Note To Moderator.

I have blogged my journey from initial ideas all the way through to our final music video and ancillary products. I have tried to make this journey as clear as possible and also tried to make the posts which we worked on together clear by giving them the title 'group post.' 

In total I have 93 posts and 86 are research and planning.

Question 1 Evaluation: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Evaluating our directors cut.

I think the convention we used that worked the best was when Ethan was singing into camera while moving forward. I feel that him walking more further into camera made it easier to connect with him and it also showed his body language better. Upon reflection I would have liked to include more shots of him singing and walking into camera as I felt they were very effective and they would have made his emotions more clear and understandable. 

A convention I think I should have used upon reflection is featuring Charmaine with the other boy. I think this would have made the narrative less restrictive and meant the video could be viewed by an inactive audience as the narrative would be very clear and the people watching would not have to concentrate too much to understand and interpret what is going on. As modern society is full of prosumers not I think we got away with not using this conventions as prosumers are quite educated and can interpret things quite well without the narrative being obvious and spelt out for them.

We challenged conventions when we used a vignette blur and had Charmaine feature at the side of him in colour. Upon reflection I feel we could have developed this convention and editing technique more by blurring the edges of the two shots and also decreasing the colour in Charmaine shots so it wasn't too bright but the colour was still recognisable. The blurring of the edges would have worked well as it would have made that shot look a lot more tidy and professional as you can see the shots overlapping.

We also adhered to conventions when creating our ancillary products. Both of our digipak and advert feature Ethan looking into camera. I feel by adhering to this convention made our products more appealing.

We used the same photo on both products as it created more synergy and made Ethan a lot more recognisable to our target audience. We also used the same font throughout and this is another convention we adhered to. This created more synergy and made our products look more professional. I think creating so much synergy worked very well as it means our target audience can recognise Ethan straight away and be attracted to these products and also if people outside of our target audience group see the same picture of Ethan over and over they may also be interested in listening to his music.

When I did promotional package research I found that in most adverts the text was centralised. Before we made all our text central I think our advert looks untidy and unfinished. By adhering to this convention I think it made our magazine advert look like a real media text and made it more near and easy to read.

Script

JQ- The first shot shows our male actor, Ethan walking into camera with a black and white effect. We used this tunnel location as it gives a natural frame and we used this black and white effect as it adhered to the convention from Goodwin’s theory of a music video demonstrating genre characteristic.

CB- This shot represents Laura Mulvey’s theory of a male gaze. The costume in this shot is quite voyeuristic alongside being quite classy. It shows the male literally ‘gazing’ at Charmaine.

JQ-  In the song introduction we decided to include a lot of shots of the two together to push the romantic narrative.

CB-  As seen in the introduction and throughout our music video we have cut on the beat. This adheres to the conventions of a music video and also to Goodwin’s theory.

JQ – The first lines sung feature an extreme close up of Ethan singing into camera. This adheres to the convention that every music video features which is, singing into camera.

CB- Extreme close ups of Ethan singing into camera makes the audience feel more connected to him as they can see his true emotion up close.

JQ- The next over the shoulder shot links the lyrics and the visuals together.

CB- This particular convention is vital in narrative videos as without linking to two together the narrative would not be clear.

JQ- We have not challenged the singing into camera convention in the majority of the performance shots in this music video as we felt it would keep the audience active and interested if Ethan was constantly looking into the camera.

CB- We used a rural environment in this shot to represent a natural relationship. This shot links very well with the lyrics as it shows her ‘avoiding’ him.

JQ- This links with Strauss’s theory of good and bad binary oppositions.

CB- The emotion shown by Ethan when he is singing into camera in this performance shot links with the lyrics he is singing as he is clearly getting fed up of being hurt and played.

JQ- We used a time lapse of a clock in this shot to link with the time related lyrics.

CB- We developed conventions in this shot as it shows him singing to her instead of singing into camera.

JQ- The shot then goes on to show her miming his line back to him. This challenges conventions as she is singing his lines back to him as if she is replying to his plea.

