Evaluation - Charlotte Baker

 Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?




Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?



 Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Youtube:
Throughout all stages of our project, we were using Youtube as a guide. When planning our initial research for our music video, we used to it to pick up on typical conventions of our genre by watching different types of music videos. Not only did we use it to watch professional music videos, but previous students had used it to upload their projects which helped us enormously as we were able to watch these and create a list of strengths and weaknesses that we could include and avoid. During our editing stage, I used youtube to find a tutorial on how to cut a picture using Final cut. Without Youtube I would never have been able to do this and our pictures may not have looked so professional. In addition, Youtube enabled us to upload our rough cut and final cut of our music video which meant we could put it onto our blog.

Blogger:
To keep on track of all the preliminary research we did for our research we used Blogger, which is an online blog. We were able to record whatever we had ideas on during the lesson, such as the research on professional or student videos, update it by putting any tutorials we used, put evaluations of mise-en-scene etc. We found it extremely useful as we were able to look back to what we had written in the case of forgetting an idea we had had in one lesson and were able to monitor other ideas from the rest of the group which had not been voiced out loud within the lessons. This helped us to then create our final cut and our ancillary products as we had noted down all of our evaluations and research.

Photoshop:
Using photoshop helped us to edit our photos that we took for our ancillary products to make them look more professional. This was done by changing the colours of the front cover of the digipak so that the picture looked more airbrushed, this then made it fit in with the conventional digipak front cover of R&B genre.

Final Cut:
Final cut played a gigantic part in the making of our music video. We were able to edit all of our clips with this technology and it also enabled us to change the green screen background using colour corrector, cut clips that had not been shot to the standard we'd hoped and were able to edit and filter to different clips together to create abstract backgrounds.

Green Screen and cutting:
By watching a tutorial on youtube I was able to learn how to change the green screen background by changing certain settings such as the chroma key. By doing this it made created great effects within our music video as we used various abstract backgrounds. i also learned by watching a tutorial that I could cut a picture and fit it back within the screen without distorting the picture. I was able to do this through the cut tool on Final Cut.

Camera and tripod:
We were given a video camera to film our shots on for our music video by the college. As i do not own one of these it was a new experience to film with it and I learnt very simple things such as switching it off, starting the recording and watching back the videos we had already filmed. We were also given a tripod which helped me to realise just how important it is to keep your camera steady; if this is not done so the shot looks very unstable and unprofessional! I learnt how to set it up and adjust it to help us film at different angles. 

Ancillary products

When creating our ancillary products we ended up with two magazine articles which we had to choose from.
We decided to go with the one that Keri created because it follows the motif that we have been using throughout this whole music video experience. This motif being the Andy Warhol art style.
This magazine article would stand out on the page more because of the colours which are very bright and bold, whereas the other article made used dark colours.
In addition it also focuses a lot on the artist which goes with the conventions of the R&B genre we have been following.

I think both the Digipak and the magazine article would be effective in attracting our target audience because the bright colours make the album stand out and also, the picture of the artist Leksi fills the whole of the front cover of the Digipak and most of the magazine article so fans would not easily miss it.

Feedback on Final cut

1. Use of conventions:
Follows the genre conventions well, follows a love relationship by showing stereotypical boy girl performances. Lots of cuts between artists and good transitions between green screens. Focuses on the artist/singer.

2. Quality of performance:
Lots of people in our group loved the enthusiastic performance from the male artist (Jake), most people said that the performance was good and strong from both people. Representing artist's well. Few said that female artist lacked emotion.

3. Narrative or abstract? Effective? :
Narrative was said to be simple and easy to follow, it was portrayed well and realistic; goes well with the genre - clearly shows a love and hate relationship. Some did not catch on to the slight narrative used but it is not what was meant to be portrayed anyway.

4. Lipsynch:
Lipsynch was good, timing errors in certain clips.

5. Use of micro elements:
People from our class has different feedback for the micro elements:
Clothing could be more appropriate, good use of green screen and editing; was in time with the music.
Good range of camera shots and effects were very good.
Cross cutting to different backgrounds is good.
Very stable camera.
Lots of green screen; helped create abstract moments.
Lots of jump cuts.
Slight glitches with the green screen.
Good clothing for both artists.
Filters good; few black spots.

6. Overall:
Rap performance is so well made.
Most of the green screens are good and on time.
Best bit was the cuts between coloured backgrounds.
Power of performance was liked.
Solos were favourited.
Male performer had great enthusiasm, fun to watch.
Jump cuts were liked.

Font ideas

For our digipak, I looked at other album covers from similar artists to get an idea of typical conventions of fonts used. I got the idea that most fonts are usually very simple but very bold - usually in capitals so that it stands and looks like it is making a statement.

