Note To Moderator

Dear Moderator,

I have created a music video to Jack Johnson's "Better Together" from his album "In Between Dreams." As part of this coursework I have created the video and two ancillary products; a website and a promotional poster.

Please use the labels to navigate my blog.

Thank you very much.

Rhianon
Candidate Number: 9080
Edgbarrow Centre Number: 51111

Music Video

My Website- Final

Jack Johnson Website

This is the fourth draft of my website. Based on feedback I received I have made a variety of changes including;
Images (sizing, positioning)
Home buttons/site bar (colouring, sizing, font)
Font
Positioning
Colour schemes
Features (the blog element)
These changes allowed my website to become more professional. And due to audience feedback I was able to see what my target audience wanted out of the website.

My Promotional Poster

Poster development

Original Image 

Edited Image

I looked at the original image and felt it was quite dull; it's colours did not stand out particularly and for me it just looked like any image that anyone could take. To make it look more professional and interesting I did some editing on the software "Pixlr." This enabled me to heavily edit the image in a way exactly as I wanted. Firstly I adjusted the saturation, lightness and vibrancy. This just gave the image some initial standout features and I was able to see where colour enhancement would be most worthwhile. The I went on to work with the brightness and softness of the image to richen the colours but still give off the warm feel that I was aiming for. I also then added a beam of light across the photo. Initially I was not so sure about this but as I have looked at it more and played around with it, I came to really like it. The album is about dreams and for me this image reflects him looking into the future at his aspirations and the pop of colour just adds inspiration and a sense of pride.

Question 4- How did you use media technologies in the contruction and research and planning and evaluation stages?

Technologies I have used 

Why? 

I have used a variety of technologies to help me across my research and planning, construction and evaluation stages. Each technology has been carefully selected in terms of whether they were the best to suit the prupose. Some of the technologies were very new to me and therefore I found it hard to navigate them initially and ended up having to do a lot of practice before creating my final pieces. Some technology crossed over across the three areas and actually I have previously used within the AS section of the course. 

Question 3- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Music Video Feedback | Create infographics

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

Question 2- Evaluation

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

Progress Update- 06/02/15

Today I have been working on my evaluation. I have written out and planned each answer and I am now starting to use various technologies to present my answers. For my first evaluation question I have decided to use a Prezi to show my answer. Currently I am putting large chunks of information into each frame which may seem overwhelming so  on reflection I will split this up and make sure it is more spread out and interesting.

 

 

 

 

Question 1- Evaluation Developed

From the feedback it was clear that I focused on one video as the basis of my inspiration whereas what needs to be considered is genre characteristics and codes and conventions. 

Typical codes and conventions of a romance story; 

-A voice over at the beginning to introduce the theme of love and togetherness

-Aimed typically at a female audience

-They reflect the tales that happen in day to day life

-Normally contains emotional feelings

-Might use symbols to signify love such as the colour red, hearts, a wedding etc. 

It is important that I focus on romance as a genre in general rather than simply relating it back to Love Actually specifically, although referencing this would be useful. 

To ensure that I have related codes and conventions to my video and explored them in regards to whether I have used or challenged them it would be useful to look at media theorists and what they have said. 

A suggestion that was made was to look at Andrew Goodwin's codes and conventions; 

-A relationship between the visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics

- A relationship between the music and visuals again either amplifying, illustrating or contradicting the music

-Music genres have their own video style and iconography

-There is likely to be voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women, and close-us of the main artist and vocalist

- There is likely to be inter-textual references either to other music videos or films or TV texts. 

We cna relate each of these conventions abck to our video and apply them. Apart from voyeurism we can apply these conventions and have created relationships and used iconography and specific shots to sell the artist. 

Question 4- Evaluation Developed

For this question I need to make sure I am considering how technogies assisted me at every stage of the process, from research and planning to now my evaluation.

Question 3- Evaluation Developed

From my feedback I was reminded that audience isn't just something that is thougtht of at the end of the process to review the product but instead an intergral part of the entire thing and something which must be carefully considered throughout. For this question it would be useful to go back on our initial audience feedback and the conclusions we drew from that and see how this helped and influenced the creation of our product.