CB- By challenging this convention I feel it develops the narrative more by making it obvious she is having an affair, this shot links to Propp’s theory as it makes Charmaine look like the villain and Ethan the hero who is fighting for her.

JQ- This shot shows just how disinterested Charmaine is towards Ethan. The visuals link with the lyrics as it says ‘we get back to my house’ and it is clearly featuring them going towards a house and Charmaine shutting it in his face.

CB- Yet again in this shot we have developed the singing into camera convention.

JQ- The time lapse in this part of the song is broken up by an extreme close up of Ethan performing the lines ‘a small town.’  The time lapse works well as it is in time with the small instrumental between verses.

CB- We repeated close up performance shots of Ethan throughout the song to make the audience feel more connected to him as they can see his facial expressions up close.

JQ- Close ups of the lead singer in music videos are a convention featured in many modern day videos, for example ‘Hello’ by Adele.

CB- The visuals of the time lapse and performance shot link with the lyrics he is singing and this is one convention we have not developed or challenged throughout

JQ- We used a blur in transition when Ethan sung the lines ‘what a familiar face’ and we featured Charmaine in colour to push the narrative that she brings colour to his world.

CB- We used the camera movement panning in this shot to link with the lyrics as it shows he is ‘fixated’ on Charmaine.

JQ- This shot makes Charmaine look quite voyeuristic as she has dark make up on.

CB- The high angle performance shot makes Ethan look weak and powerless, we have done this to represent a western culture as Charmaine is seen as independent and dominant.

JQ- Western culture is represented throughout by the actors costume and mannerisms.

CB- We used a low angle shot here to make Ethan look powerful in just one shot as if he is putting his foot down with Charmaine.

JQ-We have repeated the shots of her miming his lyrics at different locations to make it look like this is going on over a long period of time.

CB- We feel like this developed convention makes our music video look quite unique as when we did our research we didn’t find many videos that had challenged and developed this convention like we have.

JQ- This shot represents a sense of journey as previously in the video it showed Charmaine shutting the door in Ethan’s face, whereas in this shot it shows her welcoming him in.

CB- this adheres to the convention of lyrics matching the visuals as the lyric in this shot is ‘we get back to my house.’

JQ- The next shot also links to the lyrics ‘Your hands my mouth’ and we have used a close up here of Ethan’s face and Charmaine’s hands appear to cup his face in a loving manner.

CB- We edited this shot to make it look like he is dreaming about her, this is where our narrative shows objective character identification as it makes it look like he is fantasizing/dreaming about Charmaine.

JQ- This editing challenges conventions as it is one of 2 shots that feature colour and in our research we found no other bands of our genre that had all black and white videos but included a few shots in colour.

CB- Another convention is develops is he at one point he sings to her then goes back to singing into camera, we  had him do this as it pushes the narrative about how he is so in love with her yet she is just out of his reach.

JQ- In the long instrumental between verses we included quite long shots of the two together to show a sense of journey which is that at the beginning Charmaine wanted nothing to do with him and now they are happy together.

CB- Todorov’s theory can be applied to this video as now they are back to a state of equilibrium after the disruption of Ethan finding out she was having an affair.

JQ- We didn’t challenge any theories throughout our video as we thought it would lead to an unclear narrative and unsuccessful target audience feedback

CB- The ASL of this shot was too long so we shortened it by putting in a shot of Charmaine with her hair down which links to the lyrics ‘and to the way that she wears her hair down, covering up her face.’

JQ- We have used over cranking in the next shot to challenge conventions. ’ We have featured a shot of Charmaine on her own as the lyrics are Ethan singing to her ‘I don’t seem to be having any effect now.’ The fade transition into the leaves falling shot links with the lyrics ‘falling all over the place.’

CB- The next shot also again shows a sense of journey, which is key when producing a narrative music video. It shows her accepting and embracing him whereas at the beginning of the music video he came up behind her and she rejected him and walked off.

