Evaluation

Question 1:

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

One way that we used conventions of a real media product, was the use of camera shots and angles. In our video we have a variety of shots, however many of the shots are close ups, and shots of our artist looking over her shoulder. This portrays the atrist as feminine and innocent. One shot in particular is of our artist looking over her shoulder, staring directly into the camera. Although this camera shot challenges the audience, our artists minimalistic and innocent makeup and clothing shows a degree of naivity and relates to our country pop genre. From our research we found that many female country pop artists are presented as very feminine and innocent. The way we decided to portray this was through camera angles and shots to emphasise our artists beauty and femininity. Our artist looks directly into the camera showing confidence- this reveals her as a credible artist, and links to the pop influence of our genre. Many existing artists music videos have very similar aspects to ours.


















Another way we used media conventions in our video was by the use of location. Our whole video was filmed in forests, rivers, and generally in the countryside. We decided to use an outside location because it links with our country pop genre, and relates to the conventions of country-pop. Country pop has connotations of freedom and nature- we tried to portray this in our video by the use of outdoor location. Our artist is filmed singing to herself outside on her own, this shows country artists conventions of singing meaningful lyrics, 'in a world of their own.' We also used media conventions in our video with the use of costume choice. Our artists is wearing a floral, and floaty dress in all three texts, this portrays her as very feminine and girly. Her costume is not at all sexy or revealing, and more innocent, girly and 'cute.' This relates to the country genre. We used the rule of thirds in our location shots, and had the artist to either the left or right of the shot- we did this so that the landscape and countryside location was clear for the audience to see. In Miley Cyrus' song 'The Climb' she is filmed in a countryside location to portray similar country routes as our artist.















A way we developed forms and conventions of media products was by using split screens. We used a variety of shots and edited them in final cut express to form different versions of split screens. Whilst Lia and myself were doing our research and planning into music videos, we found that the video 'who says' by Selena Gomez, used split screens. Lia and I really liked this effect and thought it would be a clever and interesting touch to our video. We researched how to do it, by viewing tutorials on youtube, and decided it was simple enough to do. We developed the split screen, by using 4 shots, and making a 4-way split screen of our artist sitting, walking, singing, and lying down. Later on in our music video, we also used a 2-way split screen of our artist looking back smiling, and her boy crush looking towards her smiling in the other corner. We constructed this set-up to make it look as though our artist is fantasying about her 'dream man' and smiling to herself about him. This links in to our narrative of her day-dreaming about the perfect boy. This also shows inter-texuality, as in romance films you often have the girls dreaming about the perfect man.

Another way we developed forms and conventions of media products was by using extreme close ups. From our research we found that many female country pop artists include many close ups of themselves in their video. However we developed this by taking it a step further and increasing the zoom of the close up, causing our shots to be even more close up shots of our artist. Usually in female country pop songs, there are close ups of hands and feet, however in our video we have a close up shot of our artists lips whilst singing. We did this to emphasise the meaningful lyrics, and express our artists credibility as a singer songwriter. We also used the close up shot to show our artists femininity and beauty.

We challenged forms and conventions of media products in our video by not having any performance in our video. Usually in country pop songs, the artist is filmed playing a guitar and performing- showing the artist to be more credible, not only as a singer, but instrumentalist as well. However we wanted to make our video more based on a story, and we wanted to use the meaningful love lyrics and match that to a strong narrative. We modernised our video to a degree by not including instruments. We also wanted to portray the minimalistic, care-free conventions of country music, and not include any possessions or objects. Just a girl in the countryside singing to herself- we believed this would create a down to earth and natural image of our artist. Firth says that the most important part of a music video is performance- so in our video we have greatly challenged this theory to suit our genre and narrative. Many existing music videos are very staged and set-up, we wanted to create the image that there were no cameras, little makeup and effort on costume, just a girl and boy on their own in the country looking for each other.

















Another way we challenged forms and conventions of media products in our video was through the narrative. From research we found that usually it is the girl that chases the boy, and the female wanting to find her dream man. However, due to our song choice, and the lyrics, we decided to swap it over, and have the boy chasing the girl, so we portrayed the girl as very desirable because of this. I believe that this gave our video a more modern touch, and showed pop influence, of independent, strong women, that are chased by men. In Taylor swifts song 'you belong with me' there is a shot of the girl looking out her window at the boy, and she is wishing he could be hers. In our artists song, we have made this the opposite.



















