My chosen media product was a music video; I decided to create my music video for the song ‘Been Lying’ by an artist called Rita Ora who is an RnB/Pop/Dance-Pop/Pop-Rock singer. Rita Ora is an up and coming artist who came into the lime light in beginning 2012 and has recently established herself as a successful artist by getting her first number one UK single of RIP in April 2012 and her album ‘Ora’ topping the UK charts again in August 2012. She also won a MOBO award for ‘best newcomer.’ I choose the song ‘Been Lying’ from her album as it had not been released as a single and therefore had no original music video created by Rita herself. Steve Neale (1995) stresses that “genres are not ‘systems’ they are processes of systematization” This means that they are dynamic and evolve over time. My genre has developed over time and has combined into several different sub categories taking away a different aspect from each. For example RnB used to the Rhythm and Blues. To create my own music video to my chosen track I was deeply influenced by these music videos:
I deconstructed an existing media text shot by shot in a song called ‘halo’ by Beyonce. Doing this helped me realised and note just how many different shots are used in music video and notice the conventions from angles used, shots used and mise en scene of that scene as well as how much lip synching was a major editing part for the video.
Taking inspiration from
previous RnB/Pop-Rock artists such as Rihanna and Beyonce, I wanted to take
elements from their music videos and put them into my own. As Beyonce’s song
Why Don’t You Love me is about a break-up and problems in a relationship with
someone, I liked how it was portrayed in a fun way as well as the way Rihanna’s
was portrayed in a typical teenage depression way. I wanted to create similar
shots like these:
The left is a shot from the beginning of my own music video, Paris looking out of the window facing the light, with her back to the camera. I wanted to create a black silhouette similar to the one here of Rihanna on the right. I liked how it made her look empty and black on the inside and as person, whereas looking out into the distance, the future it looks bright and optimistic, yet she’s trapped inside behind the window. I changed the close up Rihanna shot, to a long shot in my own video because I thought it would be more effective to see her whole body. I went against the conventions here of a close up.
I used a medium close up similar to the one from Beyonces music video on the bottom left in which she is on the phone. Paris is also on the phone in my music video shot as I liked the element of arguing on the phone to an ex/lover as it is an expected action to see in a situation of a break-up. I noticed that many medium close ups are used through Pop music videos to show facial expressions and emotions from the artist, I took this on board when creating my shots as I wanted to create a similar pop/RnB/Pop-Dance music video to those already existing which I had researched into. 
Researching helped me also notice the mise en scene in this genre of music
videos, most locations where in
domestic places in the house such as the bedroom and bathrooms. My main
location for my music video was a house Bathroom and Living Room. This is because it abled me to get the shots
of been in the bath, lying around the house, drinking out of the eye and the
emptiness of the bedroom in been alone. Using a domestic place was a decision I
used upon research I had done in my planning and development stage. I also took
note of costumes in this genre of music videos, in this long shot image you can see the clothing
Rihanna wears. As I wanted to film scenes in the bath, I liked the style of
clothing and pose used in this picture of the pop artist. It gives off a fun
vibe, whilst clutching a bottle of alcohol in her hand to show she’s having a
good time. The red iconic lipstick also out stands her lips and shows
a womanly side, I addressed Paris in similar clothing suspender tights and
red lipstick in the bath.
Most body language in the existing similar genre music videos I had researched into seemed very confident and open in parts such as the drinking and partying, but also seemed very closed in parts such as crying on the bed. As I wanted to show emotions I had Paris show a closed body language in medium close up shots for example here:
Having Paris clutch her legs
closely to herself and hide herself under a hat with her head down in a medium
close up shot expresses her feelings and emotions that she wants to hide away
from the world because she isn’t coping well with the break-up. I went against expected conventions of an upbeat confident body language
portrayed in other music videos such as Rita Ora How We Do, in which all her
body language is open and expressed freely:
The genre of which my music
video fell under is pop,dance-rock, dance-pop and R&B many of these videos
are usually either a cameo video with clips of performance included. Although
as Rita Ora fits into a large range of music genre categories they can also be
an abstract video (mainly in dance songs) or a narrative more commonly shown in
R&B videos alone. I made the decision to take upon the RnB narrative route
and created a small storyline of following them arguing.
O'Sullivan et. all (1998) - Bricolage is the process of deliberately
‘borrowing’ or adapting signs or features from different styles or genres to
create a new mixture of meanings. My conventions frequently use different
aspects from the crossover of different genres in my music video. I noticed
that most videos in this genre that I enjoyed used montage editing and lip
synching, a vital convention in RnB/Pop music videos.