JQ- The next show shows her accepting some flowers from him, and develops her role in the video as now she is the princess since Ethan has won her over where as before she was the villain.

CB- The close up of Charmaine here shows her without any make up at all. This puts across the representation of purity and innocence now she is just focusing on one boy.

JQ- This shot definitely challenges conventions as in every music video the actors always have a full face of make up on whereas here Charmaine has none at all.

CB- Throughout the video when the lyric ‘cause I stay another hour or two’ we have repeated shots of different time related items such as a clock, his phone and now a watch. This shows we have adhered to the ‘visuals linking to lyrics’ convention throughout.

JQ- The next shot shows them being a bit more argumentative and angry.  By making them have different emotions at different locations when singing the chorus we feel it made our video more successful as it didn’t make it look repetitive as it would have done if we used the same location for the chorus.

CB- The next shot shows them inside a house and this links the visuals to the lyrics again.

JQ- The movement of the camera showing them two holding hands pushes the narrative as it shows they are together and the story had ended ‘happily ever after.’

CB- The last performance shot in the video shows Ethan singing happily into camera while smiling to himself. This again shows the journey of how now they are happy but in previous performance shots where he was agitated and fed up they where clearly having problems.

JQ- The last shot features them two both singing ‘for crying out loud’ while laughing and smiling. This develops conventions as again she is singing his lyric. This shot is quite ironic as previously that line was sung quite aggressively to Charmaine whereas now they are both singing it happily as if they are mocking how they used to argue frequently.

CB- In the ending instrumental we feature a range of short shots of the two together none of which are in a studio.

JQ- This challenges conventions as most music videos are shot in studios. We wanted to represent a natural relationship, which is why we filmed outside and not in a studio with a backdrop.

CB- The final shot shows them two going in for a kiss and it has been overcranked.

JQ- This reassures the audiences assumptions that are actually together and happy after all the obstacles they had in their way.

                                                                                             

CB- Another convention we challenged was the lack of instruments featured in our video. Many indie genre music videos do feature the band playing instruments whereas in ours we thought that instruments where not needed.

JQ- All the way through our video we have followed Goodwin’s theory, Propps, Todorov’s and Barthes codes. We feel this has led to the success of our video as if we didn’t follow theorists then the narrative would have been unclear.

CB- Our target audience feedback also reassured us our narrative was clear because they all understood what was going on and why we used the shots we did, especially the ones where she mimed his lines. I feel that if we challenged more conventions our music video wouldn’t have been as successful or clear.

Question 2 Evaluation: How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Products and Ancillary Texts?

Question 3 Evaluation: What Have You Learnt From Your Target Audience Feedback?

Q3 evaluation from CharlotteBeadle

Question 4 Evaluation: How Did You Use Media Technologies In the Constructions and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

Construction:

Research:

Planning: 

Eval part 4 planning from CharlotteBeadle

Eval part 3 planning from CharlotteBeadle

Evaluation:

I used a range of digital technology when answering my evaluation questions. I did this as I thought my skills had developed significantly and this meant I was able to use and find different and unique presentation methods. Presentation methods such as Prezi, Emaze and Powtoon are like power points but more fun and interesting, I felt by using these I have widened my digital technology skills/use and also my creativity skills as I went out my way to find new ways to present my evaluation questions.  I also found 'Fotobabble' which I have used below to explain our use of Final Cut Pro-X voice recording. I feel by using this wide range of presentation methods makes my blog and work more advanced, more exciting to look at and also less repetitive. 

Final cut Pro-X: 

 (These take a while to load)

Emaze

I used the digital technology Emaze to present my construction stage evaluation Q4. Emaze is an easy digital technology to use and is very similar to an ordinary powerpoint. However Emaze has more interesting themes and transitions making it  a lot more appealing and eye catching to those watching. Although it has many interesting themes they are sometimes not easy to use. As a result of some of the themes background being pictures it is difficult to pick a text colour that can be seen and easily read throughout the presentation, this is why I chose a solid colour background as it meant my text was clear and a consistent colour/font.