Question 2:

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

Here is our group discussion on how effective the combination of our main product and ancillary texts are. We aimed to comment on our artists roots, the country-pop genre lighting, editing, camera work, existing music artists, and digipack and advert construction.

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

On our final video, we added annotation on youtube to present our audience feedback. This was answers to questions we composed on a questionnaire, then handed out to sixth form students after watching our video. This was very useful as Lia and myself could gain an idea of what worked in our video and what didn't work. We also found out whether the portrayal of our artists fits the genre and whether people could gather what our narrative was by just watching the video. We learnt we needed to improve our lip syncing, and change some of our video transitions. We also realised that we needed to have a more variety of shots and that we were lacking in performance shots.




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

Ancillary Texts

Here is our final digipack and advert.

Front cover

 Back Cover

 Inlay 1

 Inlay 2

 Inlay 3

Inlay 4














Advert

Final Video

We have finally finished our video completely, after having to correct all of the lip syncing and some video transitions. Here is our final video:

Progress Report

We have now finished our rough cut of our video and will put it up on youtube to gain audience feedback on things we can improve and things that are successful. We are also showing our rough cut in assembly on monday. The results will be shown in my evaluation. We will now begin to start on our digipack, and advert. Here is our rough cut video.

Video Editing

In today's lesson we carried on our editing for the music video. We began viewing youtube tutorials to help us gain certain effects in our video. This helped us a lot and made the editing process quicker and easier. We are well on our way to finishing the video now, we just need to do some final touches, and add different transitions.

We watched a tutorial on youtube to show us how to do colour correction in our music video. We wanted to use this tool, as many of our shots vary in lighting which doesn't portray a very professional image. We watched the tutorial and worked on our video simultaneously, so we knew we were on the right track. We had a very successful outcome, and are pleased with our shots.

Progress Report

In today's lesson we uploaded all of our footage onto the iMac's using the log and transfer option on Final Cut Express. We then started editing our video. We first put all of our performance shots in place to match the lip sync, and then started adding our narrative shots.

Discarded Digipack Photos

We believed the lighting in this photo was too dark, and wouldnt reflect the joyful, happy nature of country-pop music.

The colour scheme was too abstract and didn't link to our other ancillary texts, or our country-pop genre.

The expression on the artists face doesn't portray a professional and authentic image.

The artists make up is too full on and her outfit does not fit with the image of the rest of the three texts.

 The artists lipstick and outfit don't fit in with the image we wanted to portray. the quality of the photo isn't that good, and isn't HD.



















We took many photos in different locations of our artist for our digipack- we did this so we would have a variety to choose from. Once we chose our digipack photos, we began editing. However, here are all the discarded photos from our digipack, and reasons as to why we didn't use them.

Progress Report

We drove to Audley End house with all our equipment and camera ready to film. However, when we got there we were unable to film due to shortage of staff for supervision. This meant we could no longer film in the chosen location. But we realised we could not waste a whole day and we needed to film- luckily we had a back-up location at Little Easton Manor. We filmed some of our shots at Little Easton Manor, and then filmed the rest in and around Newport, as we realised lots of the locations were desirable and fit with our narrative and genre. We used the HD Camera to film all of our shots, and changed the sound and colour settings accordingly. We managed to get all of our performance shots finished, and majority of our narrative shots. The last few shots we needed to do were shots of our boy in the video. We arranged to do this tomorrow.

Digipack Font Research

Many existing Artists digipack fonts are very feminine and wavy, however some are also quite bold and clear, relating to the minimalism and stripped back nature of Country music. The girly pop influence has changed the image slightly, and this reflects in the digipack fonts. Below are some suggestions. One thing I have notices, is that Country Pop singers tend to sign there name on there albums. The album name, and Artist name are often in a font that appears to be handwritten, I will research various ideas.

Risk Assessment

While planning for our music video, we must counter in a risk assessment for when we film the video.

• We will make sure all transport to Audley End is arranged in advance, so that we are able to get to our desired location.
• We will have to make sure we wear appropriate clothing, and appropriate footwear, as we are in a forest area, and it may be wet and slippery.
• We must make sure we remember all our technical equipment-camera, dolly and tripod. 
• Some of our shots are next to the fountain, so we must take precautions to make sure the equipment does not get wet, or someone doesn't fall in.
• We must make sure that all location props, e.g, benches are secure and safe before using them in our video. 