I also researched into existing digi paks and magazine adverts of successful similar genre artists. I have created a prezi showing the codes and conventions of digi paks and magazine adverts:
I also researched into existing digi paks and magazine adverts of successful similar genre artists. I have created a prezi showing the codes and conventions of digi paks and magazine adverts:
When creating my digi pak and
magazine advert I ensured they used the similar conventions I had found when
researching. I did this because I wanted them to look realistic and believable
that they could be used for a real album release for an artist. To see how
realistic they looked I created images of them on Bus Stops and iTunes to get a
feel of how it would look. I think doing this helped me in the editing process
because if it didn’t look realistic for example I liked the Rihanna Loud
magazine advert, I created mine similar but decided I did not like the font, here is the one I created:
2) How Effective is the
combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
When creating my ancillary texts I took many images of Paris who is my artist in the music video. I mainly took medium close ups of Paris because the existing products I had researched into seemed to use mostly medium close ups. I uploaded these images onto Photoshop and began selecting the best images and editing those that I thought had potential. I changed the levels and colourings on most of the images to improve the saturation. I wanted the image to portray a confident woman, in which I believe is important for this album. I played around with the colour balance and distorted some of my images in Photoshop I also merged two images of Paris together which became one of the inside flaps on my digipak which is one of my favourite images from the digipak. Changing the colour balance and effects on the images in Photoshop helped me create an equally plain medium close up image into a much more interesting developed image with more depth too it. As I had really liked the Rihanna Loud magazine advert and wanted to use that as my inspiration I changed my chosen magazine advert image into a blue effect. I used this image for my front cover panel on my magazine advert also, relating them together.
The digipak and magazine advert
relate to each other because I have used the same ‘Teash’ font throughout to
make sure audiences can recognise my artists name. This is a typical convention
used in the media world by industries to make sure audiences can recognise
similar fonts of the artist for them to notice it in places of advertisement.
I have kept the colour scheme of Red for my artists font colour as well as
using the black and white for the album title ‘Been Lying’ I thought using a
quirky font would portray the artists personality across, for example if I had
using a script font it would not have fitted in with the whole theme. My artist
is bold and brave and going through a hard time, this font would not have
represented her in the correct way. I thought that red for the artist name was
a strong choice because red is the colour for passion, danger and stop. I not
only chose red for these reasons I also chose it for the iconic red lipstick
that is seen across many famous successful women across the centuries such as
Marilyn Monroe. The fonts have been kept the same and the house colours run
throughout in what I believe to be a successful attempt.
Print Screen Video
Magazine Advert
I have interviewed a member of my target audience Gemma Painter who in in the target audience age category (she is 18) to see her opinions on my ancillary texts and if she saw them produced from a real artist would she think they would be successful?
INTERVIEW OF GEMMA
Through the use cross-form synergy I have made three products that all can be
easily recognised together which has a positive effect on the audience.
My album advertisements would feature at bus stops, in tube stations, in nationwide magazines such as glamour and. I have created images in Photoshop to see what it would look like and to see how it would be purchased on the most popular downloading site Itunes. I have chosen iTunes because it is easily accessible to my target audience (teens and young adults) through their mobile phones, laptops, ipads, kindles, ipods ect. As my target audience are in a fast paced moving world they will also have fast paced moving life and choosing to advertise my album through bus stop and tube station advertisement stands is because they will be using public transport on their way out to college, university, part time jobs and would see these whilst travelling and most likely listening to their iPod. As my artist is intended to be a mainstream artist, their advertising budget would be much higher than your average niche audience artist or band as their record label and management would fund more money towards advertising as mainstream artists will produce more money through the purchasing of more albums from a wider audience range. Therefore my magazine advert would be able to be published in magazines such as Heat, Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Q ect.
My album advertisements would feature at bus stops, in tube stations, in nationwide magazines such as glamour and. I have created images in Photoshop to see what it would look like and to see how it would be purchased on the most popular downloading site Itunes. I have chosen iTunes because it is easily accessible to my target audience (teens and young adults) through their mobile phones, laptops, ipads, kindles, ipods ect. As my target audience are in a fast paced moving world they will also have fast paced moving life and choosing to advertise my album through bus stop and tube station advertisement stands is because they will be using public transport on their way out to college, university, part time jobs and would see these whilst travelling and most likely listening to their iPod. As my artist is intended to be a mainstream artist, their advertising budget would be much higher than your average niche audience artist or band as their record label and management would fund more money towards advertising as mainstream artists will produce more money through the purchasing of more albums from a wider audience range. Therefore my magazine advert would be able to be published in magazines such as Heat, Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Q ect.
3) What have
you learned from your audience feedback?