Prezi

I used Prezi to present the answer to my Question 2 Evaluation. I used this digital technology as I felt I had a lot to say and evaluate with this question in particular and an ordinary presentation would be very long and boring to go through. If i used screengrabs and text to evaluate then again it would become an essay type response and it would end up being very long winded. Prezi is a great way to present things as there is again, a lot of themes and colours to choose from which is what made this one so colourful and exciting. I think Prezi is better than Emaze to use as a digital technology as the background on Prezi themes don't make it difficult to make text clear as they are normally on a white background or a very faint colour.

Powtoon 

Powtoon is more like an animated video rather than a presentation you click through. Powtoon is very fun to use and watch as you can add moving animations. My use of this digital technology developed my creativity skills as I had to figure out how to use this as I was the first one to find it. It was difficult to get to grips with but when you get used to it and start to understand what you're doing it is very fun to use. The outcome of this digital technology is very unique and interesting to watch. I used this technology for this question as I felt what I wanted to put on the slides was not legnthy and meant it would make the animated video quick and snappy instead of long and boring. Powtoon is meant for quick and snappy slides, I would be using this digital technology wrong if i made all the slides full of texts and had no images or animations present on any of the slides.

Powerpoint / Slideshare.

I used powerpoint to present my evaluation question 3 and evaluation question 4 part 3 planning. I used powerpoint as it enabled me to include pie charts. By using pie charts it makes the results from our target audience feedback more understandable. I also used powerpoint as it meant I could answer individual questions on each slide instead of doing it in an all in one essay style answer.

Powerpoint also makes my work look very neat and well presented as it has a wider range of coloured themes with different fonts and backgrounds.

I then went onto use a technology called 'slideshare.' Slideshare enables me to upload my powerpoint and embed it into my blog. Without using this digital technology I would be unable to embed a powerpoint in my blog and this would restrict my use of digital technology when presenting my work. Slideshare is very easy and free therefore it is highly beneficial and something I have used throughout this course.

FINAL Music Video

We conducted a small focus group and I wrote up 5 questions I wanted them to answer. The feedback from this group resulted in us making further minor adjustments to make our video appeal to our target audience even more. This is our very final music video.

FINAL Magazine Advert.

After realising we had put 'Settle Down' instead of 'Seasons Change' and also 'Debut Single' instead of 'Debut Album' on our advert for our digipak we made these minor changes and this is our very final magazine advert.

FINAL Digipak.

I have decided to edit in the green from the background of the Ethan shot. I feel like if we only had this panel of the digipak in black and white fully it would make it look boring at first glance. Now there are four parts of the digipak that include the bright green and I think this emphasises the synergy more and definitely makes it a lot more eye catching at first glance if someone was to see it on the shelf in a shop. As a result of not having too much text on the front I feel like the simple editing technique of including the green in the back ground makes it look a lot less boring and more unique.  I changed the opacity of the CD as I felt beforehand it was too sharp and by reducing the opacity I feel it looks more like what a real CD would look like. Having Charmaine smiling at one side and Ethan looking into the distance puts across how she is happy even when she is making Ethan's life hell, this is one way our ancillary products link with our music video narrative.

Additional Promotional Media: Tour Poster.

If we have advertised a tour in our digipak then we would need a tour poster to advertise the tour further and in more detail. This is a draft of what I would want our tour poster to look like. I feel that having the little bit of colour from his jacket makes it stand out as it is quite a bright and vivid colour. I think this tour poster would stand out well either in a magazine or on a wall somewhere. The red of his jacket would appeal to those passing by and catch their eye and this will result in them reading it and maybe listening to our singers album and buying tickets to go see him.

Difficulties with audience feedback.