Question 2- Evaluation Developed

Within this question I need to add more on branding, promotion and marketing in terms of the ancillaries and their role to promote the album, artist and music video. 
when artists create a product the aim is for it to be as successful as possible and therefore avenues must be explored so the audience is made aware of the product and is encouraged to purchase it. Through the website and poster I was able to do this. 
The poster attracts audiences because it is colourful and eye catching. When looking through a magazine a person isn't likely to stop for ages and stare at an advert but instead have a quick glance. Therefore there is limited opportunity to get information across. For this reason the written aspects of the poster must be kept to a minimum but made clear. The purpose of the poster is to sell not just the product but the artist themselves, this way people might be more inclines to take interest if they respect and like the artist. Often artists have developed their own style and iconography so a poster is a quick was of getting a message across. 
The website is hugely important. More than two billion people have access to the Internet and with it becoming easier and more convenient people use it as their main form of communication and gaining information. Therefore an advert is a quick, easy and cheap way for audiences to keep up to date and have access the artist and build what feels to be an intimate and friendly relationship. Like the poster the colours need to stand out and it can't be too overwhelming with too much written text on one page. 

For the most effective results if these link then audiences can easy made conclusions and pick up information. 

Progress Update- 23/01/15

Today we worked on our video. Holli managed to get some footage which will work well within our piece. We have worked out timings for the sequences and thought specifically about positioning. Having spoken to Miss Dolby we recognised the problems with continuity and whether audiences may be confused by some of the clips which may appear random.

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

For this question I will do a comparison of the technologies I used last year and the technologies I have used this year to show how I have progressed within that time. I will not just look at specific programmes but what I have been able to do within those for example the advanced use of the editing software on Final Cut Pro. For this I may refer back to preliminary tasks to see how specifically lip syncing has improved, a well as screen shots of how I had presented my planning and evaluation and compare it to what I am doing now.
I will list the technologies that I had potentially thought to use and then the one I chose in the end and analyse the process I went to to make this decision and why this was the best one for the purpose.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For this question I will be getting as much feedback as I can from lots of different outlets, this will include;
-Posting them on Facebook with possible questions
-Creating a survey and distribute to people of our target audience to obtain some feedback
We also thought some general feedback would be useful because we can then apply any suggestions as we are improving the video. Whilst we know it is the feedback from our target audience specifically that would be the most useful, general feedback will also be helpful and allow us to see how different demographic groups respond to it. This will give us some different perspectives and possibly allow us to see things that we may not otherwise see because we can't be very objective being that we are so involved and engrossed in the making process. For this I will just be showing everyone I can on my phone, computer, tablets etc.
When analyzing the data I collect I will incorporate some audience theories from theorists we have studied and state how we have either challanged or used within our piece.

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

For all three of my products I have tried to have theme that is apparent and continuous throughout. This gives the audience a sense of familiarity and allow links to be made between the products. This is important when branding because artists tend to have a particular style or motif so that audiences can recognise them and their product. It also helps promote their individuality; by sticking to certain colours artists can be branded.
What I specifically looked at in each area;
MISE-EN-SCENE
-Autumnal colours (Greens, oranges, reds, yellows etc.)
-Woods
-Red (representing love) which we put at the beginning and end of the video
-Warm lighting
-Rich colours (which we enhanced using editing software)
- Basic costumes but quite stereotypical of boys around the 18 age mark
-Fonts
-Messages
It was hugely important that the audience could identify with the characters within the video therefore we needed to make them relatable. To do this we tried to explore relationships of all kind, with people of many different ages. We felt this would mean that anyone watching the music video would find a relationship they can relate to. This was the same for my ancillary products. They had to be clear and (the website especially) easy to navigate. To make this possible and the best it could be we looked at RMA's of a similar nature to see how others had done this successfully. What I found from this is:
-Colour schemes need to be kept simple with not too many colours being used.
-Colours need to be matched and continued throughout the three texts.
-Not too much going on within the product. For the video we needed to keep it simple and not include too many couples, for the website the page can't have too much on it, and for the poster not too much on it so that it's overwhelming as people then will ignore it and not bother to look at it at all.
-Range of shots to make the video and any images interesting and different.

            

I am quite happy with my products as a whole as I feel I have taken on board all the lessons I learnt from looking at other similar products. I think it has made them effective as a collective.

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

We have used Final Cut Pro to edit our music video. Like other companies we have used an editing software which has allowed us to move, adjust and edit our clips easily so the product is exactly what we wanted it to be. Through this programme we could alter the colour and richness of the clips to enhance the image. We were able to move lip syncing to exactly the right place so it was in time with the music. We could also zoom closer or further away from the clips which gave us a more specific view of where needed editing. Through this process our video does reflect that of real videos, we haven't randomly put clips together, but carefully thought about them and edited every last second to exactly how we want.

