Final Music Video

Final Digipak

Final Magazine Poster

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

Evaluation Task 2: How Effective Is The Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

We effectively established apparent links with our music video and our ancillary texts. The two ancillary texts were marketing products in promoting the artist and their album. Therefore it was important to ensure that our target audience were familiar with the genre.

Two of these images are from the digipak, whilst the the remaining two are from the music video.The first image is taken from the music video, (at this particular time in the video is a flashback) the main artist presents his former lover with flowers, this links with the image next to it which is from the digipak further continuing the theme of lost love and infatuation. Throughout our products we made sure that we incorporated the theme to compliment the narrative of the music video, by having all of our media products reflect that it allows the audience to be able to link and understand the theme of our music video.

We wanted the digipak to compliment the narrative structure and not drift away from it, as you can see in the digipak at the top right there is a still picture of the couple, this is to insinuate the fact that this is a picture from when they were together, this helps provide a back-story and fill in any plot-holes that might have not been explained in the video. The way in which we use the digipak is to expand on the narrative because it is story driven and the way in which we did that was have indicators in our digipak such as the poem below this compliments the narrative structure and help gain an insight into the narrative of the music video. The poem has powerful language to convey emotion "cemetery", which links to our video because it is about love which has died, we used this poem so that hopefully our music video will have the same emotion drawn out of it.

 The name of the song had an enormous amount of input into our direction of the making the digipak, because we kept in mind that they have to be contextually intertwined. The name "I Want You" could be interpreted in so many different ways, we decided to go with the subtle yet very engaging interpretation, the lost love that yearns to be rekindled. The effect of continuity present throughout all three products, allow us to be able expand our narrative into three distinct places stretching the narrative and aiding the audience easily into the narrative structure.

How the Magazine advert and digipak are similar...

This is a collection of images taken from the digipak and the music video. As you can see they consists of images to do with compassionate love, these are the shots involving the female actress, as she is very crucial in the flow of this narrative. Her presence is shown throughout both the digipak and the music video, the reason we decided not to include these shots in the magazine advert, is because we felt it was not necessary as the magazine advert is there to promote a artist and consumers might be confused as whether or not she is an artist herself, we wanted to make that clear differentiation. However we decided to keep the colour scheme consistent throughout both ancillary products, to create the connotation that the narrative is branched out in all of our products, to make each product have a symbiotic relationship between each other.


Furthermore the theme that is run throughout these images is similar to create continuity in the images present.The fact that the female is in both the digipak and the music video, allows audiences to intimately connect with her as she is shown approximately as much as the main artist. Her recurring role would make the audience pay more close attention to the narrative and the lyrics present.


Initially, we were planning to use screen shots from the actual music video, for use in both the digipak and magazine advert, but when we saw how poor the picture quality was from when it was transferred, we decided that it would be best to use our own photos. We decided to use the male artist as the subject to remain consistent in all three media products, and the female actor having a recurring role in both digipak and music video. We decided this so that audiences would not be confused, when buying our product they would see the main artist and that would entice them to purchase our product.


For most of the images we used a studio and set up the lighting ourselves. We used a 1080p HD camera for every shot. In terms of time consuming, it took a long time to get perfect shots, but it is definitely a lot better than taking screen shots from the music video.The colour choice was a dark purple, and the way in which we used it was to highlight that it was both love and memory, and to make the audience see that it was definitely a thing of the past.

The colours, font and connotations played an major role in the process of making our ancillary texts. As we wanted everything to fit together perfectly, we had to make sure that all three aspects reflect similar themes.

Overall, the combination of our main products and ancillary texts is very effective as they all reflect the same theme through the use of colours and connotations. 

Evaluation Task 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to effectively analyse my music video, I had to get, verbal feedback from teachers, video feedback from peers and feedback from social networks. Without their feedback the music video wouldn't have made significant progress.

  

Audience feedback is such an integral part in all stages of the production process as without the audience feedback we would not be able to know if our product was really attracting our target audience.

To gather our audience feedback, we decided to create a questionnaire that would give us both qualitative and quantitative data, so that we could get the best feedback possible. We also believed that by using a standard questionnaire for every person, we would be able to gather only the information that we require.

Audience Feedback Questionnaires

From the audience feedback they told me that some of the footage was too bright, and they needed to be darker to fit the background placed, so I lowered the brightness using final cut pro. This was very helpful as it helped contribute to the overall appearance of the video, making it look more professional.

After we made the required changes, we presented the final version of our music video, to teachers and fellow peers. This time we received much more positive feedback. We used their criticism to help better our video and use a balance of contrast, to make the video more professional, we did not want to make the video darker, when we tried to make it darker it only worsen the video, so we resorted to using a program called Adobe AfterEffects it proved to be effective when balancing the contrast.

What was different the second time through, was that we had to analyse other contemporary hip-hop videos, which inspired the amount of cross cutting present in the video. The constant cutting is present in most of hip-hop videos you could call it a convention but something we did not incorporate in our first draft. The other thing that kept coming into conversations was how well we were able to lip-sync really well in our video, bear in mind that there is a significant amount of rapping which made the process for editing really difficult.

