Dionne's Evaluation

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

In my A2 portfolio I decided to make a music video, with the subtasks of a website to promote the artist and a CD cover.

Our music video uses forms of music videos because we structured the video to have a lot of cuts and didn’t tell a full narrative of the story but there was enough information in the music video to all people to understand the story that was being told. We did this by using aspects of a music video. One convention we did make sure we used was matching the rhythm of the music to the way the video was edited. As the song has a slow and dreamy tone to it we decided to make the editing slow but not too slow as we believed that this could possible bore our target audience. We also decided to use the conversion of lip-syncing in our music video due to the fact that it would look more realistic in comparison to other music videos. We also decided to use the convention of most music videos and let the actress to lip-sync in the first verse of the music video.

We tried to develop the conventions of our music video by not allowing a set structure to it. By doing this we made it more opened to the audiences’ imagination. This was also done by relating the lyrics in a different way to what the audience will usually imagine.  By settling the majority of the music video in a park it takes the away the idea of people just dreaming in their bedroom. The location also shows that people can also be calm and relax in their own were in other places. This is one of the reasons we decided to use this music video because in the official music video we saw that it was based in a bedroom. So we decided to develop this idea and film outside...

Comparison- Location

       

       

Real Music Video-  Deja Vu By Beyonce and Jay Z                                     Our video

However we have also tried to challenge aspects of a real music video by using a female to play a males part. I think by doing this it would attract the male population and also invite female audiences to also feel like they can enjoy the genre of music, indie. As statistic shows that more males are interested in indie music than women are. We believe this would work. However we could have developed the song more in order to make it sound like a female singing the song. This would have made a bigger impact on the audience.

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

CD Cover

After completing the music video we decided to use aspects of the artist name and also images from the actual music video for our CD cover and Website. We decided to mix the two to make it more eye catching to the viewers. By using images from the music video it allowed us to relate the music video to the CD cover. We also decided to use other images because it would allow use to show our creative sides.

We found many images we thought would be suitable to relate the artist to the Cover and also to add some sense of imagination. However after trying to work with the images in Photoshop we decided that the images would take too much time trying to edit and improve to fit the theme of the music video.

After many hours of searching we found the perfect picture and we also found tutorials online to help edit them as we wanted too. We decided to use this image for the front and back of the CD cover. Know we needed to focus on the inside of the cover.

At first we decided to so with a different look on the inside but we didn’t no what we wanted to do. So we went on to many websites to see what an inside cover could look like. We found much potential but we noticed they didn’t relate to the outside cover. So we decided to just stick with the initial idea and use an image from the music video.

I believe in the end, we have managed to relate the CD cover to the theme of the music video. In the inside cover, we can see that the character looks like she’s in her own world and is enjoying the world that she is in. 

Website

After completing the music video we decided to make a website in order to promote the artist and the single. We decided to use images of the artist as it was a way to recognise the official artist. We decided to use colours that would tap into people’s imaginations and also relate how relaxed and calm the song was.

We decided to include the music video into the website as a point of advertisement. The more hits the artist gets on the video the more likely the more singles would be sold. We also decided to promote the single by giving away tickets on a radio station. We decided to add this to the website as it shows that there are many fans of owl city so people wouldn’t feel lonely in liking this artist.

There are also behind the scene clips of the unofficial video on the website. By doing this we believe that fans will feel like a part of the production of this music video.

 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After editing the music video and publishing it on various social networks. When doing this we recorded some viewers watching the video. From this reaction we can see that the part the viewers reacted to is right at the end when the actress drops the flower and walks away. As all the viewers were girls we were expecting this kind of reaction.

We also interviewed two viewers; one boy and one girl. From the interviews we found that both genders enjoyed the music video. The male viewer enjoyed the shot of the Thames being shot. We believe that by doing this we have set up an audience relation point. This shows that some viewers will be looking out for various things in order to relate with a music video.

Another point that was mentioned in the interviews, by the female viewer was that the actress seemed like she was in a dream world and she wasn’t interested with things of the world. This was the impact we were trying to achieve. One of the reasons we set to do this is because after researching the background of the song we found out that the song was an inspiration from his childhood when he was diagnosed with insomniac. This is one of the reasons we decided to highlight this word in the video as it was our main focus.

 However, both viewers did point out that there were improvements that could have been made. One suggestion was to have more special effects. We were told that the green screen was visible but didn’t leave a big impact on the viewer. One suggestion was to use a moving image rather than a still image.

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

 

Whilst trying to complete this coursework i came across many different types of new technologies, some were used to complete my research, planning and evaluation stages of my overall outcome.

During this coursework i have had to collect many different types of evidence to show progress of my coursework. This lead me to screen Grab (also known as print screen) lots of ideas that could be used in our music video. This tool allowed me to analysis the work that we were doing throughout the project. It also allowed me to explain what i was doing in a visual way too. An example of this would be the research on one of the most recent pop videos, “Telephone by Lady Gaga”. I also used screen grab to compare our music video to another music video in my evaluation. This allowed me to compare and contrast the two videos. Throughout my coursework we have used many different types of software:

·       Adobe Photoshop

·       Adobe Premier Pro

·       Paint

·       Microsoft word

·       Celtix

·       iTunes

·       iWeb

·       Garage Band

·       Finder

By using all these software I believe my group was a lot more organized and trained. I believe using this programs we saved a lot of time as we were very familiar with them from our AS coursework.

Using Premier allowed us to edit our filmed extracts to create the final outcome. This is also what we used to edit our primary research e.g. interviews and also the video of out evaluation. This was easy to use as we were very familiar with the software. The only difference was the having to get the shoots in time with music, e.g. lip syncing. We also came across difficulty when we used the green screen. We have never used this before so we decided to watch the teacher when he was showing the demo and also asked him to stand by us whilst doing it.

Adobe Photoshop was the software we used to create the CD cover. We have not used this software but with help from the teacher and also the tutorials online we found it easy to use and not long after we had got our CD cover completed. After getting into the swing of it, it reminded me of what I had done in year 11 from my ICT coursework; the programs were different but had some similarities.

Another very useful tool used throughout this coursework was the internet. It helped us with many difficulties and it also with our research, e.g. demographic research. It also helped use to understand the song in detail and helped us to brainstorm after that. It also allowed us to use social networks to get an idea of what our target audience would like to see and also feedback on what they thought in the music video. after finding the information in needed i decided to type up all my work in to Microsoft word so i can spell check all my work then i then copy and pasted my work onto our blog. 


When making the website we used a programme called iWeb. We decided to use this programme because it was really simple to use. Most of the things we had saved we just needed to drag into the area we wanted it to be. We also used the garage band to make the radio advert which would be put on the website. I was comfortable using this software as i had used it when I was in hospital once.

In conclusion using these new technologies have help to make our music video a success. Using these technologies has given us the ability to broaden our knowledge in the media world and also helped us pick up many new skills. I hope that one day i will be able to use these unique skills in university. 


By Dionne Akoto x