This Rihanna album cover is an example of simple bold font. it also shows the name of the album in bold capitals too. This goes with the theme of the album and is it called 'LOUD' and often in writing when something is loud you write it in capitals to put emphasis on it.

For Beyonce's album the writing is still simple and in bold capitals  to link in with her bold character as an independent strong woman. However it is a little smaller and in the corner which suggest that we should focus more on the woman (Beyonce) that is behind the writing, which is the point of Beyonce's music.

This has helped a lot with picking the font for the digipak as we now know what is conventional for our genre of music :

Final cut deadline

Today is the final cut deadline, and we are very worried that we will not get it all of the editing done in time.
To make sure that we do get everything done we have decided to cut the piece of music down from 3 minutes to 2 minutes as a lot of the other groups are doing pieces of music that are only 2 minutes long and also this means that we only have a few more gaps to fill before we are finished. We have cut the music at a spot similar to the actual end of the song and faded it out so it sounds like a realistic ending to a song.
We are also double checking that all of the green screens look right and that the lip syncing is matched up with the shots.
Hopefully we get it all done today and then we can start with our digipaks and magazine adverts!

Artist names...

For our artist we wanted a name that would fit in well with the genre of music. We also need to be able to put the name on the Digipak and magazine advert so I have done some research into different names.

Some R&B artists use simply there first name as it is short, simple and straight to the point - it is not as formal and when the audience calls them by the first name it is like they are friends so it could possibly help the audience and fans relate to the artists and feel more like the artist is a normal person instead of a star.
For example stars such as Rihanna and Beyonce use only their first names, it is bold and stands out which matchs their personality and their music. It also looks very bold on their album covers.

This has influenced me to use only our artist's first name on the digipak. Her name is Leksi which is quite different which fits in with today's society and fashion of being 'hipster.'

Cropping

A couple of the shots we took unfortunately had a few things within the shot that we did not want to be there such as the edges of the green screen or the window shining through the green screen. To get rid of these we needed to crop some of our shots. However, we did not know how to do this, so instead of just asking our teacher, I went on Youtube and typed in 'cropping on final cut express' and it gave results of tutorials that people  could follow and learn.

I used a short tutorial and used some of the footage we had shot to practise on. The outcomes were great and I was able to get rid of the things that were unwanted.
Once I had watched the tutorial, it was actually very easy, all I had to do was click on the crop button and then resize the footage.



This is the outcome of the footage. The picture on the left is before it was cropped with the light from the window coming through the green screen, and the picture on the right is the same picture but with the window light cropped out.

Self-evaluation post..

We have now got to the stage where we have finished all our planning and are beginning to film the shots we need to edit to make our music video.
Jess and I have learnt how to do a split screen so that if we decide to do that we can do it easily and it won't take too long. Our actress has been given the lyrics to learn so that when we film her she knows what she is singing.
After changing our decision on the content of the video very suddenly, we now feel confident that it will work out for the best and look better than our original idea.
Our camer, tripod and the green screen has been booked for when we are all free and we are going to bring a camera in so we can take pictures of the process. We also have lots of ideas for the backgrounds and effects we are going to use such as flashing lights, blurs, slow-motion and split screens.
We have also given the actress a certain dress code so that she fits in with the R&B stereotype.

Overall, we are right on schedule like we planned and confident that our ideas will work effectively.

Comsumption post - Twitter

Artists and producers of the songs in today's music charts are not simply made popular by just creating them. Although playing the music on the radio, on music channels and having interviews with the artists shown and heard about the song are very important in advertising their new songs there are also other ways to get word out of new music - one of these ways being Twitter.

People in today's society are brought up to know how to use today's technology to the best of their advantage; and one of the best ways to socialise these days is to use internet chat-rooms and social networking. Twitter statistics have flown through the roof in the past year with the pop-star Rihanna's followers number going up to a staggering 26,292,761! - so what better way for her to get news out of a new song she has released by posting about it on twitter!

Rihanna talks about her new album cover for the song, interviews and lyrics within the song as well as the release of the song.

If we were to produce a real music video for the song 'Love and War' by Rita Ora we would be able to write about it on twitter so that our followers then become curious as to what it is and listen to it on youtube, mtv etc.

Technology used

Blogger:
To keep on track of the research we have done for shooting our music video we have been used Blogger which is an online blog.
By keeping everything in one blog we are able to see ideas that other members of our group have had whilst at home and in lessons as well as put our own ideas down. It has also been very useful as others in our class and in other classes are using the same online blog so we can look at theirs for inspiration for or blog, music video and ideas.
The cons of using this would mainly be that because other students can see it, they could easily copy and paste our blogs and take credit for our ideas, they could claim our music video ideas as their own.

Final Cut:

Once we have filmed our shots for our music video, we will use Final cut to edit everything together. We have already used it to find out how to do a split screen using test footage the Jessica and I filmed during a lesson. It has many options to help us create the effects we would like to put into our video such as slow motion, filters and overlays. This is also where we will be able to match the song with the video shots we have taken and make sure that it is all in-sync and the singer isn't singing a different part to what is actually playing.

The cons of Final Cut would be that if you do not know how to use it and would not be able to create your ideas on the actual screen - it is quite complicated! 

Camera & Tripod:

We are going to be filming all of our video shots with a camera we have been given and to make the shots steady we are going to be using a tripod which can be adjusted to any height so that we can take various different shots. The cons of using these two pieces of equipment is that by using the college's, we have limited use of it and it has to be booked in advance. However, this is also good for our planning as it helps us to create a schedule to that we know what we have and haven't done. 

Different ways of filming

In Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj's video 'Beauty and the Beat' there a few very controversial ways of shooting a music video.
What is most interesting is that it is made to look very unprofessional on purpose by making it look like Justin is filming himself on a handheld camera. We assume that he has used steadycam so that the camera walks along with him:

This brings him back to when he used to film himself singing before he became famous, which shows to his audience and family that he is still the same person, just more grown up and further along in his future. It also brings out his character more, as he is looks like he is having a lot of fun which makes the audience smile because he is laughing a smiling in the video.

Another shot he uses is a frame within a frame shot. On the camera the video shows another camera with him singing on it as if he has recorded it before and is watching it back: 

I find this music video very original. It goes with the lyrics and sound of the music by videoing a party at a theme park and encourages the audience to have as much as they possibly can when this piece of music comes one.

Audience Research

Qualitative research:

We played our track to 5 different people that are into the genre R'n'B. We then asked then a few questions and made conclusions on all the answers we got back.

1. Did you like the track?
    - There was a variety of responses to this particular question. Most people said they liked it, however some did say that it was a little slow or a bit vague in terms of the content of the song.

2. What type of person would like this track?
   - The most common answer to this question was that typically teenage girls would like the track, some said that girls going through break-ups or troubles with relationships would too.

3. Which age range would you typically associate with this song?
   - On average people said between 13-18 years of age - girls!

4. How would you picture the band/lead?
   - All of them obviously said woman, attractive and quite young. Some also said that the lead would seem strong and dominant in character as well as maybe seeming a little bit broken which would link in with the content of the song.

5. What sort of music video would you expect to accompany this track?
   - 'An emotional, reminiscent video' - A women singing about her relationship, fashionable clothing and lots of hand-grabbing!

6. If performance, where and what type?
  - As the song is quite urban, a lot of the participants suggested the artist walking around in places that are in our everyday lives, which would make the lyrics more realistic and help the audience to relate with the artist and her feelings. The type of performance would be simply the artist singing directly to the camera with no instruments as that would suggest that there is a band.

7. If narrative, what sort?
  - When listening to the lyrics, the participants said that it may be hard to make a narrative to this song as she is not singing fully about a break-up. I then asked, if there was a narrative however what would they expect? And they responded saying there would be a lot of scenes of a couple together, fighting and making up.

I have learned that a lot of R&B music videos seem to have all very similar meanings to a lot of the audience and they seem to understand that a lot of R&B songs are about break ups or love which attracts them more as it is a desire in people's everyday lives to find someone that they love. It also helps the artist look more like an ordinary person than a star as the music video makes them look as if love is a weakness of theres as well.

This effects the creative process of ours in a big way as it supports our decision to change using a narrative. Although many R&B music videos have narrative, the people who answered my questions agreed that doing one for this song would be hard. It also means that we are challenging a typical music video and makes ours look a bit different. It has given us encouragement to carry on filming a singer who sings directly into the camera as it links in with the artist connecting with their audience.

Target audience research

This is a mind-map on Rita Ora's target audience.

Mise en scene

For the setting of the fight we are planning to ask the Barleycorn pub in Duxford, Cambridge if we could film outside the front of the pub. The fighters will wear normal clothing but will have hats or their hoods up so you cannot see their faces well.  In addition, we will need a house with a mirror so that when the boy gets home we can do an over the shoulder shot of him looking at the damage.

We can also use fake blood to show he has been hit. When the boy goes to the girls house we can use makeup to show that he is bruised and beaten up, which will trigger off her anger.
Whilst the girl is waiting for the boy, she is in her house alone at the dinner table with candles, meals, wine glasses, wine and nice clothing. She can also have a bottle of wine that she keeps pouring herself to show how long she waits for him before giving up and going to bed (being upset and drowning her sorrows!)
When she is in bed we may use makeup to show that she is crying and in her pyjamas.

In a lot of R&B videos such as Chris Brown - Don't Judge Me, or Sweet Love the artist wears sunglasses, so we have now decided that when the female in the video opens the door to the male he will have glasses on to hide the bruises etc.

Other props would be phones to show when she is calling him that he isn't picking up, and a watch to show that she is waiting for him to arrive and he is late. 

Controversy

There is still controversy swirling over the content of the music video accompanying the song, Eminem's huge hit "Love the way you lie" featuring Rhianna. The clip essentially consists of actors Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan portraying a relationship prone to violence, but that also includes passionate lovemaking. Meanwhile Eminem and Rihanna both perform their vocal sections of the song onscreen. Entertainment Weekly posted in the press asking if the video portrays domestic violence responsibly. NPR's The Record complains about Rihanna, herself a victim of domestic violence, being relegated to the hook in the song.

The storyline however, worked to engage the audience, especially as the two actors used are very well known. It is a subject that is not often addressed as openly as it is shown in this video but it grabs the audience as a lot of people do not see what it is like and are fascinated by it as it does not happen in their everyday life. It is also done by someone who has been a victim of domestic violence herself and is therefore not seen as the artists joking around about things as terrible as this. 

Wide Awake - Katy Perry

Background behind the video:
According to websites such as the one below, the 'Wide Awake' video by Katy Perry is based on ideas generated from a term called Monarch mind control. This is a term used for children who have been through a traumatic experience and their mind has protected themselves by creating multiple personality disorder. The other person they want to be is often more mature and sophisticated.

Content:

This is shown in the Katy Perry video when Katy Perry and a little girl are running away from a man who is taking pictures of them. However in the video, it is not Katy who saves the little girl but the little girl who saves Katy from illness and men pretending to love her. At the end we then find out that the little girl is called Kathryn so could therefore be a younger version of Katy Perry. This suggests that Katy is using the idea that when she was younger she was strong and didn't let anyone walk over her and that now she is famous she is far more vulnerable to trusting the wrong people.

Audience:

This impact or idea may have been desired to inspire young girls to stay strong and trust in themselves and therefore the audiences would be to young girls.

Other desires:
There are also very dark ideas such as the gothic clothing, the dark snowy skies and the maze which may suggest she is los in a dark place. This inspires people that no matter what situation there is always a solution or a way to be happy again. Later on in the video it becomes bright with flowers, butterflies and brighter clothing. The sparks coming out of her hands and the pushing of the walls also shows that she is gaining strength. This is shown again when she smashing through the mirror - these aspects go back, again, to the fact that she is still strong!

http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/katy-perrys-wide-awake-a-video-about-monarch-mind-control/

Goodwin's Music Video Analysis - 'Bangarang' by Skrillex

How to analyse a music video...
Andrew Goodwin writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992)

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

1. Genre Characteristics - 'Bangarang'is a song that fits into the dubstep genre. A typical characteristic of dubstep music videos and a feel of the music is that it is commonly quite dark. In the 'Bnagarang' video this is shown by a performance of children that grow into adults and commits crimes such as theft from the ice cream man and later robbery from a truck with money in. This is also shown in another Dubstep music video by Skrillex where a young girl beats up a young man who is following her.



2.  Dubstep is usually instrumental with no lyrics, unless it is made into a hybrid with garage or grime. This therefore means that the video has nothing to link to and usually shows whatever the music video producer wants to as long as it fits in with Dubstep characteristics (dark- crime, violence etc.). In the music video 'Bangarang' the lyrics say 'shout to all my lost boys' and at the beginning of the video it shows 3 different boys all out on the streets with lots of dogs which suggests they do not belong to a family or a home so they are 'lost'. It also says 'we rowdy' which is illustrated through they 3 boys then becoming chaotic and causing problems for the old man.

3. The music is fast which links in with what the boys are doing in the video; running around, trying not to get caught and causing troubles. It is filled with energy just like the boys in the video are, and the boys have a lot of adrenaline.

4. The artist Skrillex never actually appears in the video but there are visuals used which may have been recommended by the label. For example, there is a storyline which causes the person watching the video to carry on watching to see what is going on and how it ends (a bit like a book). This is a motif of Skrillex's- to create a story to go along with the music instead of having close-ups and shots of him actually creating his music like other artists like Lawson (band). 

5 Skrillex does not often have music videos for his music but when he does there is no visual effects, his videos are simple and have simple storys that the audience will understand and be able to follow.

6. There are no intertextual references within Skrillex's videos, all the stories told are made simply to go along with his videos and are made up not to link to anything else.

Skrillex

Poster for Lawson - Taking Over Me