The most important comment in my opinion was that they recognized that this was a narrative, and they were able to follow through with the narrative structure without having me to point it out to them.  This made me especially proud of our music video, because this was the aspect, which we found to be difficult and tedious, so having positive feedback on that aspect on which we worked especially hard on was pleasing.

Audience feedback was integral when creating the digipak. We asked around fellow peers, our media teacher and friends on what they thought of our digipak, I made a note of their impression, and created the pie chart below. They were impressed with our digipak, they though it resembled an actual digipak, they used words like "professional" and our teacher was particularly proud of the product, as she was present during the early production stages of our digipak, she saw our growth in our digipak and how far it had evolved from previously. These comments made me particularly proud of our digipak and that it bear close resemblance to actual contemporary digipaks.  

Audience Feedback was crucial, when  creating the magazine advert, in order to gain audience feedback, I took a similar approach when obtaining audience feedback. I took to fellow peers to analyze the magazine advert and see the faults. As you can see below, we asked people whether they thought the magazine advert reflected the same theme as the rest of our media products. They thought it was not synchronized with the rest of the media products, I have to agree with their opinions. They said the colours did not match the rest and did not give off that imagery seen in the other products, as our magazine advert initially were a slight orange and black.This clearly differentiated between the rest of our products, people initially thought they were separate from the rest, so we decided to incorporate the same colour scheme, the balance between red and black, which we initially used in our digipak, as this is a still image, the choice of colour is significant, when creating imagery and consistency.

Magazine Advert - Improvements

As you can see above, there is significant change in the magazine advert in accordance to the audience feedback, when we presented it for a second time, we received positive feedback and it was because the magazine advert was similar to the other media products and reflected the same theme. The pie chart below reflects the data I was given after the second viewing.

The questionnaire I took in to receive audience feedback, was to get a much more detailed description on how to improve our products, although it was time consuming, it gave us a much more in depth explanation of our mistakes. It allows us to see different unique responses from different people.This is an effective for us as it would allow us to see exactly what we were successful at and needed improving in all three of our products and also give us ideas on how to better our products, it encourages people to expand on their answers and this may bring up topics that we had not initially thought about. This would help us as it will allow us to gather as many different points as possible to ensure that our feedback is thorough and precise.

I also used social networking sites such as Facebook, to gain audience feedback, this is a screen shot from my mobile phone showing their reaction towards the music video. I used Facebook, as a means to gain feedback because it allows me to share it with so many people, rather than giving them a sheet to fill out their reaction. This is an effective quick way to gain audience feedback, and most of my friends on Facebook falls under my target audience.

If I could do it again, I would consider using interviews to gain more feedback from my target audience as interviews would allow the person to go into more depth about their answer. However, as interviews are very time consuming, I would not be able to interview all participants, therefore I would have to choose the candidates which could be argued be biased and in return not being returned with critical and constructive feedback.

Overall, our final music video, digipak and magazine advert this time received more positive feedback than negative comments. However the “negative” comments were constructive and helped contribute the overall quality of the final music video, final digipak and final magazine advert without their feedback we would not have seen were we went wrong and allowed us to look more intricately at other examples for inspiration.

Evaluation Task 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the process of this project, I was presented with challenges that proved difficult at times. The first being my lack of knowledge with the equipment I was given. This experience forced me to think quickly on my feet as I was going along.

I had to rely on my past experience with Adobe Photoshop, I used this for the duration of my AS media studies, so to say the least I  had experience with some of the products.

New Media Technologies have significantly influenced our project in many ways, and had they not been so advanced, I would not have been able to achieve the outcomes

Prior to making the music video we had to research and analysing contemporary music videos via YouTube as independent musicians posts their music videos, some of whom take unique approach with a specific genre and borrows different conventions from contemporary music videos. This gave us an insight into what the demands of this project, for us to understand that there will be hardships in this project.

We used the internet as a research tool to look for music videos that could be used as an inspiration in the production of our music video. We came across Vevo this is a music service similar to Youtube but more comprehensive library; most artists tend to upload their music video through this service. This was especially helpful in helping us find the song to use in our project.

For AS Media last year, I was assigned to creating a music magazine cover, contents page and a double page spread. During AS I never encountered any sort of video editing, which meant I did not know anything about the different processes and techniques.

I was honestly very new to this.

I started to look at Final Cut Pro tutorials on Youtube to aid me and help me gain more of an understanding into the intricacy of the program.

We used the green screen effect, to add backgrounds which reflect the tone of the video and the lyrics. We utilised it to create effective background like the snow to give the connotation of melancholic atmosphere, to reflect cold nature of this theme. We also used it to create backgrounds to suit each performers respective genre

We used different filters such as the cold steel effect which was used for both differentiating between the past and present and to reflect the actor's state of mind, we wanted to create sympathy and possibly empathy with our audience.

We also began to utilise different editing techniques such as cross cuts and fades, which are prominent features seen in music videos of the Hip Hop/R&B genre. We started to experiment with different transitions such as the whirlwind to start the flashback, after seeing some of the flashback fades that were present in final cut pro, we collectively decided that they were to say the least simplistic, and quite frankly dull. That's what caused us to experiment with different transitions to create the sudden flashback, and we decided that the whirlwind was most appropriate because it immediately transitions into the flashback, without waiting for it, creating the element of surprise. 

