and also the magazine cover emphasised on the image we wished to portray and

allowed an individual unique and bold statement to be reflected.

Initially we had decided we would film both in the college studio and also i

n central town locations, we did this to reflect her daily life where as the studio shots were put in place as almost her singing over and narrating the actual video. When it came to our studio shots first we used green screen, this didn’t however have the effect that

we wanted, once we got this onto final cut pro and placed a different coloured background on it and added effects we found it took longer then expected but most of all we didn’t like the way it looked, it looked false, and not like the previous green screen work we had seen and intended for it to look like. We placed it into context and however realised this was because most of the other green screen work didn’t have a character dancing around it was more focused shots to create settings such As news presenting in a studio etc.

As we couldn't use this work we struggled to think of new imitative ideas in regards to the use of technology in the studio and what we could to create effects without green screen. What we did was dim the lighting and get rid of the green screen, the background in the studio was dark anyway and so we used this to the best of our advantage by flashing the studio lights on and off. This is emphasised especially in the chorus of the song. We then added this work to the time line and were pleased with the outcome as we thought we made use of the studio efficiently.

Once all our studio and non studio shots were added onto final cut pro we had to convert them and then start on adding in different scenes to different parts of the time line. First though we placed the song on the time line and locked it. The construction of the time line took some time but what we hoped to do was place all the work onto the time line to fit in place so we had a rough idea of what effects would be needed etc. After this we then analysed the video looking at moving scene around on the sequence to fit in to context in regards to lyrical

content. After this we looked at what actually needed effects adding to it, we decided that the studio shots didn't actually need effects as they were bold and strong enough. So we added effect to non studio shots, especially the shots where the character has a green dress on with a pearl headband, we thought in these the grass stood out to much and made it differ from the rest of the video which is not what we wanted and so we dulled them down and added on effects to change to colour saturation and filters in order to make some colours stand out more than others and dull the bright ones down, such as the green grass. Then from our audience feedback we found that the tilted angel shot stood out more then most other shots and was prominent so it was suggested that we tilt/rotate some of our studio shots a little to fit in with that. We did this to certain shots and found it had a strong effect on the video and so we left it in place as it almost bounded the ideas together.

Final cut pro was really helpful in the construction of our product, as we used it last year to we knew the basic functions of it and discovered others ourselves and then used these to the best of our ability. Once we had completed a section we were able to lock it on the time line so that we couldn’t mess with it or affect it while editing the other sections.

In regards to our evaluation stage and our blog we evaluated our product through the above four questions which have allowed us to portray many times what it is we wanted to create and what helped us/ allowed us to do this. Through this evaluation we have also stated what it is we had to spend more time on and all the finish touches we actually added on in order for our products to be what we thought a reasonable standard, we constantly took into consideration what our target audience had to say and made changes though out all which we think have if anything been of benefit to our final product. The blog allowed us to set out and map our ideas and it kept us focused as we constantly went back to it to see what was required of us and added information throughout, we added images, videos and text throughout. Too much of on wouldn’t be of complete benefit so we took this into consideration although most of the evaluation is text as we thought this was the most effective way to state what we had found and to fully answer the questions.