The genre of our video is romance so we had to stick to certain conventions to allow audiences to understand the theme and be able to relate it back to themselves. For this we looked at other videos of a similar nature. Instead of using a music video, we instead took inspiration from the popular film 'Love Actually.' 

Some conventions we picked up on were 

- Inevitability that the two end up together in the end

- Everyone finds someone

- Often certain symbols are used to reflect love

- A "meet-cute" 

- Warm lighting

- Characters experience a range of emotions but end up with a happily ever after ending

- Often these are centred around a bit city, such as London. 

We tried to stick to as many of these conventions as possible. Not only does this help audiences quickly identify the genre, but we also wanted an intertextual link to Love Actually so looked specifically at codes they followed and tried to maintain this in our video

-Opening monologue

-Lots of couples 

-Different types of love being displayed 

- Range of ages of the characters and different stages of relationships

In our video we made sure that each couple looked happy and hoped this would show the inevitable that they will end up together, reinforcing this idea that is presented in this genre of videos that there is someone for everyone. We edited the lighting to make it warm and rich and used London as a focus point and a place we revisited throughout. Being a big recognised city we felt this would be a nice place to use continuously throughout the video. We chose to do an opening monologue as this really helped tie in with Love Actually, like other films often reference each other, and it was a way to get information across. Lots of music videos have a monologue or sequence before the film to set the scene for the piece, such as Sam Smiths "Not The Only One." 

We decided to challenge the stereotypical love found in music videos or films that is typically between a man and a woman. We wanted to explore a variety of forms of love; from friendship to family to soul mates. This was really important to us because we wanted to demonstrate that love comes in many different forms. We felt this was successful as we have dipped into a place that a lot of videos hasn't gone by looking at all relationships. Including the gay couple made our video relevant and current, reflecting a change in attitude among society in the recent times. 

The only thing, upon reflection, that concerned us was that you didn't get to know each relationship very well. Unlike Love Actually, we didn't have dialogue or time to develop the relationships, nor give the audience much time to build up relationships with the characters. Initially we had wanted to include lots of couples, but for our final piece we limited it to our favourites so that it wasn't too confusing or overwhelming to the audiences. 

Like in the construction of real media products, we allocated roles to each person based on their strengths. This ensured we were the best we could be and everyone was using their skills in the right place to showcase themselves. 

We were particularly drawn to and inspired by Love Actually because of how you feel after having watched it. It's hugely heart warming and forces you to be grateful and humbled about the your existing relationships. Music videos take an audience on a journey and prompt feelings and emotions in just a few minutes. We really wanted to do the same and hope that we managed to!

Progress Update 6/1/15

I have had a lot of trouble uploading all my blogposts as I have not been able to access my blogger account from home. I had all the posts ready to upload on a memory stick and did that as soon as I was back in. I have spoken to Michelle, our technician, and she has said this could be for a number of reasons. I have a computer at home and could be using a internet search engine that doesn't like blogger. She suggested I downloaded firefox which I have and can now, because of it, access this account. Another trouble I had was that I had left my self logged on at school therefore I couldn't get on to my account from other outlets, this is why I couldn't get on through other computers which I tried.
I have sorted the problem now and can get onto blogger from home, which will make it a lot easier to upload and keep up to date.

Progress Update 21/12/14

Today I have spent the day working on my evaluation. I have planned answers and have thought about the different forms of media I would like to use to interestingly present my ideas.

Here are some ideas I have had; 

-Prezi

- FinalCutPro (create an video which can present images whilst over the top playing a commentary) 

-Powtoon

-Survey to gain feedback from target audiences 

- Split screen video of our video and a video created for a big mainstream artist

I have looked at the mark scheme to make sure my answers are the best they can be. 

I have also looked at high band answers done by other students to see how I can make mine to this standard. 

http://www.slideshare.net/RosiePosie28/a2-media-studies-evaluation-7750648

Whilst I think her answers were very detailed, she didn't use a range of technology but she has answered in depth and has covered more than enough point with regards to the question. 

I used this which I found on slide share to really help me consider all aspects of the question and explore the answer fully. 

http://www.slideshare.net/hasnmedia/a2-g324-evaluation-questions-30790923

My Promotional Poster