We also used a program called Adobe AfterEffects. We utilised this program to create motion within our texts, so that it synchronizes with the timing of the 4/4 beat of the song. The motion of the text is different for each performer in the song, where Carlo Gambino's(Main Performer) lyrics pop up as punchlines in a sudden, unpredictable way reflecting the aggressive nature of Hip-Hop.                      Jay-S(Featured Performer) lyrics however comes out in a elegant and sophisticated motion, it is even stylised in calligraphy, we used this to reflect the soft and sensual nature of the R&B genre. 

During the construction of our music video, I had to  research into contemporary Hip Hop/R&B music video directors such as Director X, Hype Williams. They are known for their fast  and on beat editing, which inspired us to take into account the fast editing, to reflect the pattern of our song choice, to make it memorable to the audience.

This leads me to discuss the use of the Apple Mac’s in class sessions. Prior to creating the music video, I had used my friends Apple Mac for browsing the web, watching videos etc, I never used it for anything as complex as making music videos.

If I did not use the Mac’s, I wouldn't have been able to use Final Cut Pro which would meant our music video would probably not consist of any special effects at all; this in return would essentially render our narrative null.

In hindsight, the idea of removing these shots from the final music video would surely meet an unsuccessful outcome and a very unprofessional product.

To have an unbiased critical reception we decided to upload our video to social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube. What’s interesting about YouTube in particular is the fact that it is shared globally and in return offers unbiased reception.

Their feedback proved to be very helpful in constructing the final version of the music video. Through this we were able to engage with our target audience.

The research for producing the ancillary products, I had to take into account real examples of media products; I went from analysing a real digipak by analysing the Kanye West’s 808 and Heartbreak album. I looked intricately into it analyzing the colours used and the effect behind it. I then took to the internet to analyse further and discover key connotations, and styles used by artist to convey the message and the theme of the album. By analysing these I was able to draw up the disadvantages and advantages of a digipak.

I also have a Blackberry Playbook, to which I used to buy magazines digitally, without having to resort to going to at store buying a physical copy. This was less time consuming seeing as, you can just at the touch of a finger move pages. In a short amount of time I was able to look through so many different magazines such as XXL and The Source which is primarily Hip Hop/R&B centric magazines. By analyzing these magazines I was able to figure out what elements I should include in my magazine advert and what to avoid doing.

Through the production of our music video we did not use Photoshop at any point, but it proved to be crucial in the process of making the digipak, magazine advert and record label. As well as Adobe Photoshop I used Adobe Illustrator enhance our magazine advert and digipak, Photoshop is used for image manipulation and Illustrator is used to give high quality image to some extent you cannot do in Photoshop, we had to bounce back and forth with these two programs. The reason why we chose to use Photoshop is that you can artistically combine images with texts, there are numerous ways in which you can use to make it artistic and attractive. Strokes, drop shadow, bevel and emboss and other effects allow you to give more emphasis on your texts, it also allows you to make images look better even by simply adjusting brightness, contrasts and exposure. Even if your photograph doesn’t really look good or has certain mistakes, you can still adjust and enhance that in Photoshop. It can cover up poor lighting, marks on the picture, dark photos, red eyes and others. You can also crop the picture if there are some parts which were mistakenly included when you took it.

At times when we were shooting footage for our music video, it was close to winter which meant we could not get any natural lighting at that point we had to improvise and use studio lights and the green screen effect, and add backgrounds to compliment the lighting. This obviously could not replace the natural lighting, we were hoping to use frequently, but we collectively decided as a group that it was better to have variation in our music video.

The Canon PowerShot SX40 HS is a 12 Megapixel super-zoom camera with a massive 35x optical range.  This was used throughout the production of all of our media products,(Music Video, Digipak and Magazine Advert). This is an 1080p HD ready camera, which gave us high visuals for our music video. This powerful camera is packed with different filters such as colour accent and contrast levels to produce high quality footage to which we used in our favour. 

During the planning stages of this media project we used a website called Blogger, through this website we would document everything and add video diaries to, it was used as a diary in which we would use it to document what we have been filming, editing and planning. The advantages of using blogger is that it is so accessible, I can view my blog through my mobile phone and simultaneously post on my blog, another reason is that it was through the internet meaning once I posted something I would not need to carry any sort of hard drive with me I could access it from any computer.  


We also used Microsoft Excel, which is a very intricate program in which you can produce statistics and spreadsheets, this was helpful when gathering the results from the questionnaires I took from both audience feedback and to researching my target audience 

We also used mobile phone exchanges to keep track of each person in the group, this is to make sure what days we could record and what we should do in preparation and convenience.

Overall, I have learnt that I am very fortunate to have been surrounded by new media technologies. The internet at this point is an element in my every day; it has proven to be extremely crucial and played major role in the making of this project. The use of the Apple Mac’s and practical aspects like the cameras has allowed us to create the music video that we have, and it has given me a much more understanding of how much influence new media technologies had on the overall outcome