When I used Facebook for target audience feedback I came across a problem, the video wasn't compatible on a mobile device and could only be viewed on a laptop. This meant many people couldn't give me feedback as they didn't have a laptop, only Ipads and phones etc. It was a big inconvenience as those who didn't have laptops to view it on where mainly of an older audience who I wanted to get feedback off so I could compare it to my actual target audience age group.

I tried to make it compatible on mobile but was unsuccessful, I am unsure why it has done this.

Further Target Audience Feedback.

I wrote this status on Facebook in hope I would get a bit more feedback on my video and maybe get some feedback from people who don't fit into my target audience age group so I could compare the results. The questions I asked those who messaged me were;

1. What do you like and dislike about the video?

2. Does the singer convince you?

3. Do you understand the narrative?

Conor who did the exact same course as I am doing watched the video and gave me some very helpful feedback. I feel I agree with his feedback especially his question 3 response as upon reflection I did think some shots were just a bit too long. Conor is within the older sector of our age range and comparing his feedback to those who are at the younger end of our target audience is very reassuring as the feedback is more or less the same therefore our video is appealing to the whole target audience age range.

The next person who inboxed me was someone who I don't know too well but I do know they have limited knowledge in regards to media so I knew that the feedback would be honest. She more or less got the outline of the narrative and how it was kind of a secret fling. As she within our target audience age group it was good to hear how much she liked the video. 

Eva did media at GCSE therefore her knowledge was slightly more developed. So far all the feedback about the black and white effect has been positive, since we was unsure about applying the effect at the start it is very reassuring that comments regarding that effect have been positive.

Sophie gave very in-depth feedback which helped a lot. I agree with the blurry shot criticism as sometimes we didn't choose places that had the best lighting, like the tunnel, so it was hard to get a good quality shot when lighting was limited.

Overall this feedback was mainly positive as they all understood the narrative, however there was a lot of criticisms of some of the synchronisation.

Digipak Draft 8.

We have added a UK tour and European tour dates to our digipak as we feel advertising in the digipak will mean more people will see it and go see our singer live. My creativity skills have developed massively while putting this digipak together as we was going to leave this part of the digipak black with only 'Seasons change people don't.' on it. By using my creativity I put the green background in and this brightened it up a lot a it looked very dull and boring beforehand. I think by adding the green and the tour dates makes it look more eye catching and appealing to our target audience who probably wouldn't be attracted to this digipak if it was boring and dull.

Group Post: Magazine Advert: Draft 6.

This is our draft 6 of our magazine advert. We removed the lyric quote 'a soft sound' and replaced it with a quote from a magazine. We did this as the lyric quote was unclear and confusing and by having a review quote from a popular magazine with the similar genre our target audience will automatically be attracted to our advert and singer. We also made Ethan a lot brighter than the green background  as it was overpowering him. We wanted him to be prominent and standing out but the background was too bright it washed him out and didn't make him as eye catching.

Where could we feature our magazine advert?

If we was actually publishing our magazine advert in a magazine we would need to put thought into beforehand where it would be most successful and what magazine has the same target audience as our singer. We would need a magazine with the same genre as our singer and also a magazine with the same young target audience.

After some research I think NME and Q would be the best magazines to feature our advert in. They both have the same genre as our singer and also the people who buy their magazine are within our target audience age range so our advert will appeal to the readers. I wouldn't choose a magazine such as Kerrang! to put our advert in as I feel they appeal more to rock lovers rather than indie music lovers. This would result in our singers album not being successful as the advertising was put across to the wrong audience.

Digipak Draft 7.

This is out digipak draft 7. The major change we had made from the previous draft to this one is the inside cover.  We text wrapped the 'seasons change' around her head as it looked stupid covering her forehead. I also duplicated the text layers and moved the bottom layer to give a 3D effect. The background looked dull with just the wall there, so I decided to create more synergy and edit in the leaves from the CD and also the leaves featured on the magazine advert. I feel like making these small  changes made a big difference as it makes it look more appealing and eye catching. We are adding UK tour dates on the left Europe tour dates on the right. We are adding more text to make it look less boring and to add more information to the debut album.