Progress Report

All planning is up to date, and Shot list's are finished. This will enable us to film successfully tomorrow, and any alterations or changes will we record and post up after filming tomorrow. We aim to start at 11.15, and finish by the end of lunch (2.05)

Editing Research

There are many elements in existing videos that I have picked up upon, and decided to use in my music video. These include, close up's, slow motion, cross dissolves, and jump cuts. To enable myself to edit my music video and be able to use these micro elements, I decided to give myself a head start and watch various tutorials.

Costume and Props

Costume and Props on Prezi By Natasha Beaumont

Weather Forecast

To ensure that we can film on our chosen filming day Friday 9/12/2012, I researched what the weather forecast is, so that we can be sure there will be no drastic weather conditions that do not fit with our narrative and shot list. Th results show that we are able to film on Friday, and the weather conditions are ok.

Progress Report

In today's Lesson, we have rented out our Camera, Dolly and Tripod ready to film. We have decided to film on Friday (9/11/2012) 3rd and 4th period, as well as lunch-this will give us a good stretch of time to get most of it done. In class we finished our shot list, and storyboard on final cut express-this will help us when we start filming.

Back Up Location

Lia and I initially thought that Audley End Gardens were our best option, and would fit our narrative, and the theme of our video perfectly. We are still on track to film here, however incase anything prevents us from doing so, we have a back up- Little Easton gardens. The location is very similar to Audley End, and it would be a picturesque place to film our video. Below are some photos.

Possible Shots

After looking at many different music videos based around our genre I have made a list of shots that we can consider using as they are similarly used throughout music videos from the Country and Pop genre. 

These shots are:

- Close ups of face, both lip syncing and not lip syncing. 

- Long shots of the main actress and actor

- Shots that pan outwards whilst in some sort of movement- so walking and running

- Shots from windows, these are very pensive shots and reflect the lyrics of our song so this idea and our song would go well together. 

- Shots not looking directly at camera, looking down and looking outside

- Tracking shots of the girl singing across one side to another. 

- Shot of girl out of focus then goes into focus

- Fading a person in a shot/ out of one

- Many shots of the scenery we are shooting to make it more clear to whoever's watching the sort of place they are at. 

- Sweeping shots that circle the girl around her 

Digipack Analysis - Dolly Parton

The digipak I have chosen to analyse is Dolly Parton's album 'Hungry Again.' The reason I have decided to choose a Dolly Parton digipak to analyse is because I have found that a lot of her digipak's conform to the 'Country' genre.

On the left is the front cover to Dolly's album 'Hungry Again.' As we can see, the front cover conforms to the typical 'country' genre in several different ways; the setting of the picture - with Dolly sat on a swing and the blurred backdrop of the countryside behind, the clothing that Dolly is wearing - denim dungarees with a black over-sized shirt underneath and brown leather boots on her feet, and her hair - the way in which it's platted reflects and conforms to the 'cowgirl' image. Despite the typical conformities of country pop in this picture, it is still very natural and bare, and it puts emphasis on Dolly herself. I believe that this picture portrays a sense of purpose and individuality, which is something that can be seen amongst a lot of country artists within the genre. 



The text on the front of the digipak writes Dolly's name in a feminine and angelic calligraphy font, that is easily lost in the background of the photo, drawing the audience's attention to Dolly even more. This is significant in reflecting Dolly's presence as a well-known Country performer, showing that she has her own style and isn't afraid to show it. The text for the album title is actually written in bold capitals, a complete contrast to how Dolly's name is written. Although the title font is like this, it does correspond to the title itself 'Hungry Again,' which is quite a deep and emotional phrase, something else that conforms with the country genre as many country songs were about personal and meaningful topics.

Dolly's clothing and hair in this picture reflect a stereo-typical 'cowgirl' image. Many people would not see this as 'normal' or 'casual' clothing to wear on a day-to-day basis, but in this case Dolly looks very comfortable and casual, really emphasising the individuality of her presence. Dolly's hair also reflects a typical 'farm girl' type image, with platted hair being a popular hairstyle amongst females that worked on farmyards and in stables.The clothing she has on in the picture is very typical of country and western music and similar fashion styles can be seen amongst other country musicians, modern and older artists alike. 