4 interviews from audience feedback on video, magazine ad and digipak
Questionaires
Here is the target audience poster I created before I began to make my media products. I showed my music video to the desired target audience and showed them my produced ancillary texts and asked them what they believed was the target audience during the interviews. I wanted to know if I had created a successful piece for my desired target audience.
4 interviews from audience feedback on video, magazine ad and digipak
Questionaires
Here is the target audience poster I created before I began to make my media products. I showed my music video to the desired target audience and showed them my produced ancillary texts and asked them what they believed was the target audience during the interviews. I wanted to know if I had created a successful piece for my desired target audience.
I have sent out a online survey for my target audience to complete:
Click here to take survey
In the questionnaire I asked questions such as what target target audience and what genre they believed the media products was from. I have put all my responses into graphs and charts so they are easy to analyse:
From this audience feedback I have learnt that many people believed that the target audience covered a wider range of audience (14-20) rather than my designated target audience (16-19) this news hasn't disappointed me as it still includes my desired audience and a possible secondary audience that it could appeal too. In the music industry this would be good news because the larger the target audience, the more they appeal to and the more people would buy their music. This would go in favor of a larger record label deal with a more established international label because the artist would make more money and a smaller independent label wouldn't be suitable.
I discovered that many people took my video as a narrative because they were following the break up of the couple and what had happened, although I do have to take into consideration that many different audiences consume media texts differently and may have taken a different meaning to the narrative.
Most of my respondents chose several multiple answers for the question about genre. My music video and artist is aiming to cover the RnB/Pop/Rock-Dance genre which this did reflect in my survey results. This means I covered codes and conventions of this genre effectively.
I have learnt that some alterations do need making to the video if I where to film again and be able to adjust the video. For example in interviews many people commented on different location scenes for my music video, which if I was to make this video again I would take into serious consideration for a wide variety.
I would change my digipak images because I feel that although they are successful images, some just don't seem to fit in as effectively as I had previously thought they would. Looking at the digipak now, I am not completely satisfied with it. I would take a different range of images if I had the opportunity to and stick to a specific house colored theme like I had in the album advertisement.
After finalising the video edit I interviewed some of same people (and others) to see if these mistakes had been corrected. I wanted to gain valid opinions of people so I interviewed them face to face as they could speak their mind and reactions to my work.
4) How did you
use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Non linear suite
Photoshop
Camera for photos
Video camera and tripod
Magazines
Existing digipaks
Non linear suite
Photoshop
Camera for photos
Video camera and tripod
Magazines
Existing digipaks
The internet was a big part played in my
research that set me off in my own direction for creating my music video. I
firstly chose a genre that I wanted to create music video from and researched
into the history of this genre. As I had chosen pop I looked into the history
of pop, but because my song was from an artist who lapped over into many
different genres I also looked into RnB. The internet and sites such as YouTube
helped me view existing successful music videos from established artists in
this genre. I was also able to upload most of my footage onto sites such as
YouTube to show and receive audience feedback from people to help me on
improvements, I was able to send the YouTube links to people in emails and ask
them to leave their feedback on my music video to help me know what I needed to
improve. I was also able to use sites such as Prezi through the internet which
you can create interactive powerpoints online with which is a really good way
to portray information through such as I used it for my Codes and Conventions
of an anclillery text. It’s a more interesting way to view the information and
create it rather than typing it all out into an essay. I also used the website
GoAnimate to re create interviews from my audience feedback I had received via
email. GoAnimate uses animated characters that speak to each other in a video, which I created into an interview style. It was helpful because I could portray my audience feedback into an animated interview which was easy to interpret than read it in an interview. Blogger also was used via the internet which was used like an online interactive diary to capture my work and updates as well as research throughout creating my media products. Blogger was a quicker way to record information and updates rather than writing them all down. I used survey monkey to create an online survey that was convenient and easily accessible to send out via email and online social sites such as Twitter and Facebook for my audience to leave feedback on my media products. I was able to create my own desired questions on the online survey and create graphs and charts to portray my results in and analyse the answers.
Photoshop was in important technology when it came to producing my ancillary texts for editing the images and adding layers onto it. I was able to use this programme with good knowledge from previously creating a music magazine in AS media studies last year. The knowledge from this greatly helped me quicken my process in creating my ancillary texts because I was familiar with the way it worked. Using this programme helped my products look more professional and improved the overall quality of them which was needed.
To gain audience feedback another time I used my Iphone 4s to record their responses after seeing my music video and ancillary texts because I thought this was a much more effective way of gathering feedback rather than having a written questionnaire response. I let them watch the music video and view the ancillary texts first then passed them a sheet of questions to answer so I could gain valuable feedback that I needed. I found it easier to film from my phone because I could interview my audience at any time they was free, as I always carry my phone around with me. It was also useful because it was easy to upload onto the computer through my USB lead and onto YouTube.
Non linear suite is which I used to produce and edit my whole video footage and sound for my music video. In this I was able to cut scenes to the correct length and position them in the correct place and match them to lip sync. I was able to change the colour balance and the effects on each shot. For example in my audience feedback from my second draft, it was commented on that the skin complexion in the video didn't look very good and could be changed because of the lightening. Instead of having to re shoot this scene I was able to edit the lighting in the non linear suite using the FX matrix effects which greatly changed the shot to a much better colour. I was able to add slow motion to clips and also speed them up, I did this for the shots of charlie throwing the paper off the table and when Paris was stood at the window bay, this help add to the expected conventions of an RnB music video as many featured slow mo shots to exaggerate the artists problems. I also added several fading out shots to smooth the transition on my music video and wouldn't have been able to do this without using this editing suite.
Photoshop was in important technology when it came to producing my ancillary texts for editing the images and adding layers onto it. I was able to use this programme with good knowledge from previously creating a music magazine in AS media studies last year. The knowledge from this greatly helped me quicken my process in creating my ancillary texts because I was familiar with the way it worked. Using this programme helped my products look more professional and improved the overall quality of them which was needed.
To gain audience feedback another time I used my Iphone 4s to record their responses after seeing my music video and ancillary texts because I thought this was a much more effective way of gathering feedback rather than having a written questionnaire response. I let them watch the music video and view the ancillary texts first then passed them a sheet of questions to answer so I could gain valuable feedback that I needed. I found it easier to film from my phone because I could interview my audience at any time they was free, as I always carry my phone around with me. It was also useful because it was easy to upload onto the computer through my USB lead and onto YouTube.
Non linear suite is which I used to produce and edit my whole video footage and sound for my music video. In this I was able to cut scenes to the correct length and position them in the correct place and match them to lip sync. I was able to change the colour balance and the effects on each shot. For example in my audience feedback from my second draft, it was commented on that the skin complexion in the video didn't look very good and could be changed because of the lightening. Instead of having to re shoot this scene I was able to edit the lighting in the non linear suite using the FX matrix effects which greatly changed the shot to a much better colour. I was able to add slow motion to clips and also speed them up, I did this for the shots of charlie throwing the paper off the table and when Paris was stood at the window bay, this help add to the expected conventions of an RnB music video as many featured slow mo shots to exaggerate the artists problems. I also added several fading out shots to smooth the transition on my music video and wouldn't have been able to do this without using this editing suite.
To film my music video I used a sony handycam. I decided to use this camera because it was a more portable video camera to use rather than using one of the large HD cameras which would have been a struggle to carry around. The sony handycam was more efficient for my music video uses. For example when shooting the feet scenes for Charlie I was able to place the camera on the floor and follow him around whilst handling the camera myself, which wouldn't have been half as easy when using a large HD camera. Although using the sony handycam this has affected the quality of my imaging on the video, however I don't think this has effected my video as a whole because I have edited several shots in the non linear suite using special effects.
I used an OLYMPUS SP-600 UZ 12 mega pixel camera to take the images of Paris and the background images for my DigiPak and Magazine Advert. The camera was small and compact and easy to use that allowed me to take the images I needed to without any problems. I had already used a similar camera before hand in my AS coursework, so I had previous knowledge on how it worked.
I used an OLYMPUS SP-600 UZ 12 mega pixel camera to take the images of Paris and the background images for my DigiPak and Magazine Advert. The camera was small and compact and easy to use that allowed me to take the images I needed to without any problems. I had already used a similar camera before hand in my AS coursework, so I had previous knowledge on how it worked.
Overall, I believe that I have created successful media products (music video, a digipak and an album advertisement) but I think If I where to have to chance to create these products again I would manage my time much much more efficiently. During the last few weeks to meet the deadline I had to dedicate all my free time to complete the coursework and felt under a lot of pressure and stress and believed that if I had managed my time better beforehand I would not be in this situation. I would certainly re shoot parts of my music video as audience feedback has helped me understand where to improve my mistakes, I would create a better filming and planning diary which I would stick too and re arrange if problems such as the weather came into disrupting my filming plan. I feel that if I had a strict plan I would not have felt so much pressure along with my other coursework deadlines. I feel that my extensive research into existing products and other artists has helped me influence my own work into a respectable piece and given me different ideas from different conventions in different genres to create my own products. I am proud of what I have achieved, but understand that there is room for some improvements and alterations!