The back cover to the digipak shows a different layout to the one on the front. Overall, the back of the CD digipak is quite bland, not interesting to audience members and is very minimalistic in comparison to the front. However the section that says 'Dolly Parton Hungry Again,' which is written in the same font as Dolly's name is on the front, presents itself in such a way that it looks like it's been personally written by Dolly herself and conforms to the individuality that I previously mentioned. This gives the audience the feeling that they have a connection with Dolly through both her music and on a personal level. In the bottom left hand corner of the CD digipak cover you can see that under the 'Produced By' section it lists Dolly Parton as one of the producers of the album, this is a great way to show the audience that she is a serious musician and is involved with music as much as she can be. This also shows that she isn't someone who hides behind media and fame, and portrays an image that shows that there is no in-between - it is just her and the music. At the very bottom of the digipak cover there is a list of different legal terms that state the production company and other legal terms that relate to copyright of the music.

On the left is another photo of Dolly, this time it has a totally different aura to it. She is looking into the camera as opposed to away from it, and looks more fresh-faced than she did in the previous photo, but this is probably because it is a close-up of her. She is seen to be smiling into the camera, reflecting a positive and happy image and adding to the personal connection with the audience - making the audience feel as though she knows the audience on a personal level. The way she is sat in this picture, up against what looks like a wooden building or a barn, again conforms to the 'country' genre conventions and reflects upon the 'cowgirl' imagery that she seems to be portraying on this digipak cover. The way in which the photo has been edited also adds a slight glow to Dolly's face, which gives off an angelic vibe and links into the positivity in which the photo is giving off. Again, in the background we can a blurred image of countryside which gives the impression that she could possibly be on a farm or a ranch, conforming to the conventions of the country genre.

Selena Gomez- Micro Elements

In Selena Gomez's video-'A year without rain' there are many micro-elements that are of interest of me. In the video, there are many close up shots of the artist, from several different angles. The use of these close up's express the artist's feminity and pretty, fresh-faced image. It also emphasises her singing, and the audience is focused more on what there saying, because they can link it to the image on screen.





After much research I have realised that it is common for female country pop Artist's to have many close up's in there videos. We are also going to use this camera shot in our video, and will take some practice shots first to get the right angle.





Below is the Artist, Selena Gomez. In the shot, I have noticed an interesting micro-element. She is running away from the camera in slow motion, this gives a romantic and passionate image to the Artist and overall feel of the song. Her hair and dress is blowing in the wind behind her, this creates a feminine picture, and shows she is stripped back, and everything is flying in the wind around her. This slow motion running is an editing technique that we are going to use in our video.


In the screenshot below, the camera is tracking the Artist's feet. This is something we would like to do in our video, as we believe it creates mystery and builds suspense-we are going to link this with the song, and build it up to the chorus. The tracking also has connotations of following the Artist's life, following their 'every step.'




In the shot below, the editing is really effective.
The shot is of lots of old photos, overlapping, and then a close up shot of them. The photos relate to what the Artist is singing about, and demonstrates her lyrics into visuals to match. The photos tell a story, however they also create mystery and make the audience question who is in the photo's where are they taken etc. This micro-element may be useful to consider for our music video.

Narrative

Lia and I have decided on our narrative that will help us in order to film our music video. We have decided on the following storyline: 

• A boy and a girl who are in a complicated love story
• In the video we portray the boy as the one chasing the girl
• The girl almost teases the boy and is made into a jokey situation as the song is upbeat.
• Girl is deep in her own thoughts and almost in her own world singing about the love of her life.
• We chose the Audley End Location to emphasise the narrative, especially of the girl being deep in her thoughts- walking around the garden's. We thought this would be effective, and have a peaceful,feminine portrayal. 

Our Artist Profile

Digipack Analysis

Digipack Analysis of Carrie Underwood's Album- 'Carnival Ride.'

Our Ideal Audience Member

Progress Report

In today's lesson Rosalia and I decided on specific location's in Audley End garden's and a selection  of various shots we want to do. We constructed a big spider-diagram on sugar paper to present our Shot and Location ideas.

Location Permission

We e-mailed the woman in charge of the events at Audley End House, to ask for permission to film outside, and preferably inside the house too. These are the corresponding emails: